Demons in Edinburgh

She looked up, above the rows of wide, dark stairs to the door of a house that was nestled right into the stone wall. Everything was set in stone on this street, in this city. It was charming in the daylight, and was a reason she chose to study at the university here; she loved to stand at the bottom of the Grassmarket plaza—also stone, of course—and let her gaze play across the rows of roof lines marking the east-west run of each street, until they blended seamlessly with the Edinburgh castle walls high above.

But on a dark and moist night like this one, the street lights cast their filtered yellow rays across the edges of the city structures, and left the spaces between the stones unlit; black spaces, voids between the walls and outcroppings where you couldn't quite tell if there was something there or not. A tingle crawled up the lower part of her back as she looked up and down the wall in front of her, and she wondered if she could overcome her hesitation. What demons lurked inside this place? She laughed at herself. But damn, that guy was hot, and she wanted to see him tonight. She had to stop mind fucking herself out here and just get in.

She was an attractive young woman, standing hesitantly on Princess Street there, although she wouldn't have thought as much herself. A first-year student, wearing only a simple white t-shirt and jeans, cutting a trim figure, a small unicorn tattoo visible on her upper left arm just below the cuff, her hands folded across her chest in indecision as she squinted at the miniature fortress in front of her. The house could have been one hundred years old or a thousand years old; it was a permanent fixture on Princess Street, and over that time the stone stairs had blended seamlessly in color and texture into both its entrance arch and the polished street cobbles on which she was standing.

She sighed. Once already this evening she had stood in the same place, failing to gather her courage to climb and enter, to join the party whose noises she could hear pulsing through the thick stone walls, to pursue her target that evening. Instead she had fled to one of the many bars along the busy Royal Mile just a block away, and sampled a Macallan Scotch single malt. She didn't even like whiskey, but it was something to do. On the way there and back she took pleasure in strolling along the high street, peeking into the many steep alleyways—Edinburghers called them "closes"—that ran at irregular intervals. They had mystery, and the deep history of tens of thousands of humans living in such small bounds for generations. But she had returned to her perch at the bottom of the steps, watching the shapes of people, mostly likely other university students, moving in time to music behind dark red curtains.

A large group of Chinese tourists passed behind on the street, bumping her. "Excuse me," she said to them, annoyed, watching their backs as they shuffled on. It was almost ten at night, the street was fully dark, and the usual throng of visitors to the city had lessened to a trickle. Most were inside an establishment just like where she had spent the past hour, enjoying the best that Scotland had to offer for the past thousand years on a dark fall night such as this: whiskey, food, maybe a little entertainment, and companionship.

"Nika! There you are! Why aren't you at the party?" A bright-faced young woman bounced down the stairs towards her from door which now stood wide open, pouring bright light from the foyer onto the street; trailing behind on the stairs stepped an eager and smiling young man in a smart shirt and trousers. She was quite a contrast to—and seemed unaware of—the dark and powerful forces Nika sensed in this place when standing in her solitude, brooding; but in the month Nika had known her, Misty never slowed down much to perceive the things that Nika did. They were just different types of people. And Nika was probably overreacting anyway; her wild imagination had a way of getting away from her.

"Nika, this is Ostin," Misty said, pointing back to the redhead. "I met him here tonight. He's from France, and a student at the Uni, too!" Her blush as she looked to Ostin told Nika quickly that her friend was hoping for some fun that evening. He was a decent looking guy, and Nika was sympathetic to her desires. Misty was an outgoing girl. A flirt, even. It had made for an interesting friendship in their first month of school, Misty's energy and initiative complementing Nika's quieter and more reflective nature. Even though she could sometimes be exhausting, Nika was glad of the role her new friend played in her life and knew it was good to coax her out of her own shell. For instance, it was Misty who had found the "ghost tours" that filled Nika's mind tonight with the wondrous dark tales of Edinburgh's past.

Misty pointed down to Nika's chest. "I don't think that's going to make the impression you want. At least not from what you told me about tonight. . . ." Misty wiggled her eyebrows at her friend suggestively.

