We had made camp in the quarry, there were many rocks nearby that could be mined. Even some mineral rocks. The ground had a lot of tiny crushed rocks, but we found a nice spot where we could camp. I saw the voidlands in the distance, to me, it seemed like a purple wall of death.
Abby and Funk needed to rest, Lorraine and I needed to have a private chat, away from the camp, I had put down the ambulance. I closed the doors as we sat down on the stretcher.
Lorraine took my hand, “Alright, we have to talk about this, what I meant to say, is that I have feelings for you, deep-rooted feelings.”
I laid my head on her shoulder, “And you think those feelings are turning into love?”
She nodded, “I think so, you make me feel, wanted, also, you protect me from danger.”
I had a grin from ear to ear, “I think it is you who saved us, twice back there.”
“Steve?”
“Yes?”
“Do you think, you can fall in love with me? Or that your feelings can grow for me?”
I let out a sincere smile, “I think, you already made me face-plant when I looked at you the first time. Yes, I have these feelings too, and when nurtured, it could grow into love. Is that, where you want this to go?”
Lorraine beamed and nodded, “of course, I want that, or I would have let you get eaten by that giant spider.”
Lorraine let out a deep sigh, I took her hand, “What is it?”
She glanced at me, “What about Alice?”
“What do you mean?”
Lorraine bit on her lip, “She wants you, that is obvious.”
“Lorraine?”
“Yes?”
“I choose you.”
She squeezed my hand. “For real? Just like that?”
“Yes, you are here, you saved me, you did not even try to kill me.”
Lorraine chuckled, “That is true.”
I looked down, I gathered my courage, and decided, I can tell her things, “I want to be honest with you, my rage is an enormous problem.”
Lorraine rubbed her hand slowly over my back, “You can be honest with me.”
I nodded, “There is a reason I became so depressed, I did not talk about it with anyone, being in this place has brought the ugly truth back. No matter how badly I am trying to tell myself a different version of what happened.”
Lorraine looked at me with a look that I could not decipher. “You can talk to me Steve, I will keep your secrets, you can decide yourself with whom you want to share them. If you wish to share them, I am here for you.”
I frowned at Lorraine, “Alright, here goes nothing, it all started back when I started to take over the lunchroom. I worked hard to get a loan from the bank, my foster father did not agree. He asked me to go on like he had taught me. Instead, I made the lunchroom into a bakery. My foster father became outraged. My foster mom had passed a while before that, it all tied in with why he retired early.”
Lorraine nodded, “That alone is already horrible.”
I sighed, and after a few moments of silence, I continued my story, “My foster father slapped me, out of anger. It can happen, I should have let it go. However, I punched him back, then I took a chair and bashed him to the ground. That should have been the moment that I would say, it is over. It is what I tried, but in my rage, I kneeled beside my dad and unleashed my rage and kept punching him.” I started to shed tears.
Lorraine hugged me, oh dear, that sounds horrible, I am here for you, what did you do to the body?
I looked at Lorraine, she listened, she was comforting me, but there was no shock at all on her face, no worry about my actions. After I wiped a few tears away, I decided to continue my tale.
“There is a farm near the bakery, I wrapped my dad's body in a cloth and put him in my car, it was in the middle of the night, I dumped his body in the enclosure with the pigs. Knowing the owner of said farm, I had a key with me. The pigs went wild and devoured him. I let the car drive into the nearby lake, as for the blood in the bakery, I spent all night cleaning it up with bleach, Haley had not seen me come home that night, when she came into the bakery, everything had been cleaned up.”
Lorraine tilted her head, “You never told your ex-wife?”
I shook my head, “I simply told her I had been busy with getting everything ready for the grand opening, life picked up after that, I just kept telling myself, it never happened. He is at home, reading his books, The ones I also read about all kinds of materials, wood, and what not. The years after that went by with ease, it seemed like a flash. The bakery became a great success. Until one fateful night, Haley left the bakery early while pregnant, she told me she was going home.”
