Fruits Basket: Give me wings

Chapter 17- A place to return to

Hey guys! Bit of a shorter chapter here (compared to some of the others, at least…) Aaaand the drama continues. I feel sorry for these guys sometimes. Haruhi once again finds herself in Akito’s clutches, and this chapter oversees her emotions in that room. It’s not edited, so I apologise for any typos. Feedback is always appreciated! J

Chapter 17- A place to return to

Haruhi stood frozen on the spot, as if the shadows beneath her had spawned hands that were holding her ankles in a death grip. Not a muscle in her body dared to move, not even her eyes, which were open wide in disbelief.  Tears began rolling silently down Sora’s cheeks, and Haruhi finally moved, bowing her head and thinking… If only Ben were here; he’d stop Sora from crying. The other person’s name was agonising to even think of… Haruhi could only think of the relief she felt that he wasn’t here to witness something so heart-breaking, but the small child in her desperately wished that he would appear and take her out of this place. The thought of going into that dark room again was hard enough to bear thinking about, but the thought of Sora going through the same was somehow a thousand times more painful.

No-one had the heart to object; they were simply too shocked. Haruhi bit her lip. Was this the way it would be? The Zodiacs, bowing before Akito, mindlessly following orders and giving up at every tiny obstacle? She hated to think of the invisible chains they were bound by, and as much as she wanted to object, the desire to make a ruckus has dissipated along with Akito’s last poisonous words. All sympathy she had for that woman had dissolved into the acid of her current thoughts.

***

The room was as dark as she remembered it.

“Go in, then,” Akito said, tapping Haruhi on the shoulder. The sensation zinged through her body. “Hurry up, too. I have to locate Tsuneo.”

“Don’t you touch him!” Haruhi spat.

“Don’t answer back. Go in.”

“I… I don’t want to! Why should I?”

“Go in.”

That was it for Haruhi’s valour. She gave Akito a hard stare and walked into the room. Akito wordlessly threw the green kimono she was holding at Haruhi, giving an unspoken signal that this was what she would be wearing from now on. Haruhi found it very difficult to mask her disgust. That kimono was like a symbol of her confinement, a uniform in a death camp. Akito turned away as Haruhi got changed into her ‘uniform’. She pressed her face to her old clothes once as a goodbye, and looked down at her new attire in distaste.

“I’m not staying,” Haruhi insisted, sounding much braver than she felt.

“You are.”

“No, I’m not!”

Something wrenched inside Haruhi’s soul. How on Earth had she been able to say something like that? Saying that should have stung her inside. The twinge she had prepared for never came. Something had changed, weakened.

Akito could sense it too, judging by her wounded expression of confusion.

“Yes, you are!” Akito hissed.

“Just don’t you touch Tsuneo, or I’ll…”

“You’d kill me? How pathetic!”

She raised her fist, deliberated, and then grabbed for the nearest ornament on the table leant against the wall in the hallway. Haruhi had enough time to deduce that this was really, really going to hurt.

Something heavy hit her on the head, and she collapsed to the floor in a heap. The pain kept coming in tsunamis, wave after wave of intense torment. Haruhi tried to concentrate on her breathing, as she did before, but it did not seem to work. She hadn’t experienced this kind of pain in a long while… Endure… she told herself, Endure. Just hang in there.