; ; Mickey raised his voice. "Hey, guys -- over here."
; ; The naked pair trotted silently to the bar. The taller, ; a dark-blond youth, introduced himself as Linc; the shorter, ; a crew-cut red-head with freckled face and shoulders, as ; Kristopher.
; ; Up close, Mickey could see both looked solid enough -- ; athletically built, and not long out of their teens. Each ; carried a shiny, spherical helmet under one arm.
; ; "Not quite the conventional costume for trick-or- ; treating, is it? But where are my manners: what'll you ; have?" Mickey asked.
; ; "You have Halloweens and trick-or-treating on this ; planet too?" asked Linc.
; ; "You're not from around here?"
; ; "Hell, man," said Kristopher, the younger of the pair, ; "we don't even know where here is."
; ; "Or when, either," said Linc. "Is it still ; Halloween? It was when we started, but that bug-eyed monster ; with tentacles took so long to finish us off, ; and . . ." He shook his head. "I just don't know where to begin."
; ; "Begin at the beginning, and go on to the end. Then ; stop," said Mickey. "That's the advice King of Hearts gave." ; He turned to the counter behind him, took a gleaming white ; vase that held a single fragrant blossom, and put it on the ; bar between the two naked young men. "Here, this might ; help."
; ; Kristopher sniffed cautiously at the blossom, then ; shook his head. "Can't smell a thing, but I can sort of ; feel whatever fragrance the thing's putting out, and it ; makes me want to tell you our troubles. And one of our ; troubles is that we can't drink anything either. Thanks.
; ; Linc laid his spherical helmet on the bar, "It all ; started with trick or treating . . . and with these helmets, ; too." He put one arm around Kristopher's shoulders while the ; red-head put his own helmet on the bar beside Linc's.
; ; "We were riding double on my old Harley through this ; little town in Indiana, and Kristopher was complaining that ; he was hungry --"
; ; "Did not."
; ; "You're always complaining that you're ; hungry, kid. Anyway . . ."
; ; =========================================
; ; And as Linc -- with occasional interpolations by ; Kristopher -- poured out his tale, Mickey somehow found ; himself there, in the scene as Linc described it, ; steering Linc's old motorcycle with his red-haired pal ; sitting right behind, going slow because trick-or-treat kids ; were scampering across the street in the gathering dusk, ; remembering Kristopher saying, "Well, if we're short on ; money, how 'bout we do a bit of trick-or-treating ourselves, ; pick up some candy, maybe even some home-baked cookies?"
; ; "Okay, okay, if it'll keep you quiet, ; okay," Linc sighed.
; ; "And we can use our helmets for the loot, 'stead of ; those little bags the kids are carrying."
; ; "Fine." Linc braked the motorcycle in front of an ; ancient, mansard-roofed house, killed the engine, flipped ; down the stand, pulled off his motorcycle helmet, stepped ; onto the sidewalk, and took a deep breath of the cool ; October air.
; ; As they walked toward the house, Linc heard Kristopher ; say, "Well, this one sure looks Halloweeny enough -- like ; something the Addams Family oughta be living in. At least, ; it doesn't look like it's falling down, even though it's ; something outta the 1880s."
; ; "If not older," said Linc as they mounted the steps. He ; saw no doorbell, but when his hand neared a brass, dragon- ; headed door-knocker, he heard loud rapping echo through the ; house.
; ; The woman who answered the door, dressed in pitch-black ; bombazine, looked down her nose at Linc and Kristopher. ; "Aren't you a bit old to be playing trick or treat?"
; ; "We're hungry," said Kristopher.
; ; "Hungry spacemen," said Linc, suddenly picking up the ; Halloween spirit. "See?" He held his helmet out to her.
; ; "And certainly not from around here," said the woman. ; "The locals have learned better than to -- let's see what ; you two really look like." She reached into a pocket, ; pulled out a handful of -- of something that glittered ; darkly as she cast it toward Linc and Kristopher.
; ; As the darkly glittering something hit the two, their ; clothes melted -- no, steamed away until they both stood ; naked in the cool October evening. She cast another handful, ; and Linc felt his own cock surge to full erection; he ; glanced to his side, saw that Kristopher was staring down at ; his own stiffened prong.
