Fallen Angel

 The palace laid in ruin, hidden within the sands of the desert. Great statues, once invading the landscape, now sat toppled and forgotten. At a glance, I could that once there had been fountains of wine, the smells of sex, and the sounds of laughter spilling from the alabaster halls. Now nothing remained but dust.

Wind whipped about the land, coating the marble floors in inches of sand. I stepped inside the ancient building, watching the golden granules fly in from the collapsed ceiling. Serpents coiled themselves against the walls, entangled together. Their eyes watched me, yet none raised their heads.

A corridor howled with the wind as I stopped to look down it. Once it had lead to lush gardens, where a great pool had waited. There had been trees and fruit and dancing. The instruments and plants had all turned to dust, leaving a  few rock remnants behind ooff where the garden wall had been.

I stared in quiet wonder that such a place had been forgotten, left to rot in the burning sun. Mosaics covered the walls, now nothing but beige tiles, their paint long gone. Mirrors lined the walls of halls designed for dancing and other debauchery. Nothing remained, not even whispers of the love or suffering endured here.

Yet the earth trembled beneath me, shaking sand from the walls and pillars. I turned in the great room, watching the dust shimmer in the cracks of sunlight. The vibrations carried up my legs as something beneath the stone shuddered and struggled. 

I knelt, touching the sand-covered stone beneath me, feeling the trembling. My eyes cast around the room, seeking a way downward. Several hallways were open, yet one path was dark, with no hint of lingering sun.

As I rose, the earth quaked. A gasp escaped my lips as I consciously gazed upwards, wondering if the captor was a real as the captured. 

My fingers touched the wall as I stepped into the narrow pathway that led to a wide staircase, wider than humans needed. The steps were dark. I paused to strike a torch before wandering further down. There were no spiders, nothing that clung to the walls. But as I took each step, the hissing of snakes filled the air as they moved away from my feet.

The snakes grew larger as I descended, moving from thin barred snakes to thick black creatures whose scales shone like crow feathers in the torchlight. Their eyes blinked as I neared an opening into an impossibly large space.

Along the walls of the great room, giant serpents coiled around carved trees, their ruby apples gleaming in the dark. I paused to watch the one nearest, whose body undulated seductively. Despite myself, I stepped forward. The earth trembled around me, forcing me to stop, as the sound of metal grating filled the darkness.

The firelight got swallowed by a whoosh of air that came from the center of the room. Darkness consumed me. I stood, caught unaware of the world around me, my own unnatural eyes trying to find a hint of what was happening.

Strange sounds of wings pushing the air around made me step back. Swallowing back the feeling of fear, I moved forward, towards the noise of chains and wings. A growling groan touched the air and I took another step forward before brilliant light suddenly burst forward. 

The power of it pushed me backward, my hand going up to project my eyes. I caught a glimpse of feathers and skin, of a body writhing in bindings before the light disappeared. Gasping from falling to the stone ground, I crawled forward, patting the sand ahead of me.

Long fangs sunk into my wrist after the briefest hiss. The snake heeld firm as I cried out, holding perfectly still as burning pain ran up my arm. “Fuck,” I growled and grabbed the head of the snake, forcing the jaw wider before pulling its teeth out of me. Its thick, powerful body thrashed in my grip and I tossed it away from me, hearing the cacophony of hissing as it landed amongst its kin.

“Shit,” I groaned and knelt, holding the wound as I regretted how far I was from any healer or salve. The stink of astringent oil filled the air as I pulled the small vial from my pocket and smeared the oil over my hand. A new burning filled my veins and I gave a painful grunt. It spread up my arm steadily, throbbing, the salve seeming to slow it down but do nothing more. 

My lips pursed in pain as I pulled a rag from the pocket and poorly wrapped the wound in the dark. A snake brushed against my foot, sliding over my skin slowly. Every muscle in my body froze as I waited for it to slink away. Long moments passed before I finally shifted, sliding away from it. 

Come closer…

The powerful voice crawled over my skin and nestled into my mind. I stared ahead where the light had come from, only to gasp as the dazzling illumination erupted again. His face was perfect and divine, as though beauty had been carved and breathed life into. Great chains hung over his sculpted body, binding him down against the floor. 

My wounded hand rose to shield my eyes again, the light emanating from his own eyes too powerful to contend with. It pushed back against me, making me slide backward in the sand inch by inch. His head turned towards me, a deep groan of suffering escaping him.

Without thinking, I moved forward, running through the serpents that coiled across the floor to the edge of the pit where the angel rested. “I’m sorry,” I said without thinking. The guilt of making him wait centuries for freedom settled in my bones as I stared down at his glory, the light blinking out again as his eyes slid closed. 

My fingers fumbled in the dark, left hand numb from the venom. The chain was bitterly cold, stinging the skin as I felt along it to the base of it. The latch was large, easy to remove if one could reach it. Its own torment for anyone trapped within it, an easy escape just out of reach. 

I grimaced and unlatched it, letting the chain fall loose to the ground. It thudded and slid down into the basin with the angel. The chains rattled as he pressed up against his bondage, eyes filling the world with light again. Along his body snakes laid, coiling against and around him,  embracing the angel as a lover would. 

My bleeding hand became slick as I unlatched the next one, and then another, freeing the angel’s legs and thighs. Then his hands were freed and he cried out, a scream of malevolence filled the great burial chamber around us.

“Please,” he finally said, with just his arms and throat remaining in bondage. “Please, child, release me.”

His voice was haunting and booming, a voice that had once commanded the attention of a god. It made me pause, to look at his perfection and wonder what kind of creature could bind such a creation in darkness. My fingers released his wrists and arms, then finally, came to the collar.

A snake coiled up my arm as I pulled the final hook free and the angel collapsed, eyes closing and leaving us all in the dark. I heard the hiss as the snake slid against my shoulder and teased my ear. Kneeling in the dark, I felt suddenly alone, save the cold serpents that began to climb up my body.

Light shuddered to life on every wall of the prison, flambeaus breaking out in flames suddenly, snapping and cracking from eons of dust. The snakes fled, seeking small dark spaces in the suddenly alive trees that were stone but moments ago. 

