Post by strat on Jul 31, 2022 21:05:29 GMT -5
Darkness, a soft masculine laugh.
“ Find me. ”
A sudden flash of amber light as the words fade away. We’re in an unfamiliar living room, our hand reaches out to grasp the back of a darkly colored velvet couch bathed in moonlight. We creep slowly along the back of the couch, ears straining to hear sounds in the darkness but only finding the whisper of fabric the silk nightgown makes as it brushes against our legs. Our eyes have adjusted to the twilight now as we carefully step away from the couch scanning the darkness of the room and coming to settle upon the floor to ceiling window artfully framed in heavy drapery pushed to either side. The corners of our mouth begin to turn up in a grin as we tip toe ever so gently across the cool wood floor towards the window, a pale arm crowned with scarlet nails reaching out towards the drapery and suddenly casting it back with flourish. Nothing there. The same masculine voice floating in from further away..
“ Find me.. ”
Our body turns and pauses, eyes rolling over the room looking for hiding spots as a sudden tickle begins to brush along our bare feet. Snakes. All different sizes and colors, writhing and twisting their bodies over dainty feet with a barely audible hiss. We gasp and jump away towards the safety of the kitchen, a hand to our chest as we catch the breath we didn’t even realize we were holding.
“ Find me.. ”
It’s coming from behind us now, down the hall. It’s darker here and we have to reach out and use the walls on either side of us to guide ourselves through the darkness towards a room bathed in an orange glow. As we move slowly along toward the doorway the mottled walls beneath our fingertips begin to feel sticky. But we’re almost there, we can’t stop now. Slowly, so slowly, we creep along careful not to give ourselves away to what lay in the room ahead. Tentatively, we take a gentle step into the halo of light falling in front of the doorway as our face turns to examine the slender fingers of our right hand with the ambient light from the room beyond. This doesn’t make any sense, why would the walls be covered in blood? This isn’t right. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. This isn’t how it happened.
Panic as something covers our face and an arm wraps around us from behind, pinning our own arms to the side of our body to keep us from struggling. What’s happening!? We can’t breath! What is it?! Our body bucks and struggles, arms desperately trying to reach towards the plastic over our head to give our body another breath but the arm around us only squeezes tighter. We’re trapped against the front of his body, arms pinned uselessly to our sides by his superior strength, legs kicking out wildly out of sheer panic and terror.
“ Shhhh, shhh, shhh. You’ll wake the baby. ”
Stars start to explode behind our eyes as the darkness begins to eat the room around us like a damaged piece of film. We’re just so very tired, maybe if we could just sleep a little? Then maybe we would be able to fight him. It’s all floating away now, distantly it feels like someone is nuzzling our ear through the bag but we’re just so tired now we can’t be sure.
“ You found me. ”
.
.
.
•─────⋅☾ ✧ ☽⋅─────•
they’re going back!
they’re going back!
•─────⋅☾ ✧ ☽⋅─────•
The hissing of blistering water drowns out the sounds of the rest of the world, as I let the cascade consume me. I cup my hands, and allow the water to pool into them like a makeshift receptacle, then I drop my hands to my side, allowing the reservoir of hot water slap to the tiles below me, devastating the even and steady swirl of water circling the drain below.
My sodden hair sticks to my face, creating ravines for the shower water to traverse down my skull and onto my chest. I dip my head again, allowing hte water to hit directly on the top of my back. The run-off water reaches my lips before dropping to the shower floor.
I take a deep breath.
I arch myself upward, stretching. I’m behind the stream now, water hitting and running down my chest. The beads of water feel like hundreds and thousands of tiny needles prickling my sensitive skin, fire simmering on the surface of my body, from head to toe. Frayed nerve endings sending distress signals to my central nervous system. This shower is objectively too hot, and I allow it to overwhelm me.
And then I exhale. My powerful breath sending thousands of pores of liquid across the room and to the ebony marbled wall. I watch idly as the molecules coalesce into droplets and begin to form ravines of their own down the tiled wall, before closing my eyes tight again.
I’m trying to clear my mind. To shake free the thoughts that are beginning their own act of coalescence, starting their own uprising in my mind.
