The House with Many Hands

Just as I was about to scream a scream I knew would never end, the Harpy was violently pulled away from me.

How? Who?

I cowered at the head of the bed, trying to gather my wits. Liam or Adam? How could they have tackled such a vicious, bizarre creature?

I looked for them, but the figure I saw wrestling with the Harpy made no sense to me. It was a collection of limbs. A faded half transparent spirit. It was lashing out with a sort of mindless intensity that the Harpy clearly couldn't understand. It shoved at the apparition, but it simply stood up tall and shimmered. It emitted an ethereal roar. I covered my ears and saw the Harpy do the same.

I wondered. Could it be? Scraps?

Just before the new entity had attacked, I held felt the bed shake, had it been underneath? Waiting? Or hiding? Was it always there, too scared to join in with the rest of us?

It poured over the Harpy, like a wave made of fists. It was biting it too, I saw, little mouths were appearing and disappearing. The Harpy tried to strike out, to tear and rend its assailant with its long fingernails, but it couldn't get any purchase. Scraps seemed able to phase in and out of density at will.

The Harpy looked back at me. Oh God. Those eyes. That tongue. It's cock was still jutting out obscenely. I felt its lascivious want. It's eyes bored into me, it tried to lunge at me a last time, but Scraps pulled it back. Frustrated, the Harpy started to beat its wings. Scraps let it go, and the creature flew up. It hovered over the bed, giving me a last roar, as if insulted at being denied, and then it flew back into the darkness from which it had come.

I pulled my knees up to my chin and tried to compose myself.

Scraps just stood at the end of the bed, unmoving. He, or they, looked like a a tall blurred man, shimmering out of focus. He was never one person, just a vibrating overlapping chorus. Limbs flailed wildly. It was like they were fighting to be on the same wavelength, or to exist at all.

"Scraps?"

Its face, if I could call it that, looked at me, and I thought I could detect a smile. A sort of acknowledgement.

"Thank you."

I waited, until Liam and Adam slowly returned. They seemed taken aback by Scraps, but the second it saw them it left, stumbling off into the darkness.

Liam was at my side. "Are you okay? What happened? I don't understand?"

"Scraps," I mumbled into his chest as he hugged me. "Scraps is our friend."

And then I closed my eyes and sobbed.

*

I was able to talk to them for a time before I woke. Becky and a few of the others came back after the Harpy left. They were upset, and ashamed. I told them I didn't blame them for running, and they were right to save themselves. Adam was holding my hand, there was an almost pleading look on his face. "I wouldn't let anyone hurt you-"

I stroked his scarred face. "I know that, baby. I trust you. You were brave. Both of you." I gave Liam my other hand, and they both swore they had never seen anything like it before.

"Will it come back?"

Liam looked helpless. "I-I don't know. It's the stone. It attracts things that shouldn't be here."

"Like us," Adam snorted.

They all reassured me as best they could. They told me they could sense it when it was in the dark. "Perhaps we can warn you," Liam said, frowning. "Next time."

"Scarps tried," I realised. "He wrote on the board, but I didn't understand."

"Okay." Liam tried to sound more cheerful. "So if we warn you, just don't sleep. Or don't sleep in the house. We'll sort it out." He was rubbing my legs softly. "It will be alright."

I smiled sadly. We had had such a wonderful dream. Maybe I didn't deserve good things. This was the universe restoring the balance. "I should have known it would never last," I said. "Good things never do."

He cupped my face. "It will be alright."

I nodded and kissed his hands. I didn't know if I believed him, but I wanted to. We all sat huddled on the bed. Warm and together. Talking, and darting odd looks into the darkness.

Neither the Harpy or Scraps returned.

"Try and find Scraps," I said. "Thank him. He's- he's more than one person. They're lost. Confused. But they want to help."

Liam nodded. He was kissing me, while Adam was hugging me tight, protectively. Becky was pacing, talking about how they would prepare better. How this was our "safe space" and this "fucker wasn't invited."

Her words began to drift away, and then I woke with a start. I was lying in bed, covered in sweat and wrapped up in my sheets. I sat up sharply. Part of me expected that... thing to have followed me.

I groggily got out of bed and walked over to the board. I saw the warning Scraps had tried to leave me; HARPY.

"Thank you," I said, in case he- they- were listening. "For trying. For saving me."

