“I See You”
The waves beat against the rocks with the violent indifference of high tide. They came slow and heavy like herd animals from strange moons. His skin was warm - touched gently by spits from a fire he couldn’t yet see. Its’ smell filled his nose.
The scent brought back good memories.
A wet tongue slid across his face. Something sniffed. Investigating him. Shakk opened his eyes. At first, he was taken aback. There was a creature, a small thing, sniffing at his face from underneath a puffy coat of white fuzz. Its’ fur was fringed with black stains. He reached his hand over the top of it and stroked it softly. It was undeniably canine. Not an earth-mutt. Its face was much too angular. It had a pinched button nose that gave him the impression it must have been bred somewhere past Mars. He looked past the pup towards the horizon. Overhead the sky was dark as deep space - interrupted occasionally by the faint outlines of clouds disrupting the starlight. The tide kept pounding. It sounded like a heartbeat. Now and again a wave would hit a rock at just the right angle and splinter it - scattering it into dust with a sound not unlike that of a mortar shell exploding.
At that moment that made Shakk feel at home.
Cinders danced through the air like fireflies. A piece of wood burned to ashes and then cooled. Despite the fire, the beach was dark. Too dark. Suddenly there was movement, just across the sand from him. Shakk pushed himself back out of instinct. His hands and feet dragged trails on the surface of the beach until his back hit something metal. Shakk turned his head and saw that someone had parked an old camper van just near the edge of the fire. Tall, sculpted lines rose around him like mountains. He felt the crinkled skin of its broadside under his fingertips as he ran his hand along its side. Then he found something else.
A petite woman with long dark hair was curled up beside it. She was on her side, resting on a sleeping bag that looked just a little too small for her. She wore tattered jeans without shoes. Her shirt hung off one shoulder as she slept. Shakk examined her for a moment. Then he crept away. He opened the camper door and slipped inside - the vehicle creaked and groaned under his weight. He searched through the dashboard, popping his head out of the passenger seat window to ensure the young woman remained sleeping, before finally seeing a glimmer. He reached inside the cupholder and found a dark leather wallet. He fished in it and pulled out a small plastic rectangle.
“Employee ID - Mel Thorne, 23, hailing from Ella – Researcher and Therapist at Westcott Health Labs.”
Shakk heard a gun cock and felt the all too familiar sensation of cold steel pressing into the side of his temple. He glanced over and his eyes widened in shock. The petite woman had his gun - holding it to the side of his head through the window. The moon was bright - almost green. It made the light around them eerie. Shakk watched as the canine ran over to the small woman's side, eyes wide with fear. Shakk sighed. He kept his hands as still as he could.
“Wow,” he said softly. The woman subtly adjusted her grip on the Glock.
“Who are you?”
Shakk spoke up. The sound of his voice surprised him. It was… well, it was anxious.
“Can we sit by the fire? I’m… I’m cold.”
Mel motioned with her Glock towards the flames. Shakk stepped out from the camper and cautiously settled himself into the sand. Mel shifted closer to the fire, keeping her eyes on Shakk as Milly loped behind her and flopped down.
“Start talking. I saved you - and I deserve to know if I rescued some criminal,” Mel said.
Shakk's smirk grew wider as he eyed her up and down. She must have seen the scars.
“So you looked me over?” he snarled. She recoiled a bit at his voice, dark and angry, and her cheeks flushed red.
“No, forget it. This is ridiculous,” she snapped. Shakk stood, eyeing the gun in her hands, before taking a tentative step towards her.
When she didn’t shoot he took another. Then another. Closer, closer, closing the gap between them, and when he reached her he stooped and leaned in towards her face.
“Common courtesy dictates one should introduce themself when they’re talking to a stranger, Missus Throne.”
“It’s Miss, and I'm Mel. This is Milly,” she said, her voice sharp and venomous. Shakk chuckled.
“So there's no mister Throne?” Mel shot him a hard glare. The moonlight glistened off her skin as she stood strong between Shakk and Milly.
“Why are you covered in bruises and scars? Who are you?” Her voice rose above the sound of crashing waves.
He reclined. His eyes snapped shut like he’d been placed into a trance. The wind rustled through the trees. She cocked the hammer back. His lips curled upwards, ever so slightly, as he spoke.
“Shakk is my name... And sometimes I wonder who I am myself.”
“Don't lie to me. What are you doing here and why?” His eyes opened. His gaze shifted towards her, wraith-like, and he calmly replied, “I'm just a hired gun. My ship malfunctioned and I had no choice but to bail out. Now it's your turn. What planet is this? How can I get the fuck off of it?” Shakk’s face could have been cut from stone. No more false niceties.
“This is Ayan. A class two blue planet.”
“Where is the nearest spaceport to leave this planet, Miss Thorne?”
The young woman flinched. Just slightly. Her eyes flicked back and forth in calculation. Shakk didn’t give her time to speak.
“I’m sure you’re wondering how you know I won't kill you for not telling me. Am I correct?”
His words sent shivers through her body. She looked into his piercing gaze. She couldn’t gather anything from it.
