And everything was so fast that it became slow. David was in too deep, he could barely even make out Luca's meek uttering of his name. Everything was here one moment, gone the next. The glass that David was holding was in his hand one moment, instantly shattered the next. Small shards and particles flew by his feet and some even hit the surface of his jeans, but none of them hit Luca, who was still petrified in fear. Her once blank face now held a series of worry, confusion and feared expression molded into a mask. She was unaware he would do this. It wasn't even planned in David's mind, it was just racing with thoughts and predatory instincts; couldn't even think straight.
"What the FUCK did you say to me?!" He yelled to Luca.
At this time, he started to stomp towards Luca at a slow, heavy and wolfish pace. It sounded like those of the giants. Luca started to take a step or two back in fear, afraid at what he would do. His face held no expression, prior to morphing into pure anger and hatred.
"What the FUCK did you say to me?!!" He once again repeated.
Luca was now backed against the bedroom door. David was nearing her slowly, fists curled and tightened. His shadow became the only thing that was ever seen of him from her perspective.
"N-Nothing.." She stuttered.
"YOU CUNT!! You like it, DON'T YOU?!! HUH?!! YOU LIKE FUCKING WITH ME?!!?!"
"What?"
"YOU ALWAYS LOVE TO SQUISH ME, TO CHOKE ME, TO FUCK ME OVER AND OVER!! Do you HATE ME THIS BAD?!!? YOU DO, DON'T YOU?!!?!"
"No! Why woul-"
He gave her no time to finish. David furiously grabbed her hands, squeezing them to an immense level of pain, and forced them onto his throat. It was almost made to look like she was choking him. She was scared, she had experienced nothing like this. And worse, her hands were forced onto his neck. She could start to hear the voices....
"THEN, DO IT! KILL ME! KILL ME!!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, YOU SLUT??! KILL ME!!!"
It was all too much for her, just overwhelming. She was just frozen in fear, her face nearly matching that of terror. Luca didn't know what to do at all to escape him. The situation, though different, was all the same to her: He was the wolf and she was the prey. The shadow perfectly covered the blank, sadistic expression on his face, eyes angrily peering at the ocean in front of him. She started to cry, tears flowing down her face.
"please..."
Kaylon then burst open the door, without any words to accompany his statement. And there he saw the crazy dog and his prey. He ran over to David and pulled him off Luca, pinning him to the wall. She then escaped to the room and locked the door.
"David, calm down!" Kaylon instructed him. David still continued to squirm under his grip, pinned against the wall. "Just calm dow-."
The wolf continued to wriggle and writhe underneath the hunter's grasp, until he could kick him in the leg in retaliation. The hunter relieved some of the pressure on his captive's arms, awarding the still animal to deliver a mean left hook to his face. The huntsman succumbed to his defeat and toppled over to the floor, in pain. The wolf was the only one standing, with the shadow even now blacking out his expression. Heavy breaths, soft whimpers and the passage of time were all that was left.
Finally, after losing track of time, David took in a few deep breaths with the help of Kaylon, who instructed him to breathe in time with him. It worked, obviously, and the anger dissipated as quickly as the revitalization of his composure. The wolf's hunger had been quenched.
Only David stood where the remnants of the short conflict. His eyes peered around, looking for a simple sign of anything. That's when he saw Kaylon and recalled everything that happened. Kaylon was partially looking at him, laid on the floor. David offered his hand to Kaylon, who accepted it willingly and without hate. And only one simple tug was needed.
David took his hand and softly grabbed Kaylon's chin, swiveling it to the left and right one time to see what he had done. His hand fell down ad another breath rose before he spoke softly. "what... did I do?"
"What?"
David looked at Kaylon and spoke louder. "What did I do?"
"Please, let's not start this now..."
"DON'T GIVE ME THIS BULLSHIT, GODDAMMIT!!! I NEED TO KNOW!!! WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!!?"
Kaylon took in a deep breath and sighed. "You hurt Luca."
David's eyes widened, the slightest bit. Kaylon gazed at him, in concern. "You gotta tell me what's going on. I want to help you."
"I'm fine."
"But David, please..."
"I SAID I'M FINE!!"
David then pushed Kaylon off him before treading towards the laundry room. From the darkness, he emerged with a broom and plastic dustpan. His amble was that of a remorseful one, nothing too sappy. His chest was caved in as well. Walking to the kitchen, he stopped near the heap of glass shards and swept them into the dustpan.Without a word, David dumped them in the trash can, put the broom and dustpan back and entered the bathroom the door.
Kaylon just stood there, silent. Although he knew that David had anger problems, he regretted the fact that he couldn't help him that much as he swore so. This feeling of emptiness felt so familiar, such a fulfilling reason for nothing.
He then went to the guest bedroom door, standing there deciding to do it or not. He felt so shy and unconfident, but went ahead anyway. He knocked once, then counted to five. No answer. He then knocked twice, counting very slowly to 10. Still no answer. As a last resort, he viciously knocked on the door.
Luca, on the other side of the door, was reading a novel. The first few times that Kaylon knocked, she cumulatively stored up anger and resentment. The last knock justified that.
"Hey, I just want to talk!" Kaylon yelled.
