Anansi

Written by By Toluwani

(Note: Oxa is pronounced Osha)

At 6:35 am, the sun snuck in through the window and alighted on Anansi’s face. She awoke with a start, already on her feet, naked, and covered in cobweb. Yawning, she stretched her arms towards the wooden beam attached to the ceiling, grazing it with her fingertips. 

Anansi was 1.9 meters tall—6 feet and 2 inches—and her skin nearly matched the dark black of the thick long locs that hung down to her waist. She was beautiful and she knew it. She absentmindedly wiped the strings of silk off her arms and torso and wandered lazily into the kitchen. 

“Good          morning         Anansi,” Oxa greeted her. 

“Good morning, Oxa” Anansi replied, bending her knees slightly out of habit. 

Although Oxa could not see her, they sensed the bow, and it pleased them. Oxa had been blind for almost 10 years now. There wasn’t much doctors could do to restore the sight of a Black, immigrant, uninsured elder, but Oxa didn’t mind. They always saw differently, and this gift sharpened as their physical eyes weakened. 

Anansi brought out her favorite mushroom mug out the cabinet and popped a pod into the coffee machine. The ting of ceramic landing on the counter and the dribble of coffee resounded like echoes in Oxa’s ears. They stood facing Anansi across the kitchen island, clutching a cup of hot tea between their long thin fingers. They seemed just as tall as Anansi (although they were really half a meter shorter) and their skin was as dark as hers, but thin and scaly all over—especially on their bald head. Their eyes were coated with a white film so opaque they seemed to glow.

“I       see      you        Anansi.” 

Oxa spoke in a low croak, with lots of space between their words just like that. 

“You         must        feed        soon        or    lose       control       of        your       self.”

It was that time of the month again. Full moons gave Anansi intense cravings, leaving her soaking in sweat, moaning, cursing, clawing at her web. They imbued her with strong visions of thick thighs wrapped around her waist, fingers clutching at her back, teasing breaths tickling her ear.

The full moon that approached this time was unique. It was an intense lunar eclipse in Scorpio. Her cravings under its influence had left her vigorously humping the arm of the couch and passed out on the living room floor with both hands in her panties, panting and in frenzy, soaked in cum and squirt. 

Anansi bit her lower lip in embarrassment, so quickly and forcefully she pierced it with her canines and drew blood. 

“Oh shit,” she whispered loudly, licking up the blood with her tongue. The tiny wounds healed over as she spoke. “You’re right, Oxa. It is time.”

She was usually good about satisfying her cravings with late night trysts with female friends and strangers she met at bars and clubs, but once or twice a year, she needed more. She could no longer resist. It was time to go out and find something, someone, to fill the hunger. Suddenly she smiled a big vampire smile, imagining what the night would bring. 

The pub was full of people mostly in their 20s and early 30s. Anansi stood at the bar, taking in her surroundings. She had a bit of the gift Oxa had that enhanced the senses—largely olfactory for Anansi. She could smell every distinct scent: cinnamon, sweat, draft beers and cocktails marinating on peoples’ tongues. She filtered those out in search of her favorite: the scent of fresh blood, sweet and pungent, that flowed out of the human vagina of its own volition. It was coming strongly from the northeast, from a small dark woman with a big purple afro. Her hair complemented the gold and purple bodysuit that Anansi wore. Anansi did not believe in coincidences. 

The odor pleased and intrigued her. She herself would never be out and about with such a heavy flow, but she didn’t sense too much pain from the woman’s body. Another smell came to her—of silicone—and Anansi knew that her new crush was wearing a menstrual cup to hold the blood. Perfect. She did not mind sucking on tampons but could never get all the blood out. And cotton pads were just annoying. When she tore them apart, the stringy bits would get stuck in her throat and teeth. What a waste. 

Anansi stared at the purple-haired woman now, admiring her doe eyes and high cheekbones with so much intensity that she did not see the bartender approaching her until he spoke.

“Anansi.”

“Jude!” she exclaimed softly, in surprise. “Aw, it’s been so long.”

“Found something you like, huh?” he teased, having followed her gaze. 

