Chapter 18
Will We Ever…
Orange-red flames crackled merrily in the fireplace of the cozy hotel room, illuminating two teenagers on the couch in front of the hearth, watching reruns of The Fairly Oddparents for what Kit felt was the eighteenth time.
"Auggh…" he groaned as another episode started up. "Spare me, Nita…"
She grinned wickedly at him in the semi-darkness, comforted by the warmth of the room.
"Oh, c'mon, Kit… just this next one…"
Kit moaned.
"That's what you told me at seven. It's almost eight. I'm sorry, Neets, but I am sick of this…"
Nita prodded him gently.
"You weren't saying that when I was watching it with you like this…"
Her left arm wrapped around Kit's shoulders, and she pulled him close to her, laying her head on his right shoulder, exactly in the spot she knew he liked. He sighed, trying hard not to blush, and muttered in a voice strained to keep from laughing, "Oh…fine. After this one, we change the channel."
Two hours later
The marathon finished at ten that night. As the final credits on the show rolled, Kit, with visions of Wanda and Cosmo, Timmy and Vicky dancing before his eyes, winced and almost moved his arm. About ten minutes ago, Nita had fallen asleep without warning, and her head had managed to somehow block blood circulation to his right arm, which had been draped around her shoulders for most of the marathon. He winced. His arm was currently tingling horribly, as if a 2-ton wrecking ball had just bashed against his funnybone, and it was slowly going numb. Kit moved it slightly, just to test. Nita muttered something in her sleep, rolling over to face Kit, who was suddenly reluctant to move the arm and was concentrating on reaching his camera. By some miracle of physics, he managed to grab it and turned it on, focusing on Nita's sleeping features. He very quickly slid the arm out from under her head, and breathed a sigh of relief when she didn't move, except to cough slightly. He shook his arm frantically, gritting his teeth when the circulation started again. As the tingling subsided, he gazed fondly at his best friend. Her wavy auburn hair neatly framed her peaceful features, and Kit could almost imagine a halo hovering above her head. He gently brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face, and she twitched slightly. Kit framed her in the LCD display, then hit the shutter release. There was a burst of light, then a larger flash as the camera lit first the background, then the subject. To Kit's amazement, Nita didn't budge. He gently tucked her hair behind her ears, planted a kiss on her forehead, and climbed up into his bed. Kit watched Fred float in from somewhere outside, a sense of peace washing over him and enveloping him like an ocean wave. He was asleep in a matter of seconds.
The first thing Nita knew was that she was totally isolated in a vast expanse of nothing. The darkness seemed to close in around her, muffling anything she said, enveloping anything she could see. Blinded, she stumbled to her feet, calling softly, "Anyone here…?"
The darkness seemed to swallow her words before they could reach any ear of anything that could hear out in the vast expanse, beyond the darkness that enveloped her. She took a step forward, then paused. Something was calling her name.
Nita…
She glanced around, looking for the source of the voice.
Nita…
The voice was high and reedy, no more than a hiss through the opaque fog surrounding her. Nita could sense something waiting for her just outside the darkness.
Nita…
"What d'you want?" she called.
Nita…
Nita had no other choice than to begin to be wary.
"What?" she called once more.
We…we want you…
"Why?"
You… Nita…
"Why!?"
Nita…
She was getting jumpy now as her fear escalated.
"What!?" she cried, wincing at the harshness of her own voice.
Nita…
Suddenly, the fog gave way, and Nita recoiled in terror at the sight of what stood before her.
Never, not even on the day of the collapse of the Twin Towers, never had she been as terrified as she was now. Out on the vast wasteland that sprawled before her, out amongst the dust, stood a city. But no city on earth, or even in the universe, could look as this did.
The buildings, she could see from her viewpoint, were black with age and rotting away. Huge, gaping holes had been punched in every single structure; shattering windows, buckling and splintering wooden crossbeams… just the sight of that was enough to make anyone apprehensive. But what scared Nita were the inhabitants, which were before her.
The correct word would be former inhabitants, as they were now unfit to stay in any place. At least fourscore of them were before her: people. Dead people. And they were standing. And moving.
One of them stepped forward, and Nita, eyes wide with terror, stepped backward. It was a truly hideous sight: Its skin, which appeared to have been formerly normal, was now gray and black, with the flesh falling away in various places to reveal the rotting muscles and decaying organs underneath. It bent over to tighten something at its foot, sending blood and some digestive juices tumbling to the ground. Nita felt sick. The thing looked up and scratched its head ponderously. As it did so, chunks of skin fell to the ground, showering off its head. Its eyes burned with a pale red light, and it reached a ripped hand toward Nita's neck.
We need to draw blood…
Nita screamed.
She sat bolt upright in bed, sweat pouring down her face, heart pounding, breathing hard. In his bed, Kit mumbled in a voice clogged with sleep, "Whassamatter Nita?"
Breathing hard, Nita swallowed to calm herself.
"No…nothing…"
Kit sighed, turned over, and went back to sleep.
Nita lay down again, nervously tucking her hair behind her ears a she tried vainly to get back to bed. It would be hours before she would be able to drift ff once more.
Nita woke the next morning to find Kit halfway through Pirates of the Carribean, which she had been dying to see. Frustrated and a bit hurt, she swung herself out of bed and knelt beside him, giving him a gentle smack upside the head.
"Heyyyyy…" she protested quietly.
"Not nice starting without me…"
Kit rolled his eyes at her.
"Well, I couldn't exactly drag you out of bed and make you watch it, you would've slapped me…"
Nita flushed and restrained a stream of hot words.
"Oh."
Kit kissed her forehead gently, driving all rebellious thoughts out of her head.
"…but it would've been worth it…"
Nita pushed him away gently.
"We can do this later…I want to watch this…"
Kit gave her a slightly amused look, but settled down to watch the movie with her.
Kit smiled slightly as Nita chorused the ending words with Capt. Jack Sparrow.
"….drink up me hearties, yo ho…"
As the credits rolled onscreen, Kit grinned at her.
"Aaaaand…"
Nita smiled wryly.
"If you want. But we're not…"
"Duh. I don't want to."
"Okay. Good. Bec-…."
The rest of Nita's sentence was cut off as Kit's lips quickly met hers, which was just as well, because Kit knew what had been coming, and didn't want to hear her say it.
Nita sank into his kiss like she had never done before, letting the sweetness build inside her body until she thought she would burst. She made a small noise of contentment as Kit wrapped his arms around her, and all her worries were washed away in the flood of emotion that flowed between them.
Kit deepened the kiss with Nita's noise of consent. The emotions between them became stronger and stronger, until Kit thought that they might leave a 'ghost' behind them when they left.
A/N: Read A Wizard Abroad and you'll understand.
Nita tried to pick her way through Kit's emotions: Love, happiness, concern and…. She blinked.
Nervousness? She mentally shrugged. There was more than one thing in their lives to be nervous about…
Her thoughts were interrupted as they fell over backwards, Nita landing on top of Kit at the exact moment Dairine popped in.
Uh-oh….
A/N: This is getting good… I love my plot. dodges blow from nearby best friend
It's better than yours, Brad.
gets smacked upside the head by best friend
Ow.
Hey, who's watching the Daytona 500 on Sunday? I AM!!!!
2/15/04
Let's Go Racing.
Or
BOOGITY BOOGITY BOOGITY
Darrel Waltrip
I'll shut up now.
…
…
…
smack
Ow!