"So does that make it evil?" I teased her.
The joke fell flat when she didn't laugh. Instead her lips pursed together and her hands tightened on the wheel. "I don't know, but it does make it bad news." She glanced over to me. "Especially for someone who wants to go back in there."
I frowned. "Who said I wanted to go back in there? Don't you think I've been scared enough in that place not to want to go back?"
Ashley shrugged and looked back to the road. "You're just acting, well, weird about the place. Like there's something there you want to find out. You said you saw the phantom. Did he see you?"
We were headed toward dangerous territory again. "I think so," I mumbled out.
"Well, whatever happened you need to stay away from that place. I don't want you disappearing like the others."
"I don't plan on going anywhere except to bed," I replied with a laugh.
Ashley shook her head. "No, I want you to promise me you won't do anything stupid."
I sighed. She was acting like I did that a lot. "Seriously? What are you, my-" I paused as deja vu washed over me. I'd said the same thing to Brent earlier that day, and now he was gone. Maybe forever. My voice was hushed, subdued. "Fine, I promise I won't do anything stupid just as long as you get your butt home after you drop me off, and I want you to call me when you get back home."
Ashley finally cracked a smile. "Oh, you don't have to worry about that. Like hell I'm going to be out here when it's dark, especially with what's been going on." She stepped on the gas and the car practically flew over the road.
That made me feel better about her, but I felt awful about my promise. I had a bad feeling I wouldn't be able to keep it; that phantom would make sure of it.
Ashley dropped me off and sped off down the road, racing the setting sun. I looked up at the darkening horizon and felt a twinge of heat flare up inside me. It both scared and excited me. His control, his possessive nature, they were attitudes I'd been brought up to fight against, but after experiencing his deep, tender touches all I wanted was to fall into his dark arms. He offered pleasure and a satisfaction to my lust to be a woman loved and taken by her lover.
While I stood by the parking lot with a warmth spreading through my body, the shadows lengthened around me. A cold wind swept by me and dampened the sensual mood. I shook off the fog creeping into my mind long enough to stagger to my dorm room. The moment I shut the door and leaned back against it the heat returned, more forceful than before. I shuddered at the feel, as though a pair of warm hands were sliding up my body. My back arched and pushed my breasts out in a display of feral servitude. I was the slave, he the master.
My body shivered with excitement when the window ahead of me slid itself open. Through the crack a fog slipped into the room, a dark, familiar fog. The cool night air washed over my glistening, sweat-soaked body, but all I felt was the climbing of the dark mist inside my body. It slid out of my mouth and dipped down into my shirt. The mist caressed my bare, heated skin and toyed with my pert buds before it swept out the bottom.
As it had done before, the mist joined the fog, and from their union a phantom was born. He looked so real, so handsome, and so perfect. My half-lidded eyes watched him stride slowly toward me. He had that wicked grin on his red, inviting lips. My chest was heaving, my heart was madly pumping. He towered over me and reached up to caress my cheek with the back of his hand. I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch, so soft and caring.
"So beautiful," he whispered. I opened my eyes and a faint blush came to my face at the compliment, but I wanted more. I wanted his hands all over me and his lips suckling at my buds. His grin grew wider. "I can see the need in your eyes. They call out to me like beacons leading me to a safe, soothing harbor." He stepped forward and pressed himself against me. I was trapped, and never in my life had I ever liked it so much. His sultry voice tempted me, teased me with promises of pleasure. "Do you want me to take you, to make you mine?"
I shuddered at the question. How could I have ever vowed not to see this man again? "Y-yes," I whispered back.
He leaned in and his lips brushed against my neck. His words tickled my flesh and the heat slid over me as though I was wrapped in a serpent of sensuality. The flames of my need slipped over my breasts and down my stomach to pool between my legs. I softly moaned and his chuckle reverberated against my skin. "You're ready for me, I can feel it." One of his hands reached down to cup my groin in his fingers. I gasped and grabbed his forearms. My legs shook and I clutched onto him to keep from falling over. I bit my lip when his fingers pressed up against my sensitive clit. His free hand grasped my chin and forced me to look up into his face. "None of that, now," he softly commanded. "I want to hear your pleasure.
