Hybrids: Chapter Two

Yagi woke up screaming Sako’s name in a panic. He couldn’t get the memory out of his mind. The memory was on permanent repeat in his head. He remembered screaming and screaming once the men started life saving measures. Two people came in to get Yagi under control and had to drag him off the bed to sedate him. When he woke up, he was locked to the bed.

Thinking they were restraining him because something happened to his friends, Yagi pulled against the restraints. He fought against them so hard he felt the leather cutting against his wrists and ankles but he needed to make sure Sakuro was okay. “Let me go!” He yelled as he tried to pull an arm free. “I need to make sure Sakuro is okay! Let me go!” He repeated this process for hours until he exhausted himself and gave up. He lay there staring up at the tile above him as his heart raced and his lungs screamed for air. He looked at his bleeding wrists and ankles and then pressed his head against his pillow and closed his eyes. “Someone please just tell me he’s okay.”

A few moments Doctor walked in and Yagi tried to pull free from the restraints. “Let me go. I have to make sure Sakuro is okay.”

He set his clipboard on the table next to the cot and pushed against Yagi’s shoulders, “Stop it. You’re hurting yourself. I’m not going to let you go if you can’t show self-control.”

Yagi grew angry. Why was no one answering his questions. He ignored Doctor and continued to try to break the restraints to the best of his ability.

Doctor pushed Yagi’s shoulders again. “Yashagami enough! You need to get control over yourself! This is why we haven’t let you go yet!” Doctor said sternly. Yagi paused, tense and ready to resume at any moment. Doctor looked him in the eye. “You are showing you are a threat to yourself! Calm down!”

“Then let me go! You all killed him!” He yelled. He tried with all his strength to get free once more but Doctor pushed his shoulder square to the mattress. Yagi felt his eyes burning with unsplit tears. “You killed him!”

“He’s not dead! Who in the world told you that?!” Doctor asked, his stern eyes now replaced with concern. He let go of Yagi and stood in disbelief.

Yagi blinked. “He looked like he died…They started preforming CPR and-”

“He’s alive, Yagi. He’s not dead. For a moment he died but he’s now sedated.”

“Is he okay?” Yagi asked.

“Yes. He’s fine. He’s in recovery right now.”

“Can I see him?”

Doctor shook his head and removed his hands off Yagi. “No. Not right now.”

He looked at his restraints and then at Doctor, “Can you let me go?”

“Are you sane enough? Will you hurt yourself?”

“I would be if you didn’t tie me down!”

Doctor narrowed his eyes. “Answer the question.”

Yagi rolled his eyes, “Yes, I’m sane. I’m not going to hurt myself. Now let me go!”

Doctor hesitated before slowly working on releasing Yagi. He released his hands first and Yagi shot up to try to undo his ankles. He needed to check the vent. He needed to make sure Sakuro was still okay. The picture of Sakuro lying on the ground flashed through his mind and he found his hands unable to undo the restraints from the trembling. Doctor gently pushed Yagi’s hands away and undid them for him. Once he was free, he shot to his feet and looked through the vent only to find it closed. He banged it and hopped off the bed and ran to the door trying to pull it open. “Please I have to make sure he’s okay!”

“I already told you, he’s okay.”

Yagi turned around to him, his vision blurry from a wall of tears. “Open the door! I don’t believe you! He’s dead and you’re all lying!” He turned around and tried to open the door, but it still wouldn’t budge. Yagi found his heart racing and he swallowed hard as he suddenly felt confused and rushed at the same time. He gripped his chest and found it hard to breathe.

Doctor walked over and had him sit down, his back to the door. “You need to relax Yagi. You’re causing yourself to have a panic attack. Relax.”

Yagi found it impossible too. His hands shook and he found the tears falling, still finding it hard to breathe. He gripped his shirt and Doctor’s sleeve, more panicked by each struggling breath.

“Yagi look at me. I’m right here.” Doctor said as he knelt in front of Yagi. He took Yagi’s trembling hand reassuringly and looked at his eyes. “You need to breath, Yagi.”

