October 31, 10:06 AM

His usual shyness about his body now nearly gone in light of all he had been through since the fire drill, he unbuttoned his work shirt, pausing only for the briefest of moments to wonder how it had been cleaned and dried and repaired and put back on him after his ejection from the pool. It didn't matter. His shyness was nearly gone, but not quite, and he burst into childish laughter as he took it off.

"Oh, don't be such a baby, we're best friends!" Nicole reminded him. When that didn't quash the last of his nervousness, she said, "Fine, I'll take my top off too, then we'll be even at least." True to her word, she stood back and pulled her sweater over her head, and stood unabashedly before him in her bra. "See? Nothing to be embarrassed about. Now turn around." He obeyed, and she slid the loud shirt onto his waiting arms and shoulders. It was as ruffly as it was colorful, he saw now, with handkerchief-style ripples of fabric dangling from the sleeves and feathered layers emanating from each side of the buttons and holes. He looked down and set about buttoning the shirt up, and turned around to see Nicole, still topless, admiring him in awe. "I can hardly wait to see what that looks like with the mask!" she said.

Sensing the power that would have, he said, "Why don't we have a sneak preview?" He picked up the mask, now mostly dry, and carefully slid it on over his eyes. A bundle of joyful nonsensical colors now from head to waist, he stood before his friend, who was admiring him in silence.

"That's going to be soooo hot tonight!" she gushed. "God, I think I need to get a jump on the festivities," she said, looking over her shoulder at her bedroom. "Hope that doesn't offend your tender sensibilities, but you are a sight for sore eyes!"

The usual old unwelcome one-two punch of titillation followed immediately by crushing guilt shot through his mind as Nicole turned and headed for her bedroom. At long last, he tamped down the guilt and found his voice. "Mind if I watch?" he asked in a tone he hoped would indicate he didn't expect to be taken seriously.

"You know I told you my bedroom is always open to you," Nicole said from inside. "But this time, you can only watch if you keep your costume on!"

"It's a deal," he said, finding he enjoyed the new sensation of embracing his dirty thoughts without shame. Wondering just how long he and Nicole had been friends in this dimension -- not to mention how many times they may have talked about her big vulva -- he felt butterflies in his stomach as he sauntered down the hall. But he was sure they were beautiful butterflies all the same.

Nicole's room was cozy and quaint like the rest of their house, and the smoldering remains of a fire were keeping the space warm from the fireplace. Nicole was just sliding her pants and panties off when he appeared in the doorway, and with an ear-to-ear grin she lay spread-eagled on her back on the unmade bed. She was right, he saw now; her lips were full and thick and wonderfully prominent against her sparse blonde pubic hair. And they were clearly moist to her touch as she gazed at him and began rubbing herself.

"Well, what do you think?" she teased huskily, her breathing pleasantly heavy already.

"Beautiful," was all he could say, and it was true. There was no chance of turning his eyes away from her pussy or giving in to his old guilt this time.

"Thank you!" she said. "And my offer is still open...just not now, because I'm having too much fun looking at you in that getup just now! Who knew you were ever so flaming underneath it all?!"

'Underneath it all' was just where his mind was now being steered as he watched Nicole play with herself. It was growing again, the warm hardness now confined inside his pants reaching well down his right leg, not as enormous as before but still embarrassingly huge. What had the ladies back at the pool said about size and shame? Maybe he was making progress! But the sensation was still horribly awkward as he stood there and wondered if Nicole somehow knew.

But then, wouldn't she be pleased to know she could have that effect on him?

"Hey," she exclaimed as her breathing grew more intense. "Just how much does this turn you on anyway?"

She was nearly naked; fair was fair. He undid his pants and pulled them down, his massive bulge still entangled in them so that he nearly lost his balance freeing it. When he did, it bounced out to attention and Nicole's eyes bulged at the remarkable sight.

"Oh my god...how do you walk?!"

"I don't, when it's like this," he admitted.

"It's not always..."

"Heavens no!" he said. "It's just, watching you, and overcoming some issues at the same time."

"Oh good!" Nicole grunted. "I mean, I'm impressed, but I could never fit that in, I know!"

"When we make love, you won't have to," he said. It sounded so wonderfully endearing! But just then it sounded perfect, trite or not.

