Psycho by Onley James

When August had said home, somehow Lucas hadn’t expected it to be August’s home, even though he’d said as much that morning. Had it only been that morning? It was strange how his days stretched longer and longer but part of him still felt like he was hurtling to some unknown finish line that filled him with dread.

August’s apartment building was definitely luxurious. The building itself was tall and shiny with huge floor to ceiling windows and a lobby as big as any hotel’s. When they came to a halt at the entrance, August left the keys and came around, opening Lucas’s door for him before nodding at the valet. They passed an actual uniformed doorman. Lucas didn’t even know buildings still had doormen.

August took his hand as they entered, completely oblivious to the shocked expressions on the staff’s faces. Had August never brought somebody home with him? The thought of that filled him with a sort of smug satisfaction. In the elevator, August stood behind him, his arms around his waist, his chin hooked over his shoulder as they seemed to keep climbing higher and higher.

Lucas stared at their reflection in the mirrored doors. They were so different in every way. Dark and light. Apathy and empathy. Too much and never enough. Still, Lucas craved August’s touch, his obsession, the safety of knowing somebody was on his side. Did it make him a bad person for taking what August offered so willingly?

When August pushed in a code on the keypad next to his door, Lucas had no idea what to expect when it opened. He’d imagined August’s surroundings would be minimalist, tidy, lots of white space, maybe stacks of books. Guys like August tended to be rigid in their routine and in their decor. They often color coded things right down to their underwear.

What Lucas found was anything but sparse and minimalist. August’s entire apartment was black. The walls, the furnishings, the cabinetry. Even the rug on the wooden floors. But there were strange hints of warmth. A dark wood mantel with plants spilling over the edge. Light fixtures made of wood wrapped with black cords attached to bare bulbs that dangled over the enormous dining table and the stark white countertops in the otherwise black kitchen.

Somehow, the black paint, the raw wood, and the plants made the cavernous space seem more organic. Lucas had forgotten that August wasn’t the face he showed the world. Well, he wasn’t only that face. This was the darkest part of August, the real part. The one who didn’t think anything of having jars of what looked like remains lining bookshelves next to skulls covered in crystal, small antique figurines, and books that looked moments from disintegration.

“This is a very dark academia aesthetic, Mr. Mulvaney,” Lucas teased.

Lucas tried to take it all in. While the color palette was very monochromatic, there were several pieces of art, ornate gold mirrors, and a strange collection of trinkets. But the piece that snagged Lucas’s attention was the collection of swords, knives, and other weapons arranged over the fireplace like an art installation.

Lucas’s gaze went wide. “Are those actual weapons?”

“You don’t like it?” August asked, frowning. “Noah and Adam thought you’d find it too much. We can change it to your taste if you like. The black just makes it possible to cut the noise.”

“The noise?” Lucas echoed, beginning to prowl the space.

“Harsh lights, sound, too much color, it all makes my head noisy. Makes it hard to think. I find the absence of color soothing.”

Right. August didn’t like being overly stimulated. It made sense with all the things going on up there. “I like it. It’s very…you.”

“I like being surrounded by my favorite things. My father calls them my treasures. Things I found over the years that I immediately took to. Things I refused to part with, no matter what.”

“Like me?” Lucas said, regretting the words almost immediately.

The way August’s gaze snapped to him, raking over Lucas with possessiveness, made him harden immediately. “Yes. Exactly like you.”

“Are you going to put me on one of your shelves?”

August shook his head. “No, I much prefer you in my bed.”

Lucas prowled closer. “I’m pretty sure I still owe you from this afternoon.”

“As much as I want to cash in that IOU, I think maybe we should deal with the shoebox in the room.”

Lucas swallowed hard, glancing over at the box. “I know I need to handle it. I know. It just hurts. I know that doesn’t make me sound very tough or manly, but the pain isn’t just physical. It’s…psychic. I don’t just feel their physical pain, I feel their emotional pain, their exhaustion, their terror, every regret they’ve ever had in that moment.”

August leaned forward and kissed his forehead. The gesture was so spontaneous, it made Lucas’s heart skip. “About that. I have an idea. But you would need to trust me.”

“I do trust you,” Lucas said, surprised that he meant it. Maybe not surprised. It was clear Lucas would never be the object of August’s temper or rage, but that didn’t mean he was trustworthy. But Lucas did trust him. With his life. And his heart. And, apparently, with his head.

“Let’s go in the bedroom.” August grabbed the box from the table and led Lucas to another lush room.

