Chapitre 3: Achluophobia

 

Dusk was finally setting when Fulgur rummaged through his pockets to find the keys to his apartment. Rain started pouring outside, perhaps a storm was coming tonight. When he grabbed onto the fluffy sheep keychain a kid gave him years ago, he unlocked the door. The click of the lock made him sigh in relief, this meant his day was finally done. Or at least he thought so. These past nights have been quite the hassle, basking him in a storm of nightmares and choking him with an old friend of his, fear. 

Stepping in the dark threshold, a quick shiver ran down his neck. He ignored it, removing his jacket to hang it on a hanger. He quickly turned off the popping messages from his IIs. The leftover paperwork in the Headquarters was a problem the Fulgur of tomorrow will have to deal with. Turning off this ability, his eyes were no longer providing him the power to decipher his surroundings in the dark. He blindly brushes the wall with his hand in order to find the switch. But, as his finger encountered the button to turn it on, no light emerged from the lightbulb. Only a faint buzzing sound, like it had sparkled her last sign of life. 

“No electricity? Great timing.” He thought ironically. 

Another shiver made his blood run cold. He really chose the good day to feel sick. He walked blindly towards the bathroom, ignoring the lack of light. It’s not like he was gonna do something else tonight as the exhaustion made him yawn. What he needed right now was sleep. 

As he stepped in the bathroom he unconsciously turned on the light. But then he remembered that it couldn’t possibly work tonight with this power outage. However, a light, small, cold and sharp turned on. And only this light on top of the mirror in front of the sink turned on. Fulgur swallowed anxiously. On normal days, Fulgur would have just ignored this odd coincidence but considering what’s happening to him recently, this could mean nothing good. 

He wanted to step away from this space. But the anxiety rushed through his veins like dopamine. It was calling him, a faint but low voice was calling out to him. Begging him, appealing him to walk, step by step, cold sweat running down his temples to stand right in front of the mirror. 

And without realizing, his anxious gaze met his own in the mirror. The flickering lightbulb sparkled just enough light to see his face and his torso. The rest of the room was drowned in a heavy, black darkness, ready to swallow him whole the moment the light would turn off. His hands tightly held the sink for support as he couldn’t dare look away from the mirror, grasping onto that last flicker of light for dear life. Behind him, hands dripping with black were trying to reach out to him, waiting in anticipation the moment his attention would flinch. 

The buzzing of the lightbulb and the pouring rain outside were ringing in his ears like an emergency siren. He needed to step away but something was forcing him in front of the mirror, like his feet were stuck on the ground with cement. But the darkness was ready to swallow the light, ready for her dessert. And so it did. 

The buzzing of the lightbulb stopped, drowning Fulgur in an ocean of black. When he was finally about to step away from the mirror, a flash of lightning ripped the sky appart, illuminating the place for two seconds. But those two seconds were enough to make his blood run cold, a drop of cold sweat running down his temple and falling heavily on the ground like a thick droplet of blood. 

His surroundings had changed. He was no longer in his small, dilapidated bathroom. In fact what welcomed him was nothing. His eyes couldn’t decipher anything but darkness, thick and suffocating darkness ready to choke him. It was like this instant of light provided by the thunder was swallowed the second after, like it couldn’t break through the heaviness of this darkness. 

“Fu-chan…”

A whisper. Exhaled in an exhausted, trembling voice.

A voice he recognized almost immediately. 

“Uki?! Is that you?” He screamed but his voice seemed to be echoing into nothingness not reaching the other’s ears.

“Fufu-chan, please…” 

Fulgur took a first step, and another and another. He started running, sprinting into whatever direction Uki’s voice was leading him to. It was his anchor in this place surrounded by nothing except a heavy darkness. 

He needed to run. 

Something was chasing him.

So he ran over to an unknown destination, desperately trying to reach for Uki’s voice. It was like the moon chasing the sun over and over again in an unending loop stuck in time. 

But as he was getting closer, Uki’s voice was getting louder and louder his words were also getting clearer, turning into sentences. Feeling his heartbeat in his ears and the anxiety rushing through his veins he simply focused on the sound instead of the content. 

Which was a stupid mistake.

In his run-up, he suddenly tripped and fell forward hitting the ground in a loud thump. His hand rubbing his sore head from the fall he looked at what could have possibly made him trip. A cold shiver run down his entire body, face pale. A hand coated in black dark paint like goo was holding his ankle tightly. 

Small waves of black goo were moving in front of him, and soon, revealed themselves amongst this darkness two bright purple eyes, that was the only thing he was able to decipher in the dark. 

Two bright purple eyes, one brighter than the other, looking inside of his soul. Looking for a moment to strike upon their prey. More hands were overing Fulgur’s body, ready to choke him.

“I told you.”

“I told you.”

“I told you.” 

“I TOLD YOU TO RUN.”

“Please…”

“Don’t leave me behind…”

A strike of thunder and the world went back to light. Fulgur gasped loudly, his heaving breath echoing in the bathroom with the sound of the rain crashing on the tiny window. He was holding onto the sink so tightly that it actually broke at the edge, his face covered in cold sweat. He ran down his hands on his face trying to erase this weird waking dream he just went through. 

He sighs, exhausted. He definitely needed a good and long sleep. He turned away from the mirror, leaving the bathroom after turning off the light. 

After the door closed behind him,

You could still see a shadow lingering inside the mirror.

With two bright purple eyes.

Leaving a crack on the side of the mirror before disappearing after another flash of lightning.

Chapter written by: @ukistarlight

Art by: @spikesmuth