Magic girls of multivers.., p.23
Magic Girls of Multiverse Inn 2, page 23
And just like that, I missed them, and I found myself walking out of the kitchen to go and check on my outrageously sexy lovers. Partly to see how they were doing, and partly to convince myself they were real and really here.
It still felt like such a fever dream from time to time, and every once in a while, I fought the urge to pinch myself. Maybe I’d crashed my car on the way to Oregon, and now I was lying in a coma in some hospital. But if this was some kind of insane fever dream, I wasn’t ready to wake up from it.
I shook my head as I walked up the first set of stairs. No, it was all too real. My imagination wasn’t this fucking good.
But then, as I reached the top of the stairs and stepped onto the landing, a sharp shriek sounded through the house.
My heart stopped, my blood ran cold, and I raced up the second and third flights of stairs two at a time.
Chapter 14
I reached the third floor at record speed, and I skidded across the first few feet of the floor.
Kaz’s dark hair was visible at the end of the hallway as she stared directly at the blank wall in front of her, but Prinna was nowhere in sight.
My feet pounded on the floor as I ran to the end of the hall, and I slid to a stop when I reached the Enchanted woman’s side.
Kaz’s face was white, her hands were covering her mouth, and her violet eyes were as wide as a full moon.
“What is it?” I demanded with panic in my heart. “I heard someone scream. Where’s Prinna?”
“I don’t… know,” Kaz breathed, and she finally looked at me. “She just…”
Kaz waved her hands in a vague circular motion.
“Kaz?” Prinna’s voice sounded like she was standing right beside us, but she was nowhere to be found. “Sam?”
“Prinna!” I almost screamed, and my pulse picked up another level. “Are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m alright.” Prinna’s voice sounded freakishly normal considering she appeared to be nowhere. “I promise.”
“What happened?” I asked, and I started to think about every episode of The Twilight Zone where someone accidentally stepped through a portal never to be seen again. “What do you see?”
“We were counting the outlets,” Kaz explained, and she pointed at one close to the ground at the end of the hall. “Prinna stepped forward to look at it, and she just… vanished.”
“Vanished,” I repeated dumbly.
I started to reach out toward the hall with my left hand, but before I could get close enough for anything to happen, Prinna suddenly appeared right in front of me like she’d simply stepped through a curtain from the next room.
“Prinna!” Kaz gasped, and she threw her arms around the taller woman.
“Ugh,” I groaned with relief, and I pulled them both into my arms. “What the fuck happened?”
My relief had overcome every one of my senses so much that it was only after a few seconds that I realized Prinna was holding something big and hard in her arms.
“Where were you?” I asked as I released my hold on them both. “And what is that?”
“I’m not sure,” Prinna said. “There appears to be some kind of visibility barrier right there. Something magical, I would assume. I could still see both of you… it was very strange.”
“What?” I felt like an idiot as I waved my hand through the air again.
I leaned a bit further to see if I could touch the wall, and I found what felt like a solid wall for half a second. Then I pushed a little harder, and my hand pressed right through like super-soft Jell-O.
I moved far enough for the tips of my fingers, the back of my hand, my wrist, and my forearm to sink into the weird Jell-O consistency of the invisible barrier, and it completely disappeared from sight. It was the weirdest fucking thing I’d ever seen in my life, and considering the events of the last few weeks, that was really saying something.
“What the fuck?” I mumbled.
A shiver ran down my spine at the illusion of being a left-arm amputee, and I pulled my arm back to this side of the invisibility barrier. Subconsciously, I rubbed my arm and hand with my other to make sure it was still there.
“What was it like in there?” Kaz wondered as she stared at the completely regular-looking bit of wall.
“The hallway is a bit longer than it appears,” Prinna said. “It looked just like the rest of the hallway, and there is an outlet there. There are a few shelves, too, and I found this box.”
