by Zara Zenia
“Man, this place is a dump,” Madison slumped on the edge of the bed and slipped off her shoes. “Like … I’d heard places like this existed but I’d never seen one in real life.”
“Why is the bed shaped that way?”
“You don’t wanna know,” she laughed.
She spotted something across the room.
“Hey! Is that a mini bar?”
Striding over to a little refrigerator below the desk, she opened the door and saw the little bottles lined up inside.
“No way!” she said sounding excited. “At least one of the perks of terrible housekeeping is that nobody checked to see if the last people left anything behind.”
She cracked open one of the bottles on the edge of the desk and took a swig.
“Dear God, I needed this.”
“What is it?” I wandered over as I caught the scent of the mysterious liquid.
“It’s alcohol,” she answers. “You wouldn’t like it.”
“It’s not like the cigarettes is it?” Victorinth asks worried. “It can’t kill you can it?”
Madison looks thoughtful for a second and narrows her eyes.
“No…” she spoke carefully. “It’s not like cigarettes.”
“Can I try some then?” I asked.
She frowned for a second then shrugs, pulling out another bottle from the refrigerator.
“Sure,” she opened it and handed it over. “But don’t blame me if you think it’s gross.”
I took a sip and a cold shock ran down my throat. Then something else happened. Everything I was worried about disappeared. It was as though all the trouble we were in had vanished.
“Victo, try this.”
She held the bottle to her lips and wrinkles up her nose.
“Eeeuw,” she handed it back to me. “It’s bitter and weird.”
I’m glad she doesn’t like it. It means I’ll have it all to myself. I watched Madison lean against the wall, her hair messy around her face. She wiped it from her brow with the back of her hand and closed her eyes.
“You look pretty, even when you’re exhausted,” I told her.
She opened her eyes for a second and smiled.
“Thanks. Although I don’t feel pretty right now.”
The three of us sat in silence until Victorinth discovers the remote control and switches on the television. There’s a man talking in a voice I’ve never heard before.
“Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine…” the man on the television said with a cigarette hanging from his lips.
I squinted as I tried to focus on the movie.
“Why are they talking that way?” I pointed at the television. “They all look strange too and they’re gray and black and white.”
Madison laughed.
“It’s an old movie,” she said. “People don’t talk or look like that any more.”
“Oh,” I nod although I don’t really understand.
“His voice reminds me of my father,” Victorinth sat closer to the television.
“Your father,” Madison sat beside her. “You’ve never mentioned him. In fact, neither of you have spoken much about your home planet. You’ve never even told me why you came to Earth.”
Victorinth and I look at one another then back at Madison.
“It’s complicated,” I begin. “And … it hurts to think about it, about the way Palzu ruined our home, our lives, our family…our planet.”
“Palzu … you mentioned him before, but who is he?”
“He was, a long time ago, a dear friend of our family. He was my mentor, my father’s best friend and he taught me everything there is to know about fighting and the arts. He also taught me about betrayal. He was so close to us—he even lived in the palace too.”
“You lived in a palace?”
“Victorinth and I are Orban royalty.”
Madison gasped.
“I … I don’t know what to say,” she stutters. “You’re royals from another planet and now here you are, sitting on a heart shaped bed in a cheap motel in Massachusetts.”
She sucks air in through her teeth and makes a shocking whistling sound.
“It is not important about where we are but rather that Victorinth and I protect each other at all costs. Palzu overthrew our family, took the crown away from my father and he did so through deceit and lies. We couldn’t stay on Orba any longer, not with Palzu in power. We had to get away from him and the chaos he was inflicting on the Orban race.”
Madison was sitting slack jawed, her fingers tangled together on her lap.
“I had no idea,” she finally said. “So your family… Where are your parents? Are they here on Earth?”
Again, my sister and I exchange tense glances and looked back to Madison.
“Only six of us came here,” Victorinth stared out the window as she spoke. “We managed to steal a shuttle to escape Orba but we crashed on Earth.”
“Yeah, we didn’t mean to specifically escape here. We just wanted to get as far away as possible to escape Palzu’s tyrannical regime.”
Madison pulled the two of us to her and hugged us hard.
“I can’t imagine all the things you have been through,” she said as she squeezed us tight. “You’re both very strong.”
She pushed me away but kept me at arm’s length, staring deep into my eyes.
“You must be so proud of each other.”
I nodded, not knowing what to say. The television was playing in the background, impervious to the emotional scene unfolding in front of it.
“Here's looking at you, kid,” the man on the screen said.
“I don’t understand anything that’s happening in this film,” Victorinth suddenly said as she sat back down on the bed.
Madison chuckles to herself.
“It’s called Casablanca,” she looked dreamy as she watched it. “I remember watching it when I was a kid. It was my mom’s favorite film.”
“You don’t talk about your parents either?” Victorinth observed.
Madison says nothing, just slipped her shoes back on and walked toward the door.
“I’m going to head outside for a bit. Get some air.”
