Mindlink Mates

"Luke: You know, when we were fighting those sentinels down there, something happened to me. To us. We were so close in the Force that it was like we'd become a single person. It was... it was something very special. Mara: Really? How special? Luke: You're not going to make this easy for me, are you?"

- Star Wars Expanded Universe: Vision of the Future

This is a romantic trope where lovers share not just their lives and beds but actually their consciousness. Most often they're from an already telepathic race but this telepathy goes even further; maybe they're always aware of the other, not just when communicating but always, or they actually feel exactly like the other, or something like that. Sometimes successful reproduction is tied to it. Sometimes the sanity of one, usually the male, or both partners depends on the mindlink. Often the link is not unsoliticious. It goes both ways, so if something bad happens to one of them...

It's doubtful whether real humans could take this for a half an hour, but anyway, it's often presented as superior to a normal relationship, more fulfilling or close or "true". It can also be taken as a "metaphor".

This is a subtrope of Fantastic Romance. Also see: Mental Affair

Anime & Manga

 * One episode of Kino's Journey touched upon this concept, with less than desirable results.
 * Makoto Mizuhara does this with Ifurita at the end of the El Hazard the Magnificent World OAV. He's capable of synching with El Hazard technology, and she's a battle-gynoid.
 * The protagonists from Seo Kouji's oneshot, Half And Half get linked this way by the local variant of Kami-sama as part of a life-extension deal in which they had to decide which one would die. This system was partly to keep them from trying to off one another and partly so that the one to die would have more miles under the metaphorical belt. There seems to be a feedback filter implied somewhere.
 * Kouichi and Keito from Cat Street are a little like this.
 * In Sailor Moon, Mamoru and Usagi can feel each other's pain and Mamoru knows when Usagi is in trouble—it's actually a plot point when he doesn't even know that he's rushing to her defense as he blacks out and becomes Tuxedo Mask. There's also a one-episode character (Rhett Battler) who knows when Luna is in trouble, but it's mostly used as a humorous homage to Mamoru.
 * Played straight with Lalah Sune and Amuro Ray from Mobile Suit Gundam. Both became attracted to each other because of their mind link connection, and were noted as the first of their kind to become Newtypes. Even after Lalah's death, Amuro was still strongly connected to her. It's also said Lalah was Amuro's first great love.
 * In Psychic Academy, Ai and Mew form a mental link due to their auras being 100% compatible. This causes considerable awkwardness due to the fact that Ai is dating Orina, Mew's roommate and Ai's childhood friend (The most extreme point being an evening at a Love Hotel being ruined because Ai realizes that Mew is in danger). The psychic who is able to measure aura compatibility does make a point of mentioning that aura compatibility is not the same thing as personal compatibility, citing two classmates whose auras are only 30% compatible but are utterly smitten with each other as an example..
 * Mostly subverted in Soul Eater, where partners can combine their souls using Soul Resonance. With the exception of Maka's parents and possibly, none of the teams are actually dating. One of the more blatant examples of Ship Tease from the series, however, happens when Maka visits Soul's soul, has a moment of She Cleans Up Nicely, and the two dance. Soul's also able to read her thoughts.
 * Dragon Ball:

Comics

 * The elves of Elf Quest are telepathic, but they can form an even closer bond where they somehow see the soul of the other. This leads to the affected pair mating like bunnies, so possibly the body is involved as well as the soul.
 * Technically, Recognition (as it's called) happens when the "reptile" part of the brain—left over from millennia ago, before the elves evolved to their current form—psychically connects with another "reptile" brain and the two realize that their offspring would be better equipped genetically than either parent (e.g., one has hearing problems but good eyes, the other has normal eyesight but good ears, so the kid would have good ears and eyes). The reptile brain then "persuades" the rest of the body to get together with the other elf (you go have sex "or I'll make you so sick, I promise!"). Oh, and this can happen multiple times—either with the same partner or with completely different partners. So, yes, genetics may override an individual's desire for monogamy.
 * It is not so much that they are better equipped genetically than either parent, rather, it is so hard for elves to successfully conceive a child (due to their natural longevity and, they need a mechanism to know if they are genetically compatible.
 * It should be noted that this may happen even if the potential mates don't like each other.  Leetah and Cutter at first, anyone?
 * It should also be noted that one or both of the Recognized pair may already be in a relationship with someone else, which either leads to drama or threesomes.
 * In Elf Quest, it's almost always threesomes. Unless one of the parents is a jerk.
 * Also, Skywise and Cutter recognized, even though they are both male, because they already shared a soul, or so it is said.
 * Nightfall and Redlance aren't technically Recognized, but when Nightfall had to heal Redlance's mind by bonding with him she managed to merge their souls permanently.
 * While their marriage was still blissful, Jean Grey and Scott Summers of the X-Men had a form of this.
 * Scott and his instant replacement interest Emma Frost have a version of this.
 * Coagula and Robotman in the Rachel Pollack run of Doom Patrol.
 * In Empowered, Sistah Spooky and Mindf** k were these once. It's really the only way that Mindf** k can have good sex.

