Tim was sitting in his new classroom. The summer break was over and he just started his eleventh year of school. He chose, for the first time in forever, a seat close to the teacher's desk. Normally, his best friend and he himself would choose a seat further back, if possible in the last row of tables, to do everything but learn during their classes.
His friend was gone now, Tim's face was almost lifeless and he had bags under his eyes.
Students started pouring into the classroom, avoiding him and trying to sit far from him. The tables around him were empty, only one of them was taken. Next to him sat his best friend, as she liked to call herself.
Tim did not actually care about her, or like her in any way, he was just scared she would do something to herself. Lina was a self important girl who used the fact that she had been depressed in the past, as well as her fake asthma, to pressure other people into friendships against their will.
She pushed her desk towards his and put her hands on his shoulders. "I'm so sorry that he is gone!" Her words were like knives to his throat. He knew that she did not care that his friend had vanished over the summer break, if anything, she was happy he was gone.
"Leave me alone." He muffled under his breath in a way that she could not understand him.
She stood up and put her arms around him in a hug: "It is alright, I'm here for you." Her tone was so pretentious that he had the urge to hit her. Why was she even touching him?
He pushed her away with his shoulders and looked up towards her face, it was the first time in weeks he had seen her. One could see tears forming in his eyes and he tried to speak again: "Lea—"
She interrupted him, pulling him into a tighter hug and pushing his face into her fat stomach. "I missed you too."
The teacher walked into the classroom, a leather bound book in his hands and he was wearing sunglasses so big, they were covering half his face. A ginormous grin was decorating his red and wet lips as he spoke: "Welcome to your first day in my classroom. We are going to have a lot of fun this year, and I hope you will do me justice and have a better average score than that bitch's class next door!"
The teacher put the book onto his desk with a loud slam, rested his hand on the table and looked once around the classroom. "As you are all aware, there are a few new faces here." He said, "Some of you should already know each other, because most of you are from this school, but some came from different schools because we have a wider category of classes which you were able to choose. That is why I want everybody, in the order in which I call their names, to come to the front and introduce themselves."
Tim was tired and tried to ignore the teacher and his obnoxiously loud and happy voice. But he did not want to make a bad first impression to his new teacher and classmates, so he tried to sit up straight and look engaged. He was not.
The first few students who were called were just ordinary and plain, nothing special. Then Lina was called to the front and, of course, she told lies to be seen as more interesting.
She stood in the front with a giant smile on her fat face. She first introduced herself and told everybody that she and Tim were best friends, ruining his chance to make any friends. Afterwards she told them about the adventures she experienced during the summer break, but Tim knew she was just at home and at parties, drowning herself in alcohol and sleeping with strangers. She only hinted at her depression but mentioned her asthma.
Tim was very annoyed by her. The way she looked at him when mentioning him, the way she moved her arms and legs while talking. Everything pissed him off. Then his Mind drifted away, into nothingness.
A few minutes later, Tim was not sure how many exactly, he snapped back to reality as he heard his name being called: "Tim Ostfrucht, it's your turn. Come on, don't be shy." The teacher smiled at him.
"Huh?" He lifted his head and stared at the teacher for a short moment. It felt like an eternity. "Right." Tim stood up, pushing his chair back. It scratched the ground and made a noise which hurt his ears. He slowly made his way towards the front of the classroom.
Standing in the front his gaze wandered around the classroom, scanning the crowd: "My name is Tim, uh…" His mind drifted once again as his eyes landed on one of his new classmates. A few seconds go by before Lina stood up, giving the teacher a note.
The teacher was flustered: "It seems I made a mistake. I apologise!" He turned to Tim, "You may sit down now."
A few more seconds passed before he sat down. "Who is that?" He thought, "Why—" His gaze wandered towards the boy again as he stood up and went to the front to introduce himself. He was awestruck. "Why am I so fixated on him?" He asked himself.
"My name is Lukas." His voice was loud and full of self confidence, then an eerie smile crossed his lips for just a tiny moment. "I don't seem to recognise any of you." He whispered loud enough that just the front row of students could hear him. Then he continued: "The hobbies which I can state from the top of my mind right now are as follows: I enjoy writing short stories from time to time, I like animals but love cats specifically, dogs on the other hand… meh!"
"How could you prefer cats over dogs?" One of the students asked in shock.
Lukas smiled at him: "I believe cats to be divine creatures, which is why they are so arrogant—" But before he could continue his sentence, he was interrupted:
"Cats are trash!" Another student screamed at the top of his lungs. He stood up from his chair and looked at Lukas angrily, who just stood there with a smile on his lips which did not reach his eyes.
"You don't seem to enjoy the concept of life I see." Lukas said.
"Wha—" The student tried asking something but Lukas grabbed a chair, running at the student and throwing the chair at him. The student tried to dodge but was hit against his back by the chair and fell to the ground. And before he could stand up again to retaliate, Lukas was on top of him, his fists hitting the student over and over again.
The teacher was sprinting through the room to stop Lukas. "Stop that! This instance!" He screamed and tried pulling Lukas off the boy whose face was almost unrecognisable by the time he reached them.
Through this whole scene Tim just sat in his chair awestruck. His eyes were fixated on Lukas, not the boy. This whole scene was just amazingly weird to see, normally he would be scared or something, but this time, he was not.
"Just why?" He thought while the teacher pulled the angry and bloodied Lukas from the — probably — unconscious boy.
The rest of the introductions went smoothly after they had sent Lukas to the principal who quickly called the police and after the student was taken to the hospital. It was quite the exciting first day of the school year.
***
Tim was walking back home, Lina beside him. "That was so scary!" She said as if to attract attention.
He turned towards her: "Why do you keep acting like this?" He quickened his pace down the road. It was rather empty that day, probably because of the heat that day. Most schools had actually decided to start school a week later due to the heat, but his school? They do not care about the students' well-being enough.
She also quickened her pace by starting to hop behind him happily: "I don't understand what you mean! I am an honest and nice person."
Tim just clicked his tongue.
"Don't you click your tongue at me!" She complained.
He got so annoyed by her voice that he accidentally let his tongue slip: "How do you even keep up with me?" Her eyes narrowed, "You should be exhausted already, like every person that has the amount of fat on their entire body you have on your chin alone! Just leave me alone already!"
Lina stopped moving, she just stood there, looking at his back while the distance between them increased with every step he took. Her eyes were weirdly dry and her mouth hung open. "Since when does he have a backbone?" She muttered.
Tim's face was contorted with rage. His steps got quicker and quicker until he was sprinting home. He ran up the stairs, opened the door into their apartment and just went into his room, leaving the door wide open. His mother later scolded him for it, but that was not a part of his current concerns.
He threw himself into his bed and his backpack still on his back as he lay on his stomach. Tim's face was pressed into his pillow for a few seconds, maybe two or three, until he had to take a breath and turned his head to the side.
Then he noticed the state his room was in. He had not cleaned since his friend had vanished. He spent all his time in his bed or in front of his computer, playing single player games. He had two chairs filled with clothes which spilled onto the ground and mixed into the piles of trash he had collected. His desk was drowning in empty soda cans and his keyboard was shining in the little light that entered his room through the window, showing just how sticky and dirty it was.
