Blind Love

Jared looked at Noah and for the first time in their life together as brothers, felt the twinge of jealousy towards Alex. He hadn't felt it when he was with Enzo or the string of far more good-looking and well sculpted men he screwed around with. He had felt sad for him when he fucked around and was drinking a lot for a year when he had stayed over after his breakup with Enzo. But never had he felt jealous! But there was something about Noah that made him want what Alex had, for himself as well.

Noah stood in the centre of the room, in his polo T-shirt and khakis, his eyes covered with dark sunglasses, shoulder length wavy brown hair all messed up and his cheeks flushed. He wrung his hands together, looking nervous and cute as hell. Alex hovered over him, taking his bag, combing his hair and then kissing his head. They looked... content!

It wasn't sexual for Jared, he didn't get aroused looking at Noah or fantasise him naked or anything, he just wanted someone like him and what he meant to Alex, to happen to him as well.

His phone started ringing, it was their Mom. She wanted to speak to Alex as well, she and their Dad were caught up in a corporate lunch and would be late. He handed the phone to Alex. Alex mumbled something to Noah and moved to the backyard swimming pool area of the house. It was Alex's habit to start walking while speaking on a mobile... 'He takes the word literally!' Jared thought and smiled. As soon as Alex moved away from Noah, he looked nervous and kind of pale, this alarmed Jared and he walked over to the small, beautiful and lost Noah.

Noah stood in the centre of the room surrounded by a large group of children staring at him.The children were of various ages, but all pale, malnourished and in old clothes.The wounded boy and the others followed Alex and kept whispering, "Help us!"

Noah felt faint but he didn't want to show it, he looked at the boy, a Native American child with half his face caved in by a bullet wound. He realised all the children were of colour and had marks on their faces and hands. They looked traumatised mentally and tortured physically. The ones hiding were badly burnt. The apparitions though terrifying in appearance made Noah extremely sad. All he felt was a sense of loss, loneliness and a child's innocent outlook on being treated badly, 'What did I do wrong? Why do I deserve this? I am sorry, please stop!'

The Lady in Red wanted to bury her daughter and her daughter wanted to meet her mother. The family had exhumed the remains, arranged a wake and funeral, post which they buried them and the ring, with love and repentance and built a Mausoleum in their memory.

Des and Ori had come to Noah's apartment to give him and Alex the update and relay the fact that they had stopped hearing the baby's voice. Des had stood at the doorway, till Alex walked past Ori and hugged his brother tightly, they had missed each other deeply in the couple of weeks when Alex refused to talk to him.

Des held Noah's hand and started to apologise, but Noah stopped him, "I thought I was family and Alex was out! He gets warm hugs and I get cold apologies? That doesn't seem fair!" He said between sobs. Des had enveloped Noah in his large arms and kissed his forehead, not apologising but thanking him for doing what he did for their family.

But this was different, this was not a case of one wronged spirit, who knew what had happened to her and why. These were little children, just lost and confused. They weren't crying or complaining, in fact they were scared of the colour of Noah's and Alex's step family's skin.

Noah concluded with heart-breaking sadness, when they followed Alex as he moved around, that they were talking to Alex and not him. Noah didn't know how to talk to them. He wasn't sure if he wanted Alex involved. Alex and Jared were so excited about this trip and the weekend party they had planned.

"You okay there, Bud?" Jared said and startled Noah, who jumped out of his skin with a small yelp. "Hey! It's me! Jared! Sorry, I didn't want to scare you!" Jared felt guilty, looking at Noah, it was difficult to realise he couldn't see and a sudden voice could be alarming for him.

"Uhh! Sorry! Was thinking about something else and hence kind-off was zoned out!" Noah said, giving a nervous smile. Jared had an overwhelming desire to hug Noah, again not in a sexual way but more to comfort him... 'Or is it a bit sexual as well?' A stray thought tugged at Jared, as his dick began to stir to life with the image of Noah, safely tucked in his arms.

"You alright Baby!" Alex was at Noah's side at once, touching and checking him. "I startled him!" Jared confessed, shutting down the whispers of desires he had just felt. "What is it Baby?" Alex wasn't convinced, Noah didn't startle easily. "No! I am just tired, so I zoned out and was surprised when Jared spoke to me!" Noah rubbed Alex's biceps with his small hands, comforting his boyfriend and trying to relax Alex rather than himself. 'Fuck! I want this too!' Jared mused in his mind.

"Let me settle you guys in Alex's room, which by the way, Mom had gotten redecorated for Noah." Jared winked at Alex, who smiled but still looked worried for Noah. He picked their bags and led them to the room. It was now sparse and was redecorated in tasteful un-cluttered modern interiors with softer and rounded edges. All furniture was placed against the wall and doors were changed to sliding. New grills were fitted to the French windows and the attached balcony. The bathroom was completely redone and a large shower had replaced the bathtub. The bed was upgraded to king size and on the side there was a love couch sofa, a gift from Jared.

