Callie's Gift

by Kallista Dane

  “Your papa left you in my care while he’s gone to the city to find work. He trusted me to look after you. Why, if your Granpere was still alive, he’d drag ME to the woodshed right now for raising you so poorly.”

  When Granmere’s hand connected again with her hot bottom, Callie suddenly saw a young woman, bent over a hay bale in the barn. A handsome bare chested man stepped into view behind her, pulling up her long skirt to reveal a pair of old-fashioned bloomers. The bloomers came down with a yank of his hand. He stood there for a moment, stroking the woman’s bare ass possessively. Then he began delivering a volley of firm blows, first to one cheek, then the other. As her tender bottom reddened and jerked beneath his hand, he kept up a monologue, admonishing her not to give her trust so readily to every stranger who came to her for help.

  As she watched the scene unfold in her mind, the young man ended the spanking and took the woman in his arms. Granmere stopped abruptly, as though she too could see what Callie was seeing.

  “I hope I never have to do that again. Now go to your room and think about how your reckless actions could have turned out if I hadn’t come home when I did.”

  The sight of that young woman being soundly spanked, then held close in a passionate embrace ignited a different kind of fire in Callie. She crept off to her room with her bottom blazing, but she could feel an unfamiliar though strangely pleasurable throbbing between her legs as well.

  Callie fantasized many times after that about what happened next with the young couple. But never before had she envisioned a scenario where she was the young woman being subjected to a stern lecture and a severe bare-ass spanking by a handsome young man. She rubbed her bottom, reliving the sensation of Trent’s hand smacking her there, remembering how real it felt at the time.

  Her thoughts drifted off to what would happen next. She imagined herself grabbing him around the neck, tearfully promising never to take such a risk in the future. She saw him take her by the shoulders, swearing that the spanking she just got would be nothing compared to the blistering she’d get if she ever ignored his warnings again. His hand stroked her fiery bottom, then moved to probe between her legs as he kissed her fiercely. Callie drifted off with a smile on her face.

  In the next room, Trent was having a much tougher time getting to sleep. He tossed and turned, thinking about vile creatures prowling through Callie’s dreams, invading her mind and flaunting their actions. But those thoughts kept getting interrupted by more tempting images of Callie pulling off her thin, worn t-shirt to reveal the lush tits with hard little nipples that he’d seen poking out during dinner.

  God, he’d love to suck them and hear her moan with pleasure! Trent had been so busy with negotiating the sale of his company and getting his mother settled in Boca that sex had taken a back seat for months. Even before that, the women in his life had been few and far between. Spending his life in a virtual world populated with imaginary sports heroes, it wasn’t easy to hook up with real live hot chicks. And truth be told, the women he did date seemed more interested in the strong sexy hunks populating his game world than in him.

  But there was something about this woman that got his cock stirring again. She wasn’t his type at all. Faded jeans and t shirt, soft voice with a hint of Southern accent, slender build (except for those great tits!). She was nothing like his last lover. Lisa was the sophisticated San Francisco attorney who shared one spectacular night with him last month. After she finished filing the paperwork for the sale of his business, leaving him with enough money to last the rest of his life, he took her out on the town to celebrate. They shared a bottle of Dom Perignon in a swanky restaurant high above the city, then polished off another one in the bedroom of her penthouse suite at the hotel across the street. Lisa was an accomplished lover and they had a great time together. But thoughts of their intense evening didn’t get him as hot as the fleeting images that flew unbidden into his mind – images he’d glimpsed of Callie, lying naked on that threadbare quilt in a rough-hewn mountain cabin.

  It seemed as though he’d just drifted off to sleep when Trent was awakened by faint cries from the next room. He rolled out of bed and pulled on his jeans. Unlocking the connecting door, he moved swiftly toward a huddled shape on the bed.

  Callie was obviously still asleep, deep in the throes of a nightmare. She flailed around, fighting an unseen enemy as she muttered what sounded like curses in a mixture of Creole and English.

