A Guest at Dinner

The tapping became louder, now more like a knocking. I heard a muffled voice coming from the other side of the door. Taking a deep breath, I stepped up to the top stair, and then held my candle up to the window.

It was Mr. Stein, dressed in a raincoat with a rain hat tied around his chin. He was urgently trying to get my attention, but I was at a loss to understand why. He had a key to our apartment, one that opened both doors, and yet he was standing in a torrential downpour knocking in earnest.

I unlocked the door and opened it. The wind blew it into me, nearly knocking me over and down the stairs. With wind and rain assaulting my face, I took hold of the door and told Mr. Stein to come in and get out of the rain.

Once we closed the door and Mr. Stein and I were both safely inside and away from the elements, he followed me down the concrete stairs, staying close to me and to the candle.

"Heck of a storm," he remarked after we finished descending the stairs. "Are you folks okay?"

"Yeah, I think so," I told him. "You really spooked me there for a minute."

"Sorry about that. I went out to try to start my generator to get some power to the house and locked myself out, and on top of that I couldn't get the generator going. Do you folks mind if I hole up here with you until this blows over?"

I couldn't turn him away, and there was no real reason to. We went back into the house and I took him into the dining room where Erika and Bella were still sitting.

"Mr. Stein, this is Erika, she's a friend of ours," I said as a means of introduction. "Erika, this is our landlord, Mr. Stein."

"Nice to meet you," she said.

Bella was still catatonic, her position and expression completely unchanged from when I'd seen her last. Mr. Stein looked concerned, but didn't ask any questions in regard to Bella's state. He'd always considered her "odd" and "different" and I imagine he considered this part of her usual character.

"She gets very frightened in a storm," Erika volunteered. "She'll be fine after the storm passes."

"Yes, I can see that," Mr. Stein told her. "My mother was of a similar mold."

Mr. Stein appeared quite enamored with Erika's breasts. In the light of the candles on the table, her tight white sweater and the cleavage revealed so openly by her unbuttoning it as much as she did, her large breasts were indeed mesmerizing. For someone who had never basked in their glory before, they were an amazing sight to behold.

"Mr. Stein locked himself out of his house," I explained as I looked at Erika, intentionally avoiding looking down at her cleavage. "He's going to wait with us until the storm passes. I hope that's okay with you."

"Of course," Erika said before unbuttoning another button on her sweater with a look of complete indifference.

"Why don't you take off your coat and hat and make yourself comfortable," I suggested. "We were just sitting down to eat when the power went out. There's plenty if you'd like to join us."

"We might as well eat," I told Erika after Mr. Stein removed his raincoat and hat and sat down in the chair next to Bella.

It was somewhat strange, passing around the food, serving ourselves, and then eating while Bella sat in her catatonic state there at the table with us. Erika suggested fixing a plate of food for her and putting it down in front of her. That way if she did come out of her state she would be able to rejoin the group more seamlessly.

From the head of the table I could see the reason Mr. Stein had sat next to Bella was so he could stare at Erika's breasts from across the table. She did nothing to discourage him, but aside from unbuttoning another button, which was just below the bottom edge of her brassiere, she did nothing to encourage him either. We all ate, chatted back and forth about the weather and the house, and Erika pretended as if she had no idea this eighty year old man was staring hungrily at her breasts.

After we finished eating, I got up and cleared the table, putting all the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. When I returned, Erika had disappeared, leaving the almost comical sight of Mr. Stein sitting quietly next to the catatonic Bella.

"I suppose dessert would be too much to ask," Mr. Stein joked.

"I think Bella had something prepared," I told him. "Where did Erika go off to?"

"Ladies' room," Mr. Stein replied. "Did she make cake? I love chocolate cake. Bella made one for my birthday last year and it was very good."

"I can take a look if you like," I said, somewhat bothered by his insistence on dessert, but glad Erika had left the room so that Mr. Stein's eyes were no longer focused strictly on her breasts.

I was about to head back into the kitchen when Erika returned from the bathroom. It was extremely obvious that she had taken off her bra and was now wearing only the thin white sweater, still unbuttoned past her sternum. Her erect nipples and wide, very pink areolas were very visible through the fabric. Mr. Stein was sitting, mouth agape, looking suddenly as catatonic as Bella.

