Make Love Not War: Dragon Fire

School restarted the following Monday and the students first lesson was History with Professor Rooibos. The students gathered in his classroom as they had on the first day of classes in September and once again the Professors cat Darjeeling watched over the class whilst his master was late. When Professor Rooibos did arrive he explained that the following day the whole class would be going on a field to trip to the Temple of Serpents, an ancient temple of the Magic’s.
The next day the students were up bright and early and walked from their houses across the still dark and freezing cold gardens to the shuttle hangar where Professor Rooibos and Alan were waiting. After a brief lecture on the rules of field trips, nothing that Mark hadn’t been told on Emerald Hill Elementary School field trips to the Planetarium, they boarded the shuttle and went to their house’s rooms which had been perfectly repaired after the shuttles encounter with the storm on their journey to Assam. Mark watched out of the Phoenix room’s glass door as the shuttle disembarked from the University and set off across the skies of Assam before slowing down as it passed through the south gate in the city wall. The shuttle then gathered speed and height until the only thing visible from the room was the rising sun on the horizon above the desert.
A few minutes after the ship had left Assam the door to the room opened and Professor Rooibos entered.
“We will be arriving in about ten minutes” he said smiling and taking a seat on one of the more comfortable chairs in the room and producing a pipe from his bag along with a small pouch of brown green herb, which he opened and took out a pinch of the herb and pushed it down into the bowl of the pipe and brought the mouthpiece to his mouth lighting it with a match and puffing it gently. Mark smiled and pulled out his panel, and used the search engine to find a map of the temple. It looked quite complicated, the catacombs were like a maze and he was worried that he might get lost. He was just about to ask the Professor about it when suddenly the smoke alarms sounded. The Professor shrieked before realising that his pipe was the reason for the alarm; he quickly put his pipe out and then looked around embarrassed at the Phoenix students who were standing around looking at him before walking over to the wall panel and going on the radio to tell everyone that there was nothing to worry about. Just as the ship shook violently, sending everyone to the ground.
“Professor to the bridge” a Ceylon demanded over the radio and the Professor ran out of the door and into the circular corridor followed by Mark. They both stopped as they reached the stern of the shuttle and saw out of the window, another ferocious storm.
“But, we’re in the middle of the desert, how can there be a storm.” The Professor shrieked.
“It happened on our way to Assam to sir, a storm came out of nowhere and almost killed us” Mark explained breathlessly.
“We’ll have to land the ship” Rooibos said and stepped onto a small elevator which took him instantly to the bridge above. Mark followed him eager to find out what was going on.
The bridge was a small circular room with a window to the front, with four blue uniformed Ceylons around the edges manning stations. A fifth Ceylon in a green uniform was sitting in a chair in the centre facing the window and seemed to be piloting the craft.
“How could this have happened” The professor was asking a Ceylon.
“It must be magic sir it came out of nowhere.” A Ceylon around the edge of the bridge answered.
“The storm seems to be moving in on us from the rear sir; it’s going to overtake us in less than a minute.” Another Ceylon said.
“How far are we from the temple?” the Professor asked the piloting Ceylon
“A couple of minutes away, sir” the Ceylon in the centre said.
“Can we land here and now?”
“It’s too late sir, it would be on us before we could safely land”
“What can we do then?”
“We need as small an angle of descent as possible and we might just land before the temple. Or we might crash into it.”
“Do it, whatever it takes” The professor ordered as a loose bolt of lightning struck the rear of the ship sending him tumbling.
Mark had seen enough, and was now more concerned about Kristina. He took the elevator back down to the corridor and ran to the Phoenix room. Inside everyone was holding onto the furniture for their lives and Mark spotted Kristina in the same corner she had been on the way to Assam, panic etched upon her face. Mark rushed over as a second bolt of lightning seemed to hit the ship which knocked him over. But he was determined to get to Kristina and he got to his feet once more and leapt for her. Once he got to Kristina he got down beside her and pulled her into his arms.
“Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay, we’re going to land soon, don’t worry” he said. And sure enough a couple of tense minutes later the ship landed with a thud, sending the whole room crashing to the floor. The storm was still upon them however.
“Abandon ship” The Professor ordered over the intercom. “Get outside of the craft and head into the temple, it should be safe in there”
Mark helped Kristina to her feet and they rushed as fast as they could out of the Phoenix room and around the corridor and out of the main doors which had been jacked open by a Ceylon. They kept running towards the imposing serpent shaped structure which was in the distance as bolts of lightning hit the ground around them. Mark and Kristina didn’t look back though; they kept running until they reached the serpent which was standing upon a rectangular base which had door like openings in it. The students rushed into these openings before turning and watching as the shuttle was struck by bolt after bolt of lightning until it exploded loudly sending a shockwave of sand towards them. They turned away and covered their eyes as it passed them before looking back at the pile of metal that had once been the shuttle which was suddenly bathed in sunlight; the storm had vanished without trace. The students all tried to catch their breath and deal with what had just happened and Professor Rooibos gathered them around.
“Are we all here, yes, yes, good.” He stuttered as he spoke.
“This is your fault Professor” Itali Chimbonda shouted at him and everyone around gasped. “How are we going to get back to the University?” she asked.
“One of the Ceylons has already called for another shuttle and it will be here shortly.” He answered quickly and unconfidently “You may as well use this opportunity to have a look around the temple whilst you can. Nobody go off alone though please.” He said before walking away sheepishly to talk to the Ceylons.
“My father was right when he said he should have been fired” Itali said to the rest of the group and then looked down at Kristina who was looking very pale and sobbing crying.
“Oh shut up you common man stealing farm girl” she said viciously before walking off, past Kristina, making sure that sand was kicked up from her boots onto Kristina.
Mark stayed with Kristina until the colour returned to her face before they decided to go and explore the temple. Inside it was very dark and tight with not much room to move. The passageways were laden with imagery of serpent like creatures breathing water over its enemies and lit by lone torches in the centre of each passageway. Mark didn’t like it and thought it was creepy but oddly Kristina seemed revitalised by the walk and she was as chirpy as she ever was laughing and joking with him and trying to scare him on numerous occasions. They walked for what seemed like hours and they thought they might be lost in the catacombs. Mark got his panel out of his rucksack and brought up his map of the temple and was able to plot a way out of the catacombs for Kristina and himself and as they got close to the exit they heard Professor Rooibos shout down that the replacement shuttle had arrived and they found it remarkably easy to find their way out and they gathered in front of the new shuttle, an exact replica of the old one. Professor Rooibos ran through everyone’s names to make sure that everyone was there. Everyone was present, except for Paul who had not returned from inside the temple. They waited for five minutes and still he didn’t come. The Professor was about to send the Ceylons in to get him when suddenly he appeared and apologised saying that he had gotten lost. With Paul accounted for the students were led onto the shuttle and into their house rooms, which were exactly as they had been when the previous shuttle had left Assam.
The journey back to Assam was uneventful aside from the Professor once again setting off the smoke alarm with his pipe. When they got back to the University they all disembarked and were all told to go and see Doctor Xu for a full check-up after their experience at the temple. Whilst he was leaving the shuttle bay, Mark saw that Professor Rooibos was getting a very stern telling off by Professor Oolong who seemed to be outraged that the field trip had even taken place in the first place.
“He should be fired for taking us to such a dangerous place” Itali said, loud enough so that everyone including the professors could hear and Mark couldn’t help feeling sorry for Professor Rooibos.
The next day during History class Professor Rooibos appeared even more ruffled and messy than ever even his cat seemed upset; lying down on his desk with its head hanging over the edge, but at least the Professor was on time.
“Class, I owe you all an apology for the events of yesterday, I am truly sorry that my field trip put any of you in danger” he said with a look of dejection. “I hope you can forgive me.”
