Second That Emotion
by
Latikia
Copyright © 2006
Chapter 39
Cleaning up the fallen deputies only took a few minutes, mostly in carrying their limp bodies out and stuffing them into their cars. Turning them to ash was only a couple seconds effort. The Sheriff’s body was a problem. He was already dead, so I couldn’t link and complete what I’d started. The best I could do was put his body into a vehicle, douse him with alcohol and light him up. It would have to be good enough.
I hustled the girls out into our car with all our bags,
checked out of the hotel without a single comment from the clerk on duty and we
drove out of
When we stopped in front of the fancy iron security gate I handed Izzy the card Dr. Wills had given me—the one with his official phone numbers on it—and one of the Glocks.
“Pull the car away from the gate and keep your eyes
peeled. If I’m not back in an hour, get
out of here and away from
I was all set to climb up and over when I noticed that the two halves weren’t touching.
“What good is a security gate that isn’t locked?” I muttered softly to myself.
Pushing against one side I made enough room to slip between them and began jogging up the drive towards the house.
‘A security gate that isn’t secure…small town cops that make early morning house calls...hotel clerks that don’t realize a platoon of police have just raided one of their rooms...what’s wrong with this picture?’ the Darkness asked.
“Everything.” I hissed, maintaining my pace.
‘No shit,
Sherlock! Care to narrow it down?’
“Where was the household staff this afternoon? A place the size of this one should have a small army to keep it up.”
‘Yeah, that’s
one…another good question would be “Why, with all the time you spent talking to
Charlie’s parents, didn’t you link to either of them?”’
“I didn’t…no I didn’t, did I? That is a kinda odd.”
The house was growing larger and more distressingly ugly as I got nearer. I could see one lit window on the bottom floor, but otherwise the place looked deserted. No cars on the driveway, no movement, no nothing. Granted it was still quiet early, but knowing that they’d just sent the sheriff after an armed man who’d admitted to killing two people, you’d think there would be a bit more activity while they waited for a report.
‘Maybe they aren’t
waiting for a report because they don’t expect to get one.’
“That could only be true if they didn’t expect the cops to succeed…if they sent them to die. What would be the point of that?”
‘To piss you off, get
you mad enough to come back here. To not be thinking clearly.’
“Yeah, right. Which means someone thinks they can take me one on one.”
‘And you’re marching
up the path like
“I’m expected. They know I’m coming.”
‘But they don’t know
when, or how. Why give away anymore than
you absolutely have to?’
“Good point.” I said to myself and juked off the path onto the lawn and began moving between the fancy lawn sculptures and rose bushes. At the same time I began focusing on feeling blank and empty and started broadcasting that sense of nothingness around me.
Moving quickly thru the maze of hedges and bushes I swept my eyes over the front of the house. The front door was wide open and I could just make out a flickering of yellowish light inside.
‘The gate’s unlocked,
the door’s wide open and there isn’t a soul in sight. Something’s rotten in
This was all wrong. Very, very wrong. I was being invited in. Hell, the red carpet had practically been laid out for me.
Where was the welcoming committee?
Keeping low, I moved forward as quietly as I could, approaching the open doorway from the left side. I still didn’t feel quite right about the way events were playing out, but there didn’t seem to be much I could do to change things. I had a choice of moving forward into what was obviously a trap, or to back off and leave. And if I left I’d probably never know what this had all been about…unless it came back to bite me in the ass one day.
‘Why did you come here
in the first place?’
“Charlie invited us. Hell, she damn near dragged us here with her.”
‘Why?’
I had to think about that one. Why had
Charlie wanted us to come with her? I’d
fixed her hysterical laughing, and the girls had offered her a place to stay
with us…while I’d been in the shower. We
were supposed to have dinner with Charlie and her parents and then she was
going to come back with us to
‘Why indeed? Even if you get angry you don’t lose sight of what’s
important…or your objective.’
And I hadn’t linked with Mr. or Mrs. Van Luten. I relied solely on what I could get from watching them. And considering the confrontation with the Sheriff and his deputy prior to meeting them I should have been more than eager to find out what they were feeling.
I stepped inside the doorway quickly and pressed against my back against the wall, listening for movement.
