❝ MUTT’S FINE . ❞ as long as i’m able to evade you from the truth . ❝ jonah , 18 . ran away from a boring suburban home . had everything in my life , but was finding everything a little too dull . needed excitement , an adventure . stole a couple hundred bucks from dad’s bank account , & stole away from there . now i’m here . ❞ he keeps a minute of pause , as if to test victor’s reaction to the false - spun tale . then , reaching towards the right sleeve of his arm , he tugs the fabric upwards to reveal the fading but ever - present scars of burn - marks & slash marks that runs along from forearm to upwards . ❝ tyler . 17 . never knew my parents , grew up in the streets . been city - hopping all my life , came across too many thugs , & they gave me scars to remember them by . only arrived here a week ago , searching for a temporary hide - out . see , stole a bit of some precious drug stash from a gang , & now they’re coming after my head . too bad i won’t have them by the time they find me . been planning to sell it off to your friend here . ❞
there’s another long stretch of silence , & he allows the sleeve to fall back down to cover his am again . a feral dog circling around its prey , he takes a moment to consider the risks & benefits of this man , but only walks around him in a slow , steadfast manner before stopping in front of victor again . ❝ daniel . 19 . killed a few bodies down in another town , & now i’m running from the feds . figured hiding in the city would make it harder for them to track me down , so i’ve been holed up here ever since . thought i killed a few no - names , but turns out one of them is the town mayor’s daughter , & now he wants to see my head on a silver platter . but i’m still debating whether it would be easier to continue running from him , or to kill him first . ❞ finally , he stops , inhaling a deep breath as he closes his eyes. when he opens them again , there’s a stone - cold look of defiance & challenge against the man in front of him & he backs away a couple steps , hiding his hands inside the pockets of his jacket . ❝ so then , there’s three versions . you choose the most plausible one . ❞
of course , none of them were the complete truth . but each had bits of the truth embedded into them , as he had learned from alex once —- if you want to fool anyone , always tell the half - truth , tell lies with the truth hiding in between your words . whether victor could figure him out , he was uncertain , but he was certain of the fact that before victor could figure out the pieces together , elliot would have long fled from isaac’s apartment. it was never safe to stay in one place for too long , whether it was in some hidden lair of a junkie or not . isaac probably dealt with the underground businesses , as well as drugs , so it would only be a matter of time the man would be busted out one day . & on that day , elliot would be gone . already , he’d drawn out a map of roads & ways to get himself cutting across the states , until he arrived to a place far detached from his home . los angeles , he had been reminding himself . or a place that no one would know , somewhere in the heart of a distant & quiet state down in the south .
how he’d get there , he would figure out along the way . there were a couple hundred dollars that he’d managed to steal away from his house before he made his run , & he would have to use them wisely if he planned on to make it through the next few months . that also only gave him the next few months to erase himself from alexandra completely , to become something else other than elliot . to forget alexandria , his home , mary anne , adaline , alex , & parrish .

there’s a dull ache in his heart at the thought , but he keeps it swallowed & hidden , the fear tucked somewhere deep inside his heart as he meets victor’s eyes again . ❝ & you’re right . it would be your best bet to push a bullet through me before you get an apology from me . ❞ he hadn’t refused victor’s name - drop of calling him a ‘ mutt ‘ . after all , it was what he was , – wasn’t it ? his father had called him a mutt plenty of times before the insult became too boring for him . elliot wasn’t acting out against it much anymore . jasper called him a deranged mutt , & elliot didn’t deny this either . even alex would call him a rabies - infected mutt at every chance he got , which earned barely a glance or a shrug from elliot each time . all in all , victor had a piece of truth here , if anything .
He can’t help but laugh when Elliot circles him like a predatory animal, recognizing such a power move to be one he kept close to his own list of behaviors, when he wanted to intimidate a client, or just fuck with someone on the street. He’s impressed with the way this boy acts, the endlessly fascinating facets of him. He wasn’t afraid of Victor, wouldn’t dare to tense up or show any sense of weakness, and that made him worth investing so much time in him. He was different.
“Wow, seems like Isaac picked up quite the imaginative type! Such interesting webs you weave, mutt…” His eyes widen just the smallest amount when he’s shown the cuts, the scars from olden days and the ones more freshly embedded in his skin. Whoever this boy was, Jonah, Tyler, Daniel… He was an enigma, a feared hound, a combustible substance ready to be set ablaze at any moment. He was unlike any normal down-on-his-luck city rat, the kind he’d normally be taking advantage of, given his ruthless and horrifically unfair line of work.
He relies on context clues to help him decipher the code this kid has laid bare for him. For one, he catches Isaac perk up at the mention of a potential drug deal, but then quickly shake his head and turn away, feeling stupid for having been duped into believing something untrue when he supposedly knew this teenager better than Victor. Now he knew that little tidbit about a gang was a lie, at least. But the other information, who was to say what was true and what was not? Does he honestly really even care about that? He’s much more interested in seeing just how far he was going to push; he wanted to dare to even attempt to push him straight off the edge, if he even had a concept of edges.
“Well, this has all been fun and dandy, but I think it’s time you - Leave! I can get my money another day, sound cool?” Isaac was back again, attempting once more to shove Victor out of his apartment, this time physically, by pushing on his torso with all his might. Victor only stumbled backward a bit, but was for the most part a solid rock unable to be moved. Isaac eventually gave up, throwing his arms up and grunting loudly in frustration. “Fuck this! I’ll be in my room for a while, I gotta relax. You two really know how to raise my fucking blood pressure. Please, just, don’t kill each other out here, got it? Victor, leave my money by the door, and I hope the door hits your ass on the way out.”
And just like that, he’s gone from the general scene, slamming his bedroom door behind him so harshly the wall shakes a bit in his wake.
“Jesus, well, now that the big boys are left alone -” Victor mutters to himself, as he reaches into one of his pockets and retrieves a wallet that looks thickened by a few wads of large bills. “So, mutt, those were all entertaining tales you created. You should write a book one day, I’m sure it’d be excellent. Whatever your story may be, whether it’s murder or running from the police or simply just daddy hit you too much and you got pissy about it, I like you. You’re absolutely insane, you’ve definitely got some balls, and dammit if I don’t respect that, as well as think it is incredibly stupid. You’ve got guts, and I don’t feel like tearing them out of you… just yet. So, here’s what I’m thinking.”
He flips open his wallet, licking one of his fingers as he swishes through one stack of fifties, and once he stops at a reasonable number in his head, he holds out the sizable pile to Elliot. “Whoever you are, what I gleaned from your creative writing session is that you are running from something. Seeing as I’m in the business of helping those down on their luck, and you seem to be one of those people - a few hundreds are not going to be enough to sustain you, I’m sorry - how about I loan you the money? All you’d have to do in exchange is do a few favors for me today, and I’ll let you be on your way before the moon is in the sky. What do you say? Seems like a fair deal to me.”
His eyes are blue electricity, crackling and sparking and oh so alive as he eyes Elliot, waiting for his next move. He knew there was a very good chance the boy would just say no and leave, but there was also the possibility of a yes, and that was the opportunity for one more recruit in his up-and-coming “business” venture.
“At the very least, it’ll be more than enough money to send to your sweetheart back home, if you’ve even got one with that snarling mug of yours. And if you’re not totally convinced, I can always call my other friend over to change your mind… He’s about your age, with blond hair, too. Imagine that. You two would probably get along just swell.”
