A/N GORE WARNING :(

Nobody had to say anything as the group parted like the red sea, revealing a river of blood trailing out of the cell and down the hall.

"We didn't even notice it on our way in," Thomas frowned, holding onto James protectively. "Do you think-" James shot him a sad glance to stop him from saying what he was anticipating. Everyone was assuming the worst.

"Oh my god."  Eliza felt bile rise in her throat, quickly whipping her head away and swallowing it back with a wince, Reynolds chuckling sadistically in her grip.
"How much do you want to bet it belongs to Levi's lil' fuck buddy?" He snickered, earning a chorus of gasps and growls.

"Do you want to get yourself killed?" Conway spat, one eye swollen shut and a scowl painted on his features.
"You're just bitter because you wish it was you-" Reynolds began to laugh before he choked on his own words with a sharp gasp, blood spraying from his lips. He lowered his gaze until his eyes landed on the knife stabbed through his stomach. He glanced back up to see Maria blowing him a kiss, right before he suddenly slumped to the ground lifelessly, not another word uttered.

Everyone fell silent watching Reynolds add to the pool of blood already thick at their feet.
"Well it was only a matter of time," Maria scoffed, kicking Reynolds' corpse carelessly on her way past. "C'mon," She muttered, beginning her advance forward to follow the trail, Eliza timidly following. Alex stepped back, tugging John with him with a dark glare. Maria noticed and frowned. "What are you doing?"

"Not putting John in danger again." Alex growled quickly, earning a scoff from Maria.
"One of our friends could be dying in the other room and y-" she began to lecture before Eliza cut her off abruptly with a kinder approach.
"Alex, John is in more danger if we split up. Let's just stick as a group okay?" She sighed, shooting him a pleading glance.

Alex hesitated but nodded his head slowly, still holding John against him and tensing up if anyone else came too close. Alex was making John feel extremely uneasy, he always had a vacant haze in his eyes and was fairly emotionless unless it came to John, but he decided Alex being over protective was better than him not caring at all. As everyone began following the trail, Alex pulled back, tugging off his denim jacket and draping it over John's shoulders before pulling him close again. John melted into the warm fabric, clutching it tight around him as he let Alex lead him after the others.

The group cautiously followed the trail down past more cells and out of the solitary confinement block all together, the blood slowly growing less and less until only small smears and droplets remained splattered along the grey linoleum. The walk was eerily quiet, an insidious fear crawling in everyone's minds.

Soon they had travelled into the staff quarters, finding themselves right outside the door for the governor's office. Everybody froze, glancing around at each other skeptically. Lafayette pressed his ear to the door and everyone waited in a painful anticipation as he listened, finally pulling away and shaking his head, nothing. Maria raised her knives defensively and everyone else took that as a cue to arm themselves too, Hercules passing Conway off onto Jefferson so he could fight.
"Arty- stay." Hercules whispered, raising his hand in a 'stop' gesture in front of Artemis, cuing her to sit beside the door.
'On 3' Hercules mouthed, earning nods from everyone. But Hercules didn't even bother counting.
"THREE!"

BANG The door burst open and the crew crashed inside. The room was silent.
The first thing that caught everyone's eye, in the centre, a figure sat hunched over at the main desk, his face hidden behind a black hoodie. On each arm rest scabby, deformed hands were curled grotesquely. He was seemingly unarmed, and defenseless.
"Motherfucker," Maria hissed venomously.

With a cry of fury she launched forward, sprinting at bullet speed and bouncing up onto the desk, she threw herself at the figure with her knife held straight over his heart as the rest of the group called after her in a haze of panic, bounding after her. "YOU FUCKI-"
She ripped the hood back and immediately erupted with a choked scream.

Blood dripped down Levi's face like rain on a window pane. His features were barely definable as the left side of his head had been smashed mercilessly, a crater of ripped flesh dug out of his skin. 
"N-no-"
Eliza grabbed Maria's shoulders and yanked her back off of Levi, gasping as well once she processed what she was seeing. The boys rushed to the desk and fell silent seeing the bloody corpse laying limp over the desk chair.
Levi Weeks was already dead.

