Chapter 2: The Party

I was fashionably late for my own birthday party.

After our afternoon’s fun and subsequent nap, I had gone for a shower. Louise had gone back to her room to get ready, and, while I got dressed, Josh had his shower. I wondered if it would be awkward when he came out of the bathroom.

Prior to that afternoon, we’d often behaved as a pair of young men might in a gym locker room. We had both seen each other naked, but it hadn’t been a big deal for either of us. I wondered if that was going to change.

I was finishing getting dressed when he emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. That was normal behavior.

He looked at me but didn’t stop what he was doing. “So,” he said, “you never mentioned this girl Mary before.” He picked out a clean pair of boxers, dropped the towel, and put them on, exactly as he had done every day since I had known him.

“She is just a girl in my English class,” I replied. “She sits in front of me. I haven’t really spoken with her before today.”

“She’s not exactly hard to look at,” he said with a grin, “and you didn’t seem to be having trouble watching her ass as she walked away earlier.”

I grinned back at him. “You know me; I can’t resist looking at a nice ass.”

He thought about that for a moment before looking over his shoulder theatrically.

“So, what’s wrong with my ass?” he asked.

“Nothing. Why?”

“I never saw you ogling my ass like you did hers - or Louise’s for that matter, or Angela’s, or...”

I looked him in the eye. “You never caught me ogling your ass.”

His mouth dropped open for a moment.

“You were...”

“As I said, there’s nothing wrong with your ass. Except...”

“What?” he asked defensively.

“Except,” I continued, “It’s still not wearing any pants, and we have a party to go to.”

He threw his pillow at me, then started getting dressed.

Louise knocked on the door just as he was finishing, and I let her in.

“What’s taking you guys so long?”

“We’re ready,” I said. “Let’s go.”

Bob’s house wasn’t that far from campus, so we decided to walk since it was a nice enough evening. We could hear the music as we turned into his street, and I worried that the neighbors would be upset at the disturbance.

I needn’t have worried. Since the houses on the street were all rented to students, Bob had pre-empted any problems by simply inviting all of them to the party. It made for a much bigger crowd than I’d expected, but I decided it would be nice to meet some new people. Some of them were bound to have nice asses.

The house was quite crowded when we entered, and there was some cheering and calls of “Happy Birthday!” as the wave of recognition rippled out from the doorway. It quickly became apparent that despite the “Happy Birthday Caleb!” banner on the wall, the party had evolved into something else. I was happy enough with that.

I grabbed a beer from the table and began to circulate around the room, chatting to classmates and friends, and being introduced to some of the students from the surrounding houses who were either ahead of us or were studying elsewhere.

There were a few people dancing in the middle of the living room where some furniture had been pushed back to create a makeshift dance floor. I felt a hand on my arm and turned to come face to face with Mary.

I smiled. “Hi, glad you could make it,” I said.

She leaned in and pecked my cheek. “Happy birthday.”

“Let’s get you a drink,” I said, but she shook her head.

“In a bit, “she said. “First I want to dance.”

She held out her hand, and when I took it, she led me to the dancers and we joined in.

Now, I am fit. I run every day, am on the PSU wrestling team -go Vikings - unbeaten so far this year, by the way - and I go to the gym at least three times a week. Mary danced me to a standstill.

Eventually, I held my hands up in surrender and we went to find a drink and some food. She led me to a seat, and we sat, nibbling at the snacks and sipping our beers while I caught my breath.

I felt a slap on my shoulder and looked up to see Sue with Gordon. She was grinning at me.

“Happy birthday again,” she said, and then looked at Mary.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” she asked.

“Sure,” I said. “Mary, this is Sue, a very good and close friend, and Sue, this is Mary, who sits in front of me in English.”

Sue looked Mary up and down and then looked at me.

“Good choice,” she said. “Remember to use my birthday gift.”

Sue turned to Mary. “Nice to meet you,” she said, before grabbing Gordon by the arm and steering him away.

I sighed and finished my beer.

