Witch of the Wild Woods

May 22nd - Friday / Late Afternoon

Lane had fucked his sister.

His brain spun it a million different directions, with a million more rational justifications for his actions, but they were all ultimately useless. He had every opportunity to leave. He could have just walked away. He should have. As desperately as Lane wanted to cling to regret, however, his mind kept pushing him forward toward understanding, "Why?"

For a third and hopefully final time since walking back to the Jeep, Lane asked, "Luna, are you sure you're, you know... Okay?"

Flippantly, Luna reached out for her brother's hand and assured him, "Lane, I'm bleeding internally and for no good reason at all won't be able to fit into my own jeans for another three days. All things considered, thanks to you, I feel significantly more functional." Looking him dead in the eyes, she enunciated; "Are. You. Okay?"

Luna squeezed Lane's hand in hers. Both searched one another's eyes and for the first time, Lane didn't have an honest answer. Instead, he shrugged, "Yeah. Fine," he lied, "I just wanted to make sure that... you know?"

Cocking an eyebrow, Luna pressed, "I honestly don't know unless you use complete sentences." With a short sigh, she pulled Lane forward, close enough to kiss. "How about we talk about it tonight. Give you some time to process. That sound like a plan?"

Lane nodded slowly. His lips almost brushed against hers but didn't.

Luna socked him in the shoulder and kept walking, "Don't trip potato chip."

Eight hours. That's all. Lane's powerful brain had to sum up a lifetime's worth of repression and unquantifiable emotions in the span of a day.

Yeah.

No problem.

Luna and Lane emerged from the dirt trail and arrived at the staff cabin. They cautiously stepped out into the gravel-filled cul-de-sac. Their feet crunched over the rocks as they approached the iron bell. That unmistakable deep ring had bellowed throughout the woods since they left the showers. Faint echoes continued to roll in the distance. It now sat motionlessly. Yet, there was no bellman or woman responsible. The lot was hauntingly vacant.

Lane cautiously approached the large iron bell. Not only was it motionless, upon further inspection it had rusted over to the point where the old pulley system used to ring the bell was utterly useless. No speakers. No footprints. No other mechanisms to speak of. Either a second bell had been rung, or someone ran to the bell, beat it with a mallet, then sprinted away while covering their tracks seconds before Lane and Luna entered the circle.

Luna cupped her hands together, "Hello?!"

Lane was about to silence her, but honestly, they probably should have made more of an effort to look for someone in the first place if they hadn't been preoccupied with-

Oh, god, Lane had actually fucked Luna.

Luna kept shouting, "Anybody home?"

Both siblings spun around towards the Great Lodge. Crunching gravel and an exuberant greeting sang through the air, "Greetings Woods Siblings!" Out from the far left wing of the central building, a short man jogged towards them. His blonde hair was buzzed high and tight, body build like a boxer, and a smile shone from ear to ear. He wore jet black hiking boots, tattered and stained blue jean shorts, and what the fuck was up with his shirt?

As the man approached, Lane was mesmerized by the graphic t-shirt of a lion's face that filled the entirety of the fabric. It looked like an optical allusion, hyper-realistic, as if emerging from the tight shirt. More disturbing; the shirt itself was dripping in black soot or ash.

Lane had been transfixed on the shirt that he failed to recognize the man had extended his hand, patiently holding it out to Lane for a reply. He shook himself out of his gaze and awkwardly slapped the man five; "Sorry, great to finally meet you, I'm-"

The man nodded excitedly and held his hand out to Lane, "You must be Lane Woods. We're so pumped to have you both here. I'm Jude."

Luna reached out to shake Jude's hand and spoke flatly, "Hey, Jude."

Jude chuckled, "Beatles fan, eh?" Playing off Luna's shrug, he continued, "So how are you folks feeling this afternoon?" He denied her handshake.

Luna slowly turned her head and gave Lane a mischevious smile with a subtle twitch in her eye. Lane quickly answered for them both, "Fine. We're both fine. Jude, gotta ask; what the hell happened to your shirt there?"

Jude looked down and laughed. Wiping the soot from his shirt and hands, he explained with a hearty bout of laughter, "Doc, our resident facilities manager, and I were busy cleaning out the air ducts of the main lodge. Turns out a family of skunks had found their way into the vents and sadly, passed away."

Luna frowned, "Those poor little furry things."

Rolling his eyes, Jude added, "Well they've fouled up the dining hall something awful so unless we can fish them out of the vents, poor us. Not to mention the campers."

A moment of silence settled between the three. Lane watched as Luna passively searched Jude's face for empathy, sarcasm, anything behind the smile. It was a tough mask to crack. Ultimately, Lane cut through the atmosphere that had suddenly thickened; "So you just happen to like lions then?"

