Hey Sunshine

The Thirty Feet Drop Was Unappealing

Jesper

Naturally, the only appropriate response to that was to lunge forward and try to strangle that lying son of a bastard that had put Wylan into so much trouble.

Lunging forward, Jesper shoved aside the others in the room and finally wrapped his hands around the shorter boy. Dull gold eyes stared at Jesper with shock as he made guttural noises and gagged from the pressure around his throat.

"Jesper!"

Jesper flinched as Kaz's cane hit his wrist with a loud snap and forced him to step backwards. Inej stepped up to his side and pressed an arm around his side, dragging him back into the mass of people. Meanwhile, Sergie grudgingly looked at Kuweii, who was now gagging and spitting on the cement.

"Really?" Sergie shot Jesper a glare. "It was hard enough to convince him to come."
"Perhaps he shouldn't have betrayed Wylan, then," Kaz said coldly, adjusting his grip on his cane and positioning it on the vulnerable part of Kuweii's neck. "Why are you here, Yul-Bayur?"
Kuweii wheezed his response through pants of air. "I want-" a desperate intake of air, "-to help bring-" another shallow breath, "-Wylan back."

"You want to help?" Jesper barked angrily, glaring at the boy. "After you helped terrify him? After you wrote those fucking letters? I bet he's still working with Van Eck." His wrist stung a little from Kaz's cane, but he ignored it.
Inej bit her lip thoughtfully and she exchanged a look with Kaz. Matthias and Nina shouldered their way to the front alongside Gretina, who sucked in a breath as she looked at Sergie.

"Hello Sergie," she said softly, just as Bollinger joined Gretina's side.

Sergie's face was as hard as stone, and he avoided their looks. "Jesper," he said instead. "Believe me - I can see the difference between a lie and the truth, and Kuweii's spitting truths right now."
Kaz nodded. "He's not lying," he told Jesper. "But I still don't trust him. Who's to say Van Eck isn't indirectly controlling him?"
Kuweii was still gasping desperately, and irritated, Kaz hit his back solidly with his thick cane. "Shut up," Kaz commanded. "And tell us everything. Why are you here?"

"I-I," Kuweii stammered, face flushing a bright red. "I felt guilty after Wylan left, so I tried to call him. I didn't get a response, and so I called, and finally Van Eck sent me a private message and told me to stop contacting his son or he'd withdraw the money he's already given me. That was when I figured out that Wylan was in danger."

Inej looked at him thoughtfully. "Does Van Eck know where you are right now?" she asked, narrowing her eyes on his face.

Kuweii shook his head. "N-no," he gasped out. "I swear! Please don't hit me with that," he pleaded with Kaz, and almost as if he'd been commanded, Kaz flicked his cane hard onto Kuweii's lower back.

Kuweii moaned and clutched his back. "Pl-please," he begged pathetically. "Serige? I swear, I'm here to help."

Sergie nodded slowly. "He's not lying," he affirmed and Kaz rolled his eyes.

"The matter isn't that he's lying," Kaz snapped. "Have you ever been physically in contact with Van Eck?"
"What do you mean?" Kuweii asked brokenly, still clutching his back. Jesper gave a snort of derision and Inej's grip on his shoulder tightened.

"I think we need him," Inej murmured. "He knows the Van Eck mansion the best."
"I think so too," Matthias added. "We have our best shot at freeing Wylan if we know where the Van Eck mansion is, and also if-"
"It's a small city," Nina broke in, rolling her eyes. "Matthias, Ketterdam isn't that big. Kaz already knows where the Van Eck mansion is. We just need a general layout. Maybe Kuweii can help us figure out something with Van Eck, so we can scare him into never touching Wylan again?"
"I already have a solution for that," Kaz answered. "We don't need him."

"We do," Sergie argued. "He has insider information with the Van Eck mansion, knows exactly how it works, knows Wylan fairly well, - I hate to say it, but we may need him."
"What if he's working for Van Eck?" Gretina asked, her heavy accent curling the v. "Then we suffer the losses."

Kuweii spluttered a response to that, but Sergie cut him off, staring straight into Gretina's eyes. "Then I can kill him myself," he said solemnly.

The room was silent as the two exchanged glances.

"Then it's all settled," Kaz finally said reluctantly/ Hitting his cane against Kuweii's back, he glared at the boy. "See to it that you don't betray us."

Gasping, Kuweii dropped to the floor and clutched his back.

#

Wylan felt dizzy. Staring at the seemingly tiny room around him (it was funny how claustrophobic he felt in his massive bedroom, when his tiny apartment had always been so comforting to him) he clutched his head and tried to remember why the thirty feet drop was an unappealing option.

Possible death, he tried to remind himself, but in light of everything else, it wasn't that bad.

He had a few vials of peracetic acid around his room, but they were carefully hidden and hardly enough to burn through the doorknob. He'd need a bit more of either ingredient until there was enough.

At the rate this was going out, he'd jump out the window before he could burn through the door.

Gut rolling, he tried to think of Jesper and the others. Maybe they're thinking of me? he thought hopefully. Maybe they'll save me from father.

In light of the countless days he'd spent in this mansion - Oh? Are we a 'we' now? - Kaz's words rang uselessly through his head and he tried to convince himself that they were - hopefully - coming.

At least I got to tell Jesper that I love him, Wylan finally thought. If the peracetic acid doesn't work out. At least Jesper knows that I love him.

Did Jesper love him back? Was that even a question he should be thinking at the moment, when trapped in his own childhood house?

"Ignore that," Wylan forced his mind away from the all-too cliche does he love me back? question. "Ignore all of it. I have to focus on getting away from here alive."

Right then, he heard a knocking sound and turned his head to see the door knocking and revealing a terrified butler.

"Here is your food," the man whispered, and Wylan nodded gratefully as he saw two waiting vials, their position on the tray familiar now.

"Thank you," he whispered and silently tried to bide his time.

He could get out of there alive. He just needed to stay patient, and remind himself of what he had outside of this hell.

*

a/n: ahhhh really sorry about how late this one came? (on the bright side, this is a triple update so stay tuned for part two and part three!) :DDDD

thanks for reading (and for your endless patience with me omg),

mercy