Once Upon a Halloween Ch. 04

(Usual Disclaimer Time: All the characters in this story are 18 years old or older, and since we're living in the wide wonderful world of porno-land here, where clichés roam free and things might get a little unrealistic from time to time, please remember it's all in good fun.)

(Author's Note: As a reminder, this story is a limited series with a light canon, meaning that while the chapters will all be related by characters and location, it won't be explicitly necessary to read every chapter to know what's going on. Each chapter will be its own thing, and can be enjoyed independently. I hope you enjoy! I also want to give special thanks to fellow Literotica author and SYM reader Lil_kitty for many excellent ideas and acting as a second set of eyes on this story, and for letting me know what did and didn't work; if you get a chance, please check out her work and drop some stars if you enjoyed, she writes some very hot and fun stories.)

(ONE FINAL PREFACE: This will be the first story I've ever done a girl-girl scene in from a girl's perspective, so I want to apologize for anything I might get wrong in advance. I had advice, and I tried my best, but, I sincerely hope this went well. As for why this story's in Erotic Couplings instead of Lesbian Sex, that just pretty much goes with me wanting to keep everything in one place. As always, I hope everyone enjoys!)

***

As a place that was neither thoroughly rustic nor thoroughly cosmopolitan, Briar's Mill's Halloween Carnival was a fair reflection of the town. With a couple blocks worth of side street just off of Main Street cut off and filled with an equal mix of carnival games and farmer's market stalls of goods and pumpkins grown from nearby farms, it was an event that brought out good cheer and fun in town residents of all ages. While the bravest among them would venture into the nearby haunted house (with a now rather smug-looking Miguel working the ticket booth in his grim reaper costume), more parents would take their costumed children trick-or-treating down the streets as nearby businesses handed out candy.

Everyone was having fun... and that, more than almost anything else, annoyed 18-year-old Blair Eklund, because she rather distinctly *wasn't* having fun.

"Okay, not exactly..." she said, correcting her train of thought as she strolled down the street. It wasn't that she wasn't having fun, but more that she wasn't having quite as much fun as she wanted. This was going to be her last Halloween of high school, and she wanted to have as much fun with her friends as possible. Many of them were going to be leaving town for college the next year, after all, and Halloween in Briar's Mill was always such a fun time...

And yet, she had barely seen any of her friends at the carnival. The only one she'd seen for sure was Jacob, dressed to the nines in a costume that made him look like an extra in a Pirates of the Caribbean movie and looking more relaxed than she'd seen him in a long time. She nearly approached him, but after seeing him with a girl wearing a slutty Velma from Scooby-Doo costume that very much looked like a date, she kept her distance.

Just because she wasn't having fun didn't mean she'd try to insert herself in his fun.

Biting her lip and looking around, Blair just couldn't help but wish for her friends to be around because, well, on her own she was feeling kind of naked. As senior class president and bearing a usual preppy style, she wanted to try something as different as possible when it came to this momentous Halloween, because how often do you get to be someone else for a night? In doing so, she had borrowed her best friend Hana's cheerleading outfit. It mostly fit (save for the top, which she had to tighten due to Hana's bust being significantly larger than her own DD's), but left her wearing a tight, shoulder and midriff-baring top and a short skirt that showed off her toned body. This was more skin than she'd ever show outside of a road trip to the beach, and it felt strange, to say the least. With others here she'd have some courage, but as it was the feeling of nakedness was very pronounced.

Especially with the attention she was receiving.

Now, attention wasn't exactly something Blair was unused to, since she knew quite well that she was gorgeous. A 5'3" dark-skinned black girl with ample curves, a tight, athletic body, and a pretty face she accentuated well with hints of makeup, she knew she had to be a lot to be proud about. Be it her deep brown eyes, full lips or bountiful dark curls that bounced around her shoulders, she knew she was damn pretty, even if most eyes were generally on her large breasts or full, round ass. She got looks even in her usual long-sleeved shirt and jeans, but tonight she couldn't help but feel every eye on the street boring into her... and that was, well, rather uncomfortable.

