Interactive: Preying at The Altar, ch. 1 (Patreon)

“It’s just a little bit further,” Braden said as he pulled the buxom blonde through the dark trees.  The full moon filtered through the canopy of branches overhead, casting long shadows that danced around them in the chill breeze, the pale blue light giving the woods an other worldly feel.  

“It’s creepy out here,” the blonde giggled drunkenly, clutching Braden’s sturdy arm.  

You don’t know the half of it, he thought.  “Exciting, right?” he asked, stopping to slide a hand down her supple back to give her plump rear a squeeze.  Braden didn’t even remember her name.  He’d just met her a couple hours ago at his go-to bar when he was looking to get laid.  There were always plenty of drunk college girls who thought it was fun to hook up with a townie like himself.  He was their same age, but instead of going to class he spent his days on a fishing trawler.  Countless hours of casting traps and hauling nets left him with a brawny, eye-catching build.  He could go toe-to-toe with any of the college guys who spent their time sculpting vain muscles just for show in the fancy campus gym.  Not that he needed to show them up; the salty sea air weathered his boyishly handsome face enough to make him look ruggedly masculine while they still looked like kids.  His thick, chocolate brown hair melted down to join with his constant stubble, highlighting his strong jaw and pouty lips.  He relished the room full of turning heads when he walked in, his pecs bulging out under his tight sweater, competing for attention with his powerful arms and legs.  Braden didn’t even have to try.  A few minutes of sitting at the bar and the girls would come to him like moths to a flame.  If any of their boyfriends were foolish enough to try and start something with him, they quickly backed down when they saw his large, calloused hands.  A few drinks later and he’d inevitably have a girl in tow as he led them out into the woods.  

It was an easy hook.  The entire New England coast is peppered with mystery.  The dense forests are filled with stone walls, strange foundations, standing stones, and circles of boulders whose purpose has been lost to the ages.  Some of them go back over four thousand years, predating any sort of recorded native societies in the area.  The more prominent ones had become tourist traps, but having grown up in the region his entire life, Braden knew where the remote, hidden ones were.  They were perfect for nights like this one.  Even the college kids had heard of them, which made them the perfect lure.  All he had to do was bring up the legends, flash his charming smile, and he’d have his pick of the room.  It wasn’t uncommon for him and his buddies to bring a whole group out.  

Practically speaking, the ruins were remote enough that no one would hear them.  If they got out there and the girls changed their mind it didn’t matter.  Braden and his friends weren’t ones to take no for an answer.  They didn’t rely on any kind of trail, so there was nowhere for the girls to run other than out into the dark, unfamiliar forest.  They knew it like the backs of their hands, which made tracking them down easy.  On other nights, when they’d had their fill of women, they’d lured more than one unfortunate man to be “sacrificed” on an ancient stone altar.  They hadn’t actually killed anyone yet, but they’d come close with several of the men who’d dared to hit on one of them.  

“Here we are,” Braden said, brushing aside a low-hanging branch and stepping out into a clearing.  

“Oohhh, spooky!” his companion chirped as she took in the scene.  The trees seemed to come to an abrupt stop, forming a perfect circle.  A series of large boulders ringed the perimeter, with smaller stones spiraling towards the center.  In the middle of the clearing was a broad stone slab surrounded by the remains of primitive, broken pillars.  “What was this place?”  

Braden grinned with anticipation as he led her towards the stone slab.  “No one knows.  They think it was used for human sacrifices.”  He laughed when he felt her shiver against him.  “See this,” he said, pointing to a basin in the middle of the stone altar.  “That would catch the blood and then it would run around the outside of the stone in this channel…” Braden ran a finger through the divet that lined the edges of the altar, leading to a spout at one end.  “...and then it would fall into this hollow stone down here.  This must’ve been some kind of church or something.”

“Well, you’re partially right, at least.”  

Braden leapt up from his crouching position by the stone and spun around at the sound of a strange male voice.  A slight, well-dressed man was standing where the blonde had been.  He was wearing a suit made of deep indigo fabric, with spotless, matching shoes.  His pale skin and bald head practically glowed in the bright moonlight.  “Who the fuck are you?!  Where’s…” he hesitated, not remembering her name, “...where’d she go?”  

“You mean you don’t recognize me?  You’ve been grabbing my ass all night,” the man laughed.  His browless eyes were inky pools on his flat, almost featureless face, and his thin lips spread wide, revealing a mouth with too many teeth.  

“Are you high?  I’ve never seen…you…” Braden trailed off when the man blurred and he suddenly found himself looking at the chesty blonde.  

“Look familiar,” she asked in the man’s smooth tenor.  

