HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

I don't know what I was expecting when I made it to my given room, but hearing Aerin screeching at the top of his lungs was not on that list. It was incessant and it made my heart fly up my throat so badly that I was sure it was gonna leap right out of my mouth.

"What the fuck?" I breathed as another scream hit an impossibly childish whistle note that almost completely deafened my ears. "AERIN!"

I was lunging up the rest of the stairs three at a time before I could even blink.

When I bolted down the hall toward the closed doors of my room and threw them open, bursting inside with my fists up, I half expected Sebastian to be right there, already strangling Echo to death for hurting Aerin or something worse. Instead, I was left feeling completely and one hundred percent dumbfounded and my jaw went slack in confusion and disbelief.

"AaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Aerin screamed again, hitting that impossibly screechy note and jumping around his room with his hands clutched to his blushing cheeks, grinning so wide that it was a wonder his face didn't rip in half. I blinked rapidly, staring at his clothes since he was wearing a black pleated skirt with a ridiculously oversized beige grandma sweater.

I covered my ears as he screeched again, then looked around for Bash, but didn't see him.

The room, in fact, was empty.

"Aerin, the fuck is wrong with you?!" I cried, and he whipped to look at me with wide, sparkling eyes that practically screamed 'THIS IS SO AMAZING!' and 'OH MY GOD!' and 'I AM EXCITED!'

"ECHO!" he screeched, pointing towards the closet in delight. "LOOK AT ECHO!"

I turned to stare at the closed closet doors, frowning, then looked back at him.

"Where is he?" I asked, confused. "Is he invisible?"

"Wha--? No! You goofy!" Aerin giggled, bouncing excitedly and covering his mouth with both of his tiny white hands. His hips swung back and forth as he wriggled, obviously bursting with excitement for whatever reason. "Echo! Come out! Show Horst! Show Horssst!"

"Is this truly necessary?" an uncannily familiar voice came back; my hair stood on end and I looked at Aerin with a jerk since that tone... that voice... "I do not understand why you are screaming so loudly. I also fail to understand what will be gained by doing this. "

"SATISFACTION!" Aerin squealed, jumping in place and throwing his hands up. "Come out!"

"As you wish," Echo droned, and with a click the closet door slid open to reveal... Aerin?

"What the fuck?!" I squawked in actual shock as a complete replica of Aerin came out. I gaped and even rubbed my eyes, taken completely off guard. "Echo?! What the hell are you doing?"

"I was given a request by Aerin to shift my form so I look identical to him," he said in Aerin's voice, and yet... there was no emotion in that familiar soprano, and his face, although completely identical to my giggling friend's, lacked all of what made him special.

From his bone white hair to his frosty-looking eyelashes to the beauty that made him so appealing, Echo was literally a mirror image of Aerin Vanderhill, save for the eyes. Where Aerin's were blue as a clear lake, Echo's eyes remained a disturbing shade of blood red.

He looked at me blankly, without feeling, cocking his head as my gaze drifted to his clothes.

I swallowed hard, immediately uncomfortable, since he was wearing one of Aerin's dresses.