Not wanting the athletic woman to get too far ahead of me, I accompanied her down the stairwell just a step behind her. I would’ve walked side by side with her since there was room for us to do so, but again, I didn’t trust that the decaying building could handle our weight together. I have no idea how far we would’ve fallen if one of the steps gave way beneath us.

When we reached the bottom floor, we could see that a hallway stretched out before us and led to four different doors at our right. Instead of a wood floor, it was earthen and nothing more than packed dirt. On each side of the puny hall were two wooden portals beckoning to us.

“Kind of a boring setup down here,” Kaede groaned as she led the way. “Oh, well. Maybe we’ll find something neat in one of these rooms.”

The air was staler in the basement than it had been upstairs, but that wasn’t surprising. There were plenty of windows and a couple of open doorways for fresh oxygen to seep in and attempt to overtake the rot of the building upstairs, but down here in the belly of the beast, there was absolutely nothing.

Just like upstairs, Kaede had reached for a doorknob and slowly turned it, only to have the door fall off its hinges and into the room we were attempting to enter. This time, the crashing piece of wood didn’t frighten her. As she did her best to push it out of the way with one of her feet, I held out a hand for her to hold so she wouldn’t fall. She took it and thanked me for the appendage at the same time.

I followed my friend into the room and looked around. Like the chamber upstairs, it looked like an old bedroom. I couldn’t tell when the last time it had been used was, but if I had to venture a guess, I would’ve said that it had at least been decades.

Kaede truly was fearless. Most girls I knew wouldn’t have been caught dead walking around a dank basement full of dust and cobwebs, but the raven-haired stunner was having the time of her life. She handed me the camcorder and asked me to keep it rolling as she walked over to the covered bed and slammed her hands down on it. A large cloud of dust flew into the air and caused her to back up so quickly that she almost tripped over an old piece of wood that I assumed had at one time been attached to the ceiling. I darted forward with great haste and made sure she didn’t fall.

After thanking me for the assistance, Kaede asked for her camera back and then walked further off to my left. Against the wall, there was what may have been a desk at one time, but it actually was built in such a way that it looked more akin to a workbench. There were no tools around, though, so we couldn’t exactly be sure what it originally was. The only thing atop it was a thick layer of dust and a wooden box.

I shined my light in the direction of the storage crate and could clearly see that it was about a foot and a half in both width and height. It looked like one could fit plenty of things in it, and I offered to step forward and open it up so Kaede could get a good shot if we happened to find something of value. I couldn’t help but smile when she told me to be careful since she didn’t want a snake or something jumping out at me.

I used my free hand to pull the lid off and then quickly shone my light in the box. I think Kaede and I sighed at the same time when we realized there was nothing noteworthy in the old storage crate. Neither of us was exactly sure what we were gaping at, but the best way to describe it would be that whatever it was looked like nothing more than shredded paper.

“Sorry,” I mouthed since our discovery wasn’t worth documenting. As I turned around to face the stunner, my back was to the desk/workbench, and I noticed for the first time to my right that there was a closet. I pointed to it and offered to open it. Kaede nodded her approval and continued to film me while again telling me to be careful.

Once more, we were met with disappointment. We found what one would normally expect to find in a closet which was nothing more than clothes. Most of them had holes that I assumed to be from insects, and I’m sure a few moths had laid some eggs that had at one time hatched into some larvae that took advantage of the old rags.

“Shit,” Kaede suddenly gained my attention as she stepped forward and grabbed one of the folded shirts off the top of a stack. She lifted it up to get a better look at it and examined it closely. I hadn’t noticed it until she brought it to my attention, but the garment was absolutely ancient to two people such as her and myself. It looked like a style that hadn’t been worn for decades, if not centuries.

“Wow,” I mumbled under my breath as I used my flashlight to have a better look at it. Everything we had thus far seen in the cabin had been archaic, but this went even beyond that.

“It even feels old,” Kaede told me, and held it out for me to touch. After I did so and agreed with her, she dropped it to the floor.

After we were done in the room, we explored the other three just as thoroughly as the first one, and just like the first one, we could plainly see that they had all been bedrooms at one time. There was nothing of value in any of them, and we also took note of how none of them contained anything that looked like it could have made the noise we had heard when first stepping foot in the old dwelling.

“Sorry this hasn’t been a more notable adventure for you,” I apologized since I figured Kaede was probably pretty disappointed to come so far for nothing. “Maybe it’s all my fault.”

“What are you talking about?” The raven-haired beauty questioned me with a look of befuddlement on her striking countenance.

“Maybe I’m a ghost deterrent!” I jested, and she playfully slapped my right arm. I laughed after receiving the blow as we made our way down the hallway and back toward the staircase leading to the ground level. I was just about to pass the first room we had entered upon reaching the basement when Kaede suddenly reached out and grabbed my right arm. I turned around half expecting to see dread on her face because she had noticed something out of the ordinary, but instead, I witnessed her smiling mischievously at me. “What is it?”

The dark-haired woman answered by tugging me back into the first room we had entered. I wasn’t sure if she had dropped something or if she thought she had heard something I hadn’t detected. I went along with everything she was doing as she carefully stepped around the door that had fallen and led me back to the workbench on the far wall again.

