In Withered Leaves [Umbral & helvorn]
<h1 id="title">Elliquiy Role Playing Forums</h1>
		<h2 id="linktree">Play-By-Post: Bondage, D/s, S&amp;M =&gt; Bondage: Exotic Solos =&gt; Topic started by: Umbral Sanguinus on 01-01-2013, 02:02:05</h2>
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				Title: <strong>In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>01-01-2013, 02:02:05</strong>
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				<div align="center"><em>Who's riding so late where winds blow wild<br>It is the father grasping his child; <br>He holds the girl embraced in his arm, <br>He clasps her snugly, he keeps her warm.<br><br>"My dear, why cover your face in such fear?" <br>"You see the elf-king, father? He's near! <br>The king of the elves with crown and train!" <br>"My dear, the mist is on the plain."<br><br>"My father, my father, and can you not hear <br>The promise the elf-king breathes in my ear?" <br>"Be calm, stay calm, my child, lie low: <br>In withered leaves the night-winds blow."<br>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;-The Erl-King</em><br><br>(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mXRmorBvdI8/TVTBCRcTwMI/AAAAAAAAARs/Mk3bkh7r16w/s1600/haunted_forest_ray_chow.jpg)</div><br><br>High in the boreal forests of Finland, during the early, short summer so far north, it first began. Margaret Dawson was conducting field research with the Scandinavian Forest Stewardship Council. For three weeks she was dragged to the far reached of the world and dropped at the edge of the secluded old growth forest with a small group of other scientists.<br><br>And thus, she set into the heart of the forest to test samples, document timber composition and growth, and take woodlot inventories with her trusty, familiar bright-orange box. The forest, built upon a rugged and jagged terrain, swallowed her whole. The forest here seemed to scrape the sky, and dig down to the core of the earth. It was timeless, and untouched. The world had past this place by. The deeper she went, the more it felt like she was intruding on nature, breaking some unknown, long-since forgotten pact.<br><br>A border had been crossed, and broken. A border between times. A border of worlds and realities, extending beyond the now and the past, the once-was and the could-be. The forest itself sighed and shuddered. Leaves and branches rustled. She wandered across a vast, buried marker. Slate shingles, long since worn bare and covered in moss and peat, shifted. Barely disturbed, but enough.<br><br><em>The forest seemed to close in around her. In the distance, there was a braying sound. Sometimes, it sounded like the wicker of a horse. Sometimes, like the howl of a wolf. It was close. The sun was setting, and a thick mist rolled into the lowlands. The ravine seemed to press in about her, entrapping her. Caging her. The noises came form all around her now, and with a hopeless realization she was about to be...</em><br><br>* * *<br><br>Molly awoke in a cold sweat, her sheets tangled around her limbs and waist as her breath came in ragged, terror-filled hitches. She was wracked by the nightly terror that seemed to haunt her. It had been a week since she returned to Franklin to finish her thesis and lab studies, and each night it was the same. Stress-induced, they told her. Her mind weary as she pushed herself in her work and her writings. Yet, if they only knew what truly pushed at Molly... for she was a conduit. Living, breathing, vulnerable and innocent, yet a conduit nonetheless. She was the bridge from one world to another, and more than just bad dreams came back with her from that trip...
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>01-01-2013, 03:10:54</strong>
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				<div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/4/49/Molly_Dawson.jpg)</div><br>Molly sat up gasping in terror, the sheet damp with cold sweat.&nbsp; Her eyes stared out at the darkened room, the familiar glow of the clock, the peeking brightness of sunlight under the shades reassuring her.&nbsp; She was not there, not in that forest in Finland... not in that place that seemed to be elsewhere.&nbsp; She sat up and hugged herself as the shaking, racking fear slowly subsided into the background.&nbsp; Yet it never entirely faded.&nbsp; No... she could hear the horns, the howling and sounds of the hunt.&nbsp; Her breath caught at a sudden buzzing.&nbsp; She jumped up, staring in fear.&nbsp; They were coming, they were coming!&nbsp; <br><br>She stumbled across the room and had the door to her little studio apartment partially open before she stopped and realized it was the sound of her alarm going off.&nbsp; God, she was spooked.&nbsp; Even the sleeping pills couldn't calm her mind, couldn't stop the nightmares.&nbsp; It wasn't as if she had trouble sleeping.&nbsp; No, sleep stalked her in the evening, her bed and dreamy oblivion wrapped her in a chill embrace every night.&nbsp; She could not escape the dreams by staying awake or only napping.&nbsp; Instead she was plunged into a torment of otherworldly fear and pursuit for eight or nine hours every night. <br><br>Molly moved around the little apartment, turning on lights and banishing the darkness by opening the blinds.&nbsp; It was a sunny day at least here in early summer.&nbsp; The hills and mountains were green with hints of snow still on the higher peaks.&nbsp; The sounds of daytime activity filtered in from the street as across from her the University began to bustle with students and professors.&nbsp; The day was better though.&nbsp; She didn't hear the sounds, see the things that haunted her nights.&nbsp; When she was busy in the lab, among the lean, ordered and rationality of science and academia Molly could almost brush off what seemed to wait for her.<br><br>As she cross into the closet sized bathroom and showered Molly tried to dismiss the whole thing.&nbsp; It was over work and stress.&nbsp; She was oh so close to finishing her doctoral dissertation.&nbsp; The work this summer had been key in supporting her paper and now it was the final crunch.&nbsp; That slob Everston and Professor Pinkus were her main obstacles.&nbsp; They didn't like her, didn't like women in the field she was sure of it although they would never say so.&nbsp; Both of them had blocked her research when they could and Everston had even made a pass at her though well veiled.&nbsp; Molly glanced at herself in the mirror as she showered.&nbsp; Oh, she was pretty enough, petite and red haired, her face covered with freckles.&nbsp; It came of an Irish background and while some found freckles cute she cursed that they made her look more like a fresh faced girl right off the farm than a serious scientist.<br><br>Finishing up she dressed in nice culottes, a blouse and sensible shoes for the lab.&nbsp; The blinking light on her phone caught her eye and she glanced through her messages.&nbsp; A couple of texts, email junk and a voice mail from her friend Emily Watson asking how her night went.&nbsp; They'd been out the evening before clubbing and Emily had hooked up with a handsome, burly man while Molly found herself isolated and ignored by the bar.&nbsp; She'd made her goodbyes to her friend as exhaustion had hit her and indeed had barely made it back to her bed before sleep hit her.
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>02-01-2013, 01:47:46</strong>
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				The lab. It was as any other, far less exciting than some dramatized Hollywood set-up. It wasn't all glass and stainless steel, especially in Franklin. The lab was dowdy and old. The ceiling sagged high above her head as she went about tracking her samples. It was one such sample that, when she neared it, a tingle would creep up along the nape of her neck. Hairs drawing up on end as though a drafty, cold breeze swept through the lab.<br><br>Molly continued with her documentation. The sampled wood resonated and thrummed in ways beyond what her eyes could see, and even her instruments could detect. Even trembled, a brief, imperceptible movement when it was forgotten and her eyes basked in the glow of the computer screen.<br><br>Some force tested itself. Stretched its abilities and strengths. There came a sudden, loud crash as a filing cabinet drawer clattered open. The summer breeze blew in from the previously un-opened window and the blinds clattered. A connection. Real. Physical. Beyond boundaries and beyond realms.<br><br>A singular thought.<br><br>Finally.<br><br>The next was more thoughtful, less forceful. Subtle, curious and instinctive. That phone, so full of data and webs of connections was sought out.<br><br>Upon the counter, Molly's phone vibrated with an incoming text. Upon the screen from an Unknown caller, there was a singular, simple message:<br><span style="font-family: courier;" class="bbc_font">Hello Molly.</span><br><br>As the phone was held in her grasp, it buzzed again, as though sensing her reading, investigating eyes upon its screen:<br><span style="font-family: courier;" class="bbc_font">I am sorry you have not been sleeping well</span><br>
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>02-01-2013, 08:55:04</strong>
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				The lab wasn't the best of the most modern but the work could be done here.&nbsp; She would have liked to have done her work in a more prestigious university or even a nation lab but Franklin University had offered her a fairly decent fellowship.&nbsp; Her parents had died while she was doing her undergrad work and her financial situation was such that she'd had to take what she could get.&nbsp; At least she could pay for a dingy apartment, cover her food and the payments on an old car and have a bit of money for fun now and then.&nbsp; <br><br>She waved to her fellow students as she moved about the aging equipment and drafty aisles in the lab.&nbsp; Her results were coming out quite well except for 13C.&nbsp; The data just didn't make any sense and failed to fit into any kind of sample trend.&nbsp; She'd been tempted to just throw it out but something stopped her each time.&nbsp; <br><br>Sighing she sat down at the laptop and pecked away at the bulk of her thesis paper.&nbsp; It was slow going but the attention to the details was going to pay off in the end.&nbsp; She'd show those fat bastards that she could do the work as well as anyone else in the field.&nbsp; Molly frowned as her phone vibrated.&nbsp; She was pretty isolated here and with no boyfriend and few female friends she didn't expect a text during the middle of the work day.<br><br>'Hello Molly'?&nbsp; What was that?&nbsp; She started to look at the sender when another message buzzed her.&nbsp; 'I am sorry you have not been sleeping well'.&nbsp; A little shiver went down her back and she frowned.&nbsp; First she looked around the lab to see if anyone was laughing or pranking her.&nbsp; After determining that there was nothing obvious she tapped back a simple message.<br><br><em>"Hello.&nbsp; Thx.&nbsp; Who RU?"</em>
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>15-05-2013, 06:31:59</strong>
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				Webs. Webs everywhere. A word of webs, of information. A wealth of it, obscene and overwhelming. The entity that she had awoken and brought from one world to another both revelled and revolted in this sudden change of dichotomy. So used to a word of darkness, and silence... and now this. This... glut. So much information, and yet none of it had the truth.<br><br>Except Molly. Locked inside of her, deep down. A truth he sought to control.<br><br>She texted back.<br><br>Moments later, there was a confused text from Emily, wanting to know why Molly had randomly texted her, and replied curtly. "Ur only friend stupid xoxo emily".<br><br>Then, there came a sudden clap of the door swinging inwards as the lumbering mass of Everston entered in with his stained polo shirt and baggy, over-sized shorts. His sock-and-sandled feet shuffled. He set down a box of donuts for an all-night marathon before he looked around, puzzled.<br><br>"The fuck is it so cold in here for? Is it for your experiment?" He asked bruskly, and only then did Molly notice her breath in the air and the biting cold that seemed to fill the room. A light frosty white sheen covered the counters around her samples, especially around sample 13C as though the frost was a web spiraling outward from it.<br><br>"You cranked the AC all the way up and left the windows open!" Everston guffawed, moving over to the windows and slamming them closed irritably.
