©
2023 PennameWombat
The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
This is my entry for
Literotica's Valentine's Day 2023 Contest
. Late, as usual for me, but hopefully not too late.
This story contains scenes and moments of violence and abuse that may be uncomfortable for some readers. That's why it's in Erotic Horror.
*****
She blinked a few times before her eyes settled. Bare trees filled the periphery of her view of a sky with its blue diminished by thin clouds. She moved her eyes in slow circles.
A clearing. She was on her back. In a clearing. In a forest. Or woods. Or whatever.
The motion of her eyes shifted to her neck, as she rolled her head. Trees without leaves. Dead, scraggly grass. A drift of snow to the left, along the trees there. To the right, the same without the snow.
She pressed fingers on both hands against the surface on which she lay. It was soft and wet. And... cold. But not so cold she couldn't push the fingers of her right hand between the dead strands of flattened grass and into the muck.
She wiggled her toes then pressed her heels against the grass. She had the idea the grass under her was a bit thicker than what she'd seen to either side.
Convenient. Well, that was one possible word.
She tensed her abdomen, then relaxed it. The second time she raised her torso to vertical and shook her head as the world spun for a moment and she felt something against her back but ignored that. Ahead and to each side, the limits of the circular clearing were obvious. There were few shadows, the sun low and mostly behind her left shoulder. She wiggled her toes, each nail much bluer than the muted sky.
Nails.
She slid her tongue between teeth that rested lightly above and below it and ran it between her lips as she watched the wiggling blue shapes. She turned her head and her right hand rose from the ground. She spun it. Blue. The same blue.
On nails. Flat, short, nicely trimmed. Nails.
She moved her mouth. Frowned. Nodded.
She opened her mouth and expanded her chest and pulled in air that was cold and dry.
"It is mine now," she said as she let the air flow through her throat.
She pulled air in through her nose. There were subtle smells of grass and trees. Like the sky they were muted. There was one aroma stronger than the others. Odd, out of place here, but all around and even on her. But it wasn't her.
Other than her words, there were no sounds. Not even enough wind to move the bare trees. She forced an 'ahh' sound as she pushed the air out of her lungs. Pulled more in, through her nose, to let it study. Push, pull.
That settled, she scrunched her neck as her gaze ran up her legs. Both bare. A thin, dark strip between them where they met her torso. Her abdomen flat, still tensed to hold her sitting position. Then her breasts and their prominent nipples, dark pink and very erect. She touched, then squeezed the right one.
She was naked.
No. She wasn't. Not totally. She ran her fingers along the curved flesh of her breast and onto her chest and up. To her neck.
She played with her hair. It fell to just below her shoulders. Damp, but soft and not matted. But that wasn't the surprise.
She found something round and fibrous. It was around her throat. It was snug but not tight. She used both hands and followed it. Behind her, she found it knotted, and rotated it.
It was a long... cord... with a portion around her neck, which ran through a tight spiral that ran along the cord. At the top of the spiral one end of the cord ran through a small loop. The other end extended further and there was a red bow tied to it. After a moment, she worked out that she could slide the spiral section against the other.
To tighten or loosen it around her throat. She frowned but after an instant shrugged and left it loose and hanging outside of her left breast.
She used her feet and shifted her buttocks on the grass to spin slightly and twisted her neck. Colors caught her eye. White. Blue. Yellow.
Closest to her were white shoes with the beige soles facing her as they stood upright. Just past them, blue jeans. And then a yellow blouse, its buttons done up. She looked at the dent in the grass. The shoes would've been the width of her hand past her head.
She looked around the clearing again. Sat in silence. Pulled air in.
No movement. No sounds. No smells. Except her.
She bent her knees to put her feet flat. Worked her muscles and at the first attempt was unbalanced and landed on her ass.
"It is mine now."
With focused effort she stood quickly and put both arms straight out as the spinning when she'd sat up was even more intense. She wavered, but after a few moments her head cleared and the world stopped.
She looked at the clothes and took a couple of tentative steps to stand next to them. She bent, but the spinning came again, so she stood then squatted.
That worked.
The jeans were flat with their legs set to end at the shoes before she bent to pick them up by the waistband. She stood and held them out. Something was missing. She shrugged and undid the button and zipper, their state matched the buttons on the blouse and now that she saw them, the tied laces on the shoes. She tested her balance and pulled the jeans on, they were tight but comfortable. She snorted and paused with the zipper half way up. Then she used her fingers to shield the black strip.
Something was definitely missing. But she couldn't work it out.
She moved to the shoes, untied them and pulled them on. Another thought about something missing.
She grabbed the blouse. It was a deep yellow color in a soft, thin cloth, nothing like the jeans. She liked it. She undid the buttons and pulled it on and worked the cord around her neck over it. Buttoned, it was tight across her breasts and she liked its pressure against her nipples. They poked through clearly. She adjusted the cord to again rest against the outside of her left breast.
She looked around the clearing. Where to go? She'd not planned well. In truth, that she was here was enough beyond expectation that further planning had been... she shrugged.
She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply and slowly and shuffled her feet to spin slowly. After not quite a complete circle, she opened her eyes and smiled.
"That seems to be a trail," she said aloud, "might as well."
Her first dozen strides were wobbly and her pace was slow. Then she quit thinking about it. She sucked in air and held it and let her legs do their job. She walked smoothly toward the trees.
*****
"Hey, Marlene, you there?"