I took a deep breath as I decided to have a look for myself. My teeth clenched together, and I leaned my head forward. It was very weird to push my head through the strange gelatinous consistency of what looked like thin air right before a regular wall. I pushed a bit harder, and the air before my eyes seemed to waver and quiver in front of me.
The space beyond the barrier was dark, and it took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust. Then all I could see was more of what looked like the same hallway. Just like Prinna had described, there were three shelves across the end of the hallway. A massive cobweb hung in the upper right-hand corner, and there was a thick layer of dirt on the floor. I could smell the distinctive musty stink of disuse, and I leaned back to return to the normal side of the hallway.
“That was very strange to see,” Kaz remarked as she looked at my entire head like she needed to make sure it had all returned with me.
“It felt like walking through Jell-O,” I said. “Could you tell you’d gone through some kind of magical barrier?”
“No, I felt something strange,” Prinna said. “But I didn’t realize what had happened until Kaz screamed. Then I turned around and saw her face had gone all white, and I felt intense fear coming off her.”
“And you didn’t say anything!” Kaz laughed accusingly. “I was so worried.”
“Sam came running up the stairs before I could really think what to do.” Prinna shrugged apologetically. “I didn’t know what was making you afraid, and it scared me, too. I tried to look around for something that might be dangerous, but I couldn’t see anything. I am sorry I frightened you both.”
“I’m just glad you’re alright,” I assured her, and I gave her a kiss.
“Me, too,” Kaz sighed. “But what’s in the box?”
“I’m not sure,” Prinna said. “Shall we go and have a look somewhere more comfortable?”
“Yeah, let’s go to our room,” I suggested. “I’m at a good stopping point downstairs, and I would love a shower. You wouldn’t believe the disgusting things I threw away from that pantry.”
I made an exaggerated expression of sickness, and I mocked a full-body shiver. Kaz and Prinna giggled, and I was glad the moment of panicked tension was gone. I helped Kaz scoop up the cleaning supplies my lovers had been using, and we headed down the hall to our bedroom.
Kaz and I left the cleaning things just in the hallway for now, and we stepped into our bedroom. I toed off my sneakers and stripped off the gross t-shirt and jeans I’d been wearing. My sexy ladies rid themselves similarly of their outer layers, and we sat on the floor at the foot of the bed in our underwear.
The box was about the size of a shoebox for a pair of men’s work boots, and there was a strange assortment of things inside. The first item that caught my attention was a small birdcage.
It was made of dark gray metal and domed on the top like the birdcages I’d always seen in cartoons. It was hardly big enough to hold a small finch, and even then, any bird would have been miserably confined in such a small space.
“Oh, beautiful,” Prinna breathed as she picked something up.
It was a small square of unfinished fabric that was badly frayed around the edges. It had an interesting paisley pattern in deep shades of green, gold, and teal.
“There are others,” Kaz said, and she lifted a few more squares.
“Weird,” I said.
Then I spotted something that really caught my eye.
It was the torn edge of what looked like a larger piece of parchment, and I picked it up to have a closer look.
It seemed to be the bottom edge of an old map, but there weren’t any labels or words left on the inch-wide strip. The only way I knew it was a map for sure was the distinctive shape of small buildings along what I guessed was a coastline.
It wasn’t a map of any of the realms we’d seen so far, and I set it aside to see what else was in the box.
“Hmm,” Kaz hummed.
I turned to see what she was holding, and it turned out to be some kind of small figurine. It was the full-figured form of a woman about six inches tall. Her hips were nearly as wide as she was tall, and her breasts were almost as large. It reminded me of the fertility goddess statues I’d seen during one of my middle school field trips to a history museum.
“Do you think it’s some kind of goddess?” I wondered.
“Perhaps,” Kaz said.
“I have seen idols of gods and goddesses like this before,” Prinna murmured. “They are, well, they were, a common depiction of the goddess of nature and the realm in Amirma.”
“Were?” I asked.
“Until the Consumption,” Prinna clarified. “Worship of the gods and goddesses of nature and magic were despised after that, much like everything else to do with magic.”
