I sat in the dark. Far above me, like a sign of something, floated the perfect half moon of light given shape by the hole in the ceiling. And yet none of the light from up there managed to find its way to me.
As time passed, my cursed eyes became more accustomed to the darkness. Before long, I could just barely make out the shape of my tied up hands if I bought it close to my face. Other things around me began slowy to take on their own dim shapes, like timid little animals letting down their guard in the most gradual stages imaginable. As much as my eyes became use to it, though, the darkness never ceased to be darkness. Anything I tried to focus on would lose its shape and burrow its way soundlessy into the surrounding obscurity.
Here in this darkness, with its strange sence of significance, my body began to take on a power it had never had before. The fragmentary images it called up inside me were vivid in every detail, to the point where I felt I could grasp them in my hands. I closed my eyes and thought about the reason Aeron bought me here.

At 11:30 one monday, after a lecture on Euripides in History of drama, I took a ten minute walk to a little restaurant and had a burger and some fries for lunch. The place was a quiet back street and it had somewhat higher prices then mcdonald’s or burger king, but you could relax there, and they knew how to make a good burger. “They”were a married couple who rarely spoke to each other, and they had one waitress. As I sat there eating by the window, a group of four students came in, two men and two women, all rather neatly dressed. They took the table near the door, spent some time looking over the menu and dicussing their options, until one of them reported their choices to the waitress.
Before long I noticed that one of the girls kept glancing in my direction. She had extremely short hair and wore dark sunglasses and a white cotton minidress. I had no idea who was, I couldn’t see a mark on her back, so I went on with my lunch, but soon she slipped out of her seat and came over to where I was sitting. With one hand on the edge of the table she said, “You’re Jaden, aren’t you?”
I rasied my head and looked qat her more closely. Still I could not recall ever having seen her. She was the kind of girl you would notice, so if I had met her before I should have have been able to recognize her immediatly, and there weren’t many people in my university who knew my name.
“Mind if I sit down?”she asked. “Or are you expecting somebody?”
Still uncertain, I shook my head.“No, nobody’s coming.”
With a wooden clunk, she dragged a chair out and sat down across from me, staring straight at me through her sunglasses, then glancing down at my plate.
“Looks good,”she said.
“It is good. Mushroom cheese burger and fries.”
“Damn,”she said.“Oh well, I’ll get it next time. I already ordered something else.”
“What’d you order?”
“ chicken strips and, macaroni and cheese.”
“Their macaroni and cheese is not bad, either,”I said. “By the way, do I know you? I can’t seem to remember.”
“Euripides,”she said “Electra. No god hearkens to my helpless cry. You know the class just ended.”
I stared at her hard. She took off her sunglasses. At last I remembered her, a senior I had seen in history of drama. A striking change in hairstyle kept me from recognizing her.
“Oh,” I said, touching a spot a few inches below my shoulder,“your hair was down to here last week.”
“You’re right,” she said. “I had a perm last week, and it was just awful. I was ready to kill myself. I looked like medusa without the snakes. So I figured as long as I was ready to die, I might as well cut it all off. At least it’s cool in this abnormal heat.”She ran her hands through her Rihanna cut and smiled.
“It looks good on you. Nicely shaped head. Pretty ears, too, uncovered like that.”
“So i’m not crazy after all! They all tell me I look like some punk rocker. What’s this thing that guys have for girls with long hair? Fascist, the whole bunch of them! Why do guys all think girls with long hair are the classiest, the sweetest, the most feminine?”
