Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2009 12:22:08 -0700 (PDT) From: Sebastian Fforde Subject: Kai and the Ghost Boy Chapter 5 Kai and the Ghost Boy Copyright 2009 Sebastian Fforde (BB, fantasy, romance) DISCLAIMER: Nothing is true; everything is permitted. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin. *** Chapter 5 Kai looked at Erik in terror. He was now alone with the boy in the servant's quarters of Hoppenstand Mansion. They were changing into the dry clothes that the butler had given them after Kai had frightened Erik so badly that he had fallen into the fountain outside. Now Kai was the one who was frightened. "What would you like to do now, tiger?" Erik repeated. Kai's heart started to beat faster and faster. What was Erik trying to tell him? That he wanted to be – kissed? Erik waited impatiently for Kai to say something, but the poor boy was tongue-tied and speechless. Erik, looking rather irritated, reached for the dress shirt that was part of the footman's uniform and put it on. "Forget it, then!" he grumbled. "I'm sorry I asked!" Kai didn't know what to say. He turned away and slowly put on his own footman's uniform, unable to look at the other boy. Kai wanted to cry. So far he had really botched up his `date' with Erik pretty badly. Erik probably hated him by now. Kai couldn't wait to go home and yell at Bryan for giving him such bad dating advice! In the awkward silence, Kai could hear the sound of grandfather clocks gonging in distant parts of the mansion. The two boys silently put on their footman uniforms and entered the drawing room, where the tour guide, an actor in the role of a butler, had a small tour group waiting. "Aha!" the tour guide exclaimed, smiling at Kai and Erik. "Our last guests have arrived! Please forgive their footman uniforms. They had a little accident in the fountain earlier!" Some of the members of the tour group giggled. Kai felt himself blushing. "Now as I was saying," the tour guide continued, "since this is your first visit to Master Hoppenstand's estate for most of you, perhaps I should, ah, warn you of some of Master Hoppenstand's little, uh, eccentricities. Perhaps some of you have noticed the unusually large number of clocks in Hoppenstand mansion." Indeed, Kai had noticed the unusually large number of clocks in what he had seen of the mansion so far. When he stopped and listened, he could always faintly hear at least one or two clocks chiming in a distant room. "It's a curious superstition Master Hoppenstand has about clocks, you see," the tour guide explained. "There are seven hundred and eighty four clocks in Hoppenstand Mansion, and NONE of them are set to the correct time. Many of the clocks have been fixed to run counter-clockwise. It seems that Master Hoppenstand has this curious belief that he can cheat death if the Grim Reaper doesn't know exactly what time it is when Master Hoppenstand's time eventually does come!" The tour guide grinned devilishly for effect. "Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." Kai looked at Erik nervously. Now that he was listening carefully, he could hear the faint sounds of bells tolling in far off corners of the mansion. "Let's begin our tour," the tour guide said, waving them all to follow him out the door of the drawing room. "Would you all like to see the grand staircase? It is entirely made of fine Italian marble." So the tour began, with actors playing various servants taking the `guests' through various parts of the mansion. Near the end of the tour, they went to the kitchen and the actress playing a scullery maid described the dreary lives of Mr. Hoppenstand's servants. Quietly, Erik began to guide Kai along the back wall until he got to a small, nondescript door. Since everyone in the tour group was intently listening to the scullery maid tell her tale of woe, nobody noticed the two boys as they slipped quietly behind the door and closed it shut. Kai followed Erik down rickety stairs that led to a dusty wine cellar. "What are we doing? We're going to get lost down here!" Kai hissed. "No we won't," Erik whispered. "Don't worry. I've been through this place dozens of times! I'm an amateur ghost hunter and this mansion is the most haunted building in the area! Of course I've been