Hyde walked through the forest with Rune beside him. He looked up at the stars. They’d been in the village for a few days now, Hyde didn’t feel like there was any point to staying anymore. Sure, he and Rune had their own house here, but was it worth the distance from their families?

He glanced next to him at Rune. Rune stared at the ground, he had his hands in his jean pockets, his shoulders were tense.

“Something wrong?” Hyde asked, concerned.

Rune flinched and looked up. “Uh—n-no, I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” Rune turned his head to the ground again.

“Then why are you so tense?”

“I—” Rune choked up. “I can’t,” he whispered.

Hyde stood still, Rune did too.

“Can’t what?”

Rune shook his head with tears in his eyes.

Hyde frowned. He put his hands on Rune’s cheeks and turned his face to him. “Hey.” Hyde stroked his cheeks with a sad smile. “You can tell me, I won’t judge you.”

Rune smiled a little and pushed their foreheads together, he placed his hands on Hyde’s waist. Hyde kissed him in an attempt to calm him down, whatever was going on. Rune kissed back. Hyde stepped backwards and bumped into a tree, pulling Rune along. Rune removed one hand from his waist and pulled away. Hyde rested his hands on Rune’s chest, Rune’s heartbeat was going crazy. Hyde wasn’t sure if it was due to the kiss.

Hyde looked down. His eyes widened as he inhaled sharply. He pushed Rune off him. He stared at the pocket knife in Rune’s hand, adrenaline surged through his veins. He felt his claws wanting to come out. Rune turned away with his fist pressed to his forehead and tears rolling down his cheeks.

“I can’t,” Rune breathed out. “I can’t do it.” He threw the knife with an angry grunt.

Hyde watched the knife disappear into the trees, breathing heavily. He turned to Rune. Rune looked at him while he cried.

“What the hell was that?!” Hyde shouted.

“I’m sorry,” Rune whimpered. He stepped closer to Hyde, leaned his forehead on his shoulder and grabbed the bottom of his shirt. “I’m sorry.”

Hyde didn’t reciprocate the touch, but didn’t push him away. He wasn’t sure what to think. “Explain,” he demanded.

“The gang, the people I worked for, they found out I tricked them. They approached me this afternoon, when I went to buy food. They told me to kill you to prove my loyalty or they’ll make me pay.” Rune wrapped his arms around Hyde’s waist and rubbed his face into his shoulder. “I don’t know what to do.”

Hyde took some time to process. Make him pay? They had threatened his family before, but it didn’t seem like that’s what they meant this time. They would’ve said so, otherwise. He tensed, his senses heightened as he came to a realisation. He held Rune against him. “We’ll figure something out,” he whispered.

Rune hugged him tighter.

In the gang’s eyes, it was either Hyde or Rune, Hyde realised. Either Rune killed Hyde, or they killed Rune. And maybe Hyde, too.

“They were here this afternoon?” Hyde asked for confirmation.

Rune nodded.

Hyde observed their surroundings. Bushes rustled in the distance. He grabbed Rune’s hand from his back and pulled him along to leave as he said, “We should go.”

“Huh? Okay.”

The rustling came closer.

A rock flew past Hyde and he froze. He turned his head to the side, breathing heavily. A woman came out of the bushes holding a wooden stake, followed by a man holding a knife.

“Well, aren’t you observant,” the woman snarled at Hyde in a northern accent.

Hyde pulled Rune behind him.

The woman scoffed. “You still protect him even after he pointed a knife at you? How nauseating.” She pointed the stake at Rune. “And you”—Hyde glanced at Rune—“are weak. Pathetic. Your father would’ve done it.”

Rune’s eyes widened. “What?”

“Now you’ll both die.”

“My father?”

Hyde faced the woman again. “Not the time,” he growled, he began to shift. “You, knife,” he told Rune while he still could.

“Huh? R-right.”

Hyde roared and ran to the woman holding the stake. He slashed at her. She stepped out of the way.

“Ugh, do you have any idea how annoying you are? After five years, you’re the one who catches him? Why you? And why would he fall in love with you afterwards?” the woman questioned him.