Yagi’s eyes drifted to the ground. “I-I can’t.” He stuttered.

Doctor put a hand under Yagi’s chin and made him look at him. “You can. Do what I do.” Yagi watched and repeated the sequence with Doctor. Breathe in, hold, breathe out. Breathe in, hold, breathe out. After a few minutes Yagi found himself calming down but still feeling the sense of panic lingering in his mind. “Yagi, I promise Sakuro is alive. He didn’t die. He’s sedated. He was in so much pain it was only thing we could do for him. You’ll see him soon. We closed the vent because he’s not even in there right now. He’s in recovery.”

Yagi didn’t know how to feel about it. He pulled his legs crossed and wrapped his arms around them, burying his head.

Doctor sighed and sat down next to him. He gave Yagi a hug with one arm and rubbed his shoulder. “I don’t remember the last time you had a panic attack, buddy.”

Yagi didn’t reply. His sense of doom had been replaced with numbness.

Doctor sat with him in silence for a few more moments until he stood up and helped Yagi to his feet. “Go wash up and rest, Yagi. There’s no point in stressing about this. When he’s better, you’ll be able to see him, okay?”

Yagi nodded and headed for the bathroom as Doctor collected his clipboard and walked towards the door. He paused and said to Yagi, “It’ll be okay. I promise.”

Yagi hated promises.

Yagi bolted straight up, awaking from a nightmare. He panted as he tried to catch his breath and 0 his eyes darted around the room. His breathing slowly calmed down to its regular pace as he realized where he was. Yagi laid back down on his back and put both hands to his face as he sighed. He pulled his hands away and noticed they were trembling. With a shaky breath he wiped away the beads of sweat on his forehead. Slowly he sat up and took a couple of deep breaths to calm his nerves. Once he felt calm enough, he stood up on his bed to check on Sako. While he was sleeping that afternoon, they had put Sako back in his room to continue resting. No one knew what had happened to Sako but since then, he couldn’t stay awake for more than a few minutes due to the extreme exhaustion.

They had moved his cot so Yagi could see his friend better, and it tore Yagi to see him the way he was. He had never seen his friend so weak and tired before He had an oxygen mask on his face and a drip connected to his arm. There was a machine watching his heart too. Everything beeped steadily as he slept peacefully for the first time in three days. But even when he slept, he looked so tired.

Yagi looked at the time. It was six thirty-seven in the morning. Soon the main lights would switch on and hopefully Sakuro would be awake long enough to talk to him.

Yagi didn’t try to go back to sleep. He sat on his bed impatiently waiting for the lights to turn back on thirty minutes later. When they finally did, he jumped to his feet and looked out the vent. He whispered Sako’s name loudly and the heart machine beeped a beat faster at his voice. Sako blinked a few times and closed them, weakly raising only his hand and waving once at Yagi to acknowledge him.

“Feeling any better?” Yagi asked him, relieved to see that he finally had some strength.

Sako nodded slowly. Just the mere effort to do so seemed to wear him out.
Yagi hesitated, unsure if answering questions was the right thing for Sako right now. “Are you in pain?” He asked his friend.

Sakuro shook his head. “No.” He replied breathlessly.

“Are you going to try to get up?”

He shook his head, closed his eyes, and focused on breathing. His lungs felt empty. No matter how much air he breathed in, his lungs still screamed for air. “What time is it?” Sako asked after a moment.

“Seven.” Yagi answered, “They should come to see you any minute now.”

He nodded and coughed. But no blood or black stuff came. Yagi felt better about Sako’s health. He wasn’t so scared anymore of possibly losing his friend. He hoped every day his friend would get better. “Does the coughing still hurt?” He asked him.

Sakuro nodded as the door opened to his room where a woman and a man including Doctor walked in. Both the man and woman were the people who had helped Sako the most. They were like Nurse but different.

“How are you feeling?” Doctor asked him as the two did their routine of caring for Sako.

