When Lucas found out Ransley’s secret
“You want to go on a date? Right now?” Lucas said to his phone in disbelief.
“Yes”, Ransley answered, and Lucas could almost imagine him smirking.
“But I have school tomorrow!” Lucas whisper yelled, but laughed anyway.
“That’s tomorrow”, Ransley said. “Let’s focus on tonight, yeah?”
Lucas smiled to himself and sighed. “Fine. I’ll meet you at Poppy’s.”
They hung up and Lucas went to change his clothes. He didn’t bother to check himself from the mirror, because he knew he looked good. He was wearing his favourite clothes, and it was a fact that he looked absolutely great in those.
“Bye, I’m off to Ronald’s”, Lucas yelled as he walked out of the door. He was able to hear a distant ‘bye’ from his mother before the door closed. Lucas knew he should’ve felt bad for lying to his mother, but he wasn’t ready to tell them about Ransley. Not yet.
Lucas decided to take a bus to Poppy’s, mainly because he wanted to get there fast because the faster he got there, the faster he would see Ransley. The idea of seeing Ransley made Lucas smile uncontrollably and he looked around in the bus to see if anyone had noticed; they hadn’t.
He got out of the bus on the right stop and walked towards Poppy’s, where he knew Ransley would be waiting: he was always on time, and he always came, wherever Lucas asked him to come.
When he got inside Poppy’s, he saw immediately that Ransley was sitting in their usual booth, staring at Lucas. When he noticed that Lucas had seen him, he started smiling and waved his hand. Warm feeling filled Lucas and he speed walked towards Ransley, who got up and gave Lucas a quick hug and kiss before pulling him to sit next to him in the booth.
Lucas lips were tingling after the kiss and it took him a while to realise that Ransley had said something.
“Sorry, what?” Lucas asked.
Ransley chuckled. “I asked that would you like to eat before we go?”
“Maybe a milkshake?” Lucas said sheepishly and Ransley laughed.
“I knew it”, he said, “and that’s why I already ordered you one.”
“You are just perfect, aren’t you?”
“No, but you make me want to be better.”
The sincerity and seriousness in Ransley’s voice made Lucas look at him curiously.
“Are you okay?” Lucas asked, because he didn’t know what else to say.
Ransley smiled. He looked tired. “With you, I am.”
Lucas knew that Ransley loved to go out on dates with him. He also knew that no matter how many times they would go out on a date, Ransley managed to surprise him every single time. Lucas never knew what to expect from him, they always ended up doing something amazing that Lucas hadn’t seen coming.
This time Lucas noticed that Ransley had gone down the romantic road. They drove up to a hill, quite some way from the town and stopped there. There was a bench under a huge, old tree, where you could sit and stare at the stars or the town’s lights. Or both.
“Wow”, Lucas said as he stared down on the town’s lights. “It seems so small.”
“That’s because it is small”, Ransley said and gently pulled Lucas to sit down on the bench. “Here.”
Lucas turned his eyes on Ransley and saw that he was offering him a cup with hot chocolate in it. A wide smile spread on Lucas’ face and he took the cup, holding it in both hands.
“Thank you”, Lucas said. Ransley took a cup for himself too and then they sat in silence for a moment.
“What is the most important thing to you?” Ransley asked out of nowhere.
“What? Seriously?”
“Humour me.”
Lucas shrugged. “My family and Ronald, I think. They are all I have.”
“You have me, though”, Ransley pointed out, raising an eyebrow at Lucas.
“You know what I mean”, Lucas said, and nudged Ransley gently. “Ronald is part of my family, and family means a lot to me. I want them to be okay, that’s all that matters.”
“That was a good answer”, Ransley said quietly.
“What about you?” Lucas asked. “What is the most important thing to you?”
Ransley huffed amusedly, then looked at Lucas and said, “I don’t want to tell you.”
“Why not?”
“Because it might scare you away.”
“Nothing could scare me away”, Lucas assured him. “Come on, tell me what is the most important thing to you?”
Ransley looked around and then finally met Lucas’ gaze, smiled a little and said: “You.”
It felt like everything froze for a second. Maybe two. But then Lucas’ heart made a flip and he dropped his cup on the ground as he threw himself at Ransley. They kissed fiercely and Lucas climbed on Ransley’s lap, pressing himself close to his body because he wanted to be as close to Ransley as possible, he wanted to feel every inch of Ransley’s body.
“Lucas?” Ransley muttered against Lucas’ lips.
“Mmm?”
