Convergence - Chapter One

Convergence-1

* * * *

         Rei took in a deep breath, and sighed. He’d told Melissa this story scores of times, and yet she wanted to hear it again. She was the dreamer in her family, always fantasizing about fantastic adventures and reveling in stories of good conquering evil. What she didn’t know, and he couldn’t tell her, was that his story was true; it actually took place. To reveal that would most likely condemn him to some ‘loony bin’ somewhere, and take him away from his children forever.

         Melissa was getting ‘antsy’ once more, urging him to continue with his story. For a 5 year old, she was exceptionally bright, and precocious.

         He sighed again, and began. But here, his story took on a more ‘conventional’ flavor, simply because of his audience, and the extremely vivid memories that came to mind when he revisited that remarkable event.

         With Melissa, the story began, “Once upon a time, a lonely truck driver met up with a beautiful princess, who had left her realm in search of her true love.”

* * * *

         His own recollections were quite a bit more earthy…

         Meager pickings this trip, he thought, as the truck rumbled on into the night. It’d been this way for the past 4 months now, and Rei wondered how much longer he could go on like this before tossing in the towel.

         Bits and pieces on nearly every trip barely added up to paying his fuel bills, much less covering the diner slop that he had to ingest to keep his body energized. Sure, some of his stops fed him better than others, but after 10 years of roadwork, he was beginning to feel the strain and wear of loneliness and fatigue. His vision of travel and adventure had turned into the humdrum cycle of endless round trips of hauling various goods to the same old places.

         This time, however, he’d been saved from a long hiatus of inactivity by a curious request from his dispatcher. No one else was willing to make this haul, for one reason or another, but he’d been idle for nearly 5 days, and his rent was coming due. An oblong box; just that, nothing else to ride along with it. His dispatcher had informed him that other driver’s had insisted on a full load, and had no interest in transporting one box to one site. What interested Rei, however, was the amount of money the customer was willing to pay for that delivery.

         The payment alone would pay for the next couple of months of his existence in this world, and give him breathing room to find something more profitable to carry him into the next few years. Sighing, he supervised the delivery of the box into the back of his semi, and its secure attachment to the deck of the trailer. It certainly seemed lonely there, all by itself, and he noted that there was no consignee to take charge of the box once he arrived at the destination. No problem, he thought, as the transfer had been paid in advance, but still…

         He’d begun his trucker’s life once his military career came to an end, and it promised endless adventure and wealth in those days. What he’d encountered however, was the tedious mile upon mile of highway travel, seldom able to enjoy the routes over which he’d travel, simply because of the tight delivery deadlines that he was dealt with each trip. He had to admit to himself that he was just weary, tired of life and wanting to ‘shift ballast’ as they referred to it in the Navy. But where, how, and to what end? He needed a change, he thought.

         The box was secured to his satisfaction, and he took a little time to examine its dimensions. A coffin, he decided. It looked like a simple, but functional coffin. Shaking his head, he cast that thought out of his mind, and got down to the business of finishing the paperwork for the shipment. The shipment was to be delivered to an obscure location some days hence, and under no circumstances was the box to be opened before that delivery.

         That was easy enough to ensure, as the seals that they’d attached to the box were some of the best that money could buy, and the back of the trailer would be sealed as well, with tempered steel locks. It must have been a valuable load, Rei thought, as he wrapped up the consignment. No matter to him, as the payment was the only reward he’d receive from the successful completion of his contract.

         Once everyone seemed satisfied with the preparations, it became his duty to perform the transit, and he eagerly pulled out of the consignment lot to proceed on his way. These stops bothered him more than the travel; always a bit of drama to clutter up an otherwise straightforward transfer of goods from one place to another. But, on the highway, his thoughts were his own, and he had a chance to ponder the more weighty purposes of life and such. Not always to his satisfaction, but his time was his own.

         Once on the road, Rei settled into the routine of slipping through the miles between one checkpoint and another automatically, letting the GPS chirp out the directions on the route with an annoying regularity. He really didn’t need it after all these years, but the company insisted that every driver use one to ‘make sure’ that destinations were reached in precise regularity. He sighed, and wondered if everyone’s life followed the same mindless routine as this.

         The date was perilously close to Christmas, and he began to reflect upon his rather barren life up to this point. It seemed to him that he’d sidestepped much of life’s offerings in exchange for the somewhat secure life that an over the road trucker offered him over the years. Times had changed, however. The entire economy had fallen into a slump, and money and easy business opportunities had faded quickly.

         Now it was ‘catch as catch can’. Whatever it took to get the business engine working again, particularly his own became his primary goal these days.

