by Kaylee Kane
“What the fuck? He’s not answering the phone!” I cried out. The house was in shrill silence. I hit call again. This time was a mechanical voice message, “The number you have dialed is no longer in service.”
“What the fuck?” I mouthed to myself and looked at the screen to make sure I got the right number. It was fucking Kyres’ number.
“What’s up?” asked Julisa.
I stared at the screen blankly. “It–it says Kyres’ number is no longer in service.”
“Call his office,” said Sanya. “Halotech something, wasn’t it?”
“I got it! Halotech Corporations at Lexy Square?” Julisa found the company contact number online that I swiftly copied to call.
“Hi, this is Halotech Corps twenty-four-hour customer service. What can I help you?” said the groggy female voice who sounded more monotonous than the telco message.
My brain momentarily went blank. I squeezed my temples as I struggled to construct my sentences. “Okay. Kyres. My fiancé. He’s there?”
“Excuse me, ma’am?”
I cleared my throat. “My fiancé, Kyres, he is a software engineer working with your company. I can’t contact him through his phone. Can you please put him on the line?”
“I will connect you to HR.”
Every second stretched into eternity. Julisa and Sanya stared at me expectantly, adding to my anxiety.
“This is HR,” another even more unenthusiastic voice came on the line.
“Hi, I am looking for my fiancé, Kyres, who is a software engineer working for your company. I could not contact him…”
“Hold on a second.” I heard a muffled voice in the background. “Do we have any IT guy called Kyres?”
I could not roll my eyes hard enough.
“Hey, um, I think you made a mistake, ma’am. We don’t have anyone named Kyres working here.”
All my blood drained from my face. “You sure?”
“Yeah, the closest we’ve got is Kylie from accounts…um, I don’t think she’s your fiancé.”
My last hope died away. It felt like the whole world crashed on me.
My head was spiraling into confusion. My whole body shook as I burst into tears.
What was worse than finding that your fiancé never worked in a company he claimed? What was worse than your fiancé going MIA a few days before the wedding?
Julisa and Sanya hovered over me and patted my back. So many questions whirled in my head, screaming for answers.
“There, there,” said Sanya.
Julisa passed me tissues. Lifting my glasses, I dabbed my puffy eyes and blew my nose. That was when my eyes fell on the brown envelopes again.
Octoporn Industries
Those words taunted me. An idea hit me. I turned at my girls and cried, “Who was that guy who attended to us in Chinatown? Branson? Brendon?”
“Brydon?” Sanya arched her brow.
“Yes, Brydon!” I cried out. “If we could track him down, we probably could connect the dots to Kyres!”
Julisa was already on her phone when she yelled, “On it!” Her thumbs tapped on the screen aggressively for a few seconds. She looked up with a grin on her face.
“Got it!” She flipped her phone to show us a photo of Brydon in a bar on social media. “Brydon has been checking in at this bar every Monday for the happy hours.” She arched her brow at us. “If we get down there tomorrow night, we might be able to catch him.”
Now Julisa was not only the beauty. She was the beauty with brains.
“Deal,” said Sanya. “I could use a drink.”
I nodded. “See you then.”
17
The next day
As if my own thoughts were not enough to drive me crazy, the loud EDM pounded in my head. I might even get a concussion out of this.
Guilt pricked at my conscience, the memories of Hornymoon Resort flooded in my head. The explosion of flashing colorful lights and the loud music blaring around me reminded me of the bar we frequented there. The graphics were certainly better in real life.
“Hey, you coming?” Julisa grabbed my wrist, popping into my trance. She was dressed in a little black dress with a low cut collar that made her breasts screamed attention.
If I could not take my eyes off her cleavage, could you imagine all the men in the bar?
I followed her to the bar to join Sanya.
Sanya flipped through the menu, then asked in disappointment, “Are mimosas okay?”
Sanya joined us right after work, still clad in her flowery maxi dress. The casual dress code was the favorite part of her job. Between the three of us, I was the most underdressed one in my black spaghetti top and jeans. But hey, I wasn’t here to make a statement. I was there for my fiancé.
“Yeah, get some fries too,” said Julisa.
I took the seat next to Sanya and scanned the bar. My eyes leaped between the faces flitting past but none of them rang a bell. “Did you guys see him?”
Julisa looked at me funny, then suddenly jerked back as though she just remembered the reason why we were here. “Negative.”
“Do you think he will be here tonight?” Sanya plopped on the seat between us two.
“The target is just right there.” Julisa nodded in the direction of the door where we had come in.
I turned following her gaze and was met with the middle-aged man with a receding gray crown. He was sported in a green floral shirt and jeans.
