The Witching Hour Ch. 01

-Thanks to AMY_Monaco for help with editing. If it looks good, the credit goes to her; if not, blame me. Simple.

-A man looking for a new life gets more than he expected when he unwittingly moves into a magical community.

*

So far the beautiful early summer day had been going perfectly as Jack Gardner moved his stuff out of his car and into his new apartment. The sun was shining and everything was going much more smoothly than he had ever expected. He had no way of knowing that before lunch his day would end abruptly with him lying on his concrete landing, broken, unconscious and bleeding to death.

There, thought Jack as he dropped the last box of his worldly possessions onto the small stack that he had made in the corner of his tiny room. That's the last of it. Looking around himself at the meager apartment he had just moved into, he had to cringe a little. It was definitely a step down for him, but what the hell, he was starting over from scratch. It's what he had wanted.

When it had come time for him to leave the army he had packed his car with his clothes, some of the memento's he had collected over the years and a few of the basics that he could fit; donated the rest to the Good Will and drove away. It wasn't hard, the constant moves and repeated deployments to far off places he had gone through. His six years in the Army had quickly taught him the value of never growing too attached to things. Besides, his ex-wife Kelly had taken most of the furniture and anything else of value that they had collected during their short marriage when she left.

Wiping the sweat off of his forehead, he grabbed a coffee cup out of one of the boxes he had already opened and walked to the sink. Thanks to daily exercise, compliments of Uncle Sam, Jack was in pretty good shape. He'd never be Mr. Universe, not by a long shot, but he prided himself in the fact that the multiple trips carrying his stuff up from the car hadn't even begun to wind him. But, this was the middle of June in Georgia; and though it was still a little early in the morning the heat and the humidity were starting to spike. He rinsed out the cup, filled it up with cold water and took a drink.

Grimacing, he dumped it down the drain and headed back outside. Jack could never get used to the taste of the water whenever he got to a new place. Not that it was bad, but it never tasted as good as he remembered it when he was growing up in Colorado. It probably had never tasted that good, but memories were funny like that. Having spotted a Coke machine at the bottom of the stairs when he had come in, he decided he would prefer that.

Stepping out onto the landing, he shut the door behind him and was headed for the stairs when the sound of voices from the doorway across from his brought him to a stop. The door was cracked open and Jack could hear the sound of a man and a woman arguing heatedly. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but she sounded pretty upset, and he sounded pissed. He found himself leaning in closer to the crack in the doorway, listening hard.

Jack considered himself a pretty good guy, and he had always tried to be honest, especially with himself. So he could admit that he had a bit of a voyeuristic side to him. One of the guilty pleasures of living in apartments was that you got to know your neighbors very well, most of the time without them ever even knowing it. In fact, in some of the places he had lived while in the army, he had learned everything from what peoples favorite TV shows were to which couples were having marital problems, to which wives were cheating on their husbands -- and vica versa. He had once even been shocked to overhear the extremely vocal bondage fantasies of the middle-aged Christian couple next door. He had only met them once when they had stopped by his apartment shortly after he had moved in to inquire whether he had found Jesus yet and if he would come to church with them.

But in this instance it wasn't really like that. Something about the sound of the guy's voice put Jack on edge. No matter how close he got though, he still couldn't hear what was being said. If their apartment was anything like his it had a bedroom off of the main living room/ kitchen, so they were probably in the bedroom. Either that or they were just talking too quietly for him to hear.

As he listened though, he could hear them steadily getting louder and he realized with a start that they were coming closer and here he was standing out in the open, leaning towards their door listening. He quickly turned away and started heading down the stairs. The voyeuristic thing was fun, but not if you actually got caught.

Besides, he told himself, you should really learn to just mind your own business. Even if there was a problem, neither of them would appreciate him jumping in. Best case scenario they would both just tell him to fuck off and go right back at it. Worse case, well, he really couldn't afford to be evicted on the first day for fighting. He had spent most of his savings getting into this place and buying the cheap furniture that would be delivered tomorrow, and the rest would have to hold him out until his college money started coming in from the army, or he got a job, which ever came first. So he really couldn't afford a whole new set of deposits.

