Ancient Forces (2018 Reboot)

Chapter 15 - Struggling and Thriving

The door opened to the dusty, dark room and Zayne held up his hand over his mouth. He took two steps in before realizing that his hand would not be able to stop the dust assault. Instead, he simply held his entire arm over his mouth and used his other hand to wave the particles out of the way. When it was clear Zayne grabbed the vacuum cleaner outside the door and brought it in. He plugged it into the corner and set it up so that it would constantly be sucking up dust particles from the air without making any noise. Zayne had everything set up and ready to go when he heard a small clatter from behind him. When he turned to see what the noise was he saw nothing but darkness past the metal bars.

    Suddenly a massive Ankylosaurus tail slammed into the bars, bending seven of them and snapping two of them in half. A loud roar emitted from the darkness and Zayne had to cover his ears. In such a small space with such a loud roar, it felt like his ears were about to explode. Filled with panic Zayne got up and forced his right arm to fully glow, giving off more light than the light bulb above. The glow illuminated the shadow of Hybrid along the walls of the smaller caged in room which held the beast. Zayne quickly took a step back, not sure what to do in this situation. The beast bellowed again, then slammed another its tail into the bars again, snapping more of them in half. When it realized that the opening was big enough Hybrid spun around and tried to grab Zayne.

    He quickly jumped back up against the door and waited for Hybrid to stop struggling to grab him. When Hybrid had returned to its room Zayne ran up and slammed on the bars, getting its attention before it attacked again.

"ELI!" Zayne screamed.

    Hybrid paused for a moment, the glowing green eyes seemingly pierced by the call. The reptile slits for pupils turned back into human's pupils and shrunk down. The body began to reshape and shrink, the flesh of a human body slowly returning as all of the dinosaur-like appendages vanished. A low whining sound came from the now crying fleshy ball on the ground. Zayne held up his light to Eli and saw him curled up on the floor, his knees against his chest and his arms tightly wrapped around them. He was sobbing uncontrollably. Zayne quickly jumped into the room through the broken bars and bent down next to him. He gently wrapped Eli in his arms and changed his heat to match that of a more comforting level. Eli's sobbing slowly stopped, becoming nothing more than a soft sniff.

"It's okay, it's okay, I've got you. It's fine, it's fine, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you," Zayne repeated and comforted.

"I can't... can't... do it Zayne... I just... I just can't..." Eli mumbled over and over in unison with Zayne's words.

"Shhh it's okay, you'll get there you'll get there," Zayne repeated.

"I keep hearing it in the back of my mind Zayne," Eli exclaimed, "It won't go away! The roars and screams won't go AWAY!"

    Zayne held Eli even tighter in his arms and started rocking him. There was no way Eli wasn't having some sort of emotional breakdown right now. Maybe Hybrid coming out was a result of that. Either way, Zayne couldn't just let Eli suffer like this. There had to be something he could do to help him. Calm his mind, keep the memories at bay. He couldn't just stay home from school twenty-four seven and babysit Eli every time he had a breakdown. There had to be something he could do outside of school to help this poor kid.

"I can't focus on anything Zayne," Eli grumbled, "There's too much noise, there's too much chaos going on."

    That gave Zayne an idea. Quickly he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his phone. While still holding Eli and trying to comfort him Zayne went to Youtube and searched up ambient forest sounds. He started playing the longest one he could find, a full eleven hours, and set it aside at its maximum volume. Eli's mumbling and repeating words slowly stopped. Zayne stopped feeling a vibration over Eli's body and Zayne looked down to check. Eli was asleep. Just like that he'd fallen asleep. Zayne gently unwrapped his arms from around Eli and scooted back. He picked Eli up and set him on his bed, now furnished with an actual mattress and pillow, along with a few blankets. After making sure Eli was comfortable Zayne reached down and grabbed his phone. He got out of the barred in room.