by K D Grace
He could clearly make out a hand at the end of the long tube of expanding wallpaper, a hand that was feeling around as if looking for something, a hand that was very much alive although it never broke through the paper and he never actually saw what it really was.
Panic-stricken, he grabbed the wallpaper arm with his hands, only to feel the hand grabbing his own arm and pinning him against the wall. He heard a rustling behind him and turned around to see a second arm worming its way into the room, pushing the transformed wall and its paper cover into the air behind him. Before he could react, the second arm grabbed him around the waist. He felt himself being pulled into the wall and through it in one continuous motion and found himself standing beside a strangely attractive young woman. The wall was completely solid again.
The room was eerily similar to his own living room, yet very different at the same time, almost a replica but not quite, larger and higher, with a long dining table and wooden chairs along the far wall. He was obviously in an old house much like his own, with a heavy door and windows on three walls. It looked all too familiar, yet strangely alien, warped almost, in an eerie kind of way.
The young woman was clad in a simple brown shift that covered her slender body from her neck down to her feet. She had a very pretty face, although her skin was very pale and her eyes unusually deep and black. The strangest thing was that she had no hair at all, not even eyebrows or lashes. She smiled at him pleasantly as if nothing out of the ordinary had just taken place.
‘Who are you?’ he asked, consternation and disbelief in his voice.
‘I’m an Ugly,’ the young woman said. ‘Like you.’
‘What do you mean, an Ugly?’ Galen asked, perplexed and confused.
‘Just what I said,’ she replied calmly. ‘We’re the Uglies, you and I. The others are the Beautiful Ones. They rule the world. We’re just being tolerated and used, and sometimes not even that.’
‘You mean there are others?’ Galen asked in disbelief.
‘Oh yes,’ the young woman answered casually. ‘There are many others. Most of them live out in the woods, but I’m allowed to live here because my family is one of the Powerful Ones and their Uglies are always allowed to stay with them.’
‘And what …’ Galen interrupted her, shaking off his terror and regaining some of his composure, ‘… does all this have to do with me? Why did you pull me through the wall?’
‘Because you’re an Ugly like me,’ the young woman said lightly, nonchalantly. ‘I was feeling lonely and I like you, so I wanted to have you with me.’
‘That’s all very flattering,’ Galen replied, ‘but you can’t just pull me through the wall of my house simply because you want to. I have a career and a life and I want you to put me back right now.’
‘I’m afraid I can’t do that.’
‘Can’t do that?’ Galen echoed. He was running out of patience. ‘You just did it a few minutes ago!’
‘No, I didn’t. I brought you through the wall,’ the young woman corrected him. ‘But I can’t put you back. It only works one way.’
‘That’s just great,’ Galen snapped. ‘I demand to be back in my own house.’
‘As I just said,’ the young woman replied in her quiet voice, ‘that can’t be done. You’re here with me now. It’s very lonely, being the only Ugly in the house.’
‘Why don’t you go and be with others in your own world?’ Galen countered. ‘You said there were many others.’
‘I’m not allowed to leave the property. My family owns me and they’re allowed to keep me and use me in any way they want.’
‘I’m really sorry you’re lonely,’ Galen said sympathetically, ‘but I don’t belong here.’ He banged his fists against the wall, only to wince in pain. ‘Make it open, now!’ he cried out in frustration.
‘I already told you I can’t do that,’ the young woman said without emotion.
‘But you don’t know me at all.’ Galen decided to try a different approach.
‘I know you,’ she said with a smile. ‘I’ve been watching you ever since you moved into the house.’
‘So now you can see through the walls, too,’ Galen said, his voice sharper than he intended it to be.
‘Of course I can see through the walls,’ the young woman replied. ‘I just have to press my face against the wall and it goes right through to your wallpaper and I can see everything in your house.’
‘I don’t get it,’ Galen sighed, reaching the end of his patience, but also of his arguments. ‘At least tell me your name so I know what to call you.’
‘I don’t have a name. None of the Uglies do. Only the Beautiful Ones have names.’
