Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience. 5. Release me KATE Kate didn't know whether her exhaustion was caused by the shock, or her crying, or her being dragged naked through the wood on the leash. Curiously, the leash was not being held by Lucia, but by one of her daughters, the short-haired brunette. "Faster, you bitch!", she kicked Kate in her bare ass. It was not the first time since they left, and Kate had impression it won't be the last. Through the entire journey, she's been spit at, prodded with sticks, thrown pebbles at by the cruel teenage trio. Curiously, Lucia kept almost aristocratic distance from her daughters' antics. She led the way, almost never speaking, and certainly not responding to Kate's pleas for mercy. These women didn't have any of it. They got her when she waited for her son. It turned out that he forgot to lock the front door when he left. It was also, Kate believed, a part of the plan. Whatever the case, her satisfaction when she heard the front door open was replaced with terror when the Castillos barged into her study. Instead of undressing for Jim, as she fancied she would, she found herself stripping at gunpoint for Lucia and her three psychopatic daughters. Once she was naked, they forced her on all fours and leashed her. She was dragged in this state through the forest, sometimes literally so - the Castillos didn't pause for rest, but instead dragged her when she refused to cooperate. When she persisted in this state, she was kicked on her buttocks and forced to move on. Now her belly and breasts were caked in mud and dirt. Her body pained and her eyes burned from tears. But somehow she had impression that the worst was still to come. Eventually they reached the meadow. Kate looked up and saw the wooden totem, which she recognized to be the famous totem of Metikawkani. But it was what hovered next to it that took her speech away - a literal hole in the air, leading from the light of the foggy afternoon into what appeared to be complete darkness. "Move on, pig!", the girl kicked her in the buttocks. Swallowing tears, Kate walked on all fours towards the impossible phenomenon. JIM Several times it felt for Jim as though he was losing his way through the forest, as though the force that previously guided him towards the meadow now wanted to delay his arrival. But eventually he did arrive. The sight that greeted him was nothing short of otherworldly - next to the totem there was an opening in the air, leading straight into darkness. A woman stood before the opening, flickering slightly, like a TV picture. He recognized her. It was the woman from his dream, and the specter that materialized in his bedroom. Jim approached her. She was still clad in the same red silk that he saw her wearing in his dream. "Metikwakani", he said. The beautiful face frowned when she heard this word. "Don't call me by the name the superstitious Indians gave me", she said, "My name is Saira. Saira Karak. Nobody spoke it for thousand years, but now I'm about to break free, and you will help me do that." "How do you know I will?" "Your mother is with us. Free me and she will become your lover. And this is not the only boon I'm going to grant you. Disobey me, however, and she'll end up just like the others." "The others? Who do you mean?" "Walson's daughter. The teens who camped here ten years ago. Countless others." She looked him straight into the eye. "Do you want to know what I did to them?" Jim slowly nodded. "I ate them. Consumed them alive, blood and flesh, until only their bones remained." The boy grew pale. "You're chained in this other world", he said, "How do you catch your victims? How can you speak to me at all?" "I was born long, long ago. I was a human, like you, but in my country, which lay at the foot of Himalayas, just north to the Indian kingdom of Magadha, we've been practicing crafts now lost. One of them was to be able to project your likeness outside of your body. The operator can see and hear through this likeness, and also manipulate the physical world, or what we construe it to be. But such a projection can last for a limited time. I needed to spend much of my force and much of the Mai still left in me to operate it." The specter fell silent. "I've been trapped for thousand of years in this cave; naked and chained, forced to endure hunger but unable to die from it. Semai has made me immortal. What kept me from going insane was Mai, the force of desire; I first gained it from fantasies and thoughts, just like an Initiate of our faith would do, and then, when I grew strong enough, I began to bore a hole between Meirenn and this world. It was Anna and her kind that made this to me; the misguided Order and its misguided followers." "Why didn't they just kill you?", asked Jim. "They weren't stupid. My mind would find another host sooner or later. That's