The Good Son - 15. Chapter 15: Only Girls Cry

Once everything winded down, Johnathon did come over, bringing the baby; while Jack was gone at work. Things seemed to be getting normal again, besides the fact that Daniel hadn’t been painting much. It was sort of like he had a cloud hanging over him. He started acting like he had when he first arrived: different.

He was back to being… calculating.
On a weekend, he went to Geil’s room while Jack, Arty, and Henry talked outside about the possibility of building a tree house; Jack had one when he was a kid, Arty thought the snow would get Geil sick.

Daniel sat on Geil’s bed, the latter sitting at his drawing table and looking at Daniel when the teen came into the room.

“Hi, Daniel,” Geil said. Daniel didn’t say anything or wave, just motioned the boy over. The blonde child put his crayons down onto his desk and stood up from his seat, walking over to Daniel. With Daniel sitting down, they were equal heights. He looked at the child.
“Do you want to play hide and seek?”

Sneaking Geil to the basement was easy because the adults were still outside having their debate. And apparently through all of their parenting, Geil had never been into the basement. Wise, because it looked like Freddy Kruger's boiler room.

Daniel pulled Geil along by his wrist to the howling furnace, the boy beyond petrified and grasping Daniel’s clothes in fear.
“I don’t wanna be here,” he cried lightly, looking up at Daniel in the darkness. The teenager ignored him, taking him to the burning metal. There were storage boxes a few feet in front of the furnace, so Daniel sat Geil against them, the boy’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t want to play anymore...”

“We’re hiding from Daddy, yes?” Daniel knelt in front of Geil. He grabbed the boy by his hair when he sobbed, making him cry harder. “Only girls cry, remember?” His voice came out harshly, which scared Geil into a hiccup. Then Daniel let go of the child’s hair. “Have you heard the boy who cried wolf?” he asked quietly. Geil just watched him, sniffling.

“It’s where the parents don’t believe the boy; do you want them to laugh in your face?” Daniel asked. Geil shook his head, having a slight hyperventilation as he tried to stop crying. “Because they will do just that. Now, I’m leaving you down here-”

“No, no!” Geil screamed in terror, bursting out into tears again and sitting forward to hug Daniel tight. “Don’t leave me!”

Daniel forced the boy off, thrusting him back against the boxes. He stood up, watching the hysterical child. “I’m leaving you down here, yeah? But, I’ll come back for you if you do something,” he said. Geil sobbed with his face buried in his knees. “You can wait here for Daddy to find you, but you’ll lose the game. Or, you can cut off your hair, and I’ll come to get you, and then you’ll win. Does that sound fair?”

Geil looked up at Daniel in confused fear because: if you cut your hair, you have to have something sharp. Daniel pulled some big sewing sheers from his pack pocket and set them on the floor in front of Geil.

“Just cut your hair, and I’ll come back. Yes?”
Geil shook his head while crying, dropping his face back to his knees. Daniel clicked his tongue.

“The rules are: cut your hair and don’t tell anybody why. You can’t tell them Daniel did this, because they won’t believe you, right? You’ll just be the liar.”

“Daniel, I want Daddy...” Geil wailed through a muffled voice, his body racking with sobs. Daniel glanced back at the furnace that stood in front of Geil, with a roaring mouth of fire that howled. He gave Geil a light wave, despite the boy not looking.

“We’ll see what you choose.” With that, he turned away from Geil and left back out of the big basement, making sure to leave the light off so that Geil couldn’t try to find his way out. Then he left back to his room, where he sat on his bed.

As if on que, he could hear Arty calling Geil.
“Geil! Geil, come here!” he called from downstairs. Daniel lay back on his bed, putting an arm behind his head and looking at the ceiling. His thoughts were: Arty will ask for me instead of Geil after assuming he’s busy playing. Well, he was right.

A knock on the door led Daniel to call out a “Come in” and Art-… Jack came inside.
“Hey, come with me for something,” Jack said. Daniel hid his disappointment and obeyed, getting up from his bed and leaving his room to follow Jack downstairs. They passed by Arty, who was looking in the kitchen for Geil.

Once outside, Jack led Daniel to Henry, who stood over a work table with different blueprints splayed across. The teen looked at his adoptive father.

