Ensorcelled

"Look who's finally awake," Sherline said to me when I sat up.

"Oh, hey," I said with a sleepy smile.

"I was about to cook the stee-acks. Care to join me on the back deck?"

"Yeah, sure," I said between yawns.

It was a propane grill. She turned the fire low, placed the steaks on it, and closed the lid. She then slid out of her clothes and made her way to me. "Sherline, I honestly don't know if I'm in the mood right now."

"You will be," she said as she removed my shorts and skivvies. She took me into her mouth and had me hard in under a minute. "Ooooo, yes. This is how I like it, so hard and ready to fill me with its cum." She then climbed atop me and said, "Watch this. It is called ke-gulls." She then began to manipulate her vaginal muscles in ways I never expected they could be. She would flex certain ones, then combinations, then switch to others, and in ten minutes she had me filling her with cum. "Oh, how I love what I get from you."

"Anything for you," I said in a half-conscious stupor. "Anything for you."

She woke me when the steaks were done. She had opened a can of green beans and made some instant potatoes. It was a good meal, and I felt my strength come back to me. As she washed dishes, I paid a visit to Grampa. The first words out of his mouth were, "Mirror," so I looked. The man looking back at me looked to be fifteen-twenty years older than my eighteen. I closed it, went to Gramps's side, and said, "What's happening to me?"

He took a deep sigh, then nodded off to sleep again.

"How is he?" Sherline asked when I went back to the kitchen.

"He's still asleep," I told her.

"I guess that's for the best right now though," she said with a heavy sigh. Then she smiled. "Think of it this way: If he weren't, you wouldn't have another opportunity to make love to me tonight."

"Yay me," I said feebly, then laughed at myself.

I had made it to my room, but that was it. I didn't have the strength to walk the four or five feet from the doorway to the bed. I had just passed the threshold, then collapsed. Sherline arrived a short time later and said, "You poor dear, what happened?"

I tried to tell her, but I couldn't even form a single word.

"I know what will make you feel better." She unclothed me and took me into her mouth. If I could have protested, I would have, but so weakened had I become that I could barely move. She sucked me for all of fifteen minutes, then I feebly came in her mouth. "Yes, God yes," she exclaimed after drinking it down. "Such sweet, sweet elixir, and now ..." She unclothed herself and got on top of me. As I entered her, she said, "Are you going to move, or do I have to do all the work?"

"K-Ke-gels," I managed to say out of desperation. She smiled, then began her magic.

Soon, "Oh, Oh, Sam, you don't know what having your cock inside of me does to me. I told you before that my pussy was just as hungry for your sperm as my mouth was, and that's true. I need you to cum for me, Sam. I need you to fill my pussy with your sperm. I need—"

Her chest poked out, jutting her breasts into the air. A look of insane revulsion came across her face and froze in place. Her head moved back and forth the tiniest of bits, then she spit blood all over my chest and face as her heart flew from her chest. She gagged, sputtered, then fell over, and behind her I saw Gramps, spear in one hand and an old box in the other. He tossed the box onto my chest and said, "Her heart ... In the box ... Burn it."

I just looked at him.

"Now, Sam!"

I was still very weak, but I forced myself up just as Gramps crumpled into the corner. I grabbed Sherline's heart from the spear tip, placed it in the box, then grabbed the aluminum trash can from next to the bed. I placed the heart in it, then made my way outside. I didn't have any fuel to start the box burning, so I placed it on the grill, turned on the gas, and lit it up. I put it on full blast, then fell back onto one of the Adirondack chairs, where I slept till morning.

When I awoke, I wondered why Sherline wasn't there for my morning constitutional, but then remembered last night, and, "Gramps!" I entered the house to find him in the kitchen cooking bacon and eggs. "Gramps?" I called out to him.

He turned. "Sam, my boy!" He held out his arms, and I immediately filled them with my body. My body. I don't remember the last time I felt so fresh, so alive. I hugged Gramps to the point I thought I was going to hurt him, then I backed off. "Gramps, what the hell happened here last night?"

"Mind your language," was the first thing that came out of his mouth, and I knew then and there that whatever had happened to Sher—Gammy, it had not done the same to Gramps. "As for the other, eat your breakfast and do your morning do's and then I'll explain everything."