“Now class the purpose of yesterday’s field trip was to show you an Aborigine temple because these were very important during the Magic War. Aborigine summoners used to pray at temples such as the one we visited, and in return they would gain the services of spirits called Espers, which when prayed too in battle would appear and lay waste to the enemies of the Aborigines.” Professor Rooibos was about to continue when suddenly a loud bang interrupted him. He ran to the window and went pale as he saw what had happened outside. Once again he told his students to go back to their houses, but Mark knew better this time and ran to the south pier where two Ceylon’s were standing looking up the tower belonging to the Corporation Science Division, It was on fire, smoke pouring out of it into the sky and its red crystal was gone.
*****
Rays of sunlight entered the room through a crack in the grey regulation thin Corporation curtains, shining down onto Nicole’s tired, sleep deprived form which hunched the duvet over her face and tried desperately to enjoy a few more minutes of sleep before it was time to wake up. The alarm sounded, and she groaned as she sat up and brought her hand to her face to shield herself from the intrusive sunlight, letting the thin grey duvet drop below her breasts, her hard nipples evidence of the cold January temperatures.
Nicole stepped out of bed and dropped her thin cotton negligee to the floor and walked naked to the shower cubicle in the cupboard on the opposite side of the room. She turned on the water, cold as usual and took her regulation two squirts of corporation soap and began to lather it over her breasts, under her arms and between her legs. The soap barely bubbled as it washed from her pale goose bump covered skin and ran down her long thin legs and down into the dirty metal plughole and into the pipes below where it joined the other regulation two squirts from every other apartment in the block. Once the soap was gone she stepped back out of the cupboard and dried herself on the small damp towel that hung from the cupboard door. She moved to the kitchenette on the east side of the room and picked up the kettle and carried it to the kitchen sink. She took her regulation half litre of water from the taps and boiled it slowly on the hot plate on the highest setting that regulations would allow.
Twenty minutes later Nicole poured the water into her chipped regulation Corporation mug along with a regulation half teaspoon of Corporation coffee granules and stirred it for five minutes whilst the granules dissolved slowly into the water. She began to sip the warm coffee as she moved back to the bed, setting the cup down on her regulation bedside shelf and began to pick up her clothes from the previous night and returned them to her regulation wardrobe on their regulation wire hangers. She then pulled out her regulation grey Corporation uniform and her plain white panties and faded pink bra. She dressed quickly and quietly, every so often taking a small swig of her weak lukewarm coffee and looked at herself in the small cracked mirror on the shower cupboard door as she ran her fingers through her long straw blonde hair, trying to eradicate any knots that had tangled themselves during the night.
Another alarm sounded and Nicole smoothed her uniform before picking up her bag from under her bed and walking out of the door. Outside in the corridor she joined fifty other workers identically dressed in their grey regulation Corporation uniforms in the queue for the lift. When she finally got to the lift she squeezed in with six other workers, and as she was the last of them to enter the lift, her face was pressed up against the railings, and she watched as each of the identical regulation twenty floors that the lift descended through in Corporation worker accommodation building 7A whizzed past her nose, missing it by a hairs breadth each time. When the lift reached the ground floor, she automatically moved her head back as the lift railing snapped open and she walked out and across the small regulation gardens of Corporation worker accommodation building 7A and out into the Air Taxi station and joined another queue of yet more workers waiting for an Air Taxi to take to their Corporation workplaces around Assam City.
Nicole worked at the Corporation Science Division as an assistant to an assistant of an assistant to a scientist. It didn’t pay well, but at least she got her accommodation, food and drink free and that was something. She had grown up, an orphan in the slums of the Lower City, her parents killed when she was a baby defending a small child who had been caught performing magic from a squad of Ceylons. She didn’t remember them much, but she had been told that they were heroes and that filled her with warm feelings. As a child she had always looked up at the magnificent towers that surrounded the Upper City and she had wondered what it must be like to look out from the top of one of them and look out over Assam City. She was sure even now as an adult that the dreary grey regulation houses and tower blocks would look beautiful from so high above. That was why she wanted to work in one of the Corporations huge towers even despite what she had been told that the Corporation security forces had done to her parents.
