Metanoia.「skephalo」

20 | Tired heart.

The phone on the nightstand beside the bed Darryl's was sleeping on rang insistently, obligaiting the blond boy to tiredly reach for it in order to obtain silence back.
Squeezing his eyes because of the screen brightness, he blindly accepted the call, bringing then the phone against his ear.

"Who is it..?" tiredly asked into a hoarse murmur, rubbing both his eyes with his thumb and index finger.

"Darryl he's back, he's here, he's here Darryl." a familiar voice repeated the same phrases in loop, awaking the Senior body right away.

"Zak?!" he abruptly got up, looking at the empty side of the bed where the short boy should've been. "Oh my gosh, Zak where are you?!" Slightly shouted at the phone, feeling the adrenaline peaking dangerously.

"He's here, he's here, help me please, he's here." he continued to repeat, his voice disturbed by his fast breathing against the microphone.

Darryl's tiredness vanished getting replaced by adrenaline, which made him jump off the bed, running then outside of the room and grabbing then his roommate bat leaned against the wall beside the front door.

"I'm coming, I'm coming Zak, everything is going to he okay." he kept reassuring at the phone, slamming the dorm door behind him while running through the empty and dark hallway then down the stairs of the building.

'I'm not going to show mercy to him this time.' angrily thought, clenching his hand on the bat.

There he was, slamming his shoulder against the door of the dorm number fourteen, unable to stop himself from the velocity he was going to. Without hesitation, lowered the handle, obtaining nothing but a muffled clack from it.

'It's locked?!'

He shoved his free hand into his pocket, pulling it out with a key between his fingers, quickly tucking it into the lock and opening the door.

Zak gave him the duplicate of the key in case of emergencies, but he never thought it would be needed since the short boy was staying at his dorm more than his own.

Swinging the door open and storming into the house, Darryl brought the bat up adjusting the grab, ready to use it. Looking everywhere in the house for both Zak or his father, he didn't find anybody, and adrenaline slowly weakened, letting place to pure concern.

"Zak, where are you? Wich room?" he asked after bringing the phone back against his ear, frantically looking around himself.

He searched for the short boy in every room without finding him, and anxiety made his stomach ache.

"Bathroom." Zak replied with a choked voice.

Rushing for that room, he let the bat fall on the ground on the way, opening the bathroom door fearing for the short boy conditions, finding him crumpled up in the corner of the small room in the middle of a panic attack.

"Zak!" the older boy exclaimed with eyes wide open, kneeing down in front of him. "Oh my goodness..." he quickly checked for wounds and bruised, luckily the only visible where the old ones. "There's no one, little muffin, everything is okay."

He carefully wrapped Zak in is arms, comforting and reassuring him, slowly calming him down.
After caressing softly his back for a few more moments, he broke the hug, cupping the younger boy's face in his hands and wiping the semi-dry tears away with his thumbs.

"What happened, little muffin? The door was locked..." Darryl asked, sliding his hands away holding then Zak's ones.

He looked away in reply, saying something incomprehensible under his breath.