Gabrielle was still fast asleep when she felt something nudge her. In the inky blackness of her mind she knew something was there but her brain wouldn’t let her move. The next thing she knew she was flipped over from sleeping on her belly to being on her back, her brain sounded all the alarms, and her eyes snapped open. Skyler was looming over her, his hands on her upper arms.

“What? What is it?” She lightly smacked one of his hands away, her brain still foggy.

“It’s your day off, and Zlyena is an impatient woman, we need to be there in minutes.” He didn’t look pleased in the least about what he just said.

“Why wake me up so early?” she said as she got up and rubbed the sand from her eyes.

“She told me to wake you up, you were the one who told her your days off.” He took his hands off her arms and got stood back up.

“Yeah, I got her number from that weird phone you gave me and I put it on my smartphone so it wouldn’t take forever for me to text her.” She never liked using a flip phone when she had one, and flip phones were notorious for taking forever to even input a single word in for texting.

“Oh yeah, that’s fine, as long as you don’t tell people about her. She likes a bit of secrecy, choosing to live underground and all.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“She lives underground?” She looked up at him, confused. Was she going undercover, or did she actually live below ground?

“Yeah, she built a whole society for her people nearby Crayla Town, there’s a teleporter under there so they don’t actually have to land and stuff like that. Also that weird grapefruit looking fruit they have is an experience and a half. Imagine tasting every flavor! Sweet, sour, savory, spicy, all at once! No idea how that is even possible, but it’s a thing that exists.” He grinned and pointed to his mouth.

“Wow, they really must find single flavor foods weird.” She got up and went to the closet, opened it and pulled at a gray dress, looked at it for a second, and decided against it. She pushed it back into the closet, and pulled on a red dress, she wasn’t going anywhere fancy, so she decided against that too. She shoved it back in and pulled out a blue one, which looked too much like sleepwear, so she put it back.

“Having trouble deciding what to wear?” Skyler walked up and put his hands on her shoulders.

“This always happens, and I don’t know what to do about it.” She grabbed a green dress with a darker green for the collar,

“That one looks good, although the red dress was kinda nice too. A bit too fancy for the event, though.”

“Maybe once this is all over I could use it when you take me out to dinner.” She took the green dress off the coat rack and turned to him. She tried her best to make puppy dog eyes at him.

“You don’t have to make that face at me, I’ll take you, I promise, after this is all over.” Skyler smiled back at her.

“Yay!” She did a happy little jig, hoping that things go well enough that they can have a nice dinner together.

“Now I’m going to let you change. We’re taking my car today by the way.” He looked back as he was walking out of the room.

“Yeah, because I have no idea where it is.” She stood there and took the dress off the hanger.

“I’ll give you the address next time, but I have to go there too because she called me there as well.” He did a little wave and went through the door.

She got dressed put on her black slip on shoes and her white coat, she’d always had a hard time with coat zippers, her hair would easily get caught in the teeth and she’d have to finegle it while pushing her hair back. She remembered that when she and Skyler walked to school together in middle school, he always zipped up her coat when she was cold.

A sudden feeling of sadness hit her and before she could react, tears were pooling under her eyes and threatened to wet her cheeks. She quickly wiped them away, sniffled, and finished getting ready. He was hers now. There was no reason to feel sad. Why did she suddenly start crying? Was it because remembering all that happened to him while she was gone still filled her with guilt every time she thought about it?

“You ok in there?” Skyler said as he lightly knocked on the closed door from outside.

“I told you not to use that thing again.” She said in a scolding voice as she wiped her face again. She knew he could read her emotions, she didn’t know how it worked, but she guessed he it was something he had to actively do.

“It turns on by itself at a certain intensity, I don’t know much about how this damn thing works either, you might be feeling mine soon too, I’m not sure.” He talked loudly so his voice could reach her through the wall.

“I’m dressed now, you don’t have to keep shouting out there.” She walked over and opened the door. He was right outside it, and looked at her.