Something didn’t sit right with how EXP 28 came to a conclusion for me. In the lead up, I spoke about rebirth, about debasement and about the need to truly surrender one’s self to the life you aspire. Amber was valiant, to a degree, but as I inferred she fell way short. She didn’t give up, not before she was physically incapable, but what she got was a few superficial lacerations, not an ego death. I have no doubt that she will dust herself down, swallow the lump of disappointment in her throat, and paint on the same feign positivity that she always does when she steps into the ring at EXP 29.
I didn’t need to break her body alone, I needed to crush her spirit along with it. But therein lays the problem. Her mental toughness is on a different plane of existence to her physical acumen. But as I’m going to work, I’m confronted by what I can only describe as the happiest halfling redneck that was ever contrived by a drunken video game developer. He’s got an air of attitude about him as he steps between myself and Ms Payne, and in this moment of unexpected interruption, I smirk.
The impetus for his interference is not immediately apparent, but when somebody chooses to involve themselves in your business, well, you know what they say. Never look a gift-horse in the mouth.
I don’t know what it means, either. Alas.
But the part that irks me, the part that has those creeping, nagging and doubting voices starting to rise up inside my mind is the idea that he thinks he is capable of cutting me off at the pass. If he truly believes that, he has either never seen me at my full capabilities, or he has a capacity far deeper than he has been able to display until this point.
Could he really be a step ahead?
Either that, or he was blinded by his own light. Tasted a first moment of success that he can truly call his own and thinks he can conquer the world?
The jury is out. And the only recourse is the passage of time, and the quelling of those voices. If I possibly can.
If I can.
I carefully clasp my hand around the copper handle that opens and closes the faucet for the shower, and swung it to turn the water off. The droplets of lava slow to a lethargic drip before stopping altogether, and I turn slowly toward the glass door that separates me from the rest of the room. I press two black filed nails into the glass and my eyes trace the butterfly outline I have tattooed in the gap between my forefinger and thumb, before they’re drawn to something unusual in the mirror opposite me in the bathroom.
The steam from the shower has made my reflection impossible to make out, but for a few parts that have been wiped clear. My hands paw at my eyes, and I focus more intently to make out what has been engraved.
“FOUND YOU”
I laugh, audibly.
“ I wasn’t hiding, love. ”
Demi and I always played this game; it was what allowed us the pass the time travelling through anonymous cities across the country for months on end. It was how we explored the cities, and towns, and each other. It is how we fell in love.
As I turn to collect my washbag, everything goes dark. Hands clasp around my head like a blindfold. A playful blindfold.
But these digits are not the delicate ones that I am so familiar with. They are large, and rough, but also not unfamiliar. A scent of peppermint soon follows as I feel breath on the back of my still wet neck. The hair on my back stands, gooseflesh rises on my arms and it feels like a shot of epinephrine has just been plunged directly into my heart. Emotion engulfs me, but there is a lump in my throat the size of an avocado stone and so I can’t make any noise.
“ Shhh, shhh, shhh. Demi’s in the next room. ”
As his hands release, his face presses into the back of my neck.
That feels good.
That feels so so good.
“ That feels… incredible. ”
He’s getting rough, now. Pushing himself aggressively toward me with his chin out. I’m not sure that I like it.
“ Stephen, wake up. We are going to be late. C’mon. ”
Her open hand shoves to the side of my face had turned more terse and she had started to use her knee, whilst collecting things from the countertop next to me into her hands.
“ Uhh, shit. What the…? ” I’m perplexed, but even through my postsomnia haze I can read the derision in her expression.
“ I don’t know, darling. Whatever it was that was so ‘incredible’ is going to have to wait. The car is waiting out front for us already, so please get yourself ready. ”
.
.
.
•─────⋅☾ ✧ ☽⋅─────•
the throat is deep and the mouth is wide
saw some things on the other side
made me promise to never tell
but you know me i can't help myself, no
•─────⋅☾ ✧ ☽⋅─────•
The towncar is an abundance of luxury, but each time we fly with them, they lay on the service as if we had forgotten that they are wealthy and privileged acquaintances to make nicely with. I’ve been in towncars like this before, and typically they provide champagne or prosecco for you to enjoy with your journey. But not today, not with these passengers. Neither myself nor Demi drink alcohol of any kind. But green tea imported from Osaka was certainly a personal touch.
