Midnight Park | Xiao x fem reader

Basement

TW: trauma and abuse. there's a sign before and after the scene. if you're uncomfortable with it, I'll put a summary of what happened at the end of the chapter. please proceed with caution.

hours passed unnoticeably, the blue sky had turned into the beautiful color of orange mixed with dark blue and purple.

Xiao whipped his head hearing a call of his name to see Childe in front of his room. his eyebrows furrowed with distaste as he stood up and made his way to the man who called for him.

"what do you want?" Xiao crossed his arms, looking up at Childe.

"Zhongli asked me to get a box containing the properties we need from the basement. But unfortunately, I'm working on my part of the project so can you get it for us? it's the red one"

after considering it for a few seconds, Xiao hesitantly agreed and Childe left him to go back to the living room.

Xiao could feel his heartbeat getting faster the more his footsteps echoed on the narrow walls around him as he walked down the seemingly endless hallway into the basement.

finally opening the basement door, he reached for the light switch but no matter how he switched it, it just won't light up.

accepting his bad luck, he took a deep breath and started to look for the box. his cat-like eyes lit up finding the said box in the corner of the basement.

his feet started walking towards the box before he suddenly stopped in his tracks. air was knocked out of his lungs just by looking at the corner of the unlit room.

hundreds of thoughts and memories swarmed his head. no matter how hard he tried to ignore it, it felt like he was tied by thousands of strings, forcing him to remember.

!!

all the images from his childhood flooded his mind as vivid as they could ever be.

the image of his younger self trashing around to make his father let go of his wrist that was already bruising was clear inside his head.

screaming at his father to let him go as he was dragged closer and closer into the basement filled with dark memories.

yet, no matter how much he struggled, in the end, a pained yelp would always escape his mouth as his father threw him into the darkest corner of the room

his then small and frail body was aching from the impact, unable to move as his father locked the basement door, leaving him into the darkness without any light from the outside.

"don't disobey me again, Alatus. next time, I might just leave you here to die"

not only did once or twice this had happened to him. sometimes he was only given water, though if he didn't mess up so bad, he'd be given just enough food to survive.

every time he felt the hunger, the darkness, and the desperation swallowing him up. 

yet the one that made him reflect was the words his father said as he left his son alone in the darkness of their basement.

"just how disappointed your mother would be if she was still here" 

the words that were like chains on his neck, forcing him to do everything his father wanted.

he was always left in the darkness without a sense of time, while always feeling scared of what could be in the darkness around him.

!!

all the darkness around him kept on creeping up to him more and more as he drowned in his memories even more. 

this is nothing new to me... 

he shut his eyes and clenched his fist as he forced air into his lung. commanding his brain to stop, he opened his eyes.

all those invisible things holding him in his place severed as the memories faded away from his mind and he was left panting to catch his breath. 

SUMMARY: in short, Xiao's father always put him in the basement every time he made a mistake when he was younger. the continuous action thus made Xiao feel uncomfortable in dark places and being in the basement usually triggers his dark memories.