Nightmare Messiah

Monday II

         Later that afternoon, Isaac had showered and cleaned himself up in a set of more professional clothing. Pin stripes were his favorite type of suits, and he always wore a tie and a vest underneath the jacket. Gage showered as well, cleaned himself up of sex, sweat, and makeup. When he stepped out of the shower, he found Maddy sitting on the toilet waiting for him with a box clutched between her knees on the closed lid. Being caught dripping wet and naked in this house was nothing new. Gage only smiled at the slightly older girl and reached for the towel hanging on the bar nearby. “Hey,” he said as he rubbed the towel against his hair to soak up the moisture. He briefly rubbed himself down and then wrapped the towel around his waist.
         “You always smell good when you get out of the shower, Gage,” she said. In her own little way that was a return hello.
         He chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair to comb it back lazily. He also glanced briefly at the box she held in her hands. A brief glance was all he needed to confirm his suspicions. “What color does he want me sporting this time?” he asked somewhat sardonically.
         “You’re going back to brown,” Maddy informed him, lifting up the box with a practiced smile. She knew how much he hated having his hair dyed, but Isaac insisted on the change as often as possible. The girl held up a small lock of hair that had been tied together at one end with a tightly wound rubber band. “I found this in Delilah’s memory box. The one she kept for you? Do you remember her cutting your hair when it was really long?”
         Gage blinked and stared at the girl. Delilah’s box. Delilah had found an old shoe box that she had started putting keepsakes in for him only a week after he started staying with them all in the house. When she brought him home with her, his hair had been long and scraggly. Scraping through life for an entire year on his own before she found him had made his hair grow out to his shoulders, filthy and unkempt. After she brought him home, she bathed him and insisted he let her cut his hair. He hadn’t been able to argue with a woman as sweet and caring as Delilah had been to him.
         “Yeah,” he finally said. It occurred to him that he had been silent for a moment longer there than he should have been. He kept that box in the closet of the room he shared with Maddy. He had been a little surprised to learn that she knew it was there. “Yeah. I remember.”
         Maddy smiled softly at him and tipped her head. “You look in that box every night you know. When you think I’m sleeping. Thinking the squeak of the door and the flashlight angled into the corner of the closet isn’t going to wake me up.”
         Gage flushed there, felt the rise of color in his cheeks, and he chuckled in an attempt to smother the embarrassment. He couldn’t hide anything from Maddy. “I miss her sometimes, you know?”
         “Yeah. I know. I miss her too, Gage.” Maddy sighed and lowered her hand to watch her own fingers twirl the lock of hair between them. “She saved this for you. She probably knew Isaac would have you dying your hair. Hell. He has all of us dye our hair, or wear wigs. He likes constant change. Sometimes I think he fears stability. You know often he redecorates.”
         “And how many girls he goes through. I think you and me are the only two he’s kept this long.”
         Maddy laughed lightly and stood up. She patted the closed lid of the toilet. “Sit down, Gage.” Turning to face the sink, she set down the box and worked on tearing it open to sift through the dye kit.
         He followed instructions easily, never protested and never complained. At least not outwardly. Not by much. He did, however, turn and settle onto the closed lid of the toilet seat with a sigh. “My hair’s going to fall out one of these days from all this crap.” Okay. So maybe he did complain a little. With Maddy he felt comfortable enough to do so. With anyone else he wouldn’t have dared.
         Again the girl laughed lightly. It was an abrupt and quieted sort of laugh that only barely contained an ounce of humor in it. She was amused, oh yes. In all honesty, that laugh was more real than any other she expressed. “You really believe that?” she asked while tugging on the plastic gloves and prepping the dye mix.
         “I dunno,” he said. “I lose a lot of hair in the shower.”
         “That’s only because you need a trim, sweetie. Your hair’s getting long again.” She turned to look at him and smiled while shaking up the bottle. “I’m supposed to do that too.”
         “Cut my hair?”
         “Mhm.”
         Gage rolled his eyes and he scoffed. “It’s not getting that long.”
         “No, but it could use a trim. You’re getting split ends.”
         “You can tell that just by looking?”
         Maddy laughed again in that same manner and stretched out a hand to ruffle up his hair affectionately. It wasn’t too long. Not really. It was short enough and not too thick to where it dried fast. “I’m a girl, baby. Of course I can tell by just looking. I’d’ve thought by now that you’d be able to too.”
         To that, Gage snorted. “Oh come on, Maddy. Just because I bend over and let guy’s stick their dicks in my ass doesn’t mean I’m gay.” At least, he certainly hoped not. That was an issue he was still constantly arguing with himself about. He only did it for the money, he often reminded himself. Nevermind the fact that sometimes he actually enjoyed it. He always tried forget that fact.
         “It doesn’t matter what you are, Gage. Gay or straight. All that matters is that you make them think you like them, bring home the money, and do it all over again the next day.” Maddy even sighed then and paused a moment. Likely she had been distracted by a disappointing thought. Sometimes she got uncomfortable discussing the intricacies of their job description. “I’ve slept with some girls before, you know. That doesn’t mean I’m gay either, but sometimes it’s nice.”
