Love in Flux

We quickly cleaned ourselves up and stepped out of the shower. By the time we had dried off, sure enough, the sky had begun to turn a hazy shade of blue, signaling the arrival of evening.

"Well, that's a shame. Still, I'd say that little... distraction was worth it Besides, there'll be another chance to watch the sunset tomorrow."

"Agreed," I said, smiling at the electric thrill that still pulsated through my body at the recollection of said 'distraction.' The feeling of her body pressed against mine was still fresh in my mind, and I could feel a familiar tingle in my dingle as my cock tried its best to get hard again, but there was no way I would manage another orgasm so soon - I just didn't have the stamina for it. Besides, the dwindling amount of hot water was a not-so-gentle reminder that we really didn't have time to indulge in any further shenanigans, and I shook my head to clear my mind of any impure thoughts. "S-so... did you still want to take a quick soak in the hot tub?" Cammie nodded at me as she finished drying off, then hung her towel on the rack.

"Sounds like a lovely way to end the night," she said.

PART SEVEN: THE COMET

We left the bathroom and changed into our swimsuits before we headed outside. There was a lovely breeze blowing through the trees, and the leaves rustled on their branches. It was pleasantly warm out, too - the perfect weather for a relaxing soak. Cam slid the covering off of the hot tub and turned it on, and we both climbed into the water - I was slightly disappointed by the temperature of the water; it was actually rather cool.

"This sure isn't very hot for a hot tub," I said.

"It's gotta heat up a bit first, babe. Give it some time," Cammie said, as she snuggled up against and put her against my shoulder. I could crickets chirping away somewhere in the distance, and I could see a vast blanket of bright stars above the towering treetops. The moon hung high in the sky, and I was grateful for the lovely view.

"God, it really is beautiful out here," I said, smiling contentedly as I looked over at Cam, who nodded in agreement. "Thanks for bringing me along this weekend."

"Of course! I knew you'd love it," Cammie said.

"I do... but I love you more," I said, with a grin as I turned my head and gave her a quick peck on the forehead. She giggled and reached over and pressed a button on the hot tub, and a rush of bubbles streamed forth from the jets positioned at various points around the sides of the tub. The water had grown hotter by that point, too, and God, did it feel good.

"I love you, too," Cam said, and then we both sank lower into the tub.

It wasn't long before the water in the tub was the perfect temperature - thankfully, it wasn't nearly as hot as the shower earlier - and we both let out contented sighs as we soaked together in the tub. As I gazed up at the night sky, my mind drifted back to that cheesy movie we had watched earlier.

"Hey Cam, do you think there's anything... out there?" I asked.

"What, like, in the woods?" she asked, with a sly smirk. "You worried about the bears again?" I quickly shook my head.

"No, no," I said, with a chuckle. "Sorry. I meant like, out there. You know... in space." I pointed toward the sky, where the stars sparkled against the curtain of dark blue. There was no light pollution out there in the woods, so there were way more stars out than I'd ever seen back in Montpelier.

"Oh, you're thinking about that movie from earlier, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah." Cam rested her finger against her chin as she took a moment to consider the possibility.

"There has to be, right? I mean, the universe is huge, after all. There's no way we're all alone out here."

"Yeah, probably," I said, nodding in agreement, and then my gaze was pulled skyward as the curtain of dark blue seemed to get a little brighter. I saw a strange light suddenly appear in the sky; it was blue, and it didn't seem to be blinking or anything. It had a long tail streaking along behind it, almost like it was some kind of comet. "Woah, do you see that?" I pointed it out and looked over at Cam, who just nodded. "Did the weather forecast say anything about shooting stars tonight?" She shook her head and then craned her head to try and get a closer look.

"No, it didn't," she replied. The strange light in the sky continued to hurtle downward, and it seemed to be picking up speed as it fell. "Is it... just me, or is that thing coming toward us?" As a matter of fact, it looked like she was right: whatever the strange light was, it was heading right for the woods. A few moments later it slipped under the tree line, and then a deafeningly loud boom sounded somewhere in the woods beyond. The thunderous crash was followed by the fervent flapping of wings as birds flew from the treetops, clearly as startled as we were by the noise. And then we both saw it: a strange blue glow lit up the trees far in the distance, growing ever brighter as it became a brilliant wave of light that billowed outward... and it was heading straight for the cabin. The flapping of wings suddenly ceased as the light travelled outward, and even the crickets had stopped chirping, leaving the forest eerily silent, save for the pounding up my heart in my chest. Cammie shot up out of the water in a panic.

