The House Ch. 10

Minerva looked around the living room until her eyes fell on the picture of Aaron and his wife Clara. She was forced to believe that he was real, Dwight she realized believed and had been invaded by one entity and had allowed another to enter him in order to protect her. She thought about the day that she saw the house, how she felt like she belonged here. Even after the nights spent in the woods she still felt like she belonged here. The thought of leaving had never crossed her mind, this was her home. Curious as to what was happening outside, Minerva made her way to the front door and opened it blinking several times when she saw the spirits of what had to be fifteen people. Judging from the way that they were dressed, she recognized them to be slaves.

*****

Sadie and Henry waited in the front yard, their forms semi-solid. With them stood fifteen spirits who had all been slaves of Sebastian and his family at one time. They wore the rags that they had been buried in after they had either been worked or beaten to death for some infraction.

Aaron had given Sadie the privilege of deciding what to do with Sebastian; it didn't take her long to come up with what she considered to be a fitting eternity for him.

Once they were outside, Aaron left Dwight's body dragging Sebastian out with him. Aaron glanced down at Dwight and was pleased to see that he was still breathing but unconscious. Aaron drug Sebastian to the middle of the yard where they were immediately surrounded by the fifteen spirits.

"Do you recognize any of these spirits?" Aaron asked as he forced Sebastian to look at them.

Sebastian's eyes widened in recognition as the spirits one at a time came to stand before him and gave him an angry stare. These were the slaves that he had been the cruelest to just because he could and no one would stop him. He backed up only to be stopped by Aaron.

"Hello Sebastian." A deep voice said. "You remembers me?" it asked.

Sebastian did remember, Paul.

"Din think you'd see me agin did ya?" Paul asked. "No sirree, I betcha surprised but not as surprised as we was." he added. Paul turned his back to Sebastian and lifted up his tattered shirt, "Remember why you done this?" he asked.

When Sebastian didn't reply, Paul spoke.

"Twas over a hundred degrees in the fields, I begged you to let us stop long nuff to drink some water, you member what you said? You said that we ain't worked hard nuff for no drink. I begged you agin and touched your boot, you said that I was disrespectin' you and you had me whipped til there was hardly no skin left. You member that?" Paul asked.

Sebastian didn't reply but began to beg Aaron for mercy.

"Aaron, please! Send me anywhere but with these people!" Sebastian said understanding what his fate was to be.

"I think that these people as you call them would be the perfect group for you to spend eternity with, I'm sure that they have much to discuss with you." Aaron said.

"Just let me go and I won't ever come back to these parts!" Sebastian begged.

"I let you go once and you didn't take advantage of my generosity but you're begging from the wrong person, it's Sadie that you need to beg mercy from." Aaron replied.

"Where is she?" Sebastian asked looking around, overlooking Sadie who was standing right in front of him.

"That be me." she said looking up at him and smiling pleasantly.

"You?" Sebastian asked realizing that once again his fate rested in the hands of a black woman but this one had actually been a slave.

"You wantin to ask me somethin?" Sadie asked sweetly.

"You can't be serious!" Sebastian said, "You let a slave decide where I'm supposed to go? You can't...."

"I can and I did." Aaron replied. "And for the record, Sadie isn't a slave." Aaron added.

Sebastian looked down at Sadie and swallowed hard not believing that he was going to beg from one such as her.

"I guess you don't." Sadie quipped.

"Wait! I...."

"Too late, I seen the way you jus looked at me. I still ain't nothin to you but a colored woman who should be a slave and I knows that had you won, all of us of coloreds would be made into slaves agin. My choice stands, Paul, take him with ya, he all yours." Sadie said.

A cheer went up to the skies from the slaves as they grabbed at Sebastian; he managed to break away for just a moment but was caught by Paul. Seemingly from out of nowhere, a pair of shackles appeared in Sebastian's ankles.

"Cain't have ya runnin away now can we?" Paul asked as a pair of irons appeared on Sebastian's wrists. Sebastian began to struggle even though he knew that it was useless, his bellows of rage and fear could be heard as he vanished from sight with the slaves that he had mistreated so badly.

*******

Minerva watched the scene from the porch, this was real. She was living in her own personal ghost story, it was a story that she would never be able to tell, and no one would believe her.

