Disclaimer: I don't own Free!

Chapter 1

Whispers and murmurs fill his ears as he slowly awakes from his sleep. His eyelids feel so heavy that he struggles to open his eyes.

Where is this?

"Makoto! You are awake!" he hears his worried mother says with relief and sniffles from her joyful tears. But how does she know that he is awake when he hasn't even opened his eyes yet? He tries to open his eyes to their full size, but all he sees is darkness. Why is it so dark in here? He lifts his dominant hand and covers one of his eyes, trying to feel movement of his eyelashes. Reality sinks in as he confirms that his eyes are blinking.

"Okaa-san…" Makoto calls for his mother in his dry, raspy voice that has not been used for ages, it seems.

"Do you need water? I'll get you some." Before his mouth can get another word out, his mother rushes out to get him water as she realizes that her son must be thirsty. She comes back and helps Makoto into a comfortable sitting position before passing a cup of water in front of him. Listening to his cue, he raises his hand to hold the cup, but instead, bumps the cup a little too hard and ends up spilling the whole cup of water onto his bed and his mother's lap.

Just when he is about to apologize, he hears two pairs of footsteps approaching him. One sounds like his father and the other is unfamiliar.

"I am glad that you are awake, Makoto-kun. I am your doctor, Kinjou Sanetoshi, you can call me Sanetoshi. How are you feeling right now?"

"…I'm fine, I guess. Sanetoshi…-sensei?" Makoto turns his head towards the sound source and tries to act normal so that he will not worry his parents any further. However his eyes betray him as he fails to look at the doctor who is standing beside him. His parents gasp in shock and realization and focus their eyes on Makoto's doctor.

The doctor who grasps this detail asks a question that he is sure that his patient will not be able to answer, "Makoto-kun, can you tell me how many fingers I have raised?" Sensing the anxiousness and panic in the high school boy's expressions, he continues to wait for him to voice his answer, urging him to face reality with courage. It seems that the student is more worried about telling the truth to his parents than anything else, all the more he needs to voice his condition.

"…I don't know…! I can't see anything," Makoto whispers as he covers his face with his hand, feeling confused and guilty towards his parents. His mother is tearing up and his father is soothing and comforting her, the best he can. A hand rests on his shoulder firmly, gripping onto it to break him out of his trance.

"There is nothing to worry about, Makoto-kun. This always happen after a major brain surgery, it will heal in a few days. So don't worry about it too much and get as much rest as you can, you're still recovering."

The swimming club members rush to their friend's room, thrilled when they have heard the news about Makoto's awakening after a month in coma, even skipping their classes and training. But they can't deny the fact that they are all disappointed at Makoto's loss of his sight, and feel sympathetic towards their close friend. Nevertheless, Nagisa breaks the tense air and starts to fill Mako-chan in about everything that is happening, from the accident and coma that Mako-chan had been in, to Rin-chan's transfer to Iwatobi High School, to his relationship with Rei-chan as well as the relationship between Rin-chan and Haru-chan.

Makoto flinches from the words, "relationship", "Rin" and "Haru". He starts to get indulged in self-pity about the fact the misfortune befalls him one after another; first he gets into an accident, then he wakes up blind and now Haru is stolen away from him before he even gets the chance to confess. But realization finally hits him, telling him that he should feel lucky and thankful that he is still alive and as long as he is alive, he still has the chance to achieve what he wants. Swallowing all of his darker thoughts and emotions, he smiles brightly and says, "I'm happy for you, Nagisa, Rei, Rin, Haru!"

Before anyone knows it, the hospital room is now filled with their usual lively vibe and laughter as though Makoto never got into an accident in the first place. Days fly by with Makoto getting used to the loss of his vision with the support from his family and friends.

However, another misfortune is about to befall on Makoto once again.

