Perfect Picture

Click.

Scott spun around and his stomach sunk.

"You should see your face! Bex, get a picture of this dweeb."

"My phone's in the car. Hold on, I'll grab it."

They'd locked him in. Worse, they were laughing about it. The car's headlights lit them from behind, turning them into menacing silhouettes.

Scott stumbled to the towering gate and tugged on the bars with all his strength. Other than a little rattle, no reaction. "Rebecca! Melanie! Please, let me out!"

"Aww, poor Snot. Locked in the abandoned mansion by the two meanies, boo hoo!" Melanie further mocked Scott by imitating crying.

"Got it." Rebecca jogged back over. She levelled the phone's camera and Scott could do little else but cover his face.

"Snot, you better pose for this picture for we ain't letting you out." Melanie raised a warning finger at him.

Considering what they'd done to him in the past, he believed that they'd leave him, so did as he was told.

"Oh my god, are you gonna cry?" Rebecca snickered whilst she took picture after picture, the telltale shutter sound accompanying each one.

"I think he is. I bet he believes that ghosts are gonna come out and get him. He was gullible enough to think we'd ever want to bring him along to a Halloween party."

"I thought you guys were trying to make amends!" He rattled the gates again.

"Amends? Amends for what?" Melanie crossed her arms. "If anything, you should be thanking us for paying you any attention. Back in school, a couple hotties like us could have been hooking up with guys, but instead we spent our time on you."

"Thank you? You flushed my head in the toilet, tickled me until I pissed myself, and made me smell your gym socks!" There were more, a lot more, but those had been their favourite ways of tormenting him.

They both laughed.

"Yeah? So? If it wasn't for us, a nerd like you would never have even been touched by a girl. Instead you got two gorgeous ones going so far as to touch your tighty whities, even if we were just seeing if we could pull them over your head." Rebecca's comment was followed by more laughter.

"Okay, fine. Thank you both! Now please let me out."

"That's not the kind of gratitude we want, Snot." Melanie stepped forward, close enough that she was no longer silhouetted. Her smirk became clear. Somehow the black cat costume made her look sinister rather than silly.

"Get on your knees. Show us some real gratitude." Rebecca joined Melanie, fake blood and zombie makeup decorated her tan complexion.

"Okay, okay!" Scott carefully got onto his knees, upset that he had to get dirt on the costume he'd spent so much on; at Melanie's request, of course. Going as a pair with someone as pretty as her had been difficult to refuse.

"It's a start," Rebecca said, lifting her foot and putting it between the bars. "Now lick my sneaker. You'll recognise it, they're the same pair I used to wear for gym in high school!"

"I bet those things smell nasty."

They did. Scott got a whiff of something unfortunately familiar: the odour of an athletic girl's feet. And that was with the sneakers still on.

"Hurry up." The sneaker jiggled around. "We're not waiting all night."

Fearing the worst, Scott stuck out his tongue and licked the tip of Rebecca's sneaker. It tasted dirty, and sure enough it looked cleaner where he had licked.

"Eww!" Rebecca giggled. "That made for a great pic though. Mel, check this out!"

Scott blushed, seeing them look at the humiliating picture and find nothing but amusement.

"Are you going to let me out now?"

"Not yet, Snot. I haven't had my turn."

Mel's black flat fell to the floor, and she stuck her pale bare foot between the bars. "Kiss my sexy little toes until I say stop. You better look happy about it too, I want this to be the perfect picture. You in your little doggie costume, degrading yourself for my toes. Everyone at the party will love it."

"The party's real?"

Rebecca snorted. "Obviously! It's just somewhere else, not in an abandoned house. I can't believe you thought that anyone would have a party here, there's probably cobwebs galore inside."

"Stop getting distracted and start smooching!" Melanie demanded, wiggling her pink topped toes.

Scott tried to do so, he really did, but when he leaned in close he caught a whiff of the cheesy aroma and recoiled.

"Your rank feet are too stinky for him, that's hilarious!"

"Well, I have been wearing my waitressing flats. They're the only black shoes I have." Melanie blushed, but when her eyes met his, embarrassment turn to fury. "What the fuck are you looking at? Just because my feet are ripe doesn't mean you get out of kissing them!"

"She's pissed off now, Snot. You'd better do what she says!" Rebecca said whilst trying not to laugh. Scott wasn't sure who she was mocking.

