Freddy continued to do his best to comfort Michael, as his husband continued to sob and scream in front of his father’s grave. The years had passed by easily for Freddy, but for Michael, it was absolute torture. He had to face the various challenges in his life without the support his father. When times were tough, he didn’t have his father's supportive ear to share what was on his mind. In a lot of ways, Michael felt alone. His only saving grace, besides the son who he loved so much, was his husband. He was right there by his side to comfort him, through the good and the bad. As Freddy continued to hold on to Michael tightly, Chris and Sofya finally spotted them.
“There you are” Sofya said with an irritated tone in her voice, as she approached. “We have to get going now. It’s not safe to be out here like this.”
“You shouldn’t have run off like that, Michael” Chris said, as he approached. “It was not—“
“Shhhh!” Freddy hissed, as Michael continued to sob into his arms.
Sofya looked at the tombstone and let out a sigh.
“Oh” she muttered to herself, as she realized why they were here.
“Michael” Chris said, as he tried to nudge him back up. “I’m not trying to be insensitive here, but it’s really not safe for Freddy to be out and exposed like this. Somebody could come after us and then we’d be in big trouble. We have to get going now.”
“Plus” Sofya added “it’s getting late. We still haven’t decided on where we’re going to sleep for the night.”
“Just give him a few minutes” Freddy said, as he looked up at them with a solemn expression on his face.
“We’ve given you guys half an hour, already. You were supposed to message us when you found Michael, Freddy.”
“Sofya, don’t be a bitch.”
“She can’t help it” Michael muttered into Freddy’s chest.
“Fuck you, Michael” Sofya snapped.
“Fuck you too, cunt!”
Michael quickly stood up, with tears rolling down his face, and pointed his finger in her direction.
“Fuck you!”
“You better be careful of where you point that finger, Michael. You don’t know who you’re messing with.”
“Guys” Chris said, as he pushed them apart. “Break it up.”
“Don’t touch me, Chris.”
“I can take her” Michael insisted.
“Stop” Chris said. “We can’t be doing this right now. We have to get out of here.”
“Fuck you, asshole” Sofya snorted. “You tried to choke our driver out and nearly got us all killed. What the fuck were you thinking back there, you fucking maniac?”
“You’re an adulteress slut!” Michael exclaimed in reply. “You have no right to judge anyone, let alone me!”
“Michael, come on” Freddy said, as he tried to hold on to his husband.
“No!”
Michael pushed Freddy off of him, which caused him to fall to the ground. Narrowly avoiding the tombstone behind him, he let out a little moan of pain when he landed on his naked ass.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” Sofya snapped, as she tried to aim for his face with her finger.
“Sofya, enough” Chris said, as he pushed her away from Michael.
“Fight me, bitch” Michael snapped. “No magic. Fist on fist.”
“Never” Sofya replied.
“Why, bitch? Afraid you’d get your ass whooped if you didn’t have the help of magic?”
“You’d be beating up a lady then, you fucking monster!”
“Guys please” Freddy said through a moan, as he got up and addressed the two of them. “This is no time to be fighting right now.”
“Why are you defending him?! He just assaulted you and you nearly hit your head on the tombstone. You could have gotten a concussion and died. Your husband is a total maniac. I can’t take this anymore. I like you, Freddy, but this is too much for me to deal with. I’m about ready to blow a gasket right now.”
“Let me take you off the ledge, Sofya. Please.”
“Don’t bother” Michael snorted. “We never needed her help anyway.”
“Michael.”
“Good luck trying to get back the ring without my help! I’m leaving!”
“Sofya!”
“Wait!” Chris exclaimed.
Both Freddy and Chris grabbed onto to Sofya, as she worked to break herself free from their grasp. Michael bent down on his knees and continued to sob at his father’s grave.
“Sofya, listen to me” Freddy said pleadingly. “Please hear me out.”
“What can you possibly say to me to get me to stay?” Sofya asked with a snarl. “Huh, Freddy old pal? What?”
“Michael is upset right now and he’s lost it. I knew this day would come. Being here in this cemetery reminded me of something that happened years ago.”
“Michael’s father dying happened fourteen years ago. It’s long past time for him to move on from it.”
