Gods and Monsters

Ch. 12 Wolf Man

"So why am I looking this up?" Elias asked, looking back at Sage who hovered behind him.

"No reason." Sage shook his head and looked back to the screen of his brother's laptop. Elias sighed and typed in what Sage wanted him to. "What's that one?"

"Dude, everyone knows Wikipedia isn't reliable." Elias clicked on another link that literally said the same thing. "So you dreamed of a snake eating itself? That's pretty creepy."

Sage nodded along while he read what was on the page. What he didn't mention was that wasn't even the half of it. After reading the same information from three different websites, Sage groaned. All it did was leave him with more unanswered questions or completely confused.

The dream had been reoccurring and something was always added.

The first time he'd had the dream, the pale eyed boy had showed him a half white and black serpent coiled around a hourglass filled with red sand; The serpent had been swallowing its own tail. On the second night, the dream was the same but this time a man with black scaled hands and curling black horns had ripped the white feathered wings off the back of a golden boy. Last night something was added that had Sage waking in tears.

He didn't know what was causing the dreams or what his subconscious was trying to tell him or warn him about. It didn't help that he'd found another drawing from Marlo in his sketchbook. This one wasn't like the funny cartooned wolf but was dark lines and the page had been ripped through in several places where the pencil had been pressed down too hard. He asked the five year old about it but he'd only asked if Sage liked it.

"You should get to bed." Sage told Elias, picking up his black server book that was filled with his tips he'd made tonight. He left the red apron, knowing it along with his uniform needed to be washed.

Elias did his usual complaining even though he listened and trudged upstairs. Sage picked Marlo up off the couch where he'd fallen asleep and followed the younger teen.

"Hey, can I stay at Sam's Friday night?" Elias asked, waiting for Sage to put Marlo in the top bunk before he slid into his own bed.

"If you promise to be back before I got to work."

"Yeah, yeah, I will. So is that a yes?"

Sage picked up the clothes off the floor and put them in the hamper. "Yes, Eli." He sighed, hiding a smile.

"Awesome."

After putting a load of clothes in the washing machine, Sage sat downstairs on the couch with his sketchbook in hand. His fingers trailed over the harsh lines of the dark picture Marlo had drawn. It really unsettled him that his five year old brother had drawn it, shouldn't he be making colorful shapes or something?

Sage paused in his huffing over the picture when he noticed a little circle drawn on the bottom of the page. Flipping to the next page was the same thing. Closing the sketchbook, he flipped all the pages quickly, watching the circle bounce across the pages. Sage did it again until he noticed one page didn't have the little circle on it.

The washer beeped loudly signaling that the load was done. Sage jumped from the loud noise and dropped the sketchbook, getting up to put the clothes in the dryer before going to bed.

                                       ***

After taking Marlo to get his glasses this morning and dropping him off at school, Sage went home and called Brandon's cellphone. The other boy had been all too happy about skipping and had come over in no time. Sage didn't know who else to talk to and he felt like he could trust Brandon. Or maybe that was just his stupid crush clouding his judgment.

He had wanted to tell Brandon about all the weird things that's had been happening, but he chickened out at the last minute. Sage didn't want to come off as crazy and he was pretty sure he would because just thinking about what's been going on made him feel crazy.

Brandon had come prepared for a day of skipping school, bringing his favorite movies and snacks. He had a thing for those cheesy old horror films, the black and white ones with bad acting and a woman screaming dramatically. They were more funny than scary and Sage found that he actually liked them.

While watching The Wolf Man, Sage went into the kitchen for more juice boxes.

"You're disrespecting a classic." Brandon said in response to Sage's snickering.

"At least I'm watching it!" Sage argued, passing him a juice in exchange for cookies. Brandon huffed and Sage smiled at him, getting caught up in his eyes that were now leveled on him. Sage knew he was staring but that was nothing new for him and Brandon never seemed to mind.

"You have really pretty eyes." He blurted, regretting it immediately. "I-I, I mean...um,"

Brandon smirk, "So do you." He must of seen Sage's disbelief. "Like melted chocolate."

Sage shivered at the other boy's whispered words. His voice had gotten low and deep and Sage liked it very much. The movie was completely forgotten now as they stared at each other, neither saying a word.

Sage's eyes shifted between Brandon's amber eyes and his full lips. He wished he had the confidence needed to lean closer and kiss him but instead Sage was stuck hoping Brandon could read minds.

Brandon shifted closer until Sage could feel his breath brushing across his cheek. He knew his eyes were wide and he had absolutely no idea what to do. Okay, maybe Brandon wasn't as straight as he'd originally thought. A straight guy wouldn't be very close to kissing him, right?

Sage's heart was beating against his ribs, ready to jump out into Brandon's lap. His mouth had suddenly became dry and his tongue darted out to wet his lips. Brandon's eyes tracked the movement and Sage inhaled shakily as the other boy leaned in even closer.

Brandon's lips had only just ghosted over his when there was a knock on the front door and Sage nearly jumped out of his skin.

Falling off the couch, he scrambled towards the door. Face burning from embarrassment, he didn't even care to look out the window first before opening the door.

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