Yuuri stumbled through the darkness, unable to call out, unable to run, vision blotted out by the inky blackness.

"Where am I?" he wondered, panic rising in his throat. The pitch-black room made him feel claustrophobic, like the walls were closing in on him. Although, the walls could have been miles apart, and he would never know, considering he couldn't see three inches in front of his face. "WHERE AM I?!"

"Yuuri…" A voice called out through the thick lack of light. A voice that sent chills down Yuuri's spine and caused goose bumps to shoot up along his arms. The voice that had ruined his life. "Yuuri, come here, I'll protect you." The voice chuckled, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere all at once.

"NO!" Yuuri screamed back, but only in his head. His feet moved first, speeding in the direction that he hoped to god was away from the man. He wouldn't be caught again. He wouldn't be put through it again. Never. Never again would he give up and submit. Never.

"Yuuriiii!" the laugh was stronger, the voice louder. That was when Yuuri realised it was in his head. His running was useless, but still his feet carried on. Pounding against the cold floor, carrying him blindly through the shadows, running from his own mind.

"Viktor!" he screamed for his fiancé, knowing full well he wouldn't be heard. The call was only audible to himself. "VIKTOR HELP!"

Yuuri's feet were suddenly stopped by the rest of him running into a wall. So he'd found it, the end of the darkness, and bounced off of it. Yuuri stayed sprawled, chest heaving, lungs burning, legs shaking. He'd reached the limits of his own head. This was it, the wall he hit when he zoned out. The wall he couldn't crack. The wall his voice was trapped behind. The wall that held his love and confidence captive. The wall he needed to get through to be him again.

Yuuri was suddenly on his feet again, pounding against the wall that was just more darkness to his unseeing eyes. He kicked, punched, threw his body into the mass of solid darkness, all while the voice kept laughing in his ear.

"GIVE. ME. MY. LIFE. BACK!" Yuuri threw himself against the wall one last time and jolted into a sitting position, heart racing, sweat pouring, lungs burning, legs shaking, head spinning. He couldn't see. The room was too dark just like it had been only seconds before.

"Viktor." Yuuri's mind could form only one thought. "I need Viktor."

But when he reached out to connect with the only man who could calm his breath and lower his blood pressure, Viktor wasn't there. Nobody was. He was alone, in the dark.

"NO!" Yuuri was flying before he knew what was going on. Out the door of the dark room, into the hall, down the stairs and right into a smaller body.

"Yuuri?" Yurio tried his best to hold onto the panicking man, wanting to know what was wrong and how to fix it, but with one shove Yuuri's adrenaline overpowered Yurio and sent him sprawling on the stairs. "Yuuri!" Yurio called as Yuuri continued sprinting and somehow managed to fly out the door. "Shit! Viktor! Beka Phichit!" Yurio screamed, picking himself up off the stairs, ignoring the ache in his side.

"What happened?" Otabek was the first one down the stairs and the one that kept Yurio from bolting away before everyone had answers. Viktor and Phichit nearly ran into each other in the hall as the silver haired man shot out of the bathroom across from the master bedroom.

"What's going on?" Viktor demanded before he was down the stairs.

"Yuuri ran off!" Yurio was still futilely trying to tug his wrist away from Otabek, who seemed to be bent on keeping him rooted to the spot. "I don't know where he- Viktor!" Yurio called again as the man flew straight past him and out the door. "Goddammit Beka, LET ME GO AFTER THEM!"

"Here!" Phichit handed Yurio a piece of paper torn from the notepad he had found on the end table. "We'll split up, call me when you find either of them!" and with that Phichit was out the door.

"Come on." Otabek grunted. "If you'd calmed down for one second you would have noticed Phichit was being smart."

"How the hell do you expect me to be calm when Yuuri's panic attacks suddenly include blind midnight sprinting?!" Yurio growled back as he and Beka started jogging in the opposite direction Phichit had gone.

"How do you expect to do any good when we can't contact one another?"

"Fine." Yurio grunted, facing forward. "YUURI! VIKTOR!"

.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.o0o.

"Where am I going?" Yuuri's mind was running nearly as fast as his feet were carrying him. He flew through the familiar streets, not seeing anything through his panicked haze. "Why am I running? Stop!" but he continued, bare feet stinging against the cold sidewalk, probably bleeding from shards of glass and other various pieces of litter.

Yuuri ran, unable to control his body as his brain worked on autopilot, knowing only that it had to get away from something. However, that something was itself. Yuuri's fears were in only his head. There was no real threat. The only thing freaking him out was himself. But that fact did nothing to soothe his rapid flow of terror.

Yuuri ran.

It must have been great distance for he began to sweat and pant. His stamina was too impressive for his lungs to begin to give out in less than two kilometers, although he was sprinting. He didn't usually do that for more than five hundred meters.

Yuuri ran.

Was that the rink he just passed? How did he manage that? Hadn't he started off in the opposite direction? Or had he?

Yuuri ran.

Right into a pair of strong arms.

His feet stilled, his lungs thanked him for stopping, his chest heaved and ached from the exertion.

The warm body held him close and gave him a chance to catch his breath before breaking the silence.

"You're safe with me, Yuuri."