"Damn!" Dwight said as he sat up rubbing his head and then his back.

Minerva hopped down the steps and over to him. For just a second, she was going to make him prove that he was who she thought he was but stopped herself. She had just watched Sebastian being taken away in shackles, this really was Dwight.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"I hurt like hell but I'm alright... Minerva, did I hurt you? Are you alright?" Dwight asked.

"I'm fine and no you didn't hurt me." she replied hugging him.

"Easy there!" Dwight said with a groan. "I think that Aaron broke a rib or two when he jumped in."

"Oops! Sorry" Minerva said as she let Dwight go.

"Need a hand?" Aaron asked.

"Don't mind if I do." Dwight replied taking Aaron's outstretched hand with one hand and holding his side with another.

"You need a hospital." Minerva said. "I'll call 911."

Dwight laughed, "You know, I think that you've given that place more business in the last couple of weeks than they've seen in a year."

"What are you going to tell them? Minerva asked.

"I'm sure as hell not going to tell them the truth." Dwight said with a grimace. "I'll tell them that I fell in the woods and leave it at that." he added.

The ambulance arrived twenty minutes later, fortunately, Dwight didn't know any of the EMTs; he wasn't in the mood for another go round with Beth. Minerva wanted to go with him but he stopped her, this time it was really going to be goodbye at least for now.

"No baby, you stay here." He told her. "I think that you and Aaron have some unfinished business."

"But...."

"I'm fine, they'll probably hit me up with some narcotics and I'll go to sleep." Dwight said. Before they took him away, he kissed her knowing that Aaron would be pissed but he didn't care.

"You need me you call me no matter the time alright?" he asked.

Minerva nodded not trusting herself to speak, Beth; she thought really was a fool.

*******

Aaron stood back and watched. He didn't like the fact that Dwight had kissed Minerva but he couldn't deny that Dwight had been instrumental in saving her and the woods from Sebastian. When Dwight passed from this life, he would have a place here if he wanted it. What would happen with Minerva if he chose to live here after his death Aaron didn't know but that was in the future. In the present, there was one very beautiful, stubborn and skeptical woman to deal with.

******

Minerva watched the ambulance pull off taking Dwight to the hospital. She had to wonder if she would have listened to Aaron sooner if Dwight wouldn't have gotten hurt.

"No he wouldn't have." Aaron said from behind her.

"Gee thanks." Minerva said. "Make me feel worse than I already do." she added.

"That wasn't my intent." Aaron said quietly. "You aren't the only one who could have stopped some things from happening as they did."

"Aaron, you have to understand something, this is me. I never take things at face value; if you told me that the sky was blue I would ask you to prove it. Until I came here I never believed in anything that couldn't be proven and even now in spite of everything that I've just seen, I'm questioning my sanity. I don't understand a lot of what's happened over the last couple of weeks and I have the feeling that I won't but it's killing me because this is a puzzle that I can't solve."

"I understand because there are things about this that I don't understand myself. For instance how it is that I can love you even though I am a ghost, a solid one but still a ghost. I don't even understand how it came about that you are here and that you are meant to be here but I know that its true-it's called faith. Not everything can be explained nor should they be, some things just are and some things such as you buying the house were meant to be, even you and Dwight were meant to be as much as I didn't like it."

Minerva sat on the porch swing and rocked it slowly.

"Is Sebastian really gone?" she asked.

"He is and he can never return here or anywhere else, if he should manage to escape, he will be hunted by those who have him and be taken back. He will never be hard to find because there is no place that he can go and there are no spirits that can help him even if they wanted to." Aaron replied sitting next to her.

"Why me?" Minerva asked. "I was just driving through on vacation; I had no plans of buying a house."

"But this one called to you did it not? The day that you walked through, you felt its acceptance of you and whether you knew it or not, you accepted it as well. Why you? I don't have the answer to that and I doubt that I ever will." Aaron said as he reached over and touched a braid.

Neither of them spoke for several minutes, Minerva had so many questions most of which would never be answered no matter how much she wanted to know.

