The Gift: Day 07

EDITOR:

MIRIAM BELLE

CREATIVE CONSULTANTS:

MIRIAM BELLE and SIMPLY_CYN

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

-"This is the final installment of "The Gift" series. Thanks again to everyone who supported and stuck with me through the evolution of this story. If you haven't read the first six chapters, you might want to go back and do so now. Otherwise you might get a little lost. Enjoy! --bluefox07"

***

SATURDAY-SUNDAY

Jesse felt as though he had been numbed from head to toe.

In the blurry expanse of his vision, he could see the thousands of candles of burning hotly in the dark. The flames looked beautiful in their unfocused brilliance, the fine details of what they were removed and left open to interpretation. The flames reminded Jesse of himself in a completely blunt sort of metaphor. Since he had been cursed with the gift a week ago, he had been unfocused and devoid of any defining details. But like the flames of the candles, he still shined brightly even as his life remained uncertain, his future blurred.

Next to him he could hear the slow and deep respirations of Helena. Even if he had been able to see he would not have looked over to her. She had left her mark on him, and if it had been something as trivial as a facial scar or tattoo he might have only been angry. But Helena had marked his soul. It was as though she had taken a hot branding iron and pressed into the fibers of his being. He could feel her mind inside his as though they were one person.

Jesse stretched out a little under the soft red satin sheets of the four post bed, his muscular body sore and aching from the sexual decathlon he had ran with Helena the night before. He supposed the sex had been great, even fantastic in comparison to a lot of what he had known before. Helena had been a virtual encyclopedia of sexual ins and outs and trade secrets. But there had been no love there. Not like it had been with Elena Morales.

The introduction of making love to someone special, to one very unique person had been something of an epiphany for Jesse. The full realization that he not only was attracted to and loved the woman he was with but also connected to her beyond the moment or even the next morning made him realize what he had been missing. He supposed he might have been romanticizing it all a little bit, but Elena made it so easy to do so while Helena offered him only the proverbial frosting and none of the cake.

"Why are you troubled?" Helena asked suddenly.

Jesse sat up and hung his legs off the side of the bed, "Will you do what you promised today?"

"Aren't you curious, Jesse?"

"About what?"

Helena sat up, her perfect body glowing in the candlelight as she touched his broad shoulders, "About the gift?"

"No," he said flatly.

"You deny yourself all the benefits of the gift," Helena said, "Why treat it as a curse?"

Jesse rubbed his eyes and thought for a moment, "The question is if it's really so wonderful why do you want it to find a new master?"

"The gift chooses as it wills."

Jesse shook his head, "Maybe. But then maybe you're not being totally honest, are you?"

Helena's gaze seemed to burn into the back of his skull, "What are you implying?"

"What happened to you?" he asked, still looking out in the darkness of the theater

"Who are you really?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes, it does."

Helena stood up from the bed and walked in front of Jesse. Her naked body still intrigued him, but he resisted the urges coming from his traitorous cock. She looked at him and said, "I am over three thousand years old, Jesse. I have seen the rise and fall of countless empires. I have seen people born and dead all before I age an hour's time."

Jesse looked up at her.

"I was a priestess in the first true reign of the Egyptian civilization," she said, "I saw many things that are considered to be fantasy by the men living today. I've seen the world come and go into light and darkness Jesse. But it was my ignorance that saw the gift come to me..."

"What is the gift?" Jesse asked quietly.

"The gift is the perfect marrying of good and evil," she told him, "It is the precise balance between the spirit and science, fantasy and fact. It is the place where the rules of this life become wasted and useless. The gift is beyond any human definition of understanding and because of that, it is wild and unpredictable. In me it has lived for thousands of years."

"And now you want out?" he looked at her, "Is that it?"

"One day, my friend Sahra took me to see a fortune teller in the city square. He was old and haggard and seemed to know much of the time before there was a civilization to be ruled. He offered my friend and I the promise of unlimited power for one week, at the end of which we would be returned to normal. At first we both resisted, but I fell prey to it as your friend Daniel has. But now it is a living entity in and of itself, and I feel my time as it's keeper has come to an end."

Jesse's mouth hung open, "You never had any intention of taking the gift back... you couldn't take it back."

Helena was silent for a moment.

