Sera Ch. 23

Steven

I'd spent the night at Sheila's apartment, both of us feeling like the founding principals of reality had all been a lie after the incredible orgasmic experience we'd shared.

At first, we didn't say much, not even me. Of all these paranormal, climactic experiences, this one was by far the most shocking and vivid but, beyond these qualities, it also had an informative substance that the other experiences lacked. For Sheila, the effect was hard to describe. She seemed somehow changed and, amidst my wonder at what happened, I was actually a little worried about her.

I got her into her room and stripped her and myself of the rest of our clothes before we both slipped under the covers of her bed. In my arms, she came around somewhat and we began speaking in low tones, speculating without much difficulty at what it meant. Finally, we found closer comfort in each other's arms, my stiffening member also finding her sex for the kind of slow, meaningful, passionate love making that I never would have expected to have with Sheila. We ended up making love a few more times after that, never attempting another experience in light of the one we already had to deal with, our sex being partly for reasons of helping us cope with that.

She was gone when I woke up shortly after twelve noon. I grabbed a beer from her fridge and downed it, standing naked in front of her kitchenette counter and suddenly remembering that I'd actually been screwing my aunt, the infamous Sheila at that, all night. Why that would be such a big thing after screwing my own mother all this time and in light of everything else is, I suppose, attributed to the fact that it just never got old. Maybe In some ways, I still expected to wake up in my room, the one I had in my parent's house in British Columbia. I was about graduate and Staci was the number one thing on my mind and everything was normal...

I downed another beer.

A half hour later, I stood in my own apartment, still naked and drinking a third cold one while thinking about things. I hadn't bothered to put my clothes on because I was only right down the hall from her and who cared anyway? Who was going to say anything, one of the staff? Possibly the one I'd watched banging my mother down in the cave? Sometimes it all seemed so ridiculous and that's what I stood there thinking about. Well, that and a shower.

I'd finally moved toward the bathroom door, asking myself what I'd become and for once not getting an answer, when the bell sounded.

"Just a minute!" I called without much gusto.

Continuing on through to the bathroom, I grabbed a towel to at least wrap myself in. It wasn't the biggest one, but it did the trick as I entered the foyer and approached the door with some return to modesty, however mechanical. Just before I opened it, I felt a sudden surety that it would be Kitten, out looking for revenge for my getting rid of Gina, but it turned out to be even worse than that. At least at first.

It was Ashleigh and, suddenly remembering how things went the last time we spoke, I had to resist the initial impulse to slam and lock the door before the pure parasite could get in at me.

"Relax, sweetie pie," she said with a smile that carefully offered room for peace. "I'm not here to shoot you, although that's what I was going to do last night."

"Why didn't you?"

"Well... ammunition, much like blinding rage, does have a certain shelf life..." she explained.

I had to give her the smile her little joke deserved, assuming it really was a joke. As I've said, I couldn't help but like the woman, if not completely trust her, and it was times like these that exemplified those feelings.

At this particular time, her attire made it all the easier to like her. Most eye grabbing was the short, red and white jersey that sported her Burchell nipples. Below this was a pair of thin, white yoga pants that allowed her dark, trimmed bush to shadow through. The woman just couldn't fail to be a turn on, even her red and white joggers somehow adding to her natural sexuality. Irritatingly, my cock twitched beneath the towel as I wrestled my mind from her body.

"So, you're not still mad?" I asked.

"Not really. I'm not saying you won't have to pay for throwing your poor aunt into the pool in some way, just not the life and limb way. In the meantime, I think it's a lot more important that we come together on a few things."

"I have to be honest and say that I just don't see you really allowing that to happen," I told her, opening the door further for her and adding, "But come on in. Any woman with tits like yours deserves to be heard."

"How charming," she observed with a smirk and that trademark Burchell raised brow.

She liked it.

"Wanna drink?" I asked.

"Uh, something non-alcoholic if you have it," she replied. "I was thinking of a workout."

"Thinking of a workout?" I asked as I went to the kitchenette.

"Well, you know how it is sometimes. You got orange juice?"

"Yup," I confirmed, checking out her ass before she turned to sit. "Comin' right up."