He then tried to turn his face back down into his pillow, but with the way the backpack was laying on him, it required him to move his head in a certain way. Trying to accomplish this, his gaze landed on one of the only clean items in his room. It landed on a picture of him, he was being carried on the shoulders of his best friend and had a huge smile on his face, showing teeth and so was his friend in the picture.
The name of his friend was Jake. He was a rather outgoing and extroverted person. Jake loved to meet new people and urged Tim to be more outgoing as well which is why the two of them had been on a lot of adventures in their small town.
Once, they sneaked into what they thought was an abandoned building, only to be chased away by the resident old man with a gun living there. Another time they broke into their school on the weekend, hoping to steal one of the answer sheets for the upcoming exam, but they had to hide from the two janitors roaming around and spent over 3 hours in the building.
"Good times." He thought. Tim's eyelids slowly became heavier as he lay there, backpack on his back and lying on his stomach. He let out a deep sigh and drifted off into a beautiful slumber.
***
The next morning Tim had no energy to go to school, so instead he went to relax and eat in his favorite coffee shop. It was a small family owned business. Tim was a regular since Jake had vanished as it helped him to relax and get his mind off and onto a different topic.
He entered the store, his eyes aimed at the ground, his hands hidden in his pockets. Based on the clothes he was wearing, most would believe he was there to rob the place and hide any body part which could be used to identify him, but the girl behind the counter instantly recognized him:
"Hi Tim!" Her voice was filled with joy upon seeing him, "How was your first school day yesterday? Made new friends, because we missed you here yesterday?" She rested her head on her arms as she leaned over the counter and her cleavage was fully exposed to him, but he did not avert his eyes from her face.
He did not really want to talk about school, but he did for some unclear reason want to talk about the violent new classmate: "Yesterday was a really weird day. Got a new classmate who… hm… how do I say that? Who is really violent when it comes to cats. Beat another student into the hospital with a chair."
The girl just smiled at him.
"And I was really mean to Lina." He whined, "I know, or am 99% sure, that she fakes her depression and just uses it to get attention—" A sigh escaped his lips, "—but what if she doesn't fake it? What if she hurts herself because of me? I don't like her but I also don't want anyone to hurt themselves."
"Why don't you get seated somewhere cozy and order a cake on the house? I will come over in a few minutes and we can talk about it, if you would like." She said and patted him on the shoulder. She turned her back towards him and looked at him over her shoulder: "I will be on my break in a few minutes, just wait." Then she walked off.
Tim sat there for about a minute, his head laying on the table and his hood finally off as someone placed a small plate with cake in front of his face. "Thank—" He tried to say and trailed off as he lifted his gaze to properly thank the person.
In a normal waiter uniform next to his table stood the new waiter they recently hired. The girl had told him already about it, but it was his first time meeting him, as he usually came in during the sunset, not this early. The uniform somehow made the waiter—
"—sexy!" It was Lukas who stood before him.
Lukas tilted his head as he heard the comment escaping Tim's lips before a smile crossed his thin lustrous mouth. "Well, thank you." Lukas said.
Tim blushed and tried to speak but only stuttered. Seeing Lukas smile at him with closed eyes, Tim regained his composure. "I thought you would be in prison or something after—"
"—the little stunt I pulled in class?" He chuckled, "I have some people in my contacts that bailed me out rather quickly. And there will be no problems with the boy or his family, already taken care of." Lukas bent forward, his lips only centimetres away from Tim's ears and he spoke with the most erotic voice he could muster: "Thank you for worrying about me."
As Lukas walked off, Tim stared at him, holding his ear. "His breath is so hot and moist." He muttered to himself, he could still feel Lukas' breath in his ear and the moisture which had turned from gas to liquid beneath his hand and on his ear.
He turned back to his cake and picked up his small fork. Well, he tried to, it seemed Lukas had forgotten to bring him one. Tim was too embarrassed by the prior interaction to call him back and just waited in silence.
The girl sat down in front of Tim and glanced at the cake.
"There you are, Anna." Tim said as he straightened his back. His gaze followed her gaze, from her eyes over her cleavage down onto the cake, which had gotten cold by now.
"Why haven't you touched your cake yet? Don't you like it?" She asked, "It's getting cold, I made it specially for you."
Tim looked back up to her, meeting her gaze: "You did not make that cake for me, it is neither my favorite kind of cake nor did you know I would come this early. As far as your knowledge goes, I wouldn't have come until 9 pm." His face was filled with boredom and confusion as he stared at her.
While Anna just stared back at him, he started to look her body up and down. "Why don't I feel anything when I look at her body? But when I look at him… My body reacts weirdly." He thought as, this time, Anna followed his gaze towards her chest.
It seemed like she did not care that he looked at her that way. "Didn't you want to talk about your first school day?" She asked and leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest and crossing her legs as well. Suddenly, she had an arrogant expression on her face.
Tim looked down at his knees and shifted uncomfortably, he made sure to look around the room for Lukas before starting to speak: "We got a bunch of new classmates who don't really catch my interest, but one among them, the moment he catched my gaze, I… don't know? I couldn't take my eyes off of him and I got this weird feeling in my stomach. He just doesn't leave my mind and then—" Tim once more looked around the room to make sure Lukas was nowhere near, "once it was his turn to introduce himself, he beat another student into a bloody pulp because he said negative things about cats. The student had to go to the hospital."
Anna was astonished, had Tim fallen in love with some psychopath? Her eyes narrowed, "cats…" she whispered. Her mind shifted towards the new waiter, Lukas. He always talked about cats and read extremely gory comics with a sadistic smile on his face during his breaks. "Continue." She said.
"I feel the same thing for him I felt for Jake before he vanished." He fidgeted with his fingers at his pants, "I think I just want to be friends with him, that is what that feeling is, right?"
Anna smacked her face with her hand: "How can you be so stupid? First of all, that guy is obviously some kind of psychopath. Secondly, you are definitely in love with him. Third thing is—"
"No! You don't understand!" He yelled before quieting down again, embarrassed, "I don't like boys that way. And he isn't that handsome. He isn't fit, just average and he has a few pimples on his face. His hair is a very dark shade of blond and I like brown hair… I think…" He was silent for a moment, contemplating something in his mind: "I couldn't possibly be in love with Lukas!"
Anna was awestruck. Lukas! He just said the name of their new waiter. She had hired some kind of mentally unstable psychopath with a love for cats and her favorite customer had fallen in love with him. At least he did not understand his feelings and just thinks he wants to be friends with him, but… like… what the hell?
Anna stood up, told Tim where his fork was( behind his plate) and left him alone at the table.
***
Lukas was sitting in the back of the coffee shop. He took a voluntary break as the owner of the shop came in and told him she would take over his role for a bit, as it had been a while since she actually came to work.
He was reading a colored manga about a war between cats and dogs. Of course the main character is a catwarrior and he slaughters hundreds of dogs. A disgusting smile was decorating his lips. He was waving his legs forward and backward under the desk like a small child might do.
An alarm went off and he jumped out of his chair, storming out the door after putting on his normal clothes and putting his work clothes into his bag to wash them at home. Lukas had left the store through the backdoor and made a huge circle around multiple houses before he finally landed across the street from the coffee shop and he saw Tim inside, staring at Anna's chest.
