The Secrets of Eseme Bellows Ch. 02

"I don't know any Eseme." I told her.

"You met her mother in Vermillion." Molly shrugged. " You met the messenger she left to draw you in...You might not know Eseme honey, but she knows you. She's known you a long time I'm guessing. And now she's calling you to her. Just come easy hon. It's the best way."

And there was nothing in my life that had prepared me for a situation such as that, no class and no experience that I could call upon to figure my way out of those Badlands. I didn't doubt that if I tried to run I would be pursued, that I would be stopped. I did not doubt that there would be real repercussions for such a flight.

"Are you going to kill me?" I asked.

Molly laughed, " Of course I'm not going to kill you. Eseme...she dosn't want you dead. None of us would ever dare to kill you. But all the same, you've got a choice. You come over here, you ride with me...there's a way to this, there are some things that are going to happen. You ride with me and I'll make it as easy as I can. But if you really want some trouble, if you want it rough, then in the end you'll ride with Tom or with the Gaunt, and there won't be anything I can do for you Rebecca. Take a ride with either of these two...you won't die. But it could easily happen that you're left wishing you were dead...

So what's it going to be?"

The one she called the Gaunt seemed to growl then, and took another step closer to the Pontiac and to me.

And once again...there was a part of me that needed to know.

"You won't hurt me?" I asked her, and Molly shook her head.

"I won't hurt you." She said, and she stretched out her gloved hand towards me. " Come on honey...I'm the best chance you've got."

As I took my first step foreward the one she called the Gaunt made a low and guttural sound, snarling like a dog. But as I stepped foreward he stepped back. And as I timidly made my way foreward towards Molly's outstretched hand his leather clad form continued to retreat away from me, until I stood before Molly unmolested. Her hand hung in the air before me but I did not extend my own to take it.

I said, "Alright. I'll go for a ride."

Her gloved hand hung before my eyes, unwavering.

"Make it official." Molly giggled. "You want to ride with me? Kiss my hand."

There were a million thoughts going through my mind in that moment, and if I am honest I was probably literally shaking with fear. All the same I wasn't about to submit to a fate I hadn't chosen, or at least I was not going to make myself complicit in it's unfolding. WHatever courage I had within me went out to reaching out my hand and slapping her's away.

" I'll see this Eseme." I told her, in the firmest voice that I could manage. " But I'm not going to be humiliated."

Molly laughed for a second, and then she sighed. "Oh, baby...you have no idea."

In an instant the hand that I had slapped away had shot forward and it was upon my throat. My own hands shot up to pull her off, but they were just as quickly arrested as the one she called the Gaunt stepped up behind me, grabbed my wrists and wrenched them down and behind my back.

Even as I struggled against their touch I heard Molly laughing. "You were doing so well baby...we were getting somewhere. Why do you have to go and ruin it?"

With her companion pinioning my arms, Molly's hand dropped from my throat. For the first time she stepped off of her bike, and even as I struggled against the arms that held me fast, I could not help but be aware of how strange it was...she looked so young, as young as I was certainly, and aside from her words there was nothing menacing about her. A young woman, even slightly smaller than myself, and still in broad daylight she suddenly seemed so awful...so wrong. As I look back now I still marvel at my innocence then, at the naive way I had viewed the world. The notion hat daylight meant safety, that outward appearance could possibly reflect the intention within...

Molly leaned over the saddle bags that were draped across her seat, reached within to fish something out, as the third rider, the one she had called Tom said, "Jesus, hurry up Molly.."

"You want to leave go ahead." Molly replied at once. "When I'm finished with her the gaunt will come after you...that what you want?"

"Just hurry up." The rider warned. "We shouldn't have the Gaunt out this long..."

"And again, whose fault is that?" Molly snapped, as her hands continued to search the saddlebag.

All the while the third rider held me fast, and for all my struggling, it seemed quite effortless. I don't know why it struck me, but it seemed that the rider made no sound. Though he stood with his leather form pressed against my back, he didn't seem to move, not even to breath. Once again it felt to me like I was being held by fast by immovable stone, and the cold touch of his leathers upon me made my skin crawl, as well as the odd odor that seemed to emulate from the rider, a scent I could not place but filled my mind with images of ancient earth somehow going to rot.