“Do you want to go? To my place?”
That made Lucas open his eyes and pull back a little so he could look at Ransley. “Yeah, I want to. But...”
Ransley touched Lucas’ cheek gently. “But?”
“But you should know that I haven’t– Like, you know, never done...”
“It’s okay”, Ransley said, smiled and gave Lucas a quick kiss. “We take things slow, and you tell me when you are ready, right?”
Lucas smiled widely, nodded and then kissed Ransley again, sinking his fingers in Ransley’s soft hair.
Lucas woke up abruptly and sat up, thinking that oh shit, he hadn’t set the alarm. Was he late for school? He tried looking the time from his phone, but its battery had died. He looked around in Ransley’s small, very small, apartment but there was no clock on the wall. There wasn’t really anything. It looked so empty and dreary, but that hadn’t disturbed Lucas last night. Now he couldn’t help but think why Ransley didn’t have any personal stuff in the apartment? He was just about to wake up Ransley and ask him that when his eyes took in Ransley’s face while he was sleeping next to him.
He looked so peaceful. So relaxed and soft, and beautiful.
Lucas didn’t dare to wake him up.
He looked around in the apartment and he noticed Ransley’s big rucksack and he remembered: Ransley had told him that he didn’t stay long in one place, that he was travelling around the world.
Lucas wanted to slap himself for being so stupid; of course Ransley didn’t have a lot of personal stuff in the apartment, he was travelling.
Then Lucas frowned. Ransley had already stayed quite some time in the town…When would he continue his journey? And leave Lucas behind?
“Why the frown?” Ransley asked, his eyes still closed.
“I was just… thinking.”
“What?”
Lucas took a deep breath. “I’m mentally preparing myself for the day that you continue your travelling and leave me.”
Ransley opened his eyes, sat up and looked at Lucas.
“You think I would do that?” he asked quietly.
“You said it yourself”, Lucas muttered. “You don’t stay long in one place.”
“And I also told you that I might stay”, Ransley said. “For you.”
Lucas looked at Ransley in the eyes and then lifted his hand up, touched Ransley’s face gently and sighed. “I don’t want to hold you back.”
“You’re not holding me back”, Ransley promised. “You make my life easier. I’d be around you twenty-four-seven if I could.”
Lucas laughed and then he remembered his school.
“Shit! I need to go to school.”
“Please, don’t go.” Ransley moved closer to Lucas.
“But my battery is dead and we have to present our biology group project with Ronald and–“
“Please”, Ransley whispered against Lucas lips. “Stay here with me. You can charge your phone here.”
Lucas took a shaky breath and prepared himself to say that he really needed to go but instead of saying that, he breathed out and whispered: “Okay.”
Ransley kissed him and pushed him down on the bed, sitting on top of Lucas, lips pressed to Lucas’ lips and hands behind his neck.
“I want to show you my secret”, Ransley whispered when he pulled a few inches away from Lucas. “Tonight. I’m ready for it.”
“What kind of secret is it?” Lucas asked, but his eyes stayed on Ransley’s lips. He couldn’t concentrate properly, and he only vaguely understood what Ransley was saying.
“You’ll see then. I just want you to know that I really care about you and I would never purposely do anything to hurt you.”
Lucas registered slowly Ransley’s words and they hit his brain hard.
“I know that”, Lucas said, eyeing now Ransley’s eyes.
“Remember that”, Ransley whispered.
“I will”, Lucas promised.
“What are we doing in the park?” Lucas asked curiously.
“I will show you my secret”, Ransley said.
“This better be good”, Lucas said and grinned. “I skipped school, spent the whole day doing nothing with you in bed and haven’t contacted anyone since you took my phone away after I charged it.”
“I wanted to have this day just for us. No phones. No distractions.”
“Are you hinting that I’m spending too much time on my phone?”
“Perhaps.”
They stopped by the swings near the trees. Moonlight shined from the swings’ chains and everything seemed kind of odd in the silver light. Lucas turned to look at Ransley.
“So?” he asked, waiting.
“You better sit down for this one”, Ransley said. He seemed nervous, but Lucas understood it. Telling your secret to someone was always a good reason to be nervous. Ransley pointed at the swing behind Lucas, so he took a step back and sat down on it, taking a hold of the chains.
“Okay, I’m sitting”, Lucas said. “Show me.”
Ransley glanced at the sky and looked then back to Lucas. “Any minute now.”
Lucas tilted his head a little and looked at Ransley. He looked really nervous, Lucas could see that and he got worried.
