Shelter, Chapter 13: A Safe Place...

by Glassbottom

Most journeys begin with a destination in mind. A map, a route, an itinerary. A purpose. Even the most loosely planned, the most spontaneous passages have some sort of goal.

Like I said in the beginning, almost every single thing I've done in my life has been thought over rationally and carefully planned out. Even when it seemed like someone else was calling the shots, someone else was driving the car, I had the wheel.

But ever since it happened... ever since... nothing has made sense... and I was groping about in the dark.

Until one evening I woke up on the bed naked, literally groping about in the dark with the wind blowing savagely through my window. The wail of the town siren was swaying above the din and my heart set to pounding.

I couldn't remember much of anything, like how in the hell I came to be naked on the bed, but there were more important matters at hand, like what in the hell I was going to do.

I felt for the bedside lamp and tried to turn it on. Nothing. No numbers on my digital clock radio. The power was out. Meanwhile the siren continued and I was wasting time thinking.

I scrambled off the bed and crawled along the floor and into the closet. It was the best I could do. I pulled the door shut and curled up in the dark on the floor, hugging my legs against my breasts. I don't think I had ever noticed my nipples being that hard from fear before. Outside the closet, outside the building, out there in the world, I could hear the siren... and I could hear the walls straining against the wind.

I could hear other things. I could hear the trees. I could hear someone's chimes. I could hear a rumbling. It made me imagine all sorts of things. I tried very hard not to think about those. Then I thought about other things. I thought about how it reminded me of childhood, of hiding out in my closet when I was a little girl.

But when I was a little girl I wasn't hiding out from a storm. I was hiding out from monsters. And when I say monsters I'm not talking about the make-believe kind that were supposed to live in your closet or under your bed, my other hiding place. I'm talking about the real life monsters, the ones that walk around pretending to be good people who love you.

They snarl at you and they growl at you and their mouths twist and their eyes bug out hideously. These were the monsters I hid from in my closet or under my bed when I was a little girl, waiting for them to stop yelling, or waiting for them to go away.

Sometimes I hid because they were looking for me, sometimes I hid because they were fighting with one another. But it didn't matter, did it? It was all the same.

I remembered. Then suddenly I remembered my day. I had taken the day off from Jenkins and I had gone back and forth, beating myself up, struggling with the idea of going and looking for Billie.

I hadn't seen her in almost two weeks and not only did I crave her, I was worried about her. When you you go from seeing someone every day to the point where you can't get rid of them, you go from that to not seeing them at all, you have to wonder if something happened to them. Especially when they've got problems.

"I don't belong to nobody..."

Hey, I didn't have to be a genius to know those words had nothing to do with me. But they did have to do with me in that I knew what they meant. Believe me, I knew. Those words came from deep inside, they built up over time. Those words had to do with someone sitting on your chest, making it hard for you to draw your next breath. Those words had to do with someone trying to control your every move, crush your spirit... basically, kill you.

For what is a girl or a boy, a man or a woman, without a spirit? Nothing. Something that walks and talks, eats and drinks, shits and pisses, and serves the master...

I had done a lot of thinking about whether I wanted to live or die the past week or so, serving out my sentence of Billie-free boredom, and here I was sitting in a closet, listening to the violent wind, wondering if half of my hometown was being torn apart. The siren had stopped. I heard a lot of noise I just could not put together with anything besides buildings and houses being torn apart, glass breaking...

I was trembling, hugging myself. I wanted to live.

For those of you who think I drank all day, no, I did not, but I had spent the day lost in thought. And after a shower I remembered lying down on the bed, feeling a most refreshing breeze caress my body. I must have just... drifted off... slept for hours until... this.

Suddenly, quite suddenly, it all stopped, the wind and the noise, and all there was was silence. And then, the sound of more sirens. One on top of another. All over the place. Some near, some far. As if to say something terrible had happened.

I opened the closet door, carefully made my way through the darkness, and made my way to the bathroom where I took a huge pee. I tried to think. Flashlight. Flashlight. Linen closet or junk drawer? Ah, yes, top of the fridge.

I made my way out to the kitchen, found the flashlight, turned it on, found some extra batteries in the junk drawer, went to the bedroom, found my cigarettes and lighter, lit a candle, and got dressed.