I went back to the bed and sat on it, and then I cried. For the night that was lost. For the friends who were so worried and so loving. For the darkness that had gathered around me.

*

That day I tried to write down everything that had happened in the dream. Some of it was fading, but I was left with a stark impression of the Harpy, its size and its lurid intent. I could remember everyone's concern. I remembered Scraps. I went down to the cellar to talk to it, but I couldn't sense it. I thanked it, and waited for something to nuzzle my hand, to move in the dark corners. But nothing did.

For a while I sat in the kitchen, drinking coffee. I had felt a heavy sense of dread, but it began to fade as the day wore on. Whatever it was, it couldn't touch me in the real world, after all.

I sat in the lounge with a blanket around me and called Carver. I didn't want to worry him, but I told him about my strange dream. I told him that other things than spirits were being drawn to the house.

He was fascinated. "A Harpy? What an extraordinary- you must describe it to me, please."

I told him what I could remember. Its large wings. Its swollen breasts, its huge cock. I heard him clear his throat. "Goodness. Quite the-uh- sexual manifestation. Did it- were you- are you alright?"

I smiled as he stumbled over his words. His initial curiosity and eagerness had suddenly left him. I sighed. "I was scared. But the others were there, they intervened." I left it at this, I didn't want to dwell on how badly it might have gone if Scraps hadn't been there. Then I told Carver about Scraps, the spirit who was one and many. "I don't know if there's any way to help them?" I asked. I didn't expect Carver to have any solution.

He sounded lost. "I don't know. I can look into it. You say they seemed to be merged? Occupying one space?"

"Yes. The ghosts can do that. They've done that with me. When they..." I trailed off, thinking of the extraordinary ways that I'd been fucked.

"Oh. Oh my." Carver chuckled, I don't think he knew how to process how openly sexual I was. We were.

"Sorry. I don't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"No, it's fine. There's just so much that's new. In the last forty eight hours I've had to reconsider entirely how the world exists. I'm catching up."

We talked more, and I reassured him that I felt safe. He offered to pay for a hotel room in the town if I wanted to leave for a while. I hesitated. "No, I should be okay. They know how to warn me." I thought of the board, and the ominous message I had ignored.

"They take care of you," his voice was soft.

I smiled. "I saw them. In my dream. Real as anything. They say there are long nights, where the fabric between dreams and life are thin. We get to meet then."

I told him about everything I'd learned. He sighed. "Amazing."

We made plans to have dinner again, and talk more, and then suddenly I was alone again. I wrapped myself up in my blanket, and tried to not mind.

*

By sunset I was pacing my room and looking at the board. I had told the ghosts to tell me if they could sense anything bad. I kept it simple. I had put two words there; NOTHING and DANGER. There was a box next to each word. It didn't matter how clumsily they ticked it, so long as I got the message.

"I can get a room, for tonight," I said out loud, "until we sort things out."

How exactly did I think we were going to sort things out?

While I watched, a piece of chalk was lifted. The word WAIT slowly appeared. I nodded. "Right. Leave it until I'm going to bed." That couldn't go wrong. I sighed and sat on the bed. After fidgeting for a few minutes I decided I needed to relax, to chill out. I was driving myself mad.

I ran the shower and stood under the water. It was warm and felt like an embrace. I lathered myself in lavender scented gel and tried to slow my breathing. I had to trust them to warn me. I didn't want to be scared. Not here.

I took my time under the water, then I dried myself. I walked back into the bedroom wrapped in a fluffy white towel. I didn't want to leave. I was tired. I wanted to lie on my own bed, safe and comfy. I didn't want weird dreams. The thing that freaked me out the most, was the idea of the Harpy skulking about in that indescribable darkness. Was it aware of this world? This plane? Could it see me? What if it ticked the box instead?

I shivered. Bad thoughts were going round and around my head, like planes at an airport, landing one by one. I was about to put my head in my hands when I heard the chalk tapping at the board.

I looked up. NOTHING had been ticked and underlined. I smiled. I hadn't had a good sleep, and I'd felt restless all day. So all I wanted was a peaceful night.

"Okay," I said to whoever was listening. "Thanks."

I stood up, I was about to unhook my towel and slip into bed, when I just froze. What if it was there? Waiting?

I sat down again and rubbed my face. "Are you sure?" I asked. I only looked up when I heard another tapping. NOTHING had been underlined again.

