Bold Words

Day 14: Sticks - Paper - Color

Alexis cried out as his body hit the ground, figs and shrugs snapped beneath his form as he landed on the cold, forest ground. His dark brown eyes lifted to look for him. His hand reaching, “Josh!” He yelled, reaching out, but his boyfriend was already almost out of site. Alex watched for a moment longer—he didn’t… he didn’t even look back. He tried to fight away the anger that was eating at his insides, the pain and the rejection he felt from being left behind. Did Joshua even ever care about him?

Alexis shuffled to his knees as he heard the brush crackling behind him. There was the light bell of metal tapping to the ground. His heart started to throb in his ears, giving a base beneath the sound of each even footstep drawing closer. He scrambled to get to his feet, but as he did, he made the mistake of turning around.

“My, my, what do we have here?” the man said. Alexis had never seen him before, but he instilled fear inside the teen before even laying eyes upon him. His skin was as pale as a corpse. His hair was a light blond, like a fine wheat, and neatly combed back to stick to the man’s scalp in an executive manner. He wore a grey suit that looked expensive and like it’d just been ironed, while he wore a complementary fur around his neck which looked just as expensive as the suit if not more so. There were dark bags beneath the man’s eyes, lightly lining them with a danger Alex knew he should fear. One of the man’s hand’s was casually in his pocket while the other held a cigarette, showing off an expensive looking ring on his middle finger and long, strong nails. “Did someone get left behind?” he purred.

Alexis stepped back, but the man wouldn’t allow any space to come between them. “Look, I don’t know who you are, but please, I was just—I was just out here with my boyfriend—“

“I see, mutt,” the man said, musing to himself as he took one more swig from his cigarette and tossed the remainder of it to the ground. He’d accept the dumb mutt’s trade. It wasn’t often one would betray their mate for their own freedom and the fact that his last pet did just made this all the more interesting. Who was he to condemn a wolf for going out and doing shitty thing to another? So long as his coat was just as precious.

The man reached out to grab Alexis, pulling his other hand from his pocket in one swift swipe to lift the boy’s shirt. “Did you get in a little accident? You’re bleeding you know,” he grinned softly, dark eyes scanning over Alexis’s midsection. There wasn’t a damn way in hell he would accept the goods if they weren’t ready to be taken. Lucky for the last mutt, it seemed he at least scratched this one, prepping him for the change during the next full moon. Good, he liked pups. It gave him time to train them to behave how he liked rather than giving in to the full animalistic bullshit for years which then it was erase that before or be killed. He’d lost plenty a werewolf that way and he really didn’t want to go looking for another.

“What are you doing?!” Alexis snapped, pulling himself away from the man. With his toes buried in brush, he turned as quickly as he could and started to run. His eyes were focused ahead, where Josh had disappeared. His jaw was tight as one thought repeated through his mind; get home.

The man reached into his pocket once more, producing a small needle. It was no use for Alexis to run. He made it maybe five feet before it seemed the man had teleported to him. A long needle was immediately jammed into his arm, the contents quickly emptied out into his blood stream. With the needle still in him, Alexis tried to run, but after two steps, his body slammed into the ground. He reached out, slowly and desperately, in one last attempt to get away. His body said do anything and you can get away but his mind knew better. His fingers closed around a few loose leaves, his eyes fighting to stay open.

“Help, Josh…” barely escaped before everything went black.

Leon reached into his jacket pocket, producing another cigarette as well as a lighter. He placed the cigarette into his mouth before he even attempted to light it, taking in a breath slowly. He closed his eyes relaxing as he held it in for one moment, then two, then three before he blew out, slipping the lighter back into his pocket. He made his way to the boy before tossing the kid up over his shoulder. He had no idea how old he was. When you got to be as old as he was, everyone else alive looked all the same, but if he really had to guess, he’d say the kid was probably sixteen or seventeen. The dark brown and the slight wave in the boy’s hair seemed promising for his wolf coat, but he would just have to see. If nothing else, Leon would just sell the boy to some other collector to do with as he pleased. He had no space in his collection for a second rate, mangy looking wolf or his skinned coat.