by Tammy Walsh
I wondered how my life had reached this point, how fast I had sunk.
Just moments ago, I was prepared to open myself up to Clint, for him to claim me.
I thought about Clint and how much I wished it was us having sex.
I wriggled desperately to avoid Liam—this stranger—from fucking me.
And then a strange calm came over me.
I realized this was going to happen, no matter what I did.
And I wondered what I’d done to deserve it.
“Hey, asshole.”
Smack!
The press of Liam’s body on top of me disappeared immediately.
I wasted no time and rolled to one side.
Liam crumpled to the floor at my feet.
I pulled my panties up and my skirt down and bolted for the door.
Another pair of powerful arms reached out and grabbed me.
For once, I just wanted to escape!
“Isabella! It’s me! It’s me!”
Clint.
I froze, momentarily incapacitated.
Could it really be him?
Or was it another trick?
This Clint sported a black eye and a grazed chin from where the gravel had torn his skin.
His eyes gleamed golden just as Liam’s had but there was an unmistakable kindness in them that fake-Liam hadn’t possessed.
“Clint!” I gasped. “I thought you were dead! I thought… I thought…”
I fell into him and he held me close.
Our lips merged and it was just the pick-me-up I needed.
Something moved on the floor and Clint spun around and swung his weapon—the emergency fire extinguisher we kept at the top of the stairs—and struck Liam across the face again.
Liam shouldn’t have been able to move after such a blow as that—never mind two of them!
He struggled to get his arms underneath himself.
“We have to get out of here,” Clint said.
He dropped the extinguisher and led me out the door.
We bolted down the stairs and out the front entrance.
I skidded to a halt.
“Wait!” I said. “My parents!”
“This thing doesn’t want your parents. It’s after you.”
A million questions buzzed through my mind like fireflies but I couldn’t get the answers to them, not right now.
I snatched the car keys up from the bowl on the entrance cabinet as we bolted down the front steps to my pop’s second pick-up, this one even more beaten-up than the last.
I paused at the bottom of the steps to peer back at my childhood home and wondered if I would ever see it again.
“We have to go,” Clint said. “We can’t wait for him to recover.”
He was right, but still, I wished he wasn’t.
I climbed into the front seat and breathed a sigh of relief when the engine grumbled into life.
I couldn’t help but glance in the side mirror at the farmhouse.
There was no mistaking the shadowy figure standing at my bedroom window, watching as we made our escape.
And just as when I had looked down on the sinister figure emerging from Liam’s cruiser, I got the terrible sense that we weren’t the ones in control.
He was.
Ras
Isabella took the first highway we came to.
It didn’t matter where we were heading, only what we were racing from.
Liam’s blow had hit me like a sledgehammer, driving the wind from my lungs.
The only thing that affected me worse was the shock to my system.
He moved fast—faster than anyone I had ever seen.
With the angle of the sun, I hadn’t seen the golden glint in his eyes until after the gut punch, and that, mingled with my surprise at seeing my own eyes reflected back at me, made me lose my focus.
And I was done.
The gravel tore up my face as I rolled end over end in a mad screaming rush that made attempting to stop impossible.
The guy I was fighting was not the same weakling I had defeated just a few short hours ago.
He was powerful, a force of nature…
He was like me.
I lost consciousness for a few moments, completely at Liam’s whim.
He could have pummeled me into the dirt and I couldn’t have done a single thing to stop him.
Luckily, he turned and ran in the opposite direction.
Then I noticed what had grabbed his attention.
Isabella.
My Isabella.
Not so lucky, then…
Her scream was what resurrected me.
And the knowledge that I was failing her.
I shoved myself up onto my feet with a single push and ran toward the house.
I was about to scale the side of the building the way Liam had when he suddenly slipped inside a side window and disappeared from view.
I bolted through the front door and up the stairs.
It took only seconds but far too long for my liking.
I found him crouched over her, his disgusting cock rigid and poised to dive inside her.
I was repulsed by what he intended on doing to her.
More than just on a physical level.
It was deeper than that.
It might not signal the end of the world if he entered her but it would be the end of my world.
Claimed, not entered, a little voice said.
I looked over at Isabella, thinking she had been the one to speak, but I was wrong.
She was focused on the road, leaning forward in the oversized seat to squint at the signposts above the motorway.
The voice hadn’t come from her.
It’d come from inside my head.
Hello? I said, calling out to the darkness. Is anyone there?
There was no response.
Of course there wasn’t.
What was I thinking?
That someone was communicating with me and using my head as a receiver?
The voice was a part of me, of who I used to be, that essence that existed in the past.
Something was attempting to bubble up from the depths but the more I thought about it, the more distant it became.
