Destiny 2

Chapter Two: Strangers

I felt my blood run cold as that thing leapt down from the tree limb right in front of us. It opened its wide, jawless mouth and howled at us again. Looking into that wide, blank open mouth and those empty eye sockets was the most disturbing thing I’d even seen in all of my life. I wanted to move, but forgot how to. I thought about screaming, but that wouldn’t have made any difference. Where we were, nobody could hear. 

The thing crouched down in his hands and knees. Like Troy, the thing’s body was lean and fit, his body a series of sharp angles and hard muscle. His cock was large, very large - unrealistically large. This person...this animal...this thing, whatever it was - it was a mixture of man and primitive, ugliness and beauty mixed into one. What really frightened me, was that even though this person...or thing...I didn’t know what to call it, had no eyes to see, I knew it could see us somehow. 

“What the fuck is this?” I asked, not turning around to look at Troy because I didn’t want to take my eyes off of the thing in fear that it might attack me. Troy didn’t answer me. 

I waited for the thing to pounce on me and start to ravage me to death...but it didn’t. Instead, it started to retreat backward very slowly at first and then stopped. My heart was beating so loud that I was sure that it could be heard throughout the whole forest. Suddenly, the thing jumped up on the tree trunk in such a quick and graceful movement, like a cat, reaching the very top branch in less than four seconds. I saw the thing leap across to another tree, shrouding itself behind the cover of thick green leaves and branches. I tried to see where it had gone too, but I couldn’t. The thing was already gone.

For a moment, all I could do was just remain frozen, unable to do anything but breathe. I heard a sharp movement behind me, and it startled me so much that I leapt up to my feet and spun around - but it was only Troy, not a monstrous looking man. He gazed at me deeply with his piercingly gray eyes. He, standing too, looked at me like I was a mystery to him, like I was something completely strange and new to him, when it was I who felt the way about him, and had more reason to feel that way about him than he did me. 

“What was that thing?” I asked him.

The wind picked up, abruptly, from nowhere, creating a whirlwind that sent the dry, brown leaves spinning in a long, perfectly-shaped funnel. I shivered. After the wind died, the leaves floated back down to the ground in very slow motion. 

Troy shook his head.

“Do you understand me?”

Troy said nothing. He unfolded his large hands and stared at his palms, then back at me. Whenever he looked at me, I felt chills running through my veins and through my nerves. 

“How did you get here?” I asked.

He said nothing.

“How long have you been here?”

Nothing.

“Are there others in here?”

Still nothing. It was like I was just talking to myself. Troy could only stare at me with his blank, but profoundly expressive eyes . He took a step backward. For a moment, I had almost forgotten that he was naked. But when Troy took a step backward, and the powerful muscles in his thighs flexed, I remembered quickly. My eyes were drawn to his big dick. It was so perfectly cut and shaped, with a nice thick girth, without being too thick. For a few seconds I let myself imagine what it would be like to touch it, caress it, lick it...

And then I remembered that we were in the middle of the woods, not alone, with something that was part man and part...I don’t even know how to describe what it was, and the only person who could probably explain what that thing was, wasn’t able to talk. Or maybe he just didn’t want to talk. Or maybe it was both. 

Somewhere deep off into the woods, we both heard the haunting howl of something. It echoed through the trees, and for a moment, the leaves stopped rustling. Everything was quiet and still for a moment, including Troy and I.

“We gotta get the fuck outta here,” I told Troy.

I took a step toward him and he took a step backward, obviously afraid of me, unsure of my intentions. Fear clouded his eyes and he looked like if he had the capability to, he would be screaming loud enough to make the ground beneath us tremble. 

“I’m not tryin’ to hurt you,” I told him, placing both hands up. Troy just stared at me, confused, and still doubtful of my intentions. 

“Are you deaf?” When I said that, I realized he I had just asked the most stupid question. Obviously if he couldn’t hear me, and wasn’t responding to anything I said, he had to be deaf. Didn’t he? Or maybe there was another reason for why Troy was mute. 
There was another howl somewhere, but this time it sounded a lot closer than before. The knee I had fallen on before throbbed with pain suddenly. I had a small gash on the back of my left wrist. I heard what sounded like someone or something running quickly on the hard dead leaves. Even though it sounded like was a bit far in the distance, it sounded like it was getting closer by the second. I couldn’t stay here. Both of us couldn’t stay here. I didn’t know what the hell was going on in these woods, but I needed to get out of them with the quickness.

“Troy, we need to get out of here now,” I said. “Somethin’s comin’ after us.”

I walked toward him again, but this time he didn’t recoil in fear. He opened his mouth and said, very quietly, “Follow me.”

