by K D Grace
Held in place by some supernatural force, Mirjam shook her head.
‘Skyggen,’ the woman repeated. ‘Your shadow! Didn’t you miss me? Don’t you dare tell me you didn’t miss me. Oh, look who I’m talking to! You probably didn’t even notice I was gone.’ Skyggen’s toothy grin made her comments seem more mocking than self-effacing.
‘My shadow …’ Mirjam uttered. The puzzle pieces began falling into place, though yet remained unfocused at a distance. ‘On holiday you left me. You took the villa across the way.’
‘Oh, I’d had enough with this trash heap of a city! I wanted to stay in the sun.’ Skyggen dropped her body into the one chair in front of Mirjam’s television. ‘No offence, honey, but I was sick of being beaten down by your force of will. I wanted to stay, so I stayed.’
Mirjam sat on the edge of her bed and gazed at her shadow’s manner of dress. ‘It looks like you’ve done very well for yourself.’
Sticking out her bronzed left hand, Skyggen showed off a rock too big to be real. Though this detached shadow of hers appeared gaudy enough to wear paste, Mirjam had a niggling feeling the diamond was real. ‘You’re getting married?’ she asked. Before she’d lost Skyggen, Mirjam would have felt a pang of jealousy at times like these. Was it fair for her shadow to obtain these things Mirjam only coveted? Now, Mirjam dismissed all negative thoughts. She felt numb … and somewhat nauseous.
A nod of affirmation wasn’t enough for Skyggen. She had to go on and on about it. ‘… and this won’t be just any old drive-through wedding! We’re planning a seven-day celebration for the whole village. Oh, the villagers love him … well, love him and fear him. You should see how they cower. I tell you, we can’t walk down the street without being given gifts of all kinds: fruits and gold and chocolates …’
There was an absence at the base of Mirjam’s happiness for her shadow. She felt her joy ought to be balanced out by some emotion on the other end of the spectrum. Envy, though sinful, would have brought down her saccharine high.
‘That’s wonderful,’ Mirjam replied through gritted teeth. Her jaw seemed to have locked again. She had to massage the pain from her cheeks before saying, ‘I’m so happy for you. When is the wedding?’
Skyggen grabbed her hands and squeezed. Her eyes glared with such intensity Mirjam feared her for a quick moment. ‘That’s why I’ve come here, honey. I’ve felt so guilty for leaving you all alone! I just couldn’t go through with this wedding without you by my side. Of course I’ll pay your expenses. I mean, look at me! I’m richer than rich!’ With a Hollywood kiss for both cheeks, Skyggen brought Mirjam in for an unemotional hug. ‘You’re like a sister to me! How could I get married without you?’
Mirjam wasn’t sure how to feel. Even as she boarded the plane, she had a strange feeling about this whole affair. She believed Skyggen was her lost shadow, but she had a suspicion the flashy woman was being less than truthful about something
Onboard, Mirjam’s heart swelled when she found herself seated next to a handsome young man. True, her beauty had deteriorated since her shadow split, but certainly she was still capable of flirtation. He was adorable, this boy with dimples and floppy brown hair. Better yet, he seemed intrigued as Mirjam introduced Skyggen and told him the bizarre story of their separation. ‘Meanwhile, I had no idea why I felt so weak and incomplete. It all makes sense now, but it was very frightening at the time.’
‘I imagine so,’ the boy said, smiling at Mirjam … or was that smile meant for Skyggen?
‘Yes,’ Mirjam went on. ‘I used to work an executive job in advertising, but after Skyggen left, I couldn’t bring myself to do it any more. All the lies we told! It made me sick – physically. As if a deodorant could make a woman more beautiful, or a beer make a man more attractive! We were brainwashing a nation.’ She shook her head. ‘I had to quit.’
Skyggen squeezed Mirjam’s hand so hard it hurt. ‘You know,’ Skyggen said to the boy, ‘I was the one who got her that job in the first place.’
‘That’s true,’ Mirjam confessed. ‘I didn’t want to do it, but a little voice in my head persuaded me to lie on my resume. I claimed I had a Master’s degree, when in fact I dropped out after my first year of undergrad. That’s partly why I quit: I couldn’t bear all the lies.’
‘And ever since, her fortune’s dwindled. When I found her, she was living in a ratty old bachelor apartment with barely a stick of furniture in it.’
‘That’s so sad,’ the boy said. Did he mean it? Who could tell, with the goo-goo eyes he was making at Skyggen.