“I hope she can tell me how to get me to not feel intense emotions from you, I should ask about that when we get there.” He put his hand to his chin and turned around

She walked around him, and got almost the entire way around him when he spoke.

“By the way.” He kept still, not even looking at her from the corner of his eye.

She turned towards him. She didn’t feel the need to ask him what it was.

“I don’t mind if you feel mine, but you may have to learn how to turn it off for other reasons.” He looked away and walked towards the door.

She stayed silent, unable to find the words to convey how touching that was. But also was confused as to why she would ever have to turn it off.

She followed him out, and kept pace with him. She looked at him and gave him an endearing smile. He looked at her from the corner of his eye and smiled back. There was something off about what he said earlier, so she was trying to cheer him up. They walked up to a new looking shiny black car.

“My last one broke down on me recently, that’s why this one looks so new. Here.” He took out his keys and pressed a button on his key fob, and all the doors clicked open.

“My last one didn’t have a key fob and I very much enjoy having one now.” He was still smiling as he opened the car door and got in.

She went around and got in as he started the car. She then remembered that he woke her up in her room.

“Wait a second, why do you have your car here? You teleported in, right?” She turned to him and his smile faded and his cheeks flushed gray.

“Oh, I drove here but I teleported in anyways because I needed to wake you up quickly, and knocking on the door wasn’t quick enough,” he said as he pulled out of the driveway and drove out of the apartment complex.

The passing scenery was familiar to her up until a certain point, when he turned into an area she didn’t recognize. She was usually very good at remembering where she has been, and has a good memory for directions, so she knew they were going someplace else.

“We’re getting close” He quickly looked at her with a slight grin and then turned his attention back onto driving.

He turned onto a side street past the rural housing area she had never seen before, and there was a single, abandoned looking shack. Her eyes went wide and she widened her closed lips as he started slowing down. That couldn’t be the place, could it? He turned onto the gravel side lane that was in front of the shack and stopped.

“Here it is. Not much of a looker, is it? It’s not supposed to. They actually got a guy to make it look older than it is, which I didn’t know was a profession but I guess if it pays the bills, go for it.” He turned off and got out of the car, then slammed the door behind him.

She got out and did the same, and reluctantly walked around the car, the gravel crunching under her feet. It turned to the shuffling of well kept grass as she stepped off of the road. The shack itself looked aged but all around it was green grass, not a bald spot or dead area to be seen.

“Does someone do upkeep on the grass here?” She looked around and spotted sprinklers dug into the ground.

She turned back around, and noticed grass clippings on the edge of the gravel road, someone had definitely been mowing, so she knew she wasn’t being somehow tricked by Skyler.

“They pay someone to come mow it I guess, you’ll have to ask her about it.” He walked up to the shack and took out a keyring with two keys, one that was larger than the keyring itself.

He shoved the key into the lock that was keeping the metal chains together around the shack. The lock opened and he gently slipped it off of one side, nails keeping the rest of the chain from falling down, and he let it fall and sway silently. He used the smaller key on the bronze door handle, and opened it. A rush of cool air blasted outwards, blowing her hair back.

“Come on in.” He gestured towards the open door that had concrete stairs going downwards into blackness and made another slight smile at her.

“What is that?” She grabbed her hair and tried to keep it from blowing back.

“That’s the air conditioning, don’t worry about that.” He put his arm down and walked up and into the doorway.

“I didn’t think aliens knew about air conditioning.” She walked up to him, still keeping her hands on her head.

“Follow me.” He gestured inwards and started to walk down the stairs.

She followed him down, the concrete stairs ending at black flooring. They walked through a small black hallway. Near the end, floodlights came into view. They came out onto the landing, which was very large. Past the metal railing was a huge area that stretched for miles that had exposed dirt with no grass. The only plant life there were a kind of strange plant she had never seen before. On the vines of the upwards growing plants that had stalks akin to corn plants were dark fruits, which she gathered must have been the fruit that Skyler had talked about earlier. Strange humanoid creatures with dark purple, almost pitch black skin and short fluffy silver hair tended to the plants.

