Mystical

Mystical 05

**Mystical Part 3 The temptation of Jake Thibault **

Usual disclaimers apply. The following might contains male-to-male sex. If you are under age or such reading is illegal in your country, please go elsewhere. Otherwise, please enjoy.

Comments and Critiques are welcomed at Kindar11@Yahoo.ca

A Special thank you to Brett for his editing work

The man took a deep breath and smiled. The smell of decay and all the destruction surrounding him had been unexpected, but perfect. He made the altar by ripping off part of the roadway and laying it across what might have been cars at one time but now were nothing more than piles of rusting metal. On it he laid the bag containing his sacrificial knife and the blood of his sacrifices; seven evil men caught in the act in evilness.

Next to it he placed the box containing his master’s chalice. He didn’t take the chalice out yet, the sigils on the box were meant to prevent him from sensing it, but it also stopped anyone else from feeling its presence. He would take it out once the warding circle was complete.

The man smiled again. Everything was coming together perfectly. Within the hour the last sacrifice would be made and his master would finally be able to establish a foothold in this world.

* * * * *

The Arcanium was a bar where criminals were known to hang out. It was a large two story building made out of old brick. I knew about it, it was impossible to work around criminals and not know about it, but I’d never been there. All the criminals there were arcanes of one sort or another, and being around that many arcanes I didn’t know wasn’t something I cared for. It wasn’t that I was prejudiced, I have arcane friends, quite a few of them in fact, but I didn’t know those in that bar, and there was always a chance one of them would figure out what I was and make a fuss about it.

I really didn’t want any of them to make a fuss, it wouldn’t end up well for me.

If I had any choice, I wouldn’t be here, obviously, but Chris had arranged for me to meet someone he knew, who could shed some light on the man who was behind Ralph’s death, and this was the only place he would agree to. I took my courage in two hands, forced my nervousness down and entered it.

Like any bar, the first thing I noticed was the smell of beer and other alcohol in the air, then the people at the tables; vampires, ghouls, werewolves, a group of guys and girls with feathers instead of hair, even a skeleton reading a novel. I couldn’t tell if it was an animated skeleton or if its skin and muscles were just invisible, and I wasn’t going to go ask.

I did my best not to listen in on the conversations as I headed for the bar, not an easy thing since I couldn’t turn off my ears, and my inner curiosity made it difficult to avoid peeking inside those minds. You never knew what kind of juicy information you could get from a crook’s head, but if one of them could sense I was reading them the result wouldn’t be pretty for me.

I sat on a stool and kept my eyes on the bar as I tried to force the mental noise to mix into general static.

“What can I get you?” the barman asked startling me.

I looked up at him and stared. I could see and hear him, but my mind was telling me there was no one there. I tried to read him without success. His mind wasn’t shielded, even when I can’t read a mind I can feel it’s presence behind the shield, it just wasn’t there. I tried to touch him telekinetically and there was nothing there either. He could have been an illusion, but as he asked me what I wanted, he put a beer on the bar for the girl sitting next to me.

“So, what will it be?”

“I’m sorry,” I replied forcing myself to look away.

“Don’t worry about it, most first timers can’t help but stare at them.”

Stare at what? I wondered and looked at him again. When I noticed his eyes I couldn’t figure out how I had missed them before. They were pale green, but that wasn’t what made them unusual, it was that his entire eyes were green, no pupil, not whites, just green . . . and they were cut like precious stones.

“I’m Jade,” he said presenting his hand. I hesitated a moment, again wondering if he was actually there, before taking and shaking it. He had a strong grip, a real grip, I couldn’t deny that he was really there, but even with the physical contact I still wasn’t getting any mental reading. Could the guy not have a mind? I’d never come across anyone who didn’t have a mind.

“I’m Jake,” I replied when I finally found my voice. I realized that jade was what his eyes were made of. “And I’m going to have a Scotch.” I watched him as he walked to one end of the bar to grab a glass and bottle then came back and poured me an ounce of scotch. He had wide shoulders that matched his grip, short black hair and a five o’clock shadow on his square face.

