Names

Names is hiding in the grainy moonlight. Urging Fev towards somebody else's terrifying morning vision.

"So what!" Fev barely whispers. "It's big and shiny."

She talks over the track that is playing. The sound of feet running, people heavy breathing, voices finding each other. Violence.

"The ocean ..." he starts to explain.

But Fev doesn't have the patience for that. Not right now. She doesn't know if Names is a man or a woman but she imagines he's a man because anyone coming at her like this, at this hour, better be. And he better look like she's imagining him even though her own stereotyping annoys her.

"This is all in early light ..." he's pitching.

"The waxing moon dream sequence" his voice seductive-modulated-gaining speed.

"High tension."

Fev gets up and pulls a pair of jeans over her hot pink thong taking pleasure in knowing he'd hate it.

She opens the kitchen curtains rouses the rest of the household then goes out back and looks at this essential thing.

"Big deal!" She hisses.

"I don't know if I believe you." He states flatly.

She picks up where he left off her voice calm and detached.

"Selective color as things come into focus. Subtle. Clinical."

He sing-songs words to a childhood game. Emerges from his hiding place. It's awkward. In her fantasy he would have come up behind her, wrapped his arms around her, they would have looked outward together. His way makes them look at each other. Too much intensity for Fev. All of this scares her. The track comes back on. They hear a fatherly voice.

"Shoot him!" Strong and sure. Fev trusts him despite how the words might sound.

Then there's a voice like a kid or a girl trying to sound tough.

"Since you didn't do what There's suggested (name inaudible) just came around and kicked him. You gave up his location..." voice fades.

A kinder, sadder voice cuts in "ran away and hid" trails off.

They stand there, facing each other, listening to see if there's more.

"Why aren't you talking?" He asks her in his normal voice.

"They know why. You know why. I'm the only one who doesn't. This must be how Fev finds out."

She sounds spooky like most people do when they speak about themselves in the third person. Names raises his voice then. The dreamy quality of the moment ruined by that. It's already hot out and getting hotter. She doesn't want to respond to him. If she does she's back where she started. Names already thinks that's just a matter of time. 'Draconian measures' and all that backing him up. She says nothing else as he yells at her. And when he leaves she can't hear him anymore. Compared to the droning audio, that's a kindness.

She turns the volume down as much as possible but the machine is broken or something. It won't turn off and every now and then a word or two comes through.

She remembers reading about an audio security system that schools and institutions used to drive away loiterers, broadcasting it at a frequency only young people could hear niggling at them just underneath the surface until they'd move on, not really sure why, just knowing that they are uncomfortable.

This is like that. It strikes her as just plain wrong. Voices emerging from a speaker seemingly randomly only not really, because they have a POV and a motive and they're having a conversation which she can still follow even with the volume down like this.

It was a horrible story which is why she had to take breaks from it. They seemed to be trying to convince this woman called Trem that someone else has someone that belonged to her in some way. But Trem didn't believe them because the person they were speaking of was with her and because of the manner in which they told her.

But then Trem starts to believe them and tries to confront them so they switch the person she has with the one they have. And they do this over and over. And they do it under the guise of some higher morality, some higher purpose. And they'd done it without informing her in any way. And apparently they'd been doing this to her for a very long time in one form or another. At least that's what they told her. There really was no way for Trem to confirm.

They were torturing her and if she could prove it it would prove to be illegal and damning for a lot of people. Not to mention what it was doing to the people being switched in and out. That was the truly horrific part to Trem. She was scared for them which is what traps her.

Fev hated the idea that this could happen, in fact, had happened before but she liked the fact that Trem found ways to be happy in the midst of the horror. There was something so real about that.

"Stop!" Fev commands.

It's at the top of the page when she goes back to work writing a way out for her and the people who deserve it. Fev knows silence is a way through but Trem doesn't sustain it.

"Who does Haris have?" Trem asks, again. "Why are you telling me? If you really cared or wanted me to do something about it you would tell me how."

She's on her balcony. It's dark out. The man in the moon is red.

"But you don't actually want me to succeed do you?"

The voices fade. Fev senses she's alone again, quits writing and goes back to her fantasy of Names. She gives him a good old fashioned normal sounding one. They talk. They both relax a little.

Sex is really one of Fev's only effective tools for keeping certain people out of her mind. Which is why she wants to write about it.

She tells him, "It's just, nobody belongs there uninvited. That part of where we live sucks. That they can do this to us. That you can do this to me."

He's starting to agree, "You're persuading me."

There's a street light still on over the fence behind them. Curious in the daytime. There's a weird haze in the air which makes everything look soft like through a filter. Fev moves closer to him and wraps her arms around his neck. Much better she kisses him. It's sweet, romantic but she's reluctant because she still has a lot to say and it's important. Plus, he's kind of a jerk sometimes and it bothers her that she likes him.

"I'm working on something that's really important to not just me. It's what I meant to do today. Not because I have to or because someone else wants me to do it. But it's not easy for me and it hurts. You're a break from it. A luxury."

"That's not what I expected to hear." He says kissing her back. Not softly.

She starts to undress herself but Names stops her. He likes to do it, caressing each part as it's revealed.

"Can I?"

He is already, expertly finger fucking her. Then he just stops and hold the back of his hand against her clit. Let's her get herself off like that. Talks dirty to her while she does it. Sarcastic, irresistible Names. Fev blushes.