by Darien Cox
Miko’s eyes blazed—a flash of glowing white within the blue, like an electric spark.
My breath caught and my heart hammered. “I want you to leave.”
He glared, hands on his hips. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” I took a step back. “I want you to leave, Miko. Now.”
I was terrified, and was sure he’d argue. Maybe even hurt me. But he snatched up his leather coat and headed for the door. He opened the door, then looked back at me. “I’ll expect an apology for this. Don’t wait too long.”
I shook my head. “Apology?”
“We had a fight. That’s what lovers do, right? Fight, then apologize. Since you’re the one in the wrong, that apology should come from you.”
I stared at him. Afraid to say anything that would prevent him from walking out that door.
“I’ll give you one day to apologize to me,” he said. “To get things back on track with us. Don’t make me force it out of you, Jonathan.”
My stomach trembled. “Leave.”
He left, slamming the door so hard the windows shook.
I ran to the door, locking it. Peered out the window, wanting to make sure he was really gone. Miko was nowhere in sight.
“To get things back on track with us.”
I flinched. Those words—Miko’s words—so familiar. The night I asked the hacker to show me his face.
“Wonderful. We’re back on track.”
It was him. It was fucking him. And I’d just had his dick in my mouth. And then he got angry. Had I imagined it, when his eyes got weird? That white, electric flash.
“Holy fuck.” I sat down in my recliner, hanging my head. Pressing my palms to my eyes, I shuddered. “Jesus Christ, what the fuck.”
Looking up, I stared over at the desk. I sprang from my chair and darted for it, snatching my laptop. I walked out to the garage and dropped it onto the floor, then stepped outside to the woodpile, and picked up the axe.
Back inside the garage, I swung the axe again and again, screaming my rage. I kept at it until the laptop was in pieces. The machine was harder to dismantle than I’d anticipated, but I managed to shatter it. I grabbed a metal bucket and shoveled the remains inside. Poured some bleach in—I wasn’t sure why. I had only one thought. Destroy. I took the bucket outside and threw the whole thing in the bin, slamming the lid down.
When I went back inside, I washed my hands, then noticed a message on my phone. A text from Tim Greenfield.
‘Hey, sorry to text so late, but I’m home from the play now and thinking of you. This will probably seem weird and way too soon. If so, just tell me. But I was wondering if you wanted to head out of town for the weekend with me. My folks have a cabin out in the Berkshires. What do you say? No pressure. Just fun and relaxation.’
Under normal circumstances, Tim’s invitation probably would feel like rushing things. But right now, in this moment, I was so grateful for it I nearly wept. I texted him back immediately.
‘I’m in. When do we leave?’
Chapter Eight
“This is great,” I said as Tim and I got out of the car. “I love it.”
The cabin was small, quaint, a redwood house with a slanted roof at the end of a long dirt road surrounded by trees, small attached garage. A stream trickled nearby. We’d left work early to beat the Friday night traffic, and the sun was about to set, sky a deep twilight with splashes of pink clouds.
“I thought you’d like it. Grab your bag, let’s go inside.”
The ride out to the Berkshires was so much fun, I was already having the time of my life, and we hadn’t even set foot inside the cabin yet. Tim looked so damn cute in his red checkered flannel shirt, his easy smile and laughter a soothing balm. We’d talked and joked and laughed the whole ride, comfortable and easy. Tim was kind, funny, and seemed to genuinely like me. I could see it in his big blue eyes whenever he looked at me, and it was almost enough to make me forget the nightmare with Miko last night.
Bag in hand, I followed Tim up onto the porch. He opened a squeaky screen door and pulled keys out, unlocking the inner one. A painted wooden plaque next to the door read ‘GREENFIELD’ with stencils of ivy and roses carved into it. “Your parents own this place?”
“Yeah, had it for years. We used to come here when we were kids.” Tim led me inside. “They don’t use it much, though. Dad’s got bad asthma so he avoids the woods these days.”
