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Sweet slick dripped from his tongue, cooly coating his chest and stomach. He swallowed its remains, ruing the tentacle that departed from his lips to join its brethren around his thighs. They were forced apart further and Atem moaned breathlessly from the slippery tissue stroking up their insides. It wound around his hip until its tip appeared again on the other side and from there, pressed against his glans. He gasped and his body tensed, straining against the two tentacles suspending his arms above his head.„Touch me."The glossy tip at his teased its way around him, applying gentle pressure, and he thrusted into it, desperate for more of its touch. It grabbed him and his constraints wrapped tighter, slowing blood flow to his extremities. Arched up with all of his body presented to be toyed with, he received its teasings as a willing participant. He quivered for lack of ability to move and was stroked tenderly as a reward.Slowly, the heat in his pelvis was stoked and pampered. Another tentacle wound around his chest, cracking his back until he recognised each muscle in his front, and found to his balls underneath. He keened and wailed as they too were squeezed so tightly it should be painful. But he didn’t remember what pain felt like. In this realm, embraced by the horrors, there were only heat, pleasure and the sugar that wouldn’t leave his tongue.The stroking on his dick quickened and Atem’s muscles tensed. He was close, his every fiber preparing itself for release. His voice cut off in the coiling spiral towards climax, leaving behind only the sharp edge of missing air.His eyes watered, „Please!“Atem whined softly, tense fingers pulling the sweat-drenched sheets closer to his face. His every point burned with unfulfilled longing. He curled up drained around his core that just a moment ago had still been held.Again.He panted hot breaths over his fists, trying to rid himself of the edging right to orgasm and the tingling of never being allowed to fall. Clenching all his muscles, he groaned, and released tension through one quick letting go. The immediate heat faded with it and he pushed himself to sit up. His raging erection whined its delicate sensitivity at scrubbing inside his boxers but he was used to it.He took a deep breath, grabbing his phone from the nightstand: 20 minutes to his alarm. The horrors always looked out for him in the worst way. He turned his alarm off and slipped out of bed to take a cold shower. Routinely, he stood under it and soaked in the freezing bites on his skin. Blood rerouted from his dick to the rest of his body and he upped the temperature to a more comfortable level. He washed off cooling sweat and afterwards headed to the kitchen to inject some caffeine straight into his veins by way of overdosing on espresso shots.His cup, he took with him everywhere in his condo, sipping on it between dressing and gathering up necessities into his work bag. His head weighed heavy on his neck at every action he took and his brown skin was ashy from extended exhaustion but he covered it with glistening foundation and bronzer. He topped up his to go mug with yet another few espresso shots and a generous helping of sugar, and with his effects slung over his shoulder, stumbled down the stairs to catch the metro downtown.The city was too loud and the streets too full this late in the morning. He loathed his every second outside like he did every day, and reaching the office, he loathed the clerks swarming him with questions just as much. If only the bags under his eyes weren’t as chronic as his exhaustion, maybe they’d know by now to not bother him when he was tired.„Send me an email,“ he hissed and slipped into a meeting room, away from the bustle.A few members of his team were already setting up and greeted him with mute nods as he preferred. He returned them with a small smile, albeit forced as could be, and sank into his chair at the end of the table. Checking the itinerary on his laptop, today’s meeting was to be about…„Haka Island.“ Atem looked up at Seto Kaiba strutting into the room. „I’ll be quick, I have places to be.“„So do all of us,“ Atem sniped but pushed his laptop away to listen to his boss’s orders.„The geological survey has concluded and brought positive results: Haka Island is home not only to vast oil reserves but also a variety of rare metals. In the coming months, your team will acquire any land that yet remains privately owned. A few old coots are still holding onto their few squares of dirt and though their children are cooperative, we can’t wait until their parents finally stumble out of this world.