'Don't be gentle,' she whispered into his ear and he had no intentions of disobeying her. He yanked her left leg and the woman forcefully wrapped it around his back, pulling him closer to her. The heavy rising of their chests told of the moment that they were in, a frenzy settled only by the restraints they kept upon themselves. His fingers felt her face, the smoothness and the pain that existed behind it.
One that he knew too well.
Her other leg wrapped around his torso without warning and he pushed away from the wall as the two continued to kiss with no end in sight. They stumbled through the living room and knocked over a small oak table in the process. Nothing around them though existed, it was like they lived in a world parallel and without consequences. His hands tore at the thin black fabric until her shirt came off over her head and teased him with her taut body.
'Yes,' she moaned as his lips gently tickled her senses until he met the black bra that covered her breasts. 'Craig, yes.' He wanted her badly and she was enjoying every moment of this. The attention he showered her with was like nothing that she had received in quite some time. Craig stepped backwards, unaware of the couch behind him, and both fell onto it as their bodies became even closer than thought possible.
The woman sat on top of his groin and yanked at the white shirt that covered his chest. Craig slowly came up and felt the fabric as it left his body and watched as it was tossed to the ground. His red eyes, somber and soft, looked back at the woman who had a fire in her eyes and they froze for a moment. For the first time, they became aware of what was happening, and in that moment, a wave of emotions overcame them.
Instead of analyzing them, they just pushed them away, and resumed with the locking of their lips until Craig rolled over and landed on top of the woman as his lips snaked their way down to the black jeans she wore with a simple button clasp. His teeth grabbed at the thin lining and pulled with all of his might before the button came loose. She tore the jeans away from her legs and kicked the jeans into the air as she opened her legs for him.
His body moved in between them and felt them as they wrapped around his body once again. She forced his pelvis into her groin and moaned from the pleasure she received. A smile appeared on his face and felt the smooth skin of her milky legs. The emotion behind their kisses sent chills up and down his spine before he ripped her off the ground and stood back up. Craig moved into the nearby bedroom and threw her onto the bed before he pulled his own jeans off of him and moved onto the bed with her.
Her lips attacked him as she leapt on top of him and began to nibble on his neck. His red eyes rolled into the back of his head as her hands slipped underneath the black boxers he wore and pulled them off. With no panties of her own, she sat on top of him as she moaned in ecstasy. It felt like minutes passed as they just remained there, removed from the moment. She looked down at him and felt this overpowering feeling come over her as she laid down on top of him and kissed Craig. Slowly, her hips began to grind into him and as the two entered the throes of love, any past between them disappeared.
'Say my name, Craig,' she moaned to him and he felt his heart race. Her fingers grazed along his chest and he felt the air leave his very lungs. She toyed with him, but not in a playful way. No, in a loving way. A way that only she could show him.
'Alexandra,' he said. Her eyes seemed more alive when she heard her name.
'Say it again. Louder.'
'Alexandra,' this time he said it louder as she moved faster. Her hair bounced in the night and he wrapped his arms around her back and rolled on top of her. Alexandra’s eyes opened in surprise as she felt him inside of her, passionately and lovingly; emotions that were once thought to be dead.
'Alexandra Pierce,' he said with a devilish smile.
She smiled as he began to thrust. Her eyes grew large, eyes normally soulless, but filled with love in this moment. Her fingers dug into his scarred back and felt every movement of his very fiber. Wave after wave of pleasure came over her. He moved in rhythm as the two seemed more in sync then they had over the past decade or so.
Moments passed as they allowed the lovemaking to overcome them. “Yes, yes,” she moaned in his ear before flicking her tongue against his neck. Part of him was angry, wanting her to scream louder and louder. Another part of him though wanted her to just feel him and embrace this moment, never to end. Only one wish could come true though.
'I love you,' she whispered to him, forgetting everything and everyone.
He only felt the same way about her.
Japan was definitely different, or so Craig had thought in his two weeks there to this point. In the midst of a world tour, he found himself in a bar drinking a weird concoction of drinks and flirting with the bartender.
“So, um, do you still not understand me? Because, you know, that’s cool and stuff.” The woman, elegant and lovely, just nodded her head and giggled at Craig. If anything, he was certain that he was going to get lucky this evening, even if she only spoke Japanese and was probably hairier then Diana Ross in the 70’s. She slowly filled up his glass once again while giving him these flirtatious eyes.
