Jennifer's Obsession: Secrets

Alan looked into her eyes, piercingly. "There's something I've got to tell you, Jen, and it's serious... very serious," he said, staring so hard at her now she suddenly started to feel a little uneasy. The people, the shops, the traffic; it all seemed to melt away and left them feeling as if they were the only two things left on the planet.

Christ, what on earth is he going to say to me, she thought, but drawing a blank. I've never seen him looking like this... never.

Alan gulped and then took a deep breath of air whilst Jennifer felt as if she'd got a huge, wriggling snake in her tummy in place of her intestines. She felt his grip tighten at her shoulders as he pulled her face to within inches of his.

"Now listen carefully..." he said, as if what he was about to say could well be his last words. Jennifer tried to shuffle backwards a little but he was holding her unnervingly tight. "Jen..." He pulled her even closer. "I want us to run away together," he blurted so quickly he looked as if he hadn't really said anything. Jennifer's mind had been racing so fast it took several seconds for what he'd said to catch up. She felt her body droop with relief and her head tilted back, smiling, as her tunnel-vision righted itself and her surroundings came flooding back to her sense of awareness. "I thought you were going to say something terrible then, you sod," she said, laughing, as she playfully slapped his chest. Alan's hold on her hadn't relaxed, though, and neither had his expression.

"You're serious," she said, the realisation bringing her body to a standstill.

"Yes... I am," he said, solemnly. "Well?" he continued.

The shock of his revelation set her mind off racing again, but not as much as earlier. She gulped and looked a little sheepish. "I... I can't," she said instinctively, her eyes darting back and forth as if she might find an explanation for him written on one of the buildings or alongside a passing bus. She felt his grip on her shoulders slip away and he'd adopted the look of a condemned man. Jennifer couldn't help but feel sorry for him and at the same time thinking how much he'd changed – he'd always seemed so in control before, but now...

"I had to ask... just in case," he muttered, almost lifelessly.

"Come on, let's talk about it," she said, taking him by the hand and leading him out of the bee hive of the street and in through the glass doors as if he were her child.

A good heart-to-heart and some two hours later, Jennifer was making her way home. Her mind was overflowing with all the things they'd spoken about; her problem included. How such seemingly insignificant incidents can affect you so profoundly, and even dictate your conduct in later life was one of her wonders as she pulled off from the motorway and began trundling her way through the maze of streets that would eventually lead her home. She was still puzzling over life in general and how difficult it all is, especially after Alan told her his story about denial and filling voids. Sometimes you've just got to wonder as to whether it's all worth it, she thought, as the welcome sight of the budding oak trees lining the avenue she lived at came into view.

They start afresh every year, she pondered, so can us humans... Her back straightened up and she began feeling more positive. Although they do bear scars of events in years past and I suppose that does ultimately affect how they turn out... she continued, thinking that if an organism that doesn't have the capacity for self-awareness but is still altered by its life experiences, then what Alan was saying earlier wasn't just some psycho-babble and really is a natural phenomena that can express itself physically and/or mentally, depending on the organism in question. But they do continue to do the best they can whatever their past may have been, she thought, they'll never give up trying to do what they're designed to do; they'll do their utmost to survive and reproduce, no matter what.

Something she saw broke her chain of thought and she jumped a little as she turned into her drive – Andrew's car was parked out front and he wasn't due back until tomorrow. She quickly parked alongside his Saab and jumped out. I've been into the city window-shopping, she told herself quickly, worrying that he may ask where she'd been – she hadn't told him about her problem for obvious reasons so she hadn't told him about her trip to the psychiatrists, and perhaps she was experiencing some degree of guilt about what she'd done with the psychiatrist because it wasn't as if Andrew would ask where she'd been anyway; he wasn't like that.

As she hurried up the stone steps to the door, it flung open. Andrew burst out. "I've been ringing you for ages, where've you been?" Andrew bellowed, looking uncharacteristically 'out-of-sorts'. Jennifer felt herself swallowing nothing and her mouth suddenly became dry. "Window-shopping... the battery must have gone in my phone; I'll just go and get it from the car," she mumbled, as she nervously turned around and began descending the steps on shaky legs thinking how she'd pointlessly turned her phone off before she went into the psychiatrists because she'd ended up leaving it in the car anyway.

