A Taste of Forever (Katakuri x Reader)

Chapter 2 - A shitty tea selection

Still staring at the doorknob that glistened gold under the moonlight, your outstretched hand remained hovering over it as you quickly tried to weigh your options.

You could either run into your house and face the intruder, or you could stay outside and fight whoever and how many enemies there were out here.

The thought of running back into the village had also quickly crossed your mind but was discarded just as quickly. Whoever was out there wouldn't go through the trouble of stalking you at night and hiding their presence just to let you go back to town and pretend as if nothing had happened. Not to mention your painfully throbbing ankles that would have most likely given up on you somewhere on the way which would have left you to fight for your life without the possibility of avoiding any attacks, let alone run from your misery.

Pressing your eyes shut so hard that your entire face scrunched up, you tried your best to push the growing panic aside and make up your mind as quickly as possible. Neither your house nor the forest were a save option at this point.

What should I do?

The longer it took you to decide which option to pick, the more you felt your rational slip away only to be replaced by panic. You heart beat painfully hard inside your ribcage, both because of your run uphill and the panic that quickly grew inside of you, and all of it was becoming agonisingly loud inside your skull. Your body hurt, your skull was screaming from the heartbeat and your Observation went rampage when you suddenly heard another *Crack* in the dark. This time, however, much louder and much closer than the one before.

Fuck it!

Wrapping your fingers around the cold doorknob, you quickly threw the door to your home open before you practically hurled yourself inside the small entry area. Once inside, you slammed the door shut with one hand while the other reached for the lock and twisted the spare key inside of it until a familiar click was heard.

Locking the door wouldn't really protect you. You knew that. Whoever was outside your home was strong enough to hide their presence, so a mere wooden door wouldn't be much of an obstacle, locked or not. But the thought of there being one more physical barrier between you and whoever was out there calmed you down a little and anything that made you feel calmer at the moment was more than welcome.

When you were sure that the door was locked, you turned around and pressed your back against the door before slowly sliding down until a silent 'thud' was heard when your behind collided with the wooden floorboards.

For a moment, you stayed there and stared at the wall in front of you without focusing on anything in particular. The only sound that echoed off the walls was your laboured breathing that still tormented your aching lungs.

After a few more moments, the initial panic finally calmed down a little and along with it, your breathing and heartbeat relaxed and returned to their neutral state.

It was then that you had enough brainpower to take in the state of the rest of your body. Your ankles screamed in pain as every little movement you did shot an electric wave of agony through your legs. Your hair had escaped its previous hairstyle and now stuck to your sweat covered skin uncomfortably. Your knuckles weren't in better shape either. They had locked in place around the gun and opening your hand was accompanied by a burning pain. Yet, it was this pain that pulled you out of analysing your aching body.

There was still someone in your house. You couldn't let your guard down just yet. Even though you may have temporarily escaped whoever and whatever was out there, you still weren't save. With the realisation sinking into your bones and freezing your veins, your eyes went wide.