The Knights Wore Blue

Trigger warning: sexual assault

His hand on her skin felt like it belonged. Her body arched upward, deepening their kiss. A moan began and ended in her throat, and his ears caught it, turning off the part of his brain capable of coherent thought. His senses teased by the subtle hints of her fruity smell, his hands moved with a deftness that came with practice, sliding across her exposed midriff and ducking into her blouse.

Her hands were on his before he could find the clasp of her bra. She pulled back. ‘Whoa.’ Adesua’s wide, amused eyes were trained on his, her chest rising and falling with each ragged breath. ‘We’re…moving so fast.’

‘Yeah.’ His voice was so hoarse the words may have chafed his throat. But he didn’t notice he’d even spoken. His eyes were on her lips, the lips that were formerly covered in some red pigment now likely swimming in the depths of his gut. In the weirdly comfortable combination of awkwardness and amusement that passed between them, he felt it again, that sizzle of mutual attraction that had continued to grow since they’d met the month before. Sitting next to her at that movie theatre tonight had only fanned that spark into a full-blown flame. His body wanted her, and if the loaded looks she’d given him throughout the movie were enough to go on, her body wanted him just as much.

And there was no time like the present.

Her leg slipped off his lap. ‘Maybe we should…slow down?’

‘Slow down?’ He chuckled. ‘I know. Couch’s too small.’ He’d been too charged with an eagerness to satisfy his yearning to make it to his bedroom. Squished on his couch, Adesua’s hesitation was no surprise. ‘You know what I think?’ He cupped her cheek. ‘Maybe we should…take this to the bedroom.’ His kiss was light, and his lips lingered on her jaw. The intoxicating combination of his breath tickling one ear and Trevor’s proximity had driven many women to willingness and quivering knees. ‘We can have all the room we want.’

She laughed, but the hands she put on his chest to push him off her bruised his ego. ‘No, Trevor. We had fun.’ She gazed at her shoulder as she pulled a fallen strap back into place. ‘But it’s too soon.’

‘Are you serious?’ He searched her eyes, his lips still curved in a smile. ‘Remember you took my shirt off already, right?’

Her eyes moved past him to the item of clothing dangling off the armrest of another couch, where she’d flung it. ‘Yeah,’ she said, biting her lower lip. ‘Sometimes I get a little wild.’ She covered her face with one hand, as if her own actions shamed her. She stood. ‘Maybe we can meet again, sometime?’

Oh she was serious. ‘Ade, really?’ He jumped to his feet. One hand lashed out to grab hers, turning her to him. ‘After all of that? You’re just going to leave?’ While there was still an unsatisfied member within the clothes that still remained on his body?

‘I like being with you, Trevor.’ Her shoulders lifted. ‘But I don’t want this. Not now.’

‘You want this.’ Trevor’s hands slipped around the exposed skin between her blouse and the waistband of her skirt, the sight of which had played with his hormones all evening. ‘I know you do.’  

‘Trevor, hey. Listen.’ She stepped back, peeling his hands off her. ‘Someday. Maybe. I’ll be ready. But not today.’ She picked up his shirt and pressed it into his hands. ‘I’ll see you.’ And with a quick caress of his forearm, she made for the door.

In that moment he felt it again, the need that grew prominent anytime Adesua was close. It was a greedy, yawning hole inside him, and he had to fill it. With her mouth she said no now, but the buildup to this moment, all the opportunities she’d taken to brush her bosom against his torso, how she hadn’t pulled away when he stroked her thigh at the movies, even following him into his house when she knew what could happen—those said she wanted it just as bad as him.

And there really was no better time than the present.

Hunger had him covering the space between the couch and the door in two powerful bounds. When his arms closed around her from behind Adesua screamed. She didn’t stop when he lifted her easily and dumped her unto the thin cushions of the couch. Her yelling was only a vague, distant echo to his ear, because another sound had consumed him whole: his blood pumping with full resolve. With one knee bent in the space where he’d parted her legs, one of his hands worked on the side zipper of her micro skirt, the other dodging her punches. ‘Wow, you are wild,’ he said, managing to clasp both her wrists between the fingers of his left hand. He grinned down at her writhing form, his eyes glistening with unbridled yearning. ‘I love it!’ He gave up on the zipper, opting instead to push her skirt up—there wasn't much of a skirt, anyway—and lowered his head till his lips claimed hers.  

‘Wait, this is your Masters in Biochemistry certificate hanging on the wall? Wow. Do you function with a different brain in real life than it took you to get that? Or is this store-bought?’ 

Trevor’s eyelids flew apart. It was a female voice, he could tell, but his mouth was clamped so tightly over Adesua’s that the only noises she was making were muffled. The TV wasn’t on, and the voice was too clear—and too near—to imagine that it was floating up from the busy streets downstairs. He ventured a glance up—

—and leaped off Adesua like a man doused with scalding oil.