The shadow woman noticed the boy’s flirtation – that was certain! She leaned her big boobs across Mirjam’s lap and patted his thigh. ‘But I’ve come back for my little dear,’ Skyggen said. Despite the plane’s subdued lighting, her diamond sparkled like a star as she worked her way up to the brunette boy’s crotch. ‘Now I’ve got everything in the world, and I’m going to take care of my girl.’
The boy wheezed when Skyggen grasped his package. ‘That’s very generous of you,’ he whispered, looking around at the plane full of sleeping passengers.
‘Yes,’ Skyggen cooed, rubbing his erection through his trousers. ‘I can be very generous.’
Without another word, Skyggen rose to her feet and pulled the boy down the passage by his hard cock. He seemed to go willingly.
With a despairing sigh, Mirjam sat back in her seat and tried to sleep. At least she could look forward to the leisurely village pace and the country’s dry heat. A vacation would do her good.
Skyggen’s fiancé wasn’t all what Mirjam thought he’d be. Knowing he was rich and powerful, she’d pictured a handsome young fairy tale prince. A surge of shadenfreude coursed through her veins when she met the short, husky man. Perhaps in Skyggen’s presence, Mirjam’s strong emotions were returning to her. She was a tad jealous Skyggen would be living in her soon-to-be-husband’s veritable castle looking out over the sea.
Rising to greet them, Skyggen’s fiancé offered a chivalrous bow. He was a military man, it seemed – his khaki uniform was the giveaway. ‘Skyggen, my love! I haven’t slept a wink since you left.’ Pulling her close to his body, he planted a sensuous kiss on her lips. When he let up, she giggled. He released her from his arms and she fell to the floor, sighing as the military man looked to Mirjam. Embers of a deeply-lit fire burned in his eyes. He latched to her gaze and introduced himself. ‘I am Valon. You must be my Skyggen’s shadow.’
I must be her shadow? Mirjam shook her head just as Skyggen burst between the two. ‘That’s right,’ Skyggen said. ‘Remember how I explained that Valon thinks it’s bad luck for a woman to be without her shadow? Remember I said he wouldn’t marry me if my shadow wasn’t present at the occasion?’
Skyggen gave a broad smile as Mirjam pronounced a long drawn-out, ‘No …’
With a loud laugh, Skyggen said to Valon, ‘Shadows are so forgetful! Excuse us for a moment.’ Pulling Mirjam past an ensign and into the hallway, she whispered, ‘All right, so I didn’t exactly tell you the truth. Long story short, he thinks you’re my shadow. He’d never marry me if he thought I belonged to somebody else.’
‘Nice foundation to build a marriage on,’ Mirjam shot back. ‘You cheat on him, you lie … Skyggen, you are a terrible person!’
‘Yes,’ she hissed, ‘but it’s better to be a terrible person than the world’s greatest shadow!’
Mirjam nearly jumped in response to the long-forgotten sensation of adrenaline coursing though her veins. Grabbing Skyggen by the shoulders, Mirjam gave her a good shake. ‘But you are a shadow! I’ve been dying since you left me, and you don’t even care! You don’t about anything but yourself.’
Mirjam hadn’t shouted once in all the time Skyggen had been away. It felt good, but she was so loud about it Valon came running. ‘What is going on out here?’ he asked through a thick accent.
Grabbing Mirjam by the hair, Skyggen pulled her head back. ‘She’s belligerent!’ Skyggen shrieked. ‘She threatened to convince you I was
actually the shadow and she was my mistress. Every word that comes out of her mouth is a lie!’
Skyggen surely could have gone on, but she stopped speaking when Valon untangled her fingers from Mirjam’s hair. Glaring at Mirjam with dark but fiery eyes, he wrapped his hand around her arm just above the elbow. A thrill ran through her. ‘Wilful mare,’ he growled in a voice full of lust. ‘Let me show you your place.’
As Valon dragged Mirjam along the corridor, she realised why he seemed so strangely familiar: she’d seen him on the news back home. Skyggen’s Valon was the Valon, the overthrown despot living in exile. This tyrant was the man Skyggen had chosen for her husband? Mirjam examined his square jaw and shimmering black hair as he tossed her inside a bed chamber. Her heart leapt. The room was barely furnished, but there was a bed to cower upon as Valon lingered in the doorway. Skyggen stood behind him. Watching the two standing like that, it hit Mirjam that, married to Valon, Skyggen would always live in the shadows. As much as Mirjam wanted to spite the part of herself that had fled, she felt a warm sense of sympathy for Skyggen.
