February 17 | Monday #6
“Gramps was right about that, too? Who would’ve thought…”
At that moment, a low growl echoed. Will looked up and saw Liam standing beside him. His irises had taken on a golden sheen.
“And a werewolf?” the attacker cried out. “Ha! So many freaks! A shame Gramps didn’t tell me to carry a wooden stake…”
“It wouldn’t have done much good,” Blake announced dispassionately. He was only a few feet away from the attacker.
“Apparently,” the man replied, almost cheerfully. “Gramps always said one thing: never let the freaks take you alive. Oh, well.”
With those words, he aimed the shotgun at his own head and pulled the trigger. Will squeezed his eyelids shut, struggling to stifle a scream. The horrifying bang rang in his ears for a long moment.
He had no idea how long he remained curled up and trembling, but eventually, he felt someone embrace him.
“It’s okay now,” Liam whispered softly.
*
Shock. There was no better word to describe how Will felt.
Liam was there, patting him comfortingly on the shoulder while Blake asked questions, to which Will gave clipped, half-conscious answers.
Other than that, Will said nothing. The events he had been a part of, and almost a victim of, left him in a state of bewilderment and terror.
Only once did Will dare to look at the body of the man who had nearly murdered him.
The sight of the head, blown to shreds, was bloodcurdling.
Blake called someone, and a few minutes later, several cars pulled up to the warehouse.
Will watched them from inside Alden’s car, frozen and frightened.
A man strikingly similar to Blake got out of one vehicle.
Blake exchanged a few words with him. Will wondered if it was Blake’s father, but when Alden took the driver’s seat, he didn’t dare ask.
Will was afraid he would be interrogated or something similar, but Blake drove him straight home.
About halfway there, the stress of the night started to break him.
He talked—nonstop, getting stuck in loops, constantly returning to the same moments and describing them over and over again.
He was overwhelmed and scared, but also full of relief.
He had never been so happy to be alive.
“…thank you,” he continued, moved, as they entered his house together. “Really. I have no idea what… I mean, I do have an idea, but… God…”
It was so warm inside. Not like outside or in Blake’s freezing car.
Blake had turned on the heat at Will’s request, but before they could feel it, they were already home.
It was a good thing Will was sitting next to Liam, though he probably looked like a complete idiot, pressing against him desperately, craving a bit of his warmth.
“You should change,” Liam assessed.
He should too—he was no less soaked than Will. He wasn’t wearing any outerwear either.
“H-How did you manage to find me?” Will finally dared to ask the question that had been tormenting him from the very beginning.
“Through deduction,” Alden answered curtly.
“He spent the whole afternoon looking for the right place,” Liam explained.
Blake grimaced slightly, then corrected him, “With Abby. We were looking for a warehouse near the railway tracks where delivery trucks were parked. We located two. One had round-the-clock, extensive security, so we figured that was unlikely.”
“Thank you,” Will whispered again. He felt like a moron for having dismissed Alden’s suspicions. “When you told me about that phone call from the future… I really had no idea. I was convinced it was impossible. How on earth did you figure out what was going on so quickly?”
“Because I know what I heard,” Blake answered firmly. Right. Mr. I’m-never-wrong. Now Will was forced to admit he had a point. “Besides, I was aware that such magic is possible.”
“Meaning?”
“Space-time bending.”
“You mean someone could… for example… go back in time?”
Blake nodded.
“Fuck, that’s terrifying,” Will stated, feeling uneasy.
He thought of all the times he’d wished he could repeat a day, to do something completely different…
If he had the power to do that, he would use it recklessly.
And if others were using it… How could he know how many times he had been misled, robbed of moments that had taken place in another reality, or entangled in situations he didn’t originally take part in?
“I wouldn’t worry too much about it,” Blake said dismissively. “It’s exceptionally powerful magic. Far too powerful for someone like you,” he stated pointedly, and Will glared at him resentfully. “Besides, magic draws from nature, and nature always seeks balance. Spells of that kind have a price.”
Will was about to ask how high, adding that he himself had performed this exceptionally powerful magic, but he let it go.
Not because arguing with Blake under the circumstances seemed inappropriate.
It was simply that he remembered how he had managed to free himself.
That power… He really didn’t feel like he had any control over it.
He had the impression that something was wrong with him.
“Is this the only door to the outside?” Blake muttered, glancing in the direction they had come from.
