A Crac in the Wall

Here's the second half of the first chapter. In this one Maria encounters some of the major people who will shape her future, as the budding primal sexuality she began to embrace in the first part leads her to a whole new level. This part begins to bring in the horror elements much more as she begins to see foreshadows of what is yet to come in her future. Again, feedback is always welcome! Hope you enjoy!

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"Ms Debarreau, care to come back to the discussion?" Her Sociology teacher Professor Buffet's voice snapped her back from the window she'd been staring out daydreaming about her last passionate night in the cemetery with Brandon. "Ahh there you are!" he said in mock sarcasm as her face flushed bright red "You made some excellent points earlier, lets try and stick with it for just a few more minutes, then we'll watch a short film and be done a little early today, as I'm well aware most of you probably share Maria's wish to be somewhere other than my classroom today.

"Maria, since your back in the room with us again, why don't you go ahead and get us started with some of the differences in the religious practices of more 'primitive' or 'tribal' based cultures like the ancient Celts and Nords, Native Americans, Aztecs, and various tribal cultures of Africa and South America, as opposed to the church based organizations in the so called 'civilized societies' of the world."

Maria began to regurgitate the key points the last nights reading had stressed, then sat back and pretended to listen attentively as a few other people filled in other details or attempted to argue with the instructor, which never worked.

"A good point, but..." he'd always begin encouragingly enough. "what you fail to realize is the obvious facts of..." Then the professor would proceed on a degrading tangent that took his students best arguments and shredded them like wrapping paper on Christmas. Today though Maria couldn't even pay enough attention to hear the latest smart ass getting ripped a new one, her mind was wandering again. Why couldn't she focus today?

The clock on the wall read 5 till 3 when the professor finally stopped talking and started the video on a case study of the religious beliefs of a few of the African tribal cultures that would tolerate their inquiry. The video had been droning on for about 20 minutes before it began to focus in on a particular ritual. Drums and vigorous chanting began, several of the non participating tribe members seemed to smile ominously at the camera crew as they asked what the ritual was about, and a few even laughed as the crews interpreters face pales, and he shakily reported that they claimed in was a ritual to foresee the end of days, hell on earth.

Maria turned her head for a moment to the window again, but startled back to the screen when a voice from the film whispered a word that caught her attention, she knew it was crazy, but it had felt like it had been whispered right in her ear.

"Lixiani" the man in the center of the circle who seemed to be leading the rite called out again, loudly this time, a terrible smile on his face. Maria felt her eyes lock onto the eyes on the screen, and couldn't help but feel that the man was staring directly at her, even though the film was over 2 years old. As she stared, the classroom seemed to fade away around her, the screen lost its glaze, and the scene playing out on suddenly seemed less like a recording, and more like a live performance. For a moment Maria even thought she could feel the heat from the fire in their circle, and smell the smoke and sweat of the surrounding scene.

Why did it feel like there was dirt under her feet? Maria looked down to find herself no longer seated in the classroom, but rather standing on the edge of the circle of people conducting the strange ritual. Was this a dream?

The man in the center of the group pointed directly at her and began chanting something in an unrecognizable tung. Maria found herself drawn forward, her feet moving against her own will. The circle of people closed in around her, dancing and swinging wildly, spinning around her. The leader of the group came toward her, and began to sprinkle some strange mixture of dust and ground leaves over her which seemed to cause a dizziness to sweep over her. Suddenly everything was spinning around her. The dancers moved in their terrifying parade, the hands of the costumed man seemed to be flying everywhere around her at once, and the earth itself seemed to move and sway in an unsteady fashion beneath her feet.

Panic swelled up in her chest as she felt her lungs get tight. A scream tried to escape her mouth, but some part of her choked it in. She had to get out of there. Why couldn't she just wake herself up, or snap out of it? None of this was real... it couldn't be.. she was in a class room, safe and sound... Wasn't she?

