Chandeliers Ch5: The Tower of Lies
#5 of Chandeliers
Every small layer added to the tower of lies is another ten thousand feet to fall.
NOTE: This chapter deals with the fallout of rape. If you are reading this cold or skipped the last chapter, then please be aware.
"Mmm..." Tess felt Jake's paw slide onto her behind and shifted to make it easier for him. He felt below the base of her full, bushy tail and squeezed her through her dress. Delighted and sly, she broke their kiss for a moment to breathe with him. "My, you_are_ being forward, husky boy."
Jake looked like he couldn't remember his own name. He breathed and held her against him, looking into her sparkling green eyes, his body trembling.
"You taste so different," she whispered, her paws holding and stroking his head, "so different, so good..."
"You're stunning, Tessa," he breathed, his head shaking slowly.
She grinned at that and at the disheveled state she'd left him in - his tie pulled loose and hanging off to one side, his shirt popped open and his gray chest fur rubbed into rough swirls by her paws. It was just as well the rest of the bar couldn't see them or their antics. "I want to find out just_how_ different you are," she whispered.
His eyes widened.
She giggled and smoothed her paws around his cheeks.
Jake looked trapped. His face fell from awe to bitten worry and deep, painful guilt.
Tess almost squealed with how_cute_ he looked like that. So scared of being unfaithful, so sensible and such an aspiring role-model husband. It made her paws tingle against him and the heat between her legs itch. "Well?"
"I..." Jake held her behind, his paw feeling her curves, and his other rested in her chestnut hair. He glanced down at her bare leg hiked up over his lap.
"Mm?" She slid her leg higher and moved her paws to play with his ears, settling closer against him. Her thigh brushed against something in his suit trousers and she glanced down - he was coming out of his sheath! Tess grinned in delight and moved her thigh against him, rubbing it with her bare leg, and looked back into his eyes.
Jake sighed and melted into the overwhelmed virgin that she'd longed to see.
"Good husky," she whispered, stroking his head and rubbing the tip of his warm, pulsing canine cock through his suit trousers. "I'm going to give you my number. You can call me when you're free, and we can chat a little more about this, mm?"
He breathed and gazed into her eyes. She could see her effect on him - his awe at her beauty, his fascination with her orange fur, white tips, black markings, her slender muzzle and amber eyes; everything that made her vulpine. "Uhm..."
"Yes, you are." She nodded down at his suit trousers. "Get your phone."
Jake looked down, but his eyes stopped on her bare leg, her vixen fur, her thigh against the small tent that was now impossible for him to pass off as anything else.
"Or..." Tess grinned and moved her paw onto his leg, stroked up to that tent, then squeezed the hot muscle she could feel beneath, "...I'll get it for you."
Jake sighed and sunk back into the cushions. He watched her paw with a torn mix of sorrow and awe, his own gone limp against her.
She felt him until he slid further from his sheath, then moved her paw to hold his length through his trousers as more and more came out.
"Tessa," he gasped, shaking his head, "I can't do this..."
"Mm?" She stroked his cock and stared at its shape against his trousers, her eyes drinking in his thicker, wider form and the slightly curled point on his tip. The heat between her legs itched at the though of how it would feel and she squirmed a little against his side, her leg sliding against him. "And why's that?"
His paw touched the side of her muzzle and turned her into his eyes. "Because I love her."
It was there. Bright in his eyes, bared to her, open and raw. Tess moved her paw, slipped into his pocket, then pulled out his phone. "The things you love aren't always the things that make you happy," she whispered, and held it out to him with the unlock screen glowing on its upper surface.
Mark pounded down the alleyway with water slapping under his shoes. The rain came down harder and harder and made him blink every few paces, his suit already soaking and his exposed fur matted. The sound he'd heard had come from back towards the restaurant, faint and echoing off the walls.
His heart thrashed and his paws were tingling numb. The first junction he'd come to approached and he slowed with ears lifted, but the hiss of the rain drowned everything out so he twisted without stopping and ran down the right hand passage.
