Spider

"Don't play dead, get up!"

With a crisp sound, Jason opened his eyes and felt a scorching pain on his cheek. He couldn't help reaching out and touching the bandage wrapped around his neck with his fingertips... Awesome, I'm still alive! Thank God!

"I think I should go to church once a week from now on..." he murmured.

"Don't worry, your funeral will be held there, if you don't know what to do," the man sitting next to him said, playing with the large lethal weapon in his hand.

"Keep that away from me, Mr. Flying Dagger!" Jason yelled, "it makes me nervous, and my brain goes blank!"

The man laughed, the lines on his face softened a lot, which made him look a little more handsome than he did before. "Of course, that's because you lost a lot of blood, but it's okay now. I paid for your consultation fee, and you get to keep your food for next week. I've always been very gentle with good boys. You can call me Vincent," he said in a sweet tone that induced a confession, putting the dagger back on the table.

"Well, Vincent, what do you want to know? I'll tell you absolutely everything, including the color of my underwear."

Vincent's face sank. "Put away your nauseating sense of humor! I'm not that faggot Derek!"

"Faggot? That word is really offensive! You shouldn't discriminate against this. You see, God classified human beings as men and women, not homosexuals and heterosexuals, and He didn't stipulate that they must be paired positively and negatively." Oh, look at his face now, it's like he stepped on dog shit! He's definitely a sexual purist full of mysophobia hostility towards homosexuality, Jason thought with a restrained laugh.

"If you want to keep discussing this issue..." Vincent reached for the hilt of the knife on the table.

"Don't! Let's get to the point now — the ring, yes? The ring!"

"Where is it?"

Jason moved to sit up and put a big spongy pillow behind his head. "You'll have to give me time to think back, Mr. Heterosexual. Do you know how hard I tried to forget that experience, about Derek's..." he sighed and gazed down at the pure white sheets, his green pupils were soft as misty green-jade water.

"That ring Derek never took off, even in bed. 'Is that your wedding ring? You treasure it like you'd treasure your wife,' I asked him.

He laughed. 'Are you jealous? It's indeed a wedding ring, but the vow is not to a woman, but to a family named Berardi. It started with my great-grandfather's generation, and was passed down to me from my grandfather, father, and elder brother. An ancestral treasure, isn't it? But it doesn't bring good luck, but rather a succession of deaths, just like the thorns called duty that grow and bind every member of the family along the bloodline.'

'It sounds like a cursed ring from certain fantasy novel.'

'It's similar — wear it and you are no longer yourself, you're the whole family. Sitting on the chair at the top of the magnificence, as long as you stretch out your hand, someone will kneel down in front of you and kiss your ring in the most loyal gesture. There's the light of glory before you... But accordingly, the stronger the light, the deeper the shadow. You'll carry the dark shadow of all the dismal for generations: blood, revenge, countless nights of dark havoc, the pain of losing loved ones and the cry of despair in your heart. You have to take them all into your body and bear them on your own. While you gain a few, more you lose, and there's no way around it. We offer up something that people call purity as a sacrifice to obtain formidable power, and that's the rule of the world we live in.' Derek, who said these words, smiled with a heartbreaking tenderness and sadness, and I couldn't help but want to hold him tightly and settle into the darkness with him... I wanted to say to him that even if I couldn't help him bear anything, I could at least make him feel less lonely..."

Jason looked up into the air in bafflement, as if there was someone there waving at him. He gave the invisible man a dazzling smile, and the sorrowful nuance of the it made Vincent feel a slight stabbing pain in his heart. Then he realized that, ever since the first word was spoken, his eyes hadn't departed from his persona.

"When Derek died, I remembered what he had said: 'My father and brother were assassinated. When they died, their bodies were packed with all kinds of bullets and their red blood stained the large floor. If I could choose the manner of death, I'd want to die like a normal person.' His wish came true. I guess his soul wasn't stained with blood when he left, that'd make him happy... He doesn't need to carry heavy chains anymore, so I took off the circle of thorns—"

"You wanna wear it?" He gazed attentively at Vincent, his eyes sparkling with a breath-taking beauty that made the latter almost think they were two of the world's cleanest emeralds.

"Why not?" Vincent said, "I don't care about whatever I have to sacrifice in order to get it, including myself."

"But I can't give it to you so easily. You'll silence someone when you get it," Jason said with certainty.

"Yes, that was my original plan, but now I think we can make a deal. I know you’re hard up. You've worked in clubs, fast food restaurants and coffee shops. Now you're in an express company. It took a lot of time to find you — maybe I can give you a sum of money as compensation for giving away your lover's relic."

