The unease of these young arseholes was a result of being in an ugly car, with a Pakistani. Breathing the same air as him, aware of the dirty seats beneath them. As repellent as the place they rolled into at some point. On a mattress in a basement apartment, probably called a garden apartment in working-class circles, sat two loaded minors watching music videos on their phones. Right, now what? Asked the men, looking at the girls, not knowing how to proceed. The young Pakistani sensed the insecurity and demonstrated how it worked. He shoved his hand under the skirt of one of the girls—an albino, it appeared—kissed her roughly, opened her top, waved over one of the young men and shoved him into her.

Except for a few psychopaths, everyone has an inner cliff edge. Below, in a dark gorge, lies what humans have learned to recognize as “evil.” One small step, come on, said Evil down there in the dark. Let yourself fall, everything’ll be easier. The first young man took that step, he left himself and the prison of his sense of decency. He fell onto the albino grunting and fucked himself silly. He’d never had an orgasm like it. A dirty, powerful orgasm. The Paki rubbed cocaine on his gums and the young men followed his lead. They didn’t find it strange to watch each other fuck; on the contrary it made them that much more horny, it was what they really wanted, to get off with each other without being gay, and when it was Thome’s turn—one of the girls had passed out in the meantime—his penis wouldn’t get hard. Thome felt the way he had that time when hunting, when he’d thrown up on the stag. Like a failure. He watched Raf, who was moving around right next to him inside the not-an-albino girl. How furiously Raf slammed his pelvis against her lower body. Bubbles were coming out of the girl’s mouth. As if she were already dead and her body was leaking gas. Thome looked at Raf, his thrusts, and suddenly he could do it, too. If he shut his eyes. So he shut his eyes. He wanted to make a good impression on Raf. He started to work the albino over. In all holes, until they bled and the Pakistani had to intervene. And calm Thome, who’d become possessed.

Everyone was silent during the drive home. The memory of their classmates’ naked genitals lingering like a dream.