In the darkness at the back of the cave something twisted, something coiled, something writhed....
It was still early morning when Sayomi stepped from the trees beside the small, isolated lake and looked up at the dark mouth of the cave. A fine, white mist hung low over the water.
Sayomi was eighteen. She brushed her shoulder-length black hair away from her attractive face and her glasses flashed in the early morning sunlight as she paused to look around.
Out of place against the dark green backdrop of the forest Sayomi looked young and full-breasted in her school uniform of white blouse and short red, pleated skirt. The whiteness of her blouse stood out in stark contrast to the dark greens of the forest. Sayomi was a city girl, she knew nothing of the countryside. She looked young, very feminine and softly, voluptuously vulnerable.
She had parked her yellow open-top jeep at the side of the lonely road and left the keys in the ignition and her school-books in a bundle on the passenger seat. She'd hurried through the woods snapping the silver, dew-laden cobwebs that appeared across her path as the dense foliage brushed her long, bare legs. When she'd first glimpsed the still water of the lake through the thinning trees she'd recognised it from her dreams and her pace had slowed. She had known then that she was meant to be there. It was the right place.
A fish jumped in the lake and the sudden sound and flash of movement startled her, but even as she stared she recovered herself and smiled and caught her lower lip between her teeth. Looking up she saw a flock of large white birds fly high over the water and disappear slowly over the canopy of the trees. She giggled nervously and clapped a hand to her lips as nearby another smaller bird briefly alighted on a rock. Everything, all of it, every detail, was exactly like her dreams.
Her heart began to beat faster and a warm flush rose to her face. She'd brought one book with her and now she looked at it with excited, trembling hands. It fell open at the page she'd looked at again and again alone in the sun-washed school library after all the other students had left.
It was a picture of a woman, a reproduction of an ancient wood-carving. It showed the woman reclining in the embrace of a creature with tentacles. It was apparent that the creature was pleasuring the woman, that she had abandoned and surrendered herself to its intimate advances, and as she looked at the picture Sayomi felt a familiar sense of ache and longing stir deep inside her.
The picture had fascinated and bewitched Sayomi ever since she had first discovered it. She'd been drawn to look at it again and again. She hadn't shared it with anyone, she'd kept it a secret from her friends. How could she explain to anyone the way she felt when she looked at the picture when she couldn't understand or explain her reactions to herself? It was after she'd discovered the picture in the old book that the dreams had started.
The small bird on the grey rock chirped once and twitched. It looked around, its movements fast and jerky, and then with a rapid whirring of wings it flew away across the lake, and Sayomi watching it, found her gaze drawn across the wreaths of mist to the open mouth of the cave.
There was nothing remarkable about the opening in the smooth grey rock. The cave mouth was surrounded by greenery and overhanging shrubs, but Sayomi felt the quickening of her heartbeat as she gazed at it. She felt a sense of lightness and excitement in her chest. Lower, she felt a familiar stirring, a tingling, a feeling like butterflies but more intense, that she recognised. She'd felt it often when she'd awoken from her tormented dreams.
She knew the quickest way to the cave. There was a path, a rough trail of broken vegetation. A path made by the creature, she'd seen it in her dreams. She'd watched it lumber slowly down to the lake with the silver moonlight glistening on its tentacles. She'd seen its eyes by moonlight. In her dreams she'd seen the creature half submerged in the still, dark water, waiting through the long, lonely reaches of the night. Only recently had she come to realise that the creature had been waiting all this time for her.
Sayomi scrambled up the path to the mouth of the cave. In her excitement she let the book fall unnoticed from her hand. She was careless in her haste and her feet slipped. She went to her knees and looked up at the cave mouth, nervous and excited at the same time. Her short skirt flipped up at the back to briefly expose her tight, white panties, her blouse pulled out at the waist, and by the time she reached the cave she was breathing hard. Her large breasts rose and fell, her hair hung down about her face, and there were dirt and small pieces of leaves on her knees and hands.
Panting, and with her full lips parted, and her dark eyes shining behind her glasses, Sayomi paused to catch her breath. She was seized by the conviction that everything that was now happening had always been meant to happen. Finding the picture in the book and then the dreams she'd had night after restless night, it was somehow all meant to be. It was all true; the lake, the cave, the creature...
She stood before the inky darkness of the opening and absently brushed the palms of her hands over her slim hips. Glancing down at herself she saw that the top two buttons of her blouse had become unfastened and her deep cleavage and the large upper-swellings of her firm, young breasts were partially exposed.
Sayomi was a chaste young woman from a good home and the blood suddenly rushed to her face. Ashamed, she raised her hands to fasten her blouse and then she paused as she thought of the dreams, of the picture in the book, of the creature's intimate embrace. She was breathing hard and she had butterflies in the pit of her stomach. Her tongue touched her lips and a shiver ran through her.
She knew what was going to happen to her when she found the creature, her fate had been revealed in her dreams and slowly and with a sense of daring and a mixture of excitement and nervous apprehension she lowered her hands and left her blouse unfastened. In her mind she saw herself in the creature's embrace, submitting to its advances. In her dreams she was always naked.