So hi! This is so far my first fan fiction ever excluding a little something I wrote called "Dear Sabo", that's only a page long so I suppose it doesn't count.
Anyways, english is not my first language, so if you find mistakes just tell me and I'll fix it. God knows how much I hate to find spelling or grammar mistakes in the stuff I read. I'm not a professional writer, my level is...well, read and find out, I guess. I just write because I like it, not to make a living out of it. Actually, I'm not sure if it's good or not, I've never let anyone read anything I wrote before. Yaayy first time.
So, this came out of nowhere, literally. I don't know what to make of it. I don't know how it'll evolve. I don't know if I'll manage to write through it. I've got a short attention span. Updates will NOT be regular. If you have ideas, please do share.
Everything here is meant to be family stuff, no pairings yet, but I do feel like warning you that they are a close family, so if you want to interpret it as romance, go ahead. In my head they are just siblings though. Oh, also, Luffy is a little kid, about five (?) years old. This chapter is just a full-blown panic attack in Alana's POV, I'll explain their family structure later on. Probably.
Tell me what you think? I just thought of posting this as an experiment and see what happens. If somebody likes it, share it with me and I'll hurry up and upload a chapter much sooner than if I'm left to my own devices. Enjoy, I guess.
I wake up at once, startled and screaming my lungs out. The astounded stares of my classmates don't even register in my confused mind, that's still trying to understand why I'm sitting in a sunny classroom and not locked up in a cell, shackled to a wall. And then it hits me. A nightmare. It was just another nightmare.
It was so real though. I can still feel the nightmarish memories flowing beneath my skin, carrying little icicles of poison that freeze me all over. So cold. Was it really a nightmare? How can it be when I'm still so cold? I start hyperventilating, air rushing in and out of my lungs too quickly in a desperate attempt to get oxygen into my system. Trembling hands find their way to my head and pull sharply at my hair, nails digging deep enough into my scalp to draw blood. It was just a nightmare. A nightmare. A nightmare. A real nightmare. Was it real?
Memories keep surfacing and I curl up, hands clutching my head and eyes screwed shut in an attempt to make it stop. Scared chatter sounds around me and I panic, my hysteric screams muffled by my closed lips. My jaw is shut tightly, teeth nearly breaking from the tension. Nonononono.
My heart beats and pulses warmth through the freezing sea of helplessness. Ace. Luffy. Sabo. Sabosabosabosabo. I need to find Ace.
I force my eyelids open with that sole objective in my oxygen-deprived mind. I can't let Luffy see me like this. So I've got to find Ace. Blurry faces take form before me, lips moving. I can't hear what they are saying over the sound of my blood rushing, that's making my ears ring. In a daze, I look at the panicked people around me, trying to hold me still and relax the death-grip I have on my hair. They are not important. Nothing is. I should just give up. Give in.
Another heartbeat sends shockwaves over my body. Ace. Luffy. Heartbeat. Sabo. Sabosabosabosabo. Death, blood, broken fingers reaching for the sky but touching a rock wall. Nononononono.
Ace. Ace. I regain my grip in reality and loosen my grip in my hair, letting the foreign hands disentangle my cramped fingers from the torn strands. Do I even know these people? I'm confused. I'm lost. Fear crushes my brain and invades my internal organs. 'Get away!'
Heartbeat. Ace. I've got to move. 'Move.' The dizziness invades me when I jump to my feet, disoriented and out of focus eyes scanning the room without spotting what I'm looking for. Not a single speck of orange in sight.
"Ace!" I said handing him an envelope badly wrapped. "Happy Birthday!"
"What's this?" He said holding up the orange cowboy hat. It truly looks out of place in the seriousness of the everyday life. "It's for me?"
"Of course, silly. That way we'll spot you when you get lost!" Luffy laugsh, ignoring the slight punch that Ace gives him "It's also for us! When we get lost, we'll see you real quick and know where to go!"
Where is he? Where am I? Everything is spinning around me, the walls getting higher and acquiring a cage-like appearance. Worried faces mix in a blur of colors. 'Wait, worried?' I think I know this people. I've seen them before.
