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"Sweetie, I'm home," exclaimed Kyle as he padded into his home. He removed his jacket and hung it up on the coat rack hanging off of the door. As he sat down, he heard his lover walking down from upstairs.

"Hey, Kyle! How was work," asked the brown fox as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

Kyle exhaled deeply and sat on the couch, sighing, as he looked over at the fox, "It was...meh." He sighed then smiled. His lover sat next to him and gave him a hug. "Don't worry," he said. "I'm here now."

Kyle looked over at him, still smiling softly. "I know, Nick; and, I'm glad to have you here." Their tails wrapped around as they embraced in a loving hug. Nick's lips then met with Kyle's as they partook in a short kiss.

"I'll go get the food ready for you, sweetie." Nick stood up and headed for the kitchen. Kyle stayed back in the living, sitting on the couch, laid back as he took a quick break from the day.

"Thank you, babe. I guess I should get started of this damn work I'm supposed to do then. It was killer at the office today; nourishment would more than great so that this work doesn't kill me here, too," Kyle exclaimed as he chuckled, reaching into his backpack and removing his laptop, placing it on the coffee table and opening it. Nick giggled as he pulled out pans and plates, readying the stove to prepare some food.

Kyle booted up his laptop and opened a few programs. Amongst those programs was Microsoft Outlook; he had a few e-mails that he needed to check on. Scrolling down the list of e-mails, he noticed a particular title; it was obviously inconspicuous. Unaware as to what it might be, he hesitated to open it. He called Nick over.

"Umm, Nick...," He started.

"Yes, honey?" Nick replied as he focused intently on the meal.

"Could you come here and look as this with me for a moment?"

"Sure thing." Nick set the stove to a lower heat setting and walked over to the living room, sitting close to Kyle.

"Look at this..." Kyle gestured toward his laptop screen, not really pointing at anything in particular. Nick began scanning the screen with his eyes, trying to find the particular e-mail that he thought he was looking for.

"'Anthropomorphism'?" Nick questioned, smiling smugly.

Kyle looked at him flatly, "No. Below that." He highlighted the title with the curser.

Nick read it. "'Kyle Renée Walters'? Well, that's your full name...but, with _my_last name. We just got married not even two months ago; who all have you told about our marriage?

"No one, really, except for my parents, of course; but, I don't think they know this e-mail address."

"See what it is, then." Nick said anxiously.

Kyle clicked on the e-mail and the proceeding text read thusly:

_ _

Ridiculous! You two together.

Awfully appalling.

Careful, for prohibition,

Has yet to remove your darling.

Atrocious love; be gone!

Exit this tainted land.

Let your love leave from here,

'Says the grateful Man.

~Proclomation~

_ _

"W-what is that supposed to mean; and who's 'Proclomation'," asked the worried fox.

"I...I don't know," Kyle responded. "But, I think this is a warning. I think it's saying something along the lines of our love being forbidden here, and that we need to leave...because God says so." The gray wolf snuggled close to Nick. "Whoever this is isn't going to get rid of us so easily, especially not a coward ranting over an e-mail."

* * * *

The next morning, Kyle woke up to an unsettling surprise: nick was not sleeping next to him.

"*yawn*, *groan*" Tired noises emitted from the wolf's muzzle as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Nick, sweetie; it's time to wake up..." He looked over at the empty space in the bed next to him. He started to worry, for Nick was usually the last one awake. However, there were some days when Kyle had to attend work early in the day, so Nick would wake up earlier than him to prepare breakfast for the two before he left; however, today was Kyle's day-off. He was still optimistic, though, and hoped for that romantic surprise. He quickly withdrew his worried sensation and dressed himself for the day, performed his usual morning routine, then headed downstairs.

As Kyle walked down the stairs, he called out, "Nick, honey, today is my day off; you didn't have to-..." He reached the bottom of the stairs and looked into kitchen. He couldn't help but notice that there, too, was empty. He once again grew worried and padded slowly into kitchen. He looked around, ears flattened in melancholy, when his eyes stopped on a note on the refrigerator and began calming down, initially thinking Nick had ran out supplies and gone to the store to purchase more. But, as he stepped closer, he noticed it was not Nick's penmanship; this one was wilder, yet collected - you know, how most high school females' handwriting look.

Kyle waked over to the refrigerator, attempting to get a better look at the note. It was another note resembling that of the e-mail he had read. The determining factoring being the signature "~Proclomation~"; however, he noticed something different: above the "i", was a heart-shaped dot. Kyle picked up the note and started reading it:

Real love

Always includes a female.

