Finding Goddess Ch. 18

Woman was torn of her immortality. Woman was torn of her fire. Woman was torn of her sword. And Woman was torn of her shield. Her radiance was faded. Her life was shorn. And when she lost too her fertility, from her self she too would be torn.

Bereft of her Goddess to stoke her flame, Woman was reduced now to an animal, no different from the birds and the beasts that roamed the earth long-side her. But it would be through the birds and the beasts that Woman would find one last light, one single flicker that would illuminate the path to her salvation from Oblivion.

***

"Going for a run. Be back in about thirty."

"Have fun. Don't fall down an open manhole again!"

"Hmph."

The door closed shut as Erin left the apartment, leaving Mindy all by her lonesome as she sat down on the living room couch, reading her mom's book. Interesting thing it was. It definitely helped to...contextualize a lot about what those girls in that lesbian nudist cult actually believed.

Mindy still couldn't believe what a mad coincidence it was. On the same weekend that she and her sister found out about the Zenrist religion, it would appear her mother had as well. First through text-messaging and then through online chat, she learned from Henrietta that the two older women recently had a formal meeting with the Zenrists, going so far as to enter their place of worship and speak with the head priestess at New Deastone. She didn't go into detail about what exactly they talked about or did in there, but the important thing was that Carol had developed a very keen interest in the religion. Enough to not only read through their tome rather extensively if her bookmark was anything to go by, but to even consider joining it. Mindy couldn't help but be a little concerned about that.

Oh, she didn't mind if her mother was going to be a nudist. The teen already knew she was. Carol had tried to be sneaky about it in the past, tried to hide the fact that she liked to roam around in the buff, but she couldn't fool Mindy. They had been living in this tiny little apartment for nearly a decade; keeping secrets of that caliber for that long would be difficult for even a ninja master. There would always be a door left ajar where you could catch a glimpse of some bare skin, there would always be some lack of discretion in a phone call where someone would say something like "I'd be naked all the time if I could," or "Be at your place in 15. No clothes on of course," and there would always be a time where you would walk in and see a naked woman outright. Doing something like sitting at her computer in her room...or doing other things...in other parts of the house...

No, Mindy's real issue was that if her mom really was considering finding religion, then did that mean something was going on with her? Was she depressed? Lonely? Secretly dying? Henrietta didn't say. She just said Carol was seriously considering joining the religion because it would give her the freedom to be nude all she liked. And that she really liked being nude. Mindy wanted to take her word for it, but she couldn't be sure; Carol had been acting weird yesterday ever since Mindy and Erin got home. She seemed really sad somehow. Deflated, like someone was letting all the air out of her. She didn't eat much at all, hardly touched the Indian takeout they ordered, and seemed to be always looking to the side or down at herself. And this was all after the cold way she kicked Henrietta out of the house.

Erin didn't notice of course. She was too damn preoccupied with her own crap to pay any attention to her mother. But Mindy did and it worried her. She didn't know what was going on and from what she could tell, neither did Henrietta.

Speaking of which, it was probably high time for them to continue their conversation from last night. Picking up her phone, Mindy started writing her next text message. She would have preferred calling her mother's girlfriend, but she was likely at work right now.

"are u sure mom was ok b4 yestrdy?"

A few moments passed. Then a reply popped up.

"Yes. Carol was happy day before. sed she was go ing 2 convert."

"Ready to convert? To Zenrism?" Mindy mused out loud. "What could possibly happen to change her mind? Was it when Erin said..."

Oh. Ohhhhhhh. That must have been why. That's what caused Carol to get so depressed. It seemed so obvious now. It was because of Erin. It was all her fault. Again. Seems that rotten twin sister of hers just had to find more ways to drag everyone else down with her.

"First thing when she gets back, we're gonna have a long conversation here," she said, standing up and marching purposely back to her room. She didn't know how she was going to take this issue on with Carol; the whole idea of her mother converting to a new religion was an odd one after all. But she did know how to handle Erin's deal: she had to make the girl come to terms with what she had done at Duny Beach.

As Mindy stepped into the room, she couldn't help but notice something strange. Her sister's sleeping clothes were strewn about on the floor, and her running clothes were gathered neatly on her bed on the lower bunk. Like she put them out, but forgot to put them on.