On the other side of the room a woman rocked forward and backward on her block-heeled boots, her eyes on the framed certificate on the wall. The ends of her shoulder-length hair rested on a black short-sleeved dress shirt tucked into black leather pants. She peered over her shoulder at the ceiling. ‘You should clean this place,’ she said, nodding toward the cobwebs hanging proudly overhead. ‘It’s kind of a mess.’

‘What are you—’ Trevor swallowed. Tendrils of blue light snaked up her arms and legs, bathing her in an otherworldly glow. His mouth filled with the sickening taste of steel wool. ‘How did you— Who are you?’

‘Oh.’ She swiveled. ‘My name’s Elsie.’ She pushed one hand into her trouser pocket. ‘I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but we kind of shoot for honesty around here. Hey.’ She flicked her attention to the woman on the couch, who had gathered herself into a sitting position, her fingers working to straighten clothing that was out of place. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Yeah.’ Adesua glowered at Trevor. ‘I am now.’

Trevor’s brow puckered. Ade didn’t seem half as surprised to see a stranger in his living room. He’d like to stand to assert his authority, but not all of his body knew yet that there'd been an interruption. ‘How did you even get in here?’ That the stranger did not immediately respond stirred fiery ire in his blood. His gaze darted between both women. ‘Are you two working together?’

Elsie snickered. ‘I heard she needed help. You know? Because she screamed? When you were on top of her? It’s kind of a universal distress signal.’ She let out a breath through pursed lips. ‘Let her go.’

He burst into a short laugh, but inside him a battle for sanity had begun. None of this made any sense. She could not be real. People did not just appear in other people’s houses, leaking blue light. ‘Are you even real?’

She grinned. ‘I brought a club.’ Only then did Trevor notice that behind her a wooden bar leaned against the wall, one he did not put there, one that was charged with the same blue energy climbing up this woman. ‘Want to find out if it’s real?’

‘Why would you even—’ He rammed the heels of his palms in his eyes. It would mess with his vision. But his vision was already messing with him. When he looked up again, Elsie was still there. A shimmer of amusement danced in her eyes. ‘How did you get in? I’ve never even seen you!’

‘But I’ve seen you.’ Elsie crossed her arms over her chest. He heard a hiss he guessed came from the energy emanating from her. ‘You’re new around here, but we’ve been watching. And we take care of our own. If a girl says not to touch her, best not touch her, sir.’

The nerve this woman had, breaking into his house and making demands! ‘Look.’ He shut his eyes and inhaled. This wasn’t really happening. None of this was real. Ade was messing with his mind, somehow. ‘I don’t know who you are, or why you’re here, but this is my house, and I don’t want you in it. Get out.’

‘Yeah, trust me. I don’t want to be in here any more than you want me in here.’ When Trevor heard a female voice, and noticed the lips of neither woman before him moved, fear snapped him upright. His head whipped in the direction of the new sound. The door to his bedroom swung open. Another woman walked out of it, this one in a dark blue sweater, grey capris and sneakers, her afro hair pointing in all directions in all its kinky glory. From her right hand a black baton dangled. He didn’t squelch the urge to gulp when he saw it again: blue strings of light spiraling up her limbs, coiling down and up the baton. ‘All you have to do is let the girl leave, and we leave too.’ She settled on an armrest and faced him. ‘I’m Selorm. How you doing? Really though, black curtains? For your bedroom? What do you have against light?’

‘Adesua!’ Trevor sprang up, all swollen things be damned. ‘What is this? Who are these—’

‘No food? Herh.’ Trevor’s first reaction when he heard yet another voice was to hit his nose with the top of his fist in soft, repeated thumps. ‘There’s no food in your kitchen?’ The new speaker was a man—in spite of himself Trevor found he was grateful for the change—, dreadlocks cascading from the top of his head and over his yellow Ankara shirt, ending just where his white trousers started to show. Unlike the others he had no weapon, but his burly figure suggested he didn’t need any. Like Trevor hadn’t seen enough of it, tentacles of pale blue light traveled up the man’s arms and legs. ‘My guy. What if she’d said yes? What if she stayed over, woke up in the middle of the night, and wanted something to eat?’ He shook his head. ‘Stop giving us a bad name.’

Trevor threw up his hands. ‘Where do you...things keep coming from?’

‘Things, really, sir?’ Elsie huffed. ‘How many things blow eighty cedis on black leather pants?’

‘It’s fabulous, by the way,’ said Selorm.

‘Thanks.’

‘Tell me. Just—’ Trevor clapped both hands over his nose, summoning calm. ‘Give me a straight answer. Who are you...people?’

The man stepped forward. ‘We’re a community. We know that dangers lurk on every corner. We stick together. Help out when it’s necessary. Right now counts as necessary.’

‘So you just…pop up? Mess with people’s lives?’