"You mean the OJ, right?"

This time I laughed outright, and was actually pleased to see a much more comfortable smile on her face a minute later as I approached with her juice and another cold beer for me. Joining her where she sat cross legged on my couch, I waited for her to begin.

"Mmmm, this is delicious, thank you. ... Sooo... What happened?"

"You mean Gina."

Her unchanging conciliatory smile was confirmation enough, so I got a little more comfortable, took a breath while looking her magnificent body over before settling finally on her face to tell her straight up. Mostly.

"I noticed what was going on with Gina, found her running around spelled, or influenced as you call it, and I didn't like it. I didn't like the idea of... None of this is her fault and there's no reason why her life needs to get fucked up like what always seems to happen to people who get too close to us. I even told you, and you told me to stay out of it."

"Yes, I knew all that."

"Well, I had serious doubts about staying out of it. I didn't completely know what was going on then, but... well, I soon found out, though I thought I made it clear to Kitten about what happens to people who get close. Then..."

"And then your mother put you up to getting her out of here."

I looked up suddenly, stupidly and with an expression that may as well have admitted to it.

"I didn't know for sure," Ashleigh explained, "but the way you brought up her supposed non-involvement before I even asked kinda made me wonder. That and the fact that she followed Gina to the gatehouse. Any leftover doubts were dispelled by the look on your face just now."

" ... Shhhit!" I can't believe you did that, I never fall for that! I do that to other people!"

She smiled, obviously proud of herself but not in a completely irritating way as, at the moment, she was more interested in family business than she was one-upmanship.

"Look, I wasn't supposed to tell. I told her I wouldn't and I didn't want to break my word, so-"

"We'll talk about that," she interrupted, holding her hand up in a gestural plea for calm. "Just feel good in the fact that now you don't have to lie, and tell me what happened."

" ... Yes. Mum came to me with the same concerns about Gina, and I couldn't stay out of it any longer. Now, just because I tell you that, don't go blaming her, 'cause I'd have done what I did sooner or later anyway. Besides, considering the fact that Mum was thinking on behalf of someone, rather than abusing or even killing them, I don't think we should really complain, and I swore I'd never tell so Kitten wouldn't be mad at her."

"Holy crap, Steven, you must have some kind of martyr complex."

"That's not funny."

"Not really, no," she agreed while still smiling, "but that's why it's so fucked up. You went and did this behind my back after I told you to leave things alone, incurring not only my anger, but Kitten's eventual reaction... You had to have known you'd be caught."

"Yes," I sighed, getting a little irritated with this, "I knew there was a good chance it would all come home to roost."

"A good chance? Sweetie pie, it was inevitable. Even Mrs. Toole would be disappointed."

"Yes, Ashley," I replied sarcastically, "I understand what an idiot I am, but I'd really like you to keep Mum's involvement to yourself. Beyond any reasons I may have had for flinging myself upon the sharpened yard implements of the family for the sake of Gina's-"

"Oh fuck, it's just like listening to your mother! No, I won't mention it to Kitten; I won't even mention it to Kathleen."

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. Mind you, I have my own reasons for this, but I'm just as happy to do this for you since you did come clean. But now tell me, what did you do?"

"What do you mean?"

"How did you fix Gina to leave?"

"Oh. Well..."

"Sweetie pie, please tell me I'm not gonna freak out."

"Uh... heh. Well, I should tell you that you need to hear me out on this because-"

"Oh my god," she moaned, her smile slipping as her eyes closed.

"-because Mum didn't like it at first either, not until I explained it completely."

When I'd finished, I kept watch for any signs of sudden attack. During my report, her expression tightened until I feared her head would explode and I was hoping she would see the sense in what I'd done.

"Steven, honey?"

"Yes?"

"I could... Oh my, I'm very upset."

"But, Aunt Ashleigh, you have to see it from-"

"Sweetie pie, I want you to hold still for me, okay?"

"What?"

"I want you to hold still. I'm going to give you a little smack in the face and I want you to hold still."

" ... I-"

(Smack!)

"Oww!" I yelled in shock at the hard, stinging slap she gave me. "God dammit!"

