Wrath and Emeralds - Chapter 7a

[draconica-nova.livejournal.com]

Title: Wrath and Emeralds – 7a/12
Chapter Rating: PG-13
Overall Rating: R
Warning(s): Some slight swearing
Summary: The morning after the night before.

Author's Notes: Internet is back! So yay, more updates! ^__^
Feedback? Sweeter than a sugar coated pancake… yum. Would love you forever! 8D



Colin awoke in a haze, feeling himself incapable of opening his eyes due to over powering post-sleep fatigue. The sun was shining brightly already, which alerted him to the fact that he might’ve overslept – he was usually quite an early riser. Sitting up, he blearily rubbed his eyes of sleep and thought about what he was going to do today.

Ryan had seemed really dejected and helpless yesterday so Colin decided to make his best recipe for dinner that evening in an effort to cheer him up and help him see that they could both have fun despite the situation.

After getting himself dressed without a deviating thought and opening his bedroom door, Colin was immediately hit with a thick, musty smell that seemed to waft casually from downstairs. It didn’t smell like anything particularly homely or domestic and certainly not a typical scent that would greet you every morning – the first sign that something was wrong.

He almost didn’t want to turn the corner that lead him down the staircase for fear of what he might find once he did. The further he walked, the more hypnotically irregular the smell became. It smelt almost like… blood.

He’d barely made it down two stairs before he realised what was causing the abnormality as a disfigured scene came into view and his breath caught submissively in his throat.

Ryan, not the beast but the vulnerable human beneath, lay unconscious, naked and frothing at the mouth, surrounded by a disturbing red smear that stained the laminate wood flooring of Colin’s once-welcoming hallway. The front door, which was wide open, was also tarnished with two bloody handprints on the glass and white paint.

Colin stood stunned silent for the longest time, staring at the spectacle before him with extreme disbelief and alarm. It wasn’t until Ryan started to stir and suddenly coughed in violent succession did he manage to feel his legs again. He was down the stairs in bullet speed and at Ryan’s side without question.

Ryan writhed at Colin’s voice and snapped open his eyes instantly. “Col-Colin?” The blood that covered most of Ryan’s face, hands and torso, plus the floor beneath him, wasn’t his but a mutual painting of victims from the night’s hunt. The realisation caused Ryan great distress and guilt attached to an anchor of self-loathing that tugged his stomach in nausea. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he repeated brokenly.

“Ryan, I’m here. I’m right here.” Colin’s voice cracked, betraying his strength entirely, something Ryan surely caught onto as he locked eyes with Colin’s calming dull bronze ones.

“Tell me it’s all just a nightmare, Col. Tell me none of it’s real!” Ryan’s tears flowed over the blood on his cheeks, cutting an innocent path through the blotches.

Colin swallowed. “This is beyond either of us, Ryan,” he sighed and watched as the broken man hid his face against Colin’s shoulder and croaked in sorrow. Colin could do nothing but hold him in return and try not to think about the poor souls whose blood Ryan was now wearing, though clearly not by choice.

The tall man kept shivering like an insect caught in a deep freeze and so without further word, Colin steadily helped Ryan upstairs and into the shower where he stayed to help wash off the unbefitting blood.

After the shower, Ryan felt Colin steer him towards the master bedroom – he remained withdrawn and fraught but was in no way ungrateful for Colin’s aid and attention. He wrapped himself under the covers of the bed, surrounding himself with Colin’s scent and letting it seep into his consciousness.

Now that the more pressing needs had been attended to, Colin turned to leave but Ryan suddenly reached out and grasped at his wrist with a grip like iron.

“No! Don’t go, don’t leave me… not now,” murmured Ryan, now clearly unabashed with just how much he needed Colin – the only chance he had left.

With only a fleeting thought to the mess downstairs, Colin inhaled deeply and nodded, feeling a little ignorant. Of course Ryan wouldn’t want to be alone after the state he was in.

God, if I only knew what happened to him…

Ryan shifted across the bed to give him room, expecting Colin to slide in beside him under the duvet. But much to his discontent, the man lay next to him on top of the duvet instead, his warmth somewhat blocked by the thick covers. Ryan wanted to protest but didn’t have the energy. He simply shifted nearer, raised his arm and laid it across Colin’s chest in needing whilst resting his head back onto Colin’s shoulder.

