by Megan Alban
On the drive to the apartment she would be sharing with Blake, they passed through the town, and as they drove along people stopped what they were doing to smile and wave. Alexis smiled and waved back in response as her parents chatted and laughed in the front seat. It all seemed so magical and perfect.
“Daddy, can we stop and get groceries? I’m not sure what Blake has in his kitchen. I’d like to make him a nice dinner for when he comes home.”
“Won’t he be home when we get there hon?” her mother asked.
“No, he has exams today, remember? That’s why he couldn’t fetch me himself.”
“We can stop anywhere you want, the supermarket is just up ahead.”
They strolled through the supermarket as a loving family unit. Everyone they walked by greeted them with a warm smile and asked about their day. Her parents loaded the shopping cart with everything: fresh meat and veg, eggs, bread, cereal and so much more. She started to protest that they were buying too much. But her parents silenced her, saying it was alright and they wished they could do more for their little princess.
Again Alexis felt a tug in her brain. Something was different with her parents. Again she felt the urge to dismiss this thought. She was happy, and didn’t think it unusual, after the shopping was bagged, that they hadn’t paid for a single item in the cart.
Back on the road to Blake’s place, peace and comfort filled the air that Alexis swam in, as she forgot about being swallowed by the cave.
Alexis was trapped in her own bliss.
Chapter Four
Back on earth at the same time a few hours before Alexis was dragged into the cave, Blake paced the expanse of the living room in the apartment he’d shared with Alexis, up until a few months ago. Seeing her today had thrown him for a loop. When he went to persuade his uncle not to give Alexis the job of piloting the Phobos, he had no idea she’d be waiting outside the office.
Just seeing her standing there in the doorway made the hurt of their breakup cut a new hole in his existence. He wanted to save her, even if she didn’t want to save herself.
The members of his family had always been sensitive to the sixth sense they possessed. It missed his mother and uncle, but he and his grandmother possessed it, although in different ways. His grandmother would get her vision through touch, shaking a hand or holding a possession of the person she read.
He got his through dreams. When he was younger he used to fight against the things he saw, and for years, managed to suppress them. He’d remained vision-free until now. Ever since the day Alexis graduated he’d been plagued with visions of her trapped and dying on a tropical location.
He hadn’t told her right away about his father’s illness, nor the fact he wouldn’t be staying on as a sector one pilot. Not until her probationary co-pilot period was over, and he’d managed to convince Commander Walker to keep her as a co-pilot on transporter ships only. These craft were used mainly to pick up and drop off the elite passengers to the space station to browse the intergalactic shopping mall before boarding a luxury cruiser to their planetary destination.
He’d done everything in his power to keep Alexis’s feet off any luxurious, tropical based planets, in the hope she’d get fed up and resign. Then she’d be safe, they could get married and raise a family. Not thinking for an instant they’d break up and she’d apply for a transfer to sector nine. No one volunteers to work on sector nine. The crafts on sector nine were no more than space buses, taxis for staff, or garbage disposals. Except for the one ship his uncle managed to keep command over, the Phobos, a sector one space cruiser his uncle brought with him, from his move as Commander of sector one to sector nine.
A demotion he’d gladly accepted. He’d ground all his spaceships for twenty-four hours to avoid an unforecast, but predicted by his mother, cluster of meteor rubble headed toward and through their regular flight path. He’d saved millions of lives, but cost the company billions of credits and so was removed from his post on sector one. A small price to pay in his uncle’s eyes, as mentally he’d never have survived the millions of lives lost if he’d done nothing. So asking him to keep Alexis off the Phobos wasn’t difficult once Blake told him his dream.
Blake stopped pacing and sat on the couch. He rested his arm on the arm of the chair, rubbing his forehead. He was exhausted. The troubling dreams gave him many restless nights, and for the last few days he’d kept himself awake with caffeine-based energy drinks and pills. In the hope his vision wouldn’t come true. Even though he knew what he saw was inevitable. He should have just told her about the visions and the family secret and the history behind them.
Now he’d lost her. She was angry with him, and with good reason, after she found out it was his antics that held her back from achieving her career goals and stopped her from being the pilot she wanted to be.
He leaned back into his seat, and rubbed his palm up and down his face, closed his eyes and let his head flop onto the back of the couch. The cold stare Alexis gave him outside his uncle’s office bore through his mind, he still felt the chill.
He shuddered.
How could he turn things around? Their lives had been so simple when they first got together. Stupidly he’d believed their relationship was unbreakable.
Before long his head slumped forward. His eyes jerked in rapid movements under his eyelids. His breathing became more rapid, irregular and shallow. His heart rate increased, and his blood pressure rose. The front of his pants bulged, as he developed an erection. Beads of sweat sprouted from his forehead and top lip. His body began to twitch. Drool fell from his lips as he was transported in the dream realm to a distant planet.
In the dream he saw Alexis’s physical body trapped in ugly, twisted vines that were draining her most cherished memories. Alexis’s memories were open and he could see them as clear as if displayed on a digital screen.
