Pinky Promise

Michelle fingered her little butterfly. Who was he? She never felt like this about a guy before. He was startling her, but he wasn't doing anything, he was just writing. The rhythmic sounds of his scribbling pen on the smooth skin of the page attacked her. She felt like the fangs of a steel trap coated in honey had clamped down around her head and she leaked out all over the floor in strange rivers of raw feeling. She needed to sit down or she was going to faint.

"Then take a seat," He said flatly as he continued writing in the book.

Michelle sat down in the black leather chair that felt and looked like a giant snake.

She alternated back and forth between fidgeting with her necklace to gripping her long black braid. Michelle couldn't stop stealing glances at him, she forgot why she was even here in the first place. She kept crossing and uncrossing her legs and let out a desperate sigh.

"You're all wet huh?" He said in a deep voice.

"Excuse me?" Michelle said, her eyes widened and her legs slowly uncrossed.

He slammed the book shut and Michelle felt like she woke up from a strange trance.

He pointed to her shirt with a single, white, charming finger, "you're soaked, it must be hot out tonight. You know, I can't remember the last summer it's been 'this' hot."

Michelle closed her mouth and looked down at the sweat stains that covered her thin top.

"Oh... yes, it's been terrible lately," Michelle said, she felt stupid.

There was a pause as the two looked at each other.

"Well?" He asked after a minute or two.

"Well what?" Michelle said.

"Why are you here during my office hours? You're not a student of mine, what do you want?" He said flatly, with a raised eyebrow.

Michelle blushed from embarrassment. Why had she come? Where was she again? All of it had slipped her mind. She gripped her bag and the weight of it reminded her.

She pulled out the heavy black book with red edges and placed it on the professor's desk.

He tapped his fingers and stared at it.

"What did you do to it?" He asked, reaching out for it across the dark polished wood of his desk and dragging it towards himself.

"I... what? I didn't do anything to it," Michelle said and knitted her eyebrows, "I found it at my friend's, she's missing and..."

"You're one of Milly's friends?" He asked, he turned the book over in his hands and lifted it up and down in his grip measuring the weight of it.

"Milly?" Michelle asked. Where had she heard that name before? "No, not Milly, Clarissa. Clarissa Carkova. Do you know her? I'm her friend, Michelle."

"No, I can't say that I do," Mr. Sea said, "this book belongs to a Ms. Mors, a student of mine." He opened the book and paged through it with a furrowed brow.

Michelle glanced around the room as he read some of the book. The room seemed like it belonged in an ancient mansion of some kind. The office didn't look like it was built, so much as formed out of thin air. There were two towering bookshelves on either side of the room filled with different sized volumes in blues, burgundies, greens, mustards, blacks, et cetera. Michelle looked up into the dim glow of the deep yellow lamps above that seemed to drip down from the tall ceiling like burning honey. Intricate gilded patterns lined the edges of the vaulted ceiling.

She shifted her gaze down into the grip of her black snake leather chair with green stitching. She ran her hands along the deep lushness of its shiny obsidian surface, her dewy fingers tracing its many grooves. She resettled her body deep into the cushions and let it enfold her as her socked feet sank into the thick plushness of the oriental carpet. Her body was disappearing into a cozy comfort that threatened to put her down for good. Michelle fluttered her long dark lashes, trying to stay awake when she spotted a peculiar statue on his black Glossy desk.

It was a miniature mermaid hanging out the edge of a flat, circular ink pot the size of a small plate. She gripped Mr. Sea's sooty quill with pale, gentle arms like a fancy pen holder. Michelle found her eyes stuck on the intricate statue. It seemed so real her gaze kept getting lost in tunnels of never-ending details. She could almost see the perky white chest moving and breathing. Her deep engrossing blue eyes were ringed in silver flecks, like an ocean reflecting the stars of a particular constellation. Her hair was dark and wet. A set of pearls encircled her throat. Michelle spotted two small holes poked deep into her vulnerable neck leaking a bright vibrant red. Her mermaid tail was resting lazily on the edge of the ink pot like she was home. The silvery greens and cloudy blues shimmered under the yellow light in a hypnotic show as she delicately flexed her pale pink fin kissed with white and red rose petals. She looked up at Michelle and shyly winked from behind the trunk of the pen. She mouthed something like a name, "Zella". The tiny mermaid smiled and flicked the corner of her tail at Michelle. The tiniest drop of ink hit Michelle just under her left eye and sent her mind from her body.

