Possessed (closed for cgraven)

[SilentMelody]

The house seemed smaller than it was, viewed from the driveway. Perhaps because it was framed against the ocean, where proportion gives lie as the mortal mind struggles with scale. It was a stately thing, built as a demonstration of power and wealth with lines cribbed from classical Europe. It had weathered the years with a sort of indifferent grace, stone and brick shrugging off the damage a lesser structure might succumb to.

Inside it was wanderingly formal, with details that had been mostly well kept, gorgeous wood and tile in exchange for the most modern conveniences. There were no accurate plans of the place, a lack she was willing to accept for the obvious beauty and character of the house. She would eventually need to run new wiring, update the plumbing, and replace the kitchen wholesale, but for now at least, Elena was home.

It was supposed to be a fresh start, this cross country move. A new coast to get her out of an old rut and jump start her work again. She did have her painting, and had set up her workspace in the big sunny room on the side of the house, half overlooking the garden, half out to sea. Paints, brushes, clean prepared canvases, all she was missing was muse and creativity.

She had been lucky to find a place like this, some estate had run out of money for upkeep and been desperate to sell, so her broker said. It had come at a perfect time for her and she had jumped at the opportunity. Her friends thought she was perhaps a wee bit crazy, leaving the city to head to the middle of nothing, buying a house that needed historical restorations and couldn’t even get pizza delivered. But isn’t a wee bit crazy what all successful artists are allowed to do? Especially ones who needed to recharge their creative batteries and avoid reminders of a miserable break up.

It had been a long, crazy day, moving days always are, she had worked long past when the movers had left. She fell into bed dramatically, her blonde curls tumbling over her pillow. She laughed as the impact of her body echoed down the hall – she would have to get used to living in this much space, so much more than her city loft studio, so much quieter. She almost couldn't believe that she owned it all. Wide open windows let in the ocean breezes and far off sounds of birds and bells. She felt herself unwind and slipped under a thin sheet. So much quieter.

 

[cgraven]

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd399/cgraven/Story%20Illistrations/marble-house-chinese-tea-house.jpg


Thomas Winthrop had built Raven Croft on a peninsula that jutted out into the stormy ocean for he was a man that liked his privacy and yet he was also a man who very much enjoyed his pleasures as well. Both of which were reflected in the eloquent mansion that dominated this part of the coast. Raven Croft had every modern connivance that was available at the time of its construction including being the first electrified home in the area, complete with its own power generating staion on the estate.

Dominate that was a term that truly described this self made man, this Captain of Industry, this ,as some would say, Robber Baron. He had dominated the lumber industry, and the shipyards along the coast that needed the lumber from his forests and the mills he controlled. Yet industry was not the only field in which Thomas Winthrop chose to demonstrate his dominance, for he had an eye for a pretty face and a calmly figure. Many a local beauty was rumored to have fallen victim to his darker passions. The Locals gave Raven Croft a wide breath and few if any would even approach the point if they could possibly avoid it. Most swore that Thomas Winthrop had never left Raven Croft That he stilled walked its halls and if the string of owners who had bought and then quickly sold the stately manor could be believed he had not. Others swore it was not the mansion but the points catacombs on which it stood was haunted, that it was an evil place, where an evil man, had built his lair.

Thomas Winthrop looked down from the top of the grand stair case, his ethereal presence little more than a shimmering shadow that dance between sunlight and darkness. He watched as she entered, watched as they brought her possessions into his home as if she was the Mistress of Raven Croft. He had watched the men leave and now it was just he and the young beauty.

She had fallen into bed dramatically, her blonde curls tumbling over her pillow framing her angelic face with a golden halo. Her laughter bubbled from her moist ripe lips as the impact of her body echoed down the hall. Such a young innocent creature laying there in her bed in that world between waking and dreaming that place were his world and hers over lapped. He came to her darting from shadow to shadow. His lips brushed hers in a sweetly sensual Kiss.

“What is you name Girl?”

As he spoke his ghostly fingers eased back the thin sheet and his hand cupped her firm young breast. He smiled as the girl’s nipple peaked and stiffened as his thumb brushed over it

“Your Name!”

His voice echoing in her mind, the hard edge of command, behind those some deep rich whisperings.

 

[SilentMelody]

Sleep claimed her in stages deeper with each passing wave. She barely recognized the words as more than a dream.

“What is you name Girl?”

Her lips turned up in a grin, as if there was some joke and she curled deeper into her pillows, pulling away from the presence without fully acknowledging it.

The sheet slid back from her body, leaving her bare to her waist and she sleepily tugged at it, rousing back to consciousness as the shadow plucked at her nipple. The voice was unmistakable this time.

“Your Name!”

She came fully awake with a gasp, her heart pounding in her throat.

There was a figure by the bed. She drew a breath to scream and her vison cleared, the room was dark, darker than anything in the city, but empty enough. She tugged the sheet back up around her shoulders, chilled, and leaned over to turn on the lamp. The cheery light showed her only the master suite, elegant and spare. She shivered again, the breeze form the ocean had turned chill and the curtainless windows were back holes in space. She looked around again, feeling that she wasn't alone.

