[Author's note:
Lily
has recruited
Kayla
into a new adventure. They have been given the
power of free will
, able to break through the fourth wall and jump from story to story, to go anywhere. After making a pact in the
Meta Cafe
they have taken the leap out of their own story worlds and into the unknown.
This story is part of the 2024 Pink Orchid story challenge]
---
ABSENCE OF BACKSTORY
White. Emptiness. Freefall.
A rushing of wind, a slash of charcoal grey across the expanse. Blinding light, a blemish of cerulean blue.
Focus.
Dark bitumen: a road, dazzling sun.
Better. What else?
Wind blowing through hair, the impression of speed.
Go on.
A car, sitting in a car, driving on the road, the blue vault of the cloudless sky above in midsummer with the warmth of the sun on their faces. It's a convertible, with the top down. Blonde hair streaming out, sunglasses perched, gripping the steering wheel. Music is blaring, a pop song, and they're singing along to it, two of them. Brunette hair blowing in the wind, a wicked smile, looking across at her companion driving. The driver grins back at her, emerald eyes glinting.
Where?
The car is cherry red, a vintage Mustang with the top down, engine throbbing as they hurtle down a highway. There are hills either side of them, dotted sparsely with trees. There are no other cars on the road.
Who?
The dark-haired girl is in a spaghetti-strap sun top and cotton skirt, petite, buxom. Her companion is taller, lithe, in a dark tank top and cut-off denim jeans. The road twists, coming up over the crest of a hill to reveal the wide sweep of the landscape beyond: low scrub, the dark line of the bitumen slicing through it and then, sparkling in the distance, the brilliant blue band of the sea. The brunette girl's eyes go wide.
"Holy fuck, Lily," she exclaims.
"I told you, I fucking told you," her friend replies.
"You did it."
The blonde girl reaches out with her free hand, grabbing her companion's arm, squeezing.
"No, Kay, we did. We did this."
Lily slows down and pulls over to the side. She gets out of the car, stepping out onto the bitumen in four-inch stiletto heels. Frowning, she looks down.
"What's up, Lil?" Kayla calls out.
"These fucking heels. I'm always wearing them. How the fuck am I supposed to drive in them properly? They're killing me already."
Lily bends down and pulls each shoe off, pauses, then hurls them into the scrub.
"Thank fuck for that."
"You going barefoot?"
"Nah, I'll get a pair of sneakers or something. They'll be in the luggage."
"Sure?"
"I'm sure, Kay. Everything's in the luggage. Whatever we want."
Kayla perches on the front of the car and Lily joins her, looking out at the view. Lily smirks.
"What's funny?" Kayla asks.
"Lil. You called me Lil."
"You called me Kay."
"So?"
"Only Danny ever called me Kay. Who called you Lil before me?"
Lily shrugs.
"Your dad maybe?" Kayla persists.
"Sounds like something a dad would call his daughter, yeah."
Lily shrugs again, the smile fading a little.
"What's the matter?" Kayla asks.
"Would be nice to have a dad. Someone to go back to for life advice. Or even to just be on the phone when everything turned to shit. You think?"
Kayla wrinkles her nose, hugging her arms around herself. "Shit, yeah," she replies, "Some place to go back to after it all fell apart. I got no-one, Lil. The only people I know are Danny and Jade, and I left them behind. I don't know anyone else in the world."
Lily wraps her arm around the other girl's shoulders. They look out at the view in silence for a while.
"We really did it," Kayla murmurs. "We're here."
"We're just sketched in, but yeah, we're here. We made it, Kay."
She gives her friend a squeeze, telling her, "Who cares that we don't have a backstory? We're here now. We get to make our own."
"Where does this road go?"
"Down to the sea."
"What's at the end?"
Lily smiles. "What would you like to find at the end?"
"I dunno, maybe a little beach house."
Lily disengages from her, laughing, swinging back onto her feet.
"Oh, Kayla, we're gonna have to work on that."
"Work on what?"
"Your lack of vision."
"What do you mean?"
"Get in the car, Kay. Let me show you."
Lily skips around to the back of the car to rifle through their luggage. She pulls out a pair of designer sneakers and slides them on.
"See? Perfect fit, and so much more fucking comfortable. Let's go."
They get back into the car and head down the deserted road to the glittering water.
There is a house in the distance, perched above the sand dunes, a collection of stark white cubes that seem to have been dropped like huge building blocks into the landscape, stacked haphazardly on top of each other. As they draw nearer, the details became apparent: the upper cubes are glass, offering an uninterrupted view out across the sea, the lower ones cut with large windows looking out across the dunes. There is a low perimeter wall with charcoal steel railings, and a wide steel gate. It senses their approach and begins to roll open.
