***************************************************************************** * This story - like the rest of mine - may be used freely without the need * * to ask for permission as long as the text is left unchanged and my eMail * * stays in. Post it wherever you want, just drop me a note. * * English is not my native language so please report spelling errors, bad * * grammar and the like to me. Happy reading. * * * * Contact me at: blacksquirrel@wamserver.de * ***************************************************************************** This Place Sucks by Black Squirrel (f/m, mud) Different people have different needs. And this was also true when it came to relaxation and weekend pleasures. Sarah slowly followed her friends through the loosely grown forest - they followed a trail that would lead them to their favorite recreation spot. 'Yeah, /their/ favorite spot,' Sarah thought glumly, as she plodded along just quickly enough not to lose the others. 'This place sucks!' She wasn't very fond of the secluded places her friends liked to visit. Her world was the city with is ever buzzing life, the flashing neon lights and the busy sounds of activity. Out here it was too silent for her, the scarce sounds of bird-song and rustling of small animals in the fallen leaves didn't make up for the more intense pulse of city life. 'Well, at least it is warm,' she thought to herself. 'Maybe I can lie down and get some tan. This would be at least a little reward for me coming here.' When her Carrie called her yesterday, she wasn't very excited about the suggestion to go out and have some fun in the outskirts. But like so often she eventually agreed, because she liked to be with her friends to share some laughs and chatter. Maybe she could make the best out of this day and have some fun, anyway. Lost in thought she nearly lost sight of the group before her and she hurried to catch up with them. They had left the car fifteen minutes ago and the walk began to tire her a bit. Basically she was in good shape, but she wasn't used to walk longer distances and additionally the surroundings bored her. Nothing but trees, grass and a few thorny bushes were growing around them. When she finally reached the others they were obviously enjoying the walk and they frequently pointed at one or another thing in the wood that caught their attention. "You seem distracted," Carrie said, and Sarah in fact needed a moment to realize that she was talking to her. "I hope you are enjoying the trip." "Yes, sure," she assured her friend. For some reason she didn't want the others to recognize her dull mood. Maybe she didn't want to spoil the day for them just because she wasn't able to see the beauty of nature. "I'm only a bit tired from walking, that's all. This uneven soil seems to drain me quickly." "Then you will be happy to hear that we are almost there," her friend said, smiling. "Just around the bend over there." She looked into her eyes as if she wanted to continue, but then she turned around and went back to the conversation. As Carrie had predicted, the forest ended shortly after they went around the next bend of the trail. They stepped into the bright sunlight and their feet touched the fine hot sand of the broad beach around the lake. A soft but cool wind blew and refreshed their heated bodies. Sarah stepped out of her shoes and found it much easier to walk in the soft soil, even though the high temperature bit at her soles. Most of the others also removed their shoes and continued barefoot to their favorite spot on the beach. Sarah had been out with her friends before, but this place was new to her. They seemed to have an endless storage of lakes, forests and other natural paradises to choose from, and all of them were quiet and lonely. Sarah felt a bit neglected. She always let the others convince her to come with them, but they never agreed when she tried to take them with her into the city. This made her a bit angry, but she was the only one in this group who preferred to be in the city and so she was easily outnumbered. While she was thinking to herself she had been looking to the ground, watching the white sand flow by, and when she looked up again she saw just in time, that Carrie had stopped before her. Sarah saw that she couldn't stop fast enough, so she changed her direction a bit and made a step to the side. When she regained her balance she was standing next to her friend and watched the other two laying down their blankets. Tony and Farah quickly began to spread suntan lotion over their bodies and Sarah didn't want to wait anymore, too. She put down her bag and unfolded her own beach mat to start relaxing at last. She was busily applying lotion to her body, already enjoying the warmth of the sun and the clean smell of the air coming from the lake. 