Tags: MF, alcohol, Lovecraft inspired (let me know if I’m missing a tag)
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“Come on man, you made it! If anyone should be celebrating it’s you,” Ethan exclaimed as he clapped his friend Leo on the back and held his drink aloft.
“I don’t know man,” Leo said shaking his head, “I’ve got to open tomorrow.”
“Oh screw that place,” Ethan said, “you’ve been working so hard between your day job and the special effects makeup portfolio that I’m surprised you haven’t gotten burnt-out.”
“Hey my boss has been more than understanding about everything. I think she deserves a two week notice,” Leo said, removing Ethan’s hand from his shoulder.
“Well looks like I’ll have to celebrate enough for both of us,” Ethan shrugged and downed his glass before heading for the jukebox.
Leo sighed and ordered a beer.
“Hey Leo, congratulations on getting the job,” said an androgynes person as they slid in the seat next to Leo.
“Oh hey River, glad you could make it,” said Leo before taking a sip.
“Well it’s not every day that someone makes it in the art world,” River said as they gently nudged Leo.
“Heh thanks River,” Leo said as he rolled his eyes, “it’s just an extra hand doing zombie makeup.”
“The zombie fad has to die out at some point,” River retorted, “besides this could be a great networking opportunity.”
“Yeah you’re right,” Leo sighed.
“What’s Ethan doing?” asked River as they glanced over at the jukebox.
“I believe he’s trying to dance,” Leo suggested.
River snorted, “are you sure he didn’t run into a cobweb?”
“That’s entirely possible,” Leo chuckled before taking another sip.
Later on that night Ethan’s head was swimming. The room swayed back and forth as Ethan stumbled out of the back entrance, tripping and landing in a patch of grass.
“At least the grass is cool,” Ethan mumbled without giving much thought to why there was grass in the alleyway behind the bar.
He decided that this was as good a place as any to stay while he waited for the world to stop spinning.
“Either I’m more drunk than I thought or the stars look like they’re spinning too,” Ethan thought as he looked up into the sky.
The stars bent and shifted as though the sky was being projected out of some enormous kaleidoscope that was turning ever so slowly. The cosmos engaged in some grand dance that only the stars could hear the music to.
“Damn that’s fuckin beautiful,” Ethan mumbled before noticing a sound like someone rapping their nails on a piece of wood.
Ethan looked up to find himself staring at a forest that had not been there a moment before.
“Hey is someone there?” Ethan asked as he approached the forest.
As he got closer to the sound a pale slender hand with long black nails came out from around the trunk of a nearby tree.
“Are you alright?” Ethan asked again as he made a slow circle around the tree.
The elbow was visible now as the hand reached out toward Ethan.
Not knowing what else to do, Ethan reached out and shook the hand and introduced himself, “um, hi I’m Ethan.”
The hand curled around his hand, gentle but stronger than the small frame would suggest and began to pull Ethan behind the tree.
Ethan had a brief inkling that perhaps something was off about his situation. The arm lead up into the canopy where a large black mass of human and animal limbs lay waiting.
“Huh,” Ethan thought to himself as two things occurred to him. One was that despite the fact that the normal response to something like this would be to panic and scream, he was oddly calm. The other thing was that the arm was lifting him off of his feet and pulling him closer to the mass of limbs.
As he got closer Ethan was gently lifted up by a multitude of hands, hooves, claws, tentacles, and other things he couldn’t quite recognize and was being gently carried somewhere as if he was crowd surfing at a ménagère.
The mass of limbs gently deposited him on a giant turtle shell that morphed into the carapace of an enormous centipede before taking him higher into the canopy of the forest.
“Man if only I had my sketchpad,” Ethan thought to himself.
The beast with many limbs never seemed to move through the woods, but pulled the world around them in order to progress to their apparent destination.
The trees would sometimes look as though the trunks would have fewer dimensions than normal and appear flat like a cardboard cutout. Sometimes they would have too many dimensions and start to twist inside out as the beast made of limbs would pass them by. Other times they seemed to take the path inside trees and the negative space where trees weren’t became the forest.
