by Dave Austin
"Isn't his father traveling?" Maggie asked her, deviating to let her through.
"Yes, he always is. The longer he spends abroad, the happier he is. He doesn't have to remember failing." She said and went to the bathroom, "You make a beautiful couple." She told us and slammed the door.
"We are not a..." I started but was interrupted by Maggie.
"We are not a couple.” She said and elbowed me, "I know about you and Kendra. It's hard not to notice the ruined bed or her hair all tangled up," she said softly.
"Is there a problem?"
"No, on the contrary. I think it's a good idea. What better way to get to know each other than intimately?" She said, smiling at me.
"We still have a lot to learn about each other then." I replied, moving closer to her, whispering in her ear, "How long have you been waiting for this?”
"Ever since I saw you fighting for the first time." She replied, her knees trembling, clashing with my kneecap, her panting breath blowing behind my ear, "If Kendra didn't intimidate me so much, I'd have already hopped on you." She added, revealing her dark side; daring, boundless, she opened a button on her dress, the outline of her breasts popping up in plain sight.
"Are you saying that you don't care if I have both?" I asked, my body boiling in the face of a miracle, a new and welcome development.
"I'm 24, James. I'm young. I'm over the age of passionate lusts. I want to have fun, but I still want to maintain something steady. To have a shelter but also a place where there is pleasure. What you do beyond that is up to you." She said, "I've had my share of disappointments. I won't get into another. You don't seem like the kind of guy with whom something serious would last."
"Probably not." I started, "We all have our problems. I'm not good with commitments. I suppose I still need to grow up. Or stop having so much fun with hunting monsters and ending the nights in my city bar doing karaoke with my friends, who are also shortsighted people." I told her and laughed, trying to break the heavy environment.
She was going to answer me when the boy's mother came out of the bathroom. Her front hair was still wet, and her cheeks were red. She returned to her room and took another cigarette out of the same box before lying in bed, stretching her arms, and leaning her head against the bed. Before she opened her mouth, our apps started shaking
"Congratulations! You have defeated a level 2 monster. 50 experience points have been given to each, as well as 50 hunter points. Do you want to continue as a team?"
"You should go. Don't worry about us. He will be fine. He has a roof over his head. Something I didn't have for a long time." She said, cleaning the ashes that had fallen on the blanket.
"James, we really have to go... The pickup truck should be here any minute now." Maggie told me, bending her knees to look out the overcast window.
I bit my lips before I spoke. I needed to ward off the whirlwind of emotions going around inside me, "Let's go, but I hope you value your son. One day you will be able to hear his name in the limelight and in advertisements. All you have to do is support him." I told her and turned my back, closing my fist until the vein in the center of my hand appeared and the knuckles between my fingers hurt like hell.
I didn't expect an answer from her. I walked down the hall. I called the boy, wished him good luck, told him never to give up, and left. I was cold, maybe even a little rude when I said goodbye, but I couldn't cope with the impossibility of not being able to do anything. I realized there that I wanted something more for myself; that beating monsters just wasn't enough for me. I wanted everything and whatever was beyond that. I wanted to save people, and the monsters were just the path I had decided to take to do that, but it wasn't enough.
"You told him he needed good grades to be a Hunter... I thought they were more interested in physical skills." Maggie told me as we walked down the stairs, some people at the door thanking us.
"And they don't care. Not that he needs to know that."
"You're a good person, James." She said, before stopping in the middle of the stairs and inhaling deeply, "Oh... Your father... The conspiracy he was investigating... It could be the same one I think my dad's into, right?"
"Yes, I thought about that too. My mother hid all the papers after what happened to my father, and although she still has a few in the pantry, she never let me touch them. I read some of them behind her back, but most have the interesting parts crossed out, and the little I could read only talks about a conspiracy that goes up to the high levels and the possibility that there might be something else besides the Reapers. Maybe someone behind them, someone we trust with our lives on a daily basis." I confessed to her, being the first time I'd talked about it since I entered the academy. I didn't exactly do what you might call ‘make friends’ there. I had fun, I went to parties, but we spent so much time training that we didn't talk about our personal lives at the end of the day.
"I suppose we have a lot to do yet. We just have to figure out where to start." Maggie replied as soon as she entered the hall.
"Hopefully, tomorrow, Kendra's sister will tell us something about the doctor."
Maggie nodded, remaining silent as we left the building, running to the car, placing her hands on her hair so that the rain wouldn't get her wet.
We got into the car. Kendra left the driver's seat and moved backward, as did Maggie, who winked at me as she watched Kendra bend over to make the crossing, her tits swinging, almost jumping out of her clothes.
I placed the communicator and warned Ashen that we were getting out of there. I didn't get an answer in return, but I could hear his breathing on the other side. I knew he had heard me but withheld his words beneath the technology. The beast's green liquid slipped down the street, being drained into the sewers along the way, covering the road with its trail. Part of the moon had been swarmed with black clouds carrying a rainy arsenal, firing throughout the night and growing heavier by the minute.
