Corroboree by Graham Masterton

bring to a finish this strange and suddenly frightening act of passion; and exorcise the devils that had arisen in both of them, tongues and forks and fire, to stoke up their lust.
    Eyre shifted his weight forwards, kneeling on the back of her dress, trapping her, and forcing her thighs apart, indecently wide. She released her hold on him, and desperately clutched at the blanket, and at the fragments of loose bark on the ground; and she thrashed her head from side to side in perplexity and fear and mounting desire. What was happening to her? She felt as if she were actually alight. She was going mad! Was this what it was like to go mad? She was burning! But she was chilled, too, sharply: she could feel the chill between her wide-apart thighs, exciting and terrifying at the same time. And Eyre was pushing against her, pushing and pushing, and urging himself into her. Not that! It was far too big! It would kill her, it would split her apart! It was like a huge crimson truncheon!
    And then Eyre had fiercely grasped both of her shoulders, and tugged her towards him; so that the enormous crimson truncheon was forced right up between her legs; and she shrieked and shrieked at the top of her voice,scattering parrots and jacks and galahs all through the trees in a furious explosion of wings and feathers.

Three
    A window banged; and then a door. Then they heard somebody shouting in dialect. ‘
Naodaup?
What’s the matter?
Unkee
. A woman.
Tyintin
. Stay there.’ And then something about searching in the trees—‘
Tuyulawarrin!
’
    Eyre was already on his feet, swiftly buttoning up his britches. Charlotte banged at her upraised dress with her fists, as if it were a disobedient puppy that refused to lie down. She was panting, and whimpering, embarrassed at her own panic, and furious at Eyre for allowing her to humiliate herself. ‘You shouldn’t have done!’ she kept flustering. ‘Eyre, you
shouldn’t!
’
    Eyre tightened his belt, and then knelt down beside her again. He felt shaky and breathless, and so irritable at having been interrupted right at the very instant of possessing her that his teeth were on edge, as if he had been biting lemons.
    Charlotte held on to his sleeve. ‘I told you I didn’t know what was supposed to happen,’ she persisted. ‘You shouldn’t have done it, Eyre! It hurt so much!’
    â€˜You were frightened, that’s all,’ said Eyre, taking her wrists and trying to coax her on to her feet. ‘It doesn’t usually hurt, not like that. Usually, it’s the most marvellous thing you can imagine. But you’re right. I shouldn’t have led you on. Not here; and not tonight.’
    â€˜I just didn’t
know,
’ Charlotte told him; and now she started to weep.
    Eyre heard dogs barking, over by the stable-block. ‘Come on, now,’ he said. ‘Your father’s let the hounds out. We don’t want to be caught here. Is there any way you can get back to your bedroom without him seeing you?’
    Charlotte sniffed, and blew her nose on her little lace handkerchief. ‘I think so. Once I get back through the garden gate, I can go along the ha-ha until I reach the kitchen. Then I can go up the back stairs.’
    â€˜Well you’d better hurry in that case,’ said Eyre. ‘It sounds as if he’s brought out the whole pack. And if they can catch a red kangaroo, they can certainly catch us.’
    â€˜Eyre,’ said Charlotte, lifting her face, wet with tears, to kiss him. ‘Eyre, I’m sorry. You must think me so ridiculous.’
    He kissed her, and then held her head close to his cheek, his fingers buried in her curls. ‘It’s my fault. I love you now and I always will. Now, please, you’d better go.’
    The hounds were being led around the side of the house now, yipping and snapping. Eyre took Charlotte’s arm and guided her swiftly to the garden gate; where he