Chapter Eleven I laughed which earned me a slight smile from Kyle. "Are you okay?" He nodded and closed his eyes for an extended blink. "At least I think so, my throat's a little sore though." "Mine too." "Were you screaming?" I nodded and laughed again. He knew me entirely too well. "So, what's going on?" I raised my eyebrows at him and got the response I was looking for. He rolled his eyes and shook his head. Kyle was going to be fine. We both were. "How did you get here?" He asked looking down at me. "And why are you on the floor?" I explained that I ran off in a huff trying to find him and next thing I knew, I was here. Wherever the fuck here was. "Then I heard you making this heavy breathing/snorting noise and knew I had to get to you." "So you fell over backwards in your chair?" He asked as a smile crept across his face. If I could have put my hands on my hips, I would have. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay." "How long have I been here?" I shrugged. I had no idea how long we had been here. There was no window like I expected. The lights on the ceiling were the deciding factors if it was day or night. It could have been an hour or it could have been a day. I was almost banking on it being more than an hour because I was suddenly hit with panic. I had to pee. "Oh shit." "What's wrong?" His voice was full of alarm. "I have to pee," I admitted and tried to think of anything else in the world besides peeing. I came up with oceans, water fountains, babbling brooks and rivers. Not a good. "Damn!" "Hey," Kyle was trying to lift his arms up from the chair. "What the hell? What the hell is holding my arms down?" Riiiight. I forgot about that. I turned my head and looked at where his ankles met the chair legs and saw nothing binding them. "There's nothing there." "No shit," he said and I heard the exasperation in his voice. "Okay," I said the word slowly. I was stalling. I'd had time to look at my arms and even a few minutes to stare at Kyle's ankles but the thought never really crossed my mind why we couldn't move from the chairs. Maybe we were super-glued in. You know, just like the guy who used to hang by his hardhat in the commercials? "Well, we have to find a way to get out of these chairs and then get out of…" "Wherever the fuck we are?" Kyle supplied and I nodded. "I imagine this has something to do with…" "Don’t even say it, Valenti." I warned him. "I was going to tell Michael about the care package, you know I was." "Just not in time." He shook his head and I had enough guilt inside of me to guilt-out a nation. Damn! I hoped this wasn't my fault for actually keeping my mouth shut. That in itself was a freaking miracle. "Kyle. I'm sorry." He let out a deep breath and then met my eyes. "I'm not mad at you Maria. I'm actually happy to see you." "Really?" I think my heart did a little flutter. He rolled his eyes and I knew everything was really going to be okay. "If there is anyone in the entire world I'd want to be looking at right now, it's you. You know why?" He had me on that one. If I were him I'd want to shoot me right about now. "Because I know you'll find a way to get us out of this little…" I saw him struggling for a word and supplied one for him. "Predicament?" "Yeah, out of this predicament." Predicament. That was a good choice of a word, but I was wondering exactly how I was going to accomplish getting us out of said word. As far as I could tell, we were screwed. We were tied down somehow to these freaking chairs with nothing…Oh shit. Nothing of this world. This day was rapidly deteriorating from bad to worse. * * * Every available light was blazing in the Whitman residence. The small group of people were stationed around the dining room table where they had met only minutes earlier after canvassing the neighborhood looking for a sign of Maria or Kyle. They had each come back empty handed. "It's been almost five hours, Michael!" Alarm rang through Isabel's voice. "And…" "What's going on?" Tess demanded and stood up placing her hands on her slim hips. "What the fuck is going on and are they in danger?" Michael looked slowly across the table to Isabel and nodded. * * * Chapter Twelve Close to a million things were running through my head, none of which were actually all that good. They didn't make sense either. I knew in my heart that this was something completely different than anything else I'd ever been through. This was something I wasn't prepared to fight back against. Sure, I've kicked some serious ass in my life, but I had some clue about what