Death's Blessing

Chapter 3

***Des, Earth, 25***

Leo headed to the café right after work, like he did every day but found the closed sign already on the door.

It was only 5:30, they didn't usually put the sign out until 7 unless business had slowed enough to warrant an early close. But Leo could still see several customers inside and others approached the door before noticing the sign.

*That's odd* Leo thought. Des hadn't mentioned closing early. He knocked on the door, getting the attention of a café employee who quickly let him in.

"What's with the sign? Where's Des?" Leo asked as they walked to the back of the café.

"Ummm..." the girl started, "There was...kind of an...incident." She said nervously.

"What kind of incident? Where Des? Is he ok? Was someone hurt?" he asked worriedly.

"Oh no one was hurt but... Des...about 20 minutes ago this guy came in with flowers, you know the routine." She looked up at Leo and shrugged.

"Ok, that happens all the time. So what?" Leo replied wondering what the guy said or did to cause Des to close early.

"He seemed.....really pushy. Wouldn't take no for an answer, more so than any others I've seen. The guy got angry. Des asked him to leave and tried to back away but the guy grabbed his arm, pulled him down and said something real low in his ear. We didn't hear it but Des just....snapped. He yelled...he yelled Leo. Something like don't speak of things you know nothing about and told the man to leave and not come back. One of the guys shoved the man out and locked the door. Des just stood there a moment, then ran upstairs and slammed the door. He was shaking so bad. We figured it was a good idea to shut down. Everyone should be out in the next few minutes." She said, obviously relieved.

As she had explained the days events, the last few customers had left the café leaving only Leo, 2 employees, and Des alone upstairs in some unknown state.

"Ok," Leo said taking a deep breath. "Thanks for taking care of things. Anything else down here need to be done?" he asked.

"Nothing we can't do before opening tomorrow." She said. She glanced to the stairs leading to the apartment then back to Leo. "Good luck and tell Des to call one of us if he needs anything. Make him take a day off, I'll cover for him tomorrow. We're all worried about him."

"Will do. Thanks again." Leo locked up when the last employee left, did a quick check around like Des did every night then headed upstairs. When he entered the apartment, there was a mess of papers strewn across the floor. Probably the cafés accounting Des had been working on this morning and left on the small dining table. Leo looked around for a minute and started to the bedroom when Des walked out.

Des froze and looked at Leo, his gaze roaming up and down. It was...predatory, unlike anything he had ever seen from Des, and it made him nervous.

"H-hey Des, you ok?" he asked surprised by the shake in his voice. Des just continued to stare at him. Leo lifted his foot, intending to go to Des, but as soon as the motion registered to him, Des was moving. His long graceful stride carried him across the room so fast, Leo stumbled back into the door. Des' hands landed with a clap on the door to each side of Leo's shoulders.

"Why are you here?" Des asked, his face just inches from Leo's. His voice was low and rough, not the smooth melodic voice Leo was use to.

Leo flinched at the words, as if Des had struck him. The question had hurt more than any physical blow could have.

"I..i always c..come over after work." Leo stammered out, terrified at where this conversation could go.

"That's not what I asked." Des replied slowly, studying Leo's face carefully.