"I hope this sum of money is enough for me to pay two months' rent, and the salary deducted for missing work hours today."

Vincent laughed. "Absolutely enough. You don't hide your nature at all, it's quite lovely. I used to think you were a prostitute, at best a handsome one."

"And now?"

"Now? Oh, you grew a tad of indulgence on me. Maybe homosexuality is not as dirty as I thought."

"So," Jason lowered his voice, as close as a lover's whisper, and his soft hair snuggled close to the other’s face and neck. The peculiar touch was like a net approaching him, which was naturally an irresistible and enticing charm... "wanna sleep with me?"

"Good gracious! His expression at that time... Even if you remember it a million times, it's still so funny!" Jason laughed heartily and thumped the sofa once again. "He blushed and shouted like he was swearing allegiance under the Nazi party: 'I'm heterosexual'! Hahahahaha... It was so adorable!" He rolled off the sofa onto the carpet, laughing endlessly. "Oh, 'heterosexual'! He defends it like medieval maidens defended their chastity! He's really an extraordinary masterpiece, isn't he, Adri?

"...Your neck healed so quickly?" Adrian asked.

"Oh no, it still hurts like it's been sliced by a fucking maniac chainsaw demon, but that doesn't affect my current good mood."

"You sure he's not a chainsaw demon? He almost cut your carotid artery!" Adrian threw the marker in his hand onto the desktop in anger. "And you actually invited him to bed! What do you think you're playing, The Silence of the Lambs?"

"No, I believe it's The Shawshank Redemption. When I talked about Derek's smile, he was almost moved to tears. I guess he's never loved his pitiful cousin more dearly than he does now. There's nothing more gratifying than revealing their opponent's weakness to those who feel superior."

"If Derek were alive, he might've stabbed him at least twice. But it's still hard for me to imagine a godfather saying something like that."

"Sure. Derek never said that, he was never a sentimental man." Jason shrugged indifferently. "When I expressed curiosity about his ring, he readily took it off, put it on my hand, and said, 'Look, baby, it's too wide for you to wear — looks like I'm bigger than you.' The word 'bigger' spoken in an extremely erotic way!"

Adrian looked at him seriously for a moment. "Jason, you can't keep doing this. It's too dangerous."

Jason smiled. "Like climbing on a rock wall, and not wearing a harness, isn’t it? That's exciting enough, and I've never fallen off before. You don’t know, when Derek's men put a gun against my head, I did regret a little pouring red wine on my collar, but the thought disappeared in less than a few seconds, quicker than throwing ice cubes into scalding water. I just love this kind of brushing-past-danger feeling — fight it with my charm, and I win! Every time!"

"At least this time you got half a circle cut in your neck." Adrian said gravely. "Maybe next time it'll be a full one."

"It won't." Jason rested his hands on the back of his head and laid a pair of straight long legs leisurely on the back of the sofa. The hem of his shirt slid down to reveal his sturdy abdominal muscles as the line of his waist contracted powerfully into a perfect shape. "The guy is crazy about me, although he doesn't know it himself yet — but it doesn't matter, he can spend the rest of his life slowly exploring his hidden gay tendencies."

As it turned out, Vincent didn't take as long as Jason said he would, and he showed up before him more than half a month later.

"How's your wound?" he asked.

"Oh, it's almost okay. I told my boss it was a work injury, so she let me take a day off. She's a kind exploiter, isn't she?"

Vincent smiled. He looked a little unnatural. "I'm going back to Italy tomorrow, so I wanted to come see you tonight to confirm something."

"Confirm what?"

"I want to know just how unbearable it's to sleep with a man."

Jason smiled pleasantly. "Don't know about that. But I can tell you, it's a whole different feeling than with a woman."

Thus, the confirmation-seeker and the confirmer rolled into bed in a luxurious hotel suite.

When Jason took off his clothes without affectation, Vincent couldn't help but to exclaim in admiration, "It's... so beautiful! Like ancient Greek statues, but those don't have such flexibility and temperature." He stroked every inch of ivory-colored tight texture on his body, feeling how the muscles that wrapped the well-proportioned skeleton contracted and stretched in a youthful and healthy way, vigorously enticed by vitality and beauty. Maybe a man's body is not as unacceptable as he thought, at least the one before him.

