The security seemed to accept Allacia’s word right away, which at first surprised Drake, then he remembered that she said that she worked for security too. So these people were probably her friends.
They ended up hauling Brice off. He wasn’t out long and seemed to decide that causing more trouble with security on the scene wasn’t a good idea. But the looks he threw Drake’s way suggested that this wasn’t over.
Drake decided he needed to find that book he once saw. He thought the title was; ‘How to win friends and influence enemies.’ Because at the rate, he was gathering enemies he could use all the influence he could get.
Drake decided to use the other mat, the unwanted free mat in the back row.
Allacia said, “Everything is alright, everyone just relax. Take your seats and relax, start your breathing, this is a good opportunity to learn how to release your stress and learn better mindfulness in meditation. I will be coming around to each of you and try to help you discover the energy you need to start the first step in learning psionic sensing. As you know, almost all the other psionic skills begin with sensing. So breathe, relax and I’ll be with each of you.”
Drake knew that once he was relaxed the first step in sensing was to try to find something called the subtle body, or sometimes the unmanifest body. It was, he understood, the source of the psionic energy that people used, but Drake seemed to have trouble finding his source. The theory was that all living and non-living things share a connectedness that could be tapped and… well, the next step was more advanced and not yet clear. For now, he was supposed to learn to tap into his energy and use it to just feel the world’s energy. Drake didn’t fully understand, and he had a feeling that this was his problem. He was a thinker, and he had trouble just being, and not analyzing everything.
Drake kept trying to reach the deep level of relaxation, but his thoughts kept pouring in, and he tried to just let them pass, breathe them out, yet his mind was always so active… just relax… breathe the clear in… breathe the stress out… try to be mindful of the sounds… of his body… of how his clothes feel against his skin… just let the thoughts pass. Just be in the moment. Thoughts still came, but he would breathe them away, just accept, not challenge.”
Allacia quietly said, “Your almost there.”
This almost broke Drake out of his meditation.
“Here, relax, this should help.” Allacia touched his shoulder, which startled Drake because he wasn’t expecting the contact. But then he relaxed even deeper than before, he was sure she was causing him somehow to relax. But this is what he wanted so he didn’t fight her.
After a few minutes, he felt/sensed something. He could sense warmth flowing from Allacia, it kind of reminded him of how his mother would hold him when he was scared to go to sleep, and read him a book, so quiet, so gentle, and so relaxing. Then he followed the flow and down deep inside himself he found an answering energy, a resonating calm energy, being stroked and soothed by Allacia. He tried to reach for it, just touch the calm pool. But somehow as he did, he touched the energy from Allacia instead. His whole world spun, for the briefest second he was not Drake-Kevin, but Allacia-Drake-Kevin….
He woke up lying on a mat, his head was spinning. Something was wrong, where was he, what…
Then he remembered.
Allacia seemed to be getting up from her knees beside him and shook her head as if in an attempt to clear it.
“Well, that was… unexpected.” She looked down at Drake and said; “You should warn a girl, and not just reach out and grab her.” She joked.
“Sorry, I don’t know what I did,” said Drake. “It just sort of happened.”
“Yeah, I had a boyfriend like that once.” Allacia quipped. “But yeah, like I said that was unexpected. Most people, if they touch my energy like that, don’t have the focus or strength of mind to grab hold of my mind like that; I didn’t expect that so my guard was down. It was more my fault than yours, don’t worry. But I think you made great progress today. Keep working, I have to move on and help with the others. But I hope to see you back next Tuesday for more practice?”
“I’ll be here,” said Drake, “It’s a date. Maybe you’ll even let me inside you again…” he joked.
He was rewarded by the first blush he had seen on Allacia, and he had thought that she might be too jaded to respond like that. Maybe this experience unsettled her more than Drake thought?
Drake went back to his meditating before the session was over, he was able to sense the energy within once again, but when he went to reach it, he lost focus.
He was still vastly pleased with himself… he was sure for the first time that he was making some progress.
After the training session had broken up, Drake returned to his room and logged out of Omnia.
***
Samantha had dinner waiting in the kitchen again. Without even looking at the food he went up to her, gave her a hug and said; “Thank you. You’re such an amazing help to me.” and kissed her on the forehead.
She hugged him back and said “Your welcome, Kevin,” in that way she had of making his name sound like ‘master.' He was starting to suspect some subliminal message was responsible, something she was doing to display submission. It was like she was trying to reinforce his sense of male dominance. Maybe this was part of why he was acting so aggressive with the women he met?
Well, for now, it made him feel good, and it really wasn’t hurting anything yet so he would let it be… for now.
He was sure she just saw what she did as trying to make him the most he could be.
He had always been more passive than aggressive with women; he would not make a move until he was sure they seemed interested in him. Now that passivity seemed a thing of the past. Was it maybe just low self-esteem and a fear of rejection? He had always told himself he didn’t approach women out of respect, but maybe he was telling himself a lie all along. Was it really disrespectful to tell a girl that she looked nice and that you would like to spend some time getting to know her better? Maybe joke and flirt a little?
He could see how he lied to himself before.
