by J. Judkins
Shrugging to herself and not thinking anything of it, Kim backed away from her garage and found a spot in the main parking lot, instead.
Her suspicions were confirmed as she walked inside. The power was out for the entire building. She guessed it couldn’t be too widespread, as she hadn’t noticed any problems with traffic lights on the way in.
With the curtains permanently drawn to block out any hint of natural light, the interior of the condominium was exceptionally dark. Her gaze was immediately drawn to four candles set in a candlestick holder atop the kitchen table. This was the only source of illumination.
Angel herself was seated at the table on the far side. Kim sat down opposite her and opened her takeout bag. "You wanted Chinese?" Kim asked.
"Yes, thank you."
"Any idea what happened to the power?"
"A transformer blew out."
Kim nodded. It was as good an explanation as any. She handed Angel a set of chopsticks, putting the matter from her mind.
Angel took them from her, but only held them loosely and did nothing. Kim realized with a start that Angel didn’t know how to use them.
I wonder...
Acting on impulse, Kim opened one of the containers and used her own chopsticks to take a bit of rice. Angel adjusted her grip on her own chopsticks and did the same.
Flawlessly.
Impressive, thought Kim. Angel only had to observe an activity once, and it was hers. That was a nice ability to have, and certainly better than her own lame ‘suppress memories permanently until reminded of them’ ability. Not that Kim had been doubting, but Angel’s casual demonstration further reinforced her belief that Angel was most definitely not human.
That brought up a new line of thought. Angel knew they were having Chinese food for dinner. Given that, why didn’t she plan for it? Why not simply pick up the skill off the internet?
Unless Angel had never even heard of chopsticks before. That at least made sense. Everyone on the planet knew what chopsticks were, all without being told. The information was common knowledge. Only a complete outsider like Angel wouldn’t have a clue about them.
Still more evidence to add to the growing list.
The dinner continued until Kim broke the silence. "I didn’t think I had any candles in the house. Or candlestick holders, for that matter.”
"You didn’t. I purchased them this afternoon."
Kim waited for her to explain, but no further answers were forthcoming.
Her condominium complex was one of several in her deeply residential neighborhood. A few stores existed, but none were close.
“You walked there? It must have taken--" Kim ran a quick calculation in her head, failed to get a number that made sense, then made a wild guess. "An hour or so?"
Angel nodded. "Two hours and thirty minutes. It was no trouble."
"When did the power go out?"
"A little over an hour ago."
Kim blinked. She’d heard that right, didn’t she? Angel left before…
"How did you know we’d need candles?"
Angel shrugged, the motion barely discernable in the lengthening shadows. "A fortunate coincidence in our favor," she said.
"You had nothing to do with it?"
"No. I bought the candles.”
"Did you have anything to do with the transformer?" Kim pressed.
"The transformer blowing out was a fortunate coincidence in our favor," Angel repeated. “In fact, it made buying the candles a necessity.”
Kim suddenly realized the situation she was in. "A candlelight dinner? You arranged this?"
"I do not claim credit for all of it, but yes, I arranged this. Do you like it?"
Kim swallowed and didn’t answer. This was beyond her experience. No one had ever committed vandalism in the name of romance for her before. Angel set it up, verbally denied it, but at the same time left clues to let Kim know exactly what she’d done.
It was kind of sweet. Illegal, but sweet.
Why didn’t she just switch off the power in her apartment, anyway? Wouldn’t that have been simpler?
"What if someone had seen you?" Kim asked.
"There’s nothing wrong with purchasing candles."
"Not the candles, the transformer! Aren’t you all about trying to keep a low profile?"
Angel set down her chopsticks, as if to add gravity to her words. "Assuming I did this thing..." she began, her voice trailing off.
"Yes? Assuming you did it?"
Angel met her eyes and held them. "I think you’re worth the risk."
Kim took another bite of rice to cover her embarrassment, then a little bit more, thankful that Angel couldn’t see her blush in the darkness. If Kim had been romantically interested in Angel, which she most assuredly was not, that particular line of hers would have been a definite point in her favor.
Not that she minded the grand gesture that inconvenienced the entire building overmuch. She’d never had a candlelight dinner before. Now that she was up to her neck in one, she could see how they must have picked up their romantic reputation.
To begin with, darkness obscured the room. She literally couldn’t see anything else but Angel seated across from her. It was just the two of them. All of her attention was focused on her and her alone. In addition, the dim illumination caused Angel’s pupils to expand to catch what little light remained. The illusion of larger eyes had a fascinating, enchanting effect that caught her attention and held it. Kim found herself staring without meaning to.
And in the back of her mind was the fact that Angel had gone out of her way to do something for her, which ran counter to her “Angel only wants to blend in” theory. It made her wonder what else she might be wrong about.
“So what types of books do you prefer?” ventured Angel.
“Science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, mysteries. Whatever I can get my hands on, I suppose,” Kim replied. “Jim Butcher, Lovecraft, Peter Hamilton, Terry Goodkind, Jeffery Deaver, John Sandford.” She shrugged. “Even the other Hamilton before she went off the deep end and decided sex was more interesting than violence. These days, she’s just annoying.”