"Yes, sir," I told him, and did as directed. Once done, I joined him in the living room. He was sitting on the sofa. I wanted to tell him that Gammy and I had had sex there numerous times, but I really didn't want to break his heart; but imagine my surprise when he announced,

"That woman who was here was not your Gammy."

"What?"

"Let me explain," he said, then set himself to task to do so. "Your Gammy has always liked puzzles, as you know. It doesn't matter what kind, if it was a challenge, she had to unlock its secrets. It took her just a month to get all the sides of a Rubik's cube, and she was constantly doing that Sudoku or Sukudo or whatever it's called. Anyway, one day she and I were at the swap meet—that's what they call flea markets out here, swap meets. Anyway, she happened upon this one vendor who had a single box. He told her that it was a puzzle box from the Akkadian Empire circa 2340 BC. When she asked what was in it, he told her that he didn't know because as old as it was, no one ever figured out the right combination to unlock it. That was all she needed to hear to make her want it, and after convincing me that the two hundred dollars it cost could be made up by not going out to eat for a couple of months, I relented.

"She started working on it immediately. You see, there were these tiny levers all around the box. I think she said there were about 150 or so. Anyway, she was required to do some pretty complex math to decipher which lever would be thrown in a particular order. Six weeks had passed, and she hadn't made any leeway into it whatsoever. Then, two months. At the end of the third, she had begun to grow impatient. Then, one night, she sat bolt upright in bed and began to shake me awake. "Frank! Frank! I got it! I figured it out!"

"That's nice," I said, and turned over. I felt her leave the bed and go to the living room. I know I dozed off, because I was awakened by the sound of Sherline screaming. I rushed into the living room to find her on the floor. The box was lying next to her, and it was open. I called her name, shook her frantically, but nothing. I was just about to call an ambulance when I heard her stir. I looked back and she had this devilish grin on her face. I went to her, but she pushed me back onto this sofa, tore my pajama bottoms and boxers from me, and ..."

"Serviced you orally?" I asked when Gramps didn't finish.

"Yes. That." He said, a bit embarrassed. "I won't lie to you, Sam. I welcomed it. Your Gammy's libido had waned before we moved from Georgia. I was lucky to get anything anymore, especially this. Only, it wasn't just that. It was like she had been sexually reawakened. We started out having sex every night, then twice a day ... That woman put me through the ringer, I'll tell you what. Seven times in one day before, if you can believe that of me at my age. Seven times! I found out, although too late, that I wasn't the one controlling it. She was, just like she was controlling you last night."

"Controlling me?" I asked with much disbelief. "What do you mean, 'Controlling me.' How? Why?"

"What your Gammy released from that box, Sam, was a Succubus."

I laughed. "A Succubus? A real, live, Dungeons & Dragons kind of Succubus?" He'd get the reference. He played back in the day, taught Daddy to play, and brought me into the fold when I was eight.

"Exactly," he said, and the look on his face suggested that he was in no mood to be contradicted.

"Then, Gammy?"

"Dead," he answered. "The Succubus has a mind of her own, so the mind of the person inhabiting the body is absorbed. That's why she kept acting like certain words were new to her, because she was still in the process of absorbing your Gammy's mind."

"But, her body then?"

"Without your Gammy's mind in that body, that body was no longer hers, Sam. I'm sorry."

"But everything she told me was so convincing."

"All lies, I can assure you," Gramps stated. "That was her ploy, Sam, to get you to feel sorry for her, then use your emotion to sate her fleshly appetites. She would have absorbed your entire life force if we hadn't stopped her, Sam. You saw the condition I was in. I was knocking on death's door. I hate to say it, but you were a welcome sight. You see, she was so enthralled with the virile, young man who happened upon her doorstep that she completely forgot about me. I feigned continued illness to keep her from finishing me off, but once I had recouped enough energy, I struck when the first opportunity presented itself to do so."

"I had sex with her, Gramps. She ... She took my virginity. I'm sorry."

"Listen to me, Sam. The moment that thing inhabited her body, she was no longer my wife, no longer Sherline, no longer your Gammy. What you had sex with was some entity as old as time itself. A smoking hot entity, yes, but an entity nonetheless."

"And you killed her," I said.