In the memory, she was back in their apartment five years younger, bucking and grinding into him as they made love for the first time. Her smell, her taste, her moans, were so real, so vivid, he could almost touch them. She was completely happy and at peace, their love untainted.
As he swam in the desires of their lovemaking, a knowledge gripped his heart. The vines were feeding on her and once they drained her of her memories she would die.
Realization ejected Blake from his sleep. This dream was more vivid than the sketchy ones before where he only ever saw the outcome. Waking from the horrible dream, Blake had a single thought, the same thought he’d fallen asleep with. He had to save Alexis, but where the fuck was she? And how did she get there? It wasn’t a planet he recognized, in his two years as a pilot in sector one he was sure he’d visited most if not all the tropical locations listed for tourism.
They was only one way to get the answers to his questions. He needed to call his uncle and find out where he sent her.
“Hi Uncle Nate, it’s Blake.”
“Seeing as you’re my only nephew, I guessed it was you. Call me dumb, but I kinda think the whole uncle thing gave it away. Never mind the fact I’m hearing from you twice in the same day, makes me feel all fuzzy inside.” He laughed. “To what do I owe my sudden popularity with you? What’s up?”
“I’m sorry to bother you like this, but I need to find Alexis.”
“Well, you’ll have to wait six more hours I’m afraid, she’s on an assignment.”
“Where? Where did you send her?”
“It’s classified. All I can say is, it’s an exploration mission.”
“Is this on a tropical planet, Uncle? I need to know.”
“I don’t know, it’s a fairly new discovery, hence the exploration. Why, what did you see?”
“It’s happening, wherever it was you sent her, it’s happening now. You have to get her back.”
“I can’t, not without a distress call from the ship. I can’t send out a rescue mission on your say-so alone. Even if I wanted to. You know the protocol. Give me a minute, I’ll get my secretary to send a message telling
her to check in. And if she doesn’t get back within the hour I’ll send a drone to scan the planet and send back a visual report.”
“Can you tell me anything?”
“Sorry son. I can’t, I’ll let you know what I can, as soon as I can. Bye Blake.” The call ended. Then Blake heard a bleep from his wrist communicator. It was a message from his uncle.
Sorry I couldn’t say much, all the calls are scanned and monitored. I can’t do much this end, this is on you. Here are the solar system’s coordinates and the name and number of an independent space pilot with his own ship. Mention my name. Now go save your woman. Good luck. N.
Chapter Five
Blake didn’t waste any time, he called the independent space pilot his uncle suggested.
“Hello, is this Slade Savage?”
“Who’s asking?”
“My name is Blake Millhouse. My uncle, Commander Nate Steel, said you could help me.”
“Is that right?”
“Yes.”
There was a long pause at the other end. Blake ran his fingers through his hair as he waited. “What do you need help with?”
“I need a ship to take me someplace.”
“When for?”
“Yesterday.”
“That soon, huh?”
“Yeah, can you help?”
“It’s not going to be cheap.”
“I don’t care how much it costs, can you help?” Blake’s wrist communicator bleeped. He stared down at the screen. It was a message for a rendezvous with Slade. “How did you get my communicator details?”
“I have my ways. Meet me there in twenty minutes. If my locater is correct, you’re only fifteen minutes away, but I’m twenty, so I’ll see you there. Be warned, if you take longer than that I won’t be there when you arrive.”
“No worries, I’ll be there.” Blake ended the call, picked up his jacket and helmet, then made his way to the building’s underground parking lot. He figured he’d get to the meeting point much faster on his bike.
Finding out that Alexis was assigned to a distant planet called Nova Skopje, Blake did a quick online search through the Discovery Planet e-mag, for pictures of the planet, which flashed before his eyes on the visor of his helmet, as he sat on his bike waiting for Slade to arrive. His heart leaped as he saw the luscious greenery and tropical looking plants.
This wasn’t good.
He switched off the screen, and raised his visor, to look around the vacant industrial site Slade had given him, as the address to meet. The place looked as though it had been abandoned for years. Dust coated the windows of the derelict buildings, and there was a door squeaking on it hinges in the distance.
The old factories themselves stood on large square concrete columns and beams, giving an open view to the other side. Blake concluded the space must have been used for parking or storing mechanical equipment. There was dirt, dust and rubble everywhere.
He began to get a nervous feeling about Slade. Why all the cloak and dagger stuff? If he was legit they could just as easily have met at his home or Slade’s place of business. Not this run down hovel at the back of nowhere. Should he ask him about his less than transparent methods of conducting business when he arrived? Or leave it until they were a few million light years away from earth and well on their way, with no going back? No point alienating the man before he’d had a chance to save Alexis.
Blake turned his head to the unsettled dust clouds forming in the air moving at speed in his direction.
His meeting with Slade didn’t go down the way he expected. Slade didn’t want any detail, just the credits and their destination. Soon they were off, leaving Blake’s bike behind in a clapped out storage room. He mounted Slade’s hover bike and together they went to where Slade’s spacecraft was docked.