“Mmm,” I grumbled.
The last thing in the box was a piece of jewelry. I picked it up and brushed the pad of my thumb over the smooth metal medallion piece in the middle.
It was a choker-style necklace made of three rows of delicate gold chain. The center piece was a flat coin-like medallion with an engraved image of what I guessed was a bird. Tiny gemstones had been inlaid to colorize the bird, and it was badly in need of a cleaning.
“I bet Big John would give us a pretty penny for this,” I said.
“Only a penny?” Prinna asked. “Pennies are the least valuable coin, aren’t they?”
“Earth expression,” I murmured half-heartedly. “I think he would give us a good price for this piece if we wanted to sell it.”
“I quite like it,” Kaz said thoughtfully. “And the inn will need decorating… I have been thinking about this since we visited that diner with the strange little squirrel in the waistcoat. Perhaps we should keep things like these to decorate the inn with.”
Kaz held up the necklace and goddess statue, and she nodded at the little birdcage to include it as well.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “I like that idea. Good thinking, Kaz.”
“Our future guests will enjoy viewing all the strange things we can collect,” Prinna agreed.
“Definitely,” I said. “Especially if our target demographic is ghost hunters and seekers of the paranormal. They’ll love all kinds of weird things. Plus, who knows? Stuff that comes from other realms might even set off the weird little detectors those people use, and then business really will be booming here…”
“Detectors?” Kaz asked.
“You’ll see,” I chuckled. “You’ll probably love how into it these people get, it’s kind of amusing.”
“Personally,” Prinna said in a grumbly tone as she glanced down at her almost naked body, “I would love a good hot shower.”
“Ugh, yes, please,” Kaz muttered. “I feel like there are cobwebs in places cobwebs should never be.”
“They’re definitely in your hair,” I chuckled, and I carefully plucked one small mass of the sticky dusty fiber from her dark waves.
“Eeeww!” Kaz squealed with disgust, and she hopped up from the floor.
Kaz scraped her palms all over her body like there were a million tiny bugs crawling all over her and she was trying to brush them all off. After about four seconds of that, she released another disgusted groan, and a shiver raced through her body.
“I demand a shower,” Kaz said, and she stomped her foot in protest.
“Okay,” I laughed at how adorable she was in her frustration. “Shower time.”
I stood up and held out a hand to Prinna where she still sat cross-legged on the floor.
“Do you think it is big enough for all three of us?” Prinna asked.
“I don’t know,” I said with a smirk. “Let’s find out.”
Kaz blushed, and Prinna giggled as we made our way into the bathroom. Both sexy ladies removed their panties and bras while I took charge of turning on the water and letting it heat up.
While I waited for the cold pipes to finally spit out some warm water, I wondered what it would take to run new piping to all the taps. I decided to get some quotes on it at least, and then the water started to steam up the bathroom.
“Is it hot?” Kaz asked, and there was a thread of desperation in her voice. “Please tell me it’s hot!”
“Yes, Madame,” I said with a playfully serious expression. “It’s hot.”
“Thank you, good sir,” Kaz giggled, and she hopped right into the steaming spray of water. “Uuuuuhhhh, yeeesss.”
I gestured for Prinna to get in next, and she gave me a playful smile and a refined nod as she stepped in. I followed my lovers into the shower, and I was pleased to discover there was enough space for the three of us to fit. It wasn’t comfortable, but it was workable.
I added “expand our shower” to my mental list of renovations to speak to the general contractor about, and I picked up my bar of soap.
Kaz and Prinna took turns standing directly under the spray of hot water as they washed and conditioned their hair, and then they stepped aside to allow me a chance to enjoy the full stream.
The water ran brown under our feet, and after the outermost layer of grime and ick was washed away, we all collectively agreed to have a second wash. This time we took our time, and we helped each other reach some of the more difficult areas of our bodies.