A hand. On my wrist. Five fingers wrapping over my hand and touching me and it hurts, it's freezing, stop touching me stop touching me- My survival instincts kick in and I wriggle my arm out of the strangers hold. The motions sets me off-balance and I come crashing down against a table, bumping my head against the edge. My head clears a little, the pain making me take in a much-needed breath. Black dots start dancing in front of my eyes, tracing weird patterns. I've got to keep moving.
Blood comes rushing down my forehead with the next heartbeat. Ace. Heartbeat. The door opens under my touch and I'm not sure how I got there. Heartbeat. I'm running down impossibly long corridors caked in blood. Heartbeat.
I'm opening doors randomly, frantically scanning over the surprised faces. But they are not human faces; just hollow skulls stare back at me. I slam shut the last door in the corridor in horror, wide eyes staring at the wood, that suddenly starts leaking blood. I flee. Or at least try to. I crash into a body that was standing just behind me. The touch is so cold it sends shivers down my spine. I know this touch. I glance upwards with eyes widened in terror. It's one of them. Nononononono.
"Don't touch me!" I scream, thrashing around until I escape from the freezing embrace that kept me upright and was making my skin crack and my bones snap. Not again. "Get away! Let go!"
I fall to the floor. Hard. Fear takes over the little self-control I had left and choked wails start echoing in the corridors. My heart feels like it's going to escape from my chest. My head hurts. I want out.
Heartbeat.
Ace. Heartbeat. Ace. Heartbeat. Ace, Ace, Ace.
I start running again and kick another door open without measuring how much strength I put into it. The wooden panel crushes into the wall behind it. More skulls greet me; their rotten corpses sit in chairs. I'm pretty sure I'm not the one screaming this time around. Turning around, I see more rotting hands in various degrees of decomposition reaching for me.
Heartbeat. Another door kicked open. Another. Another. The fleshless skulls of the dead are laughing at my efforts. Another door.
Heartbeat.
There. Finally. There, amidst the mutilated cadavers. Freckled face. Grey eyes. Unruly black hair. Obnoxious orange hat. Ace. Warmth. Love. A safe haven. My feet kick the ground and I lunge forwards, catapulting into him. He doesn't protest, doesn't ask. He just grants me his warmth, that seeps from his embrace and thaws the coldness in my veins. He gently tucks my head sideways into the crook of his neck, burying my nose and closed eyes into the flesh of his neck. Dark locks cover my facial features and caress softly my wet cheeks. He tilts his head to the side and blocks my other ear with his cheek, blocking out the cacophony of the outside. All this in one fluid motion that lasts less than ten seconds and leaves me isolated.
Heartbeat. Heartbeat. Heartbeatheartbeatheartbeat-
Heartbeats overlap and dissolve into one hundred soft brushes against my bruised heart. A relieved sob escapes my mouth. I can feel Ace's chest rumbling when he speaks words I cannot hear. It's soothing. It pulls forward a sense of safety that I wrap around like a scared child that covers himself with a blanket to keep the monsters away. Ace is warm. Ace is all the good things in this world. I want to stay with him forever.
After he's done speaking, he doesn't move again. Doesn't shift, doesn't say anything, doesn't poke me, doesn't do anything. He just sits there and hugs me tight, a strong rock I can use to get to my feet again. I know I do the same for him when the roles are changed. We don't lie to each other saying that it's going to be okay, that we are fine. No, we let the other recover, then ask whose ass it's time to kick. Support. That's all someone who has fallen needs to stand back up. No matter how hard the fall, if the support is also hard enough, you'll succeed in coming back. Our bond is made of solid diamond. With Luffy as well. We are family. That's enough to pull anyone back even from the pits of Hell.
It takes me a good ten minutes to stop trembling. I unclench my hands and mildly relax against Ace's chest, nuzzling his neck. He just reacts by pulling me closer. My breathing is back to normal, a steady rise and fall that matches with Ace's relaxed breaths. Peaceful. I like it. A tiny smile curves my lips, that are still pressed against his neck. My eyes are closed and covered, but I can tell he's smiling as well. I'm not sure how I can though. Maybe a change in his respiration?