was going on. It was always human and the knot in my stomach let me know this was nothing even close to human. I'm a, wait, I was an alien hunter. I was trained by the freaking top Operative how to track aliens. Okay, I guess I could say that I really sucked at it because I was falling in love with Michael and he's an alien and I had no clue whatsoever! Other than that, I was pretty good. I was trained to track them, but it appeared in this case that I didn't have to find them, they found me instead. Crap. And Kyle. Double crap. "Maria!" Kyle shouted my name and I snapped back into the predicament at hand. "This is alien." I said softly. No shit. "No shit." Kyle was reading my mind again. I don't know who should be more scared about that. I think it should be Kyle. "Oh, for crying out loud!" His voice got louder and I heard the annoyance in it. "Does someone else think I'm one them too? What is the freaking deal? Seriously, do I give off alien vibes?" "Kyle and I are the humans," I ignored Kyle and started thinking out loud. "This doesn't make sense. There's not supposed to be any other aliens out there except for our aliens, right? But if there are…Then why do they want us? They can't possibly think that we're aliens if they are-" "Damn it Maria!" Kyle was getting seriously agitated. Damn! "Sorry, I'm just trying to make some sense of what's going on." I looked up at him and realized we must look incredibly stupid. Well, Kyle looked kinda cute in his jeans and polo shirt and I knew I looked pretty good in black… Damn it! I think black leather pants must be a big old jinx for me. Damn! Okay, we looked good, but how we were positioned, we looked stupid. "First things first, we have to get out of these chairs." Holy shit! No sooner were the words out of my mouth than I felt the release on my arms and legs. I lifted my legs in the air and then waved my arms. Woo hoo! I wonder if everything was going to be this easy. Riiiight. "How'd you do that?" Kyle's eyes were wide as he lifted his hands up and then leapt out of his chair and directly over me. I smiled at his enthusiasm and then got off the floor. "Are you okay?" He faced me with wild eyes and nodded before scooping me up into his arms and swinging me around. "See, I knew you could do it! Now get us out of here and lets go home!" I laughed and hugged him. While my arms were tight around him I began to look around the room and it wasn't looking very good at all. Door? Nope. Window? Nope. Fucked? Yup. "You're tensing," he breathed into my ear. "What’s wrong? Is there a big green monster in back of me and you just don’t want to tell me he's getting ready to stick huge alien claws into my back and then eat my head?" I laughed entirely too loud and let go of him. "Yeah, that’s it Valenti. God, don't you think I'd at least give you a heads up if there was a monster in back of you?" He laughed and any tension that had been lingering between us disappeared. I had my Kyle back and he had his…Me. All was good. "Seriously Maria," there was that tone I didn’t like again. "What was with the tension?" "Well, as I look around the room that we got into somehow I can't see a way to get out." Kyle's head swiveled around so fast I thought he might get whiplash. "Holy shit! There's no door!" I rolled my eyes. "I know." "Oh my God," Kyle paled. "Are we still on Earth?" I smiled and nodded. We were, right? Of course we were. "Okay, well, get us out of here!" I just looked at him. I didn't know what else to do except scream but for some reason I didn't think that was going to do any good. So I decided to see if the second time was a charm. "Okay, first things first, we have to get out of this room." I waited. What I was waiting for I have no idea but it didn't happen like the freaky restraints. No magic door appeared. No red carpet rolled out. We were stuck. "That was a very nice try," Kyle clapped. "Any other ideas?" Nope. Fresh out of ideas. But the momentarily forgotten urge to pee was back. Damn! Then I heard something from the other side of the wall. No, not just something. I heard voices. I heard voices I knew. What the fuck? * * * "Tell me Michael!" Tess demanded. "Tell me what 's going on!" Michael stood and paced the room while running his hands through his short hair. He cast one glance at Isabel who nodded in return. "Quit stalling and tell me where my fiancé is!" Tess's eyes became moist. The bravado was wavering. "Please, even if you don't care-" "I care!" Michael's voice resonated through the room. "My wife is gone too, Tess!" "Then tell me…" "We're not alone." He turned away from the others and wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. * * * Chapter Thirteen "Mar-" I shushed Kyle and walked towards the wall. If my dog ears were correct, then we were screwed. Big time. My mind clouded as I listened with my ear against the wall. