Hey guys!
So, thanks to Katya92 and I writing a KaixBrooklyn story together, as well as the glorious artwork of Trashy, I was in the mood to finally write down this little idea I had rolling around in my head for like...a year or so ago!
It's just a short little one shot, but I really hope you enjoy it!
Kanashibari
Kai's mouth stretched open widely, expelling a huge yawn as he rubbed his already stinging eyes.
Thank god there was a hot coffee in front of him. He needed it as much as he needed air this morning.
It happened again...
Something strange was happening to him of late. Something that only happened in the dead of night.
Pff...
Sounded like the start of some horror movie, didn't it?
But to Kai, it sort of was. And it was very real.
He found himself suddenly awake in his bed.
Or at least he was conscious.
But as he went to open his eyes, he found them glued shut.
Went to move his arms, his fingers, to find them frozen.
Tried to make a sound, but his throat was locked.
His body felt like he was in pre-death rigor mortis.
And that was unsettling enough...
Kai wasn't easily spooked.
A creaking door, strange noise or sudden chill in the air didn't have him nervous.
But the vivid sensation during the sudden paralysis...
Something was on him.
Something was touching him, running fingers down his back.
It had no form. It had no shape or voice.
It was just...a something.
And that something left him feeling haunted and terrified.
It started off as one or two times a week.
Then almost every other night.
And now...
Almost every damn night.
It had all started a little over four months ago.
After that day.
The day he'd had the battle of his life.
Defeated that red haired creep and given the finger to Boris in doing so.
He'd fallen in the underpass.
Everything had gone black.
Somewhere between then and waking, he'd tried to open his eyes and couldn't.
Tried to move and couldn't.
Trapped in his body.
Felt weight. Felt touches.
Heard nothing.
But when he finally opened his eyes, the sun was up. The room was empty.
Just him in a hospital bed.
And now when his eyes finally opened after his night of trapped torment, the sun was always up. It was always just him in his bed.
Obviously.
It was just sleep paralysis...
As horrible as it was, it had to be said the human brain was remarkable, really.
When the brain enters REM sleep, the phase of sleep where you start dreaming, the brain disconnects with the body.
To stop the body from acting out the dreams and causing injuries or worse.
That supposedly happened several times a night throughout the sleep cycle.
Pretty cool, right?
Unless, your brain happened to wake up before it connected back with your body...
That was science's explanation anyway.
He wasn't sure why that lead to the awful feeling of the weight being on him. The touches and the dark, almost malevolent presence he felt.
His culture did, though.
In Japanese, sleep paralysis is called kanashibari, which literally means to be "bound with metal".
Made sense. Felt like being weighed down.
There were plenty of folktales he'd heard in his life. Some that came from waaaay back in ancient times.
One myth was that it was an evil spirit possessing the body.
Some said it was the ghost haunted house to house, sitting on you to crush your chest to make you feel suffocated.
Others said it was a demon rather than a ghost that did it to torment people in their sleep.
He didn't believe in any of that crap.
But he had to admit, at the time, when it was happening, he wasn't so sure.
He sunk down the rest of his coffee, needing to get to school.
Something else that weighed him down...
He wasn't dumb by any means.
But for even the smartest person, months of travelling around the world competing instead of being at school...or studying...would leave you a somewhat behind.
Kai's mouth stretched open widely, expelling a huge yawn as he rubbed his droopy eyes.
The day had been long. So much homework...
But he'd done enough for tonight.
He needed to sleep.
After washing up and brushing his teeth, he changed to his night clothes and rolled out his futon.
He hated it...hated to admit it even to himself, but...
As he slid himself under the covers, the rustling of the material going quiet, he found the sense of unease growing in the pit of his stomach.
He let out a scolding sigh at himself.
Get a grip...It was just sleep paralysis, for goodness sake.
He knew he shouldn't have, but he'd Googled it.
He was pleasantly surprised when one of the top explanations wasn't cancer or something that meant he had mere minutes to live...
From the research he'd done online, it apparently happened to almost everyone at some point.
He'd also read that adolescents were very prone to it.
And that stress, jet-lag, bad sleeping patterns and so on contributed.
Welp. He was an adolescent. In the very prime of his teenage bullshit.
He could definitely say he had stresses in his life, the more mild being school and the more severe, well...
You know who he's related to, right?
He often went through phases of staying up all night enjoying books or binge watching TV shows before going to school the next day.
So if you shoved all those together, it was only natural that something like that would be occurring nightly.
It would stop eventually. And the important thing to remember was, even though it sucked at the time, no harm was being done...
Seven hours later, a shrill alarm pierced through the room.
His red eyes snapped open, darting around the softly lit room and feeling the rush of relief that he could in fact open them.
He wiggled his fingers and toes.