Clearly, I was not paranoid when I thought something was fishy about this guy. My instincts had been right. There was no mistaking he was the pimp-like man who got us into Hornymoon Resort.
I clenched my fists and was about to jump him when Sanya grabbed my arm. “Hold up. Let’s see what he is up to first.”
I took a deep breath to calm myself. So many questions whirled in my head, screaming for answers. My gaze followed Brydon as he sat at the bar and ordered his drink. The bartender slid the beer to him.
“I think it is time.” Julisa already got up and started strutting towards Brydon. We followed suit.
Brydon saw us walking up at him and ogled lewdly at us up and down. He leaned back against the bar when the three of us stood around him.
“Hello, ladies,” he sneered. “I have never handled three before but I guess we can put it to the test tonight.”
“You can’t be telling us you don’t remember us,” said Julisa.
“It’s not even that long ago, Brydon.” Sanya checked her nails.
“Where’s my fiancé?” I cried out.
Brydon’s face fell as his gaze skipped between us. “The fuck? You guys managed to get out?”
Julisa smirked. “So, that was your intention, huh? To trap us there forever?”
“No…no fuck!” He blinked quickly.
“Spill the fucking beans, Brydon. What was the whole fucking objective of Hornymoon Resort? Where is Kyres? I know he is involved in this shit.”
Brydon’s eyes lingered on my face. “You are the wife, yes…” He cleared his throat. “I swore on Kyres not to tell anyone.”
Julisa grabbed him on the collar. “Kyres is gone. Nobody has a fucking idea where the fuck he is! He might be in danger! Tell us what you know now!”
Brydon’s face paled in shock. He wriggled away from Julisa. “Kyres is gone?” The last sliver of hope I had vanished.
My shoulders slumped in disappointment. The last person who could connect the dots to Kyres had no fucking idea what was going.
“So, what is this Hornymoon Resort all about?” I asked again.
Brydon could not look me in the eyes. “Kyres is not who you think he is.”
Ah, of course. Why hadn’t I thought of it?
“So, what is he?” I demanded. My lips were shaking with emotions. Sanya stood behind me and patted my back.
Brydon took a deep breath. “He is not even from this planet. He’s–to put it bluntly, a fucking alien.”
&nbs
p; My blood drained from my face. What the fuck? The look on Julisa and Sanya’s faces reflected the same confusion. “The fuck you mean?”
“See, you are not going to buy it, but that’s the truth. Your fiancé, Kyres, his real name is Kyresxamnuthanith…a Lunatic descendant of the Luna Nova.”
My eyes became wider. What the fuck was he talking about now? He still would not look me in the eyes.
“He escaped and sought refuge on Earth when a civil war broke out back in his home planet. Since then, he fell in love with the beauty of Earth and decided to reside here.”
“The beauty of Earth?” Julisa scrunched her nose and glanced around. “I thought we wanted to seek refuge elsewhere!”
“Kyres has come long before the Robot Revolution! Before our ancestors destroyed the planet. Then, he fell in love with a mortal human female.” Brydon finally looked me in the eyes. “You, Vara. Kyres fell in love with you.”
“Oh, fuck.” Tears streamed down my cheeks. “Oh my god, Kyres…Oh, fuck. I love him so much. What happened to him?”
Julisa and Sanya wrapped their arms around me. “There, there, we will find him,” said Sanya.
“Kyres knew he could not stay here any longer in his true identity. If we humans would kill each other because of our skin color, imagine what would happen if they found out that he was from another planet. So, he came out with a plan. He wanted to create his own world, his dream world where he could be himself again and be with the love of his life.”
I wiped the tears off my face. “That’s why he created Hornymoon Resort.”
Brydon nodded. “He knew he could not have done it himself, so he asked for my help. He was the software engineer and I designed the graphics. Everything was according to plan…and then we ran out of funds. He could not continue building and expanding the world he once dreamed of. Kyres was devastated…And then Octoporn Industries came about.”
My head was spinning, trying to comprehend what Brydon said.
“They offered a deal Kyres could not say no to.”
I listened intently and clenched my fists.
“Nobody truly knows who runs this Octoporn Industries. But they were very interested in the virtual hotel concept Hornymoon Resort is. They have even better ideas to commercialize it. Due to the universal Human Fever phenomenon, human females are highly sought after by the space tycoons. They offer Kyres a million-dollar deal to provide them human porn.”
Blood froze in my veins. Everything seemed to fall into place now. “That’s why you got us into the virtual hotel and made us play those sick games! You were recording us to sell our videos to Octoporn Industries!”
Brydon nodded. If there was any sign of remorse on his face, I could not see it. “Kyres accepted the offer and started recruiting his ‘subjects’. He would not have dreamed up his own wife and her friends would have fallen into his trap.”
