Image of the Beast / Blown

by Philip José Farmer

  woman who brought the meals would sit with her and

  talk when asked to do so, and a man called Plugger and

  a woman called Panchita came quite often. Occasionally,

  the fantastically beautiful Vivienne Mabcrough would

  drop in.

  "They talked to me about many things, but they also

  asked many questions about you," Sybil said. "Mostly

  what I knew about your childhood, although they also

  wanted to know about your personal habits, what you

  read, your dreams—imagine that, your dreams!—and

  other things I might just happen to know because I was

  your wife."

  Sybil had seen nothing damaging to Herald in this.

  Besides, her drive to honesty almost forced her to give

  them complete answers. Or that was her rationalization.

  After a while, she began to suffer from sexual depriva-

  tion. Her nipples swelled whenever they touched cloth.

  Her cunt itched. She found herself sitting with her foot

  under her and rocking back and forth on the heel or

  rubbing up, against the bed post or the back of a chair.

  She even kept a banana from her meal and masturbated

  with it.

  "If it's any consolation to you," she said, "I fantasized

  that you were my lover. Mostly, that is."

  He did not ask her who the others were. Actually, he

  did not care anymore. And that was strange, because he

  was feeling a genuine warmth and affection for her, per-

  haps even a love. He was happy to see her again and to

  be with her.

  Sybil may have changed but she had not changed

  completely. She still had to tell him everything.

  "You needn't be jealous of the other man," she said.

  "He doesn't exist. He's a fiction. Can you guess who?"

  "This isn't exactly the time for guessing games," he

  said. "But no, I don't know who you imagined at the

  other end of the banana."

  "Tarzan!" she said.

  "Tarzan? Oh, for cripe's sake! Well, why not? Bananas,

  big dongs, and all that. It only stands to reason that the

  superman of the jungle would be heavy hung."

  He was sarcastic, but he was also surprised. There

  were still things about her he did not know. Tarzan!

  There might have been a closed circuit TV monitoring

  her, she said. Otherwise, why would Plugger enter that

  evening and tell her she did not need to suffer anymore?

  Plugger was a tall, rangy man with a deep tan, black

  hair which came down in a widow's peak, somewhat

  pointed ears, and a very handsome face. He stood before

  her and stripped while she asked him what he thought he

  was doing, though she knew well enough.

  "He had a beautiful body with the smoothest skin,

  almost like glass. But his cock was big. Not enormous,

  just big and thick and it had the biggest knob at the end

  of it I've ever seen. I don't mean the glans. That was big

  enough, but he had a growth, I guess you could call it a

  wart, on the side of the head. I told him that really turned

  me off."

  "You sound as if you were pretty cool about the whole

  thing," he said.

  "Well, I was suffering. The banana was a long way

  off from being perfectly satisfactory. Or perfectly satis-

  fying. And he was a hell of a good looking man, and he

  had talked with me enough so that I rather liked him,

  even if he was my warden. So I just told myself, you

  know, the cliché, if you have to be raped, lean back and

  enjoy it."

  "Really?" he said.

  "Well, not really. I was scared. But then he said he

  wouldn't force me. That helped relax me a lot."

  Plugger sat down by her and kissed her. She tried to

  turn her head away, but he turned it gently back. She

  protested that he was forcing her, and he replied that he

  only asked for one kiss. If she did not like it, he would

  not kiss her again.

  That seemed fair to her, really more than she had

  expected. After all, if he wanted to rape her, he could.

  She lifted her face to him at the same time that he put

  her hand on his cock and his tongue into her mouth.

  The shock that went down her throat and up her arm

  was almost as if she had touched an electric eel.

  "I mean, it was something like an electrical shock but

  much weaker. I had an orgasm in my throat and up my

  arm."

  Childe jumped up and said, "What?"

  "Yes, I know. It sounds crazy. But it was true. I came,

  I mean you know, when I come, I come with my whole

  body. But the ecstasy was denser, I mean, more intense,

  in my mouth and throat and in my hand and arm."

  He did not say anything more. His experiences with

  Igescu's crew had opened doors to an exotic enough

  world. Plugger was one that he had not experienced, and

  he supposed that there were many other outré beings in

  that group.

  Sybil had not resisted when Plugger took her robe and

  negligee off. She had allowed him to move her onto the

  bed, where he got between her legs and thrust his tongue

  into her cunt. It was like a spark in a cylinder full of

  vaporized gas. Orgasm after orgasm exploded in her. And then they began building up more slowly, building until she could endure the exquisiteness no more and felt that she would faint.

  While she lay panting and moaning with the after-

  math, he climbed onto her and pressed her breasts

  around his dong. The same shock passed through them;

  the ecstasy was so intense she could see—but of course

  it was imagination—blue sparks sputtering from the tips

  of her nipples.

