I cursed myself for taking the stairs.
Before Dinah had vanished into her bathroom in order to take a shower, I had told her that I was going to run down to my pickup and grab some fresh clothes. She had told me to take her key along and then pointed out that it would be quicker to take the elevator, but I only ever used those foul contraptions when I was with other people who insisted.
For those who have never sat through any of my other tales, I’ll make this as brief as possible: I’m not a fan of modern technology. I despise most of it. Yes, advancements in human civilization are good, but I was born in a time without cellphones and the internet. I learned to do things from an archaic place referred to in the annals of history as a “library,” and while others waste a third or more of their lives with their faces buried in a phone or computer screen, I like to actually enjoy what’s going on around me.
Maybe I get it from my grandmother on my father’s side, but I’m kind of a stickler on the old ways. Most people find that quirk annoying, but I don’t see what’s wrong with savoring everything life has to offer without the distractions of modern innovations. Besides, what has technology given us in the past few years other than longer load times and people who can’t listen to the person speaking in front of them for more than thirty seconds until interrupting said conversation by playing on their damn phones?
Well, perhaps in that moment, I should’ve put a little faith in contemporary engineering.
As I made my way up the staircases and back toward Dinah’s place, I found myself working up quite the sweat. Her building was extremely nice and I had some marvelous decorations to look at on my way, but it quickly became apparent that I was going to need another shower. There was no way I was going to soil her guest bed with my sweaty body.
Upon re-entering my gracious hostess’s apartment, I looked around and saw that the TV was still on mute. After pulling the door closed behind me and locking it as she had asked me to do upon my return, I glanced toward the hallway and could clearly see that the light was still on in the bathroom. I also realized she had apparently left the door partially open in order for so much light to be visible.
With my fresh clothes in my hands, I set the key down on the counter where she had told me to place it and then slowly made my way down the two steps. I sluggishly strolled through the open living quarters as I intended to head straight for the guest room. As I approached the open doorway, I could hear the brown-haired beauty humming as she continued to clean herself off. As I passed the lavatory, I did the exact opposite of what my brain told me I needed to do…and I couldn’t help but sneak a peek.
I’m not sure what Dinah would’ve done to me if she had caught me peeping on her in that moment. Logic would dictate that she would’ve thrown me back out on the street and let me chance a night in the big city with the other dregs of society on the loose, but at the same time, I almost wondered if she would’ve taken such an action as a compliment. Maybe having a man who was ten years her junior spying on her naked body with wide eyes and a dropped jaw would’ve turned her on. She had come off as somewhat flirtatious, so maybe she would’ve liked that.
I realized I was staring and quickly took two more steps so I was past the doorway. I then placed my back against the wall and leaned my head against it as I took in everything I had witnessed in the few seconds I had been gawking.
Thankfully, Dinah’s back had been to me as she washed up behind the other side of the glass. I had seen her entire backside…and I have to say that she had one of the most defined booties I had ever witnessed. Her ass was nothing short of phenomenal, and as I had guessed earlier, it was obvious that the woman worked out. I could actually tell that her arms and legs had some definition, and there was no doubt that a little muscle looked stunning on her. If I’m being completely honest, I’d be willing to bet that the woman would outlast a twenty-year-old male in the prime of his life in bed. She was one fine specimen of womanhood.
For the briefest of seconds, I actually thought about dropping the clean clothes I had fetched to the floor and pulling my pecker out right then and there in the hallway. It was already bulging beneath my pants and was begging me for a beating, and even a few strokes would be truly satisfying after how long it had been since I had last been with a woman. However, I wasn’t about to chance it not just because Dinah could emerge from her shower at any second, but also because running my hand up and down my hardening cock only once would probably be enough to cause the damn thing to erupt. I wasn’t about to leave a puddle of pudding in my gracious hostess’s hallway for her to step into and possibly slip on.
I hurried to my room and placed my clothes on the bed as I tried to erase the image of Dinah’s naked backside from my mind, but I was finding that to be harder than my dick currently was in my trousers. It wasn’t just because it had been so long since my last time with Cassie, but because the buxom brunette undoubtedly was a dazzling woman. There was no doubt in my mind that she could outshine a girl half her age, and if I saw her on the cover of a dirty magazine, I would’ve definitely dropped the cover price for said issue while leaving a tip for the clerk at the same time. The luscious cougar was without a doubt a bona fide babe.
While trying to think about anything that would make my dick settle down, it suddenly occurred to me that Dinah had left the door partially open. Was that by design? Had she thought that it would take me longer to fetch my things and figured she’d be done before I returned, or had she left the portal cracked open on purpose? Maybe she wanted me to see her…
“Marcus?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the beautiful woman call my name from the other room. After collecting myself, I shouted back, “I’m here, Dinah!”
“Oh! Good! I thought I heard you come in! I just wanted to make sure!”
If I had to guess, I was sure that she was standing by the doorway of the bathroom and just checking on me as she hollered my name. She was probably toweling off and making sure there wasn’t an undesirable roaming around her place.
“You did that quick…or else I showered slow!”
