Twinyards:)

Neil thought going for his run an hour or so before sunset on Halloween was a brilliant idea.

How wrong he was.

The streets were clear of kids at this time of the day, the sky not yet dark enough to create that added fear factor of walking around in creepy costumes and asking strangers for sweets. Neil frowned as he slowed his pace to side step an old lady walking her yappy dog. She gave him a little smile which he returned politely before picking back up some speed. He and Kevin, his adoptive brother, had not long moved to Palmetto and he was still unsure of the areas surrounding their apartment. Their dad, David Wymack, had moved out here years ago after they had both finished high school and were going to college in Boston. He’d only stayed out near Baltimore to not upend either Kevin or Neil’s lives, but once his boys were no longer at home, he took up a coaching position at PSU. Neil couldn’t blame him for wanting to move away; he suspected living in a place that no longer housed his deceased wife was hard. But he’d done it for them. Because he loved them.

He was happier out here now, loving his job, his new house with quiet neighbours, and he was in a new relationship with his team’s nurse, Abigail Winfield. They’d been together for a few years now, but Neil hadn't been able to meet her in person until they'd moved here. He remembered the video call coming through while he was in his college dorm room one day, his roommate Matt Boyd had not been in the room at the time. His dad had looked nervous, and it was weird for Neil not to see him,as his usual stoic self. When he’d asked Neil if it was okay for him to start seeing another woman, he had been confused. He and Kayleigh had only adopted a year before cancer had quickly taken his adoptive mother away from him. Still, his dad refused to let Abby into their lives unless both he and Kevin were fine with it. Neil had laughed as if someone had told him a joke, because of course it was fine. Since then, the woman would call them every week, fretting and fussing as any mother would. She was very excited to have them living so close now, and Neil smiled at the memory of her excitement a month or so back when he and Kevin said they were moving out to Palmetto. Kevin to work alongside their dad as an assistant coach, and Neil to join PSU as one on one Math tutor.

He was brought out of his reverie to the loud scuffling of shoes over gravel, loud enough to be heard over the music coming through his ear phones. He halted to a stop, pulling them out. Getting lost in his own head had caused him to go off of his usual route around the block. It was down a slightly darker, more rougher looking street, a few shifty looking people making their way into a run down apartment building. He suspected it was one of the small drug outlets for a town like this. The scuffling happened again but louder this time, and more importantly, it was closer. He turned on his heel looking behind him but he couldn’t see anything other than the flicker of street lights kicking in. He pulled out his phone, intent on calling Kevin, seeing as his brother was going to be on his way home from their dad’s place when he felt hot breath at his neck, and words whispered in his ear that he had not heard since he was a child.

“Hello there Junior.”

Neil spun away only to be gripped tightly on his biceps by strong hands and pushed further into a dark alley between two buildings, stumbling over his own feet and falling face first, He barely had time to use his hands to break the fall, pain spiking as the ground tore at the skin of his palms. “Now Nathaniel, is that any way to greet old friends? By trying to run away?” Romero Malcom’s low drawl made him freeze up, twisting to face both of his attackers slowly. The other man’s face was an angry sneer, seeming satisfied with the sight of Neil laying at his feet. Lola, however, was manic and almost feral looking. There was a knife in one of her hands, the fingers of her other running across the blade.

“You helped put Nathan in that hell hole, and a few days ago, someone from the inside did him in. They killed him and now you’re going to pay for a life that shouldn’t have been taken so soon.”

Neil laughed at that information, that Nathan was dead and gone, finally, and he didn’t stop laughing even as the two advanced on him.

He stuttered, when a cold blade met the skin of his cheek, cutting deep but he still laughed.

He laughed still when they dragged him deeper into the alley by his hair.

And he laughed through broken screams when Lola took a lighter to his face and arms, and Romero buried a knife in his abdomen.

He laughed and laughed and laughed as the world went dark.

oOoOo

Neil came around again, lying flat on his back and staring at the stars, stones digging into his sling. His body was on fire, pain radiating everywhere. He lifted a shaking and brutalised hand, pressing it to his lower stomach. Blood seeped through between his fingers, and his shirt was soaked through from more than just sweat. He was pretty sure he’d been lying in a pool of his own blood for a while.

He turned his head, finding his phone smashed to pieces a few feet away. Neil cursed under his breath. He tried opening his mouth to call out for help, but stopped instantly when he pulled at the wounds on his face, feeling blood run down his cheeks. His other hand shifted, fingers twitching against something rough. When Neil managed to look down again, there was a much larger rock next to him. He grabbed at it, ignoring the way the burns on his knuckles screamed in protest. With all the strength he could muster, he banged that rock against a trash can that had fallen over to his left.

He didn’t stop even when his eyes started to close.

He was just so tired.

oOoOo

There was a murmuring of voices, calling out to him. He told his dad that he just wanted five more minutes. He didn’t have school, it was the weekend.

