The Wall

The Wall


by

E. A. Irwin

Trevor swiped his hand along the grimy attic wall with one deliberate stroke, feeling for the phantom existence buried deep within the wood’s core as it exhaled through the peeling plaster. Placing his fingers in his mouth, Trevor sucked greedily, closing his eyes as the thick sticky debris melted across his pierced tongue in debauched decadence until he felt overcome with need.

A malevolent glint lit his ice-blue eyes. “I love the taste of evil bleeding through the walls, don’t you? There’s nothing like that acrid taste to make you wonder what wretch died in there, and then rotted, leaving behind that magnificent flavor for us to savor. Makes my mouth water for more each time I’m here.”

“That’s gross, Trevor. Every time you come up here you do your C.O.D. thing by licking the walls and looking like you’re getting ready to do weird things. Maybe you have an iron deficiency or something … you know, you’re looking awfully pale these days, kind of like something undead.”

Sauntering toward the room’s center, he acknowledged his friends with a nod and malicious grin. “I believe you are referring to O.C.D. which doesn’t come by mail with money due, Candy.” Trevor passed his hand over the rickety round table holding a battered Ouija board. “Perhaps you were searching for the word ritual to describe my actions as I caress these walls and relish their essence. Isn’t the love of ritual why we continue gathering here every month despite our differences? Aren’t we all merely curious creatures awaiting revelation from a diverse realm or another level of psychic matter so we can illuminate our minds?”

Fluffing her blonde curls, Candy gave him a pouty frown. “Whatever. Licking the wall, while you look like you’re getting off, is still gross.”

Stewart ran his hand along Candy’s bare arm in a suggestive move. “Well, you should know about sticky and gross, huh Candy?”

She jerked her arm from Stewart’s reach. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Honey, you perform a ritual every night by twirling your naked body around a pole for a bunch of men with sticky crotches. It seems like you’d be used to seeing them stick their fingers in their mouths pretending they’re sucking something else.”

“Stewart, knock it off. Can we get back to why we’re here tonight?”

Squinting at the girl across the table from him, Stewart tried focusing on the barbed wire tattoo running around her neck like a black, prickly scarf.

“Keeping us on schedule as usual, aren’t you Elizabeth? I was merely suggesting that if Trevor was into tasting hidden delights, then perhaps he could lick what’s left on Candy’s thighs after she’s spent time with her pole.” Stewart washed his lips with an exaggerated move of tongue. “Might bring a bit of color back into his cheeks since all that unrelieved black he wears makes him look like a vampire who’s never fed.”

Elizabeth pushed her glasses higher on her pug nose, staring through their thick lenses at the object of her disgust. “You’re drunk as usual, Stewart. Glad to see your plan to embalm yourself while you’re still alive is working for you.”

Stewart raised a bottle of whiskey to his mouth, took a long swig, and then belched, assaulting the air with his rancid breath. “Wouldn’t have it any other way … besides, alcohol only enhances your good looks and charm, Bethy dear.”

Elizabeth grabbed the carryall next to her chair and began pulling candles from the bag at an accelerated rate until the table was full of white, wax pillars and she was out of breath from the frenzied movement. Looking up, she continued rummaging through the voluminous bag with exaggerated moves as if she’d lost part of her life inside its vastness. “Has anyone seen the planchette?”

Lifting a candle to her nose, Candy took a long sniff. “Plan what?”

Trevor tugged his long velvet coat to one side as he sat, inspecting his black lacquered fingernails while enunciating his words as if speaking to an imbecile. Removing a small medieval dagger from an inside pocket, he cleaned the remaining wall-gunk from beneath his nails and sucked the residue from the blade. “Planchette. The small triangular thing your fingertips glide along the board while we contact the spirit world.”

Candy shrugged her slim shoulders. “Oh that.”

Elizabeth stopped the excavation of her bag and squinted at Candy. “What did you do with it, Candy?”

“Umm … I kinda broke it when I stepped on it last month.”

