Entanglement – Chapter 1
Vaughn Ashby
Entanglement
All books in the Aurora Wasteland Literary Universe are interconnected but are also stand alone novels, and can be read in any order you’d like.
Click play on the playlist, and check your dimension tables.
Track One, in the construction site behind the building where data analyst Vanessa works, a door frame was discovered buried a few feet below the ground.
Track Two, after a catastrophic job interview for an entry-level position, Noah stumbles out of the bathroom pantsless and into Vanessa.
Track Three, An unknown dormant connection is re-shared.
Error in track order.
Track Number Unknown, Neither of their lives are what they believed them to be.
Track Number Error, In an attempt to understand themselves, a night of drinking leads to the two of them stumbling through the door frame behind Vanessa’s work. The next day Noah is Vanessa's boss, and the world as they know it isn't the same.
Error in dimension table…
With her eyes closed tight, Vanessa imagined a room full of naked people, all reaching for her, touching her. And her lying on a big plush comfy bed in the middle of the room. The hands of all the people moved over her body. Their hands and mouths everywhere. Together with her, they moved and swayed like the ocean. All the bodies, sweaty, and intertwined. Moans of pleasure filled her head. Her own pleasure building, growing in a slow steady incline. Her hands reached out and grabbed whatever body parts she could get her hands on, which ended up being one man and one woman. Vanessa arched her back and as she was about to complete her journey to happy town, a voice interrupted her, someone was yelling something. Across the room, a man was yelling at her. His limp dick swinging in the AC of the room.
“The Job!” he yelled. His voice was squeaky, and lady boner killing.
Vanessa sat up and looked at him. “What?” she yelled back.
“You left that job running.”
Vanessa’s eyes jerked open, as the tile ceiling came back into reality with all its tiny holes. She’d counted them all before. There wasn’t time for a repeat today.
“You ok?” Clementine, or Clem as she preferred to be called, said as she looked up from between Vanessa’s legs. “I thought you were about to… you know…. finish.”
Vanessa, or Van as she liked to be called, sighed, “Just say cum darling, and I was about to… finish.”
“You sure the door is locked?”
“No, I left it open, I’m hoping the janitor with the dandruff in his beard would pop in to join us. God, he’s hot.”
Clem laughed into Van’s perfectly ladyscaped vajayjay, which made Van laugh. She’d never had someone laugh directly into her before, that was a first.
“Here,” Clem said as she leaned and reached for the doorknob over Van. “Let me get that for you.” Clem pretended to lock the door, then stood up.
Van admired her as best she could, though she felt like she was forgetting something.
“Let’s see if we can get you to the goal line again,” Clem said as she stretched her arms out, and touched the walls of the small room. Her palms firmly pressed against both walls.
“Ugg… sports metaphors, gross.”
Clem pouted her lips. “Here,” she said as she unbuttoned her shirt. Damn, Clem was sexy. Her features were the opposite of Van’s. Maybe that was why she was so into it. Van had big boobs, Clem had small. No, they weren’t just small, they were perky. She loved perky.
“No bra, nice,” Van said as she pulled Clem down towards her. Their lips met, and they kissed, as Van ran her hands over Clem’s now shirtless body. Kissing another woman was always way better than kissing any man. Their lips were just softer, nothing against dudes. They had other attributes women just don’t have.
Clem started kissing her way down Van’s body until she reached the lady zone. There she changed her technique to more of a sucking action, which startled Van. Not in a negative way, but from an intensity she wasn’t expecting. “Oh,” she blurted out, then slapped her own hand over her mouth and laughed.
Again, she closed her eyes as she tried to sink into the experience. Seconds later, her stomach gurgled and roared. Her eyes flicked open, and her hands fell from her mouth. Was she hungry? Her stomach gurgled again. It was almost lunchtime, and she had skipped breakfast so yeah, she probably was hungry.
