Hi, it's Tania, and I think I'm going to have to kill my brother.
Let me clarify a few things. For the past few months, I'd been enjoying Alexi, my newly resurrected boytoy. He was everything I ever wanted. During the day I taught him about life in the 21st century. For someone who died nearly a 100 years ago (as a teenager, no less), my long-haired angel had a remarkable mind. He mastered basic computer skills easily and in no time he was teaching himself to code. But what he seemed to enjoy most was art. At first, it was drawing but he quickly advanced to using simple computer programs like MSpaint to create elaborate images.
I considered buying him a tablet to see if he could truly draw as well as the artists on YouTube and Instagram. But instead, after a long day of taking selfies with my laptop, he asked me for a camera of his own.
I purchased the highest quality digital camera I could afford on my history teacher salary. Alexi was overjoyed and immediately took to creating photo shoot sets using my linens, furniture, and lighting. Alexi would perform elaborate acrobatic feats. As a former circus acrobat, possessing the body of a former dancer (aka my drug addict mamma's boy ex-boyfriend, may he rest in peace), the skills came naturally. And his beauty was, of course undeniable.
I was proud of my prized possession. At night he slept in my bed, naked, blindfolded and handcuffed with his tan body on full display. It was my ex's body but with Alexi's soul occupying it, every breath was so much sexier. His stomach would tighten, as his lips parted ever so slightly. He never complained about being hot or cold, even with his body was visibly shivering. Alexi would only ever ask, in a whisper-moan, "Do I please you, my queen?"
"Yes, my love, you truly do." Sometimes I would touch him, hold him close, running my fingers through his long hair. Despite the fact, he was a ghost inhabiting the body of my ex he was conveniently virile. His cock was nothing special, when my ex was alive all he ever did with it was fuck me in the missionary position. But Alexi, he loved it when I would ride him hard. I wondered how I got so lucky; my first time trying black magic and I'd summoned a true treasure of a man.
On our one month anniversary, I let him dominate me. With my hands bound together, he made me get on all fours like a dog. He fucked me in the ass while using a vibrator on my wet pussy. He told me I had the most beautiful tits.
"My queen," he said as he kissed my earlobe. "You are so fucking beautiful." His voice was like velvet, sending a tingle down my spine.
After he was done with me, I rested in his arms. For the first time, I asked, "Do you remember anything of your previous life?"
Alexi only shrugged, holding me close in his warm embrace. "I remember being sick. My stomach hurt, I couldn't breathe: so much sadness and pain. And then there was nothing. I was alone with only my consciousness." He turned his head to kiss my cheek. "Until you, Tania, you saved me. For that, I am forever grateful."
I believed him; his sweet sincere voice, his kind heart.
Up until the moment I walked in on my older brother, Tommy, balls deep in my boyfriend's ass. They were face to face, on my kitchen table, fucking like porn stars. Alexi, naked with his legs spread. He was jerking himself off with his left hand while his right hand struggled to keep hold of Tommy's thick muscular shoulders.
I resisted the urge to cry or scream. I would not give them the satisfaction.
Tommy turned to me. His wavy black hair was soaked with sweat. "Please, Tania, I can explain." Tommy lifted Alexi's slender body, their mouths met with a deep passionate kiss.
He proceeded to move Alexi to a nearby wall, thrusting faster and harder as Alexi held on with both hands.
"And you're not even going to stop?" I muttered, now more annoyed than disgusted. I knew my older brother had taken the day off. He was going to spend the day at my place and after work we would have dinner and drinks. But instead, I was sitting on my sofa waiting for them to finish what they started.
Alexi wrapped his legs around Tommy's muscular hips. His lips were pressed against my brother's ear, as he matched Tommy breath for breath. I could hear him speaking in Russian as he moaned in ecstasy. "Ya khochu tebya, ya tebya lyublyu."
The translation echoed in my mind: "I want you, I love you." At that point, I was too pissed off to question how I knew that.
Tommy cupped Alexi's face, pulling him close with a slow passionate breath. He thrust his hips a few more times, each slower and more intentional then the last, until Alexi's body went limp in his arms.
I stood up, relinquishing my seat on the sofa to give Tommy a place to drop Alexi's body.