Lorraine sighed, “This is going to get even worse, isn't it?”
I nodded and studied her face, I saw, compassion and empathy. I just told her, I killed my father, and that did not bother her. It did bother her that I am feeling fucked up about it. How can she just be like, sure, I understand, and I will stand by your side?
I sighed, pushing my thoughts aside for now as I continued the tale, “I had this strange gut feeling, that is why I followed her that night, Only to find out, she cheated on me. I tailed her with my new car, one that drove automatically, I also had a gun. Without hesitation, I shot my wife in cold blood, and the man she was with, I also shot myself. I took their bodies to my home and staged it like a robbery gone wrong, the police bought it.”
I undressed my shirt and pointed at the scar, “This is where I shot myself.”
Lorraine gently moved her hand over my scar, “Why did you shoot yourself?”
I took her hand, “To remove any suspicion from myself.”
She nodded, “That is smart.”
With mixed feelings, I stared into her eyes, why is she so calm? Is it just a cultural thing? Is she hiding something?
I gave her a melancholic smile, “Soon after that, I met Abby, and in this place, I can kill people without too many problems, not only am I stronger, killing barely has any consequences. It feels as if my rage cannot be stilled, it hungers for death. When I killed a bandit, I found myself in some kind of trance, I like violence, no, I love it.”
Lorraine stared at me, “It sounds horrible, Steve.”
I grunted, “Yes, I know, if you want to run, you can still do that.”
She hugged me, “I am not going anywhere, I am here for you, and if you encounter any problems with your rage, please let me know. If you have to let it go, just do so, try to give it a focus, a bad guy. We can talk about it more if you'd like that.”
“What do you want me to say?” “That I feel this flame inside of me, and it burns hot with fiery rage?”
Lorraine gave me an emphatic smile, “And what does your flame do, when you are near your friends?”
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Thinking about Lorraine, Abby, and Funk, a smile formed on my face, “It cools down a bit, it is still there, and I yearn for rage and violence. If an opportunity arises, I will take it.”
Lorraine nodded, “And what happens to your flame when you are near me?”
“I barely feel the flame, instead it just focuses on protecting you, if someone were to hurt you, for example, I think I might explode and give that person a beating they will never forget, if they live after that.”
Lorraine kissed me, slow and gentle, which is new for her, the other times it was, fast and with less feeling.
As she backed off, I smiled and spoke up, “What is up, Lorraine?”
“It means a lot to me that you say that, how do you feel now that you have shared your story?”
“As if a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I did not think I could share this with someone, and they would understand me, I thought you would run for the hills.”
Lorraine pushed me down on the stretcher, “It only makes you more attractive.”
“Oh, is that true?”
Lorraine nodded, “But the time for talking is over, you need to shut up.”
“But is this the right ti—”
She put her finger on my lip, “I said, shut up.”
I chuckled, “All right, but don’t shred my clothes even more.”
Lorraine giggled, “is that shutting up?”
As she started to unzip my pants, I looked at her, “I am shutting up, right this instant.”
As I started to put on my clothes, I smiled at Lorraine and I started to wonder, why did she, jump me, not that I mind. But, it just did not seem like the right time to me. I tell her I killed two people, and she gets turned on? Yeah, something fishy is going on here. Lorraine smiled at me as she wiggled her tail while getting dressed. I shrugged, screw that, I am jumping into this relationship by giving her my full commitment. She accepts me for me, and, I am certain, she will tell me more about all these questions I am having.
After we got dressed, Lorraine wanted to leave the ambulance, I grabbed her arm, “Wait.”
She smiled at me, “Yes?”
“There is something else I need to tell you.”
She nodded, “Go right ahead.”
I sat down and let out a sigh, “When Abby and I got captured and put in a cell in Sector 07, a demon from the future came to see me. With a wormhole and all, She told me, I needed to make a choice in the future, one that would decide whether existence will end or not.”
Lorraine sat down and grabbed my hand, “Did this demon give any more details?”
