A Sinister Shadow

[Trevaen]

Xavier awoke in the dead of night. His body was plastered with sweat and goosebumps has he looked around in terror. His room was pitch black at this time of night and he could barely see a thing, so he reached down to his left and flipped a switch nearby his bed which powered a wall mounted plug socket. The switch caused a lamp to spark to life and illuminate the entire room with a rusty yellow gaze.


The room walls were painted with a enchanting swirled pattern of soft whites and smooth blues. The rug was a gentle white cotton which stretched across the entire room. The large closet, bedside drawers, small coffee table and wooden rocking chair were all painted a smooth blue to match the walls. The bed however was king-sized and shielded by a thick white feather quilt and matching cushions. The windows closed curtains had the same pattern and colours of that or the walls and in all. The room was quite, if the flat screen T.V hung to the wall staring at the bed was turned off and silent and the dark blue wood door at the side of the room ceased to make even the slightest creek.


With a sigh of relief, Xaiver pressed his hands to his face and held them there softly before releasing another deep breath, "just another damn dream. Been almost two years since he's been gone and I still have nightmares about him....God I miss him!" Xaiver exclaimed failing to notice the lump in the bed as he arose. Even as he entered the white door of the left wall and found himself by his toilet sink cleaning his face and using a towel to dry himself of as he checked himself over in the mirror. His soft white dyed hair laid like silk against his smooth flawless face features. His intense icy blue eyes glistened in the white light of the toilet and his smooth athletic body dressed only in a pair of tight black boxers was dotted with a mole or two.


It wasn't until he left the bathroom that he noticed the human sized lump beside his sleeping place and with a silent scream he clung to the wall and stared in horror, unsure what to do. Frozen stiff from fear, paralysed by terror as he just stood there against the wall, stuck to it like a coat of paint and just stared.

 

[Melix]

Tag flopped over on the bed. God, everything was so...bright. Why? He blinked his eyes open, unaccustomed to the brief, accompanying pain that came with it. The last several nights, he'd been so sleepless, thinking about Xavier. He didn't need anymore sleepless night. "Xavier," he groaned. "It's like 4 a.m. Turn the lights off and come back and cuddle me." Vaguely, he remembered their fight and guilty sweat nearly overtook him. The things that they'd said...


He sat up. Was he really in Xavier's house after that? He groaned again. "Oh, man...last night...I am so sorry..." He flopped back into the bed. Now that he looked around, everything looked different. The placing of the furniture, the paint, a little more faded since they'd painted it two months ago, the carpet...they'd gotten new carpeting? Since last night? No, that didn't make sense. "What...?" He could see Xavier standing in the doorway, his near perfect silhouette and those gorgeous eyes..."Xin?" he asked, and suddenly he was very confused. "Where are we?" he asked, bouncing on the bed. "Why is your bed here? Where are my clothes?"


Now that it had occurred to him to look down, he'd noticed his change in attire from last night. His entire outfit was black-- a jumpsuit with two silver lines around his hips. Tag didn't even own anything black, except a scarf, and he had enough scarfs in his wardrobe to where he didn't need that tattered old rag. And this wasn't something he'd ever seen in Xin's wardrobe (and even if it had been, he couldn't have fit it-- he was too big). So where...?


More importantly, why? Why hadn't Xin said anything? Why was he just staring? "Why are you looking at me like that?"

 

[Trevaen]

"Oh my God is this karma for saying I wish you was dead, is the ghost of Tag really going to kill me" Xin's face lost it's colour as he dropped down to his knees and cowered frantically, "oh God please I don't want to die" he begged and cried and looked up. Seeing him there...it destroyed hm. Every ounce of love and want he had for Tag came flooding from Xin in a mass of tears and prayers to the God he had no belief in.


On noticing the dumb founded look on Tag's face, Xin soon realised it was in fact the real thing. Cautiously crawling over to the male he pounced on him and held the male hugging the boy tightly, "YOU BASTARD WHERE WERE YOU FOR 2 YEARS, WE....WE THOUGHT YOU WAS DEAD" He said and tears continued to roll down his face, "I went to your funeral, I had to stare at an empty coffin and say my dues....I....I grieved for you.For 2 years I've lived with regret and sorrow for not telling you I was gay and for not telling you I loved you and wanted you...two years of expecting to be alone forever because I thought I lost my soul mate" he said uncontrollable weeping and clinging to his former friend.

