by John Booth
Peter was still laughing at a joke Sal told when she manoeuvred him against the wall and kissed him to silence. As they kissed, Sal ran her hands down his body as if she wanted to touch every inch of him. Peter was unsure what he was supposed to do, but instinct took over and his hands moved down her back before cupping her bottom and lifting her towards him.
Peter had never experienced such pleasure before. The few kisses he had received from the girls in the village were pecks on the cheek or over-enthusiastic attempts to remove his tonsils with their tongues. Sal kissed him as though it meant something and his body started to push rhythmically against Sal’s as their passion increased.
Sal drew back and before Peter could catch his breath, she unzipped his fly and caught hold of a very solid part of him. “Going commando, I see,” Sal whispered and her hand started to fly. A few seconds later, he groaned in ecstasy as she brought him off. He tried to kiss her but she stepped away from him and used a tissue to wipe her hand.
Sal spoke with regret in her voice. “I’m sorry. You deserve much more. You helped me when I needed it and tonight you saved my life.”
Sal threw the tissue away into the darkness and looked at Peter, her hands on her hips. “I don’t put out on the second date and there is so much you don’t know. In my world, which will be your world from Saturday, we’re not even of the same species.”
“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about,” Peter adjusted his clothes and hoped his mum wouldn’t notice any marks when she washed his jeans.
“That’s exactly my point.” Sal stepped close and caressed his face with her hand. “You don’t have a clue what you’ve gotten yourself into. It isn’t going to be easy for you to survive.”
“I know what I feel about you,” Peter said as he tried to turn the conversation back to the subject of the two of them. “I truly care about…”
Sal placed a finger on his lips to silence him. “Han No will never allow you out of his sight after Saturday. Meet me on Friday night, or rather Saturday morning, at the Sunner Door. I’ll wait all night because, knowing Han No, I expect you’ll be delayed.” Sal grinned. “You could do with experience and a little more self-control. I expect it’ll do you some good, so don’t fight too hard.”
“Huh?”
“Will you promise me something? It won’t make sense and it may cost you a great deal when you understand.” Sal waited for Peter to respond.
“Of course I will.”
Sal laughed with pleasure. “Don’t be so eager to give your word. Words have power on the other side.” Sal moved so her face was only inches from Peter’s. She stood up on her toes so their faces were level. “Promise you won’t suck the life out of me when you’re over there.”
Peter wondered what he was supposed to say to such an absurd request. He reminded himself Sal had told him he wouldn’t understand it, but the idea of harming her repulsed him. “I promise never to suck the life from you, though I may suck you in other places, if you want me too.” Thank God for the Internet, Peter thought wryly. His sexual knowledge would have been close to zero without it.
Sal kissed him passionately. “Thanks so much, my hero. You’ve no idea how much that means to me. And if all goes well and we survive, I’ll take you up on that offer.”
Sal pushed away from Peter and gave him a curtsey, her fingers tugging on her short black skirt in a way that threatened to overload the cuteness circuits in Peter’s brain. She burst out laughing at the look on his face and skipped down the alley as if she were a five year old. Just before she turned a corner to go out of sight, she turned back towards him and shouted, “Saturday morning, be there!”
* * *
Peter took a bath after getting out of bed. It was half past eight and he needed to hurry if he was to get to Solly’s before nine.
While the traffic on the previous days looked heavy, nothing prepared him for the bedlam of traffic on a Friday morning. Every car on the High Street was stationary and drivers were trying to make progress by use of horn power alone. It was another beautiful morning, but the petrol and diesel fumes threatened to overwhelm as he took the short and increasingly familiar walk over to Solly’s.
As usual, the shop was deserted. Peter began to wonder how a customer would be greeted should one ever venture through the door. Would Solly kiss their hand in appreciation, or chase them out? It was a question to which Peter had no answer, but he felt it would be one of those two.
He walked towards the storeroom and almost reached its doors when Solly spoke from inches behind his back. “Peter, it’s good to see you here on time, for once.”
“I’ve only been late once.”
Solly walked back towards the stairs. “Come with me. I need to talk to you. And be careful with the furniture on the stairs. It could fall over if someone grabbed it.”
Peter was extremely careful on the stairs and resolved that even if Solly took out an Uzi sub-machine gun and started shooting at him, he wasn’t going to pull over the furniture when he escaped.
They went to the office and sat once again in the dark. Solly turned on a kettle and waited for the water to boil. The tea didn’t taste as Peter expected and he looked at it in surprise. Surely Solly wasn’t trying to poison him?
Solly laughed at Peter’s look of suspicion and horror. “It’s called Rooibos tea. Literally ‘red bush’ tea from South Africa. I find it relaxing as it doesn’t have any caffeine in it. Years ago, I spent some time in Cape Town and came to prefer it to ordinary tea. It won’t kill you.”
Peter took another sip and decided it was delicious. He’d tried fruit teas before but didn’t like them much. Rooibos tasted like a real tea.
