Boundless

by Annie Dean

  “Of course.” He paused just a few feet from her and shifted into the lizard-man thing that woke her up this morning.

  Kitty looked up at him and gulped. Standing, he had to be at least seven feet tall and built like a Roman gladiator. His shoulders were maybe a couple of feet wide and his neck was as thick as one of her thighs. In the sunlight coming through the sliding glass door that led to her balcony, his red and gold scales sparkled like jewels.

  She looked over her shoulder. If she had to, she could jump over the railing of her balcony. It was only a thirty-foot drop. The worse that could happen to her … well, okay, she could die. She'd rather die than be ravished by … a dragon, for God's sake.

  “Don't be afraid, Kiyo. I hate that you're afraid of me.” He shifted again, this time to the blond god. He snapped his fingers and suddenly, the lower portion of his anatomy was covered in blue jeans. “Would you really rather die than have me touch you?”

  “Stop reading my thoughts!” She shoved her hands in her hair and covered her ears with her wrists. When she looked up at him, she saw that he looked genuinely hurt and distressed. She felt an answering twinge in her chest. Slowly, she lowered her hands to her sides and raised her chin. “What do you want from me?”

  His golden brows furrowed and a tiny knot appeared on his forehead. “I just want you to come home.”

  Kitty froze. She'd heard that before. From the crazy black guy who accosted her last night. “What did you say?”

  He put his hand on her shoulder. “You need to come home. You've stayed too long in this world. You've forgotten all about us.”

  Kitty pinched the panels of her robe shut as she felt his stare drift down her body. Did he have to look at her like he was starving and she was a big steak dinner? She'd be lying, of course, if she told herself it didn't feel good. “I'm sorry, but this is crazy. I really don't know what you're talking about. Please, I'm begging you, just leave me alone.”

  His hunter-green eyes flashed dangerously and he tightened his grip on her shoulder. “You will come home, Kiyo, make no mistake about that. You don't belong in this world.”

  Kitty placed her hand on her neck and shook her head. “I'm not an alien. I have a family. I have memories of my childhood.”

  “Do you?” He stared intently at her and cocked his head to the side. “Then tell me, where did you grow up? What are the names of your parents? What was the name of your first pet?”

  Kitty racked her brain for the answers and whimpered when she couldn't produce a single one. Blank. There was nothing there. She gripped the handle of the sliding glass door to keep herself from collapsing to the ground. “You keep calling me Kiyo. That's not my name. I don't know what's going on here, but I think you have the wrong person.”

  “No.” He put his hands on her waist and yanked her toward him. “Kiyo is your true name. Kitty Jones is an identity you created for yourself. Your memories, your feelings, all of it you manufactured for yourself so you could have, as you called it, a 'true human experience.'“

  “You're lying,” she whispered harshly. “I'm a human being, damn it. I'm not like you. I don't have powers or anything like that.”

  “Oh?” He twisted her around in his arms so that her back was to him and slipped one muscular arm around her throat. “Then what do you call that?”

  Outside her apartment was a giant stone structure. If she went out to her balcony, she could probably touch it. She flung the dragon's arm away from her, shoved open the sliding glass door, and ran out to the balcony to check out what it was. It was only when she was close enough to it that she realized what she was looking at. A fifty-foot statue of a naked man standing smack dab in the middle of Madison Street blocking traffic with its penis pointing straight at her.

  On the ground below her, a woman started screaming.

  The dragon's arm snaked around her waist and she felt him drag his open mouth against the side of her throat. “Told you so,” he whispered in her ear before everything in her world turned black.

  Chapter Three

  “Giant man statue on Madison and 4th. Go!”

  Jack looked up from his Minesweeper game and peeked over the wall of his cubicle in time to see Harry walk into his office and slam the door behind him. He glanced over his shoulder at Tiff who was already wrapping up her leftover pastrami and rye sandwich and slipping on the strap of her purse over her head.

  Kenny, who was about to bite into his grilled cheese sandwich, sent Jack a droll look. “I'm sorry, did he just say 'giant man statue?’”

