Page 14 of Monster Mansion

Ted shrugged sheepishly and lightly kicked the dirt in front of him.

“I really don’t know, but the place does give me the creeps,” he admitted. “Truthfully, wife and kids aren’t the only reasons I try to get out of here at a decent time every day. Something about the aura of this place doesn’t sit right with me.”

“So, you’re saying you think the mansion is haunted?”

“Not sure what I’m saying exactly.” Ted answered as he situated his hat back on his head. “Just that it’s a creepy old place where I don’t like to spend too much time inside.”

We stared at each other for another few moments. He was unwilling to look away, I was sure, to avoid looking suspicious. Meanwhile, I tried to catch a tell that he was lying. I found nothing damning about him, and I could tell even if hewaslying, he was already committed to it. My father’s words circled back through my head, along with my earlier suspicious thoughts, but try as I might, they rang hollow. Ted really didn’t seem like some backwoods creep.

“Wish me luck then, I guess,” I said with defeat as I turned to walk back inside.

“Luck,” he said quietly. I could feel his eyes on me until I was entirely back inside with the door shut to deal with the mess.

Before doing anything else, I took detailed photos of the disaster of my things scattered about. I was unsure how I felt about continuing my project, but I wanted to be sure to have all the evidence documented either way.

After taking enough photos to feel satisfied, I silently gathered all my clothes and left them in a neat pile on the stairs to take with me the next time I went up. Then I put away the groceries in the empty kitchen. All the time, my brain tossed ideas around as to who or what could be responsible for raiding my drawers, as well as for the hypnotic touches all down my body the night before. Whatever it was, it was clearly interested in me, and I wasn’t entirely ready to admit that I was interested as well.

Chapter6

Thorn

The massive creature watched her pull out of the driveway the following morning from the circular attic window, a line of drool spilling out from between his fangs. He had spent the night before hardly able to control himself in the hallway outside her room. The scent of her was nearly unbearable. Nox had been having his way with her—teasing her, touching her, toying with her body as he liked to do with the girls the Man delivered to them. This one seemed to lean into it, though, rather than shy away in fear. The smell of her arousal was like a drug to Thorn. It drove him mad, and he was certain she could hear his commotion outside her door. He hoped she had.

She was curious and confident—an unusual combination the creatures of the mansion had yet to come across—and unlike his companions, he was unable to disguise his hulking form to be near her. Nox could melt into the shadows, and Ruse could disguise himself even as a harmless spider on her windowsill, but not Thorn. He was trapped in his beastly form and knew that being near her in person would horrify her to pieces before he had the chance to inspect and learn from her gorgeous pale figure.

The girl had already seen him once as he observed her from the rooftop—the sunset behind him gave away his silhouette. She hadn’t dropped her food, let loose a banshee’s scream, or even jumped in fright. She just stared at him with a sense of wonder that Thorn had never seen. He regretted his retreat, but he couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t destroy her right then in the driveway in a frantic need to taste her flesh or take her in a way his loins craved so intensely.

His companions would never forgive him for helping himself without their consent—the offerings of these girls were meant to satiate them all, and he couldn’t risk betraying their trust when she had only just arrived. Ruse and Nox would want their chance at her as well, but they had no idea just how difficult it was for Thorn to keep his animal instincts at bay.

A shadowy figure of a man manifested just behind Thorn in his attic hideaway.

“I trust you’ve calmed down since last night?” Nox said in a sly tone. He knew exactly the sort of torment he was putting Thorn through and seemed to revel in the fact that he was able to do what Thorn so desperately wanted.

“Hardly,” Thorn grumbled as he sucked the saliva back into his mouth. “Iwanther, Nox. I can’t explain it.”

“I understand what you mean, friend,” the shadow-man assured him. “She’s a special treat for us all.”

Nox slunk toward the beast until he was right in front of him. “Her legs were so soft under my tendrils. Like the smoothest silk. Her breasts are a masterpiece—perfect mounds, and I could tell she wanted me to keep going.”

“Shut.Up.” Thorn growled, taking clumsy steps backward as the pale man slowly walked toward him. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Oh, but I do,” Nox hissed. “I can feel the tension coming off of you, and I’m telling you that you’re not the only one confused by this girl and her sweet scent. It’s different from the smell of fear, wouldn’t you agree?”

Thorn gulped and leaned forward, holding his deer skull head in his claws.

“Yes,” he muttered as his pulse began to rise and pound against his bony chest. “Yes!”

Like a bolt of lightning, the gangly beast shoved open the door to the attic and tore down the hallway like a loosed wolf, crashing against the walls with reckless abandon until he reached Logan’s bedroom where the door had been left wide open. He dove into her room like an Olympic diver and smothered himself in her bed, trying to cover himself in her scent. Thorn went feral as he inhaled the smell of her hair, her perfume, the wetness from between her legs that had spread so sweetly across the fabrics the night before. He was completely out of control, spurred on by only instinct and need. The beast ripped open her dresser drawer and found all the little things she’d worn against her body. Even the clean clothes still smelled like her skin, her pheromones stuck to them like glue, and he rolled around in them like a joyous puppy.

“What the hell!?” a voice called from the hallway. Ruse stood there in his most-commonly used human form—a muscular man with long blond hair that he’d seen on the cover of a novel. “Are you just going full wild-animal in here or what!?”

Thorn shot to his feet, the girl’s panties hanging off his antlers and claws like decorations on a Christmas tree. “I… I…” he began.

“He’s absolutely going full wild-animal,” Nox interrupted, pooling upward into his handsome figure from a shadow on the floor of the bedroom. “It seems our Thorn is experiencing his first heat.”

“Well, congratulations, my friend.” Ruse laughed from the doorway. “You’re one of the big boys now.”

Thorn roared in embarrassment and tore out of the bedroom into the living room, still carrying all of Logan’s underthings on his antlers or in his claws.

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