A/N: I'm trying to keep as on top of this story by writing ahead of posting. chapter 6 is already finished and i'll be starting chapter 7 soon but if i do it like this if i don't write anything for a while you'll still have a story to read lol i'm warning you all now though, my bf's broken his thumb so he's not going to be at work for a while and i'm going to have to be his maid (no change there then lol) so my updates may be lacking, but i'm trying! brought my laptop to his so i can write, but if its been more than a week and you want more then email slap me to get me on track lol here we go!
--
Vince stood just inside the doors to the club, back against the wall, panting furiously as a thousand thoughts whirled around his head.
That was Howard, he was here, in my club. He saved me, just like old times. But he didn't even recognise me. Have I changed that much? He looked right at me, how could he not know it was me? Has he forgotten all about me? Am I just some distant memory? Or did he forget me on purpose? I wouldn't blame him if he had, I was horrible to him, I deserve to be forgotten. But I don't want to be.
All at once the tears came, cascading down his face and mingled with the blood on his neck and shirt. He couldn't hold it in any longer, his heart was broken before, but now it was shattered, lying in pieces around him as he slid down the wall and onto the floor, sobbing uncontrollably into his hands. Luckily the club had cleared out in the time he was gone, not that he cared if the entire club saw him break down, he had nothing anymore. He always thought that if he saw Howard again things would go back to how they were, or he'd have at least been acknowledged. For Howard to look straight at him and not even recognise him was more than he could stand.
"Vince? Oh my God Vince, are you alright?" Becky, a girl he worked with behind the bar, came running towards him. "Chris, get the first aid kit." She yelled across the dance floor. The young man behind the bar, who had been polishing glasses, jumped into action and ran into the back to fetch the green box. Becky bent down to Vince's side and put a hand on his shoulder, the other hand moved towards his neck and she looked carefully at the wound. "Vince, what happened? Hey, its ok now, just tell me what happened, please." Becky was trying to get Vince to look at her, but he was so deep in his own mind thinking about Howard he didn't even hear her voice.
At that moment the bouncers from outside walked in through the doors, one of them forcing a rather beaten looking man through before him. He was bruised all over, the odd trickle of blood from a split lip or minor wound staining his clothes, but the look he shot Vince as he walked in was terrifying, the sheer anger and aggression behind his eyes frightening Becky as she crouched on the floor beside her friend.
"I'll kill you, I swear I'll fucking kill you!" The man began thrashing about under the grasp of the bouncer, but he was a big man, towering over the mad man in his arms, and managed to keep a firm grip on his arms.
"We found him down the alley, a group of guys said he attacked Vinny and pulled a knife on him, so they all jumped in and knocked him out. Not that he stayed unconscious very long." he shook the man in his grasp, lifting him off the ground slightly in an attempt to calm him down. "We'll take him out the back and call the police. One of the guys said he left his name and number with Vinny so the police can get witness statements if they need to." Becky nodded at them and smiled weakly as they dragged the still flailing man round the back of the bar and into the back room. Chris came running from another door with the first aid kit held tightly in his hand. He bent down next to Becky and together they bandaged Vince's neck up and got him over to a chair.
By now the DJ had packed up and the strobe lights had been turned off and the house lights switched on. Vince had regained enough of his sanity to stem the tears slightly, although they still flowed down his cheeks in steady torrents, he just got the sobbing under control. He still couldn't believe that Howard hadn't even known it was him. Him and Howard had been in dozens of life threatening situations in the past, Howard coming to his rescue at the last minute, but this was completely different, this time it wasn't Vince he saved, it was just some stranger in need of some help, and that in itself made Vince wish he'd never been saved at all.
Vince hung his head and once again began to sob into his hands.
--
It had been several days since the attack and Vince stood alone in his flat staring at his reflection in the mirror. The cut on his neck, though not serious, still looked red and angry, glaring at him in his reflection, a constant reminder of the day he realised he was truly forgotten. He always assumed that Howard would have moved on from him, got new friends and moved away, maybe even to a different country it had been so long. Several times over the years he'd imagined what would happen if they bumped into each other, Vince capturing him with his charm once more, Howard moving back in with him, them living together again like old times. On the days he wasn't so optimistic he imagined their meeting being awkward and quiet, Howard shaking his hand as a formality, asking how he'd been but having business to attend to and leaving him again, not ready to forgive him for all the torment he'd caused. But never in Vince's imagination had Howard not recognised him, treating him like a complete stranger. He felt so utterly alone and abandoned.