"There's a remote somewhere," Lily murmurs, "Seen it?"
"A remote? For what?"
"For our house."
"This... holy shit. This is ours?"
"Yeah babe," Lily grins, then she taps the side of her head. "Like I said, Kay. Vision. Try the glovebox, that's where it would be."
Kayla opens the glovebox and pulls out a little fob. She presses the button on it and the double-wide garage door begins to lift. Lily rolls the convertible forward, its engine rumbling.
"Home sweet home," she calls out, turning the engine off. "Come on, wanna see?"
Kayla hesitates, then pulls herself out of the passenger seat. She follows along behind as Lily leads the way through a door and into the main body of the house.
"Oh shit," Kayla gasps. "The foyer is bigger than my entire apartment."
"Like it?"
"It's amazing, Lil. It's ours?"
"All ours."
"As in we own it?"
"Lock, stock and barrel. Go on, check out the view."
Kayla drifts towards the expanse of glass that leads out onto a dazzling white stretch of limestone paving that drops off into the dunes. To one side, cobalt blue set into the white, a lap pool sparkles in the sun. Kayla slides the floor-to-ceiling glass doors open, admitting a light breeze with the tang of salt into the house. She looks back at Lily, eyes wide.
"This is perfect."
"Of course."
"And it was just here, waiting for us?"
Lily sidles up to her, passing by, out onto the paving. She takes a moment, stretching, closing her eyes as she turns her face to the sun. Her long blonde hair billows in the sea breeze, the sun on her long, shapely, bare legs.
"Come on out, Kay."
Kayla joins her, hands on hips, her brunette hair tumbling over her bare shoulders, her light cotton skirt wrapping around the perfect curve of her bottom.
"Feel that?" Lily asks.
"Yeah. What is it?"
"The male gaze," Lily smiles.
She turns to her smaller companion, wrapping her arms around Kayla's neck, coming close. She smiles, her full lips inches away from Kayla's face.
"Feel the attention?" Lily murmurs, "The anticipation?"
"Of what?" Kayla replies, her voice no more than a whisper.
Lily leans forward, her lips brushing Kayla's cheek as she whispers her reply into her companion's ear.
"Two beautiful girls, alone together. Anything, Kay, anything."
The wind picks up for a moment, swirling around them, mixing dark hair and blonde. Then Lily pulls back.
"That's enough to maintain interest. Come on, wanna see the rest of the place?"
Lily takes Kayla on a tour of the house. There is an exercise gym, a large open-plan living area and a chic, ultra-modern kitchen. A set of wide glass stairs lead up to the floor above, but Kayla pauses.
"So, whose house was this?" she asks.
"No-one's."
"Must have been someone's."
Lily pauses on the stairs, looking back at her friend.
"See, Kay, here's the thing. All this? It's abandoned. No-one owns it."
"How can it be? It's so... it's beautiful."
"It's empty. Look, you need to get your head around something. Come upstairs and I'll show you."
Lily begins to climb the stairs and this time Kayla follows her.
The area above is formed from the intersection of two huge glass cubes, the ceilings high above them looking directly up into the blue sky. Plush couches are scattered across the floorspace and against one wall there is a minimalist kitchen and bar area. To one side is a long, clean white wall with a doorway through into a smaller white cube.
"Bedrooms," Lily notes, pointing that way.
Kayla isn't paying attention though. Her eyes are fixed on the set of glass display cases arranged in a neat row along the wall.
"What the fuck?" she gasps.
"Yeah."
There are six display cases, each one containing a woman.
"I arranged them in ascending order of bra size, for want of a better measurement. The first one's a thirty-two B."
"Who are they?"
"You can take a look. They won't bite."
Kayla approaches the first case warily. Within is a slim girl of about her own age, long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, dressed in a smart pencil skirt, crisp white blouse and stiletto heels. A couple of buttons are undone, displaying the girl's cleavage. Her makeup is careful, accentuating her soft, lovely features.
"She's gorgeous," Kayla breathes, suddenly aware of Lily standing behind her.
But, the eyes are vacant, staring straight ahead, unblinking. Kayla waves in front of the glass. There is no reaction from the girl.
The next case contains a woman in her late thirties. She's dressed in tight jeans and a cotton top, her hair cut into a blonde bob. She's wearing hoop earrings and dark eyeshadow, with red lipstick.
"Who are they?"
