A Touch Dead

A Touch Dead

Chapter 9





I hear the thud right before I answer and spin on my heels to see Aiydenn collapsed in the dirt. I drop my shovel and run to his side. Dropping to my knees I slip my hands back into my sleeves and slide them under his head. I pull him up, letting him lean again my legs as I call his name, trying to rouse him. He groans and I sigh, glad he only fainted.



He wakes after a moment, groggy and disoriented. “Hey, you okay?”



He nods feebly, pressing a hand to the side of his head. All of a sudden he jerks up, the sudden movement starling me and I jerk my hands away, only to have to reach forward to catch his shoulders when he starts to fall back.



“Sorry. I didn’t expect that.”



“Which? Fainting or me trying to help you?” He looks at me, a little startled and shakes his head.



“I didn’t mean to cause any trouble. I thought I could do this.”



“You need to rest. I don’t think you even tried to sleep last night.” A blush covers his pale cheeks, the colour actually making his face appear more alive and aware then I’ve seen him. Usually he appears a little aloof and constantly drained and getting a glimpse of colour back in his features makes him seem more approachable.



I help him get up and lead him over to a fallen trunk to let him get some rest. I grab my shovel and go to continue to dig Morgan’s body up. I hear movement and I snap at Aiydenn before he can even reach his shovel. “Don’t bother. You’re not taking care of yourself properly and I don’t want you to faint again, in case you hurt yourself. I can do this on my own. Let me know if you see Morgan and if he tries to say anything, okay?”



Reluctantly he nods, returning to the log and watches as I work my ass off to reach the body. It takes quite a long time and the whole way through it I’m cursing myself for burying him so deep. Finally I find his arm and that’s all I need, so I throw the shovel down. Aiydenn drops to my side and we both kneel, looking at the filthy decaying arm. I don’t want to touch it. I know it’ll feel as nasty as it looks. I glance at Aiydenn through my bangs and see that his eyes are fixed on it. He looks almost paler now, if that was even possible, his eyes wide and possibly horrified.



Taking a deep breath I reach forward and see Aiydenn jerk back, so focused that my movement startled him. He looks at me then back at the hand and nods, his fingers fisting his pants as he watches intensely. “I can’t promise what I’ll see, but I think if he wants us to do whatever it is he wants, he’ll have to show me.” I pause as he nods, taking a deep breath himself. “I’ve also never had witnesses to this, so don’t touch me or anything.”



Another tiny nod and this time I reach out, the sleeve pushed back enough to reveal just the tips of my fingers. I press them to the exposed hand, not really enjoying the feel of his dying, filthy skin against mine. Cold shoots up my arm and I feel the sharp tug on my mind. Much like last time I am pulled in quickly with such intensity that I almost jerk my hand away this time. However I am not experiencing his murder this time. I’m in his house, Morgan before me creating a mess as he tears through the boxes of his belongings. He throws sheets of school work aside in order to find a bag buried beneath the piles of paper. When he shifts slightly I\'m able to see the laptop he was trying to get out. When he finally pulls it free of the bag he stands and heads for the kitchen counter. His foot catches on one of the many boxes he has lying around and he falls forward, the laptop slipping from his hands and hitting the hard tile of the kitchen floor. Cursing, the laptop smashed, he angrily stands and gathers the base along with the broken pieces and chucks them into a garbage bag. Dropping the bag into the main garbage bin he heads out the door leaving his tiny house in the same mess that I had found it in when I took over.



On his way out he stops at the mailbox at the end of the drive and ignores the junk opting to throw it back in the box, instead only taking the little pocket sized card. Opening it reveals a note from his Mom; the exact note I found on his corpse, along with the Gift card Visa.



He slides the card into his pocket and starts to walk down the sidewalk before the sound of a cell phone fills the air. He pulls it from his pocket and his mood lightens as he recognizes the name and ring tone. As he answers, I miss the name on the caller ID but I manage to catch, “I’m coming to meet you now. Couldn’t email the application as I managed to fricken break my lap top. See you soon. Love you.”



I blink, my own surroundings coming back into focus. I replay what I saw back over in my head, trying to see if any of it was useful. Not really. The only thing to stand out was that he was meeting someone, and this was probably the same day he died. That means he knew someone here, but I have no idea who.



I finally I look at Aiydenn who stares at me expectantly. I shake my head and his expression sours. I explain to him what I saw and he can’t make any more sense of it than I can.



I reach back and curiously touch Morgan again and I get a quick flicker of what I just saw. I yank my hand back, looking at it, any form of feeling completely gone and leaving a painful chill running up the normal skin on my arm. I can’t flex my fingers in the slightest and I see Aiydenn leaning in close, concern plastered to his pale face. I shake my head, slipping the sleeve down to cover my immobile hand. “Same scene just flickers instead of the whole thing this time.”



