A suffering silence passes by before I'm the first one to speak," James-"
"-Going somewhere?"
My brows furrow as I look down at the bags Angus dropped earlier. 'He has the wrong idea. '
"That's not what's going on-"
"-But it's what it looks like. Tell me August, was that all a lie earlier?" He suddenly cuts me off as he begins to slowly make his way downstairs. With each step he takes, the floor boards make a chilling creak.
As he reaches the end of the stairs, Angus tries to block me from him by stepping in front of me but I gently tap his shoulder.
"It's fine," I mumble as I step out from behind him. He keeps quiet, silently watching James's every move but James only seems to have his eyes on me.
I talk fast as I rush to get out my explanation,"James I promise you nothing is going on. I was just seeing Angus off, he's going back home to his family. Isn't that right Angus?" I turn back to him, a little desperate for him to say something.
He keeps his eyes on James as he clenches his fists in a ball," No."
"Angus what are you saying! Please don't provoke him!"
"Provoke him? God dammit August this is your problem now, stop defending this piece of shit."
I can feel my heart drop a beat,' This isn't happening.'
James scoffs as he walks over to me, crossing his arms," I fucking knew it. You were just saying that you weren't going to leave me just so I could keep my guard down. It's a good thing I woke up when I did or your ass would've been across town by now," he yells, voice full of ridicule.
"Oh fuck you! Do you really believe that my brother could love someone like you? A filthy murderer!" Angus grabs my shoulder, pushing me behind him as he takes a step forward. James stands tall, still keeping his dominant demeanor up as he glares down at him.
The darkness of the house is starting to mix in with my anxiety so I flick on the lights. James and Angus are neck and neck as they stare each other down, eyes both filled with hatred.
"Watch how you speak to me," James warns, his hands tightening into fists.
"I'll speak to you however the hell I want! It's as I said before, August will never love someone like you and I'm taking him home with me!"
I shake my head yelling," Angus what did we just talk about?!"
"Fuck that and fuck him, he needs to be given a little dose of reality. When you're the person you've destroyed yourself to be; a sick, psychotic control freak, shit isn't supposed to go your way!"
I let out a skittish breath, trying to talk to him isn't working, he's not listening. I try walking over to James but I'm suddenly stopped as Angus's back pushes into my chest. We both fall back into the door as Angus groans, holding his bleeding nose. Seeing the blood from his nose drip onto the floor makes chills race across my skin.
"Angus!" I gently hold him by his shoulders as he collects himself. James breathes heavily as he walks over to us, he grabs a lock full of Angus's hair, pulling him out of my arms. Angus screams as James begins landing punches into his face. Each time he tries to get away from him, he's knocked down by a blow.
"Stop! James please!" I hurriedly go over to them, trying to push him off my brother but he pushes me away.
Angus manages to hit him right into his wound that was still in the process of healing, James finally lets go of him, coughing uncontrollably.
"Come on!" He grabs my hand, rushing back over to the door. Before he can get it open, his head is suddenly smashed into it. His head hits it instantly before it bobs back.
Without thinking, I try getting James to let go of him. I grab hold of his arm, pulling him away with all my strength but it's no use. James keeps smashing his head into the door, again, again and again until Angus finally loses balance before stumbling to the ground, holding his head. I panic even more seeing him on the ground. James sends me daggers as he stares down at me.
My heart feels like it's about to burst out of my chest with the way it's beating, I clutch my chest tightly, trying to reason with him," Please James, just listen!"
"Listen to what? More lies," he scoffs as he smacks my arm off him. I back away as he walks towards me.
"Tell me august, was this all a lie? Was he really telling the truth about you not loving me?!"
I back up more and more until I enter another dark room, stopping as I realize that I'm in the living room. "James I want to explain everything to you but you're not letting me!"
He stops walking, brows locking together as he searches for the truth in his heart.
"Please..." I gently take his hand, rubbing it softly in attempt to soothe him.
"Was it all a lie?" His voices softens some, as if he's genuinely hurt by this misunderstanding.
"Of course not! I love you James and only you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, I'd never leave you!"
His gaze shifts from anger to distress as he looks at me. I keep rubbing his hand, staring intently at him.
'Please understand. Think things through and see that this is all just a misunderstanding!'
He lets out a breath as his mouth parts open, but before he can say anything, the floor boards behind him creak. He whips his head back, immediately dodging the bat Angus swings at him as he moves to the side. Everything happens in an instant and before I can even react, I'm suddenly falling to my knees, holding my throbbing head in pain.
Muffled screams surround me as everything starts to blur.
"Look at what you've done!"
"I didn't.....I didn't mean too..." Angus mumbles as he steps back in disbelief, staring down at me with in panic his eyes.
Through my blurred vision I can see James stepping towards him. In a split second, I try crawling over but collapse to the ground.
I can feel myself beginning to reawaken as my brows knit tightly together. A slightly heavy weigh falls over me as my eyelids open up to the darkness around me. As I blink away my hazy vision, a figure appears in front of me, James. My head throbs in pain as I sit up, looking the room.
