Page 17 of Lust

“I am goin' to bring all of you up to ze front in your pairs and zen send you off into ze Earthery. For those of you who 'aven't been in ze Earthery 'ere, it's in ze same place it was in Purgatory. You'll go over to ze elevators, 'ead down to ze entertainment level where someone will meet you. I'll give each of you a ‘int on what you'll be doin', but I won't go into too much detail. I don't want to spoil ze surprise for anyone. Anthura, Moloch, Seeing as zis is your first ever trial, why not be our first contestants? Come up 'ere to ze front, s'il vous plaît.

Moloch practically vaults over the sofa to get to Noémi, but Anthura takes her time, clearly aggravated by the whole situation. If I wasn’t so on edge with everything, I’d enjoy watching her discomfort. She deserves everything that comes to her after what she put me through.

“Zat’s it, Zat’s’ it, “Noémi continues as they come up to the front. “I zink you’ll enjoy this first trial. I can’t say too much, but the Earthery has been specially activated to transform to somewhere you might recognize. Anthura, Moloch. I ‘ope you ‘ave fun down there. Everybody, let’s give a beeg ‘and to our first contestants.”

Moloch makes to leave, but Anthura doesn’t budge. “That’s it?”

Noémi furrows her eyebrows. “Oui? What more is zere?”

“Oh, I haven't a clue,” Anthura huffs, her eyes rolling impatiently. “The rules?”

Noémi chuckles. “Oh, darling, zis is Lust… Zere are no rules. You’ll live out your beegest fantasy down zere, I promise. The Earthery weel mould itself to your ‘eart’s desire. At ze very end, only ten couples weel go through to ze second circle, so do your very best.”

Anthura looks close to snapping. I think her biggest fantasy right now is that Noémi spontaneously combusts. She never played by the rules herself, so I don’t know why she’s making such a big deal of this. She does have a fair point, though.

She crosses her arms and glares at Noémi. “So, how do you determine who advances to the second trial if there are no rules?”

“Well, you simply 'ave to make it through alive and ‘ave some fun, zat's all.” She laughs as though she’s joking, but she’s not the one who has to enter the Earthery and live out their fantasies with someone who murdered two people. Anthura looks pissed as she strides purposefully to the elevator and smacks her hand down on the call button.

“Let's peeck someone from ze ozer side zis time,” she says as my stomach churns wildly at what she’s just let slip. Her gaze settles on Dade. “Mr. Angelis? Your partner is Ms. Valentine, right?” His aura radiates a darker, colder intensity than I've ever sensed before. I don't need to feel his aura to understand that he'd prefer almost anything over this situation.

I swallow back the fear that’s gripping me. Will the Earthery contort to my fantasies or Dade’s? I’ve never been one for fantasies. Throughout my life, my greatest fantasy was to get Jenny and me out of poverty. I didn’t have time for anything else. The thought of what Dade’s greatest fantasy is terrifies me to the pit of my soul. Everything about him is dark and his fantasies no doubt follow the same theme, dark and perverse and utterly horrifying. I sit on my hands to stop them from giving me away by their trembling. I might be scared, but I won’t show it.

“Yes,” he replies, the syllable carrying an undertone that seems to express a desire to be anywhere but here with me. It's oddly ironic–he's managed to pack both loathing and despair into that single syllable.

The feeling’s mutual.

“Dade, Quinn, please come to ze front,” Noémi instructs.

With reluctance, I rise from the sofa and join Dade and Noémi at the front, to the apparent joy of the onlookers who give us a mix of cheers and screams. Peace and Carrots sport grins that suggest they're heading to a leisurely day at the park, rather than being consigned to a confined space with both Anthura and Dade. While I won't be able to see, hear, or feel Anthura down there, unfortunately, the same can't be said for Dade.

“The same advice I gave Anthura and Moloch applies to you.” Noémi continues, her voice filled with exuberant joy I usually reserve for finding a fifty in my wallet or being given a bottle of wine as a tip from my cleaning job. “You can make what you want out of your time down zere, and if you're lucky, you might actually enjoy eet.” She gives me a wink. “I know a few of ze people from zis circle we sent down to test eet out ‘ad a whale of a time. Enjoy, kids.”

Conflicting emotions churn within me at the thought of others having enjoyed whatever lies ahead. Everyone in this place seems to harbor deviant desires, and while Dade and I have only ventured so far, I'm not inclined to go any further–particularly when it risks a knife in my back.

I remember the way he wielded the long sword and lopped Michael and Lucia’s head off. My stomach churns as we walk toward the elevators. By the time we reach them, Anthura and Moloch have already departed. Entering the elevator alongside Dade, the tight space feels constricting. The tension between us is palpable, suffocating. The journey from one floor to another is brief, yet it's laden with an overwhelming mix of fear and loathing.

As the doors open, I exhale a sigh of relief. We were only in there for a few seconds, yet my entire body trembled throughout.

10

THE FIRST TRIAL

QUINN

Embarrassment courses through my body when the door to the Earthery closes behind us and the room takes shape. Like a piece of black putty, the Earthery contorts and molds itself, taking on color as it comes to its final form. My greatest fantasy is the most depressing thing I’ve ever seen, and I’m mortified. This is all my mind conjuring this, not Dade’s. I should be happy I’m not in a weird Victorian sex dungeon filled with swords and instruments of torture, but this has somehow managed to be so much worse. I didn’t think I had any fantasies, but the room is painfully familiar and is proving me wrong. It’s the bathroom from my old room in Purgatory. I know it’s the room I once shared with Dade because his blue toothbrush is sitting next to my yellow one. All my stuff is laid out next to the sink. My hairbrush with strands of red hair sits next to an open book that I'd accidentally allowed to become damp, leaving its edges moistened and crinkled.

The memories of the first time we almost had sex crash over me like waves of torture. Of all the things my brain could conjure up, this had to be the one thing the Earthery fixated on. It’s quite frankly the most cringe-worthy thing that’s ever happened to me, and knowing that I’m being graded on this intensifies my inner turmoil, leaving me with an overwhelming sense of mortification.

“You thought of our bathroom?” Dade says with a slight smirk.

“I like to keep my teeth clean,” I say, picking up my toothbrush and holding it up to him. I don’t see any cameras in the room, but just in case, I keep my face impassive. Dade might understand the significance of this room, but if there is an audience, they won’t and I want to keep it that way. He takes a step toward me and I think he’s going to touch me.

I recoil, practically backing into a wall. What exactly does Noémi want us to do? It seems obvious, but she didn’t actually state we had to do anything beyond survive and have fun. Nothing about this is fun, and my survival rests solely on Dade’s shoulders. I glance briefly around, but apart from the toothbrushes, hairbrush, and book, there’s nothing he can use as a weapon. Conversely, there’s nothing I can use to defend myself either

“Don’t worry, Quinn. I have no intention of touching you.”

My stomach churns as he takes a seat on the edge of the bath. The room is uncomfortably small. I take a look round, but it’s all me. I know it was my brain that conjured this up, even if I won’t admit it aloud. So where is Dade in all this? Where’s his big fantasy? There’s no way he thought of the same thing as I did. Before I came along, Dade had lived for hundreds of years. He’s been married, for fuck’s sake. His entire sexual fantasies wouldn’t boil down to one time in a shower with me. For me, it’s different. I had my first orgasm, not given to me by myself, in this room. My face flushes as I recall the way he ripped off my bikini and how it felt when he clamped his teeth down on my nipple. I have to turn away from him to pull myself together. This is beyond embarrassing.

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