Your body shivered uncontrollably as you followed Fred, wherever he was leading you. Hiro was by your side, sweatshirt over one arm, holding your hand in his. He had offered to embrace you during the walk, thinking it would keep you warm from the chilled air. You had rejected it, however, because being embraced by a squishy, wet object didn't help anything; so you let him hold your hand tightly to somewhat reassure you.
Fred was leading the way, his arms crossed over his chest and his teeth chattering. You were thankful that he was taking you someplace that might be warm, that might have an old quilt with holes in it, or that might be down a brightly lit alley with a few trashcans for shelter. You had always thought that he crawled his way through life, working as a mascot and moving from street to street, living wherever he could. Not that you thought he was homeless... well, you sort of did. But you thought that he was homeless with other people.
So it took you by surprise when Fred turned towards a mansion on a rich-people neighborhood, as if nothing was wrong.
Everyone halted at the bottom of the steps as Fred walked on.
"Fred?! What are you doing?" said Wasabi.
He stopped for a minute, curious as to why he was looking at him like he was insane. "Oh, sorry - welcome to mi casa. That's French for 'front door'."
Honey faked a smile. "Actually, it's not..."
"Listen, nitwit." Gogo pointed a sharp finger at Fred."A lunatic in a mask just tried to kill us! If you think this is funny - "
Suddenly, the large, golden doors opened enough for a well-dressed butler to emerge. His face was glued into a respectful expression, looking at Fred as if he were his... Master? You gawked in surprise.
"Good evening, master Frederick." said the butler.
Frederick?! you mouthed. Who the hell is Master Frederick? You continued to stare at the scene at the top of the stairs, a non believer of Fred's sudden royalty.
"Heathcliff, my man!" Fred shouted enthusiastically. "Gimme some!" he said, as the butler obediently held out his fist and bumped it into his.
Everyone else mimicked you in your shock (except for Baymax). Gogo's finger was still pointed at Fred, but she was frozen in her tracks.
"C'mon in!" He said, beckoning you guys to follow. Wasabi reluctantly went first, and you followed behind Hiro, nodding a quick hello to the Butler.
Inside the mansion, you felt suddenly small and peasant-like; everywhere you turned were expensive sculptures, busts, even lamps that you supposed were made out of gold. You saw several paintings lined up on the wall, depicting Fred and his parents. You were afraid to leave a single wet footprint, afraid to let any of your soaked clothes drip onto the velvet carpet; there was a vague sense of guilt in your chest for simply being there. You looked over at Hiro, who was still gripping your hand, to find him gawking at the hall, taking in his surroundings like a kid in a candy store.
Suddenly, you arrived to a small, golden painted door. Fred swung it open - you were excited to see the insides, but as soon as your eyes landed on the room, you were twisted with disappointment.
Lizards. Dragons. Lizard Dragons. Lizard-Dragon costumes. It was the ninth stage of Hell you had learned about in Roman Mythology.
"Wow, Fred." said Gogo. She poked an action figure of some superhero. "Nice... collections."
"It took me forEVER to get all the complete sets." Fred bragged. He wiped some dust off of a shelf full of comic books. "Not to mention five weeks of mowing the lawn for allowance."
"You still get allowance?" said Hiro. "And you're seventeen, right?"
All of the words spilled from their mouths, but the meanings never crossed the barrier of curiosity that wrapped around your brain at the moment. You were staring at each of Fred's comics, figurines, masks, suits, and any other items that were unfamiliar to you. Near his bed, there were two small lizards; one was painted to look like the hulk, and the other IronMan. You weren't sure whether to feel impressed or confused at them, but you couldn't break your gaze away from the little pair of purple shorts on the first lizard.
"Here." you heard Hiro call your name. You cut your focus on the cosplaying reptiles and walked over to his side.
He grabbed a towel from a chair and began to wrap you in it. Your teeth instantly knocked together from the warm tingle that ran down your spine. You pulled the fluffy white fabric closer around your collarbone and let Hiro lead you to a bed.
You paused. Isn't this Fred's bed? You signed, with a strong expression of caution on your face.
"Yeah, I'm sure he doesn't mind, though." Hiro said, shrugging innocently. "You need the sleep. I'm guessing the water didn't help your throat at all."
Hiro, I don't have anything left in my throat to take a toll on. You were a bit annoyed that he would place any hope in your shriveled vocal cords. Plus, that's not what I meant - is the bed clean?
Hiro faltered, staring into your eyes, and then the bed. "You've got a point there."
"There are no harmful bacteria on this surface. It is safe to interact with."
You jumped at the sudden voice and saw Baymax on your other side. He looked at you blankly.
"Your body temperature is still - low. It does not appear to be rising like my other patients. I will use my heating simulators to elevate it back to your average temperature."
Hiro backed away as the plushy Baymax enveloped you in his arms. You began to feel warm and sleepy, and your eyelids were begging to fall shut. You let the robotic nurse slowly shuffle you to the couch and set you beside him. Snuggling closer to the warmth, you let the muted sounds of voices fade around you.
A hand slowly touched your cheek, followed by two warm lips on your forehead. You smiled, and kissed the air in response.
You squinted your eyes through the dense cloud of smoke, looking for any of the bright exit signs. Alarms were screaming around you, people were crying for help, but the loudest sound of all was the voice.
