Felix had convinced himself, after everything, that his small apartment was safe, cheap, tucked away in a part of the city nobody with real money bothered looking at twice.
He'd fallen asleep on the thin mattress with that thought still comforting him.
He woke to a hand clamped tightly around his arm.
"Ah!" He scrambled backward instinctively, his back hitting the wall, eyes flying open in the dark.
A shape loomed over him, and before he could draw breath to scream, another hand pressed firmly against the mattress beside his head, pinning him in place.
"Shhh," a familiar voice said. "It's me."
Felix's heart slammed against his ribs. "Y-you... Alben? What are you doing here?"
Alben pulled him upright by the shoulder, settling him against the wall like he was handling something fragile rather than someone he'd just terrified half to death.
