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Joseph Mercury

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  1. Joseph Mercury
    Chapter 4 They left Steve’s apartment at seven-thirty, walking the four blocks to the subway in comfortable, caffeinated silence. When they surfaced in Midtown and approached The Interval’s building, Jay walked into the lobby. Steve detoured around the block to stagger their arrivals. It wasn’t until he was scanning his badge at the lobby turnstile that Steve remembered the ex’s gray hoodie was still behind the sweaters in his closet. He’d forgotten to bag it and leave it with the door
  2. Joseph Mercury
    Will do. BTW, this story marks a little rebranding in my author name but its still me!
  3. Joseph Mercury
    I'll just say for the moment that the story was inspired by a Reddit post. It took on a life of its own from there, but the core issue was in that post. Thank you for reading.
  4. Joseph Mercury
    Thank you, Peter. More coming, the next three parts to be released over the next three days.
  5. Joseph Mercury
    Thanks, @dboggs9700. After the October month of sometimes creepy tales I'm trying to veer back into my usual territory. But Kip is definitely a complication.
  6. Joseph Mercury
    Senior editor Steve is finally doing things right. His arrangement with the magazine’s art director is exclusive, the sex is intense, no drama. Adult. But old habits die hard when a cocky 21-year-old intern decides to test his best intentions.
  7. Joseph Mercury
    Chapter 1 Jay’s hand was on the back of Steve’s neck, thumb against the hairline. Those hands had always looked too big for the rest of him, the same as his feet, which were braced against the footboard for leverage. His jaw was set against Steve’s shoulder as he fucked him in quick strokes. “I want us to be honest,” Jay said. His voice stayed dry even when he was buried inside him. “Right now?” “Generally.” “You picked an interesting time to bring it up.” “You’re n
  8. Joseph Mercury
    Thanks, @pulser. Glad it worked for you. As you may have seen in earlier comments, like Jason, I have anosmia (no sense of smell) and was interested in working it into a story.
  9. Joseph Mercury
    Jason could use a hug. He has a little to figure out first. ♥️
  10. Joseph Mercury
    So many unknowns. I assume Seth is a freshman if he's roomed with Mitch. But Dicker does have its own way of doing things.
  11. Joseph Mercury
    Chapter Thirteen: Initiation The night air in the valley didn’t belong to the end of October. As Halloween ticked toward midnight, the temperature refused to drop, trapped by the basin’s unnatural microclimate into something that felt like August. A fat, low-hanging full moon sat just above the tree line, bathing the campus in a stark milky luminescence that turned the stone towers to silver and the deep woods to ink. Mitch walked the narrow dirt path to the lower orchards with Se
  12. Joseph Mercury
    Chapter Seven: The Hive The apiary sat past the east orchard, where the slanted light went gold and the air turned warmer. Boxes sat in rows, making a low electric hum that wasn’t machinery. Mitch walked with the rest of the combined teams, shirt stuck to the new width of his back. Coach Cunningham walked at the front of the pack, the Alphas flanked him, their feet crushing the clover. “Team building isn’t just muscle,” the coach rumbled, gesturing toward the humming white boxes.
  13. Joseph Mercury
    I hope it helps. Coming tomorrow so the finale can land on Halloween.
  14. Joseph Mercury
    Mitch has spent years becoming the White Bull—thick-necked, pale, disciplined, and ready to give everything. When a charismatic recruiter from Dicker arrives, the isolated all-boys agricultural college in a hidden New York valley feels like the path he was built for. There are no luxury dorms and no girls. There's only brotherhood and sacrifice. As the Harvest nears, Mitch is drawn deeper into Dicker’s rituals and the sense that he has finally found a place that knows what to do with a body like his.
  15. Joseph Mercury
    Chapter One: The Offer Mitch wasn’t called the White Bull because he was the biggest boy on the team. He wasn’t. There were boys with four inches of height and forty pounds of raw mass on him. Mitch was different. Thick through the neck and shoulders, built low to the ground. An engine that didn’t look fast until it hit you. Then there was the skin. Flawless, creamy, and stubbornly pale. Stadium lights found him and refused to let go. Despite the black hair, he didn’t tan. Didn’t blotc
  16. Joseph Mercury
    Or at least partially a gas leak. Thank you for reading. Glad it worked for you.
  17. Joseph Mercury
    @Charles26, thank you so much for reading and commenting. I would like to think that Jason becoming re-engaged in life was his happy ending.
  18. Joseph Mercury
    Thanks, @dboggs9700. I know this wasn't an easy story, so I appreciate you and others for sticking with it. Side note: like Jason, I have anosmia, or no sense of smell. Don't remember ever having it. It was a little victory to include it in a story.
  19. Joseph Mercury
    9. Séance Why are we haunted? Because the departed long for something they miss from life? Eric was always so in his body. It must be hard for him not to have that. He must want something physical. Something extreme to feel. Jason pulls open the rubber bins at the bottom of Eric’s closet. There were so many passions in there. The closet overflowed with them. But Jason suspects no book, no hobby, tested him, touched Eric’s core—literally—the way his toys did. He sifts thr
  20. Joseph Mercury
    5. Eric’s Closet His policy paper undone, Jason’s eyelids are heavy. He can hear hissing whispers again, and creaking on the floors mimicking the familiar rhythm of Eric's uneven gait. There’s a sound at the front door and he thinks it's not even Halloween yet. But when he gets up to answer it there's no one there. While he’s up, Jason pours some leftover curry into a pot and sets it on the stove. As he turns the knob, he hears Eric’s voice, cheerful, impatient, “Let’s go.” Eric’s silh
  21. Joseph Mercury
    Thanks, @dboggs9700. Jason's having a rough go of it. It'll be okay.
  22. Joseph Mercury
    Jason lives in the house he and Eric bought, talks to the dog, and tells his counselor the dreams. He doesn't tell about the cabinets that stand open on their own, or the whispers, or the footsteps that favor the left foot, the way Eric’s did. Pushed to the brink, Jason returns to the mountain where they once foraged for the Ghost of October, the mushroom that appears only when it chooses.
  23. Joseph Mercury
    1. Shadows in the Corners October returns, and with it, Jason imagines seeing Eric. In the kitchen, getting coffee, or at his office door, in his boxers. More often it’s just glimpses as he passes corners. And there’s more. Jason hears whispers when he’s in the shower. Cabinet doors stand open that he'd sworn he'd closed. The floorboards creak in familiar footsteps—Eric's particular gait, the way he favored his left foot after that soccer injury. And things turn up, moved from whe
  24. Joseph Mercury
    Thanks, Cub! A last little bit of frivolity for October. Things will get a little darker as we near Halloween.
  25. Joseph Mercury
    I'll bet you could have figured a way out with no evidence. But that would have been a different story.
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