This is the second chapter of the series, here is the first: http://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?t=169971
“Where is the board game,” Izmaal hissed as he paced back and forth before Dee who sat in a large chair, her arms tied to the chair’s and her legs propped up on the desk and bound at the heels.
The room was on the corner of a large apartment building, a single window which spanned at least ten feet from one end to the other, stretched across the wall in a huge semicircle. Behind the desk, in the light of the cloudy day, Izmaal moved back and forth with the silence and perfection of a noble ghost.
“I ask again,” the masked interrogator said, “where is the board game.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She replied as she breathed evenly, attempting to prevent a shiver of terror. She had seen the damage that the Titilare could inflict, and she knew that all that she had been given, even in that small kiss, was less than an infinitessimal amount of a percentage of their true power.
“My dear Diana,” Izmaal purred as he stopped in the middle of the window, facing Dee’s large feet, “I know you played the game. I know you read the card, it will be better for you to reveal the whereabouts of this game.”
“Why do you want it so badly?”
“Does that question implythat you have the game?”
“I already told you I don’t!”
Izmaal sat down before her. “Then my dear, it appears I will have to draw it out of you by force.” Izmaal drew his hand in a curving line for about five inches on the table. His finger’s wake left an apparent burn mark there. He did the same near the first mark. After a moment, the marks grew small legs, lifted from the table surface, and began advancing toward Dee’s feet.
Dee watched the creatures, which turned out to be millipedes making a slow, purposeful advance toward her. Her eyes were wide with terror, she didn’t know whether she’d feel pain or sheer titillation. “Craaaap….”
“Tell me where the game is.”
“I don’t know…” She said as the millipedes gained an inch closer.
“You played it.”
“But the game isn’t with me!” The bugs were five inches away.
“But, you read the card.”
Although Dee knew Kea had read the card, she wasn’t about to let the Titilare know that. “Just because I read a card doesn’t mean I know the whereabouts of the whole game itself.” Four inches to go. Dee’s toes curled in terrific anticipation and her feet began sweating, adding an extra lustre to her already shining soles.
“Time tickles down slowly my dear,” Izmaal teased, using a pun on the terrible sensation which he knew she’d soon experience. “Tell me where I can find it.”
Three inches. Dee whimpered, she wished suddenly that she weren’t so sadistic toward her cousin Ajani, perhaps if she weren’t so villainous to her, she might not be in the situation that she was about to be thrust into currently. “I don’t know where you can find it. I’m just a player.”
“You know where to get it from,”
“I know where to get a lot of stuff.” Two inches. “Damn, damn, DAMN!!” She looked to the dark ceiling, and remembered that the only true light in the room was the light from the window.
“Where did you buy it from,” Izmaal looked her in the eyes. His were dark, oily orbs in his head, that did not show any humanity behind the golden mask.
The millipedes began to speed up. She could feel their stubby antennae softly cruising along her soles; she jerked back, and forth slightly, tears began forming in her eyes. “Please Izmaal,” she whimpered, “I don’t know anything.”
If she could see his mouth, he might have smiled sociopathically. “Then you can play with my pets until you learn.” The millipedes began to crawl along her soles, using the infinite number of wrinkles as footholds as they danced on a sole that moved with the ferocity of a starved mad dog massacring a stuffed bunny dipped in meat sauce.
Dee threw her head back, her eyes shut tightly and her mouth stretched open as her final plea for freedom was uttered in a wail that was filled with a terror of the knowledge that she was bound in a chair that was stuck between a rock and a hard place, with the addition of an even more ticklish situation unfurling underfoot.
“HELP MEHEHAHAHAAA!” Ajani’s screams filled the dimly lit room as she waved her arms in futile attempts to block the misty arms and hands that crawled all over her body. She thrust her hand out before her to push away a face that sailed toward her. As she did so, a misty hand screwed itself up her sleeve and embedded itself in her left armpit hollow.
“NAAAHAHAHAA…STOPITSTOPITSTOPIT!”
She fell back to the wall, giggling like a patient in a madhouse as she tried to dig it out to no avail. The feathery fingers of her assailant marched in place like a soldier, caressing the warm moist earth that was her sensitive flesh under the heavy boots that were its fingertips. As she laughed and screamed, she felt another hand crawling through her pant leg. As it reached her knee, Ajani lost balance and tumbled to the floor, her eyes wide and her white teeth glistening in the dim light.
“Where is the other that was with you?” The smooth voice asked as if nothing were even going on.
“OH PLEEHEEHEEASE…” Ajani screamed as another misty hand danced along her left breast, she managed to grab hold of it and toss it to the air, it fell back to her and dug into her belly, she curled into what could have been a ball and tumbledo n her side. “WHY DON’T YOU HELP MEEHAHAHAAA!?”
