Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental. No part of this story may be reprinted without permission. Copyright by Metredose, 2021, and all rights reserved. Comments and criticism welcome. Metredose@gmail.com
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Chapter 2
Long had they banged in the night, John and Leticia Latimer, bound to this troubled world, bound to their ancient abode, insensible but filled only with unbearable longing. They moaned when they passed each other, for they knew not whom they stirred against in their murmurings, and then their wails rose up like a high, ratty wind, and all mortals who heard mistook it for such if they were unwary and did not flee.
They stirred not on Yuletide, but on All Hollow's Eve they felt their power and their fury, and then they sought each other and knew something of their sad past, decade upon ruined decade before, and then they mingled. The particles of their beings, their spirits, swirled together wildly, faintly glowing in the blackness, but they could not merge, and in the mornings after they always parted and resumed their desolate ramblings.
Something changed when Duke and Tuck appeared in their home, something at first indefinable. They felt it suddenly, and knew not how or why. There was a change, a new strength, pulled from the ether, it seemed. And it built from the first appearance, coalesced into something even stronger. Unlike all the days in all the decades past when the spirits had roamed Bellsy Home, they shook off their confusion a couple of days before Halloween arrived. Their power grew, and they knew each other and something of what they'd gone through, something of what was left unfinished and what forever bound them to the miserable place.
The darker boy returned, only minutes earlier, and saw the place where their bones were buried, and called their names for the first time in over a hundred years. Their power multiplied with the words, and they found they could control the bare particles of their beings, could move them in ways they couldn't before, and form them into ghostly visages, shapes of rage against the cruelty of the boys and what they'd done to the other poor creature. And then the rage burned and found purpose and they knew what it was for, and they knocked aside the souls of the two boys and took possession of their bodies.
It was difficult to retain control. John took Duke's mind first, his particles infiltrating the gray brain matter, then the very cells. The boy fought hard, and John realized he was suffocating, that he would lose the body if it died from lack of oxygen. He didn't panic. He searched the brain, found the places inside, manipulated them as best he could. The boy choked and retched. John concentrated and used the force of his being, and then the boy sucked in a first deep breath. The blood grew rich again with oxygen and John's being knew what it knew and more, for it was flooded with memory. Long, hard memory, and merciless.
Poverty had struck early for John Latimer, when he was just a boy of six, all those many decades before, and poverty then wasn't as it is now. It was real hardship. It was hardship without any safety net. It was living in a drafty, thin boarded shack in the dead of winter, never knowing where the next meal would come from, never knowing if the morning would bring frozen death or disease that would bring a much worse death because it was slower. Such was wrought by the untimely passing of John's father when he was a boy. Before that, things had been okay, had been hopeful, even, but all fell by the wayside after the terrible blow.
He and his mother huddled for warmth, survived on the slim bits they could scavenge, or meager charity. They might have died a thousand times the first winter. Spring was worse for lack of food, a lean season for all, and little trickled down to them. He learned to hunt because he had to, and felt lucky that his father's gun wasn't sold. Well, at seven hunting wasn't easy, but John's father had taught him some, with the foresight that anything could happen to him at any time, and so the boy that was John managed to scratch by, and his mother worked on small, nearby farms, and took to mending for some women in the area for a few extra pennies. And they got by, just barely, just by the tips of their fingers, but life was bitter and cruel.
To school the boy went rarely, and then not at all, for he wore rags and was ashamed. And there was no time for school when survival was so imperative. John's mother, a dark beauty in her younger days, grew hard by the elements, and there was no one to court a woman of such low means, anyway, not anyone who could have helped, for there were a lot of people who suffered under the same lot in life as them. John had an uncle, a brother to his father, but he'd gone off not long after John was born, and so he had no memory of the man, and his mother knew not where he went. There was no relief for them, no way out, but they both fought tooth and nail to keep alive.
It was at church where John first saw Leticia, back when he was a boy of eight, and his heart was immediately smote by her, for she was lovely with her blonde curls and vibrant eyes, deep blue like the cornflowers of the fields. He looked for her always at church, her clean, assured presence a blessing and a fantasy against his ragged life. One day her eyes fell upon him, and he was transported and filled with love, and could imagine a better life, all by the grace of her glance. But it was hopeless. He was nothing, and his life and hers could not come together even in the wildest of fantasies.
She was the daughter of a rich land owner and lived in a palatial mansion, white and grander than any in the county. The father, Arba Bellsy, was the most powerful and respected in that place, in that time, and his reputation was impeachable, his word inviolate. John knew all this. But something inside of him would not let go of the girl, Leticia, nor the image of himself with her in some brilliant future, when they were grown. The impossible idea wouldn't leave. It became the boy's reason to live.
One day at church, just outside, the boy bowed when the Bellsy family passed by, and Arba, the father, took notice. He stopped to speak to John's mother, whom he knew of only vaguely as a woman in need of charity. It was then that Leticia smiled at him for the first time, despite his rags, despite his obvious poverty. John was sensible to nothing else, not for a long time, but later he learned that they were to go to the big white plantation house so that Arba might do something to help them. It happened on the next Saturday.