Julisa and Sanya traded guilty looks. My cheeks were on fire. Kyres had been watching all the while.
He had seen how my pussy was stretched and filled by those tentacled aliens. He had heard how I was moaning like a dirty, needy slut. How could I face him anymore?
“I have no idea where your fiancé is right now.”
Brydon’s gaze pierced into my eyes. “After he found out you were in Hornymoon Resort, we had a bicker. I never knew it was you. My job was to facilitate the subjects in the virtual hotel.”
There was a long silence. He hung his head low. His eyes glazed over as he stared into space and nodded. “My bet is that Octoporn Industries have him right now.”
“You have to help me,” I pled. “Please take me to him. Please, Brydon. You are the only person who could help me find him now.”
18
I blinked quickly until my eyes were adjusted to the sudden brightness that scorched like acid. When my vision came back, I scanned my surroundings and checked my own avatar.
I smiled sheepishly to myself to find that I looked like my avatar before in Hornymoon Resort. Except without those extra upgrades I bought before. I touched my face and realized I was not wearing glasses.
If there was one modification I wished reflected in real life, it would be this 20/20 vision.
My golden blonde hair danced along with the warm summer wind. I looked at my long lean legs. My feet were submerged in the seawater up to my calves. The cold water tickled me. The waves washed onto me in a choreographed rhythm.
From the reflection on the glossy wobbles of the ocean, my bright blue eyes reflected the color of the sky.
I looked around to admire the higher resolution graphics. I spotted a wooden sign that read ‘Hornymoon Island’. A fine print below said, ‘Welcome back!’.
I smirked to myself and tilted my head aside. Who would have thought I would be back for seconds?
I spun around in circles when I heard distant muffled voices calling my name.
“Vara, we are here!”
The silhouettes of Julisa and Sanya’s avatars waved and jogged in my direction. They were wearing matching tomato red bikinis. Their gigantic boobs jiggled and bounced in gravity-defying ways.
I glanced at myself and realized I was sported in the same red bikini. At least we did not start of bare-naked this time. That did not mean I was any less hot.
“So, what do we do now?” asked Julisa. The sheepish grin on her face revealed how excited she was to be in the virtual world. I hated that I felt the same.
We looked around us at what looked like an isolated island. Some patterns on the mountains looked repetitive as if they had been copy-pasted. Other parts of the island looked grayed out. I remembered Brydon saying Kyres had not finished building and expanding his virtual worlds, so I assumed these areas were blocked from access.
“This is so beautiful. If only this exists in real life,” muttered Sanya.
“Even if it did exist, you wouldn’t stand a chance to visit anyway. Some big companies would privatize it and charge your entire retirement fund for a day visit,” spat Julisa.
Sanya shrugged. “Yeah, sometimes I wonder if those big companies purposely destroyed our planet so that they could start charging us for what was free.”
“Guys!” I threw my hands up to interrupt. “I did not mean to interrupt your symposium, but can we start trying to figure out how this works? Kyres might be in danger.”
“Right, we might need to do a little exploring.” Julisa snapped back into serious mode.
“Doesn’t seem a lot here. We should look around on the other side,” suggested Sanya.
“I just love hiking so much.” I rolled my eyes.
We trekked along the back around the island. I tried to capture the rhythm of the clouds hovering near the mountaintop. It did not seem to have an obvious repetition like back in Hornymoon Resort.
“Did you guys find that the graphics have greatly improved? I cannot wait to check out the gameplay though!” Julisa squealed. As much as I wanted to enjoy the gameplay, I could not take my mind off Kyres.
“There!” Sanya suddenly pulled up. Julisa and I almost bumped onto her back.
I stepped back and followed the direction where Sanya’s dainty long finger was pointed to the entrance of a cave. On top of the entrance was a wooden sign written ‘Enter the Game’.
Julisa retreated behind me. “Um, this looks a little bit fishy, isn’t it?”
I arched my brow at Julisa. “Really?” We stared at the eerie entrance where two torches were flickering in a constant movement. We subconsciously moved closer to one another, our limbs interlocked.
“This is the only way, right? We have to finish the game. We have to find Kyres,” I said, convincing myself.
“Yeah, you are right,” said Sanya.
No one moved.
A sigh escaped from my chest. I put the fear behind me and took the first step forward. Julisa and Sanya took up the rear.
I went up to the dark entrance. The next second, I was transported into an
other dimension. I sucked in a breath and looked around the oasis. I continued forward until the sound of the waterfall got louder.
Crystal clear water washed down into the pool. Cool mist brushed against my face. In real life, my hair would be damp now. But my blonde tresses were still dancing in the wind along with Julisa and Sanya’s.