“Tomorrow you’ll be eighteen. Your father was not important when he abandoned his life, but times change. He was from an important… clan, and time has made him, or rather you, the heir to a great deal. My… family… have been allies with your… clan for centuries. I’d like to initiate you into your clan and introduce you to my family tomorrow, if you’ll let me.” Solly waited for Peter’s answer.
“Doesn’t Han No want to do something similar?” Even though Peter was stumbling in the dark, his Establishment training told him to play one side against the other and see what happened.
Solly looked troubled. “It’s true the Dragons want to use you as a pawn against the Vam… clan. The Dragons are obsessed with power and resent your people for preventing them from controlling everything. Times have become hard. Some see you as the piece that will break the logjam and bring prosperity back.”
“Then tell me what’s going on and I can make a rational decision,” Peter stated triumphantly. Perhaps he could use logic to find out what was going on.
Solly looked unhappy. “Come here tomorrow and I’ll tell you. Stay away from Han No. The Red Dragon uses up people as though they have no value.”
“I can’t promise, Solly. I’ve other things to do tomorrow and they might stop me from getting here.” Peter had a vision of Sal curtseying to him while standing besides a double bed. He shook his head to clear it. “If I can find the time, I’ll come. If not, I’ll come around as soon as I can.”
Solly shook his head as if he’d been expecting more. The two of them made their way to the stairs. Halfway along the corridor Solly stopped and opened one of the doors. To Peter’s complete astonishment there was only a cupboard behind the door with a switch on its back wall. Solly flipped the switch to the on position. The cupboard flooded with a diffuse white light. Solly closed the office door and pointed at the archway directly opposite.
The light from the door focussed on the place where a door might have been in the archway. It formed a door in the archway just as if a real door was there.
“Doors of the mind can be doorways to your future, Peter. Remember that.” Solly opened the office door and switched the light off. “Off you go. I’ll show you what I want you to do when we get downstairs.”
* * *
Solly tasked Peter with mov
ing a stack of furniture, once again. He had to clean underneath it before putting it all back. Peter enjoyed the complete mindlessness of the task. It kept his body busy but allowed him to daydream as much as he wanted. All his daydreams centred on Sal. He wanted to see what she looked like without the make-up, and he spent quite a bit of his fantasies imagining situations where he got her to take it off. Sometimes it was the last item he asked her to remove.
The day passed quickly. At lunchtime, he drifted down to the fish and chip shop and ordered sausage and chips swilled down with a half litre of cola. The staff in the shop nodded to him and talked to him using his name but made no reference to Han No.
The afternoon went as fast as the morning and it was no time at all before he was sitting in the flat eating the meal he prepared for his mother. Mel was still enthused by her job at Hellogon Imports. She wanted to tell him every thing she did from the moment she arrived at work. It occurred to Peter that his mother might actually be happier now that she was doing something useful than when she’d been a housewife in the village. It gave him a warm feeling to believe that not everything that happened to them recently was for the worse.
While the day flew by, the evening dragged. It seemed midnight would never come. Mel went to bed at ten o’clock as she had a busy Saturday planned. Peter sat in the flat’s lounge and watched the clock on the wall grind forward. By eleven-thirty, he’d had enough and got ready to leave. At eleven-thirty-five he walked out onto the street.
He walked straight into Han No’s guards. “Come with us,” one of them commanded as they both took his arm and frogmarched him to the fish and chip shop.
Peter might have escaped, but only by risking killing. He didn’t want to do that and he remembered what Sal said to him the previous night. She suggested Han No would delay him this evening and here it was, happening. That Sal expected it made Peter drop any idea to fight his captivity. He decided to let things happen as they would.
He was marched behind the counter of the fish and chip shop and into the bowels of the building. The men took him straight past the room where he’d met Han No. There was some kind of show going on in a room ahead. Men jeered and cheered at the performers on a small stage.
The men took him to a corridor with red painted doors spaced along it. The walls and floor were covered in red carpet and it was very quiet. The men took him to the first door and one held him while the other used a key to unlock the door.
“Compliments of Han No. Happy birthday.”
The guards threw him into the room. The door slammed and Peter heard the door locked behind him.
A double bed just fitted, leaving room for not much else. Not much else, if you didn’t count the Chinese girl that served Han No tea and a thin blond beautiful European girl. They sat on the bed with their legs open and both of them were stark naked. Peter couldn’t help noticing the girls had no body hair below the waist. He looked up and was surprised to find the ceiling was a massive mirror.
He turned back to the door, intending to get out. However, the girls had other ideas and pounced on him. Peter wasn’t going to hit either of them and his half-hearted pushes didn’t prove effective. When the blond girl pulled down his jeans and boxers in one swift movement he gave up the struggle. He looked at his watch and noticed he had been eighteen for about three minutes. Peter wondered if this was some sort of record, just before he stopped thinking and started doing instead.
* * *
Peter lay on the bed, exhausted. He hadn’t realised that sex could be so tiring or that two girls could bring him to orgasm so many times in such a short period of time. He had feigned sleep to stop the girls from continuing. One of them slapped him hard across the face to make sure he wasn’t shamming. Establishment training included some unusual skills and he didn’t even blink.
