The Wild Rose - (boyxboy) (manxboy)

CHAPTER V - You Leave Me Cold

"The saints were his friends, and blessed him; the monsters were his friends, and guarded him."

― Victor Hugo

Chapter V

You Leave Me Cold

There was a storm. Rain was hitting the windows like pebbles and noise of the thunder woke him up. Alan turned to the windows, under the heavy blankets, eyes blinking the sleep away. It was so dark outside he couldn't even make out the window. He felt around for his his phone under his pillow.

Four in the morning. He groaned and tossed the phone down again, knowing it would be hard to fall back asleep now. He was swallowed by the darkness in the room and even pacing around was not an option. The whole manor would be pitch black.

The sudden lightning made the entire room visible for a second. Alan was still counting the seconds when a loud bang made him jump and everything in the room vibrate. It wasn't the following thunder. It came from downstairs.

He threw the covers off his body and tripped when trying to get out of bed. He fell to the floor and was struggling to get up as faint growling noises made their way into the house.

He got up to unsteady feet and felt his way to the door as fast as he could. Another lighting. He saw the doorknob in the time it took for it to disappear, and ran down the corridor. Accompanied by the sudden flashes of lights, he thanked god for the stupid large windows in the manor. He calling out Constantin's name before he even realized it.

It was very tricky going down the stairs in the darkness. He was looking down, squinting even though he couldn't see a thing anyway, and then suddenly he could. Light hit his feet, pale and thin. He looked up. The door was wide open, the outside light shining in. The silhouette of Constantin dragging something heavy inside.

A horrible stench of blood.

"Constantin?" he shook, and his voice echoed again.

Metallic, dirty and foul.

He took a deep breath. Constantin had apparently just killed something, and was now happily dragging it inside like a child dragging their favorite bunny along the floor.

He shifted his attention to the body. It was, thankfully, not human. Alan coughed and tried to get his breath under control again. Of course it's not human, what was he thinking? It looked like a deer to him. He had no idea why Constantin would drag that kind of thing inside, but it looked like he had killed it.

He was still there at the entrance, dripping with blood and mud. The howling wind could be heard until he let his burden fall to the floor completely, and turned around to slam the doors shut. Everything was dark now.

He couldn't see a thing.

"Constantin?" Alan called again. Constantin grunted back, sounding a little confused. Alan's heart squeezed inside his chest like it had so many times while helping his friends on the streets, on the bars, in the brothels. He would always recognize the fear. He could almost hear the unspoken question.

Who's there?

And why would someone be? The man had been abandoned here for probably years.

"I'm Alan, your sister... Your sister sent me... Look, I just want to help you, I just-" He stuttered, he couldn't do it. Not with something that huge dead on the ground, the stench filling the air. "What happened?" Alan's voice was as weak, and for a moment he was afraid he couldn't fix this. "What's going on?" He tried walking down the last step and his feet fell onto nothing. His arms shot forward, and he tried to brace himself against something.