The Gift: Day 04

With a final, mighty thrust she swung forward and the rope sliced open against the blades. She fell to the floor and landed hard on her back, knocking the wind out of her lungs. She clawed at the gag and once she had pulled it down she sucked in as much air as she could. Erin threw her head back and gasped as her lungs greedily took the cool air in. She looked at Julia, who remained unmoved.

"Hey," Erin croaked, her throat parched dry as she rolled over to Julia, "Hey ... are you okay?"

Julia didn't move.

Erin put her hand the woman's bare shoulder and then withdrew quickly. Julia was frozen. Her skin was cold to the touch. Daniel had frozen her somehow. Erin scrambled back into the middle of the living room, her eyes wide. Julia's milky skin was suddenly tinting blue right before her very eyes. Erin thought she might be dead.

"Oh my God," she managed.

Erin felt a sudden tightness in her chest. It was panic and fear clutching at her lungs and threatening to trigger a case of hysterical asthma. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes as the welts on her bruised body screamed. Erin sat up on her knees and then sensed something moving above her.

She looked up and saw the couch still spinning in the air. She froze in place as the large sofa spun under the power of Daniel's unholy magic above her. The impulse to run suddenly hit her and her body tensed, ready to bolt. Her hands grasped the carpet and her feet began to push off as Daniel released his hold on the large piece of furniture, letting it drop.

She screamed and then was silenced as the corner of the heavy piece of furniture caught the back of her head and smashed it into the floor. There was a loud, wet cracking sound followed immediately by a tremendous thud. Pinned under the couch, Erin's body twitched once, twice and then moved no more. Thick blood oozed from her broken face and stained the white carpet.

Her aunt would have been very upset.

Except that she was very busy in the stairwell at the moment and bloodstains on the carpet was the last thing on her mind. Daniel's mother would continue to bone herself with the two exceptionally large rubbery dildos until later on around suppertime when she would finally collapse from exhaustion and begin to freeze over as Julia had done. By the time dessert would have been served, both of Daniel's parents would be frozen solid and very much dead.

***

No one on the main street of Castleton Rock, California noticed the blue VW bug come rolling into town. The sputter of the old engine didn't seem to faze anyone or draw any attention. They didn't see Elena park the car by the California Three Theaters and turn the tires to the curb. No one seemed to even care as the new arrivals looked around at the crowd, eyes wide and filled with disbelief. The populace was too consumed by their own individual orders and pleasures given to them earlier. They were on a different schedule now, and for the time being, these two kids weren't of any importance.

Elena and Jesse were silent as they pushed past the large crowds of people filling the downtown square of Castleton Rock. Young and old alike were out and about as helium filled balloons of all colors rainbowed the downtown drag. It was a sea of faces that one could easily get lost in. Jesse could feel Daniel's presence in every single person. He was like a powerful fog, a thick mist in which the whole town had lost their inhibitions and sense of self.

"You smell that?" Elena asked as she and Jesse worked their way through the crowd.

"Smells like popcorn," Jesse said, "And cotton candy."

"Did the circus come to town?" Elena laughed as a clown with a big red nose and green hair came waddling up to her. She stood back as the clown smiled broadly and pulled a long balloon out of his pocket. He put the rubber to his red grease painted lips and blew hard, dramatically exaggerating his efforts. The balloon filled and stretched with air to a four-foot length. The orange skin of the balloon bulged and reflected the morning sun.

"There's no circus due here that I know of," Jesse frowned and looked out across the ocean of happy faces, "It's the middle of a school week for Christ's sake."

The clown danced, his baggy purple and yellow-striped suit fluttering in the breeze. He twisted and turned the balloon quickly, crafting it into a new shape. Elena smiled and looked at Jesse. The clown offered her a small balloon giraffe, perched on his outstretched white-gloved hand. He opened his mouth with an infectious smile as Elena took the gift.

"Thank you," she smiled, "It's perfect."

The clown put his hands to his stomach and enjoyed a hearty belly laugh. He waved Elena off dismissively with one gay hand gesture and then pranced away. Jess had never like clowns. He'd read that book by Stephen King about a killer clown, and ever since then he feared them more than he feared any werewolf or vampire. He watched the clown disappear into the crowd and then shivered. As happy as the clown had seemed though, he had been influenced by Daniel.

