Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2001 18:25:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Zane Green <ZaneG7@excite.com>
Subject: Ghost Light Oracles

 GHOST LIGHT ORACLES
 by: Zane Hunter Green

This story is copyrighted and owned by the author. Please do not read if you
are not of age, for this age of mankind, which is typically 18 depending on
where you live. None of the characters in the story are based on real
people. I like to dedicate stories, and this one is dedicated to people who
love both Halloween, and stories about it. It is also dedicated to a writer
who generously encourages others to write, as well as one of the finest
writers around. -Teglin-
 If you have suggestions or comments please write to me at
ZaneG7@excite.com.


On the oak captain's table a pile of Halloween invitations had accrued. The
lamp on the desk illuminated the pile, the orange and black vellum paper
contrasted with the more pedestrian mail, and the wind blowing through the
open door caused the mail to shift around, so the invitations seemed to
breathe like a sluggish life form. Brian walked into the room whistling to
himself, he dropped his cowhide luggage on the Asian rug, lay his key in a
Depression glass ashtray on the desk, and picked up the stack of envelopes
to shuffle through them.  He had been so busy during the last few weeks that
he had forgotten that Halloween was only a day away. As he picked up the
first card, shaped like a traditional jack-o-lantern he got a strange
feeling that something wasn't right. He glanced down and the orange sprite
winked at him with a bold electric eye.

He decided from the cost of the electronic invitation that this would be a
fun party where every guest would be expected to wear a costume that was
creative, expensive and sexy. The food would be catered by the best in the
city. He thought about renting a costume and going, and got a tiny thrill of
anticipation, the type that reminded him of what he felt years before when
he was a child. It was bittersweet. Halloween was for children; well of
course he thought, he always felt like a child that night. The next
invitation was even costlier. And when he looked at the holographic male
witch that decorated the cover, the witch shed his outfit looking very
appealing in the nude, but Brian's tingle was gone. This Halloween, between
lovers and not feeling like celebrating he decided to stay home which after
weeks on the road was a luxury, and watch the classic Vampire films on
cable.

Halloween had always been one of his favorite holidays. Brian sat in the
cabin's chair, with the two unopened invitations and started to reminisce
when he was lucky to have a store bought costume, and the highlight of the
evening was going door to door collecting candy. In those days treats were
full-size chocolate bars, and tricks were not the cute number you brought
home for the evening. He thought about his old neighborhood. He had moved
away when he was eight. It wasn't that far away from where he was living
now, yet he had never been back. He had once lived in a large old house; he
remembered how much fun he had sliding down the stairwell, hopping over the
cobble stones on the walk. For some unexplainable reason he longed to go
there tonight.  It was late, his housekeeper had gone home hours ago He
picked up the key and retraced his steps out the door.  He got into his car
and set his GPS, as he wasn't sure he could find the house without it. A
soothing voice came on to guide him. Less than thirty-five later he was
getting off the main highway. The neighborhood had definitely changed. There
were abandoned houses where he remembered seeing people out in all seasons,
building snowmen... mowing lawns... and raking the autumn leaves. Only a few
places had a sad cardboard Pumpkin cutout or a few orange lights in the
window. He wondered if his house was still standing, and what shape it would
be in. He couldn't believe he was being drawn to the place where he had last
seen it discarded like a bent slinky the day his parents died.

As he turned down his old street he looked for the house set back in the
middle of the block. It was still there. He drove up, parked and locked his
car.   Then he walked over  to touch the silvery-gray rock face of the outer
wall of the house where he was born.


The sidewalk was cracked with lines of green moss flaying it; he tripped
over a broken section, catching himself before he fell.  It was then that he
heard a noise. It sounded like a child crying, yet there was no one else in
sight ...then... He saw that there was a child standing in the rustic doorway.
At first he was sure that he was looking at an illusion. He wasn't quite
sure of the child's sex, as they were so very beautiful, angelic. The tiny
pale hand clutched a toy that looked like a semi- truck. He decided it must
be a boy, not just from his toy but from the way he stood, his legs apart in
a little masculine stance He had dark brown hair that was stung to his
cheeks as he brushed the tears away. Brian walked up slowly only wanting to
comfort him, but not quite daring as he was a stranger.

 Brian heard a soft voice call out. "Derek!"

Another boy appeared from out of thin air.  He stepped back as he realized
the second child had been sitting high up on the wall hidden from view by
the abundant English ivy.

 He was older than the boy on the path was, and looked like he had been
crying recently as well, because of redden eyes. He was stunning. His hair
was more of a chestnut color. He looked up and spotted the man staring in
awe of both of them. Instead of pulling the little boy back into the house
the older boy walked forward. He looked as if he was judging the stranger
who interrupted their small world. Brian felt like he was being probed. The
boys looked at him seriously, two sets of mid-night blue eyes, never
wavering.

"My mom wants to talk to you. Do you mind coming inside with me." The older
boy said.

