Chapter 1: Prolouge
Notes:
The actual chapters will be longer than the prolouge!
Chapter Text
Bruce was riding home on his bike, just having won the first baseball game of the season. It’s a sport he had been doing for years since he was a toddler. His parents had always been so proud of him for engaging in the sport, so he kept it up. Don’t get anything wrong, he loved the sport, he thought it was therapeutic, even, to practice batting. He thought it was relaxing to be able to hit something with a bat without any repercussions. He also found it fun to people-watch from the sidelines. He had always been neutral about everything, which stays true for baseball. He liked watching the other team have their victories as much as he likes watching his own team have their victories, he never favored. Bruce had also made sure to always make sure the other team knew that after a game, he would compliment each player on their strengths. For example, the game he just won. The last person he congratulated was a player he heard the other team's coach call Finney, he complimented his arm, telling the boy his arm was mint. Bruce liked baseball, the way it was played, and the people who played it.
As he rode his bike, he passed two girls. They made eye contact with him, and he shot them a charming smile and a nod of acknowledgment. The two girls- from his class, he remembers, but not well enough to recall their names- giggle as they pass behind him. Bruce was popular, he knew that much, girls almost always chatted with him and flocked to his left and right. If they aren’t doing that, then they’re staring and whispering about him to their friends. No one has ever caught his attention, however. Like, sure, Stacy from English was nice-looking, but her personality was bland, and she was rude to people who didn’t do anything to deserve it. So, no, he hasn’t really found anyone he’s been attracted to yet. ‘Well there was one…’ Bruce shook his head, it was unimportant and pointless to think about, so he left those thoughts there.
He was a bit out of it as he turned the corner, suddenly noticing the black van and attempting to swerve around the vehicle parked there. Suddenly, the door to the driver's side opened in front of him. Bruce quickly swerved to avoid being hit, resulting in him falling off his bike.
“Oh my, I’m sorry about that, I didn’t see you coming, are you okay?” Bruce heard a man say above him. He sat up quickly and looked up at the man, he couldn’t see much, since the man had been wearing sunglasses and powdery-looking white makeup on his face. He also took note of the fact he was wearing a top-hat shading his face, and by proxy, obscured his face further. The outfit he was wearing was all black, and he had a cape. While the outside of the cape was all black, matching his outfit, the inside of it was a bright red. The clothes the man wore were tight around his torso. However, very loose around pretty much every other portion of his body made with what looked like a silky material. From far away, Bruce would have almost mistaken it for a dress. He then realized the man had extended a hand to him.
“Yeah- Yeah, I’m all right, just gave me a bit of a scare is all,” Bruce said casually, flashing a reassuring smile at the man as he took his hand to get up. Something contorted in the man's face, the wrinkles in his face adjusting to show off an emotion, that Bruce couldn’t quite catch since his eyes were covered and his face was obscured from the shade his top hat gave.
“Well how about I make it up to you, hm?” The man states, walking over to his opened door, and digging around in his van for a moment before taking out an unlabeled spray can and shaking it, “I have a side-gig being a magician, so, how about I show you a magic trick as a form of apology?”
“Yeah, all right!” Bruce sounded almost elated, he hasn’t seen a magic trick since he was 6 for his birthday party.
“All right, well, for the first trick,” the man walks to the back, motioning for Bruce to follow “I need you to pick out a balloon!”
Bruce follows the man, watching as he opens the back doors to his van. Just as Bruce got closer to the van, the man grabbed the balloons and tied them around his throat, harshly enough to restrain him, but not enough to cut off his breathing. He struggles against the man's hold, attempting to shout for help from anyone when suddenly something is being sprayed into his mouth. After he was sprayed with the unknown substance, Bruce was quickly losing consciousness, and without the strength to struggle or fight back, he was thrown into the back of the van with carelessness. Then, the world around Bruce faded to black.
Chapter 2: Chapter 1
Summary:
THE FIRST ACTUAL CHAPTER
My English teacher never read it so I'm just gonna post it.
Chapter Text
Friday, April 3rd, 1981
Finney woke up in his bed, eyes fluttering open to meet the glow-in-the-dark stars he stuck to the ceiling when he was younger, before the heartbreak and pain that changed his family dynamic. The memory comes to him immediately.
He remembers sitting on narrow shoulders, one hand planted on long, soft blonde locks, the other reaching up to plant the stars on the white ceiling firmly. He remembers looking down with pale brown eyes meeting the even softer blue of his-
Knock knock . The sound resounded around the room. Finney sat up quickly, just in case it was his father.
“Finn? You have to get ready for school, dummy. We’re going to be late at this rate.” His sister, Gwen, said, cracking the door open to peek her head through. She used a hushed voice to speak, knowing how their father got if they were too loud during his hangovers.
Their father, Terrence Blake, had been an alcoholic for as long as he remembered since his Mother had… left the three. At first, he had just been depressed, not coming outside his bedroom for weeks, then he picked up alcohol. Now they have to live on the edge, making sure to be as silent as a mouse whenever their father is around.
The man could barely be called their father at this point.
“Yeah, I know, just give me a moment.” Gwen nodded and closed the door quietly. Finney stretched and threw off the covers, moving to his dresser to pick out his outfit for the day.
---
Finney had made himself cereal for breakfast, eating as quietly as possible with his father across the small table. He spaced a bit, reading a newspaper beside his bowl, the article talking about another kid getting kidnapped. ‘The fourth one,’ Finney thought to himself. It had been almost a year since the last kid, Vance ‘Pinball’ Hopper, got kidnapped. For a while, people thought the Grabber— a name made up by some kid for the kidnapper that had just kind of spread to everyone else in town— had just stopped. They were wrong.
“You think you can slurp that a little louder,” Finney’s father, Terrence, started, his voice rough from cigarettes, “I’m not sure they can hear you up in Boulder.”
The sound of his father’s voice quickly snapped him out of his head. He muttered a quiet apology, returning to eating his cereal as quietly as possible.
Gwen walked into the room carefully, beelining to the breadbox, to make toast for breakfast, Finney figured. She opened the box, but the handle slipped and the lid came crashing down onto the counter. Finney flinched at the sound. His father sighed and dropped his head into his newspaper.
“Sorry, Daddy.”
“It’s-” Their father sighed, “It’s fine, Gwen. Just make your toast and go to school.”
---
Finney and Gwen walked to school in the brisk, April air, like they always did, and most likely always will.
“I don't know, Finn,” Gwen continues in her ramble, “Everyone always says, Fonzie or Richie.” She pauses, thoughtful, before continuing, “I mean- Millie says Potsie, but I don't think you should trust anyone who wants to grow up and marry Potsie of all people.” Gwen sighs in her marriage debacle, troubled by it exponentially- Finney knows this, she’s been going on about it for weeks. “I think I’ll stick with my plan with my current plan to marry Danny Bonaduce.”
Finney sighs, “You’re not gonna marry someone from the Partridge family, Gwen.”
“But it’s so crucial!” Gwen groans, “Plus, I love his voice.”
Finney just rolls his eyes, scanning the sidewalk ahead of him, before he sees something that stops him in his tracks, causing his sister to slow to a stop as well.
“It’s new,” Finney said, tone flat with a hint of sympathy, as he looked at the paper stuck to the chainlink fence lining the sidewalk.
Missing Kid. Bruce Yamada, Age 16, Height 5’8
with a written description of how he looks.
“What?” Gwen asks, glancing at Finney confused, before following his line of sight to the poster. She let out a quiet ‘oh’.
“Do you think they’ll find him?”
“Not… Not how they’d want to.”
Silence falls between the two of them when suddenly two boys push past them.
“C’mon! Moose is trying to fight Robin Arellano!”
Finney and Gwen glance at each other, then start walking towards a crowd of kids chanting “fight” repetitively. The crowd surrounded two people. Moose, a brunette with shoulder-length curly hair and the third fiercest guy he’s ever seen, and Robin, his best friend, with black straightened hair, caramel skin, a navy blue with white pattern bandana, and the first fiercest face he’s ever seen.