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I knew who they were and my world ended. Kyle joined me at the wall and he was saying something, but I couldn't hear him over my newfound sobbing. This couldn't be happening! Could it? "Maria!" Kyle started shaking me but I didn't care. I was done. My life was over. It was time to check out. The Maria has left the building. "Damn it! What the hell is wrong with you?" I couldn't quit crying. I didn’t want to quit. My heart ached and my head felt like it was going to explode and fly right off my shoulders. But none of that mattered anymore. Nothing mattered anymore. I began to slide down the wall and didn't stop until I was on the floor. Kyle was next to me in an instant; I didn’t even care. "What is going on Maria?" He wrapped his arms around me. "You're scaring me." I shook my head and continued my wailing. The life I've had since I came out of the pokey was nothing but a lie. I should have stayed there and faced the music because it couldn't have hurt as much as what I was feeling right now. I felt like my heart had been ripped out and someone played Ping-Pong with it right before they set it on fire. Kyle held me against him and let me sob away my pain without him having a clue to what was going on. Okay, I take back the part about being left in the pokey. If I was still there I would have never met Kyle Valenti and frankly I don't think my life would be half as good without him in it. I love the Kyle. I finally controlled my breathing enough to look at him. Of course I was making those horrendous hiccuping noises and felt like I couldn't breath. I knew my face and eyes were all red and any mascara I had on was probably long gone; or maybe it was still hanging around my face in big fat lines. Damn! "Are you okay?" He asked in the quiet voice and stroked my hair as he helped me stand back on my own two feet. I shook my head; completely unable to talk because of all the racket I was still making. This is why I hated to cry; it was never a pretty sight. My body was limp in Kyle's arms and suddenly I had an epiphany, the first of many to come, I'm sure. Kyle was so affected by this too. "I…" Stupid hiccups. "I heard something out there." "Out there?" Kyle pointed to the wall. "What, someone have a dog whistle?" He smiled. I started to laugh, which only brought on more hiccuping and eventual gagging. When I was able to regain my composure, I looked into the deep and concerned eyes of Kyle Valenti and immediately started crying again. "I'm sorry," he murmured and kissed the top of my head. Who would have ever thought such a simple gesture would mean so much. I trusted Kyle with my life. And right now he was the only one. I hugged him and made that solemn promise again that I'll name each of my children Kyle. Of course my secret dreams of having children were fading faster than the speed of light at the present time. "So, are you going to tell me what the hell is wrong or am I going to have to guess?" I backed out of his arms and pulled myself together. I straightened my hair with my fingers and smoothed out non-existent wrinkles on my leather pants. With a deep breath I lied. "I don't know, I just freaked out there for a minute." I could tell from the way Kyle was looking at me that he knew I was full of shit. He didn't need to know what was going on. I mean, I didn't have a clue but the ideas were forming and they all looked like shit. "You are so lying to me. What did you hear out there?" It was one of those times where the truth would really suck and a lie wouldn't suck quite as much. I didn’t want to lie to Kyle, but I had to. "I just heard noises and I got scared." I cleared my throat and felt the super-bitch rear her head. I wasn't going down into the hole of feeling sorry for myself. No fucking way. I was stronger and better than that and I had to stay in top form if for no other reason than the man next to me. The man who deserved to know the truth. Fuck! * * * "And you're just now telling us?" Max stood up and walked towards Michael. His dark eyes shown with anger. "Don't you think we should have known about this, Captain?" Michael counted to three. "Nothing was affirmative until today." He nodded at Isabel. "We were going