The sound of metal clanging woke me up. I sat up in my bed as quick as I could just in time to see Menas being shoved through the door. He falls to his knees as the door behind him gets slammed shut. I jump up from my bunk and rush over to him, placing one of my hands around his arm and helping him to his feet.
"Are you okay?" I cry. In response, Menas simply shrugs.
Blasius and Silva were by our sides almost instantly, helping me pull him up and assist him with walking over to his bed.
Silva furrowed her eyebrows worriedly, "What happened to you Menas?"
Again, he doesn't answer.
"You can tell us you know, we're your friends," she urged, but to no avail, he stays silent.
The three of us—Silva, Blasius, I—made a silent pact to not push him any further and once we set him in his bed, we all leave him to do our own things. There's so much I want to know about what happened but I know there would be no good in forcing him to talk about something he's clearly uncomfortable with.
Still, that didn't stop me from monitoring him during the day. I tried not to disturb him too much, just watched him to make sure he was okay. It only made me more worried though. Throughout the day he had barely touched his food at all and he spent it in bed with his eyes closed or staring off into nothing. Everybody else was cautious too, I could sense it in the air. There was an uncomfortable amount of tension building up as the hours went by. Yet he didn't say a word and neither did we. Not even to each other.
In a last-ditch effort to coax him into doing anything, really, Silva had brought both of his trays of food from the day beside his bed in case he needed them and asked him if he wanted to talk yet. Blasius and I stood by observing, making sure he was aware of our presence and how worried we were about him.
But still, nothing.
I could only assume the worst even though I tried not to think about it. Had they hurt him? Did they make him do something unspeakable? Did he see something traumatizing?
I laid in my bed without covering myself with the thin sheet. I knew I wouldn't sleep anyway. It seemed that that was an ongoing problem these days. There was nothing to do yet far too much to think about.
My arm fall from the bed and my fingertips dragged along the cool stone floor. Would things ever go back to the way it was before? Everything seemed to be heading for the worst for us. I wondered if there was ever a chance I would get out of here alive.
The bed above me creaked and I watched as a figure from above climbed down. They walked over to the door and stood in front of the sole window, peering out of it casually. I picked my arm up off the ground and rolled over on my side to continue observing at Blasius stood there, though I couldn't see much more than a shadow considering he was blocking the only light source.
After a few minutes I got up and walked up to him, "Blasius?"
"Mhm?"
"What are you doing?" I asked.
He turned to face me, leaning up against the door. "I don't know. I'm bored out of my mind and can't sleep."
I huff, "That makes two of us then."
We stood there for a few minutes in silence, just basking in each other's presence. It's like as if there was anything particularly interesting to talk about and I didn't want to bring up Menas just in case he was awake and could hear me.
"Have you ever noticed the bathroom ceiling?" I asked casually.
"All of the time when I'm trying not to hit my head on it. Why?"
I nod my head towards the room, signalling for him to follow me, which he does. He has to duck under the threshold of the doorway to enter the room and for a moment I'm thankful of my small stature. Gesturing to the peeling paint and the small wooded area, I stood aside to let him get a good look at it. He eyes it up close and even reaches a hand up to push on it. We both grimace as some of the wood starts crumbling and falling to the ground.
"That's odd, they must've used the wood to patch up a hole temporarily and then forgot about it," he suggests. "We should see what's up there."
Blasius uses his palm to push harder on the surface and begins crumbing even more, to the point where there's a gaping hole in the ceiling. With a hand, he ushers me over to him and squats down.
"Get on."
"W-what?" I exclaim.
"I'll lift you up there, tell me what you see."
I open my mouth to say something but shut it and decide just to do it. As I get on his back he rests both of his large hands underneath my thighs to keep me from falling down and I position one of my hands on his shoulder. His back is hot against my chest and I wonder how he can be so warm in such a cool room.
He stands up as far as he can without hitting his head on the ceiling and I look through the hole. Although I can't see anything, everything is cool and damp—even more so than our room. I take the hand that wasn't steadying myself on him and use it to feel around. It feels as if there is nothing but dust and dirt. What I do note though, is that whatever this is, it's much bigger than just a small hole. It has to be a room or something up here as when I reach out my hand on either side, my hand doesn't come in contact with anything at all.
When I tell him about my findings he reaches his hand up and feels for himself while still keeping me up with one hand. After feeling around, me grips my thigh again.
"Are you going to put me down?"
He chuckled and kneeled down, letting me slowly slide down his back until my feet touch the floor. Although being so close to him was nice, there's definitely better times for that.
"What do you think we should do about it?" I asked.
"I'm not sure yet, it's hard to say. But I think first we should sleep on it," he suggests. I nodded and we made our way back into the main room.
"Goodnight Amicia," Blasius said as he took my hand and gave it a light squeeze. He let it go soon after, jumping up to his bunk as I got into mine.
Because I wasn't quite tired enough to sleep, I laid in bed thinking of nothing in particular and everything at the same time—Blasius, mostly. Oh, how I hoped that this wasn't just some silly teenage crush. For some reason, I felt like I could confide in him in a way I couldn't with others. We had such a connection that couldn't be anything other than fate.
Soon enough I fell asleep, but surely my dreams were filled with him too.