  “Callie,” he called out softly, not wanting to frighten her even more. “Callie, wake up. You’re dreaming.”

  Her eyes flew open and she stared at him wildly, still deep in her frightening world. Then with a soft cry, she threw herself into his arms.

  “Oh, God, Trent. We have to hurry. We have to find him. He’s going to grab her very soon. The hunger is growing. I saw him doing unspeakable things to her tiny body, then picking up the knife…” Callie shuddered.

  “It’s okay, babe. We’ll find him, I promise.” Trent stroked her hair and held her trembling body tight against his chest.

  She sagged against him, then suddenly seemed to realize the intimate position they were in.

  “You’d better go now,” she whispered. “My head is starting to hurt. After one of these episodes I get a vicious migraine. I need to take one of Granmere’s potions and lie here in the dark for awhile.”

  “I’m not leaving you alone,” he replied. “I’ll sit here by the bed with you till you fall asleep again – or until daylight, whichever comes first.”

  Callie could tell there was no use protesting. Trent had no intention of leaving. She pulled away, yanking down the hem of the blue t-shirt she’d been wearing earlier. It was clear to Trent that she wore nothing under the skimpy shirt and it was all he could do not to reach out and pull it over her head, then bury his face in those lush soft tits.

  Callie blushed, as though she read his thoughts. She slid out of bed and crossed the room, stopping to grab her jeans and a small leather bag. Trent caught a peek of the twin round cheeks of her ass as she bent down. She headed for the bathroom and quietly but firmly closed the door before turning on the light. Trent could hear water running, then the clink of a spoon. He figured she must have been mixing one of her backwoods potions in a bathroom glass.

  When she opened the door, Callie had on the threadbare jeans she’d worn earlier and the t-shirt was tucked in. She took a sip from the nasty-looking brown concoction she carried and mustered up a faint smile.

  “I’m so sorry I woke you.”

  Trent shook his head. “It’s okay. I’m just glad I was here. Is this what you go through every time?”

  “Some are worse than others,” she answered. “They come to me in dreams and while I’m awake too. This one is especially awful because I don’t just watch what’s going on. I can feel her terror as though it’s me tied up there on the hard wooden table.”

  Callie rubbed her forehead. Trent could tell that she was in pain, but trying not to show it.

  “Lie down. I’ll sit here next to the bed and… and tell you a story,” he blurted out.

  She gave him a weak smile. “A bedtime story? I haven’t had one of those in years.”

  “I’m good at stories. Remember? I’ve been making them up for a living for years now. Do you want to hear the one about Tommy Raven, my famous extreme snowboarder? Right now he’s in the middle of a James Bond-type chase in the Swiss Alps. There’s a beautiful spy ahead of him, skiing full tilt down a black diamond run. It’s midnight, very cold, and freshly fallen snow reflects the light of the full moon.

  “Tommy needs to get her before she slips the stolen zip drive to her evil henchmen waiting in the village below. The only way he can get there ahead of her is to leave the safety of the ski run and head straight down the mountain, hurling himself off the ledge and flying twenty feet, thirty feet at a time from one outcropping of snow-covered jagged rock to the next.”

  Trent began his tale, filling in with details and improbable plot twists. All the
time, he watched Callie’s face. Slowly the lines of pain smoothed on her forehead. He lowered his voice and watched as her eyes closed. Finally, he stopped speaking and sat quietly in the dark, listening to her rhythmic breathing. Only then did he risk reaching out to cover her hand with his.

  Chapter 5

  Callie opened her eyes. Mercifully, the axe that had split her head apart last night had disappeared. Early morning sun peeked through a gap in the curtains across the room. The chair beside her bed was empty and she heard the shower running in the next room.

  She wondered how long he had sat beside her. All she remembered was going along with him on that chase down a snow-covered mountain. He had a gift too. Different than hers, but just as powerful. He made her feel like she was snowboarding right beside Tommy under the full moon. Callie could only imagine how real it would be if she had on the virtual gear he had described.