He cleared his throat loudly, relieved to hear the short and sweet sound of his voice.
It happened again.
But it was over now...
He got up, dragging his feet through to the bathroom and fumbling with his toothbrush, getting it loaded with toothpaste and shoving it in his mouth.
Yup. The night pain was over.
But now to resume the daily struggle...
He went over his mental checklist while he scrubbed the gross layer of crap from his teeth, suddenly rolling his eyes dramatically and groaning.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkkk...
He hadn't done that stupid page in his math book...
Forgot last week too...
Mr. Simmons was going to chew him out...
His predictions was correct...
He came home, throwing his heavy bag down on the ground the moment he got through the door and head to his room.
His jacket and tie were off before the bedroom door was open, tossing them over his desk chair messily.
Could care less if they crinkled. Was a stupid uniform anyway.
He was glad he hadn't bothered to put his futon away, throwing himself down on to it and rolling on to his belly, cutting the light of the room out by shoving his face in to his pillow.
He hated it there...
Was just full of idiots and nobodies...
His mind went on to grumble and roll right down the rabbit hole right to the same place it always did recently when he got the slightest knock.
Life hadn't been the same after the whole BEGA incident.
Was it for the worse? Was it for the better?
His feelings about that swung from day today.
And today was a 'worse' kinda day.
Since that day, his battle with Brooklyn that let him retire in a blaze of epic glory, he felt like he'd lost himself completely.
Or, on a good day, that he was free.
He'd only ever been a beyblader. That was his purpose.
His reason for even being conceived.
Genetically perfect child, apparently.
The perfect soldier to lead Biovolt to victory.
Things hadn't gone the way his old Grand-papa and Boris had planned on that front.
But still...
The drive and need to be perfect, be at the top and wear the crown, never dimmed.
Only to then be crushed like a bug under a shoe by him.
"That's it?", he'd said with a smile...after he'd throw everything he had at him.
He could still here the tone of his voice as he'd said it.
The pure mockery and belittling.
He'd never been humiliated like that before.
That's when he sank the first time...
In to that...whatever that was.
Where he was paralysed and sinking.
Drowning but not.
Laying in darkness.
And the fire dwindled and faded until it was out.
Luckily, after walking around in a bubble of misery and defeat for God knows how long, the fire had come back.
And had blazed his way to victory and glory in a way the blading world had never seen.
He was proud.
Very much so. For many reasons.
The pain he'd endured was maybe some penance for his betrayals.
The initial defeat and struggle brought home what the sport was to him.
Hiro had told him Brooklyn had something he could only dream of, something that he could never learn and a talent that would never match him.
But it became clear that he had what many didn't. And despite his mistakes and flaws, he had some qualities that deserved some pride.
His victory had been an almighty blow to those who doubted and underestimated him.
Boris, Hiro, Brooklyn...
All good things.
But the proud feeling was always washed over with other things.
He'd won the battle.
But perhaps not the war...
His own war.
He'd been left to pick up the pieces of himself, which sadly meant he had to take good, hard look in the mirror.
He only need penance because he'd fucked up so many times in the past, always backstabbing people he actually did care for.
And for what?
A game.
The sport was everything to him, because that was all he was made for. His whole reason for existing.
A game.
Him winning was a big slap to those who doubted him. And that mattered because he he had to be perfect and on top. Which looped back to the reason he was even alive.
All for a game!
Now that the game was over, what was the point of him?
Was he no one now? Had lived out his life's purpose before he'd even finished school?
Or was he free? The shackles of the game finally off him and granting him a life of his choosing?
But what did he even want now?
He'd never thought about anything else.
He sighed, shifting himself on his belly to get a little more comfortable, letting his mind come back on where he'd been mulling a few moments ago.
The second time he'd sunk in to the Darkness, it seemed to sting more.
Even though at the time he'd felt numb.
Paralysed.
But somehow, and he really couldn't explain it, he felt as if Brooklyn had given him some kind of clarity while at the same time clouding everything.
While he drifted slowly to the bottom of that pool, he could swear he could feel Brooklyn.
Again, he couldn't explain it.
In what capacity had he felt him? He couldn't say.
Smug vibes?
An actual connection of some kind?
He really didn't know. All he could say was he felt something.
Which was exactly why these nightly phenomena unnerved him so much.
As he sank in to that darkness, he was paralysed, frozen, powerless...
No voice or strength.
Prey.
At the mercy of it.
Even though Brooklyn was stood up on the other side of the dish at the time, he felt like he was touching him. His skin and his soul.
He felt a presence. A malevolent one.
Every night felt like a replica of that...
A while later, a tingle rolling up and down his spine made him snap his eyes open.
Or at least...try to.
He strained to pry them open, focussed everything he had in to it and yet they wouldn't budge.
His heart began to race, willing his fingers and toes to move for him.