  "The funny thing was, his prick was soft," she said.

  "Even when he stuck it into my mouth, and transmitted

  that electrical come, it stayed soft."

  "He didn't come in your mouth?" he said. "I mean,

  spermatic fluid?"

  "There wasn't any jism, no. I mean, that shock, you

  might say, was a sort of electrical come."

  She had gone into a series of orgasms, one after the

  other, so fast that she could not count them.

  After this, he kissed her all over, and every inch of her

  skin felt a minor orgasm until he stuck his tongue up her

  anus. That almost lifted her off the bed, and she did faint

  after that orgasm.

  She was silent then, as if dwelling with great pleasure

  on the memory.

  Childe finally spoke. "Well, did he ever stick his prick

  in your cunt?"

  He had not meant to sound so harsh but, for the first

  time, he was jealous.

  "No. I tried to get it in even after he said it was no use.

  It kept doubling back and falling out. But I got orgasms

  through my hand while I was trying to do it. I said I was

  sorry I couldn't do something for him. He said it did not

  matter; he was more than satisfied. I guess that I wasn't

  far wrong when I said his come was electrical. He had a

  high-voltage jism, you might say."

  She had questioned him about this phenomenon, which

  became frightening when she recovered enough to think

  about it. He repli
ed that he was built differently, and he

  got up, picked up his clothes, and walked out.

  He came every four days after that. She asked him

  why he did not visit her more often, and he said it took

  time for him to build up a charge. She took him literally,

  but she was beginning to get frightened again. What kind

  of weirdos were these? However, when he touched her,

  her fright went away.

  After about five visits from Plugger, two women,

  Panchita and Diana, came to her room. They talked for

  a while and left. Every few days, they would drop in.

  Then, one afternoon, Panchita asked her if she would

  like some pot. Sybil was very eager to get some, because

  it would help to pass the many dull moments. All three

  lit up.

  "But it wasn't real pot," she said. "It smelled something

  like pot, but it must have been something else. It really

  turned me on, but it also made me very suggestible. I

  think it had some hypnotic element in it."

  "Really?" Childe said. He anticipated what she was

  going to relate.

  "Yes. I got pretty high, and all three of us were laugh-

  ing hysterically. I had completely forgotten that I was

  their prisoner and at their mercy. They seemed like very

  old friends and very lovable. In fact, uh, desirable."

  "They made love to you?"

  "Oh, yes. Panchita sat down by me and quite casually

  put her arm around my shoulder. The next I knew, she

  was cupping my breast with her other hand and then

  stroking my nipple. I felt a great deal of love—and lust—

  for Panchita. It seemed the most natural thing in the

  world. You know I don't swing that way, Herald. I have

  never had a homosexual experience in my life, not until

  then. In fact, the idea used to make me sick."

  Childe said nothing.

  She continued: "Diana, the tall blonde with perfectly

  enormous breasts, sat down on my other side. She started

  to kiss me while Panchita pulled up my negligee and

  began to suck on my nipple. I felt as if I was on fire. I

  tongued Diana's mouth while she tongued mine. And

  then I felt Panchita's mouth going down my belly. She

  kissed me all over there but stopped when she came to my

  cunt.

  "Diana lifted me up then and walked me over to the

  bed, where she took off my negligee. I got onto the

  bed and on my back and Diana and Panchita took their

  clothes off. They stood on each side of the bed and each

  took one of my hands and placed it against her cunt.

  They were dripping with lubricating fluid, sopping. I

  stuck a finger in each slit, and they moved their hips

  back and forth and jacked themselves off."

  "Is it necessary to go into such detail?" Childe said.

  "It's good therapy for me," she said. Her eyes were

  closed, and her head was leaning against the back of the

  sofa.

  The two women had climbed in beside her. Diana

  kissed and fondled her breasts while Sybil caressed

  Diana's left breast. Panchita again traveled down her

  belly with the tip of her tongue. After tracing a triangle

  around the pubic hairs with her tongue, Panchita got

  down between Sybil's legs. She spread them apart and

  then slid a pillow under her buttocks. The next Sybil

  knew, Panchita was running her tongue over her clitoris

  and sticking it up her cunt as far as she could. She kept

  at it until Sybil had an orgasm.

  "Then Panchita traded places with Diana, and

  Diana tongue-fucked me," she said. "Diana stimulated

  me better, I came about five times. Then Panchita got

  on top of me, and I licked her cunt and put my tongue

  up her slit and vibrated its tip against her clitoris. She

  came a number of times, after which Diana got on

  top of me. Diana came almost at once.