“What is it?” he asked. Jack motioned to the prints that Henry looked at.

“Well, we’re trying to figure out what to build. We can do either a greenhouse or a tree house, but...” Jack glanced back at the house, where Arty was inside. Henry looked at Daniel.

“Edinburgh’s really moist, right?” he asked. Daniel nodded.

“For the most part. Why?”

“Because I doubt many people get sick out there from the weather- you think Geil would get sick in a tree house out here?”

“Probably. He gets sick from playing in the parks.”

Jack was going to say something, probably to help the argument of “tree houses are better”, but Arty came outside in a bit of a panic that drew everyone’s attention.

“I can’t find Geil,” he said. Jack and Henry looked at each other before following Arty back inside of the house. Daniel rolled his eyes and went after them all.

“I’ll look down here,” he said, because he had to stay near the basement for when Geil was found. Jack went upstairs to look in Geil’s room and Arty followed him to stress the fact of “I already looked up there!”. Henry stayed downstairs with Daniel.

“Jack, I looked everywhere in here,” Arty said, running a hand through his hair and standing by as Jack looked in Geil’s closet. The older man glanced back at Arty while sifting through the racks of clothes.

“He’s a boy, they hide anywhere dark.”

Arty gave him a look. “Not Geil.”

Jack sighed. “...Well, okay. He’s probably just playing a game,” he shut the closet after seeing that it was void of the boy, “He’ll come out when he gets tired.”

“Kids die from hiding! Haven’t you ever heard of those kids that fall asleep hiding in like, I don’t know, things!”

“Come on, let’s look somewhere else.” Jack walked by Arty to leave the room, where he motioned for the brunette to follow him.
“Hey Daniel,” Henry called while looking in the kitchen’s pantry. Daniel walked over to peer into the kitchen’s archway.

“What?”

“Where’s your basement again? He could be down there.”

Daniel shook his head. “It’s too dark down there, he’d have nightmares.”

“Well, it’s still worth a shot anyway, right?” Henry looked at Daniel, who stood with his arms crossed. The teen gave a simple shrug.

“Perhaps.”

With that, he let Henry follow him to the basement door, where the two came across Arty and Jack as they walked downstairs to the first floor.

“Where are you going?” Arty asked. Daniel looked at Henry, to let the blonde speak.
“The basement, it’s-”

“He’s never been down there before, why would he be down there?” Arty asked, his words coming out a little defensively. Jack put a hand on Arty’s shoulder, looking at him.
“Henry and I used to hide in our basement all the time when we were younger, it’s just a kid thing,” he said.

“I never did that.”

“Arty, let’s just look,” Jack sighed. Henry pointed towards the basement door.

“...I’m gonna go down there,” he said. Jack nodded and looked at Arty.

“We’ll be behind you.”

Henry left to the basement and started down the stairs, Daniel behind him. “Where’s the light?” Henry asked. Daniel shrugged.

“I’m not too sure myself.”

“Do you not come down here?”

“No, I just know where it is.”

“Great. Well,” Henry took out his phone from his pocket to turn on his flashlight, which he used to guide himself and Daniel through the basement.

There was quite a bit of ground to cover, but since it wasn’t too cluttered or anything, they didn’t really have to look too far. Behind them, Arty and Jack made their way down the steps.

“Geil!” Arty called. Walking further in the basement, Daniel could see the furnace, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he ventured away.

“Geil, come on out!” Jack called. Henry was going to ask him something, but then there was a loud cry from Geil.

“Daddy!” he wailed from wherever he was. Daniel glanced at the furnace again, where he could see Geil lightly illuminated from the flames’ lighting. He didn’t say anything, though, and just went to look behind a box.
Since Henry was closer to Daniel, therefore putting him closer to the furnace, he was the first to find Geil.

“Hey, I found him!” he called out before running to Geil and sweeping the boy up. The child was bawling, hugging Henry tight around the neck and wailing loudly into his ear. Jack and Arty came over and Henry turned to them. “He must have gotten lost down here,” he said. Daniel watched them all from where he stood a distance away.