‘Well, I’m Galen,’ he said.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ the young woman said laconically. ‘We’re not allowed to have names.’
The large door on the opposite side of the room opened and a hideous creature came limping in. Galen shuddered. The young woman pressed herself against the wall, hiding partly behind him, as if trying to make herself invisible. ‘Don’t look at him!’ she hissed. ‘They don’t like it when we look at them.’
Galen couldn’t take his eyes off the creature, despite the warning. It looked sort of human, in a grotesque kind of way, misshapen and deformed. It was completely naked, with a large, almost conical head covered by long unruly hair and an equally long and unruly beard, and its body was covered with a light layer of hair. It wasn’t fur, as an animal would have, as far as he could tell, but rather human hair, only that it covered the whole body except for the prominent genitals hanging between its legs.
The creature busied itself around the table, obviously getting it ready for a meal, then disappeared again without having paid any attention to them.
‘What on earth was that?’ Galen asked, totally bewildered.
‘One of my brothers,’ the young woman explained.
‘You’re kidding!’ Galen exclaimed, taken aback by her unexpected reply. ‘And they call you the Ugly? Are they all like that?’
‘Of course they are,’ the young woman answered. ‘They are the Beautiful Ones. Couldn’t you tell?’
‘They should be called the Uglies,’ Galen said. ‘We’re beautiful, you and I, not those creatures.’
‘Don’t talk about them like that. They’re my family.’
‘Yes, of course.’ Galen caught himself. ‘I’m sorry I said that. Don’t they wear any clothes? You do!’
‘Why should they? They’re the Beautiful Ones; they don’t have to cover themselves up the way we do. We’ll get you a proper gown and get rid of all the hair you have on your body so you’ll fit in.’
‘You what?’ Galen exploded. ‘You can’t do that!’
‘Of course, I can,’ the young woman replied. ‘You belong with me now.’
‘No, I don’t,’ Galen protested. ‘I’ll just walk out the front door and go back to my own life.’
‘Can’t be done.’
Their argument was interrupted by a group of the creatures filing into the room, one more repulsive than the others, all swaying on their deformed legs. The females were hairy and furry like the males, and all had large pendulous breasts. They were carrying bowls of food and putting them on the table. Then they sat down and began their meal, picking up and eating their food with their hands, talking noisily and smacking loudly. So those were the voices and noises he had been hearing in his house.
He started to say something, but the young woman silenced him with a gesture of her hand. ‘They don’t like us to talk when they’re in the room,’ she whispered. She slid down on the floor, wrapped her arms around her knees, and pressed her body against the wall to make herself as unnoticeable as she could. Galen crouched down beside her and watched the progress of the noisy meal. He couldn’t understand a word anybody was saying, their voices garbled, their crooked mouths full of food. He just kept staring at them in disbelief.
The creatures finished their meal and filed back out of the room. As soon as the last of them closed the door,
the young woman jumped up, grabbed him by the hand, and pulled him over to the table. She moved swiftly from seat to seat, gathering food with her hands and piling it on to a plate. Then she set the plate down, grabbed another one, filled it with food. She handed him one, grabbed one herself, and scurried back to the wall, crouching down and starting to devour the leftovers as rapidly as she could.
Galen watched in amazement as she stuffed the food into her mouth with her hands. He crouched down beside her, picked up some pieces of food, and put them tentatively into his mouth. It tasted quite good, he had to admit, after the first couple of bites. He realised that he was hungry as well and stuffed the food into his mouth more and more quickly as he got used to the new flavours and tastes.
They finished their meal in silence, then the young woman took his plate and carried it back to the table with hers. When she came back to where he was still crouched on the floor, she held out her hand to him. ‘Time to go to my room,’ she said. ‘They don’t want us in the room after we finish eating.’
She led him down a hallway to a small cell-like room. There was a kind of mattress on the floor, but no other furniture, and no window. The room was lit by a fluorescence that appeared to be coming out of the walls and the ceiling, although there weren’t any light fixtures anywhere.
