KIRO’S STORY / CHAPTER 05 OF 36
Hours
by hasira · about 6 min read
Kiro was lying in bed.
The room was completely dark.
Only his phone lit his face.
He had been scrolling for a while.
Not really looking at anything.
Opening one app.
Closing it.
Opening messages.
Closing them.
Checking again.
Nobody new.
Kiro looked at the time.
Too late.
Everyone he could talk to was already asleep.
Rin too.
Kiro opened their messages anyway.
His thumb hovered over the keyboard.
He typed:
you awake?
Kiro stared at it.
Deleted it.
Typed again.
hey
Deleted that too.
There was no point.
If Rin was asleep, Kiro didn't want to wake him.
If Rin wasn't asleep...
Then maybe he just didn't want to talk.
That thought stayed.
Kiro locked his phone.
Darkness.
Immediately, he unlocked it again.
The light returned.
He checked.
Nothing.
“Okay.”
He whispered it to himself.
“It's fine.”
Kiro placed the phone beside him.
Ten seconds later, he picked it up again.
Nothing.
His eyes started burning.
He didn't understand why at first.
Then a tear moved down the side of his face and disappeared into the pillow.
“...Fuck.”
Another one followed.
Kiro wiped his eyes with his sleeve.
It didn't help.
Soon he was crying properly.
Quietly.
Trying not to make noise even though there was nobody else in the house.
His chest tightened.
Kiro opened the messages again.
Names.
Conversations.
People who had answered him yesterday.
People who had laughed with him.
People who had said goodnight.
Everything looked normal.
That somehow made it worse.
Because his head started filling in what wasn't there.
They'll get tired of you.
Kiro stared at the screen.
“No.”
Rin will too.
His thumb stopped moving.
“Shut up.”
Everyone does eventually.
Kiro dropped the phone onto his chest.
He covered his eyes with both paws.
He wanted to stop thinking.
Instead, the thoughts multiplied.
What if Rin stopped answering?
What if he had already started answering less?
Had he?
Kiro couldn't remember.
Maybe.
What if he had said something wrong?
Maybe that joke earlier wasn't funny.
Maybe Rin only laughed because it was awkward.
Maybe every conversation was like that.
Maybe people only tolerated him because telling him to leave would be uncomfortable.
Maybe they talked about him when he wasn't there.
Maybe they were waiting.
Waiting for the right moment.
Waiting until they could leave without feeling guilty.
Kiro's breathing became faster.
“No...”
He removed his paws from his face.
The room was black.
Completely black.
The phone screen had turned off.
Kiro stared at the ceiling.
He couldn't actually see it.
At first.
Then shapes began to appear.
Not real shapes.
The kind darkness made when you stared into it for too long.
Gray patches.
Lines.
Movement that disappeared whenever his eyes tried to follow it.
Kiro watched them.
One looked like a face.
Then it wasn't.
Another looked like somebody standing in the corner.
Kiro blinked.
Nothing there.
He stared again.
There.
Something tall.
Thin.
Watching.
Kiro pulled the blanket closer.
His heart was beating harder now.
He knew there was nothing in the room.
He knew.
Still...
the shape moved.
Just slightly.
Kiro closed his eyes.
That made it worse.
Now he could see things more clearly.
Rin walking away.
A door closing.
Messages left unread.
An empty couch.
An empty house.
Kiro standing somewhere behind everyone else while they continued without him.
Nobody needs you.
“Stop.”
You're exhausting.
“No.”
They only stay because they feel bad for you.
“Shut up.”
Rin will leave too.
Kiro's eyes opened.
He grabbed his hair.
Hard.
His fingers tangled into the fur on his head.
“Stop.”
He saw what you're actually like.
Kiro pulled.
Pain spread across his scalp.
“Stop.”
You think he'll keep dealing with this?
He pulled harder.
A few strands came loose.
Kiro barely noticed.
His breathing was too fast.
His chest hurt.
His stomach twisted.
He stared into the darkness above him.
The ceiling moved.
Not really.
But it looked like it did.
Farther away.
Then closer.
The corners of the room bent strangely.
Black shapes crawled across the walls.
Kiro squeezed his eyes shut.
His claws pressed into his scalp.
“Please.”
His voice sounded small.
“Please just shut the fuck up.”
Nothing listened.
The thoughts kept coming.
Fast.
Too fast to separate anymore.
Rin leaving.
His parents.
Blood on kitchen tiles.
The mirror.
His own body.
The scars on Rin's arm.
His own arm afterward.
Every stupid thing he had ever said.
Every person who stopped talking to him.
Every person who might.
Everything at once.
Kiro curled onto his side.
Then onto his back.
Then his side again.
Nothing was comfortable.
Nothing stopped his head.
He checked the phone.
2:17 AM.
Kiro stared at the number.
It felt like he had been lying there forever.
He locked the phone again.
Darkness.
The shapes returned.
At some point, Kiro started crying again.
At some point, he stopped.
At some point, his head began hurting.
At some point, he was sitting instead of lying down.
He didn't remember sitting up.
His fist hurt.
Kiro looked down.
Couldn't see anything.
He lay back.
Or maybe he didn't.
The night became pieces.
A ceiling.
His phone.
His own breathing.
Pain somewhere in his leg.
Darkness.
His hair between his fingers.
A thought that didn't finish.
Rin's name on the screen.
Nothing.
Then...
morning.
Kiro opened his eyes.
Sunlight leaked through the curtains.
He stared at the ceiling.
For several seconds, he didn't move.
His head hurt.
A deep soreness across his scalp.
Kiro slowly lifted one paw and touched it.
Pain.
“...Ow.”
His voice was dry.
He sat up.
The phone slid from his chest onto the mattress.
Kiro looked at it.
4% battery.
8:41 AM.
He rubbed his eyes.
He couldn't remember falling asleep.
Actually...
he couldn't remember much of the night at all.
He remembered being on his phone.
He remembered crying.
Then...
nothing clear.
Just pieces.
Kiro looked at his paw.
His knuckles were scraped, with a little dried blood caught in the fur.
He stared.
“...What?”
He turned his paw over.
More dried blood.
Kiro's ears lowered.
Then he moved his leg.
Pain immediately shot through it.
“Fuck.”
He pulled the blanket away.
A large dark mark covered part of his thigh.
Already beginning to bruise.
Kiro touched it carefully.
He flinched.
For a few seconds, he just stared.
Then something came back.
Not a full memory.
Just the feeling.
His fist.
Impact.
Again.
Again.
Not why.
Not when.
Only anger.
Kiro looked at his paw.
Then his leg.
Then the strands of fur scattered across the pillow.
His stomach sank.
He checked the time again.
2:17 AM.
That felt like five minutes ago.
Maybe ten.
But hours had disappeared somewhere between then and now.
Kiro sat there quietly.
Trying to remember them.
Nothing came back.
His phone vibrated.
Kiro jumped.
A message.
From Rin.
morning
Kiro stared at it.
Another message appeared.
you alive?
His thumb hovered over the keyboard.
Kiro looked at his scraped paw.
At the bruise on his leg.
At the fur on his pillow.
Then back at the message.
He typed:
yeah lol
Send.
Kiro put the phone down.
He sat on the edge of the bed for a while.
His head still hurt.
His leg still hurt.
His paw still stung.
But whatever happened during those missing hours...
Kiro couldn't remember enough of it to be afraid.
Not yet.