Drowning in the pit of despair

When Akira’s mind came to, he slowly opened his eyes. After his eyes adjusted, his mouth flew open as he began capturing the scenery before him. What he saw before him were the heavens at sunset, tinted with a light orange glow, that seemed to be endlessly stretching far beyond the eye can see.

The weird thing about this though was that the sun was missing, and yet light shone as brightly. Another thing Akira had picked up was when he looked beneath him after feeling a soft sensation in both his feet. It wasn’t solid ground he stood on, but fluffy cushions made of clouds. The longer he stood still, the more he felt himself getting sucked into the clouds, it was as if he was standing on quicksand.

As Akira’s attention was solely focused on his feet, the sky began adapting a darker orange color. Stars slowly forged themselves into existence, though faint they were still visible for the naked eye. When Akira finally noticed the sudden change in the sky, that was when he saw something far away approach him.

Akira raised his guard as the figure grew in size, closing the distance between them. The figure stopped, leaving a five feet gap between itself and Akira. The figure was completely dyed in a black color, with the outline of a woman roughly drawn in it. Akira raised his brow slightly as he took in the situation;

His mind didn’t know what was happening anymore. First the missing sun and now this? Please tell me I’m dreaming right? It has to be. Dark and empty thoughts began engulfing Akira’s mind, as anxiousness took slowly took over his body. Since well, the last thing he remembered from before he passed out was that battle between him and Akemi, however it turned out to be a trap as he was jumped by that giant gorilla, who Akira thought of as a subordinate of Akemi. They truly had him this time, as those memories suddenly came flashing before him, Akira gritted his teeth in anger.

Part of him felt it quite deserving as he headed straight into their trap, like a chicken walking heedlessly across the road. He had a gut feeling that it was indeed a trap set out for him, but deliberately choose to ignore it as his logical thinking was influenced by his thirst for revenge, making him act on impulse.

Pissed at his own uselessness and the guild of letting Naomi get kidnapped, he rolled his hands into fists and began to squeeze hard into them.

The moment he looked straight was when the figure, who was standing still the whole time, began disforming. Light began emitting from it as it shell was broken into many different pieces. For a short moment it blinded everything around the area, but it quickly evaporated, the figure’s identity became known.

It took the shape of someone dear to Akira, someone he had vowed to protect no matter the circumstances. Yes, it was Naomi.. or well someone that looked like her, as Akira could spot the differences immediately. For starters, her skin seemed paler than usual. Her eyes weren’t as lively as they usually were, and her soft thickened black hair was now uneasily thinned with a greyish tin accenting her hair.

To Akira, she looked like nothing more than a ghost who failed to fully adopt someone’s appearance. Still, even though he knew that it wasn’t the real Naomi, he couldn’t help but feel worried about her as if she was the real deal. To him, it didn’t matter if the person before him was real or not since it had the appearance of his wife, or at least something that looked relatively close, he was going to treat it as if she was the real deal. That was how much she meant to him.

As he looked at the lifeless gaze of the person before him, his body began slowly moving towards it. It was as he closed the distance that out of nowhere the sky turned pitch black, the stars dissipating out of existence. Scars began appearing on the pale face he had been staring at, as blood began slowly gushing down its face.

Naturally, seeing this reminded him of Naomi, of the picture he’d seen when he left work. As those vulgar memories kept flashing before Akira, the person was slowly being dragged by its feet, into the depths of the scenery. In a panic, Akira began chasing after it instinctively, perhaps on impulse, but who knows for sure.

As Akira began sprinting towards it, it was then that something at attached itself onto him. It was a chain, who stuck itself onto Akira’s neck. It slowly began pulling Akira in, preventing him from reaching his beloved look-a-like.

Akira began screaming in protest, as he demanded that he would be let go. Unfortunately, the chain began pulling him harder, so much so that it became incredibly difficult to breath. As the Naomi look-a-like was slowly disappearing in the dark walls of the void, it was then that Akira felt his lower body being suck into something.

He looked beneath him, and shock began invading his body. It was the cushions made from clouds. His entire body was slowly being devoured as the minute passed by. He began holding on desperately, unfortunately it didn’t help him one bit.

As the last bits of Akira were slowly sucked into the cushions, with his right arm being the last thing that showed any sign of resistance, Akira was fully devoured not long after. As he began falling down at high speed, he began screaming for his life.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally crashed into the ground, and in that instant was when he finally woke up. He yelled, as he began breathing heavenly, his mind still processing what was going on. His vision began clearing, as he looked around.

“Where am I?” Akira said, as he found himself in an unfamiliar place.

The walls encircling the room were an ebony color. The place was for the most part empty, barring few scraps of newspaper being spread across and a door to the far end of the room. The room itself wasn’t spacious either, it was around the size of a living in an appartement building.

