bloodbath butterflies
6
Haru spirals into a nightmare. Yuujin's voice is soft and sweet in his ears but there are teeth tearing at his shoulder and it hurts.
He tears through his own lip trying to keep the screams in. After that everything spirals: red and black and yellow and he wonders if he's bled out, if he's dead.
Then there's a sharp voice in his head. 'Wow, you're awake already.'
He blinks, and slowly, the room comes into focus. A woman in a top hat, dressed from it to toes in black. And the room is black as well; there's no contrast at all and Haru wonders if he's lost his colour vision but no; his pants are a mix of their old green and dried-blood brown.
It's such a silly thing to be relived about, but he is.
'I'm awake.' Awake and confused. 'I had a nightmare, and…' Wait, he doesn't know this woman, does he? And his pants aren't supposed to have blood on them; that's from the nightmare…
'It's not a nightmare.' And the woman deposits something on his lap.
He moves to open it – that black bag – automatically, but finds he can't. His hands are bound. So are his ankles, and his waist.
The woman opens it delicately for him.
The smell hits him. Then the sight. Then the horror that all this hasn't been a nightmare after all.