[Content warning: Reference to violence]

He was sore and cold. How did he end up here again? Vague images of violence and raw voices went through his mind. But he couldn't piece it together. He was vaguely aware of the fact that his leg was wet. It lay in a puddle. He tried to move it, but he wasn't sure if he did. It still felt wet. He had to get up, he knew. But he was afraid. They'd come back. Better play dead. How long since? He wasn't sure. He was cold. 

Tobias lay on his stomach on the cold wet paving slabs of a dark alley. There was some light coming from the main street, but he was barely visible in it. There was blood on his face and the skin around his eye was discoloured. There were cuts in his jacket and clothes, near his pockets.

He knew he should call for help, but it was as if he had forgotten how to.

Anthony was just minding his own business and taking a walk, when he decided to take a shortcut through one of the alleys nearby. It was a bit dark, so he just kept his gaze fixed forward as he walked. It was all going fine and well, until he damn near tripped over something. He managed to stop himself just before that happened, though, and just... very slowly turned his gaze to the ground. Ah. As if that hadn't even happened, he whipped his head upwards again, and took a long step over that suspiciously corpse-like thing, perfectly set on walking forward and leaving what could've been a person to their fate.

And in came flooding the guilt. He had barely even taken one step when his consciousness had already started telling him what a horrible person he is. And so, albeit somewhat reluctantly, he turned around again, and just...looked down at the. Corpse? The body? He wasn't sure if it was dead or not, but by now he realized that it was, indeed, a person. He looked at it only briefly, as he did not want to see any of this in the first place. He was completely clueless as to what he should do.

He nudged it (him?) with his foot. "You good?"

Tobias groaned, but the awareness that there was another person there drew him back to a more aware state. "Help..." he barely more than whispered. He could not get the person in focus and it was dark anyway. But since the person had stayed and asked whether he was alright, it had to be someone willing to help him, right?

Um. Okay. Guess that wasn't a corpse after all. Not yet, at least. Anthony was now even less sure of what he should do. He had kind of hoped that the man wouldn't respond and he'd just be able to go on his merry way. "Uh. Sure." Anthony stood still for a moment, thinking on what he should do, and then crouched down and started lifting the poor fellow up from his armpits, trying to get him to stand up or at the very least stop him from just lying there on the ground and dying.

Tobias coughed when the man started pulling him up. He was probably heavy for Anthony, and anyway, he did not trust his own legs yet. Instead, once he was in a sitting position, he held up his hand and moved back against the wall. "och...." The pain was worse now that consciousness was returning fully. "I..." The terrifying attack returned before his mind's eye in full force, and he gasped in fright and shuddered. "I was mugged. They beat me."

Anthony was getting more uncomfortable by the minute. He let go of the man as soon as it seemed that he was fine-r. He looked around a bit, kind of praying that someone would stumble upon them and just take over so that he can leave. As soon as the man started talking, Anthony flinched. He felt as if he definitely recognized this fellow from somewhere, but he didn't dwell on it because he had way bigger problems to deal with right now. "Oh, wow. That sucks....?"

"Aye..." He vaguely recognized the voice, but he was still unable to focus on anything. Everything hurt. He was quiet without being aware of the time passing.

"Yeah..." Anthony nodded. He clicked his tongue. "Do, you, like, need...help or something? Are you hurt hurt?" What was he even supposed to do now? He was absolutely not prepared to deal with a situation like this.

It took a moment for the words to sink in. "Aye... Everything hurts... I... Crane... Ye know PC Crane?" It was hard to think clearly.

Anthony didn't even think that he was capable of being this uncomfortable. He furrowed his brow. "Ah. Yeah. About that. Crane skipped town." Or maybe he was back already? Hell if he knew. Not like he was keeping himself up to date with his actions. Nevermind. That was all besides the point. He shook his head.