The Switch {Diabolik Lovers Various x Reader}

Chapter XXIII(B) - Don't Tell Him

You stared up at him, torn between telling him nothing and lying your way out. Telling him the truth wasn't an option; if they knew your death would be reversed each time they would stop holding back altogether - bites would become deeper, hits would get harder. You only wished you had time to really think; Ayato's hand was constricting with each second that passed, leaving you very little room for thought as you began to gasp for breath. Okay...I'll just lie! Shouldn't be too hard, there are plenty of things I could have been meaning to say.

"I...was going to...say now that I―" you wheezed, tapping his wrist desperately. "Too...tight. Can't talk." His hand loosened somewhat, his face expectant. "Now that I'm back in my own body. Everything is so much worse somehow. I didn't want to let you know since I was sure if I complained you would make my life even more miserable." He regarded you carefully for a moment, your heart jumping erratically as he took his time in coming to a verdict.

"I can feel your pulse racing under my hand. You're lying." You choked as his hand clamped shut, closing your airways completely as your vision momentarily went black. "You really thought you could lie to ore-sama and get away with it?!" You were suddenly airborne as he tossed you off the bed, your head cracking off the floor with a nauseating thwack, sunbursts dancing across your eyes as you rose to your hands and knees only to have his foot slam down in the middle of your back.

"I'm not...lying―" you gasped, crying out when he ground his heel into your spine with a cruel grin.

"You are, chichinashi. Makes me wonder what is so secret that you can't even tell ore-sama." You screamed as he brought his foot down between your shoulder blades, the sound of splintering bones filling your ears as he laughed. "Gonna tell me now?" You shook your head resolutely, sick and tired of caving to their whims just because they acted violently toward you. He gave an irate snarl, dragging you to your feet and shoving you up against the door, his eyes practically glowing with fury. "You know, I don't think I've made it clear just how angry you leaving us made me." He took your face in his hands and dug his thumb right into your left eye, your screams meeting a new pitch as you felt your eye implode with a sickening pop. You grabbed his wrists as he went for the other eye, desperation sparking the power you had gained from drinking Laito's blood earlier, all the more potent since you had accidentally eaten his finger along with it. He grinned wildly as you shoved him back, fumbling for the door handle as he cackled. "This is going to be so fun. I love it when you fight back." You finally got the door open, darting out and sprinting down the corridor half blind, one hand covering your ruined eye and the other clutching your ribs as pain stabbed through your chest, blood from your punctured lungs rising in your throat. You were so disoriented by pain and fear that you didn't realise you had reached the main staircase until your foot met open air, a shocked gasp escaping your lips as you found yourself falling. You felt like you hit every single step on the way down, bones twisting and breaking in a gruesome kaleidoscope of pain. Your head hitting the hard wooden floor was almost painless, though you suddenly felt something viscous seeping from a deep fissure in your skull, and you suspected it wasn't just blood. You closed your eyes against the pressure bearing down on you, vaguely hearing Reiji berating Ayato furiously before everything went black.

***

You gave a scream, limbs pinwheeling madly as you broke from your stupor, falling with a thud to the floor. You shuddered as you lay there on the floor, phantom pain stabbing through your body and left eye throbbing maddeningly. You drew in a sharp breath, pushing yourself up into a sitting position and pulling your knees to your chest, resting your chin on them as you went over what had just happened. You had died, that much was obvious...though you didn't know how you still remembered the event. The place you went once that blackness closed in...it wasn't like anything you had imagined. It was like you were stuck in the middle of a horrific storm with debris smashing into you every second and tearing chunks of you away, until eventually you appeared back in this room within a blink of your eyes, your memories catching up to you after a second or two. You still felt that empty coldness within, though it was gradually receding. Now you were glad you hadn't told Ayato the truth. If you had made him aware of your situation how many more times would you have been killed? At least if they didn't know they wouldn't kill you without hesitation; there had been times in the past where whatever feelings they had got in the way of them harming you too permanently, but without the fear of losing you for whatever reason they would surely begin to test your limits.