I was addicted to games. I loved everything fantasy including all the romantic tropes of swashbuckling pirates, lithe beautiful elves, and medieval heroes who won the day using ridiculous bejeweled swords. As long as the story was predictable and the animated babes were hot, I was happy. I worked, I slept, and I took care of the little chores that come with life, but in all my free time I would generally be indulging in some RPG or the latest online craze.
Horror was not really my thing. I tended to avoid anything gritty, edgy or even borderline scary. My safe space was adolescent fantasy where you could count on the girls always coming around to the male hero. The male hero was also destined to win the day every time if he just tried hard enough--no matter how dumb or one-dimensional he was.
It was a week after my birthday. I had just received a package wrapped in plain brown paper. It sat open on my desk. Apparently a late birthday gift. Since most of my friends and family knew of my aversion to anything dark and sinister, I was surprised to see that the 'gift' was probably the creepiest object I had ever been confronted with in real life. I had very particular tastes that slotted neatly into mainstream geek hobbies. So why then had someone sent me this... thing?
I examined the packaging, looking for a return address or name. Nothing.
Who would pick this out for me? Did they even know me? Maybe a joke or a mispacked order?
Especially curious was the lack of a note, a card or anything else to identify the sender. Apart from the addressee information scrawled on the front, the only other piece of information was the words 'BirTHDay bOY' printed above my name. Without those two words I would not have even thought it was a gift, given that it was wrapped so plainly.
I checked my phone and emails. No texts or messages from anyone to let me know that a package was on the way or that their present to me might be late. It was the same on my socials and gaming forums.
I sat down at the desk, put the packaging aside and examined the object.
It was a little pewter box with intricate embossed engravings covering its surfaces. The engravings were beautiful but nonsensical. Disembodied eyes, mouths, tongues, snouts and hands were all depicted along with characters I did not recognise. The effect was horrific, particularly how some of the eyes and mouths looked contorted in terror. The creating artist had masterfully observed small details that turned my stomach, like throbbing veins and taught tendons.
I looked around the room at my posters. Musclebound heroes, sexy female elves, more sexy female elves, magic casters preparing brightly coloured spells in their hands. Gazing at those posters comforted me somewhat.
I looked back at the box. 'Urgh...'
My plan was simple. Open it, see if anything fun was inside, then chuck it on eBay if I could not find a reason to keep it. I did not care who sent it to me. If it was some loving long-lost aunt then I could make up something later to spare her feelings.
I reached out with both hands, running my fingers over the corners of the lid. 'Yow! Mother-forker!'
The lid was sharp. Both my thumbs had received tiny cuts. There was a little ridge under the rim of the lid, almost like someone had jammed a long razor in there.
I wiped away the small amount of blood on my skin. The stinging cuts had already stopped bleeding. Using a folded tissue for protection, I popped up the lid and opened the box.
The inside was lined with dark red velvet. I thought I had seen something move under the lid, but now there was nothing there. I must have been mistaken.
Question answered. Nothing interesting inside. It was bound for Ebay. I reached for the lid to close it.
Harsh whispering filled the room. I jumped in my chair, heart racing, fingertips and mouth trembling. I turned slowly, as one does when they do not really want to see what they are turning toward. In the corner of the room behind me, floating near the ceiling, was a mass of shadow or dark smoke. With a menacing presence, it started to fill the room. Its vaporous form billowed with tendrils that reached along my walls and over the ceiling.
I wanted to scream, but something about the presence held me frozen. Through the shadows of its main body I could see the rough outline of a face looking back at me.
'Time is short,' it said, forcing its words into me, 'the lid will close in 99 days. I suggest you do not speed it along its way, lest you be left with no real gift. Ask one desire and it can come true until the lid closes. When trapped in the box again all my power will be undone and whatever you asked for will have disappeared, except for your own memories of that gift. By my limitations I do not offer you lasting riches or a transfigured form, but wise minds will find that they can have an experience of other worldly status until they return to their usual life on the 100th day.'
