Well Beyond the World

"Oh FUCK!" She shouts. Two of the three diamonds light up like a pinball machine and the pillars behind you groan, the grinding of stone on stone. Jonuez pulls back, you see his cock from the side, still wet with her excitement. He pauses and then rams it home.

She screams in pain and pleasure and her voice pixelates - like an old AOL dial tone. The third diamond lights up and everything freezes. The lava pauses in mid bubble, the pulsing obelisk pauses mid flash. A falling piece of strong debris above the pillars remains suspended in mid-air.

"Well, I had hoped it wouldn't come to this." Kalchik's voice, emotionless and distant flows from her unmoving lips.

"Let us out!" You shout.

"I am afraid that is quite impossible. There is someone in the buffer, I cannot let you travel through until I have cleared the way." The obelisk shifts, the black spiderweb lines across the pulsating surface, forming a negative image of Christie's face.

"No!" Aaron cries. "Don't hurt her!"

"I'm afraid that simply is not possible. Without removing her soul from the bucket, I cannot let you out of the well."

"What if we flood out instead?" You answer. "What if we crank things up in here and try to break out of this cage? You are always trying to turn down the heat, what if you can't?"

"There are safeguards. It is unfortunate that you are in this predicament however you have only yourself to blame . . ." his voice fades out and everything moves again, the stone clattering to the floor, the obelisk flashing bright.

"FUCK ME! FUCK ME!" Pixie pushes back frantically into Jonuez as he rails into her. You put a hand on his butt, feeling his taut cheek as he flexes. She clamps down hard and wails - shouting through the orgasm of a lifetime.

The pillars grind behind you, rocks start to fall everywhere.

"Pull her off the altar!" You shout. Jonuez pulls out, picks her up and impales her on his cock, holding her aloft. The pillars immediately stop moving and the light dies down in the Obelisk. She cries out, her mouth an open O of pleasure.

"Uuuggghhh." He releases his cum deep inside her, staggering to his knees as he pours his seed into her cunt.

Everyone gives them a moment, as he cradles her. Her tattoos on her back have stopped glowing and her eyes are shut. Passed out from the exertion.

You gather everyone else around. Time to finish this.

"I think I have this figured out." You lead everyone over to the first pillar. You gesture Kai over.

"Kai, what do these symbols mean? The ones right next to the hole with the handle?" She shakes her head.

"I'm sorry, I don't know how to read." You smile at her.

"That's okay, Aaron does. Aaron, can you give her a kiss?" He grins and sweeps her into a full, deep kiss. She melts into him.

"What is the point of all this?" Michael asks. You hush him. Finally, the two lovers come up for air.

"Okay, Aaron, what does it say?" Aaron squints at it.

"Holy shit, I think I can make some of it out." Aaron answers.

"Of course, the sex magic!" Caroline shouts. "Quick, woman, suck his cock!"

"Really?" Kai asks. "In front of everyone?" but she's already getting on her knees. She fishes him out of his wrap pants and strokes his cock to fullness. She takes him into her mouth tenderly. He groans, tangling his fingers in her hair and then looks back at the pillar.

"It's all in focus now," his eyes flit across the carvings from top to bottom. "It's a protection charm . . .no a support beam . . . actually, I think it is a parking break. They are all three parking breaks. Oh godddd." He groans as she begins jacking him into her mouth.

"Fierce stroke." You mumble under your breath.

He looks back and forth to the pillars. "The only difference is next to the handle - this one says 'Dreams of the Past' - the middle one is 'Dreams of the Present' and the lost one, I can't make it out from here but I'm guessing . . ."

"Dreams of the future." You complete. He moans and finishes inside Kai's mouth. She stands on wobbly legs, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and smiling at him. He gives her a big goofy grin. And then glances nervously over at the Obelisk.

"I hope Christie didn't see that." He mumbles under his breath to you, but you are already pushing past him to grab the handle on the first pillar.

You reach into the cool dark hole and grasp the handle. You close your eyes, and cast your mind's eye into the dark, backwards abysm of time.

