Why did they have such a strong effect on me? No, there was only one of them who had such a strong unidentifiable effect on me. I still had a feeling that they were waiting for something— like a predator waiting to catch a prey.
With my jumbled thoughts, my eyes suddenly lost their focus. It was like a vinyl record that had been scratched or the burnt film that played images in a disoriented view. I thought I saw two girls in the dark and eyes glowing in deep unnatural blue. Then it was over. I pressed my thumb and index finger to my eyelids as the headache returned.
"What's wrong, Nina? Are you okay?" Piper asked after she backed the car out. I looked through the tinted window and the Knights were gone.
"Nothing—sorry, I'm just tired," I said with a weak shrug. Piper frowned but she nodded and drove away.
~*~
I was walking through a forest. It was just after sunset and the horizon turned rosy pink. The rest of the sky was a deep, fabulous violet. Stars were already visible, twinkling like fantastic diamonds. Their lights were puny in comparison to the brilliant crescent moon overhead.
I strolled through the small footpath. The moonlight pierced through the trees, casting its pale silvery glow over my thin white dress. In the distance, I heard the trickling of water. It sounded delightfully cool, and I felt thirsty.
I left the beaten path to follow the sound and soon found myself in front of a clearing before a strange cave. The cave entrance was made of blue jade and crystal, which sparkled against the moon and stars in the sky.
I went farther into the beautiful cavern without hesitation. Inside, I found a spring of mineral water. The water streamed out of the rocks. Its laughing sound echoed off the jagged ceiling. The spring seemed to glow with aquatic light.
I knelt by the edge and cupped a handful of cool water to my lips. It was refreshing with a light mineral taste that satisfied my thirst.
Feeling alone and strangely safe in a concealing place, I rose to my feet again and removed my dress. I wriggled out of my underwear, letting each piece fall to the cave floor. Then I kicked off my shoes and unclasped my hair-tie.
With a soft sigh, I stepped into the tickling water.
It felt so good to be free and exposed to the night air. And the cool spring was alluring me to submerge my nakedness.
A feeling of peace washed over my body once the water reached my bare shoulders and neck. The cave was a place of tranquility. It relaxed not only my tensed body but also my troubled mind.
After a while, I languidly rested my back against the steep wall of a smooth boulder and closed my eyes. But the calmness of the spring was interrupted by a burst of air bubbles rising from the bottom.
Something was in the water!
I recoiled from the strange happening. But then I saw the crown of a blonde head emerged. A naked girl appeared with a pair of pale lock-covered breasts.
I gasped at those piercing eyes of greenish blue.
"Allecra?" I heard myself speaking amidst the fear. My heart fluttered and pounded faster as her nude presence surprised me.
"Hello, Nina," she said, her silken voice was low and laced with an internal struggle. For some unknown reason, I was glad to see her, impossibly extremely glad, as if my life was all about her. My reaction was not what I expected. I didn't feel like myself anymore.
"I have been waiting for you for a very long time," she said again as she slowly closed the distance between us. We were nose to nose now. Her breasts were round and beautiful, pressing against mine. She put both hands over the stone wall on either side of me. Her cold breath brushed lightly against my cheeks. Allecra smelled of wonderful spring and exquisite flowery scent.
"I knew one day I would find you," she said. And I nodded back against my will. My heart was still aflutter by her nakedness. My toes tingled and my spine surged with chills.
With an impulsive desire, it was I who threw my arms around Allecra Knight— the intimidating beautiful girl I had come to fear. My hands felt along her spiraling tattoos that ran over her arms and disappeared behind her long blonde hair covering thickly over her back. They were strange beautiful patterns.
Her smooth golden skin glittered with water. I was practically giving myself up to the strong current of lust I had never realized existed within me. Wasting no time, Allecra claimed my mouth with hers. Her taste flowed through me like delicious summer honey. I craved her more than anything. Our kiss was ravenous and passionate. We gasped and moaned in unison.
