(Just kiss her)
I’m too mentally exhausted or traumatized to resist Airi’s suggestion. When our lips meet, I feel something like a jolt of electricity surge between them as my lips grow cold and start to feel numb. Cheza wakes up and kisses me back while I lay her down on the bed, before lying down beside her. We start making out and she takes off our pants.
(Don’t turn on the TV)
I laugh out loud and then I notice that Cheza is laughing at the same time she notices that I am too. We are both just lying on the bed in stitches at the joke based on an old Blink 182 song. 5
I don’t know where our actions were headed, but they end with me in my boxers and Cheza only wearing panties, cuddling in bed.
I know that in this moment, I am right where I belong: by her side.
“Does this mean that I love Cheza?”
(You have always loved her. Back when you were eleven and you woke up to find her crying in your doorway. Back when you were fourteen and saw her bleeding and proceeded to beat that young man into a coma. You have always loved her and you always will love her. It is your fate)
“What do you mean my…fate?” I ask as I drift off to sleep.
…
[May 22nd]
I wake up to the memory of Cheza’s image: my maniacal laughter after I sliced open Ku’s chest. I feel Cheza’s soft breathing as it brushes across my bare chest while she lays topless against my left side. I don’t know how I feel about having the girl that I still sort of see as my little sister cuddling with me in bed while topless.
(Your dilemma lies in your inability to see Chezarei as a woman)
“I know I just don’t know how to stop seeing her as a little sister! I mean, we lived together for a decade and I took care of her like an older brother!”
(Did you act like an older brother? How many older brothers let their sister crawl into bed and cuddle with them, even when they were fourteen?)
I’m speechless…thoughtless.
(Not to mention that Eric never said anything that would have led you into seeing Cheza as a younger sister and it would have been normal for him to do so if he had. Eric would have seen nothing wrong with you two being in a relationship)
“Yeah, but he was married to his sister so…”
(Incestuous relationships are part of almost every creation theory. Greek’s have Zeus and Zeus’ sister Hera, along with all of the Titans; Egyptian’s have Shu and Tefnut, brother and sister as well as parents to Geb and Nut, parents of incestuous siblings Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys; Shintoism has Izanami and Izanagi; Incans have Inti and Mama Quilla. Even Christian mythology has Adam and Eve)
“Adam and Eve weren’t brother and sister.”
(That is true, but they were the first humans so who did their children have sex with?)
Wow…I’m pretty sure that isn’t something that is discussed in Sunday School.
“Wait, didn’t Cain have a human wife after he was banished and fled to a city full of humans?”
(So maybe parts of the bible were a load of bullshit, I don’t know!)
“I think it’s probably more likely that all the different renditions got mixed up in the time before the bible was printed. That’s not to say that people didn’t change things or just make shit up. Hell, who knows if Jesus was actually male? Some transcriber/translator could have been pissed off and decided to change that. ‘My wife was a bitch to me last night so the Saints Josephina and her best friend Mary are now Jesus, son of god, and Mary is getting demoted to Jesus’ groupie.’”
(Regardless, you and Chezarei aren’t related to begin with so there is no incest. Since you are still having trouble with coming to terms with it, think of it like this: Eric ran the orphanage where you and Chezarei lived; there you two fell in love; you are related in no way)
That, actually makes sense…I need a drink.
I slowly unravel myself from Cheza and leave the bedroom. I walk to the bar and start pouring myself a tall glass of rum, pineapple juice, and coconut milk (with less water), that is mostly just rum. I made myself a rum heavy ‘chi chi’; I use the name that an animated TV series about four boys from Colorado gave it because it sounds slightly more masculine than Pina Colada. 6
(WHY IS THE RUM GONE!?)
“Sorry Captain Jack! Captain Morgan was trying to mutiny so I drank him!” 7
“Hey buddy…how you feelin’?” Natasha asks from the table where she is eating a continental breakfast with Tia. I respond with a grunt; the universal man grunt that says ‘it is too early in the morning for us to talk about my mother-in-law’ or something of that nature.
