Veiled | JHS | ✓

Nightmarish

(Trigger warning: Disturbing scenes)

He was running.

Running far away from the echoes that chased after him. Running deeper and deeper into the abyss that stretched before. He ran and ran and ran...until he was no longer running. He was being pulled, sucked, into the void before him. He was helpless. He couldn't even protest against its powers.

He could only think to himself. Ah, not here again. Please.

But the memories flashed across his mind without paying heed to his pleas just as it always did and as usual, he had to relive them without an end in sight.

"Throw it!"

"Kill him! He's a monster!"

"Die! Die! You monster! Die!"

The pitiful sobs of a young boy echoed in his mind. "W-why would you do this? I thought w-we were friends..."

"I'M NOT FRIENDS WITH MONSTERS!" The memory of his young heart cracking shot through him once again.

"Die! Die you monst- Hey, someone's coming. Run!"

And the sounds distorted and the voices faded into the void until a peal of female laughter floated in from the depths of it. "I only hung out with you because I pitied you. Know your place. Haha, what a f*cking joke. You think you're something now?"

He shook his head. No, not that memory again. The evil laughter didn't fade out any sooner as if it was determined to pain him as much as it could. He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut and struggled against the lucid flashes, running and running inside of a maze without an exit. He wouldn't get out. It would never end. It would never leave him alone.

"Please," he cried. And the memories ceased. Darkness invaded his vision from every corner until an unfamiliar child's voice spoke from a distance.

"You killed me." 

He opened his eyes. A young girl stood just a few inches from him. Close, so close, looking at him with her cold, dead eyes. "You killed me." She spoke.

He drew back, fear creeping into his insides as the child's voice spoke again. "You killed me."

"No! No, I didn't." He opposed shaking his head. "I didn't."

"You killed me." She said still. Colors began to flood his brain from every corner of his being until they swirled and mixed to paint a vivid picture. No, it was a memory. A memory he wasn't familiar with.

"Die for me! Hahahahaha..." A clear, cold voice laughed, laughter that sounded eerily like his own.

A cry of pleasure. A swish of a blade. A scream. The sound of a body hitting the ground. Blood...

"See?" The girl moved closer. "You killed me. You killed me. You killed me.

"YOU KILLED ME!"

Jung Hoseok jolted awake from his bed drenched in a cold sweat as a scream tore through his throat. His door burst open and a female rushed inside, her eyes showing alarm. She quickly swept to his bed and pulled him into her arms. "It's alright, it's alright, Hoseok. It was just a nightmare. Just one of those nightmares. You're alright."

Hoseok buried his face on her shoulder, unable to contain the tears that sprung to his eyes. "Mom..." his voice quivered as he called. His mom drew soothing circles in his back, trying to calm him down. "I'm here. You're safe."