As Akira was slightly confused, his head was suddenly assaulted by a emerging pain. His thoughts were getting hazy, as his sight began dizzying. When he wanted to support his head with his hand, he found himself restricted, sounds of striking iron entered his eardrums.

Confused as he was, he looked at his hand, despite how blurry his vision was he could still make out something tied around it. Akira looked at the other side, and saw his other hand tied as well.

In a desperate attempt to free himself, he began shaking his arms, but unfortunately they didn’t budge one bit. As Akira continued to shake his arms, he heard the door suddenly opening, a person entered the room and began slowly coming towards Akira. When he arrived at the center of the room, he began speaking, his voice being awfully familiar.

“Well, well. Look who decided to wake up now.” even though the room was fairly dark, the moment the person lighted the room by pulling a chain above him, his identity was clear, as both ends of his mouth curved into a wide smile.

Akira looked up at the person, and immediately began gritting his teeth violently. “Damn you…” blinded by rage, Akira jumped towards the person, but was stopped, leaving a close gap between himself and the visitor. “Bastard!” it was Akemi. He continued to smile widely as Akira attempted to move closer to him.

“Hey, hey. Don’t hurt yourself now,” Akemi tilted his head slightly, as his teeth began showing. “What’s the fun in that, pig-kun.”

It was in that moment that a painful sensation began circulating across Akemi’s face, he found himself pushed back also. He touched his nose, the center of his pain, while looking at Akira. A bruise had appeared on his forehead, his teeth still gritted. Akemi giggled as he wiped off the blood from his nose.

“I see.” he said, as he began bombarding Akira with punches. Since Akira couldn’t defend himself, he could do nothing but receive them. Not long after, Akemi finished it by striking Akira straight in the face, it caused Akira to bump into the wall he’s chained against. Feeling a bit light-headed, Akira was slowly dropping to the floor, his face bloodied and his expression lifeless. Akemi grinned as he stooped, grabbing Akira’s hair, and slowly lifted him up.

“Those eyes…“ Akemi said, as he inspected Akira’s empty eyes. Despite them being completely dark, somewhere deep inside them a few strands of light kept beaming, well slightly. They reminded Akemi of the past, back when he used to play with Akira.

Even though he was the victim of Akemi’s shenanigans, those same strains of hope were always present in Akira’s eyes. It irritated Akemi, as the fun would immediately be spoiled by this. That was why he tended to make Akira suffer as much as possible, so that those strings of hope could be severed; He made it his life mission, so to speak.

“They never cease to amaze me.” and yet, even now, despite all those years of torture Akira had to endure, those strings of hope never disappeared. As Akemi kept warping his head around for the possible explanations why, but despite his capabilities, he wasn’t able to come up with an answer.

As if dropping the matter all together, he had let go of Akira’s hair. Akira dropped to the ground, and Akemi stood up, just staring at the unfortunate soul before him. Slowly Akemi was getting angry, since Akira hadn’t said a word for a while now, a vein popped in Akemi’s right cheek.

Akemi had spit on Akira, in hopes of getting a response out of him, but was only met with silence. His mouth dropped in annoyance. He began brainstorming of other ideas, and at first tried to kick him several times, however Akira still didn’t move.

After going through several methods he could think of, but was met with the same result as before, Akemi began gritting his teeth in anger. This fucker… Akemi thought.

Akemi was slowly running out of ideas, as Akira flat out ignored him. Akemi began thinking deep about something, but nothing came to mind. As he gave up on the matter entirely, he turned around and was about to leave the room, until he remembered something.

It was during their little fight together. After Akira had turned the table against Akemi, he began demanding the whereabouts of a certain someone.. Someone dear to him. Akemi grinned as the image of that someone came to mind.

“You know..” and so he began initiating his plan, as he turned back around, directly facing Akira. “During our little brawl you were oh so certain that I took something from you, or rather someone.” Akemi slowly closed the distance, his hands crossed behind his back.

“I’ll spill the beans already, you were right. I took your precious little dog from you while you were at work. Aah, just thinking about it makes me want to…” his legs started shaking in excitement as he visioned it again.

“Ahem, as I was saying,” realizing this wasn’t the time, he quickly hid his excitement, and continued his talking. “I’ll never forget the face she was making. That face filled with agony and fear. Honestly I was having a hard time holding it all together, but can you really blame me. Since it isn’t my fault that pampered dog wasn’t taught about the dangers of the outside world.” and so he began his ruthless attack, since he knew that Naomi was someone dearest to him, insulting her would surely get a reaction out of Akira. It has to.. He thought.

“In fact, I would go far as to say that she had it coming. It should teach her to be worry of others from now on…” in that instant, he snapped his fingers. The door swung open as suddenly someone entered the room, pushing something with them. It was an old fashioned CRT tv placed on a trolly, and the person placed it in the center of the room.