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>18-05-2013, 06:52:40</strong>
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				Molly looked down at her phone with a puzzled look as she read Emily's message.&nbsp; Her friend wouldn't mess with her but perhaps some one else around her had nabbed her phone and sent Molly a random text.&nbsp; Still, that didn't make sense because the message was longer and more interactive than some one messing with her; that would be more crude or humorous whereas this was serious.&nbsp; Still, even in her wildest dreams she did not think to link the random text with her nightmares and the odd noises and data in the lab.&nbsp; Her thoughts along that subject and a possible text back to Emily were interrupted as Everston came lumbering into the lab.&nbsp; <br><br>She grimaced at the sight of the slovenly post-doc student.&nbsp; He wasn't actually half bad as a scientist and when he forgot his awkward manners, his toadying attitude to professor Pinkus and his dislike of women scientists and Molly in particular he could actually be helpful with her own research.&nbsp; He'd never been comfortable with her and her rebuttal of his half pass, half request for a date had solidified as much of a mean streak in him as he was capable.<br><br>Molly shook herself and shivered.&nbsp; She'd not noticed at all that the room was icy cold; she had not touched the air conditioning which didn't work more than half the time anyway.&nbsp; Her eyes lit on sample 13C and she frowned at the pattern of frost.&nbsp; Again her thought patterns were broken as Everston complained about the cold and then slammed the windows shut.&nbsp; Something deep inside of her felt a twinge of anger as he closed her off from the outside.&nbsp; She felt a strange link to the wild, open spaces beyond, even the relatively tame wilderness immediately around the university town.<br><br>"No, I didn't turn up the A/C Everston.&nbsp; It's not helpful to my experiments as I need to accelerate the chemical reactions rather than hamper them with cold.&nbsp; It's spring back in Scandinavia and these biological samples are tied into that biological rhythmn.&nbsp; They need to be allowed to develop naturally."&nbsp; Turning her back on him, she could feel his burning eyes on her backside as she walked over to her samples.&nbsp; Leaning over she examined them closely.&nbsp; Molly wouldn't put it past Everston to have set the air on before he came in and worked some kind of cryogenics trick to annoy her or even sabotage her work.&nbsp; He certainly didn't want to see her get a PhD from this university.<br><br>She glanced up at the instruments tied into 13C.&nbsp; It was a rather magnificent sample of very ancient wood from a tree that they had not been able to date but had to be several thousand years old if not more.&nbsp; She'd hoped keep the wood alive and to even stimulate growth of the cells in an attempt to cultivate the wood for harvest.
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>18-05-2013, 09:19:31</strong>
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				"Yea, well, the fuck is a tree going to do about it... cry?" He snorted from across the sprawling room as he moved over to stand before a row of cages. His pudgy fingertips squeezing between the bars as he adjusted a heat lamp.<br><br>"My specimens actually have a heart beat, you know. Being a mammal? Something that actually has <em>feelings</em>?" He said with malicious insinuation, perhaps implying she was the one without feelings. He strummed his fingers on the cage again, seeing how the rats inside were doing. <br><br>"They need their beauty sleep. Like someone else should get. She's cranky, isn't she?" He cooed to them. Every once in awhile, he would glare over his shoulder at Molly, or perhaps it was a leer as his eyes did in fact linger on the supple shape of her derriere through the taut material of her culottes. He muttered quietly to the rodents as though they were his co-conspirators.<br><br>Molly stared at the sample she possessed. Something was wrong. The temperature around it had indeed plunged; dangerously so. 13C was at such a low core temperature the cellular walls would could be damaged, something that was irreversible and dooming it to its death.<br><br>Then again, her phone buzzed irritably beside her.<br><span style="font-family: courier;" class="bbc_font"><br>Is he bothering you?</span><br>
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>20-05-2013, 09:34:30</strong>
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				Molly continued to glare at Everston.&nbsp; It was an old argument but one that always got her angry.&nbsp; "You know that my research has as much priority as yours does, more in fact since this is funded by our government and that of the location where this was collected."&nbsp; Now she thrust back, cutting him where it hurt.&nbsp; Of course she'd pay for her triumph with a week of petty tricks and annoyances that he excelled in.&nbsp; "You're just pissed that your research proposal was turned down and not only were you stuck here while I traveled but I made all kinds of good contacts for post Doc work.&nbsp; You're going to be stuck here as a sucky adjunct or lab technician for the rest of your life."&nbsp; Her words were harsh and reflected her assessment of his thoughts and personality.&nbsp; It was a harsh thing to do but she was tired, upset and strung out enough that she snapped verbally.<br><br>She snorted at his comments.&nbsp; "Feelings, huh?&nbsp; The only companionship you'll get is with the kind you confine in a cage."&nbsp; His interactions with the lab animals was a bit creepy and had been one more reason why she's refused to date him, as if she needed another reason or three with that slob.&nbsp; Molly turned from him, trying to ignore his looks and whispered comments.&nbsp; It was true she needed more sleep and she was ashamed that he'd noticed but it couldn't be helped.&nbsp; She needed to get through this phase and then the stress and dreams would be over.&nbsp; She would manage to isolate the growth spectrum's in the tree cells and truly make the ancient wood grow like new.&nbsp; Somehow she feared that this hopefull plan was not the case...<br><br>Molly was at a loss as to what to do about the freezing of 13C.&nbsp; All her work was just minutes away from being ruined.&nbsp; And not just her reputation would be ruined but the university would suffer a huge black eye and her chances for a doctorate would be out the window in a flash.&nbsp; The buzz of the cell phone was almost a welcome distraction and Molly looked down at it.&nbsp; It was that random cell phone stalker.&nbsp; Now thoroughly pissed and not really thinking through all of the implications of this other creep texting her in real time, Molly typed the first thing that sprang to mind.&nbsp; Later perhaps she might think why this was particularly creepy...<br><br><span style="font-family: courier;" class="bbc_font">"Yes, he's an asshole and my experiment is gone to hell."</span><br>
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>22-05-2013, 02:45:37</strong>
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				Going to Hell.<br><br>Hell.<br><br>A curious notion. A colloquial saying. An idiom rooted in religion. Was Molly religious? Was this her... faith? Her belief?<br><br>"Oh, yea. I am so jealous you went to a frigid forest and slept on the ground for the summer. No, thanks," he snorted, but she had gotten under his skin and he looked back over at her again.<br><br>"Who do you keep texting? Your boyfriend?" he jibed. Everyone knew Molly didn't have any friends, much less lovers. He made a drunken bet once she was a dry canyon down there.<br><br>Suddenly, behind Everston there came a clang, and he spun around to see that one of the rats he was tending to had fallen over with an apparent seizure.<br><br>"What the--!" he hastily flung open the cage's door and reached it to help the rodent.<br><br>That's when the other's sprang. One bit him on his pinky. Another his wrist. He roared in pain and tore his hand away. But it was too late. Lab rats darted out and leapt to the floor. They scurried about in a frantic, organized chaos. Everston did his best to herd them, but to no avail as his hand was held close his chest, bleeding profusely.<br><br>One of the rats darted up a desk and bounded over to the window.<br><br>Hadn't he closed it? The window was open again, and the rat was quickly gone.<br>
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>22-05-2013, 08:03:12</strong>
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				Everston knew how to get under Molly's skin and against her better judgement she continued to argue with the colossal asshole.&nbsp; "The north pole would be preferable to the social awkwardness of hanging out with you. "&nbsp; At his next jibe she blushed in both anger and embarrassment.&nbsp; Damn him for hitting home where it hurt.&nbsp; She knew he'd made a joke about her being a frigid bitch.&nbsp; There were those in the campus community that made sure it got back to her out of a sense of desire to indirectly hurt and to stir the pot further.&nbsp; Both motives had succeeded and Molly felt the accusation intensely.&nbsp; It's not that she wasn't prepared to be passionate it was just that all her life she seemed destined for more or promised for more.&nbsp; Still it hurt like hell.<br><br>"None of my business who I'm texting.&nbsp; At least my friends aren't lab rats."&nbsp; Her return was weak and she knew it but he aggravated her so....<br><br>As the rat clanged in the cage Molly turned and watched with initial disinterest.&nbsp; When the other rats leaped on Everston she let out a scream of surprise and sympathy pain even for the asshole.&nbsp; Standing aside she watch the rats go nuts and edged away.&nbsp; These were not feral rats but she found them to be slightly disturbing with their beady and seemingly knowing eyes.&nbsp; The excuse to walk across the room for the first aid kit is irresistible and she takes it.&nbsp; "Do you need medical care Everston is said in a voice of sheer duty.