The young woman casually pulled her shift over her head. She wasn’t wearing anything else. He looked at her in awe. She had a beautiful body underneath that shift, long, slender legs, solid round perky breasts with firm, pink nipples set in large, dark areolas. The only thing amiss on an otherwise perfect body was that she had a prominent third nipple between her breasts, almost like a miniature third breast. She had no pubic hair at all, giving her a freshly-shaven appearance with a nice protruding pussy partially revealed for him. Her whole slender body was a medley of visual delights.
Ignoring his stare, she stretched out on the mattress and spread her legs He took her pose as an invitation and quickly took off his clothes. Then he stretched out beside her and put his arm around her. She didn’t move. She just lay there beside him, her head turned slightly away from him, her eyes shut tight, but she didn’t protest. Emboldened, he put his hand on her blossoming breast and started to fondle it, delighting in the silky smoothness of her skin, the malleability of her globe, the firmness of her nipple. She remained completely motionless, completely silent, giving him no indication of whether she liked his caresses or not, so in the absence of any negative reactions he just assumed she did.
Feeling more adventurous and strangely aroused by her noncommittal attitude, he slid down along her body, made his way between her legs, and dove into her proffered pussy. Her labias were full and soft, morsels from the gods. She was dripping wet with the most delicious juices he had ever encountered, so strange and different, so unexpectedly unique, so much from a different world.
Her emanations were rich and plentiful and his mind was reeling from the deluge of delectable tastes and smells, the sweetness, the underlying tartness, the slightly coppery aftertaste, the luscious aromas. He rejoiced, licking and sucking, swallowing, inhaling, wallowing in the flood of the unexpected sensory impressions flooding his mind, titillating his lips, his tongue, his nose. After a while, he felt he should involve her as well, so he moved back up beside her.
‘You can do things, too, you know,’ he whispered tentatively.
She opened her eyes slowly, as if coming out of a deep dream or a trance, then turned her head towards him and slowly focused her eyes. ‘Do what things?’ she asked.
‘You know, touch me the way I touch you,’ he suggested.
‘I don’t know how to do that,’ she said.
He wasn’t quite up to a lengthy tutorial in basic sex, and too eager to continue. ‘I’ll show you some other time,’ he said, grasping her body impatiently.
Climbing on top of her, he entered her eagerly, his throbbing penis finding its way easily into her dripping cave. He put his hands on her breasts and rested his face against the delicious softness. He moved in and out of her very slowly until he couldn’t contain himself any longer and gushed into her, moaning his delight into her breasts, squeezing them together against his face, inhaling the musky scent of her skin.
She still hadn’t moved or said anything, so he climbed off her, put his arm around her again and tried to pull her close to him. She didn’t budge, but she did turn her head towards him and opened her eyes. A transformed smile spread over her face.
‘I liked what you did,’ she said, much to his surprise. ‘Nobody’s ever done that to me before.’
‘Did you have an orgasm?’ he whispered.
‘Of course,’ she said, matter-of-factly, cryptically. ‘I usually do.’
With that, she did let herself move a bit closer to him so he could feel her body against his, although she still didn’t touch him or say anything else.
They had been lying there like that for some time, when the illumination in the room suddenly dimmed. He heard the sound of a bell from somewhere, and there appeared to be some commotion outside.
‘What now?’ Galen wanted to know, but before he could elicit an answer, the door swung open and one of the horrid males came limping into the room. The young woman detached herself from his embrace, turned her face away from him, and closed her eyes. The creature headed straight for the mattress, climbed unceremoniously on top of the young woman, and started thrusting into her. Galen watched the proceedings in disgust. She deserved better than this hairy, deformed creature on top of her.
The creature bent over her and began sucking her third nipple. Then it thrust a few more times, grunted and bellowed, dismounted and left the room. A second male entered the cell, climbed on top of her, and sucked and thrust and grunted himself to an orgasm as well. Then a third came in and did exactly the same thing. As soon as the last visitor closed the door behind him, a bell rang again somewhere and Galen thought, and hoped, that it was signalling the end.
‘Doesn’t this bother you?’ he asked.
