Locked In || Kavetham/Haikaveh

Next Time

Everything was dark. Kaveh reached out to where the light switch should be, but just fell through thin air, stumbling across the space surrounding him.

"I'm going to be honest, I... didn't see this coming.."

Kaveh's heart jumped at the sudden voice, and he quickly twisted his head around to see where it came from. He wanted to call out to them, but he found his voice not cooperating, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get a noise out.

"Oh, you can't see me, no matter how much you look. I felt like everything would run a lot smoother if you didn't know my identity." The voice spoke again. "You can't talk either.. I'm not sure how much time I have, so I didn't want to waste time having a pointless conversation."

Kaveh only struggled more at this, willing his body to cooperate with him with all of his strength. Every second that passed, he lost a little more control, and the panic set in. His heart was beating against his chest so hard that he could feel it, and he felt like he was getting less oxygen in with every breath he took. The voice was talking again, but Kaveh couldn't make out what it was saying.

He was frozen in place, and no matter how hard he willed to, he couldn't move. His chest was getting tighter, his breaths thinning, the darkness around closing in on him, suffocating him. His eyes, the only part of his body he still had control over, darted around, desperately trying to find some escape.

A sharp pain suddenly hit him, smothering all other thoughts. If felt like he had been stabbed in the chest. His eyes flicked down to where the blinding pain was coming from, and oh shit, he had been stabbed in the chest.

"Kaveh?"

Crimson spread across his previously white shirt, as his vision blurred. At some point, he had gained back control over his body, but he could hardly move, only managing to take a single step before he fell, the ground giving out beneath him.

"Kaveh."

He kept falling.

"Kaveh!"

Kaveh opened his eyes, and it was no longer dark. He was in bed, and upon looking down, found that there was, thankfully, no longer a knife in his chest. Focusing on trying to even out his breathing, he shakily sat up, pushing the covers off his sweat-soaked body.

"You woke me up." Alhaitham's voice snapped Kaveh out of his daze with a start. "You must've had quite the nightmare."

Kaveh stayed silent, the lingering fear from the dream slowly turning into annoyance for Alhaitham's lack of concern. He found himself questioning why he had even slept with him for a moment, before lying back down, rolling onto his side so that he was facing away from Alhaitham. "I'm fine."

"Good." Kaveh heard a click as the room was sent into darkness again, and as quickly as it had left, the fear was back. Logically, there was no reason to be scared – what happened before was only a dream – but he couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't completely safe.

Still, he was stubborn, so he stayed still, though with his eyes wide open so that he wouldn't end up falling asleep again. He tried to mimick the slow breathing pattern of an actual sleeping person, but couldn't hide the slight shake in his breaths.

"Don't pretend to be asleep." Barely a minute had passed until Alhaitham spoke up, immediately catching Kaveh out. Upon aknowledging Kaveh's deliberate silence, he sighed."..Come here."

Kaveh didn't want to go to him. He didn't want to be a baby and have to have human contact simply because of a nightmare. Yet somehow, he found himself obliging, rolling over and shuffling himself towards Alhaitham, melting into his touch as he pulled him even closer.