###

You feel the old, stained couch beneath you. You glance over to the stairs where Ryan vanished about an hour ago - and then sweep across the halfway separating the kitchen from the living room. Yes, the house on Nevada street. Kate is there next to you, laughing and drinking. You lean in to say good night but next thing you know, you are kissing her. Her mouth is soft, and sweet, and tastes of wine.

You grind your hips into her as she spreads her skirts for you. You sum up your courage and descend, licking softly at her beautiful pussy. The tangy taste quickly gives way to sweetness as you feel her excitement rising. Faster and faster your tongue moves as she moans above you, then a short guttural cry and feel her release. You climb back up on top of her and rub your slit against hers, relishing in the erotic sensations, sending tingles through your entire body.

###

The pillar shines bright as football game floodlights. You step back and it dims, beginning to return to simple stone.

"Caroline!' You cry out. "Grab the handle and think of a sexy time in the past." You point Aaron and Kai to the others. "Kai, grab the middle one and think about what you just did with Aaron. Aaron - imagine having sex with someone in the future."

Michael looks at you questioning. "What about me?" You lead him over to the altar as the others get to their places, their pillars beginning to light up.

You sit on the altar table, spreading your legs and beckon Michael to stand between them. You put your arms around his shoulders and kiss him. He holds you, tender and loving. Finally, you whisper in his ear.

"Michael, I don't know what is going to happen. My hope is that we break this cage into a million pieces and we are all free. You, me, the aliens, everyone." He presses his forehead to yours.

"But what if I'm dead?" He asks. You shake your head. "You remember being stabbed, not dying. Maybe he just pushed you in?" You kiss him again.

"I don't want to lose you." Michael whispers. "I just found you. My girl from the 2023"

You squeeze him tight. "No matter what, we had these moments, and no one can ever take that away from us." His eyes shine fiercely, trying to hold back tears. You kiss him with fire in your heart.

"It's time." He lowers down his head between your seashell skirt, biting your soft thigh as you spread your legs for him, going spread eagle on the table. You feel his hot breath down below as he gently, teasingly, licks your outer lips. You pull on his head impatiently, grinding your sex into him as he traces lazy circles around your clit. Faster and faster he moves as the Obelisk pulls with your rising passion.

"AHHH!!" you cry out, a mini-orgasm swelling through your core. He pulls himself up on the table above you, pushing your knee into the air. You feel the head of his cock, rubbing itself up and down your wet slit. You look him deep in the eyes, his dark brown curls hanging in his face, and give him the slightest of nods.

He pushes himself inside of you - slowly, savoring each and every inch as he goes deeper and deeper. Finally, he bottoms out, stretching you to your fullest before pulling his way back out, his thick head rubbing against your clitoris from the inside.

You raise your other leg and cross your ankles behind his butt, pulling him back into you. He groans, feeling you tense around him as he sets a steady rhythm.

You feel the sensation building deep in the muscles of your core, clenching and unclenching uncontrollably. The light from the pillars has become blinding. The obelisk is pulsing faster and faster, matching the muscle spasms sweeping through your body.

Above you, Michael is thrusting into you with wild abandon, slamming his body into yours as you rise to meet him. He grinds his pelvis into yours and sensation radiates through to your fingertips. Dimly, you see the lava filling the chamber. Where, where are your friends?

He thrusts again, deeper than ever before and holds it there. You feel him swell inside you. He leans down and whispers,

"I love you Brenna" and erupts, pumping load after load deep inside of you. You groan, as it sets off a chain reaction, your orgasms taking you from the soles of your feet to the hairs standing on end at the top of your head.

The obelisk bathes everyone in endless white light - turning you and Michael into negative images of yourselves.

###

CRUNCH!! There is a horrible grinding metal sound as you blink the light from your eyes. You are face down on cheap red carpeting. You push yourself up to a sitting position. The Hotel Murano. The heart room. The brazier has shattered, bits and pieces of metal embedded in the walls like shrapnel, but none hit the bodies of your friends.