She didn't...

She was out the door in less than a minute. "Erin! ERIN!"

Her cries fell on deaf ears, for Erin was nowhere to be seen. Mindy could only mutter a curse as she took off, hoping that her sister at least had the decency to run her usual route. It would make finding her a whole lot easier. Unfortunately, she sure chose a bad day to go running outside in because it was a freaking oven right now. The teen could feel her sweat glands open up the second the sun hit them.

At least she'll be dressed appropriately for the weather, she thought with an amused smile. If you're going to be running on a day as hot as this, you might as well save yourself some trouble and just go totally bare.

Appropriate dress or not, Mindy still had to find her sister and quickly. She ran down the street and rounded the block where Erin would typically go when she was out exercising. Hopefully, she would catch at least a glimpse of the girl in the distance, sashaying her shapely behind around as she ran. Sadly, Mindy caught no glimpse of her; all she saw were a few people hanging out on their porches and a middle-aged guy walking his dog.

"Damn it," she muttered as she took off again. It looked like Erin had gone a lot farther than she predicted. Or worse, she decided to change her usual route up for...reasons. No matter; Mindy would find her sooner or later. Or someone else would find Erin. Scratch that, plenty of people had already found her judging by how many were out and about right now. Nothing Mindy could do about that.

"What the—"

"There she is again..."

"Wait, I think...differ...girl..."

"Wish I had...era."

"YOU GO..."

"Shake it!"

Mindy paid little mind to what they had to say. She had to find her sister. She ran a little further, rounded another block, and came across a group of children scribbling chalk on the sidewalk who suddenly stopped what they were doing to gawk at her like she was some kind of wild animal. They didn't even bother to step aside as she closed the distance on them.

"Out of the way...out of the way!" Mindy growled. When it looked like they wouldn't be moving, she opted to go around them by veering off the sidewalk and into the street.

Stupid kids, thinking they own the place. When someone is running on the sidewalk, you move your ass out of the way!

She took a moment to catch her breath and wipe her brow, which was already starting to dampen with perspiration. "Christ, it's hot. Wish I brought some water, though I guess holding that while running would be a pain. Damn you, Erin, making me run around in this weather. Where the hell are you?"

She jogged a little more down the block. A car rolled past her. For no reason at all, the driver honked his horn twice, startling the girl and sending her tumbling into the shrubs of some random schlub's lawn.

"Asshole!" she shouted as he zoomed away. Ugh, this was quickly getting irritating. Mindy was starting to think it was high time to just hike back home. To hell with Erin and her impromptu streaking. If she got humiliated or arrested for indecent exposure, it would be her own damn fault—

Oh, there she was, right there.

Mindy couldn't decide if she should sigh or laugh at the sight her sister made. She was running down the block, wearing her hair in a ponytail that swung and bobbed this way and that as she moved...and not much of anything else. It was just as Mindy had feared; Erin was naked. Her skin glistened with perspiration, her ass wiggled to and fro as she moved, her breasts appeared to be bouncing around wildly from what Mindy could catch of her sideboob, and she didn't seem the least bit aware of the show she was giving the whole neighborhood. Okay, perhaps Mindy did want to laugh; she couldn't help but crack a smile at how absurd her sister looked right now. Maybe it would be preferable to just let her be and enjoy the sight until she realized her mistake...no, no. Mindy couldn't do that. As big a pain as Erin was, she couldn't be that cruel to her sister.

"Erin! Hey Erin! Erin, wait up, stop!"

Erin heard her and spun around to see what Mindy was doing calling out to her, and true to form, she was quick to shoot an irritated scowl at her twin. "Mindy!" she yelled. "What the HELL are you are doing?"

"Erin, don't you see? You're naked!" Mindy responded as she caught up to her twin.

"Don't play this game with me! You're the one who's naked!"

That gave Mindy a pause. "What are you talking about? I'm..."

She looked down.

"I'm..."

She saw her breasts.

"I'm..."

She saw her nipples. She saw her bare stomach, her exposed navel, and the thick dark patch of pubic hair between her legs

"I'm...naked," she said, quietly, simply, and matter-of-factly. Then she said it again, louder and more frantically. "I'M NAKED!"

