US’s Antony Blinken in India: Afghanistan, Covid, economic recovery on agenda

      Eric calmly walked down the street. Seeming normal to any casual passerby, but to anyone who really looked it was obvious he was torn to shreds inside. It had been a month since he really slept. The pit inside of him kept him from doing anything else than stare at walls and scrape by, his grades had dropped from straight A’s to C’s and low B’s, he had drifted away from his friends. The only thing that really kept him sane was hockey; he could get out most of his frustrations on the ice. The reason for his despair is because his parents and brother had just died. They were driving up to visit him at college and got crushed by a drunk driver who happened to be driving a semi on the wrong side of the road. They could hardly discern the bodies from the wreck after it was over.

He was walking down a random street that he didn’t remember turning onto. He looked in the window of the store and saw himself reflected in the glass. His medium length brown hair was a mess; the bags under his mahogany eyes were deep and dark. His skin was paler than it usually was, but it still had a natural tan to it. He stood hunched over, appearing much shorter than his six-foot three frame normally was. He wasn’t the strongest person around, but him playing a lot of hockey and kept him fit and strong.

“I wish mom were here, she’d tell me to get my shit together and look nice.” He thought to himself, a twinge of sadness crept into him at the thought.

“One month since I’ve been alone.” He took a step back and looked at the store. “Harland’s Antiquities” the lettering on the window said.

“I have a few hours to kill, and mom used to love looking in these little stores.”

He opened the door and stepped inside. The smell of old books and dust quickly assaulted his nostrils and he let out a loud sneeze.

“Oh! Do come in young man.” a Jovial old voice said to him. He turned to his left and he saw an old man, slouched over and walking on a cane come shambling up to him. “Names Harland.” he said extending his free hand, Eric took it and stared into the old man’s eyes. They were grey, almost colorless, but seemed to look deep inside him. He quickly averted his gaze, uncomfortable with the feeling. The man reminded him of the happy old grandfather image, telling stories to the young ones in a family.

“Names Eric, I just want to browse.” He said politely. “Oh please do.” Harland replied his voice seemed suddenly saddened; maybe he really did look into him Eric thought. “He wouldn’t really have to look deep.”, he was once again thinking to himself.

He watched Harland turn, and shamble to the back of the shop, must be where his office is or something. He walked slowly up and down the aisles, filled with miscellaneous junk from all parts and times of the world. He was towards the back of the shop when a small wooden jewelry box caught his eye. He carefully reached out and lifted it out of the shelf, a strange warmth emanated from the box that brought a small smile to Eric’s solemn face before being quickly smothered by his usual melancholic mask.

On the lid of the box three figures were dancing. The figures were very obviously feminine judging from the breasts they sported. The weird thing about them was that they weren’t completely human. One of them was Human from the waist up, but had a snake’s body for her lower half. Another had the ears and tail of a cat. And the third had two pairs of wings, one on her back, and one on her head, as well as a tail coming from her lower back.

He carefully lifted the lid and on the inside were three small jade figurines. Each one of them almost a copy of the drawing on the lid, they each were beautiful. They almost looked alive; the detail in them was astounding.

“I see you found the girls.” The Harland’s voice suddenly startled Eric and he almost dropped the box. “HeHeHe” the old man cackled “Be careful I don’t think they’d like being dropped.” Eric quickly closed the lid, and handed the box to Harland when he lifted his hand for it. Eric followed him to an old, 40’s style cash register. “I think it’s time to finally let them go, I’ve had them for a very long time.”

Eric tried stammering out that he didn’t want them, but the truth was he did, and he didn’t know why. “Shush” the old man quickly said, “I can tell that you’re very sad, it was obvious from the moment you came in here. You need them more than I do.” Eric once again tried to reject the offer, but once again the old man interrupted him. “Just give me enough money for one last meal, and then go home and live again, please.”

The sudden change in tone in the man’s voice gave Eric pause; it went from a stern fatherly tone, to one of sad desperation in an instant. He quickly pulled out his wallet and handed the man everything that was inside, around 60 dollars.

