Helen

Original sin?

"Are you a religious person, Emily?"

"No." She sat back on the sofa and let her head tilt back. She kept her eyes which shone like jewels on him. "I do believe in good and evil."

"And you think we're doing evil?"

She laughed with no humor. "What do you think?"

"I think that I don't really want to talk about Helen tonight."

"The first day I saw you I was completely perplexed as to why someone like you would take a job like this."

He blinked. "What do you mean?"

"You just seemed like the type who just wanted to chill out, who didn't like to deal with serious things. I can't explain it." She tried to get up and fell back. She snorted.

"You're drunk."

"It certainly seems that way."

He drank more whiskey. "Did you dislike me, then?"

"I had no feelings for you. I was just counting the days."

"And now?"

She was startled. "Do you want me to have feelings for you, Aidan?"

The whiskey burning through his blood allowed to answer truthfully. "Maybe."

She appeared to be debating something in her head. She turned to him a few moments later. "I envy you."

"Why?"

"Because in spite of all we have seen and done here, you can compartmentalize it. You can still feel things that probably every other man is feeling on this planet right now. You're thinking about what you'll do when this contract is over. You're hitting on me—in a really roundabout way, I'll grant you—but you're coming on to me."

He flushed. "Is that an insult?"

"No. I just envy you."

They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. He wanted to say more, but he didn't know where to begin.

He opened his mouth. "I have to think about the future or I'll go crazy."

"I know."

"And maybe I'm trying to flirt with you. I can't help it."

"I know that, too."

He turned his body so he could really look at her. "Do you want me to stop?"

She was silent for a moment. Her pale cheeks grew pink. She had become shy. It was fascinating to see.

"I should stop you."

He put his hand on her thigh. "But you won't?"

Her eyes watched his hand massage her leg. Slowly she met his gaze. "This would be the stupidest thing we could ever do."

"Probably," he agreed. "I still want to."

"We have another two years to go. Can you deal with it if it goes badly?"

He kissed her in response. She tasted as good as he hoped, and felt wonderful under his hands. He couldn't stop them from gliding up to her breasts. She wasn't wearing a bra; he could feel her rock hard nipples beneath the silky fabric of her shirt. He grunted when he felt her hand slowly slide up his leg and then take hold of his cock. There was too much clothing between them. He wanted to feel her. Bare.

He pulled her shirt up off of her and smiled when her eyes settled on his face. It occurred to him they might be too drunk for this. She kissed him before he could say so, and then it was too difficult to stop.

They slowly fell back on the sofa. Aidan moved on top of her. There was a catch in her breath.

"Emily," he whispered in wonder. "I've wanted this so long."

She didn't reply; she nuzzled his throat and held onto his middle.

The lust brimming in his chest became too much. He thrust against her and pinched one of her nipples. She moaned.

"So long. So long," he panted.

Then she froze in his hands. Her head spun and she stared at the window.

"Aidan... I— I think we need to stop." She pushed him back and she sat up. She quickly grabbed her shirt and put it back on. Then she looked over at him. Her face was painted with shame. "I'm sorry."

He couldn't move.

"I'm sorry," she murmured again. "I just can't."

"It's okay." His head was spinning. He was dizzy and his heart was pounding. He thought he might actually pass out. "I understand."

She stood up and walked over to the window. Moonlight made her face take on an eerie glow. It sounded like she asked "Do you?" under her breath, but then she closed the curtain and slowly walked the stairs.

___________

It was his turn to face Helen the next day. For the first time since they arrived, Aidan debated asking Emily if she'd trade a day with him. He had a hangover, but he genuinely dreaded laying eyes on Helen.

He couldn't bear to see the woman who was never a person, whose eyes haunted him in the night, whose smile gave him nightmares.

Even if he'd wanted to ask Emily, he wouldn't have been able to; she snuck out sometime in the morning, probably on her way to the mainland for supplies.

He walked alone down the beach, irritated by the loud seagulls swooping up and down. He tried not to let the night before fill his mind. He failed.

Aidan could still smell her, still feel the sensation of her lips pressed against his, still hear the sound of her breathing. As much as the memory tortured him, he reveled in the way it made his pulse speed up.

