Darkness Wakes Read online

  “How are you doing?” she asked.

  Before Aaron could answer, Gillian rose to her feet. “I hope you’ll both excuse me, but I need a drink.” She nodded toward the bottled water Caroline held. “Something stronger than that.” She walked off toward the bar, shoulders hunched as if she were trying to keep herself from crying. Whatever the deal was with Morgan, Gillian was clearly upset by the situation. Aaron decided it wasn’t any of his business, though, so he put the matter out of his thoughts and answered Caroline’s question.

  “I’m sore, but happy. What’s up?”

  “There’s something special we do here in Penumbra. Not all the time, but we’re going to do it tonight. We’d like you to join us.”

  Aaron looked around. Phillip was moving through the club, speaking to each member in a low voice. When he finished, they nodded, eager grins on their faces, and started to get dressed.

  Gillian returned with a glass of Jack Daniel’s in her hand. “So our new playmate’s going to get the full experience tonight? Wonderful!” She sat back down on the mattress next to Aaron and started nuzzling his neck

  A sudden feeling of revulsion overwhelmed Aaron. A naked woman who he hadn’t known existed a few hours ago was nibbling his neck, while another knelt next to him. Both of them had his cum on and in them in various places, and he was slathered in their saliva and vaginal juices. A sour musk clung to the three of them, the smell rank and nauseating. Aaron’s stomach roiled, and he felt hot bile splash against the back of his throat. He feared he was going to vomit forth the whisky and whatever drugs Phillip had given him. With an effort, he fought his nausea down, and the urge to throw up subsided, though it didn’t entirely go away.

  “What … what time is it?” Aaron asked. He looked at his wrist, but though he’d been wearing a watch when he came in here, he didn’t have it on now. He had no idea where it was. “I probably should be getting home. You know, before my wife wakes up and discovers I’m not there.”

  Gillian nipped Aaron’s shoulder hard enough to hurt. “You’re not going to bail out on us now, are you? Not when things are just about to get really good!” Gillian no longer seemed to be upset about Morgan’s absence. It was as if she’d completely forgotten about him. Or wanted it to seem like she had.

  Caroline reached out and put a hand on Aaron’s shoulder, her eyes full of concern. “It’s only natural that you should feel a little … awkward. Phillip and I went through the same thing the first time we came to Penumbra.”

  “And came inside Penumbra,” Gillian added with a giggle.

  Caroline ignored her and continued. “It’s only natural to feel overwhelmed after experiencing so much pleasure, to feel guilty for indulging your own desires far more deeply than you ever have before. But doesn’t a part of you — an important part that’s been neglected for far too long — feel satisfied? Fully and completely, perhaps for the first time in your entire life?”

  Aaron wanted to deny it, but Caroline’s words rang too true, and he said, “Yes.”

  She smiled. “Then trust me when I say that if you stay, if you join us in the back, you’ll know fulfillment beyond anything you’ve experience here tonight. Beyond anything you’ve ever imagined.”

  “She’s not shitting you, sweetheart,” Gillian whispered in Aaron’s ear. She took hold of his earlobe in her teeth and shook her head back and forth several times, almost as if she were a dog playing with a chew toy. She released his earlobe and said, “It’s fan-fucking-tastic,” She stuck her tongue in his ear then, and a chill shivered down his spine. His cock, despite everything it had been through tonight, began to swell.

  “All right, I’ll do it.”

  Caroline’s smile broadened. “Excellent! Let’s get dressed.” She rose to her feet, and Gillian released her hold on Aaron and stood as well. As the two women moved off to find their clothes, Aaron saw that the others were already dressed. Phillip had hold of the pet carrier containing the rabbit. The animal was awake and seemed to be content enough in its captivity. It sat looking out through the bars, eyes wide and moist, nose twitching as it scented the air.

  “Why are we getting dressed?” Aaron asked no one in particular.

  “Because it’s respectful,” Phillip answered.

