Sniper

Fuck, that was close.

He ducked away from where the multitude assault of bullets was now coming from, before he quickly took the time to reload his weapon, and with the sheer speed and the grace of a ninja, he turned to his left, swung his entire body to face his attackers, and quickly proceeded to gun them all down. One by one. Each to his own. With so much venom and so much anger that even Humpty Dumpty wouldn’t be able to put them back together again.

Blood was now seeping from his arm where one of the stray bullets, which had been fired from those now, deceased idiots had indeed managed to struck him, but thank God, it only seemed to be a flesh wound at the most. Nevertheless, never leave a trail, that was how he was taught, and trained. Over the years, he had gotten tough, smart, feisty…full of zest and determination.

Killing people wasn’t an issue to him anymore…he clenched his teeth with intense pain as he managed to temporarily stabilize his wound with ripping shreds of material from his t-shirt, with seemingly no imminent threat of another attack. Nah, he was pretty sure he had killed them all.

The little girl that they had kidnapped weeks before, would finally be back with the police by now, if also her grieving parents. At least she was safe…these bastards would have followed through on their threats, he knew that, for sure. They weren’t fly-by-night chancers; their pedigree spoke for its fucking self.

Satisfied that the was no more blood spilt, no DNA left behind, no indication that he was ever here, he grimaced from the pain shooting through his arm, before he held his rifle tight in his hands, and making a quick getaway.

When the law enforcement would one day realize that within these few walls lied the bodies of five of the most dangerous gangsters in the entire Cape Town, he would have been far gone.

* * *

“JESUS!”

He doubled over in sheer pain, and determination, as he treated the wound later that same night, for what it was…a minor detail, but fucking hell, it didn’t feel that way when he actually covered it with some anti-septic and alcohol fluids. One just never, ever knew what was inside those homemade God damn bullets these pieces of scum always seemed to use these days.

He remembered his superiors having to get rid of the body of one of his colleagues…well, if you could call them that, after one of his fellow snipers had managed to inhale some or other toxin from an attack in a warehouse several years ago.

Fuck that shit…he wasn’t going to be one of them. Those from the agency who they had managed to lose over the years. Granted, it wasn’t much…but it was still people just like him…who did the same work as him…who was paid for the exact same duties as the ones that he had to perform day in, day out.

Satisfied that his health was in no immediate danger from the flesh wound, he sunk back against the leather couch inside his apartment. He closed his eyes for just a second, refusing himself to relieve what he was forced to have done during the day, as he always did.

Long gone were the days, where a death of one of his victims had any sort of effect on him anymore…not when you were as long in the business as he was. Seeing blood getting spilled, guts and gore all over the place from his victims…none of which was innocent by the way. So, there was that little consolation, if there was any.

Turning on the TV, he switched and flickered his way through the abundance of channels available on his DSTV account, when he stopped, abruptly, his finger still hovering over the remote, in the urge of changing the channel yet again…but this time…he would take his time to feast his eyes over what was actually being shown on his Ultra HD big screen.

Jesus.

For the first time in a long while, he allowed his guard down. He was safe, wasn’t he?

No one knew his name, no one knew what he did for a living…and due to the course of his job, he chose willingly, not to engage with any one if he didn’t need to.

Although, his true and birth identity being wiped from the sheer existence forever, there was always that little voice, that little irritating as shit voice at the back of his mind telling, saying to him over and over and over…what if you get close to someone…and THEY find you…people who you have killed…what if one day your identity as a sniper is revealed…and they come after ALL those who you hold near and dear.

His eyes were wide open. His chest was slightly heaving with pent up anger and emotion. As he saw the two men…the two actors in the soap opera, or film or drama series…he couldn’t really give a flying fuck what the genre actually was…but as he saw the two beforementioned men starting to actually kiss each other…so romantically and so full of whatever that was supposedly needed to state how in love they were with one another…

Fuck.

It was acting. It wasn’t real. My God.

He took a sip of his beer. He needed to watch his intake. He had another job tomorrow; the Commander had already informed him of that. He didn’t know where he had to travel to, to actually to the deed, so to speak, but he fully well knew that he had to be levelheaded for it.

One beer. And maybe some good ole steak and fries later, to go down with that.

The one male actor reached up with his hand, as the director of said programme in no doubt had told him to actually do, and he ran his fingers through his co-star’s hair, slowly and precise, only to come to rest firmly on his cheek, where he would proceed to caress the hard, sunburned skin, which he had found there.

The kissing deepened. The sheer groans were getting to his brain…it made him feel insane…it made him feel things that he knew he shouldn’t…things that was supposedly left and thrown away to the garbage, along with what was left of his former life.

He switched the fucking TV off the moment where the two men started taking off each other’s clothes. Fuck sake.

He was rock hard. His seven and a half fuck stick.

Harder than he had been in a fucking long time. And all of that because of a little bit of harmless gay kissing between two handsome men on some fucking TV show.