"AAAAGGGHHHHH!" shrieked Erin in front of her. "I'M NAKED TOO!"

The girls did the only logical thing: they screamed in unison and ran into each other's arms.

"AAAHHHHH, HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?"

"I DON'T KNOW! I DON'T KNOW!"

"I JUST WANNA DIE!"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?"

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

"DON'T BLAME ME!"

They howled and wept as they clung to each other for support. Their breasts squished together, their stomachs touched, and their legs almost seemed to intertwine like tree roots. To anyone watching, it would be easy to assume the girls were being quite intimate with each other. In fact, amidst her wails, Mindy was able to see that a few people were indeed watching.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU LOOKING AT?" she roared at the same group of kids who gawked at her earlier, having apparently followed her. "THIS ISN'T A FREAKING SHOW!"

The kids weren't the least bit intimidated by her display. They only giggled in response. "Look those girls are naked!" laughed one, a bob-haired brunette.

"Naked, naked, naked!" said her friend, a chubby black girl.

"Are you two gonna make out?" said a third, a shorter boy.

"Sons of bitches," muttered Mindy, who was burning red at their comments and seriously considering kicking all their asses.

"Forget about them, let's just go, let's just go!" winced Erin as she pulled away from her sister and sped off in the opposite direction, dragging Mindy by the hand behind her. The two ran down the street together, as nakedly as they had before, but now much more aware of it. Aware of the jiggling in their breasts, of the searing air sliding off their skins, of the hot sweat dripping down their supple bodies, and of the periodic openings and closings of their vaginal slits. Even in their panic, they were aware of it all. More than they were of their surroundings.

They ran and they ran. Down streets, up inclines, past passerbys, and across driveways. They may have even cut across a backyard or two, Mindy couldn't be sure. All she could be sure of was is that she badly, desperately just wanted to be back home, with her walls, and her room, and her bed, and her clothes.

A question formed itself on her lips as her feet continued to pound on the sidewalk. "Erin...where...where are we going?"

"What?"

"WHERE ARE WE GOING?"

Erin paused, both vocally and physically, stopping so abruptly that it was a wonder neither she nor her sister fell flat on their faces. Her breasts bounced twice, she bit her lip, and her feet shuffled uncomfortably as she formulated her answer. "I don't know."

"WHAT?" screamed Mindy.

"I said...I DON'T KNOW!"

"Oh fucking hell!" Mindy stomped her foot on the ground, desperately wishing it had been her stupid sister she was stomping on instead. "You dragged us all they way out here and didn't think about where we were going?"

"I was trying to get us away!" cried Erin. "Besides, I didn't hear you give any suggestions about where we should go!"

"Where we should go is HOME, you moron!" hissed the naked twin, clenching her hands into fists as she stomped the ground again.

"This isn't my fault!" said Erin.

"Yes it is!"

"Is not!"

"Is so!"

"Is not!"

"Is so!"

"Is not! I didn't make YOU get naked! And you didn't tell me anything before I left the house!"

"You left the house naked in the first place! If you hadn't, I wouldn't have had to come out either!"

Erin could only shake her head in frustration. This fight was quickly going nowhere. "Look, let's just...see, there's a place we can hide. Let's go there for now!"

Erin's brilliant idea for a hiding place was behind a waist-high brick wall that surrounded the parking lot to what was some kind of multi-story residential home for old people or something like that. There was a grassy knoll on one of its corners, which was the most ideal place for the girls to plant their bare butts on to both hide themselves from view and catch their breaths. They had both run for quite a distance through blistering heat and now that they were at rest, the adrenaline was quickly wearing off. For the moment, all they could do was sit still and breathe. Heavily. Loudly. Erin was on her hands and knees as she panted. Beads of sweat oozed down the slopes of her boobs and dribbled off the tips of her nipples, each as shiny as a pearl. Mindy, meanwhile was on her back, her own breasts rising, falling, and rippling with her breaths. Her legs were splayed haphazardly and her vulva lips were parted widely, almost as if she was trying to exhume heat from her vagina as well.