She boarded the Air Taxi and swiped her identity card in the slot, and the computer automatically read that her destination would be the Corporation Science Division building. The Air Taxi took off and rose into the air before making its journey to the tower with its red crystal atop it. This was Nicole’s favourite part of her day, the journey to work. It was the closest she ever got to her dreams of standing on top of one of the tall towers and she could see so much even from this height. All of Assam’s districts and their gardens and their architecture looked beautiful and she swore every day that one day she would see them all from the highest point in the city.
The Air Taxi landed in the taxi rank next to the Corporation Science Division tower and she exited it and walked over to the tall building. She stopped at the door and reached into the pocket of her grey pants and pulled out a name tag. She swiped the name tag along a key card reader and the door opened and she entered the building and said hello the receptionists as she walked past them to the elevator in the rear of the entrance hall. She stopped in front of it and swiped her name tag once more and the elevator doors opened.
“Welcome, Miss Peach, You are currently cleared to travel up to the third floor, Assistant pool.” The computer said in a friendly robotic voice as she boarded the elevator. Once she was inside the doors closed and she felt the elevator glide upwards to the third floor.
Once the elevator had reached the third floor the doors opened and she walked out into the third floor lobby and walked straight ahead into the main assistant pool. The room was painted grey and filled from wall to wall with identical narrow cubicles. Nicole walked in and waved at her friend Stacey before sitting at her desk in the centre. The desk was grey with a computer keyboard and a potted plant the only fixtures. She swiped her name tag along her computer keyboard and a holographic screen appeared with a list of tasks that she or one of her one hundred colleagues would have to complete. Before starting however she checked her Corporation mail inbox and discovered she had one new message. It was from Janus, a manager on the eighteenth floor. She looked around to see if anyone was watching her and then pressed her finger against the message on the holographic screen and it lit up and opened.
“Nicole, I had a great time last night. I did something naughty and I instructed one of the security guys that I had given you a promotion. At eleven o’clock you will receive clearance for the eighteenth floor. Come alone and meet me in my office. Love Janus.”
Nicole’s mind went back to the previous night. She had gone out for some drinks with Stacey in the Lower City. She had been wearing her favourite bust enhancing top and her bang bang shoes which made her at least two inches taller, which she didn’t think was a lot but she had been getting far more dates since she had started wearing them. They had watched a show where a girl, who must have been no older than eighteen, had belly danced sexily her hips seducing the male patrons, Nicole wished she could dance like that. They had gotten drunk on something called a Bubble-gum Blaster which made Nicole’s voice a few timbres’ higher and made her feel as though with every step she took she was floating through the air. Then she had seen him from across the room, a tall dark haired man in a vivid red suit. She knew she recognised him but didn’t know from where and with the artificial confidence that the drink had given her she was determined to find out. So she approached him and struck up a conversation and soon they were dancing and kissing and it wasn’t long before they had gone back to his place and made love in his king size bed and drank champagne from each other’s bodies. It wasn’t until she left him two hours later that she asked for his name and recoiled in shock as she remembered just where she knew him from. He was the manager of her section. The supervisor of her supervisor’s supervisor. She had run home ashamed of what she had done, but had fallen asleep longing for it to happen again.
Nicole saw two choices, either go up and see him and give him what he wanted, No doubt another night of passion or she could ignore the message and he would find some reason to fire her. She didn’t have to weigh up the options, she wanted to sleep with him again and maybe she could use it to her advantage and help get herself onto the top floor.
At eleven thirty the alarm sounded to announce that it was time for everyone’s regulation fifteen minute break. Nicole wasn’t sure whether she should take the opportunity to go and see Janus, in the end she decided against it and joined the crowd of workers walking wearily down the steps to the recreation area where they could take the opportunity to have a cup of tea or coffee or smoke a cigarette. She stood with Stacey as she smoked, and looked up towards the huge red crystal atop the building seeing only the tip of it. She decided she would go. As the masses walked back into the office Nicole hung back and waited until everyone had gone before making her way to one of the elevators. She swiped her name tag and entered.