“You know, they aren’t *that* impressive,” he said as he put the bottle down.

“I’m sorry,” I said again and forced myself to look at my glass, “They make you pretty unusual ‘tho.” It was simpler to let him think it was his eyes that fascinated me so much.

“Nah, a ratling’s weirder than me, with their long nose buck teeth and tail.” He looked over me. “Hey Sam, remember the rules.” I turned to look at who he was talking to.

“Don’t worry, I’m just going to question her,” the demon replied as he dragged an unconscious woman by the leg. I caught a glimpse of what he was going to do to her and downed my drink so I wouldn’t throw up or run to save her like a stupid knight trying to save a princess from a dragon only to end up dead.

I motioned Jade for a refill.

“First time seeing a demon?”

I shook my head before downing that one, too. One of the early things I learned about being a PI is that you have to pick your fights. I couldn’t go up against a demon, especially not one that looked like he could rip me limb from limb without even trying. I’d call Rocky once I was done here and let him deal with it.

I stopped Jade from refilling it a third time.

“So what brings you here? You don’t really look like my usual customer.”

“I’m here to meet with Bastien.”

Jade raised an eyebrow. “Is he expecting you?”

I nodded. Chris had setup the meeting, but refused to come with me or to explain why.

“He’s in there,” Jade said pointing to a booth closed off by a curtain.

I looked at the curtain for a moment. I was tempted to reach through it mentally to get an idea of who was behind it. That’s what I’d do normally in a situation where I didn’t know who I was going to meet, but the one thing I did know was that Bastien was arcane. That meant that he might know if I read him, and he might be able to strike back. I knocked on the booth’s frame instead.

“You may come in,” the person inside answered. The voice sounded dry and slightly hollow

I pulled the curtain enough to get in and sit down, closing it behind me. The first impression I got of Bastien in the low light was that of a businessman in a gray suit reading the business paper. Then I noticed that his features were sunk in and his skin dry. I realized he was a mummy and I couldn’t help myself, I touched the edge of his mind. I didn’t get anything, it was protected by a very powerful shield. I kept prodding at it trying to find a weak spot I could use to slip in while I waited for him to look up from his paper.

“Please stop doing that,” He said calmly as he closed the paper and folded it.

“Doing what?” I replied continuing to search along his shield.

He looked at me for a moment and his eyes lit up. Light actually appeared behind them as if someone had thrown a switch. Then pain pierced my brain; clear and sharp like a needle, completely breaking my concentration.

“You’re a psion,” I said once the pain vanished and I could think again.

“When I was alive, I was.” He took a sip of the coffee I hadn’t noticed before.

I’d never heard of an undead psion before, which made sense, psions in general kept a low profile. An undead one would want to be even more careful, except I didn’t know of any mummy that had kept the abilities it had had in life, or was able to drink coffee. Mummies were dead after all.

“I’m Jake,” I said fighting hard to try to read him again.

“Jacob Thibault, I know. You are a friend of Christopher, and no, I am not a mummy.”

The comment raised my hackles and I reinforced my mental walls. I cursed mentally, it should have been obvious he was powerful after that precise attack, but I’d been too surprised to think about it. I had to proceed carefully here.

“Chris said you’d only talk with me, not him. Why’s that?” I asked focusing on business instead of the intense curiosity about what he might be.

“I dislike necromancers, particularly your friend.”

Something else to force myself not to ask him about, but this one was easier to put on the back burner, I’d ask Chris instead.

“Chris said you know something about the man behind those murders.”

“I do.”

“What is it going to cost me?”

“A favor,” he replied. “Something within your field of expertise, and legal, you need not worry about that.”

“And you’re sure I’ll keep my end of the bargain?”

“I am a very good judge of character, but should it turn out that I have misjudged you, I have ways of making you pay for not keeping your word.” He took another sip from his coffee.

I had no doubt of that.

“Alright, what do you know?”