“Here,” she impishly said, and handed me the camera. I wasn’t sure what she wanted me to do with it at first, but then she pulled her white top off and revealed her perky bosoms to me. They were squished together in a white bra as she reached past me and set the shirt on the desk.

“Kaede…”

The unsuccessful ghost hunter leaned toward me and started pointing to buttons on the camcorder as she explained, “You can film this in night vision if you want, or you can turn it off with this button and use your flashlight. I leave that in your hands.”

Yeah, I admit it: I was naïve. I didn’t think lightning could strike in the same place twice. I know I sound like an idiot, but I confess that I wasn’t sure what the black-haired beauty was getting at. “What am I filming?”

Kaede looked at me in a way that showed she was almost disappointed in me for asking such a ludicrous question. “Really, Marcus?” She sighed with a half-smile on her face before reaching back so she could undo her bra. After sliding the straps down her arms, those two wonderful titties I hadn’t seen since the first month of the year became perfectly visible. She placed the bra on the shirt.

And now it’s time to admit that I was actually trembling for the first time since setting foot in the “haunted” cabin. At that point in my life, I had been naked with a few girls, but I had only ever gone “all the way” with one. The last time that had happened had been a few months prior, and when I thought back further to when Kaede had performed fellatio on me, I had convinced myself that she hadn’t even enjoyed herself. Was she possibly giving me another chance to redeem myself, or had she come out of that moment with more satisfaction than I had been led to believe?

Kaede then squatted down and began unbuckling my belt. She was messing with the button of my jeans and my zipper as I suddenly thought about Cassie. Again, the two of us weren’t dating or anything, but we had been hanging out an awful lot lately, and I honestly wondered if there wasn’t the slightest chance that that friendship could be going somewhere further. I knew that if I let Kaede begin nibbling on my knob like it was corn on the cob, I would have to admit to Cassie what had happened. How would she take knowing that Kaede and I had fooled around a second time? Since we were in fact not dating, would she even care?

I heard Kaede let out a whistle down below as she pulled my hardening cock out of concealment. She had only pulled my pants and boxers down as far as my mid-thighs probably because the floor beneath us was dusty, but that wasn’t about to deter her from giving me a good old-fashioned blowout in an abandoned log cabin in the middle of a dense forest. She was obviously ready to down my wood in the woods.

Kaede began tonguing the tip of my stimulated penis as she smiled up at me. She held my shaft by the base and ran the head of my prick over her bottom lip. She undoubtedly wanted another go at my manhood and appeared ready to down the whole thing, until she saw how reluctant I must’ve looked.

“What’s the matter?” She asked. “How come you’re not recording this?”

Thoughts of Cassie were first and foremost on my mind, but how could I possibly fight the urge to pull my dick out of Kaede’s soft hands and shove it back into my pants? Her tits were so perfect and right there for the taking. I knew the chances of lasting more than a few minutes were slim at best, so was it worth throwing away what I had been building with Cassandra for the last few weeks to receive a couple minutes worth of head from a woman who would choose my cock over oxygen? I did my best to convince myself that Cassie and I didn’t actually have anything yet, and I also told myself that I would give up ten years of my life just to have two amazing minutes with Kaede. When I saw her grabbing her hair in order to pull it back out of the way, I had a feeling my dick was in for a treat if I went along with her jocularity.

“Look at that!” Kaede exclaimed as she gently flicked my wiener and watched it enlarge right in front of her. “You’re getting a boner in a bona fide haunted house! How many guys can say that?”

The excitement in the black-haired stunner’s voice was palpable. I knew that if I took this away from her, the fact that she had been rejected and not seen anything paranormal would simply crush her. I couldn’t do that to her. My damn hormones wouldn’t allow it. I tried to convince myself everything was all right since I wasn’t officially dating anybody.

It was decided. I hated myself for all of two seconds until she wrapped her lips around the head of my prick and started sucking for all she was worth while squeezing the base of my shaft. I know I’m going to sound like such a weenie for admitting it, but I was shaking so much from the sheer excitement of everything that while I held the flashlight in one hand and the camcorder in the other, I’m almost positive that I wasn’t even getting an actual shot of what the astonishing woman was doing to me. I finally decided to just set the camera down behind me and opted to use the flashlight so I could see what Kaede was doing to me while I reveled in the incredible feeling of bliss.

Kaede pulled my penis out of her mouth long enough to jest, “You don’t want to record this moment for your posterity?”

“I…want to! Oh god, I want to! But I’m shaking too much to do so!”

“Are you all right?” The topless babe asked as she gripped my shaft and made the veins even more evident.

“Oh yeah!” I responded, knowing that I had left the camera on so it was picking up each and every sound the two of us made. Unfortunately, the desk was just high enough as I leaned back against it that it wouldn’t be able to pick up Kaede’s face. Maybe if I lasted long enough and could calm down a bit…

Realizing that I was only worked up because of her, the toned pin-up went back to what she had been doing and shoved at least two inches of my cock in her mouth. She moved back and forth and remained in complete control while inhaling only a part of me. She was starting out slow to tease me.

Kaede closed her eyes and began going for three inches with each pass she made…and then four. I held the light in my right hand so I could watch what she was doing, and when I saw her tilt her head slightly to the right so I could see the tip of my penis pushing her left cheek out, I couldn’t help but also close my eyes and let my head drop back. My mouth fell open and a loud groan escaped my throat as I felt her hand begin moving up and down my length. Why couldn’t I gain control of myself and be recording this?

