Dark Threads
I was stunned. “You knew?”
“Well, sort of,” she admitted. We had reached my driveway by now, and she turned back toward the rehab center and considered. “I knew something dark had taken up residence there. Why do you think I hadn't been to visit Ben since he moved in? I mean the hospital was bad enough, but that place...”
“Why didn't you say anything?”
“I didn't want to worry you,” she apologized. “Besides, I just thought it was the same dynamic as the hospital, You know, a place where people go to die that isn't their home. No connection, just a much larger collection of lost souls.”
“So what was that shadow thing?” I asked, “If not a collection of lost souls?”
“I have no idea.” She seemed worried. “But it wanted you. I could see that as soon as I stepped into the doorway.”
“Wait, so you could see it?”
“Of course, I see all sorts of things that you can't.” She looked at me with a bit of concern on her face. “In fact, I need to show you something else, but I'm not sure you can handle it.”
I wasn't sure either. The day had already held more surprises than I felt able to handle. I took a deep breath and said, “Better to know than to be ignorant. Let's go inside and get a drink and you can show me there.”.
“I'm not going in there,” she motioned toward the front door. “Not while that thing is still there.”
I wasn't entirely surprised by this revelation. “It's the tendril that was spilling over the balcony, right?”
“Yes,” she said simply. “It passes through this house on its way to the sea. Can you see it?”
“No,”
“I can. It's going right through the window and straight through to the back. Do you want to see it? It's not too bad here, not nearly as strong as back there.” She motioned to the rehab center with her head, and reached for my hand again.
“That's alright,” I avoided her touch. “I don't need to see it again. Once was enough. Besides, even without seeing where the tendril went, I knew it came here. It just made sense.”
“Something keeps it tethered to this building. Something that has been there since it was built.” She closed her eyes, and looked inward. “I can't see what it is, but no one has ever noticed it or bothered with it. And it is of lesser value than whatever the old man in the wheelchair holds. That is what the spirit is really after. It didn't really want you. It just thought it could use you to get at the old man. He's too well protected for the spirit to reach him.”
“So it seems we're back to Mr. Bouchard.” I chuckled.
“If it was me, I wouldn't go near him, or this cottage.” She turned to head back back to the rehab center. “In fact, I've been here too long already. I'll be waiting in Helmut's truck. I'm not going back in that building either. Tell Kevin I'm ready to go.”
By the time I approached Ben's room, My head was reeling, but I thought it best to keep things light. “So, how was your first time driving sans support?” I asked when I met Kevin in the hallway. “Your sister thinks you're a coward.”
“I can live with that,” he blushed. “Better that than...” he gestured towards his pants.
“Commando requires confidence,” I offered. “She knew something was off, but she couldn't figure out what. Just don't think about it.”
“Easy for you,” he whined, “It's not your balls about to be crushed.”
I laughed. “Yours either, if you're careful. Just don't look like you're being careful.”
“I'll do my best,” he chuckled. “Gotta go, Sabina texted. Sounds like she can't wait to get out of here.”
“Oh! There you are!” Ben chided as I entered the room. “And where did you disappear to? I was all excited to report my progress, and nothing. I had to tell Kevin about it, but he seemed distracted, like he really didn't want to be here.”
“Sabina dragged him out,” I explained. “He's finding it difficult to deal with your injury.”
“Not like it's difficult for me. Oh, no! And somebody needs to tell that boy if he's gonna let 'em swing in the breeze, sweat pants are not the best way to be discreet about it.” He laughed outright. “I mean those things were flopping all over the place. I couldn't look away.”
“I'll speak to Mike about it next time I see him,” I chuckled. “Later tonight, I guess.” I thought for a moment. “I don't really feel I need to go. Not after this morning. I don't think I got any cum left in me to share.”
“Oh, I bet you can whip something up,” Ben smirked, “If you really try.”
“I dare say, but suddenly, after this morning, I'm just not interested, at least, not like I was before.”
“But Helmut will be so disappointed.”
“I do need to chat with him,” I considered.
“Good, I'll leave it to him to convince you.” Ben seemed pleased with this thought, and let it drop. I still hadn't told him why I had disappeared, and decided to avoid the subject for now. I still needed to process what I had experienced, and like Sabina, I didn't want to worry him about staying in a facility that housed such a powerful spirit, especially since I had no sense of it targeting him. I chatted with him about his therapy session and the minor improvements he was seeing, offering all the encouragement I could muster.
When the intern came to take him down for dinner, I excused myself and headed back to Hope House for a quiet meal. I was hoping to catch up with Helmut or Kevin, to see how things played out last night after they left the bar, but there was no sign of either of them. After answering the inevitable onslaught of questions, I fixed a plate and took it up to our apartment for a bit of peace and quiet. I knew I was going to be out late, so I decided to try to take another small nap before heading back to the cottage to shower and change. I set an alarm, just in case, and settled down on the sofa. Sleep came almost instantly.
