The Universe Listened | Kiribaku

We're setting fire to our insides for fun

•Chapter Sixteen•

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Dreams were so strange to Kirishima.

He dreamed like everyone else but the difference was that he couldn't see. His lack of sight carried over into his dreams and it was so strange to him.

But the lack of sight made the nightmares much more terrifying.

He was having a nightmare. The world was warped by the screams of the people he loved, the air was shifting between way too cold and way too hot. Each scream was tortuous, making his heartache and cry out to them but they couldn't hear him. He'd run towards them, feel their presence grow closer but the moment he'd reach out to grab them, their bodies vaporized and left him grasping at the air.

The screams dissipated to words. Words he couldn't understand no matter how many times he ran them over in his head, trying to make sense of them. He'd try to talk back, to tell them he had no idea what they were saying and then when the words left his mouth, he couldn't understand them. He couldn't make sense of his own words and it terrified him. It was an endless loop, leaving him horrified.

His hearing faded. His hands felt clammy, sweaty even, and then they began to tingle; the tingle crept up his arms, exploded down his legs, and weaved itself through his skin, veins, and nerves. It bloomed all around him before settling down, unfolding itself.

Everything became corrupted. The world began to tune out involuntary, he could no longer feel the air around his skin and he couldn't take in any breaths. He lifted his arms above his head in a desperate attempt to open his airways but the action did the exact opposite. Calm. He tried to stay calm, to take in deep breaths, to relax, to just let it happen―whatever it was.

The ground vanished out from underneath him and left him falling towards the fast approaching ground. Panic filled him, exploded behind his eyes and ran out his ears before he was violently assaulted by every and any emotion.

Nothing. He felt nothing. He no longer felt the air whipping his hair around his face or the sudden sensation in his stomach that made him feel like it fell out his ass, and the panic was gone. The terror and worry and everything else disintegrated.

He fell and fell and fell and fell and then splat―

.

.

.

Kirishima was jolted awake. Red strands of hair stuck his forehead like glue, his wide in terror as his chest rose too fast for him to comprehend. He was screaming. I'm just screaming words, he thought. Words I can't understand. But he was screaming at the top of his lungs in a way that almost seemed like an exaggeration and he didn't know how to make it stop.

It's like everything in him just―imploded.

And all that built up emotion had been building up inside him for so long and it needed to go somewhere.

An ache exploded up his back, rendering him breathless as his entire body was then consumed by one large ache. Shivers took over, tears stained his already bright red cheeks, and he was disoriented, lost in the darkness of his room and he didn't know how to escape.

Comforting arms wrapped around his shoulders and pulled him close, a voice whispering things he couldn't focus on. He blinked back the tears, sniffled heavily, trying to make sense of where he was and why he hurt as bad as he did.

"It's Kaori, darling, it's just me," he heard once he finally let the world sink into his mind again. She placed the back of her hand on his forehead before letting a low sigh leave her lips. "You're burning up."