She saw his face as she got naked. He looked overwhelmed with desire, staring, as if that was all he could do right now. She walked up to him again, and he embraced her. He touched her all about her skin and she felt an increase in the heat. She found herself making moaning sounds as he touched the most sensitive areas of her. Again, the heat leveled off, and she needed more.
She pushed him away. “Take off your clothes.”
He didn’t hesitate at all. Seconds later, he was naked. He wasn’t fat, but he was flabby. She didn’t care. She just wanted as much of his naked skin against hers as she could get. Still standing, they embraced more. Once again, the heat increased. It was especially pronounced where his hardened cock rubbed against her. Once again, the heat leveled off. She was wet down low. She knew there was one thing left to do.
Celeste was shocked at how natural this came. She was most amazed that she wasn’t afraid. She didn’t even fear it would hurt. She was only afraid that it would stop.
She pushed him away again. “Get on my bed and get on your back,” she said.
Paul was like a pawn for her. He did exactly what she said. Once on the bed, he gazed at her and waited. Celeste focused on the spike in the center of his frame. It looked kind of big for her to be putting in such a small opening in her body, but once again, she had no fear. It was more like she was starving and looking at a sandwich that might be just a little too big to eat. She couldn’t wait to try.
Celeste crawled over the top of his legs and positioned herself. She slid down him.
Kendra had once told her there would be blood the first time. There wasn’t. But it did hurt a little. But that pain was worth the sensation. It was more heat, as intense of a heat as she had ever felt inside her. Then it leveled off and went away. Celeste realized that she’d reached the limit. That was as good as the barrier inside her would let her get.
Shortly after that, Paul gave her a little nudge, and she moved off of him and looked away. Sex was no longer exciting for her, and a little repulsive again. Paul breathed hard for a couple of seconds and then made a releasing sound. He had came.
Celeste got her clothes and went into the hallway to dress. She was grossed out, but that was okay. She now knew that when the barrier broke down, she’d get more of that heat. She would come to really like sex. She even thought she would probably end up kind of slutty.
A little while later she went back in her room. There, a surprise waited. Paul was out cold. She tried to wake him, but he wouldn’t come to.
She went to lie on the couch. She couldn’t sleep, though. After closing the bedroom door, she went into the living room and dusted. She then took a long bath. After that, she watched a little television and was finally able to fall asleep.
***
It was the fourth day that James had come to the hill. With all that was out here in this brand new world, all he cared about was being at the top of this elevation.
The sun was beginning to set, and James would soon go home, not wanting to make the trip home in the darkness. James had lied to his parents about where he had been the last four days. He’d said he’d just been roaming around, exploring aimlessly. When they’d asked him for details, he’d been vague and acted tired. They hadn’t seemed suspicious.
Now James was ready to go home again. He thought he would stop by the coffee shop on campus and have a Cappuccino and maybe a sandwich from the shop in the student center. But just a little while before James was ready to leave, he heard something. It was just a whisper.
Although he hadn’t heard what was said, James was sure he had heard it. It hadn’t come from the area around him or from down on the hill, in the trees. That whisper had come from above.
James waited for a while longer, but didn’t hear the whisper again. He went home, a little disappointed that he didn’t have closure on what had just happened, but excited about tomorrow, when he would return.
***
Janet awoke. She checked the alarm clock. 12:15. Just barely Friday. She got up to use the bathroom and found Toby in the kitchen. He stared into the refrigerator, a sight she had grown accustomed to this week. On Sunday, he had asked her to buy vegetables that you could eat without preparation: broccoli, carrots, tomatoes and such. And that’s what he ate.
She’d bought him a few different vegetable dips, but he’d ignored them. He wanted plain raw vegetables, and a lot. He seemed to eat constantly. He’d said it was like he had this heat inside him that thrived on what he put in. Janet thought that was just his way of describing normal human hunger, something he was just now beginning to experience.
Janet liked seeing the refrigerator door open, with him staring inside. That was a sign that he was getting better. But tonight, it was different. Toby almost seemed stuck there. Janet got right up behind him. She saw that he was holding a carrot in one hand and a tomato in another. His gaze was frozen on a plate of chicken left over from dinner.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Janet asked.
Toby turned and smiled at her. Then he looked back at the chicken and sighed. “Next week.”
***
James got out of bed Friday and had breakfast with his parents. He tried to hide his disappointment but doubted he did a good job. Rain poured and the weatherman predicted that it would continue most of the day.
It wasn’t that James minded getting wet or being cold. It was more the feelings inside him. The heat wasn’t beckoning him at all. It was as if it were saying, “Don’t waste your time.”
So James would spend the day moping around the house, wishing for blue skies. The only thing that cheered him up was when he watched the weather forcast again. Saturday, there would be no rain.
***
“He fell asleep!” Kendra said.
It was Friday night. They’d closed ten minutes ago, and Celeste and Kendra stood alone in the lower section.
“Yeah,” Celeste said. “Is that normal?”
