Alive bond

The Fallout

Anthony didn't like being alone. Or to be more precise,he didn't like having to do something on his own.It caused him to feel insecure and afraid. All these centuries being friends with Raphael must have caused some changes in his personality. Maybehe has become too dependent on his friend's advice and guidance.

When Anthony was released,he started searching for Angelica but to no avail.In the end he decided to contact Raphael and ask him for help.Much to his surprise,his best friend didn't respond to any of his messages or voicemails which was very uncharacteristic of him. Anthony was feeling a bit concerned so he decided to start searching for him as well. After a few days conducting his own investigation, he managed to find someone who by chance had seen these two embark on a ship for New York.

Anthony was suspicious at first because he didn't believe in luck,at least not in its pure form,but then the man explained to him that he had met Raphael in a book exhibition years ago and was delighted,at first,to see him again. But unfortunately,he didn't get the chance to reconnect with Raphael because he was always with his strange new companion who,for an unknown reason, refused to leave his side so he had grown concerned and was keeping an eye on them discreetly.

Anthony believed him at the end because he could describe everything in detail and with sincere emotion. After all,he seemed a trustworthy man and Anthony's instinct was rarely wrong. Speaking of instincts,some things sounded very wrong in this situation.

First of all,Anthony made the mistake of accompanying Raphael to a series of book presentations in Madrid a couple years ago and despite the fact that these days were some of the most painfully boring in his entire existence he had learned one thing. All the book fans knew each other or at least have encountered each other some time in the past.Raphael's "new friend" was unknown to everyone. No-one knew anything about him.Not even his name. However,they described him as a "man with deep and vast knowledge and understanding of books''. How is it possible that such a book lover was not seen before in any book conference?

Also,there was something else that was bothering him since before this whole adventure started. Raphael was,by nature,an introvert. He did not enjoy socializing and he certainly wasn't very good at making friends except if they shared the same passion for books.However,that seemed to change when he met that man. He started keeping secrets from him. Raphael wouldn't even tell him the name of his new friend and that scared Anthony a bit because his best friend used to be terrible at keeping secrets. He couldn't even hide the Christmas biscuits without being obvious where they were.Not only that,but he generally stopped talking to Anthony or informing him where he was going,except if he was going to be away for a lot of days.

In general, Anthony was beginning to realise that Raphael's new encounter was doing him more harm than good. It was changing him,in a way Anthony didn't like,and he was determined to put a stop to it.He was keeping a cool head around Angelica,due to his pride,but now there wasn't anything to hold him back.Once the plane landed he was going to meet Raphael and have a long talk with him.

The moment he got off the plane the first thing he did was open his phone and he nearly dropped it when he saw his notifications. He counted 35 missed calls and 12 unread messages. All from Angelica. He tried to call her but with no luck. He expected her to call back and in the meantime he read the messages

-Where are you?

-You choose the most inappropriate times to disappear?

-I sweat,Anthony,if you are strolling around with some stranger you just met,I'm going to kill you

-Pls,respond. We are in big trouble.

He was busy scrolling down when he received a new message from Angelica.