 

[Melix]

Whoa. It was only when Tag was reminded that Xin had told him he wished Tag was dead last night that he remembered that, unfortunate part of his argument. He must have blocked that out...He watched with curiosity as Xin began crying and praying. Since when had Xin become religious? What was this talk about killing and karma? He cocked his head to the side curiously and was about to stand up and give his best friend a hug when Xin looked right at him. And walked over. And...


"Ah, I love you," muttered Tag, enjoying the sudden hug but not so much the crying. "Ssh. It's okay. It's okay." He murmured, rubbing his friends back. It was at the point when Xin started going off about not seeing him for two years and then informing Tag in no uncertain terms that he was in love with Tag that Tag realized he was being pranked. Oh, well. He could prank back. "I love you too, Xin," he muttered and pushed Xin's head up lightly so he could kiss his friend's ear. "Let's cuddle," he purred and pulled Xin around, attempting to re-maneuver him so that he was sitting bridal style in Tag's lap. He laughed and wiped joking tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry about last night, though. You're my best friend, and whether you like boys or girls, I won't make another scene."

 

[Trevaen]

Xin stared in confusion, "what are you talking about? We had that argument two years ago before you went missing. After a few months you was declared dead and we had to have a funeral without a body and your parents moved on with their lives and moved from the city.....how do you not remember being gone for two years....where were you? What happened?" Xin said in a panic pushing himself of the male and crawling up to the head board of his bed, cuddling his quilt in fear, still in shock from the sudden appearance of Tag, "how did you get here?"

 

[Melix]

Xin was being absolutely ridiculous. Please. No way he would remember a fight from two years ago...Tag decided to only respond to his questions that made sense. "I probably climbed in the window, if the doors were locked." A cool breeze confirmed his theories without him turning around. "Yep. Your window is open." He laughed. "You're so silly, Xin..." He was more than a little upset that his best friend had crawled away from him. "Why are you acting like this? I've only been gone a few hours. Now, can you call Mom and Dad? I can imagine them wondering where I am." He smiled. And then he crawled over to Xin and sat in front of him, reaching out to touch his face. "If you forgive me for our fight, I'll take you to the carnival this weekend. And I'll take you on the Love Boat, and I'll cuddle you." It became increasingly clear that Tag had absolutely no idea that any time had passed. "Because I love you. Gay or straight. Okay?"

 

[Trevaen]

"I can't believe this" Xin just forced Tag out of his mind and reached to his side opening the nearby draw and pulling out a notepad. He searched through before picking up the phone and dailing then when his parents answered, "Tag is alive, he sat right in front of me and can't rember the last two years. He seems to think it's a few hours before he vanished can you tell him he is suppose to be dead" He said franticly and gave the phone to Tag so he could speak to his parents.

 

[Melix]

"Hey, Mom. I am so sorry I didn't call you last night-" Tag began, before he was cut off.


"Tag? TAG??? Is that really you?" It was Mom. She was hysterical and sounded like she was crying. Crying for a long time.


"Yes?" asked Tag. Why was everyone acting so weird? "Seriously. Things got bad between Xin and I last night and I wandered off...I'm sorry. I won't leave without my cell phone again."


"Damn right you won't!" screamed his mother. "Honey? Jem, wake up. Grab Evan. Tag's alive. Yes, of course I know for sure, I'm on the phone with him. He's with Xin. Listen, baby, stay where you are. We're coming to get you."


"What? Wait, who's Evan? Mom?" And the phone call was ended without a goodbye, or I love you. Much like Tag and Xin's fight. Tag looked at Xin. He was recognizable-- he had the same eyes, if they were marked by some new emotion. The same cheekbones, the same lips. His eyebrows were slightly different, and his hair seemed longer, and lighter. His skin was paler. His body was...Tag flushed as he looked at his male friend, who, unfortunately, was not wearing pants. Just those boxers. He'd never exactly looked at Xin like he was now, under careful scrutiny, but they'd spent enough time together that he knew the basic outline of his best friend's body, and this wasn't quite it. This was an improvement, if that were possible.