"Good lord someone had to fucking do it." A sharp british accent hissed behind them.

Samuel Seabury stood in a red-splattered prison jumpsuit, caked in somebody else's blood with Conway's barbed-wire-baseball bat slung lazily over his shoulder, George held by his neck at his feet with a horrified expression painted across his features. The bat had chunks of skin and flesh wound into the barbs, making it bluntly obvious who had bashed Levi to a pulp.
"Sam-" James breathed, instantly cut off.

"Don't." He snapped with a snarl. "Don't come near me."

"Samuel please-" Eliza tried warmly, advancing forward.
"STAY THE FUCK AWAY!" He yelled, raising the bat ready for another deadly swing. Maria dove forward and grabbed Eliza's arm, ripping her backwards and holding her protectively.
"Samuel this isn't you, please don't shut us out, we came to rescue you," Thomas sighed, holding James' arm to keep him from getting any closer too.
"Well you're too late." Sam growled, letting the bat swing down to his side. "I rescued myself." he hissed, tilting his head with a dangerous squint.

"What did he do to you?" Eliza practically whispered with wide doe eyes, gripping her knife defensively.
"What did he do to me? What did he do to me?" Samuel laughed bitterly, leaning forward with a deadpan scowl. "That, that devil, he used me, and he abused me, beat me into one of his own! I've sinned, murder is an unforgivable sin, and quite frankly I've been the cause of far too many deaths by now," Samuel murmured, glancing down at George and tightening his grip, as he was avoiding his gaze relentlessly, his breathing heavy and ragged as he chewed on his lip to keep from crying out.

"And you want to know something? You want to know why the King of assholes is still alive?" He questioned with a bitter chuckle, shoving George forward a little and earning a weak whimper. "Because he stayed away."
"Sam you're not making any sense-" James muttered, wincing a little.
"Stop playing the fucking innocent card! None of you are innocent! You've all killed someone, hurt someone, I'd never touched a drug in my life when Jefferson had me arrested!" He roared, his voice cracking, the pain evident in his eyes as they brimmed with furious tears.

"This is not Thomas' fault." James murmured defensively with a frown.
"No it's not. You're right James, it's me." he sighed.

"What?" James whispered. Everyone else shared worried, confused glances.
"Ha-have you not noticed?" Samuel laughed bitterly, throwing the bat up as if the answer was right in front of them. "I'm cursed, it's the devil's work. Everyone who comes close to me- they DIE." Samuel yelled, letting the tears streaming down his cheeks mix with the blood splatters.

He raised the bat to point it right at Maria.
"Peggy? She's dead."
He shifted the bat and let it dangle dangerously close to George's head, making him whimper weakly.
"Charles? Dead. HELL I barely knew Nathaniel for a day, and where is he? DEAD!"

"Nathaniel is not dead." Lafayette frowned, shaking his head slowly. Samuel shifted his gaze to Lafayette with a squint.
"I watched him die, I think I'd know." he growled. Lafayette opened his mouth to speak again but Samuel cut in over him. "I don't want your sympathy, and I don't need rescuing. You all need to leave, leave now before I hurt someone again." He ordered, gradually his voice getting smaller and smaller as his body shivered with small sobs, his accent almost undefinable under how distraught his voice was.

"Samuel-" James frowned, reaching a hand forward timidly.
"Shut up! Leave! Go! Go away go away! I don't want to hurt you I don't want you here!" Samuel practically screamed, crying out with every cell in his body. "Listen to me! Go away!"