“I am here to get answers, your interrogation will be complete when I learn what I came for.”
“I’LL TELL YOU ANAAAHAHAAAHAHAAA!!!”
“Anything? Is that what you said?”
“ANYTHING YOU WANNA KNOHOOHOO!!”
“I don’t want to know anything, I want to know only one thing.” From the shadows of the dimly lit room, a slender man with pale brown skin emerged. His hands were cased in silver and he wore a similar cloak to the other inquisitors. His sharp nose turned downward at the vulnerable young woman who screamed as two more misty hands danced along her breasts.
“I DON’T KNOHOHOW…IDON’TKNAAAHAHAHAAAA!!” A hand popped off one of her shoes and dug into her socked foot. Another hand tore off her remaining shoe and its sock and dug into her bare foot.
The man knelt low, his eyes almost staring into her own. They were dead, but angry, like a man who had been murdered, or executed for a crime he didn’t commit, if there is even a difference. “I give you one more chance Miss Ajani…Where is your sister?”
Kea slid down the side of a ravine and dashed through the forest of Rock Creek Park. The forest was alive with screams of people who had come the same way, fearing the sudden plague which had come in the form of beasts who could bring the dead to rise from the earth, or to cut down an obstacle with a flick of their own wrists. From what she had seen since the past two weeks had inched slowly by, there were three types of these beasts which had come to the earth.
The first called themselves Gargali, they were the most brutal, they dragged people along the ground, ripping heir clothes from their bodies, and tickled people until they crapped their pants. They had no care for gentleness or chivalry, and often fought with each other over the more ticklish captives. They were outwardly arrogant, and sadistic, and more people feared them than the other two invading forces.
The black wings of the beasts who had come from the clouds beat against the air above, whistling madly and interwinding its sound with the sound of the helpless laughter of three men who dangled form the grips of the monsters as they scribbled their devilish fingers along their desperately thrashing soles. Kea watched them as they passed through the break in the trees overhead.
The second force called themselves Knismon. They were more gentle than the Gargali who were obviously their cousins. The knismon could seduce a man or woman into bed with them, and gently stroke, lick and probe their victim into insanity. And the Knismon were so good at their strategies that their prey often willingly submitted to the wills of their coaxing invaders. Some men even fell in love with the Knismon women, and some women fell under the spell of the men.
The Knismon appeared gracious, even benignant, but Kea feared them most of all, because unlike their cousins, who were brutally honest to their desires, the knismon were more deceitful and trapped their prey the way Ajani used to trap chess players when she played a game on Florida Avenue.
A large couple who looked to be husband and wife, tumbled down the side of the ravine, they were covered in those dark fuzzy creatures that had attacked Ajani. The two people were cackling like witches that had too much laughing gas. They struggled to extricate themselves from the situation, but they were too weak to handle the onslaught of the devious creatures. Kea watched them fall, roll to a stop in a large puddle, and splash and beg for help. It broke Kea’s heart to deny them, but she knew she might not survive herself if she stopped to help them. She forced herself on.
The third invading force, which Kea saw firsthand was the Titlare. These, she discovered, were feared by both the Gargali and the Knismon. These dark cloaked, clever minded, quasivirtuous and determined individuals took few people prisoner, and of those which they did, Kea found that they either were never seen again, or their fully clothed skeleton, including their hair, was found in the room where they had their encounter.
Kea knew very little about the third group, they seemed to be almost observers of the scene. Walking slowly, like monks in meditative thought, heads bowed, hands folded at their chests, all at peace while all around them the dams that bound Hell broke down. She could only hope that her sister and her cousin were still alive. She couldn’t stand the thought of them being reduced to skeletons with hair, lain out on some floor, undignified, though in death what dignity there was Kea couldn’t see.
But what she really wondered about were the fourth invading force, which had not yet reared its head. The Hysterim. She had heard the name over a hundred times in the past two weeks, yet, she had never seen or heard them. She had a clue that they were not well liked, the Gargali and Knismon often said their name in their own language while they conversed. They must have been good, or at least benign to some extent. The visitor, Laphar, had said that they should be found before the Gargali or the Knismon find them. Either of those two, would never let them go.
And who was Laphar? Was he Gargali or Knismon? He looked like a violent beast, but Kea remembered having a very good feeling throughout the five minute session where he played with her belly like a concert pianist.
What would Dee say? She wondered as she found a street where a car had been abandoned. She found the keys in the ignition, she thanked her lucky stars and jumped in. She placed the board game on the seat next to her and turned the vehicle on.
