Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 09:52:25 -0400
From: ME
Subject: Into Dark Places

The following story contains graphic sexual scenes between young males.
If material of this nature offends you then you should not read this
story. Additionally, if you are under 18 years of age in most states you
are not allowed to read this story by law.

This story is purely a work of fiction. Any resemblance to person's
living or dead, or to events that may have occurred, is purely
coincidental.

The author claims all copyrights to this story and no duplication or
publication of this story is allowed, except by the web sites to which it
has been posted, without the consent of the author.


It was a hot summer's day in Woodford North Carolina. Evan Anderson was
walking down South Oak Street with his best friend Seth Greenberg. They were
on their way to the outskirts of the town, where there was a small pond
suitable for fishing, swimming, rock-skipping and other activities of
interest to a couple of thirteen year old boys on summer vacation.

   As they walked, they talked of many things. Who would be in the World
Series this year. Whether Spider-Man would beat Wolverine in a fight. Which
girls at school they thought were cute (although Evan's contribution to this
portion of the conversation was a small one). Evan looked over at Seth as
they spoke. Seth was somewhat shorter than Evan, who was rather tall and
solid for his age. Seth was smaller and lighter of build, with less muscle.
His hair was jet black, in contrast to Evan's medium brown. The only thing
that was the same about their appearance was their bright blue eyes
(although Evan thought Seth's were much brighter than his own.)

  As they went into the main part of town, they past a Baskin Robbins ice
cream shop. There were four or five girls about there own age standing just
outside. One had long shining blond hair, and seemed to be the ringleader of
the group. Evan quickly veered to the other side of the street and tried to
stay out of the girl's line of sight.

    "Isn't that Patty Gibbons? Didn't she have a thing for you?" Seth asked,
smiling.

    "Yea, she did," Evan said, "she's been acting like a real bitch since I
told her no when she asked if I wanted to go out with her." Evan said
nervously, trying to stay behind the parked cars on the road.

"Now why would you go and do a thing like that? She's one of the prettiest
most popular girls in school!" Seth said with a shocked expression on his
face.

"She's not my type Seth," Evan sighed, "she's a spoiled little rich girl
with nothing but air between her ears." He said, and they both started
laughing.

"Well, I can't deny that Ev." Seth said, still giggling.

  They got past the Baskin Robbins without incident, and after a time they
reached the pond and set out the cheap fishing gear they had brought. They
cast out there lines and waited for a bite, still discussing various things
of interest only to too young boys.

   When the heat had become unbearable, Seth said, "Hey Ev, why don't we go
skinny dipping? That'd be the best way to get cooled off. There's nobody
around but us."

  Evan had both loved and hated the idea. They had showered together in
school, but he had never really gotten a good look. Seth was always on the
other end of the shower room, or there was too much steam. The thought of
seeing his friend naked put butterflies in his stomach and an uncomfortable
tightness in his crotch. He desperately wanted to get a look at his friend,
who was in truth far more to him then just a friend, but he didn't trust
himself or his body not to reveal the parts of his feelings that he felt it
was best to keep hidden.

   "I dunno Seth, what if someone comes down here while we're in the water
with nothing on? You know Patty Gibbons and her friends like to come down
here to swim to. You don't want them to see what you've got down their do
you?" He pointed at the other boy's crotch

   Seth went red to the ears. "We saw Patty and the rest of the bitch patrol
hangin out at the Baskin Robbins on the way here remember? I heard em say
they were gonna go back to Patty's and do something after they had their ice
cream. Trust me, we're safe." Seth grinned and Evan felt his heart jump.

   They might be safe from getting seen by the girls, but Evan new he was
none to safe from having his secret revealed to his friend. Just the
thought of seeing him naked was rapidly stiffening his cock. But, if he
refused to do it, Seth would want to know why. So he used a trick his older
brother Mark had told him to try whenever he got a boner in an embarrassing
situation.

   Fat lady on the toilet, fat lady on the toilet, he thought to himself as
he watched Seth strip off his faded green T shirt. Fat lady on the toilet,
and he felt his penis softening. He stripped off his own shirt, and started
to undo his jeans. He glanced up at Seth and saw he was doing the same. He
looked away quickly, and concentrated on getting his jeans and undershorts
off.

  When he looked up, he saw that Seth was looking at him as he stood their
naked, a well-built but average-looking brown haired blue eyed boy. At
least, he thought he was average looking.

   "Hey Ev I never noticed, you've got a big one", Seth said with a little
smile. "Huh?" Evan looked at his friend and realized what he was talking
about. His dick was quite a bit bigger than Seth's, and he had a lot more
hair down there than his friend too. He also noticed that Seth's penis
didn't have a hood of skin over the head as his did.

"Hey what happened to your skin?" He said pointing.

"I was circumcised when I was a baby. I'm Jewish remember? Seth said,
smiling. "It's a religious thing. Kind of funny though since my folks don't
go to temple or anything".

"Did it hurt?" Evan said, wincing a little at the thought.

"I was a baby stupid, I don't remember." Seth said, and started laughing.
"Hey your getting a boner...what, do you like my dick or something? Do you
think I'm sexy?" He laughed and started to do a little dance like a stripper
in one of those clubs you see advertised on billboards on the highway.

   "Quit it Seth! I'm not gay! Your getting a hard-on too see? Being naked
outside'll do that to you!" He made a playful grab for his friend, and Seth
ran toward the water.

Evan had hoped maybe he'd get to cop a feel, while hiding the real reason
for his reaction at the same time. He did think Seth was sexy, his black
hair and short, sleight build, his beautiful smile and bright blue eyes, but
he didn't want Seth, or anyone else, to know that. It was the year 2004, and
being gay was more widely accepted than it had ever been before, but for
thirteen year old boys living in small towns, having your friends discover
you were a fag was a guarantee of years of misery.

  After they had cooled off for a while, they got dressed again, and sat on
the edge of the pond and talked. Seth seemed to have developed a new
obsession.

     "Have you ever been in that old house on Rowan Avenue? The one everyone
says is haunted?" Seth said, with a look of wonder in his eyes Evan found
just a little distressing.

   "No. My mom doesn't want me to go over by the old mill, she says it's
dangerous. She says all those old houses are falling apart and need to be
condemned." Evan said as he gathered up a few small, flat rocks and began to
skip them over the surface of the pond.

   "I was talking to Dave Thompson last week, his dad used to work at the
mill before it shut down, him and his family used to live over there on
Rowan Avenue. Dave said his brother and some of his friends went down their
one night to check it out. Said they heard weird noises down in the
basement, and that there were these freaky lights in the windows, like
strobe lights or something." Seth was looking at Evan in a measuring sort of
way. Evan new what was coming next.

    Evan looked at him. His eyes were wide and excited, and he was grinning
that grin that made Evan's knees feel like water and his dick feel like
solid rock. He wasn't getting a boner this time though. His friend's
excitement about the old house was bothering him for some reason. He thought
he maybe knew where this was leading. He and Seth had been friends their
entire lives, and any time Evan had found himself in trouble, it had usually
been because he had followed Seth on some wild new idea of his. He was
afraid this was going to be another one. Nearly certain of it in fact. Just
as he was certain that he would go along with it anyway, however crazy it
was, because he couldn't bear having Seth think he was scared, or didn't
care about him enough to go with him on whatever wild goose chase he had
thought up this time. Basically, because he loved Seth.

