Corrupted Kelly
Dan sprawled out on his bed lazily, his arms tucked behind his head. He let a bit of the hair beneath his navel show as his undershirt rode up along his smooth belly. It felt stupid, but Dan had been working out, and he was pulling all the stops tonight. When his wife, Kelly, walked in he took a moment to admire her. She was pretty trim herself now, having taken up the gym along with him. They had remained passionate even when she had been what she described as a “fatass.” Dan had never minded, although he had to say that her perfect hourglass body was damn sexy now. She had lost none of her curves, and if anything her newfound health only emphasized them. She had also gotten her hair streaked purple for her birthday, a move that he found exciting. Yet he would have traded all of these exciting new features in a heartbeat for just a quarter of her old libido. Since he had switched to night shift, she had grown distant and frigid, even as the added stress of his job made him crave intimacy more. People congratulated him on his thinner wife, but he always looked away, because he knew they assumed he had more than he did.
“It’s probably crazy to even suggest it. I know it’s a work night for you… but I was wondering if I could persuade you to invite me over to your bed.” He said softly. Christ, that was awkward, he thought to himself. She gave him a look of such disdain that he had to laugh derisively. “Yeah, definitely no chance of that. I figured.” They discussed the issue briefly, but he didn’t know why they bothered. At the end of it all, the central issue stayed the same: her desire was simply gone. He had once assumed he was to blame. He had tried to be romantic, to clean everything in the apartment that he could clean. He had tried to get in shape. Eventually, he had been forced to conclude that her lack of desire was unconditional. It simply did not respond to any of his actions.
Next he had tried to find out if she was getting it from elsewhere. He had checked her phone, tracked her with an app, and scoured her internet history. He was almost disappointed to find that she didn’t even have the libido to watch porn anymore. If he could watch what she was watching, he had thought, that would be almost like connecting with her in some way. But he didn’t even have that. Even an affair, at this point, would have seemed more comprehensible. To a man like him, misplaced sexual desire made more sense than none at all. In his sex starved state, the thought of her getting off in any way aroused him. Yet as months wore on, he was forced to drop even this suspicion. It seemed there was no crack in the icy barrier around her nethers.
He decided to contact Wade, an old school friend of his. The two had shared a lot of odd interests in college. As middle schoolers, they had discussed everything from religion, to sex, to their ambitions. Wade had become a therapist. He was a bit into woo, in Dan’s opinion. His therapy was augmented by a lot of new age crap such as meditation. How could he get her to see him though?
He decided to call Wade up to discuss the issue. One morning, he found himself alone in the apartment again. Kelly had been sweet enough, kissing him tamely goodbye and tiredly reciprocating when he wished her good luck. He rolled out of bed and heard his tending pop as he put the pressure of his weight on the fake wood floor. Everything he did seemed too loud when Kelly was away at work during his days off. He would have to go to sleep soon to stay on schedule, but he knew he had to wait until at least 8:00 am to get a hold of Wade.
He dialed the number and then pressed “1” with agonizing deliberateness. “Hello? May I speak to Dr. Tanner?”He asked. The person on the other end told him to wait. Finally, a familiar voice lit up the phone line “Hello there. I understand you require help with issues regarding intimacy? That is within my power, certainly.” He spoke even more strangely than when he was in High School. Not just the grandiose word choice, but there was something insidious and reptilian about his voice. It was as though he had recently consumed the works of H.P. Lovecraft. “I could use some power, Wade. To be perfectly honest.” Dan said. “Dan?” The voice asked in surprise, a ring of humanity returning to his tone. I would gladly help you. Bring her on over any time after Tuesday, I will make room.”
“I appreciate that, but I haven’t asked her yet. You should see the way she looks at me if I suggest sex. I don’t know how she would respond to this.” Dan muttered gloomily.
“A woman’s resistance can be hard to erode, especially early on. I’ll tell you what. If you bring me some intimate things of hers, I can perform a ritual. That will open her up to further influences. I know you think this is nonsense. I can hear you thinking it.” His voice went from friendly to icy in a heartbeat. Dan chuckled despite himself. “I don’t think you can blame me. I do consider you a friend, but I am my own man when it comes to my beliefs.” There was silence on the other end, followed by a deceptively silken reply. “I consider you a friend too, Dan. And I respect that about you. Now respect me. See the knife?”
Dan shouted and dropped the knife that had been pressed to his throat, recoiling in horror at his own unwitting actions. “What the fuck!?” He cried out. Wade sighed impatiently. “You wouldn’t have done it. Your will is too intact still. But I needed to show you something. I am a “therapist” in name only. In reality, I use arts beyond human understanding. I can give you a book that will explain more. In the mean time, know that I do mean to help you. Give me some items that will allow me to erode her resistance from afar.”
With heavy reservations, but no shortage of desperation, Dan went to work the next day. He went to the cylindrical white laundry basket in the closet, and dug through the dirty laundry. Attached to his wife’s cute seahorse pajama pants, he found a pair of pink panties, still unwashed. He resisted the curious urge to smell them. Next he dug through his file cabinet for an old picture from his college days. It showed her drunk in the dormitory bathroom, grinning saucily as she lifted up her shirt for his phone camera. Her full breasts seemed to leap out in exhibitionist glory. He hesitated. She didn’t even remember doing this. Even by keeping the photo, he felt a sense of betrayal. Yet Wade was insistent that such betrayal would give him the power he needed over her. In his pocket, he fished out her ruby wedding ring. He had hidden it so that she would think she had lost it earlier that morning. He would return it to her hand after the ritual.