The room was different. But he could still see marks on the floor where the furniture had once been, before it had been rearranged. Could see the shadows of a worn in footpath on the new carpet. He couldn't see the hand painting he'd made his friend in seventh grade, but he could see the tack where it was supposed to hang.


And his mom was freaking out.


Two plus two equals four. He looked at his scared friend and back to the tack. "What's today's date?"

 

[Trevaen]

"Nice to see the cogs are finally starting to spin in that head of yours" Xin said replacing the Notepad with a glad embroidered ashtray, a fine silver case with Xin's name engraved into the lid and a bottle of a sweet looking golden liquid known as whiskey. He removed the lid of the silver case and took out a cigar he saved the drink and smokes for cases of extream happiness or stress. He lit one up and it crackled under his lips as he inhaled, "24th March 2016" around two years after Tag and Xin's arguments and a day after Xin's birthday.


Xin didn't care he was smoking or drinking, both habits he picked up from Tag's disappearance.

 

[Melix]

Tag looked at him and he could see that he was telling the truth. But before he could freak out about that, he cared about this-- this thing Xin was doing. He saw the boy light a cigar...when had he picked up that habit? Tag grabbed it in midair and took it away, burning his hand lightly as he crumbled it. He didn't care. "Don't." He said firmly. And he stood, and he paced. Pacing was good for him. It allowed him to think and understand. The math he did in his head told him that what to him was yesterday, was really almost two years ago. No wonder Xavier looked better. He was older. Abruptly, Tag walked away; out of the room and down the hall into the bathroom, where he locked the door and stripped down to his boxers, examining himself in the full mirror.


He was taller. A little skinnier; much more muscular. His hair was longer and darker, and his eyes were still green. Thank god. Like Xin, he'd aged, even with no memory of doing so. His mind whirred at 1000 miles a minute until he reached some conclusions, throwing on his pants and stepping back into his ex-best-friend's room. "So." He said. "Tell me if I'm getting this right, or if I'm hot or cold. My parents moved away without me. Today is a Monday. Everyone thought I was murdered. Evan is the baby my mom was five months pregnant with, and he's now about a a year old. You're in love with me. And, considering you didn't just choke your lungs out, you've been smoking a while. Also, I owe you a few birthday presents. Correct?"

 

[Trevaen]

Xin nodded, "yep...oh you forgot one thing. The bastard who kidnapped you was never caught" Xin stood up picking up another cigar and slipped it between his lips, just the action calmed in, "I ain't lighting it so don't crush it. They're Cuban, illegal and expensive" he said his voice stern and firm like it used to be, "at least you are back now, your parents should arrive soon and you can be on your way" he said putting the cigar down to take a swing off the whiskey from the bottle and he let out a sigh before putting the lid back on the bottle and cigar case and slipped them both back into the draw, "forget about the birthday gifts, you can call it even for telling you to die" he said, "as for the love you...you ain't gay so it dosn't matter."

 

[Melix]

"I'm not leaving you if you're going to do the self-harm thing." He leaned across the bed and gently removed the cigar, placing it into his pants pocket, uncrushed. He glared at his friend. "By the way, if I ever see you drink again, I'm going to break the bottle and hit you with the glass shards until you apologize. Understood?" Now he grabbed his friend's hand, leaning across the bed but not climbing on as he would have yesterday...no, a year and a half, nearly, from yesterday. He wasn't the same. "And I wasn't kidnapped. Clearly I was dropped into an alternate universe by uncharitable aliens." Not that he remembered anything of the sort. But the situation needed to be kept a little light, somehow. He glowered at the birthday gifts comment and just decided, as soon as he hit the 'You're not gay' comment, that he was going to drop his last observation off after all.