"I'm sorry, but you deserved it! Be glad I'm not giving you another one! You actually let her go like that!? What the fuck was your mother thinking!?"

"What else was I gonna do?"

"I'll tell you what else, you young idiot! You could have listened to me when I-"

She suddenly stopped, throwing up her hand in a gesture that said she didn't even want to talk about it before turning to take her glass from the end table. She sat there, legs crossed as she angrily sipped, looking out the window in a seeming effort to simmer down while I took the same opportunity. It wasn't that I was trying to be conciliatory for the sake of getting somewhere, as I had no real expectations of that, but more so that the visit would go just a little smoother. Mum's other son was a lot better at this kind of thing than I was and I wasn't near drunk enough for him as of yet.

"Gina..." Ashleigh finally said almost under her breath. "I think I told you before that I actually do like her."

"Yes," I replied.

"Not at first," Ashleigh corrected, inflating her chest with a deep breath before clarification. "At first, I was irritated. It wasn't anything personal, it was just that she was an outsider, but then I got just a bit used to the idea that she was around. I'd notice her, take an interest in her... Well, I'm not sure if it was because Kitten's smell was all over her, or if she was just one of those people I once in a while meet who take my interest, but I came to like her.

"Maybe on more than one level?" I queried.

"No maybe about it; I loved eating that pussy."

"I see," I toned, thinking of my own guilt in the matter.

"So did your mother."

"I know, she told me."

"Oh."

"So did I."

" ... Ohhh," Ashleigh fairly sleazed.

"Yeah, well that's how me and Mum know she had to go," I defended.

"I know your motivations and I know mine, but don't think my attraction to her was any deciding factor in why I didn't want you interfering. I'm admitting that my own interests played a part, but I also came to foresee a difficult position that Kitten would come to and what kind of part Gina could play in being a liaison between her two worlds, this one and her home in Langley."

"There's no way her old life can ever be open to her now," I refuted, shaking my head and adding, "What happened to Gina proves that. If you allow Kitten to go back home, she'll make one unholy mess there and that's why I had to do things with Gina the way I did."

"You don't understand," she countered. "There was no need for that. With you here, this is where Kitten would have stayed and, as long as she felt her old home was still there for her, she would have been very happy here. Gina could well have been reasoned with because of her love for Kitten, could well have understood what had to be done for her sake."

"Are you serious?"

"Look, I admit I would've influenced her in that direction had I felt the need, but chances were that she would've understood anyway."

"Had you not allowed her to get used like a sheep, she may well have been quite open to that, but after what all happened to her here, she'd need quite a dose of your influence. I'm sorry, but if you think what I did was worth a slap in the face, I'd owe you a broken jaw if you'd gotten your way."

"Steven... dammit, it was too late for her from the second she walked through our front doors. We both know it. Regular people who get close to us often don't fare well because of our inherent inability to trust them, so if we choose to keep one in our life or, in the case of Gina, if one walks into ours... Well, they have to be influenced in at least some small way. Can you honestly see yourself ever trusting anybody other than a Burchell as much as you trust me?"

She'd chosen to be her own example for a reason, that being that she was the Burchell I trusted the least, yet her point was made. She went on, answering for me by my expression.

"No. Now, can you see yourself ever trusting anyone outside our estate like you trust our staff?"

"No."

"You're right you don't, and I don't have to stick the reason for that in your cute little face, do I?"

"No, but that still doesn't mean Gina had to get used like she did."

"Sweetie pie... yes it does. It just goes with the territory for them. Have you noticed that all my staff are very friendly, exceptionally helpful people?"

"Yes."

"That's who they are. I've come across all of them at one time or another and have liberated them from their own ruined lives or impending train wrecks. They come from all back rounds, all of them very happy to be here working for me, but also with each other."

"Thanks to a little influence."

"That influence is mostly in place in order to ensure the kind of loyalty that allows you to trust them as you do, to feel so comfortable around them. In this way, we not only get to share the company of family, but also an entire community of inherently friendly and giving, likeminded individuals."

"But to control them for our whims?"

"I'm telling you, they're happy. They wouldn't want to leave. Look, you remember Monique?"

"The pool girl." I easily remembered.