“Atem’s eyes sank to his ringed hand tapping against his to go cup. He hated his job every day but the many times he’d had to go out and personally listen to yet another terrible tale of elderly and disenfranchised people forced out of their homes, he hated it even more. Holding onto the last of their belongings and unable to afford care even after finally signing to sell their land, he had to leave them to a cruel fate ultimately only to the benefit of his employer. No acquisition bonus could make up for it.But Haka Island, just off the southern coast of Japan, was a special case.„I’ll travel there first then,“ Atem said to the table plate more than he did to Kaiba, „I’d like to make plans with an eye on the local situation so we can move into the building phase sooner rather than later.“ He hated extending their suffering beyond what was absolutely necessary. His eyes flicked up, meeting Kaiba with a sharp gaze. „I take it, I have your permission to travel there by tomorrow?“„Permission granted,“ Kaiba nodded and turned on his heel. „Meeting dismissed.“Kaiba left, his posse rushing to grab all his things and close doors, and a team as exhausted as Atem slumped. They loved this work no more than him but it payed well enough and each of them had made a choice to look out for each other first before anything else.„Haka Island… Where have I heard that before,“ Isis mumbled as she sorted through the survey results laid out before her.Mahad looked to Atem. „You were born there, weren’t you?“He hummed assent, grasping his cup. „But I haven’t been since I was young.“ Over 3 decades ago.Mahad made the reservations for Atem and Isis drove him home. After he had grabbed a few necessities, she dropped him off at the train station where he boarded the bullet train down to the coast. The entire train ride, a heavy stone sat deep in his belly, trumping even the constant tired weight on his back.He might’ve left Haka Island when his parents had tucked him under their arm that one fateful night but Haka had never left him. It appeared in his dreams, at night and waking, and he’d always craved to go back for reasons he couldn’t quite explain. The island called for him and as much as he wanted to heed it, he dreaded it because at the bottom of his consciousness, he knew: it was where the horrors lived.When he sat in the ramen shop by the harbour, eating his first meal of the day, and waited for the only ferry shipping across, as when he stood on it, looking out over the calm sea engulfing its white hull, he felt his insides twist with fear and desire both. Lust so strong he only knew it from his unfulfilled dreams, filled his limbs with fire and he grit his hands around the cool railing, trying and failing to subdue it.Far ahead, sharp rocks surrounded the island like pikes around a fort but as the ferry advanced, they parted for them like welcoming him home. An unpleasant shiver trailed down his spine. The ferry pulled into port and icy ocean water lapped onto deck, drenching Atem’s rings over the railing and trailing down his nails like sweet slick. The taste coated his tongue, vivid like just after waking, and he swallowed heavily.The ferrier ushered cars and passengers off board as the horizon beyond the mountainous island darkened with stormy clouds and harsh winds brushed through rustling trees and low roofs. As Atem stepped off board, he couldn’t avert his eyes from the strange sight, the clear blue sky and calm seas long gone. Water splashed over the stones of the pier, soaking his boots and trousers, and each step further, it lapped upward, winding his calves and thighs and hips like pure muscle, trapping his breath and spirit alike.His grip around his rolling suitcase tightened and the spell dispelled within a single blink at the yellow warning signs plastered all over the small port. „Storm warning,“ they read, „no shipping out past 6pm.“ He checked his wrist watch: it was just past 5 and while small local fishing vessels returned and towed, the ferry took aboard who few people that worked on Haka but lived on the main land and left.He was stuck, at least until it would return the next day at the same time. Haka Island had taken him back and his stomach filled with a warmth he didn’t understand. His legs moved without him intending them to and his suitcase cluttered across the pier. Along the ocean beyond the pier, the rocky beach stretched out, puddles of water sitting between wet and overgrown stones.A boy crouched by the water, splashing in it, and with unlikely precision snatched a crab from within. It twisted under its claw being tightly held in his small fist and he turned over his shoulder. A flash of red met Atem’s eyes, an intense stare boring right into his heart, and his hands opened without will. He set a foot forward, pushing the other against the ground, and his suitcase cluttered to the ground.He whirred after it and the urge to run after the boy was gone, leaving him with only the tingling of his muscles. He righted