Untitled

      I don't know what to blog. Not speechless. Just tired, I guess. I've not been sleeping well. My back won't let me. I can't remember when I've slept more than three or four hours at a time. That wears you down after a while. So I'm feeling wore down.
      Maybe a bit worn down by life, too. Too many crazy and rude customers at work. Too many bills. Too many struggles with the diet. Blah, blah, blah. Enough of that.
      Hey, I should be able to pay off another credit card in May, assuming everytbing goes as planned. Then I start on the huge card. It will take me approximately 15 months to pay that one off, and then I'll be left with only my second mortgage and first mortgage. It should take a year to play off the second mortgage. That's as far as I've gone with it, but rough calcuations show that the home will be paid off in two years after that. And finally I'm out of debt. Of course, that's planning nearly five years in the future. Who knows what will happen in that time? But it's a good plan.
      Hey, I know what I'll do. I'll share a bit of Darkness, Oklahoma. Then you can rain me with praise! Yes, it's a plan.
      Okay, this is when our hero and his lady end up at her house together after dispatching a zombie in the morning and having a romantic dinner that night. Yeah, it's that kind of day for them.

Excerpt from Darkness, Oklahoma.

      Darcy couldn't really decide how they ended up in her bedroom. The dinner had been nice at The Tex-Mex Kitchen restaurant. They had talked of nothing important, carefully avoiding what had happened in the morgue. She learned that he graduated from Oklahoma State with a degree in business administration. He was forty. He had been married once nearly twenty years ago, but his wife had passed away. He didn't say how. They had no children. Darcy felt a peculiar stillness in him when he spoke of his wife.
      To change the subject, she told of her time at the University of Oklahoma Medical Sciences Center and how she followed a man to North Carolina only to break up with him when she realized that he had no intention of ever marrying her. She glossed over her departure and return to Oklahoma.
      During the meal, their eyes would meet and hold each other for a moment longer. Once Darcy reached over and patted the side of his mouth with her napkin to remove a speck of salsa. A part of her had been aghast at her presumption, but it felt natural. Her hand lingered for a moment near his lips. Her skin tingled from his warm breath.
      Back at her apartment, she asked him in for coffee. He followed her into the kitchen. She turned from the coffee maker to ask him if he wanted sugar and milk, and he stood only inches away.
      She reached up and touched the side of his face, marveling at the strength and pain she felt in him. He took her hand and looked at it intently and then kissed her palm. She shivered, then sighed.
      He pulled her to him gently, his strong arms pressing her body against his. She realized that they fit together as if they were two pieces of the same whole. She raised her face to his. Then he kissed her. She felt the room circle slowly around them. Her gifts surged, expanding out.
      He pulled back.
      "Am I going too fast?" he asked softly.
      She nodded, then shook her head. Her heart pounded, and she felt the tide of her pulse.
      "It's like I've known you forever," he said. "I --"
      She put her finger to his lips. This was the part that she couldn't remember. Did she lead him to her bedroom or did he carry her? She didn't know; yet she lived completely in the moment as it happened. They stood at the foot of her bed. She wasted a moment regretting that she hadn't made it up that evening when she crawled out of it and then forgot about it.
      She unbuttoned his shirt slowly as his hands massaged her shoulders and down her sides. His hands moved slowly and surely. She reached out and felt the slight curl of hair at the center of his chest. She slowly ran her hand down, exploring the hard muscles of his stomach, the ridges of his ribs. He shuddered. She slid her palm past his navel and found the top button of his jeans. His hand covered hers and gripped hers gently.
      He stepped back.
      "No," he said. He took a ragged breath.
      She looked at him, not understanding. His face was pale, his eyes wide. She realized he was panicked.
      "I don't understand," she said.
      "I can't," he said, gasping like he was running a race. "I didn't realize that it would be like this. I didn't realize you would be like this. So … precious." He shook his head. "I can't take the chance."
      "Chance?" she asked. She reached out with her gifts, straining to understand the pain that tormented him. Beneath his sorrow, further down, something lurked, something hidden, something repressed, but strong. Strong and wild. Powerful. Savage. She pressed further, down into the depths until she began to see the shape of that lurker. She strained. Then glowing eyes looked up and saw her!
      She gave a small cry and backed away, her hand to her mouth. "What are you?" she asked, but she already knew. She had seen the Beast -- and it had seen her.

Copyright 2007. All rights reserved.

      And on that cliffhanger, good night!