“Thank you, now go home and sleep it’s getting late.” The old man said, with obvious relief, switching to a father tone again towards the end.

Eric took the box and quickly left the store. He turned around to ask the man some questions, but the shades had already been drawn and the sign turned to CLOSED.

He turned down the street, clutching the box close to his side, and hurried home.

It was 30 minutes later when he managed to get back to his off-campus apartment. It wasn’t much, just a small kitchen, a tiny living room, and his bedroom. He quickly went into his bedroom and shut the door. He took the box out of the coast and started inspecting it again, the feeling of peace, happiness, and love once again emanated from the box. Eric clutched the box close to his heart, and reveled in the feeling. He hadn’t felt it since the last time he visited his parents and younger brother, his mom would always insist on tucking him in and giving him a goodnight kiss. A tear slid quietly down his cheek, after drawing a path from his eyes to his chink, it dripped onto the box, It was quickly absorbed and a small glow came from the spot before going away, unbeknownst to Eric.

He wiped his face and placed the box on his nightstand. He opened it up and looked at the beautiful figurines again. He took them out of the box and inspected each one individually. “They’re beautiful.” he said out loud to the empty room, “I love them already, they’ll make this crap of an apartment into a home, my little girls.” He could have sworn he saw the cat girl figure mouth twitch in a smile when he said that. After closely inspecting all three once again, and finding no difference from what he saw earlier he set them down again.

Suddenly tired, he quickly stripped and crawled into bed, he usually slept naked, it felt good and since he lived alone no one would accidentally see him. It was a Friday so he had no classes tomorrow and he could sleep in, if he actually was able to sleep at all. He lazily moved his hand to rest on the nightstand near the figures. He closed his eyes when the feeling came back to him, and smiled contently as he drifted off to sleep. But before he was completely gone, he could have sworn he felt three hands gently grab hold of his, and then he was out.

When he woke up it was midday. He felt better rested than he had been for the past month. Sometime during the night he had flipped over so he was lying face down. He slowly started to push himself up.

“Look he’s awake.” Someone said in the most sensual voice he had ever heard.

“Shush you’re going to scare him.” another female said in a voice that was as melodic as the one before was sensual.

He froze, not knowing what to do. He felt movement off to the side of the bed and slowly turned his head. He found himself looking at the most magnificent, golden eyes he had ever seen.

“GOOD MORNING SLEEPY HEAD!” the owner of those eyes said, her voice practically dancing with happiness and cheer. He screamed and in his effort to get up he fell off the other side of the bed, dragging the covers with him.

He quickly disentangled himself from the covers and stood up on unsteady feet. What he saw nearly made his eyes pop clear out of his head. In his room were the most beautiful women he had ever seen in his short 19 year old stay on planet Earth. Quickly shaking his head, he noticed that these women were not exactly as they seemed.

Kneeling on his bead, staring at him with the golden eyes that had startled him out of bed before, was a cat-girl. The first thing that Eric noticed was her hair, it was a beautiful golden blond that matched her eyes, but the thing that really shocked him was the cat ears poking out of her head. He looked at her face, simply put she looked extremely beautiful in a cute kind of way, her small nose, big eyes and cute lips spoke of innocence. He continued down her body, taking a rather long time in staring at her breasts. They looked like b-cups; they stood out proudly with small pink nipples capping them at the top. A flat stomach led to a small strip of hair led to her nice pink pussy. He couldn’t see it but judging from the rest of her body her ass was small and tight, and would look amazing up close. Her legs were long, sexy, and delectable. Eric blushed and quickly looked away when she stretched, accentuating all her curves. There was a thin covering of fur the same color as her hair covering her forearms, top of her hands, and lower legs and feet.

