“Your father locked you in the basement and left you to fend off the ghosts by yourself,” he said softly, when he had Anwyll’s attention. With a careful, gentle gesture, he brushed Anwyll’s hair from hanging over his eyes and smiled softly at him.

“You’ve always been alone,” he said in a silent, soft tone, “you don’t have to be anymore. You want to find something better, right? I can help you. And I won’t leave you alone like they did.” Anwyll crossed his arms and frowned, averting his eyes again. His dad had always done the best he could. Him and Cadell both. They had always been looking out for Anwyll, because his Gift was bothersome. Dangerous, even

Koresh hadn’t gripped his chin carefully, but tightly to prevent Anwyll from looking away.

“They were just trying to help,” Anwyll said stubbornly, instinctively. Koresh sighed and wrapped his arm around Anwyll’s shoulders, briefly leaning their foreheads together.

“Be honest. You don’t want to go back,” Koresh repeated. The words sounded confident. As much of a command as much as they were a plea. Anwyll nodded, this time without hesitation. He did not want to go back to that basement. If he could show his dad he could figure things out for himself, he was sure he wouldn’t have to.

Starting to walk again, he stumbled slightly over a can that someone had left lying on the street and yelped, catching himself on the wall. His feet really ached, which made him drag his steps. 

"I need a small break, " he told Koresh as he took a step backwards so he could slide down the wall to sit on the stairs leading to a back alley.

The relief from getting his weight off his feet drew a sigh from him. The stone wall was warm against his back even through his jacket. He closed his eyes briefly, opening them only when he felt fingers carding through his hair.

“Anwyll.” Koresh’s voice was laced with concern, but had a stern edge as if he was giving an order. “You can’t stay here. Looking the way you do.” The ghost trailed off meaningfully and  Anwyll glanced down, blinking.

“What’s wrong with the way I look?” he asked. He thought he was fairly well dressed in the deep wine red t-shirt, charcoal jacket and jeans. They were good brands too.

“You look like a rich college kid who ran away from home,” Koresh told him bluntly and Anwyll frowned at him.

“You don’t like it?” he asked, emphasizing on the offended tone. Koresh scoffed and shook his head, but his eyes lingered on Anwyll’s form, before traveling back up to meet his eyes. Anwyll felt his face heating up slightly at the look, despite him baiting for it himself.

“You’re fine,” Koresh told him, “which is exactly the problem in this kind of neighborhood.” Anwyll sighed in resigned manner as he leaned back against the wall.

“I’m tired,” he repeated. “Just five minutes?” Koresh didn’t respond immediately other than by frowning at Anwyll. Finally, he sighed and nodded.

“You can rest for a bit, but we have to move before the sun sets,” Koresh stated and Anwyll flashed him a grateful smile, “I’ll keep an eye out.” Anwyll made a halfhearted salute at him and Koresh huffed a breath that sounded as amused as it sounded exasperated. Regardless, he stood up and started heading down the street aimlessly. Anwyll followed him with his eyes, slightly uneasy now that Koresh wasn’t beside him as his thoughts started roaming again.

Jay would be worried if Anwyll didn’t show up on the weekend. They had made plans to spend it together and marathon a series they needed to catch up on. Cadell was supposed to come over for a dinner next week too.

He heard footsteps approaching him, but didn't open his eyes, assuming it was just Koresh. It couldn't have been five minutes yet.

“Hello? Anyone there?” Anwyll startled at the unfamiliar voice from beside him. When he opened his eyes, he could see Koresh further down the street, before he focused on the man standing beside him. He had thought he had paid attention to there not being people around to hear him talking to Koresh, but obviously he had been sloppy.

Light, almond brown eyes peered down at him, brows furrowed in concern. Anwyll blinked, taking in the short-ish raven hair escaping from under his beanie. High cheekbones and long lashes. Narrow lips tilted to a slight curious, but concerned smile.

Anwyll was fully aware he was staring, caught in the way the rays of light painted golden lines on the man’s skin. He wasn’t sure he had ever seen a guy who looked as casually gorgeous as this man did.

“You okay there, man?” It took Anwyll a moment longer to realize the man was expecting a response.

