The Lockdown

Prologue

Imagine sitting on the couch of your living room, isolated, depressed, the future bleak and uncertain and you have just been told that you will not be allowed to leave you apartment for the foreseeable future. Add a splash of hangover because you just had to spend your last free night drinking even though you swore you will never get drunk again, but you work in a bar and closing up for good was just too much of a temptation. Imagine going through this practically by yourself, your friends not allowed to visit, your family far away, your girlfriend abandoning you and your only company is a roommate you barely know.

Hide you pain, your heartache, struggle to survive virtually alone in an antagonistic world, yet find a small corner of peace that you desperately cling to doing anything you can imagine just to hang on to your sanity. Do it all with a smile on your face because you cannot let anyone hurt you again.

The streets are quiet and empty, a dirty late winter snow fall coating everything grey, almost instantly melting into sludgy puddles.

Authors note: 

This is a story of two men falling in love. It contains descriptions of consensual sex. There is a brief mention of domestic violence, some homophobia and even heterosexual sex. If any of these offend you, I am sorry to lose you as a reader.

This is not a story of the pandemic, however. I did not set out to write about the devastation of the virus, the pain and suffering it caused around the world. It is simply the background of this little story. I truncated and simplified the timeline of the pandemic, please, do not take offense with that.