Chapter 16
Flares of desire bubbled beneath my skin as Arze kissed me, pressing me more firmly against the side of the RV. I didn't care if people saw us. All that existed was his body, his hands, his kiss, all begging me to give in.
My hands tried to retain the dips and divots of his purple skin, delighted by the heat melting into my palm. The ridges in his skin that gave off the wooded look felt like lines of textured pleasure woven in tandem with his flesh and I couldn't get enough of them.
Chests rising, bodies melding together, I could feel how hard Arze was through the fabric of his khakis, making my own erection drip with arrant want.
All too abruptly, Arze ended our hot and heavy exchange, his orange eyes mimicking the fire roaring between us. He looked off, like the lust had suddenly been turned off inside him, like an unsupervised water hose was dousing the flames of libido that had just been there seconds before.
“What's wrong?” I asked him, my heart pounding for a different reason now.
“We can't do this.” Arze's voice shook with determination. “We can't, Krueger. It's forbidden.”
When he said that damned word again, it echoed. And suddenly my surroundings weren't as stable as I'd thought. The RV park faded away, leaving Arze and I in a warped black void of nothing. Panic etched into my bones as I saw the scene shift, looking back at Arze and halting my breathing.
In the blink of an eye, he was in his shifted form, the same one I'd seen him use on my first day during the haunts. He was dripping with bark, branches forming a messy crown amongst the nest of his hair.
My fear leveled up when I watched as his orange eyes were now bleeding a black substance, thick and wrong and serving as a warning of bad things to come.
“Forbidden.” Arze said again, but it wasn't his voice. It was distorted, a deeper more sinister version of his voice that echoed and groaned to match the bleakness that enveloped us.
I started screaming, fear overtaking me fully until I jostled in my bed, waking from the wet dream turned physical nightmare.
I'd already planned on talking to Arze directly about needing to understand the details that Ripp had initiated, but now I sure as fuck was. I wasn't going to let my sleep go by affected.
I sat up in bed, trying to rectify my surroundings coming back to my senses as familiar and not the void I'd just been thrust into.
Events from work played across my recollection as I attempted to wake myself fully.
Ripp's declaration had caused a ringing in my ears as I worked the maze for the first time.
Everything went off without a hitch, and I was becoming a little too attached to my Freddy getup, but everything went smooth for my initial time experiencing the maze.
The same couldn't be said for my thoughts throughout the night. I wasn't even safe in my own bed anymore.
Arze could be killed for engaging in anything with me?
I could be killed? I wasn't sure of the specifics, and I was a little too afraid to get clarification from Ripp.
After our talk, we'd only had a couple minutes before guests would start walking through the maze, so all conversation halted.
My thoughts tossed and turned like restless limbs, wondering why it was that serious for Arze and I to even kiss one another.
After work, I had decided to spend the night in bed and writing more in my novel by typing in my Notes app.
My only other option of distracting myself would have been telling Myers about what I'd learned, but she hadn't been home when I'd arrived.
She was spending more and more time at the movie theater lately, and it was becoming more and more apparent that I wasn't the only one with a crush on someone in Phoebe.
I'd fallen asleep before I'd heard Myers come in, unable to get the full debrief on her whereabouts.
Prying the sleep from the corners of my eyes, the lingering effects of my dream haunted me.
The fact that I'd been making out with Arze, that I'd kissed him and suddenly I was feeling his hands roam my body, his tongue exploring my mouth, and his deep moans filling my ears, was agonizing.
Just replaying it in my mind made me look down toward my crotch and, yep, confirmed, I was hard as fuck and irritated that my mind was playing tricks on me.
What disturbed me was the nightmare part of the dream. I wasn't easily spooked but seeing Arze dripping some sort of tar-like substance while his voice was distorted beyond recognition was the winning combo of making me truly afraid.
One part of the dream rang true in my head. I needed to confront Arze. Ripp's explanation was great to have, but I needed to hear it from the Orb himself in greater detail before I went through the suffering of moving on.
As I showered for the day, I winced inwardly.
It wasn't lost on me that I was so hung up about Arze and wanting to connect with him when I had started something with Lincoln and was refusing to further explore it.
