2
A Typical Day
I woke up the next morning feeling a woman lying next to me with one of her legs over me, the length of her thigh placed just below my waist.
Her leg was moving slightly back and forth, and I instinctively caressed the leg that was placed over me, feeling the soft skin and firm muscle as my hand moved up her thigh and reached her butt. I squeezed playfully, and even half-asleep I noticed how she switched position slightly to accommodate my touch.
I moved my hand along the curve and reached the warmth between her legs. I started to draw slow circles with the tip of my fingers and felt her draw even closer to me.
My mind was clearing more and more by the second, and I got the weird feeling that someone was glaring at me with sullen disapproval. Like someone was pouting over my shoulder.
Strange.
Also, this butt, while shapely, wasn’t the exquisitely sculpted ass that I was accustomed to playing with in my dreams. Even without looking, I knew Laura’s figure very well, so why-
A feeling like someone kicking me into a pool threw me into the waking world completely.
I snapped my eyes open and glanced to the side, meeting Jessica’s eyes. She paused in her moves just as I paused in mine. Whether her movements had been prompted by my morning wood was not something I cared about at the moment.
The room was dark and cool, with just a bit of light coming from outside enabling us to see each other. The expression on her face told me that my actions hadn't been unwelcome.
“Hi,” Jessica greeted me with a smile that tried to look nonchalant, but the dimness of the room couldn't hide the slight blush on her cheeks from my eyes.
“Good morning,” I greeted her back.
I stared into her eyes for a moment, and then, with deliberate and clear intent, I squeezed her rear again. Jessica smiled and let out a chuckle, so I continued moving my hand, caressing her again.
If she made no move to stop me, I saw no need to stop.
We had already gotten this far, might as well see how far we could go.
If it had been Samantha, I would have stopped out of respect for Caleb. Or at least I think that I would do that. A hard dick feared no God and cared not about consequences. Fortunately, I didn’t have to think too much about this. Jess had nothing going on with John anymore.
Jessica leaned closer to me, her hand going under my shirt and slowly making her way down as she caressed my abs. Our faces got closer as she reached into my shorts.
An alarm rang.
Extremely loud, and with an obnoxious sound that made me desire to break that device to pieces for a reason beyond the fact that it was interrupting us.
People across the living room stirred, and Jessica distanced herself from me a bit. We both exchanged a wry smile and stretched, pretending to be woken by the alarm like the others.
John moved drunkenly until he found his phone next to the TV and turned off the alarm.
“Damn it, John. Why is that shit so loud?” Jack complained with his hands over his ears. He was on the ground next to a bag full of beer cans.
“Sorry, sorry,” John apologized and got down again next to Jack, putting his head on a cushion. “I could swear I had turned it off.”
“Evidently not,” Rebecca growled from her place on Jessica’s other side.
“And so fucking early. Sun’s not even out yet.”
Thomas’s voice reached us from where he was sitting. I saw him looking towards Esteban’s prone form next to him with an amused smile. Esteban was such a heavy sleeper that even that inconveniently loud noise hadn’t woke him up.
There were more mumbles all across the room. Thomas was right, the sun wasn’t even out yet. It must be what, five in the morning? Though almost everybody was awake now, most were willing to close their eyes and rest for a little more. A quick glance at my phone confirmed my guess that indeed it was barely 5:00 a.m. Considering that we had been awake past midnight, no wonder everyone wanted to keep sleeping.
I took a moment to properly scan the room and get my bearings as I recalled a bit of last night’s end.
Paula and Jerry had left first, since she was pregnant and needed to rest properly. I distinctly recalled how she had taken lots of pictures and videos through the night, which she would likely be sharing in our chat group.
Albert had hitched a ride with them, as his house was along the way. I had also passed him a bit of cash that should help him ease things off until he got back on his feet. He was pretty skilled, so I had no doubt he would be in a new job by the end of the month.
Patty had been the first among us to go to sleep, actually going to one of John’s guest rooms and promptly falling asleep.
The rest of us had slept in the living room, to varying degrees of comfort and getting a few cushions, pillows, and blankets to continue talking in the living room until we fell asleep instead of using the other guest rooms in the house. Jessica and Rebecca had even changed to more comfortable clothes, borrowing from Samantha before she left with Caleb.
Ah, right. Caleb and Samantha had been the last to leave, after a red-cheeked Sam had whispered a few things to Caleb’s ear and they had left for her house while the rest of us gave them teasing looks and a few whistles.
I looked around the living room and noticed that the cool predawn air and the soft light coming in from outside lent the place a relaxed atmosphere. It really was appropriate to just continue sleeping for a couple more hours.
