Rune sat on the couch at night, Hyde had gone to bed a few hours ago. Rune read a book. As he let his eyes glide across the page, his mind began to wander.

He had been here for a month, now. He and Hyde had continued to talk and hang out every day, but the more they did so, the more Rune began to realise how little he knew about Hyde.

What did he know? He came to this village six years ago; the people bother and pressure him into being the only cop here and he hates it, and yet he stays. What happened that could’ve caused him to come here and make him stay despite how exhausted, angry and lonely he often is?

Rune had tried to ask about it, but Hyde shut him down right away every time he mentioned Hyde’s past, telling him to forget about it or saying he doesn’t want to talk about it. He probably didn’t trust him enough yet, which Rune thought was fair. It had only been a month, Rune hadn’t told him about his family either.

It must have something to do with the scar on his lip, right? Yeah, he said he lost a fight. That must’ve scarred him. But a fight with who? Whoever it was, he’s here to avoid that person, or so he said. But why? Is he scared? Ashamed? Why did they fight?

Rune snapped out of his thoughts as he realised he processed none of the words he read in the last couple minutes. He sighed and closed the book. Perhaps it was time for bed. He laid the book on the couch and stood up, then went into the hallway towards his room. He walked past Hyde’s door on the way.

Hyde screamed.

Rune jumped, he nearly tripped over his own feet.

“What the—” he whispered. “Hyde?” he then called. He knocked. “Are you okay?”

No answer.

Should he go in? He should check on him, right? Yeah, that’s what a good friend would do.

He pushed the door handle down and peeked inside. Hyde laid in bed on his side with his back towards him. He was wearing his sleep shirt, his shoulders were tense.

Rune walked in further, he leaned over him to see his face. Hyde was tightly gripping and biting his pillow; his face was angry, but he had tears rolling down his cheeks. He was breathing heavily and groaning, nearly growling.

Rune placed his hand on Hyde’s shoulder, he was shivering. “Hyde?” He gave him a little shake. “Wake up.”

He had to wake him up, right? He couldn’t leave him in this distressed sleeping state, whatever was going on.

Rune sat on the edge of the bed and shook him with both hands. “Hyde, wake up.”

Hyde growled and dug his face deeper into his pillow.

Rune shook him harder. “Wake up!”

Hyde gasped as his eyes shot open. He rolled onto his back and thrashed Rune’s hands off him.

“Hey, hey!” Rune grabbed his wrist. “Calm down, it’s me.”

Hyde sat up and tried to push Rune away as he frantically looked around and hyperventilated.

“Hyde.” Rune got a hold of his other wrist. “Hyde! Look at me.”

Hyde looked at him for only a moment, but Rune could see his pupils were narrow.

Rune moved his legs onto the bed, sitting on his knees. He let one of his wrists go and moved his hand to Hyde’s face. “Hey.” He gently grabbed his chin and turned his face towards him, Hyde finally looked him in the eyes. “You’re home, in your room, in your bed. I’m the only other person here, you’re safe.”

Hyde stared at him as he kept hyperventilating. Rune let him go. He sat on his behind and let his legs lay in front of him, resting on either side of Hyde. He held Hyde’s shoulders. “Can you do something for me?”

Hyde let out an unsure groan.

“Breathe with me, okay? In through your nose.” Rune put his hand on his belly and breathed in. “All the way down to your belly. Then, slowly out through your mouth.” He blew his breath out. “Now, join me. In through your nose”—he breathed in, Hyde joined with a shaky breath—“and out your mouth.” They both blew their breaths out. “In”—they breathed in—“and out.” They breathed out.

Rune smiled. “There you go, keep going.” He pulled Hyde’s shoulders towards him and let his head rest on his shoulder. As Hyde kept breathing, Rune pulled his hips closer and let Hyde’s legs rest stretched on either side of himself. He held Hyde against him and leaned his cheek on his head. “Just keep breathing,” he whispered.

Hyde laid with his cheek against Rune’s shoulder, breathing along to the rise and fall of Rune’s chest. Tears stung in his eyes. He hooked his arms around Rune’s waist. The tears rolled down his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. He sobbed. He turned his head and hid his face in Rune’s neck. He gripped his shirt between his shoulder blades and hugged him tight as he kept taking wet, shaky breaths. He felt Rune massaging his shoulder with his thumb. The corner of his mouth crooked up as he rubbed his face into his neck.