He threw the TV remote against the couch so damn hard, that it bounced right off and landed on the tiled floor with a massive thud. He could immediately hear the disapproval from the neighbours who lived underneath him…clearly having heard said remote clobbering the floor, tarnish their evening’s peace and quietness.

Fuck them and fuck this shit.

He leaned back and tried to calm down. Normally all of this wouldn’t bother him as much. Not at fucking all. He honestly thought he was immune to all of this…abnormality of a life by now. Then again…it wasn’t every day that someone turned twenty-five years old with nothing and no one to celebrate it with.

Balling both of his hands up into fists, he looked upwards at the moon outside of his window, shining it’s light and various shadows straight into his apartment. The last time he had actually celebrated a birthday of any kind was when he had turned eighteen. And that was a day, he would rather have forgotten, and why THAT couldn’t have been wiped from his entire previous existence pretty much like everything else, he would never understand.

His mind travelled back to a date and time where he was half the person he was now. A time and space where he wasn’t muscled…where he was nothing more than a scrawny teenage little shit.

Where he got bullied on the school grounds each and every day in Junior High. He had hoped and prayed that all of that would have stopped by the time that he reached High school, but it only seemed to get much, much worse by then. He was lanky, skinny as hell, he wore glasses for goodness’ sake…he was a walking wet dream for any determined bully out there.

Tried as he might…he never had any friends. None whatsoever. Because if you would be friends with him…you wouldn’t be friends with anyone else. That’s just how things were back then.

Every school tended to have its outcast, and unfortunately, in a nutshell, that was him. Three of four boys saw him as a dead easy target and they would quite literally wait for him after school hours every day…and if he didn’t have money to give them, he would suffer for it.

He had to go hungry during the school day, before he got home, because his parents never knew that the pocket money that they gave him, was forced to going to those bullies. He never actually used it…he knew what would happen if he couldn’t pay up.

Then again, sometimes they would give him a right good thrashing even if he did give them what they wanted. The principal and his fellow teachers lived under the illusion that “boys would be boys” and saw the bullying and the taunts, as nothing more than harmless fun. Everyone believed that he should toughen up, rather than complain about things, because they believed it built character.

Once again…fuck that shit.

But that was still okay…it was hard, it was rough, but he could still HANDLE them.

What he couldn’t handle, was that his parents got into a car accident a day after his eighteenth birthday, because they were on their way to watch him take part in the school’s annual swimming gala.

His dad used to go ON and ON about why his son wasn’t everything that HE was, when he was his age, why he couldn’t have played Rugby or Cricket like all the other boys…he couldn’t understand why his son was so into swimming of all things…which he obviously saw as something inferior to his own expectations.

The day before, the day of his birthday, he remembered his mother pleading with his father to go and watch him compete in said gala. He remembered, with a pursing of his lips, followed by a wry smile, that his father had flat out refused, and on the day of the actual gala, he only expected so see her supporting him in the stands. To realize that neither was there when it was his turn to do an event…it fucking blew, but he assumed that his father had gotten his way and had forbid her to come.

That, he would have preferred.

The truth…he would have never guessed. Some drunk fucker had run a stop sign earlier that same afternoon and crashed into a BMW on the freeway…a BMW that was on its way to the school carrying a man and a woman who came to watch their child compete in his favourite sport. His mother had obviously convinced his father to come in the end…and that decision costed both his parents their lives.

For God’s knows how long…he didn’t wanna go on. He didn’t wanna live anymore.

He didn’t see a way out, and HOW he possibly could exist in a world, which could be THAT cruel, and THAT unforgiving towards anyone.

The suicide attempt he had gone through only weeks later…he was convinced that there was nothing left for him. That the death of his parents would be haunting him for the rest of his miserable life.

If it wasn’t for his cousin, coming to check on him after the death of his parents, finding him mere hours before he would have bled to death from the cuts on his wrists, he would not have been here today. It was as simple as that.

Biting back the tears…he hadn’t cried in over seven years, and he wasn’t about to start now…

…he always looked at those couples on the outside world…whenever he treated himself to a meal at a restaurant or at a coffee shop. Whether it be a man or a woman, or two men or two women…with jumping, laughing, playful kids by their side.

He felt it. My God, he felt it. He wanted what they had. He CRAVED it. He YEARNED for it.

He smirked…and suddenly he laughed. He laughed so fucking loud, cackled even at the thought of what exactly he really was.

A Sniper.

A gay sniper.

Jesus.

His stomach was starting to ache tremendously, as he saw his phone’s screen was lighting up, before his ring tone shot through the entire near-empty apartment.

“Yes?”

Silence on the other side, as it always was. HQ had to be analyzing his voice tone…to determine whether it was really him that was answering the call. He knew the drill by fucking heart by now.

“Tomorrow. Ten a clock. Karoo, Sutherland. Your plane leaves at six in the morning. Target male, late fifties, more details will be given when you land.”

