Lust Demented

{XXXI}

DARK LAND OF SHADOWS. I couldn’t see what was tracking me, but I could hear her exquisite gallop.

“You miss out on the whole world to make your own.” Missy was angry again. Infuriated that I was writing instead of doing what she conceived I was supposed to be doing. My family was giving me the benefit of the doubt for what would turn out to be last time. This was the moment I was disowned. The word alone was too weak and I suspected the compulsion was layered deep in splinters of family history or frayed genetics.

“Writing controls you. Everything you try to do is interrupted with ideas. I’m surprised you can even make love to me without working on your book.” Little did Missy know that sometimes I was fleshing it out when I was fleshing it out. It was always to create more vibrant sketches of the muse.

A hand showed up to wipe the sweat from my face. Kiko left some human salt on my lips. Kissing me with her entire body. “I’m going to bring you to see the last person to speak to Missy.”

Stroboscopic city speeding within our zoetrope. The neon was flashing, but the world stayed murky. Police cars flew by, diseased bats through the caverns. Somewhere west of Broadway, there was a small staircase between a kebab joint and a porn emporium. The first set of steep stairs were labeled in yellow and black with the various services offered in the building: Employment Agency. Massage. Bodywork. English School. Sauna.

The hallways had bizarre tiled patterns on the floors and dents in the walls from rowdy old bruisers. The stairs seemed to get steeper every flight we walked. Kiko ran her hands along the uneven walls absorbing their stories. A powder white woman was waiting for us on the top of the stairs.

“Farrow this is my mother Kuroneko. You’ll be safe here.” Kuroneko had the lightest eyes I’d ever seen. I wasn’t sure what color they were since they kept changing.

“Only women inside. No problem for you.” I doubted that made it any safer. Kuroneko was eager to get me out of sight. In a low voice she seemed to be giving Kiko instructions on how to handle the situation. Kiko just kept nodding, but her face told a different story. The way she looked into my eyes put me at ease. Let me know she was doing things her way.

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 passing 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 hit the ground.