Her hands squeezed and roamed over my wet skin, sending sparks of sensation over my trembling form. I began to feel a hot throb below my belly. I was getting aroused. Allecra held me like she wanted to merge our bodies into one. I gasped for air once she released my mouth to suck on my neck and collarbones, and down my bare chest. I shuddered in the heat of passion. It was unbelievably surreal.
Allecra twirled me around and effortlessly lifted me up. My legs wrapped around her hourglass waist possessively. She moved us to the shallow water. Then she put me down on the cave floor where my hips were only slightly above the rippling waves.
Our lips came apart wetly, letting our craving eyes locked. I saw the movement of Allecra's slender shoulders and felt a hand over my private. It felt warm and soft, gently fondling and teasing me there. My jaw fell open to the surprisingly wonderful sensation. No one had ever touched me like that. I had never allowed anyone to do this to me. I was speechless at how everything started. Half of me wanted her to stop but the other half longed for her burning touch. My cheeks flushed hot. I was having trouble breathing evenly as I became embarrassingly and ridiculously wet.
Allecra's other hand curved around my waist and adjusted me. All the while, she was gazing at my facial expression. Her bright eyes observed my reaction, which was obviously a positive one. She joined our lips again, this time slowly and sensually. Her tongue wagged everywhere inside my mouth, and it felt rather long. Several times she almost choked me.
And when I was least expected, the blonde slipped a finger inside me, filling me with an intense pleasure. I let out a sharp gasp.
"No," I whimpered. "Don't!"
She moved. I clenched my teeth and gripped her tattooed arms with my clawing hands, but she kept on moving anyway. I whimpered and heaved out of breath.
It felt so undeniably good.
Then she withdrew her hand and embraced me. Allecra lowered her hips a bit and I felt something else nestling between my legs. When she slowly rose up again, it startled me out of my wit.
Something firm and soft was penetrating me, widening me and filling me all at once. My voice got stuck in my throat.
Allecra's hands moved to my waist, pulling me closer to her. I felt myself sheathing over a long fleshy rigid thing. It felt so wrong and yet so amazingly right. I wanted to cry and moan at the same time, but Allecra's mouth soon claimed my lips, silencing me.
She was groaning now. The thing between my legs kept sliding in slowly, causing my heart to race and skip with a wild tingling sensation.
"Allecra...Allecra," I said in a strangled voice. She didn't seem to hear me. Her body shivered in a pleasurable reaction. I felt her hands around my waist tightened as if to prevent me from escaping. And oddly, I felt powerless.
At last, we were joined at the hips. My mind left my body then. My thighs widely spread and wrapped around her elegant waist. I could no longer form any thought, let alone protest her. She had claimed my territory.
I felt so tight and full and deliriously incredible. It took a while to realize how slippery I got when Allecra began to move again, this time with her whole goddess-like body. She held me tighter, and the thing felt hot inside me, throbbing and pulsing like it was alive.
"No..." I managed to speak through my clenched teeth. But she kept moving faster. The pleasure had become increasingly maddening, my body started writhing with pleasure. "Allecra, no!"
There was no doubt what was inside me. Everything started to blur in my vision. My eyesight began to darken and the s
ound of water splashing slowly ebbed away from my ears. The last bizarre thing I saw was the bright burning turquoise eyes— eyes like glowing galaxies, gazing hypnotically into mine.
The tingling sensual pleasure intensified. There was a wonderful smell that was new to me. I felt Allecra pulsing and growing, driving wave after wave of otherworldly euphoria. Each stroke of that powerful improbable length going deep into my core sent me wailing.
Allecra's strange tattoos began to glow. The bright blue patterns danced like the sparkling light of the crystal cave.
I snapped wide awake and realized I was in my own bed, panting from the orgasmic dream. My body was covered in sweat. I could still feel the waves of pleasure wracked me with sparks of electrical ecstasy.
It was just bizarre. I felt the slippery wetness between my legs and quickly got off my bed to clean up. I had to change into a fresh pair of underwear.
It was almost dawn. But I couldn't go back to sleep out of embarrassment. The dream of Allecra doing unimaginable things to me was still vivid in my mind. I didn’t know why I dreamed of her like that.
