Devil May Come

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An old house, three coeds, and one nighttime visitor.
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The fire. That’s what started it all.

Jess studied the house intently from across the street. This was her first visit since last October, that awful month that changed her life. From her vantage point she could see the garage in back and the boxes stacked in front of the windows of the apartment above. She'd wanted to see the place one last time before tomorrow to refresh her memory. Wind from the river valley below blew up the street, pushing her hair in front of her eyes. She continued watching the house as she hooked the errant hair behind her ear with her finger, wary for any movement. There was none, of course, as the house had been empty the past six months. She turned and walked slowly up the street, as if carrying a heavy weight.

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The fire. It started on the couch on the front porch, sweeping through the old house on Ann Street, quickly overwhelming the elderly landlords living on the first floor. That night was hot and humid as early September nights are prone to be, and Jess was in her room upstairs, lying in bed listening to her MP3 player when a rock crashed through her window. Startled, she ripped the buds from her ears and heard the chilling words, "Fire! Fire!" She quickly pulled on some clothes and ran to Lin's room, frantically pounding on the door, the hallway filling with smoke, choking her. Finally the door opened and Jess rushed in, slamming it behind her. Lin, bleary eyed from sleep, quickly dressed while Jess forced the window open and kicked out the screen so they could escape onto the rear porch roof. Lin ran down the wooden fire escape while Jess rushed up to the attic apartment, forcing her way in through Karen's open window and pulling Karen's naked body from the bed, yelling for her to get out. Karen grabbed some clothes and they fled down the rickety fire escape, the heat and smoke from the fire driving them to edge of panic.

Lin called 911 on her cell while Jess and Karen tried the back door to rouse the landlords, only to be driven back by the flames. The three girls huddled on the sidewalk across the street and watched helplessly as the firefighters struggled to bring the blaze under control but it in the end it was a total loss.

The semester was just two weeks old and they were homeless.

The local Red Cross chapter found them temporary lodging at the University Inn on the northwest corner of campus, and they spent the next two weeks apartment hunting. The only places left, however, were those too rundown to live in, even by students’ standards. Their Red Cross case worker had warned them not to be too picky as they only had a week of charity left when the call came: a local woman had read about their plight the paper and offered them rooms at her house. A meeting was quickly arranged.


“Wow," said Karen, her mouth hanging open slightly. Lin grunted in agreement and Jess was at a loss for words.

The house stood at the end of Division Street before the road turned and crossed over the river, a couple of blocks north of where the student rental properties stopped. It was a large, red brick, three story house, built in the 1800’s and sat on a small hill overlooking the river valley. The driveway wound past the front of the house and turned around the side to the large garage at the back of the lot. The girls stood in the driveway admiring the well kept house as the owner, who had introduced herself on the phone as Cecelia, watched them from the porch, her hands clasped in front of her. She appeared to be in her early 60’s, grey streaking her pulled back black hair. The girls climbed the steps to the porch to make their introductions.

"Hi, I'm Jessica, but I prefer Jess," said Jess holding out her hand.

"I'm Karen."

"Melinda, but I go by Lin."

"You can call me Aunt Cecie, everybody does!" said the older woman, taking each hand in turn, her smile showing slightly stained teeth. Jess thought the smile was a little strained and didn't touch Aunt Cecie's eyes.

"Let me show you around," the old woman offered, walking in through the open double front doors. Jess and Karen followed closely behind, but Lin straggled a bit, taking in the details of the stained woodwork on the porch. Through the doors she swore she heard a soft chuckle, but dismissed it as a trick of the wind which had picked up, chasing dried leaves in little circles on the porch. Lin felt a chill up her spine and pulled her sweater tightly around her and went inside, closing the doors.

To the left of the entry way was the parlor and to the right was the living room. Jess didn't know how a parlor and living room differed, but felt it impolite to ask. Opposite the front doors was the wide staircase leading up to the left to a landing with a large circular stained glass window a half flight up before the stairs doubled back to the second floor.

Wide, dark-stained trim encased all of the doorways, including the wide opening into the living room. A thick, antique Persian rug covered the dark wood floor, with two couches facing each other and a square glass and wood coffee table between them. A large brick fireplace sat along one wall, flanked by built-in wooden bookcases stuffed with books. The front wall was curved in a graceful arc, accommodating a sitting area next to the windows. There didn't appear to be a speck of dust in the place.