The tension of anticipation tore at the boy for almost a full week. Fear, elation, caution against being too hopeful, as he was warned by his mother. She repaired her clothes and his, as best she could, cut his hair, and then made him bathe as he had rarely done since his father died. And he looked almost decent when they arrived at the big house, and his mother passed that mark by a wide margin and looked pretty for the care she had taken with herself.
They were let in by servants, and then Arba's wife came down and spoke, telling them that her husband was called away, but had expressed a desire to help them. She seemed a kindly woman, and she was beautiful like the daughter, blonde and pale, and impeccably attired. John's mother said little, but her manners were strong, curtsying, nodding and assenting at just the right moments. Well, the wife, Julia was her name, seemed to take a liking to John's mother. They chatted and chatted, and then his mother told what she could do. She was good at mending, and had references. She performed tolerable well in the kitchen, though she hadn't been near a proper one in ages. Julia listened with interest, but then, to their disappointment, abruptly dismissed them, and that was that. But a week again later they were summoned back to the house, and Arba and Julia offered John's mother a job as a personal maid. The mansion had fifteen house slaves, at least, but Julia, who originally came from Massachusetts, apparently preferred a white woman as an attendant.
Everything changed after that. They did not move into the big house but stayed in much smaller lodgings on the property and near to the house. Their new place was warm and clean, with a wood oven for cooking and heat, and a tub for washing. It wasn't grand, but it felt like a fairy tale after what they had endured before. Food was plentiful, too, and life just got easier.
Lucy, John's mother, attended to the needs of Julia, dressing and bathing and such, and also looked after Leticia. She had a starchy, rather severe uniform to wear, supplied by the Bellsys, so in her free time she concentrated on making new clothes for John, who would now return to school. Well, he was alright with that, being not too long away, and he was a smart boy who caught up easily. The teacher praised him often and said it would've been a waste for a boy like him to skip his education.
After school every day John had work of his own to do. He fed grain to the chickens, cleaned their and filled their water troughs, collected eggs, carried food waste to the pigs, and helped with milking. He did anything that was asked of him, and then got down to homework and then the cooking, since his mother worked long hours and he had the time. All of this was in winter, and his hours were full.
Spring, and then summer, brought changes. There was more to do but far more time to do it, and so John found himself exploring the fields and the woods around the big house in his free time. It was in the summer that Leticia was allowed outside more often, and they fell to playing with each other whenever they could. The girl was quiet but hardly shy, and she seemed to enjoy spending time with John. For his part, John couldn't have been happier. The only damper was the presence of Leticia's brother, Henry, older by two years.
Blonde, with big blue eyes, he looked like the mother, Julia, and like Leticia too. But he had a temper and wildness about him that was all his own, although he hid it well when he was in the company of adults. When it was just he and John and Leticia, his true nature came out. Henry was imperious, and looked down upon John. He challenged John often, tried to goad him into fights, and when that didn't work, he found other ways to get the younger boy into trouble. He pushed John into a local stream and muddied his clothes, he told lies about the boy to his mother and father, and he warned that the boy's rough manners would be a poor influence on his sister. But all of it had no effect, for everyone was aware of Henry's mischievous streak and his tall tales. And more than that, John never rose to the bait. He was too happy after having known struggle, and he would never do a thing that would jeopardize his time with Leticia.
And so Henry simmered and stewed and plotted, looking for his chance to take the servant boy down. It was ever at the back of his mind. After a while it was pushed way back , but it was always there. For Henry could see the beginnings of love blossoming in John and Leticia's hearts for each other, and knew this would be the younger boy's downfall, some day. Until then, he bided his time.
The blushed cheeks, the faltering gazes that slowly turned steady, the pregnant silences, these were the signs that there was love in the air when John and Leticia were together. John's mother noticed, and warned him against any foolish notions. Their lot had improved, but they were only servants, and John shouldn't get his hopes up, she said, but John didn't accept it. He was under a spell and he believed anything was possible. As the years went by, he never stopped believing, for the love grew stronger.
It came to a head one lazy summer afternoon when they were both fifteen. They were just sitting there, in a golden field, away from the house, away from prying eyes. Always when they were alone now John felt a stirring in his loins, a hardening in his penis, and that was danger. He knew to get away when that happened, because his love was such that he found it difficult to keep control of himself. So they were sitting there, just looking into each other's eyes, and they moved closer, and John plucked up a field daisy and tucked it behind Leticia's ear, then leaned down and found her moist, parted lips. Their first real kiss, and it went on for too long, and he tore himself away and fled, his extreme arousal causing discomfort as he walked. And when he saw her again, the next day, there was a new look in her eyes, steady, sultry, and knowing.
Then John knew that she wanted him too, in the way that married people want each other, but he couldn't help but kiss her whenever he got the chance, and it felt like a mere prelude to something bigger and better, but he always stopped himself, difficult though that was, because he would not besmirch her reputation any further than that. He tried to keep his distance, to stay away, but his heart broke in the process, and it was too much to bear, being away from her. They snuck away, every time they could, into the woods, where they kissed and kissed, and once her hand fell upon his steeliness, and he'd gasped and begged her not to tempt him, and she had obeyed. But he knew that it couldn't remain as it was forever, nor much longer, even, and he had a mind to ask for her hand, young though he was, but it never got that far, for Henry had seen them and told all.
