by Bark, Jasper
She moved her cheek gently along his, bringing their lips closer together. My God this was it.
The jarring roar of an angle grinder whined out from the laptop on the desk. Melissa and Sam turned towards it at the same time.
Shit! Sam had completely forgotten about the footage.
He was so surprised by Melissa’s entrance, he hadn’t turned it off. It was still playing!
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The camera moved from the first victim to the woman on the operating table. The one who was identical to Melissa. As the blurry figures went to work, she looked heavenward with eyes every bit as blue as Melissa’s.
Oh shit. Oh no. What was she going to think of him now?
Melissa hands fell from Sam’s shoulders to his waist as she leaned over to get a better look at the screen.
“Look, Melissa, it’s not what it looks like,” Sam said. “Okay, it is what it looks like and I know what you must be thinking, but I swear to God I was just about to . . . ”
Melissa put a finger to Sam’s lips. “Shh,” she said. “We’re missing the best bits.”
“What?! You’re not . . . ? I mean, I thought you’d be like . . . livid.”
“What I am is wet. And this film just makes me wetter.” Melissa ran her fingers over Sam’s crotch. “I notice our friend here has gotten a little shy. I do hope he’s going to put in another appearance.” She stroked Sam through the front of his jeans, coaxing him back to life, looking at the laptop all the while with a weird hunger in her eyes.
Melissa took hold of his jeans and undid the buttons. She pushed him back into the chair then knelt and pulled down his jeans and boxers. Sam glanced over at the laptop. “Want me to turn that off?” he said.
“Don’t you dare,” a strange avarice shone in her eyes.
What kind of person gets off on watching a snuff film where their exact double is tortured to death? Sam would have been pretty freaked if Melissa’s expert fingers hadn’t found his cock. Stroking it and massaging the sensitive little ring of flesh just beneath his helmet.
Melissa bent forward and blew on the end of his cock, her perfect lips almost touching him. She looked up, caught his eye and chuckled. The chuckle was echoed by the girl in the footage. Only it wasn’t so much an echo as a simultaneous occurrence, like they were in synch.
For the briefest time, Sam thought he saw someone else kneeling in front of him. As though Melissa was superimposed over them, the same as the single frame of the footage he shot. Then it was gone and it was very obviously Melissa in front of him.
Before Sam had time to dwell on this, Melissa gently teased back his foreskin and ran her tongue around the exposed helmet, licking up a little bead of pre-come. Sam closed his eyes and let his head fall back as the pleasure her tongue brought spilled down through his loins and travelled as far as the soles of his feet. When she finally put those wonderful lips around him, and took him in her mouth, it was so intense he nearly sobbed with relief.
Her lips gripped him lightly, moving up and down just as expertly as her fingers. Her tongue circled his helmet, stroking the rim where he was most sensitive, making his pelvis shake with every flick of her tongue.
Sam could feel the orgasm building like some immense pressure that threatened to propel him out of the chair. He didn’t want to come so quickly. He opened his eyes and glanced at the laptop to distract himself. To his surprise, the girl in the footage appeared to be sucking one of the blurry figures. It was hard to tell because the figure wasn’t in focus. Sam couldn’t remember seeing this before, but then, he’d been trying not to look at this point.
The footage had the effect he wanted and he pulled back from his orgasm. The head of the girl in the footage seemed to be keeping perfect time with Melissa as she took the blurry member in her mouth, which was kind of eerie, even if it was a coincidence.
Sam closed his eyes again, he didn’t want to spoil the enjoyment. So Melissa was into some freaky shit, who cared when the head was this good. Melissa pulled her mouth away and Sam felt so bereft he let out a high pitched sigh. Way to go macho man.
“How about a little deep throat,” Melissa said, and Sam was certain he could hear the woman on the footage saying the exact same thing, but he must be imagining it. He nodded, breathing hard, eyes still closed, not trusting himself to speak.
Sam felt himself swell as he slipped down Melissa’s throat. A warm trickle of saliva spilled out over his scrotum. Melissa tightened her throat muscles and Sam groaned. This was incredible.