“Yeah,” he responded a bit breathlessly, barely holding back a wince at his reaction. He was acting like a flustered teenager.

“You’re kind of having this half-stroke kind of expression,” the man explained and Anwyll barely kept himself from frowning in an offended manner.

He was what?

“Are you lost? Where do you live?” The man asked when Anwyll didn’t respond immediately and the question was enough to send Anwyll’s thoughts scattering again.

How was he supposed to answer to that when he didn't have a clue himself? Not that he should tell that to a complete stranger, but still.

He looked past the man at Koresh helplessly, but he knew he’d miss too many beats in the conversation if he waited for Koresh to make it to them.

“I guess,” he admitted uncertainly and turned to face the man again.  “I am not sure where I am. I don’t want to go home either.” Was he oversharing? Cadell said Anwyll had the tendency to over share. Koresh said Anwyll was overly naïve and trusting. 

The man frowned slightly, before looking up and down the street. After another moment of silence passed - should Anwyll say something? - before the man opened his mouth again at the same time Anwyll did. 

"Do you live around here?" he asked and the man blinked in surprise, before amusement took over his expression and posture. Anwyll had a moment of panic over having said something wrong. How did conversations work again? He should just not speak at all. Ever.

"Sure," the man responded and crouched down to sit next to Anwyll. Anwyll wondered if this was bad. Then he decided he didn't care if it meant he could stare at the hot guy for a bit longer. He had three piercings in his right ear. 

“Sorry, uh,” Anwyll rushed to add when the man didn't continue immediately. “I’m okay, not having a stroke. Just kind of lost.”

"Kind of?" the man repeated. Koresh finally reached the two of them and Anwyll relaxed, relieved. Maybe he would be less likely to embarrass himself now. 

“Look, you’re obviously not from around here," the man continued and Anwyll turned his attention back to him. "So why don't you tell me where you are headed and I can help you get on your way? At least to the nearest bus stop."

"My bills are too big to get change from the bus," he said in an embarrassed manner. The bus driver had looked so done when he had tried to hand him a fifty.

"Anwyll," Koresh started firmly. His voice was more stern than Anwyll had heard it ever before. It reminded him of his dad when Anwyll was doing something incredibly stupid or dangerous.

"O-kay," the stranger said, stretching the word and looking around them with slightly widened eyes. "New suggestion. Do you want coffee? I could have some coffee. You could call someone you know from my place over some coffee. You have a phone, right?" Anwyll bit his lip and this time looked at Koresh, before responding.

Koresh took a moment to look at Anwyll, his eyes searching the stranger's appearance thoroughly, before he finally nodded at Anwyll.

"You can go with him. You are obviously tired, so it is better than staying here," he stated. Anwyll nodded at him, before realizing the stranger was looking at him as well and seemed to assume the nod was aimed at him. He exhaled in what sounded like relief.

"Okay. Good. Come on, it's this way." He stood up and started heading up the stairs into the back alley and Anwyll hesitated. Doubt creeped into his mind as his earlier words burnt their way there. He was reckless, forgetting this was not Jay or Cadell he was talking to.

"Go on. I am right here," Koresh prompted him, pushing on Anwyll's back. Anwyll took a deep breath and followed after Orion. 

“I stayed with him for almost a month, before I found work and an apartment for myself,” Anwyll finished his story.

The early autumn wind was cold against his face and he pulled his jacket’s zipper all the way to his chin in an attempt to ward off some of it. They had already left the apartment block Jay lived in and there was little else to offer them shelter from the wind without the buildings.

"He didn't end up calling anywhere? Police?" Jay asked, seeming fascinated by the concept of Orion. Anwyll shook his head.

"I did end up telling him I just left home and was looking for an apartment. I'm an adult so there was no reason to call the police after it was evident he was just a struggling part-timer and I am… well. Not a creep?" He grimaced at his own words and Jay let out an amused sound, hiding her smile when Anwyll glanced at her.

“He sounds like a good person, letting you crash at his place and not robbing you,” Jay noted then. Anwyll could only agree. They had had numerous talks about it and whether Anwyll should go check into a hospital or a shelter.

