When Toby felt able, he got up on one elbow to discover that he was lying on another pile of bones, smaller and perhaps having only just been created. Of the creature there was no sign, though its evil drenched every atom in the place. He stepped off the bones and onto the ground which, beneath scattered bones, was covered in a red jelly. He went to take a step forward and noticed the jelly sticking to the sole of his foot like toffee and when he lifted his foot up completely, he took strings of the stuff with it.
He debated whether to stay where he was or wander around for a bit in the hopes he might find a way out. In the end he decided to go for a walk, just to see what he could see then he’d return to where he’d woken up. That way, he figured, if anyone came looking for him, he’d be easier to find.
He had noticed a patch of particularly thick cloud, with lightning bolts spearing down to the ground and sending up puffs of smoke. Weaving his way through the hills of bones, he made his way towards the stationary storm, all the while watchful for anything that could harm him.
He approached with all the care of a gazelle stepping through the leaf litter, knowing that the woods were full of wolves, except the ground was now inches thick with bone, most of it brittle, and wherever he stepped the crack of splitting bone followed.
The sound of thunder rumbling in the heavens was loud in his ears. The acrid smell of lightning hitting bone bit at his nostrils. He could hear something moaning beyond the next hill of bone, though it was neither of pain nor of pleasure. He flattened himself against the side of the nearest bone pile and with as much care as he was able he climbed to the top and peered over.
Kali was standing in all her glory—a string of human heads around her neck and a skirt of arms and legs. Her many arms were tearing at the flesh of a group of naked people being herded towards her by small black demons with arrows ready at the bow, and serpents larger than any Toby had ever seen before. As lightning erupted all around her Kali’s arms shredded whole bodies in the blink of an eye, drinking the blood until her body had turned crimson from the overflow and offering up the meat to the heavens, which eagerly took its prize.
The small crowd wailed and begged and offered deals in return for their release, but Kali had no time for their pleas. Between mouthfuls she shook her head at them, her bloodshot eyes wide and her tongue, stained red, falling out of her mouth between tiny fangs. As she moved, taking an arm here and a heart there, the thundercloud and lightning went with her and in her wake she left a bloody trail of bones stripped of their meat.
Further away, in the background, Toby could see a pair of jackals and overhead a swirl of blackbirds, cawing to each other. Even after Kali had drunk her fill and offered the flesh to the thundercloud that escorted her, there would be plenty of meat left over for all the scavengers, both seen and unseen, who waited in the wings.
Kali approached the bone pile where Toby lay observing her in shocked awe. The nearer she got, the faster it seemed to Toby that she was moving. He was halfway down when the first of the human crowd appeared, backing away in terror as the tiny demons and the serpents that accompanied them, continually corralled Kali’s captives towards her.
Toby’s heart began to beat a tattoo. His eyes darted from bone pile to bone pile and then back to the procession of despair. It was too late. There was no time to run. Kali had appeared and as he looked up he could see one of the jackals atop the pile and its eyes were directly upon him.
Chapter 13
The jackal staring down at him, its tongue flopping about through yellowed teeth as it panted, didn’t bother him as much as the appearance of Kali. He knew what he had to do. The only thing he could do. He waited for her to turn her head, to dismember someone on the side furthest away from him, and then he dived into the bones. He pushed his way into the pile until he was completely covered. With a small twist of his body he was able to watch Kali as her eyes, wide open and red with blood, stared directly at him. The demons too were looking in his direction, and the captives, and even the serpents were looking at the place in the bone pile where just a few skeleton parts covered his living, breathing body.
Then he noticed the sound of panting and the scratching of claw upon bone. It was the jackal, wanting fresher meat than the scraps Kali was leaving for it.
“Go away,” he whispered, and then he started growling.
Suddenly Kali raised one of her right arms and a large knife materialised, her fingers already wrapped around the handle. She stretched her arm back and launched the weapon with all her might.