'How did I get back in bed? '
James is beside me, holding the covers in his hands as if he were about to tuck me in. My brow raises as I eye him up and down. He watches me with a calm expression before he asks as if nothing happened," What's the matter?"
"What do you mean what the matter?" My eyes scan around the room as images of what happened really in mind. 'Angus, the fight, me passing out...it all just happened so why the hell am I back in my room as if it hadn't? '
He slowly lets go of the covers, they fall onto my lap as he sorts of nods.
"Why aren't you answering me? I don't need you to nod I need you to be explaining to me what the fuck is going on?"
His eyes cast back onto me," Calm down," his voice soft, almost a whisper.
Confused by everything, I scratch my head but flinch as I feel a swollen knot. "Ouch!"
"Careful, I just wrapped that."
"You just wrapped it..." I trail off as I recall Angus striking me earlier. "He didn't mean it."
James gives me a look of uncertainty as his nose scrunches up.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Who do you mean,' didn't mean it?'"
My shoulders drop, a short breath leaving me as I lick my dry lips.
"Angus, when he hit me I know that he didn't intend to."
His calm demeanor quickly turns to alert as his eyes widen," He hit you?"
I lean back, eyeing him up and down," Yes. You were literally there. I think he was actually trying to sim for you."
"August what are you taking about?"
"What are you talking about? How could you forget, this literally just happened!" I flip the covers off me as I begin to stand. He takes a step back, giving me some space as I look around the room again.
"Here. We were right here!" My hands gesture to the spot he was just standing at. He watches me, still with his nose scrunched as if he didn't understand.
"I'm not following."
"James please stop. This isn't funny. The fight between us three? Hello? For fucks sake I got hit with a fucking baseball bat!"
"Are you okay?" He reaches out his hand to check my hand but I smack it down.
"Stop this, please. You were there. This just happened. Me and august were downstairs talking when you came down and suddenly started accusing me of leaving you. Angus and you got into it and when I tried to break it up, I ended up getting my shit rocked."
He stays quiet for a moment, eyes wandering around before he looks back at me.
"Now do you remember?"
"You're fucking with me," he laughs as he shakes his head.
"I'm not, I-" the floor board creaks as I take a step forward. I look down at the floor, leaning my weigh on it as it creaks even more. James looks down at my movement, tilting his head. I bounce on the board, making a rustic sound sound of through the quiet room.
"This floor board, it's the same one we stepped on earlier," I mumble at my realization.
"What are you on about? Did I bore you that much?"
"Huh?"
"My story? About Shawn and everything? As I was telling you what happened, you fell asleep on my shoulder so I figured you must've been tired. I brought you up here, hoping to tuck you in but here you are talking about your nightmares."
I pause, thinking of everything. 'No that can't be true...'
"My head though..."
"You bumped it on the toilet seat and now it's infected. Angus didn't hit you august. I know for a fact that he didn't."
"How?" I snap, letting my frustration out on him.
"Because angus hasn't came back since you guys had that argument."
The room grows silent, I hold my head, trying my best to believe what he's saying but I can't. Everything felt so surreal earlier, I couldn't have made that all up in a dream. Not only did everything happened, me and angus made up. For the first time in a while, everything was becoming clear between us. All of that was t a dream, it couldn't have been.
As I try to make sense of everything, my eye catches sight of the time clock on the nightstand.
"It's five fifteen in the morning..." I mumble, lowering my hands.
"What?"
"You said that I got tired and fell asleep on you, right?"
"Yes."
"If that we're the case, where did all the time go? I only just now fell asleep right? When we were talking the sun was still out, it wasn't even nightfall yet. How could it be five in the morning then?"
He stays quiet as I think.
"...when angus woke me up it was four in the morning, only an hour ago. It's only been an hour since everything happened, I know I'm not losing it."
"August stop. You're just confused from the infection, when we talked it was nightfall, we talked for a while before you fell asleep. There's no way any of us would've checked the time with a conversation like that going on," he crosses his arms.
I groan as my head starts to sting,' It feels like it's going to split open. Shit, he's right. This infection has been causing me to pass out lately, maybe I'm losing track of time as well? '
"Ugh, I'm sorry. I feel like I've been losing it lately," I apologize as I cover my eyes in shame. "I shouldn't have taken my anger out on you, let's just go back to bed and forget this whole thing."
A small smile tugs on his lips as he nods in agreement. I crawl back into bed, covering my legs as I wait for him to turn off the lights. He goes over to the light switch on the wall and reaches for it, as he does his sleeve rolls up. I would've missed it if it wasn't for my quick eye. My heart sinks as I suck in a breath.
"Wait!"
He looks over to me, tilting his head.
"What is it now?"
"Your hands, there's something on them," I toss the covers to the side as I get back up. He looks to his hands and rolls down his sleeve as I approach him. My steps start to slow down as I eye him up and down, discovering something even more blood curdling.
'Something isn't right.... '
"These clothes... they're Angus's."