Chapter Text
Chapter 6 Nicoleism at its Finest Part I
Time: 7:45 p.m.
Location: Kelly’s House/Living Room
All of us were just standing at Megan baffled by her new voice that just randomly came out of her. “Who….who’s voice was that coming out of your mouth….?” Jecka looked traumatized.
“I….I don’t know…..” Megan stared at Kelly, Karen, Jecka, Ari, Emily, and myself, all flabbergasted in Kelly’s main living room. Megan kept staring at us trying to process everything.
“Was….that the voice you heard in the MS-13 building…?” Megan responded with my question with silence and then a fearful nod…..
“So….this Teresa girl…..how do you know her, Nicole?” Emily asked.
“I was having a giant panic attack and her and that silly dog just came up to me in the mall and talked to me like they knew me….well, us, I have no idea.”
“Do you think Teresa is the cause of all of this? The abuse I’ve been getting from my dad all of these years?” Jecka made kind of an insane assumption.
“There’s no way some random person would CREATE this psychotic commotion for you for YEARS.” Kelly added.
“Even if she did, the better question is why would she even do this.” I said. “She made some weird ass potion soup thing to help Ari get better, why would she just suddenly fuck with our lives?”
“What if they are posing as God or whatever?” Emily asked.
“I….don’t think God would want to become…what? A girl?” Karen was a bit confused.
“What makes you say that?” Ari asked.
“I don’t think she wants to imagine the birth of Jesus again….” That was weird.
“Why would….Yeah, I’m done asking that.”
“Look, what we need to do is find this bitch Teresa, and make her talk….” Jecka made a good idea, but we have another problem.
“Okay, so where the fuck do we find her?” Emily angrily asked.
“Nicole met up with her, so there’s a chance that Nicole can find Teresa again….right?” Jecka questioned herself for a moment.
“Yeah, just let me get my Teresa-phone and pull her over here.” I sarcastically spoke out while walking to Megan and holding her ear softly before I screamed. “HEY TERESA! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE RIGHT NOW!”
“NICOLE! Holy shit!” Megan slapped my hand out of her ear. “You moron. That’s REMOTELY not how things work at all.”
“Can’t you talk to this Teresa person?” Kelly pleaded.
“For the last time, she just TALKS to me whenever she feels like it.” Megan shrugged in annoyance.
“Wait, I have an idea….” Ari walked up to Megan. “Can you help us with any leads on well…anything?.....Please?”
“There’s no way she can just…..” All of us turned to the eight photos of Karen and Jecka going out on their date to the Fair….stacked up like a house of cards on Kelly’s glass table in the living room….
(Music: Reasoning (Another Version) - Persona 4 OST [Extended])
Jecka walked up to the photos stacked up and took one of them, causing the photos to fall down. “Okay, this….Teresa girl is literally the cause of ALL OF THIS. My weird ass armor showing up and killing the MS-13 people, that random soup she gave to Nicole for Ari, Emily’s interest of guns, Ari sneezing FUCKING FIRE, Megan eating a fucking car…..ALL of crap has to lead back to her….Meaning she had to cause all of this shitty stuff going on in our lives. She’s literally turned everyone in this town to be a creepy pedophile and even turn my family into abusive spitfucks….So I say we find this Teresa and hunt her the fuck down.”
All of us looked into each other in pure confusion, especially because we don’t even know if this Teresa person is behind everything or even wanted to pick on specifically Jecka. “Okay, Jecka….” I walked up to Jecka slowly. “I need you to slow WAY THE FUCK down. There is no way that Teresa would intervene in your life just to purposely fuck you over.”
“Nicole’s right.” Megan stood beside me. “And how would Teresa want to mess with us if she helped us get Ari back up in running?”
“Other than that strange soup…..she could have poisoned me……” Ari admitted.
“You do make a good point about my sudden interest in guns. Heck, I wasn’t expecting to hang out with all of you at all about this….” Emily seemed conflicted.
“I also wanted to admit something….” All of us turned to a confused Ari. “I’ve been seeing visions….of my house getting on fire….I don’t know how….”
Ari is now seeing events that never happened as well?
“I think we are getting extremely off track.” Karen intervened. “I feel like we need to figure out who took out the pictures BEFORE dealing with this Teresa person…..I feel like this person is helping us out more than anything. Why would she make us come here for a grand purpose? Or why would she make Jecka have a terrible life in this one?”
“I’m with Karen on this one.” Kelly walked up to Karen. “If we figure out who took those pictures….then we can deal with your father AND Teresa.”
“See? Everyone is in agreement.” I smiled.
“One problem, dumbass.” Jecka glared at me. “How are we supposed to find who took these photos?” Jecka picked up one of the photos to where Karen walked up and snatched the photo out of Jecka’s hand. “Well, excuse you.”
“Wait….these photographs…..” Karen looked at them in painstaking detail for over 10 minutes. She sat down near the living room table writing on the backs with stuff like ‘extremely localized’, ‘high resolution’, and even some kind of coordinates or something. Multiple coordinates. “So….after looking at the photos….this has to be a specialized Canon camera….we have a newspaper group at our school, but this is a bit extreme just to take pictures of me and Jecka for their own pleasure…..especially with this high grade model camera….they had to use a special kind of DSLR……maybe even a Nikon.”
“Can you reiterate please…?” I was confused by almost everything Karen said.
Karen flipped over a photograph showing me a bunch of numbers on the back. “Look at them….they look more modern and it took some extreme time to do this….And there’s no way ANYONE broke into the Photography room at Lake Braddock….so someone professional had to do this…..Or hell, one gigantic creep….”
“How exactly do you just KNOW what kind of camera is just from the photographs?”
“They have data on them…..The numbers specifically….sometimes you can use the data on the back and pinpoint what kind of cameras they are….this one has to be a special Canon EOS-1D Mark III to be exact….”
“Wait….that’s a kind of camera that the newspaper place my Dad works at…..” Megan pointed out.
“Which is where…?” Ari said.
“Reston, Virginia.”
“That’s about half an hour where we are right now….” Kelly said.
“How do you exactly know where that is?” Ari asked Megan.
“So….Nicole….do you remember that time I told you about that guy who could try and help us…?” Megan awkwardly touched her shoulder.
“This is the bad part isn’t it?”
“It’s my Dad, Nicole….”
“Ohhhhh, is he the guy at the play….?”
“Yeah….he’s the guy at the play…..”
“Okay, I’m a bit lost….” Jecka became unphased at first, but then her curiosity grew.
“Do you remember that time Hunter cheated on me…?”
“Okay, what about it? He got hung up to dry, so what?” Emily shrugged.
“Yeah, he got hung up alright.” I smirked. “After his fiasco, I hung him by his right leg. He passed out from the blood flowing from his body to his brain not even a minute in the prologue.”
“Then….my Dad stood up and applauded…..he was having a tear cast down his right eye…..” Megan awkwardly groaned.
“OH SHIT. It’s YOUR Dad.” Emily smiled.
So, Megan’s Dad is not the only person who isn’t a big fan of guys….specifically the ones who date his own daughter. Now ever since that prank I pulled on him….Megan’s Dad is an absolutely BIG fan of mine…..He considers me….. ‘The second daughter I could have…..’I hate to say it, but he’s kind of the ONLY adult we can trust besides my mom.
“Alright, so let’s go over to your Dad’s workplace tomorrow and….” I tried to finish my sentence, but Jecka turned me around and made me stare at her.
“Nice try. Regardless of you trying to play Sherlock Holmes, we have a LOT of catching up on. Couples Therapy?”
“We can still do it. We have time since you’re staying with Karen.” I reassured her to the point Jecka smiled.
“Good.”
“It works because I think all of us have work tomorrow.” Ari added.
“Agreed. Okay, then after Nicole and Jecka’s therapy, we can meet back here.” Megan commanded.
Date: June 30th, 2009
Time: 10:03 a.m.
Location: Old Counselor’s Office
I finally caved into my Mom and Jecka’s demands and went to Therapy….Couples Therapy…..With Jecka…. Granted it’s free so I can’t bitch too much. Although, I never expected Principal Lynn to be in the old counselor’s chair. For those who are wondering, he finally got canned by some higher ups and Principal Lynn was forced to fire him, or risk getting the entire school staff fired. So, of course, Bitch Lynn fired him. Good.