  Aaron looked at Phillip for a moment, trying to determine just what in hell he meant by that. Finally Aaron nodded. “Okay,” he said, and started looking for clothes.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The mood in Penumbra had turned almost somber, but with an underlying current of anticipation. No one spoke as Aaron finished dressing, and his hands were trembling so much that he had trouble buckling his belt.

  He felt odd putting his clothes on, reassuming a veneer of modesty after everything he’d done — and that had been done to him. Though they were only a polo shirt and shorts, his clothes felt restrictive and scratchy, like the suit his father had used to make him wear to church when he was a boy.

  This place is about as far away from church as you can get, he thought.

  “Everyone ready?” Phillip asked.

  They all nodded. Still no one spoke, but their eyes shone with eagerness. Whatever lay within the back room, they couldn’t wait to get to it.

  This is your last chance, he thought. You can still back out. All you have to do is turn around, walk to the front door, open it, and step outside.

  Yeah, said the thought-voice that sounded too much like his father. And what if they try to stop you? That fat guy wouldn’t give you much trouble, but those other three — Wyatt, Travis, and Phillip — they’re all in pretty good shape. Better than you, anyway, especially Phillip. You won’t get out of here unless they let you go.

  Aaron told himself that he was just being paranoid, probably an after-effect of the booze and drugs. And yet, from the way the others kept sneaking glances at him, Caroline most of all, he couldn’t help feeling that he was committed to following them into the back room — whether he wanted to or not.

  Though the other men had put on their pants, Aaron could see the bulges made by their stiff cocks. Jesus Christ, what did these guys do, swallow a couple bottles of Viagra apiece before coming here tonight? And what the hell was in the back room that would give them all hard-ons, especially after everything they’d already done in the front room? Maybe the real kink was waiting in the back room. Maybe they kept a sex slave imprisoned back there, maybe even several. But then why would they put their clothes back on, and what was the deal with the rabbit?

  Given the current atmosphere in the place, Aaron thought there might be some sort of ceremony to the opening of the door that led to the back. But Caroline simply removed a single key from her purse — he couldn’t tell if it was the same one she’d used to open the fuckle door or not — and inserted it into the lock. A turn, a click, then she removed the key, put it back in her purse, took hold of the knob and, after a second’s hesitation, opened the door.

  It was dark inside, and Aaron had the impression that there was nothing beyond the doorway, that it was only a frame for empty blackness. But then Caroline stepped aside, and one by one the others proceeded into the darkness, Phillip and the rabbit going last.

  Caroline turned to Aaron and gestured toward the door. “After you.”

  “Said the spider to the fly.”

  Caroline grinned. “We’re all spiders here, Aaron. You included.”

  Unsure what to make of this remark, Aaron stepped through the doorway.

  Aaron couldn’t see anything inside. The light from the front room didn’t penetrate into this one, almost as if the darkness were somehow holding it back. Caroline stepped through after him and closed the door. He waited to hear the sound of her locking door, but she didn’t. This came as a comfort to him; if he had to escape, he could.

  Though the front room was air-conditioned, after the group’s sexual escapades it had become warm and somewhat stuffy. But this room was cooler, so much so that the temperature change gave Aaron a jolt. Breathing in the cool air m
ade his throat and sinuses ache, and a wave of dizziness came over him. He thought he might faint, but then Caroline took hold of his hand, almost as if she sensed his vertigo, and her touch steadied him.

  “Let me guide you, Aaron,” Caroline said in a near-whisper. “The rest of us don’t need to see to get around in here, but since this is your first time …”

  Aaron was suddenly put in mind of going through a Halloween haunted house, the kind where drunks in rubber masks reach out to grab women’s asses as they pass by. He reached out into the darkness, half-expecting the hand that found his to be cold and skeletal. But if was soft, warm, and feminine, and he gripped it gratefully.

  Caroline pulled him further into the room, and he found himself counting the steps. One, two, three, four, five …

  “Stop here,” Caroline said, and he did so. “Now I don’t want to frighten you, but it’s very important that you don’t take another step forward, not even an inch. Do you understand?”

