The Cauldron

Moira was stunned. She'd owned the cauldron for years, and had never even suspected its secret.

"I think that's why they were trying to get in here," Alec said. "I think they were after the cauldron."

"It's here?"

Alec nodded. "I hid it in the attic. I thought it would be safe there."

"Can I see it? I want to see this writing."

"Sure," he said, and led her down the hall and pulled down the ladder to the attic. As he nervously climbed the rungs, he pushed open the door, expecting to see a golden glow.

But there was nothing. The attic was empty.

"Oh no," Alec said. "The movers were here yesterday, they must have taken everything in the attic to the storage locker!"

"Including the cauldron?"

"Oh fuck," Alec said. "That's why the Sidhe left. They know where the cauldron is. I have to get it before they do, otherwise I'll never be able to stop the curse."

"I'll come with you," Moira said. "I'll help."

"Thanks," Alec said, as he hurried down the hallway and grabbed his car keys and cell phone. "But first, I need to warn my daughter."

* * *

Alec and Moira reached the twenty-four hour storage locker facility just before midnight. He punched in his key code at the main gate and it slowly swung open. They parked near the building and as they entered the lights, controlled by motion detectors, flickered on.

Alec checked his phone. Allison hadn't answered when he called and she still hadn't replied to any of his texts. He tried to stay calm, tried to convince himself that she was out of the cauldron's reach. But he knew if the magic had reawakened, none of them would be safe.

He instinctively took Moira's hand, and she didn't object as he led her up the stairs to the second floor. He quietly pushed the door open and looked down the hallway, checking to make sure the three Sidhe weren't waiting for them.

When he saw the hallway was empty, they cautiously tiptoed down the eerily quiet corridor. He'd half-expected to see a golden glow coming from his locker, and now that he saw how normal everything seemed, he wondered if the cauldron was even in there.

He fumbled with the key as Moira nervously watched in both directions. The padlock snapped open and Alec opened the door. The cauldron was sitting right on top of a box marked "books."

Alec grabbed it, puzzled. The cauldron was completely cold; there was no golden glow. There was no golden writing.

"This should be glowing," he said. "But if it isn't the cauldron causing it this time, then it's -- "

"The Sidhe," Moira answered.

Just then they heard footsteps on the stairs, and turned to see a shadow approaching.

"They're here!" Alec whispered, and grabbed the cauldron and quickly ran around the corner.

But the next hallway was a dead end; there was no escape. Alec pressed himself against the wall with Moira beside him as they heard the footsteps getting closer. A shadow appeared on the wall, lengthening as it got near, and Alec readied himself, the iron cauldron clutched in his hand like a weapon.

And as a figure appeared, he swung it above his head, ready to attack.

The man flinched back and threw his arms up protectively. "Whoa, Alec!" he cried. "It's me, Brody!"

"Holy fuck, Brody!" Alec said. "You scared the shit out of me!"

"Sorry," Brody said. "We got your text and came down here right away. The gate was locked so I hopped it in case you needed help. Gabriella's waiting in the car."

Moira's heart was pounding. "This guy's a friend of yours?"

"Yeah," Alec said. "Brody and his girlfriend Gabriella helped complete the ritual that dispelled the cauldron at Halloween, so I called them in case I needed their help again."

Brody looked at the cauldron. "I thought you said it was happening again? Why isn't it glowing?"

Alec turned the cauldron over, wondering the same thing. "I'm not sure. These weird women were trying to get in the house to get it. So I automatically assumed they -- "

And then he went pale, as the realization dawned on him. "Oh my god...it isn't the cauldron they're after...it's my daughter!"

* * *

Allison screamed. And then Kaylee screamed and both of them laughed.

All around them their friends were screaming too, shouting and howling as they danced around a huge, blazing fire.

The Beltane bonfire was a local college tradition, and every year students hiked into the woods to the old abandoned quarry on the last day of April for a dusk to dawn ritual of drinking, dancing, drumming and fucking -- and not always in that order.

Over a hundred kids were twisting and swaying as they circled the huge fire burning at the center of the quarry, but Allison and Kaylee weren't among them. They were taking a break and sitting on the edge of the firelight, shadows flickering across their faces as they watched their friends dance around the flames to the beat of the drums.