I turned around and thought I was going to have a heart attack when I laid eyes on the wet cougar standing in the doorway of my room. She had a maroon towel secured around her ample bust that went down to her mid-thighs. As she ran her hands through her wet locks to straighten them out, I could see droplets of water running down her incredible flesh of her neck and upper chest. I knew that the only thing under that towel was sublime nakedness…
“Did you find what you needed?”
I snapped out of my momentary stupor as Dinah combed through her hair with her fingers. I pretended like nothing was out of the ordinary even though a gorgeous woman I had just met was standing before me in nothing but a towel. “Um, yeah! I found something more comfortable to sleep in and grabbed some other clean clothes!” I’m sure I sounded overly happy considering all I had done was snag some fresh attire.
The buxom brunette couldn’t help but laugh at my delight as she told me, “Well, I’m going to go dry off and throw some clothes on! If you’d maybe like to talk some more or just watch some television for a bit, I would be up for either!”
My silent prayers weren’t being answered since the towel wasn’t falling. I suppose they had too much to hold onto with those gigantic bosoms.
“Oh, my!” The brown-haired beauty then exclaimed as she seemingly noticed something. She took a step forward and pointed out, “You weren’t kidding and you really did take the stairs instead of the elevator, didn’t you? You’re sweating profusely!”
I’m fairly certain that the perspiration wasn’t from my run up the stairs, but I didn’t tell my warmhearted hostess that. Instead, I quickly covered by saying, “Yeah. If you don’t mind, I’ll probably hop in the shower one more time. I don’t want to get your sheets sweaty.”
“No worries!” Dinah energetically said as she waved my misgivings off. She then turned to leave the room as I heard her voice trail off, “You just let me know if you’d like to hang out for a bit before you go to sleep!”
I must admit that in that moment, I was a little torn. I could tell that the seductive cougar really wanted to be around me before we both drifted off to slumber, but at the same time, I had no idea what kind of work schedule she kept. It was already getting a little late, and by the time we watched a show or talked for a bit…
I grabbed a shirt, a pair of boxers, and some plaid pajama pants from the clothes I had brought in and then made my way back down the hall and toward the bathroom yet again. I did my best to avoid looking in the direction of Dinah’s room as I passed it, but I couldn’t help but notice out of my peripherals that she had kept her door partially open. If she was indeed changing, she either trusted me not to look, or she was soliciting an invitation. As much as I would’ve enjoyed watching my juggy hostess battle her way into some clothes, I knew it would be best if I just continued on toward the bathroom.
*
For the second time in as many hours, I found myself standing beneath Dinah’s showerhead and letting the warm water caress my aging skin. Sure, I may have only been thirty, but there were days when I felt like I was sixty…and with good reason.
As mentioned earlier, I don’t really want to go into the details of why I never stayed in one place for long or why I felt like the lives of the women I cared for were constantly being threatened due to particular things I knew about that were going on in the world. I could write an entire book on the craziness I had witnessed, and if for even one second I ever thought I would be safe enough to inscribe the horrors I had seen and lived without fear of reprisal, it was something I’d give some serious thought. For the time being, though, I wanted to keep those nightmares to myself and do my best to remain in the “normal” world away from constant terror.
I glanced down at my penis and saw that it was still hard from what I had witnessed only minutes earlier. I was going to remain rigid for quite some time unless I could find a way to get Dinah out of my mind. Not that I really wanted her out of it, of course, but the fact that I could set a plate of food down on my dick and possibly balance it due to my stiffness would not go unnoticed for long by my gracious hostess if I didn’t take care of a little business.
Again, I’ve never been one for jerking off in showers, but I knew it wouldn’t take very long to drain my main vein of the semen it was aching to release. As the warm water continued to rain down upon me and massage my flesh, I placed my left hand against the wall for balance as I leaned forward ever so slightly while grasping my cock. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth as a memory of that adorable posterior popped into my mind, and then my hand was suddenly moving a mile a minute.
I grunted and groaned in delight as I felt my eyes roll into the back of my skull while picturing myself standing directly behind Dinah in the very shower where I was bathing. I imagined myself whipping up a hot load of freshly squeezed man-milk to crank onto her ample backside. I visualized the two of us standing in that shower, wet and dripping, as I fantasized about covering her bountiful butt in a gallon of creamy man-gravy. To see those buns coated in spunk as gooey rivulets ran down her athletic ass cheeks…
My jism erupted from my tip before I even had time to finish the thought. I actually wasn’t ready for the moment and nearly slipped, but I quickly regained my balance while firing off shot after shot in that fancy shower. I had intended to aim my dick downward and unload directly into the drain, but my first blast connected with the wall in front of me…as did the subsequent discharges.
“Shit!” I mumbled to myself even though it wasn’t the biggest deal in the world. It would be relatively easy to clean up, but I still wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss any of it. I had no idea how I’d go about explaining a wad of splooge on the wall if I failed to clean it and Dinah spotted it. How exactly would that conversation go…?
As I did my best to wipe the wall off, I couldn’t help but jump when I suddenly heard a knock at the bathroom door. “Marcus?”
I faced the direction of the unmoving portal and stared at it through the glass before me. “Yeah…?”
“I was thinking about making some popcorn to snack on before bed! Would you like some?”