At first glance, it seemed there was no way to actually power the thing, that was until you looked a bit to the right. Right next to it, a portable car battery could be seen, with wires hooked up to the tv. The person turned the tv on, and then bowed before leaving the room, the person left the door wide open.

Akemi was in high spirits as he quickly stood beside Akira, crouching down. A wicked smile began forming on his face, as the sound of someone screaming began filling the room. It took Akira a few moments to realize who it belonged to, his face twitched the moment he did.

“Look, as she’s being disciplined real nicely. Hey, I tell you to look. Look, dammit!” Akemi forced Akira to watch the screen by grabbing his hair, despite that though Akira resisted as he kept turning his gaze away from it. Only after Akemi had grabbed his cheeks and making him face the screen was when Akira’s eyes opened widely.

On the screen was Naomi hanging above the floor, with her hands crossed. She was butt naked, bruises and cuts were spread all across her body. Her body looked thinner than usual as well. A man could be seen, with a what seemed to be a whip in one hand, slapping Naomi with it. Despite the sound quality of the tv not being the greatest, Naomi’s screaming could perfectly be heard at higher volumes. Akira watched in shock, as he began shaking his head in disbelieve.

“No! No!! No!!! Stop it!!!” his entire body began shaking violently, as he tried to loosen the chains, but unfortunately their grip remained tight as Akira could do nothing but give up. However he refused to let it end like this, so he kept trying to get out.

“Yes! Yes, struggle more! Aah, this pathetic sight one must see. Wonderful!!”

Seeing him struggle like that really was quite the sight to behold, as Akemi’s body was suddenly overflow with excitement again. His pupils got smaller and his grin grew wider, his cheeks reddening a bit too.

With every second that passed, the screaming’s grew louder, so did Akemi’s laughter as he watched how Akira was struggling to free himself, Akira himself continued demanding that Akemi put a stop to Naomi’s torture, whilst attempting to free himself.

After forcing every ounce of his body to try so desperately to get himself out for what felt like an eternity, whilst his eardrums were assaulted by the Naomi’s screams in agony and Akemi’s sinister laughter, the mental exhaustion had finally caught up to Akira’s mind, and it was then that his vision began darkening.

The days flew by quickly, as Akira had already lost track of time. He was sitting butt naked, his hands still chained against the cold wall behind him. Akira was mindlessly staring across the room, his pupils had already lost their light, when all of a sudden he heard several knocks on the door.

“Wakey, wakey!” someone entered the room, and greeted Akira, his tone maniacally. It was Akemi, who held a steel bat in his hand, a wide grin appeared on his face.

What basically has become a routine by this point, Akemi would always come play with Akira in the morning, whilst savoring every moment of it. In other words, he would use him as an outlet to relieve his stress.

Around noon, Akemi would come by again, updating Akira of Naomi’s situation. Basically make him watch how his underlings have their way with her. The things they did to her were especially horrifying, from torturing her to using her to relieve their sexual frustrations.

As every now and then they would be having their way with her, even though she was located several rooms away, her screams would echo throughout the building, always reaching Akira’s ears. Even now Akira could still hear it as her screaming has already been ingrained in his mind.

Akemi would laugh constantly while having his way with Akira. At the beginning, Akira still had those threads of hope in his eyes, but they had been steadily growing weaker as time passed. As of this moment, those same threads were now completely gone. His expression was lifeless, as if he had giving up entirely.

Akira hadn’t spoken ever since. He would remain silent as his body kept receiving damage. Right now, his mind was fully detached from his body as he kept fading in and out of consciousness. Partially due to not having eaten properly for some time now, his body grew weaker; His muscles were much thinner and his skeleton almost visible through his skin.

At this moment, he had just woken up, when his ears were suddenly assaulted by sinister laughing. With his body reaching the very limit, he looked up to find the bastard who had caused it all, only to find no one there, however Akira still heard someone laughing menacingly. He turned his gaze towards the tv but it wasn’t even on.

Akira thought he was hallucinating, that was the only logical conclusion he could think of, since his mind was at the brink of collapse. However, as he focused his eyes on the reflection of the tv screen, he finally realized where the laughter was coming from.

As he saw both ends of his mouth curved into a wide smile, his teeth were showing. Even though his mouth was the only part of his body that kept moving, his expression was still lifeless. Slowly, as the images of Naomi’s torture kept flashing before him, his laughter grew ever so slightly.

This was indeed the moment where Akira’s mind finally broke, as every memories he had made with Naomi over the past three years were all bashed into small pieces. Akira’s laughter grew so much that it began frightening even himself. It was so loud that his laughter began echoing throughout the halls outside. A sudden thought came to Akira’s mind.

Please, end it already..

As he pleaded his wish to the gods above, his prayer was, as usual, unanswered. Having not the strength to stay awake anymore, he closed his eyes for the final time. I beg of you.. With that final thought Akira felt his consciousness slipping away, as he begged a final time.