He swooped down and captured my lips in a hot, passionate kiss. His fingers performed their magic between my legs, sliding between my soaked folds. Pleasure rippled through my body and my hips pushed against him, wanting to follow the rhythm of his teasing touches. There was too much clothing for me to be satisfied, so I reached down and unclasped the borrowed jeans. He brushed aside my hand and slipped his own into my panties. His fingers were warm, oh so warm, and soon they were soaked with my need. That made it easier to rub against me, to pleasure me, and I broke our kiss to let out a shuddered moan.
His own lust for me was evident by the corners of his mouth and in his narrowed eyes. They were tense, strained. My legs quivered, and when one of his fingers slid inside of me I nearly toppled to the ground. He swiftly bent down, lifted me into his arms, and carried me to my bed. His shirt was flung aside as I did the same with mine. My pants and panties went next, but I noticed he paused, hesitated. I squirmed above the silky sheets, naked and needy. My body was on fire and his touch was the only thing that would tame these flames.
But he only sat there beside my bed, his face held in a grimace and his eyes focused on my body. His hands gripped the sides so tightly that I swear the wood cracked beneath his fingers. "What's wrong?" I asked in a voice more sultry than concerned.
His voice was thick with need but tinged with seriousness. "I feel I must warn you about our union. If we join here in body, then we join in soul, after which you will never be the same," he whispered to me. Some of my lust was extinguished with those scary words.
I sat up, pulled some covers over my naked body and looked him in the eyes. All the questions I'd wanted to ask earlier sprang to mind. "What does that mean? That I'll never be the same again? Why do you want to join with me? Why are you even wandering around like you are?"
He gazed into my eyes, maybe into my very soul. I felt he was looking for something, an answer to his own questions. "You have no doubt heard tales of me, of my sudden death and wanderings?"
"Yes, but not why you're walking around," I told him.
A wry smile crept across his lips. "It is all for a woman. I was presented with a number of women to be my wife, and yet none of them suited me. They were ugly, inside and out, and too stupid to tolerate. My neighbors took offense at my refusal and vowed I would remain celibate all my days. I told them I would search for the perfect woman even if it took me all of eternity. I even went so far as to build a mausoleum for two people before I-" He paused and a troubled expression crossed his face.
"Before you died?" I guessed.
I was surprised when he gravely shook his head. "No, much worse. I was murdered."
My mouth dropped open. That was a heavier charge than I was expecting. "B-but why? How could anyone do that to you?"
His voice was bitter, angry. Those soft eyes were terrible to behold when the red color in them blazoned up. "For the honor of their womenfolk and the valuable land I once held. There was no better farmland in the county than the land held by me, and even before I was buried they'd claimed it as their own."
I stiffened when I recalled what Mrs. Stefan told me about their family getting the farmland. Ashley's ancestors were the ones who had murdered him and taken his property. "So that's why you haunt them," I whispe
red. "For revenge."
"Yes, and to seek out the bride I could never obtain in life." He smiled at me and the ire faded away. His hands reached out and clasped my own. "Fortune has finally brought her to me, and it is you, lovely Jessica." I blushed at the compliment, but his cheerful expression slipped away. He was nervous, afraid. "And now I have told you everything, but will you accept me? Do you not fear me and my love that transcends even death?"
I squeezed his hands and shook my head. "How could I be afraid of you? You've been kind to me, though kind of creepy, too, but I guess you can't stop that, can you?"
He smiled. "I'm afraid that is unavoidable. It comes with my existence."
"But what about your existence? How is this going to work, anyway? You said something about our souls becoming one or something?"
He nodded. "Yes. Our souls will join and you will be mine forever. I will be a constant in your life rather than here in these brief nocturnal visits." He looked into my eyes searching for something. "Do you love me enough to make such a sacrifice? To join me in this existence?"
