Mercy (Chris Alba x Bo Sinclair)
It was the third night since the tourist bus arrived at Ambrose, its driver and passengers never to be seen again, all except one. Cande had counted them, she knew there was one missing, Vincent had already turned the rest of the salvageable bodies into sculptures, the ones that were too maimed were given to Lester for him to dispose of. Still, there was one missing, and curiosity was eating away at her.
"Hey, Vinny?" she called, sitting cross-legged on his small cot in the basement, he was busy sketching, but hummed to signal that he was listening.
"What happened to the last victim? I saw all of them during the tour and counted them, there's one missing."
Vincent put down his pencil to sign while still looking at his sketch, "Bo asked me to leave the gothic looking man to him, why do you ask?"
But before he could look up, Cande was gone. He couldn't help but grimance and sigh under his mask, he fucked up.
It was around 4 am, Cande had grown accustomed to Vincent's sleep schedule, or lack thereof, so it was easy for her to just sneak around town while Bo slept. She had learned how to pick every lock in town, no door was ever closed for her.
She knew that the last victim had to still be in Bo's basement, and she was curious. After all, the only times Bo ever kept a victim for so long was when he had been in a particularly bad mood lately, or more than normal, or he had a personal vendetta against this person.
Now, before the tourists arrived Bo was his usual self, an asshole, but not too much of an asshole. What struck as something weird to Cande was how Bo's mood changed since the bus had arrived. He was ever so slightly… kinder? Not so much of an asshole. So Cande needed to figure out what was going on in that basement.
Chris was a light sleeper, so when he heard the lock on the door open, so did his eyes. He was still strapped to the chair, and he was hoping that the unusual time for Bo's visit meant he would finally come and kill him.
But when he looked, it wasn't Bo who opened the door. He was surprised, but glad he could at least see an old friend before he met his maker, even if she didn't seem to remember him.
Cande slowly opened the door and peeked inside, noticing the guy strapped to the chair shifting awake, he looked… fine. He wasn't visibly hurt, and she swore she saw Bo sneaking extra food and water whenever he came over to his workshop, had he just been taking care of this dude this entire time? Why-
"Hey, Cande. How 's it going?"
Cande froze and looked at the man with big doe eyes, only a handful of people knew her real name, much less how to pronounce it correctly. Once the puzzle pieces fit together, she finally recognized him.
".... Chrissy?"
He gave her a warm smile in return, "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
"Oh… MY GOD-UH!!" Cande exclaimed, jumping closer to the chair, "CHRISSY, IT'S YOU!! I haven't known anything of you since you graduated highschool, man!! Where have you been?" There she is, she hasn't changed a bit, Chris thought to himself while giving a small chuckle.
"Oh, you know, here… there… just wandering around in circles" he said.
Cande brought a chair so she could sit closer to Chris, they had a LOT of catching up to do.
Chris explained he had been touring the country after paying respects to his family, which is how he ended up in his current situation. Cande herself explained how she ended up in Ambrose, too. Not only surviving but as a permanent resident. They spent hours talking and didn't even realize it was past 7 am. They were so caught up in their little reunion, none of them seemed to realize Bo had arrived to do his usual work.
Cande was sloppy, though. She forgot to relock the doors after breaking into the gas station. This alerted Bo to throw everything aside and rush to the basement, shotgun in hand. He kicked the door open and aimed directly to the chair, only to meet a stunned looking Cande, in the middle of gesturing with her hands, and Chris, still tied up, listening to her.
"What in tarnation- Candelaria! What 're ya doin' down here?!!" He shouted, setting the gun down.
"Bo Bear!! I was just catching up with my old bestie here!" She exclaimed, totally unfazed by his rising rage.
"Don't call me-!... Wait… y'all know each other?"
"It's a long story…" Chris said calmly.
Cande disregarded Bo's presence altogether, turning back to Chris, "You look so different tho! I couldn't recognize you! You got tattoos, longer hair, u also look more tired than usual…." Chris chuckled at this, and she continued talking, ignoring Bo completely, "Oh! I got a tattoo as well!! It says "peachy", I'm gonna let you guess where-"
"Alright, das' enough…" Bo said, grabbing Cande by the wrist and pulling her out of the room.