Toby clenched his eyes shut, clenched his jaw and also his arsehole. He gritted his teeth and waited for the impact, which never came. Instead he heard a yelp, a small crunch as something landed on the bones and then he felt a trickle of warmth running down over his forehead. He cautiously opened an eye. Part of him was still wondering if it wasn’t his own blood he could feel tracing a line down the side of his face. But it was jackal blood, and for that he thanked his lucky stars.
After a few seconds he noticed that Kali had returned her attention to the business of destruction and Toby was pleased to see that she was moving away from where he was and from where he wanted to go.
When the last of her entourage had disappeared around one of the larger piles of bones, Toby made his escape. Despite not being able to see any danger, he no longer trusted anything in this realm where nightmares were born. He pushed his way out from under the bones and seeing that the coast was clear, he hurried back to the place he had woken up.
For a long while he was content to sit amongst the bones, waiting. The sky didn’t seem to be getting any darker or any lighter and he wondered if there was anything like night or day in this dimly lit world. When sitting grew too uncomfortable he got up and went for a walk—exactly one circuit around the bone pile, before sitting down again. He scanned the bleak scene around him, imagining that there was a chance he might see something new, something different he had missed seeing the other hundred times he’d looked. He yawned then bit the top of one of his nails off. He spat the sliver of nail from his tongue and examined the remaining nail. He yawned again.
“Come on Pete,” he said to himself. “Where are you?”
After uttering the words, he wondered what he had meant by them and when his mind drew a blank, he wondered how he was ever going to escape. Or if he ever would. His vision grew blurry with tears. The scene before him was one watery sweep of white and grey. With no one to witness his tears, he let them fall freely as visions of his mother and of Pete and all those he had ever cared for passed before his mind’s eye.
For many minutes he sobbed and spluttered like a small child and at the point he had drained himself of tears he made a promise to himself. The next time he encountered Kali, for he was certain that he would, he’d let her tear him limb from limb. There would be a moment of burning pain, perhaps pain such as he had never encountered before, but his suffering would be at an end. His bones would be picked clean by scavengers and would lie decomposing until others like him came and crushed them to dust underfoot.
He sniffed back the mucus that had collected in his nose and realised the decision had given him a certain sense of comfort. He sank back into the bones and released a long sigh, which had the effect of relaxing all his muscles. Blanketed in the peace created by his decision he let his eyelids slide down over his eyes and he drifted into a shallow sleep.
The hollow clinking sound of dried bones falling over dried bones drew him from his slumber. He sat up, momentarily bewildered, and reached behind to rub the spot where a splinter of femur had been pricking him. All the while his eyes and ears were alert for whomever or whatever was making the sound. He got to his feet and stepped carefully off the bone pile. His head swivelled slowly on his neck, searching the barren landscape for any sign of a jackal or of Kali.
“Toby!”
He wasn’t sure he’d heard correctly at first, but as the sound of his name reached his ears a second time, his face lit up.
&
nbsp; “Pete!” he called. “I’m here.”
He ran towards the spot where he had heard Pete’s voice, his heart pumping liquid sunshine throughout his veins. He turned a corner and saw him, stooped and alert. There was a rope tied around his waist that was taut behind him; the end of which disappeared into thin air.
“Pete,” he called out again.
Pete shushed him and gestured for him to hurry. He seemed preoccupied with something out of sight behind one of the bone piles. Toby could only guess whatever it was that held Pete’s attention so completely was nothing he wanted to know about. He ran towards Pete’s outstretched arms. With every step he created snapping, crunching sounds he fully realised was drawing unwanted attention. To his left, a jackal appeared on the summit of the bone pile. As he reached Pete’s arms and felt the flesh and muscle of his lover enclose him in their powerful grip, he caught sight of something large from the corner of his eye to the right.
There was a scream and Toby felt something grab at him. At the same time he felt himself being pulled forward.
“Hang on, babe,” said Pete.