Michelle found herself falling under the surface of a warm green sea. Her pale arms and dark hair were flowing up above her. She was sinking. Sinking, sinking deep below the surface of her mind. Her thoughts disappeared and she was blank again. The ticking of the Grandfather clock pounding even here underwater. It was pounding and pounding, with no end in sight, word after word, doing as he pleased inside her receptive mind. Pounding and pounding, he was in her, pounding and pounding. He overwhelmed her with it, he didn't care, he did as he pleased now, here inside her, deep under the waters of her mind. A black snake with hypnotic eyes and a green hissing tongue wrapped around her leg.

"Did you read any of this before you gave it to me?" Mr. Sea asked.

A loud thwack like reality pulled her rapidly out of her slumber and plopped her back in the chair in Mr. Sea's office. She focused on his words and formed an answer almost automatically.

"Well no, I just found it at my friend's, and I thought maybe you would know something about it, I found this poem in the book from your office in it," Michelle said and placed the creamy note on his desk. It sat there like an Autumn leaf on the surface of a dark pond.

He didn't bother to look at it, but focused on the book, raising his eyebrows here and there. He held the book up in weird ways and watched its pages flop around before finally closing it.

"Well after reading a bit of this, I think I may know where she went," He said leaning back in his chair and interlocking his fingers across his chest.

Michelle looked at him then the book, her pretty mouth ajar, "what do you mean, you know what happened to her? Is she okay?" She leaned forward in the strange obsidian snake leather chair. Something bit her ankle with two needle-like fangs and injected something into her. She jerked her leg out and instinctively grabbed it. She looked down, there wasn't a mark or anything? She looked up at Mr. Sea and a bead of sweat ran down her leg. Her entire body was screaming to run away from the strange place, but she needed to know what he knew about Clarissa.

He didn't say anything for a while and just studied her, "why are you so interested in your friend exactly?"

"What?!" Michelle Gasped, "who cares why I am interested in finding her, she's my friend, what does that matter!"

"I see..." He said.

"Look, if you don't tell me where she is, or what you know, I'll call the cops," she blurted out quickly, her ankle was still stinging, she rubbed it.

"And tell them what exactly?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

Michelle's heart was racing, she hated this man, or something like that... she didn't know what the feeling was exactly, all she knew was that he bothered her immensely and she wanted to climb across the desk and slap him, or kiss him. She blushed and squeezed her butterfly hard. She didn't know what was going on, she was so turned around by this man she felt like she was going to burst into a pile of post-it notes. And her ankle was burning, a thick, gum-like fire was running up her leg and infesting her in weird ways. Strange thoughts dangled in the way of her vision.

"Look, I have an idea about your friend, but you wouldn't understand if I told you, so I am going to need to show you," he said, standing up.

Michelle looked up at him with wide eyes from the chair.

"Follow me," he said.

The collared girl opened the door and he whispered something into her ear. She looked at him like he was her god, her creator. He patted her on her soft, dark head and she left down the hallway, fondling the silver hoop on her collar.

Michelle stood and walked up behind him, fussing with her ankle, she took another look, it was a patch of smooth, healthy skin, but she felt it, something sharp like two hot curved needles forced their way into her and injected a heavy burning load of something thick and tarry. She didn't know what to do or say.

"Just stick with me," He said, not looking at her, "I won't bite."

A beautiful woman with a blonde bob in a red dress showed up and looked over Mr. Sea's shoulder at Michelle with a strange smile.

"Patricia, 'The Vampire Lord' has fallen in love," Mr. Sea said to her.

"You're kidding," the woman gasped, "how is that possible?"

"I don't know, but I am going to go see for myself, a door for her should have grown up, so I'll go look."

"You created a door for them?" Patricia asked, her brilliant eyes searching Mr. Sea's.

"No, but I must have some how?" Mr. Sea said, "I don't know, I need to do some research. This is still all new to me."

"Who's that one there?" Patricia asked, pointing an elegant finger with nails like polished apples towards a fidgeting Michelle.

"Another 'M'," he said, glancing back at her.

Patricia frowned, folded her arms across her cleavage, and looked at Michelle, "what does that mean?"