    Seth stood up and looked at Evan, beaming at him with that big smile.
Some times Evan wondered just how much Seth understood about the real nature
of Evan's relationship to him. He certainly seemed to know that Evan
couldn't withstand that smile.

   "Seth, you know Dave's brother probably just made that up to try and
scare the shit outta his kid brother." Evan knew it was pointless to try and
dissuade his friend, but he felt he should try anyway.

   "You might be right, but I want to find out for myself." He turned the
smile on again. "I think you and me should go and check it out, see if all
the stories are true. In fact, I think we should spend a night there, and
see what happens."

"Your crazy, my Mom would shit bricks if she found out I'd spent a night in
an old falling down house out in the middle of nowhere!" Evan new the
outcome of the conversation had been decided before it even began, but he
went through the motions anyway.

   Seth's face took on an indulgent, long-suffering expression. "We're not
going to tell our folks where we're going fuckface. We'll tell your mom your
gonna spend the night at my place, and we'll tell my mom I'm gonna spend the
night at your place. I'll come to your house and get you when its time, my
folks don't care as much about where I am as yours do with you anyway. Then
we go to the house on Rowan Ave, and our folks will never know the
difference!"

   Evan sighed. "Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt. When do you want to do
this, so I can set up the "sleepover" with my folks?" Seth grinned again.
"How about tonight?"

The house on Rowan Avenue was something of a local legend. It stood in a
nearly deserted part of town, near the entirely deserted Horton Textile
Mill. The houses on Rowan Avenue had provided homes to mill workers and
executives alike, until the mill closed down in 1999, supposedly another
causality of the failing economy.

  The town slowly withered after the mill closed down, and rumors began to
circulate about the reasons for the shutdown. These rumors were wide and
various, but all came back to the old house on Rowan Avenue and its former
occupants, a man and woman by the name of Ferguson (Or maybe Ferdinand or
Fredrickson, no one could ever remember the exact name for sure).

  The rumors generally involved talk that the Ferdinand's (or Ferguson's)
were some sort of witches or devil worshipers. They go on to say that Mr.
Ferdinand (or Ferguson) was fired from his job at the mill for unclear
reasons. Some say he was simply chronically late. Some say he failed a drug
test. The upshot of the story is that after he was fired, he and his wife
decided to use their "craft" to exact revenge on the mill and those who
owned it.

     There was much disagreement among the townsfolk as to what form their
revenge supposedly took. Most said that they simply put some sort of bad
luck curse on the Horton's, but some said that they had heard that members
of the family had grown mysteriously ill just before the mill closed down,
and that some had even died of a condition the doctors knew nothing about. A
few, mostly older citizens, whispered that the Ferguson's (or Ferdinand's)
had called up some sort of monster or demon from the very depths of Hell.

   Despite all this, most of the people in town accepted that the closing of
the mill was just another sign of bad economical choices on the part of
their countries beloved Commander In Chief. But many of them still had a
story or two about seeing or hearing or just feeling something strange
around the abandoned house on Rowan Avenue.




"Hey Mom can I stay over at Seth's house tonight?" Evan had found his mother
sitting in the den, reading her latest Agatha Christie novel.

   Cathleen Anderson looked at her son from over the top of her book. "Well,
I was making your favorite for dinner tonight, but I suppose if you want to
deprive yourself, I wont stop you". She smiled.

    Evan smiled back. "Thanks mom, he said he'd come over here and get me
after he asks his folks."

"Perhaps he'd like to stay for dinner?" His mother asked

"Nah, he's got a new computer game he's wantin to show me." Evan replied.

"Well, if you two are willing to miss my gourmet meal for a game, it's
entirely your loss" She said sarcastically.

"I know Mom", Evan said absently as he headed up to his room to get ready.

  Once upstairs he grabbed his backpack and threw together some clothes and
a blanket. He knew he wouldn't actually need them, but if he left the house
without them, his mother would ask questions. He got himself packed up, and
looked over at the clock on his nightstand. It was four `o clock, Seth said
he'd probably be by around five. Evan thought about the incident by the pond
earlier. He kind of liked the fact that Seth was a little less developed
than him.

  Evan felt himself getting hard, and decided he should do something about
it before their little adventure, or he'd be running around with a boner all
night. He closed and locked his door, undid his fly and pulled down his
jeans and shorts. He lay down on the bed, and grabbed the picture frame off
his nightstand. In the frame was a picture taken by his mother earlier that
summer, of Seth and him outside the local McDonalds. Seth had his hand
behind Evan's head with his first and second fingers extended, so it looked
like Evan had sprouted horns, or antennae. Evan had been resisting an urge
to reach back and grab his friends ass.

   He held the picture in his left hand, and with his right he grabbed his
penis and began slowly sliding his foreskin back and forth over the head,
staring into the eyes of the image of his friend, who was so much more than
a friend, letting the sensation wash over him. He continued to stroke
himself and stare at the picture, lost in thought and feeling, till suddenly
he heard a knock at the door.

    He nearly jumped out of his skin, and quickly looked at the clock. It
was five-oh-three. He had lain their almost an hour, lost in Seth's
photographed eyes.

    "Evan?" His mother's voice. "Seth's here to get you honey, you don't
want to keep those aliens or orcs or whatever they are waiting." He could
actually hear his mother's sardonic smile.

   Evan quickly pulled up and buttoned his pants and went for the door. In
his rush he didn't realize that he hadn't zipped his fly, or that the
picture was still lying on his bed. He opened the door and saw his mother
going back down stairs, and Seth standing in front of him. Seth looked down
and grinned that insufferable grin

   "Hey Ev, your fly's open. And, you've got a bulge. What were you doin in
here anyway?" He said, with an impish little light in his eye.

"What do you think I was doing? Don't try and tell me you don't jack off
too," Evan said as he reached down and secured his fly.

"Yea I do, I won't try to deny it. But why is that picture of us lying on
your bed?" Seth said. He was trying to look innocent, but Evan really
wondered.

"It fell off my nightstand when I got up to open the door." Evan said
defensively.

"Oh. Ok. I believe you." Seth said. But his eyes said he thought there was
more to this than their seemed to be. But, he had other things on his mind
and to Evan's relief he quickly shifted topics.

   "So, are you ready for our little adventure good buddy? Ready to be ghost
busters?" He was grinning again.

"As ready as I'll even be, I guess. I just hope that old shack doesn't
decide to come down all over us, if I survived my mom'd kill me for being
their in the first place."

"You worry too much Evan. We'll be fine. Trust me." And he grinned that grin
again, and Evan did trust him.


They didn't want to chance being seen going in too the old house, even
though Rowan Avenue was more or less deserted, so they took their time
getting their. It wasn't really hard since Rowan Avenue was on the other
side of town from Oak Street where they both lived.

