GHOST LIGHT ORACLES
by: Zane Hunter Green
This story is copyrighted and owned by the author. Please do not read if you are not of age, for this age of mankind, which is typically 18 depending on where you live. None of the characters in the story are based on real people. I like to dedicate stories, and this one is dedicated to people who love both Halloween, and stories about it. It is also dedicated to a writer who generously encourages others to write, as well as one of the finest writers around. -Teglin-
If you have suggestions or comments please write to me at ZaneG7@excite.com.
On the oak captain's table a pile of Halloween invitations had accrued. The lamp on the desk illuminated the pile, the orange and black vellum paper contrasted with the more pedestrian mail, and the wind blowing through the open door caused the mail to shift around, so the invitations seemed to breathe like a sluggish life form. Brian walked into the room whistling to himself, he dropped his cowhide luggage on the Asian rug, lay his key in a Depression glass ashtray on the desk, and picked up the stack of envelopes to shuffle through them. He had been so busy during the last few weeks that he had forgotten that Halloween was only a day away. As he picked up the first card, shaped like a traditional jack-o-lantern he got a strange feeling that something wasn't right. He glanced down and the orange sprite winked at him with a bold electric eye.
He decided from the cost of the electronic invitation that this would be a fun party where every guest would be expected to wear a costume that was creative, expensive and sexy. The food would be catered by the best in the city. He thought about renting a costume and going, and got a tiny thrill of anticipation, the type that reminded him of what he felt years before when he was a child. It was bittersweet. Halloween was for children; well of course he thought, he always felt like a child that night. The next invitation was even costlier. And when he looked at the holographic male witch that decorated the cover, the witch shed his outfit looking very appealing in the nude, but Brian's tingle was gone. This Halloween, between lovers and not feeling like celebrating he decided to stay home which after weeks on the road was a luxury, and watch the classic Vampire films on cable.
Halloween had always been one of his favorite holidays. Brian sat in the cabin's chair, with the two unopened invitations and started to reminisce when he was lucky to have a store bought costume, and the highlight of the evening was going door to door collecting candy. In those days treats were full-size chocolate bars, and tricks were not the cute number you brought home for the evening. He thought about his old neighborhood. He had moved away when he was eight. It wasn't that far away from where he was living now, yet he had never been back. He had once lived in a large old house; he remembered how much fun he had sliding down the stairwell, hopping over the cobble stones on the walk. For some unexplainable reason he longed to go there tonight. It was late, his housekeeper had gone home hours ago He picked up the key and retraced his steps out the door. He got into his car and set his GPS, as he wasn't sure he could find the house without it. A soothing voice came on to guide him. Less than thirty-five later he was getting off the main highway. The neighborhood had definitely changed. There were abandoned houses where he remembered seeing people out in all seasons, building snowmen... mowing lawns... and raking the autumn leaves. Only a few places had a sad cardboard Pumpkin cutout or a few orange lights in the window. He wondered if his house was still standing, and what shape it would be in. He couldn't believe he was being drawn to the place where he had last seen it discarded like a bent slinky the day his parents died.
As he turned down his old street he looked for the house set back in the middle of the block. It was still there. He drove up, parked and locked his car. Then he walked over to touch the silvery-gray rock face of the outer wall of the house where he was born.
The sidewalk was cracked with lines of green moss flaying it; he tripped over a broken section, catching himself before he fell. It was then that he heard a noise. It sounded like a child crying, yet there was no one else in sight ...then... He saw that there was a child standing in the rustic doorway. At first he was sure that he was looking at an illusion. He wasn't quite sure of the child's sex, as they were so very beautiful, angelic. The tiny pale hand clutched a toy that looked like a semi- truck. He decided it must be a boy, not just from his toy but from the way he stood, his legs apart in a little masculine stance He had dark brown hair that was stung to his cheeks as he brushed the tears away. Brian walked up slowly only wanting to comfort him, but not quite daring as he was a stranger.
Brian heard a soft voice call out. "Derek!"
Another boy appeared from out of thin air. He stepped back as he realized the second child had been sitting high up on the wall hidden from view by the abundant English ivy.
He was older than the boy on the path was, and looked like he had been crying recently as well, because of redden eyes. He was stunning. His hair was more of a chestnut color. He looked up and spotted the man staring in awe of both of them. Instead of pulling the little boy back into the house the older boy walked forward. He looked as if he was judging the stranger who interrupted their small world. Brian felt like he was being probed. The boys looked at him seriously, two sets of mid-night blue eyes, never wavering.
"My mom wants to talk to you. Do you mind coming inside with me." The older boy said.
Brian's heart jumped. This boy was offering him a chance to appease his curiosity and see what became of the house. He hesitated for only a tiny fraction. He also wanted to be with the boys, they were magnets and he was drawn to them. He hoped he wasn't staring, but he couldn't stop looking at the boys.