After a few moments of staring, Lukas turned away and made his way home.
"Why was he staring at her like that?" He murmured, "He likes me, doesn't he? Then why does he look at her?" Lukas lifted his hand towards his mouth and started to chew aggressively on his thumb's fingernail. His chewing became more aggressive with every sentence which crossed his mind.
The traffic light turned green and he crossed the street towards Tim's home. He had chosen to walk a small detour to see where he lived and, to his horror, another girl stood before his door, knocking and screaming Tim's name.
"Are you home, Tim?" Lina banged against the door and tried to see through the windows, "I know you want to apologize to me, so I was so kind as to come over!"
Lukas remembered her. She was that girl who had declared herself Tim's best friend. "Bestest friends in the whole wide world, was it?" He asked her, those were her exact words the day before.
She did not turn around. Did not even notice him a few metres behind her. "I also brought you an invitation to my birthday party next week. I will turn 19, but you should know that already." She continued to knock with her fists on the door and even the walls, "I know you love me and didn't mean what you said, if you're home and come down I would be willing to date you. Give you a kiss and all that stuff."
Lukas' eyes narrowed: "Date… him?" He just stood behind her for a few moments in shock, contemplating his next move in this dilemma. "Hm." He suddenly lunged towards her, grabbing her by the neck and throwing her to the ground.
Lina started to panic, scratching his face with her cheap nails and screaming for help.
Lukas did not let her attacks stop him, he just endured them. He did not let go of her neck until she had stopped moving for half a minute. His face was full of bruises and scratches but his expression had stayed emotionless throughout the whole encounter.
He stood up and lifted her onto her shoulders before walking off with her, laughing and speaking to her unconscious body as if they had just left the bar and she was drunk.
***
Tim was standing in front of his home, searching in his pockets for his key, eyes pointed downwards, as if that helps. He did not notice the few drops of blood on the floor mixing with the rain water which was still dripping from his roof since the storm at night. After he found his keys he opened the door and entered his home.
"I'm back!" He yelled, but nobody answered. "Nobody is home? Hm." It looked like his parents were still at work and his 15 year old brother was probably out on a walk with their dog. His brother went for walks with the dog in the morning, because his school, let's say for special people, started at noon.
He dropped his jacket and boots on the dirty ground and walked into the kitchen. He looked through the fridge with a bent back, signalling how exhausted he was. "Forgot to eat breakfast, well at least the cake was good, even though it got cool." He muttered, taking out a small sandwich his mother placed in there for him to take with him to school.
Walking out of the kitchen, sandwich in hand, he glanced towards the door and saw his wet shoes drenched in a mildly red fluid. "Did he hurt himself while he was leaving—" Trying to come up with an explanation for the blood he got a headache. His vision started to get blurry and he felt his body temperature rising: "Shit! I thought it stopped."
The sight of blood called forth memories of the day Jake had vanished. He could still see him lying on the ground, breathing heavy while blood was coming out of a wound on Jake's stomach. He could still hear his suppressed please for help as tears stormed down both their faces.
Jake had been ignoring the wound, not trying to stop the bleeding. Jake was just holding onto Tim's T-Shirt as he was lying on the ground, while trying to comfort Tim instead of saving his own life.
Tim clutched his chest and fell to the ground in his hallway. He was gasping for air, trying to reduce the panic, so he could go into his room. "Think of something else, think of something else, think of something—" He got an idea, he could try replace the memory he associated with blood from the day Jake vanished, to the day before, the scene were Lukas had beaten the student to a pulp, "Think of Lukas, Think of Lukas." His voice trailed off as his breathing became steadier and he leaned against the wall.
After a few moments of silence he was finally breathing normally, just drenched in sweat: "I thought it was over. It did not happen yesterday in school." He started crying while picking up his sandwich and walking upstairs towards his room.
Sitting in his room, distracting himself from the thoughts which were flying around in his mind, he heard the door opening and closing down stairs. He quickly hurried to his door, closing it silently. He had already taken off his clothes from outside, now wearing something more comfortable. Tim jumped into his bed, back to the door and wrapped the blanket tightly around his own body.
He could hear footsteps coming up the stairs and a tapping noise hurrying through the halls. His brother had returned with their dog and was now coming upstairs. Tim just stayed put, trying not to alert his brother of his presence in the room, he had no energy left for any type of conversation.
The footsteps went past his room and so did the tapping of his dog. Thinking the danger of conversation had passed he sat back up. His eyes were now slightly squinted as if he had just awoken from hours of sleep. He scanned his room for any potential reason his brother might enter his room, not finding anything.
Relaxed, he dropped his feet to the ground, ignoring the tapping of his dog's claws on the wooden floor outside his room. A sigh escaped his lips as he glanced out the window, hand in front of his eyes to block out the hurting sunlight. Behind him, the dog started to scratch at the door, trying to enter.
Tim ignored the pleading dog. He pushed himself from the bed and sat on the ground, leaning against the bed's frame. He hugged his knees to his chest and rested his head on them, face down.
His brother's footsteps came closer to the door, stopping when they were the loudest and, after moments of silence, the door slowly crept open and the dog ran in. Tim tried not to move and just waited for his brother to close the door again.
The dog came running around the bed and started to rest against Tim's legs. He took his eyes off of his knees and glanced at his dog. One of his hands reached down, slowly petting the creature. It was a relaxing moment for him, all the tension in his body slowly left him and his mind wandered away from the memories he had tried so hard to suppress.
"Thank you." He whispered.
***
On the next morning wandered Tim down the road, his umbrella open above him and blocking some of the rain. His shoes and socks were already drenched, as well as the lower fourth of his pants. Due to the winds blowing rain even hit him in the face.
His backpack on his back was hanging low, covering his ass and catching almost all of the rain which was flowing down his umbrella. The sky was dark and in the air a scent of cigarettes. The paths were filled with wet and annoyed people who had not bothered checking the weather forecast before leaving their homes. The streets were no better, the cars were speeding, not taking the people right next to them into consideration and splashing water all over them.
Tim tried to ignore the people around him while walking as close to the building as possible with an umbrella. People tried to push him away, get him to go out of their way but he just did not budge.
"Lululu." He was humming the song he had heard a few times already while his father was watching TV. A smile was covering his face even though the weather was bad and the people horrible. He had not yet noticed why it was so relaxing to walk to school that day.
Having survived the journey to school, he closed his umbrella and entered the building. The halls were crowded with wet people trying to dry themselves. Tim was trying to avoid getting too close to those people shaking their umbrellas dry, but some small amounts of rain still hit him.
He put his umbrella into his locker, taking out his school books for the first 4 lessons of the day and went to class.
Standing next to his desk, he tried to figure out how to put his jacket over his chair without sitting in the water flowing off of it. It should have been more obvious but he just had to put it onto one of the hooks for clothes in the back of the classroom.
He hung his jacket up and turned back towards the front as the teacher walked into the classroom, behind him Lukas with an apologetic expression decorating his weirdly attractive face.
"Lukas has something to tell the class today." The teacher said with an angry expression. He was standing in front of his desk, slightly leaning against it and crossing his arms.
