A Dark Autumn

by Kristopher Rufty

  Michelle didn’t know what to say, but felt she should say something. She settled for, “I’m sorry…”

  “Don’t be,” Helen answered. “I survived. I learned.” She sat up, finished off the drink in her cup. “Look what I found in his backpack on the way over here. I was looking for a lighter for Amanda in the car and found these…” Helen grabbed the backpack, sat it on the ground between her legs, and unzipped the front pocket. She buried her hand in up to the wrist, and when she pulled it back she had a baggie of white pills the size of jelly beans. “Do you know what these are?”

  Michelle shook her head.

  “Hard-on pills. The fucker couldn’t even get it up without medication. Now, let me ask you something. Why would a man going into the woods with a bunch of other men need dick medicine?”

  Michelle could think of no reason, but tried to guess. “He…uh…well…”

  “Because he was a closet faggot, that’s why. Going out to the woods to prepare for the future must have meant learning how to shoot guns and fuck other men’s assholes. That son of a bitch. He needed these pills to fuck me too, I guess, because he preferred the feel of a man’s asshole stretched around his cock…”

  “I don’t think he was…”

  “Don’t you tell me what you think he was doing. I saw the websites he looked at on his computer. Sick, sick stuff. Barely legal, teenage boys, doing things in these videos that would make you shit. He went to a doctor about his dick problem, and the quack told him it was stress causing it. Stress my ass.”

  “Helen, you didn’t deserve what you were put through…” Michelle stopped talking when Helen held up her hand.

  “Don’t feel sorry for me. It was a learning experience.” Helen lowered her head, letting the talking stop.

  Michelle wanted to do something, to say the right thing that would bring this party back to the guiltless fun it had been before. Seconds ticked by like minutes in the tranquil night, until she finally couldn’t handle it anymore. She was going to hug Helen, let her get it out, whatever it took, she would hold her until Helen cried herself dry. As Michelle curved her arm around Helen’s shoulders, she sprung to life, whipping her head around with her eyes wide.

  And yelled, “Boo!”

  Michelle jumped back. Her scream carried through the trees.

  Chapter Nine

  Ricky dropped the chopped log when he heard the scream. He turned around, gazing at the darkened woods across the yard. Listening. It was faint, but recognizable enough that he discerned it as female. Why would a woman be screaming in the woods at this hour? He put his hands on his hips.

  He frowned.

  Ricky slowed his breathing until all he could hear was the steady chorus of wildlife around the lake. His heart rapped against his chest, making a vibrating pulse in his throat. Shaking his head, he decided to ignore it, and finish doing what he’d come outside to do—getting wood for the fireplace. He’d been unable to think of anything else except for lying on the rug in front of the fireplace, and drinking some red wine he’d brought from home. He’d promised himself he would not get drunk, because he feared he’d begin feeling sorry for himself, become paranoid, and start calling Ted so that he’d convince him that he still loved him. It would be bad for their already strained relationship.

  More sounds resounded from the woods. Female. He wasn’t certain, but it sounded as if there were more than one tone. Which was odd to him, since the only female he knew of being out here was Michelle. She hadn’t said anything about their being others around, so why had he heard the slight ricochet of multiple voices? What if Michelle’s hurt? He could picture the pretty thing out for a late night stroll, slipping on a broken branch, or tripping over an exposed root, and breaking her ankle. It was totally fathomable. But that didn’t explain the other voices.

  What if she came across someone in the woods she had no business finding?

  That also seemed possible, but not likely. Still…it could happen.

  Sighing, he turned his back on the woodpile, again focusing his attention on the woods. He would not be able to sleep tonight unless he knew Michelle was not in any danger.

  On his way back to the cabin for a flashlight and coat, he decided he would walk the path back toward her cabin, if he found her along the way, he’d help her, and if not, he’d just mosey up to where she was staying, tap on the door, and check on her.

  He saw no problem in that, and he hoped he wouldn’t be intruding on her.

  Chapter Ten

  “So, how are things going with you and your man,” Helen asked Michelle.

