Wings Of Despair - Book 1

Chapter 5

A blinding light shivered its way through the transparent curtains, hitting Greg's sore, sleepless eyes. He squinted, deciding now was a good time to arise from the depths of the tough bed, the sun ruining his episode of zoning out. His feet slid across the thin blanket and padded onto the wooden panels, sighing from both the nightmare and the loss of sleep that night. He rubbed his eyes, grabbed his glasses, and turned to his left, gazing towards the other male sleeping soundly on his side, his black and blonde hair mixing up and becoming a pile of mess on the pillow. Greg smiled, glad that Yuto at least had a restful night from having to deal with his sudden episode. Greg stood up – his legs a bit shaky from the lack of energy – and dragged his way towards the kitchen, he then went to open the cupboard, only to realise the food they had was still in their bags – which were now completely soaked.

Greg decided to be organised, so he grabbed the bags handle, only to release it on top of the kitchen counter. He dumped the food across the table, along with the bottled water, bandages, his phone, charger and first aid kit. He threw the empty bag across the room – landing on Yuto's shoulder bag – which resulted with a hiss in return. Greg halted, and eyed the squirming bag, which then flicked a switch in his mind. He walked towards the bag, lifted the cover, and was met with a blur of green and red racing towards him. Snab wrapped itself around Greg, catching him off guard and falling onto his behind, cradling the snake-crab hybrid in return.

"Hey, buddy. Sorry, we kinda forgot about you." Greg apologised, assuming Snab could understand him.

Snab snuggled itself against Greg's neck, which he took as reassurance. Greg stood back up, and once again walked into the small kitchen, which wasn't really a room itself, the lengthy countertop doing its job of barricading itself from the lounge room. Once he had put everything in a designated place, he heard footsteps behind him. He turned around, and sure enough, it was Yuto; his shoulders were slumped over, which followed his squinty eyes. His sock-covered feet dragged themselves along the soft carpet floor.

"Have you seen my-" Yuto yawned in between his sentence. "-tablet?"

"Isn't it still in your bag?"

"Oh, right. My bad." Yuto replied, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he made his way towards the pile of bags.

Snab unravelled itself around Greg's neck to examine the new voice that entered the room, which resulted with it leaping from Greg's shoulders to Yuto's.

This resulted Yuto to yelp. "Holy shit!"

Greg giggled. Oh, the irony.

"You think it's funny that I got attacked by my own companion?" Yuto playfully scolded.

"No- I just-" It took a minute for Greg to recompose himself from his laughter. "Snab attacked me this morning too."

"Oh my god!" Now it was Yuto's turn to laugh.

It got so bad to the point where he collapsed onto the floor, now rolling with laughter.

"HISSS!" Snab snapped, showing off its fangs with squinted eyes. It directed its glare towards Yuto as it was being squished to death.

"Hey, get off Snab! You'll kill it!" Greg spoke in between giggles, physically unable to take the situation seriously.

"Oh shit. Sorry, SB." Yuto sat up, and slid his palm on top of Snab's head as an apology.

Snab slithered away, making itself comfortable under the couch.

"SB?"

"I don't know, thought I'd give my little bud a nickname."

"Well, don't. It doesn't suit it at all."

Yuto sighed disapprovingly. "Okay."

Yuto reached out for his tablet in his shoulder bag, and once he fished it out, he saw a notification from James.

'Cupid: Amanda and Carter. Possible location: Yxes Bar.'

"I have to go to a bar for my cupid job today."

Greg processed the sentence but couldn't think of a good way to respond. "...Damn."

"Damn indeed." Yuto paused. "Hey, which bag did you put my uniform in?"

"You mean that horrid thing? That bag over there." Greg answered, pointing to the overloaded bag filled to the brim with clothes.

"Thanks." Yuto ignored the insult, grabbed the bag, and made his way towards his bedroom.

Luckily, his clothes were on the top, so there was no mess that followed up. He went to take off his sweater when he noticed the bra strap held tightly on his shoulder. He smiled, took off the bra and continued to get dressed. Once he was finished, he gave a good look at himself. Something felt off. He didn't know if he felt uncomfortable because of the fear of getting caught and possibly getting arrested, or if it was more than that. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he definitely knew he was experiencing discomfort. He looked over to the discarded bra on his bed. In a split-second decision, he ripped his shirt off and put the bra back on, making sure it was snug and secure before putting his shirt back on. He could see two, small lumps from the padding against his shirt, which made him smile. He placed the other discarded clothes into the bag and brought the bag back out with the others, looking up to see Greg slightly struggle with his phone and charger.

"What's wrong?"

"This damn charger isn't working. It's not charging my phone." Greg huffed, continuously pulling the charger in and out of the port, as if it would make a change.

"Why isn't it working anymore?"

"Hmm, I wonder..." Greg started his sarcasm. "Maybe it's because all of the bags were submerged into water for 5 whole minutes!"

"I think you're exaggerating how long you were in the water for-"

"WELL IT SURE AS HELL FELT LIKE IT!!"

"WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Yuto slipped out with building annoyance.

Everything fell silent.

"I'm sorry?" Greg pinned – offence poisoned his words – and turned his furious glare from his phone towards Yuto.

'Fuck. That didn't come out right.' Yuto swore to himself. "Just please tell me what's going on! I am part angel; my purpose is to help those in need! I can help you." Yuto's voice grew soft from every word spoken and ended his sentence with a wholesome smile.

"You wanna help?"

Yuto nodded eagerly.

"Then fuck off." Greg gritted through his teeth, squinting his eyes to create a more intimidating glare.

"...Okay." Yuto ended the conversation, grabbed his shoulder bag, and walked towards the door. "I'll see you tonight."

Greg didn't look at him, but he knew Yuto left when he heard the male call out for Snab, the door following with a click.

'God, I fucked up.' Greg collapsed, his elbows roughly impacting the counter as he covered his face with his palms, feeling overwhelmed and stressed.

"Your life must be horrible right now."

"Who are you?! Leave me alone!!" Greg whined, desperately wanting the voice to disappear.

"I don't think you want that, especially where your mental state is headed."

Greg questioned the voices' choice of words.

"Why me? Why are you annoying me? What have I done wrong?"

"You haven't done anything wrong. Its everyone else that's making your life miserable."

"No, its..." Greg stopped for a minute, reflecting his life and who has affected it. The people he first thought of was Bill and Bri.

"See what I mean? Let me into your life, and I can help rid of those problems."

"But they're out of my life now, I don't need your help." Greg cursed, as he opened the cupboard and grabbed a damp vegemite sandwich, bringing it with him to the lounge room.

"Okay? Go off I guess."

He took a bite from the sandwich. 'Eww. Tastes like salt water.'

"Get wrecked."