There was a minute click as the thumb latch on the far side was pushed down. Harlen brought up the knife and prepared to lunge.The door swung open, fo...lowed by a cloaked shape. Harlen waited until it was mostly into the room and waited too long, the shape gasped and turned toward him, steel flashing in the dim moonlight coming in through the windows.Harlen swung his knife, connecting with the figure's arm as it came up with a sword. There was a rasping sound as his blade slid over steel rings.. Other than nothing – and lilacs – the next thing I was aware of was a crushing sense of loss, of sorrow and pain, of loneliness. It wasn’t coming from within, though, not my own sorrow or loss, but rather from an external source. There were waves of sorrow and sadness washing over me, crushing grief assaulting me with a strangely powerful force, unlike anything I’d ever experienced, forcing me to open my eyes as I struggled to understand what was happening.As my vision slowly cleared I saw Ella. I laugh to myself, even in my fantasies I can’t get off! "Yes mate?” He shouts across the heavy beat of the music filling the club. I’m about to ask for the two obligatory beers when I spot Lenny sitting with a woman, to his right, having what looks to all the world like a conversation. Unlikely I think, but changing my mind on the choice of drink reply, "Three Bacardi Breezers, two orange and one strawberry, thanks." Lenny and I met in school, age five, and grew up together. Living a matter of. “Does mum like the **** game?”“Now and then,” he said, looking up. “But you mother prefers the hooker and her mark. Costs me a fortune.”“She actually makes you pay for it?”“Too true she does! Where do you think she gets the money to buy her shoes and underwear?”Lucy laughed.“Maybe you’re not the only buyer?” she said. Then, after a moment’s thought. “Is she a better fuck than me?”Tom thought for a moment.“No. Not better. I wouldn’t say either of you was better than the other. .