“Welcome Miss Peach” the computer said again. “You are cleared for level eighteen, managers’ offices.” It had worked and the lift quickly began to move upwards for longer than it ever had before. After the tenth floor the walls suddenly became transparent and Nicole watched in awe as she began to see over the tops of some of the smaller tower blocks that surrounded the building. She could once again see Assam University in all of its magnificence in the distance. She wanted to do this every day.
When she finally reached the eighteenth floor she didn’t move for a second wanting to savour the sight of the city from so high. Eventually though she tore herself away and walked out of the elevator and down the corridor looking for Janus’ office. Nicole was amazed, even the corridor was more colourful and more beautiful than anything she’d seen working down on the third floor. Eventually she found Janus’s office and was slightly jealous to see a much prettier blonde sitting in front of his door behind a desk chewing what appeared to be bubble-gum and reading a magazine.
“Hi, Umm… My name is Nicole, Janus is expecting me…” she said as she approached the secretary.
“I’m sorry miss. Mister Janus is in a meeting at the moment.” The secretary didn’t bother to look up. “You are welcome to sit and wait for him”
“Okay thanks” Nicole replied and sat down on the opposite side of desk.
Nicole felt so uncomfortable sitting waiting for Janus and she tried not to make eye contact with the blonde sitting in front of her. The blonde however would never have made eye contact with her she was far too busy chewing gum and reading her magazine.
As the time went on all manner of thoughts ran through Nicole’s head. What if he came back with someone and didn’t want to be seen with her. What if she had been too late and he was just ignoring her. The secretary wasn’t paying her any attention, in fact Nicole was sure that had she left the secretary would not notice and certainly would not tell her boss that she had been here. She looked the blonde up and down, wondering if this was Janus’ taste in women. Long blonde hair tied into a bun. Blue eyes heavily emphasised with mascara. Two large creamy breasts contained within their uplifting black bra giving her an ample cleavage that was popping out of her white blouse which had the top three buttons undone to show this off.
Suddenly the door opened and a tall thin woman stepped out. She had greying black hair and a long nose with small glasses perched on the end. She looked at Nicole with distain.
“So Formosa is that all for today?” Janus had followed her, and did not look happy.
“Yes, I have a class to teach in a little while so I had better be going. Make sure your workers understand that with the Corporation Headquarters crystal gone we need to get more power from the remaining three. Latest reports from the crystal fields say we are unlikely to have any new large crystals for a while.”
“I will make it clear to them” Janus replied and Formosa left for the elevator. Janus looked down at Nicole.
“Come in” he said invitingly and Nicole got to her feet and complied not noticing the scathing look that the secretary had just shot her. Janus’s office was huge, almost as big as the entire assistant’s office where one hundred people worked. Janus led her to a seating area where ultra-comfortable chairs and sofa’s surrounded a glass and chrome coffee table, the whole area looked like it was straight out of a living room from one of the corporation home living catalogues that Nicole read on the corporation network during her lunch hours. The sofa’s looked straight out of a big glass window out into the same amazing vista of Assam University sitting on its hill over the city below and Nicole’s mouth watered at the exquisite site and sat down on the sofa that would give her the best view.
Janus sat next to her and began speaking with Nicole nodded along but she was far too busy admiring the view to pay attention to what was being said. Janus moved closer to her and put his arm on her knee but again she didn’t notice, and it was only as the hand slid higher up from her knee to the inside of her thigh that she was shaken from the view. She looked at him confused and he kissed her forcefully and moved his hand further between her legs. She wanted to push him off her but she thought she would get fired if she didn’t obey, so she let her bosses bosses boss kiss her and fondle her through her grey regulation corporation pants, deciding to focus back on the view.
