The Last Of Us: Part I - Darker Days (Male Reader)

Chapter 10 - The Sewer of Life

A/N: Before this chapter begins. I want to clear the air, and say a few words.

Speaking plainly, I've not been myself these past few months. Times have been hard, especially on myself. It's only now that I've managed to get back to it, to my self. College was hard, and summer is here. Yet it is a brutal cold that still pushes at my mind, and it's echo calls.

So, bluntly, my life has been a mess. But I'm back to it. Maybe not 100%. But definitely to the point where I can focus on my writing again!

Hope you enjoy this one and I'll see you next time.

He remembered this place, as clear as day. It was a place that haunted many of his sleepless nights. Once a home brimming with life and love and joy. Except now it only harboured dark thoughts and endless pain.

Silenting cursing, Y/N shuffled himself through the many boxes and wax figures in the room that blinded him, and carefully maneuvered past them. Not even bothering to give them a passing glance, as their illicit eyes possessed a sense of watching, something Y/N didn't want to see, at all.

Rachel, the woman who had brought him back from the brink of death, had brought him down here once before. A prank, he should've known. In hindsight, he wished he had never discovered such a horrifying room. Her aim had been to scare the rocks off of him, to lighten him up, as she had said.

Or else to piss his pants.

That hadn't been a very promising memory to him. But out of all of them, it was probably the most remembered.

Why?

He had no idea, except maybe, because it was a place of silent horror, that his nightmares used as their fort against his fragile mind.

Shaking his head of such thoughts, Y/N finally found himself at the bottom of a staircase, having reached the end of the dark, cold and cobweb filled room.

The boy opened the door to the stairs and made way to the top. Only to stop when his feet hit the last step, bracing himself as a familiar scent found its way to his nostrils.

'Oh no...'

Y/N immediately charged forward, barrelling into the door with all his strength, knocking it open as he fell through and down to the ground. Groaning as his face hit the gravel concrete, Y/N lifted his gaze up to see the blazing fires covering that of a school. It's flames dancing high enough to reach the sky, as it's smokes withered and suffocated the air.

Yet, as the fire and brimstone perplexed his view, Y/N couldn't help but frown. It wasn't like before, not at all. Before it had started differently, in sync, in time, pushing forward.

Now, it looked as if time itself was going backwards.

"Rachael!"

Y/N shouted as he got to his feet and ran ahead, through the empty streets and across the road. He rushed to the entrance of glass and steel and wildy opened the doors.

He pulled himself in and immediately found himself stopping in his tracks. Frozen and stiff, as the scenery changed around him in a blur, and before he knew what had happened...

It was as if a fire hadn't even begun.

'What the...'

Y/N braced himself against the door, holding out onto the handle in shock as the scene ahead of him was not of fire and death, but of life and harmony. People went about their day, smiling and hugging, their faces filled with content and wonder. All the while, Y/N frowned, disheveled and stoney as he watched them.