Silence greeted me, inviting further exploration and demanding even more caution.
Oddly enough the house wasn’t so bad in the dark. The ugly décor was masked by the deep shadows and thick blanket of darkness. Even with my excellent night vision I had a hard time seeing more than vaguely defined shapes before me as I made my way down the short hallway and into the large expanse that fronted the monstrous staircase.
At the top of the stairs was a small lamp mounted on the wall which held a dully glowing yellowish bulb, the only light source I’d encountered so far.
Maintaining my broadcast of nothingness I crouched down low and listened carefully for sounds, any sounds. Nothing. Not a thing. I placed the tips of my right hand lightly on the polished wooden floor beneath me and tried to feel for vibrations. I waited patiently for a count of twenty before I finally felt the tiniest of tremors.
I crouched there for another count of twenty, taking long, slow, deep breaths and waiting for a repeat. The house smelled differently than it had when we’d been there the day before. More dank and musty, more uncared for and abandoned. There! Another tiny little vibration worked its way thru the pads of my fingers and along my nervous system.
‘Things are not as
they seem to be, my love.’
“Carlie? I thought you were gone.”
‘Not as long as you
remember and love me.’
“What’s not as it seems?”
‘Almost
everything.’
“I’ll do what I can for Charlie…and I’ll keep your promise.”
‘Protect them
Ike. They’re old and they need your
help.’
I think my mind had the hiccups for an instant, because I lost track of my thoughts, lost track of my emotions and lost control of my broadcasting.
Protect them? They’re old?
Oh shit.
Rising from my crouching position like a sprinter from the blocks I started up the stairs two at a time, keeping my weight on my toes to minimize the impact of my weight and hopefully eliminate any thumping or creaking. As I reached the upper landing a figure emerged from the depths of the shadows and confronted me.
“Hello lover…I’ve missed you.”
I stood there, sipping my ten ounces of peppered vodka and listening to two college seniors discussing the relative merits of deconstructionist theory, when I noticed the woman who was standing next to me. I had to look down a bit. She was only five feet five inches tall. Her hair was reddish, but not like mine; hers was a darker, more burgundy-ish color. Cut short, it was only slightly longer than the ROTC students I’d seen marching around campus. Her skin was pale, but darker than my own and her eyes were an alluring hazel mix of brown and green. Her body reminded me somewhat of Vickie Carter’s. Like a cheerleader or a gymnast.
She smiled up at me, inviting me to…
Beats me what the invitation was for. But I wanted to attend, whatever it was.
“Hi, I’m Ike.”
“Hello. I’m Carlie. You aren’t supposed to be here, are you?”
Damn! Busted and I hadn’t even finished my vodka.
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, I haven’t seen you actually talk to anyone since you got here.”
“Maybe I’m not the talkative type?”
“You look like you might be a football player but you haven’t gone to hang with them, so that’s out. And you haven’t jumped in and started matching wits with these quasi-intellectuals here, so I’m guessing you aren’t a frat-boy.”
“Okay sheriff, you’ve got me. Take me away. I won’t put up a fight.”
Carlie grinned up at me, a genuinely friendly grin.
“Now that would be a shame.” She reached up and took my arm and led me towards the front door.
Just as we were leaving a voice called out and caught our attention.
“HEY, Carlie…wait up.” A good looking blond guy about her age forced his way thru the mob of bodies and joined us. “Hey babe, where you off to? The party’s just getting started.”
Carlie’s grip on my arm tightened a little bit.
“Harve, this is Ike. Ike...my friend, Harve Lattimor. Harve, my new friend Ike and I are going out for some coffee and conversation. You have a good time. I’ll see you later.”
I’d been watching the little play unfold around me, marveling at the complexity of the illusion…the sounds of clinking glasses and bottles, the interplay of voices, the smell of beer, cigarette smoke and burning incense…admiring the ability it took to make it all appear so very nearly real. But it wasn’t, and I knew it wasn’t. As soon as I layed eyes on Harve I felt an urge to burn him to a cinder, but I realized that he was no more real than the image of my lost love beside me. It was all so two dimensional.
“Stop it Charlie. You’re pissing me off.”