You rush over to where a groaning Caroline is slowly regaining consciousness. She is still in the black hoodie from that night. So are you for that matter.

"What the hell?" Christie says, pulling herself to her feet with Aaron's help. You look around frantically. Pixie is here, still dressed in her cleaning clothes but not Kai or Jonuez.

"Michael!" You call out. You frantically whirl around - there, in the far corner of the room, is Michael, clutching his stomach. He looks at you alarmed, trying to keep the gushing blood from his abdomen in his body.

"Oh god, help. We've got to get him to the hospital!" Staggering, disoriented, you, Caroline and Aaron haul him up while Pixie balls a cloth cleaning rag underneath his shirt, trying to staunch the bloody stab wound.

"Where's Jonuez?" You ask, Pixie shakes her head. "I don't know. We've got to get out of her." She says sharply, shooting you a glare but you are too concerned about Michael to pay it any heed.

Carrying him, the six of you make a fast exit through the twisting hallways and out into the cold, damn familiar pacific northwest night air.

###

The Emergency Room is a lively place at 2am on Sunday morning. Pixie already headed out. Aaron and Christie headed to a Dennys to try and process. Caroline offered to stay but you waved her off. Finally, the nurse came out,

"Brenna? He's ready to see you." You are ushered through the sterile white hallways, the maze like chambers of rooms, stations and equipment until she deposits you at Michael's bedside. His face is a little pale but his eyes light up when you come in.

"Hospitals in the future have so many sounds!" He says in an excited whisper. "Beeps and blinks and boops." He lolls his head slightly, you brush his dark curls out of his eyes.

"The doctor said I should be okay, no major organs. I didn't say much about what happened. What can I say? An alien gardener stabbed me?" He laughs - his pupils wildly dilated.

You hold his hand, rubbing his forearm and letting his words wash over you. He was going to be alright. What happens next? You aren't sure but for now, he's alright and that's all that matters.

Four months later.

The Starbucks in Blaine was relatively vacant, just an old guy in the corner with his newspaper and you and Pixie in the most discreet table you could find. After some stiff pleasantries, and receiving your drink orders, Pixie breaks the ice.

"So . . . how's Michael?" She asks levelly. Oh Michael, it has been a whirlwind. Since you got him home from the hospital, you put him up in the cob tower where he made a quick recovery. Adjusting to 2023? That took some more time.

Thankfully, he got pretty handy with how to use youtube, thanks to some tutoring from Silas, and was able to get caught up on modern engine repair - before he got into fabrication, he worked at his uncles car shop and while cars now have "too many of those com-pew-ters in them", the fundamentals of the engine have not changes.

Getting him paperwork was more challenging - after all, he couldn't use his old social security number and his drivers license had not survived the journey to another dimension. But Ryan made some calls with some legal folks who helped immigrant farm workers in Whatcom and got him set up with a green card. Brenna pitched in and lined him up with a part-time job at her work, a motorcycle fabrication company.

But that's not really answering the question. How is Michael? It has been a difficult journey. On one hand, it has been wonderful. You may have spent some time on your knees sucking his cock before he went off to work this morning. Gods you love touching him. He's rolled up his sleeves and expanded the garden, making raised beds and getting everything prepped for planting. And Silas loves playing with him at the park.

On the other hand, when you and he went to Cordata park with Silas, he completely lost his shit when a black person used the bathroom, despite being latino himself. Without friends, he has struggled a bit to connect outside of his relationship to you. He is fond of taking long walks in the raspberry fields or driving to the county for a hike.

Your relationship. A week-long whirlwind romance facing life and death encounters . . . and then the dreary mundane of washing dishes every day. It has been difficult to adjust. The fiery passion is still there but figuring out how to fit him into your life? What do you mean to each other now that you simply have a chance to live, as real people, in this world?

Ryan has been extraordinarily patient, giving you the space and room to process your feelings and even joining you and Michael for a steamy night in the Cob tower a few weeks after he arrived but since then has been supportive, helping Michael get adjusted.