With this new proximity, it wasn’t long before Ryan felt relaxed enough to let his tears subside into mere occasional shuddering sniffs. And suddenly the edge of sleep was there and he was ready to cross it, but not before whispering, “I’m so sorry.”

Colin sighed, turning his head slightly to look at his best friend’s peaceful yet haggard face. Why did something so upsetting and potentially lethal have to happen to someone so undeserving? Colin reached up to Ryan’s hand, the one resting on his other shoulder and held it in his own protectively, rubbing the slightly callous skin with his thumb.

Once he was sure that Ryan had fallen into a doze, he carefully released himself from Ryan’s hold and made sure he was tucked in comfortably. He stood staring at him whimsically for a moment and thought of way back in Vancouver when after a night’s fun and frolics at the bars would often lead to Ryan falling asleep on Colin’s shoulder in the cab. Or maybe when they were both at home in front of the TV and Ryan would without second thought rest his head on Colin’s lap while Colin stroked his hair. They had shared that platonic love for almost twenty years.

Letting out a small cough in distraction, Colin decided to busy himself with other things and left Ryan alone, closing the door silently as he did so – he would return to keep him comfortable after he had cleaned the downstairs hallway of blemishing scarlet.

The smell clung unattractively to the polished floorboards and the red blotches were stained into the streaked wood almost stubbornly. It was a good thing that Colin knew a few things about cleaning, though bloodstains were a first.

By the time he’d finally finished he was feeling more than a little unsettled. This was proven as he made a mad dash upstairs to the bathroom in order to throw up what little there was in his stomach. His hands grasped the basin until the knuckles were nearly white as he finished up, sighing heavily against the sudden tiredness brought over him.

What a goddamn mess.

A few firm knocks at the front door jolted Colin’s attention rapidly and he froze, still hunched over the sink. He hoped that if he were quiet enough, then they would think him not at home and leave. Though no such luck had been bestowed to him very much lately and the banging continued.

He expected the worse as he crept downstairs and saw two figures behind the translucent glass of his grand front door. Also smeared onto this glass and in plain view of these visitors was one of Ryan’s desperate bright red handprints. And how certain would it be that there would be questions?

Colin’s relief upon opening the door was palpable as his eyes came to rest on two familiar faces. James Bryce’s face however was anything but calm, and standing behind him was the ever ice-eyed Hunter.

Bryce looked at the handprints on the door and then back at Colin, frowning. “This is very serious, Colin,” he said with an edge to his voice as he stepped his way inside. Hunter was one step behind wearing a strange crooked smile – and a black shotgun slung behind his back.

“You can leave that outside,” Colin said about the firearm, blocking Hunter’s path who stared back at him, incensed.

“Usually when there’s a man-eating wolf at large, I like to be just a bit cautious.”

Colin’s eyes narrowed. “He’s asleep upstairs. There’s no danger to anyone at the moment.”

The young man was ready to argue back but was gratefully interrupted by Bryce’s warning voice. “Hunter.”

Hunter’s gaze flicked to the older man over Colin’s shoulder and he sighed heavily, exasperated. “It seems that your friend got out last night and quite artistically slaughtered six people, including two police officers,” he informed.

Colin paled instantly – obviously he’d expected something like this but six people? Swallowing hard, he distracted himself by moving to clean off the remaining blood on the door.

Bryce sighed at the sight. “Colin, I’m sympathetic and understanding but only to an extent. In light of what’s happened, I must insist that you both return to the Facility at once.”

Colin closed the door and silence befell the house, he was suddenly grateful that he lived in a secluded little Californian suburb that probably no one knew existed. “Isn’t there another way?”

The man shook his head. “When the public panic, they come up with any explanation and immediately assume that it’s the answer. Human nature and dangerous curiosity killed the others, what’s to say it won’t kill Ryan, too?”

Hunter continued. “He’s scattered the kills in a jagged route between his home and yours. Of course, to anyone else it’s as vague as hell, but I doubt it will be long before the police start sniffing this way.” He paused and then turned to Bryce. “With all respect, sir, you should remember that I was the one to tell you that sending him away was not a good idea.”

