#52 for Mattdrai!
fake death/presumed dead! uh cw for injury/illness on this one
Matthew’s pretty sure his fever is getting worse. There’s a limp straw pallet in the cell, only big enough for one, and he doesn’t know where Leon was sleeping before he got dragged away. Matthew mostly remembers sleeping on the pallet, and sometimes cool hands on his skin, a cool cloth on his brow, moments where the fever seemed to abate and the wound on his leg ached less. Leon crouched over him, one hand on Matthew’s knee and the other on his stomach.
Leon must have some healing, with the way his touch made Matthew’s body cooler and his mind clearer. He didn’t think to ask, and Leon didn’t say. Leon didn’t say much aside from his name, and urging Matthew to eat, to sleep, to sip water from a soaked cloth. The only water in the cell is in a bucket; maybe a few hours ago, Matthew crawled to it and managed a few sips from his cupped hands, his leg throbbing the whole time.
He doesn’t know how long Leon’s been gone. He remembers the door opening, metal scraping on stone, and Leon’s hands leaving his body. Leon didn’t say anything. Matthew doesn’t know what happens when you get dragged from the cell, because it hasn’t happened to him. Maybe they think the festering wound is torture enough, or maybe there’s no use killing someone who’s already dying.
Leon wasn’t dying. Matthew’s been fed three times since Leon was taken away, forcing down mouthfuls of stale bread a few at a time. He isn’t sure it’s been three times. Maybe he missed some. Maybe he hallucinated some and it’s just been the one loaf of bread all along.
He doesn’t think Leon is coming back. He thinks he heard screams not too long ago. No way to know if they were Leon’s. There could be so many other prisoners here, but the walls are thick and even with the grates in the doors, the light is too low to see far. There were a lot of soldiers with Matthew when he was captured, but that was days ago. If they’re being executed one by one, there can’t be many left. And now Leon is gone, and the cell feels colder, damp seeping through Matthew in a way it didn’t when Leon was bent over him. If he has to die here, hundreds of miles from home and his family, it would have been better with Leon’s hand brushing through his hair and his voice soothing away the aches in Matthew’s muscles and the fever-sweats that only make him colder afterward.
If he manages to get out of here, he needs to find Leon’s family and tell them what Leon did for him. Offer anything to make it up to them. He would have died days ago if not for Leon.
He flinches when the cell door scrapes open.
“Matthew?” a familiar voice whispers, and — Brady. Somehow, Matthew might make it out of this, but he won’t do it with Leon.
9 notes
·
View notes