It was 02:43 AM. The holiday flat had been silent for some time. Only the humming from the aircon and a steady drip from the showerhead, splattering into the base, disturbed the quiet.
Slowly, the lock turned; Inch by inch, millimetre by millimetre. Then it stopped. The door started to move, 2 inches, and then stopped. There was another pause. The door opened another 10 inches.
A body then slipped past the door and it closed again, as gently and as quietly as it had opened.
Where now? I don’t know, where do you want to go?
Let’s find a bar!
Michelle slowly and quietly crept down the marble staircase, pressed the exit button, and stepped out into the midnight air. It smelt good. Salty and of the sea. She breathed in a couple of deep, lung-filling breaths, and then strode down the street prowling for bars. There was a confident and rather purposeful smile on her pretty, if slightly harsh featured, face.
We are going to enjoy ourselves. Yes we are aren’t we!
Alex was sat on his Patio. He couldn’t sleep again, but tablets weren’t his thing, so he nursed yet another large Irish whisky with ice.
He wondered if it was his fault in some way. Had he lead Kirsty on? He didn’t think so, but could he have done it without realising? They did arrange to meet here and he did ask her to dinner, but then he has dinner with lots of people, male and female.
But that wasn’t why he couldn’t sleep. He went through periods, phases, when he was missing the touch of his wife, her laughter at his silly jokes, even the way she complained when he left things lying around.
It was 4 years and every time he thought he was through it, it came back as strong as ever, punishing him maybe for not showing her that he loved her enough when she was still with him. How he wished he could tell her now.
He reached for the bottle again, but in lifting realised it was empty, so he cradled what he had left in the large glass.
Symbiosis, he thought, Symbiosis!. Could it really be possible that they were invading the bodies of other animals in order to escape their fate in the ever more polluted chambers, deep below the sea. Maybe the clinical examination of the whale that beached itself was some kind of one-off; a freak of nature. How did it entangle itself into the brain of its host, and survive on the blood stream, release neurotransmitters and enzymes to react, no, harmonize with its collaborating donor?
It would have to have high level intelligence, and the accuracy of a neurosurgeon, he thought. But what was the credible counter proposal?
Ingestion? Infestation? None of these would account for how it had got into the cranium and past the blood brain barrier. What about reproduction? How would they multiply and contiunue their race? So many unanswered questions.
Oh how he missed these conversations with his wife. She would have a view, he thought. Maybe that was what he liked about Kate. She loved this type of work and had an inquiring mind. But he didn’t want to be emotionally involved with Kate. I’m twice her age for Pete’s sake, he lectured himself, slamming the glass on the table. It only had ice left in it.
“Hey, cowboy, you got a light”, Michelle said to the large guy in the hat.
“Pardon” he shouted over the loud music of the small bar.
“A light” she simulated the action of a lighter with her fist and thumb.
“Ahhh...Yes”. He held his lighter out to her.
“And a cigarette too”
Cowboy laughed and held a newly extracted cigarette close to her mouth.
She let him place it between her lips, then accepted his light (she hadn’t smoked for year and had actually turned quite against it).
“So, what’s your name cowboy”?
“Jake Ramone”, the rough, but handsome man replied. “And you”
“Shelly”, she replied loudly.
“Shelly, what”
“Just Shelly” she said, smiling.
Kirsty awoke to the banging on the door.
“Mike, Kirsty, QUICK!, Michelle’s gone”!
“What....How..where?, have you looked in the other toilet”? Said Mike, putting his head around the door.
“Of Course, I’ve looked everywhere, even just outside”.
“Ok”, shouted Kirsty, “just let us throw something on and we’ll be right with you”
“Have you tried her mobile Grant”, said Mike?
“No point, it’s in the bathroom”, replied Grant.
Mike knew there was something strange going on. He began to wonder if he should have told the others how Michelle had been earlier. He had a bad feeling about this.