The Devlin Family

Then you hear sounds, another echo from past, but this wasn't as intelligible as the others. At first you aren't sure what you are hearing, indecipherable rustling. Then you hear heavy breathing and the sound of clothes rubbing together. There is the noise of shifting bodies then a muted gasp followed by a hum of two voices sharing a kiss.

"What is this?" You ask.

The tip of one tentacle, very gingerly, slips into the collar of your pajamas and another slips around your closer wrist and holds it gently. The glow of your sister's face dims slightly and she gets closer.

The sounds continue. You hear nasally breathing and more rustling of clothes then a short moan. Your heart almost stops in your chest as the next thing you hear is the voice of your best friend Grace in a hot lusty whisper. "Jacob...we shouldn't."

"I know." You hear your own voice reply to her. "I want you so bad."

"Oh Jacob! Oh God!"

Your cheeks warm with an embarrassed blush as you realize that you are hearing the night you and Grace lost your virginity to each other here in this very spot on a night not unlike this one. It was awkward, it was quick, and it soured your relationship with her for a short time thereafter but it happened, she was your first and you were hers. You hear the clumsy fumbling of two teenagers in the horny but passionless throes of making out and heavy petting. You recall how weird it felt touching your dearest childhood friend like that as if it were yesterday. Thankfully you had both long since moved past this bumbling cringe inducing moment and now could look back at it with a shared laugh.

Yet hearing the memory again in perfect audible detail was unbearable, so perfect you could even hear the subtle wet sounds of your finger sliding in and out of Grace's pussy. Vespera had seen even this? Was there anything she hadn't watched?

"No Ves, stop this." You say angrily.

However, instead of stopping it, Ves pulls the shawl from her body. You couldn't see any detail of course but after spending the night with her clothed you were very cognizant of her nudity now.

"Stop this I said. Ves, I don't know what you think you are..."

"Nnngh!" You hear your younger self grunt. "Yeah, oh that feels good."

"It's so hard." Grace whispers back. "Mmmm." You hear the wet sounds of lips on skin as she goes down on you.

No, no, no! You knew the words that followed. The single most embarrassing thing you'd said in your life.

"I love you. I love you Grace." Your voice from that night whispers and a sharp pang of shame runs through you. You did love Grace, very much so, but as a friend not a lover. You only said the words that night because you felt that is what you were supposed to say in such a intimate situation. Grace, always being the more clear headed of you two, did not return the empty words. God, you could still feel the humiliation of that night even now. You had acted such a fool.

Vespera pulls your near arm up by the wrist as she lowers down closer to you. She pulls your arm to her body and you feel her breast fill your open hand.

"Ves, stop this!"

"Love." She says.

The tentacle at your collar slides in under the fabric to rub your chest just as another pulls the waistband of your pants out from your stomach and another slides down inside. The sounds of you and Grace continue in the background, at this point you were laying your friend down and getting ready to enter her. "Ouch...ssss." You hear your friend's voice hiss at the awkward lubeless entry. Vespera now loomed completely over you blotting out the night sky, her limbs draping down all around you.

"Love." Her face nears yours as if moving in for a kiss, her six black eyes glimmering like you had never seen before as her tentacle begins to wrap around your cock. More are moving within your clothes now too, slithering up your legs and arms. "Love."

"NO!" You push her face back and slap her limbs away from your groin. You yank your hand away from her breast though she pulls it right back again with irresistible force. The one below darts back to your manhood with impatient purpose.

"Love."

"NO! NO!" You slap at her limb that grasped your wrist with your free hand. "No Vespera! This isn't love! Let go of me!" You kick out at her body trying to force her off of you. Your blows seem to have no effect but you continue to fight. "This isn't love!"

Her grip tightens, her face glows brighter, and for a moment you worry she is about to crush your hand or worse. Then all at once she lets go. The echoes of the past stop. There is a tense pause before she looks away and slinks back away from you. Immediately the dark energy that normally shrouded her begins to coalesce around her, soon filling the entire interior with that unearthly darkness and silence.

