Shadow Man

This story was previously posted here on Literotica. Recently it was published in a horror magazine. Thank you all for taking the time to read it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

~Molly

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Cold. She was chilled to the bone, unable to move. Even the talons of the creatures that mauled her were made of ice. They gouged deep furrows in her flesh that seeped drops of crimson.

Tala fought in the chilling darkness, desperately trying to escape the grasping tentacles that held her prisoner. They were everywhere, imprisoning her body, confining her in the nightmare world of black dreams.

They held her fast, unrelenting as they pried her legs and arms apart, preparing her for...him. The beast loomed over her, a giant with the face of evil. He was nude, his powerful muscles flexing under blood-red skin, his manhood jutting out at an angle from his mammoth body.

She screamed in horror as his laughter filled the air around her. One long tapered finger traced a single path between her breasts down her body, causing gooseflesh to rise.

"You are mine, Little Wolf," his deep voice said.

She felt her body being lifted, leveling her sex with his. Shrieking again, she renewed her struggles, growing dangerously close to hysteria. He really meant to fuck her.

His hand was on her skin again, his fingers plucking at her nipples, twisting and pulling. Even through the cold, she felt her body respond. She hated him for that.

Both his hands slid down her body, his sharp claws grazing the flesh of her abdomen. Then he reached the area exposed by her legs being forced so far apart.

"I wonder what you struggle against, Tala," the beast said, his lips curling in a sinister leer of razor-sharp fangs. "Is it your fear of me, or your own lust?"

"Get away from me, you freak!" she screeched, her back arching as she fought against the creatures that held her.

His laughter filled the air again, even as one large finger slipped between the wet folds of her flesh.

"Your body is ready for me, ripe and wet, and I shall have what I came for."

She could feel the bulbous head of his cock pushing at her flesh, trying to force itself in. Her body twisted, her muscles clenching tightly as she fought against the tentacle-like limbs that held her. They seemed to be growing barbs that pierced her cold skin, scratching her everywhere.

The cold spread through her, rattling her bones until her teeth chattered. The darkness closed around her as she thrashed, but still she fought. Finally, she managed to fight to the surface, away from the demons and the beast until she found herself alone.

"It's just a dream," she breathed, coming fully awake.

The full moon gleamed brightly, casting eerie shadows across the landscape. Her teeth clicked together audibly, causing her jaw to ache. Was she lying on a bed of thorns?

Upon inspection, she found that the barbs that gouged her skin were the dry grasses of the autumn field. She was lying in a meadow, naked and exposed.

Try as she might, she could not remember how she had gotten here. Shaking her head ruefully, she pulled herself up to sit with her arms wrapped about her bare flesh in an effort to protect herself from the bitter wind.

Tala had done this before. She had been a sleep-walker all her life. It only happened during times of stress.

"Stupid jerk," she whispered, thinking of Mikhail.

Mikhail had coerced her into going to the Jaycees Haunted House, telling her that all the other guys' girlfriends and wives would be there. He wasn't going to be satisfied until she promised to come see him as he did his best to frighten the kiddies in his monster costume. So she went even though she'd had a thing about those places since her early youth.

The evening had brought back those ugly memories of her childhood visit to the local haunted house. She'd hated it then and she hated it now. The hours had stretched out until her head ached and she finally left, seeking her bed and sleep.

Now she was paying the price. With no way of knowing how late it actually was, or even where she was, Tala struggled to her feet. The light of the moon was bright enough to give her a good glimpse of her surroundings. It didn't take long to get her bearings. How had she gotten this far out and why did she have to sleep in the nude?

Taking the first tentative steps toward home, she stopped dead in her tracks. A noise drifted to her, causing her heart to skip a beat. It was the sound of heavy footsteps steadily crunching in the dried grass.

Glancing warily about, she finally caught a glimpse of someone coming toward her. A hulking, shadowy figure was walking straight toward her. The sureness of his step told her that he was intent upon his purpose.

She dove into the tall grass, using it as camouflage as she tried to make good her escape. Keeping low, she scurried along the ground, attempting to keep distance between herself and the Shadow Man.

