The Seasons

Chapter 31

As soon as Neo finished his sentence, Slaine disappeared. Neo sighed but said nothing. Jasper’s eyes landed on Warren before he stormed over, grabbed the man by the arm, and the two disappeared through the archway. Wing bit the inside of his cheek as it finally dawned on him. There were so many people cramped into a moderate-sized living room. But he could feel the heat oozing off their bodies, and the chatter was unbearably loud. He tried to distract himself by counting his knuckles and taking deep breaths, he even went as far as to shut his eyes, but through the darkness, he saw the blurred figures of the men and women all poking him, prodding at him.

So, he snapped his eyes open, and the volume seemed to increase. He knew what was happening as his eyes glassed over. The ringing in his head, the sound drowning out the loud noise, his heartbeat growing so fast he could feel it hammering against his chest. He could feel his blood boil. He didn’t know if it was from the panic attack he was about to have or the vivid memory of having been injected with something that had left him screaming until he lost his voice.

He had somehow managed to squeeze himself into a corner, with his back against the wall so no one could attack him from behind and his eyes glued to the ground. He needed to slow his breathing down. He knew he did. But he didn’t think he could have panic attacks as a vampire. And he didn’t know what the side effects would be.

Fucking hell. Cairo had been the one to help him the last few times he had felt one coming on, but Cairo was out there somewhere, probably hurt, and no one seemed to care.

A small yelp escaped his mouth as he covered his ears with his hands as the chatter went from talking to screaming, but he couldn’t bring himself to remove his hands or focus on what anyone was saying, nor could he bring himself to look up.

And then it dawned on him as the tears in his eyes threatened to fall.

What if those people were still holding him? What if Slaine, Winter and everyone else were all fragments of his broken mind, and to continue the illusion, his mind had added Thorne, his best friend, for some touch of reality? He had found it odd that Cairo, a man who was exactly his type, but way out of his league, would take an interest in him and care for him when no one else did. And what if that was his mind’s way of consoling him from the horrible reality? What if when he opened his eyes, he would be trapped in that tiny windowless, concrete room with his only company being the sound of screams from others? What if he looked up and the room melted away to reveal that room, and the next person to walk in wouldn’t be Cairo, but that man?

That man with dark hair cut close to his head and those green eyes that almost appeared to be glowing. The scar that ran from his chin to just below his eye, and those steel-toed boots of his, that he would use to hurt Wing? The man himself wasn’t muscular, he was on the petite side, but the men he brought with him were. And he would have a wicked smile as he usually did. What if those three men appeared behind him again, ready to strap him down to the makeshift bed so they could touch and poke him with stuff?

What if they had given him something? Something that had caused all of this, he’d had a taste of freedom, even if it was drug-induced, but they would bring him to the cold, harsh reality that he was still trapped in a room with no one who cared enough for him to look for him.

When someone touched Wing, a scream tore through his throat as he pushed and kicked as they grabbed onto him. He kept his eyes shut; even if this were a drug-induced hallucination, he would revel in it for a little longer. He couldn’t hear what anyone was saying, not really. The sound of humming was blocking out all noise.

“-ing… ook… me… Wing, open …eyes.” He kept them closed. He wouldn’t let them ruin it. He had just started getting used to it all. Getting used to having people around who wouldn’t hurt him, who maybe even cared for him. He didn’t want to go back to that room alone. He had just gotten used to the idea of Cairo. But what if Cairo wasn’t real? Then what?

The person was still holding him. He was pressed against them. Their hair tickled the back of his neck, but he refused to open his eyes. He could feel their arms around him, their chest vibrating as they spoke.

“You’re okay,” they whispered. “You’re okay. No one is going to hurt you. You’re safe.”

Wing tensed when he heard him. All the fight had left his body, and he felt exhausted. He slumped against him, trying to regulate his heartbeat. And once it was back to its regular ten beats per minute and his body no longer felt like he was on fire, did he move.

He swallowed down the lump, pushing the man away as he leaned against the wall with his eyes closed. He knew he needed to open them. To confirm, he was still at Blue’s house, but what if he wasn’t? What if whoever had comforted him was also a figment of his imagination?

“Wing,” they whispered. “You’re not there anymore. Open your eyes. I need to see them.”

It took Wing almost two minutes to open them, and when he did, he saw everyone staring at him. His eyes landed on Thorne, who looked like he was about to cry, and then he stared at Cairo. One of his eyes was swollen shut, the bruise already starting to heal, and there was a gash on his face that, if he looked close enough, he could see the dark skin putting itself back together, particle by particle.

“Cairo?” he groaned. He wasn’t sure what came over him as he threw his arms around his neck, holding him close, as he tried to hold back a sob. “I can see why you never let me have a panic attack before.”

He felt Cairo’s arms go around him, and Wing pushed his face into his chest as he blinked back tears. Cairo let out a little huff, “yeah, now you see why.”

~*~

A NOTE:

Hello everyone, I am so sorry for the confusion that will probably happen when I release this new version. But let me explain myself; if you have read any of my other stories requiring coins, you will most likely be aware that each chapter tends to be more expensive than what you are used to. I realised that this was causing a lot of issues for people, so I contacted the writing team, and they were kind enough to let me know the word count for each chapter dictates how much each chapter will cost. Now, for reference, I usually write 3,000 words as the minimum, and after discussing this, I realised that the ideal chapter length should be around 800-1500 words. Now, of course, that is a massive difference, so I decided to upload this version. I plan to do the same for all my other stories slowly, as I am rewriting everything, which won’t be much of a hassle. The next one to be sliced and diced will be Alpha2, so I’m so sorry for any inconvenience this causes. To amend the upload schedule, because each chapter will be ⅓ of a ‘regular’ chapter, I will release a chapter for The Seasons every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. But I just wanted to clear up any misunderstandings. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments, and I will reply. To also am <3