Now, Jecka and I are sitting in front of our Principal….great….I didn’t even care about what to wear and got my white hoodie, blue shirt with a black heart on it along with some jeans with holes.
“Girls, I’m extremely proud of you for doing this. Not because Nicole has some major issues, but when your mother told me the situation. I figured I could get some professional help.” I was expecting her to be in her Principal’s outfit, but instead she was super casual with our school t-shirt and some khaki pants.
“Uh, Principal Lynn, aren’t you supposed to be our Therapist? That’s why it’s free right?” Jecka crossed her legs in her seat. She tried to dress up in her black jacket and white shirt combo with holey jeans, but….yeah, she kind of looks nice.
“Because I’m actually not going to be your therapist for the next couple of weeks. That will be my intern and, hopefully, new counselor this upcoming school year.”
“Great, you got another pedophile to get hired. It’s like Family Matters except everyone is whitewashed beyond redemption.” I rolled my eyes.
“Nice try, but I’m not going to be dealing with your attitude this time. My intern surprisingly knows what she’s doing.” Principal Lynn…..wait, it’s a woman.
“Fuck, it’s that racist hag, Ms. Ames, isn’t it?” Jecka glared at Principal Lynn.
Principal Lynn sighed. “Girls, this is an extremely fresh face. Granted they are five minutes late….but that doesn’t mean….” She was interrupted by the door handle shaking. “That must be her. I forgot to give her a key.” Dumb ass went up and unlocked the door for….. “This is who will be your therapist for the next couple of weeks.”
No fucking way….
Jecka and I turned around to someone who looked exactly like that Teresa girl I saw earlier…..but looked much….much….older……and……yeah……I wish she came to my school earlier…..She had short, but flowing hair….the same glasses like you would see that secretary you WANT to cheat on with at work, odd white lab jacket with a red and light blue checkered shirt, pure white skin that made her look like a goddess; she was wearing these black shorts that revealed a bit of her knee and some brown loafer shoes. She was staring at us with a beautiful smile that I’ll be blunt….Jecka and I couldn’t keep our eyes off of. She turned back around and accidentally fell flat on her face catching us all off guard. She fixed her composure and walked in an awkward fashion to the counselor’s desk.
“Sorry about that….I just got out of bed.” She was rubbing her head a little anxious to see us, but she REALLY sounded like Teresa only a bit higher pitch.
“Um….This is your therapist….Terri Williams. Now, I want you girls to be on your best behavior.” Principal Lynn retorted.
“Yeah, I’m about to show her my best behavior alright.” I said, staring at Terri, who was a bit bewildered at my comment.
“What the FUCK is that supposed to mean?” Jecka glared at me.
“Girls, please. I know you girls have some animosity between each other, but I’m here to turn something toxic into something beautiful. I’ll take care of it from here, Ms. Lynn.” Terri responded to Lynn.
“God help me…..” Principal Lynn left, closing the door.
“Okay, since this is our first meeting, let us perform some introductions.” Terri coughed. “Hello, I am Terri Williams. I’m 29 years of age. Going on thirty in March, yay. I have a Master’s in Psychology and Counseling Psychology and I graduated from Virginia Tech. I wanted to become a Counselor because….”
“Hold on….you’re an Intern with a Master’s?” I interrupted her.
“A girl can dream, damn it. Would you like to go next or your girlfriend?”
“I’m Nicole Sanderson, currently I work at Domino’s and I’m heading to UCLA this Fall.”
“Great. Now, your girlfriend.” Terri gestured to Jecka.
“I’m Jecka Peterson. I graduated as a Valedictorian and I’m going to be going to UCLA in the future as well.”
“Uh…..I thought you were going to Virginia Tech?”
“No, I transferred.”
“And you just didn’t want to tell me?”
“Am I supposed to tell you, Nicole?”
“If I’m your girlfriend, and you’re going to MY school. Absolutely.” I glared at her.
“Just like how you fucked over my life?”
“Jecka, you are ABSOLUTELY all over the place. First, you are blaming your home life for something I NEVER had any interaction with then blaming someone else for your problems.”
“Because half of the time that someone is YOUR fault!” Jecka screamed out.
“Okay! Girls. I am starting to believe you girls have some hidden tribulations with each other. More importantly, it’s been extremely built up….which is incredibly unhealthy. What I propose is finding the SOURCE of this solution. What I want to do is talk about this in a peaceful, COMMUNICATIVE manner. I would like to figure out how and why this started between you girls.”
“Nicole definitely doesn’t want to talk about it.” Jecka crossed her arms.
Actually…..
“No….I want to talk about this. Jecka, you were agitated about it at one point as well. If it helps you feel better, then I’ll explain everything.”
“Wait….you are actually going to explain everything?”
“Everything…” I told her.
“Uh….maybe try to leave out the important details….Nicole…” Terri grew slightly concerned.
“Alright. A while ago, Jecka brought up… ‘that’ night. Ever since we had that happen at Kylar’s party…we never discussed it again. We went to Kylar’s together and I wasn’t going to think it was going to be ANY fun. Until I saw Jecka absolutely buzzed and starstruck. So….I decided to keep her company….and take a few sips as well….”
“Then I decided….Hey, Nicoleeeee, let’s go to the back. You’re my best friend and I REALLY need you….” Jecka said in a slurred voice.
“So….yeah, we did….and then we did some stuff…..Then we made out and then….”
“STOP!” Terri held out her hand catching us off guard. “Before I get a bit more uncomfortable with details…..I’m going to assume what you two had….was a fling….?”
“No, we were dating and STILL are.” Jecka said.
“But now Jecka is literally going around kissing other people. She literally made out with Karen the other day and then came back to me….”
“You went on a date with Megan!”
“Because I thought we were through!”
“GIRLS!” Terri’s voice echoed out in the room causing our bickering to cease and sigh within that order. “You two clearly don’t know where you stand with each other on dating….and it seems like this has caused some disorderly functions in your relationship. However….Jecka, I noticed you were twitching after every time you yelled at her. Like something is straining you….”
“Because this all leads back to Nicole…..the abuse from my Dad….the shit that’s been going on at school….Nicole ALWAYS wants to be a detriment because of her self-absorption. Nicole ALWAYS wants to destroy everything and EVERYONE around her.”
“I don’t want to do that anymore….” I tried to talk to Jecka, but she was still staring at Terri. “I want to fix EVERYTHING. That's why I've agreed to this….. Jecka, I love you…..It’s just….hard to do because everyone is just…..sucks. Everyone is horrible in their own way.”
“You’re absolutely correct, Nicole. Everyone wants to be horrible in their own way. But we, as human beings, must try to steer ourselves in the correct direction. Yelling at each other is NOT the correct direction.” Terri walked on the desk and crossed her legs. “Yelling and screaming at one another, of course, creates tension and more importantly harms others…..If you two can remember so much about each other, then there’s a part of it that loves one another.”
“So…what do you recommend?” I asked her. Terri then gave us two pieces of paper and set out a jar that said ‘decorative jar’.
“I want you girls to write down the best redeeming qualities about your significant other. Something that really makes you feel like it helps you understand them. Do you think you two can do that? It can be just a few things. It can just be a compliment. Just try to get as much as you can in two minutes.”
Jecka and I just started to write as much as we could for the time being. After every idea or compliment, we just threw it in the jar just not staring at each other. A couple of minutes later, we were done looking at the overflowed decorative jar. “Okay, great job girls. That was pretty easy for you….” Terri then pulled out a piece of crumpled up paper from the jar. “First one says: I’ve always liked how Nicole’s never afraid to speak her mind….” Then she grabbed another one. “Then this one says…..I always….like how Jecka gives me her percocets from Emily one time…..what?”
“I really thought it was awesome. What? Shoot me…”
“No, Nicole, I’m not doing that…..Next one says…..I really want to do…..” Terri’s face changed like she almost died. “Oh my God….why did you write that about me….”
“I can’t help it.” I stared at her.
“Nicole, what the FUCK did you write??” Jecka glared at me.
“I’m an adult now. I can DEFINITELY say that.”
“I’m fucking married!” Terri screamed out.
Jecka committed a heavy sigh. “Okay, look. This is getting us nowhere. Nicole….you really want me to trust you again?”
“Yes.” Jecka’s face was shocked by how serious I looked.
“Alright….I want a birthday present from you….Anything. As long as it’s not….you know, anything horrible."
“Okay, I’ll get you something you’ll absolutely love.”