I turned my head to look at the newly awoken underground forest and then slowly looked down to the pit where the angel had been. It glistened with water, small plants and flowers blossoming to life on its edge. The azure water shimmered, invitingly. 

“Azazel?” I finally asked the air, looking around me as the last snake slipped off of my body. Pain seared my shoulder and I gasped before pushing myself up to standing. Soft music played from nowhere, the smell of food wafted from above, and warmth started to seep into my skin nothing like the heat of the desert.

“Thank you,” his booming voice tried to whisper to my back. Before I could turn, his arm held an apple before me. The strong, large hand was beautiful, unmarred by the ages. I caressed the thumb, fingers feeling the snakeskin texture that was nearly hidden to human eyes. “I am grateful to you,” he whispered against my ear, expansive chest supporting my back. “What may I give you in gratitude, child?”

I let my hand slide up to the apple. He released it as I turned, biting the fruit as I looked up into his chiseled face. We watched each other, the inhuman being whose eyes were afire gazing at me as I tasted the forbidden fruit. 

His brows knit together before he took my hand, blood staining his perfect hands. “I see my kin have wounded you.”

“Fair price,” I replied. “I should go. I’ll need a healer and my work here is--”

“I could heal you, child.”

I glanced at his face and at the wings that hung behind him. As with his glamorized human skin, the feathers disappeared into something batlike and sinister. “Can you?” I asked, a hint of disbelief in my tone.

He smirked and brushed my cheek. “In so many ways. Will you let me show you?”

I bit my bottom lip then nodded. 

He grinned, the hint of vampiric teeth glinting in the low light. Plush lips kissed my wound, tongue tasting the blood. Heat filled me, bringing a flush to my cheeks as I watched his lips on my skin. The pain in my shoulder slowly ebbed away until longing lived in its place.  I sucked in a breath, trying to pull myself back from the brink of yearning.

Fingers closed on my shoulders and turned me so that I face a grand mirror beautifully built into the wall, showing my dusty and overly dressed form against the perfection f the angel. From a table that had not been there before, he retrieved a small ornamental dagger. It slid along my hand, down my wrist, to the edge of my sleeve. 

A tiny gasp escaped my lips as he slid the dagger along my jaw, then down my throat to where the collar rested. No words escaped him as he took hold of the fabric and slipped the knife inside before sliding its blade through the fabric like butter. I felt my body tense and my thighs moisten as the shirt fell from my skin, disappearing into the sand around us. 

The blade slipped over my chest, drawing a long red line down my skin to my navel. His eyes ate my nakedness, devouring me as I stood still for his teachings. The dagger’s tip pressed below the hem of the pants and pulled outward, instantly cutting it. He knelt, pulling the blade down to my ankle, before letting the tip slide over my bare skin to my middle, brushing over the skin just enough to cause me to jump and gasp before sliding into the other leg of the pants and pulling it down.

Fabric spilled off of me as water and was gone forever. The angel knelt before me, eyes watching my skin as I shivered where the knife played, leaving small cuts on the way back up to my center. 

The flat side was pressed against the folds of skin, causing a moan to slip out of me before he stood, tongue tasting the blade. His eyes studied mine, judgemental silence and lust stirring between us. 

His hands pulled rich fabric from the air, the dagger returning to its table without being seen. The transparent ruby cloth was pulled around my naked body, hiding it and yet revealing it. Gold pins were clipped here and there, draping the fabric in revealing waves so that when he turned me, my back was nearly naked.

Gold chain was placed around my throat and let to move down my back and around my hips where it dangled in front with pearls and rubies. Gently he pulled the fabric aside and cupped my breasts before his fingers pinched one and slid long gold adornment into the skin.

I cried out, aroused and in pain, as his mouth closed around the new piercing. Lust consumed the pain and the pain slipped away. That knowing smirk returned to his face as he let my nipple fall from his mouth, a new ruby gem dangling from the piercing that matched the fabric perfectly.

Despite myself, I winced as he pinched the other nipple. Another cry slipped out as the needle pushed inside, sharp tip moving through flesh. I gasped and put my hands to his shoulders as he took it deep in his mouth, healing with each lick. Slowly he pulled back, then stepped away, admiring the gems that danced from each of my breasts. 

My eyes glanced at the mirror, moving one hand to touch the nipples and their new adornments. They were sensitive and I moaned at my own touch. He smiled, connecting two long gold chains to the collar and connecting each to the rings at my breasts. With a slight tug on each chain, he pulled an audible gasp from me and deepened my need. 

The long red fabric was returned, the gold jewelry glinting below it. His strong hand took hold of my head, tilting me upwards to look at him, fingers pulling my hair until my neck was bent as he wanted. The wicked smile returned as he took a thin ornamental brush and painted the skin around my eyes, lining it in beautiful black. 

Red paint was smeared on my lips, expertly applied. He smiled, then released me. I lowered my gaze, looking back to the mirror. Fingers pulled at the braid that I kept my hair in, letting the long waves fall loose around my shoulders. His fingers rested on my shoulder as he looked at our image in the mirror. 

My eyes wandered over us, his angelic perfection against my seductive beauty. Gold dangled from my ears, my neck, and my nipples, shimmering in the low light. His hands slid down my shoulders to my breasts, feeling them through the fabric for drifting lower. One hand closed over my mound, grabbing hard and sending electricity through me. 

“Beautiful,” he whispered. Fingers touched two dots of scented oil to the base of my hair before he stepped back. “Dance for me, child. Show me your lust.”

I smirked this time and began to sway my hips to the music that came from nowhere. I watched myself dancing for him in the mirror, bending over and standing to show off every bit of chin and gold, to tease my body before him. His eyes followed my every move, lust glinting from them with hunger.

My body pressed against him, writhing and grinding before slipping away. I ran my hands over his chest and thighs, feeling his hands wrap around my hips as he pressed against my abdomen with his need. 

“Turn around,” he commanded. I took my time, moving slow and sensually until I could see myself before him again, his wicked eyes boring into me. A powerful hand slid up my back, snaking its way to my hair until he wrapped his hand in it and pushed my head down, bending me over. 

He moved, one sudden thrust that pushed deep inside of me, burning pleasure tearing me apart. Powerful thrusts met my hips, each both painful and filled with hunger. I cried out, shuddering with each time he thundered into me. 