Her ruse apparently didn't work. She could hear him getting closer, each crunch of the grass behind her telling her that he would soon reach her. What did he want?

Finally, blinding fear took over. Tala bounded to her feet, running through the tall grass as fast as her bare flesh would carry her. The Shadow Man started running too.

He wasn't far behind. She could hear the grunts of breath that escaped his lungs with each step he took. Too late she saw where the ground dropped before her. With legs and arms flailing wildly, she tumbled into a gaping sinkhole.

The walls were too steep, the grass and weeds that had taken root over the long summer too slick with dew for her feet and hands to find purchase. Try as she might, every time she scrambled half way to the top, her body would tumble back down again. She was trapped.

Then he was there, landing behind her after leaping into the trench. Tala remained rooted to the ground, unable to move, unable to turn to see what nightmarish conjuring had taken shape on this All Hallows Eve. Not even the brisk autumn air on her nude skin could penetrate the terror that held her prisoner.

Whatever had been stalking her, it was warm. She could feel the heat of his flesh as he drew near, could feel his warm breath on her skin.

Run, fool, a voice inside her head shrieked, but she stood frozen, paralyzed with fear. A sharp whimper escaped her lips when she felt the grip of his fingers on her shoulder. Her body, shaken with tremors of dread and cold, was pulled backward into the hard embrace of her captor.

Tala squeezed her eyes shut, willing herself not to see what was surely the face of horror. She tried to keep her body erect, tried to keep as much of herself as possible from making contact with whatever had itself wrapped around her.

Her resolve weakened when his heat began to seep into her freezing bones. The warmth of his breath tickled her ear, further testing her limits. She wanted to scream, to lash out at him, but all she could manage was a hollow moan.

The arms that had snaked around her held her fast in their hard grip. They didn't feel like those appendages of her earlier nightmare, but they terrified her just the same. Yet, the hands attached to those arms were surprisingly gentle when they touched her breasts, caressing her as passionately as any lover.

She began, finally, to struggle, twisting in the circle of his arms, lashing out with her sharp nails. At this point, she didn't know if she was fighting out of the terror he provoked, or the fear that her body might react as it did to the beast in the dream.

The Shadow Man seized her wrists, pinning them to her sides.

"Stop."

That single word, whispered so softly in her ear, seemed to echo around and through her, stilling her movements. She was motionless again, her heart pounding a cadence of fright against the bony walls of her chest.

Tala felt the hands of Shadow Man caressing her once more, touching her bare flesh softly, grazing her torso with his palms. She whimpered, shivering almost painfully when his lips played over the curve of her neck.

One of his hands pressed against her belly, pulling her back into his hard center. His hips moved, grinding into the small of her back as his fingers moved lower. Her breath escaped in a shivery gasp as a single digit worked its way through the trim curls between her thighs, seeking her most intimate flesh.

She clamped her legs together tightly. Trying to escape his probing finger only caused her to press more firmly against the hardness behind her. But he refused to be denied, forcing his knee between her thighs, prying them apart.

One hand teased her nipples, alternating between them, pulling, tweaking, twisting gently. The hand between her legs probed her flesh, separating the folds to dance around her rapidly hardening clit. How could her body betray her like this?

His finger dipped in, finding the slick secretions of her arousal, his voice a moan in her ear. A chill ran the length of her spine, dancing over her skin in the form of gooseflesh. The hardness behind her grew in size, pressing insistently into her back, the cloth of his trousers chafing her.

His wet finger tormented her, tracing circles around the hard button that seemed to be the center of her being. She hated him for making her feel, for making her want more. Once again, she began to fight against him -- and the need building in her body.

"Quiet," he whispered, his sharp teeth grazing the shell of her ear.

Shivers of pleasure danced over her skin when his teeth moved lower, nipping at the long line of her neck. One arm held her in his iron grip as his other hand worked between their bodies to loosen his clothing. Then his flesh, hard and unrelenting, ground against her as if attempting to gain entrance. Shadow Man growled, seizing her arms, bending her forward and placing her hands on the sloping wall of the sinkhole. He kicked her feet apart, spreading her wide, his hands pushing the globes of her ass apart when he dropped to his knees behind her.