Two women hung from the jungle gym in the middle of the playground. One wore a gray t-shirt, and cut up blue jeans, her bare feet reached down to the sandals below, but couldn’t quite get them. Her skin was a yellowish brown and her black hair was worked over to the point that it was lifelessly straight. Her name was L’Vedah.
Beside L’Vedah, was a woman somewhat taller than her, she wore a black belly shirt, though she had no belly. Only a slender tummy which was more suited to the shirts which had such a deceptive name. Her sweatpants were gray, and her sneakers hung below her feet. Her orange-brown skin accentuated her full lips which were lacquered in black lipstick. Her name was Tiffany.
They both hung from the Jungle Gym because they wished to please their friend, Malaazi. He had met them on the street, spoken with them, and told them what he wanted to do. He didn’t want to force them, and they knew they couldn’t out run him. He took down the beast that had come after them initially.
“Are you ready ladies?” Malaazi’s voice sailed along the air.
“Sure, whatever.” They both replied with smiles.
Malaazi walked from behind a tree. He was tall, slender, dark, and wore a black suit that fit him far better than the suits on Armani commercials. He wore a purple shirt that shined slightly and a black tie. He looked at them with half lidded eyes and a sly smile filled with extraordinarily white teeth. His long well made shoes, and everything else for that matter, spoke of wealth. Even the neatly done micro cornrows that were so long that they were braided down his back had to be done by someone who was paid a lot of money.
“Then, let us begin.” He placed his hands gently on Tiffany’s torso and felt it up and down. She smiled and glanced at L’Vedah as she sniggered a bit from his gentle touch. He looked at her smile for a moment and went back to work. He kneaded her sides and found that Tiffany’s obliques were very sensitive to a gentle touch.
“Tell me my dear, do you like it when I do this?” He pressed his fingers into her obliques. Tiffany tensed up and belted out a great cackle. “I take it that you do. What about if I did this?” He pressed his mouth to her navel, an outtie, and blew on it.
“WOOOOHOO!” Tiffany squealed as she swung her legs around. She lost her grip on the bars when Malaazi’s tongue swept along her navel. “HAAAAA…Heheahahaaa…”
“I’m WAY more ticklish than her Malaazi.” L’Vedah said as she fell from the monkey bars. Malaazi invited her to lie beside her friend. He knelt before the two women, smiled, and began dancing his fingers along their bellies. Before long, the two women were a cackling mess. They never asked him to stop, they never even tried to roll away. It was the seduction of Knismon.
It wasn’t just the Gargal, the Knismon, or the Titilare that had come from the cloud. There were other creatures as well. For instance, there was a large pink furry spider with eight human eyes that blinked in unison. It’s legs were human arms, and its feet were gloved hands. They had taken shelter in the tunnels of train systems and malls. Pentagon City Mall was besieged by them, and had been quarantined by the nearby Pentagon. Inside, hundreds of people laughed with reckless abandon as the forty fingers of each beast held them rapt with terrified, forced mitrth.
The Blue Line to Franconia Springfield had become jammed with trains that crashed into each other, or were stuck by the huge pink beasts. Operators were trapped in their compartments as they were besieged by the pestering creatures. Above ground metro stations had become feeding frenzies for The Gargali who sailed over stations like, Arlington Cemetery, Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood, Greenbelt and Naylor Road. They would fall down, pick up a random woman or man and bring them into the air and disappear over the horizon, their prey struggling to release themselves, even at the cost of death by plummet.
“I will ask you again, Diana,” said Izmaal as he rested his head on Dee’s shoulder, “where is the game board?”
“I…I don’t know…” she whimpered. “GAAAHAHAHAAA!!!” She roared as Izmaal’s fingers dug in her sides. She rocked the chair in an attempt to retreat from her attacker.
Ajani lay on the floor of the dungeon, her legs raised to the ceiling by two silver monkeys that hung in the rafters. They held her ankles, her feet mere inches away from their wiggling fingers. Ajani’s eyes were bugging out of her head with terrific anticipation of what was to come.
“PLEASE DON’T DO THAT!” She begged, even though the monkey’s refused to let up. They seemed to enjoy making her squirm from fear instead of actually touching. Dread at times proved to be an even more unbearable torture than the most painful nail peeling, or the sensation of a needle piercing the lens of one’s eyeball.
“Ajani, Ajani, Ajani…” the interrogator cooed, “such a lovely name, and yet, such an ignorant brain.” He began to make his way across the room. Ajani reached out to him and grabbed his ankle in desperation.
“Please,” she begged, “don’t leave me with these things!” Her eyes were like saucers and her voice trembled with horror.
