Midnight Squad: The Ties That Bind

by J. L. M. Visada

  I felt her pull her head back and whisper to Grim, “Take care of this.” I didn’t know what that meant, but suddenly the room got very cold. Grim’s weight shifted off the bed, and I peeked back. A black smoke started to actually come out from the pores of his skin until it looked like he was standing inside billowy black smoke. Then the smoke changed and became like cloth. Grim raised his hand up and a scythe just began forming. It started out as that same black smoke, but then took the shape of the scythe. The ghosts screamed and tried to flee back out of the room.

  “Stop!” Grim’s one word froze them. They were terrified. Grim made one fast slash with the scythe and they all exploded into flashes of light. Then without a second thought Grim turned back to me and smiled as the cloak and scythe dissipated into the air without a trace. Holy frijoles! I knew he was the horseman Death, but I’d never seen him use his powers like that. Up until now he only used one of his powers in front of us. He could call his horse from anywhere, and it just appeared up from the ground. I knew he could do other stuff, but to be honest the only power I’d ever seen, or wanted to see, was his horse. I loved the evening horsey rides he sometimes gives all of us.

  Now he was just standing there, nude. In fact we were all naked except for Katy. Everyone was so worried about me that they didn’t think to throw anything on, and now we were all just staring at each other. It was awkward. Grim turned around, and Niki covered her eyes, “Oh Jeez! Put that thing away before I’m scarred for life!”

  So, there we were. Grim’s manhood just kept flopping around; Niki was still wearing her strap-on. It was slick and shiny, and it looked like I’d interrupted Danika and Niki in the middle of their lovemaking. A glistening sheen of sweat covered them both. Penny was completely nude, and trying her best to comfort me, and there I was, still holding B.O.B. like a light saber. I was ready to defend myself against a threat that Grim had already dealt with easily. I think we were all a little embarrassed.

  “Okay, this is just freaky. Let’s all just pretend this never happened and head back to bed.” Katy grumbled and walked out.

  “Where is Janine?” Grim asked. Suddenly we were all aware that the ghost hadn’t showed up. Considering that I’d just been molested by ghosts, we were all suddenly very concerned about her. They all sped out of my room and down towards Janine’s room. I was at least able to cover myself with a blanket as I padded down after them.

  Grim went through the door first, and we were right behind. Danika blurted out, “Janine? Are you all right?” Oh she was all right. She was having the pervy time of her life. Janine was on her knees, and had every hole stuffed by ghost wangs, but that wasn’t all. She also had one in each hand. Other ghosts were actually sliding themselves through her body. It was obvious they didn’t actually need a hole, they could just slip themselves inside her, but maybe they just enjoyed getting to have sex just like they used to when they were alive. So they took her in the way they remembered, and then for everyone else that was left they just made their own access.

  Janine let go of one of the spooks and then pulled the dong out of her mouth, “Oh hi guys! Um, do you mind coming back a little while later? Not to be rude, but this really isn’t the type of party you guys would want to be a part of. You just won’t get the same kind of enjoyment.”

  I looked around. There were at least twenty specters riding each other in wild sexual abandon. Men with women, women with women, men with men and Janine right in the middle of it all. Grim reached over to the electromagnetic pump, and unplugged it. Almost immediately the ghosts started flickering and fading away.

  Janine frowned for a moment, and then said calmly, “Okay, what’s wrong?”

  After explaining to her that a few of her partygoers had paid me a visit, Janine started laughing. “It’s not funny!” I felt myself getting angry, but Janine just kept laughing.

  “Those losers? I’m sorry DD, but I just never pictured you doing bukkake. Did they at least say pizza delivery first?“ Janine actually fell over laughing.

  Penny hissed, “You know how wrong it is! Why are you laughing? If anyone should have sympathy for her, it’s you, or have you started forgetting how you became a ghost in the first place?”

  That froze Janine immediately. “I’m sorry. The pump may be turned off, but I’m still feeling the ambient energy it left behind, and it’s a little hard to concentrate. DD, I’m very sorry about what they did to you, but it’s actually a lot more common from ghosts than you’d think. You guys just can’t normally see them. You know those cold chills you get for no reason, or the sudden tingling sensation that sends all your internal alarm bells clanging away? That’s usually when a ghost is doing something to you.”

