Britney stepped through the door of the cabin she’d rented with her twin for the weekend, a lovely little wood log structure with a spattering of cross-framed windows hidden deep in the woods. Neither of them were particularly looking forward to being pursued by a cloud of mosquitos, but they both desperately needed the time away from their regular lives. Her twin, Reyna, had managed to bring along a bottle of champagne for the both of them along with a bottle of her favourite rosé wine hidden among the belongings she’d brought.
There were two bedrooms, each with a double bed topped with an old set of blankets that looked as though they were from a grandma’s spare room – these little places always seemed to do that. Between the two rooms was a common area and kitchen, but they each had their own en-suite bathroom. They both hurriedly scoured around the cabin, exploring inside empty cabinets and checking in drawers to see if anyone had left anything behind, or find extra pillows and blankets, eventually finding satisfaction in the fact that everything was empty.
Reyna followed Britney into the left hand bedroom and began jumping on the bed, shoes and all. She had leather boots that rode up half way to her shins that were thankfully still pretty clean, tied with criss-crossed laces that were wound into pretty little bows at the front. A baggy pair of petite shorts hung low on her hips and sagged out over her thighs, held in place by a thick tan belt. On her torso she had a boob tube and a vest on top, a dark shade of red to match her twinkling eyes and ruby teardrop necklace.
As she bounced up and down the bed creaked fiercely beneath her, groaning and roaring like an angry opossum. She managed to get a fair bit of air time, but nearly broke the bed in the process. When she was satisfied with the springiness, she bounced up high and landed on her back, spreading her arms and legs out and landing her head on the pillow. As she landed with her full weight, there was a slight crack from the wood beneath the mattress.
“I’m guessing that’s your bed now that you’ve broken it?” Britney bemoaned her twin. She put her hands on her hips and furrowed her brow in frustration.
“No, this one has your name on it!” Reyna laughed. “I’m just… testing it, that’s all.”
Frustrated, Britney went through the living room to her own room and dropped her bag down on the bed. It was a nice enough room, it was just to sleep in anyway, so it didn’t need to be particularly fancy. They’d be spending most of the time covered in mosquito spray wandering around the woods, or swimming, or cycling, exploring the beauty and majesty of the nature around them.
In the surrounding area there were a handful of other cabins inhabited by fellow holidaymakers, but they were too far from each other to be able to hear the other cabins, and a thick band of trees separated the grounds of each one. They didn’t have a pool, but there was a little hot tub. Nonetheless, the girls had agreed to go swimming in the lake and had mentioned taking a canoe out at some point. It didn’t matter what they did — they were there to have fun, to relax, and enjoy each other’s company while they had the chance.
“It’s beautiful here.” Reyna mentioned, calling through the open doorway to Britney’s bedroom as she flopped down on one of the ancient sofas that had seen better days. She grabbed the remote control from the scratched coffee table and tried to turn on the TV, but the reception was horrible. It hadn’t been programmed properly either, having a grand total of four channels. Sports, 24-hour news, a shopping channel, and for some reason a blurry religious broadcasting channel.
Nothing that could hold her interest for long enough. She rolled her head back in frustration, wondering what else she could do in the meantime. Her dome lolled to the side and spied her sister unpacking. They’d only be there for the weekend, so unpacking and putting clothes away seemed a little futile. She wore a blue tunic that was cut into a diagonal to drape over one side of her hips, exposing the other. She wore three-quarter-length khakis and a little pair of cream pumps on her sockless feet, and a faux lily was pinned to the tunic between her ample breasts. She held up another blue top as Reyna stared, folding it up and slipping it carefully into one of the drawers next to the bed.
“You know we’re only here for two nights? Tonight and tomorrow, then we’re going home Sunday?” She questioned. “We’re not moving in here or anything.”
Britney turned back to look over her shoulder. “It makes me feel comfortable…” she said, sliding the drawer closed and walking in to join her twin. “You’re too homely, just relax, that’s why we’re here.” Reyna responded casually.
