Halloween Series 2022

The Cave

"I want you to believe...to believe in things that you cannot." -Bram Stoker, Dracula

Private Charles Blair came to on the ground, lying among dead and dying soldiers of his Company. They had been in a battle with soldiers of the Confederacy, trying to get past them at a bridge. He sat up and looked at the smoldering remains of the bridge and knew neither had won this battle. He surveyed the dirt road, and the woods either side, seeing uniforms for both sides sprawled on the ground. Who had set off the explosive, he wasn’t sure.

Charles staggered to his feet and winced at the pain in his side. He pulled his hand away seeing it covered in his blood. He needed medical attention and soon, otherwise he would be like his fellow soldiers, another statistic to this horrible war.

He looked through the trees at the mountains that rose either side of the road and creek. Where in the North Carolina Appalachian Mountains, he found himself, he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t even sure he was still in North Carolina. For all he knew, he could be in Tennessee. He looked back down the road, knowing the nearest town was over a day’s walk, too far for him in his current state. He looked at the remains of the bridge and the deep steep slope of the banks of the creek and knew that way would be too difficult. His third option was the side road that wound its way up the mountain. Maybe he could come to someone’s cabin and get help. He picked up his hat and put the dirty thing on his head and started walking.

By the time the sun was setting, Charles had not made it to the ridgeline. His pace slowed as he grew weaker, until he was barely moving up the narrow lane on the side of the mountain. He followed a hard curve of a switchback, then stumbled, falling to the ground. He rolled to his back, just wanting to lay still for a minute. He was exhausted after the two days of marching down from their campsite, then the battle itself and getting stabbed in the gut. He put his hand on the wound feeling the warm blood oozing from it, wondering if this was going to be the place he died.

Charles didn’t feel fear, not sure if it was due to his fatigue, or if it was him feeling like giving up and letting death come. He looked up into the darkening canopy of the trees thinking of his short life. He had been seventeen years old when he lied about his age and signed up with his older brother. Edward got sent to Pennsylvania and he to Tennessee. He had turned eighteen last month, somewhere to the north, huddled under a tarp as rain fell harder than he had ever seen it before.

Eighteen and still a virgin, Charles thought, and he tried to laugh at the cruel absurdity of it. There had been opportunities, for Mary Elizabeth had been pursuing him since he was fifteen, and Susan Howard had tried to get him to ask her out for months prior to his signing up. But he had not been interested in either of them, or any of the girls in his community. He struggled with how he felt, wondering what was wrong with him. He knew what the preacher said about it: a deadly sin, worthy of an eternity in hell. But he couldn’t make sense of it. To him that was a judgment that was just more cruelty by man over man, and he lay in the road wondering when it would end. He took a slow deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to control the sharp pain in his side. He closed his eyes, wondering if he would ever open them again.

Charles moaned, feeling a burning in his side. He struggled to open his eyes, and when he did, he saw the blurry form of someone leaning over him.

“Hey, mister, you’re going to be okay.”

The voice sounded young, not yet a man, and Charles pushed back the pain and the foggy feeling within his head and opened his eyes all the way and saw a boy leaning over him.

“Who are you?” Charles asked, then he tried to sit up.

“Whoa, take it easy or your bandages will come undone. I’m Ellis, Ellis McCullough and you’re in our cabin.”

“Ellis…cabin…where?”

“Black Mountain, or that is what we call it anyway.”

“How did I get here?”

“Pa and I found you in the road. You looked dead but pa said you were still breathing, so we loaded you up and brought you here.”

“Has anyone come looking for me? Any of my Company or Regiment?”

“Nah, ain’t nobody been up here. We saw what y’all done to the bridge. Made a real mess of things.”

“Yeah, well, a damn war will do that.”

“You should just sleep and next time you wake up we’ll have breakfast.”

Charles wanted to argue, to tell the kid he needed to get back to his Regiment, but the candlelit room was going dark.

