Safe Word Sunlight | Gay MxM |

1. Detour of Fate

"I'll take you to the hospital. Don't worry, you'll make it," I told the man lying almost lifelessly in my backseat. His heavy breathing was filled with pain, and quiet whimpers escaped his mouth.

"No... No, no, no... No hospital... They'll come for me..."

What...?

"You're badly injured," I said, my voice high-pitched.

"No... No hospital..." he begged me, his voice shivering. "They'll come... They'll know..."

"I have to," I told him.

"No... Take me... Take me to..." he trailed off, and I feared he'd passed out. I glanced at him again. He was still awake. Barely.

"Where?" I asked, and he gave me an address. I had to make him repeat it twice before I could make sense of his mumbled words.

He didn't have much long left. As I typed the address into my navigator, I wasn't sure what to do. He begged and pleaded for me not to take him to the hospital. And then he passed out, just before the city lights came to my view.

"What am I supposed to do...?" I whispered, nearly crying.

He needed a hospital. He was in desperate need of help, but the way he begged... He was scared of the hospital. Whoever had attacked him – it was not an animal, that was for sure – would come for him. But he'd be safe in the hospital, right?

"Fudge!" I hissed and decided to follow my navigator.

The place it was taking us was much closer than the hospital. I soon found we were heading toward the older part of the city with small apartment buildings and old wooden houses. Nearly in panic, I scanned the buildings, trying to find the right one in the heavy rain while also trying to stay on the road.

And there it was! Finally! I saw a gray building with three floors up ahead. I took a short look at the man in my backseat, nearly freaking out because of how dead he looked. I should've taken him to a hospital!

"Fuck!" I mumbled to myself as I pulled over next to the building.

The bottom floor had small shops, all of them closed by now, except for a 24/7 laundromat in the corner. There were only a few lights on in the apartments above. Where was I supposed to take him?! He only gave me the number of the building!

I rushed out to open the backseat door. He looked so dead... He wasn't even breathing anymore. His skin was so pale it had turned almost blue.

He was dead. He was already dead.

After the first shock, I suddenly felt completely numb. My ears started ringing, the sound of it becoming so loud I couldn't hear the rain behind it. Like I was about to faint. I had a dead person in my car, and the hospital was miles away.

My hands shaking, I leaned closer to the young man. He was breathtakingly beautiful even with his long hair soaked and face covered in blood and dirt, his clothes torn and bloodied.

"My god..." I whispered, the tears finally coming down my face.

I touched his cheek, but immediately pulled away because of how cold his skin was.

"Please..." I murmured and touched him again. "Please, wake up..."

And he did! Oh my god, he did! I was suddenly filled with adrenaline when he opened his eyes, and I hurried to help him out of the car. He was barely conscious but moving. I had no time to give a thought to anything else but helping him.

"There..." he mumbled, pointing at one of the doors in front of us: the laundromat.

I didn't stop to ask him why he thought the tiny laundromat was a better option than the hospital. I was in such a deep panic I couldn't even understand how unbelievably weird it was. He wanted to go there, so I took him there.