“I myself know at least thirteen unclassy girls with long hair.”
“Really.”
“And I think you look better now then you did before,”I said. And I meant it. As far as I could recall, with long hair she had been just another cute face I could have slept with. From the girl who sat before me now, though, surged a fresh and physical life force. She was like a small animal that has popped into the world with the coming of spring. Her eyes moved like an independent organism with joy, laughter, anger, amazement, and despair. I hadn’t seen a face so vivd and epressive in ages, and I enjoyed watching it live and moved.
“Do you mean it?”she asked.
I nodded, still nibbling on my fries.
She put her dark glasses on and looked at me from behind them.
“You’re not lying, are you?”
“Trust me you could tell if I was lying to you.”
“Cute.”
“So tell me, why do you were suck dark glasses?”
“I felt defenseless when my hair got short all of a sudden. Like everyone could read my mine.”
“Makes sense,”I said, eating the last of my burger. She watch me with intense interest.
“You don’t have to go back to them?” I asked, motioning towards her conpanions.
“Nah. I’ll go back when they serve the food. Am I interrupting your meal?”
“There’s nothing left to interrupt,” I said, ordering coffee when she showed no sign of leaving. The wife took my dishes and bought back my receipt.
“Now you tell me,”she said. “Why didn’t you answer today when the professor called the roll? You are Jaden, aren’t you? Jaden Fields?”
“That’s me.”
“So why didn’t you answer?”
“I just didn’t feel like it today.”
She took her sun glasses off again, set them on the table, and looked at me as is she were staring into a cage of some animal at the zoo.
“`I just didn’t feel like it today.’ You talk like Raelynn Givens from justified. Cool. Tough.”
“Don’t be silly. I’m just an ordinary guy. Like everyone else.”
The wife bought my coffee and set it on the table. I took a sip without adding sugar or cream.
“Look at that. You drink it black.”
“It’s got nothing to do with raelynn givens,”I explained patiently,“I just don’t like sweets. I think you got me all wrong.”
“My name’s Scarlett by the way,”she said.“It means red, but red looks terrible on me. Weird, huh? It’s like i’m cursed, don’t you think? My sister’s name is Rosa.”
“Does she look good in red?”
“She looks great in red! She was born to wear red. It’s totally unfair.”
The food arrived at Scarlette’s table, and a guy in a green polo shirt called out for her, “Hey, Scarlett, come and get it!” She waved at him as if to say “I know.”
“Say tell me,”She said, “do you take lecture notes?”
“Sure sometimes.”
“I hate to ask, but could I borrow your notes? I’ve missed twice, and don’t know anybody in the class.”
“No problem,” I said, and pulled the note book from my bag. After checking to make sure I hadn’t written anything in it I didn’t want seen, I handed it to Scarlett.
“Thanks,”she said. “Are you coming to school the day after tomorrow?”
“Maybe.”
“Meet me here at noon. I’ll give you back your notebook and buy you lunch. I mean it’s not like you get an upset stomach or anything if you eat with a girl.”
“No way,”I said. “But you don’t have to buy me lunch just because i’m lending you my notebook.”
“Don’t worry,”She said. “I like to buy people lunch. But anyhow, shouldn’t you write it down somewhere? You won’t for get?”
“I won’t for get.”
From the other table, somebody called out,“Hurry up Scarlett, your food’s getting cold!”
She ignored the call and asked me,“Do you always do this?”
“What do you mean?”
“ Accepting invitations from random girls.”
“Not really,”I said.
She seemed to be mulling something over for a few seconds. Then she stood up with a smile and went back to her table. She waved to me as I walked past a few munutes later, but the three others barely glaclnced in my direction.

