ROB

 

WHEN I WOKE UP, it took me a few seconds to work out where I was. For a moment, I was at home, my first home. I could hear the next door neighbour humming to herself as she hung out the washing. The sun was out. It was summer. I was going to ride my bike to...

Then she moved and the memory faded away. I wasn't a child. I was a man. I was a man and I was wrapped around a woman.

It all came back to me then and I blinked as I shifted away from her, sitting up in the blanket, looking at the sun streaming in through the broken window.

She moved onto her back, her eyes tightly shut. She was humming a tune, seemingly in her sleep. That was what I'd heard as I woke up.

She looked stunningly beautiful, even more so now I could look at her properly. Her hair had fallen away from her face and her cheeks had some colour to them at last, the red of her lips making me want to lean down and kiss her.

She looked so peaceful, I couldn't do it. It would be like breaking a spell. The morning light caught the motes of dust in the air and it was like looking at a princess from a fairy tale. The blanket had slipped down her, my eyes moving to her chest, seeing those nipples that I'd stared at so intently last night. The sight was enough to make my cock twitch with the memory of what we'd done.

I retrieved the flask and poured myself a coffee, using half the tin I'd brought. Enough left for her when she woke up.

I was sitting and sipping at it when she shifted in place, her eyes blinking open, moving to focus slowly on me. "Good morning," I said, smiling as she yawned cutely.

"Good morning yourself," she replied, sitting up and stretching her arms. Then she suddenly realised she was naked, grabbing the blanket and wrapping it around her chest, a flush of red spreading on her cheeks as she glanced away, focussing intently on a bare patch on the far wall.

"Why are you smiling?" she asked, still looking away as she tugged the blanket tighter around her chest.

"How can you tell I'm smiling?"

"Because I just can."

"Fair enough." I reached across and put my finger on her chin, moving her face gently until she was facing me. "You don't need to be embarrassed, you didn't do anything wrong."

"I don't want to talk about it. It didn't happen."

"Well for something that didn't happen, I thoroughly enjoyed it."

"Is that why you're smiling?"

"No. I'm smiling because I thought it would be a much longer night."

"What do you mean? In fact, what are you doing here? You look like you were teleported out of a business meeting in some office block somewhere."

"Well, I do work for Teleportation Industries. We've got a great product if we can just sort out the fly issues."

She didn’t laugh. "Why are you here?"

"This is going to sound a bit stupid."

"I have no doubt."

I frowned in mock anger. "Do you want to hear or not?"

"Sorry."

"That's better. I had a bet with a friend of mine that I couldn't spend the night here."

"Why?"

"Because he said it's haunted."

"No, why make a bet like that?"

I shrugged. "We were bored."

"Couldn't have watched a film?"

"There was money riding on it. I couldn't say no."

"How much money?"

"A pound."

"A pound? Let me get this straight. You stayed overnight in a derelict house in order to win a pound?"

I nodded. "There's a car coming to pick me up at eight. I can give you a lift somewhere if you like. Or if you'd prefer to get settled in here..."

"A lift would be great. What time is it?"

"Ten to. Listen, I know it's none of my business but would you mind telling me what you were doing running through the woods last night with two men chasing after you?"

"I can’t, not yet. I'm not ready."

"All right, I can take a hint." I saw the fear in her eyes, the sorrow that swept over her face even as she tried to keep smiling, pretending she was fine. "What about your name? Willing to tell me that?"

"Hope," she said, the sorrow slowly fading away from her eyes. "Hope Lewis."

I held out a hand and she stuck hers out from inside the blanket. "Rob Davies. Nice to meet you, Hope."

"And you."

We lapsed into silence.

"So what do you do Rob?" she asked at last, yawning again as she did so.

"I run a business."

"Teleportation, right?"

"Nothing that exciting, I'm afraid. Finance, property, pretty dull stuff. What about you?"

"I'm between jobs at the moment."

"I see." I paused, seeing her face change again. There was clearly a lot she didn't want to talk about. "I'm starving," I said, glancing at my watch. "I hope Louis gets here soon."

"Louis?"

"My driver. He'll be picking me up. I should have told him to bring food with him."

She suddenly stood up, scooping up her dress. "Back in a second," she said, pushing open the door and vanishing outside.

She didn't realise I could see her through the window. Once she was in the open, she let the blanket fall to the floor and I caught a sight of her naked body in the sunlight. If I hadn't been captured by her before, I was in that moment. The sight of her innocent beauty in the rays of the sun, so free, so pure, it tugged at my heart so much I felt physical pain when she slipped the dress over her shoulders.

She was gone for a couple of minutes and I was just starting to think she'd run for it when she reappeared, her hands full of leaves.

"What are those?" I asked as she sat back down next to me.

She emptied her hands onto the floor. "Cleaver, hawthorn leaves, wild raspberries, mushrooms. Breakfast to put it simply."

I looked suspiciously at the mushrooms. "How do you know they're not poisonous?"

"They're not."

"Yes, but how do you know?"

"Do you trust me?"

I looked at those wide eyes of hers and I couldn't lie. "Yes."

"Then eat."

She picked up a few raspberries as I gripped a thick white mushroom between my fingers. I sniffed it as if I'd be able to tell how safe it was. She nodded to me and I didn't feel like I could back down so I swallowed it quickly.

"Oh wait," she said suddenly. "That was poisonous."

I had barely begun to panic before I noticed she was laughing. "Sorry," she said, putting a hand on my shoulder, still giggling at me. "You should have seen your face."

"That wasn't funny," I replied, my appetite suddenly gone.

"Yes it was," she replied.

"Where'd you learn about this stuff?" I asked as we worked our way through the leaves.

"I grew up on a farm without much money," she replied. "You get used to foraging."

I looked at her. She had come from a world I knew nothing about. I thought about my own childhood. If I wanted food, I called out for it and it was brought to me. It was jarring to think that wasn't the same for her. I'd just always taken for granted that that was the way things were done. I couldn't imagine going outside and picking things off bushes to eat. The idea was utterly alien to me. But at the same time, as I sat chewing on the last of the berries, there was a lot to be said for it. I wasn't hungry anymore for one thing.

She shifted suddenly in place and I realised why a second later. There was the sound of a car pulling up outside the house. It stopped, the engine dying away.

"Wait there," I said, getting up and peering cautiously out of the window. "It's all right," I continued, waving for her to follow me. "It's Louis."