“So what’s the first thing we do?” Britney asked. Reyna was usually the more outgoing of the two, the bossy one who made all the decisions, so she deferred to her judgement.
“I think…” she muttered, grumbling and groaning as her mind strained trying to figure out what she wanted to do. “I think I want a nap. I’ve been driving all day, so that’s the first thing. Maybe crack open that champagne later and take a dip in the hot tub?”
Britney had already had a nap in the car on the way there, her head pressed against the window and her mouth wide open as she snored serenely, if a little undignified. She knew that her sister loved to sleep and would often get grouchy if she wasn’t allowed to get enough rest, so she decided that she’d let her get her nap in.
“I think… I’ll go for a swim, in that case.” Britney suggested. Reyna stood up and took drawling steps over to her room, pulling off her top in full sight of Britney, sliding down her shorts and jumping back into the bed. Reyna peeked up from the covers and watched as Britney stood. “Wake me up when you get back, then. Take your time.”
She went back to her room and rifled through the belongings that she’d brought, but she couldn’t find the swimsuit. Checking the bag again she saw that it was empty — she went back to the drawers… there was nothing there. She started to panic and darted out the front door to check the back of the car to see if it had somehow fallen out, but there was nothing there at all.
Disappointment washed over her. She was so determined to swim, and now she couldn’t. She took a spare towel from the back of the car and peered into the distance, gazing at the dappled sunlight sparkling on the surface of the lake nearby. She could sunbathe, maybe have a nap herself, she reasoned.
With that, she made her way across the softly sloping grassy banks down to the water’s edge. There was no sand but a beach littered with small pebbles and smooth rocks, eroded over thousands of years. There were a lot of pretty pebbles to be found and Britney eyed their banded colours and speckles, their smooth shapes beautiful shimmering flecks of quartz embedded within as she made her way to a flat spot where she could lay down the towel.
She kicked off her shoes and glanced around as she lay down on the towel. There was nobody else around. Just trees and birds, a squirrel darting up a tree in the distance, and a few insects buzzing about their business. The cheeping and chirping of nature around her seemed so serene, so peaceful, brought into a rhythmic harmony alongside the soft hushing of the water’s edge against the rocks and the gasping yawn of the breeze that blustered through the clearing in the trees.
Maybe, she wondered, she could get away with swimming after all. With nobody around, she could go skinny dipping with no problems. Nobody would see, and not even Reyna needed to know. She gave it a few minutes, waiting and watching, listening in case anybody approached. When her confidence had grown to the point she was sure enough that nobody was going to approach, she gave a sly smile and crossed her arms over her front, tugging at the bottom of her shirt and pulling it over her head in one smooth motion. With fiddling fingers, she untied her belt and let her khakis drop to the floor, leaving her in a matching set of lacy blue undergarments.
With a shy blush across her face, she looked around again making absolutely certain nobody was around. Even just in her panties and bra, she would hate for somebody to come along and see her. It wouldn’t have been such an issue if she was in an actual swimming costume which showed just as much flesh, but the dissonance was lost on her. With slow, deliberate movements, she inched the panties down her smooth, rounded legs to her feet. She kept her thighs together, hiding herself in case somebody happened upon her like this. Finally, she pulled her hands behind her back and removed the bra as well.
The stones beneath her feet were prodding at her soles and burning her skin from the day’s heat but as her toes touched the cool, refreshing water, she breathed a sigh of relief. If was a little too cold to just jump into so with careful tip-toed steps she waded her way in inch by inch.
‘This isn’t so bad’ she thought to herself, swimming a little way out into the lake’s crystal clear waters and turning back, surveying the horizon in case anybody came by. It wasn’t long until she’d given up checking, safe in the knowledge that nobody was coming by. She began to work her way around the edge of the lake, inspecting the different shores and trees and enjoying her time swimming and paddling along in the waters. It was so refreshing, so liberating to have her open skin against the water. She felt at peace with her body, and at one with nature.
