Prologue: At the Party (M/F)
I bring you...fiction ~holy light~
'wait a minute mate, so do loads of people, and theirs is better'
~holy light sputters~
A raucous cheer went up as Josh gave break dancing his best shot in the middle of a ring of people eager enough, or drunk enough, to be on the dance-floor this early. Being one of the latter himself, the attempt crumbled as he barrelled into one of the onlookers, which brought another cheer all the same.
Further back, several groups of friends stood vaguely moving in time with the thunderous bass, and shouting in each other’s ears to be heard over it.
“You want to get another drink?” Amy yelled, glad she didn’t have to repeat herself as the girl next to her nodded agreement, and they began moving towards the bar. It was a 19th birthday party, and the crowd was limited, but large enough to make movement difficult.
To take full advantage of this fact, a group of three of the guys had placed themselves strategically around the most direct route to the alcohol. Cathy, trailing behind Amy, wasn’t lucky enough to get through. As she bumped one of the three, his hands snaked out to poke her sides. The ‘eep’ that emerged was just too cute for the guys.
‘Oh sorry, Cath, you a bit ticklish?’ John, the primary offender asked, with an all-too-smug grin covering his pimply face. She looked back at him indignantly, crossing her arms in preparation to stare him into the ground. This, of course, meant she wasn’t looking the other way. Tom was homing in on her from where he’d been lying in wait earlier. Sensing a trap closing on her friend, Amy made to warn her when David, the third of the trio, pulled her away and held onto her until she wouldn’t be a danger to the scheme.
‘I didn’t come here to be irritated by you Johnathon’ Cathy admonished the source of her anger, ‘In fact I think you ahh’. Whatever Cathy thought was lost as she squealed again, now under attack from both sides. She spun to see Tom grinning equally as mischievously as John.
‘Oh sorry, Cath, you a bit ticklish?’ Tom could barely contain his elation at the deviousness of the ploy.
‘You…you…’ Cathy swung her eyes back and forth between the two, in the stage of worry where it takes a well disciplined mind to act rationally. Those eyes widened as the pair started slowly wiggling their fingers at her. ‘Now…b-boys…c’mon’.
They attacked immediately, crushing Cathy’s hopes of a peaceful conclusion.
As their fingers made contact with her sides once again, Cathy gave an especially loud squeal, proceeding to issue a chain of giggles as fingers walked up and down her ribs with intent.
A sleeveless top was clearly not the right choice for the occasion as John took advantage and quickly dug into her pits, while Tom changed position to scrabble across the girl’s stomach. Unable to really get away, Cathy tried to huddle up on the spot, bending forwards to cover her stomach and crushing her arms to her sides to stop the armpit assault. There was no way she was avoiding twenty fingers though, which dug in anywhere there was room, her sides getting a special helping again as she left them uncovered. She shrieked as a finger poked a sensitive spot between two of her ribs, and her face scrunched as both her attackers cottoned on at speed. Her constant laughter and occasional yelp started to turn heads, and groups stopped to watch Cathy’s torment.
‘C’mon guys, you gotta stop now’ Kate had come over in sympathy, voicing the thoughts Cathy was currently unable to communicate. Tom looked at her in semi-disbelief, grinned and started waggling his fingers in her direction. Kate, abandoning any thoughts of rescuing her friend, sped back through the crowd at pace. The momentary respite from half of the tickling digits hadn’t helped Cathy. John seemed to be finding sweet spots wherever he probed, and Cathy collapsed onto the floor, laughing silently by this point, face turning red from the exertion.
Tom and John knelt beside to capitalise, still attacking the midsection of the poor girl, bringing only the occasional audible yelp, before Cathy fell back into silent laughter, eyes screwed shut. The only clues that she was actually laughing were her mouth gaping open in a frozen scream and the shudders that wracked her body as their fingers danced along it.
‘Get her feet!’ David made his way back to the scene, anxious to get a turn torturing the victim. Seeing the girl lying prone on the floor, attempting to curl into the smallest ball possible, he lunged for her protected feet. He quickly set to removing that protection, slipping off both shoes to reveal a small pair of cream white feet, toes hiding as if they knew what was coming. He reached out to start stroking the soles.
‘That’s enough guys.’
The beat washed over Mark as he sat on a particularly uncomfortable wooden chair, staring at the dance-floor. Jeff and Phil had just left to try their luck there, leaving Mark to admire their empty chairs. He would be up there later, he knew. He couldn’t dance, but drunk enough he would fling himself about with the best of them. The people he knew said he was a good dancer, which wasn’t true, but if they liked it, he might as well put on a show.
‘Hey, why’re you frowning, you ok?’ Looking up he saw Rachel’s face smiling down at him, brown eyes twinkling.
‘Heh, I’m fine, don’t worry.’ He split his face into his best grin.
