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Lance was walking home like he so often did after work. If he wanted to stop working he could, his father would pay for his college and living, but Lance wanted to be able to support himself and live his own life. Besides, he loves working at the bar, loves talking to all those different people, loves the smiles he gets when he manages to make someone a perfect drink again and he gets on well with his coworkers, and even gets decent tips. It’s not like he minds walking home either, the fresh air is actually kinda nice after a full evening in the crowded bar.
But today, something was different. Sure, there are always creepy drunks in the streets when he walks home. But usually picking up his speed and ignoring them would make them leave. Usually. Tonight, however, something else was going on. There had been this group of men standing near him at the bar since somewhere halfway through his shift.. That isn’t weird normally, but if you take into account that they didn’t have a single drink for the entire two and a half hours they were there, well, it does get a bit weird. It was a relatively slow evening, since it was a weekday, so they weren’t asked to leave, which resulted in the group staying until closing.
When he had left the bar, he saw the same group of men standing around the corner, chatting to each other. He didn’t think anything of it, since that happens more often, just about every night really. But when he started to walk towards his apartment, he noticed that 3 of the men started walking as well, going in the same direction as him. It shouldn’t freak him out as much as it did, since the chances that the people you serve living closer to you than you thought are quite high when you live and work in a city.
There was just something about them. They spoke differently. It wasn’t business English, or anything like the casual language he used with his friends, or even like the English spoken by someone who didn’t yet master it fully. No, it sounded old, like they’d lived through the last few decades, but didn’t bother changing their speech patterns accordingly. When he got a good look at them, he noticed their clothes were also styled very vintage. It’s more of a trend, he knows, but he’s never seen something like this.
Lance decided to pick up his pace a bit in hopes of the other men falling behind and eventually losing him. After a bit of walking, he decided to chance a look behind him again, and noticed the others had picked up their pace as well. They were a bit closer now than before. He turned his walking speed up another notch, and took a quick left. It’s a different route than usual, but still on the way to his apartment.
He kept regularly looking behind him and noticed the three men kept slowly getting closer and closer. Lance took another left, and then a third and a fourth. It would take him in a circle, he knew, and that was kind of the point. If they followed him around all four corners, they were stalking him.
He was now at a crossroad. He could either get home as soon as possible and lock his windows and doors, with the men finding out where he lived, or, he could go to an open public place in hopes of finding safety there. He decided on the second option. So, instead of going east towards his appartement, he went south-west, hoping to find a crowd there somewhere. He also picked up his pace again, hoping that this time it would be enough to leave them somewhat behind him.
After about another 15 minutes of walking, Lance was lost. The 3 men were still following him and he was in a place in the city he had never been in before.
He had gotten his phone out to call someone, or even a cab maybe, but his battery was dead and he didn’t have any quarters for a payphone. Even if he did, he wouldn’t know anyone’s phone number, so he wouldn’t be able to call anyone anyway.
He turned right at the next intersection, and saw no one again. It was nearing 3:30 am, so he really wasn’t surprised. He had decided to stay away from small alleyways. Nothing good can come from those places at night, and he wasn't planning to look for trouble. A dark, narrow place with no camera’s and virtually no one passing there ever? Who knows what those men would do if he is alone with them in such a place? It’s really not something he wants to think about, but when in a situation like this it creeps into one’s mind regardless.
What could these men want from him anyways? He wasn’t wearing anything of worth, and no one here knew about his family, especially not about who his father was. He could try to give them money, but he reckoned they wouldn’t be ecstatic about €200,-.
He was standing in front of a fork in the road. On his left, there was a small, barely lit street. No thanks. To his right was a slightly bigger street with decent lighting. He couldn’t see very far into it, because there was a kink in the road, but he decided to go to the right anyways, since it looked like the safest option.