Leticia was immediately locked away, and John got a good talking to from Arba. John, he said, was good and might some day be good enough for his daughter, but not yet. He encouraged John to continue at school, to become educated enough to get a nice position in a bank or in sales, and the boy was grateful and promised to stay away from Leticia until it happened. But it never happened, not after the disaster that ruined everything.
One day, arriving home from school, he found all their things waiting in front of the little cottage where they had lived for several years. Lucy's cheeks were red and raw from crying, and when she managed to speak, she told John that she was let go and they must move away. Brokenhearted was John, but he knew he must be strong, so he arranged it, and sooner than it takes to tell they were back in the old flimsy shack in the oppressive heat of summer, without a prospect in the world for the future.
She never would tell him what happened, but John found out later, from Henry, who declared that his father and Lucy had been caught together in the house by Julia, who'd flown into a rage. When he asked his mother about it, she said it was not true, but she would say no more, and John, for the first time in his life, didn't know if he believed her. But it hardly mattered.
Not satisfied with the result this news had on John, Henry proceeded to tell it around the village, and soon none were in the dark, and they all believed it even if John had his doubts. Lucy was shunned and scorned, and could find no work, not even mending, and so all was up to John. He quit school, took up hunting again, and took any small job so he could to earn some coin. It was a hard life again, but the worst of it was losing Leticia and their dream of being together. That dream, he knew, was now impossible.
Still, he might've stuck it out, but for that first winter away from the Bellsys, when his mother died, not of cold or hunger, but from a broken heart. Then John knew that life would be unbearable if he stayed because he knew he could not endure seeing Leticia wed to another man, which was inevitable. Well, the boy took to drink, for the first and only time in his life, and might've kept on with it in his miserable shack had not Letty paid him a visit one day.
She had done nothing to displease her parents for a long time, and had built up some trust, which she immediately betrayed when she got the chance by coming to John. It was afternoon. He hadn't started up drinking quite yet. When he heard the knock on his door he figured it was someone who had a job for him, but when he opened it, there she stood, as beautiful and soft as ever. Her eyes were filled with tears, for she had heard of his drinking and his hard times from cruel Henry.
John, now a young man, wiped away her tears and she walked into his arms. They kissed as passionately as they ever had, and then they swore their love for each other. She would not accept any other man, so long as she lived, but would wait for him. And he would go off and seek his fortune and not return until he made it, and could claim her as his bride. She cared not what her mother or father thought or said, she would be obedient in all other things, but she would not marry until she could be with John.
Well, his heart opened at this, and thoughts of drink left him forever. With new determination, he left the only place he had ever known and went to seek his fortune with just a knapsack of clothes, a small amount of money, and some utensils. John couldn't think what he was qualified for besides odds and ends and farm work, but there was no money in that. He might do it 'til he died and never make a dent in the world. But there was mining, and living frugal while doing it, and that's what John decided on. He traveled north, on foot most of the time, and slowly made his way to Pennsylvania to get a start.
Jobs were easy to come by but the work was hard, yet John scrimped and saved what he could. He avoided spending on anything that wasn't necessary. No whiskey, nor camp whores, no extravagances with food, and he avoided taking anything but real coin, never settling for scrip instead. It was slow going. John made the best of it, made friendly with the others in his profession, who came and went like vagabonds. Once he'd made a decent little pile, he decided to take his chances and gamble with the men one night, and then he was back to nothing and had to start over again.
He learned from his mistake and kept away from gambling as much as he kept away from other vices. But it was even slower saving up after that. He would move from state to state, mine to mine, in search of better wages, but he never found much improvement. What kept him going was the thought of Leticia, and the old dream of being her husband. He knew her word was good and that she was waiting for him.
So little by little he saved, but the years went by fast. His body became tall and powerful, and he had the strength to work hard and long, and to withstand a tough way of life, needing little but some warmth at night and some vittles at breakfast and dinner. He stayed in shacks, often sharing them to save on expenses, and it was back in Pennsylvania that his luck took a turn, and that was by meeting a man named Clem Bolger, who was a foreman and became his shack mate. Clem was a huge, muscular man with thick, black hair and beard, and hard looking dark eyes, a man to give you a fright until you got to know him. For along with a barrel chest and arms whose thickness matched a normal man's legs, he had a deep, thundering laugh, and he mostly kept a good humor, even when he drank whiskey, which wasn't too often by the camp's standards.
It was because of Clem that John stayed another season at that mine, for they got along well and it was a comfortable place to live when compared to some. New men arrived all the time, some of them rough, but with Clem there was no need to worry, for anyone who looked at the big man knew he was someone to respect, for his big temper was as well known as his big laugh, when once it came out. Amongst these new arrivals was a young redheaded lad, fair and handsome but not quite a man yet, in John's estimation, and innocent of the hard ways of miners.
Clem soon took the boy under his wing, and John noticed that Clem took extra time with this boy to train him in being a miner. On the other hand, when the redhead, whose name was William, made a mistake, Clem was harsher with him than he was with the others, and John thought it a pity, for the boy was polite and even tempered, though a little flighty. And though young, he had the strong build necessary for the work, and he was happy to do anything Clem told him, and never complained.
