by Cameron Hale
“We're not talking about germs or viruses, Corrie. And your island is still invisible with a telescope.”
She felt a sudden rush of warmth as the floor seemed to lurch beneath her feet. From her peripheral vision, she glimpsed a flash of light from the telescope that was now pointed in their direction.
Daniel set aside his drink and rushed to steady her. “Corrie, you okay?”
The embrace of his arms only stoked the heat rising within her. Inhaling his scent, she leaned against his chest and listened to the strong rhythm of his heartbeat. The contact was electric, sending a bolt of desire through her that left her breathless. Reaching up to his hair, she clutched it with her fingers and brought his lips to hers. Though surprised, Daniel did not resist and met her hungry kiss.
With a strength she did not know she possessed, she pushed him to the bed and mounted him in a single movement. He stared at her with a mixture of amazement and concern.
“Corrie…” he started to say, but was silenced by the press of her fingers to his lips. They strayed to his face and into the thick mass of his hair. Already she could feel the growing hardness between his legs. She rubbed herself against his hard-on, her breath growing more ragged by the moment. In the candlelit glow of the room, the feline green of his eyes pulled her into an ocean that mirrored the view in the telescope lens. He reached for her breasts, but she gently pushed his hands aside.
“Ssshh,” she whispered, pulling off his clothes and her own with a rising sense of urgency. “Don’t say a word.”
Gazing at his finely muscled body, she paused to swallow the lump in her throat. The heat flared within her, seizing her with ferocity that bordered on physical pain. Uttering a garbled moan, she raised her hips and impaled herself on his cock. Both gasped in unison, their bodies merging in the growing glow emanating from the telescope. Slipping out from beneath her, Daniel pushed her onto her hands and knees. Drenched with sweat, his hair hanging in damp rivulets, he spread her ass and ploughed into her cunt until she bucked like a crazed animal. Only after she violently came did he pull out and slip into her anus, her ensuing cry sending the frightened kittens scurrying from the room. Together they tumbled, panting, consuming each other until the gibbous glow from the telescope engulfed the bed and cast them in an ethereal ocean of gold…
* * *
They slept afterward, their drained bodies entwined across the bed. The kittens curiously examined the interloper on their sleeping territory before finally retiring on the pillows. Corinne’s hand flicked in response to the probing of their inquisitive noses. Plagued by transient images of the island, she awakened to the sight of the telescope pointing toward the bed. Though the gibbous light had vanished, she glimpsed firefly sparks from the darkness.
Rising from the bed, she glanced at Daniel. Asleep, his hair disheveled, he resembled a Greek satyr in repose. She leaned toward him and licked the salty sheen on his chest. Foregoing her robe, she stepped onto balcony and inhaled the refreshing sea breeze. It revived her, chasing the languor from her body. She sighed and gazed at the deserted, shimmering sea. Her fingers recoiled as she touched the telescope, the cool metal sending a chill through her body. She positioned it seaward and looked through the lens. The island throbbed with life, its profile transformed into the glittering panorama of a bustling metropolis.
She rose and swung the telescope away in frustration. Why won’t you let him see you? she wondered. I need him to know. I can’t handle this alone.
“Corrie?”
The velvety sound of Daniel’s voice drifted from the bed.
“You can look through that thing all night but it’s not going to make it real.”
She suppressed a tendril of despair. He was so much a part of what was happening, how could she convince him that it was real?
“Just come and take another look. It’s there, Daniel. You can’t see it—but I know at some point you will. Something wonderful is happening out there, and we’re a part of it.”
The bed rustled as Daniel got off. She turned and with dismay noticed him dressing.
“You don’t have to go.”
He smiled wistfully at her. “I know. But I have to get the to studio early. We’ve got a busy session planned and…”
“And what?”
“I want you to get some sleep. You definitely need some rest. This thing with the telescope…”
“Is real, Daniel.”
He approached her and kissed her on the lips. “Get some sleep. I’ll call you in the morning. We’ll come back here after the session and talk things through, okay?”
