The Hathaway

Surveillance

“The boy is remarkable,” she began when we reached the apartment. “I don’t know why I didn’t feel it before.”

Remarkable in what way?” Ben asked. “What’s been going on?”

“I’m pretty sure that the house is waking up. Once you told me there were no spirits, I looked for other explanations, and the one that seemed to fit best had to do with structures that retain a memory of their past occupants, events, or emotions.”

“You mean like a haunted house?” I interjected.

“Right, but Houses can be haunted by memories as well as spirits. I think that’s what’s happening. The house is remembering things, replaying them. It’s harmless usually, although I’ve never heard of a house influencing people to have sex in their sleep before. But I think it might just be within the realm of possibility. Have there been any other strange occurrences? Noises, apparitions, stuff like that?”

“Yes. I heard a party happening in the ballroom the other night even though it was empty. And did Ben tell you about his dream?”

“You don’t need to tell her about that,” he protested.

“It’ll be our secret,” Andi assured him, “But it might be helpful if we’re going to figure out how to control this.”

“Fine!” he conceded reluctantly. “I dreamed I was fucking a woman, only I’ve never fucked a woman and I have no desire to fuck a woman.”

“I don’t imagine you do,” Andi chuckled. "Did you recognize her?”

“Nope, never seen her before in my life.”

“What did her hair look like?”

“Her hair?” he asked. “I don’t know, kind of puffy, piled up on top of her head with a big bun on the top. What’s that got to do with anything?”

“When there are no clothes visible, hair and makeup can often help us date things. The hairstyle you just described is not modern. It sounds like a late nineteenth century style, like a Gibson girl or something. That tells me that your dream was also a memory of the house. It was probably some John availing himself of the services offered here back when it was an active brothel.”

“Eww!” I don’t want to be seeing naked women through some straight guy’s eyes. Besides, why would that turn me on or make me want to fuck?”

“Because you were feeling what he was feeling. It had nothing to do with your sexuality.”

“Ok,” I interrupted, “So the house is waking up. Why now? And what does this have to do with Kevin?”

“It’s because of Kevin that the house is waking up.” she stated. “You two had already moved the structure from silence to a kind of dream state. I mean, you did bring a good bit of sexual energy with you when you moved in, and it was clear that the house was resonating with it every time you had sex, making your desire stronger. But despite all the sex you were having, it didn’t amount to enough energy to actually wake the house up. Kevin, on the other hand, acts like a psychic battery of sorts. The fact that you found him masturbating while the house was feeding off him just confirms that it’s specifically sexual energy that the house needs. And let’s be honest, is there anything that exudes sexual energy on a grander scale than a teenage boy?”

“So is he, like, feeling or seeing us when the house takes us over?” Ben seemed once again concerned about his privacy.

“I doubt it,” Andi assured him. “I think it’s just the house feeding off of you as well, using your sexual energy to remember and enact its past. It’s really harmless, although it can leave you feeling drained in the morning. I don’t think there’s any need to try to shut the house down, after all it will continue to amplify the sexual desire of anyone who lives here, but it seems to resonate particularly well with you two and Kevin.”

“So we just let it keep using us?” I asked.

“No. I have a couple of ideas that might work.” She dug into her bag and pulled out a Tibetan singing bowl, and a couple of crystal pendants. “The house is able to access your energy because it is able to resonate with your own personal vibrations. The singing bowl can charge the room with an energy that will disrupt the house’s ability to connect. Also, all crystals vibrate, and they can do essentially the same thing, except that instead of filling the room, these will interact directly with your body. You can wear them as necklaces or bracelets, or you can put them anywhere on your body as long as the crystal is directly touching the skin.”

“Ok,” Ben agreed, taking one of the necklaces and pulling it over his head. “If it’ll keep me from having those dreams again…”

I just held on to mine, and took custody of the bowl. “So what are yo going to do next?” I asked.

“Observe,” she answered. “I need to see what’s been going on, see if I can hear that buzz and feel the transfer of energy. I’ll leave it up to you to figure out how to offer a crystal to Kevin. I don’t want him to have one tonight, though, so I can make these observations. I’ll try using the singing bowl to disrupt things if I hear the house starting to feed on him, and if that doesn’t work, I can get Helmut to go and wake him up, like you did.”