With a sigh I get back up, grab the shovel and begin to shovel the dirt back over the body. My immobile have is hardly useful so I just grip the handle stronger with my other hand and use my palm to ease up the heaviness of lifting. My job isn’t as good this time but I know we’ll have another try some other time so there’s no point in really worrying about it. Aiydenn doesn’t help, though when I sneak a glance at him I can tell he is itching to but remembers how I reacted earlier, so refrains from interfering. Once I feel it is sufficiently done I kick leaves and twigs over the spot. By now I can move my hand again, although it is stiff and painful. I ignore it, remaining indifferent to it as I grab both shovels, waiting for Aiydenn to walk over before we start to head back.



As we step out onto the main trail where we’d usually split up Aiydenn freezes, his eyes wide, any colour remaining in his face now completely gone. I want to reach out to him but I don’t, too uncertain on what’s going on here. “Aiydenn?”



He jerks back to the woods where he vomits, coughing violently. I walk over, leaning the shovels against a tree and with my non-useless hand I gather up his bangs and hold his hair back while his stomach convulses, throwing up just bile and acid. After a few moments he pulls away, wiping his mouth with his sleeve and apologising. I shrug, grabbing the shovels as we go back onto the trail. He still looks like he’s going to be sick but he seems too worn out for anything more to happen.



“Are you going to be okay?”



“No.” He says and I falter, a little uncertain. He then adds, “Could I…Could I spend the night at you house tonight? I can’t go home.”



“Why? Is something wrong?” He looks away and I decide not to press. When he’s ready he’ll tell me, though it’s not really my business unless I won’t let him stay if he doesn’t provide an excuse. However in my own situation I am not better at providing answers so I let it drop for later. “Do you need to get anything first?”



He shakes his head and follows me, quiet and fatigued. I refrain from asking anything else, curious as hell, feeling as though something big happened that I missed out on. It takes us longer to get there, his pace slow with his exhaustion. I open the door, letting him in first. I get him to sit on the one-seat couch as I put on the kettle, making him some tea. I go into the cupboard and get out some bread and butter up a piece, handing it to him on a plate.



“Here, you need something in your stomach.” He takes it and picks at it slowly as I pull out a kitchen chair to sit on. We sit in silence as he eat, getting up only once to serve the tea. He places the empty plate on the counter and returns to the couch, holding the tea cup in both hands, letting the heat caress his face before he takes a sip.



“She’s dead.”



“Who?” I ask a little startled, looking at him with wide eyes.



“My mom.”



“How? Did you-?”



“Yeah. I saw it.”



“Oh.” I don’t know what else to say and he just remains silent. I take it in, how he reacted as we left the dump site, him throwing up and then his sudden request to not go home but to stay at my place. With everything that’s going on I can understand why he wouldn’t want to see another dead body, even if it was someone he knew closely.



I get up head into the bedroom. I grab one of Morgan’s shirts and a pair of cotton shorts and bring them to Aiydenn. He takes them and I point to the bathroom so he can have some privacy. I put water in the sink as he heads off to change and then make my way into my (Morgan’s) room. I pull off my sweater and shirt, grabbing my long sleeve night shirt and a pair of long pants, slipping them on real quick, not feeling comfortable with all my skin exposed in the air. My hand finally has full mobility again but aches with each movement, though nothing I can’t endure.



I find Aiydenn standing in the hall, his day clothes folded under his arm, Morgan’s old clothes a little loose on him, but not terrible looking. I wonder if he has any meat on him. Being pale doesn’t help to add any curves to his body. In comparison, the clothes actually fit me just fine, Morgan’s build having been similar to mine; fit, slightly more toned but still lean.



“You sleep on the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.” I say and step back into the bedroom after catching myself staring, throwing one pillow to the ground and finding a spare blanket stuffed in the closet. He comes in after a moment, setting his clothes down and sitting on the bed while I spread out the blanket on the floor. I jump under the blanket after flipping off the light, making sure Aiydenn had time to get himself under the covers first.



“Get some rest tonight.”



+





Sorry for the huge delay in posting this, with it having been Christmas I was super busy and it did slip my mind a little bit to update. But never fear in order to make up for it the next update will be out in a few days, I have a reminder set on my cell phone to make sure it’s up in a few days.



I hope you are all having great holidays so far, I’m certainly enjoying mine. Though I wouldn’t mind if the snow melted and it suddenly became nice and warm :)



Smint45: Thanks, hope you liked this chapter too, Aiydenn will be okay…eventually. I did have a nice Holiday. Hope you had a great one as well and also a great New Year! :)



Midnightsweet: Thanks, it was nice to have a few days off this Holiday season to get to sleep and catch up on some over due projects. Hope you liked this chapter, see you next time.



Lisa: You are right that it was Chaise; Morgan doesn’t speak much anyway ;) Yeah, we didn’t want the only focus to be the relationship so it’ll take sometime to develop it. Sometimes it almost didn’t feel like we were writing m/m. I was a little nervous for posting that chapter cause of the scene but I’m glad to hear you liked it :) Hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you next time~



So, we will see you guys in a few days for part 10 :) please stop by and leave us a comment we love to hear some feedback from everyone. Happy New Year as well!