Thanatophobia (H2OVanoss)

Chapter 17

  Jonathan woke up after hearing a loud swear from above him. His dream was just getting good, too. Regaining awareness, he opened his eyes to meet surprised brown ones before a gigantic weight collided with his.

He yelped as a dull pain invaded his peaceful mentality. Being shorter than average, though he would never admit it, Jonathan naturally had a smaller bone structure.

  He was in pain for a second, partially from the adrenaline caused by his surprise as well as the cushion of what little muscle he did have, but then it faded into more of an embarrassed uncomfortableness.

  The bed shifted as who he assumed was Evan crushed the air out of his lungs. He struggled to take breaths while Evan stayed frozen, his view blocked by the chest on his face.

  That was when he realized Evan was shirtless. His face heated at the thought. Mentally shaking himself, he hesitated before whispering, slightly deprived of enough air.

  "E-Evan? Are you alright?"

The figure grunted and quickly rolled off of him, moving instead to face the wall. Jonathan hesitated before propping himself up on his arms and looking at his friend (or something more 😏) with concern. Oh god, he was only in a towel.

  The room was filled with the prescience of their combined embarrassment as both refused to make eye contact or speak. Jonathan was still red in the face, his left hand now draped across his eyes, what a situation this was.

  Finally, after years of silence, Evan sighed and rolled back over. He met Jonathan's gaze and almost let out a relieved laugh at seeing the clear blue, so different from the haunted eyes he had shown before.

"Sorry, I tripped."

He sheepishly averted his eyes and focused on the wall right next to Jonathan's face.

"It's fine, I was just surprised. But why am I here? This is your house, right?"

He didn't remember? Evan thought carefully before answering. He didn't want to scare Jonathan immediately after he had become himself again. What if that, that thing came back?

"Jon...There are a lot of things we need to talk about. Let me put some clothes on and call the guys."

He got up and went back to the bathroom, changing into a plain shirt and some cotton sweat pants. When he went back to his room Jonathan was sitting up on the edge of the bed and observing the room with casual interest.

He looked up when Evan bumped into the door slightly, and after briefly scanning his attire with a weird gleam in his eyes he got up.

Evan led him back into the living room, passing by an empty table where the vase used to be, and to another smaller couch off to the side. Once again Jonathan noted how big the house was and how well furnished its rooms were.

  He stood awkwardly behind Evan as he turned on a laptop, which was somehow camouflaged against the couch. Jonathan couldn't here the beginning of the conversation; Evan had headphones in, but eventually he unplugged them and gestured for Jon to join him on the couch.

  The first person he saw was Luke, who looked so worried, concerned, and hesitant all at the same time. Then he noticed the rest of the crew in their own separate boxes around him. He waited for one of them to say something but no one did.

  He eventually cleared his throat and squeamishly tilted his head.

  "Hi?"

It came out as more of a question than he intended it to, but his voice seemed to snap everyone out of the awkward spell that previously surrounded them.

There were indistinguishable mumblings, which he assumed were returned greeting, as there was an air of tenseness in the call. After a few more seconds Brian shifted his gaze to Evan.

"Is he...normal?"

"Normal? Guys, what's going on?"

He wanted to know why he was in Canada, why they were avoiding his eyes, and most importantly why he couldn't remember the last 24 hours. He barely even knew what time it was.

  Unconsciously, he was somehow conveying his emotions through his crystal blue eyes toward everyone else, and they could almost feel his helplessness.

Even Luke, who knew Jonathan was strongly independent behind his shy and caring façade, was almost cowering from Jonathan's gaze.

They needed to tell him, he needed to know, but none of them could bring themselves to speak a word. They were confused, and the slight hesitance exhibited because of it seemed to be amplified by the piercing, ever so innocent eyes.

Evan, being the least affected seeing as he wasn't directly looking at Jonathan, realized that the slight tug at his emotions was worse for everyone else.
Content that he wasn't the only one, while internally ignoring what he thought might be he hints of a love-bound obsession, he opened his mouth to speak.

"You were possessed."