himself, picking up his suitcase with a flustered wave at the dock workers, but couldn’t help another look over his shoulder at where the boy had been. The beach was barren and not a trace of him was left. Yet, Atem’s heart beat rapidly, yearned, knew what it had seen even while he closed his fists and rushed into the adjacent village to find the inn where he’d stay for the next few days.Yet, the beach and the boy didn’t leave his mind, and so after checking in and leaving his belongings in his room, he found himself at the edge of rocky terrain. The water had drained from it even further, leaving only small splatters in the deepest sandy crevices. Atem climbed unsteady feet over them, returning to where he’d seen the boy. But there was nothing, not him and not the crab he’d held. Just a lone rock like any of its brothers and Atem’s lungs twisted.He swallowed heavily, clutching his chest. There was an emptiness within it, one he had always carried with him but that hadn’t ever felt as intense as it did standing where the horrors were strongest with the wind whipping through his curls. He felt their presence, their thick shove in his back, and he stumbled forward into a slow amble.The beach was familiar to him. He had wandered and played at it often as a child but the memories of it were hazy at best. Still, nature hadn’t the tendency to change in only 30 years and the paths he had trodded then, his legs still followed easily today.Trudging through the sands, a heavy weight pulled at his lids, sinking his eyes closed. He yanked them open shortly but they soon weighed down again, alongside his limbs. A moment, he left them closed, the soft sand carrying him along. A short rest later, he forced them open again and before him, ruined pillars arranged in a triangle around a partially swallowed stone platform had appeared.He startled, looking around himself. The village had disappeared entirely and he was instead surrounded by mountainous cliffs on every side. How’d he—His foot fell into the middle of the platform. He opened his eyes, it was pitch-black and he couldn’t see the hand before his eyes. But he wasn’t scared.He was held, cool, moist tissue winding around his waist, bunching his dress shirt and soaking fabric between his thighs. Under his arms, they rose him up, tipping his chin and his head fell into his nape, willingly baring his throat. He shivered as tentacles stroked him through his trousers. He knew them, they’d been with him all his life: he was dreaming.„Leave me,“ he pressed out of a throat stroked gently by the tip of an arm.„I missed you.“ He’d never been answered. An unearthly voice wormed under his skin, vibrated inside his bones and filled the entirety of his mind with echos and chatter he didn’t understand but recognised the meaning of just as much.Atem pressed his arm to the tip playing at his neck and it sensed it in tender touches. Quickly, it curled around his wrist and tied it above his head. His other arm soon followed and Atem pressed his legs together, dragging up the thick tentacle curling between them.„I’m not your toy.“„You like to be,“ the horrors whispered to him and he quivered as they pressed against his thick erection over cloth.He rutted into them, hissing a sharp breath. „Why—“„You returned.“His chest glowed warmly under icy slick dripping down his collar and under his buttons. A purr shook through him, reverberating between the endless black, and surrounded him like the comfort of a warm bath. Limbs hugged him tightly and he arched for them, gasping softly as they breached under fabric. He’d never remained dressed. Was he dreaming?„I’m“ —Atem twisted between the caresses, hot air panting from parted lips „—not yours.“Atem’s eyes snapped open and icy water splashed at his boots hugged in his arms. He gasped breathlessly, heat everywhere in his body and a raging erection in his lap. He’d been dreaming. He pulled his legs closer, inexplicable tears pressing at his eyes. Storm clouds had swallowed the sky, black and foreboding, and waves crashed onto land, spraying foam even to where Atem sat on coarse sand and stone.He brushed over his eyes and his belly twisted. A sob forced itself from his lips but he swallowed it inside a choked sound. There wasn’t strength in his bones to stand and so he remained, watching the tide return. It rose and rose as thunder cracked far into the distance. Lightning flashed, the world went white, and then black. Something under his arms picked him up and suddenly, he stood.Water against his legs, he stepped aside. He blinked and set foot back into the village. He hugged himself, turning over his shoulder. There was the rocky beach but there wasn’t a sign of the boy or the ruins. His heart beat for nothing as he returned to the inn with a throbbing hole in his chest. The clock above the counter read 10pm.