Nika looked down at her chest in surprise. She thought the tight shirt was flattering for her trim figure, and didn't see what was wrong. She ran her hands over her chest, then back at her friend, "Misty, what the hell, it's what I was born with. Not everybody has a figure like you."

"Not your boobs, silly. You have nice little titties. Right Ostin?" she shot back to her new friend who looked happily back and forth between the two girls chests and nodded like a puppy dog. "I mean your shirt!" Across Nika's white t-shirt, in bold black letters, was written the phrase, "CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE". Nika didn't think twice that morning when she had selected the outfit, one of her favorites. It was a gift from her sister back in their high school years, given in jest at a time when dumb guys would hit on both of them. She shrugged at Misty and smiled; it was too late to change now, but it didn't pay to get worried about things like that anyway. What was going to happen tonight would happen, if it was meant to be.

They turned to go in, and on the way back up the stairs, taking a last look at the stone facades on all sides of this alcove, Nika reflected on those ghost tour stories of the city and about this house in particular. Edinburgh swirled in legends, and the town's tourist trade never missed a chance to play up its dark history of over-crowded medieval living, deathly plagues, grave-robbing, early human medical research, criminal elements, child labor, ghost sightings, and more. The tour had even passed this very house, the guide telling them that it had been the home for hundreds of years of the royal executioners; their grisly deeds taking place in a public square not far from here up on the Royal Mile, a stone's throw from the Edinburgh castle.

But as they entered the bright entryway, the energy of the party swallowed them up, leaving behind Nika's forebodings from the street outside. The reason Nika was here, besides following along with Misty's unquenchable thirst for adventure, was to find her target for the evening: Zachary Fraser. He was the son of the current owner of this house, the tenured and powerful Professor Fraser at the university. Zachary was a quiet young man, mysterious, serious, the teaching assistant in the freshman philosophy course where Nika and Misty met at the start of the term.

"I'm Una, welcome to the Fraser house," said a woman's voice gushing in a heavy Scottish accent. Nika relished the up and down rolls in her voice as the jowls of her cheeks and chin wiggled. She was middle-aged, portly, and friendly. She looked from Misty to Nika, and down at Nika's t-shirt. 'Ah, this must be the bonnie lass you were waiting for! Well, don'na the pretty face suit the dish cloth!" she exclaimed brightly. Nika raised her eyebrows.

"Yes, thank you Una. This is Nika. I found her outside," Misty replied, and then in a mock confidential aside with a smile, "She was a little scared to come in here."

Una laughed. "Yes, yes, well the Fraser house has a way of doing that to folk. It's a wee bit intimidatin' it is. Well, come on in Nika, and I'm sure ye will have a good time now that ye made it in."

They thanked her for her hospitality and moved into the main rooms. "Who was that, and what was that about the dish cloth?" Nika asked her friends.

Misty shrugged. "Just some Scottish saying, I guess. She's the housekeeper. Very nice lady. And she thinks the same of your t-shirt as I do!" she said, and laughed.

Nika scanned the crowds. She had only one image in her mind. He had a thick lock of jet black hair and the most beautiful creamy and dreamy skin. Nika had never seen him smile, yet she was drawn to him, almost as if he possessed a dark power. Her favorite television series was Lucifer. The smooth English actor Tom Ellis absolutely captivated her, and she would never admit it to anybody, but more than a few times her mental images of that man smiling wryly and slowly undressing before her had been the sole entertainment for alone time in a hot bath. Zachary looked just like a Scottish version of that handsome devil.

The three of them ducked around some groups of students—nobody that Nika or Misty knew since they were just first years—and wound their way through the main rooms, stopping to get drinks. They gave each other a congratulatory toast and smiled. Moods were high, Misty especially gushing now that she had found her friend, ready to be a willing audience for her conquests with Ostin. What good was it getting a guy to fall helpless for you if you couldn't show off a little to somebody? Misty pushed her chest and ass out and wiggled a little, checking if any other hot guys nearby had noticed her.