Then he arrived at the mouth of Helen's cave.

He stepped into the hollow opening, feeling the dampness instantly chill his skin. He was distracted, torn between thinking of the way Emily's eyes danced in the firelight and the task ahead of him.

"Aidan." His name bounced off the walls.

He looked up and breathed in sharply. Helen was standing tall and at attention. That was not typical for her—usually she was cooped up in a corner or halfway hidden behind a rock. She was also missing a chain.

He tried to settle his racing heart by telling himself that she was still subdued. He was safe.

She smiled at him. "I was hoping Emily would come today."

"You know that's not how this works," he bit out.

Her smile grew. "I really wanted Emily to come play today."

He ignored her, switching out her old buckets for new ones.

"Maybe we could play," she giggled. "You like cards, don't you? Especially rummy."

Aidan stopped moving.

"I know I'm nothing like your daughter, but I can play cards, too."

Her black eyes bore into his own. He could feel all of the blood drain from his face. It was as if he'd lost gravity, like he was floating untethered above the earth. He wanted to scream.

How could she know?

"What was her name?"

He swallowed. "You obviously know."

"She was so pretty. What happened to her?"

The back of his throat burned. He wouldn't cry, not here. "Shut up."

"You came here to watch me because of her, didn't you?"

He closed his eyes.

"You wanted to get away. And I bet now you can't wait to get back. Funny how that happens."

He sat on the cool rock and opened his eyes. She was waiting for him, satisfaction evident in her expression.

"Did you do something to Emily?"

She gave him an innocent look. "What do you mean?"

He sucked in a breath. "Did you—did you harm her?"

"Oh, no. Of course not. She's the only person I like in this horrible world."

"So you wouldn't hurt her?"

Helen smiled. "Not on purpose."

"Would you hurt me?"

She didn't answer.

He ordered himself to get up. He'd come too far to be murdered in some cave by a fucking experiment.

But he couldn't move.

"The three of us are connected."

"No." He shook his head.

Helen laughed. "This I promise you: we are."

He felt tremendous nausea.

"Tell Emily I want her to come see me today when she gets back."

He finally convinced himself to stand. He deserted the old buckets and tried not to throw up when he heard the disturbing echo of laughter.

_______________

Emily didn't come back until dark. He was just about to leave and attempt to swim over in order to find her.

"What's wrong?"

Aidan let out a bitter laugh and ran his hands through his hair. "You've been gone forever."

"I ran into a few obstacles."

A tense silence stretched itself between them. She regarded him calmly; he watched her with suspicion.

Where had she been? What had she been doing? She had never been gone this long before.

"Well, your favorite artificial creation was asking for you today. Wanted you to come see her when you got back."

Emily surprised him by putting down the bags she carried and turning around as if she intended to go over immediately.

He grabbed her arm. "No. Don't go. There is something up with her. You were right a week ago. We need to be careful."

"Of course there is something wrong with her," she hissed, ripping her arm from his hold. "It's our job, however, to determine what that something is. As much as I'd like to go to bed, or even get drunk with you again and pretend this isn't our reality, I can't. I signed up to protect the world from her. So did you."

"Emily. We should leave. The both of us. Tonight. That demon freak has something wicked up her sleeve and I don't want either of us near her when she decides to act on it."

She leaned against the door and shut her eyes. "How do you know she hasn't started?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I told you. Told you there was something going on." Emily lifted her hands to her eyes and wiped away tears. "Two of the doctors were murdered this week. Doctors who personally worked on her."

Aidan took a breath. "Coincidence," he protested, but he said it without any feeling.

Her eyes fluttered open. "I wish. I truly wish." She walked over to him and took his hand. "I'm sorry. I wish we could go. It's too late for us."

"What do we do?"

Emily shut the door and grabbed a bottle of wine from the kitchen. She opened it and got them two glasses. Then she sat on the couch and took one long, needful drink.

"We wait," she breathed. "We wait."

__________________________

They fell asleep in each other's arms. Aidan woke up sometime in the middle of the night, mouth dry and cock hard. He wanted to wake her up and persuade her to fuck him, especially since the end was seemingly near for them, but she looked so restful and he still had a little decency left in him.

