3. 3
“Maybe we should all get back to the party upstairs, huh?” said Harlow, the most calm and collected one in the basement. “I’m sure DJ Dante here has plenty of requests to take. And Mr. Donovan, as the face of the fraternity, I think it’d be best if you?—”
“Yes, sir,” Riley interjected, flipping the table back up on its legs. I looked back in time to see Riley turn to Bridger. “Y-you wanna keep me company?”
Bridger’s eyes locked with mine, but I quickly nodded my head to him as I got to my feet. “Go, boys. I’ll be right up.”
“Remind me to send you and whoever was drinking the wine my dry cleaning bill,” Mateo sighed, looking down at his stained red shirt before turning and heading toward the staircase. I noticed that not only did he now have a red stain on his shirt, but so did Stacio, Harlow, and Riley.
“Good sesh. Let’s do it again soon,” Dante began as he patted me on the back. “Your aura is perfect for this kind of stuff.”
Bridger, Riley, and Dante followed Mateo upstairs.
“Uh, we’ll be right up, if that’s okay, Harlow,” said Stacio.
Surprisingly, Harlow nodded before turning to follow the others. “But I think you boys better cool it on the Ouija stuff, okay?”
“Trust me, I’m putting this thing away now,” I said with a long sigh as I cradled the wooden box. “ I can’t find the planchette for it, anyway.”
When Harlow was finally gone, I got up enough courage to look Stacio in the eyes. His breathing was fast, a somber look on his face. “I’m s-sorry Crispin. I didn’t mean to fuck that up. I just—I don’t know. I felt bad for pushing this on you after what you told me. Then when I felt like you were in danger, I just—I don’t know. Snapped.”
It was heartening to hear Stacio’s concern for me. I couldn’t stay mad at him if I wanted. “I appreciate your concern. It’s cute — sexy, even,” I said, placing the box on the table as I stepped up to him.
“You’re cute and sexy,” he replied. “I know I wasn’t much for big words earlier, but I—well, I have feelings for you. Surprisingly strong ones. Not sure I’ve felt like this in a long time about anybody. Feels weird to finally say all this, but I guess I’ve got a big gay crush on you, Crispin Kramer.”
Whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought to myself. I imagined that I looked like an emoji with stars in its eyes while its tongue was hanging out, but I was both awed and swooned by Stacio’s words. “Wow, you’re sweet, Anastacio. I, um, didn’t expect you to say all that, but clearly I—well, I like you, too. A lot. But I can’t help thinking… Are you possessed by a demon?”
We shared a chuckle together before I felt his hand under my chin. “Demon or not isn’t the question. I’m trying to figure out how I can make everything up to you.”
Is he now? I wondered. “I know a couple of ways you can make it up to me, but really—no harm, no foul. I mean, you only broke every rule in the Ouija handbook,” I added in my typical sarcastic manner.
I smiled as I felt his hand run up my arm and squeeze my shoulder. His warmth then disappeared until I felt his fingers again on my face, gently caressing the skin just below my cheekbone. He pulled me forward, and although hesitant at first, I allowed myself to fall against his stomach and chest. I savored the closeness and craved his protection and embrace as I ruminated about his hard, muscular body against me. His breath tickled my ear as he leaned forward. Then I felt his lips nibbling on the same spot. Then his teeth.
As a surge of sexual excitement coursed through me, he finally replied. His voice was deep, sultry—seductive, even. I was almost hoping he was going to say something romantic—or better yet, something dirty. Something about the intensity of what had just happened in the basement was getting me excited. “Not every rule.”
“Huh?” I asked, a shy giggle escaping from my lips. “What do you mean?”
I almost didn’t mind it when he didn’t respond. I felt his lips continue to explore my body. Soft kisses up the side of my neck as the hand on my face moved back to my shoulder and made its way down my back, slowly and deliberately. I braced my hands against his chest, unsure if I should let them go lower.
I felt his lips move down the other side of my neck now, his head forcing my chin up as he explored the soft, sensitive skin around my Adam’s apple. An involuntary moan escaped my lips as he used the suction of his mouth to gently drag his teeth against my skin. “Oh, my god,” I gasped. I felt his hand on the back of my belt now. Is he waiting on me? I wondered. “Y-you’re welcome to explore,” I found myself saying.
“And you’re required to,” he said in response, releasing my belt and using the same hand to push both of mine further down his torso. His words had me absolutely throbbing . As we locked eyes, I could tell he knew how much that turned me on.
“Guess you’ve done your research on service bottoms,” I whispered, a callback to him teasing me just the night before.
“Shut up and kiss me,” he responded, taking my right hand and shoving it into his pants. For the first time, I was able to accurately surmise the size of his hard-on as it throbbed in my palm. Easily eight inches , I decided. Holy fuck, this is hot.
