make friends with cannibals (mediocracy) wrote in emillion, |
Evander fell to the floor, rolling off in a tangle of sheets and pillows, with a thump muffled by the shuffling of furniture. He flailed in an attempt to free himself from his own bedding, barely dodging the bedside lamp that slid off and crashed beside his head. His skull throbbed with an ache as his thoughts swam through dizziness. Scrambling to his feet, he navigated through the rearranged furniture, fallen paintings, shattered decorations to the other side of his room. He pulled on a plush robe,inside-out in his hurry, that hung off a hook on his ajar closet door before pummeling out into the hallway. Wide-eyed and disoriented, an animal being hunted, he strode in as straight a line as he could manage, to the bedroom next door. He knocked on the door, a rhythmic tapping increasing in speed and volume. Opening his mouth to speak his brother’s name, Evander found the syllables caught in his throat, clawing and clinging and refusing to leave. Theo! rang in his thoughts again and again and again but no coherent name left his mouth. With sentences reduced to mere noises, his face contorted as he struggled to speak. The stuttering orator gaped, gasped like a fish suffocating as he dug for a replacement word. “Brother, B-Brother!” he half-asked, half-shouted (and this was a Finch that rarely rose his voice) as he rattled the knob with one hand and thudded on the door with the other. Theo hadn’t fared much better off in the unexpected commotion, scrambling around his own robe, left undone, and stomping around with failing steps across his room. He’d been roused awake and into a flickering anger, a fear for his family smashing into his senses as quickly as he had been thrust out of his bed and down to the floor. A thought to find his weapon and armor amongst the ruin of his belongings was pushed aside at his brother’s voice. Growling out a noise of concern, the younger Finch stormed over to the door, opening it with a force summoned of his own mirroring fear. “What’s happened,” he spouted, looking dire. A hand moved over to grasp Evan’s shoulder as he looked around the hallway. “An attack?” “Don’t know,” Evander responded, looking into his brother’s eyes and then up and down the hall in the same confusion he had while scrambling out of his room (but calmed now by the sight of Theo safe). Giving the hand on his shoulder a pat, his free hand mirrored his brother’s and gave Theo’s shoulder a squeeze. “Could be.” Theo gave a terse nod, still visibly concerned. He moved out into the hallway to join his brother, looking down the hall to where Evan must have come from, noting the jarred and broken things in his vision. Of all his time in the city, he had no recollection of anything like an earthquake before. “What about--” He stopped himself and shook his head, now was not the time for petulant grudges. “Check on the rest, aye?” Theo scratched at his head in worry and agitation, looking to his older brother and waiting for signs of his response before he attempted to go thundering down the halls. An unusual mark of hesitation, but then, how the hell could anyone account for something like this anyway? “Aye,” Evander said, nodding. With one more squeeze of his brother’s shoulder, the judge took off in one direction while the peacekeeper headed down the other. |