I'm glad you like it... I hope you had a good time traveling. I'll be doing that a bit here very soon. As a matter of fact, I haven't written much lately because I'm getting ready to move to a new duty station (I'm in the Air Force) in Florida. I do have a few more chapters, though.....here's the next installment -

Part 13

 

 

 

It was dark. Gentle whispers caressed the thin hair at his temples, soft and cool as the touch of a wispy cloud passing by. It was such a pleasant sensation. A quiet moan slipped past his lips, as he felt the warm breath he exhaled rising through his throat, contrasting with the cool air around him. It was cool. But not cold. Just… right.

He realized that the darkness was due to the fact that he had his eyes closed, and he then opened them just a tiny bit. It was still dark, but not totally. He was lying on his back, and turning his head, he could make out, just barely, dark shapes around him in the murky gloom. He thought about that word for a moment. Gloom. Said it over and over to himself in his mind. The word sounded strange. Ancient. Cold. Damp. Like a silent swampy forest. He listened to it echoing quietly through his thoughts. The word felt lonely. Made him feel lonely. But if that was the case, then gloom wasn’t a word for what he saw around him. Because what he saw was darkness, filled with intermittent darker shadows. But it wasn’t lonely feeling. It was just quiet. Restful.

A gentle, cool blue glow to the right caught his attention. He turned his head and saw the blue digital numbers of a clock. It was 5:48am; the pre-dawn twilight peeked in quietly through thin, filmy curtains. Where was he? Indeed, when was he?

A slight chill crept up his back, as he grappled with the thought, almost afraid of what he might find out. Almost afraid; it was so quiet. So peaceful. How could he fear this? Normally he wouldn’t, but the past few experiences with the device had left him apprehensive about this sort of thing. This wasn’t the OSO, that was for certain. It seemed so real. He was so at ease that he never wanted it to end. He actually felt like he was resting.

But it was still there. The nagging doubt that told him it wasn’t real. Like ghost, it whispered silently to him. Told him not to believe it.

He wanted to. Oh how he wanted to. This was the kind of memory he could lose himself in.

But again, where was he? Even if he did lose himself in the whole experience, just as in the real world, a remembered sun would eventually rise. A remembered day would begin. It was inevitable. But what day would he find himself in?

He tried to relax. To let the illusion overtake him. To let it give him the rest he so desperately needed. So, he exhaled long and slowly, looking up into the rich blue-black darkness, at what must be a ceiling, unseen above him somewhere.

But he knew it wouldn’t work. The unease clawed at the bottom of his brain. Poked at him. Annoyed him. Another chill made him shiver. There was no way he was going to let himself be drawn into a false sense of security, so he decided to end this whole charade before the device could do it for him. To wake himself up. If he could. He reasoned that if he could do it, at least he would be able to maintain some control of the situation.

He went to sit up, and only in that moment realized that someone was lying next to him, asleep, a heavy arm draped across his bare chest. He wasn’t alone. Someone else was lying next to him. On him!

Who was it? Dammit, where was he?

He gently – hesitantly -  touched the soft, warm arm, tracing his fingers quietly down toward the forearm toward the hand, feeling every slight bump, each curve and tiny indentation. He felt the silky skin, the delicate bone structure, the slender fingers, and long nails of the hand that rested on his chest near his right armpit. A woman’s hand. It was a woman!

But who was it? He searched desperately through his memories, for something like this. Part of it all seemed familiar. He was fairly certain now that this was the bedroom in his first apartment. But who was this sleeping with him?

So gently, he grasped the wrist, and lifted the arm from his chest. Abruptly the arm wriggled out of his hand and wrapped itself again across him. A quiet moan came to him out of the darkness next to him, and the person gripped him tighter, still sleeping. He could barely suppress a slight gasp, thrilled as he felt the warmth of the female body next to him snuggle closer, the soft flesh of her breasts pushing against his ribs. She was naked! He felt beneath the blankets, and realized that he was, also. One of her legs crossed over his, and tensed, drawing the two of them tighter together. His heart thudded in his chest, his body flushed, and he could feel his temperature rising.

