Chapter Text
Yuri awoke abruptly. His eyes simply blinked open of their own accord and his consciousness returned in a wave. He sat up and only blinked a few seconds as a gnawing feeling in his chest told him that he had something urgent to do, but what the hell could he have to do now? It wasn't even day out yet.
Suddenly, he heard it.
One
Two
Three chimes.
He quickly looked around the room, the empty space beside him and the dream-like scene he had experienced before falling unconscious returned to him.
“Shit!” He yelled, turning to Viktor, who was asleep beside him. He shook the man, but he wouldn't budge.
“Viktor! Viktor wake the fuck up!” He yelled, but the man didn't stir. “Viktor!” He yelled again, desperately. “ Viktor! We need to get Yuuri! Viktor it’s happening!”
He let out a frustrated shout, that didn’t wake up a single person.
He turned to the spot beside Yuuri's empty bedding and tried to wake Phichit, but the man didn't stir either.
“Otabek!” He yelled.
Nothing .
He quickly looked down to his own place on the floor to find it empty; he wasn't dreaming.
Fuck.
Fuck !
He couldn't go out alone. Otabek, Yuuri, Viktor- everyone- had told him to be careful; they had all tried to keep him safe and he couldn't just waste their efforts by going out like this, but if he didn't -
His mind flashed Yuuri's horrified face from his vision the first day and he made up his mind. He stood, and ran to the room he knew Yuuri and that thing were in, not even sparing a last glance to the others.
He sprinted through the halls that had previously been a labyrinth, but were now as familiar to him as his own home due to the countless trips to the cameras and his time there.
Yuri pulled the door to the room open with less resistance than he had expected, releasing the foul smell of decay—he paid it no mind— quickly running in to see Yuuri was already being dragged towards the center.
He saw Yuuri's eyes widen at the sight of him. “Yuuri!” He yelled, running after him and catching his hand just before he slipped down, getting himself dragged into the well along with him.
‘Cold ’ was the first thing that flashed through Yuri’s head when he grabbed Yuuri’s hand, before the world shifted and the air was knocked out of him as he crashed against the hard floor of the well.
He coughed a few times trying to get his breathing back in order. He could feel the new bruises forming, adding to the dozen he had gathered while there, but at least the well wasn’t as deep as they had predicted, meaning he was still alive, or at least he hoped he was.
He opened his eyes to find the same darkness as when his eyes had been closed. “Yuuri?” He asked, voice shaky.
No response.
“ Yuuri ?” He tried again a little louder, but still nothing. He got onto his hands and knees and began feeling around the floor of the well hoping Yuuri was alive and okay.
His hands only met dirt as he continued to feel around, until he hit something cold, ice cold . It was stiff, smooth, and Yuri tentatively tried to move his hands a bit further up, feeling something slimy and moving wriggle against his hands.
Realization hit Yuri like a truck and he gagged, pulling his hands back, knowing that that was at least part of the source of the smell. The maggots that had been working on the corpse writhed on his hands, and Yuri quickly drew back, wiping them against the ground to get them off.
He began to dry heave.
Ms. Baranovskaya? I thought I heard your voice, are you okay?
Yuri’s breathing sped up as his eyes began to water.
Where did everybody go?
“Yuuri?” He called out one more time, this time knowing he wasn’t going to get a response.
I’m not. It’s just… I don’t know what’s going to happen while we sleep. When we wake up, I don’t know how many of us are going to be left and it scares me.
“Oh god,” he whispered, drawing his knees to his chest. “Oh god, oh god, oh god. It was so dark it’s a new fucking moon, but he was right there . His hand was so cold; I’m a fucking idiot !” He screamed, the insult echoing around him.
Yuuri had never left the room. Yuri had never really tried to wake up Viktor, he had just been made to believe it. Yuuri had changed his mind because he had promised him he would and maybe he had thought about going back on it and maybe that’s why he was awake, but if he had, it wouldn’t be almost 5 hours later.
Yuri was lured here.
The doors opened and closed just for him, and he was the fucking idiot that went in. Yuri let out a noise of frustration, tugging at his hair, but froze at the sound of breathing that wasn’t his own.
Everything suddenly felt cold; everything except Otabek’s cross that lay warm against his chest. “O-our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name,” he prayed, barely above a whisper clutching the cross through his shirt. “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” he continued, keeping his head down, too afraid at what he might find if he looked up.