“Ransley? Are you okay?” he asked, and attempted to reach out and touch Ransley’s shoulder, but Ransley dodged him and shook his head.
“No. Yes. I mean...”, Ransley said, looking down. “I need you to remember what you promised to me.”
“I remember”, Lucas said, now a little bit scared. “Hey, what is so bad you have to stress so much?”
Ransley didn’t answer to him, instead he said: “I want you to sit there. No matter what happens, no matter what you see, I need you to sit right there and not. Move.”
“Okay”, Lucas promised and squeezed the chains in his fists harder. Now he was nervous too. “I promise I won’t move.”
“Good”, Ransley said and then he let out a scream that startled Lucas.
He couldn’t have moved even if he wanted to because he was frozen in place. He watched in horror how Ransley squirmed on the ground, screaming in pain. For a moment there Lucas seriously thought that Ransley was dying. But then he saw how Ransley’s whole body transformed: his teeth grew bigger, his clothes got ripped apart as his legs and arms grew longer, bigger. Everything happened so fast and soon where there had been Ransley, was now a big, bony figure with red eyes, sharp teeth and pointy ears.
Werewolf, Lucas realised. Ransley was a werewolf. And not just any werewolf. Lucas could recognize it anywhere. It was the same thing that had attacked Ronald and Lucas in the woods.
Lucas opened his mouth, but no words came out as werewolf-Ransley swung its head back and howled to the moon. Shivers ran down on Lucas’ spine and he could feel how his palms were hurting for gripping the chains so hard.
Then he heard someone running and yelling his name. Werewolf-Ransley heard it too and ran to hide behind trees that were behind Lucas’ back. Lucas saw no other than Ronald running towards him. He looked like he was going to yell something at Lucas but then he suddenly stopped and bent down.
“Ron, watch out!” Lucas yelled, because how could he not? He had to warn his best friend. “He’s a werewolf, he’s the one who attacked us!”
Lucas heard growling from behind him and then werewolf-Ransley came out of the woods and started circling around Lucas, but kept its eyes on Ronald.
I need you to remember what you promised to me.
Ransley’s words echoed through Lucas brain and he knew he was in a shock, and he also realised he should do something but he couldn’t. He couldn’t move.
I need you to remember what you promised to me.
“You want to go on a date? Right now?” Lucas said to his phone in disbelief.
“Yes”, Ransley answered, and Lucas could almost imagine him smirking.
“But I have school tomorrow!” Lucas whisper yelled, but laughed anyway.
“That’s tomorrow”, Ransley said. “Let’s focus on tonight, yeah?”
Lucas smiled to himself and sighed. “Fine. I’ll meet you at Poppy’s.”
They hung up and Lucas went to change his clothes. He didn’t bother to check himself from the mirror, because he knew he looked good. He was wearing his favourite clothes, and it was a fact that he looked absolutely great in those.
“Bye, I’m off to Ronald’s”, Lucas yelled as he walked out of the door. He was able to hear a distant ‘bye’ from his mother before the door closed. Lucas knew he should’ve felt bad for lying to his mother, but he wasn’t ready to tell them about Ransley. Not yet.
Lucas decided to take a bus to Poppy’s, mainly because he wanted to get there fast because the faster he got there, the faster he would see Ransley. The idea of seeing Ransley made Lucas smile uncontrollably and he looked around in the bus to see if anyone had noticed; they hadn’t.
He got out of the bus on the right stop and walked towards Poppy’s, where he knew Ransley would be waiting: he was always on time, and he always came, wherever Lucas asked him to come.
When he got inside Poppy’s, he saw immediately that Ransley was sitting in their usual booth, staring at Lucas. When he noticed that Lucas had seen him, he started smiling and waved his hand. Warm feeling filled Lucas and he speed walked towards Ransley, who got up and gave Lucas a quick hug and kiss before pulling him to sit next to him in the booth.
Lucas lips were tingling after the kiss and it took him a while to realise that Ransley had said something.
“Sorry, what?” Lucas asked.
Ransley chuckled. “I asked that would you like to eat before we go?”
“Maybe a milkshake?” Lucas said sheepishly and Ransley laughed.
“I knew it”, he said, “and that’s why I already ordered you one.”
“You are just perfect, aren’t you?”
“No, but you make me want to be better.”
The sincerity and seriousness in Ransley’s voice made Lucas look at him curiously.
“Are you okay?” Lucas asked, because he didn’t know what else to say.
Ransley smiled. He looked tired. “With you, I am.”
