Shadow

11

They probably knew the truth already. Fluke started to feel his knees shaking when suddenly a hand grabbed his wrist and guided him to the bathroom.

Ohm locked the door and then turned to face the other. "Fluke…"

The detective had called the name without his usual gentleness, it was as if everything inside him had dried up as the connections between facts and events finally took place inside his brain.

"Fluke," he repeated once more, torn internally between shooting the serial killer they had been looking for so long or sparing the man who was the love of his life.

"Make up your mind, detective!", Fluke smiled defiantly, looking him straight in the eyes. 

Fluke could read the doubt written in Ohm's gaze and didn't want to force him make a decision that could make him feel bad afterwards. It would be better if it was just an instinctive reaction. That way Fluke could leave this world knowing the man that he loved with his whole heart wouldn't feel sorry for him.

"I–", but Ohm stopped. In the bedroom, Boun argued with the nurses who demanded his ID.

"I'm a cop! Let me do my job! Ohm can you hear me?", Boun yelled trying to get his friend's attention while alternately knocking on the bathroom's door and arguing with the hospital staff.

"Sir, I'm going to need to call hospital security if you keep making noise next to the patient!"

"So call it! We really need reinforcements!", Boun said throwing himself against the bathroom door.

The hospital staff members screamed in panic, Boun was knocking on the door without a rest and Fluke looking at Ohm like he was a threat, made the detective's head throbbing too much for him to form a coherent thought.

Boun kept pushing through the door and it was clear he was going to make it through it soon. "Ohm, Kao already called in reinforcements, don't worry!"

Ohm was startled by this new information and in an instinctive act, he quickly crossed the distance that separated him from Fluke, taking the boy by surprise as he covered the smaller body with his own. Ohm was protecting him.

"Why are you doing this, Ohm?", Fluke whispered and for a second that was all the detective could hear.

"I… I don't know, okay! I need to understand the reason for all of this! Why, Fluke? Why me?", the despair was dropping from his words, Ohm was about to lose his mind.

"You're just afraid to face the truth, my love", Fluke said trying to reach Ohm's cheek with his hand, the knife long forgotten had fallen out of his hand as they fled to the bathroom. Ohm had a gun just like every other member of the Bangkok Police, but Fluke was unarmed, with only his bare hands to fight back. Yet, they didn't seem willing to use force.

Noticing Fluke's intention, Ohm stepped away and that made the other stop where he was. 

The cold treatment made Fluke change his speech. "No one falls in love by mistake, Ohm. In the depths of your heart you have always known this. You had never called me out for my unprofessional behavior or asked about the weird things that happened around me or with me. Deep down you have always known that I am Shadow.", Fluke said and tried to step closer to the other, "Come with me, Ohm. Let's get out of here and start a new life!".

Ohm risked a look into Fluke's eyes and he could still see the same shade of brown he loved so much, but he also saw dark shadows that scared him because they held secrets he didn't even suspect – or maybe he didn't want to see. Before him really was a serial killer.

"No! This is not true, Fluke!", the name lingered bitterly in his tongue, "Shadow!", Ohm held his head with both hands, fingers buried in the hair that fell in disarray across his forehead. He was in a state of total despair. "I don't want anything that has you in the equation! You're a murderer, Fluke! A criminal and–", but Ohm couldn't go on.

Coming through the bathroom window, a shot hit Fluke in the back and he fell to the white floor that was soon dyed by a red river whose source began in the hole at his shoulder.

"Fluke?", Ohm yelled in panic. Seeing that the boy didn't respond, he shook him several times, tears spilling out and joining the red river at his feet.

"Fluke! Fluke! FLUKE!", Ohm screamed desperately until all that was left in his head was the echo of his own voice. He was dimly aware of Boun walking into the bathroom and pulling Fluke's body away from him, but after that it was all just a blur in his mind.

The first time Fluke tripped and fell on top of him, he thought he saw an angel. Now, Fluke had become one for real.

********

"You finally woke up, Sleeping Beauty!", Boun gave him a bright smile which seemed too odd because his head was throbbing like hell.

"What do you need me for? Let me take a nap!", Ohm said, rovering to the other side.

"We need to go, buddy!", Boun tapped his shoulder, making him turn around angry.

Ohm had slept for a few hours after the incident. Kao had called a sniper who shot Fluke through the bathroom window, but what no one expected was the senior detective to have a breakdown because of that. Lucky for them, the job wasn't done yet and they needed him.

"Where do we need to go?", Ohm asked feeling his tongue tasting like sand inside his mouth.

"Shadow, your sweetheart, escaped from the room he was being monitored in after the surgery. We need to go after him!", Boun was still smiling, but his facade seemed too close to fall. If he didn't have forced Ohm to fuck Fluke maybe none of that would had happened. He felt like it was partially his fault.

"Are you saying…", Ohm couldn't muster the sense out of that sentence, "Is he…?".

"Yes, Shadow… Fluke is alive."

Ohm felt ice and fire colliding inside his veins. Fluke… No, the serial killer they needed to catch was still alive and they had a mission. The detective let out a sigh and then smirked showing his dimple.

"This is good. The game has now changed, we are the tiger and the mouse!", Ohm muttered to himself, but of course his long time friend wouldn't let that pass unnoticed.

"How sweet of you to call your serial killer boyfriend a tiger! Come on, little mouse!", he teased the man getting up from the bed.

"You asshole!", Ohm yelled at him.

"Alright, alright! I'll take care of the hospital bill while you get dressed, ok?", the blonde said leaving the room towards the reception.

Ohm got out of bed and felt a little cold as the frigid air hit his bare legs, only then did he realize that he had been dressed in one of those nightgowns patients usually wear in hospitals. The detective went towards his clothes which were piled on a chair beside the bed and he was having an unbearable headache. He felt like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks – which wasn't exactly incorrect to say – and his stomach was growling with hunger. What he wouldn't give for a slice of cold pizza and stale coffee!

When he finished dressing in his clothes and reached into his pocket in a reflexive gesture, he found something inside: a methodically folded piece of paper.

When he opened the small paper, in the center was written a single sentence in a very delicate handwriting that showed the firmness of who had written:

"Catch me if you can!"

Ohm crumpled the small note in his hands. He didn't know if he should call Shadow a genius or a mad man, but the truth was: the guy was bold enough to get inside a detective's bedroom to plant that note there.

"You can be sure I'm gonna catch you, Shadow. Get ready if you can!", the detective then left the room and back to the search of his old target who now had a face to be associated with.

[The End]

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Notes:

Aaand this is it! I hope you all enjoyed the journey! Thank you for the comments and votes! Please don't remove this from your reading list yet, maybe someday we'll get the chance to know if Ohm and Fluke from this universe will ever meet again! See you!! 😘💙