This room was also dark, the walls a dark green, like some exotic plant found deep in a rainforest. The sheets were a stark white but the coverlet a patterned black velvet. Like the other room, it had wood accents, broken up only with the plant life surrounding the space. He hadn’t expected August to have plants or anything that required care. “Do you take care of all these yourself?”

August nodded. “They’re good for oxygenation and purification. Why?”

Lucas looked at the healthy greenery. “Plants require a certain amount of babying.”

August scoffed. “Keeping plants alive is a formula. As long as I know the steps required, I can give them what they need. And with a photographic memory like mine, I always know what they need.”

Lucas chewed on his bottom lip for a moment before he asked, “Is that what you do with me? Apply the formulas you found in your relationship books?”

August set the shoebox in the center of the bed. “There’s no one simple formula for you. I’m constantly having to test the theories and see what you respond to best.”

Lucas studied August, his stomach dipping at his blunt explanation. “So, I’m like a science project?”

August sat on the edge of the bed and dragged Lucas between his spread thighs. “What you are is mine. It’s my job to make you happy. I lack the capacity to do so on my own. I can’t love. I can’t feel guilt or empathy or remorse, any of the things that might help me understand what you need. All I have is research and context clues, which I’m not very good at interpreting. But I can give you what you need. I’ll do whatever it takes. But I can’t do it without help. Testing my theories is all I know.”

Lucas’s heart skipped at August’s explanation. He carded his fingers through August’s hair. “You’re surprisingly sweet for somebody who ‘lacks the capacity’ to make me happy on your own.”

August wrapped his arms around his waist and just held him like he had earlier in the library.

After a few minutes, Lucas pulled away. “What was your idea?” Lucas’s eyebrows shot up when August stood and began to undress. “I thought we were dealing with the box first?”

August smirked. “We are. I just figured you’d want to be comfortable for this next part.”

When August was in his underwear, he looked at Lucas expectantly. He sighed and stripped down, crawling onto the bed, careful to avoid the shoebox, as he settled between August’s legs, his back to August’s chest. “Now what?”

“You can pull sensations from me, right? Use me as a buffer. Like I do with my music and the rest of the world. I’ll be your psychic headphones.”

Lucas snickered at the ridiculousness of the statement. “Psychic headphones?”

The idea was silly. There was no way something like that would work. Except, it already had in August’s office when he’d showed him his frozen lake. “Fine, but if there’s a severed foot or hand in there, all bets are off.”

August lifted the box, testing its weight, giving it a slight shake. “It doesn’t feel like a severed appendage,” he said with an authority Lucas didn’t dare question.

“Okay,” he said finally. “How do we do this?”

August circled his arms around Lucas’s torso, his palms running along his chest and belly. “Did you find the lake soothing?”

Lucas let his head drop back against August’s shoulder. “Yes.”

“Then just close your eyes and focus on me.”

Lucas let his lids flutter closed, shivering instinctively when the icy wind of August’s psyche hit him. Lucas wondered if everybody could conjure this level of white noise at will or if August’s genius gave him an almost supernatural edge over the rest of the world. Or maybe it was his psychopathy. Either way, Lucas found it easy to melt into his head.

Just like before, August stood behind him on the bank of this frozen lake, holding him just as he did in real life. Everything was so real, Lucas thought he could reach out and feel the drops of water pooling off the barren tree branches to form icicles. The wind whistled but Lucas didn’t feel cold anymore, just serene.

He wasn’t sure how long they stood there, but when August set the shoebox between Lucas’s splayed legs, it suddenly joined them in this snowscape. His stomach dropped as his hands hovered over the box.

August pressed his words against Lucas’s ear. “I’m right here. Just remember I can’t see what you see so you’ll have to talk me through it.”

Lucas nodded, almost afraid to speak. He flipped the lid off the box, unable to hide his surprise when he saw the object within was just a shoe. Part of him knew it was never just anything with Kohn, but he’d expected something more gruesome.

It was a sky-high platform shoe made of clear acrylic, like if Cinderella had become a stripper. There was a butterfly charm hanging from a chain that dangled from the back, at the heel. Lucas swallowed hard, hand hovering over the shoe, willing himself to pick it up.

“You can do this. Focus on what doesn’t belong. Remember? You’re ready this time. This isn’t anything new to you. You’ve done it a thousand times before.”

August was right. This wasn’t anything new. Kohn had caught him off guard last time. He was ready this time. He picked up the shoe, sucking in a breath as the first image hit him. “A woman. She’s leaning into the window of an old truck. It smells like loose nicotine and stale beer. She has on a cheap pink wig, like for a Halloween costume. And a blue cotton dress. These heels. Now, she’s in the truck. Bench seat. An old radio is playing classic rock. He lights her cigarette. She’s laughing. She’s not afraid of him at all.” He hissed as electricity jolted through him. “Pain. Blackness. He must have knocked her out.”