The older man began to pace, irritated. “For God’s sake, Hunter. This is hardly the time to worry about your pride.”

“It seems to me that my pride is a small price to pay in return for all the damage and trouble that Mister Mochrie here has caused.” Colin looked up from the floor, which had been the subject of his attention for a moment and made to protest but got cut off mid-inhale. “Your sentimental weakness has gotten a lot of people killed so I’m not entirely sure you have a valid say in the matter.”

Colin gulped loudly against an influx of hot guilt. Despite everything, he deeply knew that Hunter was right and subsequently felt a coward and a failure that he had agreed so quickly.

“Don’t blame him.”

Three heads turned simultaneously to the source of the new voice and their eyes rested on the robe-clad figure halfway up the stairs. Ryan stood unsteadily as he braced himself against the wall, still seemingly exhausted. “It wasn’t his fault,” he continued as he stepped down.

Bryce frowned at him. “Mister Stiles?”

“He told me not to go but I went anyway. I thought I could handle it without him, but… well, you can guess what happened next.”

“Indeed we can,” murmured Hunter. “I hope you realise what danger you’ve put yourself in.”

Ryan reached their level and slumped his shoulders. “This is all my fault.”

“The police are all over your house right now, Ryan,” Bryce said calmly. “Best guess is that they’ll come here to question Colin sometime today. About your disappearance if not this mess.”

Ryan and Colin looked at each other sadly, both feeling at fault for everything. The burden of it all had never left – Colin felt responsible for Ryan’s safety, whereas Ryan just wanted to make sure Colin didn’t get any deeper into trouble. While Colin raised a hand to the tall man’s arm, rubbing there reassuringly, he murmured something into his ear to which Ryan nodded. The two outsiders watched on fascinated - Hunter in particular.

“I do have an idea,” he said cautiously, his face turning a lot more expressive than before and therefore giving him a personality more like a human and less like an emotionally stunted robot. “I picked up some techniques in training I can use to keep the cops off our back for a few days. It might give us enough time to create a working antidote if nothing else.”

Colin wasn’t entirely sure that Hunter was capable of anything that selfless, but then again they’d only known him for a few days.

“Is that so?” Bryce asked, genuinely intrigued. “If you could do that, it would certainly be of some help.

Hunter nodded and smiled, which creeped Colin out even more. “These guys can stay here and it means less hassle for you, sir.”

“Then by all means do it, Hunt. And let me know how it goes, but…” he leant in close and murmured something quietly to the young man, something which sounded suspiciously like, “make sure nobody gets hurt.” With a final icy glance to Ryan, he turned and left the house, shotgun swinging on his back.

“I still have a bad feeling about him,” Ryan muttered after Hunter had left, a statement to which Colin nodded in agreement.

Bryce smiled and turned his eyes to the ceiling, wistfully. “Hunter’s never done us wrong before and I have every trust in him. There really is no need to worry. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there are things I need to attend to.”

As he turned to leave, he spotted a picture framed on Colin’s wall – the one of himself with the rest of the Whose Line cast. Ryan and Colin were posing together of course, arms slung over each other’s shoulders. Bryce smiled, said his goodbyes and then left, his back colder than usual.

“What have I done, Colin?”

Colin barely had time to reply to Ryan before he stalked off into the living room, a hand placed stressfully in his soft hair. Colin sighed, mimicking Ryan’s journey complete with a hand rubbing over his face.

“Ryan, we need to keep level heads about this,” he said as he entered the room to find Ryan pacing back and forth.

“Level heads,” Ryan repeated sarcastically. “This whole situation’s fucked up.”

Stopping his pacing finally, Ryan flopped down onto the sofa heavily, causing the cushions to dip his way. Colin watched on has Ryan placed his head in his hands and expelled an angry puff of air – it was all beginning to be a rather nasty habit, all this stress.

“Ryan…” Colin moved over to sit beside him, an unmoving, sincere hand to his shoulder like before and always. “It might help if you tell me what happened at your house last night.”

Ryan looked up slowly, his eyes shining rebelliously, and nodded. “Yeah… yeah, okay.”

To be continued…