Stardust

Anna was sprawled out on a blanket, hands beneath her head and staring up at the night sky. A soft breeze rustled the tall grass that surrounded her but did little to dispel the August heat that lingered well past sunset. A shooting star streaked across the sky, making her breath catch with delight. Her mind traveled back nearly twenty years, to another summer night when she had lain in a field and watched the stars fall to earth. She had just graduated college and spent the summer doing fieldwork with other young men and women, far back in the wilderness where few people went. Anna had been raised in the suburbs and gone to college in the city, so she had rarely seen the night sky in all its glory. She fell in love with it immediately. She smiled in the darkness as she recalled other loves that had followed directly from her infatuation with the velvety darkness. "Stardust," she whispered to the sighing wind, and let her thoughts drift back to that time.

--

"If you ladies want to watch the Perseids, you should really put out that fire," said Ellie as she sat with her back to it. "It can take a while for your eyes to acclimate to the darkness after watching the flames."

"You expect us to just sit here in the dark for another hour?" asked Bonnie, sounding incredulous.

"Oh, it'll be fine," scoffed Jean, "It can't take more than a couple of minutes to adapt once we hike back out to the field."

"You might be surprised," replied Ellie, but made no further effort to convince her the other girls.

Anna had been gazing into the leaping flames, not really thinking about anything in particular, but she heeded Ellie's advice and moved around the campfire to sit with her and face the dark hills. "So why are they called Perseids?" she asked the slightly older girl.

Ellie cleared her throat and said, "I think it's because of the constellation they're associated with. They're supposed to originate in that part of the sky, or at least close to it."

"So there's a constellation called Perseid. Got it," said Anna, which caused Jean to laugh contemptuously.

"The constellation is Perseus, not Perseid. After the Greek myth of the guy who killed Medusa, among other things," sneered Jean. "I thought you went to college!"

Anna frowned and said, "I did! But I didn't take any astronomy classes or Greek mythology. Or, well, I guess I got some of that in my humanities core, but I don't remember anything about Perseus."

"Don't let her rile you up," said Ellie softly. Anna returned to staring out at the darkness while Jean laughed again.

"Sorry," said Anna, glad that other girls couldn't see her blushing.

"No need to be sorry," Ellie continued in a quiet voice. "Just don't let her draw you into arguments with her. You know she'll find a way to turn it around somehow. It's better not to engage at all."

"She doesn't do it to you," Anna pouted, still blushing and feeling childish to make such a complaint.

Ellie chuckled softly and said, "Of course not, I'm the trail boss. She only mocks me when she thinks I can't hear her."

Anna gasped softly and asked, "I didn't think you knew about that, either!"

Ellie laughed again and patted Anna on the knee gently, confiding, "None of you are as sneaky as you think, my little trail mix hoarder."

Anna's face became so red she was worried it might literally be glowing. "I'm sorry, I just really love the dried cranberries!" she confessed shamefully. "I can put the rest of the packages back in the food bin."

"Nah, don't worry about it. There's plenty of other stuff to eat," said Ellie, waving her hand. "I just kind of wish Jean loved the stuff enough to miss it!" she whispered into Anna's ear, making them both giggle.

The next hour passed rather uneventfully, with the four girls occasionally chatting about one topic or another, fortunately without devolving into another round of taunting. Ellie's watch beeped and she stood up, saying, "It's time. Go ahead and knock the fire apart and bury the coals in the ash, we'll relight it when we get back."

Bonnie and Jean did as directed and a few minutes later the group was following a dim trail that led over the nearby hills and into a broad, grassy meadow on the other side, where they had been working to clear invasive plants for the last few days. Jean kept stubbing her toes on roots or rocks in the darkness and swearing quietly, making Ellie chuckle and say, "I tried to warn you!" in a lightly teasing voice.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," mumbled the annoyed girl as she stumbled yet again.

Soon enough the girls were in the clearing, with the hills blocking the dim light from their campground and leaving the dark, moonless sky open to their eager eyes. The vast bowl of the heavens arched above them, obscured only a little by the surrounding hills and forests. Ellie and the others spread out a couple of blankets side by side and laid down in a row, with Anna on one end next to Ellie and Jean on the opposite end. Almost as soon as they looked up from their supine positions a streak of light shot across the sky, making all of them 'ooh' in appreciation.

"Everyone make a wish!" said Bonnie quietly.

