Enchanted Dreams (28 page)

Grasping the handlebars more tightly, Sara tried to gain enough leverage to move up and down on Jimmy. Her foot suddenly slipped from the foot peg and she fell, crying out again as she fell down, hard, on Jimmy's lap. But realizing that she had to get through this or suffer the consequences, she shook off her discomfort and tried it again, this time with more success. If she was careful and watched what she was doing, she could determine how far down her hips would go and avoid the discomfort of taking him all the way in. He kept a firm grip on her waist, so she was aware that he could jerk her hips down whenever he wanted to. But for the time being, he seemed content to let her steer the ride.

Sara carefully began to ride him, using her legs mostly, but her arms, too, to piston her bottom up and down over his thick, rigid shaft. The discomfort of it never let up, but it was just bearable if she didn't descend too far down on it, and Sara repeatedly reminded herself of her reward if she persevered.

"Look out for the bumps," Jimmy warned suddenly, and in the next instant it was as if the bike had come alive. The engine wasn't running, but it was moving, and yet it wasn't going anywhere. But it felt as if it were traveling along a bumpy road. It reminded Sara of a mechanical bull, the way it moved. She gasped as it shook and bounced between her legs. But she was determined to maintain control of it. She knew it would be much harder to keep her balance, but it was imperative that she try her best.

"Going into a curve," Jimmy warned, and sure enough, the bike tipped sideways, forcing Sara to lean back into him and tighten her buttocks in order to hold on.

"Ooooh," she complained, when her efforts caused him to penetrate her deeper, while thrashing about inside her.

"Looks like we have a jump coming up," she heard Jimmy say. There was amusement in his voice, and she knew he was enjoying this.

"No!" she cried, bracing herself. Suddenly it felt as if they were flying through the air for a few seconds before coming down with a hard landing that wedged Jimmy even farther up into her body. Sara bit her lip hard to keep from screaming. But she kept going, and rode through every imaginable condition without ever once losing her footing or giving up. Her backside burned from the intense activity and even her breasts ached from bouncing so aggressively in her efforts to manage the ride, but she refused to let up, knowing that she must go through this to get what she needed. There were moments when she felt she could not endure another minute, but somehow she made it through the entire ride.

And as promised, Sara, in her turn, got her fill of the pleasure that made it all seem worthwhile and, for the time being, anyway, satisfied her insatiable need.

But things could not go on like this forever. Sara realized this and yet she couldn't concentrate on the problem long enough to think of a solution. The need was coming every few hours now, regardless of where she was, whether it be at work or at home, and the things he was making her do were getting more difficult—and more risky. Sara was terrified of being discovered. And even if she could keep it a secret, her preoccupation with Jimmy made it impossible for her to function normally. She was late, distracted, disassociated, nervous and forgetful. She would disappear for long periods of time without an explanation. It was becoming impossible.

Sara decided to turn to the woman responsible for bringing Jimmy into her life.

"
Incubus
," Maggie said when Sara explained what was happening.

"Incubus?" Sara repeated, shaking her head. "What is that?"

"An incubus is a spirit, often an evil spirit, who seduces mortal women, sometimes causing them to go insane."

Sara's heart beat faster. "How can I get rid of him?"

"Well, I have to admit that this is the first one I've come across in my experience, but I've read quite a lot about them. It depends on why this incubus chose you, to determine what's the best thing to do. If I'm remembering right, you didn't recognize this spirit at first, did you?"

"No. I didn't know who he was. I still don't. I'm sure he's never been a part of my life before this."

"Well, then, he must be a part of someone's past who you're close to. It is rare for an incubus to simply choose someone at random. Usually they have reasons for what they do, most often reasons of revenge. They use sex as a tool to destroy the person they're after."

Sara sighed. "I can't imagine who that would be."

"Has he ever mentioned the name of anyone you know?"

Sara thought about it a minute. Had Jimmy said Ray's name before she brought him up? She couldn't remember. "I think he might have mentioned my boyfriend, Ray, but I'm not sure."

