Shadow of Nevermore

by Lilly Black

  "I love you, Olivia. I love you so fucking much."

  "I love you, too, and you don't know how much I've missed you."

  "I've missed you so much, baby," he whispered, and as I clutched his body in a death grip with all of my limbs, he began to make love to me again, slowly, intently. What had been quickly building inside me before we stopped returned with a vengeance as the love between us became a physical force. I felt his cock growing to its absolute limit as I approached my own end, and when my body began to convulse, it started a chain reaction that drove us both over the edge within seconds of each other. I cried his name and he mine, and I felt the drug that was Reid Anders shooting into my veins. With his full weight melting into me, he began kissing me again, and tears filled my eyes - happy, sad, relieved, overwhelmed, guilty. They rolled down my face into my hair, and though Reid noticed, he didn't have to ask why.

  "I know, baby," he breathed. "I know."

  He always knows, and as I lay in his arms, high and safe, the tears faded into a deep, much needed sleep.

  Day 69

  Alek woke exhausted and resentful. Reading Olivia's journal was the wrong thing to do. He knew it before he opened it, but he couldn't stop himself. Since he also couldn't stop himself from feeling angry with her, he redirected it all toward Reid. It wasn't that Olivia's words compared them or even made an allusion to her being happier or more satisfied with either of them. It was that the words about Reid - the new ones since his return - wouldn't even have been there if he had just stayed away with Amina after being considered dead. Deep down, Alek knew that was impossible; Reid had a child at the Deadfall, but he wasn't thinking rationally.

  He was jealous and lonely. This was the first night he had spent without Olivia that Amina hadn't been there to distract him, and when that thought had crossed his mind, he made a second mistake. He went searching for Amina's journal, retrieving the owner's manual from Olivia's office to break into the safe where she kept it.

  Unlike Olivia's, Amina's words showed a clear disparity between the two men. She spoke of Alek like a prize whereas Reid was the one she truly loved. He couldn't fault her for that, but it didn't help his attitude. And as he furiously leafed through it, he was suddenly halted when he came across a name he never expected to see. In a moment of thoughtlessness, she wrote that she wished Calista had also been able to somehow convince Reid that there was nothing to return home to like she had convinced Olivia that her husband was dead, and though it came after she had arrived at the Deadfall and could possibly have been told about the call from Calista, the context made it seem that Amina might have been behind the loss of Reid's phone and the call to Olivia. The big question in his mind was why. Why would Amina want Reid's wife to think he was dead if they were coming to the compound? Then he realized that she was probably hoping Olivia would sleep with someone else. It made sense. The world had grown desperate, life had grown short, and everyone was looking to get whatever comfort they could.

  Though Alek contemplated telling Olivia, in the end, he realized that he likely owed the fact that Olivia was still his to Amina's cruel plot. He ripped out and destroyed the page. It wouldn't have changed anything anyway, and the last thing he wanted was for Reid to be mistrustful of other women. He needed Reid to find a new girlfriend because without Amina, Alek couldn't help but feel that his position was on shaky ground.

  Afraid for Olivia to wake and find her journal missing, Alek waited in the hallway outside her room in the early morning hours, listening for the shower. When he heard it come on, he slipped inside, assuming Reid would be the one showering as Olivia slept since Reid had an early shift, and he found just what he expected. He went to Olivia's side of the bed and lay the journal on the ground so he could slide it under the bed with his foot, and Olivia stirred in her sleep, reaching out and grabbing his leg.

  "Come back to bed," she breathed seductively, and Alek felt the words meant for another man like an ice pick in his heart. He slipped out of her grasp, expecting her to drift back to sleep so he could escape, but instead, she whined. "Baby, come on."

  She seemed to be dreaming, so he leaned in and kissed her atop the head.

  "I'll see you soon, baby," he whispered, and when she muttered her next words, regardless of whether she was conscious or not, he knew exactly who they were meant for.

  "Jag älskar dig," she said as Alek left the room.

  Day 69

  "You got time to go on a run?" Olivia asked Alek as he entered the lodge after his morning shift.

  "Let's go," he said without even asking why. He didn't care. He just wanted to be with her.

  She handed him a gun and the keys to one of the electric cars. The Sinner had taken part of their fleet, but since they needed vehicles to collect the items on his weekly grocery list, he left a few. It was enough to effectively scavenge though not enough to evacuate the entire population if they had to. This was a problem, and Alek already had plans to return to the dealership for the remainder of their inventory.

  "So, what are we looking for?" he asked as he drove Olivia down the winding path to the main road.

  "These," she said, holding up several boxes of antihistamines. He looked at her, confused about why she brought them with her, but when she directed him to turn up a dirt road that led only to a pasture, he realized what this mission was about.

  "Pull over here," she said, and he parked the car under a huge oak tree that would have provided nearly complete cover for the small, camouflaged car if it hadn't been winter. He killed the engine.

  "What are we doing here?" he asked.

  "Reid just needs my comfort right now," she hinted, then she climbed into his lap, reaching down to push the seat as far back from the steering wheel as it would go. "It's still your day."