  They stopped for ice cream along the way, and dawdled in the park for a
little while, and by the time they got close to Rowan Avenue twilight had
descended. The avenue was entirely deserted. Most of the houses were empty
and dark, only one or two had lights in the windows.

    Rowan Avenue was essentially a dead end street. It ran right into the
parking lot of Horton's Textile Mill. The house they were looking for was
one of the last on the street.

   "Well, we're almost there good buddy. You scared?" Seth looked over at
his friend, and Evan saw that he still had that almost manic light of
excitement in his eyes, but he could also tell that he was in fact a little
afraid as well.

"Yeah a little. Are you?"

"Nah, nothing to be scared of. All that talk about weird noises and lights,
your probably right it was probably just bullshit Dave's brother made up to
try and scare him. But I wanna find out for myself." Seth spoke lightly, but
Evan was sure that there was more too this than that.

   And he was right. Seth wouldn't say anything about it, not even to Evan
who he had known all his life and trusted more completely than anyone in the
world. He had been dreaming of the house, for about two weeks now. He would
see it in his mind at night, the broken-out windows staring at him like the
eyes of some great abyssal beast. And he would see lights swirling in the
darkness, although they weren't exactly lights, more like...distortions, like
ripples in reality. And then the shadow, a shadow blacker than the darkness
moving slowly in one of the windows, some times upstairs, some times right
behind the front door, and the shadow would stop, and seem to turn, like it
knew he was there, and it would look right at him and suddenly the eyes,
eyes like...like nothing he could describe. Burning, like pools of burning
blood, eyes that screamed madness, eyes that wanted to burn him, swallow
him, erase him. And then, it grinned. He didn't know how it grinned since it
didn't seem to have a mouth, but it did. Like it knew that sooner or later,
it would have him. And that's when he would wake up, drenched in sweat,
nearly screaming in terror. He would have to go and turn on the light in the
bathroom and leave it on, to get back to sleep or even lay down.

    At first, he thought it was just a normal nightmare. He'd heard stories
about the house ever since the mill closed down, and it was no surprise that
his brain would use those stories as nightmare-fuel. But it wasn't just
once. He had had the dream three or four times the first week, but since
then he'd had it almost every night.

   At first he hadn't told anyone because he thought it would pass. When it
became clear that it wasn't going to pass, he still hadn't told anyone,
because he figured they'd think he was ready for the nuthatch. He'd decided
that he would have to find out for himself what was going on, and the best
way to do that seemed to be to investigate the house. But he knew he
couldn't do it alone. He'd go crazy. And the obvious choice for a partner in
the adventure was Evan, the person he knew he could count on for anything.

   Evan was looking at him with an appraising eye. "What's up with you Seth?
Why are you obsessed with this house all of a sudden? There's been stories
about it ever since the mill closed down, but you've never even talked about
it till today." Evan had a look of frank, open concern on his face that
raised interesting feelings in Seth.

  Perhaps Evan had caught on to the fact that Seth was hiding something from
him about his sudden desire to investigate the house, but Seth had felt for
a long, long time that Evan was hiding something more fundamental from him.

   "Just curious I guess. We haven't had any of our little adventures for a
while now, I guess I figured we needed another one, just so we don't get out
of practice." Seth grinned at his friend, and Evan smiled back at him.

"Alright, I'll take your word for it, for now. Let's do this thing." Evan
began walking toward the end of the street, and Seth followed.

   As they walked down the empty street, an ominous feeling began to settle
over both boys. This part of town had been all but deserted since the mill
closed down, and no one really came here anymore, unless they were like
them, kids looking for something interesting to do. The air was still and
hot, and the sky was clear, showing a blanket of cold white stars above
them.

  They neared the end of the street, and caught their first glimpse of their
destination. 379 Rowan Avenue was a basic, late twentieth century two storey
frame house. Its dark green paint was peeling badly, and most of its windows
were broken out, staring at them like giant, blank eyes. Several of its
shutters hung crookedly from one hinge. Even though it had only been empty
for three or four years, it had the look of a place that hadn't been
maintained for at least ten or fifteen.

  That was all pretty standard though. The sort of thing one can see in any
town or city in America. But this house was different. As the boys
approached the house, they were both struck by a powerful sense of
wrongness. It was nothing they could really define or pinpoint. It was in
small things, flashes and feelings. The darkness in the windows almost
seemed to move, if you looked at them from the corner of your eye, a
negative iridescence. And the house itself just seemed off like it was not
quite level. All of its angles just seemed strange somehow. Looking at it
made you feel like you were about to become dizzy, or develop a headache.
Everything about the house was perfectly normal, and simultaneously all
wrong.

   Seth stared at the battered-looking front door, with its tiny windows
shattered and staring, and broke into a cold sweat.
  "You ok Seth?" Evan was peering at him with that look of concern again,
but this time it was many times stronger.

He looked like he wanted to reach out and hold Seth, like he wanted to
shield him from the house and its abnormal aura. Seth looked into his eyes
and, despite the terror that had struck him when they got near the house,
was surprised to find his penis going rock hard. Well, maybe not all that
surprised. It wasn't the first time Evan's face had given him confusing
feelings.
  "Yea, I'm fine. It's just...kinda creepy. Like...I dunno..I just don't like
it." Seth said, still staring at the front door.

  Evan was really starting to worry about his friend. He looked terrible.
"Are you sure you want to do this? Maybe we should just go back to my
place", he said.

  "No, no I gotta find out what's in there or its gonna drive me apeshit. I
have to go in." Seth turned to Evan and looked at him imploringly. "I
haven't told you about it, `cause I thought you'd think I was crazy, but
I've been having dreams. Dreams about this house, about something in it...and
I feel like its coming for me. For us. Like it wants to get out of the house
and...I dunno..kill people, eat people, I dunno what. But I have to go in
their and find out what's going on. And I need you to come with me...I don't
think I can go in their alone." He looked at the door again and shuddered.

  "Seth, I don't know what's going on with this house, but I know it feels
bad. It feels wrong. I don't want to go in their, and I don't think you
should go in their. But you're my friend, my best friend my...if you say that
you have to go into that place, I'll go with you. I won't let you go alone."
The look on Evan's face said he would follow Seth straight into Hell if
that's what he asked of him.

   Seth stared into Evan's eyes, his mind and heart seized by a storm of
emotions, many of which he did not fully understand, some he wasn't entirely
sure he wanted to understand. The most prominent feelings however were
intense gratitude and affection toward Evan. That he hadn't asked questions
about his dreams, that he hadn't just told him he was crazy, and most of all
that he had let him know he wouldn't let Seth face whatever was happening
alone. He found himself desperately wanting to go over to Evan and hug him,
hold him and not let go, but he wasn't sure how Evan would react to that.
Although he had his suspicions. He wasn't entirely sure how he himself would
react if he did either. So he split the difference.

  Seth put his hand on Evan's shoulder. "Thanks Ev. Thanks a lot." He said.

Evan smiled, and resisted an urge to grab Seth and not let him go. "Any
time," he said instead.

