found a horribly devastating Janka fic in my notes where they both get kidnapped by an abuser from Jabber’s past.
tags: rape, mutilation, torture, hurt/comfort, rescue
Beneath the suffocating darkness, a horrified voice calls out. It startles Zanka abruptly out of his nightmare, but the waking world offers no semblance of comfort. Everything is wrong.
“Zanka?” Jabber groans, his voice a pale whisper. His words slur, a half reality. “That really you? What are you doing here?”
Zanka stares at him, his lungs frozen with fear, lapsing into a dazed horror. Jabber’s hands have been cut off, wrapped with blood-soaked bandages at the ends of his arms. He’s naked, his body covered with dirt and grime and blood.
Where are they? Is this real? Is this a nightmare?
Zanka tries to reach for him, but he’s strangled backwards by the chain around his throat.
A man’s voice bursts out, loud and terrifying in Zanka’s eardrums. A flash of darkness fills his peripheral, and he sees a man pour a bucket of ice cold water on Jabber. Zanka flinches backwards as Jabber startles and coughs, then his eyes widen as he sees Zanka. His face twists into fear, as he opens his mouth to say something, but no words come out.
“This your boyfriend?” The man yells at Jabber. He stomps towards Zanka and presses a gun to his head. “Take your clothes off.”
Zanka’s hands are shaking, cold, his throat tight. He feels like he can’t breathe. “Wh… where am I…?”
The trigger clicks. “Take your fucking clothes off!” He roars.
Zanka’s heart surges with panic as he stares down the barrel of the gun, so disoriented and confused that the entire world feels like it’s tilting. He reaches up for his shirt, but his hands won’t cooperate. Trembling so bad, grasping at air. Like he’s forgotten what to do. How to move.
The man yells out in rage, then grabs a fistful of Zanka’s hair and slams his skull against the cold brick wall, hard. The world snaps into darkness, tainted with the coppery taste of blood pooling down his throat.
The stench hits Enjin first. Thick and cloying, he gags as he covers his mouth with his hand, eyes watering, stomach roiling in sickness.
Enjins blood runs cold as his eyes take in the horrifying sight. “Oh, fuck.”
“Zanka!” Riyo shoves past him, running to the ground, feeling his pulse. “He’s alive. Help me get these off!”
Adrenaline mixes with a brutal wave of nausea and disgust as he rushes to her side, grabbing a blood-soaked saw from the ground and slicing through Zanka’s chains.
He’s… they’re both… naked, chained to the wall, covered in blood, and the whole basement is a goddamn biohazard. Covered in shit and piss and vomit, caked up on the walls, on the floor, on their skin. Flies swarm fat and slow in the air, cockroaches, maggots. He’s going to vomit.
“Is that Jabber?” Rudo asks, frozen.
Zanka’s free. Enjin curls him into his arms, rising, as his eyes lock onto the figure on the other side of the basement.
“They cut his hands off,” Rudo says, unable to move.
His wounds are infected. Enjin sees maggots crawling in and out of the skin. His heart races.
“We can’t leave him here,” he says, hating how shaky his voice comes out, gripping Zanka tight. “Raider or not, no one deserves this. Come on. Let’s get them back.”
Enjin’s hands shake, knuckles white hot as he grips the wheel. He’s still in shock, he thinks. He keeps looking back, to make sure Zanka’s still there.
They didn’t bring towels. Didn’t bring anything. Only had time to race like hell when they finally picked up a sound from Zanka’s choker.
This is so much worse than anything he could have expected. Riyo’s shivering in the backseat, clutching onto Zanka like a lifeline, holding his pale body in her arms, his blood smeared against her cheek.
“Is he still alive?” Enjin keeps asking, over and over again. The road is all a terrifying, darkening blur.
“Riyo, his pulse still okay? He still alive?”
Jabber sits on the bed of the infirmary, his face coated in darkness.
“Th’s my fault,” Jabber mumbles, his eyes exhausted and sad. “My fault they took Zanka.” He grimaces, trying to wipe his tears with his hands, but falling frustratingly on his forearms. “Where is he? Can I see him?”
“He’s still recovering,” Enjin says. “What happened in there?”
Jabber glances at him, his voice falling low and dead. “Used to sell myself after my mama died,” he murmurs darkly. “Had a lot of clients. That fucker was the worst one.” He shudders, grimacing. “I guess he had enough money, and he wanted me back, so he bought me from Zodyl.”
Rudo flinches. “Zodyl sold you?”
Listlessly, Jabber nods. His eyes look dead. “Thought I grew out of that,” he says. “Bein’ sold.”
He looks down at the ends of his arms. His expression turns angry and sad as his voice shakes. “When he was ripping off my clothes, he found a bunch of drawings I made of Zanka in my shirt pockets. Sketches I kept with me. My favorite moments from our fights. He got jealous. Started kicking my ass, asking if that was my boyfriend.” His voice starts to tremble as he struggles to speak. “Said he’d find him and bring him down there so I could watch him suffer.”
Enjin’s going to be sick. “What’d they do to him?”
His eyes twitch, his jaw set in anger. “They’d come down, a bunch of ‘em with guns, come down and gang rape him and make me watch.”
Enjin feels the blood leave his face as his body goes freezing cold. It’s like he’s forgotten to breathe for a moment.
His heart twists as he thinks of Zanka. Thinks of his light, easy smile. The joy in his eyes. Is he ever going to see that again?
Zanka’s still out of his mind, curled in the bed on his side, shaking, eyes half glazed into nothingness. He grips the sheets with trembling hands, his mouth half open, slack jawed and unseeing.
“Jabber?” He keeps muttering, barely audible.
“We need to let them see eachother,” Riyo says, trying not to cry.
“Jabber still can’t walk,” Enjin tells her. “I don’t want to risk moving Zanka.” He turns to Eishia. “Do you think Jabber is well enough to be put in a wheelchair?”
They wheel him out. Jabber sees Zanka and his eyes go wide as he hitches in a breath.
“Jabber,” Zanka croaks. Jabber falls to his knees with a wince as he clutches onto Zanka. They hug eachother tightly, Zanka burying his head in the crook of Jabbers neck. His body shakes with silent sobs.
Enjin watches, tears trickling at the corner of his eyes, his heart sick and heavy with guilt. He should have protected him. Riyo clutches his arm as her body trembles. His muscles are all tightened, his fists shaking in a horrible grip.
This world is so fucking sick.
Always has been. Always will be. His stomach tightens in agony. No matter how hard he tries to shield them… it’s never enough. He wraps his arm around Riyo and clutches her close to him.
He will never, ever forget the feeling of Riyo trembling in his arms as he watches the scene unfold before him. Never be able to forget that terrified, empty look in Zanka’s eyes.