Chapter 2

Susan and Ann remained absolutely silent until Susan had turned the car around and was heading back to the main road. Then the two of them looked at each other and burst into hysterical laughter.

"Ohmigod," Ann cried. "I was sure I was going to lose it a few times."

"You! I was the one coming up with that song and dance number on the spur of the moment."

"Oh, Susan, you were wonderful! And the bit with you opening your arms and looking up, oh that was great. I half-expected a shaft of light from heaven to shine on you."

"Well, not all of that was made up, you know," Susan said more seriously. "I mean, I was raised pagan after all."

"Yeah, but you don't believe half that stuff, do you, really?"

Susan shrugged and smiled. "But it sure comes in handy for times like this."

The two of them went off in peals of renewed laughter. "Okay, okay," Ann said, grinning hugely. "Now you have to agree with me: Melissa must go down as the most gullible little cunt in all of history."

"Jeez, she fell for the whole thing, didn't she?"

"That bit you arranged with Jim was sweet. You really had her convinced you actually did lay a hex on him. Oh, man, I'm glad his girlfriend was such a peach about it. She even pretended to be angry with Jim as if he'd really had sex with you."

Susan gave Ann a smug little smile.

Ann's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "You didn't!"

"Let's just say that Melissa is not the only gullible one. And believe me, I did not have to use a spell on Jim to get him to get into bed with me."

"Does Linda know?"

"No, she doesn't. Let's keep it that way."

"Oh, you bet. And Melissa will believe us, so there's no worry there."

Susan sighed. "Yeah, but we almost lost it when you pulled that little stunt of yours with her panties. What the hell was that all about?"

Ann shrugged. "Spur of the moment. Can you believe that that little slut was actually getting off on it? I had intended that feather to tickle her senseless, and it just made her horny. Thanks for covering for me, by the way."

"You're lucky I can think fast."

"So what's next, then?"

"Oh, we fetch her in the morning," Susan said. "Like we said. We have to, else if we get up there too late, someone else will find her and we'll be in deep shit."

Ann smirked. "Yeah, I figured that out. But what about after that?"

"We accept her as a member of the Circle. Then we figure out some excuse later to kick her out. Maybe she'll displease the goddess somehow."

Ann grinned, but it faded after a few moments. "Say, Susan, why'd you leave her the pendant? I think maybe one of the reasons I did the thing with the panties was because I was mad at you for that."

Susan paused a moment. "I'm not sure, actually. I don't know, maybe... maybe I just wanted to be a little nice."

Ann made a face. "Why? It's not like she really matters."

"I guess I just thought that taking the pendant might be taking it too far. Plus she thinks it really protects her, so maybe it will."

Ann frowned. "You don't think she's, like, in danger up there?"

"Probably not. No one goes up there at this hour." She smirked at Ann. "Unless you really believe in that sex strangler character."

"I'm telling you, he was real. I mean, he's not there now, but he was in the past."

"I think it was as real as the bloody hook story, if you ask me."

Ann folded her arms and pouted. "And who says that one is not real, too?"

Susan sighed, rolled her eyes, and promptly dropped the subject.

It was not very long before Melissa stopped crying. She finally realized that no amount of histrionics was going to change the situation she was in, and she was sliding into a depression that was far beyond the ability of mere tears to express.

It slowly dawned on her that she had been a complete and utter fool. This could not possibly be any initiation. It was simply an excuse to humiliate her. She was surprised that someone else had not already shown up to take advantage of her sexually, or worse, take pictures of her to show the rest of the school or her parents.

She considered public humiliation to be worse than rape. For all of her crying and all of her despair had failed to douse the flames of desire that still burned inside her, ignited by a combination of her initial excitement and the touch of that damnable feather Ann had used on her. Melissa had no idea she would respond so strongly to that kind of a touch.

Melissa was willing to accept the possibility of sexual release in exchange for her virtue if it meant that her experience would be kept quiet.

The night air had grown even colder, and she was shivering constantly now. If it were not for the tape over her mouth, her teeth would be chattering. Even in the darkness she could see her breath as it briefly fogged her view of the stars overhead with each exhalation. Melissa wished she knew why she was still aroused, why her pussy still felt hot and engorged, why her nipples tingled with each breeze that blew across them. First her so-called friends had betrayed her and now her own body did as well.

Melissa tried to stretch her neck and turn her head to see the stakes that held her arms in place, but her hair blocked her vision. She clenched one of her hands into a fist and pulled at the rope, then stopped. She repeated this several times, hoping to work the stake loose. After several minutes, there was still no slack on the rope. She sighed and attempted the same with one leg, again to no avail.