For a few moments, the twins remained as they were, naked and panting on the grass. As the heat in them died down, and life returned to their limbs, Erin was finally able to focus on where she was and what she was looking at. And she realized she didn't like what she saw. For she realized, all this time, she had unknowingly been hovering over Mindy's leg...and she was now getting an eyeful of her sister's pretty pink insides.

"Mindy!" she hissed. "Close your legs! I don't want to see...that!"

"See...what?" panted Mindy, who hadn't recovered nearly as much as her twin. Upon looking up and following Erin's eyes, she suddenly realized what it was she was seeing. "Oh."

She sat up and hugged her legs over herself, giving herself some coverage. However, now that she too was more aware of her surroundings, she started to feel angry again. "You know, sis, if the sight of my pussy offends you so much, maybe you shouldn't have stared at it like it was goddamn painting."

"You need to learn how to lay more like a girl!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, Grandma, I didn't know there was a proper ladylike way to lie down when you get fucking exhausted from running around blindly like a headless chicken thanks to your idiot sister having no idea what she's doing."

"That's beside the point!" said Erin. "The point is, as a girl, you're supposed to keep your legs...closed and your...vagina...hidden."

Mindy sneered at that. She now knew what was getting her sister all riled up now, and it had nothing to do with how improper she was being. "Oh, are you bothered because I'm not hiding my PUSSY correctly? Or is it because you're trying to deny how much the sight of a PUSSY delights you now?"

Being naked in public was almost worth the pained expression Erin gave her with every utterance of the word 'pussy.' "I told you...to never bring that up."

"Bring what up?" said Mindy, her sneer twisting into an angry smile.

"You KNOW what," glared Erin.

"Hmph!"

"Hmph!"

Erin turned away from Mindy with an angry huff, too disgusted to look her sister in the eye. Or maybe it was too embarrassed? Probably both. But Mindy continued to glare daggers at her. It was bad enough the dumb bitch had to get them both into this mess, but now she was bringing her personal issues into it as well. And they were both still naked and far from home! And their current hiding place...really wasn't all that well-hidden. From where the girls were huddled, they were mostly safe from people on the street. Unfortunately, any person living in the building would be able to see them very easily from the windows. As would anybody who entered or exited the building.

Mindy's anger quickly dissipated and her embarrassment returned. Her face turned red, her body followed suit, and soon enough she felt herself tremble all over.

"If you're worried about us being seen, don't be," said Erin, who was able sense her sister's anxiety. "If anyone's even awake and alive in there, they'd be too blind to notice us."

"If you say so," said Mindy. "So what do we do now? Sit here until it's dark enough for us to just ninja it back home? Or until the heatstroke kills us, whichever comes first?"

"Look, I have...I have an idea, maybe," said Erin. "I recognize this place. Megan's place is just down the road from us. If we go to her, maybe, just maybe she'll lend us some clothes."

"Megan, Megan," muttered Mindy as she leaned over the wall to take a glance on the other side. "Think she'll actually help us?"

"She has to."

"Think she'll want to have some fun at our expense first?"

Erin was silent for a bit before nodding her head bluntly. "Most definitely."

Mindy sighed. She was hoping the girl would at least be merciful, but after that fast one she pulled on them at the beach last week, she knew Megan could never be trusted again. "There's still a bit of running out in the open though," she added. "Think it'll really be worth it?"

"It's either that or we run all the way out in the open back home."

Mindy sighed in defeat. It looked like there really were no other options. "Alright, you have a point. The coast is...the coast is clear, or as clear as it's going to get."

"Are you ready then?" said Erin.

"I...I guess?"

Her words said one thing, but her body said another. Mindy stayed still. As did Erin. Neither girl moved. Neither could bear to get back on their feet and leave the relative safety and security of their tiny little sanctuary. Neither could bear to be the first to make that crucial first step, not when they were so fully aware of how naked they both were.

After a moment, Mindy finally spoke. "So how did you do it?"

"Do what?" said Erin.

"Back at the nude beach. How did you ease yourself into being naked?"

"I...don't know what you're talking about." Erin squeezed her eyes shut and turned away.

"Damn it, Erin, this is important! I saw you laughing and playing volleyball on the beach without anything on like it was the most enjoyable thing ever. So how did you do it? How did you stop thinking about it."

"I...guess I just did?"