“Athena stop being a bitch and give me back my phone,” I plead while trying to grab Athena only for her to twirl around my grab attack with overly graceful movements that caused her to hit me in the face with her long platinum hair. She was giving a grin that radiated cockiness like no other. “Gael let's be real here; you were probably looking at porn weren’t cha” She gives off a cheeky grin “We’re all playing street fighter, but you're on your phone too busy watching people play Smash." she exclaims, proud of her own bad joke "Y’know what I bet you were looking up Latina porn; I’ve seen how you look at Maria at school Bahahahaha” She wrongfully accuses me with a goat laugh “GET OUT OF THE WAY ATHENA, I CANT SEE SHIT!” Liam shrieks as Catie hits an eight-point combo cutting her combo short to play with her prey.
“Oh my bad,” Athena says and steps out of the way sheepishly. I notice Athena’s fiddly movements and jump at the chance to grab my phone. Athena’s recoils at the fact that I saved my phone from her clutches “Wow you did her dirty Gael” Catie offhandedly mentions while Liam was too busy focusing on the game to notice my incredible feat “And I won” she nonchalantly claims after starting her finishing move animation on Liam. Catie then proceeded to stretch and leave the room presumably for lemonade.
At that moment everyone in the room was in shock. I was in shock because of the great labor that I accomplished, Athena likewise, was in shock of my great labor and Liam was in shock of his great failure. After a few seconds of contemplating the situation, Athena lunges at me in frustration and embarrassment trying to grab my phone causing the both of us to wrestle on Catie’s intrinsically patterned carpet. As Athena tries to swipe for my phone a multitude of times and I try my hardest to keep my phone out of Athena’s reach each time she does, but alas someone who only reads light novels online practically every moment of every day cannot compete with a natural athlete such as Athena. If only I had a few inches on her I would have won; curse this five-foot-eight curse! We shall not remain the same height forever Athena! I promised myself.
“AHA, I GOT IT!” Athena exclaims jumping back to her feet in jubilation only for disappointment to befall her face when she realized that her porn conspiracy was invalid she turns back towards the couch only to bump into a pissed-off Liam mid-turn.
“Well hello there you two I hope you had fun making me lose my match to Catie” Liam’s anger caused his face to go bright red making it reach a tone similar to his own hair color “A-aha, w-well Liam if it makes it any better your chances of winning were never really that great,” she states matter a factly;her statement accentuating the viens on Liam’s forehead causing Athena to sweat profusely.
I sit up crisscrossed as I'm curious as to how this confrontation shall play out. Athena not knowing when to give up perseveres for the worse “I-I mean you-, Y-y-yeah I mean Catie is the best gamer out of all of us after all a-a-nd what is your win to loss ratio after all this time l-like 1-10 or something bahaha.”
at this point, I felt bad for both Athena and Liam; Liam because of the emotional damage that was inflicted upon his poor soul, and Athena because at this point Liam was creating entirely new vain marks on his head which I didn’t even know existed. “You little shits” Liam mutters in molten fury “I-i'm sorry” Athena sheepishly lets out. My intrusive thoughts take over and I put my hand around my mouth like a loudspeaker and say in a completely monotone voice “She’s calling you ass at Smash Liam” adding more fuel to the fire. Then in a flash, Liam picked both Athena and me each in one arm and flung us onto the bed followed up by swan diving onto us from the air.
From the perspective of a 5’8 dwarf of a man, the silhouette of a 6’4 goliath slowly coming down onto them from the sky is something that would cause a twenty-minute life before-your-eyes sequence in most TV shows, and I was no different. I laid there accepting my fate thinking back on the good times the times when the gang would play video games together, the times when I found a new hidden gem to read, and after that- after that… I Honestly couldn’t think of much else. I glanced to my right to notice that Athena was praying at super-high speeds to gods she didn’t even believe in.