Brian's heart jumped. This boy was offering him a chance to appease his
curiosity and see what became of the house. He hesitated for only a tiny
fraction. He also wanted to be with the boys, they were magnets and he was
drawn to them. He hoped he wasn't staring, but he couldn't stop looking at
the boys.

"I would be happy to talk with your Mother."  All of the sudden Brian had
felt delirious with happiness as if something wonderful was about to happen,
he was about to tell the boys about his own history in the house. He wanted
to dance and swing both boys around high in the air towards the watching
moon. Just in time...

The boy clutched him by the hand and led him through the gate. Brian had a
funny feeling like electricity was climbing up his arm. He felt bonded to
the smooth hand, and wanted to hold it, he wanted to bring it to his lips
and taste the smooth skin. The little boy followed them. When they entered
the main section of the house Brian heard the older boy's name for the first
time.

"Logan, oh thank God you found him!"

The woman looked like a picture, an icon perhaps. She looked like her sons
but she said with some urgency to him. "There isn't much time. I leave soon
and I can only take one of the boys with me. Logan is too young to leave
here, but I can only take one home."

"I don't understand?" Brian managed to say.

"There's no time to explain, well I was pregnant when I sent here. No one
knew it so they only gave me passage home for one child and myself...See I can
only take one, so we decided that it would have to be my youngest. There
isn't any possible way to take both boys... Logan has to stay here, but he is
too young to fend for himself... alone... I may never be able to reclaim him; it
would be so dangerous! If I had prior warning I would have made some
arrangements for him, but I just heard a scant hour ago...they never give you
time. If you will care for him until he's no longer a young boy I will sign
this home to you, and leave you enough money to raise him...more than
enough...enough for you as well. Please I know it sounds crazy, but I am
desperate. Would you take him? I beg you. He is a very lovable boy," and
then she said something very odd "They always are."

As Brian looked at the boy she signed a paper. He didn't know what to do.
She was right what she was saying didn't make sense. Logan looked up, a sad
expression on his angelic face.

"Let me show you the house." He seemed so determined that Brian followed him
using the time to digest what his crazy mother had implied.

Clearly the mother was mad! The little boy went into his mother's arms as
they were left in the quiet room.  The house was more modern than Brian had
remembered. The outside left no clue that it was so well maintained. It
didn't take Logan long to show each room. Brian didn't remember it as well
as he thought he would. Everything had changed. Finally they returned to the
sitting room. Brian had decided to thank the mother for her strange generous
offer but he was not ready to be trapped in her odd plot no matter how much
he loved everything about his tour-guide. When they returned to the room
there was a chill in the air. The room was empty, the mother and little boy
were missing.

"Where are they!" Brian asked franticly.

 Logan said calmly, "they're gone now. They won't be able to come back for
me. Mother pretended she would but I know the rules. I'll never see them
again," and then he started to cry for real."

If there is one thing that Brian couldn't stand it was watching a person
cry. When that person was a boy it tore him apart. Not knowing what else to
do he embraced him in my arms, the boy's heart pounded. He sniffed back his
last tear, and mumbled against Brian.

"Will you let me stay with you?"

"Logan, I would love to but we must find your mother."

Logan shook his head.

"You must have relatives somewhere we can call, a father, or an aunt."

He sighed. "There is no one."

How long have you stayed in this house?" Brian asked.

"Just before my brother was born."

"Then you must have friends of your family I can contact."

"No, we mostly traveled, my mother didn't think they would ever ask her to
come back."

"Who are these people you speak of, where are they?"

"Forget them, you would think that they're bad people."

"Where do they live?"

"Here, in this town"

Then where did your Mother go? Why do you act like you don't know anyone?"

"My mother is still here you know."

So this was all a game. A cruel game which the mother played with her boys."

"So when will your mother and brother come out from hiding?"

Logan looked surprised. "Brian," he said in words that would haunt him
forever. "My mother is here in this room, well in this space anyway, it is
no longer a den, it is very different for her. She is here, believe me but
she and my brother are now in the future. We are now in there past."

Brian wondered how Logan knew his name; the rest was too strange to think
about "Logan, what you are telling me doesn't make sense."

"Brian, please understand, we knew you were coming here tonight... My mother
said a very nice person who used to live here would come back, and he would
let me stay with him."

"How could your mother leave you behind?"

"She had to go to when she was called, she had disobeyed once, that's why
they sent her back here. If she did it again they would...they would...I can't
think about it."

The boy was getting upset, Brian dropped the inquest for a moment, and he
was baffled. Logan meanwhile, went over and handed him a stack of papers.
The top paper was signed and noted, giving Brian guardianship of one Logan
Novell, age eleven.

"I'm really much older" he told Brian. "Sort of...anyway."

As Brian tried to think what to say next, the room got cold like ice.

"Can we leave and go to your house Brian, I think we should, please." There
was fear in his voice.

Brian looked at the paper more closely it was his full legal name that he
hadn't used for years. He sat down and briefly glanced through, there were
all types of papers and banknotes, trust funds, and the simple instruction
that he was free to make all decisions for this boy, he could send him off
to whatever boarding school he saw fit. As he read numbly, Logan looked like
he was ready to panic.