“The man you are after is a powerful sorcerer who lived more than a thousand years ago. In those days he was obsessed with power and to satisfy that obsession he made deals with many horrible creatures. Eventually his deals endangered those around him and he had to be stopped. His body was destroyed in the fight that followed and it was believed that had been sufficient, but it is now obvious that it wasn’t.”

“What’s his name?”

“The name he had in life is irrelevant; he has been disembodied for so long that I expect he himself does not even remember it. Nor can I tell you the name of the body he is in possession of, now. What I can tell you is that he still seeks power, that he has no regard for whom he might hurt in the process, and that should he attain it, it will be quite detrimental to everyone else.”

“Why haven’t you gone to the cops with what you know?”

“I dislike the police, almost as much as I dislike necromancers. I also find that they usually lack the motivation to do the proper thing. They tend to be encumbered by things such as procedures and due process. A man such as yourself, one seeking justice, is better placed to evaluate the situation and do what needs being done.”

“I’m not some assassin for you to send out and kill someone.”

“I am quite aware of that, and should you believe that he can be stopped without killing him than please do so. However, I believe that nothing short of the destruction of his current body will accomplish that goal.”

“Do you know where I can find him?”

“You will find him at the corner of Howitzer and Murdock.”

The names didn’t ring any bells, I’d have to look them up. “When is he going to be there?”

“That, I do not know. He may very well be there as we speak, or he may still have to gather some ingredients. Regardless, I would not tarry.”

“How is it that you know so much about him?”

“Information is how I have survived this long,” he replied. I stared at him and eventually he sighed. “I was around all those years ago, like him, I sought power, but in a less destructive way. You could say that we were rivals of sorts.”

“So you were involved in stopping him back then, too?” Bastien didn’t confirm it, but he didn’t deny it either. “Then why didn’t he come after you for revenge?”

“The passing of the years tends to dull the edges of revenge. It shows one that most things can be resolved to one’s satisfaction simply by letting time take its toll. Although he might not be aware that I still live. I have grown quite adept at remaining undetected.” He sipped his coffee. “I suggest you be on your way. Time is most certainly growing short, if it is not already too late.”

With that I’d been dismissed. I nodded to Jade in leaving and then called Chris and Jen for backup.

* * * * *

I looked at the destruction waiting for us on the other side of the road and I couldn’t stop a shiver going down my spine. Back in the mid-eighties, when I was just a kid, a couple of arcane gangs had gone to war. Within a year it had spilled over to the other gangs and it went from a war to an outright holocaust. 

I didn’t really remember any of it, except for a few vague memories of hiding in the basement with my father while we heard the explosions and saw flashes of lightning and fire, and we hadn’t lived anywhere near the center of the war. Most of what I knew about it I had learned in school and most of the details weren’t known. We didn’t know which gangs had started the war or even why, although the experts agreed it was probably over territory. We didn’t know the exact toll the war had taken on people, the agreed upon estimate was a hundred thousand people killed in events relating to the war. What the war had left us with was stronger anti-gang task forces, and the wasteland.

If the war had been about gaining territories, it had failed miserably. It had taken a hundred blocks of residential and commercial real estate and turned them into barren land. There was still life in the wasteland, but it wasn’t the sort of life you wanted to encounter at any time. The magical energies that had been tapped into during the war had changed this place. They had given birth to mutated creatures that roamed the shadows of ruined buildings. No one could live here anymore. Not only that, but like a desert the wasteland slowly crept forward, trying to extend its border into the unblighted areas surrounding it.

In the first twenty years after the war there were three attempts at reclaiming the wasteland, at making it livable again, but they failed. The first two didn’t even make it off the ground while the third died within the wasteland itself as the creatures there fought tooth and nail against the invading forces. After that, the city gave up. Signs were put up warning people against entering the wasteland and about the dangers those stupid enough to ignore those signs could encounter.

We were about to become part of the group of stupid ones.

I didn’t have to see the destruction to know we entered the wasteland, I could feel it; the air was thick with the smells of decay, the light not as bright, as if the sky had suddenly become overcast, even though there wasn’t a cloud to be seen in the sky. But most of all, my prescience was screaming at me to leave this place now and never come back.

