Gods and Monsters

Ch. 23 Big Dogs

"I don't care, he's fourteen. He didn't tell anyone where he was going, he needs to come home." Sage seethed, holding the phone in a death grip.

"I understand that Sage but unless his mother calls, I'm not going to force him to leave."

Sage paused at Mrs. Baxter's words. He was pretty sure she knew just how absent their mom was and for her to actually use that...Sage hung up the phone before he said something he'd regret and stopped himself from throwing it across the kitchen.

He just wanted everyone home. He wanted to know they were all okay, he wanted to be able to fix it if they weren't. Weird shit was happening all over the fucking place and he doesn't want his family any more separated than it already is. He didn't want something to happen and Elias is stuck on the other side of the city.

Sage was really starting to dislike the fucking Baxter's. Letting Elias stay there while he skipped school, letting him stay there when they knew he needed to be home. Refusing to send him on his way when Sage specifically told the bitch he needs to come home now.

He dropped the phone on the kitchen table before he broke it and went into the living room. Marlo ran to him and Sage picked him up. Aurora and Mia were sitting beside Brandon on the couch, their attention on the news. They were showing video footage of animals at zoos breaking out of their enclosures. This was happening all over the world. The animals had gone mad.

He didn't have to work today and probably not for the rest of the week, as both jobs had called to tell him about damage that needed to be repaired from when the birds flew over the city. It wasn't just crows, those were just the birds that stuck around.

"Did you get in contact with Elias?" Brandon asked, looking up from the TV. Sage's right eye twitched in remembrance of the phone call he just had.

"He's at Sam's."

"When's he coming back?"

Sage sighed and shifted Marlo in his arms. He'd been quiet and clingy since they got home but Sage could understand why and he didn't mind. "When I go get him." Elias won't come home on his own, Sage knows that. Doesn't mean he's not coming home though.

"Well, let's go." Brandon stood and Sage watched him suspiciously.

"Don't you need to go check on your family?" He's been with them the whole day and hadn't called anyone. Didn't he have someone at home worrying about him? What about his parents?

"Trust me, they're fine." He shrugged, stretching his arms out over his head.

Sage got distracted watching his muscles flex under the tight material of the white t-shirt and then the strip of dark skin that was exposed when the shirt lifted some. Marlo wiggling to get down helped bring him back to reality and out of his imagination. Sage nodded absently and put Marlo down who ran to get his shoes. The twins followed him and Sage sighed.

Brandon smiled and brushed against him when he passed to get to the door. Sage shivered and looked up into his amber eyes. He knew it was done purposely, Brandon could have went around the coffee table but he didn't. Sage inhaled a shallow breath, eyes drifting to his smirking lips.

And then he was gone, opening the front door for everyone. Sage cleared his throat and patted his pockets to make sure he had his house keys.

The ride didn't take as long as it should of.  Only a few cars passed them and one of them was an ambulance. Sage just hoped the animals didn't have some kind of virus and Maverick got it somehow. He didn't think he could live through a zombie apocalypse, or he could but he didn't want to. He hoped he could. What would he use to defend himself with? A kitchen knife? He probably wouldn't survive. Maybe if it was the slow kind that he could just run away from. But Maverick hadn't been slow, the opposite actually. Sage shuddered at the memory and Brandon glanced at him.