Jennifer Uvalle Darkness Reigns 
 
 
 Chapter One 
 
   
 It was an eve like none other before it. She walked down the street keeping her face tucked behind the lapel of her favorite long black coat. The wind was starting to pick up. A storm was on the rise and she needed to find some sort of shelter. Up ahead was Kavorc, which used to be the best Travel Lodge in the Three Sectors. 'As soon as I reach Kavorc, I will rest, and then move on once the sun rises.' she thought. The winds blew harder, knocking over trashcans and throwing the trash inside them out onto the street like confetti. The snow came down faster and harder, that of which felt like pebbles crashing into her skin.  
 
   
 The storm grew stronger. As she approached the building, she could see a light inside. 'Oh thank the Goddess, I won't be alone.' thoughts swirled around in her mind of how to introduce herself.     
 
          
 
 
   Through the howling of the wind she heard a cracking noise. She turned quickly to see a stop sign being violently shaken. With a shriek of tortured metal, the sign detached itself from its post and flew towards her. She was surprised to hear the dull thunk of a solid object striking flesh as it slammed into her face. The street sign came hurdling at her face too quickly for her to respond, and she hit the floor with a 'Fuuhh.. .’  
 
   
    
 The sun set in the South here on Na'Biajj, making it colder then cold. Na'Baiaji, was known once for its beautiful beaches and warm sand. It was a party planet once, a long time ago. When the planet Apaldfo was somehow knocked out of its gravitational pull and crashed into Jilaobany, merging the two, it set off every other planets gravity, hot planets became cold, cold planets to hot, neutral planets into.. well.. strange weather on those planets...    
 
 "I heard a noise; I'm going to go check it out." Sarjaya whispered to the group sitting around the fireplace. "Be careful! You're not built for the cold!!" giggled a young girl curled up in the corner with her face in a book. 
 
   
   
 Sarjaya was tall and lanky at a whopping 6 '4" and 58 kg tops. His light blue skin shimmered in the dark, burned in the sunlight, and his blood would turn to ice in this weather.    
 
 He threw on his jacket and walked swiftly to the door and looked out the peep hole. “I think I see something... It’s hard to tell, this blizzard is getting worse...” he yelled to the group "It’s probably just trash." a man yelled back.  He pushed open the door with all of his strength, with the wind pushing back it made it difficult, but he perused with success. Quickly he ran down the stairs and across the street towards the black blob lying in the street. 
 
   
   
   
   
 
 "Hello? Hello, do you need help? Can you hear me?" he shouted towards it. 'Maybe it is just trash.. .’ he thought as he walked cautiously closer. "Mmm...maa.." the blob started to move slowly. "Hello? Are you okay?" 'Nope, it’s a body.. .’ he knelt down and rolled the body over. She was beautiful and he was frozen. Staring at her face. Her skin was a soft magenta and her features made her look like a Geisha. Her long brown hair was spotted with snow and smeared with blood. "Oh.. oh your hurt.. " he reached an arm under her legs and one under her upper back and lifted her up and jogged quickly back across the street, up the stairs and into the Lodge and in to the first room on the right. "Someone help me... she's hurt!" 
   
 
   
   
 A man and a woman appeared in the door way. "What happened to her?" The woman asked. "How the fuck would he know Cheryl?"  the man snapped. "Calm down Mark, it looks like a street sign might have hit her; there was one sitting next to her in the snow. Cheryl, get me some water and a wash cloth, Mark get me some gauze and tape." Mark huffed and went to the first aid kit, (which was a standard in each room since the main vacation sport to play on this planet was Bochk Ball, like earths Dodge ball only with spikes.)   
 
  Cheryl rushed back into the room spilling half the water on the way. "I-I’m sorry... b-b-ba-blood makes me...” her face turned a pale green from her normal radiant light brown. Reaching out, he grabs the cloth and bowl of water from Cheryl "Go sit down, I’ll call you when I'm done.  
 
   
 Mark, you can leave those on the bed here and that will be all." Mark snickered and put the items he requested on the bed and stomped out of the room.    
 
 "What have you done to yourself?" He whispered as he dabbed the wash cloth in to the water, then lightly across the open wound on her forehead. "What were you doing out there?" She grimaced, but stayed asleep. He softly placed the gauze on the wound and taped it on. "There, all better. Rest now, we will see you in the morning." He covered her with a wool blanket and walked out the door. 
 
