Chapter 2 – Chapter 2

Working from photographs of the fields of the valley set against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Hal willfully was deep into painting, moving quickly now with his brush to finish with this color before the dappled light filtering through the overarching oaks and through the skylight of the studio had waned.

The house was quiet. Jimmy had gone into Staunton. He had been in a jubilant mood, telling Hal before he left that he hoped he'd have some important news when he returned home. Hal had only half heard him. Hal had taken to drink—drink to dull his senses and combat his imagination, as he could no longer look at Jimmy and not see him naked—the golden orb of Jimmy's head at Hal's pelvis as Jimmy took his cock in his throat. The marble skin of Jimmy's thighs as they parted for Hal and his thrusting cock.

Jimmy, Hal's half brother. Hal had to keep muttering "He's my brother" to himself, almost as a mantra as he remained half drunk, half buried in his work.

He was mercifully alone now, in the silence, deftly stroking at the canvas with the purple underlay of the coloring he was building up at the base of the Blue Ridge, between field and mountain.

But it wasn't really silence. Hal was listening for the sound for several minutes before he identified it as moaning. The moan of sex.

He put his paint brush down on the ledge below the canvas on the easel and he was right there, at the window of the tenant shack, one hand on his cock, the other at the nipple of his bare chest, watching. Surprisingly not in shock, knowing what he'd see as soon as he became cognizant of the moaning.

Jimmy was naked, his marbled beauty stretched out, the toes of his feet barely reaching the dusty wooden floor, suspended from the ceiling by chains and bindings around his wrists.

The tenant was crouched in front of him, blocking the view of Jimmy's midsection from Hal. Sucking sounds of the hairy tenant's mouth on Jimmy's cock and the moans of pleasure from Jimmy melding in an arousing melody.

Jimmy shuddered his ejaculation, and the tenant stood and moved around him. Hal's eyes went to Jimmy's cock, seeing that it did fill out quite respectably. But Hal's gasp was dedicated to the view of the tenant's cock, thick as Jimmy's wrist.

Deep moaning filling the air, with Hal realizing with a start that much of the moaning was his own. Wanting to do something. Wanting to warn Jimmy. Knowing that Jimmy couldn't take a cock like that, that it would tear him asunder. His little brother. Jimmy, his half brother. The brother that Hal himself wanted to fuck.

The tenant was crouched behind Jimmy now, his long, heavy-fingered hands grasping Jimmy's legs above the back of the knees and lifting his legs up and out. The monster's mouth going to Jimmy's hole, and Jimmy groaning and writhing under the attentions there.

Rising, the tenant's face sharpened into a leering malevolence, and once again Hal had the sensation that nubs of horns rose from his temples and the hair of his legs that weren't human legs thickened and dropped down into feet that weren't human feet. He was lifting Jimmy higher and spreading his legs wider, and the club of a gigantic cock was at Jimmy's hole. The long, thick fingers were encasing Jimmy's butt cheeks and spreading them wide, revealing the rose bud of his gate. The bulb the tenant presented at the hole was monstrously huge. But it was slowly sucking itself into Jimmy's hole, which was blossomng out, opening to the invasion, as Jimmy's body heaved and shuddered and his rosebud unfolded. The impossible began to become possible as more and more of that killing tool moved up into Jimmy, who screamed and writhed and burbled his pain-pleasure, moving ever so slowly to pleasure-pain as more and more of the thick pole moved up into him.

Fully sheathed, Jimmy's body took on a shimmering luster, and he laid his golden-curled head back into the cleft of the tenant's shoulder, opened his eyes to Hal, and let him know in no certain terms that it was Hal who was taking him. The monster began to pump slowly and then ever quicker. Hal felt one with the movement, his gasps and groans meeting the rhythm and tenor of the fucking machine. He didn't realize just how much he was melding into the scene, though, until he looked up and watched the monster's face slowly morph into his own features.

"How can you paint in this gloom?"

Hal lifted his head, groggy from so much he was leaving unsaid, undone.

"No, I'm done for now. I was just sitting here . . . thinking . . . or something."

Hal looked up at Jimmy, who was nearly dancing around the room, overflowing with exuberance, and beauty . . . aching beauty. Hal stood and moved to the window and looked out toward the river, in too much pain to look at Jimmy.

"Guess what," Jimmy bubbled. "I've been to Staunton. Seen Gretchen. You remember Gretchen, don't 'ya? We were at school together?"

"Oh, yes, Gretchen. The Gretchen of your first-semester college crush, would that be?"

"Yeah, that Gretchen. Well, guess what. She's got an art teaching job at a high school down in Winston Salem. And . . . and she wants me to go down with her. I don't know. What we're doing here . . ."

"I think that's a great idea," Hal said, and he turned and gave the best smile he could muster to his little half brother. And then his smile broadened. Because he realized that this was lifting a burden off his shoulders. He should be miserable, he knew, but that's not what he felt. This was best for all. His urge would recede, he knew it. It didn't have to be Jimmy. It couldn't be Jimmy. It was tearing him apart that it might be Jimmy.

"Oh, that's great then. I didn't know . . ."

Hall looked hard at Jimmy. Jimmy really did think it was great, he could see. There was nothing in Jimmy's mind that had been in his. This was best. Yes, the very best thing that could happen. He turned his face back to the window.

"What are you looking at so intently?" Jimmy asked, coming over to stand close beside his older brother.

Hal's spirits soared. Jimmy was standing right next to him. For weeks Hal had trembled and fought his urges just to have Jimmy in the same room with him. The cloud was lifted. Now he was sure of it.

"I'm just looking at that shack of mine over by the river edge."

"Thinking of fixing it up? Putting a tenant in it or something?" Jimmy asked. "I think you did say something about doing that."

"No. I think it's beyond repair. See, the roof has caved in over that bedroom area already. Hasn't been anyone living in there for decades. No, I think the best thing to do is just to have it torn down and the trash hauled off. All it's good for now is to get someone hurt. And we wouldn't want that, would we?"

"I thought you once said that, with a little imagination, it could be quite a desirable place," Jimmy said.

"I said that?" Hal answered. "I don't know what I was thinking if I said imagination could bring any good out of that pile of festering wood. No. No. I think it comes down and disappears."