to explain what we knew tonight but then with Tess's news, we decided to wait." "This is crap!" Max's voice rose. "Nothing is positive." Michael stood and faced Max. The tension was thickening with each passing second. "They could be in danger!" Max stepped forward causing Michael to take a step backwards. "Don’t you even care?" With another step, Max had Michael backed up to the wall. Michael reacted and in a blur he had Max's arm pinned in back of him and his face pressed against the wall. He leaned down until his mouth was even with Max's ear. His voice was barely above a whisper. "This is my wife we're talking about and I'll kill anyone or anything that tries to hurt her. Don't you ever think that I don’t care because I'm trying to keep my cool when all I want to do is something irrational that won't help anyone. We have to figure out what to do and then do it calmly, okay?" He waited until Max nodded before letting him go. "Michael, what do they want?" Tess asked in the timid voice she had hidden earlier. "We don't know," he faced Tess and reached for her. In a fluid movement he held her in his arms as they shared something on this planet. Loss. * * * I took another deep breath and faced Kyle. He looked at me with those puppy dog eyes and I knew I was going to break his heart. Sometimes I hated being me. "Maria!" Kyle was not playing the part of happy camper with my stalling. I couldn’t blame him. "I heard voices behind the wall." "Voices?" His brow knitted together. "What were they saying? Oh shit, they're going to mutilate us, aren’t they?" I don't know if he was joking or not. "You heard all about our demise, that's it, right?" I shook my head. "No, I didn't hear what they were saying exactly." "Well then, what?" "I recognized the voices Kyle. I know who's on the other side of the wall." I felt sick as he leaned forward to hear me better. Without a warning light or buzzer, the wall shifted and opened and I almost wet myself. I jumped in front of Kyle and we watched as three people strode into the room. I blinked. Then again. "What the…Fuck?!?" * * * Chapter Fourteen For a minute I thought I was on candid camera but I realized this wouldn’t be funny to anyone, especially me and Kyle; then I immediately went to the Twilight Zone. This wasn't real. Period. I was actually waiting for Rod Serling or a good living facsimile of him to pop up. When he didn't I knew I was fucked. "Maria…" Kyle grabbed my arm tightly. I was glad because I think he might have been holding me up. Oh yeah, he was holding me up; my knees went weak when I tried to move. My heart was pounding so fucking loud that I couldn’t hear anything but that in my head. I wanted to throw up or faint or scream but I couldn’t do anything. There was nothing right about what was going on around here. Nope. Nothing at all. "You up?" Somehow I heard the voice over my heart beating; but that didn’t make it better. It was the same voice I had heard on the other side of the wall/door. "I think they are." The sarcasm was heavy with that little remark. Something I wasn't used to at all. No, this is all wrong. I couldn’t believe my eyes or my ears; they had to be playing tricks on me. This wasn't possible. If what was in front of me is real, then everything else had been a lie. If what I was seeing was real then I was pissed. No, I was beyond pissed at this point. You can try to break my body and mind; you can use me until I think I'm going to break. But you can't hurt my feelings and not think I'm going to retaliate the only way I knew how. I stood strong on my own and actually pushed Kyle's arm off of me. I could face this down and kick its ass on my own two feet! I opened my mouth to spit out some smart-ass remark but came up empty. Damn. All the bravado was seeping through me and all I wanted to do was curl up with Mr. Bear and hide out in a closet. Fuck that. So everything I've believed in has been a lie. Big fucking deal. So my life is a crock of shit. So what? I can handle it. After all, I am Maria DeLuca and I don’t give up so easily. I set my shoulders back and chest out. "Fuck you." Not exactly the most imaginative thing I've ever said, but it was exactly how I felt. They laughed at me and I wanted to cry. I felt Kyle step in closer to me and it made it a little better. I knew I'd always have Kyle. "Maria," Kyle whispered in my ear. I shrugged. "So, you sleep okay?" The voice was real and it was infuriating. How could this all have been a lie? How could I have imagined that what I had was real? It had felt real, every