The cross felt hot and heavy around his neck, while the space around him suddenly felt below freezing. A snarl bounced off the well and echoed around him and filled him with anger more than anything else.
He was sick of this.
He was sick of the shitty mind games; he was sick of seeing everyone always on edge, and he was pissed at how upset Yuuri and Viktor had been this whole damn case.
Yuuri survived a demon attack and Yuri be damned if he got taken out by anything less. He looked up, seeing nothing in the darkness, but hearing an outraged shriek from just in front of him.
“Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors,” he continued, pushing himself off the ground and onto his feet. “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Yuri made to begin the nine cuts, but was thrown back against the wall of the well, cutting off his prayer and lowering his last defense against the spirit.
He made to resume, but all that came out was a choked out gasp.
He felt as if he’d been struck in the shoulder, but the growing hot heat soaking into his clothes alerted him to what had really happened. Yuri’s body lurched forward and he let out a scream as the weapon was yanked from his shoulder, then plunged into his abdomen, eliciting a pained whimper from Yuri.
He caught the blade as it was beginning to be tugged out again, fighting to keep it inside him as his other hand applied pressure to his wounded shoulder.
“God arises; His enemies are scattered,” he choked out, hand shaking as he struggled to hold onto the weapon lodged inside of him. He knew that if it was pulled out, there would be nothing keeping him from bleeding out. “And those who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so are they driven,” he panted out, slouching against the side of the well, while maintaining a vice grip on the handle of the knife. “As wax melts-“ Yuri let out a startled grunt as light suddenly overcame his vision, emerging from just beyond where the spirit stood.
“We drive you from us,” he heard Leo say, but couldn’t see beyond the blinding lights that chased each other around, encircling a silhouette, that began to look less and less human the longer it was trapped. His vision was beginning to blur, but he was able to make out Yuuri and Guang-Hong standing on each side of the spirit, their combined shiki making the perfect seal.
How had they gotten there ?
“Whoever you may be, unclean spirits, all satanic powers, all infernal invaders, all wicked legions-“ Yuri found it harder and harder to focus on or even understand the words.
He used the bloody hand that had been pressing against his shoulder to try and keep himself upright.
“Don’t break, Yuuri! ” He heard Otabek command. “You release it and it’ll be worse!”
Suddenly, there was a figure looming over him, and Yuri let out another whimper, but was soothed as a gentle hand cleared the hair out of his face and kept him steady. “You’re… Yura… fine,” he heard as his body became weaker, and he began to find it hard to focus on the world around him.
“... Yura? Yuri!”
****
Yuri slowly became aware of a rhythmic beeping just beside himself, and the quiet murmur of a conversation that came from the corner of the room, and groaned as the slow return to consciousness came with the pain in both his shoulder and stomach.
“Yuri?”
Yuri slowly opened his eyes, looking up at a stark white ceiling before shifting his attention to where he had heard the voices come from, the television, which made sense since none of the voices had sounded like anybody he knew. He looked beside himself. “Otabek?” He mumbled, taking in the rest of his surroundings.
The hospital.
Right , he thought as everything came flooding back.
“We finished the case?” He slurred.
Otabek let out an empty laugh. “It’s done. If we hadn’t, we would still be trapped.”
Yuri hummed in agreement. “Where is everyone?”
“Guang-Hong and Leo were exhausted after the exorcism, so they’re at the hotel resting. I had to send away Yuuri and Viktor to go eat and rest, and made Phichit go with them to make sure they did. They hadn’t left your side since it was safe to let their guard down.”
Yuri only nodded, and the room became uncomfortably quiet, with whatever was on the tv still playing quietly in the background. He sat up with a pained hiss, looking to Otabek, who was standing now standing over him to try and help Yuri adjust himself.
“So, what? You’re not gonna yell at me for being stupid again?”
“Did you want me to?” He shot Yuri an amused look, before sighing and letting his shoulders drop. “You were being targeted relentlessly by that spirit, Yuri. It did what it could to pull you away from us, and I can’t blame you for falling for it because if I had noticed that Yuuri was using his PK on us, or had seen him up looking like he was about to do something stupid, I would have gone after him, too. You were tricked, Yura, and I’m not going to yell at you for falling for a trap that was created after days of that thing watching us and getting to know us.”