“Any specific ones you could recommend?”
Kim brightened. “Oh, lots of them! I can show you several, if you like.”
“Were those three that you gave me the other day from favorite authors? I noticed each were the first in a series.”
“What books are you--” Kim began, then stopped, her blood turning to ice.
Those books. She had forgotten about them.
So that was it. Given the book’s subject matter, it was no wonder Angel thought Kim was interested in her. If she hadn’t thought it before, she must believe it now.
“You read them?” Kim asked, anticipating yet dreading the answer.
“Yes. All three. They were informative and very enjoyable. Were you going to purchase the next in the series?”
“Let’s talk about something else, instead,” Kim interrupted in a rush. “Video games. Have you tried any of mine?”
“I looked over your collection. You seem to prefer the roleplaying games. Tell me about them?”
Kim delved into the new topic with enthusiasm. “Those are my favorite. They’re a great way to kill a large amount of time, and I love a good story. After creating a character, you meet people in the game and they send you out on quests. Rescue missions, find and collect, kill a specific this or that, whatever needs doing. You solve the quests, fight monsters along the way, look for treasure, and recruit others to join your party.
"Everything is centered on getting loot and experience for better gear and new skills. From there, you have new quests and stronger monsters to fight. The longer games even have a romantic interest included in the story.”
“How does the romance work?” Angel asked.
“Typically, they’re with one of your party members. You find someone you like and start a conversation,” Kim said, waving her chopsticks in the air. She made jabbing motions w
ith each point. “You ask them what they like, give them gifts, go on quests with them and solve whatever issues they have. You know, get to know them.”
“Like we’re doing now?”
Kim blinked.
Exactly like they were doing now, she realized.
Kim set her chopsticks down. Now she understood. It made sense. She knew what was going on.
Angel must have known beforehand that roleplaying games were one of her major interests. Through clever manipulation, she’d steered Kim into this conversation. As for why, the romances in those games always ended in a specific outcome. Angel had done her research. She already knew ahead of time exactly how those relationships turned out.
Kim went through the process in her head. In roleplaying games it always started out innocently enough, with normal, everyday conversation as the player tried to find out more about their intended target. But things didn’t stay that way. The growing romance was spiced up with gifts, slaughtering monsters together, more conversation and more adventuring.
Assuming you played your cards right and hadn’t accidentally gotten your romantic interest killed at some point, the couple’s story would reach a satisfying conclusion. On the night before the final battle, there would be a cut scene of the two characters sharing a moment. They’d talk about what was to come, speculate on their personal future and what they meant to each other, and then the two of them would have sex.
Then they’d resolve the story’s central conflict and have even more sex!
Afterwards, there might be a plot twist or something which led to the true villain and a final conclusion or confrontation, but none of that was relevant to the situation Kim now found herself in. What concerned her was the sex scene Angel apparently wanted to steer her into.
The games were supposedly off limits to minors, self-regulated to avoid outraged parents armed with little information and an inverse amount of free time. For the most part, that tactic worked. There was never actual nudity to be seen. What they did show was no worse than what anyone could see on primetime television.
This had to be Angel’s plan. Maybe she’d been clued in after checking out Kim’s library. Mass Effect certainly had it, as well as Jade Empire and Dragon Age and its sequels. Angel could have researched any of them.
Clearly, Angel saw the vast number of titles as evidence that Kim wanted a relationship. Angel even used the same romantic patterns. First she talked about Kim’s interests, then she offered gifts in the form of books, and now she quite obviously wanted to skip ahead straight to the end.
Her methods were a bit unorthodox, but Kim could understand the reasons behind them. After all, they couldn’t very well go out and slaughter monsters together for loot and experience, now, could they?
But all was not lost. Fortunately for Kim’s well-being and the state of her virtue, Angel had miscalculated and vastly underestimated her opponent. While it was true Kim may not have much in the way of practical, real-world experience, she did know a conversation setup when she smelled one, and she was smelling one right now!
Now that she was fully aware of the trap, all she needed to do was step out of it. It wasn’t as simple as cutting the blue wire, but how hard could it be? She could even influence the conversation herself. It didn’t have to end in the specific way Angel wanted.
“Usually there’s a lot more flirting,” Kim volunteered. She met Angel’s eyes only sparingly, trying to conceal her nervousness. “Maybe a conflict or two? Eventually they declare their love for each other, confront and destroy the final boss, and it all ends with the two of them living happily ever after. The end.”
“Nothing more?” Angel asked, sounding innocent.
Kim kept her expression neutral. “What do you mean?”
“Do they engage in physical activities with each other?”
Kim narrowed her eyes. Obviously, Angel wanted her to verbally confirm they had sex. To counter it, she had to make certain she said nothing Angel could use against her. “Maybe kissing and...stuff,” she said, internally wincing at how lame the answer sounded. It wasn’t the best she could do, but it was adequate for evading the confirmation Angel sought.
