A/N: This probably has a rushed feeling to it, ahhh. My writing tends to do that. Um. Anyway, I don't really know how this idea came to be, but there you have it. It's my first attempt at horror, so I hope you enjoy it.
A face with no eyes watches him and arms with no hands reach for him, whispering, mumbling. Stubs for fingers grow abruptly, ugly, beautiful, menacing orange eyes materializing from nothing in the eye sockets. Those grotesque mangled hands hold him, caress him lovingly and horrifically at once.
"Hello, Judai," a voice whispers softly, the twisted lumpy fingers entangling themselves in his hair. "I missed you, I missed you, how nice it is to have you be mine again..." Thin lips press against his forehead, cracked and dry and scaly-feeling, and for just a moment he's sure those lips are sucking away his very soul and Judai shudders, disgusted and horrified and scared -
He wakes with a start. He swears he can still feel the hands pulling at him, tearing at his skin.
No one is there.
"Judai, did you get the answer to 15?" Johan asks idly, chewing on the eraser end of his pencil. He is staring at the paper intently, completely focused on the math problems, and becoming visibly more irritated with every passing second. "Judai! Are you even listening?"
Judai blinks, shakes his head quickly, to clear it of the confusion that has recently settled in. "S-sorry, what?" he asks Johan, unable to keep the slight stutter out of his voice, and he curses himself internally when Johan frowns.
"I asked if you knew the answer to number 15," Johan repeats slowly, though he is clearly irked by Judai's lack of present-mindedness. Judai feels mildly guilty, because he knows Johan has trouble with math, and it's one of the only things that ever gets him so annoyed that he'd ever snap at Judai. Regardless, Judai shakes his head sadly.
"I...didn't do the homework at all. Sorry," Judai says, offering a weak smile and mentally wishing he hadn't had that dream last night, because he can almost still feel those fingers pulling at him, can almost feel those eyes staring at him.
Johan blinks, nods his head and chuckles. "Of course. You wouldn't," he laughs, then frowns worriedly when he sees Judai's hands shaking under the desk. "Judai? Are you okay?"
"It looked just like you, you know," Judai says suddenly, staring off into space, eyes wide as he twists his fingers together. "Just like you, but with orange eyes. And it was disfigured. It kissed my forehead, and I felt like I was dying, and it looked just like you." He turns his gaze to his rather perturbed best friend, clenching his hands into fists to stop the shaking. "But it wasn't you, I know it wasn't, but it's so hard to remember that until I see your eyes, because your eyes are green, not orange, and Johan, I think I can still feel it staring at me and pulling at me and tugging on me and I'm terrified of it -"
Johan shushes him and reaches out and puts a hand gently on Judai's shoulder, and in that moment Judai realizes just how grateful he is he has a best friend who listens to all this without running away and calling freak, and Johan gives him a little smile. "It's okay, Judai. I don't know what you're talking about for sure, but whatever it is, it's over now, you're alright. Calm down, forget about it...and maybe help me with these math problems while you're at it," he jokes.
Judai blinks and realizes he has been crying, and he laughs and wipes the tears away, rubbing his eyes forcefully with a hand. "Sure thing, Johan," he says, his voice cracking as he grins. "Sure thing."
The next few days pass in a blur. Johan is missing. Somehow, Judai knows it's his fault, for being too weak to handle the nightmares alone.
The nightmares become more frequent. Every night he is visited by the horrid mutation of Johan, and it almost seems as if it knows that the real Johan has disappeared, because as it caresses Judai's face it laughs and mocks him and pokes at the sadness and hurt and worry and says "But Judai, you're mine, remember?" and Judai is trapped within his own subconscious, with no way to make it out unbroken.
He is unsure if they're merely dreams, anymore, because one morning he wakes up and there is a slash across his cheek.
Judai has stopped responding to his friends. In classes, he sits next to Johan's empty seat, staring dully ahead to the front of the classroom, and he ignores Manjoume's attempts to start the same fights, ignores Rei's attempts to gain his affection, even ignores Asuka's worried attempts to console him, to talk to him, to pull him out of this depression he's fallen into. He's scared, and they're scared too, but even that fear doesn't pull them together; rather, it pushes them apart, Judai refusing their help until even Asuka gives up and goes home.
He has never felt more alone.
"But Judai, you'll always have me. I'll never leave you, my dearest Judai..."
It happens on a seemingly normal day - or as normal as these days get anymore. He is walking across the bridge in the city on his way home when he first sees the familiar blue hair; as quick as it was, Judai's jaw drops, because he could swear that he just saw Johan but Johan is missing and of course, him being Judai, he chases after that small hope headfirst without thinking things through, dropping his bag on the spot.
He is led around corners and through back alleys and trips and falls more than once, and for some reason he thinks there is something clawing at him, trying to hold him up, but of course there isn't and he jumps back up and continues running after what he's sure must be his missing best friend. There's an ache in his chest as the sun goes down, but he feels as if he can hear footsteps ahead of him, moving fast, and all he has to do is move faster.
There are tears streaming down his face before he can think to stop them and he's been running for so long, the moon full and hanging over the city and making every shadow look like a ghost. "Why are you running?" he asks aloud, his voice scratchy and his chest heaving. "Where are you going?"
His only response is a giggle, and he feels his blood run cold, but he can't bring himself to stop running and his heart is pounding as he turns the next corner -
and he slams into what feels like a solid wall. He stumbles backwards, rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his red jacket and feeling suddenly disoriented, and a set of hands reaches out and grabs his forearms tightly.
"Hello, Judai," a voice says pleasantly, and it's Johan's voice but far too sweet, saccharine. Judai freezes and his wrists start shaking and Johan's thumbs start rubbing soothing circles on his hands that only make him feel worse. "How nice it is to finally see you in person - how nice!"
Slowly, with so much hesitation it almost physically hurts, he looks up.
And when he sees orange instead of green, he screams.