And before I knew it I was wrestling once more. However, this time both me and Athena were in a headlock position I was genuinely struggling because Liam squeezed me not so much that I was in pain, but where I wouldn’t be able to leave his grasp. I wonder if this is how my phone felt in Athena’s hands. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Catie by the door recording the whole scenario I reach my hand out to Catie pleading for help with my eyes only to see her look up from her phone make eye contact with me, and make mischievous smirk that rivals the grinch’s own smirk. my eyes widen. I honestly didn’t know she could do that. I was thoroughly impressed, I couldn’t even be mad.
“Oh yeah, by the way, my mom said foods’ ready” Catie mentions and at the first mention of food Athena pulls Liam's arm right off her and makes a B-line for the stairs yelling something about smelling casserole. Liam also forgot about his previous grudge causing him to let me go. I basked in my freedom of movement I once again understood my phone’s feelings of liberation that came from leaving Athena’s grasp “My phone is just like me fr fr” as the kids would say I think to myself. After, basking in my freedom I followed everyone down the stairs and got to the kitchen where Athena was already halfway done with her plate, while Liam, Catie, and I just started to sit down.
“Oh, by the way, Gael is Ruthel’s Redemption really still ongoing?” Athena asks with a full mouth of casserole “WHY OF COURSE RUTHEL’S REDEMPTION IS ONE OF THE GREATEST LIGHT NOVELS OF ALL TIME IF NOT THE GREATEST! However, I feel great anguish to have to admit that the story is nearing its end.” I respond in an overly eager and poetic fashion causing Catie’s and Liam’s mom to karate chop my head “No yelling at the table Gael” Mrs. Hart says while putting a plate of casserole in front of me “Sorry Mrs. Hart” I say in embarrassment
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“what even took you all so long to get down here? I told Catie to call you all down ages ago.” Mrs. Hart says with mild frustration “She was too busy recording Athena and Gael wrestling” Liam responds conveniently removing himself from the scenario and eating a piece of the casserole to reward himself “Oh, so that was why there was rumbling from upstairs” Mrs. Hart remembers
“So why did you take so long to tell them that food was ready Catie” Mrs. Hart brings her attention to Catie who was pretending to pay attention to the news channel that Mr. Hart was watching to avoid the conversation entirely. However, when her genius plan was foiled Catie was forced to come up with an excuse on the spot, so Catie prepared for her speech. Catie gets up from her chair, puts one leg on the chair, one arm in the air, and one arm on her heart as if she was reenacting a Shakespeare skit and says “Mother, Dear Mother, life passes people by so quickly, too quickly; some may say. Thus, as we are in our youth. We are living the most brilliant moments of our lives in this current chapter of our lives thus only a fool would not attempt to make records of their greatest moments in life, and Mother I must say you have raised no fool. and for that mother, oh my dear mother, I will always love you” Catie finishes her speech and bows, and considering that entire speech came from out of her ass all I could do was clap and I wasn’t the only one either both Liam and Athena were participating in this round of applause. However, despite how well done that speech was, it came out of Catie's ass and Mrs. Hart’s face of disgust conveyed that she could see the shit stains “...2 days” Mrs. Hart says after a long pause that causes Catie to slump in melancholy.
After the theatrics were over and we were all essentially done eating except for Catie who was poking her food in an aura of dread Catie; that really helped to reinforce the goth aesthetic she has been keeping up for 3 years, since she was 14.
I go over to the living room to see what is on the news “Currently there have been two cases of mass disappearances in both Canada and France” The newsman says “Wait it's in Canada now?” I ask in surprise; spiriting aways have occurred throughout history numerous times, and cases of people just up and disappearing are not that uncommon of an occurrence. however, 15 years ago in Limousin, France all the people in the city of Limoges disappeared simultaneously. After that event at random intervals around every month large numbers of people around France would get spirited away without warning.