But if he did find a girlfriend in the real world. He would have, to be honest with her. Maybe that was what true respect was. Would a real life girl be jealous of Samantha? He would have trouble giving up her services, for a girl’s jealousy.
What is jealousy for anyway, it’s not like Samantha will show up pregnant demanding I marry her. Isn’t monogamy a method used to ensure that there are two people ready to take responsibility for any children?
He briefly wondered what Sarah would think of Samantha.
While thinking these thoughts, Kevin finished his dinner. Later he couldn’t even remember what he ate… just his thoughts.
Kevin then went to the training room, exercise and spent some time in meditation, still not yet reaching that elusive energy.
He then took a shower and shared some more relaxing time with Samantha before going to sleep.
Just before he fell to sleep, he thought of one more thing he was grateful for, Samantha.
Chapter 17 – Lust and Madness
Kevin ate breakfast with Samantha.
It had already been more than six hours since he promised to help Sarah in four hours. Since he was already late, he decided to go ahead and stick to his morning routine in the training room. An extra thirty minutes would only be about seven and a half for her anyway.
When the pod opened up, he found a startled Sarah looking at him. Even as he pulled off the breathing mask, she was still looking. It was like she couldn’t take her eyes away. This cause Kevin a brief moment of concern; was there something wrong with his body? So he looked down at his own naked body. No, all the parts were there, in fact, he didn’t ever remember his body looking so good. Washboard abs, muscular thighs. And maybe it was his imagination… was his penis a little larger? No, he hadn’t looked at himself like this for a while.
Sarah was still looking. He started to get up but found
that Sarah had done some cleaning, and his sweats had disappeared.
“Umm, Sarah.” He said as he sat up.
“Why did you take my clothes? Just looking to get a peek, or have I piqued your interest?” he teased, as he stood up.
The startled girl took one more look down his body, then blushed, and turned away. He had never seen a girl blush so red. He wanted to take another look at that red face, but he needed to get some clothes on. He went to his dresser and grabbed some under clothes, socks, pants, and a shirt. When he was done, he found that Sarah had given into temptation and was looking at him again. When she saw that he noticed her, she quickly turned away. What an amazing shade of red. He bet all he would have to do in the future to get her to blush would be just to mention this moment. He went into the restroom to get dressed.
Kevin didn’t feel embarrassed by his nudity. He had always been that way. He was more embarrassed by the effects of his thoughts on his male member then by the thought of being naked in public. Clothing for him was more a matter of following the rules and concern about how others viewed him. But this last scene was Sarah’s fault, she was the one looking, and she was the one that took his clothes.
While Kevin was in the restroom, he looked in the mirror. He thought that his skin looked a little smoother, or his nose a little different? No, maybe it was just that he hadn’t been out in the sun much that caused his face to look just a little, different, better?
No, he was clearly confused by all the changes to his in-game body. He hadn’t changed, he told himself. Sure the pod did an amazing job and working out his body while he played, but Samantha already explained that. So everything was fine. It was probably just Sarah’s reaction to him that had him seeing changes that were easy to explain.
When he got out of the restroom, he saw a very embarrassed, blushing and distraught girl sitting on the now cleaned off couch covering her face.
“Oh, my God, I can’t believe I did that… Oh my God… Oh my God… Oh my God…”
“I’m so embarrassed, can you forgive me? I didn’t think about it when I was cleaning, I just picked up everything. You were gone so long, and I was going out of my mind, I had to do something…” she rambled on in embarrassment.
“I called my mother, my friends and talked, I looked for someplace to stay, and now I’m looking at you like some stalker pervert. What is wrong with me, I can’t keep a man happy, he goes off and sleeps with other girls, even my friends… so what do I do, I come over here and make a fool of myself, cry all over your shoulder, and then act like a stalking pervert. I should just kill myself…”
Ok, thought Kevin, this was going to take more than just saying it’s no problem. He sat down next to Sarah and hugged her. Saying over and over again, “it’s ok, it’s all right.” She tried to push him away, but this time, he didn’t let her go, just kept saying “it’s ok, it’s all right, you're still my friend, you don’t need to worry.”
When he was teasing her, it had slipped his mind that for her, just a few hours passed since she broke up with … what’s his name? Bob… Bruce… Bill? How about that asshole that slept around on my friend? No, that’s too long, Ass Hat will do.
It took a few minutes, but Sarah calmed down, then Kevin let her go.
“Sarah, I think you’re amazing, and if that Ass Hat was stepping out on you, well he just doesn’t deserve a girl as kind as you. And if you had girlfriends who were inviting him into their beds, they weren’t your friends. Maybe they were just using you to get near him?”
“Don’t put that bull shit on yourself, it’s their dirt, let them deal with it.”
“As far as the whole naked parade goes. Don’t worry; you looking at me didn’t bother me at all. But you can expect that I’ll hold it over you whenever I want to see you blush.” Kevin said with a grin.
“You should just focus on putting that all behind you. I know how it feels, I had a girlfriend … Do you remember Rachel? No? Well, she hardly ever came around to work. But I caught her with another man’s dick in her mouth that time I went home sick five months ago? Remember?”