Fan Works

 * The concept of sparkbonding (the merging of "sparks", the Transformer equivalent of a soul) is used in a lot of Transformers fanfiction. However, the concept has never been used in canon.
 * In a lot of Dragon Ball Z fanfics, this trope has become so common that it is Fanon, despite the fact that the series is possibly the LEAST romantic series of all time and that fanon applies this trope to either Vegeta or Goku, who are definitely NOT the best candidates for this, to say the least.
 * In Vegeta's case, this idea came from a scene set during the Buu arc where Bulma seems to sense that something bad has happened to him... he blew himself up.
 * Frequently used in Fan Fiction, especially in the Harry Potter fandom.
 * In the Dangerverse, very prominently, between Remus and Danger.
 * Harry/Ginny is also a popular target - someone made a list, and it's long.
 * There are several Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfics involving this, usually between Shinji and Rei. One of them has the couple sharing not only thoughts but sensory information as well, up to and including sexual stimulation. Power Perversion Potential, anyone?
 * Also turns up a lot in the Star Trek fandom, mostly TOS and Enterprise because of the Vulcan cast.
 * K/S and S/Mc fic, in particular, make a Very Big Deal out of the "mindlink" aspect - in K/S, Kirk is generally portrayed as very enthusiastic about the bond. In contrast, S/Mc often makes an issue of McCoy's distaste of the mind-meld and his eventual acceptance.
 * Occurs fairly frequently in LotR fanfiction as well, especially with Elves - but then there is some vague canon evidence for telepathy.
 * This is quite common with Doctor Who fanfiction too, particularly with Doctor/Master. Their hasn't hurt matters.
 * Actually most people just assume that any Time Lord marriage-relationship-thing of more than a passing nature must needs also involve a mind-meld-y telepathic Bond which tends to be Capitalized. There are legions of Rose/9 or /10 fics in which this is the case.
 * Turns up in a couple of Tin Man fics, where it's handwaved as a means for an Ozian sorcerer/sorceress to focus and replenish their magic. The Lavender-eyed Queen and Ahamo (or, rarely Glitch) are usually depicted as having this kind of bond, but this Troper has seen it also turn up in DG/Cain fics.
 * Fanworks from The Sentinel often have some sort of empathic/telepathic link between Jim & Blair; there is a whole subgenre of 'bonding fics' that are almost-but-not-quite Slash.
 * The Horseshoe Nail series for Firefly had
 * My Inner Life gives "Psychic Link" a whole new, disturbing meaning.
 * In the Twilight Princess fanfic "Til the Sun Grows Cold and the Stars Grow Old," Link and Princess Zelda have met in dreams since they were very small children, which is part and parcel of their targeted reincarnation love affair of many lifetimes. Its true significance comes at a point when.
 * In the Snapped offshoot of Team 8, this is implied—Naruto is killed, but manages to hook his consciousness onto that of the Kyuubi as it leaves his body for Itachi's, and then when this kills Itachi both enter and inhabit Hinata (who is still young enough, unlike Itachi, for her chakra coils to stretch enough to survive the Kyuubi's chakra). Later it is stated that Hinata "always has very interesting dreams".
 * As stated below, Danny and Sam were supposed to have such a link in the original premise of the series, only for it to be jettisoned. Apparently, some fan writers have decided to plug it into their stories
 * In Total Drama Comeback Series, Ezekiel and Heather have complimentary dreams about each other. In this case, is not explicitly supernatural, it just sort of marks their growing feelings and Character Development.
 * The Vampire Knight fanfiction Take Me explores this trope thoroughly.
 * In the Service provides a rare example of a negative portrayal of the trope. Wolkenritter in skin-to-skin contact are no longer individuals in a meaningful sense. They find this both frightening and unpleasant, and consequently inter-Wolkenritter romances don't work.
 * The Teen Titan fanfict. As the Dust Settles begins an entire sereis where this plays a huge plot point for Starfire and Robin. Be warned, the stories are rated for a reason.

