A Different Kind of Christmas Carol

by Zustara Orur

CHAPTER EIGHT:

..And that's where I woke up the next morning.

Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly a pleasant awakening. You know that kind of dream where it feels like you're already awake, only you can't move AT ALL, and sometimes not breathe either? And the reason you can't move is because you're paralyzed of fear, sometimes for no apparent reason and sometimes because somebody's nearby, somebody who wants to hurt you, and you're SO SCARED it just makes your whole body feeling prickly with adrenaline... Well, I had one of those dreams. I was lying down on my back in the dream and all I could see was pitch blackness, and I knew someone was standing really near, at the foot of the bed hidden in that darkness. Someone evil, a criminal, a burglar. A dark man as dark as the night around him... I wanted to move, to scream. Wanted to kick off the covers and run away or maybe attack, before the evil man came and killed me.

I could do neither. I was frozen, scared like you can be only in a dream... Frozen with terror, the scream that would have filled a concert-hall came out not even as a whisper. I thought I was awake, but a part of me was desperately trying to wake up! I tried to move and nothing happened and I tried to scream and nothing happened, and the man, the villain, the monster... It was getting closer and I could not wake up!

It was like clawing through a two-inch thick, slimy membrane between wherever I was and reality, my only chance was to wake up before the dark man reached out and smothered me to death!

I didn't wake up with a start, I just knew I was truly awake. I still couldn't move, my whole body was tingling unpleasantly with fear, I was sweaty, my heart was racing and I was panting hard - and not in a pleasant way either mind you. The room was still pitch black just like in my dream, I couldn't see a thing. Then something stirred beside me...

"Bad dream, sweetie?" Jeff's voice said quietly, and then his hand touched my clammy face. I nodded, and he felt it in the darkness. I wanted him to hold me, and he understood. "I'm here, my love. I'm here, don't worry..."

He took me in his strong arms. I shuddered and immediately started crying. Why, I'm not sure. Sure, the dream had been scary, but THAT scary? I've had such dreams before, why should this one affect me so bad? Maybe... Maybe because I've always wanted to cry after having had such a dream, only that time I could. So I cried, and he kissed away my tears in the dark, those I did not smear over his face as he held me tight...

It took me minutes literally to empty out my stores of emotion. Jeff hushed me and patted and stroked my body to make me relax again. "It was just a dream, honey. It was just a dream..." It worked, slowly... I felt better, and Jeff felt better too from being allowed to comfort the one he loved.

"What time is it?", I asked huskily and sat up properly in the darkness. My watch was in my trousers, and I had no idea where those were.

Jeff paused, checking his own watch, a pretty standard Casio G-Shock model. The LCD lit up with a clear, blue glow in the dark. "It's only just past five in the morning. You want to go back to sleep?", he then asked in a soft-spoken voice as I laid back down again. "It's a bit early to get up, don't you think?"

"N-no! No more sleeping!", I said quickly. I'm not usually a morning person, but right then I couldn't imagine myself ever sleeping again! He understood what was wrong of course and made me scoot over to him, and I curled up against his firm, solid presence. Jeff then rolled over on his side and crouched up around me. I shivered a little, but the touch of him made me calmer. His hand came sneaking down my tummy and settled itself around my genitals in a light grip. He just held me, and I didn't even get hard and I don't think he meant for me to either, he just wanted to give me comfort. I slowly felt him starting to stiffen though, and right then my body decided to betray me, so of course I responded in kind... Jeff still didn't do anything except hold me, and I continued to lie there and take it easy in the darkness. I guess a few minutes passed, and then he started kissing my neck. I didn't do anything at first, but his kisses became longer and wetter, and I knew he would soon not let himself be satisfied with just my neck! "What are you doing?", I whispered.

"What do you think I'm doing?", he replied in an amused-sounding voice. He kissed me once more. "Is it alright if I turn on the light and look at you for a bit?", Jeff then asked.

I gave a quick laugh. "Look at me? Why?"

"Umm... Well, I haven't really done that yet. Well... I mean, when you're naked, you know. I looked at you lots in school of course, but then you were wearing all these clothes and stuff..."