He went for a run, half expecting to see Helen come sprinting out after him. The sea was calm and the sun threatened to break through the stubborn, cursed clouds. There was no hint that Helen had somehow escaped, but Aidan felt like she was watching him, anyway.

He came back to the cottage covered in sweat. Emily was awake and drinking a cup of coffee.

"No sight of of the test tube bitch from hell."

Emily nearly smiled.

He prepared his coffee and sat next to her, letting his arm rest against hers. He wanted to kiss her so badly, wanted to push her down to the floor and sink into her. Wanted to feel connected to the earth again, to link himself to some other living being. Wanted to feel her need for him.

"I haven't been completely honest with you," she began. "I formed an attachment with Helen."

He gave her a look. "Attachment?"

"I felt sorry for her. She was born into a world that had no love for her, and I told myself that even though she wasn't natural, she was still a person."

"She's not a person," he said. "Not even close."

She took a swig of coffee and Aidan realized she'd put whiskey in it.

"I tried to talk to her. Tried to teach her things. Sometimes I told myself she was almost sweet." She looked down at her hands. "Maybe about a month ago she started telling me things, things I didn't want to know. Things I knew were true but I didn't want to think about how she could know them. Things about my fiancé. Things about you. Things about my own nature. Hearing these things from Helen was... really upsetting. Disturbing."

"What kinds of things?" he asked in a whisper.

"She told me that you had a crush on me. She even worded it like that." Emily shook her head with a sad smile. "She is so manipulative."

"What else?"

"That you had a daughter who died. You came here as a sort of exile." She inhaled deeply and let the air out in a rush. "And she said I would die here."

Aidan's heart pounded. "Did she say how?"

"No, but I obviously took it as a threat."

"She told me she'd never intentionally hurt you."

Emily's eyebrows lifted. "And you believe her?"

"It seemed like one of her candid moments."

"She can talk to me in my head," Emily went on. "I never told you because I didn't want you to think I was crazy."

"Can you answer her? Like, have a conversation?"

"Not that I'm aware of, but she lies." She sniffed and her eyes grew teary. "I feel like so much of this is my fault. I showed her our weaknesses without even realizing it. Now I feel like she's inside my head all the time, always watching."

He took her by the shoulders and turned her body so that she had to face him and couldn't turn away. "We need to get rid of her. Fuck the contract. Fuck the money."

Her eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. We're doing what the government should have done from the fucking start."

She hugged him hard and wept. "I'm so relieved."

Aidan kissed the top of her head. "It won't be easy."

"It'll be damn near impossible," she sobbed. "I don't care. I can't sit in this cottage and just wait for her to come for us."

"We need a plan," Aidan said. "You can't go there today."

"That'll make her angry." She pulled back and wiped at her eyes. "I think I should pretend everything is normal."

He touched her cheek and caressed it with his thumb. "You said yourself—she knows."

"I went to the mainland yesterday and met with our contact. I told him about her unpredictability, about how she's become even more frightening than normal. He reacted in a very bizarre way. And I mean that he actually didn't react at all. It's like he knew. Then he told me about the doctors. He said that we were all doomed, and maybe he's right, but I know we have to try. When he left me, he gave me something. It's up in my room... I'm afraid to even say what it is because she could be listening."

Emily started to struggle with breathing. He kissed her lightly, whispering reassuring promises which both of them knew he wouldn't be able to keep.

"We will find a way," he assured her.

"Will you come lie down with me?"

Aidan felt lightheaded. He knew she meant it in an innocent way, that she needed to feel as comfortable and secure as she could right now, but his body responded. He hated that he couldn't turn it off, but even now he couldn't fight back his lust.

"Of course." His voice was raspy.

He followed her up the creaky stairs he dreamt of walking up since the first time he met her. Her room smelled like flowers and was much warmer than downstairs.

She took off her shoes and sweater. She wasn't wearing anything underneath. He sat on the bed and pulled off his own shoes, watching her walk across the room out of the corner of his eyes. Her hands pushed down her tight jeans.

