Subject:  CHAPTER 6 |
Author:
Kitkat <@^@>
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Date Posted: 19:20:21 12/08/01 Sat
In reply to:
Kitkat
's message, ""Enemy at the Gates" - short repost from "Come to Me, My Love"" on 11:47:12 12/02/01 Sun
Chapter 6
The room suddenly seems still and quiet in the wake of Michael’ last words. She can only guess what he means to do.
“Get up,” Michael says in a tone that demands instant obedience.
Nikita meets his gaze steadily trying to show neither fear nor defiance. Experience has taught her that she must hold her cards close, at least until she knows the name and rules of the game that she has been asked to play. Without dropping her gaze, she stands up, waiting for further instructions.
“Let’s go,” he says flicking his hand in the direction of the cabin door. She steps out from in front of the couch and then precedes him out the door.
The moon is now much lower in the night sky, and Nikita assumes that morning isn’t too far away. Michael dons his night goggles, and holding her arm, leads them back into the shadowed canopy of the forbidding woods.
“Can this be the same forest that so frightened me a couple of hours ago?” With Michael present, it doesn’t seem quite so menacing anymore. Even in absolute darkness, she doesn’t feel any fear.
When they’ve ventured in about twenty feet, he stops, dropping his hold on her arm.
“Now, just stand and listen for a moment,” he whispers quietly.
She tries to concentrate on the woods about her, but instead, is altogether too aware of the man standing beside her. Remaining motionless in the darkness, she finds that instead hearing the wolf’s disturbing howls and the insistent rustling in the underbrush by some nocturnal forager, she is instead concentrating on the soothing sounds of Michael’ rhythmic breathing just beyond her ear.
His warm breath gently moves against her hair, and turning slightly toward him, she is close enough to realize that he has removed his night goggles. Soap mixed with the dusky scent of after-shave gives him a enticingly clean smell.
“Do you hear anything that scares you, Nikita?” he asks so softly that she wonders if she has imagined the words.
“No,” she admits, keeping her voice equally soft.
“Now try the goggles,” he says and fits the goggles around her head and over her eyes.
She looks at the woods around her. At first, all seems still. Then a few feet to her side she notices a rabbit nibbling on a small shrub. Attracted by another sound, her attention is drawn directly to the eyes of an owl perched up in a tree a few feet away.
“Do you see anything that scares you, Nikita?” Michael asks.
“No,” she again admits, now smiling to herself. “I don’t see anything that should scare me.”
Michael takes the night goggles off her head. “You are doing very well, so far, Nikita,” he murmurs, turning his body slightly so that it is lightly touching hers.
She moves a step backward, only to feel his hand at the small of her back stopping further movement. He then pulls her toward him, and in defense, she places both of her hands on his chest pushing him away.
**************
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