Dark Matter: SCIENCE FICTION ROMANCE

by Jessica Loft

  “I hope forever,” he said dreamily.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Wanna get some ice cream?”

  Mackenzie sighed. “I mean about Pastor Dan and how he’s drugging the town.”

  “Oh.” Luke made a serious face for a minute. “Do you want to go and thank him?”

  “No!” She shook her head. “Did that stuff take away your ability to think? We have to tell someone.”

  “Oh, but then he might get into trouble. We wouldn’t want to get him into trouble. That wouldn’t be nice.”

  “Exactly. That’s the problem in this town. Everyone is more concerned about what’s nice than what’s right. He’s drugging people without their knowledge, Luke. Now, if he wants to get that stuff approved by the FDA and sell it, then fine, whatever. But who knows what’s in it and if it’s safe or even legal. It could be some kind of narcotic. The whole town might be addicted to it! And he shouldn’t be allowed to just do that without them knowing what’s going on. It’s not right. What he’s doing is not nice.”

  “Oh, but he just wants people to be happy. What’s wrong with that?”

  “I wonder if I slapped you, if it would knock out some of the silly.”

  He looked at her for a minute, then burst into laughter. “You’re so funny, Kenzie. I really like you.”

  “Yeah, great.” She sat down on the wooden step of his front porch. “I guess we need to wait for that stuff to wear off before we can figure this out.”

  He stood in front of her and held out his hand. She looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. He shook his hand insistently until she gave in and stood up, putting her hand in his.

  Luke abruptly pulled her close, put his other hand on her back, and took several steps backward.

  “What are you doing?” she asked.

  “We’re dancing!”

  Neither of them knew the dance they were trying to do, and they had no music, but it didn’t matter. They turned in circles and stepped to the side, pausing to sway together and just enjoying the closeness of each other’s touch. They danced together for a while, until Mackenzie became tired. She laughed and went to sit down, a little out of breath.

  “You’re a terrible dancer,” she giggled.

  He sat beside her, beaming. “But it was fun!”

  “Can we just watch a movie or something?”

  “Don’t you have homework?”

  “There we go. Let’s do homework. That’ll be a blast.”

  They went inside and sat together at his dining room table to do their school work. His mom brought them snacks, smiling and happy like everyone else, and seemed very pleased that Luke was in such a good mood. After a few hours, Mackenzie closed her book, and looked at him.

  “What?” he said.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Tired.” He yawned. “I’m gonna get a soda. You want one?”

  “Sure.”

  He came back in the room and tossed her the can. She glared at him as he sat back down.

  “What did I do?” he asked.

  “Nothing…”

  “Then stop glaring at me.”

  “Okay.” She opened the can and took a sip. “I think we can go now. You seem back to yourself.”

  “You sure?”

  She reached out and shoved his shoulder, like she’d done several times today.

  He pulled down his eyebrows and said, “Hey.”

  “Yup. You’re back. Come on.”

  They packed up their books and went to the barn. He paused by his horse. “Should we tell our parents first? Doesn’t it seem weird to go right to the cops?”

  “I think they would just try to talk us out of it like you did.”

  “Oh, right. That was weird. I felt so happy, like I didn’t ever want to upset anyone because that might make me less happy.”

  “Yeah, it’s powerful stuff.”

  “Alright. To the police it is.”

  He helped her onto the horse and they took off riding.

  She never ceased to be amazed at the smallness of this town. How they seemed to be able to get anywhere in the town but just riding a horse for a few minutes of riding. Although everything seemed close it also felt so spread out, they rode by sprawling fields with cows and chickens, a horse farm, and corn.

  They stopped in the parking lot of the police station and hopped down. Mackenzie watched him tie the horse to the bike rack.

  “What if they don’t believe us, though? Or don’t want to do anything about it?” she asked.

  “Then they won’t be doing their jobs. And we go to the next town over.”

  They entered the building and stood at the desk, waiting for the officer to finish his phone call. She listened to the way he talked. He seemed somewhat normal, friendly, but not overjoyed.

  “Can I help you?” he asked after he set the phone down.

  They exchanged glances. Luke spoke up first. “We need to talk to someone about a crime we think someone is committing in our community.”

  “Okay. Tell me what’s going on.”

  With Mackenzie adding in details now and then, Luke recounted their story about figuring out what was going on and then finding the chemical and testing it.

  “So, you trespassed and broke into the building?” the officer asked.

  Mackenzie’s eyes grew wide. Why hadn’t they come up with a better story?

  “Only because we wanted to be sure,” Luke said. “We don’t want to get Pastor Dan in trouble, but we had to find out what was going on.”

  “You should be aware that he could press charges.”

  “Okay, well, there’s nothing we can do about it now,” Luke said.

  The officer handed them each a clipboard with a piece of paper attached. “I’ll need you to write out your statements.”

  They sat down in two chairs sitting against the wall to write what they knew. They could hear the officer making more phone calls. It sounded like he was sending squad to the pastor’s house. Just as they finished writing and stood to put their reports at the desk, the door opened. They finished writing and, as they stood at the desk again, waiting to hand the clipboards back to the officer, the door opened. Two officers walked in with Pastor Dan between them wearing handcuffs. They sat him down in a chair up against the wall, and told him they’d be back to talk to him after filing some paperwork.