She watched him leave, his footsteps fading away on the plushy carpeted stairs. Only the gentle purr of his car broke the pre-dawn silence as it retreated down the road. Hugging herself tightly, she swallowed back her tears and returned to the balcony.
* * *
Tapping restlessly on the steering wheel, Daniel’s gaze alternatively pivoted between the rearview mirror and the glowing numerals of the dashboard clock. Torn between his desire to return to Corinne’s yet afraid of fueling her peculiar obsession about the island, he had driven only a couple of blocks before a sense of guilt prompted him to pull over into a tree-shaded cul-de-sac. Even now he couldn’t fathom the changes he had witnessed. That she was tired and stressed from her grueling, self-imposed schedule was a factor he could deal with, but the bizarre changes in her behavior, not to mention the intensity of their sexual encounter, left him confused, intrigued and a little more than aroused.
He was about to start the car when her heard the purr of a familiar engine. Speeding past on the slumbering street, Corinne’s face was a pale blur from the window of her champagne colored roadster. He turned around and followed her along the main road that wound through verdant knolls and canyons. The streets were deserted as they traveled toward the coast, the glowing street lamps casting harsh pools of glare. Aware of the throaty drone of his car, Daniel tried to maintain a reasonable distance behind Corinne. At any moment he expected her to speed up or attempt to lose him down a side road, but she continued her relentless trek.
Oblivious to his presence, she carried on past the transit rail overpass toward the next intersection. Without warning she careened left on a red light and headed toward the marina. Daniel cursed, realizing her intentions. He gunned the accelerator and tried to overtake her. She abruptly swerved into a private entrance to the marina and pressed her hand against a sentry unit. Daniel skidded to a stop and reversed, the car jerking roughly over a dip as he swung around and barely cleared the old-fashioned gated barrier. Beyond, a forest of gently swaying masts bordered the road.
He slowed down and surveyed the slips, unable to recall exactly where Corinne's moored her boat. Her parked car loomed from behind a snack bar, the door still open, headlights ablaze. He parked beside the car and leapt out. Banks of rotating spotlights created pools of shifting shadow as he methodically searched each slip.
The guttural roar of a motor prompted him to the next slip. By the time he reached the locked gate, Corinne had already backed the turbo cruiser out of the mooring. He glanced around, finding no other access to the slip.
“Corinne!” he cried, waving his arms. “Wait. Don’t rush off like this. We need to talk.”
She continued to steer toward the channel.
Daniel scaled the gate with difficulty, the sturdy bars denying him a secure foothold. His knee painfully barked the metal as he swung himself over. Ignoring the throbbing pain, he rushed down the slip toward the vacant mooring. He glimpsed her receding figure at the helm.
“Corrie, please don’t do this!”
She turned toward him, her face an inscrutable mask. “It’s the only way to prove it to you, Daniel. You have to believe me, because like it or not, you’re a part of this.”
He trotted toward the end of the slip. Wavelets slapped at the moorings from the cruiser’s wake, the surrounding boats gently bobbing. The tang of saltwater mixed with the pungent aroma of tar and engine oil. Sc
attered lights from a cluster of hotels and restaurants glimmered above the beachfront, the music from a distant party a jarring resonance.
“Okay, maybe I am a part of it even if I don’t understand it. So if we’re bound together by whatever this is, let’s tackle it together.”
His voice was drowned as she gunned the throttle.
“Shit!” he cried, staring helplessly at the retreating boat. “Corrie, come back!”
* * *
Invigorated by the brisk ocean breeze, Corinne ploughed toward the island, her eyes aglow with the tantalizing spectacle of light and movement. The boat vibrated reassuringly beneath her feet as it roared at full power, the coast a receding blur behind her. She felt no fear, only anticipation and a rising sexual tension that started in her loins and infused her entire body. Somehow, the water had freed her from the bondage of the land. She needed no telescope to marvel at the wonders of the island, the voices a constant whisper in her mind.
