Stereo Blast Volume 1 [MxM]

Chapter 7.4

It was all behind them as he turned to the empty and dark street. The screams and the cracking of bones weren’t possible to get out of his head, but he had no time to contemplate what was happening back there. If he wasted any more time thinking about it, he and Ryan would be dead. He fled down the street, his back and feet aching with Ryan’s extra weight. The city lights weren’t enough to see where he was going, he couldn’t see every crack in the street or every rock that had managed to roll in front of him. He tripped a couple times and each time his grip on Ryan tightened. His fingers were digging so hard into Ryan he feared he would leave bruises. At one time, it might have made him feel some kind of way—a way he should never feel about his best friend—but now as he feared for their lives, it was a thought lost to the many taking up his mind.

The road led to a small alleyway that looked like it might lead to another path. He didn't think before he was turning down the dark alley and running, his feet pounding against the pavement. He was panting by the time he turned the sharp corner. The spit in his mouth pooled and he swallowed it with a sharp shakiness that almost made him bite his tongue. The lights of the city didn't give much and what he could see was just the outline of some piled boxes and trash that had spilled from the large industrial dumpster that was pushed against the large building. The moon shined from above, just barely peeking out from the dark clouds overhead. Taylor scrambled to follow the lighted path in front of him. He was racing against time and the vampire that was killing all the people he didn't know and didn't care about. But Tike's face, bashed in and bloody, mixed with the blue lifeless eyes of the people at the party gave him the sense of urgency he couldn't deny. The vampire was going to finish all of them off and the only people that would be left to kill would be him and Ryan.

He ran down the alley, gasping and panting while clutching Ryan close to his chest. His eyes frantically searched the alley for a hiding place beside the dumpster. It would be the first thing the vampire would see and the first thing he would check. There was no place for him to go. He ran farther down.

At the end of the alleyway, a large brick wall blocked the alley. It was a dead end.

Taylor slowed to a stop. His heart fell to the pit of his stomach and he bit down the urge to cry out in frustration.

He circled around, his eyes taking in the endless line of dark bricks and the lights of the broken city in which he had no means of escape. There was nowhere to go, not when there was a pile of dead bodies down the street and a vampire out for blood just before them. He looked down at Ryan in his arms, his face aglow by the city lights, pink and blue highlighting the strands of his hair. His eyelashes looked so thick spread across his flushed cheeks. Taylor wanted to kiss them only to give comfort to himself in that very moment. He turned around again and again, in a daze as to what he could do. The brick wall seemed to be closing in on him and when he stopped, it was crashing in around them both.

He fell to his knees. His knees hit the pavement, but he couldn't feel the pain. His racing heart punched his chest repeatedly as if it would burst right out of his chest. The only thing he could think about, could see in his mind now, was the aftermath of what this would be. The vampire was going was to find them. There was no doubt about that. He would find them and he could slaughter them as he did the others. Ryan couldn't defend himself. He was gone from this world and there was only Taylor here to save him.

It made it all the more worst for Taylor to think clearly. He pushed the palm of his hand into his face, shaking his head as he tried to come up with some kind of plan to get them out of there safely. He didn't have time. He didn't have anything he could use to get them out of this f*****g s**t show.

The tears, angry, fell from his eyes. He smeared them across his face in an angry attempt to make all of this go away. it didn't do any good. None of it was good enough. Nothing was going to work for s**t. And so he cradled Ryan, sobbing and shaking as he heard the first of the footsteps.

His tears kept falling, dripping like blood from the open wounds that were his eyes. But he stopped the racking in his chest, stopped shaking as he was overtaken by the weakness of his own heart. The footsteps were sharp, echoing down the dark alleyway that led straight to Taylor and Ryan. They were sharp, bouncing from building to building. Taylor pulled Ryan to hide in the shadow at a failed attempt to shield them from the vampire's eyesight. It wasn't going to work, Taylor knew that, but it was all he could do and it was better to act than to let the vampire find them without trying.

The footsteps were right in front of the alleyway, the dead end that had failed Taylor in his attempt to save him and Ryan. Taylor held his breath. The tears were itching into his cheeks, but he couldn't wipe them away in the fear that the vampire might hear him move. It was a false attempt to make himself believe there was some hope. He saw the outline of the vampire under the blue and pink lights. There was no mistaking his sauntering form as he stopped in front of the alley and turned to face them.