Body Parts

by Adrianna Dane

  “Hello. My name is Korrie Odell. I believe you were expecting me?”

  The woman’s lips thinned into a straight line, her eyes narrowed as she studied her. “I would have expected to meet you at the front door, Ms. Odell. Not here in the garden.”

  Korrie dropped her arm and straightened to her full five-feet-ten-inch height. “It’s Dr. Odell. I saw the gate, and the garden looked too inviting. I’m not on a time crunch today, and I didn’t call ahead with a time of arrival, so I didn’t think it would put anyone out if I visited the garden first. Is there a problem?” She met the woman’s stare firmly, not backing down one inch. She had learned well over the years how to handle difficult people.

  The woman’s gaze slid away. “Very well, Dr. Odell. I’m Mrs. Grippen, the housekeeper. If there’s anything you require during your stay, just let me know. The people at the institute called ahead to say you would be arriving, and I’ve prepared a room for you. Do you need help with your baggage? I’m sure Athan can take care of it.”

  Athan. It couldn’t be. Visions of the perfect creature in Sheba’s journal sprang up before her. It wasn’t possible, was it?

  She had the greatest urge to turn back toward the gardener’s shed. Was Athan the name of the attractive, studly man she had just spied on?

  Mrs. Grippen waited, watching her closely. Korrie shuttered her expression. She would have to look for her answers later.

  “No, I won’t need any help,” she responded as she accompanied the housekeeper back to the house. “I can handle it.” Handle it or handle the people in the house? She was beginning to wonder. She looked up, and suddenly the house seemed to wear a sinister shroud over it, and she shuddered.

  Mrs. Grippen apparently saw the movement. “You need to be careful this time of year. You could catch ill very easily. This old house is drafty, and the rain comes when you least expect it.” She stepped through the French door into the house, and Korrie followed her inside.

  They passed through the sunroom, down a hallway leading toward the front of the house. Mrs. Grippen set the basket of flowers on a side table as they passed into the front hallway. Korrie couldn’t help looking up at the painted ceilings of the vaulted room. She could have sworn it looked like gargoyles tempting the angels high above her head.

  “I’ve put you in a second-floor bedroom near the back, where it’s quieter. It’s called the Blue Room. I hope you’ll be comfortable there.”

  Korrie followed her up the stairs and toward the left. There was little light along the long hallway. At night it would be pitch black without the sconces along the walls. Mrs. Grippen stopped at an intricately scrolled door and opened it, then stepped back, allowing Korrie to precede her.

  Korrie’s jaw dropped when she saw the immense room. Her whole apartment could probably fit inside it. The huge four-poster canopied bed dominated the room. There were Raphael angels adorning the walls and ceiling. Wow, talk about a bedroom from fantasyland.

  “Thank you. This should be fine.”

  The woman nodded. “Dinner is at seven if that’s all right with you. You can have your choice of where you would like it served.”

  “There’s really no need. I can fend for myself quite well. Unless there are others here?”

  “No, miss. Just you. It’s my job to fix the meals.”

  Well, Korrie certainly didn’t want to be stepping on toes. “The kitchen will do then.”

  Mrs. Grippen’s eyebrows raised. “The kitchen? Are you sure?”

  “Yes. Thank you. I’ll be sure to be there at seven sharp.”

  “Very well.” She turned and left the room, pulling the door firmly closed with a sharp crack.

  Korrie turned back to gaze around the room in awe. Well, one thing was for sure ‑‑ she felt like she had just dropped into that spot between heaven and hell. Could this be purgatory?

  One thing she really wanted to do was find out more about who this Athan was that the housekeeper spoke of and whether or not he was somehow related to the Ransoms and their creation. It was certainly a mystery she planned to solve before she left this place.

  Chapter Five

  Three days later, Athan walked toward the kitchen door and hovered there for a moment, looking around, making sure no one else was there. Such as Korrie Odell.

  He knew that the young, pretty scientist took her meals in the kitchen. That was one way in which she was different from Paul, who had taken his meals in the formal dining room.