He could no longer pretend he wasn't paying attention. His mouth watered when he saw her pale, shapely legs bare for the first time. Her hands hesitated at the sides of her panties. He wanted to cry—was she going to remove them? She paused long enough that his eyes flicked up to her face. She was watching him. Her cheeks flushed a little and her plump lips parted.

"The point of no return," she warned. Her words sounded loud in the tiny room.

He took off his own shirt in response. He stood to unzip and remove his own jeans and boxers. His cock pulsed when he saw her eyes light up with lust. He spread out on her bed and waited.

This felt familiar, even though it took them two years to get there. She had always been watching him, and he had always been waiting for her.

"Take them off," he ordered in a soft voice.

She slid the lavender panties down her legs. He inhaled though his nose when he saw her pussy. His whole world narrowed down to this point between her thighs; he wanted to lose himself in it. In her.

He could smell their desire. Again, it struck them that it was like they were the last two people left on earth. The only people.

"Come here."

Emily followed his order and climbed on top of him. His cock ran against her satiny thigh and he nearly came right then. He put her under him and kissed her deeply. Part of him thought he might be content enough to just kiss her.

She was real. This was real.

"I've wanted this for a long time," he whispered.

She looked up at him. "I know."

He guided his cock inside her. He swallowed her gasp with his mouth and pushed deeper. She moaned into their kiss. Then she wrapped her arms around his body in a hug and softened under him..

The sex wasn't fast or frantic like he'd envisioned it might be. They didn't alternate positions or scream or talk or anything like that. All they wanted or needed was human connection, as well as the brief ecstasy and security sex can bring.

She came first. He could tell by her breathing, by the way her hips lifted up to meet his, by the added wetness between her legs. He lifted his head so that he could look down at her face. She was smiling and crying.

"Thank you," she whispered.

He continued moving, his desire to feel the same pleasure building and building until he finally exploded. He yelled as his body tightened and released over and over.

Then it was over. The glow lasted for a few minutes and then they both burrowed under the covers, hiding their chilled bodies beneath the comforter. Emily told him how good she felt. Aidan murmured that he felt hopeful now.

They fell asleep holding hands.

________________

Aidan woke up with a start. It was dark and he didn't know where he was. Then the events of the afternoon came back to him.

He stood and dressed quickly. The cottage was still. Too still. He was worried.

He looked for Emily downstairs and called her name. There was no response.

He opened the door and stepped out onto the beach, feeling the whipping wind slap his face. The sea was particularly unsettled and the moon was obscured behind moody clouds.

He screamed her name and stared down in the direction of Helen's cave with sickening dread.

Then he heard Emily calling his name. She was sitting on a blanket on the beach wearing the sweater he loved best. He was confused and more than a little scared. There was no reason for her to be out here, especially at night before a storm.

"What are you doing out here?" he called.

She stood up and rubbed her eyes. She was confused. "I don't know!"

He rushed over to her and pulled her into the cottage. He started a fire and rubbed her arms, desperate to bring some color back into her face.

"What happened?"

Her teeth were chattering. "I can't remember. I woke up to you calling me."

Fear pooled unpleasantly in his stomach. He wanted this to be over; he was tired of waiting on this godforsaken island. Tired of meaningless days stretching into nothing. Tired of Helen. It was honestly an exhaustion Aidan had never known.

They waited for the sun to come up together. When faint light appeared across the sky, Aidan began packing up their frighteningly small amount of belongings.

Emily watched.

"Where we will go?" she asked him. "We can't just go to New York. They'll be looking for us."

"Let's worry about Helen first."

She rested her hand on his back until he stopped folding clothes.

When they could no longer put off the inevitable, they made their way to the cave for the last time. Helen would be waiting, possibly furious that they skipped coming for the first time since their arrival.

Maybe she knew what happened between them. Maybe she knew that Emily's contact had given her a gun which she clutched with a sure grip.

"I'm a pretty good shot," she informed him with a grim smile.

He just tightened his hand around hers and hoped she wouldn't need to demonstrate her skill.

Emily gasped when they got closer—the cave was a mess. There were rocks all around; parts of her shackles were everywhere.

They wandered into the dark hole and discovered that their biggest fear had become realized: Helen was missing.