And just like THAT, the phone was dead.

There also was no indication whatsoever that he had ever received a phone call.

He unlocked the back of the phone, and retrieved the sim card, which he then proceeded to burn with his firelighter until there was only a splodge of melted metal remaining. He reached into his bag, before he inserted another sim card, before activating the registration, and sending the new number to HQ in order for them to contact him.

He then stood up, and walked towards the window of his apartment. For a moment, he simply stood there…looking at nothing and no one in particular, before he closed his eyes.

Another death incoming…another murder on his hands.

Tick tock. Tick tock.

These people were all the scum of the earth…but still, these were actual lives that he was taking.

He had taught himself to be tough…to not feel anything for anyone. His heart was as cold as ice…it had to be, when he pulled the trigger each and every time to end someone’s life in the fucking blink of an eye.

These people…albeit notoriously dangerous, or even corrupt members of society, had families of their very own. Wives, husbands, and almost certainly young, innocent children waiting for them at home.

Where was the sanity…where was the humanity of that drunk driver who took the lives of his parents THAT horrible day? Where was the so-called Gods at that moment at time? Didn’t he suffer enough already? With all the bullying and the threats and his father refusing to accept that his son was never going to be who he WANTED him to be?

And still…after ALL of that…God had to cause him to become an orphan at the tender age of just eighteen years of age.

Having left him to fight for himself, to fend for himself, to channel all the anger and all the animosity that he felt towards humanity into taking a shot gun, a rifle, take your fucking pick…and direct it towards people…humans, just like himself, their hearts beating ferociously inside their own chests…and causing havoc and an abrupt ending to a life’s journey with a simple click of a trigger.

He spotted two men walking in the park beneath the apartment. They looked so happy. They looked so content…there was just a hint of a warmth inside the pit of his own stomach as he saw them giving each other a quick kiss, before they were on their merry way.

Forget it, pal.

That will never happen for you.

Because where and HOW would you even BEGIN to explain just what you were doing on this earth? What you were doing to others.

How the hell…in what universe would ANY potential guy be happy to call his boyfriend a cold-blooded killer?

He turned around, and closed the curtains, and proceeded to switch of all the lights in his apartment, before he brushed his teeth, took a quick ass shower, drying himself off, before checking his looks in the mirror.

Buzz cut black hair. It was just starting to grow back. Muscled arms and a ripped chest, from all the time spent in the gym downstairs. In this job…you can’t afford to be overweight. His blue eyes…his once sparkling blue eyes…well, his mom always referred to them as aquamarine…was as dead as his target was going to be by this time tomorrow.

He had nothing left. Nothing and no one to live for.

This, was all he had.

This was all that he knew.

This is who he really, truly was.

A sniper.

* * *

It was as if HQ had followed him all the way to the Karoo.

The moment that he had gotten off the plane, and access to network on his cell phone came flooding back, the co-ordinates as well as the identity of the target all came through.

As he usually did, as his M.O always was, he dropped the phone into a public toilet, and proceeded to purchase another cheap ass one at a local pawn shop in one of the mall’s he ended up in. Replaced the sim card yet again, and proceeded to send another message to HQ. They once more had a number to contact him.

His target was indeed late fifties, a well-known businessman from the Karoo, and that was all he needed to know. He also knew that their client had ordered a hit on this particular man, because he was beating his wife towards an edge of her sanity.

That was all that kept him going. He was giving these sorts of people hope…he was given them a better life, doing what he was doing. With this bastard out of the way and six feet under, his wife would be able to be released from this nightmare she found herself in.

She had even sent HQ recordings and evidence of the beatings that she had been getting over the last few years. And this…taking out a hit on her husband, seemed to be the only way out for the poor woman.

Don’t get emotional. Stay strong. You got this.

He climbed onto the motorbike that HQ had managed to hire for him. No real names, no paperwork. Just a load of cash thrown at the local Avis branch, and that was that. People always tended to look the other way where cold, hard cash was involved.

He immediately spotted his target coming out of the restaurant that he had been dining in all early morning, followed by a mini entourage of about two people, which obviously was his bodyguards. Hmm…dude must have gotten death threats before now…he clicked his teeth, irritated as hell. This job as just gotten a whole lot nastier. It simply meant that he was going to have to kill three men today, instead of just one.

He managed to follow the target as well as his bodyguards all the way into the cold, small town of Sutherland, in the heart of the Klein Karoo, South Africa. From this way onwards, as far as the eye could see, it was all gravel road before him, none of which was the typical tarred path that he knew from the city.

This was rural Karoo…and it was misty as hell this time of the morning, with a slight splash of water on his face masking the fact that it was pouring down around him.

Wearing the stolen outfit of one of the local cops in the area, he tried being inconspicuous as he kept following the target’s car from a safe enough distance. The whole idea was to stop the car when the coast was clear, pretending that he was an officer of the law. When they would do just THAT, he would take out his gun and shoot all three of them. Dead as a doorknob. Nice and easy, right?