But it wasn't only the pounding of drums fueling the frenzied mob that circled the bonfire. Other kids were banging sticks on the stone floor while others lightly clanged bottles together as everyone whooped and hollered.

Allison smiled as she watched her friends go wild. Some of them had stripped down to their underwear or less, and many of them had smeared their bodies and faces with bright red body paint.

She'd been apprehensive about coming to the bonfire after what had happened last Halloween, but Kaylee had finally convinced her to come. Of course, Kaylee had no reason to be afraid; she had no memory of what had happened that night. She only remembered waking up with a cock in her pussy and a dildo in her ass.

Kaylee hadn't seen the dildo again since that night, but she still dreamt of feeling her best friend's dad's thick cock in her pussy one more time.

She slumped half drunk against Allison's shoulder, and said, "You should call your dad and tell him to come to the party."

"Tramp," Allison teased. She knew exactly why Kaylee wanted her dad there.

"I can't help it," she said, as she drunkenly slid her hand up and groped Allison's breast through her t-shirt. "His cock felt so fucking good inside me."

Allison gently pulled her hand away, and checked her cell phone to see if her dad had called. She was surprised to see there was no signal.

"Wait here a minute. I'll be right back," she said.

"Where you going, baby?" Kaylee slurred.

"I'm just heading to the top of the quarry to see if I can get a signal on my cell phone. I want to text my dad and let him know I'm okay."

"Tell him to come to the party!" Kaylee yelled.

Allison ignored her friend who, ever since the night he'd fucked her, had been begging her to invite her dad to every party they went to. She walked around the edge of the quarry, keeping a wide berth from the bonfire, and headed up the sloping rock face that led out.

As she climbed to the top, hoping to get a signal, she glanced back and saw Kaylee had passed out, and was curled on her side and hugging her empty cider bottle. But as Allison's gaze drifted back past the fire she noticed something strange -- three blondes, dancing hypnotically around the flames.

Allison froze. There was something about their skin, their hair, and the way the firelight flickered off it and made it seem golden. And as they danced around the bonfire with wild abandon, the other kids followed their lead.

What had once been a mob of drunken, half-naked college students whooping and hollering as they ran in circles around a fire was now a seething mass of undulating flesh.

Allison instinctively stepped back into the shadows, suddenly afraid of being seen from below.

She watched from the dark, as one of the blondes suddenly leapt through the blaze and the fire caught at her billowy green outfit.

The flames flared up around her like a mantle on a gas lantern, and as they died out she was revealed to be completely unharmed, naked and glowing.

Allison was filled with an icy fear as she hunched low, trying to stay hidden, and crept along the top of the quarry as she frantically tried to get a signal on her cell phone.

Below her, the other two blondes had also danced through the flames and had their clothes similarly consumed. The crowd circled around them as if in a trance, and when the three women threw their hands in the air simultaneously a second bonfire roared to life.

The crowd howled and Allison shivered at the unearthly sound.

And then she remembered Kaylee, who was still curled up on her side and completely oblivious to the events going on in front of her.

Allison had reached the top of the quarry. She knew the edge of the woods was only a few hundred yards away, and every ounce of her being screamed for her to run to it. She had to get away...she had to call her dad. But she knew she couldn't leave her best friend behind.

She ducked down as she hurried back along the granite face, trying to keep to the shadows. She nervously glanced back at the fire and saw everyone had stripped completely naked.

Allison watched as one of her friends from school jumped between the twin bonfires and landed in a feral crouch; his head snapped up and her heart stopped when she saw his eyes, his golden glowing eyes.

The three blondes danced in a circle, wildly whipping their hair around as every one of the dancers followed the first between the bonfires and emerged, their eyes filled with the same burning glow.

Allison crept over to Kaylee and shook her. "Wake up!" she whispered. "We have to get out of here!"

"Hmm?" Kaylee mumbled, her eyes half open. "Is your dad coming?"

"No, he's not coming, but we -- "

She stopped, afraid to move or even make a sound. All three of the blondes had stopped dancing at exactly the same moment and turned as one to stare at them.

"She is blessed," they said in one voice, and their words echoed off the stone walls surrounding them.

"Oh my god, Kaylee! We have to get out of here!" Allison cried, as she tried to get her to stand.