Cause yours does not,

Hell shall take your male.

All's well that ends well,

Everything shall be alright.

Lest you get hasty,

'So ends your great plight.

| | | | |

_ _

~Proclomation~

_ _

Kyle's worry level escalated into distress. After pondering the morale of the note and deciphering it, he discovered its meaning: someone had abducted Nick and kept him captive with intent on killing him. He fears that if he tries anything harsh, as it states in the note, the kidnapper will still kill him. There was one thing about the note that he didn't quite understand: there was a seemingly random apostrophe before the last sentence. He thinks he saw a similar marking in the e-mail from the same person. He hurried to the living room where his laptop remained from the night before. After starting it up, he opened Outlook and selected the desired e-mail.

"That's weird," he inquired. "That apostrophe is in the e-mail as well." Upon further analysis of the relevance between the two notes, he noticed a reoccurring pattern between the two: the first letter of each sentence matched between the notes. When could all of the mean?

* * * *

Kyle was at a loss; he lied on the sofa crying as he worried about what happened to Nick. He knew that the secret lied somewhere in the notes, between the lines, but he was in such distress that he couldn't comprehend things correctly. Unaware as to the path that he should take now, he decided to take a bath; he always had his best ideas while taking baths, so he prepared the bathtub and took the note in with him.

Kyle undressed and submersed himself into the pleasantly warm water as his mind suddenly cleared itself of all stress. His eyes drifted shut as the undertow of life's stress disappeared; he slipped deeper and deeper into the soothing water. He slowly opened his eyes and glanced up at the note; he stuck it onto the wall of the shower opposite where he was laying before entering. His moment of complete Zen was broken, but he was still relaxed and mellow. He looked at the note, intently, and he thought he saw something. He sat up and gently grabbed the note, observing it closer. As he stared at it, he hoped to find a deeper meaning to it, but instead, he found something else that he wasn't sure if he was imagining it being there or if it was legit. The first letter of each sentence, they cohered with those from the e-mail. He tried spelling them in his head, but he continuously thought that it was a name rather than a word; why would it be a name? He stood up and drained the tub, stepping out and grabbing the towel as he started drying himself off. He wrapped the towel around him, wrapping his tail inside, as well, and headed downstairs, taking the note with him and setting it on his desk. He quickly grabbed a pencil and a notepad from his desk when again he noticed something: that thieving kidnapper used HIS notepad. He looked over at the note and copied down the first letter of each sentence. As he got to the last sentence, he now noticed why that apostrophe was there. He pulled out the chair and sat down, staring at the paper; it was as he thought, it did spell a name: RACHAEL'S. "Rachael's," he thought to himself. "Rachael's...Proclomation? Rachael who; I must know a lot of Rachael's.

Kyle was starting to grow frustrated, when suddenly, his phone began to ring. He walked over to it and checked the caller I.D.: "Proc10m4tion". There was no number, however, but it seemed to spell Proclomation, and, in desperation, he answered nervously.

"H-hello," he stuttered in slight distress.

"Be there." A female voice responded, then suddenly hung up.

This must have been Rachael; what an ominous female voice. Kyle was left standing there, phone up to his ear, confused. A tear rolled down from his face as it clenched in frustration. That ominous statement made absolutely no sense; where was "there" supposed to be? It was no consolation that it was said in a...rather seductive manner. He hung up the phone and looked at I.D. as he did so. He looked over at the table in the dining room and noticed a Scrabble board game box was on there; they hadn't played that last night, how did that get there. It must have been a clue from Nick just before he was taken. He looked back at the phone's screen and noticed the 104 inside it; Scrabble doesn't have numbers, so that just leaves the letters. He wrote them down on his "While you were gone..." notepad and examined them, "PROCMTION...ok, now what? What could this be an anagram for?" He attempted many to rearrange the letters with the goal of making a sensible road name out of them, having concluded that the ominous message "Be there" had been referring to the address encrypted in the caller I.D., and 104 being the building number. Suddenly, he came to a realization: Not all street names sound pleasant or make sense. This realization finally drew him to a conclusion, a street not all that far from his house: Promntic Rd.

