forum All Is Hell That Ends With ‘Fair’(Closed ~ One-on-One ~ Rated a possible M)

Started March 12, 2020 by @Toxic_Persephone group

tune

“Is this man dangerous?” He asked slowly, slipping on his jacket and watching Cyrus out of the corner of his eye.

The other male was built quite well. Marcus liked.

"Nah. Like I said, I truly don't believe he'll do anything. But you never know how someone who's scared will act," Cyrus replied, "I'm only being cautious."
He held up the picture again.
"Like, look at this fucking guy! Would you want to get in a fight with him? I'm bigger than him, and I'd probably lose," he joked.
The man in the picture was very muscular, covered in tattoos and piercings. His expression was flat, but in a way more intimidating.

Marcus shuddered, having to look away for a moment out of habit. Those higher than you didn’t like eye contact. “You dated him? He looks scary.” He mused, already intimidated by just the photo. “He’s not someone I want against me.”

"I mean, no, but… would you believe me if I told you the guy's a doctor?" Cyrus laughed, "He's not a gentle giant exactly, but he's no killer. Or gang member. He just… got caught up in some shit because of me, and now they want him dead. I also think… my old man just wants to exert more control over me by making me do the job, whether it's truly necessary or not."

“A doctor…? Really?” Marcus wouldn’t deny the slight spark of envy that coursed through his blood. Cyrus’s ex had made himself successful. He was someone much much higher than Marcus was, so much higher that it hurt a little.

But the man didn’t deserve to be killed. Especially if this was all a ploy made by Cyrus’s father. “He must have been good if you dated him.” Marcus said quietly, tugging on the other to lead the way.

“May I ask why you broke up…? You don’t have to tell me I’m just curious. I’ve never really had a boyfriend and I haven’t had the chance to ask any women out so I don’t know what it’s like to be in a relationship. Well, a ‘real’ one at least. For me it’s always been Marx. He only took my first time though, I kissed a cutie named Xio once but it was just in a game of spin the bottle so it didn’t count.”

"Well… resident. He's still got a year or so before he's really out there, but… yeah…" Cyrus bit his lip and let out a sigh.
"I'm not good enough for him. So I left," he said, "Our relationship wasn't fair to him."
That was oversimplifying it a lot, but that was the gist. Cyrus ran a hand through his hair nervously, hoping Marcus wouldn't press anymore, but if he did, it's not like he would hide anything.

“Fair…? But you’re amazing and kind and sweet and cute. You’re good enough. If anything, people don’t deserve you.” Marcus ran his fingers through his hair and sighed deeply.

“But I understand why you’d think that way, because I think that way too.”

“Yeah… like I said, he got caught up in some things. I thought breaking it off would end it, and here we are a year later… wanting him dead,” Cyrus replied, “We were having a lot of… communication issues at the time anyway. The whole situation sucked, but there’s nothing we can do now. I only hope we can protect him.”

“He won’t die. We’ll protect him.” Either way this goes… I’ll be fine. “I won’t let him get hurt. He’s important to you.” If I have to take a bullet, I will. Death is better than the trauma.

Marcus bit his lip. He would have to take more of the meds he ‘legally’ attained to drown out the voices in his head. They whispered grave words of death and self-harm. Marcus wouldn’t give into them this time. His self-harm burns still hurt.

“Now let’s hurry, the longer we take getting to him the shorter amount of time we have to save him.” Marcus urged, mostly distracting himself.

“Thanks,” Cyrus said, “It means a lot.”
He led the way, but mostly kept stride with Marcus.
When they got to their destination, Cyrus climbed a flight of stairs and knocked on the door of the apartment. The building was quite old, but looked livable enough.
Cyrus kept close to Marcus as he waited for a response.
He heard the click of a lock and the creak of the door cracking open.
“Mm… hello…?” a hoarse voice asked.
The man, Pollux, rubbed his face, then his eyes widened when he saw Cyrus.
“Cyrus, what are you doing here? And I don’t believe we’ve met before…?” His eyes settled on Marcus.
He covered his mouth and nose with the blanket and coughed, his back arching uncomfortably.
“Well, would you like to come in?”
Cyrus nodded. “If you would let us.”

Marcus followed willingly, managing to keep up just fine. He sighed gently as they walked up the stairs, looking around the building. It was about a hundred times nicer than his.

He was surmised when the man answered the door in a blanket, but felt an overwhelming amount of respect towards him.

“Marcus Teague.” He explained, in the moment they were invited in.

“Why is that name familiar…?” He muttered to himself. “Oh, yeah. I’m Pollux Ruis. Nice to meet you.”
He sat down on the couch and invited the other two guys to sit.
“What did you need?”
He hacked a little more and reached for a cup of tea that was on the coffee table next to an inhaler.
Cyrus frowned and looked towards Marcus.
“How do I say this…?”

Marcus shoved his hands in his pockets. “You’d recognize Lighter better, I believe…” he muttered, dipping his head. “It’s nice to meet you too.”

He sat hesitantly, looking over at Cyrus and nodding in reassurance. “Your life is on the line. We should start there.

“Oh…”
Pollux fell silent, but his affect was fairly flat for someone who had been told they might die.
“I was told to make a hit on you,” Cyrus explained, “You know stuff that you’re not supposed to.”
“That’s… I’ve been snooping around,” he admitted, “Some of the patients recently have been victims of crimes of the Silence. I couldn’t do nothing.”

