The rain drummed insistently against the roof tiles, unrelenting, unyielding in its symphony. It pounded in Shikamaru's eardrums as he lay on his side on the living room floor. He used to love the rain; its soothing melody was white noise in the background, just the perfect tune to lull him to sleep. Now, he could never sleep when it rained. Its low hum was now like a threatening roar in his ears. Without turning, he reached behind his back to pull a throw pillow from the couch and clamp it down against his ear, hoping the cushion would absorb the sound and free him from its incessant assault.
He couldn't hear the rain anymore, but the steady beat of his blood in his ear was too eerily reminiscent of it for comfort. With an angry grunt, he chucked the throw pillow across the room. It landed with a soft thwap! against the wall before dropping down to the wooden floor. Above the place where it had struck, just slightly higher than Shikamaru's tall frame, was a sleek black fan mounted to the wall. Shikamaru could see his reflection of the window in its shiny casing, where just enough light from the streetlamps reflected across the kaleidoscope of raindrops streaming down the glass pane.
The raindrops turned red. A scream shrieked shrilly in his ears. The rain kept pounding, echoing like a war drum in the deep, sounding the sky's resolution to drive Shikamaru insane.
"Fuck!" he cursed angrily but softly as he threw himself onto his other side to escape the nightmarish vision. He curled his body slightly as his stomach did somersaults, making him physically ill. His face scrunched up in agonizing pain. His heart thrummed like it was trying to rip itself out of its chest. He deeply desired to tear it out of his chest himself, to end his misery once and for all. He wondered if the rain would ever stop, or if it would drown him, sending him down into the abyss.
"Temari…"