The alleyway darkened ahead. He slowed and turned his ears forward. "Leah!?"
Something reached him over the crash of vertical rain. It sounded like someone whining. He jogged forward through the dark until a nearby orange streetlight reflected off one of the walls and down into the alley. It came to a dead end just beyond and on the ground, on all fours, was Leah.
She'd been sick. She held her head over it with straight, shaking arms. Her behind was in the air, her tail flat down against the backs of her legs, her knees and shins on the pavement, her high heels together behind her.
"Fuck," Mark breathed, eyes wide, jogging to a stop beside her. Her dress was halfway up her back and her fur looked like she'd been rolling in the trash.
She retched and more came up onto the concrete. The strong reek of alcohol and half-digested wine and dinner hit his nose.
"Fucking hell, Leah." He shook his head, knelt by her side, then put a paw on her back and rubbed her through her dress. "Why the hell did you run!? I couldn't find you."
She was still crying. The sight sent guilt and panic lancing through him in equal measure. He took stock of her and felt the panic double his heart rate - she looked like utter hell.
"Fuck," he said, "what the hell are we gonna tell them? What the fuck are we gonna do?"
It had already been far too long. He could hear Tess now;_"You were gone with her for a while, weren't you?"_He fought the crawling panic and tried to stay steady on his feet through the bourbon. "Come on, we gotta get you back inside, get you cleaned up."
"Mark," she whimpered, her voice weak between sobs, "I've... I've been..."
He couldn't believe it - she was still so upset about him stumbling on the 'L' work that she wouldn't even listen. He grasped her head and lifted her tearful eyes to his stare. "It doesn't fucking matter, okay? You know I love you, and you're drunk. You've fucking poisoned yourself with that wine. Listen. We've get to get our story straight. All right?"
She looked back at him like she wanted to die.
"Leah..." he shook his head, knelt down on the soaking ground, and pulled her head against his chest.
She burst into sobs and crawled forward to push herself against him, her arms wrapping around him and her dirty muzzle pushed against the white of his shirt.
He blinked in shock. This was the worst he'd ever seen her and it sent panic and worry harder through him. He held her and let her cry for an agonizing minute, every second ticking past, then tried to pull her back from his chest.
Her arms clutched him harder and she pulled straight back in.
"Come on, Leah," he tried. "We need to get back to them. You need to get up. Come on." He moved his paws to her arms and then took hold under her shoulders. "Easy, now."
He hauled her up to her knees, and just then, for a moment, the strong scent of another male caught on the edge of one of his breaths. It was spiced like musk, or... he paused and snuffed for it, but it vanished under the smell of alcohol-soaked sick from her muzzle. Some dog must have taken a leak in the alley and the rain was washing it off.
Leah let him bring her to kneeling, then grasped his shoulders and brought one of her heels down to stand.
Mark hauled her upright and pulled her swaying form against him in the rain. "There. You all right?"
She just put her head back against his chest and sobbed, her entire weight held up in his arms, her feet unsteady in her shoes.
"Fuck," he breathed, his own eyes starting to sting. "I'm sorry, Leah. I didn't want to upset you like this. Don't cry. Come on, don't. You're fuckin' tearing me up here..." he swallowed hard and took a breath. "Look. I'll carry you back. I'll say you were sick, then you tripped and fell. And I had to take care of you. That's why we were out here for so long. Okay?"
"Mark," she whimpered, "I've..."
"Shush, come on." Mark leaned down, folded her knees over his arm, then hauled her up into his arms. A long grunt of effort left him, his muscles strained painfully hard after too many missed gym sessions, but he held her steady and set off towards the back of the restaurant.
Her arms wrapped around his neck and she sobbed against him, her face buried in his fur.
"Leah!?"
Mark stopped.
"Leah!?" the voice called again. It was her husband. It was Jake.
