The House With Many Hands Pt 05

The word DANGER was underlined three times.

I stood and looked at the board. I had become used to seeing the safe word underlined instead. This meant the ghosts could sense the Harpy. It was here. Circling the house.

I tried not to be scared, but defiant.

It was time.

I felt nervous, but I knew I had to confront it sooner or later. The only other option was to avoid it forever, and hope it never took me by surprise. I couldn't live like that. I wouldn't.

"I'm going to talk to it," I said out loud. "Or try to. Carver thinks I can reach it. It needs to know I belong here. That I'm part of the house."

There was a small white stone in my pocket, I had taken it from the garden. I'd started to carry it around it with me ever since I'd thought about confronting the Harpy. I wanted a connection. Some simple token I could feel binding me to the property. The land. It was smooth and cool to the touch. I stroked it occasionally. I held it now, weighing it carefully. Could I remember- feel- this weight in the dream? Invoke it somehow?

The Harpy needed to know I was protecting the summoning stone. But was I? Wasn't that just folly on my part? How could I show it I wasn't a threat? Maybe I was. Maybe my presence here was bad in some way. I thought about the Sinner. I had caused the activity in the house to increase. My presence alone was triggering. That had caught the Sinner's attention. If he wasn't a threat to the stone then someone else might be. Maybe the Harpy was right to want to punish me? To remove me?

No, it had wanted much more than that. As much as anything it had wanted to fuck me. That much had been clear. It was difficult to recall it vividly. It had only appeared in a dream, after all, but I remembered its visceral erection. Its arousal. Its intent.

It had lost the element of surprise. The shock value. I hoped I could stand up to it. Again I wondered how dangerous a dream could be? If it attacked me, was I in any real risk of harm?

If it got too bad, wouldn't I just wake up?

I asked the ghosts to help me. I told them to try and wake me if I seemed distressed. I felt better thinking they would watch over me. It wasn't one of the long nights, so if I slept now, I didn't know where I would go, or who would be waiting for me. I might be alone. Maybe it wouldn't even be able to find me?

I sat on the edge of the bed for a while, thinking. In the end I realised I wasn't afraid. Perhaps I should have been, but instead I felt angry. I wanted this thing gone. I wanted my home back.

I turned off the lights and lay down on my bed, fully clothed. I closed my eyes. Someone was tapping the board. I knew they would be underlining DANGER again.

"I know." I thought about the summoning stone, laid in the foundations of the house. Donald Crook had known it was there, or brought it here. What more had he known?

What if I dug down-- no, I shouldn't disturb it, that might ruin everything.

What if there were other stones? I reached out my hand, "Liam?"

I could smell lavender. He was close. He took my hand. I sensed Adam sitting on the end of the bed. I could feel his agitation.

I was so tired of doubt. I wanted more.

Liam was rubbing my hand. Someone was tapping the board. The real danger, I thought, drowsily, was letting fear win.

*

Darkness came, and departed.

I was sitting on the dream bed, the bed that was not my own, but had once felt just as safe. I wasn't naked, like the previous times. The mood here had shifted.

The bed was in a circle of white light, and beyond it was the dark void, but something had changed since last time. There was more than darkness. I could see the outlines of distant mountains, the shapes of crooked trees. There was a world out there. Some weird plane of existence. I walked to the edge of the white circle, I looked back to the bed. I didn't want to wander far. No one else was here. I was alone. I looked back into the dim world and took a step towards it. Wind hit my cheek. What was this place?

I looked around. Now I was out of the white circle, the terrain was a little more clear. It all seemed murky, as if it was lost in a fog, but it was clearer than before.

Where was the Harpy?

It must know I was here. Surely it could sense me?

I didn't want to venture too far from the light, but I was curious. I paused, feeling in my pocket I found a small stone there. I took it out and studied it. It was no longer white but black. There was a faint crack in it, a small green shoot was growing there. It was different here. Altered. More.

I examined it, frowning. Life, reaching from out of nothingness? It meant something. Everything here did.

At this thought I heard something that made me look up. From up in the distant mountains, I could hear the beating of great wings.

The Harpy.

"What a nasty place."

The voice startled me. I turned sharply. My jaw dropped. There was a tall thin man sitting at the base of a large blackened tree. He was peering up at an apple that was hanging from the lowest branch. He nudged it with a long finger, and it swayed above his head.