When the pain began to outweigh the fear I begged the rider to let me go, but still he made no sound, and made no move to let me go.

"Don't bother Honey." Molly told me, at las finding what she searched for in the saddle bags. "When the Gaunt get's you, it dosn't let go. Even when you think it's gone...well it's never gone. Not really. When the gaunt get's its hands on you, it dosn't ever let go. Be glad it's got gloves on now, otherwise...well, take it from me, you don't want to know."

Her eyes flicked towards Tom still waiting on his bike. "But you might see, if someone isn't careful."

In the woman's gloved hands I saw that he held several lengths of rope and my struggles began aknew, cursing myself for putting myself into the situation, whatever confidence I had had, whatever need to know, now lost.

"Now what did I just say?" Molly asked, rolling her eyes as she approached me. "There's no point in struggling against it. The Gaunt won't let go...not until there is nothing left of you, or until I tell it to.

Would you like me to tell the gaunt to set you free?"

I did, I very much did. Even through the leather I felt something wrong within the riders touch, and I did not like his silence, or the way that the others seemed to refer to him as something other...something apart. But I also didn't like the look in Molly's eyes or the rope that she ran across her gloved hands. I did not like the sense that each instance was a negotiation, or worse, that each offered deliverance was in fact a gateway to something far worse.

So I said nothing. I clenched my teeth and continued to try and pull away from the rider's vice like grip.

But Molly only giggled, and stepped closer, "You're a feisty one arn't you? Also a stupid one...but that's alright honey...Like I said, we can do this anyway you want."

She had drawn up close to me, just an arms reach away. She looked past me, to her companion who held me tight.

But when she opened her mouth to speak the words that tumbled out were like nothing I had ever heard, a child's gibberish without rhyme or reason.

"Y'ai 'ng'ngah, Yog-Sothoth h'ee - l'geb f'ai throdog."

The rider who held me shuddered, but his grip tightened upon my wrists, so, so hard that I cried out in pain and had to shut my eyes to hold back the welling tears.

"It hurts, dosn't it?" Molly's voice was innocent, playful. "It looks like it hurts...it looks like it might break your wrists, which is a shame for you, but honestly won't make any difference to me. Eseme and the others...they arn't concerned about your bones honey. As long as you're breathing it's all the same."

Even as Molly told me this I felt the rider's grip wrench down even more, another shudder through his silent form, and I had no reason not believe what she said, no doubt that the rider would happily break my wrists to make this point.

I wanted it to stop...the intensity of the pain undermined everything else within me. Molly must have gauged the pain on my face, for when she spoke again it was to command me to open my eyes. When I forced myself to do so I saw that Molly's right hand hovered just before my face, that she had stripped the glove off and now offered me her pale white fingers.

"Kiss my hand." Molly demanded. "Kiss my hand and I can make it stop...kiss my hand and I can keep the Gaunt away from you."

There was something in the way she said it...I had imagined that her first command had been to humiliate me, that it was some kind of power trip to demonstrate her strength. But when she demanded again it struck me that there was just a little bit of uncertainty within that order, some hint of fear. The same anxiety that was clearly weighing on the other biker, Tom, as though the third companion was an unproven quantity, as though their relationship with him was tenuous at best. It was a disturbing thought, and it was the final straw, the one that broke the last tiny fraction of my resistance. As the riders fingers tightened ever more upon my wrists, I leaned my head foreward and placed a quick desperation kiss upon Molly's offered hand.

At once the blond began to smile, something like relief washington over her.

"Good girl." She whispered, and reaching out she patted the top of my head as though I were a dog.

"Just one second." Molly told me, "I've got to make sure you can't do anything too stupid..."

At once she looped a length of rope around my neck, her fingers working fast to cinch a tight know against my skin before I could instinctively pull my head back away from her.

"Fuck you!" I screamed helplessly at her. "What are you doing?"

"Just be quiet, and remember, you run you die...it may be slow, but sure as hell you'll die."

Reaching past me Molly must have placed her hand on the leather face mask of her companion, and she said a single nonsense word, or what sounded like a single nonsense word.

