8. Cash

My mind is cloudy,and my dick is fucking throbbing. I can barely register the pain in my ass for all the blood rushing to my cock. I sit up and lean back on the mirror, feeling his cum leak out of me as I move. I hesitantly grab my dick with my hand, feeling an almost instant relief at the contact.

“Fuck,” I moan, gripping the base and squeezing up to the head as I run my fingers over the sticky precum that’s collected at my slit. The pain in my neck from where he bit me is thrumming and burning, sending waves of pleasure through my body. There’s a haze over my mind, making the world around me sway.

Did he do something to me? I try to think back to when I stopped fighting, when he had called me by my real name and made me calm. Something in my brain had told me to relax, and so I had. Did he do that? What the fuck kind of monster was he to be able to control my mind?

My body jolts with fear as I remember the way his eyes had gone black, darker than black. They were soulless and haunting, soaking up everything in the room. I was drawn into them, lost and searching for a way out.

But the way he made me feel after that…

When he first pushed into me, practically ripping me open as he forced himself into me, I’d never felt so full as he stretched me open and filled me up. It was the first time I had ever received, and the burn had been brutal, but it turned to white-hot pleasure as he continued, his cock swiping against my prostate with every fucking thrust.

I hadn’t wanted it, had I?

I groan and fist myself harder, stroking myself violently to the memories of how he felt inside of me. Watching him in the mirror, seeing the way his body had moved as he rutted against me, was unlike anything I had ever experienced.

Everything about him terrified me, but underneath all of that fear was a desire I couldn’t deny. I had wanted him to catch me as I ran from him in the maze. I wanted him to take me, mark me, claim me against the mirrors just like he had done.

And when he had bitten my neck, sucking and feeding off my blood, fireworks exploded through every fiber of my being, ripping me apart and laying me bare for him. It clicked into place, and I knew I wasn’t ever getting away from him.

Heat spreads through my body as I use one hand to palm my balls and the other to continue my vicious strokes. I can see him behind my closed eyes, like he is watching me do this, and that makes my pleasure skyrocket.

My muscles tense, and his name falls out of my mouth without my permission. I make a mess of my shirt, my cum standing out on the black fabric. I quickly try to wipe it away, but it just makes a bigger mess.

I try to clean the rest of myself up by stepping out of my jeans and boxers and using the latter to wipe away the evidence of both his and my own pleasure. I grunt and wince in pain when I try to clean up the blood from where he tore me open and decide that that can wait until later. For now, I pull up my jeans and discard the soiled underwear on the floor.

My legs and steps are wobbly, struggling to hold my body weight upright as I wander through the maze again. I can still feel him here, but it doesn’t feel like a threat anymore. He’s here, and he’s watching, but only out of curiosity. Like he’s waiting to see what I’ll do next.

There’s a tightness in my chest that I can’t get rid of, pulling me in different directions as I make my way out of the maze. All I can think about is getting out to get to him. I want him. I need him. I fucking crave him.

“What the fuck have you done to me?” I ask him out loud because I know he’s fucking here, and I know he can hear me. I see the exit sign lit above a blacked-out door and hobble over to it. Just pushing open the door takes a lot of energy. He has completely drained me to the point I can barely walk.

As I stumble out of the maze, I fall into the metal railing, causing it to clang and creak and bring every eye within a fifteen-foot radius on me. I pull myself up straight and run my fingers through my hair before making my way down the steps and back into the crowd. No one seems to notice me once I pull myself together.

Except for the performers…they do.

I pass Mara as she throws her knives at someone spinning on a large wooden target, and she pauses and turns, sniffing the air in my direction. When her eyes find me, her mouth forms into a sinister smile, setting my teeth on edge. She winks and turns her attention back toward the spinning human dartboard.

I dig frantically in my pockets for my cigarette tin, nearly dropping it on the ground as I pull one out and light it. The familiar burn down my throat and into my lungs helps settle my mind. Once that one is gone, I pull out another one, taking my time and soaking every bit of comfort the nicotine can give me.

“I spy with my little eye,” someone sings from behind me. I turn around and see an older man with a top hat walking toward me. He has a bushy grey beard, and he swings his cane with a flourish and smiles. “A scared little human.”

I don’t respond, so he leans in and smells me, getting a good whiff in before I take a few steps back and throw my cigarette butt on the ground. He looks from me to it and then back again.

“Litterbug,” he tsks. “I’d prefer you not dirty up my carnival. I’ll have to have a talk with Rune about you before we move on to the next location.” He eyes me up, and it takes me a moment to register what he said.

“What do you know about Rune?” I ask him, taking another step back. I’m ready to bolt at any moment, although if I ran on my wobbly legs now, I’d probably look like Bambi trying to learn how to walk.

“I can smell him all over you, sweet boy,” he says with a grin, taking a step closer to me. “Such a shame he got to you first,” he pouts. “Something that smells as sweet as you must be heaven on the tongue.” He clicks his tongue, and I stumble away back toward the front of the carnival.

My mind is still spinning and trying to put the pieces together for the last couple of hours. It’s like trying to fit the wrong pieces into the wrong puzzle. Square peg, round hole. Something is missing, and all I know for sure is that I need to get back to Rune. There’s something in me, begging and pleading for me to get back to him.

“All of these tents look the same,” I groan as I look around at all the red-and-white-striped tents surrounding me. I suddenly can’t remember which one is his or even what his act was, what part he played.

I swing open one tent, opening my mouth to yell his name, when I’m met with two sets of black-as-night eyes with mouths soaked in blood and a naked girl hanging from a beam by her wrists. I cover my mouth, and they hiss in my direction as I fall back on my ass and crab crawl away before I can get back on my feet.

“What the fuck, what the fuck,” I whisper in panic before taking off down another path. I vaguely remember him being at the front of everything, near the main event tent. If I can just make it back to the front, surely I can recognize something and get back to him.

Every carnival performer looks at me with narrowed eyes as I pass them. I don’t remember there being this many of them when I first got here. It almost looks like there are more performers than people. They all sniff me with interest before watching me walk away.

Ahead on the left is the last tent before the gate, and there’s a fortune teller sign out front. My entire body sags with relief. I know he’s in there—I can feel it. I limp over to the tent and throw back the tarp. He’s sitting in the same chair as he was when he read my palms.

“Is my little pet lost?” he asks, smiling up at me like he expected me to come crawling back all along. His face paint is smeared by his sweat, making his face look melted and morphed. A bolt of desire crashes through me, and I stalk toward him with purpose.

I pull his painted face toward me and kiss him, forcing his lips open as I fuck his mouth the way he fucked me earlier, brutally and with abandon. He kisses me back and pulls me to straddle his lap in the chair. I’m already hard again, grinding against him like I need him to survive.

I pull free and grip his jaw, forcing his eyes to meet mine.

“What the fuck have you done to me?”