An Erotic Ghost Story Ch. 05

This chapter is an edited DRAFT and part of an evolving multi chapter book. PLEASE NOTE THIS WILL BE MY LAST CHAPTER FOR A WHILE. Thank you for reading so far.

The nightclub was loud and crowed. Edgy techno music pounded in steady monotonous pulsing beat and reverberated throughout the dimly lit place. Couples hopped up on Ecstasy, alcohol and other assorted drugs swayed and gyrated to the music.

Lilly's eyes were riveted on a young intoxicated woman who was sandwiched between two men, bumping and grinding in a blatantly sexual rhythm. The pretty inebriated brunette's long curly hair sashayed as she moved. She was probably a naïve college student with a fake id, Lilly assumed. The two men were more than likely club trolls who were probably permanent fixtures at the venue every weekend night.

These unsavory men seemed the type to lace a woman's drink with Ruffies. Once she was out of it, they'd probably pile drive her against a dark alleyway wall and when finished would toss the used condoms into the heaps of trash. They'd doubtlessly leave her passed out until her friends found her.

These guys were really pissing Lilly off. She was ready to run interference if these two reprehensible shit heads would try to abscond with the drunken brunette. Two bouncers stood by snickering and pointing at the trio. 'Nice work fellas, way to look out for the ladies' Lilly mumbled.

The man in front was thrusting his crotch into hers. The man in back was grinding into her buttocks. He reached up her dress. Her head lolled back and she closed her eyes. Her mouth fell slack as his hand worked her clit nestled inside her juicy swollen lips.

The three continued to gyrate while the man's hand rubbed her nub quickly. After a moment the drunken girl began to shake as an orgasm gripped her tightly. She rubbed both men's crotches. Grinding their erections in a circular motion as her body convulsed between them. Lilly looked away. She felt ashamed, like a dirty voyeur.

Lilly felt two strong hands grip her waist and spin her around. It was Edward! He wasn't dressed in formal nineteenth century clothing though. He was clad in expensive designer jeans and a white linen shirt. The bright color accented his gorgeous dark skin. His black hair was longer and curled at the ends.

A gold ring on his left hand shimmered under the flashing lights. The band was littered with sparkling tiny diamonds bits. Lilly was transfixed as the gems twinkled in the dark club under the pulsing strobe lights. He was wearing a wedding band? She glanced down at her fingers. A huge diamond flashed brilliantly as she flexed her hand. Married...they were married?

"Edward, I'm so...confused. Why are we here? Why are we in...this place? Edward, what's going on?" She rubbed her temples.

Lilly's long blonde hair hung stick straight and fell below her shoulder blades. Edward's hand clung to her back. Long lush strands grazed and tickled his fingers. She wore a short, sleeveless classy black dress and stiletto heels and nylons with a sexy seam up the middle. Lilly knew Edward loved the way she looked and she felt aroused knowing this. He smiled and pulled her into a hungry, predatory kiss his tongue dancing with hers. After a moment he pulled away.

"I love you Lillian Kahn." He kissed her again.

Edward grabbed her hand and pulled her into a dark corner of the club. Lilly glanced behind her and the dance floor became blurry and distorted. She blinked but it didn't help. The faces of the partygoers were stretching and fading. Lilly became dizzy and nearly fell over but Edward caught her waist and steadied her. Nothing made sense. Where were they, really?

Then everything struck her with chilling clarity as if a light bulb went off in her head. They were someplace between the present and future. Captured in some type of future void, a place where someone longs to be but isn't. This wasn't real.

The women and men nearby leered at the handsome couple. Their eyes were dancing with envy. The women couldn't tear their gazes away from Edward's dark handsome face. The men, like Edward, lusted and longed for Lilly. She knew this because she could hear their thoughts in her head. Brutal and unrelenting voices were whispering a thousand unrequited desires.

Lilly placed her hands over her ears. The voices were too loud! Quickly sensing that she needed protection and a distraction Edward hugged her tightly. Suddenly, the voices dissolved into faint nothingness.

"It's ok my angel, this place is our future. This is what can be if you change the past." He wiggled the gold ring on his finger.

"You're my wife in this place. We are exceedingly happy here." Edward caressed her cheek and Lilly closed her eyes and indulged in his touch. She was sure she never felt anything so wonderful as the moments they were sharing in this dreamy, weird place.

