01:00 ~ The Camp

    The clouds had cleared for the minute and there were no streetlamps. All around was dark, yet still visible under the star-light. The little gems, thrust across their blackened sheet competed for attention of Earthlings.
    On the grass, lay Alex, beside a woman who he had just met. The blackness of her hair called back to the bold night sky. He knew she belonged up their, with the best of them. She was pale, like their faces and beautiful like their light.
    He loved her.
    The two lay, half in and half out of a tent, snuggled into the one sleeping bag between them. Their top halves were inside, gazing up, out of the opened flap, whilst the bottom half of the caterpillar-like sleeping bag protruded outside.
    The entire population of the camp were sleeping, apart from these two. Alex would have answered her questions all night long, as she would his.
    Mina curled like a cat into his bare torso, as his arm enveloped her. They fitted each other. Their pieces fitted the spaces in the other.

    ‘We’ll run away!’ said Mina.
    ‘Where to?’
    ‘Anywhere! We can sleep in this tent! Don’t laugh, I’m being serious.’
    Mina raised herself to a sitting position to demonstrate her seriousness. She gazed down at him expectantly. She shook her hair down around her shoulders whilst waiting for the desired response.
    ‘Okay,’ replied Alex, ‘At least we know where we’ll be living then.’ He thought about his next sentence carefully. ‘If it’s what you want, I will.’
    She threw her arms around him with glee. A beautiful stranger had saved her - one day soon, she would be able to repay him. She would give him the greatest gift in the universe, whatever that was. Pleasure, pain and life, and death.

    ‘We have to leave tonight. I want to put as much space between us and this place as possible, as quickly as possible.’
    Alex was startled by this sudden burst of energy and fear in her.
    ‘Why? Right now?’ He asked, baffled.
    ‘Yes right now! Before the sun comes up, we have to be away. Far…’
    ‘But - but, you’re safe here. You’re safe now.’ She didn’t hear. Her strong arms continued to wave in all directions. ‘Mina.’ ‘Mina!’ ‘Mina, please!’
    She was brought to a standstill. She turned her head slowly toward him. In his confused face was a need for answers and the same fear that she felt. The fear of captivity. She begged for the words to explain.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ was all that came to her at first. Then, ‘trust me.’
    ‘I do,’ was his reply.
    ‘I can’t explain right now. You’d never believe me!’
    ‘Is it Fin? Is he going to do something …’
    ‘No! God no! That b*****d is the last of my troubles. All I can do now is to ask you to trust me, I can’t do any more. So do you?’
    A long breath was released and his hands covered his face. Then his curtain palms opened, revealing a smiling face.
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Thank you,’ she said relieved. ‘Then come back to the house with me. I have some things to do before we go.’