Charles was sitting at one end of a small table. At the other end sat Ellis’ father with Ellis between them on one short side. They were nearly finished with breakfast, when Charles looked at Ellis again, wondering about him. His age and what he was like. He found him attractive with his dirty blonde hair and blue eyes.

“How old are you?” asked Charles.

“I’m eighteen. Turn nineteen in December.”

“No, seriously, you’re not that old,” Charles replied, comparing Ellis to himself. His skin was already marred with a few scares, and he knew his eyes looked like a man ten years older, but comparing himself to Ellis, it made Ellis look like he could be no more than fifteen. But he knew fighting in the war would do that to a man.

“Yep, older than you,” Ellis replied.

Charles remembered telling them his age and being from New York earlier as he gave a brief account of his life in the Union Army.

“Why aren’t you enlisted in the war?”

“Ain’t our war,” Ellis replied, and Charles saw Ellis’ father nod in agreement.

“I wish it weren’t mine.”

For five days, Charles laid around the small cabin healing up, while Ellis and his father went about their business. What that entailed he had no idea, and he wasn’t going to ask. On the sixth day, Ellis’ father had told them he was going to be gone for a few days and when he returned, they would help him down to one of the towns so he could try to catch up with his regiment.

For the remainder of the day Ellis worked around the cabin, tending chickens, chopping firewood, and cooking a passable venison stew. Charles watched him, really looked at the body realizing he was lean but more muscular than himself. The arms at first appeared to be long and skinny but swinging the ax, he saw the biceps bulge and Ellis chopped until his shirt was soaked with sweat.

That first night, Charles was still sitting at the small table after their supper, when Ellis began to heat a pot of water.

“What’s that for?” asked Charles.

“I need a bath, and I think you do too. It’s been three days since you’ve bathed and just wiping down that wound isn’t enough.”

Charles realized what Ellis was implying. Over the last week Ellis had bathed down at the creek, coming back to the cabin with wet hair and clothes on. He had bathed during that time, but it was always Ellis’ father who had heated the water, then left him alone while they were out doing their chores. He sensed an ulterior motive, then he wondered if he was just projecting, making Ellis want the same thing as he.

“I’ve not any clean clothes,” said Charles as he saw Ellis swing the pot over the burning wood in the fireplace.

“Pa laid out some things for you. They’ll be too big, but you can draw them tight at the waist with a piece of rope.”

The pot began to steam, and Ellis swung it off the fire.

“You can go first. Go on and strip out of your clothes,” said Ellis, as he scooped water with a small bucket into a wood tub.

Charles heard the change in tone, lower, more serious, and he saw the look in the eyes. Eyes that were still watching him.

“Okay,” Charles replied easing to his feet and unbuttoning his shirt. He worked it gingerly off his shoulders and let it drop down his arms. Then he undid his trousers and had to sit down to get them off his legs.

“I can help,” said Ellis, suddenly at Charles’ feet, tugging one leg free, then the other.

Ellis stood in front of him and held out a hand.

“I’ll help you back up. I know that side is sore.”

Charles let Ellis pull him to his feet and he found himself so close he could see the freckles over the cheeks and the long eyelashes and the thin arched eyebrows over the blue eyes.

“Thanks,” Charles uttered, not sure what to say.

“Oh, okay,” Ellis replied, stepping back.

Charles felt his cock stir and he begged it not to get hard with Ellis looking at him. He pushed the undergarment down and stepped out of it and he moved to the tub of hot water. He eased down into it, there only enough depth to come up to his waist. He looked down and saw his cock thicken and stretch out between his thighs, then looked up to see Ellis standing next to the tub looking down.

“I’ll help ya bathe,” said Ellis.

It was shocking how Ellis seemed to possess no embarrassment. No shame at looking at another man, especially in the manner in which he was now doing. Charles didn’t know what to do, his fears rising up, making him tremble, worried he was misreading Ellis. Ellis was just a simple mountain boy. There was no way Ellis could possibly have the same kind of thoughts, the same longings he possessed.