I knew that voice.

The Sinner. I took an involuntary step backwards, then steeled myself. "Why are you here?"

He looked at me. It was the first time I clearly saw his face. Gaunt, pale, with bushy white eyebrows and pale green eyes. His expression was quizzical. "They're your dreams. Usually they're quite dark. I was just passing, and I saw a light."

"Get out."

He licked his lips. "What are your intentions, with the beast? Going to bend the knee, or just bend over?"

I took a step angrily towards him, and he pulled himself up to his full height. He had a good foot on me, easily. He wasn't intimidating like the Harpy, but I didn't like the gleam in his eye. He wore a loose black robe. I wondered if he was concealing a weapon? What were his intentions? I thought he wanted to shock me, or shame me, but what if he wanted to hurt me?

There was a shriek in the distance. I shuddered. Being back here made the Harpy so much realer. I had forgotten the intensity of its presence. It wasn't until I was dreaming that I could vividly recall its leering look. The monstrous size of it.

The Sinner watched me and giggled. "Hide behind the tree."

All of the trees were withered and frail. I looked at the bright green apple and frowned. What was this place? Was the tree dead or alive? Both? Neither?

"There's no hiding," I muttered.

The Sinner opened up its robe, "Crawl in."

I looked away quickly. I had caught a glimpse of a toned torso, and a tattoo of a broken heart. Its skin was light blue under whatever moon lit this void. I looked up to see the sky. Anything to look at but him. There was only darkness.

"Where are we?" I wondered if anything could be learned from the Sinner?

"True nowhere," he said."Just south of Heaven, east of Hell. I could rip out my heart, if you'd like a compass?"

I glanced from the sky to him, he had closed his robes. His voice was light and frail. He couldn't help but fascinate me.

"What will you do, when the thing gets here?" His face was amused. He was intent on me alone, he rarely turned his attention to anything else.

I didn't want to explain myself to him. "I belong at the house." I turned away from him and heard him snort.

"The beast won't care. It will ravage you and devour you. I'm just curious in what order."

"It's just a dream." I hoped I was safe, in the real world, at least. I was fishing for confirmation.

The Sinner smiled slyly. "Indeed."

I looked at the weird dim sky, it was growing pale, as if some morbid sun were rising somewhere. The Harpy was so much closer. "Have you come to watch?" I couldn't tear my eyes from it, so I spoke to the Sinner without looking.

Suddenly his voice was at my ear, he had moved close behind me. I stiffened uncomfortably.

"Always. People truly expose themselves when they are afraid. When they are alone. True nudity is found when the soul is peeled back."

I couldn't look away from the Harpy. It was so much bigger then I remembered. Why was I here? How could I have forgotten how terrible it was? What was I thinking?

"You're just a voyeur," I muttered, "a peeper."

I was scared now. The Sinner didn't even worry me any more. I found myself insulting him without pause.

"Just?" I heard the first stirring of resentment in his voice. I didn't turn to look at him. His arms were around my waist, long fingers locking together. "Look at me."

I stared up at the Harpy, so much closer now. I could hear laughter. It must have thought I was such foolish prey, to stumble back into its reach. Either that, or I was surrendering to its desires. Submitting.

Prey, either way.

"Look at me!" Irritation was beginning to topple over into something else. I didn't know what I might see on the Sinner's face if I turned, and I didn't care.

The sky was screaming towards us.

"Lust hath delivered thee," the Sinner whispered in my ear. "Shall I watch while it ends and then desecrates you? Or shall you turn to sin for salvation? Will you beg me for help?"

"Would you help?"

His breath was warm at my neck. He just laughed.

Suddenly the mist was parting, the air was hard against my face as mighty wings came close. The Harpy was landing. I looked and saw it hunched only a few feet away. It was crouched, watching me. I saw those large swollen breasts, the always ready cock.

"Mmm," the Sinner moaned. "What a beautiful horror is this."

The Harpy cocked its head when the Sinner spoke. It bared its teeth, it had regarded me with quiet lascivious intent, but now its humour changed entirely. I pulled the Sinner's hands apart from around my waist and pushed away from him, I wasn't with him. I felt the need to make that very clear.

I stood apart from them, at some point between them. Neither was safe. I had no idea where to go. What to do. I glanced from one to the other, then looked at the Harpy.