Except I was an early riser, had no hangover, and was fully awake.
And I had a good reason to stay awake.
Even in the dark, I could see every detail perfectly. I noticed the darkness, but it might as well be clear as day. It just didn’t hinder my vision at all.
That was why when I glanced down at Jessica, who was still lying down with her head on a cushion, I could see she was wide awake like me. Her eyes had been scanning the room a bit too, though I noticed her uncertainty because she couldn’t be sure that the others were asleep or not looking towards us.
She turned and looked up at me, and in her eyes I saw that she was considering what decision to make.
I pinched her nipple and saw her bite on her lower lip with a sultry smile. I leaned down after making sure nobody was even looking in our direction and kissed her. My left hand caressed her inner thighs and reached up, continuing the work I had started when I was just waking up, and Jessica moved her hips back and forth to the rhythm of my ministrations.
Rebecca was sleeping with her back to us, on the opposite side of Jessica, but she stirred a bit as Jessica’s movements bumped her lightly. We paused and chuckled silently.
The fact that we could be found out at any moment if one of our friends decided to wake up again only served to make it more exciting, but it was better to change locations.
I tapped her shoulder and signaled to the hallway. Jess considered my suggestion for a moment, and I could see in her eyes that she wanted to be even more daring and go even further right there in the living room with the others sleeping nearby. Fortunately, her rational part won in the end and she got off me.
I got up and walked down the hallway deeper into John’s house. She didn’t follow immediately. I wondered if maybe she was having second thoughts. Whether Jessica joined me or not was entirely up to her. I reached the end of the hallway and got into the furthest room, next to which Patty was sleeping.
I heard very soft footsteps and breathing behind me and knew Jess had made her choice.
If the others woke up and noticed, it might lead to an issue. Probably some teasing, and potentially a disgruntled John. But nothing big. Admittedly, I wasn’t exactly thinking with a cold head at the moment. And danger made things more exciting.
I crossed the room without a word, hearing the faint click as Jessica carefully closed and locked the door. I entered the bathroom, flicked up the switch, and took off my shirt. Better to do it in the shower than make a mess out of the bed, in case we wanted to keep this secret between ourselves. I would leave the decision ultimately in her hands, and I wouldn’t tell anyone if she didn’t tell anyone.
I turned around as she got in after me, and grinned upon seeing the expression on her face. The lust in her eyes was undeniable as she took a good look at my arms, chest, and abs, and then her gaze kept going down and fixed on the bulge that my shorts were making no attempt to hide.
Jessica took off her shirt as she walked up to me.
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Two hours later, we returned to the living room.
We had taken our time and ended up not caring that the others were in the living room and could wake up at any moment. But we were lucky. Nobody had awoken yet, everyone was in more or less the same position as when we had left, Esteban and Thomas were hugging each other now, their relaxed and even breathing telling me that they were in Morpheus’s arms as much as each other’s arms.
And Rebecca had somehow gotten her sleeping gown even further up, revealing her body up to her belly button.
Jessica got down next to Rebecca and straightened her gown, pulling it down to cover her properly. Rebecca stirred upon feeling someone pulling at her clothes and turned to look at Jessica.
“Morning, Becky,” Jess said, amused at how Rebecca had simply snuggled up to her and embraced her.
“Hm. You’ll be my pillow now,” Rebecca declared as she rested her head on Jessica’s chest, and closed her eyes again. I had just gotten first-hand information that her breasts were quite nice, so I knew that Rebecca had selected an excellent pillow. The fact that Jessica was fresh out of a shower made it even nicer.
Naturally, I walked over and took a picture of them with my phone. Jessica raised her middle finger at me. So of course I took another picture. She shook her head with a smile and hugged Rebecca. One more photo, and I went into the kitchen.
I was feeling in a good mood, so I started cooking something nice for everyone.
One by one, my friends started waking up with varying degrees of hangovers. Some went to the bathroom right away while others like Jack and John were doing their best to not move. Eventually, everybody was done with their ablutions and returned to the living room.
This was John’s home, but I had been here enough times to know where everything was, and he was in no condition to help in the kitchen.
Caleb, bless his soul, arrived with Samantha and joined me in preparing breakfast for everyone and giving some hot beverages and medicine to help them with the hangover, and then we mostly just lazed around the living room chatting amicably.
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I noticed Jessica sneaking glances at me sometimes, but I hoped things wouldn’t get awkward between us. Whether this would be a one-time thing or not wasn’t something that I wanted to think about at the moment. It had been a very fun and pleasurable couple of hours, but we were both adults and mature enough to know that it need not be anything else.