Charles began to bath his chest, his face, under and along arms, then worked his way down. Behind him, he felt a cloth rub the back of his neck, then over his back, moving down.

“You should stand up and I could get at you better,” Ellis uttered.

“I can do it,” Charles replied.

“Nah, let me,” Ellis replied, taking one arm, and tugging upward on it. “Come on, stand up.”

Charles stood and his cock angled out half hard and he began to cover it with his hands when Ellis spoke again.

“Raise your arms for me.”

Charles stood with arms raised, completely exposed. He felt the cloth rub over his ass cheeks, down one leg then up the other. The cloth rubbed over his cock, encircling it and moving with a soft soapy stroke that aroused him more. The cloth rubbed his stomach and chest again, then to his back and down between his ass cheeks. No hesitation, Ellis just ran that cloth over every part of him.

“Now we’ll rinse you,” said Ellis, scooping up some water. “Hold your head down.”

Water cascaded down Charles’ body, as Ellis poured it over his head and shoulders.

“Okay, you’re rinsed off. Climb out and I’ll towel you dry,” said Ellis.

By now, Charles no longer cared how hard his cock had gotten for it didn’t seem to matter to Ellis. The soft towel rubbed over his head, down his chest and around to his back. Ellis worked downward, rubbing the towel over every part of him until he stood all clean and dry.

“There,” Ellis uttered as he stepped back and stared at Charles, his blue eyes moving down, then back up. “You look right nice, clean and all.”

“What about you?”

“I’ll just pour this out and refill it with fresh water, then get my bath.”

“You need some help?”

“You can fill that pot and put it back over the fire while I dump this. Then if you want…you can bathe me.”

The tub was refilled, the water steaming with its heat. Ellis stood by it, removing his clothes while Charles watched, standing on the opposite side, still naked. Ellis had told him to wait to get dressed for he could get wet bathing him.

Charles knew it was a flimsy excuse, but he knew there was something about the way Ellis said it, him getting wet, that had sounded the most lurid of any comment he had ever heard. Nothing any of the men of his regiment had ever said had sounded so sexual in nature.  

Ellis dropped his trousers revealing nothing underneath. Looking up, he smiled at Charles, tugged on his elongating cock, then eased into the tub.

“Come bathe my back for me,” said Ellis.

Hand shaking, Charles reached out with the soapy cloth and rubbed it over the shoulder, then down the back. He leaned up as he washed the back and looked over the shoulder and watched Ellis bathe his chest, stomach, then cock.

After a minute, Ellis stood, suds and water trickling down his naked body. Cock angled out half hard and the nub of each nipple were sticking out. He was aroused, and his skin glistened wetly in the dim light.

‘Charles, will you help me finish bathing?”

Charles moved silently next to Ellis and run the soapy cloth down the chest, stomach, then along the hardening cock.

“That feels good,” Ellis whispered.

Charles struggled to control his emotions. He looked at the hardening cock, desiring it more than anything. He wanted to touch it in other ways.

“Rinse me off,” Ellis whispered.

Charles felt Ellis was willing for more to happen, but his own fears were him holding back. Ellis stepped out the tub and held his arms out, letting Charlies dry him. He moved the towel over the lean muscular body while surveying every curve and feature. He struggled with his desires, feeling his cock flex, while drying Ellis’ cock.

“Are you ready to go to bed?” asked Ellis.

“Yes,” Charles replied, thinking being in separate beds would let him calm down.

“Will you sleep with me, just for tonight?”

Charles looked up and saw the innocent expression knowing Ellis was anything but innocent.

“It’ll be crowded in your bed.”

“Please. Sleep with me.”

Charles nodded in agreement then looked down wondering how he would cope being next to Ellis in that narrow bed.

“Just put on these for it could get too hot otherwise,” said Ellis holding out the undergarment.