At one point, I was finally able to get my bearings long enough to reach down with my free hand and place it on Kaede’s head. I held it and gently ran my fingers through her dark locks as she placed her hands on my rigid abdomen and gazed up into my eyes while doing her best to take all of me in. Her cheeks were sucked in and my dick was worming its way down her gullet more and more.

Just like outside, the raven-haired stunner began to break into a hot sweat. It glistened on her upper chest as she continued to down me, and at one point, I fought back the shakiness in my voice so I could ask her, “Are you all right, Kaede? Don’t your knees hurt on that hard floor?”

She pulled away from me long enough to tell me that she was totally fine, and when she did so, the longest string of saliva imaginable just barely managed to hold on between us. It was connected to the underside of my length and her bottom lip, and I watched it slide down to her chin before breaking off and falling to the floor. I’m sure there had been some precum in the concoction as well, and my dick was soaking wet from everything my traveling companion had done to it.

Without any hesitation, Kaede grabbed onto my meat and once more shoved it into her mouth and down her throat. As she took in practically all of my length, I watched her eyes roll back in her head and felt her tits smash up against my thighs. She held herself in place for a good ten seconds before pulling back and gasping for air. She was fucking incredible.

Kaede tugged on me for a few more seconds and was about to go back to downing me until I finally told her that I was ready to blow. Her eyes told me that she wanted my spunk all over her, and she placed her hands on my thighs as I switched the light to my left hand since I was a righty. I then started jerking my rod with all my might, and as I closed my eyes and grunted, I could hear her on her knees below actually begging me for my cum. Hearing the want in her voice made me pull on myself all the harder, and I knew if I got any rougher with my pecker, I was going to pull it right off.

I opened my eyes long enough to glance down and see that Kaede had positioned herself right under my solid erection and had her mouth open wide. The last time I had unloaded on her, I had shot it on her tits, but this time, she clearly wanted it on her face and in her mouth. I couldn’t believe how great I felt at that moment, and I was doing everything in my power to extend the duration as much as possible. The pressure in my dick was building to a fever pitch unlike anything I had ever experienced before, and I wanted to feel that pleasure forever. On the flip side of the coin, Kaede was craving my cum, and she’d do anything to receive it.

Her tongue suddenly came out of her mouth and began dancing over the sensitive tip of my erection. Almost instantly, my aroused organ gave in and an explosion of semen burst forth and hit the young woman right in the tip of the nose. Even though her mouth was still wide open, it curled into a devious smile as more of my frothy cream ejected with the force of a charging rhinoceros. I continued to wail away on myself as streams of my fluid shot over her head and into her hair, and one shot blasted out at just the right moment as I wanked to the side, and it made the line of jism become wavy as it landed with splattering impact all over Kaede’s face.

Another, wriggling but less potent shot fired out and landed on the right side of the randy woman’s gorgeous countenance, and then she moved in order to purposely receive an equal amount of ooze on her other cheek. I was able to hammer out a few more spurts that dripped onto her lips and chin, and as jizz began falling in clumps off her face and onto her chest, I watched as my thick cream rolled down her body. I was wheezing and breathing like a man on life support, and when I finally fell back and used the workbench behind me for support, Kaede began kissing my penis and squeezing the last bit of love juice out of it while trying to get as much on her face as possible. She worked me for everything I was worth as I gasped for breath.

When I was finally able to look down at her again, I could see that not only was she still jerking away on me, but she had her eyes closed since I had truly pasted her face. There were globs of sperm everywhere: She had it on her forehead and over one of her closed eyes. There were rivulets running down both sides of her cheeks and even her nose looked to be clogged with a bit of my thick goo. I took supreme pleasure in watching the clumps cascade down her chest and between her chest like miniature waterfalls of naughtiness.

After letting the dark-haired beauty have her way with me, I had to practically wrestle my piece away from her tight grasp, but when I finally did, I rubbed it over her face in an attempt to get the man milk out of her nose so she could properly breathe once again. She simply smiled when I tried to do so and again began flicking her tongue across the bulbous head of my cock. I truly believe she had a fantastic time.

“Holy shit,” I uncharacteristically cursed as I finally released my penis and let it fall freely against my pants and boxers. I thought for sure that Kaede would be done after that, but she didn’t let up.

The raven-tressed stunner leaned forward and began licking my length even more. It had momentarily started to become flaccid, but the more she sloppily licked it, the more it began throbbing again due to her gentle touch. I couldn’t help but watch and moan in delight as she did so, and I finally realized just how much of my semen had ended up in her hair. I think it stood out all the more due to the fact that her locks were jet black.

“Holy shit,” I repeated when I saw the “damage.” I started apologizing for what I had done when Kaede questioned what I was cursing about, but when she realized I was only going on about multiple strings of my jism in her hair, she laughed and told me not to worry about.

With my breathing back to normal, I finally reached back and grabbed the camcorder. I would’ve preferred getting my massive cumshot on tape since it would’ve been a nice memento to have, but getting footage of Kaede covered in my aftermath would have to be enough. Holding the flashlight in one hand, I gripped the camcorder in my other and aimed it downward. With the light on her face, the raven-haired beauty glanced up at me with a smile and my sperm still covering her. She let out a giggle as I narrated, “Looks like this ghost hunt ended with some ectoplasmic fluid all over the lead hunter’s face!”