What a wonderful person. She took me in, she showered me in kindness, and now she was offering to whip me up a snack. She was going to all this trouble for me…and I was jacking off onto her wall while picturing her in compromising positions. “Um, yeah! That would be great! That sounds really good, actually!”
“Awesome! Would you like butter? I like mine smothered in butter!”
I found that hard to believe since she was in such good shape, but at the same time, I wouldn’t have minded seeing her covered in liquid butter. I also realized in that moment that I still had a viselike grip on my penis. I released my hold as I shouted, “Butter sounds fantastic!”
“Great! I’ll go whip some up!”
I let out a sigh as I finished cleaning up after whipping up something of my own.
*
As I sat on one of the leather couches with Dinah huddling up next to me like she was fifteen instead of forty-one, I couldn’t help but watch her reach into the bowl she held and grab the popped kernels one by one as she excitedly placed them in her mouth while unblinkingly viewing the horror movie she had chosen for us to watch. We had the lights out and a blanket draped over our lower halves as I enjoyed the remaining hours of my thirtieth birthday.
On more than one occasion, I thought about slipping an arm around my new friend’s shoulders and pulling her close, but something stopped me from doing so each and every time the idea passed through my mind. I’m not sure why I didn’t allow myself to do so because I truly didn’t think the full-bosomed beauty would mind. Hell, she was burying her head in my side every time something scary happened in the movie, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say she wasn’t really frightened and was using what happened on-screen as an excuse to do so. The movie was too damn cheesy to actually be scary anyway.
“Oh, come on!” Dinah shouted at the TV in fake anger. “Don’t run out onto the parapet! You’ll be trapped out there! Come on!”
Sure enough, the victim on the television screen did exactly what my brown-haired compeer had warned her not to do…and promptly suffered the consequences for said action.
“Son of a bitch!” The sultry cougar playfully called out after witnessing the demise of yet another character. “How stupid can they be?”
I laughed along with the marvelous woman and reached down to grab a piece of popcorn. As I did so, I couldn’t help but think about how I would’ve much rather have grabbed a boob. I highly considered asking if I could do so, but I thought maybe Dinah would appreciate some spontaneity instead. I nixed the idea altogether when I realized I was being stupid and simply ate my popcorn.
Still, no matter how I looked at it, I knew I was as excited as a man could possibly be while still having his clothes on. Just sitting next to the woman had my blood coursing through my system. The dirty thoughts I had done my best to expel by jerking them out of me were returning in full force. It didn’t help matters that Dinah had switched to a tank top after her shower instead of a t-shirt. Hot damn, the cleavage she was producing was like gazing down into a canyon…a sexy canyon that a guy would love to shove his dick in and never pull it back out if that makes a lick of sense.
“How come the people in these things are always so damn dumb?” Dinah questioned as she placed another piece of buttered goodness in her mouth. “If these kinds of situations happened in real life, how many people would make the same mistakes?”
“I’m sure more than you or I would fain to believe,” I answered as I also popped a kernel in my mouth.
“Right?” Dinah retorted as she sat up a bit and went on, “I mean, after all the travails these people survive in these dumb horror flicks only to be offed an hour later by something so trivial…it’s stupid!”
I nodded my agreement and once again considered slipping an arm around my new friend. I don’t know why I was so torn about doing so. I clearly wanted to touch her and pull her close, but at the same time, I hadn’t convinced myself that she desired the same even though she had been so blatantly flirtatious. I was being just as foolish as the people in the movie.
“What if this kind of stuff existed in real life, Marcus?”
I was caught off guard by the brown-haired beauty’s sudden query.
“I mean, what if ghosts and ghouls actually existed in this day and age?”
My mind returned to a time nearly a decade earlier when I had seen that unexplainable shadow figure with Kaede. I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of other creepy shit she had seen since that time, and I found myself thinking about her and…
“Do you believe in ghosts, Marcus?”
I knew Dinah was far more intelligent than I would ever be, and I was convinced that she was only asking in order to get a small rise out of me. Maybe it would kick off a fun conversation topic that would lead to something more serious, or perhaps she wanted to see if I would retort with a humorous anecdote. I’m sure I surprised the hell out of her when I sternly replied, “I’ve seen one.”
The busty brunette dropped a couple pieces of popcorn into her cleavage.
At the exact same moment, both of us shifted on our spots on the couch until my gracious hostess stood up and began shaking her tank top. Both pieces finally fell to the floor, and I leaned down and picked them up for her. I would’ve loved nothing more than to pop them both in my mouth since they had been between her marvelous boobs, but I refrained from doing so since I didn’t want to freak her out.
“Thanks,” she said as I placed the popped kernels in her hand. She then set them on the coffee table in front of us before sitting back down and picking up the remote so she could mute the TV. Staring directly at me, the gorgeous female asked, “What did you see and where?”
I couldn’t help but notice how serious the mature woman had become. Just by studying her face for a couple of seconds, I could almost hazard a guess that she actually believed me, but I decided not to get ahead of myself as I told her, “Do you remember that girl I told you about named Kaede?”
Dinah solemnly nodded.