The woman next to him moved her head, and he felt her chin and cheek now against his chest, the small breeze of her exhalations blowing gently across him and he realized for the first time that his left arm was around her shoulder. He couldn’t help it, and with the arm that encircled her, he pulled her closer, the scent of her hair intoxicating. This was heavenly, even though he still didn’t know who it was. It had been such a long time since he’d had an experience like this. His fingers slid tenderly, lightly, from her behind, following her spine up the small of her back.

The skin felt tight. Flawless. Warm.

The teasing caress of his fingertips gave her a chill, she wriggled slightly, and he felt her pubic hair brush against his thigh.

“Oh God….” He uttered quietly.

“Hi lover.” She whispered. “I felt that. Mmmmm…you must like this.” Her hand slid whisper soft across his belly, tracing the faint outline of the muscles, then slowly downward, with a touch that felt like no more than her fingertips. The purest ecstasy coursed through him as he felt her hand abruptly gripping him, tightly, but gently.

He couldn’t remember feeling anything so good, as her hand slid up and down on him, slow and insistent. He felt himself swooning, panting quietly, feeling the building pressure already. He squeezed her tighter against him, taking in all of her - the feel of her skin, the faintest breeze of her breath, the scent of her hair – of her femininity. Oh God, the sensations washed over him, like ripples across an otherwise still pond. Her hand moved faster, and he began to move his hips, in rhythm.

But it’s not real! hissed a silent voice in his head. He tried to ignore the voice. Wanted to ignore it. This was too good, too intense. This was by far the most incredible memory he had re-lived since he’d been on the OSO. He had… wait. This was… a… a memory! That’s all this was! He was still….

The OSO!

He was still on the OSO, and none of this was real!

Suddenly he knew what was about to happen –he would be taken to the highest heights of passion, only to be dropped back down. Dumped. Slammed. And it would happen right before the peak of the experience. That’s the way it always worked. Always would work. And it would leave him devastated. Perhaps more so than ever before, considering how strong this felt.

But he wouldn’t allow that to happen. No matter how good it felt – and God, it felt good! He had to end it now, before he lost control of the situation.

“I’m not here!” he yelled, pulling away from her, leaping out of bed, banging his hip painfully on one of the small matching tables at his bedside. He was pulling the covers off the bed as he backed away from it, wrapping himself in them as he did, suddenly even in the dark, ashamed of his nakedness.

“I’m not here! You’re not real!”

A light flared on, dim it was, but even in the darkness of the room, momentarily blinding him. He shielded his eyes with one arm, held the covers tightly around himself with the other, staggering backward.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” the woman asked. “Are you okay? Did you have a bad dream?”

Slowly lowering his arm, and looking through squinting eyes he could see her sitting on her knees on the bed, naked. She had turned on the light, frightened at his sudden outburst. As his eyes became more accustomed to the light, her image became clearer, and slack-jawed he drank it all in.

Her milk-white skin, lightly freckled, looked cool and smooth. Long brown hair, curly and unkempt, flowed halfway down her back. Her dark eyes looked at him with a mix of confusion, fear, and compassion. Her full lips, even in the dark, looked beautiful and red. Good God, she was gorgeous. And he hadn’t seen her in… it must be ten or twelve years.

“Diane….” The name dangled precariously. “Diane, it’s been so long. I just…. I don’t….” he was utterly at a loss for any coherent speech. It was his girlfriend. The one whom he had very nearly married. The one who occasionally stayed overnight in his apartment. The one to whom he loved to walk around the block with, during the cool of the evening. The one he loved to cook for. To care for. With whom he made desperate, passionate, incredibly hot love. The first and only real love of his life. And he was here with her. She looked just like she had when she was twenty-two, when their relationship was at its peak. God he loved her so. Even now, he still did.