"Please..." she whimpered, half in fear and half in desire.

His answer was a low chuckle as his face pressed into her. The cold receded around her, dispelled by the fire his tongue ignited. It flicked over her clit, shocking her with the ferocity of her own arousal. Then that nimble oral muscle found its way inside her, exploring her wet flesh in a way that had her hips undulating despite her fear.

He stood again, pressing his hands to her back, bending her lower as he took up position behind her. She could feel his fingers digging into her waist, could feel the velvety head of his cock lined up at her opening.

With a mighty lunge, his hips drove home, impaling her. She screamed into the night at a pleasure so intense it was near pain. He held there a moment, seeming to await some signal from her.

She didn't move, gasping for air, wondering what he would do next. He released one hip, moving his hand around front of her, between her legs to find the hard nub that throbbed with need. Her body began to move in time to his slow caressing fingers, trying to grind into him.

That was all the incentive he needed, pulling back to plunge his hard cock in again. She was lost then, matching his thrusts with her own pumping hips. Their bodies slapped together, the sound echoing through the walls of the little gulch to couple with their animal grunts.

The finger tormenting her clitoris moved faster, pressing into her flesh to crush the little button. A coil of pleasure tightened in her belly until it exploded outward, crashing through her insides. If not for his arms holding her in position, she'd have fallen on her face, so intense was her orgasm.

He continued to pummel her from behind, his pace quickening with each stroke. His voice growled, his hand reaching for her breast. The nipple he seized was tortured, twisted, squeezed and pulled, mixing pleasure with pain. She had not had a chance to recover from the explosion of pleasure before the coil started to tighten again. He was pounding into her so hard that her feet left the ground more than once, causing her head to hit the side of the sinkhole. Still he fucked her, relentlessly pushing her toward that sharp release once again.

His growls grew more feral, sounding like a rabid animal as his cock grew and swelled. He tensed, driving hard into her one more time, roaring into the night air as he came. The hot spurts of his seed, filling her, drove her over the tenuous edge of pleasure. She screamed once more, her inner muscles milking every last drop of liquid from his phallus.

Shadow Man seemed to fold up behind her, collapsing on the ground, his tight embrace taking her with him.

"Damn," he gasped. "That was hot."

With her terror abated by sated pleasure, the sound of his voice took on a certain familiarity that had her twisting against his frame. She rolled over on top of him to see his masked face. The mask only covered the top half of his face, leaving the bottom half a smirking grin she knew all too well.

She smacked the side of his head, tearing the mask away.

"You asshole," she yelled, hitting him again. "I swear to God, Mikhail. If I wasn't so exhausted, I'd tear your heart out. What are you doing here?"

"The better question is what are you doing here? When I got to your house tonight, I saw you walking toward the fields. Do you like to walk naked at night in the cold a lot?"

She shook her head, snuggling against his warmth.

"I... I guess I was sleepwalking again. It's your fault, you know. If you hadn't forced me to go to that stupid haunted house thing, I wouldn't have had nightmares. I'm really pissed at you."

"I'm sorry, Babe," he said, none too convincingly. "Let's get you home."

The two of them struggled to their feet, Tala shivering in the cold. Mikhail removed his coat, draping it over her shoulders. He turned to scramble up the wall of their love nest, reaching a hand to her once he'd escaped.

She tossed his coat up before slipping her fingers into his. His hand wrapped around hers, squeezing so hard that it startled her. She looked up into the grinning face of her boyfriend, caught the mocking light of the moon in the silvery glint of his eyes.

Her own smile was tremulous. She was embarrassed and more than a little nervous over what had just happened. She would be glad to be back in her own home.

"From now on I wear pajamas to bed," she murmured as he pulled her up.

"Not on your life," he laughed, holding the coat for her to slip into. "I like you naked in the wilderness."

They walked hand in hand toward her house. Tala cried out more than once as her bare feet tromped over the rough path. Mikhail lifted her, carrying her without effort until they reached her yard. She hadn't realized how strong a man he was.

When he set her on her feet, she looked around to find all the outside lights on. Indeed, every light in the house was blazing.