Kendra laughed. “Well, kind of. Guys will sometimes knock off afterward. But I would have thought he’d go home first.”
“Well, he was real apologetic in the morning. He said he was just suddenly real exhausted.”
Again, Kendra laughed. “Yeah, then he trudged around work all day yesterday. Girl, you wore him out.”
Celeste shook her head. “Go clean your section.”
Kendra walked away snickering.
Celeste didn’t think it was possible that she’d actually worn Paul out. It had to be some kind of coincidence. He still seemed tired tonight. Maybe he was sick.
She’d had more urges since then, but she’d resisted, more excited to see what would come next week. She remembered that James had eliminated his barrier completely. She knew she would soon eliminate hers. What would that bring? What would she be like afterward?
It excited her to think of her sexual assets. Soon, so many of the men who stared at her would be available for her. She’d be able to pick and choose. But somehow, that didn’t seem right. Her urges weren’t really for a specific type of man. They were for men in general. She didn’t think about what sex would bring her anymore, just sex. But that was fine, she thought. It would probably be good not to rush into anything. She’d been robbed of the sexual experiences of adolescence. She might need to live those out for a little while. She could dwell on the companionship later.
Chapter 11
“Why was he so much faster than us?” Toby asked.
Dr. Porter didn’t think the question defensive. Toby looked more curious right now than anything. James hadn’t even bothered to show up this week.
Dr. Porter didn’t make a practice of discussing his clients with other clients, or discussing his clients with anyone for that matter. But he thought the context of this question made it fine. James wouldn’t care.
“James’s mind works differently than yours, Toby, and it’s different from Celeste’s mind too.”
“Is it because his problem is a fear and our problems are repulsions?” Celeste as
ked.
Dr. Porter nodded at his astute client, but it wasn’t in agreement. It was just that he was impressed that she had made the observation. “I have given that thought, myself,” Dr. Porter said. “But I don’t think that’s it. I have met with many people whose major problem is fear, and they do not, as a group, tend to be faster in hypnotherapy than those whose major problem is repulsion. I think James’s success has more to do with the absorbent nature of his mind. He is able to take his environment in at an uncanny level. Hypnosis is largely based on suggestion. James was very able to absorb the suggestions I gave him, and thus very able to carry them out.”
“Is that why he had the problem in the first place?” Toby asked. “I mean, him being so able to absorb things.”
Again, Dr. Porter was impressed. “I think that may have had something to do with it. Being inside, he would have been able to limit what came into his senses. Being outside, he may have been bombarded with more stimulation than he could handle. He would have absorbed too much and suffered a sort of sensory overload.”
At this, both his clients seemed satisfied. Dr. Porter had left out the reason why James’s mind was so absorbent, that he was the offspring of two absorbent parents. He also didn’t go into that James’s disorder had not been something he completely understood. In all probability, the theory he’d just laid out was false.
But that was fine. The two clients who were here didn’t want that much detail anyway. They were ready to get back to work. Dr. Porter put them under.
As he waited for their subconscious minds to signal that the work was done, Dr. Porter thought more about James. He was disappointed that James had not shown, but not entirely shocked. He supposed James was caught up in his new world, which he’d had for only about a week now. After forty years of being deprived, one week would seem like a short time. James probably didn’t want to take time out from his new world to go to therapy, something he no longer needed.
He would just call James later to see how he was doing. He wondered what James was absorbing right now.
***
On his hill, in the mid-afternoon, James sat and waited. Finally, he heard the incomprehensible whisper again. But this time it kept happening. It was as if something was trying to carry on a conversation with him, but couldn’t quite get through. Then, after about a minute, the whispering went away.
James thought it was over, but he sat there anyway, just in case. After a little while, he felt something. This time, what he sensed was inside. It felt almost like digestion, but not localized to his stomach. It was all over his body, especially on the outside layers and in his brain. His body, his nervous system, was processing something.
James had never felt anything so incredible in his life. He suspected this was better than what junkies felt when they were getting high. He was absorbing something extraordinary. As the feeling grew, James recognized it as being electrical. The hair on his head and on his skin stood up, as the charge ran through him, constantly growing. It actually grew to painful levels, but James didn’t mind. It was a good pain, like a muscle roughly massaged. He sensed, somehow, that he could stop it anytime he wanted, just turn his attention away, and it would go. James knew this was what he had been kept from his entire life.
The charge grew to such a level that James could hear it, a steady hum. He wasn’t sure if, had there been someone there with him, that they would have heard it too. It might just have been his ears picking up on what was going on inside him.
James finally realized that something was developing in his body, nothing solid, but a presence. Intellectually, he thought it might be wise to stop this process, that he should be careful. But he wasn’t about to stop it. Stopping it would be like turning off the best movie he had ever seen or the best piece of music he had ever heard. The feeling inside, something combining with the unnatural heat he had been feeling the last few days, was one hundred times better than any sensation he was used to. Nothing in life could be worth more than this.