“Come on, open your eyes dude. I’m not your dad, you’ve been hurt. Can you tell me your name?” Neil blinked slowly against a bright light. Oh, he knew this light, that light you saw right at the end. He didn’t want to die yet.

“You’re not going to die. An ambulance is on the way, but you gotta keep those eyes open.” He blinked again and realised he was seeing double. Two tiny blonde people hovering over him. The light gave them halos. How lovely. “Your vision is fine, and we’re not your angels. My brother is currently keeping pressure on that stab wound.”

Right. Lola. Romero.

Oh god Kevin was probably losing his damn mind. His dad and Abby too. He always called at the same time every day, always. “My dad, he…” he tried to move but screamed in agony. Neil relented to the hand pushing him back down. “I want my dad. Phone broke.”

He heard sirens getting closer, and the tiny blonde bear his head disappeared. The one with his hands on Neil’s stomach shifted so Neil could see him. “Whoever did this, they did quite the number in your face.” Neil flinched, because he just knew Abby was going to have a meltdown when she saw him. “Hey. You’re still attractive there, under all this grime. If I’d met you under different circumstances, I might have tried to bring you home with me.” Neil coughed, it wet and made him ache so much worse.

“I’m not, not…”

“Don’t talk anymore. You’ll hurt yourself. You can shut me down later. Name is Andrew. Do you want to tell me yours now, so I can give something to the paramedics who are coming over?”

“Neil. Is Neil.” His head spun and there were the heavy sounds of people running towards him.

And then he was out again.

oOoOo

Everything was white. Oh so very white. Machines were beeping and there was something attached to his hand. It was itchy. Out. He should take it out and the bad itchy itch would go away. Before he could pull on the offending item, a warm strong hand wrapped around his own. “That’s there for a reason, you know.”

He wanted to explain to the stranger about the big bad itch, but his mouth was as dry as a goddamn desert. “Wa…” the words cut off when bandages pulled at sore skin and he hissed.

“You can have ice chips.” Neil tried to force himself to sit up at the other voice, eyes running around the room. “Stop that, you’ll pull your stitches. Do you want to start bleeding out again?”

“Aaron, stop. Go see if his family has turned up yet.” The tiny blonde by the door, Aaron, huffed and disappeared from the room. Neil looked around again, realising he was in a hospital room. He turned his head to the other tiny blonde who had come closer, gently trying to feed him a tiny piece of ice. After one or two pieces, he waved one of his hands about, and the other man retreated. He sat in a chair by Neil’s bed.

“Wha’ ‘appened?” His words were a little slurred, but at least his tongue was no longer stuck to the roof of his mouth.

“My brother and I were on our way to meet our cousin when we could hear banging. Thought it was just some kids messing around for Halloween, but it was a constant sound, a repetitive tone. We followed it and found you lying there nearly dead.”

Ah yes. It was assaulted with an onslaught of images then. Lola and her lighter, Romero breaking his phone so he couldn’t call for help. They’d intended to let him bleed out and die, right there in that alley, alone. Neil’s breath hitched and one of the monitors started beeping rapidly. Kevin and his dad and Abby, they wouldn’t have known. They would have had some cop knock on the door to say he wasn’t coming home. The blonde man beside him, who Neil remembered had said his name was Andrew, went to press a button by his bed when a group of people stormed into the room.

His panic dissipated at the sight of his family standing there, looking haggard but so full of relief. “Jesus Christ. What the hell have they done to you?” It was Kevin who spoke but his dad was the first to the side of his bed. David Wymack was not a man who liked when his kids were put into harm's way.

“You didn’t call. You scared the hell out of us, kiddo.”

Neil smiled as much as he could. “I’m okay.” There was some more shuffling and Neil could see the two blondes who’d helped him trying to slip out of the room as his family crowded around him. “Wait.” The two meant stopped, both a mirror of the other with the way they had their hands in their pockets, and Neil also realised they were in blue scrubs. Probably Neil’s fault from all the blood he’d lost. They turned, Aaron flicking his eyes between everyone in the room but Andrew, the one who thought him attractive for some reason, only had eyes for Neil. “Thanks for saving my life.” Aaron simply nodded and turned to walk out of the door but Andrew didn’t follow immediately. He smiled at Neil, just a little one but a smile nonetheless.

“You can thank me with coffee when you’re all healed up. Number is on the table. You never did get to shut me down.” He winked and gave a two finger salute before disappearing to follow his brother.

“Only you, son, could say you had your first dating experience by almost dying.”

“What?”

Abby came over to run her fingers through his hair checking him over. “Ignore your father. You don’t need to worry about anything right now. We’ll talk about the birds and the bees later.”

Kevin laughed, but not as loud and hearty as he would usually, when Neil frowned. He gripped Neil’s knee under his blankets tightly, the only part of him that didn’t feel like it was on fire. “So oblivious, baby bro. It’ll make sense soon enough.”

Underneath all of their relief and happiness, Neil felt like they were all a bit too smug. As if they knew some secret that he didn’t.

He pushed it all aside to figure it out at a later date.