“You are scaring me with that look…”
“Jecka, I just want you to trust me again…..Please….give me one shot….”
Jecka held out a sigh. “Okay….you win…..I love you, too, Nicole.” Jecka crossed her arms. Suddenly, we heard a hearty laugh from Terri as she held her hand beside her chin.
“Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! 𝅘𝅥 𝅘𝅥 𝅘𝅥 𝅘𝅥” Terri cackled to herself as Jecka and I stared at her. “You girls are connecting and I love it!! I’m glad you girls are finally seeing how noble your hearts are.”
“What the fuck are you talking about…?”
Her cackle….it was kind of the same as that Teresa girl….Yeah, no shit she looks like Teresa, but the cackle….really is on point to Teresa’s laugh…..
“Ignore Nicole. Ms. Terri, was it? Can we leave now? I have to go to work soon.” Jecka interrupted my thought process.
“Of course! You girls are welcome back at any time! Even after office hours!” Terri waved off as I grabbed Jecka’s hand softly and walked out of the room. Outside of the counselor office and in the hallway, I decided to talk to her.
“Okay, we GOT to talk.”
“Nicole, if we are going to pretend to love each other. You aren’t allowed to fuck the counselor.”
“There’s a difference between wanting to fuck her and thinking she’s hot. Look, she looks EXACTLY like the Teresa girl I saw earlier.”
“The girl who randomly helped out with the soup or whatever she gave Ari?”
“Yes! Why would she show up in two places at once?”
“I don’t know, Nicole. I kind of want to take a break from the entire ‘Teresa and My Dad Investigation’.”
“It’s more of your Dad.”
“Exactly. So I’m just going to go to work and just…..get away from it all. Can I do that?” Jecka glared at me.
“You deserve a break. Can you at least take me to Kelly’s?”
Jecka sighed. “Okay, fine, come with me, girlfriend….”
Time: 12:00 P.M.
Location: Duller Access Road Freeway, Near Hutchinson, Virginia
Distance away from Primary Location: Under 10 Miles
After that weird Therapy session, Kelly, Emily, Megan, Ari, Karen and I traveled to the Fairfax County Times to try and meet Megan’s dad. Megan was driving Kelly’s Mazda 2007 Minivan since she knew the way best. Emily was staring out the window in the middle left seat, Kelly was listening to her Ipod in the middle right, Karen was up front with Megan talking to her about something which I couldn’t tell because Ari and I were in the far back. Ari was resting on my shoulder after dealing with a lot of hectic shifts on the side. I didn’t mind, but as we overlooked the city on the highway, I was lost in thought about the Therapy session.
I don’t mean ‘What the fuck am I going to get Jecka?’ but more of….who the hell was that person? This Terri person literally looked exactly like Teresa, the hair, but shorter; the laugh, that she just somehow had an answer for what I needed. “Your Girlfriend”, how she got happy every time when something GOOD or some progress was made…..and that cackle…….More importantly….
She didn’t even wince at the fact Jecka was being abused….Did she misread that…..or was that an intentional clue….?
“Alright, guys, we’re here!!” Megan stopped the car at……
“All Go Rhythms Bar & Restaurant?” Kelly stared at the sign while looking at Megan with an angry look.
“Why on earth are we here?” Karen asked.
“I really want to get some……food…..” Megan walked out of the car staring at an entire line of parked motorcycles. Harley Davidson motorcycles……
Some of them looked brand new with the sun glaring down on the paint while some looked a bit older as if someone owned them for a while, but that means it’s absolutely packed in here……There were a few people at the entrance with a few velvet passing ropes on the side of glass doors. I got a feeling it's going to be more packed inside because of the slightly loud music and cheers, maybe a commercial playing or a game going on….
Megan just kept looking at the bikes until I got out of the car and intervened. “No….”
“Nicole, I get what you are saying, but….”
“You REALLY want to tell your own FATHER that YOU ATE MOTORCYCLES FOR LUNCH.”
“He doesn’t have to know. I can stop whenever I want.” I can’t believe Megan is saying this to me in a fucking parking lot.
“I’m kind of with Megan on this one. I’m a little hungry and we drove for forty minutes.” Karen agreed.
“Yeah, Karen, I thought we would be in RESTON not Sterling?” Ari got out of the car and walked to Karen.
“Okay, when I looked it up, for some reason their Homepage said they are in Reston, but Google says they are in Sterling, Virginia.”
“That’s Craigslist ad level weird.”Emily commented. “Fuck it, Megan. Let’s go inside.”
“It’s scary how you and I agree for once.” Megan walked with Emily. “Now someone is gonna draw ship art of us.”
“That’s true….wait, what?” Emily and Megan now went inside.
“Yeah, screw it, I’m hungry now.” Ari left with Karen and I just said fuck it and walked inside with Kelly,
As the seven of us walked in, we entered a small dark hallway with blue LED lights above us shrouded with echoes of music then came face to face with a giant pink heart filled with pink and white roses at the end of the hallway. The actual bar was gigantic with so much going on with it’s disco fever aesthetic. They had an abnormally large dance floor with checkered blue and black tiles with a few people dancing on it, even a drunk guy with a beer bottle in his hand awkwardly staring at me and my group.Above the dance floor was a chandelier with a bunch of square colored lights that literally looked like the Wheel of Fortune wheel. On the left and right sides of the bar were about six table booths with red cushion seats and tables. The music was loud, but it was overshadowed by how there were twelve bikers with blue jean jackets at the service bar, filling up all of the checkered bar stools over at the bar. They were hooping and hollering at the two mounted TVs above the mixing area for some of their favorite teams in baseball, the white man’s exaggerated sport. The female bartender looked disgusted at all of them as there seemed to be multiple grills going off at once.
“Good afternoon.” A young blonde waitress wearing casual clothes along with a service apron with a bunch of pockets.
“Afternoon, can we get a booth for six people?” Karen asked.
“Sure. Follow me.” The waitress walked us over to our booth table on the right side close to the dance floor. I sat beside Karen and Ari while Ari, Megan and Kelly sat together. “Do you girls want anything to drink specifically?” All of us unanimously agreed to drink Coke as the woman nicely handed us the menus. For a minute, a lot of us kind of just stood at the prices on the menu.
“Dumpling Dance….” Ari awkwardly read off.
“The Lamp Chop Lullaby?” Kelly was going to keep reading but stopped at the prices with a shocked look. “$25 with no fucking sides?”
“It’s lamb, of course, it’s going to be stupid high.” Megan groaned.
Emily slammed down her menu. “I might as well eat at the fucking diner, this is bullshit.”
“I’ll be right back, I’m going to use the bathroom. Just see if there’s a pizza or something.” Megan asked Ari and Kelly to get up to get out of the booth and find the bathroom.
“That’s a good idea. How big are the pizzas?” I tried to look at the menu. “Let’s just get a regular Pepperoni & Cheese pizza. How does that sound?”
“Fuck it, why not.” Ari agreed along with everyone else. “I’m ready to get out of here.”
“Megan went to the bathroom right?” Karen said.
“Yeah, it’s over there right?” I pointed behind us.
“She…went through the exit.” All of us looked at Karen.
“Maybe she forgot something out of the car?” Emily suggested.
“True.” I heard footsteps right beside me. “Okay, we’re ready to…..” I looked up from my seat to see a skinny, but slightly buff dude but he had a bald head. White skin and had a couple of tattoos on his face. He had this blue jean jacket on him signaling he was with the random
“Yo.”
“Uh…..” All of us looked at him in pure suspicion. “Hey…..”
“You want to join me at that pool table over there?” He pointed at this random pool table at the corner of the bar with a couple of pool cues on the pool table. “Just one game.” I looked at the girls then I noticed a few of the bikers at the service table staring at ME specifically. I already didn’t want to be here, but I REALLY didn’t want my friends to be involved with any of this. Especially because I noticed there was a giant bowie knife just sitting in the guy’s right boot.
“You know what, sure.” I stared at him. “One game.”
“Awesome, follow me.”
The awkward biker dude grabbed two pool cues and handed me one of them then grabbed a triangle rack and set up all of the balls. “You want to go first?” He kept staring up and down at my pants with my white hoodie and blue shirt with a black heart on it. Yeah, I went ahead and changed clothes at Kelly’s earlier. I just rolled my eyes at him because yeah, I already knew what he wanted.
“Sure, I’ll fucking go dude.” I proceeded to take a shot and already get three colored balls in three different corners. “Colors. Your move.”