“What hurt the most was the feeling that I did something to cause it to happen. I kept asking ‘Did I not care enough, not give her enough attention?' I found out later that she just had a problem. Turns out sexual addiction is a real thing, she just couldn’t satisfy some inner need with one man.”
“So, I mean it when I say I know your pain. I feel an echo of the hurt you feel, even now after so many months later.”
Kevin sighed. “Ok, enough weepy sharing. Sarah, I owe you… You have been my support in a hundred ways, how can I help you? Just be aware, I only have the next five hours if you need me to do something for you. But I’m practically living in that pod, so you’re welcome to stay here if you want if that last scene didn’t scare you away. I promise not to come out of the pod some night and have my way with you.”
Sarah muttered something; even as close as Kevin was sitting he couldn’t make it out for sure. But his imagination heard it as “oh, too bad.”
He decided to add one more thing, just in case he heard right.
“Anyway, I like you too much as a friend, to lose that relationship to a temporary rebound. But I will say that if you hadn’t been with that Ass Hat, I probably would have asked you out on a date a long time ago.”
Sarah looked up at him as if seeing him a little differently.
“So,” asked Drake, “how can I help you?”
Sarah said “I need to go back, I need my things, clothes and such. But he was so mad, he hit me again, and he promised he wouldn’t, and that was after I found out that he broke his promise and slept with Careen…”
She seemed to realize she was starting to babble again.
“Um… Could you go there with me? He is usually out drinking at a bar this time of the day.” asked Sarah.
“Sure. Let’s go.” He had a feeling this was where she was going all along. He wasn’t looking forward to a confrontation with … what’s his name.
Sarah lived a couple miles further out toward the edge of town. They took her car, a Honda two-door hatchback. Sarah drove into an apartment complex; from the outside, it looked like all the apartments were two story units.
At first, it seemed like Sarah might be right, that the Ass Hat might be out drinking. But as soon as the door opened there was a yell from up the stairs, were Kevin imagined the bedrooms were.
“Is that you Sarah, I told you, you’d come crawling back you bitch, get your ass up here and…”
He trailed off when he came around the corner of the stair and found that Sarah was not alone.
Sarah looked petrified, frozen in her tracks like she was a dear ready to run at a moment’s notice.
Kevin decided to calm her down.
“It’s ok, we’ll just get your things and go. You’ll be fine. I’ll call the cops right now and when they sho...” Kevin was just in the middle of pulling out his phone when the Ass yelled…
“LIKE HELL YOU WILL…” he yelled as he charged down the stairs.
Kevin decided that he didn’t want to be in front of this train, so just as the man neared the bottom of the stairs, Kevin ducked to one side. Just leaving one leg, oh so accidentally out to trip the man, what happened next Kevin did not see coming, not in a million years. As the Ass tripped he fell, he hit face first into the open door jam. There was a crunching snapping sound and then his body rolled out the door onto its back, very limp. And when Kevin looked, there was a noticeable impression in the guy’s forehead, suggesting that he might never get up again.
Kevin immediately started calling 911. It was going to be a long day.
***
Thankfully there was another witness to what happened. One of the neighbors was just getting home with a load of groceries. And when Ben… took a dive down the stairs right into the door jam, the neighbor, Frank Jamison, saw the action.
So with three people all giving the same story, the police put it down as a dr
unken accident, since Ben smelled of alcohol.
Kevin was relieved; he could just see being stuck in a jail cell, while the wheels of justice made their slow way around to him. It’s not like he had the money for a real lawyer, and he heard too many stories about the public kind for there to be no truth there.
So he was greatly relieved that he was now going home. Sarah was still with him, though. She said she couldn’t stay there. Too much had happened and Ben being dead did not help. She had asked her mom if she could move in with her, but there was no room. Her younger sister was staying in the only other room, and there was some history between the two… Kevin suspected that Ben might have slept with her sister, but that was pure speculation.
Since Sarah would be staying in his studio apartment, he had her register on the new electronic lock.
So, four and a half hours after leaving the pod, he climbed back in… trying to ignore his audience. It seems that since he told her he didn’t mind her looking at him naked, she took it as something like as an invitation to watch the show. Girls, you just can’t… well, he could, but he would regret it later. So he had a hard on when the pod door closed, which Sarah seemed to find greatly amusing since she could tell he both wanted her and was holding back from making a move for the sake of their relationship…whatever that was.
***
Kevin was back in the game pod, he was hoping that Samantha would help him find some release. She appeared like last time, but this time, there was no negligee. In fact, there was nothing at all. Samantha was naked, but she was shiny too.
When he reached out to her, she just slipped away, she had oiled herself all over, and she gave a taunting laugh, as she slipped away again. Oh, she was being playful.
And so began a game of cat and mouse, until Samantha let him catch her. Then she showed him some other benefits of being all slippery.
Later when he lay exhausted in bed, he hugged Samantha and gave her a kiss… on the lips for the first time, and said, “I love you, you know.”
Omnia Online (Omnia Online Series Book 1) Page 14