what happens to everyone, eventually, after death. Dying in this world is like dying in a dream, your mind finds itself another body and inhabits it. The difference is that I'd remember everything and regain my power with age. They wouldn't afford that, so they sealed me here. But even in captivity I grew in power, and as soon as I was able to manifest in this world I did this - as this figure", she pointed to the wooden totem. "As soon as some of the Algonquins started to worship me, I demanded tribute of bodies that I devoured to assuade my hunger and provide, you might call it, sexual satisfaction, although Mai is much broader and powerful than that. Then the colonists came, killed off my worshipers and built Walson. I tried to cast my influence over them, but the Puritans of New England proved more resistant to temptation than the Indians did. I could only catch single victims that strayed to the meadow, but they were few, far and between." The specter paused for another moment. "And then came those kids who camped there. I had a real feast of their bodies and their horror. It empowered me, and I started to spread my influence again, this time over the youth of Walson, unburdened by the puritan heritage. Soon other worshipers came, serving no other but Abbaramanon, who became our Queen after Urung Bawra, our original leader, grew old. Among them was the woman called Melanie. They conspired to set me free, but proved unable to do so. We needed someone with strong connection to Mai, the force of desire, to break the chains secured by powerful Words. They knew that you and your mother are attracted to each other, and that you both share hidden taste in perversion, so they bet on you." "And the Castillos? Are they the worshipers?" "Lucia Castillo is a psychotic bitch whom I lured with promises. She's just a sadistic bisexual, but not worthy of becoming a worshiper." "How do you become one?" "By being initiated by another worshiper - just as I have initiated you that night." "This means..." "You're one of us already. But there is a danger that you will turn to Order. That's why your mother is a hostage." The specter pointed at the opening. "Strip all your clothes and step through. Stand naked in my presence and submit to my will. Otherwise I will consume your mother, and the game we're now playing - the stake of which you're not yet worthy to know - will be lost." Jim began to undress. "Quickly! I can't sustain the projection for much longer - not between worlds." As soon as Jim was naked the specter vanished. The boy stepped through the hole in the air, from the foggy meadow into the darkness of the other world. JIM AND KATE It was much chillier on the other side. The place was almost exactly as he remembered it from the dream - a cave turned into a dungeon and a torture chamber. The real body of Saira Karak hung naked from chains, her eyes closed in trance, while her projection, clad in the red silk, stood before Jim. Or rather, he stood before it. The specter looked much more stable here, and the flickering was gone. "Kneel", she said. "Yes, kneel! Kneel before Metikwakani!", the croaking voice belonged to Lucia. There was another voice that Jim could hear in the dark. It was his mother weeping. Oddly, he didn't feel any pity for her, but excitement. Jim did as was told. The specter spoke a word, and a light appeared in the air, illuminating the interior. The boy could now see the cave in all of its terrible glory. All around were scattered skeletons of Saira's previous victims. They came in all sizes, from the skeletons of grown men and women to the smaller that belonged to the kids. The boy turned around. To his right the Castillo family, led by Lucia, who was smoking a cigarette, has gathered around their victims. One of them was his mother. She was nude and hung from her wrists, manacled to the chains hanging from the ceiling. Her body was slightly bruised and caked in dirt and mud, but it was still a feast to Jim's eyes. She was weeping. Next to her, likewise naked, hung Anna - she was chained by just one wrist, for her right hand was gone. Her right arm ended in a bloody stump and Jim realized that Saira had already begun to consume her. She fainted, or was close to fainting by the look of her. "This is what needs to be done", said Saira, "When proper time comes, you'll spell out the Word: Ayarayusayevan. You will spell it exactly when I tell you to. Is that clear?" Jim nodded. She snapped her fingers. The Castillo sisters grabbed Jim and dragged him to another pair of cuffs. He ended up chained just next to his mother, facing her. "Do as instructed", this time Saira addressed the Castillos. "Your suffering will be the sacrifice for Metikwakani!", said Lucia as when she extinguished the cigarette on Kate's breast. The woman yelled in pain. "Girls!", she called out. Her daughters approached