from august to december

chapter twenty four

there was something calm about rain.
especially when it hit after long weeks of burning august heat.

it felt like everything was cooling down again and falling asleep.
when it rains, it pours.

and if 'rain' is looked at not being calm, but rather being uncomfortable and cold, it could translate to being a bad thing.

so when one bad thing happens, more bad things happen.

when it rains, it pours.

shino was gripping the door handle. his breath was shaky and shallow.
it felt like his throat was squeezed shut so no air could come through.

it was cold, his body was trembling.

was this his end?
he could feel his life flashing before his eyes.

with his frozen fingers, he reached out for his phone on the couch, scrolling through his contacts.

he clicked on one finally after struggling for what felt like ages.

the person picked up after the second time ringing.

"shino?"
"m-m..."

he couldn't speak. his body was too weak and his mind was too scared to push words out.

"are you okay?" the voice of the person on the other line sounded afraid.

"shino?"

nothing.
just heavy breaths on park shino's side as he sunk onto his knees because he had lost the balance in them, leaning forward to not throw up every second now.

and then, matio grabbed his purse and his keys and rushed out of the room, slammed his front door shut and sprinted to his car in front of the house.

he felt nervous, as if somebody was mushing all his guts together.
but not half as bad as shino, who was dripping with ice cold sweat on his forehead and blue lips.

his assistant quickly jumped into his black car and drove off to find shino.
his phone was still clipped between his shoulder and his cheek as he maneuvered the machine out of the parking lot.

the blond was still on the line but unable to speak.

"listen, i'm coming over now, where is yuri?"

the other swallowed the spit that rested in his mouth from breathing so much and too little at the same time.

"h-he...out...w-"
"he's not there?
"y-yea."

matio assured his boss he would be there in a few seconds and hung up the phone to focus on the road.
he was driving way over the speed limit for the streets, but that didn't matter to him in that moment.

he cared about his friend and he wanted to help him, even though he didn't seem like the person that would.

and it indeed only took him a few seconds to drive over to park's house, luckily, he only lived about five minutes away since he had moved a little outside of the city.

the black front door to his house was open somehow and he marched in with big steps and breathed heavily through his nose.

"shino?" he yelled into the house, but there was no answer. he just heard a gagging noise from the bathroom and he rushed over to his left, before almost kicking in the door.

the blond was leaning over the toilet seat and vomiting all of the food out of his stomach he had consumed the last three weeks while hugging himself so tightly the white knuckles showed on his hands.

he was pale, his skin was sweaty.

"oh god," matio kneeled down next to him and gently brushed his wet hair out of his eyes just before the other started throwing up violently again.

he was still not breathing regularly as he looked at matio and forced a smile.

"hey, it's okay, i'm here now," he reassured and patted the olders back. "let it out, okay? i'll get you something to drink."

with that, he quickly moved into the huge kitchen and spotted minnie restlessly tapping around in the open living room across from it.
she was brushing her fur against the couch and the chimney, as always.

when she noticed matio clanging the dishes in the kitchen to fish out a glass and fill it with some cold water from the fridge, she quickly jumped over and whined at him.

the man reached down to give her a comforting pat on the head.
"it's okay, he'll be fine."

and the little puppy seemed to calm down, but she didn't follow matio into the bathroom, as if she knew it would be best to just wait here.

shino was still retching and almost passed out from exhaustion, not only mentally but physically.
he was drained, his whole body felt like it had been squeezed like a wet towel to get the water out.

and his throat was so dry and hot from the vomit, when matio held the glass to his lips, he didn't hesitate a second and drank up all of the icy liquid inside.

the water made him feel better in an instant, he leaned back and let his head fall into his neck.
he suddenly didn't feel sick anymore, but rather just numb to everything.

"what happened?" matio questioned him softly while taking the glass back from his hand.
shino shook his head.
"i don't know, man. maybe the whole eden thing is starting to get to me, i-"

wait, was he opening up?
he wasn't supposed to go that.
never.

that's what he taught him.

"i haven't slept too well, because of the full moon, and when i don't sleep, i get nauseous pretty quickly."

"listen, you don't need to hide anything from me, park. i know you. shit like that doesn't happen to you because you don't sleep."

the blond sighed heavily before trying to get up on wobbly knees, his assistant quickly moved to support him and wrap an arm around his waist.

"is it because of eden? you can tell me."

shino's face dropped.
it felt like he had bitten more than he could chew, as if he had been standing under a dried out waterfall and all of a sudden all of the liquid fell down on him in a heavy stream.

it felt like way too much to bear for him alone.

his shoulders trembled as he finally allowed himself to cry in the others embrace, matio just hugged him warmly as if he hadn't done a single other thing in his life.

"it is, i can't take it anymore, it's so much i have to focus myself on, my work, eden, yuri, eli, the death i witnessed and the deaths i didn't witness but i can still feel in my chest everytime i try to fall asleep because those people meant so much to me."

he gasped and more tears flowed down.

"i saw my friend take his own life. my youngest friend. leo collins. he jumped off a roof after hiroto maiden died before him."

"when i try to sleep at night, i can still hear eli's worried voice, his shaky breath and i can feel the fear in his chest when he called me."

matio's furrowed his eyebrows, but he didn't say anything.
and it costed shino a lot to continue.

"because...he had killed one of us exactly four years ago."