I fed my mind monsters. Then my mind fed me back.
I’m an imaginative reader. Lately that imagination has been living almost exclusively inside monster romance. Orcs. Aliens. Sea lords. Creatures with bodies that shouldn’t work on a human frame and cocks that make human ones look like polite suggestions. I tell myself it’s just for fun. A break from the soft predictable stories of men and women who fall in love the ordinary way. Sometimes ordinary isn’t enough. Sometimes you want something that shouldn’t exist, something that looks at you like it has never seen soft human flesh before and intends to learn every inch of it.
I went to bed in the same short cotton pants and oversized T shirt I always wear. Nothing special. Just another night of letting those books live rent free in my head.
I don’t remember falling asleep. One moment I was turning pages on my Kindle. The next I was standing barefoot in woods that did not belong to any earth I knew.
The trees were the deepest blue, almost black at the trunks, the leaves a lighter colder blue that swallowed the light. The air was thick and damp. A cold shudder ran down my spine. I looked down and saw my own pajamas, thin and useless against whatever this place was. I started walking because standing still felt more dangerous.
Smoke rose above the canopy. I walked toward it hoping I might find someone who could help me. As I got closer I heard loud chatters, voices low and rough and not quite human. Then I saw the shapes. Shadows of figures gathered around a fire. I paused. These did not look like humans. I slipped behind a thick bush to be sure of what I was seeing before I walked any closer.
Tall. Much taller than any man. Skin the lightest shade of green, almost luminous in the firelight. From the waist up they were bare. From the waist down, rough brown cloth wrapped their hips. Even seated they looked massive. Their faces weren’t human. Not ugly. Just other. Stronger bone structure, wider eyes that reflected the fire like animals, mouths made for sounds I didn’t know.
I stayed hidden, heart slamming, trying to make sense of them. One second of stillness. Then a hand closed around my upper arm hard enough to bruise. The ground left my feet. I was lifted like I weighed nothing.
I screamed. The sound tore out of me. He only grunted, a deep vibration that I felt through his grip, and tightened his hold. He carried me into the circle of firelight and dropped me in the center. Rope bit into my wrists. A strip of cloth was shoved between my teeth. The chatter died. Only the fire cracked.
They stared. Every one of them. Like they had never seen anything like me before.
The one who had taken me stood over me, eight feet if he was an inch, and spoke in a language that was all growls and clicks. He pointed at me. The others answered with the same low sound at the same time. Then three of them moved closer.
Hands on my face. Fingers in my hair. Thumbs brushing my lips like they were testing whether the soft pink of me was real. I tried to twist away. The leader’s hand clamped down on my shoulder and held me still while they continued exploring me. One of them pushed my T shirt up. My breasts spilled free.