"Daniel's been busy here," Jesse said to Elena, "Don't let your guard down." "Why did he bring a carnival here?" she wondered and looked at the comical

balloon giraffe.

Jesse took her hand so they wouldn't get separated and waded through the crowd. He would have preferred to drive to his house, but Main Street was the one connective road between north and south Castleton Rock. They would have to walk through the mess of people attending the impromptu carnival. As they reached the corner of Main and Pine Street, Jesse saw that it was indeed a large carnival, complete with a Ferris wheel and miniature roller coaster that had invaded the town.

"Where did this come from?" Jesse asked.

"Maybe they just decided to drop by," Elena offered as a group of kids went running by them, faces stuffed with wispy fluffs of pink cotton candy. Three shirtless boys stuffed the cotton candy in their faces and grinned almost euphorically. She added, "Or maybe they were going somewhere else and Daniel 'convinced' them to stay."

"Maybe," Jesse shrugged.

''This might work for us though," Elena grunted as another couple pushed past them rudely heading back down Main Street, "All these people could make it harder for him to find us."

"True," Jesse said and then ran right into Tina Moss.

"I'm so sorry," Tina braced herself against Jesse, eyes wide and surprised. Her lids were under scored with slight purple bruising from where Daniel had broken her nose during his fifth period biology class orgy on Monday. The bridge of her nose was slightly swollen as she looked at Jesse, momentarily acting as if though she didn't recognize him. Her jet-black hair was pulled into a ponytail. Tina smiled at Jesse as best she could and said, "Oh hi."

"You okay?" Jesse asked as he gripped her arms. Elena noticed the way Tina had placed her hands on Jesse's chest, the way her fingers were gently spread out across the red fabric of his shirt and more resting on his pecs than anything else. She looked Tina over and saw she was wearing short white daisy dukes and a tight blue tank top that did more than just flatter her sexy figure. It absolutely advertised her firm breasts and made enough cleavage to hide a phonebook in. Elena felt a sudden twinge of jealousy.

"I'm fine," Tina smiled, "Thanks to you."

"You remember what happened?"

"How could I forget?" Tina rolled her eyes uncomfortably.

"When Principal Shaver questioned me about what happened, he said no one

remembered," Jesse spoke above the crowd, "Not even you."

Tina looked down. "I had to lie."

"Why?" Elena asked.

"Daniel," she began and then stopped, her eyes suddenly filled with sick miserable fear.

"Tina, come on," Jesse grabbed her shoulders and squeezed gently, further cultivating Elena's jealousy, "What happened?"

"I can't," Tina insisted. Behind her the large red Ferris wheel started up, slowly rounding and spinning on its massive gears and thrilling the townsfolk. Generic country music piped out from the large speakers in the game booths and kids lost their parent's hard earned money to highway robbery and clever, unbeatable games.

"Please," Jesse asked.

Tina looked down at her white sneakers and then said, "He'll hurt me again." Jesse put one muscular arm around her shoulders and walked her through the

crowd to the eave over the entrance to the Pizza Factory across the street. In the shaded cover of storefront awning, he sat Tina down on the brickwork half wall below the wide windows of the pizzeria. Elena sat on her opposite side and did everything she could to bury the jealousy inside her.

She knew she shouldn't be jealous. She and Jesse weren't together, and of all things in the world she had a boyfriend. Elena had been dating Eric for months, and never once looked at Jesse in the way she was now. She had no reason to be getting all worked up over Tina making eyes at him. Elena knew that her reaction was ridiculous, and yet, she couldn't help it. She sighed as Jesse spoke.

"Who will hurt you?" she asked. As if she didn't already know.

"Daniel," Tina whispered, her eyes darting around.

"He made you lie?" Elena asked.

"He said if I didn't lie about him being in the room when everything happened, he'd make sure my nose wasn't the only broken thing on my body."

"Jesus," Jesse muttered. Daniel really had gone around the bend. "Asshole," Elena said. "Have you seen him here?"

Jesse looked to her, "Is Daniel here at the carnival?"

"Not that I've seen," Tina shook her head.