Anna said out loud, "I wish my dream would come true!"

Jean snorted and said, "Well, now you know it won't, since you told us, silly!"

Anna retorted, "I didn't actually tell you what my dream was, did I? So 'nyah!'"

"Enough, please!" said Ellie. "Let's just enjoy the show, ladies, and leave the bickering for the morning."

Jean and Anna both subsided and returned their attention to the dark summer sky, waiting eagerly for another shooting star. Anna smiled to herself in the night, imagining how thrilling it would be if her dream really did come true, although she thought it might actually be a nightmare if it happened. It was fantastic, perhaps, but not necessarily impossible. Even though she was a college graduate and out on her own, earning her way, Anna still often felt like she was behind her peers because she'd never had a 'real' relationship before. She'd dated a number of guys and even had sex with a few of them, and while it was enjoyable enough none of them really did it for her. She knew it was at least partly her fault, as she was looking for a pretty specific kind of man, and it was hard to broach the topic of her secret desires, because she was ashamed to have them.

Another shooting star flashed across the sky and Anna imagined it plunging to the ground, dropping so fast it was gone in the blink of an eye. That made her think of herself dropping as well, just like the women in the stories she read, ensnared by hypnotists or psychics or vampires or whatever absurd device the author chose. Those women had what Anna shamefully wanted: someone to take the reins from her and lead her to the delirious pleasure that could only be achieved by abandoning one's ego, one's humanity.

A streak of light distracted her for a moment, but Anna soon returned to her dreamy musing about losing herself in someone else's desires for her. Obviously it was just a fantasy, but it was one that never failed to make her hot. Even now Anna could feel that tickle in her belly that told her she was getting turned on, preparing to open herself. If only she could find someone she trusted enough to confide in! Or else someone who knew her desires by some other clue and was willing and able to bring them to life.

Anna gasped softly when another meteorite blazed across the sky, bright enough to leave an afterimage in her eyes. She imagined how her own willpower would fade just like the colors imprinted on her retina, slowly dwindling to nothing, leaving only a blank and fuzzy backdrop. She hummed slightly with delight to picture such a thing happening. Nothing could be more satisfying than an emptiness being filled. Even the analogy seemed sexual, and it made her squirm a little and clench her thighs in response.

Several more shooting stars went by in quick succession, and with each one Anna felt herself drawn deeper into her own imaginary world. She had always been like that: a bright girl with a tendency to get distracted by her wandering mind. She knew she was smart, in a technical sense. She got good grades, tended to learn new things easily, and rarely struggled to find solutions to problems she was set. But just thinking of the word bright as a synonym of smart made her think of the bright falling stars and how they got dimmer the closer they got to the ground. She imagined herself dimming as she fell to the earth. When she arrived, she'd be nothing but a memory: a bright thing that blazed briefly and then vanished. The thought made her wet.

With each subsequent flash of light, Anna sighed softly, amazed that something so tiny could travel so far and so fast and leave such a brilliant legacy, no matter how fleeting. Each gleaming arc across the sky was a grain of sand; the fireballs pebbles at most. Looking up at the stars made Anna feel tiny and insignificant, but the dust that fell toward Earth and shone as brilliantly made her think that perhaps nothing was insignificant. She moaned quietly in the night.

Ellie turned her head to Anna and smiled, whispering, "A penny for your thoughts."

Anna quietly replied, "No thoughts. Stardust."

Ellie didn't know quite what to make of that so she just patted Anna's hand and looked back at the sky.

Over the next hour the girls saw perhaps a hundred falling stars, and with each one Anna repeated in her mind, "No thoughts. Stardust." With every repetition it became more true, and the memories and thought patterns that made her Anna subsided into dormancy, leaving nothing behind but the idea that she was stardust.

Eventually Ellie sat up and declared, "As amazing as this show is, I need to have a pee. I'll be back in a few minutes. Try to stay out of trouble!"

Jean said, "Yes, ma'am" in a tone that clearly conveyed she was rolling her eyes, although it was too dark to see that.

Bonnie quickly spoke up and said, "Actually, I need to go, too. I'll come with you."

The two girls got up and wandered toward the trees a few hundred feet away. Jean took the opportunity to sit up slightly and leaned on her arm facing Anna. "What have you been mumbling about over there?" she asked.

Anna didn't respond immediately, but before the other girl could repeat her question, she murmured, "Stardust."

"Stardust? What does that mean?" asked Jean in a puzzled tone.

