Designed by the Signal Chapter: LI-LV. The Last Touch
⚠️CONTENT WARNING: This chapter contains explicit depictions of sexual content, intense emotional distress, and body horror.⚠️
CHAPTER LI
The silence of the jungle was as if some large animal were holding its breath, preparing to pounce. Adam leaned against a tree trunk and watched as Thomas stood at the edge of the clearing, motionless, like an alien statue.
“Still no rain?” asked Adam, his voice tense with attempted indifference.
Caleb, who sat on the ground before a portable terminal, shook his head.
“Humidity is at 98%. But the clouds aren't from our atmosphere. They carry the signature pattern Thomas brought with him.”
Thomas turned slowly. The silver streaks on his arms, his chest pulsed softly, like another heartbeat.
“It won't rain,” he said. “Everything will just become damp. As if the air is crying.”
Adam stood up, stepped closer. He couldn't bear to watch idly.
“And you? Are you crying?”
A strange, calm expression sat on Thomas's face.
“It transformed my tears too. Into silver fluid. It would be hard to explain.”
“Try,” hissed Adam, and grabbed Thomas's arm. The touch was an electric shock, but he didn't pull his hand away. “You have three days to be human with me. Start by explaining that!”
Thomas's gaze sank into Adam's eyes. The gray color still lurked behind the silver, like a distant memory.
“It hurts,” he said quietly. “Every minute I spend here with this body, with this consciousness that still remembers you… it hurts. Because I know I will lose it. The signal won't let me forget. I constantly see the Void. I constantly feel it approaching. And meanwhile, you are here… and every single one of your muscles, every breath is so sharp, so beautiful, it feels like my soul wants to tear apart from it.”
Adam's hand softened on his arm.
“Then don't look there. Look at me. Only at me.”
“I can't look anywhere else,” whispered Thomas.
Caleb stood up and started into the thick of the jungle.
“I'll be gone for an hour. To check the peripheral sensors.” He stopped and looked back. “Use the time.”
As soon as he disappeared, Adam's hand rose to Thomas's face.
“I love you,” he said, emphasizing every syllable. “Whatever you become. Wherever you go. That doesn't change.”
Thomas closed his eyes and buried his face in Adam's palm.
“Show me,” he panted. “One more time. Before… before it's too late.”
They didn't lead each other to the ground, but to the bank of the small stream where soft moss covered the stones. The air was damp and sweet. Adam's fingers trembled as they undid Thomas's pants—though it was only a ritual gesture now, since Thomas had barely worn clothes since his return.
“Your skin is so cold,” said Adam, as his palm slid down his stomach, between the silver streaks.
“Not cold,” corrected Thomas, his hand clutching Adam's hair. “Just… different. The temperature isn't the same. But I feel your hand. I feel it trembling.”
Adam bent down and touched Thomas's nipple with his lips. Thin, luminous lines ran across it too. Thomas gasped, his body tensing.
“There… it's especially sensitive there,” he breathed.
Adam followed the lines with his tongue, from one nipple to the other, then down his stomach, toward his navel. Thomas's body arched convulsively, every muscle taut with pleasure and pain, which had now become inextricably mixed within him.
“Adam… please…”
“What?” asked Adam, sliding lower, his lips on the inner part of his thigh.
“Everything. Give me everything. Now.”
Adam didn't ask twice. His hand grabbed Thomas's thigh near his leg, spread it open. Thomas's cock was hard, almost painfully erect, its head gleaming purplish and wet. Adam stared for a moment—this part hadn't been changed by the signal yet. Still human. Still his.
Then he took it into his mouth. Slowly, its full length, his tongue caressing the sensitive spot beneath the head. Thomas's voice broke into a distorted, moaning cry.
“God… Adam…”
His hand clutched convulsively at the ground. Adam accelerated his pace, one hand gripping Thomas's ass, the other stroking around the base. He felt Thomas's muscles tremble, a sign of the approaching orgasm. But he didn't want it to end like this, quickly.
“No,” he said, and lifted his head. “Not yet.”
Thomas's eyes were filled with silver tears.
“You're torturing me.”
“Yes,” said Adam, and climbed onto Thomas's body. “Because this is the last time I feel like I am yours. And you are mine.”
He kissed him while guiding his fingers to Thomas's ass. Saliva and moisture helped as he slowly inserted one finger. Thomas took a deep breath and allowed it in.
“More,” he whispered.
Adam added a second finger, carefully stretching. Thomas's body opened easily, as if yearning for it. The alien transformation had somehow made it even more sensitive, even more receptive.
“Are you ready?” asked Adam, his voice hoarse with desire and grief.
“I've always been ready for you,” replied Thomas.
