And he still hadn't finished the bottle. 

     He didn't feel like finishing it anymore, though. He just wanted to go to bed. 

​     He suddenly felt very tired.   

     His hard-on disappeared. ​

     He got out of the jacuzzi and dried himself off as he went to his bedroom. He climbed between the sheets of his bed with the bottle still in his hand. He wanted his room as dark as possible. If he could see any part of the room, it would just spin and make him sick.

     The only problem was, the pitch dark didn't really help, either. The darkness itself moved until Trevor felt he had no choice but to physically plant his palms up against the walls of the room directly above his head so that he could hold reality in place. He also fought to keep from vomiting, and that was good because to think about that meant that he didn't have to think about that other Gargantuan Thing that wanted so much to devour his soul, his memories of that day. He was no fighter. That was the conclusion he finally came to. He didn't have the warrior instinct the way Niki did. Three missions. Three ass kickings. They'd completely fucked up this latest mission. They'd gotten Egoneg all right, sure, but in the meantime hundreds of people had been injured and killed, including Pomimi, a fellow soldier, and Fathom, Niki's beloved.  

     It physically twisted him up to think about it. He curled into a womb position like he had cramps or something, only they weren't cramps of the body but of the mind. All those people, all those screaming people, screaming because their bodies were crushed and they were about to die. And he was supposed to be the leader! That was the biggest laugh of all. He was no leader. He was just plain old Trevor Austin Harper from Seatrailia Washington, and...  

     Damn it. He couldn't sleep. 

     He looked at the bottle of vodka he had in his hand. 

     It really wasn't helping anymore. 

     Still, there wasn't that much left. Might as well.... 

     Niki came into his room and crossed over to his bed. She left the door slightly ajar so that light from the hall illuminated the room a tiny bit. 

​     She wore her robe.  

​     "How much vodka is left?" she asked.  

     Trevor showed her. 

     "We'll split it," Niki said. "You take the first hit." 

     Trevor took a sip.

     Niki held back her head and guzzled down a couple of mouthfuls.

     She capped the bottle, then dropped it on the bed next to Trevor's head.

     Then she slipped off her robe to kiss Trevor full on the lips.  

                                                     CONTINUE