"W-what the hell is that?" I asked, unable to tear my eyes from the ceaseless march of the strange light.

"I have no clue, but whatever it is, we need to get inside!" Cammie cried out as she scrambled out of the hot tub, and I finally snapped out of it and got myself to move. I tried to get out of the hot tub as fast as I could, but the light was gaining speed as it rushed toward us... way too quickly. It was clear that we weren't going to make it inside. I luckily managed to get out of the hot tub and threw myself in front of Camellia to shield her from whatever the inexplicable light was... and then everything went black.

PART EIGHT: THE NEXT MORNING

I let out a groan as I opened my eyes only to snap them shut again as harsh daylight poured into them. The sky was a dull gray blanket of clouds above me, and my head was pounding like I had drank a bit too much of Cammie's homemade moonshine.

"Ugh, my head," I groaned aloud as I put my hand up to shield my eyes from the light. I sat up and heard my girlfriend begin to stir behind me.

"Wha—? What happened?" I heard her ask, before she followed up the question with her own pained groan. The water on our bodies from last night had since dried off, and Cam let out a shiver as a breeze blew past - it was definitely colder out than yesterday.

"I... I don't know," I answered, as I tried to recall the events from last night. I remembered watching the movie, the bit of fun we had in the shower, relaxing together in the hot tub, and then... my eyes widened with recognition as I turned to Cammie. "Wait... that light! There was that meteor, or comet or whatever, and then that light appeared." I could see the gears turning in her head as she seemed to piece together the previous evening's strange events, and then she finally nodded.

"Right. And then everything went dark. And now... here we are." She sat up and grunted a bit before she began to massage her legs.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah," she said, with a nod. "Just a little sore from lying on the ground so long. I'll be fine, though." She got to her feet and looked around, and I saw her stop dead as her head turned toward the trees. "Wait, what the hell is that?" I followed her gaze and gasped when I saw what she was talking about - it was a strange sight, indeed.

There were vines everywhere out there - they blanketed the ground in a thick tangle, and some even snaked their way around the trees. The vines seemed to leave the cabin alone, but the clearing was still surrounded by an endless tangle of the green snaking things. I looked over at Cammie, who was still staring out into the trees.

"That's... a lot of vines," I finally said. She just looked over at me and nodded; her features were filled with concern, which was making me worry even more. "Those definitely weren't there last night."

"No, they weren't. God, there's so many of them. This... doesn't make any sense," Camellia said, as she ran a nervous hand through her locks. "There's no way they could have just popped up overnight, and - wait, are they moving?!" She slowly padded toward the tangled mess of vines, and I quickly got up to follow, grimacing a bit as a dull spike of pain raced up and down my legs. I caught up to her and then we both inched a bit closer to inspect the strange vines. Sure enough, the ones on the ground were wriggling around slowly, stretching out as far as they could toward us - hell, they almost seemed to be feeling around for something. We both stared, slack-jawed at the strange tendril-like vines wriggling back and forth like fingers grasping at some unknown prize.

Cam knelt down a bit and hesitantly reached a hand toward the strange blanket of vegetation. One of the vines prodded at her outstretched wrist, and she let out a yelp as it actually wrapped itself around her wrist. She tugged her hand back and the vine yielded and uncurled itself from around her wrist. Cam scrambled back a couple feet then looked over at me, her face frantic. "You saw that, right?! It... grabbed me!" She looked over at me with panic in her eyes. "Almost like it was trying to... pull me in, or something." It sounded crazy, but I had just seen it with my own eyes, and it was way too early for whatever this insane shit was. I took a few steps back, then looked over at my trembling girlfriend.

"Okay, um... How about we just... head back to the cabin for now?" Cammie nodded and backed a bit further away - clearly, she didn't want to be around the weird vines, either.