single fucking lying second of it. "Again, fuck you." Find something you like and stick with it! They walked towards us and I felt Kyle take a step back. I reached for him and grabbed his arm. He was staying right next to me. It was obvious at this point that all we had was each other and I wasn't about to let him go anywhere. "I guess you're trying to figure out what exactly is going on, aren’t you Maria?" Her words dripped with sarcasm and sweetness. I hated her. "I guess you forgot that I don’t give a fuck." They all laughed again and I was getting hot. I felt the sweat break out in between my breasts and briefly thought about Max. I wondered where the fuck he was. Not that I really needed my tits to be watched right now, just curious. "Maria," Kyle stood tall next to me. Okay, not exactly tall, but between the two of us we definitely gave off the aura of severe authority. Riiiight. "Maybe we should explain." His voice was so familiar and at the same time so foreign. I couldn't think straight. I wish he wouldn’t have said anything more at all. All I wanted to do was lunge at him and pull his hair out. I wanted to scratch his face and spit in the wounds. "Or maybe we should just walk away and let her worry," the voice was high pitched and irritating. "Or maybe you could go fuck yourselves," that was Kyle and I was proud. He had been hanging around with me entirely too much. I was rubbing off on him, but who knows, it could end up saving his life or quite possibly get him killed. Either way, Kyle rocked! "That's not very nice," the one on the end spoke again and I saw it rake Kyle. It was my turn to be the rock. I felt more like a pebble, but I could do the rock thing. "Maria, I'm surprised you're so quiet." The one in the middle offered. I wasn't biting. I tried to think of something monumental to say to her, but I came up empty. My mind was reeling with scenarios, none of which were good. "Maybe we should leave them alone for a bit longer and see if they feel like talking then." They were looking at each other now and I knew Kyle and I were not invited into the conversation. Fuck them. And the horse they rode in on. "Maybe we should put them back in their chairs." Oh crap, not the chairs again. "Should we feed them? They probably need to eat." Oh shit. I still had to pee. I raised my hand like a schoolgirl and interrupted their private tete-a-tete. "Is there a restroom near by?" The one on the end nodded and motioned for me to follow. Okay, so we all followed. I heard a muffled grunt from in back of me and when I turned around I saw Kyle on his knees holding his stomach. I looked to the bitch next to him and I didn’t think, I reacted. With a swift kick to the knee and a fist in her gut, she fell to the ground. As I got smug and reached for Kyle I felt her foot as it barreled into my chest. I fell to the ground and realized that fucking hurt! I whirled on them and stared in amazement as the bitch got yanked back. That was weird. I helped Kyle to his feet and stared in awe as the woman who I thought was dead tried to fight off the only man I'd ever loved while Kyle's fiancée watched with a smug expression on her face. When I said I was bored, I think I was lying. I would much rather be bored right now than where we were. I would give anything to go back just twenty-four hours and make all of this go away. * * * Chapter Fifteen The fighting stopped and turned into bickering. Then the bickering stopped. I didn’t really care; they could have bickered for the rest of the night, or day whichever it was, as far as I was concerned. They could have bickered each other to death and I would have been so fine with that. I grabbed Kyle's hand and couldn’t tell if it was my palm that was sweating or his. Maybe it was both of us. I turned slowly and it was one of those slow motion things; our eyes met and in the most desperate of situations, we smiled at each other. If I wasn't so damn pissed off, I would have been bawling. Again. I felt someone touch my hand and I turned and stared into the eyes that I had grown to trust. Pretty blue eyes that I would now willingly scoop out with a spoon if I had one. "Follow me." Kyle stiffened, but came along. I knew how he was feeling because I was feeling the same way. The ultimate betrayal. We followed the perky blonde through the mysterious door/wall with the other two behind us. I always thought I'd want Michael at my back but now, everything has changed. I didn’t want him at my back, my front or my side. I didn’t want him anywhere near me. All the good times