Grasping out blindly you find one of her limbs and grab it tight. "Wait!" Your voice is nearly swallowed by the gloom so you call out louder. "Please don't go. Don't leave."

***

The next thing you know you are hit with a sensation so completely foreign that it nearly shatters your mind. You had no awareness of place or self or any higher thoughts as a soul wrenching pain dominates your whole being. It was as if you were your entire body and soul had been, in a split second, violently sucked through a twisty straw and shot out the other side at great force. It was pain beyond all imagination...and then the real suffering begins.

You open your mouth to scream and the noise that pours forth is that of a thousand men and women howling in agony but then immediately swallowed up as if by dark cold waters. You crawl to your hands and knees and feel not gravity but some other strange force holding you to the oily smooth surface you found yourself upon. You try for breath to find there is no air to pull into your lungs. Instead an ethereal yet viscous substance floods your mouth and begins to seep into you from every pore.

Looking up madness claims you. What assaults your faculties is not simply dark, it is a place where light and color simply had no existence. The landscape around you wasn't knowable through any of your normal senses yet somehow you could sense it, like Vespera's darkness moving within darkness, and what you can make out lays waste to your mortal mind. Distances so vast the known universe would span but a footstep within it yet pressing in around from all sides like a straight jacket. Time seemed to have no hold here, everything happening in a never ending instant. Shapes and angles that defied math and logic. Twisting shifting structures moving over inverted horizons of such unfathomable scale that your earthly reason could not even begin to make sense of them. And most disturbing of all you perceive other creatures, intelligences of horrendous oozing form, gliding through the tenebrous sky and casting shadows within shadows that could swallow worlds whole.

Even your most vivid nightmares or fever dreams paled in comparison to this entirely alien realm. You could feel your body beginning to come apart, cell torn from cell and atom from atom. Your presence, your life force, even your Euclidian shape impossible abominations to this hostile foreign realm.

There is but one point of real light in all of this terrible place, the pale beautiful face of your sister. You focus on it knowing with complete certainty it would be the last thing you ever saw. Some tiny part of you that still remained you, still fighting for survival, calls out to her but you have no breath to scream. She turns to look upon you just as you collapse.

***

The next thing you see is the familiar stars of the night sky framed by the circular stone wall of the folly tower.

You are breathing heavy, your whole body shaking, and your jumbled mind struggled to make sense of anything. You feel around you and never had cool soft earth felt so heavenly. Pulling yourself together you reach up and rub your eyes and work to settle your rapid breath. Slowly you begin to relax. Mercifully the experience you'd just gone through was so peculiar it refused to take root in your memory. Like a dream the terrible place, the "other place" your father had called it, fades from your mind until it is but a harmless wisp of a memory.

Resting your hands over your stomach you feel the soft cashmere of your mother's shawl laid over you like a blanket. You get the impression you'd been lying here for some time. Turning your head you see the silhouette of Vespera kneeling at your side.

"Jacob."

"Hey Ves." You say in a dry froggy voice. "How long was I out?"

"Human...Gentle...Stay." She caresses your cheek with one limb as she takes your hand with another. "Safe...Home...Stay."

You wet your mouth and swallow with a nod. "I didn't mean to follow you. I was trying to keep you here. What was that place?" You look up at her. "Is that where you go when you aren't here? Is that where they banished you to? Is that your home?" You shake your head. "No, THIS is your home. Here with me."

Ves looks up. The glow of the soon to be rising sun had begun to brighten the sky. She looks back down at you and you swear you see sorrow in her mask like face. "Stay." She pushes into your chest, pinning you to the ground firmly. "Stay."

"Don't worry. I won't do that again." You hug her tentacle close. "You stay too. Don't go back to that place ever again. You are a Devlin, this is your home too. Stay with me. Together."

Instead of a reply you hear your frantic voice from before. "This isn't love!"

She tugs back but you hold on tight. "Vespera. I do love you. I just met you and yet I love you. But...you're my sister. It's a different kind of love than that. It's...hard to explain." You bring her tentacle to your lips and kiss it. "You'll understand in time. I love you Vespera. You aren't alone anymore."