“Yeah, apparently it’s not just happening in France anymore. It’s happening in random places around the world. It wasn't just France last month either. The UK and Japan were also hit by the mass disappearances last month as well” Mr. Hart responds “Does this mean that the conspiracy that the French government was committing experiments on their own citizens is unfounded?” I wonder how I missed an entire city-wide population in the UK and Japan went missing “That was a dumb conspiracy, to begin with, why do experiments on humans, when you got rats that cause essentially the same outcome? My guess is it's some big hidden cult that’s doing a mass suicide, or mass sacrifice, or something” Mr. Hart states "but that means that anyone anywhere in the world can disappear now all those people who fled from France ran for nothing.” Mr. Hart continues
“Where do you even think they all go?” Athena enters the fray “No idea” me and Mr. Hart answer in union “could be another world like in all those Isekai stories, but that would be way too many protagonists” I say, and Athena looks at me with disgust “Ugh I've seen some of those stories that you’ve been reading they’re so bad. They all wish-fulfilly power fantasies, but that's not even the worst part all the characters are all two-dimensional and unrealistic. LIKE WHY DOES EVERY GIRL IN EVERY STORY LIKE A NO PERSONALITY WATER WASHED PROTAGONIST WITH NO REDEEMING OTHER THAN BS SUPERPOWERS!? IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME! NOT HIM!” Athena rants with the frustration of her lack of popularity amongst women leaking through, which in turn made me direct my own look of disgust toward Athena despite agreeing with most of her complaints regarding generic isekai stories
“Athena could probably get a harem of women if she tried” Catie interjects and walks over to the living room “Yeah, what Catie said. I could definitely get a harem if I tried!” Athena proudly declares, at this point, Catie had already got into a position right behind Athena she then grabbed Athena’s chin and directed it towards her and looked at Athena with strangely seductive emerald eyes “Of course, but that's not if I get you into my harem first” Catie says with a voice that would turn any adolescent into a hormone-fueled monkey regardless of gender and Athena was no exception as her response to Catie’s flirting was “Mommy?” with glittering passionate sapphire eyes causing everyone to burst out laughing; Catie and Mr. Hart tried to hold in her laugh but the contagious laughter of everyone else's laughing made them break and chuckle as well. Athena’s confused and embarrassed expression made the scenario all the funnier.
After a bit more hanging out with the Hart family it had reached 8:00 pm so Athena and I had to go home, so we headed to the door “Well see you guys tomorrow” I waved “Adios fellas” Athena waved her hand high “Stay safe on your way home guys” Liam waves us off with a smile at the door “cya” Catie lethargically waves from the living room couch as she scrolls through what I assume are clothing designs on her phone.
On the way back home the sun had already gone down and it was almost pitch black with the only things that I could sense being the sound of crickets and owls seemingly everywhere and the silhouette of large trees within 20 feet of me However, Athena with her animal-like senses was able to easily direct us in the right direction home.
“What do you think I should wear for when we go to the pool tomorrow a bikini or a one-piece?” Athena asks while stretching and yawning “Oh what's this you want to make a good impression on Catie” I smirk “Haha very funny. You know I'm not actually into Catie right?” Athena rolls her eyes “Yeah everyone knows your just fucking around but it doesn’t make it any less funny to fuck with you,” I say matter a factly
“little shit” Athena mumbles causing me to laugh
“Hey don’t worry about it so much I'll be your wingman” I try to elbow Athena only to elbow the air due to my lack of animal-like senses causing Athena to laugh back at me
“hey don't talk shit. your half animal.” I try to retain my image
“Why of course, in fact, I'm more than half animal as all humans are animals I’m simply superior” Athena states smugly
“You're a mena-” Before I could finish my sentence blue particles started to cover my vision and my entire body I look around to see similar lights appearing in small patches through large patches of trees, in people’s houses, and even on Athena “OI WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS” Athena panics while looking at the particles starting to enwrap her arms “I DON’T KNOW” I respond in a panic and rush and hold onto Athena for whatever that could accomplish.
As the blue particles enwrapped both me and Athena they started to appear to be stretching in two different vertical directions appearing in and out of sight rapidly as if they were moving at incredibly fast speeds. Mere seconds after the blue particles started to enwrap us the dark landscape that I was getting accustomed to had turned into a bright summer afternoon. The light nearly blinded, but also deafened me simultaneously as I heard panic coming from a large group of people all around me as I unraveled my eyes. The world expanded before me. I took notice that I was still thankfully holding onto Athena. However, the expression on Athena was anything but thankful. Athena had adapted to the light much faster than I had, and whatever she saw distorted her face in a way I had never seen before; A face of absolute terror.