The graveled road was clear, for once. No other cars around in the vicinity. Time to take action.

He maxed out the motorbike’s speed to over 140 kph, before he proceeded to completely overtaking the target’s car. Once he was a couple of meters out in front, he speedily turned the bike around so that he was actually facing the men that he had been paid to actually send straight into the afterlife.

He flashed his lights and held up his hand, indicating to them to stop their car. Obviously, not realizing that this particular “cop” was in fact a sniper, the three men in the car, did just that.

He took off his helmet…what did it matter if they knew who he was and if they saw his actual face…they would all be dead in a minute’s time.

He checked his pistol into his holster, all part of the stole uniform, before he marched up towards the car. He smirked as he saw one of the bodyguards had been the one to drive, with the remaining guard sitting at the back, and the actual target in front inside of the passenger seat.

“Is there a problem, Offic…?” the guard started to speak, and before he could fully complete his sentence, he had already met his Maker.

The remaining guard started to panic, as he completely and utterly dove over towards the steering wheel once he realized what was going on before he proceeded to use his dead colleague’s body as a human shield against the sniper before them.

Sniper sighed.

If you wanna play Pops…let’s play.

The guard somehow got control of the steering wheel, before he cleverly switched on the engine and got himself and the target the hell out of there. That was NOT part of the plan! Jesus! Shit!

He ran back towards the bike as quick as he could, before getting on and speeding after the two.

He took out his pistol and got as close as he possibly could towards the car, and fired a shot. It blasted against the back window, where he hoped that it would travel enough to reach the target, but when he looked closely, he could only see the guard driving in plain sight…the fucker must have told his client to crouch down so that the bullets won’t hit him. FUCK!

Both vehicles were now going at what felt like a surreal million miles an hour by then, each one knowing that this was honestly a very real chase between life and death right now. Another snipe shot towards the car ended up travelling in vain, and before he knew what was happening, he saw an arm reach out from the back of the car, through the back window.

The hand, had a revolver of its own, inside the palm.

Jesus.

Before he knew what was happening, a bullet whizzed past him, luckily and fortunately it missed by mere inches. That must be the target…he fucking underestimated him!

Another blast from the car in front of him, and this time the shot was way more accurate, as he turned the bike to his right in order to dodge, the rain now really coming down in buckets, making his sight all that harder.

He fired another shot of his own, which seemed to go anywhere except his actual target. FUCK! He couldn’t see anything in this God damn weather.

He had to get closer. Much closer. That’s all he could do to save this mission.

But before he could do anything else…

…he saw it before he had actually heard the shot coming towards him.

The bullet hit him straight in his chest, slashing through his bullet proof vest, the impact more severe than he would have ever though humanly possible.

It was like everything was happening in slow motion. The bike seemed to give away underneath him. He was travelling at such a fucking high speed, that his body was like a tennis ball on a piece of solid concrete. In his haste to kill his target, he had totally forgotten to replace his helmet on his head…

…way too late to remember that now.

He skidded on the gravel, his body was like a demented wooden doll, the speed insane, the burning, fiery pain shooting through his upper chest from where the bullet had ripped through his metal vest, his arms and legs gaining scratches and bloodied blotches all the way that he was slipping and sliding across this rainy, wet, messy surface.

There was no way this was ending in a positive note.

The bike, which he still had been holding on to, suddenly and inexplicably swerved at once to his left, and it took nearly every fiber on his being to keep his grip, because even in his current situation he knew…oh boy, he knew, that if he were to let go, it would be over. Finito. As long as he kept hold of the bike, there was every chance that he would be able to pull himself up and regain control of the vehicle.

He saw the opposing car from the opposite side coming…

…and suddenly he knew that his last day on earth had arrived.

They were going to crash into each other and right now, there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The bike skidded across the wet surface, and since the target’s car was in front of him, there was no way for the oncoming vehicle to turn into.

The bike SMASHED into the oncoming car, the impact loud and extreme, you had to be deaf in order not to have heard it. He tried to hang on as much as he could, but the collision was just too severe. It was unavoidable. He felt his body flying across the graveled road, where the last thing he saw was, the target’s car getting further and further away from him.

The graveled road came closer…closer…closer…until he fell headfirst onto the rock-solid sandy residue.

Opening his eyes, trying and forcing himself to keep awake, he tried to get up, but it was as if his legs were literal jelly. He looked upwards…and at once felt this immediate tiredness overtake him.

Wow…is THIS how I’m gonna go out here…a car accident of all things…well…at least I’ll see my parents again…he thought, before complete and utter darkness finally overtook him.

* * *

“What the hell happened around here?”

Tanner Starke’s eyes widened before he scowled at his fourteen-year-old son for taking as many photos as he could of the total wreck of motor vehicles that he was seeing before him. He quickly snatched his son’s phone away from him when the latter opened his TikTok account…all of this, was the LAST thing he was going to allow his son to post online.