William was teased and hassled by the veteran miners, as youngsters are, but Clem saw to it that things never went too far, and thus the boy came to admire Clem with a sense of awe, and felt encouraged and safe despite Clem's occasional gruffness toward him. It was Clem, with John's permission, who invited the boy to live with them so Clem could better see to his well being. At first it was a little rocky. The boy tried too hard to prove himself with the others, and took to drinking a bit, which he couldn't hold on no account. Then Clem was harsh with him again, and the boy soon mended his ways and got to not caring much what the others thought of him, which was all for the good.
Most nights John stayed inside, reading, or just catching up on rest, and the other two went out and left him in peace, but sometimes John liked to go for a walk to clear his head. At such times he thought of Leticia, counted his money, and finally fell into a gloom. What he had wasn't enough to set him up in any kind of business worth having, and it seemed like it might never happen. And then John would fall deeper into his misery for a while before his resolve was slowly reborn and he felt fortified again for the long hours and the hard, grim work.
Usually these sojourns took quite a while, but one night John returned early and was shocked. First the noises, like nothing he could remember hearing, then he threw open the door, and there was the boy on his belly on the camp bed with Clem on top of him, buggering him savagely in the dim lamp light. They faced away from the door and apparently were not aware of John's presence, for the huge man, who completely covered the redheaded boy, continued to bugger him, his great, pale buttocks rising up and clenching forward again and again, at a most violent pace, until he slammed down a final time and stiffened in guttural release.
John slipped away then, his feelings somewhere between disbelief and outrage. He knew such things happened. They had almost happened to him when his father first died and he was unprotected from the scavengers that swept through his hometown looking for whatever they could take, but that didn't make it right. A more unchristian act could hardly be imagined, and John wondered if the boy had been forced. John was so distressed that he was almost to the point of action. He knew he would do wrong not to tell some authority of what he'd seen, or at least the camp preacher. But he also knew that by telling he would utterly destroy two lives. That gave him pause. He decided to sleep on the matter and pray that the right solution would come to him.
When John returned, Clem and William were asleep, Clem on the same camp bed where he had buggered the boy, and William on a cot nearby. He crept in, undressed and got in his own bed, but slept little. In the mines the next day it was business as usual. Clem and William acted no differently than ever before, and John imagined he might have dreamed what happened between the two. But then he caught a look that was exchanged between them and knew it was real, for Clem looked at the boy with pointed interest and a big, stealthy grin, and William blushed and smiled back demurely.
That night Clem told William to go fetch something from the camp store, and when he was alone with John, told him that he knew that John had seen them. He wanted to know what John was going to do about it, whether he and William should leave before trouble found them. Put on the spot, John said he would keep it to himself so long as he never saw them that way again, and Clem promised John wouldn't. Things were uneasy after that, John always a little worried when he opened the front door to their cabin, but there was no repeat of the disturbing incident, and things gradually got back to normal. Clem and William snuck off most nights, and John had an idea of what they were up to, but he held his tongue and tried to banish the whole thing from his mind.
It wasn't easy. The loving looks exchanged by Clem and William were hard to miss when you knew to look for them. The looks William threw at Clem were so like expressions John had seen on Leticia's face when she used to look at him that they brought back painful remembrance. As fall turned to winter, the two were forced to stay inside much of the time, and their stifled passion was thick in the air, and John gave up. He knew he might go to the devil for it, but he couldn't stand in the way, and so he took to taking long walks, letting Clem and William know precisely how long he would be gone each time. Well, he knew what they would be doing in his absence, his soul be damned, and he no longer cared.
Winter broke back to spring, and then Clem got to talking about leaving, dropping hints that he would like John to join he and William for a new endeavor. Always the word endeavor was used, and it piqued John's interest when the big man said it like that. They started to pack up what little they had, and then Clem laid it out for John what he had in mind. There was a piece of property up north a bit that he and a friend of his had long had their eyes on as being a suitable place to set up a new mine. It was risky, but they had reason to believe that it would pay off. Clem told John some things he told the younger man he could never repeat, and he never said how he came by the information, but John grew more and more excited, for Clem had never told him wrong yet, and the new mine sounded like the opportunity he had been waiting on.
It meant parting with his money, and it meant trusting a man almost completely, and John was not one to blindly trust anyone. But he was won over, and he was soon packing his meager belongings too, and then all three of them set out north and met up with Clem's old friend, who was named Tam McLaughlin. Tam, too, was a big man, like Clem but fair. His pale, watery eyes were keen, and he let loose with plenty of information about the potential mine and what it would cost them. The land was cheap, and their resources together could easily buy it, which they did. But setting up in the mining business would cost a lot more, and for that they needed a loan.
Now Tam, he was a wheeler dealer, and mighty convincing. The three of them worked on the bank man, and together they were a force to be reckoned with, for Tam and Clem knew their stuff and they had a plan, and John's stable presence and obvious intelligence, not to mention experience in the field, were only reassurance of what already looked like a good team. They got the loan and they got to work. Well, it was a long time before they actually got to digging and blasting, endless preparation and stops and starts, but once they got to it the coal was not long in coming.