  Lost in her reverie, she didn’t notice the sound of the shower had stopped. Callie looked up to see Trent in the connecting doorway, wearing only his jeans, with a towel slung around his neck.

  “You’re awake. How are you feeling?”

  Callie just stared at him. The sight of his well-muscled chest still covered with droplets of water sent her reeling back to the vision she had experienced yesterday of the two of them, bodies locked together in a steamy shower stall.

  “I’m okay now,” she stammered.

  “He must think I’m an idiot,” she told herself. “I’m so afraid I’m going to blurt out something I say in one of my erotic visions that I can barely speak to him sometimes.” Callie pulled herself together. “I’ll get ready so we can hit the road. I don’t know how much farther we have to go this morning.”

  “It’s about another hour to downtown Waynesville, but these mountain towns cover a lot of square miles. We could drive back roads all day once we get there and still be within the boundaries of Waynesville.

  “I’ve been thinking about how we can narrow down the search,” he went on. “Yesterday you mentioned going to a real estate company when you were trying to stop the rapist. We can talk to some local Realtors in Waynesville about properties for rent. Maybe one of them can steer us to the old farmhouse you see. How well can you describe the place?”

  Callie bounced out of bed and began pacing the narrow room as she spoke. “I can see it very clearly. The house lies at the end of a dirt two-track, backing up to US Forest Service. I know that because there’s a yellow Forest Service boundary sign nailed to one of the trees along the edge of the yard behind the house. He always parks his car out back.

  “It’s a two story farmhouse, in need of a paint job. The front yard is rimmed with fruit trees planted by the old woman who once lived there. Right now the peach trees are in full bloom. There’s a covered porch all across the front, with stairs leading to the door on the right hand side. But he doesn’t like to be visible even from that isolated road, so he always uses the back entrance.

  “He’s careful, cunning. He knows that this time of year no game is in season. No hunter will be wandering around on Forest Service land. No neighbors nearby, so no chance of someone hearing the screams.”

  As she went on, Callie’s calm description of facts gave way to a frightening, cold recital. Her voice took on a monotone, her gaze blank as she peered into a world only she could see.

  “No one catches a glimpse of the young child who frantically pulls away from his grasp and dashes across the yard. And there’s no place for her to go before he catches her and drags her inside, then slams the door.”

  Callie stopped pacing and rubbed her forehead. The dull pounding was nothing like the pain she felt last night, thanks to the lingering effects of Granmere’s potion.

  “God, Callie, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to have you relive it again.”

  “It’s okay. The really horrible thing about my visions is the feeling of helplessness, watching what’s going to happen and being powerless to stop it. But this time we’re making a plan… we can actually do something to save her.”

  Trent noticed it immediately. ‘We’re making a plan…we can save her.’ It had been a long time since anyone other than his mom referred to him as part of a ‘we’. He liked the sound of it.

  Callie didn’t recognize the powerful effect that simple word had on him. She’s so determined, so driven, he told himself. She’s willing to put her trust in the hands of a stranger if it means she can help another human being. I’ve always been attracted to girls who rescue stray kittens – but this chick takes it to a whole new level. Huge heart, hot body… man, I could be in big trouble here.

  “It’s going to be a long day. That diner I found last night had a full breakfast menu. Let’s stop there and fuel up before we head out on the road,” he said.

  Callie’s stomach rebelled at the thought of food. But she knew both of them needed to do something normal, to get back in touch with real life. Living too long in the world of an evil mind could drive a person mad. Maybe a cup of hot coffee and a couple of pancakes were exactly what she needed right now. “You’ve got to nourish the body if you’re gonna work the Soul.” That’s what Granmere would have said.

  “Sounds like a plan,” she replied, hoping Trent wasn’t perceptive enough to pick up the false cheerfulness in her tone. She bent to gather up her things.

