It is dark in these woods, as Raoul goes further down the path the world becomes gray and hazy. His vison is impaired and soon he is blind. Raoul reaches out and tries to find his way.
"There you are," Raoul is grabbed and pulled through something. He can see again. He is in a black void, but there is a light.
"Where are we?" Raoul looks around. He does not recognize this place. He can see nothing beyond the small space he occupies.
"What do you mean?" Raoul turns his head to the voice, but he walks into a thick webbing. He pulls it from him and panic sets in. He runs forward and screams.
Raoul stops. Erik is ahead, silhouetted by the light and shadow. He is dressed the nines like usual, a dapper tuxedo, while gloves, face entirely concealed by a white porcelain mask.
"Leto," He speaks softly, the name an old melody. Raoul is drawn to the music.
He turns slowly and holds out his hand. Raoul stares, his heart is racing. Raoul walks forward and he accepts his offered hand.
A shrill scream pierces his eardrums. Raoul turns away and then he feels pain. Raoul touches his sides; his fingers are covered with blood.
"I love you," Raoul looks down and Erik twists the blade.
"Aaah!" Raoul screams and falls out of his seat. The room is dark, and it takes Raoul a minute to remember he is watching a movie in the home cinema. Raoul turns his attention to the screen, instant a regret. A man is tied to a chair while spiders are creepy crawling towards him.
"It was in the name, sweet thing." Erik gently caresses the back of Meg's head; she has buried her face into his chest to hide from the spiders on screen.
"Spider Baby. Why did you choose this?" Toni has a hand covering her eyes, she is not looking at the screen either.
"Abuse, obviously," Raoul mutters, he finds himself back to his seat.
"That's not amusing jest," Erik says snappishly.
"Sorry."
"This is all kinds of out of my comfort zone," Raoul says as he watches the tailor take measurements. Erik said they were to go shopping. This is not what Raoul had in mind. He had dreams of mall pretzels, not being man handled by a stranger while Erik pets him condescendingly.
"He needs your exact measurements." Erik smooths out wrinkles on Raoul's sleeve.
"I have suits," Raoul pouts.
"Do you want to open a new account?" The tailor asks and he stands up and writes down notes.
"No." Raoul does not hide his annoyance.
"Mm. Yes."
"Name?"
Raoul opens his mouth to speak, but Erik uses his fingers to close Raoul's mouth by lifting under his chin.
"Leto."
The tailor nods and writes down more notes.
"Soon, you'll dress like a proper boy." Erik sighs contented while Raoul glares.
"Quick, give me a fool from Greek Mythology." Raoul appears from nowhere and Meg squeals in surprise and drops her soda. They watch as it spills and rolls on the ground.
"Hey, come on! A fool. I need to be on even ground." Raoul snaps his fingers. Meg thinks for a moment.
"A fool?"
Raoul nods and is growing increasingly impatient.
"Midas." Meg opens her eyes.
"The gold guy?" Raoul is not sure, he frowns.
Meg nods.
"His daughter becomes a gold statue, he begs for it to be undone, he gives up all of his riches, lives in the woods, becomes Pan's best friend, pisses off Apollo and his face becomes a donkey, where we get jackass from, it's in Midsummer's Night's Dream, kinda." Meg shrugs.
"Midas." Raoul says and he tests out how it feels against his teeth.
"I have books. Apollo is really screwed up. He was kicked off Olympus for being too cruel." Meg has an air of respect.
"Yes, books. I need to know things." Raoul nods eagerly.
"Hello, Midas." Raoul sits down on the grand armchair across from Erik, who pauses from his sketching and looks over to Raoul. Raoul is happy indeed he still is not privy to Erik's actual face.
"Midas," Erik tilts his head, a confused creature.
"Yeah, that's right. I'm Leto and you're Midas." Raoul leans back in the chair.
"And who is Midas?"
"You know, the guy with fucked up face." Raoul smiles. The temperature of the room drops. Raoul looks over, Erik does not move, says nothing, like he is frozen in time.
Raoul opens his mouth, closes it and then starts," you wear a mask," Raoul's eyes widen.
"Probably wasn't the best choice of words," Raoul says softly and cringes.
"No," Erik agrees quietly.
"Can we delete that and start over? Hello, Midas?"
Erik says nothing for a long time. Raoul holds his breath.
"So, I'm a dick and I'm sorry. I just want you to use my name."
"I call you Leto because she reminds me of you, your personality. It's not an insult."
"Right."
"My therapist's office called. Our first session is tomorrow. What fun. We have something to discuss."
"It's a date!"