“Right before I turned twenty,” I started my sordid tale, “Kaede called me up one night and told me that she had heard about some haunted cabin in the woods. At the time, I thought it was nothing more than a bunch of hokum. It’s not that I never believed in the paranormal, but I’ve always been the kind of guy who has to witness something like that for himself in order to buy into it. I think a person can only see so many pictures and videos on TV or the internet before they get fed up with all the charlatans out there, but Kaede had always been a firm believer that there was more to our world than we ever realized. When she told me about the place she had discovered, she said she was going with or without me, and since I didn’t want to chance anything untoward happening to her, I decided to tag along.
“If I’m being perfectly honest, Dinah, I never believed going into that night that we’d see anything otherworldly. I thought we might hear a couple ghostly sounds and maybe be spooked by a raccoon or some other forest creature, but that night, I saw something that to this day, I still can’t explain. It was something…almost mystical in nature.”
Dinah didn’t peep a sound. She sat in silence and let me continue my tale.
“Kaede brought along a high-end camcorder for that time and did her best to try to capture any evidence she could on film. When we reached the cabin, it was just as run-down and creepy as I thought it would be, but again, the worst I thought we’d bump into was some vagrant whom I’d have to fight off since I wouldn’t want the bum harming my gorgeous friend. I wasn’t about to let Kaede be attacked.
“So anyway, we made our way into the place and found that it had been severely damaged over time. I think a combination of vandals and the elements had really done a number on it, and there was water damage in certain places that made the floorboards weak. I was more afraid of falling through the floor than of actual ghosts.
“After looking around upstairs and finding nothing, we made our way to the basement. There were four bedrooms down there that we thoroughly explored, but again, we found nothing of any significance. There were clothes and a few other items that I’m guessing dated back quite a few years, but nothing that stood out. The whole trip had been a bust, and I genuinely felt bad for Kaede since her hopes had been high.
“When we were about to leave, Kaede pulled me into one of the rooms we had already explored. At first, I thought that maybe she had heard something my ears hadn’t detected. I thought for sure we were about to see that raccoon or bat that would give us the fright of the night, but that wasn’t the case at all.” I scratched the back of my head as I wondered how to approach the next part of my story tactfully as I went on, “As it turns out, Kaede hadn’t heard anything…she just wanted to get frisky.”
The look on Dinah’s face never changed. She looked just as serious and attentive as she had throughout my entire tale.
“Well,” I cleared my throat as I gave the details of what had befallen us, “Lucky for me, Kaede decided that she was going to give me one of her mind-blowing blowies – say that ten times fast – and without hesitation, she started pulling my pants down and…well, you get the idea.
“So here I am, fresh out of school and about to turn twenty with my whole life ahead of me as this raven-tressed goddess sucks me off…and as I’m having the time of my life, I suddenly glance up and notice a shadow figure on the far wall across from me.
“You see, while Kaede had been pleasuring me, I had put her camera on night vision and wanted to pick up some naughty footage of her. I thought it would be hot to catch the memory on film, but when I straightened up while we were fooling around, I picked up more than I bargained for when I laid eyes on a dark apparition of a man…or at least I believed it to be a man. Whatever it was, I did the only thing I could think to do in that time and grabbed onto Kaede in order to pull her away from the ghost or disembodied soul or whatever the hell it was even though it was on the other side of the room.
“Again, I can’t be sure of what it was I saw that night. I knew with all certainty that it wasn’t a person, and I undoubtedly wasn’t seeing things. Kaede believed me right away, and when we replayed the footage later, she saw with her own eyes that I wasn’t lying. We both came to the conclusion that whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t something of this world.”
When Dinah could see that I was finished telling my tale, I almost thought for a second that her expression would crinkle into one of irony and she would start laughing at me as if I had been leading her on. I was somewhat surprised when she remained serious and sternly asked, “Where was this cabin at?”
“Southwest of here,” I informed her. “It was tucked back in some woods, and if I had to guess, I would say there was possibly a water source near it like a river or a waterfall or something.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I could hear it when we approached the cabin,” I told her. “I couldn’t see it since it was dark, but I could clearly hear it through the trees.”
Dinah stared directly into my eyes as she asked me, “Do you think that maybe your mind concocted that shadow figure and what you had seen was simply your imagination running wild on you in such a frightening place?”
I chuckled as I responded, “Dinah, I hope you don’t think me crazy, but I know what I saw…and at that time, I had actually been wishing for what you just said to be true! I prayed to everything I held dear that the figure had been nothing more than some figment of my imagination, but after we got the hell out of there, Kaede played back that footage multiple times…and not only did we see that shadow every time, but we heard it as well!”
“It spoke to you?”
I nodded since I could still hear that fiendish voice in my head ten years later. “Sure did. It said two words: ‘Tear’ and ‘stop.’”
“In that order?”
I didn’t think it really mattered, but as my brain cycled through the memories and I thought back to what Kaede had told me on the telephone after she heard the figure growl the word “stop,” I thought long and hard about when I heard it say “tear.” Even after all this time, I realized that I hadn’t forgotten a moment of what my raven-haired friend and I had gone through, and I specifically remembered that she had told me it said “stop” before I had erupted all over her face…but it said “tear” after the fact. I could clearly remember due to what I had witnessed in Kaede’s car that night and thanks to the spicy commentary she had given me on the phone the next day.
