75) It all ends in tears

My Ex shouted at Hiram with her fist clenched, “Where the hell did you get that!”

Hiram looked up at Beryl as she stomped past me, and he grinned. “The internet. Overnight delivery.”

She pressed her now twitching hands over her forehead. “Why...?”

I wasn’t sure if she was asking why Hiram had it or why anyone would sell it to him, but Hiram assumed the first.

“Because I thought it would be good for killing packs of evil monster dogs?”

I nodded. “I think he’s right, it should be pretty good for that.”

Beryl glared at me then turned to Brad to begin complaining to him in a low angry voice as the old lug patted her on the shoulder while silently nodding. Letting her vent instead of stepping up and trying to solve her problems for her.

Smart man.

Those two of them look good together, especially since their being together meant that it was now someone else’s turn to deal with her from now on, instead of me.

The thought of that didn’t hurt anymore.

Samson headed over to check Hiram’s toy out and began arguing with the Saboteur over letting the gun guy ‘Have a turn’ as the smiling man explained it only had thirty seconds of firing time per tank. And carefully talking around mentioning exactly how many tanks he had brought with him.

Then he pointed the old guy my way. “Go talk to Harry, they gave ‘Him’ grenades.” Hiram glared at me with an offended look as Samson chuckled. “Well, no shit they didn’t give you any Hi. At least with a gun or a flamethrower, I know when you’re aiming it the wrong way.”

Looking around at where the coyotes were sniffing at I could see signs, bloody, messy signs, of where monster dogs had been lurking around inside of the entrance, at least until the grenade bounced in and blew up.

As Samson headed over my way I wordlessly handed over to him a pair of grenades, then another two. He took them and made them vanish with only a nod as Hiram was distracted making small bursts of flame shoot out of the end of his new toy and giggling.

What can I say of the next few hours…

Well, for one thing, it was a constant pain between being constantly scared by either the magical fear or the real fear of the monster dogs attacking us every few minutes.

I’m not going to give a blow by blow description of every time they came at us in packs, or broken up into just one or two coming at us at a time. They constantly came at us out of unseen holes in the wall or floors, and some leaping down from the walkways and rooftops above.

Their bites didn’t do that much damage on their own, their sharp but short teeth just couldn’t sink in that deep, but they hurt, and you bled. That added up.

But between me and the Leech being able to heal, and Brad's snacks being able to keep up our strength, we were able to keep going deeper and deeper into the Dungeon.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that with me we had six geezers and three coyotes... I guess I understood why the first two groups of five got hurt so badly that they had to leave the job unfinished.

I was barely able to function between the way the howls of the Demon dogs sank Fear Essence into our bones, and then I had the fear that Hiram’s magic put out hitting me and the moochers on top of that. It was bad enough all four of us were shaking at times and would end up hanging to the back of the group.

Which was fine with me, Hiram was up front with his flamethrower until it ran out of fuel at what turned out to be halfway to finding the Core.

I could talk about getting bit over and over again, of hearing Blue shriek when one of them nearly bit her tail off. Or I could talk about having to heal Foraker after she nearly passed out from blood loss, the old woman in the green and pink sweeter had nearly bled out while trying to save her energy to heal everyone else.

It was three hours of hell, terror, and wandering around worrying about slowly using up all my shotgun shells, bullets, and grenades.

Things got bad enough that... Well, I don’t think we would have died, not if we had turned around once we realized what we were up against. But between the flame thrower and the grenades we could have turned around an hour in and gotten out just as easily, but then I don’t think the place would have pressed us that hard all the way in if we didn’t have the moochers taking down the ones that got in so close we couldn’t shoot at them.

The Dungeon would have let us get in so far, let us use up all our good stuff, and then we wouldn’t have been able to get back out.

But unlike bullets, teeth don’t run out.

Groups of Demon Dogs burned, got shot, or blown up, but when they came out of nowhere one or two at a time and ran into the middle of us to try to tear into our legs, they were in too close to try to shoot at them. That’s when the Coyotes, even the pups, would get a hold of them by their neck, and those necks would get broken as they were shaken back and forth.

Finally, finally, we came to a final enclosure with twisted writing and some misshapen deer on its sign. Deep within it, inside the concealed building they tended to the animals from in the real zoo, the others cautiously made their way inside and then stood there just inside the doorway with their backs to me.

Silent and still.

I had once again been hanging back and guarding the rear, still trying to stay out of Hiram’s fear effect, so I was the last one in, and the moment I laid eyes on the almost greasy looking dark gray Crystal hoving in the air above a pile of bones…

...I helplessly slipped off of the edge of my bed, crashing helplessly to the floor, the entire right side of my body gone numb.

