The old Victorian home lent itself well to the festivities at hand. It was ornate but run-down, with enough cobwebs that the addition of the store-bought, cotton webbing seemed not only redundant, but silly. At least the inhabitants of the home were artful enough to avoid decorating with cardboard cutouts of smiling pumpkins, opting for black velvet hangings and broken doll parts strung about. Each room was dimly lit by soft lanterns or candles, and the music played was seductive and dark.
From behind her table in the corner of the main room, the young woman reading Tarot cards could observe them all. At the ripe old age of 28, Ellie had grown into a bit of a hermit, though it took less coaxing by her friends to get her out on this, her most favorite of holidays. Generally, though, humans frustrated her. She often wondered why people so consistently felt the need to put on a mask of perfection to the world. If everyone would just loosen up and agree that we've all got flaws, Ellie reasoned, then we might have an easier time with patience, forgiveness, and working together. Instead of getting drunk and having clever banter with the rest, Ellie decided to spend her evening dressed as a gypsy, reading cards, for nothing but the satisfaction that came of it. Though she did not let it on to those that sat in front of her, Ellie didn't believe herself psychic, nor could she see the future. Rather, Ellie was attracted to the Tarot deck through her interest in psychology: each card represented a different aspect of the human condition. By understanding the cards, Ellie gained a broader perspective of what made people tick.
"Where's your crystal ball, lady?" a familiar voice called her out of her intense bout of people watching.
"I don't need one. Those are for hacks," she replied, and smiled sweetly at Austin, her best friend's brother. At this point, she might as well have called him her other best friend, for they'd be a regular trio for the past three or four years. "And what are you supposed to be?" Ellie asked. He was wearing a cowboy hat that had been spray-painted silver, with two wire antenna attached.
Austin flashed his brightest double dimple grin. "I'm a space cowboy, of course."
Ellie grinned under rolling eyes. "That's just your excuse to walk around with your shirt unbuttoned, isn't it?" For as long as she'd known him, Austin had been in every way the ladies man, and with his charm and looks he'd never had a hard time of it.
"Can't let all those years of kung fu training go to waste," he replied, while tipping his hat to a tiny girl with huge tits in a revealing cat costume.
Ellie shook her head, "you never waste a second, do you?"
Austin shrugged, but didn't reply. "How 'bout you tell me my future, purdy lady?" he said with a thick Texas drawl.
Ellie smiled. "As long as you don't start talking in space-language, kay?"
Austin nodded and removed his hat, and they proceeded with the ritual of the cards that Ellie had basically crafted to her liking. Then she laid the cards, it was a fairly straightforward layout.
Ellie cleared her throat and told Austin what she saw. "There is a fiery woman in your life right now...she is very passionate, intelligent, a little dramatic. You have deep feelings for her, romantic feelings," she chuckled, "Imagine that." Clearing her throat, she said, "You will soon have to make an important choice. It will have to be a clear decision, no standing in the middle ground, or you'll get torn in two," she paused, "Happy Halloween," she finished, for there was really nothing else to add.
Austin blinked a few times, looking at her as if he expected more. After a few moments, he cleared his throat and joked, "how comes you talked to that there goblin for half an hour, and this is all I get? Some kind of intergalactic racism, I 'spose." With that, he tipped his hat, gave her a one-dimpled grin, and gave his seat to the next in line.
A mousy looking gray-haired woman sat before her. Aside from being dressed in all black, she did not appear to be wearing a costume. She smiled at Ellie, if you could call it that, really, it looked more like a crack slowly forming in the sidewalk.
Ellie drew a deep breath and got to the business of the cards. It was a very complicated reading, full of contradictions, and it ended on a sour note. But, as always, Ellie read the cards as she saw them and did not sugarcoat the dark stuff.
The woman took the news without reaction. After Ellie was finished speaking, she reached down deep into a large black handbag, and withdrew some sort of jewelry. "My dear," the woman said, her gray eyes suddenly very bright, "you have a tremendous gift. Please, bend your neck, so that I might give you a pendant."
The sound of breaking glass echoed from the other room, and Ellie blinked into the hags' eyes. She couldn't explain it to anyone, but she felt compelled to do the old woman's bidding, though her heart was suddenly pounding in her chest. The woman's brittle hands reached over her head, they smelled of medicine. Held by a dainty chain, the stone itself heavy and unforgettable.
The woman gave Ellie another sidewalk-crack smile, and rose without a word. Ellie looked down at the pendant that slipped into her cleavage. It was a large iridescent stone, cut into a teardrop shape. It was polished, so highly polished, in fact, that she could see the room reflected in it, in mesmerizing detail, the world turned upside down.
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Before Ellie even saw the place, she knew she'd never been there before. She could smell it, an odd mixture of rose, smoke, and mildew. Slowly, as if they were weighed down with lead, Ellie opened her eyes. It did little good, as the room was pitch black except for a single candle on a nearby table. She could make out an assortment of what might have been doctor's instruments on the table with the candles.
As Ellie tried to lift her head through it's haze, she realized she could not go far. She was chained to a stainless steel table , her arms raised over her head, and her legs splayed wide, shackled in chains that descended from the ceiling. A chill crept into her spine and spread throughout her body. The temperature of the cellar was as of a stark autumn night.
She was completely nude, though a thick leather strap ran under her breasts, pinning her firmly to the cold table.
Iced blood pumped through her, for a moment she struggled to breath. Although she was certain she'd never been in the room before, that was all she knew. She had no idea where she was, or how she'd gotten there. She could not even remember the Halloween party. In fact, she was hard pressed to find her own name.
But that was not what she was worried about at the moment. She was in danger. Once she was out of danger, she could try to remember her name. She tugged at the restraints around her wrists, and found her arms firmly pinned. The shackles around her ankles seemed equally durable. It was the struggling that caused her to recognize a different sensation between her wide spread legs: someone had inserted something into her pussy.
With her vaginal muscles, she tried to expel the foreign object, without luck. She could tell the object was smooth and embedded deeply, and gravity worked against her, as she lay flat and was bent, perpendicularly, at the waist. Still, she buck her hips and increased her effort, only to stimulate herself in a very irritating manner.
"Ah. I see my pet has found her toy," a voice from the recesses of darkness spoke.
Ellie at once forced herself to cease struggling, and said nothing.
