Date ### Month ### Year ###
Akusha didn't know why he hadn't woken up yet. The nightmare held on. Thick. Constant.
He was hovering. Only his top half. His bottom half dragged behind, tethered by a wet mess of guts and gore. The heat from the blood made his head spin. A sickly high. He could see his own heart. For the first and last time. Each beat was a weak thud, slapping against his ears.
"You have no mouth. I understand you," Akusha muttered. Or thought it. The meat in his chest was thrashing. Desperate.
He looked around. Ceiling. Rug. Crystal lamp. Window. The talisman was there. Waiting. Akusha NEEDED to touch it. He forced his breath to slow. He felt himself ebbing forward. Like a dying wave.
His body hit the floor. He dug two fingers into the wood. He dragged the wet, steaming weight of his own guts. Millimeter by millimeter. A miracle of pure pain.
His finger hit the talisman. It vanished. No goodbye. His chest caught fire. A hundred glowing iron needles stabbing through his lungs. It stayed there. Inside his core.
He shoved his hand into his mouth. Blood. Thick, foul stomach juice coated his skin. It felt like filth. He reached deeper. He hit the heat. A mass of meat, soft and hard. But the talisman was out of reach.
He pulled his hand out. The Greedrabbits were there. Tearing at him. He grabbed one. He swallowed it. The thing scratched its way down his throat, shredding his insides.
In the dark, damp hole reeking of iron, the rabbit saw a light. Akusha saw it too. The talisman.
"Warm..." The world warped. Melted.
WAKE UP.
Akusha opened his eyes near the Voidabyss. A woman's voice: "Hey, brat." He was out. Finally. He didn't speak. He lunged. He grabbed Koromachi. The fear was carved into his eyes. It was in every twitch of his soul. He held her. Koromachi stayed still. She felt the tremors of a boy who had just crawled back from hell.
Akusha woke up again. Not the Voidabyss. Not home. A strange room. A small, round wooden table. His legs were lead. He struggled to stand. Then, he remembered how to walk.
Cooking smells from the kitchen. Koromachi was there. She saw him. She didn't care. Half an hour of dead silence. She put a plate of eggs on the table.
"Eating?"
Akusha sat. He took a bite. Salt. Pure, stinging salt. It burned his throat like lye.
"Is it good?" "Good," Akusha said. A flat lie. It was written all over his face as he forced the bitter mass down.
She smiled. A hollow, cold look.
"Is that so? Did you forget anything else?" "Forget what?"
Her voice began to echo. Louder. Bouncing off the walls. "Did you forget to WAKE UP, perhaps?"
The room died. The table was gone. Akusha was on his sofa. Shaking. The taste of salt and bitterness was still burning his tongue.
[Author's Note: Apologies. Lazy. The warmth of my bed was a weight I couldn't lift. So, I didn't.]