After the Rain (The Twisted Fate Series Book 1)

by Unknown

  “So how’s Sammy looking?” she asked, putting her guitar down and stretching out her legs. She looked like one of those traveling hippies from the sixties – all she needed was to be pulling a peace sign and the picture would be complete. Marcus wiped his greasy hands on his shirt, and although he hated being wrong, he had to admit defeat.

  “Okay, so I don’t really know what’s going on with Sammy.” He looked down at his watch and couldn’t quite believe how late it was. The day way almost over and they would be stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere at night. Their hotel room was booked for tonight and their flight to Dubai was booked for tomorrow morning, and at this rate, there was no way they would be making any of those, unless… He dug his phone out of his pocket and started scrolling for the number he was looking for. He would just call the hotel and they could organize someone to come and fetch them. Why hadn’t he thought of this earlier? Mind you, his brain hadn’t exactly been its usual analytical, solution-finding self lately. Marcus found the hotel’s number and hit the dial button. But as soon as he did, the ‘No service’ icon popped up.

  “No, you’re kidding,” Marcus groaned.

  “What?” Stormy asked.

  “No cell reception here all of a sudden.” He held his phone up in the air and started walking up and down the side of the road. He walked all the way down the road to the spot where he’d had the conversation with Damien, but nothing.

  “You’re fucking kidding.” He hung up and walked in the opposite direction, swinging the phone above his head. He jogged up a small hill nearby and when that didn’t work either, he jogged back down to Stormy. “Where’s your phone?”

  “The battery is dead,” Stormy said. The sun was starting to set, and unless they got cell phone reception, they would be spending the night in the car and then walking tomorrow morning until either they got reception, or someone drove past.

  And now they would definitely be missing the rehearsal dinner. This was a total disaster. And the worst part was that there was absolutely nothing he could do about it. He kicked up the dust and felt like he wanted to punch something, only his head was throbbing by this point. He switched his phone off to conserve the battery, put it back in his pocket and turned to Stormy.

  “Looks like we might be stuck here for the night,” Marcus said, assuming that Stormy would totally freak out. Instead, her response was totally unexpected.

  Stormy had been watching Marcus run up and down like a mad, beakless chicken for the past fifteen minutes, swinging his buttonless phone around his head as if he was swatting flies. And to be honest, she was glad when the whole thing was over and he’d finally given up, because she was worried he might explode at any second. His shoulders looked like they were tightening, and she could basically hear his throat chakra screaming for help.

  “That’s okay, I’m sure everything will be better in the morning.” Stormy smiled up at him, hoping to somehow calm his nerves by sending soothing vibey-vibrations his way. The sun was starting to set and Stormy was feeling hungry. “So do you have anything else to eat, other than those genetically modified bars of synthetic nutrients?”

  “Huh?” Marcus looked confused. “You mean the protein bars?”

  Stormy nodded. Really, the idea of synthesized protein flew in the face of everything she –

  “Let me guess,” Marcus cut across her train of thought with a smile. “You don’t believe in protein bars?”

  “Oh, to the max!” She smiled back at him, knowing that what she was about to say was probably going to amuse him. “That’s the kind of stuff we’ll be having to eat when the world has gone post-apocalyptic and all our food crops have been destroyed – possibly by an invading alien species (not the friendly ones), or by a giant solar flare.”

  Marcus burst out laughing and was looking much more relaxed as he leaned against the car and folded his arms. “No, Stormy-Rain, I don’t have anything else. As surprising as this might sound to you, I just don’t carry organic alfalfa seeds with me.”

  “Aha,” she jumped up happily. Finally, something she could correct him on! “They’re sprouts, not seeds.” Stormy pointed at Marcus, feeling elated, and did a little happy jig as she sang, “Marcus doesn’t know everything, Marcus doesn’t know everything!”

  Marcus smiled and then laughed some more. “Fine. I’ll admit my knowledge of vegan cuisine is limited.”