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>24-05-2013, 04:45:46</strong>
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				Everston stood by the window, holding his hand to his ribs even as blood welled from numerous rat bites and spattered onto the floor, but he seemed not to notice. Instead, he turned on Molly as she came towards him with the medical kit. His eyes flashed with an unnatural anger as he snarled.<br><br>"You opened the window again! You filthy fucking bitch!" He took a step towards her, menacing.<br><br>"Just because I actually do something worthwhile, you ruin it! You did this!" He snapped and rose his good hand upwards as he wound it up to backhand her.<br><br>Suddenly, something flickered at the edge of his vision. Molly would catch it, too. A black flutter, like the wild beat of bat wings, over by her specimens.<br><br>Frozen, his eyes bulged. For a moment he saw a figure, darkly silhouetted. Lean and angular. Inhuman, and frightening. The scientist's mind reeled as it tried to comprehend the sudden appearance of the figure. Rationale mind stuttered and failed.<br><br>Everston's hand awkwardly fell, and after a dizzying moment, he stumbled forward, yanking the first aid kit from her before rushing towards the doorway.<br><br>"Wait until I tell the board!" He screeched, but there was a strange, panicked terror in his voice as he fled. For all Molly could tell, she was alone in the room with a trail of blood drops leading away, leaving her to deal with the experiment that went to hell.<br><br>Isn't that was what she had texted? That her experiment had gone to hell?<br><br>A text buzzed.<br><br><span style="font-family: courier;" class="bbc_font">You are welcome</span>
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				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>24-05-2013, 07:03:32</strong>
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				Molly reacted with fear and anger as he turned toward her.&nbsp; It was just like the stupid ass to blame her for his shortcomings and incompetence.&nbsp; Unfortunately he was rather good at it and had managed to discredit her a number of times in front of the Professor or the other grad and post grad student.&nbsp; "I didn't open the window you moron.&nbsp; I've been standing here watching your precious experiments tear you a new one."<br><em><br>"Just because I actually do something worthwhile, you ruin it! You did this!" He snapped and rose his good hand upwards as he wound it up to backhand her.</em><br><br>She held the medical kit in front of her almost as a shield to ward him off when he came forward to backhand her.&nbsp; Molly cringed backward.&nbsp; He might have been fat but the man had strength under the blubber and she feared what he could do in a fit of rage.&nbsp; She started to scream, began the flight mode as Molly prepared to be hurt when the flicker caught her eye.&nbsp; In that instant it did not particularly register with her as fear clouded her mind.&nbsp; Later she would wonder...<br><br>"No!" she cried out but any more words were stifled as he stiffened and gazed over her shoulder.&nbsp; The look of fear in his eyes, the raw terror was in a way more fearful than the rage and incipient attack.&nbsp; She let out a cry of surprise and fear as he reached and grabbed at the kit.&nbsp; Expecting a blow she irrationally struggled for a second to hold onto the kit before his superior strength wrenched it from her grip.&nbsp; <br><br>Molly stood petrified as he literally ran toward the door.&nbsp; She had never seen him move his bulk so quickly and would have laughed in another circumstance.&nbsp; His parting words were a blow to her, a sign that despite her innocence she would be in trouble.&nbsp; He was a master of the low blow, the petty vengeance and the political manipulation.&nbsp; Surely whatever he had suffered would be inflicted back on her in some fashion piled on higher and deeper.<br><br>As the room quieted she glanced about, her eyes probing now for the flicker of wings or darkness.&nbsp; It must have been a cloud or something causing a sudden darkness.&nbsp; She sighed and looked over at her dying experiment and thought that if it did go to hell then it wouldn't matter what kind of revenge Evanston worked on her.<br><br>Molly started and literally jumped as her cell phone buzzed softly.&nbsp; By instinct she looked down at the message and let out a gasp as she almost dropped the handset.&nbsp; What?&nbsp; She read it again a couple of time.&nbsp; Finally she looked around for hidden cameras or anyone looking in on her.&nbsp; This had to be a prank although she knew from his reaction that Evanston was not part of it.<br><br>She reluctantly typed back. <span style="font-family: courier;" class="bbc_font">"TY What is this all about?"</span><br>
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>25-05-2013, 07:26:30</strong>
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				<span style="font-family: courier;" class="bbc_font">He was an asshole. He will not bother you again.<br></span><br>After that text, her phone's battery flashed a warning, and powered off. No amount of charging seemed to revive it.<br><br>Not that was the most immediate problem. The looming threat of what Everston would say or bring down here was ever-present, hanging heavily in the air like a dark cloud. A storm threatening to brew. Only Molly's work could take her mind off of it, but still it left her unsettled.<br><br>The day dripped by. Soon, a sound at the door came with a jarring of the handle as the janitor trundled in with his cart. A quick glance at the clock showed it was already past 10pm. No one had come to question her. No sign of Everston. <br><br>Molly was left to head home, likely uneager to face the next day. And still, her phone refused to turn on.
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			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>26-05-2013, 09:19:26</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly stared at the message on the screen and then started a bit as it went dead.&nbsp; She banged the thing and tried to charge it to no avail.&nbsp; On the whole she wasn't too worried as the thing had a warranty on the components.&nbsp; No, it was the weirdness of the whole situation; the text, the odd encounter with Everston and now the phone going dead.&nbsp; She shook her head and looked around the lab.&nbsp; There was a lot to do regardless of the oddities of the afternoon.&nbsp; Nothing would make that go away and she would only get further behind and more subject to criticism if she left it for tomorrow.&nbsp; <br><br>Working steadily she managed to get a fair bit done although she found her mind drifting back to the day's events.&nbsp; Molly was set off her normal balance enough that she jumped in fright when the janitor came into the lab.&nbsp; She smiled at him and shook her head at her own silliness.&nbsp; The events of the day had faded enough that she could almost file them away as just an odd coincidence except for the phone.<br><br>Still shaking her head she shut down her laptop and packed it away, secured her experiments and turned down the desk lights.&nbsp; Pulling her light jacket around her shoulders she headed home at a brisk walk, keeping to the lights in an unconscious need for reassurance.&nbsp; She wanted to get home quickly, change into her comfortable pajamas and put on some old 'Will and Grace' sitcoms while she had a bowl of granola and settled in for sleep.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>26-05-2013, 09:42:27</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				After a marathon of television, when the screen flickered lights across the darkened room, did sleep come to Molly. When the TV finally turned itself off did the shadows remain. The shadows cast by a tall, lean figure. Angular and sweeping. It lingered near the corner of the room where Molly's wardrobe was. Unseen and unfelt eyes watching the rise and fall of her chest with each breath of sleep. The flutter of her eyes as she dreamed... it tentatively reached out, and fingers brushed along her temple, and into those dreams...<br><br>*&nbsp; *&nbsp; *<br><br>Molly would awake feeling refreshed. The day before behind her. It was a new day, and her samples were still in a dangerous state that needed supervision. It would not be long before she was heading back to the campus to get an early start on her project.<br><br>She could tell something was wrong before she pulled up. A noxious dark grey smoke rose in a column towards the pre-dawn sky. Firetrucks blocked off the side of the building she worked it. Before she even saw the damage, she'd likely know the truth. The lab had been burned. A blackened, charred skeleton remained. The outer wall either burned or hacked away by the emergency responders, it revealed nothing but the smoldering wreckage of what was once her projects and life's work.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>26-05-2013, 09:49:19</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The simple, funny sitcoms, the silly situations and the comforting situations of the old sitcoms soothed Molly.&nbsp; It took a while but she finally calmed down.&nbsp; The phone was on the charger and hopefully all would be well in the meantime.&nbsp; She may have dreamed that night but she did not remember what they involved.