I really wished I’d listened to it, now.

The GPS on my cell didn’t work here, neither did my cell phone, so we had to navigate using the old maps Chris had brought. When I gave the intersection he knew where it was, he had studied the wasteland. Like most sorcerers who didn’t restrict their studies to the lighter side of things, he’d looked for ways to harness the power there and from what he’d told me the wasteland had thoroughly kicked his butt.

He was as nervous as I was, jumping at the lightest sound and even twice blasting away something he thought he’d seen. Jen, on the other hand, didn’t seem bothered by being here. She looked at the destroyed building as if she was studying the architecture in a foreign city. I didn’t know if because of what she was the wasteland didn’t affect her, or if she simply didn’t know enough about it to have the respect for this place that it deserved.

I was going to ask her which one it was if we got out of this alive.

We kept our eyes peeled, as we got closer to the intersection, for any hiding spots large enough for someone to perform a ceremony in. While we didn’t know who we were looking for, ceremonies called for items and procedures we could keep an eye out for; sacrificial items, a focus for the power, a chant for the power to flow on and a circle to bind that power, it didn’t matter how well he hid, we could find one of those.

So we looked and listened for those behind every broken wall large enough to hide him from view, in every dilapidated building we came across, basically anywhere he could perform a ritual safely hidden from view. What I didn’t expect was to find him in the open, in the middle of the intersection where I’d been told I’d find him.

“Well, he is brave, I will give him that,” Jen said.

“I think it’s more that he’s powerful enough he doesn’t have to hide,” Chris replied.

“It doesn’t matter, we need to stop him and bring him in.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy to do.” Chris pointed at a line on the ground made by the sand the wind had pushed against an invisible barrier. “He has a circle up.”

I tentatively moved my hand forward until it was stopped. I pushed against the unseen wall as hard as I could but it didn’t budge.

“I thought Circles could only imprison arcane creatures,” Jen commented as she watched me try to force my way through it.

“Those are just the easiest ones to make,” Chris replied, “The more power you can put in a circle the more mundane the things it can keep in, or out.”

“But you can cancel it, right?” I was now putting my shoulder against it and pushing as hard as I could.

“Hell if I know. This guy can make circles of power without tracing them. There’s no telling how much power he has.”

“Fuck,” I said slamming my fist against the invisible wall. I had one thing I could try, I could try to jump the distance separating us. He had to be about twenty yards away. I’d never jumped that far, I normally only used that ability to get inside locked rooms, but I had to try.

I aimed for the spot behind him, not because I wanted to surprise him, hell if he hadn’t noticed us by now, I doubt he’d notice anything short of me jumping in his arms, but because there was sort of table I’d be able to lean against. I focused on it and forced myself to be there.

No TV show has ever been able to convey what teleportation feels like. Going from one place to another without actually crossing the space between was very stressful on the body, I didn’t know any Psion who could do multiple jumps like that blue guy in the mutant movies.

One moment I was on this side of the circle the next I was on the other, and holding on the asphalt slab to keep myself from tipping over. My knees could barely support me, and I felt like throwing up. I made a mental note to never do this again and forced myself to look at the items on the slab to distract myself from my protesting stomach.

Next to my hand was the knife, I recognized the symbols on the blade from Erik’s memories. The chest Norman had been looking for was next to it, it was smaller than I had expected, just a foot and a half wide by one deep. I counted seven plastic bowls with traces of blood in them.

The chanting stopped and I turned, continuing to lean against the table, to look at the man responsible for Ralph’s death as he turned to face me.

He was a good looking enough man with short blond hair blue eyes and square jaw. He looked through me for a moment in a similar way to when he looked through Erik and then he focused on me with a surprised expression.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

He seemed to consider for a moment if he should answer me and I felt an image form at the surface of his mind. “I’m bringing about order,” he eventually said. An image of the city came with the response; buildings were destroyed, the sky was blood red and tentacles were overshadowing everything. I followed the thought back, tracing all the thoughts that led to it.