A wall of friends to surround her and give her strength would have been nice, but she made the most of it anyway. She walked up and down the carnival, playing games and shopping, winning a cheap necklace of LED-lit plastic jack-o-lanterns and munching on a pumpkin spice-flavored churro. As a small town, she recognized everyone, and though she wished for some cover, she didn't let anyone else see that.

After all, she was Blair Eklund, Briar's Mill High School's senior class president, president of four separate clubs at school, field hockey and academic star, someone who had a good shot at valedictorian and getting in to pretty much whatever college she wanted. Barring a lot of the usual bullshit that came with the adult world, she had as good a chance of running the world as anyone and she was going to take it. She could have any boy in school that she wanted, and though she had partaken from time to time, there was usually too much going on in her life to pay them any mind.

She wouldn't let anyone see her lonely or afraid, not even on Halloween.

But if she couldn't find anyone soon (especially Hana, who was totally supposed to be here), maybe she'd finally hit up the haunted house. It wasn't that she wasn't in the mood for a scare (even though she'd heard the house wasn't that scary), but it would be an excuse to kick back and talk with Miguel. No doubt he'd bombard her with his usual come-ons, and the way she looked tonight she knew he'd feel even more emboldened.

Even though he was often tiresome, he was still a good friend, and maybe she'd just give in to the spirit of the night and be someone completely different and respond in kind to his remarks. After all, there were likely worse ways of spending a night than making out with Miguel de la Cruz; it wasn't like she'd never gotten drunk enough to make out with him in the past...

"You look like a woman who's interested in seeing her future..."

Blair turned to look at where the soft, sultry voice had come from, and found herself looking at a witch. Or, more appropriately, a woman dressed as a witch. She was tall, at just shy of six feet, with long red hair that cascaded down her shoulders and nestled on either side of her immense bust. Dressed in a light, silky, black witch's robe and a tall pointed hat, the woman had a silver pentacle necklace nestled between her huge breasts. Looking up, Blair took in the woman's face, with her flawless alabaster skin, big blue eyes and full lips (glossy with black lipstick) curled into a smile. Though she looked only a few years older than Blair herself, the witch carried herself with the confidence of a much older soul.

Blair was briefly taken aback by the woman's stunning beauty, but finally found words when she saw the witch standing in front of a small hole-in-the-wall business with a sign reading "Madame Serena's Fortunetelling". So that was what this was, a sales pitch. Blair knew how to deal with that.

"I don't need to be told my future; I know where I'm going," Blair answered confidently, though finding her words somehow a little difficult to come by in the other woman's presence.

"Maybe you do, maybe you don't," the woman said, a little too smugly for Blair's liking. "Surprises have a way of creeping up on you, and wouldn't you like to know about them before they do?"

Less intimidated and more annoyed by her now, Blair approached the witch and said, "And you offer absolute insight on what is to come, promising me that you can tell my future all for a low, low price?"

The woman looked her up and down and smiled mischievously. "I promise nothing but guidance on possible futures."

There it was, there was the catch. Blair said, "And you'll still charge money for this unreliable 'guidance' you offer? I'm sorry, but you know how shady that sounds, right?"

The witch remained unfazed by Blair. "Normally, yes, but for one as skeptical and uncertain as yourself, I'll be more than happy to do a brief reading free of charge. All Hallow's Eve is a night of great power after all, and the spirits might find the mischief of your disbelief entertaining enough to make this an interesting drawing."

Blair was of two minds on the subject of what to do with the witch. On the one hand, it wouldn't have been all that difficult to simply walk away and look for her friends who'd decided to take their time to arrive. On the other hand, it was free, and she was supposed to be spending tonight doing things she wouldn't normally do, this being the last Halloween in town after all...

The opportunity to show the witch up was too much for Blair to ignore. "Fine, I'll take your free reading."

"Lovely," the woman responded, turning slightly to bid Blair to follow her into the shop. Blair followed her, a little smug in her own way, thinking of all the ways she was liable to prove the witch a fraud, and all on the other woman's dime no less.

