The Storyteller (9 page)

Walking past her, Erbmoh flung open the door leading to the outside. Though it was still the middle of the night, neither of them could tell it, as bright lights flashed everywhere.

“Beautiful,” Julia marveled. “Beautiful.”

“You believe in me and my world?” Erbmoh asked.

“Yes,” Julia mouthed. Her eyes were ablaze with a love for Erbmoh that she had felt for no man.

Erbmoh, however, was not a man in the traditional sense of the word.

“Then come,” he instructed. “This light is just a portal to my world. We will be in Horecod before you can take a breath.”

Reaching out, Julia took the outstretched hand of her long forgotten friend, following him into the light of a distant world and a new existence.

Chapter Four

The Windfall Complex

Kyla Mound was only twenty four, but she felt older. What she had learned the past year at that office in the Windfall Complex in downtown Fort Wayne had taught her something. As a matter of fact, she used a book of matches from the place to light a cigarette while she arranged things in her apartment living room. She knew somehow this was going to be the night. Her dreams had told her so.

As she smoked, she looked at the sparse billows and thought back to when she had met Doctor Cubis. She’d seen an advertisement for services as a male sexual surrogate and thought it was what she needed.

“I was brave back then,” she whispered, grinding out her half-finished cigarette. “I thought I was. I was brave enough to see his shortcomings and try to do something about them.”

A painted-on grin came to her as she mocked herself.

“When one is in love, the sun shines outside and the birds chirp in the trees. It’s just like in some novel or something, where all is right with the world. We skip and jump about. Our hearts beat for each other. We think only of being together, and all is bright with us. That’s the way it works in a movie script or in some stupid book, but in real life things go sour. Couples get tired of the sappiness. You fall in love, and you fall out of love. That’s the way it is. Life isn’t like a picnic in the grasslands by some flowing river. It’s ugly and it’s addictive. It’s unkind. It isn’t all about the lies you think it is. It’s about what really goes on in the heart and soul. It’s about trying to discover yourself that you sometimes find things you wish were not out there. It’s a scary thing to see someone’s reflection in a mirror and know who he really is. That’s what life’s about. I know, because I’m far from perfect. So here I am, talking to myself and wasting what could be my last hours on earth.”

She hardly seemed like someone who would have had sexual flaws. Tall and slender, with long black hair, she could have been a model if she so desired. Confidence, however, was never her strong point, and somehow she had hoped to build things when she saw the surrogate.

“If only I knew,” her voice cracked. “I was a fool and know it, but things go beyond that now.”

In her mind, she could still feel the hands caressing her naked body. She still felt the thrills, even knowing who and what those groping fingers belonged to. He was all over her, but this was what she had come for at the time. He’d planned it that way from the start. Were there others? She was sure there were more in the past. There would be more in the future. That was why she had to leave the warning behind. He’d sworn to come for her and there was no doubting this was a valid threat. What was to happen then? The uncertainty was the greatest punishment of all.

“So what does the doctor advise today?”

She could see the two of them together. Happier times? Lusty times, at least. The whole series of events were there to be remembered. A chain reaction was being set into motion from the very beginning. It was like the sex act itself.

“Now we’re about to reach a climax.”

Hope was dead. The future was bleak and growing shorter for her by the minute.

“Time is the enemy. The enemy is upon us.”

When Roger, her boyfriend at the time, suggested they try living together, she had balked, though there was no reason why. Their sex drives were healthy enough, but they had started to seek satisfaction less frequently. She feared her lover was tiring of her and needed advice on how to spice things up. So, she had sought help from a professional.

“There’s nothing wrong with trying to look to experts for advice. I made the move, because I saw the obvious. We were in trouble. My intentions were good. It was my choice that was bad.”

She and Roger should have gone to the counseling meeting together, but he would have never joined her if asked.

“I’ve got a story to tell,” she mouthed as she set up the camcorder on top of her television and plugged in the electrical cord. She was afraid if her story went too long the battery would die off. She also hoped someone would find the recording and play it so they would know the truth.