He began kissing Jason, licking his lips delicately as if he were dating a girl, who obediently opened his mouth to let his tongue in, then began a skilled counterattack. Like two beasts searingly hungry with lust and thirst, the two entangled, rubbing each other's bodies with their own skin firmly, tumbling on the bed and twisting into all kinds of positions.

Vincent stopped at the critical moment. He wasn't quite sure if he wanted to do it — it wasn't because he was reluctant, as he was already so hard, he just doubted that place could really hold a man's dick. Its entrance was so tightly closed that it was a little difficult to fit even two fingers inside, and it contracted powerfully like a little sucking mouth...

"If you don't want to fuck me..." Jason said hoarsely, turning over and pinning him down. Vincent could clearly see his moisten blond hair sticking to his cheeks and neck, as pure as fine gold threads. His pupils had settled into a deep dark green from the urging of desire, but they seemed to let out a bright gleam of light amid gloom, as if something was flaming exuberantly inside, that belonged to the beast of the night's wanton unbridledness. "I actually prefer to be on top — want me to fuck you?"

The provoked man squeezed a curse out of his throat, and violently pulled him off his body. He ruthlessly stabbed his way from behind and started pumping hard.

"Are you a barbarian? Your dagger is about to stab me in half!" Jason grumbled, panting.

"Really sorry about that, maybe I should've put a bowler hat on it, knocked on the door gentlemanly and asked if I could come in — is that what men do between them? Hmm?" The man who was going in and out of his body said insincerely, then let out a contented gasp, "Don't worry, you're very adaptable there. It's clamping me tightly... God, this feels great. I should've tried it sooner..."

He enjoyed the surging tide of lust as a victor and the intense thrill of his own physical faculties blended with the complete conquest of another sturdy body of the same sex. He sprinted and swayed frantically, exclaiming in excitement, "It's fucking great!"

Jason propped his arms up on the mattress and bowed his head down to look at his flaccidly hanging dick between his thighs — it was completely neglected, or another man was subconsciously unwilling to touch it. But it was no big deal, people always think of ways to satisfy themselves, don't they? He raised a sneering smile at the corner of his mouth, freeing one hand to fondle it and watch it gradually grow erect.

He masturbated and finally reached an orgasm, as he let the man on top of him enjoy himself to the full.

They fooled around in bed all night.

When Jason woke up the next morning, Vincent was already dressed to the nines. He gave an apologetic smile to the drowsy-eyed handsome guy in bed. "My flight's at nine o'clock. I'm afraid you'll have to eat breakfast alone."

"Bon voyage." Jason yawned, rolled over and hugged a big pillow, going back to sleep.

His nonchalant accent pulled Vincent's steps back from the doorway. The latter strode over to the bedside and chided a bit resentfully, "How can you be so indifferent?"

Jason was about to say something when his phone suddenly rang. "Sorry, I’ve to answer the call," he lazily pressed the answer button, "Hello, Adri... Yeah, I'm still sleeping... Ow, sorry, looks like I kicked over a pot on my way out last night. I didn't mean to, the yard was too dark... Oh no, no, I don't hate them at all, although they always overgrow, twining around each other like a witch's hair and completely blocking my window..."

Vincent looked at the guy who was muttering on the phone while looking like he was about to fall asleep again, and spoke helplessly, "Listen, I have to go back to deal with some affairs. The replacement of the family head is no easy thing... I'll come back to pick you up. Wait obediently and remember not to look for another lover!"

Jason waved at him casually — perhaps he didn't even hear clearly. But it doesn't matter, he doesn't need to discuss anything with him, nor ask for his opinion.

Until Vincent left the guest room, Jason was still talking on his phone.

Fifteen minutes later, he heard the sound of police sirens coming from afar. Jason bounced out of bed and ran over barefoot. Looking down from the window on the fourteenth floor, he saw several lighted police cars and ambulances parked at the door of the hotel, and a bunch of people running around outcrying.

What happened? Did someone jump off the building? Jason stretched uninterestedly. Now, even if went back to bed, he wouldn't be able to sleep. He walked to the bathroom, ready to take a routine morning bath, when the doorbell rang.

Jason opened the door and saw several officers with solemn expressions.

"Excuse me, are you a friend of Mr. Vincent Casper?"

Jason looked at them, baffled, and asked, "What is it?"

"Uhm, I'm sorry to have to inform you of a very unfortunate incident — the hotel elevator just had an unexpected malfunction, and fell down from the 13th floor..."

Jason's eyes shifted from the policemen in front of him to the cap badge on top of his head. The eagle on it was standing on a windmill with its neck twisted, looking around proudly, with a dead snake in its beak.