Stewart cackled as he threw back another mouthful of whiskey. “What? Couldn’t see it lying on the floor through the Lucite on those five-inch heels?”

The pitch of Elizabeth’s voice rose as she tried to maintain her anger, the squint of her eyes changing to a malevolent expression aimed Candy’s direction. “Kinda broke it last month? When exactly did you plan on telling us that little fact?”

Candy dug through her gold lamé bag while attempting to avoid Elizabeth’s evil stare. “It’s okay. I found another one at Brensky’s Antique Shop to replace the one I broke. The owner said he found it in an old abandoned house with a bunch of other junk, so he gave me a special deal on it. I thought since we meet in this place the abandoned thi … planchette would be welcomed by the spirits. You know, like it had found a second home after being lost.” She pulled it from her purse, offering a wan smile as she waved it.

Reaching toward Candy, Trevor held out his hand, beckoning her with his fingers. “Let me see what you think would be appropriate to bring inside our circle.”

Candy handed him the planchette, a scream exploding from her as Trevor touched her hand.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes in disgust. “What was that for, Candy? Trying to make us forget you broke an important tool of divination?”

“I … it …” Candy recoiled from Trevor.

Stewart grabbed her arm. “For crying out loud, spit it out. I don’t have all night for this kind of shit.”

Candy grabbed her neck, choking on her words as she tried to explain. “When Trevor touched that thing and my hand, I felt what he’d been licking all this time run down my throat and wind around my stomach. It felt like acid or something.”

“You probably dropped acid before you came.” Elizabeth grabbed the planchette from Trevor’s grasp, staring at Candy in disbelief. “What did you do to this?”

Candy gave Elizabeth a thin smile. “Everything here is creepy and disgusting, I thought I might make something pretty for us to use. Then, whoever is out there will want to spend time with us. Not everyone is into the Goth scene, Elizabeth.”

“So, you—”

“—bedazzled it.”

Trevor watched Elizabeth’s anger darken her complexion until her skin resembled a pickled beet. Stewart’s fingers contracted and extended as if he were itching to strangle someone. Candy had been right, whatever pleasure he’d experienced with the wall had flowed into her with abandon until he felt the need to strip her naked and put his mouth on every sticky spot she possessed.

He waved his hand in Elizabeth’s direction as he stared at Candy’s delicate face, imaging it pressed between his thighs, and eventually hung on his bedroom wall to remind him of a new connection with her and the attic.

“Light the candles, Elizabeth. I’m sure Candy meant no harm by decorating the planchette with her form of glamour.”

Elizabeth’s expression darkened along with her face. “Glamour?”

Trevor turned to Elizabeth and hissed. “I said, light the candles. I want to summon whatever lies behind these walls.”

Elizabeth began lighting the candles, placing them on the floor in a circle around the table. Watching with interest as she bent over each time to set and light a candle, Stewart inhaled the subtle scent of beeswax mingling with the soured stench of sticky walls. An enticing thought of raunchy sex filled his mind as the vision of gyrating inside Elizabeth, while he pressed her against those tacky walls, made Stewart’s itchy fingers run along his legs with growing excitement.

Why hadn’t he noticed her ass before now? Stewart laughed to himself as he grabbed his crotch, remembering why he’d avoided trying to screw her. Elizabeth owned a pair of balls bigger than his, only she kept them in that damn carryall to bring out and remind the world she was a goddess and you were to service her. Apparently she didn’t possess ultimate control though since Trevor made her mentally intimidated whenever he felt like it.

Trevor crossed to Candy, easing behind her in fluid motion as Elizabeth finished the circle. His fingers caressed her neck, easing down her throat with a delicate touch until she visibly relaxed.

He whispered in her ear, spinning his thoughts through her head on a heated breath. “Tell me what you experienced, Candy. Tonight the atmosphere in here has changed. I believe it is due to your gift to the circle. It wasn’t actually what you said, was it? You felt whatever was behind the wall, didn’t you? You felt the union of our spirits as it filled your mouth and spilled down your throat in excited frenzy.”