“No, there’s one in the kitchen too.”
Alden walked to the indicated room. Liam followed him, so Will did the same, though he wasn’t quite sure what was going on. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he saw the bloodstain. The memory of the unconscious, wounded Liam sent a cold shiver down his spine.
“We need to patch you up,” he announced, and Liam looked at him in surprise. “I have a first-aid kit here somewhere…”
Will began to search the cabinets while Blake examined the side door.
“Why did you leave the house when I explicitly told you not to?” he asked suddenly.
“I didn’t leave of my own free will!” Will retorted with a hint of irritation, digging through a drawer. “He dragged me out.”
“But he didn’t break down the door. So how did he get inside?”
Will froze. He had been deliberately avoiding this aspect of the story. He glanced at Liam, not quite knowing what to say, then straightened up and, clearing his throat softly, admitted, “I don’t think I locked the door.”
“Excuse me?” Blake scoffed in disbelief. “You didn’t lock your door at night? After I made it crystal clear someone was out to kill you? Besides, even without that…”
“It’s my fault,” Liam interrupted. “Will didn’t lock it after I came over. We got to talking and it just slipped our minds.”
“Uh-huh,” Blake muttered, narrowing his eyes menacingly. “Remind me, when I asked you to come here and check if he was still in one piece, did I mention anything about leaving the door open?”
“No,” Liam answered calmly, shrugging. “But if we’re going down that road, you also didn’t mention that it should be closed.”
“Because it’s obvious!” Blake immediately shot back at his friend’s playful jab. “I didn’t expect you to demonstrate such incompetence! Besides, you were only supposed to check on him, not pay him a social call!”
“It’s my house, my doors, and my responsibility, okay?” Will interjected, feeling guilty that Liam was taking the heat for his carelessness. “I was just stressed and distracted.”
“Mhm. I know exactly what you were distracted by,” Alden hissed. “I’ll remember to send Norma next time, just in case.”
“That’s not what I meant!” Will grumbled, while Liam just chuckled softly.
“The pathetic way you let yourself get knocked out…” Alden continued, glaring at his friend, whom he clearly had no intention of letting off the hook.
“You know I don’t have a head of steel in my human form.”
“Really? It seems to me you have one in every form.”
Liam remained unfazed by the comment.
“Why are you complaining?” he asked. “You said yourself it already happened, so it had to happen.”
Blake almost choked in reaction to those words.
“And it happened because of your incompetence!” he concluded angrily.
“Well, as they say, you can’t escape destiny. He was hunting Will. If the door had been locked, he would have kicked it down. It would have ended up the same.”
“If it had been locked, you would have bought some time and he wouldn’t have been able to surprise you!”
“Found the first-aid kit!” Will announced triumphantly, cutting off the discussion that was definitely not heading in a good direction.
Blake crossed his arms over his chest, glaring menacingly at his friend.
“Umm… Will you bend down?” Will suggested, standing next to Liam. “Or would you rather sit?”
Liam looked him straight in the eye, smiled teasingly, then wrapped an arm around Will’s waist and sat him down on the kitchen counter.
Will froze, shocked by this turn of events.
Liam took the first-aid kit from his hand.
He opened it, took out a cotton ball and hydrogen peroxide, and then cleaned Will’s cut lip.
“Wh-What are you doing?” Will stammered, as if it weren’t completely obvious.
“Are your teeth all there?” Liam asked.
“Yes?” Will said uncertainly. “I mean, yes,” he corrected himself after a moment, coughing. “They are.”
“That’s good.”
Blake had stopped paying attention to them. For some unclear reason, he started bustling around the room, looking around carefully.
“I think we should take care of your wound first,” Will said, feeling himself blush. Liam was so damn close! “It looked serious.”
“It’s nothing. There won’t be a trace of it tomorrow.”
“Are you sur—” Will was about to ask again, but at that moment Blake literally looked inside his fridge, which threw him off a bit. “Are you hungry? I hope not, because I don’t have any blood.”
Alden raised an eyebrow.
“Really?” he asked, stepping closer.
Standing by Will, he leaned in and whispered, “Because I see a whole five-liter bag right in front of me.”
Having said that, he bared his fangs, and Will jumped, hitting his head on the shelf above him.
“Ow,” he hissed, rubbing the back of his head.
Blake and Liam stepped back, both bursting into loud laughter.
“Don’t scare him,” Liam said with amusement.