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The office was the familiar chilly feel, as the pair sat in mostly silence. Everything seemed familiar. Almost too familiar. The entire night like Deja vu. But not the type where your head would feel slightly dizzy and then move on, no. The kind where you’d feel queasy and like your impending doom was about to descend upon you. And, that was how Mike felt sitting drumming his fingers on his thigh when he heard a meek squeak emit from the brunette next to him.
“What?”
“Mi-Mike?”
Mike turned his chair to look at the tablet Jeremy was frantically mashing buttons on.
“The mus-music box won’t wo-work,”
Mike felt his body go cold as he snatched the device and tried everything to fix it. Nothing was working.
The music box has never failed, why is it failing now?
Mike’s eyes darted viciously around the room as he heard the faint chime of Pop Goes the Weasel in the background. He frantically grabbed Jeremy’s wrist, probably tighter than he should have, and started dragging him through the hallways, trying to escape the noise. Tears were already flowing out of the brunette, and Mike refused to look back at him to see it. He hated when Jeremy cried. He hated it more than anything else in the world. He’d rather have to rip three Freddy animatronics apart by hand one by one than see his world cry.
Mike was desperate to find somewhere they could hide, not knowing how much time they had left. His eyes locked onto the main storage closet, and pulled Jeremy in front on him to unlock the door.
“ Wait! If-If I go to Prize Co-Cor-Corner, I can restart the-the music box and fix-fix this,” Jeremy said, opening the door for Mike to hide in.
“ Are you fucking insane? You are not leaving my side! Get in the damn room-”
“I can sa-save us! Go in there, I’ll be-be right back!”
Mike gripped the boy’s waist harshly, trying to bite back the rising color in his cheeks at the close proximity.
“ Absolutely not! I can’t risk losing you!”
Jeremy let out a frustrated yell and pulled away from Mike’s grasp.
“You won’t ! Stop try-try-trying to protect me! I-I’m not a flower!”
Mike stepped forward only to be pushed back into the storage closet and have the door shut in his face. He reeled forward to push it back open, but Jeremy had already begun locking it from the outside. He angrily banged and yelled against the metal but there was no point.
“I’ll be ri-right back, I-I promise! I hav-have to do this Mi-Mike!”
Mike felt his whole life flash before his eyes as he started helplessly screaming and banging on the door and wall to get Jeremy to come back. He didn’t even know what he was saying but his mind and body felt numb with fear.
I can’t lose you, I can’t lose you, I can’t
He heard a door bang open, and could faintly make out the sound of a staggered, broken, music box. Mike slung a fist at a cart, not caring what blood he drew. How could he have let him go? He should’ve been stronger. He should have-
He heard footsteps running towards the door.
His breathing started to steady as he pressed his ear against the door, praying for it to open soon.
Mike’s heart stopped when he heard a blood curdling scream from the other side of the door. His breath ceased, as the air escaped his lungs. Tears fell. His body felt weak and loopy suddenly.
His hands began pulling and dragging the handle in any way, while yelling something, anything that would come out of his mouth. The screaming didn’t stop. Neither did the crying. Loud sobs were heard from the other side of the door, and Pop Goes the Weasel was its loudest.
Mike’s physical world was spinning. His emotional world was dying.
He dropped himself to the floor reaching under as far as he could, but only managed to barely slip the palm of his hand under. He felt a warm hand try to touch the fingers that stuck out, but the screaming didn’t stop. When he pulled back his hand his face went white at the blood dripping from his fingers.
His own sobs were louder than he had ever cried before, cursing the world and whatever fucked up higher power that was there that would force him to listen helplessly to the person he cared about the most, die.
“ Mi-Mike!” One of the screams cried, causing Mike to be sent into further of a meltdown.
“ I’m here! I’m here, Doll, I’m here! ” Mike yelled back just as distraught. The screams of agony didn’t stop, and the sobbing only got worse. Mike’s fist, already bruised and bloodied, continued beating on the door with every force he could summon.
Jeremy’s cries for help, and pleas for Mike did not fall on deaf ears, but helpless ones. Ones that couldn’t do shit behind the locked metal door.
Then, it stopped.
It went silent.
