It Followed Me

*Ding*

He rang the bell on the counter inside the faux-wood paneled motel lobby. Faded tourism brochures were messily stuffed into a wall rack, and the smell of day-old complimentary coffee hung in the air.

"Hello?" asked Ivan, dropping his backpack and equipment case.

"Hold on, hold on," croaked an old woman as she hobbled out from the office, the look of profound annoyance on her face. "What do you want?"

"Erm, a room I suppose."

"Englishman, huh," she deduced, to which Ivan smiled and raised his eyebrows in concurrence. "Don't get too many of your kind out here," she said dismissively.

He had been planning this trip for some time, and after considerable research, put together an itinerary of America's most haunted places, taking care to avoid the most popular and instead focusing on the more obscure. So here he was, in a town on the edge of the wilderness, nestled in the hills of western Pennsylvania, hoping to capture quality video and EVP's for his nascent YouTube channel. Specifically what brought him here was the abandoned Kleinfelter mansion.

Now, the stories he heard varied somewhat, but all followed a similar arc. Amos Kleinfelter made a killing in the coal mining business. But then his first wife died during childbirth, causing him to sink into a deep depression. His spirits brightened, according to friends and family, when he found a new love. Oddly, he never introduced this new woman to anybody as lore would have it. But rather abruptly, Kleinfelter appeared to fall ill, seeming chronically drained and lacking in vigor. His corpse was found in bed, a servant kicking the door down (though one version has him going through a window). It had been nailed shut from the inside, yet there were no signs of suicide. His face was twisted as if frozen in time by sheer terror. Next to his body was a note which simply read: "It came from deep within the mines. It followed me. Burn this place to the ground." Nobody could find this mystery lover of his, and nobody burned it down, but after family legal squabbles, the mansion was abandoned and was swallowed up by the woods, disappearing into history like steel mill smoke into a black, starless, sky.

"Know anything about the old mansion in the valley?" Ivan asked the lady. "I suppose this is the part where you tell me not to go and that nobody comes back the same, mmm?" he asked cheekily, taking the piss out of the old horror movie cliche.

"I don't give a damn what you do," she snapped back, unaware of her presumed role as the cautioning stranger who always seems to know more than they ought to.

"Ohhh-kay then," he concluded, before taking his room key and retiring to the spartan, if not dreary, accommodations for the night.

~

The next morning he ventured a down steep, winding road to a narrow dirt one, which eventually became impassible. Abandoning his rental, he grabbed his equipment case and walked. True to rumor, he found the mansion to carry a disturbing vibe - something about the way way vines and trees twisted against it as if trying to pull it back into the earth. It was silent; no bird song graced the air, which felt cooler than elsewhere on this warm late summer morning.

And so Ivan went about exploring every room, setting up video cameras, audio recorders, and a device called a "spirit box" which spat bleeps and static from a tiny speaker. He didn't really understand how it worked and frankly, felt like he may have overpaid for it. He also tried to walk the property, which was a tangled mess of thorns and brush. Ivan found nothing more than a dilapidated building in the middle of nowhere. No paranormal action, no "holy grail" video footage or anything worthwhile.

That night, for lack of entertainment options, he rested in his room. Nearly lulled to sleep by the monotone drone of the local TV news anchor, Ivan reached to turn off his bedside lamp, and it was then that he heard a clunk from the room next door.

"Great...noisy neighbors," he lamented. A few more bangs later, he considered banging back on the wall to let them know he was being disturbed. He got up, raised his fist to knock, but was interrupted by a voice. It was coming from a vent in the wall in the corner of the room, grey paint bubbling up with rust.

He froze, now fully awake, ears focused. It spoke again. "I saw you..."

"I'm....I'm sorry?" said Ivan with surprise, creeping towards the vent.

"Today at the house. I saw you there." It was a female voice.

"Well I, I, didn't see any-," he stammered. Perhaps she was another paranormal investigator, it occurred to him. "How did you know where I'd be staying?"

Silence.

"Hello?" he said into the vent with more urgency.

"I want to know you. I think we could be friends," she said with a voice as smooth as glass.

What in God's name? he thought, but something about her voice was drawing him in, he felt his guard dropping as if talking to an old acquaintance.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Well I was trying to sleep but now I'm...I'm talking to you. What are you doing?"

"I've been lonely."

He was unsure what to say, so he let her continue.

"Laying in bed...feeling the silky sheets against my bare skin.

"You're naked?"

"Mmm hmm," she moaned, Ivan heard her breathing deeply, the sound traveling down his spine in an shiver of intimacy. She sounded far away yet right next to his ear at the same time. "I'm touching myself. Feeling my nipples, the way they get harder when I squeeze them."

"Wish I could be there too..." he said sheepishly. The voice replied something but he couldn't quite make it out. He thought it said "you are."

"I'd, uh, love to play with those nipples...run my fingers around them, caressing your tits, sliding my hands down to your curvy ass," he said feeling awkward, quite aware of how stiff and properly British he sounded. But she didn't seem to mind.

"I love your voice, darling," she purred. "I'd love to hear you talking about how you'd fuck me. About how hard you're getting...about how you want to be inside my wet pussy."