“Hey is that my bed?” Ethan thought as the strange beast continued to pull the forest around them in its peculiar form of locomotion.
It looked like someone had taken an enormous saw and cut his bedroom in half diagonally and left it in the middle of this dream-like forest.
A pair of humanoid hands lifted Ethan up from the strange beast and gently placed him on his bed while an enormous crab claw pulled back the covers and tucked him into bed.
“I have no idea how I’d even begin to paint any of this,” Ethan thought as the shadows began to overtake the world and his consciousness began to fade into sleep.
Some time later, the gloom of unconsciousness returned his senses to him before Ethan became aware of someone else in his bed.
“Oh crap, how much did I drink last night?” Ethan thought behind closed eyes.
Besides a dry mouth, Ethan was blessedly not hungover.
“Maybe if I just pretend to be asleep, whoever it is will leave,” Ethan hoped.
There was a slight shift from the other side of the bed as if someone was getting up.
His curiosity getting the better of him, Ethan slowly opened one eye.
Sitting on the edge of his bed was a tall woman with long dark hair. The shadows of the morning clung to her form like a cocktail dress and danced across her back as she bent over and sat up again with Ethan’s pants.
Ethan sat bolt upright, “Hey what-!” he exclaimed before he was interrupted by the woman handing him his phone. A brief moment passed before the phone began to ring. Ethan jumped and fumbled his phone before answering it.
“Um hey Leo what’s up?” Ethan asked as he stared at the stranger across from him.
“Hallelujah, he’s alive!” Leo exclaimed from the other end of the line, “we thought you died last night. Well River thought you got a cab or something, but you kind of just vanished on us.”
“Uh yeah,” Ethan responded lamely.
“So how did you get home?” Leo asked, “you are home, right?
“No, yeah, no, I’m home,” Ethan said stumbling over his words.
Leo laughed, “Ok man I’m going to eat my lunch, don’t forget to hydrate.”
“Will do. Talk you later,” said Ethan as he hung up.
Ethan stared at the blank screen trying to choose his next words. Several options floated around his head such as “how did you know that my phone was going to ring?” “do you know what happened last night?” and most of all “who are you?” What came out of his mouth next surprised Ethan.
“Thanks Heather”
The woman who was apparently Heather gave a coy smile like she had remembered a joke.
“My, you have a lot of questions, don’t you?” Heather asked as she crawled back into the bed with Ethan.
Ethan shrunk back against the wall as he suddenly became aware that he was barely wearing anything.
“So what’s on your mind?” Heather asked.
Ethan weighed his options before settling on a question.
“What happened last night?”
Heather’s expression hardly changed as she recounted last night’s events, “Well you stumbled out of the bar where you met me. We came back here shortly before you passed out.”
Ethan cringed internally.
“Um yeah I was out drinking with some friends because my friend Leo, the one who called, just got accepted as a… special effects… makeup…” Ethan started as Heather slowly crawled on top of him straddling him just above his knees.
“It’s ok, I’m patient,” Heather interrupted as she traced her hands up Ethan’s thighs and stopping just below his boxers.
Ethan gasped, his pulse quickening as his boxers began to tent.
“W-wait,” Ethan stuttered, “can we close the curtains?”
“You aren’t ready for that,” Heather replied in a matter of fact tone.
Before Ethan could contemplate what Heather meant by that, Heather’s hands continued on their path up to the waistband of his boxers. Her nails grazed gently against his skin as she slowly slid them down.
Heather shifted herself forward and wrapped her finger and thumb around the base of Ethan’s shaft in a firm grip and began to slowly work it with short strokes.
Ethan gasped softly as he grew harder. He tried to buck against her hand but found that Heather had him pinned.
Sensing his mounting desire, Heather slowed down and teased Ethan’s manhood, gently grazing her nails on the sensitive underside of his shaft.
Ethan’s legs tensed as he tried not to buck against Heather’s teasing.