  He pulled out a packet and reached inside, and when Stormy saw what was coming out, she let out another sigh. Marcus needed her help, seriously – he was so misguided. Stormy pointed at the offensive object in his hand. “Diet Coke! Do I have to tell you about the evils of artificial sweetener too, Marcus? Do you know what that stuff can do to you?”

  “Enlighten me. Please.”

  “Well,” Stormy launched into it. “They can cause migraines, nausea, joint pains, and even impoten–” Stormy broke off in the middle of her sentence. She didn’t want to speak of, think about or draw attention to this man’s penis in any way, shape or form (excuse the pun). But it was too late.

  “Well…” Marcus sounded slightly defensive. “It’s not like I have that prob–”

  “No. I’m not saying you do… but…” This conversation had taken a turn for the worse now. “I wasn’t trying to imply that your pe–”

  “Okay!” Marcus flung his hand in the air. “Let’s not talk about my –” Marcus stopped short.

  “No. You’re right. Of course.” Stormy nodded in agreement “It’s not like I want to talk about your…um, not that’s it’s not a very talkable object obviously, but –”

  “Stormy,” Marcus held up his hand again. “You’re still talking about it. A lot.”

  “Oh.” Stormy covered her mouth with her hand in case anything else pertaining to his… you know what… shot out.

  “Here,” Marcus said, handing over a protein bar.

  Stormy took the little sucker between her fingers and gazed at it. She was appalled. But she was also hungry, and perhaps she needed to give her mouth something to do before it sprouted out more inappropriate stuff about his penis, or worse…

  20

  Bambi’s mother was six feet under

  Stormy and Marcus sat on the side of the road, watching the sun go down over the Kenyan landscape. The sunset was quite spectacular, and Marcus couldn’t quite remember when last he’d sat in silence, doing nothing while watching the sun go down… had he ever done this?

  The landscape around them was surprisingly flat. The rich rust color of the sand that surrounded them deepened further in the fading light of the setting sun. The world looked like it was bathed in a bright orange glow. As the sun dipped further and further and the first star pierced the dark blue sky, the land around them seemed to come alive with strange noises. Unrecognizable noises. Noises Marcus didn’t particularly like. “Um… I think we should get into the car now,” he said to Stormy, standing up. He’d stolen a few glances at her over the last half hour or so, and she’d been picking on the protein bar with disgust, nibbling the edges and rolling it between her fingers. It had amused him, but now it looked like she had managed to finish the whole thing.

  “Scared you might have to wrestle a man-eating lion?” Stormy teased, climbing to her feet and dusting her dress off.

  “Something like that,” Marcus smiled as he and Stormy walked back towards the car. And then a thought struck him. He was shocked he hadn’t had it earlier, maybe it was all that talk of his… well, how the hell were they going to spend the night together? In that? It would put the two of them in really close proximity to each other. Not a good idea. Marcus felt like he needed a distraction,

  “So, how was the post-apocalyptic bar?”

  “It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” she admitted to him with a smile.

  “So what are we going to do in here?” Marcus asked.

  “We could ge
t to know each other, in a friend zone sense?” Stormy offered.

  Marcus nodded, “Okay. So tell me, how did you get your name? I’ve been wondering about that since I met you.” Marcus could see, even in this dim light, that her expression suddenly changed, and she looked more solemn than he’d seen her look before. She seemed sad, even.

  “Well…” she started slowly and tentatively. “Apparently, the story goes that my mother actually gave birth to me in a storm.”

  “Apparently?” Marcus asked, confused. Surely everyone knew the story of how they came into the world?

  “I don’t really know my mother – I’ve only met her once. So I don’t really know what’s true and what’s not,” she explained. Marcus watched as she started to do that hair-twirling thing again.

  “What happened to her?” he asked, treading lightly now. He could see this was a sensitive issue.