“What reason do I have to not allow my colleagues to work you over from the bottoms of your delicate yet oh so complex feet, to the tips of every strand of your hair?”
“Please…it’s inhuman!”
“I am not a human.” He pulled his ankle free and stepped away from Ajani’s thrashing hand. “I’m not bound by human laws of morality.”
One of the monkeys planted a kiss on Ajani’s bare foot. “EEEK!! PLEASE! HAVE SOME MERCY ON ME!”
“I’m not your savior, woman,” He turned the handle on the door and it. “I’m quite dumbfounded as to why some of the bastardizing creatures on this planet are so in love with your kind. You’re so stupid, your race, as a whole. I can’t see the appeal of such unenlightened creatures.” He closed the door as he left.
“Oh god…” Ajani looked up at the monkeys who smiled knowingly at her.
“How do you know?” asked one.
“Huh?” Ajani had not expected the monkeys to talk.
“How do you know that God will save you?”
“He always comes through.”
“How do you know it’s a He?”
“I just know…”
The monkey peeled back Ajani’s sock, her moist bare foot cooledi n the dark dungeon air.
“He could be a She.”
“M-m-maybe…” She stuttered as she eyed the furry silver finger as it dangled lazily above the many uncountable wrinkles on her sole.
“But, how do you know this isn’t God’s will?”
“God wouldn’t do this…”
“Well that’s bold of you.” Interjected the other monkey. “Assuming what God would do and what not.”
“Please don’t tickle me.” Ajani stated as she realize she possibly pissed off the monkeys.
“Oh’ we’re not going to acquiesce to that desire.” They said in unison as they dangled their fingers so the soles of Ajani’s feet met the dreadful scrape of their soft fur. She gritted her teeth as their penduline strokes came closer and quicker.
“HELP! HELP! DON’T LEAVE ME IN HERE WITH THESE THINGS! PLEASE SOMEONE HEELLLP!!!” Her voice echoed through the halls, and no one said a word, they went about their business, except for the interrogator, who smiling, lit a cigarette.
“Laphar…” Yazabil whispered as she nibbled on his ear. The dark beings sat on a stairway at a part of the old castle that had fallen into the sea. The stairway went down twenty more feet and then ended abruptly where the rest of it had descended into the ocean. His elbows were on his knees, and his chin rested on his hands which were folded into one fist. “Laphar…”
“Yes my love?”
“Do you have a plan of action?”
“If our enemies come here?”
“Of course.”
“Do you?”
“I am always prepared.” She whispered, “I have a thousand and one plans of escape.
“So did the fox.”
“What?” She loosened her grip.
“There was a fox and a rabbit.” Laphar whispered, still staring out at the sea. “The fox and rabbit always sat in this little clearing that was flanked by woods and shrubs. The rabbit asked the fox what it would do if it had to run if a hunter came by. The fox said that it had a thousand plans of escape, and couldn’t be caught by a mere hunter. The rabbit said it only had one.” He paused and watched the rolling waves crashing against the cliffs in the distance. The foam rose and fell, spraying all in its path with its whitish material.
“What happened?”
“The fox laughed and made the rabbit feel foolish for having only one means of escape and even counseled him on other methods. Another day, the two were in the clearing, and enjoying their time. That day, a hunter came. The rabbit disappeared through it’s sole means of escape. The fox couldn’t decide on which route to use.” Laphar turned to Yazabil, “Can you guess who ended up on a dinner plate?”
She smiled, her teeth glistening in the sunlight, “Well, if it makes you feel any better, the other thousand are just fail safes.” She watched Laphar nod. “And besides, the fox only had a thousand.”
Laphar rose to his feet and began to walk down the stairway, Yazabil walked with him, holding his hand in her own. They stopped at thelast step and stood there, inhaling the salty air, listening to the tide crash against the cliff below. One day, they knew, this whole castle would fall into the sea, and they with it. Their ancestors, their history, their life, their love. It would all be claimed by the ocean. They figured they might as well get acquainted with it.
They and all the other beings in the world could feel that the end was near, and it wasn’t a madman’s cry to the heavens; it was a message, whose evidence was so clear, so certain, that it could be felt in the bones of even the smallest creature and was expressed by even the mightiest wave.
The ocean knew for certain, that there would be an end, and that all would be reclaimed by it in time, and that the cycle would begin again. The patient, sometimes tempestuous sea would give life back to the world, and revoke it at her own will. But her will was delegated by something more, and that something, even the ocean didn’t know. She could only talk of her own plans; and those plans themselves were frightening in themselves. Yazabil and Laphar dreaded what force would command the will of the sea, because that force was the one which gave the go ahead for the clock to tick down to reclamation.