&nbsp; Still, the morning was bright and sunny and the day before her would be better.&nbsp; Little was she prepared for what was to come.<br><br>There was actually a spring in her step as she walked back to the campus.&nbsp; Everston was a jerk and ass but she would get past it and show them all with her results.&nbsp; That would be her vindication.&nbsp; When she saw the smoke rising over the lab she let out a scream.&nbsp; Running heedlessly she dodged past the barriers and ignored the calls of the police and fire fighters at the scene.&nbsp; Reaching the edge of the smoldering rubble she gazed in at the ruin of her life and sobbed.<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>26-05-2013, 10:14:52</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The firefighters rushed to catch Molly as approached the rubble. Professor Pinkus was already there, features grim. He came up and stood next to Molly for a long moment as she sobbed, until there were no more tears left to shed.<br><br>Pinkus reached out and put his hand on her shoulder.<br><br>"Dawson," he called her. "It's over. Let it go and move on. Sometimes, we hold on to things that we don't need to. It's best to just let it go... let them die..." he was saying, and even as he spoke, a strange sense of peace about the destruction came over her. It was not her own emotions, but like one forced upon her mind. Trying to will itself to be true. That this destruction and ruination of her samples was a good thing. A freeing thing.<br><br>Yet, Molly would not stay under Pinkus's touch forever, and the moment his hand fell from her shoulder, the world around her crumbled.<br><br>The broken, blacked debris seemed to close in around her. In the distance, there was a sound of a siren. Sometimes, it sounded like something alive. Braying. Sometimes, like the howl of a wolf. It was close. The sun was gone, lost behind the choking smoke. A thick mist rolled around her. The ruins seemed to press in about her, entrapping her. Caging her. The noises came from all around her now, and with a hopeless realization she was about to be...<br><br>*&nbsp; *&nbsp; *<br><br>Molly woke up. The sun was filtering through her window as she slept longer than she meant. The alarm on her non-functioning phone having not woken her.<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>27-05-2013, 09:31:35</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly had never felt quite so upset, so helpless and disheartened as she did while she stood there sobbing at the ruins of her life.&nbsp; She shivered under the touch of Pinkus' arm.&nbsp; The emotions that flooded her felt good, she wanted to feel that way but there was some strangeness that screamed at her that this was wrong.&nbsp; How could she feel this way.&nbsp; Yet the good feelings, the free feelings made it all the harder when she came down from them, down to reality.&nbsp; As Molly stood there things seemed to dim and swirl around her as if she were in some dark, deep hole where all the noises and pleasures of the world turned to ash.<br><br>She gathered her wits to scream, to flee, to fight, to... do something.&nbsp; Yet it was as if she were calf deep in some cloying mud and could not flee.<br><br><hr><br>Then she was free.&nbsp; It was morning, the birds were singing and the sun was shining.&nbsp; She sat up and looked around.&nbsp; Out the window in her bedroom the skies were clear.&nbsp; There was no fire, no conflagration and end to all her work... all would be well.&nbsp; Yet a sudden panic struck her.&nbsp; She was late!&nbsp; The damn phone was still dead and she was dead too for being... at least an hour or more late.<br><br>Jumping out of bed Molly ran through her morning ablutions with record speed.&nbsp; She showered, dried and brushed quickly with no more make-up than a bit of lip gloss.&nbsp; Damn, damn, damn... there would be hell to pay...&nbsp; Throwing her stuff together she nearly trotted across the grass and walks of the university to the lab.&nbsp; Please, please doing be there waiting to yell at her!
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>27-05-2013, 09:45:38</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The university was intact. No firetrucks, no ambulances. Her lab was safe and secure and quiet. Indeed, very quiet. A somber veil seemed to cloak the campus. The energy was muted in the building as she entered. No one commented on her being late. <br><br>Professor Pinkus was waiting for her as she entered the room. He was fidgeting with his keys as he did when he was nervous. When he had to take on the authority he shouldered like a burden, loving the prestige it gave him but hating the responsibility. He turned to regard Molly. He saw her without really seeing her, before he looked back at the room.<br><br>"Dawson... I wasn't expecting to see you in here," he cleared his throat and shifted his weight. "I figured you would have taken the day off like everyone else."<br><br>"I suppose it's better to keep busy," His eyes flickered to the empty rows of cages. "I know you shared the space with him. It must be hard on you. But we'll all miss him. Everston was a good man," Professor Pinkus said.<br><br>That was how Molly would find out about his death. Through the numbed shock, Pinkus would tell her how Everston died in a house fire in the early morning hours. They were already calling it a suicide. Everston sent an email out from his house that seemed to explain it all. His misery, his depression, his need to escape... hadn't she gotten it? Hadn't she checked her phone?
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>28-05-2013, 02:01:21</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Despite the fact that she knew it had been a dream, Molly was still glad that the building was not a smouldering ruin.&nbsp; The dream... the dream had been so utterly realistic that she had been sure it was the truth.&nbsp; Even now flickers of it seemed to play across her memory showing what could have, might have been.&nbsp; This was far, far more intense than the others and for a moment she wonders if she is going crazy.&nbsp; No... it was just tension and reaction to the confrontation with Everston that had caused the dream.&nbsp; It was natural, yes, natural...<br><br>She hustled to her lab through the clean white and beige corridors of the lab building.&nbsp; She couldn't meet the eye of anyone, even the few women there that she was friendly with.&nbsp; As she saw Professor Pinkus her heart started to race like it was going to leap from her chest and explode.&nbsp; She blushed deeply, the crimson covering her face, neck and exposed flesh of her chest like a calling card.&nbsp; She was not guilty but she felt tainted somehow by the exchange with Everston.&nbsp; He was the jerk, he was at fault, she did nothing wrong Molly told herself.<br><br>Molly looked up at him, not really meeting his eyes either as he looked up at her and then away as well.&nbsp; He was nervous, this was not good.&nbsp; When he was pompous or judgmental at least he would blow hot air for a while and then exhaust himself.&nbsp; She did glance up at him and set her purse and bag down on an empty counter near her cluttered desk.&nbsp; "Oh... hi professor.&nbsp; I... well I've got a lot of work and... well no rest for the wicked."&nbsp; She blushed as the words came out of her mouth.&nbsp; Had she actually said that last?&nbsp; God how lame!&nbsp; She was rattled.&nbsp; Maybe it was the odd, somber atmosphere that seemed to fill the campus and the building despite the sunny day.<br><br>She glanced at him and turned to stare at him as his words washed over her.&nbsp; At first she didn't understand them although she did hear them.&nbsp; Finally she let out a gasp of shock and sat heavily at her desk, clattering over some piece of lab equipment in her unconcious motion.&nbsp; Dead?&nbsp; Burnt, suicide?<br><br>"He... he did..." She stammered, her face grown pale now as the shock hit her.&nbsp; Dissemble, say the words that are expected, you can do it Molly, just do it and the old man will leave out of shear awkwardness with having to actually deal with someone as other than a posturing windbag.&nbsp; "No, no my phone isn't working... I need... I need a new battery or something.&nbsp; I... well I've been busy and haven't...&nbsp; checked, ummm, my email."&nbsp; Molly was fumbling with her words as her mind raced a million miles an hour.&nbsp; Suicide?&nbsp; Everston would never do that, not when he had her in his sights, when he could look forward to revenge and return the torment on her a hundred fold of what he had felt the day before.&nbsp; Could this be... linked... somehow with the texts and the strange occurances?&nbsp; No, no it was all coincidence, such things didn't happen.&nbsp; Everston was a jerk, an unstable jerk and something about the attack and the loss of his animals sent him over the edge.<br><br>"I'm sorry to hear about it.&nbsp; Yes, we worked together, a lot."&nbsp; She knew he either didn't know that Everston was a jerk or didn't care or regarded it as natural that as a woman she be harrassed and annoyed.&nbsp; Why should that be a problem.&nbsp; Certainly Everston had made it seem that he was some kind of mentor to the fumbling, emotional woman.&nbsp; "Umm... yes it will be a great loss to me but I... we... will all have to struggle on.&nbsp; It's going to be hard to adjust but I guess we'll have to suffer with the loss."
