She gazed out through the raindrop dappled glass doors. There had been a harsh, thunderous rainfall last night. The web appeared intact, at least partially. The spider was still and unmoving. The golden patterned arachnid must have been slowly moving up and down, over and across, mending it earlier. Fixing it. Keeping it ready for the victims flying into its home.

But now the spider was quiescent. The watcher had seldom seen the creature active. When she did the spider's feet were wonderfully nimble.

It was a common garden spider who had taken up residence in the pergola attached to the rear of the century-old brownstone where she now resided. No one used the backyard structure. It was overgrown with wisteria vines and had patio furniture strewn haphazardly around and was occasionally touched by the rays of sunshine causing the shadows to flicker.

However, this morning the skies were overcast and it was dim and quiet under the vines. She raised a hand slowly upwards and hesitantly lifted and smelled her locks of red, running them through her scarlet lips, tasting the flavor on her tongue with relish.

She walked into the master bedroom moving towards the bathroom. It was time to bathe. To wash away the night's sensual residues. Soon the shower was jetting out its warm waters and she stepped in, already naked and prepared for her ablutions.

For her, the normal ritual began with her body's nether regions. With a soft, soapy, cushiony sponge she wiped away fluids and bodily moistures accumulated over the night's hours of frenzied fervor. As she cleaned she became aroused in her own special way. The way she completed her purification ceremonies. She purged herself by completing sensual urges with a tickle of her nub.

No need to rush, ever. The night's deeds were done and now she relished her satiation. She caressed her distended belly and tingled her pleasure zone with her deft fingers. Her knees bent as her back pressed solidly against the shower stall, warm water pouring over her long, reddish tresses. Then dripping and flowing over her rounded stomach, over her pubic curls of passion, draining away all evidence of her nocturnal enjoyment. Her legs quivered as her dexterous digits completed the ravenous assuagement of her final need. 

She sank to the porcelain floor moaning, laughing, and weeping in her culmination.

At last, she arose and finished her normal showering. It ended with a soothing, delightful shampoo of her treasured ginger locks, twisting and turning around her high brows while gliding between her long fingers before drooping damply and caressing her neck. 

Using a large, fluffy bath towel she dried her ivory skinned body. She took her time making sure the locks of hair were fully dried. She used her special brush to shape it thoroughly into its naturally flowing waves. With the end of this morning's ultimate cleansing, she stepped out of the bathroom.  

She glanced over at the figure lying across the crumpled bedclothes. Silent and dormant at the moment. Still and unmoving. Her face was unmoving as well. Stiff and hard as stone. There was virtually no change in her solemn features.

She dressed in the proper clothing to conclude the occasion.

oo00oo

Travis boarded the subway at Penn station heading to the Lower Eastside. He sat in one of the free seats and then shuddered with relief as he realized Monday was over but then remembered the week was just starting. He was going home after a dreadful day. He shook his head and then glanced up and across at the girl sitting with her hands clasped in her lap around a book. What lovely wavy hair he thought, smiling to himself. Surprisingly she smiled at the same time as her eyes met his.

"You have such a sad look on your face. You okay?" she said in a gentle voice that just reached his ears over the subway noises.

"Oh, just a bad day. I'm fine now. Heading home," he responded shyly. Travis was always very circumspect with women. He had never been too lucky at understanding them well. But he smiled again as she nodded at him.

"So you just got off work? That's good." Then she subsided and opened her book. The loose tresses of her ginger locks fell down around her freckled cheeks.  

Travis didn't disturb her but was feeling an odd sense of almost jubilance simply from the fact that a girl like her spoke to him. He just wished he was more courageous. He was not brave, though. He looked down at the Daily News he had grabbed at a kiosk as he descended down to the subway. 

The headline concerned another body pulled out of the East River. The cops didn't want to explain how the guy had died. Just hints about some kind of grisly death. Travis recalled that this was not the first. Wouldn't be the last, for sure. Anyway, just another day in the city.

His stop finally arrived. He got off glancing over to the girl. She looked up and lifted a hand in silent goodbye as a slight gust of wind seemed to flip her hair into motion against her cheeks. He stepped out of the open doorway onto the platform.

The subway car whooshed away as he paced up the stairway, with mixed feelings, to the street level. 

