Time to Take Flight

Nightmares

(Warning. This part is cringe and out of character. I'm so sorry)

Lazarus continues to toss and turn. Stirring in his mildly disturbed sleep. He continues to mutter incoherent sentences where only a few words spoken can be heard. It's a difficult life for him. No parents around to help him during his hard times, barely any friends, and the humiliation of Chris' dumbass challenges forcing him to swallow any sort of pride down to the back of his throat and choking himself to sleep.

The torture of being reminded of a time that caused a lot of trauma is unbearable to Lazarus. Forcing him to wake up with a sudden jolt. Breathing heavily as he holds in his tears. His small aching hands gripping the dense fabric of the blanket on top of him. He sits him slowly, moving the beige blinds out of the way of the window. He watches as a mostly black background soars by. Occasionally followed by the rare light from any sort of home, light post, or just fireflies. He takes another deep and slow breath to steady himself. His heart was pounding so hard it could rip out of his little chest. He puts his head in his hands in sorrow. Gripping his hair and letting a few small tears form in his full green eyes.

"Just a dream..."

He mutters. Still having his heart racing at 100kph. José listens to this somber nightmare from outside the small bedroom. The lights are turned completely off making it difficult to see anything. He looks around, worried for his little friend (quite literally "little" since José is 6'3 while Lazarus is 4'9-4'11). He sighs and continues to listen to this depressing monologue. Not wanting to interrupt him, José peacefully stands at the door, his legs crossed slightly as he leans against the wall. Causing a tiny clanking sound to be heard. He listens to Lazarus weep silently. The small manipulator side of him is thinking about how he can potentially use this to his advantage. He can't help but have a small, sadistic grin. He has no idea on what Lazarus has to deal with everyday of his life. The bullying, trauma, mental instability, etc.

The memories flooding his brain, sending him into a spiral of hysteria. His grip on his hair tightening as the tears start to flow more down his pale freckled cheeks. His panic being very overwhelming to say the least. He lets his emotions take over his mind and cries more and more. Curling up with his knees to his chest. His hands move from his soft red hair to his small delicate ears. He misses his mother incredibly. The whole reason why he participated on the show was because he wanted to win the money so that way he could use it to find his mom after she left him all those years ago.

From outside of the room, José can hear the small sobs escaping the smaller boy's mouth. He sighs and walks down the creaky corridor. Heading to his own personal room. Not wanting to agitate him any further and add to his panic attack. José opens the sliding door to his room. The thick walls muffled most of the sounds from the surrounding environment.

José plops into his soft bed. Trying to get his mind off of his potential crush's mental state. José closes his dark desaturated green eyes and tries to get some sleep. The clock reads "11:26PM". His brain shutting off and preparing for some well needed sleep. His eyes snapping open when he hears a loud crash coming from the other room. Knowing that something must be wrong with Lazarus, he jumps out of bed and walks towards the slightly opened sliding door. Sliding it fully open and creeping towards Lazarus' room. He hears much louder crying from inside the room. Lazarus sounded more mad than anything. Sobbing from pure anger and frustration. His voice sounding like he's almost intimidating someone's voice.

"Why can't you do anything right?!"

"How could you do that to ||NAME REDACTED||!? They almost DIED because of you!"

"This won't hurt a bit, dear, it's just a small "test"."

Another small crash is heard. In a moment of not thinking properly, he knocks on the door due to his worry for his little friend. The knocking echoed throughout the entire room. An almost uncomfortable silence followed for a few minutes. He knocks again with a slightly more firm bang. Shuffling is heard from inside the room as Lazarus seems to be in a panic to act like everything is fine. He waits for a few more seconds before speaking. His voice is full of concern, which is uncommon for José. He speaks as if he's dealing with a small child.