The old woman's word stabbed him like an icicle, and Joel halted in his steps. He turned, facing her as she stood dismally at her window, and he hesitantly crossed her lawn, went up the squat steps. She opened the door for him, and he entered.
Joel was met by the warmth coming from the fireplace. The man he had seen previously, obviously the woman's son, was sitting on the couch.
"The woods," the old woman began strictly and without delay, "are a dangerous place. Don't go there any longer! You'll notice that no one from town goes there. Only outsiders like you, who are oblivious to the nature of those woods. Five years ago, a college student just like yourself went in there, and he was much the worse for it."
Joel thought of Mina, the woman who was at the same time angelic and menacing. He was irritated--the heat rising to his skin—that anyone would suggest that anything morose would be even remotely connected to Mina.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I feel nothing but peace in those woods..."
"Have a seat, dear," said the old woman.
"No, I'm in a hurry. What are you trying to say about the woods? What do you mean about the college student?"
The woman looked off, deep in thought. After a pause, she said, "I remember him. He was so bright and chipper. Not like you—you're much more serious than he ever was. He used to go for strolls in the woods. He would bring these flowers out with him, dark, blood-colored, with five pointed petals like a star. Once, he offered me one, but I refused kindly, and said I was allergic to flowers. My mother had told me that the woods were evil, and I didn't want anything to do with them. After some time, it seemed the young man spent all his day in there. He'd emerge from the woods pale, exhausted, jittery. He never smiled and waved at me as he used to. Then, one day, he just stopped going in there altogether."
"I'd listen to her if I were you," said the man. "She's a pretty old little bird. She's seen it all."
"Be kind, Horace," the woman countered.
"If you're so damned afraid of these woods," Joel said smugly, "why do you live so close to them?"
"My family has lived on this property since the early 1800s. Each generation has been taught to beware those woods, and never to go in. We try to warn innocent passersby as much as possible, but normally, they don't listen. Just like you. I take it there's something drawing you there every evening?"
Joel scoffed. Thought briefly of Mina's pale, naked flesh, the ample breasts, that slickness between her legs.... "If there is, it's really none of your business."
"That's right," agreed Horace. "It really isn't any of our business, mother. And this jackass doesn't care. Well, as long as that evil presence leaves us alone, what does it matter what he does?"
"You seem like a charming young fellow," the old woman said, examining Joel's face. "Quite handsome and intelligent-looking. It would be a pity if anything happened to you."
"Nothing is going to happen to me!" he bellowed. With that, he whirled around and left the house, finding a swift gait on the gravel road back to his dorm. Immediately after leaving the old woman's home, he felt a flutter of shame. Wasn't the woman just trying to protect him, and hadn't he been feeling a sense of uneasiness around Mina anyway? Indeed, he had felt ambivalence toward that strange creature.
"Creature," he mouthed the thought out loud, watching the puff of breath rising like a ghost in the cold night. "Is that what she is? A creature? What the hell am I doing?"
His desire for Mina defied common sense. What had happened to that college student?
After arriving at his dorm, he took off his layers and looked long and hard at his reflection in the mirror. His tired countenance jolted him back into reality. He decided then that he would not go back into those woods. Whatever was happening to him, it was by far unnatural, and very likely to be dangerous.
His heart twinged as he got under his covers. He missed Mina already, and lamented that he would never see her again. His cock still ached with pleasure from his activities with her, just an hour before. Thinking of what they shared, he grew slightly hard, and felt grateful that his roommate was out somewhere. Solitude was the best medicine for him whenever he was on rough waters.
He fell asleep for some time, though he did not realize it until he woke at midnight, when there was a loud banging at his door. "Bill," he thought. His roommate probably forgot his keys in some pot-smoking hippy lair.
Joel got up, and glancing across the room, he saw Bill was already asleep in his own bed. His stomach turned. Who would be at the door? Perhaps the computer nerd down the hall who always wanted to use Bill's microwave.
He opened the door, momentarily blinded by the light out in the hall. He gasped: It was Mina. And she was completely naked.
She was panting, her brow knitted, her eyes wild and full of concern.
"You have determined not to return to me," she stated.
"Get in here!" Joel said under his breath and pulled her in.
"Do not worry," she said, "I choose only you to see me. And you needn't whisper. Bill is under my spell. See?" And she strode over to Bill's bed, and hopped onto his stomach.
"No!" Joel said. But Bill merely let out a loud snore. Mina giggled in response, her deep throaty laugh. Her breasts jiggled ever so slightly.
Joel flicked on the lights. "Mina. What are you doing here?"
Her face grew stern. Her brown eyes, piercing his own, turned ice-blue. "I am here to seal your allegiance to me."
"Allegiance?"