Melissa wished Ann had placed the pendant back on her chest. She hated not being able to feel it against her flesh. Occasionally she shifted her head and shoulders just so she could still feel the chain around her neck and convince herself that it was really still there.

Melissa now realized that the forest was anything but silent at night. The trees rustled in the slightest breeze. Insects buzzed and clicked in the thick grasses. Occasionally some nocturnal critter scampered through the underbrush. The first time this had happened, Melissa's heart raced, as she was sure that someone was about to walk into the clearing.

Melissa quickly grew inured to it, no longer reacting to the brief crackle of twigs and rustle of underbrush. Thus she was not alerted when she heard a similar sound somewhere behind her head, a single soft crunching sound of something pressing down onto the sand and brush that littered the floor of the forest beyond the clearing.

Yet in the moment that passed after this sound, Melissa became aware that something was quite wrong. The other sounds of the forest, save for the wind, had ominously fallen silent. Then the breeze itself died, leaving her in a silence so complete that she could hear her own heartbeat.

Melissa became aware of a presence. The feeling that she was not alone crept over her and made her skin crawl. She shuddered and whimpered, wishing she could at least call out and ask if someone were there. Worse, she was sure that whoever it was now watched her intently, taking in every detail of her naked form.

Finally Melissa heard the sound of someone taking a step onto the hard, dry ground of the clearing. Then another. They grew closer with each passing second.

Melissa was terrified beyond any ability to think rationally. She pulled desperately at her bonds, ignoring the pains that shot through her tendons. She knew only that she had to get away, before whoever it was could harm her. But when the steps had approached close enough for her to see her would-be assailant, she stopped struggling and looked up with widening eyes in mixed fear and fascination.

Looming over her, standing not two feet from her torso, was a dark figure. It was clad in ragged gray cloak and hood. But these were the only identifiable features on the figure, for under the cloak and hood was nothing but utter darkness. It was not simply the darkness of the night, but a blackness so inky that it was like a hole torn in reality. It was as if the figure were there, but also not there.

The figure leaned forward. A tendril of the darkness in the shape of a human arm emerged. The hand splayed its fingers and hovered over Melissa. She saw it silhouetted against the stars above her. Despite the fact that the hand was several feet in the air above her, she shrank back from it in terror, as if trying to sink herself into the earth to get away from it.

The hand was withdrawn. There was the sound of shifting dirt and sand as the figure's leg-shaped appendages lowered it to its knees. Melissa heard something like a deep, guttural groan from the featureless face of the figure and shuddered. Its head appeared to turn, as if shifting its gaze over to her feet and drawing it very slowly up her body and back to her face. Melissa thought she could actually feel the specter's gaze on her, like ice just barely touching her skin.

The figure's hand reappeared. It reached for her face.

Melissa lost what remained of her rationality and screamed against her gag and through her nose. Yet instead of snuffing out her life as she had expected, the fingers of the hand grasped an edge of the tape sealing her lips and slowly peeled it off.

Melissa stopped screaming and dared to open her eyes. The hand still appeared in form only, with no discernible details, as featureless as a bottomless pit. Yet where the tips of its fingers touched her skin, it felt like the smoothest satin, not at all unpleasant. The hand finished peeling the tape from her face and let it drop to the dirt alongside her neck. It then hovered over her mouth, as if expectant.

It took Melissa a moment for her to pull her mind back from her terror and panic and realize why he was waiting. She opened her mouth. The figure's fingers reached inside and pulled out the wadded panties, dropping them to the side as well.

"Th-thank you," Melissa said in a slightly slurred voice, her jaw muscles having trouble responding from being stretched and the cold. "Wh-ho are you?"

But the figure did not respond to her. She heard only another guttural groan, this one more urgent in tone.

"P-please, you're frightening me," Melissa pleaded.

The figure's hand was still hovering before her face. The fingers clenched briefly, then unfolded again. It moved slowly over her torso and lowered itself over one of her breasts.

"N-no, please..." Melissa begged. "D-don't hurt me..."

But when the figure's hand cupped itself over her breast, Melissa felt anything but hurt.

The hand was silky-smooth against the skin of her breast. It slid over her flesh as if oiled, the fingers reaching around and squeezing the firm flesh, sending a shiver through Melissa that was not at all related to the cold. The fingers probed her breast everywhere, finally finding her nipple and caressing it until it grew even more erect than it had been before. It then touched the very tip of the nipple, her most sensitive spot, and teased it with its fingertips.

Melissa moaned as these ministrations excited her almost as powerfully as she had been frightened by the initial appearance of the figure. Her body now begged for sexual release more than ever, her want so great that her pussy ached with unrelieved arousal. Even if she had not already been horny before his arrival, she was sure he could have easily driven her to this state.