“But it’s dangerous out there! What if the Trojan Group have people watching us?” I grabbed her by the hand before she could step outside.
“Something tells me if they knew we were here, they wouldn’t just let us lounge around and watch movies.”
It was a fair point.
“Ok,” I let go of her. “If you pass one of those big, red boxes that have tasty drinks inside, can you get me one of those brown liquids in a glass bottle, the one with the polar bears on the label?”
“I’ll get you a Coke, sure,” she kissed me on the cheek and left.
I watched her through the window as she disappeared around the corner. I wasn’t worried about her but now that she was out of sight, I found my heart racing as I worried about what could happen to her out there.
“Will you calm down?” Victorinth laughed as she flopped down on the bed. “She’s only been gone for five seconds.”
“I know but…”
“But what?”
“I dunno … I just care about her I guess.”
“You love her,” Victorinth nodded as though she knew exactly what I’m feeling.
I didn’t know how to answer and lingered at the end of the bed for a moment, shuffling from one foot to the other.
“Love is different here on Earth. I mean … I know that I love you but with Madison it’s something different. I get a strange sensation in my stomach as though I’m nervous, I can’t stop smiling whenever she looks at me and when she touches me I go all strange like a warm tingling is spreading through me.”
Victorinth stares at me as though I was insane.
“It’s hard to explain,” I dismissed the conversation with a shrug and reached for the inside of the refrigerator.
The alcohol had loosened me up and I felt s
leepy but that didn’t stop me from opening another bottle and taking a liberal gulp.
“Be careful with that stuff,” she frowned.
“Sure,” I yawned.
We both looked back at the television. The old film was still on.
“Are you familiar with it?” my inebriation makes me blurt out.
“Eh?” she turns to me. “Familiar with what?”
“With the feeling I spoke about?”
“No,” she said abruptly. “I don’t think we have a word for it back home. Maybe you just love her like you love family. We have, after all, spent so much time with her. It would be natural to feel that close to her.”
“It’s something else,” I placed the bottle down on the desk with a clunk. “It’s something stronger than that.”
I could hear my own voice in my head. I sounded angry for some reason although I didn’t mean to. The alcohol made me feel so weird, like I wasn’t really myself, like I’m talking through someone else’s mouth.
“I’m going outside for some air too,” I stand up feeling wobbly on my feet. “Try to get some sleep.”
Chapter 17
Madison
The atmosphere in the room has been tense, to say the least. With the three of us cramped up in here, we were starting to drive each other crazy. We'd been alternating turns sleeping on the bed and who sleeps on the floor. Mostly, Jarick and I just let Victorinth have it and we laid on the rough carpet, talking for hours into the night. It felt incredible to share my love of astronomy with someone who wasn’t Bradley.
Still, I'd love to have the room to myself for once. Over the last few days we'd been talking about the possibility that we get ourselves separate rooms but then we realize how scary that would be. The nights are long when you're a fugitive and we needed to stick together. Not to mention Jarick was insistent that his sister didn’t ever leave his sight.
However, tonight, he was making an exception. Victorinth was starting to act out, throwing little tantrums and sitting for hours pouting at the television. I couldn’t blame her at all. It was boring in here and we had nowhere to go. We were basically just killing time until the paranoia left us and we finally thought it was safe to leave. But we had managed to make the place a kind of home. Well, almost. We'd become friends with the owners, a little old couple who looked as though they'd seen a thing or two. They haven't judged our peculiar sleeping arrangements and didn't ask any questions. They do however love to chat and once or twice they've invited us into their office for a cup of coffee. Victorinth was right there now, probably nibbling her teeth around the edge of a cookie. The poor girl, she must be going through hell right now. But we all are…
"What are you thinking?" Jarick asked as he looks up to the ceiling.
"I was thinking I needed another beer," I said following his gaze up to the dusty light fixture.
"I won't have that stuff ever again," he grumbled. "It was great for a few hours but when I woke up the next day I found that I had a terrible headache but my problems from the night before were still there."
"Yeah …I know how that feels."
"It was kinda like I was borrowing some happiness from the next day to pay for the misery I was feeling the night before."
I looked at him and wondered what was going on in his head right now.
"You are truly strange and I love it."
He looked away from the ceiling and turned to me.
"Thank you…Although you seem strange to me too but that's no surprise. We are from other planets after all."
"You know, this is the first time it's just been the two of us in a room together since… that night, all those weeks ago."
"I noticed," he grinned. "I thought this day would never come."
"Me neither."
I laid beside him and took his hand. For the first time in days, it felt nice to just relax. Usually, I had my guard up with a hyper vigilance that wouldn't let me go, but as we laid in silence, the sound of our breath drifting up into the balmy air, I felt myself let go and take a deep breath.
"I've been reading," he says. "After you've fallen asleep, I've been reading things on your phone. I hope you don't mind."
"No … of course not. What have you been reading?"
"Things," he sniggered and bit his lower lip. "I've been reading about how to please a woman."