"I know you've replaced me, by the way. I can see the handprint painting I made you is gone, and someone helped you paint in here. For that matter, you keep bringing up that you wanted me to die, which implies that you still do. And despite telling me you wanted me a few minutes ago, it's pretty clear you're mad. And you just told me to leave." He paused and thought about this a moment. "You got a boyfriend and you don't want me anymore. Say it and I'll leave."

 

[Trevaen]

"Of course I got rid of it you bastard, every time I looked at it I broke into tears. It is in my safe" He said pulling himself from Tab and walked over to the right wall where a random art picture rested and he moved it to the side revealing a wall safe, he entered the code and used the digital finger scanner before opening the safe to reveal the hand painting and lot's of other trinkets and mementos of Tab, "I couldn't get rid of any of it, but I couldn't stand seeing it either. My most treasured positions so a safe seemed more then fitting" He said locking it again and moving the painting back in place before turning his gaze to Tab, "a hired some decorators to do the entire house including the room, I did none of it" he walked back to the male and sat beside him, "the last words I said to you was "Go fucking die" those words have haunted my dreams every night without fail, of course I keep mentioning it. I love you and I can never have you and I thought you died hating me. So no I don't have a boyfriend and I have always wanted you, I always will" He happily admitted.

 

[Melix]

"Oh." Tag didn't have much to say to that. "Then you shouldn't tell me to leave. What if I don't come back this time?" The whole missing for two years thing irked him. His best friend implying that he was gay irked him. Their situation irked him. "Look. Let me make this clear: I'm not gay. I don't have gay feelings for you. That having been said, I love you to death and I am incapable of hating you." His face reddened when he said the next part. "And if we're going off the fact that, what, 7/8ths of my predictions were correct, then there's an 87.5 percent chance that it means something that I left for two years and came back to cuddle with you, in your bed, instead of in mine, alone." He waited for the heat to leave his cheeks. "Or my girlfriend's bed." Sarah. How was she? Somehow, it seemed insensitive to ask. "So sleep easy, okay? I clearly love you to death. Now, may I sleep in your bed with you until my parents come back?"


(Going to sleep; see you later.)

 

[Trevaen]

(Okay)

 

[Melix]

(Actually, turns out I'm not until my neighbor is done trimming hedges. Ugh, chainsaws.)

 

[Trevaen]

"Don't be such a fucking ass, I know you ain't gay and I know you don't have those sorts of feelings for me...so ya leave and if you don't come back well...I've survived 2 years without you, what's a few more. Sarah is married....met a rich businessmen and they got hitched a year later, my brother in fact. She is happy and bro helped her recover from your death" He said and stormed to his closet pulling out another quilt and cushion, "you can sleep on the bed I'm going to the sofa down stairs, at least your parents are coming to finally get you out of my life...I'm sick of the heart breaks" Xin said never liking rejection. He stormed out of the room and down the stairs and soon his loud footsteps ceased, indicating he reached the living room.


 
(Hahaha poor you)

 

[Melix]

Tag faced complete and utter rejection. Before he could get sad, however, he got mad. Mad to the point of last night. Mad to the point of hurting Xin. Hurting everyone. He stomped out into the living room. "Call my parents and tell them it was a prank. That you learned to imitate my voice or something. I'm not going to see any of you again if you're all so determined to give up on me." He ticked it off on his fingers. "Sarah's married. Mom and Dad moved. You hate me, because, what? I don't have gay feelings for you? I'm so sorry. You poor baby." He glared straight into Xin's face. "Can you at least process the idea that everyone I love thinks I'm dead? And the only person who doesn't is shoving me away because of something neither of us can control?" Tag didn't wait for an answer to that. "Maybe I can hate you! I'm definitely going to try!" He turned and walked through the house and out a side door, completely frustrated with everyone and everything. Seven years of friendship and he got this for it? This wasn't worth it. Without realizing it, in his fury, he was heading for the same woods he disappeared in so long ago. Once he reached the lip, he screamed "And don't come after me!", knowing full well Xavier couldn't hear him.


(0.0 Sorry for complete trash post.)