Candy’s eyes became unfocused as the nearness of Trevor unfolded around her. “Yes.”

Trevor felt his insides twist in anticipation of her words. “Tell me.”

Her voice became breathy as it floated into Trevor’s head. “I can’t.”

Trevor applied pressure around Candy’s neck as the anger of being denied the wall’s secrets raced through his mind. “Why not?”

Candy gasped as Trevor squeezed. “The board has to reveal what happens.”

He hissed in her ear as she squirmed under his hold. “I thought this was all a game to you, Candy-girl. Now you’re going to hold out on me while you pretend you want revelation from the board?”

Candy’s arm encircled his neck, pulling him to her mouth as she planted a kiss on his twitching lips. “We are now sealed as one; the wall will reveal its own need.”

Trevor backed away, knowing that as she’d kissed the wall had bound them together until there could be no separation. He licked his lips, tasting the acrid burn from the tacky plaster Candy had spilled there. Trevor stared into her unfocused eyes noting their green color had quickly changed to ice-blue.

Stewart’s drunken voice broke through the candlelit room. “Hey, unless Candy is going to screw both of us tonight, I’d like to do this thing and leave. That is unless Elizabeth wants to break tradition with the goddesses and spread her legs for me so I can participate in the fun.”

The candlelight wavered though the air remained close and stagnant. Elizabeth stared at the sparkling planchette, noting its incremental move across the Ouija board without human guidance, spelling one word—pain.

“Shut up, Stewart, the spirits are about to speak.”

Stewart burped. “Are they friendly spirits?”

Candy giggled as she inhaled the dense air. “You guys sound like Rocky and Bullwinkle.”

Trevor closed his eyes to avoid looking at Candy’s face as his breathing became labored, wondering what that new babble from her meant.

Cold wind blew through the room as they struggled to breathe, the onslaught of air extinguishing the candles. Nervous laughter filled the blackened room as Stewart gasped, his voice sounding as if he were drowning as he coughed. “I guess the spirits didn’t like your humor, Candy.”

The candles reignited, thrusting them into odd light. Elizabeth began a scathing retort, but screamed as she stared at Stewart.

“Quit screaming, for God’s sake. Who did that trick with the candles?”

Elizabeth tried talking without success, and then pointed to Stewart’s face. Trevor followed her gesture. “Stewart, your nose is bleeding. Did you hit it when the lights went out?”

Stewart touched his face and withdrew a bloody hand. The pallor of his skin grew from white to grayed-green as he felt his face again and screamed. “My nose is gone, someone cut off my damn nose!”

Candy looked down at the Ouija board. There, next to the glittering planchette lay Stewart’s nose alongside a small dagger. She stared at Trevor as she ripped off her shirt to staunch the blood flow from the gaping hole in Stewart’s face. “That’s your knife, Trevor.”

Feeling inside his coat pocket, Trevor found it empty. “Well I didn’t cut his nose off. Why the hell would I do that to my friend?”

Candy ran her fingers lightly over her bruised neck. “You tried to strangle me, why’d you do that?”

“But I didn’t want to hurt you, and I didn’t cut off Stewart’s nose!”

The candlelight flickered before Candy could answer. All eyes honed in on the movement of the planchette as it spelled another word—lust.

Elizabeth manically laughed. “Lust and pain. Sounds like a BDSM fest. She ran her hand down the front of Stewart pants. I don’t think Stewart’s up to either one at the moment, and here I thought I was going to get something out of him besides vomit and vulgarity. In fact, I think Stewart’s lost his nose for adventure, wouldn’t you agree?”

Another deranged laugh spilt from her as she picked up the planchette and stared through the circular cutout, a blood-curdling scream leaving her lips as she dropped the triangle. Trevor watched as one of Elizabeth’s eyeballs fell onto the board with a squashy plunk, the blood from Stewart and Elizabeth combining and oozing in abstract patterns across the board’s letters.

Candy smiled wickedly. “I guess that means Elizabeth’s almost as blind as her third eye now.”