"Shut up, Bex, or I'll make you kiss the other one."

Before Melanie's anger was directed back at him, Scott started kissing her toes. He'd had enough experience being forced to kiss her feet and knew that little pecks wouldn't cut it, Melanie liked proper kisses.

"Oh, I've missed this." Melanie giggled and wiggled her toes against Scott's lips. "Keep that up and we might actually let you come with us to this party."

Scott kept it up, trying to ignore the salty hints of flavour he was tasting. At least it wasn't licking. As that thought came over him, however, he felt Melanie's big toe attempting a full-scale invasion of his mouth.

"C'mon, let it in. Suck on my big toe, Snot, and we'll be finished."

Hesitantly, he parted his teeth and the sweaty toe slid inside with ease. He immediately regretted his decision. Those salty hints from before had become overwhelming vinegar. He fought the urge to throw up. If Melanie got vomit on her feet, she might actually toss away the key.

"Urgh, I think I'm going to be sick," Rebecca said without mockery. "I've been around when you kick off those flats after a shift, I almost feel sorry for the loser."

"Concentrate on taking pictures, Bex. You can complain about my stinky feet in the car because they're going in your lap."

"If those things come anywhere near me, I'm making you walk." More shutter sounds. "Look up at the camera, Snot. Give us your best puppy-dog eyes!"

As he obeyed, his face turned a deep red and tears welled up in his eyes. He'd been looking forward to this night for weeks, ever since Melanie messaged him out of the blue. It wasn't supposed to turn out like this.

"Yes! Very good. You should try a new line of work, you're quite a good toe-sucker."

"He does look pathetic enough. I bet he'd be a real hit."

Melanie plucked her toe from Scott's mouth, a trail of saliva following it. "We'd need a cut of the profits. We did train him free of charge, after all."

"Forty-five percent for each of us, ten percent for him," Rebecca said, grinning down at him.

"That sounds fair. He's lucky he gets anything at all."

"We can even have his debut at the party!"

Both of them laughed so much they were crying. Scott watched helplessly from the other side of the iron gate, hoping this would soon be over and he could go home and hang his head in shame, alone in his room.

"A-are you going to let me out now?"

"Hmm..." Melanie tapped her foot which had been back in her flat for a while, replenishing any smell that Scott's mouth might have stolen. "What do you think, Bex? Has the doggie had enough?"

"Please? Like you said, I can make my debut at the party!" Scott was lying his ass off. As soon as these crazy women had him back to civilisation, he planned to run and not look back. He knew that those pictures would be shared regardless of his actions.

"Wait a minute!" Rebecca said with mock realisation. "We can't bring Snot along with us."

"Why's that?" Melanie asked.

"You... don't remember? Fucking hell, Mel. I thought you were teasing him when you mentioned bringing him along after all. It's girls only."

Melanie groaned. "How did I forget? So there'll be no handsome guys there?"

"Nope."

"Bummer. Oh well, we can't exactly cancel now and let Sarah down. At least we can get wasted." Melanie looked down at Scott. "Looks like you can't come, sorry loser. I'll have to be a cat without a dog tonight."

They started to turn away.

"Hey! Aren't you forgetting something?"

Stopping in their tracks, they turned back around.

"Are we forgetting something, Bex?" Melanie grinned.

"We might be. Let me think."

Scott shuffled uncomfortably on the ground. Getting up without permission would give them a reason to be cruel. Not that they needed one.

"I got it!" Rebecca also sported a grin. Scott started to smile along with the both of them in relief, before he was hit in the face by a glob of spit.

Melanie burst into giggles. "I can't believe you did that!"

"Okay, now—"

A second glob of spit coming from Melanie cleared the bars and hit him in the face.

"Right, now we can go." Rebecca started walking back to her car, followed closely by Melanie, sharing a high-five on the way.

"No!" Scott jumped to his feet and banged against the bars. "You can't leave me here, it's too cold! I'll die!"

The car reversed and swung to the side. Melanie leaned out of the passenger side window. "Go inside the house, it'll be nice and warm. Maybe you can snuggle up with the spooky ghosts? Me and Bex will be back for you in the morning. See ya, Snot!"

"W-w-wait..." Scott felt the hope slowly drain from him as the car left, the laughter and music fading into the distance. He thought they were kidding; that they would actually stop and give him a ride, teasing him for being so scared the whole way back.

But no. They had no intention of stopping.

