My mind aroused to the sound of my phone buzzing, my sensitive ears picked up the sound of the environment; rain hitting my window, thunder crashing on metal, the fresh scent hit my nose almost immediately.

  I sprang up quickly and held my place in the sitting position. I looked behind me on my right to see my phone screen glowing, lighting up some of the books on the nightstand.

  I began to stare at it as more notifications fluttered my phone, debating whether I should just sleep or check what is going on.

  I inched closer, looking at what it has to say,

  why is the group texting at three in the morning? I questioned in my head.

  My curiosity got the best of me as it asked me about what’s going on? or what if your friends are in danger?

  My palm slapped down on my mobile and dragged it across the nightstand.

  I felt a notion of weirdness, like as if I am dragging someone across with my hand…

  I held up the device close to my face, mainly focusing on whether if I was just dreaming… As soon as the message app was opened, I could feel the phone slip from my hands…

  Akira has gone crazy!

  Another text buzzed in.

  Rosie??? Are you out of your mind?!

  And another…

  Pick up the fricking phone Rosie and Akira!

  I picked it up as it is drowning in the sheets of the blankets and the messages.

  My thumbs hovered over the keyboard, I could feel my heart beating ten times faster, I heard a creaking sound in the distance

  Must be my brother going to the bathroom.

  I rolled my eyes, he can never let me sleep in peace nor deal with situations.

  Footsteps creaked on the wooden floor.

  I laid back and began typing my reply to this chaotic and confusing case. I glanced at the left where the door of my bedroom was wide open,

  I caught a silhouette of a human.

  But it didn’t look like someone i recognized…

  I quickly became frightened, hands trembling as it rushed to drape over the sheets to try and look puffy.

  The silhouette came closer… their shoes thumping on the wooden floor

  I glanced at it again, this time…

  It was near my bed… staring at me.

  I could see fringes covering the eyes of the silhouette, a small cross tattoo shined on the face.

  I could feel hands squeezing on my knees. I started to hyperventilate.

  The face came closer to mine and smiled.

  “Wake up…You are coming with me,” the soft voice whispered to me.

  The hands gripped harder and was pulled on to the floor. I grasped the wooden planks. My red dress followed along getting stuck on one of the gaps. I

  tried to punch the person.

  But I missed by an inch... they managed to pull me away further.

  I shrieked as the person began to drag me across the floor out of the bedroom, trying to hold on to the doorframe tightly. I could hear my shrieks echo across the dark, unlit hall, panicked thoughts began to cloud my mind, about how successful the kidnapper could be...

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  I lost control of my actions and drove my foot into their stomach.

  The person howled in pain and dropped me, they fell on the floor, clutching their stomach as I got on my feet.

  I quickly balled up my fists and charged at them.

  The blow from my punch was delivered on the back of their head.

  They wailed as I kept going on their jaw and on the cheekbone.

  “Please please stop!” they begged in despair as their face met the floor,

  “Why should I stop when you were the one dragging me across the floor?” I snapped back, pacing towards the light switch of the living room near the TV.

  I hit the switch, the lights and electricity letting out a buzzing sound as the orange light diffused into the room.

  I froze in place as the facial features began to show…

  “Ow…” he grunted “Adithi, since when did you learn to punch like th-”

  “Fuji! What the hell are you doing in here?!” I interrupted him fast, running over to where he was sitting.

  His jaw and left cheekbone were bruised. I rushed into the kitchen

  “Don’t scare me like that!” I exclaimed while reaching down in a freezer, “I thought you were a kidnapper that managed to break in!” I grabbed the ice pack from the bottom and paced towards Fuji.

  I handed him over the pack, he lifted it up to cover his cheekbone, switching it to his jaw continuously.

  “Why are you here?” I asked him, helping Fuji to stand up.

  “Well… uh,” he stuttered over his words, trembling due to the pain of the punches as he finally managed to stand straight.

  “Your ‘best friend’ decided to go ahead and try to get herself killed,” he answered as he dusted some debris off his clothes.

