Hi all – I'd just like to say another big thanks to all the dedicated readers out there of the the Moonlight Shadow saga, and thanks too for your very kind and supportive reviews and emails. This time I decided to write something quite different – very different, in fact. It begins the morning after Charlie & Joey's first night together. In my MoonShad story, they spend their first night together at a nearby motel - and this new story was inspired by a dream I had the night before I began to write it. For those of you who have read the Moonlight Shadow saga, consider it an 'alternative' to Moonlight Shadow 2 – although if you haven't read it – it won't matter. You'll still get the gist of the story. This is a teaser chapter, and I'm currently writing chapter 5. I'm not going to give too much away about the story line, but I'm sure that by the end of this chapter you'll have a good idea what it's going to be about!

Very strange things are happening in Summer Bay ...

VERY STRANGE THINGS

Chapter 1

Joey awoke with a jump, her entire body flinched. She sat upright in bed, gasping for breath. Her ears still echoed with the shrill, deafening scream she was convinced she had just heard. Had it been a nightmare? She blinked and wiped the sleep from her eyes, trying to wake herself fully. After considering it unlikely that the scream was real, she decided it must have all been in her sleepy head - although she couldn't recall anything about the dream she supposed she'd just had.

In her sudden fright, she had momentarily forgotten about the naked and beautiful brunette fast asleep beside her. Charlie lay facing away from her, oblivious to her distress. Joey sighed in relief and lay back down behind her, wriggling close and pressing her chest against Charlie's back. She took long, deep breaths and closed her eyes again. Feeling Charlie's warmth and softness against her helped ease her nerves and calm her down a little. She wrapped her arm around Charlie's waist and rested her hand on her perfectly flat and tanned tummy. It felt so good and she hoped that Charlie would wake up soon so that they could enjoy a repeat of the amazing time they'd had the night before. Perhaps if she were to gently stroke her skin, it might just be enough to rouse her – in more ways than one. She thought it was a good idea and decided to give it a try.

Charlie turned around to face her the moment she awoke, the huge smile on her face revealing her good mood.

"Good morning," she whispered.

"Good morning," replied Joey.

Charlie immediately noticed Joey's pallor and sweat-beaded brow. "Are you okay?"

Joey nodded her head. "Yes ... I'm okay ... I ... I just had a bad dream and it woke me up, that's all."

Charlie leaned in and bestowed her with a comforting kiss. Joey took advantage of the gesture and wrapped her arms around her. They became lost in their embrace, which turned more passionate as their bodies rubbed together, arousing them more and more. Joey's idea had worked perfectly.

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An hour and three-quarters later they lay exhausted side-by-side. Joey gazed dreamily up at the ceiling. She had awoken just once during the night and she had worried herself silly wondering what Charlie really felt about taking their relationship to the next level. Had she taken things with her too far too soon? Maybe Charlie hadn't been ready to sleep with her and would freak out as soon as she woke up. Joey had planned to talk to her about it first thing in the morning, to reassure her, but as she glanced at her lying contentedly beside her with her eyes closed, her naked body sprawled across the bed, soaking with sweat, she realised she needn't have worried at all! In fact, Charlie seemed to be accepting their love and attraction to one another very readily. It reassured her.

She picked up the tv remote and switched it on. The screen flickered and faded into view, illuminating the room softly. A repeat of 'Neighbours' was airing on Channel 10. Joey had never really enjoyed watching soaps, considering them to be much too far-fetched, and she wasn't going to start watching now. She changed the channel quickly, and then again, trying to find something interesting. The volume was low and she could not hear what was being said very well, but she didn't want to turn it up in case Charlie was sleeping again - she couldn't tell. A 24 hour news channel was displaying the usual sensationalist banner ... 'BREAKING NEWS.'

News channels everywhere had taken to over-using the phrase in the past few years, especially in the wake of 9/11. They'd all seemed to have been heavily influenced by the instigators FOX NEWS and SKY NEWS.

BREAKING NEWS could now mean anything from reports of deadly hurricanes and tsunamis to nondescript, non-news stories such as half-starved, overpaid supermodels and their court appearances for drug possession or drink driving.

Consequently, Joey didn't pay too much attention to the headlines that morning -

'BREAKING NEWS: Chaos in Sydney as riots engulf city'

She stared at the screen, wondering why such a thing had happened. Maybe it was a student protest that had gotten out-of-hand. Or perhaps a workers union strike that turned into a violent, angry protest. She changed to another channel, knowing how stories tend to be exaggerated in the press all the time. It was CNN NEWS. Their headline read -

'BREAKING NEWS: Los Angeles dead rise. Republicans blame Obama'

Joey frowned at the first sentence. What the hell did it mean? Had there been another LA earthquake and the death toll had risen? She changed the channel again in annoyance. Headlines could sometimes be too vague, she thought. The movie 'Jaws' was just beginning. She set the remote down to watch a little. Even though she'd always slightly resented the Spielberg classic for giving one of her favourite sea creatures an undeserved bad image, she had loved watching it ever since she was a child. It had never scared her. She'd wanted to be the shark – and considered it to be an amazing and beautiful animal. As she grew up, her love of sharks only increased. She thought they were the perfect product of millions of years of evolution. Her father had told her the horror stories of how, back in 1975, when the movie was first released, wannabe fishermen all over the world would hire boats and head out to sea with their beer cans, just so they could catch and kill a shark – any shark. They believed Great White's held grudges and stalked victims just like in the movie. Joey remembered telling her dad at the time that if she had met any of them, she would have told them just how stupid they were.

