Chapter 20: Once Upon A Dawn

The barricade was broken and a tensed silence engulfed the connecting air between the two previously separated worlds. A pair of emerald green eyes widened in shock, or rather, embarrassment, as his situation seeped in slowly into his tired and tortured mind. No word succeeded in escaping Charlie's mouth; his fresh, disgusting wounds and extreme weariness had held him back and turned him into nothing but a frail, bound body.

The sight of his boyfriend for two days had silenced Frayne. Blank; he went for a moment, trying to make out the thinning line between his insane reality and baseless allegations. Altogether with no freedom of movement, Charlie's body was nastily tainted with cut marks and angry hickeys all over the place. In addition to the proofs of his ordeal, amorphous livid bruises were present quite large in area combined. Only clothed in boxer briefs, his other pieces of clothing—as well as his shoes—were trashed across the glinting marble floor.

Considering the whole condition, the existence of Frayne's only relief was almost as if a miracle; seeing his boyfriend alive though unwell had erased his furtive fear of finding him in a pool of blood, pale and lifeless.

Frayne warily slipped through the broken mess while his shoes made crushing noises from stepping on its fallen shards. The instinct concerning his supposedly next action was as dead as the feeling of pain on his wrecked, bloody skin from bursting through the door made of special crystal he originally thought was glass. However, the fact no longer mattered for its beauty had perished along with its once beautiful form.

"What the fuck?" Robert uttered as he followed the older male inside. Having being wasted, his brain shut down the possibility of Bobby turning into a crazier psycho when triggered into anger. He pressed the knife he had been holding deeper against Charlie's throat that instantly forgot how to function. Frayne died inside as his eyes picked out tiny drops of red across his boyfriend's neck, forgetting all about his own.

Being badly provoked, Frayne could no longer maintain his poise; he piped up a little too harshly regardless of the dangerous situation, "Why do you do this to him?" His tone spoke of the glints of fury in his eyes from the sudden alternation of his worries into rampancy that flowed throughout his body like a tsunami.

The hatred Frayne expelled was being reflected back at him through Bobby's full dark grey eyes. He remained immobile for it seemed to him the threat had little to no meaning, more or less worthless illusory. "It's none of your business! Fuck off or I'll kill you and your friends!"

It was almost a sin how Frayne had masterfully hidden the violent gritting of teeth behind his unmoving lips. He held back again; it was his only option since comical ideas of a rescue were deemed useless in his disheveled mind. Meanwhile, he knew better than to lose the cool in his head and let the powerful current of anger coursing through his veins sabotage him. If only the blade isn't so close to his neck, his mind constantly ran on. It was battling, thinking of a way to divert Bobby's attention so that he'd move the knife away.

"Now, now, aren't you being a little too possessive?" Frayne uttered after some serious consideration. It came out too placid that he had a hard time swallowing. "Come on, man, what you're doing is a total waste of time."

His feet moved a level ahead while he stole a swift, furtive glance toward his boyfriend whose eyes exuded no emotion. They were dead from fatigue; he had long yielded to whatever destiny had awaited him. The fact had hurt Frayne reciprocally, but a feeling of hurt didn't stop him from degrading his boyfriend even more. In order to save him, there were prices to pay—both mentally and physically.

"Don't you think there would be more fun if you just seduce him? Let him come to you himself like a little slut!"

Manipulation was Frayne's every word cried out loud of. Surely Bobby missed to see the planned play in his head from the way his eyes were immediately focused in an entirely different facet, as if interested to hear more. Even though there were several looks of doubt permanently encrusted in his dark eyes, his mind was tempted toward the idea.

"Come here," Frayne half-whispered what he had been meaning to say for a while. As soon as Bobby moved away from his dear boyfriend, he'd finish him off. "What are you hesitating for? Let's talk about this together."

Out of the startled crowd pooling around the broken door, no one dared to neither step in nor pry into the matter except for Robert who lacked the knowledge of peril. Not only was he stepping too far into the scene, he was also daring enough to start an attack from obviously failing to fathom Frayne's enactment.

"What the fuckidy fuck? Is your mind drowned in the gallons of alcohol that you've downed?"

That very same second in which Frayne figured out that worse would come to worst, there were two words to describe: cardiac arrest. His signaling glare was even too late to change the fact that the disaster had insanely turned catastrophic from Robert's loss of temper.