"You tricked me," Jesse said.

"You tricked yourself," she said, "No matter what happens the gift will choose and then I will be free of it. I can live my life the way I wanted to and then die. I tire of watching the years go by, Jesse. I'm tired of having no end to my beginning. Thus, as I was burdened with the gift so shall you or Daniel."

"You're fucking insane," Jesse whispered, "You've lost your mind. Daniel will never stop if he's the one chosen."

"That may be," Helena said as she put her hands on her hips, "But it will no longer be my problem."

Jesse stood up and made to lunge for her when he was shoved back hard against the bed. He tried to reach out with his mind and found he could no longer hear her thoughts or anyone else's for that matter. He tried to use the power of the gift and was surprised to find he had been denied. He was negated and useless as he lay there on the bed. He struggled against Helena's invisible grip but to no avail.

"The gift has left you Jesse," she said, "I believe it already knows whom it wants."

Jesse felt tears sting his eyes as he listened to her.

"For what it's worth though," she added, "You would have been a more worthy bearer of the power."

He asked, "And what happened to your friend Sahra?"

Helena smiled in such a way that Jesse's blood ran ice cold. She replied, "I killed her, of course."

***

Elena had just arrived at the Mott Road onramp in the northbound lane when the engine of battered Volkswagen Beetle began to hiccup and then seize. A loud shotgun blast of blue smoke erupted from her tail pipe and Elena could only watch as the car rolled down the incline and the engine died. To the side of the road, just behind one of the large green directional signs she saw something large and shiny in the bushes. The bug stopped in front of the sign and Elena applied parking brake on last time.

"You did good, baby," she patted the steering wheel.

She stepped out onto the shoulder of the road and was surprised at how quiet the world seemed. Only the distant sounds of machinery working down the canyon and the frustrated mumbling of stranded motorists in the southbound lanes carried in the light breeze. Thick clouds hovered above in clusters, unsure if they wanted to storm or dissipate. Wet gravel crunched under tennis shoes as she walked over to the bushes, her clothes still damp from the night before.

She cleared some of the brush away and found her aunt's black BMW parked there. She smiled to herself, happy that Jesse had made it this far alive and that the car wasn't damaged. She replaced the cover of branches and leaves and then began walking down the road. It was getting a little hot for her taste so she removed her t-shirt and threw modesty to the wind. A sports bra never hurt anyone, and she knew if she was going to make in to Castleton Rock then she would have to not be suffering from dehydration.

She looked at her watch and saw it was going on 10 in the morning and that it was Sunday. She cursed under breath. She had very little time left.

As she walked down Mott Road, her dark eyes darted about the roadside to her right, scanning for any angry looking or rabid animals. She remembered the news reports of the animal attacks, and she had no desire to become a main course for the local wildlife. To her left the freeway was jammed, people standing beside their cars talking and arguing and complaining. She couldn't say she blamed them. A lot of these people had been stranded here since yesterday afternoon and she doubted very much any of them had portable potties or extra food with them.

Ahead of her was a sewer lid, partially jarred from its hole in the middle of the road. Elena jogged up to it and shoved it to one side. The heavy steel lid scraped and groaned against the blacktop as she strained to move it. The hole beneath her was dark and forbidding, a semi-foul stench wafting up from the depths of the city's bowels. She knew that Castleton Rock was blocked off to the rest of the world by walls of cars. But had Daniel figured for people coming in under the streets?

"Shit," she cringed as she turned and began climbing down the rod iron ladder into the manhole.

It was probably an eight foot journey down before her sneakers splashed into some foul run off water puddle in the access way. She wiped her hands off on her jeans and pulled her thick, black hair behind her in a ponytail. Her sneakers squished and squelched in the water as she pressed on into the shadows, the day light from the street fading quickly. In her pocket was her cigarette lighter, one of those plastic red Scripto models with the safety button on it. She pulled it out, depressed the button and ignited the flame.

"Well, I've had better ideas," she whispered. The flame from the lighter only provided a pool of light about six feet in diameter around her. The pipes overhead moaned and groaned for a few seconds and then went quiet. She could hear her heart pounding in her chest as she moved on down the narrow access tunnel.

