Silence is (not) bliss

Prologue

an: set in Australia, uses UK English (colour, favourite, mum, use of Celsius.)

Charlie was absentmindedly humming along to something on the radio when Michael realised how enjoyable his company was. Even without Charlie's humming, the silence that would surround them was not uncomfortable or awkward. It was filled with loving glances and soft touches to thighs or just holding hands. Both could not have asked for something better. They had honestly found pure bliss in silence.

~

Charlie and Michael had been driving in blissful silence for a while when Charlie finally spoke "Hey! Look it's the Felicidad house!" Charlie started to pull the car up onto the sidewalk. "No way come on," Michael said, poorly trying to convince his boyfriend to leave the house. "Yes, come on, just five minutes!" Charlie begged.

"Fine. Five minutes."

"Thank you! I love you"

As they walked to the front door, the porch let out a loud moan, pushing the door open they noticed a few things as they walked in, the most obvious being that, no one had been living in the house for a while, the next most noticeable was the horrid smell that plagued throughout the house. It was a metallic, rotten smell that was hard to describe.

Michael's reaction to the smell was to turn and heave, Charlie, however, gave no reaction apart from the groaning he made. "It smells disgusting in here!" Michael cried, after pulling himself from the heaving he managed to bury his face in his shirt, trying to drown the awful smell out. "How about we get out of here?" Charlie suggested, "Smartest idea you've ever had." Michael said, Charlie, snaked his arms around him and walked out of the house.

When they reached the front door, when Charlie let Michael go, Michael had begun to walk, more accurately, speed walk, towards the car. Charlie, however, slowly took his time walking back to the car, closing the creaky door behind him, noting the groaning of the porch and how the air was clean and fresh. He took a deep breath and then made his way to the car to greet his boyfriend, who was standing beside the car impatiently. "Let's go," he said as Charlie reached the car, holding his hand out for the keys. "Alright"

What they didn't notice, was the figure that had been watching them from the moment they arrived, and from the moment they had left.