FUCK! Mark panted for air.Stick to the story. Stick to the plan."Leah," he whispered, his heart thumping in panic, his muzzle pushed down against her. "You remember what to say? You wandered down here, threw up, and fell over, right? I was taking care of you."
She sniffed between sobs, her sorrow seeming to finally drown itself out, but didn't nod or acknowledge him.
"Leah," he hissed, "nod if you're gonna remember!"
Her head pushed harder against his neck and then eased back.
"All right." Mark set off again and walked towards the restaurant. He reached the point where the alley curved and the halogen lights of the small courtyard came into view.
Jake stood between the plastic tables and chairs in the pouring rain, his head darting to scan the courtyard. "Leah!? Mark!?" His head turned and his eyes fixed to their shape in the dark alleyway. His whole body flinched and he bolted into a run straight towards them.
Mark carried her into the light and came to a stop.
"Leah!" Jake practically ran into them. His arms flew out and cradled Leah's head, his face a picture of open horror. That horror turned to Mark and the very first hints of thunderous rage shot into the husky's eyes. "What happened to her!?"
"Tripped and fell in the alley," Mark said in a rush, his face fallen. "Way too much wine - I think she'll be all right, though; she threw most of it up."
Jake stroked her head, trying to coax her to look around at him, but her head stayed buried in Marks orange and white fur.
Panic hit the fox, but a burst of pride followed it. She wasn't going to let him go even for her own husband. Mark stepped back, bent down, and lowered her feet to the pavement.
Leah stumbled and seemed to snap out of a daze. She clutched Mark, looked around at Jake, then burst into tears and lifted a paw towards him.
Jake stepped forward and pulled her away from the fox into a tight, close embrace.
A pang of anger flashed through him and his ears twitched down.She loves me, mutt. Not you.
Leah stared at the husky in the wall-size mirror in their main bathroom. The husky that wasn't her. The white-furred canine swayed in the tipping, spinning room with her shoulders hunched and her paws clutching her arms, her haunted, terrified stare fixed to Leah through the glass. The husky shook all over, her knees and bare feet turned in, her see-through dress and rain-soaked fur dripping onto the tiles, her black lingerie tight and damp against her matted, clumped fur.
The taxi ride was a blur of half-spoken words, Jake taking her shoes off, and his paws stroking her head. He'd half-carried her through the door, up the stairs, and asked her if she would be OK in the bathroom on her own.
She didn't remember nodding or giving an answer.
The husky stared at her on the edge of throwing up. The husky who'd been raped. She was so frightened and so deeply hurt that she couldn't do this. It was in her eyes - the horror of it, the memory still so sharp and real, the feeling of being overpowered and helpless...
A sob left her and the husky vanished into a blur. Leah lifted her paws to her face and sunk her claws against her skin, covering her eyes, and staggered over the tiles until her knees found the toilet.
She collapsed down on the closed lid and held her face while she cried. The rapist's male scents reeked from between her legs and lodged thick in her nose. His spunk was still inside her. She felt the wet fabric of her thong sticking to her and more of it seeping between her hot, stinging folds. Her pussy ached sore and sensitive from his hard fucking and a burning sensation itched at her inside.
What am I going to do? She shook her head against her paws and tried to keep her sobs quiet so Jake wouldn't hear.I need to call the police. I need to tell Jake.
The nausea came in a wave and Leah crawled off the toilet, knelt in front of it, opened the lid, and retched over the bowl. Nothing came up. She whimpered and retched again, and again, then hung her head and whined loud and long into the bathroom.
Footsteps approached the door. "Are you all right, honey?"
She whimpered and forced the word out. "No."
"Do you want an ant-acid?" Jake's muffled voice said. "Would that help?"
"No," she said, her voice broken and wavering. "It won't."
"Leah, you sound awful, are you really all right...?"
It lodged in her throat. This was the moment that she'd burst into wails and tell him.
"Leah?" The floorboards outside creaked and the door handle rattled. "If you need to go to hospital, you need to tell me, now."