  “Um… she left me to run off with this cult. People of the Moonbeam, or something like that. Apparently, though, when she held me in her arms for the first time, the rain cleared and she saw a rainbow…”

  Marcus felt a sense of pity welling up inside him, and he couldn’t help but reach over and touch her face gently, reassuringly. She reached up and took his hand in hers and held it tightly.

  Stormy had often pictured the moment when she was born, and tried to imagine the perfect bliss her mother must have felt, holding her tiny baby girl in her arms as Mother Nature rewarded her labors with a riot of colors emblazoned across the sky… But somehow, her mother had still been able to walk away, leaving Stormy with nothing more than the image of a rainbow to remind her of her mother. No matter how old she was, or how many years had passed, the thought still saddened her, somewhere in her very core. It was as if the pain had been incorporated into her DNA. That acute sense of rejection. It’s unnatural for a mother to give her child away, and Stormy had often wondered if there had been something wrong with her… But she couldn’t let her mind go down this path again. It was a path that lead her to the unhappy place, where Bambi’s mother was six feet under and there were no pots of shiny gold.

  “And you?” she asked. “I bet you have these perfect parents. I bet your mom wears strings of pearls and was on the PTA and went to all your rugby games and made you these awesome school lunches, and your dad went camping with you and –”

  “Actually,” Marcus cut her off, pulling his hand away. “My parents were never really around. In fact, they were hardly ever on the same continent as me. They are the ultimate humanitarians…” Marcus seemed solemn now. “They went from one starving child to another, one endangered animal to the next, or a natural disaster in Nepal to some terrible human injustice in Uganda. So my sister and I were raised by our grandfather.”

  “You have a sister?” Stormy asked excitedly.

  Marcus nodded. “She’s great. Younger than me and a little too pretty for my liking.”

  “Aaah. Protective brother!”

  Marcus shrugged. “Not really.” The truth was, he hadn’t needed to be – Cadence had always been a good girl.

  Stormy was quiet for a moment before speaking again. “Those are all noble causes. But being a parent is also a noble cause.” Marcus turned to look at Stormy, and in that moment, she knew that he understood everything that she had ever felt. It was etched across his face. That sense of abandonment, of not being important enough to your parents.

  “See. Parent issues, another thing we have in common,” Stormy said with a slight smile, trying to lighten the mood.

  Marcus nodded. “Parent issues. I’ll never be that kind of dad, though,” he said vehemently, looking away out the window at the stars again. And Stormy knew that to be a fact.

  Marcus shuffled in his seat, trying to get comfortable, but space was limited and his shoulder was starting to feel stiff from sitting for so many hours. He rubbed his neck and moved it from side to side a few times, only to regret it instantly when he saw the look on Stormy’s face.

  “Neck giving you issues, huh? Shoulders feeling a big tight, mmmm? Head hurt?” Her tone was sarcastic and Marcus knew immediately what she was referring too.

  “Don’t you dare say that bloody word again. Ever. In fact, can we make a pact that you don’t say it for the rest of our time together?” he teased.

  Stormy looked at him innocently and smiled. “What word? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “This has nothing to do with chakras, I assure you. It’s purely a logistical problem. The space is just cramped.”

  “Mmmmm,” Stormy mumbled conspiratorially. “Well we’ll soon find out.” She leaned forward and started rummaging through her bag, pulling out handfuls of colored stones.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Remember, I owe you for the scarf, and now is as good a time as any.” Marcus stared at the stones in absolute horror. “What exactly are you going to do with those?”

  But she ignored his question. “I need you to lie in the back seat,” she instructed him.

  “There’s no space.”

  “Space is what you make of it, Marcus,” Stormy said, shooting him a very meaningful look which he didn’t really know how to interpret. She indicated for him to climb into the back. This was ridiculous. Insane, even. He wasn’t going to let her do God-knows-what to him with some colored stones and deep breathing.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” she said, glaring at him. “But I don’t care if you think it’s stupid. A deal is a deal. Scarf for healing session. So backseat, now.” Her voice was firm and at the sound of it, a thrill shot up his spine – that sexual attraction was back. Not exactly a good time for that…

  The sooner this was over, the better, so Marcus climbed into the backseat and lay down. Stormy immediately closed her eyes and took a deep breath in and out before opening them again and looking at Marcus.