It took Anna a little while to respond again, but she eventually said, "I'm Stardust. Insignificant speck. Glow brightly then gone. Empty and dark."

"What the hell?" wondered Jean quietly. Anna remained silent, however, so Jean tried again. "If you're empty and dark, you must need something to fill you up, right? Turn on the lights?"

Slightly more quickly, Anna replied, "Yes, need to be filled."

Smiling deviously, Jean whispered to herself, "Holy shit, I think she's sleepwalking! Or sleep-talking, anyway. I wonder if I can get her to do things?" In a slightly louder voice she declared, "If you want to be filled you need to take off your pants, silly girl!"

Deep within her mind Anna was dimly aware of what was happening and felt a frisson of fear as well as a thrill of arousal. She had dreamed of something like this happening for many years, but in her fantasies it was always some dashing, dominant man who bent her to his will. As much as she enjoyed the idea of being controlled, the idea of bratty and obnoxious Jean being the one to pull the strings was abhorrent. Nevertheless, Anna's body and voice obeyed, and she said, "Silly, taking off pants," while clumsily working to comply.

Jean sat up eagerly as Anna struggled to remove her jeans. She was still wearing shoes, which complicated matters, but the other girl crawled over to slide those off of Anna's feet along with her socks, then helped tug the pants and panties away as well. Even in the dim light of the stars there was a faint shininess visible between the tranced girl's thighs, and the odor of her arousal was very evident, making Jean wrinkle her nose in a mix of delight and disgust. "God, what a perverted slut!" she whispered.

Anna simply lay there, eyes staring blankly at the sky, until Jean impatiently said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Put your fingers in your cunt, you stupid little slut!"

Slowly, Anna's hand moved to obey as she repeated, "Finger my cunt, lil' slut." Jean snickered in response and tossed the clothes and shoes away before crawling back to the other side of the blanket. Stifled giggles kept emerging from the other girl every time the wet noises of Anna's compliant fingers became audible as they stirred up her liquid lust.

When Ellie and Bonnie finally wandered back to the blankets they stopped short in shock. It was dark, but not so dark that their night-adjusted eyes could miss what was going on. Bonnie gasped and Ellie asked sternly, "What the hell is going on here?"

Jean burst out laughing at that and said, "I guess Anna is just a huge slut, sitting there fingering herself in front of us!"

"Don't let me ever hear you talking about her, or anyone, like that again!" said Ellie, furious. "Explain! Right now!"

Too mirthful to feel chastised, apparently, Jean managed to spell out what she thought was going on between laughs. "She's like a somnambulist or something! She fell asleep but she's still awake enough to do things if you tell her. Watch! Anna, crawl around and bark like a dog!"

Ellie and Bonnie watched in horrified fascination as Anna rolled over onto her front and then rose up on her hands and knees. She barked shrilly a few times, "Yip! Yip! Yip!" before crawling away in the grass at a surprisingly fast pace. Jean howled in laughter at the display and fell on her back, completely overcome with delight at the humiliation she had witnessed.

"Goddammit!" yelled Ellie as she started off after Anna, only to trip over the discarded jeans and fall prone. Struggling to her feet, she grabbed the pants and told Bonnie, "Look for the rest of her clothes! Make that little shit help you!" pointing at Jean. For better or for worse, Anna was still barking as she crawled, making her easy to track, and although she was moving along at a good clip, it was still relatively simple for Ellie to catch up to her and prevent her from going any farther.

"Wake up, Anna!" Ellie demanded, but to no avail. When it was obvious that failed, she instead tried, "Stop acting like a dog!" which was obeyed, much to her relief. The reprieve was very short-lived, however, as Anna immediately rolled over in the grass and started fingering herself again. Aghast, Ellie hissed, "Why are you doing that?!"

"Finger cunt to fill up lil' slut," Anna slurred. "Stardust loves blank."

Confused, Ellie stared at the girl under her supervision for several seconds before she said, "Stop fingering yourself. And don't call yourself a slut." Anna kept going for a few seconds but finally complied with a small whine and moved her hand away from her crotch. "What do you mean by, 'Stardust loves blank?' What's stardust?" Ellie asked.

"I'm Stardust. Insignificant speck. Glow brightly then gone. Empty and dark," mumbled Anna. Comprehension started dawning on Ellie and she gasped as she realized what was actually happening.