"Love." She strokes your hair with a loving tenderness you previously thought impossible for anything not human.

You smile. "Rest with me Vespera."

She looks up to the gradually brightening light then back to you...before curling up at your side. Using your tummy as a pillow she gazes up at you as she holds your hand tight. You gently run your fingers through her tendrils of "hair". Each one a seemingly independent extremity they tickle and lick between your fingers and against your hand and forearm. You let out a long sigh, close your eyes, and relax into the soft earth. At 21 years old it felt as if your life had begun anew, a fresh start knowing the real truth and having a kindred twin to love and treasure. While your spirit still shook from the experience you could now barely recall this feeling of happiness was quickly healing the trauma. You lay like that for a time, enjoying the presence of your sister and starting to appreciate that wholly unique feeling of her skin rubbing against yours. She cuddles closer, more of her limbs wrapping around yours.

"Together."

"That's right Ves. Together, always. I'm thinking we could probably convince Trixie to move rooms so you could have hers. Your room next to mine. Would you like that?" She doesn't answer. Another tentacles grabs hold of your right hand and grips it tight. The tendrils of her head wrap around your other hand, clinging to you. You squeeze your fingers in response. "Are you able to leave the estate? We need to figure this stuff out. I have to introduce you to Grace. Oh man, there is so much to consider. This is going to be wonderful. Once I convince the others that you aren't dangerous then we can start..."

You notice your voice taking on a muffled tone. Opening your eyes you see the brightening early morning sky now starting to show color, but you also see Vespera's cloak of shadows gathering around her. Looking down you see her gazing back up at you even as her form begins to fade from sight. Pushing off of you suddenly she slithers back to the darkest shadow she can find. The gathering darkness around her now clinging to her like hot tar.

You reach out for her. "No. Stay. Don't leave. Don't go back to that place. Stay with me."

Her face dims and you hear her voice, much weaker than before. "Brother...Jac..."

You blink and she is gone, the light level within the tower rises noticeably at her absence. A shiver runs through you. The space now feeling empty, lonely, cold. But you knew the place your twin had gone was far worse.

***

You slowly get to your feet and gather the shawl up in your arms. Quietly you walk across to where the twin you'd known about for less than twelve hours had disappeared, it felt as if a piece of you had gone with her. In such a short space of time your life had been turned upside down. Right after the big moment in the library you were sure your life couldn't get any worse and you would have done anything to make things normal again. Now...now you wouldn't go back to that life for anything.

Reaching out you slide your fingers down the cold rough stone. Out the open doorway the cresting morning sun was shooting golden rays through the trees and across the lake. Never had you been so sorry to see the light of morning. You surmise that the environment had simply become too bright for your dark sibling to maintain her connection. This gives you hope. Perhaps you just needed to find a dark enough space again, and even if that wasn't the answer you were confident that you'd see her again once the sun went down. That spell Dad cast last night might still be in effect but from what you had heard your sister always found a way through sooner or later.

Furrowing your brows you try to think back to the other place though the details are fuzzy, as if you were trying to remember something from early childhood. All you could recall is that it was a terrible place. As different as your sister was you couldn't believe she belonged in such a bizarre and grotesque realm. You pray that she was okay there, though you knew she'd gotten on fine all these years. It was hard to forget how she clung onto you before the moment she knew she'd be forced away. You grip your hand and remember her firm grasp, wishing so hard you could have kept her from leaving. Hopefully knowing that she wasn't alone anymore would brighten her time away.

"Love you sister." You whisper. Folding the shawl you throw it over your shoulder and head out the doorway and back toward the manor. The chorus of morning birds filled the air and all seemed right with the world again. No, not right. Normal. On a lovely morning like this it was hard to believe the supernatural truth that hid from the sight of you "normies". You pass through the same wooded space where you and Vespera had played like children all through the night and it made your heart feel good.

