Maurice and Dudley were not happy boys. Not very surprisingly, they wanted to run after the girls and rescue them from whatever fate had in store for them. Overco impossible odds, live happily ever after. You know, the hero thingy.
I think everyone agrees this is the way things should be, including most girls. Sure, theres so lip service paid to the idea that if the positions were reversed the girls would do the sa if it wasnt for society holding them back. But would they?
But would they, though?
It didnt matter. Jenny, Claire and Flossie had made a choice. For so reason, they wanted to do this (whatever this was) on their own. Maybe to prove a point. Maybe to protect us. Maybe because they had suddenly hit that ti in their lives when acting retarded seed like the right thing to do.
Whatever the reason, they knew the other two would at least join in if asked. So why hadnt they asked them?
You really arent going to do anything? asked Maurice. Were supposed to let them go off on this quest and wait here until they co back, like good little wives?
Its not a quest, I said, and we werent invited. They dont want us there. They want us as far away as possible. I waved the note theyd left behind in an attempt to send us on a wild goose chase.
But what do they think theyre doing? Maurice was getting very frustrated, not even bothering to push his glasses back up his nose as they slipped closer and closer to the end.
I dont know. I took another bite of the muffin-style pastry that definitely wasnt a muffin. Too crunchy. Youre the one whos been taking notes. This is test day.
Do you, ah, think perhaps this has sothing to do with Joshaya? said a glum Dudley. They really were a miserable pair without their partners.
I think it almost certainly has sothing to do with Joshaya, I said. Whatever happened back there, they didnt tell us the full story.
They must have thought itd be too dangerous, said Maurice. Dudley nodded his agreent.
Or maybe they arent really our girls, I said. They could have been swapped out for shape-shifters. Or their minds are being controlled. Or they got bored and theyre out on the prowl.
No! said Dudley. I would know if it wasnt really Flossie.
Sa, said Maurice. I know its Claire. The real one. I know what she tastes like.
I so didnt want to know what that ant.
Look, theres a million possible reasons why they ran off like that, and we cant just choose one and hope were right. Even if we track them down, blundering into the middle of whatever theyve got themselves mixed up in could make things worse.
What are we supposed to do? said Maurice, standing up and banging his fist on a mango-shaped fruit (not a mango). It shot across the table.
What do you want to do? I asked him. Tell them they cant make decisions that dont include us, and then drag them ho by their hair. Now that I said it out loud, it didnt sound that unreasonable.
Arthur appeared, in his dressing gown as usual. Youre still here, then?
I was pretty sure he knew wed be here. He was the one who put out the food, for a start.
Yes, I said, were still here. Did you see the girls leave this morning?
Theyve gone? He sounded surprised, but for all we knew he had them locked up in his basent and the whole thing was an elaborate ruse. Where?
To see the Pope, I think. I finished eating and wiped my mouth with a sleeve. I had the whole Middle Ages table etiquette down to a tee.
Why do they want to see him?
We dont know, said Maurice.
Where are they now? asked Arthur.
We dont know that, either, said Maurice.
Arthur turned to Dudley. Why dont you look?
? said Dudley. I can do that?
Sit down. Now close your eyes. What can you see?
Dudley sat there with his eyes closed, his nose twitching a bit. I can see the room. I can see you and Maurice and Colin.
Good. Now lift your vision. Up. Out of the room.
Over the next few minutes, Dudley changed his point of view from the chair he was in to sowhere near the ceiling. It was a slow, step-by-step process, but if he could master it, hed be able to spy on anyone and watch them without them knowing.
Currently, he couldnt get out of the room, but it was obvious how powerful an ability it could be. One day.
Maurice sat at the far end of the table with his notebook out. He had taken my advice to heart and was scouring the pages for so clue as to what the girls were up to.
My guess was that both of them would take so ti getting results, if ever. I decided my own ti would be better spent working on my own gift.
I went out in the garden and sat on the lawn. The dragons had done quite a good job of trimming the hedges and pruning the bushes. If the girls had gone to the ga Temple to visit the Pope to get their brain, heart and courage, they must have sent the dragons off to hide sowhere (probably the ravine where wed left them when we ca to the city).
Clearly, they had put a lot of thought into how to fool us into not following them. Their plan, whatever it was, hadnt been thought up on the spur of the mont. This was them coming up with an idea and following it through. Together. Without us.
I cant deny I was curious about what they were doing, but at the sa ti, you dont help people by doing things for them. Not even if theyre children. Or won.
Would I rather they hadnt gone off on their little adventure? Of course. It was hugely inconvenient. I had a knot in my stomach telling sothing horrible was going to happen. Mind you, I always had that, but it was more noticeable today.
I sat there, the grass pricking through my clothes, sohow. It was still quite early, but the sun was very warm. A pleasant day to ponder what it would be like to not have a girlfriend anymore.
The Pope was a charismatic figure, the kind girls go for. Strong features, good teeth, nice hair. All the things won look for in a pony, and we all know how much won like ponies.
I might never see her again. It wasnt just the sex I would miss, it was other things, probably.