The hand pulled up, wrenching my neck so that he pulled me back against him. “Watch,” he commanded, keeping my head tilted and body against him so that I could see the angel push inside of me. The look of ecstasy on his face made me shudder and the hunger in his eyes filled me with need.

“Touch yourself.”

My hands slid over my shoulders to my breasts, pinching the sensitive nipples, as I watched him watching me, his length pounding into me steadily. “Harder,” he snarled. I pinched the skin harder, crying out at my own cruelty before I slid down to touch the new piercings. “Pull them.” Another cry slipped past my lips as I tugged, sending jolts of pleasure through my body.

His other powerful hand grabbed my hip, letting him slam further into me, generating a sound of delight with each stroke. My hand slipped from my breast and slid further down my body,  retracing the path of his dagger until I slipped fingers against the wet skin. 

“Rub yourself,” he moaned against my neck. “Release yourself.” 

I let my fingers swirl in slow circles, heightening my cries of pleasure to higher whimpers. My hips pushed back against him and bucked on my fingers as I sped up, going faster and harder to match his hips thrusting into me. 

A scream ripped out of me as I  felt my body shudder and jerk with the release. My breath panted as he sped up, pounding into me with ungodly speed and power until I whimpered and cried out, pulling a second release from me so soon. Heat flooded my opening as he filled me. Yet his thrusts never paused, slamming his hips into me again and again.

“Stop, please, it’s…. Too much.” I whimpered, my body shuddering from its need to rest.

The angel slowed, letting me shiver on his length before slowly pulling out, covered in my wetness. His smile didn’t falter as he took my hand and lead me to the pool of water, once his pit of despair. 

We walked inside and he laid against the gentle slope, dark hair getting wet. I laid against his chest, listening to his lack of heart and the strange music. Moments passed as I gathered my breath. My head lifted, looking at his perfect face.

“Yes, my child?” his beautiful voice caressed my mind.

“I heard you could mate with humans,” I smirked, letting my hand wander down his chest into the water below. 

He smirked and pulled me atop him. “As you wish.”

Aliens

The field was silent, despite it being the middle of summer.  I stood in its center, looking about as though something would reveal itself if I just stared long enough. Yet only darkness and silence greeted me. The moon above glowed her milky light, bathing the world around me in a blueish glow. Nearby the marshy woodland sat, whose crickets and frogs remained quiet in spite of the heat and their ambition.

It was here that the rumors had promised the unusual. Stories had reached further than wanted of the strange lights and haunted fields, whose owners spoke in hushed tones of something lurking, following them home in the dark and peering through windows or open doors. None could tell me what they had seen, just that they had indeed seen something.

As I stood in the fields, hearing nothing but the wind blowing through my hair, I wondered if the stories were true or meant to entice travelers to their sleepy town. One by one the lights in the town winked out, letting its inhabitants slumber. The soft breeze died and left me eerily alone.

The soft light of the moon blinked out, bathing the world in darkness. I looked up but saw nothing within the dark. There was no sky I could behold, no stars to note nor even the light of the moon. Instead, an inky blackness descended, seeming to press closer to me. I stepped back, trying to find the moon.

With my next step, light erupted from the sky, so bright I shielded my eyes. Try as I might, I could see nothing save dozens of shining lights that covered the field around me. Rushing air pushed against my body, hard enough I tried to step back, yet my body was frozen. Unable to move, I stood, captured in time as the brilliant light bore into me.

My eyes burned from the intensity of the lights, tears slipping down my cheeks as I no longer could blink. Weightlessness filled my body and I lifted, levitating off of the ground and moving towards the lights. Then darkness swallowed me, killing any sense of time or space and leaving me drifting. 

A blazing white light greeted me as I opened my eyes, groaning at a sense of floating and yet heaviness. My body seemed suspended, feeling too much and nothing all at once, touching nothing yet solid. Beyond the light, there was darkness, impenetrable and verboten. I squinted, trying to see what lingered beyond the light, only to see a vast nothing.

I couldn’t move. As I tried to turn my head or open my mouth, it became apparent that whatever had me, had me entirely. The cold air wrapped around my skin, sending a chill down my spine. Muffled sounds pressed in my throat, yet they seemed dampened in the air, barely audible. 

From the nothing figures appeared, tall and agile. My vision blurred as I blinked my eyes opened and closed so that I could barely make out their silhouettes. In words I didn’t understand, they spoke, murmuring to one another. Hands with strange growths as figures passed over my body, above it, yet never touched.

Despite the lack of contact, I shivered. My muscles contracted as I tried to sit up, to move away from the invaders, yet I didn’t move. Another cry stuck in my throat as one neared my head, great eyes watching me as tears rolled down the side of my head. Gently, a finger touched my bare shoulder, which was the moment I realized I was naked before them.

Whispers filtered through my mind at their touch, ramblings in languages I didn’t understand. Finally, a word was spoken, a simple greeting, and I startled at the recognition.

Be still, they said. You are safe.

I tried to look towards them but couldn’t turn my head. I closed my eyes, the only part of me that could move, and focused my breathing so I could speak… or think my words.

Where am I?

Safe.

I wasn’t unsafe before.

You were. 

How?

There was a pause as the being stood there, half cloaked in shadows. They conferred with their companions, the strange language mumbled between them. When silence once more lingered, they turned their head back towards me,

They lurk. Finding blood.

What does?

Humans.

I would’ve sighed if I could’ve. The feeling of human cruelty, of ploys to lure victims, flew through my mind. It would not have been the first human cult I had found, dedicated to some perversion of an ancient creature.

Yes.

I inhaled, having forgotten the being.

Now what?

They paused again. Their hand came to rest on my shoulder, cool as the air and strangely soft. A calmness floated through me.

We wish to experiment with you. To see reactions to our instruments. 

Will it hurt?

There was a moment where I felt them consider. Perhaps.

After?

You will be safe. And away.

I inhaled again and then nodded. My head did not move but the being moved their hand from my shoulder and murmured to their companions. The light seemed to brighten, prickling my skin with soft warmth to keep the chill from sinking into my bones.

A single cold instrument was touched to my stomach, sending a shock through my skin. My body jumped of its own accord, twitching yet barely moving. My lips parted, letting a soft whimper roll out of my throat. The metal retreated, then touched hire, making not a sound as it sent another jolt through my body at the bottom of my rib cage.