“Damn, you really know what you are doing.”
“I could say the same for you.”
“Want to make a bet?”
“I get cash, right?”
“Sure, but I get something else in return.” Yeah, this guy is stupid.
“Deal.” I continued my turn by shooting and getting all of my colored billiards in the holes including the eight ball last. “I win.”
“Holy shit…..No, wait….”
“Alright, pay up.”
“Rematch!” The guy yelled out while slapping down twenty bucks on the table.
After about twenty ‘rematches’, the girls at my table stared at me with their pizza just watching a giant stack of cash, it’s probably at least 500 bucks worth of shit. This game was the one that actually gave me ‘trouble’ as there were two of my striped balls with only one of his colored balls. He just gave me a smirk with a shit ton of sweat acting like he actually had this. “Well, Well, Well, Well….it looks like you almost got this, but as you can see….” He points to his colored 7 ball right beside the black 8 ball near the right bottom corner of the pool table. “I almost got it in the bag.”
My 14 and 11 balls were on two opposing walls of the pool table, so this was going to be somewhat of a challenge. So I aimed while I felt…. “What the fuck was that?”
“Nothing.” He just tried to look away watching the TV as I bent over and took aim. I stared at the 11 ball and took a deep breath before giving a giant shot as it bounced off the 11 and hitting the 14 straight past his 7 ball, sinking the 8 ball and winning me my 21st game.
“Thanks for the free wins, dipshit.” I grabbed my money and started counting it. “Seriously, 600 bucks? That’s how much you were gonna spend on me? You are that desperate to pick up a just fresh 18 year old…..You really are that…..” I saw a knife stab down on the table. “Pathethic.”
“Alright man, I’m getting my fresh cut. All of my buddies got some lady with them, today is the day, I’m NOT going empty handed because you want to be a cheater.”
“How the fuck would I even cheat exactly? Your dumbass just got outclassed and outsmarted.”
The guy immediately grabbed my face and started to get in all in my personal bubble screaming at me. “You cheated because YOU knew you’d beat me making that bet!”
“Are you fucking nuts?” I screamed out. “You made the bet and literally walked up to me!”
“You dirty slut! I'm gonna end you here!” The guy tried to stab me, but I caught the knife in the middle and just stared at him in a bloodfilled rage….and snapped the blade in half with my bare right hand…..well, I thought it was bare…..but my arms were covered in these pure white gauntlets. He backed away and tried to wave his hands at me signaling his surrender. “H….Hey now….Let’s not get…..”
I lunged at him with a gigantic right kick to his skull and caused a ton of cracks and tears from his head that he just collapsed to the floor. The music stopped causing everyone in the bar to look at me with the fear of God. Some skanky waiter walked up to me and put his left hand on my shoulder. “Hey…that was a bit unnecessary….” I clapped him with a giant backhand with my right arm causing blood to immediately fly out of his face and collapse on the floor.
“Will you calm down, sweetie? Maybe-” I kicked another drunk with a beer bottle in his hand.
“Will you sit the fuck-” Another biker guy tried to walk up and talk to me, but I decked him with a giant right hook in his face breaking his nose.
“Get him!”
“Grab her and beat the shit out of her!”
“Beat her until she breaks!”
Multiple bikers got up from their seats and bar stools with a random bat, knife, or hammer they just pulled out as they tried to run up and attack me. Even a few of them came from the bar entrance to try and rush me. Thirty of them were in a frenzy to kill me as they were trying to come after me……
All I could do was give one word to these fuckers…..
“TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA, TOMA, TOMA, TOMA, TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA ! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA! TOMA!” I kept shouting as I rapidly punched every one, everything I could I could see in sight except my friends, sitting in their seats with their mouths agape as the wind rushed their hair from the velocity I threw my fists at everything. Chandeliers were slowly being ripped, bones were being crushed from the punches I cemented in, and a lot of property damage was being made….
“Hey, guys, is it me or is it really….cool….in….here….?” Megan was chewing with something in her mouth as she walked back into the bar with my friends….or what’s left of it….
“I’M THE IMMORTAL NICOLE SANDERSON, MOTHER FUCKERS!!!! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Not even a few minutes later, the TVs were destroyed….the female bartender didn’t know what to do staring at me, heavily breathing….bodies of the dancers….except the female ones……the bikers…..and the property…..all of it was broken and groaning…..some were twitching with electricity……but a lot of the bar was heavily damaged. The dance floor had tiles missing, the chairs were broken…..the chandelier and the bar had gigantic chunks missing; one guy was trying to get up, but the last bit of the chandelier fell on him and cracked on his head making him go unconscious again.
“Uh….Nicole….” Karen walked up to me.
“What?” I told her.
“Are you….okay?” Emily looked a bit shocked…..Pun intended.
“Yeah, I just had a minor disagreement with him.”
“This is NOT minor….” Megan pointed out to the broken TV that fell and caused the bartender to scream out. “Okay, that makes it worse….” Then I noticed she had….some kind of black stuff on her face…..black leather…..I immediately picked it from her face. “Oh shit….”
“Megan….what were you doing outside?”
“I mean…it’s nothing compared to….”
“Megan…take me outside right now……Or else….” All of us heard Kelly outside screaming as we rushed outside immediately to go check on her.
“No….No freaking way….” Kelly was staring at the parking lot that originally had all of the motorcycles that those goons had…..Now there’s only two of them left…..
“MEGAN!!!” All of us yelled out.
“I’m sorry! I was hungry!!!”
“We need to get the fuck out of here now!” I pulled Megan to the van and immediately jumped in the front seat. “GUYS, COME THE FUCK ON!” I screamed out while turning on the car. Everyone jumped in the car before I hit the accelerator and screeched out of the parking lot.
“Okay…we all fucked up on that part.” I said out loud.
“YOU DESTROYED AN ENTIRE BAR, NICOLE!” Ari screamed at me from the back seat.
“And Megan ate more vehicles….All I can say is…..good job, team…..”
“Nicole, you’re a really shitty leader…..” Kelly facepalmed.
Location: Fairfax County Times Newspaper HQ
Time: 1 P.M.
After that gigantic commotion, we were finally at this newspaper place Megan talked about earlier. Although, I was expecting it to be just a single building. As we were in the spacious parking lot, we just saw a two floor building. The first floor had a bunch of signs like Gentle Dental Care and Nationwide on the left side and Eye Unique on the right side with giant glass doors in front of our group.
“Megan….” I walked on the hard sidewalk. “You said your dad works here. Not be a Cowboy Viking Dentist Orthodontist Astronaut.”
Megan sighed. “You dumbass, that’s for this floor. The next one up is where he works.” Megan walked to the entrance.
“I’ve always wondered what Megan’s dad is like. She rarely brings the topic up at school.” Kelly smiled.
“Kelly, would you really want to bring up your dad after the fact that he was the only person who clapped for someone who passed out after so much blood rushed to their head from being hanged upside down? While nearly shedding tears of joy demanding ‘Encore!’ ?”
“You make a good point…..” Kelly groaned.
The six of us walked on a flight of stairs to the second floor, leading us to a small room with someone behind a long wooden desk typing something on an oldish computer, then stopped typing and writing on two different notebooks. The room had a bland green wallpaper with a bunch of metal foldable chairs on the sides of what seemed to be the Lobby. The worker was sitting beside two large wooden doors, which is what i’m assuming is the floor of Fairfax County Times.
“There’s a guy right there. You think he’s the security guard?” I whispered to Megan.
“We could just try to go inside…?” Ari glared at me.
“You know, I can hear you girls.” The man with a nasally voice echoed in the room. “The rooms echo so loud, you can hear your own whispers.” The man was in a casual red polo with red khakis with brown pants. He had somewhat dirty straight brown hair and didn’t seem too focused on us unless we had major business. “Can I help you girls?”
“I’m here to see my Dad. Can you let him know that we are here to talk to him?” Megan asked the desk worker.
“You know, I actually remember Mr. Welch mentioned him having a daughter multiple times, but I never saw her daughter. I’m going to contact him.” The guy pressed a button on his dialing system and waited for a couple of rings.
“What?” The man on the phone grunted with the speaker being set on. He had a deepish voice, but it sounded like he had something caught in his throat trying to be fixed and ready for the fifth level of puberty.
“There are a bunch of girls here to see you…..One with ripped clothes, one with too much fashion, one with a strict attitude…….Then there’s….”