Lucas knew that Ransley loved to go out on dates with him. He also knew that no matter how many times they would go out on a date, Ransley managed to surprise him every single time. Lucas never knew what to expect from him, they always ended up doing something amazing that Lucas hadn’t seen coming.
This time Lucas noticed that Ransley had gone down the romantic road. They drove up to a hill, quite some way from the town and stopped there. There was a bench under a huge, old tree, where you could sit and stare at the stars or the town’s lights. Or both.
“Wow”, Lucas said as he stared down on the town’s lights. “It seems so small.”
“That’s because it is small”, Ransley said and gently pulled Lucas to sit down on the bench. “Here.”
Lucas turned his eyes on Ransley and saw that he was offering him a cup with hot chocolate in it. A wide smile spread on Lucas’ face and he took the cup, holding it in both hands.
“Thank you”, Lucas said. Ransley took a cup for himself too and then they sat in silence for a moment.
“What is the most important thing to you?” Ransley asked out of nowhere.
“What? Seriously?”
“Humour me.”
Lucas shrugged. “My family and Ronald, I think. They are all I have.”
“You have me, though”, Ransley pointed out, raising an eyebrow at Lucas.
“You know what I mean”, Lucas said, and nudged Ransley gently. “Ronald is part of my family, and family means a lot to me. I want them to be okay, that’s all that matters.”
“That was a good answer”, Ransley said quietly.
“What about you?” Lucas asked. “What is the most important thing to you?”
Ransley huffed amusedly, then looked at Lucas and said, “I don’t want to tell you.”
“Why not?”
“Because it might scare you away.”
“Nothing could scare me away”, Lucas assured him. “Come on, tell me what is the most important thing to you?”
Ransley looked around and then finally met Lucas’ gaze, smiled a little and said: “You.”
It felt like everything froze for a second. Maybe two. But then Lucas’ heart made a flip and he dropped his cup on the ground as he threw himself at Ransley. They kissed fiercely and Lucas climbed on Ransley’s lap, pressing himself close to his body because he wanted to be as close to Ransley as possible, he wanted to feel every inch of Ransley’s body.
“Lucas?” Ransley muttered against Lucas’ lips.
“Mmm?”
“Do you want to go? To my place?”
That made Lucas open his eyes and pull back a little so he could look at Ransley. “Yeah, I want to. But...”
Ransley touched Lucas’ cheek gently. “But?”
“But you should know that I haven’t– Like, you know, never done...”
“It’s okay”, Ransley said, smiled and gave Lucas a quick kiss. “We take things slow, and you tell me when you are ready, right?”
Lucas smiled widely, nodded and then kissed Ransley again, sinking his fingers in Ransley’s soft hair.
Lucas woke up abruptly and sat up, thinking that oh shit, he hadn’t set the alarm. Was he late for school? He tried looking the time from his phone, but its battery had died. He looked around in Ransley’s small, very small, apartment but there was no clock on the wall. There wasn’t really anything. It looked so empty and dreary, but that hadn’t disturbed Lucas last night. Now he couldn’t help but think why Ransley didn’t have any personal stuff in the apartment? He was just about to wake up Ransley and ask him that when his eyes took in Ransley’s face while he was sleeping next to him.
He looked so peaceful. So relaxed and soft, and beautiful.
Lucas didn’t dare to wake him up.
He looked around in the apartment and he noticed Ransley’s big rucksack and he remembered: Ransley had told him that he didn’t stay long in one place, that he was travelling around the world.
Lucas wanted to slap himself for being so stupid; of course Ransley didn’t have a lot of personal stuff in the apartment, he was travelling.
Then Lucas frowned. Ransley had already stayed quite some time in the town…When would he continue his journey? And leave Lucas behind?
“Why the frown?” Ransley asked, his eyes still closed.
“I was just… thinking.”
“What?”
Lucas took a deep breath. “I’m mentally preparing myself for the day that you continue your travelling and leave me.”
Ransley opened his eyes, sat up and looked at Lucas.
“You think I would do that?” he asked quietly.
“You said it yourself”, Lucas muttered. “You don’t stay long in one place.”
“And I also told you that I might stay”, Ransley said. “For you.”
Lucas looked at Ransley in the eyes and then lifted his hand up, touched Ransley’s face gently and sighed. “I don’t want to hold you back.”
“You’re not holding me back”, Ransley promised. “You make my life easier. I’d be around you twenty-four-seven if I could.”
Lucas laughed and then he remembered his school.
