Trauma

Masayuki could see all of the trauma that everyone suffered. He wasn’t the only one, however. Ben and Miike could see it too. Despite not knowing what to call it, they could still recognize it for what it was.

At first, it started out as sharp, unbearable pains to one soul. When two more joined, the pain lessened. The others could still feel it.

“What is all of this?” Ben asked.

“Shhh!” a voice whispered. The quickly closed his mouth. The pain first hit him in his chest. His limbs felt so numb. Now, there was a tingling feeling at his fingertips. Ben took in slow breaths. Moments later, the pain slowly lessened. The tingling sensation spread up his arms. How long would it be before the others felt it too?

How are you holding up?

“Not so good.” The pain started going down, but it wasn’t enough. The colors kept dancing around in Ben’s eyes.

“What is all of this?” Ben’s voice came out in a whisper as he looked around. Nothing in the room had changed from the past hour. However, something felt different. Ben tried to look again to find out what changed. Another whisper came into his ear.

Only, it didn’t come out sounding like gibberish. Ben could make out what the voice was saying. For some reason, he felt like he knew this person from somewhere.

“It’s you…” Ben couldn’t place who it was, however. All that he knew was that he could trust that voice.

“What is it like over there?”

“What?” Ben asked.

“What is it like?”

The man looked out at the room around him. Where was he going to begin?

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Miike didn’t know what he was looking at. Everything kept going so fast. The pain him in the chest, but the numbness in his limbs didn’t last too long. The tingling in his fingertips faster than he expected.

“Are you alright?” his friend whispered in his ear. Miike nodded once. He didn’t question how or why he was feeling this pain. Her eyes stayed on him. She didn’t have to say anything for him to know that she had his support. Miike’s shoulders tensed up. A new voice made his ears tingled. He didn’t know who it was, but there was no fear.

“Uncle Ben?”

“What?” his friend asked. Miike didn’t ask. He focused on the other voice in his ear.

“What is it like over there?”

What?

“What is it like?”

Wow. Um… Uh… Where do you want me to start?

“I don’t know. Anywhere.” Miike didn’t know why he was doing this. It just all came out. In any case, that might have been helped with the pressure was building up.

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Despite not having a body, Masayuki felt it harder to move. Only a little bit of the weight had been lifted, but it wasn’t enough. The invisible hand rubbed his back.

Are you alright?

“Yeah.” Masayuki’s voice came out labored. He didn’t have time to dwell on that when he heard the sound of dogs barking in the distance.

“Huh? What was that?” he asked. There wasn’t an answer in words. Instead, Masayuki felt himself being pushed along as fast as he could.

Don’t look back! Their voice cut the boy off before he had the chance to open his non-existent mouth. We don’t have time! Just keep moving! We’re getting to closer to where we need to go!

That was all Masayuki needed to know. He kept his eyes forward as he was pushed along. Luckily for him, the pressure was lightened up a little more.

Someone else started to see the trauma as well. This new path showed them the way much faster.

Back in reality, Max lifted his head.