"I would be happy to talk with your Mother." All of the sudden Brian had felt delirious with happiness as if something wonderful was about to happen, he was about to tell the boys about his own history in the house. He wanted to dance and swing both boys around high in the air towards the watching moon. Just in time...
The boy clutched him by the hand and led him through the gate. Brian had a funny feeling like electricity was climbing up his arm. He felt bonded to the smooth hand, and wanted to hold it, he wanted to bring it to his lips and taste the smooth skin. The little boy followed them. When they entered the main section of the house Brian heard the older boy's name for the first time.
"Logan, oh thank God you found him!"
The woman looked like a picture, an icon perhaps. She looked like her sons but she said with some urgency to him. "There isn't much time. I leave soon and I can only take one of the boys with me. Logan is too young to leave here, but I can only take one home."
"I don't understand?" Brian managed to say.
"There's no time to explain, well I was pregnant when I sent here. No one knew it so they only gave me passage home for one child and myself...See I can only take one, so we decided that it would have to be my youngest. There isn't any possible way to take both boys... Logan has to stay here, but he is too young to fend for himself... alone... I may never be able to reclaim him; it would be so dangerous! If I had prior warning I would have made some arrangements for him, but I just heard a scant hour ago...they never give you time. If you will care for him until he's no longer a young boy I will sign this home to you, and leave you enough money to raise him...more than enough...enough for you as well. Please I know it sounds crazy, but I am desperate. Would you take him? I beg you. He is a very lovable boy," and then she said something very odd "They always are."
As Brian looked at the boy she signed a paper. He didn't know what to do. She was right what she was saying didn't make sense. Logan looked up, a sad expression on his angelic face.
"Let me show you the house." He seemed so determined that Brian followed him using the time to digest what his crazy mother had implied.
Clearly the mother was mad! The little boy went into his mother's arms as they were left in the quiet room. The house was more modern than Brian had remembered. The outside left no clue that it was so well maintained. It didn't take Logan long to show each room. Brian didn't remember it as well as he thought he would. Everything had changed. Finally they returned to the sitting room. Brian had decided to thank the mother for her strange generous offer but he was not ready to be trapped in her odd plot no matter how much he loved everything about his tour-guide. When they returned to the room there was a chill in the air. The room was empty, the mother and little boy were missing.
"Where are they!" Brian asked franticly.
Logan said calmly, "they're gone now. They won't be able to come back for me. Mother pretended she would but I know the rules. I'll never see them again," and then he started to cry for real."
If there is one thing that Brian couldn't stand it was watching a person cry. When that person was a boy it tore him apart. Not knowing what else to do he embraced him in my arms, the boy's heart pounded. He sniffed back his last tear, and mumbled against Brian.
"Will you let me stay with you?"
"Logan, I would love to but we must find your mother."
Logan shook his head.
"You must have relatives somewhere we can call, a father, or an aunt."
He sighed. "There is no one."
How long have you stayed in this house?" Brian asked.
"Just before my brother was born."
"Then you must have friends of your family I can contact."
"No, we mostly traveled, my mother didn't think they would ever ask her to come back."
"Who are these people you speak of, where are they?"
"Forget them, you would think that they're bad people."
"Where do they live?"
"Here, in this town"
Then where did your Mother go? Why do you act like you don't know anyone?"
"My mother is still here you know."
So this was all a game. A cruel game which the mother played with her boys."
"So when will your mother and brother come out from hiding?"
Logan looked surprised. "Brian," he said in words that would haunt him forever. "My mother is here in this room, well in this space anyway, it is no longer a den, it is very different for her. She is here, believe me but she and my brother are now in the future. We are now in there past."
Brian wondered how Logan knew his name; the rest was too strange to think about "Logan, what you are telling me doesn't make sense."
"Brian, please understand, we knew you were coming here tonight... My mother said a very nice person who used to live here would come back, and he would let me stay with him."
"How could your mother leave you behind?"
"She had to go to when she was called, she had disobeyed once, that's why they sent her back here. If she did it again they would...they would...I can't think about it."
The boy was getting upset, Brian dropped the inquest for a moment, and he was baffled. Logan meanwhile, went over and handed him a stack of papers. The top paper was signed and noted, giving Brian guardianship of one Logan Novell, age eleven.
"I'm really much older" he told Brian. "Sort of...anyway."
As Brian tried to think what to say next, the room got cold like ice.
"Can we leave and go to your house Brian, I think we should, please." There was fear in his voice.
Brian looked at the paper more closely it was his full legal name that he hadn't used for years. He sat down and briefly glanced through, there were all types of papers and banknotes, trust funds, and the simple instruction that he was free to make all decisions for this boy, he could send him off to whatever boarding school he saw fit. As he read numbly, Logan looked like he was ready to panic.