Shoving Frayne aside with all his might, Robert charged upon Bobby defenselessly with a fist aiming for his face. His balance was off and anyone seeing would know he'd lose it completely before 'losing' to Bobby. Seconds slowed down to milliseconds in Frayne's world as his instinct moved his flesh to stop the reckless teenager from getting stabbed by the panicked psycho whose blade was pointed ready.

As impossible as Frayne thought it would be, he successfully caught Robert with both arms and flung him back away from Bobby all the while kicking the guilty teenager on his gut, causing him to lose his balance and drop his knife. Robert collapsed and fell on his knees onto the floor due to the forming of headache and sudden dizziness from being quickly and forcefully moved, also thanks to the alcohols. He caught himself gaping in awe at Frayne's amazing agility—gaining his balance in an inhumane speed; he sent Bobby flying in mid-air for a split second from the blow on his jaw. The blow had him rubbing his cruelly aching face where he landed flat on the floor in an utterly defeated fashion. He was then abandoned as soon as the older teenager realized who exactly worth more of his time.

Robert's flock of friends came rushing in as soon as the sight of Bobby's complete defeat reached their visions and decided to worsen the unbearable amount of shame and pain heaped upon him. The whole scene of everything was rather dehumanizing. Meanwhile, all Frayne thought of and cared about was Charlie. Through Charlie's almost dead green eyes, he scantily made out his boyfriend's deft movement of freeing and redressing him. A faint blush appeared on his tainted cheeks.

No voice succeeded in coming out of his parted lips despite him trying hard. And just exactly before he passed out, he saw a flash of ferocity in his boyfriend's eyes as he gazed afar.

"The next time I see you even go near Charlie, I swear you won't have to bother to breathe just like how the dead don't need it."

The room went from rather stiff to utter silence as many were suddenly given light regarding who the mysterious savior might be. Standing far behind the crowd was someone whose mouth left no word spoken. His incriminating dark blue eyes rested particularly on Frayne as if wanting to break his soul solely from his gaze.

So, that's the guy. That's Frayne, he thought to himself.

***

(Frayne's POV)

I buckled my own seat belt right after I did Charlie's and decided to watch him for a bit. He was sleeping peacefully; he deserved a nice sleep after going through a horrible ordeal. His cheeks were starting to look rosy again; a fact that I realized from gently stroking it with the backs of my fingers. A small smile formed on my lips, but it soon dropped the moment my eyes landed on the angry red hickeys all over his neck. I was only starting to realize that the bloodstain on his clothes was no joke. It was technically my blood, however, I found it impossible to assure Charlie's family that he wasn't hurt when in fact, he was.

Even dumb Alex would've figured out that it was impossible to bring Charlie home to his family in this state. I had no explanation to offer William and his parents, moreover when I had broken my promise to William saying I wouldn't let him get hurt when he was with me. Apparently, I wasn't selfless enough to turn myself in. I didn't want to lose him just yet.

I swore if that Bobby person still had the guts to even try to do something to my boyfriend again, I would make him regret ever being born.

Eventually, the only choice I had was to bring him to the dorm to stay with me overnight. That way, I would have time to clean his cuts and bruises, and change his clothes.

"Frayne . . ." Charlie mumbled weakly, making my heart jump.

"Yes?" I answered while examining his face. He was still asleep. He called me in his sleep. If it wasn't the cutest thing then I didn't know what was. I smiled even though no one was there to see it. Leaning closer, I placed a small kiss on his slightly parted lips before driving off into the moonless night.

***

(Charlie's POV)

I opened my eyes and Frayne's face was in front of mine. I blinked my eyes several times to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

And for the first time, I wasn't!

My surroundings were dark, though not pitch black. My head was spinning and hurting badly as I tried to make out the situation, to which got me to a conclusion that I wasn't in my own room. The only light source was a small lamp on the nightstand next to the bed I was laying in. Next to it was a digital alarm clock; it showed four o'clock in the morning.

I felt pain around my wrists. I brought them up into my face and burning red blisters were staring back at me. Furthermore, I was clothed in pajamas that weren't mine. I checked on my ankles and similar blisters were there around them, only less painful.

The noises from my movements seemed to wake Frayne. He rubbed his eyes with the backs of his fists a few times before the lids opened, revealing beautiful blues. He sat up next to me and said in a raspy, drowsy tone, "Hey! You awake?"

"Frayne, am I in your dorm room?" I asked.

My question seemed to trigger his full consciousness from the way his eyes stretched wide open. "Oh gosh. Yes, you are! You have no idea how terrified I was." He paused momentarily to get a good look of my face and smiled. "I'm so glad to see you awake now, even though it's not yet morning."