“I already have enough meetings as it is. Come back and call me when there’s someone else that’s actually import…..”
“Dad….it’s me.” Megan shouted. “We need your help with something, and it’s about my friends….”
“Yeah, dude. Seriously, I’m ready to go home after driving a long way and get something for my girlfriend…So if you can just….”
“Megan???? And the other sweet girl, too????” The man on the phone got extremely excited for a moment.
“I thought you were in a meeting, sir? So if you need them to leave…..” The man tried to talk on his speaker before
“GET THE FUCK OUT! ALL OF YOU! GET OUT OF MY OFFICE! CLEAN YOUR SHIT ON YOUR WAY OUT! I HAVE IMPORTANT PEOPLE TO SEE! IF YOU NEED MORE NEWS LOOK UP MYSPACE OR SOME SHIT, I DON’T KNOW! LOOK ON FACEBOOK!” The man screamed so loud I thought the desk worker’s phone was going to break or something. After a small moment of silence and a giant slam from a door, he spoke out again. “Send them straight to my office, please. Immediately.”
“A spot has been opened up to you girls. You can proceed into the main room, please.” The desk worker gestured us to the big double doors. As I walked through the doors, the eerie silence from the lobby changed from what seemed like a gigantic police station
Music: Dragon Quest VIII - Chatting (Extended))
People were on telephones modern and old talking about different subjects while others were in a frenzy dropping a few papers near the glass windows. If anything, as we walked throughout the newspaper office, we saw a couple of police officers talking to younger reporters there. They had to be asking about the eaten vehicles awhile ago or worse…..the burning building a month ago….so our best bet was to clear away from them. It was interesting to see a bunch of ethnic groups working in this kind of place, Indian, Hispanic, Saudi Arabians, and even people of color were here….and I mean A LOT…..I’d say about 30% of the people we saw were white. The positive atmosphere was filled with tons of people talking at their desk where Karen just randomly held my hand as I walked…..I guess she was afraid that I was about to get a panic attack again.
We made it to Megan’s Dad’s office, which was a bit smaller compared to the workfloor. He had a long L shaped desk with piles and piles of paperwork in bins labeled, In and Out. Megan’s Dad was looking out of the window with a cellphone in his hand wearing some kind of blue vest on some kind of light brown long sleeve shirt with brown dress pants. “I told you, I have another meeting now, I want it pushed to tomorrow.” He turned around revealing his stern face with black shades and had a bit of white streaks in his hair. He oddly enough looked like the newspaper guy from that Spider- man movie. He finished his phone call and put it on his giant desk. His light brown walls were filled to the brim full of bulletins, sticky notes of what to do for each day, and old newspapers from the town we’re in now and even from Burke.
“Dad, I thought you were done with your meetings.”
“I’m at the most important one though.” Megan’s Dad hugged me and Megan extremely fucking tight as Kelly, Emily, Karen and Ari were a bit embarassed. “My little girl and my second favorite daughter.”
“Uh…. Sorry, how the fuck am I your ‘second daughter’?” I wanted to get out of the hug really fucking bad.
Megan’s dad let go of us and just sighed. “Because you girls want to help protect my daughter and she lives in a positive environment and I can’t help, but to be so happy that she's away from…..” Megan’s Dad had a major face change to like he had someone scratch his car. “MEN! Except those of different minorities that wish to make their life and others’ better, of course.”
“What about those who recently went to jail and/or prison and those who wish to become a better person after being released?” What the fuck, Kelly?
“Uhhhhh….yeah, they get a pass as well.” He then sat at his desk in front of one of his bulletin boards. “How can I help you girls? Some of you I don’t think I’ve seen before.”
“Uh, I’m Emily Mendez….”
“Kelly Johnson, I work for the FYE branch in Burke; I’m the Store Manager.”
“Doesn’t that ungrateful porky pig of a Coach go to your store a lot?” Megan’s dad asked.
“Yeah, too much though.”
“I’m Ari Robinson, I just work at the local Domino’s with Nicole here, and I’m her boss.” Yeah, she’s bossy alright.
“I’m Karen Rhodes, I’m a part-time Security Guard.”
“Wait….THE Karen Rhodes? The one who busted that robbery at the Burke FYE?”
“Why am I ‘The’ Karen Rhodes suddenly?”
“You were in the paper I personally wrote a while ago. I wanted a story and I asked the head of the Mall to get a picture for you on my front page.”
“I….made the front page?” Karen along with all of us was extremely confused. Megan’s dad went to a random drawer on his left and pulled out a big newspaper with Karen smiling in her security outfit with the water fountain in the background. “Ohhhh, so that’s why I was asked to have my photo be taken.”
“Karen Rhodes: Mall Cop….?” I read the headliner outloud in confusion.
“With the FYE company addressing the robbery, I had to make a story about this because Burke needed to be reminded of positive role models. With this story released, I had HUNDREDS of people want to buy the local paper from out of the county. This is why I love doing what I do. You get people wanting to gangbang in the streets, but there are those that want to promote safety. That’s what the media SHOULD be promoting.”
“Dad, not this again.” Megan groaned.
“Honey, I want to do this for you. For us. This is why I love this job so much. Finding the negative such as a robbery or even a shooting is much easier because it just pulls the bad part at ya. But finding the positive is much harder, but when you find it…It’s an absolute fucking gold mine!”
“Uh….Mr. Welch, yo hey. It’s nice to get a biography of your life.” I interrupted him. “But we need your help…especialy regarding photos.”
“What do you mean by photos?” Megan’s Dad was confused. Karen set out the proof by slamming down the photos of herself and Jecka together at the fair. Even the ones on the Ferris Wheel and the two kissing. He was absolutely baffled by the amount of photos, which he didn’t know about at all at first. “What….the absolute HELL is this?”
“The photos were taken by a camera model used by one of your reporters, right?” Karen seemed a bit stern as well.
“Yeah, but I would never make ANY of my reporters do this kind of shit. EVER! This is absolutely illegal! This is-” Megan’s Dad stopped to look at the Ferris Wheel photo again. “Wait a minute…..I’ve seen this before…..THAT BOY!!!” Megan’s Dad slammed down both of his fists on the table spilling over a bottle of water. “I told him that if he MADE ANY MORE COPIES OF THIS-!”
“Wait…what do you mean HIM?” Ari asked.
“I had a young boy about your age…..slouched and furious….for WHATEVER reason, he wanted to come here to try and SELL these exact photos here…” Megan’s Dad pointed down furiously on the photos.
“What did he look like…?” Karen asked.
“Some boy with dirty hair….glasses…..a silly video game shirt….extremely whiny voice…..I never wanted to threaten someone to break their legs like that in my entire life….”
“Holy fuck, Jeffery did it!” I blurted out.
“I fucking knew that little shit had an involvement in this!” Emily screamed out.
“You know that horrible little shit?” Megan’s Dad glared at all of us.
“He’s the one who sent photos to my girlfriend’s house, Jecka, then we all found out she got abused by her father, so we all want to get to the bottom of this and…..”
“Wait…..If we beat the shit out of him….can WE get paid?” My question caused Megan to face palm herself, then Megan’s Dad just laughed hysterically.
“Wait….you’re serious?” Megan’s Dad responded.
“Look…..We need to save Jecka from her Dad…..ever since that night at her Dad’s we NEEDED to get her out of her house.
Megan’s Dad sighed heavily and looked at his desk. “Jecka…..Jecka Peterson I presume, right…?”
“We’re trying to get Jecka’s dad exposed and send his sorry ass to jail!” Kelly mentioned.
“As….Am I…..”
“Dad…..” Megan intervened.
“I understand….but they have traveled a long way just like yourself…..and you must understand WHO exactly you are dealing with here….” Megan’s Dad walked up to all of the window shades and fixed them to where it wasn’t revealing the outside world. He even walked up behind us and pulled down the shades that used to reveal the office floor. Now, all of us were in a room with a conflicted, old man. But his face changed after he pulled down some projector screen, but instead of it being blank……It revealed hundreds of notes related to just anything with the word ‘Peterson’. And don’t even get me started on the photos that were there.
There were pictures of Jecka’s Dad, and what I presume, and her mom but a bit younger…..like high school….Of course he was wearing a football jacket. There were even more photos about how he assaulted a random Saudi Arabian, how he shook hands with random people, how he was hanging out drunk with a random brunette, then just a ton of stick notes about how “This man went to X location” or “This man went to this location on X time….” like he was trying to keep track of this man and his…..accuations? Then there were a LOT of connections to…..
