‘Well I finally got my glasses,’ Rodney said, walking up to Matthew and standing close. He turned the glasses, and showed Matthew the arm, pointing to the symbols PM – MM37 as though they were significant. Matthew recognised his own initials, the double M, as he always did, though he thought nothing of it. They weren’t his glasses, the ones that he had had, the ones that had been meant for Rodney, apparently, because on those glasses the symbols had read PM – LS3.

Vaguely, Matthew remembered something. An image. Of himself in his bedroom at Lukas’, on the afternoon of the accident – yes – when he had looked at the symbols on the glasses and wondered…They had been Lukas’ initials…That was it, and he had thought…Lukas had been…

He frowned.

Rodney had his hand on Matthew’s shoulder, and he was looking up at Matthew, deeply into his eyes.

Rodney’s pupils were dark, hollow, and surrounded by a narrow ring of blue. Bright blue, like the water of a tropical island, but barely visible, because his pupils were so dilated.

Matthew felt his cock begin to stiffen. There was something about Rodney. Something that Matthew had felt at the beach, and on that day at Rodney’s house, which made Matthew feel foolish. The kid was so sexy. Yet at the same time, he seemed to have some hold over Matthew, as though he was someone Matthew could never beat, no matter how hard he tried.

And there was something in the corners of Rodney’s mouth, and in the cant of his head, which made him look a little crazy, different to how he had been, as though he had seen something, or done something, that had pushed him over the edge.

Matthew pulled away from him and stared at the rest of them. Brad and Tom and Dale had smiles on their faces. Little smiles, which they were trying to conceal, as though there was some joke that Matthew wasn’t in on. Drew, however, looked scared.

And Christian, as though he was superior to it all.

A fourth person walked out of the sitting room, and into the hall. An older guy, a tall guy, in his twenties, with dishevelled hair.

‘This is Brett,’ Christian said.

Matthew shook hands with him, unthinkingly, though he recognised the name. The guy who had made the tablets, he supposed. Matthew looked at his eyes. He didn’t seem to be on them himself. Like Christian, his eyes were clear.

Matthew pulled away from him as Lukas took his hand.

He glanced at Christian, noticing for the fist time the look of Christian’s belly. Distended. As though he had put on weight, like a man does, on his belly, and nowhere else.

Matthew wondered if the others knew.

He looked at all of them again, with their little smiles. Even Drew, now, was trying to hide a smile.

Matthew turned around, without thinking, and opened the door. He walked through it, and into the snow, not caring that he hadn’t said anything, or that he had left Lukas there. There was something…

He walked down the drive, to the car, and stopped, standing in the snow.

Lukas had…

Something about the glasses.

What had they been doing, on the afternoon, in his bedroom, when he had looked at the glasses, and seen those symbols?

Matthew opened the door.

He sat in the passenger seat and waited for Lukas.

Five minutes passed. And then ten.

Matthew blew the horn.

He didn’t want to go back in there.

All of them, those friends of his, had been in his mind. He knew that. And the glasses. His initials. Lukas’ initials.

He blew the horn again.

Lukas came trotting through the snow. He opened the driver’s side, and got in, even though Matthew had driven theme there.

‘Where were you?’ Matthew said.

‘I was talking to Rodney.’

Matthew threw his head back.

He felt like he was spinning. As though the world was spinning, and he was out of control.

A moment later. Instantly. He was on the long bridge over the lake, and Lukas was laughing.

‘Can you put it away?’

Matthew looked down. He had his cock out of his pants. And he had blown a load. He had pulled himself, apparently, though he had no memory of it, and there was come everywhere.

He tucked his cock into his cords, wondering how he had got here, wondering what had happened, how the time had passed, and he had pulled himself without knowing it.

But he knew.

He swallowed. Feeling sick. And lay his head back against the rest.

He could feel them. A score of people. Inside him. Looking out of his eyes, and listening to his thoughts, and hearing through his ears, and laughing at him.

He swallowed, feeling them swallow with his throat.

He was a game, an automaton.

And then suddenly, he knew. He remembered.

‘It’s the glasses,’ he said.

‘What?’

‘They do it with the glasses.’

‘Do what?’

‘Get inside your mind.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Lukas said. He glanced at Matthew, but he had to concentrate on the road. It was snowing.

‘Do you think he cares?’ someone said. A voice in Matthew’s mind.

Matthew swallowed, and felt his eyes starting to water.

‘Do you remember? When you put the glasses on? And you got that headache?’

Lukas glanced at him and nodded slowly. ‘What about it?’

‘Well they’re using them, to get into your mind.’

Lukas said nothing.

‘I was doing it. I used them. To get into your thoughts.’

Lukas frowned.

‘It’s true,’ he said. ‘I used them. They put a device in your mind. Dr Mueller. And they’re playing you, like a game. I was…’

Matthew stopped.

They came to the centre of the bridge, and started on the long, gentle slope downwards.

‘They’re all doing it. All of them. They’re in your mind.’

‘Rodney?’

‘Yes, Lukas. Fuck. Rodney.’

Lukas bit his lips and continued to drive in silence.

‘Don’t you believe it?’

‘I don’t know what you mean. I don’t know what you’re talking about.’

‘They’ve turned you into a game, Lukas. You’re a fucking game for them. For anyone. They’ve strung barbed wires through your brain, and they can control you. Do you understand that?’

Lukas said nothing.

‘And now they’ve done it to me.’

Matthew started crying.

‘Oh, poor baby,’ someone said, and Matthew recognised the voice instantly, as Dale’s.

He raised his fist, as high as he could, and punched himself in the groin. Only, he hadn’t raised his fist. Someone else had.

Matthew doubled over, holding himself.

‘What are you doing?’ Lukas said.

‘It’s not me. They’re controlling me. Don’t you understand that?’

Lukas nodded. He pulled off the bridge and into a side street. He stopped, and turned off the engine.

He believed Matthew, obviously. Matthew could tell that.

They looked at each other.

A moment later, they were at home. They were in Lukas’ bed, and they were naked.

It was dark. Night time.

Matthew wondered what had happened to the day. What they had done. He rolled over, and held Lukas tightly.

He would have to tell someone, do something.

Someone would have to be able to do something.

Someone.

He squeezed Lukas tightly. Lukas was asleep, and he groaned, waking.

‘Sorry,’ Matthew said.

Lukas nodded, and put his arms around Matthew.

At least he wasn’t alone, Matthew thought.

At least he had Lukas.

But in the morning, Lukas was gone.