Out Of The Birdcage • Limited Life Fanfic

.°• Chapter 5: The Pit •°.

Jimmy kept tossing and turning in his bed, cold nipping at him like some kind of bug. He couldn't help but glance over to Grian every so often. He was still asleep, his jacket lying miserably on the floor where he had dropped it. The corner of his pillow was wet with tears.

"You've done it. The first step to greatness"

Jimmy yelped to hear the watcher from before, covering his ears with either side of his pillow.

"How do you feel?" The watcher pressed, "Surely you're not so hung up on that Joel's death"

His eyes flickered to Joel's bed, still made from the day before and empty. Lonely.

"Well, I mean, of course not" Jimmy tried to say this with some kind of confidence, but his voice quivered at every syllable. But he couldn't be weak like that in front of the watcher. He needed to keep his strong facade. But, of course, his best friend hated him and his other one was dead. It didn't feel much like greatness.

"Good" The watcher continues, "You've already broken the curse, why not win the game?"

Jimmy perked up a little at this, the watcher had a point. He had already broken the cycle, why couldn't he win the game? He's already done the unthinkable, he could do it again. Greatness sounded a bit more promising now. He could win this.

"You're greater than they all think. Sacrifices are nothing compared to the grand scheme of things. They are necessary!" The watcher crowed, it's voice fading away.

Greatness. I mean, it was a word almost foreign to him. Nobody had ever believed in him like the watcher did. It was certain he'd win, everyone else patted him on the back, as if they were saying "Oh Jimmy, you can be whatever you want when you grow up". That's not belief. He glanced at Grian, who was finally beginning to stir. All these sacrifices were nothing. They are necessary. The watcher was the wisest, and it would be in his best interest to listen.

Grian groaned slightly as he stretched his arms, his hair shining in the light of dawn. You could tell when he opened his eyes he forgot it all, but one pause to look at Joel's empty bed brought it all back. He lifted himself out of bed silently, not acknowledging Jimmy.

Grian slipped on his leather jacket, and, after a brief pause, softly said, "Are you alright, Jim?". He still refrained from calling him Tim, but Jim was an improvement.

"Yeah, I'm doing okay"

"Cool"

There was a pause, where both of them looked at eachother awkwardly. Neither wanted to talk about the day before.

"The Clockers aren't happy with us" Grian spoke again, "We should make an excuse to why the TNT was there so they don't go hunting us down"

There was a perfect window of time to come clean to Grian, to have a heart to heart, but he didn't take it."Um, yeah, you've got a point. We need to think of a cover story. There's so many booby traps in the area, they'll probably think we set it off by accident"

Grian still hadn't met Jimmy in the eyes, not once. "Yeah, lets- let's go see them"

They began to cross the bread bridge, the crater getting close to them. They hadn't exchanged a word between them, it was strange how a couple of days ago they were laughing and smiling together, with Joel.

The crater lay before them. Joel's body was still there, shredded. Grian took a deep breath and closes his eyes before building a bridge across the hole.

They get to the Clockers' door and Grian steps forward, rapping on the door. Scar's voice sang inside, "Coming!". The sound of a gentle humming grew louder as Scar got closer to the door and opened it. His face fell as soon as he saw Grian and Jimmy.

"Uh, hey, what's up?" Scar said, sceptically.

Jimmy cleared his throat, trying to sound as casual as possible, "Hey, Scar, we just wanted to talk to you about what happened yesterday" he paused, trying to find a plausible reason for why so much TNT exploded.

"We want to say sorry for yesterday" Grian interjected. Yesterday. God, what a curse. "The- The TNT was supposed to have water underneath so we could explode our way to Skynet, but we hadn't finished it and Joel-" His voice broke as he looked at the ground.

Jimmy widened his eyes at Grian briefly. He sensed his reluctance, and although he was sad, he needed to stop his emotions getting in the way or all of this was for nothing. "Yeah, Joel got caught in the crossfire, unfortunately. We're so sorry about what happened" Jimmy rested his hand on Grian's shoulder, but moved it away when he felt Grian tense at his touch.

Scar tilted his head and frowned. "No Jimmy, I'm so sorry. Y'know, for both things"

Before either of them could ask what 'both things' were, Scar flipped a lever and the floor collapsed beneath them. Jimmy and Grian began plummeting to the ground.

Word count: 858