Scribner Horror Bundle: Four Horror Novels by Joshua Scribner (51 page)

“Just give me more,” she said, as she
pushed herself back into him.

He moved his mouth to her and they
kissed some more. He moved his hands on her back, and there was
more heat. She wanted him to touch her more, to feel the heat when
he touched her in other places. But again, he pushed her
back.

“No, Celeste. I’m not sure this is
right. We have to talk first.”

Disappointed, Celeste said, “Fine.
Finish up and then come to my place. We’ll have some wine and
talk.”

Twenty minutes later, Celeste went
home. She had four glasses of Zinfandel before Paul arrived. She
let him in her apartment, seeing the mixture on his face: Lust and
guilt, she thought. He had showered and cleaned up. She smelled his
after-shave and knew he would be able to put the guilt
aside.

Paul in the center of the room,
Celeste walked up to him and put her hands on his shirt. She then
began to pull his shirt over his head.

“Whoa!” Paul said.

Celeste sighed, but smiled at the same
time. “Paul. You’re my best male friend. I have these urges, and I
want to try them with someone I trust.”

Paul thought for a few seconds and
then nodded.

Celeste had not known how far it would
go. She had planned to just go with it. But shortly after Paul
agreed, they were back in her bedroom. He kissed her and touched
her body on top of her clothes. She felt like she needed more, had
to have it, so she stripped.

She saw his face as she got naked. He
looked overwhelmed with desire, staring, as if that was all he
could do right now. She walked up to him again, and he embraced
her. He touched her all about her skin and she felt an increase in
the heat. She found herself making moaning sounds as he touched the
most sensitive areas of her. Again, the heat leveled off, and she
needed more.

She pushed him away. “Take off your
clothes.”

He didn’t hesitate at all. Seconds
later, he was naked. He wasn’t fat, but he was flabby. She didn’t
care. She just wanted as much of his naked skin against hers as she
could get. Still standing, they embraced more. Once again, the heat
increased. It was especially pronounced where his hardened cock
rubbed against her. Once again, the heat leveled off. She was wet
down low. She knew there was one thing left to do.

Celeste was shocked at how natural
this came. She was most amazed that she wasn’t afraid. She didn’t
even fear it would hurt. She was only afraid that it would
stop.

She pushed him away again. “Get on my
bed and get on your back,” she said.

Paul was like a pawn for her. He did
exactly what she said. Once on the bed, he gazed at her and waited.
Celeste focused on the spike in the center of his frame. It looked
kind of big for her to be putting in such a small opening in her
body, but once again, she had no fear. It was more like she was
starving and looking at a sandwich that might be just a little too
big to eat. She couldn’t wait to try.

Celeste crawled over the top of his
legs and positioned herself. She slid down him.

Kendra had once told her there would
be blood the first time. There wasn’t. But it did hurt a little.
But that pain was worth the sensation. It was more heat, as intense
of a heat as she had ever felt inside her. Then it leveled off and
went away. Celeste realized that she’d reached the limit. That was
as good as the barrier inside her would let her get.

Shortly after that, Paul gave her a
little nudge, and she moved off of him and looked away. Sex was no
longer exciting for her, and a little repulsive again. Paul
breathed hard for a couple of seconds and then made a releasing
sound. He had came.

Celeste got her clothes and went into
the hallway to dress. She was grossed out, but that was okay. She
now knew that when the barrier broke down, she’d get more of that
heat. She would come to really like sex. She even thought she would
probably end up kind of slutty.

A little while later she went back in
her room. There, a surprise waited. Paul was out cold. She tried to
wake him, but he wouldn’t come to.

She went to lie on the couch. She
couldn’t sleep, though. After closing the bedroom door, she went
into the living room and dusted. She then took a long bath. After
that, she watched a little television and was finally able to fall
asleep.

***

It was the fourth day that James had
come to the hill. With all that was out here in this brand new
world, all he cared about was being at the top of this
elevation.

The sun was beginning to set, and
James would soon go home, not wanting to make the trip home in the
darkness. James had lied to his parents about where he had been the
last four days. He’d said he’d just been roaming around, exploring
aimlessly. When they’d asked him for details, he’d been vague and
acted tired. They hadn’t seemed suspicious.

Now James was ready to go home again.
He thought he would stop by the coffee shop on campus and have a
Cappuccino and maybe a sandwich from the shop in the student
center. But just a little while before James was ready to leave, he
heard something. It was just a whisper.

Although he hadn’t heard what was
said, James was sure he had heard it. It hadn’t come from the area
around him or from down on the hill, in the trees. That whisper had
come from above.

James waited for a while longer, but
didn’t hear the whisper again. He went home, a little disappointed
that he didn’t have closure on what had just happened, but excited
about tomorrow, when he would return.

***

Janet awoke. She checked the alarm
clock. 12:15. Just barely Friday. She got up to use the bathroom
and found Toby in the kitchen. He stared into the refrigerator, a
sight she had grown accustomed to this week. On Sunday, he had
asked her to buy vegetables that you could eat without preparation:
broccoli, carrots, tomatoes and such. And that’s what he
ate.

She’d bought him a few different
vegetable dips, but he’d ignored them. He wanted plain raw
vegetables, and a lot. He seemed to eat constantly. He’d said it
was like he had this heat inside him that thrived on what he put
in. Janet thought that was just his way of describing normal human
hunger, something he was just now beginning to
experience.