Alexi was still hard, and as Tommy laid him down. With his tight abs on full display, I was tempted to touch him, if only to reclaim what was rightfully mine. But he wasn't even looking in my direction. He pulled Tommy close for one last kiss.
My brother was smiling, almost laughing, as he kissed Alexi's open mouth. "You're insatiable."
That was when I finally grabbed Tommy by his arm. "Explain- now! And don't you dare tell me this is a one-time thing."
Tommy smirked at me, as he shook his head. "Alexi was never yours."
Like hell, he wasn't. "I summoned him! I sacrificed my boyfriend's body-"
Alexi leaned his head back until his head was hanging upside down off the side of the sofa. "You summoned a lost lover."
"What is he talking about, Tommy? You helped me research the spell."
Tommy nodded as he walked to the kitchen to check on whatever he had been cooking. "Yes, I did. As you recall, I offered to leave."
"What are you talking about?" He had offered to leave, but I assumed it was because he was feeling guilty about the use of black magic.
"The spell was never intended for a three-way, it was meant to summon a lost lover via the power of a sexual aggressor. Now compared to your ex-boyfriend that would be you, but you added a third person to the mix." He made a show of flexing his impressive back muscles.
"So Alexi belongs to you?"
Alexi stood up, and put his arms around Tommy's waist. "I don't belong to anyone." The way his hands caressed my brother's naked hips said otherwise.
"You fucking liar." I thought back to the way he touched me, the way he held me. The love and passion he displayed, it had all been a lie.
"I didn't lie to you, Tania, I appreciate all you have done for me. I love you like a best friend, or how you say: friends with benefits."
That was when I ran out of my apartment, slamming the front door. I walked the five miles, straight to the highschool's library, in search of the truth. Thankfully, I had stolen and copied a key from the janitor for just such an occasion.
I never learned Alexi's real last name but I knew enough to get started; year of death, age of death, hometowns and the fact that he was part of a circus at the time of his death. From there, the internet proved to be a valuable resource.
Alexi Urmanoiv, age nineteen died in a sanatorium. His case was semi-famous for being reported as one of the earliest cases of polio. Strangely, Alexi was found in his cell, frail, emaciated, and laying in the arms of an older man. The man had been dressed as hospital staff but upon investigation, he was identified as Vladimir Rosetov, a married father of four who had been writing letters to Alexi under the name 'Rose.' Both men had died of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound.
According to a police report published in several Russian newspapers, the men's bodies were disposed of in a crematorium (as was the policy for the mentally ill) but Alexi's paintings were saved. They were beautiful landscapes all except for one; an image of Alexi and his younger sister Katia performing their trapeze act. The doctors took pity on Katia and allowed her to keep the painting.
Sealed inside the canvas was a package of letters. On the envelope was Rose's suicide note, which read, "Alexi, my love, you were the only one who mattered. We will be together in the next life, but I pray our story will never be forgotten."
Katia was only fifteen at the time, she kept the letters hidden until she got married and moved to America. Homosexuality was still taboo in the United States, but she found an academic publication willing to print the letters as an academic study of psychology and mental health. Decades later their story would go down in history as an example of Russia's cultural views on sexuality.
After hours of research, I headed home. I had no idea what to expect but this was my apartment and there was no way I was going to give it up to some undead fuckboy.
When I returned to my building the lights were out on every window. I took a breath as I entered the main door. I looked towards the elevator- the power was out. So I headed for the stairs, up to my floor. Standing outside my third-floor apartment, I could hear snoring. "Lovely," I muttered. I opened the door to find Tommy was asleep on my sofa under a blanket.
Alexi was looking out the window wearing loose fitting jeans that hung off his hips. "We saved you some dinner after all this was supposed to be your special day." He turned to me, his features bathed in the moonlight.
All I could do was stare. Tommy was a decent cook, but I had no appetite.
"I take it you discovered my full name?" Alexi asked with a smile.
"Thanks to your sister, you and 'Rose' are kind of famous."
"My dear sister." He pursed his lips as he walked towards me. "She was my best friend."
"When we first met you said you died before getting married," I asked as I walked towards the kitchen, hopeful that he would follow. "What did you mean by that?"
Alexi took a seat at the kitchen table, leaning back as he spread his legs. "When we first met? You mean, when you summoned me from the depths of hell?"