The most beautiful face he’s seen, too, but that’s not the point.
The point was that a crowd of Sophomores surrounded them to watch them fight, and they did.
“You think you’re tough huh?” Moose challenged.
“Let’s find out,” Robin spat.
“I’ll pound you like a nail, you scrawny little beaner.”
“Then do it.” Robin said calmly, “Unless you’re scared?”
That set Moose off. Soon, fists were swinging, people were being kicked, people were cheering, and Moose was on the ground with Robin on top of him, punching his face repeatedly. Moose's face was bloody. Thick redness was spewing from his nose, Finney was pretty sure it was broken.
Finney, despite all of this, thought Robin's fighting face was nothing less than beautiful. Even with it scrunched up, looking like he could kill someone with a single glance, knuckles stained with the blood of the beaten-up boy below him, and he was beautiful.
Finney had to stop staring.
“C’mon.” He said to Gwen, dragging her away from the fight.
“But that was Moose!” She exclaimed.
“I don’t care.”
“But- last year, when he made your nose bleed-”
“Gwen.”
“He had it coming.”
“No one has that coming.”
“Finney, he beat you up!”
Finney sighed, looking down “I know.” He knew what Moose did. He was there for it, given that he was the one that got beat up, but he couldn’t help but feel a little wrong. “I just… don’t want to talk about it.”
“Well, he was stupid to pick a fight with Robin Arellano,” Gwen said with a smirk. “He’s the toughest kid in school since the Grabber got Pinball Vance Hopper.” This was true, Robin had always been tough, not afraid to pick a fight with anyone who ‘talked shit’ as the boy himself had put it, but no one had been tougher than Vance Hopper. Finney remembers witnessing one of the fights Vance had gotten into. It had been Finney’s turn to get the snacks for Robin and his study sessions, so he was at the Grab n’ Go. While he acknowledged Vance's presence, he wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing since he was just playing at the pinball machine like he usually did, when suddenly, a kid had been launched into a shelf near where he had been looking at the drinks. Finney had just been watching with wide eyes, not daring to get involved in any way. Just watching. Soon after, the police arrived and picked the blonde up. Vance had always been violent. Finney had only witnessed him being calm around another person once, Bruce Yamada. He wondered if they had been friends.
Finney shook his head. “Don’t call him that…”
Gwen smirked “But everyone calls him Pinball?”
“You know who I’m talking about…”
“But even the papers call him The Grabber!” She complained.
“I just… wish you wouldn’t, y’know, say his name.”
Gwen giggled. “You don’t believe that story, right?”
“No.”
“He doesn’t take kids who say his name, y’know,” Gwen said, exasperated. “He can’t hear you!”
“I know.”
“ Finney. ”
“I said I know!”
Gwen hummed for a moment in contemplation before speaking, “Then say it!”
Finney laughed at that as if it was the most absurd thing ever. “No!”
Gwen shoved him playfully as they walked. “What are you, chicken?”
A silence emanates between them with that, air thickly laced with awkward tension.
“I uh,” Gwen starts. “I didn’t mean it…”
“I know,” Finney says matter-of-factly like it’s as plain as day. Like she was stating that the skies were blue— because Finney knew Gwen would never try to hurt him with her words, as mean as they may have been.
---
Finney’s English class had just ended. It wasn’t his favorite class— that would be Science, but it wasn’t his least favorite either— that would be History. He’d always liked Science more, given that he wanted to work with NASA when he was older. Until then, however, he had to scan High School hallways for ‘The Three Bastards of the Apocalypse’, as Gwen had so nicely put it.
The Three Bastards of the Apocalypse consisted of three kids his age; Buzz, ginger, more of a minion than anything, and his words hurt more than his punches. Matt, who had big curly hair, kind of in an afro, with pale skin, was better at throwing punches than coming up with heinous insults. Finally, there was Matty, the leader of the small group. He had thick straight brunette hair and slightly tanned skin, and he could throw a punch just as well as he could come up with an insult, which was very well.
As Finney was scanning the hallways, he almost relaxed, thinking they weren’t around that day. Until he spotted them. They made eye contact with him, and he stuttered in his steps, speeding up his walking. He could hear them follow him down the hall, so he tried to out-maneuver the group of boys by pushing open the doors that led to the basketball court and running to the boys’ bathroom next to it. Once inside, he dashed towards the last stall, closing and locking the door, and crouched on top of the toilet while hugging his messenger bag tightly to his chest. It was quiet for a few minutes as he sat there, and Finney almost thought it was safe before he heard the bathroom door slam open.
“Hey, Finney,” he heard Matty say. Footsteps sounded out through the bathroom, stopping just in front of the second stall.
“Come on out, dickweed.” Matt said.
‘How imaginative.’ Finney thought to himself sarcastically.
“You’re not fooling anyone, noid.” Buzz was the last to speak out of the three of them. ‘There’s my cue.’ he thought.
Finney sighed to himself, stepping down from where he was crouched on top of the toilet seat and slinging his messenger bag back around his shoulder. He quickly unlocked the stall door and opened it gently, stepping out and stopping just a couple of feet away from Matty.
“What are you doing in our bathroom, huh?” Finney didn’t respond, just stared at Matty with a tired gaze.
“Yeah, this bathroom is for boys,” Matt said, causing Finney to adjust his gaze to him, cocking his eyebrow in confusion.
“Yeah, boys,” Buzz spat, “not fairies.”
As that was said, Matty took a step forward causing Finney to flinch instinctively, closing his eyes and bracing himself for a fist in his face. That never happened, however, because the bathroom door swung open just as Matty stepped forward. The three boys turned to look toward the source of the noise while Finney’s eyes snapped open, almost immediately relaxing as he was met with the sight of his best friend, Robin Arellano.
Finney and Robin had been best friends since 3rd grade. Robin had just moved in at the time and saw Finney getting picked on by a group of boys in the playground. He immediately sped towards the other kids and started cursing out the boys in Spanish. The boys were startled and scared by the bitter tone and unknown words and ran off. Robin quickly turned around to look at the scrawny blonde kid trembling under his gaze. Robin relaxed and softened his expression, kneeling in front of the other kid.
“Hey, are you okay?” Robin said, trying to sound as gentle as possible like his mamá did when he got hurt.
Finney wiped his tears quickly, trying not to look as pathetic as he felt. “Um- Y-yeah,” He said, voice unsteady.
“No, you’re not. You’re crying.”
“Wha-”
Robin was quick to interrupt, “But that’s okay, I can just cheer you up!”
Before Finney could say anything, Robin had snatched up his hand from where it had been hugging himself and pulled him up, pulling him over to the playscape, and the rest was history.
Said history led him to this moment, where Robin stood in front of his bullies, whom he swore were about to beat the living daylight out of him.
Robin looked at the group of three in front of him expectantly. “Dipshits, move.”
Matty and Matt quickly stepped to the side, letting Robin pass to the sink. He turned the faucet running his bloodied fists— ‘ wait, since when were his fists so bloody? Right- from the fight with Moose,’ Finney remembers— rubbing them to help the dried blood come off his hands. “Hey Finn, what’s happenin’?” Robin asks as if he didn’t know Finney was just about to get his shit rocked.
“Y’know, just… keeping on keeping on,” Finney responds, on edge.
“Uhuh, Moose got some damn sharp teeth, knuckles bled all of the first period.” He said, continuing to clean his knuckles. The group of three boys, that had previously been standing there awkwardly, started quietly shuffling out of the bathroom, just about to open the door, before Robin spoke “Wait,” Robin spoke up, “Fuck with Finn again,” He paused, turning off the faucet and turning towards the group of boys with a glare that might as well has been a death threat in and of itself before continuing “I fuck with you.” Each of the boys nodded stiffly before speed-walking out of the bathroom.
“Thanks,” Finney said quietly.
“Anytime, cariño,” Robin replied, turning to face the blonde with a look of infinite fondness.
“You know I don’t understand anything you say in Spanish,” Finn complained. While he did know a foreign language, it wasn’t anything close to Spanish. It was Gaelic.