I gasped and shuddered as the rod moved higher, touching the skin below my right breast. I cried out instead of whimpering, a sense of pain and delight building in my body. It lifted off of my skin and tapped the side of my breast. 

A cry escaped my lips. I panted, gasping for the breath the shocks took from it. A soundless shock went through my body as the instrument touched my nipple,  sending a wave of pleasure and pain at once. My back arched, moving me slightly despite their strange way of holding my body still.

Murmurs moved between them, almost excited sounding. I took in a deep breath, my body tensing despite nothing happening as I prepare for the next touch. A long-fingered hand closed around the breast instead, feeling it curiously. When their strange fingers pinched my nipple, I whimpered, the skin painfully sensitive. 

Another set of murmurs before the hand moved away and the instrument touched flesh once more, this time with more power. I shuddered and sagged in the air. The light holding me lowered, letting the cool air creep over my skin as a soft cry left my lips and giving me the freedom to move slightly.  

I turned my head, looking at the creatures as they examined each of my responses. The electrifying metal was bound to the ceiling where a complex series of tools lived. I glanced back to the being by my head, whose eyes watched my body intently, their hand touching the invisible air to guide the machine.

They turned to look at my face as the metal touched my opposite nipple. Teeth bit into my bottom lip before I cried out, succumbing to the pain and sensation as my muscles contracted rapidly, making me twitch beneath the stimulation. 

A ragged breath was released to the air as the beings spoke to one another. With strange ease, a cold metal parted my legs, exposing my depths to them. I whimpered, making a soft noise of worry before I cried out as electricity touched my inner thigh. My back arched, hips nearly pulling my legs up at the sensation.

Another touch to the opposite thigh and I was panting again. The third touch invaded the soft folds to land on the tiny bud of flesh. A cry and shuddering whimpers filled the air as I twitched beneath their administrations, waves of pain and excitement pulsing and throbbing through my body.

Something cold slid inside of me, opening me up for the beings to examine. Fingers pushed inside, reaching the back of me. They were long and thin, achieving depths a human couldn’t. I shuddered and moaned as the fingers curled upwards, pushing against the roof of my tunnel.

As the fingers retreated, something bigger followed. It was hard and metal, freezing cold within me. It pushed deep, then rested as though waiting. I tried lifting my head to see, but the room had grown darker, swallowing the beings around me. 

Within me, it expanded, then pulsed. A shock wave went through my pelvis and I cried out, twitching and gasping as the pulsing continued. Whimpering, I tried to move, only to be unable to as the metal instrument began to pull out then slam deeper in, sending a new wave of pleasure within.

With each thrust it pulsed, sending me trembling yet wanting more. I moaned loudly, wetness making the metal slick as it slid in and out of me, its speed increasing with each passing moment. 

The light grew brighter, holding me perfectly still, my moans bound in my throat. I  couldn’t writhe or move, nothing but feel the machine push inside me, expanding and pulsing as my body tensed and a mounting pressure built within me.

A scream caught in my throat as the metal rod touched my nipple, sending a new jolt through me that pushed me over the edge. I didn’t move or make a sound as I erupted inwards, wave after wave of release washing over me while the machine kept working. Each of its strokes heightened the head rush, leaving me spiraling inside my own body, trapped by the pleasure it continued to deliver.

I could see nothing but the blazing light above me as I tried to scream, to beg them to stop. A vibrating cold metal rod touched my stomach and slowly pulled downward until it landed neatly on my sensitive flesh. Tears slid down my cheeks as my muscles spasmed, muffled screams barely audible as another release washed through me.

Finally, my mouth opened to cry out and I heard my wanton scream fill the air as the light extinguished and the cool dark enclosed me. Damp grass pressed against my back as I blinked, clearing my eyes from the residual light image. Crickets sang nearby as I turned my head, seeing the field around me, where horses looked at me in alarm.

Above me, the darkness that blotted out the moon rose into the starry sky and vanished. I laid there, body throbbing, fully clothed, suddenly alone.

 

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The Dunwich Horror

 

Screams of agony and fear echoed in the cool night air as people from the small gathering of homes fled, scattering down the old forgotten road towards the salvation of another town. They left their lives behind them, dinners unfinished and cattle abandoned. Nightime settled in, claiming the houses as its own and blanketing them in darkness. 

Despite the fleeing people, I found myself inexplicably drawn to whatever lurked in the sleepy land. A great altar sat on a hill, ancient words long forgotten inscribed upon it. I stood beside it, fingers touching its sacred surface, watching the community flee. Something haunted them, filling their dreams with terror until the tension was palpable in the air, driving them out as rats on a sinking ship.

Its smooth surface held stains of years of sacrifices. The air smelled of blood and sex. A place of ritual sacrifice and lust, where the human and the inhuman met. Sometimes in offered death, other times in wanton abandon. Fireflies alighted, swarming in the air, blinking around me. Yet none dared to touch the altar.

I turned, glancing about the homes, seeking the darkness within. Lights flickered in all of them, abandoned without a thought. The cattle and sheep pushed against the fences. I walked between them, unhooking the latches. They fled, silent, into the night. Anything to get away from the collection of houses where chaos had made its home.

Only one home held what I sought, deep within its creaking bowels. In the field, nothing stirred, despite the barn promising cattle. Not an animal could be found. Yet a trail of blood stained the earth, drag marks showing where the poor creatures had been killed and brought to the ominous house. 

It teetereed, additions reenering it unstable andd daangeruos. As I approached it, it became apparent the house had been transformed into a barn of sorts, housing something within. There was no longer a pathway to the house, for it had overgrown in months of neglect. The smell of decay and rot filtered out from it.

I covered my mouth with a cloth, grimacing at the rank smell before stepping forward. The black door was half-open, too heavy to sway in the faint breeze that touched Dunwich. Silence met me as I stepped inside, fingers pushing the door open, my lips grimacing at the loud creaking sound that emanated from the door’s whining hinges. 

It was an old home, cluttered and filled to the brim with things unimagined. Small tables and roughly assembled bookshelves lined every wall, their surfaces covered in the esoteric and the macabre. Skulls, bones, feathers, and beaks mingled with strange sculptures, low relief sculpts, and old books. 