"The forest is haunted by a powerful demon and a ghost. They haunt us. The ghost is reaching out to us. It laments its utter despair and sadness. These forces both supernatural and evil linger as a heavy oppressive shroud over our happiness and sanity. The lonely ghoul searches in vain for its final resting place. I have faith in you my love, my life that, you'll find the reason for the haunting. I can't search in my realm. Only the living are privy to the past."

This wasn't real. Lilly knew it. This was a dream, wasn't it, or like a dream? She shook her head in confusion.

Edward held her tightly and pressed her cheek into his chest. He smoothed and stroked her hair and kissed the fine golden strands. His tears fell onto the top of her head and the moisture seeped into her scalp. She could feel it all. Everything seemed so real but wasn't.

"If we rid our lives of these ghosts and demon we can finally be together, after all this time Lilly." Edward pulled her into consuming kiss. His lips and tongue tasted like liquor.

Suddenly, he was yanked from her arms and violently propelled backwards by something evil, something unrelenting and uncontrollable. His handsome face began to dissolve and disappear. Lilly screamed his name. Edward's features were melting into a sickening bloated ghostly face. His neck was oozing blood and his face was turning blue, ghastly, bulging and...dead.

"No!" Lilly screamed. She grabbed for him but he was pulled further and further away.

Edward tried to run to her but he felt an impenetrable force blocking him. He screamed as tears washed his cheeks. Blood and tears commingled as the life drained from his face.

"Edward, come back to me!" Lilly cried.

Club patrons were also changing into bloated and animated corpses. The men and women were no longer dancing. Their movements turned lascivious and carnal. Women's dresses were shoved up to their midsection as the male corpses feasted between the females legs. Bony hands clung to the women's thighs as the their cold tongues licked frigid cunts. Females sucked furiously on blue swollen cocks. Males fucked their cold fleshly erections into the women. Terrifying ghostly wails mingled with orgasmic screams that filled the terrifying dwelling.

"Stop!" Lilly screamed as she fell to the floor.

Then, Edward was lost. His body was a pale transparent apparition. The area where his mouth should be moved frantically but only one hundred years worth of dust was spewing out. Lilly sobbed. Her body wracked with anguish. The ghouls face was bloated, distorted, blue and deathly as the neck gushed an alarming amount of rich red blood.

"Edward, come back to me!" She cried out again.

Lilly woke screaming in her bed. Edward's pleas were still ringing in her ears. Sweat covered her body. Vivid details of her nightmare were still screaming in her head.

Everything that happened the night before came back to her like fast-forwarded moving pictures. They shared the same foretelling nightmare in the forest where they fell asleep. Edward had crept into her window and he made love to her. A thick layer of dried stickiness covered her inner thighs. She fell asleep in his arms.

Lilly discovered the note he'd written for her. She began to cry after reading the letter.

Dearest Lilly,

Every part of you possesses my heart and soul. I was weak and my character indiscernible before you. You lift me up and make me whole. You and only you have captured my heart, forever and all through time dearest angel. Protest my love but its for naught, we will be together!

Love, Edward

Lilly didn't leave bed for nearly a week after that morning. She came down with a sudden fever and chills. Her family fretted but she knew the reason she was so sick.

Cautiously worded letters from Edward arrived daily inquiring about her health. Her family was concerned and wanted to fetch the doctor. Lilly politely refused chalking up her maladies to fatigue and nothing more. She didn't need a doctor she needed someone to explain the meaning of her terrifying and puzzling dreams. Lilly missed Edward and was so utterly despondent. Would fate, ghouls and demons forever keep them apart?

****

Mary entered the morning room bustling about. Her father and brother barely took notice. Their faces were buried in newspapers. She settled into a nearby chair and sighed as loudly as was acceptable for a gentlewoman. Her father was the first to look up at her.

"Is there something on your mind daughter?"

"Father, I was in town today and Misses Allenton, at the mercantile, told me that Miss Prouty told her that Edward Kahn gave his doxy Kayla Turani the heave ho."

Mary yanked off her lace gloves and cast them into a high table. David and her father stared, peering over their papers as they tried to follow her prattle. They'd been enjoying late morning coffee with a side of solitude until Mary barraged them with nonsensical town gossip.

"And what of it Mary? Why are the towns gossiping hens clucking so loudly? Trysts begin and they end with nary a word. Because Edward Kahn is at the center of it, aye?"

