◀AT SOBEK'S MERCY▶

Pt. 1 - Home (not so) Sweet Home

...

What...

...

Where...

...

It was cold. His head hurt.

What happened?

Where was he?

Hantei came to his senses slowly. He opened his eyes and looked around, but didn't recognise the place. He tried to remember what had happened. His mind was blurry and his thoughts formed incredibly slow. As he pieced them together, he felt a pit appear in his stomach. The events came flooding back, his pulse quickening a little.

The Silver Light Sonata, its flavour sweet at first, had quickly morphed into a bitter taste of betrayal as Hantei had realised his mistake. The drink had been spiked. And it was already too late. The room spun and he'd fallen into a dark abyss before even understanding what was happening. And now he was here.

He could recall vague bits of mocking laughter, the putrid stench of drying blood and a slicing pain in the side of his head, but other than that, he only found black holes and missing pieces. He sat up, his muscles rather reluctant to comply, his body numb and still feeling the aftereffects of whatever he'd been drugged with. Observing his situation further, his confusion soon gave way to dread.

He found himself alone in an empty cargo container, barely dressed and with his belongings nowhere to be seen. His heart rate picked up and his breathing fell shallow, the weight of his realisation nearly crushing him. Panic crept in despite his efforts to push it away, making it nearly impossible to think. He gripped his head to try and ground himself, but was met with even more dismay. Where he'd expected to find strands of long, blond hair, was now a patchy, uneven stubble. Hantei felt frantically around his head and winced as his fingers came across a small incision above his ear, a dull ache radiating from the wound.

He struggled to keep his breath steady. He didn't know where he was or what had happened, but he knew it wasn't good and that he certainly didn't want to be wherever he was now. He stood up and stumbled to the door, his steps unsteady and wavering. He pushed against it with all the pathetic strength he had in him, but it didn't budge, not even when he slammed against the metal with his entire body. He was trapped.

Hantei rubbed his painfully throbbing shoulder, leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor, feeling faint. He pulled his knees to his chest, shivering from the cold. Was this an appropriate time to fear? Because right now, there wasn't much else he could do.

---------------------------------

He didn't know how long had passed. He must've dozed off at some point, the remnants of the sedative still making their rounds in his system. He awakened to a metallic clonking from the door. Someone was trying to get in. Panicked, Hantei scrambled away, pushing himself against the opposite wall. The lock unlatched and the door opened slowly with an ear-piercing creak. Hantei's eyes were flooded with a bright light and he raised his arms to hide his face, his eyes hurting after being in the dark for so long. His heart was pounding against his ribs, his mind blank and his body completely frozen. He closed his eyes and held his breath, dreading whatever would come next, but the person in the doorway only stood there silently. Finally, they spoke up.

"Hantei?"

He recognised the voice.

Hantei opened his eyes and lowered his arms a little to see the silhouette in the doorway. As they stepped forward, he was hit with a huge wave of relief. He stared up at the person standing in the middle of the room, unable to do much more than sit there, wide-eyed, his body nearly gone limp. "Knocker", he managed to utter out, his voice weak. He couldn't understand what was going on, but it didn't matter now. They had come to save him. Knocker was here. He would be fine.