here! And I know exactly how to get out of here!" "Dammit, Erik, why didn't you tell me you've been here before?" Kai moaned. "If I'd have known you've been here dozens of times I wouldn't have suggested coming here on our first date!" Erik grinned. "So this IS a date, isn't it? I thought you said it wasn't a date!" "W-w-well, it is but it isn't," Kai stammered, turning beet red. Erik took a few steps closer, backing Kai up against a wall of the wine cellar. He put his hand on Kai's shoulder and grinned wickedly. "So are you gonna try being assertive again," Erik asked, "or should I take the lead?" Kai didn't answer. He just looked at Erik, trembling slightly. Erik looked at Kai, took the boy in his arms and gazed intently into his eyes. Gently, he touched the boy's chin, lifting his face upwards. Kai closed his eyes and parted his lips, shivering slightly. Their lips met. It was delicious. Kai emitted a tiny gasp as he felt Erik's tongue slowly and sensuously exploring the inside of his mouth, then retreating as he sucked on the boy's lower lip a little. Erik slipped his tongue back inside for another taste, this time caressing Kai's upper teeth with his tongue before moving to explore the roof of the boy's mouth. Kai gasped again, then swallowed the accumulated saliva that had begun filling his mouth. He could feel Erik's erection pressing against his stomach. "Not here." Erik broke the kiss. He looked at Kai, irritated. "Not here?" he asked. "Not here? Well, what the hell do you want from me, Kai? You want it then you don't want it. You're great at giving off mixed signals!" "I didn't say that, Erik!" Kai exclaimed. "You did!" Erik insisted. "You said `not here' and you pushed me away!" "How could I say anything when you had your tongue in my mouth?" Erik looked puzzled. "I guess you're right, Kai. Your mouth was a bit busy, wasn't it?" "Well then," Kai replied nervously, "If I didn't say it, and you didn't say it, then who said it?" "Maybe it was old Heber Hoppenstand," Erik smiled, looking about the wine cellar. "This IS the most haunted room in Hoppenstand Mansion. I wouldn't be surprised if the ghost of nasty old Heber Hoppenstand is scowling at us right now for being such naughty boys!" "I'm scared!" Kai whined. "I'm afraid of ghosts! Get me out of here now!" "Tell me, Kai," Erik asked pointedly, "have you ever seen a ghost?" "Never!" Kai exclaimed. "What would you do if you ever saw one, Kai?" Erik asked. "I'd scream my fucking head off and run as far away as I could!" "But you didn't run away when that dog kept mysteriously appearing in your bedroom," Erik pointed out. "Well, that was really freaky," Kai admitted, "but wasn't really scared because I had my friend Bryan with me most of the time." "Hmmm," Erik said thoughtfully. "I'd like to see this Bryan character sometime." "Can we get out of here, please?" Kai whined. "I'm really scared now!" "What about our clothes?" Erik asked. "Don't you want to go upstairs and get our clothes back?" "I don't care about my clothes!" Kai exclaimed. "Just get me out of here!" "Ok, Kai," Erik said, taking the frightened boy by the hand. "We'll run off in the footman uniforms. I know a secret exit. We can skip the rest of the tour. There's a place I want to take you." *** It was getting dark. Kai followed Erik as he led the boy into the hilly fields just past the new housing development. "We're going to the top of that hill," Erik said. In the gloaming, Kai could make out an old stone wall and a few trees on top of the hill. "What's up there?" he asked. "An old graveyard," Erik replied. "Nobody ever goes up there, so it we'll finally have some privacy. It's really nice up there. Wait till you see the view!" "A graveyard?" Kai asked, hesitantly. "What's wrong with a graveyard?" Erik asked innocently. "It's a really cool graveyard – it dates from colonial times but there are some newer graves there, too." "After all we've been through today, and you want me to go into a GRAVEYARD with you? Are you nuts?" "There's nothing to be afraid of," Erik reassured him. "If you were a ghost, would you hang out in a graveyard? No, you'd haunt the places where you lived and worked!" "I guess that make sense," Kai admitted. "Ever make out with a boy in a graveyard?" Erik asked