"That was a stupid, stupid dream!" I hissed to myself, burying my head into the pillow to muffle a scream.
I admitted that I found Allecra Knight extraordinarily fascinating. But my goodness, I couldn't believe I fantasized about her in such a perverted way.
What’s wrong with me?
CHAPTER 5
Aunt Vikki had to visit some friends and left early. It was a spring day with a light drizzle in the morning. Piper would have given me a ride if she hadn't promised to pick her friends up. And the way she offered it, "I can still give you a ride, you know," was like she was afraid I would say 'Yes', so I said ‘No’. I had already worked out the bus system in this small rich neighborhood and would like to try my luck.
On the bus, I managed to act normal and took a seat with the rest of the strangers. After the bus let us out near the school, I walked the rest of the way. My hair was half damped and plastered on my forehead as I was walking through the campus. Other students sheltered themselves under their umbrellas, I realized I should’ve brought one too.
Now I was freezing.
Then a growling black car whizzed passed me. I sort of gasped when it almost splashed the water on my feet. I jumped away just in time. It was that Batman car. Piper had told me it was the latest Lamborghini or something. Its backlight glowed bright red as the driver stopped to notice me on the sidewalk. But then the car zoomed off again. I frowned and bit my lips at the rudeness.
Along the hallway, a wall of bulletin board was overflowed with posters and announcements. I wondered if there were job ads there, but I couldn't linger around to look. The first bell already buzzed. Students who hovered around their lockers began to move to their classes.
"Nina!" a male voice called down the hall. I had to make sure it wasn't someone else with the same name as me, but the voice kept calling until I turned. The guy came towards me with a blinding all-American toothpaste commercial smile.
"Hey!" he breathed. "I finally found you again."
I smiled back, trying to put the name to that face. I didn't mean to come off as a stuck-up snob, but I was just terrible at remembering faces and names at the same time. Well, except a certain kind that didn't seem to go away even if I tried to forget.
"Yeah?" I swept my wet hair to one side, a gesture that seemed to freeze the dude a little.
"Where have you been?" he said cheerfully.
"Er—around?" I said, but the guy chuckled back. That was when I remembered his name: Jack Conner. I had practically ditched him on the first day of school here.
"I was trying to catch you after class but you seemed to disappear like a smoke," Jack said.
"Oh," I said. "Why?"
"I just found out that one of my teammates had a cousin from Russia," he told me excitedly as if he had just discovered the law of gravity. "Isn't it a coincidence?"
I didn't think so, but I nodded.
"Anyway, we have a party this weekend, I was wondering..."
Oh gosh — not that good old cliché teenage gathering again. All of a sudden, I felt so ancient. When was the last time I felt the perk of going to one of those parties? I realized I had grown too fast in the past ten months. Ever since Dominika poked her head through my front door, suddenly this fun stuff didn't excite me anymore.
"I'm sorry but I have a class to go. Can we talk about it later?" I said, making a turn to leave. Jack looked a bit hurt, and I felt a little sorry but not sorry at the same time.
"Oh, okay," he said. "I guess I'll see you around then."
In Language Arts, Mrs. Smith had to raise her voice to get everyone's attention. She began to talk about an integral concept of Alchemy.
"This is the secret key to manifesting the Philosopher’s Stone, Elixir of Life and immortality in myths. Alchemy is still being used in fictions," she was saying and pointing to the slide show. "This idea is represented in the image of Hermaphroditus - the demigod who holds the assets of both genders."
My ears perked up almost over the top of my head at that. I didn't know why it fascinated me.
"Is that the same name they used in biology for an intersex organism?" someone in the front row asked. At least no one was making any dirty jokes in Mrs. Smith’s class.
"Yes," the teacher said. "The name came from a Greek myth. Hermaphroditus was the son of Aphrodite and Hermes. He was a remarkably handsome boy, nursed by Naiads. At the age of fifteen, he grew bored with his surroundings and traveled about the city. It was in the woods of Caria, that he encountered the nymph, Salmacis, in her spring."