“Estás bien, like how I don’t know what you’re saying when you speak Gaelic, fairs fair.” Robin countered. He then sighed, expression becoming stern “You’ve gotta learn to stand up for yourself one day.”
“I know.” Finney averted his gaze from Robins. There was silence before he scoffed and spoke “So why’d you fight Moose?” He nodded his head to the wall next to the sink, gesturing for Robin to sit down and patch him up as he did after every fight Robin got into.
“He was just shit-talking, s’ all,” Robin said with a smirk as he sat down on the floor of the bathroom, leaning his back against the wall. He watched Finney sit in front of him and pull out the gauze, medical tape, a small plastic bag containing cotton balls, and a travel bottle of hydrogen peroxide.
“Mm,” Finney hummed as he took a cotton ball out of the bag and doused it generously with hydrogen peroxide “‘was sure he was gonna back down,” Finney stated, pulling a chuckle out of Robin, which quickly turned into a hiss of pain as the blonde took his hand, gently cradling it in his own, and dabbed his wounds with the cotton ball.
“I was honestly surprised when he- ow- swung,” Robin said, flinching as Finney continued to dab the cotton ball on his wounds.
“Did you have to though?” Finney asked, eyes glued to his current job of cleaning Robin up “I mean- it looked like it hurt.”
“I was originally just gonna knock him down, y’know, whale on him a bit,” he whimpered at another press of the cotton ball to his knuckles before continuing “but that wouldn’t draw blood. In a situation like that? The more blood the better, for the crowd, y’know? Makes a stronger point.”
The only response he got from Finney was a hum of ‘ whatever you say before a comfortable silence ensued between the two. He quickly threw the cotton ball away in the trash before picking up the gauze roll and wrapping it tightly around Robin's knuckles. Once finished, he held the roll in place and started rummaging through his bag, picking up a pair of scissors, and cutting the end of the gauze away from the rest of the roll. Finney held Robin's hand to keep the gauze in place while he picked up the roll of medical tape, picking up the end of the tape and bringing it up further with his teeth, ripping it off of the roll and placing it where his thumb previously sat on Robins bandage covered knuckles, before repeating the process once more next to the first piece of tape to secure the gauze.
“All right, you should be all set,” Finney said, breaking the silence. He let go of Robin's hand and started picking up the medical supplies and stuffing them back into one of the pockets of his messenger bag, silently mourning the loss of the sweet warmth Robin's hand gave him.
“Thanks, estimado.” Robin thanked, getting up after Finney put his messenger bag back around his shoulder and stood up.
“Well, we should get to class, we’re already late as it is.”
“Yeah,” Robin agreed before remembering something. “Wait- I was wondering if I could come over tomorrow to study. The math teacher talks so fast that it’s hard to understand a thing he says. That, and you explain it better anyways.”
Finney thought about it for a moment before nodding “Yeah sure, why not.” He walked to the door, opened it, and glanced back to his friend “Well, see you tomorrow, Mo ghràdh,” He said, then walked off to his next class, unknowingly leaving Robin practically brain-dead and highly flustered.
---
Once the school day had finished, Finney was held back by his History teacher to discuss his grades, which resulted in him being late to meet Gwen at the front gates of the school. When he got there Gwen wasn’t there. ‘ She must have left without me’ he thought to himself as he started making his way home. The walk back was quiet, peaceful, and even, but that quickly changed when he stepped into the house.
The second he walked into the house he heard pained and angry yelling. Finney threw off his bag quickly and ran to the kitchen, freezing where he stood in the doorway as he witnessed what was happening.
Gwen was leaning forward against the counter, tears falling down her cheeks as she was struck with a belt. Their father was behind her, holding the belt up, his hair was greasy and messy, and his face was red with a mix of anger and the alcohol running through his system.
“I’m sorry!” Gwen cried voice wrecked and cracked.
“Dad, Stop!” Finney heard himself yell, despite his fear of what was happening.
Terrence whipped his head around to look at Finney, “You stay out of this!” Their Father yelled. He held the belt up to strike her again, but as if he had no control over his actions, Finney surged forward, grabbing the half-empty bottle of vodka that sat on the counter and attempting to hit Terrence over the head with it. He missed his target, however, and ended up smashing the bottle over the older man's shoulder. Terrence cried out in pain before directing his wrath towards Finney, pushing the boy to the ground and hitting him with the belt repeatedly.
“STOP!” Gwen cried.
“I’ll stop beating your brother if you tell me your dreams are not real! You’re not like your mother.”
Gwen shook as she spoke, “My dream is just dreams!”
“Again!”
“My dreams are just DREAMS!”
“Again.”
“My dreams. Are just. Dreams.”
Terrence put his belt back to his side, calming down from whatever rush of rage he had just been experiencing.
“Good, now go watch some TV or something. And both of you, no ice, I want you to think about what you did,” He said, voice raw from shouting.
Gwen slowly approached where Finney lay on the floor, offering him a hand to help him get up. He takes it and lifts himself with a grunt, limping as Gwen leads them to sit in front of the box TV in their living room.
They heard footsteps walk away towards the front door, shortly after followed by the closing of a door. Gwen lays her head on Finney’s shoulder and he wraps his arm around her in a sideways hug. He listens to her sobs ring around the room and feels Gwen bury her head in his shoulder.
Finney remembers that he promised to stay by Gwen's side, to never leave her, and he intends on keeping that promise.
He will stay by her side until the end of time.
Notes:
Translation:
Spanish
Cariño - Sweetie
Estas bien - You are okay
Estimado - DearScottish Gaelic
Mo ghràdh - My Dear
Chapter 3: Chapter 2
Summary:
Chapter 1 was the longest chapter, so from here on the chapter will most likely reduce in length.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
“...Then you square the… Robin, are you listening?”
Finney paused glaring at Robin, sitting beside him at his desk. He had been trying to help his friend with his Geometry work for the past hour, but Robin seemed to keep getting distracted.
Then again he had been getting distracted, but who could blame him when Robin seemed to look good in pretty much anything? Even in just a desaturated orange sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off, black sweatpants, and black combat boots that went about 6 inches above his ankle. Robin had also tied his hair back into a low ponytail, which must have been a pain to do, given how curly his hair had gotten and how he decided to grow it out in recent years.
He wasn’t even wearing a shirt underneath the sweatshirt! Finney was rudely reminded of this fact when the sight of Robin stretching his arms above his head caught his eyes. He was then reminded that Robin had been working out quite a bit recently.
Finney remembered- for the third time that afternoon- that he was still glaring at his best friend.
Robin sighed, slouching forward in his chair and resting his chin on his hands “Lo Siento, amor, pero no puedo evitar distraerme con tu Belleza.” he said, giving Finney a fond look.
“What?” Finney questioned face flushing at the way Robin's voice had gotten lower when he spoke Spanish.
He suddenly regrets choosing not to take a language.
“Nothing, just said that it wasn’t my fault math was so damn boring.” Robin huffed.
“However boring this may be, it’s essential to graduating, so we have to get it done.” Finney knew Robin was close to having to stay back, only just scraping by thanks to his help. He wanted Robin to graduate with him, so they could leave the town they lived in together, so he could get away from Terrance.
“I guess, but I still don’t see why we have to learn it, It’s not like we’ll be using it ever again,” Robin complained, before perking up and smirking at Finney “Well, I won’t, can’t say the same about you, though, Mi Chico del Espacio.”
Finney had no idea what he said, but it made him fluster, cheeks turning a visible pink. “Well- you’re just mad that I’ve had my future figured out since I was eight.” This was true, ever since his Mother took him star-gazing when he was 8, he had wanted to be an astronomer. He wanted to be able to watch stars and planets and observe the universe and make discoveries. He was going to explore the universe, and he wanted Robin by his side for all of it. Robin feels like his whole Universe, the only other person who fits into that is Gwen, which means he’s pretty important. He was sure that if anything happened to Robin, his universe, everything would come crashing down, the world would start ending, and the sun would explode and take everything with it.
So yeah, He thought Robin was pretty important to him.
However important Robin may be to him, however, he still was not getting out of this tutoring session.
