ktmorrison
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Welcome To The Patreon
🕑 Added 2019-10-19 11:51:02 +0000 UTC
Let's jump right in today with the opening scene from the Patreon Series. It's titled "Devil In The Waters," and I've made this post public so anyone unfamiliar with my books can get a glimpse of how this story may play out. Subsequent episodes will be locked for subscribers.
I'm going to post scenes and chapters, and then monthly or perhaps bi-monthly I'll post a digest version, or even wait until a Part is considered finished. This first Part of the story is called 'Dreamscape' . . .
So without further ado, let me introduce two of our story's characters . . .
The dream began as though he were waking . . .
* * *
The coarse whisking of the tent’s zipper roused Kevin from a shallow, painful sleep. Dawning blue-gray light assaulted his eyeballs with the intense zap of high-beam flashlights. He winced and hissed, brain exploding with sharp stabbing pain. His neck throbbed, his brain throbbed, his back was sore.
While he was bewildered, there was a strange sense of place. The tent’s zipper gave it away; the awful sleep; the cold; the damp . . . He lay on a thin camping sheet, inside a sleeping bag that was zipped down to his knees, early morning chill stinging his hot, sweaty skin . . .
Now the tent was jostling, the nylon tapping and dancing as someone came in. He reached instinctively for Kimmy, aware of a large shape looming over top of them that made him think of a grizzly bear.
“Kimmy, Kimmy,” he hissed, hand snatching outward trying to grab at his wife. She wasn’t there. His eyes fluttered open, and he looked now to see that large shape crouched at the tent’s door and zipping it closed again with sharp, quick tugs.
“What the hell?”
The figure turned, scooting down and squatting, taking Kimmy’s spot next to him. He blinked, clutched at his temples to push away the throbbing pain, trying to make sense of this.
The figure wasn’t a bear, but a man. Familiar yet unfamiliar, distant yet right here in front of him . . . His brain flexed and twisted trying to make sense. As the man’s features came into focus, things began to fit into place. Devin Stone. Dalton High. Class of ’09. Football. Lacrosse. Six-foot-two. Handsome as shit. Bully. “Stone?”
The figure said, “Waters, it’s done. Holy shit . . . ”
He worked up onto an elbow, pain shooting up his collar. He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Holy shit, Waters, you were not fucking kidding . . . ”
“Kidding about . . . ? What’s happening?”
Stone frowned, brow working low, focusing on sleepy Kevin, making him feel small and transported back to the frightening halls of Dalton High. It was one small piece of a larger puzzle. Now he began to comprehend the hazy periphery of this dreamy story. On waking he’d thought he was camping with Kimmy. He wasn’t. A reunion . . . A high school reunion. The ten-year reunion. Everyone gathering after the event held in the gymnasium at Dalton for a weekend bash at Tiffany Hanson’s lakeside cottage. Bring your tents, bring your own booze! And he’d had a lot of booze, hadn’t he? His stomach was at once held in a vice and simultaneously a luscious, squirming thing. Acid burned, things rolled over inside him. He wanted to barf, burped instead, tasted bourbon.
“God,” he said, “holy shit, what time is it?”
Stone said, “It’s almost five. Oh, wow, dude,” then ran a big hand through his head of thick black shining hair, “that was close. I almost got caught . . . although . . . ”
“Caught what?”
“It was cold out here, we went inside but we got caught in the can . . . ”
“What does that mean: caught in the can?” Nothing made sense right now . . .
“The bathroom, Kimmy’s friend caught us, what’s that one . . . I don’t remember her name . . . ”
“Who . . . ? Caught what?”
“Dude. What we talked about . . . It’s done.”
Kevin nodded, afraid to irritate Devin by still straying behind. Best to agree and wait for the storm clouds to blow over. “Oh, okay . . . ”
Devin scowled, but seemed amused, which was a relief. “You’re not getting it, bro . . . ” Now he shook his head and chuckled, “Holy shit, Waters, I’m so glad I sat down and talked to you last night . . . ”
“What do you mean?”
“Waters, man, wake up,” Stone laughed. “You want to hear about it or not?”
“Yes, I want to hear about it—hear about what?”