For a third time, her stomach made noises. Van wondered if Clem could hear them? But how couldn’t she? Fuck, she just couldn’t get into the right headspace.
From her pants pocket, currently down near her ankles, she could hear her phone ring. It was the Game of Thrones theme song. Clem poked her head up at the noise, but Van directed her back down as she reached for her phone.
With one hand on Clem’s short dark hair, she looked at the call display. It was her boss, Simon. She answered it.
“Ola,” she said as Clem tried to raise her head back up, again Van stopped her.
“There’s a security situation I need you to look at,” Simon said, his voice sounding as distant as Van’s long lost orgasm.
“Why me? I don’t do security.”
“It’s in your field, and I’m going into a meeting. Take a look at the email I’m sending you.”
“Sure, I’ll go take a look at it now. I’m not doing anything important.”
Clem’s head jolted up. The look on her face told Van everything she needed to know before Clem even spoke. She didn’t mean to say it that way, but people tend to be sensitive to criticism when they are going down on you. Van mouthed the word sorry, and as best she could motioned for Clem to keep going. Which, Clem obliged her by doing, for a couple of seconds, until she gently bit her. Van yelped.
“What was that? You ok?” Simon said, not sounding concerned.
“It was nothing,” Van replied to Simon, and frowned at Clem while motioning for Clem to continue.
This time Clem pulled away, and Van’s heart sunk, she shouldn’t have taken the phone call. Shit, she was just trying to be silly. Playfully she motioned for Clem to come back and keep licking.
Clem didn’t move.
Van motioned again, and gently tried to move Clem’s head back down.
Angry, Clem pushed her hand away and jumped to her feet.
Simon droned on in Van’s ear. At this point, she was only half paying attention.
“I’m sorry,” Van mouthed again.
“You’re never sorry,” Clem said, her need to be quiet gone. “I’m literally licking you and…”
Van covered the phone’s microphone with her hand. “Do we have a problem?”
“You tell me?” Clem said as she started getting dressed, her shirt was the first thing to go back on. Then she began looking around for her underwear.
“I don’t know, do we? Because this was supposed to be fun. It’s not feeling very fun right now.”
“Yeah, it’s was supposed to be fun, but you’re right it’s not.”
“Well, maybe if you were better at giving head, it would be more fun,” Van said, but before it left her lips, she regretted it. She never meant it, but she always hurt people. She had to. It was either be hurt or hurt them. And she’d been hurt enough to know it was something she never wanted to feel again. Sure she would feel bad after, she did every time, but she never let herself get close enough to anyone for it to hurt.
“Fuck you,” Clem said as she looked around the floor for her underwear. “This is done.”
“Oh it’s been done for a while, I was planning on breaking up with you anyways when we were done today.”
Clem grunted and gave up on her panty search. She stared at Van, anger and hurt in her eyes.
“At least I didn’t break up with you like I was planning while you were going down on me. It was going to be hilarious. Next, level shit.”
Again Clem said nothing. Simon blabbered away on the phone. Van raised the phone back up to her ear. “Sorry about that, Boss Man, you were saying.” Van winked at Clem, and mouthed the word ‘bye’.
“Fuck you,” Clem repeated with tears in her eyes as she pushed the quiet room door open and exited out into the kitchen area of the office building, leaving Van with her legs still spread open sitting in the quiet room.
“I’ve got to run into a waste of time interview,” Simon said as Van watched Clem walk away angrily. “Check your email and then check the issue. I’ll be out soon.” Waste of time? Had she just blown this whole thing with Clem over a waste of time interview? Fuck whoever it was that was being interviewed. And fuck Simon for calling her over this.
“Sure thing,” Van said as she wiped away a tear she’d never admit was there. The door closed, leaving her alone in the room, her lady parts enjoying the cool office AC breeze. She got up, checked that Clem’s panties were still in her pocket, adjusted her clothes as to not be so naked, and exited the small corporate quiet room. The room was intended for personal reflection and prayer. But leaving it now, Van just felt like some damn coffee.