“Okay,” Finney started “How about we finish this problem set, then we can watch whatever movie you want that I own?”
Robin lit up immediately, grinning and nodding before patiently listening to Finney explain how to do the problems in the problem set. That’s what they spent the rest of the afternoon doing, filling out math problems and watching a horror movie, Halloween, specifically.
Robin had wanted to watch that movie for so long. He originally was planning on watching it around the time it came out but never got the chance because that week had been busy, then he just seemed to forget about it until recently.
At some point- towards the end of the movie most likely- Finney fell asleep, head leaning against Robin's shoulder. Robin huffed out a fond sigh and carefully got up, to not wake the sleeping boy, and picked him up bridal-style. He carried Finney up to his room and laid him down on the bed gently, tucking him in.
And if Robin had given him a small peck on the forehead before going to pack up his work and leave? Well, that was between him and the universe.
---
Sunday, April 5th, 1981
The TV ran a black and white movie, Finney and Gwen watched, eyes practically glued to the screen and the characters that moved across it. A sudden ringing of the phone made them both flinch and turn around quickly, but before either of them could get up to answer it, Terrence did.
There was silence for a while, it felt like the silence went on for hours, but that might’ve just been Finney. Just when the two thought the silence would never end, their father spoke.
“I understand, thank you for calling,” Terrence hung the phone back up before turning to the two kids sitting in front of the TV “Finney.”
Finney sat up straighter at the mention of his name “Yeah?”
“Do you know a kid named Robin Ar-” He paused, struggling to get the name out “Arre- Arr-” He sighed, seemingly giving up.
“Arellano?” Finney fills in for him.
“Yeah, that’s it.”
“He’s a friend. Why?”
Terrence paused, giving him an attempt at a sympathetic look, before walking away.
Finney was confused for a moment before it clicked.
His universe was collapsing.
---
Finney and Gwen had almost immediately rushed out of the house after getting the news, now they were searching around desperately near an abandoned warehouse typically used as a shortcut between Robin and Finney’s house.
Sticks and plants crunched beneath his and his sister's shoes as they searched the woods surrounding the warehouse. Sirens wail from the police cars surrounding the area, flashlights and police lights lighting up the area.
Tears began to form around Finney’s eyes, his voice became low and raspy as he called Robin's name, slowly losing hope every time he called out, every time he had no response.
Gwen glanced at Finney, face scrunching up into something akin to sympathy.
“I’m sorry, Finn, I know he was, like, your best friend,” Gwen said quietly, walking sideways towards him and gently bumping into his side.
“Is,” Finn said, just above a whisper. Looking up in a last-ditch effort not to cry.
“What?”
“He
is
my friend. Not was.”
Gwen sighed and wrapped her arms around her brother, pulling him into a tight hug. She felt Finney’s walls come down as he slumped in her arms, nestling his face into her neck. She could feel every tremor in his shaking body as he sobbed into her neck. Gwen felt her heart break with every sob she heard Finney produce. He wrapped his arms around his sister's torso tightly.
“Why him?” Finney asked no one in particular. It was an honest question. ‘Why him? Why him, why him, why him, why him.’ he thought to himself over, and over again.
“I don’t know Finn, I don’t know,” Gwen said quietly, rubbing his brother's back in an attempt to comfort him.
They stood there for a while, Gwen comforting Finney. They soon separated from each other and continued looking.
---
After the search had been deemed unsuccessful, Finney and Gwen had gone back to their house. Finney wanted to keep searching, but Gwen made him go back home with her, the reasons being; he needed sleep for school the next day (even though they both knew he wasn’t going to be getting much of that), and because she didn’t want to risk him getting grabbed as well.
Gwen was up in her room, and Finney was downstairs. He originally came down for a glass of water, before he noticed his father passed out in the living room with a beer bottle in his hand.
He sighed and walked over to where his dad slept carefully and quietly as possible. He gently took the bottle in Terrence’s hand and set it on the table beside him. Finney walked quietly up to his room, skipping the steps on the stairs he knew would creak, and went into his bedroom, closing the door gently behind him.
Finney thought he was alive, he had to be, he couldn’t not be. Because if he isn’t then he’ll- well, he doesn't know what he would do, but it would be something. Something horrible.
He isn’t sure what he’ll do without his universe.
Notes:
Translation
Spanish
"Lo Siento, amor, pero no puedo evitar distraerme con tu Belleza" - "I'm sorry, love, but I can't help but be distracted by your beauty"mi chico del espacio - my space boy
Chapter 4: Chapter 3
Chapter Text
Monday, April 6th, 1981
Finney wakes up on Monday feeling like shit. He stares up at his ceiling at the glow-in-the-dark stars, wanting to just do this all day. He didn’t want to face the world while his universe was collapsing in on itself. Unfortunately, his sister had other plans than letting him lay in bed all day.
“Finney?” Gwen said, cracking his door open. She was speaking louder than she usually did, so their father must have left for work already. “C’mon get up, we have to go to school.”
He waits until he hears his sister close the door before getting up. Finney changes into whatever clothes he sees first, which happens to be a blue and white baseball shirt and denim jeans, he also decides to take the letterman jacket he got, courtesy of being on the baseball team. He slips on his beat-up black converse and grabs his messenger bag. Finney exits the room and walks to the front door.
“I’ll wait outside for you, Gwen,” He says, exiting before his sister can protest. He makes his way to his fence, leaning against it. By the time he hears his sister closing the door behind him, he spots Matty and his gang. Finney makes the mistake of making eye contact with them, causing them to start walking in his direction. He immediately started booking it.
Finney didn’t get far before getting pushed over into someone's yard by Matty, where Matt and Buzz kicked and punched him. He lay there and took every kick and every punch that they served. He could feel his nose start to bleed when he heard someone yelling, someone distinctly Gwen-sounding.
“Fucking cock-sucking cowards!” Gwen yelled as she ran toward the teenagers, picking up a rock on the way. When she got over to the teenagers she punched Matty hard in the face, knocking him to the ground, he scooted back to lean on the fence, temple where he was hit bleeding out causing blood to drip down his face.
Gwen then turns to buzz “You too, ugly ass face,” she says before throwing the rock at buzz, unfortunately missing. Buzz takes it as his chance and knocks the girl to the ground.
“GWEN!” Finney shouts before continuing to get kicked.
Gwen weakly crawls over to the fence, sitting down next to Matty, panting, watching as her brother gets beat by the other boys.
---
Finney sat in his Biology class, staring at the empty seat next to him that once belonged to his best friend. He remembers how he had to practically teach him in the middle of class to get him to understand the topics. That was kinda their thing. Finney helped Robin with Math and Science while Robin helped Finney with English. He had always struggled with ‘digging into the text’ and understanding whatever they were reading further than just the surface-level context. So Robin would explain it to him.
As he continued thinking about Robin he could feel tears bubbling up in his eyes. Finney quickly and quietly wiped his eyes with his sleeve and looked around to make sure no one saw him. No one did, everyone keeping their eyes on the front of the room. Finney decided he should most likely do the same and tried to catch as much of the Biology lesson as possible.
---
Finney let out a relieved sigh once the bell rang to signal the end of his last class. He quickly packed his bag and walked out of the classroom. He skillfully dodged the people around him crowding to get out of the school or attend their clubs. He managed to get to the front gate without much incident, when he got there he saw Gwen waiting for him.
“Hey Finney,” Gwen says once she catches sight of him.
“Hey Gwen, anything interesting happen today?” He asked as they started walking side-by-side.
“Nothing much,” Gwen paused, thinking the question over in her brain again before lighting up “oh- uh Amy and I are lab partners in Science. So that’s cool, I guess.”
Finney took note of how his sister's cheeks flushed a light pink at the admission “Ohhhh, Amy huh?”
“Finney don’t you dare.”
“I can see how it played out in my head now ‘Oh, Gwen, will you be my Lab Partner?’” Finney teased, chuckling at the bright red blush it caused on Gwen.
“Oh my god, you suck.” Gwen rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, suddenly stopping at an intersection on the sidewalk. “Well, this is where we part ways.”
