Chapter Text
Keith wanted to scream. He wanted to hurl himself into the arms of Shiro or Coran or whoever could save him. The panic in such a tiny body was like standing on the knife edge of being overwhelmed and shutting down entirely. It wasn’t even a real knife edge. It was a smudged line of chalk on wet asphalt. There wasn’t enough room inside of Keith’s head to even ask “Why--?” or “How--?” His tiny lungs weren’t taking in enough oxygen. He was going to pass out right as the monster would grab him up and take him some place indescribably vile. All Keith wanted was to ball himself into the smallest crevice possible and sob. But he was already so lightheaded and his ankles felt like gelatin while every step felt like his knees were in the process of giving out. I can’t even scream, I can’t breathe, can’t breathe, can’t breathe, gonna suffocate, can’t breathe . Keith wasn’t even sure of what he was looking for any longer. There was no point in trying to find a vent or small opening of any sort after Hunk had any such means of escape welded shut. The door pads were too high up to register his full hand without a boost. Somehow, the doors here were shut properly like Keith’s door should have been. His door should have been keeping monsters out and Keith inside when instead it had lured him to his end. I won’t even have a full-sized coffin.
SNK.
Suddenly a line across the upper part of his arm was searing with pain. Keith’s feet stuttered and sent him towards the ground. The shock was followed by a scream. His scream. Tears blurred his vision quicker than he thought possible as he looked at the source of the stinging and was met with the sight of glistening red. As though someone had taken a box cutter to the side of his arm, blood was slowly soaking into the fabric of his torn sleeve. Desperately blinking tears to clear his vision, Keith whined like the little child he had been turned into. His body was too soft and inexperienced to truly handle the shock settling into his system. He couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Had barely processed the deep gash dribbling crimson when the thumping footsteps of his monster became clear.
“Pathetic to think you were taken down by a simple nick, prey. I had hoped giving you the chance to flee would entertain me a little longer. Then again, one shouldn’t have expected much from such a feeble creature.”
The voice was punctuated by the ground disappearing from beneath him without warning as Keith was lifted by his collar.
“You ought to learn what real pain is.”
The fear felt as though his bones had been filled with ice cold water. Keith’s extremities went numb as the monster brought a serrated blade into view. Then a blur. It was like someone had taken a crowbar to his leg. Like he had been hit really hard. But the moment his brain made the connection between the sudden pain and the knife, Keith was screaming. Screaming like he never had before because he was burning .
He was familiar with the feeling of hovering your hands over an open fire. Seeing how close you can make your hand get to the flames before the heat hurts too much and you whisk it away. But there was no fleeing from the purely white-hot agony engulfing his thigh.
“That ought to be enough for your presentation, prey.”
The monster’s words hardly made sense to Keith as he panicked to suck in air. His vocal chords were shredded by the screaming but it was nothing in comparison to where he had been stabbed . And yes, Keith had been stabbed before his de-aging but his body hadn’t been so soft and sensitive like it was now. There was no gritting his teeth and hissing from movement. He could barely take in air between the sobs that physically hurt to force out. There wasn’t any blinking away the streaming of tears as he disjointedly watched the blurry world moving around him. The monster was heading somewhere but the pain stopped him from caring. Keith almost wished he was dead rather than exist another second enduring this agony. It was practically a blessing when the monster unceremoniously dropped him and the world faded out.