The temperature had dropped about twenty degrees. A hard rain had begun to fall. I closed the bedroom window to a crack, but after I came out to the living room and lit a few more candles, I opened the door to the balcony and let the room air out. I stepped out on the balcony barefoot in my t-shirt and jeans and I lit a cigarette.

I could still hear those chimes. Funny I had never really been aware of them before tonight. Must have been one of those things, like the beating of my own heart, the will to live. At the same time, nothing seemed real. I felt like I must be dreaming. I had to get some news of some kind.

God damn clock radio. It took batteries but I had never figured out how to put them in. Or maybe it didn't take batteries, but then why the hollow compartment underneath?

I went in and unplugged it and took the plate off and tried fumbling with it some more, reading the fine lettering with my flashlight. Oh my God. Forget about it. So I went out and had another smoke. I heated myself up a cup of water and had a cup of tea, something I hadn't done in a very long time. I sat and tried to relax.

There was no way I was sleeping. I had just slept for several hours and I was up, especially faced with the situation I was faced with.

It took me a while to decide, after swaying back and forth, yes, I was going to do it, I was going to go for a drive and do some investigative reporting of my own. Call it curiosity or concern... I had to know what had happened and I wanted to see it with my own eyes, if allowed to see it...

I got my umbrella and my poncho. I put on sneakers. I slipped on the poncho, grabbed my flashlight and umbrella and purse, and I went around blowing out all the candles before I left the apartment. I directed the flashlight in front of me as I started off along the balcony, descended the stairs, and traversed the walk around the building to the parking lot. A couple of nosey neighbors looked out at me, but no one said a thing.

I got in my car, started it up, and pulled out onto the side street.

Side streets it was going to be for me. I would drive until I saw flashing lights or damage or both. I was hoping, really hoping there wasn't much to see... or was I hoping deep down there would be a lot and I just didn't want to admit it?

I didn't know if I wanted to see my town destroyed or not. Maybe parts of it, yes. Maybe the parts that were dead already. Like the graveyard. But no. We couldn't get lucky like that. No way.

It didn't take long for me to start seeing things. I saw lawn chairs and a garbage can in the street I had to avoid. I saw a tree practically ripped out of the ground. I drove a little farther and stopped. I put my hand on my chest. My heart was pounding like a drum.

The police, the fire, the emergency crews... they would be busy tonight...

Through the wipers I looked at the car up in the grass, a piece of twisted metal, and the pile of wood next to it that had once been a house... or two houses...

I rested my head on the steering wheel. I took a breath. I heard sirens and looked up and saw flashing lights and I put the car in gear and moved quickly out of there. I headed down the road, headed toward the other side of town. More of the same. I couldn't find out anything. All I knew was that there were flattened houses, damaged houses, and they had the road by the high school completely blocked off. I finally rolled down my window and asked a cop.

"We had a big 'un, Ma'am. It took off the roof of the high school. As far as everything else, it'll be hard to tell until morning when we got some light. I suggest you go home."

I drove around some more, but roads were pretty well blocked off and I started hitting some traffic, traffic of other idiots like me driving around being curious, or maybe just people trying to get home, which is where I finally decided that I belonged.

With all the road blocks and the traffic and the mess, it was a struggle trying to get back over to my side of town, but I finally got there. I don't remember what I was thinking about driving along a few blocks from home.

That was when I saw her.

I was driving along in the rain and saw something ahead, and as I got closer I realized it was the back of a little girl walking up the street, up to her ankles in water. I got closer and closer behind her. She was in tatters, walking slow and hunched, shaking, and in the beam of my headlights she stopped. I came to a stop behind her.

I opened my door and I stepped out into the rain. I put up my umbrella, and I walked to her. I reached and touched her arm and she became feral, crying out, struggling to get away from me. I dropped the umbrella and put my arms around her and held on. That's all I did was hold on, and that girl was soaked to the skin and ice cold, shivering and shaking terribly, her hair like a wet mop that needed wringing out.

"Billie," I told her,"it's OK."