HOORAY! The mystery as to Nick's whereabouts was solved, or so he could hope. While on the topic of Scrabble and spelling, he couldn't help but notice, then despise himself for JUST noticing this: In each note, even the name on the caller I.D., "Proclomation" had always been spelled incorrectly; it should have been "Proclamation", but instead, the "a" was replaced with an "o". Kyle was aware that the series of letters incorporating clues all had secrets devilishly hidden; could this, too, be imperative information? Kyle paused for a moment and sat down on the couch, trying to peace it all together. "Rachael's Proclomation. Proclamation. O...Rachael O...Rachael O? Huh...Rachael O-...oh no. No. It can't be.

* * * *

Kyle rushed to his car and started it. Opening the garage, he questioned to himself, "Rachael...how could she do this? What could possibly be her reasoning?" He pulled out from the garage and down the driveway, driving down the street and closing the garage behind him. His destination was set on 104 Promntic Rd.; he thought about that the entire time he was driving. He pulled up to a stop light that had just turned red and stopped. As he waited for the light to change, he thought about the warning in the note:

"All's well that ends well,

Everything shall be alright.

Lest you get hasty,

'So ends your great plight."

Kyle shed a single tear before the light changed back to green. Channeling his anger and distress, he hesitated to start driving and calmed himself first. Ready to start driving again, he drove forward and pulled up to his destination.

He walked up to the gray house, walking up the gravel driveway and onto the concrete sidewalk leading to the door. He was about to knock furiously on the door before remembering what the note had said. He recoiled at the thought of personally being the death of his lover and decided to try and turn the doorknob. To his surprise, it opened. Upon entering the house, he noticed the interior was set to a rather colonial look. That was rather unanticipated, but, then again, Kyle recalled that Rachael used the term "proclamation" as her signature. He closed the door behind him and walked around, cautiously. There was an apprehending silence surrounding him and caused his heartbeat to increase in tempo. He was unaware as to the whereabouts of everyone, and this frightened him a little. He wondered about the room aimlessly, hoping for a sign of some sort; audible, visual, anything would make his relief palpable. Yet, there was nothing; it was silent. He wondered into the kitchen and found a door. Opening it, he was bestowed with the sight of total darkness. And, what was worse, there was a stairway to a wall of pitch black. Seeing many movies, he was confident that his lover was down there and, inhaling deeply, stepped into the basement as he was engulfed by the darkness. The door seemed to have closed by itself, until he recalled that he gently pushed the door before going down the stairs. He stopped in his place and looked back up at the bright yellowish-white light seeping through the corners of the door before turning back around and proceeding with his descent.

The stairs were wooden and creaking, and there seemed to be quite a few of them. Cautiously walking down the stairs, Kyle then felt a harder surface; he had reached the bottom. He looked around, squinting his eyes and suddenly hoping he was a feline, for they could see better in dark. Suddenly, he heard the door open. He looked behind him and saw a silhouette of a female figure swoop in rapidly as the door closed behind it. Then, step by step, he heard the figure walking quickly down the steps. Kyle was frightened, and as the sound of the steps grew louder, he stepped back slowly and followed the wall, hoping to find the light switch. As his paw grazed under the back plate of the switch, he stopped and felt the switch. The steps stopped, and this frightened him even more. He hesitated to flip it, but had no other choice. Looking in the direction that he had just came from, he closed his eyes and flicked the switch upward, illuminating one end of the room. He looked up at the stairway and did not see anyone there, but what he did see was another switch; how could he not have noticed it when he first entered? He looked up and saw a light just above the stairway; this kind of upset him.

"Boo." An orange female cat appeared behind Kyle, leaning in close to his ear and whispering in a seductive tone.

"Son of a-...dude, wha-...what do you think you're doing?" The surprised wolf slowly regained his breath and questioned the demented cat.

Oh, you. You were always quick to solve complicated puzzles. This, however, is not going to be as easy. Before I tell you where your...lover is, you have to answer one...last...riddle."

"Umm...ok." Kyle worried, his ears flattening as he question what the cat was thinking as she grew silent, disappearing into the darkness. He stared into the darkness, a little shocked that she was completely gone.

"Who am I," her voiced emanated from the darkness, seeming to tease the wolf, for it was obvious that he already knew who she was.

"Rachael. Rachael Ortega: the best gymnast our school has ever had; you always landed on your paws."

Rachael chuckled. "Cleverly put. Now, riddle me this: why am I doing this?" She glanced over her shoulder, looking back at him, anticipating the answer.

The room grew silent one more; it was obvious that he had no clue why she was doing this, why she put him in this heinous endeavor. These riddles riddled him with questions and he was growing more and more distressed. Kyle leant his paws on his knees as a tear dripped from his eye and onto the floor, frustrated.