Dinah continued to stare at me as she patiently awaited my answer.
“No,” I finally responded in distant voice as I felt like I had just been hit by a lightning bolt. My memory edited the sequence of events together as I met my older friend’s incredulous gaze and said, “It would’ve actually been ‘stop tear.’”
For the longest time, Dinah didn’t say anything. We just sat there in the dark on that couch with a soundless television playing a cheesy horror movie roughly ten feet away from us. I’m not sure how long the silence pervaded the living room until she finally asked, “So you truly believe you saw something paranormal?”
In that moment, I was one hundred percent positive that Dinah thought I was crazy. I was still trying to comprehend why the voice had told Kaede and I to “stop tear” when I finally responded, “I have no other explanation for what happened that night, Dinah. If it wasn’t something paranormal, I don’t know what the blazes it could’ve possibly been.”
The brown-haired beauty caught me completely off guard when she suddenly lunged forward and threw her arms around me. She was like a boa constrictor as she squeezed the life out of me and buried her face in my chest. I had absolutely no idea what was happening…until I heard what sounded like faint sobbing below me.
“You have NO idea how long I’ve waited for someone to admit this to me!”
I still wasn’t exactly sure of what was going on, but having the marvelous woman pressed up against me the way she was had me excited in ways that I didn’t think were appropriate for the moment. I could feel her plentiful jugs pressed up against my stomach from where she leaned in on me, and her muscular arms actually started to tremble as she refused to let me go. I couldn’t help but place my arms around her and hold her tightly since she was obviously upset about something.
Doing her best to regain her composure, Dinah sniffled a few times as she blubbered, “Almost everyone I’ve ever met has mocked the very idea of ghosts, and even the ones who claim they believe in their existence tend to laugh about them when confronted by other nonbelievers! If they feel like they’re going to be ridiculed for their beliefs, they side with the majority and scoff at the existence of the paranormal…or if they’re asked point-blank about their beliefs the way I asked you, they laugh it off! Only a select few people have ever believed me!”
I was starting to understand what was going on better as the woman in my arms appeared vulnerable to me for the first time since I had met her. I gingerly pushed her away from me and looked into her eyes as I asked, “Have you seen something before, Dinah?”
Momentarily unable to meet my spheres, the brown-haired beauty seemed to shrivel up a bit as she wiped at her misty eyes and nodded her head. “Not so much seen, but felt…and it still haunts me to this day.”
“Literally or figuratively?”
Dinah sniffled again and finally met my eyes. “Figuratively speaking. Fortunately, it didn’t follow me home…but that incident has kept me from going out alone very often.”
I certainly didn’t want to revive any bad memories for the brunette bombshell sitting directly to my right, but I couldn’t help but ask, “Would you like to talk about it at all?”
Dinah did her best to laugh the incident off as she tried to cheer herself up a bit. “Is that really how you want to spend the final part of your birthday, Marcus? Do you want to listen to some old bat going off about how something strange happened to her two decades ago and still gives her nightmares to this day?”
“First things first,” I spoke up in a stern voice, “You’re anything but old. Just look at you!” I didn’t think she’d be offended, so I reached out and gave her left bicep a squeeze. “You’re in better shape than most twenty-five-year-old dudes…and you look far better than most twenty-year-old women!”
“Oh, shut up!”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I started to correct myself as I smiled at the sultry cougar. “Saying you’re hotter than most twenty-year-old women out there would be incorrect because I can’t think of a single one you aren’t hotter than!”
“Oh, Marcus!” Dinah exclaimed as she reached forward and playfully slapped my right arm. I was glad to see that she looked happy since witnessing her sobs had been heartbreaking.
I highly considered pouring on more charm and telling her it would be an honor to make love to someone of her caliber, but I refrained from doing so. I figured she would’ve taken it as a joke and it would’ve been okay to say, but it just didn’t feel right to do so in the moment. This will probably sound ironic coming from a guy like me, but I actually was picky about my taste in women. Some of my tales paint me to be a real man-whore – and maybe some people do consider me to be one – but I wouldn’t have sex with just anyone. I had to really care about the woman beside me to go that far.
It was in that moment when I realized I truly was that fond of Dinah.
Had I said what I wanted to say – even if it had only been in jest – I would’ve actually gone through with it if she had wanted to. The woman was not only kindhearted and an absolute knockout, but she had a brain in her head that would’ve kept intriguing conversations rolling from now until the end of time. The fact that she managed a theatre also appealed to me since I had always enjoyed the arts, and I knew that we’d find plenty of ways to entertain each other that didn’t have to revolve around sex. She was the total package.
Instead of cracking a vulgar joke, I decided to steer things back on track as I sternly told the beautiful brunette, “Dinah, if it’s okay with you, I want you to tell me about what happened to you. I want to know so if there’s even the smallest chance that I can somehow help you, I will. I want to be here for you the same way you were there for me this afternoon.” Without meaning to, I think I choked the wonderful woman up a bit.
Fighting back her tears, Dinah placed her left hand on my right thigh and gave it a squeeze. She rubbed her nose with her free hand and smiled in my direction again as she jested, “I still say it’s a hell of a way to spend the last part of your birthday!”