Film

 * Avatar provides a non-psychic example: Na'vi intimacy includes the physical connection of nervous systems via the partners' queues.
 * Which raises some interesting questions when you consider that it's the same thing you do to tame animals...
 * Not really. Tsaheylu isn't reproduction, it's a connection of minds and senses (plus the obvious difference between a sentient and non-sentient mind) - mated Na'vi will sometimes make tsaheylu without any further physical aspect.
 * The first incident of dreamfasting between Jen and Kira in The Dark Crystal was unintentional, certainly helped along their fast friendship. Since The Dark Crystal was directed at kids, actual romance was only implied.
 * Jaguar Paw and Seven from Apocalypto. When Jaguar Paw has a minor Heroic BSOD, Seven (Who is trapped in a cave of sorts) physically shows the distress he is experiencing and reminds him to "come back" to her. When Blunted wishes Jaguar Paw to "journey well", Jaguar Paw responds with "I can't go now".

Literature

 * The Wheel of Time series has the "Warder bond" between the Sword and Sorcerer Aes Sedai and Warder. Many of the bonded are not lovers, but Green Aes Sedai who only take one Warder are usually married to them. Of the major characters: Rand and his harem, Nynaeve and Lan as soon as there's a second to spare, and, as of The Gathering Storm, .Towers Of Midnight adds
 * Rand's harem finds out the hard way that the bond isn't one-way, especially during moments of strong emotion; to make it worse, one of the harem has a female Warder separately, of her own, who finds out that she can feel much more than she wants to. She ends up getting severely drunk to block out the effect. (Which may also have been a measure of giving her own back, as they'd earlier learned that drunkenness can also travel up the Warder bond.)
 * Married Asha'man do something quite similar to the "Warder bond" with their wives, specifically because of this trope.
 * In Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar universe, this is called a lifebond. Overused in her earlier books given its supposed rarity, but less frequent later in the series, and characters in several different books discuss or illustrate the potential negative aspects of such a bond. In Winds of Fury, Stefen speculates that in many cases lifebonds occur between someone who is extraordinarily powerful but emotionally unstable and someone who is much more mentally grounded; he proves his point by being able to describe with great accuracy the lifebonded partner of Herald Talia without ever having met the man, purely based on his encounter with Talia's out-of-control Empathy back in Arrow's Flight.
 * One particularly dramatic case goes a long way towards showing that a lifebond is not necessarily all that desirable, and also supports Stefen's theory: In Brightly Burning, Lavan Firestarter's lifebonded is . It's noted within the book how screwed up the relationship is and that it means that Lavan (had he lived) would have been one giant mess of emotional issues, even for a Herald. It's only the extremely extenuating circumstances (Lavan is unable to control the full extent of his Gift, on his own, and  has to be 'bonded with him to provide the extra control) that prevent anyone from trying to undo things. When   Lifebonding is far from an unambiguously good thing.
 * A less dramatic example (which also illustrates how much of an Oddly Common Rarity lifebonds are in the early books in the series), Keren in Arrows of the Queen breaks down when her lifebonded partner Ylsa is killed, and is only saved from willing herself into death by the intervention of Sherrill, who is also lifebonded to Keren and would have, other characters speculate, formed a three-way lifebond with Keren and Ylsa if the situation had been recognized prior to Ylsa's death.
 * As the quote above indicates, it happened to Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade.
 * Also between a male Player Character and Bastila Shan in Knights of the Old Republic.
 * Andy and Vicky, the parents in the Stephen King novel Firestarter survive the drug trial that kills most everyone else by forming a psychic connection.
 * Jane Eyre plays with this idea but doesn't quite commit to it. Not only are Jane and Mr. Rochester incredibly attuned to each other's thoughts and feelings, but it is his voice "calling" on her for help from miles away that finally persuades her to return to him at the end of the novel. Even Jane thinks it might just be a coincidence, though. I mean, they do spend quite a bit of time thinking about each other anyway...
 * Hell's Gate by David Weber features a world of psychics and a world of mages in a war. On the psychic side called Sharona, about 1/4 of the population has a form of psychic talent, ranging from telepathy to being able to teleport small objects. There are two types of psychic bonds shown. Married couples get a bond allowing a form of telepathy between them, even when only one is a Voice able to do true telepathy. (It's also shown to be extremely useful when one is a Voice, a telepath specializing in distance communication and perfect recall of memories, and the other has a power such as mapping where they can terrain map anything with in 5 miles.)
 * The second type of bonding is a form of recognition. Much like a bond such as in ElfQuest, but the bond is implied to be one and only soulmates. This is stated to be the source of most of the great romantic and tragic literature of Sharona, due to recognition ignoring if one of the soul mates is already married.
 * This type shows up prominently in the sequel, Hell Hath No Fury. Characters who have never met before encounter one another and instantly begin behaving as if they've been together (happily) for years. There's little comment made about it. It's like love at first sight turned Up to Eleven.
 * Lisanne Norman's Sholan Alliance Series has a large number of Leska pairs that fill this. It doesn't work very well for some pairs, though.
 * Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy has two subversions: Kettle (Kestrel) describes having this type of bond with her lover, before discovering him to be sharing the same kind of bond with her twin sister, Gull. Similarly, the Fool seems to experience an unrequited version through his feelings for Fitz.
 * George R. R. Martin's short story "A Song For Lya", dealt heavily with this idea.
 * In Beyond The Glass by Antonia White, the main character has this with the man she falls in love with after the failure of her first marriage. And then the intensity of their relationship is a contributing factor to her going insane...
 * The Patryn can invoke this in The Death Gate Cycle as part of their marriage ritual.
 * Abramm and Maddie in the series Legends of the Guardian-King have this. (That's how Maddie knows Abramm is Not Quite Dead, even though he's been missing for a year.
 * Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels use this trope in nearly every book.
 * Wizards in the Young Wizards 'verse experience this if they end up romantically intimate with each other—a fact learned and demonstrated during A Wizard Abroad when Nita's crush on the Irish wizard Ronan turns into her first kiss. It's broken off when she sees more in his mind than she expected:.
 * The Liaden Universe calls this "lifemating". It's stated to be extremely rare in Liaden society, yet somehow it seems to happen to just about every main character in the series (though some of them have to wait decades to find their lifemate).
 * Duncton Wood (I will make a page for it sooner or later, honest) has this occurring between Rebbecca and Bracken. Despite this they don't actually mate until very late in the book because something horrible keeps getting in the way.
 * In the Griffin and Sabine trilogy, the titular characters have a version of this, seeing each other's paintings and eventually building a very long distance relationship.
 * The Fey in the Tairen Soul series bond this way. As the breeding of girl children depends on the mindlink and the probability of one forming between any two given individuals is low, there always is a serious skew in the sex distribution. This is "compensated" by the men killing themselves after so many centuries without mindlink.
 * A young adult science fiction novel, A Place of Silver Silence by Ardath Mayhar, has this going on via technological means—arranged marriages between ten year olds based on scientific psychological testing. The main character got to enjoy her husband's death vicariously as a result. We get shown, not told how he died—by having his internal organs rearranged in an artistic manner. In a book listed on Amazon as 7th Grade and Up!
 * In The Inheritance Cycle, every dragon is mentally linked to their rider to the point of being able to become one consciousness in the midst of battle. Although this isn't romantic, when a rider's dragon is killed or vice versa, it is described as having half of yourself ripped away, which usually resulted in death or madness. The relationship shown between Eragon and Saphira is shown to be an extremely close one, although not romantic, as they feel as if they are one person.
 * Ramses and Nefret Emerson, of the Amelia Peabody detective series, have a one-way link, whereby Nefret knows when Ramses is in imminent danger.
 * In the Anita Blake series, this meets either Love Dodecahedron or Tenchi Solution, but either way, it is complex. To take the relationship tree the story revolves around: Jean-Claude took Anita as his human servant and Richard as his animal to call, making a connection between all three of them. Anita, being a necromancer and animator, picked up some of the vampire power, and so now has Damian, her vampire to call, and a number of animals to call, because she keeps picking up various wereanimals that she might be able to turn into—but really doesn't want to. And until the first change, a person can keep picking up new wereanimals, so this probably isn't going to stop any time soon. And breaking the link between vampire and servant is severely damaging to both parties, but if the human dies that means the vampire is hurt and maybe goes insane, and if the vampire dies an unshielded human will die or go insane.
 * The Marat in the Codex Alera form telepathic bonds with totem animals. In the first book, Furies of Calderon, a Marat girl Kitai accidentally forms such a bond with the main character, Tavi. The two become a couple as the series progresses and display some aspects of this trope, such as being able to sense one another's presence and moods.
 * In Gene Roddenberry's novelisation of Star Trek the Motion Picture, Kirk's mind calls to Spock from light-years away - this is what causes him to fail to achieve Kolinahr. Even with Spock's fluctuating-as-the-plot-demands telepathic abilities, that is really indicative of a mind-link. Slashers forevermore have had a field day with this, since the only mention we hear of person-to-person mindlinks without physical contact is in the context of the marriage bond. Make of that what you will...
 * In The Sharing Knife series, Lakewalker marriage essentially involves becoming a limited form of this- no mind reading, but they can tell if the spouse is alive, and one character can tell the general direction her husband is in.
 * In The Redemption of Althalus, all of the main characters eventually develop a non-romantic version of this, but the couples end up with special, private links.
 * Maigrey Morianna and Derek Sagan from the space opera The Star of the Guardians define this trope.
 * In the Firebird Trilogy, telepathic Pair Bonding creates a link between the couple, allowing them to always sense each others' emotions when in proximity, and leaving a feeling of emptiness when separated. When the bond is broken, the surviving spouse goes into bereavement shock and can take years to regain a semblance of normalcy.
 * The Twilight series has a non-romantic version with the werewolves. Those in the same pack can hear each other's thoughts when they're in wolf form.

