Into the Darkness

by Michael Clement

  “Save us!” I shouted at her thoughts, ordering the witch to stop our fall.

  Her power wrenched at the tree branch that she was riding, yanking it upwards.

  But, our descent was too fast. We crashed deep in the bog, sending water spewing up around us. If she hadn’t cut our airspeed, by pulling the branch upwards, we both would have died.

  Together, we broke the surface coughing and choking on swamp water.

  Taesa.

  I stared at the pale woman, as I treaded water.

  Her name was Taesa. The witch’s name had just vibrated into my mind, as the bond between us grew.

  Taesa looked stunned. She could barely keep her head above water. So, I grabbed her arm. Then, I flipped onto my back and began to kick my feet, dragging her behind me, as I fought to get the two of us to a small island. It was covered in a few trees and long blades of grass.

  The witch seemed exhausted. Several times, her head slipped under, and she almost pulled me down with her. Luckily, we made it to the shallows surrounding the island, allowing me to stand and drag her onto the shore.

  I pulled the two of us under a tall, wide tree. Above us, lightning flashed, and rain began to fall.

  Dammit.

  Taesa’s horned headdress was gone, and she looked bone-weary. Her skin felt frigid and nearly lifeless…

  But, our bond thundered through my mind, strong and sure.

  It felt strange like I had grown a third limb.

  I could feel her heartbeat if I focused hard enough.

  A cold, icy rain began to pour down upon us. The tree blocked some of the drizzle, but we were both still getting soaked. I pulled her close to me so that we could share body warmth. She was shivering, almost violently.

  Unless I found a better shelter and some warmth, we both were going to die of exposure.

  Standing up, I walked around the island.

  Miraculously, I found an old vehicle. It was rusty but mostly intact. I hurried back to Taesa and then picked her up.

  She was as light as a feather. Carrying her was easy.

  I had a bit of trouble with the car door, but I finally was able to open it. The car was a massive affair with a bench seats that spanned from door to door with another row behind it. I dragged Taesa into the back and then shut the door behind us.

  I stripped out of my freezing clothing and then wrapped myself around Taesa, hoping that my body heat would warm her up. The rain poured down on the roof, pounding like a thousand hammers.

  We both needed warmth. Sharing my heat with her would only kill us both.

  Blister had taught me a cantrip that could make an object warm or cold. The old covering of the car seats was loose enough that I was able to pull it off and wrap it around us. Then, I used the cantrip to warm the makeshift blanket.

  I held her as the rain poured down on us even harder. The storm grew worse, as the wind picked up, rocking the car slightly.

  Taesa’s eyes shot open. They were a lite pink that I had never seen before. Our bond flowed between us like a warm wind, increasing the warmth of the blanket.

  And, reminding me that we were both naked under the makeshift blanket.

  Taesa felt my interest, as it flowed through the bond. She didn’t even ask. Instead, she slid on top of me.

  She was still light as a feather, as the witch arched herself up and off of me, presenting her breasts to my face.

  Then, Taesa slid down on top of me.

  I groaned in surprise.

  She was cold inside, and it felt like a gritty gel. But, it wasn’t unpleasant, just different.

  Taesa rocked her hips back and forth, sliding me in and out of her, as she moaned slightly in the back of her throat. Her pale white hair spilled out and around us, as the thunder roared, covering the two of us in a blanket that shut out the world.

  She clamped down on my penis, as she ground down, making both of us gasp. Through the bond, I could feel her mixture of emotions… pleasure and arousal, but also surprise and disbelief. And, I felt her climax approaching, as she continued to plunge up and down.

  The car began to shake and rock as she rode me through the storm. Dust filled the air, but all I had eyes for were her soft, white breasts dancing before my face. Her nipples were a delicate shade of pink that I just had to touch.

  My hands caressed her as her eyes rolled back into her head as she came. Her climax rolled over her mind, and through our bond.

  I came as well, moaning in delightful agony.

  My semen burned into her like fire, it melted the gel and warmed her skin. She looked down at me in shock, as her body shivered.

  Taesa lay down with me still buried deep within her. She laid her face down on my chest and continued to tremble. The blanket had fallen away from her, so I pulled it back over both of us.

  The windows were covered in a sheen of fog from our lovemaking.

  Brynn had wanted a second wife.

  Apparently, I found one.

  - 15 -

  “You smell like a Basilisk,” I heard Taesa whisper, as she turned her face and murmured into my ear.

  The pale witch licked my neck, where Brynn had bitten me.