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>28-05-2013, 05:39:14</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<em>He will not bother you again...<br></em><br>"Yes... well..." Pinkus looked Molly over, noting how peculiar she'd become. "You seem to be taking all this rather hard... it looks like you didn't sleep well, either. I suggest you take the day off. Get your phone fixed, and do something that pleases you." He said, and then went to the door. He lingered, as though about to tell her something more, but couldn't find the words and turned to leave.<br><br>Molly was left again in solitude with her research. Her samples. They seemed to call to her, and conjure up the freeing sensation from her dream knowing they'd been destroyed. As though something compelled her to.<br><br>Which was true.<br><br>It was also true it was his root to this world, his entrance. But he was already here. What was left was an anchor. A prison. He wanted it destroyed, so <em>he </em>could be free.<br><br>When Molly would eventually go take her phone in, the teenager at the kiosk fiddled with and it turned on in his hand no problem. He gave her look like she was an idiot, and passed it back to her.<br><br>Five new emails. One voicemail.<br><br>Who would have called her?<br><br>When she'd listen to, she'd hear Everston's voice. Sent at 1:37am the night before.<br><br>"Molly... I can't sleep... it's like... that thing. I know you saw something too. I saw it. It... it's here, Molly. I can tell. Every time I close my head I fucking see it, like he was a skinny batman or something. I know I wasn't seeing things. Shit... I dont know why I called you. You're a cold one. You never let me know you, ya know? Never came out for drinks with the crew. You really need to get out more..." There was a nervous chuckle on the recording, then a pause. His breath was hear, and then a crackle.<br><br>"What was...?&nbsp; Maybe it was nothing... Christ. I tihnk I'm going crazy. I thought I heard a voice. maybe the rat bite is infected... maybe it... it..." His voice was but a whisper.<br><br>"I see him. He comes, wi--!" The voicemail ended.<br><br><em>He will not bother you again,</em> the text had said.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>29-05-2013, 01:38:46</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly rather emptily thanked Pinkus for his offer and agreed to take some time off and take care of herself.&nbsp; She sat staring at the samples for a long time as she thought about what had happened, Everston's death, her dream and the odd text messages.&nbsp; Was someone messing with her?&nbsp; It sure seemed like it but if it was a sick prank it had gone past the bounds of fun and into the realm of brutality and death.&nbsp; Still, something like this was odd, too odd to be more than some kind of weird coincidence, right?<br><br>She felt a sudden surge of something, anger, impulse, whatever to just trash the samples, burn them and be done with the damn things.&nbsp; It was totally irrational but so was the last day or so.&nbsp; At least she would no longer have them hanging over her head.&nbsp; She actually stood and stepped over to them before some burst of sanity stopped her.&nbsp; This last string of thoughts finally motivated her to get up and get the heck out of the lab.&nbsp; <br><br>She went downtown and bought a bit of ice cream and ended up enduring the snide remarks of a punk at the kiosk who told her nothing was wrong with her phone.&nbsp; Of course it turned right on when she had it at the counter.&nbsp; It was what was on the phone that was the problem...<br><br>Everston's voice was a voice from the grave; accusing, pleading and asking for help.&nbsp; In the end it tore at her soul.&nbsp; She stood in the middle of the mall, tears running down her face as the faceless voice babbled and spun a tortured story.&nbsp; This was, this was... terrible...<br><br>There was a house fire, he'd died in a house fire... and she had dreamed of a fire, of a fire that destroyed and ended... that released.&nbsp; The fire had released her from harassment from Everston at the cost of his life, the fire in her dream had released... it had released the samples, the life in the wood, in the living plant cells from her lab.&nbsp; <br><br>And he had died.<br><br>Everston was a grade A jerk but no one deserved to die for it.&nbsp; She wiped her face and stood thinking, oblivious to the looks of the passers by.&nbsp; He saw something, something in his apartment.&nbsp; It was not suicide.&nbsp; Some one had sent her those texts and maybe it was the same person who killed Everston.&nbsp; She remembered that last text;<br><br><em>He will not bother you again.</em><br><br>She had to think about this, she had to give it to the police.&nbsp; Maybe this guy was still on the loose, maybe he would come after her next!&nbsp; Thinking quickly, her breathing coming in short, almost hysterical pants she paged through her emails.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>29-05-2013, 02:16:59</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				People shied away from Molly. They edged around her like she was tainted. Cursed. Even as silent tears stretched her cheeks and chin, they swept along like the current around a boulder.<br><br>The email from Everston was short and to the point.<br><br><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">From: keverston@franklin.edu<br>To: All Staff<br>Subject: Goodbye<br><br>I must end it. There's no hope left. I'll be at peace. No one had anything to do with this. My decision totally. I would say I will see you again, but I won't. There is no other side. Nothing. I give myself back now. Dust to dust, ash to ash. We're just the ash of long-dead stars. Remember that.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br>Even as Molly's eyes scanned over the screen, a new email popped up. Sent at that very moment. From herself.<br><br><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">From: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>To: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>Subject: Regrets?<br><br>Are you having regrets, Molly? It doesn't suit you. I gave you what you wanted. Please don't be angry with me.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>29-05-2013, 08:17:13</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly was nothing if not strong.&nbsp; She'd not gotten this far in a male dominated field of study with her integrity and pride intact for nothing.&nbsp; She stepped aside, out of the flow of traffic, away from the silent eyes.&nbsp; She read the email from Everston, the tears continuing to flow unheeded down her cheeks.&nbsp; Such a blank, anonymous way to go, so... futile.<br><br>Then she started from her introspection that was bordering on a pity party.&nbsp; Damn...<br><br>She read the email and almost hurled the phone from her.&nbsp; What the hell?!<br><br>Molly typed rapidly, angrily and hit reply to herself.&nbsp; It made no sense but she was in the zone now regardless of who or what this was.<br><br><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">From: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>To: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>Subject: Regrets?<br><br>Of course I'm having regrets!&nbsp; This is not what I wanted.&nbsp; You go too far, dare too much.&nbsp; Stop it, stop it and go!<br></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>29-05-2013, 08:34:14</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The people were all around her, yet non-existent. Faceless. They were the buzzing bees. Background noise, and little else. She was at the heart of it. Something was changing. Something was happening to Molly. Something that could not be explained away by science.<br><br><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">From: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>To: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>Subject: RE: Regrets?<br><br>Go where? Where am I? I'm you.<br><br>This is what you wanted. This is what I wanted.<br><br>You don't want to go to the police. It is too suspicious. They will go home. They'll find your clothes in the hamper that smell like kerosene. They'll find the matches on the dresser.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br>The noises in the mall were building to a cacophony. It was an echoing drumming around her as everyone was talking at once. They begin to press around her, like a wave of humanity. Bumping her, jostling her as she clutched at her phone in anger and desperation. It was as though they were trying to shake her out of something. Tear her from it's grasp... but it was too late. It had a hold of her. <em>He </em>had ahold of her.<br><br>She was his.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>30-05-2013, 08:32:15</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly was in another world.&nbsp; Things were hazy, dazed like she was under the influence of some kind of drug or illness.&nbsp; Yet her mind was sharp, finely tuned.&nbsp; The difference was she was tuned to an entirely different frequency, a different world.&nbsp; People, things, noises, the bustle of life that up until that point had been considered normal.&nbsp; She looked down at the email, her hands trembling yet she could not toss away the device, close her eyes or refuse to read the words.<br><br><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">From: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>To: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>Subject: RE: Regrets?<br><br><tt class="bbc_tt">No, you cannot be me.&nbsp; <br><br>This is some trick setting me up with Everston's death.&nbsp; What do you want from me?</tt></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br>There was no more thoughts of the police.&nbsp; Somehow she knew that the clothing would be found as he described, that their arguments would be reported and suspicion would fall upon her.&nbsp; And she knew that this presence, this person was a 'He'.&nbsp; Oh she knew it in her bones and in her belly.<br><br>All was confusing, it was rising to a crescendo of torment.&nbsp; The people around her were not real, they were spirits, devils, something...&nbsp; Hysteria grew and grew in her mind, her heart raced and her skin flushed.&nbsp; She had to fight, she had to flee, both impulses ruled her mind.&nbsp; And there was Him, the presence, the one that was part of her, that... that owned her, possessed her.&nbsp; Molly felt an unreasoning fear knowing that she was beyond any escape.&nbsp; There was the terror, the reluctance and panic and yet a bit of excitement and thrill creeping in.<br><br><strong>She was his.</strong>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>31-05-2013, 02:24:23</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The mall was suddenly silent. The bees went into hibernation. The wind taken from the sails with a calm before the storm. The horizon seemed bleak, and dark for Molly. But within that great approaching storm was a churning vitality. Life, primal and raw unleashed.<br><br>The furious tempest that was drawing her in, pulling her towards its tendrils as the tornado threatened to yank her from her very core, her world, her reality.<br><br><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">From: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>To: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>Subject: RE: Regrets?<br><br>Burn it.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br>She might feign confusion, or innocent. Pretend she didn't understand what the message meant, but her dream had betrayed her, and she'd know what it was asking.