Last Rites

It seemed like an easy twelve grand. Each. The heroin would never be detected in the lead-lined bottom of the travel bag. It was supposed to be bye bye Bangkok and in a few hours, Holly and Sam would be back home in Melbourne where they belonged. But that didn't happen.

The hotel room robbery was the start of it all. With all their money gone, the couple were forced to fall into the drugs trade in order to pay their way home. They weren't professionals- just out of university in fact, and backpacking in Asia. They'd been doing errands for local pushers and people like that, but when the opportunity arose to smuggle a quantity of heroin out of Thailand and back to Australia, they jumped at it. Not only were they finally going home, but they were making big bucks on the side too. The bucks were big for a reason- the risk. The punishment for drug trafficking was death.

The customs official knew there was something amiss with the tan leather bag. Holly and Sam could hear their hearts beating as he inspected it far more carefully than any other piece of luggage. Maybe their nervous perspiration had given them away.

Arrested, it was only a few months before they were tried, convicted and sentenced to death. The appeals failed. Pleading to the president didn't work either. The sentence would be carried out as an example to all foreigners that Thailand would not tolerate drug traffickers.

Prison was unbearable. The sweat, the smells, the rancid food. That was just the start of it. Sleep was unattainable in the horribly balmy summer nights- six to a cell, each fighting for a place to rest, afraid to turn at night, fixed in the one cramped position until morning, hot, unwashed bodies thrown together, the threat of buggery imminent. It was much the same for both Holly and Sam. Their situations were made all the worse by the fact that, as death row prisoners, their ankles were shackled day and night from the time they arrived at the jail until they would leave. In coffins.

Nobody could ever explain the need for the shackles. They just served to remind the condemned of their impending death and make what remained of their lives, intolerable. Prisoners were not informed of the date of their execution until just two days before, which made the suspense all the more painful.

But that was nothing. Neither was the hot squalor, nor the cruel shackles. For Holly and Sam, the most agonising torture was being separated. Though in the same building, they were never allowed to see each other. The men's and women's section were much the same worlds yet one was invariably shut off from the other. Together, Sam and Holly could have endured anything, knowing that whatever life threw at them, they could always hold each other close and everything would be all right. But apart they were crippled. Everything was pointless now. Death would be the only release from the prison of each other's absence. Forgotten by the outside world, they both longed for the peal of the guns.

It was August 6th when they were told when they were going to die. In two days, they would cease to be. Asked by their guards if they had any last requests, both Holly and Sam unthinkingly said the same thing. They each wished to spend the night before their executions with each other. The request was authorised.

They threw Holly into a ten by six solitary cell the day before she died. The steel door did little to mask the clanking of chains as Sam shuffled down the corridor flanked by two guards, his ankles and wrists bound together. Sitting expectantly on the edge of the hard bed, Holly perked up at the sound. Finally, she and her love could be together after being torn apart for so long.

Throwing the bolt, the guard led Sam in. Leaping excitedly to her feet, Holly tripped, her legs still shackled. Crawling to her feet again, the guard took her ankle and roughly unlocked the manacles. With Sam unbound, the guards left. Alone at last.

Not a word. Slowly moving towards each other, they pressed their grey, jump-suited bodies together. Their lips locked tighter than any shackles. Relief. Back together, each the world to the other. Tumbling back onto the bed, their lips never parted. Tongues dancing, 'oh I missed you''s never said, only felt. Holly clawed Sam's sandy hair. Deeply breathing her long lost sweet scent, he parted her long brown hair kissing her neck, biting ever so slightly, a quiver in her exhale.

Suddenly, he tore open her jump suit down to the off-white, prison issue underwear. Lifting his shirt over his head, Holly kissed the bare chest, circling his nipples with her fingers and lightly pinching. Yanking her bra off, he broke the clasp, burying his head in her soft breast. Firmly caressing each nipple with his lips and his tongue, he slipped his finger into her knickers, and, finding the warm wet opening, gently thrust his finger in, the fleshy wetness like silk. With a small gasp, Holly ripped her knickers, tearing all but the elastic. Sam snapped it.

Easing his finger in and out, Holly's pelvis gyrated rhythmically, her clit exploding in her first orgasm since eternity. All the while, his knuckles brushed lightly against it, too sensitive to fully touch. Those magic hands, quite soft- instruments of pure beauty and pleasure.

After she came, they rested, lying side by side, face to face. The light that Sam always saw in Holly's eyes, burned brightly once more, so long in danger of flickering out. Tenderly sucking each of her fingers one by one, he kissed her again, their naked bodies on the hard bed, breathing in sync, beads of sweat glistening on Sam's chest.

Sam stood up. No need for explanations. Pulling his trousers and underwear down, Holly spread her legs wide apart. Sam's manhood stood proud and firm, hard like an oak. Reaching out, Holly felt it, watching it buck to her touch.

Kneeling at her feet, Sam crawled into position, his crotch level with hers. He bent down and kissed her. Holly groaned as he wrangled his cock into her tight, thoroughly wet cunt. They seemed a perfect fit, as if each was tailor-made for the other. A long exhale.

His chest on hers, he gave a hard, feral thrust. Another. Then another. And more. Stopping. He went very softly. Holly seemed to vibrate, feeling his cock throbbing and pulsating inside her. Another rough thrust, Sam varying the speed and ferocity, making it last longer and feel so much better. Their tongues wriggled in each other's mouths as Sam alternated between pounding pleasure and gentle ecstasy.

So alive. Holly flooded in waves of unimaginable bliss, her breathing shallow. It was time for Sam to finish. Propping himself up with his arms, his thrusts became harder and faster. The electricity buzzing through their bodies. Riding each other into a lead filled sunset. Energy engulfing them until they could barely breathe. This was it. "We're going out on a high, baby". They were on the cusp of something powerful, something beautiful, fucking into immortality. There was no tomorrow, only now. Faster and faster, the end drawing closer, shaking violently, sweat dripping, the screams getting louder, hearts hammering, the inferno in her eyes, souls escaping, becoming one.

The explosion inside her came like a cannon. The release, a dam-burst of elation for them both. Breathlessly, Holly dragged his lips to hers, drinking his essence, his massive erection subsiding inside her. Only love could have made it happen like it did.

Neither of them slept that hot night, lying wordlessly awake each listening to each other breathe. They knew what was about to befall them come morning, the fear offset by knowing that, though in life they would never meet again, the uncertainty of death still held out some hope. Holly and Sam clung on to that hope as tightly as they clung to each other.

Blinking in the daylight as the blindfolds were untied, Holly and Sam sat, hands and feet tied in soft rope to the stakes behind them. They knew that behind the white sheet in front of them stood a pair of machine guns trained on their hearts. Surrounded by a tall wall of sand bags, they couldn't see anyone else.

Looking across at each other, Holly's face barely conveyed the fear she was now feeling. Pale and trembling, a tear slid down her cheek. Sam vainly tried to squirm his arms free of the ropes to hold her hand. No use.

Still looking at one another, the sheet before them erupted in a firestorm of hot lead. The light in Holly's eyes put out forever.