My heart thumped in my chest. I had a big choice to make. "So I'll be a ghost like you? Do I...do I need to die?"
"No, only accept me into you. We will live together, sharing in each other's company for your entire life."
My panic lessened at that threat to my life, and I wondered about what he was asking. Being stuck with a ghost for my entire life, albeit a sexy one. All I had to do was let him into my body, something I was very eager to do right now, anyway. I wouldn't need to find myself a husband, and I'd have all the perks of a sexual relationship with a handsome man. I couldn't see any downsides.
His hands shook when I grinned at him. I leaned over and captured him in a long, hot kiss. Our lips meshed together and his hands broke from mine to wrap around me, pulling me closer to him. The blanket fell away from beneath my arms and my naked breasts brushed against his firm chest. By the time we broke off I was gasping for air. He didn't have that problem. "Wow..." I murmured. "You sure do know how to make a girl feel loved."
"I can go much farther than that," he smoothly spoke up. He pulled himself from me and let drop his pants. My eyes widened at the length and thickness of his stiff, erect member. He was going to be a tight fit, but right then I was soaked enough to fit anybody. I quickly moved over to give him room and he slipped onto the bed. His body melded against mine and I reveled in the heat. He wrapped his arms around me and planted soft, hot kisses down my neck. The sweet words he whispered to me were full of lust. "This is only the engagement. Tomorrow night you will come to me at the cemetery and we shall be married before a host of the dead."
I probably would have been afraid of those words, or at least asked him about them, if a fog hadn't muddled up my brain. All I could focus on was his hands all over me, caressing my bare hips and thighs. His hot lips left a scorching trail down my neck and to the valley between my sweltering breasts. He took one of my pert buds in his warm mouth and gently suckled. I groaned and massaged his shoulders. His hand slid down between my thighs and swept his fingers between my wet folds. I jumped in his grasp but half of his body atop mine kept me from going far. He slipped a finger along my sensitive clit, rubbing a delicious vibration of pleasure through my body.
He pulled away from my breast and whispered into my ear. His voice was sultry, demanding. He was making me his own and he wanted to know it. "Tell me that you like it. Show me how much you love me."
I squirmed and groaned as his finger became more insistent. His other hand reached under my back and pulled my back up off the bed. My heaving breasts arched up into the air and he went down on them like a man starving for water and they were an oasis. He licked and nipped at my trembling flesh. My hands clutched his shoulders and I rubbed my hips against his soaked finger. I felt the first tremors of an orgasm wash over my body. I was panting now, and my voice was deep and husky. "Oh god yes," I hoarsely whispered. I arched my back even higher, pressing my breasts into his hot, needy mouth. "More. Please more."
His deft, thick finger moved faster and faster. I couldn't keep up anymore. All I could do was hang on and enjoy the sensual waves of erotic pleasure as he fulfilled my carnal needs. My muscles twitched and my legs kicked out. I pressed harder and harder against his finger. Then the bliss of orgasm reached me, tearing into my world with wave after crashing wave of ecstasy. I tilted my head back and cried to the air my joy. "Yes! Yes! Oh god!"
My only regret was that my walls didn't clamp down on anything. I was warm, hot and sticky inside, but empty. I wanted him inside me to enjoy the pleasure I felt and experience the orgasm with me. I still lay there panting when he raised himself on his elbows and placed himself between my legs. When I noticed the lustful gaze in his eyes I eagerly parted for him. My soaked entrance provided ample lubing, but he rubbed himself against my stimulated clit to wet himself. I jumped and shuddered as small waves of orgasm again swept over my body.
I hardly noticed when he slipped inside me. He buried himself in my moist, hot walls, and I groaned in my pleasure. His dick was thick and swollen, and he filled every inch of me. When he slowly pulled out he made sure to brush against my clit, titillating me with pleasure. The honeymoon of soft touches and slow rocking didn't last for very long. He had satisfied me, and now his own body demanded fulfillment of its own needs.