They smiled at each other, holding steady eye contact. They were always flirty like this, to one another’s satisfaction. Anansi got free drinks and Jude, an inflated ego. He knew she’d never have sex with him; he wasn’t her type. And he knew that she fed. But he still yearned for her and found pleasure in having her attention. 

“It has been so long,” he affirmed. “I missed you. How’s the fam?”

“Everything is well with Oxa. They are strong and healthy. May even outlive me.”

Oxa had outlived many of their descendants. Death nourished them. They fed on human decay— dead skin cells and loose hairs, to name a few—in an invisible, passive process. Oxa inhaled the spoil and exhaled methane. They needed only that and water to live, but Anansi needed fresh human blood and living flesh to touch her, please her, feed her. It was a dangerous and thrilling existence. She was blessed to have been born so beautiful; it made it easy to attract prey. 

“And you, Jude, how’ve you been?”

“Oh, you know, same shit here, but I’ll be moving to a new apartment at the end of this month. Bushwick, baby.”

“Oooou from the Bronx to Brooklyn. Congrats boo. You’re a gentrifier now.”

“Nah stop playin’. I’m hood and I always will be. Now watchu want, shawty?”

Anansi snickered and Jude blushed, anticipating a tease. 

“Aw, it’s too bad you’re white. I’ll take a mojito babe. Add some tequila in there for me, too, okay? I’m going to ask that pretty woman over there what she likes to drink. I’ll be right back.”

“Pleasure to be of service,” Jude called back. 

As she walked, Anansi stimulated within herself pheromones that would attract her crush and keep her under her spell. The purple haired lady looked up as Anansi drew near, and the chatter at the table subsided. Other humans inevitably succumbed to her seduction, too, but Anansi focused on her crush and crouched down slightly to speak to her. 

“Hey, I just wanted to say I love your hair. You’re very beautiful.”

The lady took her in, surprised that she was speaking to her. Most people responded that way. Silent for a few moments, mesmerized. 

Then she replied in a sultry voice that aroused Anansi. 

“You’re beautiful. Very beautiful.”

Her friends murmured in agreement and eyed each other in anticipation. 

Anansi smiled. “Could I ask for your name?”

“I’m Crystal. And you?” She held out her hand to Anansi, who lifted it gently towards her lips for a kiss. 

“Nice to meet you, Crystal. I go by Anansi. Could I get you another drink?”

A few more people in the bar began to eye the pair. The girls and the gays were pleased with what they saw. Crystal sensed their gazes, too, and it amused her. She was excited to have the attention of a goddess. Her mind raced imagining how the night could now go. Anansi was so fucking sexy. 

She could smell Crystal’s arousal and sensed her heart rate jump as the walls of her vagina squeeze tightly around the menstrual cup and release. Anansi’s locs shivered slightly out of pleasure, giving a slight sway that was barely noticeable. That rarely happened, and almost never in public. People noticed more than they give themselves credit for. They’d perceive her difference and treat her as alien, and Americans don’t like aliens. Anansi was usually more cautious about her expressions, but Crystal excited all eight of her senses. Maybe it was the lunar eclipse, too. Anansi reminded herself that she could not just taste Crystal and drink of her blood. This moon made her hungry, daring, desiring, almost ravenous. She had to feed. There was a small tug at her human conscience, a small voice that said she should not take the body of someone so lovely, but Crystal quieted that voice when she spoke again. 

“Yes, Anansi, I would love a drink. Something sweet. Surprise me.”

Anansi’s body warmed with the heat of arousal. “Yes, my queen.” 

En route to the bartender, she suppressed her seductive pheromones and released an imperceptible scent that would slightly repel Crystal’s friends and other bystanders. This was necessary, as her beauty alone always drew unsolicited attention from humans, especially men. Any distractions from her feeding were not just annoying, but deadly. The scent would not affect Crystal, who was bound to Anansi the moment she touched her lips to her skin. 

When she returned, the friends scooted closer to one another to make room for her and quickly turned away. She sat close to Crystal, touching her thigh to hers. 

“Mmmm, strawberry margarita.”

“Do you like it?” 

“I love it.” 

“Good,” Anansi replied, and licked her own lips lustfully. “I’ve never seen you here before. Is it your first time at this pub?” 