My tiny smile widens just by a fraction, and now I'm sure that Ace's smile has become an ear-splitting grin. I breathe in the mixed smell of fire, warmth and new life that always seems to go with Ace. How he manages to always smell like that is still a mystery. He gently lifts his head, revealing my right ear again. Only silence greets me, and I couldn't be more relieved. Silence is good. Silence is safe.
"Is she okay?" The voice that shouldn't be there asks, disrupting the silence so suddenly I jump in surprise and bury my head deeper in Ace's black locks. The words don't even register as my heartbeat picks up again. 'Go away! Go away! Go away!'
I can feel Ace's death glare wishing the stranger an early grave, his muscles tensed and body language aggressive. I know it's not directed at me. It's directed at whatever bad that's happening. So there's something bad happening. I start trembling again, shaking like a leaf. A soft whimper is stuck at my throat and I can't think straight. Blood rushes to my head.
A hum is vibrating against my chest. The soft hum carries a message I can't ignore. He's still here. I can't go elsewhere if he's pleading me to stay with him. And that includes Panic Land. Keep breathing. Inoutinout in out in out in out, in, out, in, out. In. Out. Two strong warm arms are shielding me. Infinite hair strands are hiding my face and kissing my cheeks. I'm alright. Breathe. The hum stops but it's okay because his heartbeat doesn't. The warmth doesn't disappear for as long as it takes my muscles to relax again and my mind to start working properly one more time.
I need to tell him what's wrong. I want to tell him about the corpses, and the people that tried to grab me, and the blood. I want to wail and have him comfort me until I feel like I face the world again.
"Ace" I murmur so close to his skin that my lips are touching him. The hum starts again, softly at first so I don't jump out of my skin. He's listening. "The walls..."
I don't know how to continue, and silence takes hold of the room again. It's not peaceful this time around. It's so dense it's intimidating. It hangs over my head like the sword waiting to make the last strike. I'm afraid to break it to finish my sentence and risk waking up whatever seems to be lurking in the tense atmosphere.
"What about the walls?" He whispers when it becomes obvious that I'm not going to continue. I shift and press my eyes against his shoulder, in a better angle to hug him. The silence has receded a bit with his words, the threatening presence leaving.
"Blood" I choke, much stronger than last time. "The walls are leaking blood."
He hums in understanding, not approving nor disapproving my statement. One of his hands starts playing with the longest strands of my hair, and tugs at it slightly to make me continue talking. He's careful not to yank it strongly enough to make it painful, though.
"And..." I say, voice raspy. "There are dead bodies everywhere. Chasing me. Sitting. The skulls are laughing at me."
"What are they laughing about" he inquires, a serious tone overtaking his voice. It's not a you're-so-nuts-I'm-worried tone. He's accepting the information I'm giving like without doubting it.
"Me" I whisper, hugging him tighter. I gulp and press my eyes against the soft skin. "They are laughing at me and about me because they know I'll join them. They are waiting for it. And they are here too."
He tenses for a second. They. We both know I'm not talking about the skulls anymore. Just one word and the universe starts raining bricks on our heads.
"I don't like it here then." He states a second later, matter-off-factly "This place sucks. Let's go somewhere else...? Come on, open your eyes. So we can go somewhere else?"
"Nononononono" I plead into his shoulder, eyes still closed. They have been ever since I found this room and leaped into Ace's lap. "I don't want to see. I don't want to. No, please, pleasepleaseplease-"
"Okay." He soothes before I blow up again. After a pause, he continues "How about I make a door then? So you can cross it before opening your eyes and when you do you'll already be there?"
That could work. I wouldn't have to look at the skulls again, right? And I want out of here. I nod. And he starts talking.
It truly is a wonderful feeling, that of having someone willing to pull you up even when you are so deep under you can't sink anymore. I listen expectantly as he describes a door capable of taking me away of my darkest fears, and makes it a reality.
Done! Hmm, I'll try not to make the chapters too OOC, but yeah, my writing kind of sucks so I'll probably fail. Also, Ace's personality is a bit distorted on purpose because of his past (the past I, as the author, made).
Thank you for reading :)