Advantageous Twist: Secret Compartment

Mortis awoke, head pounding again. The first thing he saw was his hair falling across his face, which he couldn't simply brush behind his ears. He was still in the torture chair, as he liked to call it. He tried flicking it out of his face with some sharp head movements, but only succeeded in worsening his headache. Next, he noticed a jug of water on a table at the other end of the room. His throat felt like sandpaper, and he hoped some of the water was for him. At least the gash in his arm hadn't bled him out completely. He looked down and saw it had been healed to what was now an unsightly brown scab. Frustrated, but not entirely sure why, Mortis stamped. A good way to explain his overall feeling was light-headed, or maybe very very sick. Wait...his feet were free? He could move his legs! Now what? How to exploit that? He couldn't think straight. His head hurt. The door opened, and there stood B-J. She was smiling.
"What do you want?" He hissed. He sounded hoarse. Ouch. Throat. He decided to not talk too much. Maleficent poured some water into a glass and came over, holding the glass to Mortis' lips.
"You must be parched. Not to mention hungry. It's been three days since we got you here."
"Three?" He asked into the water. It probably just sounded like a bunch of confused bubbles to her. She didn't respond. Once the water had been drained from the glass, she stepped back.
"Listen, Mort. It's no secret I hate you. You killed Dexter Vex and you're generally a very horrible person." She shrugged and smiled. "But this is something other than petty hate. This is sacrifice. Oh, don't look so horrified. I've got something, been looking into some Necromancy stuff, and some other things...ancienty..."
He arched an eyebrow. "If you're trying to suggest I'm related to an Ancient-"
"Not what I said. Besides, I need to do more research. When I'm ready to do the soul switch, yours for Garnet's, or maybe yours for that of Jerry Vehemence or Electrolytic."
Mort decided to focus on freeing himself from the chair. "You do realise I'm Garnet's best friend. He won't be too happy if you kill me to get him back."
"Yeah...I'm thinking more Jerry or Abla Hazardous. They seem more likely, especially since I've actually rallied that hottie, Rasputin, to the cause of the Faceless."
He bit his lip and glowered. "You've lost your mind, Jinx."
She casually slapped him. He bit harder on his lip, not caring if he broke the skin. He glared at her until she shrugged and left.

-----

The skinny man with long, fair, matted hair was a scavenger. He had gotten the idea of faking his own death from his sister. His sister. Oh how he missed her. This scavenging was difficult. He was for the moment confined to this one building, for safety reasons. He had to be careful how much he took and when. He hadn't eaten for days. He had lost so much weight. He was starving...

Sighing, he ducked into a room, sticking to the shadows. The room was oddly familiar...oh hell. He was in Twist's vampire room. At least there was food in there. Popcorn, for some reason. The room was otherwise empty. He hurried out of hiding and went straight for the food, but froze when the door opened. Someone walked round to his front. "Faith and begorrah..." The man muttered, crouching down. "Little Esra...the little kid Mr Twist and I met on those streets those ninety odd years ago...I thought you were dead, I thought you had died!"
Esra gasped as he was drawn into a hug. "Erin..."
"I thought you were dead! So many of us were dead, it was just me and Mr Twist and everyone else was dead!"
The door opened again. "Erin. We're going on a rescue mission."
"We are?"
"Do you remember...wait, you weren't here when they were. Anyway, for a time we had these three men staying here. Garnet, Jayden and Mortis. Unfortunately, they remember us and remember we were allied against Mevolent, so they think we might help rescue their friend. They kind of know about Esra's secret tunnels."
Esra whipped round. "Nobody's supposed to know about those!"
Twist dropped his hammer, stunned. He was cleanly shaven, no stupid handlebar moustache. He was giving the excellent impression of a guppy at feeding time.
"Mr Sunshine..."
"Twist..."
"Oh my God..."
He stood, brushed himself off and sighed. "Enough exchanging pleasantries. Rescue mission? Is that what this group sells itself out to these days?"
"We're not much of a group anymore."
"I know. But we're still missionaries.
"That we are."

-----

Mortis sighed, swinging his legs back and forth childishly. A body wrapped in tissues or toilet paper or something lay before him. Jerry Vehemence, apparently. He was unnerved. If this was his end, it certainly wasn't the way he wanted to go. He had been waiting there for hours on end. So pissed of, he was. The amount of discomfort he had put up with was ridiculous. Being left to wet himself was probably the last straw. Never before had he felt so humiliated...apart from when he was friends with Regicide. He kept his cold gaze on the door, waiting for B-J to come back in. That was, until he heard someone kick open the air vent. His head jerked to the side. He couldn't see them. They were directly behind him.
"Are you sure this is the right room, Millie?"
"Anyone else smell pee?"
"Is that a dead body over there?"
"Is that Mortis in the chair?"
Mortis nodded. "Help me. They're going to kill me. They have my knife. I can't get out...we have to get Ricky out of here as well. He's dying in the cells, but we can save him."
A hand was placed on his shoulder. "Calm down." It was Jayden. "You're agitated. We'll help Ricky, of course we will. Twist, Sunshine, Motionless, search the cells."
A woman knelt down and picked the locks binding his wrist. Jay pulled him up, supporting him. Mort still couldn't walk. This hip Ricky had forced into place was still causing him a lot of pain. Twist walked back in, supporting Richard Sloth, who seemed only semi-conscious. Twist looked a bit panicked. Sunshine and Motionless were gone. "We've kind of alerted guards."
Millie pinched the bridge of her nose, but didn't speak. No, the voice that sounded, the man's voice, came from her necklace. Mort realised that instantly.
"Perfect. Get Ricky out of here. Mort, do you think you could crawl through the air vent?"
He shook his head, pulling a face. "No. God, no. I'm in agony, Garnet..." He scowled, wondering where he had gotten Garnet from. No, that was definitely the voice he could hear.
Millie frowned. She spoke. "Garnet, we can't get him out any other way."
"Twist will be pushing Ricky along ahead of him. We could try that with-"
"Have you seen his shoulders? Your friend's too bulky. We're trapped unless..."
"Unless?"
Millie glanced out the window. "Night's fallen...Erin might provide a distraction, providing he doesn't kill us."
They paused and turned towards the door...that was when the bang went off.
There stood B-J Maleficent.

She was holding an empty crossbow.

Mortis sounded like he was choking. Jayden looked, and he saw an arrow protruding from his boyfriend's throat.

"MORTIS!!!"

((...My name is Rhiannon, and it is my job to tear your hearts to pieces. Mortis is your favourite character, you say? Have B-J Maleficent and a cross bow...and look, I wuv Esra so much, and not just because his name is arse backwards (which is the only reason he's called Esra), that I brought him back to life...I can't even remember how he died.))