The living room led onto a formal dining room, and it, too, had a curved exterior wall. A glass chandelier hung over the long wooden table set with twelve chairs. To the left of the dining room was a half-bath and beyond a music room with a baby grand piano in the center. Each room was anchored by a large Oriental rug in the center, and the color of the walls and the furniture perfectly complimented the rugs. Through the dining room was a large eat-in kitchen with a back staircase leading up, the cellar stairs beneath them.

Aunt Cecie led them back out and up the front staircase, pointing out the hand carved banister as they climbed to the second floor. They were shown three large bedrooms, each furnished with four-poster beds and tastefully appointed, and a large bathroom for them to share as well as a large study. Cecie briefly showed them the master bedroom and bath before asking if they had any questions.

"What's on the third floor?" asked Karen.

"More rooms. It's a fully finished attic but I use it for storage nowadays," said Aunt Cecie.

"What's over the garage?" asked Lin looking out a rear window.

"Oh, more storage. It used to be a servant's apartment back in the old days but it hasn't been lived in for quite some time, decades, I suppose."

Indeed, cardboard boxes could be seen stacked in front of the windows.

"I'm sorry," said Jess, "but there's no way I can afford a room here. This is way beyond my means."

Aunt Cecie made a shooing motion with her hands. "Nonsense. I'm only asking that you cover the utilities and help keep the place up, which means helping with the housekeeping. It's a big house but with the four us I believe we should be able to manage quite nicely."

The girls readily agreed.

"Now, there are a couple of other items which you'll have to agree to." Collectively, the girls held their breath waiting for her to go on. "One, you'll have to share the house with George, my cat. I hope you're all cat lovers and aren't allergic." All three relaxed immediately, professing their love of felines. "Two, this is my house which means you'll live by my rules. You must tell me in advance if you're going to have a guest, and no boys upstairs. You can visit with them in one of the sitting rooms on the first floor." Karen grimaced behind the old woman's back. "Three, no loud music, no loud conversations in the living room - I've been living on my own for some time now and I'm used to my peace and quiet. And four, no hard liquor. An occasional glass of wine in the evening or with dinner is fine, but liquor is the devil's tool! I hope you can abide by these simple rules."

All three promised to do their very best and keep the place as immaculate as the old woman did.

"Excellent. I'll leave it up to you to pick out your rooms." Aunt Cecie turned abruptly and walked downstairs.

"Can you believe this place?" gushed Lin. "It's too good to be true!"

"Yeah," said Jess sarcastically, nodding slowly. "Somehow, that worries me."

"I know what you mean," empathized Karen, putting an arm around Jess's shoulders. In a low voice she added, "Maybe Aunt Cecie is just lonely, or it could be," she paused for effect, looked around and lowered her voice even more, "she's one of those psycho grannies who take in borders only to chop them to bits after poisoning them!"

All three laughed and Karen and Lin called dibs on the rooms they wanted, leaving Jess the room next to the front staircase. Karen's was next to hers and Lin's was on the other side of Karen's around the corner.

In the music room, Aunt Cecie sat on a divan petting a rather large orange cat, listening to the distant giggles of the young women upstairs. Jess was the tall one with dark hair and deep green eyes, extremely beautiful with her long legs and ample chest. Melinda's a little shorter with curly brown hair, large breasts and shapely hips, and Karen was the short one, blond haired and blue eyed with a hint of mischief about her. Aunt Cecie thought Karen might be a problem and wondered if she was making a mistake.

"I don't know, George. I don't think this is a good idea," she said softly, rubbing his ears. George purred non-committally. Aunt Cecie shook her head, looked up and addressed the house: "Well, do you think you'll be able to behave yourself?"

One muffled thud was the answer.

"Which one do you like?" she asked.

The reply from the house was very faint, more of a sigh than a whisper: "Jess."

