Voice 1: I Found A Stray Cat

I hear a sound...

Like silent droplets of dew falling to the ground.

Though sometimes, it could be as loud as thunder crashing from the sky.

The sound took many shapes and forms of a male voice.

Sometimes the baritone voice was calm, sometimes angry, sometimes unbearably sad, and other times anxious and panicky.

'Akashi-kun... Akashi-kun!'

Almost as if...

Almost as if it was someone important, calling out to me, desperately.

I wonder... Why could I hear such sound?

'Please help me, Akashi-kun!'

"...!" Bright red eyes popped open, droplets of sweat ran down his forehead to his chin.

"What the..? What kind of dream was that?" The young man reluctantly rose up from his bed and brought his hand to his face, wiping the sweat off. "I'm not interested in humans to begin with..." He averted a sharp gaze to a .44 Magnum handgun on top of the nightstand beside the bed.

"How could I, not after all I've done?" A bitter laugh escaped from his mouth as he buried his head between his knees. Honestly, he was tired. Tired of the life he was living. He felt unbearably empty, his body was just a shell of nothingness, his mind was as blank as a paper. His existence was just absolutely worthless to the world.

That was until he started to hear a voice frantically calling for him in his dreams. Only then did he not question his existence. Someone whose voice he'd never recognised before was now the only sole reason he didn't hold a gun to his head and pull the trigger yet. Connection. For the first time in his life, he felt a connection with the mysterious voice like never before.

Who are you? Why do you call for me so?

Before he could ponder on the matter any further, his phone flashed and vibrated next to him – it was a text message from his superior – sending him yet another mission that he would carry out without fail.

- 'Akagami', the next target is...

- Got it.

"Tsk, not a moment rest." Grumbled the young man as he grabbed the gun and jumped out of the creaky bed.

He held the gun with one hand before snugging it into the holster beside his right hip. A 6-inch Beretta U22 Neos .22 LR Pistol was already in the back of his pocket just in case he needed it for concealment and a silencer strapped onto his left thigh. Slipping into the black overcoat, the redhead brought himself to a pause, as he recalled the peculiar dreams again.

Whoever you are, I can't help you anytime soon. Not without knowing your face, origin or whereabouts.

'Akagami' breathed out slowly, and as if he never thought about that, the man started his car engine, the colour of his eyes went slightly darker.

Once more.

Another life would be lost by his hands again that night.

CLANG!

That familiar metallic noise greeted me awake once more. I opened my eyes to a pair of clouded silver eyes staring down at me. A man stood tall in front of the cage I was kept in. His lower face was covered with a dirty bluish mask.

This man was my kidnapper five years ago.

"Wake up, Tetsuya." The masked man in all black clothing unlocked a small part of the cage and shoved a tray of food in front of me. "Breakfast time."

Immediately, the thin, pale boy with powder blue hair blinked open, rose up and scuttled far back of the cage away from the man. "...!"

Get away from me!

The man sighed and snickered, "Now, now... You need to eat up, else you'll have no strength for our little 'experiment' later." He purposely took out a syringe from his pocket.

In return, the boy shuddered and gasped loudly, a bony hand clutching his chest tightly. "No... please..." Tears welled up around the rims of his eyes and before long, he was crying quietly.

However, the man simply watched without the slightest sympathy for the poor boy before making his way out of the dim-lit room, "...I'll come back in an hour, my little Tetsuya."

The door behind the man closed shut, and the trembling boy tightly clutched his bruised arm, pierced countlessly from the man's sharp needle.

He had been drugged for as long as he could remember though not knowing what was given. All he knew was seconds after the injection, his body would grow hotter and hotter, he felt as if his body was stabbed by pins and needles so much that it became unbearable and he screamed like his life depended on it. Hoarse, painful screams reverberated across the empty corridor and of course, no one came for help.

Just then, he felt a sharp stabbing pain in his chest and the boy immediately screamed his lungs out in pain.

The 'doctor' of course, heard him but he did nothing to help at all, but instead, he continued mixing the two solutions in a vile, smirking ever so evilly.

After all the painful and gut-wrenching screams, the pain subsided, and Tetsuya finally calmed down but then he couldn't suppress the urge to cry.

