Downpour

by Madison Daniel

  “Love. The unconditional love you gave me and the effect it had made deep inside of me,” her voice cracked.

  “What do you mean Asia?” I asked completely terrified of her answer. I had opened myself up to this moment before and been devastated by her words in the process. I didn’t think I could handle that again. All these miles, all this time to get back to her, and I was so scared I wanted to hide. I felt like running.

  “I love you.” She started to cry.

  “What?” I was numb.

  “I love you Max. With everything inside of me, I love you,” she gasped. My world screeched to a halt. The Earth stopped spinning just long enough for my head to fill with fire as her words seared themselves into me.

  “I thought I’d never get the chance to say those words but now that you’re here…” she buried her face in my neck. “I’ll never let a day go by without saying it.”

  “Dinner is ready,” Anna announced from behind us. She knew instantly that she was interrupting a very personal moment, but she seemed to enjoy that a little. I could only look at Asia with stunned eyes. She kissed me softly and walked me to the other room without another word.

  At dinner we ate slowly and I explained my absence. I explained waking up in the hospital after my encounter with Devon and his gun. My wounds healed and my powers were stronger than ever. That is, everything except my healing abilities, I kept that to myself. I didn’t want to worry her. The sisters listened quietly to every word I said, never interrupting me. Asia sat cross-legged in her chair intensely following my every detail. Her eyes would caress my hands every so often making me want to reach out and touch her.

  After dinner we stayed up all night talking in each other’s arms until we fell asleep. I told her about the places I had looked for her. She told me what really happened to Devon the night of my death. It was hard to hear what she had done to him, but I think I would have done the same. He did, after all, murder me. Sleep fell hard on me, and I dreamt of rolling waves all night as my head filled with the smell of cherry blossoms once again. I was safe and sound. I was complete…again.

  Eden - 04

  ~Confide In Me: Kylie Minogue~

  Monday morning - 7:06 a.m. - June 19th.

  I awoke to the light sound of music throughout the room and the sun’s warming rays soothing my face. The room’s windows were open with white curtains cascading back and forth in the breeze. Our humble room was completely clean and soft from the sun’s light. The smell from the nearby ocean filled my groggy head and made it hard to focus my eyes on the breathtaking sight before me.

  “Morning sleepy head,” Asia spoke peacefully. She was sitting in the middle of the floor on a thin red blanket with her legs crossed and her back arched straight forward, her fancy laptop computer just feet in front of her. I followed the lines of her back past her white bathing suit top to the dangling strands of dark hair that fell along her shoulders.

  “Morning beautiful.” I smiled, feeling like I was in a dream. She let a long soft breath exhale from her mouth with her eyes still closed.

  “I was right…wasn’t I?” she asked with a small smile, still holding her position frozen like a statue.

  “About what?” I played along. Her eyes opened and found me across the room, stretched along an oversized chair. As I sat up she eased her pose.

  “About this spot. About these islands.” She winked softly.

  “Ah…Fiji…” I yawned and let my back stretch itself out. “They’re okay,” I teased. She closed her laptop quickly and stood up facing me.

  “Just okay?” she asked playfully as she walked up to me. “Most people consider Fiji about as close to heaven as they’ll ever be…and still be alive.”

  “Well, I’m not most people,” I winked and blushed at my silly comment. She shook her head and leaned into me.

  “I know,” she whispered. We stared at each other for a moment before I nodded to the blanket on the floor.

  “Yoga?” I asked.

  “Yes. I’ve found that it made the days manageable without you. It’s made things much clearer in my mind, and it’s done wonders for my abilities.” Her smile was wicked.

  “Like what?”

  “Like controlling my storms. Thunder, lightning…rain.”

  “Oh,” I smiled.

  “And other things…” she tilted her frame in the most suggestive manner. My chest filled with heat in an instant.