“Have you ever thought of spanking, with one of you being the submissive and the other being the dominant?”

She remembered those fatal words which had opened her mind to new realms. Other things had happened too which went beyond human reason.

The camcorder was on and the tape was in, giving her two full hours of confession, though she doubted she would need that long.

She’d marked a spot on her sofa with a cushion so she knew where she should sit and be sure the camera would pick her up in full. Moving it slightly, she plopped down and looked into the lens in front of her.

“My name is Kyla Mound,” she said casually, though as she did, she looked around. Had she heard a rustling of some kind outside? The wind?

“My name is Kyla Mound, and I am taping this because I know he is coming tonight. If you find this, I suggest you investigate yourself, as there are more things than just what we see on earth. There are other things as well. Look to heaven and to hell. I never believed in either, but now I do. Keep an eye open for a man who calls himself Doctor N. Cubis, though it was just an inside joke to him, and I know it now. I am sure it was not and is not his real name. Beware of him. There have to be others, too. Female counterparts. They’re all out there. I know they are.”

She paused and licked her lips. The image of Cubis came to mind. There was nothing extraordinary about him. A man of middle-age who looked like a counselor or therapist should look like, or so she figured. Then again, this was not his true self. She had seen that too, and why she loved him instead of being repulsed was a mystery to her. After the panic, she’d tried to find him again, but to little avail. Initially, she intended to kill him. Later, she wanted to renew their love. She remembered his promise though. She heard it as she was fleeing.

“Run! Run! One day you will change your mind, and I will come for you! I’ve left my mark on you, and you belong to me!”

Locked in her thoughts, she forgot the camera was on and she was causing dead air.

“Sorry,” she apologized. “I was thinking of him.”

The red dot was on, indicating the camcorder was operating in full force. The color brought back other memories, too.

“I was having problems with my boyfriend at the time. I won’t name him here and implicate him, but I knew we were in trouble, and I blamed myself. It was then I found an advertisement for a doctor who provided sexual surrogate counseling for women, and I thought it was worth a try. I knew Roger would never come along, so I went alone.”

She caught herself.

“Well, I just said my old boyfriend’s name, didn’t I? No matter. He has nothing to do with this anymore.”

Again, she closed her eyes and drifted off, remembering the short dress and tight blouse she had worn to the office in the Windfall Complex. Cubis was located on the fifth floor. The doorway had one of those old fashioned glass windows you couldn’t see through, with his name on it. Entering, she found the secretary there, and her appointment was confirmed. It was that moment Doctor Cubis came out of his inner chamber and introduced himself.

“I keep forgetting myself, and I am sorry,” Kyla apologized to the camera again. “He got into me, you see. He touched me on the inside and out. He left me with an invisible brand and there’s no way I can shake it. I don’t even want him to, and this is the scary thing. I leave this message though. I know in spite of myself that he is evil and not good. I may be damned for this. I may be damned and do not care.”

Kyla leaned back and continued with her story.

“I expected to find one of those psychiatrist couches, but there was no such a thing. There was a desk, a sofa, and though I probably wasn’t meant to notice, one of those portable beds that locked up in a frame stashed in the corner. But then, that’s what a surrogate is, you know. Different from a therapist. These people work to build confidence in those who have none. They build up your courage a step at a time and sometimes even engage in sex, which you then copy with your real lover. Weird? I won’t say that. It’s worked for people. It worked for me, but not as I hoped and hardly as I planned.”

Kyla flinched, for again she thought she heard a noise behind her. The sofa was against the picture window and the drapes were closed, but it was easy to hear someone or something coming by. Once more, she told herself it was the wind.