         Rei had been on the road now for nearly 6 hours, and everything seemed to be going exactly as planned. His first stop for food would be coming up in another hour, and his appetite was beginning to anticipate the burger that he knew was the only claim to fame of this particular truck stop. His favorite blues song was groaning out its message of loneliness and pain, when he heard something that made his heart skip a beat.

         Years of becoming ‘one’ with his vehicle and all of its idiosyncrasies had trained him to recognize the cause and seriousness of various bumps and thumps while underway. This, however, he didn’t recognize. It seemed to be a rumble of thunder, and coming from his trailer. It was nothing that he could feel, however, so he decided to investigate it at his next stop, less than an hour away. That decision didn’t mean, however, that he wouldn’t worry about it until then.

         Pulling into the large parking area, he immediately unlocked the back of the trailer, and took a thorough look around the inside. Everything seemed to be as it was when he’d left the pickup point, especially his cargo. It was still tightly fastened to the bed of the trailer, and showed no signs of damage or tampering. He then moved his attention to the rest of the rig, ensuring that everything that he depended upon to move shipments from one part of the country to another was in working order.

         Satisfied, but mystified, Rei entered the diner and satisfied his hunger with their somewhat famous burger. Returning to his rig, he was a bit surprised to see a figure standing in the shadow of his trailer, apparently waiting for something, or someone. Having been the witness to many scams and robberies in various truck stops in the past, Rei approached his rig with caution. ‘Lot Lizards’ abounded in many unguarded parking lots throughout the country, some benign, some very vicious. Prostitution had been refined over the years into a selective process, melding it’s offerings to needs in various types of employment.

         This apparition didn’t seem to fit the picture that he’d formed over the years, although he was quick to discover that the figure was female, and to his observation, sensual. The posture, attitude, and demeanor said something else; a mission, purpose and a firm plan of attack. Attack? Yeah, he felt that there was something much deeper in purpose going on than just an introduction.

         Standing away from his cab, he waited for the figure to make the first move. There was still time to alert the parking lot security in case the situation reeled out of control. As she stepped into the light, he noted that she appeared to be very much like the subject of his frequent dreams. Pale, tall, slim and from his point of view, gorgeous; he began to feel that there was much more to this trip than what he’d seen on the surface. She was very quiet, and he waited to see what was going to happen in her presence.

         She stepped up to him, slowly, carefully, and stood, nearly nose to nose with him. For some reason, he felt no discomfort, nor fear, but he was curious as to what her presence meant. Looking deep into his eyes, she said nothing for several moments. Then, she said softly, “You’re beautiful. I accept.”

         ‘I accept?’ he thought. What the hell did that mean? ‘Beautiful?’ He was completely caught off guard, and when she quietly suggested that he accept her as a passenger, he surprised himself when he agreed. He accepted her offer to accompany him, but with the caveat that she stay out of his way, and not interfere with his delivery. Later on, he’d have more time to ponder this decision, but for right now, all he wanted to do was to get back on the road.

         Aside from her suggestion that she ride with him, he had no idea where her destination lay. He supposed that would come out as they rode along the great highway, but it was becoming quite clear that she had more silence about her than answers. Keeping his eyes on the road ahead was his most important duty during the trip, but he couldn’t help noticing out of the corner of his eye that his passenger stared at him constantly, as if to examine him for some kind of odd purpose.

         As for her, she was quite flawless, her simple beauty struck a resonant note within him. He puzzled over why he’d allowed a complete stranger to ride with him when he’d never done so before. Long miles rolled by, and Rei noted that his passenger’s eyes seldom strayed from him, and he began to search his mind for the lapses in their encounter. Amazingly, he didn’t even know her name much less the reason she ‘d appeared outside his rig at that particular time. One other thing was beginning to catch his attention as they rode along. Finger movements…

         From the time that she’d entered his truck, her hands had seldom stopped weaving patterns near her lap, silent, intricate patterns. Additionally, he actually seemed to lose sight of her solid frame from time to time, as she appeared to shift in and out of focus. At first, he thought it was just a case of road fatigue, but as he paid closer attention to her, the fading episodes became certain. But why? What was happening here?

         The miles rolled on, and his passenger continued to behave as before, the only break being a time when she murmured, “How do I activate his power?” When he asked her to repeat what she’d said, she simply looked at him with that same, benign stare. He figured that she wasn’t talking to him, probably to herself, but it was beginning to make him feel really uneasy.