  Jack leaned back in his chair and dragged a hand over his face.

  “Madison and 4th?” Tiff paused in the act of slipping on her coat and frowned. “That's only six blocks away from the Red Dragon Bar, isn't it? What are the chances of two bizarre things happening not too far away from each other and in such a short amount of time?”

  “Maybe Stevens is right and the world, as we know it, is coming to an end.” Jack had never been one to believe in coincidences and had to admit that this one bothered him more than it should. He'd spent half the morning going through registries and looking up information on any ship that had sunk in the last fifty years, but couldn't find anything on an SS Kiyo. Out of desperation, he called an ex-girlfriend who worked at the Tampa Port Authority, but she had nothing to tell him, either.

  “Giant man statue?” Kenny repeated.

  Tiff crossed her arms over her chest. “I refuse to believe that assmunch could ever be right about anything.”

  Jack pulled open his desk drawer and grabbed his bottle of Vicodin. Shaking a couple of tablets onto his palm, he tossed them into his mouth, and crunched them like peanuts. He washed the bitter taste with a lukewarm bottle of water.

  Tiff propped her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at him. “I swear to God, Jack, you treat that shit like candy.”

  Jack smiled grimly at her. “Nobody likes a killjoy, Tiff. I'll thank you to shut the hell up.”

  “Whatever, it's not like I give a shit about you or anything.” She shook her head and tossed an empty can of diet soda in the trash. “Kenny, get your gear and let's go.”

  Jack closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. After a few minutes, he grabbed his jacket and followed his crew to the elevator.

  * * * *

  “Wow … that's a giant man statue, all right.”

  Tiff was the only person he knew who could say such a thing with a straight face while staring up at the testicles of a fifty-foot statue of a naked man. Kenny, on the other hand, had been catatonic ever since they arrived at the scene. The talent had taken one look at the statue and fell in a dead faint. Even Jack himself couldn't think of a thing to say.

  After all, what did one say about fifty-foot statue of a naked man that sported a ten-foot erection that it didn't already say for itself?

  Tourists, reporters, cops, and gloom-doom naysayers carrying signs about the end of the world surrounded them. There were tears, hysterical screaming, and some laughter. A few feet from the statue, a group of old women clad in black had lit up some candles and were on their knees on the ground, holding hands and chanting. Traffic was once again backed up for miles. The cops were having a hell of a time with crowd control.

  But somehow Jack was able to spot her. Not that he could avoid seeing her with her hot pink hair pulled into a ponytail on top of her head. He could spot her in a crowd of thousands. She stood apart from the crowd wearing a quilted robe that was a lighter pink than her hair, looking uncertain and uncomfortable. She too was staring up at the statue with a strange expression on her face that Jack didn't immediately recognize.

  Guilt. Jack narrowed his eyes at the pink-haired waitress. Was she behind this? Was it a harmless prank gone wrong? If so, how the hell could she have transported this thing? It was taller than the apartment building next to it and had to weigh a few hundred tons.

  “Oh, look, it's Rainbow Brite,” Tiff said dryly. “What's she doing here?”

  “I don
't know,” Jack murmured absently, watching the waitress hug her arms to herself. She looked to be a few seconds away from a nervous breakdown. “I'm gonna go talk to her.”

  Tiff folded her arms under her breasts and stared at him in disbelief. “Jack…”

  As he was walking away, he heard Kenny say, “Hey, if you have to kiss when you're standing under mistletoe, what do you have to do if you stand under balls?”

  When Jack reached her, she was looking up at the statue, worry and guilt—definitely guilt—etched on her pretty face. She didn't even see him approach. He touched her on the shoulder and she jumped. She whirled around to face him, her hands clutching the top of her robe. Her eyes widened as soon as she saw him and almost tripped on her own feet trying to get away from him.

  “Hi,” Jack said, reaching out to steady her. “It's cool, it's okay. I'm Jack Ridley, remember? We met last night? I work for KTCI?”

  Her violet eyes studied him with what looked like worry. “Are you … you?”

