Outrun Stories #47

He stood at the window, glass of scotch in one hand, silk robe wrapped tightly around him, looking down on the neon-city far below, watching all the little people going about their business as he probed them, jumping mind to mind, trying to find something interesting.

The soft gaze of her powerful frontal lobes stoked the back of his shaven skull. “Always looking for something, huh, Danni?” he said, taking a sip of the scotch, letting it burn down his throat slowly, curling his feet on the thick carpeted floor and sensing her scanning his mind.

“You’re a mystery, Richie,” she said, standing up from the bed, walking over to him, delicate toes on the carpet, little feet making their marks.

He closed his eyes. “Don’t move, you’re perfect there,” he said, still facing away from her, closing his eyes and rolling back into the memory of her, the feeling of her, every moment they had spent together and then bringing it to this point in time. He could see her there, in his mind’s eye, behind him, stood in the neon-purple light glowing up from the city below, highlighting the chrome and deep ocean blues of the room.

“You’re in the light there, Danni,” he said from his mouth, but she could feel the words in her too, she could feel his presence, his projected consciousness floating in and around her. “You are spectacular. Just pause there for me, hold it there for me, every inch of you, that sheen.”

He swam in the air, around the room, examining every fraction of her, every element. Every pinch of skin and every wisp of hair. From those delicate feet, to the perfect bob and bangs resting around her perfect skull. One, he thought, there must be one, some little flaw, some imperfection, something that didn’t quite fit.

“Don’t go too deep, now, Richie,” she said as she broke the stillness and continued to walk over to him. “You might find something you hadn’t bargained for.” She came up to him and gently removed his robe from behind, before wrapping her arms around him, holding their warm skin together, landing gentle kisses on his neck.

“I’m not so sure, Danni. I’ve gone pretty deep, and nothing has risen its head so far.” He held her hands around his waist and leant forward until his forehead rested on the floor to ceiling window and he started probing all the little people again. “You see, whenever I look down there, whenever I decide to swim with them, whenever I look into their minds, I can always find something ugly. I quickly uproot their pain. I always find a pit of darkness. Some rage, some violence, some hate, some fear. Always, always there. But with you…” he turned himself away from the city and back to her, still in her embrace, and rested his head on her shoulder, kissing her neck gently.

“Well, maybe it’s not that I’m all good,” she said into his ear, biting little nibbles with each word. “Maybe it’s that, the bad you find, you actually like… Such as this…” she projected a thought.

A smile spread across his face as their minds synced and her soft electric buzz of her brain pinned and prickled along his spinal cord.

“Maybe,” he said as he pushed her back onto the bed. “Maybe."