“ You sure? ”
My question lingers in the air, as I circle my finger around the glass rim of my tea cup. Vhodka Black wanted Demi to deal with Sarah Wolf as punishment for what Sarah did to Vincent. But Sarah is Vincent’s family and Vhodka knew Vincent would never forgive her if he found out what she did. So she’d been trying to walk it back.
“ I mean, to me it is absolute. The sole purpose of her flying half way across the world to track us down was precisely this. ”
Demi doesn’t have to contribute. We both know that we are aligned.
“ When the time comes, she knew she would blink, falter, slip that trigger finger and end up shooting off a toe like one of her cousins did. ”
My eyes meet hers, I absorb the acid green irises. So much of our communication is non-verbal. Who even really needs the spoken word anymore?
“ Dealing with this problem only has upsides for us, darling. She has nothing left to lose. ”
I smile, never breaking eye contact.
“ And people with nothing to lose are not useful. ”
“ That is beside the point. They are incendiaries. They could set fire to anything at any moment because they do not have to consider the consequences. You can’t account for that. ”
“ Eliminate the risk. She has to live with the consequences of her actions. ”
“ She wanted no hesitation. There will be no hesitation. ”
But sometimes verbal communication is useful. Sometimes it is absolutely useful. For instance, if you wanted somebody in particular to hear something. And perhaps pass it along to somebody else. Their employer. Perhaps.
.
.
.
•─────⋅☾ ✧ ☽⋅─────•
now i got something you have to see
they put something inside of me
its smile is red and its eyes are black
i don't think i'll be coming back
•─────⋅☾ ✧ ☽⋅─────•
She hates flying, and she hates travelling, and she hates having to work at other peoples schedules, but this trip is one that we had made a few times. More frequently recently. This time it made sense given the location of the show we were headed to, and we were always welcomed pleasantly. It made sense.
The loud sound of cabin depressurisation broke the tension and I could see the stress visibly rise from her shoulders.
My mind turned to the task at hand. My task. Not the one that my wife was carrying out on behalf of somebody we barely knew and owed nothing to. That’s a lie, we know Vhodka Black incredibly well. Better than most. Nevertheless.
The first thought on my mind was whether Eli Goode would see to it to involve himself once again, or whether it was something personal related to Amber Payne in particular. Still unclear on his motives at this point but perhaps we will clear that up in due course. There is no love lost between him and my opponent this week.
In fact, that bulletproof ‘knight in shining armor’ armor that he is adorning is perhaps as a direct result of his successful victory over said opponent.
But since then, maybe they’ve put their differences aside or have found respect for one another. It is possible. Point being, eyes open. Stranger things have happened.
And that’s the thing. I’m on a five fight win streak in Level Up and people are starting to take notice. People are looking over their shoulders and wondering who is the Ghost in the rear-view, the strange spectre lingering just beyond reach but keeping and making pace. Perhaps some people feel it within themselves to go headlong into the fire before it becomes an all consuming inferno. I admire and applaud the logic, if only the skills of differentiation between campfire and wildfire were to be slightly improved.
EA Blizzard is the one who stands across from me in Wisconsin. To me, it feels like victory is his only option. He’s one of the honchos in that Game Changers group, right?
They kicked somebody out for losing a title eliminator fight once, right?
What’s the consequence for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?
That idiot had Eli Goode dead to rights in the center of the ring and managed to fuck it up. How terrible does that make the Game Changers look?
Probably not drastically worse than having a champion who parades his belt around in a briefcase, but that’s by the by. Losing back to back matches, one for the belt and then losing to a new guy who’s basically a glorified curtain jerker by this point?
Must be thin ice in that blizzard.
Terrible pun. Whatever.
The window gave us the truth we hoped to avoid. Wisconsin is still stormy, even in August. It was sticky and humid, but thunderstorms and rain intermittently danced around the private airfield. Just as the door was autonomously unlocking itself and moving away from the aircraft, the captain’s voice came over the soundsystem.
“ Mr & Mrs Stratford, welcome back to [redacted]. ”
•─────⋅☾ ✧ ☽⋅─────•
everywhere now reminding me
i am not who i used to be
i'm afraid this has just begun
consequences for what i've done, yeah
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