"H' na'ah'ehye."

But the rider did not take his hands off me, nor did he relent in the force he was using. Instead he seemed to growl, and I felt his body shaking against mine.

I do not think that this had been the reaction she had hoped for, because when she spoke again her voice was louder, firmer, thought the gibberish was no more clear.

"H' na'ah'ehye! You cold mother fucker...H' na'ah'ehye!"

This time her companion complied, and all at once he let go of his hold upon me, causing me to fall heavily foreward onto the dirt. Although the unexpected impact nearly knocked the wind out of me, no sooner was I free than I made a feeble attempt to crawl away, an attempt cut short by Molly jerking on the rope which she had secured around my throat.

At once she was on top of me, her knee digging into the small of my back As she grasped my arms that still throbbed with the pain of the rider's hold.

"I told you, don't try anything." Molly laughed as she pulled my arms once more behind me, and using the end of the rope around my kneck she tied them firmly at the wrist. After no more than three seconds of freedom I lay helpless in the dirt, hogtied and Molly stood up.I could hear her laughing at me still, as I wriggled in the dust. I am not sure why I even bothered, already I knew that it was hopeless, sensed that it had been hopeless from the moment that I had woken to the riders encircling my car.

She must have tired of watching me struggle, because all at once I felt her hands upon me and Molly was pulling me roughly to my feet. She kept her right hand tightly upon my throat as she smiled at me, almost sweetly.

"They have such plans for you honey. I'm just thankful I get to have a taste."

I had no idea what she might mean, but her left hand had gone into the pocket of her leather jacket and know it emerged with a large folding knife. Even as I began to scream she clamped her hand down tight upon my windpipe, and I could only gasp and choke as I saw her flick the blade open.

"Stop it!" I heard Tom shout, and to my surprise Molly did.

When I looked over he had finally climbed off of his bike. Sometime in the moments since I had last looked at him he had pulled the bandanna from his face and taken off his helmet so I could see that Like Molly he was young and quite normal looking. Just a skinny red haired boy, twenty pounds underweight and looking like he might have a heart attack at any second.

"We don't have time for this! Just let the Gaunt have her so it will go away!"

"How many times are you going to whine about that?" Molly hissed, and as she spoke she pointed the knife at him.

Tom, however, did not seem worried at all about the knife. Nor did he seem overly concerned with what was happening to me at all. Instead his wide eyes were on the other rider, who once again stood stock still and wholly silent.

"Come on Molly, you know what will happen if we don't banish it soon...We need to get it out of here!"

For a few seconds Molly glared at him, but then I heard her sigh.

"Fine. Alright. Get over here and help me with her and we'll get her to the motel."

"Just..."

"We were told to bring her to the motel Tommy! Do you want to explain to Eugenie why we didn't do as she instructed? Do you want to explain to the others how you fucked up twice in two days? You think the Gaunt is bad, wait till you see what they do to people who disobey, to all the twisted little souls that fuck up. Get over here and help me."

Tom hesitated for a moment, but then he seemed to resign himself once again, and slowly he started towards me, even as Molly leaned in to whisper in my ear.

"The truth is honey, he's right. It dosn't need to be this way...but the thing is, I've had a dream. I've had a vision of what will be...and honey I've been wet for two days thinking about it...thinking about you."

I tried once again to pull away as Molly's teeth found my ear lobe, as she gave me an almost playful nip, as she trailed her tongue down my throat.

As Tom reached us Molly pulled away and began to bark instructions at the man, ordering him to gag me with his bandanna. As he tied that rag between my teeth Tom leaned in close, close enough that I could smell the fear within his sweat, beneath the grease and the smoke of engine oil.

"It's nothing personal." he told me. "I don't know who you are or what they want with you...but if you're lucky the gaunt will kill you quick."

With the gag firmly in place I could only sob at the idea

Next Molly ordered Tom to hold me still, and with the knife still in her hand she explained to me, "I wouldn't want to knick you after all."

I closed my eyes once again as Molly knelt before me. I closed my eyes but even so I could not hold back the flow of tears as I felt her tugging at the leg of my jeans, the sift ripping sound as her blade travelled slowly up my body, cutting away the final illusion of my defenses. I could feel the breeze of the badlands upon my exposed skin, inch by inch and even in the heat of I late morning I had never felt so cold.

