halcyon {joe sugg & caspar lee}

twenty-four

"Bullshit! That's bullshit!" Caspar screamed, his face practically glowing red. He felt like hurling a chair at Alfie, who stood with that cocky expression plastered on his face. Caspar wanted nothing better than to slap it off of him.

The more he looked, the more infuriated with him he became. No way in hell was he going to walk away from this untouched. Caspar could feel something powerful growing inside him, something Caspar had never before felt in his life. Well, not that he could remember. Truth be told, Caspar was never really a violent person. His first, and only to date, fight was a couple of years ago in a club where he'd been extremely drunk. Some guy was grinding on some girl (Ashlyn? Ashton? Ashley) who Caspar had been crushing on for ages, and Caspar didn't like it. He dragged the poor guy to the floor and beat the crap out of him. Thinking back, it was Joe who had stopped him. Caspar felt his heart sink once more.

Caspar lurched forward towards Alfie, the thought of Joe seeming to set him off, hands curled into a claw-like position as though Caspar was going to tear Alfie's eyes out of their sockets. And he wanted to, he wanted to so badly. It was Jim who stopped him, he had to practically leap across the room to grab Caspar by the waist to stop the, what was about to be, violent attack.

"That's enough!" Jim growled close to Caspar's ears, almost making them burst. Caspar twisted around to see the older man's facial expression. His eyebrows were furrowed, causing a deep indentation wrinkle in his forehead and between his eyebrows. His jaw was tightly clenched; something Caspar had noted Jim to do when he was stressed, "I don't know which one of you to believe anymore. You two seem more interested fighting amongst yourselves than focusing on what we were supposed to be here for. Joe Sugg, remember? Your friend!"

The words stung Caspar once more, but he didn't want to feel anything yet, "that's all a lie, too. I want to see his body."

"That's not a good idea, Caspar," Oli stated. As Caspar had lurched forward he had noticed Oli almost instinctively stepped in front of Alfie, protecting him
Caspar scoffed, "of course you would say that. You're his little minion, aren't you? No, I won't believe it. Not until I see his fucking body. Where is it, Alfie?"

"Alfie... where did you put Joe?" Marcus asked. He looked as though he was halfway believing Caspar, and Alfie noticed.

"He's still in my house, obviously," Alfie snapped back, a little too fast.

"Why would you keep him in your house?" Jim questioned

"Where else am I supposed to put him?" Alfie's eyes had widened slightly, his hands twisting his ring over in his hands.

Caspar stopped, and stared.

"Alfie, why do you have a ring?" Caspar asked, his eyes darting from Alfie to Oli, who had stopped abruptly and was staring at Alfie with wide eyes. His chest was beginning to rise and fall as he staggered back a few steps, shaking his head.

"You didn't... you didn't...." Oli stuttered. Alfie dropped his gaze to the floor before seeming to remember Marcus and Jim's presence and looking at both of them, grinning.

"Zoe and I got married!" He announced.

A dead silence filled the room, a mix of confusion, anger, and sadness.

"You got... married?" Oli whispered the word, as though he was saying something he shouldn't. He was now backed up against the wall, clutching it like his life depended on it, probably so he didn't fall.

"With no big ceremony?" Jim questioned

"That's not like Zoe," Marcus added, glancing at Jim.

"We wanted to do it as soon as possible. We're going to have a ceremony later on in the year..." Alfie trailed off as his gaze met Oli's.

Oli didn't look sad anymore. His face had changed to that of anger, his head dropped down low and his blazing eyes boring into Alfie's.

"Guilty conscience?" Caspar whispered. It was loud enough to penetrate the thick silence in the room.

"You all need to leave." It was more of a command than a request, "Oli, please, stay. Let me explain to you..."

"Uh, Alfie? Joe?" Marcus' fist was clenched at his side

Alfie let out a sigh, and opened his mouth.

Sound. Muffled, as though it was coming from the floor below, but still there, breaking the suffocating silence that filled his ears. It was nothing spectacular, not like you see on the movies, but Joe was glad of something to break the darkness.

Next came the air. Rushing in, filling his lungs. He must have been breathing before, but this was something else. Better than anything else Joe had ever experienced in his entire life. His mouth opened in a gasp as he frantically attempted to suck in all of the air around him, just so he could feel what it was like to breathe in again. He could feel his chest inflate, pulling his head up with it.

Joe coughed. He so desperately wanted to open his eyes, but they were heavy, almost led-like. He winced, his frail hand gripping at the stone beneath him.

Finally, his eyes cracked open.

There was no immediate light, no-one stood around him like they did when he collapsed in the restaurant. Just the darkness of the night sky, illuminated by the moon. It was a beautiful thing to wake to, he supposed.

If not for the searing pain that came next.

Joe let out a cry, clutching his hand to his stomach. Everything was extremely blurry and familiar. Maybe he'd been in this situation too many times before... But this was different. Memories of what happened flashed through his mind, the train. Caspar. The Uber ride where Caspar clutched his leg. Caspar kissing his cheek at the front door. Alfie. The argument. The fight. Darkness.

Caspar.

+yay! joe's alive! well, he obviously was.

thank you all so much for being patient with me, i had exams all last week and absolutely no motivation to write. i have it back now, so more should be coming very soon...