The Occult Pull

Two: First Meet

I'm floating on a cloud. I can feel the softness of it brush against me as I turn onto my side. Something warm touches my hand but my eyelids are much too heavy to see what is making the cloud so warm. Maybe it's the sun? Then I definitely shouldn't look. For now, let's sleep.

I'm back on the cloud, I think. I must have blacked out for a while. The warmth on my hand is gone and I miss it. I miss the lightness of the cloud too. It's changed. It's firmer and I can feel a weight dragging on all my limbs, threatening to pull me through my cloud. Maybe if I go back to sleep again it'll go away.

I can hear voices now. How are there voices on my cloud? I try to open my eyes to see who it is but they feel fused shut. The voices stop and I can hear shuffling. They're coming towards me now. No, leave me alone. My limbs are still heavy. I just want my cloud. Leave me alone. A loud beeping noise starts to ring in my head and I scream. But, thankfully, sleep comes to my rescue and drags me under the darkness again.

I resurface again and my cloud has disintegrated. I'm definitely on a bed now but the warmest, most comfortable one ever. I need this bed. I realise this is the warmth from my hand, it's wrapped around me. My chest feels warm at the thought and my stomach flips. I am very happy suddenly by this heat. I trust it. It protects me. But, not from sleep.

This time I feel like I was hit by a truck. I'm starting to come to my senses a bit more now, I think. I'm starting to remember the accident but I can't remember exactly what happened. I was driving and I needed my map. Then I remember...giant wolves! I scream but no sound comes out. The ringing is back. The tedious beeping drills into my skull until I'm engulfed in it. I find myself calling out for sleep to take me again. The warmth is gone. I hurt everywhere. Sleep is my saviour.

I wake to a very monotonous beep-beep-beep. It's far less annoying when it's going that slowly and far more recognisable. I must be in a hospital. No hospital I've ever been in has been this comfortable though. The warmth is back but now that I can actually concentrate again, I try to figure out what it is. The cloud was a bed and the ringing was a heart monitor and everything else was drugs I'm assuming but what is this warmth? I concentrate as hard as I can but all that I manage to do is make my heart monitor jump slightly. My brain is as tired as my limbs, evidently, so I rest it. I embrace the warmth more and leave that puzzle for another day. I've done enough for now.

The warmth is gone again. I'm cold and lonely without it but mostly confused. What was it? Maybe if I actually get my eyelids open this time I can ask. I push and push at them but they're much too heavy. I must open them. I need to open them. I try for a finger or a toe or anything but I can't move anything. I have a brief scare when I think that this is the life I'm doomed to now, that maybe I'm dead and this is hell. Being surrounded by the world but not being able to embrace it or look at it. Just coming in and out of it between dreams. But then my finger moves. Just my index one at first but then the other ones slowly follow. It's only a slight movement but it's more than I've managed in days.

The warmth touches my arm and I almost jump. It's here. I need to open my eyes so I can see it but they just won't open. At least I can make out the warmth more now since it's solid and I'm less lucid. It's lightly squeezing on my arm. Concentrate. The warmth spreads and I realise it's a thumb moving. A hand! It's a hand! The warmth is a person. I find myself slightly disappointed at it just being a person and not...a guardian angel? I'm clearly on too many drugs. Maybe it's my doctor just reassuringly squeezing on my hand. The warmth lifts my hand and I feel like the lightest kiss against my knuckles. The beeping spikes again and I'm angry that it betrays the explosion that small kiss set off inside of me. The warmth laughs and it's like honey. The glorious chuckle just makes me ache to hear it again. But then the warmth speaks.

"Emily! I think she's waking up. Come in, quickly." He shouts. That voice. My god, that voice is like sex. It's better than sex. I've never heard anything like that voice before. I want to hear it again but someone else comes into the room.

"Would you mind giving me some room? I need to check her vitals." A woman speaks this time. He removes his hand from my arm and I try to reach out to grab it again. No, come back. I'm awake, you're right. Just touch me again, please. The heart monitor begins to spike again. He touches my arm again briefly before moving again. "No, stay back. I'm unsure if this is heart complications or..." She trails off and I'm immediately filled with dread. Or what? Are they writing me off as a lost cause? I'm just struggling against all of these drugs you have me on. Just open your eyes, Sophie. Then you can see what the warmth is. This stirs something deep in me that I never knew was there but before I can process it my eyelids snap open.

The beeping slows abruptly and all I see is white. The light burns at my eyes but I refuse to close them again. They've been closed for so long. I need to see something other than darkness. I need to see the warmth. I need to see where it came from.

My eyes begin to adjust and I realise I'm not in a hospital at all or I'm in a very fancy one. The room is cosy with it's deep brown walls and expensive furnishings. I see two doors in front of me and another one off to my left. There's a table with a laptop on it and a few picture frames, and a giant bookshelf absolutely heaving with books. I'm on a huge bed, a king sized one, I think. The sheets feel softer than I've ever been in before. I look up to see an older woman with red hair tied back into a bun with a few loose strands. She gives me a very warm smile but I'm distracted from this immediately. Just beside her. It must be the warmth. It must be.

The second my eyes lock with his, I'm lost. The world fades away except the warm green eyes that just seem to suck me in. But the green eyes slowly turn black as a sultry smile graces his beautiful face. He has a strong jaw and slightly tanned skin with deep chocolate brown hair. His nose is slightly crooked as if previously broken and there is a scar along his left eyebrow. He towers above the woman in the room with broad shoulders that I immediately imagine running my hand along as I wrap myself around him. Those firm hands sliding along my back and down to grab my ass roughly before he begins to kiss me.

My heart monitor spikes again and it clicks me out of my daydream. But I think he knows what I was thinking because he smirks at me. His smirk is so sexy. It makes me want to kiss and lick all along...

The monitor spikes again. Soph, get it together! The woman clears her throat, smiles at me, and exits the room. My throbbing libido is grateful that I'm left alone with him but my brain is focused on how weird this situation is. He's a stranger yet I want him to rip off my clothes and take me right now.

I look back into his eyes. They're still black but captivating. His sultry smile returns as he licks his lips. Oh God, that tongue could probably work wonders. I can't help but bite my lip at the thought.

"Mine." His honey like voice graces my ears again and something vibrates from deep in my stomach. What is going on? Why do I like it?