"I'm..." she stared at her reflection in the small pool of water inside the toilet, the room moving all around her, the pain in her stomach gouged to the bone. "...I'll be... I'm..."
"Leah?"
Her drunk mind tried to focus and sickness welled through her. Mark had lied? There was something she had to remember. The story. Their cover. She couldn't tell Jake, because of their cover. No. If she told him, if he saw spunk inside her, he'd think it was Mark's, wouldn't he? He'd think they'd had sex outside and she was making up a story about a mixed-breed to cover them, because why didn't she tell either of them straight away-?
"Leah?" The handle rattled and the door thumped against the lock. "All you all right? Say something?"
"I'm... I think I'll be... okay," she whimpered
The handle stopped rattling. "...well, all right. Just open the door and shout if you need me - I'll be just down the hall." The floorboards creaked again and his footsteps went back towards the bedroom.
Leah shook her head. She'd done it. She'd lied, and now she could never tell him. "No," she whispered. "No..." It made her retch into the bowl again and then hang her head there with closed eyes.
She breathed. Holding onto the toilet like this was almost bearable. The world drifted and she hurt inside and outside, the alcohol slowly leaving her system. Eventually, she blinked her eyes open and found her cheek against the seat. The pounding headache and utter exhaustion made her whimper and push herself back to sitting on the tiles. Everything ached so much she just wanted to stagger to their bed and collapse.
But the rapist was still on her and inside her, and Jake would smell him if there wasn't any sick to overpower his scent.
She turned and focused her blurry eyes on the shower. The thought of the effort needed was horrendous, but she pulled the dress off over her head, unclipped her bra, then stood back up to stare into the mirror.
The rape victim looked back. Her breasts were covered with bites and scratches, her fur clumped and matted by claws and drool.
Leah reached down and pinched the sides of her thong. She pulled it down but the pad stayed stuck to her pussy - she had to peel it away from the dried cum in her fur and let it fall to the bathroom floor. Sniffing, shaking, she sat back down on the toilet with her feet up on her toes and spread her legs wide.
He was everywhere. The rapist's spunk stuck to her red, swollen pussy and inner thighs. The thick liquid had dried into her pubic fur where the rain hadn't got to it, and where it had, it glistened like he'd just put it in her. "No," she whimpered. It made her feel so filthy, so dirty, like she couldn't ever be clean again. She moved two fingers down and spread her hot, irritated folds open - a murky line of it seeped out of her and rolled down towards her ass.
What if he's given me something?_The panic came again, the same that had hit her when his bare dick had first sunk inside.She closed her eyes and went through the most common sexual infections in her head. None of them were all that dangerous, but some were irritating for women and others could make it harder for her to have puppies._No. No... oh god what if he has, what if I have... no, please no... I have to calm down. I have to wash it out and... go to bed.
Shaking harder now, she closed her folds against the seeping cum. He'd knotted in her and came twice so there would be a lot of it and it would be in deep. She picked up her lingerie and her dress, staggered into the shower, dropped them on the floor inside, and twisted the tap with her shaking paw.
The hot water blasted over her bare fur. She pressed her paws against the wall and leaned beneath it, her feet apart, her head hung and her muzzle open. All of the horrors of the night stayed inside but the filth ran in dark streaks from her fur. She grabbed the shower head and angled it up beneath her to wash herself out, lifting her leg and spreading her sore, tingling folds with her fingers, his sperm running down her thighs and swirling into the drain. She set the shower head back when it stopped coming out and emptied the entire the bottle of pink shampoo through her fur.
She was too exhausted and aching to scrub, so she just leaned against the tiles until the suds had left her shining like pure snow once again.
The pain came for her as soon as she stepped out. Her head pounded and she felt like death, but the rapist's scents were finally gone. The clothes were still in the damp cubical but she didn't care. She sat back on the toilet through the nausea and suffering and used the big, two-handed drier to blow-dry her fur.