Lukas opened his mouth, parting his lustful lips: "I apologize for my behaviour two days ago. I forgot to take my medicine in the morning to suppress my anger issues. I already visited James in the hospital and apologised as well and he and his family promised me there would be no legal consequences after I paid them some money." He made an apologetic gesture with his hands before continuing, "I am deeply sorry~!"
The teacher rolled his eyes as Lukas sat down on the empty chair next to Tim.
Tim walked back to his desk and sat down as the teacher spoke again: "Onto the next topic and a more serious one at that." A very heavy sigh escaped his mouth, "It seems that Paulina vanished yesterday. Her family already sent out a missing report and wishes to know if there have been any issues between any of you and her in the past few days. The police would like to know that as well for a more thorough investigation and, Tim, you have been called into the principals office where the police are waiting. Because, as you know, you are her closest friend and most likely to know of any hideouts and areas she might be in."
Tim's heart started to race. Had Lina done something to herself because of him? Had she… killed herself? "Oh god, please no!" He thought as sweat started to run down his skin and tears filled his eyes as he thought of being responsible for her death.
"Are you okay?" The teacher asked.
Tim did not respond and bolted out of the classroom, sprinted past the principals office and took off running towards the one spot he knew he could get comfort in.
***
Tim bolted down the street, his breath heavy. He ran past dozens of people, just pushing them out of his way and continuing to run as they screamed and yelled at him. Bolting past his mother who just closed the front door, dog next to her, and straight towards the town edge.
"Where are you going?" His mother yelled after him. Not getting a response she dropped her shoulders in defeat before shrugging and continuing on her way.
He had not noticed his mother talking to him, or that he had just ignored the poor woman. Sprinting into the forest he dropped his backpack at his hideout: "LINA!" His voice echoed through the woods and in return, he got nothing but eerie silence from nature.
He jumped into a crawling position, dropping straight through the towel— Jake had hung up to be used as a door— into the hideout.
The hideout was a small room he and Jake had built years ago beneath the roots of a giant oak tree. They closed the open holes with sticks, binding them with strings they stole from Tim's mother and hid them with leaves and dead grass. Over the years the two continued to enlarge the hideout to fit around 5 young adults with room to spare. Of course, they had never intended to let others know about it, but Lina one day found the hideout after following Jake there in secret.
Lina was Jake's girlfriend at the time. He was deeply in love with her, as they say, love makes blind.
"Are you in here?" He muttered, "I apologize, please be okay. I can't live without you." He lied to make her potentially feel better and lure her out if she was hiding in their hideout. He started to rip out different parts of the walls, revealing different hidden rooms he and Jake had made. But Lina was nowhere to be found.
But what if… no, she could not have found it. Tim practically turned to stone at the thought she found the secret room he had made the day Jake vanished. "Oh god." He slowly crept towards one of the chairs before revealing a small tunnel a fox had made. It was barely big enough for him to fit, no way in hell she could fit through there, but what if she did.
"Are you in there?" He screamed down the tunnel. No reply came towards him, but listening closely, he could hear movements at the bottom. "Shit, shit, shit!" Tim started to crawl through the tunnel.
The dead roots embedded into the walls scraped along his skin, scratching it open. He followed the sounds he had heard, continuing down the tunnel which was( in his estimates) at least a 100 metres deep.
With every movement the air grew thicker and more unbreathable. And the smell of dead flesh penetrated his nose. It made him sick, he had to puke but did not.
Finally, after almost half an hour he reached the end of the tunnel and could finally sit again. Before him sat a person… or… the remains of a person. Behind them was hiding the source of the noise he followed, a small fox. It was shivering.
Seeing that Lina had not found the tunnel he was relieved but also even more worried. "Where could she be?" He silently asked the fox. It, of course, ignored him and made itself smaller, not worth hunting and eating.
"I lost your girlfriend…" He said as tears filled his eyes and he started to cry.
***
Lukas was staring at Tim, who was sitting in the classroom.
The teacher's voice was hanging in the air and he continued to speak: " —Because, as you know, you are her closest friend and most—"
Lukas mentally muted the teacher's voice, why should he bother listening to something he already knows about. His eyes stayed focused on Tim's face, he was enjoying the panic which slowly spread across it.
Suddenly, making Lukas jump, Tim bolted out of the classroom. "Wait!" He yelled, running after Tim. He did not want to lose him, he was not yet finished bathing in his tears.
Tim just continued. After a few turns and corners he had lost Tim. "FUCK!" He screamed extremely loud, scaring the people around him.
Grumbling, he turned around and walked back. "Why… is he… so… fast?" He was out of breath already. His back was bent unnaturally far. For his looks he was weirdly flexible. "Back home it is…"
Lukas unlocked the door to his house and it made an ear piercing creaking sound. He dropped his clothes onto the ground next to his backpack and went into his room. He took out something more comfortable, a sweater and sweatpants, and put it on. Barefooted he slowly wandered down into the basement, stopping in front of an old wooden door.
He put down his cup of coffee and spit into his hands multiple times before smearing it into his hair and styling it. After having dried off his hands on the sides of his pants he grabbed his cup and unlocked the door.
He walked through the cramped basement and admired himself in a mirror. "Damn." He said and struck a pose. Weirdly, wearing that outfit and having his hair styled like this, he was very hot, maybe even sexy. "If I was a woman, damn! I would fall in love with me."
Suddenly he heard a muffled scream and he turned towards it. It was Lina, she was sitting on an old chair in a corner. Her mouth was gagged and her arms and legs were bound to the chair. He took a sip from his coffee and looked at her relaxed as she tried to scream for help and tried to run away.
Jumping around she landed on the dirty floor, face first, and a chuckle escaped Lukas' lips.
Lukas walked over and picked her back up, positioning her like she was prior to him walking in. "Relax. I'm not gonna hurt you, I just… lashed out a bit when I saw you in front of Tim's house. I want him and you could, maybe, be a threat to that, so I got a little aggressive." He took out the red ball he stuffed her mouth with, "I apologize again. I will let you go once I get what I want."
Lina started to scream and cry for mercy. Seeing her beg like that amused him a little, but he wanted to see Tim in that position, not her. "Please! I will not tell anyone, don't kill me." Tears flowed down her fat cheeks and dropped to the ground as her cries filled the basement.
"I said relax." Lukas said as he walked over to a table on which Lina's clothes were laying. He grabbed a package of wet wipes to clean her body. He pulled a chair to sit face to face with her and started to clean the dirt from her face and chest and knees. "I am not going to clean your feet because they're just going to get dirty again."
Over the course of a few minutes of cleaning she had calmed down a bit and stopped crying. "Thank you." She whispered with a sore voice.
He stared at her red eyes before lifting to little bottles in front of her eyes: "Which color do you prefer? Personally, I think the crimson red as it reminds me of blood, but I also think the cherry blossom pink would match my sweater."
***
Tim was in front of the body, blocking the exit with his back. The fox had fallen asleep and warmed up to him a little and allowed Tim to pet it. "I'm scared." He said to Jake, "Why did you have to leave me alone with all my problems? And most of them appeared after you left, so it is your fault."
