Front Page Story

Chapter 3

By Tyler Kojen

Shelley awoke to a pleasing sensation in her chest.  Or rather, when she looked, on her chest: Dolly’s right hand was kneading Shelley’s right breast, her middle and ring fingers massaging Shelley’s nipple at the same time.  Lifting Dolly’s arm carefully, so as not to wake her, Shelley removed herself from the sleeping girl’s grasp.  It was then that she noticed Dolly’s left hand had made its way between her own thighs.  As if noticing itself without a task, Dolly’s right hand retracted to begin her own right breast, giving herself the same treatment as she gave Shelley.  A very pleased smile carved it’s way across Dolly’s delicate face.  She’s probably having a very nice dream right now.  I shouldn’t wake her up.

“Mmm… Ji Yen…” Dolly muttered in her sleep.

Ji Yen?  Wonder what that is?  I’ll ask her later.

*          *          *

Dolly seemed embarrassed when Shelley asked if she tended to move around in her sleep.  “Yeah, a little.  Well, quite a lot actually… Why, did I disturb you at all?”

“Not really.  Your moving around woke me up a little early, that’s all.”

“Oh, okay…” Shelley could tell Dolly was relieved to hear that.

“Hey, what’s Ji Yen?”

Dolly blushed at the mention of the word.  “Why do you ask?”

“You said it during your sleep.  I was just wondering what it meant.”

“Uh, well, it’s the name of an old, uh… friend.  She was my best friend at one time.  I’d rather not say anything more.”

“Ok, that’s fine.  Hmm… do you think we should check on Garrett and Rejina?”

“Yes, I suppose.”

Dolly put her dress back on after cleaning up a bit, and the two girls left the room.  They walked past a white door; the one Garrett said was locked, as they went down the hall to the son’s room.  Though Shelley half-expected Garrett and Rejina to be engaged in some manner of sex, she flung open the door to the room and walked right in.  The room was dark, since the curtains had been closed over the window.  Walking over to pen them, Shelley exclaimed, “C’mon you two!  Rise and shine!”  She looked back to see that only one of them was still in bed, with the sheets pulled over them; probably Garrett, from the size and shape.  “C’mon, don’t be so lazy.”  She wrenched the sheets from the bed, then dropped them dumbfounded as she stared at Garrett.  Or at least, a nude statue of him.  He had been on his side, looking towards the bed’s other half, an intimate smile chiseled onto his face.

“Let me have a look at him,” Dolly said, leaning in to examine Garrett’s stone figure.  She went straight to his crotch.  “Look’s like whatever did this to him decided to take a souvenir.”  Shelley grimaced when she saw what Dolly meant: Garrett’s dick had been broken off.  Dolly took a few of Garrett’s petrified pubes and stored them away like she did James’.

“Uh, why are you taking his pubes?”

“For, uh… for tests.”  Dolly seemed to be put off by the question.  “Maybe I can figure out a counter-spell to restore him to normal.”

“And you need his pubes to do that?”  Shelley wasn’t quite convinced, but Dolly just nodded.  “Anyhow, I doubt Garrett would appreciate you bringing him back considering his missing equipment.”  She chuckled a bit, imagining Garrett’s surprise to find his piece missing.  Since Dolly was still inspecting Garrett, Shelley decided to look about the room.  Garrett had set his clothes on the desk chair, and on the desk was his camera.  “Hmm, I wonder what sort of stuff he taped?” she said and opened up the tape slot, only to find it empty.  “What gives?  Why would he bring a camera if he wasn’t going to tape anything?”

Dolly looked over at Shelley and said, “Um, there is a good chance that it was taken.  But the question is, who could’ve taken it?”

Shelley put her finger on her chin as she thought about the answer.  “Well, it could’ve been Rejina… maybe he taped them having sex?  Nah, there’re plenty of sex tapes of her.  One more wouldn’t matter… hmm… maybe it had some evidence on it about the disappearances?  Oh, who knows…”

“You know, there is a possibility that the tape was taken by whatever turned Garrett and James to stone.  Maybe Garrett got some footage of it, and it didn’t want it’s secret to be revealed.”  Dolly stood and walked beside Shelley.  “If that’s the case, we’re really gonna be in trouble… not only does whatever is here have a dangerous power, but it’s intelligent.”

“Intelligent?”  What have I gotten myself into?  Shelley stared at the camera in front of her.  Camera… oh yeah!  Shelley grabbed her camera that she’d forgotten was hanging around her neck.  “Gotta take some pictures!”  Shelley snapped a few pics of Garrett’s rocky form.

“Anyway… well, it’s not definite that the thing is intelligent… just a possibility.”  Dolly glanced out the window.  “Huh?  What was that?”

Shelley looked out the window.  The door to the greenhouse had just swung closed.  “Wha?  Whaddya think that was?”  The two looked at each other.  “Suppose we should go check it out?”

Dolly let out a deep breath.  “I suppose we should.”

The two girls began to walk downstairs, leaving Garrett behind.  And as they left the house to go outside, a slender hand slid opened the door of the closet in the son’s room.

*          *          *

Despite the morning sun overhead and the lack of mist about the grounds, the greenhouse was still dark and foreboding.  A layer of vegetation covered the walls, blocking almost any sunlight from entering.

“Do we really have to go in there?  Couldn’t we just wait around to see if anything comes out?  Shelley was having obvious reservations about going in.

“What?  We can’t just sit around waiting.  What if there’s a back door or a hidden door and it leaves without us knowing?”  Dolly retorted.  Shelley sighed in acknowledgement, and the two girls went inside.

Though vines and leaves covered most of the walls, the greenhouse’s ceiling was bare, allowing a decent amount of light inside.  A number of exotic plants lined the outer wall, while more common species occupied the center aisle.  It was completely quiet here, except for the slight hiss of mist coming out of an overhead irrigation system.

The girls quickly realized just how humid it was inside the greenhouse.  Damn, it’s hard to breathe in here.  Already, Shelley could feel her clothes clinging to her.  Looking down, she found her breasts perfectly framed by her blouse.  I shoulda worn a bra, not that there’s anyone here to ogle me.  She then looked over at Dolly, who quickly turned her head away.  Or maybe there is.  Dolly looked about as uncomfortable as Shelley, and her own dress was clinging to her lithe body in a most revealing way.  Shelley scanned the room for whoever had gone in, but she couldn’t see anyone from her vantage point.  “Hey, you search that row and I’ll search this one.”

“Alright,” Dolly replied.

Shelley walked forward slowly, checking on each side of her.  Nothing but a bunch of plants.  There’s no one here.  She stopped on occasion to examine and admire some of the stranger plants.  Eventually Shelley reached the end of the row, and while there were many, many plants, the only people here were her and Dolly, who was waiting for her at the end of her row.  “Find anything?”

“Just that.”  Dolly pointed to the floor behind her.  There was a ladder leading through an opening in the floor.  “I guess we’ve gotta check down there next.  I’ll go first.”  She began to descend the ladder, and Shelley soon followed.  At the bottom they found themselves in a concrete tunnel, lit by a series of fluorescent lights on the walls.  The tunnel curved to the left, then came to a split; one path lead straight then seemed to curve left again, and there was a path off to the right.  “Do you want to check one path together, or do you want to split up?”

“Well… I’d hate to separate… but we can cover more ground if we split up.”  Shelley looked at her watch – 1:14 PM.  “Let’s meet back here in half an hour, ok?”

Dolly pulled a watch out of her bag.  “Alright, no problem.  See you then.”  Dolly began to walk forward, leaving Shelley with the path to the right.

*          *          *