Lust Demented Part 8

Kuroneko and Kiko led me into to a time warp. A tunnel system of wood-paneled walls. Strangely desolate and completely foreign, I couldn't place where we could be. The air felt filtered. Tasted cleaner than it should ever be inside a building. I closed my eyes, enjoying every long breath.

"What's going o..."

"Shhhh... secret." I could feel Kuroneko's pinkie wrap around mine. Forcing me to swear on it. "No English. No words." I could feel the heat escape as the next door opened. Low visibility. Too much steam. They sat me down on the smooth wood slats. There were other women in the room. Their eyes popped from the artificial fog. Their aroma blended into the herbal haze. Outlines to live and die by. The girls pulled me up to a sitting position and walked away.

I saw three hexagons of light in the ceiling. The shapes were coming from the pa.s.sing traffic outside. The hexagons turned to squares than rectangles. The room was otherwise dark. Missy lay next to me in bed. Though we were on opposite ends of the same bed, under the cover I could feel her foot graze against mine. Her body was always warm. Maybe just a genetic gift for surviving an unforgiving climate. Missy's mind may have had enough of me, but her body had yet to follow orders.

Kiko and Kuroneko were whispering in the other's ears. Whatever they were saying took a little convincing. An agreement was finally reached. Five women approached me. They seemed to disapprove of my clothes, since they had none of their own. A blur of white towels, steam, and skin.

"Farrow, put your legs up and relax?" Kuroneko lifted my feet higher on the bench.

"Oh... okay." I did as I was told. They were both staring under my towel. The more they stared, the more they had to stare at.

"Bodies need to disappear. Do you know how you do that, Mr. Michael?" Kuroneko was only eyes.

"No."

"Very tiny. Lose the tip of your toe. Next slowly forget the whole toe. Then the rest of your foot. Move up your leg. Do the same continuing until your body is gone." The words were coming directly out of the steam with a strange echo.

"Now you understand. One small section at a time. Little pieces until there is no pain left to feel. No pain left to know."

"I like that."

"You do, don't you? The only problem is now that your body is gone: Do you know how to bring it back? Very dangerous if you can't." Kuroneko added a grin to her light chameleon eyes. I was kissing her without even knowing why. Another set of hands. Then another.

"It's okay Farrow. It's okay." Kiko's gentle seraphic hum. My inhibitions evaporated. The steam swallowed me. I didn't know who was who. My body didn't care. My only compulsion became to soak whatever was dry. "Missy." It was a vision of sorts. I knew she wasn't there. Her warm curves were replaced with Kuroneko's gasping pleas, "Secret Farrow. Secret." The skin on her face was as soft as the inside of her thighs. Kiko stayed buried below fusing us with fervent nibbles. Thin arms spreading through the steam braced both of my shoulders, guiding me along each thrust with a giggle or grunt. Another pair hugged my neck, covering my face with two sets of wispy shoulder length hair. Silken chests suction-cupped to my sides. Their hooking fingers rhythmically coasted in and out of us all.

An infernal growl disrupted the orgy. If I hadn't heard it for days upon end, I wouldn't have believed it to be true. I was alone following the roar, moving through the tunnels again. The sight of her stopped me in my tracks. It was absurd that this woman could keep a lion in the sauna without someone reporting it. The creature was relaxed, chewing on a sauna bench. Beasts just like this were eating my past. When a lioness is devouring something you can't complain, only stare and watch in awe.

"Farrow..." Kiko stood behind me comforting me.

"I expected her to at least be in a cage." I kept my body between Kiko and the lioness, in case the beast got the wrong idea.

"Farrow there's nothing there." Kiko breathed uneasily.

Nude Kuroneko approached her hands filled with books.

"I keep her fed. It isn't easy, but I keep her fed with what I can scavenge." Kuroneko's ivory flesh shook in ripples as she tossed the stories at the beast. One at a time, the lioness caught the waning tales in her jaws before the pages. .h.i.t the ground.

{x.x.xII}.

STEAM VANISHED. DARKNESS TO LIGHT. The bedroom was jam-packed with books. Books on the floor. Books on the walls. Books on the shelves. Books on the big king bed that filled the middle room wall to wall. A blanket of books half-burying Hawaii's naked body tied to the bedposts with white lace.

"Aren't you going to ask me what I'm reading?"

I tried to slide out of the knotted lace, but I was tied in too tight. Hawaii made an awkward grab for my hand, trying to comfort me. It was the best she could do in her position.

"Farrow what's your earliest memory?"

"My grandmother always had Featherton dime mysteries scattered around her house. The skull on the binding... I can picture it so clearly."

"Books. I should've seen that coming."

"Not just books."

"Of course, there's no such thing."

"What about you Hawaii? What's your first memory?"

"It might sound crazy, but I remember being in my mother's womb. I remember the warmth. The loud whirring sound. The shadows."

"I need to know what happened."

"Yeah, you know Farrow I just approach my job as I would any other. If I give it too much thought, then I can't focus on the task at hand. Without people like me these girls would be in tough spot. But I never let it become personal. I can't do it for people I'm close to. They have to be strangers, beginning to end. If they give me a reason of why they are doing it, I don't listen. I shut my head off and later make my own reason. I visualize them talking to me. Their mouths moving in the same way they moved when they first excused themselves to me, except with my words. My story."

"Your story?"

"It's always the same one. The setting... the characters... may change, but at the core it's always the same."

"Life and death."

"Life. It's always life - even if death casts a wide shadow."