A small bell jingled above the door as Blair stepped inside the shop's cramped front room. It had a desk to welcome people, a couple small chairs, and walls lined with shelves carrying new age books for sale, crystals, and other odd bits of paraphernalia. It smelled heavily of incense and oils, a combination of scents that she didn't find altogether unpleasant, maybe just unfamiliar.

The bell jangled again as the witch stepped inside, ducking so the point of her hat made it through the door. She locked the door and turned the OPEN sign around to CLOSED, a power move that got Blair's adrenaline pumping.

"Wouldn't want any interruptions in your reading now, would we?" the woman explained.

"No, I guess we wouldn't," Blair said, looking around the front room, and the business name painted on the glass. "So, you're Madame Serena?"

The woman laughed pleasantly, the first break in her character that Blair had seen. "Oh, gods no... Madame Serena's my great aunt; she's in the hospital recovering from hip replacement surgery, and I'm filling in for her. *My* name is Delilah Thorne. She's taught me much about magick and fortunetelling, and it's proven a useful skill to help me pay my way through college."

"By giving away free readings?" Blair shot back.

Delilah smirked. "A free reading can often help a skeptic become interested, and if they want further readings past that... well, business is business. It's helped me make it to junior year, so from a purely pragmatic standing, I won't complain."

It made Delilah sound like a drug dealer to Blair's ears, but she wasn't going to say anything about it now that she was locked in to the store. She asked, "So... do we do it in here?"

"No, in the back," Delilah said, taking off her costume hat and hanging it on a coatrack by the door. She shifted to the side just enough that her robe fell open somewhat in the front, revealing a few inches of her impressive cleavage, but if she knew about this, she didn't show Blair.

Blair tried not to stare at the creamy expanse of skin on display, but found it rather difficult not to. Staring wasn't something she did as a matter of course (except sometimes at Hana, though since she had the biggest boobs Blair had ever seen, she thought a little staring was natural), but it was hard not to when someone had assets as impressive as Delilah's. It wasn't that she had any interest in women (not that she had a problem with people who did, having her share of gay and bi friends, like Hana), but just a simple matter of curiosity and jealousy, yeah, that was it. It wasn't like it was getting her hot and bothered or anything.

Though it was pretty warm in here compared to the cool fall air outside...

"I didn't catch your name," Delilah said as they walked through the shop.

"Oh, uh, Blair. Blair Eklund," Blair answered.

"Blair... lovely..." the fortuneteller answered with some amusement.

Delilah led her into a smaller reading room, one decorated with dozens of lit candles on shelves surrounded by other odds and ends trinkets. The smell of incense was heavy in here, and the heat from the candles impressive. In the center of the room was a small table with a colorful tablecloth on it, and two chairs. At Delilah's insistence, Blair took one seat, while Delilah took the chair that wasn't quite opposite her. Blair only realized this curious arrangement when Delilah crossed one leg over the other, opening the bottom of the robe slightly and revealing her long, pale, toned leg to be quite bare.

Shaking her focus from this display, Blair put her hands on the table.

"So, what are we gonna do here? You gonna read my palm? Tea leaves? Stare into a crystal ball and ask me leading questions where you can seemingly magically come up with answers that make you think you've got a greater insight to me than you actually do?" Blair said.

Delilah listened to her with a smile. "No, I only do the crystal ball thing for proper assholes. You, on the other hand... you know I didn't drag you in here, right? If you've got a problem, you can leave at any time. I love playing with a skeptic as much as anyone, but if you're going to be a problem..."

Blair sighed. "No, no, sorry... I'm supposed to be trying new things tonight, and I'm not very good at trying new things."

Delilah nodded knowingly. "Sounds a lot like my ex. You had to drag her kicking and screaming into new experiences, but she usually enjoyed them in the end. After a time. And possibly some more kicking and screaming."

Blair felt a slight bit of discomfort at the discovery of Delilah's ex being a woman, but told herself not to think about it too hard. It's not like Delilah dragged her in here to attempt to seduce her or anything like that, or that it would work if she tried.

"So, how does this work work?" Blair asked.

Reaching to a nearby shelf, Delilah pulled out a deck of tarot cards, shuffled them a few times with her eyes closed and then spread them out facedown on the table.