Jack was so caught up in his own thoughts as he rounded the last set of stairs toward the vending machine that he almost ran strait into the girl who was on her knees in front of it with her hand stuck up the opening, trying to get out a free drink.

Stopping just in time, all thoughts of the couple upstairs fled his mind. He couldn't help but stare down at her, a little grin forming on his face. Her bare legs were perfectly toned and had that sort of sensual glow that only comes naturally, not from time spent out in the sun, even the fake kind you get from a tanning booth. They ran all the way up under a tight blue set of volleyball shorts that barely covered her taut, perfectly formed butt. The loose fitting white t-shirt she had on had slipped forward as she arched her back to get a better angle and from his vantage point he could see right up under it. She obviously wasn't wearing a bra. The smooth underside of her breasts peeked out at him when she twisted her arm around and he instantly felt his cock come to life in his jeans.

With her face turned toward the machine, and her medium length black hair falling down around her face, she obviously hadn't heard or seen him come up behind her so he decided to keep still and enjoy the view. It was just the polite thing to do, he wouldn't want to startle her. Heck, with her arm twisted up like that she might hurt herself.

He chuckled silently to himself. Right, sure that's why...pervert.

As he watched her strain, he couldn't help but wonder if she had any underwear underneath those shorts. Definitely not granny-panties, that was for sure. He could just make out the faint outline of her soft pussy lips through the tight fabric of the shorts and he was suddenly glad that he had chosen to wear a pair of loose fitting jeans, instead of the old pair of gym shorts that he had planned on wearing during the move, because he realized with a start that he was rock hard.

With a pop, Jack was brought out of his dazed contemplation of her as she proceeded to pull out the drink she had been after.

"Yes!" she exclaimed as she turned around, a look of mischievous triumph on her face, which immediately turned to horror as her eyes fell on him.

"I…" Her eyes widened and she froze like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Jack froze too, but for a different reason. As hot as her body had been, he was not prepared for her face. It was all that he could do to keep his jaw from hitting the floor. He was simply awestruck at how amazingly beautiful she was.

Jack met beautiful people every day. Those are the girls that he saw when he was driving down town and to actually stop and do a double take. But this was different; it is rare when you actually see someone who is truly movie star beautiful. You know, drop dead gorgeous perfect, and without all the make-up artists and air-brushes that help out the Hollywood types.

She recovered faster than he did, the mischievous glint coming back into her eyes and the corners of her mouth twitching up as she recognized the state he was in at the sight of her.

"And just what do you think you are doing, sneaking up on a girl like that?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips and glowering up at him from where she was still perched on her knees, clutching her pilfered bottle of Coke.

"Well, I…" he started.

"Hmm. You wouldn't have been trying to ogle my back-side while I wasn't lookin', would you?" she asked in a teasing voice as her eyes traveled down his body to growing bulge between his legs.

"I-ah, no, I…" Jack stammered as he tried unsuccessfully to pull his mind back together.

She giggled devilishly as she flounced back to her feet and stepped in close to him, laying her hand gently on his chest.

"Mmmm," she said, her voice lowering from girlish into pure sex as she gazed up into his eyes. "Too bad."

Jacks could feel his body responding to her touch and her voice as if there was lightning flowing out of her fingers and strait to his cock. He didn't think at that point he could get any harder, but he did, and he was starting to feel painfully confined. Looking into her eyes he felt the promise in them, a promise of pleasure beyond his wildest dreams. He felt as if he was in a dream, a really good dream and he realized he was leaning forward into her touch.

