Missing Personalities

Chapter 4: From the Inside Out

"Gaaaahhhh!" 

Phil crumpled onto the hard, gray floor. Ben in a chair several feet away from the helpless pile of arms and legs, barely looking up from his paper to view the ordeal. Edward leaned against the wall below the only window, casually stroking the bricks.

"You're lucky I can't hear anything right now," said Ben.

Phil faced himself upwards. He struggled to catch his breath. "You should really get that checked out."

Ben leaned forward. "I'm sure they left us an infirmary behind one of these impenetrable walls. All that's left is to find it."

Phil waved off Ben's comment. He leaned on his right elbow and frowned at his cellmate."You only hear things when it's convenient, you lazy piece of..."

"What?"

"Nothing..." Phil turned away, catching his breath.

"If you wanted me to hear everything normally, you wouldn't have dropped a bookcase on me yesterday," Ben grumbled.

Edward finally bounced off of the walls. His sympathetic expression hardened into a scowl. "If you would have stopped squirming this wouldn't have happened." Edward paused, staring into the blackness of Phil's sunglasses. "Maybe you should let me go up."

"Maybe you should try a different approach. One that doesn't involve stupidity," Ben remarked, not looking up from his paper.

"What are you even reading?" Edward questioned. "I know we've been given a lot of supplies down here but a newspaper wasn't one of them."

Ben sat upright. "I know that. This is a list I've made of all the times you two have been able to successfully work together in the last week of trying to escape." Ben flashed both sides of the paper to Phil and Edward.

Edward frowned. "There's nothing written on that."

Ben smiled. I know, he seemed to say.

Phil quickly rose to his feet, staggering back slightly. "Well, he's not wrong." It was hard to tell Phil's expression behind his glasses, but Edward could tell he was critical. "And no, I'll be the one to see what's up there first." Phil swerved to where Ben was still sitting. "If we had three people helping this might be easier."

Ben remained unphased. "Did you want to fall from somewhere higher?"

Phil's eyebrows creased noticeably. "If that's what it takes."

Ben flipped through his paper aimlessly. "Falling from that height could misalign your spine."

Phil paused. He locked eyes with Ben, feigning concern. "You see, you shouldn't have told me that, because now I'll feel guilty for overlooking that risk." Phil kicked at the ground. "What were you out there anyways, a doctor?"

"No, I was a comedian."

Phil frowned. "You're not that funny."

"That was a lie," Ben replied. "I was actually a politician."

Phil clenched his fists, scowling. Edward rolled his eyes, bracing himself for another argument. "Alright, listen up because I'm only going to say this once!" yelled Phil.

"What?"

"I said I'm only going to say this once!" Phil threw an arm up to the window sunk into the wall and several feet out of their field of vision. "Up there is the only opening in this whole basement. We've tried everything else in the past week of being here and nothing has even turned up a clue. I don't really care what you were out there but you should!" Phil paused, catching his breath. "And that window may give us the only clue as to where we are."