Thread: What Dwells Inside (Iron and Wine x The Gothic Temptress)

Gradually the wise-cracking voices faded down the hallway outside the dark bathroom,Tommys voice echoing in the mischievous tone that came so easily to him. A penetrating silence followed, only interrupted by the wind rattling the window and Gwens own heartbeat. No one was waiting to jump out at her. No one was peeping through the keyhole. Alone. The way the walls swallowed sound made that distance from the bathroom to wherever the others went seem like a hundred miles. The wind died down to a wraithly whisper as she undressed and approached the mirror. Beneath the dust, there were other smudges on its pristine surface, most likely marks from others who were hazed by the seniors. Yet, the dust gave the impression no one had touched the mirror for years. It was a silent witness to the words she now uttered, and by the second time Gwen said it, the mirror almost seemed to be listening. By the third time, the room became noticeably chillier, as if some cold snap descended ahead of the encroaching rainstorm. By the fourth time, the light of the flashlight seemed distorted in its reflection off the mirror, as if she was seeing the filtered diffuse light of it passing through swaying trees. The visions came unbidden, summoned up through whatever perverse desires ran through her and the words spoken into the mirror. It was just an urban legend, something to scare freshmen. It had to be. In the vision, she was pinned down, cold hands choking her neck, face down on the bathroom floor. There was no question. She was being assualted. It was so vivid. By the fifth time she uttered those words, an electric tingle infused the air of the bathroom and crawled over her skin. The bathroom door flew open with a loud crack on its hinges. No one was there, but the sense of being watched was overwhelming. Breath became visible in the chill that permeated the space. Even though the flashlight was still in her hand, the light coming from the mirror was no longer a mere reflection it was ghoulish, otherworldly, emanating forth like a light shone from under murky waters. There was a shape in the mirror! Quickly, the shape coalesced into a naked woman with her hands pressed against the glass as if she was looking for a way out. There was no question it was Gwen. Her reflected doppelganger slid her hands over the other side of the mirror, banging and shouting something, but no sound came. Then her reflection was pressed up against the mirror by something behind her, a look of abject terror on her reflections face. Wind rattled the window and shook the boards covering it up, but it wasnt just wind, not anymore. The tone dropped, becoming a keening raspy mans voice. Giveusgive Abruptly, an unseen force seized Gwen, pinning her in front of the mirror, anchoring her forearms to either side of the antique porcelain sink, forcing her legs to just over shoulder width apart. Any attempt at movement would be met with a jolt of electricity running through her limbs, like trying to fight night paralysis in that strange realm between sleep and waking. Shadows in her peripheral vision were growing long and ominous. A glance over toward the opened door would see a long shadow of a man in an overcoat and bowler hat cast into the bathroom by some unseen light source but no man where there should be one. In the mirror, her reflection seemed to wince, seemed to be fighting back feelings, seemed to briefly struggle, pushing back against something unseen behind her, but to no avail. For a moment the reflections eyes met her and Gwen would recognize that look, the look of being penetrated violently. Sobbing, her reflection tried to brace against what was happening, but it only became harder and harder, shaking her petite body like a rag doll. Theyd given her a soda in the drive up. Maybe Tommy had spiked it with some kind of hallucinatory drug? Yet watching the mans shadow in the archway, the details were so crystalline, so chillingly real. Crawling up into the three-dimensional volume of the room, the shadow seeped upward, taking the form of a shuddering shadow dressed as a gentleman from the turn of the century . He took a step toward her, and that ghostly pressure keeping her in place manifested even stronger, almost pressing on her chest through her back. Needgiveus repeated the raspy mans voice, as if forming complete sentences was a feat it had forgotten and was only now remembering. Each step he took was disjointed with the space he covered, as if he were half floating and half walking. In the faint background was a prim and proper English womans voice, murmuring something like a nurse reporting to a doctor. In the mirror, her reflection shook and shuddered as it was fucked mercilessly, but by what was impossible to say, as the rest of the mirror became misty. Footfalls echoed as the shadowy man approached behind her, yet even these sounds were disjointed from when its inky black feet would meet the tile floor. The image in the mirror slowly faded away, revealing her own reflection and the darkness of the rest of the bathroom. According to the mirror, no one was behind her. But someone, or something, certainly was. His presence made the skin crawl, made it hard to think clearly as if inducing some altered state, made breathing possible in shallow little gasps. Extending a shadow hand forward, he traced it along Gwens naked back, feeling like a cross between an ice cube and wrinkled hardened leather, yet in its wake her skin would react as if shed just spread a thin layer of icy-hot to soothe tired muscles. An unseen force tore at the clasps on her bra, and when unable to unclasp them, the shadow tore the bra clear off of her, leaving little red marks where the straps dug into her skin before snapping. This was real. Fingernails honed into points like claws raked down her back without quite piercing the flesh. Her white panties were thrust down violently to mid-thigh, and her legs kicked by the invisible force so her heels flared outward and her toes pointed inward. Cold fingers dug into her ass, drawing her up. Tiptoesgiveustiptoes demanded the raspy haunting voice, now close to her ear. The fingers moved to squeeze her exposed tight breasts one at a time. In the mirror, Gwen would see the invisible indentations form in her flesh where the shadow touched her. An inhuman growling sound flooded her ear as the specters hand traced the edges of her slit like she were his possession, finding her wet, and hissing in wicked delight.