A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words – Kuruiko’s Shadows

            Kuruiko entered the chamber, the highest in her tower, and let the heavy wooden door close quietly. Her entrance did not go unnoticed, however, the young girl who sat in the center of the circular stone chamber turned her head at the sound of footsteps clicking on the hard floor. Kuruiko grinned at her, as she’d obviously scared herself silly while Kuruiko had prepared. The magic circle, with its demonic-looking runes, was hardly hidden, and the padded chair sat in the center of it.

“P-please let me go,” the girl whimpered as Kuruiko came around in front of her. The girl’s midsection was held to the chair by a strong leather strap and her wrists tied behind her in the same fashion. “I don’t wanna be a sacrifice in a Satanic ritual,” she went on with a whiny tone of voice. “I… what are you doing?” she asked, breaking from her whiny tirade into curiosity as Kuruiko removed her tennis shoes and socks from her feet.

“Do try and be quiet, child,” Kuruko answered with a small grin, setting her shoes and socks in a neat pile next to the chair. “If you would wait but a few minutes, you will know my business with you this night.” With a small sniffle, the girl fell silent, although her head constantly swiveled as she scanned the circular room.

Somewhere in the tower, a bell began to toll the hour of midnight. The candles whose flames lit the chamber suddenly sputtered, leaving only the light of the moon as the source of illumination. The girl whimpered as the magic circle went blacker than the night itself. The room stayed dark as the bell tolled the twelve strokes, and then suddenly lit up again as the sound of the final stroke faded away.

Puzzled, the girl looked around. Nothing was different, it seemed, until she noticed the two pools of shadow remaining on the floor. When the shadows resolved themselves into a pair of beings with human shape but no distinct features aside from red eyes and short horns atop their heads, she gasped.

The girl screamed as the shadows approached the table. “You are sacrificing me! Waaaaahhh!!! I don’t wanna be sacrificed!” The girl wailed and cried, kicking her feet like a child throwing a tantrum. “I don’t – huh…?” the shadowy figures had each gripped one of her flailing ankles.

“You see, dear,” Kuruiko explained, resting a hand on the headrest of the chair, “this IS a dark ritual, but by no means a satanic one.” Kuruiko grinned to herself. The girl was far too busy giggling and straining at her bonds to listen. The shadows’ fingers scratched and wiggled against her girl’s bare soles, driving her crazy with giggles.

“When I first performed this ritual…” Kuruiko went on, as if her girl next to her was not struggling and laughing herself silly. She seemed to be very vulnerable to the shadows’ simple tactic of lacing their fingers in her toes and just scratching at the sole rapidly with the other hand. “I, too, thought I’d be sacrificing my subject. But, you see, all the want is a pretty girl to laugh for them.”

The girl was laughing, all right, and though it seemed to her that the shadowy figures tortured her mercilessly, Kuruiko knew better. There was a healthy flush to the girl’s cheeks, but no more than that, and they never tickled hard enough to make her short of breath. Their chief tactic simply seemed to be to prevent her toes from wiggling or her foot from curling so that their fingers could explore the soft soles freely. Kuruiko grinned to herself. The shadows were consistent, all right – they chose where they wanted their victim exposed for tickling before each visit, and they never wavered from where they chose. The girl was dressed in a skintight exercise outfit, which would probably have driven her mad if tickled on her sides or under her arms, but the shadows simply continued to tickle her bare feet.

“In exchange for providing pretty tickle victims, the shadows grant me life energy and power. The life energy allows me to live longer and remain young. Cliché, I know, but it doesn’t require that I leech the souls out of living beings. This is much more humane, don’t you think? And, after watching these shows for as long as I have, I’ve taken a liking to seeing pretty girls tickled, too. So, everyone wins.” Kuruiko chuckled.

“I d-don’t win…” the girl whined, as the shadows finally pulled back and stood up. “All I got was tickled out of my mind!” The two shadows cast their gazes over her, making her swallow the rest of her complaint, but her feet rubbed against each other, trying to rub the lingering ticklish feeling from her soles.

“Oh, but you do,” Kuruiko said, as the shadows traced fingers experimentally around the girl’s body. “If they like their session with you, and it seems that they have, then they’ll provide you with a bit of life energy as well, as… incentive… for the next time?” Kuruiko chuckled at the girl’s horrified expression that there could even be a “next time”. The shadows tapped the girl’s soft soles and nodded, bowing formally before vanishing into the air.

“Wh-what did that mean…?” the girl asked apprehensively as Kuruiko unstrapped her from the chair where she had sat and handed her the shoes which had been unable to protect her feet.

“It means that next time, they want to tickle the feet again,” Kuruiko said with a laugh. “Their next visit is in two weeks’ time, at midnight again. If you make a habit of coming, you might add twenty years to your life and youth!” The girl dashed for the door, yanking it open and fleeing down the stairs as Kuruiko’s laughter echoed in her ears.