His arms wrapped around me in a powerful hug as he pounded into me. I raised my legs over his waist and allowed for deeper penetration. He grunted and clung harder to me. I couldn't keep up with him but he made sure to push and press against my clit with each thrust of his strong hips. My stomach quickly tightened, helped on by my orgasm just a few moments before. I moaned and clawed at his back. He panted and pushed into me harder, faster. I was wrapped in sensual pleasure. I breathed it and felt it. There was nothing else but me and him, and our deliciously erotic union. One phantom and one human, joined together to find pleasure.
The orgasm came upon me again in all its dazzling glory, and this time he joined me. My vision exploded with light while my walls wrapped around him, trapping him in my hot juices. He cried out and pushed once, twice, and then he stiffened. I felt nothing come inside of me, but the expression on his face told me he'd reached the heaven he'd been looking for. Then his heavy weight collapsed on top of me. I had no idea a phantom could weigh that much. Thankfully he was quick to remove himself and roll off. That opened up a nice window for me to snuggle against him.
I nuzzled my face into his warm, sweat-soaked chest. His masculine scent made my heart thump but the rest of my body was too tired for another round. He wrapped his arms around me and held me close. His soft voice echoed through the quiet room. "Before I leave you to rest, I would have you know my name," he whispered to me. He leaned down and gently kissed my lips. "It's Eric."
"Eric," I repeated. "It's a nice name."
"I'm glad you like it. Now rest. A life in our union will await you when you awaken."
I was too tired to argue, and closed my eyes. Sleep was quick and deep, much deeper than I'd ever experienced. There were no dreams, only foggy visions of trees and large headstones. I was looking at the cemetery, but somehow I knew it was from his vision and not my own. It was surreal seeing through the eyes of a ghost, and yet wondrous. Shapes spilled out of the dense fog around me and then sank back after I'd passed by. Everything was quiet, very quiet, except for when a cock crowed in the distance. Then everything faded into nothing, and real sleep came to me.
I was awoken by a sharp rap on my door. I shot up from bed and looked around the bright, sunny room. It was morning now; the night of sensual pleasures was over. Eric was nowhere to be found, though I felt a stirring inside of me that hadn't been there before. It felt like the mist that had been inside of me, but more noticeable.
But I didn't have time for that. "Who is it?" I called out.
"I'm looking for a Miss Jessica. Is this her dorm room?"
I wondered if this wasn't some practical joke. It was Halloween
day, after all. "Yeah, and I'm Jessie. What did you want?"
"I'd like to speak with you about a serious matter." His voice sounded serious, and a creeping feeling of doubt toward my prank theory crept into my mind.
"One sec and I'll open the door," I called back. I quickly dressed and looked through the peephole in my door. There was definitely some guy dressed as a cop on the other side, and he looked too old to be a normal student. I opened the door and smiled at him. "What'd you want to talk to me about?"
"It's about your friends, Brent and Robert." My calm heart skipped a beat. This was a real policeman. "We found them, but I'm afraid I'm going to need you to come with me."
"What! Are they all right? Can I see them?" I didn't wait for him to reply but dashed over to where my coat that lay on the floor close to the bed. "Let me just get my coat on and-"
"I'm afraid you can't see Rob."
I was bent down when I froze; my heart skipped a beat. There was something wrong. I turned back toward the officer. I dreaded asking these questions, but I wanted to find out sooner rather than later. My voice trembled. "What's wrong? Did something happen to him?"
He shook his head. "I'm afraid that's better explained at the station. I'll take you there now so you can give your own statement."
I took a step back. I wasn't going anywhere until I had some answers. "Statement? What for? What's happened?"
The policeman sighed and stepped into the room. He closed the door behind him, and the sound of the latch clicking shut echoed through the silent room. His voice was quiet, subdued. This was a serious matter. "I'm afraid we found Robert in the cemetery with a knife stuck in him. He's dead."
My eyes widened and I stumbled back against the side of my bed. Rob was dead, and I didn't have to wonder whose knife was in him. It was ironic that the knife he'd tried to gut me with had been used against him. The officer rushed over to my side and held me up. "Did you need to sit down for a few minutes?"