The harsh lights of the corporate kitchen amplified her anger and frustration. She felt exposed being out here. She wanted to go back to the quiet room. She wanted to go back in time and tell herself not to answer her phone. Though, to be fair, she and Clem weren’t really a thing. They just fucked around at work. Like fuck buddies, only during office hours. Things weren’t supposed to be real, no feelings. Just kissing and lady part licking. That’s it. Is that too much to ask? Van grunted as she grabbed a coffee mug out of the cupboard. It had a stupid corporate logo on it. Fuck, she’d left her mug back at her desk. She hated using this stupid shared office mugs. Her brain couldn’t stop imagining all the crazy Lovecraftian horrors that lived on them.
The coffee machine made some noises as she pulled the coffee pot out, and filled her communal, probably ebola infected, mug up. Behind her, a group of men wearing construction overalls moved through the kitchen, towards the parkade elevator. One of them whistled at her, well to be fair it probably wasn’t meant to be heard out loud. It sounded more like an honest reaction, versus a chauvinist male catcall. And Van knew that. But fuck if the last ten minutes hadn’t put her in a bad mood.
So she did what she always did in these situations. “Fuck you!” Van yelled as she turned around and flipped the men her middle finger. “Who the fuck do you think you are?”
None of them replied.
“What are you fucking stupid? Now you can’t make any fucking sounds?”
Again, none of the men replied. The elevator dinged, the doors opened, they got on, and turned to look at her. “Wow…” one of them said as the doors were closing.
“I know, right?” another one of them said.
Van ran at the elevator as the doors closed shut. She wanted to rip those fuckers’ dicks off and shove them down their fucking face holes. She rested her head against the elevator doors. Ok, she might have overreacted just then. But she felt like she had too. Or at least that’s what she told herself. She wanted to give every man who looked at her funny the idea that if they even thought of putting their dicks in her that her pussy would rip it off. She hated being seeing as a sex object by people who didn’t deserve it. Just treat her, and women for that matter, like god damn humans. We’re all the same, so treat us all the same. But no, there are men who feel they can grab women by the pussy and treat them how they want. Not her, not anymore.
Frustrated with herself, Clem, Simon, those construction guys, and herself again, she rushed back over to her coffee, and shit… she forgot the job she left running on her computer. Fuck, she forgot about it again. She grabbed her mug and sighed. Fuck this day. She lifted her coffee mug, had she been paying attention she’d have noticed that the coffee machine hadn’t filled her cup to her regular desired level. It was too light, sending Van’s muscle memory off. She flung her cup up and onto her shirt. “Fuck me.” She said quietly to herself. Lucky for everyone in the office, no one was there, she’d surely have murdered anyone who laughed. The sad part was it wasn’t even hot. The coffee was warm at best.
A group of people clamored through the doors next to the kitchen that led outside to the employee parking lot at the back of the building. They were laughing, how fucking dare they laugh right now. Those tits, how dare they.
“Van! You have to go check out what they dug up out there,” Kenneth an older balding gentlemen with dark thick rimmed glasses, said as he moved through the kitchen with his group.
“What?” Van said, confused that someone wasn’t being a jerk hole to her.
“They found this door frame buried in the ground. You should check it out.”
“Everyone’s taking pictures with it,” a woman who Van hadn’t seen before, but was with Kenneth, said.
Anyone who knew Van knew that was the last way to get her anywhere. She wasn’t a corporate stooge. She didn’t drink the Koolaid. She hated all corporate bull shit. So telling her everyone was doing something was the worst way to get her there.
Van clicked the office coffee machine back on. The timer said it would take five minutes until it was ready. She stared at the machine as the numbers counted down. The sounds from Kenneth and his group dissipated down the hall. Maybe she could go look at the damn door. Maybe it would be interesting. Maybe.
