The man came out of nowhere.
One second, Matthias was driving carefully down the winding road, Lukas looking at the map in the seat beside him. The next instant, the car was swerving madly as Matthias wrenched the wheel to avoid the man, just barely managing to pull to a stop on the icy street.
"You okay?" Matthias asked his partner worriedly.
"I'm fine." Lukas responded. He turned to look at Matthias.
"What was that?" He asked. Matthias shrugged.
"Looked like some guy. He came outta nowhere! I didn't see him 'till he was almost directly in front of the car. Um... sorry." Lukas promptly smacked him.
"Don't apologize. It's not your fault. Let's go find that guy; I want to know what the hell he was doing." Lukas unbuckled his seat belt and opened the passenger door, Matthias quickly following his lead.
The two stepped out into the rain. The thin drizzle had been falling since late morning; it was early evening now. Mist drifted around them, covering the ground and the sea far below. Matthias, closest to the railing on the edge of the cliff, swiftly walked around to Lukas's side of the car. The man had never been a fan of heights. The sound of the waves crashing against the face of the cliff did nothing to help his fear either. He shivered. One would not survive long if they were to fall.
"C'mon." He said, grabbing Lukas's hand. The two began walking to where Matthias had seen the man. At first, they saw and heard nothing but the mist and the sea. Far from civilization, on a twisting road on the edge of a cliff, there was not much to hear in the first place. Their vision was limited by the thick mist; everything felt muted and damp. Without warning, a young looking blonde man appeared out of the white. At first he looked startled, but relief quickly replaced that expression.
"Oh, thank goodness! Please, I really need your help! My car slid and crashed further up the road. It's about to fall, and my family's still in there!" Any trepidation at the sight of the stranger vanished from Matthias's mind at those words.
"Where are they?" He demanded, striding forward.
"Less than a minute up the road." The man replied. Matthias broke into a run. He heard another set feet join in, but only one. Did Lukas stay behind to call for help? He wondered. There was no way anyone could get out there fast enough to aid them, so Matthias wondered why his husband bothered. Forcing those thoughts out of his head, he focused on running.
Finally, he saw the car. The front end was completely wrecked, giving him the conclusion it must have spun into the face of the cliff before it slammed through the railing. Said front half hung precariously off the edge, the only things keeping the vehicle from falling being the weight of the back end and a bush.
Matthias looked through the back window first. He could tell the driver and the person in the passenger seat were already dead by their limp forms and bloody blonde hair. In the backseat there was a car seat. He quickly ran to the side door of the car. How he hadn't heard the baby's sobs before was a mystery to him, but he knew he had to save it.
Matthias tugged at the handle. It wouldn't budge. He would have to break the window.
Searching the ground for a weapon, he noticed one of the bags had fallen out of the already broken back window (he wasn't stupid enough to try reaching the baby from there). It must have been a camping pack or something, because he could see a sturdy torch sticking out. Bounding over, Matthias grabbed the large flashlight and returned to the window. Pulling it back behind his head, he swung the torch.
Crack. A large split appeared on the glass, with several spider web cracks arching out from it. Matthias swung again. The glass, already weakened by the first blow, shattered under the force of the second. Matthias reached in and snatched up the -by now wailing- baby. He cradled it to his chest and took a step back from the car.
"Shhh..." He whispered. "It's gonna be okay now. I've got ya." The crunching of feet on the roadside gravel alerted him that the others had caught up. Matthias turned, expecting to see his husband and the strange man. Instead, only Lukas stood there. There was something off about the shorter man; he seemed paler than usual.
"Where's the other guy?" Matthias questioned. Lukas's normally emotionless eyes met his.
"I don't know. He vanished." Was the answer he gave Matthias. Vanished? Nobody can just vanish! Then again, with this mist... Lukas walked toward the car. He passed by Matthias and the baby in order to look through the driver side window. What little color left in Lukas's face disappeared. He stumbled backwards, eyes wide with shock.
"Lukas...?" Matthias ventured. Lukas turned and beckoned him to look as well. Matthias nervously stepped as close to the window as he could with it hanging half off the cliff.
What could be bad enough to scare Lukas like that? He wondered. As he had glimpsed before, the man had blonde hair. He must have been short to have the seat pulled up so far. And he looked familiar. Matthias had seen that face. He had seen that face on the man who had run up to him, begging for help. He had seen this man earlier, but earlier the man hadn't had a chunk of metal stabbing through his abdomen, nor the blood caking the side his head.
This man was dead. But he wasn't when he appeared out of the mist earlier.
Matthias staggered back, jaw going slack and eyes widening. A chill settled over him, and he clutched the baby closer to his chest.
One last request, a voice, that wasn't his or Lukas's whispered.
Take care of him for us.
Matthias looked down at the baby in his arms. It had stopped crying the second the cold air descended upon Matthias. Peter, was embroidered on the baby's shirt. Matthias made a promise to the dead parents of this baby boy right then and there.
Don't worry. I'll take care of him. The cold trickled away, and soon they were left alone on a nearly empty stretch of road, at the scene of an accident. At the place a parent had come back to in order to save his son.