“You want to hit me? Go on and hit me,” Metro said. He stood directly in front. I could feel his breath on my skin. “Go on, hit me.”

My face burned, then my eyes. I couldn’t stop the tears. He lifted his arms and held me tight. Tighter than anyone had ever held me. Tighter than I knew I could ever hold myself. My chest relaxed. Air escaped my lungs in a long low sound.

“Time stops here,” Clementine said, his mouth at my ear. “I’m old as sin, you know. Old as you’ll be someday.”

“But I won’t be here.”

“If you’re lucky, perhaps. Most of us aren’t so lucky. You’ll come back like I do because this place will remind you of something or someplace or somebody.”

“Metro?”

“Maybe me.”

“Come on, Clementine.”

“Or you’ll remember yourself. Who you really are.”

“I’m Jesse. I was named after Jessica.”

“Tell him. The guy fondling your balls.”

“I don’t see him.”

“You feel it, don’t you?”

“The metal bars? The prison?”

“Desire rising. Your muscles going slack. Ass twitching. Balls aching to let go.”

“Yes. Yes.”

“You know what you are?”

“Jesse. Jesse Durand.”

“What does that mean? Jesse?”

“Boys named after their mothers are different.”

“Is that all?”

“No.”

“What about Metro?”

“He’s dead.”

“And who killed him, Jesse? Who killed him inside? Who treated him like shit until he couldn’t stand his own smell?”

“Not me. It wasn’t me.”

“No, Jesse?”

Clementine laughed a long and deep belly laugh.

“I’m getting out of here.”

“Not until you’ve been to Paradise.”

“Where’s that?”

“Up. All the way up.”

I fingered my way through the darkness and followed the gleam from the metal bars to the hall light. I went up the stairs to the next level that had no number. I opened the door, and found myself in a gym with mirrors. Metal apparatus and weights and mirrors everywhere. Men in shiny gym shorts and thick socks, bulging groins, biceps, thighs, and thin waists. Barbells, universal gyms, scales, exercise mats stood ready like dance partners for aspiring musclemen. Clementine tugged at my towel. “You can tone up those muscles in here if you want. You gotta be strong for the next level. Real strong.”

“I don’t need it,” I said. “I’m going straight up.”

“Level seven? Paradise? Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

At first I didn’t notice anything different about level seven except for the carpeted hallway and the single corridor. But there were only four doors leading to the rooms, not the usual twelve or fifteen on a floor. And why call this level Paradise? Was it more than just a name for a bathhouse? There was only one way to find out. But I couldn’t decide which door to open first. I started with the closest one, just in case I needed a quick exit.