That voice, that essence, whatever it was, slipped through my fingers like mist.
It was a relief to know there was a path through to my past.
Somehow.
“I’ve never seen Liam like that before,” Isabella said, gesturing wildly.
“He was angry I took you from him,” I said. “I know I would—”
“No. It was more than that. It was like he was a completely different person. I know how crazy it sounds, but it wasn’t him. It said something about Liam being a part of him now, that they’re united in what they want to do next. For some reason, that involves fucking me. Do you have any idea why?”
“No.”
“None of this makes any sense.”
Isabella shook her head before turning to me.
“He said something to you too, before he attacked you. I heard it. About how you were his opponent? What did that mean?”
I’d been thinking about it ever since he said it, and I still had no idea.
Come on, internal voice, I said. Where are you when I need you?
“How can I be his opponent? I never met him before the other day!”
“He seemed to take a lot of enjoyment out of hitting you like it was some kind of vendetta or something.”
I marveled at Isabella.
She was far more observant than I was, or maybe she just had a better perspective from her bedroom window.
“It seemed to me like he definitely knows you. Are you sure you haven’t seen him somewhere before?”
I shook my head.
“Never. Not before the other day when you introduced us.”
“And I’m not even sure that’s the real Liam.”
Isabella shook her head.
“None of this makes any sense. How can he know who you are without you reme
mbering him?”
“Maybe I would remember him if I still had my memories.”
“Did any of this make you remember something from before?”
I ran a hand over my jaw, making the joint crunch.
“Except the pain of being hurt. I seem to have been in a lot of pain in the past.”
Isabella reached over with her free hand and felt my cheek.
She turned her hand over and checked my forehead.
“You’re burning up. You were already sick. You didn’t need to be attacked like this. Liam is going to pay for doing this to you. I’m going to make sure of it.”
Even as she said the words, she lost conviction in uttering them.
With how easily he beat me, I couldn’t say I blamed her.
“We need to find somewhere quiet off the beaten track where he can’t find us. I’ll get some supplies from a convenience store to treat the cuts to your face. I’m sorry we can’t go to a hospital right now. Liam will be watching them.”
“It’s all right.”
Isabella slammed her fist on the steering wheel.
“No! It’s not all right! This is all my fault. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t taken you in.”
I placed my hand on her bare knee and gently stroked her skin.
“If it wasn’t for you, we never would have met, so I’m not sorry for what’s happened. Being with you is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“You don’t know that. You can’t remember.”
“No, but no matter what I did in the past, none of it measures up to being with you. And that truth is buried deep in my bones. No memories required.”
She squeezed my hand and smiled over at me, genuinely touched.
“Let’s get off this road and find somewhere out of the way. I want to take care of those cuts of yours.”
She signaled and took the next exit.
Isabella brought us to a small motel off the beaten track.
It had a large parking lot out front—far larger than the twelve-room motel needed—a fact the owner at the front desk was quick to defend:
“We intended on expanding but when the virus came, we decided to sit on our hands. We never expected this whole thing to last this long but we’re sure glad we made that decision!”
The second half of the main entrance served as an informal convenience store.
It had a useless, untouched feel to it like it didn’t get many customers.
Much of the produce was out of date but Isabella was only really interested in the small medical section anyway which, surprisingly, had most of the equipment we needed.
Ever since we first met, Isabella seemed to spend the majority of her time patching me up.
She added a handful of instant noodles and four bottles of water to the handbasket.
She paid with cash and led the way to our room.
It was simple, with dour orange curtains and even dourer walls.
The curtained windows looked out on the road that fed directly onto the highway.
The gentle rush of vehicles roaring in the distance made light, comforting noises that reminded me the wider world existed and operated completely independently of what was happening to us right now.
The double bed didn’t make me feel as awkward as it would have just twenty-four hours earlier and would have made me a whole lot more excited if it wasn’t for the constant interruptions we’d had to suffer.
Isabella dumped the items she’d bought on the bed and motioned toward the bathroom.
“Go wash your face.”
I obeyed.
The bathroom had a full-length bath, though I doubted anyone had ever used it for that purpose.
The single frosted window above it looked big enough for me to fit through if I was flexible enough.
It fed onto the parking lot at the back of the property.
Half a dozen spaces were occupied and I estimated anywhere from eight to fifteen occupants inhabited the other rooms.
I splashed cold water on my face and lathered up the soap until it was thick with bubbles.
I rubbed thoroughly at my face and hissed when I came to my chin where the damage was worse than I had first thought.
Spots of blood dotted my shirt.
I took it off and used the soap to scrub at it.
It was hard to tell how good of a job I’d done in the dim light.
I hung it up to dry on the small radiator and stepped back into the main room.