“Right, it’s Friday. I’ll take care of dad,” He said. They waved each other goodbye before parting ways.
Finney walked quietly on the way to his house. Just as he was about to pass a black van, a man stumbles out, dropping his groceries.
“You goof, well isn’t that peachy keen,” the man laughs at his own mistake before going to pick up his groceries and put them in the bag.
Finney feels awkward standing there so he decides to offer some help “You need some help?”
“You see that?” The man asks him, holding up two cracked eggs before throwing them back on the ground. “Would you hand me my hat?”
“Uh yeah sure, here.” he picks up the man's hat and hands it to him. The man puts it on as he stands up, leaving his paper bag on the ground.
“I am a part-time magician,” He says, holding a spray can “Would you like to see a magic trick?”
Finney thought about it for a second. He never really got to watch a magician at work before, due to his home life, so he thought it would be nice to fulfill something he never got to as a child.
“Um, sure!” He found himself accepting the offer.
The man started shaking the can in his hand, while Finney waited he decided to look through the back window of the van, there, he saw black balloons inside.
“Are those black balloons in there?” Finney asks, stepping closer to the back windows of the van, to get a closer look.
“Yeah,” the man confirmed. He opened the door, and as the balloons started floating out and when Finney got close enough, he grabbed the strings of the balloons and wrapped them around the boy's neck, successfully restraining him.
Finney tried screaming but before he could get anything out, the man sprayed whatever was in the spray can into his mouth, causing him to start losing consciousness. He took his rocket flashlight out of his pocket quickly before attempting to fight back by cutting the man's arm. He heard the man cry out in pain before he was suddenly pushed back hard into the back of the man’s van.
As he felt himself lose consciousness completely, he watched the man close the door to his van.
---
When Finney felt himself come to, he heard yelling. The voice sounded oddly familiar to him. He heard a loud clang of something metal shutting before it went silent. Finney finally opened his eyes and found he was sitting up. His vision was hazy and his eyes hurt. He tried rubbing his eyes, which helped a little bit. He could make out what things were now.
Finney saw that he was in a dirty-looking cement-walled basement, and from what he could tell from the texture, was sitting on a mattress. He suddenly heard the mattress shift next to him and whipped his head around to face whoever sat next to him.
Finney could feel his eyes widen and tears flood into his eyes in response to the sight he was met with.
“What’s happening, Finn?"
Chapter 5: Chapter 4
Summary:
Spent a while on this one, hope you like it!
Also, all of the chapters following this one will not be beta-read, just to let you all know.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Finney stared in shock at the sight of his best friend, whom he had originally thought was dead, very much alive. He barely registered the tears running down his cheeks before he found himself lunging at the other boy, embracing him in a tight hug.
As Finney cried into Robin’s shoulder, he could feel Robin rubbing soothing circles into the other's back. After what felt like an eternity, Finney stopped crying and released Robin from his hold so he could look his friend in the eyes.
“You’re alive,” Finney whispered, feeling like if he spoke any louder then he would break down crying.
“That I am, buddy,” Robin responded, giving him a gentle smile.
Finney carefully grabbed Robin’s hand as a way to ground himself. He smiled back at the Hispanic boy. They sat there and stared at each other, taking in their appearances. Robin was still in the same black combat boots, sweatpants, and orange sleeveless hoodie he was in the day he went missing. The only different thing was…
“You’re missing your bandana,” Finney says out of the blue, breaking the comfortable silence between them. He realized that he said that out loud when Robin started laughing. He slapped his free hand over his mouth in embarrassment.
“No- heh- no don’t be embarrassed, I’m just surprised that out of all things that’s what you noticed,” Robin said between giggles, squeezing the hand that was still holding onto Finney’s.
Finney rolled his eyes in faux annoyance and brought his hand down from his face, letting go of Robin's hand in the process. “Whatever, I’m gonna go look around.”
The dirty blonde stood up and walked off in the direction of the small hallway, away from the laughter. While Finney acted like he was annoyed by Robin's laughter, that’s all it was, acting that is. He enjoyed the fact he could still find humor, even in the situation they were in. Once he turned the corner he was met with the sight of an extremely dirty toilet with barely any toilet paper sitting on top of the back of it. Next to the toilet were three rolled-up mats.
As much as Finney was disgusted by the sight, he also couldn’t complain, since at least they have a toilet. Most kidnappers, he reckons, wouldn’t have even given them the luxury of toilet paper.
He goes back around the corner and walks straight to the metal door. He pulled on the handle, just to make sure. As he suspected, it didn’t budge.
“Did you think that would work?” Robin asks from behind him, seemingly having recovered from his laughing fit, “and here I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.”
Finney turns to face him, “Well I thought I’d at least try.”
“Uh-huh, whatever you say, Finn,” Robin rolls his eyes before patting the spot on the mattress next to him, “Come sit, I should probably explain what I know so far.”
Finney walks slowly to the mattress, still feeling a bit dizzy from whatever The Grabber had sprayed into his mouth, and sat next to his Robin.
“Okay so,” Robin started, “From what I’ve gathered from the past few days of being down here, he hasn’t fed me at all, so I don’t know if he was waiting for you to get here before he did, or if he won’t at all, but be prepared to be starved.” So far, something Finney can handle. He’s used to having to go a while with little food, although he is worried about if Robin can handle that.
“The phone on the wall doesn’t work, I’ve already tried it, and he even pointed it out himself,” Finney glanced at the phone next to the mattress ‘go figure’ he thought to himself.
“Also he… okay so we both know he’s fucking weird, right?” Finney nods, “Right. So he sometimes will, like, watch us sleep. I woke up at one point and saw him just sitting there staring at me.”
What.
“What,” Finney said flatly, not so much of a question as it was a statement. His expression morphed from unsettling confusion to concern. “He hasn’t… touched you, has he?”
Robin put a hand on Finney’s shoulder, attempting at giving him a reassuring smile before saying, “No. He hasn’t.”
“Good,” Finney says, face firm and serious, “‘Cause if he does I’ll fucking murder him.”
Robin does this funny thing with his face where his eyes go wide in shock, before morphing into a proud grin. “That’s the spirit,” he pauses for a moment as if thinking about his next words, before starting again, “Same goes to you, Cariño.”
For a moment, in the dingy basement of their kidnapper's house, they just stare at each other. You could find something akin to fondness in their gazes. The moment, however, is interrupted when Finney starts hearing the phone- that Robin had previously said didn’t work- ring.
Finney jumps when the sudden shrill ring reaches his ears, cutting through the comfortable atmosphere Robin and himself created. His line of vision quickly goes to the black rotary phone on the wall next to the mattress.
“I thought you said the phone didn’t work?” Finney asks, confused, and slightly betrayed, that his friend would lie to him.
“What do you mean, it doesn’t work, I’ve tried,” Robin says, equally confused.
Finney gives Robin an unimpressed look before getting up from the mattress and walking over to the phone. He picks it up and puts the phone to his ear.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” He asks. Robin gives him a confused look and mouths ‘what are you doing?’ Finney puts his free hand's index finger up to silently tell his friend to wait for a second before speaking again, “Hello?”
After a second of waiting, he doesn’t get a response and promptly hangs up the phone. Turning to his friend who was looking at him with a confused and slightly concerned gaze.
“Okay, Finney, what was that?” Robin asks.
“What do you mean,” Finney scrunches his face up in confusion, “the phone was ringing, you didn’t hear it?”
“No, I didn’t,” Robin says, gaze going from confusion to full concern.
“Oh, weird.”
They sit there- well, Robin sits there, Finney just stands- in awkward silence before Robin speaks up.
“We should probably go to sleep now, save up energy for tomorrow.”
Finney nods his head stiffly, walking over to the mattress and laying down next to his friend, closing his eyes and trying to sleep. His thoughts wandered, as they often did when he was trying to sleep, to other things. How was Gwen holding up? Did she even find out he was missing yet? Finney knew that if she did, she would go to hell and back to find him. The comforting thought made him smile, just a little bit, and he found himself fading into sleep.
