Authors: Eli Easton
“Yeah,” Chuck said, taking a shaky breath. “And someone sent Rachel flowers with a note supposedly from me. She came to the dorm to thank me and we sort of argued. Someone tried to push me to go after her. That’s when I fell down the stairs.”
Kevin’s hand flew to his mouth. “Oh my God! Someone sent this flirtatious message to John from my phone. That’s why his boyfriend pushed me into that table.”
“What?”
“Yeah, and it was sent from
my
phone. I couldn’t figure it out! I barely know the guy.”
They both looked at each other with wide eyes.
“Why would Brian do that? Try to hook me up? He didn’t even like me.”
Chuck shrugged, looking thoughtful. “Maybe he was trying to help? I think he was when he sent Rachel those flowers anyway. He was always trying to hook me up when he was alive.”
“Oh my God, we’re being haunted.” Kevin supposed he ought to feel scared, but he didn’t. It was really all kinds of
awesome
. He looked at the message on the computer again. “Wow. That’s like… spine-chillingly cool. It could be on a ghost reality show or something.”
“Yeah,” Chuck touched the screen with his fingers. “Brian always was a little slow. But it looks like he finally got it right.” Chuck looked at Kevin, his eyes warm. He put the laptop aside. “C’mere.”
Kevin, his heart pounding, moved closer until there was barely an inch between them.
Oh, God
. Chuck cupped Kevin’s cheek and Kevin met his eyes, those hella sexy brown eyes.
“Aramis says I’m supposed to kiss you,” Chuck said softly.
“Okay.” Kevin’s heart was going to pound out of his chest.
“Yeah?” Chuck caressed Kevin’s cheek with his thumb.
“Yeah.”
So Chuck did.
No kiss had ever been so wonderful, Kevin was sure of it. Chuck’s mouth was hot and sweet and sexy as hell, but even more thrilling was the sense of total connection, the rushing feeling of delight that soaked into Kevin from every place they touched, and the utter conviction that Chuck felt the same.
He moaned and wrapped both arms around Chuck, then pulled him as tight as he could.
“You feel so good,” he murmured, pulling away from the kiss. The feeling inside him was so big he had to let it out.
“God, yeah. I liked you from the minute I saw you, ya know? But man, I didn’t know it would feel like this. This is so worth it. This is worth anything.” Chuck kissed Kevin again.
They kissed until Chuck tugged at the hem of Kevin’s T-shirt and Kevin pulled back to take it off. He pulled Chuck’s off as well. Then he fell into Chuck’s hairy chest with a sigh. “I love your chest. I’ve tried so hard not to perv on you, but you are so hot.”
“Really?” Chuck chuckled. “I like yours way better.”
And then, because there was no way they were going to stop when it felt this good, not now, not later today, maybe not ever, Chuck pulled Kevin to lie down, rearranging his cast so they both fit on the bed. They sank into the kiss again, and Kevin felt Chuck’s erection, hard and wonderful, pushing against his own.
Oh.
It was the best moment of Kevin’s entire life.
Thank you, Brian
, he thought, and then there was nothing in his mind at all except bliss.
B
RIAN
FELT
enormously pleased with himself when Chuck kissed Kevin.
Yo
. Maybe he’d finally done something right. If Kevin and Chuck were together, neither one of them would be despondent enough to kill himself. Right? Done and done. Gold medal time. Pass the cigars.
He waited smugly to be snapped out of the dorm room and back into heaven. And waited.
The kissing was getting hot and heavy. Chuck peeled off Kevin’s T-shirt and ran his hands over Kevin’s chest.
“Done now!” Brian said to the ceiling. He needed to get out of there.
He concentrated on thoughts of the white waiting room. Nothing happened. He thought about the evening outside Cole Hall, pictured sitting on the steps in the cool air. Nothin’. With an angry huff, he turned and tried to walk through the door into the hall.
He hit it as though he were solid and bounced off.
“Oh, come on!” Brian shouted. He frantically tried the door handle with both hands. It didn’t budge.
“Peter! Let me out!” Brian pleaded.
There was no response.
Shit. He was being… what was the opposite of cockblocked? Cockforced?
“You’re a sick fuck, you know that?” he muttered. Not surprisingly, there was no reply.