Nicole, her eyes glued to his still-large erection of shame, brought herself off in seconds more. A gloriously satisfying shriek later, she lay back and ran her fingers through her hair. "Whew! That was beautiful. Thanks. And I'm so glad for you that it's not usually that unwieldy!"

"You and me both," he allowed with a chuckle, thinking he should probably pull his pants back up...but he didn't yet, nor did Nicole make any effort to cover her own beautifully prominent charms.

"Remember the big-wiener song we used to sing?" she asked him with a smile, propping herself up on a pillow. She burst into girlish laughter, and he joined her as somehow the words he didn't recall ever hearing before did in fact come to mind just in time and they sang it together.

My wiener got big! I said, my hot dog got big! I broke the lamp, I broke the bedpost, I had to pay for it, but then...unghhh!

"Where did we come up with that?" he asked as soon as they had stopped laughing.

"No idea," Nicole said. "Must have just been one of those silly ideas you get when you're very young. Remember, that was back when we used to refer to 'my' wiener, too!" She patted her pussy endearingly as she said it.

On that note, a vague recollection of his friendship with Nicole roared through his mind, accompanied by some crazy ranting from his mother about how he was too old to play with girls and they were no good...but he put it from his mind. Whatever had happened so deep in the past, what lay before him now was so very preferable.

And on that happy note, he found himself still hard but not overgrown.

They did get their clothes on again in time to depart for the wank club. Since he had no idea where it was, he suggested Nicole drive when she tried to hand him the car keys. "Wow, you are in a different mood tonight, aren't you!" she said appreciatively when he did. "I hope this means many more changes on the way!"

Their car was a snazzy sport coupe, the same shade of red he recalled from his childhood neighbors' driveway, and as they roared through the streets of their village and back into the city he saw snapshots of barely-remembered suburban and city blocks from hometowns long past roaring by, each one more idyllic than the last. From his earliest memories up through college and beyond, favorite blocks and houses and stores flew by, with no sign of their being miles and years apart. One constant: it was still Halloween, as there were jack-o-lanterns and orange and black decorations strewn everywhere and children trick-or-treating on every block. One group of kids crossed the street while they were stopped at a red light. "Remember the one year we went together?" Nicole asked, grinning through her mask and makeup.

"Sure," he lied. "That was so much fun."

"The one time your mother let you out from under her thumb," Nicole said. "It was so cute how free you acted just for those few hours."

That threatened to bring back reality and kill the mood, so he looked out the window and focused on the rose-colored memories that were still there for the taking. By the time the light turned green, the crisis had passed.

Nicole finally brought the car to a stop in the parking lot of the shopping center where his mother used to bring him grocery shopping. His beloved candy store was barely visible out on the far end of the strip, and of course it was doing a booming business for the holiday. But Nicole wasn't taking any notice of that. She locked the driver's side door and set off for the old abandoned warehouse at the other end of the strip. It wasn't abandoned tonight; the mostly-broken windows along the top of the building were not only repaired, they were bright with flashing colors now, and the whole building was vibrating with loud dance music.

"This is gonna be so much fun!" Nicole gushed, grabbing his arm. "And sharing it with you as well!"

The reception room was lined in red velvet, complete with orange and black streamers and pumpkin and witch cutouts for the holiday, and it was relatively quiet although the muffled sounds from the dancefloor were still audible. "Tickets please?" said the smiling woman behind the counter. "Nice costume," she added to him as Nicole handed her their tickets. "Okay, one female, one male, and your sizes are about..." she leaned over to look at their crotches.

"You might need a bigger one than it looks for him," Nicole teased.

"And for her too," he replied. "You see, she has a big --"

"Shut!" Nicole exclaimed, holding up her hand, and now he recalled how she had always said that -- not shut up, but just shut -- when they were kids. But she was laughing by the time she lowered her hand.

In the meantime, the desk attendant had returned with two odd looking pairs of shorts. "Here, try these," she said. "If either of you really is too well-endowed, we can adjust them or try a bigger pair."

Nicole unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them down along with her panties, just as matter-of-factly as one would remove a coat, and handed them to the attendant. She then picked up the dark red panties from the counter and slid them on. The attendant looked shamelessly over the counter and saw what he had been referring to. "Yes, you are rather big down there," she concurred. "But those ought to fit you with no problem."