Just before he went out, though, he felt a warm body against his own, and an equally warm pair of arms encasing him. He fell asleep shortly after.
---
When Finney awakes later, the first thing he notices is a weight against his chest. When he looks down to see the source of the weight, he’s met with the sight of thick, curly, black hair pressed into his chest under his chin. He smiles for a moment at the sight and the feeling.
“Well, isn’t that just adorable?” Finney quickly sits up at the sudden voice. Robin doesn’t wake up despite the interruption and adjusts to lean his head on Finney’s thigh. ‘ He always has been a heavy sleeper’ Finney thinks before turning his attention to the source of the voice.
The Grabber is squatted on the ground, in a similar outfit to the one he was in when Finney was first kidnapped, the only difference is he was wearing a mask. It covered the bottom of his face, an eerie grin planted on thick plastic.
“He- we are hungry,” Finney says, changing the subject quickly.
“How are your eyes?” The Grabber counters.
Finney did a quick once-over of his condition. He was fine overall, but his throat burned and his eyes still hurt like a bitch. Luckily, he’s gotten quite good at hiding when he’s in a lot of pain.
“My eyes sting a little,” He lied, not wanting the man to know how bad his condition was.
The Grabber stares at him for a moment, putting the back of his hands under his chin before putting them back on the ground and standing up, walking to the door.
“Well, I can’t bring you two anything to eat,” He said making it to the doorway before turning around to face Finney, “You’ll have to wait.”
Finney was almost confused for a moment by why The Grabber was down there if not to feed them when he remembered what Robin had told him the day before. He swallowed thickly.
“If you didn’t come down here to feed us, why’d you even come down here?” He asked, already knowing the answer but just wanting to make sure his theory was correct. The Grabber was still and silent for a moment before he spoke, voice deep and disturbing.
“Just to look at you,” He said, pausing for a moment before speaking again, “I just wanted to look at you.”
Finney balled his hands into fists, pressing them against the mattress. He felt 3 emotions flood through him suddenly, the first being disgust at this man wanting to look at the two of them like that, the second being fear of what this man may have done to his past victims and what he may do to them, the third and last one being anger, angry that this grown-ass man would do this to them- to Robin- and all those other kids. This anger remained as The Grabber closed and locked the basement door.
He was broken out of his thoughts, suddenly, when he felt Robin shuffle against his leg, grunting. Finney looked down at him, meeting the tired gaze of his friend.
“Buenos Diás, mi amor,” and with those words, Finney’s worries seemed to lessen, not disappear completely, given the situation they’re in, but it certainly lessened. Robin’s morning voice was absolutely beautiful, especially when he was speaking Spanish with it because his voice went all deep and it was all the right kinds of scratchy. He then realized he never responded.
“Good Morning, Mo ghràdh,” He couldn’t help the use of a pet name, Robin was just so beautiful and adorable, who could blame him? Robin nuzzled further into the side of his leg and Finney could feel his stomach burst into a swarm of butterflies and his brain turn to mush at the gesture. Unfortunately, they couldn’t stay like this forever, not if The Grabber decided to come down and ruin the moment.
“C’mon Robin,” He said softly, nudging his companion's head, “Ya’ gotta wake up,” Robin grumbled a little before sitting up and looking at Finney groggily. He gave him a sleepy smile, which made Finney’s heart jump in his chest.
“So… why are you up so early?” Robin asked, which prompted Finney to hesitate before answering.
“Uhm, I just woke up, I guess,” Finney answered, hoping his lie was believable. It wasn’t as if the way Robin straightened up where he was sitting and his gaze became more focused and cognizant told him anything.
“Finn… what happened?” Finney bit his lip, averting his gaze from Robin’s. He should’ve known his lie would be easy to see through, they usually are when it comes to Robin. He had told him once that something he did whenever he lies was what gave it away. When Finney had asked what it was Robin told him that he couldn’t tell him, or else he wouldn’t be able to tell when he was lying at all, because he’d try to fix it.
“Okay well, I did just wake up early, it’s just… The Grabber was there,” Finney tilted his head down toward his lap, fiddling with his fingers, “I asked him to feed us since you were hungry, and he said he couldn’t cause of… I don’t know something. I suspect there might be someone else in the house with him and that’s why,” he paused for a moment, observing Robin’s reaction through his body language. Robin’s fists were clenched tight and he could practically feel his gaze burning holes through his head. This caused his voice to get smaller as he continued.
“So I asked why he came down here and he said he came down here to, uh, look at us…” Finney could feel himself trembling as he remembered the events, he felt like throwing up.
Robin seemed to have just sat there for a second, processing the information, before wrapping Finney in a tight embrace, which Finney returned easily. For a while they sat there like that together, just taking in their comfort. No words needed to be exchanged, it always was like this with them, no words needing to have been exchanged for them to comfort each other.
The silence was broken, however, by a shrill ringing coming from the phone. It surprised Finney, causing him to jolt back from the hug. He quickly went to the phone and picked it up.
“What do you want?” Finney asked, annoyed. For a second there wasn’t anything coming from the other end of the phone. Until there was.
“Finney.”
Notes:
Translation
Cariño - Sweetie, Sweetheart
"Buenos Diás, mi amor" - "Good Morning, my love"
Chapter 6: Chapter 5
Chapter Text
Finney hung up the phone immediately and walked backward from the phone, tripping and falling on his ass. Robin narrowed his eyes at him, expression laced with concern for his friend. Finney saw him open his mouth to speak, but the phone started ringing again and he got up, cautiously walking toward the phone, making Robin shut his mouth and just observe Finney, keeping his guard up as he did.
Finney picked up the phone slowly, bringing it to his ear, immediately hearing a voice speak.
“Don’t hang up,” the voice said hurriedly as if he would hang up if he didn’t tell him not to. He would have.
“I won’t,” Finney reassures the voice shakily, “who- who is this?” He ignores how Robin looks at him with a shocked face.
“I don’t know my name,” The voice answered.
“Why not?”
“It’s the first thing you lose,”
the voice said as if it was the most obvious thing. It wasn’t. Not to Finney, anyway.
“First thing you lose when?” He asked, staring at the floor with a hard gaze, confusion laced all over his features.
“You know when.” Finney’s confusion only deepens further at the implications, than he thinks.
He’s the only one out of him and Robin that can hear the phone. The voice on the phone is filled with static, more than you’d think there would be for an old rotary phone. He remembers how his mother used to see and hear things and have dreams about things that hadn’t happened, but she swore would the next day. They did, they always did. His mother with a gentle voice would always tell him about the people she sees, the people his father would say didn’t exist. Finney remembers waking up late at night one day, when she was still alive, he woke up from hearing a ringing from the other room, and when he went to check it out he saw his Mother, talking to someone on the phone. He remembers her saying “Papa, I’ll see you soon I promise” with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. It was strange because her papa, his grandfather, died before he was even born. Then, he recounts how the dreams got passed on to his little sister after their mom passed.
All of this adds up in his brain and he concludes. He can speak to ghosts. Finney’s eyes widened, and Robin sits up straighter, too, noticing the tension in his best friend. Finney’s thoughts then go to the next thing.
Which ghost is this?
“How do you know my name?” Finney asked, figuring the question would narrow it down to three of the possible victims that could be on the other end of the phone.
The only ones that would know his name would be Vance Hopper, because he and Robin were friends, being the two toughest kids in school they found common ground and got around. However, that option was quickly etched off by the softness of the voice that came over the phone, even through the static of the phone. The second person would be Billy Showalter, the old paperboy, he remembered always catching Robin glancing his way. Finney made occasional small talk with the boy while he was on his newspaper runs. Finally, there’s Bruce. They played against each other in baseball often, so they knew each other's names. They never really talked outside of that, though, on account of the fact they went to two different schools.
“We met once,” the voice started, “your arm is mint, you almost had me.”
“Bruce?” Finney asked, causing Robin’s eyes to widen in shock, “Bruce Yamada?”