  "Then Panchita got down again and turned me on my

  side and licked my asshole while Diana licked my

  cunt again. When I had come a number of, times, we

  made a triangle, mouth to pussy, you might say, fingers

  up twats, and, and, it was wonderful!"

  "You say that even in retrospect?"

  "I didn't that night after they left. I cried, and I felt

  so disgusted and so dirty. The drug had worn off by

  then, you understand. But Panchita and Diana kept visit-

  ing me, and after a while, I quit having guilt feelings. I

  got to liking it. Why not? What's so bad about making

  love to women? Does it hurt anyone?"

  "No," he said. "Did their lovemaking lessen the effect

  of Plugger's?"

  "Not at all. Actually, if you were to rate orgasms

  on a scale, I'd have to rate him as Super A-Plus and

  theirs as B-Minus."

  "Next you'll be telling me that Plugger and the two

  women got into bed with you at the same time," he said.

  She opened her eyes and turned her head to look at

  him.

  "How'd you know that?" she said. "Pour me an-

  other cup of coffee, will you honey?"

  He passed her the full cup and said, "Did Plugger

  touch off the two women, too?"

  "Oh, yes. Once Panchita and Diana and I got down

  in a daisy chain, and he rammed his tongue up Panchita's

  ass. He said she had the sweetest asshole, which made

  me a little jealous. Would you believe it, all three of

  us felt the shock in our cunts and our mouths? That

  electricity or whatever it was passed through all of us."

  "I can understand your making love to the women the

  first time," he said. "You were under the influence of

  that drug you smoked. But you knew how it affected

  you, so why didn't you refuse to smoke it the next time

  they offered it to you?"

  "Like I said, I enjoyed it. Anyway, I didn't think about

  refusing it the second time. I don't know why."

  "Your mind shut down," he said. "You wanted to go to

  bed with them, so you just forgot how the stuff would

  affect you."

  "I'm not a compulsive Lesbian!" she cried. "I don't

  have any neurotic drive for women! I can take them or

  leave them!"

  "You just got out of prison, so how would you know?"

  he said. "However, that doesn't matter. Not now, anyway.

  How did they explain giving you a hypnotic drug when

  they said they wouldn't force you?"

  "They explained that they did not force me to smoke

  the pot, or what they called pot. And, later, they said I

  didn't have to smoke it now that I knew the effects."

  "You aren't hooked on the stuff?"

  "Absolutely not!"

  "Well, you may be right. Time will tell. I just don't

  understand their nonsadistic treatment. If you hadn't

  described certain people that I know so well, I would

  say that another group besides Igescu's had you."

  "What are you talking about? Another group?"

  "I'll tell you later about my adventures, if you can call

  them that."

  She continued with her story. He wondered if it was

  just that: a story. There was no doubt that she knew

  Panchita Pocyotl and Diana Rumbo
w and others and

  to do so she must have been held prisoner. But this

  sexual narrative? Had it really happened the way she

  said, or was she unconsciously concealing something more

  terrible? Has she suffered such traumatic handling that

  she was repressing it and substituting a fantasy? It did not

  seem likely, because she did not act psychotic, but then a

  psychotic often acted normally.

  If the Ogs, as Hindarf called them, had treated her

  relatively considerately, then they had some sinister end

  in mind.

  There was one confirmation of her story, he thought.

  That was that Vivienne Mabcrough had left her alone.

  "And then, one afternoon, this fabulously beautiful

  woman, Vivienne, came to my room," she said.

  "Oh?"

  Vivienne and Sybil smoked the marijuana-like sub-

  stance, with Sybil knowing well what was coming. The

  two made love, but the snake-thing remained within

  Vivienne's womb. Sybil was not aware of its existence,

  and Childe did not mention it.

  Vivienne came to Sybil many times after that, some-

  times alone and sometimes with Panchita or Diana or

  Plugger or with all three. Then Fred Pao, or his twin,

  showed up. Both only wanted to be sucked off, but when

  Sybil refused unless she was given something in return,

  they brought Plugger in with them. While Sybil stood in

  the middle of the room, bent over, sucking on Pao's long

  slim dick, Plugger pressed his electric cock against her

  anus or held its tip against her cunt. Sometimes, he got

  down on his knees and spread the cheeks of her ass

  and rammed his tongue up it.

  "Every prisoner should have it so good," Childe said.

  He was thinking of what had happened to Colben and the

  others and of what might have happened to him. But,

  now that he considered it, Igescu's group may not have

  been planning on mutilation and death for him. They

  seemed to have been aware that he was something

  special, if he could believe what Hindarf and Vivienne

  had said in their short conversation in English.

  However, they had been trying to kill him after he had

  escaped and killed some of them. This could have been

  from self-defense only, not from a desire to murder for

  the pleasure of murder.

  Mysteriouser and mysteriouser, he thought, para-