The dagger spun on the board as the planchette revealed another word—kill.

Trevor eyed Candy as she shot a twisted grin his way. “Who’s going to die, Candy?”

Walking to Trevor, she then sat in his lap. “I told you I don’t know. The board will have to reveal the wall’s message.”

“It already has, and my dagger is spinning like we’re going to play spin the bottle, and the one it points to is going to get the kiss of death.”

Candy ignored Trevor’s question as she ran her hand along his jaw line. “What’s hidden in that world of darkness in which you live? What gets you off as you smudge kohl around your eyes and paint your nails black, while you look down on those of us with sunny attitudes? Is being a Goth somehow different from being a glitzy stripper now that we’ve become one?”

The walls came alive as Candy rubbed her body against Trevor in suggestive moves. The fetid stench filled his nostrils, commanding him to breathe deeply so he could be consumed by what secrets lay buried deep within the cavity of hidden desires covered in peeling plaster.

He turned his face from Candy and tried focusing on Stewart and Elizabeth writhing on the floor as the candles highlighted their increasing agony.

Candy jerked his face back to hers with a violent tug on his hair that sent his brain spinning. “I didn’t give you permission to look at them, nor did you give me a satisfactory answer. Tell me what’s behind the wall!”

The walls secreted their sticky substance, filling the floor with goo as it advanced toward the center of the room in waves of yellowed decay. Trevor and Candy breathed the intoxicating aroma as their thoughts of lust and pain drove them to mental destruction.

Trevor screamed as Candy grabbed the dagger and began flaying his flesh until she forced enough blood to the surface to consume. As she sucked the blood-flow, the walls moaned and creaked as if they finally experienced the carnal lust between Trevor and Candy. The sound wound through their heads, driving them forward with renewed brutality.

He grabbed Candy by the hair, struggling to concentrate as he stared hard into her ice-blue eyes while she tore a piece of flesh from his chest with her teeth and swallowed it whole. “I hear the room groaning with uncontrolled lust—what’s behind the wall?”

Candy beat her head against Trevor’s chest in an attempt to make the sounds in her head stop. Her frantic fingers made Trevor writhe with pain as she dug them into his swelling crotch, and then slipped the dagger between his testicles and turned the blade. “I don’t know, the board hasn’t told us!”

Stewart and Elizabeth screamed as the sticky goo washed over them in waves of hot pain, their cries finally lost as the wall oozed down their throats and stopped their breathing.

Trevor bit into Candy’s neck until his mouth filled with the taste of hot liquid copper. The act of Trevor sucking her neck made Candy momentarily stop the attack on his balls while she gave herself over to the rising pandemonium filling her body. Her dream-like voice floated through the room and caught in Trevor’s head as he ground his body against hers.

“I don’t think the board is going to give us the secret behind the wall. Kill me, Trevor, I can’t stand this feeling any longer.”

Blood gushed from Trevor’s mouth as he pulled Candy’s head back and gazed into her crazed eyes. A smile crept across his crimson-stained lips as the wall infiltrated his brain. “We don’t die. That’s the secret. We just keep doing this through eternity.”

Candy screamed as a new wave of lust hit her body like a tidal wave, forcing her to suck a lungful of sticky rot while the power rode through her in torrents of agony until reason and meaning were nothing more than words from the page of a dictionary.

†



Billy walked through the attic, surveying the walls with interest while his brother scoped out the table in the center of the room. “Hey, Scott, did you see this wicked wallpaper, there’s even a fake foot sticking out of the wall to make it look real.”

Scott sauntered across the room and stared at the rows of people in various positions, many of them looking as if they’d been tortured while doing sex acts. “Shit, who puts up that kind of stuff?”

“Well, old man Brensky’s grandson said the attic had been used for all types of rituals, like for haunted houses and crap like that. Remember he said some of the people who came here just disappeared?”

Scott rolled his eyes. “That’s just to keep teenagers like us away from here. I wonder why this place never got torn down since it’s been abandoned for almost a hundred years.”