“That’s easy for you to say, considering your father is a huge asshole.”
“You’re not getting any disagreements from me.”
“But Michael loved his father dearly. The years without him have been tough on the both of us. Sure, maybe his father and I never got to be very close in his life, but the tragic part is, he was just coming around at the end. He was bonding with me before he passed away. If he had been allowed to live longer, if he could have gotten those kidney donors that he desperately needed, then who knows what would have happened with us. For me, that’s the tragic part in all of this.
“I don’t like to say it, Sofya, but yes, I miss my other dad. I miss Michael’s father, mainly because of the what could have beens in life. But for Michael, he was his actual dad. They were so close to each other. Even though his father did some really bad things to him in his life, he also did really good things for him too. Love is complicated. Sometimes, the people you love do things that really hurt you. But a person who is really in love with someone learns to forgive their transgressions and their mistakes.”
Freddy walked over and bent down by his father in law’s grave to comfort Michael.
“Michael” he said calmly.
Michael sniffled and looked up at his husband.
“Michael, I have to tell you something.”
“What?!” Michael snapped.
“I forgive you.”
Michael stopped sobbing, as he wiped the tears from his eyes.
“What?”
“I forgive you.”
“Freddy…”
“I forgive you for having sex with Chris today. I want to let you know something, that I don’t believe I ever told you before. Can we go into the car first, please? I don’t want the police finding me like this.”
“I can’t be in the car with that witch!”
Michael pointed at Sofya, who growled in his direction.
“We need her, Michael. We need her to help me get back the ring from the mayor. Don’t you want to spend the rest of our lives together?”
“I do, but we don’t need her help to do it. We’ll find someone else. Maybe the old man from the magic shop is still alive and will come down to help us.”
“He’s not going to come. If he was intending to do that, then he most certainly would have found us by now. He’s never coming back, so we’re all on our own. Sofya is the best chance we have, with the help of Chris, for getting back the ring and ending this curse of mine once and for all. Just come into the car with us, please, and I’ll tell you a secret there.”
“Why are you keeping secrets from me?”
“I didn’t want to say it unless, and until, it actually happened.”
“Tell me now.”
“No. Come with me to my car first and then I will tell you. In fact….”
Freddy looked up at Sofya, who gave him a frown when he did so.
“She will force it out of me if I refuse to tell you there. She can do that, you know.”
Michael sniffled, as he looked up in Sofya’s direction.
“Are you going to do that?” he asked.
“Fuck you” Sofya snorted.
“See, Freddy. I told you—“
“Michael. Sofya.”
Sofya sighed, as she nodded her head.
“Fine” she begrudgingly agreed. “I’ll hold your husband to it. Now let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“Why does she have to be with us, Freddy?” Michael asked.
“Oh, for fucks sake.”
“Michael” Freddy replied calmly “you know why.”
“Why do I allow myself to get suckered in to this shit? Why?”
“Sofya” Chris said. “Why don’t you use that mind reading stuff you do to pry into everyone else’s thoughts, to see for yourself what pain Michael is going through right now?”
Sofya sighed, as she made her way into Michael’s thoughts. What she saw deeply troubled her, causing her to cry. She saw all of the moments of Michael and his father together. She saw the happier days of his youth, the angsty teenage years, the distance during his young adulthood and the strong bonds they shared together towards the end of his father’s life. Sofya felt touched by this, seeing a deeper side of him than she had ever seen before.
Sighing, Sofya walked over and stood by Michael. He continued to kneel in front of the grave of his deceased father. She thought to put her hand on his shoulder, but thought against it. Sighing again, she began to speak up.
“Look, Michael. I know you’re under a lot of stress right now. This has got to be killing you on the inside. Seeing your husband turning into a dog, not knowing how, when or if he’ll ever change back again, has to be so hard for you to deal with. I get it. That’s why I agreed to help you guys out. I’m not totally unsympathetic to your troubles, but you just get on my nerves so much.”
“You do too” Michael replied, as he spat on the grass below him.
“I get that and I think our complaints about each other are valid. We’re never going to be friends, fine. Maybe you’ll never let me develop a friendship with Freddy either. Whatever, I get it. But I owe you guys for both trying to wreck your relationship when you were both teenagers and for you two saving me from my evil father. I owe it to you, at the very least, to try make amends here.