She was pulling at my arms and her feet were kicking... Oh my God, her bare feet. She had been walking in her bare feet! And that thing she was wearing was almost in shreds. What had happened to her? Someone had to have done something to her, or why would she be fighting me?

"Billie, it's Georgia. Stop, will you please?"

Still she struggled, but she was losing steam, running out of energy.

"Oh, please stop fighting me, Billie," I said. "Please, stop." I pressed my lips to her cheek not far from her ear and I said gently,"Hey... it's me, Georgia... you're safe, my love."

As soon as I said what I said she not only stopped fighting me but fell limp in my embrace. I moved back, took off my poncho and wrapped her in it, then retrieved my umbrella and took her to the car, opened the passenger door and helped her inside. She sat and lay her head sideways against the headrest. I buckled her in and I pushed her wet hair out of her face. cleared the water away away from her eyes and I caressed her cheek as she looked up at me.

"Billie," I asked her, my voice shaken with emotion,"what happened to you?"

"Am... I... alive... ?" she asked between shivers.

"You're alive," I said. "He was... was... was... comin' after me... "

"It's OK," I said. "Let me take you home."

"No!" she screamed. "I don't wanna go home!"

She was afraid. I had never heard or seen Billie afraid, not since I had met her. She was one of those girls that would jump into the deepest end of the quarry with a smile on her face.

I reached out, grabbed her shoulders, settled her back in the seat, calming her, telling her it was OK.

"My home," I said. "My home, Billie. You're not going anywhere you don't want to go."

"I - I'll go h – home with you..." she shivered, hugging herself. Had I only had a towel or a blanket, anything but that stupid poncho. But at home I had plenty.

I went around the car, opened the driver's side and got in. I reached out and held her icy hand. I held it the entire way home to my parking lot, every turn, awkward as it was, her little trembling fingers in mine. And from the car I carried her around the building to the stairs with the hood of the poncho over her head, carried her so that her bare feet need not touch the wet ground or pavement anymore.

And when I got her upstairs and inside, I took the poncho off of her, I lit the candle on the table, and I scrambled for the closet. I found the three biggest towels I could find, the ones I rarely use because they always just seem so... superfluous, and I returned to her. I took the shredded nightgown off of her quickly and I wrapped her in the towels from tip to toe, hugging her and rubbing her down.

"Oh, Billie, I missed you so much," I said,"but I never thought this is how I would find you."

"Is it gone?" she asked me.

"Is what gone?"

"The...." she began, and she started panting excitedly. "Th – th – th – the monster?"

"It's gone, baby," I said. "It's just you and me here now, and I... " I buried my face in her toweled off curls, embracing her trembling body. Tears filled my eyes. "I love you, Billie." She hugged me. She hugged me very hard.

"I'm so cold," she said.

I lit two candles and placed them at opposite corners of the bathtub. I filled the tub with hot water as she stood before me. I helped her slip out of her panties, one leg at a time. She was naked and she looked amazingly beautiful, but I tried my best not to look at her in a sexual way.

She needed me. She was shivering. Who knows how long she had walked in that cold rain before I had found her!

She stepped into the bathtub and eased herself down.

"It's not too hot, is it?"

She groaned, lying back in the water like she was in heaven, and I had my answer. I let the tub fill to a reasonable to level, I shut it off, and I turned to leave.

"No," she said softly, but her voice echoed off the porcelain. "Please stay."

"I thought you might want some privacy," I told her.

"Close the shower curtain," she said.

The shower curtain was already on the outside of the tub. It was somewhat transparent, but it still gave the illusion of privacy, especially in the dark like that.

I let Billie lay there for a long time and rest in the hot water.

"Are you feeling better, Billie?"

"Water made me cold," she said. "Now water is warming me up."

"What happened to you?"

"My mom's boyfriend... she said 'yes' to him... "

Ah. So I was right.

"Let me guess," I said. "You're not a big fan of his."

"No, I'm not," she said. "I thought they were broke up and then tonight he shows up and they tell me they're back together and he asked her... " She stopped. "I had to run out. I had to run out before I... before I did something."

I could hear the emotion in her voice trying to get out. I wanted to let her know it was OK to talk. I shared.