  After nearly peeing herself from Helen shouting Boo in her face, Michelle guzzled another drink to calm herself. Amanda and Lucy, although they’d been startled too, had begun heckling her over her reaction. Thankfully, the attention had turned away from it and Helen’s troubled married life onto less stressing topics.

  “Good,” Michelle answered.

  “Just good?”

  “As good as they can be, I guess.”

  Amanda and Lucy traded looks.

  Michelle noticed. “What was that?”

  Lucy shrugged. “You said you guess, and that usually means something’s wrong.”

  “No, no. Everything’s fine.”

  “Can he fuck?” asked Helen, bluntly.

  Maybe it was all the alcohol she’d consumed, but Michelle hardly noticed. “Yeah, he’s pretty good.”

  “Just pretty good?”

  “Well, he makes me come.”

  Amanda clapped. “That’s a plus.”

  “Yeah, it is.” Michelle nodded. “But sometimes I want a little more, you know?”

  “A little more?” Amanda repeated, with confusion in her voice.

  “Yeah…”

  Helen swallowed some drink. “What does that mean? More guys? Girls?”

  “No, not more partners…I mean…He’d never go for that anyway.” The others laughed. “Just a little more…” She held her hands up like claws and quietly roared.

  “Ah,” said Lucy. “You want him to be more aggressive?”

  “Yes and no. I mean, I’m not one for being dominated…”

  “You want to dominate him,” said Helen.

  “Well…I guess so. Yeah.” Michelle remembered the one time she’d attempted dirty talk with Britt. It had been a complete disaster. He’d thought she’d been cheating on him with someone who enjoyed that kind of foreplay. She hadn’t been, but it was obvious that Britt did not care for it.

  “How would you dominate?” asked Amanda.

  “Oh… I don’t know.”

  Helen patted her on the back. “We’re all friends here. We won’t judge you. Tell you what… You tell me how you would dominate and I’ll tell you a fantasy of mine.”

  Amanda added, “We can all swap fantasies.”

  “Oh boy.” Lucy chugged half her cup.

  Michelle laughed. “Do you really want to hear this?”

  They did and told her so.

  “All right.” Michelle sighed. Was she really going to confess the fantasy that had replayed in her mind endless times? She supposed so. “Well…I’ve always wanted to tie him up, you know…on the bed. His hands up above his head, his ankles strapped down, but pulled tight so his legs are spread.” She held up two fingers as if giving the peace sign to indicate how Britt’s legs would be. “I have this outfit that I bought online…it’s a black leather corset, with fishnet garters, and an opening in the crotch area…”

  “For easy access,” stated Helen.

  Michelle nodded. She couldn’t believe she was telling them this. “Then—here’s where it gets a little weird—I would straddle him, but not on his cock…his stomach…and then slap him.” She held up her hand, palm opened. “Not hard at first, just playfully. Then I’d pull his head forward by the hair and make him suck on my nipples.” She felt a tingle between her thighs, moistening. The visions accompanying her story were turning her on. “I’d demand he nibble on them. By this time, he’d
probably be getting hard.”

  “Hell, I would be.” That was Lucy.

  Amanda laughed, nudged her with an elbow.

  “Well, I would!”

  Michelle continued as if Lucy hadn’t spoken. “Then I’d turn around, putting my ass up to his face so his mouth was right at my pussy. I’d push it against his lips, and order him to lick me. Then if he was a good boy, I’d lean over and suck his cock into my mouth.”

  “That’s fucking hot,” said Helen.

  “I’m not finished.” At first Michelle had been hesitant to tell the story, now she was eager to finish. “After sucking on him awhile, I’d turn around and grab his cock and put it inside me. Then as I rode him, I’d slap him some more.”

  “Hard?” asked Helen.

  “Hard as hell. I want to see my handprint on his face.”

  “Hell yeah.”

  “Then I’d really start riding him…slamming against him. And, then I’d…” She stopped, unsure if she should divulge this part.

  Helen nodded. “Go on.”

