by A.L. Bridges
Chapter 1: Introductions are in order
[May 19th]
I wake up and realize that both of my lungs are now inflating. I guess my blood can remove ribs from punctured lungs after all. I hear two voices next to the bed.
“Who are you?” Cheza asks.
“My name is Natasha. I’m with The Agency,” Natasha replies. This is not going to be good.
“Why are you here?” Cheza asks.
I’m a little shocked that she is talking at all considering that she just met Natasha. It’s very unlike her.
“I’m here to support Cole,” Natasha answers. I can almost feel Cheza’s glare.
“And how do you know Cole!?” Cheza asks, trying to keep her voice in check. Oh, this is really not going to be good.
“Our relationship is… complicated. I give him information… We’ve been naked in bed a few times… it satisfies me. Frankly, I’m the girl of his dreams! And you must be his little sister who likes to crawl into bed with him on occasion!” Oh, dear gods Natasha! Why!? I hear Cheza make this high pitched noise as she storms out of the room. I open my eyes and see the sun setting outside the window, meaning that I’ve been unconscious for nearly sixteen hours.
“WHY!? WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?” I whisper loudly at Natasha, who continues to give this sadistic little giggle. Wow… this situation just keeps getting worse. In addition to noticing that I’m in Cheza’s bedroom, I just realized that Natasha is a young Tia! Tia… I don’t remember seeing any gold flakes around her like there were with Illapa, so maybe she’s still alive.
“How is Tia?” I say while trying to sit up, finding that I am unable.
“Easy tiger, you’re still really low on blood. I’m just glad I was able to get some help here and thought to bring blood bags. You just had to be AB negative didn’t you? Just turn that into a positive and we could have brought any blood… and which one is Tia?” Natasha asks.
(Actually, your blood cannibalizes any other blood that enters your stream, so it doesn’t matter what type of blood they use. You currently have 2.8 Liters. Welcome back to the living… Master)
“Thanks Airi.”
“Airi told me that you can use any blood type because my blood cannibalizes any other blood that enters my stream,” I say to Natasha.
“Well, that’s good to know… who’s Airi?” Natasha asks.
“Don’t worry about it. I have a few questions,” I say.
“Shoot,” Natasha says.
“What is going to happen with the whole vampire killings and stuff? There are about thirteen people dead. Is The Agency just going to cover that up?” I ask.
“Bottom line? Yes, we are and already did. We had the survivors sign confidentiality agreements with a heavy penalty for breaking it. The back story is that a butane lamp exploded, killing twelve people. Sort of stupid, but so are the masses. There will be a memorial service in their honor and they will become a reminder of the dangers of butane lamps or some such bullshit that the media department will spin,” Natasha answers.
“Okay, a little fucked up, but okay. What about the victim’s families?” I ask.
“What about them? Someone they love is dead. Do you think they would care how they died now that the perpetrators are all dead?” Natasha replies.
“Point taken. Second question: Why did you block Jason’s attempts to contact me?” I ask.
“I’m what’s called an Oracle. I can see the future on occasion, but usually not very clearly, or very far ahead in time. However, my vision that involved you was different: it was like I was watching a movie. I saw a possible future where you go to meet up with Jason, Chezarei gets killed, and the world ends. When I saw you in a dream of mine, I realized that was how Jason would contact you. The next week I found myself in your dream, the one with the party, and I blocked Jason. I kept doing it every time I would pop up in one of your dreams. I’m not sure how I did it, but I did,” Natasha tells me. I let that process for a few moments.
“Could you please go and get Sara?” I ask her.
“Yeah, sure. We can talk more later,” Natasha says and exits the room. Sara opens Cheza’s door a few minutes later.
“How’s Tia? Is she alive?” I ask before Sara can even enter the room.
“I’m fine, Cole,” Tia says from right behind Sara with a huge grin on her face.
“You did good, Cole. I’m proud of you. In fact, there is only one other situation that I can think of where I would be prouder. From what I hear, while Sara and that hot little number were driving towards the cliff, they could hear Illapa screaming,” Tia says with Sara nodding in confirmation.
“What did you do to him? Wait, I don’t want to know,” Sara says.
“Yeah, after seeing your handiwork with the vampires, we can guess! I just hope you didn’t sacrifice too much, Cole,” Tia says cheerfully at first, before quickly becoming serious.
“What do you mean? What did I sacrifice?” I ask them. Sara and Tia look to each other, and then back at me.
“Cole, why are your eyes silver?” Tia cautiously asks, as though I was going to explode at any second.
“What!?” I say in surprise while Sara goes to Cheza’s dresser and grabs the mirror off of the top.
“I don’t understand. My Drive said that I won before fading away…” I say with confusion as my silver eyes gaze back at me through the mirror.
“I want to see something real quick. Tell me everything you can about this gun,” Tia says while handing me an unfamiliar gun that she pulled from behind her back. I take it in my left hand.
“SW1911 made by Smith & Wesson. It’s a .45 caliber pistol that is currently loaded with 15 FMJ rounds. The sight is off by an inch to the left at twenty feet,” I say rattling off facts like I’d always known them.
“That’s what I thought. Cole, I think that you are stuck in your Drive state but with full control of your mind and body,” Tia says. So that’s what it meant by ‘You are now We’.
“So… why am I in Cheza’s bed?” I ask.
“Because there is a dead, headless, naked vampire hooker in your room with the majority of her head exploded all over your bed and walls,” Tia says in the same way one might report the score of a football game.
“Chezarei is super pissed at you by the way. She also seems to think you two are engaged…” Tia says, unable to contain her smile. “How did that happen?”
