The Vacuum

Part 17

Alex picked up the cell phone on her counter and stretched her neck in the dark out, still only clad in her panties and Macs jacket. To be fair it went all the way down to her mid-thigh. She took a deep breath as she checked her missed calls, frowning and moving onto the texted. Her frowned deepened as she saw her text messages.

She glanced up out the window to see that Mac's bright truck lights had turned off and he was sitting in her driveway, rubbing his lips and looking through the kitchen window with an almost glazed over expression. She shook her head and rubbed her itching nose into the collar of the too large jacket, smelling the reminisce of lingering smoke.

You don't belong there.

It's not healthy.

You need to call me.

Are you alive?

I'll come out there Alex.

She sighed and shook her head at the text messages that she never answered, the phone calls that she never bothered to pick up. Her outside life was what she was trying to really escape from out here. She didn't need him or anyone else intruding. She just wanted to talk to Damien when she needed to and her editor.

She had a vague feeling that even though they weren't...anything really, Mac would not be happy if some man showed up and denied him access to her. Shaking her head she clicked the return text and sent out a single word.

Alive.

She clicked the phone closed and looked up as she heard Mac's truck start up with a deep earth shaking rumble, pursing her lips to keep from smiling. She shook her head and looked back down at the phone in her hand tapping it on the counter as she thought about the man on the other end versus the menace that she had just spent yet another night with.

Mac was dangerous. Toby was safe. Mac didn't even try to be tender. Toby faked it really well. When you were at the end of the world...sucked in a vacuum where you didn't know what was real and what was in your own head did you trust the man that you know was dangerous and told you outright or the man that you knew was a good intentioned lair?

She shook her head to clear it, the firm reality that this was just a fling settling over her like a wet blanket. She let out a breath and nodded to herself. That was the point of this entire thing. He wanted her. She wanted him. He wasn't the relationship type and she didn't want a relationship with someone that she was going to leave in a few months. Never mind that he seemed to understand her mind better than anyone had in over a year...maybe because he was just as insane; just as tormented. Part of her wondered what he saw when he closed those baby blue eyes.

Alex pulled herself down the path that she had been walking, what was meant to be a street but more of a dirt old road, carved out by truck tires over the decades. She pulled her hair up behind her gripping the sweaty strands back into a ponytail. It was unbelievably hot today and her body ached for a drink after the hot hike and Macs fevered assault.

She smiled to herself as she thought about it. She didn't know if he was trying or if he was just that good but she couldn't help but get off when he was inside of her. Maybe it was just the fact that he was without a doubt the roughest man she had ever been with. An animal. Totally devouring and her insane, tortious body loved it. After experiencing as much pain as she had it was hard to feel anything, nerves totally shot. Gentle wasn't going to even register for her anymore. She'd learned that with her ex. Forget what she had thought about last night...she told herself. Just enjoy it while it lasted.

Lost in her thoughts her overworked body rebelled against her and her toe caught on the gravel, making her stumble slightly. Glancing up she saw a skinny young woman wandering through the parking lot in a daze. Alex cocked her head to the side as she watched the drifty walk as though the girl didn't know where she was going. She was barefoot and in a thin white dress, the sun beating down on her as she looked around dreamily. Her light brown hair was matted in some places and skin pale from not being under the burning Utah sun like the rest of them.

Alex put her hand over her eyes to shield it from the sun. "Hi?" She asked the continuingly moving girl. She didn't stop and Alex followed as she moved around the bar and into the prickly shrubs in the back of the bar. They must have hurt her bare feet and legs like hell. Alex could feel them sticking to her jeans and scraping even though that. "Hey...are you alright?" She called after the girl.

This time the girl seemed to register her...if only slightly. She turned around and looked at her, her pupils huge even in the glowing sun. Alex ran her eyes over the little figure focusing on the girls wrists and mouth.

Ropes pulled at her wrists and dug into her skin, cutting and burning. She screamed into the Saliva soaked gag, the constant inability to swallow drenching it and causing the corners of her lips to blister and chaff.

Alex shook it off. She was seeing her...she couldn't be real, but she had never seen her before in her life. There was no reason....The girl pointed at herself questioningly, drawing her attention.

"Yeah," Alex said. "What's your name?"

The girl licked her lips, testing them. She pointed at herself again. "Reggie." She whispered, voice hoarse.

Alex nodded slowly, gauging her state of awareness and trying to determine her existence as she moved closer. She looked skinny...really skinny. Not just the kind of skinny that meant that a person wasn't eating enough but the kind that said she didn't use her muscles enough. Alex knew that kind of skinny...it had taken her months to get over it herself. "Hi Reggie...I'm Alex."

"Alex." Reggie repeated as if making sure. Alex nodded quickly as she watched the sun beat down on the young woman and blood on her legs from the prickly bushes slip down her legs from the few sharp scratches. She didn't seem to feel them. "Are you real?" Reggie asked.

Alex frowned and bit her lip at the question, not knowing how to respond at first. That was normally her line... "Yeah...I think so. Are you?"

Reggie frowned too, eyebrows furrowing. "I...I don't know." She looked up sharply as voice started coming from the parking lot. "Hide!" She told the other woman quickly.

"What?" Alex asked confused beyond all reckoning. She held out her hand curiously to the girl, beckoning to her with her fingers. "Let me take you to a doctor. You don't look very well."

Reggie looked at her quickly, panic clearly showing in her widening brown eyes. "Hide! Hurry you have to hide!"

Alex frowned but ran behind one of the huge rocks as the voices grew louder. She placed her hands on it and slipped down, watching the obviously high girl looking around quickly and erratically, panic building in her fast as she looked at where Alex was hiding. She waved her down as she looked back at the owners of the two voices. Alex glanced up over the rocks as little as she could, catching a glimpse of Walter and Devon. She frowned, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Reggie what are you doing out here?" Devon asked as he took the girl by the arm to lead her back towards the bar and the apartments.

"I-" Reggie looked back over her shoulder at the rock, making Alex jump back down before Walter and Devon could look over. "I thought I saw an angel fall."

Walter shook his head as his eyes searched over the waste land expanse, passing over the rock that Alex was hiding behind. "There's no one out here child...we have to get you back."

"You know you're not supposed to leave the room...its not safe. He'll get you." Devon told her, grabbing her by the elbow, the motion familiar and controlling.

Alex closed her eyes as she tried to think...tried to hear but the voices were becoming more distant. She rubbed her wrists as she tried to keep her breathing steady. Those couldn't be from the same thing that she remembered.