A ringing noise came from Skyler’s pocket, he quickly pulled out a similar cell phone to the one he gave her, and flipped it open. He put it up to his ear.

“Yeah? … What is it? … Don’t ‘um’ me, just say it. … What?! We…” He quickly covered his free hand with his face.

“No! We haven’t! She doesn’t even know about that yet! … No, I didn’t tell her!” He balled his hand into a fist and took it off his face, revealing grayed cheeks.

“I don’t know about what now? There’s something you haven’t told me?” She got closer to him, hearing Elaine’s voice through the phone, even though she couldn’t understand what was being said.

“She’s pestering me about us, because of the markings. Just because she was more  promiscuous when dating doesn’t mean that we have to do anything, even though…” He paused, and Elaine’s voice yelled into his ear.

“Even though what?” She tugged at Skyler’s coat sleeve, she didn’t like that he had been keeping secrets from her, she felt her face scrunch up a little.

“That technically… We’re kinda…” He looked away from her, Elaine still shouting in his ear.

“Just tell her already!” Elaine shouted loud enough through the phone for Gabrielle to hear.

“Married.” His posture curled in on itself and he tried to shield his face.

“We’re what?!” She squeaked, keeping such an important thing from her was unheard of. How? What did she do? She looked down at her hand, the markings. That’s what it was. That’s the only thing she could think of. She looked back up at him and grabbed him by the shirt.

“Wait, wait! I can explain!” He held his hands up, taking the phone away from his ear.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this?! I would have given the ritual a second thought if I had known!” She yanked at his shirt, her brow furrowed.

“I was going to tell you later, I swear! I just, I was scared that you wouldn’t go through with it! I wouldn’t have anyone to fall back on if I lost control if you didn’t! You won’t take it back, will you? Please don’t leave me to my own devices!” He closed his eyes, his blushing faded and his hands started to shake.

“You should have told me! Why didn’t you trust me enough?” She was less angry now and more hurt than anything, why was he so scared that she wouldn’t do it?

“I’ve had the rug pulled out from under me so many times, I wanted to trust you, I swear, but all the things that I’ve been through made me question everything. I didn’t want to lose you again.” He looked back at her, tears pooling under his eyes.

Her face softened. She knew he felt remorse for not telling her. She couldn’t fault him for that, she hurt him too by leaving, even if it wasn’t her choice. She understood that she didn’t know everything about what happened while she was gone, and she couldn’t just take it back either. He wasn’t an evil person, but was still a slave to his own devices up until the ritual.

“We’ll call it even, but no more hiding things from me.” She let go of his shirt and stepped back.

“I gotta go Elaine, bye,” he said into the phone, and after a few seconds, flipped the phone closed, and put it in his pocket.

“Was there really so much doubt in your mind that I’d do it if I had known?” She walked over to the railing and leaned on it, looking out over the rows of plants.

“I was frightened at even the slightest chance that I wouldn’t have anyone to stop me if I couldn’t control myself. I’ve had it happen for so long, I just couldn’t take it anymore, and it would have been even worse now, with the power I’ve gained. I mistrusted myself more than i mistrusted you though, I hope you’ll believe me.” The sound of cloth shuffling against skin caught her ear, he was wiping his eyes.

“I would have done it anyway, you dummy.” She brought her hand up and rested her head in her palm, her elbow supported by the metal railing.

“Elaine was asking me if we had… Consummated yet.” He walked over, his hands in his pockets and his entire face turned gray.

She sprung up from where she was leaning and snapped towards Skyler, her face instantly felt hot, and her heart, while she was getting up, had skipped a beat.

“C-c-c-consummation?! Oh no no no no! Absolutely not! Not yet! Not for a good while!” She squeaked again and threw her hands out in front of her.

“Wait, not yet?” He covered his face with both hands but parted his fingers so his wide eyes could still see her.