with a sly smile. "No." "Well, you will tonight!" Erik held Kai's hand as they approached the cemetery on the hill. The gate was locked, so they jumped over the low stone wall. The sun was setting, and the long shadows from the gravestones stretched out over the hilly ground. Kai noticed that the older graves were in the back and the newer graves were up closer to the front gate. Erick led Kai to the soft, spongy grass in the front section. Erik sat down and looked up at Kai, waiting for the boy to join him. "You're sitting on someone's grave!" Kai hissed. "Isn't that disrespectful?" "I don't care," Erik shrugged. He patted the ground next to him. "Sit down, Kai. I want to kiss you again." Kai nervously sat down on the soft grass next to his friend. Erik put his arm around Kai's shoulders and looked into his eyes. Kai shivered a little. Kai's heart was beating wildly. He took a deep breath and leaned forward for Erik's kiss. Erik embraced Kai, grabbing the boy's face and ruthlessly shoving his hot, wet tongue in Kai's mouth. Kai was beginning to feel so excited that he was feeling a little dizzy. Kai leaned forward more, trying to get as close to Erik as he could. At that moment, Kai forgot about everything: Bryan's bad dating advice, Erik falling in the fountain, the ghost voice in Hoppenstand Mansion. All Kai could think about now was how happy he was to be in Erik's arms. Kai was in heaven. How much better could things get? Kai pressed his lips to Erik's slightly parted mouth. Gently, he poked his tongue inside. Erik moaned pleasantly. Kai poked his tongue in a little further, feeling Erik's front teeth. Erik opened his mouth wide and practically sucked Kai's tongue inside. Kai gasped. Erik held onto the sides of Kai's face and began to insert his tongue into Kai's mouth. Their tongues touched. Slowly, Erik leaned back onto the ground, pulling Kai on top of him. The two boys sucked face for quite a long time. To Kai it seemed like forever. As their hot tongues explored each other's mouths, they both felt their swelling erections pressing up against each other. Kai relaxed to allow Erik's tongue inside his mouth. Erik held Kai's face in both hands and sucked on Kai's lips wildly. Kai gasped. Erik's warm saliva was mixing with his, filling his mouth up until he had to swallow. The boys continued to kiss, stopping every now and again to catch their breaths and gaze lovingly into each other's eyes. As things progressed, their kissing got sloppier and sloppier. Kai enjoyed the taste of Erik's saliva mixing with his own as he felt Erik's hands slowly moving up and down his back and down to his butt. Kai broke the kiss and lifted himself up a bit. For the first time he noticed the headstone of the grave they had been making out over. The name on the headstone gave him a bit of a shudder: BRYAN JAMES MARSHALL. "Oh my God, Erik!" Kai gasped. "This is such a weird coincidence! The person who's buried here has the exact same name as my friend Bryan on it!" Erik gently pushed Kai off of him, rolled over onto his hands and knees and looked at the stone. "That is quite a coincidence!" Erik agreed. "I don't know what Bryan's middle name is," Kai said thoughtfully, "but I'm going to ask him next time I see him. Wouldn't it be creepy if he had the same last name?" "Yeah, that would be creepy," Erik admitted. "Kind of sad, isn't it?" Erik added, thoughtfully. "He would have been about our age now." "Yeah, it always makes me sad to see things like that," Kai agreed. "I'll bet he was really handsome, too. I know it's weird, but I can't help thinking of things like that." "There's nothing we can do about that," Erik said, pulling Kai closer to him. "He's dead and we're alive. Let's enjoy what little time we have on this earth while it lasts." "You're right, Erik," Kai said, closing his eyes and letting Erik kiss him again. To Be Continued *** Are you enjoying Kai and the Ghost Boy? I hope you are. If you like, you can check out my other stories on Nifty: Jonathan Casts a Spell in the High School section, and Tanner's Talent in the Adult/Youth section. If you want to get to know me a little better, feel free to email me or check out my MySpace page, which is http://www.myspace.com/sebastianfforde. My Yahoo ID is sebastianfforde.