Elena folded her arms and looked out at the crowd of people in the city center. Standing by the centerpiece fountain that divided Pine Street were her parents. She could only see their faces through the thick congregation of people. Her dad was talking to her mom as they ate hot dogs. Elena's heart jumped as they looked over and saw her. She thought for sure her father's round, first-generation Mexican immigrant face was going to turn red and scowl. Instead, he smiled warmly and beckoned for her. Her mother turned and smiled, joining in with a wave.

"My mom and dad are here," Elena said and looked to Jesse, "What do I do?" Jesse turned and saw them. He shrugged, "Uhm, keep em busy for a minute."

"Keep 'em busy?" Elena snorted, "While you do what?"

"Tina was in the classroom when Daniel went crazy," Jesse said, "She was the only he couldn't make have sex. We need her."

"Okay," Elena said. The words "we need her" irritated her like a pebble in her shoe. Elena had no need for Tina Moss and her perky, perfect tits and her perfect hair and her perfect features. She swallowed her annoyance and said, "I'll be right back."

"Cool," Jesse nodded and then added, "Elena?"

"Yeah?" she paused, her cheeks turning red.

"Don't be gone long."

Elena gave as much of a smile as she could and then disappeared into the crowd. Jesse turned back to Tina and thought for a minute. If Tina did have some resistance to Daniel's abilities, then maybe he could figure out what it was. He would need to be able to overcome the power of the gift in order to face Daniel without getting killed. So far, no one except Tina had been able to effectively resist his manipulations. Jesse needed to figure out how to nullify Daniel's power, and Tina was the best lead he had.

"What is going on here, Jesse?" Tina asked and leaned forward, her full breasts creating a deep crevasse of cleavage in her tank top. Jesse couldn't help but notice. He shook his head and looked up. She said, "What happened in that classroom? Mrs. Brewster and half the senior class in an orgy? It's insane."

"Yeah," Jesse nodded as he rested his hands on his knees, "It's fucked up." "Did Daniel cause this?"

Jesse looked at her and said, "Yeah he did."

"How?"

He thought about telling her the whole story, but in the end decided against it. Instead, he said, "Dan's changing, Tina. He can do things that other people can't."

"I'll say," she said.

Jesse looked into the crowd and searched for Elena. She was nowhere to be seen as the sea of people shifted and moved in all directions. He stood up and craned his neck to look over all the heads. Her parents were gone from their resting place in front of the fountain. He felt a sudden burst of anxiety in his stomach as he realized that Elena had strayed from his sight. He muttered, "Shit."

"What is it?" Tina stood beside him, her hand on his thick bicep. "Elena is gone."

"I'm sure she's all right."

Jesse squinted as the sun beat down on Castleton Rock in a blinding morning

light.

Tina tugged his arm, "There's something I want to show you."

"What?" Jesse asked, his eyes never leaving the moving mass of people. He

couldn't see Elena anywhere. Where the hell was she?

"I may have something that can help you."

That caught his attention. Jesse turned and asked, "What is it?"

Tina grabbed his large black hand with her small, petite white ones and pulled, "Come on. You don't have much time."

***

"What the blue fuck?"

The first thing Elena noticed was that her dad was wearing his pajamas still.

Standing in front of the public memorial fountain, her father was in his red pinstriped white pajamas and black slippers. His fringe of black and gray-peppered hair was frizzed out and disheveled while his thick mustache was laced with pink remnants of cotton candy. He looked to her smiled dreamily.

"Papa?" she asked timidly.

Until she had cleared the crowd of people clogging Main Street, she had only seen her mother's face and neck. Now, to her horror and surprise, she found her mother was wearing a lacy black teddy. Maria Morales was no spring chicken, a little heavy around the middle after four children, and she always dressed to minimize her childbearing side effects. But now, her humongous breasts (a genetic trait for all the women in Elena's family) and stretched stomach were jiggling in front of the entire city. She was dressed in an outfit that had no cups, only two holes for the breasts to go through.

Elena was speechless as her inappropriately dressed 45-year-old mother and 50year-old father beckoned to her.

"Come home," he father said, his voice sounding slow and sedated.

Her eyes kept darting back to her mother's huge tits and the dinner plate sized areolas, glistening in the sun. As she got closer, she realized that both her mother and father were lubed up in some kind of oil. Her mother's nipples were hard and protruding out as her breasts hung down heavily, blue veins faintly visible under the skin. Her father was sporting a tremendous hard-on as he reached over and grasped one of his wife's bare tits and played with the oily nipple.