Sako shrugged, “Better I guess.” He replied tiredly. “My head is killing me though.” He glanced over at the male nurse and tensed as the man gave him a shot. He hated needles.

Doctor removed the oxygen mask and put a comforting hand on Sako’s shoulder, “Tired?” He asked.

Sako nodded and kept his eyes closed until the shot was complete. He cracked open one eye and looked to see if there were any more shots to come.

Doctor left him alone and met eyes with Yagi through the vent. He left the room only to come into Yagi’s with a frown. He entered the room and stayed silent as he gently closed the door behind him. He reached up to his glasses and pulled them off as he shook his head. “You’ll end up in trouble one of these days.”

Yagi hopped down and shrugged when his feet hit the floor. “They don’t care anymore.”

Doctor used his coat to clean the lens and lifted his eyes to Yagi. “They will. Yagi, there’s going to be a new person in charge soon and he won’t tolerate any foolishness. I’ve met him and he has very little patience. It'd be wise to not test him. Please listen to my advice and stay off the bed. I don’t want to see you or Sakuro get hurt.”

This irritated Yagi. He narrowed his eyes and shrugged, “Then I’ll fight back. If anyone wants to hurt Sakuro they’ll have to hurt me too. No one can separate Sako and me. We’re more than friends, we’re brothers.”

He smiled at his determination, but it was soon replaced by another frown. “But not by blood. He’ll make sure you two can’t speak to one another if you aren’t careful. And I know for both of you guys, that would be the worst punishment of all.”

After a moment of silence, Yagi asked a question that bugged him, “What’s his name?” Yagi asked. The last head of the facility was to be referred to as Commander and Yagi hoped he wouldn’t have to call someone by a title like that again.

Doctor put his glasses back on and shrugged. “I don’t know what he wants you to call him yet. He’s not in charge yet, but he’ll let you know when he officially has the position.”

Doctor went to leave but Yagi stopped him with another question. “Will he hurt Sakuro?”

“No. Not unless he misbehaves.” He looked at the vent as Sako’s coughing echoed in the room. Doctor sighed and his gaze looked down at the ground. Yagi wondered what he was thinking but Doctor did not share, and he did not pry.

Yagi tried to lift the mood. “Sako didn’t cough up blood this morning. Yesterday when he coughed, black stuff like blood came.”

Doctor looked up and nodded. “Yes. Sako’s doing better.” He spoke. He smiled but his eyes remained troubled. He sat down on the bed and gestured for Yagi to sit next to him. He put his hand on Yagi’s shoulder, “I know you two are like brothers. But he will not hesitate before taking any action. Keep that in mind. Promise me you two won’t be idiots and disregard my warning.”

Yagi nodded and with that, Doctor left.

Within the next week Sako was back to health and the new person Doctor had mentioned began work. He was a tall man with brown hair starting to turn gray with sharp features that matched his authoritative demeanor. He had piercing blue eyes, and his permanent scowl seemed to display that he was never happy or content with anything in his life. Yagi thought he must be the most miserable man on earth.

The night after they had met the man, who was to be referred to by Leader, Yagi and Sako sat down on their beds talking about it, their backs facing the wall. Sako thought he was a demon from hell and called him Mr. Bossypants. Yagi thought less drastically saying the man was just bitter.

Sako stood up and peered into the vent, “Maybe he’ll change some things though. I mean he must have a heart somewhere, right? So maybe he’ll be different in a good way.”

Yagi rolled his eyes, “Doubtful. I doubt not one drop of blood in him is good.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Like I said, he’s a demon from hell.”

Yagi could hear Sako’s door suddenly open. Why were people out this late at night?

“Sakuro, get over here.” Leader’s voice ordered.

Yagi could hear Sako jump off the bed and walk over with fading footsteps. “Yes?”

“I thought we told you no more of that.” He said in a scolding tone. “This is your last and final warning. Do not let anyone catch you on that bed again. Do you understand me?”

“Yes.”

“Yes, what?”

“Yes, sir.” Sako said with a growl.