Vince reached for the scissors he'd left on the edge of the sink and rolled them around in his hand. He looked back at the mirror, back at his reflection, his hideous, awful reflection. He hated it. He hated his hair, his skin, his eyes. Those stupid blue eyes. He lifted the scissors up to his face, lightly dragging the blades across his skin and up to his eyes. His expression changed from uncaring to furious. He was angry, angry with himself, angry with the nutter that attacked him, angry with Howard. He needed some release, he needed to damage himself, he needed to change. He brought the scissors higher and pulling the two blades apart, began hacking at his hair, long brown locks falling to the floor. He cut at his hair manically, but precisely, knowing exactly what he was doing. As his hair shortened, he saw more and more of his old self shining through.
When he was finished he threw the scissors into the sink and once again burst into tears. His hair was how it used to be, bangs round his eyes, scruffy, matted locks sticking up on end. The cut on his neck almost grew brighter and shone more vividly in his reflection, laughing at him almost, reminding him that no matter what he did, he'd lost his opportunity. Howard had forgotten him, and he wasn't coming back.
--
There was a knock at the door and Howard looked up from his newspaper. He and Jeffrey had just got back to the flat after work and he was chilling in the living room whilst Jeffrey was in the shower. The sound of running water stopped from the bathroom and Howard heard Jeffrey moving about. There was another knock at the door and Jeffrey opened the bathroom door in a towel.
"Get that Howard, don't just sit there you plum!" He jested, closing the bathroom door behind him. Howard jumped up from the sofa.
"Right, yes, door." his mind had been in a completely different world since that night at the club. He couldn't help thinking that he was missing something, there was something so familiar about those eyes, and yet so distant and completely strange to him. The sorrow and pain behind those baby blues looked so out of place that he couldn't stop thinking about the poor man they rescued. Howard opened the door and was shocked back to reality.
"Howard Moon?" The taller of the two police officers asked him, hat under arm, a polite smile on his face.
"Yes." he looked slightly puzzled at them for a few moments before the smaller, a young woman, spoke.
"We're here about the attack outside the 'Blue Rose' club. You were involved, correct?" Howard suddenly snapped back to reality and smiled at them.
"Yes, yes of course, sorry, come in, I was miles away." He moved out the way of the door and the two officers walked inside. "Make yourselves comfortable, can I get you a drink? I was just about to put the kettle on anyway." The young woman smiled at him as her and her colleague seated themselves on the sofa.
"Yes thanks, tea for me, one sugar, plenty of milk if you've got it." Howard smiled at her and turned towards the kitchen.
"Coffee please, black, two sugars." the other officer said taking a pad from his coat pocket and a pen. As Howard walked towards the kitchen he knocked on the bathroom door.
"Jeff, the police are here about that attack at the club. I'm putting the kettle on so hurry up." He walked into the kitchen and took four mugs from the cupboard. He heard Jeffrey through the wall rushing into his clothes, probably still a little wet, and heard the door open into the living room.
"Hi, sorry, just got out the shower." He beamed, his deep voice filling the flat as he took a seat across from the officers.
"That's no problem." the female officer replied leaning forward slightly. "We understand that there were several of you involved, we know its been a few days, but we only just acquired the number and address from the victim, he's very shaken up about the whole thing, so we're going to need to take some statements from you and anyone else involved." Jeffrey nodded and smiled as Howard entered the room with the officer's drinks, setting them down on the coffee table in front of them.
"That's no problem, anything we can do to help sir." Howard smiled at them and returned to the kitchen, retrieving his and Jeffrey's coffees. Sitting in a chair across from the police, he blew gently over the surface of his mug and took a sip.
"Right," The male officer began, taking the lid off his pen and turning to Howard. "So start from when you exited the club and we'll go on from there." Howard took a deep breath and searched through his drunken memories, sorting them into order and trying to make sense of the hazy visions.
"Well, it was Jeff's birthday so we were quite drunk." the male officer began scribbling on his pad as Howard spoke making him slightly nervous, but he continued with his story. "We left the club just after 1 a.m. and were waiting for a taxi outside when I just happened to look down the alley." The female officer looked at the notes being scribbled on the pad and turned to Howard.
"And that's when you saw the victim with the assailant?" she queried. Howard just nodded and took a sip from his tea.
"We didn't realise what was happening at first." Jeffrey spoke this time, much to Howard's relief. He'd never had much experience with the police and people in positions of power still terrified him sometimes, so he was happy to pass the conversation over. "We walked over a bit drunk like, thinking they were just making out, from where we were it looked like the poor guy being attacked was a woman so we thought nothing of it. It wasn't 'til he faced me with that terrified look on his face that we noticed something was up."
"And that's when you rushed assailant?" the male officer spoke, lifting his head momentarily from his pad.
