Something wicked this way comes
Life had been the shifting shuffling wrinkled sounds of Will climbing down the ivy, of Jim hopping various tunes into the boardwalk behind their houses, but all was quiet now.… it had been three years, four school years, since the dark carnival. Both boys were changed, neither had any traces of youthful innocence in their eyes any longer. Both had a world-weary aura, as if they had learned to look at the hurt right in front of them.
Jim was always wondering, stewing, watching, and lusting over everything in the world around him. Despite its many dangers, the many possibilities of pain, he had become fascinated with the solitude, the alone and togetherness of the people that surrounded him. He was just like the weather; nothing could hold him still or silent. Jim’s very presence seemed to escape the minds of people. Sometimes, it was as if he was born from dark, turbulent water, at others it seemed he wanted to open up the sky, and let the rain pound the pain out of his heart, the pain that was swirling like the carousal from long ago times.
But Will, sweet, naïve Will, had changed the most. Darkness brooded right behind the summer blue of his eyes, and a strange sadness made itself present in the smiles he gave freely. He never seemed to brood, but always gave the appearance of a kind of delicate strength, as if one word could break him, but a punch would only strengthen his resolve. Jim was the only one he truly trusted, more than anyone else in the world. The hole made in him by the carnivals meddling was barely perceptible by his family, friends. Jim was the only one who could understand that burning emptiness.
Jim had gotten what he’d wanted, been pulled into the champagne- sweet, evil temptation of the carousal, but he had never gotten all of Will. He knew it was selfish, fully admitted the wrongness of the perverse wishes of his dark, twisted fantasies. But the sweet half moon of Will’s cotton candy pink lips drew Jim like those once seen silver ocean mirrors. The golden feel of the summer-child’s presence warmed the empty gaping hole that constantly ate away at Jim’s soul. So that had been what Mr. Holloway had meant when he had talked of love, thought Jim… the fierce desire, and the certain kind of sin and guilt that accompanied it. In Jim’s eyes, Will was much too pure, to light, to be corrupted by the toxic wonder that was Jim’s heart. He provided to much seductive wonder to Jim for him to just… give up. But it defied all social taboo, this love. It even defied the edict of god, a presence that had always been huge in such a small town. The opinions of the small-minded townspeople didn’t particularly bother Jim… but he knew that if his feelings for his best friend were ever discovered, Will would bear the brunt of the hideous accusations hurled at him. Jim would rather hold in the stumbling wishes of his heart than risk alienating the only person he loved.
But as Jim lay there, mint-rock green eyes fixed on Will’s still closed window, he pondered the bible, and love. Were they, in his case, mutually exclusive? Or was it okay for him because he also liked girls? According to the bible, didn’t it mean that he, James Nightshade, was going to hell? No. He refused to accept that.
*time break*
Will looked over to Jim’s house, wondering waiting hoping wanting to get his attention, but coming up blank for ideas how… it wasn’t that Jim would care about the early intrusion, it was that Will was afraid to annoy him with incessant staring. Will tried to formulate an excuse to stare, but no reasonable one popped into his head. “What am I gonna say, Will thought sarcastically, Hey Jim I think I’m completely and irreverently in love with you? You’re just so perfect that I need to stare at you constantly?! I know you’re not gay, but I think I am!” He almost laughed at that ludicrous thought, a laugh, that, had it escaped, would’ve raw with hopelessness and pain. After the carnival, they had both quietly assumed the roles of each other’s protectors. The need for each other had become so great that they seldom slept alone. Each night, a signal was made to indicate all the parental units were asleep. As soon as it was received, a dark silhouette could often be seen climbing between the houses to the opposite window.
Will always felt that Jim popped the bubble of tension that grew whenever he was alone. Just a sweep of those piercing eyes always warmed Wills heart, sometimes to the point where he thought it would burst into flames. And when the depression, the hysteria, the dark angry stifling silence descended upon them, each was slowly soothed by the steady presence of the other.
Maybe Jim’s hearts slowed, or maybe Will’s raced to catch up, but every beat was synchronized, almost as if eagerly anticipating a change in the delicate web that bound them together
TAP…then TAP. Will leaned over across his bed, and caught a pale glance of Jim stretching towards his window. Both hearts raced faster, both cheeks bloomed as violently red as roses against snow, but both remained oblivious.
Will gingerly removed his lean, seventeen year old body from the twin bed, and practically ran to the sheet of crystalline glass that separated him from the creature of his every fantasy. Jim eyed his best friend as he gently slid open the window. He couldn’t believe how beautiful Will had become. His bright blonde hair had darkened to the color sun-ripened wheat, his eyes the color of the night sky in hell on bad days; on others, it was the summer sky unadulterated by clouds. He was thin, but beautifully muscled from his constant sprints with Jim. He radiated such a unique goodness; everyone was drawn to him like butterflies a particularly succulent flower.
Jim’s eyes roved over the oblivious Will, devouring his body hungrily with his eyes, until the subject of his study suddenly noticed how long Jim had been watching him.“What?” Will asked, “Do I got something on my face?” The moment broken by his words, Jim grinned crookedly and climbed gracefully into Will’s window and said laughingly, “Yeah, a who lot of ugly!” With that, everything returned to its usual semblance of normality.