I could hardly formulate another thought when he demanded my lips again. Obliging, I savored the warmth pulsating against my hand while his tongue fought its way to find mine. His fingers ran through my hair and held my head close. It’s hard to explain, but I could almost feel how ravenous he was; could feel the passion, desire, and lust seeping out of his every being. Maybe this was my own little sixth sense—the one my grandma always proclaimed I shared with her—but I was far too distracted by my hunky crush manhandling me to decide.
I soon felt the table against my legs, surprised to discover that the force of Stacio’s kissing had pushed me back against it. Uneasy on my feet, I toppled back, but he caught me with his free hand.“Now,” he spoke in a deep, smoldering tone, “what am I going to do with you first?”
Such forwardness was enough to make me blush. I couldn’t help but to think about the party going on upstairs. The fact that Harlow might know we were still down here. Turning my head enough to see the light at the top of the staircase, I realized that the basement door was still open. “Stacio… Really, this is so fucking hot. I don’t want it to stop. But maybe we should—I don’t know—take this back to our room like you said. You know, what with the party going on and everything.”
I studied his handsome face for a response, but he remained stoic. “Why? Afraid someone’s gonna see us?”
“Well,” I began again, shifting my weight from foot to foot as I felt his body press against mine; felt his manhood throbbing as I wrapped my fingers around it. “The door’s open. Plus, you know, no one really knows that you’re?—”
“What?” Stacio interrupted. “Into you?”
Hesitant at first, I nodded. “Yeah. Plus, things like this—you know, rumors and gossip about sexuality—spread like wildfire on a campus like this. Just speaking from personal experience, I-I would want to have more control over the whole narrative if I was in your shoes. I mean, you’re kind of a high-profile sports guy, right? A-and there’s your family, too. Once the cat is out of the bag with a thing like this, it’s not easy to put it back.”
“Huh,” he replied before nodding. “Humans. So concerned about social hierarchy that they’re willing to set aside their very heart’s desires.”
The hair-raising sensation I experienced when the spirit board started to spell out my name returned. Humans as in third-person humans? As in, what? Not you?
“What?” Stacio asked, sensing my mood change. “It’s still me, Crispin. I’m still here. It’s just that— well, I’m not alone.”
“N-not alone?” I asked, pulling my hand from his pants. The loud screeching of the table legs sliding against the concrete floor gave away my nerves as I stepped back. That’s when I finally realized that a small pool of blood was collecting on the floor next to Stacio. His right fist remained balled up, the crimson fluid dripping from between his clenched fingers. “A-are you okay? You’re bleeding.”
Stacio studied my face before looking down to the hand in question. He raised it up before him, unclenching each digit slowly to reveal the missing planchette. It appeared as though he had been clutching it so hard that it had pierced the soft skin of his palm. “See? Like I told you,” he began. “I didn’t break every rule.”
It suddenly felt like the room was spinning. Although I watched copious amounts of splatter-punk horror movies simply to destress, the sight of that much blood—of the flesh wound he displayed to me with a smile—made my stomach uneasy and my head feel fuzzy.
Oh, god. Something must have happened when he ended the spirit board session. Something bad.
What happened next was unexplainable. It was like Stacio was replying to my very thoughts. “Nothing bad. Super-mega pinky promise. ”
Those words… That saying. It was one we always said between each other—well, when he could remember the exact terminology. And tonight, he did. It has to be him. But is it ONLY him?
“Calm down, Crispy. Think of it like a special visitor who only has one purpose. Then I’ll move on to the next one.”
Only one purpose, huh? And what’s he mean by ‘the next one?’
The planchette was placed on the table by Stacio as I contemplated my next words. He grabbed my forearms with either one of his big hands and pushed his hips against me. I felt him thrust into me, the visible outline of his erection pushing against me as he swayed back and forth. I caught a devious grin growing across his lips as I felt his fingers slip into the back of my pants.
I was so enthralled by Stacio—by his body language; his body, period —that I didn’t hear the approaching footsteps until they were a few feet from me.
It was Eddie Amber, the homophobe on Stacio’s basketball team. He seemed lost. Oh, gosh, I reacted as I felt Stacio pull the top of my jockstrap out of my pants, taking full advantage of its elastic band by letting it smack back against my skin.
I suddenly had the worst secondhand anxiety of all time.
“Andrade?” came Eddie. “I fucking knew it . When coach finds out you’re a fucking fruit loop, your starting spot is mine.”
Stacio looked to Eddie, then back to me. I studied his face as it seemed to shift from unbothered by the new stranger to an oversized grin. It sounds silly, but in my head what I saw made perfect sense. It was as though whatever was inside Stacio now was suddenly recalling all of his human memories; remembering how much of a dick Eddie was.
“Okay, two purposes,” Stacio corrected his earlier statement, his hands releasing my hips before he placed them on either side of Eddie’s head. In the blink of an eye, he snapped Eddie’s neck like a kid cracking a wishbone. “Something tells me I hated that guy.”
I could hardly believe my eyes. Wow, my roommate just killed someone right in front of me. Or—well, not my roommate, I guess. I’ve never seen someone die before. Well, maybe I have, but I-I-I…
The uneasy blurring of my vision returned as I fell forward. The last thing I remembered was Stacio quick to catch me in his embrace and scoop me into his arms.