The cabin was open concept with log beams coming down from the ceiling. A back door visible alongside a small kitchen. Worn, lived-in furniture with knitted blankets thrown over them. A fireplace. To the left, a miniature pool table, and another foldout table with four chairs, stacks of playing cards and two cribbage boards on top. The place smelled pleasant, like wood and pine and a hint of kerosene.
Tim flicked on a few of the lamps, giving the room a nice glow with the darkness falling outside. “You hungry?”
“Yeah.”
“Great. If you grab the cooler out of the trunk, I’ll get the stove going.”
“No problem.”
I left the cabin and walked to the car. The property was beautiful, an acre of groomed green grass, large oak tree in the distance with a tire swing. The air was cool and the trees were a mix of colors, some dead brown leaves crunching beneath my shoes as I opened the trunk and grabbed the cooler. As I walked back up to the cabin, I tried to imagine Tim as a little boy running around here. Light brown hair and blue eyes, playing on the tire swing under that big old tree. With those dimples, he was probably an adorable kid, and for a moment I wondered what his own children would look like if he ever had any. Tim was gay of course, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have kids if he wanted. There were ways. And there was always adoption.
Slow down, Jonathan. You’re not marrying the guy. Yet…
The fact was, things felt right with Tim. My heart swelled just being with him. I hoped there was a chance this could go somewhere. There was nothing wrong with that, was there? To hope?
When I stepped back into the cabin, Tim was in the kitchen. He flashed me that gorgeous smile, looking cute and domestic as he set a frying pan down on the stovetop. “Bring it here. How does steak and onions sound?”
“Sounds perfect.”
Tim cooked us a great meal. We drank beer, played cards, and eventually ended up sitting on a couch in front of a roaring fire, kissing while I slowly unbuttoned his flannel shirt. For a guy with such limited experience, it felt surprisingly natural, seducing Tim, and allowing myself to be seduced by him.
We eventually moved to a bedroom, and under the patchwork quilt on a puffy featherbed, I allowed him to undress me. For the first time in my life, I was naked in bed with a man I desired, and no fantasy could compare. “This feels right,” Tim whispered as our flesh pressed together, hands and mouths roaming each other’s bodies. “I really like you, Jonathan.”
I rolled on top of him, kissing his neck, blinded by how good he felt beneath me, our stiff cocks rubbing together. “Feels right for me too,” I huffed. “I don’t want it to end.”
Tim held my face in his hands. “It doesn’t have to.”
He’d gone still, so I did too, staring down at him. “What do you mean?”
“Are you seeing anyone else? You said no but…I want to make sure there’s no one serious before I say this.”
“There’s no one,” I said. I thought of Miko, and shivered. “There was someone. Briefly. But that’s over.”
“Do you think you’d want to try dating me? Just me, to see how it goes? I don’t want to see anyone else now that…this has started. I’ve wanted you for too long to not take a chance.”
I smiled as my chest bloomed with happiness. “Yeah. That’s exactly what I want.”
Tim returned my smile, then rolled me over, driving me to madness with his body. We climaxed together, stroking each other to completion with locked mouths, and I loved the feel of his come all over my skin, mingling with my own. I didn’t even want to clean it of
f.
I was happier than I’d ever been, here in this cabin. And we still had another night together.
Eventually we slept, and I awoke in the morning to the smell of coffee and bacon. Padded out into the kitchen to see Tim cooking, shirtless in pajama bottoms and thick socks. He’d started a fire in the fireplace, and the cabin was warm and cozy. “Hey.” I stepped in behind him and slid my arms around his waist.
“Hey.” He leaned back into me. “Sleep well?”
“Yeah.”
Setting the spatula down, Tim turned around and kissed me passionately. I held him in my arms, marveling at my good fortune. It was perfect.
Until later that night, when it all went to shit.
****
“What was that?”
Tim and I had just finished dinner, and had been having a beer as we played a game of pool, joking around and having fun, teasing each other about how bad we both were at the game. It was dark outside, fire in the fireplace. The only sound the crackling flames and our laugher, until something thumped hard against the house.
