Cinema [Yandere!Sasuke x Reader] AU

Scene 22

She swallows. "I... I knew the amount of awards or medals I brought home from art competitions wouldn't have helped her situation...but I wanted to see my mom smile again. She was a single mother who worked hard to raise me and my brother...and I worked even harder to make her happy. I was obedient. Did as she asked without complaint. Helped my little brother when she couldn't. Everyone commended me and my mother for how good I was."

Thunder fades off into the distance.

"There wasn't anything I wouldn't do for my mom. So when she died, I thought it was my fault. I wasn't working hard enough. I wasn't enough to make her happy. After that, my brother and I went into the system until my grandmother got us. We weren't old enough to inherit the house," she gestures to her room, "so my grandma held the deed until I turned twenty."

"So, I make art now. In hopes that my mom is smiling down at every piece I make."

...

[Name] sits in a wasteland of darkness. A ring of light surrounds her. It's only safe in the circle she stands in; if she steps out, [Name] doesn't know what'll happen to her, but she knows whatever it is, it isn't good. She might be yanked off into the darkness by the unknown. She might be scratched and hurt beyond recognition. She knows it's dangerous out there.

Though she hears voices. Raspy, whispery, smooth voices trying to coax her out. She sees hands reach out, but her circle repels them, burning them. The stench of burning flesh enters her nose as more hands shoot out from the darkness. The more brave ones nearly reach her but disintegrate before her eyes.

"Come out!" It whispers. It sounds angry with her, something [Name] hates to experience. "Come help me, [Name]!"

Me. As in the singular. But the number of hands reaching for [Name] paint a different picture. There are many. There are so, so many.

Or perhaps it's a many-armed monster circling her, waiting for her to step from her comfort zone. She can't know, for the space all around her is pitch black. "Please, [Name]. I just want to hold you in my arms."

Hands smack against the protective light barrier, which warps into glass. All around her, black, murky, sticky hands strike against the class, increasing in volume and speed. The loudness causes [Name] to cower in her spot, knowing anything she does is fruitless. What more can she do besides stay in place?

A sharp sound reaches her ears, like the snapping of twigs or the chipping of wood. When she looks up, she sees a crack forming in her safe space. When the hands smack against it, the fissure expands.

"No," [Name] mutters, as if she knows it's the end. Anxiety piles itself in her gut and the urge to vomit burns her throat. "No, stop! You're gonna break it! Stop!"

They chant her name over and over until it drives her insane. She wants out. She wants to run far away from here. She can't handle this type of torture---stuck in place with nowhere to run, watching as the monster creeps closer.

"I just want to hold you in my arms," the voice says, sweetly, cruelly. It weeps, but it sounds fake, like a mix between a laugh and a cry. "Come out, little [Name]."

She feels a shift as if the floor beneath her is moving. Her heart hammers in her chest as nothing around her changes, but she can feel the differences. Something just happened, something she can't control.

Clack.

Clack.

Clack.

Footsteps. Then finally, two hands press against the cracking glass. They drag along the barrier, leaving a trail of crimson red behind. And all [Name] can do is watch in her spot. The hands stop, leaking the unknown red substance.

Suddenly, a face smacks the glass. No eyes, no nose, just a crimson red smile, like crusted blood on white paper.

It giggles and smacks its face against the glass again. To [Name's] horror, the face contorts with every slam against the cracked glass. Pieces of flesh fall with the shards of glass. It does this until red leaks into the pure white circle, tainting it, corrupting this lone light she has in this pitch black wasteland.

It pools at her feet, causing her to shake. There's nothing she can do. Nowhere to run. She is stuck.

The light dims until there's nothing but black in front of her. The safe space she had for herself disappeared just like that. Arms wrap around her waist, pulling her back into a cold, sticky body. She smells copper and ash, like that of an extinguished fire and dried blood. She swallows and closes her eyes in fear when she feels a weight on her shoulder.

"Got you!" It sings, far too happy to catch someone like her. It giggles and hugs her, pulling her into its crimson, red-soaked body.

Swallowing her whole. The voice contorts into something cruel, scary, hungry, and greedy.

"Got you!"

"Got you!"

"Got you!"

"Got you!"

...

[Name] jumps up from her sleep. Tears run down her face, and quickly she wipes them away with the back of her palms. With shaky breaths, she looks around, finding that she is still in the arms of Neji. Her eyes waver in the dark, watching as he breathes in softly and then exhales. The clock on the nightstand reads 4 AM. 

"Neji?" [Name] calls to him softly, tapping his chest. He's roused from his sleep, groggy-eyed and a little disoriented. "Neji, please wake up."

Neji breathes in deeply. "I'm up...I'm up. I'm up. What's wrong?"

[Name] cuddles him closer. "I just had a nightmare."

"Don't worry," he replies sleepily. He pats [Name's] back, sleep ready to retake him. "I'm here, [Name]."

With his fingers, he draws patterns on her back, eyes closed. [Name] can't seem to close her eyes, the thunder from miles away keeping her awake, for it reminds her of the smashing of her window hours before.

"I can't sleep."

Neji hums, adjusting to sit up. The position he laid in left a crook in his neck, and it cracks as he turns his head to her. "Do you want me to make you some tea?"

[Name] smiles wearily. "Please?"

"Of course."

...

A/N: what's crackin' babes?