Mary looked at me. “Is she an ex?”

I laughed. “Sue? No, I’m not her type.”

“You have that vibe between you,” she said, “like you were very close at one time.”

“We still are,” I replied. “I guess I have spent more time with Sue since I came here than I have with any other person. We just clicked. I get to hear about all her conquests and play agony aunt. Up until this morning, we had never so much as kissed.”

“Oh, and what happened this morning?” she asked, looking amused.

“I have no idea,” I lied, “I was sitting at breakfast, and she just walked up and kissed me, probably to wish me happy birthday.”

Mary stood. “Let’s dance again.”

We went back to the dancing but after only two more songs, it seemed it was time for a slow number.

Mary closed with me and put her arms around my neck. Mine naturally went to her waist. As we danced, she asked, “So, what did she get you?”

“Who?” I asked. I had spaced out a little. I’d been starting to notice things about Mary other than her phenomenal ass, which I couldn’t see just now. They’d distracted me, in a good way.

She was about 6 inches shorter than my 6’1”, and was slim, with a trim waist. Her hair was brown, with flecks of gold, and her breasts probably looked larger than they were, given her trim frame, but I would guess they were a D cup. What was most entrancing to me, though, were her eyes. She had golden eyes, the colour of a lioness’s. I wondered how I had never noticed before. They were mesmerising.

“Your friend Sue; what did she get you for your birthday?”

“Condoms and lube. She handed them to me in the cafeteria this morning. Not embarrassing at all.”

Mary laughed, “Are you sure she is not trying to get into your pants?”

“She likes her men bigger.”

“So, she knows how big you are?”

“I mean bulkier,” I responded. “More muscles.”

Mary nodded. “I’m not a fan of huge muscles, but these look fine to me,” she said, running her hands up my arms and back around my neck, before pulling me down for a kiss.

It wasn’t a passionate kiss, but it was tender and sweet, and it took me by surprise.

I must have looked as surprised as I felt, because she giggled. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t resist.”

“Don’t apologise,” I returned. “It was wonderful.”

We moved off the dance floor and sat once again, this time on a couple of chairs opposite the stairs. I had snagged a couple more beers, and handed her one. We sipped them as we chatted, learning more about each other.

I told her about my life so far, about where I grew up, the fact I was an only child, and my future plans. I told her that I was hoping to go into law enforcement in some form or other but didn’t have the details sorted.

In her turn, she told me that she was an identical twin, but that her sister and she had made the decision to go to different colleges, deliberately spending time apart so that they could each develop their own identities. The separation was tough on them, but they spoke daily, and she was looking forward to the holidays so she could go home and spend some time with her.

Suddenly, something felt off.

Even now, I can’t describe it. It was like a smell, but it wasn’t coming via my nose. It was a sort of metallic, coppery scent, but mixed with something foul, like rotten meat. I just felt it, and it made my skin crawl.

I looked around and saw that a new guy had just come in.

He was short and a little stocky. His clothes were good quality, but not well-looked-after. They were creased, and had small food stains down the front. What was really off with him, though, was the expression on his face.

He was looking around the room, almost like he had walked into a strip joint. He was openly leering at everyone there. For a moment, his eye fell on Mary and then moved on. Then it settled on someone across the room. I couldn’t see who, but his grin made me feel dirty.

I turned to Mary. “Who is that?” I asked and she looked at the guy, who was now making his way across the room.”No idea,” she said. “I’ve never seen him before.”

“Maybe he’s one of the guys from the street,” I pondered. “Bob did say he had invited them so they wouldn’t complain about the noise.”

I watched him as he picked his way through the crowd of people. I stood up. I had a really bad feeling about this guy and wanted to see what he was up to.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” I said, getting up and walking closer. I found the creepy man talking to Angela, Bob’s girlfriend.

As I got closer, the ‘smell’ got worse, and then I heard a scream.