  Pastor Dan turned and looked directly at Mackenzie and Luke with a humorless smile. “Luke and Mackenzie. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised it was you two.”

  Mackenzie looked at Luke questioningly. “Because we’re the only ones who didn’t drink your drug-laced juice?”

  “You’re the only ones who refused to be happy and enjoy it. I just wanted a place where everyone could feel good and be good to each other. Is that so wrong?”

  “Not at all,” Mackenzie said. “But it’s wrong to drug people without telling them what you’re doing.”

  “But happier people feel closer to God, and that’s my job as a Pastor.”

  “But God never tricked anyone into feeling happy,” Luke said. “He gives us joy, but not like this. Not in chemicals that make you into someone else.”

  “I just hope the town isn’t too negatively affected by this,” Pastor Dan said. “I hope you made the right choice.”

  “Well, it’s what God would want us to do,” Mackenzie said. “So it can’t be wrong. But I’m sure He’ll forgive you and everyone else involved.”

  Pastor Dan let his head drop, and he looked at the floor.

  “Thank you,” the officer behind the desk said to them. “That’s all we need for now.”

  Luke took Mackenzie’s hand as they walked out of the station.

  “Do you think this will ruin the town?” she asked, concerned, as he untied the horse.

  “Don’t you think people acting fake and nice all the time is already a ruined town? Everywhere else in the world people feel lots of things. They have a spectrum of emotions. They get mad someti
mes and can be mean, but they can also be happy. The happiness is genuine. And, somehow, the world survives.”

  She chuckled. “Well, there are several murders and mass shootings, and lots of other crime that takes place regularly. The victims of those crimes don’t survive.”

  “True.” He paused with his hand on the horse’s reigns. “But at least those people are real and aren’t living a fantasy.”

  ~

  By the next day, the news had spread through the entire town. Pastor Dan was being held in jail, waiting for his trial. The police had found plenty of evidence to detain him, and though he might go away for a long time. They were also questioning his wife, family, and anyone else who worked on the grounds for further evidence. Mackenzie felt terrible about sending a man to jail and possibly his whole family. But knew it was the right thing to do.

  She nervous how Joanna and Nick would take the information. Would they kick her out? Punish her? But Mackenzie was surprised to find out when Joanna and Nick learned what she did, they were encouraging.

  “You were so brave,” Joanna said.

  Nick nodded. “It takes a lot of guts to do the right thing when it seems like people won’t be happy about it.”

  “We are so proud of you.” Joanna hugged Kenzie again. “You have made this town so much better.”

  When the happy juice wore off, they weren’t quite as joyful. They were still friendly and caring and clearly still wanted her. But now Joanna was quiet every morning until after she had a morning cup of coffee. Nick would get irritated when he couldn’t solve the crossword puzzle in the newspaper, or if he banged his finger hanging up a photo frame.

  These additions of emotion made Mackenzie love them even more. She liked seeing how they would argue and make up. She learned that Joanna got really ticked off when food went bad before it could be eaten. They felt real. And they felt like a real family.

  Chapter 9

  Weeks later, Mackenzie rode alongside Luke. Luke had given her one of his horse to help her learn how to ride on her own. Now they could ride together seamlessly. Today, they were on a mission. They stopped their horses at the next house and climbed down.

  Mackenzie knocked on the front door. A woman she recognized from church greeted them.

  “Oh, hello,” she said. “Are you here for the collection?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Luke said.

  “Hang on.”

  The woman went inside and came back out with two bottles. One was a plastic jug of grape juice, the other a bottle of wine.

  “Thanks for coming to collect them,” she said.

  “No problem. We’re glad to help,” Mackenzie said.

  “Hey, are you… you’re the ones who discovered what was happening, right?”

  “That’s right,” Luke said.

  The woman nodded. “Thank you for being brave enough to go to the authorities. I know he meant well, but it wasn’t right what he did, tricking us all like that.”

  “I know. And he did just want to help,” Mackenzie said.

  The woman nodded again and went back inside.

  Luke added the bottles to the cart behind his horse. They climbed back on and rode to the next house. This time when they knocked, the response was not so warm.

  “You’re trying to take away my wine?” the man said.

  “We’re here to collect any products you may have gotten from Pastor Dan. He’s been arrested and—”

  “I know what happened. You think I’m stupid?” He squinted at them and looked them over. “And what if I don’t want to give it up?”

  “Well, that’s your right,” Luke said. “But you should know that wine has been contaminated with chemicals that induce euphoria and they haven’t figured out what the side effects may be.”

  “Side effects? I’ve been drinking that stuff for years, and the only side effect I ever had was feeling good. Now you want to take that? I’ve hadn’t had any in days, and I can’t say there’s any improvement.”

  “I know the adjustment may be difficult,” Mackenzie said. “She took a brochure from her pocket. “The town is offering free counseling for anyone struggling—”

  The man slapped the brochure out of her hand.

  “I don’t need counseling. I just need more of Dan’s wine. You shoulda never turned him in.”