The image of Harve and everyone around us faded away and I was back at the top of the staircase with Charlie standing before me.
She smiled up at me. “You have the most orderly mind I’ve ever been in. So precise and exacting; so logical. Harder to read than anyone else I’ve known too. And you don’t get fooled by your own memories. Most people do, you know. They’re easy to confuse and lead. Why do you suppose that is?”
“I can tell the difference between what is and what I’d like to be. I don’t spend a lot of time wishing things were different.”
“Exactly! That’s what makes us perfect for each other; your grasp of reality and my control of illusion. Together we’d be unstoppable. You have an in to the seats of power. You can make people feel what you want and I can make them see what I want. Together we could rule the entire planet. We could be gods!”
‘God’s aren’t very
good at sharing! Even
less so than ordinary people.’
Charlie took a quick step back. The change in my voice surprised her. “You don’t trust
‘Why
would we trust you, little girl? You set the Sheriff on us, twice…lied to us,
misled us, and attempted to make us perform for you like a trained dog. You didn’t ask for help or assistance, didn’t
even try to form a partnership…until you realized that your feeble illusion
wasn’t going to work. There is nothing
in you to trust.’
“Charlie,” I said, rejoining the conversation, “I’m already closer to being a god than you’ll ever manage. And I don’t want to be one.”
“Fine…but I do!” she snarled at me and everything around me faded away.
The sounds of aircraft flying low over my position woke me. I’d been dreaming, wildly scattered and vivid images that made no sense and that fled from my mind as I came fully awake. My heart was pounding hard and I was sweating. I stayed low against the ground and slowly lifted my head to take a look around, scanning for movement, trying to get the roar of the jets out of my ears so I could figure out what, if anything, was near me.
Daylight was fading. I took a long gulp of water from the camel pack tube near my chin then closed it off. I couldn’t detect any movement and I didn’t hear anything moving nearby, so I very slowly began working myself out of my shallow grave.
The holes over my hip hurt like the devil, a throbbing ache that called out for attention. I opened my BDU jacket and peeled off the bandage pad in front and examined the wound. It was reddish, swollen, tender and oozing, with thin streaks of color beginning to radiate outward. I pressed in and around the opening and bloody yellowish pus erupted. I clenched my teeth against the urge to cry out. I wiped off the viscous liquid with the dirty pad and got out my little first aid kit. Forcing the mouth of the antibiotic gel tub into the hole I squeezed some of the contents into the wound, and applied another pad and taped it in place. Then I did the same, as well as I could with the hole on the opposite side.
New bandages in place, I packed up my gear, took out part of an MRE and choked it down. There were only two full MREs left, now one and a half, and they would have to last me till I reached our lines. I relieved myself into the shallow trench, then dumped the bloody pads and the MRE wrappers in with it and covered it all; doing my best to hide that anyone had been there.
I checked my heading with the compass and started jogging south east. Pick ‘em up, put ‘em down.
Half an hour later the pain in my side started affecting me to the point I that I was walking more than running. If this kept up I’d never make it back. I stopped and dug into my gear and took out one of the syringes of morphine and injected it. I bent the needle and buried the syringe in a small hole.
Pick ‘em up, put ‘em down. “I don’t know, but I’ve been told/Eskimo pussy’s mighty cold.”
My stride improved as the burning pain in my side faded away. I started feeling lighter, faster.
Pick ‘em up, put ‘em down. Left, right, left, right, left…left…left, right, left…
Oh, shit it hurts.
No. I hurt. It’s me that’s hurting. Got to keep these things straight or I could end up a basket case. Wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?
I stopped moving. I couldn’t see any movement. I couldn’t hear any screaming or crying, moaning or whimpering.
I sagged to my knees, holding one hand above my hip. It felt wet; sticky wet.
I looked around. …daylight. Late afternoon, but it’s still hot and sunny. I was heating up and my exposed face and hands were starting to burn.
I soaked up the pain…realizing that it was all faintly unreal. I dug deeply into my memory for the depths of pain that I remembered from those days not so long ago and began broadcasting my pain and agony, amplifying it several times over as it emerged from me.
I heard a distant sound of screaming in front of me, but all I could see were waves of heat rising off the desert floor. I increased the amplification and focused on intensifying the emotions.
