Anthony DeCosmo - Parallels

She spoke with a green-eyed, brunette woman standing next to her wearing some kind of suede dress. They chattered, smiled, and laughed.

This other woman looked familiar, but he could not quite remember.

Nina’s hand touched the girl’s shoulder as they shared a thought, the brunette's hand casually-or deliberately? — brushed Nina’s crossed legs.

He watched.

Who was she?

The green-eyed brunette saw Trevor looking at them. Nina followed her friend’s gaze and when she saw him she smiled. A shark’s smile.

Nina said something to her companion, stood, and walked to Trevor while the green-eyed girl stayed behind and sipped from a frozen drink.

"Hey, glad you could make it," Nina said as the music pumped and the lights flashed red and green over her face. "His clothes fit you, I see," she felt the shirt. "Guess you two are alike in a lot of ways."

Trevor found himself looking along the bar at the brunette.

"Oh, yeah, that’s Jolene. You remember Jolene, don’t you?"

Trevor vaguely remembered the girl from somewhere, from something that happened a long time ago. Something to do with his getting over to this world.

"She’s…she’s a friend. She wants to hang out with us tonight. She’s a lot of fun. What do you think? Do you think that would be okay?"

As she spoke, Nina maneuvered Trevor to an open bar stool. He sat down.

"Yeah, a, sure," a voice said from his lips but it seemed a far away, distant voice.

"Oh good!"

She looked at the bartender and raised a finger then pointed that finger at Trevor. The bartender went to work on a mixed drink.

"That’s great," Nina repeated. "I was sure that’s what you would think. I knew you’d think that was a good idea."

He projected a calm demeanor but underneath felt a tremor as images played through his mind.

"Well, here’s something else for you to think about," Nina stepped in between his legs as he sat on the stool. She pressed against him. She put her mouth to his ear, almost kissing him.

"I want you to think about…" she spoke slowly, deliberately."I want you to think about two pair of lips…all over you…kissing… and stuff."

He did not move. Not on the outside.

"I want you to think about this; before this night is over you’re going to have us- the two of us — any way you want. Anything you can think of…we’ll do it. I bet you’re just full of ideas."

She pressed tight against him.

"But before all that…before that…I’m going to let her fuck me… while you watch."

She stepped out from between his knees, accepted a drink from the bartender, and handed it to him. Somehow he kept his hand from shaking.

"You sit here, relax, enjoy your drink and you think about that while I go play."

The music beat on. Nina twirled around and strolled over to Jolene. The brunette reached out and took her by the hand and the two girls moved to the dance floor.

Trevor held his drink and watched.

At first they danced harmlessly, like any two girls would dance. The lights flickered around them. The bass shook the room…he felt it across the floor and up the legs of the stool and into his spine.

He watched.

Then they danced closer. An arm over a shoulder. A hand on a hip.

Nina turned her back to Jolene and the two swayed as their eyes found his.

Jolene’s hand moved…slowly…along the curve of Nina’s body.

He sat…

…and watched them in the glow of the candles in the penthouse bedroom, listening to purrs of encouragement, whines complaining of a tease, moans for teases fulfilled.

He watched as Nina turned her head on the pillow and looked back at him. Looked back at him while she shivered and groaned from what was being done to her. Her eyes closed and her neck strained…her eyes opened and her mouth exhaled a gasp of gratification

After a while…after Jolene had done everything she could think to do to the passive Nina…after Nina had cried out more times then he could count…after a while Trevor decided he did not want to watch any more.

Then he was with them. For all the things they had already done, he thought of more to do. Nina had been right. He had lots of ideas. He did not even know from where those ideas came. And they did them all. Eagerly. Cravingly.

He gave instructions. "Yes…there…like that…now to her…"

Nothing was forbidden. They refused no command.

Three bodies twisted and turned amid the sweat of their lust; a ball of carnality. Everything explored. Every dark fantasy indulged.

And he could not get enough. It became an addiction. Each gratification only brought the burning desire for more. Each satisfaction brief before he demanded something new.

Finally, the last act came not from satisfaction but from pure exhaustion. By that time he had become a dark shadow, a demon of a man whose most forbidden dreams of lust had been dragged to the surface and set free.

He collapsed between the two weary women who, like everything else on that world, belonged to him.

– Despite directions, Johnny lost his way several times. Part of the problem revolved around the size of Thebes but, in truth, he conceded that whoever laid out the street plan for the city did so meticulously; no dead ends and almost every road wide and long.

Indeed, city seemed almost pre-fabricated. Neighborhoods lacked character and appeared nearly identical. For the first few minutes of his trip, the Reverend thought he might be running through an old cartoon with the same houses and buildings scrolling in the background because the animator lacked the ink to pen more variety.

At the same time, he contended with a steering-wheel-mounted automatic transmission, a design he had not experienced before.

On top of all that, he found it difficult to focus. His mind raced with fear and energy ever since Ashley shared the secret of Thebes; a secret he could not believe to the point of his first reaction being to think poor Ashley of this Earth to be mad.

Nonetheless, despite the obstacles and his state of mind, Johnny found the industrial zone. Once there, he sought out the largest building of the city, not in height but in acreage.

Ashley’s twin proved correct, the building's design made Johnny think of a Cathedral from back home, but one constructed without any sense of soul or inspiration. Instead of stone, metal served as the primary building block, sculpted into towers on each of the building's four corners that acted as supports with any style appearing incidental. He spied exposed struts beneath the metallic skin, giving parts of the structure a half-finished or, perhaps, hastily-constructed feel.

A long vousoir framed a pair of imposing doors dominating the building's front. Johnny spied skid marks on the concrete there suggesting the doors served as loading docks.

The area smelled of combusting fuels and burning electricity. A sooty film seemed pasted on the entire neighborhood and while the exterior lights were blacked out, rays of interior light escaped through a few small, frosted windows.

As per Ashley's instructions, the Reverend parked on a quiet, vacant street just off the building's south wall and across from a side entrance.

He did not see any sentries as he exited the car and approached the maintenance door with the key card provided by Ashley. With no nearby light source, he had to search with his fingers to find the slot, which he did. When his card slipped into the hole, a small green light flashed once and he heard a bolt unlock.

Unbeknownst to the Reverend, a small camera watched him open the door and walk inside.

He entered a dimly-lit maintenance area that smelled like oil and chemicals. He nearly slipped on a grease stain but managed to steady himself with a hand on a nearby rack of shelves filled with an array of pipes, valves, and tools.