He started doubting his decision the further down the street he got. There was another turn and it looked like a rather small alleyway. He unfortunately couldn’t turn around and go back, for he’d be walking straight into the creepy men following him if he did. His pace had started to drop, his legs were starting to ache and he was getting very, very tired. The men kept slowly getting closer, and he wasn’t good in hand to hand combat. Let alone three against one, after a long shift.
As he turned the corner, his stomach dropped. Bile rose up his throat at what he saw in front of him.
It was a dead end. Fuck.
He tried his phone again, but of course that didn’t work. The battery was dead. It was going to stay that way until he got home and put it on his charger. If he got home, that is, now. The way things were looking now, he’d be as dead as his phone in a couple of minutes. If he was lucky, that is.
He walked towards the end of the alleyways, then turned around. After a few seconds the three men came to a halt a couple of metres in front of him. With the men standing shoulder to shoulder they almost took up the full width of the road. Which meant there was no way in hell he was getting out of this. He is completely and royally fucked.
“What do you want from me?” Lance spoke up. “I don’t have any money.” His voice was surprisingly steady.
“Oh, poor cityboy,” the man on the left started as he took a step forward. “Our interest lies not in your gold.” While it certainly isn’t the weirdest thing he’d ever heard people say in the city, it was still pretty high up the list. Like, who talked about money and refers to it as gold?
“Where our interest lies is something a bit more, special, one of a kind.” The man on the right joined in the conversation.
“I don’t have anything that’s one of a kind or that valuable.” Lance ran through everything he carried with him, but could only come up with one thing the strange men could possibly want “If you want my passport I can give it to you.”
“Oh stupid boy,” The man in the middle laughed, taking a step forward, and subsequently closer to Lance. The laugh was icy cold and devoid of any humour It sent a shiver down Lance’s spine. “What purpose would we have for your identification?” the man, the leader of the three, Lance noted somewhere in the back of his mind, chuckled. His lips turned up in a cold smile, and together with the calculating look in his eyes, it made Lance take a step backwards. “Let us play a little game, shall we? What we desire from you is something no one else but you can give to us. It can be donated, yet never gifted. It has the ability to save a life, yet it could end one just as quickly. What we seek is not to be held, unless it is contained. Whatever might we be after, youngling? Don’t respond too hastily, for I am only allowing you three chances. I’m feeling remarkably generous this eve.”
“I-I don’t know. Is it, is it tears?” Lance racked his mind, but he didn't have a clue as to what it could be. “Save a life with tears of, tears of laughter and en- end it with ones of bitterness?” Nerves had his breath sped up and his insides twisted in a knot. He could barely get his words in order, let alone form a coherent answer to the creepy guy’s riddle. Lance took in a deep breath, hoping it would steady him a bit. It only worked so much.
“Alas, that is incorrect. That has you left with but two more tries. Think with care.” The man on the right had a smug grin on his face and a mischievous glint in his eye, along with something else, something close to hunger, maybe. Lance decided he did not like that any more than the cold, calculated look the middle man was still levelling him with.
“Ehm…” Lance didn’t know, he really didn’t. Tears may have been a guess, but it was the only thing he could come up with right now. If it wasn’t that, then what else could it possibly be? Maybe he needed to think in a different direction. God, if only he could think, but with the stress of the situation now fully catching up with him, he could barely hear his own thoughts above his heartbeat. “A heart.” Why was he so unsure of this? He should know it.
“Ah, be that closer to what it is we desire, still be it not what we seek. Allow me to grant you a clue, for as I said I feel generous this eve. You may want to think a little more fluidly. ” All three men looked at him with anticipation and excitement, now all matching cold grins and all with the same sparkle of hunger, he was sure of it now, glinting in their eyes.
Close, his heart was closer. His mom always told him to be careful who he gave his heart to. But this couldn’t be given, though, it could only be donated. Think more fluidly. That’s what the creepy dude said, and if he had to believe him, that would bring him closer to the answer. If he believed him, that is. With the way they were looking at him, it was a real possibility that they would give him a fake clue on purpose, just so he wouldn’t get it and they would get around to killing him.
