Chapter 16 – Vanish Into You #2
He shakes his head. “No. It’s just… no one’s ever touched me like this, or asked me that, either. I feel… desired, but not just sexually. I feel like I matter.”
My throat catches. “You matter,” I say. “You absolutely matter.”
I undress him slowly, piece by piece. No rush.
No tearing. Just quiet reverence for every inch of his reclaimed skin.
He watches me with eyes that sparkle, not with his Grouch magic, but with emotion.
Each layer I shed isn’t just clothing. It is fear.
Shame. The weight of years spent believing he is trash.
And when he is finally bare beneath me, trembling in the moonlight, he looks… free.
I let him undress me too, fumbling at first, but curious.
Gentle.
Like I am something precious, not just convenient.
“Can I touch you?” He asks.
I nod. “Yes.”
His hand slides across my chest. Down my stomach. Not with lust, but with awe. He whispers little things as he explores me with his mouth and tongue—compliments, surprises, apologies for not suggesting this sooner.
“You smell like spring.”
“It’s the lemon disinfectant-”
“No, I can smell that, but there is something else underneath it all. Your scent. Inviting. Warm like a spring afternoon.”
I kiss his wrist. “And I can feel your kindness. Bravery too, and hope.”
His eyes well up.
We move together carefully, slowly, our bodies finding rhythm not from instinct but from listening. A fingertip. A hip roll. A breath. There are no demands. Only invitations. No performance. Only presence.
He keeps checking in, asking if this feels OK, if I need more, or less, or to stop. I do the same. And every ‘yes’ is sacred. It is the opposite of what he’d told me about Mark. About all of them.
This isn’t transactional. Nor survival.
This is connection. Love.
Behind a dumpster, we finally make love for the first time; Eddy relinquishing his fears.
I grip his legs up around my waist and guide my cock into him, slick with my spit.
The moon watches over us like a soft voyeur, and I see his eyes roll backwards as he takes me.
It is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
His breath in my ear with every thrust is just a signal of our connection growing deeper and deeper. I don’t want it to end, but my arousal had got the better of me.
Eddy reaches down and strokes himself as I thrust into him harder and faster, but in that gentle way out of love, not lust.
We finish together, breathless, hands clasped. My dick slips free, slick and heavy, saturated with warmth. The warmth of him. He leans into my neck and kisses me. I feel the last remnants of the curse dissolve like mist as the sun rises.
I glance at the bin. There’s no more arousal at the sight of trash, no more bin-slicked shame.
Just us. Oscar and Eddy.
Two broken things who have finally stopped feeling disposable.
“It’s been a long time since I've felt this.” I speak.
“Don’t you mean Bin a long time?” Eddy laughs, and I do too for the very first time in a very long time.
We say little after that. We don’t need to.
Eddy lies beside me, his head nestled against my chest, our legs a messy tangle of clothes and warmth. His breath is steady. Slower than before. Lighter.
Like it’s trying to unlearn the weight of centuries of shame he had held onto.
I card my fingers through his curls, softer and a darker brunette now that they aren’t made of lint and that ghostly green bin-sheen, and press my lips to the top of his head.
“Thank you,” I breathe.
He hums. “Of course, Oscar.” After a long moment, he speaks again. “You set me free.”
I feel it too. Not just the breaking of curses.
But something deeper within me. A released soul.
A lifted burden. A reclaimed life. I feel like myself again.
My body moves with ease, and it doesn’t feel like I am dragging around this meat sack that had only responded to the scent of decay.
I can see the world around me and its beauty once more.
And the one beautiful thing I want to keep is Eddy, in my arms, forever.
His hand finds mine. He places his hand on my chest, where my heart thuds for him.
And then… he sighs.
A content, final little sound.
“I think I was always waiting for someone like you,” he says, voice almost too soft to catch.
I want to reply. To tell him, me too. But my eyes are growing heavy. The night, the monstrous form, the connection, it’s all been too much.
I drift.
Holding him closer.
I don’t want this moment to end.
“I love you.” I slur and kiss his forehead.
And I fall asleep with him in my arms. His head rested on my shoulder like it always belonged.
When I next open my eyes, the sun has fully risen and is shining through wisps of clouds. The harsh daylight exposes the alley, making the back alley from last night appear dull. Ordinary.
My memory returns to last night. I finally broke the curse and made love with Eddy. A grin forms on my face as I stretch my arms over my head, eyes still shut, and then I’m suddenly brought back to reality as I feel the chill in the air rush over my body.
I shiver. I blink and look down.
I am naked. I shuffle backwards and realise Eddy isn’t next to me. I look around, and he is nowhere to be found behind the bin. I shuffle on my knees to get a better view, and there he is, floating above the ground near the giant bin.
He’s no longer solid. Not fully. His clothes had returned to his body.
His form shimmers, resembling a distorted reflection on water. Flecks of him peel away, floating off before fading completely from sight.
“Eddy?” I stand up too quickly trying to grab at him, but my hands pass through. “No, no! What is going on!”
He smiles. Just once.
Why is he smiling? The curse had broken; he shouldn’t still be a Bin-Spirit right now! My heart’s shattering into a million pieces, and he is smiling!
“Oscar,” he leans down and places a hand near my cheek. My eyes flood with tears. “Thank you,” his voice is barely a breath. “For seeing me.”
He continues to fade away. I reach out and try again to grab, but it’s like holding onto sand in a hurricane. He drifts out of view and then…
He’s gone.
The alley is empty except for a naked me on my knees reaching up to nothing.
I sit there for a second, just stunned. Tears fall from my cheeks onto my naked thighs. The weight of last night and my life up to this point still imprints on my heart like a phantom hug.
“Eddy,” I say, longing to hear his voice again.
But a familiar beep-beep interrupts my grieving.
Fuck!
It’s the Sunday garbage collection. The truck’s pulling into the back-alley carpark. He hasn’t noticed me yet. But I am stark naked. And I will have the police called on me for sure if I don’t hurry and dress.
“Shit!” I spit, hopping my legs into my overall pants.
I don’t bother doing the top of the janitor overalls up.
I nearly twist an ankle as I pull on my singlet and duck behind the bin, scuttling towards the side path to the front.
I probably look like a hungover rat in heat, but I don’t care.
By the time I peeked around the corner, the truck had done its job and left for the next alleyway.
It's just me, the empty alley, and the memory of Eddy, who had been the best thing to happen to me.