Hyde growled and jumped on her, tackling her to the ground. He noticed Rune struggling with the man holding the knife from the corner of his eye, bleeding from various cuts that quickly healed. Hyde slashed at the woman, cutting her across her cheek. She pushed his chest and shoulder in an attempt to get him off. Hyde grabbed the hand with the stake. She yanked at her hand, he pulled it back, bit her wrist and didn’t let go. She screamed.

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“You—!”

She switched the stake to her other hand. She rammed the blunt end of it into Hyde’s temple, making him release her wrist and fall to the side. She got up and composed herself before approaching Rune and the man.

Hyde twitched on the ground, face down, groaning, his head throbbing. He put a claw over his temple to try to ease the pain. He lifted his head and rested his chin on the ground. He opened his eyes, the world spun around him. He felt the need to throw up. There was a warm liquid dripping down the left side of his head.

He tried to find Rune. He saw three hazy figures some distance away. Hyde tried to push himself up, Rune couldn’t fight both of them at once. He fell through his arm and landed on the forest floor again with a thud. He heard the distant sound of Rune struggling to breathe. Hyde dragged himself forward. Rune was coughing.

Hyde could make out Rune kicking his legs around. The man had his arms hooked under Rune’s armpits and held him back. The woman stood over him with the stake. Rune had something in the side of his neck. The knife, Hyde realised. He pushed himself up on his shaky arms, he managed to get to his knees.

“Truly a tragedy for your family,” the woman said. “First your parents, now you.”

Hyde crawled closer.

“And right after you finally came home, too.” She raised the stake. “Was he worth it, your boyfriend?”

Hyde’s eyes widened.

No, no!

Rune tried to yank himself free from the man and kicked at the woman.

Hyde gathered all the strength in his body to jump at her.

She brought the stake down and pierced Rune’s chest.

Hyde tackled her to the ground. He pinned her head down and dug his fangs into her neck, causing her to scream again. She attempted to push him off. He pulled his head up, ripping her flesh off, splattering more blood on his face. She stopped fighting.

He spat it out and looked at the man holding Rune. He dropped Rune and sprinted away. Hyde growled and wanted to run after him, but stopped when he heard Rune groaning behind him. He turned around and fell to his side.

Hyde began to shift to normal as he stared at the stake in Rune’s chest. Rune had pulled the knife out of his neck himself. His chest was still rising and falling. Tears stung in Hyde’s eyes as he lifted him into his arms. He caressed his head.

“You can’t come back from this, can you?” Hyde choked up.

Rune gave him a weak smile. “You were worth it,” he whispered.

Hyde clenched his face and pushed his forehead against the top of Rune’s head. “Please, don’t go.”

Rune’s head fell against his chest. Hyde looked down, he had closed his eyes. His chest wasn’t moving anymore. Hyde pushed Rune’s head into the crook of his neck and tightly cradled him in his arms as he sobbed. He screamed in agony.

----------------------------------------

Two kicks on the door as a knock. His hands were occupied carrying his lover’s body. Hyde turned his gaze to the side; he didn’t want to see his lifeless face. He hated how cold Rune began to feel, more than he already was. His eyes burned, he was exhausted. It was late, he had cried his eyes out, he had fought for his life, his love had been murdered. He killed someone.

The door opened.

“What do you need so”—Selene noticed Rune in his arms—“late? Oh, no.”

Hyde trembled. “You can communicate with souls or something, right?” his voice cracked.

“Only if they linger, but yes?”

“Can you contact him?” Hyde choked up. “Even if I can only say goodbye.”

Selene considered what to do while staring at Rune’s body. She put her hand on Hyde’s arm and gave it a small tug. “Come in.”

Hyde walked in. Selene led him to the guest room. “Lay him on the bed.”

“Why?”

She grinned. “I could do you one better.”

“Huh?”

“Lay him down.”

Hyde laid Rune on the bed. He stepped back. “Now what?”

Selene pulled the stake out of Rune’s chest and left it on the bed. She put her hands on Rune’s forehead and chest, they began to glow a light blue as she muttered something under her breath. Rune’s body glowed along. She took a deep breath as a drop of sweat fell down her forehead.