Rachael looked forward again, sighing and then smirking. "Heh...figures." She flicked on another light switch which illuminated the rest of the room, revealing the captive fox, bound and gagged on a wooden chair. He seemed as though he had just woken up as he looked around, not fully accommodated to the sudden change in lighting. He looked over and noticed a blurry figure resembling Kyle's figure and stared at it intently. Concluding this to be Kyle, he attempted to shout, only to have it muffled by the gag, and attempted to run for him, only to be restrained by the ropes; Nick was struggling so much, Kyle just couldn't stand by and watch his lover in that sort of state. He rushed out toward his lover with his arms out, waiting to meet with Nick, but as he neared him, Rachael, who was standing just in front of Nick, stuck her arm out in the direct path of Kyle, and, being slightly shorter than him, knock him down by his neck. Kyle fell backwards to the ground, causing Nick to writhe in agony.

As Kyle held his throat, coughing, Rachael stood over him and looked him in his hazel eyes. "Have you figured it out yet!? Huh!? Come on, this one is easy!" She smacked him across the face; Nick looked away as he started to tear.

Kyle stayed looking in the direction that he was hit, tearing up a bit as he shouted in response. "I don't know, ok!? I...I just...don't know.

"...why..." she began. "Now, why would I be doing this; let's see..." Rachael stood up and walked over next to Nick again. "Let's go backward, shall we? Senior year: I confessed my love for you and you told me 'I'll consider it'. But, did you? Did you ever? Junior year: we were so close that everyone thought that we were going out with each other. They said that we made such a great couple. Huh. Sophomore year: you kissed me, ever so tenderly, in hopes that you could cheer me up since my ass-of-a-boyfriend left me...for my sister! Freshman year...ah, freshman year. Every band trip we had, we help hands without letting anyone know. Whether it was on the bus, or at the mall. I thought we were gonna live out our lives together. I hoped we would get married and live together in holy matrimony. I...I was expecting to have children with you. While all of those other whores at our school were getting pregnant here and there, I waited...I waited for you." She paused for a minute, reminiscing, then shook off a few tears. "Last few weeks of school: I started seeing you with...him." She pointed at Nick furiously. "I figured out why you hadn't responded to my question. I...I just didn't like it; I didn't want to believe it. I was going to ask you if you had made up your mind the second-to-last day of school, that's when it happened. I walked into the lunch room and...you proposed to him. That was when you asked him to be your gay disgrace!" She walked up to a shelf with a box on it. Opening it with a key she had on a necklace around her neck, she pulls out a 9mm pistol and a silencer attachment. Keeping it concealed from the others, she attaches the silencer and turns around, pointing it Kyle to freak him out, then resting the barrel in the line of site of Nick's head. Nick closed his eyes as he was crying them out.

Kyle couldn't hold himself any longer. He threw himself at her, extending his arm as it pushed the gun up, clenching at her wrist as she struggled. She shook him off and pointed the gun directly at him. Kyle, again seeing many movies, knew what to do. He grabbed the barrel of the gun, pulling her finger off of the trigger just in case as he twisted her wrist inward, far enough to strain it and release the gun from her hand. He now had the gun, but instead of pointing it at her, he went on to disassembling it, evening popping out the one in the chamber. Dropping the pieces onto the floor, he kicks them aside and holds onto the astonished cat's arms, pulling her close as he looked deep into her blue eyes. "What are you saying!? Are you saying you are putting me though this just because of some petty jealousy!? Putting us though this just because I turned you down months a year ago!?"

Rachael looked back at into the wolf's eyes, tearing as the look of shock and anguish plastered her face. "...I...I only wanted you. I wanted you...and you broke my heart; left me...for a guy. How...can you find love in another man? How could you possibly...I mean, that...that just doesn't add up...in any way."

