Entomophobia

Entomophobia

Jack had seen some odd things since joining up with Yusei’s group, but this had to be the oddest.

Yusei was acting very oddly. Usually, that would have been normal, since the other boy had a tendency to seem completely uncaring one moment and burst out laughing the next. Jack had often wondered whether they should find a psychologist or something to take him too, except that there were no psychologists in Satellite.

And he wasn’t sure he could tolerate Yusei looking at him with betrayal, which he surely would if they did that.

Now, Jack was seriously considering it. As soon as breakfast was over, Yusei would leave to start working on the D-Wheel. Usually, he wouldn’t leave the garage until dinner and then only if Rally dragged him out. He would often fall asleep beside it and Jack would have to carry him back home so he could get a proper night’s rest.

Today had been different. A couple thugs had been hanging around the garage, so they’d had a sleepover to make sure the D-Wheel didn’t get stolen. Yusei had left to work on the D-Wheel after breakfast as usual. Then a minute later, he’d walked back into the back room, shaking like a leaf. He sat down in a corner and curled up like a ball, shaking even more now that his face was hidden.

That had been an hour ago. Yusei had yet to move out of his fetal position, though he’d stopped shaking. Jack had gone in to work on the D-Wheel for him, but he hardly understood anything on the laptop screen so he’d given up after five minutes.

But it had been an hour. Jack had only known the group for a couple months, but in that time, he had never seen Yusei act quite this peculiar. And the rest of the group didn’t seem concerned at all.

Jack approached Blitz, who he liked the most after Yusei. “What’s up with Yusei?” he asked, pointing at the boy’s form in the corner. “Does he usually act like this?”

Blitz shook his head. “No, the only time I’ve seen him do this, there was a cockroach crawling over his clothes. He’s terrified of bugs.”

“He’s scared of bugs?” Jack found that hard to believe. Yusei wasn’t scared of anything. How could he be, when he could take on five people and escape with barely a scratch?

Blitz nodded, explaining, “He said a cockroach tried to make a home in his ear. That was when it was just him and Taka, so I don’t know much about it. He’ll be okay in another hour or so, but he probably won’t say much for the rest of the day.”

Jack wasn’t going to accept that. Much as he hated to admit it, he looked up to Yusei, because Yusei was the strongest out of all of them. He was their only chance of getting out of Satellite and they all knew it.

Jack walked over to the corner and sat down next to Yusei. The other boy tensed but otherwise showed no sign of knowing someone was there. He tensed even further when Jack placed a hand on his back.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Yusei shook his head slowly, though it was faster than usual.

Jack frowned, wondering if he was making this worse. “Yusei, I’m sure the bug is gone by now.”

Again, Yusei shook his head, a little faster than last time. Jack sighed and fell silent, but he didn’t move his hand. The others might think Yusei could get through this on his own, but Jack thought it couldn’t hurt if the other boy knew he definitely had someone there for him.

“It was on my laptop...”

Jack started and looked over. Yusei hadn’t moved, but Jack was sure he hadn’t imagined hearing his voice.

“What was?” Jack asked softly.

“Spider,” Yusei whispered, almost sounded as though he’d been crying. Jack wouldn’t believe that, though. “Really big spider...”

“Do you think it’s still there?”

Yusei nodded jerkily, his arms tightening around his knees.

Jack sighed and stood up, holding a hand down to him. “Let’s go look and see.”

Yusei tensed but raised his head to stare at Jack. Jack was shocked; Yusei looked terrified. Jack smiled, trying to make it as comforting as possible.

“C’mon, let’s go see. Maybe it’s gone by now. And if not, I’ll kill it for you.”

Yusei ducked his face back into his knees. Jack tried not to feel disappointed; he hadn’t really expected it to work anyway. So he was surprised when Yusei suddenly grabbed his hand and pulled himself to his feet.

“I’ll come with you,” Yusei murmured.

Jack nodded and led him out of the back room and back into the garage. Yusei grabbed one of his hands when they walked in, but otherwise showed no signs they he was scared. His grip on Jack’s hand grew tighter they closer they got to the D-Wheel, until Jack was sure his fingers were going to fall off from lack of circulation.

Yusei stopped before they got to the D-Wheel, staring at his laptop. Jack had been wrong; the spider wasn’t gone. And it was a larger spider than normal; it covered four keys of the keyboard. Jack gently guided Yusei back a couple steps before he could start shaking again. Then he carefully extracted his hand from Yusei’s grip and approached the spider.

Taking careful aim, he flicked the spider off the laptop. Yusei flinched, but the spider didn’t land any closer to him then it had been before. Then Jack walked over and stepped on it before it could run away.

Jack could practically sense Yusei relax. Glancing over, he saw that the other boy almost seemed embarrassed by his actions. Jack smiled at him, reassuring him that he didn’t need to feel embarrassed.

“That’s all you need to do,” Jack said gesturing to his foot. “Whenever something frightens you, just crush it into the ground. It won’t have the chance to frighten you again.”

Yusei nodded, his eyes gaining back the resolve Jack was so used to seeing. “I won’t need your help next time. But...”

He glanced at the laptop. Jack sighed and walked over to him, clapping a hand onto his shoulder.

“If you need it, I’ll help you,” he said. “That’s what friends are for, right?”

Yusei smiled and nodded again. “Right.”