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>31-05-2013, 04:45:44</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				She shuddered as the world went silent.&nbsp; It was literally the calm before the storm yet it was far more.&nbsp; Her world, her life and her reality were in shambles around her in this forever instant of time.&nbsp; Molly was bereft and empty, the things around her broken and cast aside as a new power swept in.&nbsp; It was that awkward transition between point A and point B where there was no going back.&nbsp; HE had claimed her, taken her from her life yet had not revealed himself to her, had not taken possession of her.&nbsp; But as she gazed at the terrible vista of the storm, of the destructive power that would sweep all away before it she knew that HE was there somehow, that the energy was building.&nbsp; The power of Life, of the energy that surrounded everything living drove the menacing clouds and destroyed all before it.&nbsp; But in the destruction there was a promise of rebirth, or transcendence, of being his...<br><br>And she was afraid.<br><br>And in the fear she felt a primitive yearning.<br><br>Molly knew that when the storm came, when the tornado yanked her off it would not be to Oz but rather to some other place, the forest of her dreams where she would face the primeval master and suffer her fate.<br><br>The the words struck her... 'burn it'.&nbsp; She knew, Molly knew what to do, what to destroy and that it would release something, something that would change her forever.<br><br><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">From: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>To: mdawson@franklin.edu<br>Subject: RE: Regrets?<br><br><tt class="bbc_tt">Why?</tt></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>01-06-2013, 01:31:48</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				There came a crash within the Molly. A horrific sound like steel teeth tearing chewing through glass and rock. No one seemed to notice. Everyone still seemed to wander, listless and leisurely. They seemed muted, as though the color and life was drained from them.<br><br>There was an atrium in the center of the mall's food court where Molly stood that was decorated by half a dozen palm trees in giant, oversized concrete planters. They were out of place, certainly. But what was more out of place was the unkindness of ravens that hung on the heavy green fronds, perched atop each trunk like sinister, maliciously watching coconuts. <br><br>All of them. All those eyes. Watching her.<br><br>Molly would see a dozen different answers to her email. A dozen possible truths. A dozen possible dreams that answered her question, 'why?"<br><br>Because you're stuck, and need to escape.<br><br>Because I demand it.<br><br>Because you want it.<br><br>Because I own you.<br><br>Because...<br><br>Because...<br><br>Because...<br><br>Caws.<br><br>The birds were shrieking and fluttering, and then all at once took flight. A spiralling flock that ascended like a tornado that rose up over her...<br><br>..and was gone.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>01-06-2013, 08:59:34</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly froze, her body held in a perilously tense pose as the mall seemed to be breaking around her.&nbsp; She glanced up, looking for a wall or even the ceiling to come down.&nbsp; She wanted to scream at the unseeing, deaf heard around her for their dull ignorance of what was happening around them, was happening to her.&nbsp; If only she could reach out to some other human contact it would break her free of this prison, tear her loose from his bonds, at least for now.&nbsp; Yet nothing came, no one looked up at her or drifted in out of the haze to sharpness and immediacy.<br><br>She stepped along, drawn by the circle of trees, knowing that something waited there for her, an answer.&nbsp; Molly stiffened, her hand going to her mouth in fear as she saw the birds, the ravens peering down at her like a row of avenging souls.&nbsp; She felt the answers, each one pressed into her mind through the stares of the birds.&nbsp; It was as if there were a dozen of the ravens but together they were more than the sum of their parts, something deeper, more vital and dangerously sinsister.<br><br>Each answer hit her like a physical blow.&nbsp; She was in shock, her body shaken with the words.&nbsp; Each answer was true, each shook her to the core as she realized what she had to do.&nbsp; As the tornado swirled around her and threatened to carry her away she fell to her knees and wept.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>02-06-2013, 23:18:28</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The bustle of the mall came back to her, all at once. A sudden chorus of noises, sensations. Sights and sounds and smells. The fried food and the pretzel stand. The screaming children in the play area and the bellicose man hawking wares at his booth. <br><br>Molly wept. Her phone still clutched in her hand as she sat upon her heels in the midst of the commotion.<br><br>"Are you okay?" A voice asked. Soft and sweet and naively innocent, yet with a pure child-like concern.<br><br>A young girl, with a messy mop of wild red hair and face spattered with freckles stood before Molly. It was like looking into a mirror across time, she looked so much like Molly when she was a girl it was uncanny.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>03-06-2013, 00:41:08</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly jerked and almost fell to the floor as suddenly she was back in reality or at least what had been reality for her.&nbsp; She looked up at the girl and gasped a bit.&nbsp; This was her, ten or twelve years ago.&nbsp; Was this?&nbsp; How could she think that everything was a coincidence?<br><br>She stood and struggled to smile as Molly put her phone away and fished out a couple of tissues from her purse.&nbsp; She wiped her eyes and her face and then brushed back her hair.&nbsp; Surely she was a mess with a reddened and puffy face but that could not be helped at the moment.&nbsp; There was a mission, a thing that she had to do that frightened her but disobedience frightened her more.<br><br>"Oh, hi. I'm ok.&nbsp; I just had some news that startled me.&nbsp; You and I look like sisters."&nbsp; There was a smile at this last and a lighter note.&nbsp; "I'm Molly, what is your name?"
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>06-06-2013, 07:13:55</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				"Molly! That's pretty! I'm--" the girl paused, tilted her head, and look back over her shoulder with concern. She nervously shifted and leaned in towards Molly. With a cupped hand, she whispered to the grown woman.<br><br>"I can't... he's watching. You better go," she then patted Molly's hand affectionately and the girl shuffled back. "You'll be fine, you'll see," she promised, and then turned to scurry off into the crowd.<br><br>It was going to be a long day, and the longer she avoided her lab the more a knot would grow in her stomach, gnawing at her as though something in Molly's core was tugging at her, compelling her towards the inevitable.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>07-06-2013, 09:46:12</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly stares at the girl as she looks at something behind her head.&nbsp; Something tells her that she doesn't want to follow the girl's eyes, to know what might be behind her.&nbsp; She could not pull back as the girl whispered.&nbsp; Molly nodded.&nbsp; She did not know who was watching, who was nearby but instinctively she understood the danger.&nbsp; "Yes, you should go.&nbsp; I must face him myself."&nbsp; The words came unbidden to her which led to further fear.<br><br>She straightened up and waved to the girl as she departed.&nbsp; "Thank you.&nbsp; I hope it works out..."<br><br>The girl's words added a sense of finality and solidity to her dreams and visions.&nbsp; But was the girl even real as well?&nbsp; She looked exactly like Molly at that age, enough to be a twin or clone.&nbsp; Molly stayed in and near the mall, near to people and activity.&nbsp; For much of the day she stayed away from the lab, from the samples.&nbsp; She was denying the inevitable.&nbsp; Molly knew that sooner or later she would have to confront the thing in the lab, whatever it was.<br><br>The day wore on and on.&nbsp; Things began to darken around her as she forced herself to stay away from the lab, from the sample... from the fire.&nbsp; Finally around four she breaks down and hops in her car to head to the lab.&nbsp; Molly promises herself that this is all hysteria, that she could simply check her experiments, make a few data entries and then go, that the silly concerns would dissipate and leave her calm and collected.<br><br>The walk up to the lab was a combination of growing relief and increasing fear.&nbsp; Still, she was not a shy or diffident woman and Molly marched directly through the door and into the lab.&nbsp; Flipping the lights on she paused for a moment, for the first time thinking about fleeing.&nbsp; Finally Molly mustered her courage and moved to the primary sample, the one that required fire.&nbsp; As she approached the bench she looked down and noticed that somehow she had the emergency gas can from her car.&nbsp; What?
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>09-06-2013, 01:22:37</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The forest was old, and tired.<br><br>Fire was restoration and rebirth.<br><br>The story of the phoenix, the ecological succession of plant life. Fire would reinvigorate, and spur new life. New changes to grow, and to take root.<br><br>The sample stood in the fume hood, beneath the protective plexiglass.<br><br>Release it.<br><br>Release me.<br><br>Release <em>yourself</em>.<br><br>He would be reborn in the fire. The smoke would curl into the atmosphere. The ashes to swirl about and be drawn into the ventilation hood. The flames consumed by the oxygen. But the essence. The essence would reach out through space, and time. From the old to the new. From the dead to the living. Into Molly's mind. Her spirit, her soul. Fusing into it, and entrenching itself. It let her savor the the feeling of euphoria. The sense of completion.<br><br>The rest would come later.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>10-06-2013, 08:47:21</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly stood for a long, long moment staring down at the sample.&nbsp; It was sitting in the fume hood already.&nbsp; She wasn't sure if and when she'd moved it.&nbsp; Images flickered through her mind of fires rushing through old, decaying woods.&nbsp; Of purifying flames flooding through the land consuming the old and leaving behind ash and ruin.&nbsp; Yet rain came washing down like tears through the smoky remains.&nbsp; Soon green shoots grew, turning quickly into saplings and then towering, powerful trees.&nbsp; There was a masculine sense of strength in the forest that drew her like a moth to a flame.<br><br>It would be right... it would be the thing to do...<br><br>She reached slowly as if on autopilot for the little burner.&nbsp; A sharp click or two and the lighter ignited the bright gas flame.&nbsp; What was she doing?&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; It was just one sample.&nbsp; She could say it was lost in the shuffle, the confusion with the struggle and the suicide in the lab.&nbsp; No one would dare question her even if they found out.