Either the medicine was far more effective than I had assumed or Caleb was sneakily throwing healing magic at us, because everybody was soon fully recovered from their hangover; even Jack, who had been throwing up in the bathroom just minutes before Caleb arrived.
One by one, people started to leave. Everybody had their own plans for the day, and most wanted to take a nice shower at home. We planned to meet again soon, and everybody agreed that we had a fun night that should be repeated.
And then it was just Caleb, John, Samantha, and me.
And Patty, who was still asleep in the guest room. I had checked on her and found her soundly asleep. It was collectively decided that it was best to just let her sleep as much as she needed. She didn’t have work today as it was the weekend, and she deserved her rest.
We had opened a music app on the TV but for some reason, it was refusing to load properly. Had John forgotten to pay for his internet service or something?
“So, what now?” Samantha asked as we sat together in front of the large TV in the living room.
“Now,” John said as he leaned forward and interlocked his fingers in a Gendo Pose. “We shall conquer the world.”
“Ah, the time has come,” Caleb leaned back on his seat and steepled his fingers.
Samantha threw a cookie at John and slapped Caleb’s shoulder, prompting us all to laugh.
“Relax, Sam,” I told her with a smile. We had bags full of money and we would be putting it to good use, that was a serious discussion, but it was better to keep it casual instead of being all solemn. “There’s no hurry.”
“Is this macadamia? Where did you get this?” John stared at the cookie Samantha had thrown at him with a puzzled expression and tentatively took a bite.
Samantha ignored him and turned to me while covering Caleb’s mouth. The way his shoulders were shaking with mirth showed that he didn’t care and found it all funny.
“Well…” I steepled my fingers and Samantha raised a cookie in a throwing pose, threatening to hit me with that if I fooled around like my two beloved pals. Where was she even getting those cookies from?
“And what’s the issue with the net?” John asked while munching on his cookie.
“I don’t know, it’s just frozen. Let Caleb use his wizard powers to fix it,” I suggested.
Without missing a beat, Caleb raised his hands, spreading his fingers towards the TV and started to chant as he leaned forward a bit more with each word that came out.
“Oola fakazaka-arefa-oogoulo-uhgloululu.”
He wriggled his fingers while chanting those nonsense words while the rest of us burst out laughing. He was even making fast moves with his tongue for more effect.
“Booooo! That shit sounds like voodoo, I want a refund!” I called out once I managed to stop laughing and got my breathing under control.
With a grin, Caleb actually started leaning back from his position while wriggling his fingers again, pretending to be rewinding time and swallowing back his words by making even more incomprehensible words.
“Caleb, if you summon Cthulhu in my living room, I swear to God I’m having you clean the mess. I want no spectral bullshit tainting my couch,” John said with a grin as pointed a warning finger at Caleb, while he got up to get another beer.
"Use a white magic spell."
"In nómine Patris, et Fílii, et Spíritus Sancti."
"That's church voodoo! Use real white magic!"
Caleb pulled out his credit card and waved it at the TV.
Then the internet came back and we all cheered.
“See? Problem solved!” I laughed as Caleb gave us a thumbs-up.
Unfortunately, that hadn’t been enough to distract Samantha.
“So, what now?” Sam repeated, looking at me again.
It wasn't the first time we had gone to casinos, underground fighting rings or made a profit with huge bets. At this point, we had enough money to do whatever we wanted and live comfortably for the rest of our lives. Each of us had enough money to buy a house, start a business or go around the world spending like crazy. We had plans, both as a group and individually.
But some things took priority.
I stared into Samantha’s eyes with all the seriousness I could muster.
“All in due time.”
I caught the cookie with a grinning mouth.
Fun as it was to tease Samantha, the truth was that our plans were very volatile and likely to change if new opportunities presented themselves.
Caleb wanted to start a business but hadn't decided what kind, and so he often commented it might be best to just invest, while John advocated for either investing or enjoying a comfortable life and getting more money after spending it all having fun, saying that if we had made this much once we could do it again. My current plan was to go into real estate, owning various houses and apartments and then living out of the money earned from renting them.
We had also talked about how we would be traveling around the country, and likely to another country for a while and have fun doing many things.
It was a careful dance, using this money, given how we had acquired it. Money gotten from an illegal fighting ring wasn't exactly something that one could advertise to the authorities. So we needed preparations. We needed to be smart. Which was admittedly easier said than done.