"Never mind; you're here now," Andrew said, turning and walking into the living-room. Jennifer hurried in behind wondering what could be the matter with him, fixing her hair as she went as well as brushing her dress down.

She entered the living room to see Andrew sat at the edge of his armchair with his head bowed and holding his forehead with his right hand. She rushed in and sat herself on the edge of the sofa.

"What on earth's the matter," she said, twiddling her fingers whilst looking at the fireplace.

"Has anything different happened these last few days, or has anyone unusual called around?" he asked, still not looking at her and still holding his forehead.

The last few days' events flowed through her mind; she looked over towards the window as the sexual encounters popped up as if to project them to the outside in case Andrew somehow picked up on them. "No... I don't think so... No! There was something but I'm not sure," she said, as the hazy memory of two intruders came to mind.

"What the fuck do you mean; you're not sure. Either there was something or there wasn't," he rasped.

Jennifer was taken aback by his intolerance of her indecision but decided now wasn't the time to pursue that particular issue. "I thought I saw... no, heard someone, in the house, and then later I thought I saw someone but when I went to see; they'd gone," she said, trying to block out the series of events after that but found herself wondering how odd it was she hadn't seen James since.

Andrew took his hand away from his forehead and looked at Jennifer; the act of doing so made her twiddle her fingers that bit faster. "Look, I've been working on this project..." he said, looking at the floor now. "...and... uh... I've gotten myself involved with these rather unsavoury characters to say the least," he continued. Jennifer slowed the 'twiddling' down somewhat and listened carefully. "I wanted to investigate 'Black Magic'," he said, his tone making a mockery of the subject. "I'd intended on producing a couple of works on the occult, so I got friendly with the right people – making out I was into that sort of thing - and was invited to be 'initiated' into their circle." His tone continued to mock. "So I thought 'great', and went along to one of their 'gatherings' in the woods one night... only it was all a bit... disturbing I think is the word of choice, and I just didn't want anything more to do with it," he said, slapping his thighs as if to signify he'd finished talking.

It didn't make a lot of sense to Jennifer - Why ask if anything different's happened? Why are you home now? Why would someone unusual possibly call around?

"And?" Jennifer's face wrinkled up in puzzlement as she held her hands out in front with palms facing up. He looked at her, not saying anything for a few seconds, but then ran his fingers through his hair and begun.

"Well, they didn't take kindly to my rejecting them, especially after I attended one of their gatherings, and I was promised there would be 'consequences' of some kind which I thought laughable at the time, because I got the impression he was implying there'd be some 'demon' from the 'dark side' out to get me." Andrew was adding to the drama of it all with hand gestures and funny faces while Jennifer tried to work out whether he was playing some sort of prank on her. "But later I thought – because of how fucking nuts they all are – that they might be crazy enough to... I don't know... burn our house down or have us beaten to death or something; I wouldn't put anything past them." (Andrew was managing to appear quite convincing, Jennifer thought.) "Worse still; I started to worry about – now don't laugh at me..." Although Andrew was laughing at himself at this point from thinking about what he was about to say. "...but I started to worry that they may might have cast some 'spell' on me or you or both of us even, and I couldn't get it out of my mind so that's why I'm here now. And when I got back and you weren't here; I tried to phone you. I couldn't get a hold of you on your phone and I nearly fucking flipped. I can't believe I've let something like this get to me – it's fucking stupid." Andrew shook his head in disbelief at himself whilst Jennifer still wasn't entirely sure if it was all some kind of joke and was somewhat unsure as to how to react.

Jennifer rose to her feet and walked over to the window, leaning on the sill and looking out at the oak trees. "Perhaps you've just been working too hard lately, and you need a rest," she said, wondering whether all this was for real or not. Black magic, spells, midnight gatherings in the woods, she thought, it's not real; nobody does that sort of thing – not here at least.

