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Logan dropped the script he had been reading onto Julian’s chest. “…that’s how the season ends,” he stated, running his fingers gently through his fiancé’s hair as he thought.
“Yup.” Julian smiled widely and closed his eyes, leaning his head into Logan’s touch and humming in contentment.
“And they seriously—”
“Yeah, I know. Shocking, huh? I doubt anyone will expect it.”
Nodding absently, Logan slid forward on the couch, dislodging Julian from his lap and effectively dumping him onto the floor. With a quick glance down at the disgruntled pile that was his fiancé, Logan grinned before standing and striding into their kitchen. He grabbed a glass and filled it with water before turning back to look at Julian. “No, I don’t think anyone will. Is this why that director – what’s his name again – left these last few scenes ‘til now?”
Julian pushed himself to his feet and walked over to Logan before replying. “I’m sure John has his reasons behind it. Throw the fans? Make sure nothing leaks before the finale is released?” He snatched the glass from Logan’s hand and drank what was left, ignoring his grunt of annoyance. “I think it’s a great idea!”
“So do I, Jules.” Logan took the glass back and set it on the counter, then pulled Julian closer and gently rubbed small circles into his lower back. “You have a long day tomorrow, and probably the next day. Let’s go to bed, babe.” With Julian’s face nuzzled against his neck, the pair quickly made their way toward their bedroom.
THUD.
Jerked awake by the sudden noise, Logan blinked and squinted at the clock by his side of the bed. 3:26 am. He heard a groan, telling him that Julian had woken as well. Logan rolled onto his back and listened carefully, wondering what he had heard. After a few minutes of silence, he closed his eyes and relaxed.
CRACK! Tinkle tinkle shatter creAK!
Startled awake, Logan felt Julian sit up and heard him look about the room wildly. “What was that?!” he whispered.
“Huh?” Logan mumbled, bleary-eyed. Subconsciously, he reached out his hand to comfort Julian, though he was only half awake. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, he sat up. “What’s wrong?”
Leaning into Logan, Julian seemed to calm down. “I heard something break in the living room. What do you think it could’ve been?” He worried at his bottom lip, a frown creasing his forehead.
Sighing, Logan plopped back down. “I don’t know, the building settling? It could’ve moved just enough to tip something off one of our shelves. Don’t worry, babe, I’m sure everything’s okay.” Squeezing Julian’s hand in his, he relaxed, his breathing slowing until he was obviously almost asleep again.
Julian’s growl of frustration made Logan open one eye. He watched his fiancé as he got out of bed and, muttering under his breath all the while, dug in his bedside drawer for a second. With a quiet click! of the drawer, Julian tiptoed over to the bedroom door and silently turned the handle. He snickered as Julian edged his way out of the room, pretending to be a spy or some other nonsense.
A glimpse of polished steel before Julian disappeared from sight set Logan on edge, causing him to toss the bed sheets aside and stand. Walking quickly to the partially opened door, he looked out and watched Julian slowly make is way to the living room.
Without warning, Julian leaped around the corner out of Logan’s view, raising the gun in his hand. Three shots were fired, a wild war cry escaping Julian’s lips. The yelling soon turned to screams of agony and fear, the sound of a body slamming into the floor reverberating through Logan’s spine.
The cacophony of sounds threw Logan into action. Turning, he raced towards the cell phone on his desk and dialed 911. As soon as he was through to the other line, he rasped out the address of his apartment twice and hung up without listening to the operator. Throwing the phone onto his bed, he flung the door wide and sprinted down the hall, ducking into the kitchen.
Grabbing a frying pan, he spun around and ran to the wall separating the kitchen from the living room, then peered around the corner. That man, Adam, that creepy stalker that Julian had complained about in high school, the one that everyone thought had died when the burning building had collapsed …he was kneeling over a prone and bleeding Julian, dressed in black from his head to his boots.
And he was looking directly at Logan.
“Why hello there. You remember me, don’t you? I can tell by the shocked look on your face. And you definitely weren’t expecting to see me,” Adam calmly stated. He turned his gaze to Julian and flipped him onto his back. Logan’s eyes raked over his fiancé’s body from a distance, looking for the bullet wound, and winced as Adam ran his hand over Julian’s cheek lovingly.
Growling deeply in his throat, Logan started toward Adam, frying pan raised. He stopped dead in his tracks when Adam lifted his eyes again and pointed a gun at Logan’s chest. “Stay where you are. I want you to watch this,” Adam snarled. “Not a day has gone by that I haven’t wanted to do this. Ever since you chose this beautiful man to be your boyfriend and fiancé and soon-to-be-husband, ever since you lost all sense of regret and guilt over your past, ever since the day that you left me to die, I’ve wanted to do this.”
He reached behind him as he spoke, his eyes and gun trained on a raging Logan, and pulled a hunting knife from his left boot. “Now I have the man that I’ve loved – no, not loved, desired. Lusted over. Yeah, that’s it. Now I have the man that I’ve lusted over since high school beneath me, and I have the man he plans to marry watching as I have my way with him.”
Logan stepped forward, hoping to stop whatever Adam planned and get Julian to safety before the police arrived. Where are those damned cops, anyway? he thought, frustrated. A BANG! rang out, causing him to cower away from the sound. He looked behind him at the new hole in his wall, then turned his head and stared incredulously at Adam. “What the hell, man?!”
