Until My Asthma Has Come To End

1. When It Breaks

Edgeworth leaves his office late into the night, locking the door behind him before striding down the corridor towards the stairs. He isn't aware of the stranger emerging from down the hall, now tailing him. The prosecutor slips his hand into his pocket, withdrawing his phone when the stranger strikes, grabbing him and knocking the phone out of his hands before dragging him backwards.

Miles struggles in the assailant's hold, nearly breaking free when the culprit abruptly sends him stumbling forward into an open, ringing elevator. The attacker chuckles darkly, watching Edgeworth's face grow sickly pale, the panic and fear stretching across his face.

"This is what happens to you when you lead a corrupt life, Chief. You ruined my life by taking someone dear to me, so now I'm going to ruin yours. Have a good night, sir. " The assailant hits the "close door" button, the only working button on the shattered panel. He steps back as the doors begin to close, then simply walks away.

Edgeworth struggles to breathe as the doors slide shut, the alarm ringing louder in his ears than it should as the elevator stands still. He closes his eyes tightly, hands trembling as they grasp onto the handle bar behind him, the man attempting to clear his head and calm himself down. However, the nightmares, the trauma, the terror from that time come crashing down on him, Miles gasping for air as his chest tightens and squeezes.

He wants to scream, to pound on the doors, to call someone for help, but he's paralyzed. The panic nearly suffocates him, his heart aching in his chest. Is this his fate—being trapped in an elevator with no possibility of ever being saved? Is this is a new form of torture? He sure feels like it is, and it's enough to put him in tears. The prosecutor weeps in despair, pleading in his head for someone to rescue him...

Hours pass and the man is now sitting in the corner of the elevator with a vacant look in his puffy, bloodshot eyes. His glasses have been discarded along with his coat, his hair frazzled from running his hands through it constantly. He's given up on help, –conveyed by the way he sits–having screamed and pounded on the walls and doors until his voice gave out and his hands throbbed, only to earn nothing in return. He accepts his fate, fully aware that no one is coming for him, and he's fine with that now. He deserves this.

The ringing of the elevator has become a mere buzz in the back of his head at this point, his thoughts loud as they circle in his head, drowning everything else out. His head tilts, thumping against the wall of the elevator, staring at the wall but seeing nothing. He distantly registers grunts over the alarm before the doors are pried open, light flooding into the elevator. Miles doesn't lift his head to spare a glance at his apparent savior, he merely continues to look at the wall.

He isn't aware that he's being lifted and carried out of the elevator, his savior clearly his investigative partner rushing to take him home, mumbling out "you're okay, pal" as he does so. Everything blurs and fades throughout the journey until his body is meeting the bed, not quite hearing the frantic questions from his partner.

Miles simply curls up on his side, staring blankly at the wall, the conversations happening beside him only a hum to him.

                                                 *************************

Phoenix knows Edgeworth like the back of his hand, and while he knows that the man tends to stay late at the office, something about tonight had felt off, so when Detective Gumshoe shows up at his door with a dazed Chief Prosecutor in his arms and a surprisingly angry look on his face, Phoenix feels the dread thicken in his gut. Never in his years of knowing the bumbling detective has he ever seen him so angry, and rarely does he ever see Edgeworth in such a state, so he's almost scared to know what happened.