“Do you want me to stay for the night?” Rune whispered.

Hyde hugged him tighter and nodded against his neck.

Rune smiled a little. “Okay.” He moved to the top of the bed and dragged Hyde with him. He laid on his side with Hyde in his arms. “You can go to sleep now, I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Hyde took one final deep breath before closing his eyes and falling asleep, surrounded by a comforting scent.

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

Hyde didn’t want to wake up, he was comfy. He had his head on a nice, cool, sturdy pillow, which smelled amazing. He rubbed his face into it. He clenched his hand over—what he assumed to be—the pillow case.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

The pillow fluttered up and down along with a quiet, breathy snicker. Hyde’s eyes shot open. He pushed himself up on his arms and looked at the ‘pillow.’ He stared at Rune, he felt his face grow red. Rune chuckled.

“Uh, how long have you been awake?” Hyde wondered, embarrassed.

“Hm, twenty minutes, maybe?”

Hyde turned to sit. He stared into the distance.

Rune sat up, he frowned. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Hyde tensed his shoulders and turned his head away from him. “You—you were surprisingly cold.”

Rune raised his eyebrow. “Eh, yeah. My body is kinda dead. But did you have a night terror or something?”

Hyde shook his head. “Just a nightmare. Do you have blood flowing through your veins?”

“Yeah, I have a blood flow. Only not as warm as yours and it needs to be refilled from external sources; it’s constantly dying. Just a nightmare doesn’t typically make you scream.”

Hyde turned back to him. “You seem experienced with this kind of thing,” he whispered.

“My little sister had night terrors sometimes. At the orphanage.”

Hyde perked his head up. “You’re an orphan?”

Rune sighed. “Yes, but I’m not the one we should be talking about right now. Do you know what’s causing the night terrors?”

Hyde stared down at the bed. He brought one knee up to his chest and hugged it. “Maybe.”

“What?”

Hyde shook his head and hid his face against his knee.

Rune moved closer. “If you don’t want to talk about it, then I won’t make you. But, as you said, I have a bit of experience dealing with night terrors. If I can help, I want to.”

Hyde’s lips trembled.

“Does it have something to do with your scar?”

“Why do you want to help?”

Rune was taken aback. “Well—I care for you.” He gave him a small smile. “You’re my friend, I want you to be okay. And night terrors aren’t a sign that you are, there’s probably some underlying—maybe longterm—issue. Again, I want to help if I can.”

Hyde seemed like he was about to burst into tears.

Rune thought of what else to say. Was there something he could say to convince him? He didn’t want to pressure him, but he felt it was important for them to talk about this. “Raven mentioned before that you haven’t opened up to anyone since you got here.”

Hyde hummed.

“So, have you talked to anyone about this?”

Hyde shook no.

Rune further turned to him, fully facing him. “It might help to tell someone. That way, it leaves your mind. At least a little bit. It could be nice knowing someone else knows. If you ever have issues regarding it again, you know you could talk to them about it.”

Hyde pushed his mouth against his knee, he silently stared down again.

Rune looked down again too with a quiet huff, getting frustrated. He shook the thought out of his head, then took a deep breath; this was not a good time to be frustrated with him.

“We’ve talked so much the past month.” He moved his gaze back to Hyde’s teary, puffy eyes. “Why won’t you tell me about this?”

Hyde pinched his eyes closed, he shook his head again. “I—” He opened them. “I’m scared,” he whispered.

“Of what?”

“That you’ll think differently of me.”

“Why would I?”

Hyde turned to him but still looked down. “Cause I’m not only—” His face trembled. “I’m not only a victim.”

“…Oh. What happened?”

Hyde clenched his face as he put his hand on his forehead and tears fell down his cheeks.

“Hyde, you think I’m one to judge?” Rune said with a chuckle. “The whole reason we even met was because I was breaking into people’s houses and nicking stuff—”

“You did it for a good reason!” Hyde finally looked at Rune in the eye again. “I didn’t.”