When Anwyll finally told him he didn't want to be found by his dad, the questions had stopped. Anwyll figured Orion had something similar in his circumstances, given that during the time Anwyll spent in his apartment, there were no signs of Orion's family being present in his life.

“He is,” Anwyll confirmed belatedly, “once I moved to my place, we kept in contact. Mostly he was checking on me for the first week or so, but we started hanging out more after that.” The memory was a pleasant one. Anwyll could admit to having been nervous about asking Orion out to grab food, but Orion had been nice about it. He had been nice about most things, as soon as the two of them had established the silent rule of never asking too much about the other's personal life, like family or work. A rule Anwyll had been much worse at following than Orion was.

“What kind of trouble do you think he could have gotten into?” Jay asked him and Anwyll frowned. Their arrangement also meant he had very little to go on, other than a couple of guesses. Although he supposed the coincidental timing barely counted as a guess. Anwyll had rarely interacted with any of Orion’s other friends or acquaintances, but there was one occasion that came to mind when he considered Jay’s question.

Anwyll had known Orion was looking for an upgrade for his part time job pretty much since he had met him. With his back-then job, he had still been living mostly from his meager unemployment support money, while his partial employment made it more and more complicated to qualify for the support.

So when Orion had been dropped off to his apartment by a guy familiar to Anwyll as well, he had not questioned it too much. He had tried to point out that he suspected the man could be trouble, but Orion had claimed the man was his new employer and paid him almost twice the amount his part time job had paid him. Anwyll had dropped it then, unable to explain to Orion how he knew the guy.

Admitting that the man was a long time customer of the person Anwyll worked for would have only elicited more questions Anwyll couldn’t have answered.

The ghost girl seemed to grow restless, walking a few steps ahead of them. She cast a glance behind and quickly turned to look ahead when she noticed Anwyll looking at her.

“I don’t know,” Anwyll admitted to Jay, belatedly. “Do you know?” The latter part he addressed to the ghost girl and she slowed her steps slightly to look hesitantly at Anwyll.

“It is not his fault,” she said immediately, “he just got messed up with the wrong type of people.” She twined her fingers together nervously. Her words aligned frighteningly close to what Anwyll had been considering. He wished he could have asked Koresh about it.

“Did you get messed up with these people as well?” Anwyll asked hesitantly, dreading the answer. “Is that how you ended up like this?” The latter part was voiced more warily as he could never be entirely sure what set the ghosts off. Some of them didn’t always seem to even realize they were dead and he did not want this girl to suddenly leap at him and start screaming.

She didn’t. Instead she nodded in a small, jerking gesture, like a bird.

“I tried to run away with him,” she admitted, “I could- I can sense thoughts. I thought I could use it to sneak out and come back for the rest of them.” Something heavy was forming in Anwyll’s chest at her words.

“You’re Gifted?” he asked in an attempt to buy himself more time to try to figure out if he could have misunderstood her statement. The ghost girl nodded.

“We all are- were,” she seemed to grow more anxious at her own words, “that is why we were taken there in the first place.” The heavy feeling in his chest made it harder to breathe as he took in the information.

Firstly, that Orion was Gifted and Anwyll had not known. Secondly, that he’d been taken somewhere, where he could be killed if he tried to run away. Like he had, from the sounds of it. It was a dizzying thought. Something like that didn’t happen to people Anwyll knew. It happened in the news of different countries, or at least different cities.

“Taken where?” he forced the words from his lips, with the growing dread making them stiff. But the ghost merely shook her head.

“I don’t know,” her voice was whining and distressed now as she tugged on her fingers, “I don’t know. I can’t remember. I was leading them away and I saw buildings and streetlights and then-” Her whole form shimmered and wavered like a mirage and Anwyll took a step away from her warily, just in case she’d leap at him. But she didn’t. Her form kept shifting for a few more seconds, before settling again.

She looked more pale now, her eyes more sunken and haunted and for a brief moment she looked more like a corpse than like a person, before it passed. When she next turned to Anwyll, she looked just as alive as she had at the hospital.

“You have to help him,” she said firmly and Anwyll nodded. He imagined Orion in her place, eyes dim, face pale and lifeless and he felt his chest twisting painfully. He started walking faster.