In the distance, he could hear the sounding of a foghorn down by the river.

oo00oo

Crooning, she was crooning. Rocking back and forth on the bare wood-plank floor. Unclothed and shivering even though droplets of perspiration dripped from her nose and chin. Crooning out her wants and desires. Wailing against the walls covered with shredded bits and ribbons of ancient wallpaper from years past. 

Arms waving around, tossing her hair about, agitated locks flying and spinning in the still, dank air. Then gripping her own torso tightly, pressing her forearms against pink-tipped breasts. Fingernails pressed into her flesh. Tongue lapping out to taste her own sweat. To savor the odors and flavors of her own bodily fluids. Knowing what needed to be done.

She lifted up, twisting on her crossed legs, fluidly and effortlessly, with the strength of legions in her singular body. Spreading her arms and mouth wide. Warbling her needs in an ululation of desire.

oo00oo

The next Friday evening Travis felt a sharp thrill of delight when he boarded the subway at quitting time. The redheaded girl was seated in the car. He immediately sank into a place opposite her and settled in with a sigh of satisfaction. He had no real expectations but as he had always told himself at his low points "a guy's gotta have dreams." 

However, he didn't have the nerve to speak. He just sat and let himself steal glances at her lowered face, reading her book. Then she snapped the book closed, looked up, tossing her head slightly. She brushed long fingers past her locks delicately. "Hi, Mister. Is work over for you, now?" As he nodded diffidently she resumed, "Lucky fellow, to be sure." 

The subway car bumped along as they moved under the city to their destinations. Suddenly, he blurted out, "I'm Travis. Hi. Hi. Nice to see you again." Then he subsided into awkward stillness, staring down at her prim ballet slippers in silence. He could feel the blood rushing up his neck and coloring his face. 

Soon enough they arrived at his station and he rose to step out. To his surprise, the girl was right behind him as he left the carriage. He began walking towards the stairs and to his wonderment, she was right beside him. 

She laughed as she looked up at his seriously quizzical face. "I'm not stalking you," continuing to laugh, "but I needed to get a few things at a shop near here for dinner. My place is only a few minutes away from this stop anyway."

"Oh, okay. Sure. Yeah, well. Okay, so I'm Travis?" His voice squeaked as he questioned his own identity. The girl giggled.

"Call me Euriel. Yes, I'm Euriel, the traveler. Nice to meet you, Travis?" She made it a question as well, then chortled. 

They had been walking to the east, towards the river, in a mixed neighborhood of brownstones and small shops. At a corner grocery, she turned into the entryway. "I'm getting some things here. Have a good evening, Mister."

She was reaching for the handle of the door when he exclaimed, "Could we meet sometime for some coffee or something?" It was torture for him. He had not been with a woman in so long. 

"Some time? Why not right now? I'm getting the things I need for my dinner. Why don't you join me? You don't have plans do you?" She smiled and tossed her head slightly letting her ginger tresses rustle about her pink cheeks. He almost lost his balance as he stepped backward in slight shock at this totally unexpected invitation.

"Uh... but," he hesitated, then, "aren't you afraid. I mean, those bodies over in the river. Do you know about that?" Pausing again, then, "You don't know me at all," he blurted out suddenly. 

She laughed out loud now. It was so robust for a small girl, he thought. And a little disconcerting. She spoke up, "But, those bodies are all men, right? Maybe it's you that should be careful." She grinned, then coughed slightly turning her head away and shaking her head, swaying her long tresses. 

He suddenly realized that he was completely harmless in his appearance and it was perfectly apparent even to a stranger like this lady. In a subtle way it was rather shameful, he supposed. But, still, he was soon walking to her place, carrying her evening's dinner items. And happy to be doing it.

When they arrived at her place in an old brownstone he was willing to help with the preparations. He was a good cook. He'd done it all his life, alone in the stream of rooms and apartments he had lived in. Euriel cheerfully accepted his aid and they soon had dinner ready laughing often as they went along.

After dinner, they spent some time simply talking. She described to him the places and peoples she had seen and met in her travels around the world. It would seem that she had been everywhere, but the one thing she passed over was where she was from. She just laughingly said she simply appeared on the earth once upon a time.

Travis had not had much to tell her. Not the way she had talked. But he openly chatted about his work as an architect in the Manhattan borough office. And he was glad that she found some interest in his philosophy of life, although she was not slow in expressing how naive she felt he was at times. 