  “But you’re always so nice?” I asked.

  “I’m not the norm. You have to understand that most ghosts are walking the earth because they are afraid to crossover. That usually means they were pretty bad individuals. Time and the frustration of not really being able to interact, at least until they learn to start recruiting the energy around them, makes most ghosts pretty bitter, and often a little crazy. That’s how many of them become poltergeists.” Janine spoke calmly, but it was clear she really wasn’t comfortable discussing this.

  “So were you ever like them?” I asked.

  “In some ways yes, and in some ways no. Mercifully, I met a ghost that showed me how to recruit my energy early. God was truly kind in that he brought me to this other ghost. If I hadn’t have met him I’d have been a lot like the rest of the ghosts you saw.” Janine’s face was sad, and she began flickering in and out. The flickering was a clear sign that she was truly upset.

  “What happened to the other ghost…the one that helped you?” Niki asked.

  “He became a poltergeist.” Janine said sadly. “We all become poltergeists if we stay around long enough. The loneliness takes over. He watched over his entire family line, and as they each passed over, a little piece of his sanity went away. When his last descendant died with no heir, he just lost it. He even attacked me, and I’d stayed with him for twenty years. By then I was the much stronger spirit, and he never had a chance. To this day I’m not sure if he attacked me because he was completely crazy, or because he was too afraid to crossover on his own, and he knew he’d need to be forced.” Janine flickered like a strobe light.

  “So you?” Grim questioned.

  “I devoured the last remaining bits of his life energy. It is the energy that we use to cling to this world. All you need is the tiniest spark to hold on, but once it is gone you are dragged off to wherever it is that you belong. Heaven or Hell, and you can’t fight it anymore. There is just a flash, and then poof…like magic.” Janine hung her head in shame, but all I could think about was the fact that she’d just admitted to performing some weird kind of cannibalism. The ghostly former nun looked up at me and said, “I’m really sorry.”

  Penny stated, “Well, we need to destroy this thing. The last thing any of us need is to wake up with one of your new friends on top of us.”

  Janine gasped, “Please don’t! For a lot of them this is the first real interaction they’ve been able to have in years. Just being able to interact with anyone really helps them keep their sanity. I’ll make sure they all know not to mess with you guys.”

  “Or anyone else?” Grim asked.

  “Well, why not just ask fish to tap dance! Come on! We’re ghosts. Screwing with people is like breathing to us. If we’re able to interact with the living, then it becomes one of the few ways we keep our sanity. Laughter truly is the best medicine, and of course sometimes we take it too far. Sometimes we might grope, or fondle, or even attempt to have sex with you, but if you never really know we’re doing it, and it doesn’t actually hurt any of you then what’s the problem? What we are doing when we have sex with you is really more like masturbation, at least until we get strong enough to make ourselves solid. Then we can have actual sex, but usually ghosts that powerful are careful to not draw too much attention. If they have sex
with you, they try to make it seem like a really great dream. I leave you guys alone, for the most part, because you’re my friends, but everyone else is fair game.” Janine explained it to us carefully. After hearing her, I still wasn’t happy, but I could understand. The electromagnetic pump was turned back on, and we all received a standing ovation from the twenty or so ghosts in the room. “Thank you.” Janine smiled.

  Niki and Danika went back into their room. I felt bad that I’d interrupted them. Penny and Grim followed me back to my room. Grim was able to get the door back in place. It wasn’t easy, and now it stuck so that you had to fight to get it opened and closed. I was still pretty rattled, and so they decided they’d stay with me so I wouldn’t be so scared. Grim went down and got some pajamas for Penny to change in. She sat on my bed while I put on a nightshirt and panties. Then I slipped on some silk boxers. It was a little dumpy, but really comfortable.