The well-worn pathway within the home took me from the first room, where once I assumed people had dined and shared their day, to the next. This wide, vast room had one door that was barricaded with multiple metal and wooden bars. Against one wall was a vast aged table, upon which sat a great book, open. In a corner a nest had been made of cloth, some of it was blankets, other old shirts, and clothes. Decaying bones with some flesh still upon them sat beside the nest, maggots crawling upon their rotten meat. 

A door led to the outside, towards the cow field where nothing but hints of blood remained. I glanced out the window, imagining the person who stared out, counting how many cows remained. Hunger was always the downfall of those who sought to protect their loved ones. 

Small mountains of ancient books were piled in the corner, some going up to my chest. I skimmed the spines, noting the esoteric languages they were written in. Spells and divinations from another time, of sorcerers no longer alive. Books that promised the great unknown and infinite knowledge.

The great book on the open table rested, begging to be read. Slowly I approached, keeping my eyes softly unfocused to avoid reading the text. My fingers caressed the page and wandered to the spine, noting the ripped page edge where once another page had been. Brows furrowed, I grimaced and focused my eyes, casting them over the two pages on either side of its missing companion.

Words swarmed my mind, echoing about in tongues I didn’t speak. Visions of a sacred rite, upon a woodland altar, filled my head, overwhelming my sight. The smell of blood and flesh hung in my senses, mixed with the unearthly smell of another estranged place, strange and wet. I shuddered and stumbled backward, falling to my knees.

Darkness crept into my sight, swallowing what I could see and leaving only the visions of the great opening, a void into which one could dive. A gateway, a promise of another place, expanded in my mind’s eye and threatened to pull me in. It beckoned with hushed words whispering promises I understood but couldn’t comprehend.

My body shuddered and fell, although into what I could not say. In the unending chaos, I floated, caught in the coils of time and space. Great eyes beheld me, sinking profound meaning into my mind, expanding my thoughts until they shattered on the precipice of realization. I became aware that I was screaming, my cries echoing in the darkness around me. 

The whispering words didn’t stop, even as my vision cleared and the darkness that had threatened to swallow me receded. My body laid on the floor, fingers clenched, my lip bloody from biting it. I swallowed the taste of blood and blinked back the rest of the darkness, shivering in the cold emptiness of the world.

I turned my head, letting the whispered words pull me away from the brink into the reality around me. My fingers touched the bars over the door, delicately feeling the wood and metal as my body felt more real than it ever had before. I pressed my ear to the door, eyes widening as the whispers intensified.

Whatever was inside wanted to be released. 

I shifted, pulling the metal bars off and dropping them to the ground, each clanging loudly. The wooden beams followed, a furious intensity settling in my bones as I worked. Finally, I pulled the great old chain from around the door handle that linked it to the wall, freeing the door entirely.

It expanded outward, the wood creaking from the pressure. I watched, eyes wide and fearful, yet reaching for the straining wood as though what I was seeing wasn’t possible. My fingers touched it, felt the growth before it suddenly disappeared, leaving the door in its original shape. 

Cold fingers gripped the door handle before I pulled. The door opened with strange ease to a massive room, ass though a barn had been attached to a normal home. I coughed the smell of death and rot overwhelming me briefly as I stared at a hollow room. Nothing inside saved the half-eaten corpses of dozen of cattle and the odd sheep. 

I stood in the house, listening to the breathing of something I couldn’t see. Around me, the walls shuddered and creaked, bulging in areas where nothing touched it. Slowly I turned, looking around me as though something would manifest in the dark, only to see the rafters high above me and nothing else.

Despite the rampant death, no flies buzzed. Nothing lived in this hollow room save whatever breathed. Each breath was raspy and grumbling, betraying its massive size to my ears. My heart thud as the whispering voice grew closer and closer until the heat of its rotten breath brushed my neck while it spoke into my ear.

Nothing it spoke was understandable and yet my mind clawed at the words, trying desperately to understand what the thing spoke. I held perfectly still, listening to its creeping chaos that swirled inside me, planting seeds of corruption with each syllable. A moan escaped my lips as I stumbled, my vision swimming once more with the great gate that needed to be open and the crawling beldam.

A thick, strong invisible cord wrapped about me, closing around my stomach as I swayed. It lifted, pulling me upwards easily and off the ground. My fingers grabbed the flesh, feeling slime and slickness beneath yet nothing could be seen. I searched the darkness, patting around to try to feel whatever had me.

The words grew stronger and louder as it chanted. With a great step, it pushed against the side of its home, snarling at the wood that stopped it. I cried out, shielding my eyes from the splinters as the wood cracked and shattered, opening the night to the creature’s girth. 

In the moonlight it stumbled outward, thundering on the ground with each step. The fences below buckled and surrendered as its body tangled with them. Invisible hands plucked up the fence remains and pulled them apart. I slid my hand down the thing that held me, tentacle or appendage I wasn’t clear. Each stroke was soft and gentle, doing my best to draw its attention from the world below.

Its movement paused. Even the constant gibbering ended. I could feel but not see its eyes on me, watching my movements as I pet the part of it that had me held. A soft gurgling noise escaped it, a near cooing sound that rumbled in its mighty throat. Something wet and muscular slid across my arm, up my shoulder, to my face.

Despite the chill it sent through my body, I moaned in response. My fingers move to the wet thickness and stroked, guiding up and down the muscular appendage. Another gurgling sound of excitement filled the night air as its wet extremity caressed my face and throat, sliding downwards to pull at the shirt I wore.

It moved forward, new and excited words pouring from its unseen mouth. A third protuberance caressed my thigh, leaving a wet trail behind it of invisible slime. It slid upwards, pulling at the fabric I wore before bunching it together, closing around it, and pulling. The cloth ripped off with ease and drifted to the earth below me as we crossed the property towards the hilltop where the altar awaited.

Trees bent and cracked before the creature that held me, fences broke, and houses shuddered as it lumbered its way through the wood and field towards the hill. Its gurgling murmurings whispered in my mind, pulling me between the world where its arms and tentacles held me, slowly ripping the fabric off of my body, to a world where an ancient creature watched, eyes boring into me, filling my mind with knowledge it could not contain.