“No, not at all, just that this decision is far away, I think she froze time, or moved so fast, it seemed like time froze.”
Lorraine rubbed my hand, “I think with how you are taking care of things, you will make the right decision. It must be a heavy burden if someone comes from the future to ask you to make the correct choice. Some hints would have been nice, she must realize, you are of great importance, you might even be the chosen hero of this era.” Lorraine had a sly smile on her face that quickly turned into a genuine smile, “I will stand by your side no matter what.”
Something clicked in my mind, the reason her tingle sense went off, I must be the chosen one and that is why she wants to join my side. See Steve, it was all just an innocent thing, she is not hiding something, she just wants to be together with you to fight evil.
I looked at Lorraine, “I think if I have you by my side, then I will make the right choice.”
She gave me a gentle kiss, “Is there anything else, or shall we see what the others are up to?”
“No, I think this is it, this feels nice, to have someone to share things with, we should go check on the others.”
Lorraine got up and opened the door, I jumped out of the ambulance and stretched, we walked over to the campfire.
Abby looked at me, “Did you guys have fun?”
I looked at her, “What do you mean?”
She giggled, “Funk and I could see the ambulance shake, Funk went out to find food when it started to shake as if there were an earthquake.”
Lorraine blushed, “Oh, you were not supposed to see that.”
Abby laughed, “I think the ambulance almost had enough power to drive again.”
I awkwardly chuckled and looked at Abby, “Sorry if you were bothered by it.”
Abby shook her head, “Not really, I am just messing with you guys, but the ambulance did move, just as in those movies, Steve.” Now I started to blush.
Lorraine looked at me, “What kind of movies is she talking about?”
Funk came back with some rabbits, “I see the ambulance has stopped shaking.”
I wisely kept my mouth shut as I took a rabbit, Lorraine kept staring at me as I put the raw rabbit over the campfire, I sighed, “She means porn movies.”
Lorraine exclaimed, “Oh, no need to smash your stick around the bush, Abby.”
I had to laugh, “This is fun.”
Funk looked at me, “You might think it is fun, but porn movies are banned in the Insectine lands, there is a penalty of getting executed if you own one.”
Abby scratched her head, “it amazes me that they know what we are talking about.”
Lorraine chuckled, “Most of the technology to watch movies has been lost, there was a civilization that had many high-tech items, the Bolugans. And, in the fairy kingdom, there are places where technology is more advanced than in your reality.”
Abby looked at me, “Did you give her details about our reality?”
Lorraine nodded and spoke up for me, “Yeah, he told me all about your cars, and how your world works, the crashing economy, weapons, all of it, right Steve?”
I looked at her and blinked a few times, she looked back as if I busted her because, I never told her those things. Yeah, a few minor things, but she seems to know everything about our reality. I shook my head, “Yeah, I even told her about rollercoasters, right, Lorraine?”
She smiled and nodded, “Yeah, the amusement parks with expensive food.”
Funk stared at me and spoke up before I could reply as I was chewing on my rabbit, it tasted like chicken, “You look much calmer, and your aura is actually emitting positive energy.”
Abby looked at me, “Yes, he looks quite calm.”
I lay down on the soft sand after eating my rabbit and looked at the sky, who cares that Lorraine has secrets? She lay down next to me and looked at me. I whispered, “no worries, did you like visiting my reality before it got vaporized?”
She chuckled awkwardly, “yes, it was a brief visit.”
I looked at the stars and spoke loudly, “What can I say? I have been slammed in my face with happiness and the birds are singing, while the bees are making honey. Things are looking up, yes, we have a reality to save, but I am sure we will succeed, as long as we stick together.”
Abby looked at Lorraine, “What did you do to him?”
Funk nodded, “Indeed, we have been walking around with a cynic who hates the world, I think you converted him.”
Lorraine grabbed my hand and started to laugh, I could see Funk sigh and lay down as well.
Abby looked around her, “Well, I will be damned, we might actually pull this off.”