It All Started with an Apple. Subtitled: Lucifer's forbidden fruit

Chapter 4 Aelia and Lucifer

"Damn," Aelia curses when her eyes catch the time and date on her nightstand clock. She cannot grasp how she could have slept the entire day and almost the next evening. She had only an hour to get to work, yet she could only wonder if she had been dreaming that long. She rushes off her bed to her closet across the room to find a suitable costume to dance in tonight. After thumbing through the entire closet, she settles on a white lace corset and packs it up quickly. All the while, she packs her mind, still lingering on the strange erotic dream that had held her prisoner for the last twenty or so hours. She had never in her life, not even when I slept so long. How was this possible? It was as if she could not wake up no matter how hard she had tried.

Aelia closes her eyes, still tasting her dream man's kisses, feeling his touch tickling her flesh. She is ashamed-bewildered that her body is still on fire with need. Her entire being is trembling with dark lust, torching her inside and out. Throughout the entirety of the dream, her mysterious man never did feed the hunger he brought out within her; he merely teased her- stroked the fire set forth between her thighs until she thought she would combust into flames. When she finally did escape, her dream came to a halt, and she woke up covered in sweet, torturous want and need.

Aelia collects her thoughts with significant effort, knowing she has no time to dwell on her dreams and emotions. She quickly strides off to take a shower in hopes it will dim the powerful lust that still has a grip on her body, mind, and soul. She screams a couple of choice curses as she hops into the cold shower, the chilly water cooling her hot-blooded nature as it nips brutally at her soft flesh. She tries desperately to force the haunting beauty of her dream lover's face out of her mind as she washes her own. As she washed her hair, she remembered how her dream man's fingers ran through each lock as he devoured her lips. With a frustrating sigh, she finishes lathering her hair and moves on to her neck, shoulders, and then breasts, stroking a cruel reminder of his mouth and hands upon them. Trying to stop these unwanted images from washing over her mind, she quickly finishes washing the rest of her body. She thought she had never been more relieved to finish a shower as her trembling hands reached out and turned the water off. Grabbing a large towel, she dries off vigorously, then tosses the towel over a rack and grabs her clothes. After slipping into her blue velvet dress, Aelia slips her feet into heels, grabs her car keys, and practically runs out her front door.

The night sky is hauntingly beautiful tonight, mixed with blues and blood-colored reds, kissed with grey. It was unlike any sky Aelia had ever seen; she could not help but wonder if she was still dreaming. By the time she reaches the club, there's a drastic change in the weather. A thick fog has filled the sky- executing the beautiful colors from before. Aelia feels the tiny hairs on the back of her neck rise as she pulls into the regular parking spot and turns off her car's ignition. She is almost tempted to restart the car, drive away, and the heck with her job. Instead, she ignores the nagging feeling inside; something's not quite right here tonight, and she steps out of her car. The night is entirely too quiet, so quiet that the only sound is the clanking of her high heels against the pavement as she walks towards the club door.

Aelia opens the door and walks inside, where the sound of Christina Aguilera's Candyman fills her ears. She is relieved that the music is taking away any anxiety. Her eyes search the stage to see who's dancing. They widened in shock to find it was Shelby dropping and popping her body all around the pole in the center of the stage. Shelby is usually very shy, even when dancing. To see her like this is very strange, even if the crowd of men in the club do not seem to mind. Shocker there, Aelia silently tells herself as she forces her eyes off the stage and walks towards her dressing room, still trying to shake the weary feeling deep inside her. The closer she gets, the more she senses a sudden chill in the air, making the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand to attention.