Page 37 of Lust

I claw through some kind of sac, the yellow fluid spilling out around me.

In a moment, I’m transported elsewhere. I’m not on top of the man or fixated on the strange memories. I’m in a crowd of people, and there’s a deep pain I can’t identify for a moment, but then I realize what it is—I’m starving again.

I move so fast, I can barely process my surroundings as shrill cries fill the air around me. There’s some kind of statue—ananimal, maybe a rat, no, a squirrel in a cap—before those clawed hands move in front of me, and then all I see is blood spraying through the air.

So much fucking blood!

“Cody!” I cry out in a panic, closing my eyes, trying to will myself out of this nightmarish place. My eyes pop open, and I try to scream, but it catches in my throat.

Cody lies on top of me, trembling, as I feel a sensation burst…release.

Sweet fucking release.

Cody moans as his hips thrust against me for a few moments until Seth grabs him and pulls him off me. As he removes Cody, I feel arms hook around me. Brad’s got me, holding me as I search around, struggling to reorient myself to being back in the church, away from those haunting images.

Brad pulls down my boxers and wipes me with a towelette. He’s asking questions, and once I can make out what he’s saying, he’s asking Seth, “How’s Codes?”

“How the fuck do you think?” Seth snaps. “I told you this was a crap idea.”

“It’s okay,” Cody says. “Seth, I’m fine. It’s not like the other times.”

As I struggle to get oxygen back in my lungs, I’m reminded of the day Cody attacked me, albeit unintentionally, with those thoughts about my dad’s death while I was in the shower.

I finally manage to force some air into my lungs. “That’s…the…vision?” I ask, heaving as soon as I get the words out.

“What did you see?” Cody asks.

“What do you mean, what did he see?” Seth asks.

“It wasn’t like when I did it with you guys. It was like I got kicked out of it.”

It takes me a few moments to regulate my breathing. Brad hands me a pair of briefs he must’ve brought for me, and I slidethem on, noticing the bulge in the crotch where he’s stretched the fabric. He grabs my clothes, and as Cody and I get dressed, I collect my thoughts enough to walk them through the different images, sharing what I witnessed. By the time I’m done, they’re all looking at me like I’m out of my fucking mind.

Cody shakes his head. “That’s not the vision I had. Not the way you described it, at least. I saw several bodies. One impaled. One charred from fire. Others covered in blood.”

“How the fuck did you conclude that you had to get rid of me so that this wouldn’t happen?”

“Before the deaths, I saw a silhouette of a guy. His face was blurry, and it was like flashes between him and this creature that looked like a fetus before it was birthed. Its genesis. I could sense a connection between the figure and the monster, so I asked the Guides—”

“The what?” I ask.

“The Guides are entities from another world—or dimension,” Cody explains. “There’s a sort of tear between our world and theirs. We call it the Rift. When I reach a certain mental state, I can connect with these Guides. It’s very difficult to manage, but I can channel information from them. In one session, I received the message:He must go. It’s time for him to go. Go now.So I had another session, and they gave me your name.”

Guides? Other dimensions? Channeled messages?

If I hadn’t seen their powers for myself, I’d be wondering what kind of drugs they’re on.

“Well,” I say, “for guys who were trying to keep me alive, it sure didn’t seem like it.”

Brad interjects, “It was only when we realized you had powers that we started thinking the Guides might have meant something else. Before that, we believed we just needed to get you away from St. Lawrence, hoping we could deal with it before it had a chance to get to you.”

“But since discovering you had powers,” Cody adds, “we thought the Guides might have been trying to tell us something else. That maybe you were somehow responsible for why this thing gets birthed into our world.”

“And I’m just supposed to believe these imaginary friends in your head from another world?”

“The Guides worked with the original Sinners. Helped them fight creatures like this, so we know their information is reliable.”

Before coming to St. Lawrence, I would have called BS on all this. But here I am, seriously considering the shit Cody’s saying, which is wild as fuck. “So…” I drag out, “this thing you saw that’s about to be ‘birthed’ and go on a killing spree…what is it even?”

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