The desert faded away and I was once again on the landing, Charlie lay curled up at my feet, screaming for all she was worth.
I stopped broadcasting and knelt down next to the small girl.
“Charlie you need to stop this before you hurt yourself. I’m not going give you what you want.”
“You should have been mine, not hers and not theirs!” she snapped, rolling to her feet. Her eyes blazed with…insanity is the only way I can think to describe it.
“Charlie, your sister loved me…my girls love me. You don’t love anyone.” I linked with the small woman and explored her emotions. This time what I found was more like what I normally experienced with other people’s emotions; swirls of color like in a child’s first finger-paint masterpiece, and hints of flavor that I could barely taste.
‘The pit, the chain
and column were images she showed you.
The girl has no idea how you perceive emotions. You should have picked up on that sooner.’
Yes, I should have, but I didn’t and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it at that point. The past is done and gone. Remember it, but don’t dwell there.
I examined Charlie’s emotions. Ambition in vast amounts, resentment, anger, disgust, fear, smug confidence that was beginning to fray a bit around the edges and a fierce determination. But no love, and no compassion.
“I don’t need to love you…you’ll love me; you’ll worship me!”
Charlie faded away before my eyes.
“Kiss me, baby.” she half rasped, half growled.
I had never kissed a girl before…but then I’d never had one holding onto my dick like it was a life preserver and she was afloat on the ocean either. So I rolled her over onto her back, my arm cradling and supporting her head and neck and pressed my lips to hers.
Charlie’s lips were soft and full and tasted a little like strawberries. I had no idea what I was doing, so I relied heavily on the link to tell me what she liked and responded well to. If I felt her heating up and getting more turned on by something, I kept doing it. If something didn’t make her feel good, I didn’t do it again.
I pressed my lips harder against hers and rested more of my upper body weight on her chest, pressing myself firmly against her breasts. I brought my one available hand up and began to caress her neck and the side of her face. Charlie began to work the tip of her tongue between my lips, so I parted them and pushed my own tongue out to wrestle with hers. My fingers tickled down my sister’s neck and found the buttons on the front of her nightgown. While our tongues swabbed the inside of the other’s mouth, my fingers opened her gown and worked inside the flannel, coming to rest on one firm breast.
Charlie groaned into my mouth as my hand began to trace around the tip of her nipple, that small nubbin growing hard when I pinched it between thumb and forefinger.
Her need was growing; the intensity of her Lust was overwhelming every other emotion she possessed.
‘Things are not what
they appear to be.’
“I know that…I can tell the difference.”
Anger and rage were warring with fear and desire, several sets of each fought for control and dominance. Her need was so strong I could taste its tart flavor.
I took off my robe and threw it to the side then reached out and removed Charlie’s.
I took one of her arms in my hand and pulled her tight against me. She was so much shorter then me I had trouble running my hands over the parts of her body I wanted to reach. I lifted her up so she could wrap her legs around my waist and her arms around my neck. I stroked her back and sides, cupped her ass in my hands and worked my fingers between the cheeks, tracing the furrow past her anus to her hairless pussy.
I could feel her body responding to my touch and small traces of pleasure began to form within her. I carried her over to the mats and lay us both down on them, pressing my full weight down on top of her. I began licking her face, tracing the tip of my tongue along her jaw, in and around her ear and down the length of her neck. I worked one hand between us and began rubbing and pinching a hard nipple.
I could hear her moaning, but it was distant and slightly out of sync, like in a badly dubbed foreign film.
“Come on Charlie, if you want my love you’re going to have to work for it!” I taunted.
Her desire was immense and her lust was growing by leaps and bounds, but this was taking much longer than I’d planned. I drew her feelings of pleasure into myself and shot them back down the link.
“Gaahhhhddd!” she screamed and started shaking.
Better, but still not there.
I lifted Charlie’s body off of mine and tossed her lightly to the side then rolled over and stuck my face between her wide spread legs. I began lapping the length of her swollen outer lips with the flat of my tongue and at the same time I inserted two fingers into her and began thrusting in and out.
Her hips bucked and rolled in time with my fingers. I could feel her orgasm; it started small and darkly burning, but with each thrust of my fingers, each lick of my tongue, it got bigger and closer and brighter.