"I hope you don't mind," she said, looking directly at Mr. Stein who looked only at her chest and not at her face. "That bra is so uncomfortable I just couldn't take it any longer. I don't know why I keep insisting on wearing it."

"Did you still want that cake?" I asked Mr. Stein as I turned towards him, forcing myself to stop staring at Erika's chest.

My question snapped Mr. Stein out of his frozen stare enough so that he could say, "Oh, I don't want to be a bother. Don't go out of your way on my account."

He didn't stop staring, mesmerized by Erika's breasts gleaming through the thin material of the white sweater. I don't think he could have looked away without some kind of outside intervention.

"Bella tells me you've lived alone for a long time," Erika said while looking at Mr. Stein.

"Yes," Mr. Stein said, looking like he was going to start drooling like a baby during a feeding. "I've lived alone for many years."

"Do you like living alone?"

"There are pluses and minuses, but of course, that can be said about most things," Mr. Stein told her.

I was amazed by his ability to speak clearly and coherently, given that he could not bring himself to look away from Erika's breasts. While his eyes were entranced, his brain was extremely capable of multitasking.

"I live alone as well," Erika told him and then casually reached down and popped open another button on her sweater. "I've never liked living with other people, even in college."

"I think its breast to live alone," Mr. Stein said, having his first verbal slip of the conversation, although he didn't seem to realize what he'd said.

"I'd really like to take off my sweater," Erika said passively. "I'm just worried I might offend you, Mr. Stein."

"That won't offend me, but I can't speak for the nipples whose tits this is."

"Are you a breast man, Mr. Stein?" Erika asked, finally cracking a grin, as she began unbuttoning her sweater the rest of the way down.

"Oh my, that's a heck of a question, isn't it," Mr. Stein said, finally starting to stammer and look uncomfortable, sweat becoming visible on his forehead.

"I'm just curious," Erika said as she finished unbuttoning her sweater and sat with it open in the front but still resting over her breasts. "I bet you've known a lot of women in your time."

"Oh gosh, not tit many, some, sure, but not many women, not like that, no, not tit all." Mr. Stein's forehead was now very visible on his forehead and his mouth hung open every time he stopped talking.

"Would you come around the back of my chair and help me take off my sweater from behind?" Erika asked him. "It would be just like you were helping a lady take off her coat in the old days."

I was entranced, not only by Erika's huge breasts and how she was teasing Mr. Stein with them, but also by the way she had broken his resolve and turned him into a plaything.

"Of course," Mr. Stein said and nervously got up from his chair, knocking it over in the process. He reached down and awkwardly picked up the chair and put it upright at the table before stepping excitedly over to the other side of the table.

He came up behind Erika and paused, his hands hovering above her shoulders, uncertain of whether he should actually do what she'd asked him to do. He tried to act relaxed and casual, as if this were no big deal, but his ancient hands were shaking so much it was impossible to ignore.

"Is there a problem? Are you okay back there?" she asked him while looking directly at me. "I haven't offended you have I?"

"I'm fine," he eked out with a high-pitched squeal, and then took the fabric of the sweater above Erika's shoulders between the thumb and first two fingers of each hand. She sat up in her chair and moved her hands away from her sides so he could slide the sweater down along her arms.

He seemed unwilling to look down as her breasts became completely exposed, looking off to the left, away from everyone while he slipped the sweater down over her wrists and removed it completely.

He stood there for a few long moments, his head twitching as he appeared as if he were going to look over at her breasts but kept changing his mind. He stood there, doing this nervous head twitch multiple times, and not moving much otherwise. He looked like a broken animatronic figure at Disneyland.

"May I have my sweater, Mr. Stein?" Erika asked from her chair.

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry," he said. "I don't know where my mind was, just drifting I guess."

He turned to hand Erika the sweater. It was obvious he was trying to act casual about it and then go back to his seat, doing his best to be a gentleman. Once he looked over, however, and saw Erika sitting with her phenomenal breasts completely bare and exposed, he started babbling incoherently about chocolate cake, unicorns, some problem he was having with his lawnmower.