"I had a stepfather, Billie," I said. "He tried to run my life. He tried to control me. I couldn't wait to get away from him. My mother was a total... well, she was a bitch, then she married that ass hole and he was worse. His name was Ray. He died of a heart attack and I didn't shed one tear. I don't think he was capable of love.

"I just thought I would tell you that... "

I watched her through the shower curtain, saw her in the light of the flickering flame, her shadow against the wall, her shadow against the curtain, and I saw her hand, her fingers reaching up to touch the curtain. I reached out and met her fingertips with my own.

We sat that way for a while in silence. I tried not to stare at her.

"He came after me tonight... he tried to push me in the back seat... I could feel his... his – his – his – his dick... it was hard... I think he wanted to put it... to put it in me... "

"Oh, Billie," I said, pressing my hand against hers. "I'm so sorry."

"I got away," she said. "I got away, ran right into the yard by the high school..."

"Oh, Billie."

"I'm alive," she said. "I'm not going back until I know Jack's gone. I don't want him touchin' me no more. I don't want to touch him no more."

"I understand," I said. "I understand."

"He saved us, you know? He saved us when my mom was drinkin' and we were ready to go on the street, but then he started messin' with me, puttin' his dick in my mouth. And he would say if I told anyone... or I stopped playin'... he'd leave us hungry... "

"It's all over, Billie," I said. "You're safe now."

She pressed her hand hard against the curtain, hard against my hand. I heard her breathing hard and sobbing and I reached and pulled back the curtain. I knelt on the floor and leaned over the side of the tub and held her.

She cried. She let it out. She let it out with her head, feverish against my breast as I just rocked her.

"It's OK, Billie," I said. "It's all right."

"I almost died tonight," she sobbed. "Jack... he tore my nightgown tryin' to get me into his car... and the tor'nada... it tried to rip it off the rest of the way." She hugged me about the neck and pulled me down closer to her hot mouth. "I almost died and I never woulda seen you again."

"That would've been just awful, baby," I said, overcome by her words. "I don't know what I would've done without you. Just going without you for... I don't know how long it's been since that day at the laundromat... I've been wanting to see you so bad. I've been wanting to kiss you, hold you, touch you, taste you... "

I stopped. Maybe I was getting carried away. After all, hadn't a man just tried to rape her? Hadn't she been through a lot in a short time?

Her mouth suddenly pressed against mine was answer enough. She kissed me passionately, holding my head delicately with both hands. Her lips moved in rhythm with my own and I heard a small moan echo off the walls of the bathroom. Our lips separated and I looked in her eyes and saw something I had not seen before... something...

"I love you, too, Georgia," she said, and she smiled sort of comical-like,"just in case you were wondering."

"Hearing those words," I told her,"I don't know if I saved you tonight or if you saved me."

We kissed again, a long, lingering kiss that made me tingle everywhere, that made Billie's breath skip and her arms go aquiver, that made the whole damn world go away.

"Is it after midnight?" she asked me, as we continued to kiss. They were sweet little kisses that wet the lips and sent fire through the soul.

"Probably is," I told her.

"Well, my birthday is over, then," she said.

"Oh, Billie, happy birthday," I said,"but since time doesn't matter, let's keep right on going."

"OK... " she looked around thoughtfully,"then how about you wash me?"

"You mean you want your Georgia to give you a bath?" I asked her.

"Yes, I do," she smiled

"You realize how naughty that could be?" I asked.

"It could be," she grinned. "It could also be very sweet."

The water had gone tepid. I drained it nearly all the way and refilled it with hot water, watching the candlelight flicker and dance and sometimes simply rest upon Billie's naked body. The candlelight was gentle and just, simple and poetic at the same time. It was when I shut off the water that I suddenly felt a shiver run down my spine.

I reached for the shampoo as Billie lay back in the water again. I squeezed out enough and I soaped her hair, working it through gently. I couldn't remember the last time I had washed someone's... a little girl's hair... actually, I could...

Billie rinsed. I reached for the washcloth and body wash. I washed her neck and shoulders and back, then her front, the pretty little buds that rose from her chest, her ribs, the flat plains of her tummy and all around her slender waist where, it turned out, she was quite oversensitive to the touch there on the left side...