  “Okay.” Michelle took a deep breath. “See, sometimes when we’re fucking, Britt makes these gasping noises…and, when he does that, I find myself wanting to choke him so he’ll make them even louder. I love those sounds. So, as I’m riding him, I would wrap my hands around his throat…watch his mouth gasp open…his eyes close as he tried to breathe, and then I’d let go…let him get some air, and do it again.”

  “You are hardcore,” said Helen. “I fucking love it.”

  Michelle laughed. “I think I’m just weird.”

  “Nah, not at all. But I have question. What if he busted his load before you did?”

  Michelle laughed a cold laugh. “He’d better not.”

  Helen exploded with laughter. “Good fantasy. I don’t know if I can top that.”

  Amanda lighted a cigarette. “Shit, I don’t think any of us can.”

  Lucy looked troubled as she stared into the fire. “I wish we had hot dogs, marshmallows, or something…” The other girls erupted with laughter. “Well, don’t you? Wouldn’t that just be the perfect addition? Like a real campfire? Swapping stories while we snacked?”

  Michelle had to admit, she was getting a little hungry herself. She couldn’t recall having eaten anything since lunch.

  Helen added more vodka to her cup. “Well, I don’t think I can top it, but I’m sure as hell gonna try.”

  Amanda cheered. “You go, girlfriend!”

  Helen opened her mouth to speak, but stopped. Her brow creased. She looked past Michelle. “Did you hear that?”

  Michelle glanced over her shoulder. “Hear what?”

  “I thought I heard something over there.” She pointed to Michelle’s left, where the illumination from the camp ended and the black of the forest began.

  “Oh, please.” Amanda puffed on her cigarette. “We’re not falling for that.”

  “I’m serious.”

  Michelle strained her eyes. A furrow of white light raked across the trees, left and then down. Someone was on their way to the camp, and they were just a few feet away. “I see it too. It’s a flashlight.”

  Lucy and Amanda turned around. Lucy was first to speak. “Yeah, I see it. Who do you think it is?”

  Suddenly it hit Michelle who it was. Ricky. He’d probably heard all the noise and was coming to see what it was about. Her stomach began to sizzle, popping as the nervousness slurped up all the alcohol.

  Then like an angel coming into the light, he emerged from the shadows, just as gorgeous as he had been earlier. Michelle’s heart began to beat even harder.

  “Hi…” Ricky said, his voice edgy. He looked from girl to girl until his eyes settled on Michelle. “Hey, remember me?”

  Michelle nodded, smiling. “Yuh-yeah…”

  Helen turned to Michelle, giving her a look she understood. It said: And, why haven’t you told us about him?

  Ricky lowered the flashlight away from the girls. “Sorry to barge in on you all like this, but I heard some screaming, just wanted to make sure everyone was all right.”

  Before Michelle could reply, Helen blurted. “We’re fine. Just a few girls that haven’t seen each other in a long time. Partying it up.”

  He smiled. “That sounds nice. Well, I’ll let you get back to it. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

  Michelle was quicker this time. “You didn’t interrupt.”

  Helen added. “Nope. In fact, we would just love it if you joined us.”

  “Joined you? But you don’t know me.”

  Helen nodded toward Michelle. “You know Michelle, right?”

  He nodded. “We met earlier.”

  “Then that’s good enough for us. Have a seat.”

  Usually Michelle despised Helen when she got like this, but since it was Ricky she was trying to persuade into attending the party, she wanted to applaud her. She would have never had the courage to ask him herself.

  “I wouldn’t want to impose…”

  Helen put a hand to her busty chest. “It would be my pleasure if you allowed me to make you a drink to thank you for being a gentleman and coming to check on us ladies you thought were in trouble.”

  Good one, Michelle thought. There was no way he could turn down that offer.

  And he didn’t. “Okay, maybe just one, if you don’t mind.”

  Chapter Eleven

  By his fourth Helen Sour, Ricky was talking comfortably and quick. After each drink he’d relaxed a little more, and the conversations had become much easier to carry on. He sat on the same log as Michelle but with Helen separating them. Michelle found herself getting lost in his eyes, or his smile, instead of paying attention to some of the stories he told, but when she heard the others laughing at an apparently funny part she would quickly do the same.