“Dad, what gives?” Shawn moaned and sulked, but Tanner stood firm.

“Son, you don’t know if there are people in there! This must have happened not ten minutes ago, look at all that black smoke coming out of there! Look, you stay here, and if I tell you to, only then do you bring me the first aid kit out from the boot, okay? I’m just gonna check if there are any survivors…man…it sure doesn’t seem that way…”

Tanner parked the family car next to the side of the road, so that other cars in the same lane, would be able to get around it, before he slowly walked towards the bloodied and nasty wreckage of metal that they were about to drive past.

He had been at the farm doing his daily duties when the school had phoned him, saying that Shawn had been complaining of not feeling well all morning, and he had in fact puked a few times as well. Quickly as he could, he jumped into his car and gone to collect his boy…but when he had come past here earlier…all of this wasn’t here.

Dude. This was bad.

On first sight, he saw that the driver of the Polo Vivo was dead. She had to be. Her eyes were glassy and she seemed to stare at nothing, with a big gash of blood pouring out from her temple. Even if she would have survived…he didn’t wanna see the damage to both of her legs…there was no way that she would have been able to ever walk again, if she would have.

He leaned down and checked her pulse just to be sure…and unfortunately his gut feeling was correct. She was gone.

Damn. Sigh. Sometimes he hated this world and everything that it stood for.

A side swipe towards the ruined bike, which would surely never be able to drive on its own ever again, is when he saw the body of another person, laying on the ground before him, a few feet away. Tanner quickly jogged over to the man that he saw, and goodness me…it had to be a young guy.

Had to be in his early twenties at least. Geez. What a waste of a bloody life.

This dude was bleeding just about all over the place. There was blood coming out of his nose, his ears, his arms and legs looked like they had been sliced up by barbed wire…man!

He leaned down…there was no way in God’s name that this young…young, very handsome man had made it. There couldn’t be…WAIT!

JESUS!

Tanner knelt down…his eyes all over the place…his heart quickening, and he forced himself to calm the actual fuck down. He carefully placed two fingers on the neck of the young man…and closed his eyes, forced himself to concentrate.

THERE! YES! HOLY mother of…

…this guy…whoever he is…he was still alive!

Barely.

The pulsing of blood through the man’s veins was so faint, that he had to feel it two more times. It nearly felt like he was forcing the guy to live…to WANT to feel any indication of life souring through this body…and once more…it was VERY faint…but at least, it was there.

The nearest hospital was way too far. Fuck.

Tanner flinched. His wife Carly, was a nurse, and as the luck would have it, she was right in the middle of her annual vacation. She and him had planned at the weekend to take Shawn to the rugby game of the team that he supported…Tanner, think!

He was literally too afraid that if he took the dude to hospital, that he wouldn’t make it. His pulse was way too faint for his liking. He wasn’t sure what Carly could do on her own without all the medical equipment at her disposal, but he knew what his wife was capable of. She didn’t study all these years for nothing.

Right. Decision made. He only prayed it would turn out to be the right one.

Gritting his teeth, Tanner took a deep breath, before he, as gently as was humanly possible, at the ripe old age of thirty, his biceps were straining against the sudden weight of a fully grown man years his junior, he managed to pick the strange man up carefully, inside his arms and walked slowly with him towards where their car was still parked, after all this time.

“SHAWN!”

“Yeah?”

“Open the back door of the car, we got a guy here from the crash, he’s still alive!”

“AWESOME! Can I see?”

“Shawn, I swear to God…”

“Okay, okay, I’m doing it!”

Tanner glared at his son, but the moment that the fourteen-year-old turned away from him, his face totally softened at once, as he stared at Shawn with nothing but fatherly love in his eyes.

For so long…for so long, he didn’t know whether or not he’d ever be able to be a father, in every sense of the word, to that boy. Getting Carly pregnant at the age of sixteen, was not in either of their long-term plans back then, but having a kid changed all of that.

Carly, being a devout Catholic, as well as her entire family, having an abortion was off the charts right from the off. And once the nurses at the hospital had finally placed the crying little new born in her arms, complete with Tanner watching their every move, right at their side, so was giving him up for adoption.

Tanner loved his son…and he loved Carly. He honestly adored the both of them.

There was just…he couldn’t help feeling this way…that there was something missing. Something that he wanted more…then again, he knew exactly what it was. But there was no way that he would ever admit what he truly felt to anyone on this God’s green earth.

As safely as he could, both himself and Shawn placed the barely breathing stranger in the back of their SUV, making sure that he was at last comfortable…or so they hoped.

Shawn, perhaps even in his young mind and heart, realizing the severity of the situation, immediately jumped in the front seat, and so did Tanner, with both father and son speeding away from the accident scene, and towards their family farm, as quickly as they could.

