Page 38 of Sinful Crimes for the Artistically Inclined
“That’s a lovely compliment. Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“I probably won’t.”
The two fell silent as the next drinks were placed on their table. The sun by now had only just set, and the lights of the city below turned on one after the other, yellow, orange, blue. Percy lit a cigarette, tilting his head just so to breathe a plumeof smoke out into the still night air. Joe loved to watch Percy smoke. He loved to watch Percy do anything. “Percy?”
“Yes?”
“Tell me honestly. Do I need to worry about you?”
He sent back a sad smile. “No. I won’t ever do anything like that again. I’m not… I’m not a suicide risk, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Then, as he turned his head back to the sunset, Joe said gently, “Was it your brother?”
It was something they’d never talked about, so he was a little surprised when Percy answered candidly, “Yes. Yes, it was Eve.”
Joe took a sip of the new drink while he decided his next move, and it might have been a dangerous one, but he said, “I know it’s not the same, but I also feel terrible about trying to kill Eve and Anna.”
Two patient taps of the cigarette. “It probably feels a little different when you actually succeed.” Joe nodded and decided to shut up, but Percy continued, “And when it’s your brother, who you would die for in a heartbeat. And…” The muscles in his jaw tensed as he caught himself.
“And when it’s Anna,” Joe finished for him.
Percy saw the light in Joe’s eyes dim a little as he said her name. Joe had some idea of what Anna was to Percy. Some. No one really knew. No one except Anna and Percy.
Percy decided to let the conversation die, but it was Joe who pushed this time. “Eve’s alive. We brought him back.”
“No, everyone else brought him back. Especially Anna. And I almost killed her before she could do it.” His cheek twitched as he reeled internally at the memory, and he looked over at Joe, then away again. “Do you know, I can still feel my hand around her neck? It would have taken the slightest movement, the slightest flick of my wrist and she would be dead and gone, and Eve would be dead and gone,and…” He dropped the cigarette butt in the ashtray and lit another. “Do you remember when the demon was inside you?”
Joe’s stomach reeled, so he applied some more alcohol. “All the time. I still dream about it.”
“Me too.” Percy downed what was left of his second drink and motioned for two more. “Could you hear its thoughts?”
“Yes.” Though he shuddered at the memory of his own possession, Joe forced himself to answer truthfully. “I remember his thoughts. And I wish I’d never had to see those images, or had to think about what it would have done to them. I wish I never knew what kind of things demons think.”
“Had Anna made one wrong move that night—had she not been so smart and so brutal, he would have killed her in an instant, and I can see…” Percy’s lips trembled and he drew hard on his cigarette with a shaking hand to get himself under control. “I can see in my mind’s eye, over and over, everything he would have done to her. Everything he was going to make me do.”
Joe reached for his hand. Perhaps he shouldn’t have done, out there in front of everyone, but he didn’t care. “Then I do know. Because I remember it. And I do know it’s not the same, but I love them too. Even if it’s a little different.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I’m not trying to belittle what you’ve been through. We’ve both been possessed by the same demon and, you know, how many couples can say that?”
Joe chuckled. “Not many, I think.” He let go of Percy’s hand as the drinks were set down with a disapproving look.
“It would have been a handsome tip, too,” Percy called after the waiter. Then to Joe, “How good are the drinks, though?”
“Very good.” And they tipped their glasses together and drank. Then Joe said, “Do you want to go back and see them?”
The reply was immediate. “I’m going to stay as far awayfrom Eve and Anna and Endymion College as I can. For as long as I can.”
“Percy, they adore you. You can’t do that.”
“I almost got them both killed. And I think… You know, I hate pity parties, but I honestly believe they’ll be better off without me in their lives. I tend to fuck everything up for everyone, a bit like today, and I don’t think…” His lovely eyes reflected the dimming light that he never looked away from as he said, “Joe, I don’t think you should be here either.”
It had been so wonderful. Joe had thought it had been so wonderful, yet one week and three cocktails in, Percy was going to end it.
Joe wasn’t sure if it hit him especially hard because it was about to be his first ever break up, or whether it was simply that it was the precise moment he realised his feelings for Percy went well beyond lust and well beyond fondness.
He hid his already shaking hands under the table. His lips parted, then he forced them closed, then they parted again with a deep breath. “Are you asking me to leave?”