The kitchen was again empty, she glanced around the room, and made her way to the exit. The door was floor to ceiling glass, other than the metal handle. It looked quiet out there. She could probably go and not see anyone. Or rather, no one would see her. There would be no needed human interaction.
The coffee machine said there was still 4 minutes to go.
“Fuck it,” Van again said to herself, and pushed her way through the door. The sun was blinding. She squinted her eyes and moved through the parking lot at an almost run, but slow enough to still look cool.
Dirt piles lined the edge of the construction area with poorly strung up orange construction tape blocking off the area. Van stepped over it and looked down into the construction site, which was only a few feet deep. A trail of footprints led from where she stood, to a door frame laying flat on the ground near one of the far edges. From here, it looked like nothing. She rolled her eyes and started walking over to it. She was kicking herself. She’d fallen for another corporate bore, a time waste of epic proportions. People here would take the smallest opportunity to not do any work. And she fell for it. She should be back in the office enjoying her post breakup coffee, and… fuck, check that damn job she left running.
The closer she got to the door, the more she realized that it really was just a door frame, there was no actual door, no hinges, handles or anything. Somehow that was even more disappointing. She kicked the frame with her foot. It didn’t move. It must be heavier than it looked. Van stared down at it. It looked ancient, how long had it been down there? Who put it there? Fuck, no stop it. Don’t become involved. This wasn’t worth it.
She turned to leave and noticed something written on the inside lip of the door frame. A heart with someone’s initials. How fucking cliche was that. Even from wherever this door was from, some bleeding heart lovesick kids wrote their stupid initials inside a heart. “V+H”, she wanted to barf. Though she couldn’t take her eyes off of it, she kind of wished it was her, but she’d never admit it to anyone, ever. She reached down for the door frame and brushed dirt off from over the heart. It was dumb, but she felt connected to it. Why? She stepped down into the middle of the frame to get a better look. It almost looked like her writing. Not that she spent much time writing anything nowadays. She was a keyboard only kind of girl, digital or die. But on the odd occasion, she did use a pen. And the writing looked so similar to her own it was starting to freak her out.
“What are you doing here?” a voice said, frightening Van causing her to fall back on her ass. A woman was looking down at her, the sun behind her, making the red and blue colors seem to pull away from her shadow. The woman’s hands frantically waved towards Van, “What are you doing here?” The woman repeated. “You aren’t supposed to be here. How did you get here?”
“I work there,” Van said, pointing towards her office building. “We own this,” she said, motioning to the field. “And who the fuck are you? I haven’t seen you here before.” Not that Van could see her at all, the sun blared from behind the woman. She was nothing but a black silhouette.
“Get out of there now!” The woman yelled as she moved towards Van and the door frame.
Van squinted and watched the woman in confusion, but as she got closer, Van inched backward, still on her butt.
“What have you done?” the woman muttered. “You aren’t supposed to be here, you…” the woman tripped on the door frame. Instinctively Van turned and scurried out of the door frame and away from the woman’s advances. Ten seconds of hard sprinting later, and halfway back to the building, Van turned to make sure there was space between her and the shadow woman. Only she didn’t see the woman. She squinted hard through the sun, still nothing. She listened, nothing. She’d seen enough horror movies to know she shouldn’t go back looking for the woman. So, she flipped her an enjoyingly happy middle finger and continued her way back to the building. She’d have to tell security there was a crazy woman out there messing with people.
The coffee machine beeped as Van pushed her way through the glass door and back into the kitchen. Her mug looked full of coffee this time. Her finger felt the warmth of the cup, and she reached for it. She smiled, picked up her mug, turned, and bumped into a half naked man with a sweater wrapped around his waist.
“Watch where you’re going, dick hole,” Van said as she tried to wipe the coffee from her shirt. She had intended to say more, she wanted to say sorry, anything that would get him away from her. But she didn’t, and he didn’t either. She looked into his eyes, and he looked into hers, then something happened, something that had never happened before.
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