Quickly there was a scene of him killing Hendrik, then a flash of them talking, multiple scenes of him killing men, then he was searching for something through piles and piles of papers and one of him taking possession of the body he inhabited. Those several weeks had passed in the blink of an eye for him. Before that was a time of floating around disembodied, filled with purpose. Then came the death of his human body in what looked like medieval times. Then was him cruelly reigning over some people and then he was dressed in tatters, summoning something. It felt powerful, but only a small part of it answered.

Here things slowed down as the tentacle wrapped itself around him and they made a deal. He eagerly agreed to it and the tentacle struck his chest disappearing inside him. When he opened his eyes afterward they were completely black. He turned and looked directly at me.

I pulled out immediately. I didn’t know what it was that he’d made a deal with, but it was still in him, it was most of him now, and it had noticed me.

“How did you get through my circle?” he asked seemingly unaware I had trampled through his memories. I wrapped my fingers around the knife’s hilt. “I didn’t think anyone would be powerful enough to cross the boundary without me noticing. You must be very special.” He reached for my cheek. I knocked his hand away while I stabbed him with his knife.

At least that had been the goal. I looked down and he had caught the blade with his hand; blood was starting to pool where it was wrapped around the blade. I hadn’t even seen him move his hand.

“You really thought you could kill me?” he asked sounding surprised. He wrenched the knife out of my hand and pointed it at my face. “You aren’t *that* special.” He seemed to consider me for a moment. “You aren’t worthy of it.” He lowered the knife, grabbed me by the collar and threw me over his shoulder without any effort.

I landed a dozen feet away amidst rubble, fortunately nothing broke. I used a rusted lamp post to pull myself up. The man picked up the chalice and let the cut bleed into it for a few moments. He then lifted it and started chanting.

I forced myself to breath slowly and focused on the chalice. I might not be able to lift much, but it didn’t take much force to knock something out of someone’s hands when they weren’t expecting it.

The chalice was knocked out of his hands and fell somewhere behind the improvised altar. He looked at his now empty hands and turned to look where it had landed before looking back at me.

“How did you do that?” he didn’t bother giving me time to explain, not that I was inclined to do so, a few gestures and a word, and lightning was flying at me from his hand.

It hit me and I flew back another dozen feet. It was pure reflex that had saved me; I had telekinetically grounded the lightning just before it struck. Only a small fraction hit me, but it still hurt like a bitch. It took a few seconds for the twitching to stop and a few more before I was able to force myself to stand.

I got on my feet in time to watch him straighten up with the chalice in hand. I couldn’t let him use that, it was obvious it was an important part of his ritual. I was about to knock it out of his hand when I realized doing that would just postpone things and he’d get use to it quickly enough. This was probably my last chance before he started holding on to the chalice. I yanked it out of his hands and pulled it to me.

Again he seemed surprised to have it fly out of his hands. He looked at me, again, and started gesturing, but I was ready for it this time. I reached into his mind and made it misfire randomly. His body started twitching, interrupting his casting in a rather violent way. The spell he was going to send at me blew up in his face.

An explosion like that should have ripped his hand off and probably part of his face, but that didn’t happen, he wasn’t even covered with soot that made such a thing on TV so funny.

He glared at me. “How are you hiding that you are a sorcerer?” He started casting and I interrupted it again, but there wasn’t any explosion this time. He yelled in anger, it was an inhuman scream that made my blood curdle and  started me edging toward Jen.

He ran at me so fast that I headed to the only substantial thing I could put between me and him, his improvised altar. I didn’t make it. He jumped me and had me on my back with his hands around my throat before I had taken half a dozen steps in its direction. I made a telekinetic sheath around my throat but that guy was a lot stronger than he looked.

“How is it that an insignificant gnat like you can cause me to shudder without raising a hand? You have no power that I can sense within you.”

Trying to answer would have been a waste of my breath, and I didn’t have that many left right now. I tried to choke him like I’d done the tattooed man, but he didn’t seem to need to breathe.

