Story 3: Succubus

(Author's Note: This story presupposes knowledge of the ending of the first Dead Space, with specific regards to you-know-who, and it also gives away a plot twist. Readers who have not completed the game, consider yourselves warned!)

(Author's Note 2: Quick update; I've renamed this story from "The Long Jump" to "Succubus", a title which I felt was more appropriate. A few typos and missing words have also been corrected.)

She waited for you. Oh, god, she waited for you. How many weeks was it? Waiting for the next message, longing just to see her face and hear her voice? Worrying every day in between that the separation gave her time to change her mind about the two of you, decide not to wait. And then…

Isaac, it's me. I wish I could talk to you.

It's okay. It's all right. You're here now, here for her. To talk.

Kendra Daniels. The bitch left you both to die, or tried to. That poor bastard Kyne never had a chance; she just shot him and left him in his gore on the deck as she pulled away. And she left you, you and Nicole, high and dry on the Ishimura. Abandoned you, left you as fodder for the zombies, left you alone.

But she didn't count on Nicole's ingenuity, nor your resilience. Teamwork, companionship. She'd forgotten about that. She told you about the remote pilot, and you stopped her cold, dragged the shuttle back to the Ishimura. Kendra escaped on a pod, the coward, but you and Nicole have the shuttle now. You're bound for Aegis VII, to finish this.

Right now you're in the cockpit, and she's beside you. Your helmet's lying on the floor underfoot where you've cast it; you only realize how claustrophobic the suit is when you take the damn thing off. Sweat and dried blood's made the RIG stick to your body; god, it feels disgusting.

"An hour," you say. "It'll be an hour before we get to the colony. Maybe two hours. The autopilot will take us there."

"Why will it take so long?" she asks. Somehow, she still looks so beautiful. Even after all the blood and pain of the Ishimura, she's clean, her skin smooth, her hair neat, her clothing unblemished. The smell of her perfume in your nostrils, just like you remember from the last time you saw her. She's looking steadily at you, her head slightly cocked.

"Because it's on the opposite side of the planet," you say. "This shuttle can only go so fast, and we need to go down out of the asteroid field and into orbit, and then around the planet to the colony. But at least we'll beat Kendra there."

"Okay," she says.

"Okay? Is that all?"

"What's wrong, Isaac?"

"I was hoping we could talk."

"About what?"

"About us. You said you wanted to talk to me. In your message. You sounded so alone."

I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything. I wish I could just…talk to someone.

You suddenly feel her fingers running through your hair, moving down to tickle that spot behind your ear in that way she always had; just like all those times before. She's right behind you, now, but she was beside you just a second ago, wasn't she? It doesn't matter. She must have moved behind you in a moment when you weren't looking. You weren't paying attention. People don't teleport.

Oh Isaac, she murmurs. I was alone. I was. But you're here now. That's what matters.

You're stalling, you say. You mean it as a joke, but you're so tired, it comes across more aggressive than you meant it to. But she doesn't stop caressing your scalp.

I want to talk, she says. Just not now. Give me time to think. We'll talk, I promise; I just need time to think about what happened.

I understand. I saw what it was like in there. I can't imagine what it was like for you, watching them all die.

It's strange. Such a little thing. I've seen people die before; I'm a doctor, after all. But this…

It's okay, Nicole, you say. You can see she's near tears. It's okay, you don't have to talk until you're ready.

Okay.

A long moment passes. She moves her hands down from your scalp to your cheeks, touching them. You remember your last date on the Sprawl. The smell of her, the touch of her, the taste. That night you spent together, a day before the Ishimura left dock. How long ago was it?

God, I'm tired, you say. It's not a lie. You're exhausted after all that running and fighting, no breaks except for the brief minutes you snatched on the tram, travelling from deck to deck.

Go lie down, she whispers to you, her lips close to your earlobe. There's a couch in the lounge. We can lie there and rest.

Questions, you think as you get up. Questions can wait until after the marker. You're tired. You're both trying not to think about what you've seen. You understand why she doesn't want to talk right now.

She follows you out of the cockpit. Her arm linked with yours, hands clasped. She's behind you, but somehow, it feels almost like she's leading you as both of you sit down on the couch. It feels so good after all those hours on the Ishimura; so relaxing. You feel her running her hands along your own, her cheek pressed to yours, just like the first time you kissed, at a party so long ago. There was a couch then too.

As if she's thinking the same thing as you, she inclines her head slightly, leans over enough to plant her lips against yours. A long, slow kiss.

Nicole, you say

Nicole

It's okay Isaac

Nicole

Hold me Isaac

She kisses you again. The feel of her tongue against yours, eyes closed, nothing but the sensation of her.

Isaac

The feeling of her hands against your RIG finding the clasps Sticky clothing peeling away sensation of relief it's gone Hers is coming off too you must be undressing her you realize

Make us whole Isaac

Oh god Nicole I've missed you

I know Isaac

Make us whole Isaac

I'll try

You're lying back against the couch Neither of you have any clothes on Nicole lets the last article fall to the floor before she kisses you again You can feel her warmth against you You can smell yourself the sweat and the blood the stench but you try to focus on her instead

The lavender of her perfume the smell of disinfectant that was always about her part of what made her her

Isaac

You feel her moving against your chest trying to pull you on top of her

Nicole are you sure

Yes Isaac

We dont have any protection Nicole are you sure about this

Its okay Isaac

You give in and let her turn you and kiss her again You draw back adjust yourself go down She sighs and holds you close as you move

Make us whole Isaac

up and down like ships used to go you think back in the days when ships travelled between land not stars heaving in time to a neverending pulse youve never been this poetic before in moments like this

no thats not true there was that first time so many years ago a trip through memories thats what this is always something reminding you of what has gone before of her eternal memories of her combined in the here and now like a motif or a recurring theme repeating on a loop manifesting itself in different contexts

what she means to you

her legs locked behind your back her arms running through your hair the feel of her flesh against yours the soft pant of her breath as she moves in time with you how warm she is how perfect make us whole nicole

i really wanted to see you again she breathes into your ear

just once

im here you say

ive loved you she says

ive always loved you

i love you too you say

movement getting faster like ships in terrestrial storms back on earth hundreds of years ago up and down faster and faster ship approaching crisis

hold me isaac

plunging into waves within and without building to an inevitable conclusion past the point of no return its coming inevitable as thunder after lightning in the storm

isaac

i know

she holds you close at the end and suddenly youre beyond metaphor or simile no poetics just her only her as you reach the inevitable conclusion last burst of pleasure

a moment paused frozen in tableau

then you roll off of her

theres a moment of awkwardness as you rearrange yourselves then shes lying down in front of you her back pressed against your chest your chin nuzzling her neck

we still have half an hour you whisper

time to rest she says back and settles against you

its strange nicole you murmur

what

such a little thing

in the end she says smiling drowsy up from beside you on the couch the world going fuzzy as sleep reaches out to claim you

in the end it all comes down to just one little thing