 

[Trevaen]

Xin just watched the male rant and rave and was already in the process of getting dressed as the male came storming down the stairs, drowning out the male's voice Xin would just whistle and slip on a pair of black cargo jeans, a thick black shirt and a big black winter coat. He then followed the male out of the house and to the forest. When they reached the forest's edge Xin stopped, "Your kidnapper was never caught remember, no one has been in those woods for over a year. You really think they are going to let you go a second time? If you walk into those woods we are through. I'm going to shut out memory of you out of my mind, I will burn the trinkets and then I'll move...so you really want to push this? Then go ahead, but if you are so easily willing to leave me and your family behind....well then it is save to say you never cared about us....in that case. It's a shame you didn't die." Xin said, his voice as cold as the air around the boys and his face like stone as he turned and walked off back towards his house without a second though.


 
Melix?)

 

[Melix]

Tag felt a strange feeling as his best friend walked away. Like he was taking something of Tag's with him...a piece of him. Huh. That was definitely new. That weird, achey feeling, was new. And he didn't like it. He didn't like the hard, cold Xander either. But he didn't know how to get his Xander back, either. And why was the boy so insistent that he didn't care? He thought he'd made it clear, through repeated words, that he did care...a lot...for Xander. His parents? Not so much. They'd never seemed to feel much toward him except anger-- anger that he'd had the nerve to be born when they were both sixteen and ruin their lives, or something. Even though Dad ended up a CEO. And mom ended up baking cookies. Like, all day.


But, oh, god, he cared about Xander. The only boy he'd ever cared about, loved, even. Just not that way.


Tag hadn't gone into the woods-- he sat down and leaned against a tree, sliding slowly down.


And then a memory pushed back to the surface of his mind. A memory of snow.


Being shoved face down in the snow, hard. In the present, Tag felt the sting of the snow on his face. "Get up, prisoner," growled a grating woman's voice. "Before I strangle you with this cord!"


"What, and waste two years and a million dollars? I don't think you would. I think you know better than to stoop to my level."


"Shut up. If Gilroy hadn't been murdered, we wouldn't be in this mess. This is your fault, you little ingratef-"


"Chillax, Dragon. It's not my fault he wanted to test me to see if I could still be wounded from gunshots."


"You impudent little- he was my fiance."


"And a crappy one at that. He cost you a cabin with his untimely death. Look, here's the new cabin. Nobody is here, like, ever."


And back into the present. He was sitting on the dirty ground with spit running down his face-- so attractive, he thought. And, so...bloody. Why? And as he wiped it off, he thought of something. So he got up and walked into the living room, feeling as cold as if he had been shoved face down in a foot and a half of packed snow. "Xander?" he called in. "I'm gonna walk up the mountain-hill to our cabins. The ones our families share? If you wanna come with me, I think we can use some alone time together."


(Long post. Sorry.)

 

[Trevaen]

Xin looked back at the male from the sofa and sighed, "your parents will be here soon and why the fuck do you want to go up there? You do realise there could be a serial killer in those woods." He said rolling his eyes at the idea and just got more comfortable on the sofa and turned on the T.V, just watching it and paying no attention to Tag and his insane idea.

 

[Melix]

"Then let's have a heartfelt goodbye, since I don't have much luck with criminals." And he sat down next to Tag, and with no consent whatsoever, pulled him close in so fast a manner that he ended up falling a little and landing on his back, letting go of Xander. "Could you at least be a little receptive?" he snapped. "Because you're confusing as hell. Either you want me to stay and cuddle with me or you want me off the planet. You told me earlier that you loved me, but now you keep telling me you want me to die. I'm giving you the option: choose me or lose me."

 

[Trevaen]

Wait wait wait just so I can check this, we are building a relationship right? Not there is no chance of Tag and Xin being together?)

 

[Melix]

(Yes, we're building a relationship. And Tag is being an a-hole. Sorry )

 

[Trevaen]

(No it is fine, just making sure Tag isn't completely straight)


 
Xin sighed and looked at the male, he would then grip Tag's collar and pull him into a firm and passionate kiss before sighing, "fine....I want you to stay so we can cuddle, I never want you to leave ever again" Xin said and rapped his arms around Tag's neck, tightly hugging him as he protectively rested his head on Tag and clung to him.