'Maybe it was not such a bad idea to come here at all,' she pondered. She still wasn't too fond of being forced to idleness, but on the other hand she could still think about the things she would do, when she was back in town again. Sarah was an active young woman at the age of twenty-two. Her dark, short hair and her contrasting gray eyes often attracted attention of the boys at the university, but there had never been one that won her heart - well, no one except of ... Sarah shook her head and shut off that thought. She wanted to enjoy herself, not getting depressive again. David was history and remembering him was surely nothing that matched a sunny day out with her friends. While she thought about that she was stretching her arms unconsciously to treat the spots on her back that were hard to reach. A moment later she felt a warm touch on her back, massaging the lotion with strong, yet gentle movements into her skin. Sarah nearly jumped at the touch but she relaxed a moment later when she realized how good it felt. "Thinking about Dave again?" Carrie asked from behind her back. "I try not to," Sarah replied a bit harshly. "Sometimes you can't push the thoughts away. " She smiled weakly to show her friend that she wasn't angry. "Mmh, that feels great!" Carrie giggled. "I hope you know that you are next to help me. I always have trouble reaching so far around my back." "No problem." After some minutes both of their bodies were glistening with a mixture of sweat and oil. Sarah couldn't really explain why, but somehow it felt very good rubbing her slick hands over the skin of Carries back. When she was done she quickly retreated and pretended to look at the lake to prevent Carrie from looking into her face. She was sure she'd been blushing like hell. "I think I will try to get some tan now," she said, delighted that her voice at least sounded normal. "After all there is nothing else to do here." "Oh, Sarah!" Carrie reprimanded. "You just can't shut off your energy for a few hours and just relax, can you?" "Oh, I'm pretty low on fuel, actually," Sarah grinned. "But as you can see, I am busily recharging." To emphasize her words she rolled onto her stomach to let the sun warm her back and legs. Carrie made a face. "Yeah, whatever." She giggled and rose. "I will at least go and join Tony and Farah. You can just stay here and - recharge or something." "Have fun!" Sarah watched her friend running over to the lake, where the other two were playing with a soft ball. She didn't really want to go there, although she would at least get a little exercise. 'Ah, what the hell,' she thought. 'It's a warm sunny day and I'm out here anyway. So I can as well just try to relax and forget about life for a while.' She rolled around again, exposing her breasts, belly and the front sides of her legs to the sun. "Sarah! We're going for a swim! Care to join us?" Tony called. "No, I'm going to relax a bit." "As you wish! We're gonna cross the lake and return here later." Tony waved and they dove into the lake, powerful strokes sending them further and further away. Sarah smiled and lay back again. Slowly she was starting to like the silence around her. It was very comforting and in a subtle way wrapping her up from all sides, making her wish to stay where she was, basking lazily in the sun. She would never prefer it to an exciting day in the town, however. The figures of her companions swimming in the water had nearly reached the middle of the lake when her inner disquietness forced her to get up again. She felt strong and awake, and her body longed for activity. So she picked up her bottle of water, drank half of it and decided to go for a walk. She had never been shy and the area around the lake seemed pretty secluded anyway, so she didn't bother to put her bikini top back on when she started to walk along the shore. After a minute she decided to get a bit out of the sun, because she was getting hot and sweat glistened on her skin. But she didn't want to cool off in the lake. Instead she was curious to explore the forest that surrounded the lake completely. The trees stood more densely here and the shadows looked invitingly cool. So she turned away from the lake and looked back over her shoulder. Her friends were still in the water, about three quarters across. It would take them quite a time to get back, so they wouldn't miss her too soon. A few minutes later Sarah entered the dimness of the forest. The floor was covered with leaves and dead needles, making it comfortably soft and springy. She enjoyed the feeling while she looked around and tried to decide, where she wanted to go. To her right the forest descended and seemed to get less dense. A cool breeze was coming from there so she turned and made her way into this direction. It didn't take her long to discover, that the ground was getting a bit darker and less covered with plants. She wondered what caused the change. She walked for a while, taking in the slow alteration of her surrounding. Even the smells had changed - near the lake the air was clear and light, but now there was a heavy earthy scent, quite uncommon even for a dense forest. She moved on, turning her head from left to right, trying to make out the nature of the subtle changes. Suddenly her feet stepped into something cool and squishy. At first she thought she had walked into a puddle, but when she looked down it seemed, as if her feet were buried to the ankles in the black soil. The earth around her legs shimmered wet and she realized that this must be a quite thick layer of mud. It felt very damp but it drained some of the heat her body had collected during her sunbathing and she quite enjoyed it. She lifted one foot out of the mud and laughed at the obscene slurping sound it made. It took her a little effort to do so, because of the heavy consistency of the mud, but she didn't have a problem with that. She watched the muddy lumps that clung to her foot slide back into the ooze before she put her foot down into the mud again, slowly this time to watch the sluggish earth part at first and then gently closing around her ankle again. 'This feels really nice,' she thought. 