The Book Of LOL
The Next Weeks
The Next Weeks
“Where is the board game,” Izmaal hissed as he paced back and forth before Dee who sat in a large chair, her arms tied to the chair’s and her legs propped up on the desk and bound at the heels.
The room was on the corner of a large apartment building, a single window which spanned at least ten feet from one end to the other, stretched across the wall in a huge semicircle. Behind the desk, in the light of the cloudy day, Izmaal moved back and forth with the silence and perfection of a noble ghost.
“I ask again,” the masked interrogator said, “where is the board game.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She replied as she breathed evenly, attempting to prevent a shiver of terror. She had seen the damage that the Titilare could inflict, and she knew that all that she had been given, even in that small kiss, was less than an infinitessimal amount of a percentage of their true power.
“My dear Diana,” Izmaal purred as he stopped in the middle of the window, facing Dee’s large feet, “I know you played the game. I know you read the card, it will be better for you to reveal the whereabouts of this game.”
“Why do you want it so badly?”
“Does that question implythat you have the game?”
“I already told you I don’t!”
Izmaal sat down before her. “Then my dear, it appears I will have to draw it out of you by force.” Izmaal drew his hand in a curving line for about five inches on the table. His finger’s wake left an apparent burn mark there. He did the same near the first mark. After a moment, the marks grew small legs, lifted from the table surface, and began advancing toward Dee’s feet.
Dee watched the creatures, which turned out to be millipedes making a slow, purposeful advance toward her. Her eyes were wide with terror, she didn’t know whether she’d feel pain or sheer titillation. “Craaaap….”
“Tell me where the game is.”
“I don’t know…” She said as the millipedes gained an inch closer.
“You played it.”
“But the game isn’t with me!” The bugs were five inches away.
“But, you read the card.”
Although Dee knew Kea had read the card, she wasn’t about to let the Titilare know that. “Just because I read a card doesn’t mean I know the whereabouts of the whole game itself.” Four inches to go. Dee’s toes curled in terrific anticipation and her feet began sweating, adding an extra lustre to her already shining soles.
“Time tickles down slowly my dear,” Izmaal teased, using a pun on the terrible sensation which he knew she’d soon experience. “Tell me where I can find it.”
Three inches. Dee whimpered, she wished suddenly that she weren’t so sadistic toward her cousin Ajani, perhaps if she weren’t so villainous to her, she might not be in the situation that she was about to be thrust into currently. “I don’t know where you can find it. I’m just a player.”
“You know where to get it from,”
“I know where to get a lot of stuff.” Two inches. “Damn, damn, DAMN!!” She looked to the dark ceiling, and remembered that the only true light in the room was the light from the window.
“Where did you buy it from,” Izmaal looked her in the eyes. His were dark, oily orbs in his head, that did not show any humanity behind the golden mask.
The millipedes began to speed up. She could feel their stubby antennae softly cruising along her soles; she jerked back, and forth slightly, tears began forming in her eyes. “Please Izmaal,” she whimpered, “I don’t know anything.”
If she could see his mouth, he might have smiled sociopathically. “Then you can play with my pets until you learn.” The millipedes began to crawl along her soles, using the infinite number of wrinkles as footholds as they danced on a sole that moved with the ferocity of a starved mad dog massacring a stuffed bunny dipped in meat sauce.
Dee threw her head back, her eyes shut tightly and her mouth stretched open as her final plea for freedom was uttered in a wail that was filled with a terror of the knowledge that she was bound in a chair that was stuck between a rock and a hard place, with the addition of an even more ticklish situation unfurling underfoot.
“HELP MEHEHAHAHAAA!” Ajani’s screams filled the dimly lit room as she waved her arms in futile attempts to block the misty arms and hands that crawled all over her body. She thrust her hand out before her to push away a face that sailed toward her. As she did so, a misty hand screwed itself up her sleeve and embedded itself in her left armpit hollow.
“NAAAHAHAHAA…STOPITSTOPITSTOPIT!”
She fell back to the wall, giggling like a patient in a madhouse as she tried to dig it out to no avail. The feathery fingers of her assailant marched in place like a soldier, caressing the warm moist earth that was her sensitive flesh under the heavy boots that were its fingertips. As she laughed and screamed, she felt another hand crawling through her pant leg. As it reached her knee, Ajani lost balance and tumbled to the floor, her eyes wide and her white teeth glistening in the dim light.
“Where is the other that was with you?” The smooth voice asked as if nothing were even going on.
“OH PLEEHEEHEEASE…” Ajani screamed as another misty hand danced along her left breast, she managed to grab hold of it and toss it to the air, it fell back to her and dug into her belly, she curled into what could have been a ball and tumbledo n her side. “WHY DON’T YOU HELP MEEHAHAHAAA!?”
