[attr="class","loctitle"]
FURTIVE TRUTHS 0

[attr="class","locbody"]you’ve been down this path before; isn’t it too late to turn back, now?[break][break]

tap-tap-tap.[break][break]

the click of his shoes down the sidewalk echo soundly in his ear. the night’s bugs don’t sing, since the chill has set its fangs in firmly for the season. although the cold stings his face, he doesn’t make any move to hurry on his route to garden of eden. he doesn’t mind the weather, evidently, and the city is almost quiet when there aren’t many people around. almost. there are the once-in-a-while sounds of people talking, their dulcet tones easily ignored in the back of his mind, which are occupied with thoughts of several topics vying for his attention.[break][break]

signing prescriptions, future appointments, of ives and all the moments they've shared, and the series of letters he’s been receiving from a mysterious m. h. hesper sorts through these in his mind, brows quietly furrowed as he walks with brown bags of freshly gathered ingredients in his hands.[break][break]

there is movement from somewhere behind him, sharp and sudden. hesper is too on edge to disregard it, so his eyes shift to the left of his shoulder, where he sees a hand reach out from the shadows of an alleyway. a brief second passes where he braces himself for what comes next, stiffening, as he’s jerked aside unsteadily, and stumbles into the darkness with a stranger.[break][break]

he drops what he is carrying on the ground to free up his hands, and he squints against the dark as he’s shoved. the world — what he could see of it, at least — flips on its head; he’s shoved down into the damp cement, the rough surface scratching at the side of his face harshly. hands grappled at his arms, struggling to pin them to the ground, a silent slew of expletives uttered under breath, and nails dig into his wrists. hesper twists his body underneath the weight that’s suddenly come onto him with a wince twisting his face.[break][break]

a voice hisses to him, terribly close to his ear: “just my luck you came trotting down this way.” the smell of acrid smoke spilled over him. the situation he was put in wasn’t advantageous in the slightest, and he barely has the chance to correct it.[break][break]

he’s rolled over, and suddenly he goes numb. hesper barely registers he was punched, amidst everything else he was processing. his eyes water from the strike as his head snaps back, further disorienting him as he’s brought up again by the collar of his shirt being grasped in a tightly knuckled fist. several more strikes hit him, each landing harder than the previous, and he feels a wetness dribbling down steadily from his nose, and tastes iron. he feels breathless, as yellow and white dots dance around in his fleeing vision.[break][break]

hesper is not a fighter, not by choice. botan made sure to teach him how to defend himself back then. initially, he was baffled why it’d even be brought up — because who would attack him? he thought, but the serious look botan shared with him back then made him tentatively relent to his desires, if not to ease his worries. the lessons he learned had been buried in the back of his mind in a grave labeled “irrelevance.” he hadn’t needed to defend himself from anyone in all his time in delphi, and maybe that speaks for how safe the city was ( or so he thought ).[break][break]

he is barely cohesive, but hesper jerks his head to the side with the latest strike, one knuckle barely grazing his cheek. the other is caught off guard, and he seizes the opportunity offered. hesper moves his legs underneath his assailant and kicks upward into where he thought his stomach was. the following grunt and absence of weight are both satisfying and relieving to hear as he gets to his feet.[break][break]

slightly disoriented, he leans himself slightly against the wall, as the person at the opening of the alley quickly recollects himself. he sees him scowl, the expression borderline feral. hesper might have counted him as an animal if it weren’t for the fact that he was clearly human.[break][break]

“you’ll regret not going quietly, cartier.” he spoke hushedly as he approached hesper again. he sees something reflective in the dim light, deadly sharp, and quiet — and something in hesper breaks when his eyes land on it. crimson eyes widened at first, then narrowed impossibly thin as he lurched forward. hesper puts everything into throwing himself against his attacker, who clearly knew him. he wrenches him into the thin strands of light that cascaded into the alley via the oil-filled lamps, and sees a face he thought he wasn’t familiar with, but the memories flood in easily enough.[break][break]

he’s totally changed, but everything slots into place. mischa hasei. a once apprentice of botan abruptly turned away. bo never gave him a reason for what happened, only the vague notions that something between them had transpired, and mischa had to go. hesper had never thought twice of it. he trusted bo, and whatever he did was for the best.[break][break]

“mischa, why are you doing this?”[break]

[break]

a pause, a scoff.[break][break]

“now that’s tragic. i thought bo told you everything.”[break][break]

in his surprise, mischa pushes forward with a burst of strength, and consequently, he’s pushed backward. hesper’s back presses against the wall and, seconds later, he feels something cold scratch at his skin. he almost didn’t notice it, until mischa pulled away. red, lots of it, slowly spreading across his shirt.[break][break]

mischa, momentarily, seemed surprised — but hesper for the life of him couldn’t tell where this surprise was placed. a split second of guilt? that he’d actually done it? or maybe he didn’t anticipate hesper would lose so easily. hesper slumps forward, and mischa staggers back, turning as he hears footsteps approaching from further away. he looks back at hesperaloe, whose blood escapes his mouth in thin rivulets, and whose eyes, although hooded with quickly mounting exhaustion, bore into his with a look haunting.[break][break]

and then mischa flees away, rushing down the other end of the alleyway without another glance backward. hesper manages to prop himself against the wall of a building, his gaze cast skyward as he meekly tries to apply pressure to his injury with a soft groan.[break][break]

what did bo do?