Strings and Buttons

Chapter 34: Hand Fight

When he opens the front door, cold air brushes against his face. He doesn't bother to put a scarf on or his coat, looking up at the gray sky for a moment. He looks around, his eyes passing over shadows and darkened trees. 

There is a lingering voice in his head, leftover remnants of a ghost. 

"Get rid of the key... It's the key she wants..." 

There is an itchy feeling that surrounds the skin touching the key, and Katsuki knows what he has to do. There is only one place he could think of right now that would be protective enough so that no one would find the key. 

He goes out into the night, his footsteps crunching over dirt and gravel. It isn't quiet, not at all like the nights he spent in the other mother's world. He can hear insect chittering, and it doesn't feel like he's alone.

 He walks past the rotting trees and the spiky bushes, all the way to the clearing where the well waits. He walks over to it, the stacked stone packed together just like he remembers. He wonders if Deku had been looking for him while he was gone or if he was still taking care of his mom. 

He could use some fucking help sliding this wood lid off. 

He puts both his palms on the width of the lid, and begins to push, his feet planted into the mud. He grits his teeth and pushes as hard as he can. There is a small slide, then it opens smoothly. He pushes only halfway, before standing straight up again. 

There is the sound of something snapping. The hair at the back of his neck stands up, instantly alerted by the sound, and he looks behind him. His eyes dart through the shadows, looking for anything suspicious. 

The faster he does this the faster he can leave. 

He pulls the key out from under his t shirt and holds it up in the air, using the other hand to lift the string over his head. Right when he's about to take the string off from around his neck, something that he had mistaken for a dark patch in the woods scurries out. 

Its clicking and scuttering legs (Or at least he thinks they're legs) are in sync as it crab walks quickly to him. He doesn't have time to do much else except look, because then the thing that is definitely not a fucking rat is clawing at his face. 

He drops the key, the string making it tap against his shirt, and puts his hands up to get the thing off of him. He yells when he feels thin lines being scratched into his skin, and he finally gets a grip on the thing and throws it against the well. 

He pants, looking down at it for the split second of peace he gets. Once he gets a look at it, he knows instantly what it is. He's seen it so much he thinks he'll probably see it in his sleep for the rest of his life.

 Long, thin, boney fingers with bright nail polish flex as the other mother's right hand tries to regain its balance. Katsuki lifts his boot up, ready to stomp it to hell, before it jumps up, landing on the tips of its fingers, its long nails dug into the dirt for only a second. 

It scatters up his leg, digging into his skin and up to his neck, where the key is. 

"Hey what the fu-!" 

The key is ripped away from him, the string digging into his neck. He chokes until the string finally breaks from the force of the hand pulling, snapping. The hand lands on the well, careful not to land in the opening. Katsuki lunges for it, arms out, grasping for it. 

No way in hell is he going to get his ass kicked by some fucking hand. The hand scurries off, trying to make a run for it. Katsuki circles around the well and lunges for it again, tripping over a sharp rock sinking into the mud. 

When he lands harshly, the sharp rock digs itself into his leg, right above his swollen ankle, and he lets out another scream. In his landing, he also managed to land on one of the other mother's hands fingers, crushing it with a sickening crack.

If the hand could scream, he's sure it would with the way it shakes so violently. He hopes its also hurting that dumb bitch, wherever the fuck she is right now. He grips the bone of the hands broken finger when it tries to run away again, trying to ignore the feeling of thick black blood staining his palm. 

Its bone juts out, stabbing into the meat of his hand dully. It only gets worse when it starts to struggle.

 "I'm not letting you go you piece of shit!" 

As if spurred on by Katsuki's words, the hand stops struggling only to rush towards him, long nails ready to dig themselves into his eyes. He lets it go to cover his face, letting his arms take most of the blow. 

Its nails are sharp, a lot sharper than he thought they would be, and he can feel the unbearable stinging of wind brushing against his open cuts all over his body. The other mother's hand had left the button key in the mud to focus on attacking Katsuki, clearly personal. 

He can see it, just right there. He would reach for it if not for the strength of the hand that Katsuki hadn't expected. Then, leaving his arms, the hand goes for his neck, squeezing. His breath halts and he tries to pry the fingers off of him, but they only grow stronger. 

He can feel blood oozing from small cuts on his neck as he struggles. He even tries to roll to the side, but with the rock still dug into his leg, it's hard. As it goes on, his vision begins to grow blurry and spotted.