Page 7

Chapter 8

Penny

PRESENT

Iwatch Astra’s beautiful, glistening mouth right after she just ate me like a starved woman. She seems stuck in thought, but not in a bad way. She smiles and licks the corner of her mouth, giving me a quick kiss on the lips, making me taste myself on her. She’s incredible.

“You are divine, my love,” she hums, before turning her head to the left. A frown plays on her brow, and a slight sigh escapes her. She mutters a ‘be back soon’ before leaving me again, walking up to the man standing at her desk. He has black kohl painted on his face, making his smile wider, and his eyes look darker. He’s wearing a tall hat with a feather atop, his muscled chest bare beneath his jacket.

They start to talk, and suddenly her body goes stiff. She turns to look at me, and both stare for a second before they start talking again. They might not be loud enough for me to hear, but I know the look of a discussion when I see one. He’s upsetting her, and I can’t let him do that to her. Anyone who hurts my love, hurts me too. Not wanting to wait any longer, I walk up to them, causing the man’s eyes to widen as I join them.

“Listen here, mister. I don’t care what you want, but you leave her alone, or you and I will have problems.” I snap at him, and he raises an eyebrow at me, while Astra starts to giggle.

“It’s okay, my love, it’s just my father. He isn’t a threat.” She smiles, kissing my cheek. Father or not, I could care less; having that title doesn’t give him a free pass on his behavior.

“Interesting,” he mumbles. “I’ll talk to you about this later.” He says, nodding his head to me as a goodbye. “Enjoy the arcade, Penny,” he tells me, before turning around and leaving us. How did he know my name?

“He upset you,” I tell her, frowning. She smiles and hands me another cookie, “he was just being a worried father, that’s all. I’m okay, I promise, my sweet,” she smiles again. I take a bite of the cookie; this one is heart-shaped, with multiple hearts drawn within it in multiple colors, growing smaller toward the center. They taste so good, I could never get enough of her cookies.

“Can I have one more too, miss?” One of the men I saw jerking off earlier asks. She brings the tray to him, and he eagerly eats one, then walks back to his Pinball machine.

“Now, my dears, don’t forget the main event is starting soon, so make sure to finish your games on time.” Astra hums. The people around us all nod their heads, saying ‘yes ma’am’ in unison, as if they had been trained to do so. A weird feeling of something not being right rises within me again, but then Astra’s beautiful eyes focus on mine, causing all my worries to fade away.

“Will you go to the main event with me?” She smiles. “We could come back afterwards and have some more fun. I have a couple of games in mind that we could play.” She pouts at me, her full red lips poking out at me. Weren’t they smeared before? When did she fix it?

“Of course I will,” I smile back, then she squeals out in delight and kisses me again, this time with her hands holding my cheeks. Her tongue plunges into my mouth, claiming every piece of it. She feels so good, so right. I push my tongue into her mouth, but she breaks the kiss, pulling her face away from mine, a faint look of shock on her face. As fast as it was there, she schools her face, causing it to go back to normal, as if it was never there in the first place.

“Are you–” A woman’s scream cuts me off, and both Astra and I look at her. She is holding her hands over her ears while shouting, “GET OUT! GET OUT!” Tears of blood run down her cheeks, hitting her head against the machine she was playing a couple of minutes ago, as she falls to the floor. “MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE, SOMEONE, MAKE IT STOP!” She begs while screaming. The sounds of the arcade change, becoming more twisted. The lights start to flicker, and everything around me becomes deformed; shapes and colors start to float everywhere.

“So, what do you say? Will you go with me?” I blink my eyes. Huh? What were we talking about again?

“I’m sorry, I–” Astra rests her hand against my forehead. “Are you okay, my sweet? You seem a bit pale. Here, have another cookie, the sugar will help you,” she says. I grab it, taking a bite from it, but something in my head is telling me I shouldn’t, but it’s as if I can’t control myself. I swallow the bitten-off pieces of the cookie, already starting to feel better than I felt before. Right, she asked me something before.

“You asked me something, but I can’t remember.’ I shyly say, feeling a little ashamed to admit I wasn’t fully listening to her.

“Right! I was wondering if you wanted to go to the main event with me?” She smiles sweetly. I smile and nod at her in response, “Of course I will. You didn’t even have to ask.” I smile. I can’t really remember what the main event was supposed to be, but I’m sure it’ll be fun! Besides, something is telling me it’s why I came here in the first place.

Chapter 9

Penny

“It’s almost time.” Astra says. I turn to look at her, noticing the room is suddenly a lot emptier than it was a couple of seconds ago. Where did everyone go?

She smiles, then walks over to her cookie tray that never seems to run empty. She grabs a cookie in her hand, bringing it back to me. “I made this one special for you,” she says with the stars in her eyes twinkling. I grab it, noticing the heart is coloured a dark red colour, and if it weren’t glazed, I would have thought it was blood. There’s a small patch drawn on it, as if it’s holding the wound in the heart together. I take a bite from it, my mouth filling with a metallic, yet sweet taste. It’s strong, but it doesn’t taste bad, instead, it tastes more like life itself, than anything. It's light, yet bold, and I feel it slide down my throat as if it was a liquid.

“It’s so good, baby, thank you.” I tell Astra, eating the whole thing in one sitting. I look at her, and it seems like light is coming from her, and her alone. Everything around us blurs and darkens, until I can only see her. She grabs my hand, and in this moment, it feels like it’s just us in this world, like I was never truly living until this moment. Before I know it, we are standing in front of the biggest tent inside the Carnivale. I hadn’t even realized we had gone outside.

“Ticket, please,” a man asks. I frown. Ticket? What ticket?

“It’s in your bra, silly,” Astra chuckles. I look at her. In my bra? I look down, and touch the inside of my bra with my gloved fingers, feeling a smooth paper. How did that get there?

I pull it out, the glistering gold and red shining bright. “This is going to be fun!” The man laughs at Astra, “Don’t I know it, dear.” She smiles at him as if they are old friends. The man motions for me to enter, and Astra grabs my arm, pulling me in excitedly. I love seeing her like this. She’s so happy.

The room is filled with lights and colours. There are cages with naked women inside dancing in a way I have never seen before. Someone walks up to me with a drink offering it to me, but Astra grabs it from him as I stare at a beautiful blonde woman in front of me. A hand grabs the back of my hair, pulling my head back, causing me to hiss out in pain.

“I am the only one you will ever look at,” Astra angrily whispers in my ear. I raise my eyes to look at her. Her face looks so different than it had before and something deep inside of me is telling me to run, but my body is refusing to move. Astra brings the glass to my lips, still holding my hair tightly in her hand. “Open up, my sweet,” she says in such a sensual way that I can’t help but moan from it. I barely get my lips open before she’s pouring the drink into my mouth, and the taste of licorice invades my mouth and I swallow it all, sticking out my tongue to show her it was gone.

“That’s my good girl,” Astra says, wiping the corner of my mouth with her thumb before putting her thumb into her own mouth, sucks it clean, and pulls it out with a loud pop. I clench my thighs, a feeling of need rising. I can’t help my thoughts going back to her mouth against my core, and touching me in a way no one has ever done before.