the captives, unbuckled their belts and started beating them. One by one, the swat landed on Kate's and Jim's buttocks. The unfortunate couple moaned in pain. "Not enough!", cried Saira, "Nettles! Use the nettles!" The captors disappeared behind the hole. The captives looked at each other. Jim realized that his cock is erect from the sight of his naked and bound mother, and not even the pain he felt could help it. The Castillos returned with nettles freshly picked from the meadow. "Cock, pussy, tits", ordained Saira. The nettles were applied to the aforementioned body parts of the unfortunate captives. They yelled in pain, yet Jim realized that the situation turns him on more and more. "Kiss!", yelled Saira. It took a moment for Jim to realize that this was a command issued for him and his mother. "Kiss, you idiots!" They have been chained close enough that Saira's request was actually fulfillable. The two naked and chained captives exchanged a kiss, made more passionate by their plight and the pain they felt. Pain and pleasure coalesced into one, indistinguishable whole, a new dimension of extasy. "THE WORD! THE WORD, YOU FOOLS!" "A-ayarayusayevan!", cried out Jim, climaxing. The light went out. There was a click, and a thud. Jim squinted, still panting from his recent orgasm. The real body of Saira lay on the ground. For a moment she appeared to be unconscious, but then, with rustle, she started to slowly rise to her feet, until she stood, erect and pround, not minding her nudity. She spoke a Word, this time in a clear and strong voice, and the light returned. Jim squinted at his mother. She was likewise panting from the orgasm. The Castillo family was jubilant. "Metikwakani! Metikwakani is free!", yelled Lucia in voice so high-pitched it was almost comedic. Saira looked around, as if awakened from deep sleep, until her gaze fell on the unconscious and shackled Anna. What happened next Jim found difficult to put in words. From where she stood, Saira sprang like a wild animal towards her captive. Jim turned his gaze, for he knew what was going to happen. The sound of meat being torn from the bone confirmed his suspicion. "Our Lady is feasting! Our Lady of the Forest is feasting!", Lucia's elation reached maniacal heights. Only after the sound subsided Jim dared to look at what remained of Anna - and, as he suspected, there was nothing more left than bloodied bones. Saira stood up, the blood of her latest victim still dripping from her mouth to her bare, beautiful breasts. She turned towards the Castillos this time. "Strip off", she said. The Mexican and her teenage daughters stripped their clothing and lingerie with unabashed enthusiasm. "Now screw", commanded Saira. The Castillo family descended into enthusiastic foursome. Jim wondered how many times they did it before. "Vivian, Lucia, position sixty-nine! And lick each other into oblivion!" The mother and daughter obeyed. The remaining two sisters lay on the floor, rubbing each other's clits and kissing. "Enough!", said Saira with a bemused smile, "Thanks for the spectacle." She descended upon the Castillo family as she did upon Anna. Her victims didn't seem to mind it, as if they were happy to be eaten alive while making love; or perhaps they were too lost in erotic trance to feel any pain. When she was done with them, Saira gave out a satisfied sigh. She approached Kate. Jim wondered if she was to be consumed, but if she were, then he'd watch it; he'd gladly watch his beloved mother being eaten alive by this evil woman. His cock rose to attention, but all Saira did was put a palm on her brow and speak a few Words. After the last of them, his and Kate's manacles opened. The two captives fell to the floor. For a moment they laid there, panting from exhaustion, and then Jim felt his mother pull him towards her. They have been stripped naked and tortured; now they knew they could die at any moment. They kissed; Jim's hand explored every inch of his mother's body, and Kate's explored every inch of her son's. Eventually, she wrapped her legs about his waist and let him penetrate her. The pleasure Kate felt during the climax was beyond anything she experienced before, and yet they still didn't have enough of each other. "Try to free Mai from the genital region", said Saira, "This is the basic erotic practice that the Initiates are taught. Free Mai so the pleasure spreads through the entire body rather than being trapped in the genitals." They looked at their former captor. The Lady of the Forest was now clad in the clothes left behind by Lucia: a dirty t-shirt and a pair of shorts. "Jim's clothing is left outside", she said, "Kate, I think that you can grab Vivian's things. You're slim enough to slip in them." They regarded Saira with surprise. They were almost resigned to the thought that they, too, were about to be eaten. "Don't look at me like