Page 18 of Hell House
“I wanted to make sure we weren’t overheard.” I raise my eyebrow to that.
“What’s going on?”
He takes a breath, glancing around. “I think… I’m starting to be able to control it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I was able to feel lust without that thing driving me to feel it.”
I look at him for a moment and see the earnest expression in his face.
“Maybe it was just a one-time thing. Besides none of us are able to keep them at bay for long.”
“It has to mean something though, right?”
“Yeah… that you found someone you want to stick your dick into.”
“Shut up, you know what I mean.”
“I do. I want you to be right. I mean I fucking hate being stuck together with this thing inside of me. Sometimes I don’t even notice when I’m acting like me or when I’m letting Pride take the driver’s seat. You have to trust me that we will find a way out of this though.”
“Yeah, but how?”
“You let me worry about that. What are older brothers for?”
“You’re only 14 minutes older, Pierce.”
“Doesn’t matter, I’ll figure this out. I swear it. Even if it kills me.” I smile trying to reassure him. If he only knew the lengths I was already going to. The dark shit I’d already done to free us all. It gutted me not to share this with my brother, but the further away I could keep him from this, the better.
“Don’t joke like that.”
“Enough of this horseshit. I’ll race you to the water. Ready? Set? GO!”
I’m off before he has a chance to register that we’re supposed to be racing. I make it to the water easily, not bothering to take off my shoes before jumping in. The water is freezing as it sloshes up my legs, saturating my skin with tiny pinpricks.
“You asshole.” Lukas says, running up behind me. He splashes me, then tackles me into the water. I come up sputtering, wrestling him into the water. This is what I’m fighting for. More moments like this that are completely normal where these demons we’re tethered to aren’t controlling our lives- tethering us to this godsdamn island.
Lukas and I wrestle for a few more minutes, before coming out of the frigid water. My clothes are dripping and I’m instantly grateful there’s no wind today. As we wring out our clothes, I contemplate telling him about the headmaster’s plans. We’ve always shared everything, and it kills me not to open up about this to him. Had the headmaster not expressly instructed me to keep it under wraps, I would have told him already. But, then I think of the threats he levied against me and my fraternity brothers should I step out of line, and decide against it. No matter how much I want to share, it’s not worth being stuck like this forever. I fucking hate feeling like a puppet on a string. I vowed to get us out this and I intend to do anything within my power to keep that promise.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Lukas
My nuts are fucking freezing up here, and the stool I’m sitting on has one half of my ass numb, but I can’t move because good art models are still. Just as I take a steadying breath, the tip of my nose starts to itch. I feel the eyes of the room picking me apart as they sketch my naked form and the urge to scratch my nose intensifies.
Fuck.
I wiggle it as best I can without being obvious to Professor Whitelsbee, who’s crotchety disposition would be more than happy to renege on our agreement. I feel like the girl from Bewitched trying to get this itch off of me. I try and distract myself, thinking of Pierce’s and my discussion this last weekend. He didn’t seem convinced that I might be able to start controlling my Lust, though I hadn’t wanted to test out my theory. I had a nagging feeling that he was hiding something from me, which was unlike him even though he seemed to be in good spirits after our hike. I spent the rest of the weekend holed up in my room sketching the girl who’d captured my attention Friday night. Filling up page after page with her wide eyes and lush bottom lip, but never getting it quite right. It had been only a moment that we’d bumped into each other, but that moment was long enough to etch itself into my mind.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that she was to be sketching me today as I sit here in nothing but a thin white sheet- and sometimes not even that.
My eyes drift over to the clock that sits above her blonde and purple tipped messy pigtails. My thoughts snag on what I’d like to do with those pigtails, and I make the mistake of locking eyes with her. My heart catches in my throat and I feel my cock jump to attention. My cheeks flame and I quickly flit my eyes down to the ground. I don’t need to be getting a hard on while I’m naked in front of the entire Freshman art class. Think of anything other than her mouth. Anything else- I tell myself. But my mind doesn’t listen, instead replaying the image I’d conjured up of her down on her knees for me, my hands gripping her by the hair working her down my shaft, that’s now playing on a loop over and over again making my Lust groan with need. I take a chance and shift on the stool trying to cover up my growing problem.
“Mr. Ledger!” Professor Whitelsbee snaps and I instantly stop moving. “Do you not understand what the words ‘still as a statue’ means?”
I don’t respond, instead forcing myself back into the proper model position, this time locking my eyes with a fuzz on the floor. I bore my eyes into it, muscles cramping with each second that passes. Lust knocks against my chest, angry that it’s being interrupted, and I feel a jolt work it’s way down my spine and into my cock. My mind assaulted with images of her and me together.
Shit, shit, shit. Maybe Pierce was right-my control is nothing more than a fool’s hope.