“I don’t know what that was,” I said.
The thump came again, and we both jumped.
“Where is that coming from?” Tim held his pool stick like a bat as he walked toward the front door.
“Wait.” I went after him, grasping his arm. “Don’t open the door.”
He looked at me, brows pinched. “I need to see what that is. There shouldn’t be anyone else out here. If it’s an animal or something, fine, but I want to know.”
With a bang, the front door blew open, a gust of leaves swirling into the cabin.
Tim dropped the pool stick, broke free of me and ran out onto the porch. I followed him, a sinking feeling in my gut. I found Tim on the porch, pacing back and forth, looking out at the property. “I don’t see anything.” He turned to me, expression worried. “Was it just the wind?”
I looked around at the trees. They swayed gently, but it was no violent windstorm. “I don’t know.”
“Jonathan?” Tim grasped my shoulders. “You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“You look terrified. It’s all right. Weird, but just a gust of wind. I’m gonna look around the cabin to see if any branches came down. That’s probably what we heard hitting the house.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
The last thing I wanted to fucking do was walk around in the dark right now, but I wasn’t letting Tim out of my sight. I wouldn’t let him get hurt, not on my watch.
As I followed him around the exterior of the cabin, I prayed to any deities I may not have pissed off in my lifetime that this didn’t have anything to do with Miko. My stomach had turned to ice, quivering as we made a circle of the cabin and came back around to the porch. “No branches,” Tim said, scratching his head. “That’s weird.”
“Maybe we should just go,” I said as we stepped back onto the porch.
“Go? What, tonight?”
“Yeah. Just hop in the car and head out of here. You can stay over my place tonight.”
“That’s a three-hour drive, Jonathan. And we’ve been drinking.”
I followed Tim inside. When he closed the door, I examined it. “Does this thing lock?”
“Yeah.” Tim flipped the lock then looked at me. “Are you really that scared?”
Great. Now he thought I was wimpy. I forced a smile. “No. I just like knowing you’re safe. Just starting to like having you around, don’t want anything to screw it up.”
Tim frowned at me a moment longer, then smiled as he drew me into his arms. “I’m not going anywhere.” He kissed me, and I melted into it, though my nerves were still on high alert.
Glass crashed, and we disengaged, whirling toward the sound. “Fuck,” Tim said, darting for the kitchen, then ducking when a bat flew over his head. “Oh shit!”
“Tim!” I ran to him, then stopped dead when I saw the smashed kitchen window. Then I ducked when a second bat flew into the house.
“Damn it,” Tim said. “At least now we know what was smashing up against the house. Here, help me out. We can catch the bats after I get the window covered.”
I stood frozen as Tim disappeared through the door to the garage. He returned with a sheet of plywood. “Can you grab the toolbox under the sink?”
“Sure.” I looked upward. I’d lost sight of one of the bats, but the other circled the eaves of the high ceiling.
After retrieving the tools, I held the plywood in place as Tim hammered nails into it, securing it over the broken window. When we finished, he wiped sweat from his brow, sighing as he leaned against the kitchen counter. “Shit.” He chuckled. “Bet you didn’t think this trip would be so exciting. Now we need to try and catch the bats. Do you see them?”
My heart was in my throat. “Tim…I need to tell you something.”
Tim stepped forward and grabbed my shoulders, soft concern in his eyes. “What is it?”
“Someone’s been…bothering me. I thought I took care of it but I’m not so sure.”
“Bothering you.” He scowled. “You mean the guy you told me about? The one you were seeing?”
I sighed. “Yeah.”
Tim frowned. “You don’t think he’s here, do you?”
What the hell could I say? That I suspected the person stalking me could control bats? Tim would think I was nuts, and I didn’t want that. “I don’t know. But I feel like I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you. I don’t know how dangerous he is.”
“Dangerous? Jonathan. It’s just a few bats. We’re safe here, don’t worry. Why, you see something outside that I didn’t?”