John worked harder than he ever had, and so did the others, even William, who had the energy of youth on his side. Day in, day out they worked, from sun up to sun down, and they were so dark with coal dust when they got back to camp that they all looked like Negroes, and the water ran black when they washed. Hard labor, sometimes tedious, and then hiring more and more men to get all that coal, and then finding the best buyers, well there was transport to deal with, too, and problems with the camp and supplies, since they were far from everything, but somehow it all chugged along, and if they were exhausted deep down to their bones, it was an exhaustion tempered by the satisfaction of success.
Their bank accounts swelled, and then the big coal mining operations took notice. Now, these operations did not like competition from no upstart small timers, and they offered to buy the company out for a big sum, and that sounded mighty good to John, who only wanted enough to settle down with Leticia, but Clem and Tam turned it down, and the mine kept prospering, and when the big companies come 'round again, they were more worried than ever, and offered the men twice what they done before for the mine, and still Clem and Tam said no, but the companies kept offering bigger money and John hoped the other men would give in.
In the meantime, his money piled up. Much had to be reinvested in the business, but there was plenty left over, and John started getting big ideas. There was land back home he wanted, a big area with fields and a stream and a large pond and some woods, the best place he knew and the best hunting. And so John wrote a letter to a lawyer he trusted from back then, and he retained him to carry out his wishes. This land was bought, five hundred acres worth, and then John instructed that a house should be built, a grand house, and an architect hired for the job after submitting the best design. All this went on for months, the back and forth, and then the designs started flowing in, and John picked the grandest one, and his house would be in the Gothic revival style, different from what was usual in the part of the world, but with American ideas in mind, and so not too over fanciful. A construction crew was hired and no expenses were to be spared.
The mine kept growing at a pace as more coal was uncovered, and it was said to be a vast deposit, and John still worked hard and so did Clem, William and Tam, and when the big coal operations came a callin' again John was sorely disappointed to be overruled in his desire to sell. He confronted Clem about it, offered to sell directly to him, but Clem told him to hold off a while and not waste a once in a lifetime opportunity through hastiness. But John was now restless and his heart ached for Letty and it ached for a place to call home, and so he grew a bit quarrelsome, but Clem knew why and forgave him. For two years longer they went at it, and then one of the big operations, the biggest of all, offered to buy them out for a price they couldn't refuse.
And so they accepted, and so they took time to celebrate, and gave out big bonuses to the workers, who could stay or go as they pleased, but those bonuses were enough to set them up in modest concerns outside mining if they chose, and then those miners were fed the best meal of their lives, beef, turkey, all the fixings, prepared by a real cook, and if that didn't leave 'em satisfied nothing would. John grew giddy with anticipation, but there was a sadness in his heart, too, at having to say goodbye to Clem and William and Big Tam. Well, they were men, so they didn't get too sentimental, except for William, a little, him being still a youth and sensitive like.
They parted ways, rich men all of them. Tam headed east, to New York, and Clem and William went west, where they hoped for a free life. John went first to St. Louis, where he got himself a good tailor, and set himself up with some fine new clothes. His health hadn't failed him, but he knew he was older, and he wanted to make an impression on the town when he returned, and especially on Letty. The house he had commissioned was nearly finished, and it only waited for the bride and groom.
Back home, he stayed at the best hotel around, and arranged his accounts, and got to spending on properties he might improve and let out later for a profit. The town was little changed, and John was not recognized nor did he recognize many himself. It didn't matter. Leticia was really the only person on his mind and in his heart, yet his courage failed him for a while. Asking around the town gave him some information, which he knew already from the lawyer. She yet lived and she had not married. At her age of twenty five she was considered a spinster, but it wasn't for lack of trying on the part of the local gentlemen of quality. It was simply that she refused all offers, and it was said she pined for a lost love.
Well, John knew whom she pined for, yet his courage still failed him. He wanted to get himself civilized after the hard and uncouth life he'd led for so long. He was unsure of how she would look at him now, how she would like him, and a dejected feeling consumed him. He took to reading and overseeing the final touches on his new home, and ordering furnishings for it. And time slowly went by with no progress on the personal front, for John, who had come so far through trial and travail, stalled out when he was close enough to taste his dreams.
Then a letter arrived at the hotel, and it was from her. Why, she wondered, hadn't he come to see her? She had been waiting for him for years, and just to see him would be a great pleasure. She'd heard that he looked prosperous, and wanted to see for herself, and wanted to hear what it meant for them. Her mother, she mentioned, had died in his absence, but her father and brother lived on, her brother long since married, and with three children now. Wouldn't he come by the old house and see her? She would be waiting for him as she had for so many years.
He felt guilty by the letter, and made up his mind to take the plunge. In his best suit, and freshly bathed and primped, he called on her, left a message with a servant. Arba, older and gray, but still spry, came down to greet him, and it was a happy reunion, for Arba knew most of what John had accomplished. He had no objection when John asked him for Letty's hand, and then she appeared at the top of the stairs and he bounded up to meet her. Well, she was changed, a little, and that was inevitable, because she was no longer a girl but a full grown woman. They stared at each other, and he took in her appearance. Still as lovely as ever, she was, but there was a small, deep line furrowed into her lower forehead, a little above the space between her brows, that gave her a slightly careworn look, and he knew she had suffered just as he had.
