Work Text:
Natsume stared down at his feet as he walked quickly as possible up the dark stairwell. He kept his mantra in his mind, there is nothing there, it is not real, if you don’t look at it it will leave you alone and you can’t look at it because there is nothing there. No fear no fear no fear. Despite all his best efforts he couldn’t help the way his heart rate picked up and pushed his legs to move faster. He wished he could take the elevator instead of climbing the stairs to the fifth floor but he couldn’t risk it. After all there was another not there thing in the elevator and his current guardians had warned him the elevator often broke down.
Better to have to rush up five flights of stairs while keeping his head down then risk getting stuck in the elevator. If he made eye contact in the stairwell he could reasonably make it to one of the floor exits but if he got stuck in the elevator that would mean he’d be stuck with it. Knowing his luck he’d end up making eye contact with it and it would break the elevator and he’d get blamed somehow.
Natsume heaved a sigh of relief as he made it to his floor. He glanced back at the terrifying not there thing before slamming the door and heading towards his guardian’s apartment. His guardians and never his. He couldn’t wait till he was big. One day he would have a place that was his and he’d make sure it was far away from any of the not things. But until then he’d keep wishing that the not thing in the stairwell would just leave.