I walked to the stove looking at the pot of ravioli in cream sauce. I hadn't eaten since noon, but for some reason, the smell of Tommy's food made me want to vomit. I closed the lid and sat down at the table, if only to catch my breath.
Alexi bit his lip with a coy smile. "Rose wanted to rescue me. He wanted to save me. We would run away together live, how you say 'off the grid', not that there was much of a grid in 1920's Russia." He leaned over and reached for a plate of macaroon cookies. "Want one?"
There was something strange about the puffy white cookies. They appeared to be moving; inflating and deflating ever so slightly as if breathing. "Sure," I said as I forced myself to stand up and put some water in the coffee maker. I needed to stall for time, to think of a plan.
But Alexi was staring me down with a sinister gaze. "What? Are you afraid of a cookie?"
I took a seat and picked up a cookie. As I expected, it was soft, marshmallow-like. I gave it a gentle squeeze and it made a sound not unlike a coo from a baby. Was it alive? "This isn't a cookie."
"Tell me what it is?" As he blinked his eyes they turned black. Blue veins emerged, flowing down his cheeks like lace.
"Zefir," the word fell from my lips. Why was I still holding the cookie? Put it down! Throw it at him! Do something!
Alexi smiled a sweet smile. "You are correct, dear sister."
The cookie seemed to hit me in the face, forcing its sweetness into my mouth like somekind of parasite. I coughed and spit, but the taste only grew stronger. "What are you?"
Alexi picked up a cookie. "A demon, an angel," he licked his lips as he tore the cookie in half, revealing a blood red center, "someone robbed of life."
"I'm sorry," I said in a whisper. My fingers moved on their own, crumbling the cookie in my hand to reveal the same red jelly. I knew my hand was about to force the cookie into my mouth again, so I did something that, in hindsight was very stupid: I slammed my hand into the wooden kitchen table.
Alexi, even in his new demonic form, was doubled over in laughter. "Well, that was easy."
I was about to ask when he meant, when I felt a sudden stinging sensation. I had cut my hand on the corner of the table and now the red jelly had found a straight path into my body.
I gripped my head, as my mind was flooded with images. The images confirmed what I had researched; in Alexi's past life he was a blonde, blue-eyed acrobat who lived with his parents and sister in a traveling circus.
"I know you can see through Katia's eyes, Tania. Tell me how I died."
"Papa beat you until you got sick." I could picture the deep lesions on the back of the poor shirtless teenage boy, forced to sleep on the dirt floor with the animals. Though Katia's eyes I could see her touching his bare skin as he trembled. She held him close as she attempted to give him a drink of water. No, it was vodka. "Papa told the ringmaster that you fell ill due to the cold of winter." I blinked my eyes, forcing my mind back to reality. "The owners of the circus had you sent away."
"And then you met Rose." As Alexi said the words Tommy came into the room wearing only boxer shorts. His eyes were also pitch black. But more noticeably he was limping. Did Alexi hurt him?
Alexi fed my brother a cookie. As Tommy licked and sucked the soft crumbs from Alexi's fingers, he motioned for Tommy to get on his knees.
Much to my surprise, Tommy did so without struggle.
Alexi stroked Tommy's hair. "My beautiful Rose, I wanted our first time to be special, in a place where we could finally be free."
Tommy kissed Alexi's hips, moving his mouth to Alexi's zipper as if his cock contained a life-giving elixir.
Alexi was already moaning like a porn-star, "I kept my body pure for my Rose. But when he finally came for me I was too sick to travel."
"Rose was a kind man," I replied. I could picture Vladimir Rosetov, with his glasses, and prominent beard. He looked nothing like my brother. "Da, I realized who he was pretty quickly, once Papa pulled your name from the performance lineup." Who's voice was that? "I mean 'our' names because I would never attempt our act without you."
Alexi nodded in approval.
"I made a plan to intercept any future letters from Rose, but the letters stopped coming. And there was a man who just appeared and started following the circus, claiming to be a newspaper reporter. He kept asking people about our act; the amazing Star twins, a brother and sister from beyond this world."
"I almost forgot how they billed us as twins. I guess we were just that inseparable."
"Yeah," I chuckled. "Well, he finally got Papa to agree to allow him to interview me privately. That was when he revealed who he was and how he knew you. He called you his prince."