“ Y ou okay, Crispy?”
I was. Or I thought I was. My eyelids fluttering, I first saw everything through an indistinct, soft filter before my vision started to return. Where am I? What’s happening? Oh, wait… I just ruined my big moment. Stacio was about to fuck me and I just passed out. No, wait. The Ouija board, the bloody planchette… Fucking Eddie!
“Stacio?” I called out just as soon as I discovered a familiar pressure around my wrists and ankles. I was back in my bindings on the pentagram from earlier. Except this time, I was only in my underwear. “Stacio, look. I-I think there’s something going on. Something to do with the Ouija board.”
The basement was still somewhat dark—a few disco lights continued to bounce along the walls, but that’s it. I could now see the outline of my sculpted roommate as he appeared out of the darkness, slowly stepping toward me. He wore only his boxer briefs and the uneasy smile on his face. “Hey, Crispy. I adjusted your ties a little bit so they shouldn’t hurt as much as when Riley did it. They bothering you, lil bro?”
“No,” I replied, momentarily tricked by Stacio’s normal, conversational tone. “I… Wait. Is that really you in there?”
“It is,” he replied, his once-bloody hand caressing my face now. “Why do you ask?”
I could see that his palm was fully healed. Suspicious, I thought to myself. “You were talking weird. That—and, well, you kind of killed Eddie Amber.”
“I did!?” Stacio asked. “No way.”
My mouth hung open. I wasn’t sure what to say or do. Even though I was suspended, Stacio still towered above me. And I still wanted to explore his body. Still wanted him to make me his. Still had the biggest crush on him. Even being tied up was kind of hot. I found myself thinking about how hot it would be if he took me right here and right now, but then stopped myself. Whoever was inside of Stacio had been reading my mind earlier, right? I don’t want them to know what I’m thinking now.
Something was gravely wrong here, and I knew it—even if Stacio didn’t yet. In her ramblings—ones I was taught by my family to simply ignore—my grandmother had once told me how people could become temporarily possessed; how some demons or spirits may take control of someone’s body in hopes of accomplishing a specific task before moving on to the next host. Is he possessed, or am I just crazy? He said he was a special visitor with only one purpose—okay, two purposes, I guess. And he already killed someone, so…
“Okay, fine. I didn’t want to be weird, but here goes,” began Stacio. “I’m Stacio, but I’m also the demon Asmodeus. Long story short, this isn’t the only time I’ve been summoned here before. My schtick is really in unrealized or unfulfilled lust. And let me tell you, this guy—it is Stacio, right? He really has got a hard-on for you. In fact, more than that. Actual tangible feelings. You know, I think he might even want to be your boyfriend if you play your cards right, kid.”
“Huh?” I asked, cocking my head. “Really?”
“Really. Now, as I said before, we’re both in here. Both conscious of every moment. But I—well, I just happen to make his, shall we say, dark desires come to life. Can you guess what his darkest desire is right now, Crispin?”
I shook my head, my lips trembling as Stacio leaned in close to me.
“Huh,” he began again. “Well, at least you’re as cute as you are clueless.”
“It’s me. Just like the Ouija board said. He wants me.”
“Carnally, love,” Stacio said with a chuckle. “And fortunately for you, when his emotions take control, he becomes the dominant personality inside.”
Whether it was the alcohol, the excitement, or my nerves, what this Asmodeus character was saying was starting to make sense. If I just let this Asmodeus guy fulfill his purpose, then maybe everything goes back to normal. With all the extra slack in my bindings, I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his.
He looked at me, surprised at first, before a familiar goofy grin returned to his face. “I knew you were waiting for the right moment to get me naked, Crispy,” Stacio chuckled. “But by the looks of it, it appears that I’m the one in full control here.”
Even though the expression on his face shifted from innocent to devilish, I was still so turned on. What could I do to keep Stacio—the real Stacio—present, and rid his body of the demon that didn’t belong? Overwhelm him with humanity, with human emotions, with sex? I guess it’s all I have to work with right now, I thought to myself.
A shiver ran up my spine as I felt Stacio’s soft lips against my neck once more. He orchestrated a series of kisses that ran from the most sensitive spots on my neck down to either shoulder. I gasped, tilting my head back and relaxing as I felt his big, strong hands run up my chest and down my stomach.
“I can sense what you lust after, too, you know,” he teased before moving his kisses down to my chest. “Every tingling of your body. Every nerve response.”
“Ahhh,” I moaned as I felt his teeth nibble at my left nipple, his fingers flicking and pinching the other.
I watched with great interest as his lips moved down my stomach and past my belly button. From there, his tongue ran down the length of my lower stomach until it reached the top of my underwear waistband. “Well, well, well, what do you know? You’re wearing that jockstrap that I like.”
I blushed as I had that very realization. “Y-yeah. Guess I am.”