  “Come on in, boy,” Mrs. Grippen called out. “She’s gone.” The housekeeper had a way of knowing things when nobody said a word. “Sit down. I’ve made a nice roast beef.”

  He could smell the savory meat with tinges of herb and onion.

  He wiped his feet and stepped inside. “It smells wonderful. Your cooking spoils me, ma’am.”

  She turned from the stove and set a platter down on the worn maple table. “Well, sit. You don’t want it to get cold.”

  “I’ll wait for you.”

  He saw the hint of a smile nudge upward around the corners of her mouth. She wasn’t one to laugh a whole lot, but Athan had been able to get a chuckle or two out of her on occasion. It had been hard for her ever since her husband died. Neither of them spoke of that time, but he understood that loss very well.

  He missed his doctors and he always would. They were his creators, yet more than that. They were his lovers, his friends, his teachers. His whole world, and no one would ever replace them. He had wanted to stay with them until the very end, but they had built a necessary strength inside him ‑‑ self-preservation.

  Yes, he had wanted to die with them, but the scorching heat and the inability to breathe had overpowered him, and the will to survive was too firmly ingrained. He had almost heard Dr. Sheba’s voice in his head.

  Live, Athan. You must live for us.

  The night they were killed was seared into his memory forever. Mrs. Grippen had retained the presence of mind to call the firefighters. If they’d arrived any later, the whole house would probably have gone up in flames. As it was, it had been confined to the lab on the top floor.

  The housekeeper moved to her chair on the other side of the table, and Athan walked around it and held it out for her. “They trained you right, boy,” she said as she sat down.

  He tried not to let the vulnerability of knowing what he was show. A science project and nothing more. He knew that all of his parts had parents, but not the sum of who he was. The housekeeper surmised many of the secrets of the estate, but he knew she didn’t understand with complete certainty exactly what he was. At least he didn’t think she did. She simply accepted him. But then, she also never spoke of the things she might question. He returned to his chair, sat down, and picked up the beige cloth napkin folded neatly next to the plate.

  He didn’t speak of such things either. There were many secrets buried on this land. He was the only one privy to the location of the Ransom’s graves. And the other interred there as well. No one but he knew the nightmarish misery that lay beneath the moist earth on Heartbreak Hill. Not even the housekeeper.

  These dinners were their small tradition. Mrs. Grippen was the one to say the dinner prayer, and he bowed his head and folded his hands. He wasn’t sure what he believed in exactly, but he knew this little ritual gave her some comfort, and it was the least he could do. She had taken good care of him after the Ransoms died. She never failed to treat him with kindness and respect, not as though he was something evil.

  After she finished reciting the prayer, she lifted her head to look at him, peering closely with clear gray eyes that seemed to be all-seeing. She reached for the bowl of buttery mashed potatoes and passed it to him.

  “She’s a nice lady, Athan. Nicer than that Cathcart boy. There’s just something not quite right about him.”

  Paul liked grand displays according to Mrs. Grippen, and would never lower himself to eat in the kitchen with the help, as she termed it. To be honest, it was Paul’s attitude toward the housekeeper
and other small, undefined habits that had kept Athan from sharing his secrets with him.

  “You never liked him very much, did you?” he asked as he spooned some of the fluffy white potatoes onto his plate and passed the bowl back to her.

  “Not much.” She peered at him. “But I know you did.” She wasn’t a woman of a lot of words, but she saw a great deal. “Hope he didn’t go breaking your heart when he left like that.”

  Paul had made himself available to Athan whenever he wanted sex, but he could tell there was something murky lurking beneath the man’s passion. Something not quite right that kept Athan from caring too deeply for him.

  “No ma’am,” he said with a slight smile as he ladled some rich, savory brown gravy over the potatoes. “He seemed nice enough to me.”

  She nodded. “That’s as well. You might get to know Dr. Odell. She has a kind way about her. But she seems lonely and sad sometimes.”

