Julien drove slowly down the empty road until the surroundings matched his memory. Doing an illegal U-turn, he parked on the shoulder once more and turned on his hazards.

Getting out of the van, he looked down the empty road, the rhythmic blinking of the hazard lights only serving to make him nervous.

There was no Andrew.

Frowning, Julien squinted into the darkness, the vast forest beside him only serving to make him feel vulnerable.

He couldn’t have gone far.

But where…

If Andrew had gone anywhere, then towards the city would be the most likely direction. But Julien had just come from that way and he hadn’t seen him. If Andrew managed to hitchhike his way there, then Julien could meet him and apologize, but if he didn’t…

Maybe I just missed him.

Julien pulled out his phone and scrolled till he found Andrew’s contact.

He hovered over the call button, before closing his eyes and bringing the phone to his ear.

*Briiiiii Briiiiiii Briiiii*

“The person you are calling is unavailable—”

Julien hung up, his stomach tightening into knots.

Andrew’s phone hadn’t gone to voicemail immediately, so it wasn’t dead. But that either meant he was busy… or that he was ignoring Julien’s call.

He tried again, but the result was the same.

Julien looked at the van.

Drive or walk.

Something in his gut was urging him to choose the latter, but his first instinct when in a secluded place like this was to keep himself protected.

Then again, Andrew wasn’t protected either.

He hesitated for only a second longer before deciding to walk.

Julien continued to call Andrew’s phone, but over and over, it went to voicemail.

His concern was building and the further he walked, the tighter the knot forming in his stomach bundled his unease into a feeling of certainty.

Something happened to Andrew.

His heart quickened in pace.

Maybe I should call someone.

His sister? Maybe, the police…? But what would he say to either?

That’s when Julien kicked something on the ground, the noise making him jump. He looked down.

It was just a lighter.

“What am I doing?”

He chuckled nervously and took a step forward, only to walk on something dark. He frowned, there was something else on the ground. Something wet.

Taking a step back, he turned on the flashlight on his phone and pointed it towards the ground.

His stomach dropped.

Blood.

He was stepping in blood.

Julien almost ran, but he couldn't. Andrew was still missing, and the blood was fresh.

It could be his.

No—Julien was certain that it was.

Julien called Andrew’s phone one more time, gnawing on the tip of his thumb—his eyes darting all around him. If it didn’t go through, he’d call the police.

Pick up pick up…

He was starting to panic. That was no small amount of blood, and for all he knew Andrew could be—his breath hitched.

But before the phone could go to voicemail—

He heard a rustle.

Julien turned his head towards the forest, heart beating in his throat.

“Andrew?”

No response.

He strained his ears.

*triiiii*

He could hear a phone.

Then a groan sounded, quietly in the empty night.

—

Julien stumbled through the wooded path, not caring if he tore his clothes or scraped his hands and knees. And soon, he found Andrew laying on his back at the closest edge of the glade.

He froze.

He’s hurt.

More than hurt. Julien took a step forward, a branch cracking underfoot.

“No…no no… no.”

He covered his mouth, holding back a choked sob.

Again?

He stumbled over to Andrew, tripping over a protruding root and falling face first into the dirt. Not caring, he picked himself up and continued until he was right beside him.

Then he fell to his knees.

He could only hope that he’d made it in time.

“Why…” 

I was only gone for a second, it wasn’t even that long, I—

He took a shaky breath, he couldn’t tell anymore if his heart was pounding from fear—or sorrow.

“Andrew.”

He reached out, his hand hovering in the air for a moment before he moved Andrew’s torn shirt out of the way. Julien gasped. His injuries were even worse than he’d thought.

Pressure, I need to put pressure on the wound.

Hurriedly, he tore off his shirt and pressed the fabric against the injury. But no matter how much the white fabric soaked up, the crimson flow just wouldn’t stop.

“ANDREW!”

Is he even alive?

Julien shook his head.

Of course he’s alive… he has to be.

“Please.”

The man’s eyes fluttered open.

Julien let out a sigh of relief. In a shaky voice he yelled out.

“What happened!? No… forget that, hospital, we have to… we need to get you to a hospital, can you walk?”

What am I saying? Of course he can’t.

Julien pulled out his phone and tried to call the police with shaky hands but was stopped by Andrew.

Andrew looked at Julien's appearance, his hair in disarray, his clothes smothered in dirt, his face… Andrew lowered his eyes. He was crying.

Andrew covered Julien’s phone.

“Don’t.”

Julien watched as Andrew supported his bleeding arm with one hand, while simultaneously holding onto Julien’s shitty tourniquet with the other.

He couldn't believe his eyes.

Andrew was trying to sit up on his own despite the gaping wound spanning from his left shoulder across his chest and ribcage.

But...

Julien shook off his stupor. Why he was forcing himself wasn't important right now.

He tried sneakily calling the police again, but his phone was quickly snatched away by Andrew, who let out a hiss of pain from the sudden movement.

“I told you not to.”

His eyes were unfocused but he managed to haul himself up, grimacing against the pain. Finding his footing, Andrew began staggering out of the forest.

Julien was still kneeling on the ground. He wanted to argue, to yell at him, but he stopped himself. Looking down, Julien felt the urge to cover his face.

This is all my fault.

“It’s not as bad as it looks.”

