***

The room was dark. I couldn't see anything, really. It felt to be about the size of a large car, and it was incredibly cold. In the far side, I could just make out what looked like a table. As I got closer, I realized that it was a coffin. Dark oak, I could tell now that my eyes had adjusted. There was one of those coverings over the bottom half of it, trimmed with gold on the sides. Something made me reach down and open it. I'm not sure what. I pushed the lid up and looked in. When I saw who was inside, I dropped the lid and jumped back. It slammed down with a thud, echoing through the otherwise empty room. I didn't understand how it could be him.

The scene changed. I was standing in the back of an office, looking at two men. One of them looked familiar... I'd seen him somewhere before. They were seated at opposite sides of a desk, talking. I could barely make out what they were saying.

"I know she's an obstacle, but you can't kill her. She's your mother, for god's sake."

"No, she's not my mother. She's your mother." The man behind the desk shook his head. "She's nothing to me."

"You can't mean that. She loved you." The other man stood up. "Either way, you can't kill her. It wouldn't solve anything. He'd still find you."

"I want him to find me. I have plans for him."

"What? I never agreed to that. I never agreed to any of this. I thought--"

"I don't care what you thought. The plan is moving ahead as I see fit." The man behind the desk stood and walked around to face the other. "Unless you'd like to join them. I understand your wife has some interesting skills as well. Perhaps I'll put them both to use for me."

"I'll... follow you. But you won't kill him."

"We'll see."

"Ethan! Get up! Don't make me have to hit you." I opened my eyes and saw Kevin standing over me. He was completely naked and I took a minute to just admire him. He was gorgeous.

"Elena knocked on the door, she'll be coming in herself in like 5 minutes. No time for naughty stuff. Though, judging by the tent in that sheet, you're just about ready to blow anyway."

Kevin turned around and gave me a great view of his ass. I hadn't really checked that part of him out before, and I wasn't disappointed at all. Like the rest of his body, it was covered with that thick, dark hair; darkest at the crack, and expanding outward getting thinner over his entire ass. It traveled up a little to the small of his back, but stopped with a light patch there.

"Please? I could lock the door. We have time for a quick blowjob. I just wanna get down there and lick and suck and get a good up-close view. Please?" I whispered in his ear. He was so hard, I could tell he would give in if I kept at it.

My own dick was rock-hard, pressing into his ass. I had it lengthwise along the crack, slowly pumping my hips for stimulation. Kevin placed his hands on top of mine, guiding them down to his dick. I started stroking him, stroking the shaft and pulling his loose skin.

"Mmm, Ethan, we don't have time for this." His protests weren't very genuine; I could tell by the way he kept pushing back against me.

We were both having a great time, my hands still exploring wherever they could. Kevin turned to face me and our lips just barely touched.

"Ethan, Kevin, get out here! I don't have all day!" Grams knocked on the door hard. "I will come in there, don't make me have to."

I groaned and dropped my head down onto Kevin's shoulder. "We're coming, Grams. Just a minute."

"I really wish we could get through this just once without being interrupted," Kevin whispered. I had to laugh. I straightened up and kissed him again.

"I suppose we should get dressed. She'd probably make us go out like this if we pissed her off." I reluctantly pulled off of Kevin and grabbed some underwear out of my dresser. "Not that I'd mind looking at you naked all day long. Damn you're yummy." He blushed and turned away a little. "Really cute when you're blushing, too."

"Yeah, well... you're a pretty good catch yourself." He walked over to me and put a hand on my chest. "You're cute and funny and gorgeous and have supernatural powers. What's not to like?"

It was my turn to blush.

We both started getting dressed. It was quiet, but I didn't mind. I was still remembering that weird dream. I'm not really the kind of person who remembers his dreams. I can think of maybe three or four times. But this... this was real. It was so clear and vivid.

"I had this weird dream," I said, reaching for a pair of pants. "It started off where I was in this little room with a coffin. Now that I think about it, it might have been a hearse. It didn't feel like it was moving, though."

"Who was in the coffin?"

I looked at him for a second. "Nobody. I mean, I didn't get a chance to look. Anyway, then it changed and I was in an office or something. It looked a lot like the lawyer's office Dad would take me to when I was little and there wasn't anybody around to watch me."

