by Lora Darc
He took hold of Grace’s waist and sat back so she was once again on his lap only this time facing him. He slid fully into her and moved her up and down on top of him, pumping into her. Grace arched back and rode him, feeling the heat of him inside her growing with intensity.
He groaned as he thrust into her, slowly at first then quicker, feeling his need rising. He took hold of her breast in one hand and gripped her thigh with the other.
“I won’t let it happen, Nic, I won’t,” Grace said, the heat in her center driving her mad.
“Grace…” Nicoli thrust quicker until Grace could feel him pulsing inside her and filling her with his need. He grew still and moaned, gripping her a little harder.
The room faded in and out. Light and dark came together as the memory, the dream, was slipping. Grace could still feel him inside her as the room fell into darkness. Though he had found his pleasure, he began thrusting again and Grace lay back and spread out her legs. At the corner of her eye, she could see herself in the mirror again and could see her body moving against the invisible thrusts. The heat drove her to peak again, but this time she was ready and only let out a soft moan as her body spasmed again. She felt Nicoli squeeze her breasts lovingly as she came.
Once the heat left her, Grace relaxed and lay motionless, catching her breath. She felt a brush of air on her skin and a light touch against her lips.
“Grace... live long and happy,” Nicoli whispered. Then he was gone.
***
Grace fell back asleep not long after. She managed to put her clothes back on before she did so. When she woke up again, she could hear birds singing and see a narrow ray of sunlight through a crack in the window. She got out of her sleeping bag and looked around. She stared at the bed wondering if last night had all just been a dream. She stood up and went over to the vanity and took up the portrait. It was no longer a picture of her, but of Don Nicoli.
Grace stashed the picture in her bag and took one last look around the room.
“Goodbye, Nicoli.” Grace blew a kiss. She closed the door softly and went back downstairs.
***
“Seriously, you saw nothing?” David said with eyebrows raised.
“You’re so lying, we heard you scream,” said Victoria while packing her bag.
“You didn’t. You were passed out cold.” Terri was standing close to David, itching to leave.
“Fine, you guys did. I heard you screamed too,” said Victoria, flinging her pack over her shoulder. “So what did you see?”
“A shadow, a huge shadow of a man on the wall,” Terri said. “Then I felt a breath on my ear.” She looked at David nervously. “Can we go?” She tried pulling him toward the door.
“Hold up,” David said to her, checking his bag. “Okay, yea. Mike got the rest.”
“You seriously didn’t see anything up there?” Victoria asked Grace.
Grace shook her head and pursed her lips to keep from smiling. “Just had a dream, but I can’t remember,” she lied.
Victoria shrugged in disappointment. “This place is a dump. Good riddance anyway.” She sauntered past and the others followed her out. Grace felt someone watching her. When she got to the entrance, she looked back up at the stairs and saw a shadow move past.
Grace frowned. She turned away and raced by the three to get to the car where Michael was talking on the phone. She got to him just in time for him to hang up.
“Michael, I was wondering, about the house…”
“I just got off my phone with my dad about it actually,” Michael said, throwing his phone into the back seat. “Yo, David, come help me get the power tools out the back.” He called to him.
“Why?” David called back.
“Uncle Brian wants them for the house.” Michael went to the back of the car and opened the trunk where a set of his father’s tools had been stashed.
David came up and took out a power drill and an extension cord. “Why?” he asked. “Is he going to take it apart already?”
Michael shook his head. “Dad just told me Uncle B wants to buy it off him. Guess he’s turning it into a historic bed-and-breakfast.”
Grace stood beside them in stunned disbelief. “You’re sure?” she asked eagerly. They both gave her a strange look.
“Yea, guess they’re talking with the realtor now; getting the signing done when Dad gets back. Are you okay?” Michael placed a hand on Grace’s shoulder.
Grace beamed at them. “Yea. Yea, I’m good.” She grinned and threw her pack into the car. “Will you do me a favor though?”
“What’s that?” Michael asked.
Grace took up a small toolbox from the trunk and headed toward the house. “Tell your uncle I want to help.”
Taken Under
Natasha sat bare against the rock face panting heavily, her back arching against the hot boulders, her legs spread open. Shaking and writhing, her face twisted in agony.
“Yes... yes,” she breathed as her fingers swirled and stroked her swollen core, wet heat dripping down onto the stone. She moaned, her head turning down then lifting back up, her hips rising, desperate for release.
So caught up in her secret pleasure, Natasha didn’t see the shadow of a large silhouette hiding just within the cave face before her. The shadow’s owner watched with large eyes that shined bright in the dark; its clawed fingers digging into the side of the rock, a feral growl escaping its throat. It stood inches away from bursting out into the sunlight. Just one step and it would reveal itself. But it couldn‘t move no matter how badly it wanted to. It could only look on with miserable hunger as Natasha took her pleasure.
Natasha bit her lip as she could feel the heat in her core building; could feel her center throbbing and tightening.
“Oh, please, oh, please,” she begged softly. Her scent filled the air and a breeze swept it out into the cave. She thought she heard the sound of growling but waved it off as some dog, too gone in mindless ecstasy to care if some animal saw her.
