"Don't Miss," He Said (New romantic Story series)

[romantic_story]

"Every time someone calls you my girlfriend; it makes me happy," I said.

"Aww, Alphonse. That's cute."

"Maybe, but it's also true. I love you Elena."

She smiled, and leaned in close. I planted a kiss on the side of her neck, nudging up her chin so I could kiss under it. Elena sighed heavily, and rubbed her hand across my leg, raking her nails across, and rubbing the inside of my thigh.

"Now now, Elena; someone could walk in at any time. Let's keep it PG, okay," I asked her in a mock-lecturing tone.

"Hmm...let them come and go as they please," Elena said, leaning closer, and resting her head on my chest. "I think I'd be okay with the whole world knowing."

"Yeah, but..." I kissed the top of her head. "I think they'd be jealous of us," I said with a smirk on my face. My smirk faded.

"What's wrong, Alphonse," Elena said, looking around.

"Have you seen Himeko recently," I asked, getting up.

Elena frowned. "Oh, come on Al," she pined, "sit down. Worry about your sister later."

That was odd. Did Elena just...Himeko? My sister? I had no sister, least of all Himeko.

"What was that you said?"

"Oh, nothing. Come and sit down," she said in a low sultry voice. "Your little Relena's pussy has gotten so wet."

"What?!" Elena had never talked like that before. Hold on...Relena? What was going on?

I mused for a second, and decided to play along. "Hey, um...Relena?"

"Yes, Alphonse?"

"If I give you some...release..."

"Go on, Al."

"Could I call you Elena while I do it?"

She seemed taken aback, but quickly regained her cool. "You can call me anything you want, big guy, even Elena," she said.

"Who are you," I asked. This was not my Elena. "Just who the hell are you?"

The sexy grin was wiped from her face. She cursed under her breath as she stood up, her eyes cast down. She shifted her feet slightly, right shoulder forward. I heard a suppressed laugh come from the woman, and it grew, until I was sure everyone in the house could hear it.

The next thing I remember, I was on the ground, and this faux-Elena was jumping to her feet, withdrawing a knife from my side. I felt a white-hot surge as the blade's length came out of my side, and oxygen flooded my tissues. I was losing blood fast, and my body was doing its best to dull the pain...by making me pass out.

As my vision faded, I saw the Elena-imposter pull at her neck. Once. Twice. The third time, her neck seemed to change color, followed by her whole head, and change into a neutral green hue, reforming to the shape of a spandex hood. Everything went white just as the figure's body changed a similar green, losing its shape and becoming more...curvy. "Octo-camo," I said, and as my hearing too slipped into a monotone siren, I heard a deep, throaty female voice, laughing lightly as it spoke.

"Yeah, just like it, kid."

*************

[romantic_story]

"Goddamit! Wake the hell up! Fuckin' civilians...Peterson, get another bucket. Yeah, with ice this time. That oughta wake the son'bitch up quick as shit." I recognized the voice as that of Gibalev. Thank God we had a medic.

I rose up off the ground, but quickly fell back to the ground, as the pain in my side was unbearable. "Think you curse enough, Gibalev," I asked, surprised at how weak my voice sounded.

"Yeah, well, I talk out of my head, when I...get worried is all. Glad you're up and around," he responded. I was surprised that Gibalev was worried about me, thinking that he must have had a lot of gruesome field-medic incidents.

Gibalev kept his nervous smile as he continued. "You had us sweating back there, Rosethorne. We were all worried, but...some of us more than others." He looked up from where I lay. "You can send her in now."

I looked to where he had called, but saw only an old set of sky-blue bed sheets from my childhood. They were hung in a square around me, and as I looked up, I realized they were duct-taped to the ceiling.

Suddenly, Elena burst through a slight break in the makeshift curtain. I have said that Elena's eyes looked beautiful with tears accenting the corners, but this type of crying I could do without. Her eyes were red, as were her cheeks, and the area around her eyes. Makeup ran from her eyes; it looked as if she had been crying continuously for some time.

"Alphonse," she cried out, seeing me propped up on one elbow. She ran closer and slid onto her knees, holding me in her arms.

I winced in pain as her hand pushed into my bandaged wound. She looked at her hand, finding it stained with blood despite the heavy bandaging Gibalev had given me. "Oh God, Alphonse...I knew it was bad, but...Will you be alright?"

Trying to lighten the mood, I laughed a little. "Yeah, but the doctor says I'll never play the piano again." Elena laughed along, and I saw her finally switch from tears of sadness to tears of relief, and joy.

Elena raised her hand, still bloody. She brought it down hard across the right side of my face. "Holy shi—Elena! Why did you.."

"That," she said with a heavy grimace, "is for offering to finger another woman."

"I'm sorry Elena. I thought it was you."

She continued, raising her hand again. "This is to get the blood off your face," she said, wiping my face with the non-bloody half of her hand.

"Elena..."

"And this," she said, smiling and leaning in close, "is for surviving." She leaned in even closer, and kissed me deeply. The metallic taste of blood graced my tongue as I slid it past my lips and hers. If I was going to get stabbed and then slapped...dammit, I was going to get some.