“Good. I expect to hear of no more issues from you Sakuro.” The door shut and Yagi could hear his friend scoff.

“I swear he just likes to pick on me. I mean, I don’t want you to get in trouble, Yagi, but like you also stand on your bed, and you’ve never been reprimanded about it yet.”

“Yeah, it is kinda weird.” Yagi agreed.

“What’s he gonna do anyway? Take the bed away? He can take it if he wants. I’ll find something else to stand on if I have too.”

“Sako, please don’t test him.” Yagi asked.

“Why shouldn’t I? This is ridiculous, Yagi. He can’t treat us like this. He’s literally micromanaging us.” Sako told him as he took a seat on the edge of his bed.

“Yeah, but if you push his patience, he might take away the vent. How would we talk to one another then?”

“I’ll punch a hole throw the wall.”

“And break your hand in the process?”

“Battle scar!” Sako shouted cheerfully.

“Sako! Seriously. Please don’t do anything stupid.” Yagi said.

“You’re boring.” Sako muttered.

The next day Sako seemed to had completely forgotten what they had talked about as at night after dinner he stood on his bed when he went to tell Yagi something that was important to talk about.

“I forgot to tell you! When I was- “

His door opened and Leader’s voice echoed into Yagi’s room. I gave you the last warning yesterday and you obviously paid no mind to it.”

“But Yagi is my friend. We always talk to each other. We’ll go insane if we don’t. The other person who was in charge let us-”

“I don’t care if you talk, I care about if you stand on that bed of yours. It costs lots of money and if you break it and fall, you’ll end up getting hurt and I don’t need to be wasting my money on that. Hands on the wall.”

“What?! You’re going to punish me for that?! That’s ridiculous!”

Yagi couldn’t believe it either. It was a ridiculous thing here to get punished over.

“Hey! You can’t use that!” Sako said fearfully, “The other man before you only used a stick!”

“Sakuro.” Leader said firmly.

Yagi shut his eyes as he heard whatever Leader used to hit Sako.

“Let this be a warning.” Leader said before he left.

The door closed and the lights switched off. It was just the kids left with patrollers roaming the halls now. They could do nothing more to them. So, Yagi stood on the bed to see Sako standing looking straight at the door. Tears covered his eyes from the pain, but he refused to let them fall. He was mad at Leader.

“Sako?” Yagi asked.

He fearfully looked at Yagi. “Get down. He’ll hit you too.”

“It’s after hours. They can’t do anything.”

He scoffed. “After hours. Yeah sure. You saw what he did.” He spat. He went on to mutter, “He’s supposed to stop after the second it. Not five.”

“Hey, come on. At least he didn’t take you into the room where they leave you for hours alone.”

“I’d take that any day over a belt.” He snarled.

Yagi froze. “What?” That had never been a punishment option.

Sako glanced at Yagi, “What’s more is that he even hit my back once because I turned after the second hit because that’s when he’s supposed to stop.” He lifted his shirt to Yagi, “How bad is it?”

The mark of the belt was as clear as day. “It’s not good.”

He scoffed, pulling the shirt down.

Trying to help him stay optimistic, he continued. “Well, at least they didn’t give you shock bracelets. Those are worse, remember? We used to be burned by them because they shocked our wrists so hard.” Shock bracelets was a punishment Commander used on them and both Sakuro and Yagi were glad those were done away with.

Sako suddenly lost it. Yagi wasn’t sure exactly what made him so incredibly mad so fast, but he began yelling swears and throwing things in his room. He knocked over the table, and a chair, and broke the second chair when he smashed it against something in the bathroom. For a moment Yagi thought he had calmed down when he walked out of the bathroom, but that thought was quickly discarded as soon as Sakuro flipped over his cot and kicked it. After looked at the bed for a moment he then walked to his bookshelf and threw every single book as hard as he possibly could at the mirror he had. The mirror began to crack, and he didn’t even notice.

