JESUS NATION SEX REBEL, mini-chapter 17

17. THE SECRETS OF THE HAND

Adam’s hand had been passive, but now the pain inflicted by Eve’s hand became so unbearable he pressed back. Self-defense. Plus a mental fury at the hand’s interference with his enjoyment of the suffering of the fiend. His hand was the whole crowd pressing back with their satisfaction against the dissatisfaction of the hand. Ashes pressing back: the dead love of his life crying out for revenge.

He felt like a small-time traitor, in a conspiracy of two hands, isolated in the crowd of spectators, now swooning as the blood rippled out of the Transgressor’s eye-sockets and his body began to burst. Fissures appeared along the fiend’s frame. The flesh split, like old wounds reopening. Fat spilled forth, oozing. The Transgressor was a piece of meat bubbling with fat.

Adam smelled the strong odor of cooking. The pressure of his hand matched the Beloved’s, and he felt joined with the hand in whatever the hand was saying. He was almost afraid. He didn’t want the hand to think he agreed with it, even though he was not sure what the hand was saying. Maybe all the hand was saying was that the hand could not watch alone, and needed the pressure of another’s flesh to be able to keep on watching.

He was the one who had spoken to her. He had invited this pressure. He had crossed the border between them. She was merely reciprocating. But she was the one who, after blurting out her profile, had crossed the border of physical contact.

As he watched the blood stream down the Transgressor’s face, and a smoky mist of blood and fat steam around the fiend’s body, Adam wondered how this hand would feel in other places of his body, and felt himself aroused.

His mouth opened. His breath quickened. The sharp smell of burning flesh. Blood dribbling down. The sting of smoke blowing over the crowd. The hot pressure of her hand. His skin tingled. His groin stirred.

He looked to his left. The female Beloved’s mouth was open. She was breathing hard, too. He saw her nipples harden through the tight black grip of her dress. She was not wearing a bra. He pressed her hand back.