I drove along the empty road, the signs switching between green and red, the front glass fogged up, distorting the road ahead, the black-granite blending with the white lines that separated the three rows, each for a speed. I was in the middle, not too slow for a skater to catch me, but not fast enough for a curve to make me lose control over the car. I didn't think Ashen would congratulate me if I destroyed it, much less when he was no longer in a good mood after ignoring him.
"Everything is going to be fine," Maggie told me, leaning her body against the door, the dress almost on her hips which I could see through the rear-view mirror. She kissed me on the cheek and smiled, sticking out her tongue.
Once again, we had to drive along the recluse road, paved with small holes, bumps that made me almost bump my face on the steering wheel. The smell of wet grass was more robust than in the afternoon and was accompanied by a sweet aroma that I could not understand what it was. Melted mud covered the tires, as the black smoke that came out of the chimney at that time obscured the clouds, offering the house an apocalyptic setting, where the sky was consumed by the ashes, and there was nothing left but that isolated shore and a dark-blue lake where the light could no longer reach.
I stopped the car on the back of the house, and we ran until we reached the building, where a slight roof slope protected us from the raindrops, now nearly ice pebbles, shattering as they crashed against the roof, the snowflakes falling beside us.
"Finally." Ashen said, leaning against the door, as soon as we reached the final corner, "We're going to have to have a good conversation. Fortunately for you, it's late, and you'll have a long day tomorrow. Eat something. Gordon made some lemon cakes and hot chocolate. Feast yourselves and go to sleep." He added before he turned his back on us and walked to his room.
I took a breath of relief. We entered the house and were welcomed by Gordon, who was in the kitchen eating one of his cakes, dirty lips in the corner, and crumbs on his pajamas. He offered each of us a tray with two cakes and a drink, which was still steaming, and told us it was better to go to the living room, whe
re a reddish bar, stuck on top of the wall on the opposite side of the entrance, spread heat to all four corners.
"Kendra, are you ready for tomorrow? It can't be easy having your sister on the other side of the law." I asked her, as soon as we sat down, the lemon scent, which I didn't recognize before, spreading throughout the room.
"I have grown used to it. Not everything is black and white. I've also done a lot of illegal things, and she protected me, or I would never have been able to become Hunter if they'd known the half of it." She confessed, followed by a bite of the cake, eating half at once, showing her pointed canines.
"Why are you telling us this?" Maggie asked her, taking a totally different approach with the cake, eating it, piece by piece. Small bites, the crumbs filling the plate.
"We're a team, aren't we? If I'm going to trust two strangers with my life... It's better that they're not for long. Besides, my sister tends to love playing people off against each other, exploring their secrets, and putting them on the table."
"If we're sharing secrets...It's better to confess one's own." I said, stretching my neck to confirm that Gordon was still in the kitchen and that we would have to be careful about what we said, "My father is...Ah, he was...John Crusher, the only Hunter ever to be relegated, treated like scum for daring to investigate the corruption among us. He never discovered anything but always believed that it existed, that several men up there had taken precautions for it, going so far as to murder his potential witnesses. He knew that someone close to him was involved and distanced himself from his friends. He plummeted into ruin, with no one supporting him, thinking he was crazy and addicted to an idea with no facts to prove it."
"I've heard of that story. He..." Kendra paused before continuing, "He killed himself, didn't he?"
"Yes," I told her, my eyes staring at the varnished floor.
"I'm sorry." She said, "We better leave it at that. What about you, girl, something to share?"
"My name is Maggie. You know that." She replied before taking a deep breath and telling her all about the plot her father might be involved in.
"That means..." Kendra started, but I interrupted her.
"That perhaps my father was not far from the truth."
We remained silent. The only sound in the whole house was the noise of the teeth shredding the cupcakes, the lips around the mugs, sipping the hot chocolate, and the orchestral melody that came from the cicadas and owls on the outside, taking refuge from the stormy rain.
" You better go to sleep." Gordon said, his thick voice reaching us with a soft tone, the night lulling it, "You need to be in shape tomorrow. You cannot risk not being at your maximum. One extra second can be the difference between life and death." He said, the sole of his shoes tapping on the ground, creaking at every step.
"A little dramatic, Gordon," Maggie told him.
"I used to be a Hunter like you, too, you know? Filled with excitement, aiming to save everyone, to rescue the world from the villains, but that same confidence betrayed me when I needed it." He said, bent over, his beer belly slipping out of the tight t-shirt, and rolled up his trouser hem revealing a metallic right leg, "My group and I thought that being good C ranks was enough to defeat a level 8. That was the result. Two died, one was in a coma, I have no leg and one had part of his torso ripped off. What I'm trying to say is... Think twice if you want to risk your survival for a lesser evil."
"You mean the boy?" I asked him, placing the tray on the crystal table in the center of the room.
"Yes, and not only that. Decisions have consequences. Whether it is that or going to talk to your sister, Kendra, or even going to bed late. Do you have a plan B? I didn't. It took me a while to get here." He said before he took off his shoes and put them in the lobby, "I'm going to sleep. Don't forget what I told you."