A few days after finding out that he have turned blind, Makoto wakes up to a pungent smell that fills his nostrils. And as Sanetoshi-sensei said, his vision comes back. But the sight that unfolds in front of his recovered eyes makes him scream in horror and disgust, and makes him wish that he remained blind.

The entire room is painted with raw flesh, organs, and fat like a madman's work of art. Not a single part is left untouched, which includes the linens that are covering Makoto's body. He jumps back in shock, throwing the 'blanket' off of him but regretting it as soon as he feels the squelching underneath him every time he moves and the sliminess that comes with it. Bile fills his mouth and he vomits on the floor beside his bed, tears forming as his throat burns.

This is a nightmare! This has to be a nightmare!

Gathering himself, Makoto dashes out from his room in barefoot, hoping to get away from the grotesque room and out of this nightmare, desperately. His knees shake and buckle when he sees the never-ending corridor of flesh and tears of despair roll down his pale cheeks. He continues to look around in hope of finding any glimpse of escape, but to his distress, there is none. Panic fills his mind and his heart beats rapidly from anxiousness. He clutches his chest to relieve the constriction in his lungs. Shivers run down his spine when he smells an incredibly stench and hears squishing-squashing sounds from behind him, signaling something's arrival.

"AS#adskjf$5qf"

A growl of an unknown creature sounds right behind his back turning his blood ice cold. It sounds like it is talking but in a language that he doesn't understand and in a gurgling, slurring voice that he has never heard in his entire life. Terrified but curious, he turns around to meet the creature and his tears stop falling immediately.

He sees it.

Makoto sees something that will make anyone go insane. A pile of rotten flesh of a deformed…human (?) turned inside-out. It is impossible to tell the head, body and the limps apart as it looks like those parts are melted into one big, giant lump that is way wider and taller than him. He wants to scream so badly, but his voice leaves him when he lays his eyes onto the features of this monster, too horrified to say anything. He accidentally lands a glance at the red-shot eyes of the monster that stares down at him from above his head, foul-smelling slime threatening to drip onto his face from its steaming mouth that reveals decaying, crooked teeth and a large, dangling tongue.

"a $Sn*&K P$as&a#U!E," the monster growls again but with a different tone, Makoto guesses. What looks like to be its hand, reaches out to him, but he crawls backwards instinctively, fearful from touching any part of the rotting lump of meat. The monster tries again but Makoto slides away from its claws or tentacles and runs away from it. Suddenly, it turns aggressive as it growls louder as though frustrated from letting its prey get away. Makoto smiles slightly in triumph but his smile fades as quickly as it has formed. He chokes from the even more intensive reeking stench that fills the corridor as his path is blocked by a few more of that meat monster as well as a few behind him that are coming at him at incredulous speeds. He attempts to make a breakthrough but he is totally outnumbered.

'I'm going to get eaten…!' Makoto cries inwardly, despair shrouding his mind again as he gets tackled to the floor that matches with the monsters appearance. While being squashed in between the slimy mess of flesh and organs, his arms get tied behind his back by the hands of those monsters, their dripping fluids burning at his skin.

"Get away from me!" he yells continuously, not giving up to the monsters just yet as he struggles and thrashes at them. But none of them seem to understand him as they try even harder to subdue him by trying to hold his limbs still. Tears of frustration and self-loathe start to form in his eyes as the fact that he can't escape sinks in. Just when he lets his guard down, he feels a numbing pain on the nape of his neck and his vision starts to fade before he goes to a peaceful slumber as his tear falls onto the tiled floor.

To be continued…

A/N: Hope this is not too disturbing and you liked it! I'm not a big fan of horror; in fact, I'm too scared to watch any horror movies and I only watched horror anime/manga. So tell me what you think! :D

Actually I got inspiration from this old visual novel, Saya no Uta (2003) (an 18+ game, which I never played 'cause there are only 3 endings, and so I read in on YouTube instead) and I'm going to have Makoto to be in that MC's shoes. But of course, the story will be different!

Thanks for reading! :D