Another Daring Escape Plan Excecuted By...Him

[Jhonen C]

“You do know we’re not supposed to be…well…outside the room right now, don’t you?”

‘They won’t catch us. I’m sneaky, like a fish.’

“Doesn’t matter if you’re sneaky Johnny, we share the same body, did you forget? And in fact, the body we share is about six foot five inches tall, making it almost impossible to get through the low doorways of the building we’re in, and not only that, our limbs are out of proportion, we’re clumsy.”

‘Your mom is clumsy.’

“My mom isn’t speaking to me.”

‘Can you blame her? You’re a screw up.’

“Look, can you just get us back to the room?”

‘Do you want to live there the rest of our life? Because if we go back up there, that’s what we’re going to be doing. Won’t it be much better when we’re out of here? Free to do what we need to do…don’t you miss that? Working on your art projects? They don’t even give you paints out of art time here, and you’re not allowed to use pens or pencils anymore.’

“That’s because you tried to stab the art director. And if we get out of here, you’re going to try and kill more people again. That’s what you do Johnny. You hurt and kill people.”

‘You’ve never tried to stop me Jhonen.’

Johnny looked around the corner that lead off of the fourth floor. Involuntarily Jhonen looked out too. A set of maniacal green eyes stared from the darkness of the hallway and out into a brightly lit hallway. Johnny could see the stairwell. It would be less conspicuous than the more commonly used methods of getting to other floors. No one seemed to use the stairwell anymore, and that was what Johnny was going to use to get out of this hellhole. Maybe Jhonen was content to live in this place, but he sure wasn’t. Every attempt he made to get the blood red color both he and Jhonen sought was thwarted. And after they foiled his plans, the security measures that were used against them were increased. More than likely they’d be increased again tonight. (if they got caught) The two of them were meant to be in their room at the moment, pretending to sleep. Johnny and Jhonen were both very poor actors, and pretending to sleep was one of the hardest things they’d ever tried to do. (harder than the time Jhonen tried to make scrambled eggs and Johnny took over only to loose focus on the eggs and come very close to burning down the kitchen.) In fact, Johnny decided it was so hard for them to fake sleeping that tonight would be the perfect night to escape.

The only logical way to escape after their curfew was to beat the orderly that stood outside their door across the head, so that’s what Johnny did. He first had gone through the room they were imprisoned in, and searched for something to break the lock. He looked at the light fixtures, but they were nailed into the wall. He looked at the metal bedframe, but his had been nailed to the floor. The only things that weren’t nailed into anything else seemed to be the dresser drawers. They were the logical choice to break the lock, so Johnny had taken one out of the dresser and bashed it against the lock. He then proceeded to kick open the door. The orderly that stood outside had whirled around, and raised his wand. Johnny in turn, had pushed the man into the wall, then took his head and beat it against the wall until it left a bloody stain. The man hadn’t even made a noise, only left the color that Johnny needed. Neither Jhonen nor Johnny wanted to stay and stare at that color for five minutes, but they did anyway. Then they ran.

One more scan across the hallway, and Johnny started to walk quickly down the hallway towards the stairs. Jhonen mentally held his breath, hoping no one would catch the two (or one, depended if you went with minds or bodies) of them. It would be bad if they did. They’d probably freeze them and bind them for a few hours until the orderly woke up. (It might actually be days, Johnny had beat his head pretty hard. He’d probably have some memory loss, or severe brain injury.) Jhonen didn’t want them not to trust him, he was a trustworthy guy, it was Johnny who wasn’t. Johnny was the one who caused all the problems.

“Please go back Johnny, if we go back to the room, they won’t think you did that.”

‘They’ll know we did it. Who else would do that? And besides, going back would make us failures, and you’re always telling me that you’re not a failure. If we go back, that’d make you a liar Jhonen.’ An evil grin passed across Johnny’s face, and he opened the door to the stairs, and went inside.

The stairs were not like the rest of the hospital. They weren’t as clean, didn’t smell sterilized. Johnny was sure he could see some remains of human piss on the wall, and Jhonen could confirm that by smell. Johnny looked down the floors and down the spiraling of the staircase. The ground floor, only three floors away…so close to freedom. Johnny smiled and adjusted their glasses.

“This is a bad idea Johnny.”

‘Shut the hell up Jhonen, I’m not interested in listening to you at the moment, bigger fish to fry. More important lives to destroy.’

It was when they were half way down the second floor stairs that Jhonen tried something he hadn’t tried more than twice. He attempted to get control of their body without Johnny letting him. You’d have to give him credit, he tried. Unfortunately, it didn’t work so well. All he managed to do was get control of their leg and an arm. The left leg, and the left arm. You might think that that wouldn’t be so helpful, but it was. You can’t go down stairs on just one leg, and when someone is holding on to the banister for dear life, it makes it just that much harder. When Johnny took a step, it was only the fact that Jhonen was holding onto the banister that kept them from falling down the remainder of the stairs.