It was pitch black. Charles could see nothing, not even his hand when he held up in front of his face. But he had his other senses. He could feel Ellis next to him, the warmth of the arm next to his own, and the foot that kept brushing against his ankle and foot. He could hear the breathing with its far too steady rhythm of someone lying awake. He might have been imagining it, but he thought he could even smell Ellis, a scent of a young man freshly bathed with a soap. And he could feel his own body, the way it was betraying him, cock getting hard just thinking of Ellis.

Charles started to turn on his side facing away from Ellis when he felt fingers move on his hip, then move up and over it. They moved closer and closer to his cock, and it flexed with his arousal.

“Ellis, what are you doing?” Charles whispered.

“Please don’t stop me,” Ellis whispered back in reply.

The fingers moved until working his cock, squeezing, and feeling along its growing length. The hand moved to the waistband of his undergarment, then slipped beneath, pushing downward until he felt the bare fingers on his cock. He moaned despite himself and clutched at the bed.

“You can touch me,” Ellis whispered.

Charles lay still for as long as he could, struggling with the manipulation of his cock until he was rock hard. Ellis had him, and he knew it. He couldn’t say no to anything Ellis requested. He reached over and felt bare hip, then the hard cock. He was surprised Ellis had shifted out of his undergarment, but not enough to pull away. Instead, he stroked the hard cock as he often did his own. Hand moving from the soft spongy head all the way down until pressed into the soft pubic hair.

Ellis’ hand went between his thighs, and he gasped at the way the fingers touched him. They rubbed his tight opening, toyed with it until he was trying to spread his legs. Then a finger penetrated him, pushed through his tightness, and sank into his depths. How did Ellis know of such a thing he wondered as the finger piston inside him.

“Can I put it in you?” Ellis whispered.

Charles wanted to say no, to tell Ellis he couldn’t do that, but he lay silent and spread his legs further apart on the narrow bed as Ellis rolled off of it. Suddenly Ellis was on top of him, his legs lifted and resting on shoulders. Something wide and blunt touched his opening and he knew it was cock. Ellis’ cock, and he clutched at the bed and gave himself up to the penetration.

Ellis eased into his hole, slowly, pushing inch after inch through the tightness, until Charles felt the fullness of the penetration.

Ellis fucked Charles, pushed into his depths and tugged out for what seemed an impossible length. Over and over, cock bore into him, and hips bumped into his ass. Ellis kept up their fuck, getting faster and faster. The bed began to squeak and shake. Then it banged into the wall as Ellis hammered Charles’ depths, hips banging against up turned ass.

“Fuck, Ellis,” Charles uttered as he took his own cock in hand. It was drooling and he smeared the slick with his hand as he stroked himself.

Ellis kept fucking. Relentlessly, with no sense of slowing down. Charles couldn’t take it, not another minute. He threw his head back and cried out. Cum rained down into his face, then hit his neck and chest in thick ropes.

Ellis grunt, then jammed cock into Charles’ depths and cried out. He shuddered and jerked with every ejaculation as he filled Charles’ hole. Then he fell to Charles’ side and raked a hand up the stomach and chest, smearing cum.

Charles tried to catch his breath while lying flat on his back. He felt Ellis move, then he felt a tongue drag over his chest, up his neck, then lips kiss him. He tasted his own cum as he kissed back.

The next two days were the happiest of Charles young life. Ellis and he did as they pleased. They fucked in the morning, hunted, or fished, or just roamed the mountain. They swam in the creek, fucked on the bank, then washed the cum from their sweaty bodies. At night, they lay together, naked, Charles always on bottom, giving himself to Ellis for both their pleasure. They rarely wore their clothes, and Charles no longer felt his innate shyness.

Then the third day arrived with the side of the mountain being shattered by cannon fire.

“Charles, we have to get you away from here,” Ellis cried out as the ground shook with the impact of a cannonball far too close to the cabin.

“But where?”

“Follow me,” Ellis exclaimed as he led Charles outside. On the porch, they stood briefly, looking over the valley. Smoke rose from several places and cannon fire echoed between the mountains. In the meadow to the south, they could see lines of soldiers moving across it, the smoke rising from guns being fired, a fraction of a second later its sound reaching their ears. “Come on, I know a place we can hide until they move past us.”

