Behind The Mask

Chapter 13- Kian

We all sat there until late at night, talking to and comforting Akari. By the time we were done, it was too late for Akari and Akai to head home: so they stayed the night at our house. By the end of the night, I felt like murdering the person who did this to the person I loved. I knew that I didn't have a chance with him, but that wouldn't stop me from loving him as much as I do. He lets me be myself and that made him special in my heart.

My parents were very welcoming to Akari, like they always had been with Akai when she was first introduced. I always assumed that they saw our love for them and were preparing to welcome them officially to the family.

Akai ended up sleeping in Kio's room while Akari ended up in my room, for multiple obvious reasons. We all said our goodnights at around midnight and the girls headed out to Kio's room while making sure to try and avoid Kaihe. While setting up Akari's place to sleep, we followed his request to make sure that he could see one specific portion of the room, which included a part of the wall that I noticed him repeatedly glancing at throughout the time he spent in my room.

We ended up staying up chatting for another hour or two, mainly with me making sure he was okay and settled in. We then turned the lights off and went into our respective beds: settling into the silence that followed. Within 5 minutes, I heard Akari's breaths settle into a peaceful lull, him having taken his mask off after the lights had gone out so that he could breath. He was asleep, which would have been much needed after the day he had.

It took me a little while longer to sleep, knowing that I am currently sleeping in the room Akari grew up in. It was a strange feeling, yet kind of warm feeling that was going through me as I thought about that. But I was very worried about the beneath and on that floor board. Those home-made knives, those scratches and all the blood stains: what had happened to him? I knew he'd lost his mother. We'd all sat where she had passed, after all. That was an emotional moment. But I hoped that one day I could learn more about her.

As I started to drift into unconsciousness, I felt a sense of déjà vu and like I was heading somewhere else. Then I was standing there, in the same room that I had just fallen asleep in, but it looked... different. The wallpapers were older, and the floor looked like it really needed a clean and repaint. The floor seemed to be covered in blobs of dark liquid and the walls were covered in scratches. I also noticed something in the back corner of the room- a door. I'd never seen it before, but it was in the same spot that Akari kept glancing at. I decided to see what was through it. I reached out for the handle and turned it. It opened.

On the other side of it was a set of stairs leading downwards into a very dimly lit room. I walked down the stairs, curious to see what was down there. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, what I saw made me absolutely sick to the bottom of my stomach. On one wall, I saw row upon row of weapons. There were machetes, hunting knives, throwing knives, machetes, scalpels and almost every kind of knife you could imagine. There were also copper wires, tasers, bb guns, and surgical tools. On the other side of the wall: I saw handcuffs, home-made dildos, gags of all types and other sex toys you might find in a rapist paedophiles basement.

On the back wall was a chair- like the kind of one you'd find at the dentist- but had restraints connected to the arm rests. There was more blood and scratch marks beneath them, just like the ones on the walls and floor in the room upstairs: most likely caused by the same person.

In the middle of the room was a bed that looked like it had been... thoroughly used. It had red and white stains and had springs sticking out with dried blood on the edges of them. Sitting on the bed, in the middle of the stained mattress was a boy with black hair that looked very familiar to me, like I'd seen him somewhere. He had no clothes on and was curled into a ball. He was covered in bruises and cuts and was crying. He turned to me, and I saw bruises in the shape of fingers covering his throat, with his blue eyes showing extreme fear when he looked at me. I saw a flash and-

I woke up with a start and realised that what I had just witnessed was a dream. It had just felt so real. I checked the time on my phone and saw that it was only 5:32- I had only been asleep for 2 hours. It was still dark, but I could hear Akari's slow breaths, so I knew he was still asleep. I decided to check out a hunch, so I got up and walked out, being careful not to wake up Akari or anyone else as I walked towards the kitchen to grab a knife.

I headed back into my bedroom, now used to the dark, and walked over to the wall. Silently, I cut the wallpaper and peeled it away from the wall. It revealed the door that I had seen in my dream. I didn't want to walk in there alone, so I headed quietly to Kio's room and (making sure not to wake up Akai) woke up Kio and asked her to follow me. When we were outside, I told her how I had cut a part of my wallpaper and found a door. We then head into the room and opened the door without waking the peaceful, sleeping boy up. It revealed the staircase that I had seen in my dream.

We head down and I saw it. Everything I had seen in my dreams was there: exactly the way I had seen it. From the "toys" to the bed and a box was there with the note- everything was there. I looked to my side and saw that Kio was pale and looked like she was going to be sick just from looking at everything there. We took a few steps closer so that we could read that one word that was on the note. It wasn't just a word- it was a name. the word written on that piece of paper was 'Akari'.

After seeing that, we decided that we shouldn't touch anything without the others, but we felt like it would be best if we did it now. So we agreed to go wake them up. I waited until Kio had gone towards her room to wake Akai up before I woke up Akari, knowing that he didn't have his mask on. When he was awake and had his mask on, I let the other back in. that was when Akari went a bit paler than usual and lost his ever-present blush- he had seen the door.

We walked through it and down the stairs. I heard a gasp when we reached the bottom and knew that it was from Akai. Akari didn't make a single noise, and instead: his eyes were glancing around the room rapidly and he seemed to be panicking. I could see his mask moving closer and further away from his face as he started hyperventilating.

Being the first to recover, I went towards the note and picked it up, intending on giving it to Akari. When I did, another, smaller piece of paper fell out of it. Akai picked it up, looked at it and her face went very pale. "A-Akari... did somebody abuse you?"

Akari went even paler: "W-why do you ask?"

She turned the piece of paper she was holding around, and I saw the same boy from my dream, in the exact same position as I had seen him right before I woke up with that flash. I finally recognised who it was not that it was right there: she was right- it was Akari.