All of her internal pleading with her mind to come to reality failed as she felt the stinging blow of a solid wooden walking stick or staff of some form that the lead man had brought forcefully against her back. The girl stumbled forward, and noticed that the crowd had parted, leaving her a clear path into the tangled forest beyond. The man pointed toward it with the large staff and yelled something she couldn't comprehend, then drew the stick up as though preparing to strike her with it again. It was more than enough for Maria, she needed no second explanation, and charged forward into the night air. Behind her the dancers shrieked and cheered, jumping up and down wildly as they watcher her run off.

Everything was still spinning around her as she crashed through the alien landscape of the dense jungle like forest around her. Her feet barely stayed under her as she stumbled across rocks and roots. Fallen limbs and tangled vines caught at her legs and the fabric of the long loose skirt she was wearing. As she ran the voices of the tribe faded out behind her. The further she got from them, the more her head seemed to clear. By the time she could no longer hear even the faintest echo from their festivities, the nauseating spinning had quelled itself back into a minor dizzied sensation, as though she had stood up to quickly, or just woken up.

As she began to take in her surroundings, confusion sunk its way in a little further. What had seemed to be a dense rain forest type jungle had somehow become filled with dark evergreen pines, and tall hearty oaks and maples, much like the woods in the north east U.S. Where she'd grown up. Somewhere in the distance an owl hooted in the night. The thick canopy of tree branches made the woods almost pitch black, though she could catch short glimpses of the stars and full moon through a partially clouded sky.

The light of the moon seemed to be coming down in a small opening up ahead, so Maria began to navigate her way through the trees and underbrush towards that sot, hoping to find an open space to get her bearings, though she still had no idea where she was, or how she was ever going to get out of this waking nightmare.

Her feet came to a stop on the carpeting of twigs and pine needles at the very edge of the clearing while she paused to survey the open space in front of her. To her surprise the clearing was fairly large, with open rocky ground throughout the middle. What was more startling yet was a young man about her own age standing in the middle of it all atop a large jutting rock, staring up at the night sky with his back to her. He was dressed in fairly common clothing for the guys her age now, with tighter blue jeans than had priorly been fashionable for men, and a plain black t-shirt, with some form of studded belt strung to loosely around the pants to have actually been of any real use, and the scruffy "emo" cut to his hair that instantly made her think of Brandon. The build was even about right. Now she knew she must be dreaming, she must have fallen asleep watching the movie, and only imagined herself drawn into their rituals. Why else would her mind have turned her escape into the comfortable forests she'd spent so much time in growing up, and put the man she'd been well on her way to falling quickly for hear in the middle of it all.

"Brandon?" Maria spoke the name softly as she walked more confidently toward the boy in the middle space. "That you babe?"

She'd made her way almost half way across to where the young man stood when he turned slowly to face her, and extended an arm toward her with a smile that seemed almost sinister. Her feet stopped dead in their tracks as she realized abruptly that this was not her young lover by any means, nor was it anyone she could ever remember having met before in her life. Now where did her mind conjure this guy up out of?

"Lixi..."There was that word again. Was he calling her that? The man from the tribe had said it when he looked at her to. Was it a name? Just who the hell did these people think she was? The boy smiled as though he was greeting a long lost friend and approached as he continued to speak to her, while she took a few faltering steps back. "No no babe, don't be afraid. I'm sorry that I'm not who you expected, but you gotta trust me, you're meant to be here with me right now. You should forget about him anyway. You two aren't meant for one another, he has another purpose. Now come here, there really isn't much time and I wouldn't want to waist this."

"Samith..." the name escaped her lips before she'd even realized she said it. The man now standing only an arms length away smiled and nodded as he again extended a hand out toward her. Maria felt the dizziness sweep over her again as she surrendered her hand into his.

He lead her back to the center of the clearing and helped her up onto the rocks before placing an arm around her and drawing her in close to himself. She didn't resist at all as he lowered his head and brought his lips to hers tenderly. He was taller than she'd realized at first, well over the comfortable 6 foot mark that Brandon stood at. He was tall enough that he had to bend slightly to execute the kiss.