She seemed to have thought of everything. “Anything else we need to know?” I asked before she left.

“Not really,” she said casually as she turned to head for the door. “Just act as you normally would. If anything serious happens I’ll call you from downstairs.” When she reached the door, she faced us and added with a grin, “I wouldn’t want to walk in while you’re in the middle of anything.”

Ben chuckled once she had left and said, “She knows us way too well.”

We puttered around the apartment for an hour or so, not doing anything specific. I could sense that he was still unsettled from the events of the afternoon, so I poured us each a glass of wine and dragged him out onto the porch to enjoy the stillness of the evening. “How are you doing?” I asked, as he raised his glass. He took a sip and thought for a minute before answering.

“Discouraged,” he admitted. “I had such hopes…”

“Nothing is definite yet,” I encouraged him. “Things may still turn out alright, just give it time.” I knew this wasn’t really helpful, but I didn’t know what else to say.

“I know,” he sighed, “But that’s just how I feel, I can’t help it.”

We leaned into the stillness of the evening, allowing the soft thrum of the crickets to slow our fevered minds and call us toward peace. The glow of the downtown with its streetlights and blinking traffic signals was obscured by the trees that surrounded us, offering a darkness that drew our eyes naturally to the stars. There was an eternal quality to those short minutes we spent together in silent meditation on the grandeur of the universe. Finally Ben broke the silence and observed, “It doesn’t really matter, does it? I mean, in the grand scheme of things this job verses that job...It doesn’t really matter.” He reached over and took my hand. “This is what matters.” He lifted my hand to his lips, squeezing it as he did, and kissed it softly.

“It is,” I agreed, drawing his had to my lips to return the kiss. After a few more minutes of silence I noticed that his head was drooping and he was beginning to doze. As much as I didn’t want the moment to end, I knew that were both were drained from the events of the day, and needed a good night’s sleep. I gathered up our glasses and kissed him on the forehead. “Alright sleeping beauty, time for bed.”

He stirred and made a few groans of protest before asserting, “I don’t want to go to bed. I want to sleep out here tonight..” I just laughed and carried the glasses into the kitchen to wash them, assuming he was already half asleep and joking. But when I went back into the living room I could see that he had taken the cushions off the couch to create a makeshift bed on the porch. He was in the midst of laying out some of the spare blankets when I found him. “I checked, it’s only supposed to get down to the low sixties tonight, plenty warm enough to still be comfortable, but just cool enough for cuddling.” He smirked as he stood just outside the french doors that led to the porch, and took off his shirt. He tossed it to me and began to undo his belt, “So, you coming to bed?”

“But...It’s outside. What if…?”

“Who’s going to see?” he challenged me. “We’re on the third floor and there are no neighbors that overlook us. Besides, the railings will obscure just about everything if anyone does happen by before we’re up. Come on.” By now his pants were off and he was reaching for the waistbands of his shorts. “I dare ya!”With one fluid movement he pulled his shorts to his ankles and stepped out of them. He stood there in the open air, buck naked with a silly grin on his face.

I chuckled at myself for hesitating. Usually I was the move adventurous one, but he had definitely beat me to this particular idea. “Alright,” I growled and I began to strip as I walked toward the open doors. By the time I reached him I had only managed to get my shirt off, but it seemed he was prepared to take care of everything else. I threw my arms around him and kissed him passionately as he undid my pants and pulled them and my underwear down together.

“You know, you guys should probably turn off the living room lights before you get started,” A voice called from below. It was Helmut. He was evidently on his way back up the driveway form checking the front gate.

I jumped back in surprise and placed my hands over my dick. But Ben just turned to face him, giving him a good view of his semi-hard dick, and shouted back, “Why? Don’t you want to watch this time?”

Helmut laughed. “If you’re gonna start doing it up there, I’m gonna have to get myself one of those drone thingies with a camera on it.”

“You do that!” Ben responded, “But for tonight I’d say you’re shit out of luck.”

“That I am,” he chuckled. “That I am.”