A distant drone caught her attention. She turned and frowned at the sight of a harbor patrol cruiser rapidly closing in. Reaching for a pair of nearby binoculars, she trained them on her pursuer. From the deck, Daniel watched anxiously. She studied him for a moment, his wind-tousled hair intensifying the growing heat within her. For a moment, she regretted leaving without him, but it didn’t matter. He would join her soon enough, and he would be hers…
She turned the binoculars toward the island and noticed a natural harbor nestled on the southern end. Increasing the throttle, she steered toward it. A tremendous geyser of water spewed barely a hundred feet in front of the boat. Within the liquid column, a pair of luminous, harp-shaped craft gracefully ascended and pirouetted above her. They hovered momentarily and darted away, pausing only to ensure she followed.
A searchlight scythed the water around her. Though she opened the throttle to maximum, she could not outrun the approaching harbor patrol.
“Damn you,” she muttered. “Stay out of this. It doesn’t concern you.”
A second searchlight pierced the darkness, followed by a resonant voice boom through a loudspeaker. “Attention vessel, please heave to immediately. You have entered shipping lanes…”
She glanced back and noticed the cruiser closing in. Despite her efforts, she could not coax any more speed from the propulsion jets. Ahead, the harbor beckoned invitingly, no more than a few minutes away.
“Heave to!” the officer cried once again.
She stared at the island in frustration. “What the hell's the matter with them? Can't they see it? The island is right in front of their goddamned noses.”
Without warning, she steered the boat across the cruiser's path and rushed to the deck. Dazzled by the blazing spotlights, she barely glimpsed Daniel before the ensuing impact knocked her into the water. Stunned by the fall, she felt herself spiraling downward into the darkness, far from the chaos on the surface. The numbingly cold water seeped into her flesh. She shut her eyes and started to drift off, only to be awakened by a shimmering web of light cocooning her. Warmth infused her body as she felt herself lifted. Beyond the veil of light, spun-glass figure reminiscent of butterflies watched and whispered. She heard melodic voices inside her head and struggled to speak.
“Have no fear,” said a gentle voice. “You are safe with us now.”
She watched in wonder as the diaphanous cloud of light rose above the ocean and drifted toward the island. Below, the harbor patrol vainly circled, the damaged cruiser listing in the water. Searchlights probed the immediate area. She glimpsed Daniel's stricken face peering from the deck and felt a stab of concern.
Something caressed her shoulder. She turned and regarded the beautiful entity hovering beside her. Though its features were indistinct, she had the impression that it was smiling at her. “He will join you shortly. It was necessary to bring you here first.”
Welcome to Nahir, our home,” another creature whispered in her mind.
Corinne felt a sense of elation. “So the island does exist. For a while I thought I was losing my mind.”
The entity laughed, the sound like tinkling rain. It flowed around her like a silken scarf. Corinne felt a pleasant exhilaration, the last vestiges of uncertainty and tension draining from her body.
“Rest assured, we would not wish that on our first meeting.”
She gazed drowsily at her host. “What do you want from me? You’ve gone to all this trouble to bring me here, but why?”
“We have chosen you and Daniel as our conduits to your world. It is a landmark occasion for both our races.”
“Why are we so special? There must be millions you could have chosen from.”
The entity touched Corinne's arm. Her flesh glowed with a golden aura. “You are special because within you we have found what we seek to successfully merge with our race. You were able to see us, and that is something not shared by the billions inhabiting your world. However, before you could come to us, it was necessary to unite you and Daniel. Your passion for each other always existed, but as seems characteristic to your race, you routinely suppress your feelings and the pleasures inherent in your bodies. We merely unlocked the gate of your potential.”
“So you did nothing to me?”
The entity shimmered. “Nothing that was not already within you.”
She gasped as a crystalline building unfurled below like a great sunflower. The light cloud descended into the glittering heart and settled onto a vast, circular platform from which hundreds of entities watched. Gentle voices ebbed and flowed in a chorus of greeting.