"Yes. She's a heroin addict. Three years ago, on a trip to Vancouver to see you in person, she asked me for my pocket change as I passed by. I looked at her... saw her beauty despite the condition she was in, gave her that look and saw so much more of her on the inside... left to rot in the street? Why shouldn't I take her?"

"Because she's a person?"

"Now she is. Now that she has absolutely no memory of being an addict or any idea what heroin even is. Your mother's provided you with a sheltered life that makes it hard for you to imagine the state I found her in. If you were to mention the word 'heroin' to Monique now, her consciousness wouldn't even register it. Now she's vibrant, happy... alive. Of course, wiping memories like that creates a need for her to stay here in itself, but so what? Is it such a price to pay for happiness compared to the path she was on? Look at the recovery statistics, and then you tell me."

"I understand," I had to admit again, "and I'll see them and their role here differently from now on, but Gina is hardly a down and out addict. She has a baby at home."

Ashleigh shook her head, conciliatory again but resolute when she countered, "I didn't set those conditions any more than I asked for her to be here, but once she was... she was. She was here, she was involved and that's what being around us leads to. Look, I hate to be so blunt about it, but you'll just have to accept that about us. About yourself."

She fell silent and I looked in her lap for a while as I pondered her words, the attitude behind them and, finally, what I suspected was motivating that attitude.

"It's true, isn't it?" I asked, looking her in the face again.

"What's true?"

" ... You're not the Ashley Burchell that left home all those years ago. You're not her."

She appeared to think about her answer. When she did speak, her smile held more caution than before, but enough trust to help build mine a little further.

"No. Not really. Your Aunt Ashleigh, if you must think of her as any more your real aunt than you do me, does still exist, but not as an outward part of me. She will never come back to the forefront, no matter how sober I ever am, or for how long. She lives, quite literally, vicariously through me as I long ago lived vicariously through her. Apart from different intensities in reaction, there is essentially no difference between us. I am what Ashleigh is, can only be what she is. None of us would be anything but a wisp of the ethereal were it not for our human lovers, and it's our responsibility to take great care of them. We can best do that by taking great care of one another, and that's why we're all here now."

" ... It's going to overwhelm me," I translated with a tiny alarm of fear in my sternum.

"We're going to take care of you," she clarified. We're going to improve you and give you a life you never would have had, one that you'll be totally aware and a part of and that you'll enjoy with no regrets. You and Kitten... you two are this family's future, and much of what I've prepared here is really about you two, but especially you."

"Why? Why me?"

"When I do tell you, you'll thank me for not telling you now."

"Oh my fuck. I actually thought you'd give me something."

"I'll give you something, sweetie pie. Are you aware that Kitten and your mother went out last night?"

"Yes, I am."

"Are you aware of when they returned?"

"No, when?"

"Just past eleven-thirty this morning."

"Where were they?"

"I'd guess they were out playing."

"Probably," I said with a slow nod, remembering mine and Mum's last conversation by the pool.

"And this doesn't bother you?"

"It used to. In fact, I remember complaining to you about it and you told me to stop pissing on their parade."

"This is different."

"I'd love to hear how that works."

"Your concerns were about the staff, but this is different. This is why the staff is accommodating, so that it doesn't become necessary for us to go out and endanger ourselves and each other by making total whores of ourselves."

"I'm not sure I see the difference," I confessed, "and now that my morals have been somewhat relaxed by popular demand, I have to tell you that real people can be a lot of fun. Before we got here, me and Mum went to this party where-"

"Uh, I think I know real people are fun, sweetie pie. I've been having different types of fun that you couldn't imagine with real people since before you were born, but that doesn't make it wise. Furthermore, you know better, but you've begun to give into your Mum's... recently relaxed morality."

"Yeah- I'm sorry, but I wouldn't have expected this from you."

"Accepting ourselves for what we are for the sake of our sanity is one thing, but abusing it at will is quite another. That's how people out there start looking and wondering. No matter how careful we are, the more we expose ourselves like that, the more we're vulnerable. Sooner or later, we'll slip up, usually once we've become cocky and liable to underestimate people as being stupid and beneath us. Believe me, I've been there and I've had to make... reparations."