“Doll?” Mike’s voice remained a yell, not caring who or what heard. When no response came, his body became erratic. More sobs poured out of his eyes and onto the floor.
“ Doll? Baby? Please! ”
Mike hadn’t even noticed the pet name slip out, and at that moment, he didn’t care. Whether Jeremy ever learned it or not, he was Mike’s baby.
Mike couldn’t contain himself anymore, violently thrashing against anything he could find, screaming of agony and fear that the one thing that mattered to him would be gone. He’d rather be dead than live a life without Jeremy.
His lungs couldn’t hold air, and he was suddenly wheezing. He felt nauseous but also like he was starving. Nothing would ever make him feel better, nothing, no one. His throat ached from the yelling, and his mouth wheezed, he couldn’t breathe, he couldn’t stand, he couldn’t cry, he couldn’t yell he-
His eyes shot open, and his body thrashed upwords, sweat and tears falling down his face and body. His breathing was still erratic. He recognized his bedsheets and his cold, lifeless apartment.
Jeremy, Jeremy, Jeremy-
Mike needed to see Jeremy.
Jeremy’s eyes fluttered at the sound of his window creaking open. The brunette sat up, and dug the heel of his palm into his eye before looking at the figure dimly lit by the moonlight.
“Mike?” He mumbled, before the man who he identified as his boyfriend dove on top of him. He gasped in surprise before wrapping his arms around the taller’s neck. Either Mike was touch starved and just wanted to see him, or something happened. Jeremy patiently waited for Mike to speak.
The pair stayed there for a few minutes, before Mike whispered into the crook of Jeremy’s neck.
“I had a nightmare and had to make sure you were okay,”
Jeremy’s heart sank, and moved a hand around Mike’s waist to pull him closer. He hated Mike’s dreams more than anything else. Having his boyfriend tremble in his arms made Jeremy feel just as low and small as he did during his own nightmares.
“How do-do you wa-want to hold me?” Jeremy whispered, gently moving Mike’s head in between his hands and rubbing his cheeks with his thumbs. When Mike’s nightmares hit hardest, he had specific patterns and positions to ‘make sure Jeremy was real’. As crazy as he felt he sounded, the brunette never laughed or hesitated.
Mike sat legs crossed, and then gingerly pulled Jeremy up and wrapped the brunette’s legs around his waist, burying his head in the crook of his neck. Jeremy moved on hand to comb through the taller’s black hair, the other resting on his shoulder rubbing circles.
It took a few minutes for Mike’s body to ease up after breathing in the calming air of Jeremy’s room and hair. His Doll was fine; He was safe, and he was in his arms.
Mike started to speak, but the only thing Jeremy could make out was muffled rumbles against his skin.
“Baby, I-I-I can’t hea-hear you,”
Mike moved his head upwards to make eye contact and opened his mouth to whisper.
“It was the storage closet, but you didn’t follow me. I tried to get you to come into the room but you locked the door from the outside. And-And, I had to listen to-”
His breathing hitched, as his hands on the younger’s waist tightened, lightly digging into his skin. Jeremy’s hands cupped his face and caressed his cheeks with his thumbs. The brunette’s eyebrows furrowed, ignoring the pang at his own heart at the thought of that night going horribly, horribly wrong.
Mike had recently had a spike in dreams about the same night with different endings; The night the pair got together and was almost killed. Some were better than others, but somehow most ended with Mike sneaking in Jeremy’s bedroom window, either to fuck him until he couldn’t breathe, or make sure he wasn’t truly dead.
“I’m rig-right here lov-love, I am. And I’m no-not going anywhere-where,”
Mike gently leaned in and met their lips for small, intermittent kisses. Soothing, comforting, love surrounded the two.
Was it irrational for him to climb through his boyfriend’s window every time he had a nightmare? Maybe, but Jeremy would make damn sure Mike never felt alone ever again. He promised when they first got together, and he had done just that.
“I love you, Doll,” Mike mumbled against Jeremy’s lips, before joining them again. Jeremy giggled, stuttering back between the next break.
“I lov-love you too-too, Mike,”
Mike smiled. He was right where he belonged, with his Doll in his arms.