Lying on the hard floor, dizzy, confused, my heart pounding in my ear, I remembered that this was my seventy fifth birthday, and this… I wasn’t going to get a quiet death in my sleep was I? Or the pain in my chest that left me feeling cold as everything went dark, instead it was going to be the worst thing, the thing I had truly feared the most.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

A stroke... and I’m alone.

I’m going to be lying here until the pain of falling down hard to the floor went away, and then I was going to have to drag myself along the floor with one good arm and leg until I could try to figure out how to reach up to my phone up on my desk in the other room to call for an ambulance.

Weakly, my face wet, I beat lapped my one good hand against the floor.

...Tap.

Then the ambulance guys would have to break into my house, bust down the door, and then leave it standing there wide open for anyone to walk in and take what little I have left after they cart me away. To get locked up until I finally die.

Taken from my home. Alone… without even the place, the things that I still had from my life, after the people, and those memories were long gone.

I made a fist, and pounded it down.

...Tap.

My saving, my house. They’ll take everything from me to pay for keeping me alive, helpless in a bed that isn’t mine, forgotten and alone, but not on my terms. Forced on me. It will be how someone else decides it will be, with me getting no choice in the matter.

“No…” My voice, and my hand was weak. Too weak to hold up.

...Tap.

Everything, the magic making the pain go away. Talking to my granddaughter. The coyotes, the little green child…

Looking my son in the eyes one last time, sitting down with him, talking like men who had never known each other.

I raised my fist again for a moment, then let it fall.

Tap!

It had all just been a stupid old man’s last dream… before the start of every old person's nightmare for when they lived for too long.

Dreaming would’nt stop it. Nothing would.

After a moment, I reached out to slap my hand down in front of me to start to drag myself along the floor toward my phone. Lying here on the cold floor wasn’t going to change anything.

...TAP!

Something shattered, the light changed and I looked up through three furry faces, their eyes filled with concern as they crowded in on me. From the floor, I could see Hiram standing beside the shattered core of the Dungeon, a frown on his face.

He looked over at me as he leaned his shotgun over his shoulder and gave me a sad grin. “It tried to scare me Harry. Me. Going into these Dungeons has been the scariest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Putting me in a nightmare just brought me right back here where I could beat on it.” He shrugged.

I rolled over onto my back, planning on staying there for a while, which didn’t work out that well as cold noses and wet tongues descended on me. “Phwa. Get off me. No kisses.”

Getting to my fear I checked my notices from Brackets. I had to have gotten a level at some point during this mess, but I had been so out of it with stress and fear I hadn’t even thought to check.

I read them, then read them again. And again. “That’s… different.”

After we ate another batch of Brad's apple brownies, and whatever the hell blondies were for the mootchers, we began making our way back out of the Dungeon.

Slowly, which left plenty of time for the now ranked five coyotes to fill their bellies with Demon Dog meat.

Twice. With all three of them visibly filling in after each meal, and even then they would be hungry again within an hour.

Damded chow hounds.

At the entrance, I hung back a bit as I watched the others leave through the portal with only Beryl turning around to give me a suspicious look. “What are you up to Harold?”

I stared at her until Blue whined at the staredown, and gave the pup… can I really still call her a pup?

Yes I can, her coat was still nice and puppy soft compared to Wylina’s fur, so I gave Blue a dirty look.

My ex cleared her throat.

Sighing I looked her in the eyes. “I got another Essence for making it to fifth level, and a new power for my class. So I’m going to hang back and try it out where no one else can see what it does.”

She narrowed her eyes, then sighed since she knew better than to ask, nodded, and left.

Walking up to the barrier between the little pocket of the world that was the Dungeon and the outside, I could hear Brad reassuring everyone standing around outside that no one had died, not even the coyotes, and that the Dungeon was destroyed.

Which wasn’t entirely accurate. Only the Core had died. Dungeons existed as long as they had a owner, or until the last person left.

“Alright Brackets. I claim this place.”

A familiar presence flowed into the Dungeon and took control of it for me. Although I guess I should start calling the place something other than a Dungeon.

Harry’s hole… That doesn’t sound right. The Gardin? ...Naw, too old testamenty. I’ll figure it out later…

I got time. Now. What with another four points of [ Health ], and on top of that my mind was next on the list to fix up. I might even be more creative after I recover from whatever spending recovery points on my brain would do.

“Vito. Shut the door.”

It's too bad I couldn’t see the looks on their faces as the Dungeon’s entrance closed up, with me still in it.

“Let’s see someone try to take this place from me and mine.”