“Ssshh! Just forget I said that!” She put her pointer finger up to her lips and shushed him.

“Ah, you’re here,” Zlyena said as she walked out of the farthest back hallway leading to the landing.

“Zlyena, Gabby has already seen the Zoriyans below, you should show her what you really look like.” He shook his head and snapped towards Zlyena, it was apparent he was trying to change the subject.

“Well, I see no reason to keep this form if she’s already seen my people.” She relented. A flash of purple light cocooned her for a second and then disappeared.

Her skin was like the rest of the Zoriyans, and she had equally silver hair that was short and fluffy. Two four inch cone-like horns came out of the middle of each top side of her head, and she stretched the two batlike wings that came out from behind her back. She looked like she wasn’t wearing anything yet there was no sight of unmentionable parts. A proud look beamed from her as she put her hands on her hips, sharp looking claws at the end of her fingers. A slight tap came from one of the claws on her feet, which had four toes in the front and a dewclaw poking out from the back of the heel of each foot.

“Did you think I was kidding when I told you she was the queen? I know it’s hard to believe in ancient magical space aliens, but the proof is in the pudding.” Skyler put the knuckles of his closed hands on his hips and turned to Gabrielle with a sly grin.

“So she’s an ancient magical space alien queen? That hurts just thinking about it.” Gabrielle put a hand up to her head, she could barely even process what she just said, let alone the concept of all those words put together. There was a stinging pain in the top left side of her forehead from just trying to slap all those words together, it sounded like word salad to her.

“Try not to think about it too much and follow me instead.” Zlyena turned around and gestured for them to follow her.

She and Skyler followed her into a maze of hallways, she wondered how all this could be underground, and how people haven’t found out about this underground hideout yet.

“In here.” Zlyena opened the door and led them inside.

It was a large red room with a single light to illuminate it all. The room was completely empty, save for a single small bookshelf in the corner, which had weird symbols on all of them. One looked familiar, a circle with two cone-like horns poking out the upper part of each side. She looked to Zlyena and realized that it was her symbol.

“You have your own symbol in your own language?” She walked over to the books and picked one up.

“The one that resembles me either means god or a powerful Zoriyan spell.” Zlyena walked up next to her as Gabrielle opened up a book

The pages were all written in symbols she couldn’t understand, she flipped to the last few pages of the book and saw Zlylena's symbol there.

“So this one would be a really powerful spell?” She pointed to the spell that had the symbol.

“Yes, maybe I’ll teach you how to read it someday. It’s a bit like the english language, one symbol is one letter.” Zlyena lightly grabbed the book from her and placed it back on the bookshelf.

Gabrielle noticed red markings on Zlyena’s ring finger, and looked up at her.

“You’re… Marked too?” She fiddled with the darkened skin on her finger.

“Yes. oh, and if you haven’t done it yet, having these markings is really good in be-”

“Sssshhh! Don’t talk about that!”  Skyler interrupted and shushed Zlyena.

“What? What is it?” Zlyena looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Aren’t you two forgetting something?” he said with desperation in his voice, obviously trying to change the subject a second time today.

“Oh, right, light magic.” She put a palm up to her face, as she had just remembered that she was there for light magic training.

“I have to go over something with Skyler first, if you would let me.” Zlyena turned to Skyler.

“What is it?” He walked up to the two of them with his hands in his pockets.

“You’re probably rusty in hand-to-hand combat, so I’m going to need to give you a refresher course.” She walked over to the middle of the room, pointing for Skyler to come over.

“Oh boy, this is going to be not fun.” He grumbled and walked over to face her.

“Should I just watch?” Gabrielle turned away from the bookcase and towards the two.

She felt weird all of the sudden, and Zlyena quickly turned around and grabbed the finger that had her black markings.

“I’ll turn it off for you.” Zlyena then said something in a language she has never heard before, and the markings pulsated once, then went quiet.

“No, no! Not right now! Shit! It’s all of them! All of them at once! Fuck, fuck!” Skyler frantically shouted, clutching the scar on his eye and his chest and fell to his knees.