“Come on Charlie! I still don’t feel it. Make me love you!” I demanded.
“On your knees, Charlie.” She crawled upright slowly and knelt before me. I stood up and took off my robe, casting it to one side then pushed down the shorts I’d slept in. Her eyes widened at the sight of my growing erection.
“Keep your hands down and open your mouth.”
Charlie’s eyes brightened as she opened her mouth wide and sat up straighter. I shoved the head of my cock between her wide spread lips.
“Now suck me.”
I stood there motionless while she greedily sucked and bobbed her head down the length of my cock, moaning and humming with delight. A hungry calf at its mother’s teat couldn’t have been any happier than she was at that moment.
The warm roughness of her tongue danced around and under the head of my dick, her lips clamping and releasing.
“Still not feeling any love Charlie and I sure don’t feel like worshiping.” I growled. “You just aren’t trying hard enough.”
Charlie lifted her mouth to mine and we locked lips, grinding, mashing, biting; tongues stabbing and probing. She moaned deep and low, her hands clawing my back then running over my face and thru my hair.
Her hips were twisting and rolling beneath me, thrusting up with ever increasing intensity and power. I shifted down slightly, my growing erection dragging along her pubic mound and pressing hard against her clitoral hood. Charlie rocked her hips up, smashing her body into mine, grinding and grunting for all she was worth.
“Uhh, uhh, ohhh, pleassssse!” she cried, her body heating up to a point where I though I was lying on a bed of coals.
Reaching down I took my cock and rubbed it between her enflamed, damp lips and positioned myself at the entrance to her molten chamber.
“Yes, oh yes, yes, yespleasepleaseyes…” she begged, hands clawing at my shoulders, desperately trying to pull me closer.
I eased my hips forward and drove the length of my cock between those puffy, swollen lips until I was completely buried inside, our bodies locked and connected.
“Ahhhhh! More, gimme more…harder lover, harder!”
Charlie’s legs spread wider, her knees rising towards her chest. I pulled my knees up closer to her and began backing away. Long slow strokes out, hard powerful strokes in, slamming my pubic bone against her clit. After a minute of long strokes I abandoned that in favor of rapid short thrusts, going for all the friction I could generate.
“Yeah, Yeah, YEAH, YEAH!!” she grunted each time my hips smashed into hers.
I reached down with one hand and gripped one of her breasts, squeezing and pulling on the pliant mound, pinching the rock hard nipple between my finger and thumb.
She gasped and moaned, slamming her hips back up, meeting my thrusts with her own, grinding and twisting, franticly searching for her release.
I looked down into her eyes and started laughing. “You’re never going to get there this way Charlie. I don’t love you and if this is the best you can do I never will.”
The vice around my cock squeezed tighter. I groaned loudly and flexed my hips, driving up. Charlie squeaked.
“Oh god, oh god…”
I lowered my eyes and saw her lying on my chest, a little farther down than usual, and I could see her cute little butt cheeks clenching. She lifted her head and put her chin in the center of my breastbone. Her eyes were glazed and on fire.
“Good morning Daddy.” Her voice was rough and raspy.
She wrapped her arms around my ribs, put her ear over my heart and wiggled her hips.
Charlie giggled and increased the rocking motion of her hips.
“Oh yes, yes…”
I raised my legs, bending my knees and spreading Charlie’s legs farther apart.
“OH SHIT!” she cried out and her arms tightened their grip.
I lifted Charlie up into a sitting position, my hands cupping her small breasts and rubbing my thumbs over her rock hard little nipples.
“Yes, please Daddy, please, EEEK!” she squeaked again when I drove my hips up, sliding my shaft all the way into her tight little tunnel. Her eyes and mouth opened wide.
I gasped; the severe grip of Charlie’s vagina on my cock was making it very difficult for me to stay focused on her pleasure. I wanted to cum in the worst way.
Charlie mewed with disappointment as I slid my hands down off her breasts and over her hips. I spread my hands wide, filling them with hip and ass. I lifted her up slowly, until just the head of my cock was inside her, then thrust up with my hips and slammed her down at the same time.