“I am here to get answers, your interrogation will be complete when I learn what I came for.”
“I’LL TELL YOU ANAAAHAHAAAHAHAAA!!!”
“Anything? Is that what you said?”
“ANYTHING YOU WANNA KNOHOOHOO!!”
“I don’t want to know anything, I want to know only one thing.” From the shadows of the dimly lit room, a slender man with pale brown skin emerged. His hands were cased in silver and he wore a similar cloak to the other inquisitors. His sharp nose turned downward at the vulnerable young woman who screamed as two more misty hands danced along her breasts.
“I DON’T KNOHOHOW…IDON’TKNAAAHAHAHAAAA!!” A hand popped off one of her shoes and dug into her socked foot. Another hand tore off her remaining shoe and its sock and dug into her bare foot.
The man knelt low, his eyes almost staring into her own. They were dead, but angry, like a man who had been murdered, or executed for a crime he didn’t commit, if there is even a difference. “I give you one more chance Miss Ajani…Where is your sister?”
Kea slid down the side of a ravine and dashed through the forest of Rock Creek Park. The forest was alive with screams of people who had come the same way, fearing the sudden plague which had come in the form of beasts who could bring the dead to rise from the earth, or to cut down an obstacle with a flick of their own wrists. From what she had seen since the past two weeks had inched slowly by, there were three types of these beasts which had come to the earth.
The first called themselves Gargali, they were the most brutal, they dragged people along the ground, ripping heir clothes from their bodies, and tickled people until they crapped their pants. They had no care for gentleness or chivalry, and often fought with each other over the more ticklish captives. They were outwardly arrogant, and sadistic, and more people feared them than the other two invading forces.
The black wings of the beasts who had come from the clouds beat against the air above, whistling madly and interwinding its sound with the sound of the helpless laughter of three men who dangled form the grips of the monsters as they scribbled their devilish fingers along their desperately thrashing soles. Kea watched them as they passed through the break in the trees overhead.
The second force called themselves Knismon. They were more gentle than the Gargali who were obviously their cousins. The knismon could seduce a man or woman into bed with them, and gently stroke, lick and probe their victim into insanity. And the Knismon were so good at their strategies that their prey often willingly submitted to the wills of their coaxing invaders. Some men even fell in love with the Knismon women, and some women fell under the spell of the men.
The Knismon appeared gracious, even benignant, but Kea feared them most of all, because unlike their cousins, who were brutally honest to their desires, the knismon were more deceitful and trapped their prey the way Ajani used to trap chess players when she played a game on Florida Avenue.
A large couple who looked to be husband and wife, tumbled down the side of the ravine, they were covered in those dark fuzzy creatures that had attacked Ajani. The two people were cackling like witches that had too much laughing gas. They struggled to extricate themselves from the situation, but they were too weak to handle the onslaught of the devious creatures. Kea watched them fall, roll to a stop in a large puddle, and splash and beg for help. It broke Kea’s heart to deny them, but she knew she might not survive herself if she stopped to help them. She forced herself on.
The third invading force, which Kea saw firsthand was the Titlare. These, she discovered, were feared by both the Gargali and the Knismon. These dark cloaked, clever minded, quasivirtuous and determined individuals took few people prisoner, and of those which they did, Kea found that they either were never seen again, or their fully clothed skeleton, including their hair, was found in the room where they had their encounter.
Kea knew very little about the third group, they seemed to be almost observers of the scene. Walking slowly, like monks in meditative thought, heads bowed, hands folded at their chests, all at peace while all around them the dams that bound Hell broke down. She could only hope that her sister and her cousin were still alive. She couldn’t stand the thought of them being reduced to skeletons with hair, lain out on some floor, undignified, though in death what dignity there was Kea couldn’t see.
But what she really wondered about were the fourth invading force, which had not yet reared its head. The Hysterim. She had heard the name over a hundred times in the past two weeks, yet, she had never seen or heard them. She had a clue that they were not well liked, the Gargali and Knismon often said their name in their own language while they conversed. They must have been good, or at least benign to some extent. The visitor, Laphar, had said that they should be found before the Gargali or the Knismon find them. Either of those two, would never let them go.
And who was Laphar? Was he Gargali or Knismon? He looked like a violent beast, but Kea remembered having a very good feeling throughout the five minute session where he played with her belly like a concert pianist.
What would Dee say? She wondered as she found a street where a car had been abandoned. She found the keys in the ignition, she thanked her lucky stars and jumped in. She placed the board game on the seat next to her and turned the vehicle on.