He was screaming your name, over and over, sounding closer each time. You tried to answer, but there was no air to supply a sound. But you knew you had a voice. You had used it just five minutes ago, telling your mother goodbye. Where was it now? The cries from the man grew more concerned, more desperate. You tried again and again to scream in reply, but the smoke filled your lungs with each breath.
Finally, giving up on speech, you broke into a run. You knew he was going to die if you didn't find him. Once he saw you, you would run out of the building just in time. But he had to get to you, or you had to get to him. Your feet pounded against the flaming carpet, and tongues of fire licked your ankles as you went by.
Suddenly, you saw him. He was standing in the middle of burning rubble, baseball cap in his hand, charcoal smudged across his face. His whole left side was burned, the skin red and loose around his body. You screamed, and only now did your voice find it's was across your vocal cords. The pain from your throat caused you to cry; you felt blood running down your chin, and you wiped it away across the back of your hand in horror.
Tadashi never saw you. He was searching for a way out of the fire, leaping from the flames that jumped out of him. He was grimacing from the burns on his body. His eyes were wide with fear. He called out to you: "Please stop this now!"
You cried more, due to the sharp pierce those words had punctured into you. You knew you were doing this to him, you wouldn't let him escape from the flames. But you didn't know how to save him. You tried to run towards him, until a searing heat clawed at your arm.
Another scream escaped your mouth, and more blood trickled out of your mouth with each cry. Tearfully, you turned to your left side, seeing a layer of microbots engulfing it. They traveled down your side as well, and you tried to wiggle from it's grasp on you, but to no avail. They dug into your skin, melting it away and tearing it apart. You tried to pull it off of with your free hand, but fire jumped out at it before you could even touch the tiny robots.
A flaming hand grabbed your throat. You were forced to look up by the firm grasp, and you felt your tendons strain with all their might to keep your head connected to your body. Your eyes fixed on what was ahead of you, and instantly a stab of fear struck your chest.
The blank face of a Kabuki mask bore into your eyes. It was twisted in red lines, weaving around the eyes, which burned a fiery gold. The face looked at you with menace, hatred, a burning desire to end your life. You couldn't do anything but stare back, wide-eyed, helpless from being caught up in the vengeful eyes, seeming like a cobra recognizing the fear in its prey's eyes before the fateful strike.
The hand closed tighter around your throat. The eyes narrowed. You sputtered from the blood filling your mouth and pouring over your chin, into the man's hands. You felt cracks from your esophagus resonate through your head, and your lungs froze. Things were tearing and ripping from your mouth to your chest, and all you could do was stare. He stared back.
He called you out again. "I'm burning! Where are you!? Help! Hiro!"
You punched and kicked with your last breath. Someone in front of you had their hands clamped around your wrists. Your legs were pinned down under the weight of their knees, which were bony and thin. You refused to open your eyes. You didn't want the Kabuki man to be the last thing you saw before death.
The hand on your chin was still there, except now it was smaller, gentler, and now it moved slowly towards your cheekbone and brushed your sweaty hair from your face. You paused, the sudden change of touch intriguing you. Slowly, your eyes defied your emotions and opened wide.
No Kabuki mask. No golden eyes. No red lines. Only two, concerned, frightened, familiar chocolate-brown eyes.
Hiro was pinning you down, both your wrists in one hand, knees on your legs, one hand softly caressing your head. He was panting heavily and his body was shaking uncontrollably, as was yours. You continued to stare into his eyes, wondering what he had just saved you from, what he had just taken on himself to protect you; but, as far as you could tell, he was safe.
You then realized that you were streaming waterfalls from your eyes. You quickly used the back of your sleeve to wipe them away, trying to hide them from Hiro, although you knew he had at least seen them a while before you woke up. You sniffled and took in your surroundings: a room, pale walls, an expensive-looking bed, large satin curtains... were you still in Fred's house?
He said your name softly, wearily. "What happened? What did you see? Calm down, please calm down..."
At that point, you couldn't take it any longer. You reached a shaky arm out to him, and he immediately embraced you tightly. You buried your face into his mopped hair, breathing in his scent. It erased the memory of the smoke from your mind. You roughly gripped the hood of his sweatshirt, subconsciously vowing to never forget the feel of it.
Hiro's face was in the crook of your neck. "It's ok, just please calm down." He softly shushed you, and re-positioned himself so that you could sit between his legs. You leaned against his chest, desperately trying to slow your breathing. You let his heartbeat pulse its way through your body, trying to match it with yours. You didn't want to close your eyes, hardly even to blink. You tried to focus on his hands around your waist, his warm breath on your neck, anything that would distract you from the dream. Still, the tears wouldn't stop flowing, even when he wiped them away every few seconds, as he rocked you back and forth like a child.
I killed Tadashi, you whispered, Hiro, I'm so sorry, I killed him, he went into the fire after me, I'm sorry -
Hiro interrupted you with a soft hush. "No, you didn't, it's not your fault, you didn't do anything. I promise you, you're safe, you're ok, you didn't kill him."
You let Hiro ramble on about how you didn't cause anything, appreciating the warmth and kindness in his voice. But you knew that he was just worried about your current emotional state. You knew that if you had just not been in the building then, Tadashi would still be alive to make Hiro happy.
You placed your head against Hiro's chest and sobbed harder, wishing that you could have at least gained something good about yourself in exchange for your voice.