Braden felt a rush of fear.  It wasn’t something the burly man was used to.  “How’d you do that?  You put something in my drink?”  He drew himself up and puffed his powerful chest out.  He was easily twice the size of the smaller man.  

“You were right about how the altar works,” the man said, walking to the stone slab and ignoring Braden’s question.  “Though it doesn’t always have to be blood.  All manner of fluids and viscera will do.”  The man turned away from the stone and looked Braden up and down, his small nostrils flaring as he sniffed at the air.  “My, you ARE a virile one, aren’t you?”  

Braden had enough.  He went to lunge for the man, only to find himself frozen in place.  He tried again and again, his muscular frame flexing and straining against the unseen bonds in a futile attempt.  “What...why can’t I move,” Braden hissed.  He turned his head slightly, the most he could manage, to watch the man circle the stone altar.  

The man looked around and gestured to the clearing.  “You were wrong about these being churches.  They were never places of worship, exactly.  They’re doorways.”  He paused to let that sink in.  “For millennia, your kind, and those that came before, would gather at places where the planes intersected to open the gateways and draw power from the ones on the other side.”  

Braden was starting to panic. The longer he watched the man the more the image started to blur. He kept catching glimpses of a shadowy outline that was too tall and had too many spindly legs.

“Your methods were crude,” the man shaped thing continued, “but eventually they heard you knocking.” He turned and pinned Braden with his jet black eyes. “You can’t do the things you and your friends have done in a place like this and not attract attention sooner or later. So here we are,” he said with a casual wave of a hand. 

Braden blinked, still thinking he’d just been drugged.  The man sounded crazy.  “So you’re...what? One of these things from the other side?” 

The man let out a high, chittering laugh. “Oh, no, I merely serve. They can’t cross over. Not yet. But their power can. In places like this it bleeds through to work wonders...if you know how to harness it. Consider this your first lesson.”

“I’m not interested in any lessons,” Braden grunted. He was soaked in sweat from his futile straining. “Look, just let me go and I’ll never bother you or this place again.”

The man shook his head. “It doesn’t work like that, I'm afraid.  The eye of the powers is on you now. There’s no going back.”

“Fuck you,” Braden bellowed, a vein sticking out prominently on his forehead, “and fuck them! Do you know how fucking crazy you sound? As soon as I can move I’m going to rip your fucking head off!” He thrashed and snarled menacingly, but the sensation of being buried up to his neck never faded. The man stood back and watched his failed efforts with the same broad smile. 

“You of all people should know how pointless it is to fight against something so much bigger than yourself.  We all know how often you use your size to overpower others.  Maybe we can change that? There’s a freedom that comes with losing control. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but once you let go it brings so many wonderful revelations.”

His burst of fury spent, Braden felt the panic creeping back. “So what, then?  What’re you gonna do to me,” He panted. 

The man shrugged his deceptively lithe shoulders. “Who knows? It’s not up to me.” He pointed to the night sky overhead and sounded almost eager. “When they leave their mark on this world it’s always a work of art. Just look.”  

Braden shrieked as the man blurred again. It was the first time in his adult life that he’d actually screamed in terror and the experience left him shattered. There was no mere suggestion of monstrous proportions any more as the man unfolded before him, growing to nearly eight feet in height. It’s long, gangly arms were covered in coarse black fur that spread across the backs of its slender, clawed hands. It was bare chested, with a stretched out, misshapen torso atop a spider-like lower half. The face, if it had ever truly belonged to a human, no longer bore any resemblance to man with its huge faceted eyes and mouth full of sharp, pointed teeth. 

Had he been able to move, Braden would have hit the ground in a heap. He swayed on his feet, feeling faint and nauseous. The thought that he’d had his hands, and mouth, on the creature made his skin crawl. 

“Now, now, don’t panic.”  Just like that, the creature was back to presenting as the small, dapper man.  He walked over and stroked Braden’s broad chest gently. “I was a man once. Centuries ago. We didn’t grow quite this big back then,” he laughed, squeezing one of the frozen man’s thick arms and looking up at his pale, horrified face.  A note of pride crept into his voice. “Forms such as mine are reserved for the highest of initiates. Only those that have mastered the final lesson achieve the true blessing. You and your friends don’t need to worry about that. You’ve been granted the gift of freedom from your current meat shells, but no more.”

Braden was on the verge of tears. “Please….I’m sorry...don’t…..don’t do this…” he stammered, echoing words he’d heard directed at him and his friends countless times. 

“Careful, you don’t want to sound ungrateful,” the man said quietly. “This is a gift, after all. But enough talk. Take your clothes off so we can get started.”