"I- I belong here," I began, "I am protecting the house. Like you-"

Maybe it was the wrong thing to say, maybe the Sinner's presence had changed everything, but the Harpy roared. I was too terrified to say anything else. I thought it was about to launch itself at me, tear at me with its talons. Instead it locked its gaze on the Sinner. I tried to read its expression, disdain? Disgust?

The Sinner opened his robe, exposing himself to the Harpy. He was not only an intruder here, but a violator. The Harpy let out a scream and launched itself forward. I didn't think the Sinner would stand a chance, but he stood at his full height and just laughed maniacally.

I staggered back as they collided. Everything around me seemed to be shifting. Matter was melting, as if the dream was becoming unstable. The trees were shaking as if being battered by an invisible wind. The red grass was flinching. The sand and dirt was warping, as if giant worms were writhing underneath us. It felt as if everything was reacting to us. The Sinner wasn't meant to be here, or maybe it was me?

I tried to hurry back into the white light, but the Harpy and the Sinner were in the way. I tried to edge around them, watching in horror as they clawed and pawed at each other. They were like wild animals, but it was worse than that. Each one was incensed by the other, but also clearly intrigued. They were rolling across the dirt now, like a carnal tumbleweed. I saw limbs thrashing as they tried to pin each other down. What did they want to do to each other?

I could only catch fragments as I watched, appalled. I saw them groping, biting. Locking limbs around each other. The Sinner grabbed the Harpy's cock, while it bit his neck. I ran back towards the white circle, happy to leave the spectacle behind. As soon as I entered the world behind me went dim and muted. I ran to behind the bed and crouched down.

I heard screams and laughter and then silence.

I shut my eyes. Wake up, I told myself. Wake up.

The Sinner had ruined everything, but at least he'd kept the Harpy off me. I didn't want to know what the Harpy had intended.

Wakeupwakeupwakeup-

*

Everything went dark. I found myself in a familiar corridor, but it wasn't from the house.

"Oh no."

Why wouldn't he leave me alone? I looked around for the Sinner. My hand clenched into a fist, remembering the last dream he had hijacked. I had to remember; this was my mind, my dream. I was in control.

I shut my eyes. Focus. This time I would be ready. This time would be different.

The lights in the corridor began to flicker, and I saw a white puddle appear on the floor. I backed away from it as two hands began to emerge. He started to pull himself out, he looked around and found me. The Sinner sneered. "Such interesting friends you have. You wanted it to ravage you, didn't you?"

I took a deep breath. "No. I was going to try and talk to it-"

"Reason with that?" The Sinner giggled. "Silly girl."

He stood tall and wiped white matter from his robes. "Now, shall we pick up where we left off?"

"Why are you following me?"

He stepped towards me. "You intrigue me. Naughty girl, all alone in a house full of hands."

"We're not alike, if that's what you're thinking."

He paused. A gaunt hand went theatrically to his chest. "Kindred spirits. Stained and resolute. We should acknowledge each other. We should flock together."

I didn't like the way he said flock, like he meant another F word.

"Just- just go back to wherever you belong."

"This is the borderland between lust and shame. I live here. I have always lived here."

"Sounds lonely," I was looking around for a door, a window, anything. I tried to keep him talking. Stall him.

He sighed. "Oh, I won't be lonely for long."

I stopped retreating. What did he want, a companion? A slave? I shut my eyes and concentrated. This was my mind. He was an intruder who had no power.

Watching me, he laughed. He knew I was trying to reject him.

I was a practical person. I knew how things worked. I knew you could reverse engineer something you didn't understand. I concentrated on making one of the doors in the hall open. For no other reason than because I wished it.

I heard a creak and opened my eyes.

The Sinner had paused. The door beside him had opened, seemingly of its own volition.

He looked through the open doorway, as if afraid for a moment something might emerge and attack him. There was nothing, so he returned to look at me with a smirk. "We will make a nest. And line it with depraved wants-" He stepped towards me, but paused. His sandal had been left behind, stuck to the floor. His spiel faltered. The Sinner looked back, confused. He turned to me and continued walking, but now other items of clothes were being left behind. I wanted to strip him as he did me. Not because I wanted to see him bared, but because I wanted to humble him. He had no rights to dignity or power in my house.

His robe was pulled from his shoulders, and suddenly the Sinner was naked. He gave me an imperious look, as if I should be thankful for the sight. He was gaunt, and had a small shrivelled penis.