"Minerva, there are things that I could have done differently." Aaron said. "I should have known who and what lived in my woods but to be frank, I didn't care until you came and I knew that you were threatened, but even then I didn't take the control that I should have. I should have begun to show myself to you long before I did but I wasn't ready to admit how I felt about you. Even tonight it wasn't until I realized that I could really lose you that I was able to say the words that stopped Sebastian. It never should have reached the point that it did and for that I apologize."

"Wow, a man who's not afraid to say that he's sorry." Minerva said. "So what happens now?" she asked.

"You have to say that you believe and accept what I am." Aaron replied.

"Ok and then what?" Minerva asked.

"We make love and are bound together forever." Aaron replied.

Minerva hesitated, "You mean as in eternity? What if I decide that I want to marry Dwight or someone else?" she asked.

"You won't." Aaron replied.

" I won't what?" Minerva asked.

"You won't marry anyone else, you belong here with me and you know it." Aaron replied. "When I lay with you at night, you faced me even though you usually face the opposite direction. The night I touched your nipple with my lips, you climaxed harder than you ever did with Dwight or anyone else. Tonight in your dream when I kissed you, did you want me to stop?"

"Kind of stuck on yourself aren't you?" Minerva replied but not denying what Aaron said.

"Excuse me? I don't ...."

"It means that you think that you're the greatest thing around." Minerva explained.

"Conceited you mean? No, that I am not but I am honest." Aaron said. "I am honest enough to admit that I have lusted after you from the moment I saw you dancing naked and that I am lusting after you now." he added.

Minerva didn't reply but looked out into the woods, her woods.

"I can't tell you that I love you." she said looking back at him.

"I know this but in time it will come and that isn't conceit, it is a fact." Aaron said. "But be that as it may, love isn't required in order to please each other is it?" he asked stroking Minerva's cheek.

To her surprise, his hand felt warm and not cold as she had expected. It also felt as solid as her own hand did as it brushed up and down her cheek and brushed against the corner of her mouth.

"Minerva, do you accept what I am?" Aaron asked softly as he moved closer to her side.

Minerva struggled with herself, the practical part of her telling her that the things that happened couldn't have, but they did damn it! She thought. They happened! She closed her eyes as she battled with herself. Finally she opened her eyes and looked at Aaron.

"I.... I accept you for who and what you are, lord of the house and of the woods."

For several minutes everything went silent then slowly, the sounds of the night began again.

Sadie and Henry stood by the little house in the back holding hands and then vanished inside, their work for the time being done.

********

Dwight was being admitted into his room, he was mentally and physically exhausted but very glad that it was finally over and that Minerva was safe. He loved her and had been willing to die for her and would do it again but for now she belonged to and with Aaron but someday he would see her again but not in this lifetime. When he died he already knew where he wanted to be buried, if he had remarried, his wife would just have to understand. As soon as he was recovered, he would make a call to his attorney to make his wishes known. He already knew that Aaron wouldn't mind, he was linked to both him and Minerva. The knowledge that he would see both of them again would comfort him over the next thirty years.

*******

Minerva lay on the bed nude waiting for Aaron to make his appearance. They had talked for several hours figuring out exactly what their relationship was. In the end, they decided that at this point in time, that it had no name until Minerva was ready to say that she loved Aaron. They also agreed that they were consenting adults and that there would be nothing wrong with meeting the physical needs of the other. As she waited, she began to question herself again, she found herself trying to rationalize the events of the evening finally giving up when she accepted that there was no rational explanation.

Aaron for his part had no problems with telling Minerva that he loved her and planned on proving it in bed in the hopes that by the time he was finished she would feel the same way. While Minerva got ready for bed, Aaron walked around the woods. He wanted every being there to know who he was and that he or Minerva weren't to be fucked with. He walked until he reached the middle of the woods and yelled at the top of his lungs,

"I AM AARON RICHARDS LORD OF THE HOUSE AND THESE WOODS, MINERVA IS MY WOMAN AND SHE RULES THE HOUSE AND WOODS BY MY SIDE. THREATEN US AT YOUR OWN PERIL OR LIVE WITH US IN PEACE, THE CHOICE IS YOURS!"

Aaron listened to the whispers of the spirits around him, a few of them left to go to other places. The rest whispered their understanding and their loyalty to Aaron and Minerva before leaving to other parts of the woods spreading the word as they went.