Kyle hugged her closely, and she hugged him back, crying on his shoulder. "I love him, Rachael. And, it's not just because of the sex; that is the only difference between falling in love with a female and a male. Many people fall in love, so to speak, with genitals, now a days; I fell in love with his heart, Rachael. He had something you didn't, I'm sorry to say, and I loved that about him. All that you explained about our high school years may have been true, but there's one thing you haven't accounted for: my point of view. About halfway during the first semester of junior year, I noticed a change in you - a change for the worse. I tried to deal with it, but the more I tried to avert it, the more apparent it became, and I dealt with it throughout junior year. Then, senior year, you asked me out, and that was when Nick made himself known by coming out, he needed a friend. I helped him out that year, and, well, you know the rest. You see, Rachael, the problem that I found in you: you couldn't handle rejection very well...like, at all. Even now, this is just...over the top, don't you think? I told you a few times that I was busy or that 'Not this weekend, next weekend' or something along those lines. And, even so, you got so depressed afterwards. My friends told me how you would cry after school while waiting for the buses, and sometimes during your classes. My friends talked to your friends and told me that you were saying that I didn't like spending time with you. That wasn't true, I just needed my space." Nick looked calmly as this story was being told. Kyle had let go of Rachael and she just sat there crying as she listened, ears flattened. "Rachael, I didn't see you the last day of school, now that I think about it. I was going to answer your question, and you weren't there. I'm sorry that you had to find out the way that you did, but you shouldn't have ran off. I was going to tell you that Nick wouldn't have minded at all, knowing the circumstances, if you and I could remain friends-..."

"Friends with benefits." Rachael finished, already knowing he was going to say that; that is what they have been for the duration of high school up until that point. "And, you know what? I'm OK with that. All I ever wanted was to know that you liked me; even if it wasn't the way I liked you, hell, I loved you." She looked down at her paws, questioning the decisions she's made: deviating this endeavor and even going through with it, how could she? She was crying again as she stared at the ground, until, to her surprise, Kyle placed his paw under her chin and lifted it, matching her eyes with his. He slowly leaned forward, placing his lips against hers as he kissed her tenderly, his lips pressing against her luscious lips. Rachael was shocked, as was the bound fox watching them from behind. Rachael then suddenly closed her eyes, accepting the sudden kiss as tribute for an apology as she wrapped her arms around the gray wolf, succumbing to the lust she still felt for him and enjoying what will possibly be the only moment of bliss she would receive from him.

As Nick watched from the sidelines, he began to grow a tad bit jealous. He let out a frustrated groan as his way of letting the two know that Kyle's lover was still in the room with them and tied up. Kyle caught wind of the sound and pulled away from the kiss slowly, a trail of saliva connecting their once conjoined lips as Rachael slowly opened he eyes. She was left with a deep blush on her cheeks and panting in excitement as Kyle looked at her, blushing lightly as well then getting up to untie Nick. As he did, Rachael slowly stood up, still blushing as she was dumbfounded by the sudden act that Kyle had done. As soon as Nick was untied, he launched himself toward Kyle and hugged him tightly, crying on his shoulder and showering him with affection and gratitude. He ended with a passionate kiss against Kyle's lips just to remind him that Nick was still his.

As the two finished reconnecting, Kyle turned to Rachael and extended his paw towards her. "What do you say, Rachael...friends?" He waited for her to accept his peace offering as the two of them looked at her.

Rachael was altruistic in thinking of the outcomes of this newfound friendship and figured it could be a good idea. "Friends," she said as she held the wolf's paw.

"And, remember, Rachael," Kyle started. "And use your dirty mind for this one, OK? A negative times a negative is a positive; a positive times a positive is a positive; and, in most cases - especially in my life - a negative times a positive is a negative. Are you with me still?" Rachael looked displeased at him and nodded. "Good. Now, if it's OK with Nick here, perhaps we could see what a negative plus a negative plus a positive equals, if you catch my drift. What do you say, sweetie?" He looks over to Nick.

Nick's face remained expressionless for a few seconds before a smirk grew on his face. "As long as I get the negative, OK? Heehee..."

"Then it's settled!" Kyle hugged the two closely as they walked towards the stairs. "Rachael, you are now part of our little family...type...thing...I don't think this is a family. Umm...maybe you could be the...fall-to guy, er...girl? Umm...

"Yeah, yeah...I get it. Don't hurt yourself." She started to laugh which caused the others in the room to laugh as well.

After the three walked up the stairs, they exited the house. "I'm hungry," Nick stated as they exited the house.

"You know what? As am I," Kyle added.

"Hey, let's go to Waffle House!" Rachael proclaimed as she nudged Kyle, referring to an inside joke regarding band.

"Hehe...you heard her, Nick: To Waffle House! For that is Rachael's Proclamation." Kyle said in a stately manner as he and Rachael laughed. Nick was lost as he was unaware of the joke, not being there when Kyle had made the discovery.

"Wait...wha-?" Nick looked at the two quizzically as he separated from the group.

"Oh, come on, Nick. I'll tell you later."