“Alright, I'll tell you. But in exchange for something,” Mel spat, feet firmly planted in the sand, the gun trained on his chest with as much intensity as she could muster. She shuffled to the camper's side and pulled a holo journal and stencil from its door panel. Then she walked back over and sat across from him once more. She opened the journal with a few clicks on its surface and set the stencil on its screen. Blue light illuminated the air in front of her.
“I'm a researcher. A therapist…Well, kind of. I want you to share your story with me. It's not often I meet a soldier willing to talk, without fear of being discharged.” Her eyes sparkled as she spoke.
“What if I decline?”
“Then you can stay here forever while I disappear into the night. After I pull this trigger on you. Maybe it kills you - maybe it doesn’t. Either way, you’ll never get off world again.”
“You got some nerve, don't you?” He murmured with a smirk.
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“I can talk about myself, but I don't know where to start. My story isn't something I'm proud of.”
“What was it like, the first day you started serving?” She asked as she scribbled in her notebook.
“Darkness,” he said. His smile faded from his face.
“Darkness?” She peered at him, perplexed.
“Most people turn to mercenary work after years of servitude, for some corrupt noble or the planetary defense force. That wasn’t an option for me; I was told that I had to move away and live with my aunt. Things were difficult at home. My father wasn't making money anymore and my mother had been laid off. I had to stow away on a frigate bound for a desert planet. Eight other kids around my age got on the ship with me. We all thought our parents just needed some help. When the door opened there was this big flood of light. Like dawn breaking. I thought it was the beginning of something new - but I had no idea what it would be. The smallest kid stepped off first. They took him down to the sand and stomped his neck in. It was then that I knew this wasn't going to be pretty.”
Shakk gritted his teeth.
“Fuck - this is uncomfortable. Can I at least drink while I'm stuck here, forced to remember all this shit?”
She tossed a canteen from the van and he grabbed it. He popped the top off and chugged it down. His eyes widened and he sputtered it back up after a moment.
“What is this... gasoline?”
He looked away as he thought about what had happened. That poor kid, struggling desperately to get his boot off, amidst the terrified screams of his fellow captees. Shakk suddenly remembered how his parents had sold him off without a second thought - all for the sake of becoming debt-free. But that was all of them - sold off by their own families like animals. Like cattle. Shakk paused and Mel’s face scrunched in sorrow as she recorded the events in her journal.
“We were thrown into the back of a van. Stuffed into bags. Everything reeked like vomit. Vomit and heat. I couldn’t forget that smell if I tried. My parents must have loved me right?” Shakk balled up his fists, his knuckles turning white. Mel couldn't stop the tears streaming down her face.
“The van doors opened and I was pulled out. The hoods were ripped away and I stood there praying for a miracle. It was some kind of arena. Me and some other kid - then the loudspeaker came on. It said one of us had to kill the other, or we’d both die,” Shakk said, his voice cracking.
“What did you do?” Mel choked out in a whisper.
Shakk grinned.
“I stabbed the fucker in his windpipe. I hadn’t ever seen blood like that before. The LT was right though; it takes a monster to make a monster.”
The fire crackled. Shakk stared at Mel and took a drink from his canteen, then offered some of it to her. She refused it. He drank more.
“After that, we went to training. Drills on drills on drills - until we could kill without thinking about it. Then it was one battlefield after the next for as long as I can remember. I maxed out in bounty kills before I even hit puberty, and by the time I was sixteen, every class I took was combat-related. No more time to be a child. Kill or be killed is all we could do, and somehow it made it easier to live with my situation. They became like brothers to me. It was the best I could do at the time; it was the only thing I could do at the time." Mel sobbed behind her journal pressed against her face, tears running down her cheeks. Once she’d collected herself again, she spoke.
“I can see it now. The pain that surrounds you. All of these emotions that you keep hidden, manifest in the stories that you tell. I see it and recognize it. You are broken and anguished by those who did not save you, for forgetting who you were before all this. You think your training kept you alive when all it did was teach you to survive a warzone - to take life. How can anybody expect from someone what we cannot provide ourselves?”
“It kept me alive!” He yelled back at her.
“It took away your humanity. They sent you to war because they felt like you were expendable. But what could I possibly know of your situation? I haven't lived it like you have.”
He stood standing above her, she looked up from her journal, and he paced back and forth kicking at the sand.
“You don’t know shit!” He screamed at her.
He looked away, his rage dissipating. She strode forward, her steps deliberately slow. She threw the gun aside and let it fall to the sand with a heavy thud the sand gripped the steal, pulling it into its embrace like the quicksands of the jungle. His gaze was intense and unyielding but she stayed fast in her tracks.
Finally, with arms outstretched, she embraced him tightly around his neck. Suddenly he felt vulnerable. Powerless to this new feeling that she had stirred inside of him. He blinked and looked down at his hands. His palms were wet with tears. Confused by the unfamiliar sensation he pushed her away, scrambling, stumbling over his feet. She didn’t let him go and they both collapsed onto the ground beneath them. She sat up and cupped his face in her hands.
“Let it all out,” she whispered soothingly. “You don’t have to hide the pain anymore; no one is here to judge you. Release all of the hurt … I am not going anywhere.”