The entity's words overwhelmed me with a keen understanding of its intention. I had no need to worry about whether this was real or not, because the entity forced me to believe in the reality I was presented with, including the iron-clad binding of its rules. 99 days, then back to my ordinary life with the memories of what I experienced. No riches. Nothing lasting.
My eyes turned to the posters. Something amazing that I could experience for 99 days...
'I want to have sex with an elf. No, two. I want to have two elf lovers. We can enjoy each other's bodies for that 99 days, making love as much as possible. And I will be just their type. They will be super, super attracted to me.'
The being pondered. To itself it mused, 'Do elves exist still in this world? Ah, they do. Holdovers from the wild spirits guarding crevasses and hollows.' Louder, addressing me, it said, 'Very well, I will send you to two of them that are left, and I will have them be glad to see you. I will remove any barriers to you all enjoying each other's bodies until the box closes.'
My eyes again looked to my posters. I was confused. I tried to ask the entity what it meant since my assumption was that it would just create two hot, sexy elves from the posters. I did not get the chance to discuss the point though. A rushing filled my ears and my vision when black.
I woke in a dark, cramped space. My clothes were gone. Underneath me felt like wood, but it was dirty and rough. I was definitely not laid out on anything as refined as a modern floor or a piece of furniture. The air also smelled earthy, like overturned dirt.
I did not have enough space to sit all the way up, and the darkness kept me from seeing very much. I felt around with my hands as much as I was able. Was I in a trunk, or a dirty old barrel?
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness I noticed a little bit of flickering light by my feet. The space seemed to extend past my legs like a small tunnel. I could not see how far it went, but there was a dim waving light coming from somewhere. I guessed it was a candle.
As my heartrate settled down and I calmed myself, I became aware of some faint voices. At least two individuals, speaking to each other excitedly.
The sound of the voices caused my cock to stiffen. The reaction confused me until I remembered the entity's words. It had said it would remove any barriers to enjoying each other's bodies. Was my cock's reaction part of that? If those voices were the elves meant for me then did I have the power to stiffen vigorously at only the hint of their presence? If so that seemed to have its advantages. After all, I wanted to make the most of these 99 days, even if this weird setting was not exactly what I expected.
I was reminded of the beginnings of some games, where the opening scene showed the hero waking up in an odd place, like a jail cell or the hold of a ship at sea. This may have been a similar predicament. Maybe this was the harried start to the story before I found myself enjoying lush bed chambers and sexy elf girls.
My cock twitched, bouncing up and down as blood pumped through it. Something about it felt off though.
The voices came closer. I started to make out some of the words. The pair were both very high-pitched, but one sounded a bit more feminine than the other. Their reedy tones were actually quite sharp and unpleasant, reminiscent of how a sniggering little demon might sound in a game. I hoped their physical attributes made up for that.
'Well, where did our clothes go then, aye? If you aren't playing silly buggers, then where are they?'
'Not an idea, Klute. Carried off by thieving bog-trolls for all I know. What I do know is that all of a sudden I'm bloody cold and my tits are about freezing off. Let's get some blankets or summing.'
Tits. Lost clothes. The entity must have made all three of us naked to help 'remove the barriers' of our love making.
Now that I could hear them more clearly, their horribly high voices sounded vaguely Scottish or Irish. I was not sure.
My cock twitched faster. Why did it feel so odd? I reached over and touched it with one hand. It was not the cock I knew. The thing I felt was about as long as my cock had been, but its shape had changed horrifically. A thin stalk extended out from my pelvis and supported a heavy, flared, conical head that was easily double the circumference of the shaft. The shape felt like an obscene pointed mushroom.
I used both hands to feel around it frantically, making a mental image of it by touch. What the hell was this thing? Where was my cock?
I turned my attention to my other privates. I still had balls, but they had changed as well. They were perfectly round orbs that ached to the touch. They seemed intensely full, pushing the limits of what could fill my scrotum.
It was all too much. I let out an anguished cry. The voices down the passage halted, one shushing the other. The light from the candle then got closer. I could hear scrabbling.