“Mr. White…..?” I pulled off one of the notes pulled from the screen. “The main with possible gigantic links with the KKK?”
“You know, Mr. White…?” Kelly asked.
“I’ve told my Dad about Mr. White….He literally came up to the school three times because of the fact so many teachers just say the N-word with pure malice.”
Megan’s Dad sighed. “I didn’t just know Mr. White….We used to be classmates…..I graduated with all of the people you see in school….well, used to. Mr. White, Coach Colby, Mr. Katz, even Jecka’s parents…..”
“So you know where Jecka’s Mom is right???” I shouted out. “You know where she is right?”
“These photos are the closest thing I’ve ever seen to that Jecka girl in general. I’m sorry, kids.”
So we drove all the way up here for nothing. “Wait, what about all of these? You literally have photos of him being shady and beating up a civilian. You have the evidence we need to bust him behind bars!”
“Nicole, was it? I appreciate your spirit, but that’s the point I’m telling you.” He gestured to every sort of evidence on the screen. “All of it here was used to even try to attempt to get Jecka’s Dad tried and sent to prison, but they didn’t even REMOTELY listen to me….”
“Not even the LITERAL mention of the KKK brought about evidence??” Ari was baffled just as the rest of us.
“Not even…..this…..” Megan’s Dad pulled out a giant newspaper from his desk and slapped it on the table. “I was a literal witness of what went down in Blacksburg……1991….nearly 20 years ago……”
Emily picked up the newspaper and started reading it. “No Black Pride in Blacksburg….? On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday commemoration, more than 30 KKK clan members were preparing a giant rally with a gigantic counterprotest….it took more than 200 protestors to separate the commotion…?”
“Why do you keep something from more than 10 years ago…? Dad….?” Megan started to grow extremely worried.
“Because it wasn’t just any protest…….I was there…….”
“You’re racist????” Ari screamed out.
“No!....” Megan’s Dad groaned. “No…..but I saw Mr. White, Jecka’s Mother and Father at the Rally……more importantly…..that’s not what the news got at all…….”
“So…..what exactly happened?” Kelly asked.
“I was driving outside of Virginia Tech as I taught night classes regarding those who looked towards a Journalism degree…..and I was seeing an extreme amount of smoke coming from a forest….so I decided to just pull over my car and see what the fuss was….To my surprise, the smell was getting stronger and stronger with every step to the point where it was blinding my eyes….until I saw a crowd with white sheets on their bodies…..I saw torches and a giant wooden cross….Then I saw them from the bushes…….Jecka’s father and a female….carrying a black man……Moments later….I heard screaming and crying….I was overwhelmed by the scenery that I just gasped and two members saw me….I ran back to the road and immediately called the police….Luckily, they got there in time…but if they didn’t…..They would have literally crucified an innocent man…..”
All of us didn’t know what to think because now…..the picture was painted clear…..
We REALLY need to get back at Jecka’s Dad…..
“Jecka’s Dad is a white Supremacist????” Kelly screamed out.
“If he’s the same blasted asshole as a while ago, then yes, he might as well be one….”
“Why are there so many racists in Virginia???” Kelly exclaimed.
“Since when do you suddenly care about racism?” Karen was a bit confused at Kelly’s enthusiasm.
“Because racism is just a typical fad that kids our age and even adults want to do BECAUSE they consider it cool; not just because of how people are raised..”
“Kelly, what the FUCK are you talking about?” I asked
“The elongation of segregation in today’s age, Nicole!” Kelly grabbed the newspaper. “Seriously, how often do we have people say ‘wigger’ kids just because they are friends with people not among their race? How many times have we heard Mr. Katz or even Kylar SAY the N-word and be too proud of it?”
“How many times have I heard Nicole say the N-word in class?” Megan joked.
“WHAT? Nicole did what???” Kelly gripped the newspaper and stared at me with bloodlust eyes.
“Wait, no! I was absolutely kidding. The N-word means “No” in my Theater class, I swear!”
“Good..” Kelly backed off for a minute.
“Kelly, what the FUCK is wrong with you?” I glared at Kelly. “I have NEVER seen you be like this before.”
“For over 200 years, people of color have been disrespected, defiled, degraded, and more importantly, disrespected just because of their skin color. I say….we eradicate the world of those who consider slavery a means of an end….a means of their enjoyment and pleasure….a means to just have their world bend to their knees and harass those beyond their weak measure….I say we take care of this once and….”
Megan’s Dad started to sob uncontrollably and cover his eyes trying to hold back his tears after taking off his shades. “Kelly, I think you scared him, what the fuck.” Emily got a little annoyed oddly enough….wait, when the fuck did she care about a guy’s emotions…?
“Dad…..Dad!!” Megan went beside him and hugged him. “Why are you crying?”
“I tried…..I tried to do everything I could that day in Blacksburg…..I couldn’t tell your mother that day about what happened…..I understand why she left me….but I kept everything that day as a secret to protect her….protect you…..Because your mother would have tried to intervene and I just didn’t…..”
“Woah, woah, woah. Slow the FUCK down, Mr. Welch.” I finally made him look at me with his brown eyes. “I get why you’re crying. But you did more enough than you think….I mean, you saved someone’s life and literally made history….isn’t that the story you wanted to tell?”
“I just…..They didn’t tell everything in this paper. How cruel that man has become….”
“Well, you made people be EXTREMELY aware of the KKK, and you saved a life. Things could have been worse and you couldn’t have been here today and Megan could have no father figure in her life. Do you really want that?” Megan’s Dad still kept quiet. “Look, losing someone, it sucks, but think about what they could have done for you if you didn’t think that day. You had a plan. You weren’t even planning to stop to go home, and you made a bigger name for yourself just for looking out for someone. You saved someone’s life just by doing something. You may have lost one thing, but that sacrifice can always lead to something else. Especially the good shit.”
Megan’s Dad wiped his tears. “For a child your age, you are really wise. I hope the world is full of hopeful women like you all today…..” He handed his daughter the newspaper. “I know it’s not much, but…I’m going to dig into this when I can….But now, I’m going to need you girls to go…..People are going to get weird about a man letting his daughter and five other girls into his office. Thank you for coming to me about this….Megan, I love you, sweetie.”
“Oh my gosh, do I have to do it here…?”
“Megan.” His Dad sternly asked.
“Fine…..I love you, too.”
“That’s my favorite daughter.” Megan’s Dad smiled.
Location: Fairfax County Times Newspaper HQ Parking Lot
Time: 2 P.M.
All of us walked back to the car, but Megan and I REALLY needed to talk to Kelly right beside Megan’s van.
“Kelly, you want to tell us what the HELL that was about?” Megan was a bit pissed.
“I can’t help but care about the different races of our planet, okay?”
“Uh, did Martin Luther take over your body or something?” I crossed my arms.
“No, I just got tired of all the white supremacy IN our state, IN our neighborhood, IN our world.”
“Yeah, but did you really have to put an agenda making an ethnostate of racism in front of the HEAD OF THE NEWSPAPER BRANCH THAT LITERALLY GOES OVER EVERYTHING IN VIRGINIA?”
“He was crying for joy! And he said he’d help us out.”
“Megan, you said all of this in FRONT OF MY DAD.” Megan got a bit more agitated.
“Why is this suddenly an issue?” Kelly grunted.
“Because you never even remotely gave a shit about racism until now. Where is this all coming from?”
“Because I don’t want to be part of all of this BULLSHIT again, okay? I got tired of Mr. White creating a fucking White Pride Party just because she thinks one fucking girl is pretty. I became his what….Imperial general or some shit? It was fucking CRINGE where we all beat up this one nerdy person because they joined just to be cool! No, I don’t want to be part of it again! I’m not going to fucking do that.”
Megan and I stared at each other because we had no idea what the fuck she was talking about. “Kelly, what the hell are you on? That never happened at our school.” My response apparently made Kelly look like she saw a ghost.
“What…?”
“We never had that at our school…..” Megan was weirded out.
We all had an awkward pause until Kelly broke the silence. “Look….I’m just gonna call Jeffery so he can come over and we can DEMAND answers from him.” Kelly pulled her phone out of her pocket and went behind the van.
Megan gave me another blank stare. “Nicole….”