‘You’re the one who was going to mess with my life, Trevor!’ Adesua’s voice held a note of raw pain and anger that cut him more than he cared to admit. ‘I get it. I kissed you back. But how does it make it right that you were going to force yourself on me?’

‘I’d have made sure you loved it, I swear it!’ He’d been with many women, and he couldn’t remember one who hadn’t left the morning after with a great deal of reluctance. ‘Besides, you knew you wanted to, deep down—’

‘That’s the problem with people like you.’ Selorm sighed. ‘You read the word ‘No’ as an obstacle. It’s a whole response, full stop. Not an invitation to try harder. Not an excuse to take her by force.’ 

‘You don’t understand!’ Why couldn’t they see it? The signs were right in front of them! ‘If she doesn’t want this just as bad as I do why would she follow me to my house and kiss me the way she did? Why would she dress like that—’ he pointed at Ade’s crop-top and miniskirt-clad body ‘—if not to hint at what’s coming?’

‘I don’t know if you know,’ Elsie said, scratching her head, ‘but a woman has this weird thing. It’s called herself. Whatever she wears, she wears for herself. A woman’s clothes aren’t an excuse for anyone to take advantage of her. That says more about you as a person than it does about her clothing sense.’

‘So what if she kissed you?’ Selorm shrugged. ‘Maybe that’s as far as she’s willing to go. Respect that.’

‘Respect that? Are you even hearing yourself right now?’ He spun to face the man, his eyes wide in appeal. A man would understand. ‘Dude. You know this. You know just how hard this is. One month. One whole month I’ve had this crazy chemistry with her. She flirts. She drops hints. I’m ready. She knows I’m ready. Everything we’ve done leads up to this moment. And she’s just going to leave me randy? Unsatisfied? Subject me to that kind of torture after leading me on for so long? How’s that right?’ 

‘My guy, I know. It’s hard.’ The man put a hand on Trevor’s left shoulder. ‘It’s like she made you a promise. You want her to deliver. But get this: she owes you nothing. Her body is hers. You could go ahead and steal it anyway. That’s, what, five minutes of pleasure for you? You know what it is to her? Your torture lasted one month. Hers would last a lifetime. She sits in her room, blaming herself. Maybe she gathers courage and goes to the police. You know what they’ll say? The same things you said. She did it to herself. She shouldn’t have followed you into your house if she didn’t want it. Society will blame her. They’ll say she dresses like she’s inviting it. Now she’s scared. Even when she’s with a guy she likes, a guy she’s married to, she doesn’t trust him not to hurt her. She’s scarred. For life! And if she doesn’t have a good support system? She could just end it. Kill herself. People are going to make their own interpretations, say why they think she did it. But you’ll know. You’ll know it’s because one night, you didn’t stop yourself. Didn’t accept that a woman’s ‘no’ is not a bridge you’ve got to cross, but the end of the road.’

The following seconds brought with them a suffocating silence. Trevor felt his stomach clench. He looked over at Adesua, whose arms were wrapped around her raised knees. The fire below his abdomen had not fizzled out, and if his common sense had been on hibernate he may have tried again to quench it the only way he knew how.

But his common sense was awake, thanks to these blasted creatures and their crackling blue light. She did have a right to her body, indecisive as he thought she was. And he liked her too much to trample on her sense of security because of his greed.

‘Has he ever said it like that before?’ Selorm asked Elsie. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever heard him say it like that before.’

‘So, what’s it going to be?’ The man linked his fingers behind him. He tilted his head at Trevor. ‘You’re going to let her go easily? Or must we fight?’

‘I’ve never used the baton,’ said Selorm, jumping up and down on her perch. ‘I really want to use it.’

‘You should leave,’ Trevor said to Adesua, turning to pick up his shirt.

‘Sweet,’ Elsie said.

‘Darn,’ went Selorm. 

Hands on his shirt, Trevor stood with his back to the exiting quartet, unsure he’d be able to restrain himself if he saw Ade leaving. ‘We’ll be watching you,’ Elsie whispered as she passed him.

‘Trevor? You good?’

‘Mm?’ He dared to look. Ade was at the door. Alone. Heart clobbering his ribcage, Trevor whipped his head around. No individuals crawling with lines of blue light were visible. ‘Yeah,’ he heard himself saying, one hand massaging his forehead. ‘I think.’

‘You collected your shirt and just...froze.’

‘Did I?’ He wanted to laugh. None of it had been real. The community’s knights had all been in his head. Still there was that unmistakable warmth on his shoulder from where the man had touched him.

He pulled on his shirt. ‘I’ll walk you downstairs.’

He followed her out his flat and helped her into a car, everything like an out-of-body experience for him. It was when he turned to go back into the building that feeling returned to him. Standing against a tree on his far right was a woman in a dark blouse and grey slacks. Her hair was a big afro. A strip of blue light twisted around her right arm. She smiled at him, then walked away, the night swallowing her whole.