He’d had deep throat only once before, from some actress he’d met at a party, but it was nothing like this. Basically she’d just swallowed him and he couldn’t really feel anything apart from her lips around the base of his cock.
Melissa was massaging the whole of his shaft by contracting her throat muscles. It was unbelievable. Every one of Sam’s nerve endings lit up. He didn’t think he could take much more without some release.
Oh God, please don’t let me come, he thought.
Please don’t let me come, not now.
More saliva spilled out, trickling down his bare thighs. Sam didn’t think he could contain himself. He opened his eyes and saw that on the video the shadowy figures were slicing open the woman’s windpipe.
Sam turned away and looked down at Melissa. She smiled back up at him.
Wait a minute, smiled back up at him?
Yes, smiled. Her chin was resting on his abdomen. Her beautiful lips were drawn back in a smile that showed perfect white teeth and her pale blue eyes sparkled.
But he was still inside her. He could feel her throat working him.
Melissa lifted her chin off Sam’s abdomen and pulled her head back. Then he saw that it wasn’t saliva spilling over his balls, it was blood.
Sam’s cock was stuck in a ragged hole in Melissa’s throat. The same ragged hole that the woman in the footage had.
“What the fuck?” he cried. “What the . . . what?”
Melissa continued to smile as she grasped his cock at the base and squeezed tight, applying pressure like a cock ring so he didn’t lose his erection. She pulled her throat off him and shifted her position so that she was straddling him.
Her breathing was a hoarse rasp, blood bubbled and frothed at the corners of the wound. Thick, red rivulets ran down her chest and over her breasts.
Keeping one hand on the base of Sam’s cock, Melissa lifted her dress with the other, she wasn’t wearing any underwear. She lowered herself onto him.
If anything, Melissa’s internal muscles were more deft than her throat. She gripped him, warm and wonderfully moist, taking him even closer to orgasm.
Sam couldn’t bear to look at the blood gushing from her throat. He turned to the laptop and saw the figures inserting a large, sharp blade, like a broadsword, into the woman’s crotch.
Blood poured out over Sam’s lap, hot and warm, as Melissa continued to ride him. More and more of it came with every thrust of her pelvis, pooling round his buttocks, soaking into the fabric of the chair and dripping into the boxers and jeans around his ankles.
“No, don’t,” he said. “Please don’t. Stop it, please just stop.” He didn’t want this. He didn’t want this at all. He just wanted her to stop, to get off him and leave. But she didn’t. She held him inside herself, deeper and deeper and he couldn’t do anything to stop her.
Melissa put her left hand up against his mouth to silence him. Sam turned his head away. She pushed three fingers between his lips, penetrating his mouth as she forced him to penetrate her.
On the footage Sam saw the figures take a large pair of shears to the woman’s same three finger. Sam felt his mouth fill with blood.
Melissa pushed Sam’s teeth apart with bloody stumps as her severed fingers filled his mouth, threatening to choke him.
No, no, no! he thought.
Melissa pushed herself harder against him, took Sam to the very brink of an orgasm he didn’t want, not now, not like this. It wouldn’t be right.
He screwed his eyes shut and willed himself not to succumb.
Oh God, please don’t let me come, he thought.
Please don’t let me come, not now.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Course, Hackney’s nothing like it used to be,” said the Big Issue vendor, as Jimmy fished around in his pocket for change. “Ten years ago it still had an edge. You could get all manner of dodgy goods from the market. And the squat parties, that’s what I miss the most, them and the crack dens with the boarded up windows. All these yuppies who’ve moved in, they’ve fucking ruined it.”
“A wise man once told me it’s still all there,” said Jimmy. “Underneath the surface of the city”
“The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”
“How should I know, I’ve never driven a mini cab.” Jimmy handed the guy his money and headed off down the street still smiling.
The house he was looking for was in a little cul de sac, off the Lower Clapton Road. It was one of those Victorian terraces that were popular round these parts. It hadn’t been renovated, as so many of them had. Melissa’s sister Suzy had told him where to find it.