“Yeah, I don’t get where that came from either, I’m lost as you are.”
“No…I mean she’s remembering something that never happened….or at least….”
“I thought Kelly was always a racist?” Yeah, I’m getting a bit more lost here.
“Why on earth would you think that?”
“Kelly says the N-word all the time in your class, right?”
“Nicole, there is a big difference between saying No and….that word…..She looks like she says it 1% of the time anyways….”
“Mother fuckers, I’m right here you know….” Kelly glared at us, closing her phone malevolently. Z
Location: Kelly’s House/Living Room
Time: 3:15 p.m.
Jecka was still at work so Emily, Ari, Karen, Megan and myself went all the way back to Kelly’s. Kelly was easily convinced that all of us wanted to do ‘stuff’ with Jeffery and he EASILY said he was coming over. Although, just one problem…
“How the fuck is he coming over?” I shouted. “Jeffery has like no….wait….”
“It’s Jeffery, he’ll probably use his mom’s car or something.” Emily said.
“What kind of car does he drive?” Ari asked.
“Yeah get this…….he drives a Mustang….” Karen wasn’t happy.
“What????” Everyone of us shouted.
“From 1990.”
“Oh, thank God.” I was relieved as hell. “Wait, that dick munch can drive now? Yeah, he’s definitely a pedophile.”
“Actually, yeah, I can see it. He always talks about these anime girls that look young, but they are actually….. ‘A thousand years old’ as he says it.” Ari rolled her eyes.
“Thank you!! Finally someone to have my back on this.”
“No, no one likes Jeffery. At all….especially after what we learned from Megan’s Dad.” Kelly mentioned.
“So what exactly is the plan…?” Emily asked. Afterwards, all of us heard knocking on the door.
“Quick! Hide behind the couch. Karen, stay out with me while I get the door.” Kelly commanded Emily, Ari, Megan and I behind the closest couch out of sight while Kelly and Karen opened the door. Jeffery walked in the town and looked around at Kelly’s mansion, amazed by how fancy her house was.
“Woah, Kelly, your house is huge. I never expected you to be so rich.” Jeffery was excited in his nasally voice. This time he had a red Super Mario t-shirt and blue shorts. “I’m glad I was able to see you two. I just got off work.”
“That’s great. Yeah.” Karen wasn’t too happy and she was confused about everything from the looks of things.
“So….the two of us really wanted to do something with you….” Kelly tried REALLY hard to keep a fake smile going.
“W-w-w-w-w-w-what? Two….Two of us?” Jeffery started to snort randomly. “I’ve…I’ve never done it with two girls before……When do we-?”
Jeffery was then absolutely blindsided by Karen giving Jeffery a giant haymaker punch causing Jeffery to fall to the floor. Jeffery started squealing and crying from the punches Karen was giving him as Kelly just bolted and grabbed some rope beside a table. Everyone behind the couch was baffled as Karen just started to wail on him with all these punches.
“Fuck that, I want a piece of this!” Emily ran from the couch and kicked Jeffery in the side of his ribs causing him to wail in pain.
“You know? I think I’m kind of okay with this.” Megan smiled.
“Yeah, I’m kind of okay if Jeffery just like….Okay, maybe not dying.” Ari was interested, but just gave up half way.
“Set him in a chair!” Kelly yelled out. Ari grabbed the nearest chair and pulled it beside the pummeled Jeffery. Emily and Karen held him down the chair as Kelly wrapped it around Jeffery’s stomach. Ari then tied him up really fucking tight. “Take this bitch to the basement!”
“Actually, I got an idea.” I pulled Jeffery and the peak of the stairs by opening this one door then kicked him down the flight of stairs. He started to scream with fear as he hit each stair randomly until he hit the brick wall of the basement with the back of the chair. Jeffery groaned in pain with a job well done on my part.
“Nice job.” Emily smiled. “I didn’t think of that at all.”
Kelly turned on the light bulb on her brick wall in the basement revealing Jeffery’s bloody face and a few items in Kelly’s basement. A couple of bikes, two wooden doors that lead outside, a freezer, a wooden table beside Jeffery and a little shed that we had no idea what was in there. Jeffery kept groaning fully tied up as Karen, Emily, Ari, Megan, Kelly and myself stared at him in a straight line. I really wanted to kill him, and everyone else wanted to as well….but we needed answers from this shit fuck.
“Ugh….where….What’s going on?” Jeffery stared around the room.
“Where the fuck did you get that Mustang?” I slapped him across the face making his glasses fly off.
“He just woke up and that’s the first thing you’re going to ask?” Emily got a little pissed. “No, you need to do this. How the FUCK did you get the money to buy the Mustang?” Emily smacked Jeffery in the face again.
“My Dad bought it for me, okay??” Jeffery groaned again.
“Wait, no!” Karen grabbed Jeffery by the hair. “I’m going to give you one chance to redeem yourself. Do you know why all of us are here? And you are in this exact position?”
Jeffery coughed for a moment. “All of this for a Mustang? I’m telling you it’s my DAD’S!”
“ENOUGH ABOUT YOUR FUCKING LEMON CAR!” Karen screamed out echoing through the basement.
“Look, I didn’t do anything wrong! I don’t know why I’m even here at all!”
“You’re fucking lying.” I slammed down the photos taken at the fair. Jeffery stared at the photos realizing how FUCKED UP he’s about to be. “Because of your little fiasco, Jecka has been abused by her father, and she’s practically homeless working 34 hour shifts at FYE trying to get her fucking life back together….She went through SO MUCH HELL because of YOUR bullshit….”
“Those photos could be from ANYONE. How could that possibly be me?”
“This camera is yours I presume?” Karen pulled out a Nikon camera.
“Hey! I was wondering where my camera was-” Jeffery looked around as all of us literally wanted to kill him. “Oh shit…..”
“Even if you lied, my Dad already knew about the photos because he told us you were the one trying to pawn these photos off. That’s one of the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard.”
“YOU ACTUALLY WENT ALL THE WAY TO STERLING??????” Jeffery started panicking by inhaling and exhaling rapidly.
“You realize trying to sell pictures of someone else is borderline stalking, you know that right? Why the FUCK would you even do that?” Ari was a bit confused.
“Where else was I supposed to sell them? MySpace?” Jeffery glared at Ari.
“It’s better than wasting gas like that. That’s some How to Catch A Predator type shit.” Kelly said.
“Jeffery, if Jecka was here right now ... .she'd literally turn you into a popsicle.” Karen pointed to the freezer.
“Hold on…..something doesn’t add up….” I told myself.
Jeffery took pictures of Karen and Jecka multiple times……why so many photos….And he went to one place that just coincidentally had someone who hated Jecka’s Dad……Then dropped off the photos BACK at Jecka’s……
“Jeffery…..someone made you do this didn’t you…..” I glared deep into Jeffery’s soul.
“What?”
“You took multiple pictures…..Tried to ‘sell’ them to Megan’s Dad…..then sent them back to not only Jecka’s place…..but the SAME place who is absolutely hated by a journalist who knows Jecka’s Dad to a T about how much of a monster he is……”
Jeffery became extremely silent as he started to shake and sweat bullets.
“Jeffery….you better tell me who made you do all of this…..Or you’re about to have a really bad time…..” I smiled nicely.
“I absolutely know nothing about what you’re talking about.” Jeffery seemed defiant. “Besides, even I know….I’m not telling you anything.”
“Set him on the freezer…..” Karen commanded in a stern voice. “Megan, Nicole….” We didn’t even hesitate as I picked up the head of the chair while Megan picked up the feet of the chair as Jeffery tried to struggle out prior to us lying him down on the freezer, staring up at the basement ceiling. Karen kept digging inside Kelly’s shed trying to find something, tossing out hedge clippers, trimmers, gloves, even a rubber duck.
“Karen….what are you doing in my shed?” Kelly was a bit confused.
Karen kept digging out random shit until she finally grabbed what she needed…..
A chainsaw……
Jeffery started to wriggle as fear was starting to set in at his grim situation. Ari and Emily were a bit astounded at what’s about to happen, but Kelly and Megan seemed more focused on Jeffery with pissed off faces. As the chainsaw grinded and revved with every slow step Karen made, Megan and I held on the chair like our life fully depended on it. Karen was now raising up the chainsaw high above her head ready to lower it down on the bastard.
