Chapter 10 #2
“You gonna come for me?” I ask. Our flesh slaps together, my balls swinging forward with each thrust, and Rose wheezes, leaning on her elbows.
I can tell she’s close, her whole body on the brink, and I want nothing more than to empty into her.
“Come for me. I’m gonna fill you up,” I practically growl, chasing my own release.
The sound she makes when she comes is one that will be burned into my brain for all eternity, I’m sure of it. That, along with the feeling of her cunt squeezing my cock, is my own undoing, and I come hard, unloading into her like I promised, filling her up.
Filling her up.
“Fuck!” I cry, my hips still stuttering against hers, watching the weirdest, hottest, most fucked up thing I’ve ever seen in my life.
I’ve gotten used to seeing my dick inside her; it’s not weird, you can’t see her organs or anything, but this is different.
My cum fills her, fills her, endless white ropes pooling inside of her, filling the invisible shape of something I can’t see. Her womb, I guess.
Definitely weird, but also hot as fuck.
“Oh,” she moans, and I can tell she’s watching too, her head tucked down, her cunt still fluttering around mine. “Zak!”
“Yeah, I’m watching.” I’m spent, and she’s definitely full.
She glances over her shoulder at me, and our eyes meet.
So much of what exists between us feels entirely normal and natural.
From the beginning we clicked, understanding each other in a way that has me convinced that she’s my soulmate.
Spending time with Rose is effortless, so much so that I find myself occasionally forgetting the predicament that she’s in.
And then we have moments like this, where we share a look and both know that this situation is so far from normal that it shouldn’t even be possible. I know it bothers her as much as it bothers me, more so maybe because she’s the one experiencing it.
“Are you okay?” I ask her quietly, my hand rubbing gentle circles on her hip.
She nods, and I pull out, watching the trail of fluids that drains from her body and pools on the blanket between her legs.
It’s still all me, no scent of her present at all, and the worry that exists in all the moments where we’re not caught up in the pleasure of being together creeps back in.
The fact that she and I can touch — that she can interact with more of her environment now — gives me hope that there is something more going on, that she’s not the deceased ghost that we assumed, but so far, every search I’ve tried online has yielded zero relevant results.
I’ve tried ghost elves, haunted houses, the undead, glowing green women, and a ton of other combinations.
I tried visiting a local witch — a small rabbit woman who runs her business out of a little shop just ten minutes away from here — and she looked at me like I’d grown two heads, like I was crazy.
“I don’t think I can help you,” she’d told me nervously, remaining behind her counter, eying me up and down, and I’d left quickly.
I’d felt like a bull in a china shop anyway — the whole place had been designed for human clientele, and all the tiny aisles stocked with glass jars were far too cramped together for my big shoulders.
To be honest, I don’t know how legit that witch really was.
Sure, she wasn’t human herself, but you’d think she’d have at least a vague interest in hearing the words ‘ghost woman.’
“Will you hold me?”
Rose’s quiet request draws me out of my thoughts, and I open my arms automatically.
“Yes, of course.” She climbs into my lap and I lie us both down, tucking my body around hers, spooning her small frame, though I keep my head raised so I can stare at her.
She is so stunning, so ethereal, and it’s not the green glow. It’s just her.
“You were lost in thought,” she murmurs, her eyes closing for a moment. She never sleeps when she’s here. I’m not even sure she could if she tried.
“I was thinking about how I’ve had no luck so far, trying to figure out what’s going on with you. I should be doing more. You’re the woman I love. I should be spending every waking minute trying to fix this.”
Green-tinted eyes stare up at me. “You are already spending more minutes awake every day than you should. How much sleep are you getting? How few hours, because of me?”
“I’m fine.”
“Zak.”
“Rose.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve had this conversation. “I know you worry about me,” I tell her quietly, running my fingers through her long hair, marvelling at the fact that I can, “but I’m a big boy, I can take care of myself.”
Her lips twist up into a smirk. “I know you’re a big boy.”
I snort, then lean in to plant a kiss on her bare shoulder.
Her clothing never reappears once she takes it all off, but it always resets back to the same outfit when she returns the next evening.
It’s one of the many bizarre things going on, but in my experience, when magic is involved things often make very little sense.
“I just hate that I’m inconveniencing you in any way.”
“Rose, babe, you have to stop with that kind of talk. When I say I love you, I mean it. I just had the most mind-blowing sex with you. You make me happy. You are the best part of every day. You will never be a burden, ever.”
She rolls in my arms, until her face is buried against my chest. “I want to be able to help,” she says. “And I hate not having answers.”
We lie out under the full moon on one of the blankets that I've begun to keep here at Rose’s house, with another two draped over us, keeping us — or at least me — cocooned away from the midwinter cold.
“I know it’s silly,” Rose says for the fifth time tonight. “But I just really want to hear them sing.”