"The lock!" Scott shouted. He wasn't the sort to speak aloud, but the sounds of the forest were unnerving.

His fingers scrambled for the padlock they had closed over the bolt. Its smooth metal surface compared to the rough, rusting metal of the gate would have made it easy to find in complete darkness. Perhaps they had only pretended to lock it as a prank, and would reveal in the morning that he could have gotten out whenever he wanted. That would mean a long walk home, but it was better than the alternative...

No such luck. It was sealed shut, and it was the most secure padlock he'd ever laid eyes on. There would be no breaking it off. He was stuck inside the mansion's grounds until morning, trapped by a brick wall over double his height.

He turned and looked at the building itself, dark and looming. It was straight out of a horror movie. He shivered, unsure if it was from fear or the cold breeze. It was somewhat lucky that Melanie and Rebecca had made him wear a dog costume. While humiliating in most situations, it was also warmer than a lot of the other suggestions they could have made. Not warm enough though. Scott weighed up the pros and cons between going inside the probably haunted house, and freezing to death.

After one last, resentful look at the world beyond the locked gate, Scott sighed.

* * *

Inside the house wasn't quite as bad as Scott had expected. Sure, it was dark, only a little warmer than the outside, and every creak of a floorboard made him come close to pissing his pants, but at least he wasn't out in the cold.

He had spent the better part of an hour making minimal progress. Exploring rooms at a snail's pace, constantly checking over his shoulder for skeletons, zombies, and other ghoulies. So far, he'd found none. Actually forcing himself into action had managed to calm him down a little, reassure him that the place wasn't actually haunted.

Apart from the door to the basement, of course. There was no doubt in his mind that the basement was haunted. An open door located near the stairs, the other side shrouded in total darkness. It would take a miracle for him to go down there. Even staring at it, he sensed evil. He'd crept upstairs to get as far away from that door as possible.

Upstairs, he found the first spooky thing that wasn't part of his imagination. There were many doors up here, but only one of them had a light illuminating the inside that could be seen through the partially open doorway.

Scott's heart raced. Was it ghosts? Homeless people? Fugitives on the run? There were all manner of possibilities for the source of that light, both supernatural and explainable, but there weren't many that boded well for him.

His fear had eroded the longer he spent in the house, however, and so he approached the lit room, slowly and carefully. Whenever he stood on a creaky floorboard, he took a long pause and waited for any form of reaction. Nothing. If there was anything in that room, it wasn't paying much attention.

As he got closer, he found the reason that his sounds were being masked. Music. It wasn't modern, far from it, whoever was listening to it was in severe need of a musical update.

With newfound confidence that he wouldn't be heard, Scott reached the doorway. Not only was there music, but he could also hear a distinctly feminine voice humming along to it. Leaning forward, he tried to get a peek through the gap without disturbing the door itself, but there was no way of getting a look without potentially alerting the room's occupant.

The humming stopped.

"Hello? Is someone there?"

Scott somehow managed not to yelp in surprise and backed away from the door slowly.

Clack clack clack.

She was coming. Have to find a place to hide. Scott looked around at the nearby doors frantically, not one of them was particularly inviting. He scrambled over to the closest and hid inside, pulling the door gently closed and trying not to think about all the creepy crawlies he was likely sharing the space with.

Creeeeeeak.

"Hello?" A pause. "Huh, I thought I heard something. Must have been my mind playing tricks on me. Shame, I would have liked some company."

Scott heard another long creak and breathed a sigh of relief. She was back inside the room. He was safe.

After waiting a couple minutes, he attempted to leave the side room, but ran into a tall woman in an elaborate, antiquated dress, standing before him with a smile.

He screamed, falling onto his backside.

The woman chuckled. "I knew I heard someone creeping around out here. What I didn't know is that it would be a scared pup." She extended a hand towards him. "Here, let me help you up."

He stared at her elegant fingers, adorned with rings and ending in nails redder than her long hair, hesitating to accept her offer of help. She seemed kind enough, but that's exactly what he expected a ghost would do to lure him in and eat his soul.

"Come on now, no need to be shy. I'm not going to bite you."

Scott came to the realisation that if she was going to gobble him up for dinner, she would have done so already. He took her hand, her skin was cool and silky. It didn't seem to take much effort for her to pull him to his feet.

"There we go. Now tell me, what's a handsome young man like yourself doing in my house? Do you have a name?" Her icy blue eyes settled on his dog collar, she reached out and turned the round name-tag towards her. "Snot. That's a funny name."

