121 Armored

It was the only good times he had in the building he called home. Now they were rotten.

The walls they'd pretend were closing in on him were squishing him to smithereens. But he wouldn't feel. He couldn't.

He hated it so much. When this week would come around. When the memories would wash over him and he'll have nothing to do but to be dragged along in them like he was dragged by her. He couldn't escape them. He couldn't escape her smile. It was the only thing keeping him alive, it was the only thing killing him.

Vixen took in a deep breath and let out another. He wanted nighttime to come. He wanted to recline into a corner where he couldn't be found. To return to his own home where he couldn't be found and where the memories wouldn't touch him. He wanted to return to his books. 

He wanted to go back to the library.

*

Regan woke up to a nice human surprise. Antonin laying beside her, fast asleep. That wasn't to surprise, it was when she looked down to see their hands in each other. That was when she flinched. No, she jumped, pressing her back into her wall and inching further away from Antonin, her feet kicking him in the face.

"AHHH!" Reagan yelled. "WHAT IN THE FUDGELORDS-" 

Antonin's eyes flew open and he looked up to Regan, eyes brightening immediately. 

"REGANNN!!" he called out. "You're ok?!"

"Did you want me to be dead?" Regan smiled sarcastically. "How nice of you."

Antonin let out a sigh, his face practically falling down on her bed, burying his face in her sheets. "Don't scare me like that ever again. You made me so scared that something might have happened to you."

"What did I do to you now, dummy," Regan chuckled, easing away from the wall and inching closer to Antonin. 

Antonin looked up at Regan, staring into her eyes. He was scarred of the moment. He remembered looking into her eyes and just seeing an empty void. A vacuum of nothing and the fuzzes of grey when she looked straight through him. He was terrified about that moment.

He sat there, on the floor, looking up into Regan's eyes as she sat on her bed. 

Regan stared right back at him, her eyes as bright as ever. She was looking straight into his eyes, green mixing with the light hazel of Antonin's eyes. It was a calming moment,, one Regan wasn't used to. She was drowning in his eyes as he did in hers.

Antonin let go a breath of relief, not breaking eye contact with Regan. 

Antonin looked at her up and down. The images from earlier that day flooded into his mind. His eyes looked up at hers again, his expression laying in a stoic but commanding gaze, "I just might this time."

Regan flinched. "What?"

Antonin looked away from Regan, closing his eyes and resting his head on her bed again. He wanted to go back to sleep. He was tired. Before his mind started to drift away, he looked up to Regan sleepily, "How do you feel?"

Regan stared at him blankly. She quivered when she heard the question and jumped back. "Did you do something to my body while I was sleeping?"

"You wouldn't be wearing clothes then," Ryder rolled his eyes. 

"How reassuring," Regan sighed, covering her body with her blankets. 

"Don;t worry, I didn't do anything to you," Antonin reassured her. 

"Then why are you asking if there was something wrong with me and if I was ok???" Regan asked, her head cocking to the side questionably. 

"Do you not remember what happened earlier today?" Antonin asked, his eyebrow raising. 

"N-no…" Regan muttered, looking away from Antonin. There was something wrong with him today. 

"Good," Antonin smiled.

Regan stole a glance at him, her heart falling when she saw his smile. There was something seriously different about him today. She felt warm from head to toe and Antonin- he felt different. Good different.

She didn't know what it was. Maybe his scattered hair or how the light fell on top of him softly and brought out his eyes. They seemed almost gold, like a treasure for her to look at. Maybe it was his nonchalant behavior. The way he was so chill this morning, not overbearing, not over cheerful, he was just chilling with her. With his wavy long hair and focused eyes that looked at her only. 

She was conflicted. His face seemed to have a different kind of glow to it and he radiated calm energy. It was confusing and compelling. He looked appealing. 

"Regan?" Antonin called out, looking up at Regan. He twitched when her hand spread out to his head where it laid on top of his head lightly. 

Slowly, she ruffled his head. Her fingers brushed against his black hair and let his light hair fall into a deeper mess than it already was in. 

"Haha, what are you doing?" Antonin chuckled, keeping one eye closed to prevent hair from entering his eye and he kept his other eye on Regan. 

Regan's heart thumped again when he smiled. She must have been going crazy. A side effect of what happened earlier. What did happen earli-

At that moment, memories flooded into Regan's mind. She trembled as the moment seemed to be taking over her again. The feeling of being helpless, trying to crawl away from something she couldn't even see. An abnormality created by her own mind, made from skin she had touched. She felt like she was being haunted. 

Then came the way she reacted, her body started to shake when she recalled it. The way the beast stood in front of her face and breathed death into her eyes. She was petrified. Then came when she was grabbed and forced to subdue to the monster. It hurt her throat. She could feel remnants of remembrance on her own skin when she thought about the moment. Her body shook, her mind grabbing her by the hair into another episode. 

She shuddered. 

"Regan?" Antonin looked up at Regan, his eyes scanning her with worry when he noticed her start trembling. 

Regan's voice was shutting off as she saw whisks of the dark shadow's matter starting to form in front of her. Every moment was growing tense. She started to inch into the corner of the room, her eyes looking straight forward to where the abnormality was forming in her mind. Its thin form had already taken place, a rough large figure towered over her. 

Regan's lips quivered as she watched its skin, the patched of others sewn into its face being ripped off figures laying limply on the ground and placed on its face as it made its way over to Regan.

"Regan?!" Antonin stood up, actual concern filling his entire mind. 

The shadow had been formed. It stood over her like some deeply black dark matter, scenes of pain painted into its body. A hand jotted out of the pit of the dark matter before sinking back in, in pain. Regan looked up to it, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. She was scared, so scared.

Antonin clenched his jaw as Regan's hands slowly rise to her ears to block out sounds only heard to her and he hid her face, burying her head in her leg. 

"Regan?!" Antonin called out again, leaning into her. 

Regan heard. She looked up but before she could say a word, the shadow's hand wrapped itself around Regan's neck. It began to strangle her, the air being snatched out of her lungs and life out of her body, flowing to the ground from the shadow's harsh hold. 

"Regan!!" 

Regan looked up at Antonin, her eyes hazy as forests started to build in front of her eyes, blocking him out. She muttered in a low voice, barely above a whisper as tears ran down her cheeks and she struggled to breathe.

"H-help… m-me…." she begged. 

The forest had clouded her eyes and now she was lost. Just the shadow and her, for her last moment before death.

"REGAN!" Antonin's hands reached out for her, wrapping around her body. 

Regan heard his voice from somewhere in the forest, mixed with the loud howls of the ravens and crows. 

"REGAN!" Antonin screamed. He pulled Regan into his arms, breaking away her hiding away figure and pulling her into his arms. 

Regan saw movement in the forest. It wasn't the animals that gnawed on the heads of the limp figures on the ground. 

"REGAN! PLEASE HEAR ME!" 

Antonin pulled her even closer, kneeling on the bed and lifting her up by the shoulders. She still looked out of it. 

Out in the forest, one of the bushes moved again and a human hand jutted out of the leaves. 

"REGAN! PLEASE! Please snap out of this," Antonin begged. He pulled her into another hug, his hand wrapped around her waist and head buried in her shoulders. Her head laid quietly on his. "Please."

A body ripped through the forest, running straight at Regan. It was fully armored and ran straight forward at Regan at full speed. She flinched as the figure neared, about to full body slam her. 

"Please."