5PM by Chris Heinicke

Are you telling me you’re married?”
    “Does it matter? What we have is fun, but it’s not real and never can be.”
    Her avatar kicks mine in the nuts. Then she grabs his hair and punches him in the nose with her other hand. She exits the chat and my character is sitting alone in the lobby.
    I should just go to bed and get a good night’s sleep for a change. I could do with a nip of scotch first, and just as I go to turn around, I see a chat request from BluesGirl88 again.
    My head tells me to ignore it, but another part of my anatomy tells me to accept. I shouldn’t, but for some reason this animated blonde keeps drawing me in.
    The scene is loading slowly as if a team of turtles is in the case. Parts of it slowly appear. I can see a big dungeon, and my avatar is chained to a wall. She is still in the police uniform but has a baton in one hand and a whip in the other. The scene is dark and each wall has an old stone appearance, like from medieval times.
    “What the hell is this?” I type.
    “I asked you to do something and you didn’t do it. Now you will be punished.” She cracks the whip and hits me on the back with it.
    “I told you what happened today and why I haven’t bought anything for us to play with tonight.” Her avatar hits mine in the knee with the baton. “What’s the point of all this?”
    “You lied to me about being married as well as not buying a scene. I should just kill you.”
    Now I think she’s actually deranged. I should go to bed, but I find myself walking to the booze shelf and grabbing a glass of scotch. I return to the computer and take a long sip of my drink. As I put the tumbler back down on the computer desk, I feel my head spin and vision blur. What the hell is going on?
    “Where are you, Terry?” I hear a voice calling from another room.
    Talissa! I turn the computer off and stumble from the chair. Just one sip of scotch, and I’ve lost my balance and comprehension. What the hell is wrong with me?
    One foot in front of the other is all I need to do. I crash into the wall, steady myself and hit the opposite wall. My legs feel like they’re made of concrete.
    I see a blur of dark blue and black. It’s making a noise and coming straight for me. My upper body battles through the fog… the fog my mind keeps trying to insist isn’t there. And then I feel her touch. No matter what state my body is in, her touch is my haven. She helps me walk and lets me collapse, and my world turns black.

Chapter 5

     
     
     
    Day 4
     
    “Good morning, handsome.” Talissa’s smiling face is the first thing I see.
    I haven’t forgotten what today means. “Happy anniversary, my beautiful princess.” I smile back. Although my recollection of last night’s events is blurry, I know she had been the beacon of salvation who steered me to bed at some strange hour.
    “You remembered.” She rolls over and lies on top of me. “I went and got a special present for you yesterday.”
    “You shouldn’t have. I haven’t got you anything yet.” The realisation I also hadn’t called my parents last night to arrange for the kids to stay there over the weekend smacks me in the forehead. With the weekend fast approaching, I’ll have to get on it as soon as I get to work.
    “You’ll have to search for it though. Maybe you might have to check under my nightgown first.” The brightness of her smile is on par with the sun as it beams through the blinds.
    It’s at this point I realise I’m fully naked. Talissa must have stripped me off when she guided me to bed after I blacked out last night. I slide my hand up her leg, all the way to her thigh, and as usual, she’s wearing nothing underneath her blue silk nightgown. I find the heavenly place between her legs and something is very different. “Oh, my goodness,” I feel my heart skip a beat.
    “I got it all waxed for you. Feels so smooth, doesn’t it?”
    I can’t deny it—she’s delivered something I’ve always fantasised of and