"Hey," she groused. "Did you have to turn on every light in the place? I'm the one who pays the bills here, you know."

She turned to give him a withering glare. Her breath caught in her throat as his lips curled, more of a snarl than a smile. His eyes changed, the moonlight no longer glinting silver in them, but glowing red as hellfire.

"There you are," a voice exclaimed from the door of her house.

Tala let out a squeal, whirling around to see Mikhail standing under the porch lamp, still in his monster costume from the haunted house. How...?

"I got here and found you gone and the place open. I was just about to call the cops," he continued, walking toward her. Her eyes were riveted on his face, staring open-mouthed at her seemingly innocuous boyfriend. How could he play a joke like this?

Then she heard laughter, the hideous sound echoing from behind, surrounding her. Her body revolved, spinning to see who -- or what -- had carried her home, only to discover him gone. With a start, she twirled around, looking in every direction, but he was nowhere to be seen.

She tore the tainted coat from her body, rushing to the arms of the real Mikhail.

"Hey," he said, hugging her shivering form. "You're naked. What happened?"

She didn't answer, only whimpered in terror as that insidious laughter continued to echo in her brain. The voice of the creature spoke to her, using words that only she heard.

"You are mine, Little Wolf."

She clamped her hands over her ears, screaming unintelligible words into the night.

"Tala," Mikhail said, trying to break through the hysteria that gripped her. "Tala!"

He continued to yell, shaking her like a rag doll. She could feel her head snapping back and forth on her neck, heard his voice drilling through the terror. It didn't matter. She let the darkness that crowded the edges of her consciousness take her.

Time has a way of passing in the darkness of one's mind. She had no way of knowing how many hours, or even days, had gone by, but she was sure it was a long passing.

It was the pain that first brought her back. There's a certain horror in pain -- a terror all its own. There is no escaping it. It holds you prisoner in its own chamber in hell.

Tala shrieked, thrashing violently, trying to throw off the clawing tentacles that held her while voices spoke soothingly. One of those voices was Mikhail's. He sounded so forlorn that she couldn't help but open her eyes.

The pain subsided as she gazed into his eyes. Why was he looking at her like that?

"Mikhail?"

Her voice was barely audible, hoarse and squeaky, like a rusty hinge that hasn't been used in a long time.

"You know me?" he asked, his eyebrows arching upward.

"Of course I know you. We've been dating for two years now. What's going on? I can't move. What's happening to me?"

"They had to restrain you, Baby. When the pain started, you were fighting them. Everything's going to be okay now."

"But it hurts," she whispered as the pain returned, clawing at her insides until she thought she would burst apart.

"Just breathe through it, Honey. It's almost time."

"Time? Time for what?"

She lifted her head, looking at the room and the people gathered around her. They were dressed in immaculate white scrubs with masks on their faces. Her confusion mounted. Why was she in a hospital?

The pain took her then, drawing her muscles into knots. The pressure in her abdomen and groin was tremendous. She let out another scream, crushing Mikhail's hand in her grip.

She was gasping for breath as she looked down the length of her body. Below her breasts was a mound that distended her belly so far that she couldn't see her own feet that were held in cold steel stirrups.

"What is that?" she asked, indicating her swollen abdomen. "And where am I?"

"That's my son, Sugar, and you're in the hospital. Remember?"

The words sank in slowly, her head shaking slightly.

"No. Hospital? Son?"

"Honey," he said, watching her eyes. "You're in the psych ward. You got lost in your head for awhile, but you're back now."

"The head's crowning," one man said from behind his mask. "We need you to push, Tala."

"No!" she screeched, fighting once again.

Mikhail's fingers wrapped gently about her face, forcing her to look at him.

"Tala, I love you. You have to push now. Once the baby's born we can be a family. We'll get you out of this place and go home."

"No," she whispered as tears spilled from her eyes. "It's not yours. The Shadow Man did it."

She began to sob, wrenching against the restraints that held her fast.

"Get it out of me!" she screamed, clawing at the flesh of her sides where her arms were strapped down. "It's killing me."

"We may have to sedate her," the man said, waving a bloodied, gloved hand at a nearby woman.