  Grim walked in wearing sleep pants, and a t-shirt. I felt a little let down that he was wearing a shirt. I kind of hoped for a shirtless Grimmy. Beggars can’t be choosers, I suppose. He tossed Penny her bed clothes. I expected leather, and feathers. Something that screamed sex and blood and all the things your mother told you were wrong. Instead she slipped on a pair of baggy shorts that hung to her knees, and an oversized shirt to sleep in that hung down past her knees. I read the shirt, and started laughing. It had Bela Lugosi holding Edward Cullen’s bloody head, and beneath that it said, “The sparkling ends now!”

  “Where did you get that shirt? It is awesome!” I laughed.

  “Grim bought it for me. It combines my absolute love for Bela Lugosi, with my complete hatred for all things Twilight. Vampires are predators, not whiny emo bitches! Could you imagine if they did that to other monsters? What if they did that to zombies? They’re dead, but sensitive, and they all look like underwear models. Sure, they’ll eventually decay, but they’ll be sexy doing it, and…they shit rainbows. There’s even an adorable leprechaun and his pot of gold at the end. Of course the leprechaun also gets the Twilight treatment. So he has a six pack, perfect hair, and looks damn sexy swinging his shillelagh. You’d almost forget that he came out of a zombie's ass covered in rainbow colored shit.” Penny was trying to distract me from thinking about earlier in her own bizarre way, and I really did appreciate it.

  Before they went to bed, Grim and Penny both kneeled down and said their bedtime prayers. They were quiet, but I could see their mouths move. They looked like any normal, really religious couple. It was just your average God-fearing couple consisting of a blood sucking vampire, and her devoted and loving horseman of the apocalypse. When did my life get so weird?

  Penny slipped into one side of the bed, and then patted for me to take the middle as she laughed, “DD sandwich.” I practically dove into the bed. Some of it was that I was scared and wanted to be safe, and some of it was that I was about to have the two people I absolutely drooled over sharing my bed. Grim flopped into the bed, and turned onto his side to give us more room. They both curled up around me. Grim was warm, and Penny was room temperature. Penny popped her head up, “I love you.”

  “I love you, goodnight.” Grim said sweetly. Penny snuggled in, pressing her breasts against me, her head flopped down next to my ear, and she was out. Grim snuggled in and wrapped one big arm over us both like we belonged to him. I felt a real odd sense of comfort when he did that. It was like I belonged with them. I sighed a little, my body just relaxing and enjoying the group cuddle. That’s when I realized I was laying where Penny had been sitting, and apparently where she had been draining from her sex romp with Grim. I wanted to complain at first, but if I complained they might leave, and so I decided it was worth it. Grim was already snoring lightly, and suddenly I felt something hard poke into my hip.

  Grim was fully erect, and straining his clothing. I could feel the thick head against my hip. He gave a soft little groan and pressed himself against me. So Penny was asleep with her breasts pressed against me like two soft pillows, and Grim was grinding himself into my hip while he slept. The wet spot wasn’t even unpleasant anymore. I suddenly realized this might be what it would be like to sleep with them every night. I felt my nipples harden painfully. Penny woke up for just a moment, and went to use my mouthwash. Then she came back and curled into the crook of my arm. She put one arm over me, and caressed Grim’s jawline. “He’s a really good man.”

  I smiled and nodded. Then Penny looked at me and said, “You’re a really good friend.” Then she kissed my cheek and snuggled her face up beside my ear. She went limp with her hand across me. Grim moved a little, and his hand came to rest on one of my breasts. His movement slid Penny’s arm back a little, and her hand stopped on my other breast.

  Grim mumbled something, and then gave my breast a gentle squeeze. I couldn’t help myself. I moaned, and almost immediately was soaking through my panties. I felt him grind into my hip some more. I suddenly realized I was in my own private hell. Surrounded by the two people I wanted, but couldn’t have, laying in the evidence of their lovemaking, and Penny saying my name as she came kept dancing around in my head. What did that mean? Had I just imagined that part, or had she really been thinking of me as she toppled into that last orgasm? I know she must have heard me masturbating. I was pretty sure I’d have no sleep tonight, and the only consolation was that I’d have this night to remember for the rest of my life, and B.O.B. would be put to some serious use the first moment I had alone.