When he entered Wade’s office, he was surprised to see the gloomy aesthete of the place. It was colored with shades of black, wood, and bone white. Nondescript tomes inscribed with roman numerals lined his shelves, and a gravity-defying tangle of reddish vines sat in the corner, barely contained by a clay vase that appeared to be covered with cuneiform symbols. He examined some of the books, and found them baffling. “Linear A Incantations: A Translation.” He muttered. The next was in Cyrillic lettering. He remembered a bit about the Russian alphabet from school, and clumsily mouthed the title. “Charov-nik. Huh. “
“The black book of East Slavic magic. We will employ that tonight. Do you have what we need?” Wade’s voice boomed behind him. “I see you do. Give them to me.” Wave had dark straight hair and dark eyes, almost the opposite of Dan’s. His nose was small, and his teeth seemed to glisten too brightly as he spoke.
Dan felt a compulsion to obey, but he gritted his teeth as he remembered what he desired. He had an inkling that the type of mental domination he wanted to perform on his frigid wife might also be a weapon against him, so he steeled his will. “Teach me.” He grunted. “You think you’re the only one who can read me, well I can read you a bit too. I’ve felt your mind and I know it’s basic contours now. I’ve felt your power, and discovered something of it in myself.” Wade beamed at him as he made this declaration, but his grin revealed foxlike teeth. “Give them to me.” He whispered more softly now. This time the struggle took a minute, but when it was over Dan shoved his hands deeper into his pockets and turned around as though to leave.
“Dan, my friend, I knew it all along. I will teach you what I know of the magic of the mind. I ask only one thing in return: it is what I was going to ask in payment tonight. I have seen this woman in your mind, and I would like to have her. I will invade her body and soul as an astral projection tonight. It is how I must break down her resistance. After that, I will show you how to take the reins of her mind all on your own. Perhaps you’ll even want to practice on other victims further down the line. It becomes addictive, I warn you.”
Dan wanted to punch him in the face. “You want me to whore her to you? In return for power? I could never betray her like that.” Wade cackled at him. “You are rock hard, aren’t you?” He asked as Dan walked out the door. “See you tonight!” Wade shouted.
When Dan got home, he was faced with an unexpected fight. It seemed that his wife had noticed his rummaging through the laundry somehow. She had always been annoyingly perceptive, and the missing panties had not escaped her attention. “I can’t even look at you right now. I’m married to a pervert.” She hissed at him. Her normally fair face was creased with disgust. When she smiled she had the cutest, full-cheeked face. He really missed seeing that joy in her. When she went to bed that night, leaving him to stay up in the living room, he reached a decision. He snuck out and drove over to Wade’s office.
The ritual began with a sacrifice. A rat was crushed with a lead mallet, and it’s entrails scattered into a brazen bowl. Lindenwood was burned in a brazier below, causing the unwholesome meat to steam. Wade spent nearly an hour scattering herbs and chanting in various tongues before he grabbed the picture of Dan’s flashing wife. He smirked at it and rubbed a bit of saliva over it with the tip of his thumb. Dan’s stomach squirmed. He could see now that this ritual was a symbolic violation of his wife on every level. Yet there was something darkly seductive in that. Wade held up a mirror that was framed with silver snakes, and stuck the damp picture face down against the mirror with an obscene squishing sound. “View yourself as you are, whore. Happy pawn of Ishtar. See your reflection, and your reflection shall see you. And between those two viewers, let there be only filth and darkness. He ground the slick picture roughly up against the glass of the mirror. Dan frowned at the words, unsure if he was hearing English or somehow understanding them on a deeper level.
Next, Wade took the undergarments and caressed the crotch as though pleasuring a woman through it. Next he sliced a hole in the crotch with a knife. “All barriers are removed.” He declared. Next, Wade dyed them black in a pool of ink and then cast them into the sacrificial fire. Next he cast in the picture. When the fire burned low, he took the wedding ring from Dan’s hand and immersed it in the ashes. “Out of the ashes, let something new arise from what has died.”
That night Kelly had the strangest dream of her life. Her crotch was on fire, almost painfully so. It was something between unthinkable lust and an unscratchable itch. She writhed and moaned in her sleep, unaware that her husband stood above her in fascination as she did so. In her dream, a fiery serpent with glinting teeth wrapped itself around her. Somehow, she felt fiery tendrils penetrate her hungry cunt and fill her with a pleasure bordering on religious fervor. “Yes! I’ll do anything. Just fuck me.” She whispered as her sweat soaked body rocked the bed she lay in. She felt the flames spurt within her, and cried with glee as she felt something bright and fragile within her burn away to nothingness. On command, she wrapped her legs around the serpent and invited the fire in deeper so that it could destroy the last vestiges of what it sought- she knew not what it was, only that her reward for surrendering it would be a mind-rending orgasm. The serpent’s reward did not disappoint. Dan resisted the urge to touch her unconscious body, though he knew that in a sense he had already sold her into an even worse fate than physical violation.
The next morning he felt much better. His wife awoke him with a passionate kiss, and grabbed his morning wood hungrily. She straddled him like a beast and rode him, her tongue twirling on his hungrily. “Oh Dan, yes. Give me that thick snake!” She moaned as they climaxed together.
For a few days, Dan felt that he had what he wanted. Yet it quickly became clear that Kelly had chilled to him immediately after her morning orgasm. She seemed almost back to her old self, with the exception that she still moaned softly in her sleep at times. Wade had warned him to bring her in while she was still malleable, her defenses weakened. Finally, he suggested they visit Dr. Tanner. “Pawn of Ishtar.” He added, just as instructed. Her eyes glazed over as he said the phrase of power, and she agreed to go to therapy.