Heather's bed shaking sobs woke me up.
I opened my eyes slowly, only the ghost of a headache at the back of my skull, thanks to the three
Tylenol
I insisted we each consume after the cab dropped us off at our place around four AM the night before.
At first, we just staggered to the couch and collapsed there, drunk, used up and mostly inert, laughing and good heartedly teasing one another about what happened, still getting off in our heads, as our bodies were spent.
Then we both hopped into the shower, cleaning ourselves of everyone else and suddenly seeing one another for who we were again. Our mutual, carefree spirits slumped to nervous smiles, refusing to meet the others eyes in the refreshingly hot, streaming water.
Recall of these events and the preceding ones at
The Velvet Entry
made my eyes bug out. My heart sped up and I blushed ashamedly in the dark and gloomy bedroom. I turned over in the bed, raised myself so I could see the clock radio over her shoulder. Nine forty-three AM. That explained why I was still a little buzzed. Edging closer to Heather, whose back was to me, legs drawn up in the fetal position, I spooned her, putting my arm around her middle. I understood her feelings completely. How could I have enjoyed that? How could I have done those things with all those total strangers and love it? What was wrong with my head?
"Don't touch me.", Heather toned in a low voice that never asked to live as she took my arm off her.
"Heather,... I- I'm sorr-"
"I'm a dirty little slut. Just like she says. How could she have known that about me when even I didn't?" she asked, cutting off my apologies.
"Sweets, no. Don't say that, it's not true." I said as I put my arm back around her, even holding it there when she tried to remove it again. "We didn't have a choice. If we did, we would have walked outta there right at the start."
"You don't understand,... I- I
enjoyed
it. What am I becoming?"
"No, don't think like that. I enjoyed it, too. We were plied with booze and given a way to satisfy ourselves like that with no inhibitions,... It wasn't your fault and you can't see it like that."
"You're a man, it's not the same for you." she sniffled, her quiet sobs having mostly subsided. "You don't understand."
"You're wrong. I didn't want that and,... Heather I was used just like you were. You don't know how I felt when Tesh started with you. I wanted to kill him, I still do. It's
not
your fault, sweets. I know it hurts and I know,..."
I couldn't go on, instead I pulled her even closer, hoping a little time would ease both our hurt.
Mercifully, she fell asleep a while later, at that point hugging my arm to her chest like a child with a teddy bear during a lightning storm. I wasn't far behind and, the next time we awoke, it was just past noon.
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
I insisted she wear clothes that day, that I'd take the responsibility myself, one way or another, if she got caught. I didn't want her running around in her lingerie, feeling like a cheap piece of meat for me; it wouldn't do her mindset any good at all. She smiled thankfully and gave me a quick kiss on the forehead before she went to get dressed after another round of ardent scrubbing in the shower together.
Sitting across from one another at the kitchen table, we stared at the tabletop between us in silence, drinking our coffee, mine spiked. I realized that I hadn't even gotten to the bottle the day before until we met up with Dagmar. I was enjoying myself with Heather all day and never even thought about it.
"Um, do you remember when you warned me about her, asked me to think about the things you told me?", Heather asked, not looking up, wearing a pair of white dress pants and a pink blouse, her own clothes from her previous home.
"Uh huh." I replied, also not looking up.
"Well, I didn't. Seemed like there wasn't time, or something, but I wish I had. I wish I listened closer to you. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Like I said, there was nothing you could have done."
"I'm really ashamed of myself, David. I don't know how you can even look at me."
"Yeah, I'm just as ashamed, believe me. The things that went through my mind last night, about,... Shit!"
I was suddenly recalling how it turned me on to see her with her beautiful blonde hair slick with cum and stuck to her cheek. I hated myself.
"Heather, I,... I'm so sorry. I want you to know,... Oh, fuck."
" ... Hm. Yesterday, I was so excited to get back here with you so we could play with your contraption, but now,... It's like she took everything out of me. I don't want to do anything and I don't see how I can ever feel any better."
A tear leaked down each cheek, racing for her jaw line. A moment later, I was fairly shocked to find that my own eyes were watering, mostly in sympathy of how she felt and how I seemed so powerless to fix it for her. Just as shocking was a sudden, silent vow that nothing like this would happen to my only real friend ever again.
After some moments, I spoke.
"Have you ever wondered if there've been others?"
" ... Wh-what? Others?" she sniffed.
"Yes. I mean, did Dagmar just suddenly start taking over people's lives this spring, or have there been others? And if there have been,..."
"What happened to
them
?" Heather finished, her cheeks stained with her fresh tears.
"Yeah. Ever wonder that?"
"Now I am. ... David,... I asked you something when we first met, and you wouldn't answer. I wanted to know what she had on you, remember?"
I nodded.
"Well, would you please tell me now? It's important. I don't know why, but it would mean a lot to hear it."
I nodded again and promptly told her about the chance meeting between Kelly Preston and the mysterious, red Mustang that late evening, about the meeting with Dagmar in her office the next day and finally about what happened when I tried to tip off the Police.
"Oh my God." she toned, looking at me as the part about the Police sunk in. "Who
is
she, that she can,...?"
We were looking one another in the eye now, the open discourse of our true, shared predicament circumventing our mutual shame to a fair degree.
"Heather,..."
"Yes?"
"Well,... I want you to know that, even though I have these weird feelings for her, despite how much I hate her right now for what she did, I won't hesitate to bolt if I get the chance. I'm not afraid. You can count on that, Heather. You can count on
me
."
She showed a somewhat beleaguered smile and reached her arms across the table at me, palms up and open. I did the same thing, both of us looking each other in the eyes as I took her hands in mine.
"Thank you." she said. "And I understand your feelings for her, I share them, as fucked up as that is. But, I want you to know that you can count on me, too. Umm, if it comes to that, I like riding in your car. I can pack light. Okay?"
My smile became more confident, as did hers, and I replied, "That's what I had in mind."
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Later, Heather and I had actually been putting the events of the night before out of our heads with the escapism of my sci-fi movies and the help of the bottle in the freezer, when we heard a car drive in. It was a large, tuned engine and it had to be Dagmar.
"That's her, isn't it?" Heather asked, leaping up and quickly removing her pants, revealing that she wore no underwear.
"I think so, yeah."
A car door slammed outside and I heard quick steps heading for the back porch on the hard packed gravel outside.