'Is this the reason why so many people go to the mud spa?' Suddenly the thought of rolling around in this mire crossed her mind and she laughed at the picture in her mind. What a sight she would be to behold! She squished around a bit for a time, enjoying the mud sucking at her feet and the cool sensations when she left one of her feet dangling in the air. But there was another thing she felt. The ground seemed to be descending quickly in front of her. Her feet were pointing downwards by nearly forty-five degrees when they touched bottom. She decided to take a step back before she would trip over and fall headlong into the mud. When she turned around and put her feet down again, she had to balance on her toes to prevent her heels from sinking into the mud. But the loose earth provided only very little hold for her toes and she started slipping. "Ooh! Stop!" she gasped. In an attempt to stop her movement she pulled one of her feet out of the mire and tried to place it in front of her, but her weight, now only resting on one foot, caused her to slide down even faster. In a matter of seconds one of her legs was buried to the knee in the thick mud, while the other was just touching the surface of the mire with it's sole. Her submerged leg rested on the solid wall of the pit and she could see that it was getting steeper the more it went down. "Wow! This stuff surely is deeper than I thought," Sarah mumbled to herself. "I better get out quickly before I am in too far." She placed her other leg in front of her as far as she could and slowly shifted her weight. She felt the loose earth give way under her foot until she reached the firm wall. Then she leaned forward and pushed with her leg. To her surprise her buried leg didn't move at all but the other one slipped along the pit's rim and went down into the mire as well. "Uh! Shit!" she exclaimed and tried another attempt, but now both of her legs were stuck in the mud over the knees. She pulled hard at her left leg but couldn't get it to rise again; it would move only a few inches before the suction of the mire became too strong to break. After pulling for some time she gave up for the moment and let her leg slide down into the goo again. With a startled cry she felt the mud claiming new territory. Her legs were now buried to mid-thigh. She hadn't noticed this earlier, for her struggles had made her body hot with exertion and so she couldn't feel the cool touch of the mire at first. It was only then that she realized she probably was in greater trouble than she had thought. Even now when she was not struggling, she could feel the soft soil giving way beneath her feet, accepting more of her body to trap her more securely. With new born fear she tried to jump forward, lunging for the edge of this sticky bog. But the mire gave her legs nothing to push against and so her movement was basically a slight hop in place. It only served her to sink another two inches. Pulling her legs out was by this time out of the question, they just didn't move when she tried to make a step. Every upward motion was reversed to a descent of the other leg, but she couldn't help herself. She /had/ to get out. With panic rising in her mind she looked around her if there was anything to grab onto. However, she had no such luck - all she could see was soft earth, moss and leaves, nothing solid enough to give her something to hold on to. There was only one thing to do for her now, and she hoped that this would eventually save her. She stretched her arms as far as she could and let herself fall over onto her belly. She gasped when her breasts touched the cool mud, but she kept on. Sarah started to make crawling motions with her arms, trying to drag her body out of this sticky trap. She actually made some progress. She could feel herself sliding slightly forward, toward the solid edge of the pit. Time after time she drove her arms into the mire before her and pulled hard. But after only a few minutes her strength began to drain away and she wasn't able to fight anymore. When she stopped pulling she could feel herself sliding back into the waiting trap again, sinking deeper into its soft yet inescapable embrace. Now that her body was tilted at this angle the mud managed to drag her down even deeper than before, her waist was soon consumed by more and more of the encasing soil. "Help!" she softly cried, more to herself than in earnest. "Help!" Louder, this time. She knew her friends were too far away. Probably they would've just reached the opposite shore and were resting there. But maybe there was somebody else in this place who could come and give her a hand.So she breathed in deeply and shouted again, as loud as she could. "Help! I'm sinking! Please help me!" She kept on shouting for a few minutes until her throat began to ache and her ears went nearly deaf. Nobody came. Again she tried clambering her way out, but the mud fought back. She was now up to her lower ribs in the muck and still could feel no bottom. Clawing at the mud she tried desperately to stop her descent, to free herself from this sticky embrace, but it was futile. She only managed to slow her downward motion for some seconds until she had to stop and rest. Then she would sink at the same speed as before, as if she'd never tried to escape. 'This is frustrating,' she thought. 