At noon on Wednesday there was no sign of Scarlett in the restaurant. I thought I might wait for her over a coffee, but the place started to fill up as soon as the drink came, so I ordered lunch and ate alone. I finished at 12:35, but still no Scarlett. Paying my bill, I went outside and crossed the street to a little newsstand, where I waited for Scarlette to come.
I gave up at one’ clock and went to go find something to cure my boredom. Before I knew it I was on campus, and, found a girl to my liking.

She had long silky brunette hair and bright blue eyes that shimmered in the sunlight. Tall and slim. She wore a black top, blue skinny jeans, and a pair of brown and white boots. She was a woman that caught your eye and made you think, “only if she was mine.”Every man type of dream girl.
I instantly noticed a guy looking in her direction. To me he wasn’t that bad looking, maybe 24 or 26, 5’10, good built, like a sports athlete. Thinking the same thing I was, he approached her. But failed. With one look of her beautiful smile he grew cold feet. Asking her,“Do you know how get to river street?”and ran off.
Of course if I was the old me I would have thought, “It’s now or never Jaden,” and would have gathered up all the courage I could to talk to her, and, would have failed the same way. But I was no longer that boy.
“Hi I’m Jaden, and you are?”I asked.
“Stacy.”
“Stacy, that’s kind of a plain name for such a cute girl.”
“Oh really, I never realize that,”She said with a good deal of embarrassment, “but I already have a boyfriend.”
Taken off gaurd, I took out my cellphone and said, “Its two o’clock right now. Im sure you’re boyfriend won’t mind if I borrow you for a hour or two.”
She laughed and said, “Jaden you’re cute and all but my boyfriend and I, have been together for 3 years now, and he doesn’t even like me having male friends on facebook.”
To be honest I could see why, but I couln’t care less, so I did what any man would have done. I used my gift.

Once I activated my powers, though, she was like a different person.
She responded to the slightest touch of my hand, writhing and moaning, as I placed my right hand on her shoulder. Dying to sleep with the other we ended up going to a nearby hotel.
I got undressed first and sat on the bed. She started to do the same. Her skin was very fair and smooth, and she had beautiful legs. I comlpimented her on her legs, but her“Thanks”was little more then a grunt.
Once we were in bed, she started to moan louder, shaking in pleasure as I took her body. When I went inside her, she dug her nails into my back as her orgasm approached. I took that as a declaration to pump harder and faster, until she came. As she screamed my name, Scarlette appeared in my head and I instantly lost the will to have sex. Then both of us went to sleep.
She was gone when I woke at twelve-thrity. I found no note of any kind. I wanted to know why I lost my will to have sex, so I called Eden.
“Hello.”
“Hey, its me Jaden.”
“I already new that, but what’s up?”
I had slept with over 25 women the same way, so I asked Eden, “After you’ve done this for 5 years, doesn’t it begin to seem pointless?”
“That proves you’re still a decent human being,”he said.“Congratulations. There is absolutely nothing to be be gained from sleeping with one strange women after another, but maybe immortality.”
“Immortality?”I asked.
“It’s nothing you should be worrying about right now. But as I was saying before, after a while it makes you feel disgusted with yourself. It’s the same for me.”
“So why in the hell do you keep it up?”
“Hard to say. Maybe because of we would die without sex. Hey, do you this saying about gambling? It goes like this. When you’re surrounded by endless possibilities, one of the hardest things you can do is pass them up. See what I mean?”
“Sort of.”
“Look. Women come out and they wonder around, looking for something. We can give them that something. It’s the easiest thing in the world, like drinking water from a cup. Before you know it, I’ve got them down. It’s what they want on the inside. That’s what I mean by possibilitiy. It’s all around you. How can you ignore it? You have a certain ability and the opportunity to use it. Can you just keep your mouth shut and let it pass?”
“I don’t know, I’ve never really thought about it that way,”I said with a smile. “I didn’t really care until I met this girl the other day.”
“Count your blessing, but I’ll warn you now stay away from her.”
“What do you mean?”I asked.
“Sorry I have to go someone is on the other line.”With a simple click he was gone.

I went to the following week’s drama lecture, but still saw no sign of Scarlett. After a quick survey of the room convinced me she was not there, I took my usual seat in the back row and listened to my favorite band while I waited for the professor to come.
I ended up listening to four of they’re best songs. By then the professor had arrived, wiping the sweat from his brow as he took roll.
He was a small, mournful looking man who walked with a metal cane. While not exactly fun, the lectures in his courses were always well always well prepared and worthwhile. After remarking that the weather was as hot as ever, the professer began to talk about the use os the deus ex machina in Euripides and explained how the concept of “god”was different in Euripides than it was in Aeschylus or Sophocles. He had been talking for some fifteen minutes when the classroom door opened and in walked Scarlett. She was wearing a bright blue spaghetti top, white colored cotton shorts, and her usual sunglasses. After flashing a “sorry I’m late”kind of smile towads the professor, she sat down next to me. Then she toke a notebook, my notebook, from her shoulder bag and handed it to me. Inside, I found a note: “Sorry about Wednesday. Are you mad?”
The lecture was about half way over and the professor was drawing a sketch of a greek stage on the blackboard when Scarlett said,“Let’s get out of here.”
I nodded and stood up, and the two of us made for the door. The professor said something to me at that point, but I couldn’t catch it. Scarlett waved to him and said,“See ya later.”
“Gee, I feel like some kind of delinquent.”Scarlett said to me when we were outside. “Do you think we might get in trouble?”
“Let’s have lunch first, just in case.”
“Good. There’s a place I want to take you. It’s kinda far, though. Can you spare the time?”
“Sure, I’m O.K. all I have to do is meet my brother later on.