‘Crap Jhonen! Let GO!’

“NO!”

‘Let go or I’ll never….Never….!’

“Never what?! We share the same body you idiot!”

‘I’ll kill you!’

“You can’t! We SHARE THE SAME BODY!”

It went on like that for quite some time. Johnny screamed at Jhonen, and Jhonen screamed at Johnny. It didn’t seem to matter that they’d be caught for sure now. The two minds were having one of their frequent arguments, and there was no going back. All they could hope for was to make it out of there without breaking a leg by way of falling down the stairs.


-gah…-
-not so good…-
-please make contact…-

[Thamuel Foster]

Thamuel Foster had arrived at St. Mungo's for his normal once-a-month check-up. He had been put into his room, which was decked out with toys and the sort to keep him occupied; however, they were the same ones that had been there since he was eleven. That was when the Healers had decided to give him more magically oriented playthings since he had been accepted (and allowed) to go to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Besides, an eleven-year-old would hardly find 'baby toys' challenging. As it was, Thamuel's intelligence was well beyond his age; in fact, he would be much happier with a Wizard's Chess set or some more difficult books.

Sighing, he had waited through the usual examines. Sometimes, he questioned the Healer, although he wasn't fond of hospitals he wouldn't mind getting into the medical field. More recently, Thamuel had been trying the 'cold shoulder' technique, hoping that his Healer would get the point that he really didn't enjoy doing this every month. They could at least make the room more visually interesting - stark white walls, white sheets, white floors with no rugs. Rather un-inspiring for a growing thirteen-year-old.

He kicked his legs against the mattress, being too short to reach the floor properly, and folded his arms across his chest. The tests always took a long time to come back with results, which usually hadn't changed from the last time he had visited. Thamuel soon got up and looked around his room with piercing blue eyes. It was empty. Carefully, he removed a long crooked pin from his mouth and went to the door. He put his ear against it, listening to the hallway outside. Generally, people weren't locked up on the Magical Bugs and Diseases Floor (unless they were contagious; after all, St. Mungo's didn't want an epidemic on their hands), but Thamuel Foster was usually sealed in his room, especially if he had to stay the night or longer than a day. He had attempted to escape a few times and while it wasn't bad, per se, the Healers must have found it difficult and tiring to keep catching him.

That was the reason Thamuel had come up with anyway. Shrugging his shoulders, he fiddled with the long crooked pin in the lock until he heard a soft click. Muggleway was always best since most Healers forgot that some patients had that talent -- the auburn-haired boy had developed it exclusively for escaping. Opening the door, he looked up and down the hall, but he didn't see anyone. A smirk went over his lips and he back-tracked for a second to put the pin on a nightstand. He started off toward the stairs, rather pleased with himself this time.

Last time he had only made it a couple of paces from his room before he had dissolved into a coughingfit (the Healer had taken out his oxygen tubes to listen to the lungs without them). This time, Thamuel Foster got to the stairwell before stopping; not for his lungs (the Healer had left the tubes in), but because he heard a strange argument taking place just beyond the door. Raising his eyebrows curiously, the boy went out onto the landing, seemingly oblivious to what danger might await him.

He saw an older boy who was trying to go down the stairs and trying to hold onto the banister at the same time. Admit it, it probably looked funny to anyone that wasn't sure what was going on, but Thamuel only smiled somewhat. Otherwise, he stood there silently and listened to the argument a bit more before speaking up in a small voice:

"Are you arguing with yourself? Y'know, if you want to escape, then that's not the best way to go about it."

[Jhonen C]

‘Jhonen, you’re going to dislocate our arm! Let GO!’

“I don’t care! I’m not letting go!”

‘You told me you wanted to get out of here just yesterday!’

“I did, but I didn’t mean you should beat the poor orderly’s head into the wall!”

‘Does it make a difference?!’

“Yes! I don’t like hurting people!”

It was then that Johnny tried something extremely childish. He had never done this idiotic thing before, but part of him thought that this idea was incredibly good. A problem that Johnny had quite often, however, was that he didn’t always think things through. In fact, he hardly ever thought things through. For anyone to expect him to change his ways would be an act of pure stupidity. This case, even with this far-from-brilliant idea, was no different. Instead of talking things out with Jhonen and tricking him into letting go of the banister, Johnny craned their neck down towards their arm, and sunk their slightly sharp teeth into it. He clamped down hard for a moment, but withdrew quickly. Jhonen didn’t let go, but Johnny did. (after muttering a few choice words)

“Holy crap Johnny!” Jhonen barked. “What the heck was that about?!”