"You're scaring me Farrow with those bulging eyes."

"Do you have a new book?"

"I do..."

"How far along are you?"

"I'm close. Really close."

"You always say that, but you never finish." It never got any easier for Missy to understand. From the day I first started, I was always close to finis.h.i.+ng.

"Farrow do you know there's an art to taking a prisoner?" Kiko leaned over me, gently exhaling as the tip of her breast hit my mouth. With finesse, she adjusted the knot creating some slack, which she used in another loop tightened around my crotch.

"There's no reason to take me prisoner. You know I'd come willingly. I think real highly of you."

"And I of you. Oh, but there is a reason?"

"Oh a reason?"

"I can't tell what's more beautiful my knots or you." Kiko nodded with mischief taking a step back to admire her work.

"You see Farrow if you tied up your girlfriends on a regular basis, it wouldn't be so hard to escape right now?" Kuroneko burst in toppling over. Bent over in laughter, her long black hair whipped around, veiling her face. Taking pleasure at the sight of me, she b.u.m rushed me, only to wildly ma.s.sage my head. I could feel her nails in my scalp. More words which I didn't understand. The powder white woman grabbed me by the rope around my crotch. Kiko took hold higher up on my chest. They didn't bring me far.

{x.x.xIII}.

"IS THIS HER?" A CHARCOAL drawing of Missy hung crooked over the fireplace in Percy's den. Kiko studied her body, taken aback by how Missy fit the obscene pose.

"Yeah..." In a trance, I traced her outline with my fingers.

"I know this woman." Something was getting under Kiko's skin.

"You what?"

"I met her the same day I last saw Percy Featherton, but he introduced her with a different name."

"Evelina?"

"Yeah. How'd you know?"

"She was the seductress from his bestselling novel."

"Hmmm. Anyway, Percy had some half-baked proposition that Monika likened more to the effect of standing in front of the firing squad than the n.o.bel foundation. He never really let on clearly what he was asking her to do. Instead, he spent more time explaining how the plan was foolproof. He had every angle covered. Bribes to company boardmembers were set in place. A team of Hitler youth propagandists were standing by ready to social network their c.o.c.krings off. He showed us these miniature ads that he would use for skysc.r.a.per wraps, challenging us to guess what subliminal messages were hidden inside."

"What did Monika say?"

"Monika barely heard him out. It was everything she wrote against. With her cult following she could afford this lone wolf philosophy. She was about to go out on her own anyway. Start her own publis.h.i.+ng house."

"She was? So that's why..."

"That's why what?"

"Huh... nothing."

"Who knows if it would've worked? Her fan base was so loyal, that if she endorsed anything, the vampire bats would come out in legions."

"Or covens. What did you think of Missy? What was she wearing? Did she make any mention of the baby? How about..."

"Woooh. Farrow slow down. She didn't say anything. She just looked around the house like she was taking notes. Casing the place. She made no mention of the baby. She only asked if we read her new book."

"She's not even a f.u.c.king writer."

"That's how she struck me. Writers usually have this extra-terrestrial outerwordliness about them, which she had, but she showed no signs of the pathetic desperation. From the second I saw her I felt she was occupying two realms at the same time. One with us and the other where she had the dark master at the bottom of her Ponzi."

"That's just her personality."

"Mystically s.e.xy, but it seemed more than that. So this deal you had going with Percy?" Kiko's face contorted.

"I didn't have a deal going with him?" The sinister insinuation lingered in my ears.

"Oh you didn't. I thought you said..."

"I was just..." I didn't remember what I told her. If I didn't, someone else did or Kiko could see right through me. "...that's how it goes... wait what was Gloom's take?" I leaned forward attempting to swallow back the words.

"When Percy and Missy left, Gloom went over how it might play out with me at least a hundred times over. I was sick of hearing her talk about work all the time, so I suggested we get some fresh air. We went for a walk and we pa.s.sed Percy staring at our house. I wasn't sure why at the time, but instinctively my stomach convulsed in fear. Monika thought nothing of it and told me not to worry. If I only..." Kiko was sinking in despair.

"Untie me."

{x.x.xIV}.

A SERVANT TO THE HOT spirit, Kiko coerced me up the spiral staircase to the third floor. We twisted a couple times. Then out of the corner of my eye - I saw it. The door at the end of the hallway was left open just wide enough to see Chiara's crib.

"Farrow... are you telling me everything?" Kiko's voice trailed off as I slid past the cracked door. I didn't want to touch anything. This was the real crime scene. The place where another man stole my daughter.

Her room was in perfect order. Instead of making me jealous or angry, it made me calm. Overwhelming joy in every hanging star of her mobile. I could feel her close. It was a good start for her, because it was a start - and that is all you could ask for. She would soon forget it as are the benefits of that age. Other things are impossible to forget.

"That's why it's so serious. From the first day I found out I was going to be a father, you've threatened to strip me of the miracle. From the first second I always had to worry about her being taken away from me."

"She needs you."

"I won't lose her."

"You'll probably write that in your book."

"Farrow, what are you doing in there?" Kiko cautiously pushed the door open.

"She haunts every crevice."

"So while you were in here being haunted..." Kiko closed in on me with Percy's pulp trash masterpiece. The binding of the book worn like the sampietrini of Rome. Most importantly the pages were still in place. I could picture Percy flipping soiled wax-thin pages, spitting out a few lines, attempting to drop a little wisdom on Missy.

"Ever make your way through this?"