Focus. He needed to focus. Heart was closer, and he needed to think fluidly. It could save or kill, it was his alone, to be donated, not gifted. It can only be held if it’s contained by something. Heart. Fluidly. His heart was close, his hea-
Oh god. A cold feeling wrapped around his heart. He could taste the sour tang of bile rising in his throat, only barely keeping it all down. He felt a rush, even as all blood left his face. The ground swayed beneath his feet, and he stumbled a couple of steps back, as far as he could, until he crashed with his back against the wall. The stones dug cold and painful in his back. It would bruise, for sure. Still, he leaned heavily against the wall, glad for the support, since his knees had gone weak and threatened to give out underneath him. He had stepped into something squishy, but he couldn’t be bothered to think about what it was, not when all his thoughts were occupied with the overwhelming realisation of what the three men in front of him wanted.
Blood. His blood, they wanted his blood. Oh god, they wanted his blood, and he was here, all alone in this alley, with no way to escape, no way to get help, no way to take any single one of them on, let alone all three at once. They were going to kill him. They were going to kill him, and get his blood, and use it for he didn’t want to know what, but they wanted his blood, and he was sure it was going to be painful, and messy, and-
“Such an erudite young man. At last, he has deciphered our dilemma,” The middle man exclaimed, stepping forward, showing his teeth through a twisted grin, and oh god, Lance only now realised just how tall these people were.
It must have been a trick of the light, because no one had teeth that white, and no one had teeth that sharp. If Lance didn’t know any better, he might have even described them as fang-like. There was no way those were real teeth, definitely not. No human had teeth that blindingly white or sharp. And they might use those teeth to get his blood. Because that’s what they wanted.
Fuck.
These men were all at least a head taller than him, and while they weren’t bulky, they definitely had well-defined, lean muscles. There was no way he would survive if it came down to violence, not against one and definitely not against three. If only he could find a way around them, past them, he could make a break for it, get back to where people could hear him, see him, maybe he would even manage to outrun these creeps. He just needed a way past, a bit of space, a moment, a distraction, a way around them maybe.
But the alley was small, and the three creeps in front of him blocked the entire width. There weren’t any doors or windows he could try to run through or enter. No ladders, no fire escapes, no nothing. They were far away from the street, there was no way anyone would hear him if he started yelling for help. Even if someone did, chances are the three guys in front of him would just kill him faster.
“Hey babe!” There was a sudden voice, Lance turned in the direction it was coming from and saw a figure walking up to him from a dark corner somewhere behind the three men. “Why didn't you tell me you got here already. I wouldn't have let you wait this long.” When the stranger reached Lance he pulled him into a kiss. Lance didn’t know who it was, what they were doing or why they would try to help him like this. He couldn’t even be sure they were trying to help him, and didn’t have any sinister intentions of themselves, but right now his choice was between three creepy dudes who certainly wanted to kill him, or one random dude who might want to rape him. The odds still weren’t great, but at least he had a bigger chance to survive this, so he decided to play along for now.
Although this wasn’t the moment to think about these things, Lance couldn’t help but notice that the man was a very good kisser. The stranger had brought his hand up to cradle Lance’s cheek, had gently pulled Lance in, before pressing his lips against Lance’s, with just enough force to keep it short and sweet. He forgot about the 3 men who were planning to kill him for a moment.
“Come on, let’s get out of this place, shall we?” The stranger said after he broke the kiss and offered Lance his hand.
“Yeah,” Lance croaked as he took hold of the stranger's hand. He subtly cleared his throat, before saying: “Let’s get going dear, I’m freezing.”
The stranger let go of Lance’s hand to take off the jacket and handed it to him. “I don’t want you to catch a cold. C’mon, put this on, then we can go.”