"Eh-hem..."

We swiveled our eyes, unwilling or unable to break the kiss.

It was Albrecht. He stepped through the curtain-break and motioned us through to the other side. Elena took my right hand, and I kept my left pressed against my wound, bearing the pain that would wash over me each time I put weight on my right foot.

When we 'broke on through to the other side', I saw Albrecht sitting back down in a grouping of chairs with Gibalev, Peterson and Manstir. There were two empty chairs which Elena and I took seats at.

"What's going on," I asked everyone. "Who was...Oh god, where's Himeko?" I had noticed that there was no chair for her. Everyone looked away, not wanting to catch my gaze. No one answered. "That wasn't Elena, and it wasn't Himeko that...that attacked me. I know it wasn't either of them."

"Yeah," Manstir remarked with a slight grin, "but it was for me." He sounded different. I looked him over, and noticed him clutching his right side, just as I had done.

"What do you mean," I asked, already expecting what was to come.

Manstir shifted in his chair and began, pausing for broken breath now and again. "I was looking around upstairs, and I saw this open door. I knew it wasn't Miss Wallcroft's room, so I was curious, right?"

We nodded.

He continued, "so, I open the door, and I see someone's in the bed. The covers are pulled up except for the head. I recognized the hair as, uh...Himeko, but she's not turned towards me. So, I call out to her. No answer, but I can hear heavy breathing, and she's moving a little. I shake her, but no answer."

I had guessed what strategy the attacker was going to use. Even Elena was blushing.

"I shake her again, and she rolls over onto her back, and looks straight at me. Her eyes looked...dead. I guess it was from the...ministrations. So, she asks me if I want to watch. I respond as any red-blooded male who's been touring with Able Company—with no decent pussy around, I might add—would respond. I said yes."

If there was a picture in an encyclopedia for 'face-palm', Elena would have been the two page spread.

"Anyway," Manstir said, "so she pulls the comforter down, and she's nude. I mean dead nude. No hair or anything. She looked ready too. So, she's got one hand up on her tits, mauling those suckers, and the other hand's down there going to town on herself with the ole' in-out, in-out."

I felt myself getting aroused, even if it was involuntary. I guess I had never really thought of Himeko as a sexual creature. She had always been there to help me, assist me...She was more like a big sister to me. Oh God...why does that turn me on. God, I'm a terrible person.

Elena nudged me from my thoughts as Manstir went on:

"So I watch her for about a minute, and she tells me she's getting close. I mean, I could hear the squishy noises and what-not. She asks me to 'finish her off'. I had no idea, but turns out she grabbed my hand and stuck me deep inside her. I felt some weird spandex-like resistance, and at first I'm thinking: is this girl a virgin? But then I realize that it shouldn't stretch like that, and should have some sort of hole."

Elena was visibly different. Obviously Manstir's story was having an effect on her too.

"Then, she clamps up and I know she's cumming on my fingers, and I mean, she clamped like a giant clam. I couldn't pull my fingers out. So then, after a minute, she still hasn't released me, and I'd been trying. All of a sudden the girl starts laughing. Hysterically. Before I can ask her what's so funny, I feel this pain in my right side. I look down and the bitch stabbed me."

"Amazing. To think that a man's sexual instinct could get him into trouble," said Elena, obviously sarcastic.

"Regardless, here's why I'm worried, and why we're locked in the basement," said Gibalev, taking charge of the conversation. "The bitch attacked both of you, same girl."

"How is that possible; how do you know," asked Albrecht.

"She's using some sort of optical camouflage. Changes her appearance; I thought it was still top-secret intelligence shit, but apparently," Peterson said, trailing off where his knowledge stopped.

"And, we know it's the same woman from these," Gibalev said, holding up a plastic bag with two metal fragments inside.

"What are those," I asked.

"Blade fragments, from the knife she stabbed you with. I recovered them while treating you," Gibalev said. "We also know that you were attacked first. You got the very tip to the rib, whereas he took a part further down the blade.

"Can we tell what model knife she's using, maybe get an idea who she's working for," asked Albrecht.

Gibalev sighed. "Yes," he said, "it's a standard military bowie knife. But, that's not what worries me."

"What's the bad news," I asked.

Manstir jumped in: "It was my knife."

I thought for a second...then spoke, "so she stole your knife, stabbed you, then stabbed me. Case closed, right?"

"Not quite," Gibalev said. "Remember, you were stabbed first. That means that the bitch stole Manstir's knife...stabbed you, and then went back to bait him with the bedroom antics."

"One more thing worries me though," Manstir said. I gave him an inquisitive look. He answered, "The knife...it ended up in your pocket. The bitch is playing with us."

We sat silently again, the only sound being laughter. It was her; psychotic laughter that drifted down to the basement. We looked up as we heard heavy static resolved into more snickering.

"She's using the old intercom system," I said, recognizing the static from Himeko's morning calls. "That means she's in Himeko's room."