His arms and legs.
He felt nothing. Nothing but the awful sensation molesting his back.
"I find it so sweet that you still think of me so intently..."
Kai's blood burned in panic.
He was numb but felt his skin rise in bumps.
The sound so vivid, warm and crisp in his ear.
He tried to make sound come out, willed it to like his life depended on it.
But he was silenced.
The weight on his back pressed harder. Almost crushing.
The horrible sensation grew worse. Like his blood had become static.
And then his eyes opened.
With a loud gasp, he threw himself upright in his bed, eyes darting around the gradually darkening room as the sky glowed orange outside his window.
He panted, shaken.
It had happened again...
But it had never happened in daylight before.
And he'd never heard anything before...
He gave himself a mental slap and heaved himself out his bed.
He had to get a grip.
It was a phase. He'd just have to ride it out til it stopped.
And as for the voice, it had literally just been on his mind before he drifted off.
The mind sure was remarkable...
And an asshole...
But it was over now. And school work wouldn't do itself...
The alarm went off at 7am the following morning, eyes thankfully peeling open.
He stared at the ceiling, feeling a low sense of despair almost.
Despite the early evening episode, he wasn't spared in the night.
But at least he hadn't heard anything.
Just felt...
That damn sensation...
The haunted feeling.
For the first time since...
Hn, that day...
He felt his eyes water.
When was it all going to stop?
Another mental slap later, he was out of bed, in the bathroom, toothbrush in face.
Get. A. Grip...
On the bright side, at least there would be no reason for a long lecture and scolding today.
Maybe. Unless he said something out of line.
That happened sometimes...
Luckily for him, by the time the bell rang, ending another day, he had successfully managed to avoid trouble.
But that was hardly difficult to do, considering he'd just kept his head down and out the way.
Tried extra hard to be invisible today.
He was tired.
In more ways than one.
He couldn't wait for school to be done with, and yet dreaded the thought of being home alone as well.
Stuck in a shitty limbo until he physically had to leave the school grounds.
His bag hung heavily off one shoulder as he walked through the park to go home, the sun making hints that it too was done and on its way down.
Maybe he could get prescription sleeping pills...
He'd seen some melatonin supplements...maybe that was worth a shot?
But weren't they addictive or some shit?
He'd read online that if it got bad enough, sometimes they prescribed anti-dep-...
His feet slowed to a stop.
Just like his heart did as he did a double take.
The sky glowed orange, much like it had the moment he'd woken yesterday.
Below it, sat on the park bench...more orange.
And as eyes the color of the sea locked with his, he felt himself drown.
Paralysed...
And as ever, a malevolent presence.
The smile stretched as he stood himself, walking himself over as if he didn't have a care in the world.
"Had a feeling I'd bump in to you here..."
Kai stood stunned for a moment, needing a moment before his instinct to try and speak kicked in.
His frowned frowned heavily.
"The hell do you want?"
The other only chuckled.
"Nothing in particular. I was sure I saw you a few days ago walking towards that fancy lookin' school over there." he pointed in the direction of his school.
"I wondered if we might ever cross paths. I like to stretch my legs around the park most days. And here you are..."
Kai tensed, gripping his bag strap tighter.
Did he believe him?
Anyone else it would seem too convenient. Suspicious.
But it was this fuckin'...redhead Tinkerbell...
"Yup. Here I am. Now if you'll excuse me..."he cut off curtly as he started walking to leave.
He was followed by a smile.
"You know, you're looking quite pale." he mused as he walked by him, "Did you catch a cold? Or is that because of the lack of your blue markings?"
"Tsch, none of your damn business either way!" he snapped back.
Brooklyn lifted his brows, amused.
"Oooooh, touchy, touchy!" he snickered, "Well now I'm guessing you might just be cranky..."
He put his hands behind his head, turning in the opposite direction and walking off, parting ways.
"Pleasure as always to see you! Get some reeessst..."
His voice singing through his ears brought on an eery tingle that shot down his spine, checking over his shoulder every few moments to make sure he was still walking the other way. Waiting until he was far enough before he picked up his pace.
That was all just horrible coincidence...had to be...
Life was a bitch like that. No reason to clutch at straws...
At 7am the next morning, the shrill alarm sounded.
But the red eyes were already staring up at the ceiling. Had been for a while.
The alarm drilling in his ear made him come over with with the same sinking, defeated feeling it had the morning before.
His eyes watered.
...It happened again.
Fin.
Thank you for reading!
Ahhh feels so good to have this all written and done after having it in mind for so long.
As a teenager I got sleep paralysis horribly, just as Kai described like all the time. It's horrific! I'm sure many of you reading this have experienced it! Just urgh!
I really hope you enjoyed this little piece! Would love to know what you thought!
Take care!
Roy