“Yeah actually. We usually just stay around Brooklyn, bar hop in Bushwick, Bed-stuy, that area.”

“Well, I’m glad you came to the city tonight. I like you.”

Crystal smiled around the straw between her lips, and Anansi broke eye contact with her to stare at them again. She wanted her now. 

“Where are you from?” Crystal asked her.

“West Africa. What you would call Ghana, but those colonial borders are bs. How about you?”

Crystal nodded and smiled in affirmation. “My family is from North Carolina, the South, but I’ve received visions that I have ancestors from Ghana and Sierra Leone. Maybe that’s part of why I’m so drawn to you. You’re my kinfolk.”

Anansi chuckled at her wisdom and stretched her left arm behind her. Oxa had said something similar to Anansi decades ago, when she began to go through the changes.

“You      will      suffer      a    hunger     and     thirst     that     no      food    nor    drink   can    satisfy.      Only      your   blood     will      nourish    you.” 

It took her many months of feeding to realize that her prey was always part of her own bloodline, many generations and continents removed. It was an honorable sacrifice for her human kin to nourish those like her, although most of them no longer knew it. 

“It’s likely, although I don’t condone incest,” Anansi joked. 

“Lol not incest. But for real, I know people from back home who fuck their cousins. ‘Twice removed,’” she mocked, making air quotes with her fingers, “or whatever, but it’s still nasty. That’s part of the reason why I moved up North. People are weird out here, too, but in a cool way. And it’s more peaceful. I have my own space, I can get around more easily, and there’s so much to do all the time, I could never be bored.” 

She paused to look up at Anansi, who had leaned in closer and gazed at her in amusement. Crystal blushed. “Sorry I’m talking so much, this liquor making my tongue loose.”

“Don’t be sorry. I like the sound of your voice.” Anansi was also glad to hear that she had no family living close by. That eased Oxa’s task of cleaning up Anansi’s tracks, although nothing was ever difficult for them. They were a god in flesh. 

Crystal took another sip, finishing her drink. “So yeah, I really want to visit West Africa someday and find and create kin there. When’s the last time you went?”

A century ago, Anansi thought, but she stayed silent for some time, teasing Crystal with her gaze, letting her words pull at her human conscience again. If Crystal went home with Anansi tonight, she’d never see Ghana in the flesh. On the other hand, Oxa could make sure her spirit arrived there safely. 

“A while ago, but let’s talk about that another time,” Anansi replied, quickly turning impatient. She usually savored in the game of seduction, sensing her preys’ heart rate and breath slow down as they relaxed and became more comfortable with her, but her craving was too strong.

“I like you a lot.” She lifted Crystal’s thigh to rest on top of hers, tracing her bare skin lightly with her fingers. “Tell me how to please you.”

Crystal licked her lips and responded slowly, thoughtfully, pausing between each sentence. 

“I like you too.         I like how direct you are.            I like that you approached me.          You seem dominant.                I like to be dominated.”

“You like to be bitten? Choked? Tied up?” 

“Yes, yes and hell yes. I usually wouldn’t do all that with someone I just met. Maybe it’s the liquor. But also, there’s something unique about you.”

“Yeah?” Anansi questioned, sneaking her hand up Crystal’s skirt and tickling the skin close to her crotch. Her vagina clenched around her cup again. The tension was almost unbearable.

“Yeah. I am on my period, though, so things would get messy. I hope that doesn’t bother you.”

“Not at all. I am unique. And very into blood play.”

“A dom with a blood kink,” Crystal chuckled. “Lucky me.”

Anansi chuckled, too. “I’d do unspeakable things to you.           Would you like to come over?”

“I would love that.”

Crystal said goodbye to her friends, Anansi said goodbye to Jude, and they left the bar. They walked hand in hand to the train station, with Anansi towering over Crystal, who was only 5 feet tall. They sat silently for most of the ride home, playing with each other’s’ hands while Crystal nestled her head in Anansi’s shoulder; with just a few stops on the F from Lower Manhattan to Brooklyn, it wouldn’t take too long.  

Anansi’s body grew warmer as they neared her stop. She reached her left hand to grip Crystal’s inner thigh, and turned her lips to her ear to whisper, “I can’t wait to eat your pussy.”