The First Cut: A Dark Psychological Thriller (Gushers Series Book 1)

by Chuck Buda

  Ryan seemed to enjoy it too.

  Gina returned to Ryan’s car. She jumped in the back. Zoe climbed over the seat and began to ravish Gina’s body with her mouth and her hands. Ryan watched in the rear view mirror. Zoe felt his eyes on them. She yelled at him to drive to the park. Ryan did as he was told. He didn’t want to screw up his chances for a threesome. Ryan drove quickly through the streets, without regard to speed limits.

  At the park, Ryan pulled into a dark corner by the swim club gazebo. He began taking off his pants, struggling to get the jeans off with the massive boner getting in the way. It kept getting caught under the steering wheel too. Gina laughed when she saw it, letting Zoe suck her tits and finger her. Ryan climbed into the back seat and tried jamming his dick into anything he found which was wet and accepting of him. He managed to slip it into Gina’s mouth while Zoe continued devouring her. Zoe took her fingers out of Gina’s pussy and grabbed the small box cutter she kept on her key chain for opening mail and packages.

  Zoe sliced across Gina’s throat while she choked on Ryan’s dick. Ryan had no clue what was going on. He just kept stuffing his junk into Gina’s mouth. He thought her choking noises were due to his size and skills. Ryan didn’t know she was gasping for air as she bled out next to him.

  Zoe licked at the hot blood as it gurgled and drained down Gina’s perky tits. She lapped up a couple of sprays and then sat back and giggled. Ryan opened his eyes. He squeezed Gina’s tits before realizing they were wet. He finally understood something was very wrong. Gina’s choking noises stopped. The smell of copper filled the back seat of his car. Ryan’s eyes opened wide in horror.

  Before Ryan could scream, Zoe held up a finger to her lips, prompting him to shush. She wiggled the bloody blade in her other hand and stared at Ryan.

  “Finish up with a good load, sweetie. We have some cleaning up to do.”

  Chapter 18

  Holden downed a gulp of scotch. He pursed his lips against the burn in his throat. The warmth traveled into his chest and spread to his limbs. He had deliberated all day about speaking to Samantha about spicing up their love life. Holden held the conflicted emotions inside all day, tormenting himself with various doomsday scenarios. The moment had arrived. And he just wanted to get it over with.

  Samantha was upstairs. She had gotten ready for bed and tucked herself in with a nice book. She preferred to read horror novels of all things, which Holden always found interesting. Samantha was wholesome. Yet, she devoured the blood and violence of the genre. Her favorite authors were Brian Keene and Hunter Shea. Lately, she had gotten into some zombie novels by Armand Rosamilia. Holden had no idea who any of these authors were. He only knew their names from the stacks of books on the nightstand. It was one of the oddities which endeared her to him.

  Holden made his way up the stairs and into the bedroom. Samantha was propped up with her knees poking through the top of the sheets. Her eyes never left the page to acknowledge his arrival. He undressed and climbed into bed next to her.

  Using his fingers, Holden began to caress Samantha’s thigh. He stroked her soft skin gently, gliding his fingers up to her hips. Samantha jerked up as his touch tickled her infamous ticklish spot. She shot him a look of evil with a grin on her lips. She wasn’t mad but she gave him the look of warning. Whenever he tickled her, she would go for his sensitive spot to return the favor. He hated to be tickled.

  Holden squeezed her breast as Samantha settled back to reading. She let the book drop against her knees and looked at Holden with her eyebrows raised.

  “Yes? Can I help you?”

  “Actually, you can.” Holden moved his hand to her far breast and gently squeezed until the nipple perked up.

  Samantha placed her bookmark in the page and moved the book to the nightstand. She rolled onto her side and stared into Holden’s eyes. His stomach knotted up as he had gotten her attention. Now he had to make his move.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  Samantha’s face became serious when she heard the tone of his question. Her eyes darted back and forth to try to read his thoughts.

  “Do you ever think about trying new things?” He felt his cheeks redden to match his hair. His ass cheeks clenched with tension. The cat was out of the bag. Partially.