I sat there, motionless. After a few minutes I became aware of someone sitting next to me. It was Becky. She had a lighter presence than the others, I could always pick her out. She moved behind me, and I felt her rubbing my shoulders. "Hey Becky, I'm so tired..." I slouched. "And scared. Stupid, really."

I felt her kissing my neck. She was tugging at the towel. I smiled slightly and let her pull it away. It fell around my waist, and then it was lightly tossed to the floor. I leaned back into her kiss. I wished I could feel her weight behind me. Her breasts firm and warm, rubbing into my back. "That's nice," I sighed. I felt her move in front, and now she was pushing lightly at my chest. I wriggled back up to the top of the bed and lay down.

Her lips were at my ankle, and then lightly kissing up my body. Then I felt other lips at my hip, my neck. I giggled, realising we weren't alone. It was the other girls. They all had the same light presence, that feminine energy.

Teresa was here, and Janie, and a third. I had seen a new name on the board recently; Lily.

"Ladies," I laughed as I felt them each picking a spot and worshipping it. They were spoiling me. It made me feel emotional. "You don't have to, I'm alright, honestly."

Four mouths were kissing up and down my body. They wanted me to enjoy this. I felt their hands hold me down at the wrists and ankles. "Oh yes," I moaned, it was a broken croak of a whisper. They knew what I liked. What I wanted. Whatever fear I had felt had gone entirely. Now there was a different anticipation altogether. The mouths became tongues. The tongues licked and tasted. Nibbled and bit. I writhed on the soft sheets. "Yes, don't stop," I moaned. They weren't going to stop, but I had to let them know how good this felt. They were holding me at the edge. Teasing me. I had to let them know they could keep going; I could hold myself together.

They didn't have to hold anything back, and they knew it.

I could feel impossible kisses. On my lips, my vagina, my breasts. As if my lovers were inside the bed, made of it. I felt them move, then, and then four tongues were slowly travelling from my hands and feet to my cunt. They met at the centre. I tried to prepare myself, tried to hold my breath. Nothing could prepare me. Four tongues overlapped in the same space, as each woman ate me out at the same time. My back arched, my eyes went wide and I opened my mouth for a roar of pleasure, no sound came, though. I was too over-stimulated. It was heaven. I slowly relaxed, and just lay there panting while they all sat curled up between my legs, licking and lapping and tonguing.

"I- oh- I- oh wow..." There was no point in words. I tried to say something, but in the end I just tarted laughing. Little delighted giggles popped out, and then suddenly I was cumming again. My expression changed and I reached down to grab their hair. My hands made claws in the air. "Mmm," I tried to urge them, "more."

I felt something inside me then. God. Oh they were stretching me. Oh fuck yes. Was one of the women fisting me? Jesus. Any penetration was easier for them. What couldn't they do? One of them was lapping lovingly and slowly up and down at my clit. Up and down. Up and down. My toes curled. One of them was moving back up my body, and I watched as my nipples started to raise and shiver as if being licked. One moved to my face, stroking my hair.

God. The intimacy. In the dim room all of these sensations were magnified by a thousand. I believed they were here. I swore I could see them looking up at me and smiling. I smiled back. "T-thank you."

My head fell back, and I felt one of them slowly and tenderly kissing my neck. She moved to my lips, and was kissing me, when I came a last time. I shuddered and shook, and I felt four pair of hands holding me down. Good God. The sensations were overlapping. I wondered if they had all made me cum at the same time? Was that even possible?

I think they all knew by now that when I came hard I could barely speak. I was mumbling, looking around for someone to thank. I felt a hand move to my hair and stroke it soothingly. They knew. They understood. I lay back, panting. And felt my body slowly return to normal. "Oh. Oh. Thank- thank you. What the fuck." I heard a sound, and realised I was giggling. It was a release of energy, or adrenaline. Or tension. Hands were stoking my arms and legs. Long slow motions. They weren't trying to arouse me, they were helping me calm down. I smiled. Jesus. These damn ghosts. One minute I was being turned inside out with horniness, the next their thoughtfulness made me want to cry.

"Thank you, ladies." It felt like a silly thing to say, and I smiled. Then there was a new, odd sensation, fingers were tap dancing on my skin. I frowned for a second. Was this a new code? "Laughter?" I asked.

One of their fingers brushed my left palm; Yes.

I smiled, then wriggled under my sheets. I lay there in the dark, contented. Sated. Sleep, when it came, came easy. Free.