  "What is wrong with you? After everything that happened yesterday, you want to fuck?" he demanded, and she looked at him incredulously as she felt his cock growing hard beneath her. Then a smile spread across her lips, and Alek laughed softly.

  "I always want to fuck you," she said.

  "And I fucking love that about you," he growled as he grabbed her hips and began grinding her body against his. Olivia leaned forward, shoving her tongue in his mouth, and all of his anger and insecurity faded away as he responded with the same enthusiasm. Impatient, she raised up and hurriedly unbuttoned his pants, and when he took over the zipper for her, she quickly wiggled her way out of her own jeans. Alek didn't have time to get his past his knees before she straddled him, so wet she quickly devoured his steely cock, and realizing she wanted it rough and fast, he immediately clutched her hips, lifting her up and pulling her down hard like he knew she liked it, so hard he was a little afraid of hurting her. But he wouldn't. His cock was perfect for her - the exact length she needed to be able to drive it into her violently with only the occasional flash of pain, usually when he was at his maximum, right before he would come, and coming was imminent as she quivered atop him, besieged by a series of orgasms that happened so fast, the ability to do that to her had ruined him for all other women.

  She didn't mention Reid doing that to her, he thought to himself as she threw off her shirt and wrapped her arms around his head, his face buried in the smooth, supple flesh of her tits.

  "I fucking love your cock," she cooed as she rode him, and though he wanted to hold back, to let her just keep coming and coming, she was clearly hell bent on making that impossible.

  "Come for me, Alek," she commanded, rushing toward the finale, and he felt his cock twitch inside her, desperate to follow her command. Yet he resisted.

  "Make me," he challenged her, fighting his body's urges. With a dogged smirk, she reached behind with one hand, grabbing his balls squeezing and rocking her hips back and forth as she rose and fell.

  Baseball... Soccer... Hockey... Alek thought, grasping at any image that would make him last as he felt Olivia begin to tremble again, the muscles inside her grabbing at his cock in an erratic rhythm as another orgasm tore through
her. But determined to win, she used it, moaning his name as she leaned back against the steering wheel, one hand still massaging his balls, the other kneading her own tit to make it even harder for him to resist coming.

  Cleaning the barn... Zombie brains... My grandmother! Alek thought desperately, gritting his teeth and trying to force his eyes to close so he couldn't see her as she pinched her nipple between her fingers, but he couldn't stop watching her. He groaned in frustration, and Olivia grinned as she slipped two fingers into her mouth to wet them.

  "Come for me, Alek," she repeated, tracing those fingers down her front until they settled on her clit, swirling around as he fucked her, and it was too much.

  "Goddamn it, Olivia!" he cried, and he grasped her hips and pulled her down hard on his cock as it abruptly exploded inside her. She giggled, thinking she had won, but there was no way he was finished with her. He reached for the lever, lowering the seat all the way back, then he pulled her up his body, positioning her clit over his face, the low ceiling in the small car forcing her to lean backward against the wheel.

  "You come for me, Olivia," he demanded, then he began to make slow circles over it with his tongue, dragging it out because he wasn't going to actually make her come until he felt his cock ready again. They spent another hour parked there beneath the oak tree until he felt he had sufficiently redeemed himself while at the same time leaving his shared lover completely fuck-stoned.

  "Same time, same place tomorrow," she whispered lackadaisically when she finally slid back into her seat, and as Alek wondered how long Reid would need her comfort, at least he knew for certain that he wasn't going to lose Olivia just because her husband lost his girlfriend. She was clearly addicted to him as well, and he was going to make sure she stayed a full blown junkie.

  Day 75

  "Where'd you get the gun?" Tobias asked Olivia. It had been a week, and he had returned to collect the Sinner's taxes. He had seen the zombie that used to be Porter crucified on the gate, a gaping hole where his heart should have been.

  "Does it really matter?" Olivia asked as she led him and his entourage through the lodge to the war room.

  "I'm going to need to confiscate it," he said.

  "He got shot on a mission. He was an ass, so we dragged his zombie corpse back here to guard the place," she said, making no effort to disguise the lie.

  "I feel like you're not telling me the truth, but you are so fucking sexy, it's hard to care," he said, brushing up against her. Olivia wanted to vomit. The idea of this dirty methhead having any authority over her was abhorrent all by itself, but the idea that he was thinking of her sexually was disturbing on a whole other level. If he hadn't been in a position of power, he may still have made the comment, but he wouldn't have done so with the same confidence in his eyes. She knew that regardless of what the Sinner allowed in his compound, here in the Deadfall, this man could rape her, and while he would never get out of the gates alive, she feared that sort of retaliation could lead to the deaths of Penny and Brittani.

  "Tell you what," she began with a seductive swagger. "I have a little something special for you, so why don't you ask your men to step out of the room, I'll give it to you, and you can see how you feel about me then? They can go inventory the supplies in the next room." She indicated the door to her former living room.

  "Boys, out!" he shouted, his eyes never leaving Olivia.

  After they were gone and the door shut, she pulled out a chair and patted the seat for him. Then she took out her special gift and set it before him.

  "A jar of pickles?" he asked, disappointed.