“Please get up from this plot. It’s dark outside now and we need to find shelter. The police are still after us and the mayor still has the ring in his possession. Time is running out and we have to act fast. I know it’s like your father to say toughen up and develop a stiff upper lip right now, but you have to. If you want to save Freddy, we have to get going.”
Sofya extended her hand, which Michael ignored at first.
“Please get up” she continued to plea. “Don’t do this for me. Do this for Freddy. He loves you. If you love him, then you will get up, so we can go back to the car.”
Michael continued to kneel for a minute, ignoring her extended hand. After a time, she sighed loudly and walked away from the plot.
“I can’t fucking do it” she snorted at Freddy. “I can’t.”
“Sofya” he said.
In that moment, Michael slowly got back onto his feet and walked his way over to Freddy. He hugged his husband’s naked and muddy body tightly, before he held onto his hand.
“Let’s go back in the car” Michael said quietly. “I want you. I need you. I don’t want to lose you, like I lost my father.”
Freddy smiled, as the four of them made their way back to the car. When they got in, Chris made a confession.
“I’m tired” he said. “Would someone else mind driving?”
“I’ll do it” Sofya volunteered, as she got into the drivers seat, while Chris made his way into the passenger seat.
“Thank you.”
“Of course.”
Sofya adjusted the seat and mirrors of Freddy’s car, before she drove away from the cemetery.
“So where are we going?” she asked.
“Home” Michael replied, as he wiped the tears from his eyes.
“Are you sure we should be doing that?” Chris asked.
“We have to. If we want to get the ring back, then we can’t run away anymore. The mayor already has all the nearby police departments after us, so there’s really no place to hide. It’s do or die time. Let’s go back home, clean Freddy up and get ready to take back the ring.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“He has a point” Sofya said. “What is a nights rest going to do? That just gives the mayor more time to develop a narrative against Freddy and have more police departments riding on our tail. This pursuit won’t stop unless we end it from the source. Let’s go back to the house and prepare ourselves for battle.”
Chris gulped, as Sofya set the GPS for a house near Freddy and Michael’s home.
“It’s so they don’t know where we’re going” she noted “in case they are monitoring our phones.”
Freddy nodded, as Michael leaned into his shoulder.
“Tell me what you were going to tell me at the cemetery” Michael whispered to Freddy. “You promised.”
“I did” Freddy replied, before he coughed and then spoke up. “During one of the last private conversations I had with your dad, before he passed away, he asked me for a favor from beyond the grave.”
“Favor?”
“Mmhmm. Yes. He told me that someday, you were going to snap with all of the pain and stress you’d be dealing with. He said you might do something to hurt me and that he asked me to forgive you when you did it. I told him I could forgive most anything, as long as you showed genuine remorse and if the crime wasn’t too serious. I intend to keep the promise I made to your father.”
Freddy kissed Michael on the cheek, before he continued to talk.
“I had to ask Chris earlier if you raped him, because I couldn’t forgive you if you had done that to him. I didn’t want him lying to me or telling me what I wanted to hear, just so we could save our marriage. Chris is an honest man and I believe him when he says you didn’t force yourself on him. As such, this was just an indiscretion by you.
“You were sad. You were lonely. You missed me. You were angry. I had sex with other dogs and you saw this as your way of getting back at me. I get it. I will forgive you, because I love you. I just hope you forgive me for the things I’ve done while I’ve been a dog.”
“I do” Michael replied.
“I will never forget, but I will forgive, so we can move on and continue our marriage.”
Michael nodded, as the two of them embraced in a tight hug. Chris felt a tear roll down his face, as Sofya groaned, while she continued driving to the house. Soon enough, after an hour long drive, they entered the town limits for the most dangerous night of their lives. As they drove through the quiet and empty streets in the dark, a man, sitting in an unmarked vehicle, watched their car go past his.
“That’s them” the man said quietly to himself, as he pulled out his communication device.
After a few rings, the man spoke up on the call.
“Boss” he said. “They’re back in town.”
At Freddy and Michael’s house…..