Inseparable

10. Night Terrors

"Finally!" Himiko exclaimed as she walked out of the bathroom on her crutches with hot steam following her from the hot shower she just took. Izuku looked at her briefly to see that she was wearing a towel around her body and another around her head. Izuku immediately turned back to his book with a huge blush on his face not knowing whether she was clothed or not.
"Hey, Izuku look over here real quick!" He began to internally panic wondering if this was some sort of trick. Curiosity eventually took over and he yanked his head around, prepared to become a man. She looked at him seductively as she took a couple of fingers off of the towel. One by one, the towel began to slip down. Izuku could hear his heart pounding more blood into his face and clutching his book with fingers turning white. She finally threw the towel off of her body and revealed–that she was fully clothed. She giggled as the towel made a loud wet, plop right onto Izuku's red face
"Put that away, please!"
"Yeah sure no problem," his voice resounded muffled under the white towel.
A couple of hours passed as Toga fell asleep and later Izuku after as he lay down on the ground in a sleeping bag next to the bed. Izuku however didn't fall asleep easily that night and often he found himself thinking about what the blonde had told him that day. Her past was so similar to him in many ways, and he felt like somehow he could have ended up in her shoes if he had taken the wrong path in life. He found himself genuinely worrying for her and hoped that what he was doing was not all for naught.
"Is this even worth it?" he told himself, "No, I can't think like that. She needs my help. And I will give it to her no matter what because that's what a real hero does. But what if I'm not enough? Am I just being naive by helping a literal murderer? Yet I don't see her as a murderer or a psychopath. I simply see her as a girl in need. Is this part of someone's deranged plan or is something else going on with my brain? Well, I guess it doesn't matter right now. All I know is I'm going to do my best to give her the second chance that the rest of society wouldn't offer her and leave it at that–," with that the boy fell asleep.
Toga felt herself in a field with the sun beginning to go down at sunset. She first noticed that her arms and legs were completely fine. There was no need for bandages or crutches. She felt much better, actually better than anything she had felt before. The long grass of the field tickled her forearms and filled her with joy. It was like each light breath of the wind was dancing on her skin. She heard a crunching noise of the long grass to her left and looked up to see a sky lit up with yellow, pink, and orange. They were vivid and flowing like water, getting prepared to give away for the star-filled night that was soon to follow. The sun was low but decided to give its last energy to light up this one part of the world. This last beam of light would have been enough to blind anyone instantly, but there was something in the way to protect Himiko's feline eyes.
Izuku was looking up into the sky illuminated by the last rays, his skin a shade of welcoming bright orange and hair reflecting more spectrums of warm light around him. Himiko got up easily, in fact it felt as though she had no weight to her body. Izuku slowly turned as he noticed her presence. His eyes were so kind and under it was a smile that filled her body with warmth despite the sun now disappearing leaving only Izuku in the light. He beckoned to her with his hand and then proceeded to turn and begin to slowly walk away with the light.
Himiko began to walk towards him, but each step she felt her heaviness come back to her legs. On top of that the grass began to become padded down with wet mud. Then it began to get colder. The brown sludge on the ground wrapped around her legs and despite wrenching her legs out of the swamp with every step, the chills didn't leave but only seemed to grow. She looked up towards the last bit of light and warmth, but the boy continued to walk and the faster she ran the further he got away. The cold sludge had crawled up her torso and approached her neck and elbows. Every step proved more difficult and more of a sharp pain as the cold sludge turned from a liquid to solidify into what felt like gripping hands. Izuku was only a spec in the distance at this point but Himiko still began to yell his name in any attempt for the boy to save her. She knew he could, in fact he is the only one who could help her, so that made her even more distressed to find that no sound came from her vocal cords.
The darkness had then completely wrapped around the girl along with the inky sludge that pierced into her flesh dragging her down into a hidden abyss below. Toga had lost all feeling as she realized she could no longer breathe. It felt awful as the sludge turned to just a dark void and poured into her body. It was like dying in outer space but without the glory or even the stars as company.
Her mind began to spin as she wondered whether she was dead or alive. Suddenly dim lights poured in from windows on her left showing it was late in the afternoon. She regained feeling and felt the squeaky floors of the long hallway she stood in. Himiko's stomach plummeted. She would never—could never forget the hallway. Her middle school looked the same way it had the day of her graduation ceremony.