* * *

“You did good, bringing him home. Although he really needs a hospital, he has what looks like a bullet wound to his upper chest, but since he was wearing a bulletproof vest, it didn’t do much damage. I’m mostly concerned about the bump to his head. But yeah…I hate to admit it, but with hospitals being swamped these days…who knows when he might have eventually gotten help…”

Carly Starke washed her hands in the bathroom basin, before she smiled at her husband and her son.

“For now, let him sleep. He has had quite an ordeal. And when he wakes up, he can tell us if he wants us to take him to hospital.”

A while later, Tanner himself went into their spare room and checked on their new patient. It seemed for the world like the man was simply asleep, and since Carly had managed to remove his bloodied clothes and had him dressed in only his underwear, he looked slightly better underneath the thick duvet cover, than what he did when he had found him.

Tanner walked up towards the head of the bed, and sat down in the chair which was situated next to it, complete with a bowl of ice water and a sponge, which Carly had used earlier. That was supposedly to help if he would develop any sort of fever, she had explained. Hopefully that wouldn’t be the case. Fingers crossed.

Tanner’s eyes swept over the young man. He sighed…it wasn’t like he didn’t notice how gorgeous this guy was.

How ruggedly handsome. Carly had placed both of his arms outside of the duvet, so that it gently was resting on his stomach, and Tanner’s penis gave a little flutter as he realized this dude was ripped as hell. Whatever his line of work or hobbies was, going to the gym was obviously a big part of it.

He sighed once more, and walked towards the window, peeping outside to where Shawn was busy recording more stuff, that he knew was for TikTok…the boy was absolutely insane about the app and how many followers he had. A smile streaked slowly across his entirety of his face. He wouldn’t give up Shawn for anything in the world. Never.

It's just…

It’s just when someone as genuinely handsome as…John Doe over there in the bed came into his life…he always seemed to wonder…what if?

What if he could have just been open and honest with himself and the rest of his family?

This farm and estate have been in the Starke family for generations. Each generation at least having been able to bare children…sons and daughters to take the family name forward.

Tanner angrily wiped away a stray tear which had managed to escape his eye and roll down his cheek. Every time…every God damn time he thought that he was over this. Over this…insanity of desperately wanting another man in his arms…not his wife…not any other woman on this earth…

…but a man.

Tanner was gay. He knew he was gay. He had fucking known it since he was twelve years old, when he and his parents had watched a random episode of 7th Heaven one evening. The character of Simon Camden, played by the stunningly sexy David Gallagher, was a revelation for the young, pre-teen Tanner. He couldn’t take his eyes off the blond hunk. No matter how hard he tried.

Later in his teenage years, he knew what it meant…he knew what he was and what was happening to him. He was gay. Homosexual. No matter how and in what kind of terms you wanted to actually label it…he was into boys. Men, if you would.

The problem was…that the family expected him to grace them with grandchildren. Someone who would be able to continue the family legacy and to keep this farm estate intact for the future generations to come. It took one night…one drunken night, in which at a party, he had consumed too much alcohol…who didn’t…and before he quite knew what he was doing, he had hooked up with Carly.

Because what the was fucking chances of getting some from one of the boys in his grade…next to zero.

In a way, he was relieved when Shawn was born. The pressure to produce a male heir was well and truly over. He didn’t have to prove anything to anyone.

However, he didn’t bargain on how fucking lonely he would be feeling at this point in his life. He was turning thirty-one soon…and although he had Carly and he had Shawn and all the rest of the family dynasty he could count on…

…he wanted more.

Much more.

Turning back towards the handsome young man inside the bed, laying there so peacefully, his head completely covered in bandages, looking so God damn peaceful and serene of grace…

Tanner swallowed.

Slowly.

There was no arguing about this, he was beautiful. If not, one of the most beautiful men he had ever seen in his entire life. And to think that he nearly died today…yeah sure, perhaps someone else out there would have stopped and checked the scene for any survivors, just like he did. However…his heart was racing. His dick, and not for the first time, twitched as his eyes once more dangled over the stranger’s ripped upper chest and strong facial features.

He walked over towards him and sat back down at the side of the bed.

“Who are you…and why did you have to come into my life?” Tanner softly whispered, as he nervously saw the stranger’s chest heave quietly up and down, at the slight of his breathing.

* * *

Two days had passed.

And still, there was no sign of the stranger waking up.

Carly had managed to install a home sort of hospital room, complete with a drip and everything to feed the patient from within his veins. One of her colleagues owed her a few favours, so that was the least they could do for her. With COVID cases rising in the area once more, there was a better chance to allow him to recuperate on the farm, than at a crowded hospital, and much healthier as well.

Shawn was already home from school, and Tanner strictly ordered him to go and do his homework, and if he completed everything before dinner time, that he could order the pizza of his choice. You put together a teenage boy, along with pizza, and you quite honestly tended to get the result you wanted.