Yagi wanted to shout for him to stop at this point, but it seemed pointless. Sako was lost in his rage and shouting would be a lost cause. When Sako finally realized the damage to the mirror had the most wicked smile on his face Yagi had ever seen him have. The look in his eyes scared Yagi because he no longer looked like his friend. This was someone else. Sako pushed his dresser in front of the door, took the table and chair, still intact, and slammed them against the mirror.

His room’s lights flicked on, and people struggled to get inside. He laughed at them and picked up books as ammo. One man managed to open the door enough for a hand to get it and Sako threw a book right at it. The man cried out in pain when the book made contact. Sako threw a book every time he saw them start to come in.

One man got half his body through the door and Sako watched him in disgust since he had run out of books. He looked at the mirror noticing its larger spider web cracks and then slammed his shoulder against it as hard as he could. The cracks grew and he did it again with a sick smile on his face. Realizing it wouldn’t be possible to break the mirror entirely, he stood and examined his work from a few steps away, cocking his head to the side.

When the man got in, Sako stopped and ran to the bathroom, locking the door behind him. Things smashed inside the room, and he laughed at the top of his lungs. It was like he had officially gone insane. The people flooded in, and the men began to slam the bathroom door with their weight. It didn’t take more than three seconds for them to get in.

Sako kicked and thrashed and screamed as two men pulled him out. This wasn’t the Sako Yagi knew. Sako bit one of the men on the arm and the man let him go with a cry of pain. Sako used his free arm to swing punches.

Doctor came running in and tried as hard as could to try to stop the chaos, but it was pointless. Sako’s only focus was to get out of the men’s grasp and nothing else. But at least Sako was getting tired. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up forever. At least, Yagi hoped not.

Doctor sighed seeing there wasn’t any progress and left the room. Yagi wondered where he was going and then his own door opened. Doctor quickly beckoned him to follow, and Yagi obeyed. But he paused at the threshold. Yagi had never passed this threshold. He stared at it and then looked at the door unsure if he should step over it. But a scream next door snapped him out and he was soon as Doctor’s side staring into Sako’s room. Sako’s nose was bloody, and he tried to bite as the men had successfully gotten his arms pinned behind his back.

Yagi’s eyes widened as he saw more in detail of the damage Sakuro caused. Doctor gestured to Sako, “I think you’re the only one who’s going to be able to do anything. He won’t listen to us. Just get him to calm down.” Cautiously, Yagi walked forward, stepping over the thrown furniture and books. He had never seen him like this, so violent. Sako kept trying to bite them so much that they now had tied a cloth around his mouth to stop him.

“Sakuro?” Yagi asked. He realized Sakuro hadn’t heard him and tried again, raising his voice the chaos. He hated the fact that his voice was trembling. Yagi stayed at a distance and wondered, would Sako attack him too? Sakuro still showed no reaction, so he tried again and this time with more control to his voice.

The second Sako stopped at his voice was the second the men needed to sedate Sako. As it took effect he just stared at Yagi and fell to his knees. This was the first time they had ever been in the same room together. Yagi would have been thrilled but this wasn’t his best friend.

This was someone else.

Yagi looked over Sako where he stood at a safe distance and then noticed a small line of something black falling down his sleeve and dripping off his hand onto the floor. Considering how sedated Sako was, Yagi walked forward, pushed Sakuro’s jacket off his shoulder, and realized what had happened. A piece of glass from the bathroom had cut him. As soon as Yagi had taken the jacket off it spilled faster. But why did his blood look black? He then looked at Sako in the eye seeing if he was registering the pain but only found the red blood falling from his nose was now darker, a similar shade to the blood on his arm.

Yagi looked closer and he could see a piece of glass in his arm. He didn’t seem to even feel anything. Yagi tried to search Sako’s eyes for any sign of his best friend. Yagi frowned when he couldn’t. “Sako…. what happened to you?”

Sakuro smiled through the cloth and suddenly fell forward unconscious. Yagi gasped and caught him, careful to not put too much pressure on the injured arm, and the people took him away, but Doctor let Yagi come with them when they carried Sako out of the room.