Fine Line

Chapter 3 - Counting Days

- TW: STRONG LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE -

"You done yet? You've punched me 58 times and kicked me 33. I'd say I'm about dead." My voice is shaky and weak. I'm barely able to hear it myself.

"You counted?"

"Well, yeah. This is pretty boring, not gonna lie. I had nothing better to do." A weak laugh escapes me.

"Well, nobody likes odd numbers. Why don't I make it even?" Before I could open my mouth to speak, he connected two more punches to my nose. Immediately following the punches, he kicked me. Seven more kicks to the stomach, the back, and my legs. 

I begin coughing up blood and breathing heavily. "Sixty punches, forty kicks. You're even, douchebag." 

"Fine, I guess you're right," he says, dusting his hands as if he were proud of himself.

"So you'll let me out of these fucking chains, now?"

"Not quite... there's more to your punishment than a little beating. You've got solitary confinement up next."

"Ah, fuck." I slump down and lean on the pole behind me. Shigaraki flicked off the dim light and calmly stepped out of the room. "Great, now it's pitch black," I say to myself. 

I sit there, cold, hungry, uncomfortable, and in need of a bathroom. Life couldn't possibly get any better, am I right?

Second person POV:

After Todoroki let his father know that he had located the LOV, Endeavor worked tirelessly to make a plan. In approximately four days, they would attack, and possibly save you. You, on the other hand, might not be able to wait for that long. Shigaraki has allowed only two bathroom breaks a day and two meals a day, which is hard, but you've managed. He never cleaned the wounds he gave you, causing a few of them to become infected, and bruises still cover your body. He never specified how long you would be in confinement, but you're guessing it's probably a week or so. It's gotten hard to count the days at this point, and the fact that you get the same scraps every time doesn't help you distinguish the time of day by meal. 

You've decided there was no point in trying to count the days anymore.

This awful treatment is just enough to keep you alive, yet in every moment, every part of you feels heavy. Like your neck has just about given up on holding up your head, and your eyes have almost stopped trying to stay open.

 It's just a matter of time until there's no more 'almost' to that sentence.

You can't help but wonder, "If it's Saturday right now, I bet Todoroki would be worried. Fuck, now I feel bad, what if he thinks I ghosted him? I can't just tell him that a well-known villain put me in solitary confinement. Great now I've fucked that up, too." 

Almost if it were on queue with that thought, you hear a loud 'boom' sound from outside the garage. It didn't faze you much, loud sounds were normal to this place. What wasn't normal was the sound of commotion afterward. There were voices, of course, the League's voices, but one other voice stood out. Endeavor's. "What the fuck is he doing here? There are other voices I don't recognize, either. What the actual fuck is going on."

You feel like hurling, but you don't have the energy or the strength at this point. 

Suddenly the commotion outside stops, and it's quiet. Suspiciously quiet. 

In a matter of seconds, a burst of bright light comes beaming through an open door. It was blinding, your eyes had become used to the darkness, and they burned as the light infected your vision. Your breathing was heavy yet shallow. Staring into the light where you could see nothing, was someone who could see you. Someone who could see your almost lifeless body, halfway collapsed, tied to a pole, staring dumbfounded into the light in which you were blind. 

"SHE'S HERE!"

"OVER HERE!"

"COME ON!"

"GET ME SOMETHING TO CUT THESE CHAINS WITH!"

You hear unidentifiable voices shouting different things, all slightly muffled as they yelled in the other room. There was one, however, that immediately ran to your side instead of yelling at other people. They looked almost like an angel, with light from behind them enveloping their figure. As they began to run towards you, your body gave out. Your eyes didn't want to try and stay open anymore, and your neck gave up on supporting your head, letting it fall. After your head fell forwards, so did the rest of your body, it all gave out. As you collapsed, your knees almost met the floor but were stopped by the support of another person. The timing of your collapse was perfectly in time with the arrival of the person. You were close to falling all the way over, but instead, you collapsed into their arms. At the very moment they reached you, you crumbled into them. 

After being able to soak in this person's presence for two seconds, you passed out. You absorbed their scent, the texture of their clothing and their skin, the warmness of their tall figure–everything. Everything about them would be locked in your memory for eternity. 

As you lay there, unconscious, they lovingly stroked your hair and held you to them closely. 

"I'm so sorry..." They whispered, full-well knowing that you couldn't hear them at all. It didn't matter to them if you could hear it, they just wanted to comfort you, conscious or unconscious. It was like carrying a dead body that still held the slightest bit of life. 

Soon enough, other heroes ran to your aid, removing the chains around your wrists and the pole. As they were removed, your arms swung forward, eventually falling limp at your side. Everything is in the hero's control now, there's nothing an unconscious kid can do at this point.

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Sorry for the short chapterrrrr

it just felt wrong to put the rest in the same chapter lmao