Jared closed the door behind him and was walking to his room, when suddenly he felt someone peeping from the corner of the living room wall. He turned around and there was no one. "This place is super creepy!" Jared mumbled and suddenly realised that it may have been possible that Noah saw something and hence got startled. Noah! The Magical Cowboy! That's what Alex called him when he had called and shared the news that he had finally found his forever. "Magical! Indeed he is!" Jared said aloud and entered his room.

"Babe! Come here." Alex led Noah to the sex couch, "Feel this!" He said excitedly. Noah felt the S shape counter of the couch and the lux vegan leather. "Hmm! It's oddly shaped for a couch or a chair but it's really smooth." Noah observed his mind somewhere else. "It's a sex couch! Look! Sit here and I will sit behind you or you can lie here and keep your feet on this... and you can turn around and hold this... this is like 36 positions in one night! Jared picked the best piece of furniture... EVER!" Alex excitedly placed Noah in several positions on the couch and got on his positions to showcase what all can be done on the couch. Noah smiled and touched Alex's face, "Baby! Can we do this later? I am really tired!"

This alarmed Alex, who obviously didn't pursue the discussion and guided Noah to the washroom. There was something going on with Noah. Noah was a live wire and was always charged up.

Alex remembered how his small cowboy had attacked him in the car, unbuttoning his denim shirt and licking his pecs and underarms, sucking his nubs. He had gone down on him, and when Alex stopped him from unbuckling the belt, he had sucked on his hard dick over the soft denim, taking him to the brink of climax before claiming his mouth again and that was just a few hours ago, in the fucking parking lot of his family holiday home.

Once Noah had asked Alex to fuck him in a warehouse supermarket, while shopping for furniture for their new home. They had sneaked behind the huge racks of diapers, Noah had lowered his shorts and underwear and bent over for Alex to take him from behind, which he did. Noah was used to enjoying sex without making any sound but Alex had to bite his shirt to keep muted.

When Noah had stayed over at Alex's after the Enzo encounter, they had gone to a club where Noah was invited to perform. Noah had come off stage all riled up and kissed Alex, sensuously in front of everyone, merging their bodies together and whispering in Alex's ear, "Now! I want you now!" Alex had taken Noah in the dark small tight corner between the washroom and storeroom, with Noah's back on the wall in a suspended congress position. He is sure people had watched them but at that moment and even now, he really didn't care. Noah wants... Alex does... that's all was to it.

Noah didn't cook and had stopped having hot beverages before meeting Alex. He avoided crowded places, besides his performances because Rob or Kay was with him, his reason was not to get hurt and depend on anyone for support.

Hence it was difficult for Noah when people had filled their new two bedroom house for the welcome barbecue party. As the evening went by, Noah got into the rhythm and started enjoying himself, feeling the warmth of a new way of life with Alex. Somewhere in the middle of the evening, he had asked Ori to lead him to Alex. Alex was serving some sliders when Noah hugged him from behind and Ori left them but not before winking at Alex and smiling. "Now! I want you now!" Noah whispered and took a long sniff off Alex, making him instantly hard. Alex pulled him to the laundry room and fucked him by laying Noah on top of the dryer. Alex returned to the party covered with bite marks and had gotten chided to no end by everyone, but he didn't care... Noah wants... Alex does!

This was his Noah, it wasn't about sex or their explosive chemistry. His Noah was independent, intelligent, talented and deeply perceptive. He either did what he wanted or had a good reason to not do it, he wasn't one to just make an excuse.

Noah walked out in only his underwear, his face and hair damp, with a towel around his neck. "I am sorry Babe!" He said as soon as he stepped out, "I am really feeling depressed and hence I lied about the whole couch thing!" He came straight to the point. "The house is haunted, with children... so many of them... they were tortured when they were alive and they are not talking to me." He raised his arms for a hug. Alex got up from the sofa and hugged him. "Are they here?" Alex asked softly. "No! They hover in the living room and backyard but don't walk around the house. They are scared and they don't want to speak to people like me." Noah explained. "People like you?" Alex hugged him closer. "White!" Noah sighed."What do you think happened to them?" Alex genuinely felt scared this time. "They were brought here to be cleansed and converted." Noah felt the energy draining away from him. Alex picked him up and laid him on the bed and climbed in, spooning his small boyfriend with his large muscular body. Noah fell asleep immediately.

Alex had lived in this vacation house so many times and had brought men back to this very bedroom. He had gone through a phase of rough, almost painful sex after Enzo, punishing the bottom. All black haired and fair... preferably Italian. He had made them moan in Italian as he fucked them brutally with his huge dick and bull like strength. He was pissed drunk all those times and in the morning hated himself. Jared was there for him in his dark days. He dropped the boys home after Alex was done with them. He held Alex under the shower or over the toilet. He held Alex in bed when he felt alone and was with him in AA meetings and anger management workshops.

