By Sarah Wilson

Adonis stared out the window at the steadily pouring rain. It had been raining non-stop for days. Not bright spring rain, but gloomy, hard rain that had saturated the ground to the point where the ground could hold no more water. Puddles littered the sidewalk and street, and wherever there was a spot of earth was 3 inches of water.

"Fuck this." he thought to himself. He had always hated city life. Growing up on the streets of New York City, he was accustomed to crime and the fact that, well, cops just don't give a fuck. The sound of a door slamming behind him caused him to spin around, startled. He forgot that it was raining, and in the process knocked over an ashtray that was full of half-smoked cigarettes and roaches. He grumbled at the mess he had made, and looked up in astonishment to see his brother standing there.

"Is there some reason you just barge in my fucking apartment without knocking?" Adonis asked snottily. Him and his brother Jesse had never gotten along. Adonis resented him, and was secretly jealous. Jesse was the one with the job. The handsome man with a future who had gotten out of the rotted stinkhole in which they had grown up.

"Yeah, your lazy ass is too fucking stupid to answer the door." Jesse replied. "We need to talk."

"Do we?"

"We do. And Jesus Christ, Adonis. Clean up your fucking apartment." he said as he kicked old newspapers and dirty clothes around the floor. "Let's go out and talk. This place just fucking disgusts me."

"In this rain?" Adonis asked in disbelief.

"Yes, In this rain. What's the difference? Your roof leaks like hell anyway." Jesse snorted as he arose from the ripped chair in which he had taken a seat and started for the door. Adonis followed, only taking a moment to lock the door. He didn't bother turning out the lights, since he assumed they'd end up fighting and he'd come home in 20 minutes. They exited the trashy apartment building and headed for a small chinese restaurant that was still open, Thankfully. Adonis was broke as fuck, so Jesse bought him a cup of coffee while he plunged into a huge meal of Princess chicken, fried rice, Crab Rangoon, and Egg rolls.

Adonis stared into Jesse's handsome, chisled face and waited for him to start. After about 15 minutes of silence, he asked him to explain why he had brought him here. "Well Adonis, you may or may not know this, but I've got a job for you." Jesse said between mouthfuls.

"A job?"

"Yeah. A job. Guess what? You'll even get paid."

Adonis stared at him and wondering why the hell Jesse was offering him a job. He'd never done anything for his brother in his life. His curiosity began to get the better of him. He asked nonchalantly what type of job he would be doing.

"Cleaning your fucking apartment." Jesse said, and then laughed uproariously at the joke that only he thought was funny.

"Hey Jesse, do me a favor. Get fucked." Adonis sneered and rose to leave. He walked out the door into the pouring rain, which had only increased. He barely heard his brothers shouts for him to come back. He walked back to his apartment and laid on his bed, listening to the rain, and to the hundreds of cockroaches that scurried about along the floor and tables.

"fucking vermin. Landlord's too damn cheap to fucking hire an exterminator" he mumbled. He reached for his cigarettes, which had fallen off the small night table onto the floor. As he reached down, cockroaches and other insects scurried away to safety. He lit a marlboro light and leaned back. He slowly dragged off his cigarette and soon fell deep into thought.

So there he sat, pondering his fate, Wondering why god "the big cunt" he thought, had stuck him in this infested shithole to rot. No job. No money. No way to get out. No Escape. Ever.

He crushed out his cigarette and fell asleep. Then, he began to dream. He Dreamt he was in London, in a nice penthouse apartment. A beautiful woman lounged on a daybed across the room from where he stood. He advanced towards her and asked her where he was.

"In my apartment, where else would you be?" She replied with a thick british accent. He sat down and pulled his cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one. A tiny scottish terrier trotted across the rose carpet towards him. When it came near him, he growled and backed away.

"stupid fucking bow" Adonis thought as he saw the tiny pink ribbon tied between the terrier's ears. "Why the fuck do people do that stupid gay shit to their dogs?" He got off the expensive chair and walked towards the door. Upon standing in the hallway, he saw the elevator at the end of the hall slide open. He ran to catch it before it went down again, and just barely made it. He entered the elevator and leaned against the wall, panting and gasping for breath. He wondered why he hadn't been moving, and then remembered he had to push the button. His own elevator had been broken for years. He pushed the button marked "lobby" and waited.

Once out on the street, he realized that it was night. Rainwater glistened in the moonlight. The street was deserted. He wandered down the avenue, trying to decide where he should go.

"Hey man, can you spare some change?" an old bum asked. Oddly enough, he didn't have the accent.

"No man, I can't. I can't even feed myself as it is." he said, and walked on. Ahead in the street, he saw a figure advancing towards him. As it drew closer, he recognized the stranger as Jesse, his own brother. He pulled a gun out of his pocket, aimed it at his face, and said "You never cleaned your apartment."

Adonis awoke with a start. He sat up and swung his feet to the floor and looked at the tiny clock by his bed. It said it was1:30 AM. Even though he had only been sleeping for an hour, it felt longer to him. He realized that he had not been awakened by the strange dream, but by a loud banging at the door.