"They do!" Nicole confirmed, sliding the waistband into place. He was now following her lead and removing his pants. For some reason -- nerves? -- he wasn't hard and his penis was back to normal size. "Looks like he won't have the problem I was worried about either," Nicole said.

"Yep, I think those are the perfect size for him," the attendant agreed as he took the tight-looking undergarment and slipped both legs through the holes. When he pulled them up, the scoop-shaped front made him look more well-endowed than he felt at the moment, though still smaller than that afternoon. Both women looked on in admiration as he did, and he found he enjoyed the attention. Now that they were both dressed and their pants checked, the attendant said, "Okay, the switch and dial are on your right hip. Make sure you turn it off if you leave the dance floor, and we recommend you don't turn the intensity up too high until you've gotten used to it. Have fun!" With that she pointed to the door from which all the noise and light were bleeding, and Nicole took his hand and led him in.

It was dark inside, but he could see people writhing every which way on the floor and the sexual tension was palpable. "Ready when you are!" Nicole said, though he could only read her lips rather than hearing her. She placed her hand on her right hip; he followed suit and felt the switch. "Let's go!" Nicole yelled.

He flipped his switch.

All at once he was awash down below in wonderful sensation. Fuller and steadier and more intense than the teasing he'd endured at the pool hours before, the magic undies had him writhing about in an urgent battle to stave off coming in public. Pleasant vibrations enveloped him and the stretchy material of his shorts put his renewed hardness on full display. Nicole saw it and was impressed, but there was no pointing and laughing as she was also enveloped in vibrations. She thrust her hips hungrily against his, and he eagerly returned the favor, his usual shame but a nasty memory for the moment.

"Come on, let's dance!" she called out to him from inches away. "I'll come in no time if we just stand here!"

He could feel that delicious tickle leading him to the point of no return as well, but following Nicole's lead, he found just enough of an outlet for the tension in dancing. Once he had found a comfort zone in motion and let himself simmer just below the point of orgasm, he remembered for the first time that everyone else on the floor was enjoying the same taboo pleasure. Awash in a sea of costumes from the waist up, he saw now that most of the fellow revelers were bare-legged under their vibrating undies just like he and Nicole were. A few had long costumes that covered them, but whether visible or not, everyone was wriggling in ecstatic struggle to hold off from a public orgasm.

Off to his left, just beyond a group of women dressed as cats, he saw Becky and Dawn in their promised dancer costumes, their red panties clearly visible under their tights. They had their arms clasped about one another and were rubbing their desperate pussies together in shameless joy, laughing at their wonderful predicament. The girlfriends he had invented to test his own resolve to keep from masturbating in bed all those years before, now they had blown the door clean off his wild imagination...and looking down, he saw to his delight that although hard as a rock, he was normal-sized! Nicole had noticed it too, and was rubbing her hips hungrily against him as she pranced about before him, either indulging in the sensation or trying to escape the relentless intensity...he couldn't be sure, any more than he was sure of himself as he felt the constant threat of coming in his rented undies, and yet it never quite came to that. Maybe because he was dancing, maybe it was turned down just far enough, but although the stimulation kept him on edge throughout, he never quite went off the edge. It seemed Nicole was holding on by a similarly tiny margin before him as she danced so enticingly before him.

Every now and then, of course, someone did come, notably a woman in a bathrobe and curlers who was enjoying the attention of three guys as she danced just behind him. Her moans gave into outright screams loud enough to be heard over the music, and he looked her way to see her sinking to the floor in joy while her three male companions applauded the show. Once her orgasm was past, she lost no time in getting back on her feet and continuing to dance -- after all, the sensation was relentless.

Only one thought impeded his uninhibited pleasure, and for once it was not Mommie Dearest but rather the sound of the hammer crashing through the window. That would call an end to his time at the wank club, of course, and he was not ready for it to be over. Because of the loud music, he didn't hear the hammer. Rather, he only saw it floating incongruously but harmlessly to the floor just behind the gay guys over Nicole's shoulder. It occurred to him that maybe if he didn't look up and see the broken window, he could stay a while longer...but it occurred to him a bit too late. Once his eye made contact with the shattered window above, he was borne up helplessly above the crowd. There was just enough time to see Nicole was unaware of his disappearance before yet another flash of blinding light enveloped him, and the club vanished as if down the drain.

