|Weak Hero| Healing Snake [REWRITTEN]

Chapter 1

TRIGGER WARNING: This story contains past sexual abuse and suicidal thoughts.

Gray's entire body felt as if it were on fire but he forced himself to continue stumbling through the alley. Just breathing hurt. He was exhausted and desperately wanted to rest but he couldn't stop. He needed to put as much distance as he could between himself and his abusers.

He didn't know how long it had been since he had been first kidnapped. There were no windows in his prison cell and all the drugs that had been injected into him or added to his food and force fed to him made his mind too unfocused and fuzzy to properly keep track of time. 

There were times that Gray refused to eat the drugged food. He attempted to starve himself because he wanted to die rather than to continue suffering in that hellhole. Unfortunately, that resulted in his captors holding him down and forcefully feeding him. Many of their customers preferred petite people, but they wouldn't want someone to be thin enough that their bones prominently showed.

Gray's knees nearly buckled and he caught himself by leaning against the brick wall. He shoved a finger down his throat and forced himself to throw up in hopes that it'd get rid of the drugs in his system faster. The bile burned his throat but it was nothing compared to the abuse he had endured.

As he wiped the corner of his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt, his legs finally gave in and he fell to the ground. 'Fuck!' He tried to get back up but lacked the strength to do so. 'I can't go back! I refuse to go back!' His fear and anxiety increased as he heard footsteps approaching. 'I would rather die that go back!'

Gray saw a broken bottle and grabbed one of the largest shards. He raised it up and brought it down to cut his wrist, but a pale, tattooed hand caught his wrist in time.

"White Mamba?"

White Mamba. That was his epithet given to him after rising through the ranks of the Shuttle Patch. Only other high schoolers called him that, not those monsters. His kidnappers called him those revolting nicknames that made him want to tear his own ears out whenever he heard them.

The person who found him wasn't one of those monsters, but that didn't put Gray at ease. His friends never called him by his epithet and always used his real name. Given his reputation, he wouldn't be surprised if an enemy decided to take advantage of his weakened state to either get revenge or defeat him to gain fame.

Gray clenched the glass shard even tighter and it dug into his hands, causing blood to drip down. He tried to bring the shard down onto his wrist again, but whoever was holding his wrist was not going to let him do so.

Instead, the pale hand unfurled Gray's fist and forced him to drop the glass shard. "I'm going to call an ambulance—"

"NO!" Gray screamed. "NO HOSPITALS! NO COPS!"

Those monsters in that hellhole forced him to act out scenarios, some of which were ones where his abusers were doctors or law enforcement officers. Logically, he'd be able to get proper medical treatment if he did go to a hospital. However, the trauma from those scenarios were too much for Gray at the moment.

"Then..." Donald Na asked. "Do you want to come with me?"

Gray was surprised by the question. He was being given a choice. His kidnappers would have just dragged him into their car without saying anything and force him back to that hellhole. Whoever the guy in front of him was, he wasn't with his kidnappers.

That was enough for Gray to accept the offered hand. Donald pulled Gray up, but Gray's weakened stay caused him to immediately fall forward and hit Donald's chest. Gray panicked at the closeness but Donald gently moved him into a position where he could still walk, but with Donald being used as a crutch. He allowed Gray the ability to control his own movements.

"My car is nearby," Donald told him. "Do you want me to drive you to my house, or do you want to walk there instead?"

Again, he was being given a choice. 'I don't think I'd be able to walk far and my kidnappers could be close by...' Gray's voice was much quieter but still shaky. "If...If we take your car...are you going to take me back to hell?"

"No," Donald's answer was immediate. "I'm not with the people who kidnapped you. I may be a delinquent, but even I have lines that I don't cross,"

"Get me away from here," Gray begged. "Please..."

XXX

Gray had intended to stay awake. He fought so hard against the exhaustion but lost the fight in the end. He had gone past his limit and lost consciousness during the ride to Donald's house. After pulling into his driveway, Donald shook Gray's shoulder but that latter was out cold. He gently picked Gray up and brought him inside.

"Welcome back, Donald," Kingsley greeted and froze once he saw who was with him. "Isn't that Gray Yeon? The Eunjang student who went missing three months ago?"

"Yeah," Donald nodded as he headed to the bathroom. "Help me get him cleaned up and treat his wounds,"

They gently scrubbed the dirt and grime from Gray's skin. When they were cleaning his back, both teens were horrified to see the words SLUT and WHORE carved into the frail boy's body. Kingsley noticed Donald's dark expression.

"Donald?" Kingsley gently called.

"Those bastards who kidnapped him..." Donald gritted his teeth and clenched his fists with rage. "They raped him,"

While Donald never personally suffered sexual abuse himself, his own mother suffered from it at the hands of her husband. Sua often tried to hide it from Donald, but Donald easily pieced together what had happened.

They finished tending to Gray's wounds in silence and dressed him in some of Donald's clothes, although they were pretty large on Gray's small frame. Donald let him rest in their spare bedroom before heading outside to smoke.

"Why didn't you call an ambulance or the cops once you found him?" Kingsley inquired. "They'd be better equipped to handle his situation and give him proper medical treatment,"

"He was terrified when I mentioned calling an ambulance," Donald recalled. "He told me he didn't want any doctors or cops. Given that there are several injection marks along his arms and legs as well as what looks like handcuff marks on his wrists, I don't blame him," He brought his cigarette to his lips before exhaling a puff of smoke. "Kingsley, get me Ben Park's phone number,"

I decided to rewrite the entire Healing Snake trilogy (Alones, D. Tecno Life, and Rolling Star) into this one story so that it'll flow smoother. There will also be some changes.