The Dark Forest: A Collection Of Erotic Fairytales(12)
Her heart thundering against her ribs, indecision froze her in the hallway. Huge shadows of movement were growing upon the wall of the corner landing to her right. The snuffling black nose of the bear was still exploring the back door’s window straight ahead of her, and to her left, the only door-sized exit left available to her, was the front door.
It was locked. Padlocked, in fact.
From the inside.
Once upon a time, a wise man had told her that the downfall of man was destined to be greed. Another had immediately corrected him, saying that fate would always be caused by a woman. Well, Goldi knew better. They were both wrong. The downfall of man always had and ever would be his or her own morbid curiosity, and certainly she was not immune.
Heavy ledger clutched to her chest, Goldi couldn’t save herself from her own awful curiosity. Just as the heavy shuffling footsteps turned the landing corner, she turned far enough to see what was even now staring back at her with beady black eyes. Not a man. No, it was another bear. A huge bear, bigger even than the one starting now to scratch for entrance at the back door.
They stared at one another and, for one horrible, heart-attack-like pause that gripped the interior of her chest, neither moved. Then animal muscle rippled under the dense fur of its pelt and the bear hupped up to stand on its back legs. Stretching out its massive neck, it opened its mouth and brayed the kind of bellow no girl wanted to hear from any creature as big as that or outside the protection of an extremely sturdy bear-proof cage.
She ran, the book still clutched tight to her chest (because if she made it out of this alive, it was still worth two thousand; a girl had to have priorities), and that bear in fast pursuit. It bounded down the stairs, chasing her the length of the hall. Its size was her best ally. When she rounded the corner, it hit the wall and she ducked into the first open door she saw. Slamming it fast between them, she almost fell down the stairs directly behind her before she realized she was trapped in the cellar instead of a closet.
It was very dark down below, but with a glimmer of light that reminded her there was another way out. The double cellar doors she had seen during her reconnaissance outside. Those doors were her way out, especially now that the bear had reached this one. She could hear it snuffling along the crack at the bottom and see the massive shadow of it blocking out the light. This door opened inward. All the bear had to do was shove and the jamb would shatter, and then the beast would be inside. With her.
Goldi fled blindly down the stairs, barely able to see the dim outline of each in the darkness. What she found when she reached the bottom did not make her happy. There were no windows. Her only avenue of escape lay in the cellar doors she’d seen from the outside. She ran to them, pushing and shoving and doing little but rattling the double doors on their very secure hinges. Shit; she’d forgotten they were padlocked.
“Damn it!” She slammed her shoulder against them, trying with all her might to force the doors up and open, but neither budged and the only other exit was currently being investigated by a very large and growling bear.
She turned in a full circle, her eyes gradually adjusting to the gloom enough for her to make out the sparse lines and hard edges of widely spaced furniture and even the dangling cord of a single bare lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Feeling the way with her feet, she reached for it, hoping the light might help her find another way out. It didn’t, but it did help her see her situation more clearly.
This wasn’t a cellar. It was a torture chamber and she was standing in the middle of it, mere feet away from some kind of cruel bondage bench. Like the horse upstairs only without the equine neck and head, it had four legs, a padded rail across the top, and multiple rings on all sides by which to affix whoever was stupid enough to get caught in this house.
Right now, that someone was her.
Everywhere she looked, she saw horror after horror. Neatly coiled ropes, straps, manacles, crops, paddles, and even hooks—hooks, hanging from other hooks—dangled off the stone walls. Blindfolds and masks lined the shelves amid more gag varieties than she’d ever known existed. Gags with balls, gags with bits, gags with round metal hook contraptions designed to force a jaw open and keep it that way no matter what.
Another hard thump pulsed through her, an unexpected echo of which landed, centered, and took command of her clit.
Once upon a time, a wise man had told her moments of stress could teach a person a lot about themselves. She had to stop talking to wise men because this wasn’t at all something she wanted to learn.
The low, scraping footstep on a hard stone floor.
Goldi looked down at the stones she was rooted to, at her own feet which hadn’t moved. Her heart thumped again, her clit hummed, and every fine hair on her body stood up on end as she heard the bellows-like exhale of beastly breath nowhere near far enough behind her.
Her own breath sounded abnormally loud and shaky as Goldi faced the third bear. It was even larger than the other two she had seen, and it was squaring itself against her from the far side of this entirely too small cellar. Facing it now too, she hugged the ledger tight against her.
She was going to die. She was a little surprised that she wasn’t more scared. Her legs were shaking. She was clutching the book so tight that the edges of the hard cover bit into the fleshy parts of her fingers, making her knuckles ache and throb. But she didn’t scream. The urge was there, choking up the back of her throat at tonsil level, but that was as far as it rose, even when the bear rose to stand. Twenty good feet separated them and it still towered over her, not roaring or growling, or making any noise apart from the heaviness of its breathing. Not moving either, apart from a faint pawing at the air and a twitch of its black nose.