#theeflea

He was in trouble, just as the voice on the phone said he was. The longer she looked at him, the further and further her stomach dropped until it existed in a tiny pulse her in feet. Shizuo, the person she'd come to think of as completely invincible, hung limply from a pair of shackles on the wall of the container. Even in the darkness, Akane could tell that he had lost a lot of blood: the smell of it covered every inch of him. Akane felt it on the bottoms of her shoes, she smelled it clinging heavily to the air. She blinked and realized that her eyes were burning. 

"Onii-chan," Akane sniffed, pleading with him in a quivering voice, "Can you hear me?"

He couldn't. He'd been through too much pain. The little girl couldn't even begin to imagine what he'd endured until this point. She would never forgive the monster who'd caused it, but that wasn't important now. She needed to help him down. It took a great deal of effort, but Akane located a few crates outside the container and used them to boost herself up to Shizuo's height. She found a rock and bashed it against the bolts securing the shackles to Shizuo's wrists. The process was long, exhausting, and at times it seemed fruitless. It hurt the little princess' heart to see Shizuo so unresponsive, and she continued to fight tears.

"Let him go," Akane demanded, putting her entire body into every strike against the bloody irons. The rock chipped a few times and made a horribly loud clang as it collided. "Let him go, let him go, let him go!"

Her struggles were rewarded. After another twenty minutes, Shizuo's body fell free of the wall and thumped onto the floor. Akane winced at the sound, hoping she hadn't hurt him further. Quickly, she scurried down from her crate-ladder and knelt beside the unmoving bodyguard. Akane grunted as she flipped Shizuo onto his back and pressed her head against his chest.

"Onii-chan, Onii-chan, please breathe," She prayed, "Please be alive still, please."

There it was: a tiny spark against her eardrum. Akane squeezed her eyes shut and focused on it, willing it to become louder. Slowly, it matured into a slow, sagging beat. The little princess let out a stale breath. 

"You're alive." She told him thankfully, lifting her head. "You're alive, you're going to be OK."

Now there was a problem, however. Akane did not know how to transport Shizuo, or even where to bring him. She knew that the container wasn't safe, since his tormentor might come back at any moment. First things first, she decided, I need to help him out of here. But no matter how many times she patted his cheeks and asked him to wake up, Shizuo would not answer. A rising panic fluttered in Akane's chest as he failed to react at all. 

"He's tired, he's tired from all the pain. There's lots of blood. He just needs help, I just need to help him." Akane muttered to herself. 

She pushed herself up onto wobbling knees and stepped around Shizuo's body, moving towards the front of the container. Then she leaned down and wrapped her hands around his left arm. The little princess strained and groaned and dragged Shizuo with all her might, but he was very difficult to move. His body pulled on her arms, wearing them down. Soon enough, they were tight and sore. 

It took her five minutes to drag Shizuo out of the container. By then, she was panting for breath and her throat stung with winter air. Her next worry was that he might catch a cold. Akane wiped her sweaty forehead with her sleeve and glanced around the pier, searching desperately for anything that might aid her in this situation. But she had no idea what to do.

She was only ten years old.