Making a choice

Nightmares

"You can't keep living here doing nothing! Look at what happened with that no good brother of yours!"

"Dad..."

"If you spend your life following her around then you'll end up a good for nothing to!"

"Diachi isn't good for nothing... he's in the top five..."

"If you aren't number one you're nothing!"

"Dad... please!"

"Go study! If you can't even do that I'll send you back to her!"

"Dad...!"

MC shot up from the pillows in a cold sweat. The sound of her voice calling out for her father still stung her ears as warm tears trickled down her cheeks. She scrunched her face as more tears threatened to fall and fought them back. Her blanketed knees were pulled up to her chest and she buried her face in the soft fabric covering them as her arms wrapped around her knees. Memories of when her parents divorced rushed back to her over and over again.

Her father taking her with him. Him using her to take out his aggression towards her mother. Him telling her over and over again how terrible the others were. Him locking her in her room until she could pass a test he made for her.

The beatings.

The lack of meals if she wasn't good.

The day he went too far. Pushed her too much.

She had been studying in her room for three days straight without a break. Her school was on a holiday and he was not pleased at her for asking if she could join some classmates on a camping trip. He locked her away with thick books on science and business, telling her to study them until he came back for her. The pages were stained with tear spots as she read, her stomach growling loudly the first two days but stopping completely on the third. It was four days at that point, that she hadn't had a meal, and her body was beginning to adjust, preparing to use what little fat reserves it had for energy. She learned that in the book on human anatomy that he had included in the stack. She was just so hungry, she didn't want to die, that was why she decided to attempt an escape.

Being on the second floor of a small apartment complex made it difficult to leave once she was locked inside her room. Being only ten, she was not too large to slip through her window, but she wasn't large enough that the fall wouldn't grievously wound her. She hadn't thought of that when she pushed it open with what little strength she had left. She simply thought of finally eating, especially as she hung from the windowsill by her finger tips. The sounds of her father's footsteps from the hall had frightened her and she had lost her grip, falling to land on her back, twisting one leg under her at an odd angle as the bone inside of it snapped.

The courts had determined that she should be returned to her mother, who was so shocked by her father's raising of her that she hadn't spoken the entire time in the courtroom. She was taken out of his abuse and welcomed into a loving household.

It still took years for her to get over what she went through. Sometimes she would slip up, break a plate or get below a perfect score in school, and she would become so terrified that she would have panic attacks.

She still had them sometimes.

She wanted to believe that she had moved on completely from the man but the dreams still came. Memories that flashed by as if they are clips in a compilation. The dreams always left her feeling hollow and alone. When she lived at her mother's there would always be someone there to comfort her after one of those dreams. Diachi or their mother would crawl into the bed with her and pet her head until her sobbing stopped and she was asleep once again. Here, in the apartment she couldn't leave without permission, the dreams were coming back in full force. Except here she had no one to comfort her and tell her it would all be okay.

Her breathing was coming out in quick short spurts. She couldn't get enough air and her chest was beginning to burn. It was closing in, everything was closing in. Her chest was on fire. It was so tight. She couldn't breathe.

Her phone began to chime, pulling her attention to the small screen. 707 flashed on it just above the newest profile picture he had set on the app. With shaking fingers she reached for it before pulling her hand back and balling it into a fist at her chest.

The phones screen went black as it fell into silence.

She pushed her head back into her knees.

The phone went off once again. Once again it was Seven. She stared at it for a moment before reaching for it once again.

"H... hell- hello..." She panted around her ragged breathing as she attempted to ride out the panic attack.

"MC? Are you okay?" Tears filled her eyes at the sound of his concern and she buried her face in her knees once again.

"Mm... I'm- I'm f-fine." She forced herself to say the words. He didn't need to worry about her, it would only distract him.

"MC..." she could hear a soft sigh come over the phone as if he was sitting right beside her. "If you don't tell me what's wrong I will come over there." She but her bottom lip hard, looking up at the ceiling as she squeezed her eyes shut and attempted breathing through her nose.

"I'm fine." She said again, a bit firmer. Silence followed her statement and she waited for Seven to give in to her silent plea to ignore her. "Se... Seven?" She asked in a whisper. Just then, she heard the sound of a car engine turning over. Her heart leapt in her chest.

"I'll be there in a few minutes, just... try to stay calm okay?" His voice was distant. She could tell he put her on speakerphone by the sound of the engine humming as he drove.

"You don't have to come... it's so late at night." She argued weakly as she hid her face in her knees once again. There was a soft grunt from him before she could hear the sound of wind coming through a cracked window.

"You don't have to be alone, especially if you're scared." Was his long awaited answer. She simply bit her lip once more, unsure as to what to say when he was already on his way over. Instead she bit down harder on her lip and looked over at the window where she could see a blanket of darkness beyond. The sounds of the car motor were still humming in her ear from the phone but Seven had fallen into silence as he drove.

"Almost there." He informed her after a few moments of them sitting in silence. She wiped her eyes on her knees as she nodded softly.

"Okay..." Her voice was faint even to her as she answered him. She coughed into her hand to clear her tired throat before trying once again. "O-okay. Should I um..."

"You don't have to do anything." His tone was firm but soft at the same instant. She was baffled by him, he didn't know her, not really, yet here he was driving to comfort her in the middle of the night for no reason other than that he heard something was off about her over the phone.

<A New Chat-room Opened>

The notification dinged in her ear and she pulled the phone away to see it before returning it. "Yoosung's awake." She mumbled softly.

"Yeah, he usually is about this time of night for the Lolol daily reset." Seven answered gently. She could hear the sound of dinging in the background. This caused her to straighten up as her eyebrows pulled together over her eyes.

"Where are you?" Her inquiry was met with silence for only a few seconds.

"Between the third and fourth floor."

She sucked in her breath and held it, he was already in the building. He had to live nearby if he managed to get there so soon, right? Her lips pulled into an uneasy smile for a second before her eyes widened. She leapt from the bed and scrambled to find something other than the fuzzy pajamas and kitty print t-shirt that she was currently wearing. In the end she picked her usual style, a pair of leggings with a sweater that reached just above her knees. She was in the bathroom washing her face when she heard the front door to the apartment open. She jumped as the sound of it closing reverberated through the large empty rooms.