Part 74

He remembered the tree.

Not the giant walking thing, but the one in the courtyard, with the fruit and the fragrance. He remembered being shocked when he saw it; stopping suddenly on his bloody feet.

And then he had seen her. So beautiful that she couldn't possibly be real, yet there she was. So much beauty that it couldn't be contained in one place, and had exploded outward, fluttering around her like a cloud of translucent butterflies. And between the graceful sweeps of those tiny wings, something else-

She had beckoned to him. Whatever he had thought he'd seen was gone... forgotten. He'd walked toward her, pain shooting up his legs with every step. He remembered saying something. Something stupid, no doubt. She had smiled-

-and then the world seemed to skip a few seconds. Or minutes. Suddenly he was just as naked as she was. Her perfect skin... perfect flesh, both warm AND cool to the touch... pressed hard against him as she pulled him into her embrace. A moment later, she impaled herself on him, and sudden pleasure threatened to overwhelm his senses.

"Oooo..." Maurice groaned. His entire body was an erogenous zone. More jolts of pain tickled at his awareness... pain not just from his feet... but they were lost in the waves of ecstasy.

Maurice felt like he was floating... unaware that he actually WAS floating, held aloft by appendages that his lover would not let him see. Strange shapes swam around him. Some of them were real.

One of them looked like Bradley, the one-eyed kid he'd stepped over to get there.

"Aaggggnnnhhh..." Maurice taunted. In his mind he had made words, but those words were swallowed by the fleshy tube that had wormed its way down his throat. He didn't know it was there. She was deeper inside him than he could ever venture inside her, but even if he knew, he wouldn't care. The rhythmic pulsing... the spiraling pleasure was all that mattered.

He looked at her face

-that perfect face-

and tried to judge if he was pleasuring her. He seemed to be. She was smiling-

-the mouth was too wide, and not really a mouth at all but something else! Something ELSE!

-Maurice didn't know what had caused that brief moment of panic, but it was gone now. Now there was just the sex. Just the pleasure. His and hopefully hers. Yes, hers too-

Something changed. The rhythm slowed... stopped...

The face scowled.

"What?" Maurice tried to say.

Her eyes looked past him to the shape behind him.

"Brad?" Maurice thought he said. "Don't mind him, just keep going!"

She never spoke, but her frown deepened. The skin of her perfect face folded and stretched as the shape BEHIND it snarled.

"They're making trouble, aren't they," said Brad.

Her face(s) twitched. The fluttering around her... and him... intensified.

"Can I kill him? Can I take his body? This one is-"

She made a hissing gurgle that sounded to Maurice's ears like a moan.

"Very well," Brad said. "I hear and obey." He turned to leave, but instead of walking away he simply vanished.

When the sex resumed, it was hard and angry. Fast. Hungry.

"Oh yeah," Maurice thought he said. "You like that, don't ya! YEAH!"