Sacrifice

Her eyes were soulless staring vacantly back at Wendy and then her features transformed and she reached out, stretching, beseeching and her eyes adopting an imploring look. She opened her mouth wide in an ethereal scream and suddenly vanished.

Wendy gathered the hem of her gown in her hands and ran down the seemingly never-ending corridor and finally came to a wide spiral staircase. She was tempted to remove her heels before descending but she didn't want to spend any more time on the upper floor of this wretched house.

Fleetingly she wondered if she was just experiencing the after effects of the drugs she had taken but she didn't think so. If anything, she felt sober and alert, her senses heighted. Her fight or flight responses were highly attuned.

She gripped the balustrade and began to descend, supressing the urge to run. A fall on the stairs would have dire consequences. She hung onto the railing with both hands and side-stepped down the stairs one at a time. The staircase gave way to an open foyer tiled with harlequin marble covered in a fine layer of dust. A faded plush pink gossip bench sat beside a cedar telephone table. Wendy began to cry when she saw the ancient Victorian telephone.

She raced over to it, dropped her skirts and lifted the handpiece from the cradle and put it to her ear.

The silence as deafening.

"That telephone doesn't work Wendy."

Wendy screamed and dropped the phone at the sound of Stephan's voice.

She started to sob and Stephan put his arms around her and comforted her. He was wearing blue silk pyjama bottoms and a vermilion silk smoking jacket.

"I just want to go home. Please let me go," she wept.

"There, there, Wendy. What's all the fuss? Of course you can go home. Come to the drawing room and use the phone," Stephen started to guide Wendy towards the door.

"Where are you taking me? Let me go! Let me out of this house!" Wendy pushed him away.

"Wendy darling, you're obviously upset. You passed out after we made love so I put you to bed. I see you found my sister's clothes in the armoire. Not quite appropriate for a hike along country roads but you do look delightful in them," Stephan said soothingly.

"Of course you can leave but we are a long way from Haxa and the roads are awful. You're hardly dressed for the journey by foot," Stephan remained calm.

"How far? How did I get here? What time is it? What fucking day is it?" Wendy screeched at him.

"I'd say ten miles to the outskirts of the town proper and I have no idea how you got here. It's around nine PM on the first of November. I tried to rouse you several times during the day but you were dead to the world; a little too much Halloween spirit perhaps?" he smiled at her and Wendy was once again struck by how incredibly handsome he was.

"Who else is in this house? Who's upstairs?" Wendy was shaking with rage.

"There is no one else here Wendy. It's an old house and the weather outside is terrible. The house creaks and groans and moans all the time," Stephan said nonplussed.

"I saw someone! I heard someone!" Wendy hissed.

"Really Wendy? What drugs did you take yesterday? Could you be hallucinating?" Stephan opened his hands in a bemused gesture.

"What about the bedroom I slept in? The clothes, the makeup? What's the story with the bathroom?" Wendy put her hands on her hips.

"That was my sister Elizabeth's room. Long ago I started to renovate the house for her and she insisted that I start with her bathroom, you know how women are?" he gave her a consolatory smile.

"I'm afraid she is no longer with us. When she died it broke my heart and I allowed a house that had already been neglected to descend into the ruin you see now," Stephan bowed his head and Wendy could feel his sorrow.

"That's all well and good but could we please get me a ride to Haxa right now," Wendy said indignantly.

"Certainly. Come to the drawing room and you can place your call. I'll make coffee and light refreshments, you must be famished," Stephan pointed to the drawing room door.

Wendy's stomach growled but she had intention of drinking or eating anything in this house.

She followed Stephan into the drawing room where the coals from the fire warmed the room and went straight to the secretaire and lifted the handset from the ancient Bakelite rotary-dial telephone. She half expected the line to be dead but she heard the electronic buzz of a dial tone.

Wendy realised that she didn't know the number for a taxi company but Stephan had anticipated this and was thumbing through a telephone directory.

"There we are," he put the directory down on the table opened at the page for Haxa's two taxi services.

Wendy's fingers shook when she dialled and it took her three attempts.

"Haxa radio taxis what is your intended destination?" asked an officious elderly female voice.

"Saceur College campus," Wendy said in a choked voice, relieved to be talking to someone outside of this house.