Stone studied him, a puzzled look on his face. He was an arrogant asshole, never a friend of Kevin’s. Through the early part of high school and public school Devin’d been a bully. There were a lot of times where he’d made Kevin’s life miserable. There was even a time when Kevin’s own mom and dad marched him down to the Stone household to tell Devin’s father what his son was up to. Only Papa Stone didn’t care. Smug asshole. When he and his parents went home that night his mom broke a glass in the sink she was so mad. “Fucking prick,” she’d called Devin’s father, and Mom never swore. That was Papa Stone. Young Devin Stone had always been on the path to full Fucking Prick status.
Devin said, “Are you kidding me?”
“Kidding about what?”
“Dude, right out there,” he said pointing at the closed door of the tent, “that picnic table right up back of your SUV. You and me last night, God, I don’t know, one in the morning . . . ?”
“Oh yeah,” he said, not really remembering, but not wanting to infuriate big Stone. Even at twenty-eight years old now, the guy packed a whack more solid muscle than he had in high school. He had a big frame, large hands, square jaw . . .
“Well, it’s done.”
“Good,” he said.
Devin tilted his head like he would look out the tent’s door though it was zipped closed. The muscles in his stubbly jaw flexed as he smiled. “She’s still inside, but I’m telling you—we might have got busted.”
“What do you mean busted?”
“Got caught.”
He nodded but the act of moving his head too fast got him swooning with sudden seasickness. He burped, said, “Who’s inside?”
“Kimmy . . . what the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Oh yeah, okay,” he said, “Kimmy’s inside.”
Devin scowled at him. “How much did you drink last night?”
“I don’t even remember.”
“We would’ve gone again—fuck, a whole bunch of times—but she shooed me out of there because there were people up in the kitchen.”
“Shooed you out of where?”
“We went in that bathroom, the one on the main floor just past the family room . . . ”
“Who . . . you and Kimmy?”
Devin shook his head. “You really don’t remember?”
“No . . . maybe . . . ”
“Out on the picnic table,” Devin said, scooting a little closer so he wouldn’t have to raise his voice, “You and I had a talk . . . ”
“What did we talk about?”
Stone moved closer so he could whisper and be heard. Kevin could see the cold blue steel of Stone’s eyes. He smelled like sweat and something else . . . Devin said, “You told me your fantasy about Kimmy having sex with another man . . . ”
Comments
KT Morrison
Uh-oh...
Chinookfan72
I’d agree if he was blind drunk, but he’s not. The story starts by saying Kevin is woken up by the unzipping of the tent from a shallow painful sleep... if you are blind drunk a tent zipper isn’t waking you up and you aren’t shallowly sleeping. So I would find it hard to believe Kevin told Devin to sleep with his wife, that is a whole conversation in order to plan it etc., and if it’s Kevin’s biggest fantasy he’d remember having that conversation. I could be wrong, only KT knows what happened, but I hope I’m not. If Kevin did ask Devin to do it I’d lose any respect for him and would hope Devin and Kimmy make Kevin’s life miserable and she ends up leaving him.
Glaucon
Also, is Kevin and Devin a coincidence?
DavidnDaria
As someone who has been blind drunk before... There are things one does not remember. It's disorienting to wake up after such an experience. When I lived in Northern VA, I remember waking up seeing a civil war soldier (South), a man in a flannel shirt with a rake, and a young girl drift in front of me. It wasn't frightening and its reallity has stuck with me--maybe I saw ghosts or was it a waking dream? Living in close proximity of Civil War battlefields made it seem all the more real. What I don't remember is the events of the night before. We probably have it all wrong. Back to the party!
DavidnDaria
"I had something to dream last night... something to dream... I'm not ready to face the light... I had something to dream, last night."
JamesIsAsleep
Props to KT for the detail about that feeling we all get whenever we are asleep in a unique environment. That feeling you sometimes get when you wake up after the first night theres a moment of disorientation that you feel, until you get those context cues which remind you where are. Very cool.
Chinookfan72
Agreed... my interpretation is its going to be the latter (a misrepresentation) rather than an out right ask to sleep with his wife... I think if he outright asked he would remember doing so vs just having a conversation about his fantasy over a drink but it’s up to KT to drive the ship.. looking forward to the next installment for sure.
Glaucon
Yeah that all sounds good to me! Of course, we'll just have to wait and see what KT has planned. I do think/kind of hope that Kevin didn't really ask this guy to sleep with his wife (we've seen it before, and imo undermines the relationship dynamic) and it's a misrepresentation of what they really discussed, meant to hurt/toy with Kevin.