To his right sat a man that he had met just two weeks prior. “Gotta love this place, right?” His question went unanswered though as the man was in deep conversation with an American woman he had encountered in the bar. He would attempt to interrupt the conversation, but he had never truly learned the man’s name. Instead, he just sat there with his drink, and enjoyed the silent conversation Craig was having with himself in his head.
A few minutes passed by as Craig finished off his fifth or sixth drink of the night, and at this point, he felt it pretty strongly. He turned around in his seat and looked across the bar to find most of the patrons had already left for the night. His dark brown eyes continued to scan the surroundings until his eyes fell on a group of men outside, tossing a woman to the ground.
“That doesn’t look good,” Craig remarked to nobody in general and left his seat before he took a few strides to the front door. Craig wouldn’t claim himself to be one of those people who just rescued women. On tonight, he was probably only doing it because he had enough liquor in him to make him do stupid things like step into the faces of four or five men who beat women for a living. Not people normal people should mess with.
Craig stepped outside of the bar and looked around with a cautious eye. “Lovely night out, you know? Great night for beating people up and… yeah.” Everyone in a fifteen feet radius of him fixed their eyes upon the stranger who'd interrupted the proceedings. The woman, still on the ground, joined them, her brows curled. Craig looked at her with large eyes. “Wanna get out of here?”
He didn’t get much further though as a fist crashed into his jaw and sent him stumbling away from the gathered crowd. Craig felt the pool of blood in his mouth and spit it out instead of letting it just simmer there. Then, he gathered himself, and looked back at the group of men. “Well, okay. I was really hoping to this the easy way.” The redhead's eyes followed him; she'd yet to say a word. Her tongue slipped across her lips as she got to her feet.
“Get out of here,” she said calmly.
“Sorry,” Craig mumbled to the woman. “Not in my interest to just let pretty girls get pushed around. Not saying I was raised right or anything, just that it's bad form.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You talk an awful lot. This is my fight. You should go.” She turned around, sticking her finger in the face of the leader of the group. Craig grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away.
“Okay, so maybe that’s why they threw you to the ground. Anyone ever teach you it’s not polite to put your finger in people’s faces like that? It’s kind of rude, honestly.”
Annoyance flicked through in the woman’s odd gaze. But before he had a chance to respond to this, the leader snapped his fingers. Craig looked up to see the other members of his group advancing upon them.
“Did he just snap at me?” Craig asked.
“Not his finest hour,” she murmured.
Craig moved in front of the woman, wanting to defend her, but she grabbed him by the neck and spun him around. “What do you think you’re doing, lady?”
'I told you.' She fixed her intense eyes on his. 'This is not your fight.
Craig shook his head. “Look, sorry, no offense, but you’re not fighting these five by yourself. It’s just not happening. So, get out of here while you can. I do this for a liv--.”
Before he finished his sentence, the redhead's fist flew at him. 'Hey!' he exclaimed, ducking at the last possible second. When he turned to look behind him, he saw the truth: she'd slugged a short stocky man, just inches behind Craig.
As he turned around, he ducked a fist from another man, one that was long and lanky. Craig wasted no time as he threw his elbow into the guy’s face before he decked him in the face with a strong right. Craig managed to duck another blow and dug his left fist into the man’s abdomen section. His eyes focused long enough to see the woman holding her own as she drilled two men with a jumping kick and then followed that up with a roundhouse kick, moving with almost unearthly grace.
Her long flowing red hair snapped behind her like a fire in the breeze she dug her foot into the throat of the leader. The heel on her boot dug into the man's throat, a dangerous look in her eyes.
“Tell your boss this is the last time that I come to him civilly. If I return, your blood will balance the scales, and right the wrongs you have committed. Are we clear?” she asked. He slowly nodded his head, venom pouring out of his eyes. Before Craig could react, she freed him from her grip, blood at his throat, but able to walk off with his life still intact.
“His wrongs?” Craig asked and the woman looked at him with this menacing look
“You speak Japanese?” she asked. Craig blinked in astonishment as she pushed him into the wall, pressing her forearm against his throat. He gasped for breath, shocked by it all, and she only pressed down harder. “Who sent you?”
Her question surprised Craig, just as the one before about him knowing Japanese. “Look.” He struggled speak, considering the circumstances he was facing. “You weren’t speaking Japanese. And this is a really bad first date.”