After a pleasant evening, he was leaving her flat. She shook his hand solemnly as he started out her door. Then, with sudden strength, she pulled him to her and lifted her face to kiss him. As her soft, fluffy curls were wispy around his face her lips nibbled his and her tongue touched his clenched teeth. Abruptly, she drew away. Her face was unmoving. 

"Goodbye. Come back tomorrow. At the same time." She pushed him out and jerked the door closed.

There was a slight chill in the air as he walked to his apartment. It was dark and the streetlights were not bright enough. Shadows pressed around him arousing a bit of apprehension. He could smell someone's fireplace burning hickory firewood. 

He slept restlessly that night but he awoke quite refreshed with a touch of unfamiliar optimism. Somehow the quiet dread had passed from his mind.

oo00oo 

Saturday passed. Travis heard on the local news that another body was pulled out of the East River. Another man. And this time, perhaps in a move to try and get the public to phone in anything at all that they knew or may have possibly seen the authorities finally released some grim details.

The body was found completely nude with many piercings of the flesh as well as bits and chunks seemingly nipped or torn off as if by some ravenous creature or creatures. It was not determined yet whether it happened before death or was post mortem. The most hideous fact was that the corpse was missing its penis. It appeared to have been severed. Not neatly, as with a sharp knife. Rather, raggedly as though torn or even bitten off. It was impossible to say how long it had been in the river.

As he heard all of that Travis didn't really take it all in. He was just waiting for the day to pass until he saw Euriel again. Finally, he left his flat to walk over to her place. There was a chill in the air and again he could smell the scent of burning firewood. The fog was drifting in from the East River. He shivered in his greatcoat happy he had worn it.

He arrived at the brownstone where Euriel lived. The door was pulled open even before he could knock or ring the bell. It was as if she had been waiting and watching for him to arrive. She took his hand and drew him into her front parlor and pulled him down on the settee without a word.

He was astonished to see she was completely naked. Her ivory-skinned body was dotted with freckles and her ginger hair waved about her aristocratic shoulders. She stood straight and tall with cup-sized breasts jutting out and her pink-tipped nipples hard and erect. Her vulva was covered by unshaven pubic hairs that seemed to tremble as her thrusting mound also quivered and shuddered with need. 

"What's wrong? You look so pale. Are you ill? Is this a bad time?" he stammered out, trying to understand. She stared at him, so silent and still and then abruptly grabbed his face and drew him to her. She was licking his lips and face, not really kissing, rather passionately tasting and savoring him. He was frightened and still completely willing to accept it.

Nothing like this had ever happened to him. It was so very oddly compelling. 

With a rough strength that was totally belied by her delicately feminine appearance, she was pulling all of his clothes from him. At last, they were both nude and sweat was dappling their flesh, the room was so hot. The fire in the fireplace was raging. They touched and their bodies stuck together as she rolled atop him then drew her body down and thrust his trembling legs apart to better reach his member, her fingers flicking over his thighs and up to his genitals, caressing his testicles, and stroking his cock into rampancy. 

It seemed that as she ran her raspy tongue up and down his shaft that her locks of hair were rustling and caressing him as well. The roughness of her tongue was compensated by the drooling saliva dripping from her mouth to lubricate her ministrations. Then her mouth widened into a gap and engulfed him as he cried out with excitement and anticipation.

Never. Nothing like this had ever happened to Travis before.

Sucking and licking and nibbling and nipping she played with his stiffness with resolute need and zeal. Squeezing him tightly with her fingers. Pressing her fingernails into his tender man-flesh until he cried out in pain and joy. Her tresses seemed to wrap themselves around him as well, touching and stroking and nuzzling his body. Feeling his nudity and dimpling his flesh, pressing into it then lashing it like tiny whips. 

It was thrilling and completely bizarre. Beyond comprehension, but it did not seem to matter. It was the kind of animal eroticism that had always been lacking in his life. He groaned as Euriel sucked his cock into utterly abject submission and readiness to fulfill her needs. He wanted to release his passion.

Lifting her head she stared resolutely at his grimacing face, "Now," she screamed out, "now. I need it now. Your fluids, your juices, your spirits, your cum. I need it. I must have it." And her maw descended to take him once more. And he came as she sucked. Taking all he had to give. In spurts and bursts of ropy cum. Sucking and licking and nibbling at his cock as her hair thrashed around and about his torso.

She kept jacking his prick for as long as she was able to extract anything from his now limp member. He yelped with pain because his cock felt as if it was raw from her need. Red and raw. He was wincing with pain as she licked it clean of any drops left to be taken.

