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Akira hung his head low, not having the energy to lift it up after the beating he went through. Everything felt fuzzy and his ears were ringing, so he didn’t notice the kidnappers enter the area again until one of them yanked his head up. He winced before looking up at the kidnapper. “Why hello there,” he sneered, “glad to see that you’re still with us. We decided that we wanted to have a little more...fun with you and your sister.” That’s when Akira noticed that his sister was also in the room, tied to a chair right across from him. “W-what are you gonna do to her?” he nervously asked. He wanted to protect her whenever possible. “Oh, you know, a little stabbing here, some burns there, the works. We wanted to see how badly we could break you and your entire family.” “NO, please no. Just leave her alone,” he begged. The kidnapper started laughing. “Oh, this is great. You really think you have a say in this. Well, you don’t, and for that, why don’t we start adding more scars to her.” His head was forced up the entire time. He wanted to beg and plead for them to stop, but it just made it worse. Everything started to become hazy with him only being able to focus on his sister and her screams of pain. He was balling at this point, wanting everything to stop, when another one of them decided that they wanted him to suffer more. Within seconds, his sister’s neck was slit, and she immediately went limp.
Akira couldn’t move.
Couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t think.
Everything was moving in slow motion. That same guard walked towards him, a look of pure glee in his eyes. “So, this was fun and all, but our time is up.” He quickly went to stab Akira.
Akira jolted awake, breath ragged and eyes full of tears. It took him a few seconds to realize that he was in his new house. Great, another nightmare, on today of all days. He plopped back down, trying to dry his tears and calm his breathing. It took him longer than he would like to admit to calm down, but he did eventually. He really did not want to get out of bed though. He never did after those kinds of nightmares since they made him even more anxious and on edge than usual, especially if the place he planned on going to was hella crowded, which it would be today since some type of festival was going on. He really did not want to go, he just wanted to lay in bed, but he had plans to go on a...date...with Shu, or maybe it wasn’t a date, he couldn’t tell, but still, he did not want to ditch him at the last minute. So, reluctantly, he got out of bed to start getting ready and hoped to God that his anxiety would lower at least slightly by the time Shu came over.
His anxiety, in fact, did not lower. It actually seemed to rise the closer Shu was supposed to be at his house. He started to pace in his living room since sitting was not helping at all. He got lost in thought, which was not a good thing right now, so he jumped when he suddenly heard knocking. He took a few deep breaths to try and calm his nerves before going to open the door. He was not surprised that it was Shu since very few people know he lives here now. Shu smiled at him before speaking. “Are you ready to go to the festival? I heard it’s really nice when you’re a newcomer.” No was his first thought, but he did not want to disappoint them, so he nodded and started following them.
Everything was going surprisingly well for the time being, even though he was on edge, nothing made it any worse, so he calls it a win, but he knows that he needs to be extra aware of his surroundings until he can finally get home. The place was pretty crowded, but they went to the less busy areas first. They were probably out for about three hours when Shu started dragging them to a different part of the festival. “Where are we going now?” Akira asked. Shu just started giggling before responding, “It’s a surprise. You’ll know it when we get closer.” They walked for a few more minutes before Akira noticed a rather large crowd gathering around a stage. He looked around to see if there were any signs indicating what was going on when he overheard someone beside them talking about how it’s one of the most popular bands in the area, but he didn’t catch the name. He, frankly, did not care. More and more people started showing up, some accidentally bumping into him, which was causing all sorts of alarm bells in his head telling him to be anywhere but there. He must have made some face or something because Shu asked if he was okay with watching the band. No, no, no, no, no. “Yes,” he lied. He only hoped that it didn’t get much worse than this.
It got worse. So, so much worse. The second the band went up on stage everyone started rushing to the front, some bumping into him, others full on pushing him out of the way. Don’t touch me, don’t touch me, don’t touch me. His anxiety was skyrocketing, and he was starting to become hyper aware of every little touch. People were starting to crown around him, getting closer and closer. His eyes were darting everywhere, not really focusing on anything. His breathing was slowly starting to pick up. One hard shove started making him spiral and think about when he was kidnapped, the captors roughly manhandling him into submission. Don’t panic, don't panic, don't panic. He tried so hard to get his breathing under control, but it just kept getting worse. He wanted to get Shu’s attention to see if they could leave, but he had little control over his body. He was basically frozen in place, unable to move, speak, or really do anything to get his attention. Soon, the band started playing, which upped everything up even more. People were screaming, pushing, shoving, doing anything to get the band's attention. He was having a difficult time staying in the present and not in the past. Someone’s hand suddenly gripped his shoulder, making him jump and twist around to grab his arm. They were able to stop him, which made him panic even more. Don’t touch me, don’t touch me, don’t touch me.
He thinks they might have tried to talk to him, but his ears were ringing. He was hyperventilating and his brain seemed to be out to get him. He couldn’t move at all. All he could do was feel everyone moving and touching him before this person started dragging him out of the crowd. Please don’t take me back to that place please don’t take me back to that place please don’t take me back to that place.
It could have been minutes or hours, Akira didn’t know, before he was forcefully sat down. He didn’t know where he was or who was with him. He felt them grab him by the shoulders this time, but more gently this time. They might have been talking as well, but he wasn’t sure. He felt them rub small circles onto his back, which surprisingly comforted him. It took a few more minutes before he was able to understand what the other person was saying, but he heard some good jobs and keep trying to breathe. The more time went by, the easier it became to breathe. Before long, he was finally at least mostly aware of his surroundings, though finally being able to open his eyes definitely helped. When did he close them anyway. When he did open his eyes, he saw Shu gently smiling at him. “Are you back with me now?” he asked. He nodded. I looked around and noticed that we were pretty far from the concert, so there were very few people around. Shu started to get up, reaching for his hand to help him up. “I’m guessing that you just want to go home, right? He nodded again. He was too tired to really talk. Shu must have noticed this because he started to quickly take him back to his house, though they took the long way to avoid as many people as possible. Once they got there, Shu helped lead them inside and towards his room. He just wanted to sleep so he took off his shoes and jewelry before laying down. Shu tucked him in before turning to walk away, but Akira lightly grabbed his hand. “Stay,” he muttered, already half asleep. Shu didn’t really want to leave him alone either, so he complied. He was sort of dragged to lay beside Akira, or at least that’s what Shu thought he was trying to do, which it seemed to be since Akira started to cling to him and instantly went to sleep. “Goodnight,” he quietly said before also closing his eyes to sleep.