 
 
 
 Chapter Two 
 
 "Run. Keep running, never stop." a voice whispered. Her eyes opened suddenly. 'Where am I?' she thought, looking around for something recognizable as her eyes fought to focus through a searing pain in her head. A bright light was coming from what appeared to be a window. She rubbed her eyes and touched the spot on her head that was now surprisingly covered with gauze. "Shit." she grimaced.  
 
   Looking around the room she could tell she had made it inside the Lodge, but how? Softly she whispers, 'Last thing I remember is pushing through the snow.'  Gently she touches the gauze again “Oh and that…” 
   
 
 A light tap at the door makes her jump out of the bed and into the corner of the room her stomach clenched as though she had just been punched.  
 "Wh-Who is it? What do you want?" "Can I come in? Are you decent?" a man said from behind the door. "I asked who you are." she snapped. "My name is Sarjaya, I am a Doctor over at the medical center in Xi-Vers. I'm the one who brought you in and..." he turns the door knob. "This would be easier if I could just come in." "Fine, but st-stay at the door." Slowly he walked in, shut the door behind him and leaned against it. She looks him up and down and stumbles towards the bed.  
 
   
   
   
   
 
 He starts after her, but she gives him a look that sends shivers down his spine. "I'm fine. Why are you here? Xi-Vers is 30 miles from here." "Oh, right, sorry. As I was saying, I'm here for a quiet vacation with some friends from work and their wives. Sort of a party, I guess. And you? Who are you and why are you here?" 'That’s none of your business!' was the first thought through her mind, but the pain shooting through it scrambled her words. "My name is Tiffany, I live here." 'Did I really just say that?' she thought shaking her head. 
 
   
   
   
   
 "Oh? You live here? That's unexpected. I thought you were going to say you were from Jilaobany or somewhere tropical like that." "Why would I be from there? That is just nonsense." she snapped. "I apologize. May I look at your wound? It’s time to change the gauze." He held out his hands with tape, gauze, and cleaner and looked toward the wound. "I guess." Slowly he walks over to the edge of the bed. "You can lay down if you wish." she complies hesitantly and closes her eyes.    
 
 Sarjaya looks at her wound then down at her lips, slightly open, breathing softly and imagines leaning down and kissing her. Shaking his head, he goes back to tending to the wound. Softly, to not startle her, he whispers "I'm done; you can get up if you wish.” She jumps slightly, startled by the sound of his voice. 
 
   “Breakfast should be done in the dining hall if you wish to join us." "Thank you. I need a shower and some fresh clothes. I may be down soon." Tiffany stands up brushing against him softly as she walks past him to the door then turns back. "Thank you for pulling me out of the storm." she turns and heads up the main stair case to her living quarters.    
 
 Slowly she slides off her jacket and lays it on her bed. Her favorite shirt, the yellow tank top with the orange paisley design, she got for her birthday three years ago, is now stained with blood. She takes it off, looks at the blood for a moment, and then tosses it towards the trash can in the corner of the room. Slipping out of her jeans, which she leaves in a pile on the floor, she walks over to the mirror to inspect her wound.  
 
   
 
 Inspecting her head, she decides to look down toward the rest of her body to make sure there were no abnormalities. ‘Arms check. Legs check. Thighs check. Stomach, check.' She unhooks her bra and tosses it towards the bed. She grabs her chest and looks down and smiles "Check." Turning around to look behind her she sees the scars. The reason for running. "Keep Running..." she whispered. 
 
 
 Slowly she reaches back and touches the scars along her back. Flashes of pain rushed through her memory.  "Snap out of it." she whispered. As she walked toward the shower she glanced back at herself. "At least I still look good." she grins and slides into the shower. The warm water makes her skin turn to gooseflesh.  
 
   
 
 Closing her eyes she thinks about the doctor. His eyes, calm, relaxed, nice. His smile; how it curves slightly higher on the one side, with almost florescent white teeth underneath. The way his body moved, the softness of his hands and the way he touched her so gently, was something she hadn't expected, and him being gorgeous helped a lot.  A light tapping on the door makes her jump and without thinking about being in the shower she responds “Come in!”  The door opens as it comes to mind that she is in the shower. The shower is a large Simi-circle, with see through glass around it.  
 
