my small frame. Then, he laid me down on the floor in the hallway and his hands slid decisively up my legs and in under my skirt.

Desire grabbed a firm hold of us both that whole afternoon. It was the most intense lovemaking we had ever had so far, and I realized I no longer felt alone! It felt so good for him to need me that I even felt… happy!

But not all was happiness, that afternoon was also the very first time I felt that monster stirring within him, just below his skin.

Had Jacob only asked for money once, my would-be-friends would not have minded so much I think. But he did ask again, and again. I did not use my money anyway, they were just sitting in the bank for a future I did not want to have without Jacob - and so I gave them to him, bit by bit.

For every time he got his cash filled envelope, he brought me into higher and higher ecstasy when taking me, and each time I felt the monster in him draw closer and closer to the surface. But as we lay finished, covered in evaporating heat, he

always whispered those magic words in my ear:

"I love you, Jocelyn. I love you…"

***

We all know nothing lasts forever. My inheritance soon ran out and my bank account gaped open like a deep wound, with not a cent left in it. This was when an echo started filling my house.

At first I did not notice, not until one day when I walked in to one of the guestrooms that I rarely ever used. At my very first step inside it, I realised the sound of my footsteps was not as it used to be, and neither the sound of the door when I had just opened it. They both had a hollow ring to them, just as the sound of an empty room would. It dawned in me the room was precisely that: empty.

The beds were gone, the carpet, the curtains, the dresser, the TV and the expensive art I had inherited from my parents. It was all gone! Only the bare walls and floorboards were still there. The guestroom had been stripped naked and robbed. I quickly headed

to the other guestrooms. They were all the same:

Naked, hollow and empty.

In my heart I knew what had happened. My possessions had been stolen and sold. Jacob, my love and my breath of life had taken them to turn them in to money. I felt anger well up in me, it rushed trough my head like a river in spring! But as soon as it had arisen, it faded.

I realized I did not need it. It was only furniture. It was only money. To my own surprise I did not really care about it. I would not miss it, but I would miss Jacob.

I did not confront him about it, though I think he knew that I knew. How could I not? The sound of echoes soon filed the whole house. I heard them as I walked along the corridors, when I passed through the living room, when preparing food in the kitchen and when our moans of desire and passion filled the house. But I did not care.

***

For each day among the echoes,

Jacob got even more passionate. I stayed in a constant daze of heavy pleasures and erotic highs, as whatever was inside of him relentlessly fought its way out. I knew it would be free soon, and when it was, I was terrified he would leave me. But as long as he was close, kissing me, touching me and whispering he loved me, I was happy - blissfully and utterly happy.

Then one day, there was nothing more to take from my house but the house itself. I would have given it to him just to make him stay, but I could not. If I did I would have nothing more to offer and he would be gone, this I knew. I needed him with me. I could not live without him. And so, when he one sunny Wednesday morning asked me to sign a paper for what he told me was a letter to his mother, I refused.

I knew it was not a letter, I could hear it in his voice. I thought it was a contract for me to hand over my house to him and so I could not sign it. Even though he got angry, cursed at me and stormed out of the house.

I knew he would still make the house his, one way or another. Jacob is a