*

When nothing happened that night, I relaxed a little. Maybe it was a one off? Maybe the Harpy would never try such an incursion again? Maybe it couldn't?

Over the following days we developed a system. I kept a check on the board, and they let me know the coast was clear. For four days there was nothing. Then on the fifth day they underlined DANGER.

It hit me like a slap. I stepped back from the board as if it had pushed me. I looked at my bed. It wasn't safe any more. That... thing had polluted it.

That night I packed a suitcase and went to a hotel. I curled up in a strange bed and realised when the ghosts weren't there I could feel it. Their presence had become so normal, so comforting, that their absence was jarring. Even distressing. In the last few nights Liam had laid next to me, that lavender scent as relaxing as always. I had felt Adam at one point, I think he was sitting at the end of the bed, protectively.

I had sleepily asked him if he was okay, and he had patted my hand.

In the hotel room, alone, I found a stark new level of loneliness. I thought I'd had it bad before. What if I could never go back? What if that fucking thing was just there forever, perched on the summoning stone like a sex starved vulture?

What if the house was no longer my home?

I cried then, and I couldn't stop. It had become my home. In such a short period of time Crook house had become my world. It had made me so so happy. The thought of suddenly losing it, having this thing rip it from me, was horribly upsetting.

I fell asleep with a face wet from crying. At least when I slept there was nothing waiting for me. I had a vague dream about the house. I was just a little girl looking in empty rooms for someone to play with. There was nothing there though. Just empty rooms and bare walls. Was it empty without me, or was I empty without it?

I woke, tired, but resolute. I needed the house. I would not let it be ripped from me by anything.

*

When I got back I wandered the rooms, talking loudly, reassuring the spirits that I had returned and I was okay. I could sense some of them walking with me. I sat on the couch and I could feel Eric close to me. I lifted my feet and he started to rub them. I groaned. "I needed that. Thanks."

I spent some hours catching up with emails and work. I was paid by Carver to "look after" the house, but I still took on a few consultancy jobs here and there. I wanted to remain independent as much as I could. Most of what I did was just advisory work. Helping and overseeing smaller projects. It took my mind off other things. After this I checked the cellar again. No Scraps. I wondered if he- they- were chasing the Harpy?

I took a walk in the garden, and sat on a stone bench to clear my thoughts. It was a large garden, with a pagoda halfway down, and a shed just out of sight. It was bordered on each side by a tall hedge. There were no neighbours for miles, and the silence was calming. I sat there nursing a coffee, with my smartphone in my lap. As I had woke, in a pleasant but stark hotel room, I had greatly missed the warmth of other people.

I wanted to call Bella.

I couldn't help thinking of her. Back when all the girls had been touching me that night, I'd wondered; what if she'd been there too? All the next day I had thought of her green eyes. The firm-seeming breasts she always kept behind tight but professional shirts. Her long legs. I was five foot four, she must have been three inches taller. I'd liked the little nudge of height she had over me. The feeling of looking up at her. What would it feel like to rub my face in her tits? To kiss my way up her legs? How did she moan?

I tried to stop myself. These fantasies were intrusive. Wrong. She was my friend.

And I really needed a friend. I wanted more, but I needed that.

I found her name and called her.

"Lara? How's it going?" Her voice was warm and bright. I closed my eyes when she started speaking.

"Hi. Good. All good. I just wanted to hear your voice."

"Is everything okay?"

I hesitated. "Yeah. Just- just bad dreams. I get them. It's a big empty house. I get rattled sometimes. Have freaky dreams." I laughed oddly.

She wasn't buying it. "Lara, has something happened?"

"No, I-" I faltered. "I really just wanted to hear your voice." I shut my eyes. Oh my God. I sounded equally lame and creepy. What was I doing. "Sorry. That sounds so weird."

Bella laughed. "Didn't know you liked my voice so much."

"Just, you know, it's a friendly voice."

Her voice was always warm. With a light Irish lilt, soft and breathy. I had always liked just listening to her talk.

She sighed. "Well, now we have to sort this out. I'm coming to see you."

I felt a twinge of panic. "What about dinner? I'd love to get out of the house."

"Hmm." Her irritation sounded almost motherly. I wanted a different side of her. "Okay, but it'll have to be soon. I worry about you."

I tried to ever so subtly flirt. "Just glad you're thinking about me."