He resumed burying his nose into the newsprint. Visibly annoyed David cast his paper aside

"Don't concern yourself with idle gossip Mary." It's unbecoming for a lady of you station."

"That hussy is of no concern to me dear brother. Edward Kahn had been deeply attached to this Kayla woman for quite some time! You don't find it strangely coincidental that he pushed this woman aside after he's set his sights; way to high I might add, on Lilly? Such an unsuitable match! He is an unquestionable blackguard! I am relieved father didn't push for a marriage contract after they appeared at dusk together...and from the forest no less!"

"Such coarse words, Mary! David scolded. "Muttered from a ladies mouth! You'll not speak of Lilly's unfortunate encounter with Edward to anyone. Am I understood?" David threw his newspaper to the carpeted floor in disgust.

"I'm not a child David and I don't expect to be treated as such." Mary sat primly in the chair removing the pins from her straw bonnet.

"Aren't you the least bit curious why your best friend would drop his long time companion so quickly? He told her to leave the cottage by summers end. She cashed a substantial check from him just this morn."

"No, Edward Kahn's love life is not my concern! As for our friendship, well that is certainly in a precarious state." David barked as he fretted about the room upended by the conversation.

"Even if this involves Lilly?" Mary inquired.

"What involves Lilly?"

The subject of their great debate entered the room. Although Lilly looked ravishing in a beautiful pink sateen gown, dark smudges cast an ominous shadow under her eyes. They were puffy and red. Clearly she'd been crying.

Lilly hung in the doorway a moment waiting for someone to speak but the room was silent. Lillian sighed knowing the conversation ended abruptly because she appeared. She sat near Mary. Her sister petted her hand and looked at Lilly with a pitying expression. Her blood boiled. Didn't they realize she wasn't an insufferably weak female? Lilly blew out a deep breath.

"It's disconcerting and also rude to be shut out by my family. I assure you I won't shrivel away and die from whatever topic is being discussed."

"We're sorry Lilly. I guess we aren't sure...what..." Mary stalled.

"...what we should say? I was mentioning that Edward Khan, his um what's the a proper way of putting this delicately?"

"Just use plain words, I'm not a shriveling emotional basket case. I can handle whatever news there is about Edward Kahn."

"Are you insinuating something in your retort, Lilly?" Her brother asked boldly.

His blood was heating as he wondered a bit too much what transpired in the forest that night. She was still his "Little Lilly." He'd always picture her as his sweet, virginal sister. If Edward had compromised her, he no doubt would want to murder the letch.

"No, David. I mean that women are much stronger then men give them credit for so please don't treat me with the kid gloves. Also, understand that I've been to college and I'm not naïve to the ways of the world. I understand how men like Edward Kahn operate." Lilly's expression matched his sneering countenance.

"See this father? This is the very reason Lilly shouldn't been allowed an education. It's warped her mind and she's become hardened. She should've been under our protection until marriage and then under her husbands firm hand after that!"

"That's utterly ludicrous and insulting! Lilly bolted off the chair, fists clenched at her side ready to launch at her chauvinistic brother.

"Woman are equal in intelligence to men. You'll see David once woman gain the right to vote we won't be silenced any further. We will be seen and heard!"

"Ha, nonsense!" David spat. "As if men were daft enough to allow such a travesty!"

"Ok, you two that is quite enough!" David Senior interjected. "You two rapscallions are entitled to your opinions."

Lilly glared at David but he turned his back to her. She wanted to slap him hard. Lilly was shocked her brother was filled was such misogynistic arrogance.

"What Mary is trying to put into delicate words is Kahn supposedly, if you believe the gossip mongers in this town, has left his...paramour, Miss Kayla Turani." David Senior announced without the great fanfare that Mary wanted to dote on.

Taylor then glanced at his older daughter. She gave her father a quick nod of approval. Mary crossed her arms and remained silent. She was incensed she hadn't been able to tell Lilly the scandalous story.

"I've heard rumors he had a mistress but why he threw her over is beyond me. How does this concern me exactly?" Lilly wanted to appear nonchalant but deep down she was elated Edward had ended the affair so abruptly.

"Stop the charade sister!" David roared from across the room.

"This family is not in the dark. It's quite clear Edward Kahn has you in his sights and I'll be damned if he thinks he'll take a turn with you!