  Luke put his arm across Mackenzie’s waist and stepped back. “Have a nice day, sir.”

  “I will if I drink my wine!”

  They quickly got onto their horses and rode to the next house.

  “You okay?” Luke asked when they dismounted.

  “Yeah,” she said. “I don’t like it when they get upset. Makes me wonder if we did the right thing.”

  “Of course we did the right thing,” Luke said. “Even Pastor Dan saw that, and that’s why he didn’t press charges against us.”

  “But if the town isn’t happy anymore…”

  “The town is real. Thanks to you.” He stopped and faced her. “I don’t think anyone else would have been able to do what you did.”

  “Me? You did the hard work of tasting the chemical.”

  He chuckled. “We make a good team.”

  “That we do.” She pulled up her lip into a half smile and gazed at the smile on his lips. It was still her favorite, his smile. Still made her feel like it was the most genuine thing in the world.

  He stepped closer to her and took her hand. “What if we became a more serious team?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, I like you. A lot. And I was hoping maybe you’d want to be my girlfriend.”

  Her mouth spread slowly into a wide grin. “I would love to.”

  Luke put a hand to her cheek and leaned in close. She closed her eyes and felt his lips press against hers. She kissed him back, pure happiness, real and true, washed over her.

  Now Enjoy The Next Story Below Or Choose One From The Table of Contents

  A Duty Of The Duke

  CHAPTER 1

  Jasmine’s slim, pale fingers touched her plump rosy red lips, remembering the taste of him. Her alabaster cheeks bloomed a rosy blush as she thought of the memory, and she closed her large brown eyes in concentration.

  “I promise,” Colonel Johnathan Green whispered, brushing her chocolate brown curls away from her face. “I’ll be back within the month dearest, and ye and I will be together forever in marriage. I’ll rescue ye from this horrid place, and put you in my estate, a house fit for a queen, where you belong.”

  She remembered the flutter of her heart as she heard the words, the hitch in her breath when his warm, strong hands enclosed around her small waist and brought her close to him. The voice, a small, pleading thing whispered to her that she couldn’t, she mustn’t. But her heart and her loins were louder, deafening almost. She was ready to give her soldier anything he wanted, and the promise of marriage just made everything sweeter and more surreal.

  “My parents,” she protested, her brain’s last-ditch effort to rescue her from him.

  Johnathan shook his head slowly as he smiled down at her. “They’ll never have to know my love. Before ye know it a month will be up and I’ll return to ask ye for me hand in marriage.”

  It made sense. Just one little night of passion, a forbidden slip into lust, and no one would be the wiser. Closing her eyes, she remembered leaning into Johnathan’s arms and accepting his kiss. His lips and tongue had tasted so sweet and pure. Little did she know, they were actually full of poison.

  “No one will ever know,” he promised, locking his tavern room door.

  Jasmine’s mind snapped back to the present, and her hand travelled from her lips to her stomach. There was no showing yet, and wouldn’t be for another month and a half, maybe even two if she was lucky. Like a dutiful wife to be, she had waited for her intended husband to make his way back to her to claim her hand as he had promised. Then a month passed then two, and no one came. Several soldiers had come into her parent’s tavern the day that Johnathan was supposed t
o return, and she had begged them to tell her if her beloved was alive.

  “The Colonel?” One slurred, already half drunk with ale. “Aye he’s alive. Stickin’ his wicket inta’ every skirt there is at the whore house I be guessin’.” The man and his mate chuckled, as if it were a normal thing for her beloved to do. She knew right then and there that there would be no wedding. She would surely not be seeing the Colonel any time soon.

  Heartache had swept through her like a hurricane coming into the harbor. As soon as she was in the privacy of her small room her knees collapsed and she fell to the floor sobbing. Her heart ached for the love that was promised her, and her stomach ached for the price of foolery that the Colonel had left behind. She knew if she told her parents, she would be ex-communicated, or worse, forced to terminate the baby. The very thought scared her more than losing her own life, and knew she had to do whatever it took to get away before her parents found out.

  Laurel was her best friend, her only friend, and after Jasmine’s first bout of morning sickness, she knew what ailed her friend. Laurel’s parents, a chef and maid, and herself, a scullery maid, had highly acclaimed jobs of working in the castle. When Laurel discovered the danger her best friend was in, she pulled whatever strings she could, and landed her the position of handmaiden to the Lady of the castle.

  “She only likes the pretty girls,” Laurel explained. “That’s why I was turned away from the honor. But you, you’re a beauty. She’ll take you in in a second. But be careful. She is as cruel as she is beautiful, Lady Astrid is.”

  That had been two weeks ago, and Laurel had not lied. Though Jasmine was eternally grateful for the escape and the new start, she was also terrified of her mistress finding out about her delicate condition, and throwing her into the streets. She decided it would be best that she keep her secret as long as she can until she could figure out what to do about it.

  “Jasmine!” Lady Astrid called, her voice shrill and demanding.

  Jasmine was yanked out of her thoughts. She rubbed her eyes and tried to recall what she had been doing. Remembering, she quickly grabbed the fresh towels and bath salts she had originally gone into the linen closet to retrieve.