For all my posturing and declarations, its hard to sit back and allow soone to make their own choices when their life is an integral part of yours. I understood why n threw caution to the wind and risked everything for soone they love. I wouldnt do it myself, but I understood.
But you have to focus on the things within your control. Yourself. I tried to concentrate on my own abilities. If I could master them, then I would be able to do much more than simply insist she not do what she wanted because it made feel uncomfortable. I could offer her an alternative. A way to get what she wanted by going through , rather than around .
Instead of focusing on training myself, though, I ended up fantasising about saving her. Coming to the rescue like a true hero. Just because I mock the idea, doesnt an it isnt appealing.
She would be at the rcy of the demonic Pope, and I would swing in on a chandelier to a cool orchestral score, and carry her out of harms way. And she would be so grateful shed sleep with .
It was dumb. I didnt need to save her from a monster to get her to sleep with . A polite request was all it took. When she was here, of course.
My training didnt get very far. She was uppermost in my mind. It felt like she was there with . I felt a tug in my chest. I looked down and saw a line attached to , silver and shining. I put my hand out, but it drifted away from .
I realised it was doing the drifting away. I was floating over my own body. I looked around and saw the world had changed. The garden was full of vines, more overgrown than ever. Everything around was still, even the air.
I had managed to transfer to the adjacent world. I wasnt sure how. Thinking about Jenny? Mourning the end of my sex life? It would take so experintation to nail down the exact reason, but I felt I had made significant progress.
Those things could wait, though. I looked down at myself, at the silver thread that was the only thing attached to . It went from my chest into the grass. Jenny was either below ground level in a building, or buried in the garden.
Floating, moving like a swimr, I forced myself towards the gleaming strand. I touched it and my hands tingled. I pulled and the thread bit into my skin. I ignored the pain, even though I no longer had the ability to heal myself. It seed more important to find out what was on the other end of the line.
The silver line ca out of the earth without leaving a mark, and then more and more ca ripping up like a loose thread unravelling from a cardigan. As it stretched out in front of , I was thrown forward. Still holding on, white sparks flew from my hands as I shot through the unmoving air.
My insubstantial form passed through walls and trees as I gradually built up more and more speed. There was also a weird moaning sound, which I realised was coming from .
My guide rope led into the heart of Gorgoth. It was not the sa city I had seen when we first arrived. It was an alien landscape swarming with tentacles out of an incomprehensible hentai (so any hentai) growing everywhere, in all sizes, from trunks of huge trees to wriggling worms.
The people, frozen in place, were barely visible under their connections to the world and each other. It wasnt surprising they couldnt move under all that.
The thread could have easily slamd into a mass of writhing ophidian limbs, but its glistening single strand weaved a path through them, still clinging on, all the way to the doors of the ga Temple. They ford a large arched mouth in the skull-shaped temple.
The doors posed no barrier to . I passed through into a large hall with many passages leading from it.
Finding Jenny in here would have been a nightmare, but I was riding the bullet express, last stop: the girl youre looking for.
There was no turning back now (even if I knew how). I zood past people dressed in white robes with unnatural appendages growing out of their bodies, although fewer than those Id seen outside.
My zipline was still rising out of the ground ahead of , but then it took down a staircase and I was on the sa level as Jenny. I began to slow.
Torches lit the hallway, then candles. Not the rose-scented candles of an indulgent bath, more like the hard wax monoliths of a black mass.
There were doors at the far end. I had the feeling this was my destination. She would be in there. The knot in my stomach was growing.
I had almost stopped moving and let go of the thread that had brought here. My hands were hot and red, but not hurt. I swam towards the door, and then through it.
The Pope stood at the far end of a large room, on a small platform, arms raised in exultation, his face stuck in a mont of delight. Candles with unmoving flas filled alcoves in the walls.
The rest of the room was full of his followers, on their knees, bowing down. Tentacles extended from them to the Pope. Not to each other, though, only to him.
And in the middle of all this, were three figures in simple white robes. Jenny was in the middle, Claire and Flossie on either side, each holding one of Jennys hands. There were nurous connections between the three of them. Thick ones. But no connection from them to the Pope. Interesting.
I floated around to get a better look at the girls. They had serious looks on their faces, mixed with fear. They were scared, but determined.
It was only when I was facing this way that I saw the faces of the Popes followers. Even though they were on the floor in full genuflection, many had their heads raised to keep their eyes on their glorious leader. And what eyes they were.
Dull, lifeless, glassy. Their faces, from what I could see, were also in need of attention from good-quality skincare products. Not that moisturising would help at this point. They were all dead. Not rotting, nothing falling off, just dead.
I rembered Jenny asking what I would do if she beca one of the undead. Perhaps not quite as hypothetical a question as Id thought.
Every guy knows that strange feeling when your girl tells you shes going out to party without you. Girls night out. It brings up awkward questions. Will they get stupid drunk? Will they get off with so bloke in a club? Will they sell their soul to beco a mber of the living dead? Like most successful relationships, it cos down to a matter of love, trust and necromancy.
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