Chinookfan72
I think I do misunderstand. I thought your third post asked for the husband to be sneaking around trying to watch or trying spy on them... that’s the part that I could do without.. and is the part that KT has done before (for instance separate schools as you mentioned as well). I wasn’t saying this dynamic had been used before. In reading your third post again I don’t see any of that any more so I’m not sure what happened there. If there is a flashback I hope there is limited husband perspective to be honest.. sure it would be great to see the original conversation between husband and bully, but after that the only interactions I care about at this point is wife and bully and as you say how does he convince her to do this, and hopefully continue to do so behind the husbands back. I think its best if all this happens after the husband goes to sleep.
Glaucon
You misunderstand, if it did happen the previous night I don't think he saw it - if we get anyone's perspective of actual sex last night I imagine it would be Kimmy's. The opening "The dream began as though he were waking" is an omniscient narrator - we could easily have this opening chapter and then a cut to last night of overlapping perspectives of husband and wife. It's a classic framing device to begin in media res so to speak and then back up to how things came to this point. Alternatively, KT might intend to be playing with expectations and leave the audience hanging about what did or did not happen - but it's too early to say. I also disagree that we've had this particular dynamic before in KT's books, with an antagonistic third party. That's the thing that I'm most interested in seeing. How does this happen with Kimmy when she presumably views this guy as an antagonist to her husband? That's new and something I'd want to see.
Chinookfan72
There is no rewind that makes sense though... someone who is coherent enough to wake up to an unzipping tent is coherent enough to remember what went down that night if he was sneaking around and trying to watch. The fact he doesn’t remember means he didn’t do those things. What makes the most sense is he got tossed two nights ago and told the bully his fantasy, then forgot about it, went to bed early the next night after having a few more drinks, and then got cheated on. KT has done your version on multiple stories I’d for one like fresh take on it..
Glaucon
The other possibility of course is this actually IS a dream - I think there would be a lot of heat in this being more about Kevin's fears/worries and a slow gradual build up from a shadow of a threat to something real - Happy Endings was excellent in taking its time to even get to sex.
Glaucon
The first time is the best part! It’s the most powerful betrayal/deepest cut - every time after is made a little easier by the logic of “well, I already cheated.” I don’t think it should be recounted second hand, but if this segment is gonna be the opening to the story I think it would be great to rewind and see the whole previous evening play out slow - like the Separate Schools night.
JamesIsAsleep
I always enjoy a little fanfare before theres sex, personally. I agree with Jordan though, gotta have female pov!
Chinookfan72
Nah I don’t need a drawn out build up to this time... all those things can happen in future meet ups between Stone and Kimmy... if he did all that stuff he would remember more quickly than he does here and this part wouldn’t make sense.. I think it plays better as just a drunken mistake made by Walters, but now it’s done he realizes it’s what he’s wanted... the only thing I hope is that we get some POV from Kimmy... the sex scenes are always better in my opinion when you are getting them in real time as opposed to a recount from one of the participants. If she keeps it a secret and it’s always from Kimmy’s husbands POV then we’ll never get real time action.
DavidnDaria
Deal! Oh! I never lost the toenail.
JamesIsAsleep
No, keep it haha
DavidnDaria
LOL! Na... a couple of years ago, I dropped a weight on it. I joked that I was going to make this my avatar on OWH, but was talked out of it. I'll probably change it out here. It's kind of gross.
JamesIsAsleep
DnD what's with the toe? Is that frostbite?
DavidnDaria
A long build-up would be great! Starts and stops, teasing, testing, watching from a distance... the invitation... drinking... flirting... the conversation...
DavidnDaria
No more David Rogers... or whatever... now, it's right.
DavidnDaria
Wha? Wha? What happened? I don... don't know... Super KT, just super!!
JamesIsAsleep
lol, KT! Love it!
Glaucon
Also, I really hope we get a long drawn-out buildup to that "last night" encounter (assuming he's telling the truth). PS by these multiple comments I think it's clear how much I'm looking forward to more of this series.
TF
Yes, and now the imagination goes wild creating a back story
Glaucon
It'll be a struggle to keep myself from reading every segment as it's released haha.
Glaucon
VERY interested to see where this goes! Personally, I hope this "you asked me to do it" line is just mind-games/a red herring.