They stumbled over the bones and each other’s feet to keep up with the speed of the rope being pulled backwards then suddenly they were flying through darkness. The journey was not a long one and Toby had just enough time to get used to the feeling of weightlessness before he was crashing down on top of Pete in the hold of The Phantom.
Sandy and Zeke helped Toby and Pete to their feet.
“That didn’t take long,” said Sandy as his nicotine-stained fingers worked at undoing the knot in the rope.
“Long enough,” said Pete.
“I didn’t think you guys were ever going to come,” said Toby.
“Ya pussy,” said Sandy. “Ya were only in there for about five minutes.”
“As long as it took us to find the rope,” added Zeke.
“It sure as hell felt longer…”
He didn’t have time to finish his sentence. The ship lurched violently and the men tumbled over each other until they ended up flat against the side of the ship in a great ball of arms, legs, and torsos.
“Let’s get the fuck outta here,” said Pete.
The men picked themselves up and ran for the door. When they were safely on the other side, Zeke locked it shut and then followed the others along the narrow corridor to the hatch.
Toby arrived on deck to find the Captain at the wheel, valiantly trying to navigate The Phantom through the great walls of waves that were towering over them on either side. Before he had been taken by Kali the skies had been clear and starry, but now they were thick with cloud and behind it was lightning which flashed and created gruesome faces in the foaming cumulus.
“This is Kali,” said Toby. “We’d better get out of here as soon as possible.”
“I think that’s what the Captain’s trying to do,” said Zeke, rushing towards the bridge.
“What should we do? Get the sails down?”
Pete looked towards the bridge and started waving his arms. The Captain looked at him and he pointed to the sails. The Captain shook his head and Pete shrugged his shoulders.
“Strange,” said Pete. “Well then, better get below deck.”
In the crew’s quarters Chad and Bird were standing, naked, beside their beds, gripping the top bunks and trying to hold a conversation as they were rocked and rolled backwards and forwards by the motion of the ship.
“What the hell’s going on?” asked Chad. “I was thrown out of bed.”
“Storm,” said Pete. “Blew up out of nowhere. The Captain’s up there tryin’ to keep us afloat.”
“What about all the wine?” asked Bird. “He’s going to bust a blood vessel if any of those bottles get damaged.”
Toby took hold of his bunk and braced himself against the rolling motion of the ship. Pete stood behind him.
“If you knew what was causing all this, you wouldn’t be worried about the wine. The quicker and the further away we get from here, the better.”
Chad groaned and started shaking his head.
“That does it for me,” he said. “It’s one thing after another on this trip. Never again.”
Toby looked at Pete, who just happened to be looking back at him. He was about to look away again when he caught something in Pete’s eyes. Something that hadn’t been there before. He could tell that Pete was feeling exactly the same way. The knowledge brought the whisper of a smile to his face.
* * * *
The violent sea held The Phantom in its grip for another hour. By the time the Captain sailed his ship into calmer waters, all of them, even Pete, were feeling bright green around the gills. Bird had actually vomited and the stench was bringing Toby’s dinner closer and closer to the back of his throat. Finally, he couldn’t stand it any longer.
“I’ve got to get out of here,” he said and without waiting for a response, he left the others behind.
He strode across the deck to the side of the ship. Behind him, in the pale light of a new day dawning, he could see the tempest and he wondered how they had managed to make out in one piece. He yawned and his thoughts turned to home. Of his mother and his old bedroom. How he wished he could crawl into the bed that had been his since he was ten years old and just fall into a long, deep sleep. And when he woke up there would be the smell of toast and eggs and of coffee. His stomach rumbled at the thought. Thankfully it wouldn’t be long until he could eat breakfast for real.
The Captain didn’t join them at the table. It had become a habit of his to take his meals in his cabin.
“Better go and take his Lordship his meal,” said Bird.
The other men barely regarded him. Toby had noticed that no-one ever mentioned the Captain anymore, not even he did.