"Oh!"
"The last time I tried my best but I knew there were some things you would have liked better. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to be doing back then but I've been learning. I think I know what to do now."
"Oh really?"
"Yes! Will you let me give it another go?"
I felt my stomach flip. That night we spent together seemed so long ago but I hadn't forgotten about it.
"I think I would like that," I leaned in closer to him.
"Ok," he sat up and started to direct me around the bed in an official tone. "You need to lie up here like this, with your legs spread at this angle and a pillow beneath your bottom. Then you need to clear your mind. Have you done that?"
"Erm … yeah."
"Ok, now I need to take off your clothes."
He struggles for a moment to remove my skinny jeans.
"Ok, Good. Are you ready?"
I nodded as I tried to stop myself from laughing.
"Close your eyes," he said as he wriggles himself down between my legs on his stomach.
I did as he asked and laid back, waiting for whatever it was he was about to try. I could hear him take a deep breath then he moved my panties to the side. He very gently pressed his fingers to my pussy lips and opened me up slightly before kissing me all over. A heat instantly grew between my legs as I grew wetter. He was taking his time, kissing me softly, moving his mouth in circles around my clitoris.
I was desperate for him to reach out his tongue and lick me but he held back, nuzzling at me with his lips. His hands were tight around my thighs and I squeezed my fingers against his.
"Oh God…" I moaned. "That's so good."
He stopped for a moment and I wondered if I've done something wrong. I heard him take another deep breath and I waited to see what he was going to do next. His mouth lingered above me, his breath hot and tingly against my clitoris. He was so close it almost felt as though I could feel him on me already. Raising my pelvis to meet his lips, I tried to push myself up into his mouth but he refused, pushing me back down into the bed.
"You have to wait," he insisted. "The longer you wait, the better it will feel."
He was driving me crazy, teasing me, making me wait. Then I felt something else against me, a cool breeze. Looking down I saw that he was blowing on me, tickling me with the lightest of airy touches.
"Fuck … I can't wait much longer. I'll come right away if you suck on me."
He grinned a wicked smile and nodded ever so slightly as though he understood what he had to do. He held my gaze for a moment, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Then he latched his lips around me, sucking as hard as he could. I screamed, gripping at the bed sheets, and gasp for air. My legs were trembling as a wave of liquid passion and ecstasy flowed through my body. It was ripping through me, invading my body with a torrent of pleasure. My thighs shook uncontrollably, my juices flowing down the insides of my legs. My nails were so deep into his skin I'm sure I've drawn blood. And with one last convulsion, I climaxed hard, the vision at the sides of my eyes blurring.
"Fuck!"
I fell back on the bed.
"Oh Jesus fucking Christ. You have been learning."
"I'm not finished," he pulled my thighs back toward him. "I want to pleasure you even more."
For a moment I tried to stop him. I was so sensitive that every sensation felt magnified a thousand times, but soon pleasure took over once more and I lost myself in the sensation of his tongue lapping at me, his lips cradled my clitoris with their heat. Once again I felt it rise up within me, the wetness and the ecstasy. My thighs began to quiver. I bit down on my lower lip to stifle a scream but I
couldn't hold it any longer. Yelling out, I thrashed my limbs. The bed shook beneath me and he tried to hold onto me as tight as he could, but I was squirming and wriggling beneath his hands as my body was overwhelmed.
But no matter how much I screamed or tried to move him away, he refuses to move and continued to lick me with unwavering devotion. The clock on the wall behind him ticked by, a reminder of how long he dedicated to pleasuring me. I soon realize he'd been going for a solid half an hour. At this point, I don't think I'll ever be able to walk again. My legs were like liquid, weak and exhausted. Sweat poured from my brow, dripping down my temples and into my hair.
At last, he pulled away and crawled up the bed to lie beside me. Stretching his arm out, I snuggled into his shoulder and held him tight.
"You are so beautiful when you're happy," he stroked my face, moving the matted hair from my eyes.
"Beautiful?" I laughed. "I feel like a wreck, a completely satisfied and exhausted wreck."
He smiled, his eyes shining as he looked down at me.
"You're incredible," I kissed him hard, wrapping my arms and legs around him.
In that moment he was all I wanted with his perfect body, his gorgeous smile, and perfectly sweet personality.
"You look lost in thought," he says.
"It's just … we've been brought together through an impossible situation but, in a warped way, I'm so glad it happened."
"I know what you mean," he hugged me back, his lips pressing into my neck. "Over these last few weeks, I’ve felt as though we've really bonded and become close. I've never felt anything like that before."
His words were landing on the soft skin of my throat, tickling me intensely but I didn’t want to move. I held him tighter and kissed the top of his head, stroking his soft hair.
"All I want to do is protect you, make you feel amazing and take care of you. I feel it so intensely Madison, it's all I think about! What is it that makes me feel like this? I can't get you out of my head," he whispered. "No matter how hard I try, all I can think about is being by your side and dedicating my life to making you happy."