The current stopped, leaving James with something. He got off the rock and moved down the hill. He could feel it there with him. It was sedentary, but it was there. He thought it had taken the heat or combined with it in some way. As he moved down the hill, and then towards home, James attended to it. He could sense it, like he could sense his stomach or his biceps. But it was perfectly still. James couldn’t wait for whatever had come inside him to move.
***
“James,” Dr. Porter’s voice said over the phone. “How are you?”
James hated to be disrupted in what he was doing. Since he had arrived home he had been in his basement, waiting, attending to the presence inside him. But he had anticipated this call.
“I’m fine, Doctor. And I apologize for not showing today.”
“No apology is necessary, James. As you know, the sessions are always optional. I just wanted to check in to see how you were doing.”
“Oh. I’m doing fine. I’ve had absolutely no anxiety. In fact, I’ve been outside everyday. I’m just kind of taking it all in.”
“That’s what I hoped you’d say. Wonderful.”
“And it is all thanks to you, Dr. Porter. I am truly grateful.”
“No, it’s not entirely due to me, James. But your compliment is appreciated. I won’t bother you much longer. I’m sure you’re ready to get back to your new life.”
“Oh, you’re no bother at all,” James said, though he didn’t mean it. He suspected there were a lot of things Dr. Porter had not anticipated. He wasn’t sure what Dr. Porter would think about what happened on the hill. He didn’t want the doctor’s hands in it, and he feared this expert on the human psyche might sense that James wasn’t being altogether forward with him.
“Well, I doubt that’s entirely true, James. So I’ll be brief. I just wanted to know if you had experienced anything out of the ordinary.”
It was a question James had anticipated. “Well, other than just being completely free to move around, nothing at all.”
“Good,” Dr. Porter replied, seemingly unsuspicious. “Let me know if anything comes up. The group meets again at the same time next week, if you would like to attend. Otherwise, I’ll keep in touch.”
James seriously doubted he would want to attend. “Okay, Doctor. And thank you for all you’ve done.”
“You take care of yourself, James.”
“I will. Goodbye.”
***
“James,” came reverberating from the outside, and he came back to a familiar reality. But though his reality was familiar, he had to stop and think about his location.
“Are you all right, sweetheart?”
James turned to look at his mother, who stood in the light of the kitchen. “Yes,” he said, but he was still putting it all together. He had fallen asleep and become something else, something amazing, something that was now gone.
James wasn’t sure what his mother had seen him do. The last thing he remembered was lying in bed, waiting for the presence to move. The presence must have waited for him to fall asleep and then taken him over. He’d have to deal with that later. Right now he had to deal with his mom.
“I’m fine, Mom, really. Why do you ask?”
His mom stared at him for a second, and then she shrugged and gave him the context he needed. “I just got up to get a drink, and I saw you standing there at the top of the stairs.”
James snickered. “I guess I got up for the same reason. I got here and then just started thinking about my new life and how wonderful things are going to be from now on.”
Now his mother was pleased. She hugged him. “Your father and I are so happy for you, dear.”
Free from the embrace, James went to the refrigerator and got a Ginger Ale. “I was craving this,” he said. “Didn’t have any downstairs.”
James walked past his smiling mother again, said, “Goodnight,” then proceeded downstairs.
“Goodnight, sweetheart,” he heard her say.
James took a dri
nk from the ginger ale and placed the rest in his refrigerator. He could feel the presence. It was still again, though. He knew he could control it, but not if he was asleep.
“Wait,” he said out loud. “It will be better for you if we work together.”
James went back to bed.
***
Toby awoke with the heat inside him burning hotter than ever. He smelled the frying meat from the other room, a fragrance he had always hated but learned to live with. But now, that was what the heat wanted.
Toby got out of bed and slipped on a pair of shorts. He walked to the dining room, where his father drank coffee and read a newspaper.
“Good morning, Son.”
Toby, with his throat not yet awake, simply nodded his morning greeting and then made his way to the kitchen. His mother stood over the stove, tending to eggs and bacon. His stomach stirred at the overpowering scent, and the heat rose more, demanding he not wait. His mom didn’t notice him until he stood right beside her.
“Whoa!” she said, placing a gentle arm in front of him. “That bacon grease pops. You don’t want to get too close.”
Toby tried to speak but his throat was still not ready. He ended up opening his mouth and making a slight croaking sound.
His mom laughed affectionately. “What do you need, hon?”
Toby pointed.
Suddenly, his mother’s face was both shocked and delighted. “Well, your dad and brother like it crisp, but I think it’s edible right now.” She sat a couple of pieces on a paper-towel-lined plate. “Just let them cool for . . .”
Before she could finish, Toby snatched a piece of bacon and shoved it in his mouth. It was very hot and burned his tongue. But it wasn’t anything like meat usually was to him. He didn’t think about it as a piece of flesh from a disgusting animal. It didn’t have the slimy texture that all food used to have. It was quite good, and he could sense it combining with the heat inside him.
Toby chewed it fast and swallowed. He grabbed the second piece and gobbled it down. He looked at his mother, who was crying and smiling at the same time.
Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner Page 36
