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I shot up with a scream, the weight that had been pressing into my chest was missing and yet as I flailed around blindly with my hands clenched in fists I connected with nothing. Maybe he’d backed off, thought I’d died already. To be honest, I had thought I was dead too, I was mere seconds away from being unconscious when this had happened.
I crawled around, searching for something, anything, that could give me a clue as to what was happening. This was probably so amusing to him, watching me suffer like this. I couldn’t open my eyes, or maybe I didn’t want to, either way I was left blind, dazed, and angry. So, so angry, maybe scared instead, maybe both. I decided to just sit there for a few seconds, to see if I could catch my bearings and listen closer for any sign of that asshole.
I was lucky enough to hear footsteps approaching again. My eyes snapped open at once and I was graced with a second of shock at how obscured my vision was before I locked onto the person. It was so dark I couldn’t really tell who it was, but I had a good idea based on my past situation.
He seemed to notice I was up, and reached a hand out, perhaps to give me the illusion of safety, perhaps out of his own fear. I struck without thinking, my hand grabbing onto his arm. I found my moment, adrenaline and rage making me shake yet not letting me falter as I tightened my grip, nails digging into the skin. He yelled something, something too muffled for me to hear, and tried yanking his arm away but my grip held firm.
I was surprised he didn't hit me, I was surprised I had the strength for this, but I was grateful. Grateful for the chance to defend myself, to live.
The commotion was completely muffled in my ears, I couldn’t hear what the many voices overlapping were saying, I couldn’t hear the yelling, the struggle, my own laboured breathing, any of it.
I watched the blood start to trickle down his arm from where my grip was, dripping onto the floor and forcing my grip to loosen. He pulled away and before I could try and grab a hold again I was tackled.
I struggled against whatever was holding me to the floor, the cold stinging my cheek only fuelling the fight. Eventually I was able to flip over, although the hands on my shoulders remained, far too close to my neck for my liking.
I met the eyes of the person above me and fell still. It was Ace, my brother, the one that had died only months before. I wanted to ask how he was here, I wanted to ask why he was doing this.
I was hit with a wave of exhaustion before I was allowed to speak though, and drifted off into unconsciousness.
When I woke up next I could feel something soft weighing on me. I was laying down still, though I could tell I wasn’t on the floor anymore.
I groaned as I opened my eyes, the lights too bright for me right now. Though when I adjusted I was quick to realize my vision wasn’t hazy anymore. I was staring at a ceiling, I couldn’t tell whose it was, but it wasn’t mine.
I rolled onto my side, facing the rest of the room I was in. Most of the lights were off across the house from what I could see, only the living room one was on. Thus why I was blinded the second I woke up.
I noticed the person in the room next, Ace was asleep, sitting on the floor with his arms on the table.
“Ace!” I half-whispered, trying to wake him up. Luckily he wasn’t in a deep sleep and woke up quite quickly at my insistent calling of his name.
“Matt..?” He mumbled groggily, lifting his head to look at me, “morning…”
“Where are we?! How are we here?!” My voice was steadily rising, the panic settling back into my chest.
“Woah, woah, breathe! C’mon breathe!!” Ace’s voice was rising too as he crossed over to me, gripping my shoulders.
I followed his lead and found myself calming down, my breathing evening out and slowing once more.
“There we go, now I can explain. We’re in a place called Nilspace, more specifically in the house! We got here because well… we’re dead. But it’s okay, Sean takes care of us here and makes sure we’re never alone with our troubles.”
“Nilspace..? Wait, DEAD?! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT IM DEAD!”
Ace slapped his hands over my mouth, shaking his head frantically.
“Don’t yell! Please don’t yell!” He pleaded, head turning towards a set of stairs, listening. He seemed to calm when there was nothing but silence.
“Sorry! I just wasn’t prepared for that.”
“It’s okay, I understand why you got loud, but we have a pretty young kid here who can’t handle that stuff…”
“There’s more?”
“Tons. I think we’re at… eight right now? Including you, me, and Sean…” Ace hummed, finally sitting back.
I nodded along, at least Ace hadn’t been alone all that time, and at least I wouldn’t be alone.
“Who’s Sean?” I asked, deciding to distract myself from the reality of my new situation.
Ace seemed to perk up at that, seemingly lost in his own thoughts previously.
“Well, like I said Sean’s the person who takes care of us, though us older kids help out too! Well, it’s just me and two others, but that’s okay! He’s actually upstairs right now, bandaging his arm because uh…” Ace trailed off for a second before deciding to continue, “You uh, you got him pretty good. When you grabbed his arm like that.”
I looked down in embarrassment, I hadn’t realized I’d done that, in fact I’d almost completely forgotten about it.
“Oh… my bad, I thought… Nevermind. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sure he isn’t mad, he was honestly just surprised! Nobody’s ever acted like that when they arrived!”
A noise from the stairwell silenced our conversation, footsteps descending towards us.
A man appeared in view, one of his sleeves rolled up a little with fresh bandages underneath. This must’ve been Sean. He paused when he saw me sitting up, but seemed to realize I was calm, which eased his own worry.
“You’re awake again.” He stated, surely he meant to say more, or at least I’d assume he meant to.
“Yeah. Sorry about uh… your arm. I didn’t mean to, I thought you were someone else.” I explained, I didn’t really want to talk about it, at least unprompted.
“Someone else? Was someone around you before you got here?”
I should’ve expected that.
“Yeah, something like that… not exactly something good though.”
“I would’ve thought that someone being there is better than dying alone.”
Ace shot a look at Sean, one I couldn’t quite read yet. Maybe Ace had picked up on the implications.
“It’s not much better when if they weren’t there you wouldn’t have died.” I tried to keep the bitterness out of my voice, but ultimately failed. I wasn’t mad at Sean for prying, he was likely used to everyone else just giving away their story to him.
Sean was silent after that, but he sat on the other side of the couch, just watching me. Ace had been sent to his room, but I was calm enough that it didn’t matter much.
“Is there anything you need right now,” Sean spoke after a few minutes, “I know you probably don’t want to talk or you would’ve done it, so is there anything you do need? Water? A snack?”
I shook my head before even thinking, I wasn’t even feeling much right now. All the anger and fear and shock had worn out until it just left me tired.
“I think I just need time to adjust.” I finally said, staring at the floor ahead of me.
“Alright, I’ll let you adjust. Do you want to stay here or do you want to find your room first?”
“I have a room?”
“Everyone does, I think you’ll be more comfortable there, am I right?”
I nodded, and Sean guided me towards a hallway. Apparently it had been a rather recent addition. And luckily, my room resided within it, my name written on a sign on the door, just as I remembered. I heard Sean mumble my name as he read it, likely noting it down before letting me head inside.
“If you need anything, I’ll be in the living room.” He said before he left.
I didn’t say anything, just nodded and shut the door.
I sat on my bed for hours, staring at my floor. Somewhere along the way I convinced myself I was home, that mom and dad were just working late, that they’d come home and we’d celebrate my birthday as normal.
I didn’t notice when my vision blurred again with tears, I didn’t notice when I ended up curling in on myself. I didn’t notice until I was full blown sobbing. I heard footsteps stop at my door, and then turn away. I was left to my own thoughts, my own grief.
The last thing I heard as I started to fall asleep was the door open. Someone had finally come to check on me, but I was already asleep.