Marcus had to grit his teeth to keep from cursing. He was partially the reason those patients were victims. He had lit a good many cars and houses on fire.
“They want you dead… my gang will probably be coming after you next.”

"Well, looks like they've already arranged a hit," Pollux sighed, gesturing at Cyrus, "I'd already be dead if he wanted me dead."
Cyrus frowned.
"Look, I-"
"I know you have no choice. Don't… don't worry about it. So what did you come here planning to do?"
"Fake your death, have you run away?" Cyrus said, his voice growing shaky and frantic, "Look, you don't deserve to die."
Pollux scoffed. "I don't think that's anyone's to say. This is going to uproot everything I have set up. Besides, I don't want this to continue. Innocents are suffering. You expect me to leave and abandon those I swore to help?"

Marcus could feel the panic bubbling into the room. It made him sick.
Everything was growing ever more complicated and he didn’t like it. Innocents, fires, abuse, death, suicidal thoughts… he really couldn’t take much more of it.
He grabbed at his hair, a sudden realization hitting him. It terrified him. If he were to mess up he’d not only die but suffer torture he couldn’t even imagine going through.
“Stop!”
He froze, realizing he had spoken out loud.
“Uhm… I-I have an idea…”

Cyrus looked over. "What is it?"
Pollux raised his eyebrow. He stifled another cough.
"Yeah, let's hear it."

“I get the closest to Marx, the leader. If I could… you know, get rid of him… I’d be the new head of the Silence.” Marcus shook slightly, both out of excitement and out of fear. He had never killed anyone directly. He was against it. But with Marx… he could make an exception. If Marx went away, the abuse and pain did. He could run the silence, fix things, be different.

“You think you can do it?” Cyrus asked, sounding a little surprised, “Because I think he deserves to die. If you need help in the process, I’m here for you, of course.”
Pollux sighed.
“Kill more people. That’s the solution, huh?”
“This one’s a real scumbag. Maybe worse than my old man,” Cyrus explained.

Marcus shot Pollux a dirty look. “Marx deserves to die for everything he’s done to me.” He growled, rubbing at his wrists as if he still felt the ropes that had bound him.
“I can do it. I just need to get it right. It might take a bit, as he sometimes ties me up before… you know. But if I could convince him to try something new that lets me have the power, then I could turn the tables on him.”

“You could try,” Cyrus said, “But… are you sure that’s even safe? Like… will you be okay?”
Pollux sat there, pondering. “So do you believe that it would also protect people if this man were to die?”
“Absolutely.”
“Alright, then what can I do to help? You decided to contact me, after all.”

“I’ll be fine. The other members can’t do anything about it. I think they’ll probably want it.” His eyes flickered between the two males, his whole body trembling.
“I just want Marx gone… that’s all the help I need. I’m sick of being his fuckbuddy.”

“Ugh… so it’s one of those types of guys,” Pollux grumbled.
His voice cracked a bit on the last word.
“Yeah,” Cyrus said, “I don’t think there’s much you can do to help. It was more of a warning. Besides, you’re sick again. You’ve gotta take better care of-“
“You don’t think I try?” Pollux’s voice rose a bit. He wasn’t quite yelling, but his voice sounded a little angrier than he intended; he was becoming very tense at this point, and it was starting to show.

Marcus nodded, fidgeting with his fingers. He glanced around the apartment for a moment, feeling awkward as the two began to argue. He felt out of place so he moved towards the door, stepping out of the conversation.
He was almost too thankful to feel his phone buzz a few moments later, even if the contact name made him want to punch a wall: It was Thomas, the gang member he was closest to but didn't exactly like.

'Marx is in a bad mood. Be ready if he calls for you. I think he's looking to inflict pain. Again'

Marcus scoffed at the warning. He already Marx was in a bad mood. Marx was always in a bad mood.

Thanks for the warning…

'No, I'm serious. He's really angry. He just cut Slick's tongue off. I know he uses you as stress relief. Be careful.'

“Sorry. You’re probably feeling irritable with everything that’s going on.”
Cyrus got up to blow off a little steam. He walked to where Marcus was.
“Sorry about that. You alright?”

Marcus glanced up at Cyrus and quickly put his phone down, hiding the messages. "Yes. I'm fine." He lied. Slick must have really messed up, talked back or told Marx something he didn't want to hear.

Slick always had been a big mouth. He stuck his nose where it didn't belong and spoke far too loudly for anyone's comfort. It was a wonder Marx hadn't harmed him before now…

"Just a little trouble in my gang…"

"Oh. That's not… That's not good," Cyrus said, knowing what that meant for Marcus, "Marcus, I… I don't know about the details of your plan so far. What if you ask to switch things up and he gets pissy about it? I'm sure there's a better way to set this up. Remember when I came in a few days ago with a letter? He wanted you in there, but he was more focused on me. You could easily stab him in the back in a situation like that. Plus you'd have me as backup in case anything went wrong."

“He probably will get pissy about it. He’s always like that. I just have to coax him down… but, you’re right. It would be better to have backup. I dont want to mess it up.” Marcus cursed lowly, rubbing at his arms. If Marx felt pissy then he was screwed. Quite literally.

"Marcus…" Cyrus sighed, "I'm here to help. Please, let me know what I can do, and by god, I'll do it."
He reached out a hand to hold Marcus'.
Pollux looked over from where he sat down, but went back to quietly drinking his tea.
"I'd do something as well," he offered one last time, "but it doesn't sound like I'm needed."