  She leaned in and kissed me hard. I felt my fire build with temptation, but my mind rushed quickly to the last time we pushed ourselves physically. Our two powers seemed to connect us on some levels, but physically we were a time bomb waiting to happen. I could still see, clear as day, the giant arc of lightning ripping through the sky toward us as our bodies tried to become one. That was our price for this love; we were opposites that were made for each other, but we would probably never be able to consummate the union. That realization made her absolute beauty that much deadlier.

  “Easy Asia…you know what happens when we push ourselves.” I warned her, but she only smiled, ignoring my words of hesitation.

  “Max, I am so much stronger now…you’ve seen that.”

  I nodded slowly, “Yes…but…”

  “Nothing can hurt us now. Nothing can hurt you now. I simply won’t allow it,” she said sternly.

  “But…” I was still skeptical.

  “Trust me Max…things will be fine now. This is our island. This is our time.” She paused and looked around the room. “This is our heaven.”

  “Heaven,” I agreed. I kissed her as hard as I could without burning her. She returned the passion and our beautiful villa filled with heat and swirling winds from the island. We were ready to take our unnatural bond to the next step when I pushed myself from her embrace. I was still scared of this final step. Her eyes filled with confusion, and a little anger. The thunder knocked along the ceiling, sharing her thoughts. Boy, I did love that temper of hers.

  “What’s wrong?” she grumbled.

  “First things first, you promised me that you would teach me how to surf when we got here.” I was making excuses, but she had promised.

  “Max, there’s so much time to make up for…”

  “Are you going anywhere?” I asked, teasing. She bit her lip nervously and looked me directly in my eyes.

  “It’s our time now,” I added. She smiled and ran out the door toward the sound of building waves and I followed, but way deep down I could feel something unsettled inside of me. It felt like I had forgotten to do something. I had that same nagging feeling you get when you leave your house and you just know that you left a candle burning.

  We surfed all day and some of the night, never wandering from either ones eyesight for too long. I took to surfing quite quickly. That surprised me because I never excelled at other sports. That is unless you considered juggling fireballs a sport. The ocean raged a clear crystal blue under the sun’s fading light. Almost as blue as Asia’s eyes. The water was warm and inviting. I felt my mind slipping away in this heaven. There was no pain, no stress, no worries…only Asia. This was my heaven.

  6:53 p.m.

  “I love you Asia.”

  “Me too Max.” She bit her lip. “I love…” She tried to say the rest, but I kissed her softly instead. Slowly the kiss grew stronger and stronger, filling our private bungalow with my familiar heat. The wind rushed over us again, and the faintest of rain fell outside and through our open villa. As we fell into each other, the night sky filled with deep purple clouds, but they only rumbled in the distance, echoing over the crashing waves. We spent the night as one for the first time that evening and officially closed ourselves off from the outside world. We spent the next month locked away in our own fantasy made heaven, and when we emerged to the outside world again we were totally lost. Blissfully in love. The island became our self made prison. We ignored the rest of the world. We shunned time and all the agonies that came with it. We just lived in the moment: our moment.

 
Wednesday afternoon - 1:42 p.m. - July 15th.

  As my lungs filled with salt water, my eyes burned hot as my flames tried to save me. My body ignited completely in a dark yellow flame under the wall of ocean water. The flames turned the searing water into black rolls of burning smoke that reached for the surface above. My left ribs felt numb by the pain of the sharp rocks they had collided with just moments before. In all this chaos I could still make out the shape of my surfboard bobbing around above me.

  “Uh oh…” I grunted in my head as I felt one rib pop and then another. With each pop my flames wilted under the anguish. Just when I thought I had gotten the hang of this surfing thing, Mother Nature had another humbling lesson waiting for me. Asia had seen me fall from my board as the dark angry wave slapped me under its arm and into the blue. She didn’t see me slam into the jagged rocks below though.

  I could barely move now, my lungs were entirely full with salt water. The pain was everywhere and I couldn’t feel my fire anymore. I was a goner. Fish food.