Rachel wasn’t impressed. ‘Alright. Well I’ll see you on the floor later. Save me a dance, though I doubt that you ever run out of energy.’ She said, arching a cute eyebrow in response to his comment.
‘Sure.’ Mark tried the grin again. Rachel rolled her eyes and walked off towards the bar.
He looked down into his Jack Daniels and Coke, swirling it around so the light reflections danced as vigorously as Josh up the front. Mark glanced up to see him preparing to break dance. That wouldn’t end well, it never did. Downing the rest of the drink, Mark returned a wave Kate gave him as she walked past, giving her a trademark grin, then turned to greet Steve A and Steve F, who had just arrived.
They were interrupted by a scream. Checking behind, Mark saw little through the crowd. One of the girls must have overreacted to something or other, though it had to have been a loud scream to be heard above the boom-boom-boom of the bass. He continued to talk to the Steves.
It became evident something was happening eventually, as a bit of a ring was forming near the bar, and a number of people were pointing and laughing, a few girls with sympathetic looks on their faces. Mark excused himself from the company of the Steves and wandered closer. He saw Kate scamper away through the crowd, and he pressed forward, curious.
He sighed when he located the source of the commotion. Two of the terrible trio had found a victim in Cathy, who squirmed on the floor, desperate to escape the clutches of John and Tom, who poked and teased her upper body where skin was showing. Her stomach seemed a favourite spot, and the girl jerked each time John rediscovered ticklish areas over and over again. David, the third, was making a beeline for her currently protected feet. Cathy’s mouth was trying to plead for a saviour, but could only hang open as a testament to her torment. Mark sighed again. He supposed he had better help her. Threading his way through the throng, he arrived just as David’s eyes were lighting up at the sight of Cathy’s feet, complete with furled toes.
‘That’s enough guys.’
The tickling stopped immediately, but Cathy didn’t move, relieved at the conclusion of her torture, happy to lay still and gasp in much-loved oxygen.
‘Aww, Mark, don’t be such a party-pooper’ Tom whined. David just looked in stunned horror at Cathy’s feet, as if he had found a winning lottery ticket which had suddenly been caught and whisked away by the wind. ‘We were only having a little fun. C’mon we can tickle her together.’ A few fleeting cries of agreement went up from some of the guys in the crowd.
‘I said. That. Is. Enough.’ Mark could have been discussing whether the sun would rise tomorrow. He flashed Tom a grin. ‘Now piss off.’
Tom sulked for a moment before giving an exasperated shrug and moving off, no doubt looking for more ways to cause trouble. His cronies followed, aiming dirty looks at Mark, though David’s seemed to be half-pleading. Mark reached a hand down to Cathy, who having recovered slightly, took it, letting Mark lift her onto her feet. He handed her back the shoes she had lost during her ordeal.
‘Th-thanks’ she stammered, struggling to regain her composure.
Mark nodded, and headed back to his seat, through less of a crowd, who had lost interest a while ago, and turned to whatever caught their attentions. Kate stopped him before he got there.
‘That was sweet of you, helping Cathy. She’s lucky you’re on the side of the good guys.’ She smoothed back some hair from her forehead, where a few dark strands had fallen.
‘I’m not on anyone’s side. I think your friend could do with someone to help her recover though.’ He pointed at Cathy, who still looked flustered despite her best attempts. She was moving towards the bar and was about to lean on the side when she froze. In fact, so did the bar staff. And everyone at the bar. Mark turned back to Kate, who looked as confused as he felt.
‘What the…’ she said, cutting off mid-question. The music had stopped.
‘What the hell!’ Rachel’s voice could be heard from nearer the dance-floor. ‘Anyone still….moving?’
‘Over here Rach.’ Mark shouted, though he now probably didn’t need to. Rachel rushed over.
‘You guys..’ Rachel tried, ‘What’s going o..’ A blinding light came from the DJ booth. Rachel shielded her eyes instinctively, as Kate let out a yell.
The light encompassed them, bright and white enough to be seen easily through eyelids. It swelled up and up, until suddenly it was no more. Cautiously Rachel opened her eyes, looking left and right she saw Mark in something of a protective stance off to one side of her and Kate, who was just uncovering her eyes, wide and frightened looking.
Mark saw them first. Four figures about ten metres away, all dressed in skin-tight costumes, two in black, two in white.
‘Who the hell are you? Did you do this?’ Mark demanded, caution in his tone, but still expecting an answer. His eyes scanned the poorly lit area. It appeared to be roughly the dimensions of the room they were previously in, but the walls were…what colour were the walls?
The four briefly conferred, before the two in black walked out. Through one of the walls. The three eyed the two in white suspiciously, Kate still wide-eyed.
‘Welcome’ the man said. He smiled.