  Not really, but he said yes anyway. His head was beginning to throb and his mouth felt like it was filled with steel wool. Whatever it was that they were going to do in here, he wished they’d get started.

  “Keep looking straight ahead,” Caroline instructed. “You probably won’t be able to see much tonight, but you should be able to see more clearly next time.”

  “Much more,” Spencer said, causing a couple of the others to chuckle. From the sound of their voices, Aaron had the impression that the eight of them were standing close but — with the exception of Caroline and him — not shoulder to shoulder. We’re in a circle, he thought, though he wasn’t sure how he knew this. Instinct, perhaps, or maybe his eyes were adjusting to the darkness, at least a little.

  The room was filled with a strange sort of coolness. Aaron heard no hum of an air conditioner, no soft hiss from a central air vent. The cold seemed to emanate from directly in front of him, as if he were facing a pillar of black ice. What’s more, the air felt clammy, like the atmosphere in an old basement with crumbling stone walls and greenish-black mold growing everywhere.

  “Since you can’t see, Aaron, I’ll tell you what I’m doing.” It was Phillip, and it sounded as if he were standing on the opposite side of the circle from Aaron and Caroline. “I’m kneeling at the edge of the circle. You can’t see it, but the floor’s made of concrete. The circle was drawn when it was freshly poured and had yet to dry.”

  Aaron stared through the darkness in the direction he judge Phillip was kneeling. He thought he saw a black shape move, a shape that was darker than the darkness around it. But this shape wasn’t kneeling; instead it seemed to be undulating from side to side, almost serpent-like. The motion became faster, more intense, and Aaron thought that whatever the shape was, it was getting excited.

  Not whatever — whoever. It had to be one of the eight of us. Probably Gillian. She’s a complete horn dog. Aaron could picture her shimmying and swaying, most likely fondling her breasts and fingering her cunt as she did so, so turned-on was she by what was about to happen. But the rippling dark shape seemed taller than Gillian, broader too. Probably just a trick of the light, he decided. Or rather a trick of the dark. But he couldn’t bring himself to full believe it.

  “I’m putting our good friend Peter’s carrier on the floor now,” Phillip said.

  Aaron heard the soft sound of plastic gently coming into contact with concrete, accompanied by the rattle-ping of the metal bars of the carrier’s doors. The rabbit scuttled in its cage, the claws scratching against the carrier’s plastic bottom.

  “Now this is important, Aaron, so listen close. I’ve just put the carrier down outside the circle. We never go inside the circle, no matter what. Go that?”

  Aaron wanted to ask why, but he also wanted to get whatever they were about to do over and done with, so he just said, “Yes.”

  “Good. Now I’m going to open Peter’s cage door. I’ve set the carrier’s front end so close to the circle that when Peter bolts for his freedom, he’ll have no choice but to go into the circle.”

  “What if he doesn’t come out?” Aaron asked. He knew from years of vet experience that frightened animals would often huddle in a corner of their carrier and refuse to leave, even when the door was opened.

  Aaron heard the cold smile in Phillip’s voice as he answered. “Then we grab hold of the little fucker and toss him in.”

  Before Aaron could ask any more questions, he heard Phillip open the carrier door. The room fell completely silent then, and Aaron realized that everyone, himself included, was holding his or her breath in anticipation of what would happen next. More scuttling came from the cage, louder and more frantic, and Aaron knew that Peter was gearing up to make a break for it. He heard the rabbit shoot out of the carrier, heard its nails scrabble on the concrete floor — was it inside the circle or outside? And why the hell did that matter anyway?

  Almost as soon as Aaron thought this, the scrabbling sound stopped. At the same moment the black shape in the middle of the circle stopped undulating and went completely still. What looked like an arm — though thinner and longer than Aaron would’ve thought possible — snatched out toward the floor. And then the rabbit screamed.

  Though he was a vet and well aware that rabbits could indeed scream when they needed to, the sound still startled him, making him jump. Caroline squeezed his hand in reassurance, but he could feel that she was trembling, as if she too were upset by what was going to happen. But perhaps her tremors had little to do with fear … at least, not fear for the rabbit.