The next images were like a strobe light, throbbing in and out of focus. He groaned as a wave of nausea washed over him. “I’m right here,” August promised.

Lucas leaned back against him, stepping out of his memories to look out over the peace of August’s lake.

After a moment, he plugged back in, only, this time, he was her. “Something metal is pressing against my back. It’s like a grate digging into my skin. My arms are over my head, my shoulders ache. It smells like sweat and blood and urine. And fear. Does fear have a smell? I can see him. He’s right there. He’s wearing a…bag on his head, with the eyes and mouth cut out.”

“He’s fucking with them? Using it to heighten their fear?” August asked.

“It should be ridiculous but it’s terrifying. When he takes a girl, she doesn’t come back. I know I won’t be coming back. He’s usually dressed casually, but now, he’s shirtless and wearing leather pants, like some kind of medieval executioner.”

August’s hand petted through Lucas’s hair. “Putting on a show, maybe?”

“I’m scared. And so fucking thirsty. I just want some water. I ask for it but he ignores me.” Lucas whimpered. “He’s not dragging it out for my benefit, he’s moving around, busy, like he’s performing some kind of ritual or routine.”

“What’s he doing?”

“He’s leaning over…adjusting something in the corner of the room maybe. He’s not even paying attention to me, just making himself busy. I can’t see what he’s doing. He has all these…tools on the wall. Homemade. Crude. Terrifying. He hasn’t used them on me yet, but I know I’m next. I know this is the end for me.” He couldn’t stop the sob that escaped. “My mom. She won’t know what happened to me. She’ll think I left her to take care of herself. She’ll be worried when I don’t come home.”

“Shh,” August soothed.

“He flips a switch and the whole room is bathed in red. I’m so scared, he’s kneeling in front of me…”

“What’s he doing?” August asks.

“He’s… Jesus. He’s taking off her shoe. He’s doing this for me. This is for me. He wanted me to see all of this.”

Lucas launched the shoe off the bed with a snarl, knocking the shoebox away and wrenching himself from August’s grasp to pace in front of August’s bed. “I’m so fucking sick of this shit. Why doesn’t he just come after me directly? Why is he doing this? You should just fucking kill him. No, fuck it. I should just kill him. I want to kill him, August. I want to watch him writhe in fucking agony. I want to watch him bleed. I want it to hurt. I need it to fucking hurt.”

August was there suddenly, holding his face. “We can do that. We will do that. I swear to you. I can show you a million ways to make him scream.”

That shouldn’t have been hot. There was nothing sexy about what he’d seen but he was jacked up on adrenaline and fury. And August was there. “Fuck me,” Lucas whispered. “I know I said I’d take care of you but I need you to make this stop. I feel like I’m going crazy.”

“Fucking you isn’t exactly a hardship,” August promised before crashing their lips together, pulling back to say, “I don’t have anything for you to subdue me…”

Lucas shook his head. “No. We’re done with that. You don’t need it. You’re not as scary as you think you are.”

August’s nostrils flared as he spun Lucas around, dragging him back against him before sinking his teeth into his throat. “Yes, I really fucking am.”

“Then show me,” Lucas taunted.

Lucas prayed August didn’t refuse, couldn’t handle anything less than whatever brutality August was willing to give him. He wanted to be punished. He wanted to drown out the visions still swimming in his head. He wanted August to fill him up, hold him down. No, he fucking needed it, needed him to fuck the anger and rage and nervous energy out of him before he lost his fucking mind.

August threaded one hand in Lucas’s hair while the other one plunged into his underwear, wrapping around his rapidly hardening cock. “Last chance.”

Lucas canted his hips, fucking into August’s fist. “I’m not changing my mind.”

August’s hand slipped free and Lucas mourned the loss. When his underwear pooled around his ankles, he stepped free before August’s hand settled between his shoulder blades, bending him over until he was forced to brace his hands on the comforter.

Fuck.

August draped himself over Lucas, biting at his ear. “Fuck. You look good like this. Bent over, vulnerable. What was it you said? Completely at my mercy?”

Lucas shivered but not from fear. August’s fingers were tugging at his balls, massaging them between his fingers, slipping farther back to tease roughly over Lucas’s hole.

Then he was gone, leaving him completely exposed. Lucas watched him in his periphery as he stalked to his side table and grabbed something before returning, dropping to his knees behind him.