"Aw, come oooon~" Cande whined, "I'll see you later, Chrissy!" She said, aggressively waving at the trapped man as she was being dragged away by Bo, the way a parent would drag a child away from the candy isle in a shop.
Chris could hear Bo scolding Cande from downstairs, followed by a loud noise, Bo exclaiming, and Cande giggling as she ran out the door.
A minute or two later, he could hear Bo shuffling with some paper bags before stepping back downstairs. His heart was beating fast, as much as he had grown fond of the murderous mechanic, his plans hadn't changed, and now more than ever, he felt he was finally at the finish line.
Or so he thought.
Bo took a deep breath before opening the door, sauntering in the room while rubbing the back of his head, his cap abandoned upstairs, paper bags in his free hand. He took Cande's place in the chair next to Chris, then looked at him quizzically, "Care to explain what was al' that?"
Chris shrugged "Cande, I guess?" Bo scoffed at him.
"So! I see you have a shotgun there, is today my lucky day?" Chris said, shifting into a more sit-up position.
Bo looked at the gun, then back at Chris, "Mmm, I don' think so, darlin'..." He said, opening one of the paper bags, and pulling out a PB&J sandwich and motioning to feed Chris, "Open up…"
Chris grew rapidly frustrated, and moved away from the sandwich while giving a loud sigh. Bo dropped his hand on his own knee and looked at the man, "What?"
"Don't 'What?' me!" Chris snapped back, "Just how long will you keep taking care of me? I knew damn well what I was getting myself into when I accepted your invitation to your house! And yet here I am, alive and not a single scratch on me! Just…" he was breathing heavily with impatience, "What are you waiting for?? Just kill me already!"
Bo was taken aback, Chris had been nothing but patient and obedient the couple days, sure, he was always asking about his inevitable demise, but he had never raised his voice like this before.
Truth was, Bo didn't want to kill Chris. Hell, he didn't even want to make him crack anymore. He just hoped like a fool that he could care for this man until he fled, then send Vincent to finish the job. They had gotten to know each other quite well in the past few days, and Bo wanted to know more. Now he knew he could ask Cande about Chris and his past, but where would be the satisfaction in that? What if Cande didn't know what he wanted to know?
Silence fell between the both of them, it had finally dawned on Bo… Why do I want to know him so badly?, he thought to himself, genuinely puzzled at his newfound feelings.
Chris, on the other hand, just stared at the wall, his frustration making him cry silently, he even had the chance to say goodbye to his old friend. "Just, kill me please…" he said quietly, making Bo look up at his teared up gaze, "Believe me, at this point, it would be mercy to do so…"
Without saying anything, Bo set the food on a nearby table and looked around in a drawer. Chris' face lit up when he saw Bo approach with a rusty old scalpel. Finally… he thought as he braced himself for the familiar sting of a blade across his skin. Only for it to never come.
Bo was cutting the tape, letting him loose completely.
"What…?" Chris was confused, he rubbed his wrists and sat up straight, finally able to move, still, he didn't run away, he just looked back into Bo's eyes, expecting him to attack, or, at the very least, answer.
"You said it would be merciful to kill you. Well, darlin' I'm not a man of mercy. So I won't."
Chris was stunned, unable to speak or even look away from the other man's eyes, he kept looking, searching for a hint of a lie, he had to be lying.
"Come on now, darlin', have your breakfast. I'll be upstairs waitin' for ya." Bo said before grabbing the shotgun and going up to his garage and starting work for the day.
Bo couldn't bring himself to lay a finger on Chris anymore, and he had no idea why. Cande would be a pain in the ass if she got to know that he hurt Chris. Yeah… it wasn't him, it was Cande. He kept repeating this last thought over and over, trying to convince himself of the lie.
Bo wanted Chris all for himself.
Around 1600 words, I hope y'all like it!
Chris Alba is my OC, Candelaria Ramírez is @mr-trick 's. The "Grand Trine" AU is a collab between the both of us.
Taglist: @rottent33th @slaasherslut @the-pinstriped-hood @moon-of-desire @allthingsblood @vincent-sinclair-deserved-better @texaschainsawslvt