"I'm so sorry Logan, what you must be feeling! I had to leave here too when I was eight. My parents were killed in an accident." Brian looked at the boy who was shivering.
Logan said swiftly, I know...please Brian take me out of here...
Brian looked at the boy. He was so young. He was so scared. Then against his better intentions he took the boys hand once more. "Do you have anything you want to bring with you. I can keep you overnight."
Logan had a duffel bag next to the couch that he hadn't noticed before. Brian lifted it up and followed the boy out to the street.
The boy hopped in the car beside him. For a brief moment the car acted like it was flooded. He got ready to pump the gas pedal again, when he saw an illusion out of the corner of his eye as if the key glowed. The car came to life.
As he drove off he had a funny feeling similar to being watched, it was as if a consciousness seemed to be aware of them...
Brian drove on starting to think about how he was going to explain this boy. How was he even going to take care of him? He traveled so often, the other problem was he had boyfriends, no one that was in his life at the moment but how could he invite a man over when the boy was around? As he fretted he felt something strange on his lap. Logan lay down, his head resting against the growing bulge in Brian's jeans. It was the oddest sensation. It was as if his naked flesh felt the silken hair of the boy, yet he was still fully dressed in thick jeans. The boy was resting his head sweetly and innocently in his lap.
Brian had the sensation that he was going to dampen the spot between Logan's lips and nose. Was this boy aware that he had pressed his head against such a sensitive place? He wanted to ask the boy to move, yet there was nothing that he was doing that was wrong, and the contact with the boy felt wonderful. He had never had a lover lay a head in his lap. He wondered then why not? Why would such a simple thing feel so very good? He took one hand off the steering wheel and brushed the hair of the boy who sighed sweetly.
When Brian had left the old house as a boy, so many years before he sat coldly in the back seat of a sedan. No one knew how to comfort him. No one wanted to touch him. He too would have liked to have a lap to lean against...
As Logan snuggled against him, he felt a symphony of feelings for this boy, love, tenderness, protection, excitement, sexual, hot, demanding, and a few emotions he had never felt before. It was as if his blood was pouring into the boy, and out of the boy like a connecting waterfall...the boy was now flesh upon flesh, Brian was an aching penis entrapped in fabric that felt like silk... a hungry mouth, breathing soft desert air against the bending palm tree. The sweet full lips, against his sheltered cock. The dampness of release only made the boy press harder.... Neither was wanting to break the bond....
...And as they drove, the naked trees quivered from the side of the road as an icy presence used the tree's not quite dormant sap to travel in the same direction. The chosen trees creaked in pain knowing that the force that filled them doomed them from ever producing a green leaf again.
...And Brian had a strange feeling that he knew all of this was going to happen, that he would be bringing home this boy tonight.
It was Mischief night, but the streets were empty. Before he knew it Brian was entering his drive. He took Logan's scanty amount of luggage out of the trunk. Logan followed him into the house.
"It's late Logan. I'll show you your room." Brian thought of having the boy sleep in the room next to his. For a moment he thought it would be nice to continue the cuddle from the car and have the boy sleep next to him... no...he called most of the men he brought home boys...though they were in their twenties. He had a king bed, and in a fit of insanity he had installed a reflective black skylight as he used it mostly at night. When he refracted the skylight, it was as if he and his lover were out in the night with the soft bed beneath them.
He wouldn't dare show his young guest his room with all the gadgets.
Logan seemed lost, and unhappy, but Brian figured that it was only to be expected with losing his family. He still had not sorted things out for himself; he could only imagine how the boy was feeling. When he opened the door to the guest bedroom they both started to sneeze. A layer of charcoal dust lined the floor. He figured that the chimney service had been by to clean the chimneys before winter, but they had never left a mess behind before. He wondered why Anita, his housekeeper didn't clean it up. She was always too neat.
The dust was on the carpet, and the quilt on the bed, it certainly wasn't a place the boy could sleep. He decided to give Logan his bedroom to use. He could sleep on the sofa downstairs. When he turned on the light he was afraid the same disaster was in his room, but everything was nice and neat. The walk-in fireplace sparkled. The boy seemed suddenly shy.
"It's okay Logan, I'll be downstairs, it's a comfortable bed, believe me. He imagined the boy would look lost in it.
"I'll let you be now so you can get ready for bed. You're too old to be tucked in right?"
Logan shyly nodded his head.
"Then pal, I'll see you in the morning."
Brian went downstairs to have a glass of wine, and sort things out. He wondered whom he could call for advice. He was about to go to the phone when he heard an enormous crash; it sounded like glass breaking and something falling against the house. He rushed upstairs, his heart pounding... (To be continued)