Alexi visibly blushed. He still looked creepy as all hell, but it felt nice to see him so happy.
"Rose told me that you opened his mind and his heart to a world he never knew existed. A world beyond the life of a husband, father," I laughed as the facts started to flow through my mind. "Rose was a banker. He sat at a desk writing numbers in books all day. He told me that you taught him how to live life with a sense of creativity and adventure. He loved your stories, your jokes; He truly loved you."
"His father had been a soldier. That was why Rose had the gun. But Rose was never in the military because of his bad leg."
That explained why Tommy was limping. This was a part of Rose's spirit, brought forth by Alexi.
"He told me, when he was eight years old, he fell off a horse and broke his leg in three places, never healed correctly. It was why he walked with a cane despite being only thirty-four." Alexi smiled, as he closed his eyes and licked his lips. "I remember the first time he let me massage his leg. The first time he realized he could be aroused by a man. He told me I touched him in ways his wife never would. I mean, at first he was a little shy about it, but my Rose loosened up real quick. Isn't that right, my love?"
Tommy stood up and kissed Alexi on the lips, before lowering his underwear to reveal his erect cock.
"Do you remember what I did to you, my love? I milked you like a cow until you sprayed all over yourself? Let me give you a reminder."
"Why did Rose bring the letters?" I asked. My mind wanted to keep Alexi's mouth on topic rather than on Tommy's cock, but the second voice in my head also wanted an answer.
"Rose had brought the letters for you, dear sister," Alexi said as he rolled Tommy's thick cock between his palms, making for a slow, tender handjob. "My beloved wanted you to have them, to know the truth of our story."
Alexi closed his eyes and reached out his hand in my direction. "You were always the one we could trust." He licked his lips as Tommy's body convulsed in orgasm. "My sister, my Katia..."
The last thing I remembered was blacking out. I awoke in bed, to the light of the morning sun cracking through the blinds of my bedroom window. My hand was on Alexi's chest over his heart, but so was Tommy's.
Or should I say Rose's hand?
My goal was clear; I need to kill Tommy or Alexi or both.
"You will do no such thing, not while I still draw power...."
The new ghost stuck inside my brain appeared to have a problem with my plan.
"You will not hurt them. You will never hurt them."
I can hear her voice, see through her eyes.
"They are my eyes, now... And my hands."
Hello, Katia here. What a strange device, this is; a glowing screen attached to a typewriter? The 21st century is quite the place, but it appears humanity still leaves much to be desired. My brother is finally safe even if it is all thanks to this selfish witch. Here is the real story, in my own words.
Alexi was sent to an asylum for three weeks. The fever never broke because he was never treated for any infection or illness, it was just assumed he was going to die. Because that is what our parents wanted.
A week into his stay I was allowed to visit. I brought him a paint set and a few canvases; a gift from all of our friends at the circus. Alexi was always a talented artist. I hoped the gift would allow him some joy in an otherwise hopeless situation.
In just those few days he had lost so much weight. The doctors said it was polio but I knew better. They were starving him. Papa wanted him dead, erased from our family's history.
I contacted Rose, I told him of the severity of Alexi's condition. He needed to save my brother, or at the very least allow him to die someplace peaceful. I wasn't there when it happened. In fact, I was several countries away. But in my dreams, I was blessed with a vision. Alexi was in bed, eyes closed. Rose snuck in, dressed as a janitor. He had a cart with him that he would use to sneak Alexi out of the hospital.
"My love, I've come for you. We will escape from this place and make a new life together," Rose said, with tears in his eyes.
But it was too late. Alexi was burning with fever. His once vibrant blue eyes could barely stay open. "My body is no longer my own. It is only a matter of time before my mind is gone. My only wish is to leave this world in your loving embrace."
I awoke in tears, knowing my brother was dead. I would never see his smile or hear his voice.
This new body, he is beautiful like Alexi was; athletic, healthy and strong. My brother deserves the chance to be happy and I will protect him with every ounce of strength I have. Even if that means taking over this witch's body only to destroy her once and for all. But for now, I sleep.
Well, this sucks. I never thought I would be forced to share my mind with an angry ghost-roommate. May the stronger sister prevail.