Live Action TV

 * Trip Tucker and T'Pol on Enterprise had a psychic bond and were in love (largely due to T'Pol's damaged emotional control from drug abuse.
 * Troi and Riker from Star Trek: The Next Generation were like this early on, talking to each other telepathically a lot. Then I guess they decided it was stupid and dropped it.
 * Picked up in the novels, especially Peter David's Imzadi.
 * Much later, in the seventh season episode "Attached", Captain Picard and Doctor Crusher are mind-linked for an episode due to neural implants. During this time, they come to terms with their feelings for each other and (in a mild subversion) decide to keep things professional (because of personal history and because Status Quo Is God). The Series Finale does show them hooked up divorced in the future however.
 * "Decide to keep things professional" is a euphemistic way of putting it. Picard seems all set to resolve some things, but his hopes get Doctor Crushed. They get over themselves in the novels, however.
 * Subverted in Star Trek TOS Amok Time. Spock had a mindlink placed in him as part of an Arranged Marriage when he was a child. This mindlink was suspiciously easily overcome.
 * Another example was in the live action Beauty and The Beast. Vincent and Catherine could usually tell when the other was in trouble. When the mind-link broke, it almost drove Vincent crazy.
 * On Fringe, Oliva and John Scott have this via the sensory deprivation tank.
 * In an early episode of Babylon 5, a telepath says that having sex with another telepath invokes this trope, comparing it to mirrors endlessly reflecting one another.
 * For a long time it has been hinted that the Doctor and TARDIS were mentally linked, to the extent that the TARDIS's translation circuits depend on the Doctor's health. Similarly, there was a Running Gag that there seemed to be some kind of Cargo Ship going on; the Doctor would call his time machine 'dear' and 'sexy', and even companions would joke about how he would stroke her console. It was all but confirmed in a Season 6 episode where  The name of the episode? "The Doctor's Wife".
 * Played with on The X-Files between Mulder and Scully, though oddly (given the paranormal premise of the show) never truly explored. The most overt of this implied "link" is the fact that they dream of each other while the other is abducted; Mulder dreams of Scully being tortured in season two, while Scully does the same in season 8. In fact, this becomes so regular that Scully panics when she stops having the dreams, for fear that Mulder's death might be the reason.
 * In How I Met Your Mother, Marshall and Lily have been shown to have done this on occasion.