I scrubbed the shampoo into Kaz’s heavy locks while Prinna ran a foamy loofa down the planes of my back. Then we shifted, and I caressed my hands down the curves of my white-blonde lover’s sides and ass. Our hands were slippery with soap, and there was no rush in any of us.
I gently massaged the tension out of Kaz’s shoulders, and then I worked a few knots out of Prinna’s neck. They both returned the favor by massaging my upper arms and shoulders until I felt like I might melt into a puddle like a pat of butter in a hot frying pan. I could sense that both Kaz and Prinna were happy to just enjoy the sensual touch of my hands, and I reveled in the soft strokes of their fingers, too.
We lingered in the shower for a while until the water started to run cold, and we were forced out.
“That was so wonderful,” Prinna sighed as she towel-dried her chin-length hair.
“Mmm,” Kaz agreed lazily. “So relaxing.”
“I think that’s the best way to end a long day,” I hummed as I dried off with my towel. “We should have something to eat before we go to bed, though.”
“Oh, yes.” Kaz perked up. “I am quite hungry. What shall we have?”
“Well,” I said. “We’ve still got those frozen sandwiches. We could put some in the air fryer. Or we could order something, but that will take longer.”
“What else can we cook in the air fryer?” Prinna asked.
“Oh, you know what?” I gasped. “I think there are some loaded potato skins and mozzarella sticks in the freezer. We could fry those.”
“I am not sure what any of that is except mozzarella,” Prinna giggled. “There were some in that sampler platter we had at the diner. They were so delicious.”
“Oh, yes!” Kaz nodded. “That sounds good.”
“Alright,” I chuckled as I hung my towel up to dry. “Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be back with some grub… I mean food.”
“I was going to ask!” Kaz laughed.
My ladies hung up their towels as I left the bathroom, and I quickly grabbed some boxers from a drawer. I stepped into them and then hurried downstairs to assemble some food for us.
I gazed longingly at the new fridge and stove, and I couldn’t wait until we could try them out. I didn’t mind getting takeout, but I did look forward to the chance to cook a real meal for the three of us.
But for now, this was pretty good, and it was definitely better than the crappy microwavable meals I’d lived on for long stretches in the past. For some reason, that reminded me of my student loans, and for the first time since I’d signed all the paperwork for them, I didn’t feel like vomiting when I thought of what I owed.
Now, thanks to this inn and the doors within, I had the means to pay back the loans I’d borrowed without having to live on Ramen noodles and shitty microwave dinners for another twenty years.
I loaded all our food onto two plates, and I headed back upstairs.
Kaz and Prinna lounged across our bed in pajamas that somehow looked just as sexy as they did comfortable.
My Enchanted lover wore a matched set with a button-down top and tiny shorts in a girly shade of pink, and my white-blonde witch wore a light-blue night dress with thick straps and a little bow between her breasts. They both perked up and moved to sitting positions as I kicked the bedroom door closed behind me.
“Dinner is served, m’ladies,” I said.
I crawled onto the bed between them and set the plates down for us.
“Careful,” I cautioned. “They’re really hot in the middle.”
“What did you call this?” Kaz asked as she carefully selected something from the plate.
“Loaded potato skins,” I said. “French fries are made out of potatoes, so I think you’ll like these.”
“Is that bacon?” Kaz gasped excitedly.
“Yes,” I chuckled. “And cheese and some green onions. Try dipping it in this.”
I pointed at the large scoop of sour cream I’d plopped onto one of the plates.
Kaz gingerly touched the edge of her potato skin into the sour cream, blew on the steaming food, and took a little nibble.
“Mmmm!” Kaz exclaimed as she took another bite. “That’s so good!”
“I’m glad you like it,” I chuckled.
Prinna tried a loaded potato skin next, and her enthusiasm for the carb-loaded food was just as great as Kaz’s. The white-blonde witch discovered she preferred marinara sauce on her potato skins, though, and I wondered if she would love a good grilled cheese and tomato soup.