A soft giggling drew his eyes to the second creature in his room. The first thing that caught his eyes was her skin color, it was a deep scarlet, with black tribal tattoos covering the right side of her body. Whereas the cat-girl spoke of innocence, her face spoke of grace and power. Deep red eyes the color of her skin stared intently at him, a small smile on her black lips. Her long, very long jet-black hair framed her face. Eric nearly lost his eyes again when he saw her breasts, they were huge! At least a D-cup they stood without a hint of sag, black nipples poking out of the red skin. Eric kept examining her body, her muscles were graceful to anyone who looked quickly, but if someone looked closer they could tell they contained a hidden strength. Eric looked at her pussy, her black lips were swollen with arousal, or at least he thought so, his experience with women left much to be desired. Eric did a double take when he tried looking at her legs. Whereas instead of two human legs, a gigantic black snake tail took their place. Eric tried finding the end of it but it was hidden by his bed, it must have been at least 15 feet long. Eric must have stared for a bit longer than was polite because he was suddenly interrupted by a hand grabbing his shoulder.

“If you kept staring at my sisters like that, you’re gonna miss little old me.” Someone said in the first voice he had heard when he woke up.

He slowly turned around and standing not two feet away from him was perfection. Whereas the cat-girl spoke of innocence, and the snake-women spoke of grace and power, this one utterly oozed sex. Her eyes were sapphire blue and seemed to stare directly into his soul. Her skin was flawless, white with a very slight tan. Long snow-white hair extended from her head. But the thing that shocked Eric was the small pair of white wings that came out of her head, matching her hair color. He looked at her face again; her full pink lips that would look great wrapped around a cock were smiling at him a knowing smirk. She flirtatiously licked her lips, making Eric blush and look down. Big mistake, if the snake-women’s breasts were huge, these were gargantuan.

Eric once again found himself on his ass when his knees gave out at the sight, drawing giggles from all three of them. Continuing his examination, he couldn’t find anything that didn’t speak of sex about her, she wasn’t very tall, maybe 5’6, but her massive breasts capped with pink nipples didn’t seem out of place, standing tall with no sag they seemed at home. He body drew into a small waist and flared out again at the hips.

She pirouetted knowingly, giving Eric an amazing view of her amazing ass. It was best described as a bubble-butt Eric thought to himself. But the thing that drew his gaze were the large, white, bat like wings that extended form her lower back, as well as a pointed tail from just above her ass. Her pussy was obviously aroused, swollen and her love juice was dripping down her thigh to make a wet spot on the ground. She extended a hand to Eric and he grabbed it. Where her skin touched his hand a tingling electric sensation came to him.

After regaining his feet, he still had no control over his mouth, and couldn’t utter a single word. “Aren’t you going to say hello?” the perfection in front of him asked. “Or should we let this head do the talking” she said as her hand grasped the head of his cock that he only now realized was rock-hard.

Eric quickly pushed her hand away and tried stammering out a response, “uhh…. What.. who.. where… how…”

The snake women laughed melodically and said in an equally graceful voice, “What’s the matter? We don’t bite.” And she playfully snapped her jaws to illustrate her point, showing her snake-like fangs as well.

“Awwww I think its kinda cute when he’s like this.” The cat girl said from his bed, in the same joyful voice that so shocked him out of bed earlier.

Eric cleared his throat and once again tried to formulate an actual sentence. “ummm, can I ask what you three are doing in my room?”

All three broke out in laughter, “I think the real question is what we aren’t going to be doing in your room.” The winged beauty said sexily.

“Ooohh I can already think of a few good ideas of what we can be doing later.” the snake women added.

“Don’t be so naughty sisters, he’s obviously confused.” the cat girl followed.

That much was true. Eric quietly asked “Ladies ummm, please let me out of this room I think I need something to drink.”

All three of them quickly left the room heading in the direction of the living room and kitchen. Eric slowly followed, his head still reeling. He made his way to the kitchen to find the snake-women curled around the sofa, her head resting on the back of it, staring at him intently. The winged girl and cat-girl were sitting at the small table in the middle of the kitchen.

Eric went over to a cabinet and pulled out a glass, and poured it full of orange juice from the fridge. He sat down opposite the two beauties, who were staring at him intently.

“Ummm, what are your names?”

“Wow the first person in 700 years who wanted to know our name before he fucks us.” The snake women said.