I gave him another seizure and his grip relaxed momentarily and I took as deep a breath as I could. He hadn’t shaken as violently as before. He was fighting them. I needed something new if I wanted to get him off me.

I groped around until I found a large rock and I hit him on the side of the head as hard as I could. I made contact with a loud *crack* and his head snapped to the side. When he looked at me again the gash on his head was already closing. That made no sense, why was this wound healing when the cut on his hand was still wide open?

Could the knife be magical? I had expected it to simply be a ceremonial knife, but it was the only thing that explained his cut still being open. I looked around for the knife, the last place I’d seen it was when he’d grabbed it out of my hands. I saw it on the edge of the make-shift altar, a good ten feet away.

I cursed internally. Sure it was light enough that I could pull it to me but it was already taking all my focus to stop his hands from crushing my throat. I didn’t have much of a choice; if I didn’t try to stop him he would eventually choke the life out of me.

I short circuited his mind again and used the momentary relief to take a deep breath. I then concentrated on the knife and tried to ignore the feeling of his hands around my throat. It wasn’t easy, at this point the spasms barely lasted a second and I could tell that he really wanted me dead because he was putting a lot more strength into choking me.

The knife flew off the altar and landed in my hand. I planted it into the man’s side as hard as I could and it went in all the way to the hilt. His eyes widened in surprise and he released my neck reaching for the knife. He pulled it out and blood started spurting from the wound.

“Do you really think that this will stop me?” He sneered and threw the knife away. “I will still kill you and the ceremony will still happen.” His hands went back around my throat and for a moment I thought he’d be able to crush it even with my telekinetic sheath, but his grip quickly lost strength. I guess that he at least needed his blood even if he didn’t need air.

He seemed puzzled by why he was weakening. He tried to tighten his hands around my neck, but now I had no trouble keeping them off. He wobbled and fell next to the pool of blood when I shoved him off me.

He looked at me with anger in his eyes. “This isn’t over,” he said before life left them.

“I think it is,” I replied back, not caring that he couldn’t hear me. I lay back for a moment catching my breath. I had some regrets about killing him, I hadn’t sensed the previous occupant when I’d gone through his mind, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been hiding somewhere in there. The point was moot now. I hadn’t been given much of a choice and I’d rather be alive than have died trying to save him.

I sat up and watched the blood flow into the pool to mix with the rest. As I watched a dark form detached itself from the body. I cursed under my breath and stood, but I didn’t have the time to move before it jumped me.

I tried to push it off but my hands went through it while its shadowed hands dug into me. Within moments it started climbing inside me and I could feel it laughing maniacally. I clenched my teeth to avoid screaming out and lashed at it psionically, but there was nothing there to strike.

It was almost completely inside me, getting comfortable, when I felt its presence lessen, as if someone had put a layer of plastic between us. It noticed; it also and tried to push harder, but it couldn’t move deeper. I felt something warm against my check and a moment later it was thrown out of me.

It screamed silently and jumped me again, but this time it couldn’t get in. Each time it struck me I felt my Virgin Mary medal heat up as it protected me. After a few more hits I could tell the entity was losing strength and I noticed that it was slowly being pulled back inside the body it had inhabited. It fought against the pull trying to cling to me, but couldn’t grip me anymore and within moments it started dissipating, like wisps of smoke caught in an unseen breeze.

Once it was completely gone I took my medal out and kissed it. As soon as I was home I was going to email my godfather to thank him again. I waited a few moments to make sure nothing else would happen and then turned to head toward Jen and Chris.

I’d only taken a few steps before they started yelling for me to start running and pointing behind me. I looked over my shoulders and saw a black tentacle coming out of the pool of blood.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding.”

Adrenaline’s an interesting thing, one moment I was still reeling from the fight, the next was fully energized and running as hard as I could to get away. I didn’t think about the circle, I hoped that like most, it was one way, but I didn’t get to find out. A few yards from it a tentacle wrapped itself around my ankle and pulled me back, making me fall. I was dragged a couple of feet before I was able to grab on to a piece of cracked asphalt. I was able to pull myself back to where I had been standing before more tentacles grabbed on to me. I cursed under my breath as the asphalt started digging in my fingers.

