The following day, Elio's fever had subsided. However, the aftermath of what his body had endured the entire night still lingered.
Cancer did a job well done of torturing his body this time.
Elio tried to get up in his bed. The pain in his joints and the heaviness in his head were still there. He tried to scan his surroundings while his body was adjusting. He tried to recall things before he passed out, but his memories felt like shattered glass, scattered in pieces he couldn't quite put back together.
That fever messed up his mind.
Elio was supposed to bring himself to the hospital; that was his plan. But for some reason, he ended up going to the funeral shop. In all honesty, he doesn't know why he chose to be there, as if his body was dictating to him to go there and seek help, unconsciously telling him that it was safer at the funeral shop than in any other place.
He embarrassedly covered his face with both hands when he realized everything he had done.
Oh, god!
How would he explain that going there at the funeral shop wasn't intentional? He never intended to bother the staff, especially Grimm.
Now that he thought about Grimm, he could clearly remember how the man cared for him. He remembers how the man's cold hands touched his feverish skin and how he ran his hand carefully throughout his body with a cold, damped cloth while those silver eyes looked at him with care.
Those memories were unexpectedly vivid in his mind, enough to make Elio feel weird down there...
When he had a quick look, his manhood reacted quite well based on those memories alone.
"What the...?"
Upon realizing it, he immediately covered his lower body with the blanket. His face was all red and burning. But this time, the reason was not a fever but with embarrassment.
"Fuck!" he cursed under his breath, squeezing his eyes shut under the blanket as he was trying somehow to erase the images of Grimm from his mind, acting like a school girl being weird in front of his crush.
Elio took a deep breath, trying to calm himself and his manhood. He couldn't believe that his body was not only betraying him due to illness, but it was now betraying him in the most humiliating way possible.
Then, a knock at the door startled Elio.
"Elio, are you awake?"
That smooth, composed voice...
Grimm!
Elio swallowed hard. He was cursing again in his mind. "Fuck!" then he peaked under the blanket and said, "This thing doesn't go down!"
Elio panicked as he answered, "Y-yeah!" while desperately trying to calm his body back to normal. "I'm awake!"
The door creaked open, and there he saw Grimm, dressed in his usual black attire with his silver eyes, unreadable as ever, that landed at Elio's.
"How are you feeling?" Grimm asked, stepping inside the room with a tray in his hand. It was some kind of soup that Grimm personally prepared for Elio. "I brought you something to eat."
Elio cleared his throat, forcing himself to meet the older man's gaze. "I'm...good," he replied, sounding weak and rattled. Grimm hummed in acknowledgment, setting the tray on the bedside table before sitting at the edge of the bed. He noticed Elio's face was red, thinking it might be another peak of high fever, just like the other night.
"Your face looks red..." Grimm extended his arms and reached Elio's face, scooping his cheeks with cold, broad hands. "Are you okay? Are you having another fever?"
Elio was unprepared for that swift move and immediately jolted at Grimm's sudden touch. The coolness of Grimm's hands against his flushed cheeks sent a tingling sensation in his entire body, causing his manhood to react even more. This situation isn't helping him at all, knowing that he's already struggling with a boner caused by simply imagining Grimm, and now Grimm's physical presence was unknowingly making his current condition worse.
Elio squeezed his eyes shut while also squeezing his thing between his legs. He tried to divert the sensation to something else, like the pain in his abdomen or the aches in his joints, but it didn't help.
Grimm tilted his head slightly in confusion. He cannot explain what was happening to Elio at that time. His silver eyes narrowed as he studied the young man's weird reactions. "Are you sure you're feeling alright? You seem...tense?"
Tense? That was an understatement!
"I-I'm fine!" Elio blurted out without much of a thought. His voice was higher than usual. "Really. No need to worry about me!"
Grimm was not convinced at all, especially seeing how Elio reacted the moment he touched him. Then, all of a sudden, Grimm's thumb absentmindedly brushed over Elio's lips. This seemingly light touch sent another unwanted sensation to the young man's lower body.
And with that, Elio knew he was on the verge of losing his mind.
This is not good...
Elio was now desperate to escape his situation. He quickly reached for the food tray and shoved a spoonful of hot soup into his mouth to stop himself from reacting awkwardly in front of Grimm.