Resigned, Brian turned and looked. Chuck and Kevin were horizontal now, both of them shirtless but still in their jeans and sweats. Their mouths were fused hungrily and Kevin was arching up against Chuck, pressing into him. Chuck made a growly noise of approval and pulled Kevin tighter.
Brian tilted his head and studied them. It was… odd. In his human body, Brian knew he would have been squicked out by seeing two guys making out. But… he wasn’t. He didn’t feel disgusted at all. And therrrre went their jeans, sweats, and underwear. Yup. Now Kevin and Chuck were naked on the bed, entwined as if desperate for each other’s touch, both hard and lost in desire.
But it wasn’t sordid. It wasn’t like porn at all. It was… beautiful. Really beautiful. And a bit hot, if he were totally honest. He didn’t seem to have the capacity to harden in this body, but he felt the fire of longing in his heart, a burning, melancholy flame. Damn, he missed having a dick. Fun times. He sighed.
Peter appeared next to Brian, making him jump. “Quit that!”
Peter shrugged and studied the couple fondly. Kevin kissed his way down Chuck’s chest and took his cock into his mouth. Brian thought he should feel uncomfortable watching that with Peter, but he didn’t.
It was sort of blissful, kind of like that white light.
“How come I’m not grossed out?” Brian asked quietly, as if the guys could hear him.
“I told you, hormonal response is hardwired in the brain. You don’t have any actual gray matter right now. Not that it’s a big change for you.”
Brian rolled his eyes. “That’s just mean. And this—this is sexual harassment. You don’t have a lot of godly virtues. You know that, right?”
“Just as well since I’m not God,” Peter said calmly.
Brian wanted to follow up on that, but he knew Peter wouldn’t tell him, so he gave it up. They watched as Chuck cupped Kevin’s face, looking down at him as he was being sucked. Chuck and Kevin stared into each other’s eyes as Chuck pushed his cock in and out of Kevin’s mouth. It made Brian’s heart throb with pleasure.
Peter sighed. “So lovely. Makes it worth all the pain of existence, doesn’t it?”
Brian swallowed. “Why are they glowing like that?” He waved at the subtle golden glow that surrounded them
“That, Brian, is love,” Peter said, with a genuine smile. “In its infancy, but love all the same. They can kill it or feed it and let it grow. That’s for them to decide.”
“Don’t you know? I mean, can’t you tell their future? Do they end up together or not?”
“Free will,” Peter said with a shrug. “It’s a bitch.”
They watched as Chuck tensed and came, his eyes rolling back in his head in pleasure, the glow around him burning bright. He pulled Kevin up to lie on top of him and they kissed as Chuck worked his hand between their bodies. Kevin shuddered and cried out.
Peter sighed. “Nicely done, boys, nicely done. Mazel tov. As for you, Brian. Your time is up.”
“It is?” Brian said with alarm. “But what happens—”
Snap.
B
RIAN
FOUND
himself standing, once again, in front of that high desk in the white amphitheater. The invisible audience clapped politely. Peter, dressed in his white robe, peered down at him imperiously from his seat.
“Brian Scott Matheson. You were given two weeks to redeem your soul. Your time is up.”
Brian crossed his arms and hugged himself. He was afraid. It was weird how fast things happened here, like there were no in-between states and no time to get used to anything. He was suddenly terrified.
He didn’t want to go to hell.
“I…. I think I did what you asked. I tried my best. And I learned a lot. I learned a
whole
lot.” That usually worked with teachers.
Peter gave him a dead stare. “We shall see.” A large screen appeared near Brian.
“You bought flowers online and charged your parents’ credit card. You forged a note from someone else.”
“Yeah but I….”
“You stole an expensive skin product from your ex-girlfriend.”
“Her family has money,” Brian muttered, blushing.
“You pushed your friend Chuck down a flight of stairs and broke his leg.” Brian saw Chuck’s accident replayed on the screen in horrifying detail. He cringed.
“I didn’t mean to,” Brian whispered.
“You got this young man beaten up after sending a pornographic text.” Brian saw the scene in the coffee shop where Kevin was sent flying into a table.
“I was being romantic,” Brian argued. “How was I supposed to know what ‘cream’ meant to gay guys? Come on!”
“And finally, you broke the number one prohibition. You revealed yourself.”
The screen showed Chuck reading the message from Aramis on his laptop screen.