Kaede playfully stuck her tongue out and shook her head back and forth a bit. She was so fucking sexy, and had the bed in the room not been covered in dust, I would’ve picked her up and thrown her on it so I could take her right then and there. Just for the fun of it, I flipped the night vision back on and set the flashlight down behind me. I then started filming the stunner a little more, and I even bent down and playfully slapped one of those perfect boobs just to see it jiggle on camera. It was in that moment when I realized it would’ve been easy to whip up another batch of creamy man goo…

Out of sheer coincidence, I straightened up at just the right moment and lifted the camera with me…and saw through the night vision to the opposite side of the room that a shadow figure was standing on the other side of the downed door.

“What the fuck?!” I called out, and did the first thing I could think to do: I bent down and wrapped an arm around Kaede to pull her close. In the process, I caught my penis on my zipper. It certainly didn’t feel good, but I think it helped that it was still semi-hard. Due to that minor miracle, the skin didn’t get caught.

“Marcus!” Kaede called out in alarm since she hadn’t been expecting me to do such a thing. “What the hell’s going on?” I could hear the fear in her voice, and the fact that I was pulling her in close without a care for getting my own cream all over myself tipped her off that something amiss was going on.

I quickly pushed the camcorder into her hands as I frantically reached back to retrieve the flashlight. I told her to point it in the direction I had been looking in, and I also lifted my source of illumination at the same time. When we both stared across the room, our eyes fell on nothing out of the ordinary.

“Holy shit, Marcus!” Kaede called out as she slapped one of my arms. “You scared the fuck out of me! Why would you do such a thing after I gave you such amazing head? I mean, it was amazing, right?”

I finally had a second to safely tuck my penis back into my pants and fasten them. I had absolutely no idea how to explain myself, but I finally mumbled, “There was something…there!”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Kaede shouted as she used her camera to try to pick up what I had seen.

“There…there was a figure standing over there!” I tried my best to explain. “I…I can’t really explain it, but it was in the shape of a man…but it was flat! It…it was like an outline against the wall and it was black!”

“Marcus, slow down,” Kaede said as she climbed to her feet and reached past me for her discarded clothes. She shoved the bra into my chest so I could hold it, and then she pulled the shirt on over her head. She apparently didn’t care about the fact that we hadn’t bothered cleaning any of my gunk off her. “Now, tell me again: What did you see?”

“There was a…a man!”

“A man who’s solid like you are?” Kaede asked. “Or something like a…ghost? Like a manifestation?”

I didn’t know nearly as much about the paranormal as Kaede did, but I think I was getting the gist of what she was saying. “It…it was like a shadow against the wall. It didn’t have substance…”

The expression on Kaede’s face grew sharp and her voice somewhat trembled as she firmly inquired, “You’re not fucking with me, are you?”

“No!” I called out, glad to hear that my voice didn’t crack. “I wouldn’t have nearly sliced my dick open on my zipper, and more importantly, I wouldn’t have pulled away from you if I hadn’t seen what I saw!” My words were coming out fast and jumbled.

Kaede turned around once again and used her camcorder to try to catch anything she could. It felt like she studied the area I had pointed her to for countless minutes, and when she finally spoke again, she replied in a low voice, “I believe you, Marcus.”

“Did you see something?” I frantically asked her.

She shook her head while turning to face me. She placed a hand over my heart and felt it racing a mile a minute. “I didn’t…but I know you wouldn’t lie about such a thing.”

I couldn’t help but shiver, and this time, it wasn’t due to the dark-haired stunner. I was convinced that I had actually seen something paranormal. I was quiet for the longest time until it finally dawned on me and I exclaimed, “I caught it on camera!”

“You did?” Kaede asked, her voice becoming refreshingly energetic again.

“Yeah!” I called out. “When I saw the shadow, it was because of the night vision on your camcorder!”

“Fuck yeah!” Kaede cheered for the minor victory. She started to fiddle with the camera as I held my light source on her.

“What are you doing?” I queried since I wasn’t as familiar with the technology as she was.

She showed me a small screen that folded out of the side of the camera. She then explained, “I can rewind this and we can watch the footage you caught!”

“That’s pretty neat,” I said in a dry voice, “But do you think we could maybe get out of here before we do that? I think if I see that thing again while standing in this room, I just may have a heart attack!” I wanted to make my companion laugh as I added, “Let’s not forget: This is still my first ghost-hunting experience!”

Kaede did indeed find humor in my words as she decided to add, “Oh, Marcus! I forgot that I was popping your ghost-hunting cherry!”

After a brief laugh, I decided to lead the way as I flashed my light to where the figure had been standing. I swallowed a lump in my throat as I grabbed Kaede’s right wrist and slowly started to creep out of the ancient bedroom. We were both deathly silent while walking, and I was honestly ready for just about anything to jump out at us.

We rounded the slight wall that stuck out with the closet to our right and carefully made our way through the doorway and into the small hallway beyond. Kaede kept her eyes on the room behind us as I flashed my light down the hall to make sure no one was there. The staircase was literally only a few feet away from us.

“I don’t see anything,” the young woman whispered to me as we vigilantly surveyed the area.