Leah padded naked along the swaying, tipping corridor. The bedroom light was still on. She clutched the door frame and peered through.
Jake lay passed out on the bed still in his clothes, a glass and a packet of ant-acid laying on the covers beside him.
The adrenaline that had kept her thinking and moving was utterly gone. She stagged over the floor to the chest of drawers, picked out some plain white cotton underwear, and covered what the rapist had done to her before her husband could see. Then she climbed onto the covers, put her head on the pillow, and lay awake for an hour until the exhaustion overwhelmed the sickness and horror boiling in her gut.
"So... Mrs Allans. I understand this is an... emergency appointment?"
Leah blinked at the desk, her throat caught, her eyes on the verge of tears. "Yes."
"All right." Doctor Jackobs clicked the pen in his paw, the old feline's black fur shot through with white, and brought a piece of paper out of his lab coat. "You've had unprotected sex with a new partner recently, a partner who's sexual history you don't know. And that's the reason for your visit, yes?"
She kept her eyes on the desk. Jake had been gone when she'd woken up, a text on her phone apologizing and explaining he'd had to go to the office. For once she was thankful. "Yes."
"In the last week?"
"Yes."
"All right. How many sexual partners have you had in the last month?"
She thought it, tried to say it, then forced it out. "...Three."
The pen paused for a moment, then he wrote it down. "All right. And how many of those have you had unprotected sex with?"
Her cheeks heated and her voice lowered to a whisper. "All of them."
The pen stopped completely. "You really should use protection, Mrs Allans. The price of reduced sensation is a small one to pay. Now, which species?"
Leah swallowed. "A husky. And a fox. And..." her voice wavered and she sobbed a little, "...a mixed-breed. Canine."
"Leah?"
She looked up into the old doctor's eyes. He was searching her face, the pity and worry as plain as day. "If you've been... hurt, by someone. This is confidential and I can't make you go to the authorities, but..." he trailed off and shook his head.
She closed her eyes and hung her head. She wanted to cry and wail, to tell him everything, but the thoughts she'd woken up with were sharp in her mind - the police interrogating her, Mark, Jake, and Tess as soon as she got them involved. Picking her and Mark's lies apart and exposing every single one of them. So she just shook her head.
A long, deep sigh came from the other side of the desk. "All right. I can't make your decisions for you. I can only tell you that you should speak out if someone has done something to you. Now. Which was the new partner?"
"The mixed-breed canine," she whimpered.
"Are the husky and the fox both known, long-term partners?"
She drew a shaking breath. "Yes."
"Did this new canine partner tie inside you and ejaculate during unprotected sex?"
"...Yes," she whimpered.
He sighed, deep and resigned. "All right. I'll take you through the tests we're going to do and explain how long the results usually take. It should go without saying that you're not to have unprotected sex again until you've been given the all clear. Now, take one of the forms on the table by the door and follow me."
The door slammed through in the living room.
Leah flinched from her daze and looked down to the glass on the kitchen counter. She stood in house slacks - loose white shorts and a pink top. She hadn't even noticed that the aspirin had stopped fizzing.
"Honey?" Jake's voice called.
"Yes?" she replied, her voice stale and betraying.
"How are you feeling, any better?"
"A bit," she lied, her throat on the verge of catching. She swallowed and picked up the glass.
Jake walked through in his full business suit and gave her a sympathetic smile. "How's your stomach?"
She gulped a mouthful of the flat aspirin solution and tried to smile a little around it. "Still a bit sore."
He slipped his tie off, walked to her side, and then leaned on the counter. His smile faded. "Listen... I'm sorry I didn't take better care of you last night."
Leah swallowed again. She didn't trust herself to speak.
"It should have been me out there with you." He tried to smile again. "Holding your hair up while you got it all out."
She looked away. Her throat was so tight that she couldn't breathe.
"You smell nice." He sniffed louder. "I guess you wanted another shower or two after last night?"