"I'm so sorry Logan, what you must be feeling! I had to leave here too when
I was eight. My parents were killed in an accident." Brian looked at the boy
who was shivering.

Logan said swiftly, I know...please Brian take me out of here...

Brian looked at the boy. He was so young. He was so scared. Then against his
better intentions he took the boys hand once more. "Do you have anything you
want to bring with you. I can keep you overnight."

Logan had a duffel bag next to the couch that he hadn't noticed before.
Brian lifted it up and followed the boy out to the street.

The boy hopped in the car beside him. For a brief moment the car acted like
it was flooded. He got ready to pump the gas pedal again, when he saw an
illusion out of the corner of his eye as if the key glowed. The car came to
life.

As he drove off he had a funny feeling similar to being watched, it was as
if a consciousness seemed to be aware of them...

Brian drove on starting to think about how he was going to explain this boy.
How was he even going to take care of him? He traveled so often, the other
problem was he had boyfriends, no one that was in his life at the moment but
how could he invite a man over when the boy was around? As he fretted he
felt something strange on his lap. Logan lay down, his head resting against
the growing bulge in Brian's jeans. It was the oddest sensation. It was as
if his naked flesh felt the silken hair of the boy, yet he was still fully
dressed in thick jeans. The boy was resting his head sweetly and innocently
in his lap.

 Brian had the sensation that he was going to dampen the spot between
Logan's lips and nose. Was this boy aware that he had pressed his head
against such a sensitive place? He wanted to ask the boy to move, yet there
was nothing that he was doing that was wrong, and the contact with the boy
felt wonderful. He had never had a lover lay a head in his lap. He wondered
then why not? Why would such a simple thing feel so very good? He took one
hand off the steering wheel and brushed the hair of the boy who sighed
sweetly.

When Brian had left the old house as a boy, so many years before he sat
coldly in the back seat of a sedan. No one knew how to comfort him. No one
wanted to touch him. He too would have liked to have a lap to lean against...

 As Logan snuggled against him, he felt a symphony of feelings for this boy,
love, tenderness, protection, excitement, sexual, hot, demanding, and a few
emotions he had never felt before. It was as if his blood was pouring into
the boy, and out of the boy like a connecting waterfall...the boy was now
flesh upon flesh, Brian was an aching penis entrapped in fabric that felt
like silk... a hungry mouth, breathing soft desert air against the bending
palm tree. The sweet full lips, against his sheltered cock. The dampness of
release only made the boy press harder.... Neither was wanting to break the
bond....

...And as they drove, the naked trees quivered from the side of the road as an
icy presence used the tree's not quite dormant sap to travel in the same
direction. The chosen trees creaked in pain knowing that the force that
filled them doomed them from ever producing a green leaf again.

...And Brian had a strange feeling that he knew all of this was going to
happen, that he would be bringing home this boy tonight.

It was Mischief night, but the streets were empty. Before he knew it Brian
was entering his drive. He took Logan's scanty amount of luggage out of the
trunk. Logan followed him into the house.





"It's late Logan. I'll show you your room." Brian thought of having the boy
sleep in the room next to his. For a moment he thought it would be nice to
continue the cuddle from the car and have the boy sleep next to him... no...he
called most of the men he brought home boys...though they were in their
twenties. He had a king bed, and in a fit of insanity he had installed a
reflective black skylight as he used it mostly at night. When he refracted
the skylight, it was as if he and his lover were out in the night with the
soft bed beneath them.

He wouldn't dare show his young guest his room with all the gadgets.

Logan seemed lost, and unhappy, but Brian figured that it was only to be
expected with losing his family. He still had not sorted things out for
himself; he could only imagine how the boy was feeling. When he opened the
door to the guest bedroom they both started to sneeze. A layer of charcoal
dust lined the floor. He figured that the chimney service had been by to
clean the chimneys before winter, but they had never left a mess behind
before. He wondered why Anita, his housekeeper didn't clean it up. She was
always too neat.

The dust was on the carpet, and the quilt on the bed, it certainly wasn't a
place the boy could sleep. He decided to give Logan his bedroom to use. He
could sleep on the sofa downstairs. When he turned on the light he was
afraid the same disaster was in his room, but everything was nice and neat.
The walk-in fireplace sparkled. The boy seemed suddenly shy.

"It's okay Logan, I'll be downstairs, it's a comfortable bed, believe me. He
imagined the boy would look lost in it.

"I'll let you be now so you can get ready for bed. You're too old to be
tucked in right?"

Logan shyly nodded his head.

"Then pal, I'll see you in the morning."

Brian went downstairs to have a glass of wine, and sort things out. He
wondered whom he could call for advice. He was about to go to the phone when
he heard an enormous crash; it sounded like glass breaking and something
falling against the house. He rushed upstairs, his heart pounding...
(To be continued)