hanging by a thread.

00 | a cry for help

Langa emits a content hum as he places the final item from his grocery list into the basket that he was currently carrying.

Well, that should be it.

he thinks to himself with a satisfied grin, before carefully exiting the aisle and heading toward the cash register to pay for his groceries. That is, until he is abruptly interrupted by the sight of the snack section.

An array of various foreign, brightly packaged snacks stares back at him. Choco pies, Meloni, Honey Butter chips. Name it, and chances are it was there. But unfortunately for Langa the snack section was a dangerous place. Grab one snack, and then you find yourself wanting to grab another one, and another one, and another one.

"Well fuck" he immediately mutters under his breath, a frown slowly beginning to form on his face. What was he supposed to do? He was already there, so why not just grab a few? Yeah, no, as mentioned before that's a very bad idea.

Not only that, but His mother gave him just enough money to go buy the basic necessities. Fruits, vegetables, rice, tea, etc. So even if he wanted to grab a few sweets, he literally couldn't, and he was not about to let himself get the assbeating of the century just for taking home a box of choco pies instead of some apples.

So, after walking down the aisle with an expression of defeat etched into his face, Langa finally makes his way to the register.

He waits in line for a bit, stares down at the floor, eventually pulls out his phone as he waits, huffs when he is greeted with absolutely zero messages and shoves the device back into his front pocket.

And that's when the person running the register calls out to him. He immediately hurries over to the counter, greeting them with a shy hello and a smile before placing his products onto the counter for the employee to scan the items. And once they tell him his total he reaches into his back pocket in search of his wallet

But there's one problem. It's not there. The wallet isn't there where the fuck is his wallet?

"Shit shit shit" he mumbles in a frantic manner, roughly patting himself down, just praying for there to be a mound somewhere beneath his clothing. But there isn't. And now he looks like a complete idiot, standing there panicking at the register as the employee asks if he is all right, as the people standing behind him turn to their neighbors and begin to mutter something under their breath.

The room feels like it is spinning. Langa cannot hear anything except for blood pulsing in his ears. Why was he getting so nervous? Why did he feel like this?

All he had to do was apologize, ask them to cancel the transaction and head home to tell his mom that he forgot his wallet in his room. So why was he making such a fuss over it? Because anxiety is a bitch that's why.

"I'm s- I'm sorry," he quickly mutters, practically out of breath, "I can't pay for this I'm sorry" he repeats.

The employee rolls her eyes and begins to tap various portions of her screen, with each annoying little beep of the machine Langa finds himself only growing more embarrassed.

"I'll come back," he adds in a nervous tone, before walking away from the register and heading toward the exit of the supermarket. He doesn't bother looking back, he could already feel the irritated glares looking in his direction. He wasted their time. He wasted his time.

But at least now he was out of there. And it was over.

As he heads down the sidewalk and through the streets, he eventually comes across a rather sketchy looking area. He always went through this way but today for some reason it just looked creepier than usual. Perhaps it was due to the way the sun was hitting? He didn't know, nor did he really care. So he just keeps walking, with his gaze fixed on the area in front of him.

He hums to himself on the way. Trying to distract himself from thinking about the situation at the store. God that was so embarrassing. He cringes. But before he can replay the events in his head, his thoughts are interrupted by something, or in this particular case, someone.

"Help! Somebody! Anybody- help me please please!" A pained cry, an anguish filled cry, breaks through the previously tranquil environment surrounding Langa. The said male immediately freezes in his place. He looks forward, he looks left, he looks right. Where was it coming from?

The alleyway, it had to be the alleyway. Unless he was hearing voices?

"Make it stop please!" The voice begs again, immediately after, an ear piercing scream fills Langa's ears.

Initially, his first instinct is to run towards the sound. This person had to be in an insane amount of pain and in trouble.

However, it could also be a prank. It could be a murderer hiding in the shadows, waiting to strike when an innocent bystander finds themselves heading toward the source of the noise.

This was a rather sketchy part of town after all.

"Fuck!" The same stranger's voice from earlier cries out. They pant heavily and groan.

There's no way this is a prank. It just can't be, it sounds too real.

Langa shuts his eyes tightly and covers his ears. What does he do? Where does he go? He's too afraid to run away, but he's also too afraid to see what is happening.

The sun was setting, it's now or never. He needs to get back home though.

"Fuck it" he spits out under his breath, his eyes are open once his again, his ears, uncovered. He rushes into the alleyway, in the direction of the screaming and immediately comes to an abrupt halt when he sees them. A boy.

A boy who appeared to be around his age, a boy who looked somewhat familiar was on the ground, lying on his side, groaning, writhing in pain and panting heavily.

Now Langa knew exactly what was going on. But unfortunately for that boy, Langa was not a doctor, nor did he possess the extensive amount of knowledge that would be necessary in order to assist in the birth of a baby. But he had to help.

In some way shape or form he just had to.

It was obvious that the boy hadn't noticed his presence yet, because it wasn't until Langa's foot accidently came into contact with a stray aluminum can, that the boy quickly shifted his gaze in Langa's direction.

An expression of utter fear appears on his face.

"It's all right, it's ok." Langa tries to make the other male comfortable. The stranger can only whimper in response.

"I'm going to help you, is that all right?"

He receives a weak nod in response.

"Is it all right if I touch you?"

Another nod.

"I'm going to need you to take off your pants."

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