What's Left To Fester

"Oi, kid! Come out already, I gotta go~" A voice said. A sudden series of knocks resounding through the small stall. The smaller boy curling into himself. He couldn't leave, it was a lie, they wanted him, that wasn't him. It wasn't-

"Oi, kid! C'mon already quit stalling, the world ain't got your time, y'hear?!" The familiar voice shouted. The banging growing louder, his heart pounding louder, why did it come here, why was it after him, why, why did he have to-

"Öi, kid! It's me, y'hear! So, stop playing around and let me in!" The voice demanded. The metal door denting under the force of it as it tried to force it's way in. No way, no way, he couldn't he was scared, so very scared, he didn't...he didn't want to-

"Oi, kid?" The voice said. All tension gone from it's voice, the forcefulness an after-thought. Yet, unease still reverberated throughout his body, his heart still pounding. Don't fall for it. Don't fall for it, remember what he said. Remember what the Jiji said.

"Sorry...sorry I lost me cool back there for a second. I know what I said and you're a good boy for listening, a very good but we have to go, alright? I made a promise to Asami-tan...to you too, right?" The voice...? said. Promise, right? The promise, only he would kno-Don't fall for it! don't believe it's lies!

"I said we were gonna have eat a grand feast by me when this was over, made by me of course. For our own safety" he said. A mirthless chuckle escaping him like it always did when talking about said cooking...Maybe...Just maybe.

"We'd visit Hokkaido and go to the winter festival, we still have a sliding competition to win, right?" he muttered. The promises, he did promise them, he said all of these. Could it...could it be..,

"I promised...I promised I'd show you my secret spot so you take some lucky girl to...And where we'd...where me, you and Asami-tan would see the sunrise, the next day after, right?" he said. The small boy's will weakening.

"I promised, didn't I Mineta?" he said.

A tense silence fell over the shrinking four corners, he knew this was a lie, he knew that Jiji wouldn't be back so soon. He knew, he knew yet...what if? He thought as he uncurled himself, what if? he thought his foot gracing the floor clumsily, what if...? he thought, as he reached the handle, his entire body tensing as uncertain weight on his body heavy, refusing to let him move a single inch.

What if? What if it was all a lie? What if it wasn't Jiji? What if it was nothing but a dream that he was selling himself this entire time, what if, what if, what if? So many what if's went through his mind, his doubt enough to fill a sea, this choice was very likely one that would decide if he lived or died, his small mind still couldn't fully comprehend that fact, yet the danger his very soul could grasp. However...however, there was only one choice that made sense to him at that moment.

"Let's see the sunrise, together, alright?" The voice said. Amusement filling it's voice, after all they would see the new day together. And with a twist he pushed it open...

Yet, nothing as quickly as he moved to open it. It was shut suddenly, the force pushing him back, his eyes darting towards the small opening at the foot of the door, there he saw those old wooden sandals he always wore, but if that was the case...

"Minoru!" HE said. His voice solemn before a sudden heavy clung was made against the door, so heavy was the sound it was as if something large slammed into the metal door. Frozen, the boy stared at the door for a few moments, unable to unlock his eyes from the door unsure of whether it would collapse or not, time the only hand left to decide. So, silently the boy watched as no more sounds erupted throughout the stall, the stall growing darker. He watched until sirens rang loud outside the building, a click of the tongue somehow resounded as something scrapped against the metal followed by the sound of gushing liquid. Confused and stunned, the boy's stare was still locked on the door until some liquid began to drenching, the stall growing smaller. Curious, his eyes lowered apprehensive until...those same wooden sandals and white dress shoes were...stained. Stained red, deep red as the boy's breaths became more rushed.

"Min-oru" he said. His voice strained and pained. The boy stared blank, no way...no way-

"Thank...you...believing...me" he said. Laboured breaths after each word. No...way, no way, no way nowaynowayno-! Those words repeated in his mind.

"Not...now" he said. Strength fading quicker and quicker as the boy lifts his hand slowly, crimson dying it.

"Don't...come...out" he said. As something slumped to the floor. The darkness like a sludge ready to swallowing him flood the small stall, desperately he fought air as it claimed him, harder and harder he fought until all he saw was his crimson filled hand...

"Ke-ep-going...for sunrise. Keep going, My little grapevine" His last words resounded deep. The very walls of his soul shook as if cursed with those but at that moment all he saw was his blood. Jiji's blood on his hands...

Right...He had killed him.

With a gasp for air that could only be called desperate, he awoke. His heart beating out of his chest.

He'd often wonder to himself why he'd fear being there so much. Was it the isolating cold walls, the door that was either a thin layer of protection or the seal to his doom or simply the door that marked the end of transition. The transition to what he wondered, yet a part of him begged, pleaded that once that door, that door out of that shrinking space was nothing more than a...

An unpleasant chill filling him as he shook of the dregs of the sleep, the tendrils of the dream filling him with melancholy. He sat pondering the truth of the vague sequence that left him awry.

"Can I even call it awry anymore?" he muttered. The seemingly unending sense of dread that tracked him like vicious loan sharks looming his mind. What he would give for a reprieve, an extended length of uninterrupted peace, a hot babe in his arms an added advantage. However, the world was an uncaring mistress, the savoury embrace always followed by a cold front few survived, what was left, mere maggot food. What was left, the rotten stench of decay wafting through the air.