Jude glanced back down at his shirt, almost surprised, "Huh, didn't even remember what I had on today but, I guess so?" Exhaling a short breath, he motioned for the siblings to follow them, "Why don't y'all come along to The Pit with everyone else. We're about to begin."

--

Lane quickly learned from Jude that it was possible for one to talk without stopping to take a breath. After all, if there aren't any pauses, then there's no room for questions. This raised half a dozen red flags right off the bat. Lane could have held his ground. He could have pressed for clarification on the shirt or the bell. Unfortunately, his mind was shot: untethered.

Almost without realizing it, they followed Jude around the left side of the Great Lodge, down three flights of wooden stairs set into a steep, grassy hillside. Lane simply couldn't break focus from Luna's ass.

He should have been focused on his surroundings.

Or anything else.

Lane was not an ass man. He didn't know or even want to know how one qualifies for being an ass man apart from lusting after ass. There was infinitely more than the physical presence of Luna's body that caused him to swell. Lane had been connected to Luna only moments ago in every possible way. Even if it was only an act of service, or brotherly kindness; mental, emotional, spiritual energy surged and continued to flow through him like a superconductor. In that heated moment under the water, there was absolutely nothing between them except for a distant scream in his mind condemning everything Lane was doing.

He could still feel Luna's walls contracting, refusing to release his cock. He could taste the steam rising from her back. Her melodic panting, moaning, screaming continued ring through his ears like a choir of bells. Every inch of himself had been within every inch of her. Conversely, it all could have been merely skin deep: sex.

Just sex.

Sex for a clinical purpose and nothing more.

This possibility of surface-level sex slowly began to leak into Lane's heart like molten lead through cracks onset by doubt. That was new too. Before, in all their years together, there was never any doubt of where Lane and Luna stood with one another. Now there were questions that desperately needed answers. Those answers couldn't come quick enough either as Lane felt his heart begin to sink under the weight of all that remained unknown. If only Jude could shut his damn mouth for half a second.

Lane suddenly realized Jude had indeed stopped talking. In fact, not only Jude but about a dozen pairs of eyes were now waiting for Lane to say something.

Luna elbowed her brother in the ribs and laughed, "Maybe start with hello and work your way up from there?"

Lane looked out over the amphitheater, covered by tan canvas triangle sails jetting out from tall pines that evenly lined the right and left sides of the theater. About forty rows of long stone seats were set out in semi-circles divided into four even sections. Sitting upon the stone steps closest to a stage that spanned about twenty square feet or so, were a dozen or more strangers all staring, all waiting for Lane.

He cleared his throat, and Lane nervously waved, "Oh. Good afternoon, Y'all."

A curvy girl with long curling locks of strawberry blonde hair scoffed, "So formal." With a mock curtsey, she tipped an imaginary hat, "Well how do ya do there, darlin'?"

Without skipping a beat, Lane drew in a sharp breath and played along. He too tipped an invisible cowboy hat, and added a deep drawl, "Ma'am."

Jude waved Lane and Luna along down the stairs, "Alright, that's the spirit! Guys our final staffers have arrived, so let's go ahead and start the ceremony!" A tired but pleasant cheer erupted from the crowd as they watched Lane and Luna descend.

Once they reached the base of the stage, the other councilors were instructed to sit along the first row of stone benches. Lane naturally sat next to Luna. She held up her cordial smile, but Lane still noticed a twinge of pain at the edge of her lips every so often. That was one of her many gifts. Nobody ever suspected anything Luna didn't expressly want them to know.

That's when it hit Lane, another crack began to tear into his heart and mind; would he become one of those people?

Had the experience in the shower demoted Lane to just another guy?

What would she hide from Lane now that she'd had him?

Jude's booming voice gradually distracted Lane from his spiral. With a clasp of his hands, he introduced himself, "In keeping with the traditional albeit obligatory introductions, I'm Jude Abidalli," He encouraged and relished in the applause, hoots, and cheers from the councilors before finally silencing them with an overly dramatic hand wave. "Great to be back here for my sixth year as camp director and this year is going to be the best year. Hashtag, best year."

The group screamed in unison, "Hashtag, best year!"

Jude continued, "For our three newbies, we'll go ahead and let you guys go first in our traditional Trillion Pines Councilor Baptism."

Lane yelped a little louder than he expected, "Baptism?"

Jude spoke up over the hushed laughter from the group, "Our two new leads, Ms. Luna and Lane Woods, come on up here. And where's miss Montgomery? If she shrank again, will the nearest adult please... oh, there you are. Come on up you three!"Luna sprang from her seat, and just as quickly subtly wrapped a hand around her stomach. Lane walked beside his sister as they climbed the stone steps into what was surely going to be a humiliating new experience.