Panic Attack

Untitled Part 2

Rocket practically slammed the door behind him, latching the lock tightly so that no one would be able to get in. he felt his breathing begin to pick up in speed again and he put a small hand to his chest as though to keep his small rapidly beating heart from leaping out of his body.

He grasped his head in pain as a sudden flash blinded his sight, sending him back to that horrible place. He shook his head, trying to pull himself back out of the memory, he couldn’t handle another flashback like in the alleyway with Quill. A tightness in his stomach presented itself at the memory.

Quill had obviously witnessed it, although Rocket didn’t remember him having been there, but then again, he didn’t remember a lot of things after he was thrust forcefully into that flashback. He hadn’t had one in so long, years even. Of course he had the occasional nightmare from which Groot often woke him from, but this?

He shook his head. It was humiliating, Rocket, the snarky quick thinking and closed off warrior, now reduced to a simple… animal having some weird anxiety attack. He had thrown Quill off for a while by pushing the instance away and pretending like it had never happened, but he knew it wouldn’t be long until he tried bringing it up with Rocket again.

A shiver ran down his spine upon the thought of the incident in the alleyway. He had sent Quill off with the massive gun, knowing that he would never have been able to pick up the thing, as much as he hated to admit. He had turned to follow him when he felt something pull at his tail. Rocket jumped forward a bit in surprise, only pulling on the sensitive appendage more and sending a sharp pain shooting up his spine.

Rocket whirled around to see the large man he had just knocked out, or at least he thought he had been knocked out, silently cursing himself for not hitting the man harder. He was about to pry the hand off of him when the grip around his tail tightened. Rocket let out a sharp yelp of pain as another wave of pain ripped through him.

When he opened his eyes again, he realized that he was no longer on the ground, in fact, he was being held quite a few feet above the familiar pavement, his back paws searching desperately for a sturdy surface. He also noted that the burly man was no longer holding him by the tail, but by the neck which was making breathing quite a task.

Rocket struggled against the man’s grip, he had gotten out of situations such as this plenty of times, attackers believing they could get away with something because of his size. He lifted a clawed hand and scraped a deep gash into the man’s arm, allowing the blood to flow freely from the wound. But to the raccoon’s surprise, the man didn’t let go, in fact, his grip on Rocket’s small throat became even tighter.

Rocket felt panic begin to bubble up in his stomach and felt his breathing quicken, his heart pounding at a mile a minute, he tried to take a deep breath but the hands wrapped around his writhing body closed off his air passage.

The man leaned in closer, bringing the struggling raccoon closer until he was only inches away from his face. He tried pulling away, scraping the attacker’s arms as hard as he possibly could, the man didn’t even flinch. Hot breath ran through Rocket’s fur as he was brought even closer.

Rocket had told Quill that he hadn’t heard what the man had said to him while in the vice grip so close to losing consciousness, and it was partly true, he had been thrown into such a state of shock and panic that he couldn’t quite make out every word the attacker was saying to him. But he was able to pick up enough bits and pieces to cause the raccoon to start shaking with fear.

“Little freak… worthless… kill you… no escape…”

Rocket began struggling harder, wanting nothing more than to get out of the man’s grasp. “Hey!” The grip on his neck loosened enough for him to take a breath. He tried turning his head towards the new voice. Quill was standing here, his glare hard enough to kill.