  The ocean water began to swirl around me, lifting me from my soon to be wet grave. The blood slid from my side and twisted in front of my fading eyes. My body pushed forward like a dart through the water until my head breached the surface again. I was only a few feet from the shore when my eyes finally focused on the approaching sand.

  “Max!” Asia screamed over the crashing waves. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear her as if she were right next to me. Then, in a blink of an eye she was there and helping me gain traction as my feet touched the beach.

  “Ouch.” I coughed up the water in chunks. With each cough I thought the pain from my chest would knock me out. I concentrated as best I could to try and heal myself but it didn’t seem to be working too well.

  “Max you scared the hell out of me,” she said, winded. Her body glistened from the water beading all over her wet suit. She shook her hair from her face and the waves settled themselves behind us. Both of our boards slid right up next to us as if they were on remote control. The water pulled away from the shore and calmed to an almost still state in a matter of seconds. Wow…she really had learned how to control her gift.

  “Max?” she asked, worried now. I was still hunched over and grasping my side while coughing. The look in her eyes was one of fear and confusion. Why hadn’t I healed myself yet? Maybe it was time to tell her about my fading healing ability.

  “I’ll be okay…” I lied. Before she could ask me why I wasn’t healing yet I pushed my inner core and filled my body with a burning white glow. White-hot flames danced all over my skin, drying me instantly. My side felt better but still hurt something awful. The bleeding stopped for the moment.

  “Are you sure?” she asked as she walked up to me and reached for my side. As her hand met the burning flame covering me she winced and I let the flames subside. Steam billowed up from the hot sand beneath my feet, but I was quickly overcome by her amazing scent of cherry blossoms.

  “Yeah, I’ll live. I just feel like a klutz. Just when I thought I was becoming good at something sporty…” I coughed again but hid it with a fake laugh. She slid her soft hand over my gashes and sighed in disapproval.

  “Let’s get you back to the villa.”

  “It’s just a scratch…I promise,” I said with a tight wince.

  “Really?” She didn’t believe me, but she managed a smile anyways.

  “Yes. I’ll go take a moment to myself to get my breath back but you go ahead and keep surfing…I’ll be fine.” I smiled, but my ribs ached with pain. She searched my face for a moment.

  “Fine, you head back and I’ll gather our things. Be there in a few,” she said. She kissed me and lightly pushed me toward the villa.

  “Don’t be too long,” I joked, but I needed a few moments to get back to the room and find my bag. I had some painkillers in one of the pockets and I knew I would need a couple of them soon. I wasn’t sure why I was hiding the fact that I couldn’t heal as well as before. Maybe I thought she would think less of me. Maybe I was just embarrassed. I raced to our bedroom trying not to panic.

  “Holy crap.” It was all I could say as I stared blankly at the crinkled up manila envelope that peaked from the open pocket of my bag. Instantly, I had forgotten the pain in my ribs and the pills I was looking for. I had forgotten all about that envelope all these months away from Maui. The one gift that Sam had given me back home before I left. She had handed it to me with tears in her eyes and specific instructions before I opened it.

  “Forgive yourself. Let go of the guilt about your sister and then open it.” I heard her voice say clear as day in my head. Samantha Summers…my little blonde muse from Maui. She was Asia’s opposite and possibly my soul mate. I’d like to say that I hadn’t thought about her all these days away from home, but that would be a lie. As I stared at the envelope I realized that it had been almost a year since I had seen her big green eyes. Where had the time gone? My chest began to ache, but not from the broken ribs this time.

  “Whatcha doing?” Asia asked as she strolled into the room and leaned our surfboards against the wall. She pulled her hair from a tight ponytail that was still dripping the oceans water down her wet suit. Her scent snapped me back to reality and I slid the envelope back into my bag.

  “Remembering,” I said in a fog.

  “Remembering what?” she asked with a hint of worry. I tossed my bag onto the floor and looked up at her softly.

  “Home.”

  She glared at my bag for a second before turning her attention back to me.