“Hey, I’m spending it with a beautiful woman, so I feel like I’m coming out a winner!” I had to charm her a bit.
After giving my leg one final squeeze, the brown-haired beauty released her hold on me and made herself comfortable. She took a deep breath before beginning, “Well, it was about half a lifetime for me ago. I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you, but I’ve always been a sucker for theatre and the arts. When I finished my schooling, I decided to go to college in pursuit of becoming a world-famous playwright…and I guess you can see how that turned out for me since I certainly don’t have any fame in this world of ours!”
I laughed along with the mature woman as I informed her, “I don’t think it’s necessarily about becoming famous, Dinah. Do you realize how many great books are written every year that never see the light of day because people either don’t bother to publish them or because the publishers themselves are too snooty to give unknown authors a crack at the limelight?”
“True,” Dinah agreed, “But back when I turned twenty, I felt that I had my whole life and a bright future ahead of me. If someone would’ve sat down next to me back then and showed me what my life would be like now, I would’ve never believed said person because I would’ve thought I had been destined for greatness.”
Again, I did my best to put a positive spin on things as I motioned to what the beautiful brunette had as I said, “Looks to me like you’ve done pretty well for yourself! Certainly beats living out of the same pickup for the last few years!”
Being too sweet for her own good, the marvelous brunette did her best to not say anything about my living situation since she didn’t want to mock me. She decided to instead go on, “It’s certainly not the penthouse I always dreamed about as a kid!”
“Maybe not, but I have to say that I would never complain about being able to kick back and call such a place home!”
Dinah thanked me for the kind words before finally continuing her story. “Well, back when I was in college, I had a group of friends with similar dreams to my own. They wanted to be involved in theatrical productions just as I did whether it be with acting, writing, directing, or even set design. We lived for the moment when we could put together a production of our own and bring it to life, and we wanted to do so by any means necessary.
“So, as fate would have it, one of my friends by the name of Teagan came across some hearsay about an old abandoned academy far out west. There were plenty of stories about the place and it was said to have its own ghosts – figuratively, not literally – and the lot of us thought it would be beneficial to take a trip to the decaying campus and check it out. We thought it would present us not only with a story we could tell on stage, but maybe we would be able to discover some old items we could use as authentic props to bring our production to life. For our motley group of inspiring artists, we thought we could use the trip as a learning experience for something broader.
“We pinched every coin we could and pooled our money together in order to head out past the mountains and find the location of the old school. When we finally reached it, I can’t even describe how we collectively felt.
“We had been looking forward to the day for so long even though we were well aware that what awaited us would be nothing more than a dilapidated academy that had been left to the ravages of time for nearly three hundred years. However, the ruins that sprawled the great plains before us were like nothing we could’ve ever prepared for.
“It seemed almost foreboding that one of the first things we were greeted by was a statue of what looked like a student, but felt like so much more. The sculpture stood at roughly six and a half feet tall, and it was so lifelike that it was downright frightening. The stone figure was dressed in tattered robes and held a hand forward as if to ward off all visitors and prevent them from entering the decaying ruins it stood guard over. The carved expression on the figure’s face was one of…sadness.
“I won’t speak for the others, but as we walked those abandoned, desecrated halls, it was almost as if we could feel the very sorrow of the past coming to life around us. To see those defaced paintings and the desolate classrooms that had once been so full of life…it felt like the very students who had at one time attended the establishment were still there with us. It was chilling to the bone.
“One of my other friends, Roderick, was the one who eventually found what remained of the school’s theatre area. It goes without saying that since the lot of us were aspiring students in theatre, we needed to see that auditorium. There was no way we were going to travel so far and not look it over. We knew we were living a piece of history as we made our own in the process.
“While sifting through the wreckage, Roddy – as we called him – started telling us all a story he had heard about an incident that happened in the academy when it was hardly even a year old. He said there had been a boy who had been messing around in the rafters of the theatre when something tragic befell him. I’m not sure if he saw something that spooked him and caused him to slip, or if the rafters themselves gave way. It could have been any number of factors, but regardless, the story goes that he fell to the stage below and broke his neck. He was obviously dead on impact.
“It was believed that the first teacher to arrive on the scene was the prime suspect, and she was discharged from the school shortly after. No one could prove that she had anything to do with the tragedy, but it was easier to pin the blame on her and move along. ‘Life goes on,’ as Roddy so eloquently put it.
“While listening to my friend in that tattered and deserted theatre, Marcus, I started to notice that I had a feeling of being watched. My other friends were with me and appeared to be unmoved, but I had the strangest sensation that a pair of eyes were staring directly at my back, yet when I turned to have a look, there was nothing there but more rubble. However, no matter what I seemed to do, the feeling wouldn’t leave me. It followed me around like a specter throughout the rest of that day as we looked for anything of value in the ancient theatre.
“On more than one occasion, I thought about bringing up the bizarre sensitivity to my friends, but they were all laughing and joking around while we rummaged through the wreckage. None of them seemed to be bothered by the atmosphere around us, and I did my best to convince myself that I was just being silly. Whatever I was feeling had to be simply psychosomatic since I was standing in such an extraordinary establishment with a grand history. It had to be nerves.