He sighed before jumping as suddenly a light came through the holes on both his sides from the tunnel. His movement woke up the fox and he jumped to the side to not be seen by the person holding the light.
Down the tunnel echoed a voice, it was barely audible. Scared, the fox bolted up the tunnel and attacked the person before running off. The light shone down the tunnel one more time, almost lighting up Jake before vanishing with the voice.
"Oh god!" He muttered, "Who was that? How did that person find the hideout?"
Waiting for a few more minutes to make sure the people had left before he would climb back up the tunnel he tried to steady his breathing and relax his lungs. It would do him no good to die of a heart attack or something similar before he made sure Lina was safe and sound.
Finally, having relaxed and being sure the person( or people) had left, he cramped his body back into the tunnel to crawl out: "How do cave divers do this on a daily basis?" His voice was muffled due to the cloth he had put around his mouth to reduce the smell, "Or semi daily… This is a nightmare!"
Back outside the hideout he tried to hide the entrance better before coming to the realisation that somebody else already found it, so why bother?
Dropping the leaves again he turned his back to the tree the hideout was under and decided to walk back home. His clothes were drenched in sweat and the juices of the earth. His shirt had multiple small cuts all over the place and little droplets of blood were covering the cuts which made it through the shirt into his skin.
Tim could already imagine how mad his mother would be at him and how much it is going to burn once she would apply disinfectant on his cuts. He continued through the woods for a while before reaching the end. "Where could Lina be?" He asked himself.
Leaving the forest, he saw a squad of policemen walking along the forest edge, two of them with dogs. He did not know what they were doing but noticed one with a flashlight seemingly giving a report to another one.
"Did that guy find the hideout?" He muttered, staring at them.
He waved at Tim before leading half a dozen other policemen into the forest, taking the dogs with them. Two of the policemen staying outside the forest waved Tim over, concern all over their faces. They obviously had seen the cuts and bleeding wounds on his body as he stumbled out of the forest.
Tim slowly wobbled over to the two of them: "I—" He tried to speak before being cut off.
"Are you okay? What happened to you?" The older one asked. The younger one had grabbed their first-aid-kit to disinfect the wounds and close the wounds.
His eyes filled with tears: "Two days ago," He cleaned off some of the tears flowing down his face, "I had an argument with Paulina and haven't seen her since. And today when my teacher said she was missing I got worried and went to our hideout in the woods."
"Are you… wait a moment." The older man said and took out a phone, "Tim Ostfrucht?"
"Yes." His gaze was lowered to the floor. He contemplated if he could get arrested if they found the body in the hideout. "I… I found a tunnel there." His voice was weak and he forced himself to puke by imagining the odour of the tunnel to make it seem that he had to puke because of what he found, not what he had smelt, "I heard noises and was scared Lina was stuck down there so I climbed down through the small tunnel and…" He puked onto the floor a little more, his legs giving in and dropping to the ground, "I think I found Jake. He… He is the boy who went missing a few weeks ago."
The policemen shot each other glances with worry and sorrow for what the boy was telling them. What did the poor boy have to see? The younger one patted him on the shoulder and picked him back up before sitting him down into a foldable chair and cleaning his wounds.
"Could you continue your story?" One of them asked hesitantly.
He nodded. "I didn't find Lina, but a fox down there and suddenly a light came down the tunnel. Oh god, I thought whoever trapped him down there came back to kill me." He looked the younger one into his eyes, "I was so scared. I… I should have found him sooner!"
His cries continued for a while before the other policemen came back, reporting their finds in the hideout. The dogs had carried out human remains from the tunnel Tim had described.
They sent Tim for the night but made him promise to come into the police station the next day once he felt a little better.
***
Tim sat on his bed. "They… they probably took him by now." He sneezed and rubbed his arm over his nose to remove the snot. A thread of snot was now hanging from his nose all the way down to above his hand. "At least his parents will get some closure now… I hope."
He threw himself into his pillow. Phone in his hand, he thought about calling a friend to help him process his emotions. He did not have many numbers saved aside from his family. "Anna? No, I could not be honest with what happened. She wouldn't understand… Lina?" His thumb hovered above her name in his phone. Maybe she would pick up and he could find her, that might distract him from what happened.
"I should try." He clicked her name on the screen and it started to ring. He pushed the loud speaker button and waited… and waited… and waited. He sighed as the call ended with her not picking up the phone.
"Where are you?" He muttered and kept searching for someone to call. Then he got an idea. He should call Lukas! He would understand him, would he not? Oh… he did not have his number… but wait! He could look into the group chat of his class, and if he was not a part of it, he could ask Anna.
He opened the group chat and searched for the members tab. And there it was, Lukas' number. He pressed it and an empty chat opened. The keyboard on his phone was open and he did not know what to write.
After a moment's hesitation he started typing. "Could. You. Come. Over?" He spoke each word as he wrote it, "Need. Someone. To. Talk. Too." Then he pressed send and stuffed his phone beneath his pillow out of embarrassment. He was scared Lukas would find him weird or dislike him. The thought that he might call the police on him did not even occur to him.
Then his phone vibrated. Lukas had replied. "Shit!" He screamed silently and unlocked his phone again. All Lukas had sent for an answer was a black thumbs up emoji.
It only took about 10 minutes before the doorbell rang. Tim's brother hurried down and opened the door so fast it almost flew off of the hinges. "Hi" He said loudly and out of breath, "Come in! Tim is in his room."
Lukas stepped through the front door. He looked around, fascinated. It was his first time inside Tim's home, normally he would just stand across the road and stare at it during the nighttime. Or try to open a window from the outside without luck. But being invited in? He felt like a vampire about to suck Tim's blood, not yet knowing that it was partially true.
"Thank you." He said politely and followed Tim's brother up the stairs. He stopped in front of the door and knocked as Tim's brother walked back down the stairs.
"Tim? It's me, you wanted to talk to me?" Lukas said, as if waiting for a reply or Tim to open the door, but instead he just barged inside his room and closed the door behind him. "You look horrible…" He muttered and sat down beside him onto his bed.
Tim was laying in the fetus position under his blanket with a stuffed animal tucked into his arms. "Thanks for coming." He said silently. Tim turned to Lukas who was looking at him with pity in his eyes. Tim's eyes on the other hand were filled with heartfelt sadness and tears.
Lukas patted the spot next to himself on the bed and Tim sat up, letting his feet fall down the edge of the bed and onto the floor. "Can I… can I confess something?" He asked, "And could you promise not to tell anyone?"
For a moment Tim thought he saw a smile cross Lukas' red moist lips. "I am all ears." Lukas said and Tim began to describe the events of the last few days. But he did leave out the reason why he knew that Jake's body was down in the tunnel.
Lukas stared at him, blown away by Tim's honesty: "Wow! I did not expect this much honesty. Or this serious of a situation."
"I just… I am so fucking overwhelmed with so many different emotions and I don't know how to handle all this alone." He took a deep breath before continuing, "Thank you for listening, it helps a lot." A smile crossed his lips as he looked into Lukas' eyes.
Lukas thought for a moment. "If you want me too, I can take your focus away from… all this." He looked at Tim without any kind of emotions being displayed on his face, his mask having fallen off. His eyes flickered between Tim's eyes and his lips.