  What the hell does that mean? She seemed to be afraid of him and Jack realized he didn't like it one bit. Her face was deathly pale and she looked like she was about to throw up. “Well, I know I'm me.” Unable to help himself, he brushed her cheek with the back of his hand to see if her skin was as soft as it looked and discovered she was cold to the touch. “What are you doing here?”

  “I live here.” She flicked her index finger upward. “You see that balcony the … um … penis is pointing at? That's my apartment.”

  “Oh. That's … that's gotta be awkward.” What was it about her that inspired such protective instincts within him? All he wanted to do was whisk her back to his apartment, stick her in his bed, and cover her with his body. For the second time since he met the woman, he found himself removing his jacket and wrapping it around her.

  “Yeah. Imagine how I felt this morning when I woke up this morning and found a giant dick pointed at me.” She giggled, but it was more of the hysterical variety. She slipped her arms through armholes of his jacket and hugged it tight around her body, burying her face on the collar and inhaling deeply. “It smells like you. I like it.” She smiled shyly up at him. “I'm glad you're here, Jack.”

  Jack felt his face growing warm and prayed he wasn't blushing like a tomato. Clearing his throat, he stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and smiled back at her. “I'm glad I'm here, too. Kitty, right?”

  Her smiled widened, her violet eyes sparkling. “Hey, you remembered!”

  Maybe it was the Vicodin kicking in, but suddenly, Jack no longer gave a shit about the fifty-foot statue that was standing behind him or where it came from. He couldn't care less about the pissed off and scared people that surrounded them either. It was as though the rest of the world had ceased to exist around him and everything that mattered stood in front of him in a five-foot-flat, one hundred and ten pound package. “Do you want to get out of here? Maybe walk somewhere and get a cup of coffee or something?”

  “Jack, I'm not wearing anything under my robe and my feet are bare! Maybe we could run up to my apartment real quick and…” Her face dimmed and a frown of worry touched her lips. “I mean…”

  Jack couldn't help it. His eyes immediately focused on the front of her robe as though he had X-ray vision and could see right through it. He felt primitive, felt like dragging her to a cave somewhere and inspecting every inch of her under that robe. At the same time, he wanted to cover her up so that no one else could look at her the way he was looking at her. “Sweetheart, there's a fifty-foot statue sporting a ten-foot erection in the middle of downtown Chicago. I don't think anyone's going to care if you're naked under your robe.”

  She seemed to hesitate for a moment, biting her lower lip. “Oh, Jack, I…”

  She's naked under her robe. Naked. Nude. Au naturel. He wondered if the rest of her was as silky-smooth as her face. “Come on, it'll be fun. I know this great place where they serve the best waffles in the Midwest.”

  “I don't think we can get anywhere in this traffic. Look at it, it's bumper to bumper gridlock. And all because of this stupid statue.” She looked down at her bare feet, the guilty expression back on her face.

  Jack wondered at the cause of it. What could she possibly be feeling guilty about? He cupped her cheek in his palm and she raised her chin, her disconcerted gaze meeting his eyes. “Hey, we don't have to drive to get to this place. We can just walk there. It'll be more fun that way, anyway.”

  “Yeah, it'll be fun.” She reached for his hand and threaded her fingers through his. “You're a nice guy, Jack.”

  Jack stared at their linked hands. He couldn't remember the last time he felt such joy at merely holding a woman's hand. Her hand was so tiny that his hand appeared to have completely swallowed hers. He looked back at her and beamed. “No, not really. I'm just having a good day.”

  She took a step toward him and tucked her free hand into his arm. “Let's go, then. Buy me some waffles.”

  Kenny and Tiff called out to him as the two of them walked away, but Jack didn't even really hear them. When his cell phone vibrated a few seconds later, Jack reached into his pocket and turned it off.

  * * * *

  On their way to the waffle place, they found themselves walking past the Red Dragon Bar. The place appeared to be deserted, but there was a police caution tape at the door and two uniforms standing around looking bored. They gave Jack and Kitty a once-over when they paused in front of the place, but quickly lost interest and looked away.