The terror in her best friend's voice suddenly sobered her up, and Kaylee blinked as she saw the three dark figures approaching, silhouetted by the backdrop of the Beltane bonfire.

"Who are they?" Kaylee whispered.

"I don't know, but I bet it's got something to do with the cauldron!"

Kaylee scrambled to her feet and Allison grabbed her hand. "This way!" she said, and pulled her toward the edge of the quarry.

Kaylee tried to run, but was betrayed by her empty cider bottle. She stepped on it and felt her feet go out beneath her as she stumbled face first to the cold, hard earth.

Allison turned around to help, just as the eerie trio surrounded her best friend.

"Allison!" Kaylee cried, and desperately reached out for her.

But it was too late. She could only watch as they placed a crown of flowers on Kaylee's head. Instantly, her eyes blazed with a golden light, and the panic that filled them only seconds before was gone.

The three women looked curiously at Kaylee's eyes, and then removed the crown from her head. "She is not the one," they said in an unearthly harmony.

And then they turned as one toward Allison, and carried the crown toward her.

So she ran, scrambling over the rocks of the quarry and only looking back once, when she saw Kaylee stripping off her clothes and joining the dance between the bonfires.

* * *

Alec shut the car door and joined Moira, Brody and Gabriella as they stared at the ominous outline of the dark woods looming in front of them.

"Allison's in there?" Gabriella said.

Alec nodded as he checked his phone -- still no answer from his daughter -- and said, "There's an old quarry at the heart of the woods. All the kids party there. That's where she said she was headed with her friends tonight. I remember going up there once when I was her age, and I remember having this weird feeling the whole time...like something was watching me."

Gabriella shivered at the thought, and squeezed her boyfriend's arm as they headed into the dark woods. They hadn't gone far before they made out an orange glow through the trees.

"That's the quarry," Alec said. "They must have a fire going. We'll have to go around the far side to find a safe place to climb down."

They picked their way through the pitch-black woods with Alec leading them, and Gabriella clutching Brody's arm while Moira carried the cauldron.

The thick canopy of the forest blocked the moonlight and they could only make out deep shadows as they moved through the trees toward the firelight.

"Shh!" Alec whispered. "Do you hear that?"

They all listened, and from their left they heard a soft rustling sound. Alec went to move toward it and Gabriella grabbed his arm.

"Don't!" she whispered.

"I have to," he said, "it might be Allison."

They followed him as he crept toward the rhythmic sound, and as they got closer they knew it was coming from right in front of them. Alec cautiously pulled out his cell phone and turned on the built in flashlight.

The beam swept across the forest floor in front of them and he saw a young dark-haired girl, about nineteen, naked and on all fours with her head face down.

By the noises and the movement of her body it was obvious that someone was fucking her from behind. Alec was just raising the beam above her back when she looked up at him with golden glowing eyes.

Gabriella screamed, startling Alec and causing him to drop his phone. As the light went out he saw the dark outline of the girl standing up, only her eyes visible.

"Run!" Alec cried, and the four of them ran, stumbling through the dark.

Brody was in the lead, pulling Gabriella behind him. He was just about to burst into a clearing when Alec screamed at him to stop.

Brody threw the brakes on, but Gabriella ran into him from behind and sent him stumbling forward. He lunged for a tree and wrapped his arms around it just before he went off the edge.

His heart was pounding as he looked down. He was less than six inches from the edge of the quarry and a sixty-foot drop to the granite below.

"Stay back," he warned Gabriella as she hurried forward to help him. Alec stepped past her and held out his hand, and Brody took it as he pulled him back from the steep edge.

"You have to be careful in here," Alec said. "One wrong step and you're done for."

"Did you see it?" Gabriella whispered.

"What?" Alec said.

"The thing...the thing behind that poor girl."

"What are you talking about?" Alec said, as he looked back to see if they'd been followed.

"I couldn't make it out completely, it was like a man...but with antlers." Gabriella turned to her boyfriend, and he hugged her as she shivered in fear.

"It's the veil," Moira whispered. "The veil between our world and theirs is at its thinnest right now and faerie creatures are starting to cross over."

Before explaining more, she suddenly stepped forward and pointed down into the quarry. "We're too late -- they're here."