“Seems like you’re a lot less patient,” Heather chuckled and repositioned herself right below Ethan’s shaft and brought her face close to his.
Ethan’s pulse was hammering in his ears as he stared at Heather’s expression. Her beautiful face that had once held a coy grin was now a broad smile that bordered on predatory. Ethan had the same feeling a rabbit has when cornered and, like a rabbit, knew that he had to do something or be devoured.
In a moment of desperation, Ethan grabbed both sides of her face and pulled it closer to his for a kiss. Heather seemed momentarily surprised before leaning into it.
Ethan closed his eyes as their bodies pressed together, his tongue exploring her mouth and his hands exploring her body. Their legs and arms began winding around each other to the point where Ethan couldn’t tell where his body ended and hers began.
“Ethan,” Heather said suddenly, breaking away from the kiss.
“Huh, yes?” Ethan replied almost dreamily.
“I need you to watch me,” she said in an almost concerned tone.
“Ah, sorry,” Ethan said sheepishly, “I get a bit nervous when I’m with someone new, it’s easier when I close my eyes or I have the lights off.”
Heather sat up back and put her weight on her knees, positioning herself directly over Ethan.
“Then focus on this,” Heather said as she moved over Ethan’s manhood.
Ethan took a steadying breath as she put one hand on his shaft and lined it up with her entrance. Heather let out a slight gasp as she lowered down slowly, savoring the feeling of guiding him closer to her center.
“Can’t hold back anymore,” Heather moaned breathlessly and suddenly began riding Ethan at a frantic pace.
Ethan was quickly overwhelmed at the sudden movement and felt a heat begin to build his loins. Wrapping his arms around Heather’s lower back, Ethan held on like his life depended on it.
Heather drew ragged breaths as she rode him. Her previously composed nature lost to pleasure.
Ethan’s efforts to hold back were in vain as he poured himself into her. Heather arched her back as the feral sounds of her ecstasy filled the room with the combined force of their climax.
Heather slumped forward, her breathing hot and ragged to calm in the span of one breath.
“The first of many,” Heather whispered in Ethan’s ear.
Ethan’s afterglow quickly fell apart as the absurdity of the whole situation rushed back to him in a sudden moment of post coital clarity.
“Ok that was amazing and all, but how did I know your name?” Ethan began as he pushed himself out from under Heather, “how did we get back to my apartment and how did you know Leo was about to call?”
Heather’s grin returned as she asked Ethan, “when was the last time you were in the forest?”
Ethan felt the blood drain from his face as the memory of last night’s dream returned to him.
“Um not for a while,” Ethan replied feeling a lot less confident than he had a moment ago.
“Hmm I suppose from your perspective that must not have resembled a forest as you would know it,” Heather mused as she rested her body against Ethan.
“How…” Ethan began flabbergasted.
“I told you, you stumbled out of the bar where you met me and we came back here,” Heather said with the same smirk.
“That was real?!” Ethan exclaimed.
“In a manner of speaking,” Heather said cryptically.
Ethan paused and considered his next words carefully.
“Prove it.”
Heather’s predatory grin revealed itself once again as the room began to darken. Shadows coalesced and Ethan swore he could see eyes open as his room began to invert around him.
Panic welled up inside of him and just as he was about to scream, it was back to the way Ethan knew it without any indication of whatever had just taken place.
Heather got up from the bed and began making her way over to the bathroom before looking back at Ethan.
“I’ll go ahead and take the first shower,” Heather said calmly, “we’ll need to get ready if we’re going to make it in time.”
“In time for what?” asked Ethan dumbfounded.
“In time to go to the aquarium. You’ve been wanting to go for a while now and there’s an opportunity you won’t want to miss,” Heather replied as she continued to walk to the bathroom.
Ethan sat up in bed and rubbed his face, wondering how on earth he had managed to find himself in this situation.
“Well one thing’s for sure,” Ethan thought while she walked away, “she’s got a nice ass.”
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AN: Thanks for reading. First time trying my hand at erotic fiction so be gentle with me.
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/t425tb/the_lady_from_the_black_woods