Caught Between The Tides Of Pain & Rapture | MxM

Chapter 11

Logan closed his heart to everyone. Except Nathan.

For Nathan, Logan could recognize him wherever he may be. Be it absolute darkness or another lifetime or in different bodies, or the future when they turn old and gray. And he would still love Nathan in all of this until the very end of his existence until he was no longer skin and bones — until his soul ceased to exist, he would love him with everything. However... There had always been a fine line between love and hatred. He hated Nathan also. At times, just the thought of his betrayal — the damage he had done, brought an abundance of anger. It coiled in his insides like a virus, feeding from him, and he so desperately craved for Nathan to suffer. Nathan was the cause for everything wrong in his life, and because of this, he hoped Nathan would suffer from his hands, and taste agony like no other. A part of him also hoped Nathan would notice how he suffered every second of every day, and perhaps hold him — promise him that everything would be all right. What a foolish man he was; tormented by opposite emotions.

Today was one of those days where his hatred for Nathan heightened.

Since they argued yesterday at the office, the mere thought of the older man left a sour taste in Logan's mouth, so he took it upon himself to spend the Saturday evening driving the streets of Chicago in hopes of cooling his sizzling temperament. In the end, he ended up stuck at some street corner, sipping on a bottle of cheap beer inside his car next to a nightclub's parking lot. What a lousy night, he should've stayed up instead and read a book or something.

A shuffling of unsteady feet and murmuring sounds coming from the opposite end of the parking lot caught his attention, and his eyes perked up to greet two men in the distance walking side by side. One seemed out of it while the other seemed to be helping him. Logan rolled his eyes and concluded, probably a friend helping a drunk friend. However, when they appeared closer to his car, one of the men — the drunken one — tried and failed to shove the other aside. It might've been easy to not intervene in other people's affairs, however, when the drunk man's pleading voice caught his ears, his eyes quickly doubled and his heart raced at a maddening pace. It was Nathan. For a moment, Logan sat frozen in his car, looking and listening to the two men's conversation as something sensible inside of him slowly started to evaporate, replaced with sheer images of piping hot red.

"No," Nathan pleaded. "I need to go home."

"Shhh, it's alright," the other responded with mock care before he leaned his face into Nathan's neck, which caused Nathan to jerk back with panic, his shoulder hitting the man in the face in the process.

"What are you — stop please," Nathan cried out in a daze.

This seemed to anger the man who snatched Nathan painfully tight by the jaw, and hissed, "Stop struggling damnit... I swear of god if you don't stop —" He sucked his teeth. "Come on, let's go."

Logan's left eye twitched. His once steady hands now trembled with force at the display in front of him. Fingers curled into fists until his knuckles turned white, and the air inside the car heated — he could even hear the sound of his breathing, a rough, shuddering thing. He only had one thing on his mind: The desire to kill. With a rush of adrenaline, he stepped out of the car with his jaw clenched and strode over toward the two men, his movements fueled by storms of emotions.

Neither of them noticed him approaching. However, for a split second when the man finally caught sight of him, it was too late. Without warning Logan's fist raised with pent-up force, and collided against the left side of the man's face with a thunderous crack. He jolted back, his grasp on Nathan went loose and he staggered a step before he dropped to the ground with a pained groan.

"What the fuck is your problem man?" He dared to ask with anger in his eyes as he pushed himself up with his elbows. "You want me to..." As soon as the words came, they quickly died down when he caught sight of who had hit him, and he quivered back like a frightened cat.