Adam linked his hand with Thomas's, their fingers interlacing on the moss. Slowly, looking eye to eye, he entered. Thomas's eyes widened, his mouth opened in a silent scream. Adam stopped completely, giving him time to adjust.
“You're so… warm,” panted Thomas. “So sharply human. So sharply real.”
Then Adam began to move. Slow, deep thrusts, each one a farewell. Thomas's legs clung to Adam's waist, his heels digging into his back. The sky above them darkened to dark purple, the alien veins pulsing slowly.
“Look at me,” begged Adam. “Just look at me.”
Thomas couldn't look anywhere else. The silver light in his eyes danced like fire, but his gaze remained clinging, loving. With every thrust, their hips met, their voices mingled—Adam's groans, Thomas's sobbing breaths.
“It's getting closer,” moaned Thomas. “I feel it…”
“No,” said Adam, and quickened his pace, penetrating deeper. “Not yet. This is our time.”
Thomas's body began to tremble, then tensed convulsively. On his face, pleasure and infinite sadness mixed.
“Adam… I… I'm going to…”
“Together,” gasped Adam. “Together, Thomas. Please.”
And so it happened. Thomas's body shuddered, the arch of his back tensing unbrokenly as his warm seed spilled inside. The sight, the feeling—the last gift—undid Adam too. With a long, relieved cry, he gave himself over, deep within Thomas, binding them in one last, physical mercy.
For minutes they lay motionless, Adam's body resting on Thomas's, their breaths slowly synchronizing. Thomas's hand played on Adam's back.
“I will remember this,” whispered Thomas. “When I'm just a lock, a silence in the void… I will remember the scent of your skin. The warmth of your body.”
Adam couldn't speak. He just buried his face in Thomas's shoulder and wept, while Thomas stroked his hair.
CHAPTER LII
The morning of the second day was cold. A cold the tropical jungle was incapable of. Sharp, crystalline frost sat on the leaves of the trees.
Caleb sat by a small electric fire, warming his hands.
“The temperature dropped suddenly. As if reality itself is cooling.”
Adam looked toward Thomas, who stood in the center of the clearing, his hands spread out. The silver streaks now glowed brighter, and beneath his skin tiny, luminous dots moved, like microscopic stars.
“What are you doing?” asked Adam.
“Feeling the boundaries,” replied Thomas without turning. “Where our world ends and the Void begins. It's like a huge, invisible wound surface. And it's bleeding.”
“Can you talk to it?” asked Caleb with interest.
“I didn't come to converse,” said Thomas, finally lowering his arms. “I just listened. And they wept.”
Adam stood up and went to him.
“What did they say?”
Thomas finally looked at him. The silver light in his eyes now completely overwhelmed the gray. It was as if two tiny moons were shining in the gloom.
“That everything that ever was returns to them. That existence is just a momentary deviation from the void. And we… we are the deviation. The flaw. And they are fixing it.”
“That's not true,” said Adam firmly. “Your existence is not a flaw. Our love is not.”
Thomas's smile was pained.
“It doesn't matter if it's true. That is their language. And I almost understand it now. Almost… agree.”
Adam grabbed his arm.
“Don't! Don't agree with them! Remember! Remember what you felt yesterday. That wasn't a flaw. That was… that was everything.”
Thomas's hand rose to Adam's face. His fingers were as cold as the frost.
“I remember. But the longer I stay here, the more it blurs. It's like trying to recall a very beautiful dream, but being constantly awakened. The Void is wakefulness. Our world is the dream.”
“Then dream with me,” whispered Adam. “Now. Again.”
Caleb stood up.
“There will be no time for further intimacy. The second overlap is beginning. Thomas needs to concentrate to stabilize the boundary.”
“Leave us alone!” shouted Adam, turning toward Caleb. “We have three days! This is the second! What do you want us to do? Sit quietly and wait for the end?”
“Yes,” Caleb replied calmly. “Exactly that. If Thomas doesn't stabilize the boundary, the Void won't swallow everything in three days, but this afternoon. Intimacy disrupts the signal's focus. You almost caused a catastrophe yesterday.”
Thomas stepped between them.
“Enough.” His voice was deeper, resonated in the air. “Caleb is right. But…” He turned to Adam. “But you are also right. I won't sit quietly. I won't. Show me again why it's worth holding onto the dream.”
Caleb's eyes narrowed.
“This is not rational.”
“Love never is,” said Thomas. “And if this is the last thing I do as a human, then let it be this. Adam. Come.”
And Adam followed, while Caleb rooted himself angrily to the ground and watched his monitor.
CHAPTER LIII
The dawn of the third day broke grayly. As if the light itself was tired of coming through the thickening membrane of reality.