Tim noticed and answered, unsure of his assumption of the next action Lukas would make: "Sure…"
Lukas turned around, pushing Tim down onto the bed and sitting over his stomach. He looked into Tim's eyes and Tim nodded. With the nod of approval he pressed his lips against Tim's lips, his eyes closed.
***
Tim's heart raced. Lukas' lips pressed against his own. For a moment he could not breath until he calmed down enough to start breathing through his nose. He could taste Lukas' saliva mixing with his own as it invaded his mouth, brought over by Lukas' tongue. Tim could feel his own heartbeat in his neck and the urge to rip off his clothes.
Lukas' hands were holding his arms at the wrist, pressing them down onto the blanket. After adjusting his position to be more comfortable, Lukas' knee was rubbing Tim in between his legs and he felt his muscles tense.
Then Lukas lifted his head, looking Tim into his eyes: "How far?" He asked and Tim just looked at him confused at the question, "How far am I allowed to go here?"
Now he understood what he meant, he had already hoped for Lukas to go further. "As far as you're comfortable going."
"You're not scared that I will bite you?"
Tim looked at him: "Is that a promise?"
Lukas stopped holding onto Tim's wrists and pulled off Tim's as well as his own shirt. Both their bodies were drenched with sweat and Tim was stunned at the amount of wounds which covered Lukas' body. "Holy shit…" Tim muttered. The sight was the most erotic thing he had ever seen.
Lukas grabbed Tim's body, lifting him up slightly. His sweaty chest pressing against Tim and he pressed his teeth deep into Tim's flesh. Why? Because Tim asked for it and Lukas enjoyed it. Tim's blood started to spill out from beneath Lukas' lips.
Tim's body tensed and he grabbed Lukas' back, ripping into his back with his nails, also drawing blood.
Downstairs Tim's brother was sitting, watching TV. His favorite show was on and he was relaxing because he did not need to bother with consoling his brother. Their dog was sleeping on his lap.
Suddenly, he heard Tim scream. The dog jumped up and so did he, both storming upstairs. The scream had turned into a muffled scream as he hurried through the door. He bolted through the door into the room. "Are you okay?" He screamed in a panic.
Instantly he was stunned by the sight before him. The dog was barking aggressively. In front of him, on Tim's bed, Lukas and Tim were both biting each other, Tim even clawing at Lukas' back. The blanket and pillow were covered in blood and Tim screamed through his teeth which he had rammed into Lukas' shoulder.
Both stopped what they were doing, looking at him. Lukas slowly stood up, taking his shirt and just… walking out. Blood was still dripping from his back and shoulder, leaving a trail as he left.
Tim's face was red out of embarrassment. "Why did you barge in like this?" He complained.
"I heard you scream and thought you were dying or something." He muttered, still stunned by the sight.
Finally, Tim noticed the state his bed was in. "I have to clean that, right?"
"Before Mother returns, yes." His brother answered.
***
Lukas stormed down the stairs. His face had a happy, almost euphoric expression on it. He did not know he could even make such a face. He had his shirt tucked beneath his arm and stormed out the front door of the house, upper body free.
He hurried down the porch and ignored Tim's mother and father walking past him with groceries. Tim's mother called after him, because these wounds looked bad and she offered to drive him to the hospital.
The people all looked at him either concerned or disgusted. "The taste… It was so thrilling to taste his blood." He muttered joyfully, "And all I had to do was kiss him!" His aggressive walking had now turned into a gleeful hopping as he made his way home.
At home he locked the door before throwing his shirt into the washer as well as his pants, socks and underwear which he took off right in front of the washing machine. Afterwards, he stepped into the shower and admired himself in the full body mirror he had installed.
He touched the bitewound Tim had left, the blood was already hardening, but he ripped that off to reveal a fresh flow. Noticing the leftover saliva from Tim around the wound he started to lick his own shoulder.
A whole minute of licking later he finally turned on the shower, ice cold, and let the water flow freely down every part and crevice of his body. He had his face turned up to the shower head and his eyes closed.
He took a step back so he could open his eyes again, without getting foam or shampoo into them. Another accidental glance into the mirror made him speak: "Oh… what it would feel like if I could shower in his hot blood." Then he hugged himself tightly, squishing his arms and admiring himself once more. "He can only dream of getting access to all this."
After the shower and a quick snack he went back down into the basement.
Lina was still sitting on the chair in deep slumber. While she tried to avoid falling asleep with Lukas around, she did try to sleep as much as she could while he was away. A weird feeling in her feet woke her up and she saw Lukas now sitting in front of her, still dripping wet from his shower. He was holding one of her feet and was coloring her nails.
"Morning sleepy head." He said, smiling up at her, "I went to Tim's house today! We had so much fun." He put down the nail coloring and pulled the shirt from his shoulder to reveal the bitemark: "See! He even let me keep a souvenir. Isn't he nice?"
"Hm." Lina tried to say something, which did not work very well with the gag back in her mouth.
"Oh. I forgot!" He pulled out the gag and opened the lock at the back, "I don't think you even need this, my basement is soundproof." A slight chuckle escaped his lips as he continued to color her nails.
"What did you do to him? Did you attack him? Why did he have to bite you?" She was asking question after question, no breaks to breath until Lukas pushed one of his fingers into her mouth, pressing down on her tongue to stop her from talking.
"We kissed, and then he asked me to bite him! And he bit back, even scratched my back a bit." He sounded so happy telling her the news. "You don't mind, do you? I know you're attracted to him."
She scoffed: "Attracted? To that guy? No! He is just easy to bully and use." She turned away from Lukas to the best of her abilities to signal how insulted she felt at the thought of being attracted to Tim.
"Well, if you don't want him, I will gladly take him. Because I find him attractive!"
"What is attractive about him?" She asked, lifting her leg and pointing with her feet at his face accusatory. "And your knots need improvement it seems. A few hours of wiggling and they came loose."
"A few… hours? How much energy do you have?" He asked before pushing her leg back down and reinforcing all his knots. "Don't answer that, I already know the answer, just need to look at you to know."
While he was still tying the knot she kicked him in the face and he fell backwards: "Are you calling me fat?"
"Well, you are!" He said while holding his nose. "Why did you kick me?" He asked, "Now I need to get a tissue for the blood!" He walked out of the basement all grumpy.
***
Tim was sitting in the living room on the couch.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" His father screamed at him, "LOOK AT THIS MESS!" He pointed at the blood covered blanket and pillow laying before him on the living room table, just to prove a point.
Tim's gaze was lowered to the floor. His mother was sitting next to him disinfecting the bite wound on his shoulder. He flinched every time his father started to speak or his mother touched the wound with the cotton ball she used to apply the disinfectant.
"I—"
"Don't you fucking dare utter another word mister." His father told him with a fierce tone in his voice. His finger still held high in a mocking manner pointed at Tim. "Go shower once your mother is finished and then go to sleep! Take the guest blanket and a pillow from your brother. And if I hear even one sound from your room, you will not see the light of the day for months other than when you go to school."