“Oh, Geil, what were you doing down here?” Arty asked, petting Geil’s head because the boy wouldn’t let go of Henry. Geil didn’t say anything because he was crying too hard, and Jack knelt down when he saw a glint on the floor from the furnace’s light.

Reaching out, he picked up a pair of scissors, blonde hair stuck in the nut that held the blades together, and a bunch more hair on the floor around them. Jack stood up again and grabbed Geil’s head, tilting it back some so that he could look at the boy’s hair.
It was all chopped.

“Geil, look at me,” Jack said. The boy turned his head to look at his father, eyes red and swollen from crying so much. Looking Geil over, Jack could see that the child had cut his own hair, the strands choppy and uneven, some of his hair not even cut, while other sections had been assaulted. Loose hair strands clung to Geil’s face from his tears and snot. Arty gasped, looking at the child.
“What did you do?” he asked, trying to wipe hair from the boy’s face. Henry furrowed his eyebrows.

“Did he cut his hair?” he asked. Jack held up the scissors, equally as confused. He took Geil’s chin, looking into the boy’s pale blue eyes.

“Why’d you cut your hair? What’s wrong?”

“The m-monster made me,” Geil sputtered, taking a hand from Henry’s neck to wipe his irritated eyes. Arty sighed, shaking his head.

“...Let’s clean him up.” He kissed Geil’s cheek before leaving the basement to get some rags. Since Geil was latched onto Henry, the man took him out of the basement and to his room, Jack following after him. Daniel sat on a box, putting his chin on a hand.

“...Damn.”

l.l

After cleaning Geil up, Arty left him with Henry to go to the kitchen and make dinner. Geil had fallen asleep after a while of keeping Henry with him, so when the child finally shut his eyes, Henry slipped out of his bed and started tucking him in. Buried in a crease of Geil’s blanket was a necklace- a chain and locket. Henry tilted his head, looking it over.

“Oh, this?” Arty picked his locket up from his chest, to show Henry. “It’s… something really special to me,” he said and smiled softly. Henry reached out to take the locket from Arty, leaning closer to look at it. He clicked his tongue.

“Well, my brother always has had good taste,” he said. Arty laughed, shaking his head.

“No, no, it’s not from Jack. It’s from my younger brother.”

“Oh. Andrew?”

“Yeah, you’ve met him, right?”

Henry nodded, letting go of the necklace. He looked at Arty’s face, the younger man’s blue eyes sparkling from the pool below the balcony. It was a mutual friend’s Halloween party, where Jack was talking to some colleagues. Arty’s smile fell some.

“...He’s in the hospital right now,” he said. “They say it’s bacterial meningitis. They want to amputate so it doesn’t spread.” He swallowed, looking at the pool. Then he brought his glass of wine to his lips and finished the glass, wiping his mouth. He glanced at Henry and saw the man already looking at him. He gave a light scoff. “Don’t feel sorry for me or anything.”

“I don’t,” Henry said. Arty looked down at his empty glass.

“...I don’t think you’re right. In the head.”

Henry laughed. “Who is?”

Silence befell the two for a moment before Arty looked back at Henry, holding his gaze. Then he kissed him. He was fairly tipsy, but he was still sober enough to pull away and apologize.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

Henry slipped a hand behind Arty’s neck and pulled him into another kiss, one that lasted longer, with passion until they were breathless. Arty shook his head, panting lightly.

“I just-” he covered his face. “God, I’m sorry. I’m a light drinker,” he dropped his hands to look Henry again, red in embarrassment. Henry took a step closer to the younger brunette, watching him intently. Arty swallowed dryly and turned away, but Henry caught him and pulled him into another kiss, that Arty fell into a little too eagerly. Henry ground his hips against Arty’s and the brunette broke the kiss to look at Henry.

“Jack’s downstairs,” he whispered. Henry glanced back at the balcony doors, where he could see just a few people in the next room.

“Then be quiet,” the blonde said and pulled Arty away from the balcony to the corner, where they were hidden from the glass doors. Thrusting Arty against the wall, Henry started unbuckling his pants. Arty pulled his own pants down and turned to face the wall, leaning against it and waiting for Henry. Henry didn’t waste any time, slicking his cock with some saliva before pushing himself inside of Arty. The brunette breathed heavily against the wall, adjusting to the pain. After a moment, Henry started fucking him.