  “This is home now,” she said absolute. I walked up to her and put my arms around her. The ribs under my arm screamed with pain as I did. I tried not to show it. The water droplets scattered all over her body quickly disappeared as I heated my embrace slightly. Her body was stiff as if I had hurt her feelings.

  “Home is wherever we decide it is,” I said as I inhaled her smell. She was intoxicating, and it took my mind off of the pain in my chest.

  “And that’s here!” she demanded. I held her tighter as her temper flared. My ribs called out again.

  “Maui will always be a part of us Asia.” The sky rumbled with new storm clouds. “I’ve just been so caught up in our adventure that I had forgotten the promise I had made to my uncle.”

  “Uncle Frank is fine,” she scolded.

  “I haven’t talked to him in awhile. I’ve just been a little worried…” I drifted off. Something felt off inside my head but I wasn’t sure what. When she saw the worry overcome my face she eased her assault. Her hands found my face, and they felt cool and soothing against my skin. She let her right hand slide down to my ribs that were already starting to bruise and they quickly felt a little better.

  “Your uncle is safe Max,” she smiled. Safe? That was an interesting way to put it, but before I could ponder her choice of words, she kissed me and time started to slow again.

  “You are safe Max. With me,” she said. I watched the sapphire specs spin in her blue eyes and her lips curl into a warm smile.

  “You are loved,” she spoke in almost a whisper. After a moment of being dazed I pulled away from her with a smile again.

  “So are you,” I said. The thunder fell away along with the graying skies. I quickly snapped up her laptop from our nearby nightstand and flipped it open while she looked on, confused.

  “Max?”

  “I need to do some shopping.” I clicked on the Internet icon. She bit her lower lip nervously.

  “For what?”

  “Birthday present,” I laughed lightly. The pain in my side turned to a throbbing ache but I ignored it.

  “You don’t have to worry about…” she tried to say.

  “You only turn 19. once…right,” I smiled devilishly and began typing away. She gave in and kissed my neck.

  “I’m going to wash up,” she winked. “I’ll need you to help with my back,” she added as she peeled off her wet suit and strutted toward the shower.

  “Whoa.”

  “Hu
rry up!” she ordered.

  “Okay,” I said mesmerized.

  It only took me a few minutes to set up her birthday gift online, so I set her laptop down and found my eyes wandering back to my bag. I reached in again and pulled out my cell phone, then dialed my uncle Frank’s number. It rang over and over again but no one answered. Just before I hung up, the answering machine picked up.

  “Valentine’s residence…you know what to do,” Frank’s voice said before the beep. I paused at the sound of his voice and almost didn’t leave a message. I hadn’t heard it in almost a year.

  “Hey old man…it’s me. I’m safe. Sorry I missed you Uncle. I’ll try again later,” I said, and then hung up the phone.

  “Max,” Asia called from the next room, the sound of the running water in the background. Lightning flickered outside. I shook the cobwebs from my mind and stretched my ribs softly. They still hurt terribly, but I continued to ignore them and walked into the bathroom.

  Dark Romance - 05

  ~Undisclosed Desires: Muse~

  Wednesday morning - 11:01 a.m. - July 19th.

  What do you get the girl who has everything? Asia had any and every monitory thing she ever wanted growing up. Her parents made sure to spoil her, even though they were emotionally bankrupt. I guess they tried their best, but the one thing her parents forgot to give her as she grew up was…her dreams. That's what I was hoping to fulfill this day, her 19th birthday.

  “Can I take this thing off yet?" Asia asked impatiently. I gently slapped her hand as she tried to remove her silk blindfold.

  "Not yet…you'll spoil the surprise."

  "Max I hate surprises."

  "Not this one," I smiled and slid my earbuds in to serenade me. I leaned in and kissed her on her nose. The airplane came to a soft rolling stop and my stomach settled a little. I hated to fly, even when it was a state of the art private jet. The best her massive inheritance could buy.