The Monster Beside Us [BoyxBoy]

Chapter Four

Chapter Four: Broken By Design

Song: Run Boy Run by Woodkid

To celebrate three weeks in the bunker, I urged Vincent to come with me to the center, but like every other time I tried, he shut me down. Fear of the outside crept into his dreams late at night reminding him that he was never truly safe. For those three weeks, I took care of him, I was there by his side when he broke through the nightmares screaming in horror.

He healed pretty quickly. The marks on his face faded after a week, but it was the following days that made it tough keeping him afloat. His hair was falling off, and a new sickness had marked its territory on his skin, replacing the previous wounds. Vincent was ill.

"Please," I begged. I lost count how many times I tried getting him out of bed. When you were stuck underground, there was no real reason you'd want to get up, but we still had lives.

"No," he said.

Something about Vincent pulled me in. His gravity was a force I couldn't break free from. I liked him more and more the days went on, even when we had done absolutely nothing of importance. It only mattered that he was there and so was I.

We talked a lot. He didn't shut me out completely. He just didn't want to go outside anymore.

There was something special about him. I wanted to protect him. I tried to get to the bottom of things. I went to Capitain Saki's office and spoke with her about the incident, but Vincent not cooperating made it nearly impossible. Under no circumstance did he want to talk about who attacked him. It endlessly tortured me. Why wouldn't he want to talk about it? What was he so afraid of? He should be able to trust me more than anyone, yet he didn't. It made me wonder things I hated. It made me think of the things the doctor said to me.

Could he have lied about the attack? What could he get out of lying about something so serious? The last thing I wanted to do was doubt him, but he gave me no choice. If it wasn't his blood on him that day, whose was it? And why did that person never turn up? If someone else had gotten hurt, the captain would have known about it. Things just didn't fucking add up and I was losing my mind.

"Can you bring me some water?" he asked nicely.

"If you come with me, you can get more than just water," I tried.

"Or you can get it for me like you have been doing."

I looked at him and sighed. His eyes were getting red, only this time it wasn't from intensely crying. It was difficult saying no to him, especially in his condition, and because he was too cute.

"You have to go out at some point, Vin," I said quietly.

"You can leave the door open if it makes you feel better."

I snorted. "It doesn't, but it's a step."

"So, water?" he said, showing me that cute smile of his.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Fine. But you could've just drank from the tap water, it's safe."

"I don't trust anything these days," he muttered.

"I'll be back in a bit," I told him.

"Wait!" he said as I headed for the door. "Compliment me."

"Compliment you?" I raised a confused brow.

"You said if I wanted to be complimented, to just ask you. I look sick all the time and it makes me feel like shit, but you don't seem to care, and I want to know if that's true."