Short story;

Surpise!

I click on the remote and put off the TV. The screen becomes black. "Come here, darling," my partner whispers. I sigh and turn myself.

"I- I know, yes, I will-"

They interrupt me. "What are you-"

"I'm going to bed!" I say, loud and clear. I climb upstairs and lay down on the bed, wide awake. After about an hour, I hear my partner come laying in bed next to me.

As if sleeping, I turn away from them, acting as if I'm sound asleep. I feel their hand lower on my cheek and a soft kiss follows. I can't help but smile.

As I awake the next morning, I see them still asleep. I return the favor from last night. I slip out of the room.

Before I close the door, I take a last look at it. It's quite luxe. The bed sheets are velvet red and made of silk. The windows looks fresh painted. My partner is laying with their mouth open, breathing perfectly quiet, drooling a little. Then I close the door.

I march through the hall. I would bother you with everything that happened after, the boring preparations, but let's skip to the moment we took off.

We were sitting in the lounge. Not more than an hour, and we would be up in space. I was sweating. Maybe because it was a little hot in here, but mostly because I was so nervous. I'd been in space once before.

But humanity had never done what me and my colleagues were doing now.

We would be going, as the first humans ever, to Mars.

The clock is ticking the minutes slowly away. We'd be going with the 5 of us. Two of them were playing card games and laughing and talking. One was reading. I nervously smiled to the woman in front of me. She'd been silent, like me, all this time.

She stands up and walks over to me. I feel she wants to say something, as do I, but neither do. Then my partner walks into the lounge, with a cup in their hands. They hand it to me.

"Hm- hm, no, thanks, my love," I decline. They insist I drink the tea, and I give in. I swallow the entire cup in a few moments and immediately stand up to leave for the toilet. My partner as well as the woman next to me both lay a hand on either of my shoulders. I sit back down.

The woman next to me says, "We both need emotional support. You should wait." She says it sort of dreamily, as if she isn't there with her mind. Now that I come to think of it, her hand had felt abnormally light as well.

I shake the feeling off of me and point my attention back to my partner. "I won't die. C'mon, it's only for a little bit." Was not. It would take about 260 days.

They shot a sort of irritated look at me. "Sorry."

As it is announced that we would be leaving shortly, I stood up this time for real. I kissed my partner on the cheek. "I promise I'll be back. For you, dear."

I take a quick trip to the toilet, and we start doing all the last- minute prepare work. I'm not going to bother you with any of it.

After having been in space twice, I still look up at the magnificent height of the rocket. I'm amazed by the way this one's been build. I know a little about it. My colleague, on the other hand, knows a ton about it. He'll crawl through it when something's gone wrong that the machines can't even fix.

I stand there, side by side with the woman I talked to earlier. She doesn't seem very intimidated by the rocket, instead, she looks at me very closely, and carefully, as if making sure she doesn't touch me. Weird, I don't pay any more attention to it.

Loads of cameras are pointed at the five of us. I'm sweating in the early morning sun. I try to reach for something to touch, something to hold to know this is all reality. But nothing allows me.

I try not to think of the mission, and what all could go wrong. I try not to think, in general. We step in the enormous space and I start to get overwhelmed. Normally I would know how to handle it properly, but this time, something inside me just doesn't.. I can't put it into words.

I notice myself slipping into a feeling in which I can physically not speak.

The journey in space goes practically perfect. Of course, nothing less was expected after the practice we'd had. After a day or so I manage to get myself to say a few words.

Everyone is very calm with each other and we try to sympathise and basically not piss each other off.

I talk to everyone a bit, especially when there's nothing to do. We take turns in when who sleeps, so there's always two people on the lookout.

Somehow it doesn't bother nor surprise me that I'm always paired up with the woman I spoke to before take off. And somebody else. I'm always with two others. And always with that woman.

Now I won't bother anyone any much more with whatever happened next.

But when we arrive, we're all extremely excited. Scared and nervous, but excited nonetheless. We've to make all kinds of preparations.

The 'landing' was being 'live' streamed. It somehow bothered me how the woman, very clever and overall just nice company, didn't do any activity. No one else seemed to notice. She wasn't bothering or getting in anybody's way, so maybe that was it.

I had noticed myself slowly getting obsessed over her. Not in a romantic way or anything. Tough, I realise I was staring at her for long periods of time, and sometimes catch myself overthinking her every move and the way she never talks. Or interacts with anyone anyway.

Except for me, then.

That feels weird, in a way. In every way, actually. Yet I do not act on it.

Finally everything's ready to welcome us on the planet. Every move and step has to be filmed, of course.

I am the first to leave the space ship. I slowly open the door to the unknown outside. Not unknown for long anymore.

My favourite person on the space ship after myself follows me; the woman. It clicks in me that I have only been calling her "the woman", both in my mind and when I went to ask her something. She hasn't said anything about it.

I shake the thought off and slowly let myself fall, oh wel, 'fall' down the steps. I put two thumbs up. The rest of the crew follow, leaving only one behind. As we are with four people, I signal to go in pairs.

They look at me weird and I point to the woman and then to myself. They laugh, shake their heads and turn around. I shrug and start walking after them.

After the two of us catch up, they tell me to take the lead. Makes sense, as I have most experience. I don't want to brag though.

We come across multiple uninteresting things, information we'd known for a longer time. "Hey, uhm, the battery is kind of like empty." I hear in my headphone.

"Let's continue for a bit longer, we'll charge it later." I answer. They seem hesitant, but my woman nods slowly and reassures me. Like she's done this before. Then she points her hand to behind us.

"Put the camera far away." I say. She reassures again. "What?" I call to our co worker on the space ship. "Hey, I need you to come. Quick." I say it with a buried anger inside me, for some reason. Hence why they all listen. The woman floats a little further.

She floats??

As all my co-workers are found beside each other, I start to chase my woman.

Faster and faster, as fast as anything will take me. Which, in these circumstances, is not rapid at all.

Soon, as I think I've caught up with her, we find a cave. We, as in me, and my alive co- workers.

I say that, because in the cave we find a skeleton to something so similar as a woman.

On the wall are written four words.

Do not go back..