The sun eventually began to slip behind the fluffy canopies of the trees in the distance, painting an orange hue over the horizon. She hadn’t noticed but her fingers had grown withered and wrinkled from her extended time in the waters. Perhaps she’d spent long enough in there, she reasoned, so she eyed the shoreline for the place she set off from and made her way back.
As she waded out of the waters, her fears rose as she realised all of her belongings were gone. No towel, no phone, no shoes or panties, no bra nor skirt nor top. Everything had vanished. Her hands started to tremble at the thought of somebody coming by and taking her clothing, perhaps even standing there and watching her swimming around nude. Her face grew flushed with blood as she began to blush, fear overtaking her and flooding her veins with adrenaline. She needed to get back to the cottage now.
Her surroundings had begun to grow dark, but she had a general idea of the direction she was supposed to head in so she set off, huddled over to make herself as small as possible as not to get seen by onlookers. Instinctively, her arms wound around her breasts and a hand covered her groin as she hobbled across the rocks onto the dirty, gritty ground that soon gave way to lush, long grass that tickled her legs as she shuffled past it.
She came upon a lodge with lights on and the sound of merriment and revelry coming from outside, echoing around the trees. Little billows of smoke puffed up from a BBQ and a middle-aged man with a beer in one hand and a spatula in the other was laughing with his friends while flipping burgers.
Britney needed to make her way past. There were some tall bushes that she wouldn’t be able to make her way past, thorny and sharp, so she had little other choice but to skip through the grounds of their cottage. Cautiously, slowly, she crept along the lines of the bushes and hedgerows, speeding up as she moved from the cover of one to the next. Abruptly, somebody from their party called out.
“Hey, Eddie! I think I saw something move over there.” Came a woman’s voice.
She couldn’t see their faces, but the way their gloomy outlines moved told her that they were all looking her way. Her heart pounded at fear of getting caught and having to explain the situation while completely nude to a group of strangers. She could feel the immense heat coming from her cheeks as she burned up with a heady mixture of fear and embarrassment.
“No — no, no no…” she whispered to herself, her eyes darting around for her next move. She kept glancing over to the group, and noticed that one of them was approaching cautiously, their eyes fixed firmly on the location of the quivering bush behind which she crouched.
There wasn’t much other choice, she had to make a break for it. She darted off as fast as her bare feet would take her, twigs and rocks biting at her feet as she ran with impunity. Eddie, the man with the beer began to give chase.
“Come back here! I don’t bite!” He shouted to her, watching her movements through the bushes rustling.
“What is it?” the lady called again.
“I don’t know, but it’s big! Could be a deer?” he called back towards the cottage, still giving chase.
When the lights from their windows had sank into darkness behind the trees, Britney held herself up on her knees and caught her breath. Her lung stung from breathing so heavily, and she glanced around as she regained her composure making sure she hadn’t been followed.
There was an entirely new problem now, though, as she realised she had no idea where she was. She wandered further into the brush in what she believed to be the general direction of their cottage, soon coming across a dusty dirt road. Two troughs spanned it with a grassy knoll in the middle where tyres had worn down the muddy path over the years. She soon recognised it as the road that they’d taken to get there in the first place. She got her bearings back and began to walk along the road, feeling a little better now that she’d found her way.
Her fears flooded back to her in no time as she suddenly noticed a bright light appear behind her, illuminating the path she was on. Fearful, she turned her body around and saw a big blue truck heading her way, the headlights blinding her. She raised a hand to block the light from her eyes, revealing her breasts to the oncoming driver.
As she realised what she’d done she quickly lowered her arm again and tried to duck into a bush by the side of the road.
The car crunched along the dirt path, slowing bit to a crawl as it passed her quivering body. A man in a baseball cap rolled down the window and peered out, glaring into the bushes to see what had just been crossing the road. She hoped and prayed to herself that they’d just drive on and forget what they’d seen, but she heard the engine stop ticking over and the glow of the headlights dimmed back to darkness.
