― 𝒅𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒃𝒐𝒚.
❝ and he knows
that a boy who
likes boys is
a dead boy.
unless he keeps
his mouth shut. ❞
or, in which daxton shields's heart is an abandoned house that new friends want to rebuild & mov...
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DEAD BOY (book one). °• CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR •°
" HE SAVED MY LIFE EVEN WHEN I DIDN'T DESERVE ANOTHER CHANCE AT IT. "
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DAXTON SHIELDS WONDERED EXACTLY WHERE HIS HATE BOILED FROM BECAUSE BOY, DID HE HATE A LOT OF THINGS. Smoking for starters. He's always hated the lingering reek of smoke, how it burned his nostrils and stained anything in its wake, including a pair of lungs. It just sucks he picked up the horrible habit. Then there were heights. He still feels his heart clench every time he's far enough from the ground for the hair on the back of his neck to stand straight. Explosive noises, clowns, hell - getting beads of sand in his shoes. Daxton grits his teeth at these itty bitty things that make him want to rip out his hair.
And the funny thing was, something that was almost unbelievable, Daxton Shields also loved with all of his heart. There were so many people that he tried to embrace with the razor-sharp and bleeding organ all while attempting to also keep them locked out so he wouldn't hurt them too. The Losers, his brother, his sister-in-law, his niece and nephew, the men he's served with - Daxton poured as much love as he could into everyone. Doing so left him with a dreaded emptiness and made him so unbelievably bitter that no one believed such a wrathful man could love anyone.
But Daxton does. He would die for them, kill for them, whatever they wanted.
And he remembers exactly who took the cake of the list of things he hated, what overpowered all of his love: Henry fucking Bowers.
He remembers exactly why too. The second they burst into Mike's library, the fucking pig has Mike pinned to the floor. Their arms cross against each other as Bowers shoved the point of a knife close to his throat. His hands are trembling with the force as he grunts, "... Just like your junkie parents."
"You guys know that burned-down house on Harris Avenue? I was inside when it burned down. Before I was rescued... My mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me." Mike chokes up. "They were pushing and pounding on the door trying to get to me... But it was too hot. When firefighters found them, the skin on their hands melted down to the bone."
A familiar chill hits Daxton when Mike lifts his head with sad, brown eyes. "We're all afraid of something," he admits.
Daxton refuses to be afraid of Henry Bowers any longer.