"I'm not making the same mistake twice-"
James pushed Thomas' hand away and moved forward towards Samuel persistently, Thomas's stomach dropping to his toes in sheer panic and shoving Conway away, diving after him.
"James wait-"

Samuel sucked in a sharp breath when he saw James move and his eyes lit up in fury.
"I said LEAVE."
Everyone watched in horror as the bat swung through the air, colliding with James' head with a sickening THUD and throwing him to the floor, blood spraying out onto Thomas as his, Eliza and Maria's screams pierced the air.
"NO!" Thomas yelped, dropping to his knees, grabbing James and ripping him up into his lap. "NO NO NO!"

Samuel froze, staring at James with vacant eyes. He could feel the weight of what he had just done slowly come crashing down. He could feel his mind unraveling, the threads of every happy memory he could ever once recall, now a disarray of strings scattered around his feet. Gradually his grip loosened and both George and the bat dropped to the floor.

"I- I didn't-" he squeaked, stumbling backwards and hitting the wall behind him, sinking back against it with shaking hands.

James drew in a rattling breath as blood dripped down the side of his head, soaking his clothes.
"No no no Jemmy no," Thomas cried, hugging him to his chest and rocking rhythmically. "You monster!" He hissed, Samuel wincing and digging his nails into his palms.
"I didn't- I just- I'm sorry J-James James I'm sorry-" he mumbled shakily, crying as if the ferocity of it might undo what he did. "I told you- I told you!"

Hercules stormed forward and grabbed Samuel by his clothes, yanking him to his feet aggressively.
"Let's go." He growled, dragging Samuel out of the office briskly, Artemis bolting up when she saw Hercules and following obediently.
"No! Leave me here to rot!" Samuel pleaded, but Hercules dragged him away.

Jefferson stumbled to his feet with James in his arms, gasping for air between sobs as he clutched him close to his chest and followed Hercules briskly, Eliza already untying the flannel around her waist to tie over James' wound. Maria grabbed Conway by the collar and pushed him out, Lafayette capturing George's hands and pinning them behind his back before following.

Alexander and John were silent.

John clutched Alex's jumper with ghostly white knuckles, his eyes wide and his whole body shaking and shivering. Alex had his arms wrapped tight around John, mimicking his expression of trauma as he gazed forward blankly.
Suddenly John's knees buckled and he slipped to the floor, dragging Alex down with him, they crumbled to the ground clutching each other. The only sound in the room was the boys' shaky breaths and pounding heartbeats, slamming against their ribcages as if the danger lurked of them bursting out of their chests.
Ba boom. Ba boom. Ba boom.
The ringing screams of their friends still vibrated in their ears, mentally scarring them without a doubt.

John closed his eyes when he felt the all too familiar prickle of tears begin stabbing at his eyes like tiny pins and needles. Alex brushed a hand through his hair soothingly, pulling him into his chest with a shaky sigh.
"I can't do this anymore," John whimpered, the tears finally swelling enough to fall. "Alex I can't live like this anymore!" He cried, collapsing weakly against him.

"Levi's dead, it's over, for real this time," Alex muttered softly, rubbing circles in John's back. He was still too stunned to cry.
"But it's not!" John snapped, sitting up and hastily wiping his tears on the denim sleeves slung around him. "W-we still have to get out of here, and get on a fucking boat, and not get caught, and fix James, a-"

Alex shut John up with a quick peck on the lips, holding his jaw delicately.
"Calm." He murmured, letting his eyes flutter closed as he rest his forehead against John's. John instantly felt a wave of security wash over him and gradually his panicked panting relaxed to slower but still uneven breaths. "I won't promise you things I can't keep," Alex whispered shakily, opening his eyes to give John a sad gaze. "But I will always do everything in my power to protect you. That I can guarantee."

John slowly nodded and choked back another sob, leaning forward to hug Alex again. Alex invited him into his arms warmly and resumed massaging circles into his back, trying to avoid bruised areas where John would wince a little.

"Let's get out of here," Alex mumbled into John's embrace, earning a slow nod from him, sniffling and wiping his eyes.
"Let's get out of here."

Rant [here]