All comments appreciated
I bring you...fiction ~holy light~
'wait a minute mate, so do loads of people, and theirs is better'
~holy light sputters~
A raucous cheer went up as Josh gave break dancing his best shot in the middle of a ring of people eager enough, or drunk enough, to be on the dance-floor this early. Being one of the latter himself, the attempt crumbled as he barrelled into one of the onlookers, which brought another cheer all the same.
Further back, several groups of friends stood vaguely moving in time with the thunderous bass, and shouting in each other’s ears to be heard over it.
“You want to get another drink?” Amy yelled, glad she didn’t have to repeat herself as the girl next to her nodded agreement, and they began moving towards the bar. It was a 19th birthday party, and the crowd was limited, but large enough to make movement difficult.
To take full advantage of this fact, a group of three of the guys had placed themselves strategically around the most direct route to the alcohol. Cathy, trailing behind Amy, wasn’t lucky enough to get through. As she bumped one of the three, his hands snaked out to poke her sides. The ‘eep’ that emerged was just too cute for the guys.
‘Oh sorry, Cath, you a bit ticklish?’ John, the primary offender asked, with an all-too-smug grin covering his pimply face. She looked back at him indignantly, crossing her arms in preparation to stare him into the ground. This, of course, meant she wasn’t looking the other way. Tom was homing in on her from where he’d been lying in wait earlier. Sensing a trap closing on her friend, Amy made to warn her when David, the third of the trio, pulled her away and held onto her until she wouldn’t be a danger to the scheme.
‘I didn’t come here to be irritated by you Johnathon’ Cathy admonished the source of her anger, ‘In fact I think you ahh’. Whatever Cathy thought was lost as she squealed again, now under attack from both sides. She spun to see Tom grinning equally as mischievously as John.
‘Oh sorry, Cath, you a bit ticklish?’ Tom could barely contain his elation at the deviousness of the ploy.
‘You…you…’ Cathy swung her eyes back and forth between the two, in the stage of worry where it takes a well disciplined mind to act rationally. Those eyes widened as the pair started slowly wiggling their fingers at her. ‘Now…b-boys…c’mon’.
They attacked immediately, crushing Cathy’s hopes of a peaceful conclusion.
As their fingers made contact with her sides once again, Cathy gave an especially loud squeal, proceeding to issue a chain of giggles as fingers walked up and down her ribs with intent.
A sleeveless top was clearly not the right choice for the occasion as John took advantage and quickly dug into her pits, while Tom changed position to scrabble across the girl’s stomach. Unable to really get away, Cathy tried to huddle up on the spot, bending forwards to cover her stomach and crushing her arms to her sides to stop the armpit assault. There was no way she was avoiding twenty fingers though, which dug in anywhere there was room, her sides getting a special helping again as she left them uncovered. She shrieked as a finger poked a sensitive spot between two of her ribs, and her face scrunched as both her attackers cottoned on at speed. Her constant laughter and occasional yelp started to turn heads, and groups stopped to watch Cathy’s torment.
‘C’mon guys, you gotta stop now’ Kate had come over in sympathy, voicing the thoughts Cathy was currently unable to communicate. Tom looked at her in semi-disbelief, grinned and started waggling his fingers in her direction. Kate, abandoning any thoughts of rescuing her friend, sped back through the crowd at pace. The momentary respite from half of the tickling digits hadn’t helped Cathy. John seemed to be finding sweet spots wherever he probed, and Cathy collapsed onto the floor, laughing silently by this point, face turning red from the exertion.
Tom and John knelt beside to capitalise, still attacking the midsection of the poor girl, bringing only the occasional audible yelp, before Cathy fell back into silent laughter, eyes screwed shut. The only clues that she was actually laughing were her mouth gaping open in a frozen scream and the shudders that wracked her body as their fingers danced along it.
‘Get her feet!’ David made his way back to the scene, anxious to get a turn torturing the victim. Seeing the girl lying prone on the floor, attempting to curl into the smallest ball possible, he lunged for her protected feet. He quickly set to removing that protection, slipping off both shoes to reveal a small pair of cream white feet, toes hiding as if they knew what was coming. He reached out to start stroking the soles.
‘That’s enough guys.’
The beat washed over Mark as he sat on a particularly uncomfortable wooden chair, staring at the dance-floor. Jeff and Phil had just left to try their luck there, leaving Mark to admire their empty chairs. He would be up there later, he knew. He couldn’t dance, but drunk enough he would fling himself about with the best of them. The people he knew said he was a good dancer, which wasn’t true, but if they liked it, he might as well put on a show.
‘Hey, why’re you frowning, you ok?’ Looking up he saw Rachel’s face smiling down at him, brown eyes twinkling.
‘Heh, I’m fine, don’t worry.’ He split his face into his best grin.