; ; "Not bad. I've seen better, but not bad," the woman said, ; her voice still grumpy.
; ; "Hey, look here," said Kristopher, "that leather jacket ; cost me a bundle. If you don't put it back --" He brandished ; his helmet -- the only items of clothing he and Linc still ; had.
; ; "Wait," she said.
; ; Linc shivered, not so much from the autumn chill in the ; breeze that eddied around his bare torso and stiff prong as ; from the menace in her voice.
; ; "Spacemen, eh? I know just the place for the two of ; you." She cast a third handful . . .
; ; . . . and suddenly Linc was standing elsewhere, on ; bare cratered rock. A glance showed him that Kristopher ; stood alongside, that a battered spaceship stood a few dozen ; paces away, and that a squirming tangle of tentacles was ; surveying the naked, hard-pronged pair with two enormous, ; stalked, slit-pupiled eyes from within a tentacle's reach of ; their naked selves.
; ; Those tentacles abruptly did reach that far; ; Kristopher and Linc struggled and fought, but the tentacles ; were too strong to escape. Linc felt one tentacle slide into ; his ass, saw another do the same to Kristopher. A moment ; later, a third tentacle was enveloping Linc's glans; still ; another, his red-headed pal's. The tentacle on Linc's glans ; -- a feeding tube, he realized -- started sucking him off, ; sucking him off so expertly that he cared not that he was ; being eviscerated at the same time -- being eaten alive from ; the inside by the first feeding tube while the second slowly ; ground up and sucked away his glans, his shaft, and then ; both balls, along with occasional shots of semen and sperm. ; And when . . .
; ; ==============================================
; ; ". . . it was all over, I had shot my load two ; more times more'n you did," Kristopher crowed.
; ; "That's just because you like playing with your balls ; almost as much as you like working on your cock," Linc ; grumbled. "Anyway, after the thing finished us off, we ; grabbed our helmets, made our way to the spaceport here, ; found your place, and came on in."
; ; "So now . . ." Mickey adjusted his clothes. Linc's and ; Kristopher's tale had stiffened him up too, and he felt ; something wet and slippery on the tip of his still-hard ; prong.
; ; Kristopher said, "Like I already mentioned, we prob'ly ; can't drink anything, but what we sure the fuck do need is a ; ride back to that little town in Indiana -- Wabash, I think ; the name was, but anywhere near there --"
; ; "Dolly?" Mickey called.
; ; "Yeah, Boss?" Dolly leaned out of the entrance to the ; back room.
; ; "We got some passengers. Need to get back to ; Wabash --"
; ; "The town, not the river," said Kristopher.
; ; "When?"
; ; "Halloween -- 2004."
; ; "No problem." Dolly studied the naked pair at the bar ; for a moment more, then retreated to the back room, ; mumbling, "If I hadn't sworn off making it with ghosts after ; the last three times . . ."
; ; "Then you really are . . . ?" asked Mickey.
; ; "Yep. Ghosts," said Linc. He faded until he was almost ; transparent, then condensed back to looking normal again.
; ; "Both of us," said Kristopher. "That's how we got ; through your locked front door. And 'cause we're ghosts, we ; could feel that here's where we oughta show up if we wanta ; get back to where and when we came from."
; ; Mickey said, "Dolly has a better eye for that than I ; do, but I sort of guessed. What are you planning to do, once ; you get there -- get back there, that is? We can't put you ; down before you met the -- well, whoever she is -- ; paradoxes in the time-stream and all that -- but we can show ; up right afterward."
; ; "Well, either she -- that woman, not Dolly -- either ; she brings us back to life, or we'll settle in for some ; heavy-duty haunting. Long as we're dead, there's nothing ; she can do to us, but there's ; lots we can do to her."
; ; "I can imagine. Now -- while we're waiting --" Mickey ; displayed a spray bottle. "-- with this, I can offer you ; whatever you fancy -- you can absorb from the mist as it ; drifts through you. So -- it's still on the house, of course ; -- what'll you have?" ; ;