Bittersweet Dreams (Sequel to Nightmares)

Broken Down

I didn't remember getting into bed, but after a day of Shizuo absolutely babying me, I was exhausted. I turned my head, glancing at the clock on my bedside table. Reading 3:37 a.m. I turned over to look at Shizuo, who was fast asleep next to me. The pain in my head was blaring, and I knew my pain pills from Shinra were downstairs. I contemplated waking Shizuo and asking him to go downstairs and get my pills, but if I didn't do something for myself, I would wake up to another day of babying, and Izaya Heiwajima didn't need to be babied.

I laid in bed, and snuggled as close as I could to Shizuo without waking him up, as I needed his warmth and to breathe in his scent to get this pain in my head to subside. He smelled of cigarettes and the hospital waiting room, making me crinkle my nose in disgust. Where the hell did the mint and earthy smell go? All that remained was the tinge of sterile hospital waiting rooms that I thoroughly despised.

I pushed the covers off of myself, covering Shizuo's body in return, shielding his sterile smell from emanating through the rest of the room. No way in hell did I want my bedroom smelling like a hospital operating table. My head was pounding so violently that the vertigo was engulfing my senses, making me wobble as I sat on the edge of my bed. I groaned quietly, looking over my shoulder to make sure Shizuo was still sleeping. After about 5 minutes of prepping my legs for their first walk in about 24 hours, I stood, almost falling straight down and hitting my head on the bedside table.

I wobbled through my living room, the tremors not ceasing, making my anxiety grow tenfold as I got closer and closer to the 12 stairs that led down to the first floor of our condo. My brain was throbbing, screaming out for help. The pain was crippling, and my muscles couldn't take the trauma they were receiving. As I approached the stairs I went over my plan twice in my mind, berating myself for making such an idiotic decision, but not stopping myself from moving to the first step.

My legs wobbled and shook, while my head spun with a disastrous mixture of vertigo and unrelenting pain. I closed my eyes, hoping it was just the streetlights outside aiding to the pain. I stepped down three more steps, until I came to another halt, having to open my eyes because the pain was so bad. Tears threatened to fall down my cheeks, but I wouldn't let them. No. Not this time. This would show Shizuo, Shinra, Namie, That Doctor, Everyone, that I was capable of taking care of myself.

As I forced my legs down the last large set of stairs, I found myself stopping on the third to last stair. My vertigo was critical, almost completely disabling my sight. Everything was a big spinning blur, and the throbbing pain in my skull did not help in the slightest. Making an idiotic decision, since only three steps were left, I stepped down trying to land my foot on the hard wooden step.

But I missed.

My knees buckled under the weight of my muscles failing me, sending me falling straight to the floor down two stairs. My body slammed into our hard-wooden floors, wracking more pain through my body. I felt helpless, useless, laying on the cold unforgiving floor. I tried to call out for Shizuo, but my hoarse voice came out as a crackling whisper. After my body had slammed into the floor, I had knocked the wind out of myself, making breathing a hard and laborious task.

I laid for what felt like forever, silently sobbing, tears mixing in with blood from god knows where, leaving an iron tinge on my lips. Soon, after laying in self pity for an eternity, I heard frantic feet moving about upstairs. Shizuo called my name, trying to find me. I would've called out to him, but my vocal chords wouldn't process my request, leaving me to wait for him to find my limp broken body in a heap at the bottom of the stairs.