Music

 * Believe it or not, this is what the Golden Earring song "Radar Love" is about. But it doesn't change that it's an awesome driving song.

Real Life

 * CS Lewis in A Grief Observed said that once or twice during his bereavement he felt as if Joy was trying to comfort him from beyond the grave. That is of course the sort of thing a grieving person might do, but it is also about as close to a Real Life example as you might find.
 * On the other hand, cybernetics researcher Kevin Warwick (of putting a chip into his arm that remote-controls electric circuits fame) conducted an experiment in which he and his wife got wireless transceivers patched into their neural systems. It's not clear how much they were able to communicate with each other, and it may have been empathic at best. Pretty good going for real life though.

Video Games

 * For the Asari in Mass Effect, the only way for them to mate and reproduce is to link their neural network with another creature's. This has the added benefit of enabling them to mate with any species, regardless of gender.
 * The epilogue text in Dragon Age suggests that the male Warden and Morrigan may be able to sense each others' emotions/thoughts to some limited degree.
 * A variation on this is created between Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance in Half-Life 2: Episode Two.
 * There are elements of this for Rion and Lilia in Galerians, due to each one having one half of the virus program in their heads. Rion and Lilia can telepathically communicate, and Lilia feels pain when Rion is hurt. Whether or not it's romantic is somewhat debatable, but they are, at the least, very close best friends.
 * The male protagonist of Knights of the Old Republic has this with Bastila, if you decide to pursue the romance. The PC in the second has a non-romantic version with Kreia, and a straight example with Visas.
 * If you pursue Mint's route in Galaxy Angel, something like this happens. Mint is the only natural-born telepath in the Angel-tai, but as she falls for Tact, she feels like he can read her thoughts as well as she can read his. There is no explanation for this.
 * Meryl and show signs of this near the end of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, as they shot enemies only the other one could have seen and shove new magazines into guns held in their direction without looking at it.

Web Comic

 * Kevyn in Schlock Mercenary while bantering with his sister made a dirty joke about her cyborg husband and AI.

Web Original

 * Iriana and Mille have this in Ilivais X.  However, it only works in full when either one is in the Ilivais or they're both in close proximity, though it is shown they can detect a general emotional state from afar. They also have an internal compass that lets them find one another, though that's from a makeshift blood transfusion that uses   Iriana's regenerative abilities to have those blood cells be drawn to the other.
 * Limyaaels Fantasy Rants has a few suggestions...

Western Animation
"Cindy: Did you um, notice, when our brains were floating inside that thing together, which was disgusting, by the way! One of us was imagining us walking down a country lane, holding hands, and um, kissing?"
 * Early promotional material for Danny Phantom hinted at a "psychic connection" that Danny was supposed to share with Sam "She Is Not My Girlfriend" Manson. This was dropped in the series proper.
 * Aelita and Jérémie from Code Lyoko shared a mind link in the episode "Frontier".
 * Gargoyles had an unusual case, with three souls inhabiting one body (Coldstone), two of which were in love. They lamented being unable to feel physical things, but one can only imagine what it's like to not just be in each other's minds but BE each other's minds.. together.
 * Not only that but think about being the third guy. Who has to share a body with the Sickeningly Sweethearts.
 * Made worse by the fact the third guy also loves the girl, hates the other guy, and everyone involved knows it.
 * Oh, and he's a psychopath. Scripts and fans usually refer to these three as "Othello, Desdemona and Iago" to highlight the situation.
 * Source of a major Ship Tease in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, when Jimmy and Cindy's brains are mixed together for a short time


 * Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers had a hint of this between Shane and Niko. Niko was already a Psychic Action Girl, and could usually read the gents with ease. However, in the episode "Changeling," Shane was gravely wounded and had no way to communicate a "do not shoot" order to his team. In desperation, he used his implant and sent a telepathic message to her. The fact he was able to actively use telepathy during that one instance has led to a great deal of speculation on the part of fan writers.
 * Spoofed in the rather infamous Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "Handbanana". Handbanana mindlinks with Carl and immediately makes creepy threats about coming for him in the night. Then he rapes him. Repeatedly.