   They both looked at each other, and then walked onto the lawn toward the
door. The grass was long and shaggy, obviously not having been mown in
years. Weeds grew thick everywhere. But all the plant life seemed to have an
odd, listless quality to it. Evan felt for a moment as though he were in
some vast, dying wasteland rather than a thickly grown suburban lawn.

  As they walked across the lawn toward the door, both boys were seized by
the unnerving sensation that the door wasn't getting any closer. Like the
lawn was stretching, stretching out further and further, as though they
would walk through the wasteland forever, never quite able to reach their
goal. The feeling lasted only a moment, but it was in that moment that both
boys knew that the stories they had heard about the house were more than
just small town rumors.


  They reached the door at last, and Seth reached out to try the knob. It
was locked, but since the window in the door was broken, he simply reached
through and undid the lock. The boys walked into the house, and found
themselves in a small foyer. Beyond that was a large open room with wooden
floors, covered by dusty rugs, with several hallways, and a staircase
leading off of it.

The boys pulled out the flashlights they had brought with them and switched
them on. The beams were clearly defined by the thick dust that their
entrance had stirred up from the floor of the foyer. The air was stale and
smelled thickly of dust and disuse, and something else that Evan couldn't
quite put his finger on. Then he realized what it was, a very faint hint of
decay, as though a possum or raccoon had gotten into the house and died in
some far corner. It was barely perceptible but it was there.

  As the walked into the central room, they saw that the green stripped
wallpaper was peeling badly, and the hardwood floors were mildewed and
slightly warped. Just like the outside of the house, the inside seemed to be
of a house that had been deserted for a decade or more, as opposed to only
three or four years. Their were bits and pieces of furniture, a couple of
chairs, an old sofa, strewn about the room. Their were also old beer
bottles, newspapers, and other trash, which meant that the house had
probably been used for shelter by bums or vagrants.

   The darkness in the house was thick, almost palpable, and had the same
strange dark iridescence they had noticed in the house's broken-out windows.
"Seth, why are the shadows moving? It's like...it's like we're in a black
ocean or something." Evan said uneasily.

"I don't know what it is, but I don't like it. " Seth said.

   The boys drew close to each other, trying to shine their flashlights
everywhere at once. As Seth shined his light toward the old sofa, he noticed
an old fashioned kerosene lamp setting on a small, moisture-swollen wooden
table. He went over to it, and pulled a book of matches from his pocket.
After a couple of tries, he got the lamp lit, and turned it up as high as it
would go.

   "That's a lot better," he said. "So, where should we go looking first?
Upstairs? Down one of these hallways?" He looked at Evan as he spoke. Some
of the terror seemed to have left his eyes, now that they had some light.

   "Well, we should probably start where we are on the ground floor, and
then check upstairs, and the basement I guess. But what are we looking for?"
Evan said

  Seth sighed. "I dunno. The stories go that the folks that lived here were
witches or something, maybe they have like books or something still lying
around that could tell us what happened."

   "Ok, I guess that's better than just walking around this creepy place
waiting for whatever it is to come eat us." He grinned at Seth, trying to
cheer him up a little, but Seth just looked at him with a mixture of fear
and fatigue.

  They went into the first hallway on their right. There was a bathroom as
they came in, with the door open. They shone their lights inside and saw
nothing but towels and toilet paper. The door at the end of the hall was
closed. They figured it must be a bedroom, so Evan walked over, turned the
knob, and opened the door. Seth heard him scream as he came up behind him.
Seth saw that when Evan opened the door it hadn't been a bedroom behind it.
The door opened on a yawning black abyss, and Evan was teetering on the
brink.

"Evan I got you don't move!" Seth shouted as he grabbed Evan by the
shoulders and pulled him away from the edge.

Evan's face was as white as milk as he looked at Seth. "Thanks." He said,
and staggered away from the door.

"Well," Seth said, "I think we can say for sure that there's something wrong
with this house, and the dreams I've been having aren't just because I'm
crazy." Seth said relief in his voice.

"Oh you're crazy all right," Evan said, a little colour returning to his
face, "crazy to ever come in here. But yea, the house is definitely not
normal." They walked back down the hallway and into the central room, and as
the came out of the hallway, they noticed a staircase on their left.

   "Hey Seth, wasn't their just one set of stairs in here before?" Evan
said, shinning his flashlight around the room.

   "There's still only one set of stairs, but it was on the other side from
the hallway we went into. We walked into the hallway on the right side of
the house, but now we're on the left side." Evan shone his flashlight at
Seth, and saw a look of stark terror on his face.

   "The room changed. The whole house re arranged itself. Seth, we've got to
get out of here. Something bad is going on in this place, and I don't think
there's anything we can do about it. We need to tell our parents or get the
police or something." Evan said, his face showing the same terror and
wonder.

   "And what are we gonna tell em Ev? That we snuck over to the other side
of town to spend the night in an abandoned house without telling them, and
that the rooms in the house move around on their own? Our folks would just
have a shit fit that we were over here in the first place, and they'd think
we made the story up to try and cover our asses," Seth said, and Evan almost
laughed as he had an image of himself covering Seth's ass in a very
different way. "I have to find out what's going on in this house. That's the
only way the dreams will stop, and if they don't stop, I'm going to end up
in the loony bin. Ok?"

   "Ok Seth. I already told you I'm going to do this with you, if this is
what you have to do. But I'm scared. Damn scared." Evan said

   "Me to," Seth replied, and he thought to himself, you'd be even more
scared if you'd seen the thing that's in this house. In the basement I
think. I have, and I'm so scared I'm about to piss myself.

    Evan turned toward the stairs. "Let's go check upstairs," he said.

He started up the stairs and Seth followed close behind. The staircase
seemed to just keep going, on and on, up and up as they climbed. It felt a
lot like what had happened as they crossed the front lawn to get to the
door, but worse, much worse, as though the staircase were stretching out and
out into infinity.

  "Aw fuck Evan it's happening again! We're not getting anywhere here," Seth
shouted

Evan turned back toward him and grabbed his hand. "C'mon, this means that
whatever's in here doesn't want us to get up these stairs, or it wouldn't be
pulling the same shit again. We've gotta get up there. Hang on to me," he
said as he pulled Seth up next to him and put an arm around his shoulders.

     Despite his fear and resolve, he felt his cock going stiff from the
contact with Seth's body. This time he didn't fight it. He held on to his
friend even tighter. He began to walk up the stairs again, and again they
began to stretch away from him, but he kept going. He felt Seth's arm go
around him and together they marched on, and slowly they felt the distortion
around them fading. They began to actually make progress. And finally, they
were at the landing at the top of the stairs.

   "Jesus that was a bitch. I thought we'd never make it up here. Still not
sure how the hell we did it," Seth said, looking around.

   Evan thought he had an idea of how they'd managed it, but he wasn't sure,
and it bore upon his little secret as well, so he said nothing about it.
"Hey I thought Jews didn't believe in Jesus," he said instead, smiling.

   "Jesus was a Jew remember fuckface? But let's not get into that...I want to
do whatever it is          we need to do and get the hell out of this
place." He said.

"Amen to that," Evan said, and the both laughed. It sounded strange in this
place where doubtless there had been no laughter for a long, long time.

