You Are the Moon That Breaks the Night |Virgato|

Chapter 2: Empathy (Part 2)

The boy was perched on the edge of the rock, his legs dangling in the air. He was naked, save for a pair of basketball shorts, vast expanses of bronze skin moving as the boy repositioned himself. If it wasn't for the fact that it was autumn, Chris would have been sure that it was the sight of the boy that made him shiver rather than the cooling air. It was a warm autumn, but still nowhere near any temperature that would justify walking around half-naked. Yet the boy's face was turned towards the sun, as if he was at the beach and he was just casually sunbathing.

Just when Chris was about to take a step back, the boy suddenly began to move. A gust of wind ruffled his jet black hair and then the muscles of his arms tensed. The boy pushed himself off the boulder, falling nearly three meters before he landed on the ground. Chris gasped, involuntarily taking a step forward.

He gasped again as the boy pulled himself into an upright position just like that. The next moment, Christopher's stomach sank. The boy was walking straight toward him, of course he was. Chris was basically standing in the middle of the damn clearing by now. And Chris knew those basketball shorts, recognized them as the same ones Erick and Richard had been wearing the night before. Chris tried to back away, flee, but it was too late. The boy came to a halt in front of him.

There were words in Christopher's throat, but he didn't get to say any of them because he had thought wrong. The boy wasn't stopping, no, he stepped right into Christopher's space and clasped his hands around Christopher's face, tilting his head to the side. Somehow, the other boy's touch was gentle and violent at the same time, painfully invasive. The pressure of his fingertips created a tingling sensation. It was a buzz that jolted all the way to Christopher's bones, paralyzing him on the spot. He couldn't have run even if he had wanted to.

Expecting a blow to the face, Chris closed his eyes, but it never came. Instead, the other boy lifted one of his hands off his face, let his fingertips trail down Christopher's neck before he gripped the hem of Christopher's shirt and pulled, taking the gauze with him. The sound was nauseating to Christopher's ears.

"It heals," the boy said in a calm voice. The calm voice, it took Chris a moment to realize. Phrases like 'deep like an abyss' and 'gleaming like lava' jumbled together in Christopher's head as he opened his eyes to meet the other boy's gaze, but nothing seemed sufficient. Looking into the other boy's dark eyes, Chris figured, was like finding the calm after having walked through a storm. As soon as he couldn't take it anymore, Chris let his eyes wander further down, over a defined nose and full lips, down to a jawline sharp enough to cut diamonds with. Chris heard himself take in a breath. His heart was pounding against his ribcage.

Then the other boy let him go. "Are you in pain?"

Chris shook his head no. He wasn't.

"Can I ask for your name?"

Chris pressed his lips together.

"My name is Joel," the boy prompted and it was so tempting, to let himself be lured in by the boy's calm voice and beautiful features. But even now, Chris could hear it, "I'm sorry". It was the boy who had turned half his shoulder into raw meat. Chris let his eyes travel away from the boy and to the boulders. It was like puzzle pieces falling into place.

"You knew I was coming," Chris said, the revelation making his voice all squeaky. "You were waiting for me, there on the boulders, weren't you? You're one of them."

To his surprise, Joel was smiling when Chris looked back at him. There was no hint of guilt in his eyes when Joel said, "I heard you when you set foot out of your room. My room's at the end of the hall."

"It's your house?"

"Our house," Joel confirmed.

Chris didn't miss the change of possessive pronoun. "So what, you live there with your... with the other two? Erick and Richard?"

Joel's silence was answer enough for Chris. He nodded, feeling hysteria bubble up inside of him. It was fear-induced. With all his calmness and sincerity, the other boy scared him shitless. And that was ridiculous. Chris was older than this boy, and half an inch taller. (Chris knew that was virtually nothing, but he couldn't help but hold on to the fact.) But there was something about Joel. Something beneath the calm demeanor. A sense of something that made Chris want to cower in front of this boy.

"Can-" Chris heaved in a breath. "Can I ask something?"

Joel smiled, revealing a line of sharp, white teeth, "You can ask anything you want."

"What happened last night?"

Joel's smile faltered and he cast his eyes down. When he looked back up, there was guilt in his eyes. He looked as if he was sorry for Chris which... that confused Chris and scared him even more.

"What do you think happened?"

"Well," Chris forced out a laugh. "I had this crazy theory that you and your friends shot me up with a hallucinogen that caused me to see wolves because you wanted a piece of this meat," Chris pointed at his shoulder, "quite literally. Like a shenanigan enforced by the government or something, and experiment? But now that I say it out loud I realize how absurd that sounds, so..."

"You weren't hallucinating," Joel said. His nose twitched. "And no government shenanigans."

Somehow it didn't make Chris feel any better. "Okay, so I was stumbling in the woods and these wolves attacked me and you found me and took me home?"

The expression on Joel's face became even more sympathetic and Chris felt his stomach turn. He was clearly missing something here, but Joel didn't look like he was about to spill. In lack of a better idea, Chris rowed back.

"Just for clarity, you're not a crazy scientist who wants to eat me or something?"

The corner of Joel's mouth twitched, the hint of a smile, "No."

"Okay, that's good, great even! Thank you for like, letting me crash at your place and stuff. I'm going to head home now." Chris didn't know what made the words blubber out of his mouth. He just knew that he had to get out of here. There was something off about this whole ordeal.

Joel's eyes flicked to his shoulder. "That's not a good idea."

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Chris waved him off. "I'll be as good as new in no time."

Before the other boy could protest, Chris began walking backwards. For a terrible, horrible second, he thought Joel would follow him. The other boy didn't, though. As soon as he was out of sight, Chris turned around and began to run. He didn't stop until he had reached the highway.

_

"What the hell happened to you?" Zabdiel greeted Chris as he climbed into Zabdiel's mom's van. Chris had called him from the first gas station he had found. "I'll have you know that your mom is crazy worried about you. Also, I tried to call you like a billion times."

"Sorry, I lost my phone in the woods. I, um, I tried to walk home yesterday night. Stumbled over a root and then lost consciousness. Woke up an hour ago, or so."

"Oh," Zabdiel seized him up with a worried expression, "You alright, though?"

"Yeah," Chris forced himself to smile. He banned all memories of glowing golden eyes and boys sitting on rocks from his mind. Maybe if he stopped thinking about it, it would become less real. Just a drunken story he would tell one day. "I'm fine."