"I should certainly HOPE so! Would have been awful if I showed up in the nude and didn't even notice it!" We both laughed at the mental image, and actually tumbled about a bit on his bed (me almost falling out of it in the dark - it wasn't king-sized or anything like that, just fairly regular-sized actually). He pinned me down as my upper body was hanging out over the edge, him having crawled over on top of me. My butt was pushed up tight against his groin, it was lovely, except lots of blood was rushing down into my head making me feel like my brain was about to explode! "Okay, okay!", I said quickly just to make it end. "You can look!" Actually, I quite WANTED him to look... Not that I understood why he wanted to, or needed to; I figured he must have seen everything already the day before.

Jeff pulled me up again by seizing me around my waist with his strong arms and giving a quick tug. He handled me so easily! I just wanted to be in his arms always and always...! He then turned on a small lamp standing near the bed and I had to clamp my eyes shut tight initially due to the sudden brightness, but gradually the uncomfortable feeling subsided and I was able to look again. He wanted me to lie down on my stomach and tried to pull away all the covers and pillows and stuff, but I kept rolling over on my back and hiding myself just to tease him. He could have torn the covers out of my hands of course, being so much stronger than me, but he let me go at it. I suppose, I was a bit shy too for some reason (probably because I knew he wanted to look at me), and I was blushing. He saw I was feeling shy (and the blushing too of course) and smiled in that 'oh-that's-so-cute' manner people do when they see something they think is really cute...

"Take it easy, Timmy! I just like to take a look at you, that's all..."

"But didn't you do that yesterday in the sauna, and the shower?"

He giggled a little. "Yes, I suppose I did, but I was so busy touching you I kind of forgot to watch! I was too amazed by the fact I was allowed to touch you to think of to also look at you." He paused a little and caressed one of my cheeks. He enjoyed that. "So I'd like to do that now, if you don't mind..."

"What do I get in return?", I said impishly.

Jeff laughed! "Anything you'd like!", he chuckled merrily, then he calmed down. "Anything you'd like, sweet Timmy. Anything." He touched my face and hair so tenderly, I understood he meant the truth. I really could ask for anything I wanted to, he'd give it without complaint if it was in his power to give.

"I think I'll settle for you...", I said. "Only you. But you have to stay with me forever, okay? No running off for some other cuter guy okay?" I waved a finger sternly at him to show I was serious and he gave me a big smile.

"That's impossible... There's nobody cuter than you... And there never will be." Then, upon hearing that, I finally let go of the cover and rolled over on my stomach like he wanted me to, still shy and blushing a little, but feeling safe with him too. He smiled. "Let's take a look at it then!", he said eagerly and pulled down the covers, exposing my backside. I felt a rush of cool air flow over me as I was bereft of insulation, and the tiny hairs on my body rose up. "Oo-er! You've got the sweetest little bottom I've ever seen I dare say!", he mused, apparently liking what he saw! It became clear to me that's what he'd wanted all along, look at my butt!

I laughed! "Bottom! You mean my ass, don'cha?", I responded with an exaggerated American accent.

"Timmy, don't ever say that again!", he scolded me. "It's such a nasty, ugly word."

A smile spread across my lips, wider as he started caressing my behind. "Alright, Jeffrey... Bottom it is then." I relaxed, letting his fingers reach in deeper. My body twitched of its own, and I had a big goofy smile on my face...

"I have to admit, it's positively spunkalicious."

"What's up with all these weird words all of a sudden?", I said and laughed. His fingers were tickling me! "Can't you just say 'fanny' instead and be done with it?"

Suddenly he was going all red in his face, and he had to suppress a giggle. "No, Timmy. Fanny's not the word you're looking for, over where I come from, it means a girl's-"

I stopped him. "Oh, right! SORRY!" He started laughing, of course. "By the way, there's more than your claws I wouldn't mind if you sunk into me, you know...!", I teased, in part to make the laughing stop, and in part to get his attention away from my verbal goof. And in part to inspire him, of course...

