Each breath stung as the thick, chemically smoke flooded the poor lungs of the unfortunate young people with each shuddering inhale. It was not clear whether the odd tingles that raced the exposed skin of the pair came solely from the strange reverberance that came as the improbable spacecraft grew further and further out of sight, or if it was the lingering residual adrenaline that still managed to cling tight, sinking deep into each and every pore. The air hummed in a way that was almost musical, though once more this was unclear as it could have been no more than the ghost of a melody bouncing about within the deepest recesses of their mind, perhaps never to truly leave them again.

It was maddening, overstimulating and baffling, but then again for Brad Majors and his fiance, Janet Weiss, the last few hours that had passed them by had been such a hedonistic blur that this paled in comparison. In fact, it would not be altogether surprising to think that even if they were to spend their lives chasing the high that night had gifted them, they could race from one side of the earth to the other for an eternity and it never would recapture the moment.

But, of course, first times in any shape or form did not have any pre-established expectations to them so they were all very new and exciting, and by goodness - and by wickedness, and probably by anything else that happened to fall between the two extremes - did their evening bring with it a fair few first times for both of them.

Janet turned her gaze to the sky, the first few rays of the coming morning sun already peaking through the clouds. With her dark curls framing her features, exaggerated stage makeup smudged and distorted as it blended erratically with a mixture of soot and tears she had not realised she had shed, she never looked more lovely. More so, she never had looked so alive. Had the chance to feel so alive. As she watched the morning creep in, she could not help but liken it to the coming of something new that had, until then, been hiding just beyond the horizon, forever hidden just out of sight.

Brad, however, did not have the same privilege of reflection as he just simply could not see anything, so he had allowed his own gaze, how little it really was worth, downwards to the earth. It was an impossible hope at the very best that he could somehow find his glasses through the rolling smoke that really did nothing to help his vision, yet try he did. He did not have enough hands to count the amount of impossible things he had lived through that day on his fingers so perhaps he could count on just one more, as insubstantial as this one little thing might be. He never really had the chance to believe in impossible things before, but just now he found it a little easier to think he could, just possibly, begin to believe.

Well, it certainly was not the pair of bulky eyeglasses that he was looking for that he managed to find in his search. He had not realised right away what it was that he touched, cool under his fingertips and sun kissed. With a shrill, panicked sound in the back of his throat, he drew his hand back as he scooted away a little. Up until that moment, he had never had the opportunity to touch a dead body, and, even with his mind still drifting in and out of the rose tinted haze that had clouded his judgement thus far, he came to the quick decision that it was not something that he had any intention of making a habit of. Squinting his eyes, he could make out the form of what had once been Columbia, their head sitting at an angle that was altogether wrong, their auburn hair obscuring their features somewhat as they just lay there, more still than any person in their prime should be. The man had only ever seen one other corpse before that evening, and his grandmother at rest in a coffin just sort of looked correct, presented with respect for the life that she had led, and so that she could lay with dignity as she met her eternity in the soil. The person that lay, crumpled on the hard ground, was granted no dignity, no respect for the life that they had lived and lived until their very last breath.

The only casualty that remained was Columbia. This was only natural, however, as one could hardly imagine the Transylvanians would be so clumsy as to leave behind anything that might even possibly risk exposing them to those who had their existence confined just to earth, not until they were ready to at the very least.

How strange it was that mere hours ago they had been unaware of just how bizarre the universe was, and now they were left to revel in the revelation while the ones who showed them the truth almost all died!

The sheer insanity of it all hit Brad all of a sudden like a - laser? - stack of bricks. The man laughed, for he could neither help himself nor stop himself, and he laughed again, his head tossed back. It would have been all too easy for this to have fallen into a sob, but the pinch of his corset - snug, as if it had been made just for him - did wonders when it came to grounding him enough to steady himself. Not completely. For him, his shock had come louder and more erratically than it felt it had any right to be, which was a stark difference from the woman who had allowed her gaze to become glassy as the sky grew brighter and brighter.

"Janet?"

The very idea of breaking the heavy silence had felt impossible right up until the very moment that he did, actually, do this. Like a doll that had been played with too roughly, his head rolled to the side to face the woman. Or at least the blurry outline of the woman, which was close enough really.

"Brad?"

Though there was something about her that seemed worlds away even as she turned to look at the man, her voice carried none of this. There was none of the squeaky whispiness that it once held, the sort that she had developed through more practice than she felt she should have been expected to undertake, but instead a strength that had always been hidden just out of sight in wait for the moment she was finally able to just be.

"Are you alright?" asked he, the question feeling stupid even in his mouth before they were even given the chance to be uttered.

"No. Are you?" came the perfectly earnest reply.

"Not even slightly," he returned, matching her honesty with his own, "Should I be?"

"I don't know what to think." Janet offered, a heavy exhaustion in her shrug.

"Do you want to know a secret?" Brad returned, flashing an awkward grin, "Neither do I and I don't think I want to."

"You think you don't know what to think about not knowing what to think? That is an awful lot of thoughts to not think."

This hung in the air for a moment of silence until it stopped being quite so silent all of a sudden. It was not clear who giggled first, or if it had been a mutual moment of shared ridiculous, and then they weren't quite so far away from each other anymore. It had taken a quick scamper across the ground until they were close enough to embrace each other. They didn't, not properly at least. What they did do, however, was an awkward, clumsy clasp of the others arms in a chaste sort of way that seemed frankly absurd for anyone in their present situation or attire. But for all the clumsy awkwardness, it felt very them and very safe, which very little had been for what was feeling closer to an eternity than the few hours that it had truly been.

"You slept with them." Janet stated bluntly, a twinkle to her eye and curl of her painted lips making it clear this was nothing more substantial than mere teasing.

"So did you." came the reply, offered in much the same fashion.

"I did, and I'm not sorry to say it was incredible." As if to confirm this, the woman nodded, dark curls bouncing cheerily.

"I wasn't going to ask you to lie," the man replied, "And it was, wasn't it? It was wonderful."

"It was insane. All of it." A beat. "Us."

"Maybe, maybe less than we were before?" Brad replied, "I don't know. I need time to think first, I think."

"There you go, thinking too much again." replied she. As she spoke she gave the man an affectionate pat on the cheek, the thick makeup they both wore feeling a little unpleasant under her fingers, though she assumed she was no better at that moment.

Perhaps it was the corsets, bedazzled and beautiful as they were, accounted for the majority of the attire they both wore, or it was that the adrenaline had began its gradual retreat, but the bitter bite of the early morning air brought with it shivers and gooseflesh, which was far from the first time in the last few hours, but there was no excusing it away under the guise of excitement this time. No, this was just the cold playing a cruel trick on the two, which would have seemed awfully rude had they been dressed for the weather and not for a clandestine, hedonistic floor show directed by an even more clandestine and hedonistic alien. Which was a very specific sort of aesthetic, indeed, as that was not a combination that most people, especially the people that they knew, would have had to even ponder.

"What do we do now?" Janet asked, the question having bounced unspoken between the two of them too many times to not be finally vocalised.

"Live, I suppose?" came the unhelpful reply.

"I'd certainly hope so," returned she, flashing a grin, "But we're in the middle of nowhere, I don't know how we can get back and I'm tired, Brad, and I doubt we could get very far like this. I mean, look at us, we're-"

"Practically naked?" the man suggested, all too aware of how little he was actually wearing at that moment, a fresh chill tracing his spine like a cold finger.

"I was going to say that we aren't dressed for walking, but yes. Practically naked and," she paused, letting her eyes wander the man for a moment, "Absolutely gorgeous."

"I would say the same about you, but-" Brad finished the statement by tapping his cheek to indicate his lack of glassed.

"There, you see what I mean? No state to walk around anywhere." With a sigh, she let herself slump into the man, tragic and weary, gazing up at him as if he might hold some forgotten answer that neither of them could quite find. "Oh, Brad, what do we do?"

"We're going to be alright, Janet," returned he. He felt as though pushing optimism was at least somewhat easier to maintain than giving false hope by acting like either of them were even remotely in charge of anything that had happened, was happening, or would happen in the future. They had thought they were less than twenty four hours ago, but all of that had been quite thoroughly shaken around since then.

It would have been far too easy for them to fall into despair over this, and perhaps they even had every right to have a little sorrow and despair, as a treat, but they were not given the privilege of bemoaning their predicament any longer. There was a cough that sounded out, the singular cough of one clearing their throat after sitting around in silence while just a little dehydrated for far too long.

"Dr. Scott!" the young folk exclaimed in imperfect unison.

"Brad, Janet," the scientist greeted, a little way off from where they were, "Are you hurt?"

"I think we're okay," was the best that Brad could offer as the pair scooted over to rid them of some of the distance between them and the third of their party, "Are you?"

"No, just shaken," the professor returned, "Everything here was much shaken."

"Yes," Janet agreed, "Oh, but Dr. Scott, what now? We're stranded."

"Not to fear, Janet," said he, "A colleague of mine, Dr. Armitage, was to collect me when I was done here so now we are to wait for him. I am sure he would find this all most interesting, you see, he had much understandings of aliens and other worlds that you and even I do not." A beat. "Between us, I think it has driven him to the doorway of madness and beyond it, but he will help nonetheless."

This brought with it several collective and individual sighs of relief from the other two. Janet going so far as to sink down just a little. Which was not the easiest thing to do in a corset but the effort was made all the same, and it was more the sighing that helped than the slumping anyhow.

"Oh. Dr. Scott, by the way," Brad began after a moment, "You might as well still know, we got engaged yesterday."

"Congratulations, I think you will both be made very happy with this."

And with this, Brad and Janet succeeded in what they had set out to do, albeit in the most roundabout and delirium inducing way it could have happened. But it was a success all the same, and now all they had to do was wait until they could be collected from the vacant lot that once held Dr. Frank N Furter's castle before they had the chance to go on with the rest of their lives.