   Evan shone his light into one of the rooms, and saw a large bedroom, in
considerably better shape than the rest of the house. There was a large
unmade bed, and a dresser and nightstand in the room. He could see a door
leading into another bathroom off to one side. Evan went into the room and
Seth followed him. He shined his flashlight on the nightstand, and opened
the small drawer in it. There was a small book inside, one of those cheap
diaries a young girl can get at Wal Mart to fill with all her private
thoughts and dreams. This one had zebra stripes and a small lock on it. It
was open. Evan picked it up and opened it, shined his light on it and began
to read.

  "This is the diary of the lady who used to live here," he said as he
flipped through pages, toward the end.

  "Lemme see!" Seth went over to Evan side and began to read over his
shoulder.

July 7th, 2000
Danny got fired from the mill today. He wouldn't tell me why. He just kept
saying he was going to get even. "Those bastards are going to regret this. I
was a good worker! I did a good job for them, and they just flush me down
the drain like so much shit! They'll learn."

That's what he kept saying. Ever since he got those old books he's been
acting stranger and stranger. He keeps saying he knows things, that he's
learned things no one has known for hundreds of years. He says he can make
us rich, he says we can live like gods if he can figure out the stuff in
those damn books.  He says that he doesn't really understand a lot of it
yet, and that it would be dangerous to play around with it till he
understands more. He spends all his time down in the basement now, reading,
experimenting, trying to figure them out.
  And now this.

I'm scared. Really, really scared.

July 8th, 2000

Danny spent the entire night in the basement last night, with those books of
his. He came to me this morning. He came into our room and he looked like
death. His face was pinched, and his eyes looked like they'd sunken back in
the sockets. But they burned. His eyes burned like a madman's.

  "I found it," he said. "I found a way to get back at those bastards at the
mill. A way to get us everything we've ever wanted. But you have to help me.
It takes two people to do it right."

  "No Danny I won't do it. Those books scare me. And the mill didn't do
anything to you; you wouldn't quit the pot when you know they do periodic
drug tests. It was your own fault!" I

screamed at him, and he hit me back hand across the face. My hands flew to
my face. I was in shock. He had never hit me before. We had had some bad
fights, but he had never put his hands on me.

  "You WILL help me, or I'll wring your skinny little neck. I'm tired of
being pushed around by you, by rich folks like the Horton's, I'm sick of it.
And now I have a way to make it stop. Now I can do some pushing!"

  I got up and tried to run out of the room but he grabbed me. "Now you
listen to me," he said, "I have to go and prepare the ritual. When I'm ready
I'll call you, and you WILL come. If you try to leave this house I'll know,
and I'll come after you. So don't even think about leaving!"

  The look in his eyes was terrible. I was convinced he'd gone crazy from
what he had read in those books, but I was just as convinced he was telling
the truth.

  After he left, I picked up this book and began writing. I don't know what
to do. I can't leave. I tried the phone but discovered he had cut the line.
I'm trapped.

   But, I was able to do one thing against him. While I waited, I slipped
past him, and grabbed one of those books of his in here in our room, under
the loose floorboard I found in our closet where I keep the money I've been
saving. I hope maybe it will keep him from finishing whatever it is he's
trying to do, or at least slow him down.

Oh God, I hear him calling. From all the way in the basement, I hear him in
my head. He said he needs me. He said he needs me to help him call it, to
help him bring it here. I have no choice. I have to go.

  I'm afraid. So afraid.



   "That's it," Seth said excitedly, "That's what we've been looking for.
Maybe the book she took has something in it that'll tell us how to stop
whatever is in this house."

He rushed over to the closest and knelt down. He felt along the floor till
he found the loose board and pulled it up. It reveled a small opening that
contained what looked like a kid's piggy bank, and an old book. Seth sat
down with the book and opened it.

   "Give me some light so I can try and read it Ev," he said, and Evan shone
his flashlight onto the open book.

   Seth sat there for several minutes poring over the book. Finally he
looked up at Evan with a dejected expression.

"I can't read it," he said, "It isn't in English...its some weird ancient
shit. Some of it sort of...swims in front of my eyes and I can see it...but not
enough to do any good. All I can get from it is something about faith, and
calling for aid. But I don't know what that means. Damnit! What're we going
to do now?

   Evan looked at him, and put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll think of
something Seth. We'll stop it, somehow," he said.

Seth looked at Evan, and there was fear in his eyes again. "I saw it," he
said, "I saw it in my dreams. They thing they called or summoned or
whatever."

"What is it? Evan asked.

"I don't know. It looked like a shadow...a shadow with eyes." Seth shuddered
at the memory of those eyes.

   "Well, now we know where it is. Or I think so anyway. She said he did all
his magic stuff or whatever in the basement. That's probably where the thing
stays." Evan said.

  "Yea," Seth said, "but we still don't know how to deal with the thing if
we find it. She said the rest of the books are down their. Maybe one of them
has something in it we can actually use. But if we cant find a way to stop
whatever it is, we're in deep shit," he said, his face a mask of fear and
concern.


   Evan sighed. "Well, we're just going to have go down there, and hope we
find something before it shows up. If it shows up. Hell, it may be gone back
to wherever it came from for all we know," Evan said, with hope in his
voice.

  "No, its still here," Seth said dismally, "It called to me. I don't know
why, but it called to me." Seth's face was filled with fear and confusion.
It hurt Evan's heart to see him that way. "I think it wants me. I think it
wanted me to come here so it could...have me. But I had to come. I have to
stop it, to make the dreams stop, or I'll lose it. Shit Evan why is this
happening to me?"

Seth turned to him and in the light of his flashlight Evan saw that Seth was
nearly in tears. He set his flashlight down, went over to Seth, and put his
arms around him. Seth hugged him back. Evan immediately felt himself getting
hard, but he just held on tighter.

     As he held Seth, he realized that he felt something hard pressing
against his crotch, and realized that Seth was hard too. He let go of him
and stepped back. He picked up his flashlight and shone it first on his
crotch, and then on Seth's.  Then he shone it on his face so Seth could see
and grinned. He saw Seth blush

"Ev I..." he began.

"Later," Evan said before he could finish. "Lets do what we have to do here,
and then we can...talk".

"Ok..," Seth said.

    The boys headed back down the stairs. Unsurprisingly, the stairs didn't
try to stop them from getting down.

  When they reached the bottom, they noticed that the staircase was on the
opposite side of the house from where it had been when they went up. This no
longer surprised them.

  They found a door leading onto a set of steps into the basement. The
darkness at the bottom of the stairs was deep, inky, and had the same
strange quality as the shadows in the rest of the house only more so. The
boys thought they could almost see faces in the swirling darkness. Terrible
faces.

  Seth reached out and took Evan's hand. "Evan, you don't have to go down
there if you don't want to. It called to me, not to you." He was looking
intently at his friend.

   Evan squeezed Seth's hand. "I won't leave you. I won't let you go down
there and deal with this thing alone. You're my friend...my best friend. And
you're more than that too. Where you go, I go," he said simply.

  Seth nodded, and they started down the stairs.