It took him no more than a few seconds to remember the conversation we'd had the previous night, then a big grin spread across his face. "Little Timmy, do you know you're quite irrepressible at times!" I smiled too, feeling very impish. "We gotta save something for our wedding night, you little...naughty you!"

"Please don't make me wait too long, Jeffrey...", I said with a deep sigh.

Then he could not hold himself back any longer. He wanted me, and I wanted him. It was even better than the evening before, now that we knew what both of us liked. I didn't get him to sink anything into me, though I did my darndest to entice him to (and I knew he had a hard time resisting. Serves him right!), but the bedsheets did get rather messy I'm afraid! Jeff's, most of it too... Once we'd calmed down, I asked if we needed to worry. I mean, anyone looking at those semen-stained sheets would instantly know what we'd been up to.

"Naah. I do all my laundry myself.", he said calmly.

"Whaat? You have a house full of staff and you have to do that yourself?"

He chuckled pleasantly. "Timmy, I don't HAVE to do anything. In fact my parents probably disapprove of it. I WANT to do it, it's my own idea. I'll go off to university one day and then I'd have to take care of my own stuff anyway so I'd better start in good time. I clean and take care of my whole apartment myself."

"Apartment?"

I hadn't actually looked at the place. The bedside lamp only spread a dim glow around the rest of the room, but when I started checking it out, it didn't strike me as that much different from my own room, or any boy's bedroom, actually. Well, the VERY tall windows and their heavy curtains covering them were a bit out-of-place of course, but the wallpaper was just like anything you'd find in a normal teen's room. I could see a desk nearby, bookshelves and wardrobes along the walls, and a comfy armchair in a corner. All of it looked like it might have been bought at IKEA, nothing overly fancy about it at all! I got out of the bed and started looking around more closely.

"Light switch's over there", Jeff said and pointed at the door. I flicked it, and saw some more details. A high-quality mini hi-fi system with a shiny chrome front and buttons glowing a muted blue near the armchair, and like HALF A WALL of CD racks. That was the first sign maybe this wasn't your typical teenager's room. That had to be several thousands worth of CDs I thought, perhaps many thousands even. Jeff saw what I was thinking. "Yeah... I know", he almost apologized. "Whenever any of my relatives come over they give me CDs... They don't know what else to give me! They know I don't like being given any expensive, fancy stuff so I get a pack of CDs instead. I don't even listen that much to music! I have to print out lists of what's popular at the moment so they'll know what to buy for me or else they just grab some stuff, anything really! They're as worthless at popular music as I am!" His expression was one of resigned helplessness and I could not stop myself laughing! "They're much older than me, so they don't listen to any modern stuff..."

"Poor you!", I said. Not mockingly or to tease this time, I actually MEANT it! I could understand his dilemma, even though it was a weird one for any "normal" person, and he came over and patted me on the head, ruffling my fine-spun blonde hair. I gave him a quick smile, then crouched down and started going through his stuff. It was all a total jumble, just stuffed in there without any order of any kind. Artists, genres, years, all mixed up, everything just a complete mess. "This won't do AT ALL!", I said firmly. "We'll fix this!" Jeff grinned as I started pulling CDs out and stacking them on the floor. I was still buck naked of course, and I was so absorbed by my new task I'd completely forgotten that! It must have been a totally delicious sight for him, a naked boy sitting on the floor of his room, oblivious to his own undressed state... He didn't interfere at all, he let me take care of it myself. All of a sudden I stopped. "Whoah! Von!"

"Huh? What did you say?"

I held up the CD. "Von! Sigur Rós's debut album! How did you get it?"

He seemed totally clueless! "Sigur WHO? I have no idea what you're talking about..." He patted closer and sat down at my side, as naked as I was. In my weird state, I didn't even notice. "I suppose someone gave it to me, why? Is it important?"

"Well, I've been trying to get this one for AGES, but it's only available on Icelandic import. It's not easy to find, you know!"

A giggle came from Jeff. "Didn't know you were such a fan of Icelandic music, little Timmy! Some day I guess you have to show me what's so special about it." He said 'little Timmy' with such warmth in his voice I couldn't help blushing a little, and then I became aware of my nudity, I crouched up a little and blushed more. "No worries, cutie... It's not anything I haven't seen before by now", he whispered.