“Our little trip was slated to be two days, and since the weather was cooperative, the guys in the group had talked the rest of us into camping out in front of the campus that night so we could do a little more exploring in the morning before heading out. At first, I had thought the idea sounded like a lot of fun, but after the incident in the theatre, I was downright terrified at the notion of sleeping in a tent right out in front of the decaying academy. Of course, there was no way I was going to voice such grievances to my friends.
“I ended up sharing a tent with two other girls, and they were both out within two minutes of lying down. I had honestly considering telling them about the strange presence I had felt lingering back in the auditorium, but I wasn’t about to wake them and have them insult me after reliving the story. Instead, I just lay there in the dark and did my utmost best to pass out…until I heard a scratching sound coming from outside the tent.
“Something was running what I could only imagine to be a sharp fingernail or talon across the outer nylon material of the small shelter I sat shivering in. I pulled my legs close to my chest and sat there like a huddling fool as the scratching sound circled the only thing standing between me and whatever the hell it was. I tried to remain as silent as I possibly could even though I knew it was well aware that I was inside that tent.
“I thought about calling out to my other friends for help, but I assumed that would only cause the monster to attack me and possibly kill me all the faster. My second thought was to wake the other two girls in the tent with me, but I knew that would do nothing to solve my dilemma. They were better off remaining blissfully knocked out.
“I firmly believed that in that moment, whatever it was outside of my tent was feeding off my fear. The more I trembled, the more powerful the faceless beast became. Whatever that thing was, it was a cunning hunter…and I was nothing more than its measly, horrified prey.
“Marcus, I don’t know how long I cowered in that tent. It could have been minutes, or it could’ve been hours. An indeterminate amount of time passed, and after what had been the longest night of my life, I finally decided that I wouldn’t let whatever was outside my temporary shelter beat me. Before my mind could snap, I gathered every last ounce of courage I could muster and decided to make a final stand. I was going to confront my tormentor head-on. I wouldn’t be beaten.
“I finally pushed myself to my feet and took those few steps toward the zippered flap that led outside. The three steps I had taken to get there felt like they had taken hours, but as I fought my fear and told myself that I’d murder Roddy if I found out it had been nothing but him fucking with me the whole time, I knew what I was about to encounter would be unlike anything the world had ever known before. I felt in my gut that whatever had spotted me back in the theatre had stalked me back to the tent, and for whatever reason, it was interested in me and none of the others. It was time for the final confrontation.
“I stepped outside and instantly regretted doing so. Night on the plains is normally no big deal since the light from the moon and accompanying stars is usually enough to illuminate the area, but as fate would have it, that night was quite cloudy…and it was pitch-black. I could hardly see my hands if I held them right in front of my face, and to top it off, the entire area was eerily silent. There wasn’t a cricket to be heard or a single gust of wind drifting through the fields. It was dead fucking silent.
“I was about to find my voice and say ‘hello’ in hopes of discovering that I had just been hearing things the whole time, but I suddenly felt a presence in the darkness and knew that I was no longer alone. I also knew that what my body was warning me of wasn’t one of my friends. Whatever was lurking in the complete blackness enshrouding me was the same evil that had been watching me in the school. It was directly behind me, and it was hovering over me…”
I watched in complete silence as Dinah brought her hands up to her face and started to weep again. I did my best to be supportive as I scooted closer to her and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. I was about to pull her in close, but she took care of that step for me by collapsing into my chest. I gingerly hugged my arms around her and told her to let everything out as she cried.
When she was done, the beautiful brunette sat up again as she finally continued, “Please don’t find me foolish when I tell you this, Marcus, but I never actually saw what it was behind me. You may find that to be an integral part of the tale in order for me to have proof, but I didn’t need to see it…because when it touched me, I knew it was not of this world.”
I visibly shuddered upon hearing Dinah’s words. Sure, I had actually seen and heard the shadow figure I had witnessed ten years earlier in the dingy basement of that rundown cabin, but when I truly thought about it, I knew in my heart that being touched by it would’ve been ten times worse. I felt horrible for the woman seated beside me.
“A hand slowly started to clasp my right shoulder,” Dinah went on. “I couldn’t see them, but each of those fingers must’ve been about a foot in length. They were thin and felt like nothing more than sticks squeezing against my flesh, and the very feel of them had me convinced that my very life essence was being drained from my body. I wanted to scream since I knew the figure they belonged to towered over me from where it stood directly behind me, but I couldn’t find my voice to do so. The only thing I could do was…”
The troubled brunette lowered her head in shame as if she didn’t want to tell me the next part of her sordid tale. It was easy to tell that Dinah was a lot like me, though: She was the kind of person who had to tell the truth. Even though she didn’t have to, the distraught storyteller told me, “I was frozen in place and could do nothing other than wet myself as I stood there quaking in my boots. After that, I think I passed out. I don’t remember anything until my friends found me in the morning.”
Dinah kept her gaze fixated on her lap as she admitted, “I was weak, Marcus. I couldn’t handle it the same way you did. I’m not sure what you encountered the night you saw that shadow figure, but I’m certainly glad that Kaede had someone strong like you with her.”