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By the time the girls returned from the hotel with their meager possessions in hand, Aunt Cecie had made up a list of chores for each to do on a weekly rotation. The girls quickly found out how much work was involved in keeping the house clean. And they discovered Aunt Cecie had a much higher standard of what clean meant then what they were used to. But considering they were living rent-free, none of them complained out loud and used what would have been rent money to replace books and clothing lost in the fire. They settled into the new routine and for the most part became quite comfortable in the first two weeks of October.

Jess found the house, though, to be disquieting at times. On several occasions when she was alone, either in her room or in the second floor study, she felt the sensation that someone or something was watching her. She told herself it was simply a reaction to being in a new place. The faint noises she heard when the house was quiet was caused by the old place settling, that's all. She told herself these things but, yet, she didn't quite believe them.

George didn't help her anxiety, either. Often he would curl up nearby as she studied but on the occasions when she felt she was being watched, George wouldn't stay in the room. Instead, he'd meow loudly, pacing as he watched the ceiling intently, or his tail would twitch from side to side as he stared at a corner. Eventually, he'd stalk out leaving Jess alone and feeling even more spooked. Jess tried several times to bring this up to the other girls but each time she held her tongue, afraid of the inevitable teasing but also afraid the house would hear her and somehow be offended. She began spending more time at the library, something she didn't ordinarily like to do.

One night, Jess was at the graduate library in the stacks wing, the modern part of the library that looked out of place with the more classical university buildings surrounding it, and she had the good fortune of snagging a private cubicle to study in. The cubicles were small, roughly 5 feet by 5 feet, with a small desk, 8 foot high walls and a door that closed. Economics and Psychology mid-terms were looming later in the week so Jess reviewed her Econ problem sets and thumbed through a semester's worth of Psych reading. By the time she got to Philosophy though, her mind was wandering and she pushed it away. She reached into her backpack and pulled out the one personal item she managed to save from the fire.

It was a hand-written letter that had been unfolded and refolded many times. Jess carefully opened it and removed the photo it contained, one of her with her arm around a tall, beautiful blond girl named Erika, her freshman year roommate. Jess didn't read the letter this time as she had it committed to memory. By some good fortune, the letter and photo were in the hip pocket of the jeans she threw on the night of the fire. Seeing Erika's face reminded Jess of much happier times, but it also reminded her of the hole in her life she feared may never be filled.

She and Erika spent many a sweaty night rolling on a dorm bed, their heads buried between each other’s legs. Erika taught her a lot about making love, how to listen closely to the other person’s reactions to give them what they want (even if they didn't know themselves), and how to tease until the partner is ready to burst. She was a patient teacher and Jess was a dutiful student, and Jess soon fell in love with her.

One night Jess came home from the library and opened the door to their dorm room to find some guy furiously fucking Erika. Shocked and embarrassed, Jess pulled the door shut quickly and sat in the lounge down the hall, her embarrassment turning to seething jealously until Erika came in a half hour later.

“Jess,” she said softly, kneeling beside the chair, “he’s gone. Come back to the room. We need to talk.”

Jess followed, and as soon as the door was shut, Erika came towards her, her arms out, imploring forgiveness but Jess pushed her away. Erika followed her around the room, apologizing profusely until Jess was cornered. Jess sobbed as she held Erika at arms length, but Erika easily pushed her hands away and hugged her tightly, whispering ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again in her ear, their tears mingling. Unwilling to fight her off, Jess hugged her back. Erika kissed her face all over, still apologizing until Jess kissed her back, urgent and expectant.

Erika's hands tugged at her shirt, freeing it from Jess's jeans and Jess leaned back against the wall, giving herself completely over to Erika, letting her do as she pleased. In moments her shirt and bra were pushed up and Erika's lips were kissing and sucking her breasts. Jess cradled the head at her chest, her breathing ragged. Hands unsnapped her jeans, tugging at her zipper. Erika knelt in front of Jess, pushing her pants and panties down to her ankles, her mouth finding her pussy, her tongue flicking rapidly across her clit, making Jess come over and over again.

Afterwards, they lay on the bed and talked for a long time and came to an agreement: they were free to sleep with any guy they wanted but not with any other women. Although she wanted Erika all to herself, Jess reluctantly agreed to the arrangement, knowing she couldn't satisfy the other half of Erika's sexual appetite. They worked out a system of text messaging to notify the other if a man was being brought back to the room. Jess didn't have much opportunity to send any such messages until she met a guy one night at a local bar notorious for not carding the younger crowd.