We said goodbye to him and stayed there for little more than a few minutes until we went to our room and undressed as we had previously done. This time we found a position good enough for the three of us to fit in there, without one of us almost falling, or getting elbowed in the face. We ended up in seashells. On one side Maggie's tits against my back, on the other side rubbing my dick against Kendra's butt. None of them opposed it or complained about physical contact. On the contrary, there was a confident smile behind the weary masks; the already half-closed eyes, the still moist cheeks of the icy current we caught running and the reddened lips. Our eyes shut, curtains hiding the sun behind them, and we fell asleep shortly afterward.
Chapter VII
I woke up with nails scraping away from my chest to my navel, followed by kisses from there to the inside of my boxers. I opened my eyes and the curved silhouette in front of me took shape until I saw her long blond hair falling on both sides of her face, her green eyes fading away under a golden fence, her lips touching my skin, sometimes sucking it to the point of leaving a mark, occasionally pinching me with her teeth until I squirmed.
"What are you doing, Maggie?" I whispered, striving not to wake Kendra, who was right next to us, "You're going to wake her."
"That's the fun part, isn't it?" She answered me, a malevolent smile on her face, lowering my boxers all the way to my knees.
Her hand wrapped around the base of my dick and went up, a thin thread of saliva flowing from her mouth to my head, the palm of her hand taking advantage of it to slip better. I bit my lips so I wouldn't moan as she went on; her lips around the whole length, her head moving until her eyes were moist. The youthful simplicity, the features on her face that defined her softness, shifted and took on grown-up contours.
She licked from one end to the other and spread the extra saliva over her face. She tossed her shame through the door and risked being caught. My heart almost jumped out of my chest each time the tip of my dick hit the bottom of her throat and she would let it sit there for a few seconds until she stopped, slid back and regained her breath. Sweat ran down her forehead, glowing across her face unlike me whose chest was blazing, warming, dripping down to the contours of my abs. It didn't take long before I tilted my ass over the mattress, pulled her head down and exploded inside her mouth, as her eyes rolled over as she attempted to swallow everything.
She would have made it if it hadn't been for a thread of thick white fluid that ran down the right corner of her mouth, down my length, to the very bottom.
"Oops." She said, as she moved back and licked me once more until she left no trace of her presence, "They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day, isn't that right?"
I gulped, not having an answer on the tip of my tongue, "Oh yes, you're right, I... Ah, I hope Kendra is still asleep." I said, looking to the side, Maggie's eyes following my trajectory.
"I'm not." Kendra answered, still with the right side of her face on the pillow and both eyes closed, "You make a lot of noise."
"Did you hear everything?" Maggie asked her, biting her lip and, at the same time, getting out of bed.
"Almost everything. I didn't know you had that side, Maggie." Kendra said, treating her, for the first time, by her name as if she respected her boldness.
"We didn't want to wake you up!" I told her, without even knowing where to look. On one side there was Maggie half-naked, with a trail of sperm going down her tits, and, on the other side, there was Kendra, who had just woken up, her lips swollen and moist, and her hands waving under the sheets.
"Such a shame." She answered and winked.
The conversation was interrupted by Gordon and three strong knocks, warning us that it was time to wake up and that Ashen was waiting for us in the living room.
"Take a shower first," he said, "The bathroom is just down the hall."
I took a deep breath, sighed, and grabbed my pants that I had placed on a chair by the bedside. I would have liked to have seen where the situation was leading, but duty was first, and pleasure was second. If we survived the hypothetical day, we would have plenty of time to venture into satisfying meals, soaking ourselves in luxuries that would make the most inc
redulous blush. I warned them that I was going to bathe while they could talk about what had happened and, if everything went as I planned, they would both agree to have something with me at the same time. It was between that or ending up arguing and losing both, but, well, fear was something I had learned to deal with.
I left the room. I went into the living room and waved to Ashen, who, in return, moved his head up a few inches, but didn't say a word. In his hands was the daily newspaper and he leafed through the pages as if nothing caught his attention. I ended up giving up.
The bathroom walls were blue and white, all the objects of the latest technology. The light turned on when someone was present, and the water regulated itself according to one' s reactions. A camellia scent went off as soon as I entered, and the smell remained as I bathed. I took a deep breath in, the water flowing through my hair and over my face. I loved to feel the pressure on my face. It was as if the world beyond that ceased to exist and, at that moment, it was just me and my thoughts chatting by the fireplace.
I hurried, put a towel around my torso and went back to the room. The girls were still naked, each on her own side of the bed, looking at the ceiling and talking. They shut up as soon as I walked in.
"Did you talk?" I asked assertively, dropping the towel.
After a few seconds of pause and wheezing, Maggie answered, "Yes. No problem. Neither of us mind sharing you. It may even lead to some interesting experiences as long as no one disrupts the natural balance of things. We don't have big secrets between us, do we? There shouldn't be much of a problem then."
I looked at Kendra and expected an answer from her, "I agree. It doesn't mean I love you or will give my life for you if you are idiots, don't have any ideas. But we're together, whatever happens." She said, the last sentence being said with a thin voice, as if out of fear, apprehensive about making the emotions, which she tried to hide, a real thing.