         It was close enough to the time of his next rest stop for him to begin figuring out the ‘arrangements’ for their stopover. This wasn’t going to be an ordinary stopover, as he was strangely unable to send her on her way. The cab of his rig supported two sleeping spaces, but he knew he’d never feel comfortable trying to rest in such close proximity to an unknown entity, especially one so peculiar.

* * * *

         He finally decided to allow the stranger the privacy of the cab of his truck, while he took a small motel room at the stop that he’d chosen for that night. He needed to keep some space between them until he could solve the mystery of their ‘relationship’, if he could call it that. His apparent weakness in ridding himself of her was a little creepy, and it was much more than him being attracted to her beauty. She was an enigma, a will-o’-the-wisp encounter that provided him with more questions than answers.

* * * *

         Isolde sat in the rig, confused but determined. Hers had been the task of opening the portal this year, as her number had come up in the rolls. There had been failures over the millennia, but for the most part, the successes had been ample enough to justify their efforts. The major problem was; there were no instructions; just the instinctive savvy of thousands of years of development amongst her kind.

She’d decided to use her natural shape, and augment it with the latest erotic scent, but the ‘Key’ seemed to be impervious to her allure. This was NOT going well, she thought. Was this going to be one of the years of failure, she feared? She was in too deep right now to call upon advice from the clan, and the time was running away very quickly; too quickly, she decided. It was time to take some action, but what?

* * * *

         Rei was weighing his options at this point, and trying to figure out a plan of action for the morning when he needed to get back on schedule with this delivery. ‘Something’ was gnawing at the back of his mind; something familiar; kinda déjà vu. He’d been in this situation before, he mused, a long time ago, but he couldn’t recall the exact time or the outcome. This night was not going to be restful, he figured. And it wasn’t, but not for the reason he’d supposed.

* * * *

         Now standing in front of the door that she knew he was behind, Isolde felt torn between two worlds. The clan depended upon visits through the portal to exist, and yet there was so little actually known about the process. There were taboos, of course, the breaking of which ensured certain death, but they were little understood by the clan. The strongest dealt with something called ‘Love’, and dire consequences were placed on the ‘spirit’ that violated that one. Still, she felt she had to confront the man, and try to weave those magical webs with which she’d been endowed, to tantalize him into opening the portal, and giving the gift of life to her people once again. The ‘Gate-keeper’, the ‘Master Key’; all those names he’d wandered the world under only served her people whenever his ‘gift’ was willingly given to the messenger; her this cycle.

         This cycle, she mused; it was a bit of an interruption in her existence. It was a ‘mid-cycle’, one that responded to a ‘call’, a summons so to speak. An opportunity for their kind to catch up on the endless cycles of regeneration for her species. Where the call came from was never understood, it was just part of the ‘process’, and had gone on for longer than anyone could fathom.

         This cycle was particularly urgent, and unusually specific. Given the option, as all of her predecessors were, she had been captivated by the subject when first introduced to his presence at the truck stop, and his classic purity for the purpose for the mission caused her to exclaim, “You’re beautiful; I accept.”

         His response was awkward, she thought. He was silent most of the time; reflective, and only moderately responsive to her allure. This was not how she’d seen this mission progressing at all. She’d given the ensnarement’s as much power as she could spare from her psyche, but she was only able to keep him from sending her directly away. Even then, she felt that he was toying with her, keeping her around only to discern her purpose; this one had ‘memory’.

         Memory meant that he’d been ‘used’ before, although all traces of the event should have been removed from his mind. Any fragments of recall by the subject would, or could cause some unpredictable responses in such missions as this, and Isolde already felt less in control than she wanted. Her only dilemma now was how to approach him. The door was obviously locked, which presented no barrier to her, but there might be protocol issues if she were to enter through any other portal, frightening the subject and complicating things. On the other hand, there was the fact that she’d sensed ‘memory’ in him, and the possibility that he might be expecting something out of the ordinary from her. But she felt that she had to make her move, and soon.

* * * *

         Sleep came fitfully to Rei, still pondering his concerns about his passenger, but fatigue finally won out.

         He awoke slowly, sensing a change in his room. Confused for a moment, he reached for the bedside lamp, and after fumbling around a bit found the switch. Blinded by the light for a moment, he quickly surveyed his room but didn’t have to look far to see the object of his concern. It was his passenger, standing next to the doorway. Oddly enough, he wasn’t surprised; not about her presence anyway. He WAS a bit taken aback by her nakedness, however.