Janet liked seeing the refrigerator
door open, with him staring inside. That was a sign that he was
getting better. But tonight, it was different. Toby almost seemed
stuck there. Janet got right up behind him. She saw that he was
holding a carrot in one hand and a tomato in another. His gaze was
frozen on a plate of chicken left over from dinner.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?” Janet
asked.

Toby turned and smiled at her. Then he
looked back at the chicken and sighed. “Next week.”

***

James got out of bed Friday and had
breakfast with his parents. He tried to hide his disappointment but
doubted he did a good job. Rain poured and the weatherman predicted
that it would continue most of the day.

It wasn’t that James minded getting
wet or being cold. It was more the feelings inside him. The heat
wasn’t beckoning him at all. It was as if it were saying, “Don’t
waste your time.”

So James would spend the day moping
around the house, wishing for blue skies. The only thing that
cheered him up was when he watched the weather forcast again.
Saturday, there would be no rain.

***

“He fell asleep!” Kendra
said.

It was Friday night. They’d closed ten
minutes ago, and Celeste and Kendra stood alone in the lower
section.

“Yeah,” Celeste said. “Is that
normal?”

Kendra laughed. “Well, kind of. Guys
will sometimes knock off afterward. But I would have thought he’d
go home first.”

“Well, he was real apologetic in the
morning. He said he was just suddenly real exhausted.”

Again, Kendra laughed. “Yeah, then he
trudged around work all day yesterday. Girl, you wore him
out.”

Celeste shook her head. “Go clean your
section.”

Kendra walked away
snickering.

Celeste didn’t think it was possible
that she’d actually worn Paul out. It had to be some kind of
coincidence. He still seemed tired tonight. Maybe he was
sick.

She’d had more urges since then, but
she’d resisted, more excited to see what would come next week. She
remembered that James had eliminated his barrier completely. She
knew she would soon eliminate hers. What would that bring? What
would she be like afterward?

It excited her to think of her sexual
assets. Soon, so many of the men who stared at her would be
available for her. She’d be able to pick and choose. But somehow,
that didn’t seem right. Her urges weren’t really for a specific
type of man. They were for men in general. She didn’t think about
what sex would bring her anymore, just sex. But that was fine, she
thought. It would probably be good not to rush into anything. She’d
been robbed of the sexual experiences of adolescence. She might
need to live those out for a little while. She could dwell on the
companionship later.

Chapter 11

“Why was he so much faster than us?”
Toby asked.

Dr. Porter didn’t think the question
defensive. Toby looked more curious right now than anything. James
hadn’t even bothered to show up this week.

Dr. Porter didn’t make a practice of
discussing his clients with other clients, or discussing his
clients with anyone for that matter. But he thought the context of
this question made it fine. James wouldn’t care.

“James’s mind works differently than
yours, Toby, and it’s different from Celeste’s mind
too.”

“Is it because his problem is a fear
and our problems are repulsions?” Celeste asked.

Dr. Porter nodded at his astute
client, but it wasn’t in agreement. It was just that he was
impressed that she had made the observation. “I have given that
thought, myself,” Dr. Porter said. “But I don’t think that’s it. I
have met with many people whose major problem is fear, and they do
not, as a group, tend to be faster in hypnotherapy than those whose
major problem is repulsion. I think James’s success has more to do
with the absorbent nature of his mind. He is able to take his
environment in at an uncanny level. Hypnosis is largely based on
suggestion. James was very able to absorb the suggestions I gave
him, and thus very able to carry them out.”

“Is that why he had the problem in the
first place?” Toby asked. “I mean, him being so able to absorb
things.”

Again, Dr. Porter was impressed. “I
think that may have had something to do with it. Being inside, he
would have been able to limit what came into his senses. Being
outside, he may have been bombarded with more stimulation than he
could handle. He would have absorbed too much and suffered a sort
of sensory overload.”

At this, both his clients seemed
satisfied. Dr. Porter had left out the reason why James’s mind was
so absorbent, that he was the offspring of two absorbent parents.
He also didn’t go into that James’s disorder had not been something
he completely understood. In all probability, the theory he’d just
laid out was false.

But that was fine. The two clients who
were here didn’t want that much detail anyway. They were ready to
get back to work. Dr. Porter put them under.

As he waited for their subconscious
minds to signal that the work was done, Dr. Porter thought more
about James. He was disappointed that James had not shown, but not
entirely shocked. He supposed James was caught up in his new world,
which he’d had for only about a week now. After forty years of
being deprived, one week would seem like a short time. James
probably didn’t want to take time out from his new world to go to
therapy, something he no longer needed.

He would just call James later to see
how he was doing. He wondered what James was absorbing right
now.

***

On his hill, in the mid-afternoon,
James sat and waited. Finally, he heard the incomprehensible
whisper again. But this time it kept happening. It was as if
something was trying to carry on a conversation with him, but
couldn’t quite get through. Then, after about a minute, the
whispering went away.

James thought it was over, but he sat
there anyway, just in case. After a little while, he felt
something. This time, what he sensed was inside. It felt almost
like digestion, but not localized to his stomach. It was all over
his body, especially on the outside layers and in his brain. His
body, his nervous system, was processing something.

James had never felt anything so
incredible in his life. He suspected this was better than what
junkies felt when they were getting high. He was absorbing
something extraordinary. As the feeling grew, James recognized it
as being electrical. The hair on his head and on his skin stood up,
as the charge ran through him, constantly growing. It actually grew
to painful levels, but James didn’t mind. It was a good pain, like
a muscle roughly massaged. He sensed, somehow, that he could stop
it anytime he wanted, just turn his attention away, and it would
go. James knew this was what he had been kept from his entire
life.