"That's right! The guy you moved out here for. I remember now. The incubus did bring him up." Maggie looked at Sara thoughtfully. "You're going to need the help of the person the incubus is after, so you'll have to find out for sure if it's Ray or not."

"Oh, God," Sara said.

"Can you tell when the incubus is with you?"

"Sort of. Sometimes."

"Well, be careful. Generally an incubus will try to avoid direct contact with those connected to their female victims. They'll come around when the women are alone, or when their partners are asleep or otherwise occupied and unlikely to be aware of its presence."

Sara thought about that first night when Jimmy came to her while Ray was asleep. "If it's Ray he's after, how do I stop him?"

"Ray will have to help you keep the incubus away until its influence is out of your system, which will mean he'll have to get you through at least one—and quite possibly more—of these sexual spells you told me about. Once the incubus leaves, you will have it out of your system."

"What if I have someone besides Ray do that?" Sara asked, considering rehab.

"It must be the person the spirit is after. The spirit can only lose power to the person it comes here for. It's as if no one else has any power over it."

By the time Sara got back from her visit with the clairvoyant, she was once again wild with need. A dark depression was beginning to set in with each new incident now, and she was afraid that she would not last much longer. All that Maggie told her only added to her depression. The power of the spirit seemed so much stronger than her. How was she ever going to fight it when she didn't even know for certain who it had come here for?

She felt Jimmy's presence suddenly and immediately halted her thoughts. They were becoming more and more hopeless and incoherent anyway, now that the desire was taking hold. Without hesitating, she mentally asked him what he wished of her, knowing without a doubt that whatever it was she would do it. There was no longer any objections or pleadings. She followed his directives to the letter willingly, even eagerly, knowing that it was the only way that she would get what she needed to survive.

It was several hours later when Sara was finally getting her end of the bargain met, having at last satisfied all of Jimmy's demands. She was grasping some kind of a metal pipe in the floor of her laundry room with both hands while Jimmy stood behind her, holding her legs up in the air. He was driving himself into her with the force of a powerful machine in long, even strokes that caused her body to jolt forward with every single thrust. Her body was naked and bruised, but the look on her face was one of pure ecstasy. She shuddered violently as the amazing pleasure washed over her.

"What the hell?" Ray's voice broke into the room like an alarm. Sara looked up and saw him watching her with an expression of absolute horror and disbelief.

"Well, hello, Ray," she heard Jimmy say from inside her head. And in the next instant he was gone. Her legs immediately dropped to the ground with a painful thud. She hadn't even had time to catch herself.

Sara looked up at Ray. This must be what they meant by "rock bottom," she thought. "Please…help…me," she whispered pitifully.

Ray rushed to her side. His eyes moved over her naked body, lingering confusedly over the bruises as he picked her up off the floor. "How…how were you just floating there, sideways, in midair?" he asked, clearly shaken.

"I need to get dressed first," she said.

When Sara had dressed and composed herself, she found Ray sitting on the couch, staring at a blank television set. She sat down next to him and reached for his hand. He moved his hand away but met her gaze.

"What the hell was that?" he asked slowly.

"Do you remember, about a week or so ago, when I went to the clairvoyant?" Sara asked.

"Yeah." He was looking at her as if he had already heard enough.

"Ray, listen to me a minute," she said, more self-possessed suddenly than she had been since this began. "I'm not crazy and I'm not deranged…at least I don't think so." She looked at him pleadingly. "Something happened there. The clairvoyant said there was a spirit there who knew me…or something like that. Well, he followed me home, and…God! This gets so weird. I know you're not going to believe this but he…he…touched me in my dream…and I woke up." Her eyes grew wide suddenly. "Maybe you remember. It was that night I screamed and woke you up, too." Ray just stared at her, so she continued. "But…then we went back to sleep and he…came back. This time I couldn't fight him off." Her expression turned pleading when she saw the look of pain and horror in his eyes. "You have to believe me and please just let me finish…"

"What?" he gasped. He was incredulous but at least he was still speaking to her. "You're cheating on me with a
ghost?
" He laughed suddenly. "Who is he? Anyone I know?"

