Page 1 of Seven is Swell

Chapter One

The Tale of the Mashed Potatoes (part one)

The year is not important. If you have some sort of defined time period in your head that you affiliate with ‘way back when’, just go with that. The important thing here is my journey.

I clearly remember the first time I got to come topside on a mission. It felt remarkable to me that the sky was so big, that there were things just growing out of the ground, and that there were people allowed to live without an evil overseer dictating their every move.

How do people live like that?

Where I come from, we’re all assigned personal evil overlords. It’s not a punishment, it’s just how it’s done. Who is telling those people up there that they need to wipe their ass? How do people just know when they’ve done a thorough job?

It’s chaos, I tell you. Nothing like the regimented existence we experience in Hell.

I recall this one time when acid was just beginning to fall for the day. The air was thick and choking, just how I like it. The sound of screams filled the air, my favorite backdrop. But something was off.

These were the good ol’ days when beds full of rusty nails were still in fashion. Nowadays it’s all about broken glass and splintered wood. That’s tame shit.

But I digress.

My sheets were of the coarsest sandpaper available, that really rough, gritty kind that takes a whole layer of skin off if you so much as look at it sideways. I paid a lot for those, and I remember all my neighbors being jealous of how torturous they were.

And while everything seemed to be going properly upon my awakening state, it took me a while to realize no one had thrown tear gas into my room to wake me up yet. I was breathing far too easily, and I didn’t like it. What is life if you’re not feeling constant pain? That’s just mere existence.

I didn’t know what to do. I was sure that I had some boulders to push up and down hills or nightmares to embellish, but there was nobody around to give me my daily assignment. It was dinner time before I realized how hungry I was, but nobody had screamed at me to eat my fucking dinner yet, so I wasn’t sure if I could. I didn’t get out of bed for two days, and it was then that I heard about the do-gooders trying to overthrow the government. They had convinced themselves that hell needed more humanity, and that its natural citizens deserved better treatment.

But the question is, better for whom?

Chapter Two

Delaney

I cannot believe the fucking gall of this gargoyle. He thinks he can just go frozen after leaving me a hint of something that sounded like a really good time? To start dishing out dirty talk and then just not finish his sentence?

I can’t explain the way it felt, but I could pinpoint the exact second he was no longermyLeo. Now he’s become the stone guardian again, and I can’t sense his energy at the moment. He drained himself coming inside to see me, and I think it’s going to take a while for him to regroup and recharge.

I don’t think that means that he has no awareness, just that he can’t interact with me.

I spin around slowly so I’m not being reckless, spreading my legs wide so that I’m straddling him. With the way he’s sitting cross legged it’s still pretty comfy to drape myself over his hips, putting me up close and personal with his stone gargoyle dick. Atleast he froze with it hard for me— that seem like a sweet gesture to anyone else?

“You are not a very nice man, Leo. I think you can kind of hear me right now. I should finish that fantasy for you and leave you irritated like I am because I’m imagining way too much right now. Did you really have to freeze at that exact moment?”

I let my palms trace over his biceps, looping my arms under his and laying my head on his chest. It’s far from comfortable, but it still feels good.

I’ve never put my ear against his chest before and I’m shocked to hear what sounds like the faint whir of cogs inside his chest. “I think I can hear your heart.” It’s sort of beautiful, and it feels weird to want so much more with him when we’re still basically strangers. I wear his mark though, and that makes me want everything with him. It’s the lack of time he’s awake that is the problem. And yes, I hear how it sounds that I feel that way for Leo but not…others that I’m marked by.

“You okay out here, Laney?”

If I close my eyes hard enough, I can almost smell the specific scent that is Leo when he’s active; it’s earthy like fresh rain and cool water, and warm like the sun. Wow, I’m just describing rock outside, aren’t I?

“I just wish I had more time with him. It feels like I’m going a little crazy wanting to—” I stop myself from saying ‘fuck his brains out’ because that still feels like a weird thing to discuss with Adam. “Hey, question. You know I have sex, right?”

“What a time to walk out here,” Cory states as they crawl out onto the balcony after Adam.

Adam smirks and wraps an arm around his partner. “I’m aware.”

“I’m not sure I can talk to you about sex.”

Adam takes a step closer and I’m remembering the way he kissed me and how incredible it was to feel his lips move against mine, the intoxicating way he quickly inhaled over and over like he was on the verge of hyperventilating simply from kissing me. “We can just do a demonstration if that’s easier; no talking required.”

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