~~Brendon's POV~~
I had no idea what happened. I guessed it was the same as always. But when I woke up to Ryan's voice, I knew it was worse than usual.
After a while, I regained enough strength and sat up next to him. I tried to figure out how to explain what happened when I didn't exactly know for myself. It had happened so many times before, but never with someone else present. I turned to face Ryan and saw his eyes were closed. For a moment or two I panicked, thinking I'd done something awful, but remembered hearing his voice moments ago. I felt his breath on my arm and let out a sigh of relief.
After a while of pondering, I came to the conclusion that I'd just have to tell him the truth and make sure he was ok before removing him from my life, just like I had to do to so many others.
~~Ryan's POV~~
I woke up in a pool of sweat, blood and god knows what else. I turned my head and saw Brendon lying by me, half awake. I tried to sit up but pain shot down my spine, reminding me of what had happened. We lay there in silence for what seemed like hours before I finally decided to ask him what the hell he just did.
"Brendon, what the fuck just happened?"
"Well, it's hard to explain, but this is why I'm so alone and why I completely quit fame."
"Wait, so this has happened before?"
"Yeah. This happens every fucking week and has done for a year now."
"Shit, why didn't you tell me?"
"I was going to after a while, I had no idea it was gonna happen today though. I guess I didn't want to scare you away. But it's happened. You can just go, I understand."
"Bren, I'm not leaving you again. I'm staying with you whether you like it or not. Now explain how the fuck that started."
~~Brendon's POV~~
I wanted to turn him away, I really did. But I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
"Ok, fine. So, you know a while ago when that devil's key went missing from the museum downtown? And then I made a music video about it. That was because I stole it. I wanted to take away the suspicion that it was me- nobody's dumb enough to do that and then tell millions of people. So the media realised they had the wrong man and the articles branding me a thief dried up."
Ryan smiled at me, almost in disbelief,"That's a smart move, but how does that explain.. well, this?"
I sighed, trying to think of an excuse to avoid telling him what I'd done.
"Well, some people weren't exactly happy about what I did. And I mean powerful people, people with more power than any leader you could name. They did this to me. They took me from my home and they hurt me. Hurt me in ways I could never imagine. The scars get more painful every day. I gave them the key but they didn't care. It was like a game for them, who could inflict the most pain- I was like a guinea pig, locked up for days, being the subject of all their fucking tests. They let me go after a week or so but that was it. They left me to clean up the wounds they had caused, to rebuild my life from the shit they'd sent it to. But there was one injury I couldn't treat. It was like their parting gift. You can guess what it did to me. I found out what it was a few days after they let me out and I basically disappeared from society. I had to retire, I couldn't risk it happening on stage or with friends. That's why I cut everyone off. They've tried to come back for me a couple times but they've never caught me."
We sat in silence for a while as Ryan tried to take it all in.
~~Ryan's POV~~
I was scared and confused but mostly amazed at how he was still alive. On the run from a cult yet still fighting.
