Aline

Chapter 4

What felt like a long span of time later James then mumbled, "We should go to sleep before they come." He turned his back to her as he perched against the wall, uncomfortable as it was; it was the only place he felt safe enough to sleep.

Aline, tired herself, followed his motions as she too sat against the wall trying to get an ounce of sleep.

—-

When Aline woke up she noticed that James was gone, which made her all warier of where she was.
She trusted him even though they had only recently met. Aline knew who he was more than the people she had seen for years in high society. That was a wide range of times the people she thought were her friends felt more like acquaintances than friends now that she met James who she was sure she could make him a friend.

Jame's cell door opened as he was thrown in, bruised and bloody.

The guard that tossed him into the cell sneered at both of us and left, locking James into the cell.

Seeing how beat up James was, Aline was worried.

"James?" Aline asked concern lacing her voice.

He looked at her, his eyes half-open slowly closing. A single tear streaked down his face as he closed his eyes.

"James?" A high-pitched urgent voice came from Aline's mouth.

Aline was afraid of what had they done to him while she was asleep and they took him away to do god knows what to him.

She started crawling toward him her hands and knees on the cold cobblestone floor. Aline didn't care about the invisible wall that had stopped them from crossing over to each other's side before. She just wanted to make sure he was okay. Wanted to make sure that he was still breathing and the bruises and bandages that he was covered in weren't covering anything fatal. Aline inched closer to him. When she reached him, she realized that her being inches away from him and far to the other side of his cell room the invisible wall that had once separated had disappeared. The wall was gone.

Not caring anymore Aline turned back towards James and started checking to make sure he was okay. Putting two fingers into the pocket of his neck where one could fell the pulse of the heart. James's heart meat was faint barely able to be felt, but he was still alive.

She felt his forehead and it felt like burning a hand on a stove. In the corner of the room, by the door was conveniently a water bucket and towel, probably for him to wipe the blood off his skin and clothes.

Aline getting up and gently setting his head back on the ground walked over to the bucket and felt the temperature it was ice cold compared to James's forehead. They must've done it on purpose to make him shiver, nevertheless, it was the perfect temperature to cool him down. Taking the small towel that they provided, no larger than a briefcase she drenched the towel into the bucket of shivering water and doused it so that there was little to any dry spots. Then wringing out all the water she went back over to James and placed it on his forehead.

The pile of dirty clothes torn and ragged was about three feet away from where she was sitting next to James's unconscious body. Reaching over, stretching her arm as far as it could she was able to grab the tatty clothes bundling it up in a ball she placed it under James's head, which was in fact quite heavy. Heavier than she expected. So that when she tried pulling his head up to place the makeshift pillow underneath she was only able to lift a couple of inches off the ground.
This time using more strength she pulled his head off the ground a good several inches trying not accidentally hurt him in the process and shoved the ball of clothes under his head.

Oof. The whole process took more energy than Aline originally had thought. She gasped a bit for small pints of air now that she had just become aware of her breathing pattern. Ugh. How I hate when this happens. Aline thought to herself, resting against the wall of James's cell area.

She nestled her head in her arms that layed atop her knees, wishing to get some sleep. Why am I always so sleepy lately? Is just being here taking my all to function? Aline sighed deeply.

When Aline woke up later she was surprised to see that James was up and awake. In fact, he was sitting right next to against the stone wall which was now warm from body heat.

"James? You're okay now right?"

"Yeah, thanks by the way. How are you over on this side, I thought we weren't allowed in other cells?" James said, his once modulated voice hoarse from lack of water.

"I don't know it disappeared when I was trying to see if you were okay. You look better now, there is water over there if you need it." Aline pointed to the bucket of water she had used to wet the cloth before. "You were asleep for a long time I wasn't sure when you'd wake up. I was worried for sure." Her voice dimmed out at the end.

James let out a small chuckle at what she said, barely able to hear the sound of it himself.

"You should probably get back on your side before they come back to give us our meal for the day," James told Aline, his voice barely above a whisper. He didn't know why he was talking so quietly he just had a feeling that something good was not going to happen. Although rarely does anything good happen here. Aline would be gone in a month's time to who knows where. That is what happened to everyone else how could she be different. His momentary happiness would end and he'd be all alone again.

"On it." Aline got up and walked over to where the invisible wall once was and back into her cell.

Aline fell to the ground, luckily landing on her bottom and catching herself before her head hit the ground. James smirked a bit, thinking it was funny that she hardly made a sound to which most people of her station would be throwing a terrible fit if they were ever in her place.

"Hey! That's not funny." Aline said glaring at him. "That really hurt, you know."

"Ha, ha, sorry." Was all James's reply.

"Well anyway, it just doesn't make sense that wall was here one minute and then gone the next."

"Your right. Blind thought here, maybe it just reappeared while you were asleep and I was unconscious."

"Actually that could be right!" Aline stood up cheerfully, she hoped to figure this out and well, try to find a way to get out of here in the process.

Though the thought of figuring out the reappearance and disappearance of the wall soon ebbed away as they had more fun talking to each other than before where they could barely hear each other's voices. It went on like that for days them just talking about their past, families, and what the world could have been like if they weren't trapped in this mysterious place.

Breaking the happiness, loud thumping almost too slow footsteps sounded throughout the cell and corridor.

"Hey Aline," James said whispering into her ear. "I want you to go in that corner and hide in the dark the best as possible."