They looked down and saw the three Sidhe moving around the bonfires while half the kids danced and half the kids fucked on the quarry floor below.

"Look for Allison," Alec said, as he searched the orgy. "She's got blonde hair."

Gabriella spotted a curvy brunette that looked familiar, and said, "Is that Kaylee?"

Alec spotted the girl she was pointing to, the one with the perfect breasts riding a naked guy like a cowgirl at the edge of the fire. "Yeah, that's her."

His heart sunk. He'd hoped that somehow Allison had never made it to the quarry. But he knew if Kaylee was here his daughter had to be too.

"Here they come," Brody said, and pointed over Alec's shoulder.

They all turned and saw them at the same time, a cluster of golden glowing eyes moving through the trees toward them.

Alec had warned Moira in the car what would happen if they were caught; he told her how the kids pinned their victims down and fucked them until they turned into golden-eyed sex zombies just like them. "How do we escape?" she said, clutching the cauldron tightly.

"We don't," Alec said.

She turned around, not understanding, as he started to quickly undo his belt.

"What are you doing?" she said.

"I've done this before. We have to make them think we're the same as them."

"How?" she said, and glanced over to her right where Gabriella was already on her knees, fumbling with Brody's belt.

"It's the only way," Alec said, as he unbuttoned his pants and pushed them down so his half-hard cock swung free.

Moira's eyes went wide and she took a step backwards. "You've got to be kidding me."

But she looked beside her where Gabriella was already sucking Brody's cock, and knew they weren't kidding.

"Please," Alec said, as he put his hand on her shoulder and tried to get her on her knees. "If you don't do this we'll end up just like them. And I can't let that happen, I have to find my daughter and keep her safe."

Moira looked at him and could see the desperation in his eyes, and she looked down at his cock as he slowly pushed her to her knees.

She heard a footstep behind her and looked over her shoulder as the first one emerged from the woods, a naked twenty-year-old covered in red paint. She couldn't help noticing how sinisterly his eyes glowed, or how stiff his cock was.

He was reaching out for her when Alec suddenly grabbed her head and forced his own cock between her lips.

"Mmmpph," Moira gasped, as his swollen shaft stretched her mouth wide. She glanced behind her and saw the bewitched boy had stopped, his hand inches away from her as he watched her.

Alec knew from past experience they had to make it seem real. He held Moira's head and slowly fucked her mouth, her eyes wide as she looked up at him.

Moira couldn't believe this was really happening. She'd only met Alec an hour earlier and now his cock was in her mouth. She wanted to be shocked...offended...but all she could think of was how thick he was, and how stiff his shaft felt against her tongue. Her lips were already wrapped around him, so she started to suck.

She closed her eyes; she'd almost forgotten how much she loved to suck cock. She'd broken up with her boyfriend six months earlier, and he'd been so angry that he'd sold her collection of pagan collectibles -- including the cauldron -- to an antique store. This was the nearest she'd come to sex since then, and she knew she wanted more.

Alec also closed his eyes, trying not to think about how soft her hair felt, or how warm her mouth was, or that thing she was doing with her tongue. He knew that if he came they'd both be golden-eyed sex zombies just like the ones chasing them.

She gently fondled his balls, feeling how full they were getting, and moaned as she swirled her tongue around his head, savoring the feel of the smooth skin. She bobbed back and forth, working her lips as far down his shaft as she could handle, when he suddenly pulled his cock out.

"Whoa!" he gasped, his knob purple and his cock twitching. "Careful, you almost made me come," he groaned.

Moira was surprised when she looked around and realized they were alone. The deception had worked; the sex zombies had been convinced they were the same as them and wandered away. She blushed as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and glanced over at Gabriella, who gave her a knowing smile.

"Sorry," Alec said, as he helped Moira to her feet, "but if any of us comes we'll end up just like them."

"Oh, uh...yeah, I understand," she said, "I was just trying to fool them."

"Uh huh," Alec said, as he tucked his swollen cock back into his pants. "You almost fooled me too."

Gabriella tried not to laugh as Brody picked up the cauldron and handed it to Moira.

"You have to be careful," he said. "I don't remember it, but one of those golden-eyed zombies got me last Halloween. But last time it was all because of the cauldron, what's causing it now?"