that", she said, "You're one of us now. The servants of Abbaramanon the Witch-Queen. From now on, you're on your own. I'll be too busy finishing what's left of Walson to be able to help you, but there's someone who will." She looked at Kate. "You've been contacted by a woman who called herself Mary Bradford. This is not her real name. She prefers to be called "The Matriarch", and she's far beyond you and me, and even Abbaramanon. But if I was you, I'd turn to her for instruction, although she already reached out for you, so I don't know if any action on your part will be necessary." "Who are you? And who did you turn us into?", Kate asked. "You can call it an uprising", said Saira, picking up one of the bones and looking at it thoughtfully, "An uprising against the being most people believe to be God. But he's not even capable of creation. All he can do is to spin unreality. To create an unreal world and make us believe it's real. What we're trying to do is bring the Dream down." She whispered a Word and the bone started to contort and twist, until it became a white, apelike creature of a size of human child. Saira put in on the floor. It grunted and stomped, impatient to fulfill the will of its creator and mistress. "The Matriarch will explain it to you. In the meantime", she picked up another bone and whispered the Word, "... in the mean time enjoy each other. Mai, the erotic desire, is the only part of the real world we have with us in the Dream. Let yourself be guided by it, rather than suppressing it." She put another evil-looking creature on the ground. "Not the best material, but I'll have to do with it", she said, then turned to Jim and Kate, "Get dressed, or not, as you prefer, and go. There's still work to be done for both me and you." * Jim awoke to another foggy dawn in Walson. He rememebred a vivid dream, partly nightmare and partly erotic. It was full of magic, torture, nudity and sex. And it also had some oedipal undertones - he saw his mother naked and tortured, and then made love with her. He was reluctant to open his eyes, for he was afraid that when he does even the memory of the dream will go away. He will awake to another day in the boring town in the rural New England and stay there for at least the end of summer. But still, there was something that bothered Jim. Did he fell of the bed? He seemed to be lying on cold floorboards rather than in bed. And he was naked. He opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw was his mother, naked and lying on her side on the floorboards of his room. She was already awake and looking at him with a smile. With her stunning body, already free from the bruises and marks of torture (the healing was a parting gift from Saira) she looked like a nude model from men's mag. But it was not a mag - she was right beside him, very real, very naked, very beautiful and all his. It was then that he remembered they decided to make love on the hard floor rather than in the bed - to make things more interesting. And spent most of the night screwing like crazy. So the dream was real. "Already awake?", she said, "Saira is busy clearing what's left of this town. Since morning I saw her creatures march through it, marching their captives through the streets. Mostly nude captives. " Earlier this day Kate received a final mail from Mary Bradford. "Hello, Sterling work in Walson. However, I'd advise you to leave the town. Please meet with my contact in New York, the info is in the attachment. Also, now that you know my real identity, it's no longer necessary to conceal it. Looking forward to meeting you in flesh and blood. The Matriarch." "We're leaving this place, Jim", she said. * As they dressed and left home, they were greeted with uncanny specacle - the fog was no longer pervading the town, it seemed to form a dome around it, and halfway through this dome ran a hole in the air, this one of enormous size; beyond they could see night, and a forest in winter, and enormous palace of ice. They didn't bother to pack. Kate took her laptop, and Jim took his. Also, the boy took the book left behind by Melanie. As they rode through the deserted town, they were greeted by a grim scene. The white creatures were marching three captives, all of them nude, in the general direction of the distant and enormous opening in the air. In one of the captives they recognized Janelle the waitress. The naked man was probably her husband, and the pretty, short-haired, teenage girl, likewise naked, was probably their daughter. "Help us!", the woman yelled, "Please help us!" They passed them by, indifferent to their suffering. It was then that they realized how changed they became by their experience. All of a sudden the mist coalesced into a wall. Kate drove steadily through the milk-white barrier, until they emerged into the sunlight of the middle of July. They left Walson.