I was stunned to hear him talk. My moment of amazement didn’t last too long, because Troy abruptly turned and started sprinting. I followed after him, trying to keep up, trying to dodge shrubs and upraised roots on the ground. Troy ran easily through the woods as though he had grown up here his entire life. Maybe he had in some ways. It was difficult to concentrate on running, when I had two things on my mind: one being the likely possibility that something inhuman was chasing after us; but I was more in awe with the masculine beauty and rough grace of Troy’s body, especially from a rear view. Every muscle in his body moved at once; his tight, round ass rapidly shifting left to right, his muscular hamstrings and calves bulging and flexing. I was getting hard at the same time that I was running for my life.

It only took us a few minutes before I was able to see the end of the woods and the road I’d originally been on. My heart had already been pumping fear out of pure adrenaline and fear, but now it was beating quickly because of the relief I felt about not being trapped in those woods anymore. We finally burst out from behind those trees and onto the open, empty road. Troy stopped running and I collapsed to the ground, breathless and in pain. Troy stared down at me, not friendly, but as though I had annoyed him some how.

“We gotta stop for a while,” I said, trying unsuccessfully to catch my breath. “I can’t move right now.” 

“If you stay there, you won’t be able to move at all,” Troy said. “Get up and let’s go.”

Only five minutes ago, he wasn’t able to talk at all, and now all of a sudden he was bossing me around. “I thought you couldn’t talk,” I told him. “I thought you couldn’t hear me.”

Troy glared at me. “If you wanna stay here, fine. But I’m gone.” He turned and walked away. I scrambled to my feet and followed behind him, still captured by the wonder of his awesome, naked body. It was beautiful the way he walked, so confidently and secure, almost completely unaware that he had no clothes on.

“What happened back there?” I asked.
Troy didn’t respond.

“Goddamn it! I know you can talk. Fuckin’ answer my question!”

Without turning around, Troy said, “I’m not answerin’ any questions right now.” I stalked up to him and was about to grab him by the shoulder and turn him around, but he predicted my move, seizing my wrist before I had the chance to touch him. His grip was so tight it hurt. “I don’t got fuckin’ time for your shit, Jeremy. If you wanna still be breathing in the next couple of minutes, we need to get outta here.”

“How do you know my name?” I asked.

The fury that had been in his silver-colored eyes faded. “You ask too many questions.” Troy let go of my wrist and proceeded to walk off again.

“Where are you goin’?” I questioned.

Troy didn’t stop walking. “Home.” 

I ran up beside him. That strange odor was still on him. It smelled like a cross between fresh sulfur and strangely, lemons. “We need to hurry up,” Troy said. “It’s gonna rain soon.”

Looking up into the perfect blue sky, I didn’t see a single cloud in sight. “Doesn’t look like it to me.”

Troy repeated, “It’s gonna rain soon.”

I looked at Troy’s naked arm, at the hard, beautiful muscles, all separated by sharp lines. He had a few scratches and cuts on his arm; some already dried, some that looked fresher. Troy must have felt me staring at me, because he turned to me, with those moonlight-colored eyes, and asked me, “Why are you lookin’ at me like that?”

“What happened to your clothes?”

Troy glimpsed down at his naked chest, at his bulging pecs and his super flat stomach. It seemed as if he were just now realizing he was walking down an open road in broad daylight, butt-naked. “I lost `em...” he whispered.

I turned around and looked back where we came from. Even though we had been walking for a while, it seemed like we hadn’t moved one inch. Those trees were still there, tall and scary as ever, watching us walk away. I almost had the feeling they were laughing at us. 

I remembered I had Troy’s ID card in my pocket. I pulled out it and offered it to him.
“Here. I found this in the middle of the road.”

Troy looked at the little plastic card with an irritated look, as though I were offering him Diet Coke. “What’s that?” he asked.

“Your ID card.”

He snatched the thing away from me so fast that I forgot I was holding it. Troy examined it for a quick moment, and then with a snarl, snapped the card in half and tossed it away. “Worthless piece of shit,” he whispered.

I felt awkward so I didn’t say anything. 

We began to walk down the large hill that I had run up about half an hour before. Together we went down, silently. I listened to the twin thuds of Troy’s feet hitting the rough granite.

“Are you cold?” I asked. My eyes were focused on his nipples when I said that, which looked a lot harder than before. 

“Don’t worry,” he replied. “Nobody’s gonna see you with me. Not today anyway.”

My heart skipped. Before I had asked him that question, I was thinking in my head how...not embarrassed...but uncomfortable I would be if a car drove by and saw me walking alongside a naked man. I thought about perhaps giving him my shirt, but that wouldn’t have been a good idea, because he still wouldn’t be wearing anything to cover his bottom half. I thought about giving him my shorts, but I didn’t have any underwear on, which wouldn’t have worked out for me.