When Valon marched into the room, Mirjam’s heart nearly stopped. He tore off his uniform in what seemed like one smooth motion and threw it into the blazing fire. The rising flame was almost as spectacular as his big cock resting on a cushion of black hair and balls. It seemed to both bounce and harden as he strode toward her. Mirjam’s blood pumped fast through her body when he reached down and grabbed the collar of her blouse with both hands. ‘You planned to tell lies about my Skyggen?’
The fear was more arousing than any pleasure Mirjam had experienced. But she’d be lying to say yes, so she said, ‘No, I wasn’t going to lie.’
She could see in his eyes what he would do next. And then he did it: he held firm to both sides of her blouse and tore it down the front. Buttons flew across the room as her breasts swelled. He grabbed her white lace bra and ripped it from her body. ‘Tell me the truth,’ he said, throwing her clothes into the fire.
‘I am,’ Mirjam squealed. She hoped he wouldn’t believe her.
And he didn’t. His thick fingers tore through her skirt and panties as she looked on in mortified excitement. ‘What will you do to me?’ she asked. Her pulse throbbed between her bare legs. She wanted to hear the words.
The expression in Valon’s eyes was not that of anger, but of fierce passion. He left Skyggen in the doorway as he flipped Mirjam on to her stomach. Her legs hung off the bed. Her feet planted on the floor. She whipped her head around just in time to catch him thumping his cockhead against her ass cheeks, leaving trails of precome in his wake.
When Mirjam squirmed with wet anticipation, Valon mistook her longing for wilfulness. He grabbed her hips and pressed his fingers so deep into her flesh, she knew she’d see bruises later. ‘Skyggen,’ he called. ‘Get over here and hold your shadow’s hands still.’
Mirjam put up no fight as Skyggen leaned across the bed to grasp her wrists. She shot Skyggen a crafty smile, as if to say, ‘Ha! Your man is about to fuck me, and there’s nothing you can do but stand by and watch.’ But Skyggen didn’t seem put off by the situation. Judging by her keen grin, she might even enjoy the spectacle. Perhaps Mirjam had found something she could respect in her shadow: openness to new experiences, a complete lack of jealousy, and the heart to love a tyrant.
Squeezing Mirjam’s ass cheeks, Valon slid his thick tip along the wetness of her lower lips. When Mirjam moaned, Skyggen squeezed her hands and released a giggle of affinity. That cock knew what it wanted, and it wanted to pummel her. He launched himself inside. His shaft tore through her wet pussy, lodging deep within. He rested for a moment inside her warmth before quickly pulling out. Mirjam sighed when he left her body, and Skyggen threw her face into Mirjam’s open hands.
Valon pounded her pussy again, like a rocket straight inside. His cock felt so huge, she opened her legs wider. That, Valon took as intention to escape. Wrapping one of his legs around hers, he pressed his heel down on her toes to keep her in place.
‘Hold her wrists,’ he howled to Skyggen. But Skyggen released Mirjam’s wrists and held her hands instead. In a strange sense, Mirjam felt closer to Skyggen now than she’d felt throughout the trip. They were one, were they not? Form and shadow, land and ocean, known and unknown? Skyggen, that gaudy blonde, was Mirjam’s unlived life. And now, as they held hands on the bed, Mirjam lived that life.
She’d never done this before. Yes, she’d made love, but she’d never been fucked by a stranger – let alone the exiled dictator engaged to her shadow! As Mirjam bucked back against Valon’s raging cock, the fire warmed her legs. Valon pummelled her like she knew he would, and Mirjam took it all in. It hurt. It panged against the mystery inside of her, but she loved it. She thumped her ass back against his hairy front.
‘Your ass is excited,’ Valon hissed. ‘I see your hole pucker and beg.’
Mirjam’s stomach clenched. She knew what came next, and she recognised its inevitability, but the idea made her cringe. ‘Please don’t hurt me,’ she yelped. The statement itself made her skin tingle.
‘Don’t worry,’ Skyggen said, petting Mirjam’s arm. ‘It hurts at first, but you’ll get over it.’ When Mirjam pressed her nails into Skyggen’s skin, the shadow woman chuckled, ‘Relax, sweetie. It’ll be all right.’