“What’s going on?” Gabrielle tried to run towards him, but was stopped by Zlyena.

“He’s having a flare up, I wouldn’t go near him right now. You’ll see why.” She held her arm out in front of Gabrielle to block her path.

“Flare up of what?” She turned to Zlyena, desperately grabbing her shoulder and shaking it.

“His scars, sometimes the spirits of the Lords of Darkness he killed garner enough power to come back as spirits and activate his scars, causing him extreme pain.” Zlyena looked at her, stone faced.

“No, stop it! Get out! Get out!” Skyler screamed, his Fallen mouth appeared, and ghostly white energy shot out of his scars and out his mouth.

She remembered that was the same energy that one creature used that almost hit Elaine, and became even more fearful because she remembered how Skyler frantically told Elaine to get away when the demon creature used it.

The energy went away, and he slumped over. She tried to get past Zlyena’s arm but her stance was stiff and she would not budge. Zlyena shook her head, and put her index finger to her lips, and tilted her head towards Skyler twice. He started to move, but his movements were erratic.

“No, no, don’t you dare,” he said as he grabbed at something that wasn’t there.

“On the count of three.” Zlyena whispered to her, and she nodded back at him.

“I’ll count. One, two…” She paused and as soon as he put both his hands to his face, she knew it was the perfect moment.

“Three.” Zlyena whispered, and they both ran towards him. She reached for the mark on the back of Skyler’s neck and touched it. She looked up at Zlyena, waiting for directions.

Zlyena placed her hand on Gabrielle’s, and said some more words in her language. Skyler gasped, and looked around.

“What, what happened? Why am I on the ground?” He looked up at Gabrielle who still had her hand on his neck, his eyes were half opened, and he rubbed his eye, and his face crinkled.

“You had what Zlyena called a flare up.” She took her hand off of him and leaned down to his level, then put her hand on his head, and ruffled his hair slightly.

“Fuck, my everything still hurts.” He clutched his chest as well.

“Are you all right?” She got onto her knees too.

“Yeah, just put me on a chair and let me sit for a while.” He started to get up, wobbled a bit but successfully stood up.

“Alright, we passed a chair on our way here, let me get you it.” Zlyena went out of the room, leaving the two of them to stand in silence as Skyler groaned softly and gripped at his scars.

She turned to him and hugged him, she was worried that he was still dangerous but couldn’t help wanting to comfort him.

“I’m fine Gabby, I’m fine.” He mumbled and made a pained smile, but she knew that he was lying.

“You don’t have to lie to keep me from worrying about you. I know you aren’t fine.” She squeezed him a little, but not too tightly, for fear of hurting him more.

They stood like that for a few minutes, his pained smile faded, she knew he relented that he wasn’t fine. Zlyena came in with a wooden chair, and Skyler sighed in relief.

“Gabby, let go so I can sit down.” He tried to move but she didn’t want to let go yet.

“Ok, but you have to stay in the room, I’m not letting you out of my sight.” She let go and patted him on the back

“Yeah, and Zlyena, you teach her light magic while I sit over there. We’ll have to do the hand-to-hand later,” he said and walked to the chair, then sat down.

“Alright, come here Gabrielle. Let’s begin.” Zlyena gestured for her to come over.

They spent the rest of the day of her practicing light magic while Skyler was in a corner of the room groaning silently for the first hour, but quieted down after that. After they were done, they both left. She asked him to hold her hand on the way up to the car, and he agreed to. He then drove her home, and at the door, she gave him a kiss. They told each other they loved one another, and parted ways. It was night time by the time she got back, so she went to bed. She had a hard time getting to sleep because of her worrying about Skyler, and then the thought of consummation popped into her head. She imagined Skyler looming over her in a compromised position, and she turned beet red and put her hands over her face. She tried to get that image out of her head, and she did, but it took a half hour for her to do it. She fell asleep late that night.