Tim quickly hurried into the bathroom to escape his father's wrath and took a shower. "Dickhead!" He muttered, "Only angry because I did this with a boy but pretends it is because of the blood. If he really was angry about that he would have taken me to the hospital and commanded me to give him Lukas' phone number to check in on him." He angrily rubbed the shampoo into his scalp, hurting himself with the pressure he was exerting on himself.
He looked down and noticed the incredibly large amount of blood flowing off of his body and into his drain: "I wonder what he would have done if I had told him I don't want to be bitten… Would he have… How would that even feel?" He tried to imagine how it would have felt if he and Lukas would have gone all the way.
"It would have hurt… probably." He muttered as he washed his private parts.
***
The next morning Tim walked down the street, still thinking about the last day. A lot had happened, Lina went missing, they found Jake, and then… Lukas happened. He was now on his way to school and it all felt like a dream to him.
He felt his face heat up at the thought of going into the classroom and sitting next to Lukas. His idea to take Tim's mind away from all that had happened truly worked, as he was now only thinking about Lukas.
The way to school was quickly finished as he had not noticed the passage of time during his thoughts. The school was riddled with policemen talking to students. A handful of students had stopped avoiding Tim and expressed their sympathies with heartfelt gestures.
He walked past his locker and all the people who tried to talk to him, including the policemen and teachers. His gaze was lowered to the ground and he turned right into the classroom, bumping into his teacher's chest.
Lukas was not inside the classroom. "Tim, you still have to go to the principal or straight to the police station. I am not going to start my class with you inside, while you're… how do I say that without sounding mean? While you're mentally not with us, maybe?" He looked into the classroom for confirmation from the students, all who nodded or gave him a thumbs up.
"Right away, sir." Tim said. Backpack under his arms, as he had taken it off already while trying to walk into the class, he hurried to the principals office. The teacher looked at his dejected form vanishing down the hallway.
Thinking he could finally sit down he let out a sigh of relief and went over to the waiting benches in front of the secretaries office. He threw his backpack onto the bench and the secretary's shrill voice came through the closed glass door: "Come in. He doesn't want to wait any longer."
"Sure…" He muttered and picked his backpack up again before entering the room.
She pointed to the left, not lifting her head: "Through the door."
His legs were giving up on him as he finally sat down into a chair to relax. Before him sat the principal and the guidance counselor of their school. Behind Tim a policeman entered the room through a different door: "Almost didn't notice you came inside." The officer chuckled.
He grabbed another chair and pulled it from a corner to sit next to Tim.
Tim stared at the principal with a sad tone in his eyes but also anticipation for what is to come.
"Thank you… eh, for coming. We know it must have been hard on you. Paulina went missing only a month after Jake did. Both of them being close friends to you and all that." The guidance counselor said after noticing that the principal did not know how to start this conversation. "The nice officer next to you would like to ask a few questions which might help with their investigation."
The policeman turned to face Tim. "Yesterday's events have been reported to me. First of all, I want to give you my condolences for what happened to you." His hands were moving nervously atop his legs. "Did anything happen between Paulina and you in the last few days, I heard that you told my colleagues about a dispute. Would you be okay telling me more about what happened that day?"
Tim lifted his gaze to meet the policemen's eyes but lowered it again. "After school three days ago, she followed me home and kept insulting me. She made jokes about Jake having vanished and her being my only friend. So I got angry and… I yelled at her, how much I hate her and that she is fat and should just stay away from me." Tears started to drip down onto his hands and his lap. "I haven't seen her since."
"And what happened yesterday, when you found… Jake?" The officer asked in hesitation with worry apparent in his facial expression.
"When I heard that she also went missing, I… I went to my Jake's old hideout where I haven't been since he vanished. Lina knew about it so I had hoped she was hiding there, because if she wasn't, what if she had hurt herself because of me? What if she had…" Tim started hyperventilating, his heart racing.
The officer took Tim by the shoulders, trying to get him to calm down. "It's alright. Everything is going to be okay." He looked at the guidance counsellor and the principal for help, "Just breath. Inhale, as deep as you can, hold it and then release slowly!"
Tim listened to him, scared. His breathing slowly calmed down.
"Can you continue? Or do you wish to have a break and continue at a later time?" He patted Tim's back waiting for an answer.
"I didn't find her…"
"Yes, we know."
"So I started looking into every secret tunnel we dug and… I found one I did not know about after hearing a sound." He clenched his hands, "So I entered it. I knew that she could not possibly have fit down that tunnel but… I had hope. And when I thought I found her, all I saw was a young fox gnawing on what seemed like human remains. And the ripped clothes laying around and covering the body had been those which Jake wore the day he went missing."
The principal and the guidance counsellor were stunned. Horror was obvious on both their faces as they heard Tim retell what had happened yesterday. The guidance counsellor had to sit down out of shock and the principal's horrified face looked like an old painting.
"While I was down there, horrified for long enough that the fox warmed up to me, a noise followed by the light of a flashlight came down the tunnel and I hid."
"Why did you hide?" The principal asked.
"While Jake could have gotten stuck down there, what if he was trapped down there? By someone that was now back and wanted to hurt me too?" He looked horrified, all light having vanished from his eyes and his face pale. It was rather obvious that the poor boy needed therapy and counselling.
***
"I should visit Anna. A slice of cake might help cheer me up." Tim thought. The police had sent him home, he can stay away from school for a week or two until he feels better or the case is finished.
School had started about an hour ago and he spent the entire first lesson talking to the police, having to retell his story over and over: "They think I have something to do with Lina going missing. These assholes!"
He was filled with frustration as he walked into the café and spoke with Anna: "The usual, please and thank you." He walked back to his usual spot where someone was sitting in his chair. He could have chosen any of the 2 other chairs around the table but decided to sit in his.
Lukas was sitting in his chair, reading a fantasy novel while sipping his latte macchiato. He pretended not to notice Tim while humming a tune.
"You're… Hi." He said, "You're sitting in my spot."
Lukas looked up at him with a smirk: "I'm on my break. You want to keep me company?" He pointed to the chair next to him, "Sit next to me, come here. Or would you rather sit on my lap?" He mused at the thought.
Tim sighed and walked to the closest chair to Lukas. He tried to grab the chair to pull it back so he could sit comfortably but Lukas grabbed it faster and pulled it closer. Tim just stared at him as he tapped the chair which was now touching his own.
"Only a step further." Lukas smiled.
Tim sat down into the chair, his right leg touching Lukas' left one. He leaned towards Lukas' shoulder to see what he was reading and Lukas moved his book closer to Tim.
Anna came walking to the table, a look of disgust covering her face as she saw Tim and Lukas so close together. She put down Tim's cake and coffee: "The usual." She glared at Lukas who was smiling back at her while Tim was staring at his cake.
"Lukas, your break is almost over." Anna said, "Make sure to inform me once you start again."
"Everything you say, your highness." Lukas said. And, surprisingly, he did not do it with a mocking tone.
Anna clicked her tongue as she walked away from the table.
Lukas turned back to Tim who was happily eating his cake. His hand hovered above Tim's shoulder and he pulled the shirt out of the way to reveal the bite wound. His fingers slowly and softly touched the wound. "Did you clean your wound? Don't you want it to leave a scar?"
Tim twitched as Lukas touched the wound: "No!" He was surprised, "My mother cleaned it for me. She doesn't want me to get an infection." He lowered his shoulder a bit to avoid Lukas' touch and pulled up his shirt over his shoulder.