         She always did that. Somehow she had a way of reading his mind. Or maybe they were just too much alike. They both started working for Isaac Delaney at a young age. They were both his favorites. They had bonded because of that. A few times before they had been bought as a pair, to fullfil a fantasy for desperate and rich debutantes. Most of their clients were high society sorts: lawyers, judges, police officers, big business owners, all those people who lived secret lives away from their hundred thousand dollar houses, spouses, and two and a half children.
         Gage had gone silent, thoughtful. He had a tendency to do that more often than not. To get lost from the conversation and to reflect on memories that were related. Sometimes they weren’t even related at all. Maddy sighed again and reached to put her hands on his shoulders, one of them still clutched the bottle of dye, and she was still wearing the plastic gloves. “Turn your back to me,” she instructed while also nudging him to turn. He did turn, faced the wall to have his back facing her instead.
         Maddy might have felt more at ease talking to him when he wasn’t looking at her, or teasing him as the case might be. “You can’t tell me you don’t like it sometimes,” she said. “Sleeping with a man?” She combed her plastic-guarded fingers through his hair and started squeezing the mixture onto his head.
         “No,” he said. “I can’t say that. Sometimes ... it’s nice. Yeah.” He actually hated admitting that, but he couldn’t lie to Maddy. She always knew. He could easily lie to any other man or woman, but never Maddy. He could even get away with lying to Isaac sometimes, but more often than not the man could read him like an open book. They were the only two people who could. Ruby and the other girls believed everything he told them, no matter how absurd it sounded.
         “And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Maddy said. She always said the right thing, the reassuring thing. He could even hear her smile without seeing her face. While she worked on massaging the mixture into his hair, she continued talking. “Sometimes it’s better, for me, to be with another woman, you know? Sometimes a woman just knows better. All the right places to touch. How to touch without hurting. How to make me feel good and loved.”
         Gage chuckled, because for a moment there he wanted to say something teasing. He didn’t have to say anything at all, though. She picked up on it right away and lightly swatted him on the back of the head. “Ooh. You know what I mean!”
         The chuckle turned into more of a laugh after that, but it was quick. “Yeah. I know what you mean. Guys don’t always know how to make a girl feel good. Well, except for me. I always know.”
         “That’s because you’re a whore, Gage. Just like me. We’re supposed to know.”
         Earlier in his life he would have been appalled by that notion, but over the years he had come to accept it as the truth. He was a whore. Men and women paid him to sleep with them. The same went for Maddy and all the other girls under Isaac’s employ. Gage had been and still was the only male that worked for the man. Isaac called him his special toy because of it. Sure, other boys had tried to work for him, but Isaac always turned them down or fired them after a day or two. They weren’t the same as Gage. No others could compare. Besides, it wasn’t often that a client came looking for a man. When they did, Isaac wanted to make certain they were given the best. Gage was the best, the most malleable and controllable, a rare breed.
         For several moments there was only silence between them as Maddy worked the dye into every little strand of hair on the boy’s head. Between the two of them, she was the most prone to becoming uncomfortable with silence. “Are you nervous?” she asked.
         Gage was instantly confused, immediately uncertain what it was she was talking about. She had actually pulled him out of another daydream. It had been hours since he’d left his last client asleep in the hotel room, but once again he had been caught thinking about her. Who she was. Why he couldn’t get her out of his head. Something must have happened last night, something great, to have him still thinking about her. “Nervous about what?”
         “About tonight, silly.”
         Oh right. Tonight. There was a party to go to tonight, a party Isaac was taking them both to, to meet a client of undecided preference. “Oh,” he said. He wasn’t sure what else to say directly thereafter. Was he nervous? “I guess. Maybe. A little, yeah.” It was just another day on the job to him for the most part. He chuckled then. “I think I’m more nervous about going to get fitted for a suit.”
         “You’ve never worn one, have you?” Maddy sounded uncertain herself, as if she couldn’t quite recall. “I’ve worn lots of fancy dresses myself. But I don’t remember seeing you in a suit.”
         “That’s because I haven’t worn one, no. Most of the people Isaac hooks me up with don’t want a boy in a suit. They want a dirty boy in leather and chains.” He laughed sarcastically. While that was true, it was also ridiculous. “I think it’ll be nice for a change. To dress up pretty.”
         Maddy laughed with a bit more feeling that time. “Honey. You’re pretty no matter what you’re wearing, and you know it.” She finished spreading the dye through his hair completely and stepped back to perch on the side of the tub. She sat with one leg outstretched and the other tucked with her foot against the base, her hands on the sides and arms locked to keep her upright.
         He turned on the toilet lid to look at her and smiled. “Damn right I know it,” he said. “I have enough people reminding me of it that it’s kind of hard to forget.”
         “Gets annoying, doesn’t it? Sometimes I want someone to tell me I’m a dirty, ugly slut and mean it seriously.” Maddy had plenty of clients who called her that anyway as part of their fantasies, but it was never sincere. Especially considering that they often came back and bought her again for another night.