"R-right," she said, without missing a beat. We both headed back to the cabin. I walked over to my clothes, which were still lying in a crumpled heap on the floor where I had left them the night before. I grabbed my jeans and fished my phone from my pocket, and my eyes widened when I saw the time pop up on the screen.

"Holy shit, Cam! It's 2:30 in the afternoon!"

"Wait, r-really?" she stammered. "So, we were asleep for... almost 17 hours?!" I showed her the time, and I saw her go pale and then shake her head in disbelief. She looked alarmed, and I had to admit, I didn't feel great, either. "God, this makes no sense. I... I'm going to go get dressed, then pack up our things. I have no idea what's going on in these woods, but I think we just need to get back to the car, and... go home."

"I think you're right. I don't want to spend any more time here than we need to." She nodded, still looking a bit flustered as she shuffled past me and headed over to the stairwell.

I followed close behind, and soon we were in the bedroom, where our packs were still sitting on the floor.

Cammie stomped over to her dresser and started wrenching the drawers open. She frantically pulled her clothes out and haphazardly tossed them into her pack. I walked up and put my arm on her shoulder.

"It'll be alright, babe. Try not to worry, okay? We'll be home before you know it, yeah?" She let out a sharp exhale and looked back at me, and I could see the fear on her face plain as day. Her features softened a bit as she nodded, though I could tell she was still uneasy; she was silent for a little bit before she spoke up again.

"Right. The sooner we get out of here, the better. Get your clothes packed up, please," she finally said, as she pointed toward my dresser. I nodded and quickly gathered up my own clothes, then packed them away in my pack. We both headed downstairs with our packs in tow, but I we both stopped in our tracks as both our stomachs grumbled in unison. Cammie looked over at me, then jabbed a thumb toward the fridge. "Actually, how about we eat some breakfast before we head out?"

"Sounds good to me. I'm starving," I said with a shrug, secretly grateful that we wouldn't have to face whatever was going on outside just yet.

We whipped up a quick breakfast of eggs, sausage, and toast, then sat down to eat. We didn't say much as we ate, and I don't think either of us wanted to address the elephant in the, er, woods. I took a bite of one of my slices of toast while Cam absentmindedly slid her scrambled eggs around her plate. I heard her stomach growl again, and she let out a sigh.

"I'm really not looking forward to going out there. I've got a... bad feeling about it," she finally said, as she finally shoveled a mouthful of eggs into her mouth, swallowed it, then drank from her glass of orange juice. Her gaze drifted out the window again, and she frowned before she met my eyes again.

"I don't feel good about it, either," I said. "But we don't really have any other choice."

"I know, I know," she said, before taking a bite of one of the sausage links on her plate. "At least we won't be hiking on an empty stomach, though."

"Right? It's probably better that we get some food in us." I said, as I finished up my piece of toast and grabbed the other. I looked out the window at all the vines that lay just beyond the clearing. I took another biter and looked back at Cam. "So... it has to be aliens, right?"

"Huh?" she asked, as she munched on her own piece of toast.

"All this weird stuff - that meteor last night, the light that knocked us out cold... and now all these vines? I feel like this has 'aliens' written all over it."

"I... I don't know what all this is about, but... aliens or not, it still gives me the creeps." She paused for a moment to finish her glass of orange juice. "But... I can't think of any other explanation, honestly. Vines don't just... pop up like that overnight."

"No, they don't," I said, before I finished my toast. I stood up and grabbed my now-empty plate and fork from the table. "Unless they're alien space vines." I walked over to the sink and quickly washed up my dishes as Cam finished up her meal. I opened up the fridge and frowned - we'd be leaving a decent amount of food behind. "You sure we can't just stay here and go after dinner? Or better yet, stay the night? Maybe this'll all blow over by tomorrow."

"Yeah, no. I want to get the hell out of here, babe... before any more crazy stuff happens."

"Ugh, you're right," I said, with a shrug. "Well, it was worth a shot, right?" Cam didn't dignify that with a response, except to roll her eyes and chuckle at me. "Well, I guess we've gotta face the space vines after all." Cam swallowed her last bit of toast, then looked out the window one last time.

"Yup. We should get going soon - we're burning daylight."

"Gotcha. If you bring me your dishes, I'll wash them up really quick." She brought over her plate, fork, and cup, and then grabbed the duffel bag lying on the floor.