She nodded. Her skin burned under her fur from all the scrubbing and they'd need new bottles of every kind of conditioner and shampoo.
"You're not embarrassed?" He laughed a little. "We've all done it. You've seen me after some of those executive dinners."
"No, it's, I just-" her throat caught and she gripped the counter harder.
He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. She embraced him back and cuddled into him, his business suit cool and smooth against her, and fought to hold the sobs inside.
"I'm sorry for getting upset last night." He squeezed her, protective and warm. "About your wardrobe malfunction. And your dress." His paws ran over her back under the thin material of her top. "You were jaw-dropping in it. I mean it."
She stared at the half-empty glass on the counter over his shoulder. She'd have to go and fish it out of the garbage.
"Come on." He pulled away but kept his paws on her shoulders. "I'll get the menus - we're having take-out."
Leah forced a smile. "Okay."
"That's better." He squeezed her shoulders, let her go, and went to fetch them.
"Ah, I'm beat after that." Jake reclined against her, his arm over her shoulders. The credits from the Sunday night film rolled up the screen in front of them.
Leah stared at the moving light. Her heart thumped and her stomach twisted around the four spring rolls she'd managed to get down.
His paw squeezed her shoulder and he turned to her. "Coming to bed?"
She winced inside and couldn't help lowering her shoulders. It was only half ten, and there could only be one reason why. She was still sore and irritated down there and the doctor's words rang inside her head.
"Mm?" His paw slid down between her back and the cushions and his muzzle came over to nudge at hers.
"I'm..." she glanced at him but had to look away, "...still not feeling great."
"Mm?" His muzzle nudged at her cheek. "I could make you feel better?"
Leah turned and nuzzled him back, but kept her eyes on the floor.How am I going to do this?
"See? I can." He licked her muzzle and moved closer against her side, the cushions shifting around them. "You were so sexy in that dress..."
The images, smells, sounds, and horror surged through her and the memory burst before her eyes - the rapist fucking her, holding her, panting on her, his voice groaning through his ecstasy:"So fucking sexy in those shoes, that dress..." She flinched back and brought her paw up.
"Hey?" Jake stared at her, shocked, his eyes wide. "What did I do?"
"S-sorry." She dropped her eyes to the couch. "I'm just... I don't..."
His paw moved back to her shoulder. "What is it?"
Her throat caught and tightened. Her eyes stung and she was going to cry if she didn't do something. She cleared her throat and forced clipped words through the pain. "I'm just tired. I just want to go to bed, okay?"
"Oh." He moved back. "Well, yeah. Okay." His paw rubbed her shoulder. "You go on then, if you want. I'll be up in a bit."
Leah nodded, leaned forward, licked his cheek once, then stood and fled upstairs.
Leah held her face and sobbed in the silence of the bathroom the next afternoon. The hurt hadn't lessened. It hadn't gone away.
Her phone buzzed and buzzed on the floor. A hundred unanswered texts from Mark blared in little red numbers on the icons and he hadn't stopped phoning for the last hour, so she'd put it on silent.
But it wouldn't stop buzzing. Rattling hard against the tiles, aggressive and angry. She didn't know how to turn that off.
Jake was at work and she had her yoga class at one. Mark usually met her down-town on his lunch break, his work close by, and they'd treat it like a fun, pretend date.
But she couldn't face it this time. But she couldn't miss her yoga, or Jake and all her friends would know there was something seriously wrong with her.
I need to tell someone, she thought, holding her head, the sobs uncontrollable._I can't bear this. I can't do this. I need help._Leah turned to her phone, picked it up, and stared at the 'answer' button as it vibrated in her paw. Mark's face smiled at her form the little contact picture.
Her claw touched the glass and hesitated.He'll make me go to the police._She sniffed and stared at the two icons - one for answer and one for hang-up._He'll go to them himself if I tell him.
Leah looked at his little picture, then slid her claw over to the red symbol and hung up on him without answering.