Valon pulled his cock from Mirjam’s pussy. When he set his tip at the entrance to her asshole, it was still dripping with her juices. Her stomach felt fluttery and her legs went weak, but Skyggen held on tight. Valon reached inside her snatch. With two fingers, he brought out more juice and slathered her asshole with the stuff. She felt slick to the touch. As he pressed his cockhead past her assring, Mirjam grasped Skyggen’s hands. She tried to contain her scream, but she simply couldn’t. It hurt. It hurt, but to an acceptable degree, like getting spanked again and again – the site was sore, but it was impossible to stop. She knew, as in all things, if he kept going the pain would subside. Life was like that.
Her ass blazed as he entered her. He eased in at first. Yes, he was forceful, but he wasn’t rough about it. At first. Once he’d sunk his cock insider her hole to a degree that pleased him, he eased it out again. She clawed at Skyggen’s hands, but Skyggen only smiled fondly at the view. Valon pushed his palms flat against Mirjam’s ass cheeks before pushing them apart. She turned her head to see what he was doing. The instant she saw her body in that state, with her cheeks splayed and a firm cock between them, she no longer feared pain. Pain would heal. She wanted that cock inside her ass.
She bucked back as he thrust forward. ‘Oh, so you like this, do you?’ Valon growled. His voice was sexy in a reviling sort of way. She wished his voice could fuck her cunt while his cock pelted her ass. Why couldn’t she have everything at once? Christ, she didn’t even have a shadow any more – she deserved something! But her pussy sat longing while Valon went at her asshole. That empty space ached with jealousy of the crack that was too full, and soon to get fuller.
From the tone of his moans and sensual mutterings, Mirjam could tell Valon was going to come. Though he was the first actual dictator she’d encountered, she knew his type. He would pull out, leaving her broken and sore and full of come. Even so, she’d have a smile on her face. She was smiling now, in fact, through the pain and the hunger. Skyggen mirrored her expression of sheer joy. Mirjam screamed in agony and bliss, urging her ass back against Valon’s prick as he reamed her. It was horrible and it was so, so good. She pushed back against him. He never eased up once he was into his groove. Valon kept at her, pressing his thumbs deep into her ass cheeks while he dug his fingers into her hips.
With an explosion of approval, Valon lifted Mirjam clear off her feet and plunged his cock deep inside her ass. Clinging to his prick, she shrieked and pressed her eyes tight shut. Held aloft by Valon’s strong hands, her feet dangled over the floor. She started to slip. She tried to dig her fingernails deeper into Skyggen’s hands, but she somehow lost them. When she opened her eyes, Mirjam found herself clawing at the bedc
overs. Had Skyggen abandoned her? Or was she hiding under the bed?
Setting Mirjam’s feet on the floor, Valon pulled out, but he didn’t leave. He took a few steps to the side as Mirjam rose upright and gazed across the room. Now she could see. She could see Skyggen’s brightly-coloured clothing strewn across the floor on the other side of the bed.
‘Look up,’ Valon said, pointing to the cream plaster. He seemed in awe. ‘Look at the wall.’
As she did, Mirjam realised that, for the first time since she’d come to this country on holiday, she cast a shadow. It wasn’t perfectly black, she noticed, but a shade of dusty grey. It was taller than Mirjam, and its reach exceeded her grasp. ‘Skyggen,’ she mouthed. The word was silent.
‘So you were telling the truth after all,’ Valon mused, watched her naked body against the fire. ‘And Skyggen was the liar.’
Mirjam reflected for a moment before answering, ‘I suppose so.’
When she spotted Skyggen’s eccentric hat on the floor, she was overtaken with glee. Rushing past Valon on the pads of her feet, Mirjam picked it up and set it on her head like a vintage costume. A keen grin broke across her lips as she turned to look at Valon. He’d lost his fiancée to Mirjam; he’d need a new one. He’d need a woman who could fill her shoes. ‘Well?’ Mirjam asked, cocking Skyggen’s feathered hat. ‘What do you think?’
Lord Nano’s Nemesis
by Slave Nano
‘I trust everything was to your satisfaction, your Lordship?’
I have emerged from the upstairs boudoir where I have spent a pleasurable couple of hours indulging my sexual urges in the company of two of Madame Linda’s finest whores. When I am in Leeds on business I always visit my favourite brothel at the sign of the Black Bull. I find it the ideal way to relax after dealing at the Corn Exchange to avail myself of the distractions of the city.