  “What do you mean?”

  Holden caressed Samantha’s hair. He wanted to make sure his gentle touch reassured her so she wouldn’t panic.

  “I love you so much. You are always on my mind and I am so happy with our marriage.”

  Samantha sat up immediately. “Holden. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Nothing’s wrong. It’s just...I love you so much that I want to continue to grow with you. Develop our experiences. Maximize our enjoyment of life.” He searched for more words but feared he had rambled too much as it was.

  She folded her arms across her chest. Her expression tightened as she tried to figure out Holden’s thoughts.

  “I want to do more stuff with you. Sexually.” He exhaled and stared at his hands as he stroked her arm.

  Samantha chuckled. It started off slow and then she broke out into laughter. Holden watched her with surprise and he smiled with relief as she seemed to lighten up with his request.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You are such a little boy and so cute.” She bent to kiss him on the lips. A small peck turned into a more passionate smooch. Her tongue rubbed his gums above his teeth. “I love you. I would do whatever you wanted, you know that.” She pressed her lips into his again.

  “Really?” Holden sat up with excitement. Could it really have been this easy, he wondered?

  “Almost anything. Not that thing we did in Vegas. That hurt too much.” Samantha reminded him of an overly-drunken night of complete debauchery when they vacationed in Las Vegas fifteen years ago. It had been a wild night and he often used his memory to please himself.

  Holden laughed. “Not like that.” He took a deep breath and looked around the room, fighting his internal monologue to blurt out what Rebecca wanted. He wanted it too. “Others.”

  Samantha stiffened. “You want other women?”

  Holden scrambled to save it. “No, no, no. Not doing things to others. Doing things with others. In front of others.” He corrected his statement quickly before Samantha got angry.

  She looked confused. Her eyes darkened. “You want to make porn?”

  Holden laughed hard. It relieved him to laugh when he felt so tense. Her question and the way her face scrunched up surprised him.

  “I don’t think there is a market for old people having sex. I’m thinking...we invite people we are comfortable with to...you know...watch us.”

  Samantha’s eyes widened. “I don’t want people watching me? My God, my body is horrible and...”

  Holden jumped in. “Not watch us with a bowl of popcorn, studying our butt cracks and all.” Samantha stifled a shocked laugh with her hand. “They would be doing stuff too. So, we see each other. Doing it.”

  Samantha appeared overwhelmed with his request. She laid back on the bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. Her eyes roamed the ceiling as she thought about their conversation.

  “I’m not enough for you.” It sounded like she was beginning to whimper.

  Holden cuddled close to Samantha. He smelled her hair and the body lotion on her skin. He hardened immediately. His hand caressed her belly.

  “You are enough for me. I want to share my love for you with the world. I want someone to witness each kiss, each tender moment we share together.” He stopped himself from carrying on the corniness. She would never buy such lofty ideals. She would only see it for what it was. He wanted to have sex in public.

  “I don’t know, Holden. This is asking a lot. How do we even ask people to join us? Do we send out a Facebook invite? Put an ad in the newspaper?”

  Holden sighed. “Maybe you can ask for advice from one of your friends.” He saw an opportunity to wiggle out of this.

  “Yeah, cause I hang
out with a whole bunch of swingers and porn stars.” Samantha jabbed him with her sarcasm.

  “What about Rebecca? You used to say you thought she seemed pretty wild.” Holden hoped this idea would work. If he could get Rebecca to convince Samantha then he would be in the clear. He felt bad about dishing it onto Rebecca but he wanted it to be over with. “Maybe she has thoughts about crazy stuff like this.” He thought ending it like this would cause too much suspicion so he softened it with another comment. “Just be subtle. I wouldn’t want our neighbors to find out about our conversation.”

  Holden kissed Samantha. She kissed him back. And they made love. It was a little wilder than usual.