There flashlights seemed dimmed down here. The darkness was absolute beyond
their thin beams. The air was thick with the smell of dust and mold and old
bits and pieces of junk that just couldn't be thrown away, but that had no
real place or use in the house. They saw tools, and old bits of wood, two
bicycles that looked like they hadn't been used in years, and a small
worktable.

They turned and shone their flashlights down the other side of the basement,
and both boys gasped.

"Holy fuck!" Seth exclaimed.

"You can say that again," Evan said, "Oh wait, I'll say it instead. Holy
fuck!"

  A huge section of one wall of the basement had been removed. Or anyway, it
wasn't there anymore. A circular area of the brick wall, maybe six feet
across seemed to have just vanished. The brick's didn't appear to have been
cut, and there was no sign of blasting or chipping. The brick just...stopped.
The aperture was entirely black. The boys shone there flashlights on it, and
it seemed to absorb the light.

   As the brought their lights downward, they saw three tables in front of
the hole. Two were long trestle tables with some sort of red cloth over
them, one on either side of the aperture. Between and a little in front of
them was the third, just a small stand with an open book lying on it.

   Seth walked over to the tables and shone his light on one to inspect it
more closely.

"Holy shit!" Evan heard him exclaim.

"What is it Seth?" Evan said, going to his friend's side.

   "These cloths on the tables aren't red Evan. There white. They look red
because there full of dried blood." Seth said, and Evan saw his face had
gone green.

Evan shone his light on the table and saw Seth was right, the cloth was
stiff with dried blood. And something else as well. Small bits of a white
material he couldn't quite tell what it was. He shone his light down on the
ground where the table stood, and realized what it was.

"Seth, there's bones to! On the tables and all around them! The Ferdinand's
or Ferguson's or whatever must have sacrificed people down here." Evan's
voice trembled with revulsion as he spoke.

   Seth shone his light on the other table, and noticed a glint of metal. He
went to check it out, and saw it was one of those medical alert bracelets
you see advertised on TV. Melissa Ferguson. Allergies to Penicillin and
Aspirin. Address 379 Rowan Avenue, Woodford North Carolina Phone 575 324
1750.

"Evan, look at this," Seth said as he held out the bracelet. "These bodies
are the Ferguson's.  They didn't sacrifice anyone. Whatever they called or
whatever...it killed them first. That's what happened to them." He said.

   Seth became aware of a strange sound in the room. It was low, so low he
could barely hear it, but it seemed to be coming from the abyss in the wall
in front of them. He shone his light on it, and moved a little closer.

"Ev," he said, "Evan there's voices coming from this hole. And...and when you
look close the darkness...it swirls, like the shadows in the house upstairs,
only...only I can see faces! Look Evan, there's faces in there!"

Seth's voice was wild with terror, and a little wonder. Evan came over and
shone his light on the abyss as well, and saw that again Seth was right, the
darkness was filled with swirls and eddies, and if you looked long enough,
you could see faces, faces that seemed contorted as though wailing in grief
and pain...or madness. He could hear them, he realized, the sound was low but
getting steadily louder.

Suddenly, a ripple seemed to pass through the air of the room. But not just
the air. It was like the space of the room rippled. At the same time, the
sounds issuing from the hole in the wall became more intense. Voices, cries,
strange gurgling noises. The sounds became louder and louder till the whole
room seemed to vibrate with it, and the boys mind's were filled with images,
images of pools of slime and darkness with things moving in them, things
with eyes and tentacles, and walking shadows floating across the pools, and
the wailing wailing voices in the distance. Another ripple passed through
the room and then...silence.

  "What the hell was that?" Evan said backing away from the hole.

"Dunno but I doubt it was anything good," Seth replied, also backing away as
fast as he could.

  Then they heard another sound. A wet, squishing sound like a stick being
pulled out of thick mud. They looked at the blackness and saw that it was
moving outward slowly. Something was coming through. They saw two hands
slide out of the blackness, hands that appeared to be made of the blackness,
like a claw of darkness.  Long thin arms followed, and then they saw the
eyes. Two large points of red light pushed their way out of the darkness,
eyes that seemed to shine with the light of madness, burning with a gleeful
fire of insanity.

  Finally, the thing stepped through into the light of their flashlights. It
was man shaped, like a large, distorted shadow that shifted and moved almost
like a black candle flame, but somehow liquid at the same time.

  Then suddenly the things face split open, like a mouth full of jagged
tearing shadows for teeth. And it made a sound, a sound that went past the
boy's ears and directly into their minds. It was thick, wet hissing sound,
and under it was a wailing maddening cry that pierced their minds and hearts
like a spike of poisoned ice.

  The boys screamed and clung to each other in terror.

The creature began to laugh, a gurgling spluttering idiot sound that beat
against their minds

And then it spoke. Although it didn't seem to be using words or making any
vocal sound. Its meaning simply came into their minds. Its voice, if it was
a voice, was huge and thick and threatened to overwhelm them entirely.

  "Ssso you hhave ccome, jusst ass I ccommandded. And you brraught your
friend with you asss well. Pperffect. I musst have two too complete the
ssspell that will let me sstay in thiss place. I will take your livvess and
your bblood and the pportal will remain open. I will be able to ccome and
ggo asss I ppleasse. Yourr worlddd will be as a feeddding grround for me.
Sso much bblood and fflessh and ffear to feed my hhunger!"

  The creature gestured at the two tables. "Thesse two beggan it. Tthey
called me hhere to sserve them, but their bblood sserved me by opening the
ggate into this world. Now, ttwo more are nneeded to sseal the gate open
forever. Tthat honour sshall be yours. Nnow, die!"

   The creature lunged for them. It moved strangely, like a flickering
flame. Its feet did not touch the ground. Evan and Seth ran, making for the
stairs, trying to keep their lights steady so they didn't run into them in
the dark. The creature behind them was hissing and gibbering, the sounds
pounding at them like fists.

  Suddenly, Seth saw Evan fly backwards out of his sight. The creature had
extended its hand and ropes of shadow were reaching out from it and
entangling Evan, pulling him toward the creature.

   Seth grabbed Evan's hands and began pulling him back away from the
creature. With a tremendous heave the tentacles of shadow pull away and
retracted, and he tumbled to the ground with Evan on top of him. The
creature hissed and began to move toward them, not walking, not exactly
floating either, its movements like the flickering of some huge black
candle-flame.

   "I will kkill you bbotth and your liffe sshall go tto fffeedd the
ddoorwayy, itt sshall rremainn alwaysss opppen to mmee and mmore of mmy kind
sshall ennter and wwe sshall ffeedd upon the fflesh and bblood and ffear of
your ppatheticc kindd for all off time! The creature hissed.

It began to laugh, and the boy's covered their ears to try and block the
sound, but they still heard it gurgling in their minds.

  The monster lifted Evan by the neck with one shadowy claw, and began to
squeeze. Evan coughed and gasped. Seth sprang up and tried to beat at the
beast with his fits, but they passed through its shadowy body living him
feeling cold and enervated.