"What is all this? Where are we?" she asked as she brought her head to rest lightly against his shoulder, forehead tucked in at the base of his neck. Maria wasn't sure why, but for some reason she felt quite comfortable there with him. The strange effects of the medicine mans conjuration seemed to have been wearing off again, and this strange mans embrace made her feel warm and safe in this odd string of events.

"My Lixi, don't worry about where we are, just know that it will all be over soon, and yet it's all just beginning." The young man ran his fingers through her shoulder length auburn hair a few times, then down across her back, locking firmly around her hip. With the other hand he softly tipped her chin up to bring her gaze to his. Somehow she hadn't noticed before how dark his eyes really were. They seemed to be such a dark brown that they blend in with the pupil entirely, just large black dots in the middle of the bright white around them. "For us, this is only the beginning." Letting go of her chin, his hand slid gently down over her neck, then gingerly slipped across her chest, fallowing the curving contour of her left breast as it continued down over her body, finally coming to rest on her other hip.

Shifting his weight he pulled her in tightly against his body and brought one arm up behind her back before sweeping her to the side as he again moved to kiss her. Passion boiled behind it this time, and Maria felt a heated hunger much like she had with Brandon swell up inside her. Her arms wrapped tightly around him, as brief visions of their entangled bodies in a bed of red satin flashed behind her closed eyes.

As he held her there, locked into that dream like kiss, he again moved a hand back up along the curves of her body, bringing it more directly and slowly across the soft exposed skin of her cleavage above the low scooped neck of her peasant style shirt. His fingers deftly found the small bow of the drawstring in the fabric, that held the neckline drawn up to just the level Maria wanted it, with just enough of the tops of her sumptuous breasts peaking out to tease, while not reaching the slutty over exposed level. The young man toyed with the string for a few moments before tugging slowly at it to loosen its hold on the top. As the string relaxed its hold, the neckline loosened, allowing him slip his hand inside the shirt and caress her skin directly.

Maria shivered slightly as his hand slid across her flesh. They were colder than she'd expected, but not so cold as to make the sensation any less enjoyable. Her nipples reacted instantly to the chill, and were already firm and pointed as his fingers crossed gently across one, pausing to circle softly around it before sliding down to cup the entire breast more firmly. A shutter of pleasure ran down her spine as she pressed her hips forward into his, burning more with every moment to feel the heat she knew this man could fill her with, no matter how cold his hands may be.

His hand retreated momentarily from its exploration of her soft, warm skin to slip something out of his back pocket. A quick flip of his wrist and the accompanying clacking of metal on metal drew Maria's eyes to the small butterfly knife he'd pulled from his pocket, and now held open, blade ready and glintingly sharp, in his hand, which drew slowly closer to her body again. She knew she should be afraid, but in this strange state, she still felt calm and completely enamored by the moment.

Maria closed her eyes and allowed herself to be lost again in the kiss, even as she felt the cold steel of the knife against her chest. She flinched only slightly as the blade pierced the skin directly above her heart on the top of her right breast in a shallow slicing wound. The boy placed a shallow incision about 2 inches long over her heart, and repeated with another of the same across it, forming a small x shaped mark. Maria could feel her blood welling up in the wound as she heard the knife drop from his hand and hit the rocks beneath them with a clang. She could feel his heart racing faster as he broke their kiss to let his lips wander fervently down over her neck. Firmly and intently kissing her skin as he worked his way to where he had just drawn the small mark, and kissed directly over it. For a moment, the man paused with a deviants smile as he licked her blood from his lips, but then bent his head forward hungrily and pressed his mouth firmly over top of the wound, sucking lightly and lapping at it with his tung to keep the wound open.

Her eyes were now wide open, as she tipped her head back to look up at the stars, suddenly feeling lost in there vastness as a wave of sheer pleasure washed over her body. She clutched his hair lightly in the hand she now had gently wrapped around the back of his neck, drawing him even more firmly against her chest, encouraging him to drink even as the reason escaped her. The other hand she lowered to his belt line, running her fingers across his chest and abs on the way south. Maria only hesitated a moment before boldly continuing down to feel his hard shaft through the heavy denim of his jeans. Gently she worked and stroked at it from outside the material, wondering if she dared to loosen the zipper and to be able to feel it in her hands, all the while knowing she would rather feel it deep inside her body.