  Chapter 19

  Aiden waved to Leah as she approached. He had asked her to meet him behind the high school in the morning. Aiden had been plagued with nightmares after last night’s bizarre ritual. He needed to talk to someone about it and he figured Leah was his only trusted confidant. Everyone else in the group would pressure him to get in line. Aiden thought Todd might be on his side based on the near fight last night with Spencer. But it had ended with Todd agreeing to the involvement.

  Leah probably felt the same way Aiden did. He hoped.

  Leah sat on the bench next to Aiden. He smelled her shampoo, fresh from the shower. The scent was a mixture or peaches and flowers. Aiden’s head swam with thoughts of running his fingers through her long auburn hair while he kissed her.

  “What’s up?”

  Aiden suddenly felt nervous about asking her to meet him. Maybe this wasn’t the right thing to do. What if she was on board with it too? Would she run to Zoe and Spencer to tell them about his angst? Was he making a fool of himself for admitting weakness? Aiden sat quietly as he battled internally about how to begin.

  “You want to talk about last night?”

  Aiden exhaled and leaned over his knees. He hadn’t realized he had been holding his breath and his head felt dizzy. Leah giggled about his blatant signs of relief.

  “Oh, my God. Can you believe what we saw?” Aiden finally faced Leah.

  “I’m not sure I can explain what happened.” Leah fiddled with her fingers in her lap.

  Aiden revealed how he hadn’t slept a wink last night. The few times he managed to drift off to sleep were quickly interrupted by nightmares of bloody tub water and Spencer hacking them all to death. He admitted the sight of Spencer’s image scared the crap out of him. And the fact that Spencer had been so into the ritual as to shave his entire body and then stand naked in front of everyone was quite a shock.

  Leah agreed with Aiden. She felt out of place with Zoe and Jordyn to begin with because of their bodies and self-confidence. Then to witness an overt sexual act right in front of her left her nervous about the future meetings. She didn’t particularly care for the blood drinking either. She hoped the blood was fake.

  “Spencer said the blood was syrup with food coloring or something.” Aiden reassured Leah at least one disturbing part of the meeting was normal. Something scratched at the back of his brain though. He had a feeling Spencer said he thought the blood was syrup. Aiden brushed it aside as Leah continued.

  “Aiden, I’m scared. What if they want us to get involved in sex acts too? I don’t know if I can handle it.” Leah gazed at the clouds drifting in the morning sky.

  He was scared about the sex too. Aiden was still a virgin and he didn’t want people to find out. Or confirm the fact, anyway. Plus, he always imagined losing his virginity with someone he loved. Not necessarily waiting for marriage. But at least being intimate with a person he could feel comfortable with. His cheeks reddened as his brain blurted out Leah’s name.

  Aiden tried to sound like a man of the world to hide his secret. “Well, I prefer to have sex with people I care about. So, I guess it would bother me too.”

  Leah stared at Aiden. “You’ve had sex already?”

  Aiden almost fell off the bench. Leah’s direct question had never seemed like a possibility. “I...yeah...um...”

  Leah laughed at him. Aiden started to get angry, mostly with himself for sounding so full of shit. And partly because Leah laughed at him for it.

  Leah placed her hand on Aiden’s leg. “It’s okay. You don’t have to pretend with me. I haven’t had sex with anyone either.”

  Aiden gazed into Leah’s eyes. Suddenly, he felt more at home with her than he had with anyone else before. His chest hammered as his mind ran through images of the two of them becoming more than friends.

  “I’m sorry.” He looked away with discomfort. “I thought I was the last virgin in the school.”

  Leah started rattling off the names of all the girls she knew were still virgins. Some of the names surprised him because those girls talked a big game as if they were experienced lovers. Aiden felt relieved he wasn’t the only one. He found himself wondering if he were the only guy who was still a virgin.

  Leah waved her hand in front of his face. “Earth to Aiden.”

  He blinked a few times and focused his attention on Leah rather than his own paranoid delusions.

  “So what are we gonna do if the time comes when they call on us to participate?” Leah’s worry bled through her expression and her tone of voice.