"Yeah, I know that, but what if someone comes in here and sees us like this? They'd think we're weird! Or WORSE!"

"Nobody goes into my apartment without knocking, not even my parents. Well, unless there's a fire or something I guess!" He looked at me and laughed a little. "NO! There hasn't been any fires ever! Don't worry, okay?" He kissed me at the base of my neck. "Love you, sweetie", he whispered. "Don't think I've said that today..."

I cast down my eyes, still blushing... "Okay, Jeff... I'll try not to." I had to go back to my CD-search. "...Anyway, if you got the first one, you gotta have the second! It's amazing, you'll love it I swear!" I started scanning his CD collection, all those hundreds and hundreds of albums he had.

"Icelandic music, what's so special about it anyway? Do they play it with like horn pipes and sealskin drums and stuff?"

I struck him on a shoulder. His deltoids were so firm even when he wasn't even tensing them! "No, silly! You must have heard of Bjork, right? She's Icelandic! Sealskin drums... Stupidest thing I ever heard..." I continued to grumble to myself, and he giggled, making me know he'd only been joking. I still gave him a frown, making him know I would not tolerate any jokes about my favorite band! "AAH! Here it is!" I held it up triumphantly for him to see.

"Yeech. Yes, I remember that one with the fetus drawing on the cover. It looked too strange so I just stuck it in there and haven't touched it since I think."

"You heathen. This is most excellent stuff."

He shrugged, not convinced. "It's a girl, right? Like Bjork? Name sure sounds like a girl."

"No, it's a group", I replied quickly.

He nodded at me. "Well, aren't you going to put it on then?!"

"This little thing, can it do it any justice? I need something that can pump some serious wattage!", I wondered and gestured at his mini hi-fi system.

"Well, I think it's good for its size, but I guess everything's got its limits", he admitted. "Come, follow me."

Jeff took me into the adjacent room, his living room actually. It was larger than the bedroom, though not almost super-large like the rooms I'd seen downstairs. Here it was again a mix of ordinary-teen and silly rich. Wallpaper was standard fare, modern, neutral pattern without much color, while floors were hardwood parquet of the most exclusive kind there is, though covered with big rag-rugs as if in an attempt to hide what laid underneath. Book shelves along the walls held countless VHS tapes and DVDs, I saw complete collections of like all the popular TV shows, and just tons and tons of movies... He had like a whole Blockbuster store on the wall with DVDs! Furniture was fairly sparse, there was this really nice black leather couch with enough room for three or four perhaps (four teens at least, not big fat grown-ups), and an additional two armchairs of a matching leather style (with footpads that came out when the backrest was leaned back). A low coffee table sat in between couch and the TV set. Again, none of the furniture was of the most exclusive kind there is, good enough, but not gaudy or anything. The TV however was positively huge. Correction, it was a MONSTER. I guess forty, fifty inches in widescreen format. Two big front speakers flanked it, and an almost as big center speaker. An enormous big, black box of a subwoofer lurked in a corner like some hulking bear or something. Rear speakers were smaller, but not exactly small and stood on solid black wood pedestals a bit behind and to the sides of the sofa. The other speakers were big enough to stand on their own. It was all hooked up to a big, fat surround receiver via audio cables that were at least as thick as my little finger. They went up to the ceiling and along the wall, then down a corner to the receiver that sat under the TV. The thing had a large display with tons of glowing indicators and enough buttons, lights and twiddly knobs on its front panel to run a nuclear powerplant. A digital tuner, a pre-amp and equalizer setup complemented it, plus a VCR and DVD player as well, and I saw a Playstation2 standing on edge next to the stack of HiFi equipment also.

"That enough wattage for you?", he joked lamely. It was obvious he suddenly felt a bit embarrassed actually. (Again. He didn't like to show off.)

"Jesus bleedin' Christ", I swore in my best imitated Brit accent. "How much is that?"

