The Orphanage 2: Kevin (musc)
by Jaypat
“Wait for it, wait for it,” said Kevin, gripping the game controller.“Come on, Kevin, let me try,” pleaded Caleb.
“No, wait, wait; this is the shit.” Caleb made a grab for the controller but Kevin moved it deftly out of his reach. “Seriously, wait.”
Caleb turned back to the screen and frowned. Kevin gave him a side glance. He could tell the younger kid thought the game was old and stupid. That was about to change. The CG car was driving down a country road. There was a blue car in front of it and Kevin’s car was gaining on it fast.
“Hit him! Hit him!” cried Caleb.
“I’m going to. I’m going to. Watch.” And then Kevin bumped the back of the car in front of him. The blue car took to the air and floated away like a balloon.
“Hey, is it supposed to do that? How come it did that?” asked Caleb.
“It’s a cheat code.”
“Does it help you win?”
“Not really.”
“Then why did you do it?”
“Because it makes the game more interesting. How many games do we have here?”
“I don’t know, six?”
“And how many times have you played them?”
“About a hundred. Except this one and that’s only ’cause you have it all the time.”
“Do you get bored of those other games?”
“Yup.”
“Well, I’ve played this one about a thousand times and I never get tired of it. You know why?”
“Floating cars?”
“Because I can change the rules. If I get board of regular cars, I make ’em float. You know I once bumped a car and then hopped in it while it floated away.”
“What happened?”
“It just kept going up and up and up, and the ground got further and further away.”
“What did you do?”
“I jumped out.”
“And?”
“I fell about a thousand feet and died.”
“That’s stupid.”
“Maybe. But it was still a lot of fun. Here you try.” Kevin handed the controller to Caleb who immediately began hitting every car he came across sending it into orbit. Every time he did he would giggle and laugh out loud.
“Caleb, keep it down. You don’t want…”
The door flew open. It was too late.
“Hey, asswipes! Don’t you know there’s a curfew on?” It was Brad Kendrick, floor supervisor. Brad was eighteen and the oldest guy at the orphanage. He was six feet tall, lean but solid, with a real attitude. He was going into the army in the fall. September couldn’t come soon enough for Kevin.
“What are you doing in here, Caleb?” asked Brad officiously. “Go back to your room. If Bilkin finds you in here, we’re all in deep shit.”
“Better go, Caleb,” said Kevin.
“Can I… ?” asked Caleb pointing to the game console.
“Sure,” said Kevin. “Knock yourself out.”
Caleb rapidly unplugged the unit from the small TV and hurried out of the room with it tucked under his arm, the cords dragging behind him like a tail.As soon as he had gone, Brad marched up to Kevin until they were chest to chest, looked down on him, and started shouting. “Listen, you fat fuck, I don’t so much blame him as I do you. He’s just a kid. He hasn’t been here very long. But you, you’re a veteran. You’ve been here almost as long as I have. You know the rules and you know the penalties for breaking them.”
“Sure, they’re going to send me to my room and tell me not to leave.”
“Exactly.”
“Just like… oh, I don’t know… a curfew?”
He saw the wheels turning in Brad’s head, and then… “Shut the fuck up.”
God, Brad was such a mindless idiot. No wonder they put him in charge of the floor. He’d do whatever they told him and not even think twice about it. He might not even think once.
“It’s stupid fucks like you,” Brad sputtered, “and that faggot Mikey you hang out with, that get us all into trouble. I guess you guys are just too good for the rules; so now we all have curfew. Why can’t you guys just do what you’re supposed to do, and stay where you’re supposed to stay?”
“Brad, which one of us isn’t in his room—where he’s supposed to be—right now?”
“I’m the floor supervisor.”
“I seem to remember the words no exceptions were included in our instructions.”
The wheels were turning again. “Fuck!” he shouted as he turned and ran from the room. God, he was such a moron. But still, Kevin really hated it when Brad called him a fat fuck, probably because it wasn’t entirely inaccurate. The unfortunate truth was that Kevin was about four inches shorter than Brad, had none of his lean muscle mass, but still weighed about the same as the eighteen-year-old.