Charles followed Ellis along a trail that climbed higher and higher until they were on the ridge. Then after a short distance, Ellis left the trail, heading straight down the other side.

“Where are you going,” Charles uttered between gasping breathes.

“Shhh, keep your voice down. We can’t let anyone find us. Now come on, time’s a wasting.”

They had descended a short distance when cannon fire erupted in the valley below them. The war was on both sides of the mountain.

“Damn,” Ellis uttered as he led Charles around a rock outcropping.

Gun fire opened up somewhere to their south, then cannons fired from somewhere below.

“They’re close,” Ellis uttered as he turned, moving parallel with the grade. “Come on, it’s not far.”

They went a short distance and Charlies saw it was a cave. The mouth was tucked among fallen rock, nearly concealing it. Ellis stopped and pointed to the cave.

“Go, get inside. I’ll check to make sure no one followed us.”

“But Ellis, it’s not…”

“GO!” Ellis uttered, pushing Charles to continue to the cave.

Charles got to its mouth and turned to see Ellis looking down the mountain. Then an explosion as a cannon ball hit the ground near Ellis. Dirt and rock filled the air and for a split second, Charles saw how it flung Ellis into the air and further down the mountain.

“No,” Charles uttered as he started to go to Ellis, but he heard soldiers. They were yelling and cursing and getting close. He turned and ran into the cave, and once too deep for the sunlight to reach, he felt his way deeper, having to crouch for one section. Then he came to a large cavern, a pool of water in the bottom that glowed in the darkness. It looked magical to Charles, and he stood by its edge afraid to touch it. Then he heard voices coming up behind him, then torch light shining out the darkness. He had no choice; he waded out until the water was at his waist and he dove into its depths.

Charles came up when his lungs burned with the need for air. He rose to the surface; fearful he would see soldiers standing at the pool’s side waiting on him to surface. He looked around and saw it was quiet, utterly quiet. There were no soldiers in the cave, and there were no sounds of war echoing into it.

He climbed out of the pool and made his way to the dark opening that led to the mouth of cave. He listened for a long time, then ducked his head and made his way through. His only thought was on finding Ellis, worried he had been severely wounded, or worse, captured by one of the armies. Feeling for the ceiling and walls, he made his way back to the mouth of the cave. Daylight streamed in, and he eased to it, looking out for signs of the great war.

Immediately he noticed something was wrong. The trees looked different. Around the cave they looked older, larger, with wide spreading canopies. He moved out and began to back track, looking for signs of the crater and where Ellis should be laying. The ground looked undisturbed, with new growth that had not been there when he entered the cave. He made his way along the mountain and up to the ridge. At a rock outcropping he sat down and surveyed the valleys below on either side. To his west, it was divided into plots, fences and trees outlining each one. And down the middle of it, a dark lane ran the length of the valley. He saw something on the road moving incredibly fast. When it was below him, he saw it was moving without the aid of horses and he wondered what kind of steam engine it possessed to run without a smoke trail. Then a sound from above and he gasped as he looked at a strange craft in the sky. It moved quickly overhead, its fixed wings rocking up and down and something at front spinning too fast to see.

“What are these machines?” he uttered to himself. He knew something was wrong. That this did not seem to be his time. There was no war going on below and everything looked settled. It was the same behind him, in the valley to the east, but here he saw a cluster of buildings at an intersection of the wide dark lanes. He would venture toward the buildings to see what he could discover.

The side of the mountain was rough, overgrown in places, but eventually he came to a wide trail. Its surface was packed down from years of foot traffic and in places its outer edge was shored up with rock. At a switchback, there were stone steps at certain intervals, and he made good time.

He came to a place the sun was shining brightly in front of him and he realized he was at the dark lane. He stepped over the ditch and onto its surface. It was smooth, unbelievably smooth and had bright yellow lines down the middle and white lines along its edge. It was such a queer thing he didn’t know what to think.

