“That's nice,” Matthias said. He checked to be sure the door was locked and walked over to where Luis was standing. He kept the gun pointed at Hood the entire time and said, “Don't do anything you'll regret, Hood. You're not a hero. You never were. That's why I chose you to be here and start a new life with us. I know you'll listen to me. You always do. I know I can control you.”
“I don't understand why you're doing this,” Hood said. “We're friends, buddy. Let's sit down and talk about all this. Let's get out of this creepy old place and go back to the cabin.”
Matthias laughed. “This is my home,” he said. “I was born here, right in this very house, in this room.” He walked up to Luis and circled him. “You look nice, just the way I always pictured you'd look in this bedroom. Spread your legs a little and arch your back for me like a bad boy.”
Luis hesitated. “Can't we talk first, Matthias?” He figured he might be able to talk some sense into Matthias. Matthias had seemed so together when they'd first met. He'd seemed like a man anyone could trust.
Matthias grabbed Luis's ass and Luis jumped. “I said, spread your legs and arch your back for me.” His voice went an octave lower this time. His eyes bulged.
Luis, terrified to say or do the wrong thing, spread his legs and arched his back. When Matthias began to grope Luis's exposed flesh, Luis closed his eyes and inhaled. He had a feeling he knew what was coming next.
Matthias removed his hand from Luis's body and said, “Walk around the room for me like a model. I want to watch you move around. Wiggle that hot ass.”
Luis glanced at Hood and rolled his eyes. Hood sent Luis a quick nod, letting Luis know he should do whatever Matthias told him to do.
While Luis was walking around, with the high heels clicking against the hardwood floor, Hood turned to Matthias and said, “I've known you for a while, buddy. You never told me this was your home. Whenever I asked you about your past, you closed up and never told me anything. You said your mother and father were dead and you had no living relatives. I never even knew you had a home.” He spoke with a quiet, friendly tone, but with a hint of loss, like someone who has been betrayed by someone they once trusted completely.
Matthias laughed. “What was I going to tell you? That I was born in a farmhouse and that I'm one of the last remaining members of a group of religious zealots who were so strict they started practicing inbreeding just to keep the blood lines pure? Have you seen the freaks in this town? I'm one of them. Should I have told you my mother and father were brother and sister, and that their mothers and fathers were brothers and sisters? Should I have told you my mother had arms half the size of normal arms and six fingers on each hand? Should I have told you my father had two heads and two dicks and that most of my ancestors were mutants who didn't live longer than ten years old?” Matthias laughed. “I don't think that would have gone over very well.”
Hood frowned. “You could have told me. I would have understood and I wouldn't have judged you. I thought we were friends.”
“Ha! That's what they all say, especially when they see I'm perfectly normal. When I was born I was considered the miracle they'd all been waiting for at the Glatenfrissle compound. There was no one normal left by then. Those that were left were lunatics not even fit for a sideshow. With me, they thought they'd be able to rejuvenate the blood lines and keep the religion going. They thought there was hope for the future. So they sent me away from here and raised me in New York with an older couple who were fascinated with all of us—creepy old people who smelled like wine vinegar and lived in a big old building with gargoyles and griffins. My parents didn't live long. The old couple sent me to private schools and taught me everything there was to know about my heritage so I'd one day be able to come back and begin where the rest left off. They pounded it into my head. The old couple was very wealthy and they maintained the compound for years without ever coming here. They even managed to set it up so that things would be maintained after their deaths, and that I'd receive money from a trust fund for the rest of my life. The deed to this compound is actually in my name.”
Matthias was talking fast, and none of it made sense to Luis. He'd been lying all along to everyone so they'd think he was just as clueless about the compound as they were. He known where the compound was and he'd been planning this. “I don't understand what I have to do with it,” Luis said. “Why would you have photos of me all over the wall? I'm from Tennessee. I was raised a strict Baptist. But I'm not religious at all about anything anymore.” Luis's parents had been bible carrying fanatics themselves. Luis knew the effects overly religious, fanatical parents could have on their children, especially gay children.
Matthias laughed. “They all thought I was the normal one. They thought I would be the one who would keep them all going. But it turned out I wasn't normal at all. And when the older couple caught me in bed with a guy when I was sixteen years old, they sent me to one of those places where they try to cure gay people. They called it Gay Reformation.”
Luis stared at him. “So you're not really bisexual at all. You're really gay and you're pretending to be bisexual.” So much for bisexuality. Maybe Hood really was bisexual. But Luis had his doubts at this point.
“I've been with men and women,” Matthias said. “I can take or leave both. But when I saw you in a magazine for the first time, Luis, I knew I had to find you. You're everything I've ever wanted, my dream. You're a man, yet you're soft and sweet at the same time. I couldn't stop thinking about you. I started coming down here early last summer all alone so I could get this bedroom ready for you. I wanted you to like it and feel at home here for when I finally met you in person. With you by my side, I can continue the tradition and rebuild this place. That's one of the reasons why I went to medical school.”
This made no sense to Luis. Matthias had lost his mind. “But how did you know I'd be here this particular week? If it hadn't been for Jase's employee, I never would have come down here to the cabin.” Luis couldn't even remember the employee's name half the time. And he was so new in Jase's organization Jase probably didn't know much about him either. Luis shouldn't have let Jase make these plans. He should have double checked before he'd agreed to come here.
“That was pure luck,” Matthias said. “When I found out you and Jase were a couple, I started following Jase's every move. I got to know Jase's newest employee, Barton, and Barton's wife, La Shaneeka. Barton's family has had that old cabin for years, which was the lucky part. I couldn't have planned it better myself, and I knew it was destiny. But I did plan everything else. I knew you were coming down here this week. La Shaneeka never told me we could come. I lied about that just to get to you.”