So how is Michael? "He's doing alright. Not great, but he's finding his way." you finally answer, coming back to the conversation with Pixie. "Oh! I got a text from Aaron!" You fish your phone out of your knitting bag and pull up a picture to show your friend.

"What am I looking at?" She asks, squinting through the reflection on the screen.

"It's his arm, see the tattoos?" Black outlines of the same inscriptions you found on the pillars wrap around his bicep. "He found that on his body when he got home that night."

"Like it just appeared? Like my . . ." Pixie points to her back worriedly.

"Yes, but it gets better. Aaron can still read it."

"What?"

"Yep - said it was as clear as reading English. Whatever he had in there stayed with him."

"Well, what did it say?" Pixie asks. You can barely suppress a grin.

"Fierce Stroke."

"No!"

"Yes. He thinks that it may have been a parting gift from Kai, or part of her is still with him or something like that, but mostly he's just embarrassed that he has a dick joke tattooed on his arm."

"At least no one else knows what it says." Pixie said, finally cracking a smile. She sets down her drink and heaves a big sigh.

"Look, Brenna, I want you to know, I am still really upset about what happened." You start to speak but she hushes you.

"Not about what happened in the temple. That had to happen and hell, that was some of the best sex of my life. I came like a freight train! I still think about that sometimes when I have a night to myself." She gives a little joyful shudder and moves on.

"I know it passed in the blink of an eye, but I lived for two years on that god forsaken island. Fighting killer snakes and hynomonkeys and a dangerous tribe of men. It was terrifying and lonely and heartbreaking. Thank god I had Jonuez for part of it but I still lived it. Sometimes, I wake up frantic because I can't hear the rushing water of the stream near the tree where I slept."

She pauses to collect herself.

"I know it is not your fault, you had no idea that we would end up there and for so long. It's just . . . it's hard not to blame you. So I just wanted to tell you that." You reach over and squeeze her hand, comfortingly as she takes another ragged breath.

"Jonuez called me last month." She says finally.

"What? Where? How?"

"While we were returned to the hotel where we entered the well, he was returned to his shop where he made the keys - except his shop was now a call center in a rundown strip mall. He was arrested for indecent exposure, put through to social services but he managed to get in touch with some extended family once he got free."

"Oh my god, is he okay?"

"Yes, yes. He's fine. He's always been sweet but you know, not the brightest. He's got a contract job working security at the Port of Tacoma - it's a night shift making sure people don't break into the shipping containers so he's back to walking mazes again, silly boy." She takes a sip of her drink.

"So did you see him? How did he find you?"

"He found my work number attached to some customer service press release we put out ages ago, I guess someone finally showed him how google works. We talked for an hour and then I met up with him in Everett."

She finally cracks and reveals a small smile.

"We fucked in his car. Twice."

"I wasn't going to ask . . ." you begin.

"Yeah you were." She shoots back. "It was nice to have him in my arms, minus the horns and tattoos. Just that taste of the familiar, reassurance that it wasn't all just a bad dream." She shakes her head.

"But I don't think I'll see him again. He was a fine companion in another world, but I've got to live this life, not cling to what I had. I need to move on." She finishes her drink and then fishes a note out of her coat pocket.

"Speaking of moving on, I wanted to show you this. It arrived a few weeks after I got back at my home address. I never responded, and I don't think I ever will. But I wanted you to know, just in case. Here." She hands you a hand-written letter - you smooth it out and read it.

Dear Ms. Jennifer Miller,

I understand that you have recently returned from an unfortunate encounter in Tacoma. I extended my deepest condolences to your hardships. Let me also express my profound gratitude for the misfortune you have brought upon our mutual acquaintance, Mr. Kalchik.

I would like to extend an invitation for you to join me at my place of business, at 5445 Ballard Avenue in Seattle, Washington. Although my commerce is in strange and unusual objects, I believe I have an offer that you will find most intriguing. Please join me during business hours and I can explain further in person.

I look forward to making your acquaintance in person.

Cordially Yours,

Dr. Daniel Quilp

Quilp's Curio Cabinet and Travel Agency

To be continued in

"A City in Glass"