She turned to Hyde. “God, you’re a mess.” She grabbed his wrist and dragged him away. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Hyde stared at Rune as they left the room. “What did you do?”

“I put a spell on his body so it won’t decay.”

“You can do that?”

She smirked. “I can do lots of things.”

She took him to her living room, then pushed him onto the couch and left. Hyde stared at nothing, frozen. The side of his face was still warm and sticky. His head ached, everything was hazy.

Selene came back with a first aid kit. She sat on her knees beside him. She opened the kit and grabbed something. Hyde flinched away when she touched his temple with the something.

“Sit still, I have to clean your wound.”

“Wound?”

She raised her eyebrow. “You haven’t noticed the blood on your face?”

Hyde wiped his cheek with a few fingers and looked at them. They were covered in a nearly dry, red substance. “Oh, I didn’t realise it was blood.”

He flinched when she tried to clean the wound again. She put her hand on his other cheek and held his head in place while she hissed, “Sit still!” Hyde clenched his face at his stinging wound.

“How did you get this?”

“Eh—” He struggled remembering. “Oh, the lady, that killed Rune,” he added in a whisper. “She rammed the blunt end of the stake into my head.”

Selene hummed, concerned. “Were you dizzy? Nauseous?” She put the cleaning rag away and grabbed a big plaster.

“Yeah, very.”

“How long ago did it happen?” She pushed his hair out of the way.

“Twenty minutes, maybe?”

“Are you still nauseous and dizzy?” She pulled the plaster over his wound and stuck it in place.

“Not nauseous, but dizzy.”

She hummed again as she dragged her thumbs over the plaster to get all the air bubbles out. “I think you have a mild concussion.”

“What do I do about that?”

“Rest.”

Hyde grunted. He glanced at the door to the guest room. “Can you do anything?”

“About Rune?”

“Yeah.”

Selene sat down at his eye level and grinned. “He’s the perfect test subject for my research.”

Hyde frowned at that word. “What are you researching?”

“Bringing the dead back to life!”

Hyde flinched in shock.

“I can already reanimate corpses, they heal and everything and they come to life. Even on bodies that have decayed, as long as the DNA in the bones is intact enough, the whole body will regenerate, it’s fascinating! Only problem is, their soul doesn’t join the body. It’s an empty husk. I haven’t figured that part out yet, but I’m close, I can feel it!”

“You—you might actually be able to bring him back?”

“It’ll take some time, give-or-take some weeks. But most likely, yes. Although”—she looked to the door to her study—“I am curious what my current potion would do to him.”

“Wha- You want to turn him into a zombie?!”

She put her hands up in front of her in defence. “If it goes wrong, I could kill the body and try again later. I’ve been reanimating the same rat for months, now,” she finished with a chipper smile.

Hyde stared at her, disturbed and slightly scared.

She stood up and walked into her study. She returned with a small vial and headed to the guest room. She waved Hyde over. “Come on, don’t you want to see what happens?”

Hyde sighed and got up. He entered the guest room, he looked away from Rune’s body. Selene stood over it near his head. Curiosity got the better of him and he wanted to see what she was doing.

She opened the vial, then pulled Rune’s mouth open and let three drops of the potion fall in. Hyde froze when he saw the wound on Rune’s chest knit itself together. Rune opened his eyes and sat up.

Hyde couldn’t believe it. Did it actually work? He stepped closer to him, he frowned. There was no expression on his face, no life in his eyes. “Rune?” he whispered, he placed his hand on his cheek. “Are you in there?”

Rune yanked Hyde’s shoulder towards him and pulled Hyde’s head to the side, Hyde yelped. Rune’s fangs brushed Hyde’s neck before Hyde was pulled away from him. Selene grabbed the stake, pushed Rune’s face away and pierced him through his heart. Hyde pinched his eyes closed and flinched. Rune fell down on the bed. Hyde looked, breathing heavily. Rune laid there, lifeless again.

“You should go home and get some sleep,” Selene told him. “It’s late and your head needs rest. I’ll continue my research in the morning, I’ll come get you when I’m done.”

Hyde tried to slow his breathing as he considered it. He nodded. With one last glance at Rune, he stepped back and left.