“Yeah,” the ghost said, almost awestruck in the revelation and familiarity of the name, at least that’s what Finney got from his tone, “ Bruce, Uh, I’m Bruce. ” The voices- Bruce’s- voice seemed to trail off for a moment, and it was silent before he started speaking again, “ Your arm is mint ,” he repeated, “ you almost had me. ”
“Did the phone ring for you?” He asked, even though he knew the answer, he just wanted to make sure.
“It rang,”
Bruce started, making Finney’s head snap up in hope that maybe there was a chance he wasn’t going insane,
“but none of us heard it,”
with that all hope that he wasn’t going insane was lost, lowering his head again,
“just you.”
Bruce paused for a moment, as if considering his next words, before speaking again,
“The Grabber hears the phone, too,”
Finney raises head, slowly this time, eyes widened, turning from facing the wall to facing the door, staring at it,
“but he doesn’t want to believe it.”
Finney swallows hard before changing the subject, “Why are you calling me?”
“Your arm is mint, you almost had me,” Bruce repeats, “Finney?”
“Yeah?”
“There’s a dirt section of the floor in the hallway where the tile is loose,”
he states, Finney turns to look at the small hallway,
“Dig down underneath the foundation, I tried, but there wasn’t enough time to dig up and out the other side.”
“Will I have enough time?” Finney asks, waiting for a response, but he’s met with the click on the phone hanging up, “Hello? Bruce?” When no response comes he hangs the phone back up on the stand.
He starts walking towards where Bruce told him the tile was when his wrist is grabbed. He turns around to be faced with a confused and concerned Robin.
“Finn, what- what was that?” Robin asked, loosening his grip on Finney’s wrist and sliding it down to hold onto his hand.
Finney stays silent for a moment, thinking over his words, before speaking, “You- uh- you know how Gwen has her… dreams?” Robin nods, signaling for him to continue, “Well, it’s hereditary, so she got it from our mom. Our mom… could see and hear things that no one else could, ghosts. Gwen got the dreams from her. I guess I got the uh- speaking to ghosts?”
Robin looked at him with wide eyes before closing his eyes and letting out a breath, then opening his eyes again. “Okay, okay. What did he say?”
Finney was shocked that Robin believed him for a moment but smiled at him softly in gratitude that he believed him. He let go of Robin’s hand and gestured for him to follow him to the hallways before he explains, “Well he said there was a loose floor tile, if we lift it and start digging, we might be able to dig our way out. He said he was close but… didn’t have enough time,” He pauses to let out a breath before speaking, “But, there’s two of us, which should speed up the effort.”
Robin nods and watched as Finney crouches down, feeling around the hall, picking at the corner of the tiles before one of the corners breaks away. He lifts the tile, moving it to the side, before standing up and turning to his friend.
“All right, pick a number, one or two.”
“Uh,” Robin thinks for a moment, this decision could theoretically be very important, so he doesn’t want to fuck it up. He takes a whole minute to think before he decides, “two.”
Finney decides to ignore how long it took for Robin to respond and groans in defeat, “All right so you're in charge of putting the dirt I dig out in the toilet and flushing it.”
“Yes! I knew I had good option-picking skills. Have fun busting your back digging mi amor~!”
He walks over to the other side of the uncovered dirt patch, waiting for Finney to start digging. When Finney starts scooping out the dirt and placing it beside the dirt patch, Robin picks up the dirt from the pile, brings it to the toilet, and flushes it down. The process of digging and disposing of the dirt repeats for a while. Light conversation flowed between the two of them while they went through the process.
When they stop, they’ve created a 5-inch deep hole. They had to stop because Robin saw the light that signaled the Grabber was coming back down turned on. They covered the hole up with the tile and rushed back to the mattress, pretending like they’d been sitting there chatting amongst themselves.
The metal door opens and all conversation stops. The Grabber is standing there holding a tray with two plates of what looks like eggs and two bottles of soda.
“I made you breakfast.”
“¿Lo derogate? Si lo hiciste, no lo queremos,” Robin spoke up. Finney shot him a confused look before Robin mouthed ‘translate’. Finney nods and looks over to the Grabber.
“Uh- he wants to know what’s in it,” Finney says, knowing he’s lying out of his ass. He has no clue what he said but just goes with it.
The Grabber looks down at the food before looking back up to the boys, “Salt and Pepper.” He giggles for a moment before speaking again, “Oh eat it, don’t eat it. You’re already down here, what do I need to drug you for?”
The Grabber puts the tray down and shuts the door, but instead of hearing a lock click after the door shut, there was nothing.
“He didn’t close the door,” Finney says, the two start walking towards the door before the phone starts ringing. “Wait,” he grabs Robin’s hand before he can open the door and leads them both over to the phone.
“Finn, what-” He starts but stops once he notices Finney picking up the phone and holding the receiver to his ear.
“Hello?” Finney says into the phone.
“ Don’t go upstairs, ” The voice (Bruce? No, no it doesn’t sound like him.) says, its tone deadly serious.
“Why not?” Finney starts rubbing circles into the back of Robin’s hand, as a way of getting rid of the anxious energy running through him.
“ It’s a trap. ”
“Are you Bruce?” He asks, trying to figure out whom he was speaking to.
“ Who’s Bruce? ” Okay, not Bruce then.
“Ah- I was uh, just talking to Bruce.”
“
I don’t know any Bruce,
” the voice says, impatient.
“Y’know, the baseball player?” Finney would think that the ghosts could see each other, knew of each other, and talked to each other. Maybe they did- see each other that is- but just didn’t speak to each other.
“ We don’t play baseball here, ” the voice pauses for a moment before deciding to continue, “ I delivered newspapers. ”
“Billy, you’re Billy Showalter , ” Finney says, internally pumping his fist into the air, before remembering the situation he was in and calming himself down.
“
I guess,
” Billy says as if he’s off-putted by the name, “
Do not… go upstairs.
”
“Why not?”
“ He’s waiting… on the other side with that fucking belt ,” he says bitterly, “ he didn’t say you could leave, so if you try, he’ll punish you, ” Billy pauses once before speaking again, tone deathly serious, like when you’re telling a scary story, but so much more real, “ He’ll beat you with that belt until you pass out, and it hurts kid, it hurts. You’ll cry, you’ll beg him to stop, we all did. ”
Click
Finney takes a moment to process the information given to him, taking a shakey breath out and putting the phone back on the stand. He turns to face Robin and watches as his face turns from curiosity to concern. He immediately grabs Finney’s other hand, already holding his other one, and starts rubbing circles into the palms of his hands.
“What’s wrong, Finn, what’d Billy say?” Robin asks, trying to get Finney to look him in the eyes.
Finney looks away from the door and over to Robin, “He said not to go upstairs, that he- The Grabber- is waiting upstairs with a belt,” Finney felt his voice get softer and quieter with every word he said.
They stand there for a moment, Finney taking a moment to collect himself, trying to get the mental image of what the boy had described out of his head. He feels horrible, scared, and a little bit angry. He thinks about the other boys- having to get beat with a belt, begging the man to stop. He imagines the Grabber ignoring their pleas, their cries for mercy. He becomes a little angry at the thought that the boys that were killed down here had so much to live for, a future ahead of them, hopes, and dreams that were crushed the second they let out their last breath. He wonders if the Grabber thought about that while he was watching the boys cry out in pain, begging him for mercy.
He feels like throwing up.
Once Finney collects himself he walks over to the tray and brings it back to the mattress. He sets the tray down on the floor in front of him as he sits down and picks up one of the plates. Finney feels the mattress shift next to him as Robin sits down and takes the other plate. They eat in silence for a while, until Robin puts his plate down and picks up the soda, opening it and taking a quick sip.
“So,” Finney starts still eating his disastrously undercooked eggs, he hates the texture and how it tastes, if this were any other situation he’d avoid eating it at all costs. But, he can’t or he’d probably die, so he eats them with much reluctance, “Why were you speaking Spanish, and why did you ask me to translate?”
“I mostly did it just so he wouldn’t bother speaking to me as much. If he thinks I can’t speak much English, he might let me go,” Robin says, then realizes that that might sound offensive so he quickly follows up, “But now that you’re here I don’t want to leave you alone, so I’ll have you “translate” for me!” He puts up finger quotes at the word translate, which makes Finney chuckle.