“You honestly think I wouldn’t shoot you? Consider that a warning shot. You try it again and I’ll hit you instead of the wall.” Adam sneered. His grip on the knife tightened, the blade pointed at Julian, who was stirring slightly. “Where was I? Right. There’s something I want from you.”
Logan looked down at Adam in confusion and disgust. “What could you possibly want from me that you aren’t going to take from him? I know how you are, Adam, and it doesn’t look like you’ve changed.”
“Oh, but the situation is completely different. This time I can get what I want from him and from you. Don’t get me wrong,” Adam hissed, grinning as he explained himself. “I don’t want the same thing from both of you. What I want from him,” he motioned toward Julian with the knife, “is similar to before, though it has changed some. That’s not what I want from you. Not exactly.
“Before, I really didn’t get any reward from you. You didn’t know that he loved you, and you didn’t reciprocate those feelings, at least not in the way he wanted you to. But now you do.” Adam looked down at Julian and smiled slightly. “You deeply love him. He’s not just your friend now; he’s your lover. And that’s where what I want comes into play.”
Adam turned his eyes up again, smirking when he saw Logan shift nervously on his feet. He then changed his position over Julian, but didn’t really move any closer. “To tell you the truth, anything I get from you will be sweeter than what he could ever give me. I want you to, uh, understand how your ‘relationship’ here has hurt me. I want you to feel what I feel.” He let that information sink in a bit before continuing, waiting until understanding lit Logan’s eyes. “Granted, it won’t be exactly the same; I can’t make him love me and in return crush your feelings into oblivion. Which is why I’m going to do this.”
Before Logan could process his last statement, Adam drove the knife deep into Julian’s chest. Julian’s eyes shot open and his mouth widened in a scream that caught in his throat. He choked instead, his body tensing as Adam sawed and hacked through his rib cage.
“No …NO! STOP, ADAM, STOP! Why are you doing this?! You can’t …you CAN’T KILL HIM! NOOOO!”
Logan ran forward, only to be driven back by Adam shooting at the wall behind him. “I thought I told you to STAY WHERE YOU ARE!” Adam’s face contorted in rage as he yelled. Keeping the gun aimed at Logan, he returned his attention to Julian and continued to cut through bone.
Julian’s screams finally broke through his throat, blood spraying as he destroyed his vocal chords. Logan fell to his knees, his frustration, rage, and complete inability to save his fiancé bubbling up in his chest. Tears poured down his face. “Please …stop. Adam, why kill him? I don’t understand …”
“Don’t you?” Adam stopped hacking for a second. “You both tore my heart out. I was there for him when no one else was, and he still irrationally loved you. He tore my heart out and stomped on it. You tore it out when you started loving him back. Now you both get to feel what I did. And when I’m done with him, I’ll do the same to you. Consider it a double portion.”
He set the knife down and reached toward the gash in Julian’s chest. Plunging his hand into the wound, he grabbed hold of the rib cage still blocking his way and ripped up, snapping the weakened bones away. Logan flinched and gagged, dropping further to the floor. “Nooo…”
“And now,” Adam grinned, eyes wild, “his heart is mine.” He reached into Julian’s chest with the obvious intention of tearing his heart out.
Logan looked up and snarled. “His heart will never be yours, Adam.” From where he crouched on the floor, Logan launched himself at Adam. “I LOVE YOOUU, JULIAAAAAAN!”
BANG!
Crack BOOOOOM!
Adam shot at Logan and they crashed to the floor as the door to Logan and Julian’s apartment caved in and police swarmed into the room. But it was too late.
“CUUUUT! THAT’S A WRAP!”
Julian looked up, then got to his feet and wiped at the red goop all over his chest. He sauntered over to Logan, stared down at his fiancé and flicked the fake blood all over him, a scowl on his face. “Lo, this is television. Yeah, Jerry’s character’s name is Adam, but mine is Theo and yours is Alec. I’m not Julian on set. You’ve never mixed up names before. What happened, Lo?”
Sitting up, Logan ran his hand through his hair and sighed. “Jules, the only way I could make it feel real was if I thought it was real so I …pretended that Adam was, uh,” he stuttered, fidgeting, “Adam Clavell from high school.”
“That kid who stalked me? But that …that actually makes perfect sense.” Julian looked down at Logan curiously. “I haven’t told anyone about that night. If it got any news coverage, nothing quite that extensive got out. How did John know about—”
“I told him. A few months ago. And knowing that we were planning on getting out of this series so we can plan for our wedding, John decided to implement our story of absolute crazy into the finale. He said that he won’t kill us off completely so we can come back if we want, but with the impression that we are dead we can leave the show if we want.” Logan gazed up at Julian lovingly. “I figured if I terrified myself into thinking you were dying, it’d be believable.”
Julian snorted and dropped down next to Logan. “Believable? Lo, you had me on the verge of sobbing for real. And I thought I was acting. You’re gonna have the fangirls dying. No one’s going to expect this, least of all the rest of the cast. Especially after ‘filming’ that other ending. Lo,” he said, his hand grabbing Logan’s and gripping it tightly, “you were amazing.”
Logan grinned. “Do you think they’ll cut that last line of mine? Or just where I screamed your name?”
Laughing, Julian shrugged. “Dunno. Probably just my name. That scream was what did it for me, honestly, so…”
They sat there in silence, happy to finally be done. It wasn’t until Julian felt a tightening on his chest and reached up to scratch at it that they realized they were still on set. And covered in red slime. Looking around, Julian spotted John.
“HEY, JOHN! CAN I SHOWER THIS BLOOD STUFF OFF NOW?”