“Me neither,” I mumbled under my breath. “Should we make a run for it?”

Kaede shook her head. “Don’t run. Let’s move slowly so we can keep our ears open for the sounds of anything around us.”

I nodded my understanding. She was the expert, after all. I didn’t think we were going to die by any means, but I knew our chances of survival in a crisis situation would be better due to the brown-eyed female’s keen intelligence. After all, she was the one who had been on ghostly adventures before and vehemently believed in what she was doing. And then there was me who had never once done anything like this, and didn’t believe in the paranormal for a minute until I caught a glimpse of that shadow figure.

Kaede led the way up the stairs as I followed behind while keeping my eyes peeled for any kind of movement behind us. It probably took us a good five minutes to climb twenty steps, but we were being both cautious and attentive.

The floorboards creaked beneath us after we reached the ground floor of the cabin and made our way down the short hallway that contained the small bedroom. Within seconds, we were once again in the main room, and after laying eyes on our exit, I gently started shoving Kaede toward it. We picked up the pace and darted outside. It had never felt so good to not have a roof over my head.

“Holy shit!” Kaede called out as we ran to the middle of the clearing in front of the lonely, log cabin. She turned and glanced back at the decaying abode while filming one last shot of it with her camera. I let her finish things up as she narrated, “And that’s the end of this little adventure!” She then turned the camcorder off before glancing over at me.

“Wow,” I exhaled as I thought about everything that had gone down in the abandoned structure. “That was something else!” I inhaled the scent of the grass and trees surrounding me. For whatever reason, they smelled different during the night.

“Are you glad you came?” The raven-haired beauty asked me.

I knew that she was referring to the fact that I had tagged along for the adventure, but I gave her a sly look as I responded, “Are you?”

When she caught on to what I meant, she playfully slugged one of my arms and then ran a hand through her hair. It was still a bit sticky from what had landed in it, and after she had some of it on her palm and fingers, she wiped it on my shirt before I could get away from her. She laughed upon seeing my reaction.

As we stood under the twilight sky surrounded by the silent sentinels that loomed over us with their intertwined branches, I finally tried to take things seriously again as I said, “I wonder what the hell that was that I saw in there.”

“I believe every word you’ve told me,” Kaede firmly said, “But are you sure you didn’t see something that was maybe a trick of the light?” She then lowered her voice a bit and talked out of the side of her mouth as she reminded me, “After all, we were kind of ‘caught in the moment’ there, so are you sure you didn’t just see something that you maybe thought you saw? Like maybe you were thinking we were at your house or something and your father had walked in on us? Something like that? The mind does crazy things in certain circumstances…”

“I know what I saw, Kaede,” I sternly told my doubting companion. “I know I caught it on video, too. When we watch it back, you’ll see.”

After being reminded that she held the evidence in her hands, the brown-eyed beauty looked ready to start watching it right then and there, but I placed a hand over what she was doing to stop her.

“What is it, Marcus? I thought you wanted me to see this?”

“I do. But if you don’t mind, I’d feel a little better about getting back to the car first. This can wait until we’re no longer in the middle of Spookville, okay?”

Kaede couldn’t help but laugh since she knew I was legitimately creeped out by what I had seen. She nodded her agreement as we turned to make our way through the woods one final time.

                    *

A twig snapped beneath my shoe as our flashlights suddenly landed on the downed tree we had encountered a few hours earlier. We were both relieved to see that the automobile was right where we had left it and no one had apparently touched it. We were once again safe.

After making ourselves comfortable in the vehicle, I was ready for Kaede to fire it up and drive us home. We had a good two-and-a-half to three-hour drive ahead of us, and I for one was looking forward to going home and passing out on my bed. I didn’t mind a little adventure here and there, but I usually preferred such odysseys to be found in books or video games. I could do without bumping into things that looked like they’d be better off taking up residence in the darkest corners of my worst nightmares.

When I realized the car still hadn’t been started, I glanced over and saw Kaede fiddling with the camera in her lap. She was eager to see what I claimed I had witnessed, and I could tell that she wasn’t moving another inch until she saw whether or not I had truly spotted something otherworldly.

As much as I didn’t care to see the apparent apparition again, I thought it would be nice to scoot in a little closer in order to comfort Kaede if she did indeed behold what I had witnessed. I wasn’t sure if seeing such a horror would scare her or not, but if it did, I wanted to be there for her.

The woman behind the steering wheel started rewinding the footage we had caught. She let out a slight chuckle when she realized she had landed right on the spot where she was sticking her tongue out at me and shaking her head back and forth. She was able to play the footage from there, and within seconds, we both watched on and could vaguely hear each other talking on the tape when the shot I had caught lifted and caught the silhouette of a man probably just a shade under six feet tall. As I had mentioned, it was nothing but a black mass against the wall.

Kaede’s jaw dropped in shock as we watched my shoddy camerawork ruin the shot as my horrified voice on the tape shouted, “What the fuck?!” Momentary chaos accompanied it as the camcorder picked up nothing but footage that would’ve made most people queasy to watch since it was all over the place.

I could see the intensity on Kaede’s face as she replayed the moment. She then did it again. And then a fourth time. On the fifth time, she finally paused it, and we both stared at the image and realized its left hand – if it was indeed facing us since it looked like nothing more than a shadow – was somewhat lifted and pointing in the direction of the doorway through which we had entered the room.