“As much as I appreciate the sentiment, you know you don’t have to skip out on your chance to escape, right?” Robin tenses, his eyebrows knitting in clear objection, but as he opens his mouth to speak against the other boy’s words, Finney interrupts him, “I mean- think about it, if even one of us can manage to escape, the other one can alert someone, and if it’d be either of us, I would want it to be you.”
“Okay, no.” Finney tries to object to Robin’s objection, but Robin interrupts him, “Finn, I am not leaving without you by my side. I am not, under any circumstances, leaving you alone with that cerdo feo.”
“But, Robin… what if it helps, I wouldn’t be stuck here for long if you manage to get out, anyway,” He interjects, “besides, I wouldn’t mind being stuck here for the rest of my life if it meant you would be able to get out.”
Robin looks at Finney with a very adamant expression, “No, Finney. I appreciate the sentiment, but if it means you’re going to be left alone with him? For any period? Never, no. You deserve to get out just as much as I do and if I have to prove it to you, I will. I will remind you every day for the rest of my life how much you mean to me, how much it would hurt if I got to go and you had to stay if it means you’ll understand one day.”
Finney doesn’t speak, turning his head away from Robin’s gaze, down to the mattress. He can feel his friend’s gaze burn into him, the same friend that would ask him if he needed a place to stay the night when he came to school hurt. The same friend that always knew that the injuries he bared weren’t just from his bullies. The same friend that he danced with in his room when his father wasn’t home. The same friend that busts his knuckles open whenever someone even mutters something harsh about him under their breath.
“Sorry.” Because that’s all he can say. He’s sorry for worrying Robin, for being a burden.
“Oh, Finn… por favor mírame,” Robin says, gently grasping each side of Finney’s face, forcing the boy to look him in the eye, “Don’t be sorry, just… let me care for you as much as you care for me, let me help you as you help me, please?”
Finney nods, smiling softly at the other boy, putting his now empty plate back on the tray.
“Te amo, Finn, hasta la luna y de regreso,” he whispers.
“I don’t know what you said but, tha gaol agam ort gu bràth,” he whispers back.
Robin takes his hands off of his face and Finney speaks again, “Okay, you wanna keep digging?” Robin nodded in agreement and Finney said, “By the way, we switch every time, so it’s your turn to… how did you put it again? Have fun breaking your back digging? ” He took great pleasure in the pained groan that followed.
After many complaints from Robin, they continued digging and disposing of the dirt.
They were going to get out, and they were going to get out together .
---
The phone goes off again, later while they’re digging. So they pause their efforts and Finney goes over to the phone, picks it up, and answers it.
“ You said my name was Billy, ” the ghost states, “ to the point’, Finney muses.
“Uh- Billy Showalter, yeah,” He says, confused about why this was worth calling about.
“ Don’t call me that, ” he says, “ I don’t remember it. It’s not who I am now. ”
“Okay… so what should I call you, then?” The line is silent, so he adds, “What do you remember?”
“ I told you, I was the paperboy, ”
“Okay. Paperboy.”
It’s silent for a moment before Paperboy speaks up again.
“ See the wall in front of you? ” He does since he’s looking at it, where the receiver to the ‘broken’ rotary phone is. He nods, which the ghost seems to see because he continues, “ See how the wall is separated from the floor? ”
“Yeah,” He confirms.
“ I tore a long cable loose from there, I kept it hidden. ”
“What am I supposed to do with that?” Finney asks, but the phone clicks before he could get an answer.
Finney sighed, but crouched down, feeling around the base of the wall to see if he could find the cable Paperboy was talking about.
“So, what’d he say?” Robin asks from behind him watching as his friend feels around the base of the wall, where it’s torn and takes out a long cable.
“He said he found a cable when he was down here, but never told me what to do with it, however…” He trails off, holding the cable in his hand and looking around. Finney looks up at the grate in front of the small window and smiles. He runs over to where the toilet is, grabs one of the rolled-up mats, and takes it to where the window is. He carefully leans it against the wall before crouching down and pushing the cable through the hole in the mat.
“Finney what are you-”
“Shh, you’ll see Rob.”
Robin sighs and watches in confusion as his friend watches the cable go up the mats hole and out the other side. He pushes it through for a little longer, the cable going around one of the poles of the grate.
Finney grabs that end of the cable, pulls it down, and then carefully gets rid of the mat the cable was pushed through. He tries to climb up the wall to get to the window but fails. He hears Robin giggle behind him, turning to glare at him. Finney huffs and thinks before going to tie a knot between the two ends of the cable, once he goes that, he steps onto the knot he made and climbs the wall.
He reaches up to get between the grate and the window behind it, hoping to push it out and get rid of the grate so that both he and Robin can escape. Before Finney can get anywhere with the idea, however, the pressure he put on the grate from the cable holding up his weight causes the grate to loosen, then fall entirely. Which by proxy causes him to fall.
Robin runs to catch Finney before he breaks his head open, and when he does he pushes them both out of the way of the falling grate. He lands on top of Finney, quickly getting up when he hears the loud clattering of metal meeting the tile floor.
“Finney! Are you okay?” Robin asks, worriedly.
Finney had closed his eyes to brace himself for the fall, so when he blinks his eyes open he’s… surprised by the sight of his best friend. Sitting on top of him. He doesn’t think he should be blamed for how fast his face turns red.
“Uh- yeah, I’m good, no brain damage,” he says hastily.
“All right, good,” Robin says nodding, before taking in his position on Finney, and the fact Finney’s face is red. Oh. “Ah-! Sorry, sorry let’s uh, let's get up and get back to digging, yeah?” He gets up, stepping to the side and putting his hand out to help him up.
Finney, stares for a moment, before remembering their situation and taking Robin’s hand, hoisting himself up. As he’s getting up though, he feels a sudden pain shoot through his chest and hisses.
Robin turns to him, face filled with concern, “Finn, querido, are you sure your okay?”
Finney just nods, “Yeah- I just uh…” He closes his eyes, bracing for the lecture of his lifetime, “I kinda… haven’t taken my binder off this entire time?”
“Finn! Idiota! You know that you shouldn’t be wearing that for longer than 10 hours- never mind multiple days in a row!” Robin is panicking, also beating himself up for not noticing sooner.
“Yeah- I was just- nervous, I don’t know,” he says honestly, “I was afraid that he would notice and say something.”
Robin’s face softens, sighing “Finn, as someone who has seen you without your binder on, I promise your chest is barely noticeable, if at all.”
This is true, he’s been on testosterone since he was quite young, his parents allowing it and giving him the hormones he needed to grow into the body he wanted, the body he was meant to be in.
Finney sighs and shrugs off his letterman jacket, “All right- just… turn around, will you?” Robin nods and does a small salute before turning around, Finney is pretty sure he went as far as to close his eyes, as he always did when he had to take off his binder during sleepovers.
He takes off his shirt and unsnaps his binder quickly, trying not to risk getting caught by the man keeping them here. Once he does, he slips his shirt and jacket back on, stuffing his binder in his jacket pocket.
“All right you can look now.”
Robin turns around and smiles at him, “See! Barely noticeable. Now, come on I think we should rest for now.”
Finney nods, agreeing, and walks to the mattress, laying down. He hears Robin pick up the mat and metal grate, placing both items somewhere near the toilet. Robin walks over to where he’s laying and lies down in front of him, wrapping his arms around his torso gently, being careful to not put too much pressure on his ribcage. Finney melts a little when he notices and wraps his arms around the other boy.
They fall asleep soon after.
Chapter 7: Not a chapter
Chapter Text
So uh.
Im prolly gonna discontinue this.
Im so sorry but I just can't find ANY motivation to finish it.
Though I do have more projects it's just that my view on stuff in my own little headcanon has changed SO MUCH from what it once was that continuing this doesn't really. make me happy.
That being said, again, I do have another thing I'm working on. But this book will no longer be continued.
-xoxo Bin