As he made his way back, he heard the sounds of lovemaking coming from the small house in the back of the property; he recognized the voices of Henry and Sadie. "Good for them" he murmured as he made his way back to the house.

He appeared beside the bed and looked down at Minerva who met his gaze head on.

"I won't hurt you." he assured her.

"I wasn't worried." Minerva replied. "I was just wondering if you'd be able to keep up with me." She teased.

Once she had gotten over the ghost issue and accepted Aaron for whom and what she was, she relaxed. "It is what it is." she told him. Aaron really had no idea of what she meant by that and decided that he would ask her about it later, it wasn't important enough to warrant further discussion now.

"I do believe that I was just issued a challenge." he replied as he undressed and got into bed next to her. "And it is one that I will gladly accept." he added as he kissed Minerva's neck and shoulder. "Will you teach me how to use your gadgets?" he murmured against her ear.

"On you or on me?" Minerva asked.

Aaron paused, "those can be used on males?" he asked.

"Yep, want me to show you?" Minerva asked.

"I...."

"Chicken." Minerva teased and made clucking sounds.

Aaron appeared to take the bait, "Fine, show me." he said.

Minerva was thrilled, there was only one other man that let her use toys on him and that had been Dwight. Minerva rolled over and reached into her drawer of toys and pulled out two rubber coated nipple clamps that vibrated and a vibrator. Aaron watched her with interest; she thought that she was pulling one over on him when what he wanted was for her to use her toys on him. He wanted to experience the pleasure that they gave her for himself.

"Oh...." Aaron moaned when Minerva pulled on one of his nipples and applied a clamp.

"Does it hurt?" Minerva asked concerned.

"No, it feels good." Aaron replied as he reached down to touch himself.

"None of that." Minerva said lightly swatting at his hand.

She tugged at his other nipple and applied the clamp making him moan louder.

"Ready?" she asked after giving him a few minutes to settle down.

Aaron nodded, his eyes squeezed shut. Minerva turned the clamps on low speed and watched Aaron's reaction. Her womb clenched when he moaned and grabbed hold of his cock. She gently removed his hands and held them firmly in hers.

"Wait for it." she murmured more to herself than to him, "wait for it." she repeated. "Five, four, three, two, one" she counted in her head and took the head of his cock into her mouth. Aaron's mouth opened as his hips bucked, but she wasn't done. Minerva released his hands, picked up the small vibrator and turned it on low. Dwight liked the higher speeds but Aaron was a sex toy newbie and she wanted to be gentle. As she sucked on his enlarged cock head, she applied the vibrator at the base of his cock and moved it up and down the shaft.

"Fuck!!" Aaron screamed as he came.

Minerva braced herself to feel his come coat her tongue and throat frowning when it didn't happen. Aaron was having a massive orgasm she could see and feel it but where was the juice? A few minutes later the orgasm was over and Aaron's face was buried between Minerva's legs and he was eating at her like a man possessed. His tongue flicked across her clit several times before he took it into his mouth and sucked. Reaching for the vibrator, he fumbled with it until he accidentally turned it on and pushed it inside of her turning the speed up to high without realizing it.

Minerva came with a scream as loud as Aaron's had been but he didn't stop. He took the vibrator out and tossed it aside as he moved so that he was over her body and slid into her his cock replacing the vibrator. Minerva barely had time to catch her breath before she climaxed again with Aaron buried deep inside of her.

"Oh my god." Minerva said as she struggled to catch her breath.

"Oh my god indeed." Aaron agreed as he took a trembling Minerva into his arms and kissed her.

When she could talk again, Minerva asked about his wives, if they appreciated his talents.

"Unfortunately no, both of them thought that the act of making love was something to be tolerated and not enjoyed." Aaron said. Minerva listened as he told her about the previous owners and how the woman had been the first woman that he had ever seen pleasure herself, she Minerva had been the second and by far the more exciting.

"You were and are so comfortable with your body and the sounds that you make when you are aroused... you were and are magnificent." Aaron said pulling her closer.

"I think that you were just horny which reminds me, how come you didn't come in my mouth?" she asked.

"I should have said something, but while I orgasm and I have the sensation of ejaculating, there is no ejaculate. I don't know why but it is common for the male spirits not to ejaculate" he explained.