Pretty Pretty Lights
by Annalise de Fere
He lifted my hand in his to his lips, placing a kiss on the back. “And this,” he opened the door with an exaggerated dramatic flourish, “is my bedroom.”
I blushed and grinned. “Ah, so it’s one of those apartment tours.”
He grinned back. “If you want it to be.”
I stepped forward, almost pushing him backwards through the door. “You already know I do, goofball.”
His dark chuckle warmed me from head to toe. Why did I have to be so weak to the Smug Tist Chuckle? “You won’t be calling me that again tonight, thrall.”
“Yes, Sire.”
He ruffled my hair. “That’s right.” Another wave of warmth. “I have something to show you.”
With no further warning, he spun me past him and pushed me backwards onto the bed.
I let out a “meep!” of surprise. He smirked. I love that smirk.
I started to prop myself up on one elbow to watch him, but he shook his head. “No, thrall, just stay where I put you. Get comfortable on your back, and let your gaze rest on the ceiling above you. That’s right.” It was only when he said “that’s right” again that I realized he had shifted into the soft, intimate tones of his tist voice, and that I could already feel the familiar fuzz of trance softening the edges of my thoughts. With a happy sigh, I let my eyes flutter closed.
“Wake!” He snapped his fingers. My eyes snapped open. “Tsk, not yet, silly thrall. I said look at the ceiling.”
My lips parted in a soft gasp. The room was mostly dark – he must’ve drawn the curtains and turned off the light – but the ceiling was lit up with a spiral galaxy. “Oh! Is this–”
“Shh. No need to speak. Just look. Watch.”
With an audible click of a button and whirr of a motor, the galaxy began to turn.
“Watch, and let your mind begin to drift. Watch the stars sparkle like the tingles that flow over your body as a million tiny points of light swirl above you and pull you up–” my eyelids fluttered, but he snapped his fingers again. “Stare.” I forced my eyes back open. “Look, and see how the stars wheeling above you pulls you to float on a sea of joy up into the starry v–” I gasped again. He had almost spoken one of my triggers. My eyelids fluttered again, and I waited, breathless with anticipation.
But I only heard that Smug Tist Chuckle again. “Patience, thrall. I’m enjoying watching the lights turn in your eyes as the light in your eyes goes blank and your mind goes blank and thoughts fall away as you fly and float and flutter just waiting for me to say–” I whimpered, longing for it.
“Void.”
My eyes rolled back, fluttered, and closed. My mind soared away into an endless, starry void.