Arty’s locket swayed with each thrust, the silver metal clacking against the wall. To protect it, Arty swung it around so that it were on his back. Henry grabbed the necklace, pulling it taught against Arty’s throat and snuffing his air as he thrust into him, making Arty moan and scratch his nails along the wall.

If he really thought about it, Arty hasn’t been wearing that necklace lately. Had he lost it?

Henry stood up from Geil’s bed with the necklace, where he took it out of the room.

“Daniel, hand me that knife,” Arty said to Daniel. The teen took the green handled blade and brought it to Arty, the man taking it to cut some mozzarella. While Arty did that, Daniel took to layering the lasagna. Pasta, meat sauce, cheese; repeat. When that was done, Arty started dropping the mozzarella cubes over the lasagna, where Henry came in during.

“Hey Arty,” he got the man’s attention, the brunette looking at him with annoyance in his eyes. He quickly changed his expression into a neutrality, so that Daniel wouldn’t notice.

“What?”

Henry huffed and pointed off. “I found your necklace. I put it in your room.”

Arty paused and watched him. “What?”

“Your necklace? You’ve been missing it, right?”

Daniel tapped Arty’s arm, making the man look at him. “I’m going to use the bathroom,” the teen said. Arty nodded and looked back at Henry.

“It’s been missing for months, where did-”

Daniel quickly walked out of the kitchen.
If anyone were to open up the locket, they would surely see the pills. He couldn’t have that. But where had he lost it? Where had he let up?

“Ugh, dammit.” Daniel headed up the stairs, hurrying down the hallway and turning into the master bedroom.

Henry said he put it in here, the question was where.

The teen started looking on the dresser tops that were smooth and glossy, but nonetheless, empty. He went to look on the bed, patting the blankets down to feel for it if it weren’t visible. Then the doorknob started turning.

Daniel quickly turned to the closet, opening the door and stepping inside just as Arty came into the room. He watched the older brunette intently through a crack of the closet door, to see if he would find the necklace.

Arty walked through the room to a small rack on a table- full of hanging necklaces. And the locket was among them. Daniel watched as Arty touched the locket, smiling and running his finger over the engravings. He was going to open it but stopped when Jack stepped into the room.

“Hey,” the older man said, walking over to Arty. “What are you doing in here?”

Arty let go of the locket, letting it fall against the other chains. “Henry found my necklace, so I was looking at it.”

“Henry? Haha where?”

“He said in Geil’s room. I should probably thank him since you never helped me look for it,” Arty said and crossed his arms, looking at Jack. Jack gave a roll of his eyes.

“I did look, give me some credit. Anyway,” the graying blonde reached out to touch Arty’s chin, making the brunette look at him. “Are you okay?”

Arty sighed, turning away from Jack. “No. I don’t want to take Geil to the doctor’s again. What if he has a psychotic meltdown?” he looked at Jack, worried. Jack just shook his head.

“He won’t, don’t worry so much. He’s just a delicate kid, you shelter him too much.”

Arty huffed and looked away again, probably because he knew he couldn’t argue with that. Then Jack put an arm around Arty’s shoulders and kissed the brunette’s cheek. Daniel glared, watching as Arty gave in to the kisses and started kissing Jack’s lips in return. He averted his gaze to look at the locket.

If he could only get it.

Arty fell onto the bed with Jack over him and Daniel looked back over through his dark, glaring eyes. Jack.

Daniel could remember the time Arty didn’t kiss him- why? He was doing everything perfect, he knew that Arty was starting to like him, why not him? Why did he always run back to Jack?

“I have dinner in the oven,” Arty murmured to Jack through a kiss. Jack kissed his husband’s jaw.

“Then let’s be quick.” Jack kissed Arty along his neck, trailing down to kiss his chest through his shirt until he was at his groin, where he started undoing Arty’s pants.
Arty bit his lip in anticipation, watching Jack. He took in a breath and closed his eyes when he felt his husband’s mouth hot around his cock.

Daniel pulled out his phone and started dialing Arty’s phone number, something he had committed to memory. Pressing call and looking back at Arty, the brunette had his head back and a hand buried in Jack’s hair, light moaning escaping his mouth.