The young woman turned towards him and opened her eyes very slowly the way she had done before. ‘Bother me?’ she said lightly. ‘Why should it bother me? That’s what we Uglies do.’
‘But why?’ Galen asked incredulously.
‘It’s the evening ritual,’ the young woman explained. ‘They believe they gain power and status from lying with us. And for us, it’s a matter of honour and pride, to be selected by them like this. The more often the Beautiful Ones pick us for their ritual, the greater our status and our liberties.’
‘And what …?’ Galen began, but the door opened again and another creature stepped into the cell, this time one of the grotesque females with the pendulous breasts. She, too, headed towards the young woman lying beside him, then caught sight of him. Before he knew what was happening, the creature grabbed his penis with her gnarled, leathery hands, rubbed it to a fresh erection, and silently impaled herself on him.
The female started bobbing up and down, her hairy breasts swaying above him, her hideous face staring blankly down at him. She bent over him, and rocked herself to a moaning, groaning orgasm. Galen couldn’t believe what was going on.
Just when he thought he couldn’t stand it any longer, the creature climbed off him and left the room, holding the door open for a second female. Galen groaned in dismay, but the second female ignored him and headed straight for the young woman. She climbed on top of her and started rubbing herself against the perfect body, taking the young woman’s breasts into her hands and kneading them and sucking on her third nipple until she too shook in a groaning orgasm, climbed off, and left.
The bell began ringing again, louder and longer this time, and the light in the cell dimmed to a glimmer.
‘Is that it?’ he asked, desperation in his voice.
‘The bell, yes,’ the young woman said tonelessly, coming out of her trance. ‘Nobody else is going to come.’
Galen sighed with relief. He reached for her with his hand. Her body was trembling,
her eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling. She was breathing heavily but didn’t say anything else.
‘Come,’ Galen said, soothingly. ‘Let me hold you.’
This time she didn’t resist. She moved as close to him as she could and pressed her body against his while he wrapped his arms around her and stroked her until the trembling subsided and her body began to relax. Her breasts were touching his chest, her pussy his penis, her legs his legs, and he just held on to her, for her benefit as well as for his own. He felt warm and comfortable against her beautiful body.
‘Who were those creatures?’ he asked into the stillness of their togetherness.
‘Please don’t call them that,’ the young woman said again. ‘You have to call them Beautiful Ones, which is what they deserve to be called. They are friends of my parents. They all go to different houses every evening, wherever there are Uglies.’
‘What about the ones that aren’t Powerful Ones?’
‘They go into the forest, where the other Uglies live. When they find them, they perform the evening ritual in the forest with them.’
‘And they do this all the time?’
‘Oh yes,’ she said. ‘That’s what the ritual is all about.’
He tightened his arms around her until her breathing slowed in his soothing embrace and her body relaxed against his. He found her mouth with his and she gasped when he pressed his lips against hers, pushed against his arm encircling her. He held on to her and she relaxed again when he started nibbling her lips and licking them with his tongue, then slid his tongue into her and began probing her passionately.
And then it was as if she had always known what to do as long as there was someone to prompt her and lead the way. She eagerly responded to his kiss, put her arm around him, and pulled him to her. He took her breasts into his hands again and revelled in their silky softness and their sensuous contours, and this time she moaned quietly to herself. Step by step he guided her through a series of mutual explorations and she responded eagerly and enthusiastically to everything he did.
Her body was a sensuous playground of gentle curves, soft lines, titillating scents, her third nipple surprisingly enough generating an intriguingly unique kind of arousal. Her hands quickly learned how to fondle and stimulate him as he kept caressing and stimulating her. When he penetrated her again, they began rocking together, she thrusting against him with equal vigour as he thrust against her. He soon felt her body straining against his as her orgasm took hold, and this time she didn’t hold back. Writhing and gyrating on her mattress and clawing at him with hungry fingers, she screamed with unabashed delight as they swayed rhythmically through their earth-shattering orgasms until they were dizzy from their exertion and completely satisfied and fulfilled.