Andrew got to his feet and stood behind Jennifer. He hugged her around the waist. "I think you're right you know," he said, as he squeezed her tighter and started to feel a whole lot better for having her in his arms.

Andrew did as Jennifer suggested and had decided to stay at home for a while. For the last few days he'd been pottering about the house, doing the occasional bit of work from home and generally taking it easy. Jennifer meanwhile - seeing as Andrew seemed to be okay after telling her about his worry - continued with her work as normal.

On the Saturday morning the sun was shining bright against a deep-blue backdrop; it was an ideal start to any day, but on a Saturday too – it doesn't get much better than that! Jennifer had risen at the crack of dawn; she was heading off across country today to meet up with Joanne, a good friend since schooldays. She'd moved about a year ago now, for a promotion and to live in a nice part of the country; she was offered a consultant grade position in a beautiful place called Castleton – it was an offer she just couldn't refuse. Anyway, Jennifer had arranged to go and stay the night and was looking forward to it something terrible – she and Joanne have had some fantastic times over the years and now that she'd moved away, there was always so much to talk about as well. At about seven-thirty Jennifer had tossed her bag into the boot of her car and was heading back into the house to kiss Andrew goodbye – he was still in bed.

"Love you," she whispered, and kissed him lightly on the cheek while pulling the quilt up over his shoulders; he was still sleeping. She skipped down the stairs, out through the door – remembering to close it quietly – jumped into her car, and excitedly set off on her two-hundred- mile journey.

After some pleasing scenery, a generally pleasant journey, and some three hours later, Jennifer arrived in Castleton. (She'd been there once before; she'd helped Joanne with the move and spent a few days there helping her to settle in.) Joanne rushed out of her picturesque cottage as Jennifer's car parked up on the flag-stone drive out front. By the time Jennifer had made it through to the room she was staying in, Joanne must have told her about a year's worth of gossip already. The rest of the day was much the same, with Jennifer matching her all the way, while they toured some of the sights of Castleton. One of the sights was a large castle – probably how Castleton came to be called such – and Joanne had told Jennifer how the place was supposed to be haunted and there were a few local stories of people having gone insane after spending the evening there; the usual sort of folklore attached to something so old and so full of history.

Later that evening, after washing away the day's activity with long, relaxing baths, they'd excitedly changed into their 'night-wear' and had skipped off down to the village pub - The Raven's Head. It was one of those old, cottage style pubs with peg-stone tiles on its roof, ivy all over its outside walls which was broken up by pretty little windows, and exposed oak beams with real log-burning fireplaces and the like on the inside; all very original looking and a lot of it may well have been original. Mmm, It's got a cosy, homely feel to it, Jennifer thought as she and Joanne stood at the bar acquiring their first drinks of the evening and commanding considerable attention from the other patrons, the male ones – Jennifer was wearing her favourite, tight, black dress with the usual lack of any underwear whatsoever, while Joanne adorned herself in a similar dress but in white, which had the effect of nicely enhancing the tan she'd acquired from her recent stay in Greece.

"Two whiskies please Carol," Joanne said, eagerly, to the rather plump and quite miserable-looking bar-maid. (They'd decided to try a re-run of one of their many drunken, student nights where on the one in mind they'd consumed nothing but whisky all evening and had themselves an absolutely crazy time – they were praying for the same effect tonight.) Jennifer tapped her fingers on the richly-coloured and highly-polished surface of the mahogany bar as she awaited her drink, taking in the pleasant surroundings and soaking up the crafty, flattering glances from the opposite sex as she did so.

Their first drinks arrived. They snatched them up from the bar and clinked their glasses together. "Old times," Jennifer said, smiling, and almost tasting the whisky even before it had touched her lips. Joanne nodded. Their first shot went down in one without having left the bar, as did the next, and the one after that; a couple of older ladies present began tutting and shaking their heads in disgust while their partners looked on, cursing themselves for having brought their better halves out with them tonight.

Having gotten ahead of themselves they took their forth shot of the evening to a vacant table nearby where they could relax a little while the whisky's effects caught up; the bar-maid almost smiled as she sat herself down on a stool behind the bar and studied a crossword in, by the look of it, a woman's magazine.