Something was distracting my vision so much that I couldn't concentrate on his word. It was the huge bandage on his arm. His blood had emerged to the surface, indicating that it was a pretty bad wound.

"—I think you should sleep again."

"How did you get this?" I asked, startled at how big it was.

Frayne looked down to his arm. "Oh, I broke the glass door or whatever that thing is in your friend's house to save you from your crazy capturer. He didn't charge me for that, though. Lucky me."

"Are you okay?" I asked in pity whilst my eyes were still focusing on his wound that looked severe.

"Um, isn't that supposed to be my question?"

"But the wound goes all the way up to your sleeve!" I grabbed his arm to examine it thoroughly. He got this huge of a wound because of me?

I couldn't quite recall what happened yesterday at Robert's party ever since that stalker drugged me. The simple white room with no door where I regained my consciousness in was lurid, like it was copied straight off from a nightmare. I didn't remember seeing any way out.

Next thing I was aware of was Bobby's threatening presence. My eyes were glued completely to the movement of his knife. How cunning. His knife constituted a great deal of why I could do nothing and was totally helpless. Had it not been there, I wouldn't have surrendered that easily to his disgusting touches and kisses, no matter how weak my body was at that time. It was so abhorrent that I would trade anything just to erase that particular memory. On the bright side though, he wasn't my first kiss.

I remembered passing out again soon and dreamed about something unpleasant. Chances for it to be reality was there, but I'd like to make myself believe that it wasn't.

My vision had cleared up along with the increase of my consciousness when I heard a low knock from the outside and a few seconds after, something was broken. That something was nothing. It was a plain white wall; at least it was how it looked like from inside the room. The wall was broken and magically turned into shards of glass, revealing Frayne, which made me think that I was still dreaming.

Now, that was where he got the wounds from.

Frayne removed my hand slowly from his bandaged forearm. His effort to hide the pain failed when I saw him trying hard to suppress grimace. "Just forget about it," he said, referring to his own injury. "I'm sorry to have to bring you here instead of your house. I figured that you won't feel convenient sleeping in this small bed. Honestly, I'm afraid your parents won't let me see you again if they learn what happened to you." I felt my heart beat a little faster. He talked as though the misfortune was his doing when clearly it wasn't. "And also after all those cool promising stuff I've said to your brother. Argh! Shame on me!"

"Why are you blaming yourself?" I stopped him. "If you hadn't been there to save me, God knows what that creepy person could've done to me! I was drugged before you arrived, so, technically, you didn't break your promise to William. I'm sure that if you'd been there with me the whole time, none of these would've happened."

Frayne's gaze didn't break from my eyes even when I'd stopped talking. His perfect blue eyes were staring right into me, making me nervous. He chuckled suddenly, breaking the little tension his rare thoughtfulness had brought upon me. "Funny how I should be the one cheering you up, but now it's the other way around. Seems like you're not that childish teen acting like an adult I first thought you were anymore."

"I am not," I muttered, pouting.

"But now you prove me wrong," he said, "And thanks."

I smiled playfully and nudged him with my elbow, a bit embarrassed that he was thanking me so sincerely. My hopeful mind immediately signaled my eyes to notice his free, uninjured left arm, and I knew best why exactly my heart was the first organ to respond afterward.

My mouth was second. "Um, Frayne, can I snuggle with you?"

Frayne smiled adorably. "Of course you can." He wrapped his arm around me and pulled my body against him. Several seconds where I literally forgot to breathe did exist for, perhaps, the first time in my life. It sounded crazy and stupid, but I was pathetically in love.

Yes, I was in love with Frayne Callen.

I closed my eyes with a feeling of great comfort, resting my head in the crook of his neck. In our cozy position where I was too lazy to move my mouth, he began, "I think I haven't told you why I was late."

"Why?" I asked softly against his ear.

"So, there's this idiotic friend of mine called Alex. He took my car key and used my car without permission yesterday. I didn't know about it until he gave me the key later just when I was about to call the police. I thought my car was stolen. Geez, that screwball," he grunted.

"Why didn't you answer my calls?"

"I accidentally left my phone in the car. The battery was dead anyway. "

"Hm, that's plausible. I thought you were cheating on me."

Frayne chuckled in disbelief and half-whispered. "Are you crazy?"

For a few minutes, our position remained, unchanging. I forgot how to think, I forgot how to talk. All I could do was feel the hectic beating of my heart, and the scent of him screwing up my nose for eternity. I would never forget it; the sweetest smell my nose had ever tasted. Just like how my mouth was suddenly offered a special taste of him.