“I just had my mind fucked by a girl in my head about the topless girl that is in my bed; so no talking, just drinking.” I say.
“When I heard giggling from your room, I thought you two might be getting it on!” Tia exclaims.
“No, we didn’t. Airi made a joke and we both laughed, that’s it.” I explain.
“Then why is Chezarei topless?” Tia says with a surreptitious smile.
I think back to last night and where things were going before Airi’s joke. I choke on my drink as a response to Tia’s question and then my phone answers my prayers for a much needed distraction. I walk into the bedroom and grab my phone, seeing a text message from an unfamiliar number that contains a single address. Only one address? Woohoo! That makes things so much easier! I consider taking a shower but then I realize that I might be able to leave Cheza here if I don’t, so I quietly gather some clothes up and start to leave the room.
“Don’t think that you are leaving here without me Cole.” Cheza says. “Hurry up and get in the shower while I get ready and don’t even consider knocking me out.”
I stay quiet and do as she says. Wall to wall jet showers feel great and they really wash your troubles away; like worrying about if you are a maniacal sadist, or the possibility of loving the girl who is almost your younger sist—
“Hey Cole, can I come in and join you?” Cheza asks.
“Uh…I’d rather you not, Cheza. I’ve got a lot on my mind and I’d rather not add to it at the moment.” I reply
“Oh…okay…” Cheza says, sounding downtrodden. Great, now I feel like a dick in addition to everything else.
“Don’t worry, he’ll come around eventually.” I hear Tia say to Cheza before the other shower turns on. I jump out and quickly dress in cargo shorts, a white t-shirt, my holster and my jacket, not knowing what to expect and remembering Natasha’s words from two nights ago. I go out into the main area where Natasha and Tia are sitting.
“Hey, are you guys coming too?” I ask.
“Nope, I have to get Natasha caught up to speed on the whole liaison thing, Kira told me to, so it will just be you and Chezarei today; be careful Cole.” Tia says as Cheza comes out of the bathroom wearing a short cut blue and white sundress. I’m surprised that took so little time.
“Hey, Cole? Can we walk there if it’s close enough? It’s a nice day…” Cheza asks in a somewhat timid fashion that is too damn cute.
“Yeah, sure! Let’s go!” I say and then we start walking toward the elevator. I just realized, I probably should have looked to see how far away this place is before saying yes. I enter the address into my phone’s GPS and, as luck would have it, the location is only about three miles away. We exit through the hotel lobby and start walking down a street that has shops on the left side and beachfront on the right. The sword hilt that is poking over my right shoulder is attracting a few glances in my direction, but so far it hasn’t been any cause for alarm. Thank you cosplay enthusiasts/street performers and your numbing of people’s sensibilities.
“Ooh! I want to go in here!” Cheza says while grabbing my hand as we pass a shop. She tries on clothes for fifteen minutes and buys this silk skirt thing after modeling it for me. Cheza grabs my hand on the way out and we walk for about a mile before I’m pulled into another clothing store. Cheza finds a pair of sandals that she likes and I end up carrying her bags. Ab
out a half a mile later, I feel Cheza’s heart pick up as she keeps glancing between a jewelry store and the ring on her finger.
“Do you want to stop in there?” I ask.
“WHAT!? NO!” Cheza screams in a complete overreaction as she yanks my arm down the street.
We walk for a while when I realize that we are getting close and if Cheza needs to run for any reason, she won’t be able to while holding these bags. I start thinking that we will have to head back to drop off the bags until I see a building on the beach for storage lockers. Their sign says ‘Now proudly serving the CT Channel,’ which catches my eye because of Jason’s strange explanation when I was dead. Jason also told Cheza that we would know it when we saw it. I pull Cheza across the street and over to the building.
“Wait here for a second; I’m going to put these in a locker in case things go south.” I tell Cheza and then I head inside.