After five minutes of walking, she reached a three-pronged fork in the tunnel. The passageways looked to be even smaller than the five foot tall one she was in at that moment. Elena crouched down on her haunches and held the lighter up as it became warm in her hand. Above the passage to her left was a small metal sign that read "OUTLET TO NORTH," in the middle "OUTLET TO CENTRAL" and to her right "OUTLET TO SOUTH."

She sighed and let the lighter flicker out. It was hot against her palm as she conserved her limited fuel. The dark was all consuming and she had never felt quite so alone. There were phantom noises and whisperers in the distance, strange moans and scratches she told herself belonged to a flushing toilet or a draining bathtub. But then, how many people in Castleton Rock were taking a baths right now? How many houses were even out this way to begin with?

"Could be anything," she shuddered.

She flicked the lighter back on and looked at her three choices. She knew her expertise with sewer channels and tunnels was about as extensive as her understanding of quantum physics. Getting back into downtown was her goal, so she decided to take the passage marked "CENTRAL." Her decision was based on the hope that "CENTRAL" meant the line ran centrally to the town. She held her breath and said a silent prayer as she gripped the damp, mossy lip of the opening.

"Now there's an aroma," she commented and began breathing through her mouth. The shit drains and piss holes all emptied out down here, and she promised herself when this was all over she would take a bath with industrial strength anti-bacterial soap. From the looks of it, the passage traveled down at a moderate incline and past the range of her lighter. Beside her foot was a small rock. She picked it up and tossed it down into the dark. It bounced and ricocheted off the curved walls for what seemed like forever until the echoes of it's decent died down and all was silent. A chill seized her nerves and Elena steeled herself.

"A little help, God," she whispered and began slowly inching her way down the slimy surface of the passage as filthy run off water trickled beneath her. She had to lean back and use her hands and feet for leverage as the passage became smaller and narrower. Or maybe it was just that her mind was on the verge of a full-fledged panic attack and was imagining claustrophobia. Either way, she pressed on.

She thought of Jesse and kept his face in her mind as she released the button on the lighter and darkness reigned.

"So this is what it's like to be blind."

***

"Beg for mercy," Daniel smiled as Jesse fell to the floor of the stage, his face bloody and his body aching, "Beg me to release you."

"You crazy..." Jesse spit out a clot of blood, "... crazy asshole."

"Again," Daniel said lazily as he sat back in the chair Helena had occupied a short while ago.

Jesse cringed as his mother, under the spell of the gift, pulled her arm back and whipped him with a six-foot long bullwhip. He refused to cry out as the whip tore into his skin from the blade of his left shoulder to his right buttock. The indignity of this torture had been meant to break him. The horror of being stripped naked in front of his own mother and then severely beaten by her had been a shatter point for Jesse. He could feel his will to fight and resist slipping away as the leather whip gripped his flesh and then tore away. The thunderous cracks echoed through the theater as he was beaten.

"It doesn't have to be this way," Daniel told him, his blue eyes alive with a sadistic satisfaction as his former friend suffered in a pool of his own blood, "You can walk away right now."

"Bull shit," Jesse said through gritted teeth as he lay on his side, his left eye swelled almost to the point of being shut, "You're not yourself anymore."

"This is who I really am," Daniel stood up, his boots loud and authorative on the stage as he paced in front of Jesse in the candlelight, "This is the reality, Jesse."

"Is it?" he managed.

"Do you know what it's like to be given everything you ever dreamed of?" he kneeled down beside Jesse and pulled his former friend's head back so he could look into his haggard eyes, "I don't have to worry about being hurt anymore. I don't have to put up with anyone's shit anymore, Jesse. They respect me now."

Jesse uttered a sad laugh, "Do you think that if these people weren't under your grip, if they had a choice... they would serve you or Helena?"

"I know they would."

"You're pathetic man..."

Daniel stood up and glared down at him, "You were given a glorious gift, and you refused it. You could have taken anything you wanted, Jesse. Had anyone you wanted..."

"Just because you can... doesn't m... doesn't mean you should, Danny-Boy..."

Daniel looked to Jesse's mother, who stood silently beside her master. She was dressed in black leather, decked out in full S&M gear right down to the spike-heeled thigh-high boots. Her dark skin somehow glowed in the flickering light as she stepped forward, her heels clicking and marking off the seconds to the next volley of punishment. She looked down at her son, not really seeing him anymore but just a blank face.

