Everything was a blur, it all felt like a dream, the screaming, the panicked gasps, the shouting, the being carried. Everything was a blur, he was half conscious and all he could think about was "thank God that my assumptions of one of them dying was wrong, I hate being right in these kinds of situations"...he woke up in a bed with a sharp, disgusting pain, he immediately retched as he smelled the air, he would have been embarrassed if it weren't for the pain, he hasn't ate anything, the bile came up, warm, disgusting, and an itchy kind of painful, almost the same sensation when you accidentally swallow hot chip dust and it goes down the wrong pipe. He choked on his own bile and his head was spinning. He reflectively shot up when he felt the bile, it hurt everything and more blood leaked out of his stomach wound, from the pain he choked. When he started coughing from the bile it felt like pressure was in his head every time he coughed, the same feeling you'd get when you have a cold, and you cough but it sends some kind of painful pressure to your head. His vision started turning black as he screamed for help with his last ounce of strength. At the last moment a redheaded lady ran into his room to check on him, bile was everywhere and the amount of blood it contained was concerning, knowing it would hurt, but save his life; she patted his back, hard and the coughing nearly ceased completely as he got out the last of the fluid. She gently laid him down and called for water and painkillers, though she wasn't sure if he could even swallow them; if he could it would help the pain. He couldn't swallow it, so in the end she told him to go to sleep, he decided to. He was awoken to the immense pain of the doctor he met earlier before the mission suturing his stomach while continuously pouring more antiseptic on it to prevent infection, he instantly screamed, he startled the doctor but he did not cease his work, he needed to save him, that was his duty as a doctor, a general surgeon. He was strapped down to the table preventing him from doing anything, they prepared for a case where he woke up luckily, because right now he just wanted to rip off the surgeons hands, the blood curling screams he let out ripped his throat and reverberated against the walls, he was sure everyone could hear him, he didn't care. The doctor was done and Kylos had lost his voice, unable to scream or speak more than a sentence, it hurt, just for extra measure the doctor then washed his wound one more time and gently placed a large bandage over it. The first improvement he noticed was that the room no longer smelled as bad, it still smelled, but not as bad. The second change he noticed was that it hurt significantly less than before, and though not much of an improvement, he had PTSD. Every time he saw something that resembled the monster, even just slightly, he would have a panic attack, those were not his best moments. Unfortunately he didn't know why this was happening, and all the explanations on PTSD he got went over his head, he was still too young to understand such a concept, but nonetheless he thanked them all for attempting. Every time he had a panic attack it would first start with fear, anxiety, and hyperventilation, he felt like everything was out to get him, tears streamed down his face and he became hyper aware of everything, he became lightheaded and eventually passed out. Afterwards everything that happened became a blur, he felt like he was weak in this world. He was. What could an 8 year old child do to a monster almost 8 feet? And with the arms that reached down to their ankles, their arms were almost the same size! He was nothing but an ant in this world, but nonetheless, through all the panic attacks, he remained stuck to his goal despite not even being able to face monsters. After all ants can bite, that was the logic that kept him going, he might have been an ant in this world, but paired with a colony he was more than that, he was a worker ant, a fire ant, an ant that could do damage, the ants on the tree that your mother told you to stay away from.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.