The crash. It was the last thing I remembered. And it wasn't my fault.
I was leaning over the top of my parked car, a convertible, to reach in and grab the food. The sound of police sirens made me look up. Some jerk going about 100 mph was being chased by the cops. Their car suddenly spun out of control and crashed into mine, sending me flying backwards through the air towards the trees. The back of my head hit something hard, and I fell unconscious.
Where was I now? Somewhere with dim light, clearly. I blinked my eyes a few times as I slowly came fully back to consciousness. I seemed to be resting on something soft. A faint bit of sunlight came from an opening about 40 feet or so, I estimated, away. The mouth of a cave?
In any case, I wasn't in a position to explore. My body was still in pain. Specifically, my legs had taken the brunt of the impact.
"Hello."
The something soft I was resting against must be alive. But it didn't feel like human flesh.
"Hi. And thanks for rescuing me. I'm John, by the way."
"You may call me Emily, or just Em if you prefer."
"Okay, Em. Where am I?"
"You're in my cave. I'll close the opening in a second and you can rest a bit. Once I do that the phosphorescent fungi coating the top of the cave will provide bioluminescence."
"All right."
Several long, dark tentacles extended out past me and lifted a rock back into place, sealing the opening. Sure enough, within a few seconds a faint glow from the ceiling provided enough light to see by, though probably not enough to read by. I didn't have any reading material on me, so the light was sufficient for the purposes Em and I needed it for.
"Now, just relax. In fact, go ahead and close your eyes."
I did, and faded back into sleep for a while.
*
When I woke, my clothing was gone. Em's soft body was still beneath me.
"Comfortable, John?"
"Yes, Em. You make a nice pillow."
I was surprised I wasn't hungry. After all, I hadn't eaten since two hours before the crash.
"Yeah, about that... I gave your body nutrients while you were sleeping."
So Em could apparently read minds.
"Human minds are easy to read. But I know you're more comfortable using speech than telepathy."
"True."
Em started running one of her tentacles across my bare chest. "Humans don't usually have bodies this nice."
"Thank you. I do try to keep myself in good condition."
"I haven't had such a handsome specimen around in a few years."
I was glad the cave was only lit by bioluminescence, because I'm pretty sure I blushed from head to toe.
"So how often do you get human... visitors?"
"Oh, about once every few months. But the last time was not fun. It was a teenage female who was ridiculously skinny and was such a chatterbox that I had to gag her with one of my tentacles because the sound of her high-pitched voice was driving me bonkers."
"Sorry to hear that."
Em started running a second tentacle over my legs, gently enough that it didn't add to the pain I felt in them. In fact, it managed to send little sparks of pleasure running through my skin.
"I'm glad you like this, John."