The party was crowded, and the noise level of the chatter and music loud enough to make talking difficult. Only once did Nika get a glimpse of Zachary, standing tall in the midst of a group of students over by the entrance to the kitchen; mostly young women around him, all watching him closely while he listened attentively to their conversation. She wasn't happy to see this. But what did she expect? By far she wasn't the only one drawn to his good looks and mystery. And they weren't even invited to this party as undergraduates; Misty had just heard about it and pulled Nika into the idea of crashing. For the moment, Nika gave up trying to get closer to her man, and just watched from across the room. She wasn't eager to compete with a bunch of other girls for his attention; she wanted him alone.

A strong yearning overtook her. How was she ever going to approach him. He probably didn't even know she existed. She had tried to speak up in the discussion group, and thought she had made some good points here and there, but he hadn't yet shown any reaction to her, that he knew she was alive, much less a cute freshman hottie that he was dying to bang. During class, she had to take care not to stare at him too long, for fear he would look up and notice. And when he spoke, the rich tone of his voice was hypnotizing. She imagined listening to him read her poetry, by the fireplace. Warm and fuzzy, she felt like cuddling with him and falling asleep in his strong arms.

But her heart skipped a beat and she snapped back to reality when he looked up at her and returned her stare. His face was unmoving, but he was so beautiful. Her stomach flipped over. She wanted to look at him for hours; or forever. After holding her direct gaze for a few seconds, Nika caught a reflection of one of the red lights in the room off of his eyes. It puzzled her, but it passed quickly, and he turned back to the group to answer a question from one of the students. She wasn't able to get his attention again, and not wanting to draw too much attention to herself, she marked this endeavor down as a success for the moment and looked around the room for a different amusement.

The party was in full blast but nobody else held much interest for her. Idle curiosity led her into the remote parts of the first floor, and she ambled down a less-trafficked side hall. Photographs and paintings hung on both walls, pictures of people and places that hailed from a century or more ago. Her mild interest turned into something real as she squinted at the beautiful historic pictures. Buildings and bridges and churches and grim men and women in conservative clothing, haunted faces looking at her from the past.

One of them was an old painting; she could tell its age because in the background was the South Bridge, standing alone with its supporting arches visible. But those arches had been effectively buried by additional development in the city as far back as the 1700's. This much of Edinburgh's history she had learned. In fact, there had been so much additional building nearby that bridge, that the city surrounding it had grown to the height of its roadway surface all along its length. Its entire span of 17 arches was buried beneath the city streets, a curious fact pointed out by all the tours.

But it was the face of the man that caught her attention. It was Zachary. Not even a rough match, it was exactly him in this picture, she was sure of it, he had the same eyes and nose and mouth and hair. She stared at it curiously, not able to take her eyes from the image, and shivered. How could this be? This was an old picture, certainly from hundreds of years ago, and her man was in it, looking out at her.

"There you are!" a voice giggled. It was Misty again; Ostin trailed her like an obedient servant as before. It seemed like Nika wasn't the only one to get swept along under Misty's influence. Nika could tell with one look that Ostin was ready to do anything of Misty's bidding. Really anything. The horniness was written across his face like a typed message, as his eyes scanned from her tits to her ass and back again.

Misty's voice held the energy of excitement. "Nika, you've got to see what we found!"

She led them to the back of the hall, and then in a sharp right turn down another smaller hall that took them further away from the entrance at the street. They must have been at the very back of the stone house now, and the noises of the party grew distant. Peering out as they passed through a small filmy window at eye level, Nika tried to get a sense of bearing, but it was pitch black in the courtyard or whatever it was that this window looked out on—maybe it was one of Edinburgh's little dark closes—and she could see nothing except her dim reflection. Small rain drops had begun to streak the window; normal for Edinburgh weather in early October. She shivered again. What was it about this house that gave her the willies?

"Misty, are you sure we should be back here?" She whispered it quietly, but urgently, looking back down the hallway to see if anyone had seen them disappear from the party.