She jerked upright, stared about the room, then jumped to the hard plank flooring, her toes curling. 

"You must leave. Go, now. You have to get out of here," she yelled. Then she swiftly glided over and out a doorway leaving Travis to slowly gather his clothing, dress as well as he could, and make his way to the doorway.

He turned, looking about the room as well. Sniffing the air. Just now noticing the webs in the corners of the sparsely furnished chamber. Smelling the strangeness that had occurred in this room. And smelling his own fear. Somehow he thought he had escaped something tonight and he quickly moved out closing the door and leaving the brownstone in a rush. 

The night was still and damp here by the river. He shivered as foghorns sounded in the distance. 

oo00oo

The next day Travis went out and got some coffee at the shop that was around the corner from his apartment. He chewed on a bagel as he waited for his drink to cool a bit. He noted the headlines on a Daily News that was laid on a table next to him. It was blaring out that someone had been found in the East River once more.

He took a sip of brew then picked the paper up to get a better look. As usual, someone had decided to give a name to this most recent serial killer in the city. They were calling the murderer "The Snapper." Apparently, this was in reference to the fact that each body had lost bits and pieces of flesh, snapped off. Not to mention, most importantly, the penises. Snapped off by the human monster. Maybe it didn't make sense but it made good copy. 

Travis then felt a tremor in the depths of his torso as he remembered his experience the night before. How his own member was used and abused the way it was. And how he had completely succumbed to the ravishment, relishing every moment that had passed too quickly. He was ready for more even though he had almost passed out from the agony and the ecstasy.  

However, Travis was much too reticent to actually approach Euriel's brownstone without invitation. 

He would simply wait, as was his typical behavior. He often wondered if this was why he was so often alone. But he was not going to change. He knew himself well enough to know that. So, he would hold back, expectantly.

oo00oo

The week passed and Friday arrived. Travis went down to Penn Station to catch his subway train heading for the Lower Eastside. As he had done each day he looked intently about the car but didn't see Euriel. He said down, resigned to the fact that she was not appearing again. Suddenly, as the carriage jerked into motion, a figure dropped into a seat across from him.

Not Euriel. But so similar, actually. So like the girl he was yearning to see again. This lady had red hair that fell in waves around her pale skin. She lacked all the freckles that Euriel had displayed, but they both had the ivory skin that often accompanied ginger locks. Her features were close to the same but her face lacked any animation at all. Still and somber. Quiescent and stark, he thought. Rather dismal. 

He tried to avoid her eyes but they pierced him, staring intently for as long as the ride went on. He was almost writhing in hopes that she would soon look away. It appeared as if her eyes never blinked for the entire journey until he could finally and swiftly arise and exit at his stop.

She was at his heels as he went up the stairs.

At the top, he jerked around and shouted, "What do you want? Who are you?" She still made no change in her facial features. He was unable to understand anything of what was passing through her mind. 

She took his hand and simply said, "You need to follow me. You may call me Stella, if you need to call me anything. I am Euriel's sister. That is all you need know, little man. Come with me."

Her hand was forceful and constricting about his making it impossible for him to pull free. He felt compelled, in any case. Something was drawing him to her. To follow her. To go where she wanted to go. And soon they were mounting the steps to the doorway of a brownstone. The fog had crept in as they proceeded and it was now dim and damp. The steps were slippery with moisture and moss. 

A foghorn sounded mournfully as they entered the building.

oo00oo

Their naked bodies glistened in the flickering light from the fireplace. The two of them were on a Persian rug in front of the fire and her hands were caressing his body and his swollen member. Travis had so little recollection of the events leading up to this. He was under some sort of thrall. He had felt that he was almost frozen at several points. But finally they were here and he was ready for whatever this creature wanted.

She had made him tease her whole body with his tongue, tasting the acrid and sour flesh. He had been impelled and it had simply kept him even more aroused. Passing his tongue around each pink nipple, sucking on the erect tips. Pressing him down to titillate her large clitoris surrounded by tendrils of pubic hair that tickled his tongue, seemingly moving against him.

When he glided up along her body to try to kiss her lips her tresses of hair seemed to wrap themselves around his head. He felts pricks of something dotting and nipping at his neck and throat until he had to jerk away in fear. But her strong hands held him closely to her and finally, now, she was stroking his prick. Preparing him.

