(Fuck my life, man.)
Seek crept through the halls, always keeping close to the walls, and never staying in the open for too long. He wanted to avoid everyone right now, since he couldn't bring himself to talk face to face with other people. Not right now.
Seek jumped behind or under desks or jumped into closets if he saw or heard someone, trying to make as little noise as possible. So far, he'd seen Eyes, Halt, Ambush, and Rush. A strong feeling of guilt gnawed at his stomach when Rush and Ambush passed through the room, and Seek tried his hardest to stamp it out and forget about it. Still, the guilty feeling never really went away.
Finally, Seek had gotten out of the main hall, and there was a straight shot to his room from there. However, there were no good hiding spots, so if someone walked in on him, they'd see him. Seek didn't need a reminder of how he was a horrible person, so he ran as fast as he could, beelining to his room. He quickly opened the door, and closed it behind him, locking it as soon as he was inside. He took a moment to breathe, attempting to calm his accelerated heartbeat. Seek finally let out a heavy exhale, before jumping onto his bed. He curled up into a ball, too many thoughts circling around in his head.
Figure and Timothy are gone... Everyone hates you... Can't rebuild what was never there in the first place... Seek sighed, trying to dismiss the nagging in his mind, and failing. Finally, he gave up, deciding to sleep the thoughts away. He crawled under one of his many blankets, finding comfort in the warmth it provided. He always had his room locked when he was in it, so he wasn't worried about any other entities walking in on him. He finally let his head fall back, hitting the pillows, before closing his eye, and forgetting about the world, if only for a little bit.
////////////
"Alright, so, we're here to learn self defence," Spirit announced, now that every entity was in the Library with her. "Jack and I are going to demonstrate a palm-heel strike first. Pay close attention, because we are only going to do it once." Spirit turned to Jack. "Do you want to deliver the blow, or should I?" she questioned.
"You can do it," Jack replied. "I'm alright with it."
Spirit nodded, before turning to the other entities. Her mind flashed to her previous meeting with Seek. Despite everything, he should be here too. Shadow is a threat to all of us... Spirit quickly shoved the thought to the back of her mind. She had to focus on the task at hand, first.
"Is everyone ready?" After receiving several nods in response, she turned to Jack. "Are you ready?"
Jack nodded, and readied himself. Spirit flexed her wrist, before striking Jack in the nose. Jack recoiled from the hit, staggering backwards. Spirit then turned to everyone else. "Did everyone see that, because we will not be doing it again." She extended her hand to Jack, helping him up. "I'm sure you understand why."
"I do," Halt responded. Everyone else nodded, and Spirit smiled.
"Find a partner to practise with. After we're all decent enough at it, we'll move on to the next method." Spirit then picked up what appeared to be a silver and sapphire circlet. "If anyone feels that they aren't able to recover quickly enough to continue, come to me. I finally found a good enchantment for this thing that allows the wearer to have an accelerated recovery from an injury." Everyone gave her a verbal response, and found partners.
Rush partnered with Ambush, Halt with Eyes, and Screech with Sally. Glitch didn't have a partner.
Spirit sighed. "Glitch, why don't you partner with Jack and I?" She motioned for Glitch to come over to them, and Glitch smiled, walking to the two entities. They began practising. (I'm so tired and I have no idea what to write.)
After about fifteen minutes, and countless visits for the Recovery Circlet, everyone felt as if they had gotten good enough at the method. Spirit gathered all of the entities to the center of the Library, ready to demonstrate the next method.
"The elbow strike is a pretty effective one. Again, Jack and I will demonstrate," she said, turning once more to her companion. "Since I hit you last time, it's only fair that you get to do it this time." Jack nodded in response, and Spirit readied herself. This time, their demonstration would be more "in action,"or whatever. I don't know, I'm tired.
Spirit leapt at Jack, wrapping her arms around his torso from behind, and tightening her grip. Jack stiffened, before bending his arm, shifting his weight, and twisting his body, striking Spirit in the neck. Her grip around Jack loosened, and he jumped away from her. Spirit took a moment to regain her composure, before turning to everyone else. "You've seen the demonstration. Now, try it yourselves." Glitch walked back up to Jack and Spirit, while everyone else decided to mix up the partnerships. Eyes was now with Rush, Window with Halt, and Ambush with Screech. While the adults being partnered up with the kids seemed unfair, Shadow was an adult too, and they all knew that they should be ready for anything, even if it made things much more difficult.
Finally, after thirty or so minutes, they were once again ready for the next method. After another demonstration, this time of the eye strike, everyone partnered up again, once more mixing the duos up. Screech with Glitch, Window with Ambush, and Halt with Rush, while Eyes was now with Jack and Spirit. It was much easier to recover from this one, as they didn't technically need to hit their partner. The process repeated once more with the knee strike. This one was probably the hardest to recover from, especially for the boys. Hey, it was still difficult to recover for the girls, it just hurt more for the guys for... obvious reasons. (Hey, I was assigned female at birth, I don't know shit about male anatomy.)
Finally, all four methods were mastered. While other methods would probably be a good thing, Timothy and Figure needed saving sooner rather than later, and first, they needed to recover Glitch's memory. If they could, they'd save their friends while they were down there completing the other objective, but even then, that was a pretty big if.
"We'll need to go back down soon..." Spirit muttered. She then turned to Jack. "We don't have time to learn any other methods right now. Glitch needs his memory, and Figure and Timothy need to be saved. We can utilise what we know when the time comes. Gather the others. We need to go back down." Jack nodded, and stood up.
"I need everyone's attention," he called out. Everyone turned to him. "We need to go back down there. We know enough right now, and if we don't go back down soon, Shadow might strike us first. We've already taught you all of the methods we know so far, so it's not like we have much of a choice." Determination sparkled in his eyes as he spoke. Most of the other entities nodded in agreement, some giving verbal responses. Spirit smiled. Then frowned once more.
We can do this. We can do this... We... can do this... Spirit felt fear begin to slip its way into her brain, and she quickly pushed it out. Sure, she'd faced Shadow before, but she also knows what he's capable of. She sighed standing up. She doesn't care what happens, she is ready for anything now.
////////////
It felt like it had only been a few minutes. A quick glance at the clock on his wall told him otherwise.
Seek groaned, sitting up. His mask was lopsided, and his hood was beginning to slip off. Seek sighed, pulling his hood back up, and removing his face mask. He stretched as he crawled out of bed. His attempt to get rid of the thoughts by sleeping had been futile, as they were still dogpiled in his mind. Seek hazily looked into the mirror on his wall. He walked over to his desk, his mouth dry. He opened one of his drawers, a small bottle of water and a container of vitamins sitting inside. Seek grabbed both of them, taking a sip of water before opening the container of pills. Sure, their purpose was technically supposed to just give the consumer a speed boost, but recently, Seek had discovered that they doubled as antidepressants because plot convenience is a thing and the author is tired.
Seek took a couple of them out of the container, popping them both into his mouth. He swallowed them with a sip of water, the pills going down easily. He sighed, closing the water bottle and the vitamin container, and then put them back in his drawer. The thoughts began to fade as he sauntered back to his bed, lying back down. Not sleeping, just lying there. Seek stared at the ceiling, feeling nothing. Of course, thoughts still streamed through his head like the rapids of a river, but they were more dull, more numb to him. After a while, he slowly sat back up, pulling on his face mask. He had nowhere to go. He was confined here. His room. With no one else.
It was just Seek and his thoughts and emotions. And being alone with your feelings is the worst because you have nowhere to run. After all, how do you run away from things that are in your head?