“It’s probably that fucking asshole back to bitch because I ditched him earlier.” he thought as he pulled on his pants. “Just a fucking minute!’ he screamed at the door, as the pounding got louder. He zipped up his pants and opened the door. As he had suspected, there stood Jesse with a pissed off look on his face.

“Why the fuck did you leave me earlier?” he asked.

“Your jokes aren’t funny”

“I thought it was funny” he replied haughtily.

“Well, I didn’t. I don’t live in a nice house in fucking suburbia. I don’t drive a fucking lexus. What do you want?” Adonis snarled at his brother. The shocked look on his brothers face caused him to soften up a little bit.

“I was just trying to soften the blow.” Jesse said as he looked down at the floor.

“What do you mean ‘soften the blow?’” Adonis inquired of his brother. Jesse didn’t say anything, but fixated his attention on a mouse dragging one of Adonis’s socks back to it’s nest.

“Fucking asshole! Answer me!” Adonis raged. Jesse still didn’t reply. Adonis angrily punched a hole through his wall, while screaming “Will you fucking answer me?”

“Fine. I’ll answer you. Our ever-lovin’ mother is dead.” Jesse said in a low tone. Adonis didn’t particularly know what to think. He had never been too fond of any member of his family. To him, they were all useless. His mother had been a Junkie and a prostitute. He had never known his father, didn’t even know his name. He did know that he was probably in jail and was an alcoholic. “Are you going to say anything?” Jesse asked quietly.

“What the fuck do you want me to say?” Adonis said. “The old bitch is dead. Not much we can do about it. How’d she die?”

“Murder.”

That stopped Adonis cold. Sure, he’d known people who had gotten murdered. But, he had never suspected that his own mother, whorish as she may be, would join their ranks. “Any clue who did it?” he asked.

“Nope. Cops don’t care either, She’s just another dead whore to them” Jesse said glumly. “How’d she get murdered?”

“Stabbed 24 times.” The reply came out flat, almost uncaring. Their mother had never done much for them. Usually they had about a dollar around the house. “Anyway, that doesn’t really matter. Aunt Gloria is coming here to help settle everything, and she’s staying here.”

“Here. Here as in, my apartment?” asked Adonis.

“Yep. Right here in the magical land of Oz.”

“This place is trashed. When’s she coming?”

“Tomorrow. Why the fuck do you think I told you to clean this place up?” Jesse said knowingly. Adonis grumbled something about him not being able to clean it up before tomorrow.

“Why can’t she stay at your house?” Adonis questioned.

“Too far. She’ll have to be in the city almost every day she’s here.”

“Jesus fucking Christ. Will you help me clean this place up?”

“HA HA! Fuck no! It’s your mess, you clean it up.” And with that, Jesse flopped on the couch and picked up a magazine. He shook a few critters out of the pages and flipped through it, not really reading it. Just looking at the pictures.

“Retard probably doesn’t really know how to read” Adonis thought as he collected garbage and dirty clothes. These, he shoved under his bed. The rest of the mess was stacked, shoved under things or in closets. “How does that look?” he asked.

“Shitty, but It’ll do.” Jesse replied without even looking up.

“Ok then, get the fuck out of here. I need some fucking sleep if I get to deal with Gloria tomorrow.” Adonis replied. Jesse snuffed out the expensive cigar he had been smoking and walked out the door. “See you tomorrow” he said.

“later” was the reply. Adonis was already laying on his bed, about to pass out from sheer exhaustion. It had only been an hour and a half since he last slept, but he felt like it had been days. “Must be the rain”, he thought as he dropped off into a deep sleep.

Weeks passed. Gloria never showed up. Not a trace of her to be found. He walked to a pay phone and called her house. She was suprised to hear his voice.

“I thought you were coming” he said.

“who told you that?” she replied.

“Jesse” he said. “He told me mom was dead and you were coming to help settle things.”

The sister of his mother was shocked “She’s not dead” she said. “I just talked to her yesterday, She called wanting money. I told her to get a job.”

“Fucking Bastard!” Adonis shouted into the phone.

“Me?” his aunt inquired.

“No, Jesse. Look, Aunt Gloria, I’ll have to call you back, ok?”

“Ok. Bye.”

He hung up the phone and quickly inserted his last 35 cents. Adonis rapidly dialed Jesse’s number. Jesse picked up the phone.

“Fucking cunt sucker, why the hell did you lie to me?” Adonis snarled with rage into the phone.

“About what?” Jesse asked innocently

“About mom being dead. You dicksmack. That was really not cool”

“Hehe. Oh, that. Talk to Gloria, eh?” Jesse asked. “Yes, I did.” Adonis said.

“Well, I did it for a reason.” Jesse said.

“What reason?” Adonis said. “And it better be a DAMN good one.”

“I was trying to get you to do something, and I succeeded in doing so.” Jesse said. Adonis could hear the smirk in his voice.

“What did you get me to do?” He asked.

“I got you to clean your fucking apartment."