“What’s wrong. Honey?” she asked. “It’s okay. You just had a bad dream is all. C’mon over here and I’ll make it better.” She patted the bed, gesturing for him to sit.

Hesitant, he took a step forward, then stopped.

“Babe, come on. It’s cold,” she giggled, “and you have all the covers.” She lay down on her side, her hair cascading across the pillow. So beautiful. “Come and warm me up.” She lightly traced a finger across the outer curve of her hip. And smiled coyly. “Make me warm.”

He resisted, although her most certainly didn’t want to. “No. This isn’t real. You’re not real! I’m not really here!”

He wanted so desperately to let himself go, to be swallowed up in this memory, but he knew it would only lead to frustration as all the others had before.

He and she had broken off their relationship some years before, and had gone their separate ways, still on friendly terms, vowing to stay in touch. Neither one had for very long. After a year she was gone completely from his life, and he had no idea where she was, indeed if she was even still alive.

It was the single worst regret of his life, and he missed her every day. Time had muted some of the feelings he had for her, but it could never cover them completely, and he lived every day with the hurt. It was pain deeper and more complete than the one he had regarding his parents, and that one was deep enough. There were so many times when he wished he had stayed with her. That they could have worked things out. That he wondered where she was, what she was doing. It was always a curiosity that he was afraid to satisfy. In the age in which they lived, looking her up would have been more than simple. He often wondered why she hadn’t done the same. Perhaps it was because she had found someone. Moved on, and forgotten him.

But their life together had been filled with such passion, that he found that idea nearly impossible to believe. But why hadn’t she? He wanted to know, but he was afraid to find out. And so he moved on, but never got over her.

“Not here?” She asked in a voice like liquid velvet, dark, smooth and inviting. “I don’t know what you mean. Come on back to bed, honey. You just had a bad dream is all. I’ll make you forget.” She said, patting the bed, her words dripping with the promise of sexual mischief.

Hesitant, but drawn on by a primal urge he was fighting a losing battle to ignore, he took another step toward her. “Diane….” His voice choked off. “I love you… I’ve always loved you.” The words began to tumble out faster. “It’s been so long since I saw you. I’m so sorry about everything. It was all my fault. I love you!” This was it – his chance to tell her that he didn’t want their relationship to end. He had to let her know how much she meant to him. It was more than even he had ever realized right up until this point. Seeing her. Touching her. Smelling her. And lying beside her he suddenly had realized that he loved her much more than he had ever dared let himself believe. “Diane, please, don’t go! I can’t go through that again!….” His voice was cut off as the world around him slowed down. Blackness rapidly crept in from the edges of his field of vision, and everything then imploded in upon itself, as if all reality was a pool of water and someone had just pulled a drain-plug from beneath it. Diane’s voice was still speaking but much slower, deeper. Muffled as if it were a recording that was slowing down, her words all but unintelligible.

He called out her name, and his voice was likewise distorted, but much deeper, booming painfully in his own ears. Darkness surrounded him, sucked him in, slowing him down, his voice, his movements, everything. The dark enclosed him in velvety, warm nothing, utterly silent. Diane was gone. His apartment was gone. He was gone. Everything was gone. Nowhere.

Suddenly a brilliant, blinding white light assaulted his eyes, as existence exploded into being like a bomb. His own voice came up from the silence, rapidly building into a crescendo that threatened to burst his eardrums, screaming, as he slammed down onto the floor on his back, with a metallic thump.

“Diane…. Diane! Come back! Come back!!” His voice echoed back at him, mockingly, from all the metallic surfaces around him. But she wouldn’t come back. Couldn’t. And he knew it, crying as the terrible weight of reality crushed him.

 

Here's the link to my freebies:   https://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?uid=493127

My cousin Jack can speak to beans. That's right.... Jack and the beans talk