Wicked Ones {bxb}

{Chapter 29 : Thunder}

Vincent lingered around the warehouse for a long while. He sat in silence, ignoring the texts and calls from his friends. Even the ones from April offering to meet up and return his card. Eventually he'd turned his cellphone off entirely and reclined to the couch to sort his thoughts.

Jahni had left—told him to lock up when he was done and gave him a key to the place. A month ago, Jahni wouldn't have trusted him with the dirt on his shoes. And though he had to return the key, it felt symbolic to Vincent. Jahni was putting faith in him bit by bit.

The thought soothed the uproar inside of his head, but only until a storm began to brew and churn in the midnight sky. Vincent gathered his jacket and headed home, sure to lock up as Jahni had requested.

It wasn't until he was half-way to the dorms that the skies began their angry quarrels; low cautionary grumbles at first, and then shattering cracks that bellowed through the atmosphere like the shredding caterwaul of a testy jungle cat.

He took to a jog, worry building in the pit of his stomach. Kailan didn't handle storms well.

It was a ten-minute run back to the dorms, and Vincent was nothing more than a sodden mess of rain as he stepped inside. A cursed "shit" clicked against his teeth as he found himself in utter darkness, not a flicker of power in the age-old building. He used the screen of his phone to navigate his way up the stairs—each and every one, all the way to the top. Lightening scarred the sky, illuminating his path through windows that jarred and shook with each crash of thunder. Once he made it to their dorm, he pushed the door open quietly and peeled off his jacket to feel his way through the darkness.

"Kailan?" he called out, his fingers tracing the safety of the kitchen counter.

"In here." His voice was hard to hear over the thundering, his distress quiet compared to the storm.

Vinny followed the sound, feeling for the walls as he located the bedroom door. Partially open, he pushed it the remainder of the way, watching as a flash of lightning enveloped the room before him.

Kailan was sitting on his bed, back against the wall and his palms cupped snug over his ears. He was trying to block out the loud claps of thunder. But as another booming rumble shook the foundation of the dorm, he pulled his legs closer to him. Forehead pressing against his knees and fingers fisting his hair in their clutches, Kailan felt the anxiety squeezing in his chest.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," the words recited under his breath.

Seeing Kailan like this was nothing new. Storms had been a problem ever since they were children, and they always seemed to handle them the same way. By hiding until the thunder died out.

Typically, he'd find Kailan cowering under a table where he felt enclosed and safe. But in a room like this, there weren't many places to hide. He'd have to make one.

Vinny drew the blanket from his bed, and knelt to the floor, pulling out a box from beneath his mattress. He rifled through it, coming up with a hammer and some nails. From there, he went about the edges of Kailan's bed, nailing the blankets to the wall on all three corners. It was difficult in the dark, but the lightning spared him for a few fleeting moments. Even the sound of his hammering was drown out by the godly clatter of the storm.

Once he was done, he set the hammer aside and stepped back. It was hardly a fit blanket fort, but it would hold up until after the storm was through.

"Not terrible, right?" he drew the blanket up, just enough to slip inside. Kailan still sat, his face in his knees, and his hands gripping his ears so desperately, he probably hadn't heard a word Vincent said. A blanket could only do so much; the thunder still raged on, jerking the windows with its heinous grumbling.