She bucked and arched more until she felt the pressure burst from her in a wave of throbbing heat. She let out a whimpering cry as she came; muffling the sound so no one heard nearby.
The shadow in the cave shuddered and hissed.
Natasha collapsed, breathless and sweating. She wiped a hand over her forehead and sat up straight. She stretched her arms then rose, taking her swim bottoms from a rock nearby and slipping them back up her legs. Sighing, she grabbed her water bottle and took a generous swig then placed it back in her bag which she swiftly threw over her shoulder.
A movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention and her head shot over to the narrow cave face just a few feet away. Eyes narrowing, Natasha stepped a little closer and noticed bits of rock dust falling just at the edge between sunlight and complete darkness.
“Hello?” she called out.
No response.
She took one last step, almost dipping her head through the entrance. But, as she saw no one, she shrugged and stepped away.
“Coyotes probably,” she murmured and turned, making her way back up the hillside, using tree roots as leverage, then stepping through the brush until she turned onto the forest path.
She was thankful to have discovered the little spot with the cave some days ago while hiking through less crowded paths. It wasn’t too far from the campsite either to be any real inconvenience. Just a fifteen-minute hike into the forest hills passed the lodge and recreational center. Just far enough to get away from everyone and get some much needed alone time.
Because boy did she need it. Between her two younger brothers constantly hounding her to play volleyball or frisbee, her dad sending her off on errands, and her mother berating her about needing to go find others her age to hang with, she barely had a moment to herself all week. And even when she left the camper to get away from her immediate family, her extended was always close by. One big happy family reunion at the national park. Every. Single. Summer.
She couldn’t wait to get back t
o university life and her social group who understood her way better.
It wasn’t always so bad though. Her cousins, who were about her age, made the stay a little more interesting, and sometimes they brought their friends, who she occasionally enjoyed getting to know more intimately.
This year, however, her luck went dry. Not even most of her cousins cared to show up. Too busy being away at a college that was too far out of state for them to bother making the trip. She wished she had that option but, with the convenience of saving money by going to school in state, she had to endure more of her family‘s seasonal rituals. Even trying to make excuses like going up North with an old friend to their cottage wasn’t enough to get her out of the traditional family outing.
So when she made a routine to go hiking by herself every day just to give herself some space, she made sure to go as far as possible before they thought to go looking for her. When she was alone, Natasha could appreciate the wild much better. No loud, drunken idiots walking around, no endless smoke from campfires, no one to bother her.
When she had found the cave, it had been by accident. She had been walking along the path when she spied a fox skirting through the underbrush. She went off the path hoping to grab a picture when she nearly fell down the hillside, catching a tree branch before she stumbled over. She saw the cave down below and realized it was rather well hidden by the way the trees hung over and how the rocks went up the other side. She decided to make the hidden spot her secret place to go when she really needed to be alone. And that was almost all the time. What else is a bored twenty-year-old going to do? Lay out baking in the sun, hoping for a smooth tan while gawking at boys? Boys who were either too young or already taken. She wasn’t a home wrecker and she definitely wasn’t a creep. So bored and driven by a wildly insatiable libido, Natasha took what she could get and gave herself a bit of happiness once a day.
Funnily enough, every time she‘d gone to the cave face so far, she‘d yet to actually going in. For all she knew there could be crazy homeless men living in there, watching her in some perverted manner. But she highly doubted it. Still, for whatever reason, she hadn’t been curious enough (or perhaps brave enough) to enter the chill dark cave.
As she broke out of the forest path just beside the lodge, she strolled across to the campsite where it was just as crowded as before.
“Nat!” Screamed a young boy as he saw her approaching. He waved his arms wildly. Another boy beside him glanced around and they both came running toward her. Natasha groaned as her brothers nearly tackled her.
“Nat, did you hear? They are doing a scary stories campfire tonight at the center, will you go with us?” Her brother Dillion tugged on her arm excitedly.
“They said they’re true ones too!” Her brother Tyler nearly jumped in her arms.
“I don’t know. Can’t Mom or Dad take you?” Natasha said, trying to stifle her already building irritation.
“No! No!” they cried.
“We want you to take us, Nat, please!” said Tyler.
“Yea, come on!” Dillion tugged on her again and Natasha had to force his hand away.
“Yes, fine, fine. But in return you have to let me chill for a while, okay?”
They nodded their heads and shouted out with joy. Though she didn’t expect them to stay true to their word, she hoped to gain at least a couple hours to do what she liked.
They went running off just as Natasha made it to their camper.
“Boys don’t go running through other people’s lots,” her mother called from behind the screen door. “Oh, Natasha, your back, can you help me with the heater again? I swear I tell your father every year we need a new one.”
Natasha slipped off her sneakers as her mother opened the screen to let her in. “Where’s Dad?”
“Out with your uncle by the lake again. Should be back for dinner. Oh, by the way, your brothers want you to take them to the center tonight for camp stories, I told them you would.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I already told them yes before I realized I didn’t have a choice,” Natasha said.
