[CONTENTID1]

forty-six: healing the wounds

[/CONTENTID1][CONTENTID2]

["I will come to you."]

[/CONTENTID2][CONTENTID3]

"Suho!"

Juyeon ran towards the box-like object, half-crazy with the sudden terror wrenching through her body. She smashed her shoulder against the side of the Box—nothing. It was extremely heavy, and cold to the touch, like a solid slab of marble.

Her fingernails, a little longer and cared for now that she wasn't stressed and angry enough to make them bitten and ragged, scratched desperately against the sides, trying to find handles, cracks, anything that could indicate a door to be opened. If she got in even more trouble for that, fine, what did she care? Punish her. Put her in detention, not him.

"Suho? Suho, can you hear me?" Juyeon called out, voice shaking. She pounded on the Box with her fists. "Suho! It's me!"

The screaming stopped. "J-Juyeon?" Suho weakly responded, from inside the Box. "Is that really you?"

"Yes, of course it's me, stupid!" Juyeon felt like she might sob out of relief. "Are you okay? Suho, talk to me."

"It-it-it hurts," Suho gasped out. "Not physically, but something else. It's like something is digging into my brain, and sitting there, growing bigger and bigger until my h-head is gonna explode. And I can't use my powers, it's like—like I got a hand cut off or something. It doesn't feel right, and it just—I just—I think I'm going crazy, Juyeon, oh god, I'm losing my mind!"

His voice rose, and Juyeon slapped her fists against the Box again. "Suho, Suho, stop! You have to listen to me, okay? Listen to my voice, you're going to be just fine."

"It's so small in here," he babbled, nonsensically in Juyeon's eyes. "So small, but the worm is so big, and the stake in the worm is even bigger. I can't move in here, Juyeon, I can't breathe. This is my coffin, I'm being buried alive."

"No, no, Suho, don't talk like that!" Juyeon felt tears blur her vision. This must be her punishment, she thought sadly. Her punishment was to listen to a friend's anguished screams and be unable to help them in any way. It was Suho himself, ironically, who told her about detention in the first place. What was it he said, about the Box messing with a PC's brainwaves so they were blocked from their brain lesions and unable use their powers? How it was meant to drive a PC crazy?

Suho started to scream again, with continuous moans of "make it stop make it stop make it stop."

"Suho, listen to me, listen!" Juyeon begged, tears really beginning to fall now. She clenched her hands so tightly she felt her nails dig into the soft skin of her palms. "Suho, please, listen to my voice. You aren't dying, you aren't in a coffin. You're alive, please, just—just breathe. Try to calm down."

"No, you don't understand! It's so dark in here, I can't see, but it's so small, s-so small in here." She heard dull thumps, as though Suho was banging against the walls from inside the Box. "T-the worm is big, but the stake is even bigger, and sooner or later my head won't hold them any more—"

"Suho, stop!" Juyeon heaved a long, shaky, sobbing breath to try and calm herself down. "Y-you're right, I don't understand how this feels, only that it's wrong, this is wrong, buh-but be strong. Try, please? I'll be right here, waiting for you. I'll be right here the entire time."

There was a long silence, which was almost as unnerving as the screams.

"Okay," Suho hiccuped. "O-okay, I'll try, I'll—you puh-promise to stay here?"

"I'm right outside," Juyeon said, voice catching and breaking pitifully around a wet sob. She knocked against the Box, hoping it wasn't loud enough to frighten him. "I'm here, Suho."

And she did. Even when Suho started screaming once more, even when he began to chant "the worm is big, but the stake is bigger" over and over, even when Suho started talking about the Box like it was a coffin again. She stayed, yelling right back through her tears, telling him to try and be strong, she was there, and if he fell, she would still be there. She babbled out words of encouragement, affectionate things she remembered her mom saying when she was younger and got upset, anything that popped into her head until her voice was hoarse.

Each minute felt like an hour. Juyeon felt it was an eternity there, standing in front of that hateful, cruel Box. Maybe she was losing her mind, too.

Finally, the screaming subsided, and fell into a long silence. Juyeon would have thought he had passed out or worse, except she could hear faint sniffles amd choked gasps for air inside.

After a long while, there was a soft pssssh sound, and the wall slid open on one side. Juyeon immediately ran towards the opening, and was there to catch Suho when he stumbled out.

She struggled to keep him up and gently lowered him to the ground, arms tangled around his head and upper torso. Suho was pale and trembling all over, much like Chanyeol had all that time ago, and he was breathing heavily, still making those horrible choked-up gasps like he really had been buried alive. He looked around, his red, puffy eyes wide and bleary, as if he had forgotten what light was.

Eventually, his eyes roamed towards her, and his tear-stained cheeks rose into a weak smile.

"You stayed," he whispered, almost in wonder.

Juyeon bit back the almost wild, animalistic sob that threatened to tear out of and hugged him in her awkward position. She clumsily his hair. "Of course. Of course I stayed."

Suho chuckled, his voice so hoarse it sounded as scratchy as a cat's tongue, tired but relieved. "Don't look so sad, Juyeon. It's almost as if you were in there instead of me."

Juyeon just shook her head, unable to put into words the fear and rage and despair that had consumed her. It was something indescribable, but it hurt her. It tore through her chest and ached so badly she felt like the only way that it could possibly be explained was if her heart was being ripped out of her body. She had never been so terrified for someone's life before. Not even for her parents—in their situation, she had cried and screamed and felt the exact same despair, yes, but for some reason this was different. This ripped through something in her she had never known, something new and frightening and beautiful.

"I'm so sorry," she hiccuped, clinging to him. "It's all my fault, I'm so so sorry, I never should have asked you to help me. I'm sorry, I'm—"

"Don't say that," Suho said softly. "Even if I am sent here a hundred times, a thousand times, if you ever need me, I will come to you."

Juyeon cried even harder. Suho gathered the strengh to sit up on his own, making him pull away from her slightly. Blubbering, Juyeon clung even harder to his jacket.

This made his whole face melt, and with a broken, crumbling smile that still felt like sunshine he leaned in closer and wrapped his arms around her. The two of them stayed that way for a long time, finding comfort in t