  The diner by the side of the road was like dozens of others Callie had been in since she started her journey. Fresh-baked muffins and pies were displayed under glass domes on a long counter near the door. A handful of square tables dotted the center of the room. Vinyl-clad booths lined the wall of windows overlooking assorted pickup trucks parked outside. They were assaulted by the overpowering smell of bacon even before they pulled open the door. Callie nearly gagged, stomach still queasy from the lingering effects of the migraine, but Trent breathed in and sighed happily.

  “Oh, yeah, now that’s what I’m talking about.”

  He headed for a booth near the window, catching the eye of a middle-aged waitress on her way over.

  “Hot black coffee, two eggs over easy, a big stack of pancakes and a double order of that bacon, darlin’,” he called out with a grin. “Then you can bring us the menu.”

  The woman giggled like a teenager and headed for the coffee pot. Callie identified with her reaction. This guy was charming, good with people. Surprising, really, for someone who had spent so much time living alone in his head.

  He turned back to Callie. “I didn’t mean to ignore you there… just got dazed by the aroma.”

  “That’s okay,” she said. “I’ve always enjoyed serving someone who appreciates food. There’s nothing like a big stack of hotcakes to put the right start on a day.”

  “We never ate out much when I was growing up – couldn’t afford it. But after being wined and dined all over San Francisco recently by companies anxious to get hold of my games, I’ve learned that going some place fancy doesn’t guarantee a good meal. In my opinion, the best food comes from mom and pop joints like this, with a cook out back who isn’t afraid of using a little butter and salt.”

  The waitress brought over a steaming coffee pot and two sturdy mugs.

  “I put your order in, hon’. We’ll fix you right up.” She turned to Callie. “What can I get for you, sweetie?”

  Callie thought briefly of her dwindling supply of cash. Over her objections, Trent paid for both motel rooms last night, as well as picking up dinner. But she wasn’t going to allow that to continue. She paid her own way in life. That way she answered to no one. The Universe had always provided what she need when she was helping other souls. And she really should eat something. Getting through the day would take all her strength. She skimmed the prices on the menu.

  “I’ll have a couple of scrambled eggs and some whole wheat toast. And if it’s not too much trouble, I’d prefer decaf.”

  “No trouble at all, sweetie. I just made a fresh pot. Be right back.”

  Trent watched their server thread her way through t
he tables, stopping with a smile to top off other coffee mugs as she went.

  “She’s got a tough job. Long hours, no regular paycheck to depend on. But she looks like she enjoys working here.”

  “When you’ve got no real skills and you live in a place where the pickings are slim, you’re grateful for whatever work you can get,” Callie responded. “Besides, I’ve found that most customers you run into in a place like this are decent, hard-working people. Something as simple as a smile and a kind word can go a long way to brighten their day.”

  Trent turned the conversation back to their predicament. “Is there anything more you’ve seen that might help us find this guy? I don’t want you to go back to a place that causes you pain,” he went on hastily. “Maybe you can describe his car or read a road sign you saw. I don’t really understand how this gift of your works. Tell me if I’m asking too much of you.”

  Callie paused a moment before replying.

  “As I told you last night, I’ve never seen the man. It’s as though I’m right beside him, or worse, inside his head sometimes, seeing what he sees, knowing what he’s thinking about. It’s different from anything I’ve encountered in the past. Maybe if I start talking out loud about what he’s doing when I connect with him, you can pick out details I’m not aware that I’m noticing. I don’t know if that will work – I’ve never tried it before,” she explained.

  “Hold on. That’s a great idea, but last night I saw first-hand what happens to you during one of your episodes. Let’s enjoy our breakfast, then get down the road a few miles. We’ll find a quiet place to sit outdoors in the sun where we have some privacy. You can relax and try it there.”

  They polished off their meal, but rather than lingering over a refill on the coffee, Trent motioned for the bill. Callie reached into her bag and pulled out her wallet.

  “You paid for dinner last night. Let me get this.”

  Trent realized Callie had to feel independent, treated as an equal. She wasn’t a cheap pickup at a road stop, and she needed him to acknowledge that. He wished he hadn’t had the double order of bacon, he thought, watching her face as she counted out the bills.