"David, that is quite enough! You'll not speak to your sister in such an indelicate and ungentlemanly manner ever again. While your sister is as hard headed as a man at times, hers is still the fairer sex. Do I make myself clear?" His father bellowed.

"I'm sorry father." David bowed his head. He shouldn't of spoke so coarsely to his little sister.

"You need to apologize to Lilly, David. When I'm dead and planted you can set the rules in this family until then you'll defer to me. Am I clear?"

"Yes, father." David turned to face his sister.

"I'm sorry Lilly. It's our job to protect your reputation but please heed my words, no good will come if you align yourself with Edward Kahn." He pleaded.

'Boy if these people lived her century they'd be mortified.' Lilly mused. Modern culture nearly stripped away all graces and manners. She was a tough cookie yet they wanted to treat her like she was a fragile china doll. She'd need to adjust their perspective real soon or she would go insane, really and truly out of her mind.

"First, let me set the record straight. Edward Kahn didn't lure me into the forest, he nearly ran me over with that gargantuan horse of his! Secondly, Kahn goes through women like a fish goes through water, him leaving his mistress is no surprise and has absolutely no baring on my life. Thirdly, Edward Kahn can strive to climb Mount Everest but it doesn't mean he'll ascend to its great heights."

Lilly folded her hands primly upon her lap, 'Damn, that felt good!' she thought. Maybe now they would all back the hell off!

Absolute quiet befell the room. David, her father and Mary all stared at her unblinking with mouths ajar. No one dared move. Her father cleared his throat once maybe twice. Lilly wondered if her entire family would knell over from apoplexy.

All flour of them nearly jumped out of their seats as a soft knock at the door broke the silence. 'Thank god!' Lilly muttered under her breath. Her father and brother looked like they could kill her. Mary seemed ready to burst into tears.

"Come in," the elder Taylor answered, himself greatly relieved he wouldn't have to admonish his impertinent young daughter right on the spot.

Millie poked her head in the room. 'Bless your heart Millie!' Lilly thought, saved by a knock.

"Sorry to interrupt sir. Erik Somers is waiting in the parlor. He said you invited him to visit Miss Lilly today." Millie smiled brightly but her expression grew serious when she saw the tension written across everyone's faces.

"Father, what is this?" Lilly glared at her father in astonishment.

Uneasiness settled into the room again. Lilly knew she'd need to confront Erik sometime but today was such a bad day for that. The poor man! Her betrothed, jilted because she lost all her memories of him. This would be a grim meeting for sure.

"I realize Erik is a stranger to you Lilly but he is still your fiancé and deserves to be treated with respect and courtesy. You will speak with him. However I can tell you're still recovering so I will permit you to postpone. When you are feeling better we will discuss your very unladylike outburst."

"Yes, father." Lilly answered solemnly. She got her first lick of David Taylor's steely resolve.

"Lilly I'll explain to him that you're still not feeling well." Mary offered. "He will certainly understand considering your condition." Mary seemed desperate to ease the strain filling the room like a noxious gas.

"I'm not an mental invalid Mary. I can form words and carry on a conversation. My memories are caput but my intellect is still intact."

"I wasn't implying you weren't capable." Mary retorted defensively.

Ok it was time to rewind and avoid any more confrontations. Play nice with the other kids and stop ruffling feathers. Lilly decided. Women in this century were wired so differently she wasn't sure she could ever adjust to this world.

"I'm sorry to snap at you. Of course you have my best interests at heart." She hugged her sister. Mary brightened, happy to have her hurt feelings soothed.

Lilly checked her reflection in a heavily gilded mirror hanging on the wall. A tired and troublesome face peered back at her. She sighed. Maybe it was better if she didn't look her best. She was, after all, making it official; she most certainly wasn't going to marry Erik Somers. Better she give him the boot looking like a tired and sickly woman.

****

Erik Somers paced frantically in the room littered with overstuffed and uncomfortable furniture. He'd been separated from Lilly for so long. What could he expect from her now that she'd lost her mind? Nothing, that was what!

The young man was fascinated with the gregarious, effervescent, beautiful girl. Erik barely knew Lilly but longed to make her his wife. He was a serious, sometimes morose and taciturn fellow. Lilly made up for his personality deficit in spades though. After a whirlwind romance, he thought himself the luckiest man in the world when she accepted his proposal.