   "Yyou have sspiritt llittle one, bbut ssadly ffor you, you llack the
ppower to hharmm me."  The monster said. It gestured at Seth with its other
hand, and an invisible force struck him and flung him back against the
stairs.

  Seth saw a length of pipe lying on the floor near the stairs. He grabbed
it around the middle and lobbed it javelin-style at the walking shadow. The
pipe passed through the creature and clattered down on the floor behind it.
It began to laugh.

  "Yyou cannot hhurt me foolish child! You arre helpess, you arre alone,
there is no one tto comme to your aid!" The creature began to laugh again.

   No one to come to our aid, Seth thought, he's right, we're alone and
there's no one to help us. And then he remember the book in the bedroom up
stairs. It had said something about faith, and calling for aid. That made
him think of his grandfather. Abraham Greenberg was a rabbi, and not very
happy with his son's decision to largely abandoned his faith. Seth's family
identified as Jewish, but did not attend temple and rarely celebrated
religious holidays.

  When he was 10 years old, he had been staying with his grandfather, and he
had come to him, and sat him beside him on the couch.

   "Seth," he had said, "I know that your parents want you to decide for
yourself what you are going to believe. And so do I. But, there is one thing
I want you to always believe. As long as you have faith in God, and faith in
yourself and the people who love you, you will never be alone. You will
never be helpless. Even in the blackest times, if you call out to God for
aid, he will answer you. Never forget that."

   "I wont Granddad," he had said, and put his arms around the old mans
neck.

He remembered those words as he stood there in this black place, with a
shadow from another world trying to take his life, and the life of one of
the people he loved most. The creature's shadowy tentacles had pulled Evan
into arms reach, and now it had its hands around his neck, squeezing the
life from him and giggling thickly.

   Oh God, Seth thought to himself, I've never really thought a lot about
what I believe, but I believe that my Granddad told me the truth. I hope he
did, and I hope you can hear me. This monster is going to kill Evan and I
can't stop it by myself. I can't let him die, he's my best friend and I love
him! I can't imagine not having him here, who would I talk to about whether
Batman could beat Spider Man or who should be in the World Series? Who would
listen to my crazy-ass ideas and come with me on my stupid adventures?
Please God don't let it kill him; please help me stop it I'm begging you
please...

  "Seth Greenberg!" A huge voice cried in his mind, deep and commanding.
"You are not alone. I will help you to face this monstrosity, and send it
back where it belongs."   The voice rang with authority and reassurance.

  "Are you God?" Seth thought in awe.

He heard the voice laugh in his mind, a rich hearty sound. "Hardly, dear
boy. But, the Creator has heard you entreaty, and instructed me to tell you
what to do to deal with this creature." The voice said kindly.

"But who are you?" Seth thought to the voice.

"That's not important now. If you want to save your boyfriend, and you're
self, listen careful to me." The voice said urgently.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Seth thought indignantly. "Whatever. Something is
about to happen and when it does, I want you to do exactly as I say..."

  Suddenly, Seth felt something move in him, move through him, like a
burning white fire. He looked and saw the monster still strangling Evan, and
he realized he could see it even though he had dropped his flashlight. He
raised his hand to his eyes, and saw that his hand was lined with blazing
white light like flames or radiation. He felt a sense of some incredibly
force that was both inside him, and moving through him from outside him.

  Suddenly, Seth knew exactly what to do.

"TAKE YOUR HANDS OFF HIM YOU BASTARD!" He screamed at the monster.

It looked toward him and cringed away from the blazing light around him.
Then it dropped Evan, and came at him. Seth raised his hand and the blazing
light that surrounded him stabbed outward, flinging the creature backward,
and seeming to burn into its shadowy form. It screeched in anger and pain, a
terrible sound.

"Nno!" It grated, "Tthey are mmine, tthisss wworld sshall belongg to usss!
It screamed.

  "WE ARE NOT FOR YOU, NOR IS THIS WORLD! IN THE NAME OF THE WORD, I COMMAND
YOU TO BE GONE FROM HERE!" He thundered not just in his voice, but in a
thousand thousand voices. It was as though he were speaking with the voice
of everyone, everyone whose hearts knew kindness, everyone who abhorred the
darkness; they spoke through him and gave him strength.

  As he said the words, he felt a force move through him beyond anything he
had ever imagined. For a moment he saw images, images of a young child
giving his day's lunch money to a homeless man on the street, images of an
old lady giving milk and cookies to a young boy who had a black eye where
his father had punched him for not taking out the trash, images of decency
and goodwill. And lastly, an image of a figure cloaked and hooded in deep
blue, carrying a staff with a glowing blue crystal at its top. For just a
moment the light shone on the figures face, and Seth is surprised to see it
is the face of quite a young man. He also notices that the figure's left
hand, the one holding the staff, isn't really a hand, but a gnarled claw.
Then the figure gives Seth an approving smile, and to Seth's shock the
thumbs-up sign. Then the image was gone, and the white fire that ringed
Seth's body exploded outward from his hands and slammed into the shadow
before him. It gave an agonized shriek, and the entire room was filled with
light. The creature was propelled backward, and slammed into the blackness
in the far wall, which reached out and began to pull it in.

  Seth fell to his knees, the energy and power he had felt gone, leaving him
exhausted and empty. He heard Evan coughing, saw him get up and start to
move toward him.

  "Nnoo!" The monster screamed, and just before its face was pulled back
into the darkness, its mad eyes seemed to explode from its head, twin balls
of fire careened toward Seth. Before he or Evan could react, the balls of
fire struck him in the head, sending him flying against the far wall.

  "SETH!" Evan screamed.

He heard the creature laughing in triumph as the last of its body was sucked
through the portal.

Evan ran over to where Seth lay slumped against the wall. Their was blood
pooling on the floor from a gash on the back of his head. Evan took him in
his arms and checked for a pulse or signs of breathing. Their were none.
Evan began to rock back and forth with Seth held tightly too him.

  "No, you can't die, no no, you can't be dead, you beat it Seth you beat
that thing you saved me, you can't be dead not after all that, no no no..."
Evan continued to rock back and forth in the dark with Seth's body held
tightly to his chest.

   Oh God please don't let him die, he thought to himself. Not now not after
he beat that thing, we were going to talk I was finally going to tell him, I
was going to tell him that I love him that I want to be with him, that even
if he doesn't love me like that I'll always be with him, always be his
friend. I have to tell him please take me instead please God don't let him
die!

   Evan began to weep, tears spilling from his eyes. He pulled Seth up close
to him, and pressed his face against Seth's and held him tightly. His tears
poured down his face, and onto Seth's rolling down his closed eyelids.
Finally, he bent down and kissed Seth lips, lightly at first, but then more
strongly. He figured he at least deserved one kiss, even if Seth wasn't
really there anymore.

But then, he felt Seth's lips part, felt him draw in air between them, and
then Seth was kissing him back, his lips caressing Seth's, his tongue slowly
parting them to Find Evan's. Evan held him and returned the kiss, losing
himself in relief and joy that were beyond the power of words to describe.
    ThankyouthankyouthankIlovehimIlovehimthankyou, Evan thought in an
ecstasy of joy.