Jess was there with some friends listening to a half way decent local band when a good looking guy offered to buy her a drink. Jess turned down the drink but took him up on his offer to dance. There must have been something about his sexual chemistry because after only two dances Jess felt horny and wanted to jump him. An hour later, they were walking across campus to her dorm and Jess was texting Erika, giving her the heads up.

They found the room empty and soon the floor was littered with clothing as they eagerly stripped. It had been more than five months since Jess had been with a guy and she was eager to feel a cock inside her again. After a brief amount of foreplay, he was on top of her, the tip his rod pressing at her wet slit, pushing into her. Jess had almost forgotten how good it felt when a guy first slides in. Her fingers dug into his back as his hips pistoned up and down, driving into her. As he fucked her, she watched his face and realized she couldn't remember his name and doubted he knew her name, either.

After a commendable length of time, he groaned and became still, his breath hot and moist on her neck. He dismounted and looked at the clock, acting surprised at how late it was.

"Wow, I'm really sorry but I have an eight o'clock class tomorrow," he said, quickly gathering his clothes.

Jess lay naked on her bed, watching him dress. He came over and gave her a halfway decent kiss on the lips.

"Thanks, Jackie, I had a good time. I'll call you, I promise."

Jess imagined a little smoke outline of him lingering for a few seconds after he left, and doubted he would call her since she hadn't given him her number. She looked up at the ceiling and gave a short laugh as she thought about what just happened. She was a little annoyed he hadn't offered to wear a condom and didn't apologize for not having one, but since she was on the pill and horny, it didn't actually matter to her.

"Wham, bam, thank you, ma'am!" she said to the ceiling.

"I second that!" said Erika, emerging from the closet.

Jess sat up in surprise as Erika sat on the bed next to her and Jess saw her clothes were unbuttoned. Erika's fingers smelled musky as she caressed Jess's face. Stripping off her own clothes, Erika gently forced Jess down onto the bed. Erika moved down her body, her lips and tongue teasing Jess, making her wetter than she ever had before. Lower down she moved, Erika's tongue parting her pussy lips, eagerly lapping up the guy's seed, until Jess's whole body shook with a thunderous orgasm. After she caught her breath, Jess rolled Erika onto her back and repaid her in kind. Never before had Erika tasted so sweet or been so wet as that night.

From that night on their sexual play included men. Several times Jess watched and masturbated silently, hidden in the closet as some guy plowed into Erika until Erika kicked the guy out. Then Jess would emerge and dive headfirst between her legs, surprised at how much she enjoyed lapping up a guy's cum from Erika's pussy. Once, when Jess had a guy in their room, she was on top facing away from him, her eyes locked on Erika's peering through the crack of the open closet door, Jess's body glistening with sweat as she fucked furiously to multiple orgasms - it was the first and only time she'd enjoyed vaginal orgasms.

Jess looked up from the picture and out the small window of her cubicle and heaved a heavy sigh. She studied the dark night and knew those days with Erika were gone forever. The last couple of letters made it clear that Erika had found someone. Male or female, Jess couldn't tell, but reading between the lines it was plain Erika had moved on. Maybe it was time for Jess to move on, too. She carefully folded the letter with the picture inside and placed it a zippered pocket on her backpack. She gathered her books, stood and stretched, put on her coat and left.

The night air was unusually mild for an October night and at this late hour few people were out. Jess walked at a crisp pace, crossing the edge of campus and passing into the residential neighborhood where the house sat. Here, no one was on the sidewalks and the lighting was poor as thick trees, now partly denuded of leaves, still conspired to block out the weak light of the occasional streetlamp. An odd gust of wind would send dried leaves skittering across the pavement, their scratching filling the air.

Several blocks from home Jess got the uneasy feeling someone was following her. At the next corner she turned to steal a quick look back but saw no one, although there were plenty of deep shadows for someone to hide in. She quickened her pace and crossed in the middle of the street, her ears strained for the telltale sound of following footsteps. There were none but her fears would not subside. She turned the next corner quickly and ducked behind a tall hedge and waited. Cautiously, hidden in shadows, she peered over the top and watched the street.