"And what is the pickup address?" the lady asked.

"Address?" Wendy looked at Stephen anxiously.

"Dakhanavar farmhouse, it's off route nine south of Haxa," Stephan replied, an amused look on his face.

Wendy repeated the address to the dispatcher who seemed miffed at having been given such vague directions.

"Yeah, ok, I got it. It's gonna take a while doll, we don't get many calls that far out in the boonies and most of the rides are busy. Fucking Halloween weekend you know and those college kids are all too drunk to drive and what with this fucking weather... pardon my French," the matron did not sound at all conciliatory.

"As soon as possible please," Wendy said beseechingly.

"At least an hour I'm guessing doll, they are still cleaning up that bad accident on route nine. I'll call back on this number when I have a car heading your way," the dispatcher hung up.

Wendy was sorely tempted to wait outside for her cab but she could hear the wind howling and the rain lashing against the windows. The drizzle had turned into a tempest.

"So how long, my dear?" Stephan asked when Wendy replaced the receiver.

Wendy was reluctant to tell him that her cab would be at least an hour. As much as she wanted to leave the house she found herself extremely and undeniably attracted to him.

"It will be a while Stephan. I'd like to remain here in the drawing room until it arrives if I may," Wendy said soberly.

"My house is your house," Stephan gave an expansive gesture that might have been comical except for the staid set of his face.

"Just the drawing room please," Wendy sat demurely on the Chesterfield, crossing her ankles.

Wendy didn't like being in this house at all but the drawing room seemed to be the safest place. Other than the appearance of the ghostly wraith while she and Stephan were having sex, there had not been any apparitions in this room and she believed the wraith was a manifestation bought about by the shrooms and the MDMA she had taken.

"Let me get you those refreshments I promised," Stephen walked to the door.

"Wait! Last night you said that except for my trick or treating colleagues you've seen no one. How could the students get all the way out here and why would they?" Wendy asked.

"There is no conspiracy Wendy. They came out here in an old minivan. They were quite rude. They said they had come to see a haunted house on Halloween and I think they were surprised to find the house occupied," Stephan paused at the door.

"I think they intended to party here... to do what students do when boys and girls have imbibed intoxicating substances."

"I offered them refreshments but they called me names; quite vile names. They pelted the door and drove away laughing. They should have been more polite Wendy; such bad manners have consequences," Stephan turned away and left the room.

Wendy didn't like being left alone in the quiet room. She thought she could hear whispering and the patter of bare feet from the floor above. The discordant music had returned and was coming from somewhere deep in the house. Whether it was her imagination or not she wanted a distraction, some form of noise.

She noticed an ancient Zenith television in the corner. It had rotary dials and knurled knobs for horizontal and vertical hold and volume. Wendy doubted it worked but she went over and turned it on anyway. The screen filled with white noise and the speakers emitted scratchy static. She reduced the audio so that it wasn't hurting her ears and slowly spun the UHF dial hoping to find a free-to-air television station.

Wendy found a local news channel although the picture was snowy with wavy bars of static running through it. The weather was playing havoc with the reception.

'The Highway Patrol are still investigating a fatal accident on route nine on the outskirts of Haxa. Four occupants of a Volkswagen Kombi were killed in the crash and another remains in a critical condition in the intensive care ward. They are all students at Saceur College.'

'Police suspect that alcohol, the weather, and high speed are contributing factors, although the accident occurred on a straight clear stretch of road. Traffic is being diverted around the crash site while investigators remain at the scene...'

Wendy snatched off the TV.

'They should have been more polite Wendy; such bad manners have consequences' Wendy shuddered despite the warmth of the fireplace.

How could Stephan possibly have anything to do with the accident? It was miles away from the house.

Stephan returned with a silver tea tray to find Wendy still sitting on the Chesterfield. He set down the tray and poured coffee into a single cup.

"You're not having any?" Wendy asked.

Stephan screwed up his face.

"Not for me; I have an eclectic palate," he offered Wendy the cup and she drank from it greedily despite it burning her tongue.

Although the array of hors d'oeuvres on the little platter looked delicious Wendy found that she had lost her appetite.

Stephan sat beside Wendy and studied her. He seemed amused.