"Your alive Seth oh thank God you're alive!" Evan cried in joy, holding Seth
close to him.

    "You saved me Ev. I wasn't dead, I was...i was in a dark place. A dark
place with voices and...And things crawling all over me...I couldn't get out.
But then I heard you, I heard your voice, and I had to come back. It was
like your voice opened a door and I saw you and...and I heard what you were
thinking." Evan could see Seth blush in the darkness, but he could hear it
in his voice.

  "You...heard what I was thinking? About you?" Evan said nervously.

"Yea, "Seth said soberly, "Yea I did."

   "Well, I guess you know then. You know what I am, and how I feel, right?"
Evan said slowly.

"Yea" Seth said, "I do."

    "Are you pissed?" Evan asked, looking at the floor.

Seth sighed. "Why would I be pissed fuckface? We've been friends forever,
best friends. You can't help what you feel Ev, and I'm not going to be mad
at your for it." Seth said.

   Evan let out a massive sigh of relief. "Thanks Seth, that makes me feel a
lot better. I've been hiding it, from you, from everybody all my life. It's
been hard, especially with you. I tell you everything. But I was afraid if I
told you I was gay, and that I...that I feel that way about you, you wouldn't
want to be around me anymore." Evan said, his voice choking up on the last.

   "Well honestly, you haven't been hiding it all that well. `Specially
lately. But I've had a feeling for a while that...something was up. But
nothing would ever make me not want to be around you Ev, like I said we've
been friends our whole lives. I can't really imagine what'd be like without
you around." Seth was looking at him with an expression that was equal parts
nervousness, embarrassment and deep affection.

   "So your not freaked out that your best friend is gay and...in love with
you?" Evan asked uneasily.

   "Hell yea it freaks me out. But...well, since we're both spilling our guts
here...I don't know if I'm gay or not...I mean I really enjoyed those Playboy's
we got from your brother that time...and I don't really look at other guys
much but...some times when I look at you I...feel things. When we went swimming
earlier...I said we should try skinny dipping cause I wanted to get a good
look at you. And when we got naked and I saw you're...saw you're...everything,
it really turned me on. I wanted to touch you. And now this...when I woke up,
and you were kissing me it felt so good, the way you were holding me..."
Seth's voice trailed off, choking with emotion.

   "Really? You've thought about me that way too?" Evan asked hopefully.

"Didn't I just say that fuckface?" Seth said and Evan could hear the grin in
his voice. He smiled too.

   "So, what do you want to do?" Evan asked.

"Well, first I want to get the fuck out of this hole." Seth said

"I meant about us." Evan replied

    "Let's get out of here and go home first, and then we can talk. We
should go to your place, since we told your folks we'd be there." Seth said.

  "Yea but we told your folks we'd be there." Evan responded

"Ev you know my folks, as long as I show up some time tomorrow their not
gonna care. Let's go." Seth said and started to go up the stairs. Evan
followed him.

  When they came up into the main room of the house they saw that everything
was back where it was when they had first come in, and the shadows now
seemed to be just normal shadows.
   They walked out on to Rowan Avenue, and headed toward home.

When they reached Evan's house, they climbed up the vine-trellis attached to
the side of the house. It was directly under Evan's window, which he had
left open, for just such a situation as this.

  Once they were in, Evan looked at Seth, at the dirt on his clothes and the
blood drying in his hair and on the back of his shirt.

   "You need a shower. You're filthy." He said.

"Yea your right. But so are you." Seth said pointing at the dirt and grime
that covered Evan as well.

    Evan laughed. "Yea I guess we both need a shower. You wanna go first?"

Seth looked at him and grinned that grin for the first time since they'd
gone into the house. "Actually, I was thinking we could go together." His
grin widened as Evan just gaped at him.

"Really?" Evan said, his voice breaking at the end.

In answer, Seth began stripping off his dirty clothes. Evan quickly followed
his example, giving thanks for the fact that he had a bathroom in his room.
He immediately felt his dick going hard, and this time he didn't fight it.
He looked over at Seth and saw he was having the same reaction.

  Seth walked over to him and looked him up and down. His eyes lingered on
Evan's lower portions.

"Man Ev, I never knew your were so...manly. Till today. You make me feel like
a little kid." He said, and grinned as Evan went red all over.

  They got in the shower, and spent some time getting each other clean. Evan
carefully washed the wound on Seth's head. As they soaped each other they
would occasionally grab a feel, or kiss briefly. They both remained at full
mast throughout the shower.

  They climbed out of the shower, and a mutual unspoken decision was made
that getting dressed wasn't really necessary. They both climbed into Evan's
bed.

  "So..." Evan began

"So, I need to tell you some things. I'm a little confused right now...have
been for the past couple of weeks. Like I said, I don't know if I'm gay. I'm
pretty sure I like girls. But, especially now, I'm pretty sure I like you
too. We've been friends our whole lives. Nobody knows me better than you.
Nobody else is always there for me like you are. I mean you stayed with me
this whole time. Anyone else would have turned tail and run like hell as
soon as things started getting weird in that house. But you stayed, even
though it almost got you killed..." Seth looked at Evan and his eyes told how
terrified he had been by the idea of losing him

  "But you saved me," Evan said, "You stopped that monster and saved me."

"Yea, well I'm not sure how much of that was actually me. The point is your
special to me. You've always been special to me. But now...you're even more
special. Like I said, I like girls, but I like you more. And seeing all of
you like this...Evan, I love you. I love you and I...I want you."

As Seth spoke he leaned over to Evan, and his hands went over Evan's body,
one sliding around his shoulders, one going down below his waist to grasp
the hardness it found there. Evan gasped at the feeling.

   "Seth, I love you too. I've loved you my entire life." Evan said, tears
forming in his eyes.

Seth leaned over and kissed Evan hard on the mouth, his tongue sliding
between Evan's lips. He went down and kissed Evan's chest, then down to his
stomach. Then he went down below Evan's waist, and Evan gasped again as he
felt Seth's lips and tongue on his sensitive hardness. Seth stayed down
their for quite a while, until Evan's entire body went as stiff as the part
in Seth's mouth, and he called out Seth's name as pleasure washed over him.

  Seth came up and laid down on top of Evan. Evan felt his hard-on throbbing
against his thigh. "Well, now's your chance to show me."

Seth said, and he grabbed Evan's legs and lifted them over his shoulders.
Evan reached over to his nightstand and pulled out a small bottle.

"Here, you'll need this," he said, "I get it at Wal Mart when mom isn't
looking. I use it when I jack off...and I always kinda hoped I'd need it for
this." Evan said and smiled.

  Seth took the bottle and did what was needed. He lifted Evan's legs back
up over his shoulders, and moved forward. Evan closed his eyes, and waited
for the one he loved to finally give him what he had wanted for so long.

  And as he felt Seth inside of him, as the initial pain faded and the
pleasure mounted, he found himself giving thanks for the house on Rowan
Avenue. They had come through a terrible darkness, and had stopped it from
spreading, and come through into a joy and light greater than anything that
either of them had ever imagined possible. The joy of friendship and
devotion turned to love.