White Space Season 1

and Katie had been friends since preschool, and boyfriend and girlfriend since the seventh grade. He couldn’t imagine not being near her.
    But things were changing at the speed of disaster. Right now, their relationship was a luxury compared to his family’s safety.
    “I think we should go home first, and tell my mom everything,” Alex said.
    ”Okay, let’s do that,” Katie braided her fingers into his hand and they started walking together, heading east.
    They had been walking for five minutes when the scent of ozone gusted toward them on the tail of a cold heavy wind, shaking the surrounding trees and sending torrents of leaves raining to the forest floor. A long, dark shadow fell over them, so suddenly that Alex turned his eyes to the sky to see if there was something above them.
    Alex saw nothing but black, quickly drifting storm clouds rolling in waves over the island. Thunder boomed above them. They picked up their pace, with no words between them, both knowing there was no way they’d avoid the coming deluge.
    They made it another hundred feet before the rain began to fall in buckets. Katie broke out in a laugh as she ran ahead of Alex, “Come on!”
    Alex followed her, as hail began to assault them like hundreds of rocks being cast by God himself at the murderer and his girl.
    “Shit!” Alex said, pushing himself to run faster.
    Ahead, Katie found cover in a small cave.
    A tree cracked and fell somewhere behind Alex, crashing to the forest floor as the wind cried chaos and the hail thickened the world around him to a gray wall of pain peppering his body.
    Alex could barely make out the rise of the cave ahead, could barely see the maw of its dark mouth.
    “Come on!” Katie cried, her voice barely rising above the angry howl.
    Alex raced in as lightning ignited the sky in a celestial fireworks show.
    Inside the cave, Alex almost collapsed leaning against a wall, then bent over and sucked in a gallon of air to recover his breath.
    “Holy shit, where did that come from?!” Alex said, staring out at the wall of gray. He set his backpack on the ground, then turned toward Katie, peering into the depths of the cave, which seemed to go deeper and farther back than he’d have ever guessed from the outside. “And where did this cave come from?”
    Alex and Katie had lived on the island forever, and had explored most, if not all, of the parts of it they’d been allowed to traverse. But he had never seen this cave before. Maybe the sudden, blinding rain had pushed them off their familiar path. The woods on the island were like that — deceptively complex and always showing you new sights, if you were the type to open your eyes to exploration.
    “I dunno,” Katie said, shaking her answer through a shivering body and chattering teeth.
    The squall outside the cave intensified as the howling wind raced through the cave turning the inner quiet into an eerie reverb. Yet, standing in the safety of the cave, it felt as if they’d found their own little hideaway on the island, a place only they knew. Safe from the world and all its ugliness.
    Alex moved to her and hugged her tight, to provide warmth. The moment they drew close, he felt movement in his pants, and was awkwardly aware of his erection. Despite having dated for so long, Katie had never let them go further than heavy petting — outside of clothing, at that. Katie’s eyes looked up and met his. She bit her lip again.
    Only this time she wasn’t lying.
    She threw her arms around his neck and pulled herself up. Their open mouths found one another, in a passionate, hungry kiss. Alex closed his eyes, as his hands moved over her wet shirt and down her back. Her hands left his neck, going down to his chest. She lifted his shirt, peeling it from his body.
    He flinched as her hand brushed one of the purpled splotches on his ribs.
    “Sorry,” she said, throwing his shirt aside, then lowering herself to get a closer look at the bruises.
    She ran her fingers lightly around the bruised areas, and kissed them while saying, “I’m so sorry.”
    Alex looked down at the dark welts that looked as painful as they felt, but the pain did nothing to dampen his piling desire.
    As Katie looked back up to Alex, their eyes locked, and he put his hands on her shoulders, then moved down the front of her shirt, slowly unbuttoning it.
    She didn’t resist, looking up at him with a shy smile, but also something else. Hunger.
    He removed her shirt, then reached around her