You to get the lawn, happy to have its soft surface for your sore feet to walk over, and swiftly head for the house with a suspicious side long look at the hedge maze as you pass by. It looked harmless enough now though last night it nearly claimed your life. It was a good wake up call that things weren't going to be the same anymore. You trot through the garden where bees and huge blue dragonflies buzzed about their business then up the steep steps. In an upstairs window you notice a face looking down at you, your mother's. Relief at seeing you home safe and sound is evident on her demonicly beautiful face. With a smile you pat the shawl appreciatively and blow her a kiss. She grins and blows you one back before disappearing behind the heavy curtain. Thankfully the door is still unlocked. You hang the shawl and make your way through the house and toward your room.

As you climb the stairs you are greeted by the sight of father coming down the other direction. Despite the early hour he was already groomed and dressed in a forest green tweed suit giving him his usual old fashioned professorial look you were so accustomed to. There's no avoiding him and, judging by the look in his eyes, he was looking for you anyway.

"Mornin Dad." You greet him casually as you try to move to pass by.

"Where have you been?" He asks sternly as he blocks your path.

"In the yard. I just needed some time alone. To think. It was a lot to take in last night, I needed to clear my head." You say without meeting his gaze. "I went for a walk and fell asleep in the woods."

"In bare feet? In your pajamas? After what you learned last night? What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking straight. I just needed to get away from...all this."

There is a long tense pause. "I could make you tell me."

"Make me?" You look up at his looming form, his hard eyes told you that he wasn't bluffing. You rise a step closer to him and in your most sincere voice say. "You don't believe me? Dad, I was scared. Confused. I needed to get my head around this. I just needed to be alone. Away from monsters and magic and...everything. I just went for a walk like I've done a thousand times."

"Things aren't like they used to be. You can't just get away from it. It's your life now." His features soften with genuine fatherly concern, though suspicion still lingered in his gaze. "You should have told me you were going out. I could have had Bron or Devany keep an eye on you. You could have gotten into trouble out there."

"I'm not a child Dad."

"Without your protection spell you might as well be. You are in a unique position son. You know about the things that go bump in the night. You know a secret, a dangerous secret for...someone like you. There are things in this world that you..." He sighs. "Jacob, please, stay close. Until you learn more." His eyes harden and so does his voice as he lays down the law. "I don't want you going out after dark anymore. Not for a while anyway."

"Dad..."

"Jacob." He says in a tone that told you this was not up for debate.

You hadn't the energy to argue with him right now. With a long breath of frustration you simply nod. "Sure Dad. Whatever you say."

Stepping down onto the stair just in front of you he leans down and hugs you. "I just want to keep you safe."

"I know Dad. I'll be fine. I'll be more careful in the future."

"Atta boy." The hug parts, he pats your shoulder and steps to the side allowing you to ascend the stairs. Passing by him you hear that doesn't move for a time, probably watching you, before you then hear him grumble under his breath and continue down the stairs.

You had to tell him about Vespera. But when? And how? It didn't feel like the right time yet. There was too much you didn't know. You couldn't afford to screw this up. You needed more time to think about this.

***

As you head down the hall of the upper West wing of the house, your comfy bed foremost on your mind, you see Beatrix lounging out near her door, the one just down from yours. She was in the shape of a great jelly bean with two humanoid arms sticking out the top so she could tap away at her phone. Seeing you approach she POPS into a generally human shape and hurries down the hall in a sort of walking-skating motion. Her form was close to the shape you knew from growing up with her except her clothes and short pixie cut hair were actually a part of the whole. She presses her phone into her butt where a pocket might be and it just hangs there suspended inside of her. So weird! You weren't sure you could ever get used to this.

"Daddy sounded like a grumpy pants." She says.

"Yeah." You reply impatiently. "Shouldn't you be heading to school or something?"

"You didn't come home last night."

"Very observant." You snip. Did everybody know your business? "I'm going to bed."

She titters, waggles her brows, and makes an adorable smoochy face. "Were you with a girrrrrl?"

You look down at your dirty pajamas and scuffed and bruised bare feet then look back at her incredulously. "Yeah. I always go out on dates like this." You say with dripping sarcasm.