"You will have me. As I will have you. You will enter me and give me the manic ardor I have to have. And then you will cum in me. You will fill me with the fruits of your body. I must have it to live. Do you understand, little man? I will have your precious fluids in me, filling me, feeding. I will have you."

And so it began. Lying there on the rug with his prick rising into the air Travis spread his arms wide and accepted the body of this woman, this creature, upon his. She slid down, mounting him, facing him. taking his cock deep inside her. She wrapped her incredibly strong fingers around his neck, choking him into submission. It was not necessary. He was hers to use.

On her knees now she rose her hips up and then down, taking all of him, slowly and methodically, working to be sure she got all that he would be able to give. Her locks of hair writhed about in the hot air, at times snapping down to flick against his flesh, dotting him with tiny points of blood oozing out and spreading into the sweat from his perspiring body.

He was humping upward as well. Needing to feel this grand tempestuous fucking that he had been given. Using this strange and hypnotically compelling woman. This creature out of history. This ravenous beast of lust that he wanted and needed with all of his soul.

"Little human, take care. This will not end quickly, you understand. Use me and I use you, but it must not be over quickly. Control yourself, little man. Understand this if you want to live. I need all of your sexual fluids. I need it all, so take care." 

As she was reciting this as if from memory, as if said many times, she was continuing to pump her body up and down, slowly and carefully, taking his throbbing prick deep inside and he felt her muscles rippling, working along his shaft. He knew he could not last long but he knew he had to. He had to please her or something terrible would happen. This he knew with his entire being as he fucked her.

The night passed and their lust-making went on. It seemed that it would never end. Could never end. Travis screwed this creature as the agony of need began to occupy his body. His prick throbbed with pain and his testicles had drawn up and filled him. Cries continually escaped the lips of the creature riding him, screams of lust and of need. Cries of doom for any who approached her and did not give her all that they possessed sensually. 

And it continued. Pricks of pain as her locks of hair transformed into wriggling tentacles of appetite, of sustaining and nourishment. Slashing down and taking pieces of flesh to absorb. Her fingers jamming her nails into his skin, penetrating with monstrous delight.

He was going to cum. He knew it. It would be soon, after hours of her gratification and his sexual instruction he was going to spend his seed.

"No, sister. Travis you must stop!" it was a scream of fear and compassion, crying out to fill the room with a loud enjoinment. He paused. He stared. It was Euriel in the doorway. His dark lover of the night screeched. 

Euriel struck the creature she called sister and she fell away. As she did Travis felt her vaginal walls grasping his cock. It was as if it was attempting to swallow his engorged prick and take it. But she fell away and he was free, his swiftly deflating member still intact if roughly used with streaks of blood covering it.

He could only slowly move. But he could see. And the two were now squared off in this squalid brownstone in some ancient battle for preferment. Obviously two sisters staring each other down as if in a mirror. 

"Get out," shouted Euriel. "Please, get away. She'll take your soul. She'll take your manhood and consume it with your blood and sperm."

With the last of his depleted strength he rose up and crawled away. Towards the open doorway and possible freedom. HIs penis was aching with the pain of need and regret. But his mind told him how lucky he had been. So far. He had to get away.

The loud shrieks and screams continued as he grabbed his clothing up from the floor and scurried away, out the door and down the steps, into the foggy, chill morning of Manhattan. 

oo00oo 

Travis slowly trod down into the underground. Ready to catch the subway once more. Continuing with his life. It had been months since his confrontations with the sisters. The strange creatures that had, in their strangely freakish way, made fervid love to him. He had checked the papers and listened to the news scrupulously each day. There had been no more reports of grimly used bodies found in the East River. The Snapper serial killer had presumably moved on. Or, perhaps, passed on. 

His ride arrived and the doors opened. Into the carriage he went and sat in the middle. There were plenty of seats today. 

He slowly became aware of a presence. A feeling that he was being watched as the hairs on his neck arose. A slight draft touched his cheek. He lifted his head and looked closely at all the nearby riders. 

She smiled as his eyes met hers.

She rose up and then sat beside him, taking his hand in hers. He felt wisps of her hair touch him on the cheek. He was afraid to actually turn and look more closely at Euriel.

"We need to talk," she began, and then giggled.

oo00oo

She gazed out the lifted shutters onto the beachfront. Under the bougainvillea vines a spider was busy. Weaving in and out, and over and across. Creating a new web under the tropical sun.