   
   
   
   
   
 
 Before she could say anything a tall skinny woman was standing there staring at her with large blue eyes. Her pale green skin shimmered under the vanity lights. She was radiantly beautiful. Smirking Tiffany says “You can join me if you like, but I don’t believe that’s why you are here, so what do you want?” She turns to face the water, back towards her. Cheryl blushes. “I-I have some clean linins for you. Breakfast is about to be served downstairs if you would like to join us, I would love to have you..erm.. We… We would love to have you join us, that is.”  “ Okay thank you. I’ll be down in a bit.”  
 
   
   
   
   
   
 Cheryl strains her eyes to get a good look at Tiffany through the steam. Tiffany is tall, taller than Cheryl anyway, which isn’t much of a stretch since she only stands 5’3 in 2 inch heels. Tiffany’s legs are thin, yet muscular. ‘Maybe she walks a lot, or even goes running.’ Cheryl thinks while staring at the strange woman in the shower. The light in the bathroom reflected of the scars on her back. Cheryl gasps quietly at the amount of them.    
 
 Tiffany stops washing her hair and looks over her shoulder and sees the woman still standing there, staring at her with a pained face. “You’re still here? If you wanted to join me, you could have asked.” “N-no I was just…  I mean I noticed your scars. How did you… If I’m being too forward, please…” “Oh I see.” Tiffany rinses her hair and turns the 
 
   
 water off. She slides the door open and steps out, reaching for the towel still in Cheryl’s hands. “Thank you.” She whispers. Cheryl watches the water bead and roll off Tiffany’s hair and down her rather large and perky breasts. “You’re staring again.” “Sorry.” Cheryl blushes and looks away.    
 Tiffany smiles and wraps the towel around her and grabs Cheryl by the hand and walks her into the bedroom. “Please, sit.” Cheryl sits, her face still turned away from Tiffany as she tosses her towel to the side and opens the closet. Rummaging through, she manages to find a pair of pants and a sweater shirt then tosses them on the bed next to Cheryl, and walks over to the dresser to grab some underclothing. Cheryl turns her head to ask a question, but is again distracted by Tiffany’s beautifully shaped body. Tiffany feels her staring again. “The scars are from a bad relationship. Before I moved here I lived in a hellish town outside of the main city. I was engaged to my high school “sweetheart”.” She said with a smirk. “Things were great, until the mine closed and he started drinking. The town went to shit. There were no jobs anywhere.    
 
 I was working full time at a diner called ‘Just Keep Eating’. One night he came home angry. A full day of not being able to find a job, then drinking it off at the local bar. He hit me. I did something I wasn’t supposed to. He apologized. I figured it was my fault. I shouldn’t have done whatever it was I apparently did. A few days later it happened again, then again, and eventually it was a daily occurrence.  
 
   
 
 One day he came at me with a whip he had “Found”.  It was short, nine tails, with nails pushed into the end of each tail. He slapped me down, and then started beating me with it. After he was done, he went back to the bar for another drink. I cried. Felt sorry for myself.  
  Then something clicked. I was mad. Furious. I picked my sorry self, off the floor and went to the kitchen. I grabbed a knife and a chair and sat at the door and waited for him. Blood dripping off my back making pools on the floor. I waited there for two days. He walked in laughing about something and I stabbed him before he knew I was even standing there. He hit me and I went down like a sack of potatoes. We fought. Fought for my life. He fought for his. I was taking swings and stabbing at any piece of flesh I could find.”  She stopped for a breath and looked at Cheryl.  
 
   
 
 Tiffany reached out and whipped a tear off Cheryl’s cheek.  
 “I stabbed him a few good times. He pushed me off, called me a crazy bitch and told me to run, and keep running. He said he would find me one day. So I left. All my things were still there. I ran until I couldn’t run any more. I found this place. The owner and his wife took me in and I worked for them until they died. They left me the place. I turned it to shit.” She giggled. Cheryl looked at her again. Her soft skin still exposed. She stood up, wiped a tear from her eye and hugged Tiffany.  
 
 
 “I honestly don’t know why I told you my story. I don’t even know you. I must have hit my head harder than I thought.” Tiffany smiled and nuzzled her face into Cheryl’s neck. Breathing her in. Tiffany pulled away and looked into Cheryl’s eyes. “Promise me you won’t tell?” “Promise.” Cheryl whispered as she pulled Tiffany to her. Tiffany reached an arm up and gently held the back of Cheryl’s head and kissed her softly.  
 
 
 
 Publication Date: June 19th 2014 https://www.bookrix.com/-ej5415a2d233a35