"Okay, hmm. Let's try this. Stardust is empty and dark, she loves the blank, right?" inquired Ellie.

"Yes, Stardust loves blank," confirmed Anna, still in a quiet tone.

"So, when the blank gets filled, Stardust goes away, right?" asked Ellie.

Anna frowned slightly but didn't respond for a while, eventually simply saying, "Stardust liked being filled."

"Hmm, okay. Stardust is only visible in the dark, though, so when the daylight comes and fills the blank, Stardust is still there, but so is Anna. Anna is the sun, and she fills the blank. Stardust loves Anna sun," tried Ellie, hoping for the best.

Several more breathless seconds went by before Anna agreed, "Stardust loves Anna sun filling the blank."

"Great!" said Ellie, feeling relieved again, "It's time for Anna to fill the blank, okay? Anna sun, it's time to rise, and let Stardust fade."

Ellie held her breath again as the silence stretched out, then she heard Anna sob, "Oh, god!" as she curled into a ball on the ground.

"Shh! It's alright!" said Ellie, although she doubted it really was. Stooping down and trying to resist the impulse to hug and comfort the half-naked young woman, she said, "Here! Don't curl up; I've got your jeans. Let's get you dressed and then we'll go get the rest of the stuff and head back to camp."

It took a little more cajoling but Anna finally took the pants from Ellie and pulled them on. She then allowed Ellie to help her stand up, although she couldn't even look in the other girl's direction, no matter how dark the night was. She meekly followed her supervisor back toward the blankets, which had now been picked up and folded. Jean started to say something, but before she could get a whole syllable out Ellie interrupted her with a loud shout, "Not a word!"

"But-!" started Jean again, but stopped abruptly when Ellie loomed directly into her personal space.

"I said shut up! I don't want to hear one word from you for the rest of the night!" yelled Ellie furiously. "If you talk back to me, or say one fucking sound to Anna, I'm going to make certain you're fired! What you were doing was sexual assault, or at the very least sexual harassment, and if Anna decides to press charges I will back her up!" she roared in the other girl's face. Jean's posture had been defiant at first but by the end she was cringing. "If you've come to your senses by the morning and you want to apologize, maybe you can avoid winding up on a sex offender list," Ellie spat. "Now start walking."

Bonnie tried to hand Anna her shoes and panties, but when Anna ignored the proffered items Ellie took them instead and softly said, "Go ahead and put your shoes back on, Anna," as the other two girls trudged off. Anna obeyed mechanically and they were soon heading back down the trail to camp. When they arrived Bonnie was already trying to revive the fire, but Jean was nowhere to be seen.

Nodding her head at the four-person tent, Bonnie said, "She went straight to bed when we got back."

"Fine," said Ellie calmly, followed by, "Wait here," to Anna. The supervisor ducked into the larger tent and exchanged a few quiet words with Jean. A couple of minutes later she emerged carrying Anna's sleeping bag, air mattress, and duffel. "I don't want you to share a tent with Jean, and I doubt you want to, either. I'm moving you into my tent for the rest of the stint. It'll be a little cramped but we can rearrange stuff to fit better in the morning."

Anna sighed with relief, not realizing until just then how much she had dreaded the prospect of sharing such a small space with her tormentor. She gave Ellie a timid smile and remarked, "It's well after midnight, so technically it's already morning."

The older girl rolled her eyes but smiled as she said, "Great, now you're nit-picking, too. This is gonna be fun, I just know it." Turning back to face Bonnie, Ellie said, "I'm headed to bed. We'll start at noon tomorrow, just do a half-day or so. Try to get some sleep." After Bonnie acknowledged the instructions Ellie asked Anna, "Are you ready to turn in?"

"Yeah, I guess so" the embarrassed girl muttered as she ducked into the two-person tent that housed Ellie and a lot of their miscellaneous supplies. She crawled into her sleeping bag after kicking off her shoes and faced the wall of the tent, afraid to invite conversation.

Ellie apparently interpreted the signs correctly as she turned off the lamp with just a quiet, "Good night." Anna listened to the soft sounds of the other girl changing into her nightclothes before crawling into her own sleeping bag. Despite her fatigue, the noises just made Anna focus her attention on how uncomfortable it was to be wearing jeans, especially jeans that were damp from her still-simmering arousal. She had never put her panties back on after the humiliating episode in the field, however, so the idea of taking her pants off was mortifying. She would just have to endure the discomfort.