Incense and patchouli wafted out as she answered the door. Suzy was shorter than her sister and a bit thicker round the waist. She was a good seven or eight years older than Melissa, wearing a long ethnic dress and jewellery with lots of magical symbols. She had the same blue eyes and strawberry blonde hair, only hers was grey round the temples. She was obviously related to Melissa, even if she wasn’t as attractive.
“It’s Jimmy isn’t it?”
“That’s right, Suzy, yeah?”
“Yes, come on in.”
She led Jimmy into a small front room that looked like a cross between a Victorian parlour and a Moroccan tent. There was a battered chest of drawers and an antique tall boy but no chairs or sofas. The floor was covered with middle eastern rugs and cushions with a low table in the centre.
“That’s William Blake isn’t it?” said Jimmy, looking at one of the prints on the wall.
“Yes it is.”
“But who did these two?”
“Austin Osman Spare, he was a visionary artist and a magician, a bit of a genius actually. He knew Aleister Crowley, but they didn’t get on very well.”
“Oh.”
“Would you like some tea?”
“Yeah, that would be great.”
“Have a seat,” said Suzy, indicating the floor. “I’ll be right back. Earl Grey okay?”
“Fine.”
Suzy returned with a tin tray containing a chipped brown teapot and two mugs. She handed Jimmy a mug with a picture of the Cabalistic tree of life on it.
“So you’re into all this magical stuff then?” said Jimmy. “Being a medium and all?”
“I study the occult because the world I live in isn’t like the world everyone else inhabits. I see and hear things they don’t.”
“Like dead people and things?”
“I inherited the gift from my mother. It runs strong in our bloodline.”
“Does that mean Melissa has it, too?”
“Melissa chose to do other things with her talents, but yes she too is . . . I mean was sensitive to the spirit world.”
Jimmy sipped his tea, it was hot and he slurped louder than he meant to. He smiled apologetically at Suzy who was regarding him with such intensity he felt naked. More than naked, it was as though she could see beneath his skin.
“You said you had some information about my sister’s disappearance.”
“That’s right, well to be honest, it’s more to do with her reappearance.”
“Reappearance?” Suzy held up her hand and turned suddenly to look over her shoulder, as if she’d just heard a noise. “I’m sorry, you said reappearance, that’s not possible, she’s dead.”
“You’re the second person who’s told me that, but I’ve seen her, I even employed to work on my -”
Suzy held up her hand again and looked back over her shoulder. “Look will you please be quiet, this is important and I need to listen.”
“Are you talking to me?” said Jimmy.
“No, there’s someone else here with us.” Suzy inclined her head, as though she was listening to someone, and frowned. Jimmy felt a little embarrassed. He wasn’t used to eavesdropping on a conversation where he couldn’t see both participants. It was like watching someone argue with their imaginary friend.
“I’m sorry Jimmy, but she insists on talking to you.”
“To me?”
“Yes, she’s wants to know why you didn’t come for her, why you left her so long?”
Jimmy swallowed, but his mouth was very dry. When he spoke it came out more as a croak. “What do you mean?”
“She’s about five foot three . . . sorry five foot five . . . with long straight hair that’s a sort of reddish blonde, it looks dyed . . . okay sorry, it’s natural actually . . . alright, will you stop . . . yes but will you stop . . . look you have to stop correcting me so I can talk to Jimmy. She’s wearing an old leather jacket with badges on it and she says her name’s Jaime . . . no sorry, well speak more clearly . . . it’s Jen . . . Jenny. Do you know a Jennie? with an ‘ie.’”
“Fuck Off!” Jimmy got to his feet, surprised at the violence of his response. “No!” he said. “I’m not one of your gullible, fuckwit punters. I don’t know how you found out about this, but you’re not pulling this Derek Acorah shit on me.”
Suzy frowned and lifted her chin. “I’m not trying to pull anything on anyone. You came to me claiming to have information about my sister and then you tell me she’s reappeared, even though I know she’s dead. If anyone appears to be pulling anything, it would be you.”
“How do you know she’s dead, you can’t know that.”
