Michael almost expires from shock. Not only is their appearance entirely without warning but their voice is loud and clear and strange, so unlike the muddy sounds he usually hears while in here and yet also unlike a normal voice. It seems to ring in his head, like it got directly into his skull without going through his ears and now it can’t get out. It is both there and not, just like their body. Nothing like this has ever happened in this place, this place he’s already afraid of, and Michael flinches away from them with his entire self—hard enough to end up ejecting himself out of the darkness and right into some bushes.
He thrashes around in them, panicked, until several black tendrils pull them apart and untangle him and allow him to roll away into the grass. He’s not sure where he is—the park, maybe? Smells like it. His pulse is racing. It strikes him that he’s accidentally run away from Uri, and he should probably go back in case they don’t know where he went, but he’s ashamed of himself and his body is all shaky and what if it just happens again? Some friend he is. No wonder no one likes him.
“Sorry,” he whimpers, just in case Uri can hear him. “Sorry.”