“It’s…pointing,” Kaede stammered as a look of confusion overtook her face. She finally looked away from the tiny screen long enough to ask, “What would it be pointing at?”

“Maybe it was trying to tell us that it wanted us out?” I offered. “I’m not trying to sound crass, but we were fooling around on its turf.”

“That’s certainly possible,” Kaede agreed as I saw her dark eyes light up at the possibility of solving a mystery. “But if you listen really closely…” She once more rolled the footage back and then held the camera up to my ear so I could listen. The volume on the little device wasn’t the best since it was meant to be plugged into a computer or larger TV for the full effect, but the raven-haired stunner had apparently heard something on one of the many playbacks that I hadn’t caught. I decided to humor her and instantly wished that I hadn’t.

The scene replayed yet again as Kaede was sticking her tongue out and shaking her head. I listened intently as I heard us both laughing while I bent down to slap one of her tits, and then in the moment when I must’ve lifted the camera and caught the shadow figure, I heard a low voice that obviously didn’t belong to either of us. It sounded deliberately demonic and growled, “Tear.”

I shot back upon hearing the evil rumble and stared directly into Kaede’s dark spheres. She didn’t look nearly as freaked out as I did, but it still troubled her. “After seeing that reaction, I take it you heard that?”

“What the fuck was that?” I called out, cussing only because I was terrified by the wickedness in the voice.

Kaede looked to be deep in thought. “Tear?” she asked herself. “What does it mean? Like a teardrop? Tears from the eyes? Is it trying to express sorrow or grief?”

“I don’t think any voice that sounded as evil as that one could be expressing any kind of sadness,” I bluntly said.

The dark-haired beauty shook her head as she stared down at the camera and actually smiled. When she looked at me again, she told me, “Marcus, you helped me capture actual proof of the paranormal! We fucking did it!”

Even though I had both seen and heard it, I still wasn’t convinced that it was anything supernatural in origin. “Are you sure, Kaede? Could the camera have maybe screwed up somehow and made that…image appear while somehow picking up something that just sounded like a crazed fiend’s voice?”

“How can you doubt this? You were the one who caught the footage!”

I shook my head and then placed my right hand on my forehead. I could feel sweat on it as my mind took me back to that very moment. The excitement of covering Kaede’s face in cum was short-lived due to whatever the hell it was that I had beheld. I didn’t want to believe that such a thing could truly exist. “But Kaede…this is the real world! That kind of stuff isn’t supposed to exist here! How can…”

“You’re telling me that after seeing and hearing it on here six times in a row, you still don’t believe it?”

I was in denial. I knew my partner in crime was right, but I didn’t want to speak the words. Saying it aloud would only make it real and give it power.

“Marcus…are you all right?”

“What the hell was it, Kaede?” I asked the dark-haired female. “Was it just a ghost…or something worse?”

“I don’t know,” the young woman responded as she shook her head. “I never imagined we’d actually find anything. I really don’t have any clue.”

I was suddenly struck by a new thought and murmured, “You don’t think…you don’t think that we opened the way for it to be here, do you?”

Kaede hadn’t considered what I brought up. Instead, she took the camcorder out of her lap and reached back between us to drop it on her backseat. She then glanced at me with kindness in her eyes since she knew how spooked I was and told me, “You didn’t do anything wrong, Marcus.”

I felt silly. I couldn’t believe the woman I wanted to protect was the one taking care of me. I felt like a real sissy.

Kaede then held out her right hand and gently said, “Could I have the keys, Marcus?”

I reached into my pocket for them, and pulled out nothing. “Oh, shit…”

Horror overtook Kaede’s face when she realized I didn’t have them. I could tell that she was looking for the right words, but nothing came out. She had no idea where I could’ve dropped them, but she knew they could’ve been absolutely anywhere with all the ground we had covered.

I then reached back in and pulled them out. I dangled them in front of her face and did my best to smile as I announced, “Got ya.”

The raven-tressed stunner hit my arm before grabbing the keys out of my fingers. She hadn’t held back with her shot this time, and I guess in a way, I kind of deserved it. “You asshole!” She called out, and then couldn’t help but laugh since I did indeed get her. It felt good to actually send a shiver down her spine since she had been so unbreakable all night.

“Sorry,” I finally apologized with a chuckle as she started the automobile up. “I couldn’t have you remembering me as a complete weenie all night. Thought I had to do something!”

“It’s a good thing I didn’t have to pee!” The young woman informed me. “I would’ve pissed myself right here and now!”

“Do you realize after everything we’ve been through, this was the only thing that actually scared you?”

The black-haired beauty lifted a finger to my face and sternly told me, “And don’t you ever tell anyone about it, you got that?”

We both laughed as she put the car in reverse and started us on our way home.

                    *

Fitting to the mood, it stormed for almost our entire drive home. Lightning crashed and sheets of rain pummeled Kaede’s little vehicle to the point where we were almost pushed into a ditch on two different occasions. About an hour into our journey, the dark-haired driver even made the decision to pull over and wait out some of the nasty weather for about twenty minutes. I didn’t blame her in the least for doing so.

