The Motel - Alonzo's Story - Part One

This story I wrote several years ago, as a character exercise. I wanted to get to know him better...and how better to do that than to get inside his head?

So this is a change-in-perspective scene of what happens around Chapter 18 of my novel, Sanctuary. In the novel, you see it through Crystal's eyes. Here, you see the same story through his.

If you haven't already read the story, here's the quick sum-up so you know what's going on:

Crystal, a half-human, half-alien girl, is looking for her father. The rumor is that he's still alive on Earth. Alonzo, an FBI agent who was tasked to bring her in for questioning about a death she caused through misuse of her abilities, decides to help her find her father.

While running from other government agents, Alonzo is injured, and Crystal, who is able to take other people's injuries on herself to 'heal' them, has to drink a cola drink for enough energy to help him, even though she knows the effects of any common substance in her mutated system have unpredictable and often negative consequences. Caffeine, in particular, has been vicious and very negative in the past...

Something else you need to know is that Alonzo's young wife, Maria, passed away from cancer about two years before this scene opens.

Crazy stuff, but there you go. What fun is science fiction if it doesn't go a little crazy sometimes?

So, there you go, and enjoy this week's little freebie:

***

The Motel - Alonzo's Story
Part One

The muscles in Alonzo’s whole body froze rigid and immobile.  The left arm especially burned.  Even the slightest twitch only made the pain worse.

Small fingers, so soft and small, moved along the burning, cooling it, and he jumped a little.  So soft and small.  Not since…

“Maria….”

The hand stopped and lifted away from his skin. A sense of body heat next to his hips on the bed captured his focus for a moment, but soon the burning intensified and his breathing increased.

Don’t stop.  Is it…?

“Maria?…God, my arm…Maria!”

The same hand smoothed his forehead now, clearing the haze around his mind. From somewhere he received strength to open his eyes. 

“I’m here.  You’ll be okay…”

Maria’s long black hair fell like a waterfall around her shoulders, just like the first day they met.

His surprise overtook his thoughts, and he could only blink and stare at her face, the halo of a dim light bulb behind her. How long had it been? 

Every cell of his body reached out to her, to try to pull her down to him, to his chest and his mouth, to make her real and never lose her again, but his arms lay like dead meat at his sides.  Fire spread through his body with every breath. 

“Maria?”  His breath grated across his dry throat.

She smiled, but she looked sad.  Looked down and shook her head.

What is wrong with me?  Say something. Please.

Her hand moved over to his temple.  “Go to sleep now.”

The dim light snapped out.

No…

The intensity of the scream coming from the bed next to his shocked him awake in a moment.  He sprang to his feet. Where was she? He had no idea where he was, or why Maria screamed. 

He wasn’t sick anymore, and the freedom and quickness of his movements caught him off-guard with such a sense of unreality that, for a moment, he simply wavered next to the bed.  He patted himself down to make sure that he still had a physical boundary.  His shirt and shoes were missing, but otherwise he was still dressed. 

Then the frightened scream again, breaking into his consciousness with such strength...

“Crystal?”

As soon as her name whispered from his mouth, he remembered everything. The shooting.  The blood.  Driving until the dark enveloped him, and a lot of hazy memories after that, of pain and heat.  What happened to her?

***

That's all for today...another installment tomorrow.