Lukas looked at him, annoyed. "Well, I think my break is over." Lukas stood up, taking his book and cup. "See you later." He whispered into Tim's ear, his hot moist breath condensing in his ear as he moved to Tim's cheek and gave him a small kiss on it.
Tim looked at Lukas' back as he walked from table to table, taking dirty dishes with him as he went behind the counter to start working again. Tim was blushing while touching his cheek.
"Oh god…" A few words escaped his mouth, "I think Anna was… right!" He remembered the moment during which Anna told him that he was obviously in love with Lukas, but he told her she was wrong. "Fuck!"
***
Lukas was washing dishes in the café's kitchen with diligence. Each movement was quick and efficient. The water was splashing around him and his sleeves were drenched with soapy water.
"Why don't you pull up the sleeves on your uniform when you already bother wearing the winter uniform during summer." Anna asked, standing behind him with crossed arms. She was leaning against the door frame.
"Why? You want to take a peek at my super erotic and muscular body?"
"Shut your god damn—"
"Relax, just joking." He said with a smile and a chuckle, "I just feel more comfortable this way." He turned back to the dishes to continue washing. He purposefully took out a spoon, holding it below the flowing stream of water in a way which made the water explode into every direction. While he got most of the water onto his body, about a third of it hit Anna's body.
"You're such a petty little asshole." She cursed at him drenched in soapy water before storming into the break room to put on a new uniform.
The moment she had left the room his smile faded. He turned off the water before grabbing a mop and cleaning the water he had spilled all over the kitchen floor. "Stop fucking bothering me, you witch!" He muttered underneath his breath, "Treats me like I am going to eat Tim and ruin her mother's little shop."
His scrubbing of the plates got aggressive.
Lina was sitting down in Lukas' basement. Lukas had not bothered stuffing the gag back into her mouth and screaming for help already tired her out, her mouth sore. She had not seen Lukas since he came to complain after she had kicked him.
She was observing the room for a while now, but aside from her clothes being neatly folded on the table in the middle of the room she could not see anything she could need or use.
She tensed her fat covered muscles and slowly, with multiple jumps, moved the chair towards her clothes. "Maybe I can see something from a different perspective. Why did he even bother getting me naked, he didn't even look at me with lust—" The thought frustrated her, "—or touch me in any way. Even though he is quite attractive he wastes his body on men."
She slowly crept forwards on her chair until she could touch the table with her toes. In front of the table she could see Lukas' mirror and saw her own body in the reflection. "Hm." She noticed her toenails, still painted.
Her gaze wandered up her own body. "He could touch me everywhere but chose to paint my god damn nails!" She complained as she imagined him kissing her, as she is still bound to the chair.
After enough delusions which will never happen, she jumped one more time and held onto the table's leg with her feet. She threw herself to the ground and her weight pulled down the table and broke off the table's leg. She grabbed it with her hand which was touching the ground and tried to cut the rope.
It took her almost a dozen minutes before the rope around her knee snapped and her arm had fallen asleep. With her knee now fully movable she just aggressively pulled into every direction until the ropes got loose and she could pull out her entire leg.
"Yes!" She screamed in excitement before coughing because of her dry and aching throat. Muttering something under her breath, she used her toes and heel from the free leg to free her other leg.
"Now, I just have to slide out of here." She stood back up and sat back down. With the chair standing again she tried to slide out of the ropes which were tying her to the chair. "Should be… easy…" She tried, but the positioning of her stomach and chest created multiple folds of skin and fat which grabbed the rope.
She stood up slightly and tried again, and again. "Why is the rope so tight?" She continued trying until she heard a noise from the chair. "Is the chair… breaking?" She got an idea.
Lina stood up and crouched down into a good position to jump from and leapt as far as she could( about 5 centimetres) into the air and threw herself backwards before curling into a ball and shattering the chair into multiple pieces.
"Aah!" An eardrum shattering scream pierced the air as multiple broken wood pieces burrowed into her back.
***
Anna was half naked and overheard what Lukas was saying about her: "That self important dickhead!" Her voice was filled with rage as she was searching for a new uniform in her size.
From the wardrobe filled with uniforms she took out one and held it up to her body, checking in the mirror if it fits her. "Fits perfectly." She put down the uniform onto the chair next to her and took off the wet bra she was wearing after making sure Lukas wasn't in the next room.
She put on a new one she had in her purse( for some unknown reason, I don't understand women) and put on the uniform before walking back out through the kitchen.
"I'm gonna show Lukas who the boss is in this building." She said as she walked angrily towards Tim's table while muttering insults.
Lukas glanced towards Anna with a smirk before turning away, as if he had won whatever was going on between them.
Anna stopped dead in her tracks in front of Tim who just looked at her confused by her expression. With her eyes closed and wiggling her hands through the air to build up courage, she bent forward.
She grabbed Tim's face with force and pulled him closer. Then she kissed him.
Murmurs spread through the café, catching Lukas' attention before he turned towards Tim and Anna to see them kiss: "No!" He dropped the dishes he was holding and his eyes filled with anger.
Anna stopped kissing Tim after almost 10 seconds of continuous kissing and winked at him with a victorious smile. Thinking she had won against she turned around to see him storming towards her and Tim. She had never seen anything that angry, it scared her.
She froze in fear as Lukas just walked past her and took Tim by the collar, pulling him out of his chair and grabbing Anna as well to drag both of them into the employee break room.
"Sit. The Fuck. Down." He commanded them both and they complied. He walked as close to Anna as he could without his face touching hers: "Who do you think you are?" His eyes narrowed and before she could answer, he put his fingers above her lip to silence her.
Tim was sitting in his chair, silent. He looked neither at Anna nor at Lukas. His gaze was fixed downwards. He was not flustered, or happy or anything positive. His face was filled with horror or panic.
Lukas turned Anna's face to look at Tim. "Look what you did."
Anna stared at Tim: "Why is he… Tim, why are you crying?" She asked him but he ignored her.
Lukas was happy that he noticed Tim's scared face after she had kissed him, if he had not, he would have bashed her head in and that in front of the whole café. Now he had a good excuse as to why he stormed at her like that.
He glanced at her again, an idea brewing in his head and a smirk quickly appearing and disappearing on his face. He crouched down in front of Tim and put his hands on Tim's knees. "Are you okay?" He asked with a worried tone. He threw Anna a disgusted glance before looking Tim into his eyes. "Hey, don't worry. It's alright. Just relax, I am here for you."
Anna just stared at the two of them.
Tim pulled Lukas into a hug. "Yes, yes. Relax." Lukas muttered while patting Tim's head and back and smirking devilishly at Anna who now understood what he was doing. "Want me to bring you home?"He asked and Tim shook his head, declining.
For a moment Lukas grimaced. "Hey, " he said and Tim glanced up at him. He pulled Tim's head closer and gave him a small kiss on the forehead: "Go home, yeah? Relax a bit and call me if you want to talk."
Tim stood up and left the café after a few more moments of hugging Lukas.
Lukas looked at Anna after Tim had left: "I win." He stuck out his tongue before walking out of the room to continue working.