“I’ll be glad to see Fremantle again,” said Chad.
There were nods and noises of assent.
“What’ll ya do when ya get back?” asked Pete.
Chad shook his head. “Don’t know. Look for another job. A container ship maybe. I’ve had my fill of sailing ships.”
There were more sounds of agreement.
“How long until we get back to Fremantle?” asked Toby.
“Missing your mum?” said Sandy before pushing a whole pancake into his mouth.
No one was in the mood for laughter and Toby couldn’t be bothered dignifying the question with an answer.
“A couple of days,” said Pete. “If the winds help us along.”
Toby felt Pete’s hand come down on his lap beneath the cover of the table. Despite feeling exhausted, he could feel himself getting hard. He wanted Pete to take his cock out and jerk him off under the table, right under the noses of everyone present. He reached beneath the table and repositioned Pete’s hand on the bulge at the front of his shorts.
Pete gave it a couple of rubs then took it out and squeezed it.
Toby felt his cheeks burn. He quickly looked around the table, but everyone had their eyes on their plates, although he could see that Lennie, who was sitting on the corner beside him, had noticed that something was going on. As Pete continued to rub his erection, Toby noticed Lennie doing his best not to look, although he couldn’t quite seem to stop himself from sneaking furtive glances at Toby’s leg, for that was all Toby estimated that his crewmate could see.
Sandy finished his breakfast, poured whatever coffee was left in his mug down his throat, and got up from the table. When he saw what was happening, he shook his head.
“Bloody poofters,” he muttered just loudly enough for everyone to hear.
Zeke looked across the table, but Pete’s hand remained at work on Toby’s stiff shaft.
“Ye guys. Gee, there’s a time and a place.”
He got up and left and was followed by Chad, who slid out from his position in the far corner and stood up to show that he too had a hard on pushing out against the fabric of his boxers.
“Way to clear a room,” said Lennie with a big grin.
Since it was no secret wha
t Pete and Toby were up to, it became obvious that Lennie didn’t feel the need to be so discreet. He leaned back, fished his own cock out of his underpants, and began to stroke it.
“Come here, babe,” said Pete leaning in closer.
Toby’s lips lightly touched Pete’s. Their kisses were tender pecks, soft and gentle.
“Love ya,” Pete whispered.
“Love you, too.”
Their lips stayed together, barely touching. Each breath Pete exhaled was inhaled by Toby, taken deep into his lungs.
“Are ya getting’ close?” Pete whispered. “Ya gonna give me some cream?”
Toby closed his eyes and whispered, “Yes.”
Then he felt Lennie’s hand on his back, reaching into the back of his shorts. He sat forward and felt Lennie stick a slippery finger into his arsehole. He exhaled slowly into Pete’s mouth as the finger was buried in his arsehole up to the last knuckle. He sat down hard on the finger, pressing his arse against Lennie’s hand while rocking back and forth on it.
“Good boy,” Pete whispered, their lips still just brushing each other. “Let me see all that cream. Empty those big balls, baby.”
Pete’s words were like a charm. The more of them he whispered, the closer Toby came to blowing his load. His hips continued to grind against Lennie’s fat middle finger, the tip of which was pressing against his prostate and doing just as much as Pete’s words to draw the cum from his balls.
“Are ya getting’ close, baby? Gonna cream my hand? That’s the boy.”
Toby began to play with his nipple, twisting it between the pads of his thumb and forefinger.
“I’m going to cum,” he said as his hips began rocking hard and fast on Lennie’s finger.
“Good boy,” whispered Pete. “Give me all that beautiful cream. Let me taste it. I wanna taste ya.”
Toby grunted, the burst of air filling Pete’s mouth, and felt the first rope of cum fly out of his cock head. His arse muscles clenched down on Lennie’s finger, though he continued to rock against it. More and more cum rocketed out of his cock until he had emptied his balls completely.
The Phantom Page 13
