Page 28 of Hot Summer's Prey

The grind continues. I will the magic back, wait until the glow dissipates and I am another faceless body in the crowd.

Teresa is nowhere to be seen this time, so I focus on the task at hand and look for the most willing prey whose sexual satisfaction I can reap next. This process has for so many years been a joy, or at least an amusement. But now, I find it hard to concentrate, to see in others the kinds of clues that will help me latch on to their needs. The first few people I proposition look less than happy I’m even talking to them. When I regroup, I spot another girl who looks somewhat like Teresa—at least this way I can play pretend.

She’s sweet, giving, and not nearly as good of a dancer. She tells me she lives nearby, and giggling, takes me to her house. There, I reap from her what I reaped from Yosef. At least here, I can simply leave her sleeping. From her, I was able to harvest five orgasms. Women are much more reliable in that regard.

My sifon feels nearly full. Not much more and I can return to the ocean, deposit the magic with the Lantern Witch, and see what it will buy me.

Another man, another lazy fondling behind the gate. When he comes a second time, he is out. I take a relaxed pose again, letting my sifon do its work as I stare up at the stars.

And then my eye catches a glimpse of a familiar figure. I turn my head before she can leave.

Teresa.

She isn’t screaming. No yelling. She isn’t afraid or anything. Just watches as my sifon seeks out the last bits of cum.

It doesn’t matter what she’s seen. In just a few minutes, she’ll forget. But having her here, watching, seeing me for who I am…

The worst part is she doesn’t seem upset. It makes me think if I explained myself, she would listen. Maybe she could love me.

“Teresa,” I whisper.

“What is that?” she asks, staring between my legs.

“My sifon,” I say. “It’s like a cock, but it sort of does the opposite.”

“No, a vagina does the opposite.”

“Does it scare you?”

Her pupils dilate as my skin glows. Her expression melts, and she looks at me as if I’m the most normal thing in the world.

“Fuck,” I mutter.

12

ROCK MY WORLD

TERESA

“Teresa!” Taara yells, breaking me out of my trance. “Where did you go? Why are you out here?”

“Huh?” I ask.

“Did you find him?” she asks.

“Who?”

“The ‘hottie with the dog’—what did you say his name was? Paca?”

“…Paca…Pacari,” I say.

I sort of remember. It feels like I haven’t eaten enough. Like the brain fog I had all the time when the Hollywood people finally got to me and I stopped eating. It sort of feels like that, too, because it feels like something is missing. A big pit in my guts.

“We saw him, then you started doing some weird fucked up flirting by making out with another guy,” Taara explains.

“Michael,” I say, the name easier to recall than Pa…cari’s. “Where’d he go?”

Taara shrugs. “No idea. When I realized you were gone, I ran around looking for you.”

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