The soft hum of the train car rattling slightly remained him of the transition. Or rather the process of change in environment, another taste of times long past, the rattling often the thing that rocked him to sleep as Kaa-sama fretted and struggled for their sake.

"It's for our sake. It's always for our sake" he said. Repeating it a few more times as the mantra slowly came into focus, the hazy, fried state his mind had been the prepatrator, the indulgent sinner as it tried to forget those words that bond...No that saved him. The cold he could endure, the warmth of her coat more than enough, his greedy little hands deserving of the scorch of that deep violet gaze. The frustration understandable, the greed a sore sight for one bur-

"Quit it. Quit it. Quit it. Quit it..." he muttered. His words serving as the anchor he needed to avoid treacherous waters of his mind. A mighty growl escaped his stomach as he dragged the embers of fatigue away, his hands slothfully running down his face the cause.

"Keep going... for the sunrise" the phrase seemed to fall naturally out of his mouth. As if second nature yet he found himself back at square at where he got it from. The recollections of the source always a fuzzy mess he couldn't make sense of. Confused, he shook his hands and back to his senseless musing, the weight of the those ungrateful thought reminded him of his place.

"Sorry Kaa-san...I'm so so sorry" he muttered. Along with the hunger, an implacable shame descended on him. Finishing his morning routine, he trudged out of his little cosy corner, the all important breakfast call beaconing him and his mind and guts wish for the satisfying comfort of it's embrace. The train's corridor greeting with infectiously calming silence, the few private cabin doors on the car closed tight allowed for no natural light, the piss yellow rays guiding his path. As he neared the door, grey caught his eye. On his left just before the door adjacent to a fire extinguisher laid a small rounded rectangular window, it's small surface area providing a nice view of the outside, the ominous grey of twilight dusting his face.

Sluggish, he pondered the nature of this in-between. The uncertainty tickled his heart bitterly. The either or too reminiscent of the murky waters he had been slowly drowning in left him. The bluish-grey of the sky a switch in it's devious nature. Either a prelude to doom or doorway to a new dawn. Unwilling to be the decider in the superposition, he began to open the door. His view missing the moment of truth, as bluish-grey turned to pitch black...The unknown embrace now shackled.

Muttering about who else but him, the king of indecision, the master of pondering, the lord of inaction. What else but...what else but...be here, not there. Slowly, he shook as a tiredness descended upon, a sickness of the unending drop not ceasing, but he just needed to be here, be here.

?

?..

?.

...

...!

Suddenly his body jerked as the darkness began to engulf. And just as suddenly the the unnerve bluish-grey now a slightly more welcoming presence. He stared owlish as his black scanned the surroundings, his paranoia, his mind truly against him.

"!...Tunnel?" he said. Confusion and a bit of unease filled his face at sudden switch. He breathed, a tiny stifled laugh escaped his lips at the bit of shock that filled his system, everything seemed to be getting to him. He loafed it, how easy it was for the world to remind of his size, of it cruelty and the sheer helplessness he faced when trying to face and he hated that he made himself such an easy target. Keep your head down, keep quiet and take the abuse, the adage old habits die hard hit hard as he smacked his forehead, his index prodding his grapes gently and rhythmically. A sighed as he took in the seemingly endless abyss, the cold inky darkness stare growing vicious, as if penetrating, wishing to violate his soul.

Swiftly, the brief ridicule gave way to a new wave of unease, it's birth unstated in the mess of his mind. Gingerly, his fingers reached his bulbous hair, his tiny stubs rains down against the sticky surface in sequential order. The repeated drumming soothing his wounded soul, the wounded only aggravated by the unwelcoming enigmatic dark. Having had enough of the darkness, he reached for the door that marked the the exit of the transition between cars. SOMETHING told him that IT was watching, told of what those red irises meant. His gut, intuition or what have you shouted him at him on what that malevolent gaze meant. Yet, the tendrils, no the gaze of the unknown gazed intrusive. The door marking the only way out, the door to that stall. The only way...how quant and cruelly ironic for his soul told him of the door what it meant. And the darkness was but an aided at driving him to it. And so he reached for the door. His mind painting the image that his soul told him. The door marked with what his mind's eye saw.

However, the disquieting darkness let loose a sinister aura, a familiar itch, the sensational of his skin crawling under THAT gaze quickly caused an the already pooling dread to overflow. His black gaze, as if magnetized was pulled begrudgingly towards the all consuming darkness, not inky sea once again daring him to dive into the abyss. The leech like tendrils of the shadowy mass wishing to drag him towards it's centre.

Swiftly, with alarm that could only be reached when death was near, he reached for the door that was nothing more than a lock towards the path that ended certainty, where fear ruled.

And, yet. In his reach, in his desperate grasp for the faint blueish-grey, in reach of the door. What used to something that was sure as air...crumbled. The solid footing he once held such disregard gave way. A fall, a fall into the long unending dark came to embrace another soul just like it did you? he thought. However, stray strains of orange shone in the inky black of this hell. The orange reminiscent of the morning rays came for him. The firm hands of justice and the soft determined glow of teal was all he saw before his conscience light had been sniffed. Only the thing on his now being.

How was the girl trying to safe him. The unending second guessing where the maggots of misery festered blown away by the light of curiosity.