"Nika!" Misty responded in a louder voice. "Listen! My French boy here said he's got a package to deliver to me tonight. An 18 cm package, you know what I mean?" She giggled, and Ostin looked at the two girls eagerly. Then in an impulsive move characteristic of her, Misty reached her hand down to the boy's crotch and took a big grab of his pants, jerking up and down crudely, and smiled. "A large and thick package, wrapped up very nicely. I promised him I'd find a quiet place where I can unbox it. I think this is our place."

It took Nika a moment to see where Misty was pointing: a door, at the very back of the hallway, blending almost seamlessly with the adjacent wall covering. The old cast iron latch holding it shut at the top was closed, but dangling through its loop was a padlock that had been left slightly ajar, as if someone had hurriedly attempted to push it closed but had not checked to see that it clicked shut.

"No, Misty. . . . You aren't thinking of going in there?"

"We already took a peek. Ostin found a light switch and it works!" Ostin grinned in confirmation, and was already unhooking the lock to re-open the door.

Nika's eyes opened in panic. "You guys! No way. We can't do this." She dashed back to the main hallway to look for anyone coming, and fortunately the coast was still clear. Or maybe unfortunately, she thought, because when she returned the two adventurers already had the door open and the light switch on inside the small stone chamber behind it. The light was a faint yellow, coming from a series of old lights hanging on the stone wall, the electrical cord draped between each one. They looked like the light bulbs from the movies in the 1940's, and the ancient cobwebs hanging from them didn't argue this point. Stone stairs led downwards, and the lights followed the walls down with them around a curve as far as they could see.

Jesus Christ, Nika thought, there is no way I'm going down there. What the fuck are we doing? This place was creepy enough already without us opening up secret passages in the walls.

But Misty was flush with the excitement of adventure. "We'll just take a quick look, okay?" Ostin was flush with the anticipation of a good blowjob, Nika thought dryly. Desperate guys will do anything to get some oral from a pretty girl, especially a busty looker like Misty; they would even crawl down scary stairs at midnight in a haunted house in Edinburgh.

As she looked down the curve of the stairs she hoped Misty wasn't going to descend, Nika recalled what she had learned about the city's architecture. The houses fell away in a sharp drop from the high ridge of the Royal Mile street, and as the city had grown through two thousand years—as in other ancient cities of Jerusalem and Rome—the citizens merely cleared and built on top of what had been built by their forefathers. Nothing was removed. Lifetimes passed, and who knows what each generation covered up in the process, what was still below them under these floors, directly where these stairs were leading. There were even tunnels that still existed; many had been found and excavated, leading from the cemeteries to the medical school and other underground storage caverns used by the graverobbers years ago to carry their illegal cargo.

Nika snapped back from her reflections. Then she panicked. The other two had already descended a dozen steps!

Misty called back to her friend. "Nika, come on! And close the door behind you!" What. The. Fuck. She hesitated and watched them descend around the corner. This was the most outrageous adventure Misty had dragged her on yet. She thought quickly over the previous Misty outings—what had happened? Nika had to admit, they had worked out to be fun even after her fears. Should she trust Misty yet again? Maybe just this one more time, and then she would stop following this crazy girl.

"Coming," she whispered as loudly as she dared, and stepped quickly to follow them. Be careful, don't trip, she thought to herself as she dropped lower one step at a time, we don't need to have an accident down here!

Down the path went, narrowing as the stone walls curved to the right. After another score of steps, they entered a room also cut directly out of stone. The ceiling was low, perhaps 7 feet, and on the far side was an empty fireplace, dark with ancient soot, surrounded on both sides by the openings of two more tunnels in what looked like a downslope to further unknown underground destinations. A large and sturdy wooden table stood alone in the middle of the room—large enough to hold an adult body, Nika thought grimly—and iron hooks and tools were spread around the walls. Cobwebs dangling across all the objects indicated that this was an old place, and things didn't seem like they had been disturbed for possibly a long time. Nika didn't mind that.

"Guys, this is really fucking creepy," she said, but it fell on deaf ears as Misty led Ostin to the wall where there a crude metal platform fashioned about a foot off the ground. Misty turned to her redhead boy with a mischievous grin. Her imagination, such as it was for a horny and impulsive college girl, was in overdrive.