He shook his head to clear it and stepped back. Man, this was getting out of control. He was horny, but he wasn't stupid. He didn't even know how old she was and anyway, the last thing he needed was some jealous boyfriend, or worse, some pissed off father to come hunt him down. She definitely looked old enough, but with that petite sort of body, he wasn't sure. Laws being what they were these days, you could never be too careful. He thought he saw a look of disappointment flash across her face as he did, but it was gone so fast he wasn't sure it had even been there, a sly smile replacing it.

"And what were you up to?" he asked jokingly, suddenly dying to find some way to change the subject.

That stopped her. She looked over at the vending machine guiltily.

"Oh, well, I was real thirsty," she said to him. "And the damn machine ate my money, and, well…" She spread her arms wide and shrugged, which caused her breasts to jiggle nicely.

"You're not going to tell Miss Munion are you?" she asked suddenly, for the first time actually looking a little scared. "Please don't, they'll kill me if I get thrown out of another place."

"No, no," Jack answered. "I don't think we need to do that."

He had met Miss Munion earlier that day when he had signed for his keys, and immediately didn't like her. She came across as one of those bitter older people that lived to make other peoples lives miserable. He had met plenty of the type moving from apartment to apartment before. For some reason the apartment manager job always seemed to attract that particular type of person.

"Oh, good." She said, breaking back into a smile and opening her bottle of Coke. "So, I haven't seen you around here before."

Jack couldn't quite figure this girl out. The repeated and sudden changing of gears had him baffled and he didn't quite know where to go from here. One minute he would swear to god she was willing to strip down right there and go at it, and the next she was chatting like nothing had just happened.

"No," he replied, figuring he would just go with the flow. "I just moved in this morning."

"Really?" she said, looking a little confused "Normally they don't let... Well, usually it's pretty hard to get in here. I figured you were just visiting."

Jack smiled and looked around. This really didn't seem like that exclusive of a place, but she was the second person he had met that had said something similar to him. When he had submitted his application, Miss Munion had all but rolled her eyes at him before she took it to the back room to call for approval. He really hadn't thought much about it at the time, just figuring it was part of her personality, but now that he had a chance to think it over, she honestly had seemed surprised when she came out and said he was approved. Strange.

"Huh, I don't know," he said to the girl. "Miss Munion said there had been a sudden opening. I guess I just lucked out."

"Weird, I didn't hear about that." The girl was looking at Jack suspiciously, like she didn't quite believe he was telling the truth, but then just as fast the smile returned and she was back to her normal perky self. Though, Jack wasn't sure if he could call anything about this girl normal.

"So, what apartment are you in?"

"302" he said.

As soon as he said it he watched the smile on her face transform, instantly changing from sweet and perky to sly and lascivious. She looked him up and down and suddenly broke out in a very sexy giggle that caused her chest to start bouncing again. He was finding it extremely hard to concentrate on her face, as beautiful as it was, when she did that.

"Oooo… you're across from Jenny." She told him. "So you're my new peeping tom."

"W-what?" he stammered, his thoughts going back to the top of the stairs. Had she seen him try and look through the door? But she just laughed that sexy laugh again.

"Let's just say the view from your balcony can be pretty good from time to time." She laughed at the obvious confusion on his face, and with that she turned and started walking away, her ass swinging seductively behind her.

"I'm sure I'll be seeing you around Jack," she said over her shoulder as she walked away from him "My names Britt, by the way, since you were too busy staring at my tits to ask." Her giggle followed her around the corner and she was gone.

Jack was left red-faced and speechless by the whole episode; and still, he noticed, with a massive hard-on. What the fuck was that? he asked himself as he collected his mind enough to remember that he had come downstairs for a reason and walk over to the vending machine. He pumped in four quarters and hit the button for bottled water and one popped out. Broken, my ass. He laughed.

As he twisted off the cap on the water bottle he sat down on the bottom step and thought over the whole episode. The more he thought about it the more he knew that there was no way that it could have happened like he thought it did. God but the feelings he had felt when she touched him. Wow, he thought, listen to me. It has been way too long since I got laid.

