More Human Than Human

More Human Than Human Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

Five years later

I'm addicted to Pleasure Incorporated. Or rather, I'm addicted to Leon.

The pleasure keeps growing. It's like Leon learns my desires more and more each time I'm with him.

The only problem is that the financial cost each time gets greater. I've spent so much money on Leon, I hate to think of the exact amount. If it weren't for my family's money and the money I make with interior design, I'd be in dire straits.

He holds me close after one of our more fervent lovemaking sessions. He's made me cum five times.

"Noel, what's it like to have parents?" he asks me, his chin resting lightly on the top of my head. He threads his hands through my hair lovingly, caressing my scattered tresses.

I turn to look up at him, lost in his flawless, classically handsome face. Michelangelo would have loved to have painted him. "Hmm, Leon. Sometimes it's not all that great. Take my parents for instance. I know they did the best they could, but... I've often wondered, when things are really bad, if it would be better to grow up without any parents. I guess, like you did."

"Yeah," he responds, taking my hand and softly, tenderly kissing each one of my fingers between his words. "Of course I don't have parents, unless you could say my creator was my parent. And I was born at the age I am now. And I'll never age like a normal human being. I'm exactly twenty-nine years old, and I'll stay that way forever. But you... You'll grow old and gray, Noel, won't you?"

"Yeah, I guess I will."

"I'd like to see that, Noel. I think you'd be just as beautiful and alluring as you are now."

"Thank you, Leon," I say with genuine affection. "I'd be proud to be by your side when I was old and gray."

"But Noel, I wouldn't want to see you die." His face is suddenly shadowed in a grimace of pain.

"Well, Leon, all humans die. Death is a natural part of life we have to learn to accept, even though it's hard and painful. One day, I'll be gone from this Earth. I only hope there will be people left who loved me and remember me."

"I... I don't think I'll ever die, Noel. I can just be... Decommissioned."

I swallow. Why is the thought so painful to me? Why do I dread the possibility so much?

No, I think to myself. I never want Leon to be decommissioned.

"But Noel... What did your parents do to you? Did they hurt you?" he asks with so much innocence and naivety.

I pause. It's painful to talk about my childhood. But there's something about Leon that makes me feel I can be free and open. I've never felt this way with anybody before. "Human beings are far from perfect. My parents... I tried to tell my mom what was happening to me. It's not like she didn't know. She saw it all the time, when my stepfather would hit me. She told me never to tell anyone what happened in our family. She... She didn't care, I guess. Maybe she really didn't love me."

I'm crying now. It hurts so much to remember. But to my surprise and gratitude, Leon kisses my tears away. I feel healed, somehow. Like he's taking away my pain and loss with his love and affection. My heart stirs for him.

"Shh, my love. I can't imagine your parents not loving you, as wonderful as you are, Noel. Your stepfather hit you? He intentionally hurt you? But why?"

"He was angry, Leon," I say. "He didn't want to be married to my mom. He didn't want our family, and he took it out on me."

"It makes me so angry, Noel. The thought of someone hitting you. Of someone hurting you. I would kill someone who ever hurt you, Noel."