A sound of a book closing. Bed moving. Footsteps moving. Luca then opened the door, ferociously.
"What is it you WANT?!!" She yelled towards the receiver. She was moderately surprised to find Kaylon instead of David.
"Oh. Kaylon."
"Can I talk to you?"
She groaned. If they were going to do so, talking about him was the last thing on her mind.
"Can I just... please, talk to you?"
She sighed. "Fine, come in."
—
And in his mind, it was enough to kill off all other thoughts but one. The ceiling looked bland as always, but at least it was better than something else.
David was standing under the downpour from the faucet, looking up at the ceiling for no reason. The water run off his nude skin like runoff onto the tub below. He was then staring at the surface of the tub, not noticing the trails of water flowing on his legs or collecting on the surface. He didn't really notice any of the water swirling down the drain. But it was horrible that he was remembering when he shouldn't have been. He wasn't even in control — it felt like he was restrained in a seat, forced to watch his unapologetic mistake for his own Ludovico conditioning. It almost made him cry – something didn't agree on the latter.
He reached for the mint shampoo, squeezed it onto his hand and lathered it into his hair. A journey his fingers were taking into the deepest part of his scalp, wonderful and relieving some of the emotional pressure. He watched the substance spill from his head and trail into the drain. Next, he used the mint conditioner, repeating the same technique with the shampoo. When David rinsed, there wasn't really any color change present and his hair gave off the sensitive impression of being slippery.
There was no reason to continue, so he turned it off. He stood for about a minute before stepping out. He was comfortable nude, as he occasionally walked around the place in a towel - rarely without. He changed into the T-shirt and shorts. He forgot about the underwear, so he continued wearing the old one until he could get a new pair. Tossing all the dirty laundry into the hamper, he folded the towel into the rack and brushed his teeth, checking that he got into the gums of the mouth and adequately brushed the front and back. A minute later, he spit out the minty toothpaste and rinsed his mouth, then exited.
Walking to his bedroom, David knocked once to see if Kaylon was there. Seconds elapsed, but there was no answer. Curious, he opened the door to find it unoccupied. He then opened the middle drawer in his dresser and obtained fresh underwear. Closing the drawer quietly, he left the room and closed the door quietly to not raise suspicion even though it was his room. Straightaway, he heard vague distinctions of voices coming from the guest room. He didn't like to eavesdrop, but if it was about him, he wanted to know.
He put the underwear in the bathroom and tiptoed to the door, standing there. From what he could hear, both Luca and Kaylon were debating.
"Look... I don't blame him." Kaylon
"How do you know that?" Luca asked.
Kaylon started to breathe, trying to defend his best friend. He couldn't find anything
"How?"
"God! Please, jus-"
David had enough. He walked to the bathroom, took off his shorts and underwear and put the new pair. While there, his psyche so much that he experienced his head being psychologically impaled with a large spike. Tears started to flow, David's face started to melt and he felt like he wanted to die.
Suddenly, his smartphone started to vibrate on the surface. He saw that it was Sky. He hung up and placed the phone on a wireless charging pad on the kitchen counter to charge. Unfurling the blanket, he covered his body all the way to the stomach, then planted himself facedown on the pillow. He could only think of Luca and her reaction over and over in his head. He didn't want to do anything else, not even drink water to prevent dehydration from the lithium.It was too much, he felt a light headache in his head. If he could, he would've been able to frame those moments where Kaylon and Luca showed fear in front of him.
With his face buried deep into the pillow, he sobbed quietly, cumulatively collecting tears onto his pillow and escalating the overall volume louder and louder. He didn't want them to hear, for who would want to see someone grown up cry? He failed to keep the volume down, but thankfully, Luca and Kaylon didn't notice him cry. This thought made David even more depressed and he continued to sob himself a waterfall so he could hopefully be bouyant by the time he was done. And it went so, so fast.
Minutes and minutes ticked by, with Time's hands and the lack of sleep he had yesterday silently lulling David from sobs to quiet breaths. And right around the time that David started to sleep, maybe even a minute later, Kaylon opened the door to the guest bedroom.
"Have a good night. Sleep tight." Kaylon said.
"Thanks." Luca said, "Same to you."
"Alright."
He closed the door, with the same force as always so it would leave a pronounced sound of the lock and door clashing together. About to go to his room, he glimpsed David in his soft left window of his peripheral vision. Turning to the left, he saw him sleeping, still face down on his pillow. He was curious as to why he was sleeping that way, but debated internally whether or not to go over to him. He eventually decided to and walked over to the corner of the couch.
Some tears were on the latter's face and a moist puddle of water in the pillow was left as evidence when Kalyon gently turned David over. But, in retrospect, how his breathing was slow, gentle and relaxed was contradictory to how he felt back then. There was no expression other than a peaceful sleep, if not the best way to do so.
Not knowing what to do, he parted David's hair to the side, slightly damp after smothering himself with a pillow. There, he saw something in him that no one else seemed to bother about. Smiling, Kaylon kissed him on the forehead very gently, bringing back the memory of the light-hearted attempt of the comment. He chuckled, affectionately laying him on his side, tucking him in and going to his bedroom.
The door closed.
ns 15.158.61.7da2