Once certain he was asleep, the two girls snuggled up to him and went to sleep. That was what he hoped they’d do. He had an appointment to keep with Sal. Peter intended to have words with her. She’d known this was going to happen, had even laughed about it, and yet said nothing to prevent it.
It wasn’t that he felt used. As a matter of fact he felt great. It was the fact she didn’t mind it happening that bothered Peter. If Sal cared for him, wouldn’t she want him to be true to her?
Peter rose into a sitting position. The blond girl on his left convulsively clutched at him. She started to pump with her hand as she began to wake. Peter pressed his finger onto a spot behind her ear. He was careful, as too much pressure could kill. After a few seconds, she slumped across him.
It proved difficult to extricate his body from the tangle of arms and legs on the bed, but finally he was back by the door while the girl cuddled each other in their sleep. Under other circumstances, Peter could have happily watched them for hours, but Sal waited for him by the Sunner Door and he had kept her waiting far too long.
Peter put his clothes on, all apart from a sock which had vanished without trace. He decided not to wear the other one, and pulled it off his foot before reaching for his trainers. His trainers were decorated with two large paper clips, which Peter had fastened through the two lowest lace holes. He removed one of the clips and then put the trainers on. Neither of the paper clips were what they appeared to be. Peter stole them from the Establishment by the simple expedient of fastening them to his shoes. The guards who searched him when he left didn’t spot them.
It took him less than a minute to pick the lock. He opened the door quietly and looked around. The corridor was deserted. He looked at the two girls on the bed with some regret. He admitted to himself that Han No did know the perfect birthday present for a eighteen year old boy, but he still had to go. He closed the door and went to the trouble to lock it, so the girls couldn’t alert anybody when they finally woke up.
If his sense of direction hadn’t deserted him, the door onto Hellport Lane would be to the left and up a flight of stairs. He tiptoed down the corridor and found the stairs leading up. It looked as though his luck was running good.
He opened the door onto the lane. As the light from the door hit the other side of the lane a door appeared and opened on the other side. Sal was waiting in what looked like a room with deep purple lighting.
“Whatever you do, don’t shut that door.” Sal said in a loud whisper. “Just come over here as fast as you can.”
Peter ran across the Lane. He heard yelling behind him. Sal’s hand reached out and dragged him through her door, as the door on the other side slammed shut. The door on their side smashed forward flinging them to the ground.
Peter’s breath was knocked out of him. He looked back towards the door and found they were out in the open in the middle of countryside. Where the door should have been, three blocks of stone, two vertical and one horizontal formed the outline of a door.
The next thing he noticed was that the sky was deep purple. Only where it touched the horizon did it look a little blue. The world was in twilight and an enormous red moon hung in the sky, at least four times bigger than the one on Earth.
“What’s with the moon?” he asked Sal.
“That’s not the moon, it’s the sun. In Hellogon, the sun is older than on Earth and is much bigger. It gives a lot of heat out though, which is why it’s so hot here, just not a lot of light. We’re twelve hours behind the time in England, so it is early afternoon here.”
“The trees and grass have black leaves,” Peter said in amazement.
“They’re adapted to infra-red rather than visible light. As are your eyes here or you’d have trouble seeing very far.”
“What do you mean, my eyes have adapted?”
“The four species of Hellogon are adapted to local conditions. Your father’s from here and you’ve changed to your true form. There are vampires and …”
“Vampires! You mean you’re a vampire here?” He looked closely at Sal in her Goth clothes and make-up. “You mean that isn’t make-up?”
Sal laughed at Peter and grabbed his hand in hers.
She brought his hand up so he could see the back of it. Peter’s fingernails were the same colour as Sal’s.
“I’m not a vampire. I’m just pretending to be one to get people to leave me alone. You though, are the real thing.”
Chapter Twelve
Politics
Peter tried to digest the insanity of being a vampire. It was much more likely, in his view, that the light of this place made his fingernails look different.
“I’ll explain it later. We have to leave. This is a portal only Warlocks can open, but that doesn’t mean the others won’t be keeping a watch. We have to go.” Sal began to pull Peter into the woodland but Peter showed no inclination to move and resisted her efforts.
Peter knew they weren’t on Earth and was sure he’d been changed when they came through the portal. He felt stronger and his senses were keener. He could smell a rabbit at the edge of the wood even though he couldn’t see it. But his Establishment training insisted that now was the time to force some answers from Sal and he had three very important questions.
“How did you know Han No had those girls lined up for me, and why didn’t you tell me about them last night?” Peter pulled Sal to him so he could look into her eyes.
“Typical bloody vampire! All arrogance. What you want is the only thing that’s important. We have to go, Peter. We need to move away from here, right now.” Sal tried to pull him towards the trees but he stood there unyielding, and he didn’t let go of her hand.
“Okay,” Sal said as it became clear Peter wouldn’t move until she answered him, “Dad told me about them before I met you yesterday. He has contacts with Han No’s people. You realise Han No will punish those girls because you escaped. He’ll give them to his sadist clients, the ones who use whips and canes. That’s your fault.”