Kevin closed his door and turned on his computer. Now that the PlayStation had gone off with Caleb, he had to find something else to do with his evening. He looked out his window as he waited for the ancient machine to boot up. Being on the third floor, he had a great view… if you liked trees, because that’s all you could see from here; trees, trees and more trees, all the way to the horizon.
And somewhere out there was his “faggot” friend Mikey. Except Mikey wasn’t a faggot. If he were, Kevin would know by now. They had known each other for years, ever since they had both come to the orphanage on the same day. They had sat in the hall stealing curious glances at each other while the adults decided their fates behind a closed door—as was so often the case. They weren’t supposed to move or talk, but the adults hadn’t been gone three minutes when Mikey hopped out of his chair.
“Wanna see something?” he asked with a grin that Kevin would come to know all too well in the years that would follow. That grin meant trouble, and now when Kevin saw it, he knew to prepare himself. But on that day, he was completely clueless.
“Sure,” he had answered.
Mikey had picked up his wooden chair, carried it over to the door and wedged it under the knob, so it jammed the door closed.
“What are you doing?” Kevin had asked. “They won’t be able to get out.”
“No? Really?” he had said in exaggerated shock.
“Dude, you are going to get into so much trouble.”
“Yeah,” he nodded enthusiastically. “I’m good at it.” He walked over to Kevin and extended his hand. “Mikey.”
“Kevin,” said Kevin extending his hand, and from that moment on, life hadn’t been boring.
Of course, the adults had gotten out, eventually. But first there had been a lot of pounding and yelling and threats issuing from behind that blocked door. And Kevin had to admit it had been pretty damn funny. It had almost been worth spending his first week there confined in his room.
But he, too, eventually got out. And then, with Mikey as his instructor, Kevin had learned how to short sheet a bed, how to substitute salt for sugar, and the fine and subtle art of tying someone’s shoelaces together without them noticing. They became notorious. They were inseparable, until one day when it had all almost ended.
Mikey had just burst into his room—nothing unusual in this. He did it all the time. But on this day it had been disastrous. Kevin had been sitting at his computer and surprised and flustered, he had been unable to shut it down before Mikey saw the screen.
“No way. You got passed the porno filter,” he had said, excitedly. And then as he got a better look, his smile had faded. “Hey, those are two dudes. What are you looking at that for?” But Kevin hadn’t had to answer. His pants had been down around his ankles and his equipment had been fully active.
“Oh, dude,” Mikey had said, and then he had silently turned away and left. Kevin felt horrified and humiliated. But it was his own fault for forgetting to lock the door.
The next few days had been the loneliest in Kevin’s entire life. Mikey had hardly said a word to him. Kevin had even seen his old friend trying to pal around with some of the other boys, but he was too wild and unpredictable for any of them to handle. And they were too skittish and fearful to get swept up in any of his schemes. Kevin wanted to talk to him, he really did, but he didn’t know what to say or how to say it. Finally, it had been Mikey, as usual, who made the first move.
Kevin had been outside sitting under a tree reading a computer science book, when Mikey had come up and sat across from him.
“Hey,” he had said.
“Hey,” Kevin had replied.
“So, you like dudes.”
Kevin had just shrugged.
“Well, I don’t. I mean, not like that.”
Kevin had shrugged again.
“Just so you know,” said Mikey.
“Ok.”
“Ok.”
And then they had electrified the kitchen door knob.
That had been almost two years ago, and it had been that night, as he languished in his room, punished for the door knob incident, that he realized he loved Mikey, loved him more than anything, even more than his own life. Of course, he could never expect anything back. His friendship would have to be enough. Still, in his heart of hearts, he still held on to that hope that one day, maybe… But he seldom allowed himself to go there, even in his dreams. It was just too painful. Still, he would do anything for Mikey, anything.
So, when Mikey had told him about his plan to avoid the vitamin shot, Kevin hadn’t mentioned that it was pointless, that eventually he’d be found and have to take the shot anyway; as usual, he had just gone along with it. Maybe he shouldn’t have. Things were going a little too far. The night was wearing on and they still hadn’t found Mikey. What if he decided to run away to avoid the vitamin shot? What if he never came back? What if Kevin never saw him again?
