- Text Size +

Friends until the End

Seeing Cerys looking directly at him, Oliver froze, not out of fear, but because he instantly realized flight was futile and he did not wanted to jeopardize Cam’s hiding spot. Sitting down cross-legged on the carpet, he waited for the gigantic girl to make her move.

Pushing herself up on an elbow, she kept her glacial blue eyes locked on him and swept the blanket back off her body.

The voices coming from the hall were loud enough for him to hear, and loud enough for Cerys to hear. Cam’s absence had been discovered. The smile on her face broadened as she slid her legs slowly over the edge of the bed, fearing any sudden move might send him scurrying.

Something Stan used to say made Oliver smile, “Go big or stay home,” he murmured, watching Cerys slither off the bed and approach him like a snake uncoiling for an unsuspecting mouse. Except he was suspecting. He knew she had staged the food scene to draw him out of hiding. Not that hungry motivated him, no, he knew his odds of remaining free were dwindling. He also knew there was zero mathematical probability he would be able to get himself restored on his own. After all the horrors Cam had been subjected to, Oliver took it upon himself to see if she was on the level.

Getting down on her hands and knees, Cerys lowered her face down close to Oliver, hands to either side of him.

Looking up at her face, “I have absolutely no reason to trust you, no reason to believe anything that dribbles out of your mouth is anything but a self-serving lie, and despite that, here I am,” he said, spreading his hands apart. Being this close to her and under her scrutiny was unnerving, but he held his ground.

“And Cameron?” she inquired, asking in a whisper.

“Can you help us?” he asked, maintaining his gaze so as not to betray Cam’s location.

“Us? So he is here somewhere?” she asked, glancing to where Oliver had appeared, to her left toward the window, the length of blonde hair rope still tied to the cord for the blinds.

“That’s an irrelevant question. What I need to know is whether or not you are going to do what you said you were going to do and help us,” Oliver asserted.

“I will do all I’m able, but understand, like I said I will have to turn you over to Sersei,” she explained, still keeping her voice low despite the quietness in the hall.

“I know,” he acknowledged. “What about Cam? Can you get him away from here? Take him somewhere safe?”

Cerys hesitated a moment, “Possibly, but I’m honestly not sure,” she admitted, shrugging.

“Fair enough,” he conceded.

Looking toward the door, “It sounds as if the sisters out there are aware of your intervention in Cam’s liberations, so if I tell them I found you here in my room, I don’t think it would be much of a stretch for them to think that Cam is probably somewhere in here too,” she explained.

Nodding, Oliver found her argument sound. Might it be possible to stash him somewhere in here the girls would not think to look, some place that would not make Cerys look complicit?

Seeing him mentally wrestling, “Time is certainly not our friend. I don’t think we have more than a handful of minutes to come up with a viable solution before they start pounding on my door,” Cerys offered.

Cam listened intently, while it was hard to hear Oliver, he did hear her last comment. The pit of his stomach dropped and he really wished Oliver had not gone down there because he absolutely did not trust Cerys. Everything he heard about her suggested she was just plain evil. Oliver risked everything to save him. Could he do any less? Dislodging some of the soil covering him, he crawled to the edge of the planter, propping himself up enough to peek over the rim and look at Cerys and Oliver. Should he join them? He was afraid. Mustering up what little remnants of courage he still possessed, Cam revealed himself by standing upright in the planter. “Here!” he belted out, raising his hands above his head and waving them back and forth.

Turning her head, she spotted Cam. Pushing herself back onto her heels into a seated position, she put her hands on her thighs and nodded slowly before getting up to her feet and crossing the floor to the window. Reaching her right hand down, she lifted Cam carefully out of the planter and returned to the center of the room where Oliver stood. Sitting back down, she put Cam next to Oliver.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Oliver chastised.

Cam chuckled, “Kind of did,” he replied, nodding slowly.

Reaching down over the two boys, Cerys picked up the bar and crumbled off a few pieces before setting it back down. “I don’t know when you’ll have another chance to eat, so please, go ahead,” she encouraged.

While neither boy was particularly hungry, given their current predicament they both seized on the opportunity to fill their bellies, quickly gobbling up the pieces of bar. Food and water were at too much of a premium to pass them up.

Keeping her triumphant face expressionless, Cerys sat back on her heels, glacial blue eyes bright and alert as she quietly watched the boys eat. Her gambit to draw them out had succeeded.

 There was an insistent knocking at the door, “You awake?” Brooklynn’s voice.

Letting out a breath, Cerys looked down at the two lads, “Ready?” she asked, smile breaking out on her face.

Exchanging a quick glance with Cam, Oliver nodded.

Getting to her feet, Cerys bent at the waist and collected Oliver in her left hand, Cam in her right before lifting them up off the ground. “A minute,” she said, moving toward the door.

Tipping her head back, she opened her mouth wide and brought her right hand above it. Opening her hand, Cam clung front her index finger, feet dangling over her gaping maw. Snaking her tongue out, she flicked it at his kicking feet, the contact causing him to lose his grip and tumble into her mouth. Closing her lips around Cam, she brought her head back down before elevating Oliver up to the front of her throat and pressing him flat against the smooth surface. There was motion coming from under her skin as her throat opened and closed, swallowing Cam.

What just happened?

Pulling Oliver back away from her neck, she smiled wide and opened mouth, tongue snaking out and licked first her lower and then upper lip.

“What did you just do?” Oliver asked, eyes round. Where was Cam? Her mouth was empty.

Reaching down to the doorknob with her now empty right hand, she chuckled and opened the door.

  

 

You must login (register) to review.