Help me. Anyone. Save me, please!

A few hours later...

Loud, crashing sounds immediately woke me up. I opened my swollen eyes to find the room half burning. And my cage, was unbelievably wide open. My chance to escape had finally come!

Stepping out of the cage, I heard loud, angry screaming coming from the other side of the door. "TETSUYA! WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE?!" Furious banging came from the door strangely barricaded with a cabinet that was not from the room. Panicking, I quickly got up on my feet, pushing away the nauseous feeling coming from my empty gut.

'Me? What did I do? Wasn't I asleep all along?'

Confused, sick and tired, I pushed through to the nearest wall and as soon as I touched it, a portion of the wall crumbled and turned into dust. "Eh?"

'What just happened..? Did I..?'

At the same moment, the door broke open and in came the man with a psychotic look on his face. He was unmistakably beyond angry.

Without thinking, my feet moved as if they had a mind of their own and before I knew it, I jumped out if the hole which led to the outside world only to realise it was the third floor. I'm going to die!

"Wait! Come back, Tetsuya!"

Landing safely on my feet to my surprise, I turned my head to take one last look at the crazy, evil scientist. "I'll never want to see you again."

And then I ran. I ran and ran until my legs finally gave out and until I grew out if breath whilst I kept glancing behind me. I was frightened, frightened not for my life but the thought of going back to that deserted place, experiencing those painful experiments again. My legs gave out and I fell to the ground, somewhere in an unknown dark alley.

'Is this where I finally meet my end? After five long years...?' Still breathing hard and suddenly feeling feverish, I felt my eyes grew heavier by seconds and I finally shut them.

"If only I can see you one more time, Akashi-kun..."

.

.

.

.

"My, my, a stray cat..?"

Footsteps echoed closer to the half-conscious boy and he soon found himself staring lifelessly at a figure shadowed by the darkness of night.

"Pl-please don't touch me... I'm a... I'm not-" The injured boy whispered before breaking into tears, while the other male blinked in wonder. Delirious, maybe?

"Are you alright, young man?" A redheaded man slowly approached him, keeping the object from his hand into the back pocket of his black slacks. He thought of just leaving the guy to death since it was none of his business anyway but then he stared for a while longer before finally realising something. This voice... It was familiar in a foreign way, if he had to say.

"Argh... it's coming a-again... R-Run... PLEASE, RUN!"

In split seconds, the boy, almost as if possessed by a beast, slapped Akagami's hand and lunged forward to deliver a fatal blow into his chest. The assassin, born with natural speedy reflex, easily deflected the attack and threw him to the ground, restricting his movements any further with an arm locked to the pale neck. "Don't move. Or I'll break your neck." He whispered with a dangerous smirk on his lips – his narrow red eyes spelled only one thing – Mess with me and I'll give you an unimaginable slow and painful death you'd wished you never had cross paths with.

"...gh!" Growled the boy as he entered a state of convulsions under the redhead, saliva began trickling down the wide-open mouth, the pupils of his soft blue eyes constricted so much Akagami could barely see them. Looking at the spastic boy, he was suddenly reminded of the past. His past self and that dark history.

"...It's okay, it's alright now.. don't worry..." Before he could even register what was going on, he was already lifting and hugging the boy, a hand reached up to stroke the powder-blue hair. "It's okay now..." The words repeating over and over as if he was casting a spell to the trembling bluenette.

Minutes passed and the boy finally calmed down as he reopened his tired, teary eyes to see a man with flaming red hair and kind eyes looking back at him. "...help m-me..." He reached for the other person's face, who willingly held his hand back. The last thing the boy could recall was being lifted easily by the unknown man although their physiques were somewhat similar.

'What a strong, warm person...'

And the fatigued male lost consciousness.

"An odd one... you are." The redhead walked back to his car with the stranger in his arms.

'Stranger? Maybe not so much for me to hear your voice in my sleep every night.'

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.

.

Little did he knew that his fate was already tightly intertwined with the bluenette.

To be continued...

Hey~ I've been disappearing for months, haven't I? To be honest, college and club activities had been eating me away. I decided to start a new fic on a whim but I'll continue my other Akakuro fics once I have the time and inspiration. See you later!