I explain the series of events, leaving out the tendrils and the Mu-cutter because intuition tells me to.
“After restarting Cheza’s heart, I blacked out for a bit and when I woke up, my head was in Cheza’s lap and she was crying. I tried to say something, but I was unable to and I couldn’t make any move besides raising my arm at the elbow so I was unable to comfort her. Then Airi reminded me that the ring was still in my pocket and that I should give it to her because it was now or never. So I held it up for Cheza to take and she said ‘Yes Cole, of course I will,’ then I died,” I explain. Both of the girls are giving me an ‘Aw! That’s so sweet!’ look.
“Alright, and who is the other girl? Natasha?” Tia asks after snapping out of it.
“I’ve been seeing her in my dreams for the past few weeks, usually naked. She is the one that told me that something bad was coming my way,” I tell them.
“Is she the reason Rei stormed out of here a few minutes ago looking really upset?” Sara asks.
“Yeah. In the last dream Natasha was in, I thought I had woken up and when I felt someone next to me, I thought it was Cheza so I told her that she should go back to her own bed. Natasha responded by saying ‘your sister sleeps with you? Huh, that’s interesting.’ And just a few minutes ago, Cheza asked what her relationship to me was and Natasha decided to use that info. After Natasha said we had been naked in bed together and that she was the girl of my dreams, she said ‘and you must be his little sister who likes to crawl into bed with him on occasion!’” I recant.
“Hahaha damn that was a good one!” Tia exclaims around fi
ts of laughter.
“I like this girl, can we keep her?” Tia asks.
“Of course you like her! She’s you!” Sara and I shout.
“Anyway, do you know of any Oracle class operators at The Agency that can contact someone by dream?” Tia asks Sara.
“No, and Carla said that she didn’t know of anyone who had been near the house lately, or even in Arizona,” Sara replies.
“Oracle class operators?” I ask.
“They’re people that can see the future from time to time and operators are The Agency’s name for their field agents,” Tia replies and several moments of silence pass.
“So… while I was dead I spoke with Jason. It seems like he’s alive, sort of, and needs me to go someplace. He said Cheza would know where,” I say. Tia and Sara give each other a look of concern.
“Did he tell you about how his mom is Hel?” Sara asks.
“Yeah, he did,” I reply.
“And you think that it would be a good idea to go to a place that the son of our enemy says to, with no consideration that it may be a trap, especially since Rei is involved?” Sara asks.
“I think it will be fine… probably… I mean, it’s Jason, right? He wouldn’t hurt Cheza,” I say as my mind flashes to what he said about the lots of things I don’t know about. “Okay, how about Cheza just stays here?”
“We aren’t letting you go there alone Cole!” Sara exclaims.
“Fine! I’ll ask Natasha to come!” I say. A mischievous smile slowly moves across Tia’s face. Sara sighs when she sees Tia’s expression.
“I’ll call Carla and ask that Natasha be reassigned. Just remember that you brought this upon yourself,” Sara says wearily and leaves the room.
“I’ll send Cheza in,” Tia says, still smiling as she leaves the room.
Cheza comes into the room a few moments later, sits on the bed, and glares at me.
“Cheza?” I ask. She continues to glare. A residual warning light, from a time when man was not the apex predator, suddenly goes off in my head and is telling me to run or I will be eaten. “Cheza, I know you’re angry with me, but I need to know where Jason told you to go.”
“WHY!? SO YOU CAN RUN OFF WITH BOOBZILLA!?” Cheza screams.
“Boobzilla? Really Cheza? She’s a 32D at most,” I say while trying really hard not to picture Natasha in a bikini, using her bust to knock over an ant farm model of downtown Tokyo.
(Fail)
“OH SO YOU ARE TRYING TO RUN OFF WITH HER!?” Cheza screams.
“I’m just trying to protect you Cheza, in case this is a trap,” I calmly explain.
“YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT ME AT ALL DO YOU!?” Cheza screams.
“Come on, Cheza. You know that isn’t true. You’re just being a little irrational,” I tell her.
“IRRATIONAL!?” Cheza screeches in dolphin.
(Double Fail)
That was a mistake. I don’t think I have ever seen Cheza this angry.
“TIA? COULD YOU PLEASE COME IN HERE? TIA!” I shout hoping that she gets here before Cheza stabs me and Tia walks in a second later. I should have known that she’d be right outside the door.
“Could you please help me convince Cheza to tell me the location?” I plead.
“Chezarei, tell Cole the location,” Tia says.
“NO!” Cheza screeches.
Next thing I know, Shamu will come crashing through the window… or was Shamu the whale?
“Well, I tried!” Tia says while turning on the balls of her feet and walks out the door.
“THAT WASN’T TRYING!” I shout after her. “SARA?”
“I’M STAYING OUT OF IT!” she shouts back.
“Cole, there is nothing you can say that will get me to stay here,” Cheza says in a pitch that is understandable by humans.
I look at her and I know that there’s nothing I can do about it. I guess I’ll just have to protect her again.
“Alright. Let’s go,” I say, resigning myself to defeat.
I’m glad that we are done arguing because I’m tired. The universe decides that it isn’t done fucking me over as Natasha comes bursting through my door.
“Hey sweetie! My boss just told me that I’m taking a paid vacation with my new boy toy! So where are we going?” Natasha asks.
“AHHHH!” Cheza screams and then pounds my chest… and just happens to get one of the recently broken ribs to break again and poke a small hole in my recently popped lung. I simply close my eyes and let it all fade away.
“Cole? Cole, that’s not funny… Cole? COLE!? SARA!” Cheza screams.