Rachel wasn’t impressed. ‘Alright. Well I’ll see you on the floor later. Save me a dance, though I doubt that you ever run out of energy.’ She said, arching a cute eyebrow in response to his comment.
‘Sure.’ Mark tried the grin again. Rachel rolled her eyes and walked off towards the bar.
He looked down into his Jack Daniels and Coke, swirling it around so the light reflections danced as vigorously as Josh up the front. Mark glanced up to see him preparing to break dance. That wouldn’t end well, it never did. Downing the rest of the drink, Mark returned a wave Kate gave him as she walked past, giving her a trademark grin, then turned to greet Steve A and Steve F, who had just arrived.
They were interrupted by a scream. Checking behind, Mark saw little through the crowd. One of the girls must have overreacted to something or other, though it had to have been a loud scream to be heard above the boom-boom-boom of the bass. He continued to talk to the Steves.
It became evident something was happening eventually, as a bit of a ring was forming near the bar, and a number of people were pointing and laughing, a few girls with sympathetic looks on their faces. Mark excused himself from the company of the Steves and wandered closer. He saw Kate scamper away through the crowd, and he pressed forward, curious.
He sighed when he located the source of the commotion. Two of the terrible trio had found a victim in Cathy, who squirmed on the floor, desperate to escape the clutches of John and Tom, who poked and teased her upper body where skin was showing. Her stomach seemed a favourite spot, and the girl jerked each time John rediscovered ticklish areas over and over again. David, the third, was making a beeline for her currently protected feet. Cathy’s mouth was trying to plead for a saviour, but could only hang open as a testament to her torment. Mark sighed again. He supposed he had better help her. Threading his way through the throng, he arrived just as David’s eyes were lighting up at the sight of Cathy’s feet, complete with furled toes.
‘That’s enough guys.’
The tickling stopped immediately, but Cathy didn’t move, relieved at the conclusion of her torture, happy to lay still and gasp in much-loved oxygen.
‘Aww, Mark, don’t be such a party-pooper’ Tom whined. David just looked in stunned horror at Cathy’s feet, as if he had found a winning lottery ticket which had suddenly been caught and whisked away by the wind. ‘We were only having a little fun. C’mon we can tickle her together.’ A few fleeting cries of agreement went up from some of the guys in the crowd.
‘I said. That. Is. Enough.’ Mark could have been discussing whether the sun would rise tomorrow. He flashed Tom a grin. ‘Now piss off.’
Tom sulked for a moment before giving an exasperated shrug and moving off, no doubt looking for more ways to cause trouble. His cronies followed, aiming dirty looks at Mark, though David’s seemed to be half-pleading. Mark reached a hand down to Cathy, who having recovered slightly, took it, letting Mark lift her onto her feet. He handed her back the shoes she had lost during her ordeal.
‘Th-thanks’ she stammered, struggling to regain her composure.
Mark nodded, and headed back to his seat, through less of a crowd, who had lost interest a while ago, and turned to whatever caught their attentions. Kate stopped him before he got there.
‘That was sweet of you, helping Cathy. She’s lucky you’re on the side of the good guys.’ She smoothed back some hair from her forehead, where a few dark strands had fallen.
‘I’m not on anyone’s side. I think your friend could do with someone to help her recover though.’ He pointed at Cathy, who still looked flustered despite her best attempts. She was moving towards the bar and was about to lean on the side when she froze. In fact, so did the bar staff. And everyone at the bar. Mark turned back to Kate, who looked as confused as he felt.
‘What the…’ she said, cutting off mid-question. The music had stopped.
‘What the hell!’ Rachel’s voice could be heard from nearer the dance-floor. ‘Anyone still….moving?’
‘Over here Rach.’ Mark shouted, though he now probably didn’t need to. Rachel rushed over.
‘You guys..’ Rachel tried, ‘What’s going o..’ A blinding light came from the DJ booth. Rachel shielded her eyes instinctively, as Kate let out a yell.
The light encompassed them, bright and white enough to be seen easily through eyelids. It swelled up and up, until suddenly it was no more. Cautiously Rachel opened her eyes, looking left and right she saw Mark in something of a protective stance off to one side of her and Kate, who was just uncovering her eyes, wide and frightened looking.
Mark saw them first. Four figures about ten metres away, all dressed in skin-tight costumes, two in black, two in white.
‘Who the hell are you? Did you do this?’ Mark demanded, caution in his tone, but still expecting an answer. His eyes scanned the poorly lit area. It appeared to be roughly the dimensions of the room they were previously in, but the walls were…what colour were the walls?
The four briefly conferred, before the two in black walked out. Through one of the walls. The three eyed the two in white suspiciously, Kate still wide-eyed.
‘Welcome’ the man said. He smiled.
All comments appreciated
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