Out of his window, Kevin saw a couple of flashes in the woods, and heard a rapid pop, pop. Were those gun shots? Were they shooting at Mikey? No, that was ridiculous. They wouldn’t shoot a guy over a vitamin shot. It had to be hunters… Didn’t it?
He looked out at the sky. Clouds were moving in, covering the moon, and the wind was starting to pick up. It looked like a storm was coming. He hoped Mikey would give himself up soon, before he got caught in the rain and got sick or something. But that guy was stubborn. He might not give up for hours yet.
Suddenly, he heard a loud thump. There was something on the roof. At first Kevin thought it was a branch or something that had been blown off a tree. But the thing started moving. He could hear it bumping around above him. What the hell was that? He opened the window and stuck his head out. His window was on a gable and he tried to crane his neck around the side of it so he could see the roof behind it, but he couldn’t stretch that far. He pulled himself back into his room and took one final look out the window. Suddenly a leering face dropped down from above right in front of him.
“AH!” he shouted, and leapt back.
The face started laughing hysterically. It was Mikey. Mikey was somehow hanging upside down in front of his window, but all he could see was Mikey’s head and his laughing face.
“You should see your face, bro. It’s classic.”
“Fuck you. You scared the shit out of me. What are you doing on the roof?”
“Hidin’ out. Whatcha think?”
“What’s the point? They’re going to make you take that shot no matter what you do.”
Mikey suddenly got serious. “I don’t think so, dude. It’s gone way beyond that now.”
“What are you talking about? You better come in before it starts raining.”
“No, maybe you better come out.”
“What? I’m not—” The next thing Kevin knew, two large hands shot in through the window and grabbed him. He shouted as the powerful hands yanked him up, out through the opening, and into the night.
Kevin’s first thought was, “Fuck! I’m falling. I’m going to die.” But he wasn’t falling. He was moving up across the roof. Something was carrying him. He had been slung across something’s back, something’s broad, muscular back. He looked behind him for any sign of Mikey. There was none. What the fuck was going on? He might have been scared if any of this had made sense, but none of this made sense. It all seemed incredibly unreal.
In a moment they had reached the pinnacle, the very top of the orphanage’s roof. Then Kevin felt himself set down. He looked up and found himself face to face with… Mikey, but not Mikey. The Mikey he knew was five foot nine and thin as a rail. This guy was about six feet and was covered with bulging muscles that his overly tight shirt did little to conceal. Sure it looked like Mikey’s face. It even looked like Mikey’s clothes, strained and blowing in the wind. But this couldn’t be Mikey. Something wasn’t right.
He looked around. Everything seemed so bizarre. The storm clouds were rushing in, punctuated by tiny flashes of lightning. The wind was blowing. He was on the top of the orphanage roof with a beefed up version of Mikey, who was staring down at him grinning. Man, just looking at him was getting Kevin hard. Then he had it. This was a dream, and a good one, too. In another few minutes he’d probably wake up and have to wipe himself off. But the next few minutes should be a lot of fun.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” asked the dream Mikey.
“What’s there to say?”
“Oh my god. Wow. What happened? Those’ll do for a start.”
“Oh my god. Wow. What happened?” Kevin repeated tonelessly. He was trying to remember if he’d had this dream before.
Then suddenly dream-boy Mikey was kneeling next to him, looking concerned. “Maybe I shouldn’t have done this,” he said. “Are you, like, in shock?”
Maybe he should pretend to be sick and then dream-boy Mikey would examine him. Or maybe this was one of those lucid dreams. It sure felt more real than any dream he’d ever had before. If it was a lucid dream, he could take control of it and that would be outstanding. “I don’t think you can go into shock in a dream.”
Then dream-boy Mikey started to laugh. “This isn’t a dream, dude; it’s real.”
“I don’t think so.”
“No, it is. It’s real.”
“Prove it.”
“Here.”