  The hand — no, the tentacle — pulled the rabbit up to the main mass of darkness. The rabbit screamed once more, this time far more loudly and higher-pitched, but its screams ended abruptly, almost as if they were a recording that someone switched off. The eight men and women standing around the circle, Aaron included, exhaled in unison, the collected sound reminding him of the satisfied sigh of someone who’d just experienced a particularly good orgasm.

  What happened to the rabbit? Aaron wondered. Was it injured? He was tempted to step forward and feel around for it to see if it needed medical attention. But then he remembered what Phillip had said about not crossing into the circle.

  He was probably just shitting me, playing up the drama of the moment, Aaron thought. What could possibly happen if I walked into the circle?

  His father-voice replied: The same damn thing that happened to the rabbit.

  Aaron remained standing where he was.

  When Phillip spoke again, his voice, soft as it was, ripped through the silence like a shotgun blast. “I’m standing up again now, Aaron. It’s going to be hard to describe what happens next. I think it’s probably best to let you experience it for yourself. Just stand still and no matter what happens, don’t move. And for Christ’s sake, don’t take so much as a half-step forward. Understand?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Aaron couldn’t keep the irritation he felt out of his voice. He was beginning to suspect that this was all bullshit, a practical joke to play on the new guy. Normally, he might’ve gone along with it good-naturedly enough, but right now he didn’t feel so damn hot, and he wasn’t in the mood. He turned toward Caroline to tell her that he was going to go, but before he could speak, he felt something cold brush against the sweat-slick skin of his forehead. Instead of startling him, the touch felt good. Soothing, relaxing, like the feel of a cool damp cloth pressed against the forehead when one was overheated or ill. Without thinking, Aaron turned to face the circle again, and he saw a tendril of darkness come toward him, felt its cool tip touch his forehead once more. It pressed against his skin, not painfully, but with slow determination, as if it weren’t going to let something so inconsequential as skin and bone to prevent it from going where it wished. The pressure intensified, though it still wasn’t painful, and Aaron wondered if whatever was pressing against his head had somehow anesthetized the area so it wouldn’t hurt. The pressure increased even more, and just as Aaron thought he might be shoved off his feet, he felt a silent pop!
like the sensation during anal sex when the anus finally accepts the penis and allows it inside. The dark tendril had penetrated Aaron’s forehead and now burrowed into the tender sweet meat inside.

  Aaron understood what was happening. The dark thing that inhabited the circle etched into the concrete floor — whatever it was — was digging into his brain. He should’ve been in agony, should’ve been terrified, should’ve been screaming until his throat was raw and bloody. But it didn’t hurt and he wasn’t scared. In fact, he felt fantastic, as if whatever was rooting around inside his skull was directly stimulating the pleasure center of his brain. Sensations coursed through his body, raced along his nerve-endings, filled every cell of his being. He felt warm and safe, loved and teased, fucked and fed, praised and admired … every positive emotion he’d ever known he now experienced all at once, and far more intensely than ever before. The physical sensations were equally incredible. He felt as if his body had been dipped in warm honey while his cock exploded with one orgasm after another, sperm shooting out of the tip as if he were a cum fountain. He heard music more beautiful than the finest orchestral arrangements ever penned, tasted food that would’ve put the gods’ ambrosia to shame. His veins were alight with golden fire beyond any drug ever discovered or manufactured, and his optic nerves were overwhelmed by a riot of swirling, dancing colors, many of which he’d never seen and had no names for.

  Aaron felt a presence inside his mind, then. Not an intelligence, exactly, at least not as understood the word. But whatever the nature of the presence, Aaron knew he was no longer alone inside his own skull. He could sense the Other reaching out to him, striving to connect on a deep level, almost as if it were trying to communicate with him …

  And then, just like that, it was over.

  The dark tendril pulled free from Aaron and withdrew back into the circle. The sudden emptiness that he felt was so overwhelming, so crushing, that his legs buckled beneath him and he started to fall. Hands grabbed him beneath his arms and kept him from collapsing.