         Gage laughed and pushed himself back against the seat to straddle it, stretched out his legs. Leaning against the tank, he made himself more comfortable and relaxed, just settled to let the dye set in. In the interim, he and Maddy could talk. “You’re nervous,” he said, switching the subject. “I can tell.”
         “Well, yeah.” She tipped to lean against the wall and rubbed her hands along her arms as if she needed to warm herself up from a nonexistent chill in the air. “I’ve dressed up for all manner of things before, Gage, but never a fancy party. I’ve never even been in a big house before. It’s always some hotel room somewhere far away. You know. Where rich husbands take me so their wives don’t know about me.”
         “Mm. Sleazy motel rooms. Cheap as they can come. And they always pay in cash so their wives can’t trace the credit card bill and ask questions. If they’re smart.”
         “Yeah. And half the time they all stink. The rooms, you know? Like they’ve been used for sex over and over and never been cleaned.” Maddy wrinkled her nose distastefully.
         When she said that, Gage was instantly pulled back into the memory of last night. Though for the life of him he couldn’t recall much of last night at all. He remembered waking up this morning in the hotel room with the mystery girl. He was considering just referring to her as Mystery Girl as often as he kept thinking about her. Never before had he bothered thinking about anyone he’d slept with. It was a waste of time. Trained and ingrained into his mind that it was a waste of time. Whores don’t fall in love, they pretend to be in love with you so they can take your money and disappear the morning after. Oh Jesus. Was he falling in love with a girl whose name he didn’t even know?
         He remembered the scent in the room clearly, and he could even decipher it at that point. Jasmine. It was certainly jasmine. Not a strong and overpowering scent. Something watered down and diluted to be faint yet still captivating. He’d washed that scent from his own body only a short while ago, and suddenly he felt as if he were missing something important, as if that scent should still be there. Without even realizing he had succumbed to a daydream, he turned his head to look out the bathroom window. Something was missing.
         A little girl in a pale white dress was standing in front of the house across the street. The house was painted gold. She held a dirtied porcelain doll by the hand; it dangled limply at her side. The girl reached out with her other hand, palm up as an invitation to be taken. She looked so sad and lonely, lost. She wanted someone to take her hand. She wanted to lead them somewhere. But there was only the girl, the house, and the doll. There was no one else around, but she somehow seemed to be looking right at him through the blinds in the window, as if she could see him sitting there. He blinked.
         “Gage?” He blinked and he turned his head only slightly to glance at Maddy. She sounded concerned all of a sudden. Should he have been surprised by the tone of her voice? In an instant he realized that he had been drifting off again, because when he looked back out the window the little girl was no longer there. He felt his brows dip down, and likely Maddy noticed the puzzled expression as well. “Gage, are you all right?”
         “Yeah,” he said. He shook his head to clear the fog of uncertainty that had settled in, and he looked back at Maddy with a forced but well-practiced smile. “Yeah. I’m fine.” The exertion from keeping up with Isaac earlier had drained most of the whiskey out of his system. The hot shower had helped clear his head as well. This is why he hated being sober. The more clear-headed he was, the more he swore he was hallucinating, seeing things. In looking back out the window again, he was certain there was no little girl standing across the street. Had she even been there at all?
         Maddy sighed and leaned forward to settle her cold hand on his bare knee. “Gage, sweetie,” she said. “You worry me sometimes. Are you sure you’re okay?”
         The feel of her cold hand against his warm knee was a shock to the system, to say the least. It was her concern that snapped him out of it completely. He looked back at her fully and he smiled in a more genuine way. “Yeah. It’s nothing. Probably just the fumes from this hair crap.” He chuckled lightly in an attempt to switch the subject by lying. It had nothing to do with the chemicals at all. The window was cracked open and the door was wide open in the bathroom. Even with the diminishing steam in the air, there was nothing to keep the strong chemicals of the hair dye concentrated enough to be effecting him. As always, he suspected Maddy had seen through him, but that time she didn’t. The girl only smiled and reached for his hand.
         “Well, come on then,” she said, tugging on his hand once she’d gotten ahold of it. “Into the shower with you. Time to wash that hair crap out.”
         “You know,” he said, getting up to his feet. She stood up too and pulled him closer to the tub. “You could have told me about this before I got in the shower the first time. Now the water’s gonna be all cold.”
         “Oh hush.” She pushed him against the edge of the tub, turned on the water, and then yanked the towel off of him. “Don’t be a baby.” She swatted his ass with the flat of her hand, a solid yet light slap, and then she laughed.
         “Ow, hey!” He frowned at her, not seriously, and rubbed his hand over his ass cheek where she’d slapped him. “I am not a big baby.” He didn’t sound very convincing, even to himself.
         “Just listen to you whine,” she teased.
         Gage huffed indignantly and tested the feel of the water with his hand. Two showers in one day. It seemed like a waste of warm water, but he wasn’t paying the bills. Well, he was, just not directly. The money he earned paid for their utilities. He sighed, realizing that he was just going to have to work harder.