Like Thunder

"This is it Mary!" The wind howled and burned in her ears. "We go now or we don't go at all!" Mary clutched madly at the railing. The rain slammed into their bodies. Less than a mile away lightning was spit from massive clouds that were as dark as pitch. She saw the ground below them. She looked to her left and saw her friend climb to a precarious perch on the rust covered rails.

Mary backed up until she hit the enormous outer wall of the water tower.

"I'm goin'!" April yelled over her shoulder. She didn't so much as count to three and she was over the edge. Over the thunder and wind, Mary could hear her laughter crack through the storm.

"Shit," Mary said. Her words were lost in the fury of the rain, and then she was gone. She jumped with her arms spread wide and vaulted clean over the railing. She always imagined that it would feel like floating, or flying even. Basically she found that it felt just like falling. She shot toward the ground and when the lightning flashed one more time, she saw the muddy ground and the concrete base of the tower come rushing at her. Just before she knew she would die, the cord around her ankles slowed her descent and then yanked her back into the air. She remembered swearing several times but couldn't remember what she said. When the torturous drop-and-launch repetition slowed to a merciful stop she found herself hanging in the storm. A few feet away April hung with her arms stretched out and was screaming "AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN!!!"

When they were both on solid ground again, April was grinning ear to ear. April was a very strange girl. She was six feet of pure dare. She would do anything put to her if only to prove that she could. But she could afford to be daring. She could afford to take chances. She was everyone's fantasy. Gorgeous and just compelling as hell. She was what most men wanted and what most women wanted to be. Mary thought herself quite the opposite. She didn't think herself ugly, but neither did she consider herself on April's level. Mary was by her own admission, a little too thin. More skinny than slim. She had long legs and small hips. Her hair was a rich mix of red and brown, and hung just at her shoulders.

She could never accept or understand why someone like April would spend time with her. She was always being dragged to one of these crazy stunts and each time she swears it is the last.

What bothered her most was the feeling that April was never completely forthcoming with her. That somewhere under the surface lurked a cruel joke waiting for the perfect time to burn her. Lulling her into a feeling of comfort and acceptance and then WHAM! Humiliation. It was the same her entire life. Sometimes she was certain that when she wasn't looking, April was sizing her up for something.

An ear-shattering crack of lightning brought her out of her fog and back to the present. They were walking a short distance from the tower in what would soon be a field of corn, or wheat, or some such thing. The ground sucked at their feet as they plodded through the increasing mud.

"That was the most intense thing I've EVER done!" April shouted to the storm.

"Let's just go home," Mary offered. She could already hear the inevitable "what do we do next?" that always followed these events. Mary just wasn't in the mood. She was soaked and the storm seemed to actually be getting worse. She was starting to feel nervous and wanted more than anything to just leave.

"Home!?" April yelled in disbelief. "You want to leave?"

"We jumped. Let's call it a night." Mary's voice was small and evoked no agreement from her tall friend.

"We've got the greatest damned storm in years and you want to leave? Can't let you do that Mary dear." Mary saw a look in April's eyes that made her uneasy. April was standing a few yards away and suddenly she yanked at her drenched shirt. She pulled it over her head and then took her bra and let it go into the air with the shirt. April threw her arms out and spun around in the rain. Her breasts were full and they bounced when she spun. Her stomach was perfectly tapered and a light line of muscle ran down the middle of her belly and disappeared in her navel.

"What are you doing?" Mary asked. Her voice was partly annoyance and partly apprehension.

"I'm doing something. I want to feel every inch of this storm." She grinned and peeled away her pants and underwear in one move. She kicked off her shoes and ripped her socks from her feet. She hopped around in the muddy field and laughed like a child.

"It's great! C'mon. Get wild for about five minutes of your life." Mary stood where she was and did nothing.

"I'm going home," she declared. She turned and started across the muddy expanse. Before she made it even five steps, she felt hands at her waist. Before she could object, her shirt was lifted and her bra went up, and then both skimmed past her head. She spun around to see April, spattered in mud, laughing, and holding Mary's clothes far above her reach.

"Give them back." She looked at April's eyes and face. She was far beyond giving in to what Mary wanted. It would end only when April said it would. This was the night Mary got burned.

"You stay out here with me for just five minutes, and I'll give you everything back and drive you right home." She smiled and stepped back to wait for the answer. Mary knew she wasn't going anywhere until she played Nature Girl with April.

"Shit," she spat. She took a breath, and quickly undid the button of her jeans, and pulled her feet out of the heavy, soaked denim. She threw them to April and stepped out of her shoes. She waited. She felt woefully inadequate next to her friend, the naked amazon. Awkward and embarrassed, she stood in the rain and the mud.

"All right. Look, I did what you wanted, so lets go. Give me my clothes." April laughed and threw all the clothes into the air. They landed in the water and mud, and continued to soak as much dirt as it seemed possible. Hurray for me, Mary thought.