The figure's hand moved to her other breast and began fondling it in the same manner. A second arm emerged from under the cloak, its hand resting on the first breast, so that it now stimulated both of them at once.

"Oh my God... " Melissa cried softly. "P-Please... please don't stop."

The figure turned its head abruptly towards her face, and now she could see two tiny, burning red points of light under the hood. She gasped and bit her lip to suppress a scream, and for a moment she could not feel the sensuous massage of her breasts.

And then Melissa heard something. It was like a ragged, hoarse whisper. Yet it did not come through the wind so much as it was the wind, shaped into sound for her to hear. You wish me to continue? the voice said. You wish me to give you pleasure?

Melissa swallowed and hesitated. Was she getting herself into something else again that she could not get herself out of? Yet now the figure had stopped fondling her breasts, leaving her desperate for his touch again. Finally she nodded.

You... are willing?

"I... I am willing. I-I need it."

The figure paused, partially withdrawing its hands. Despite the lack of facial expression, Melissa thought she sensed hesitation and some confusion from it, as if this were a new situation for it. Are you for me? she heard it ask of her.

Melissa was not sure how to answer that question. She had no idea who - or what - this figure was. For all she knew, it could be part of the elaborate ruse that Susan and Ann had set up. Though that would not explain the eerie look, or its unearthly voice.

"I'm not sure," Melissa finally responded, deciding that honesty was the only option. "I don't know how to answer that."

Another groan emanated from the figure. Finally it said, I will pleasure you. Then I will decide.

Melissa wondered exactly what it was to decide, but before she could think to ask it, she felt one of its satin-like hands slide down her abdomen. It moved like molasses, oozing with glacial speed. When it reached her pubic mound, it sifted her hair through its fingers, sending shock waves of pleasure through her body and making fresh moisture drip from her already sopping slit.

The hand stopped moving and Melissa cried out in desperation. "Please, t-touch me... Touch my p-pussy."

It was the first time that Melissa had ever managed to bring herself to say the word aloud, even in private. It betrayed the depths of her desire, as well as her realization that modesty was no longer something she could hope to preserve any longer.

She felt the figure's fingers descend into the cleft of her sex, her swollen clit stroked firmly and rhythmically. Melissa moaned deeply and panted as the strokes were increased in intensity and speed. She felt its fingers plunge into her cunt, penetrating her deeply, two fingers at first, then three, coaxing her open wider. With her legs spread as far as they were, there was little to stop him from finger-fucking her into a frenzy. Melissa rose like a rocket.

"Oh, God, yes... Please, don't stop... don't... ohhh... ohhhhhh!"

Melissa cried out loudly as she crested over into orgasm. Her pussy throbbed hard around the figure's fingers, feeling as solid inside her as any normal man's would. He kept rubbing her clit, driving her orgasm upwards, until she was climaxing more powerfully than she ever had before. Her genital muscles were spasming so hard that she saw stars in front of her closed eyes. She was ready to scream for the figure to ease off when it did just that, slowing its strokes and then removing its hand.

Melissa's head lolled to one side. "Th-thank you," she said weakly.

The figure groaned, more urgent than ever. Now there is my pleasure to see to, she heard it say.

Melissa did not see the hand until it was before her face again, and before she could ask what it was doing, the hand gently alighted on her neck. She felt her fear return as her mind filled with horrible visions of her throat being cut. Yet after a few seconds and a brief tingling around her throat, the hand was withdrawn.

What Melissa could not see was what the figure had left behind. Encircling her neck was a band, as impossibly black as the figure itself.

The next thing she knew, the darkness was atop her.

She felt its body slide atop hers, like a silk sheet being drawn over her skin, its touch light and sensuous. Despite having just cum, her pussy was still wet, and she felt desire renewed inside of her. She heard its guttural groan again, a rumble hinting at powerful, barely restrained passion and lust. As its body slid further over her, she was aware of something gently probing her labia, still slick with her juices.

Melissa's eyes opened wide. "Oh my God..." she breathed. Terror mixed with her desire, and for a moment, terror won out. "N-no! Please, no! Please don't..."

In mid sentence, she opened her mouth and cried out in surprise and ecstasy as she felt the figure penetrate her, its cock sliding inside her like a hot knife through butter, sliding into her as if into warm oil. She gasped as she felt his incredible length fill her completely, more than any sex toy dildo she had used on herself in her self-explorations. She did not think it was possible for anyone to have a penis that long, and it convinced her that there was nothing at all earthly about this figure.

So you are not for me after all, she heard the figure communicate to her, in a tone that was both mocking but questioning as well.