  "It's not just any jar of pickles," she said. "Open it."

  He did as instructed.

  "Take one out," she commanded.

  Tobias gave her a strange look, then shrugged his shoulders and removed a pickle. He could tell right away that something was off about it. It felt weird, lumpy. Then she placed a knife on the table before him.

  "Cut gently. You don't want to damage the delicate flesh inside," she said as she took the chair beside his, hiking up the skirt she had worn just for today's visit.

  Curious, he carefully sliced into the large dill, and it split open to reveal a sealed plastic bag of methamphetamine. Tobias's smile suddenly spread from ear to ear.

  "Well, what have we here?" he asked rhetorically as he pulled the bag out.

  "What we have is what I can provide you every week. I can make it just for you, and all I want in return is for you to treat my people kindly and not worry about anything beyond what's on your weekly list."

  "It's a tempting offer, but I have the Sinner to deal with. He expects me to cherry pick everything you people scavenge. I'm going to have to show him more than a jar of pickles."

  "I figured as much. There's a box over in that corner with some bullets, a gun, some meds, and big bag of weed. Will that work?" she asked as she slowly uncrossed her legs and leaned forward. Between the meth and her body, he was completely under her spell.

  "I think that'll do just fine," he said, reaching out and putting his hand on her knee. Olivia swallowed the urge to recoil, reminding herself that the day would come when this piece of human trash hung on a cross outside her gates beside his master, and instead she smiled and patted his hand where it rested.

  "I'll make sure you always get more than you expect," she breathed, then she extended her hand to shake his, getting it off her leg. And when he and his men left, she immediately showered away the ghost of his touch.

  Day 77

  Liana woke this morning to horror. She had been so busy lately trying to do her part to keep the Deadfall safe, fill the Sinner's orders, and help Olivia with her plan to get out from under his thumb, she forgot to count the days. The 77th day of the apocalypse marked exactly one moon cycle since she applied the paste to her thighs, and she could feel the blemishes aching before she even got out of bed. Thankfully, Aiden was already gone, but she really did not have time for this today. She was supposed to be going on a mission to find more ingredients for the meth operation, and knowing that the Sinner's men and those from the prison had already depleted the immediate area, she knew they were going to have to go farther and farther away to accomplish their ultimate goal. She believed it would be worth it, though. Tobias went for it from the very first taste.

  Tobias was like a tax collector, but as long as they paid up, they could go about their normal business. Only now their normal business included stuffing pickles with methamphetamine. To make them, Olivia bit a small circle of flesh at the stem ends, sucked out the insides, placed the crystal meth inside in small plastic bags, then shoved the stems back in to plug the hole. Tobias had been thrilled with the offering because he had been rationing the little meth he had left since the solar farm went down. Once in a while, they'd find some more or the ingredients to make it, but it was not a priority for the Sinner, which limited Tobias' options.

  He had left with enough to last him about a week. That was yesterday, and since she had used the last of the meth they had taken from the solar farm, now the people of the Deadfall had four days to find enough antihistamines to make a new batch before he returned. They were fortunate that between James' work at the farm, Rena's knowledge of chemistry, and Widow's memory, the cooking of the meth would not be the problem. Widow was set to lead a group to the old drug farm because she knew just where to find Widowmaker's recipe, and Liana was set to lead a group toward Blacksburg, VA where they intended to check every small town pharmacy along the way.

  But there was something she had to take care of first.

  It was barely sunrise when Liana threw on her clothes and rushed up the mountain to the witch's shack. Nervously, she stood outside the door for a long moment before knocking. The witch had told her there would be a price for another dose of the paste, and though she had brought a bag of fresh vegetables, hoping it would be enough, she had an eerie feeling that it would be much steeper than that. Then the door swung open.

  "Hello?" Liana called o
ut as she entered the darkened shack, and when the witch spoke from where she sat in front of the unlit fireplace, it startled her.

  "Don't be afraid. I've been expecting you," she said in her sweet, angelic voice, putting Liana at ease. She offered her the facing chair, and Liana sat down, placing the bag on the floor beside her.

  "I brought you some vegetables," Liana said. "But if that's not enough..."

  "That's lovely. Thank you."

  "So...do you have more of that potion?" she asked timidly.

  "Aye, I do," the witch said, standing, and as the rising sun started to peek through the window, Liana could see the impish smile on her beautiful face. She went to her stores and took down two pots of paste like the last one she had given her. "Here you are."

  "Thank you so much," Liana said, breathing a sigh of relief to know that while she'd have to avoid Aiden tonight, tomorrow she would have another twenty-eight days of freedom from her scars and pain.

  "You're welcome."

  "And all you want are the vegetables? Would you like me to bring you something different the next time?"

  "Oh, there won't be a next time," the witch said. "This is the last I have." Liana's heart sank.

  "But what will I do? Is there anything else? Some other spell or potion or..."

  "There's only one option once you've used the last of it, I'm afraid, but you aren't going to like it."

  "I don't care. Whatever it is, I'll do it," Liana insisted.

  "In order to make the potion, I need an ingredient from a very specific animal, but unfortunately for you, the dead seem to have hunted it to extinction in these mountains."