"We'll have so much fun," her mother called.

"No fucking way," she whispered and then froze.

Somehow, the fact that everyone at the carnival was dressed strangely had eluded both her and Jesse. People were in various states of undress as they ambled around, their jovial interest in the fun and games fading into a zombie state of sedation. She saw Mr. Gardner, the owner of the gas station out on Buckboard Lane walking around bare ass naked, his seventy five year old body jiggling and shaking like her mother's tits did now. Some of the people were in their underwear while others had neglected to remember their bras or boxer shorts. Elena felt herself panicking as a man passed behind her.

She turned and slapped him as his naked penis grazed her jeans. She looked and saw the long, limp cock catch on her thigh and then slide away from her. Mr. Shaver, the school principal, was dressed in his shirt and red tie, but had forgotten his pants and underwear when he left this morning. His head snapped back from her slap, the sound of flesh striking flesh echoing though the slowly dimming noise of the hundreds of people around her. He looked as though he were waking from a dream, eyes fluttering and mouth open in shock.

"What the hell?" he recoiled. Mr. Shaver looked at Elena, shocked and embarrassed. He opened his mouth to apologize and then fogged over again as his face went placid. The high school principal began shuffling away from her.

Elena wanted to leave now. To hell with putting whammy on anyone. She turned and looked back at the Pizza Factory. Her heart jumped as she saw that Jesse and Tina were gone.

"Fuck!" Elena groaned and then a hand fell on her shoulder.

"Such foul language," someone behind her whispered as the crowd fell dead silent. The Ferris wheel moaned and suddenly stopped. The wheels of the miniature cars on the small kiddy-roller coaster squealed and ground to a halt. The annoying country music fell quiet and everyone in the crowd, the whole town turned and faced her with one unified movement. They all looked to her with a retarded mindless gaze, their mouths slack and bodies not their own. Elena didn't need to turn around to see who was talking to her.

"What have you done?" Elena asked.

"The question is," Daniel said into her ear, "What haven't I done?"

Elena turned and brought her fist around, hoping to take him in the face. But Daniel caught her blow and squeezed her hand. She knew now that this whole carnival was a trap, a distraction to keep Jesse from pinpointing him. She felt her heart sink into her stomach as the people she had once called "friends" and "family" ambled towards her like something out of a George Romero movie. They closed in on her and reached out for her body. She felt hands pulling on her clothes and jerking back as she fought against them.

Her sweatshirt tore at the seams and the gray fabric opened wide to reveal her naturally tanned skin. The useless arms of her sweatshirt were tugged away and sent flying into the crowd as her shoes and socks came off. Elena kicked as someone grabbed a tangle of her dark hair and pulled. She felt herself rise into the air on the strength of the crowd.

Hands groped at her pants and t-shirt. She heard the definitive sounds of fabric ripping open again as several hands pulled at her shirt in all directions. She made to scream but felt a hand cover her mouth and seal her lips. People were touching her all over as she tried to bend her legs so that her jeans wouldn't come off. With a mighty tug, her pants were gone and lost to the mob. Fingers slid into her panties. Her bra straps were yanked and snapped and Elena found herself naked in a sea of strangers in a place she could no longer call home.

"Don't fear," Daniel said as something slipped into her sex, "Don't fear."

***

The inside of the Pizza Factory was empty.

It seemed that no one had even bothered to show up to work yet, even though it was going on noon now. Jesse followed Tina through the rows of benches and tables across the red and white-checkered floor. The smell of spices and Italian food was thick and made Jesse realize just how hungry he really was. He hadn't eaten since yesterday morning and his stomach was growling. Outside, the crowd was still moving and but had fallen silent somehow. He turned to look but Tina urgently pulled on his hand.

"Come on," her voice echoed in the empty restaurant.

"Tina," Jesse said, "What is going on?"

They walked past the front counter and salad bar and past the large freezers where the pizza dough was kept. The kitchen was darkened and Jesse had the sudden impulse not to go inside, to turn around and get the fuck out. Tina led him in and flipped on the lights. He looked around and saw the kitchen was empty, save for the industrial sized sinks, racks of cooking supplies, the large sheet metal table in the middle of the room and the gigantic mixer.

Jesse leaned against the table and said, "Okay."

"Daniel can do more than just control people's minds now," Tina said.