She cut away my jeans, and then my t-shirt. Slowly, almost gently, as though she really didn't want to hurt me, when all the evidence seemed to scream the contrary. I hoped that it would be over then, but I felt Molly's hands upon my breasts, lifting them, weighing them and I heard her make a sound that was almost a purr.

"Lovely Honey, just lovely. These are the kind of tit's I always wish I had...big...soft."

I felt the blade's cold touch across the skin between my breasts, gentle as a kiss as Molly sliced my bra away. I shuddered as I felt her fingers slide across the rough flesh of my nipples. I screamed into the gag as I felt the hot wetness of her tongue upon me, sucking my left nipple into her mouth for just a few seconds before she did the same to the right.

I could feel Tom behind me, through it all he had been shaking with nerves, but as he watched my skin exposed and his companion's handling of my breasts I felt the rough denim of his jeans begin to tent against me, his erection grinding hungrily against the contours of my spine.

One last time I prayed that it was all a dream...that I was not helpless in a strange place and in the very face of death or something worse. That I had never seen that hospital room and the madness that transpired there. That I had never heard a sound in an empty house, that I had never stopped the Pontiac. I prayed that it was all a dream, and that in a moment I would wake. I would be home in my own bed in Innsmouth Massachusetts, never having left home at all. Just another young woman waking from a dream, waiting for her real life to begin...

Into this prayer Molly's voice intruded.

"Do you know how we found you so quickly?"

She had left my breasts behind, her voice drifted up from further down, and I knew that she was crouched between my legs, getting ready to shear my panties away from my flesh.

I did not wake. I felt the cotton of my underwear stretch as Molly pulled it, and then in an instant it fluttered away, cut and gone.

"Open your eyes." Molly ordered, but I did not. If I opened my eyes and Molly and the others still existed then what hope could have remained.

"I said open your eyes honey...I need you to see me."

I could feel her warm hands upon the inside of my thighs, the soft flesh so rarely touched. I could feel her breath moving through the the thicket of my pubic hair.

"Open them..."

And when I opened my eyes it was all that I had feared, and I looked down to see Molly looking up at me, grinning with her face just inches from my pubic arch.

She stared into my eyes as she told me, "We followed the scent of your pussy Hon. All the way from Vermillion. Your sopping wet cunt...like roses on the breeze. You could have gone a thousand miles or to the edges of the earth, it wouldn't matter. Once we had your scent nothing could have kept us away from you."

I felt her fingertips glide upon the soft lips of my sex, fleeting, gentle, nothing more that agraze, and I saw Molly raise those two fingers to her lips, as her tongue flicked out to taste me upon them.

"You're still soaking wet." Molly beamed.

And it was true. I could not belive it, I certainly could not have explained it, but I knew that Molly was not lying. Even terrified, even standing in the face of death, I could still feel the soft heat between my thighs, the slick feeling of anticipation...somehow that made me feel worse than anything else. As though it would be alright to be bound and naked before violent strangers, to have my whole life upended and threatened in the blink of an eye, if only my body would rebel against it. If only my fear could not be made to seem like a lie when held against the reaction of my most intimate self.

Somehow, through it all, I was still wet. More so than I had ever been in my whole life.

Even now I do not think that I could adequate describe the shame, the humiliation that I felt within that moment, but I was spared from further rumination upon it.

Spared because even as her eyes held mine, Molly's face dropped just a little lower, and she pressed her lips against my sex. I will not lie, in spite of myself my body shuddered as Molly planted a kiss upon my pussy, not out of fear, but out of something else, something building and wholly unwelcome.

I was no virgin then. In 1962 there were few women who were still virgins by the age of twenty three. It was not the height of the revolutionary countercultural days, it was not the summer of love by any means, but all the same I had been with men before. I had even prided myself on what I considered to be an open and lusty sexual appetite, having enjoyed the favors of five different partners across the years of my college experience...at the time I believed that I knew all there was to know. As I look back I can say that I was wrong, that I was naive, that I knew almost nothing.