"You'd be...right about that," the deeper female voice from before said through the static. "And I must say, we're having a lot...of fun!"

Albrecht walked over to the north wall, where he saw a box for the intercom. He pressed the button, and responded, "Who are you?"

"Hmm...Good question," the voice responded, and took a pause. "I think this one's called Himeko, right? She's awfully cute. But me? They call me James...the Just." My worst fears were then confirmed. It was Gospel again.

Albrecht gave me a knowing look. He knew it was them as well. He then responded through the intercom, "How do we know Himeko's even alive?"

The voice went silent. Even the quiet laughter ceased. "Well, she can't come to the phone at the moment, but she has a message for...Albrecht. She says 'ohhhhh...take me...I'm so wet and ready.'" The voice faded off, but was quickly replaced by a full maniacal spout of hilarity.

[romantic_story]

Albrecht struck the wall. I think he probably left a dent; not that I blame him though. We said nothing, just listened to the laughter of Himeko's captor. Peterson suddenly looked up. "The intercom hub upstairs...can it be heard throughout the whole house?"

I pondered the idea for a moment, "Yeah, it can. Albrecht, release the button."

Albrecht took his finger off the button, no longer allowing the captor...James...from hearing us. I turned to Peterson. "What did you have in mind, Peterson?"

"One more question...is the hub for the intercom up there exactly the same as this one down here?"

I responded, "No, it looks pretty different. We never updated it from the old owners, so she looks like a telephone operator from one of those old movies."

Peterson's eyes lit up. The ball was in his court now. "Staff Sergeant, remember Beirut?"

"How could I forget," Albrecht mused, rubbing his head. "Which fight do you mean?"

"I mean the second night after we got there, when we invaded the fuel and weapons depot. There was an advanced alarm system, remember?"

Albrecht, Gibalev and Manstir nodded in unison. Gibalev began to smile, as he slowly realized what they needed to do. "And we needed to trigger the alarm to take out the guardsman," Gibalev reminisced. "So that when we took him out, we took over the post, and declared it a false alarm."

"Yeah," Manstir said, "but that's not what he's talking about. I think he means the way we took out the guardsman. Attention diversion...and a system shock."

"You mean," I reasoned, "you want to distract her, and then send a shock through the intercom system?" I thought further..."In Beirut, that was a huge complex right? This puny system might be able to shock a rat, but I'm not sure about a human."

"That's why," Albrecht said, "I'm doing the distracting. Worst case scenario: the shock only surprises this James character and I have to go in and finish the job. Regardless, here's how it's gonna go down."

As Albrecht revealed the plan, Gibalev began removing the door-barricade. "I'll head upstairs, and get into position outside Himeko's door." Manstir took what was left of his knife, and used it to pry open the wall panel which held the basement intercom which Albrecht had used. "Then, once Manstir has the wires spliced," which Manstir started doing, "Peterson hooks the spliced wires into his computer."

Peterson removed his hard drive and other essential data pieces from the machine before connecting it to the spliced electrical wires. Albrecht continued, "Then, once I'm in position, Peterson's gonna send a jolt of feedback through the intercom. Once this James bitch responds, the circuit opens, and Peterson sends the shock. I breach the room and finish her off. Questions?"

Elena and I merely sat, as everyone else made final preparations. "Alright, I'm heading up there," Albrecht said.

Elena shifted closer to me, and held me against her tighter. I could tell she was worried about Himeko. "Don't worry," I tried to console her, "everything will turn out fine."

She didn't respond, but I didn't expect her to. If she was this broken up, I could only imagine how bad Albrecht must have been, as he mounted the stairs up to Himeko' room.

Peterson radioed Albrecht: "Staff Sergeant, this is it. I'm sending the feedback in five. Five, four, three, two, one, feedback is live." We looked towards the ceiling as a prolonged shriek of pain came through the ceiling. "Cutting feedback," said Peterson, and the shriek died down.

We waited with bated breath, awaiting the response from James. The intercom crackled to life. "You think some loud noise is enough to take me out?" Peterson readied the shock, and his computer whirred and crackled with the effort of building the surge. "Say something you bastards," screamed the voice, and Peterson fired the surge.

The lights dimmed, shined brightly, and went dark altogether. The surge blew the fuses as it travelled upstairs. I heard a thump as Albrecht breached the bedroom. "Let's head up there, just in case," I told everyone.

Gibalev and Peterson helped Manstir up the stairs with Elena helping me. The wound's pain was subsiding, but walking was still a chore. On the first floor, we heard a bad omen. More laughter seemed to permeate the house. This time, though, it was different; older. Manstir went to his good knee, and said, "Gibalev, Peterson, go help Staff Sergeant. Leave me here."

The two obeyed and rushed off upstairs. I hurried as best I could, Elena helping me with the last few stairs. As we rounded the corner into the hallway, I saw Gibalev and Peterson both half-in the room, weapons drawn and aimed. They let us past, as Gibalev untied Himeko. Up against the wall, I beheld a sight which I had both longed to see again, and also hoped to forget.

"Mom..."