She would have willingly given herself to this perfect stranger right in that moment if a noise from the woods hadn't ended their embrace. The man she'd called Samith looked up with a startled fear behind his nearly black eyes, and instantly began hurrying her to the edge of the clearing.

"So this begins I guess. I'd been hoping it would have taken them at least a little longer to get here than that," The young man slid the fabric of her shirt back up over her breasts, and began to slowly draw the string back in tighter but his hands began to shake as he did so. The fear in his eyes was almost painful to see. She wanted to comfort him, to tell him whatever it was it would be ok, but somehow she suddenly felt certain it wouldn't be. "but they never could leave me to enjoy anything for to long without some torment." His hands found hers, leading her along with him as he walked toward the woods. "Lixi, remember, don't come to me once they get here, no matter what you see, or what I say, you have to stay where I put you. This is going to feel like it takes forever I'm afraid, but remember, it will be over soon, you will see me again, and you are not crazy. This IS real Lixi. Soon." He lead her to the far edge of the clearing then kissed her lips one last time before lifting her by the waste up into the bows of one of the large old pine trees at the edge as he said the last words, then instructed her to climb up higher if she could.

From the woods all around them the sounds of what seemed to be some kind of dog came from everywhere. She could hear them running quickly, darting through the tree's, yipping back and forth to each other all the while. From what she could see, the looked like coyotes, or jackals, but slightly larger, though not big enough in build or behaving in a way to suggest wolves of any kind. The young man had no sooner returned to the center of the clearing then one of the creatures sauntered in to the edges of the moonlit space. Much to Maria's disbelief she watched as the dog-like creature seemed to shimmer in a hazy fog, and emerge as a tall lanky man, most likely in his 30's.

"Samith..." the new man called to the young man in the center as he approached. "I'm glad to see you decided to come on your own instead of making me drag you again. I would have hated for you to miss meeting her first. Such lovely skin... how I'll enjoy tearing it to ribbons." The words sent a chill down Maria's spine which reverberated into cold dark fear as his sadistic laugh filled the area. Each of the other creatures still lurking and weaving through the trees seemed to echo the laugh with there shrill little barking howls

"You wont touch her. You know that, just as well as you know that I know it." The Samith boy who'd held her so passionately moments before replied in an almost cold and impartial tone. "Besides, she's mine now. I'm not so much a fool as you think Baeliel. She's marked as mine now, I've tasted her flesh. You couldn't lay a hand on her even if you did intend to." A cold wave of despair washed over Maria as she touched the wound on her chest, still sticky with blood. Had this all been for the right to own her? Did any of the show of passion even matter? Her head spun as she wondered why it was she even needed to be claimed or owned at all.

The tall man called Baeliel crossed the final few yards in the blink of an eye, and suddenly had the young Samith by the throat. Samith didn't appear to be alarmed or frightened by the action. His arms still at his side, he continued to stare the other man in the eyes.

"Perhaps it should come out of your flesh then!" another boy who couldn't have been any older than 16 emerged from the last bits of silver shimmer at the edge of the woods almost directly below where Maria sat perched in the tree and headed for the center. Before he got very far the tall man held up his free hand, halting this new one in his tracks

"Still your tung. I've already told you tonight is not the night for this." The tall man called Baeliel spoke to his young accomplice without ever breaking his gaze on Samith. "Go back and be patient. Tonight is not our night to act, only to watch." With this command the younger boy turned and headed back to the woods, his heavy bipedal steps changing into the scampering of 4 small paws as he disappeared.

The tall man turned his attention back to Samith. His hand lowered from the younger boys throat to smooth the long black coat he was wearing as though doing so would somehow smooth his momentarily rumpled composition as well. With a menacing smile he sidestepped around his adversary and walked directly toward the tree Maria was huddling high in the branches of.