  Chapter 9

  Somehow in the night I drifted off to sleep. I woke up alone. The only proof of last night was that my nightshirt had a crusty spot in it from sleeping in the wet spot. I showered, and got ready. We had a long day ahead of us. The demonstration was early today, and then we’d have the furry convention when we got back.

  We all loaded up in the van and drove to Tyndall Air Force Base. On the way there Grim started giving us a lesson on the base. The man really knew his military history. It’s funny, when I think of Grim, I never think of him like this as an intelligent man that knows almost everything about his chosen profession. I always think of him as the sly horndog, or just that sneaky kind of smart. He’s always the goofy hornball with a twisted sense of humor, but as we drove to the base I got a glimpse of the man in his element. It’s something I really hadn’t seen much of since he joined us. Of course we weren’t really soldiers, and that meant he’d really had to adapt to working with us.

  “Tyndall Air force Base was named after 1st Lieutenant, and Silver Star recipient, Frank Benjamin Tyndall. The man shot down six enemy airplanes. It currently holds the 325th Fighter Wing, which provides air dominance training for the F-22 Raptor pilots. The 325th trains air battle managers. The base also uses F-15’s, F-16’s, and F-22’s for NORAD, The North American Aerospace Defense Command. Tyndall is headquarters for the First Air Force and is part of Air Combat Command. It is made of Active Guard and Reserve Guard, and Reserve Technicians. They handle surveillance, and direct the sovereignty activities for America.

  Tyndall Field opened as a gunnery range on January 13th in 1941. Over the years the French and Chinese have both trained here. Even today there are foreign soldiers receiving their weapons training at this base. Heck, even Clark Gable was trained here. The place went from being a gunnery school to an air force base when the U.S. Air Force became a separate service in 1947. In the 1950’s and 1960’s it trained interceptor pilots, and even served as a place to refuel during the Cuban Missile Crisis.” Grimmy was going over facts and figures, training programs, and even other little notable facts. I was stunned that the man could know all this just off the top of his head. Frankly, seeing this side of the man was kind of arousing. I was so used to seeing him being a big goof, that I’d almost forgotten where his roots were.

  We pulled up to the gate, and standing in front of it were protestors. “Fucking hippies.” Niki grumbled. The protestors were glaring right at us, and so I did my best not to laugh. They were blocking the entryway and chanting some anti-war stuf
f. It was all of that typical “you can’t hug with nuclear arms” kind of stuff. I tended to sympathize with them, but I also sympathized with my pocketbook and so we still needed to get past them to give the demonstration.

  They refused to move, and so we went to a parking lot across from the base. Grim and Penny were already wearing the body armor, so we just slipped out of the car and started walking back to the base. The protestors waved signs and tried to stop us, but Grim, Penny, and Danika just pushed them out of our way, but at least they were gentle and polite about shoving the protestors around.

  One woman slipped around Danika and started screaming in my face that we were murderers, and it was at that point I tuned them out. If I listened to any more of it then I’d get upset, and we all needed to be on our best for this demonstration. A good performance today would mean that we’d have money just come rolling in.

  It was a fairly long walk on the base until we reached a hangar where the training was going to be held. Once inside, Grim and Penny started loosening up while the rest of us discussed the parameters of the demonstration. There were several high ranking military men waiting to see the demonstration, but I already knew that the success or failure of this demonstration rested on the opinion of General Garrett. He was an older man, with steely blue eyes, and a chin that probably used to look like it was etched in stone, but now he was older, and heavier. That powerful chin was working on the beginnings of a second chin. He wasn’t really fat yet, but he was starting to get a little soft and doughy in his old age. It made him look more approachable, but those eyes still made it pretty clear he wasn’t someone that wanted to make idle chit-chat. Even still, I was glad we had made Penny’s armor look the way it did because the other generals were too busy ogling her to ask any really tough questions, and that just left General Garrett and me to hash out the details. He was a no nonsense kind of man, and so I gave him all the facts. I could tell he wasn’t completely sold on the armor’s abilities, but I figured I’d let the demonstration convince him.