  “She has marked you,” Taesa murmured, sucking on the wound.

  “Stop that,” I murmured, still almost high from having sex and falling from the sky.

  “As you wish,” she replied as she kissed my cheek.

  Then, she whispered. “Master.”

  Fuck.

  I had forgotten to invert the symbol.

  She was my willing, obedient servant.

  But, in this case, that was probably a good thing. Taesa had tried to kill me and still would if she had free will.

  The witch shifted, and I noticed a tattoo on her left shoulder.

  In surprise, I touched it.

  Taesa shivered but didn’t move. She could feel that I was curious.

  It was a Lion’s face and mane inside of a pentagram. The tattoo was old, but it was still visible. And it surprised me.

  It was the mark of the Ten Thousand. They were an order of paladins who were sworn to uphold the tenants of the Lord of the Sun.

  “Were you human once?” I asked.

  Taesa nodded.

  “A Paladin of Terakin?”

  Taesa groaned in pain.

  “Please, don’t say his name,” she whispered. “It hurts.”

  Huh.

  I thought witches were born like Goblins, but apparently, I was wrong.

  “The coven took me,” she whispered. “I was riding from Charleston to Savannah, oh so long ago. I was only seventeen, and they took my innocence on the tree of thorns, stripping away her blessing.”

  Tears dripped out of her eyes, pooling on my neck. If Taesa were any other witch, I would have thought that she was lying to me, but I could feel her emotions and thoughts.

  The other witches had raped her, quite violently, on a tree covered with thorns. Looking closer at her skin, I could still see the scratches and cuts, even dozens of years later.

  Taesa turned back to me.

  “I am yours,” she mused. “But, someone has already marked your blood, as their plaything.”

  “My wife,” I told her bluntly.

  Taesa nodded. “Am I to be her lover as well?”

  I swallowed hard.

  The image of the two of them together...

  Taesa chuckled when she felt me grow rigid between us.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” she murmured.

  Then, she added, “It bothers you… what I am now.”

  “Yes,” I replied, as I still envisioned Brynn and Taesa… together.

  “Feel my power,” she prompted, opening our bonds wider.

  Six floating balls of arcane might rotated in her mind. They were pale white and dripping with power. My mind instantly began to play with them, twisting and turning them about. But, no matter how I touched them, I couldn’t figure out how to use her magic.

  My skin became cold, and th
en too hot. Power and sweat poured out of me, as my back arched, and I moaned in pain. The heat radiating from her power was intense. Finally, I let go of her magic, unable to draw on her strength. I was missing some key component. Something wasn’t right. I could feel her magic, but not use it.

  My brain felt too hot. The only thing that made me feel better right now was her cold skin. So, I wrapped my arms and legs around her, pressing as much of me against her as I could. Only Taesa’s cold touch made me feel better.

  I shivered and shook for a long time, as Taesa ran her fingers through my hair and murmured words of endearment too me.

  It was a miracle that I had dominated her. She was stronger than me.

  Why had I won?

  As my mind began to relax and accept the new connection, that question was like an empty tooth socket to my mind. My mental tongue kept pressing against the issue, raging to know… why.

  “I let you win,” Taesa whispered, as her cold lips kissed my neck.

  “Why?” I groaned.

  “I was tired of being alone,” she admitted. “And I want to see the sun again.”

  Her kiss turned into a deeper embrace, as Taesa reached down between us, to caress me again.

  “And…” she murmured. “I wanted to feel a man inside of me… again.”

  --M--

  We had sex in every orifice that she had… twice. The car reeked of cum and wetness before we lay back down and cuddled under the blanket.

  Taesa instantly knew how I felt and what I wanted. I didn’t have to wonder… would she like that... or, am I being careful enough? And, I knew what she wanted as well.

  Taesa liked pain and being controlled.

  Twice, I had tied her up in positions that had to hurt.

  Well, fuck, I knew that they hurt. I could feel her pain, but I could also sense her need, her intense want to be dominated. She liked the pain. For some sick reason, it made her feel… needed. And, for her, somehow, it made the pleasure so much more intense. And, after being alone for decades, Taesa had a lot of need that had to be fulfilled.

  The rain had stopped an hour ago, as had the thunder. Cold rills of ice ran down the outside of the car windows. I was dreading going back outside.

  “Let’s stay here forever then,” she murmured.

  “I can’t,” I replied. I had to get back to Brynn.

  How was I ever going to explain Taesa to her?

  Or, the love bites all over my body?

  Taesa giggled.

  That surprised me as well. The evil witch… giggled.