  Truth be told, he found himself curious as to how similar Korrie Odell was to Paul. Or different. Her eating habits and respectful attitude toward Mrs. Grippen gave him pause. It was the philosopher-scientist part of his brain that made him look for answers beneath the surface. He hadn’t found what he was looking for with Paul. What would he discover with Korrie Odell?

  “Are you trying to play the matchmaker?” he joked and grinned at the motherly housekeeper.

  “You could use a nice girl. Some of those floozies from town I see you with… Well, I just think you can do better.”

  She obviously knew about his nightly trips into Fall’s Creek and although she didn’t approve, she never said anything directly. After Paul’s departure, he had resorted back to the men and women of Fall’s Creek for the regular sex that he required. He doubted Mrs. Grippen knew the true reason for his nightly visits. The townspeople were very accommodating. All he had to do was show himself at the local tavern and they were lined up to be serviced by him. It made things easier for him. He thrived because of their sexual appetites.

  He held a good deal of affection for Mrs. Grippen. Having lost her husband in the tragedy of the fire, and having no other living relatives, she now put her heart and soul into the house. She tended to spoil Athan, treating him more like a son than another employee of the estate.

  “I’ll keep that in mind, ma’am. If you think she’s a good person, then that’s good enough for me,” he said just before he raised a forkful of delicious food to his mouth.

  * * * * *

  Korrie curled up in bed and pulled out the last of the journal pages from the envelope she had brought with her. It was amazing how right it felt to be reading them, here in this house, with the possessions of the Ransoms surrounding her.

  She’d spent the last couple of days wandering around the house, trying to get her bearings. And sitting in the garden. This place drew something from her, something intimate and close. It was going to be difficult to leave when the time came. Even with its tragic history and the cold breezes that seemed to sweep over her more and more frequently, it felt like she had come home.

  She’d seen hardly anything of Athan, who she knew was the current caretaker. He seemed to be taking great pains to avoid her. Mrs. Grippen wasn’t one to talk much and certainly hadn’t been open to answering Korrie’s questions. She just needed to give it a little more time; she was certain she would discover the answers she was looking for given a little more investigation. Patience had gotten her here and patience would get her the answers she was seeking. All in good time.

  Her copies of the journal pages were her only intimate connection with the past and the passions that had once been a potent fabric of this house. She could feel the effects still lingering in the atmosphere. These glimpses into Sheba’s mind, into a past she yearned with every breath to experience in reality, made her feel alive in a way she couldn’t begin to explain to another person. Being in this house bound her closer to her secretive desires, and the ache of need inside her throbbed brighter than ever before.

  With reverence she turned to the journal pages, drinking in the haunting script of Sheba Ransom. Becoming Sheba through her words…

  September 5, 1942

  Journal of Dr. Sheba Ransom

  I was late entering the lab and was terribly afraid that Athan would suffer because of it. His electrophasm treatment was overdue as it was and having seen the results of earlier withdrawal, I knew we could take no chances on altering his schedule.

  I was stopped short as I hurried into the lab and I know shocked surprise was evident upon my face as I beheld the arousing sight before me. Cornelius was on his knees in dog fashion, his trousers dropped around his knees and his lab coat shoved up over his back, with a naked Athan pumping his rigid, glistening cock deep into his rectum. I could see the rings of electrostatic energy surrounding his penis and saw Cornelius shudder each time he tunneled deep inside his cavity.

  As I write this now, I realize I shouldn’t have been shocked at all as I have seen Cornelius buggered before, but the circumstances just caught me by surprise somehow. And there was such a look of ecstasy on his face ‑‑ one I hadn’t witnessed before.

  Athan used him hard and their primal grunts and growls, the scent and vibrations of their sexual heat filled the closed atmosphere of the lab. I glanced at the equipment, saw the electrode pads still swinging as though having been removed but moments ago, and realized they hadn’t waited for my attendance. And, of course, they shouldn’t have.

  I believe what bothered me was the knowledge that the electrical expend would not be mine as was the usual routine. On this occasion, Cornelius would benefit from my loss.

