He felt his heart leap to his throat as his ears perked at the sound of someone haphazardly fumbling around with the outdoors zipper on his tent, muttering curses under their breath.
Or at least what Jason could only presume were curses, as though he could clearly hear the barely concealed venom in their words, they didn't sound like anything in English, let alone any language.
Either way, it was too much for the frazzled young boy. Jason immediately froze up, eyes wide and frenzied as he stared on at the jangling zipper with a laser-like focus. The 10-year-old adventurer tried in vain to gather himself, but it was no use: his heart was racing a mile a minute, his body growing more tense by the second as the zipper jerkily made its way upwards bit by bit.
A part him knew that he was afraid. He could feel in the way his muscles pulling in on themselves like an overstuffed duffel bag being tied up with very thin string.
But this felt like more that that.
He could feel it in the way the air suddenly seemed far too thin, his lung desperately gobbling up as much air as he could. He could feel it through every ounce of his body: the sweat pouring out of every orifice of his body in buckets, his hands shaking, his teeth chattering and shivering, the cold creeping in, the termites crawling through his skin, burrowing through his eyes, burning through his nostrils!
This wasn't simple fear. Fear implied that you still had you reason; that you could still make choices that were entirely based of it. No, for the first time in his life, Jason did not feel fear.
What he felt was completely, utterly terrified.
There were no thoughts that could penetrate it. No words that could drag him out of it. Nothing could guide him through the sheer, unrelenting terror that coursed through his being. His mind was that of a cornered animal, paralyzed but still desperate for any chance at an escape. Though his throat was still hoarse and ragged from his blood-curdling scream, the young adventurer still yelled to his would-be intruder as loud as he could.
"G-GET AWAY!"
The zipper continued jerking upwards, indifferent to his pleas.
"I-I MEAN IT! I'LL... I'LL BITE!"
Eventually the zipper had made it all the way up, the flap opening up all the way to reveal the intruder's face. Something in Jason snapped, and before he knew he was right on of Jamie, panting, as he had the latter pinned down on the mulchy ground outside. His hands were gripped so tightly around Jamie's arms that he could see the whites in his knuckles. For a moment, Jason could see the latter's eyes shaking, his pupils narrowed down to pinpoints with unrelenting fear, before he recovered enough to begin yelling at him: "W-What the actual hell are you doing?!"
"Ah! Jamie!" Jason stuttered, cheeks flushed red as he got up, freeing the incensed boy from his grasp. "It's-what are you-!"
"Checking what the hell is going on, that's what!" Shakily, Jamie got up, shaking off the lingering bits of dust from being tackled as he stared dead-on at Jason. "First I hear some kid screaming like they're gonna get mauled, then I get tackled by that kid, and now he looks like something a badger threw up!"
"Oh..." Jason said. "I, er, guess that, well... all of those are me."
What follows is an awkward silence that lasts to the heat death of the universe before Jason follows with a "...sorry."
"Well, quit it!" an irate Jamie replies, with not an edge of sympathy in his voice. "You'll wake up the entire camp acting like a rabid banshee!"
"B-but I-!" Jason sputtered indignantly; all anxiety forgotten. "Y-you know that I can't-! I wasn't-!"
"But nothing! Do you have any idea how much I've been through tonight!? Not only , but now I have to deal with you being crazy! Like seriously, what the hell is wrong with you?! What kind of...!"
As Jamie continued on his little triade, Jason slowly tuned him out. In the few short hours that the camp had gotten to know him, it had become very clear to everyone that once Jamie got started on a rant, it was almost impossible to stop him.
Instead, he ruminated over everything that had happened tonight, horrified by what he had done. He had no idea why he did that; why he'd attacked Jamie like that out of nowhere! Sure, he had a nightmare, and sure, he was scared, but that didn't give him the right to attack people! It was just a stupid dream!
A really, really bad, unsettlingly real dream, but a dream nonetheless.
But then why did he still feel like his nerves were pinched up to the nth degree? Why couldn't he stop shivering so much, even though it was the warmest night of the year?
Why did it feel like that wasn't a dream, but a premonition? One that he could do nothing to stop.
Jamie was right: what the hell was wrong with him?
He had no doubt that after tonight, Jamie would never take him seriously ever again. Not only did he attack him like a crazed animal, but he also looked like a pathetic, cowardly mess. Nothing at all like the fearless adventurer that everyone could look up to. And now Jamie had a front-row seat to just how worthless he truly was. No doubt would tell everyone, and everyone would shun him for being crazy and a coward, and he would never live it down for the rest of his life, and-!
"Uh, earth to Jason! I wasn't finished!"
No matter what, he couldn't let anyone else find out about this!
"Please, Jamie, I'm sorry!" Jason pleaded, looking straight into Jamies with hands clasped in front on him. "I don't know what came over me or why I screamed or attacked you, but I promise I won't do it again!
At this point, Jason was on his knees, eyes shining with desperation. "In fact, to make it up to you, I'll do anything you want! No matter what, for the rest of the summer, I'll do whatever you ask me to do, no complaints. You can do anything! Just please, don't tell anyone!"
At this, Jamie gave a look that Jason could only describe as "stunned". It seems to take a while for what Jason said to register, as Jamie begins backing away from the pleading boy.
"W-whatever," Jamie dismissively replied. "I wasn't about to anyway. You don't have to be my-my slave or whatever it is you wanted!"
Jamie's features soften as he taken a closer look at the boy, who looked like he had just recieved a miracle from the messiah himself. "Seriously, what is wrong with you? You weren't acting like this at all before tonight. What gives?"
Hesitantly, Jason looks down towards the ground, rubbing his arms nervously. Should he tell him? There was no way Jamie would believe this was because of some dream he had. Jason didn't really believe that himself. "...I don't know," Jason admitted in a small voice. "But thanks."
Oddly, instead of responding, Jamie seems to look closer at the grateful boy, observing him, as though there were something off. "Uh, is there anything wrong?"
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