Brian felt tendrils of sheer dread wrap around his heart. Damn, he had screwed up. “I’m an idiot, okay? I was trying to be nice.”
Peter cocked an eyebrow at him and sighed. “In your defense, there was this.”
The screen showed Chuck and Kevin lying in bed under the covers after sex, just staring into each other’s eyes like the sun rose and set there. The peanut gallery sighed in pleasure.
Brian wrapped his arms around himself tighter. “So….”
“Get on the scale,” Peter said flatly. The scale appeared along with Brutus, who gestured to him with a smile.
With great trepidation, and a thousand prayers for mercy in his head, Brian stepped up. The needle started moving clockwise, further and further. Brian couldn’t take it. He shut his eyes.
There was a ding and a wave of enthusiastic applause from the audience. Brian opened his eyes. He was in the gold.
“Oh, thank God!” He staggered off the scale. “Thank you so much. I—”
“Yes, yes,” Peter said impatiently. “Off you go now. Next!”
B
RIAN
WAS
teleported to an all-white nursery, like a hospital nursery, with twenty or so clear cribs. Each crib contained an infant. They came in all shapes and colors. Peter and Brutus stood by.
“Your reward, Brian. You get another lifetime. Choose,” Peter ordered.
Brian looked over the selection with confusion. “Wait… are you saying when babies are born, they don’t have a soul already?”
Peter looked heavenward and sighed. “Oh, my, who you are now, Augustine? These babies aren’t actually born yet. They’re in the queue.”
“Oh.”
“So pick one.”
“Well, don’t I get to see their parents or anything? What kind of life they’ll have? I mean how can I know?”
Peter looked at him dryly. “You can’t see what kind of life they’ll have because that’s up to you. But I can show you this much.” The babies suddenly changed to young men and women about twenty in age, all floating next to the cribs with frozen expressions on their faces. Some of the faces showed happiness, some anger, and some were neutral. Above their heads words floated—
Mormon, Episcopalian, Minnesotan, Atheist, Staunch Republican, Wiccan, Lib Democrat
,
Single Mother
.
“Those are the families, by the way, not the person. There’s no telling what they’ll be until they’ve gotten their soul, obviously. Now choose.”
“What about their expressions?”
“Inherent chemical proclivities imbedded in the DNA. It affects your mood but only determines 10 percent of the final personality. Your soul does the rest.”
Brian walked around the figures, studying them. He instinctively didn’t want a female form, though Peter would probably say that was “unevolved” or something. He didn’t linger at the ones that were frowny—10 percent or not, who needs it? He stopped at a nice-looking dark-haired guy who seemed a bit… softer. He had a really good smile. The words over his head said
Democrat
and that was all.
“Do any of these have that, um, spiral thing? In their brains?”
Peter looked at him blankly. Man, that guy could glare. He was like the Greek God of Glaring. Brian wanted to shrink with embarrassment, but he held firm.
“Do you honestly think you’re ready for that?” Peter asked dryly.
Brian bit at his lips. “I was just asking. But are you saying I’m not? I can’t?”
Peter didn’t change one iota on his laconic face but suddenly a few of the bodies got the spiral symbol appearing over their heads, including the guy Brian had been looking at. Brian felt instinctively drawn to this body, but he made himself walk around and regard the others one more time. Did he really want to be gay? Why would he? But Peter said it was like a “required course.” And he was sort of curious after seeing Chuck and Kevin together.
Chuck. Chuck was a really good guy.
“Ticktock,” Peter said. Brian ignored him.
There was a pretty girl with dark hair who had the curly thingy too, and a really good-looking buff blond guy without the spiral who looked stern. He reminded Brian the most of his past life. But was that what he wanted? Wouldn’t that be going backwards?
Brian returned to the brown-haired gay guy. He swallowed. Peter’s eyes bore into him.
“If I pick this one, where would I grow up? I mean, how hard would it be? Maybe I wouldn’t mind being gay so much, but if his family lives in Mississippi or something….”
“On the count of five
I’ll
pick,” Peter said quickly. “Five, four, three, two—”
“Him!” Brian said hurriedly, pointing to his destiny, pointing to the boy with the really good smile.
Peter snapped his fingers and everything went black.
B
RUTUS
SHOOK
his head. “Well, that was a bit of a surprise. Was that the outcome you were looking for?”