Jesse looked up with his good eye at his mother, "Fight him mom."

The whip cracked hard across his buttocks.

"It's over," Daniel told him, "It's near the time now for this to end."

Jesse rolled onto his screaming backside and eyed Daniel. He said, "You do know Helena is fucking us over?"

"She's guiding me," he insisted.

"She's lied to you," Jesse breathed, "She's using us to get rid of the gift. It never was a gift, Dan... it's a curse."

"You're lying," he said.

The whip cracked again, this time across his thighs and catching the head of his penis. Jesse rolled over into the fetal position as his groin exploded with pain, his body shaking violently. His bare feet slapped against the floor as the whip slashed down again, taking him in the ribs. Jesse knew there was not much more he could take before he passed out. But he would pass out and be silent and before he would cry out and give Daniel what he wanted.

"Nicole here can offer you pain," Daniel whispered, "Or she can offer you pleasure."

"Don't use her name," Jesse glared at Daniel and then his eyes went wide, "You didn't..."

"She's a great fuck, Jess."

"Not my mom!" he hissed, "You dickless fuck!"

Daniel laughed and then sat down on the edge of Helena's bed. He motioned for Nicole to come to him again as Jesse raged at him from the floor, unable to move and unable to act out.

"You want to see?" Daniel asked as Nicole kneeled down in front of him, "Do you want to see a small sample of the influence the gift has?"

"Don't do this," Jesse croaked.

"Nicole?" Daniel looked at Jesse's mother, "What would you like to do?"

"I'd like to make you cum," she breathed. Jesse was horrified, hearing those words leave his mother's lips.

"I would love that, Nicole," he replied, as he looked to Jesse and grinned like the cat who had eaten the canary.

"I love your cock," she said huskily and unclasped her leather bra, letting it fall away to reveal her large, chocolate tits.

"Of course you do," Daniel growled. Jesse didn't know which made him want to puke more, his mother's slutty behavior or Daniel's supreme arrogance.

Daniel smiled and let her push him back on the bed. Nicole unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned and unzipped his black leather pants all-the-while never once letting her eyes fall from his. Daniel shifted slightly as she pulled his pants down over his hips.

She smiled wickedly and then pulled his red underwear aside, allowing his twelve-inch cock to spring to attention in front of her. She made a soft sound in her throat and licked her lips as she eyed it. She gripped his hot dick in her hand and began to jack him off, pulling down tight and firm as his head turned purple.

"It's so fucking big," she said and glanced appreciatively to his throbbing member.

"You think that's real, mom?" Jesse coughed as his body cried out in agony from the multiple whip slashes, "It's all bull shit. It's the gift. It's a lie..."

"It looks real enough to me," she disregarded her son and worked her hand up and down along the shaft of Daniel's cock, tenderly yet forcefully commanding him. Her tits were jiggling and swaying with her jerking motions as she licked her lips again. Nicole leaned forward and began rubbing his cock around on her breasts, teasing her hard dark nipples with it, leaving a small snail-trail of pre-cum across her flesh.

She pressed his hard dick between her cleavage and began jacking him off with her tits. Nicole tucked her chin in to look down at the big, swollen purple head of Daniel's cock protruding from between her full breasts. The world was shaking for Daniel as she tit-fucked him, creating an abject lesson in humiliation for her son.

"Would you like me to suck on it, Master?" she asked, releasing his cock from between the heavenly confines of her cleavage.

"Yes," Daniel groaned and reached up to the back of her neck, pulling her down towards his cock. Nicole gripped his cock tightly as he guided her.

"How's dad, mom?" Jesse closed his eyes, unwilling to see anymore.

"He's out of the way," she licked Daniel's tip and looked over at Jesse, "Daniel freed me from him..."

"You son of a bitch," Jesse glared at Daniel shook his head.

"Do you see now?" Daniel asked as Nicole pressed her lips to his cock, "Do you see what the power can give you?"

"I only see what it allows you to steal..." Jesse said.

"Let me thank you for freeing me," Nicole exalted her master as she licked and rubbed his head around on her face, sliding it across her sultry lips.