I wasn't sure if it was because Arze was an Orb, or because he was more unknown than Lincoln, but something set him apart in my mind.
I knew that didn't make it fair to Lincoln.
Though I tried to be very upfront and honest with Lincoln about my intentions. I felt like that was enough.
I rinsed my body off, trying to shake the immediate mental bomb that maybe I was Arze's Lincoln, refusing to take no as an answer. I wasn't doing the same thing to Arze that Lincoln had done to me, right?
No. I couldn't think that way. Especially after what had happened with Lincoln in the clearing, right before my sister had shown up.
I would never go that far with anyone. I just wanted to understand where Arze was coming from in his dismissal of me.
Once I got those answers, I could truly put in the work of leaving him alone and letting him bleed out of my system.
I hopped out of the shower, quickly drying myself and attempting to shake the water out of my dark hair.
Once I was dressed, I grabbed my navy tote that I always took with me to work from its usual tossed placement on the chair by my bed, made sure my Freddy costume was still alive and well within its confines, and sauntered into the living room.
A giggle reverberated as I saw the sight of my sister on the phone, a wide berth of a smile sitting on her face. It dropped as soon as she saw me enter the room. I plastered on a wicked smirk as she averted my gaze and spoke clearly into her cell.
“I gotta go. I'll talk to you later.” She couldn't contain her final smile before adding, “Alright, bye.”
Taking a seat on the couch, sitting across from where she was at the dining booth, my wicked smirk transformed into devilish surprise. “Now who could that have been?”
My sister's cheeks instantly warmed, cherry splotches adorning her skin. “No one.”
“Certainly didn't sound like no one.” I teased, my smile growing inch by inch. “Come on, spill.”
Myers exhaled pointedly, like she really didn't want to but knew I wouldn’t let up until she did. If anyone questioned whether we were siblings, that right there would have confirmed it.
“There's this guy I've been hanging out with that works at the movie theater.”
“I knew it!” I laughed excitedly. I folded my hands over each other. “Tell me more.”
“Well...he's not human.”
“Awesome.” I saw the anticipated rejection settle between her eyebrows. “Did you think I'd berate you about that? You know I've hooked up with Orbs before.”
“I know. But I haven't. I didn't know if you would think differently if you knew your sister was doing the same thing.”
“Definitely not.” I shook my head with a laughter laden scoff. “What species is he?”
“Stellymn.” Her cheeks warmed again, mimicking the red skin I knew her crush would have.
“Hell yes, I love it!”
Myers eased into the booth, her apprehension leaving in equal sheets of elation. “We're going on a date tomorrow night. He actually wants to go to the haunted house you work at and then dinner after.”
“That's awesome, Myers.” I nodded, making sure she knew I meant it. “I guess I'll see you there then.”
“We're just seeing where things go,” She explained.
“He knows we're leaving after Halloween so.
..I don't know. But anyway, what about you?” I could tell she was eager to have the topic at hand shift away from her, so I didn't press for more details.
“What have you been up to lately? You've been working so much it feels like I haven't seen much of you.” She paused, her head tilting in full thought.
“Wait, what was going on with the tythwig you mentioned?”
Right, I hadn't told her yet about what happened outside the restaurant.
Taking the time to give her the full spectrum of the story Arze and I had found ourselves in, I told her everything.
She already knew about my encounter with Lincoln in the clearing, so I started from there.
Regaling her with the details of the night at Batwings as well as what had really gone down after our dinner at the restaurant.
I ended with what Ripp had told me about tythwig, the air between us rife with the angst I'd been feeling now that I'd released it.
“Wow.” My sister being stunned didn't last for long. “That sounds like a lot. Are you sure you want to keep pursuing him with that on the table?”
It was a fair point. But I shook my head. “I can let it go once he tells me himself why it's forbidden. He admitted he had feelings for me and acted like this alleged forbidden reasoning is why he won't act on them. I deserve to hear why before I let go.”
“I get that.” Myers bobbed her head in agreement. “Just be careful. We're both walking a dangerous line, getting tangled up with people when we're leaving pretty soon.”
My chest rattled with that truth, wishing it wasn't hanging over both of us like a dark cloud poised and ready to unleash its precipitation on us. I still needed my answers though.
Bring on the rain.