Safe With You | 𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐨 𝐦𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐦𝐢

Prologue

The sound of clattering plates echoed through the small apartment and the slam of a cabinet door struck through Y/N's heart. A crash followed by a yell of agony could be heard clearly through the thin drywall.

"Damn it! Another glass wasted!"

Wine sloshed into a new glass and was quickly downed by an already drunk woman. Y/N did her best to ignore what was going on outside her door and keep throwing clothes and necessities in her backpack. Crumpled school papers were strewn across the floor and Y/N was trying to grab everything she couldn't live without and cram it all into one singular bag. A few clothes, all the spare cash she had, hygiene products, a pair of scissors... just in case?

She took one last look at her desk for anything she missed and caught her eye on an old battered deck of cards. Could she live without them? Probably, but...

She grabbed them and stuffed the box into her bag between some extra socks and a phone charger. Running through a mental checklist one more time, she shoved her shoes on and grabbed a coat. It may be warm for a jacket right now, but it could come in handy. Who knows how long she'd be gone or where she would be able to sleep.

Y/N stood silently at the door to her room for a moment, listening for where her mother was at the moment. Intoxicated grumbles could be heard from the living room while the TV flipped through channels, each more unsatisfying to the angry woman than the last. Turning the knob painfully slowly, the young girl slowly began her escape. She was halfway down the hallway towards the front door when a menacing shadow caught her.

"Where are you going, bitch?"

"Hey mom..."

"I asked," she narrowed her eyes, "where are you going?"

A sudden rush of adrenaline surged through Y/N.

"Away. So far away. I'm leaving."

The drunk woman ran her free hand through her hair and laughed. She looked like a twisted version of the villains in the cartoons Y/N watched growing up.

"Are you really that ungrateful? Fine, just go. Go live out there with all the little monsters you cry about. Go suffer with them and then we'll see who's really a monster. Your imagination or your mother." She cackled at her perceived intelligence and turned back to the living room.

Tears leaked out onto Y/N's cheeks and she slammed the front door as she ran out of the apartment. She didn't bother to look back and just kept running until she couldn't anymore. Her vision was blurred from her tears and all years of unfairness and hatred were boiling inside her. It wasn't her imagination and she really could see these wretched creatures. They were everywhere and they were so, so awful. She could feel it in her gut when a place was brimming with negative energy. No one ever believed her. The memory of her own mother slapping her when she was just a child as she told her to stop lying about what she saw flashed in her mind and her emotions spilled over the top.

When Y/N opened her eyes she had no idea where she was. Worn out from painful memories of her past, she searched around for a place to rest. The sun had set and the night air was setting in. Eventually, she came across an abandoned building and went to test out the front door.

As she neared the entrance, that odd sense struck her again and something was telling her the energy in this place was unsafe. Y/N may be tired, but she wasn't risking danger for some mediocre sleep on a dirty floor. Another block away, she settled for a peaceful abandoned building and curled up on the floor with her backpack as a pillow and coat for a blanket.

The next few weeks passed following the same loop. Finding new buildings to sleep in and tossing and turning all night, only laying still for nightmares or out of pure exhaustion. During the day Y/N would wander through the city of Tokyo and find entertainment in people-watching from garden benches or playing card games alone at cafe tables. Every once in a while, she'd encounter one of the monsters she could see and it wouldn't just ignore her.