'Whatever I do, I just can't get out. I feel like I'm being sucked into a monster's mouth. Yeah, Sarah! This place /really/ sucks!' She knew it was futile but again she started fighting against her captor. This time she hit something solid under the mud. With a cry of surprise she started to dig through the sucking soil to find what she had touched just a moment before and finally got a hold of something that felt like a rock buried at the edge of the bog. She clawed at it with new-found strength and tried not to let it go. She had to stretch her arms to their full extend to reach it but it held her. Sarah started pulling again. Her sore muscles burned in protest, when she slowly managed it to pull her body further out of the slimy trap. Inch by inch she won against the mud, but every pull cost her a lot of strength and she had to rest frequently. Another hard pull, another inch. With clenched teeth she fought the suction of the mud and gained another inch. But then the rock seemed to get torn out of its socket and Sarah slipped back into the trap past her last position, her breasts now resting on the surface of the mire. "No!" she cried in despair, beating her arms onto the sticky bog. "Let me go! You are nothing but a stupid muddy trap! How can you dare and-" She stopped when she realized that she was only tiring herself more by thrashing around wildly. Her breasts were now halfway covered and she felt the thick muck constricting her chest. Angry tears began to flow from her eyes and she instinctively tried to wipe them away - but she could not. While she was sobbing she hadn't noticed her arms sliding under the mud. "Shit! No! Not this!" she shouted and pulled at her arms. With a loud slurping sound she managed to get them free, but it made her sink all the way to her neck. Now she was really in panic. Clawing like mad she fought against the mud, trying to get out of this wet, slimy and incredibly soft trap. All her movements had turned the mud into a creamy substance that allowed her to move easier but also let her sink faster than before. But in her panic she made it to move herself a few inches through the mire and finally felt the edge of the pit at her fingertips. With her face nearly submerged she tried one last big grasp for life and clawed her fingers into the semi-solid earth of the pit's rim. She pulled with all she had left and lifted herself one or two inches up. The mud fought back, sucking at her body, not willing to give her up. She could not move her legs, the mire was too strong, but she felt herself sliding up a bit more. This time she didn't waste all her strength at the start but took it slowly, inch by inch. A glimmer of hope came up inside her, finally she would beat the mud! She would live and laugh at the silly mistake she had made to fall into this trap and get stuck. She would ... Sarah had hauled herself up onto the edge on the pit, now being mired up to her midriff. There still was a long way to go for the edge of the pit was steep and she had to climb her way over it to get out. She rested, pulled, rested again and pulled again for what seemed like hours, but she made only slow progress. But finally her head peeked over the rim of the bog, her waist still stuck in the constantly sucking mire, and she flung her arms forward to reach solid ground. Suddenly she heard a loud noise and a big dog-like creature appeared only a few inches before her head. It's muzzle was open and showed a frightening set of teeth. It snarled at her and attacked her arms. Sarah drew them back in terror and at the same time screamed with horror when she slid back once again into the muddy trap. This time her movement was so fast that the mud took her all the way down in one big gulp and closed over her face. Sarah thrashed wildly when she felt the mud encasing her head. Blind and unable to breathe she was terrified and tried to get to the surface. The thick wet earth offered strong resistance and she feared she would not make it. But then her head broke free from the mud and she inhaled deeply. The creature was gone out of sight, but it's loud snarls and yelps were still audible. With her head barely above the mire Sarah struggled to keep afloat. She knew the trap had won it's prize but she didn't want to give up. Cautiously she tried to struggle and at the same time the bog pulled her face down, gagging her surprised scream. Fighting hard Susan got her face clear from the mire again and tried to keep completely still. Again she felt the mud pulling her down, and she concentrated only on keeping her mouth and nose free from the bog. She knew that the mud would eventually suck her under for good, she could not fight it for all time coming. "Help," she whispered. Then, a little louder, "Help!" Her arms slowly began to settle into the mire next to her sides. She didn't have the strength to hold them up anymore. A weak tug at her left arm made her sink again and she cried out for the last time. "Heel-" Then her face got covered with thick sticky mud. The trap finally had won. When she awoke she at first thought she would still be inside the bog's embrace. Then she realized that she was lying on her back on the beach, wrapped up in blankets with three faces looking at her with worry. Tony was still covered in mud and Carrie's arms showed dark stains up to her elbows. "How do you feel?" Carrie asked. "I think I'm alright," Sarah whispered. "How did you find me? I thought I was done for." Carrie smiled and brushed a muddy strand of hair out of Sarah's face. "We decided not to swim back but to make a run to drive the chill out of our bones. When we came back here we saw you were gone. Then we heard those strange sounds of a big animal nearby and we thought we'd better go and find you. And then we heard you cry for help." Carrie hugged her friend tight. "I was so frightened when we found out, what must have happened to you. Tony jumped into the mud right away and found you. Together we pulled you out and brought you here. I was afraid you would not make it." Carrie started to cry. Sarah tried to embrace her friend but she was too weak to move at all. "It's all right, Love! I'm alive. And that's because my friends were there to help me."