“Gods, Jake! More are coming for you!”

I looked up at Jen, she was trying to force her way through the circle. Chris was gesticulating and mumbling something.

“You’ve got to get out of there!” Jen yelled.

“I’m trying!” I yelled back, managing to pull myself another foot toward her.

“Gods, Jake, you’re not going to make it.” She crouched and looked at me tears falling. “You have to make a wish Jake.”

“Like hell I do,” I replied through clenched teeth. More tentacles had grabbed on to me and they were pulling much harder now. “I do that and you’re going to light up like a Christmas tree for them.”

“I don’t care about that! I can’t lose you, Jake!”

“And what do you think’s going to happen when they catch you? You think you’re going to get visiting rights? They’re going to shove you back down a bottle and ship you as far away from here as they can. I am *NOT* going to be responsible for you being dragged back into that.”

I looked around for something else I could use to pull me forward. I was three feet away at the most. I laid eyes on a piece of rebar poking out of what must have been a sidewalk at one time. I gathered my strength and pulled myself forward. My hand was just about to close on the rebar when the tentacles pulled harder. I moved back and my fingers dug in the asphalt painfully. A moment later I lost my grip and they dragged me back toward the forest of tentacles. I tried to grab something else to stop myself, but I was moving too fast, all I managed to do was bloody my hands some more before I was in the middle of them and everything went dark.

* * * * *

I slowly came to and even through my closed eyelids I could tell there was light. I tried to figure out how long I had been unconscious, but the only thing I remembered was entering the forest of tentacles. I tried to move, but couldn’t.

I carefully opened my eyes to look around. The light came from above me, a very bright spotlight that left me seeing spots for a moment after I looked up. I was being held up, spread eagle, in the middle of the circle the light formed. I couldn’t see anything actually holding me, but that nothing was holding me quite well.

Also, I was naked.

“Hello Jacob,” a man said from somewhere within the darkness.

“Who’s there?”

A form started becoming visible as he walked toward me. He was about my height and wide shouldered. He stopped at the edge and I could sort of make out his clothing billowing in the stilled air.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“Your kind has called me many things throughout the ages; the Devourer of worlds, the Traveling Hunger or even Hentai, but the best approximation of my name in your language would be Narsagoth.” He stepped into the light and I realized it hadn’t been clothing that had been billowing.

He wasn’t human at all. His form was made up of tentacles, like those that had grabbed me and they couldn’t quite stand still, giving the billowing effect.

“What do you want?” I asked as he walked around me. I tried to force my mind inside his, but I kept hitting a wall,

“Please don’t do that,” he said, “You would lose grasp of your reality if you were able to see what is within my mind.” He walked behind me. “I want the same thing you do Jacob,” He whispered in my ear pressing against my back and wrapping his arms around me. “I want to fill that gaping hole inside us.” I had expected his touch to be slimy, but it wasn’t. It was warm and reminded me it had been a very long time since anyone had pressed against my naked form like this. Something moved against my ass and I swallowed hard as I realized what it was supposed to be, and how large it felt.

“What are you talking about?” I asked once I had regained my voice.

“You don’t have to play games Jacob,” he replied kissing my neck, “I know everything about you.” His hands, formed of smaller tentacles, started caressing my chest. “How long has it been since you’ve been with another man? How many years have you been looking for the right man to stand at your side, one with whom you wouldn’t have to wonder if you are influencing his mind? You don’t have to look anymore, I’m right here.”

“No.” I replied and he stopped moving for a moment.

“No?” he came in front of me, but the tentacle continued moving between my cheeks, somehow becoming slicker. “Why are you lying to yourself Jacob? We both know that you crave this.” He cupped my balls and then moved his hand up to stroke my fully hardened cock. I gasped in surprise at how good his hand felt, with all the small tentacles stimulating me at the same time and he chose that time to enter me.