There are several rows of lockers, probably numbering up to 300. There is a person working/reading at behind a counter; I assume he is there mostly for supervision because these lockers are coin operated. Okay there are three numbers that Jason used during the course of our conversation: 77, or 7&7, the drink that Jason gave me and also his favorite; 247, or 24/7, the amount he had been partying lately; and finally 86, or 86’d, the term used to describe us getting thrown out of that bar. It has to be one of those lockers so I look for the one that has the key missing.
They all have the key missing. I guess I’ll just choose at random. I walk up to the counter because I’m betting that this guy probably deals in lost and found keys as well.
“Hey, I lost my key on the beach, has anyone turned it in?” I ask.
“What’s your locker number?” The man asks without looking up from his book.
“69,” I tell him.
Let’s face it; this is Jason we are talking about. Chance of him using carefully coded words and actions during our conversation is highly unlikely; chance of him thinking about sex at any given time? Highly probable. The man hands the key over while he continues reading. I go down to the first row closest to the door and walk towards the back wall until I reach locker 69. I set the bags on top of the wall of lockers before squatting down to open the locker that is one up from the bottom. Inside is a shoebox-sized package that has been wrapped in brown paper and twine. Considering that nobody has used brown paper and twine to wrap anything in the past thirty years, I’m willing to wager that someone from Jason’s harem wrapped this…or its drugs. Drugs being something that I’ve seen wrapped in brown paper and twine…on TV at least.
(Chezarei on line two)
“Hey Cole? We might have a bit of a problem here. Three guys are making a beeline for this building and something is off about them.” Cheza thinks while sending me an image of them.
I see three swirls of color, but it is midday and they aren’t sparkling. The one good piece of news is greatly eclipsed by the bad. How are they outside though? This is confusing…maybe vampires are just nocturnal and the legends are exaggerations from when some vampire went outside and said “AH! The sun bright! It burns!” like some people I know…
“Cheza, those are vampires and those swirls of color you are seeing are their auras. Now, they are most likely after you.” I think calmly.
“What swirls of color?” Cheza asks. I guess she can’t see them.
“Never mind; I need you to go down the beach away from them. When they pass by the building, I’ll come out and kill all three before any of them know what is happening.” I think.
Since you can’t slice off the heads of three people in broad daylight, I’m glad I have my badge wi—…not with me; it’s on the bar counter next to the key to the room. Oh well, I can deal with that later.
I can feel Cheza’s heartbeat as though it were in my chest, while her heart rate suddenly skyrockets.
“COLE! They are going in the building!” Cheza exclaims. What!? Did Jason…
“Cheza, please call Tia and tell her that I need her to get down here with my badge.” I think to Cheza as the vampires walk in. I notice that their skin looks pretty red…maybe the ‘bursting into flames’ myth comes from the fact that they’re so pale that they could get a sunburn while watching fireworks.
“Hey, boy, hand over the package!” One of them shouts. Did that fucker just make a crack at my appearance? Wait, some of the gods have been doing that too! I had just assumed that it’s because of the relative difference in our ages!
“Give us the package!”
Even Dagda had called me boyo! Wait, wouldn’t he have used ‘lad’ if he wanted to call me boy? Can boyo be used to address any male person regardless of age?
“Please give us the package?”
Can lad be used to address any male person? Wait, is lad Scottish?
“WE’VE BEEN TELLING YOU TO GIVE US THE FUCKING PACKAGE! ARE YOU DEAF!?” One of the vampires shouts.
“Hey, do you guys know if the word ‘lad’ is Scottish?” I ask as I put the package back into the locker. I receive three completely perplexed looks and then three thoughtful glances upward. “Oh, fuck it. I can Google it later.”
I stand, pull my gun, and fire three JHP rounds (because I neglected to switch back to the WFNGC rounds after last night) into each of their guts because I might not get a kill shot if I shoot them in the head. I sprint forward as I draw my Sic blade, realizing that I’m in the rare situation where I don’t have to dispatch these guys quickly. Time to try some of those flashy kill moves! Yay!
I pull off a wall run using the wall to my right, behead the vampire that is closest to the wall, and land on the ground near the door. I jump up, plant both feet on the doorframe, and kick off it, shooting myself towards the back wall as I cut the middle vampire in half. The vampire closest to the lockers, and ten feet from me, has almost recovered so I am going to have to make my final move quick. Is it possible to cut someone vertically in half? For a human: no. For a human with godlike strength?