‘I’ll do it again if you don’t let go! In fact, I may just chew our arm OFF!’

“Idiot! It’ll hurt you too, and we might die from loss of blood!”

Jhonen tightened their hand around the railing, determined not to let go. Johnny stood there fuming, and muttering. He had to get out of this place, he had to go somewhere else. Neither Johnny nor Jhonen should have been here, they should have been out in the world. Jhonen needed to be drawing, or a job involving art in some way. Johnny needed to be destroying things. In a perfect world, the two personalities would have separate bodies, but unfortunately it didn’t work that way. Instead they were left to destroy themselves on a stairwell with only one witness that they hadn’t even taken notice of yet.

"Are you arguing with yourself? Y'know, if you want to escape, then that's not the best way to go about it."

Both personalities fell silent, and one maniacal green eye, and one gloomy green eye stared at the small boy. Their jaw dropped slightly, and their eyebrows narrowed. Johnny looked angry, but Jhonen was frightened for the young boy. Such a small child should not have to witness this situation, in fact, no one should have to see this.

Johnny’s anger subsided rather quickly, and a smirk spread across his face. This kid wouldn’t die, but he wouldn’t get out without any mental scarring.

“Johnny, leave the poor kid alone. Look, he can’t breathe, he’s got tubes in his nose…” Jhonen said in their mind.

‘Only adds to the way he could be tormented….’ Johnny replied. The smirk remained on their face, and Johnny’s eyes were focused on the kid. It was time to answer his question.

‘Yes…I guess you could say I’m arguing with myself, though that’s not a completely true statement.’ Johnny grinned and shrugged. ‘My idiotic counterpart and I were just trying to solve a little problem, but I’m sure we’ll figure it out.’

“Run kid! Run!” Jhonen shouted quickly.

‘Shut up Jhonen!’ His eyes blazed with anger, and he considered (not for the first time) how he could get rid of Jhonen for good. But this was not the time to be dealing with his other half, this was the time to get out.
‘Hey little kid, can you help me with something? You see, I accidentally got a sticking sort of charm on my hand, and I seem to be stuck to this banister. Do you happen to have a wand with you so I may get this charm off?’

“Don’t listen! He’s lying!”

‘I’m not lying!’ Johnny laughed a little. ‘Ignore Jhonen, he’s a bit touched in the head. I’m Johnny.’ another smile, and he offered his right hand to the little kid’s to shake. ‘Can you help me get off of this banister? I really need to be leaving, I was just discharged.’

“Liar!” Jhonen said bitterly.

And he was right, Johnny was lying. But then again, Johnny always lied. He was getting pretty good at it too.

-gah…-
-sorry about that-
-I lost where I was going about half way through-

[Thamuel Foster]

Thamuel continued to watch and listen to the older boy argue. He had tilted his head slightly to one side and was wearing a bewildered type of expression, his mouth hanging open a little (which he quickly closed as soon as he realized it). Blinking his eyes, he stopped staring - after all, it was rather rude - and instead narrowed his brows at what the other said. Foster had never before met a patient and he wasn't sure what to expect. He was confused as to whom he was talking to. Was the older boy's name Jhonen or Johnny... or both?

One of them had advised him to run, but the thirteen-year-old wasn't about to take that advice yet. He didn't feel in danger or threatened; nothing like that so he would stay for a while. He loved to solve mysteries; he loved to think and use his brain; most especially, he loved a challenge. It seemed just the thing to occupy him and instead of leaving to continue with his escape plan, Thamuel had decided to stay. Besides, if he got out of St. Mungo's, then he had no where to go. He couldn't use magic outside of school and his parents hadn't arrived.

"Stuck to the banister? I find that kinda hard to believe. I don't have a wand, though. I'm sorry."

Thamuel had left it behind (he wasn't sure if it was in his room, in which case the Healer would have taken it, or somewhere else); after all, it wasn't much use to him. He had to be seventeen to use it outside of Hogwarts so he had found it pointless to carry around St. Mungo's.

"I'm Thamuel. I haven't been discharged yet..." A smirk went across his lips.

He didn't mind telling the older boy this information. He had figured with the arguing that some Healer would come by soon enough and catch them both. It was clear to Foster that Jhonen/Johnny/whoever-he-was was trying to escape. The Ravenclaw found this all very interesting because he was coming to the assumption that two people were sharing the same body, which he had never seen before. It seemed that one of them was fighting against the option of freedom, but he wasn't sure which one. Thamuel was confused who was who at this point.

"What would you have me do?"

He took a few steps closer with that question, but was still on the landing. He wanted to be cautious so he had to leave himself space to run away if the need arose. Thamuel could not run very fast (obviously), but he could manage a short sprint.

[Blah...]