My face flushed at the thought of my embarrassing dream in the spring. By now everyone was listening with great interest. No one interrupted or made a snickering noise of amusement.
The teacher paused. We were waiting for her to continue but she just smiled and said, "If you want to know the rest of the story, you better do your own research."
A few of us let out a groan. I tried to swallow back mine.
Mrs. Smith simply moved on to talk about 'Shakespeare's women'. We discussed Portia, Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, all of whom I had no idea about except Juliet. I didn't grow up reading English classics like the kids here. At my old school, we read Asimov, Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Nabokov. Yet my mind was still intrigued by the brand new tale of Hermaphroditus.
A few seconds later, the door swung open. And in came a striking figure, tall and slender like one of those supermodels you envy on the media. Everyone sort of gawked at her. With a raven black shirt, black leather jacket, and messy sandy blonde lock, she walked in like a ghost— just drifting in as if it didn’t matter if she was in the wrong class. I kind of suspected that she was.
She mumbled something to Mrs. Smith and handed her a pink slip then drifted to a seat on the other side. I felt the acid inside my stomach churned, and I was afraid I would let out an unladylike burp in the class.
Oh my god, of all the classes in the building and she chose to be in this one?
“Miss. Knight,” Mrs. Smith said after a while. “Can I partner you with Nina?”
I almost fainted in my chair.
Mrs. Smith explained later that I was the odd one out in the room since everyone had an editing partner.
“Would you mind, Nina?” she asked.
Yes, actually I would, though I didn’t say that to her. Allecra didn’t respond beyond a sketchy shrug. Then she turned to me. Her crystalline eyes seemed to stir with inner light as pierced into mine. I felt the heat rose to my cheeks. An alarm began to clang inside my body the way a bronze bell was struck. I went hot all over. I had to turn away from that brilliant stare.
At that moment, I wished I could disappear through the tiny crack of the window.
When the class ended, Allecra saved me the troubles of facing her and just vanished. A huge sigh of relief escaped my lungs. I felt like I had been sitting in an aquarium tank with my thoughts swimming around like fish.
I
didn’t know if I could survive the tension of having Allecra as my partner.
At lunch break, I was finally desperate enough to go the library. It was huge and well-kept. The windows allowed columns of sunbeam to shine over the bookshelves and reading tables. Small corridors wrapped around the second floor of the library. There were comfy chair and lamps with bright yellow glow dotting every corner.
You would think I would go browsing through piles of ancient books like a nerd in the movie, but I found a computer section and consulted Google instead. I typed the first word I remembered. After a few clicks later, the Hermaphroditus story appeared on the screen. There were a few nude images of Greek characters. I had to minimize the window so that people couldn't look over my shoulders and think it was porn.
"There dwelt a Nymph, not up for hunting or archery:
Unfit for footraces. She the only Naiad not in Diana’s band.
Often her sisters would say: “Pick up a javelin, or
bristling quiver, and interrupt your leisure for the chase!”
But she would not pick up a javelin or arrows,
nor trade leisure for the chase.
Instead, she would bathe her beautiful limbs and tend to her hair,
With her waters as a mirror."
I continued to read with a keen interest. Salmacis then saw a brilliant lad like a god walking towards the water. Of course, his godly presence motivated her to do something other than lying about like a potato. The nymph watched him undressing and jumping into the water. Unable to contain her desire, the nymph followed him. She wrapped herself around the boy, forcibly kissing him and touching him. While Hermaphroditus struggled, she called out to the gods and asked that there would never be a day they would ever be apart. Her wish was granted and so their bodies blended into one, becoming a creature of both sexes.
And that was how it started with the first rapist nymph in Greek mythology.
That was it. I was feeling a little jittery with no reason. My heart thumped in my chest. Why am I here researching this ridiculous myth? I thought. Then I left the computer and walked out of the library. Maybe I should’ve nicely accepted Jack Conner's invitation to his party and just be normal like everyone else.
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