[European Style] Praying Mantis

I thought I must be crazy when I was woken up by the noise of bugs.

The long eyelashes of the boy next to me were within three inches of me.One of his arms was still casually resting on my body.The result of last night's frenzy was that I was exhausted after I hadn't had sex in a long time.

The bright sunlight from the bedroom window cast on his face, dividing the bridge of his nose into light and dark halves.My whole attention was absorbed by this sleepy charming boy, so beautiful, and how lucky I was!

Although reason tells me that I must have done something wrong, and one day in the future I will definitely regret it.But at least not that morning, and in that moment, I was just utterly blissful.

As if feeling my burning gaze, he frowned and opened his soulful gray eyes.He looked at me, blinked innocently, and laughed, "Good morning, Robbie."

"Good morning, Nick." I kiss him lightly on the forehead as my morning greeting.

Today is the weekend.If I were in normal times, I would definitely sleep for a full day to vent the pressure brought on by heavy work.But this time it was different, we got up at the same time, fought to get dressed, made unpalatable scrambled eggs in the kitchen, and sat down on the couch together.Since I still have a little work left behind, I open up my laptop.And Dominic lay down beside me lazily, took out his mobile phone and watched a movie.He used my thigh as his own pillow, naturally and expertly, as if he had practiced it many times before.

The room is very quiet, except for the sound from the air conditioner, the only sound left is the sound of me typing on the keyboard and the movie dialogue from the speaker of the mobile phone - he seems to be watching some action movie, and "bang!" !” The sound of gunfire.

"What are you looking at?" I asked curiously.

"No Country for Old Men." He seemed to enjoy watching it, with a long smile on the corner of his mouth, "It's very interesting."

A trace of displeasure welled up in my heart.You know, I don't like this movie at all.Even though I sat in a movie theater with Dwayne and watched it ten years ago.My reasoning is simple: I panicked when the killer in the movie killed at least ten people in two hours.Life is as fragile and tiny as the dying green grass in the Texas desert in the film.I think it's inhumane.As anti-pacifists say, every human being should be a real living being, not a molecule in mortality.

"Don't you think the movie is kind of brutal?" I asked him. "Look, so many people were killed."

"But they are all drug dealers." Dominique said, "Well, there are a few innocent passers-by among them. But there are so many dark things in this world, and we have no time to worry about the fate of others."

"What about your family?" I asked. "Listen, Nick, I don't think your mother is innocent. Normal people don't go crazy for no reason."

"Who knows? Maybe she has histrionic personality disorder, or Munchausen syndrome (①) or something." Dominique unwrapped a bag of potato chips casually, and started to cook couch potatoes (②) leisurely .The round potato chips made a crisp sound under the cutting of the teeth.

By God, I must not be the only one who finds Dominique weird.In many parts of his life, he showed diametrically opposite attitudes, as if his soul was divided in two: he cared about the insects he raised, but he was indifferent to living human life; he claimed that homosexuality was evil, But he acted too close to me; he seemed to miss his lost relatives and friends very much, but he asserted that their death was not a pity... How many secrets did I not know about him?

For the next hour or so, we all chose silence.The wall clock emits a regular ticking sound unique to machinery, reminding the passage of time.When I typed the last period of the manuscript, I let out a long sigh of relief: "Finally finished."

I turned off the office software and opened Reddit as usual to relax myself by watching some jokes that are abundant there and have no meaning except to make people laugh.This has become a new habit of mine.

To my surprise, the first place on the hot list is not something like a dirty joke, but a post with a readable content: "Inventory of famous cases in the world." Obviously, the previous " Inventory of unsolved cases in the United States" post sparked a fever of curiosity to some extent.

I clicked in, and the first case was the bloody "Black Dahlia" (③).In fact, I have long been familiar with this unsolved case, which is almost an urban legend.The silent wail of the victim's badly mangled corpse spoke of the unforgivable crimes committed by the vicious criminal.

Next, the author wrote about the second case: the famous German cannibal incident (④).The reason why this case is shocking is that the person who was eaten turned out to be voluntary.In other words, if the law allows it, their "deal" is completely unquestionable.

"It's disgusting." Dominic also came over.Pointing to the photo of the victim, he teased, "Willing to be eaten...is he a praying mantis?"