"Oh... Front speakers, about four thousand bucks. Each. Center, two and a half. Sub, about two I think, rear speakers another three and a half each. Receiver's five grand or so, about the same for the TV. Why do you ask?" He looked at my face, seeing my eyebrows raise in horror. "OH! You mean their power output? Why didn't you SAY SO?" He was joking of course. He HAD TO BE.

"JeffREY!", I scolded him in an annoyed voice and thumped him lightly on his chest with my fists. "Don't trick me like that!"

He laughed merrily. "All right, little one, sorry." He reached down and kissed my lips real quick! "Speakers all together is about one and a half kilowatts, but the receiver can't output that much, it's 150 per channel, and another 200 for the sub. But that's all right, you need beefier speakers anyway to avoid distortion at high volume levels." He looked at me real quick. "They really did cost that much you know. It wasn't my idea to buy all this stuff, I would have settled for way way less, but the salesman talked my mom and dad into it and I wasn't around to stop him. They're so gullible, they think only the best is good enough! The entire mini system in my bedroom, that cost like one tenth of ONE of these front speakers, and it does a FINE job. I bought that one myself by the way."

"So how loud can this rig go then?", I asked, feeling curious.

"Loud enough to ruin your hearing permanently, honey", he said softly and then kissed me again! Oh, I couldn't get enough of his sweet words! Just hearing him call me 'honey' in that smooth voice of him made my knees all jelly-like, and his kisses...! "Let's not try it, alright? Just pop in that CD, I'll handle the rest."

He grabbed a big universal remote and the DVD player tray rolled open at the press of a button. I crouched down (knowing full well he was looking at my 'bottom' as I did it), taking a quick look of the DVD player's controls. They were close enough to a CD player for me to be able to handle them, so I immediately flipped ahead to track seven, then pressed the play button. The tray closed on its own.

If you've heard this album, you know the name of track seven's impossible to pronounce unless you're from Iceland, but the sound of it is heavenly... I scuttled over and took Jeff's hand in mine as the dreamy, fleeting tones started to stream out of his high-powered sound system. We sat down in the couch together, the leather feeling chilly against my skin. First the weird electric guitar beginning, followed by that lonely-sounding soft piano, then strings and bass. Muted drums, and the soft guitar, and still that moody, wonderful, amazing piano... Then... The song, first word not uttered until five minutes had passed. After almost half the track actually... Slow singing, the voice as much an instrument as all the other sounds. Utter beauty, all of it. This song is enough to move me to tears on its own even though I don't understand the words, and I'd never heard it in a purer form than right then, on Jeff's expensive sound system. I had to blink my eyes repeatedly to not start crying in his presence.

I waited until the track had ended, then I stopped playback before speaking again. "He's gay too, you know", I mumbled, not really knowing why.

Jeff kind of blinked, coming back from wherever it was he'd been. "Huh? Who's what, you said?"

A smile touched my lips, I couldn't stop it. Not that I wanted to either actually! "You thought it was that beautiful?"

"Yes. It was lovely. Thank you, little Timmy, I'm so sorry I doubted you! I feel ashamed for mocking you like that..." We kissed deeply. "Now tell me, who were you talking about just now when I was lost there out amongst the stars and ignoring you so rudely?"

I felt myself smile more. "Him! The singer. He's called Jónsi, and he's gay. It's just a nickname by the way..."

Jeff smiled too. "To be quite honest, I thought he sounded like a girl...", he replied. He was surprised hearing he'd been wrong, though being surprised in a pleased way somehow, for some reason.

I grinned wide. "Yeah, so did I the first time, before I read about the band on the internet."

"I got this monster PC, and a mega...bits-whatever internet connection, but I hardly ever use it", Jeff mused. "I don't play games, and I don't surf much either, it feels like such a waste." I asked why with my eyes and he gave the reason easily enough. "It's quite simple really, I don't read very well as you know, and the internet's mostly text..."

"Oh!" I blushed quite badly out of shame.

"Sweetheart, don't feel bad about it. It's not your fault. With your help though, maybe we could check out some sites?"

I tried to smile, finding it a little difficult despite his assurances. "Okay Jeffrey...", I replied in a quiet voice, trying to make it sound strong and firm but not quite succeeding. "I'd like to play some more music for you first though."