It touched his heart, more than anything that day. He was determined to make certain that her cares were over. When they set down to tea, Arba excused himself, and John took her hands into his and just stared into her eyes for a long time. They told their tales of the years gone by, the missing years, and slowly got reacquainted, and then he asked her if she still wanted to be his wife, and when she said she did his heart was fuller than it had ever been, and he asked her formally and told her that Arba had no objections. And then the line on her forehead seemed to disappear, and it was like she was a girl again, giddy with the joy of the future, and they set a wedding date.
A simple affair, as she wanted, was the wedding. He, having no known relatives, invited only his lawyer, and she only her father and a few friends. The brother, Henry, did not come, and it was just as well, because he was in a temper over the union, and strenuously objected. John met him once, at the Bellsy mansion in passing, and wouldn't have recognized him, for he had grown plump and his skin was the glowing shade of red that comes with heavy drinking, especially his nose. Leticia confided that he was a gambler in addition, and a disappointment to her father, having never achieved much on his own standing. And so he was absent from the church, and his absence was barely noted, so happy were the rest of the wedding party.
John pledged his eternal love and devotion, and promised to always take care of her, his great, lifelong love. Leticia promised her undying love, too, and her obedience, as was expected of a bride in those days, and then they exchanged rings and kissed. The party after was at the Bellsy estate, and they all toasted with the best wine, and had cake, and then John and Leticia ducked out, as he wanted to show her the new home, which was hers, and she hadn't been inside, so there was much to see. He had another reason for wanting to be alone with her, as any virgin groom would know.
They took his carriage to their new home, the road up to the magnificent dwelling having been cleared and smoothed, and then John set up the horses in the newly built stables while Letty admired the house from the outside. It was tall and imposing, with intricate carvings at the great arches and windows, doors and turrets, and it looked fresh and new, if perhaps a little ominous, even then. He swept her up into his arms, not giving her much of a chance to look, and carried her over the threshold, and she stared in wonder at the tall entry room and grand doublestaircase, and the rich furnishings, but she wasn't distracted for long, for his head bowed down for a kiss while he carried her up the stairs, and she got lost in it. The journey was long, as there were three main floors to the home, but finally he stopped in a large bedroom on the top floor, all laid out and made up, and set her on a sumptuous bed.
Still in her wedding dress, she struggled to free herself from it, and he helped her get it off. Then he tore away his own clothes, and laid down next to her on the bed, both of them as naked as the day they were born. Her body was lovely to him, white and so elegantly proportioned, and his a little darker, and hard after years of strenuous activity, a contrast in flesh. His member was rampant, wild with need, but he caressed her only, letting her grow accustomed to their nudity and to the idea of the momentous event which would soon overwhelm them both. It took her no time at all, and she reached for him, took him in her delicate hand, and guided him toward her wet place.
In another instant they would have been one, forever. In another instant, they would have found ultimate fulfillment. But like a flash, fate, cruel, cruel fate, intervened. A figure in shadow darted to the marriage bed, struck a tremendous blow with a heavy ax that crushed John's skull with a sick, crunching thud, his member no more than an inch from her opening. His body convulsed, and blood gushed onto the white wedding sheets, and her piercing shriek was cut short by another blow, and then she was silent and gushing, too, and their dreams were at an end.
All of this and more, John knew. He didn't need to think of the individual memories. It all came back to him at once, and all of it was stored inside, somehow. The boy was breathing easier now, with John's assistance, but he needed to get moving, for he knew what he had to do and he knew he didn't have long to do it. The blonde boy downstairs moaned and said his name, and he knew that it was Leticia calling to him.
It was a struggle to sit up, to manipulate all those mental impulses in the boy and send them along the right nerves to make the simple motion happen. It was like playing a marionette, and it took some practice to know which strings to pull, and how hard, and how to pull several at a time, and also to remember about the breathing, and how to coordinate it all. John focused, as hard as he could. He set a fist onto the ground, tried to maneuver Duke's body up onto his feet, but he couldn't do it and tumbled down again. It was maddening, to be so close yet so powerless to proceed.
He tried again, more slowly this time, and gradually got the boy's body onto its knees. Trying to maintain his balance while moving was very difficult, and it was an incredible struggle to straighten up and rise to his feet without falling again, but he did it. The boy swayed but did not tip over. John felt sea sick, and worked hard to stay steady on his feet, really the boy's feet, but he was in control. Yet the boy struggled against him. He could feel something like internal shoves inside the brain as the boy tried to dislodge his control, but John held on, and eventually learned to shove right back, and knock the boy away.
A first wobbly step, and then another, and he was at the top of the staircase, looking down. He gripped the banister, almost fell again, then took a step down, and then another. He stopped, reassembled his faculties, and proceeded down stiffly and in a most graceless manner, until he made it to the first floor. There, near the threshold, lay the blonde boy, he who contained his lover, Leticia, inside.
It was another adjustment to walk on the flat again. John moved slowly, ponderously, until Letty lay at his feet. He looked down at her open eyes, which suddenly flashed a glowing, inhuman blue, and that was the sign, for the color was only a more vibrant shade of Leticia's real eyes. He made his eyes flash green, as they had been in his own body. John knelt down beside her, and she struggled to sit up.
