Leviathan: A Persona 5 Goro Akechi x Amamiya Ren Original

7: Panic

(Ren's P.O.V, flashback)

I can't remember how long I laid there.

'It's okay, Ren-kun...'

I can't remember how long it had been.

'Making such life changing decisions...it'll make anyone nervous. You're not the only one.'

I can't even recollect how often I heard his voice...

'Choosing to stay still, rather than move, when so much is on the line - it's okay. All of us deserve the chance to pause, and let the consequences just pass us by.'

I became comfortable. For so long I listened to him, his deep voice that was both smooth and kind; always accepting my mistakes, and always lulling me back into my slumber.

He told me it was going to all be okay.

So I closed my eyes, and I believed that.

'You've done so much work already. You deserve a good rest. You don't have to fear anything that isn't in your control. Everyone is happy here. Everyone is....comfortable.'

The Rulers voice was so melodic, it never took more than a few words to rock me back to sleep. Even if I was awake for a few minutes at a time, his voice sang me the mantra I needed.

A lullaby.

That was all I needed.

'I'll make sure they are okay. Rest now, Ren-kun. When you wake again, everyone will be fine. I promise you -'

This time, his voice was falling, trickling like drops of rain against my skin. I was already asleep, dazed and hypnotized into slumber.

Whatever I was worried about.

Whatever I was scared to lose -

In the blink of an eye, I forgot.

Everything's fine.

I'll be fine. I just need...

Sleep.

My hand fell from the edge of my cot and hung over the side of the bed. It was the last human sensation I felt.

' - there is no suffering anymore. So you don't have to fear. Please, rest as long as you'd like.'

I didn't know it back then, but once that voice began lulling me to sleep, I was at a loss to stop it.

I couldn't even pinpoint how it happened, or when it came over me. But as the days, weeks, months, and years passed, I became a vessel. A hollow shell of myself that held this intense, prolific fear; so sharp - 

it eventually wasn't even scary at all.

(end flashback)

Haha....hahahahaha.

It'd actually been a lot longer than I'd realised. I hadn't seen this place in what felt like centuries. I actually almost missed it.

This second room of my void....my...luxury abode.

I now stood inside that so important room in the Metaverse. The single place where my desires were met, and where the true torture of becoming a Palace Ruler loomed inside my heart.

Bleeding walls, flooding the claustrophobically miniscule room that was darker than any abyss of nothingness you could ever witness. Fog, as thick as wine, looming at your feet, ready to swallow you up and purge you into a hell you never knew existed. Ambient lights, hollowed into the ceiling, providing small, sickly illumination to an otherwise disgusting hellhole. Ringing, so loud in your ears, you can hardly think; each second merely flatlining your brain, as if every thought was but a single pulse of a dying, dissapearing soul.