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Chapter 3

“I told you this would be fun!” yelled Sophie over the blasting beats.
Renee smiled at her friend through the pulsing darkness, the song was hard and fast, and Renee had made sure she a just a little too much to drink. Now her body was loose and relaxed, responding to the harsh buffets of the music on the floor. She had a vague notion of someone dancing close behind her and remembered through her alcohol haze the passably gorgeous boy Sophie had found for her.

As flighty as she was, Sophie had good taste - really good taste actually. With exams done it was time for Renee to indulge herself, and he was the decadent triple-rich chocolate truffle.

His name was Markus and he was the embodiment of modern Mediterranean aristocracy. She stole a quick glance over her shoulder at the demi-god dancing along side her. His black angelic curls, damp with sweat, clung to his forehead and a single bead of sweat escaped his brow, trickling down the edge of a high and prominent cheek bone, quivering as if on the edge of a pinnacle. On impulse Renee reached up and brushed the droplet from his flawless olive skin.

‘This man would make Venus melt’ Renee thought in awed wonder

As if cued by her thoughts, Markus caught Renee’s hand is it fell from his cheek, drawing it closer to him, locking her eyes in his emerald gaze.

‘Forget Venus, Sophie’s going to need a shop-vac to get me home. Those eyes, you could fall forever in them, it’s a wonder I’m still standing’

Renee smirked and came closer to the living David in front of her, that mesh shirt Markus was wearing did as much to hide his sculpted torso as his low rising jeans did to hide that perfectly muscled ‘V’. As their dancing got closer and closer, Renee deducted that this boy was in fact far better endowed than his marble predecessor could have ever imagined. She had nearly died when Sophie said he wasn’t in fact European, but instead part Cree, and if he kept dancing like that Renee was certain he’d have her flat lined by the end of the night. This one was a God.

Renee had every intention of being his muse.

Ignoring Sophie’s mischievous glares and brushing her suggestive remarks and cat calls off with a once over of her and Phil, Renee slinked closer to the heat radiating behind her. A strong arm wrapped itself around her hips and waist, and a hand run down the length of her thigh dragging inquisitive fingers across exposed skin with a caress here and insistent prodding there. Each touch sending jolts of electricity through Renee’s every nerve. 

Sophie was right. This was exactly what she needed, and with a small smile Renee lost herself in the hypnotic vibrations of loud speakers and succumbed to the charms of the divinity that held her.

Leaving the club later that night - well early that morning - Safely tucked under the arm of said escort, Renee felt warm and at ease. They all clambered into the back of a taxi, letting the velvet black of pre-dawn slowly settle their crackling excitement, ebbing it into a contented pulse. They were talking about something, Sophie laughed, at Phil’s remark and Markus’ witty response. It was funny because she laughed too.

Renee had a strange feeling of outside-ness, she could here the conversation, but it was muffled and fuzzy, like it was underwater. Un-phased, as it was obvious result of high quantities of alcohol and exhaustion, Renee let herself slip further away; the droning was just on the edges of her perception. It was dark in the cab; it was broken by the streaks of amber street lights, stretching out in tails, like sparklers dragged through the night air. But even they backed away and shrank, like they were caught in a glass bubble…slow drifting away. Blissfully unaware that this was a bad thing Renee turned, finding herself surrounded in a surreal haze. Colors and motes slowly appearing and blurring into odd shapes and figures, like dozens of Technicolor fireflies. Reaching out with a tentative foot Renee stepped on something solid. Upon inspection, she noted that there was grass under her feet – if that multi-purple-hued surface could in fact be dubbed grass, but that wasn’t a need for concern. The figure on the rock in front of her was. All round them a forest was growing, stemming from that figure. It was a forest of colours, manifesting into weird forms that were all sprawling and bursting forth.

‘I bet this is what Van Gough’s thoughts looked like, Picasso’s too’ Renee thought idly.
 
The scene unfolding before her was very much like a painters canvass, but at double speed. The figure just smiled and it watched her. Renee felt like she should be shocked, it was the hair that gave it away. Though straight and very long, and match with different clothes she knew who it was. The loose-hanging garb was filled with more greens in shifting hues than Renee’s mind could comprehend, but then again, she knew she didn’t need to. They weren’t important.

He nodded, well, he wasn’t a he. He was no more then that. Was, is, can, be, the figure wasn’t anything, yet it was everything all at once. Renee nodded, understanding, responding. The figure smiled, its lounging pose almost mockingly calm in its ease, in the midst of the cacophony of chaos surrounding them. It was the pose of knowing without having to know. Its eyes dropped and Renee followed his gaze. At her feet sprang a vine. It snaked up in vertical growth until it was level with Renee’s waist then promptly exploded, petal by petal, into a vibrancy of colour. Endless pinks, reds, stripes, and blots melded in a frenzy of brilliance that enhanced with each unfurling of its bloom. In its center was a smooth stone.

It was flat, simple, ordinary. It was, in contrast to everything else, stationary. It was just a rock, small, like any other at a beach or river bank, one with the trademark misshapen oval of good skipping stones. It was no bigger than a bottle cap, grey with rust veins of colour. It was special obviously, and she felt like she knew why, but couldn’t describe how yet.

“I accept and I will uphold”

The sound of the voice startled Renee, it sounded foreign and out of place here, like a timpani solo in a library. It had broken the sanctity of it somehow, replacing it with a solemn sense of resolve, and vacancy? The figure was gone, the forest dissolved, and she was alone, but that vast emptiness seems to hum with a quiet approval. Her focus shifted, and a feeling that strangely resembled melted honey washed over her. Renee blinked a few times as her eyes accustomed to the gloom of the taxi cab.

“So that what it feels like when Gods smile” Renee muttered absently

Sophie’s laugh hic-coughed and sputtered into a groggy string of giggles. She was obviously confused and wondering if she missed part of Markus’s pun. Phil hadn’t noticed Renee’s comment and was mildly baffled at the change in Sophie’s laughter. He was unsuccessful in his attempts to hind his own hysterics at the sudden change in his girlfriends vocals. The two fell into yet another fit of laughter and blissful unawareness. 

Markus smiled down at Renee’s voiced contemplation and pressed a soft kiss to the top of her head. Then he chuckled quietly, and momentarily tightening his hold on her waist. Renee wasn’t sure if he laughed for their companions, or for something else. Looking up she caught a glimmer of something - of what was, or what could have been – but it was lost in an instant, failing to me more than a trick of the amber streetlights as the taxi speed off into the night. 


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The Sighting Chapter 2
The Sighting (AKA Chapter 1)
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