"So what shall we do while we wait for your taxi?" he reached out and stroked her hair.

Wendy pulled back from him and set down the coffee cup.

The last thing on Wendy's mind was sex but Stephan Trompeur both scared and excited her whenever she was in his presence. She studied his brutally handsome features, his slim and muscular physique, his symmetrical face, his black hair and indescribably penetrating eyes. Wendy felt herself being drawn to him.

His jacket was open and she could see his pale hairless chest with defined pectorals. She wanted to reach out and trace the contours of his muscles. She wanted to stroke his cheeks and caress his lips. She wanted to put her hand inside his silk breeches and find him concupiscent and eager.

This man was an enigma, she found him both attractive and repellent. He enchanted her.

Wendy found herself becoming tumescent.

"Tell me about your sister," Wendy needed to deflect.

Stephan sighed wistfully.

"What can I tell you? She was the light of my life. She was beautiful, caring and loving," Stephan looked pained.

"My grandfather came to America from Europe and settled on this farm long ago. My mother died in childbirth and my father couldn't stand the pain of her loss and took his own life. My sister and I were raised by my grandfather," Stephan whispered.

"You and Elizabeth were twins?" Wendy touched his hand.

Stephan nodded.

"Growing up we had only each other. We were outsiders, foreigners, people didn't understand us... our traditions... our way of life. So we kept to ourselves," Stephan continued.

"But children grow up. I moved to New York and Elizabeth found a man whom she thought understood her and loved her but he treated her badly so she returned to the farm. During our absence we let the house decline but when Elizabeth and I returned I started to renovate it."

"Then one day I came home and found Elizabeth stabbed through the heart by her ex-lover who still had the stake in his hand."

"I was left to do what I could. This house had too many bad memories for me to live in it so I put it on the market but no one would buy it. It fell into further ruin but eventually I was able to sell the farm and vineyard. The new owners will raze the house and build their own."

"And so you find me. Heartbroken and forsaken, mourning the only woman that I ever really loved. Packing up the memories and ephemera of the past," a single tear fell from Stephan's eye and rolled down his cheek.

Wendy was suddenly overcome with sympathy for Stephan. Spending time in a house alone filled with the horrors of the past must be heart-breaking.

She reached out caught the tear on her fingertip. She stroked his cheek.

Stephan cupped her hand and bought it to his lips and kissed her palm. He pulled her to him and she went willingly, moulding her body to his.

They kissed and she winced at the pain from her cut lips but it soon dissipated as her desire began to bloom.

She reached into his jacket and stroked his firm smooth flesh, tracing the curves and hillocks of his muscles. Stephan caressed her neck and his fingers began a familiar journey down her body until he found the split in the gown.

"That was Elizabeth's favourite dress," he muttered through their compressed lips.

It was a strange thing to say Wendy thought but the notion dissipated as Stephan began to caress her thighs, his fingers stroking the soft flesh above her stocking tops. Wendy's hand fluttered across Stephan's hard belly and untied the cord at the top of his pyjamas. She reached inside and freed his penis.

She broke the kiss and looked down at the rampant organ: the translucent skin, the pulsing veins, the pink spongy glans, it was a magnificent specimen. Wendy disengaged from Stephan and kneeled on the cushions and lowered her face to the dripping appendage. Stephan put his head back on the sofa and watched Wendy take him in her mouth.

She slavered at his manhood, working her lips up and down the shaft and used her tongue on his glans. This was not Stephan's preferred sexual activity, he would much rather just pierce her with his rampant weapon and take his pleasure that way but he was amused by this girl's fascination with oral sex and it did feel quite delightful. He would not let her swallow his burden however, he needed to plant his seed inside her to meet his needs but for now he let the pretty young ladyboy suckle his cock. It did feel quite exquisite.

Wendy laboured away at Stephan's engorged penis and just like yesterday his precum flowed freely and continuously and she had to continually swallow. Not that she minded performing this chore but his pre-ejaculate was cold rather than the warm secretions she was used to. It tasted different too, spicy and exotic. Whatever it tasted like she enjoyed sucking the meaty phallus and her own engorged penis was pressing tightly against her panties.