I stopped almost in mid-thought. The lawyer's office Dad would take me to when I was little. The man in the office. It was Dad.

"Oh, wow. Anyway, there were two guys talking, and one of them was my dad."

"Your dad?" Kevin looked around for his socks. "That's freaky."

I started talking aloud to myself. "That means that they were talking about Grams. But Dad didn't have a brother. What's going on here?"

I was pretty much dressed, so I grabbed my shoes and practically ran downstairs. Grams was in the kitchen with Kevin's parents. They were all having coffee and bagels. It seemed weird, after what happened yesterday. I dunno. It was just... not quite what I was expecting.

"Good morning, Ethan. It's about damn time you showed up. Marian, John, and I have been ready to go for almost half an hour. You and Kevin are just going to have to eat your breakfast on the road, we don't have time for any more delays."

"Okay Grams, he should be down in a little bit." I shoved two bagels into the toaster and went to find some orange juice. Kevin came down the stairs a little bit after, smiling and giving a meek hello to his parents.

Marian looked at him for just a split second. "Won't you reconsider? Come with us. Elena says we'll be safe where she's taking us. You don't know what you're getting into--"

I cut her off. "No, I want Kevin with me." Everyone stared at me. "Uh, that is to say, I think he'd be safer with me and Grams up on Legerd. He's a target; you guys aren't. You guys are gonna be fine, but I'd just feel better if he was with us. Besides, I am the most powerful among my people."

"Not quite, young man," Grams said as she pushed me down into a chair. "But he's right. Kevin actually will be safer with us. Charles is one of the best men I know, but Kevin is a pretty high profile target now, and I don't think he's quite good enough to protect him."

"Uh, yeah. Do I get a say in this?" Kevin looked over from the refrigerator. "It's not exactly helping to think of myself as a liability. Wherever Mom and Dad are safest, that's where I want them to be. But all this talk about me... it's not really helping."

"I'm sorry, Kevin. You're right." Grams stood up and went over to him. "It's just that it's my job to keep everyone safe here. This revolution we're going to start has been a long time in coming, and I'm not trying to kid anyone: there will be casualties. It's just not going to be anyone close to me or Ethan."

Kevin gave her a sideways glance, then broke into a smile. "Well then, I guess we should get this revolution under way."

***

"That's a pretty specific dream, Ethan. I wouldn't put too much stock in it, though. Just a dream and all."

She sounded far too skittish for my tastes.

In the car on the way back from Charles' place, I told Grams about my dream. I left out the part about who I had seen. I wasn't going to tell anybody about that. Needless worry wouldn't help our cause.

Our cause. "Our cause." I'm not too sure about that. It was Grams' cause. It was something she had been working at for years. The grand liberation of Legerd. Pulling everyone off of that damn satellite, integrating them with society.

I guess it never occurred to her that some of the people might like how they were living. I don't know, I think I could deal with being separated from the rest of the human race. Or the entire human race, depending on whether I was considered a member.

I didn't bring it up, though. I didn't know enough about the place. If the government was as corrupted as Grams said, maybe it would be best that we liberate. Or help liberate. Or whatever, I still wasn't sure of our role in all of this.

When I was little, my dad told me stories. One was about the great Mirah. He came upon a group of people that was living under intensely bad conditions -- somewhat like Grams had described. He freed them. He was the messiah... of sorts. And this group of people lived happily ever after, once they had been freed.

It was starting to dawn on me that maybe Grams had me in mind for the role of Mirah. Sometimes legends can be powerful enough to make themselves come true.

***

This was a remarkably short chapter. I think I'm going to start doing chapters this short. Around the "halfway mark" in the other chapters is about where I start losing interest and need a break, so I figure why not just shorten the chapters themselves?

I'm not promising to put out stories faster. I'm not promising that they're going to be any good. But I do have the urge to write lately, and I've got a few different directions I could go with this. I'm going to explore my options and just have fun with the story.

Email me with comments and suggestions. Also, don't forget to check out my website, billybunny.com. And remember: flamers will have their email addresses sold to spammers. Hah!