“Hey.” Rune grabbed Hyde’s hand from his forehead and pulled it down, holding it in his own. “I promise, whatever it is, it won’t change how I see you. Tell me what happened.”

Hyde trembled. He sniffed his tears up, then nodded. “I—I hurt someone.”

Rune squinted his eyes in thought. “In that fight you lost?”

Hyde nodded.

“Is that where your scar comes from?”

Hyde nodded again.

“But then they hurt you too, right? That’s generally what happens in a fight.”

“It wasn’t some random fight, I…” Hyde stared off again.

Rune frowned. “Then, who did you fight with?”

“My dad.”

Rune’s eyes widened.

“I hurt my dad,” Hyde sobbed. “I don’t even know how badly; if I only injured him or even crippled him.”

“Why don’t you know?”

“I lost control. We both did.”

Rune sighed, he squeezed Hyde’s hand. “Tell me the full story.”

Hyde took a deep breath and nodded. “There’s a pack, a werewolf pack, in our town. We’re the alpha family. I was supposed to take over from my dad, but I never wanted to. But I didn’t want to tell him, cause—I guess I didn’t want to disappoint him. Or everyone. My whole life, everyone expected me to take over, I thought everyone would hate me if I refused.

“Then, after my nineteenth birthday, my dad wanted me to take over suddenly. I panicked and ran into the forest. My dad went after me and found me and asked what was wrong, but I still didn’t want to tell him. We started arguing and things got heated, because he didn’t understand and I wouldn’t tell him even though I had always told him everything before and we both shifted and lost control.

“When I was fully conscious again, we had already gone our separate ways. I had run further into the forest towards this village and there was no sign of my dad. But I was covered in wounds and I had blood on my mouth, so, I bit him pretty badly somewhere.

“Other than that, I don’t know anything. If I injured him more, if he made it back home, if he told my mom and sister what happened, if he knows I’m still alive, if he’s still alive, I—”

“So why don’t you go home and check?” Rune interrupted.

“Because, what if I did cripple him or—or kill him? How could I face that? Face my family? Even if I didn’t do any of that, it was still my fault. If I had told him, none of it would have happened!”

“But you’ll never know unless you go see for yourself.”

Hyde sighed deeply and leaned his forehead against his knee.

“You mentioned you were covered in wounds.” Rune pointed at the scar on Hyde’s lip. “That isn’t your only scar, is it?”

Hyde shook his head. He sat up and turned to him. “I’ll show you.” He grabbed the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up. Rune stared at the scars. They were from at least three strikes with a claw. One diagonal over his chest, one more horizontal overlapping the first one, and the last diagonal over the top of his stomach.

Rune shook his head with a huff. “You blame yourself so much, but it’s seems like he hurt you just as much, if not more.”

“I don’t know that!” Hyde pulled his shirt back down.

“And you never will if you avoid him for the rest of your life!”

“Why do you want me to go see my dad so badly?!”

“Because—!” Rune looked up and sighed as he teared up. “Because, I wish I still had the time left with my dad that you can still have!”

Hyde flinched back in shock.

“You never know how much longer you have with your parents, even if there’s nothing wrong with them or nothing seems to be threatening them. Do you really want to waste all this time here, when you could go home and spend time with them? You’re never going to forgive yourself if you take too long to go home and you’ll never be able to reconcile with him.”

Rune had tears rolling down his face. “What happened to my parents didn’t have anything to do with me, but there are so many things I wish I could say to them. Don’t let yourself make that mistake.”

Hyde was stunned. “I—what… what happened to your parents?”

Rune wiped his tears away, he smiled sadly. “I guess it’s time to talk about me, now.” He took a deep breath. “My parents were killed.”

Hyde was shocked. “Holy shit. W-why? When? How old were you?”

“Thirteen, eleven years ago. I don’t know why, their bodies were never found.”

“Then how do you know they’re dead?”

“They were gone for weeks, then a wooden stake with their blood was found.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry.” Hyde rubbed Rune’s arm. Rune gave him a sad chuckle. He leaned forward and placed his forehead on Hyde’s shoulder, he clenched his face and let himself cry. Hyde put his hand on Rune’s shoulder, he massaged circles with his thumb. Rune sobbed, then placed his cheek on Hyde’s shoulder instead and stared at the wall.