“Shit! I need to go to school.”
“Please, don’t go.” Ransley moved closer to Lucas.
“But my battery is dead and we have to present our biology group project with Ronald and–“
“Please”, Ransley whispered against Lucas lips. “Stay here with me. You can charge your phone here.”
Lucas took a shaky breath and prepared himself to say that he really needed to go but instead of saying that, he breathed out and whispered: “Okay.”
Ransley kissed him and pushed him down on the bed, sitting on top of Lucas, lips pressed to Lucas’ lips and hands behind his neck.
“I want to show you my secret”, Ransley whispered when he pulled a few inches away from Lucas. “Tonight. I’m ready for it.”
“What kind of secret is it?” Lucas asked, but his eyes stayed on Ransley’s lips. He couldn’t concentrate properly, and he only vaguely understood what Ransley was saying.
“You’ll see then. I just want you to know that I really care about you and I would never purposely do anything to hurt you.”
Lucas registered slowly Ransley’s words and they hit his brain hard.
“I know that”, Lucas said, eyeing now Ransley’s eyes.
“Remember that”, Ransley whispered.
“I will”, Lucas promised.
“What are we doing in the park?” Lucas asked curiously.
“I will show you my secret”, Ransley said.
“This better be good”, Lucas said and grinned. “I skipped school, spent the whole day doing nothing with you in bed and haven’t contacted anyone since you took my phone away after I charged it.”
“I wanted to have this day just for us. No phones. No distractions.”
“Are you hinting that I’m spending too much time on my phone?”
“Perhaps.”
They stopped by the swings near the trees. Moonlight shined from the swings’ chains and everything seemed kind of odd in the silver light. Lucas turned to look at Ransley.
“So?” he asked, waiting.
“You better sit down for this one”, Ransley said. He seemed nervous, but Lucas understood it. Telling your secret to someone was always a good reason to be nervous. Ransley pointed at the swing behind Lucas, so he took a step back and sat down on it, taking a hold of the chains.
“Okay, I’m sitting”, Lucas said. “Show me.”
Ransley glanced at the sky and looked then back to Lucas. “Any minute now.”
Lucas tilted his head a little and looked at Ransley. He looked really nervous, Lucas could see that and he got worried.
“Ransley? Are you okay?” he asked, and attempted to reach out and touch Ransley’s shoulder, but Ransley dodged him and shook his head.
“No. Yes. I mean...”, Ransley said, looking down. “I need you to remember what you promised to me.”
“I remember”, Lucas said, now a little bit scared. “Hey, what is so bad you have to stress so much?”
Ransley didn’t answer to him, instead he said: “I want you to sit there. No matter what happens, no matter what you see, I need you to sit right there and not. Move.”
“Okay”, Lucas promised and squeezed the chains in his fists harder. Now he was nervous too. “I promise I won’t move.”
“Good”, Ransley said and then he let out a scream that startled Lucas.
He couldn’t have moved even if he wanted to because he was frozen in place. He watched in horror how Ransley squirmed on the ground, screaming in pain. For a moment there Lucas seriously thought that Ransley was dying. But then he saw how Ransley’s whole body transformed: his teeth grew bigger, his clothes got ripped apart as his legs and arms grew longer, bigger. Everything happened so fast and soon where there had been Ransley, was now a big, bony figure with red eyes, sharp teeth and pointy ears.
Werewolf, Lucas realised. Ransley was a werewolf. And not just any werewolf. Lucas could recognize it anywhere. It was the same thing that had attacked Ronald and Lucas in the woods.
Lucas opened his mouth, but no words came out as werewolf-Ransley swung its head back and howled to the moon. Shivers ran down on Lucas’ spine and he could feel how his palms were hurting for gripping the chains so hard.
Then he heard someone running and yelling his name. Werewolf-Ransley heard it too and ran to hide behind trees that were behind Lucas’ back. Lucas saw no other than Ronald running towards him. He looked like he was going to yell something at Lucas but then he suddenly stopped and bent down.
“Ron, watch out!” Lucas yelled, because how could he not? He had to warn his best friend. “He’s a werewolf, he’s the one who attacked us!”
Lucas heard growling from behind him and then werewolf-Ransley came out of the woods and started circling around Lucas, but kept its eyes on Ronald.
I need you to remember what you promised to me.
Ransley’s words echoed through Lucas brain and he knew he was in a shock, and he also realised he should do something but he couldn’t. He couldn’t move.
I need you to remember what you promised to me.