&nbsp; <br><br>Release, release... the ravens came to her and the dreams.&nbsp; Somehow this would free her, release her from whatever curled and lurked around her like a hanging, pregnant event waiting to happen.<br><br>Molly leaned forward and applied the flame, playing it over the sample of the dry wood until it lit, the whir of the fume hood sounding loudly in her ears.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>11-06-2013, 07:18:34</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				And it burned.<br><br>No visions. No voices. No puff of smoke or mad cackling. No ravens in the window or strange sights.<br><br>It was all rather a let down, most likely. As though a sudden, incomprehensible whim pushed her to destroy her own work. Had Molly always been so self-destructive? She set her research back so far, it was a wonder if it wasn't irrevocable. <br><br>It took time. Like a metamorphasis, the butterfly did not re-emerged instantaneously. It was a struggle to find the light again. To rise back up to the surface and tear away the shroud that hid and bound it. Though in time, the transformation solidified and took hold. Molly was now his vessel, and he her keeper.<br><br>*&nbsp; *&nbsp; *<br><br>Molly suddenly found herself standing in front of her full-body mirror. She was wearing what she normally slept it, the garments clinging to her soft, girlish curves. It was in the middle of the night, though she had not remembered going to bed, or even going home. The fire was the last thing she remembered. Now, she found herself staring at her reflection, her own hands resting on the side of her neck and the other gently curled around her ribs beneath her breast, as though she had been admiring herself in the mirror while sleep walking.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>12-06-2013, 01:59:21</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly stood locked in time as the sample burned.&nbsp; There was no reasonable explanation for it, nothing she could say to tell others why she had sabotaged her own work.&nbsp; It was an entirely mundane thing of propane, wood and heat and combustion.&nbsp; She stared, mesmerized as the flames licked and consumed, the research damaged.&nbsp; Perhaps she could salvage the results from the other, lesser samples but they were not as far along in the exposure nor as perfectly suited to her goals as this piece.&nbsp; It was so... ordinary... this end to it all.<br><br>Yet how did that man say it; it was not the beginning of the end but perhaps the end of the beginning of a new phase in her life.&nbsp; She remained there, locked by the flames, the smoke, the glowing embers and finally the dusty ashes.&nbsp; Suddenly it was done...<br><br><hr><br>Time...<br><br><hr><br>She gasped, blinked.&nbsp; It was her, in the mirror, she peered more closely: yes.<br><br>She wondered at herself.&nbsp; What had happened?&nbsp; Her hands came down to her side and she stared into the mirror.&nbsp; The fire, the destruction and then what?&nbsp; She was home, here at night.&nbsp; But what was she doing?&nbsp; She didn't smell of drink or look... different.&nbsp; Why...<br><br>Shivering, Molly wondered for a moment if this was another dream.&nbsp; She went into the kitchen and set water to boil for tea.&nbsp; Needing reassurance she checked her phone for email or updates from her friends.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>15-06-2013, 01:16:05</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Nothing. Perhaps just a restless night's sleep. Insomnia, that devil of a curse where true rest and utter exhaustion did their little dance about the pillow. So, there she was, pouring herself a cup of tea. Even as she did, her fingers seeking out her hair and sliding through them. It was a strange, absent-minded gesture. One that Molly didn't normally do.<br><br>It was peculiar when she stirred the tea nd set the spoon aside, to find her fingers running along the outer curve of her hip in idlement.<br><br>Idle hands were the Devil's playground, wasn't that the idiom?<br><br>A sensation of being watched suddenly fell over her. The hair at her neck prickling as though she felt eyes snaking across her body, clad in nothing but her normal night wear.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>15-06-2013, 10:16:32</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly set her insomnia and strange mood to the emotionally draining and odd events of the day.&nbsp; She did her best to convince herself that everything was a dream or some kind of hysterical reaction to the confrontation and later suicide.&nbsp; Surely such things were hallucinations and unreality?<br><br>The tea would help, the tea always helped.&nbsp; She cruised in autopilot, the exhaustion both mentally and physically covering up any oddities of behavior.&nbsp; As she stirred in the sugar, perhaps a bit more than she normally took Molly felt her hip.&nbsp; Ahhh... that did feel good, strange though as if she'd never felt herself before.<br><br>Suddenly she froze as eyes swept over her body.&nbsp; In the summer heat Molly never wore much more than soft, scanty shorts and a light cotton shirt that barely covered her midrift.&nbsp; While her apartment had air conditioning she rarely ran it to save money.&nbsp; Instead she just slept with open windows, no blankets and very light clothing.<br><br>As the hair prickled on her neck and a creepy feeling came over her, Molly felt her nipples hardening slightly.&nbsp; She realized with a start that she had dressed most unusually without either a bra or panties.&nbsp; The thin cotton was almost translucent, certainly risque without undergarments.&nbsp; She looked about and called out, even as her arms crossed over her breasts.&nbsp; "Who... who is there?"
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>20-06-2013, 06:53:53</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Her arms covering her chest did little to protect her. The air seemed to chill and the thin cotton did pitifully little except reveal how cold she was as flesh puckered and strained against the tight fabric. Goosebumps crawling along her skin, from cold and the haunting feeling of being stalked.<br><br>It was a familiar cold. The cold that filled an ancient forest. A cold that crept into her lab. A cold of a recurring dream that always ended the same.<br><br>And yet, the fire had brought warmth.<br><br>A warmth she could almost feel, like arms encircling her. Warmth like breath sliding against the nape of her neck, tickling the outer curve of her ear. Warmth of a large chest her back leaned against and fingers, like hot stars in the cold night, drawing down across her hips, waist, and to trace the line of her barely-there shorts that hung low on her pelvic bone, revealing a tantalizing trail that dipped down.<br><br>"Molly..." a voice whispered to her. She could almost make out the smell of breath, like an exotic mix of rosemary, clove, and fennel.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>21-06-2013, 09:35:40</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly shivered with more than the sudden, unseasonable cold.&nbsp; Her nipples erected and pressed desperately at the gossamer thin fabric of her night shirt.&nbsp; She knew someone, something was there and for a moment fear paralyzed her, held her in the apartment rather than running screaming into the night.&nbsp; She knew, she knew in that deep visceral part of her that if she ran she would be chased and cut down like a doe by a pack of wolves.&nbsp; <br><br>The cold, yes it was that cold.&nbsp; In a moment her dreams and the days in the lab passed through her mind and she knew.&nbsp; She knew that it was here. That the cold would chase her and claim her.&nbsp; It would seek to consume her and carry her away.<br><br>Then she felt the glorious heat.&nbsp; The heat of the flames, the flames that brought release and freedom, that brought warmth of... of another.<br><br>She shivered and leaned into the warmth as she would a lover.&nbsp; Her neck arched and Molly's entire body stretched sensously under the warm touch fo something.&nbsp; It was a lover, she was touched and claimed, every part of her body familiar and owned and desired above all.&nbsp; SHe leaned back into the feel of a broad, warm chest, the chest of a man.&nbsp; She moaned, softly at first and then with rising intensity.&nbsp; Then as her eyes closed it was as if he were actually there with her.&nbsp; <br><br>Then she heard it, smelled it and without thinking she replied.&nbsp; "Lover... master..."
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>23-06-2013, 03:25:01</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Master.<br><br>Something stirred. A memory, so old and faded it was nothing more than legend. Master. That was something he knew well. <br><br>This came easily to him. Naturally. Did it come so quickly to the girl? Molly seemed to surrender herself with ease and unspoken longing. Were all humans still so eager to give themsleves up to a greater being... a greater purpose? If he understood their wars of religions: fervent, violent enforcement of doctrines and faiths, the answer was yes.<br><br>Molly wobbled on her feet, knees weak as she leaned back into the warmth of a man who wasn't really there. A keeper who wasn't really her protector. Yet, none of that really mattered now. Not with the heat blossoming across her flesh. It radiated like a swirling current. A torrent of energy that buzzed over her skin and ignited her flesh in a thousand simultaneous kisses and pricks.<br><br>She had already done so much to help him. Yet so much farther they had to go. Still, he would reward her. That was what it meant to be a 'Master'. Molly would find her own hand drifting down, sinking beneath the waistband and touching her burning flesh. Fingers seeking to put out a fire that was threatening to consume her.<br><br>Standing in her kitchen before her sink, Molly found herself with an inescapable, undeniable need for release. Only her own ragged breaths and whimpered moans were her company as hips rocked against her fingers and bare toes curled against the cool tile flooring.<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>29-06-2013, 09:00:38</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Why did Molly respond as she did?&nbsp; She didn't quite know but it was something deep and primal in her make up that dated back to the distant past when man served a supernatural pantheon that existed in close proximity to daily events.&nbsp; She felt a memory of a memory of a reflection of an experience where a woman, an ancestress was possibly in just such a position with a power of the world.&nbsp; Certainly mythology was full of dalliances between mortal maidens and virile gods.&nbsp; Was it so odd to fall into just such a pattern?&nbsp; Perhaps, perhaps but for now she was lost in the sensation.<br><br>And the gods of yore were not pale, distant things but creatures of hot and urgent needs.&nbsp; Molly felt a growing heat, a fire between her legs that had begun as the fire consumed her samples and had slowly rose in power as she twisted against the presence in her mind and against her body.&nbsp; It was truly a supernatural experience as she felt as if her body were radiating sensual heat in levels both above and below the reality that was familiar to her just a day ago.&nbsp; She was trapped in the midst of a swirling and torrent of burning, biting, kissing fireflies that carried heat and sensation to her skin and mind.<br><br>Molly was lost, she was gone and she surrendered to the flow for the moment.&nbsp; Down, down, down her fingers drifted seemingly of their own accord.