She didn’t notice when he stopped and started talking to her again.
“That uniform is dreadful” Janus was saying. “Well I can’t change the uniform but I can give you a promotion”. Nicole didn’t hear but Janus didn’t notice this and stood up and walked past Nicole breaking her concentration. She watched as he opened the door.
“Sandra” he said to the blonde receptionist who looked up from her magazine. “You’re fired, please gather your things, oh and leave the uniform.” He said, and stood and watched as the blonde receptionist complied submissively, slowly undoing the buttons of her blouse and taking it off, folding it nicely and putting it on her desk. A man walked past carrying a cup of water, and his eyes caught the sexy blonde stripping in the corridor and he barely noticed the potted plant in front of him which he crashed into spilling water onto himself and he was too busy still watching the blonde secretary as she undid the catch of her pencil skirt and pulled it off that he still didn’t seem to notice that his crotch had become wet from the water. The blonde secretary was about to take off her black half cup bra but Janus stopped her.
“You can keep the underwear.” He said charitably and the blonde secretary began to walk down the corridor towards the lift with the man with the wet crotch following her like a lost puppy. Janus laughed and picked up the blouse and pencil skirt from the desk and carried them inside setting them down in the middle of the room and sitting down at his desk.
“Get changed into those” he said. Nicole stood up and looked at him and he seemed serious, she walked over to the clothes and she waited for a moment to see if he was going to leave her alone and give him some privacy but he didn’t and she didn’t want to risk him firing her too. She sighed to herself and removed the grey tunic from her regulation corporation uniform and he licked his lips as her faded pink bra came into view and reached down below the desk. Nicole heard the faint undoing of a zipper as she pulled on the white blouse. It was too big for her small bust and Janus had noticed.
“We shall have to get you some implants if you are too be working for me Miss Peach” Janus said his hand moving up and down below the desk.
“Yes sir” the words came from Nicole’s mouth but she didn’t feel like it was her saying them. Next she undid her regulation grey corporation uniform pants and slid them down her legs, bending over to remove them from around her ankles giving Janus a nice long view of her rear.
“I remember you had much nicer panties on last night Miss Peach, wear those in future” he said, his hand still moving under the desk as she picked up the pencil skirt and fastened it around herself.
“Yes sir” she said and turned to face him.
“You look marvellous Miss Peach” he said and moved his hand up to the desk, finding a pen and dropping it between his legs. “Oh Miss Peach I seem to have dropped my pen, would you get it for me” he ordered.
“Yes sir” she repeated monotonously. And got down on her knees and crawled under his desk. She found the pen and reached up to give it to him only to feel a column of hard flesh in front of her. She looked up and saw his hard penis jutting out from his open fly. She felt her mouth fill with saliva and without thinking she reached for his cock and brought it to her mouth. She locked her lips around it and began to suck and Janus placed his hands on her head pushing her down on himself, impaling her with his meat. Nicole gagged on his invading member but continued to try to stimulate him as much as she could, gradually learning to breathe through her nose as he continued to fuck her face. He started to grunt and moan at her work, and she found herself oddly aroused by this evidence that she was pleasing him and felt her white cotton panties becoming increasingly damp with her arousal. The groans became louder and louder and finally with a flourish he pushed her head down as far as he could and ejaculated, spurting his hot seed against the wall of her throat making her cough violently sending vibrations through his swiftly shrinking shaft.
He pushed her away and she crawled back out from under his desk and for the first time she noticed a mirror behind Janus’ desk and she noticed her own face. Her eyes were red and tear filled whilst around her mouth was shiny with saliva.
“Don’t you look beautiful” Janus had noticed her staring into his mirror. “Now Miss Peach, go to the bathroom and clean yourself up and then take your seat at the desk outside my office” he said. Nicole complied and walked outside and she immediately knew where the bathroom was but she hadn’t known before. She shook her head and walked down the corridor, past the lift and into the bathroom.