She helped her mother in the camper and afterward requested that, in return for taking her brothers to the center, she got to have the tent alone tonight. Her mother said it was fine though she would still have to ask her father as well.
“I swear it’s like I’m thirteen all over again,” Natasha muttered with a scowl as she stepped out of the camper and plopped down on the picnic table nearby. She eyed the tent on her opposite side and saw the mess of toys her brothers left inside. “Bet I’ll be the one to clean it out too.”
She grabbed hold of a book from inside her small backpack and took the quiet moment to read. She didn’t get far when she heard her name being called.
“Yo, cuz, what’s up?” Ben, her younger cousin by several years came strolling up with a few of his equally young friends.
Natasha lifted her book but said nothing.
“Oh, cool, cool, I like a girl who reads.” He gave her a sly grin then his eyes fell down her body. Her friends too were glaring at her like a pack of starving dogs. Natasha grimaced.
“Don’t you have somewhere to be? Like, say, watching the girl’s volleyball game by the beach?”
Ben shrugged. “It got done early. We’re just kinda bored now, waiting around.”
His one friend John came over and hopped on the table next to her. When she glanced up at him he winked at her.
“You guys must be just as bored as I am,” Natasha said dryly.
“Place is shit this year. Half the fam didn’t even show up. Kris didn’t bring any of her hot friends either. This summer blows huge dicks.” Ben leaned next to John and his other friend, Corey, quietly sat on the other side.
“I can’t argue there,” Natasha said, looking back down at her book.
“So, you going to the center tonight? Guess they’re doing some campfire horror stories or something. Will probably be lame. But will probably have a smoke after if you wanna join.”
Natasha couldn’t help smiling. “Yea, I’ll be there. And maybe.”
They hung around for a little while until they finally got bored and took off. Natasha sighed, putting her book away, too distracted now to even read.
After deciding to lounge out on a reclining chair and take a small nap under the camper canopy (once the light began to fade, the heat lessened, and mosquitoes began to buzz around) Natasha got up and helped her mom prepare for dinner. Her father came back in time to grill up some burgers and her brothers snuck back over just as everything was being set on the table.
“I want to have the tent to myself tonight,” Natasha said to her father as she played with her potato salad.
“Mom say that was okay?” he asked, glancing over at her.
“The boys can sleep on the floor, we have an extra sleeping bag,” her mom commented.
Her dad nodded. “Alright. You taking them to the center tonight, Nat?”
The boys perked up and looked over at her eagerly.
Natasha chewed on her lip. “Yea, I said I would.”
The boys grinned and her mom quieted them as they fidgeted in their seats and yelled happily. They scarfed down their food and in no time at all were running around the lot, shooting fake guns at each other and wrestling on the ground.
Only two more weeks, Natasha thought grimly.
***
Once the sun sunk passed the horizon, Natasha grabbed hold of her brothers, walking with them toward the center where a large bonfire sat, surrounded by sets of benches that were stacked around each other in a stadium-style seating; allowing everyone a chance to see around them and down at the fire.
They settled at a bench near the front and watched as others came in from camp to huddle around including her cousin and his friends who sat farther back. Once the center was well packed, a ranger came in and took a separate seat facing the crowd.
“How y’all doing tonight?” said the ranger, a thick, middle-aged woman with dark be
ady eyes.
The crowd responded with a mix of fine and good and a few whistles.
With that the ranger went off, first giving them a little history about the park and the strange and unusual occurrences before it was even erected, then giving them a few tales from back when it was just a small site. The night was warm, but an occasional breeze helped cool things down. The fire crackled and spit and the hum of crickets sang around them. The mosquitoes were now relentless but scented lanterns were placed at the edge to keep them at bay.
Natasha half listened to the ranger while her mind wandered occasionally. The crowd and her brothers reacted to the tales with open mouths and shocked stares. Intrigued by the mysteries of the dark forest around them.
After the ranger finished a story about a nine-year-old boy going missing for two weeks only to be found again miles away with no shoes, Natasha was sure that was the end and she went to tap her brothers to get up.
“I have one last story,” said the ranger as she noticed others also getting ready to leave. “And I, of course, save the best for last.”
Everyone immediately settled back down.
“This one is a more recent occurrence. And is one that still troubles the camp and the rangers still to this day.” The ranger peered over them all as they went quiet. “Some of you might know of the several cave systems in the area and might wonder why some are off limits. There have been sightings within some of the caves of a... well, we aren’t sure. Some say a man, some say a beast. Some claimed to think it was Bigfoot, others... a wendigo, if you know the stories about them. Some even go as far as to say a dogman or a demon.” The ranger shrugged. “No one knows.” She slowly gazed over the crowd. “All the sightings, however, claim the same thing. That it stands on two legs and is taller than any natural man, at least seven feet tall. And that its large eyes can be seen shining in the dark. It never comes out in the day, only at night. But the caves are its home. We have found the carcasses of deer near the entrances of caves. It might be just a bear.” The ranger turned her head toward Natasha and her brothers and stared them down. “Or it’s the monster of the Caperidge Caves.”