Never Give Up on Love Box Set

Chapter 3-3

Thomas

Thomas frowned as he walked up the stairs to apartment 8B, on the second and last floor of the old house. Landmeadow didn’t have suburbs typical of big cities, nor did it have rough neighborhoods. But there were areas with old houses that everybody knew were inhabited by unsavory people. The fact that Elias lived there actually didn’t surprise him much, though he felt a little guilty for thinking that. Landmeadow didn’t have a high crime rate, but it was higher than other similar villages. Sometimes Thomas hoped these people would just kill each other off, so as to save the taxpayers, but now he thought about Elias and how he would feel if called to investigate his murder. The ties had become too tight.

When he found himself in front of the door for apartment 8B, he took a deep breath and rang the bell, not exactly knowing what he would say once Elias opened the door. The only thing he wanted to do was to make sure he was fine, apologize for having jumped to the wrong conclusion, and maybe take him back to the hospital. He put his hands in his pockets and waited for somebody to answer the door. Who knew how Elias would react to seeing him?

It didn’t take long to find out. Elias opened the door, a very shocked look on his face once he saw who it was.

Thomas’s face probably had a similar expression, since the left half of Elias’s face was completely black and blue. The eye was swollen and half closed and his upper lip was cut. Thomas tried not to show the horror he felt and put out his hand to greet Elias.

“Hey, hi,” he said, feeling improper.

Elias quickly looked to his left and then shook his head.

“Go away,” he hissed, moving as if to close the door.

“Hey, no, wait!” Thomas protested, putting a hand on the door, pushing a little. “I wanted to apologize for…you know, before. I thought…I’ve been an i***t, and I believed…I mean, I’m sorry.” Thomas hesitated a moment. “I think you need help and—”

Elias shook his head. “I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not fine. Your face is bruised, and I’d like you to go see a doctor,” Thomas said with an uncertain smile.

“It’s better if you go. I’m fine.” Elias’s voice was low, but somehow determined, and Thomas chewed at his lip, unsure.

“Okay, listen, this is my number.” He sighed, taking a pen from his breast pocket and dashing off his number on a ticket. It wasn’t the best idea to give his number to this guy, considering his stalker tendencies, but in that moment, he felt it was the right thing to do. And it was his detective instincts speaking, which he couldn’t ignore.

Elias took the paper a moment before a man interrupted.

“Elias?”

The booming voice echoed inside the apartment. Thomas wrinkled his nose as the door opened fully. A rather large man, more or less Thomas’s age, was behind Elias, keeping a hand on his shoulder.

“Who the f**k are you?” Obviously, some kind of Mr. Nice Guy.

Thomas looked at Elias and saw in his eyes something similar to terror as he shook his head, so very slightly.

Think, Thomas, think.

“I’m Thomas Doyle. I’m…a doctor,” he invented on the spot. “But it’s not important.” He tried to chuckle. “I came to give him his ID back. He lost it outside the hospital when he…helped a woman entering emergency. She was really sick.”

Elias nodded and touched his back pocket, like he had just put his ID there, and turned to the man. “Yes, that’s true.”

“What the hell are you now? A Good Samaritan?” The brute turned toward Thomas. “Thanks, and goodbye,” he said, closing the door in his face.

Thomas remained there for a moment. He unconsciously touched the gun he had under his jacket and took the stairs heading to the ground floor with a bad sensation in his stomach and more concern than ever for Elias. He barely even knew him, and they certainly didn’t get off to a good start, but that bruised face and that man…who was that man? His father? His lover? His…Oh my God, Thomas didn’t even want to think about it. Had that man done that to Elias? The terror in Elias’s eyes had been so clear that his stomach had twisted. His excuse was terrible, but the man had believed it. He had a bad feeling that, if not, the one dealing with the consequences would be Elias.

He escaped the nasty house and looked back at it, as if to affirm it was really there, then he returned to his car.

And a persistent voice inside his head told him he had to find a way to see Elias again.