“How did you get to me?” Yuri asked, remembering that the others had entered from somewhere behind the spirit, not from above, but if they had had a way to just waltz in like they had they wouldn’t have been planning some complicated thing with ropes and trying to figure out how deep wells were. He thought of the direction they came in: They either came in from an entrance outside— which was impossible— or from inside the house. None of the rooms they had investigated had any kind of stairs or accommodations for hidden stairs— except “The cellar?” Yuri asked, earning a smile from Otabek.
“Yeah, it was removed from the newer blueprint and made to look as if it was part of the kitchen. Looking back, it was stupid that we’d missed the inconsistency in the shape and blueprint, but we had been so caught up on the well. Viktor was the one that suggested it might be a good place to start, since we couldn’t go in the same way you did,” he joked. “They were connected by an underground passage that opened up just behind the stairs… We found all the bodies there; they’ve been returned to their families to be put to rest.” Yuri nodded, then stopped abruptly, looking up to Otabek.
“It was targeting me? Me, specifically ?” Otabek nodded. “What the shit, why ?!”
Otabek looked down at his hands for a second before he met Yuri’s eyes with an intense look, that surprised him. “I told you, Yuri: you have the eyes of a soldier. It’s… harder to force spirits from a strong willed person. The spirits of the victims in the house sensed that from you and latched on. Yuuri said he felt your energy change when it was all said and done. We’re assuming you were, in a way, possessed. The malevolent spirit drew its power from the ones trapped in the house, and you were protecting a large portion of them, keeping it from getting stronger. You saved us.”
Yuri just sat there, trying to process everything he’d just been told. “So I got screwed because a bunch of ghosts thought I was the sturdiest human shield? That’s a load of bull- you never told me anything about having the eyes of a soldier,” he said, brows furrowing as he tried to remember anything about that.
Otabek shrugged. “I did while you were falling out of consciousness.”
“That doesn’t fucking count!”
Otabek chuckled, leaning closer to Yuri. “Did you want me to say it again?” He asked, voice lower. Yuri didn’t respond, only turned away when he could feel himself growing red.
Otabek hummed, taking that as Yuri’s answer and stood. “Let me get a doctor to check on you now that you’re awake,” he said, walking towards the door.
“Otabek,” Yuri called out, stopping the man and slowly drawing him back to Yuri.
He raised a brow, as if to ask what he needed, and Yuri moved forward quicker than Otabek could react, pulling him in by his shirt and placing a hard kiss on his lips. He stumbled a bit, placing his hands on the edge of Yuri’s bed to steady himself, then moved one to cup Yuri’s face as the kiss grew deeper. The pain that surged through Yuri at the sudden movement was smothered by the butterflies in his stomach and the pleasure of feeling Otabek’s lips mold against his own.
They both broke away panting and Yuri sent Otabek a small smile and shrugged. “I needed at least one good memory from this case.”
“Glad I could help,” Otabek responded, voice a little rough. They locked eyes for a moment, both unwilling to look away.
Otabek broke eye contact first, clearing his throat and stepping away, but not before pressing a kiss to Yuri’s temple. “I’m going to go get that doctor now.”
Yuri nodded, his eyes following Otabek as he left the room. He couldn’t help the giddy smile that spread on his lips or the small laugh that escaped him. In the end, he thought, biting his lip to try and contain his stupidly happy smile, maybe this case wasn’t so bad.
“Hello, Yuri. Glad to see you’re finally awake. How are you feeling?” The doctor asked as she stepped into the room, drawing his attention, but not removing the small smile that continued to tug at the corner of his lips.
Yuri opened his mouth to respond, but was distracted by the television in the corner of the room.
“ That's impressive. I can see why you two are so close, you're almost two halves of a whole story. I am curious, though; doesn't it ever get dangerous? I know you had said you know warding magic, but that's only Yuuri,” Viktor asked, and the camera moves to focus on him, with Yuri just a bit behind him, before turning its attention back to Yuuri, who would continue the interview for a little longer. Then, Phichit would motion for Emil to cut, and Yuuri would tell them off camera about Leo, Guang-Hong, and Otabek, and later that day all hell would break loose for 3 more days.
“I think I’m good,” Yuri smiled, glancing briefly at Otabek who looked knowingly between the television and Yuri.