“I felt her when she died. We were very connected. I could always read her thoughts, or tell when she was coming to visit, or just about to phone. It’s something everyone in our family can do.”
“That’s ridiculous, no one can really do that.”
Suzy turned to talk over her shoulder. “Look, can you just stop for a minute please . . . he’s not listening . . . I don’t care, I don’t think I want to talk to him if he’s going to use language like that.” She turned back to Jimmy. “I’ll tell you what’s ridiculous, turning up at a complete stranger’s house, telling them you just employed their dead relative then swearing at them. So I think you ought to leave.”
For some reason this panicked Jimmy. Even though he didn’t want to believe what Suzy was saying, he didn’t want to leave yet.
“No, look, I’m sorry,” he said. “You just shook me up with what you said. You don’t know, you don’t know what it means.”
“That’s okay. Nonetheless, I’d like you to go.”
Suzy took him gently by the shoulder and led him out into the hall. Suzy moved her head and spoke over her right shoulder. “That’s enough, I’d like you to go, too. This conversation is over . . . okay . . . okay . . . I’ll tell him. She says it was a blue transit. She says they did stop. She heard a door open, but they drove straight off. It took her a little while to die and she never stopped hoping you’d come back.”
Jimmy heard a high pitched wail, followed by coughing sobs. He wondered who was making such a ludicrous noise and then he felt his chest shake and he knew it was him. He slid down the hallway wall and curled up like a foetus.
He hadn’t cried at the funeral. He hadn’t cried when Jennie’s mum had thrown her drink in his face at the wake, telling Jimmy it was his fault because he led her daughter astray. He’d been dry eyed through the bleak months of depression when he’d remained locked up in his room and had to get a deferral on his course. But something inside him just gave way and he couldn’t deny the tears any longer.
At some point Suzy must have gotten him up and back into the living room, though he wasn’t aware of this. He was aware of the new tea she poured him and the strange one sided conversation she kept up.
Then, just as Jimmy was
composing himself, Suzy said: “She’s gone.” Jimmy felt so bereft that he lost the ability to cry.
“You mean she’s gone towards the light or something?” he said.
“No, that’s not how it works. That’s just Hollywood rubbish. I think she was actually a little scared by how you reacted. To be honest, so was I.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve never, I mean I haven’t ever . . . I . . . That’s the first time I’ve let it all out. I’ve been holding on to it for so long. Shit, she was really here wasn’t she?”
Suzy nodded.
“And I fucked up, again. I scared her off, and now she’s gone and I can’t talk to her.” Jimmy held his head in his hands as an immense pressure seemed to build at the back of his nose and eyes. It was as though all the regret he felt, and all the things he wanted to say to Jennie, had focused themselves into one painful spot behind his face, like a logjam of emotions.
He was breathing too hard, his chest was tightening and his head swam. Suzy placed a calming hand on his shoulder. “Calm, okay? You need to breathe more slowly. Why don’t you talk to me about Jennie. Did you know her long? She was involved in some sort of accident wasn’t she?”
Jimmy nodded. He slowed his breathing, then began to tell Suzy what had happened five years ago.
He’d been seeing Jennie for nearly a year and a half. They’d met when she was a freshman and Jimmy was in his second year. He was pretty sure Jennie was the one, though he couldn’t help wondering what he’d miss, being with the same person for the rest of his life. He’d only had two other sexual partners and he was still determined to live a wild Hollywood lifestyle one day.
All the same, they couldn’t let a day go past without spending all their free time together. He needed to be around her, even if she was just in the room while he finished an essay, or worked on a script. It was like a physical ache, and the sex was the best he’d ever had. Jennie watched way more porn than him and had a wild imagination.
They were coming back from a warehouse party when it occurred. Jimmy was driving his beat up Toyota Avensis. Jennie was next to him and Benny was in the back seat. Neither of them really liked Benny. To be honest, he was a bit of a douche. The kind of guy who thought humour was belching in someone’s face or pissing in their can of lager while they were out of the room. He needed a lift though and he was seriously out of it. Benny’s friends were worried about him, so Jennie’d offered him a lift.