"We did," he corrected.

"How do you know so much about this, Gramps?"

"I'm a Dungeon Master, remember? It's my job to know this stuff."

"So, what now?"

"Now, I suppose I call the police and tell them a story they will never believe," he said resignedly. "If I don't get the chair, I'll spend the rest of my days in the nut house."

"Or ..."

"Or?"

I pulled my phone from my pants as I said, "Hand me your credit card." I googled the info to the airport, then purchased two tickets to Valdosta.

"Why two? You already have one."

"Because the other one is for Gammy," I told him, and his puzzled look suggested that he needed an explanation.

"I'm like Gammy, Gramps, in that I like puzzles too, only I don't work around equations, but situations. Ours, for example. If we want to remain innocent throughout the impending investigation—and there will be one, don't doubt that for a minute— then this is what we're going to do: Once this conversation is done, I'm going to call Ma and Daddy and tell them that you and Gammy are coming back with me because you want the whole family together before I go off to basic. When we get to the airport, you will tell the person at the desk that Gammy will be taking a later flight. Once we get home, you will tell Ma and Daddy the same thing, that she stayed because she was expecting an important package and didn't want it sitting on the front porch for a week. You chill out for a few hours, then you call Gammy.

"You happily make the observation that Gammy must be en route, and after another couple of hours you try her cell phone again. Now you act concerned. You call the house phone as well, but it's busy. You call it about ten times over the course of thirty minutes and it remains busy, so you call the phone company to break in. Of course, when they do, they tell you that it is off the hook, because that's the way we will have left it. You suggest calling the police back here in Canyon Country, but Ma or Daddy will tell you to give it a little more time. You do.

"After another few hours, they agree that the police should come here and check things out. When they arrive, they will find the place in disarray because you and I are going to fix it to look like there was a forced entry and Gammy was abducted. The police will call you with the news, at which time you will feign regret at having left her here alone. You will volunteer to come back, and even go so far as to ask if my presence is needed. They will probably say yes, just so they can question me, so we will use that ticket you bought for Gammy for me, for that purpose.

"We both fly back to California, we each give our statements—we will work on this during the flight—and afterwards, I will return home and you will return to your place in Canyon Country. For the sake of phone records, you will call us and the police every day for updates. Gammy's body is never found, so seven years from now we have a funeral, Bob's your uncle, and this whole thing gets swept under the rug."

Gramps had been nodding his understanding throughout my entire speech, and after I was finished he said, "It does seem plausible. When do we leave?"

"We have to clean up first, then trash the place. There is still the matter of Gammy's body to consider ..."

"Not if my suspicions are correct," Gramps told me. "Show me what you did with the heart." I took Gramps outside to the grill. I opened the hood, and what greeted us was a pile of ash and nothing more. "Good, good," he said. "Now, follow me back to your room." I did, and when we got there, "Ash, just like I thought. You see, Sam, once the heart had been destroyed, the body followed suit."

I bent and examined the floor closely, not just where the Succubus had lain, but the blood she coughed up all over me. I touched it, and it powdered away into nothingness. "Even her blood turned to ash. Gramps! Do you know what this means? It means no trace evidence, no DNA. All we have to do is vacuum this up and dispose of it and we're in the clear."

"Get to it, then," he commanded me, "and I'll start straightening my room." We did, and I then moved to the living room while Gramps took the kitchen.

Once done, I said, "Okay, now go pack two bags, one for yourself, and one for Gammy. I'm going to go ahead and get my stuff packed, too." When this was finished, I said, "Now we have to make it look like a legitimate B & E took place here. You may want to move out of the way, Gramps, on account that I'm going to come through here like a whirlwind." He stepped onto the back deck, and after pulling socks over my hands so as to not leave fingerprints, I then started running into things and knocking them over in the living room. From there, I went into the kitchen where I knocked over the blender, can opener, and toaster before pulling out drawers. Next, I moved to Gramps's room where I pulled out dresser drawers and rifled through them, then did the same with his closet. I noticed the mirrors in there. I'd have to ask Gramps about them when we were done. Once finished, I returned to the sliding glass doors and said, "There, that should do it."

"And now?"

"Now I call a cab, because we are leaving the car here for Gammy to drive to the airport."