He had come off the darkness and gathered himself just enough to stay away from alcohol and respect his Grindr dates but like he had confessed to Noah, he didn't respect himself. Then Noah shined through in his life, bringing everything into sharp clarity. Noah, the small blind cowboy who saw him and knew him. Who did everything he wanted and made him feel loved, alive... relevant. As Noah slept in his arms, only in his underwear and Alex still fully clothed, he felt ashamed when Noah said the house was full of lost children. He felt disgusted for the things he did and said while he spent the darkest time of his life in this house. He didn't feel worthy of helping them, but Noah wanted his help to bring peace for the children. And if Noah wants... Alex does... those are the rules!

***

"The building was built for a psychiatric correction centre and later, the Light through Darkness Orphanage." Mr. Shields explained as they sat around the table with their after-dinner drinks.

Noah had asked him about the history of the building and he was happy to share what he knew about it.

The children peeped through the gilded iron frame separating the living room from the dinner table. Mr. Shields didn't believe that any horrible thing had happened in the house because as per his research in aspect of the legend regarding children trapped inside a burning building was likely inspired by the Collinwood school fire of 1908, which occurred years after the psychiatric building events and way before the Orphanage and resulted in the deaths of 172 children and a few adults but not in this location. "This place hasn't witnessed any violent deaths of young adults or children." He reassured.

Mr. Shields waved off the stories, "In the 1800s, a fire destroyed the building and it was abandoned at the time. The urban legend which claimed that it killed many children, many caretakers and the orphanage Director, who was left in charge of the conversion activities when other nuns were sent to medical services was all hearsay."

Noah looked at the burnt children, secretly confirming that it was not hearsay... something horrible had happened in this place and it involved coloured children.

"The earlier mansion built after the orphanage itself burned down on the night of December 6, 1923, though there were no human casualties since it was abandoned after the orphanage was shifted to an unknown location." Mr. Shields smiled at Alex's mom as she snatched his glass from him, stopping him from taking another drink.

Noah didn't say it but he had to disagree because he was hearing the cries of orphans trapped in a fire.

"In early 1980s, teenagers were visiting the Mansion before it developed its current Orphanage legend, in search of the supernatural, due to its reputation for being haunted. They claimed to have seen children looking through the windows and had taken many polaroid pictures but did not capture anything" He concluded the campfire story with a smile and kept the empty scotch glass with finality.

"But Dad, a Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative Investigative Report was published with shocking details, about the US Government's deployment of boarding schools as a tool to culturally assimilate American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children and to facilitate Indian territorial dispossession. More than four hundred of these institutions are documented, in operation between 1819 and 1969." Jared insisted, extremely unsettled with Noah's pointed questions and almost scared posture. He made a mental note to check with Alex and Noah after their parents called it a night.

Noah knew with extreme clarity through multiple visions that there were 53 graves for children across the boarding school and orphanage, mostly in the backyard and the land where the living room now stood and he expected more to be discovered with the number of children lost in the house.

****

The children slowly opened up and spoke about how they were brought here in trucks and admitted for proper education! They weren't orphans to start with, either their parents were murdered in front of them or they were herded in groups like cattle and brought to places like this.

Some of the older children remembered torture including but not limited to renaming the children from native to English names and getting corporal punishment for not memorizing and using it. Boys had their long hair forcefully shaved and children subjected to ritual punishment because they had been practising religions, and cultural practices which were deemed pagan and satanic. They spoke of the number of children collapsing due to exhaustion during military drills and some never returned.

The caretakers enjoyed frequent use of manual labour and corporal punishment, including flogging, withholding food, and solitary confinement for even small errors like missing to dot the i's or crossing the t's. In fact they were the good ones, hunger and pain was a welcome break from what SHE subjected them to.

"Who is SHE?" Alex relayed the question to the children, with Noah and Jared sitting around a candle in the backyard wooded area, which was part of their property. Noah suddenly whimpered and held Jared's hand tightly in panic. "SHE! The one who now lives in the attic, where she died when the place burnt down! She is not letting them go!"

Jared automatically looked at the attic round window, visible from where they were seated and he clearly saw what he always thought was a trick of the light or a peripheral vision issue. But now as he looked at the dark shadow figure standing at the window, he knew it was all real. He gulped and held Noah's hand tighter.

"Yes! It's her... you can see her shadow, don't you?" Noah whispered as he saw the children run away and disperse. "She hates Alex and your Mom and is disgusted with you and your Dad. She is the one who killed your mother! And this time it's us!" Noah whispered as he looked at HER.

She was burnt with her skin peeling off, her black dress incinerated and stuck to her body. A cross burnt into her chest, the metal had melted and dripped downwards making it an inverted cross. Her unburnt skin was pale white and eyes translucent blue. Wisps of remaining hair burnt blonde stuck to her neck and shoulders.

If her appearance was what nightmares were made of then the smile she was giving them was downright terrifying. She mouthed the words as she turned slightly and looked at Alex, 'I WILL KILL YOU, FILTHY N****!