“Oh shush sister” the cat girl said quickly before turning to Eric,” I’m sorry for my sisters this is obviously confusing for you.”

“That’s an understatement.”

“Well my names Christy, the succubus to my left is Lilith, and the echidna lamia out on your couch is Bella.”

Eric sat there for a second, trying to make sense of this. “Thank you Christy, my name is Eric Cunningham. Can I ask how you guys came to be in my room when I woke up?”

“Oh, Don’t be silly!” the cat girl said while giving him a slight smack on the side of the head, “The figurines, our old owner passed them us onto you, he saw you needed some love in your life and we were the best choice for that.”

“Love?” Eric asked confused.

“Sheesh silly! You said it to us when you took us out last night”

Suddenly remembering his words from the previous night Eric shook his head. “I didn’t think it would actually mean anything. People just say things like that sometimes.”

“It wouldn’t have normally but you actually meant it so with the combination of that and your tear it was enough to unlock the magic of the box and set us free so we could be here with you. Originally only a wizard could free us with his magic, but I can’t feel any from you so it must be something different.”

“Your old master was Harland? The guy from the shop?”

“Yes and no, he didn’t have the power or the need to free us of the binding, so we just appeared to him as some old statues that managed to curve people’s emotions to generally be happy and peaceful. The last person to free us like this lived in the 1700s.”

Eric nodded at this, still trying to get his head on straight.

“Are you from here, like Earth?”

She let out a small giggle at that. “Yes and no, we are from a version of it. About 2500 years ago we were pulled from our world buy a wizard and bound to the figurines and the box, it was a good arrangement because our masters could give us the energy needed to sustain us in this world and keep us alive and happy, and in turn we would serve him. It’s a good deal.”

“Well, ummm, ok then. I don’t really know what to make of this.”

“Take your time you have a few hours to decide whether you want us or not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we are bound to the box and you freed us. So in order to live free of the box for a time we have to be bound to you.”

“And how do we do this binding.”

Suddenly coming from the living women Bella replied, “WE FUCK!”

“What?” Eric asked, not sure if he heard correctly.

“Oh you heard correctly our little man, all three of us in bed with you, doesn’t that make you horny? I know it makes me, I’ve barely been able to control myself since you woke up this morning.” The succubus said, sex dripping from her voice.

“Yea I noticed Lilith, that wet spot on my carpet is probably not going to dry for a week.” To his surprise the succubus actually blushed at that. The melodic laughter came again from the snake-women, “He got you’re there Lily, hahaha.” Bella said in-between bouts of laughter.

“See Eric, you’re getting comfortable around us already.” Christy said with a smile, laying one of her small hands over Eric’s. Eric hesitated for a little bit, before turning over his hand and interlacing his fingers with the cat-girl’s.

“I’m going to go take a shower, and think for a little bit, there’s food in the fridge if you get hungry, as well as snacks in the pantry. “

“Ok Eric, you go and think, us three have to talk.”

Eric smiled, the first one of his own accord in a month. He stood and headed towards the shower, humming a song along the way.

He must have spent 30 minutes in the shower before turning it off. He wrapped a towel around himself, suddenly realizing he had been talking to the girls naked. “Well, they didn’t seem to care.” Eric said to himself.

As he went to open the door he could hear the voices slightly.

“I like him guys, I think we’ll be really happy here.” Christy said in her always joyful voice.

“I know I will be, did you see the size of his cock? That thing could definitely pound me into next week.” Lilith said. That thought brought a blush to Eric’s cheeks, and a torrent of blood to his cock.

“That’s all you think about sister.” Bella said “But it’s obvious he’s sad about something, it hangs above him like a cloud. We have to do something, seeing him like that is tearing me apart.”

“I know, I know, I just don’t know how to bring up the subject with him. I don’t want to hurt his feelings and make him resent us. This is the first time since we came here that I actually want to bind with someone. All the other guys just wanted our bodies, but he wants us, I can feel it. It was a different magic that released us this time.” Christy said her voice suddenly very serious.