“AWWWW GOD, yesyesyes, again, do it again!”
“Sorry, Charlie. This just isn’t doing a thing for me. I’m getting bored. Where’s the love? You’re just a little girl playing at love. You wouldn’t recognize the real thing if it jumped up and bit you on the tit.”
The bedroom faded away and we were back on the landing, me on one knee and Charlie standing before me, a look of fury on her pretty little face.
“Alright. I can’t make you think of me in their place. You won’t love me. But I can make you hate them. If I can’t have you for myself, I’ll ruin you for them…”
I stood before the massive hand carved oaken doors and listened to the raucous sound of muted human voices behind them. It was like hearing bottled thunder.
I stepped forward and shoved the doors wide open, striding forward into the sea of roaring voices and clapping hands. A short stubby little man dressed in a very expensive pin striped suit with a fancy chain and medallion of office over his deep chest stepped into my path and tried to block my approach. I lashed out with one arm and knocked him back into the wall where he remained. Moving down the walkway and into the amphitheatre of the Senate floor, the girls flared out behind me; Izzy in the middle, Lilly to the left, Peggy to the right and Anya marched behind them, her AK-47 held across her body and ready to fire.
The noise level dropped slowly as the huge number of people filling the place recognized that something was going on. I saw Supreme Court Justices, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Senators I recognized from the news, faceless members of Congress that I’d never seen before in my life, camera men and women, news media, TV cameras and congressional aids who scurried about like the drones they were.
I strode down the walkway, thru the little gate and up to the tall lectern, behind which stood the most powerful leader in the free world. I climbed the steps that put me on the same footing with him and looked down at him.
Secret Service Agents scrambled to get to me, but Anya raised her AK and backed them up.
“What is the meaning of this?” the President demanded.
“I’m one of your many employers who aren’t very happy with the way you’ve been running things. I think it’s time for a change.” I said, picked the man up by the collar of his expensive tailored suit and launched him out into the sea of bewildered faces.
“I hereby disband the House, the Senate and the Supreme
Court. I suggest you all get the fuck
out of
I looked out over the stunned sea of faces before me and grinned.
“Take a good look and tremble, you sorry sacks of shit. I declare myself Ike the First, King of America.”
Anya turned around and lined the barrel of her AK on my chest. I frowned.
“Anya…why?” and turned her into ash.
I looked down from the podium and say Peggy, Lilly and Izzy. They all looked kind of blurry, almost like they were a double exposure photo. They turned around and faced me, and looking up each of them pointed a pistol in my direction.
“Kill them Ike! They’ve turned on you, you can’t trust them! They don’t love you anymore…kill them!” Charlie screamed at me.
I reached inside my coat and pulled the Glock. I looked at the pistol and I looked down at the three loves of my life. I linked briefly with them and felt a wave of love sweep over me. I tossed the pistol down to the blurred double image of Lilly who caught the weapon in hands that already held a gun.
“I’d rather they kill me. I won’t do anything to hurt them.” I told her.
Lilly and Izzy fired at the same time, the steel slugs ripped thru Charlie’s chest and she slammed back against the wall and slid down.
The double images faded away to be replaced by single, clearly defined, three dimensional women. My girls.
I stood up and leaned against the railing, looking down at them.
“I thought I told you to wait in the car.” I said conversationally.
Peggy glared back up at me. “I felt you broadcasting all kinds of weird shit. We figured you were in trouble, so we came to rescue you.”
I smiled down at them. “My heroes. Thank you for coming to save me. I love you all very much.”
The three of them came running up the stairs to join me in a big group hug. After kissing all of them thoroughly I took the Glocks back and put them into the shoulder holsters. We all looked down at Charlie Van Luten’s bloody body.
I knelt down next to her. She was still breathing, but just barely. Her eyes rose to meet mine.
“You promised…” she gasped out.
“No, you put that promise in the girls’ heads and they told me. Carlie wanted me to protect her parents. I’ll keep that promise. I’m sorry, Charlie. Your life shouldn’t have ended like this.”
“I…was…god…”
“No, Charlie, you were never a god. Goodbye.” I linked with her and turned her to greasy ash as quickly as I could. Then my girls and I went looking for Carlie’s parents.