Wendy felt Stephan's fingers crawl along her thigh, making its way to the bulge in her panties where they stopped and began to stroke her trembling cock through her silky fabric. He teased her that way until she was whimpering and then he freed her and began to softly stroke her to full tumescence.

She worked harder on Stephan's cock, lashing it with her tongue, flicking it across his fraenulum and making him gasp. She took as much as she could of him in her mouth and suckled the swollen appendage.

Stephan was approaching extremis but he couldn't waste his seed in Wendy's mouth. He ripped her face out of groin and picked her up bodily and dropped her on the sofa. He spread her legs wide and fell on her.

"Let me..." Wendy was about to ask to take off her panties but again Stephan's cock sliced through her undergarment like a razor though silk.

She felt his bloated glans press on her sphincter; he was squirting precum like a dog on heat, lubricating her puckered bud and then her drove himself deep inside her.

Wendy screamed as he stretched her sphincter to its full capacity and fill her anus with throbbing cock which writhed and wriggled like a living entity. Wendy didn't know how Stephan was able to do such things with his penis but she didn't care, he was eliciting waves of pleasure from deep in her anus, his bizarre phallus was able to massage her prostate whilst drilling deep inside her.

Wendy clung to him as he fucked her hard and fast. She wrapped her stocking-sheathed legs around his torso and hung on to him while he rode her. She could feel his penis changing shape inside her, feel the smooth scales on his shaft grating so divinely on her sphincter as his cock spiralled in and out of her back package. He kissed her, a hint fetid breath immediately replaced by sweet nectar. His tongue forked and wriggled and squirmed inside her mouth.

She felt like she was violated both orally and anally and she loved it. The passion and lust, the yearning and wanting overcame any hesitation or uncertainty. She just wanted Stephan to keep making her moan with pleasure, to keep ravaging her anus, to keep violating her mouth, she wanted to be corrupted by this mysterious, inexplicable man.

Stephan rose up, tearing his lips from hers, his face stained and filled with lust, his eyes red, his mouth distended. He howled like a demon and his whole body convulsed as he drove himself deep inside Wendy and ejaculated. Wendy felt his cock judder and become bloated as it pulsed and writhed inside her filling her with his icy-cold spend.

He lowered his face to her neck and she felt his needle-like teeth piece her neck and Stephan sucked her blood as it flowed from her alabaster skin.

Rather than hurting her, his bite evoked a rapture that was both compelling and exhilarating, she had never felt such bliss. A monumental orgasm surged through her entire being, the epicentres being her penis and her anus. She flooded her panties as intense rings of pleasure radiated from her anus and her throbbing cock.

She thought she caught a glimpse of the soulless red-haired female apparition hovering over them; watching them. A disembodied wraith suspended in the air circling the lovers as they came to the pinnacle of their lust. Then she blacked out.

Stephan stood over Wendy's comatose body and looked down on her. She was splayed out on the Chesterfield, her pretty face peaceful in sleep, her dress open wantonly, her legs spread lewdly, her panties sodden and a trickle of blood running from the puncture in her neck. He leaned down and licked away the blood and kissed the wound which closed, leaving only two faint scars. He put his mouth to her groin and sucked as much of Wendy's semen out of her panties as he could.

He felt a presence beside him and a female apparition briefly coalesced. She was no more than a distortion of the light but her shape was discernible through the flowing white gown, her legs clad in white stockings, dirty and frayed. When she moved, things behind her appeared bowed as if looked at through distorted window glass. Her beautiful face framed by her swirling red hair appeared to be smiling. She uttered a single ethereal word.

"Good."

Then she vanished.

*****

Wendy woke up with a start. She didn't think that she had been asleep that long but it was a deep dreamless sleep. She looked anxiously at the phone but it refused to ring. How long had it been since she had called the cab company?

She was alone, lying on the sofa. Someone, Stephan of course, had put a light blanket over her. Her lips felt bruised and her anus ached. She could feel that her panties were damp.

How could she have succumbed to Stephan's advances again? The man was irresistible, she was enamoured with him but all that would soon end. Her cab must be arriving soon.

She tossed aside the blanket and got gingerly to her feet. She felt beaten and ravaged but she also felt satisfied and content. The lovemaking was aberrant but irresistible, violent but tender, passionate and addictive. She needed to get out of this house.