“No, I just—”
We both jumped at the banging, but this time it was louder, like giant hands were punching the sides of the house. It came from everywhere at once. Boom, boom, boom.
Glasses fell from the shelves and shattered on the floor. Tim grabbed my arm and yanked me out of the way of falling glass, the two of us stumbling into the living room. The thumping continued for thirty seconds, then went silent.
“What the fuck was that?” Tim shouted.
We gathered ourselves, and turned in a circle, back-to-back. “I’m not sure. But it’s sure not bats.”
“I’m calling the police.” Tim grabbed his phone off an end table and scowled at it. “No service. Shit, check your phone, Jonathan.”
I checked my phone, unsurprised to see I also had no service. “Nothing.”
Tim’s fair skin was chalky white. “Then pack your bag. I’m going with your original idea. We’re leaving.”
“I’m not sure we should go outside.”
“I’m not gonna stay here trapped in the cabin while someone fucks with us, Jonathan.”
“It could be a bear,” I said weakly, grasping at straws, anything to keep Tim from going outside where he could get hurt.
Trembling slightly, Tim lowered himself into a chair. He glanced up at me. “Bears don’t thump walls like that.” He shook his head. “Not like that.”
I crouched down in front of him, taking his hands in mine. “Let me go outside. In case it’s him. The guy that’s been bothering me. I’ll talk to him.”
“Jonathan.” Tim chuckled without humor. “People don’t thump walls like that either. It was like…coming from all directions at once. What the fuck was that?”
Lightning flashed, lighting the windows. Tim stood. “Maybe it’s a storm.” His shoulders sagged with relief that I didn’t feel. “That’s probably what it was. A lightning strike.”
A small radio in the kitchen turned on, static blasting. We both froze, then Tim walked into the kitchen, pulling the plug. The static remained. Picking up the radio, Tim stared at it, eyes wide as he examined it. He looked at me. “I unplugged it. But it’s still on.”
I grabbed the radio from Tim and smashed it to the floor. The static stopped.
Lightning flashed again, rattling the windows.
“It’
s a storm,” Tim said. “Right?”
The front door flew open and leaves whirled into the living room. I stared, feeling nauseous.
“I locked that,” Tim said. “I fucking locked that!” He started for the door and I stopped him, grabbing his arm.
“Wait.”
“Jonathan what the fuck is going on?”
“JONATHAN!”
We both stilled. The voice came from outside. Loud. Inhuman. Bestial.
“Who is that?” Tim whispered. I could feel him trembling where I held his arm.
“JONATHAN GET OUT HERE!”
Tim broke free of me, ran to the door and slammed it shut. Twisting the knob, he said, “Lock’s busted.” He glanced at me, then ran to the couch. “Help me put this in front of the door.”
“Tim, wait—”
“Jonathan help me!”
Tim began dragging one end of the couch. I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Stop. I’m gonna go outside and talk to him.”
Tim’s face paled further, staring at something over my shoulder.
I whirled around, and a moan escaped my lips. Miko’s face in the window. Teeth bared, his eyes flashing white.
“Who is that?” Tim whispered. “What is that?”
Small bolts of lightning, like a static charge, circled around Miko’s head.
“JONATHAN!” he screamed, his voice unnaturally loud. And strange sounding, like a man’s voice backed by a lion’s roar. “GET OUT HERE OR I’M COMING IN! YOU HAVE FIVE MINUTES.”
The face disappeared from the window.
Tim’s knees gave out and he collapsed to the floor, still staring at the window. “Jonathan.”
I knelt down, wrapping my arms around him. “It’s okay.” My voice shook, and I knew I wasn’t anywhere near convincing.
“Is that him?”
“Yes.”
Tim’s blue eyes met mine, wide with terror. “What the fuck is he?” he whispered.
“I don’t know.”
“But…Jonathan what the fuck is he?”
“I’m not sure. He said he’s a web crawler that became something else.”
“What?”
“I thought he was just a hacker, but—”