"Of course...", he said softly and caressed the back of my head, holding me wrapped up in his strong arms so I wouldn't freeze (remember, I'm so skinny I can't deal well with cold, or even normal room-temperature air when not wearing any clothes!).

I started the CD from the beginning instead (using the remote) and played the first two tracks for him, the intro with all its weird sounds, and the second track too. The bass filled the room to such a degree I felt it in my chest even though Jeff hadn't turned up the volume THAT high. Should tell you the power of that subwoofer. I'm glad his house was built out of stone, because I think my parents' place would probably have come crashing down on top of us from those vibrations! I could tell Jeff liked that song also, he was rocking me slowly, unconsciously, as I sat in his lap with his arms around me.

When I again stopped the player I was shivering of cold despite Jeffrey's touch. It was too much for poor little me! "We better go put some clothes on", I said and shivered, my skin goosebumpy again.

"Wait here just a second, alright?", Jeff told me and zipped back into his bedroom. I took the time to look at HIS butt right then, and yum, it sure looked lovely! Well-developed, round, dimpled butt cheeks, smooth and pleasing to the touch... Oh darn it, I wanted him! I'd spent the whole night in bed with him and I still wanted him so bad... Must be a good sign I suppose!

He came back with one of the robes from the day before. Must have been his, mine was probably still downstairs in the library, unless William had taken care of it by then (which I suppose he would have). Jeff wrapped me up in it, and then we went for a tour of the rest of his place. The bedroom was at a corner of the house (and it had a small adjacent bathroom too), so there were windows along two walls in there. The living room had a door at the short end (opposite the TV, which was placed at the windows), and that door led out into a corridor that ended a short distance to the left with a huge walk-in closet. Opposite the living room was the study, where Jeff had his computer, and where his assistant helped him with his homework. A bit down the hallway was the large main bathroom, and opposite that the dining room (that connected to the kitchen, though Jeff said he rarely cooked anything himself). He also had another two spare bedrooms (smaller than his) if he wanted to have guests over plus an extra guest bathroom too, and the study had a door that emerged to a corner room where a small stairwell was located. Yes, Jeff's apartment took up the entire top floor of the western wing of the building, and that stairwell lead all the way down to the entrance hall we'd been in yesterday before and after going for that bath together. It was all just for him, and the floor area was bigger than our place where six people lived!

Jeff was showing me his computer, and it was a total beast. I'm not so good at such things (well, compared to some people anyway, the real computer freaks), I play some games, but most of the time I just use it as a fancy typewriter, doing my schoolwork on it and writing my plays. I am fairly up-to-date of what's hot in the computer world though, and I could tell that Jeff's box had all the latest gadgetry installed in it. He was rather embarrassed about that too actually.

"Dad thinks if a computer's more than a couple months old it's worthless. He has this guy come over every six weeks or so and rip out anything that's been superceded by something newer, faster, and install that instead. I once told the guy I only use this thing to write one or two emails a week, and he laughed like crazy and replied to ask me if I'd mind not telling that to my father. I'm kind of his best customer, you see..." I giggled along with Jeff. "He's a nice guy, he's in college studying to become a network engineer or something. Dad and this guy's father are golfing partners, that's how we got in touch with him."

Jeff had dressed in a robe of his own too, he seemed to own quite a few. It was strict, mostly black with red edges and some blue trimmings here and there. The belt was blue also. Time was a little over quarter past six according to the windows taskbar, and right then I got an idea!

"Jeff... Would you like to go home to my place and have breakfast and open Christmas presents with me and my family? My siblings usually wake up around seven and then start shredding that wrapping paper immediately, they're such excited little kids. There's still time, we can make it...

He gave me a big smile. "Little Timmy, that would be WONDERFUL. I'm so glad you asked me!" I smiled back, and true to my self with his gaze on me so intensely, I felt a little embarrassed too again and started blushing of course. Jeff loves it when I do that, and I love it too I guess even though it feels, well, embarrassing to be embarrassed. I love it because Jeff always grabs me really gently and kisses me when I start turning red, and his kisses are just the greatest, I love them...!