"Letty, is it really you?" John said.
"Yes," she sighed.
"My beloved, at last we are flesh and bone again."
"You must help me," she said.
He bent his head down and put his lips on hers, and the boy struggled mightily from within, but nothing could shake John off then.
"Hurry," she sighed, from within the blonde boy.
John knew what to do. Every particle inside told him. He was powerfully aroused and there would be no stopping them this time. He struggled to rise again, then struggled out of the boy's clothes in jerks and fits until he was naked, the boy's huge, burgeoning organ standing high and proud in front of him. Down he went again, this time to help Letty. She could move but slightly, so he helped her out of the strange shirt she wore, then out of the shoes, and then finally slid the pants down the blonde boy's smooth hips until his legs were free.
Letty's face was placid, but then a look of pure rage distorted her face, and John knew the blonde boy was pushing against her, trying to throw her off.
"You must hurry!" Letty said.
It was John and Letty inside, but both bodies were those of young men. John remembered Clem with the redheaded boy, and knew what to do, yet he wouldn't do exactly the same because he wanted to kiss her and look into her eyes. She was on her back, and he crouched over her, smothering her with kisses, and then he lifted the coltish legs up and pressed them back, and he spit several times and coated the monstrous organ, then aligned it with the small, warm opening.
Hunching down, he kissed her on the lips again. He knew it would be painful for her. Such a tiny opening was not made to fit a gigantic appendage such as the darker boy wielded, yet there was no help for it. He pressed against the hot, velvety spot, then pulled her to him as he lunged forward with his hips and buried himself. She screamed into his kisses, and he held still until her pain was bearable, and then he started moving back and forth inside, and she gasped with something like the sound of pleasure, though it couldn't have been from the physical act, but was rather for the long awaited consummation.
He tore his mouth from hers, rose back a bit and peered into her eyes. They were sultry, satisfied, and then in an instant they quivered and looked shocked, and that was the blonde boy asserting himself from inside, but Letty fought back and looked straight into the darker boys possessed eyes, and it seemed like they would drown in each other, John and Leticia. Back and forth he moved, the tight flesh surrounding him like the grip of a velvet glove, and his hand roamed the blonde boy's body, trying to bring Letty pleasure, trying to feel something of what he would have felt if they were in their own proper bodies. The blonde's chest was smooth, with tiny, pointed nipples, and then he roamed down the flat, rippled belly and found a slender, curved stalk, hard as can be, and with a slight, sticky moisture, but it was too much, too unlike her real body, and he relinquished it and fell to kissing her again, and then the image of her past loveliness was with him and he sped up his movements, for he was near the end and could feel the seed rising up from within.
At that moment, the flesh around him tightened in a rough squeeze, then relaxed, and did it again and again, and John knew the blonde boy was spending himself, and spending himself only because of John's movements inside his body, and Letty was shrieking, now in unmistakable pleasure, and then John lunged himself hard inside a couple of times, and was still. The body he possessed trembled, from the curling toes to the twitching fingertips, and then the feeling concentrated in the darker boy's organ and it fired ferociously inside the blonde boy's passage, into the flesh possessed by Letty. The feeling took John's breath away and it caused him to cry out with lusty nonsense, deep pitched roars in contrast the Letty's high shrieks, and it went on and on, and it felt like he was shooting the whole world inside of her through the boy's rampant organ.
Gradually it subsided. For a moment John felt the purest pleasure in his soul, the sweetest contentment. Letty sighed a final time, and then he collapsed on top of her and the light went from her eyes, and then it went from his. There was no one to witness it, their final moments on this earth, for Duke and Tuck were gone, lost to consciousness. A mist rose from the bodies into the dim light, rose and swirled, and then straightened before passing through the ceiling of the fated house, and then up into the heavens. John and Leticia were finally free.
How long were they out, these boys who had been used as hosts by powers beyond them? How long did they lay there, still curled into each other? It was a while, to be sure, a long rest, but when it started to pass, when first Duke and then Tuck began to issue muffled sounds, Duke was still powerfully aroused, and his thick, thick organ was still wedged inside of Tuck's asshole. The blonde boy's legs had fallen from Duke's grasp in their sleep, but Duke was still firmly mounted onto the pegged blonde.
Duke stirred first. His mind was in a fog, a disbelieving fog, but he could hardly fail to note the state of things, nor could he ignore the intense pleasure of being inside of another person. He grunted, pushed forward, and Tuck's eyelids slowly lifted, to reveal groggy, confused eyes. Duke stared into them for a moment, and the confusion was plain, but there was no terror nor objection when Duke lifted up Tuck's legs again. The passage was slick and Duke's passion was high, and he was soon rutting old Tuck like a bull in heat.
It was heaven. Pure heaven. Duke had never felt anything so good. The warm, wet tightness, the feeling of the internal lining itself, so smooth and velvety against his erection, the power of being on top of another person, and in control. And Tuck's reactions, his gentle grunts and groans, the way he was still and just took what Duke gave him, well, it just couldn't have been better. The voices inside were quiet, too, the voices of his parents, his friends, his religion, those disapproving voices that had guided Duke's life. They could not stand against the force of nature, against the primal need to copulate and spread seed. Duke sweat and rutted, and instinct guided him. He dug himself hard and deep into Tuck, without pause, without variation, relentlessly pursuing his goal of release.