I felt the stone beneath my naked body and opened my eyes though they were already open. Nothing was near me. For a moment I lay there, shocked and stunned as the fireflies moved around the altar, landing on my body but never daring to touch the stone. The whispering had stopped for the briefest of moments, leaving me alone in the peaceful night.

My mouth opened in silent wonder, questioning my reality, mind suddenly racing to recall how I had appeared on the stone altar. A slimy appendage slid across my lips, tiny finger-like projections playing across my flesh. The head pressed against my partially open mouth and I opened to it, letting it slide inside and climb deeper. 

A strange moan escaped my body as the creature furrowed further, filling my throat. A hand gripped one of my arms, long-nailed elongated fingers holding the wrist before dragging my arm upwards over my head. It gathered my other arm and held both in one massive hand, nails digging into my soft flesh.

The words began again, filling the air around me and swarming my mind. Within me, the appendage squirmed, sliding in my belly in strange ways that made me shudder. Great, thick tendrils curled around my ankles and thighs, covering my legs in the same invisible slime while holding me down securely.

Each word began to become rhythmic, patterned like drum beats that hit crescendoing notes. Strange ethereal darkness began to fill the sky above me, swallowing the stars one by one until nothing but the vastness of deep space swarmed the sky. The great eyes didn’t appear but I felt them peering at the scene below, of my body shuddering, taking in the ritual happening.

The thick wet entity I vaguely knew slid between my thighs and up my body, lapping at my stomach and between my breasts before it lathered my face in its secretion. My body arched up, meeting its touch, another moan slipping past the thing that invaded my throat and body. It gurgled in response, its wet length slowly moving across my face, then back down to my throat.

Hands wandered my body with it, caressing roughly, as a well-meaning child would maul a pet. With each hand thin tendrils and tentacles traveled, roaming my body in both worship and ritualistic wonder. The slime was lapped over my breasts and stomach, to the softness between my thighs, where the thick muscle explored, tasting every part of my body.

Haunted words became whispers once more as the invisible creature spoke near my ear, their gibbering nonsense beginning to becoming clearer. A spell wove in the air, whispered from the lips of the invisible sorcerer creature that ensnared me. I whimpered, feeling the words begin to become true and whole. 

My eyes opened, briefly glimpsing the truth before me. It loomed, gigantic, with dozens of limbs and tentacles, swarming over every inch of my body, one of its long limbs deep in my throat and body. Its wide body leaned so that a grotesque head waited by my face, whispering into my ears. Its eyes looked into mine, fracturing the foundation of reality within.

I screamed although no sound escaped, muffled by the creature within me. Its eyes had been the eyes I saw in the darkness, in the chaos of life and death, in the deep truth of bedlam with the heart of another world. The creature within and around me was the progeny, a child of human and elder creature, a divine creation seeking its family.

Its voice of discord whispered again and I opened my eyes to the ancient thing that swarmed above us, its unbidden voice joining the cacophony. The creature climbed over me, covering me in its ooze and secretion, as something otherworldly pressed against my opening. The words swirled in my mind, forming the question, the ask. 

I looked back into the eyes of the creature and moaned as its claws pinched my nipples, pulling, drawing just enough blood for the ritual to begin. Profound understanding hit my mind and the thing in my throat slid outward, leaving behind the taste of elder magic and discord. Slimy tentacles encased me, writhing over my flesh and along each side of my face as it whispered the words I needed to say.

My lips parted, speaking the ancient edicts to the swirling mass of tentacles and eyes above us, letting it rip through into our world by the crack I had whispered into existence. The elder-spawn slid forward, sliding inside of me, entering my most sacred of spaces, and filled me. I cried out and then whimpered as it pushed deeper, expanding inside of me as more tendrils filled me, exploring each crevice within. 

Pain and pleasure seared through my body as the creature moved even deeper, opening me further and slipping within my womb. My stomach protruded, small movements showing each tendril and its wiggling motion. Sensation overwhelmed me, my body throbbing with each word the elder god whispered and its progeny echoed. We moved as one, combining in words and spells and magic I didn’t understand.

Somewhere else I heard screaming, a man’s voice yelling and commanding, and the shrieks of someone whose eyes bore witness and could not endure. Yet the creature didn’t flinch, instead, its pulsing grew faster, throbbing inside of me before the tentacles above reached us, caressing us both with the power of its knowledge.

Time bent around us, warping the world as my lover expanded me, body and mind, making space for its desired seed within. The world shuddered, collapsing in on itself as I watched trees disappear, reappear, and bend. Swirling darkness encircled us and flew down my throat, filling me with its ancient caress that tore through my mind and filled me with an unending ecstasy.

The creature’s whispered spell became screams of passion, words tumbling out of its strange lips before it released its rage and fear to the sky as the way to its origin welcomed it. Within me, it erupted, spilling eldritch seed within my womb, filling me with the future. It slowly oozed out of me as the creature slid away, leaning into the caress of its father as it disappeared into the swirling chaos above.

A bright light of discord flashed, forcing my eyes to close as I lay on the altar, panting. A crack of thunder sounded, the sound of reality breaking, ending the ritual and silencing everyone, and leaving the known world in perpetual darkness.

I blinked, seeing the sky above me, blue and easy. Birds sang and on my belly, a caterpillar crawled. Slowly I sat up, clothing over my body, doubt swirling in my mind. On the hill several men stood, their eyes wide and unbelieving before one broke into a laugh, delirious and victorious.

With a sigh, I realized he thought he had won. The brave human who had dared face the great unknown. A small smirk touched my lips as I caressed my abdomen, the promise of life within. I stood, giving the altar one last caress of longing before I stepped away, walking towards the road to home.

Jötunn

I stood at the line between the wild and the town. Winter surrounded me, dusting the trees with white capes and leaving the houses buried in the cold. The wind whispered through the woods, speaking through coniferous needles in words I didn’t understand. 

Behind me, the villagers watched, waiting for the woods to eat me alive. The tales they told of the thing within promised power I had never seen before. And although spring blossomed in the land, here the deep oof winter remained, pulling at the edges of reality to reshape the season. I had seen creatures thrive in natural and unnatural environments. Yet I had never seen a creature reshape their environment to suit them. 