I run up the lockers and do a backflip off of the top. As I’m coming off the rotation, I swing down as hard as I can. So, can a human with godlike strength slice someone vertically in half? It looks like I can, and it makes me feel all warm and tingly…or it could just be the blood coating that I’m currently wearing; probably about fifty-fifty.
I stand straight and do the ‘I stuck the landing!’ pose that gymnasts use. However, I can only give that performance 9 out of 10 because I wasn’t able to cut the vampire perfectly in half; instead of splitting his brain into its two cerebral hemispheres, I ended up cutting through the vampire’s eye. The corpse is still magnificent though; lots of red squirting everywhere. I’m really glad that I put Cheza’s bags on top of the lockers now.
I walk over to the stunned vampire that had been lopped in half at the torso. I stick the tip of my sword into his sternum, just above his solar plexus, and I lean on it causing the vampire to start screaming. There is enough trauma at his waist for him to go into shock, but he can still feel pain this far up.
“Now, why don’t you tell me why you wanted this package.” I ask.
“GO FUCK YOURSE— AHHH!” the vampire screams as I lean a bit harder into the Sic blade, causing it to pierce his sternum.
“Why do you want this package?” I ask again.
“FUCK YOU!” the vampire screams as he spits in my face.
“Hmm…cock-flavored spit.” I say as I wipe it from my face. I smile sweetly as I slice his shirt open.
“That’s hardly an answer!” I reply maniacally and start flaying him; taking long, slow, strips from his chest. The throws of agony reverberate in my bones as I flay off a total of four strips.
“WE WERE TOLD TO TAKE THE PACKAGE FROM WHOEVER OPENS LOCKER 69 AND THEN KILL THEM. OUR MASTER SAID TO BE CAREFUL BECAUSE IT MAY BE FRAGILE!” the vampire screams.
“Jormungandr?” I ask, flaying off another strip of skin and reveling in the result.
“YES! YES! NOW PLEASE JUST KILL ME!” the vampire screams.
I raise my Sic blade up by my left ear, and then I stop and listen. The police are still a good fifteen seconds away, giving me at least thirty; why not have a little more fun?
“COLE! JUST KILL HIM! Please...” Cheza begs as her voice cracks. Cheza’s crying…did I do that? I’m the cause of her tears, aren’t I?
I bring my blade through the vampire’s neck as a female police officer opens the door, weapon drawn, with a second officer on her heels. I think the male officer is the first officer’s partner.
“DROP YOUR WEAPONS!” the first and second officers shout, not in unison because that would be crazy.
“Relax, I’m a fe—” I start to say as they both open fire, the second officer firing first and the first officer following; I can hardly say I blame them, it looks like a damn SAW movie in here! They are using Glock 17 9mm pistols and each fires three rounds at staggered intervals. I quickly fortify my legs and as I step into the six bullets, knowing that I can’t dodge them when the officers are less than fifteen feet away.
“I SAID RELAX!” I yell as they look at me slack jawed; understandable considering that they just shot me six times and I’m still standing.
“Now, can I finish what I was going to say or is someone going to shoot at me again?” I ask and the officers shake their heads no.
“Good.” I say while I holster my gun.
I take off my jacket and set it on top of the lockers, next to the bags, so I can sheathe my Sic blade. I raise my Sic blade into the air as a third officer with a shotgun walks in and shoots me in the chest upon seeing my raised sword. I was completely unprepared for this and I don’t have enough room to maneuver for the capability to dodge the scattered pellets. This results in me taking the full buckshot in the upper chest, a few pellets severing both arteries in my neck. I’m jettisoned three feet backwards and into the wall; I leave a bloody smear as I slide down the length of it.
“COLE! COOOOLE!” I hear Cheza scream in my head. I’m a little stunned by the wall and the two severed arteries, so I don’t respond right away.
Mania and the Executioner Page 6