𝘙𝘦𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘺

Chapter 20

Night Shift by Lucy Dacus
Your Power by Billie Eilish
I Want You by Mitski
Home by Daughter

Warning; this chapter is one of the darker ones. Without spoiling too much, there are mentions of drug usage/abuse. It eventually leads to somebody overdosing, so if you are sensitive to that, there will be a summary at the end.

Also; I do not in ANY way shape or form condone ANY of the actions in this chapter. It is abusive, manipulative, and toxic. There is NOTHING healthy about what is happening, and it was gut-wrenching to write, but her character would not make sense without a dark background.

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By the time I had found Dabi, the weather seemed to have frozen his heart as well.

This wasn't something I could understand at the time. I didn't recognize the behavior, didn't recognize the way he no longer softened when he looked my way.

He was mad I had "left" him just like everyone else. He wanted to detach himself from me. Wanted to mold himself into an independent person.

So, Dabi and I began to rarely see each other.

I couldn't find him for the life of me and when I did, he didn't seem interested in sticking around.

Yet still; I grappled for something to keep him around.

So when he gave me an offer I couldn't resist, I couldn't decline.

It was Thursday night. I had gotten off for winter break just this afternoon only to find Dabi wandering through the alleyways just a few blocks over as if he had been specifically waiting for me. When he caught sight of me, he had a devious grin that I almost didn't recognize anymore.

We didn't say a single word. I only lowered my head and gripped my backpack straps tighter, creating an overcast of my eyes to avoid his gaze as I fell in stride behind him. I felt his arm wound around my shoulders as if to keep me from running.

I walked quickly, almost unable to keep up with his body that now towered over mine. His scars were worse and he wasn't asking for me to clean them. Now sloppily stapled together by his own work with dried blood crusted over the edges.

His nose was pierced now, his ears just as much. I didn't know where he had gotten them, but I didn't bother asking either.

I was a sheep and he was a wolf. I didn't question anything he did unless I wanted to be trapped in a jaw of blue flames.

Finally, he cleared his throat. "I'm going to take you somewhere you've never been before, alright?"

I only nodded, feeling him reassuringly squeeze my shoulder as we began walking down a series of alleyways and winding roads. We cut through ruined buildings, stepping over tarnished needles and shattered glass. Everywhere seemed to reek just like the shelter from when I was younger, and everything seemed gloomier down here. We were in a part of town I rarely went, somewhere Dabi and I had once deemed too dangerous even for the likes of us.

Now, he walked like he owned this place.

By the time the sun had begun to set, Dabi and I stood before a small stairwell in an alleyway that led below ground level. It was under a cheap bar, one made of brick that had workers smoking cigarettes and blunts out the back door.

I glanced at the stairwell, noting the way a cardboard box had been thrown over it almost as if to cover it. It was almost as if they believed a cop would ever even consider coming down here and finding it.

Even the cops deemed this area too dangerous for themselves.

There was no help down here.

No hope.