Julien looked up. Andrew was still bleeding profusely and yet he had the nerve to say it ‘wasn’t that bad.’ He shouldn't have even been moving to begin with.

This isn’t the time to be wallowing in self pity.

If he wouldn’t let him call for help, fine, but he couldn’t just let him bleed out either.

As Julien went to stand up, he felt a sharp pain shoot through his right leg, looking down, he saw a small silver snake slithering back into the grass. His eyes shook.

Looking at Andrew’s distancing form, Julien hesitated for only a second longer before rushing over to Andrew and helping to support his unsteady body.

He’d check both of them into the hospital when they got back to the van.

Andrew looked at Julien, then returned to focusing on moving one foot after the other.

“I left some things in the car.”

Julien nodded and led them back down the path to the van. He considered bringing the van over instead of walking the whole way, but he decided against it.

He wasn’t sure what would happen if he left Andrew alone again.

They trudged forward for a while, letting the crunching of dirt and gravel do all the talking for them.

Julien still hadn’t apologized.

When they got back to the car, Julien pulled the medical supplies Andrew pointed out from the backseat and urged Andrew to get inside.

And evidently, Andrew was more affected than he let on. The second he came in contact with the plump leather, he collapsed into a heap, bleeding all over the pristine seats and breathing like he’d just run a marathon. He let out a pained groan from the impact.

Julien struggled to move Andrew into a more manageable position before getting to work.

He washed Andrew’s wounds with hydrogen peroxide before stuffing his deeper injuries with gauze as best he could. Andrew grimaced from the discomfort, but other than that, he didn’t react. Then Julien put a medical salve over the wounds and wrapped Andrew in bandages.

Julien looked down at his shaking hands, they were covered in blood.

Balling them into fists, he circled back around to the front of the vehicle, hopped in the driver’s seat, and hightailed it out of there.

—

The moment they arrived at the ER Julien got out of the car and called for medical staff to help him take Andrew inside. When the staff saw the extent of his injuries, Andrew skipped the triage stage and went right to the operating room.

In the meantime, while the nurses scanned Andrew for his blood type, which Julien learned was AB-, they asked for Andrew’s basic information—who he was, his age, if he had any family, and the relationship between the two of them.

When Julien asked why they didn’t have him databased, they shook their heads.

He realized at that moment that even though they’d been together for a month, he didn’t know anything about Andrew either.

With no information he could give them other than Andrew’s name, the nurses left.

Left alone, Julien slumped into a nearby chair. He looked himself over, remembering that he’d gotten injured a few times when he was in the forest. But he soon came to the realization that he wasn’t injured at all.

Frowning, he pulled up his right pant leg as well, but other than two tiny puncture marks in the cloth, his skin was unmarred, save for a faint throbbing mark that resembled a star on his ankle.

He furrowed his brows.

That’s weird.

But unfortunately, he didn’t have a lot of time to think about that before the doctors came back to tell him the good news—Andrew was going to be okay.

Julien sighed in relief, the adrenaline slowly draining from his body. That’s when he noticed he was still shirtless and he sheepishly asked the staff if they had anything they could spare him.

As he waited for their return, he began tapping his foot on the white tile floor, listening to the buzz of the overhead lights.

Julien was starting to feel itchy, his body shivering despite the moderate temperature of the building. At first, he thought that maybe the snake bite was venomous after all. But it wasn’t long before he realized that wasn’t the case.

Seriously…?

An all too familiar ache slowly crawled through his body, the chill plaguing him feeling more and more like tiny spiders crawling out of open follicles, raising his hair on end. He could feel it—his body doing that thing it does, that thing where his own body leaves him behind, racing to be the first part of him to give out.

Julien was confused, why was he having a panic attack here?

He looked around at the fluorescently lit waiting room, listened to the squeaking of hospital wheel chairs and IV poles, felt wind rustle his hair as the door to the ER opened and closed.

Regardless of the answer, he needed to leave.

He stood up, an intense feeling of vertigo almost sending him careening back down, but he pushed through it and slowly made his way towards the exit.

Phew, deep breaths, deep breaths.

His heart was beating in his ears, drowning out much of the busy chatter around him, and the door looked as though it were getting further and further away, despite the fact that he was walking towards it.

He closed his eyes, inhaling air like a fish brought onto land.

One step at a time.

Julien crashed into a nearby nurse.

He opened his eyes and looked down.

She smiled at him, a faint pink coloring her cheeks as she offered him a volunteer T-shirt.

“Here, you asked for a shirt right?”

Julien wasn’t sure what happened from there, but somehow or another, he ended up outside, watching ambulances pull in and out of the parking lot, the shirt dangling off his arm.

How did I?

He blinked, staring at the shirt as if it could answer his question. But shirts couldn’t speak, so he put it on instead. A feeling of calm overtook him as he crouched down on the asphalt and buried his face in his knees.

He took in a shaky breath, then another, and soon, his breathing became rhythmic and steady.

Is it because of ‘Him’?

Julien’s heart skipped a beat.

It’d been a little over a year since ‘That’ happened, yet why…?

Julien furrowed his brows and tried to shun the memory of that incident from his mind, turning his head to stare blankly at the door to the ER.

Andrew, Andrew is the one in there, not…

He pressed his lips together, as though the action would prevent the thoughts from slipping out.

And he waited.

He waited an hour, then two, then three. He waited until his eyes started to burn.

And then, he saw him.