Familiarity

Chapter Twenty-Seven

IM SO EXCITED!!! IVE HAD THIS IN MY BACK POCKET SINCE THE BEGINNING OF WRITING THIS FIC AHHHHHHHH

also, i'm VERY VERY VERY SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG TO UPDATE. i've been very busy. first we moved into a new house, then finals happened, and now i'm doing volleyball conditioning from 6:30-8 in the morning and summer school to get my PE ans finance credits... someone please kill me

anyway i will post chap 28 tomorrow/later today

(and combined, they're almost 10k words...)

WARNING: some violence, mentions to a panic attack and their symptoms 

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There were faces you swore you saw in the shadows.

You were blindly running in the direction you thought the man with the knife escaped to.

"Hey!" you yelled, unfocused on the other injured people on the ground. On everyone else in the room. You sprinted toward the back exit the man ran toward, but he was gone and hidden in the shadows before you could reach him.

Suddenly, you could hear more footsteps and voices. You pressed your back against the wall. You stood before the entrance to the dark room that connected the hallway to the backdoor. You listened. You held the knife tighter in your grip.

"We are leaving," a gruff voice said. There was more than just physical age to his voice. He sounded as though he had gone through hell and back.

"They could die!" you heard a familiar voice screech, hoarse and desperate. You didn't know him well, but you could tell it was Aoyama."I didn't—we didn't agree on this!"

"I don't want to be a murderer," another said, though this one had a certain shrill to it. One you knew, recognized. Hagakure.

Your stomach dropped.

"We just..." Aoyama trailed off. "My uncle—he hadn't done anything and they had killed him but I—I don't want to be the reason all of them die."

"I got you into this goddamn school so you help us take them down," he yelled.

"Just [Last Name]!" Aoyama raised his voice, then he made a choking sound and his voice sounded strangled. "Not my... friends. I... don't want to... hurt my... friends."

You didn't know Aoyama and Hagakure well enough to recall who they were—things deeper than Aoyama's often eccentricity and Hagakure's struggle to sneak up on people even though she was invisible beside her clothing.

But you hadn't expected this. You didn't know them. You hadn't done anything to them.

Why were they doing this?

"Sir, please," Hagakure yelled. You heard a slapping sound followed by a thud and a yelp of pain. "They weren't supposed to die! We were just supposed to threaten [Last Name] with them! You said we were just going to tie them up and knock them out! That's what you told us! That's what you told us last summer when you asked for an update on who they were close to! This wasn't supposed—"

"Kagome wasn't supposed to die!" the gruff voice yelled. There was the sound of a body falling against a wall and struggling inhales, and then the echo of another body tumbling violently against the floor.

"Sir, please!" Hagakure screamed, helpless.

"She wasn't supposed to die! But she did!" the man yelled. There was another sound of struggling

"Stop!" Aoyama gasped, though he didn't seem to be pleading for his own life.

There were sounds of pathetic slaps against arms followed by a blast and then a hoarse scream. You let your head fall forward as you glanced into the dark room. There was a shred of light coming from the flashlight rolling on the ground. Aoyama and Hagakure stood together, shaking in the corner. Aoyama was breathing hard and he was holding his stomach. A large man was opposite them. He had a short beard illuminated by the crack of the open exit. He was grabbing at his arm where his shirt was burnt and showed his bubbling skin.