I thought he was going to have a heart attack, especially when he clutched at his chest and struggled to gasp out words. Finally, he made his way back to his seat, his eyes fixated on Erika's breasts as he sat there in silence, sweat still dripping down his forehead, causing him to wipe his eyes with his napkin more than once as our conversation continued.

Another crash of thunder somehow caused all the candles to go out simultaneously. The candelabra then self-ignited as it had before.

"Gosh you have great tits," Mr. Stein blurted out as soon as the candle illuminated the room again.

"Why thank you, Mr. Stein," Erika said with a smile. "Some people think they are much too large."

"Oh no, no, no, no," babbled Mr. Stein, "Not at all, not at all."

"We should carry Bella into the living room," I suggested. "With the fire in there we won't have to worry about losing light."

"Are you scared of the dark?" Mr. Stein said, turning towards me with a piercing glare, his tone having changed from nervous old man to sinister bully. "Maybe you should call your mommy."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me," he said, staring now at my chest the way he'd been staring at Erika's. "Are you trying to hide from Erika's tits? You're a coward."

"We shouldn't move her," Erika told me, having no apparent reaction to what Mr. Stein had just said to me. "I honestly don't know what she's going through right now, and it appears she's catatonic, but I really can't say for sure. Don't you have any flashlights?"

"In the spare bedroom," I told her as I stood up. "I'm almost sure they have batteries."

"Almost sure?"

"We usually just use candles when the power goes out," I shrugged.

Erika put her sweater back on, very casually, like she was putting her jacket on. She buttoned it about halfway up, picked the single candle off the table, and told me to lead the way to the spare bedroom.

We got through the living room and out to the hallway. Turning left would bring us to the front door, but turning right led us to the master bedroom, at the end of the hall, with the spare bedroom to the left of that. I turned right and Erika followed with Mr. Stein in the rear.

There was a flash of lightning as I pushed open the door to the spare bedroom and we all walked inside. It was followed a moment later with thunder, but I wasn't going to let the thunder scare me.

Then I turned around, the candle in front of my face, looking at Erika and Mr. Stein and said, "There are no windows in this apartment. Where did that lightning come from?"

They looked back and forth at each other and then at me. We all had similar looks of confusion and consternation. Then the candle blew out and we found ourselves standing in the spare bedroom in complete darkness.

The lightning flashed again and very briefly illuminated the room. The only thing I saw was Erika on the bed, naked from the waist up with Mr. Stein on top of her, looking up at me with a crazed expression, huge fangs protruding from his mouth. Then it went dark again, so I reached out in front of me and my hand bumped into Mr. Stein.

"Everyone still here?" I asked in nervous confusion.

"Yes, right here," Erika told me. "Where are you hiding those flashlights? Any idea?"

"Top dresser drawer, I think," I told her and started taking small steps towards where I knew the dresser to be. Feeling around in the dark, I came upon the top dresser drawer, smacking the back of my hand against the drawer handles in the process.

Lightning flashed again, revealing what appeared to be Bella's disembodied head sitting on top of the dresser. After the flash was gone, I heard her voice say, "He is coming," followed immediately by a loud crash of thunder.

"You find those flashlights yet?" Erika asked from behind me.

"Hold on," I said while I pulled open the top drawer and fished around in it with my left hand. Unable to see at all, and hoping there was nothing untoward in the drawer, I felt around for anything that felt like a flashlight.

To the left was what felt like some sort of folded clothing, stacked in the drawer, possibly shirts of some kind. To the right was a stack that felt heavier, somewhat denser and I figured they were probably bed sheets for guests who might stay in the spare bedroom. There was nothing that in any way felt like a flashlight in the drawer, so I closed it and proceeded to check the next drawer.

I felt to the left of the second drawer, where there was a small box and some folded clothing underneath. I moved my hand to the right, where I hit the jackpot. There were two flashlights there, and I picked them up triumphantly.

I turned the first flashlight on and was happy when it went on, but disappointed with the limited amount of light it provided. With it pointing up at the ceiling I looked forward at the mirror over the dresser and saw the reflection of Erika naked, tied to the bed on her back, Mr. Stein on top of her riding her fast and hard.