I didn’t resist him, I was too lost in sensations I hadn’t felt in far too long.

“See, you should stop denying yourself. It was noble of you, but you want this.”

“I don’t care what my body wants,” I managed to say between gasps of pleasure, “I’ve seen what you want to do to my world and I won’t help you with that.”

He looked at me for a moment with a tender smile. “You didn’t see what I want,” he said caressing my cheek with his free hand, “You saw the delusions of a mad man who wanted to use me to achieve his revenge.” His hand stroking me, like the tentacle inside me, was becoming slick and the sensation was so intense that I had trouble thinking clearly. “All I want is to be fulfilled, just like you, and I know that together we could achieve that. Can you imagine it? Never being alone again, being able to find pleasure with each other whenever we want. All you have to do is say yes and I will be with you forever more.”

I wasn’t able to answer since the orgasm hit me. I buried my face against his shoulder and bit in it to avoid crying out. I would have loved it if I could have drawn blood and made him feel some pain at that moment as revenge for making me enjoy this so much, but the tentacles were too tough to break.

He held me tightly while I shuddered from the pleasure.

“There,” he whispered, “This is what I’m offering to you. This sense of satisfaction, of fullness, if you accept me I will always be with you, you will never have to let that emptiness go unanswered.”

I couldn’t believe how good it felt to have him hold me, to feel his skin against mine as I came down from my orgasm. I didn’t remember sex ever feeling this good before. I would have told him ‘Yes’ at that moment if I’d been able to get my mouth to work, but my mind was still on the fritz from the pleasure.

After a moment the pleasure abated and I was able to think again. I had no trouble imagining being with him for always, having him fill me with pleasure over and over. I wanted it badly.

I lifted my head and looked him in the blackness that were his eyes just in time to see the shock in them and hear him gasp as something pulled him away from me.

“Say yes Jacob,” he said his hold on me the only thing preventing him from flying backward. “Say yes, and we will be together for all eternity feeding pleasure to each other.” There was no urgency in his voice, but his grasp grew tighter by the moment, getting painful.

Maybe it was the pain, or the fact that the pleasure had passed, but I was able to think straight for the first time since he’d touched me. I could see him for what he was, not a man who wanted to be with me, but a creature that wanted to use me.

It didn’t make what I had to say any easier.

“No.”

He, it, didn’t seem surprised by my response. “This isn’t over Jacob,” it said calmly, “There will come a time when you will call to me. I will be waiting.” He let go of me and flew back until he disappeared in the darkness.

The light above me vanished a moment later and I started falling.

* * * * *

The shock of hitting something liquid forced me to open my eyes and the light blinded me for a moment. I looked down at the blood covering me and tried to understand where it came from.

“Jake!” Jen yelled and I looked up at her and Chris running toward me.

I looked at the hazy sky and the devastation surrounding me. I was back in the wasteland.

“Thank the powers you’re ok,” Chris said as they reached me.

“What happened?” I asked standing, trying to work out how I had come back from that dark place.

“Don’t you know?” he asked.

I shook my head not wanting to tell him about what I had just been through, and glad for the blood that covered the wetness I could feel in my pants.

“Well, the tentacles grabbed you and pulled you inside the mass of them for a few minutes before they disappeared back in the blood and you fell down.”

“A few minutes? That’s it?”

Chris nodded.

How was that possible? He had spent much longer than that pleasuring me.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Jen asked offering me her hand.

“Just a bit dazed,” I replied taking it and she pulled me up. “Where did the tentacles go?”

“They just vanished,” Chris answered.

“How?”

“My guess is that you prevented him from finishing the ceremony so they couldn’t stay. Once the spell ran out they were forced back to where ever they came. It’s a good thing you were able to holdout until that happened. Things like that are rarely pretty once they get their hands on a host.”

“Yeah, it’s a good thing I did,” I replied as we left. I wished I felt the confidence I put in my voice, but all I could do was remember how good it felt to have him move inside me, and that he said he’d be waiting for me to call him.

There had been no doubt in his voice.

That scared me more than anything.

The End?

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