Two women hung from the jungle gym in the middle of the playground. One wore a gray t-shirt, and cut up blue jeans, her bare feet reached down to the sandals below, but couldn’t quite get them. Her skin was a yellowish brown and her black hair was worked over to the point that it was lifelessly straight. Her name was L’Vedah.
Beside L’Vedah, was a woman somewhat taller than her, she wore a black belly shirt, though she had no belly. Only a slender tummy which was more suited to the shirts which had such a deceptive name. Her sweatpants were gray, and her sneakers hung below her feet. Her orange-brown skin accentuated her full lips which were lacquered in black lipstick. Her name was Tiffany.
They both hung from the Jungle Gym because they wished to please their friend, Malaazi. He had met them on the street, spoken with them, and told them what he wanted to do. He didn’t want to force them, and they knew they couldn’t out run him. He took down the beast that had come after them initially.
“Are you ready ladies?” Malaazi’s voice sailed along the air.
“Sure, whatever.” They both replied with smiles.
Malaazi walked from behind a tree. He was tall, slender, dark, and wore a black suit that fit him far better than the suits on Armani commercials. He wore a purple shirt that shined slightly and a black tie. He looked at them with half lidded eyes and a sly smile filled with extraordinarily white teeth. His long well made shoes, and everything else for that matter, spoke of wealth. Even the neatly done micro cornrows that were so long that they were braided down his back had to be done by someone who was paid a lot of money.
“Then, let us begin.” He placed his hands gently on Tiffany’s torso and felt it up and down. She smiled and glanced at L’Vedah as she sniggered a bit from his gentle touch. He looked at her smile for a moment and went back to work. He kneaded her sides and found that Tiffany’s obliques were very sensitive to a gentle touch.
“Tell me my dear, do you like it when I do this?” He pressed his fingers into her obliques. Tiffany tensed up and belted out a great cackle. “I take it that you do. What about if I did this?” He pressed his mouth to her navel, an outtie, and blew on it.
“WOOOOHOO!” Tiffany squealed as she swung her legs around. She lost her grip on the bars when Malaazi’s tongue swept along her navel. “HAAAAA…Heheahahaaa…”
“I’m WAY more ticklish than her Malaazi.” L’Vedah said as she fell from the monkey bars. Malaazi invited her to lie beside her friend. He knelt before the two women, smiled, and began dancing his fingers along their bellies. Before long, the two women were a cackling mess. They never asked him to stop, they never even tried to roll away. It was the seduction of Knismon.
It wasn’t just the Gargal, the Knismon, or the Titilare that had come from the cloud. There were other creatures as well. For instance, there was a large pink furry spider with eight human eyes that blinked in unison. It’s legs were human arms, and its feet were gloved hands. They had taken shelter in the tunnels of train systems and malls. Pentagon City Mall was besieged by them, and had been quarantined by the nearby Pentagon. Inside, hundreds of people laughed with reckless abandon as the forty fingers of each beast held them rapt with terrified, forced mitrth.
The Blue Line to Franconia Springfield had become jammed with trains that crashed into each other, or were stuck by the huge pink beasts. Operators were trapped in their compartments as they were besieged by the pestering creatures. Above ground metro stations had become feeding frenzies for The Gargali who sailed over stations like, Arlington Cemetery, Rhode Island Avenue-Brentwood, Greenbelt and Naylor Road. They would fall down, pick up a random woman or man and bring them into the air and disappear over the horizon, their prey struggling to release themselves, even at the cost of death by plummet.
“I will ask you again, Diana,” said Izmaal as he rested his head on Dee’s shoulder, “where is the game board?”
“I…I don’t know…” she whimpered. “GAAAHAHAHAAA!!!” She roared as Izmaal’s fingers dug in her sides. She rocked the chair in an attempt to retreat from her attacker.
Ajani lay on the floor of the dungeon, her legs raised to the ceiling by two silver monkeys that hung in the rafters. They held her ankles, her feet mere inches away from their wiggling fingers. Ajani’s eyes were bugging out of her head with terrific anticipation of what was to come.
“PLEASE DON’T DO THAT!” She begged, even though the monkey’s refused to let up. They seemed to enjoy making her squirm from fear instead of actually touching. Dread at times proved to be an even more unbearable torture than the most painful nail peeling, or the sensation of a needle piercing the lens of one’s eyeball.
“Ajani, Ajani, Ajani…” the interrogator cooed, “such a lovely name, and yet, such an ignorant brain.” He began to make his way across the room. Ajani reached out to him and grabbed his ankle in desperation.
“Please,” she begged, “don’t leave me with these things!” Her eyes were like saucers and her voice trembled with horror.