Tuck got there before Duke, and it only seemed right. It started with Tuck shimmying and shivering all over, and then suddenly Tuck's passage gripped him hard, again and again, and Duke knew it was happening for his blonde friend. Tuck's hands and arms lay by his side, and there wasn't nothing getting Tuck off but Duke's big cock rooting around inside his asshole, and this was the ultimate high for Duke. He'd always tried to be responsible, tried to be a man, but for the first time he really felt like one. He shoved forward against the tightenings and releasings going on in Tuck's body, fought his way in a final time, lodged in as deep as he could, then stiffened and exploded, sending thick gushers of seed straight up into Tuck's stretched out innards, which were soon flooded, for it was a load that had been building for years, and even the one right before it did not diminish its volume or potency.
It was a long release, and it wracked Duke's entire body. His cock was so stiff , and firing so hard, that it actually hurt, though of course it was intensely pleasurable, too. His toes had curled and were locked that way, and the muscles of his belly were cramping because he was hunched up over and into Tuck, and the rest of his muscles shook with the power of the release. He was breathing heavily and loudly, as if he had just completed a marathon, and sweat trickled down from his face and joined the sweat on his chest, to trickle down his belly together. After a while, the contractions stopped and Duke's balls were empty, but he did not relinquish his claim on Tuck's asshole and he didn't soften up even a little bit. For Duke knew he could go again, could go a dozen more times, even, and in a few minutes, once the sensitivity went down a bit, he intended to start right back up again.
Tuck was pegged in place by the huge, pressing cock inside of him. His shapely legs were hitched over Duke's wide shoulders, and he was nearly bent in two. Duke began to move again, digging into Tuck's passage with renewed vigor, and Tuck trembled all over and exploded again, mere seconds into the new rutting, and again without help from his hand. This emboldened Duke into a desperate pace, for the muscles clenching around him spurred him on, and he mated Tuck's blonde, convulsing ass with rough violence, widening, stretching the elastic passage almost to the breaking point, and then going feverish and at such a pace as Tuck could scarcely endure, or even breath, and he was being ridden so hard that his orgasm started up again, and it was now dry and maddening, and finally Duke slammed into him hard and roared with another powerful release, his big dick strangled as he shot by the spasms in Tuck's hole.
They were covered in sweat, the both of them. Duke peered down into Tuck's eyes and held his gaze. His cock remained stiff as iron, and it gave no quarter to Tuck's abused asshole. And then Tuck turned away from Duke's gaze, and he began to struggle, his tender calves flailing uselessly above Duke's back. Although he was loath to do it, Duke slowly disengaged himself. Despite his overwhelming desire to continue, he recognized that Tuck wanted to be freed, and he wouldn't force the boy. The temptation was strong, though. Mighty strong.
He set Tuck's legs down, and the blonde shot to his feet. There was a wild look in his eyes. No longer was the confusion there, just fear. Tuck looked around him, saw his clothes nearby, and started pulling them on as fast as he could.
"You okay, Tuck?" Duke said.
The words had no effect. Tuck didn't answer, and he was wobbly on his feet when he tried to tie his shoes, so finally sat down for the job.
"I wish you would calm down," Duke said. "We need to talk about what happened."
"I don't know what happened," Tuck said. "But I know it was fucked up. This place made us crazy."
Finished with his shoes, Tuck stood, and Duke walked over to him.
"Don't be afraid," he said.
His voice was deep and caring, and for a moment Tuck hesitated. Duke was still fully naked and his massive erection hadn't subsided the tiniest bit. When Tuck looked at him, looked into Duke's eyes, he felt woozy, uncertain. They held each other's gaze, long and hard, and then Duke gently took Tuck's hand and placed it on his raging manhood. Tuck had long, slender fingers, and they wrapped around Duke as best they could, though the fingertips didn't come anywhere close to meeting Tuck's thumb when wrapped around the prodigious meat. Then Duke bent down to kiss Tuck, and the blonde boy faltered.
"I can't do this," Tuck said.
He broke the gaze, released Duke's cock, and turned and ran out the door. Duke felt pangs in his heart, and went over to dress. He knew there was no point in chasing after Tuck, not with the blonde's speed in running. Duke was built bigger, more muscular, and had never been able to match Tuck that way, but even so, he ran as fast as he could when he was dressed. Duke's truck was still there when he got to it, but Tuck's was long gone.
The pangs in Duke's heart had turned into an ugly, empty feeling. He knew he had to find Tuck. He looked at his watch, and it was eight in the evening, much earlier than Duke expected. There was still time to go to the dance. Not to see his girlfriend, Mary Ellen. She wasn't even on Duke's radar. He wanted to see if Tuck was there. He reckoned he was, because Tuck wouldn't want to go back home to his Daddy in an emotional state. Anyway, Duke meant to find out. He meant to search the town until he found Tuck, because there was something inside of him, something powerful, that drew him to Tuck now, and he knew that it wasn't going to go away any time soon. And he was astonished to realize that he didn't want it to.