The same unseen force that held him in place began moving his limbs.  He fought to keep his arms from reaching down and pulling his sweater free.  Beads of sweat ran down the mounds of his pecs, trickling across his firm stomach as his shaking hands fumbled with the fly of his tight jeans.  His glistening skin broke out in goosebumps under the chill of the evening air as he kicked his jeans and boxers free, to stand naked in front of the stone slab.  “Pl...please…” he begged hoarsely.  

The man reached into his tailored suit coat and pulled out a long, smooth object.  It was a dark grey rock, rounded at the edges to form a thin oval.  It was covered in strange symbols that had been carved into the stone and that seemed to glow in the moonlight.  The man motioned with it towards the altar and Braden yelped when he found himself clambering up onto the stone and kneeling on all fours.  Every one of his ample, powerful muscles was tensed and flexed as he fought to escape.  His broad shoulders, wide back, and solid thighs made him look as though he was carved from the same stone as the altar he knelt on, while his thick cock and heavy balls dangled above the basin in the center of the slab.  

“What are you gonna do?!”  Braden tried to look over his shoulder as the man came up behind and put a hand on one of his solid globes.  

He ran the carven stone across Braden’s lower back.  “We need to open the gate.  This is the key...you’re the lock.”  

“What do you meeeEEEEUUUUUHHH!”  Braden gasped when the smooth stone was abruptly shoved inside him.  He panted and gasped, wide eyed and writhing as much as he was able against the invading object.  His large, round cheeks bounced and shook, only making things worse.  The man had let go, but the stone kept working itself in deeper and deeper.  He grunted and grit his teeth in pain, feeling like he was being impaled on a spike.  Just as he felt like he would pass out from the agony, everything shifted.  “OOOHHHHHH!”  He groaned and clutched at the worn slab as a jolt of pleasure shot through him.  His long hose spasmed and went rigid under the increasing wave of bliss he was experiencing.  He heard himself whining and whimpering as if from a distance, embarrassed by the high, cracking sound of his voice.  Never in his worst nightmares did he ever picture his brawny body squirming hungrily while being penetrated.  He certainly never imagined that it could feel this good.  “What...what’s happening…” he panted as the clearing started to change around him.  He saw spectral images of what the broken pillars had looked like in their prime.  They were covered in symbols like the ones on the stone that had been inserted into him, glowing with the same ghostly witch light under the bright moon.  

“The gateway is starting to open,” the man said excitedly.  “Any moment now and…” 

“Oh...oh fuck…oh fuuuUUUNNNNNGGGGG!” Braden’s hissing gasp cut him off.  His pulsing cock exploded into the basin, shooting out a massive stream that didn’t stop.  Braden’s ecstatic moans were accompanied by a look of horror as he felt his churning balls unleash an impossible amount.  The basin quickly filled and the warm, sticky fluid spread slowly outwards into the perimeter channels.  All Braden could do was keep bucking and spasming as more and more of his essence sprayed onto the slab.  The viscous fluid moved at a torturously slow pace until finally falling off the edge to begin filling the basin on the ground.  After what felt like hours, Braden’s trembling limbs gave out and he fell flat onto the slab.  “Oh god...oh god…” he said breathlessly, rolling over onto his back.  His softening, still oozing cock flopped against his stomach, letting a steady stream of the warm fluid spread across his hairy abs.  When he was able to lift his head and look down over his heaving pecs, he saw the strange symbols from the stone slithering across his skin.  It felt like insects were crawling all over him.  He looked desperately at his grinning tormentor.  He was no longer frozen, but he was too weak to do much more than turn his head.  

“You’ve felt their touch,” the man said, almost wistfully.  “And now, through you, your friends can feel their touch as well.”

“Ho...how?  You can’t bring them here,” Braden said, trying his best to focus.  The flopping cock on his stomach hadn’t stopped oozing and there was a growing trickle flowing down his side.  

“We don’t need to.  I just needed you to come out here of your own volition.  Now, with you as the nexus, we can reach whoever we want.”  Braden shivered when the man came over and dipped a finger into the growing puddle of fluid on his stomach before tracing one of the glowing symbols on his chest with it.  “Now who should we visit first?”  

**********

This interactive will be structured a little differently.  We'll choose from Braden's friends, then after a short chapter to introduce them, we'll decide what changes they undergo.  

The friends:

Ryan - A short, stocky cub.  Dark hair from head to toe, beefy and hung.  Works at the fish processing plant.  

Nate - A tall wall of muscle.  Covered in tattoos and spends his time at the gym bulking up to compensate for his tiny endowment.  

Dave - The rugged, outdoorsy hunter.  Lean and naturally built from all his time outdoors and being on his feet all night working in a kitchen. 

Chris - Crossfitting college drop out.  The pretty boy of the group who decided to work at his dad’s business instead of finishing a degree.