Lance thanked him and put on the jacket. Even though the stranger was about the same height as Lance, the jacket was way too big. The man was a lot broader than him, with an athletic build, and he looked quite strong as well.
The jacket smelled of cedar wood with a hint of mint. It was quite the pleasant smell and way better than his clothes, which probably smelled of alcohol and sweat because of the bar.
“So, what did you do today?” His now companion asked as they walked past the 3 men who were following Lance before. He’d put a hand protectively at the small of his back,almost possessively. It had to have been a trick of the lights again, or maybe the stress of the night's events finally catching up with him, or maybe a combination of both, because for a short moment, barely even a second, Lance thought he saw the strangers' eyes flash a brilliant red at the three creeps. They looked royally pissed.
“You know, the usual nightshift at the bar. Got tipped quite well today, which is nice.” Lance started swinging their hands, which were once again interlocked, in pace with their step.. “How about you?”
“Remember those clients I told you about a couple of days ago? They came back and tried to file a complaint about one of my co-workers. We promptly kicked them out again. No one gets to be an asshole to Mick. He is a literal angel.” He started babbling away and Lance wasn’t going to lie, he quite enjoyed it.
“By the way,” The man spoke up again after they walked a couple of minutes, by now far away from the creepy trio. “My name is Max, what about you?”
“Hi Max, nice to meet you. Thanks for saving me earlier. I’m Lance.” He wanted to ask what happened, but hesitated. After a few seconds it became too much so he asked the question that was burning on the tip of his tongue. “Did you know those guys? Do you know why they followed me?”
Max looked him up and down seemingly thinking about something. “Are you hungry? We could get some food and I’ll explain to you what I know.” Lance only now realised he was, in fact, hungry. Scrap that, he was starving.
“Yeah sure. I don’t know any places here though.” He looked around and once again had no clue where they actually were.
“Don’t worry. I know a place. Do you like Italian?”
“Yes, I love Italian food!” His mouth almost started to water from the thought of a good pasta. Or was it the handsome man who saved him asking to have dinner with him?
“Great, follow me.” Max grabbed Lance by the hand once again and started to lead them to the restaurant. Lance felt surprisingly comfortable with this kind stranger and was eager to find out what the fuck had just happened, so he allowed Max to pull him along.
It only took them a couple of minutes to get to the restaurant. It was pretty small and looked very cosy. There were a lot of warm colours accompanied by wooden floors and tables and a few fake fireplaces to add heat and character to the place. Lance loved it. They were seated at a table next to a window. From there, they had an amazing view of the river and he could see the stars in the cloudless sky. It was truly breathtaking.
When it was time to order, Lance went for Pasta al Pesto.
“Don’t you want anything?” Lance asked, feeling slightly bad for dragging Max, who was a virtual stranger, to this lovely little restaurant when only he was going to eat.
“Nah, I just ate,” Max said with an amused smile, like Lance had said something funny, or maybe like Max knew something Lance didn’t. Lance just shrugged it off, still too keyed up from what’d just happened to really question it.
It didn’t take long for the pasta to arrive. When the waiter set the plate down in front of Lance, Max sat a bit farther away from the table, as if he was trying to put more distance between himself and the food. And sure, it might smell a bit garlicy, but it wasn’t that bad, was it? Lance didn’t think so, anyway.
“This is amazing!” Lance said when he had swallowed his first bite, barely managing to suppress an actual moan.
“Yeah, they are the best Italian restaurant I have come across here.”
“Hey Max,” Lance started hesitantly. Max looked at him and his ocean blue eyes somehow managed to reassure him and give him the confidence he needed to continue talking. “It’s really lovely and I don't want to kill the mood, but- I really have to know what happened tonight.”
“Max’s eyes held nothing but compassion and understanding as he replied. “Don’t worry, I get it. It must have been quite scary, being cornered like that.”