___________________________________________________________________________________
The island looked much as I remembered it two years ago, although it lacked the shipload of sailors sunning themselves on the rocks. I thought of that day and smiled. Since then I had discovered that if I wished it, the men around me would get naked and jerk off for me, and I didn't even have to ask. It was never awkward or uncomfortable. They just seemed to know what I wanted and would give me a show. I also discovered that if I focused on them while they were doing it, I could get a whiff of their sexual fantasies, the girls they found sexy, or for a few of them, the boys, and what they liked to do.
Once I even found that two of my shipmates each had a secret crush on the other, so I wished for them to get together so I could watch. There was little privacy on board, but to my amazement I ran across them going at it in a storage room on a lower deck. Usually there were others working in this area, but for some reason the deck was abandoned. When I walked in on them, they only glanced at me briefly before turning away and ignoring me. Not only did they continue, but my presence seemed to spur them on, and soon they were fucking with wild abandon, careless of the noise or their audience.
They went at it for over an hour, and I must have shot at least three loads as they found ever more exciting ways to sate their carnal desires. When I was satisfied they both shot a final load, (I had lost count of how many times each of them had cum), and adjusting their uniforms, walked out without a word.
The last two years had been interesting indeed, but my tour of duty was ending, and I was heading home. The ship had made a stop at the same island where I first had an inkling of this unusual ability, and I took full advantage of the opportunity to revisit that sunny memory. The reflections on the water were just as blinding as they had been before and it was as if I had stepped back in time to the the very day I remembered. Today there were only a few of us on the island, which was usually unoccupied, and used for recreational stops, so while the others explored various other areas of the island, I wandered over the rocks alone to see what I could see.
The rocks were fairly windswept and pristine, but there were the occasional tell tale artifacts that spoke of human visitations. Among other things, I found a few shards of broken and weathered glass from a bottle, a small wooden box that was beginning to splinter, some discarded cigarette packages, and the decaying remnants of the binding from a forgotten book. These were not particularly remarkable, but they spoke to me of the happiness this island represented for sailors in desperate need of open air and relaxation.
To my right I noticed the sparkle of something glinting in the sun. It looked like metal, and I thought perhaps someone had dropped a coin. I bent down to pick it up, and was surprised to see a set of Sargent's bars, still attached to a small shred of faded and torn fabric. As I reached for it, something made me stop. It was as if a shadow had dimmed the sun, bringing with it a sense of dread and regret. Looking around, the sky was still clear and I was still alone, but there was something familiar about this spot. I took a moment to gain my bearings and realized this was the very spot where I had lain two years ago watching so many of my shipmates pleasuring themselves.
Something inside me shifted, and that happy memory lost some of its shine. To be honest, the days following that incident were a bit hazy in my mind. I couldn't remember how it ended or how we got back to the ship, and the weeks following had felt somehow off, as if something had changed, but I could never put my finger on it. In the end I had put it down to fatigue and just continued on. What else could I do? But this discovery, with all its foreboding, hinted that there was something more to remember, something important.
Of the few of us that were currently on the island, one had been a shipmate on that day. In fact, he had been one of my favorite guys to watch during my off hours, and he had somehow managed to remain stationed with me since that day. I knew if I thought of him he would soon appear, as if called, and sure enough, as the thought crossed my mind I saw him making his way over the rocks toward me. He didn't speak. In fact, he didn't acknowledge me at all. He just found himself a rather prominent rock where he could easily be seen, and proceeded to strip.
His body was lean, yet muscular, with just the right amount of body hair to accentuate his chest and abdominal muscles. The beautiful cock that emerged from his thick bush of pubic hair was hard before he got naked, and sprung out of his trousers with a ferocity I had come to know well. I could feel his pleasure at exhibiting himself for me, and his desire to please me. It was this, I think, his innate exhibitionism, that made him one of my favorites. That, and the perfection of his physique.
I allowed myself to feel his sexual energy. It was as if I were stroking his cock, but I could see it was his hand doing it. Still, I could feel the warm pulsing of his throbbing member as if it were in my hand, and as if it were my dick.
At this point I usually allowed myself to become lost in his pleasure, claiming it as my own, but I had called him here for another reason. Softly I remembered the day two years ago, bringing it to him as a fond memory. I allowed him to see himself through my eyes as he laid on a rock not far from here, stroking himself in the sunshine. I allowed my current view of him to merge with that memory until the two were indistinguishable. I knew how much he loved being watched, and seeing himself through someone else's eyes was doubly exciting for him. As the memory progressed, I sensed some resistance from him. It was as if he were refusing to follow through with the memory, trying to block it out. I did my best to calm him and encourage him to remember, but he wouldn't.
I could tell there was something there. Something dark. Something he was afraid of, and this made me all the more determined to know. Over the last few months I had found that I could actually see the dreams of some of my shipmates while they were sleeping. Unless I were guiding their dreams, they were usually garbled and uninteresting, and I had treated them as background noise, making an effort to block them out whenever they intruded into my consciousness. But I knew that, if I wanted, I could guide their dreams towards the sexual. I now wondered if I could guide them in a different direction. All I could do was try. I wished my shipmate to go to sleep and dream of that day, a dream he would not remember. This would allow me to see his memory without him having to actively remember it. Almost at once he dozed off and began to dream.
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