Ben's POV

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A bright light suddenly flashed into my eyes, tearing me away from my trance, causing me to lift my hands to my eyes in an effort not to go blind, "Who is there? What are you doing in the park at these hours of the night?" a shrill, feminine voice asked angrily from behind the light, but a face was not discernable from my point of view. Damn, sometimes I detested my over-the-top vision.

"Sorry, ma'am," I fumbled with my words, "I didn't realize it was so late!" 

"Ma'am? Believe me, boy, the only feminine thing I've got is my mother!"

I instantly grew red as I realized the shrill, feminine voice belonged to a man. I froze up, not knowing what to do, so I did what I could do in that situation. 

I. Panicked.

I threw my hand up to cover Phobus' eyes and snapped my fingers, a dance of light springing from my fingers which beckoned the moisture around us, encasing us in an instant, dense fog. 

I could hear the man-lady behind the light begin to curse, coughing up a storm of curses as she searched for us, but it was no use. Once the fog had set around us, I had snatched Phobus' hand in mine and we bolted across the park towards my car, trying my best to ignore the raging heat running up my arm and searing my palm from where I held Phobus.

'Shit shit shit shit shit!'

I was quickly running out of adrenaline from casting the fog on us, plus the cloud dissipation and the other spells I had used throughout the day and my body had felt the toll. Just as we were a few yards from the car, my body became heavy, my hands outstretched as I could feel myself falling, but my body never hit the ground. 

All I felt was a rush of air as I soon realized Phobus had swooped me into his arms and carried me bridal-style towards my car, not once making a noise of complaint. I thought to protest, but the warmth coming from his body seemed to lull me into comfort, erasing any fits I had planned into forcing him to drop me. 

This warmth was nothing like the searing pain I had met a couple of minutes ago as we ran from the man-lady. It had a gentle touch of care and protection. Phobus kept running, and without meaning to, I seemed to space out and admire his complexion. His atmosphere was of powerful focus, but his eyes shared a vulnerability I had never before seen on him. I lifted my hand and placed it on his cheek lightly, my touch switching his focus to me 

"I´m...sorry. My...fault." I wheezed.

Phobus sighed in anger before enfolding my hand in his larger one, "Hold on, we are almost there."

He turned away and stopped gently as we arrived at my car. He was quick to place me in the passenger seat and ask for my keys. 

I was annoyed, mostly at myself for my inability to move, but there was a strange sensation of disappointment and anger towards the officer that had intruded whatever Phobus and I had been sharing. Was it a moment? Did he also feel the strange sensation I had felt? the moment when our eyes had met and our breaths were sharing the same space?

I would ask him, but I was mortified for his answer. Not the fact that he had not felt it, but from what I would have to face if he did. The hardest question that I would have to face would be upon me, and I didn't know if I was ready for the answer.

"Ok, let's go." Phobus huffed as we sped away from the park. I was confused as to how he knew how to drive, but I was mostly glad I wouldn't have to educate him while in my condition. His posture was forced and I could tell he was tense from the way his knuckles paled from the strength of his hold on the steering wheel, but I could do nothing apart from observing the lights of the houses in the culdesac where I lived speed past me.

The rest of the night was a blur. All I remembered was somebody holding me and carrying me to the house, but that was where my memory seemed to fade. The last thing I remember was a familiar warmth encompassing my shivering form, where I drifted to the nothingness and the plague-filled dreams that had haunted me from my childhood were no more.