friends to lovers to enemies to lovers to ??? (spicy warning)
Leo Liu, a Chinese music nerd goes to Edinburgh for boarding school. He meets Jake Thomas, also a music nerd. The two quickly click and bond, making new friends and having fun. They fall...
Jake couldn't stop checking his phone. If Fin and Dun didn't show up then he'd have to leave.
Fin had promised him. Well sort of. Bros can't let each other down after all.
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Jakey crossed his fingers. He prayed to the school God, Virgin Maly that his friends would turn up. And Maly did not disappoint.
'Hey, Jake!' Fin and Dun came jogging up with their suitcases.
Jake gave then a brief smile, before flagging down a taxi (why did he wait at the bus stop then?). They all piled in, Jake did all the speaking. The plan was to fly to London, meet Gabe and go to Chongqing together.
Finding where Leo was would be impossible, but luckily Jake had that sheet from Chang's room yesterday.
In no time they were on the plane to London to meet Gabe. Unfortunately Jake's seat cushion fell off and he sat on the metal. Do not fly Ryanair.
The flight to Chongqing was long, luckily no Ryanair. The boys sat in the four middle seats. It was an eventful flight. Dun spilling his food oh himself. Gabe so fixated on the tennis on his screen he forgot to fasten his seatbelt when they hit turbulence that he got flung out his seat. Fin jerking off under the blanket to Tom Holland in uncharted. (Who's telling his GF?)
But Jake was restless. He didn't eat nor sleep. He paced the aisle so many times that the flight attendants strapped him to his seat.
After 10 agonising hours they touched down in Chongqing. it was 13pm May 22nd. Jake google translated as best as he could, helping them get a taxi to the location.
It was far. Way beyond city centre, out in the district. Jake couldn't help but shake his leg, so filled with adrenaline he couldn't still himself.
Jake wasn't sure on where they were going. Leo is rich, wherever his grandpa was would be in city centre. He'd even shown Jakey pictures before. But this? They were going into the countryside, enveloped by never ending cornfields.
After a painful ¥673 spent by Jake on the taxi they arrived.
A run down village, long ago abandoned. Gabe was the first to speak. 'Where shall we leave our stuff?'
And so, after stuffing their belonging into a bush they proceeded into the village.
The houses were nothing like modern day country sides, they were made of mud and straw, crumbling away. They peeked into each one, covered in spider webs and unfinished moulding food. As if everyone got evacuated during lunch.
'Wow, old.' He heard Dun mutter.
And that was it.
The unease was planted in the back of Jakes mind, he was truly perturbed. There was no conversation. That was strange.
Why weren't his friends speaking?
Jake turned around, nearly folding in half.
his friends
..gone
...to where?
He looked around frantically, only the colourless straw shacks looked back at him. Dun and Gabe are taller than he is, he would've noticed that they were gone. And Fin? Might've lost him at the start.
He started running into the village, he ran so fast he nearly slipped on the dirt road. A run down corner shop, lit by a candle. Without thinking Jake turned left and went in. It was old, seriously old. But it didn't seem to fit in the village, so out of place amongst such shabby houses. Why would the store be made of wood but not the houses? Why would the store have glass windows but the houses have none?
That was not Jake's main problem. The shelves were stocked, full of oreos and instant noodles. Now his brain was frying. It felt like he was travelling through time, the 1300s village, 1900s shop and the modern items?
A memory came back.
So sharp and slick piercing his mind.
The dream he had on the train.
when he thought
henry was in danger
..all tied up
and...
..yet it was all his...
i m a g i n a t i o n
Jake dropped to his knees, clutching his hair. He cannot lose himself again like on the train. He has to get through this by himself.
He shook his head, hard and got up. Where was the candle that he saw from outside?
Didn't matter. He was about to take a step when he heard it.
A voice so loud, so prominent he couldn't mistake it.
,one that r a t t l e d his head
for it would come to haunt him forever,
the indefinite scream,
of leo.
~~
Love never seems to fail. Your power, yet your weakness.- ???