Mr. Sea shrugged, "S, M, C, and now another M? What's next an R? I guess my webs are better than I thought."

Patricia smiled at him, "real funny, I told you before you were getting better, but you didn't believe me. No matter how far you've come, you never see how well and how quickly you do it."

"Can you do me a favor while I take her through the house?" Mr. Sea asked, ignoring her I told you so's.

Patricia raised her eyebrows, "you're going to let her in the house? Has she even been attuned?" She glared down at Michelle. Patricia's feminine confidence intimidated her.

"No, that's why I said I was going to take her," Mr. Sea said, "can you go to the library, or maybe ask The Maid, what it means when one of them has a chain growing out their chest?"

"Is that what that is?" Patricia said, "how interesting, it looks like it's reaching towards you but splitting off from somewhere else at the same time? You don't know her?"

"Just go please, Patricia," Mr. Sea said.

"Fine, but you owe me," Patricia said, placing a hand on his heart, "I want some time with you, alone, after you settle her down."

Mr. Sea turned back towards Michelle, "Ok, stick with me or you'll get lost, I'll take you to your friend."

"What's going on?" Michelle said, "are you really going to take me to Clarissa? Who was that lady?"

"You can leave and go home anytime you want, you are the one that came to me, remember?" He said, looking into her with those fiery jade gems and stern look of confidence that knew it was already too late for her. He didn't care about her wants at all and Michelle could sense that. He was on his own mission and she just happened to be going in the same direction. She wanted to slap him, hard.

Michelle melted and fingered her butterfly nervously. She felt a strange energy pulling her to him despite the rage he stoked in her chest.

"Fine, whatever," she said, not looking at him.

Mr. Sea closed the door and stood still for a moment. Michelle studied him, what the hell was going on? She felt like she had walked into some kind of alternate dimension. Wait until she told Gwen all about this crazy night, she thought. She would be the only one to appreciate the strangeness of it all.

He reached out a hand and knocked heavily on the door eleven times. He opened it and looked back at Michelle. Mr. Sea's eyes were green daggers in her mind. He gripped her hand away from her necklace and tugged her roughly behind him as he entered the door.

Michelle gasped from the sudden physicality of his strong grip and stumbled into the hallway with him, falling against the wall of his back.

"Ow, what the fuck?" Michelle said, rubbing her delicate fingers.

Mr. Sea ignored her and looked down the hall. Michelle followed his gaze and fell against the wall behind her. Her body felt dislocated from space and almost time too.

The hallway was messing with her senses. It seemed to go on forever in both directions. Her mind was staring directly into the infinite and the unreality of it was making her sick.

An arcade rug of a wall ran down both sides seemingly forever. The blue-purple fuzz of a wallpaper was decorated in colorful outlines of eyes. There was white and black trim on each side of the hallway. The walls shimmered with a blacklight radiance, despite the entire hallway being lit in dim movie theatre style sconces the shapes of seashells. Michelle tried to look away from the walls and studied the strange paintings recessed in the arched vaulted ceiling. Her eyes focused on a girl mounting a growling panther nude while holding a pair of silk slippers and a hand mirror.

She slid down the wall and held her head in her hands. Her socked feet drifted out into the void of the black, silvers, and purples of the long carpet runner of the hallway. Little shapes of things gathered around her feet on the two dimensional surface like curious geometry.

"What..."

Was all Michelle could manage in between her panicked breathing. She gripped her pony-tail hard and shook. It felt like her whole reality was trying to re-align herself. Her vision was spinning in a circle in front of her as her mind rebuilt the beliefs of what was possible.

Mr. Sea looked down at her. He had forgotten about her while he was calculating something in his head.

"Do you need help standing?" Mr. Sea asked, holding out a hand.

Michelle didn't say anything.

Mr. Sea kneeled down next to her. A giant block of ice sat in Michelle's chest and she couldn't do anything, everything was swirling in her head.

"Have you had enough of chasing Clarissa yet?" Mr. Sea whispered in her ear.

Michelle's eyes widened. She took a deep breath and stood up with the help of the wall behind her back. Her thin shirt catching on the rug-like wall.

"Where is she?" Michelle asked. She glared at Mr. Sea's smirking face with a building rage.

"This way, hold my hand," Mr. Sea said.

