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He closed his eyes and took another pointless breath, head turning up and his form taking on a shinier, more solid-looking shape.

“Nathan?” Owain asked, a deep frown on his forehead as he leaned forward in his chair, reaching out as if to touch whatever weird shit was happening to the ghost literally glowing in front of us.

“You have set my soul free, my boy,” Nathan said. “I have spent a lifetime feeling like a pervert. Like someone who needed to be caught and hated when all I wanted was to experience beauty and love.”

“What?” Owain turned to me, his eyes full of questions, and I just shrugged. I had zero idea what the man was prattling on about but it seemed to be working well at getting him out of our hair, so I wasn’t gonna complain one bit. The sooner he fucked off, the sooner I’d have Owain in my arms again. Ready and willing.

“There was a man,” Nathan said. “A beautiful, kind man. Just like you. He lived just across the street from me. Alone.”

“Oh…” Owain said.

Nathan was still glowing, but his form seemed to be dispersing slowly. “I saw him eating alone, going for walks alone, tending to his garden alone. He was so pretty. Pale skin and dark, dark hair. Soft body, slightly chunky just like I like it. I was enamoured the moment I saw him. I was trying to find a way to talk to him, to ask him out maybe.”

“Oh, don’t tell me you died before…”

“His husband came back from abroad,” Nathan said, still emanating light, but it was stronger now. His form was higher above the chair. “He left his beautiful man all alone to go do business in his home country. Who does that? Who picks work over someone so special? It made no sense. But I kept watching him. Kept admiring from afar.”

“You poor man…”

“Babe,” I called, shaking my head because I had a feeling where this was going.

“One night, I was reading by my window,” Nathan said. “Right across from their dining room. I looked up and that man had my flower pinned against the table. Thrusting into him.”

“Wait, what?” Owain asked.

“I was on my feet before I knew what I was doing. Out the door and across the street, nose plastered to their window. My heart was beating so hard, because even if it wasn’t me with him…seeing him in the throes of passion, flushed and aroused and moaning… Oh, it was just magical. I was enchanted by his sounds. By the scent of him coming through the window. The sight of his back bowed, his cock leaking.”

Motherfucker.

“I was mesmerised,” Nathan said. His voice was now echoing along the walls. He was barely shaped like a person anymore, yet the story wasn’t done. “Then that arsehole looked up. Screamed in rage. Pulled out of my beauty and left him unsatisfied as he charged for the window. I jumped back, my foot snagged against something, and I fell. The last thing I felt was a splitting pain in my head and the darkness that swallowed me. I woke up like this.”

“You…” Owain looked at me desperately, looking for a way to justify this. He had nothing and he was spiralling. I could see it.

“I died before I got to see him finish,” Nathan said. “I died treated like an intruder. A double chain that kept me tethered to this world. You, Owain…have broken them both.”

“What?” Owain screeched as Nathan’s light began passing through the walls and dispersing into the night beyond them.

“Watching you lose yourself in pleasure with your lover and hearing you say I was not beyond salvation saved my soul. You saved me, and I will be eternally grateful to you. Goodbye now, my beautiful.”

And with that, he was gone. The light dimmed. The words echoed until they held no meaning. The night swallowed the last of Nathan.

Silence wrapped around us both like a cloak as we sat side by side, looking at the spot where Nathan had been just moments ago.

“Wait, what?” Owain turned to me again, looking slightly hysterical.

I sighed. “Dude was a peeping Tom, peeped at the wrong guy and got himself killed,” I summarised. “Watched me eat you out and then you went all daily affirmation on him until he felt absolved and fucked off.”

“But…what?”

“Yeah.” I watched him struggle for a moment longer before deciding that it was best for everyone to try and forget that just happened. “He’s gone now though, so…dinner?”

“But…”

“Owain, babe, look,” I said, coming to crouch in front of him and leaning against his knees. “I know you wanted him to be this really nice dude with a sad story, but he was a creep. Look at it this way: There is now one less creep on this planet. I feel like that’s cause for celebration. I heard there was pie.”

“There is pie.” He nodded absently, still glued to his spot.

“I love pie,” I said, taking his hand and giving it a tug until he stood up. “And you can check in on your guests while you’re at it.”