  “Close your eyes, please,” she instructed.

  “I’d rather not, thanks.” Marcus didn’t like the idea of lying there with his eyes closed while she did stuff to him. This kind of stuff, anyway…

  “Fine,” she sighed, bringing her hands up to his head and makings some swooshing movements.

  “What are you doing?” Marcus was sure she was making this up as she went.

  “I am making the Cho-Koo-Ray Reiki symbol on your third eye,” Stormy explained, repeating the movement a few times.

  “My third eye?” Marcus asked sarcastically. “Now I have body parts I didn’t ever know existed?”

  “Shut up, Marcus, you’re ruining the healing vibe here.” Stormy stopped her swooshing and started running her hands up and down his body, a few inches above him. “I’m just scanning your body to check for imbalances.” Marcus sighed loudly and Stormy’s eyes flew open again, shooting him a death stare.

  “Okay, okay,” he said, resigning himself to it. “Scan away.”

  Stormy continued her slow scan of his body, until finally, after what felt like ages, she spoke again. “Just as I suspected,” she said as she opened her eyes and looked at him, a hint of triumph in her expression. “Your throat chakra is in need of special help, although your others are also pretty out of whack.”

  “Whack? How scientific,” Marcus smiled to himself. He’d humor her, especially because she looked so damn fucking cute leaning there and swooshing her arms around.

  “Relax. Breathe deeply,” she said as she placed a stone on him. “Now, I want you to imagine this red color penetrating into your lower abdomen.” Marcus chuckled. “Excuse me,” she said, a slight edge to her voice. “Now I’m going to put this rose quartz on your heart chakra, and I want you to think of the color pink washing over you as you breathe in deeply.” Stormy started doing some more strange hand gestures, as if she was swatting imaginary smoke away from him.

  “And now,” she said, laying down a stone on his throat, “we come to the main event.” T
he stone felt cold against his skin. “I’m putting a blue Kyanite crystal here. This is going to help get the flow moving better through this chakra and that will help with those neck and shoulder pains you’ve been having. It will also help you articulate your feelings better.”

  She went quiet, and he had to admit, lying there with his eyes closed, listening to her gentle breathing, feeling the cold pressure of the stone and the slight warmth from her hand that seemed to be just millimeters away from his skin… it was quite relaxing. That is until – “Hey, what are you doing?” he yelped as he felt her hand put something down way, way too low on his body.

  “I’m placing a stone on your root chakra.”

  “Is that what you call it these day?” Marcus squirmed as the palms of her hands settled by his pelvis and swooshed around, causing some unwelcome friction. He caught her hands in his. “That’s enough healing for tonight.” He quickly sat up, still holding her hands tightly. The last thing he needed was any body part of hers anywhere near that particular body part of his. “Thanks for that, Stormy. I actually do feel a little bit more relaxed.”

  “Really?” Her face brightened up and she looked completely thrilled. Marcus thought that he could quite easily let her do anything she wanted to him, if he could be graced with that same bright smile at the end of it.

  “Really,” he nodded at her and her smile intensified.

  “See. I told you,” she said in a sweet, singsong voice.

  “Yes, you did.” Their eyes met and Marcus couldn’t help but smile back at her. He realized he was still holding both her hands, and as if on cue, they both intertwined their fingers in each other’s. They stared at each other for a moment, the tension and feelings between them growing, and Marcus wasn’t sure if he could stop himself from leaning forward and kissing her. Stormy leaned forward a bit, and that was his cue – he didn’t care about lines in the fucking sand anymore. He lifted his body up, moving towards her, but the moment was suddenly broken by the sound of tens of stones crashing down onto the floor of the car and bouncing around. They both jumped back at the deafening clatter. The moment was gone.