  “I wish I could go inside,” Jack said. “I really want to take a look at that boat.”

  Kitty flashed him a flirtatious smile. “Maybe I could lure the cops away and you could sneak in.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow. “And how are you supposed to 'lure' them away?”

  “I could flash them.” She laughed when Jack glared at her. “Or I could tell them I work there and forgot my purse inside.”

  Jack shrugged. “Couldn't hurt. Give it a shot.” He couldn't believe it would work, though. She was a pixie-looking woman with hot pink hair wearing only a bathrobe and a man's leather jacket over it. If he were one of the cops, he'd think she was nuts.

  Kitty raised herself on the tips of her toes, pressed her lips against his chin, then turned around to face the cops. She smiled at them and giggled, her dulcet voice floating back to him, and he found himself as mesmerized as the cops who were staring at her like she was the cutest thing they had ever seen. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but she pointed at him once, and the cops looked suspiciously at him. As soon as she placed a hand on their arms, the suspicion disappeared from their faces. Lifting the yellow caution tape, they stepped aside to let them in.

  “Well done,” Jack murmured as soon as they were inside. “What did you say to them?”

  “Just that I worked here, left my purse inside during the chaos last night, and my boyfriend came with me to pick it up.” She wasn't looking at him as she said this. Instead her eyes were trained on something in front of them. She hugged his jacket tighter around her slender body. “There it is.”

  The strong fishy smell immediately assaulted Jack's nostrils. As soon as he saw it, his jaw dropped to his chest and he found himself unable to speak. In his eight years as a reporter, nothing could have prepared him for the sight that loomed before them. In the dimness of the bar, the thing looked more like a ghost ship than a fishing boat and he had images of bloodthirsty zombie pirates jumping out to greet them and feast on their flesh.

  On the floor, he spotted a chair turned over on its side. He picked it up, righted it, and sat down to stare at the ship. As a pragmatic kind of guy, he could always find a way to explain the “weirder” things in life. He shoved a hand into his hair and racked his mind for a reason why a twenty-foot fishing boat would be sitting smack-dab in the middle of a local watering hole. For the first time in his life, he felt uncertain about something. He did not like it.

  The boat was probably once white, but being underwater for God k
nows how long had chipped off the paint in some places and rotted the wood. It was tall enough that the top of it almost, but not quite, touched the ceiling and long enough that it almost, but not quite, touched the back of the bar. There were no broken windows, no damage to the bar itself. It was very carefully not touching any part of the bar except the floor. The placing of the boat itself seemed deliberate. It was not meant to hurt anyone or damage anything.

  Clumps of seaweed hung along the bow like decoration. It reminded him of tinsel artfully placed on a Christmas tree. On the side of the boat, painted in red and cursive lettering, was the name S.S. Kiyo. Unlike the rest of the boat, it looked shiny and new. The vein behind Jack's right eye began to throb. He felt as though the answer to all this was scratching at the back of his skull, but wouldn't quite come to him. The more he thought about it, the more he dismissed the idea that this was some cosmic accident. Someone had placed this boat here on purpose.

  “Are we almost done here?” Kitty asked from somewhere behind him.

  Jack turned his head and found her leaning against the door, hunched over with her head lowered and her arms wrapped tightly around her middle. Jack recognized the pose from the years he spent in foster care, protecting himself from the blows of the people who were supposed to care for him. She was looking at her bare feet, her toes curled into the dirty floor.

  Jack pushed off from the chair and gingerly approached her. “Kitty, sweetheart, are you all right?” He touched her lightly on the shoulder and she flinched. “It's okay. We're done here. We can leave now.”

  “Did you get everything you needed?” Her voice sounded strained as though she were in pain.

  He wanted to look at the boat some more, but right now, nothing else seemed to matter but getting Kitty as far away from the place as possible. “I'd like to get Kenny in here, so he could film it, but…” There was a flash of light behind him and Jack turned around to find the boat gone. The tables and chairs were back where they were supposed to be and it was as though the boat had never been there. Even the fishy smell was gone.