Shakk yielded to her embrace and his grief poured out into the sand. The trees encircled from the rest of the world. Finally, he could express his anguish in privacy and illuminate his solemn war.
He leaned back, his gaze locked onto hers with intensity. His large hands gripped the upper part of her back, pulling her closer to him as he leaned her backward. Her heart pounded in her chest as she gazed up at him, feeling a surge of desire wash over her. She could feel the heat radiating from his body, and it only intensified the chemistry between them. As their lips met in a passionate kiss, she could feel his grip on her tighten, holding her as if never wanting to let go.
Surprised by the sudden intensity, she couldn't help but kiss him back eagerly. She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling the muscles beneath her fingertips as she ran them down his neck and along his broad back. He nibbled at her neck, sending shivers down her spine and causing a soft moan to escape from her lips.
As he lowered her down onto the warm sand, his shirt was discarded in haste. She marveled at the sight of his chiseled abs and traced her fingers along each defined block and scar on his stomach. Her breathing became ragged as she felt the heat between them escalate. Her mind was unable to keep up with the whirlwind of emotions and sensations coursing through her body, but at that moment, nothing else mattered except for the intense connection between them.
His long, tangled dreadlocks cascaded over his shoulders and brushed against her bare skin, sending shivers down her spine. He gripped her thighs firmly, his fingertips tracing a delicate path along her skin as he sucked on her neck hungrily. As she wrapped her leg around his hip, he slid himself between her legs with urgent desire.
She could hardly catch her breath as everything seemed to happen in a blur of passion and sensation. Leaning over, he pushed up her shirt to expose her stomach, his lips trailing kisses down her warm skin. With one hand holding both of hers above her head, he brought his mouth down to her midsection, slowly dragging his tongue along every inch of her until he reached the waistband of her pants.
He paused, his breath ragged and warm against her skin. She felt goosebumps rise as he looked up at her, his hand reaching for the buckle of her pants. She lifted her hips to help him, and he gripped the belt loops tightly before pulling with force, sending the pants flying to the side. The metal buckle carved a deep groove into the sand as it landed, causing small grains to scatter in the air.
The fire crackled nearby, swaying in the wind that was starting to pick up. Despite the heat and humidity, Shakk's back was covered in sweat as he knelt on the soft sand. Mel's hands traced his chest as he spread her thighs slowly like a dog anticipating a drink from its water bowl on a hot summer evening. He licked his lips in anticipation before finally descending towards her waiting body.
She grabbed his hair, pulling it back and exposing his face. Her fingers tangled in his dreadlocks as she tugged on them, causing him to moan in pleasure. He kissed her clit eagerly, pushing her legs further apart with each movement, his tongue expertly exploring every inch of her folds. As she moaned and arched her back, he could feel her nails digging into the sand beneath them. He dragged his tongue slowly up and down her lips, taking his time to thoroughly savor her taste. She trembled with ecstasy, barely able to contain her arousal as she wondered if he thought she was too eager.
Suddenly, he paused and stood up, unbuckling his cargo pants as she watched hungrily. The firelight danced across his brown skin, accentuating the muscles rippling beneath as he unzipped his pants with agonizing slowness. She couldn't tear her eyes away from him, the contrast of his dark skin against the white sand and the fiery glow of the flames only adding to the intensity of their sexual tension. With a flick of his wrist, he freed himself from the confines of his pants, the clinging sand still teasingly clinging to his lower stomach as he stepped closer to her.
He maintained eye contact with her as he slowly removed his pants, revealing a defined V line at the bottom. His bulging dick strained against the fabric, reaching down from his pelvis to his thigh. She couldn't help but cover her eyes slightly, peeking through the gaps between her fingers. He stood above her, his fully exposed in the open air. She leaned forward and took it in her hands, sliding them down its length.
However, she soon realized that one hand wasn't enough to fully grasp it, so she used both hands to stroke it slowly. She bit her lip in anticipation as she motioned for him to come closer. As he positioned himself above her, she pulled him down onto the sand and guided his hips toward hers before guiding the tip of him inside of her.
He smiled as he pushed inside her thrusting with all his strength she let out a gasp, she was stunned she couldn’t catch her breath, he was thicker than she thought.
“Are you okay?” He asked her.
“Just give me a second” She responded.
She bit her lip.
He forcefully gripped her hips, thrusting deeply and methodically, hitting all the right spots. She arched her back and dug her nails into his skin, unable to contain her moans of pleasure. Their bodies moved together in perfect harmony, building towards a climax that would leave them both breathless.
As the full moon arched overhead, its silvery light danced across his bare skin. She wrapped her legs around his waist and leaned in, biting into his neck with a fierce hunger. The sounds of the ocean were drowned out by the echoes of their moans, and a gentle breeze blew over the warm sands. The tide rolled in and out along the beach, mirroring the rhythm of their passionate embrace. They lost track of time as the night went on, consumed by their desires and the relentless waves crashing against the shore. There was no rest, only an unquenchable heat that coursed through their bodies, mingling with the salty sea air and leaving them drenched in sweat. Passion fueled every movement as they surrendered to each other under the moonlit sky.