“Who are you?” she asked again.
Craig just shook his head. 'No one sent me!'
A moment passed, but he couldn't read her eyes enough to know what she was thinking, and he simply attempted to smile. Finally, she released him and he slumped against the wall, rubbing his raw throat.
“Do I get to know your name?”
“Alexandra.” She said it quicker than she had intended to, giving Craig gotten piece of information he likely wasn’t supposed to have. “Look, you never saw me here. You don’t know my name. Never come looking for me.” For the first time, Craig could swear her tone had softened, but again, she did not give him a chance to react, sprinting down the sidewalk.
He stood there for a moment and let her name linger in his mind.
Alexandra.
“Who the hell are you calling?”
Samantha’s voice cut through Craig’s thought process and he looked up at her for a brief second. “Oh, no one,” he said in an obvious lie, and Samantha strode across the room before snatching it out of his hands. He tried to take it back from her grasp, but she was out of arm’s reach before he could react.
“You’ve been calling somebody all day it seems like,” she informed him as she scrolled through his list. Samantha had been with him for a number of years and for some unknown reason, had formed a bond of trust with her. Years and years of fighting side by side had grown them closer even when so much darkness circled them. As she looked through the list, her eyes grew large. “Okay, A.P. better not stand for what I think it stands for.”
Craig paused for a moment, the heat in the room starting to get to him. “It stands for Annual Pass. I’m getting you a pass for Disneyland.” Her eyes grew narrow as she looked at him, and he knew that she didn’t believe him.
“I hate Disneyland and I told you that.”
Craig’s eyes shifted from side to side.
“Look, I know that they didn’t have any of the Mickey Mouse ice cream left, but—“
“It’s the best thing there, Craig! And they didn’t run out, you didn’t buy any of it for me. Actually, as I recall, you threw a guy into the stand as I was about to buy it.”
Craig stood up in anger as he pointed at her. “He was going to set off a bomb!”
“It was ice cream! Don’t mess with my ice cream!” Her voice raised to another degree and Craig knew he shouldn’t be fighting with her on this subject. Samantha cleared her voice before shaking her head. “And stop lying to me. A.P., that stands for Alexandra, doesn’t it?”
Craig sat down in his chair. “No. It stands for Alexandra Pierce.” He spoke in a soft tone, hoping that Samantha would ignore it, but the exact opposite took place as she walked the distance of the room again and looked at Craig in his bright red eyes.
“Do you want to tell me why you’re calling Alexandra Pierce? Because, I can’t think of any solid reason that you would get in touch with her. None. Unless you were going to chop her head off and even then, I still think that her head would just grow back like in that Men in Black movie.” She then shuddered from the visual imagery. “Still hate that movie because of that scene.”
Craig wrestled with the way to word his bit of news to Samantha. A few times, he was certain he had it, but it just didn’t fit right in this particular moment, thus he decided to just say it. “Alexandra and I had sex.” Samantha slapped him. It wasn’t the reaction he had pictured in his mind.
“What the hell is wrong with you? No, don’t answer that because you don’t know. First off, why would you tell me that? Do you think I care about what you stick your penis in? Second off, Alexandra?! Alexandra Pierce?! Did you forget that she tried to kill you? And let me remind you, Craig, not just once, but quite a few times. I’m pretty certain that she’s going to do it again too. Can almost guarantee you that she’s plotting it right now!”
Her words, after a while, just ran together, and Craig sat there trying to figure it all. Yet, that didn’t work out too well and he just shook his head before getting out of his seat once again. “Look, it just happened, okay? There’s a lot of history behind Alexandra and me. Things haven’t been the same with her. They haven’t been in a long time.”
She slapped him again. “Yeah, until she tries to kill you again.” Samantha couldn’t believe this. “So, what, are you trying to set up a date with her now? Is that why you’re calling her?”
Craig shook his head.
“Then, what is it?”
Craig took a deep breath in. “Look, Samantha, I know this doesn’t make any sense to you. But, I’ve seen a different side of Alexandra as of late. A side I didn’t know still existed.” His mind went back to the day when she had cried in his arms. Or when she trusted Quinn with him. Things that she would throw back in his face.
“That side that you still think exists, Craig, it will disappear in a moment’s notice, and I hope you notice that. It’s happened to you before and you keep thinking you can just turn a blind eye to her, but you can’t. Sorry. You told me those visions you had.”