Scarlett took me by bus and showed me to a old diner in a shelterd spot just behind the station. The minute we sat down they served us soup and the lunch of the day. This was worth a bus ride to eat at.
“Great food,” I said.
“And cheap, too. I’ve been coming here since high school. My old school’s right down the street. They were so strict, we had to sneak out to eat here. They’d suspend you if they caught you eating out.”
Without her sunglasses, Scarlett’s eyes looked somewhat sleepier than the had the last time. When she was not playing with the narrow sliver braclet on her left wrist, she would be scracthing at the corners of her eyes with the tip of her little finger.
“Tired?”I asked.
“Kinda. I’m not getting enough sleep. But I’m fine, don’t worry about me,”she said. “Sorry about the other day. Something came up and I just couldn’t get out of it. All of a sudden, in the morning. I thought about calling you st the resturant but I couldn’t remember it’s name, and I didn’t know your cellphone number. Did you wait long?”
“No big deal. I found something to do. And I’ve got a lot of time on my hands.”
“A lot?”
“Way more than I need. I wish could give you some to help you sleep.”
Scarlett rested her cheek on her hand and smiled at me. “What a nice guy you are.”
“Not nice. Just got time to kill,” I said. “Don’t you think you ought to go home and get some sleep?”
“I’m just kinda tired. But alright let’s get out of here.”
After that we exchange our cellphone numbers and went are separate ways.

Every now in then, while I was searching through my memories, I would look at my wrist watch. The luminous hands showed it to be just before three o’clock. Three p.m. I glanced upward. The half moon slab of light was still floating there. The surface of earth was flooded with blinding sun light. I pictured to myself a stream sparkling in the sunlight and green leaves tremling in the breeze. Then I heard a knock on the door. It was Aeron.
“You should be glad I’m such a good brother,”he said.“I bought you something to eat, even though you broke one of my biggest rules.”
“What did I do to deserve this?”
He looked at me, “You and that women. But don’t worry I’ll fix you no mater, but that’s another story. I know you must be hungry, so how about you eat a meal I prepared for you.”
“I don’t want any of your food.”
“Who said anything about food?”With a snap of a fingers Big Boy bought in a women and threw her next to me.
“Enjoy baby brother, she is all yours for today.”he said as he left.

She was a cute girl with a average figure not too slim, not too fat. She had a unreal smile on her face with inviting eyes and rosy lips. long blonde hair, and, soft velvety skin with a glowing complexion.
Soon I felt a strong craving for her body. I tried to pull the chains on my arms apart, but the chains remained firmly shut.
“It’s not easy to open, Mr.Jaden,”said the girl. “Some time must go by before it will open. Today is out of the question. You might as well give up.”
I realized she shed her clothes as easy as opening a pea pod and stood before me naked, without warning or explaination. “We have so little time, Jaden, let’s finish this a quickly as possible. I’m sorry for the rush, but I have my reasons.”
Then she came up to me, opened my fly, and, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, took out my penis. Lowering her eyes, with their false lashes, she enclosed my penis with her mouth. Her mouth was far larger then I had imagined. Inside, I immediately came erect. When she moved her tongue, her silk hair trembled as in a gentle breeze, caressing my thighs. All I could see was her hair and her false buried in my crotch. “Stop it,”I said. “You don’t have to listen to Aeron.”
The girl took her mouth from my penis and said, “Don’t worry. We have this place to ourself, at least.”

She ran the tip of her tongue
over my penis. I didn’t want to cum, but there was no way of stopping it. I felt as if it were being sucked out of me.
Her lips and tongue held on to me like a slippery life form. I came. And some how found my way back to the past again.

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