Carly kissed Tanner goodbye before she left for some much-needed supplies from the local pharmacy…that was one of the few negative things about living out here, all on their own estate on the farm…you really are severely far away from everything. Even the neighbouring farm next door, was a healthy fifteen-minute drive away.

Checking on the patient as he always did, delivered no results, and with Carly away and Shawn doing homework, Tanner was reluctant on being on his own. He took a book from his collection and sat himself once more beside the bed, in the chair and proceeded to start to read the latest crime novel of his collection.

About half an hour into his shift, his phone rang out. Looking towards the stranger, he sighed…as if he had hoped the loud ringtone of the cell phone would somehow magically wake him up. He stood up and walked over towards the window of the bedroom. Looking at his phone, he saw that it was his father calling.

“Hey Timer, what’s up?”

“You want me to take you over my knee, boy?”

Tanner smiled; his eyes full of mischief.

“You have to catch me first, Daddy-O. How’s Mom?”

“Good, she’s right here with me. We wanted to know if you and Carly and Shawn, of course, would be able to join us for dinner tonight?”

Tanner rolled his eyes. He kinda knew exactly where this was all going.

“Which political figures do you need to impress this time?”

He heard his father sigh on the other side, before he gave his answer, talking in along details about the upcoming mayoral election and how he was in poll position to take the win against his riveted opponent.

“Dad, you have never been interested in these kinds of stuff…before I took over, your life was here, on the ranch and the farm! What…I just don’t get it.”

“Tanner, my boy…that’s exactly why I’m running for mayor. Because if you spend your entire life doing something that was expected of you…you tend to ignore your other interests. You sweep them aside, because you have priorities. With you and Carly taking care of the farm now, I have my chance! Please do this for me?”

Tanner opened his mouth, reluctantly to agree, before his eyes fell onto his patient. Gritting his teeth, he swallowed a few times.

“Dad, I gotta be honest, tonight is not gonna work. We have a…a friend staying with us and he isn’t feeling well at the moment. I can’t just leave him here all alone?”

Tanner could hear his father sigh on the other end, before the older man cleared his throat.

“Oh, what the hell. I didn’t wanna invite those high society folk before you and Carly said yes anyway. We can always make it another evening. I have to go, and say hi to Carly and to my grandson for me! Love you, my boy!”

“Yeah…love you too, dad…” Tanner replied before the line went dead.

* * *

“Uggggh…”

Tanner dropped his book.

He looked up into the eyes of the patient…the man was moving and actually making noise.

“CARLY! CARLY!” he called out after running towards the door, before returning to the young man, who was starting to wake up more and more by the mere second.

Carly burst into the room after a few short moments, before the nurse in her completely and utterly took over. She checked his pulse, checked his vitals, before she hung her stethoscope behind her neck.

“Tanner, can you stay with Shawn, please? I don’t wanna scare him when he wakes up and he sees three strangers staring down at him. He might also have brain damage, if you remember that bump on his head, I don’t know. That was a massive hit. I’ll let you know, okay?”

Tanner hovered and hesitated.

For three whole days, he had been looking after this…this handsome young man while Carly ran the household and went out with her friends to enjoy the rest of her vacation…and with Shawn at school, it was mostly just him and John Doe here on the farm.

He didn’t wanna go. He didn’t want to.

Jesus.

But how to explain that to his wife?

He slowly nodded, before he left the room. A solace of panic enveloped his upper chest the moment that he closed the door of the guest room behind him. What the fuck? Why the hell did it bother him this much?

Tanner forced himself to calm down, and after spending about fifteen, twenty odd minutes with his son playing on his Nintendo Switch, Carly finally emerged from the guest bedroom. Both Shawn and Tanner stood up in unison and made their way to her. Carly smiled, before holding up both of her hands.

“Slow down you guys…he seems fine. At some point we’re going to HAVE to take him to hospital to have him properly checked out, but for now, he’s sleeping. He doesn’t seem to have any brain damage, he spoke semi clearly, and as far as I can see, he isn’t blind either. His voice is a little hoarse, but that is to be expected after everything he has been through.”

“Did he say anything? His name, where is he from? Anything?” Tanner demanded, to which Carly frowned at, to the point where Tanner started to feel hella uncomfortable, but in the end, she just shook her head and regained her composure.

“No…he asked md where he was, and I told him he was safe, and that he needed to get some rest. Other than that, he murmured some loose words, which I couldn’t understand heads or tails of. Maybe we’ll have some  better  luck tomorrow.”

* * *

His eyes fluttered open.

He tried to figure out where he was…what it was that he was seeing.

It was a room.

A bright room, with white walls.

It was warm…it felt homely.

As if he had just been given freshly baked bread covered in jam and rich, tasty butter.

He saw a figure stand up onto both of his feet, and making his way slowly towards his person.

“Hey there…you gave us quite a scare the other day! How are you feeling?”