"I'll go put this up and put the towels back. Actually, I think I'm going to brush my teeth real quick. You want me to leave your toothbrush out, too?"

"Yeah. I'll go brush up after I'm done down here," I said, as I got to work on the dishes. It wasn't long before they were done, and then I went to brush my teeth before gathering up our toiletries - I threw those into my pack, too. Cam and I took a little more time to get everything at the cabin back in order, then made one last check of our supplies. Once that was done, it was finally time to head out. We both grabbed our packs and headed out the door, and then Cam locked the door behind us. She turned to face the vine-choked woods and I could see that she was worried.

"How are we going to get through all this? What if the vines try to get all grabby with me again?" I took her hand and flashed her a comforting grin.

"I've got you, Cam. It'll be fine, I'm sure. We just need to head North, right? To get back to Maple?" I asked, trying to ground her with something familiar. She nodded after a moment, then pulled out her trusty compass again, but her expression immediately soured as she looked down at the instrument.

"Wait... this doesn't make any sense; the compass is going crazy," she said, holding it up so I could see it. Sure enough, the needle was flitting about wildly, never staying in one direction for long before it started spinning again. "Whatever's going on must also be playing havoc with the magnetic field here."

"You know the way back, though, don't you?" I asked, hopefully. Cammie flashed me a weak smile and nodded as she gave my hand a reassuring squeeze. When she spoke up, a bit of her confidence had returned:

"Of course, I do. I told you I've been exploring these woods for ages. I'm not going to let some handsy plants stop me."

PART NINE: CAPTURED

With that, we both started off toward the trees, walking a bit more cautiously as we headed away from the cabin. She let out a deep breath and gingerly stepped over the threshold onto the bed of vines. As soon as she set foot into them, it was like they knew she was there; one of them slithered upward and rubbed against her leg. She kicked it away, and thankfully it slinked back to the ground. A couple more vines snaked their way toward her, and she kept hold of my hand while she tried to get away from them by backing against one of the trees. The damn things still didn't leave her alone, though; another vine that was wrapped around the tree she was leaning against stirred to life and started poking and prodding her, almost like it was... curious about her, or something. She scrambled away from it, only for more vines to rise up and wrap themselves around her ankles. They tugged on her legs, and she fell to the ground with a grunt. I tried to pull her up, but the vines seemed determined not to let that happen - they tugged even harder than before, trying their best to yank her away from me. I held on tighter, and even grabbed her arm with my other hand as I struggled against their surprisingly tight grip. Try as I might, though, I couldn't free her from their grasp; the vines' hold on her was too strong. I let out a panicked gasp as the vines finally succeeded in pulling her from me with one last forceful yank. Panic instantly flooded my girlfriend's features, and then I saw her get pulled away from me, screaming all the while. I sprang into action as soon as I could.

"Cammie! H-hold on, baby! I'm coming!" I frantically yelled out to her, just as she was dragged around a tree and disappeared from view. I could hear the sounds of her screams echoing through the woods, and my heart raced as I desperately tried to follow them. Sweat poured down my back, and I was relieved to find that I didn't have to contend with any vines trying to slow me down - they seemed to be solely focused on carting Camellia off to God knows where. Still, even without any resistance, they were pulling her away faster than I could run, but I gritted my teeth and picked up my pace despite the weight of the pack on my back - I had to catch up to her.

Cammie was still yelling out, and I followed the sound of her shrieks as best I could, but they were hard to track through the trees - leaving me with no way of knowing which direction I should head in. I was practically running on blind luck as I made a split-second decision and changed course... and I was relieved to find that she sounded a bit closer. I kept heading toward the sounds, but I stumbled to a stop when they unceremoniously ceased, leaving only the chirping of birds and the soft rustling of the vines that had inexplicably engulfed the woods. I looked back and forth as my stomach dropped and a fresh surge of dread froze me in place. I had no idea where the hell she was or what had happened to her, but I knew I needed to find her - I couldn't just stand there and do nothing. As I looked back and forth while I considered which way I should go, I realized that the vines all seemed to be heading in the same direction, despite being twisted together and overlapping with each other - I hadn't even noticed before amidst the breathless chaos of the past few minutes.