Thomas sat on the stream bank, his feet dangling in the slow water. The silver streaks now glowed openly, and his skin had become translucent in places, where his muscles and bones showed through as glowing, alien structures.
Adam sat down beside him. They were silent for a while.
“What was it like?” Adam finally asked. “When you went through. At the Source.”
Thomas didn't look at him.
“It was as if every single one of my cells disintegrated, and someone put me back together, but in the wrong order. And meanwhile… I saw. Everything. The past, the future. I saw you die. I saw myself die. I saw the possibilities where we grow old together. Where we argue on a weekend about the dishes. Where we have children. Infinite variations. And every one of them ends the same way: the Void takes everything back.”
“But it matters what happens until then,” said Adam.
“No,” Thomas agreed. “It doesn't matter. That's why I decided this way. To choose this variation. The one where you live on.”
“Why not the one where we die together?” asked Adam, his voice hoarse.
“Because you are stronger than you think,” replied Thomas, and finally looked at him. “I… I'm not that strong anymore. I'm afraid now. Afraid of eternity. Afraid of the silence. But you… you could endure it. And you would remember me. And maybe… maybe a piece of me would remain in that memory.”
Adam's tears flowed quietly.
“I don't want you to teach me fear. I don't want you to teach me courage. I just want you to be here.”
“I know,” whispered Thomas. “I want that too. But it can't be. So instead… instead of being here, I'll give you something. My last gift.”
“What is it?” asked Adam.
“Tonight,” replied Thomas. “All of it. Without fear. Without holding anything back. As if I never had to leave. Do you promise it will be like that?”
Adam nodded, his words swallowed by the swell of his emotions.
“I promise.”
CHAPTER LIV
Night fell, but it brought no darkness. The world was illuminated by a strange, purple light that emanated from the depths of the earth, from the air, from the bodies themselves.
Caleb stood farther away, at the edge of the forest. He didn't look at them. He had promised.
Thomas and Adam stood in the center of the clearing, facing each other. There was no blanket, no bed. Only the soft, warm earth that still remembered life.
“Don't spare me,” said Thomas. “That's the greatest cruelty you could do.”
Adam didn't answer with words. The answer was his hand, which grabbed Thomas's face and forced it into a kiss. This kiss wasn't gentle. It was warlike, desperate, an animalistic claim that said: You are mine, and if I lose you, you will still be mine.
Thomas kissed back with the same ferocity. His teeth bit into Adam's lip, the taste of delicious, painful blood spreading in their mouths. His hands tore at Adam's shirt, then ripped it back so it fell off. Then Adam's pants, every piece of clothing that stood between them.
When they were finally naked, Adam slowly knelt before Thomas. His hands held Thomas's thighs, and he pressed his face against his groin. He inhaled his scent—still human, but underneath it a strange, electric, metallic aroma. His tongue traced the base of his cock, then took its full length into his mouth in one smooth motion.
Thomas gasped, his hand clutching Adam's hair.
“Yes… like that… oh, God, Adam…”
Adam didn't hurry. He worshiped every centimeter, his tongue caressing the sensitive spot beneath the head, his lips sucking on the base. He felt Thomas's muscles tighten, his thighs tremble. He heard the sobbing breaths.
“Stop… stop…” moaned Thomas. “If you don't… too soon…”
Adam lifted his head. His mouth glistened with saliva and pre-cum.
“It doesn't matter,” he said. “Then we'll start again. Again and again. You said the whole night.”
Thomas's eyes were filled with silver tears.
“You… you are a torturer.”
“Just a lover,” corrected Adam, then stood up and kissed him again. His hand slid to Thomas's ass, his fingers seeking the cleft, which was already wet with desire. “Are you ready?”
“Always,” panted Thomas.
Adam didn't use fingers for preparation. Instead of kneeling, he grabbed Thomas's thighs and lifted him, wrapping his legs around his waist. Thomas's legs locked around Adam's back, his heels digging into his spine. Adam guided his own cock with one hand, supporting Thomas's ass with the other.
Then, looking eye to eye, he slowly, all the way, entered.
Thomas's head fell back, an open-mouthed, silent cry tearing from him. Adam stopped completely, giving him time to adjust. But Thomas's body wasn't what it had been a day ago. It was more open, more pliant, as if its internal structure had also transformed to receive him better.
“It doesn't… it doesn't hurt,” panted Thomas. “Not at all. It's so… so full.”
“Then move,” whispered Adam.
And Thomas moved. His hips matching Adam's thrusts, pulling him deeper. His hands clung to Adam's shoulders, his nails digging into the skin. Their pace accelerated, there was no patience left, only a mad, desperate desire to experience as much as possible in this moment.