"T-that's not my name, ma'am. I'm Scott." It should have been a giveaway when Melanie gave him the collar to complete his costume. She and Rebecca claimed the name was like a private joke between the three of them, that it was nothing to be ashamed of.

"Oh? Why does your collar say it is then, doggie?"

"It's supposed to be a joke." He blushed. "I'm not a dog, either. It's a costume, like yours."

For a moment, the woman looked puzzled, glancing down at her dress. Then she smiled again. "Ah yes, my costume. I'd almost forgotten I was wearing it."

"It's a lovely costume, ma'am, you look fantastic." Scott wasn't usually one for giving compliments, women tended to find them unwanted from his mouth. But with her, he found it difficult to resist. She was radiant.

"Looks like my guest is polite as well as handsome!" She chuckled, her cheeks becoming rosy. "Enough with the ma'am. My name is Lady Emily Thorn."

"Can I ask what you're doing all alone in an abandoned house, Lady Emily? Did someone leave you here too?"

Her eyebrows furrowed. "Abandoned? I'm not sure what you mean. It doesn't look abandoned to me."

Lady Emily made a sweeping gesture with her hand and Scott's eyes followed. He gasped. This didn't look like the same house he had been sneaking around in. Now it was absent of dirt and dust. There wasn't a cobweb in sight. Everything was lit by candles.

"Wha—I don't understand."

"Come in here and sit with me a while." Lady Emily pushed open the door to the room with the music, this time without a creak. "Let's see if we can help you understand."

Scott was led into the room by a hand on his shoulder. It was delightfully warm inside because of a roaring fire. He saw that the classical music was being played by an authentic gramophone. A stool was placed before a half-finished painting.

"It'll be nice to have some company whilst I'm painting."

"Do you paint often, Lady Emily?" Scott eyed a bowl of fruit on a table. The replication on the canvas was very lifelike. "It looks like you're great at it."

Lady Emily laughed. "I should hope I'm great at it, I spend most of my time painting! Before you leave, you must see my masterpiece. I keep it in the basement."

Scott felt a brief chill run through him at the mention of the basement.

"Now, do you have any questions?"

"Yes. A lot of questions." Scott took a moment to think, deciding what he wanted to ask first. "How di—"

The fireplace and the candles lighting the room extinguished themselves. Girlish giggling echoed into the room from the corridors and rapid footsteps could be heard thundering along the floor.

"Oh dear," Lady Emily said. "Sounds like we have more guests. Not nice guests, either."

Scott was terrified. Were monsters coming to eat them both? "What do we do?"

"You need to hide. I can deal with them, temporarily."

His head shot from one wall to the next. "There's nowhere to hide!"

Lady Emily rolled her eyes. "The things I do for scared young men..."

She lifted up the hem of her dress, revealing a pair of burgundy high heels, smooth bare legs, and purple undergarments. Scott couldn't help but stare, dumbfounded, yet aroused.

"Quick, you fool! Hide under my dress. They'll be here any moment now."

Shaking his head, he dove for the space between her long legs and the dress fell back into place behind him. It was warm under here, thankfully. Although, there was a pungent odour coming from somewhere. He refrained from looking down.

Slam.

"Do you mind?" Lady Emily said. "I'm trying to paint in here."

"Where is he?" The voice of the monster was strangely familiar.

"We know he's here." A second monster was there, also sounding familiar.

"Sorry girls, but I don't know what you're talking about. Who are you looking for?"

One of them growled.

"Doesn't matter. Come on, Bex. He's clearly not in here. Let's not waste our time," the other monster said.

Wait a minute. 'Bex'?

As they left, breaking back into a run, they slammed the door shut behind them.

"How very rude. Come on out, Snot. Oops, sorry. Scott."

Lady Emily lifted the hem of her dress back up, and he cautiously crawled back out.

"Right, this changes things," Lady Emily said. "We could have stayed here until the sun came up, enjoying ourselves chatting and painting. But now they're here, there's only one way for you to be safe."

"Safe? Isn't it safe in here, with you?"

"Oh no. I can't protect you from them. You must meet me in the basement, I can take you out of this place."

Scott shivered. "The basement? Do I have to?"

Lady Emily stepped close, cupping his chin with both hands and gently pushing his head so that he was looking into her eyes. Breathtaking.