"Grower, huh?"

He smiled. "It is of a classical proportion. Modest. Aesthetically divine."

I snorted. "Jesus, you're full of so much shit."

The Sinner still had a confident bearing, but now I had a sense of how to take control. How to navigate the rules. Still, it was one thing to accept this was in my own mind, another to impose my will on it.

He stepped towards me, testing his will against mine. I could feel the world shimmering around me, it was like looking through a heat haze. He was seizing control. I saw hands appear below me. I was standing in a puddle of mercury, and women were reaching out of it like warped reflections.

"Surrender to me," his voice was like oil pouring into my ears. "I will celebrate your flesh. You will know decadence like never before." He was reaching for me, hands extending towards my face. I felt dizzy. "I will be the moaning face of your pleasure, you will be the wailing mouth of mine. Dive with me. Let us become a maelstrom of sweat..."

The words were soft, soothing. The world around us was dimming gently. The rhythm of his voice was almost hypnotic. "Live on your knees. Never rise. It will be the perfect existence. Your natural state..."

Enough.

I shut my eyes.

An oil painting appeared behind the Sinner. A naked woman writhing on the canvas grabbed him and pulled him inside. He struggled, but then a mermaid emerged from turquoise inky water and wrapped herself around him, biting him on his little cock. The canvas tilted over into a landscape of demonic cum. Black water sailed by red skinned serpent women. They pawed at the Sinner, fucking his face with their eager crooked fingers. He sputtered and wailed. "Pain!" They sang. "Joy!" Three women pulled him onto a raft made out of dead men. I saw him look around for me, but I was not there. I was the sky. The demon women shrieked as a whirlpool appeared around them. The Sinner clutched for one, but there was no loyalty among fiends. She cursed him and shoved him overboard. He span and span. The water was filled with groping hands. Tentacles and tongues. They probed him. Teasing each orifice as it spun around before them. I heard him cry out, torn between pleasure and terror.

"Don't you like this?" I asked from the darkness I disguised myself with. It was a veil, a mask like any other. I had been masking my whole life.

"No!" The Sinner spat a word, one I didn't think he respected, and then he spun down a plughole. He fell naked down a pipe full of hairy spiders. They mocked him and spat webs at him as he shrieked. The walls became reflective, and his own reflection reached out to slap him as he passed. Finally he plummeted down into a white circle of light. He curled up and shivered. I watched him panting, trying to collect himself. A man emerged from the darkness. A bloodstained knight whose armour was flecked with lurid white stains. A massive cock hung free from a gap in his armour. He picked up the Sinner as if he weighed nothing, then positioned him on his knees. The Sinner looked up at him with as much desire as dread.

The knight showed him his hands. He held a needle in one, thread in the other.

I stood behind the Sinner, my hands on his shoulders. "You don't deserve the things you crave." I crouched beside him and grabbed his face turning it to me. "You don't get his cock. It belongs to me. They all do. You don't even get to watch. You'd like that though wouldn't you?"

He nodded, there was something nervous fluttering in his eyes.

"I could have him sew your mouth up. Or have your demons crawl out of your brain and poke your eyes out. I could have my nightmares carve you up, and my desires chew you while you're still screaming."

My knight pulled the Sinner to his feet, and produced a knife. He lightly stroked the Sinner's cock with it. The Sinner shivered. His fear and confusion was palpable. I looked at my knight, his face was lost behind his helmet. He was a manifestation of my anger. My frustration.

I turned to the Sinner, then nodded down. He looked, and saw a massive black cock strapped to me, hanging low from its own weight. The awe on his face was clear. He looked shocked. I was matching his freak. It was my damn mind after all. "I could take everything you have. But you have nothing I want. Kneel and shut up."

He fell back to his knees quickly, with an almost giddy expression. I had draped myself in the dark spoils of my imagination. I was dressed in a dark red dress, with a high and dramatic collar. My lips were black, I wore a necklace of still beating hearts. They were locked away in little silver boxes. I was a Goddess. Potent and wicked.

I held his chin and lifted the Sinner's head to look at me. "I could just banish you, through any one of these doors. You have no power here. You just prey on people who are scared. Fear makes them weak. But I see you. That's what you wanted isn't it? To be seen? But I see a weak shrivelled old parasite, and I have no need of you-"