I looked around frantically to see who had screamed, but nobody had reacted at all. It occurred to me that, like the smell, the scream hadn’t come to me via my senses, but had just arrived in my mind. The scream died and I looked back at the guy. I was amazed to see Angela with her tongue stuffed down his throat while she ground herself against him. He, in turn, had one hand on the back of her head, and was lewdly grabbing that perfect ass with the other.

I saw Bob come running across the room, but before he could grab the guy, I heard another scream, this time a more masculine-sounding one, and Bob just stopped dead in his tracks and watched his girlfriend make out with this obnoxious-looking man. His eyes were full of torment, but it seemed he couldn’t bring himself to do anything to break up the kiss – or anything at all.

I finally noticed that there was a dark line running from Bob’s head to the man, and, once I’d clued into it, I noticed another running from Angela’s head.

I don’t know how I knew, but I knew, that in some way, this guy had managed to gain some control over the pair and was basically raping Angela and forcing Bob to watch.

I couldn’t stand by and let it happen.

I moved nearer and reached out for the man, intending to pull them apart. Suddenly I felt a huge weight press down on my mind, trying to wrest away my control of my own body. I fought against the weight; I imagined it being pushed back hard. It persevered for a second, but then it was gone.

The guy staggered and disengaged from Angela, turning to face me, his eyes wide.

“How did you...” he started, but I didn’t let him finish. My outrage inspired me. I immediately imagined that his power was gone, and that anybody he’d enslaved was free.That was the clever bit. There was also the wrestling bit. The guy was no match for me there, either, and the element of surprise worked wonders. I picked him up and body slammed him to the floor.

He curled up into the fetal position and started to cry.

Bob moved forward as if to attack, but I stopped him and diverted his attention.

“Angela needs you,” I said quietly. “Go to her.”

He looked at where Angela had fallen to her knees and was sobbing, holding herself. He went and knelt beside her, putting his arm around her.

I noted now that the music had stopped, and everyone was looking at them, and me, and the guy on the floor.

My attention went back to the guy. I imagined that I knew everything the horrid little man knew. I regretted that immediately.

I just about got to the bathroom as I emptied my stomach into the toilet.

I knew that he wasn’t a student, but he did live in one of the houses on the street. He had moved in about a month prior. His name was Harold Bleasdale. He was twenty two years old, and, just after his eighteenth birthday, he discovered that he could control people with his mind. He had abused that power relentlessly, forcing himself on any woman that caught his eye.

It had started with just getting them to kiss him. Like me, he had been a virgin when he’d found his power, but he’d remedied that quickly and horrifically, forcing a young mother over a park bench while her child had cried nearby.

Of course, as well as practicing his perversions, he’d used his powers to amass wealth. He had stolen and conned and mind-raped multiple people until he’d gotten everything he’d wanted. I hardly needed to imagine myself knowing the future – or what would have been if we hadn’t run into each other. It never would have been enough. He would’ve kept raping and stealing for decades.

As time went by, he got bored with just sex. He started practicing more and more extreme perversions on women - first making their loved ones watch as the woman performed sex acts on him, then making them join in. His intention tonight had been to take Angela and strip her naked, and, while Bob stood by, powerless, force every male in the house to fuck her. He was going to make every single one of them pump their seed into her pussy, in the hopes that she’d become pregnant by someone – anyone – besides her boyfriend.

My nausea had abated, replaced with a blinding rage. I wanted to destroy this man, make it so he never existed, tear him apart, flay him alive. When I went back into the room, Bob had picked Angela up and was on a couch, holding her while she sobbed. Harold was still curled up on the floor, sobbing, with his hands over his head.

There were only a few other people left. Many of the partygoers had left while I had been in the bathroom. I could see Sue, Gordon, Josh and Louise and Mary.

I really wanted to hurt Harold again, but knew that doing so would reduce me to his level. Still, I needed to figure out a way to make sure he was punished. I needed help, and I thought I knew who could give it.

I imagined my mother knew exactly what had gone on tonight, and what I had learned about this creep. I didn’t imagine she knew everything he knew, like I did. I didn’t want to subject her to that.