Lance nodded. “Yeah, I really thought I was gonna die. They were talking about how they wanted my blood…” Lance trailed off, partly because he still couldn’t think why those three men might’ve wanted his blood. Partly, though, he trailed off because he got distracted by Max’s eyes, and the anger he was sure he saw flashing in them for a second. Anger wasn’t the only thing Lance thought he saw in Max’s eyes, though. Lance swore he saw the ocean blue turn blood red for a moment, so quick it was gone before he registered what he saw. It could have been a trick of the lights, to be honest, most likely was. Human eyes don’t just turn red, Lance might not have been the best at biology in high school, but he knew that at least.
“You’re safe now though, that’s what’s most important,” Max seemed to force himself to relax. He only managed to look slightly less like he wanted to run back and straight up murder those guys.
“You seemed to know those guys though, or at least they know you. How? Why?” Lance questioned again, not having missed how Max had avoided his question before.
“Well, er, I know their, family,” Max hesitantly admitted. Clearly his confusion at the vague answer showed on his, because Max hesitated for a couple more seconds, before adding “Their family has some, problems, with mine. Besides, they should’ve known not to hu- go in our, I mean that alley.”
That really didn’t make anything any clearer, but it was obvious Max wouldn’t say any more on the subject, so Lance decided to ask his next question.
“Where did you come from? How were you able to get so close to them without any of them seeing or hearing you?” Lance knew why he hadn’t noticed him approaching, he had been too focussed on the three men in front of him. They hadn’t seemed to be nearly as distracted as Lance was.
“I’m just really good at hiding in the shadows.”
Lance had meanwhile finished his pasta and the bill had been brought to their table. He reached for his wallet in his pocket, but before he could pull it out, Max put his hand on top of the bill.
“Don’t worry, I can cover it.”
“Don’t be silly, you haven’t even eaten anything. It’s no problem.”
“No, I insist, it’s fine. It’s not like I’ll be short on money or anything.”
“Really, I can pay for myself, I-”
“Lance, please.” Max stared deeply into his eyes, until Lance reluctantly relented.
“Alright, if you’re really sure-”
“I am.”
Max went up to the register to pay, and then they were outside again. It wouldn’t be long before the sun would start to rise again.
“Let me walk you home?” Max looked at Lance in a way that showed it was a question and ultimately up to Lance whether he wanted Max to accompany him home or not, but also that he really wouldn’t like no for an answer. It didn’t matter much, though. Lance felt safe with Max, in a way that didn’t have much to do with the fact that Max had saved his life barely hours ago.
“I’d like that” Lance gave Max a small smile to show he meant it, before he started walking in what he was pretty sure was the direction of his apartment. They walked in a comfortable silence, neither really feeling the need to fill it with some meaningless chatter, not after everything else that’d happened earlier. They arrived quicker than Lance expected, and secretly wanted, them to.
“Well, this is me.” Lance said as they arrived at the door of his apartment building.
Max looked a bit unsure, for the first time that night, and scanned his face. It seemed like he found what he was looking for, because he took a deep breath and leaned in to press a chaste kiss to his lips. It was short and sweet, nothing more than the press of his lips, but it left his lips tingling and fire running through his veins.
“Sleep tight. I’ll see you again soon I hope.” Max said with a soft smile as he walked off and left a startled Lance at the door.
He went up to his apartment in a daze, plugged in his phone and went to bed, the events of that night running through his mind. Sooner than he thought, Lance fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning he woke up to a text from an unknown number.
I hope you got some sleep after last night.
-Max
Butterflies exploded in his stomach and he replied as quickly as humanly possible.
I did, did you get some sleep?
-Lance
He immediately got a reply.
Haha, no but it’s fine. I’ll walk you home after work tonight? X Max
I’d love that, see you tonight! X
Lance put down his phone and stared at the ceiling in pure disbelief. When he looked to the side, he saw Max’s jacket hanging over his desk chair and it made him realise one thing. He didn’t know how or when exactly it happened, but he had fallen for Max, and he couldn’t wait to see him again that night.