Himiko then noticed something just out of her clear view at the end of the hall. She didn't want to look, she wanted to run. However she couldn't turn around, her body felt compelled to move forward. Taking slow steps that echoed along the eerie, dim hallway she could see more of the figure her body was drawn to. It was a boy, his muscular arm was the only thing she could clearly see out of the shadow. Himiko was no longer in control of her body, yet still felt herself kneeling down next to the figure in the shadows. She felt herself touch the cold hand and realized she recognized the scars. She regained control of her body when she saw the only visible dark green strands from the shadows on the icy hall floor.
She lept backwards onto the ground trying to escape the green haired boy's reality. That is when she felt something wet touch the hands currently supporting her. She went to take a look at her hand and saw it gleam off the little light left in the hall. She didn't need light to recognize the heavy, warm liquid however. Smell alone told her, she could practically taste it. It was blood.
Suddenly a bright light poured over her and the hall disappeared to show a blindingly white room. The blood remained in her hand and so did the source. There was a woman behind her that was covered in stab wounds. Next to her she saw another body and another and another and another. They had all died the same way, drained of blood. There were many of various ages and genders, covered in stab wounds which now leaked out their last remains. All of her victims stared back at her with soulless, meaningless eyes. That's all they were to her anyway.
Himiko felt her shoulder nearly yanked off as a pair of bloody hands spun her around. Izuku looked at her with the same eyes. He was covering in bruises and other knife shaped wounds just like the others, but still had some life left in him. He was shouting something into her face but her brain could not possibly convert anything into intelligence. He was moving but wasn't alive she realized. His hands and body still felt extremely cold, like the sludge. His eyes gave away all the rest.
Yet the grip began to ground her back to Earth where he heard him say, "—we have to go, or she'll—" As quick as he started he was cut off. Blood flew from his mouth with a weak cough into Toga's face and then even more poured out of his mouth. She heard and felt the vibrations of his grunts and failing last breathes. Just then she found the shiny pointed object that protruded from the front of his neck. Izuku gurgled as more blood poured from his lips and then his eyes, flooding the ground around Toga.
Just then the noise of ripping flesh sounded as the blade was torn out of the back of Izuku's neck. His rag doll body collapsed into his own river of blood on the ground in front of the girl. She wanted to scream but no noise could adequately represent her horror or shock. Her body just shook in little spasms as the figure holding the blade looked down from the darkness that had again formed around Himiko. Her sense of touch remained intact as the blood from Izuku began to oil on her skin. The figure that carried a thoroughly bloodied knife smiled, her sharp canines shining at her like a reflection. That's because it was a reflection. Himiko looked at herself carrying her dripping blade that echoed in her skull with each drop. She had a sadistic grin on her face as she reached down to taste her knife. This monster was none other than her. But Toga never wanted any of this. No, it couldn't be her.
"But it is," her mirror image said, throwing herself forward into the face of the petrified other blonde. Himiko was face to face with her own reality, herself, a monster. The monster raised her blade back to slam it down into her last prey and Himiko could only watch, wide-eyed as the other's grin grew to an unprecedented size. The blade then was released, covering the horrified girl's vision.
Himko shot up in her bed and screamed, a horrifying scream that carried throughout the apartment. Sweat flew off of her body in huge beads as her body smashed back to the pillow. Izuku's eyes screeched open and he jumped up to Himiko's side.
"Himiko what's wrong–," he began as she broke into tears in his arms for the second time. He sat down on the bed and held her tightly. She held him back. Between her sobs, he realized that it was a dream.
"It's okay now, shhh. Don't worry I'd never let anything happen to you. I'm here," he said trying to console her. Eventually, he tried to lay her back down on the bed but her grip was iron.
"You won't leave me right, Izuku?" she mumbled, her slobs finally getting quieter.
"No, I'll stay right here," he said gently.
"Promise." She said looking up at him with messy tears running down her face.
"What?"
"Promise me. Izuku Midoriya, that you won't leave me."
"Okay, okay, I promise I won't ever leave you Himiko Toga,"
He laid down next to her on the bed and held her tightly. "Everything will be okay now." At least he hoped, because the future holds many outcomes, however, he knew that in them he'd be with her.