  Aiden shrugged. “I’m not sure. Fake it until we make it, I guess. Hopefully it won’t come to that point.”

  “If it does, I don’t know what I’ll do. I might panic and run away. And then I’ll be the laughing stock of the school.”

  Aiden imagined himself doing the same thing. “So we won’t run. If we don’t run then they can’t tell the world. Besides, the purpose behind all this is secrecy. Telling others we chickened out would only make the secret society look stupid. And Zoe wouldn’t allow that.”

  Leah nodded.

  “I’ll protect you from harm.”

  “How?” Leah’s eyes made Aiden want to do anything for her. Her eyes enveloped his emotions.

  “I will stand in between you and whoever tries to touch you.”

  “Even Ryan? Todd?”

  Aiden gulped as he pictured the stronger boys pummeling him out of the way so they could get a piece of Leah. “Even Todd.” He tried to sound tough and confident. He thought he may have convinced her by the look on her face.

  Aiden wondered how he would really pull it all off if push came to shove. He knew he wouldn’t last more than a second in a fight with either Todd or Ryan. And Spencer’s enthusiasm worried Aiden too. Spencer wasn’t a fighter, but the way he stood up to Todd after they met, and his willingness to completely change his character...it brought Aiden to places he didn’t want to visit.

  He suddenly realized he had one option. An option he hadn’t thought of before now. Aiden could make sure HE was the one who had sex with Leah. If he had to use himself as a human shield to protect her, he would. Doing so would allow him to lose his virginity to a person her cared about and it would satisfy the group’s pressures.

  But would Leah go for it? She was still a virgin and it sounded like she wanted to stay that way.

  Aiden hoped he wouldn’t need to find out the answer to the question.

  Chapter 20

  Ryan needed to drive fast.

  Rather than risk getting a ticket from the local cops, he made his way onto the New Jersey Turnpike. Ryan headed south to give his mind time to rationalize all that happened. If he needed it, Ryan would have three solid hours of turnpike between him and Philadelphia to air out his head. And then three hours back to the north to get home.

  His tears flowed, making driving within the lines difficult at times. He had given up wiping the tears. As soon as he swabbed them away, more filled in.

  Ryan felt tired. He hadn’t been able to sleep last night after Zoe killed Gina.

  Gina.

  No matter how many times he tried to make sense of last night, he couldn’t come to grips with what had occurred. There was no denying it as blood stains filled the back seat of his car. He had worked hard to clean it all up. The leather seats weren’t a pr
oblem. The floor mats and the carpet were a huge problem. Ryan tossed the ruined mats into a dumpster behind the Honda dealership near his house. He hoped nobody would think twice about looking in the trash since it was probably filled with all kinds of car parts. A couple of floor mats wouldn’t look out of place, unless someone inspected it closely. He figured those types of dumpsters were emptied by the huge truck which lifted the garbage bin up using the automated arms.

  Gina was dead.

  How could Zoe do such a thing? This club had gone straight to her fucking head. She was drinking fake blood and sucking cocks and strutting around naked.

  The blood.

  Was the blood real? Spencer said it wasn’t but after watching her kill Gina, who the fuck knew anymore? She could have gotten blood from someone else she killed. Has she killed others?

  Ryan punched the steering wheel to clear his head. It didn’t work but he had so much aggression and fear bottled up. He reached for the stereo and cranked the volume up so high it was hard to understand the song anymore. Axl Rose bleated out about Paradise City, making Ryan snort. Paradise City was getting blown by Gina while Zoe finger-banged her. Then Paradise City ended in a choked, blood-curdled gag.

  Ryan saw himself finishing in Gina’s mouth. He felt so guilty about it but he was on the edge and the fear inside him forced his body to move. Unfortunately, the motion was the continued pumping of himself in her mouth.

  Her dead mouth.

  How could he do it? What was wrong with him? He screamed in his head that he had become a monster too. And it didn’t end with having sex with a dead body. Oh, no. He chopped her up and drove her parts around like a fucked up demon delivery man.