Kaede dropped me off a little after five in the morning and I was good to my word: I went into my house, down to my bedroom, and collapsed face-first onto my bed. I slept for a couple hours and had some real doozies as far as dreams went, and early the next morning, I decided to just get up for the day and shower.

When I went upstairs and saw my mother sitting at the kitchen table in our dining room with a cup of coffee, I took a seat near her and told her about the little adventure Kaede and I had gone on. I edited out quite a bit of it, of course. I wasn’t about to tell her what had happened between me and my dark-haired friend sexually, and I also fibbed about the scary parts and toned them down quite a bit. By the end of my tale, I had pretty much told my mom that Kaede and I spent most of the evening sitting by a lake and talking. The adventure was a completely different story by the time I was done with it.

I wasn’t proud of lying to my mother by any means, but if she had known about the horrifying things Kaede and I had encountered, she’d never let me leave the house again until I was at least fifty. If I had even thought about mentioning the shadow figure, Mom would’ve rushed me to the nearest church and asked the priest to have any malignant forces within me exorcised. She was a wonderful woman, albeit a little frightened by certain things that most people would’ve normally written off.

After I put a period and a “the end” on my little tale, my mom got up and made her way over to the stove where she had a frying pan already sitting on it. She asked if I’d like an egg sandwich for breakfast, and I ardently nodded since I was absolutely famished. I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since before Kaede and I had left for our road trip, and although I’d never say it in front of my mother, I always developed quite the appetite after any kind of sexual action, and what my raven-haired friend had done for me nearly twelve hours earlier had depleted my reserves of energy for quite some time. How I had managed to make it up the stairs that morning is still a minor mystery to me even to this day.

I thought about calling Kaede after eating and heading back downstairs, but I decided to leave it alone since she was probably still sound asleep at her house. I didn’t want to rouse her from a rest she truly deserved, so I figured I’d wait until the afternoon to give her a ring.

I lost track of all time and got lost in a movie when the phone rang around four o’clock in the afternoon. I wasn’t even paying attention to it and probably wouldn’t have noticed it unless my mom hadn’t shouted down to me that it was for me. Just as I had two days prior, I went down to the room we treated as an office and picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

“Marcus…I hope you’re sitting down!”

“Kaede! How are you? I was going to call you earlier, but I wanted to make sure you got some sle…”

“I haven’t been asleep yet, Marcus! You’re never going to believe this!”

I was taken aback by the admission, but I didn’t comment about it. Instead, I asked the hyperactive woman what she was going on about. “What is it, Kaede?”

“Marcus, I’ve watched our little adventure from beginning to end three times, now…and you’re never going to believe what we caught on film!”

Still trying to digest everything my traveling companion was telling me, I asked, “What did we catch, Kaede?”

“Well, first of all, I should preface this conversation by telling you that there’s a very real chance that I missed some things since I’ve only seen the footage three times, but what I have seen…holy hell, Marcus!”

From where I sat in the office with the phone to my ear, I glanced through the doorway to make sure none of my other family members were nearby. When I was convinced that the coast was clear, I told the young woman, “Go on.”

“So,” Kaede started as if she was giving an important lecture to a group of college students, “Everything that we filmed up until our ‘fun time’ was just your everyday ghost adventure filler. It was just a bunch of meaningless footage of trashed rooms and nothing special. I made sure to have the volume up in case there were any other voices or noises we happened to miss, but that crashing noise we heard shortly after entering the cabin was the only thing up until…you know.”

I very well did know. I realized Kaede couldn’t currently see me, but I still nodded as I wrapped the phone cord in my fingers while waiting for her to give me more details. I was actually quite nervous for her to report her findings, and was a little peeved at myself for having her watch our adventure alone.

“Well, when I started going down on you,” the young woman continued, and talked in such a manner like the sexual encounter was nothing out of the norm, “You must’ve set the camera down on the desk behind you fairly quickly. I could hear everything we were doing for countless minutes, but couldn’t see it, obviously. However, the placement of the camera and where you had set it down…it was aimed at the very spot where you caught the shadow figure!”

I could hear her excitement as I listened. I would’ve interrupted at that moment, but I decided not to so she could go on.

“Marcus, while I was sucking you off, something behind me started to take shape on the wall! I know if you had been able to see it through the darkness or had shined your light on it and noticed it, you would’ve stopped what we were doing to warn me, but you couldn’t have possibly seen it…but the camera’s night vision did! And it picked up EVERYTHING!”

I shuddered as I wondered what it could’ve possibly caught. I knew I was about to find out.

“Marcus, it started out as a dark ball and grew into that apparition you saw! It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen, and had I not been there with you to pick up this footage, I wouldn’t believe seeing it if someone else had shown it to me! I would’ve accused them of somehow editing the tape…because this is the wildest fucking thing I’ve ever seen!”

I didn’t want to interrupt the obviously excited woman during her explanation, but I couldn’t help but cut in, “When you say it started as a dark ball…”

“So, while I was blowing you,” Kaede causally said, “You can hear both you and me as we’re having a blast…but all the while in the background, the camera was filming that wall near the door that had fallen off its hinges. On that wall, a black ball appears in the night vision…and starts to slowly grow! Oh, hell, Marcus…I must’ve been sucking on you for a good six to seven minutes at least, and the whole time I’m doing so, you can see that ball start to take shape! It starts sprouting limbs and turning into what resembled the outline of a man!”