"B-better to eat this food while it's still warm!" he said, obviously as an excuse.
Grimm observed him for a moment before finally withdrawing his hand. "If you say so, then I'll let you finish your food," he murmured, though his tone suggested he wasn't entirely convinced.
Elio forced a grin, though he was internally screaming and cursing.
Fuck!
This was worse than the cancer itself...
This was pure torture.
----
When Elio finished eating, his things had already settled down, which relieved him greatly. At least for now, he wouldn't have to suffer through another humiliating interaction concerning Grimm.
Or so he thought.
"Would you like to stay here for a while?"
Elio blinked, caught off guard by Grimm's sudden offer.
Stay? Here? In the funeral shop?
He was bombarded by many questions, including one from Grimm. Of course, Elio's first reaction was hesitation. The reason was simple: first, he wanted to avoid further embarrassment, and second, he didn't want to rely on other people's pity or kindness or bother these people who he barely knew.
"I...I don't want to be a bother," That's the safest answer Elio could ever give.
"You're not." Grimm's tone was firm as if Elio's idea of being a nuisance was nonsense to him.
Elio swallowed. He wasn't sure how to respond to his words. Since then, the room fell into an uncomfortable silence, along with the faint sound of the ticking clock on the wall. Elio tried to relax, but his mind drifted into the anxious realm.
He can't seem to relax...
Then, Grimm suddenly opened his mouth to speak; there was a hint of seriousness in his tone while he said this time.
"I need to tell you something," Grimm finally said. Though his voice was calm, the way he spoke the words seemed as if whatever he was about to say would change everything between them.
"What is it?" he asked, preparing for whatever the older man would say next.
Grimm exhaled slowly before continuing, trying to release that anxiety building up in him as his silver eyes never left Elio's. "Have you ever noticed something about yourself lately?"
"What do you mean?" Elio asked, but he was somehow confused by how Grimm asked him questions.
Grimm's gaze remained steady, his expression unreadable. "You always came across this street. You never saw this shop until the day you visited here to arrange your funeral. Am I right?"
He's right.
"Yes, but..what about it now? Why are you telling me this?"
Grimm took a slow, deep breath as if he carefully chose his words to explain everything to Elio without causing him to freak out.
"You're not supposed to see this shop, Elio. You're not supposed to enter here..."
Elio's chuckle was raw, almost nervous and confused. He didn't know what to say. What could he say? Yes, it was initially weird that the funeral shop that wasn't there every time he crossed Shallowmoore Street suddenly popped up overnight. But...what if the funeral shop had always been there? What if he just never noticed it until that day?
Right?
Elio shook his head. That was a ridiculous way to justify something that he knew would never be possible, as if he was trying to convince himself with an assumption that it was true. But he knew that the shop wasn't there from the beginning until that particular day he met Grimm.
Grimm leaned towards him slightly, trying to explain everything to Elio. "You knew something was strange when you stepped inside this shop, right?"
That's right. He clearly remembered the moment he first stepped into the shop. Both customers and staff were staring at him as if they were telling him that he wasn't supposed to be there.
But that's ridiculous, right? He had walked into the shop just fine several times now. No one said anything until now. So, why was it a big deal now?
"I don't get it." Elio shook his head in disbelief. "If I wasn't supposed to be here, why could I come in repeatedly?"
"That's exactly what I need to explain to you." Grimm chose his words wisely as he took a deep, slow breath. "No one sees this shop unless they're already dead."
Elio felt the temperature in that room dropped drastically. "That's-That's a joke, right?"
Grimm didn't move, didn't flinch. There's no hint of joking in his face. "No."
Elio's body tensed in response to the shock. He could not believe what he was hearing at that moment. He was having an information overload, so he could not grasp the context of the entire revelation.
"That's impossible, I'm not dead..."
"I know," Grimm reacted. "And that's the problem. You're not dead, and yet you're here."
Elio's head was spinning with so many things simultaneously trying to be compressed in his mind. But if Grimm was telling the truth, how would he have entered the funeral shop restricting any living person like him? How had he walked through that door so quickly?
And...
"Who...are you exactly?"
From there, Grimm finally introduced himself...
"I am the keeper of this place," he said; his voice was calm yet meaningful.
His following words brought chills to Elio's spine.
"...and just like them, I am dead."