He tried to see who was speaking to him…it was as if the picture was still a little fuzzy…like a taking a photo on a cell phone with your hand shaking as you pressed the white button…but then again…

…he didn’t even know WHO he himself was, nevertheless, the guy who was speaking to him.

“I…I…” he tried and failed to get actual words out, before he laid back down. He suddenly seemed to realize that his head was…THROBBING to say the very least. He closed his eyes and gave out a soft groan, before he felt the duvet and blankets that was covering him, being straightened out…almost as if he was a little boy who was getting tucked in for the night by his father.

“You rest all you want. You were in a very nasty accident, and you still need to recover. There will be plenty of time for talking later. You just get better soon, yeah?” the strange man said, before he kindly smiled down at him.

Before he was completely out of the room, he opened his eyes once more time…slowly…very slowly.

A warmth like he had never felt spread through him like wild fire.

He felt…protected.

He felt safe.

He was asleep, within seconds.

* * *

It was about two days or so after he had first woken up, that Carly was satisfied that the drip she had attached to the young man could be removed, and that they could try with feeding their injured guest something non-solid, such as her famous chicken noodle soup.

Tanner had to warn Shawn a couple of times to stay out of the guest room as to allow the young man to get his rest, but he was excited at the same time. The dude was looking better and better by the day, it severely helped his chances that he was young, fit and healthy, and that he clearly looked after himself. Carly, in her professional capacity was satisfied that he would make a complete recovery.

“I’ll have to arrange for a full physical now that he’s better, and that has to happen at the hospital, I’m afraid. I’m back there next week anyway, so I can handle it myself then. Would you mind looking after him for a while? It’s still hours before Shawn comes home from school, and I wanna pick him up when I get back. Will you be fine here on your own?”

Tanner kissed Carly lovingly on her lips as his sordid reply, to which she just smiled and caressed his cheek, before grabbing her car keys and off she went.

About an hour or so, Tanner hesitated before knocking at the door of the guest room.

“Come in!”

Tanner smiled warmly as he saw the young man sit upright for the first time since he had brought him here a week ago. He was looking much better, his face lighting up as he saw his host, and he couldn’t help smiling as he saw how scruffy he was down his chin area, after probably several days of it not seeing any sort of razor.

“Man, you certainly look at it today! Seriously, you doing okay? Is there anything I can get you? My wife has gone to her job though…I dunno if she told you, but she’s a nurse. And now that you’re better, we just want to make sure you get seen to by a proper doctor. Just in case.”

The younger man smiled and laid back, closing the magazine that he was reading before he looked directly at Tanner.

The latter’s heart fluttered once more. His chest was warm…his pulse instantly quickened.

Jesus…Jesus Almighty.

He knew the guy had looks going for him, but that was NOTHING compared to his smile…he was incredibly handsome.

“I guess I am doing okay. If only I could remember who I am…”

Tanner’s eyes widened. His mouth opened just a tad, in complete and utter shock and surprise.

“Wait, what do you mean…if you remember who you are?”

The stranger shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, complete with a sad smile streaked across his face.

“I…I didn’t know how to tell you or your wife this. But if you’re gonna take me to a hospital to see a doctor…he’s probably gonna need to know this.”

The stranger reached up and ran his fingers through his short hair, before he sighed.

“I wanted to wait until I was feeling better. Your wife did say I was in some sort of accident and you guys brought me back here…I honestly don’t know how to thank you. But…I really don’t remember ANY of that! I really don’t! I have been wreaking my brain in trying to figure out just what my name is! Your wife asked me a while ago…and I just didn’t have an answer!”

Tanner sat down at the side of the bed, and without even thinking about it…he reached over and placed his hand solidly on that of the young stud.

“Well…don’t you worry about a thing, okay? We’ll get you better and pretty soon you’ll remember everything, I’m sure of it. You did have a heavy head wound when I found you, so I guess that explains it. But dude…I know you don’t know me or my wife, or my son…but I can honestly say we’re decent people. You’re safe here, for as long as you wanna stay. Okay?”

* * *

The sniper nodded. He understood.

Of course, he didn’t remember anything of actually being a sniper.

All that he knew…and realized…was that there was an older guy…not by much, mind you, who had his hand on his own.

The feelings and emotions of THAT juncture ripped shreds through his being.

Even with his memory totally gone, he knew that he was a guy…a man. And he sure as hell knew, even in his current confused state, that a man was NOT supposed to feel like THIS, when touched by another man.

But this…this wonderful man before him, complete with his wife and their young teenage son had nursed him almost back to full health…they didn’t have to do it…they just did, out of the goodness of their hearts.

When he looked into the older man’s eyes…all he saw was warmth. Kindness. Friendship, possibly.

“Thanks…I really appreciate all of this,” he replied.

Man…if only he could remember something! Anything!

And why…

…why did he suddenly have this…this nagging feeling that he was supposed to be…I don’t know…somewhere…some place…other than right here?