GOD OF CHAOS

CHAPTER TWENTY

LANDON KING

Landon had let himself go and get lost in that moment of pure lust and ecstasy with Jeremy, but that didn't last long as he stared at his reflection in the mirror, flushed with swollen lips—a testament to their activities—but also, wet band-aid covered cuts indicating the fact that Jeremy had tended to them. As soon as he had stepped in front of the mirror after Jeremy left the bathroom, those were the only things he could focus on. Thousands of questions arose in his mind, none of which he could answer, and Jeremy had refused to answer the one question he had asked— 'why?' However, the questions were pushing him to notice the void more and more.

Landon shook his head, pushing away the void. 

Jeremy walked into the bathroom, and Landon forced himself to return to his shell, the walls he had meticulously constructed around himself closing in once more. Jeremy frowned as soon as he saw Landon, his gaze piercing through the façade Landon desperately clung to. "Are you okay?" he asked, his voice laced with genuine concern.

"It's adorable how you get so worried about me," Landon stated with a smirk, his words a feeble attempt to deflect the mounting unease churning within him. This was all a farce, a carefully crafted façade to hide the chaos raging beneath the surface. But soon, he hoped, it would feel real and natural to him. It was just taking longer than necessary right now.

Jeremy rolled his eyes, his frustration evident as he struggled to break through Landon's defenses. "Can you answer any question normally?" he retorted.

"Never liked normal, and what's fun in that anyway?" Landon asked, quirking an eyebrow at Jeremy through the mirror, his tone light yet tinged with a hint of bitterness.

"Why do I even bother," Jeremy muttered, his words a weary sigh as he walked over to the cabinets and pulled out a first aid kit, his movements a silent admission of defeat. He gestured at the counter and said, "Hop on."

Landon frowned, uncertainty flickering in his eyes as he turned his head to look at Jeremy, the façade beginning to crack under the weight of Jeremy's persistent concern. "Why?"

"I've got to dress your wounds," he said casually, his words a stark reminder of the reality Landon desperately tried to escape. Starting to dig through the first aid box, Jeremy's actions felt like a tightening noose, each movement pushing Landon further into a suffocating corner. "You have drenched them. I also need to reapply the creams. There's a bruise behind your right knee I missed yesterday." 

Landon felt the words like weights pressing down on his chest, his breaths coming in short, ragged gasps. His lungs burned, starved of air, as sweat broke out all over his body, a cold sheen of panic coating his skin. And right behind Jeremy, looming like a specter, was the void, its darkness threatening to engulf him once more.

"No," Landon said in a firm tone, his voice a defiant whisper against the encroaching darkness, more a plea to himself than to Jeremy. His vision flickered, wavering between reality and the abyss. But with a forceful effort, he pushed back the suffocating emptiness, his vision returning to normalcy. Jeremy looked over at Landon with a questioning look, uncertainty clouding his features.

"Why not?" Jeremy's voice held a note of frustration.

"I'll do it myself," Landon declared, his tone sharp as he pulled the first aid box towards himself, determined to maintain his crumbling façade. Forcing himself to smirk, he met Jeremy's suspicious gaze through the mirror, "Unless you are dying to touch me, obviously."

Jeremy's suspicious gaze hardened into a glare, his frustration bubbling to the surface as he rolled his eyes and stepped away, his disappointment palpable in the air between them. "You're infuriating," he muttered.