He was in a worn-out, but well-fitting tuxedo with his tie undone, halfway between lying and sitting on a garish, uncomfortable sofa. The memory of the wank club had his loins still buzzing faintly, but that went away as he drank in the formal-looking setting before him. A living room, clean and well furnished but clearly rarely used, and he was alone. But not for long, as he heard a door open behind him.

"Welcome home," came a crisp female voice in an elegant foreign accent. "I hope the trip has been a beneficial one for you." Without a formal introduction, she blossomed forth and stood before him, just beyond arm's length in front of the dark, cold fireplace. She wore a beautifully tailored white dress and boots, horn-rimmed glasses that seemed to magnify her brown eyes, and her black hair was combed back and in a tight bun.

"I..." he stammered. "I mean...yes. It has been a great trip. But I wasn't ready to be done with the last stop, if you want to know the truth."

"If the hammer came through the window, then it was indeed time for you to go," she corrected. "That is just how these things work, I am afraid."

"I don't know about that," he said. "Nicole and I were just working our way up to a massive...well, you know."

"I know only if you want me to know," she corrected. "After all, I am your ideal."

"You're my what?"

Her stern face broke into a grin and she allowed a mild, polite laugh. "Your ideal," she repeated. "The one acceptable image of your sexuality: a perfect, chaste woman -- at least while out of bed. But I am also what you must defeat if you want to ever have a healthy sexuality in this life, I'm afraid. Blame your mother if you like; you would not be wrong entirely, but at some point it is your responsibility to put such fears to bed. Pardon the expression."

Rachel's numerous riddles came flooding back to him -- it all seemed so long ago now! "I don't suppose I'm allowed to ask you any questions either," he said.

"Of course you are!" she corrected. "I am not Rachel."

"Well, so I noticed," he said. "Pardon me, though, but who are you?"

"I have no name. I told you, I am your ideal! And like all ideals, I am not real. That is what you must come to accept. Rachel is real, a real life woman with a real body and all the good and bad that comes with it, and which you were for so long encouraged to disdain. Instead, you envisioned me -- perfect, beautiful and not at all real."

"So all that I've seen since this morning...none of it was real?"

"On the contrary, all of it was real. Long-forgotten real-life moments that intrigued you in a way that made you feel horribly dirty at the time. An overheard conversation on intimate topics. An accidental glimpse under someone's skirt. A perfectly healthy young man's interest in these things, that you were instead taught to repulse and disgust you. Hence your shame, that comes to a head every Halloween when we are all so encouraged to embrace our evil for the day."

"Now, wait a minute," he said. "I did not really see Sally and Carol with their pants off in public this morning!"

"I cannot explain exactly what you saw," she said. "But I can tell you it was a manifestation of some memory, of an event you enjoyed in spite of yourself before your crippling shame took over. Perhaps a forgotten fling in college, when you were drunk. The thrill of seeing a woman's body was buried under the ugly messages from your mother once you sobered up. For example. I do not know; but that is not important. What matters is that your enjoyment of the sight is natural and to be embraced rather than rejected in the future."

"I take it that means I must reject you?" He said it with real regret, for she was beautiful.

"You must, in any event, accept that I am not a real woman," she said. On that note, she raised up first her right foot and then her left on a conveniently placed hassock, removing each boot as she did. Still lovely in her stocking feet, she then reached behind her and, without a twinge of reservation, untied her dress sash and drew it over her perfectly-coiffed head. The dress floated away as if carried on a perfectly balanced breeze, and seemed to vanish into thin air. Then one by one, she removed her stockings, revealing her long, luscious legs. Lithe and strong yet unmistakably feminine, they came together in layers of delicate lace that was all the clothing that remained on her body, as she had already removed her bra by the time his eyes made their way back up to hers. Losing no time, she slid her panties off as well. And there she stood before him, the ideal image of a perfect, beautiful woman before him. Dignified even as she stood naked before him, her breasts standing out on their own as if defying gravity, her triangle perfectly symmetric without a single hair out of place, she regarded him with a firm but not unpleasant smile.