Inside the bathroom there was a row of mirrors and Nicole stood in front of them and began to try and clean herself up and make herself look presentable for Janus. Then she heard what sounded like crying coming from one of the bathroom stalls. She walked down the alleyway between the stalls and listened to find out where the crying was coming from. She decided it was the final stall and she knocked on it.
“Is there anyone in there” she said.
“Miss Peach?” a female voice responded.
“Yes, it’s me, are you okay?” Nicole stood back as the stall door opened and the blonde secretary, still dressed in only her lingerie, looked back at her.
“Miss Peach, you have to take off those clothes” Sandra said.
“I will do no such thing” Nicole stepped away.
“It’s important” Sandra said. “My name is Sandra Germaine; I’m a member of a group called the spell casters. Those clothes you are wearing, they make you submissive. They are like a date rape drug.” And she lunged at Nicole getting hold of her blouse and ripping it off her. Suddenly Nicole’s head felt clear for the first time since the previous night.
“Take this” Sandra said handing Nicole a key card. “There isn’t much time; you must get out of here.”
“What’s happened to me?” Nicole pleaded.
“There’s no time to explain” Sandra said. “Go; get out of the building before he notices you’re gone”
“Okay, thank you” Nicole said and ran out of the bathroom to the elevator. She swiped the key card and the doors opened and she stepped inside.
“Welcome Miss Germaine” the computer said. “You are cleared for any floor, which floor would you like to visit today?”
Nicole was taken aback by the question.
“Ground floor” she said and the lift started to move down the side of the building. She turned around and saw the view that she had admired when she had come up in the lift and suddenly she had forgotten Sandra’s warning.
“Computer, take me to the top floor” she said.
“Yes Miss Germaine” the computer said and it began moving upwards higher and higher.
The doors opened on to the top floor and Nicole looked out seeing two men standing in the corridor opposite. They hadn’t seen her, but behind them she saw a ladder leading upwards.
“Up to the roof?” She wondered. But how was she going to get past the guards, and then she remembered the effect that the blonde secretary had had on the man earlier. She wasn’t as sexy as the blonde but she thought it was worth a go and undid her pencil skirt and dropped it to the floor before looking at herself in the reflection of the elevator glass and deciding she had better take off her bra as well just in case she wasn’t pretty enough to get the attention of the guards. She unclasped the bra and let it fall to the floor, and her nipples responded to the cool air becoming hard. She felt this was as sexy as she was ever going to get and ran from the elevator into the corridor where the men were standing stopping in front of them. They looked at her with the eyes of predators.
“Oh hello” she said smiling seductively, and then ran back where she had come from and down another corridor and into a cupboard where she waited with her eye to the crack in the door and watched as the two men charged past her. She waited until they had gone and then retraced her steps until she found the ladder and climbed it. At the top there was a small hatch which she forced open and squeezed her lithe body through and found herself on the roof, underneath the big red crystal that she had looked upon since she was a child.
Nicole stepped forward, goose bumps appearing on her naked skin as the wind picked up, but she didn’t care she was used to the cold and walked for the edge of the roof and looked out over all of Assam City and thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, all the towers punctuated by their gardens and squares with Air Taxi’s rushing from place to place and in the centre the stunning Assam University which stood tall looking down at everything in the city below.
Then all of a sudden she heard a noise, a feint hum. She turned back and noticed that the ruby red crystal in front of her was starting to glow in the centre and it was getting brighter and brighter and began to pulse quickly. Nicole was scared and looked for the hatch that she had climbed through but she could not see it.
“HELP” she shouted, but she was so high that no-one below was going to hear her. The crystal continued to glow brighter and brighter and was pulsing faster and faster. Then suddenly, the crystal shattered, a spear of crystal impaling itself in her chest and throwing her off the roof and into the air. She didn’t feel any pain, she was too much in shock for that, but she observed the beauty of the shards of ruby red crystal moving in the sky, falling with her and felt a strange happiness and contentment as her vision became blurred and monotone and then became black. Her body smashed into the sidewalk below.