"Makes sense," Gramps said.

I called for a cab; Gramps went and got himself a Frostie from the fridge. "It'll be here in about twenty minutes," I informed him, "which is just enough time to wrap things up here. First, that tray on the vacuum has that Succubus's ashes in it. Where should I dispose of them? Flush 'em? Down the sink?"

"Hmmmm," Gramps said, giving the matter great thought. "Oh, I know. Just dump them in the grill. Least likely place to look, wouldn't you say?"

"I suppose," and did as he directed.

Gramps held out his bottle of root beer to me and asked, "Want the rest?" He was infamous for his backwash, so there was no way I was going to drink something that was probably fifty percent spit by now. I waved him off, so he poured it over the ashes as he said, "Sherline, I'm going to miss you."

I had Gramps go in the house first, then close the doors. I then hoisted an Adirondack chair and threw it through the twin glass doors. Gramps just stared at me. "That's why they call it Breaking and Entering." He nodded. I then made my way to the front door to where our bags were. I took Gammy's, opened it, and pulled out all her stuff, strewing it willy-nilly behind me. Finally, I took the house phone off the hook before grabbing Gammy's phone and placing it in my bag, then Gramps and I waited outside for the taxi to arrive.

"You seem very knowledgeable on how to cover up a crime, Sam. Is there something I need to know about you?"

"With all the crime shows on TV nowadays, Gramps, especially the ones that use the collection of evidence as the main focal point, like CSI and Bones, anyone with common sense could plan what I just did."

"It will work," he said with a relieved smile. "I am sure of it." The cab pulled up then, and as we made our way toward it, a noise from inside got our attention. "You don't think ...?"

"It's nothing, Gramps," I said rather confidently. "Just something settling from where we trashed the house. Now come on. Let's get out of here."

We entered the cab, made our way to the airport, and ultimately things went off without a hitch. After returning to California, I volunteered to stay a couple of extra days with Gramps, but he told me to go on back home, that I needed to spend time with the folks before shipping out. I hugged him and thanked him for literally saving my life, and he said the same.

Six weeks into basic, I had won a couple of competitions, which netted me a call home. Ma was so excited to hear from me, and just as I was about to tell her of my achievement that won me the call, she said, "There's someone here who wants to say hello."

She passed the phone over, and a cold chill ran down my spine as I heard, "Why, Sam, it's so good to finally speak with you after two months."

It couldn't be. She was dead. Gammy was dead, and so was that bitch Succubus who killed her. "But ... You're dead," I said to her. "You're dead. You're dead. You're dead! You're DEAD! YOU'RE DEAD-YOU'RE DEAD! YOU'RE DEAD! YOU'RE DEAD! YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!!!!!"

EPILOGUE

Since Ensorcelled was presented in first person perspective—Sam's—there is no way to complete the story from his point of view as he and Gramps were unaware of what went on at the Canyon Country house upon their departure; therefore, a third person omniscient perspective must be adopted to bring the story to completion. I could have very well chosen a first-person perspective from Sherline's POV, but I feel the TPO serves the story best. Enjoy.

"That tray on the vacuum has that Succubus's ashes in it, Gramps. Where should I dispose of them?" Sam asked. "Flush 'em? Down the sink?"

"Hmmmm," Gramps said, giving the matter great thought. "Oh, I know. Just dump them in the grill. Least likely place to look, wouldn't you say?"

"I suppose," Sam said, and did as directed.

Gramps held out his bottle of root beer to Sam and asked, "Want the rest?" He was infamous for his backwash, so there was no way Sam was going to drink something that was probably fifty percent spit by now. Sam waved him off, so Gramps poured it over the ashes as he said, "Sherline, I'm going to miss you." He and Sam then entered the house and made final preparations for their departure.

* * *

They were random images, really. Fleeting glimpses into a past life so recently lived. The Succubus, Jezeeri by name, but most recently known as Sherline and Gammy, fought hard to hold onto those images. They meant something, but at this moment she didn't know what because at this moment she was little more than a pile of wet ash.

She tried to move, but it was nothing more than sloshing about. She sensed water near, and an image of the pool flashed through her still-forming mind. She sloshed back and forth as hard as she could, and eventually was able to tilt the grill over.