Lucas sucked in a sharp breath as August’s teeth sank into his ass cheek. August gave a satisfied rumble, then soothed over the marks with his tongue. The pain/pleasure of it was dizzying, making his cock throb, pre-cum oozing obscenely onto August’s pristine black comforter.

Before Lucas could recover, August spread him open and laved over his hole with a laser focus that had him moaning long and low, pushing back on August’s nimble tongue. “Oh, fuck.”

August locked his hands around Lucas’s waist, dragging him closer, fucking his tongue against his entrance, licking and sucking at it like he couldn’t get enough.

“More,” Lucas begged, voice ragged. “Fuck me.”

Lucas wasn’t sure August heard him at first, but then his mouth disappeared and two slick fingers impaled him in one hard push. Lucas couldn’t stop the rough sound that fell from his lips. “Stop being fucking gentle. I’m ready. I want your dick, not your fingers.”

August was on his feet in one graceful move, his fingers never leaving Lucas’s body. His hand came around Lucas’s throat, pulling him upright, just as he slipped his fingers free. Before Lucas could say a word, August impaled him on his cock in one hard thrust, driving the air from his lungs and forcing him up on the balls of his feet. “What was that?” August growled against his throat.

Lucas couldn’t speak with August’s fingers gripping his throat and his hips pistoning in and out of him in a brutal rhythm that robbed him of thought. This was what Lucas needed. August wasn’t hurting him, he was…possessing him. He was inside him and all around him. He controlled the pleasure he felt and the air he breathed.

Suddenly, August’s hips faltered. “Fuck.”

The sudden change in August’s tone scared Lucas for some reason. “What’s wrong?”

“I forgot the condom.”

Something loosened in Lucas’s chest. “I’m negative.”

“Me too,” August swore. “But I’ll stop.”

Lucas paused for only as long as it took to process August’s words. “No. Don’t stop.” Then, more forcefully. “Keep going. Seriously, fuck me.”

The change in August was instantaneous. He pulled free of Lucas only long enough to push him onto the mattress and follow him down, forcing Lucas’s legs apart with his own so he could drive back into him as he pinned him to the bed, surging into him relentlessly.

“Fuck, I wish you could feel how fucking hot and tight you are inside. You’re so fucking perfect,” August muttered, voice strained with exertion.

August planted a hand between Lucas’s shoulder blades, pulling almost all the way out before driving back in, the head of his cock scraping along Lucas’s prostate with every pass. Lucas couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, couldn’t stop the helpless cries falling from his lips. Each thrust set his soul on fire, made his dick throb where it lay trapped between his belly and the blanket.

August’s full weight fell heavy over him once more. “It’s okay, you know. It’s always okay. If you want to know what I’m feeling, what I’m thinking. Do it. You can be in my head if you want.”

Lucas didn’t hesitate, just let go of his already tenuous control, a harsh groan falling from his lips as deep drugging waves sucked him under until he was just pure sensation. He could never explain the spine tingling, toe curling euphoria that glowed hot along every fucking nerve ending. He was being fucked and, somehow, fucking at the same time. A three way between two people.

He could feel the primal, near feral possessiveness August felt as he drove into him as much as he could feel the actual pleasure coursing through August as he chased his release. A release that would have him emptying himself in Lucas’s body. He could feel how much that thought excited August and therefore excited Lucas, too. The intimacy of the experience made his chest tight and his cock ache, overwhelming every part of him.

August was close, so close. Lucas could feel it like a coil winding tighter and tighter inside him, could hear it in August’s sharp breaths and feel it in the spikes of pleasure peaking through him, the way he held him tighter and buried his face against Lucas’s throat.

August’s hips fell off rhythm and then he was coming hard, spilling inside Lucas, both of them giving harsh shouts as August’s teeth sank into the tender flesh of Lucas’s shoulder.

August shivered on top of him for a moment before slipping free of his body and rolling him over, clearly intent on taking care of him, unaware that he already had. His brows shot up in surprise as he saw Lucas’s spent cock. “Did you…”

He’d come untouched, somehow taking August’s pleasure as his own. “Yeah, who knew that was even possible.”

August kissed him deep, licking into his mouth. “That’s so fucking hot.”

Lucas chuckled, suddenly exhausted in his bones. “I’m glad you think so.”

“You can’t fall asleep. You haven’t eaten,” August chastised.

Lucas’s lids were at half-mast, his words slurred, brain sluggish.“I’ll eat tomorrow…”

Whatever August said was lost on Lucas as he was already being dragged down into a deep sleep.