It was a simple, soft kiss. He didn't force anything in. He just gave and gave until I landed on my back and was faced with a lovely view above me. He was so sexy. His suddenly lustful gaze felt as though his eyes were raping me. My hand moved on its own volition and placed itself against his chest, running down his muscular body over the thin clothing he was wearing. I knew that it would stir him; I just hadn't thought of the consequences.

Frayne copied my action, exploring my body with his hand. There was something about his touch that felt different. It told of how far more experienced he was – or perhaps, the fact that I was far more inexperienced. His touch produced an electric current flowing throughout my system. And just when I started to close my eyes, he asked, "Will you allow me?"

There was a scent of mysteriousness, giving not even a shred of hint of how unlimited a choice it offered. My chastity wouldn't be guaranteed if I was to say yes, but hell, I didn't care as of right now.

Slowly, I nodded, afraid to open my eyes to see what look of lewdness his face was wearing. He dropped himself gently onto my body, making me endure his whole weight. It somehow turned me on. Frayne started to kiss my neck, re-marking everything, opening deeper wounds. I hissed in pain. It was as involuntary as the twitches down there. Not long after, our upper bodies were exposed naked. He created an open space between us just to smirk, seeing how my eyes couldn't stop devouring the sight of him. Though occasionally, I glanced over his bandaged arm, my focus was mostly on how to control my beastly desire to lick his abs, just like I'd always dreamed to.

Without asking for consent, I moved forward, tracing a line on his abs with my tongue. My technique must have sucked; nevertheless, Frayne seemed to enjoy my action judging from how he disallowed me to stop by clutching my hair, securing my position. I thought it would satisfy him for long, and boy was I mistaken. Roughly, he spun me around and pinned my hands at the sides of my head against the bed. We were back to our first position. I mentally gasped when he abruptly straddled my legs; my chest was rampaging with anxiety. He dropped his hips and began rocking my lower body. Goosebumps tingled down my spine and spread throughout my skin from the perfect sensation. I could feel how big and hard he was. Our hard groins brushed against each other, triggering embarrassing, uncontrollable moans from my side. I tried biting my lower lip to hold them back, but Frayne noticed and kissed me. His wet tongue slid into my mouth for the first time, exploring deeper inside. I was set on fire of bliss. But still, I tried not to let out my moans.

Our kiss broke and I was forced to admit how close I was to exploding. "Ah, ahh. Wait, Frayne, I'm gonna, ah – "

He stopped doing everything all of a sudden, disappointing as well as shocking my needy body. "Why did you stop?" I complained in a heavy, irregular breath. Even in the dim lighting of the room, I could see how flushed Frayne's face was. His lips were sexily parted, panting deeply. Nevertheless, the fact that he retreated when I was having a raging hard-on and was about to blow out irritated me.

His response in which I expected to be continuing what he was doing turned out to be too different. Scratching the back of his head, he said, "I shouldn't be so aggressive after your assault. You're in no condition to be doing something like this. I'm truly sorry, Charlie."

"But – " I stopped, looking into his rather concerned eyes. If he didn't actually care about my condition, he wouldn't be able to stop. "I enjoyed it a lot."

He smiled weakly. My eyes gazed down at the enormous bulge between his legs that was stretching his pajama, as if the sexy beast was dying to be unleashed. Oh, dang it. "Moreover, you don't have a change of underwear."

"I, uh, can I take care of it in the bathroom?" I asked for permission, suddenly feeling unbearable. There wasn't enough time to hear his proper answer and I was already dashing to the bathroom, locking it. I did my business without really using my brain, or else, I would be completely mortified.

Ten minutes in the bathroom was all it took to drain my energy completely. Too tired to even feel slightly embarrassed, I innocently walked out of the bathroom and went back to Frayne who didn't wait a second to use it after me. As if programmed to do so, I slipped into the blanket and closed my eyes to wash off my exhaustion. I didn't particularly remember nor was I conscious enough to make out his voice but I did feel Frayne's presence when he was back in the bed next to me, whispering gently against my ear.

"You better prepare yourself because next time, I won't hold back anymore."

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How was the long awaited twentieth chapter? This chapter is so long I forgot how it started when I finished. Nevertheless, I want to thank all of you for your patience and hope that everyone enjoyed this long ass chapter. Don't forget to vote if you like it and leave a comment, whether a support or suggestion that could improve my writing. Once again, thank you for reading my work and all of the supports I'm receiving *0*