“No way,” I mumbled in a faraway-sounding voice.

“No lie!” Kaede exclaimed. “It takes a while, but it distinctly starts to turn into what we witnessed in the later scene!”

I was so amazed that I couldn’t find the words to say. Like Kaede, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t been there to witness it.

“Oh, and Marcus…there’s one other thing.”

“What is it?”

“While you and I were messing around, there’s one other instance of that voice. I missed it the first time I watched the footage but picked up on it the second time. I’ve played it back probably a hundred times, and it’s that same, creepy-ass low voice like what we heard when we were watching it in the car.”

I gulped upon recalling that tone. It wasn’t something I ever wanted to hear again.

“About a minute before you creamed all over me,” the young woman again somehow managed to speak in a casual tone about something sinfully dirty, “There’s a point when your grunts were somewhat stretched out and the sounds of my sucking were a little muffled. I was able to listen real closely and picked up on something that wasn’t either of us. Even with my volume turned up, it was hard to detect, but when I did, I knew it was that same malevolent voice. This time, it said the word, ‘stop.’”

“Stop?” I incredulously asked. What relevance would such a word have?

“I have no idea what possible relevance it could have,” Kaede spoke up, practically reading my mind, “But as I mentioned, I played that part back so many times…and each and every time, that was the word I heard. I wondered if I could’ve possibly been mishearing it, but I don’t think I am.”

It finally hit me and seemed quite obvious when I suggested, “Do you think it wanted us to stop goofing around? Maybe we were in this person’s room or something…?”

“It’s possible,” Kaede mumbled. I could tell that she was deep in thought.

There was silence for a moment until I asked, “So, what do we do now?”

The other end of the line remained quiet for the longest time until Kaede finally told me, “I’m heading out east, Marcus. I’m going to do a little more research and see if I can come up with any answers for what exactly it was that you and I witnessed last night. I’m going to study this paranormal shit to the best of my ability so we can understand why we saw what we saw.”

To say I was surprised would have been an understatement. “Are you talking about going to college or something?”

“I don’t know of any colleges that offer a curriculum for what we beheld last night, Marcus,” Kaede told me in a low and serious tone. “No, I plan on doing as much research as I can to uncover any facts I can about that cabin. I just know that there’s more to that manifestation, and I’m going to find out what exactly it was trying to tell us, if that voice was indeed connected to that apparition.”

I wasn’t sure how, but I knew I had to reason with the young woman on the other end of the line somehow. “Kaede, I don’t think you should rush off like this! Maybe the two of us can do a little research together and…”

“Marcus, nothing would thrill me more than to have you come along for the ride and truly be my partner in crime, but this is something I feel I have to do alone.”

“But why, Kaede? This could be…dangerous! I don’t want you getting into any kind of…”

“Hey, I’ll be perfectly fine! I’m not going to let any ghosts or fiends get the best of me!”

I was shocked and maybe even a little sickened. I didn’t want Kaede to disappear out of my life on a fool’s errand. Granted, calling it a “fool’s errand” was a little harsh since there was nothing foolish about it…I had seen what it was she wanted to study and knew it to be real. Had I been asked the same thing twenty-four hours earlier, my answer would’ve been different, but now…

“Marcus, I’ll let you know if I find anything out. I’m not sure when I’ll be back, but when I am, you’ll be the first to know, okay?”

“But what about your parents?” I asked. “Won’t they worry about…”

“My mom left a long time ago, and my dad knows he can’t keep me here forever. Now, you just wait here and…”

“How long will you be gone?” I inquired. “Why won’t…”

“Marcus, take a deep breath and relax. Nothing’s going to happen to me! I’m too tough to be brought down by any of this paranormal shit!”

I knew the young woman had a point, but that didn’t mean I wanted her rushing into anything as terrifying as what she was about to do on her own. Had she said the word, I would’ve been right there by her side. I actually thought about hanging up on her and rushing over to her place in my pickup, but I quickly realized that I didn’t even know where the raven-tressed goddess lived.

“This is only a temporary goodbye,” Kaede then said in a more pensive tone. “I will be back for you someday, Marcus.” She did her best to lighten the mood as she added, “Besides, I’m not about to let a stud like you with a dick like yours fall out of my life! Hell, we haven’t even had sex yet and the very thought of it makes me wet!”

I think I was about to get a little wet myself just from hearing her words. I fought past the feeling, though, and did my utmost best to remain serious as I asked, “Are you sure I can’t come with you?”

“No offense, Marcus, but you’d only slow me down. I have a plan, and if I stick to it, I’m fairly certain I can get to the bottom of this phenomenon.”

I was silent. I didn’t have the words to say. I would certainly miss the beautiful woman whom I barely knew, and my life would certainly be the poorer for it.

“I’ll see you soon, Marcus.”

“Good luck, Kaede. Be careful.”

“I will. And thanks for everything!” And then the phone clicked.

I pulled the receiver away from my head and looked at it as if Kaede would possibly jump out of it. I probably stared at it for a good minute before realizing the dial tone was annoyingly blaring and finally put it down. From where I sat in my family’s office room, I silently pleaded that Kaede would be careful with what she was doing. I prayed for her safe return.

It wouldn’t happen for nearly seven years.

END OF KAEDE’S TALE