Oh hello! thought Ivan, as he started to unbuckle his belt with haste. "And I would love to be inside you right now," he declared. "I'm like a rock for you, baby, I'm so fucking hard..." he continued, taking out his more-than-semi erection. It had ample girth, meaty could be used to describe it, as he stroked away, picturing it splitting the pussy lips of his newfound friend. He hadn't cum for a few days, and his balls were aching for release.

"There's juices all over my fingers," said the voice breathlessly. "I have two inside of me right now. Working in and out."

He pictured her fingers rubbing her clit while darting in and out of her hole, meanwhile his cock head swelled and a jewel of pre-cum glistened on the tip.

"I want to hear you cum, baby," she said. "Tell me how badly you want me...tell me you want to fucking cum inside me, feeling my orgasm squeezing your big dick. Cum with me." And so he did, and she did too, by the sounds of it. And with that, he heard nothing more from the vent. He tried talking to her, still breathless from his orgasm, but got no response. Exhausted yet thrilled, he drifted to sleep.

Hours later he was awakened by a dark dream. He dreamed of her, the mysterious voice in the room next to him. He pictured her with porcelain-skinned, in her late 20's, black curls spilling down her pristine back. A twinkle in her dark eyes beckoned him, called out for him as if by name. He leaned towards her to kiss her ruby lips, which he did with all the passion he could muster. Touching her, he felt electricity, but the tasted turned from sweet to that of copper, of fear (or was it blood)? He pulled away from her and, opening his eyes, he saw how she changed. What was beauty now could only be described as the face of evil. A demonic grin spread across her haggard face, revealing sharp teeth and a forked tongue. With a whimper, he shot up in bed covered in sweat.

The next morning, Ivan went about reviewing some audio and video from the previous day's work, but after several minutes he conceded that he was barely paying attention, instead listening for the slightest noise from the room next door. He didn't see a car in front of her room, so she must have gone out already. Perhaps she went back to the abandoned mansion.

Though he had gotten no results from his investigation, he convinced himself he out to return today. Maybe she'll be there again, he thought and it was an exciting thought indeed.

~

"Well, that was a bust," he said aloud as he got into his car just as twilight was falling. No woman, no ghosts. And so he headed back to the motel, stopping at a store to buy a bottle of bourbon. He proceeded to imbibe, every so often getting up from bed to peek out of the curtains to see if she had returned. Maybe that was the only night she was staying here, Ivan wondered, and the thought was enough to spur him onward to consume the rest of the bottle. Soon he passed out.

It was the middle of the night by his estimation, when a sound woke him up. Another clunk from next door. He got out of bed and nearly fell over, failing to take into account his intoxication.

"Hello!" he said eagerly. Another banging noise. He tried again, and this time he thought he heard soft laughter, far away though.

"Please," he begged, "I must...I need to see you." No response. "Will you come to me? Tonight?" Ivan's head began to feel heavy and sleepy. The drink was hitting him hard, combined with the emotional letdown of silence on the other side of the wall.

"Fuck it," he concluded and collapsed into a heap on his rickety bed.

He may have fallen back asleep, but the next thing he was aware of was a presence in his room. It was as if she stepped out of his dream from the night before. In the moonlight, she looked as beautiful and other-worldly as he imagined, with dark, yearning eyes. She spoke not a word, but soon shed her nightgown in one fluid motion as she approached his bed. She had a figure like the hourglass on a black widow spider.

Is this really happening? he wondered. In his drunken, half-awake state, the room seemed to sway.

"It's so lonely there...but we can be together now forever," he heard her whisper, though her lips moved not a trace. Ivan wanted to say something but he couldn't speak, could barely move. Next thing he knew, she was right by his bed.

She straddled him with her pale thighs, and he slid his hands over the curve of her hips, up her back, while she pulled his pajama bottoms down. He watched his cock slide into a very wet, very full bush. Soon his dick was covered in milky nectar as she moaned, riding him, taking his full length with each thrust. How can she be so cold? he thought, noticing her unnatural temperature. His fingers traced her arched back as she ground her pussy onto him, her small breasts bouncing as she fucked him hard. He felt close to cumming inside of her, and then tipping her head back, she let out a eerie laugh. A cloud obscured a crescent moon, and in the chilly nighttime air outside of his room, his screams of terror found no ears. And that would be his last act on earth as a living being.

~

The next morning was sunny. Blue and red emergency vehicle lights pulsated, decorating the plain facade of the country motel, while a stretcher was being loaded into room 6.

"We'll need a list of all the guests ma'am. When you get a chance," said a chubby, mustachioed, police officer to the motel lady.

"That's easy," she chuckled. "He was the only guest. All week."

"Ok, we'll that's all for now," he said, clicking his pen. He sipped the burnt motel coffee from a tiny Styrofoam cup and made a face. "If you remember anything unusual let us know, but we're not thinkin' foul play. His room was latched from the inside. No signs of forced entry. It was as if he just...dropped dead. He didn't say what he was doin' out here, huh?"

"The only thing I ask is 'cash or credit?'," she said, eager to get back inside and be done with the hassle. Of course, she did know where he went, but to talk more would invite more intrusion, and an old lady hasn't the time for that, she decided. And so what really happened would remain a secret, like so many others, buried deep in the dark mines of this mysterious land.

~~~