Randy VIII glanced around at the interior of the room. "This never happen to you before?"

Kurt tried to remain calm, "It....It has happened....I...I cannot be trapped again! I cannot be trapped!" he muttered his eyes darting around the narrow space. He could feel the darkness descending and the walls closing in, he hated to be confined! There was no worse hell than being trapped alone in the dark!

"Hey, hey, cool it!" Randy watched him with curiosity. "Is there somebody around who can get it movin' from the outside?"

Kurt shook his head, "No, we're short staffed today and our maintenance man is out," he lifted a gloved and to his mouth and began gnawing on the edge of his thumb.

Randy frowned as he resisted the urge to go and give him a pat. The sight was very strange to him, even a bit unsettling. "Well, if it takes too long for it to get movin'... we could always climb our way out," he suggested.

Kurt nodded, he took a deep breath and ran his hand through his curls, making them stand up every which way. "Yes...yes, I must remain calm..." he said.

"I never seen you like this," Randy VIII couldn't help but remark.

Kurt gave a short snarl, and sank to to ground, squeezing tightly into a corner, "I...I don't like being...imprisoned," he said.

"This much I know," said Randy, "but I didn't realize..." He nodded at Kurt.

".....My mother used to lock my up in the cellar, I spent my entire childhood alone in the dark, in a tiny...dirty cellar," Kurt finally explained. He didn't know what compelled him to tell Randy, but it felt like the right thing to do.

"Oh, sugar..." Randy's cheeks turned a bit green as he considered his own treatment of Kurt. Shame and remorse were things he had never felt and likely never would, but he understood the impact of what he had done and, at least in this one case, he wasn't particularly pleased over it.

"I fought so hard and sacrificed so much to be a free man....I cannot be trapped again!" said Kurt, a hard, angry gleam in his eyes.

Randy looked at him in silence. Setting Kurt free was going to be very difficult, if it was even possible at this point... "It's just an elevator," he said at last. "You ain't gonna be stuck here forever."

Kurt was silent, it was more than the elevator and at that moment, looking at Randy VIII he suddenly felt as if he'd never be free....

Randy sensed this and glanced away from him. What could he do? He wanted, maybe even needed, to keep Kurt in his grasp. And yet...

Kurt closed his eyes an leaned his head forward until his forehead touched his knees, his soft, white-blond hair contrasting against the dark color of his uniform, "One day....one day I will be free." he promised.

Randy looked at him again. "I know." He wasn't sure how, or at what cost, but it was something which had to happen.

Kurt got to his feet, reminding himself that he was a police officer, "Now, give this lift ten minutes to get moving again, if it doesn't I will climb up the shaft and work the external controls..."

Randy gave him a nod. "Sounds like a plan," he said.

Kurt took a deep breath, "Now we wait," he said leaning against the wall, although he was unable to contain his anxiety and he chewed his thumb as he waited, the narrow elevator leaving less than a foot of space between him and Randy.

"Ten minutes ain't that long; you be outta here in no time," said Randy, not entirely sure how he expected Kurt to react to the statement, if at all.

Kurt barely inclined his head, he was counting down the minutes....

Randy sighed and settled against the opposite wall. He would just keep quiet and wait, lest he risk making Kurt more uncomfortable. Now just didn't seem the time.

"...W...what's your story?" Kurt asked, unable to take the silence as it left him with nothing to focus on except the tiny room.

"Eh?" Randy was caught off guard by the question. "You lookin' to hear anything in particular?"

Kurt shrugged, "J...just talk," he sighed, "anything you're willing to tell me will do..."

"Oh..." Randy gave a nod. He'd never told Kurt anything about himself before; in fact, he'd made a point of not doing so, just as he had with all previous cases. But now it seemed only right to give him something, and not just to fill the silence. "I am Randy VIII, special class. I got twelve brothers. My father's in the military. So are two of my brothers, and so am I. I was born to be a fighter. More so than most... an' that ain't always a good thing."

Kurt snorted but didn't comment, "I am Kurt Kraus, formerly prominent officer of the third Reich, I have a half brother named Klaus and a dead sister named Anna, my mother was mad, my father absent, I am what I have made myself, a soldier."

Randy smiled faintly, wondering where they might have been at that point, had they had this conversation much sooner. "I always did love a soldier," he commented, "long before I ever was one."

"I became a solider at twelve, it is all I really know," said Kurt.

"I got categorized as warrior-class and started gym training at four, got categorized as special-class at eleven and started specialized training at home. Then I officially got inducted into the military at fourteen and spent the next three years in a training facility," Randy VIII explained.

"So young, did...did you not wish for a normal childhood?" Kurt asked.

Randy shook his head. "It's all I know, either, and it made me happy." He bit his lip, debating whether to mention the apprehension that had surrounded his final class confirmation. "...For the most part," he settled on adding.

"For the most part?" Kurt echoed.

"I dunno how much I can tell you about what it means to be special-class... but we're more aggressive than normal warrior-class, to the point that everybody was hopin' I wouldn't turn out that way. But I was, an' even some of my own brothers were scared of me, and for a while, I was scared of me, too," Randy VIII admitted with a blush.

Kurt gave a small nod, "I know what it's like to be feared....and hated, my mother hated me for being the product of an incestuous rape, the citizens were afraid of me when I became an officer, when I became a vampire...everyone was afraid of me and there were moments when my hunger and strength frightened me," said Kurt.

Randy listened with interest, taking in every word and falling even more in love as he realized how deep the similarities actually ran and how amazing the differences were. A small part of him wondered if there was hope for the two of them, though he knew better than to seriously entertain the thought of ever becoming friends. "I ain't afraid of you," he said with a small smile. The statement was neither intended to be a challenge nor a comfort. It was simply the truth, and though there was not much to it, it said a lot.

Kurt's face darkened, "So I'm aware..." he growled, "If you were... perhaps we wouldn't be where we're at now..." his eyes blazed with sudden malevolence.

"Maybe not." Randy's smile faded, though he didn't seem at all ruffled by the change of tone. "Maybe we wouldn't be here if we'd had this whole conversation a little sooner... but things are what they are." He tilted his head. "You ain't afraid of me, are ya?"

Kurt was silent for a moment, "Is there a reason I shouldn't be?" he asked at length.