"No, we walked towards them but he pulled a knife out so we took a step back. He pressed it into the poor guys neck and said he was going to kill him, then the bloke kneed him square in the balls, very brave if you ask me." Howard smiled slightly and nodded at Jeffrey. "So we took the opportunity before the twat with the knife could do anything else and jumped him. I landed on him first and then Howard and my other two mates landed on top of me. There were a few punches thrown, don't think anyone knew were they were punching, in fact I swear you caught me in the chin at one point." Jeffrey chuckled as he looked at Howard sending the mans cheeks slightly red.
"Sorry, heat of the moment, I just got kinda confused really, I was drunk." He smiled at his friend, the tension in the room breaking slightly when the officer's smiled at one another, the woman letting out a little chuckle, and decided to continue the story himself. "Then the guy we saved walked over and stamped on the hand holding the knife making him drop it. That's when Jeff told me it was alright to get off and we did. Jeff got him by the arms and held him on the ground, but he was unconscious so he wasn't a big threat anymore. Then I checked out the injured guy, gave him my number and he went back into the club." Howard took another sip from his mug as more scribbling ensued from the sofa. After a few moments of pen on paper, the male officer looked up and smiled.
"Ok, anything else we should know about? Did you know either of the men? The assailant's a repeat offender named Darren Brown but he won't be back on the streets for a while now. And the victim is a bar steward by the name of," The police man flicked through his pad looking for the name of the man Howard and his friends had saved. "Vincent Noir." Howard choked on the mouthful of coffee he'd just attempted to swallow and began coughing violently whilst trying to speak.
"Vince?" He coughed before taking a deep breath, clearing his throat. "Vince was the guy we saved? Surely not, it can't be the same guy." The police looked puzzled, as did Jeff, until it clicked and he turned to Howard.
"Isn't that the guy you lived with before living with us?" Howard fell back into his chair and nodded slowly. The police officer scribbled more notes into his book and spoke without looking up.
"So you did know the victim?" he looked up from his pad to see Howard shaking his head.
"No, well yes, I knew him, he used to be my best friend, but I haven't seen him in nearly eight years, I didn't realise it was even him." his face fell as he realised why those deep blue eyes looked so familiar, and his heart sank as he remembered the hurt and torment hidden just behind his cornea's. "Oh my god." he whispered, his gaze dropping to the floor. The male officer went to speak but the young woman put her hand on his wrist and shook her head, directing her attention to Howard.
"We can see this is a bad time for you, we'll come back another time to get names and addresses of the others that were there." Her and her companion rose from the sofa and began to make their way to the door, Jeffrey walking to the door before them and smiling, opening it for them. The young woman stopped before she reached it and pulled a piece of paper from her pad, scribbling something onto it and folding it in half before walking over to where Howard sat.
"I'm not supposed to do this, but this is Mr. Noir's address." Howard looked up at her to see her face in a caring smile, the note held out to him. His body moved without a thought and he took the paper from her hand, his arm falling in his lap as soon as she let go. She put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly before turning and following her colleague out of the flat and back to the car parked outside.
Jeffrey closed the door and turned to Howard, suddenly a great tension began to fill the room. Jeff sat back in his chair next to Howard's and looked at him concerned.
"What now." Howard spoke, barely audible. His mind was blank, not a thought running through as his brain tried to comprehend what he'd just been told. "Its been seven years. Seven years!" his face contorted in a mixture of confusion and sorrow. He was so lost. He didn't know what to do, what to think. How could he not have realised? Yes his hair and clothes were different, but those eyes, those huge blue eyes, how could he have missed it? Then Vince's face filled his vision, that ultimate look of hurt when Howard had walked over to him, hands held high in a sign of peace, completely unaware of the proximity to his old friend. All that hurt in his eyes, it was because Howard hadn't recognised him. Vince had seen him straight away, that's why he looked so anxious when Howard walked towards him.
Howard's heart skipped a beat as he remembered the tears falling down Vince's cheeks as he took the paper from Howard's hand, the tears he thought were shedding for the trauma he'd just endured, when really they fell because he'd been forgotten, violated and then forgotten by the one person he needed to be there for him.
Howard realised now that tears of his own were falling into the half empty mug he still clutched in one hand. Jeffrey's voice suddenly echoed through the silence.
"I think you know what to do." He motioned to the paper in Howard's hand. Howard unfolded and stared at the address written across it. After a few moments Howard leapt from his chair, grabbed his coat from by the door, and flew onto the street on his way to the tube station. Jeffrey smiled and watched as the door swung on its hinges where Howard had had no time to close it after him. Slowly he reached for his own mug and took a sip, settling back into his chair and preparing himself for a quiet, lonely night in.
--
Bit of a long chapter, sorry about that, the scene with the police lasted a bit longer than intended, but I wanted to drag out Howard being a retarded blind man for as long as possible lol 'cookies and cream' ice cream for all reviewers, love ya loads and keep 'em coming!