"I prefer the cards," she explained. "They have more nuance than some other methods. I can go pretty in depth with them given more time, but since we're doing this free of charge, we'll make it quick. Now, tell me, what would you like your reading to be about? The most popular things people tend to want to know about are money, and love. Any preferences?"

Normally, Blair would have been all about looking into matters of her financial future, but in the spirit of playing things differently, she said, "Let's go with love."

"Alright, getting adventurous, I see," Delilah teased lightly, gathering the cards into a deck once more for one final shuffle before spreading them again. "Now, I want you to focus on your love life, as it has been, as it is now, and then pick out three cards from here, setting them out in a row in the middle of the table."

"It's that easy?" Blair asked.

"It's that easy," Delilah replied, shifting slightly in her chair, the robe opening slightly enough to show a little more cleavage.

Feeling uncomfortably warm in such a small room, Blair nodded, and then did as Delilah said. Focusing on her love life turned out to be surprisingly difficult, as despite having had two boyfriends and a handful of dates throughout high school, she hadn't really found a serious feeling of attachment from them. She had pursued these relationships as something expected of her, they'd mostly been fun, and the rare occasions she'd had sex had been satisfying enough, but at the end of the day they just hadn't felt as important to her as her academic achievements, nor as fun as Hana always talked about. Nonetheless, she focused on this the best she could, picking three cards from random spots in the middle of the deck, and then set them in front of herself.

"These cards represent your past, your present, and your future," Delilah explained, pointing at them from left to right from Blair's perspective. "Feel free to confirm or not confirm whatever you feel most comfortable sharing... but until then, let's see what these cards hold in store. First, your past."

With a flourish, Delilah flipped the first card over and revealed a jester-looking character stepping toward a cliff, the name "THE FOOL" printed in bold letters at the bottom. Blair grimaced at the image, not one to take being called a fool lightly.

"Ah, The Fool, a card of beginnings and a journey ahead!" Delilah said, pleased. "You began a journey through the tumultuous waters of love optimistic and hopeful, unknowing of what would come ahead. Though the Fool may look foolish, this is only because they know nothing yet, as we all do, but through experiences both good and bad will become stronger and more rounded individuals."

Blair's scowl left, slightly, but she found herself strangely happy that the cards weren't mocking her, but rather acknowledging that she started out, like so many, at the beginning of a journey.

"We all start as fools when it comes to love, do we not?" Delilah said.

"That's the truth," Blair agreed.

"It's all a matter of setting our boundaries and learning what we do and don't like, while being open for... more, because life does offer such delicious surprises sometimes..." Delilah continued, leaning over the table slightly and showing off the deep cavern of her cleavage. For how much Blair could see without being certain she could see anything in particular, Blair found herself briefly wondering if Delilah was wearing a bra under the robe... or anything for that matter.

Why was it getting hotter in here?

"Now, let's take a look at the present," Delilah continued, flipping over the next card. It revealed an image of the grim reaper, the card itself upside-down to Blair's view, but its name and meaning clear. DEATH.

"That doesn't look good," Blair said, mostly amused but feeling a distinct stab of dread.

"Death's reputation is generally... misstated. Typically, it means the end of a journey and the beginning of another, a rebirth of sorts, much like the phoenix. When it's reversed like this... well, it typically means something along the lines of an inability to change at worst, or perhaps stagnation. In this case, it could mean that for all of your optimism and hope in initially dipping your toes into the world of love and lust, that you haven't quite reached the fulfillment from it that you've wanted," Delilah explained.

Blair's face dropped slightly. She didn't want to show any weakness to the fortuneteller to give her any ideas to latch onto... but in this case, it was hard to say she was wrong. While some of it was definitely on her for what she chose to focus on, there was also something intangible she had a hard time placing, something missing that led to a sense of, well, stagnation when it came to her love life.

Blair shivered slightly at the thought of how right Delilah seemed to be. Concerned, the fortuneteller leaned over and placed her hand on Blair's, saying, "Are you alright? Would you like to stop?"

Blair found Delilah's soft, pleasant touch calming. No, something a little more than calming, something that was hard to place... she felt good, yet a little anxious at the same time.