Ring, ring. The phone call seemed to scare Arty, but he quickly reached into his pocket to pull his phone out, looking at the caller ID. When he saw that it read UNKNOWN, he silenced the call and dropped his phone back onto the bed. Jack looked up at him.

“Who was it?” he asked. Arty shook his head.

“Don’t know.” He gave a sharp gasp when Jack started jerking him with his hand. The phone rang again.

“Goddammit,” Arty glanced at his phone, UNKNOWN reading across the screen again. Jack quietly laughed at him and he silenced it again.

Dragging his tongue up the underside of Arty’s dick, Jack could feel it throb in his hand. He slipped it back into his mouth.
The phone calls seemed to end, and Arty could feel his orgasm working up. He moaned and bit his lip, gripping the blanket tight. “Ah, I’m gonna cum,” he said quickly as Jack picked up his pace of bobbing his head up and down the brunette’s cock. His light hair was disheveled from Arty, his bangs that he always combed back hanging over his face. “Oh, don’t stop- don’t stop!” Arty dropped his head back against the pillows, eyes shut tight and mouth gaping.

Ring, ring, ring…

“Fuck,” Arty looked at his phone again. UNKNOWN. Jack pulled off of his cock and Arty looked at him. “What are you doing?”

Jack raised an eyebrow at the other man. “It’s killing the mood.”

“Ugh.” Arty picked up his phone to answer it. “Hello?”

It was silent on the other end, so Arty spoke again. “Hello? Is this a prank call?” The only sound was someone’s breathing, that sounded a little harsh.

Jack started climbing off of the bed and Arty grabbed for him. “No,” he whined, Jack looking back at him with an amused smile. Arty shook his head and hung up the phone. “It’s a prank call- come back?”

Jack laughed and sat back on the bed. Arty sat up and wrapped his arms around Jack’s neck, pulling him into a kiss. Jack dropped a hand to Arty’s waist, taking his erect cock and jerking it as their kiss got more heated and intimate. Arty took his hands from Jack’s neck to undo the man’s pants and pull his own cock out, stroking the thick girth. Jack broke the kiss to push Arty back against the bed, climbing over him again. Arty put his arms around Jack’s neck again when the man took both of their cocks into one of his hands and started thrusting against Arty’s cock. Arty pressed his forehead against Jack’s, panting as his orgasm started working up again.

“Oh, fuck- go faster,” Arty whispered, gasping when Jack thrust faster against him, his hand tight around their cocks. He himself was panting against Arty at the excitement. “I’m gonna cum now,” Arty rolled his hips against Jack’s to add to the friction and started cumming, moaning and shuddering against Jack. Jack groaned against Arty and picked up the pace when Arty’s cum slicked their dicks, making the fuck lubricated. He kissed Arty, the brunette’s cheeks flushed from the warmth of still being clothed.

“Let me jack you off,” Arty murmured through the kiss, reaching a hand down to move Jack’s away. He started jerking off the slick cock, feeling Jack sigh against his face.
As Daniel dialed Arty’s number to call him again, Henry burst into the room.

“Hey Arty, aren’t you making d- oh, uh-”

“Dammit, Henry!” Jack immediately pushed off of Arty and started putting himself away, the latter following pursuit but red-faced in embarrassment. Henry looked like he didn’t know if he should leave the room or stay, because Jack was already climbing out of bed like he hadn’t just been caught getting a handjob. “What do you want?” Jack asked, looking at his younger brother. The other blonde cleared his throat, motioning slightly to Arty.

“I was… just checking if Arty was still cooking-”

“Of coarse I’m still cooking! It’s just fucking lasagna,” Arty dragged a hand down his face, sighing. He got up from the bed and slipped by Henry to leave the room. Henry looked at Jack.

“...Did I come into something?”

Jack rolled his eyes, walking to his brother to nudge him. “Get your ass out of here.”

Daniel waited until the room was empty to leave the closet. When he did, he walked to the jewelry stand and took the locket, opening it over his hand. The pills fell out into his palm and he slapped the locket shut.

Looking down at the pills in his hand, he gave a deep exhale, face burning. He closed his fist around the capsules, his knuckles white and aching from the brick wall.