She giggled a bit, and then I poked and prodded playfully just a couple more times and I heard my Billie bust out laughing, just the sweetest laugh you ever did hear, followed by something neither one of us expected as an abundance of bubbles noisily surfaced behind her.

"Oh my God, Billie," I said,"that's awful." I pulled up my shirt to cover my nose while Billie put her head down, disguising the fact that she was laughing hysterically. It really wasn't as bad as all that, but we were in the moment and having fun and Billie was... was being a kid for once.

"That's what you get for tickling me," she said.

"Warn me next time."

I rinsed her tummy and sides and waist and told her it was time to wash her lower half. She stood up, unashamed, and I began to wash the small of her back and her hips before moving along to her amazing buttocks. I washed them with both hands, soaping them up and telling her what a pretty behind she had.

"I've been told," she said.

"Well, it is pretty."

I washed in between, got the buttcrack and the asshole, hoping nothing was going to sneak out at me. It was a pretty butthole, nonetheless, and she reacted pleasantly when I touched it. I rinsed her thoroughly with a cup. That was when she turned and offered me her legs, one at a time.

I soaped her toes... her foot... oh yes... her delicate, shapely calf... moving both hands up, feeling the shape of her leg all the way, all the way up to the firm thigh with that pronounced muscle there in the back... feeling it all tensed... the smooth knee... the toes here in my bathroom, the foot on the rim of my tub... oh, she is here...

I rinsed and then did the other leg. And my desire grew greater. My desire grew as I felt my way up the other leg, looking at, and then soaping up, my sweet Billie's delicious-looking hairless pussy, parting the perfectly hairless flesh and washing the folds... the lips tucked inside... the clit that hid away so mischievously under its hood...

And there I was, alone with her, washing her in my bathroom, touching her so intimately. One does not get any closer than that.

"Whoa...ooo..." Billie reacted, trembling and swaying off balance as I gently but thoroughly washed her clitoris. She was trying to grip somewhere with her other foot as she stood with her left, but I was making it difficult.

"Grab my shoulders," I said.

She reached over and gripped my shoulder, allowing me to continue on washing her folds, washing her most private area, and I could feel her shaking as she leaned on me.

"Rinse, baby," I finally told her, and I let her go, let her sit in the water, but I reached down into the water, reached down between her legs and made sure she was rinsed well.. And she put her arms around me and kissed me. I reached over and drained the tub. I found the large towel, the only one we hadn't used. I wrapped her in it.

I dried her as I kissed her, her face and hair, then up and down and all over her wonderful body. It was quicker than the washing, of course, but I revisited each place, and finished with her pussy.

When I was done toweling her off I held her in my arms, her naked body against my clothed body, my nipples hard and aching, my pussy itself wet and tingling. Billie had her arms around my neck, those eyes looking at me from the bottom of the sea, all dream-like.

She looked tired... she was yawning... but of course, who wouldn't be? And hungry? Thirsty? She had to be.

And there I was thinking of sex.

"Oh, Billie," I said, taking her face in my hands,"I'm so sorry. Is there anything I can get you? Is there anything you want?"

"I want to go to the bedroom," she said.

"You're not thirsty... hungry?"

"I could use some water," she said,"but I just want you to taste me."

The way she said it, the way she put it to me like that, and the tone of her voice, it could have steamed up the windows. I looked her in the eyes, looked in them deeply.

"Oh, I'll taste you... " I said.

"Is that a promise?"

"Oh yeah."

Those eyes widened and she licked her lips and reached for the closest candle. She stepped away from me, turning to look in my direction, posing as if for a photograph, moving and yet at the same time standing still, her round buttocks and the backs of her marvellous legs walking away, inviting me.

"I'll be waiting," she said.

I swear I heard music playing, coming out of nowhere when she said that, even though there was nothing around us but silence, the sound of the rain falling... but I heard it, I know I did, in my head and it made me dizzy...

I ran the water in the kitchen, made it as cold as I could get it, and I filled a glass of water. I took a sip. It would have to do. I turned with my flashlight and walked to the bedroom... where she was waiting.

She had straightened the bed, fluffed the pillows and placed herself in the center, sitting up with the pillows behind her head, her arms at her sides, her legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles.