I dropped the flashlight and gasped. Then I turned around quickly and bumped into both Erika and Mr. Stein, who were standing directly behind me.

"What's the problem? Flashlight bite you?" Erika asked, her face slightly illuminated by the flashlight lying in the drawer. "Does the other one work?"

The second flashlight worked, and cast a much more illuminating light than the first. It lit up the entire room, and as I looked around, I saw absolutely no sign of what had apparently been a delusion involving Erika and Stein on the bed.

I handed the flashlight to Erika and fished the first flashlight out of the drawer. It was still on, and provided enough light to show that the contents of the left side of the drawer consisted of a box of latex condoms, along with what appeared to be the same sweater and skirt Erika was wearing.

I held onto the flashlight and slammed the dresser drawer shut. With the room now fully lightened I could see the stern, questioning look Erika was giving me in response to my loud slamming of the drawer. She was holding the flashlight and pointing it ahead of her, so I switched off mine for the time being and the three of us walked together back to the dining room.

Bella was gone, or at least no longer sitting in the dining room in a catatonic state. There was no sign of where she was, so Erika and I started calling out her name and asking her to respond.

"Wait here in case she comes back," I told Erika.

Mr. Stein followed me out through the living room, where the fire in the fireplace was starting to die out. He suggested he should stoke it and add some wood, which we had plenty of, so I told him to go ahead and take care of that while I went to the master bedroom. I figured Bella had gotten up, been disoriented, and wandered off to our bed.

I'd left Erika with the better flashlight, the one with the strong light, and regretted doing so after dealing with the weak and yellowish beam that sputtered and flickered from my flashlight. I looked around in the corners of the bedroom, called out Bella's name, and got no response. Knowing she sometimes hid under the desk when she was in a panic, I walked over to the other end of the room where the desk sat. I crouched down and pointed my flashlight under the desk.

She wasn't there, but something moved quickly and scurried out of sight when the light was cast under the desk. It wasn't anywhere near large enough to have been Bella, and she couldn't have slipped up between the desk and the wall to have gotten away, the way this thing had.

Whatever it was moved up the side of the wall, behind the armoire in the corner of the room, and then up along the ceiling. I pointed my light up at it and saw a dark creature about the size of a kitten. It hissed at me and then, in a hoarse, scratchy voice, told me, "He is coming" and moved very rapidly across the ceiling and out into the hallway.

Out of a sense of curiosity that outweighed my fear, I gave thought to following the shadowy creature out into the hall. Before I could do so, I was distracted by a sound coming from the direction of the bed. I turned and pointed my flashlight, casting the light back and forth across the room as I did. The sound was like a quiet chirping; an irregular repetition of an almost inaudible high-pitched whimper, and its source was a mystery. The weak and yellowy light passed back and forth across the bed, finding nothing but the disheveled sheets of the unmade bed.

On the other side of the bed was Bella's dresser, upon which sat her beloved mirror. It was the mirror she claimed allowed her to see things, from what was happening in the outside world to things she foretold happening in the future. The chirping whimper seemed to gradually get louder the more I searched for its source, and when my light fell upon the mirror, it turned into a piercing wail.

I stepped back with a start when I first heard the wail. My light fell off the mirror as I stepped back towards the doorway. The wailing ceased, the room fell quiet for a moment, and then the chirping whimper resumed once more.

"He is coming," said a voice behind me. It was Mr. Stein, coming from the living room. I turned, once again startled, living now always on the edge of dread, aware of each sound and movement, not knowing what was real and what could not be but was.

"Who is coming?" I snapped at Mr. Stein, now bothered by this statement I had heard so many times.

"I got through to Bruce," Mr. Stein told me, referring to the man who did odd jobs around his house and property. "He's driving out to fix the generator for me and then we'll have power."

It was a moment of normalcy that brought me back to familiar ground. I nodded to Mr. Stein, indicating my thanks for his efforts and followed him out of the room. We walked down along the hallway, through the living room with its fire burning anew, and I thanked Mr. Stein for his efforts to stoke the fire before we returned to the kitchen where Erika waited, pacing back and forth as she did.