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Caleb, John, and I walked through the hot streets of Cartagena while the afternoon sun shone brightly over the city. I felt positively warm, despite the temperature being over 30° C.
Our Republic didn’t have the four seasons, given its location near the equator. Instead, we had periods of hot weather and then rainy weather. At this time of the year, the heat in Cartagena was quite high, and being outside exposed anyone to a hot humid air that had most people sweating bullets in a matter of minutes.
John withstood the heat well, as he had worked in construction helping his family in the past, and he had experienced long hours under the sun. His light brown skin glistened and his exposed arms displayed proud muscles that he had spent many hours in the gym in order to get.
Caleb had the palest skin among us, his family being from the colder climate deeper into the country, yet he looked for all the world like he was having fun playing under the sun, receiving the blessing of the light shining on him. Dude wasn’t even sweating.
We had left Caleb’s car a few streets over, as we had no option but to go on foot towards our destination.
The part of the city where we were at the moment was dedicated to sports. Huge stadiums and coliseums were located there. It was a multifunctional compound that included sports fields and various administrative offices. Disciplines such as wrestling, taekwondo, gymnastics, basketball, judo, and karate were practiced in the main coliseum, which had a capacity of over ten thousand people.
And beyond all those legal buildings dedicated to the pursuit of glory through sportsmanship, was a neighborhood that was not frequented by police.
After a series of sprawling buildings and shady, winding streets, was a hidden place that dealt in loans of huge amounts of money, bets, money laundering, and other unsavory businesses.
That was, naturally, our destination.
In one of the buildings of that neighborhood was a certain business that dealt with money laundering, they provided services like organizing fake fund-raising and lottery events that had a predetermined winner, making it so people could claim that they had gotten their money through legal means. It was also the place that organized the underground fighting ring.
They also did lots of other much shadier stuff, but that was not why we were going there.
However, before we could get to that totally legal business spot, our stride was interrupted by the sound of violence.
Cartagena was a violent city, where trouble not only lurked around every corner but actively liked to come calling. In a way, that just made life here more exciting.
At the same time, it made this city a horrible place where tragedies and sorrows abound.
I heard the sounds of struggle, disdainful laughter, and pain. The sadism and cruel mockery in that laughter, the pounding on fists and feet on flesh, the shouts, the moans of pain. Though it was faint, still far away, I could perceive it all clearly.
I could almost taste it.
My senses were getting sharper every day, but they were also getting weirder.
I glanced at Caleb and found him glancing back at me. Strangely, he wasn’t smiling. His face was a relaxed mask of neutrality. Had he heard too? There was no way for me to be sure, but that honestly didn’t matter at the moment.
I picked up my pace and Caleb matched my stride without missing a beat. John was only a few steps behind us. We quickly reached an alleyway and saw the scene unfolding.
A bunch of guys were kicking a curled-up figure on the ground.
They were beating up some poor kid, who couldn’t be more than sixteen, and who was trying to cover his head as best he could.
A more cautious man would walk away from this scene and avoid getting involved in this mess. I had no delusions about being a hero of justice, and I was pretty sure my sense of morals fell more into the anti-hero category if anything. But I wasn’t the kind of person to ignore something happening right in front of me.
A common man would be at the very least a bit intimidated at the prospect of fighting more than six people by himself.
I was not a common man.
I made no noise to draw their attention. I didn't shout for them to turn to look at me before striding valiantly into a frontal confrontation. Unhurried yet unhesitantly, I walked up to the closest man without even asking my pals if they were up for it. I didn't plan to involve them in the fight.
The guy noticed my approach when I was but two steps away from him. Far too late.
I punched him in the face and watched his head rock back with satisfaction. He was already unconscious when his pals reacted to my presence.
The next guy let out a furious shout. The tiny movements of his body telegraphed his intentions, letting me know exactly how he would attack. He threw a punch with terrible form that I easily parried then countered with a jab straight to his face, rocking his head and causing his eyes to roll back.
Two down, five to go.
His pals would come for us, but I had no intention of giving them a chance to even approach my friends. I wasted no time watching him fall. The guys rushing over to attack me together were a more immediate issue, but I could handle it.
A jab got the first guy to rush over in the throat and I finished him with a punch to the liver. I already knew he would fold over in excruciating pain and maybe even pass out.
I would take down the two right in front of me and then the two in the back. One of the closest ones had a knife out. I would have to play it smart, fight with efficiency, and…
And there was actually no need for me to fight alone, was there?
Caleb, being a sweet soul and a true friend, entered the fight with a flying roundhouse kick to the face of one of my attackers, the one holding a knife.