"That's the thing," Sara continued. "I went back to the clairvoyant today because I didn't know what else to do. He's been coming back whenever he wants and it's like I can't control myself anymore. Maggie—the clairvoyant—said he's an incubus and I could go insane if I don't get rid of him. She said they only come back for revenge, and if he hasn't come from my past then he must have come from the past of someone I'm close to."

Ray just looked at her.

"He says his name is Jimmy," she continued, shrugging. "I personally have no idea who—"

"Jimmy?" Ray interrupted. He was still looking at her with disbelief, but there was suddenly something like alarm in his face, too. "He told you his name was
Jimmy?
"

"Yes, he said his name is Jimmy." Encouraged by Ray's response, she added, "And he told the clairvoyant during that first reading to tell me that you weren't the right guy for me."

Ray's eyes moved sideways as he absorbed this. Sara watched him. His expression of disbelief was being replaced with something else. He seemed to be considering what she said.

"Do you know someone named Jimmy?" she whispered hopefully.

He was silent for a long time, as if weighing the possibility of something. He seemed reluctant to speak. "I knew
a
Jimmy," he said finally. There was another pause. "Once," he added.

"Was he…alive?"

Ray was starting to pale. "Yes," he said. "He was…someone I knew. But then he died."

"Someone you knew?" she repeated. "You knew a Jimmy? How did you know him? How did he die?" She was suddenly filled with hope—and questions.

"We grew up together. He was…Jeez! This is ridiculous!" he yelled, getting up off the couch suddenly and walking toward the window. "This is not possible."

"He was what?" she encouraged. "Please, Ray, I know this seems crazy but let's just pretend for a minute that it's really happening. Please, please…" She sighed, so tired of begging all of a sudden. "Please just tell me how you knew him."

"He lived next door to me and we grew up together," Ray began in a strange voice. He didn't turn to face Sara as he spoke, but just continued to stare out the window. "He made a big show of being my friend all those years but he was really just a pain in my ass." Ray appeared to be getting agitated just from talking about it.

"A pain in your ass…how?" Sara asked.

"He was always getting me into trouble, for one thing," he said. He turned and looked at her. "Or trying to take what was mine."

Sara stared at him. "What did he try to take from you?"

"He wanted everything I had, whether it was a toy, an answer on a test, a friend." He met her eyes. "My girlfriend." She wasn't sure if this last referred to her.

"Had he taken a girlfriend from you?" she asked.

"Yes."

After a moment's silence, she decided to go in another direction. "What was he like?"

Ray thought about this. "He was charismatic, but mean underneath. He loved to play pranks on people. And he was tough to shake. He'd get under your skin. I spent most of my years growing up trying to ditch him."

"That sounds like him, all right," Sara whispered suddenly, without even thinking.

They looked at each other. "Hold on a minute!" he said, rushing from the room. When he came back, he was holding a pile of books. "Yearbooks," he told her.

Sara was excited, in spite of herself. She couldn't help but be curious about the being who had so completely infiltrated her life in this short span of time.

"Here we go," Ray said as he flipped through the pages. "There!" And he tapped his finger on one of the pictures. "Is that him?" he asked her.

Sara looked at the picture. Smiling up at her was a handsome young man with that mixture of curiosity and self-assurance in his expression that gives adults cause for hope. On the surface, he looked like he was fun, perhaps even impish. But upon closer inspection, his eyes had the look of a much more sophisticated being, and his smile, at the right angle, appeared almost menacing. She had no doubt that she was looking at the young man whose spirit now haunted her.

"Is it him?" Ray asked her again, and she suddenly realized that he thought she had seen Jimmy.

"I haven't actually ever seen him, Ray," she said. "But I think this is him."

"You've never seen him?" he asked, surprised.

"No, never. He's always completely invisible." Sara flipped through the pages of the yearbook until she found Ray. He, too, had that look of optimism characteristic of youth, but Sara noticed that there was also anxiety in his eyes. She wondered what he was thinking about the moment that picture was taken. Was it Jimmy?