         Framed in the light of the lamp, his passenger was a pure vision of erotic loveliness. ‘Erotic?’ he mused. Definitely, and he found himself being drawn into her web of seduction despite his natural inclination towards caution. She was silent, her skin smooth and pale, her body structure slim and lithesome. Her hair was straight, falling down around her shoulders but not concealing her firm, perfectly formed breasts. Filling out this work of art was a finely crafted waist and flat belly, gently swelling into voluptuous hips. Harbored between her thighs, at the apex of her shapely legs was a prominent mons pubis, covered by silky light blonde hair. Rei felt his will power succumbing to this vision before him, and he began to notice a most beguiling scent filling the room.

         Again, he sensed a feeling that he’d been in this situation before, but couldn’t recall details. Strangely, he didn’t feel any sense of threat, or danger; indeed, the only change in his present condition was an extremely rigid erection. Rei noticed his body beginning to tremble in anticipation as the vision began to approach his bed, eyes firmly focused on his.

* * * *

         Isolde was afraid now, for she had used too much of her psyche power to neutralize the traces of ‘memory’ that she’d encountered in trying to seduce this subject. It was working in truth, but the strength to withdraw when the mission was completed might not be available to her this night. She was now faced with a double-bind; to consummate the mission and hope that her return through the portal could be affected, or stop now, turn back, and try to recover her strength for another try. Neither of the alternatives gave her much hope, as a retry would only expose her to even more ‘memory’.

         That this man was ‘special’ was the only constant in her mission instructions. This meant that she would not be able to stop this process and find another subject, even though she really didn’t want to. She had become enamored with this one, and her difficulty in overcoming his cautious reluctance was clouding her own judgment.

         He’d awakened and turned on the bedside light, so she was completely exposed to him now. Using all of the wiles and enchantments she’d been taught by her people, she strode to the bedside of the man, and prepared to take control of the mission process. That was just another of her mistakes.

         Suddenly, she felt the hunger within herself, much stronger than it should ever have been. The energy that she should have retained had been squandered in breaking through the subjects ‘memory’ barriers, and now she could no longer defend herself against the powers of her own enchantments. Panic soon gave way to an acute craving, a craving she recognized as lust, and something else. There was no resistance left in her, and she could only give herself up to her overcharged emotions.

* * * *

         As she stood before him, Rei felt his initial paralysis wear off, and a severe case of lust set in. His erection was almost painful, and the submissive posture of his guest only inflamed his desire for her. Reaching up to her hand, he drew her down onto his bed, and into his memories.

         There was nothing to remove, as they were both naked, each of their bodies revealing the intensity of their passion. His, with his rampant cock straining to contain the hormones raging within his body, drops of pre-cum forming on the tip; hers, with her turgid nipples, and swollen pussy lips harboring her own juices for the coming dance of lust. The hours to come were not planned by either, but they would form the bond of their relationship forever.

         Their initial union was more of a clash than a romantic tryst, both of them trying to establish dominance over the other, with only one goal in mind.

* * * *

         Isolde soon realized that her defensive powers in this engagement were nonexistent, and she was being forced to share the effects of her own spells and enchantments with her victim.

         Her eyes followed his hands as they reached up to her arms and pulled her into his bed. Helpless, she tried to meld her mind into his, as was done in ages past, and was momentarily surprised when their thoughts began to mingle. Images of another passionate tryst between this man and another filled her mind, capturing her complete attention. Opening her eyes once more, she saw straight into his soul, his face not more than a couple of inches from hers.

         His ‘memory’ fragments—they were of her! Another time, another place; but to be sure it was her that she saw in the passionate throes of lovemaking, and her own fragments began to return to her. All memories were scrubbed from the minds of the mission participants, she recalled, but apparently something had happened to them that left bits of fragmentary memory in their minds. This would not be an ordinary encounter, she thought.

         She started at his touch on her breasts, but it also shot a bolt of energy through her body, causing a sudden surge of blood to her center and moisture to her vagina. Taking her nipples between his fingers, he rolled them around, pinching and prodding them into hard little pebbles. The only power remaining in her body was sexual, and she had little choice but to give herself up to the waves of emotion that swept through her from his touch. There was no longer any question as to who was in control of this encounter, but she no longer cared.

         As her mind melded into his, her thoughts turned to the fragments of memory that drifted back into her mind. She recalled nearly losing her composure during their last tryst so long ago, but regaining her strength at the last moment, saving the mission for another generation. But, she remembered, he was beautiful, and his passion and tenderness had affected her deeply.

         Now, she thought, was this the end of her? Was this the death that Nahemah spoke of when she sent her daughters on to their trysts? As she felt Rei’s hands upon her body, exploring, stroking, prodding and insistent, she let herself go, sinking into the magic that nearly cost her the mission so long ago. If this be death, she thought, let it be.

* * * *

"Convergence - Chapter Two"