With my enhanced vision and reaction time, I glanced at Caleb’s airborne form and saw his relaxed smile as he turned in midair and delivered a kick to a second guy’s face. They had been too focused on me to see our bundle of militarized wholesomeness barging in to send them into the arms of Morpheus.
Freaking wizard, is what he is.
He actually caught me looking at him, and I noticed his eyes widening a bit as he met my gaze and we locked eyes for a moment that stretched more than it should.
Yeah, bro, I see you. And I see you seeing me seeing you.
I didn’t know what kind of reaction he would have if I confronted him with my suspicions, or what kind of rules bound him to prevent him from talking about supernatural stuff, which was the assumption I was going with at the moment. I could simply be imagining stuff and he was a regular guy who just so happened to be really good with kicks.
For now, I would just let it be and enjoy my pal’s friendship. Maybe he would take the initiative and tell me himself?
I winked at him.
His answer was a blooming smile.
The moment passed as the force of his jump took him past me and I refocused.
Caleb landed adroitly and in practically the same motion whipped out his leg upwards, hitting a stocky short guy in the jaw and knocking him out. He glanced around and noticed that the guy who had received his second kick was still conscious despite being on the ground, so while the man was trying to get up Caleb kicked him again in the face for good measure and he was out.
The last guy had pulled out a knife too so I decided to beat him worse than the others for being the bigger bastard of the bunch, and dislocated his wrist with a sharp twist when he attempted a stab. Then I promptly proceeded to deliver a vicious kick on his knee that had him screaming in pain before shutting him up with a punch to the face. My fist struck his nose with a crunch and down he went.
Then it was over.
I had mixed feelings about this. A part of me wanted to kill them to prevent further problems, but that would create its own troubles. It wasn't like I could kill them with Caleb and John right there. And I also couldn't just go around killing any thug I found. I wasn't some vigilante to go around cleansing the city.
Their lives would go a long way to strengthen me, though. It may just be more than enough to finally pierce through the veil completely. Just imagine what–
I squashed that line of thought with a firm will. I wouldn’t give in to the temptation of being a monster.
I looked back at Caleb and found him smiling at me. He nodded, and once again I got the feeling that one day I would have to have a serious conversation with Caleb about the existence of magic, and whether I was just crazy or our friendship would be affected in some unforeseen form was not something I could know right now.
But that conversation would not be today.
I didn't bother talking to the beaten kid. He had taken a bit of a distance in the time it had taken Caleb and me to beat down these bastards, but he was still right here. If he was smart he would use this chance to get away from this place. But it wasn't my problem. I didn't address him or exchange a word with him. There was no way we were gonna keep going deeper into this neighborhood after this.
We had to leave.
“Excellent work, my minions,” the muggle in our group said with a smug look on his face as he stood with his arms crossed.
John had stayed behind with the bags, which was honestly smart of him. Whether he was confident in not needing to join the fight or simply lazy was a toss of the coin. A mix of both, I suspected. At least I was certain that fear wasn’t the reason he had abstained from fighting.
“You did nothing, dude,” I told him with a grin as I walked back with Caleb in tow and picked up my bag, and we decided by unspoken accord that we needed to get out of this place ASAP.
“Whaaaat? Slanderous accusations! I summoned Cal in Attack Mode and he used the Double Flying Whirlwind Kick, just like I taught him,” John blatantly lied, as we all knew he was utterly unable to perform a flying kick like Caleb, much less use that same momentum to land a second on a different target.
“Anything more would just be overkill,” Caleb agreed with a shrug as he got his car’s keys out of his pocket. We really needed to get back to it.
“Ain’t no kill like overkill,” I countered with a bit of wisdom and both of my pals laughed as we picked up the pace.
Then we heard the gunshots.
“Fuck!” John shouted and ducked instinctively while Caleb dragged him to the side in search of cover.
I whirled around to see the bloody kid, his hand holding a gun that I had no idea where he had gotten it from. He shot again and again, his face twisted into a grimace of vindictive rage, pain, and satisfaction all mixed up together as he kept unloading the whole magazine on the guys on the ground. As he exacted his vengeance on his tormentors. I felt a strange taste on my tongue, and I could swear I was able to tell exactly what this guy was feeling. It wafted out of him in a way that I could almost see.
He stood there for a moment, breathing hard as he watched his work. Transfixed, as if he couldn't believe what he had done. Panic seized his heart. He looked at his surroundings and recoiled when he saw me standing there.
He dropped the gun from his trembling hands and just ran for it.
Seemed like the proper thing to do for us too.
Just another normal day in Cartagena.