His eyes shot to the ground.
“And you know I’m right.”
Samantha walked up to him and looked at him in the face. “You love her, I understand that. That might never change, I understand that too. That doesn’t mean though Craig that you can save her. She’s beyond saving. Do what you can, do what you have to do, but don’t let yourself fall in that trap once again.”
“I wish it was that easy, Samantha.”
Samantha shook her head and flipped her blonde hair behind her ear.
“No one said it would be, Craig. Just the way things in life work.”
Three weeks later, Craig still hadn’t been able to find her. Having looked all through the town, even staying behind after his tour had wrapped up, he had no luck in finding the mysterious woman he had fallen for after she tried to choke him out. Craig had taken to working menial jobs as he felt a connection to the city, to the woman, that he had never felt before. Of course, in this very moment, he was passed out on the floor of the bar he found Alexandra in.
“Get up,” a man with a deep bass voice said before he kicked Craig dead in the chest. A pair of brown eyes opened up and he looked up at the ceiling wondering to himself if he had died and went to Mars. Yet, instead of feeling the burning matter against his skin, another kick, this time to the face, crashed his fantasies and he rolled away with a bloody nose to boot.
“Look, sorry, didn’t mean to be in the middle of your drunken bar room orgy,” Craig mumbled under his breath as his head hit the concrete again and he tried to fall asleep again. Apparently, Craig hadn’t moved far enough out of the way and this time he felt a sharp pain in the small of his back. This one didn’t please Craig very much as he sat up with groggy eyes and looked at the man who was kicking him. His surprise only grew as he was at the mercy of the man he had watched Alexandra nearly kill.
“Shit,” Craig said under his breath while he tried to get up to his feet. Yet, the man and his friends weren’t generally in the mood as they slammed his face into the wooden bar and held him there with a forearm against the back of his head. “I was really hoping that we were just going to have a beer. Preferably, you guys paying, because I’m really broke.” They didn’t appreciate his joke as evidence by the blinding pain in his face as they introduced his face to the bar once again.
“Where is she?” the leader of the group asked in a not so friendly tone.
“Who? Marilyn Monroe? How the hell should I know? She died like 30 years ago.”
Something told Craig that they weren’t in the mood to have a sarcastic asshole jerk their chain. His clue came when they pulled him away from the bar, picked him high into the air, and slammed his body hard through a metal table that cracked from the pressure.
“Your friend,” the leader spoke as he stood over Craig, who was trying to get some air back into his lungs and rid himself of this incessant nauseating feeling that came with being drunk. “I want to know where she is.”
He didn’t have any answers. If anything, Craig felt like he could get some information out of this guy about who Alexandra was. Except for the fact that this guy seemed pretty intent on punching Craig in the face if he continued down the path.
“If you really wanted to find me, Kenji,” a female voice appeared from what seemed like the heavens. “You do not have to try so hard.” Craig knew her voice of the woman immediately, but he wasn't safe yet. On one hand, he was saved. On the other, this woman might just kill him.
The man looked up from his aching body to Alexandra, leaning in the doorframe.
“Before you continue to beat up innocents, let me ask you something.” Her voice was cool, powerful. “Did you seriously think that I would associate myself with someone like that?”
Craig just lied there with this bewildered look on his face. “Hey!”
“Shut up.”
“Okay!” Craig remained lying on the ground as Kenji and his friends moved away towards Alexandra.
“No one gets away with what you did, Pierce.” Kenji’s voice filled the entire bar. Craig briefly wondered why the bartender had just let him sleep on the ground. He patted his pockets to see if he still had his money in his pockets. It wasn’t there.
“You stole my money!” Craig shouted towards Kenji as he leapt to his feet in an accusatory tone. “I had like, um, let me see…” Craig thought about it for a moment while Kenji just stood there, annoyed.
“Oh, yeah, I didn’t have any money. Sorry, continue,” Craig told the duo as he walked over to the bar and looked around for something to drink. Much to his dismay, he didn’t find anything and started to drink out of a half empty glass he found on a table.
Alexandra watched for a minute, turning towards Kenji. “What I did? I did not the one who murdered five innocent children.” Those words were more than enough for Craig to spit the liquid out of his mouth.
“Whoa,” Craig began before putting the glass down and pointed a finger at Kenji. “You kill people? Like, really kill people? Dude, that’s not cool. I know that and I’m literally drunker than I could imagine.”
Kenji licked his lips as a coldness came over him. “Yes, I kill people. Like I’m going to do now.” It took a moment for Craig to realize what that meant exactly.
“Whoa, whoa,” was all he managed to get out before two of Kenji’s goons had their hands on him. Craig struggled against their restraints, but found himself coming up short as his skinny frame was no use against these men. “Look, I’m sure we can talk this out.” Craig’s pleas fell on deaf ears.
“You have gone too far again, Kenji, for the last time,” Alexandra said pointedly.
“That’s your big warning to me? I’ve gone too far? For so long, I listened to that fool’s words and for what?! Life in some mountains? Feeling like the world will never get better? I got tired of it, Alexandra, and one day, so will you.”
Craig was completely lost.
“You guys aren’t going to really kill me, are you?” he asked the two men holding him. They remained silent.
Alexandra stepped forward. “Do not think you know me.”
Kenji laughed aloud, spit hitting her square in the face in the process.
“I know you better than you do, Alex.”
Her fist came faster than Craig could see, and somehow the man still dodged her. Kenji’s knee collided with his chest and Craig felt this warmth come over him. He struggled again, but the men held firm. Instead of standing there, helpless, he slammed his head into the nose of the man to his left, which gave Craig some room to move. His elbow then collided with the other man’s throat and he began to move towards Kenji, whose knee was pressed against Alexandra’s throat.
“Enough,” Craig managed to say before he was tackled to the ground by another man part of Kenji’s group. Craig moved faster than he anticipated and turned around before he felt something in his stomach. He tried to move, but his arms wouldn’t respond. The man moved off of Craig and once again, Craig tried to move again. This time, he managed to move a little, and attempted to move his legs to get up to fight the man, but found resistance to that idea. His hands moved around his body as the pain continued to grow more and more with each passing second.
As he reached his abdomen, he found a metal handle protruding from his abdomen. Before he managed to pull it out, everything around him went black, followed by white.
What seemed like only seconds lasted fifteen minutes. Surprisingly, he came to and looked into the most beautiful pair of eyes. Gray the sky after a thunderstorm.
“Are you okay?” Alexandra asked him and he nodded his head. There was something about her that seemed off. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was something in her eyes that should’ve given Craig fright.
She looked down and then back at him, her right knee underneath his head. “Who are you?” she whispered.
“What?”
Her tongue ran over her lips. Finally, Craig managed to put that look to words.
Fear.
“What’s wrong?” he asked her again and she just shook her head in disbelief.
“I came back here to find you. Ever since I ran into you, I kept thinking there was something special about you. You understood what I said to Kenji, even though I doubt you speak a lick of Japanese. Then, tonight, there was a knife in your stomach.”
Craig began to remember that and panic overtook him.
“Am I going to die?” he asked her honestly.
“The wound isn’t there any longer.” Her words baffled Craig, but he didn’t get a chance to really follow up on that. “Then you fought all five of them and... your eyes, they seemed possessed. I’ve never seen eyes like that, so… red. I just don’t know what to make of you.”
He laid there in silence for a moment as he found no recollection of anything. None.
It scared him.
“What happened to them?” Craig asked her, referring to the Kenji and his men. She didn’t respond. As he attempted to sit up and look at the scene around him, she forcibly stopped him before looking back out the window.
“Just rest. It’s going to be okay, I promise you.”
He lied there, confused, at a loss for words. So much didn’t make sense to him and she wasn’t helping matters. Yet she was protecting him without him even knowing it. As his eyes started to flicker in and sleep began to settle upon him, he wondered to himself what happened to the men.
Alexandra kept her eyes focused out the window, waiting for sleep to claim him. She would take him to the sanctuary, hopefully some of her questions could be answered.
And he would never have to know about the men he killed.
Charts and maps were laid out across a table and most of the walls in the small, rectangular room that Craig sat in. A pencil rested in between two of his fingers on his right hand and he looked with sheer intensity at the data before him. He wanted to save Alexandra, more so than ever before. To give him the one thing that he couldn’t have. It would require though for him to sacrifice more than he’s ever done before and be better than he ever has been.
Taking on the Order of St. Julian though wasn’t something one could just do. Hours upon hours of planning, intricate work, and Craig had to wonder to himself if he was over his head in all of this. Even as he sat there though, with hopes and desire to end a war long brewing, he also thought about Amy Campbell, his enemy on another front. A relationship had been brewing between Amy and Alex for quite some time now, and after the events of the previous night, he wondered where he fit in with anything.
In a few nights, I’m going to step into the ring with the Red Raver, a chance to show off what I’m capable of doing on the biggest stage of them all, and yet, when I look into her eyes I will only wonder to myself of whether or not it will be Amy or myself who wins Alex’s affection. Being with her, it made me remember how much I miss about Alex. It is that which fuels me against Amy, not a chance to prove myself against the SCCW Universal Champion, but a shot to show Alex what I’m made of.
Craig scribbled down a few notes on his pad as he began to look over the various branches of the Order that were open in Northern Europe, a place that been rife with destruction the past five years or such. An increase in action here means that they were after something and that might be a place to truly look into.
I wonder how my life would be if Alex and I were still together. Would I even be here? Or would I be happy? So many questions that I truly believe will never be answered now. A different path is starting to open up to me, and I have to hope that I’m making the right decision. Alex wouldn’t approve of this, but since when did I care what she had to say?
He drew a large circle around southern Asia, an area that he knew was high in sex trafficking. The Order of St. Julian were certain to have their hands in everything all around the world, and he had to pinpoint where exactly he wanted to hit them the hardest for fear of being discovered far too early, and ruining everything. Days had been spent on just collection of valuable intelligence on an organization that had been around for quite some time.
Do I have what it takes to step in the ring with Amy Campbell? The past year has been the dominance of the Red Raver, and I have to wonder if I have a chance at slowing her down. Losing to her, it would hurt, more so than most people would realize. A formidable opponent she is, but I can’t lose Alex again, not to her. Not after all I’ve done for her.
With each country that Craig looked at, he found another heavy population of Order chapters, and a new crime that repulsed him even more. Everywhere he looked, the Order were there, and in numbers that Craig couldn’t think of trying to stop. The burden that Craig had put on his own shoulders seemed never-ending and he started to have second thoughts about it all until he thought about Quinn. Her mother had put her through so much, that he owed it to her to at least allow her a normal life.
I want to beat Amy, and I want to do it in front of thousands of people. Will I die if I don’t? No, but I’d rather not know what I’d do if I lose. She’s beaten the best in the business and now I have to ask myself the question if I’m one of the best in the business, or if I’m going to just forever come up short, be viewed as the man on the upper echelon with never enough to break to that top platform. He felt like this was chance to do so though. The audience had never been greater.
As he looked all around and the frustration built up in his chest, he shoved everything off the table and onto the floor. His breath was heavy as he tried to calm himself down, but all he saw were lies, deceit, and corruption. It angered him more so than it would any other day, but with Alexandra fresh on his mind, it only became worse. This is the kind of people she had wanted to stop when she was still an idealist, but that portion of her being had long gone.
I guess, in a way, I’m ready, Amy. I’m ready to step in that ring with you because I know the end effort, and I realize what it’s going to take to get there. You think because you’ve spent so much time with her, that I’m willing to openly give Alexandra up. Sorry, but that’s not going to be it. I intend to bring everything that I have and then some. For another night, I will risk everything that I have, and Amy, even as the two of us are built from the same cloth, I will walk out of there with a victory.
And your blood stained on my hands.
Craig stood up from his chair and left the room that he had been locked into for the past few hours, trying to figure out how to handle the Order. Nothing had come to mind thus far and Craig didn’t anticipate an easy solution to hit him square in the face anytime soon either. Instead, he just needed time and to look at the blueprint before everything would make sense to him.
Your date with destiny is coming, Amy, and I’m more than ready to help you get ready for it. This has been coming for a long time and there are those believe that I can beat you tonight. I’m not so bold to call it there, but I know it’s going to be the toughest match of my entire career, and it’s one that I’m proud to have.
Time to tell, Amy, how much you care for Alex. Are you ready for the onslaught that will be coming soon? Do you know the lengths that I will go to to keep her in my life?
Of course not.
That’s why I have the advantage, Miss Campbell. Because I know the rules of the game, the rules of engagement.
And you are firmly in my sights.
“Okay, can I ask you a question?”
The tone in Alexandra’s voice didn’t fill Craig with much hope in his stomach. “This isn’t going to be like the time when you asked me about football and how it works, is it? Because I’m not sure I have it in me for another one of those conversations.” His words were a bit harsher than he had intended and lying in bed with Alexandra made it extremely difficult to dodge the fist to the stomach that was coming for him. Craig groaned in pain as Alexandra sat up in bed and pulled a shirt on over her head.
“First off, football is dumb. Sorry, just is. Second of all, no, it’s going to be more like the time when we talked about prophecies and our place in the world.” She rolled out of the bed and started to pull some shorts on before walking over to the window and looking out at the stars.
Craig on the other hand groaned once again as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. “Okay, if we’re going to do this,” he began before he got out of bed and dragged Alexandra by the wrist and out of the room. “We’re doing it out under the stars as opposed to you looking out the blinds for the fifth night in the row.”
Two years had passed since Craig had arrived at the temple with others like him, those that were special. In those two years, Craig’s eyes had been open more then he thought humanly possible. Yet, in that time, he had also grown closer to Alexandra, and that was worth all of the confusion and uncertainty in terms of where his life was heading and what his purpose truly was.
As they stepped outside and the chilly air hit them, Craig wished he had gotten a jacket to wear, but Alexandra felt the exact opposite as she raced across the grassy hill and towards the apex before Craig was even aware of it. He slowly followed behind her and watched as she laid down with her beautiful eyes fixated on the sky above.
“Want to tell me why you’ve been so interested in the stars as of late?”
She paused, though only for a moment. “Been thinking about destiny. For some reason, when I look up at the stars, it soothes me. It puts me at ease. It’s like the stars in the sky, they know what’s going to happen, and they’re just trying to give me clues. Each day passes and I feel this weird… connect with them. I can’t explain it, but I can.”
Craig laid down beside her.
“Are they saying anything interesting?”
She looked over at him with a half-smile on. “That you and I have a destiny larger than the two of us looming ahead.” Alex was serious and then looked back at the stars. “I just can’t figure it out quite yet. It’s there though, I know it is.” Craig sighed.
“Alex, our destiny is to live our lives,” was all that he managed before Alex sat up from her spot and glared at him.
“You know my thoughts about this, Craig, and yet you decide to test my mettle. When I came here, I didn’t know my true purpose in life. I was lost and this place helped me find myself. Over that time, I learned that I’m more powerful than anyone here, at least, until I met you. You don’t understand it, but we’ve been put together on this world for a purpose. We’re meant to do something, and something magical!” Her voice was filled with exuberance as Alex felt this force come alive inside of her. The look in Craig’s eyes though were much different.
“Alex, this is what you’ve talked to me for the past two years about, and while I think it’s all good natured, we’re regular people. Sure, we’ve got abilities that others don’t have, but that doesn’t mean we have to use them for that. What’s wrong with being normal and enjoying our lives? I know you feel this greater purpose, but why seek it out?”
Alex stood up from her spot and Craig could tell she was angry. “You and I, we’re not normal people, Craig! How many times do I have to tell you that? We’re not meant to be normal either. Do you think we were put here to just live normal lives, have a job at the steel factory? Right now, we’re not in a normal place. We live with people who are just like us! Why can’t you see that?” Craig shook his head.
“I’m not a fool, Alex, but listen to yourself. Over the past few weeks, you’ve wanted to leave this place, but when you talk about helping this world I can’t help but wonder if it’s for an ulterior motive or something.” Craig’s tone was sharp and it was obvious to Alexandra that he had spent a lot of time thinking about this.
“I think,” she began before her eyes flirted with the stars once again. “I think this world isn’t meant to oversee themselves. They bicker and argue too much until they decide they can’t solve their problems without bombs and guns. The police in this country, they’re so corrupt, and in the process, they allow so many people to do whatever the hell they feel like. I’m tired of seeing it. They need someone to control them.”
Craig tilted his head to the side and his eyes narrowed. “And who is that person, Alex? You?”
“No, you.” At first, Craig thought she was kidding, but after a moment, after it settled into his mind, he saw that Alexandra was quite serious. It unsettled him.
“Listen to yourself, Alex, just listen to yourself and tell me if it reminds you of someone else!” There was no answer from the usually confident Alex. “You talk about a world where we’re in control, and I can’t help wonder but who you are. We’re not Gods, Alex, we’re just not.” Craig slowly rose to his feet and looked at the woman he couldn’t help but fall in love with. This was not who he cared for, not even close.
“What if we’re meant to be, Craig?”
The words chilled Craig as he shook his head once again. “No, Alex, we’re not. You sound like Kenji. For the past two years, I’ve heard you go on and on about prophecies and our destinies. Sorry, but I don’t believe in them the same way that you do, I just can’t! Not when it’s bordering on world order and taking over in the fashion that you would like. Whoever is against us, they perish? No, Alex, I will not live my life like that.” Alex’s glare turned cold as she took a step closer to Craig.
“I’m not quite so certain that you have a choice, Craig.”
His lips felt dry and he licked them while his eyes never left her’s. “You’re wrong, I do.” He began to turn away from her and walk down the grassy knoll, but she stopped him as her eyes pleaded with him.
“Stand by me, Craig! I need you there, with me. Don’t you understand? I spent so much time finding someone, someone that I felt like I was destined for. That’s you! There’s no one else in this world that I feel like is my equal, and at times, my better. You’re the one to keep me in check, the one person that I know won’t let me go overboard.”
He responded with silence.
“I believe this world can be a better place, and I’ve seen you do amazing things. You’ve brought peace to the streets, if only for a little time, and you’ve done it both in a quiet manner and a loud one too. I watched you that night when you killed Kenji and something came over you, something that I never thought possible. I watched a warrior fight and it was grace with what you did it in. This is what you’re meant to do, Craig!”
Craig wanted to hit her, to make her realize what she was saying. “Alex, who are you? Just stop, stop.” He couldn’t take it any longer, to watch the woman he felt so much for, turn into something he didn’t even recognize any longer. Alex just watched him as he walked away and wanted to hurl herself at him.
“Don’t walk away from me, Craig! Please!” she pleaded with him, but they fell on deaf ears.
“Please,” she whispered to herself, and the tears began to swell in her eyes. She laid down slowly, wanting to have a second chance, and looked up at the stars above her, the only place she felt comfort any more.
“Please.”
Craig opened the front door to his house and stepped inside for the first time since he came back with Alexandra. A small phone call from Pierce had brought him to an empty field, and things just picked up from there. He tossed his bag, filled with all of the information on the Order of St. Julian onto the couch and began to walk towards his bedroom. Yet, something didn’t feel right and as he looked around, he found a glass vase sitting on his coffee table still in perfect condition.
It should’ve been in pieces on the ground.
He walked through the front door of his house, evening having been in motion for many hours, and looked around at his empty above. Craig’s mind was one filled with thoughts and ideas, a heaviness to his heart of what was to come next with the Order of St. Julian.
Craig looked around, his eyes growing large and found the entire living room in perfect condition. His hands ran across the wall where Alexandra and Craig had been pressed against. Nothing seemed different though. His eyes shot towards the leather couch and he noticed that it hadn’t been touched in days.
A box of pizza laid on his coffee table and Craig grabbed the last slice of cold cheese pizza and took a bite of it. He grabbed the box and tossed it towards the kitchen before he walked into his bedroom, sleeping threatening to take over. Craig tossed his sandals towards the corner of the room before looking at himself in the mirror.
Craig walked into his bedroom, hoping for some kind of clue that what had happened the other night had actually transpired. His red eyes scanned his room and found the covers firmly tucked in as if no one had even slept there. His mind began to reel, trying to put all of the pieces together, hoping that something would ring a bell to him.
As he looked at the mirror, he yawned, and felt the slippery edge of sleep on the outer edges of his mind. He slowly walked over to his bed and laid on top of the rather comfortable blanket, his eyes slowly fading into sleep. Alone. No Mary-Lynn nor Alexandra Pierce. All alone, without a single sign of someone having been here.
His mind began to race, but nothing was coming to mind. Craig’s hand braced him against the wall as his red eyes continued to look around and then back out in the hallway. He had been here with Alex. Craig clearly remembered her lips against his, the warmth of her body against his, the pleasure that the two had shared. Yet, none of it felt real, not any longer.
Slowly, the smell of her hair, the touch of her silky fingers against his neck, it faded into nothingness. Craig began to grab against the wall until he found a phone on the wall. Everything around him felt unreal, almost not there, and he began dialing away at the numbers on the worn dial pad. Before he could dial the final number though, a set of knuckles collided with his jaw and he fell on the ground, in a world of pain that he had never imagined.
“Go to sleep, Craig,” a man stood over the lifeless body of Craig, a weird grin on his face. A sadistic one filled with laughter. “Go to sleep.”
To Be Continued.