ʀᴀɢᴇ ʀᴏᴏᴍ | ᴘ1ʜ

Raw

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Back in the store, Indiya helped Soul slip into the coveralls and goggles, hearing him sigh once fully dressed.

"I don't know about this, Indiya..."

"Trust me, it's okay," Indiya reassured Soul. "That's the whole point of a Rage Room: To let your emotions out. Think of it as a form of therapy. Nobody's around to judge you, Soul."

"...Will you...?"

"Absolutely not." Indiya shook her head. "Ain't no purpose in judging anyone; we all got our own sins to deal with, and I've always tried to make this place a judgment-free zone..."

Indiya could still sense the apprehension and anxiety oozing from Soul, and she sighed. "You gotta let that shit out, Soul. Believe me when I say that bottling up your anger and angst is only gonna fuck you up worse in the long run."

She placed a gentle hand on Soul's shoulder. "I've been through some fuck-shit, man, and that's not to invalidate your experience at all. When I first started working here, it gave me an outlet – it allowed me to fully let out all of the pain I've been carrying. That's when I made myself a promise – whoever walks through those doors will leave feeling better than when they came in."

Indiya turned to look back at the front doors. "You know all those guys that were just here?" Soul nodded. "Well, most of them came in looking like you, but on smaller scales. Two of them had their girlfriends break up with them on the same day, another was being bullied, and another one just lost their parent, but could you tell that by looking at them?"

"W-Well...no..."

"Exactly." Indiya nodded. "They all had something in common, though: At some point, they came here, they talked to me, they went into one of these rooms and came back to talk to me again. You know what they said?"

Soul meekly tilted his head.

"They said that after a while, they felt the emotions they carried in with them go away. I did what I could to help them, and it worked. If you allow me, Soul, I can help you too..."

Soul pressed his lips into a thin line, and Indiya could see one of his legs trembling as if he wanted to take a step somewhere, so she led him to the rooms, opening a door on Soul's left.

The boy slowly inched into the room, his eyes wandering around until they froze on the weapons rack, and he raised a finger to point at one of the weapons. "I can't use that one."

"The crowbar?" Indiya asked, pointing to the mentioned tool.

Soul hummed softly. "My dad kept one outside of my room whenever he wanted to beat me. I can't touch it..."

"Okay." Indiya simply nodded, swiping the crowbar off the rack. "Not a problem...Are there any other ones you don't feel comfortable using?"

"N-No, that was it..." Soul shook his head. "Thank you..."

"Of course." Indiya flashed a small yet warm smile at the boy. "If you need me, I'll be out front. Just knock on the door and I'll come back, okay?"

Soul let out another hum, leaving Indiya to close the door, trapping him inside the room with the weapons and breakables.

Indiya opted not to turn on the cameras as a means to give Soul his privacy, and for a while, she couldn't hear anything come from his room except for the occasional shattering of glass.

But that shattering glass slowly snowballed into loud smashing, thuds, banging, and screaming.

Indiya's blood ran cold at the screams she heard; it was way too painful for her to listen to because she recognized the same screams that she herself once made.

Soul's screams were raw, ear-splitting, blood-curdling – far past animalistic and teetering the line of barbaric. His screaming was also accompanied by Why's, or Why Me's, a string of Fuck You's, and a string of I Hate You's.

Let a passerby walk past the store; they would've thought a massacre was taking place with how brutally amplified Soul's voice had become.

But his wailing soon subsided into sobs – slightly quieter, but still loud enough for Indiya to hear.

Then, she heard the barely audible, arrhythmic knocks on the room door coming from Soul, signaling her to let him out, and she instantly stood up to answer the non-verbal call.

Indiya slowly creaked the door open, her eyes widening at the sight of Soul lying on his side in the fetal position, pretty much bawling his eyes out so much that he created a tiny puddle of tears under his head.

Indiya picked the boy up in a tight bear hug, allowing him to cry on her shoulder. "It's alright, Soul, it's okay..."

While rubbing small circles on his back, Indiya took a look around the room to see how much damage Soul had dealt.

"This is only the first step to healing."

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