Disclaimer - I don't own Digimon and make no profit from this. Duh.

A/N: I got myself a job and I haven't had time to write as much as I'd like, if anyone is ever wondering what's going on and when I plan on updating go 'head and read my LiveJournal... That's where I post half-written chapters, and usually estimate when it'll be done. Plus, most new one-shots that I haven't edited yet go there. So, if you're curious... Take a look at my profile, the link is there. Ph33r this chapter!

Warning: Real quick... A bit of swearing in this one... Taichi mostly... Only. I'm only warning because of the f-bomb... All other curse words don't matter. XD

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Bottom of the Abyss (2/?)
by Aero

When Taichi finally closed his eyes and fell asleep that night it was already four in the morning. He'd tried to stay up as long as humanly possible because sleep scared him. After having his first nightmare he was scared that he might have another. He was terrified by that thought.

Taichi was caught off-guard when he awoke that it was still dark and the clock telling him it was 10:33 am. At first he thought his blinds over his windows were closed but after further investigation came to the conclusion that that wasn't possible. His blinds were partially open and it was still dark. Sighing he threw the covers off his body and crawled out of bed.

Glancing around the room, Taichi noticed nothing was out of place; except his door was shut. He never shut his bedroom door unless he was changing, and even then he sometimes didn't. 'Who would shut my door,' he thought to himself. 'Yama... Yamato wouldn't.' He stood staring at the door like it was going to reach out and bite him.

'This is stupid, Taichi,' he thought. 'You're being stupid. Open the damn door.'

Walking the rest of the way to the door Taichi reached out his head to grab the doorknob. He jumped when there was abrupt knocking coming for the other side. To Taichi it sounded urgent, like a quickening heartbeat. It got louder in his ears, it echoed throughout the room. His heartbeat quickened slightly as he watched the door. Just as abruptly as it started it stopped and Taichi's ears started to ring. It was a soft ring at first but grew louder as the silence suffocated him.

Taichi opened his mouth to say something but found his tongue was swollen again. He choked back a sob as he started to panic. All at once he threw himself at the door and fiddled with the knob trying desperately to get it open. The room was suffocating him, cutting off his air supply completely. Finally the knob turned and Taichi pulled the door open; almost flying back from how quickly it flew open.

He stared into darkness and swallowed loudly. The darkness on the other side of the door seemed... darker somehow. Taichi couldn't figure out if that was even possible. It made his heartbeat jump into his throat and his stomach twist into knots. 'This can't be real,' he thought confidently, but his confidence fizzled away when the smell hit him like a brick wall. Trying not to gag, he took a step back. It felt like a slap across the face.

Coughing Taichi fell back onto his bottom. He stared at the darkness that seemed to stop at the doorway leading into his bedroom. He couldn't put his finger on what it smelled like. 'What is that?' he thought. 'What can smell that... bad?' Climbing to his feet he told himself, "C'mon Taichi, you're the one with all the courage."

The brunet laughed at himself for being so stupid when he realized what the smell was. Shaking his head he said, "Taichi, you jackass. You forgot about the food on the counter... It's probably nice and moldy now."

Not thinking twice, Taichi walked into the darkness. He stopped trying to get his eyes to adjust to it. Once his eyes adjusted he looked around the room. The stillness was kind of disturbing. It was too calm, especially being 10:30 in the morning. The smell was little more... Raw, now. Taichi knew it wasn't something that went bad, it was something like... like... decomposition. Skin... Skin decomposing. Taichi gagged at the thought.

Why would his apartment smell like that?

'Please tell me Yamato didn't murder something, or worse!' Taichi didn't allow himself to let his thoughts travel any further.

"Yamato," he called out. "Are you still here?" He walked around the room, glancing at the couch. It was bare. "Hey, Yama..." his voice trailed off into a hushed whisper. He didn't get an answer of course.

Then there was the soft thumping sound that Taichi couldn't pin-point the location of. He tried to follow his ears but decided that wasn't working too well, so quit before he made a fool of himself. 'Yeah, like anyone is watching,' he thought to himself sarcastically. Moments later he heard a louder thump making him jump.

"Ah, y'know... Maybe I'll just... I'll go back to bed," he muttered aloud, tripping over things as he scurried back towards his bedroom. "Forget courage, I'll leave that department to Daisuke." He felt awfully foolish when he jumped onto his bed and pulled the covers over his head.

"What the hell am I doing?" he asked himself a moment later, throwing the covers off his body. He stared out into the living room, waiting for something to move. Taking a deep breath he yelled, "Whoever the hell is out there, I'm giving you two minutes to get out before I fuck your ass up!" Too bad he wasn't really going to 'fuck up' anyone, at least that wasn't his intention. He was just hoping his bark was worse than his bite... Of course there wasn't going to be a bite.