A loud blaring, and he knew immediately it was some kind of warning and he turned to see a massive machine coming toward him. He moved quickly off the road and watched it pass, the warning continuing long after he was out of the way. It had black wheels that looked like rubber and it moved by too fast to count their number, but he knew it were more than twelve, for many were two set side by side.

Confused and feeling a new kind of fear, Charles began to walk toward the north, knowing the buildings were in that direction. He rounded a curve and saw how the road followed the contours of the mountain, weaving in and out, rising in places, then descending, only to curve out of sight.

A couple of smaller machines passed, and he saw the stares. People unusually dressed looking at him as if he were the strange one. Sweat ran down his face and his thirst increased. The ditch became too rough, and he moved to the edge of the lane keeping an eye out for those machines. Another curve and he came to a place where the lane descended before him. A black machine approached. It was smaller than the big one, but larger than the others. It was boxy in shape, tall in height and as it came upon him, it slowed to a stop. A door on the side slide back and someone climbed out.

Charles stopped, unsure of what he was seeing. It looked like Ellis, only the man was older, more filled out.

“Charles, I finally found you.”

Charles heard the voice, one so familiar, but somehow different. It sounded more educated.

“Ellis?”

Charles stood still trying to comprehend how Ellis appeared older. He looked like a man nearing thirty, not one still eighteen. He was dressed in nice clothing, a white shirt and tan pants with black boots.

Ellis came up to him and hugged him and Charles felt the strength of the arms.

“Ellis, I don’t understand.”

“The cave, it was set up as a portal for some to travel back as observers of our history.”

“A portal? What do you mean?”

“The pool has their system set in it and… it brought you here. Come on, let’s get in the van and I’ll explain.”

Charles climbed into the black van seeing the interior was rows of seats. Two men were in front, one at a wheel he knew instinctually controlled the machine, something Ellis called a van. Ellis climbed in next to him and as the van turned around and headed down the mountain, he explained to Charles what had happened.

Ellis explained how he got hurt, his right foot mangled by the blast, and how Charles stumbled upon the way to travel through the portal. He told how he came to with men dressed strangely helping him. A large boot on his right foot, then a stretcher that floated without the aid of either man. The men led the stretcher to the cave and when they passed through the portal, it was the year 2094, not 1862.

“I don’t understand. How?” Charles asked.

“It’s been nearly ten years for me, and I still don’t understand the technology.”

“Ten years?”

“Yes, ten years I’ve looked for you. No one was there to see what the controls were set upon, and you were lost to me in time.”

“But I just got here and…you’re here now…”

“Ten years later for me. Last month, one of the physicists discovered a way to determine what year you had been transported. Charles, it is the 31st of October, in the year 2022.”

“20-22?”

“Yes.”

“But you’ve been living in 2094?”

“Yes.”

“And they fixed your damaged foot?”

“More like grew me a new one,” Ellis replied, lifting his pant leg showing a faint scar around it. “They could remove the scar, but I chose to keep it.”

“They grew you a new foot?”

“Yes.”

“And you…” Charles stumbled, not sure what to ask or say.

 “And I want you to come back with me.”

“Why?”

“It is a time of its own struggles, the environment so greatly compromised by us, but it is also a time when men who love men can live openly, with no one casting shame on them.”

“Not even the church?”

“There are no churches. Religion has lost any usefulness it may have had for our society.”

“I see,” Charles replied, but he didn’t, not really. There was too much to take in.

“Charles, the van is taking us to a new facility, one recently completed. We can go back to 2094. Will you come with me?”

“I have nothing here and back there…back then, I had nothing there either. Yes, Ellis, if you’ll let me, I’ll come with you.”

Ellis leaned toward Charles and kissed his cheek. A playful quick kiss, and he sat back smiling.

Charles touched the spot of the kiss. He felt something he had never felt before meeting Ellis. He felt wanted and knew the time they lived in didn’t matter.

“Ellis?”

“Yes?”

“What will we do? In the future?”

“We’ll live, Charles, we’ll live.”