  He went to take a drink, but pulled the cup back. He looked confused, disappointed.

  “Empty?” Helen asked.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I can’t believe I drank it so fast. You make them good.”

  It looked as if Helen was blushing. “Please… I bet you say that to all the ladies you stumble upon in the woods.”

  He laughed.

  Amanda had been chain smoking. She lit another one before asking, “So, Ricky, what do you do for a living?”

  He seemed tentative to answer. “Well…I usually don’t go around announcing it.”

  “Are you a spy?” Amanda asked.

  “No, no, he’s a secret agent.” Lucy said, laughing.

  Helen was mixing him another drink. “We’re just a few harmless girls. You can tell us if you want.”

  “I’m hardly a secret agent…”

  There it was again, Michelle noticed. Something in the way he said certain things. It took on another quality, as if there was a quirk to it.

  “I’m a writer,” he said, as if confessing he was a drug addict.

  Lucy and Amanda’s eyes widened, the lapping flames like little orange waves in their corneas.

  Michelle was impressed. Not only was he gorgeous, sweet and well-spoken, but a writer on top of all of that? What else could he do? Fly? She would not have been surprised had he sprouted wings and took flight before them. She was just about to comment on it when she noticed Helen reaching into her ex-husband’s backpack. The front pocket. When she extracted her hand, clutched between her fingers was a jelly bean-sized white pill. Michelle’s mouth opened to gasp, but nothing came out.

  Roger’s dick medicine as Helen had put it.

  Helen saw her watching, winked, and took to crushing the pill between her fingers. Flakes and grits of medication dropped into the cup.

  Ricky, as well as Amanda and Lucy, was oblivious to this. They had begun asking him questions about writing. Turned out he wrote books, fiction novels, but wasn’t ready to inform them of what kind.

  Using her finger to mix the drink, Helen leaned over, putting her lips to Michelle’s ears. “In less than ten minutes, he’ll be so hard that it hurts. We’re getting laid tonigh
t sweetheart.”

  Michelle knew she should knock the drink out of Helen’s hand. It was wrong to do what she was planning, so incredibly wrong. This was no better than being in a bar and someone slipping something in her drink when she wasn’t looking, only to catch up to her later after she’d passed out and take advantage. Helen was planning to take advantage of Ricky by giving him a painful erection that would need to be relieved. What better way to relieve it than by doing four horny women?

  What the hell are we doing?

  Helen interrupted Ricky to give him his drink. Holding it in his hand, he stared down into the cup. For a brief moment Michelle thought some of the pill hadn’t dissolved, and he’d noticed little chunks floating in his drink. But he smiled and gulped some down. They were in the clear…with him anyway.

  Lucy and Amanda had both caught Helen whispering to Michelle. Amanda spoke first. “What are you two up to over there?”

  Michelle felt heat on her cheeks and it wasn’t from the fire. “What?”

  “You two have a look about you…”

  “What kind of look?”

  Lucy finished. “Like you’re up to no good.”

  Helen laughed.

  If Ricky had heard any of this chat, he didn’t let on. He took a sip, swished the drink in his mouth, then swallowed. “I should probably make this my last one for the night. I need to get back to my cabin soon and get to bed. Got work to do tomorrow.”

  “Awww,” said Helen. She put her hand on his thigh and rubbed. “I don’t like the sound of that. I don’t think of any of us do.”

  No one did and they let him know it.

  “You girls are so sweet…”

  Ten minutes later Ricky had finished the drink, and was shifting uncomfortably on the log. While the girls talked about this and that, Michelle observed him secretly. She was careful not to be noticeable to everyone else. When she caught him adjusting the bulge in his pants, she couldn’t stop the smile that spread on her face. But there was a nudge in the back of her mind, something trying to get her attention. Guilt. It was the guilt over what Helen had done trying to make itself prominent in her mind. She ignored it, pushing those feelings so far back she no longer noticed them.