"God dammit April!" She was furious now. She hugged her arms tight to her trembling body and shivered. Water ran from her face, and her lips - which had the slightest tinge of blue - quivered as her teeth chattered from the cold. She didn't know what to do. If she went after her clothes, April would just get them first. She just stared at the ground and shivered in the rain. When she looked up, April was stepping slowly forward. She stopped less than a foot from Mary and pushed a strand of hair from Mary's face. She leaned down and put her lips to Mary's.

"Stop it," Mary said. She tried to move back. April moved with her. April's breasts pressed heavy against Mary. She kissed her lightly before she could back away again. Before she pulled away, April bit softly into Mary's lower lip.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Just tasting." April turned and ran into the field. She stopped and laughed again, drunk in her game.

"You want to play a game?" Mary yelled. The thunder nearly drowned her out. She forgot her embarrassment and ran after April. "Do you want to do something that you've never done? Something you wouldn't have the guts to do?" April looked at her. She let loose a giddy smile and walked over to the small girl.

April looked at her friend. She was naked, shivering, soaked, and through all that she was mad as hell. Her long thin legs shook, and her curved belly trembled. Goose bumps were all over her. Auburn hair was plastered to her neck and bare back. Her crossed arms covered her small breasts. She had to squint in the downpour to look April in the eyes.

"Sure." April waited for the girl to tell her what she had planned. Mary said nothing and blew past her and ran through the muck back toward the tower. April ran after her and caught her at the tower. At Mary's instruction, she washed the mud from her body with the water collected in the base of the tower pole.

"Now what?" April didn't believe the girl had an idea that was worth all the effort, but she was happy to play along.

"Lay down on your stomach," the girl told her. April laughed again and did it.

"We doing push-ups here?" she asked. The concrete was cold on her skin.

"Just stay there and don't move." April closed her eyes and waited. Nothing happened for a while and then she felt Mary's hands take hold of her feet. To her utter and pleasant surprise, she felt Mary suck gingerly on her toes. She was about to turn over when she felt something completely wrong. Her heels were touching Mary's teeth and her toes were still in her girl's mouth.

"What are you - " she started to speak and was silenced when her legs were yanked off the ground and she was pushed back to the hard concrete. She lifted herself over on her side until she could see what Mary was doing. What she saw was the closest thing to horror she could envision. Mary's mouth was open so wide that both of April's legs were into her mouth up to her knees. She was pulling herself away when Mary lowered both their bodies to the concrete. She held April down with strength her slender frame should not have had. Mary lay on her side and slowly pulled April in. She could feel the hot tongue on her legs and the small teeth that grazed her flesh. Thousands of thoughts shot through her mind. Foremost among them was that this was completely absurd and couldn't be happening.

She scraped at the concrete trying to pull away. Her elbows scraped and bled as she tried to press herself forward. Panic gripped her body and mind. Her legs shook and she could feel her insides shudder with a fear more intense than any in her life. The cold of the air was a smack of sharp reality compared to the hot of the smaller girl's mouth and throat. She tried to scream and yell but the fear in her throat left no room for voice. Mary's slight arms wrapped their hold on April's pelvis. She could feel her feet inside the girl. They were being pulled and held by something that felt like a stiff, stringy, hot dough.

Mary pulled her deeper into her ever-widening cavity. Somehow, as April's backside was gulped into the mouth, her legs were forced to bend and were held tight by that same doughy substance that had hold of her feet.

Mary's hands and arms wrapped around April's shoulders and pulled her more and more. April's breasts scraped past the wide track of small white teeth and were soon snug within the tight compress of Mary's mouth. Still April clawed at the ground and cried, desperately trying to pull herself away. Her legs were so far bent they had gone numb.

"No-please, why are you-someone tell me-" Her head disappeared and her face was pressed against the slowly moving tongue. It carefully moved around and kept her head slick with thin mucus as it had with her chest and lower body. She soon felt her sizeable breasts push painfully flat against her lower thighs. Her head was pushed down and into her knees. She heard her joints popping and felt one side and then the next side of her ribcage snap. After her ribs went she felt a liquid in her belly and then in her throat. It pushed out of her lungs and when it was in her mouth, she could smell the coppery slick of blood. She tasted the worst her body had to offer and then as her body was compressed tighter and tighter, something popped in her neck.

In the hours just before dawn, the rain continued to fill the field with its deluge. In the middle of the muddy expanse lay a body. Mary had begun to crawl away until she could no longer move. Her thin arms and legs lay poking out from a bloated chest and stomach. Her stomach pushed out in a huge mass of skin and meat. Her body was wet and every muscle strained, as she lay inert in the cold mud. Her throat bulged and convulsed, and slowly continued to swallow the long fingers and arms, which lay inside. Her jaw had moved back to normal and her mouth was open slightly. Her eyes were glazed over and she looked to the sky. She was alone under the dark of the storm and the thick blanket of cold rain.

 

30.09.07