Dream-boy Mikey flexed his bicep. Kevin watched it swell up and fill his sleeve. It was large and powerful and perfectly shaped. It had definition and separation; it was a work of art. “Feel this,” said the Dream-boy.
“Ok, so far you’ve done absolutely nothing to prove your point,” said Kevin.
“Just feel it… Only don’t get the wrong idea.”
Kevin reached out and grabbed the dream-bicep. It was warm and hard… and solid, very solid. Dreams weren’t solid, not this solid. Fuck, this was real.
“OhmyGod, ohmyGod, ohmyGod.” He let go of the bicep like it had been suddenly electrified. “Fuck! It is you! And you’re fucking huge and I’m really on the fucking roof in the middle of a fucking thunderstorm. Fuck!”
“Calm down. Jeez, I think I preferred it when you thought I was a dream?”
“Yeah, I think I fucking preferred that, too.” Kevin stood there for a minute, breathing hard and looking at his friend who was suddenly large and muscular. Why did none of this make sense?
And then the skies opened up and the rain came rushing down.
“Come on,” said Mikey. “I think we’d better get inside.” There was an attic window right below them. It was with amazing grace that Mikey glided down the roof and popped open the attic window. The he shot back up to Kevin and reached out his hand.
“What the fuck are you about to do?” demanded Kevin. “Are you about to fucking pick me up? I don’t need you to fucking carry me, Tarzan. I can make it just fine on my own.”
“Ok, fine.”
Kevin started inching his way down the roof. But the rain had made the shingles slippery and suddenly Kevin found himself sliding down the steep slope.
“Ok, you can carry me now,” Kevin called to Mikey as he slid closer and closer to the edge.
“You sure? I wouldn’t want to upset you.”
“No, it’s fine, really.”
“Only if you’re absolutely certain.”
“Yes, I’m absolut—Oh fuck! Help!” Kevin had made it to the edge and was starting to slip off, when he felt a pair of strong hands grab him and suddenly he was flying back up the roof, through the window and into the attic.
“Thank you,” he said sharply, as Mikey set him down on the floor.
“Jeez, what’s your problem?”
“Let’s just say I’m a little freaked. Ok, no. I’m a lot freaked.”
“Yeah? Well then maybe you should rest before we talk. ’Cause if you’re freaked now, what I’ve got to tell you will probably put you in a coma.”
Kevin looked up at his friend, he looked so much like the Mikey he knew, and yet… not. His clothes were soaked now and the effect on his shirt—that was Mikey’s shirt—was amazing. It had become transparent and clingy; every detail of this new Mikey’s amazing build was clearly visible. He had round, full pecs and a six pack. His shoulders looked like two flesh colored softballs had been stuffed into his shirt, his biceps and triceps spreading out wide beneath them. He was fucking hot and Kevin felt himself begin to get a little stiff.
“What the fuck happened to you, Mikey? You look like you went through some kind of second puberty.”
Mikey snorted. “Second puberty? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“So what happened?”
“You sure you feel up to hearing this?”
“No, I’m not sure, but I think I want to hear anyway. Just take it slow, ok?”
“Ok. It’s the vitamin shot.”
“The vitamin shot did this?”
“No, it’s because I didn’t take it.”
Well, that just made no sense at all. “Wait a minute, are you trying to tell me that you grew big and strong by not taking your vitamins?”
“Yes. No. Kind of.”
Mikey seemed confused, and he wasn’t alone. “That makes it clear.”
“No, just stop for a second. Let me talk. They’ve been experimenting on us.”
“Experimenting on us?”
“Yeah, all those medical tests they’re always conducting. They’re some kind of experiment.”
“What kind of experiment?”
“I don’t know…” Mikey began pacing. “The kind that makes you grow.”
“Why did they want you to grow?”
“I don’t know. Ask them.”
“Mikey, that’s just stupid. No one would believe that.”
“Excuse me?” he said, indicating his own bulging body, and Kevin allowed his eyes the luxury of roaming it once again.
“Ok, that’s a pretty convincing argument. What should we do?”
“We should all stop taking the vitamin shots.”
