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that out. I just know I won’t let God down by ignoring others’ suffering and letting them just walk free.”
    A man who believed in God also believed in the Devil. “And you’re sure you didn’t get this gift from…
    someone else?”
    “The Devil isn’t interested in ending suffering on earth,” Matthew replied. “He wouldn’t give a man incapable of witnessing it without acting the means to put a stop to something nobody else can.”
    That made sense. And made it even clearer why Matthew would be so furious with his God now.
    He only had one final question.
    “Why my father’s funeral?”
    Matthew sighed. His broad hands stroked up and down Calvin’s back, though which one of them it was supposed to soothe, Calvin didn’t know. “I can’t face them regularly,” he admitted. “They’re monsters.
    Evil. And I’m not a violent man. I never even held a gun before this started happening. But I can’t stay locked in my house indefinitely. I do some volunteer work in Watson Park, but I stick with the children as much as I can. Demons tend not to bother them. I go out when I’m least likely to run into people, and when the guilt starts to gnaw at me too much, that I’m shirking this gift God has given me, I pick a funeral and wait.” His breath ruffled across his ear. “I’m sorry. I know it’s random.”
    “I’m not. Sorry, that is.” He pulled back and smiled. “If that’s what it took to meet you, then random’s just fine with me.”
    Slowly, Matthew tilted his head, brushing a tender kiss over Calvin’s lips. Though Calvin sank into the caress, Matthew kept it gentle, almost chaste in its delicate touch. He kissed like it was his first. Or their first.
    Maybe it was. Truth set people free, after all. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Matthew didn’t have anyone else to confide in.
    “When do you go back to New York?” Matthew asked when they parted.
    Calvin licked at the stubble darkening his jaw. “Tomorrow morning.”
    “Can you stay until then?”
    He paused. There were pluses and minuses to both possible answers. “I can stay until this evening.” It was a compromise between what he wanted and what was necessary. “If I’d known there was a guy like you around Watson Park, I would’ve planned on flying back later. Where were you when I was growing up gay in this backwater town?”
    His breath came faster, hotter, against Calvin’s cheek. “Chicago. I only left there when I couldn’t stand WalkAmongUs:ACallingofSoulsstory
    seeing the monsters everywhere.”
    “Lucky for me, then.”
    “You said you didn’t believe in luck.”
    “Yeah, well, I can admit I might’ve been wrong about that if you promise to take me back up to bed and keep me there until the sun goes down.”
    Matthew tightened his arms until Calvin’s ribs ached. He didn’t protest. It made him feel alive.
    “You have my word.”
    WalkAmongUs:ACallingofSoulsstory
    Chapter Five
    The last thing Calvin saw was Matthew standing on the porch.
    It wasn’t quite three, but the sun was starting to go down, and the wind was starting to rise. It would take him two hours to get to the airport, a fact he made the mistake of sharing with Matthew over lunch. He didn’t want to go, but the weather and circumstance gave him no choice. Matthew insisted on fixing him some food to take with him while he cleaned up. There was something oddly endearing about kissing Matthew at the front door while he pressed a sack of sandwiches into Calvin’s hand.
    Driving away made him ache.
    He had no illusions that it was anything but a one-night stand. A few hours of solace for both of them.
    Matthew got a night where he wasn’t so lonely, and Calvin didn’t have to think about the reasons that had brought him to town in the first place. They could both pretend their lives were straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting instead of an M.C. Escher woodcut. They had both known it came with an expiration date.
    But Calvin