“I’ve embarrassed you,” Angel said.
Kim had nothing to say to that, and the conversation lapsed into a brief and welcome silence. Angel continued to mask her intentions, giving Kim an indifferent look that perfectly concealed the nefarious designs she had on her body.
Kim took full advantage of the brief respite to fully consider her situation and try to determine her next move. Internally, she marveled at the trap, amazed at how Angel had effortlessly gotten this far. The whole ‘romantic candlelight dinner’ thing had only been step one of her master plan.
Or maybe it was step three?
She decided to go through the steps in her mind.
Step one: Set up a base of operations. In other words, trick a beautiful, innocent and unsuspecting Earth girl into letting her stay at her house.
Step two: Find a way to avoid being kicked out of the house. Angel accomplished this by tricking the hapless Earth girl into accepting a relationship. She even skillfully arranged things to make it appear as if it were her victim’s idea.
Step three: Worm your way into the victim’s heart by doing something romantic.
And that was where Angel’s plan failed. Kim had never been the girl hoping to get married one day. Relationships were for other people. She had better things to do with her time. Books, movies, and video games were enough to sustain her. She didn’t need anyone else. Friendships were for ponies. The only reason sabotaging a power transformer to set up a candlelight dinner made her list of romantic things at all was because there was literally nothing else on her list.
Angel’s plan was doomed to failure because Kim was onto her scheme. She’d seen through the trap and recognized it as a setup for something far more sinister.
From there, it was easy to deduce the last step.
Step four: Seduce the Earth-girl so she’d be willing to betray Earth and her people for her new evil, alien masters!
“Is there something else we could do tonight?” Angel asked her.
Kim braced herself. This had to be it. All the preparations, everything came to this moment.
“You mentioned you cooked upon occasion,” Angel continued. “Could we bake something together? I’d like to try cookies.”
Did she hear that right? Cookies? Angel said cookies? What in the world did cookies have to do with sex?
Kim thought back to Angel’s master plan. Naturally, she didn’t have time to write any of it down, but this had to be a part of it.
Maybe step four is cookies and step five is sex?
She decided to take Angel literally and turn her evil plan against her. “It’s too late at night for something like that. Besides, the power’s out,” Kim told her smugly.
"There must be something else. What do people normally do when the power goes out?” Angel pressed.
Aha! So that’s what Angel is leading up to!
Newspapers sometimes ran stories of baby booms nine months after a major power outage. Kim didn’t know if there was any truth to them, but she definitely heard the stories. Angel obviously found out about them and hoped to capitalize on the idea.
A transparent ploy. Kim didn’t take the bait.
Although Angel’s question was intended to steer Kim to an obvious answer, the fact that she left it open gave Kim the opportunity she needed to find an alternative answer. She just had to find it. There had to be something she could suggest to dispel the situation, besides that one specific activity Angel was so poorly hinting at.
She tried to think of that perfect answer, but nothing came to mind.
Nothing continued to come to mind.
Angel’s attention never wavered. With but a look, Angel continued to silently pressure her into an answer, any answer, and Kim felt herself beginning to crack.
In desperation, Kim fell back on old defenses. Maybe
she couldn’t think of an alternative, but she could delay it. "I think it’s a bit soon, don’t you think?"
"What about tomorrow? Will you agree that we could tomorrow?"
Kim reeled under the verbal assault.
She doesn’t give up, does she?
"I’m not agreeing to anything! Why do you want to rush things so badly?"
Angel gave her a confused look. Kim wasn’t fooled.
"Are you thinking of one specific couple’s related activity that you wish to delay?" Angel asked.
Why not all of them? thought Kim, but she knew Angel would never accept that.
“I’m not suggesting we delay all of them. Just...some of them.”
Angel brightened. “In that case, is there a specific one we could try tonight?”
Once again, Kim was amazed at Angel’s unrelenting audacity. How much more blatant can she get? She wished the alien would get her mind out of the gutter.
Finally, Kim had had enough. She stood up so quickly her chair fell over backwards.
"Why don’t we forget about all that? Why don’t we just turn in for tonight?"
"Turn in?"
"You know, let’s go to bed," Kim said casually, then she froze up in crippling horror.
Angel gave her a long, steady look, and then silently rose to her feet.
Only Kim’s widening eyes were hers to control. Her body stood rooted in place, paralyzed as Angel slowly walked around the table and over to Kim as if she had all the time in the world.
Angel reached out and took her hand. Kim was powerless to resist her, unable to flinch back or even scream.
“If you want,” Angel whispered, and Kim found herself being led down the hall towards her own bedroom.
Reality seemed to become disjointed. Kim felt like a passive observer, watching herself stumbling along in Angel’s wake. It seemed to her as if Angel were dragging some other poor woman to her doom.
Kim took a step. Then another. Then a turning point was reached. With great effort, she fought through the overwhelming feelings of dread and mastered herself enough to plant her feet against the floor.
"Wait, no. You. I mean, you, to your bed," she babbled.
With a gentle tug, they were moving in a different direction. This time towards the living room couch.