"I'm ready," she said.

"I can see that," I told her. I sat down and gave her the water and she gulped down a healthy portion before handing back the glass. I set it aside and moved close to her, kissed her, and began caressing her body. She reacted by wriggling, settling into the bed, breathing heavy through every kiss.

Her fingers ran through my hair, and she pulled me closer as I kissed her neck, nibbled my way up and down to her shoulder. I felt her tugging at my t-shirt and I sat up and peeled it off, and I saw her smile as she looked at my breasts. She reached for them, touched them, felt their roundness, then began to play with my nipples. I closed my eyes, feeling a soft tickle in my throat.

I stood up, unbuttoned my jeans and took them off, and crawled onto the bed. I spread Billie's legs apart to accommodate my upper body as I began nibbling her chest and the smooth plains of her tummy. My Billie squirmed and gasped and whimpered, lifting her hips off the bed as she pressed her small fingers to the back of my head.

The the lower I moved down her body, the closer I got to "tasting" her, the more wild she became. I felt I was teasing her, drawing it out with every touch of my mouth to her abdomen, but that was the way I wanted it. When I moved to her thighs, skipping her pussy, she was quivering, she was ready, right on the edge...

When I parted that perfectly smooth cleft with my fingers and brought my mouth against her, she drew in a sudden breath of air and let out the faintest of squeals. She tensed, the muscles of her thighs contracting as they moved about my head, and I felt one foot move along my back, searching for a place to grip, while the other big toe caressed me. Her fingers, once again, nested in my hair as they held me in place.

I flattened my tongue against her clit and wiggled it from side to side and I listened to and felt her go crazy...

Oh, how I had dreamed of this, of spreading her sweet pussy lips and tasting her. It was an expression, really... I suppose, if anything, she tasted just a little on the bitter side, but it wasn't about that. It was doing what I was doing now, driving her wild and enjoying every sound and movement...

"Oh, Georgia... Georgia... " she panted, and then began breathing so fast, with such excitement, that I thought she was hyperventilating. "Oh, Georgia, what are you doing to me?"

"I'm making love to you," I said.

Billie let go of my head and threw her arms back in total abandon. She rocked her hips slowly, trembling as I licked her, but she slowed her breathing as I backed off a little, licked around the clit, teased her a bit more, took my time. I remembered where I was and who I was with and how the clock had stopped, literally.

The candle flickered over her beautiful body as I looked up from between her thighs. Billie looked down at me with a furrowed brow and her lips parted. She was sweating and the sweat was glistening in the candlelight.

I lowered my mouth and began to lick her asshole and I thought she was going to lift right off the bed. I worked my tongue against the little puckered anus, worked it back and forth, and the patch of skin between there and the pussy as well, and Billie wriggled and moaned with delight.

When I finally returned to her pussy, my girl practically pushed it in my face, pressed her clit against my tongue. I flicked my tongue back and forth. I cupped her buttocks with my hands and I felt her tensing and trembling.

"Oh... Georgia... " she moaned, and she whimpered, and she grabbed the back of my head, grabbed it hard, pushing it into herself. She convulsed. She cried out. Her thighs seized my head. I listened to her orgasm and the electricity ran through me. I kept my tongue there, kept licking, flattening my tongue against her, and she seized my head again, this time crying out even louder and echoing off the walls as she bucked against my face.

A second orgasm... more powerful than the first. Her hips, her legs, her thighs jerking in spasm after spasm and continuing long after.

I thought perhaps there might be more... more orgasms in there...

But I was being ambitious. She pushed me away from her pussy, smiling at me, then invited me up for a hug and a kiss. Her eyes were like slits. She was tired.

"More in the morning, you naughty woman," she said.

"I don't want to think about tomorrow," I said.

"Me neither," she said. "I just said morning. I love you."

"I love you."

We curled up, the two of us, Billie smooth and naked and warm in my arms. She felt good there, smelled good, and she wasn't a dream or a fantasy.

And she was in a safe place...

"Georgia..." she said, yawning, sounding as if she had just begun to fall asleep but this last second thought had come to her.

"Yes, my love."

"If Jack is still around, I want you to kill him for me."

(TO BE CONTINUED)