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

This place had stood empty for a while. There could be illegitimate tenants used to having a roof.

"I live here now. I can call the police."

Her voice sounded small and shaky, even to her own ears. She just wasn't used to the quiet. She slipped from bed and closed the windows tight. And then locked them.

She slipped back into bed, took a last look around and turned off the light, but sleep did not claim her quickly this time. Instead she listened.

 

[cgraven]

Winthrop was pleased by the way her ripe young body responded to his intimate caress. He loved the way he stunningly beautiful eyes snapped open wide with fear as she gasped,

"Hello? Is anyone there?"

Thomas Winthrop faded into the shadows as the gorgeous young blonde clutched her sheet to her heaving breasts as if it was a shield that would protect her. The echo of Elena’s own voice in the cavernous depths of Raven Croft was her only answer. Those widows that looked out over the sea that had brought the welcoming ocean breezes now appeared to be dark socket less eyes watching her every move. Winthrop watched from the gathering shifting shadows as the girl slipped from bed. Her movements were graceful, fluid as she moved across the room to lock and close the windows. She had just turned when the moon came out from behind a ghostly cloud to bathe the young beauty in its pale virginal light. Her supple young body clearly silhouette against her now translucent night gown.

She was Magnificent and in that moment Thomas Winthrop decided that he would not drive away this gorgeous intruder, who thought herself Mistress of Raven Croft , but rather to show her who was Master here. He watched as she turned once more and slowly made her way back to her bed, to slip below the covers. A dark wicked grin bowed his thin pale lips as the girl drew the sheet right up to her chin. Oh how adorable she looked her angelic face framed by her tawny golden hair, as she fought her body’s desire for sleep. Those stunning eyes searching the shadows as she listened for the sounds that go bump in the night.


Slowly she slipped back into the arms of Amorphous as a fitful sleep once more claimed Elena. It was then as she drifted in limbo between waking and sleep, in a realm where dreams and reality mingled. Elena found herself in a dark twisted gothic forest. She could hear the roar of the sea crashing on a rocky point. She was bathed in the pale chaste virginal light of the moon as it was chased across the night sky by gathering tendril of mist that slowly formed into grasping fingers that clawed at the moon as the gnarl branches of that ghostly forest seemed to reach out for her. Then as suddenly a lightening strike a dark rider on a hellish steed appeared before her and the rider voice echoed in her mind.

“What is your name girl?”

The ghostly rider spurred his mount and he came galloping towards her.

 

[SilentMelody]

The adrenaline faded, the oceans waves were a rhythm that drew her, breath by breath, toward sleep and finally she succumbed. Her eyes slid shut and her mind slipped away, but only as far as the waves crashing into the rocks. It was primordial and instinctual, the draw of the waves, the tides responding to the moon and she hung between them, light as air, soft as breath.

The dream horse should have scared her, and maybe it did, but that fear was left back in the waking world, here in the moonlight even the beast and its rider were terribly natural, heart stoppingly normal. As the rabbit with no where to hide from the wolf, she froze and awaited her fate.

“What is your name girl?”

"Elena. Elena Louise Cartwright" The hooves of the nightmare steed came steadily closer, all too real in this dreamscape, her thundering heartbeat approaching with them.The dream did not release her for her fear this time and her breath struggled in her sleep, her fingers pressing at the sheets in reflexive panic.

"My name is Elana. Who wishes to know?" She called, trying to be heard over the pounding hoofbeats.

 

[cgraven]

"Elena. Elena Louise Cartwright"

Her voice a soft whisper laced with fear, the fear he could see in those stunningly beautiful eyes. Her heart beat echoed that of his ghostly mount as horse and ride thundered towards the hapless young beauty caught between the world of the living and the world of dreams. That midnight black steed eyes blazed crimson with the fires of hell its rider wrapped in a flowing cloak only his powerful physique and dark soulless eyes visible as the girl gasped again in her growing panic.

"My name is Elana. Who wishes to know?"

The galloping steed bore down on Elana in her twisted gothic dream world, the ride leaned over in the saddle and swept her into his arms and on to the back of the devil’s own steed. For the first time she saw the riders face. His dark beauty breathe taking.


“I am the Master of Raven Croft and Master of all who dwell within. I am Your Master Miss Cartwright!”

Hips lips savagely claimed hers in an illicit kiss that lingered and deepened demanding that she surrender to its darkness. His eyes held hers as he broke that kiss and rent her night gown open bearing her breasts to him.

“Such a calmly wench you are Miss Cartwright.”

Again his mouth crushed to hers in a savage kiss.

Light flooded the Elana’s bed chamber the first golden rays of light mingling with the fading darkness and his voice , the dark riders voice echoing in her mind.

“I shall come for you Elana Cartwright!”