Chapter 1: A Dark and Stormy Night

"You have our cell phone numbers?"

"Yes, Mom," answered the sixteen-year-old Cathy, with visible patience.

"And if you have a problem, you can call Mrs. Christian across the street," added her father, directing it to all three of his children.

"Yes, Dad. You might have mentioned it twice or four times," responded Megan, with noticeably less patience. Megan the "baby" at thirteen years of age, was normally a cheerful girl, but she had little tolerance when feeling smothered.

The parents were leaving only for a weekend, thought Tony. One might think they would be gone for a month!

Finally, Dad leaned over to Tony, and whispered "take care of your sisters."

Despite the fact that his Dad didn't have to lean much at all – Tony experienced a growth spurt recently -- he didn't think that his sisters would accept much care. Certainly Cathy, his senior by two years would not deign to accept any guidance from Tony. Despite the fact that he was finally taller than Cathy, he had no illusions about who was the senior kid.

Rather than go into all of this, Tony just nodded. After all, what could happen in three days? His parents were going to a company-sponsored vacation in the mountains. The three kids could certainly handle feeding themselves for a few days.

To nobody's surprise, the parents phoned in as soon as they got to their lodge. Cathy assured them that nothing happened in the intervening four hours.

Tony and his sisters were not fighting. They generally got along well, although Cathy felt she was too old to play with the younger children.

Tony liked his sisters. This was something he would never admit aloud, out of an unwritten code of brothers. After a brief period of being embarrassed by Megan, his younger sister, Tony decided he liked her still. At thirteen, she was showing curves that Tony had hard time ignoring. Megan's dark hair, fair skin and recently acquired breasts made Tony's friends silly in her presence. He had to threaten his friend Brad to stop him talking about how hot Megan was becoming.

Tony was quite perturbed that he secretly agreed with Brad. Megan was still young enough that she enjoyed spending time with her brother, and seemed unconscious of her beauty. Tony was afraid that soon she would realize her power, and spend all her time on the social games in school. In the meantime, he delighted in playing with her, carefully acting casual when glimpsing her half-dressed at home.

Cathy, on the other hand, was very conscious of her beauty and position in high school. She didn't quite ignore Tony, but the concept of spending time with him never seemed to cross her mind. Tony thought she was a knockout, a golden goddess. Of course, most of the high school boys agreed with that, a fact that Cathy realized years ago.

It was getting increasingly windy. The November day started chilly but clear, but towards the evening, clouds, gusts of wind, and intermittent rain made the darkness come even earlier than normal for the time of year.

Cathy won in the television stakes, and she was watching a romantic comedy. While nobody was admitting it, the house felt a bit lonely, without the parents and with darkness closing in. Megan and Tony decided to stay in the living room, rather than go to one of their bedrooms to play with their computers. They were playing a card game, and ignoring the movie. A couple of times, they were distracted by a particular steamy moment in the movie.

Tony was determinately ignoring the hard-on he got at each such scene, focusing on the cards and praying for it to go away. He didn't notice the hard nipples on Megan at similar moments; if he had, his hard-on would have been impossible to get rid of.

At times like this, it seemed anything could give him a hard-on: Megan's old, thin sweatpants; Cathy stretching on the couch, making her soft sweater outline glorious breasts; the actresses on the screen frolicking in the pool. Tony tried to think of chemical formulas, or helping to change oil in his father's car. Sometimes it helped, at others his cock stayed hard for what seemed hours.

The movie was almost over when the gusts of wind started getting very loud. The sudden spatters of rain on the roof and windows were supplemented with branches striking the house. Tony noticed Cathy flinching slightly at the sounds. He considered putting on some loud music to mask the noises, when the lights went out.

Megan squealed slightly.

"What happened?!" Cathy almost shouted.

"Probably a large branch fell down and tore the electric cable," answered Tony. He didn't like the sudden darkness, but he figured he needed to sound manly for his sisters.

"What are we going to do?" asked Megan.

"I don't know," said Cathy. "Maybe Mrs. Christian still has electricity?"

Tony got up and looked out the windows.

"The entire street is dark, even the light poles. The break must further up."

Tony could see the occasional lightning strikes in the distance. The wind was still strong, but hopefully not getting any stronger. Now that his eyes adapted to the darkness, he half-saw, half-heard Megan get up on the couch and sit next to Cathy. The girls seemed more comfortable close to each other.

"Will we be okay here?" asked Megan. She sounded very young in the darkness.

"We'll be fine. The house is dark, but it's perfectly safe and dry," answered Tony. There were some big trees around the house, and Tony was a bit concerned about a large branch breaking off, and crashing through the roof or wall, but decided that his sisters did not need to hear this. Besides, he thought maybe the wind was getting a little weaker. In any case, the falling of branches slowed down; perhaps all the weak ones were already torn off the trees.

"Well, let's find a flashlight. I think there is one in the bottom drawer in the kitchen," said Cathy. Her voice was still a bit shaky, but she was getting better.

Tony found the flashlight. The batteries were weak, but the yellowish light was still quite a relief. They ended up finding some matches and a couple of candles for light, and supplemented the flashlight.

"Let's not open the refrigerator," said Cathy. "The food there will keep cold longer if the door is closed. Besides, we can't heat anything up – the stove is electric."

They had some snacks by the light of the candles. Sitting close to each other, against the encroaching darkness, they drank tap water and munched on cookies.

Megan, sounding normal, said "You know, now that the wind has slowed down, it's kind of romantic to eat with the candles.

"But what are we going to do? It's too dark to play board games, and there is no television, music or computer without electricity?

"Should we phone mom and dad?"

"No," said Cathy. "What are they going to do? Drive four hours, in the dark, with branches and trees probably blocking many roads? No, it's pretty late, let's just go to bed. Tomorrow morning maybe the electricity will be repaired. At least it will be light enough to navigate even without it."

So, while before normal bed-time for Megan and Tony, all three siblings performed their evening ablutions by the light of the candles or the ailing flashlight, and retired to bed.

Tony was half dreaming of naked girls. Embarrassingly, but not for the first time, many of them resembled his sisters. He was hard again, and was sleepily stroking himself on top of his briefs. Suddenly, he heard a noise at his door.

He awoke quickly, and yanked his hand away. "Who is it," he whispered loudly. It was very dark in his bedroom, and he was covered by a blanked; but he was still scared of being seen playing with himself.

"It's me," he heard Megan's voice. "Can I sleep with you? It's freezing!" she whispered, entering the room slowly.

"Now that I think of it, it's cold," said Tony, who was bundled carefully under his blanket. Normally, he had his arms and shoulders outside, but unconsciously he pulled under the blanket in response to the chilly air.

"The heat is gas, but the controls and the blowers are all electric, so I guess it's not working.

"Okay, I guess?" said Tony. He was still hard, but had no heart to say no to his little sister.

"Well, I've been shivering under my blanket. Darn!"

"What's the matter?" asked Tony, not, however, exposing any more of himself.

"I stumbled over the darn blanket!"

Tony could now see that Megan was bundled awkwardly in her blanket. She sat on the bed, hissed "skoot over", and spread her own blanket on top of Tony's. Then she dived under the combined blankets.