“Are you kidding me, Dinah?” I shot back with a slight edge in my voice. I then placed a hand on the befuddled woman’s left shoulder and reassuringly gave it a squeeze. “You’re not weak…in fact, you’re anything but weak! Sure, you may not have heard or seen what you were dealing with, but it touched you! Had that shadow figure touched me…” Again, I visibly shuddered before being able to finish my sentence. When I was finally able to go on, I told my gracious hostess, “What happened to you was infinitely worse, Dinah! Honestly, had that shadow reached out and put its hideous hands on me…I wouldn’t have been able to handle that! I would’ve probably had a heart attack on that very spot!”
“I doubt that very much!” Dinah exclaimed as a smile appeared on her face for the first time in recent memory. “A virile man such as yourself…”
“Believe what you will,” I said as I gave the wonderful woman’s shoulder a gentle squeeze, “But for you to willingly travel to such a spooky place and then be touched by whatever it was that was watching you…” My voice momentarily trailed off until I asked, “Did you ever find out what that thing was?”
The beauteous brunette shook her head. “When my friends found me the next morning, they weren’t exactly sure why I was lying in the grass with wet pants. I think at first they thought I might have snuck some booze along and ended up getting hammered by myself, but when I tried to convince them of what had happened to me, they instantly started laughing and making fun of me. When we arrived back at the college, Teagan even started calling me ‘Piss-Pants’ like we were adolescents all over again, and one of the others started spreading rumors about me claiming to have seen a ghost. Suffice it to say, my friends were no longer exactly my friends since they had chosen to alienate me.”
“That’s terrible!” I angrily exclaimed. “How could they be so bullheaded? The nerve of those damn…”
“Calm down, Marcus!” Dinah laughed as she placed a hand on my chest. She soothingly rubbed my pectorals for a few seconds before reminding me, “It’s all in the past where it rightfully belongs!”
I was still irate at the people who had backstabbed the wonderful woman beside me. “Had I been there…”
“You would’ve been nine!” Dinah again laughed as she quickly did the math.
I scratched the back of my head as I thought about it. “Yeah, well…”
The buxom brunette once again patted my right thigh before standing up and telling me, “You are an overly caring man, Marcus Veovin. I’m glad my intuition told me not to let you out of my sight when I met you earlier today. You’re the kind of guy who only comes along once in a lifetime, and I’m glad you found your way into mine.”
“I’m glad too, Dinah.” I wanted to reach forward and grab one of her hands so I could hold it even for a few seconds, but I opted not to. I didn’t want to come off as the creepy guy who was too touchy-feely.
“I’m thinking a snack is in order before bed,” the beautiful brunette then told me. “How would you feel about some milk and cookies?”
“Before bed?”
Dinah laughed in that regally feminine tone she had. “Hey, you’re not nine any longer, so you can snack before bed! Besides, it’s your birthday and I don’t have any cake!”
I glanced over and saw a digital clock near the television. After reading the time, I told her, “Only for another five minutes!”
She frowned as she pointed out, “And you had to spend the last of it listening to my old stories. I’m sorry about that.”
“Dinah, I could listen to you from now until doomsday. You’re truly one of a kind, and I couldn’t be happier that I fell asleep in your theatre earlier today since it allowed us to meet!”
The beauteous brunette smiled at me again as she mentioned, “Sounds like someone just earned himself an extra cookie!”
I laughed and climbed to my feet to join the wonderful woman. As I picked the remote up to turn the TV off, she flipped on some lights before making her way to the refrigerator. I then made my way up the steps and offered my help in retrieving our midnight snack. She told me not to worry about it as she poured us milk into two glasses.
I thanked my hostess for the beverage and took a sip. Before she even had the cookies out, the blue-eyed beauty asked me, “Marcus, would you maybe be willing to do me a small favor?”
“Of course,” I answered after swallowing the white liquid. After everything she had done for me, I would fly to the moon for her.
As she opened a cabinet and pulled out a package of frosted cookies, she hesitantly met my gaze as she inquired, “Would you possibly be willing to not use my guest room and sleep with me instead? After all these scary stories we’ve been telling each other, I would feel a lot better with you beside me.”
I was certainly glad I had swallowed my milk before she had made her request. I definitely would’ve choked otherwise. “Of course I would, Dinah! I mean, are you okay with that, though?”
Giving me that sly smile of hers, she informed me, “I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t!”
I realized how silly my query had sounded, but I truly didn’t want to make my gracious hostess feel uncomfortable. She was an incredible woman with a heart of gold, and the last thing I wanted to do was make her feel out of place in her own home.
“My bed’s far more comfortable than the one in the guest room anyway!”
I leaned back against one of the countertops and angled my right leg a bit in an attempt to conceal the erection that was starting to emerge from beneath my pajama pants. I hoped she hadn’t noticed it since I figured it would have me right back in the guest room…or possibly out on the streets.
For the next ten minutes, Dinah and I enjoyed a pleasant conversation about things not involving ghosts or the paranormal as we drank our milk and finished our snack in peace. After we were done, she used the bathroom first and brushed her teeth before I did the same. It was time for me to then enter her room…
END OF PART TWO OF TEN