My fingers trailed over the needles of a tree, causing snow to fall. Everything was silent save the wind. It brushed my face, burning in cold intensity, before playing in the trees, causing snowflakes to dance in the air and piles of snow to fall into the drifts below. 

There were no bird prints in the snow, nor wolf or deer. The snow was undisturbed, until I stepped within it, breaking its surface and the silence with the sound of crunching. It went up to my thigh, deep and unforgiving as I began the trek forward in the darkened woods, made bright by sunlight on the glistening snow.

Symbols I didn’t understand were carved into the thick trees, old and scarred. Nothing was fresh, except the winter air that followed me every step I took. There were no pathways or even markers that weren’t the symbols. 

I reached out, caressing one, tracing a thumb over the tree’s rough bark. The wind caressed my face again, sending a chill down my spine. It lingered, plying with loose strands of hair tucked beneath a hood, as though fingers were running through my hair. I stood still, looking at the air where the wind was but wouldn’t be seen, brows furrowed.

Darkness began to creep into the trees as the sun dipped into the horizon. The village was miles away and not a sound could be heard. Not a creature had wandered near me in the day’s walk. Cold air haad followed me, blowing harder and stronger as I hit the base of the mountain, only to stop and stare into the mouth of a cave where even colder air waited.

Snow drifted down, slowly falling around me, coating my cloak in dampness. As I stepped from the edge of the woods, into the clearing before the cave, the wind switched, pelting snow against my face that turned to ice pellets. I put my hand up, trying to shield my eyes as I dared a step forward.

The mountain cracked, as though winter itself disapproved of my presence. Wind swirled around me, absorbing me into an ice storm that moments ago wasn’t there. I shivered and took another step forward. The storm swirled around me, making it impossible to see anything. The cave should have been straight ahead but there was no way to be sure.

Despite the uncertainty, I took another step forward, only to step onto the ice. The snow beneath me had frozen, creating a sheet of ice on its surface. I barely had time to cry out before I slipped and fell to the ground. 

The snow immediately became stronger, burying me in wintry white as I pulled a dagger from my sleeve and plunged it into the ice. My muscles ached as I breathed in the burning air, puling myself forward inch by inch until the cave’s darkness greeted me. Within thinking, I crawled inside and fell into the shadows. 

My eyes opened to the howling wind and the gleam of light bouncing off of ice crystals. I shivered instantly, the coldness in my body becoming the thing I noticed most. A sound of discomfort escaped my lips as I sat up, patting the iced floor around me before kneeling. My gloved hands rubbed together as I looked around.

The cave was beautiful, illuminated by light refracting off of the dozens of ice shapes, each beautiful and deadly. I slowly stood and wandered within, until I turned a corner to see a man, skin ice-blue, standing amidst the beauty. Bright blue eyes watched me as I stood there, wondering if I had hit my head too hard.

His hand rested on the side of the cave, large and powerful, yet blended into the ice there. With a jerk, he pulled his hand off, ice shards falling around the point of contact. I started and then looked at his face. Hee was broad, beautiful, and frightening at once, with features human yet inhuman, contorted and made of the most beautiful ice. His hair was tangles of snow, the beard of braided frost. 

“I’ve been looking for you,” I finally said as he approached me, his body changing with every step, into something half white wolf and half-human, made of the North wind and ice. His eyes glowed in response. It took all my willpower not to step away.

“And what di you find, girl?” He stepped around me, the wind that was his touch instantly familiar from the woods. It trailed over my face, so cold it burned, as he stepped to my side and then wandered into the cave, his torso and beneath of a strange eight-legged giant deer. 

“I… don’t know.” As though summoned, I followed. My mind tried to race with the possibilities of his existence. “Elemental?”

He turned, a wicked grin of knowing on his lips before he paused, a human hand brushing my hair back under my hood. I shivered and gasped. The grin deepened. “Older.”

My eyes searched his as I rubbed my arms, trying to rub the wetness away and spread warmth into my body. 

The creature tilted his head. “Stop fighting me,”  he whispered, shifting to the side and disappearing until he was naught but a cold wind that pushed me against a wall of ice. “This is me. This is my domain. You are too human now, to know better.”

I winced as the wind held me against the wall, eating into my bones with its frozen bite. My skin burned, freezing clothing attaching itself to the skin that began to crystalize. “Then teach me,” I cried out at the wind.

His face was before me in an instant, half-formed of frost and frozen fractals, before his hand grabbed my wrists and pulled them above my head, ice freezing them against the wall. “Are you sure? Your people hide in houses in my domain, lighting fires, killing the land to survive where they do not belong. They try to tame this land. This frozen world. Is that what you are doing?”

There was anger in his voice, a venom that replaced the arrogant playfulness from moments ago. I tried to inhale, to calm my mind, but the wind burned my lungs and I made a small whimper in response. “I’m sure. Teach me. I submit to you. Show me.”

Icey eyes pierced my gaze, trying to find fact in the promise of submission. With a jerk, he broke his hands off at the wrists, pinning my arms above my head with his own hands. Ice shards landed on my cloak and clattered to the ground. 

“This fabric,” he said, newly formed fingers brushing over my thigh and stomach. “It is weak. Human. It barely keeps you warm yet you cling to it. To keep yourself apart from the wind.” One hand grabbed the front of the shirt and the other ripped. It split easily, snow spraying the air wherever it tore. 

Iced hair brushed my naked skin. He slid his fingers against my body, skin reddening with every touch. I gasped, twisting away from him only to touch the ice wall behind me. The wind played over my stomach and around my breasts, swirling around my nipples. A soft sound of delight escaped my lips as he watched, amusement in his eyes.

“You see? The wind can be a blessing if you stop hiding from it.”  

I gasped again when the wind moved up, playing with my hair then over my throat. “But it can be cruel, painful…” His words were soft in my ear before ice shards were pelted against my skin. Bright red patches formed where the hail landed, sending stinging pain through my skin. I shuddered after, whimpering and freezing.

“Do you want to feel more?” 

My eyes opened to look at him, a swirl of snow and ice in wind, no face, yet haunting eyes that watched me. I could feel his amusement more than see it. Slowly, I nodded. “Show me.”

“I will show you all that I am, so you may see. May show your people. May believe and know. You may beg me to stop, and I shall. You may ask for more and you shall receive it.”

