I’ve posted a new ENF short story in the Exclusive Stories section called The Empty Flight. What would you do if a beautiful woman came and sat across the aisle from you, and it turned out that she had a habit of, shall we say, expressing herself in her sleep? Would you wake her before things got too far?

“I’m probably going to fall asleep,” she said, “But can you do me a favour?”

“Sure,” I said, eager to please. I guessed she’d want me to watch her bag, although if anything went missing then with the small number of people on the plane it wouldn’t be the hardest whodunit in the world to solve.

“I sometimes get a bit… active in my sleep. Arm waving and stuff…” She glanced at the floor and bit her lip a little. She was so cute. I might just spend the whole flight watching her sleep instead of reading my book, I thought, and then realised that, yes, I really was a weirdo.

“Anyway,” she continued, looking back at me, “If I do, can you wake me up?”

“Erm, okay,” I said. I didn’t like waking anyone, and it would mean touching her, I was sure, and no matter how I did that I was sure to do it wrong. I couldn’t touch her leg, and her arms were bare so that would mean touching skin… I bet it would feel smooth and soft. It looked like it would feel smooth and soft. I tried not to stare.

“Thanks”, she said, “I’ll likely just drift off again. I just don’t want to get too deep and start having vivid dreams.” She glanced down at the floor again. What was she scared of?

You can read all of The Empty Flight from the beginning here. As with all the Exclusive Stories, you’ll need your password to access the story, and if you don’t have one then fill out the form below with your e-mail address and either a real name or an alias you’d like me to use: