The Meeting

It was dark, but I could feel her next to me. We were holding each other tightly, cuddling, and without thinking, I acted. I started to bite her gently... a mark appeared on her neck. She felt like she was in seventh heaven. I was... damn, I was happy... Her scent was driving me crazy... her hair intertwined with my fingers... her lips were so close to mine... her eyes were dark but sparkling wildly... her breath was all I wanted to hear because... I loved her. I wanted to kiss her and repeat endlessly the moments from before. I felt she wanted the same, as she took my hand in hers. I got closer to her ear, took the soft part between my lips... then bit it gently. She smiled. I started kissing her neck... but she wanted more, I could feel it... and I knew I could do much more...

...BOOOOM...

I felt a blow to the head. Then something cold on my face, water I think. Damn, it was too cold. Someone shouted, "Wake up, you animal," and I felt a hit to my right kidney. The shock, the pain, and the position I was in brought me back to reality. I was upside down, tied by a rope on an airship. How did I get here? I don't remember, but my senses were on high alert, knowing I was at an altitude of 7,354 meters. It seemed unreal, but I was sure of it. My sense of orientation told me clearly where I was and I knew for sure that night... was just a dream... damn, but what a dream... I really wanted to see her... if only she existed... When I heard:

"Hey, stupid kid... you know where you are, don't you?" I heard. I turned my head and saw the hairiest man I had ever seen. Literally, he looked more like a gorilla than a man.

"I think so... or should I guess?" I asked, trying to smile.

"Hehehehe... I don't like that you're smiling." And he pulled out a long knife, damn long. Damn... I hope it doesn't hurt. Offf, of course it will hurt...

"Of course I know..." I gulped.

The situation was dire. I was covered in blood, with three serious bruises... a dislocated hand, and a knife stuck in my leg... and yes, I was hanging above the airship... caught on a hook and dangling... at an altitude of 7,000 meters. The pain was screaming in me... my body couldn't take it anymore, and I felt the hook slowly coming out of me. Slowly, but it was coming out. Damn, I was dying...

The pain was unbearable, and I was no longer myself. Death was strolling through the sky, and behind every cloud, I saw it smiling... "Just wait a bit longer," I told myself... "I'm coming to you, I hope."

After an hour of hanging... I was caught only by the tip of the hook, and I could feel a bone being slowly scraped... very slowly. I screamed. I grabbed the rope with my other hand and pulled myself up as hard as I could, just to get the hook out. I couldn't hold on any longer, but I had to do it, and I gave it my all. The last bit of strength I had... and I pulled the hook out, but I couldn't hold on to the rope anymore... and I let go. Damn... I was falling, but this view was incredible... Above the clouds, and the sunset... it was magnificent, the reddish color of the clouds, and the warmth of the rays made me forget everything for a moment. Now, this is a way to die. But it didn't last long... because I was engulfed by the reddish clouds, which turned into a dark gray... and I kept falling. I ended up in a storm. A lightning bolt exploded next to me, and for three seconds, I lost my orientation. The barometer in my head told me I was at an altitude of 6350, 6326, 5972, 400... when I felt something soft. Soft? Maybe a cloud...? It was really soft... so maybe I wouldn't die... but then I felt myself sliding to the side... and falling again. Falling once more, so at least I'm good at something. But then I felt something hard... like a rope. A rope? Did I fall onto an airship...? An airship in the middle of a storm. Damn, are you really that stupid? Where do these thoughts come from when you see the rope, and especially since you're falling!!! Involuntarily, my body twisted. My healthy hand grabbed the rope, and I tried to slide down it... Seconds felt like an eternity, and this rope seemed infinite. The pain from my hand being rubbed raw by the rope intensified with every millisecond. In a way, it hurt like hell. Then I saw... the vessel to which the balloon was anchored. The airship itself. The deck. I crashed onto it with a thud. I grabbed my raw hand with the other in a clumsy way and saw it was bloody, worn down to the bone. That meant I was still alive, and this wasn't a dream. I got up. Slowly. The airship's deck was empty. No one. The storm was blowing with the same intensity, and the airship was swaying quite a bit. I looked at the control point. No lights. That made me think... strange. Why wasn't there any light... I heard a whistle, and the shoulder wounded by the hook was pierced again. I fell to my knees. An arrow. Damn, it hurt...!!!! I couldn't take it, and I already had many wounds. But this!? I surely won first place for the best target. I was hit in this darkness, in this storm, but how? And by whom? And then I heard:

"Who are you? And how the hell did you get here...?" It was a voice. A female voice. Damn... that wound really hurt. I turned slowly and saw a silhouette. Even in the darkness... I saw it. It was a woman... but that voice... sounded more like a girl? I might be injured, with more than half a liter of blood lost, but I could still think. My body, battered, bloody, wounded, reacted to the voice... The silhouette came closer.

"I'm... I'm... I'm dead!" I said with a half voice.

"Sure, you will be dead," said the voice... "I hit you, and the arrow is poisoned." "Poisoned." That word echoed in my head. Damn. Now I could declare myself the unluckiest person in the world. I smiled... quite broadly. The silhouette stopped.

"How did you get here?"

"From the sky..."

"From the sky...??? Maybe I used too much poison," the voice wondered, and then I saw her clearly. A girl. Her silhouette was... I could die peacefully with such a view, and I was about to because, yes... I was really dying. For a moment, a lightning bolt flashed... and I saw her face clearly... She was insanely beautiful, and those eyes... dark gray... damn.

"Yes, really from the sky..." and I smiled with the most beautiful smile I could manage at that moment and collapsed...