"Don't say that, everybody has queer fantasies. It's just that he's put it into practice," I said. "I think Dora would have eaten Ben, too, if she had been able to."

The possibility I mentioned casually awakened Dominique like a wise saying in a famous book.He stopped chewing his chips and said, "You're right. We can try. I wonder if it's true."

His words are much stronger than the cooling effect of the air conditioner.At that moment, I felt my heart pounding uncontrollably, a side effect of fear.The most frightening thing is that when he said this, the expression on his face was relaxed and even happy, as if he was telling an anecdote.I just can't connect the lifeless villain in front of me with the caring boy who cared about animals before me.

The third case was the "Disappearance of Chinese Students Studying Abroad" (⑤), which was a hot topic at the time.The girl disappeared without a trace after getting into a car.The suspect has always refused to disclose her whereabouts.

"He's so stupid, it's going to make his crime worse," said Dominique scornfully. "If it's me, just say a place. If the police don't find it, just say I can't remember it—or It was destroyed by the force majeure of the corpse dumping point."

"There will always be discovery," I said. "There will always be an opportunity."

"But that's decades later. Maybe the murderer is already dead." Dominique suddenly leaned into my ear and whispered, "I know a place. In the alley behind the grocery store on Cherry Street The air vents in there—there's a huge pile of rubbish at the door, covered with bird droppings. Even children who play tag don't want to go in."

Cherry Street Grocer?That's where Professor Curley was last found!I looked at Dominic in disbelief, and my heart was as difficult to calm down as an ocean-going ship swaying left and right in a storm.He looked normal, even with a smile on his face.How I wish his next words were "just a joke", but he didn't.

"How do you know?" I almost tremblingly asked this sentence.

"I explored there when I was ten," he said, "but it's impossible to go again now. It's a terrible place."

His explanation finally made me breathe a sigh of relief.Despite my suspicions, my boy - and I think I'm entitled to call him that - shouldn't be on the list of suspects.Although this is just my wishful thinking, or because he is the branch of Salzburg in my heart (⑥), I really don't want to think about it.They are like the last line of defense in my heart. If they collapse, I will definitely collapse.

"Robbie, have you thought about changing your look?" Dominique asked me suddenly.

"Why are you talking about this?" I was a little confused.

"I think if you dyed your hair black, you would look even more attractive than you do now." Dominique reached out and gently stroked my brown hair. "Has anyone ever told you that you look a bit like Chris?"

I thought of what Justin Woods said, and I answered truthfully, "There was, one of his relatives told me."

"Robbie, will you stay with me all the time?" Dominic stared at me with those soulful gray eyes, his eyes shining brightly in the sunlight, like bright stars in the night sky.I know it speaks of longing.

"I would." I answered him.

"That's great, Robbie." Dominic's smile seemed genuine.His lithe limbs climbed up to my waist like a tiny cat.I think everyone who pursues beauty will not reject what happened next.

The author has something to say:

① Histrionic personality disorder, Munchausen syndrome: mental illness, the common feature is to win the attention and sympathy of others by hurting oneself.

② Couch Potato (couchpotato): Describes those who sit on the sofa, eat snacks and watch TV.

③ "Black Dahlia": In January 1947, a horrible-looking female body was found in Remelt Park, southwest of Los Angeles. The deceased, Elizabeth Ann Short, was an unpopular actor. Because she liked black, she was called "" Black Dahlia".

④ German cannibal case: In 2001, German Armin Meiwes posted an advertisement on a website, claiming to be looking for a person who voluntarily was killed and eaten.A Berlin man who identified himself as Brandis contacted Maiwes and offered to let him eat him.They used video cameras to record a series of killings.

⑤ Missing Chinese student: Zhang Yingying, a Chinese student studying in the United States, disappeared on June 2017, 6.The suspect, Brent Christensen, has pleaded not guilty.

⑥Twigs of Salzburg: Put a small branch into the salt pit of Salzburg, and crystallization will occur immediately. After a while, beautiful crystals like crystals will be produced. This example is used as a metaphor for lovers to produce very beautiful crystals in their dreams, which is the greatest motivation for falling in love.