There was a second of silence, followed by the creaking clunk of the door of the old truck shutting with a slam. Footsteps approached one by one, slowly, creeping towards her location and she saw a beam of light from a flashlight sweep across the bushes nearby, passing over the trees. She could feel a crying squeak burgeoning in her body that she had to hold down and repress — she couldn’t make a noise, otherwise she’d be found.
Holding her breath, she saw a boot come down at the edge of the bush. He was right there. The light continued behind her into the darkness of the trees, sweeping around for what felt like hours. She stayed as still as she could, her eyes stuck to the boot in front of her as she wished for it to move away. At least, the flashlight dimmed and the lights from the truck reappeared as the engine coughed back into life.
When the noise from the tyres had faded into the distance she got herself up to her feet and pressed on, still trembling and red, her feet sore and dirty. She clamped her arm around her breasts again to keep them in place while she jogged on towards her cottage.
She came upon another wood-built cabin with the lights on. A low, skulking shadowy shape lifted itself up and crept towards her from the door of the cabin. The light glancing off its fur showed that it was a yellow-hued creature with two floppy ears and its tail was held out behind it as it stalked her.
“No, leave me alone, please no…” she whispered to herself, creeping away from it but watching over her bare shoulder as it continued to approach.
She picked up her pace and moved faster, but the shadowed creature matched her pace, growing closer and closer. She couldn’t take it anymore — she began to sprint away, btu her speed was no match for it. When it made its way closer, she saw a tail wagging happily away and she was pounced upon by a great big golden retriever, its tongue lapping and lashing away at her face as it jumped up to her.
Ordinarily she’d relish any opportunity to pet a dog, but this was not the time. She knew full well that the owners would come looking in no time at all and tried to plead with the dog, pointing at their cottage and telling it to go home. Its deep brown eyes glistened as it smiled and panted happily, wiggling its rear end as it sided up to her.
With a sigh, she bent down to pet the dog, giving it what it wanted so that she might be allowed to leave. All the while she kept an eye out for the owners. She didn’t see anybody, but a panicked voice called out into the darkness.
“Leo! Leo where are you?”
Britney took this opportunity to tell the dog once again to go back, but its tail continued to swing. Its cold nose got a whiff of something and it took rapid huffs along her thighs, pushing its face between her legs and taking big sniffs. She bent herself over and tried to push it away, but it was a big dog who was determined to sniff.
“Leo, come back! Leeeeeeooooooo!”
“Please, go back, go see your parents!” She begged, but it just kept sniffing. She tried to walk away, hoping that she’d pet Leo enough but he barked, revealing her location. She could hear footsteps jogging her way from the direction of the lit windows.
“… Stay!” She pleaded, pressing her hands together before running back off into the darkness.
Leo had no intention of staying; he thought this was a fun game. He chased her through the bushes, sniffing and snuffling at her butt as she ran. Leo’s owners were hot on his tail, following the noises of his huffs and barks, calling all the while after him.
Britney felt like crying — she just wanted to get home and get herself dressed. As she burst out the bushes, she could see her car. A feeling of ecstatic relief flooded her and she gained a second wind, a rush of energy surging through her as she made one last sprint across the road. She checked both ways cautiously before making it across, rushing to the door of their cottage. Leo seemed to want to come inside, and his owners were rapidly closing in on her. She opened the door and swiftly closed it on the barking dog to see her sister’s smiling face beaming at her from the sofa.
Her feet were resting up on the coffee table and she’d already poured herself a glass of wine. Next to her, strewn on the back of the sofa, was a blue tunic, a lacy set of blue underwear, and three quarter length khakis. Britney realised what had happened. The relief that she was finally safe from prying eyes and the adrenaline from her adventure moulded into outrage and fury. Her fists clenched as she frowned at Reyna, who lifted her glass to her smiling lips and took a sip.
“What took you so long?” She muttered into the glass, eyeing Britney’s naked body in the dim light from above.