“And that would do… what?”
“We’d all start to grow.” He grinned.
“What you mean, like, all of us?”
“All of us.”
“Including me?”
“Yeah, including you. Why not?”
“I don’t know. What if I don’t want to grow?”
“You better if you don’t want to get killed.”
“Killed? Ok, you lost me again.”
“They were shooting at me, dude. They wanted to kill me.”
“Why?”
“Because I started to grow.”
“But isn’t that what these experiments are supposed to be all about?”
“Yeah, but it’s kind of, like, I triggered it early, like I wasn’t supposed to grow yet.”
“Well, when were you supposed to grow?”
“I don’t know. Why are you asking me all these questions? Don’t you believe me?”
“Of course, I believe you, Mikey. I mean, how could I not? I’m just trying to understand. That’s all.”
“Well don’t try too hard. We’ve got to get out of here, all of us.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, at least not yet.”
“You want to stay here and get experimented on?”
“No, but I want to understand more about it. What if there’s more to it than just growing?”
“What do you mean?”
“To cause that kind of growth, they’d have to alter our biochemistry pretty drastically. What if there’s some substance we need to survive, something we can only get here?”
Mikey sat down. “You really think that?”
“I don’t know. There’s too much about this I don’t know. I think it would be dangerous to leave until we know more.”
“Then we’ll take over the orphanage.”
“That’s crazy. We’d never pull that off.”
“Let them try and stop us.”
“Mikey, you can’t take on the whole place by yourself.”
“Sure I can. I’m a lot stronger than I look.” That was a statement and a half.
“Yeah, well you look strong as an ox.”
“Yeah, I know, but I’m stronger. And check this out.” Mikey pulled a most muscular pose and as he did I saw the buttons on his shirt start to strain as his pecs pushed out against them. There was a quiet pop as the first one flew off. Mikey relaxed and grinned.
“Twenty minutes ago I couldn’t do that.”
“I don’t understand,” said Kevin.
“I’m still growing. I’m still getting bigger, still getting stronger.”
“What? Are you sure?”
Mikey just nodded and pulled another most muscular, popping off another one of his buttons. He was showing quite a bit of muscle cleavage now and Kevin did not have the will power to look away.
“Do you want this body?” Mikey asked, ripping open his shirt and exposing his rock hard abs and his bulging pecs.
“W… what?” stammered Kevin. “What did you just ask me?”
“Don’t you want a body like this?”
“Oh. That’s what you said.”
“Yeah. What did you think I said?”
“I don’t know. Something else. And, no, I don’t really want a body like that. I mean it looks good on you; it looks great on you. But it’s not for me. I think I’ll just pass on the whole muscle thing.”
“Dude,” said Mikey leaning over him, “I don’t think you’ve been listening to me. You can’t pass on the whole muscle thing. Whatever they’ve done to us, it’s already done. It’s too late. That guy you see in the mirror, he’s a fake, a shell, an illusion. The real you now looks a lot like this.” Mikey flexed his biceps and Kevin watched as they swelled up large and hard, the veins standing out against them, definitely bigger and more defined then they had been back on the roof. Mikey gave his arms an extra little squeeze and Kevin heard a ripping noise as his friend’s sleeves tore. “Awesome,” grinned Mikey. “And the only thing keeping your arms from busting through your sleeves is that fucking vitamin shot.”
Kevin was frozen. He didn’t know what to say. The sight of Mikey—his Mikey—standing there, with his shirt torn open revealing his muscular torso, and with his large biceps ripping out of his sleeves, was overwhelming. He couldn’t pull his eyes away. He felt his brain locking up, inundated by a rush of hormones. This was a fucking wet dream come true—almost. He was wracked with desires, but desires Mikey didn’t share and couldn’t understand. How could the universe be this cruel?
And that wasn’t the whole of it. Apparently, he had been altered, too. But that kind of a body wasn’t something he wanted for himself at all. In fact, the idea that it might happen to him was profoundly disturbing. There had to be some way out of this. There had to be, and he would find it no matter what, even if he had to change the rules.