"No thanks, just lead the way please," Michelle said, her voice trying to remain pleasant despite her anger. She wanted to smack him so hard.

"It wasn't a request," Mr. Sea said, holding out his pale, powerful, fingers, "you're not supposed to be here, so I have to take extra precaution."

Michelle rolled her eyes and groaned. She grabbed his hand and he smiled a smile that seemed calculated to only increase her irritation with him.

She followed him down the strange hallway, trying not to look into the distance. Instead her eyes traveled down his black clad back and she studied their clasped hands as she trailed behind him. He wore a pair of skinny jeans and sharp-tipped velvet boots.

But Michelle found herself always returning to their joined hands. Hers felt so fragile in his grip, like a cream-colored rose. Even though his hands were beautiful and soft, they emanated a kind of strong deftness, like they could do anything, like they were eternal. Her hands felt immature and naive in his attentive grip. His fingers reacted to hers on an automatic instinctual level.

Who was this man? Michelle's heart felt weird. His touch filled her fingers with a dripping, warm joy that extended up her whole arm and filled her head with a wonderful stupor of content safety. He had spread throughout the whole of her thriving flesh just through the use of his mind and hands. He glanced briefly back at her with stars for eyes, Michelle blushed and gripped his hand a little tighter.

Who was this man? Michelle pondered the whole time he led her down the strange terrifying hallway of infinity. Her other hand fondled the warm, smooth wings of her butterfly. Who was this man?

"This door is new, I think this is the one," Mr. Sea said and stopped in front of a black door with golden digits that read "777" with big serifs. The paint swirled on it like a deep pool of black blood.

Mr. Sea dropped her hand and Michelle had a tough time pulling herself out of the warm addictive trance his touch had pulled her into. What was she doing again? Who was her name? She looked at the strange door and stepped back from it.

"What the fuck?" Michelle said, she glanced around the hallway, they were in a section of a the corridor populated by a handful of doors, all different colors and types. Some of the doors looked unfinished, or blank like an inky sketch, at least that's how they appeared to Michelle.

Michelle saw a door behind her slightly ajar, it was a white door smeared with paint marks. She peered through the golden gap of thick light and saw into the room. There was a young woman on a red cushion looking at a painting. Michelle recognized her.

"Suzie?" Michelle asked herself.

Mr. Sea walked over and shut the door.

"Sorry about that, she's a bit of an exhibitionist, her door is always doing that," Mr. Sea said, "now focus, please, this is the door your friend is behind. Anything could be in there."

"But, was that?" Michelle said, staring at the paint smeared door with a cat's head painted in its heart.

"Focus!" Mr. Sea growled as he grabbed her small chin.

Michelle swallowed and looked at him, his eyes shone a commanding glare of white light out at her and gripped her by the throat like a wild panther.

She turned from his grip to face the door. Mr. Sea opened it slowly. A wind of rose and jasmine brushed out Michelle's baby hairs in a warm kiss.

Michelle saw into the room and the scene horrified her.

It was Clarissa's bedroom, but stained in black inky smears. There was a hole in the back wall where the large window should have been. It seemed to expand out into some dark, balmy forest. A glowing creature like an over-sized fairy floated by behind a tree in the distance, the silver shimmer of its wings leaving a trail of dust behind her that fell upwards towards the hungry moon. She held hands with a little, pretty, pale boy in black gripping a pen in one hand. The silver fairy led him along, looking back at him with an expression of ethereal joy.

Michelle found it hard to take her eyes away from him but what she saw next, tore her attention away.

Clarissa was on her bed, naked. She was reading a book and mumbling to herself in tongues. Every page, she seemed to moan and tilt her head back in ecstasy as something emerged from a hole in the center of her head.

The hole looked like a third-eye but was more like a second sex. Something like a giant squid was squeezing through it and spilling out along the front of Clarissa's chest. She moaned and screamed with wild smiles and rolling eyes. The book trembled with its own excitement in her grip, between her legs.

The squid finally freed itself from her expanding head cunt and fell out into the room in a pile of dark tentacles It swam away in its own ink and out through the hole in the back wall and into the wild landscape beyond.

Clarissa swallowed her drool as the excited pink hole in her head pulsed and returned to its original size. Black, thick ink oozed out of it and Clarissa lapped it up as it fell into her mouth.