Charlie opened her eyes and sat up, perching on her elbows to look at the screen.

"Ooh ... we're gonna need a bigger boat," she quoted in her best masculine voice.

Joey giggled. Charlie was obviously a fan too, and the connection pleased Joey very much.

"What time is it?" asked Charlie.

"It's 9:30. Are you hungry yet? Want some breakfast?"

Charlie shook her head, smiling. "No ... I'd rather we stayed here a bit longer."

Joey grinned. She loved that idea too. "I wonder what time we need to check out. I'd better ring reception and ask."

She picked up the phone and dialled '0' for the front desk. It rang. No answer.

"That's strange. No-one's picking up."

"Maybe they're busy with guests. Give it a minute and try again."

Joey nodded. She thought of a good way to kill some time, and snuggled close to Charlie, kissing her softly on the lips. They lay their heads beside one another on Charlie's pillow.

"I love kissing you," whispered Joey. "I don't really want to stop ... I mean ... like ... ever."

Charlie giggled at Joey's sweet and very honest words. "Ditto," she whispered, before drawing her lips close once more.

After a few minutes Joey picked up the phone and redialled. She needed to know how much time they had left, so that they could make the most of it. Again, no-one picked up the call. Hanging the phone back on the receiver, she rested back against her pillow.

"Nobody's there, Charlie. I'm just going to assume we have to be out of here by eleven. That's the usual time, right?"

"I guess so. But ... maybe we could stretch it out for half an hour longer," said Charlie, slipping her arms around Joey again and kissing her. Joey responded, pressing her lips against Charlie's more deeply, her tongue flicking gently against her lips. She kissed her neck – tracing kisses all the way up to her ear. Suddenly Joey noticed a few blotches on Charlie's skin behind her earlobe. She studied their shape, size and colour. Never before had she seen anything like them. They were smaller than a 5 cent coin, and were mostly red with a few unusual elongated purple specks.

"Charlie ... do you have ... any allergies?"

"Err ... no ... not that I'm aware of. Why?"

"You have ... some ... red marks behind your ear. They look strange."

Charlie swung her legs over to the side of the bed, stood up and walked over to the mirror to investigate. Joey watched her as she walked across the room, remarking to herself just how beautiful Charlie looked, her hair flowing loosely down over her back and shoulders. Charlie raised her hair up to get a better look. Three blotches were easily visible.

"What the-?"

"Do they hurt? Or itch?"

Charlie touched them with her fingertip but couldn't feel anything. They weren't painful and she didn't feel the urge to scratch them. "No. Maybe I'm allergic to you," she teased.

Joey stood up and walked over to her, kissing her back and shoulders. Something caught her eye and her mouth fell open.

"Charlie ... you have more behind your other ear," she said – the concern in her voice was noticeable.

Charlie checked herself in the mirror again. Three more blotches behind her right ear protruded from her skin, very similar to those behind her left. They made her feel a little anxious. What was causing the irritation? She wanted to know.

"Maybe you should make an appointment with you doctor ... and take some antihistamine or something," suggested Joey.

Charlie agreed with her and promised to do it as soon as she got home.

A faint low-frequency sound could be heard coming from outside their room. It became progressively louder until it almost drowned out the sound of their tv. Joey ran to the window, followed by Charlie. When they pulled the curtain back they saw a car speed past them, much too fast. It was swerving all over the road. Charlie guessed it was travelling at almost 130 km/h.

"That guy's lucky I'm not on duty," growled Charlie, momentarily forgetting about her affliction.

"He seems to be in a hurry," observed Joey dryly.

Charlie moved back over to the mirror to look at herself again, checking the rest of her body for similar marks. There were none. Joey watched as the car sped on down the road. It unnerved her a little. Whoever was driving seemed to be intent on getting away from someone or something – fast! Joey came away from the window and climbed back into bed, patting the mattress for Charlie to join her. Charlie could not resist the invitation, regardless of her concern for her skin problem. Neither had noticed the blood stains on the windows of the car as it sped past, nor the bloodied handprint on the outside of their motel window, just under their noses.

To be continued ...

Yup ... you guessed it! It's gonna be one of THOSE stories.

Anyhoooo ... do you think this is something you might like to read more of? Please let me know. :-)