  And it came to me that I had become addicted to that sensation, looked forward to receiving his energized cum inside my body, of the jolts that passed from him into me, particularly immediately following his treatment. I also realized it was greedy of me to not share the experience with my beloved husband.

  I yanked off my lab coat and quickly shed myself of my underwear and stepped toward my husband. Hiking my skirt up to my waist and fastening it in my belt, I spread my pussy lips, exposing my swollen clitoris to Cornelius.

  “Suck me,” I demanded. His mouth quickly captured my needy clit, and he proceeded to do just that. He sank his tongue into my vagina, exited, and then nuzzled at my throbbing clit. I moaned as the climax started to build, as the electrical charges ‑‑ faint, but real ‑‑ pressed against me. It was a secondary experience to what he received from Athan, but enough to connect us in the moment.

  And then Athan drove forward, crying out with his climax. His action pressed Cornelius forward, and I was forced backward, against the wall. The arc of electricity that passed through Cornelius as Athan came shot straight through me, and I came quickly, shuddering with the pleasure of sensations that enveloped us all.

  “Oh, yes,” I screamed. “Yes.”

  As I opened my eyes, I saw Athan withdraw from inside Cornelius. My husband gave one last swipe of his tongue and released me.

  “That was incredible,” my husband said. “I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life before.” He looked up at me as I tried to put myself back in order. “Is this what you feel like when he fucks you?”

  I released a shuddering breath and looked into his eyes. He trembled with the aftershocks, his eyes were dark and dilated, his breathing unsteady. I knew what he was experiencing and in that moment I felt we were closer than we had ever been before. “Yes.” It was only one word but it said it all.

  Cornelius slowly rose to his feet and straightened his clothing. “I must make a note of this. I must register the changes.” His eyebrows drew together in deep concentration as he looked at me. “You should have been keeping track, recording the changes in your chemistry.” Without a backward glance he hurried over to the desk, dragged out his journal, and sat down to record the experience. Absently, he reached into the cupboard above him to draw down a tray of needles and tubing.

  I gazed down at Athan, who was still on his knees
, his shoulders hunched, shaking in the aftermath. I couldn’t just leave him like that. I touched his shoulder and he looked up at me. I saw the lightning in his eyes. He was still not fully discharged. Cornelius must have cranked the settings higher than usual.

  “Come with me, Athan,” I said as I helped him to his feet. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

  Just off the main room of the laboratory there is a small changing room and a shower. I led him there to get him cleaned up. He was already naked, but I removed the remainder of my own clothing and stepped inside the shower with him after making sure the water was the correct temperature. My husband, the scientist, could take care of the necessary record keeping and additional tests. I would take care of Athan.

  Just touching him I received jolts through my hands, like magnetic waves humming through my limbs. I grabbed a bar of soap and a washcloth and began to carefully wash him. The warm water sheathed us from the outside world. Here, it was just the two of us. A man and a woman ‑‑ not a scientist and her creation.

  I traced a finger down the length of the white scar that crawled down his broad chest. Even with the scars of death and surgery, he was perfect. He lifted me and pressed his lips to mine and I felt his tongue delve deeply as he bolted me back against the wall. He cupped my face and I felt a certain desperation in him that I had not felt before. I looked up at him and tried to determine its source, but all I saw in his eyes was the crackle of vivid lightning.

  I caught my breath as he lifted me and sheathed his cock deeply inside me with one stroke. Shock waves chased through me and I gasped at the rippling sensations as though I were racing across a static field, snap after snap biting at my heels as I ran.

  Each thrust was a shock wave of sensation ‑‑ one that I didn’t want to end. I broke the kiss. “More. Don’t stop.” The heat and spark that drove through me time and time again as his cock pressed deep into my cunt retreated, and when he did so again I thought I would die. I wrapped my legs around his waist. He filled me and fucked me like I’d never been fucked before. My hands gripped his slippery, well-muscled ass as he drove inside me again and again.