Adam's lips were on Thomas's neck, his shoulders, he bit like an animal, leaving marks that would hopefully remain forever, even if the skin transformed.
“You are mine,” he gasped into his ear. “Mine, mine, mine…”
“Yours,” moaned Thomas back. “Always have been. Forever. Even when I'm gone.”
Then Adam turned him over, so Thomas was on his hands and knees. From this position, he penetrated even deeper. His hand slid down Thomas's thigh and grabbed his limp but still sensitive cock, and began stroking it in time with their rhythm.
Thomas's voice broke, becoming a continuous, sobbing moan.
“There… there… oh, God… Adam, I… I'm going to…”
“Together,” gasped Adam, and made his pace even faster, even wilder. “Together, my love. Give me everything.”
Thomas's body shuddered, then tensed convulsively. The arch of his back became a perfect curve as his seed shot out in long, silver streaks onto the ground. The feeling, the sight, the knowledge that this was the last—undid Adam too. With a long, distorted cry, he gave himself over, deep within Thomas, as if pouring his very soul into him.
For minutes they stayed like that, clinging together, their breaths panting in sync. Then Adam carefully pulled out and lay down beside Thomas on the ground.
The silence of the night returned. The purple light glowed more faintly.
Thomas turned toward Adam.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
“Don't thank me,” replied Adam, and looked into his eyes. “Just promise you'll remember this.”
“As long as I exist,” said Thomas, “I will remember.”
CHAPTER LV
The world fell apart. The bark of the jungle trees turned gray, crumbled to dust, and disintegrated without wind. A constant, high-pitched hum buzzed in the air, hurting inside the skull.
Thomas stood in the center of the clearing. The silver streaks on his skin now glowed like open wounds, and a dark, metallic fluid dripped from them. He barely resembled a human anymore.
Adam's chest ached with tightness. Caleb stood beside him, a stabilizing injection in his hand that he didn't dare administer.
“Ten minutes,” said Caleb. “We are at the peak of the convergence. On the edge of the Void.”
“I know,” replied Thomas. His voice no longer came only from his throat. The air, the ground, the disintegrating trees echoed it. “Adam.”
Adam stepped forward. His legs were leaden heavy.
“I'm here.”
“I don't know if I can bring anything back from it,” Thomas continued. Two of the luminous wounds were where his eyes should be. “My consciousness will scatter to plug the gap. But if there's something that remains… a fragment, a voice… it will be yours. Our love.”
“I don't want your fragment,” sobbed Adam. “I want all of you.”
“The whole no longer exists,” said Thomas gently. “Not even now. But love… love isn't fair. It doesn't ask. It just gives. I give you what remains.”
Caleb stepped closer.
“Thomas. The process… according to the signs, it will be painful. The transformation.”
Thomas's head turned toward him—if it was still a head.
“The first day, when Adam touched me… that was the last pain I felt as a human. Everything else will just be… liberation. Finally, I won't have to remember what I'm losing.”
Adam rushed forward and grabbed Thomas's hand—or what remained of it. He could still feel its shape.
“There's a way,” he panted. “Let me go with you. Let me be part of the lock too. Don't leave me alone here.”
Thomas's hand—if it was—rose to Adam's face.
“You are the reason it was worth it. You are the reason. If I went with you, then the whole… the whole thing would be meaningless. Stay. Live. Remember. That is your task.”
The hum suddenly turned sharp, a bleak shriek. The ground shook.
“Now,” said Caleb, his voice ominously calm.
Thomas's last, human movement was to raise both hands to Adam's face.
“I love you. Always.”
Then his body dissolved.
There was no explosion. No blinding light. Just a slow, terrible dissolution. Thomas's body turned to light, the light to strings, the strings to sound without music, the sound to an ever-growing, calm silence. In the air, a towering, transparent column formed, within which silver and black currents swirled, like an eternal storm.
The Void, which had shown in the cracks, retreated. The world sealed shut.
Adam knelt before the pillar. He pressed his hand against its surface. It was warm. A faint, constant pulsation could be felt.
“Thomas?” he whispered.
There was no answer. Only the silence.
Caleb slowly knelt beside him.
“He did it.”
“I know,” said Adam, and didn't take his hand off the warm, living stone. “But what now?”
“Now,” said Caleb, “now you have to live. As you promised him.”
The jungle remained silent. The sky slowly regained its own, familiar blue. A bird—the first since—whistled somewhere in the distance.
Adam stood up. His eyes were dry. The warmth of the pillar still burned in his palm.
“Then let's begin,” he said.
The End
I have no words for the end!! It is terribly sad but supremely beautiful!! 🥺😍❤️
👏🏼🫶🏼😍