Arriving at the planet’s orbit, both men looked at each other. This new planet looked like another Earth. They hovered over the planet’s floor until Blake spotted some scenery, which triggered something in him, as well as the dull nagging in his head this was the place where they would find Alexis.
He faintly recognized the caves, but he couldn’t be sure. He told Slade to land a little distance away, he’d walk the rest.
As he approached the caves he saw them wake up and form into mouths. Before he could turn and run, vines grabbed him. Knowing he only had one chance to find Alexis, he made his most cherished memory into the same memory as hers before he passed out.
A steady beat fluttering like a frightened bird vibrated through his chest, the rhythm slowly increased to sync with his own. A familiar scent stole his senses. He eyes flicked open. He wasn’t dead, and if he was he’d gone to heaven in his baby’s arms. Her essence engulfed him. Her smell, her touch, her taste all reeled around in his head, as he nuzzled deeper into her neck.
There was something he needed to tell her. Yes, that’s it they were in danger. But he could feel nothing dangerous about being in Alexis’s arms. They were going to make love for the first time. She’d wanted to have their union sooner, he wanted to wait until they were living together.
What they had was special and be didn’t want to cheapen it by taking her virginity in the back of a car or a dirty old abandoned building. She meant more to him than that.
When he took the woman he loved, it had to be special. He’d spent the better part of the morning getting the room just right before heading out to take his exams. He wished he could have been there to see her reaction when she entered the bedroom they’d be sharing.
He’d downed the shutters and illuminated the room with fluorescent cubes. Rose petals trailed from the door to the bed and spread out over the bedding, which scented the room.
He’d left a plate of chocolate-coated strawberries in the cooler with a bottle of champagne. Alexis’s first time would not be the quick clumsy mess he’d experienced, as did some of his friends. Her first visit to the planet solar system of love, would be at the other end of his dick. If all went well she had a world of pleasure awaiting.
Forgetting he was on a failed rescue mission, he began to enjoy their time together. Alexis was back in his arms, it was special, warm and safe. How he felt was exactly how he should feel with that special someone. Staring deep into her eyes, he found himself getting lost in them. Lost in their beauty, and the mesmerizing effects they always had on him.
Without being able to wait any longer, he placed a hand on her cheek and brought her face close to his. Their lips met and he started to feel the same feeling he got in his gut every time their lips touched together and their mouths did their dance. His hands circled her face, so he could feel her soft skin. The thought of how much he’d missed that feeling played on the surface of his mind. He dismissed it as fast as it arrived, he was attracted to an angel, and now she was back in his arms. He was never going to let her go again.
The room temperature grew hotter as their passion to be together took on a more urgent momentum. Their hands started to explore and roam across the surface of their clothing. She pressed against him, transmitting her need, before leaping up on him, wrapping her legs around his waist. Grounding her heat into his middle.
She’d moved quickly without pulling her lips away from his. He couldn’t control his hands, which developed a life of their own as they wandered all over her, from her cheeks down to her ass. He took off her blouse and let her hair down, to fall over her bare shoulders. Then he undid her bra, letting his hands fondle her breasts, as they fell into his palms.
She looked to him like a pure goddess. His heart pounded, making it difficult to breathe.
He ran his hands across the flat of her stomach, across her thighs, then back to her breasts. He broke the kiss lifting her further up his body so he could kiss and tease her ripening nipples. A shiver ran down his spine, when her fingers tangled in his hair, pressing him into her. He strolled with her toward the bed, not stopping in his ministration, instinct led his way.
When his legs met the base of the bed he leaned forward and
laid her down gently onto the mattress climbing on next to her—his tongue seeking its way home within her mouth. His heart raced and his pulse echoed in his ears. A possessed hand wandered down to her crotch as her breathing increased in time with his own—the passion on her face seemed to grow intense as his fingers got closer to her sex.
He moved his tongue from her mouth and dragged it down her chest. Stopped close to her breasts, then clamped around her nipple and flicked it gently with the tip of his tongue.
He circled his tongue down further to reach the most intimate, secret part of her body. He unzipped her pants, she arched into him. He pulled at the material taking off her panties too.
She was now completely naked. He gasped as he gazed at the creation in front of him, stunned by her beauty. But it wasn’t all physical. The look in her eyes, the way it hit his heart—he knew she was the one. What he felt for her went beyond love. It went much further than that. Words cannot explain its wonder, it could only be felt, a sensation deep and pure.
By touching her body, intimately kissing, licking and fondling every part, he could tell she felt it too. He was able to bring her to the deepest edge of an orgasm and he hadn’t even touched her secret temple. She seemed in complete ecstasy with his lips and teeth grazing and caressing her neck, breasts, stomach and inner thighs.
His bulge strained the front of his pants. The feel of her skin was electric, and tingled through him from head to toe, swelling his cock. He started kissing her inner thighs, then the outside of her pussy while checking she wasn’t looking uncomfortable. Her musk had him under her spell, he could smell her scent and imagine her sweetness.
Her entire body started to shiver with intense pleasure against his palm, as his breath coated her sweet temple. Her finger in his hair nudged him forward as he gazed on her swollen pussy lips begging and inviting. He licked his lips.