“I told Cubis about the problems I was having with my boyfriend and how we didn’t do it as much as we used to. I noted his enthusiasm for us moving in together and how I was unsure that was the answer to anything. I told him I feared he was growing tired of me. I hinted I wasn’t tired of him and couldn’t admit anything otherwise, even if challenged. I knew we were going to get into real deep trouble. It was then, right off the bat that Cubis suggested we try new things. He didn’t wait. He didn’t hesitate. That should have told me he was more than what he seemed.”

Inside her head, she remembered his words. She could hear them clearly.

“Have you ever thought of toying around with some sex games? How about a spanking, with one of you being the submissive and the other being the dominant?”

Kyla looked at him quizzically and growled.

“Noooo. That would hurt!”

“Not if you do it right. I can teach you right now. In your relationship, it sounds like you would be the submissive.”

Kyla came back to reality and spoke into the camera once more.

“Right off the bat, Cubis suggested that I was afraid to try new things and that might well be what hindered me. He suggested sexual spanking as foreplay, but I thought it weird. He kept after me with a hunter’s determination, and as I looked face to face with him, staring into his eyes, something changed. I wanted to learn this new art more than anything. I was getting hot just thinking about it, which was something that wasn’t happening too much anymore when I thought of Roger. I knew something was up, and I told him I was ready to try anything.”

She shook her head in the negative.

“It’s too late now, but I was being set up and didn’t realize it. I asked him what I should do, and he told me. He taught me how to be on the bottom and be a good submissive.”

Kyla closed her eyes and thought back once more. Cubis had told her to stand up and lie across his lap.

“Since you are new at this, we will do it through the dress first,” he explained. “You don’t have to remove any clothing, but most spanking enthusiasts like to do it on the bare bottom. You may not be ready for that.”

“Won’t your secretary hear the noise?” Kyla protested.

Cubis shook his head.

“She’s used to therapy sessions of all kinds. If she hears or sees anything, it stays here. Everything is confidential.”

Rising, Kyla nodded and the doctor moved from his desk, taking up his position on the sofa where Kyla had been listening. He then motioned for her to come to him.

“Stretch out over my knees. Have you ever been spanked before?”

“Not since I was a little girl,” Kyla responded. “My mother and father both spanked me, but never did it really hard.”

“We’ll start off lightly. Now when you and your boyfriend do this, remember it’s a game. You are supposed to use this for foreplay and use it to spice up your actual sex life. You aren’t supposed to beat the living shit out of each other. In fact, it is best to use a safe word, where you shout something as a code that means to stop. Would you like to use a safe word now?”

“No safe word,” Kyla objected as she sprawled across Cubis. “Let’s get this going.”

Without another word, the doctor brought his hand down across Kyla’s posterior with tremendous force, bringing forth a loud whap.

“Ow!”

“What do you think of it so far?” he asked. “Do you like this? Do you like being treated like a naughty girl? Do you want me to give you more?”

Kyla grunted as a second blow came.

“Too hard?” Cubis cautioned.

Kyla again gave a grunt and insisted he continue.

She was already feeling forgotten sensations within her own body in spite of the sting on her backside. It had been too hard, but she wasn’t about to say anything. She was, however, glad she was not getting it on the bare bottom.

“The first time Cubis spanked me was not so bad. I had all my clothes on. My dress, my panty hose and my underwear were all up, but he spanked me enough to feel it, and it did turn me on. The only problem was when I suggested it to Roger, he thought I had lost my mind and wouldn’t do it to me. I didn’t mention where I had gotten the idea from, and we went to bed in the usual way, but it was about as enjoyable as taking out the trash or getting a haircut. This wasn’t lovemaking. It was routine fucking, and it was empty. That was when I went back to have another surrogate session.”

Kyla leaned back on the sofa and moved her chest forward, hoping the camera would pick up how beautiful her breasts were, even when covered. Roger didn’t know what he was missing anymore, and that was what she wanted to imply. He had told her how hot she was, but she wanted to convince everyone, including whoever found the tape. Anymore, she was sure Roger had just been using her for convenience at the time. So was anything he ever said for real? Cubis at least wanted her, but not entirely as she had thought.