The thumping stopped momentarily before starting again, louder somehow. 'I'm just going to shut the fuck up,' Taichi thought glaring at the living room. 'Look, Taichi, you made it angry.' After a moment Taichi found himself pressing his body against the headboard of his bed. Shutting his eyes as tightly as possible Taichi tried to ignore the thumping sound. It would have been different if the thumping wasn't more of a knocking, a very weird knocking. Not like a knock at the door or on a piece of wood. It echoed inside Taichi's head. He could swear he felt it in his chest. Maybe that was just his heart beating.

The brunet sat pressed against the headboard staring out into the living, swearing the thumping was getting louder. The volume continued to rise until it was all Taichi heard. He forcefully covered his ears with his hands, shaking his head furiously.

"Stop it!" he yelled after a moment, the thumping stopped abruptly. He uncovered his ears and glanced around the room. "Thank you," he whispered to the dark room. Swallowing, he crawled off the bed and walked back out into the living room.

"He-hello?" he called out. "Is anyone there?" He coughed when the smell hit him again. It wasn't as bad as the first time though. He covered his nose with his left hand and made his way over to the door leading out into the hallway. Taichi finally decided that he would go knock on someone else's door and see if they were having... strange things happen to them too.

Walking out into the hallway Taichi noted that the lighting was normal - it wasn't dark. He looked back into his apartment and jumped when everything was back to normal. The darkness seemed to fade away.

"The hell," he muttered to himself staring into his apartment, awe-struck. "How is that even possible?" He jumped again when he heard a whimper. His head snapped in the general direction of the sound and his eyes landing on a person sitting about 5 feet away from where Taichi stood. The boy was leaning against the wall, his head in his hands.

"Hey," Taichi called out. "Are you okay, man?" The boy froze upon hearing Taichi's voice. "Hey, are you okay?" When the boy looked up and over at Taichi he felt the sensation of throwing up coming again. The smell hit him again a moment after and Taichi gagged. When the boy moved slightly Taichi gagged further making himself cough. He knew immediately that this boy was the cause of the horrendous smell, but how could someone smell that bad.

Taking a closer look Taichi realized that the boy was bleeding. The blood ran down his face and into his eyes and mouth. Before he had time to think Taichi was in front of the dark-haired boy. He held his breath as crouched down to the boy's level.

"Are you okay?" the brunet asked forcing himself not to inhale. The boy was trembling. "Hey," Taichi said as he reached out and put his hand on the boy's head. The boy jumped and looked up at Taichi. In the split second Taichi pulled his hand away from the boy as if he had been burnt and found himself on the other side of the hall pressing himself against it as if he would disappear completely.

"Taichi," the boy said, his voice strained. "Taichi." The voice was hollow and pierced Taichi's eardrums. It wasn't until then that Taichi's noticed half of the boy's face was missing, or maybe that was darkness overtaking him again. Their eyes met and it hit Taichi.

"Daisuke?" the brunet called out as he got a whiff of the rotten smell again, gagging. The pain that was evident in the mahogany-haired boy's voice made Taichi wince. "What happened? Why are you..." But Taichi trailed off as he caught a glimpse of the hand he'd had on Daisuke's head. Blood dripped down his hand and arm, little streams of crimson everywhere.

Daisuke's voice snapped him out of his reverie, making Taichi jump. "Taichi." Was that all the boy could say? Taichi didn't like the way it sounded coming from the bloody boy in front of him. When Daisuke made a move towards Taichi the brunet jumped up quickly before he could be cornered by the younger boy.

"Look Daisuke, you should go to the doctor. You're hurt badly... You stay here while I go call an ambulance." Daisuke shook his head and Taichi watched as his scalp moved freely as if it weren't attached to his head. Taichi stared at it, fighting down the fluid that came up into his throat. He screamed when Daisuke wrapped his arms around his waist. When had the boy gotten so close...? Taichi tried to push the boy away but nothing he did would get the boy away from him.

Taichi sat up in his bed panting, sweat rolling down his forehead. "Daisuke," he whispered to himself, his eyes wide. He crawled out of his bed and walked out into the living room. He didn't notice Yamato sitting on the couch giving him weird looks, Taichi just went straight for the door. The door flew open and Taichi trotted into the hallway looking around frantically.

"Daisuke?" he questioned softly. "Daisuke!? Dai... Daisuke!" His voice was rising and he couldn't stop it. He froze when arms wrapped around him.

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