  That made her laugh harder.

  “Brynn will have to accept me,” she said, sitting up, dangling her breasts perilously close to my mouth… on purpose.

  “She pushed you to become more than what you were,” she said. “These are the consequences.”

  I knew that.

  But, the reunion still worried me.

  - 16 -

  Together, Taesa and I floated over highway seventeen, but there wasn’t any sign of the wagon. The tracks just ended, as if the wagon had simply ceased to exist.

  That’s when I noticed the deep indentions in the ground in the bog.

  “Giant,” Taesa said, pointing out more tracks.

  Great.

  Just fucking great.

  Taesa leaned back and breathed deeply.

  Then, she smiled and pointed into the bog.

  “He took your Basilisk that way.”

  I let her know to follow them through our bond. Nodding, she zoomed into the swamp, tracking the giant’s scent, as I watched the deep track marks.

  The creature meandered this way and that, like a drunk toddler. Pieces of the wagon were littered here and there, but not a single body… yet.

  We followed the trail for almost an hour before it veered back to the highway. That’s when we began to smell a deeply unpleasant scent.

  Decomposing corpses, mildew, and darkness. Blood, pus, and misery followed in its wake. The scent filled the air and clawed at the back of my mouth, making me want to gag.

  I had been in the light for too long. When I had been young, the smell of death wouldn’t have bothered me.

  The remains of an old prison of some sort sat next to the road. Men scurried around outside of it, and I saw the giant sitting on the ground inside the remains of a barbed-wire fence. The creature seemed to be sleeping. But, it was so covered in black muck, leaves, and twigs that it was hard to tell.

  And, the remains of the wagon lay next to it.

  “Ridgeland,” Taesa murmured in my ear. I could tell that she was being quiet on purpose. Something dark and evil lived inside the remains of that hell hole.

  And, my wife and daughter were inside with it.

  --M--

  I had Taesa move up higher into the clouds, so we could look down on the prison. I wanted to get a better look.

  Locked inside of the prison’s walls were dozens of men, women, and children. Some, I recognized from the caravan.

  How did they get here? I wondered. There, right in front, was the puny businessman. His clothing was ripped and tattered, and it looked like his left arm was broken.

  “The Wendigo brought them,” Taesa whispered to me through our link. Even speaking mind to mind, she was whispering.

  “They are preparing for the Feast of Bones,” she murmured. “When the prisoner of the light awakens and dances amongst the corpses.”

  The men outside of the prison weren’t men.

  Taesa had called them Wendigo. Their skin was gray and hairless, and a carpet of black fur ran from their head and down their back. The creature’s arms were unnaturally long and covered in black claws. And, once, long ago, they had been men.

  The Wendigo watched the penned up people with a hunger that I could feel, even though we were at least a hundred feet above them.

  “Tonight is the full sickle,” she added. “Tonight they will feed.”

  Pointing to the center of the prison yard, Taesa said, “See the wicker man. The Wendigo will stuff it with living flesh and then light it on fire. The screams will be heard for miles.”

  Spreading her arms out in a patting motion, she murmured. “They will feast on the charred meat, and then... for a few hours... they will become human again.”

  There had to be almost a hundred Wendigo outside the prison. Every few minutes, a new one would appear, carrying a bundle on their back in a burlap bag. They would dump the bag into the prison and then scamper away.

  Children.

  The bags were full of children.

  “The men that they captured… will be roasted in the wicker man,” she whispered. “The women… they will fuck after they become human again.”

  “And the kids?” I asked.

  She shook her head.

  “Taesa,” I whispered, pushing a little.

  “Sacrifices to the Hungry God,” she finally answered.

  “Can the Wendigo see you?” I asked, hoping that she would be invisible to them.

  “Yes,” she replied with a nod.

  Dammit.

  I’d have to go in alone.

  “No,” Taesa nearly screeched in my mind, waves of fear poured out of her. She didn’t want to be alone again, not ever.

  Several of the Wendigo turned and sniffed in our direction. Both of us turned into statues. We were floating in the air, but I still felt in danger. After a few minutes, the beasts went back to staring at the prisoners.

  “You will not go,” she insisted.

  “I have to save them,” I replied. “I can change my shape and just walk in.”

  Taesa hated that idea… and, frankly, so did I.

  But, I couldn’t think of any other way to save them.

  So, I had Taesa land and then slid back up into the trees. She would fly up and float over the prison, becoming my eyes in the sky. I would be able to see down from the vantage if I could figure out how to do that. If not, she was my last, best call for help.