I nodded. A hand made of snow touched my stomach, laid flat against my skin, melting against my heat. Water droplets fell onto my thighs, making the fabric darken. Slowly his hand slid lower, cold fingers sneaking below the fabric and sliding into my depths. The burning coldness made me shudder, buck against me as his fingers explored, mixing his water with my wetness.

A moan fell from my lips. “More,” I whispered to the frozen air. His fingers pressed against my sensitive nub of skin, rubbing it slowly, swirling ice around it as I cried out. The creature pulled his hand away, grabbing the fabric that covered my legs and tearing it apart in one move. My bare skin glistened with moisture.

Ice pellets whipped my stomach, then my thighs, over my mound, and then across my breasts, over and over again. I jumped, the stinging pain causing me to cry out. Panting, I paused, taking in a frozen breath before nodding. “More,” I said to the wind.

He complied. Sending another wave of pain over my body, cold and burning all at once. A hand caressed my thigh as I moaned and whimpered while the hail whipped my skin. Another hand manifested on my other leg. They both crawled downward, leaving a trail of icy wetness before settling on my ankles. My legs were pulled apart before the hands fused to the wall.

“How does it feel? To submit to winter? To feel the sting of hail and come to crave it?” 

I lifted my head, seeing nothing but a wet winter storm around me. The snow drifted down, landing softly on my skin,  melting slowly until I glistened with his fluids. “I want more,” I finally said. 

A wolf’s face formed of swirling hail and snow, teeth long sharp icicles. They glistened in the low light as it lifted to lick my neck with a tongue of frost. Burning seared my skin and I gave a soft cry. 

Its lips moved in a chuckle. “Will you be ready for more?”

“I am. Please. Show me.”

The wolf’s head lowered, lapping at my breasts, sharp teeth pinching the skin in its jaw. Tiny pinpricks of blood mixed with the water and leaked over my breast down my stomach. The teeth pinched my nipple, pulling hard, neatly piercing the skin. A scream came from my lips, drowned in the snowstorm within.

Its teeth released, letting the nipple go. I shuddered before he bit down on my other breast, compressing the flesh between his jaws. Pain shot through me, sending my head back as tears streamed down my cheeks of their own accord. The ice burned as much as the pinching did before he pulled his head back and with a tongue of ice lapped at the bite marks, getting bits of blood on the wolf’s muzzle.

The tongue lolled, lapping at each nipple, stinging and taunting, the ice cooling the pain with new burning sensations. My skin numbed gently, so exposed to the cold, that only pleasure began to come from each touch. A louder moan escaped me, then louder as the wolf’s tongue explored lower, pushing its icy muzzle between my thighs.

“More,” I cried out, body shuddering as his tongue licked, teeth nipping playfully, pinching the sensitive nub. My hips bucked, grinding myself into the snow and ice. “More. Please.” I was so close to releasing, moans escaping my body in heightened pitches.

It stopped, leaving my body exposed to the cold as the wind and snow died. I shuddered and cried out, frustration and hunger overtaking my senses. “The winter can be kind, or it can starve you.”

He grinned as his large humanoid body formed again, naked and before me. The ice holding me in place shattered. I slid to the cave floor, tatters of clothing clinging to my skin before I looked up at him. He squatted down to look at my eyes.

“Do you want more?”

I leaned my head back against the ice. “I do. Winter can starve. But it is filled with beauty and hope. It is a time of survival. And coming together for warmth.”

He smirked and grabbed my hair, pulling me up with him. With strange ease he took my wrists and pulled them above my head, attaching me to a long icicle, thick and dangerous, above my head. In an instant, he was gone, and all around me swarmed fierce ice and snowstorm.

It hit my body from every angle, making my skin pink and cold. The wind slammed against my body, burning the skin and awakening it. Cries and moans escaped my lips as the winter beat me, the ice leaving small cuts and bruises with their force. He chuckled, slowing the storm as I caught my breath.

Then returned its force, disorienting me until only the whiteness of snow around me endured and I wondered if I had ever seen him at all. After a small eternity in the storm, it slowed, drifting snowflakes swirly around playfully. Each one that landed on my skin was a soft caress, almost sweet and gentle.

A hand gripped my hip and I opened my eyes, snow in my eyelashes. His eyes looked into mine. “You are a survivor, if stupid.” 

“Thank you?” I said, trying to laugh but whimpering instead.

“Are you ready for one last taste? To become one? To feel winter’s soul?”

I swallowed, then nodded.

The creature grabbed my hips and pulled me towards him, sliding himself against my opening. I gasped, feeling the sting of ice and his length, harder than anything I had felt before. “Are you sure?” he whispered, mouth against my ear.

“Yes,” I whimpered, arching my back to rub myself along him. 

He groaned, then thrust forward. His length slid inside me, frozen and rigid. There was no warmth or pliability, he was hard and unbending. I gasped, moaning in pleasure and discomfort at the frozen hardness within my depths. 

A groan escaped my lips as the freezing slipped out of me, and then in again, pounding hard. Pain meet his strokes, he was so firm that my body ached from his thrust. Yet he moved deeper, stretching my body to meet his shape and needs as I dangled from the ice above. 

The creature began to build a rhythm, his grunts and growls somewhere between the sound of the wild wind and that of a giant man. They melded with my delirious sounds of delight, eaten by the thundering of a winter storm all around us. Ice pelted my body, building in intensity as he slid inside me faster and harder.

Wave after wave of cold pleasure rippled through me until I cried out, tensing around his length. His fingers held my hips tight, one arm holding my leg up as he thrust home and screamed with me, releasing snow and ice within. Water dripped out, sliding down his body to the floor below.

The giant released my arms, holding my bruised body against his chest before lying me on the floor. Warmth greeted my body as the wind swirled against me, covering my flesh with the soft fabric of winter clothing, furs, and thick wools. Soft snow drifted down from the ceiling as I stood.

The wolf plodded near the mouth of the cave, half his body just wind and ice. “Jotunn,” I finally said as I approached. “Frost and snow jotunn.”  

If a wolf could grin, he would have. 

I stood beside him, body trembling from its endurance before I looked at the woods. “I will tell them to leave. That nature cannot be tamed, but that it can be embraced.”