were nothing but a sick fucking joke and I wasn't laughing. I did have that feeling that in the end, I would be the last one laughing but there was no need to get cocky about it. Yet. I fought the urge to turn around and see what Michael and the wicked bitch of the East were doing. I wanted to turn around and look in his eyes and see if I could tell if anything he had ever told me was the truth. Shit! I couldn’t help myself, I turned around and looked into the eyes that I had confessed my soul to and smirked. "I never loved you." He laughed and it killed me. But I didn't show it. Michael Guerin would never get the best of me again. Fuck. Him. "Fuck him," Kyle whispered in my ear. Thank God I still had Kyle. "In here," Tess opened another one of those door/wall things and I looked inside. It was a bathroom. Woo hoo! "He's coming with me," I motioned to Kyle. No matter what, he was not leaving my side. Tess shrugged. "Fine. So am I." My turn to shrug. "Fine. Whatever." I guess they all forgot I was the queen of quick comebacks. Ha! The three of us walked in and the door/wall closed behind us. There was a toilet in the center of the small room with a wash basin next to it. With a wink at Kyle I pulled down the leather and peed. Damn! I needed that. As I washed my hands, I noticed my breasts were soaked in sweat and my shirt was plastered to them. So I decided on a white shirt today of all days. Just fucking great. Not only am I being held hostage, my tits are right there for everyone to see. Now I really was wondering where Max was. Damn! "Ready?" Tess tilted her head to one side and I nodded. I noticed Kyle wasn't looking at her, I couldn’t blame him. If I wasn't so bullheaded I don’t think I would have been either. We followed her back out of the washroom and met up with Michael and I can barely say her name without gagging, Rena. I swear, I knew I was lucky for the reprieve I got; but then to take it all away from me? So not fair. We walked down this eerily silent cement hallway until we reached another wall. Of course, it was a fucking door, as Michael demonstrated by waving his fucking hand in front of it. I looked at his hand and knew the contours of it. It's warm callousy feeling. I forced away the thoughts of the way those hands felt on my bare skin and what they did to me. I tried to forget the way I clung to those hands and knew my life was going to be okay as long as I was with him. This next room we went into was kind of nice. I mean, there were chairs and a table. A King-sized bed in the corner with a mosquito netting canopy over it. Carpeting. It looked more like a lodge room than this wacky prison I thought we were in. The wall closed behind us and I looked to Kyle. He was looking around the room so I focused on the floor. Anything to not look at Michael. Some things just hurt too damn bad! I didn't get it. This day started out with me being incredibly bored and it has turned completely upside down. I'm not bored and I'm not happy. I'm confused and a confused Maria is generally a pissed off Maria. "So," I heard myself speak. What the…? I wonder where I was going with this. I had to go somewhere because they all looked at me. "So, you going to tell us what the fuck is going on or are we going to keep playing this sick fucking game?" Michael looked at me and licked his lips. I used to think it was sexy now it made me want to throw up. "I think we might play this sick fucking game for awhile longer," he turned to the two bitches. "Ladies?" Ladies? My ass! They nodded like the good obedient puppies they were. "Well," Michael clapped his hands together. "I think we'll let you and your little friend unwind here for awhile and stew over…" He paused and I tried to remember when I'd ever heard him talk so…wrong. "Hmmm… Life, how about you think about life?" The three of them laughed and that was getting old. None of this was funny, they weren't funny. I laughed entirely too hard and loud and the three of them looked shocked. Didn't they know me well enough by now to know that I didn't like to play games? Didn't they know that I was going to be the same obstinate woman I've always been? It was almost as if they didn’t know me at all. I kept laughing and smiling. The smile was real because Kyle joined me with the laughing. We looked at each other and continued laughing. But at this point we were the only ones laughing. The others had stopped. Why did they all look surprised? Hmmm… Strange things were afoot. Why was something feeling just a little bit off? * * * |
| PARTS 11-15 |