It had been way too long. It had been over a year and a half since he had left for Iraq the last time, not knowing that in a couple of months he would get a letter from Kelly, telling him that she was sick to death of the army life and she was leaving to live with an old boyfriend and not to try and find her. He couldn't honestly blame her; in the three years that they had been married he had been home less than one and contrary to what everyone says absence does not always make the heart grow fonder.

He wasn't still pining for her or anything. He had had a long time over there to work it out on his own and come to accept it. When he had gotten back though, he had been way too busy with getting everything finished and ready to go to want to spend the time necessary to find and build a relationship. Hell, even casual sex took time and effort, two things which he had very little of to spare. So he had turned himself into sort of a hermit. Ha. The Zen Master. Maybe he had taken it a little too far.

That must be it. He was just horny and too rusty at the game to realize what was going on. So she had flirted with him. So what? His mind was just playing tricks on him; that was it.

Jack sighed and started back up toward his apartment. He was just heading up the second flight when a thought occurred to him. He didn't remember ever telling Britt his name. But she had said it when she walked away. Didn't she? He thought back, he must have said it at some point and just didn't remember. Yeah, that must have been it. Most of the conversation was starting to take on the odd haze that he had felt when she had touched him. Weird.

From above him on his landing Jack heard a crash and a small scream that brought him instantaneously out of his thoughts. Shit! He thought and hurried up the remainder of the stairs. What he saw brought him to a screeching halt. Standing outside of the door to the apartment that he had heard the voices coming from earlier was the biggest man Jack had ever seen in his life.

Jack himself was six foot even, and while he wasn't freakishly tall by any means, he wasn't really used to having to look up at anyone. The man standing at the doorway, though, had to be pushing seven foot, with a body-builder frame to match. The tight black stretch t-shirt he had on was made to show off muscles that had to be from way too many steroids.

"You need to leave, now." Jack heard an amazingly beautiful, feminine voice come from the apartment, but he couldn't see who it was from, because Mongo -- as Jack had instantly dubbed him in his head, for lack of a better name -- was blocking his whole view. The voice was small and seemed quiet, but was unmistakably icy and full of steel.

"You'll give me what I came for, bitch," Mongo said, his gravely voice was so rough that it almost didn't sound human "Or I will tear you apart right now. Jacob will understand."

"As if either of you would even know what to do with it," came the response from behind the giant, and with it the muscles on the big mans shoulders began to tense.

Jack had no clue what the hell they were talking about, but he knew the tone and watching Mongo tense up, he knew what was about to happen. He also knew he was about to do something he would regret. A common misconception, fostered by the movie industry is that every soldier in the army is the killing machine, Steven Segal, Rambo type that loves getting into fights at the drop of a hat.

Jack wasn't like that at all. In fact he was usually a pretty passive guy. But for years, he had watched this same scenario play out between his mother and step-father when the asshole would get to drinking too much. On the good days it would leave her with a black eye or a swollen lip. On the bad days though, well, he thought as he stepped out onto the landing, the last one is always the worst.

"Is there a problem here?" he asked, lowering the tone of his voice the way he had learned to in the military to chastise one of his soldiers. At the same time he set a good balanced stance and waited. He may have been a passive guy, but he wasn't stupid and the army didn't leave him totally unprepared.

"Fuck off, weakling, this is none of your concern," Mongo growled, half turning his head to looking in Jacks direction. The eye that met Jacks was, well, it was wrong. He couldn't quite figure it out, but there was something wrong with this guy.

What the hell is this guy on? Jack thought to himself. It had to be drugs of some kind. Weakling, who the fuck says 'weakling'?

"Please, just go." Jack heard the voice coming from in the apartment again. He could tell it was directed at him this time, the ice melting away from it, but the steel remaining.

Yeah, right, he thought. Every one of them hates needing the help they need the most. He had seen this same thing with his mother. If he did end up having to fight this guy, he didn't expect any thanks from the woman. Hell, she would probably blame him. Oh well, at least he hadn't already unpacked his stuff.