“How beautiful,” she murmured. “A city of light.”
“We have much more to show you. There will be several phases to the unification of our races. This is only the first step.”
The light cloud settled onto the platform and dissolved. Corinne breathed in the cool, lightly charged air and turned to greet her kin.
* * *
Daniel stared glumly into his mug of cold coffee as dawn lazily filtered through the kitchen windows. What little night remained after the formalities at the marina had passed in a blur. Confused, devastated, consumed by guilt, he returned to Corinne’s house and lay tossing and turning in her bed, the smell of her still resonant on the cover. Cuddling the kittens to his chest, the image of her damaged boat endlessly replayed in his mind. He searched for answers, but saw only her pale form plunging into the cold, dark depths.
Though the harbor patrol had diligently searched for over two hours, the effort proved fruitless, the powerful searchlights unable to locate Corinne despite her proximity to the listing boat. Despite his objections, the search was called off and rescheduled for daybreak, the boat towed back to the marina for investigation.
His head throbbed. He pushed the coffee mug away and rubbed his eye. The wall valet rang, the intrusion jarring. Though he did not intend to answer, something about the insistence trilling prompted him to respond.
“Audio only.”
“Daniel, don't hang up. It's me.”
He stared incredulously at the blank screen. “Video on!” he cried, tears filling his eyes as Corinne appeared. He approached the image and tenderly touched the image of her face.
She watched him with a soft smile.
“Corrie—it really is you. For God's sake, what happened out there last night? We searched for you but…”
“I can explain everything. Come to the marina. I'll be waiting for you.”
“But how did you…”
“I’ll tell you everything when you get here, Daniel. It’s too important to discuss over the phone. Besides, I don’t really think you’ll believe me until you see it for yourself.”
* * *
Daniel hesitated only a moment before getting out of his car. At the end of the slip, Corinne's intact boat bobbed on the sunkissed water, the channel beyond cluttered with traffic. He began to walk, his steps turning into a run when she appeared on the deck. Leaping over the side, her caught her in his arms and kissed her.
“Corrie,
” he murmured, cupping her face in his hands. “God, I thought I lost you.”
She smiled enigmatically and took his hand. “On the contrary, Daniel, you’ve found me. We’ve found each other in more ways than you can imagine. Now, let’s get moving,” she said, leading him upstairs to the helm.
He paused to stare questioningly at the telescope affixed permanently next to the steering wheel.
She bent to look through and motioned him toward the lens. “Come take a look, I have a wonderful surprise for you…”
MIRROR CLUB
Apprehension filled Dayla as she loitered in the stylish coffee house overlooking the city’s central park. Immaculate as always, the carefully tended expanse of green flanked by a placid, waterfall-fed lake was frequented as usual by couples dutifully following self-propelled nannypods or older people tending obedient herds of grandchildren. Now and again a pregnant woman appeared; their bloated bellies a trophy, their self-satisfied expressions somehow as smug and artificial as a mask.
But then, don’ t we all wear one? she thought.
She sniffed hungrily. Enveloped by the narcotic aroma of freshly ground beans, she was almost tempted to order a steaming cup and glanced longingly more than once at the freshly baked cakes and pastries arranged alluringly in the display. Only the fact that her nerves were already on edge deterred her¾her attempts at nonchalance foiled by her inability to stop pacing, a habit that caffeine would have aggravated tenfold. Though the trendy patrons huddled over tables chatted amiably to the discreet sound of retro classical jazz, her imagination began to conjure sly glances and whispered conversation directed toward her, a single woman, alone.
Forcing herself to stand still, a glimpse at her tense expression in a gold leaf mirror reflected a pale but attractive face framed by a bob of ebony hair, arched black brows and dramatic red lips. Eyes the color of seafoam stared transfixed for a moment, then broke away as though the mirror was a conduit to the turmoil within her soul. Reflexively smoothing her short leather skirt, she pretended to inspect the spotwatch embedded in her wrist and casually sauntered toward the display of baked goods.