Joanne pulled out a chair and sat herself down, looking and feeling quite radiant. Jennifer placed her little black hand-bag on the table alongside her whisky. "I'm just nipping to the toilets," Jennifer said, grinning, as she turned and strutted like an in-season bitch across the bar to the toilets. Joanne laughed to herself as she watched the men's heads predictably follow Jennifer as if she were on stage. Two minutes later, Jennifer repeated the performance but in the opposite direction, smiling confidently at each and every man as she passed them by and enjoying the cool breeze that swept through the naked valley between her legs.

"You cock-tease," Joanne said, feeling like they were back in the University bar.

"Your turn," Jennifer said, before sipping at her drink as she sat herself down.

Joanne nodded in agreement and finished her shot in one. Jennifer quickly finished hers and handed the empty glass to Joanne who was now standing at her side and waiting to go to the bar. Before she took the glass from her, she tugged her left strap down from her shoulder to leave it hang loose at her elbow area. She strode over to the bar, purposely walking quite heavily to make her larger than average breasts shudder and vibrate; the movement caused the front-left of her dress to reeve and slip downwards by several millimetres which was just enough to sexily reveal the top portion of the pinky-brown colouring that encircled her hardening nipple. In spite of the whisky she'd already consumed Joanne felt her face flush and redden at the prospect of popping out completely and was quite relieved to make it to the bar without having gone topless, although something deep inside was telling her she half wanted it to happen. She placed the glasses down on the shiny wood. "Same again please," she said, as she turned side-on to Jennifer, showing her how daring and naughty she'd been. You slut, Jennifer thought, whom had now turned her attention towards a corner where no-one was sat, stifling a laugh as she nervously fumbled with a beer-mat.

The sudden chinking of coins falling to the floor made Jennifer look in Joanne's direction again. She looked over to see Joanne bending over but keeping her legs straight, winking as she did so. As Joanne lowered herself, her cleavage strained against the top of her dress and two large, golden-brown orbs of heaving flesh began to show themselves to whosoever happened to be looking. Jennifer quickly scanned the bar to see the men's reaction – they were all different in terms of position and posture but all the same in that they were all saucer-eyed and motionless, with their gazes secured on Joanne's cleavage.

Jennifer turned back to Joanne. She was bending over further still and reaching for the coins. Her left breast, with its nipple already partially on show, slowly started to roll its way free of its unsupported cup. No way, Jennifer thought, biting her bottom lip. Joanne suddenly twisted to her right side, making out she was grabbing at a coin there. Her left breast jumped right out into the open and swung free from its velvety confines, giving Joanne an instant hammer blow of feeling between her legs. The pub overflowed with the noise of men gasping which caused a lot of women's heads to turn which was followed by some more gasping but with a higher pitched tone to it. Joanne's mound immediately fleshed up. She continued to seek her coins, waving her generous golden-brown globes about in the process.

You dirty SLUT, Jennifer exclaimed to herself in disbelief. Jennifer couldn't even look at her as she finished collecting her coins and straightened up, proudly showing off one of her very desirable assets to the bewildered onlookers. Joanne scanned the crowd for a second, looked down at her bulging, bare breast with its obviously erect nipple, sucked in her bottom lip and raised her eyebrows, and tucked herself away. The pub exploded with the hissing of women's snipes whilst the men hid their faces in their beer glasses, pretending to swig as their eyes darted back and forth to register the other men's responses. Joanne paid for the whiskies and strutted back over to Jennifer as if nothing had happened, but if you touched her pussy at that precise moment you'd just know that something did.

By nine o'clock the normally quiet village pub had filled with wails of inebriated laughter and the clumsiness and of, at least two, floundering drunkards – Jennifer and Joanne. The whisky continued to flow and time rolled on. At about ten, the vibrant energy that being tipsy offered had developed into more of a hushed still, only interrupted by the occasional slur of words that often ended in a fit of silly giggling. Men were hovering about their table like vultures around a dying animal, just waiting for that moment when the animal suddenly becomes carrion. They stood close by, jostling each other for the prime positions.