Isabella stood at the opposite end with her arms wrapped around herself, gazing out the window like it was the surface of a distant planet.
She looked so small and fragile.
I approached and wrapped my arms around her.
She leaned into me and gently rocked side to side.
Neither of us said a word as we fell into the quiet comfort of each other’s presence.
Then she turned around and, going up on her tiptoes, kissed me lightly on the lips.
She pushed me back slowly until my legs met the bed.
I took a seat as she took one of the cheap pillows off the bed and dumped it on the floor.
She got to her knees and reached for the packages she’d opened earlier.
She caught me gazing at her while she was between my legs and must have seen the hunger in my eyes.
“Don’t be getting any ideas,” she said. “We’re on the run, remember?”
I grinned and flinched when she added some sort of brown liquid to the cuts on my chin.
“Is this supposed to hurt?” I said.
“That’s how you know it’s working,” she said, focusing intently on the task at hand. “Stop being such a baby.”
I pursed my lips.
“And don’t move,” she said.
Maybe I couldn’t move my head but I could move something else…
I brought my legs together so I pinned her hips between my knees.
She paused in giving me the medicine and a half-smile curled her lips.
It was only then I recalled the scene in her room right before I’d entered.
With her panties balanced on her ankles and him crouched over her as he prepared to claim her…
She couldn’t have felt good about that.
And now here I was, trapping her between my knees.
I relaxed so she had free movement.
I didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable.
“What’s wrong?” she said.
“Nothing,” I said, not wanting to bring the subject up in case it made her upset.
“There,” she said, adding the final few dobs of medicine to my chin. “All done. I’ll let it dry and put plasters on it.”
“I don’t need plasters,” I moaned.
“With how quickly you heal, you’ll only need to wear them until morning. And look! They’re Spongebob Squarepants-themed!”
I had no idea what that was or why she was so excited about it but I was pleased she was happy about it.
She still hadn’t gotten up from her position between my legs yet.
“What happens now?” I said.
“Now… we relax.”
She peered up at me with those big beautiful eyes of hers.
My God, she’s gorgeous.
She deserved a lot better than what she’d had to face over the past few days.
A whole lot better.
Surely things couldn’t get any worse for her?
Surely things had to improve?
She placed her hands on my thighs.
I gulped.
“What… uh… How do you suggest we relax?”
Please tell me we’ll actually finish a moment of intimacy.
“I had an idea…” she said.
“Yeah?” I said, my throat dry. “What’s that?”
“A way for us to relax… and for you to remember something from your past. A kind of… spiritual journey.”
I like the sound of this.
“Like what?”
&
nbsp; She leaned in close, her breasts grazing my hardening cock.
“Hypnosis!”
Huh?
“I read about it in a book on amnesia the hospital psychotherapist gave me.”
She vacated her spot on the floor and dug around in her bag for the book.
Fizzled again…
She skipped through half a dozen dog-eared pages until she came to what she was looking for.
I had no idea she’d put so much effort into researching amnesia to help me.
“It says sometimes hypnosis can help the patient enter a deep meditative state and they can remember things they wouldn’t have otherwise recalled.”
It sounded woo-woo to me.
“I don’t know…”
“We’ve tried a bunch of the easier, superficial stuff. Now we have to go a bit deeper.”
Deeper…
That was exactly what I’d been hoping to do…
I shook myself of those thoughts.
“Have you, uh, ever hypnotized someone before?”
“No. But my friend did it at a house party once. It didn’t work on me but some people can be very susceptible.”
“You might scramble my brains or turn me into a chicken.”
“Baby, I can do that anytime.”
She placed her hand on my crotch, which immediately leaped into action.
She slipped her tongue in my mouth and had a good root around.
I was obviously wrong about her reaction to her earlier experience.
She was tougher than I thought.
She wrapped her hand around my girth and began jerking me off through my pants.
“Do this for me and I’ll do something for you…” she said.
I gulped and nodded adamantly.
“Good boy,” she said, gently patting my throbbing member. “Later.”
She turned to the appropriate page in the book and mumbled through the instructions.
“Lay back and get comfortable.”
“I was comfortable…”
She paid me no attention and waited while I lay on the bed.
It was surprisingly soft, though not as soft as Isabella would have been.
“I want you to listen to my voice,” she said.
This wasn’t going to work, I thought. I wasn’t going to be hypnotized.
But if it kept her happy and meant I could finally enjoy her body, I would do whatever it took.
“Listen to the room and the sounds around you,” Isabella said, her voice deep and sensual. “Listen to the cars passing on the highway and the birds in the trees calling it a day, and your breath filling your lungs with air and then exhaling it again.”