“What reason do I have to not allow my colleagues to work you over from the bottoms of your delicate yet oh so complex feet, to the tips of every strand of your hair?”
“Please…it’s inhuman!”
“I am not a human.” He pulled his ankle free and stepped away from Ajani’s thrashing hand. “I’m not bound by human laws of morality.”
One of the monkeys planted a kiss on Ajani’s bare foot. “EEEK!! PLEASE! HAVE SOME MERCY ON ME!”
“I’m not your savior, woman,” He turned the handle on the door and it. “I’m quite dumbfounded as to why some of the bastardizing creatures on this planet are so in love with your kind. You’re so stupid, your race, as a whole. I can’t see the appeal of such unenlightened creatures.” He closed the door as he left.
“Oh god…” Ajani looked up at the monkeys who smiled knowingly at her.
“How do you know?” asked one.
“Huh?” Ajani had not expected the monkeys to talk.
“How do you know that God will save you?”
“He always comes through.”
“How do you know it’s a He?”
“I just know…”
The monkey peeled back Ajani’s sock, her moist bare foot cooledi n the dark dungeon air.
“He could be a She.”
“M-m-maybe…” She stuttered as she eyed the furry silver finger as it dangled lazily above the many uncountable wrinkles on her sole.
“But, how do you know this isn’t God’s will?”
“God wouldn’t do this…”
“Well that’s bold of you.” Interjected the other monkey. “Assuming what God would do and what not.”
“Please don’t tickle me.” Ajani stated as she realize she possibly pissed off the monkeys.
“Oh’ we’re not going to acquiesce to that desire.” They said in unison as they dangled their fingers so the soles of Ajani’s feet met the dreadful scrape of their soft fur. She gritted her teeth as their penduline strokes came closer and quicker.
“HELP! HELP! DON’T LEAVE ME IN HERE WITH THESE THINGS! PLEASE SOMEONE HEELLLP!!!” Her voice echoed through the halls, and no one said a word, they went about their business, except for the interrogator, who smiling, lit a cigarette.
“Laphar…” Yazabil whispered as she nibbled on his ear. The dark beings sat on a stairway at a part of the old castle that had fallen into the sea. The stairway went down twenty more feet and then ended abruptly where the rest of it had descended into the ocean. His elbows were on his knees, and his chin rested on his hands which were folded into one fist. “Laphar…”
“Yes my love?”
“Do you have a plan of action?”
“If our enemies come here?”
“Of course.”
“Do you?”
“I am always prepared.” She whispered, “I have a thousand and one plans of escape.
“So did the fox.”
“What?” She loosened her grip.
“There was a fox and a rabbit.” Laphar whispered, still staring out at the sea. “The fox and rabbit always sat in this little clearing that was flanked by woods and shrubs. The rabbit asked the fox what it would do if it had to run if a hunter came by. The fox said that it had a thousand plans of escape, and couldn’t be caught by a mere hunter. The rabbit said it only had one.” He paused and watched the rolling waves crashing against the cliffs in the distance. The foam rose and fell, spraying all in its path with its whitish material.
“What happened?”
“The fox laughed and made the rabbit feel foolish for having only one means of escape and even counseled him on other methods. Another day, the two were in the clearing, and enjoying their time. That day, a hunter came. The rabbit disappeared through it’s sole means of escape. The fox couldn’t decide on which route to use.” Laphar turned to Yazabil, “Can you guess who ended up on a dinner plate?”
She smiled, her teeth glistening in the sunlight, “Well, if it makes you feel any better, the other thousand are just fail safes.” She watched Laphar nod. “And besides, the fox only had a thousand.”
Laphar rose to his feet and began to walk down the stairway, Yazabil walked with him, holding his hand in her own. They stopped at thelast step and stood there, inhaling the salty air, listening to the tide crash against the cliff below. One day, they knew, this whole castle would fall into the sea, and they with it. Their ancestors, their history, their life, their love. It would all be claimed by the ocean. They figured they might as well get acquainted with it.
They and all the other beings in the world could feel that the end was near, and it wasn’t a madman’s cry to the heavens; it was a message, whose evidence was so clear, so certain, that it could be felt in the bones of even the smallest creature and was expressed by even the mightiest wave.
The ocean knew for certain, that there would be an end, and that all would be reclaimed by it in time, and that the cycle would begin again. The patient, sometimes tempestuous sea would give life back to the world, and revoke it at her own will. But her will was delegated by something more, and that something, even the ocean didn’t know. She could only talk of her own plans; and those plans themselves were frightening in themselves. Yazabil and Laphar dreaded what force would command the will of the sea, because that force was the one which gave the go ahead for the clock to tick down to reclamation.
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