“It’s not silly at all.”
She’d confessed late last night, as she was beginning to fade away, that she missed being able to hear the dawn chorus of birds.
I’d warned her that it would likely sound a lot more quiet here in the city these days — I’m pretty sure bird populations are down compared to 1915 — but I understand why it’s important to her.
She used to wake early and help her mother with morning chores, the birds keeping them company as the sun rose.
“I’ll feel bad if it doesn’t work anyway, and I could have been riding your cock all along.”
I shake my head. We have a working theory that engaging in sexual activity reduces the length of time that Rose stays here every night.
It’s an odd thing to think, but it’s based on our observations, and my guess is it's something to do with expending energy.
So tonight we're both fully clothed, trying to help Rose make it to sunrise.
I want her to hear that birdsong. I want her to see the sky grow lighter as dawn approaches.
“You’re doing so well,” I tell her after checking my phone for the millionth time. “This is the longest that you've hung around here for, so you're officially a record breaker tonight. We're going to smash your personal best.”
“You're going to be so tired today.”
“Yeah, well, lucky I missed out on that gig for the floor cleaner commercial, so I don't have anywhere to be. I’ll just sleep in until three in the afternoon, then I won't have to wait long to see you again. It all works out in the end.”
“Mmmhm.” She nuzzles against my shoulder, sounding unimpressed. “Thank you for this.”
The full moon disappeared sometime ago behind trees and neighbouring buildings, and now the stars begin to wink out one by one. “I can feel me starting to go,” she whispers, sounding tired. “Everything starts to feel further away.”
“Hey, no. We're almost there. Come on, you can stay. Stay here with me, just for a little longer. I know you can do it. What can I do to entice you to stay?”
“I don’t need enticing,” she says with a small smile. “I want to stay in your arms forever, you know that. It’s such a strange feeling, being dragged under.”
“Under?”
Her eyes close, and she’s definitely a little paler than before. “Mmm. That’s what it feels like. Like it’s under. Maybe that’s where I am. In Hell.”
“There’s no such thing,” I growl. “And you wouldn’t be there anyway. Look at me.”
Her eyes crack open as I sit up, pulling off my shirt. “What are you doing?” she laughs. “It’s cold out here! I can see your goose pimples!”
“Shh, I’m trying to be sexy. I’m trying to distract you. Doesn’t the sight of these abs make you want to stay?”
“Oh they definitely do things to me.”
I lean over her, pressing into her body, sliding my hand through the soft hair at her scalp to cradle her head. “Good things?”
“Yes,” she whispers. I stare into her beautiful eyes. They were blue, back in 1915. Now, they’re a completely unnatural shade of green.
“I need you to try really hard to stay. Just hold on to me, right here. I’m not leaving.”
In the leafless branches of the old tree, a bird begins to sing.
Rose gasps at the sound, her eyes darting upwards to find it, and I watch her, watch the tears that roll down her face.
Another bird starts up, and then another, filling the air with birdsong that accompanies the sounds of early morning traffic.
The sky begins to lighten too, midnight black fading to a dark blueish purple above.
“Good morning,” I whisper to her. She simply sobs, her smile turning into a determined sort of grimace.
“I’m going to stay until sunrise,” she grits out, her fading glow suddenly flaring brighter. “I’m not going yet! Not when I’m this close!”
“Good.”
Her green glow grows even more intense, her form as solid as she’s ever looked.
I can’t even see through her anymore. It’s magic; I can sense it from her, a tingling sensation that runs over my skin, that same cool feeling I used to get on the back of my neck.
She’s still looking at me, but in this moment I don’t think she sees me at all, and I watch as her glow extends along the ground in snaking bursts, glowing green mushrooms springing forth in their wake.
It snakes up the tree, and more mushrooms grow from the old bark.
Holy shit. “Rose.”
When I turn my head back to her she sees me again, her eyes searching my face, her hands clutching at me, but it’s the antlers that extend from her head that draw my attention, two branch-like protrusions, covered in blossoms.
I know of only one species with antlers like that. I’ve never seen one of them in person, but I’ve heard stories, and seen the odd blurry image on TV.
“Zak?”
“Hey, how are you feeling?” She’s still Rose. She’s still Rose, that hasn’t changed.
“I’m fading.” She is, her glow dimming, the flare gone. She grows more and more translucent as the world around us grows brighter.
“You made it to sunrise! You did it! I love you and I’m proud of you,” I say quickly, trying my best to hide my fear, to celebrate her. “I’ll see you tonight.”
“I —”
She winks out, the green glow disappearing all at once, leaving me surrounded by white mushrooms.
“The last thing I remember was the back garden. There were mushrooms in the grass. That is, as far as I know, the last time I was alive.”
I shudder, feeling like I’m on the edge of something really big.
What if she’s fae?