It’s dark.
No sound. Nothing to see. And no pain.
Wait.
Why would he be in—
…Oh.
Slowly, fragmented pieces of memories flooded back into his mind – a kiss to the back of his hand, a much too familiar smirk, roses, and then glowing red eyes, burning flesh, can’t breathe, can’t move, overwhelming nausea, thorns, pain—
The touch against his abused throat sent a sharp stab of pain through Kaito’s body and that was all it took to make his eyes snap open again with a sharp gasp, gaze wildly darting around, hazy, unfocused, terrified, before settling on the familiar blonde above him.
He stared.
“Ha—“ A wave of nausea forced him to stop, a shaky hand clamping over his mouth as he rolled onto his side, gagging, eyes clenching shut and teeth biting down on his tongue in an attempt to stop himself from throwing up all over the detective’s floor.
H-how had he—
No, no, no, Hakuba wasn’t supposed to be, couldn’t be—
What if that shadow, that thing, was still…
What if it went after Hakuba too?!
The shadow waited and watched. Eying it’s target as he was lifted into the house and the door was locked. As soon as the two were out of sight the shadow let out a raspy chuckle and slipped under the door, fading into the shadows of the house and moving about silently across the floor and up the walls.
The new party that had intervened intrigued it, something within the memories pulled from the thief was the familiarity of this other person. It fueled the shadow more as it lingered around the two; for once interested in a second target brought on by the desire to engorge itself on more suffering.
Yet for the moment it waited….and watched.
Unaware of the danger and true nature of the panic, the detective settled down on the floor next to Kaito, watching cautiously as he stirred.
"Shh, Kuroba-kun, it’s all right.” Since there was, in fact, a pulse – handy, since he was conscious again, Hakuba moved his hand to the other boy’s shoulder and ran his palm over it. “You’re safe now. I’ve got you. What happened? Shall I call for an ambulance?"
The pain and fear being displayed by the illustrious phantom thief was not something that Hakuba was used to. It scared him, in fact. More than his faintly transparent left hand that had at least maintained corporeal qualities for the time being. He just hoped that Kaito wouldn’t notice.