Billy ran his hand along the wall and felt its sticky texture. “Gross. What’s that crap in the middle of the room?”

“Just a beat up Ouija board and a rusted knife, there’s something else but I don’t know what it is because it’s got all this crazy stuff glued on it.”

“Show me.”

Billy and Scott sat down at the table and inspected the questionable items. Billy lifted the knife and dropped it as it sliced into his finger. He wiped the blood on his jeans and stared closer at the intricate carvings on the hilt. “I bet this is really old, look at the dragons curled up around that funny looking man. Could be that dagger Jake Brensky was talking about.”

Scott grew distracted as he picked at the old gems encrusting the planchette. Grabbing the dagger, he dug them off the ivory of the triangle as he inspected the engraved letters on its face. “I think I’m going to keep this thing.”

Billy rose from the table and walked around it, reading the word on the floor spelled in faded red. “You can’t take that, it’s stealing.”

“Well the engraving on it says mine, so I’m stealing it and the dagger.”

“Mine. Hey, that was the name of the guy who owned the dagger. You know, the guy who disappeared and left all his stuff that Mr. Brensky found in this abandoned house.”

“Well, it’s mine now.”

The house creaked and moaned as Scott stuck the dagger in his pocket. Billy looked up from the letters he’d read. “I don’t think the house liked it that you’re stealing from it.”

Scott laughed. “Who’s gonna find out? Are the people living inside the walls gonna tell on me?” Scott walked toward a wall and inspected the seeping goo. Running his hand along it felt good as it undulated beneath his fingertips and crept up his arm toward his heart. The wall moaned again as if untouched for years and sought comfort. “You know, Billy, this would make a cool party place. We could even do a few séances to make the girls creeped out and want to be with us.”

Billy concentrated on the faded word. “Scott, what does I N C U B U S spell?”

Movement within the wall attracted Scott’s attention. “Huh?”

The walls began seeping their sticky substance anew. Deeply hidden behind the peeling plaster lay cocoons wrapped in yellowed bindings, their inhabitants struggling to free themselves from years of bondage to the insanity of the house, some finally dead from rot and decay. Stewart’s foot was still stuck outside the plaster as a running joke from the wall. Elizabeth had been the first thoroughly consumed by the wall’s interior. Candy and Trevor shared one cocoon, still together in their frenzied lust and pain after almost twenty years. She stared deeply into Trevor’s frantic ice-blue eyes as he fought the urge to scream while he desperately tried not to hurt her.

“Well, what do those letters spell?”

Candy put her head against Trevor’s chest as she and Scott said the word in unison. “Incubus. It’s a demon that falls on women and has sex with them while they’re sleeping. I heard a lot of them did all kinds of sadist shit because they couldn’t get enough sex, so they kept their lovers prisoner or sacrificed them. Why?”

Billy walked to the wall and stared at the people adorning it. “Wouldn’t it be cool if all these people weren’t wallpaper, but had been here at one time and the house trapped them inside its walls?”

Scott’s thoughts darkened as he watched the dagger twirl in one hand and the planchette in the other. The urge to rub his hands along the women rose in him as each item slowly spun without him guiding their turns. Running the dagger down Candy’s naked picture, Scott twisted the blade until it grew sticky with wall debris. The wall sighed as Candy screamed inside her cocoon, feeling the twist of the dagger as it dug along her thighs.

Lifting the dagger, Scott ran the blade inside his mouth and felt the acrid taste of the wall flow across his tongue and run down his throat on a path of lust. Billy retched as he watched Scott lick every bit of debris from his lips.

“Shit, Scott, why the hell did you do that? The walls are at least a hundred years old, no telling what disease you’re gonna get from all that seeping crap.”

Scott ran his hands between his legs. “You didn’t ask me what it tasted like.”

Billy shook his head in disbelief. “All right, give, what does that crap taste like?”

Scott turned his now ice-blue eyes on Billy and smiled wickedly. “It tastes of death.”