&nbsp; She needed to be released and her hand, guided somehow by this master, this presence that was at once far greater than her and a limited and confined power rewarded her.&nbsp; She reached down over her swelling, sweating mound lightly furred with reddish and soft hair, diving down to the fork, the start of the furrow.&nbsp; There was already a delicate sent of musk from her arousal and her fingers found a sweaty, wetness just starting between the soft, swelling lips.&nbsp; Further down she traced the fuzzy halves of her peach, drifting up and down in a wild yet tightly constrained passion.&nbsp; In, in, in she dipped, tasting the dew with her fingertips and carrying it up to her cilt.<br><br>Suddenly the dam broke, something broke through a barrier or was released from some constraints.&nbsp; She pressed her finger into her hot channel and moaned at the slender intrusion.&nbsp; Out and up she traced the furrow and found her clit.&nbsp; Up and down, back and forth, in and out she moved faster and faster, lost in her arousal yet watching, lusting and fearing at her face in the mirror.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>29-06-2013, 22:49:22</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				There was a moment when Molly blinked, seeing without really seeing, eyes bleary with her lust and the distraction of her hand. Something in the background, past the doorway behind her. A silhouette, tall and lean and almost perched, birdlike. The presence of eyes upon her intensified. The work of her hand causing her body to ignite in a fire, as though her veins burned from the inside-out and it coursed through her, filling her with an inescapably sweet agony of near-release as pent up needs came rising towards the surface. A cataclysmic eruption threatening to explode.<br><br>When her eyes clamped closed again, she'd feel that warm presence behind her. Upon her. The feel of large, dominant hands stroking along the curve of her ass and cupping the twin cheeks, kneading them affectionately even she edged towards her climax. A voice, commanding and firm. His voice, again.<br><br><br><em>We demand an offering, Molly. A sign of good faith and promises... </em>A hand on her breast, fingertips hard and squeezing, to maul the tender pale titflesh and pluck a nipple none too gently...<br><br>The pain was enough to send Molly's eyes wide open in shock, but also enough to thrust her over the edge as her orgasm came upon her with violence and all the subtly of a tsunami.<br><br>As her body was wracked with the intense, the face in the mirror was not her own. It was the face of a man, regal and aquiline. A stranger, yet familiar. His features were hauntingly handsome, almost eerily beautiful in a way for they defied human expectations. There was an alienness to the countenance of strong, sweeping lines and sharp, chiseled perfection. What caught her the most, however, were the eyes. Deep, abyssal things that she lost herself in even as her body rocked with relief, her mind was being pulled down into that oblivion...<br><br>Molly woke up on the cold tile floor, legs askew and her hand still trapped beneath her waistband. She was alone, and breathing heavily with a healthy, flushed glow to her body. Her nipple still throbbed from phantasmal punishment. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>02-07-2013, 08:42:41</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				What was it?&nbsp; What was that figure, that tall figure... male, yes male... oh dear god yes please male... She couldn't stop, could not pause from the arousal filling her body.&nbsp; It was as if some force, some other will were fucking her by proxy.&nbsp; Her hand was the instrument, the weapon of her taking and breaking.&nbsp; Yet the eyes were more than enough, more than she could take.&nbsp; The beating heat was too much for her and she slumped back into frantic efforts to cum, to orgasm and have it all better.&nbsp; Somehow she knew that the only escape was to either stop or to cum right now.&nbsp; And she could do neither; the eyes and the brooding presence forbade her... and she obeyed, oh god she obeyed... And the fire rose, rose like the burning of the wood that would both set her free of mortal bonds and chain her more tightly than any in history.&nbsp; Higher and higher did her hand stoke the flames as the room filled with the the sounds and smells of her arousal.<br><br>When her eyes clamped closed again, she'd feel that warm presence behind her. Upon her. The feel of large, dominant hands stroking along the curve of her ass and cupping the twin cheeks, kneading them affectionately even she edged towards her climax. A voice, commanding and firm. His voice, again.<br><br>And closing her eyes to flee him, to seek her own feelings and pleasure did not save her.&nbsp; No, rather she delivered herself into his hands.&nbsp; Then he was there and she was delivered, literally into his hands.&nbsp; Warm, tall, big and... male.&nbsp; Oh, she... she wanted it.&nbsp; Hands that cupped her body, weighed the firmness of her flesh and satisfied her at a primal level of male and female.&nbsp; She leaned back against him, arching her butt into his hands and begging to be taken.<br><br>The voice, it was the voice.&nbsp; "But... ahhh... but" she cried out and then screamed a little in pain at the sharp twist to her nipple, the twist that reminded her that she was truly real.&nbsp; And her eyes opened and truly saw as an orgasm that matched no other to date filled her like a tsunami.&nbsp; Her breast... his, her pussy... his... and she came and came and came and came in a screaming, crying, weeping mess.&nbsp; The only thing that was a constant was that she stared helplessly at the mirror and saw him, saw the face of the man, oh the man.&nbsp; So handsome so strange and not of her world.&nbsp; Somehow she knew he was not, no not of this reality and these laws.&nbsp; Like the Maelstrom she was pulled, tugged and taken to her doom by his eyes, those deep eyes and all was... <strong>dark</strong>.<br><br><hr><br>Awake now, on the cold, the cold floor, the tiles pressing reddened patterns into her nude flesh.&nbsp; Was it a dream?&nbsp; Yes, yes but... but her nipples ached and her body glowed with the health of... of a good fucking.&nbsp; She could smell the sour, lingering scent of arousal and feel the dried or drying remains of copious lubrication wetting her thatch and staining her panties and inner thighs.&nbsp; Nipples... oh nipples aching...<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Umbral Sanguinus</strong> on <strong>04-07-2013, 09:03:14</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The experience from that night would linger on Molly like a sticky web. It cloaked her and clung to her. It veiled her senses and every dull moment, every absent thought, was brought back to those eyes. Piercing things that had met her own. Stared into her very soul and had... seen what? Something worthy? Something to take? Something to use?<br><br>Worse, people seemed to react strangely to her mere presence. Not directly, of course. But subtly. As though they knew something was off about her. Surveying her with unspoken thoughts and sidelong glances. She'd feel their burning, judgemental glares as soon as her back was turned on them.<br><br>But most of all, the worst was the constant need for release. For whatever spirit she had tapped into light a fire in her that seemed unable to be quenched. No amount of self-pleasure could find it's release. Not in the tub, nor bed. Not with any toy or her own knowing fingers. Not with porn or help. Sometimes, the heat would build and rise, ever closer towards a much needed release, but the crescendo would never come, leaving her in a statement of perpetual arousal, exhausting and frustrating.<br><br>Molly was constantly haunted by the memory of those eyes, and yet she knew that only they and their owner would grant her a much needed reprieve. It was a tortuous few days, and seemed unlikely to end until she received two texts in short succession.<br><br><span style="font-family: courier;" class="bbc_font">Emily: Hey Molls, u coming to James party? I got u something ;)</span><br><br><span style="font-family: courier;" class="bbc_font">Unknown Caller: You should oblige your friend, Molly. She is the last one you have.</span>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: In Withered Leaves [Umbral &amp; helvorn]</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>helvorn</strong> on <strong>20-07-2013, 08:53:26</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Molly literally crawled into the shower that morning and ran the water until there was no more hot water and her skin was wrinkled like a prune.&nbsp; And still she ran the water and scrubbed, letting the cold purge her as much as the hot.&nbsp; Yet still her skin, her hair, her very soul was covered and stained.&nbsp; It was like those animals caught in an oil spill that were soaked and bedraggled, their eyes and posture expressing confusion and uncertainty over what had even happened to them.&nbsp; And through it all those eyes, those diabolic and angelic eyes started into her soul, into every cell of her body, transfixed her and laid bare every thought and secret.&nbsp; It was more intimate than any sex, than any exposure that she'd had, the touching and feeling driven by the will reinforcing her thoughts.<br><br>Days passed in a haze of strangeness.&nbsp; The need and frustrated arousal that rose in her body joined with the feeling of tainted exposure to those eyes to take her to a place that was apart.&nbsp; It was as if she were shifted sideways not in space and time but in a social and emotional sense.&nbsp; Everything was out of synch including her need to satisfy her primitive desires.&nbsp; She knew that people talked around her, that her colleagues avoided her but that did not matter.&nbsp; No, the only thing on her mind was the feel of that sticky web of something that clung to her body and soul like a lover, like a lover that seduced her and brought her to a peak but would not let her achieve satisfaction.<br><br>Many times each day Molly looked at herself in the mirror expecting to see something, she knew not what.&nbsp; Perhaps a scarlet 'A' or wings or horns or some other outre appendage that would fully divorce her from humanity and take her where she needed to go.&nbsp; Yet other than a heat, a burning need there was nothing special. Except, except perhaps a hunger and a strange glow that filled her cheeks with a rosy perfection that spoke of not maidenly fruit but a deep, full womanly lushness, of ripeness for the taking.<br><br>The eyes, the eyes, the eyes, the eyes...&nbsp; how she hoped he came back.<br><br>She jerked her hands from between her legs as her cell phone buzzed.&nbsp; Reaching her hand stained with her own lubrication Molly read the text.&nbsp; She started to dismiss it but then a second came and she froze.&nbsp; Without thinking she texted back.<br><br><tt class="bbc_tt">Molly: I'll be there.&nbsp; Can't wait.&nbsp; C U soon.</tt><br><br>Shaking herself she washed and cleaned herself, making herself presentable to somehow bond with her friend.&nbsp; Heading out the door in a fresh outfit, a nice short skirt and blouse with cute, strappy sandals, Molly departed into the night to go to the party.<br><br><div class="spoiler_container"><div onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button" class="spoiler_header">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Sorry for the delay, life threw me for a loop.</div></div>
			</dd>
		</dl>
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