  My shoulder dropped, mouth hanging open as the words began to circle around.

  “Need the literal meaning?” he raised an eyebrow while locking eye contact,

  he wasn’t like this… I have never seen him this serious, nor have I involved myself in this type of seriousness. I could tell it was a very bad situation for a whole group to be involved in...

  “Oi, Adithi?” he snapped his fingers next to my face, “You good?” he asked as he placed his hand in his pocket, he was still holding the ice packet.

  “Yeah, um… Sorry I zoned out suddenly,” I replied, “Tell me.”

  “Okay so,” he started, “basically at one thirty, Akira broke into the filter shop,managed to remove the filler and then he sent a selfie to me that he was in the filter shop, So I-”

  He took a breath in, recovering from speaking too rapidly.

  “Sorry about that, so I called Rosie to tell her that Akira broke in, I forgot to tell her that he sent me the selfie, just as I was about to mention it, Diana typed where he went and Rosie is now going to that place…” he explained

  My hand was covering my hung open mouth, I could see Fuji’s lips being pursed together with worry,

  “I tried to call her to try and convince her to not go, but she wouldn’t pick up,” he said in his disappointed tone, “So you can guess what I am doing next…” he added

  “Dragging me and going to that place to risk our life?” I stated, I crossed my arms and gazed at him with a skeptical look.

  He let out a smirk, but quickly covered it with his arm “Look, hey, I can’t go alone, right?” he looked like he was going to puke by the way he was covering his chuckles.

  He handed me back the ice pack, now warm and water droplets forming on the plastic surface, my hands started to feel moist, I couldn’t tell if it was sweat or the water droplets.

  A bolt of lightning hit near my apartment, I could see the flash through the window behind Fuji, his back, part of his hair and his face was lit up with the light purplish flash as he gazed at me, his arms were both down.

  His worried, dark eyes sparkled along.

  “Please…?” he beseeched lowly, “I might have to admit this… But I feel very sensitive like Rosie, losing a best friend is not easy... Especially when they risk themselves to save a huge part of us...

  "I feel nervous and restless right now, just thinking what could happen to those two… I feel like pulling out a patch of my hair just to calm down, but it is not going to do anything but just stress me more…”

  The feeling became infectious, suddenly I could feel the panic and anxiety stirring up inside, the thoughts started to wrap around my head, I felt the guilt and hesitation pulling down on me as it played the invisible weights in my head.

  I started to bounce my leg in place as the thunder rumbled from the distance. I quickly began to lose my thoughts and just question everything I am experiencing.

  Is this real?

  I just have to wait for myself to wake up and find the friend group safe and sound

  Please let it be-

  “So, what do you say?” Fuji’s voice broke in, “Do you want to come with me? Or... do I go alone?” his voice sounded tired and sorrowful.

  I quickly formed up my answer almost immediately,

  “I will come,” I talked without permission, I wanted to refuse, but the taunting picture of losing someone who has a bond seized me.

  “Really?” he looked up from the floor, meeting my eyes, “You will really come? No backing out?”

  “If it means releasing you from the tension of the fallout of this group and rescuing two lives, then yes, I will come to help,” I sounded weird and funny… almost like it was not my voice that said it.

  I quickly walked over to the shoe rack, the strange feeling still stirring in my gut.

  “You are not going to change your dress? You fell asleep with it…” Fuji pointed out jokingly “How tired were you?”

  “Shut up!” I said angrily as he began to chuckle, I picked out my outdoors slippers, startling Fuji as I dropped them to the floor and slid my feet in.

  “Come on, lets go-” I paused, feeling something was misplaced, I checked the shoe rack, everything was in place.

  I paced around the living room, clean and organized. I stepped into the kitchen as Fuji’s head followed my direction of movement, kitchen was fine too…

  I remembered that I had to write a note, I grabbed a pen and a sticky note.

  The question finally popped in my head. I turned back to face Fuji,

  “How did you get in here?” I questioned, I saw Fuji jolt as I spoke to him in an urgent tone.