“This could have been prevented if you weren’t such a fucking pervert.” Karen slowly started to go down against Jeffery’s stomach….inches away from being cut in half.
“WAIT!!!! WAIT!!! IT WAS JECKA’S MOM!!!!!” Jeffery screamed out for his life causing Karen to stop in her tracks and stop the chainsaw. Karen threw down the chainsaw after turning it off and ran up to Jeffery grabbing him by the neck.
“Where is she? Start talking.” Karen calmly asked.
“I met her one night randomly in town….She just randomly told me to start getting pictures of you….She didn’t say how many or what she told me to take specifically…..She just told me to take pictures and send them to her….But after I got pictures at the Fair….she told me to send them to the Fairfax County Times….but they rejected them….I tried calling her after everything that happened…but she NEVER returned my calls.”
“So where the fuck is she?” Kelly shouted out.
“I’m being serious! I don’t know where she is! That’s all I know….Jecka’s Mom did it.” Jeffery started crying out of nowhere.
“You’re still in deep shit, dude. Don’t think you’re getting out of this.” Megan growled.
“I say we all go to Olive Garden.” Ari smiled at all of us. I really, really wanted to slap her fucking smile, but…..it’s kind of cute. Everyone else except Jeffery thought she was smoking crack.
“Why the FUCK are we going there? Their food is ass anyways.” Emily said.
“I like their food.” Jeffery mentioned.
“NOBODY FUCKING ASKED YOU!” Megan screamed as she tossed Jeffery off the freezer and onto the hard cement floor.
“Seriously, let’s go to Olive Garden, so we can….get something ‘special’.” Ari looked at me specifically.
“Dude……Oh……Yeah, let’s go to Olive Garden. I think it’s time for us to apologize to Jeffery and get him something special.” I smiled.
“Uh……okay…?”
“Nicole is right.” Kelly let Jeffery out of his ropes. “I think Jeffery will be happy that eight girls are going to…..feed him…” Kelly seemed a bit grossed out.
“Holy shit, I am not….” Megan pinched Emily’s sides as Emily tried to finish her sentence. “I mean….sure…..let’s go to Olive Garden….Yay….”
Location: Olive Garden
Time: 4:35 P.M.
I really think Kelly is tired of driving us to places because she went 80 down a 65 just to get here and ready to get the fuck home and rest. Although, I was more curious about why an Olive Garden this late in the afternoon. All of us groaned as we reached the somewhat full parking lot, and Jeffery was the first person who got out of the car….via the trunk. We all wanted him there.
“Oh boy, Olive Garden, I haven’t been here in a hot minute.” Jeffery hopped out of the trunk as well and all of us got out of the car. There weren't really many people outside if anything, they were going inside as it was completely silent outside. “Let’s go eat girls.”
“Uh…there’s something we need to do first, Jeffery. Follow us, please.” Ari went on a pathway in some kind of alleyway. Jeffery followed her as we went behind her.
Now, all of us were in an alleyway with this creep fuck and Ari just….looked at him. “Oh….so when are you girls going to….” Jeffery was caught off guard by Ari gut punching him causing him to drop down to the ground. Then all of us just said fuck it and started beating the shit out of him. Emily kicked him in the stomach, I punched the shit out of his neck, Kelly did a fucking roundhouse kick on his face for, almost, no reason, Emily dropkicked his fucking back, Megan backhanded him, and Karen did a giant fucking forearm crash causing him to do a fucking back flip. After he was just laying there unconscious, we just set him in a dumpster and Ari just slammed the lid shut on it….but she held her hand there for a hot second….Pun intended…
Because she made some of the metal melt with her bare hand and caused clumps of it to mush together so Jeffery couldn’t get out. Ari just walked away from the dumpster as we kind of just stared at….Okay, yeah, no.
“What the FUCK was that? I thought you stopped doing all of that shit?” I asked her.
“I can’t help this?” Ari looked at her new flaming arm. “HOLY SHIT!! SOMEONE CALL AN AMBULANCE!!!”
“You mean fire department?” Kelly asked calmly.
“Just call!” Ari’s fire arm immediately went back to her human arm. “Somebody….”
“Yeah, someone is fucking with us….” Emily said.
“No shit….But that felt really good.” Karen smiled.
“Alright, so now we’re back at more dead ends. And Jeffery, of course. Somehow he just didn’t know where Jecka’s Mom was.” I spoke out.
“Hello, girls.” Mr. Katz just suddenly walked up to us from around the corner of the entrance. “I heard a lot of screaming, but then I noticed it was just….”
“How long were you sitting there, you stupid pedophile!” I screamed out.
“Wait, what??” Mr. Katz was immediately caught off guard.
“Get your ass out of here! Don’t make me catch you saying the N-word again EVER!” Karen threatened.
“Or all of us WILL expose you for trying to fuck your students!” Emily screamed out.
“Hold…Hold….Hold on, girls. I can try to explain….” Mr. Katz felt cornered.
“No, nothing you racist bitch!!” Kelly yelled at him. “We know how you wanted to up people’s grades by making them bend their ass up for you. So, step in line before we step on you!”
Mr. Katz stared at all of us like he was literally going to die and started to give a blood curling scream and run off in the distance past his car. All of us just…..didn’t know what came over us, but I just felt a part of me that just really, really, REALLY wanted to lash out at him. “Did….did you guys have the urge to do that as well?”
“Sort of….I kind of did my lash out just not even a minute ago.” Ari kind of just watched in the back taking a breather.
“Maybe we should all stop being so angry for a while….” Kelly suggested.
“Yeah, I need to sit and think.” I went over to a nearby bench and just looked up at the midday sky. We’ve done so much running around and beating…..I just had to sit down…..Megan, Ari, Emily, Kelly and Karen stood behind me just gazing off in the distance with me. It felt good to take care of the shitling who kind of started all of this, but we were still at square one. Jecka is probably about to get off from work. Seriously, all we got is this fucking newspaper. “Kelly, do you still have the newspaper?”
“I thought you had it?”
“Wait….” I forgot I folded it up in my back pocket, so I unfolded it and stared at it for a while. “So, Megan….”
“Yeah?”
“I’m assuming your Dad comes home often right?”
“I’m home alone a lot because he has to stay over during the week. Sometimes, he comes home on the weekends, but other than that. I’ve been chilling coming home to an empty house.”
“So….what about your Mom?” Ari intervened.
“Well, she left my Dad. She felt like she wasn’t loved by him at all….So she wanted a divorce and he agreed.”
“How….do you feel about that?” I asked.
“It sucks, but they both love me. They still love me for who I am and what I want to do…”
“They both seem absolutely great.”
“Yeah….Yeah, they are Nicole.” Megan smiled at me.
“So, why on earth did he keep this newspaper….?” I looked at the front cover to see a couple of people in the back……dragging someone to the forest while the cross was being ready to set on fire…..“Look….guys……that’s literally Jecka’s Dad….and some female?” Everyone gathered behind me.
“Hey….that has to be Jecka’s Dad…..he’s kind of pudgy….” Karen pointed out. “Okay, so what else do you exactly see in this?”
wait…… They’re being followed in the crowd…..Someone with brunette hair….they looked a bit short and……
“No fucking way…..” I stopped looking at the newspaper.
“What?” Emily asked.
“We need to grab Jecka, RIGHT NOW.” I exclaimed. “We need to grab Jecka from work.”
“....why?” Kelly was also a bit confused.
“We need to go to my Couples Therapist NOW.”
“You guys owe me SERIOUS gas money.” Kelly frowned.
Time: 5 p.m.
Location: Outside of Old Counselor’s Room
We grabbed Jecka right after work and headed straight over to the Counselor’s office. Jecka was absolutely confused as we told her the experiences from the bar to just interacting with Megan’s Dad during the entire fiasco. Jecka, in her FYE outfit, just stared at all of us like we smoked Ari’s weed stash.
“So….let me get this straight.” Jecka said before I was about to open the door to the Counselor’s office. “You just beat the shit out of some biker gang, talked to Megan’s Dad, who somehow KNEW about my Dad, and my Dad is just suddenly a White Supremacist?”
“Who wanted to crucify someone of another ethnic group.” Karen added.
“I believe you on the last part, but the first two are batshit.”
“That’s not even the weirdest part. JEFERY sent you the photos.”
“He did what….?” Jecka seemed paralyzed.
“He was….” Emily stopped talking for a minute as she stared at us before talking again. “He just really wanted to get revenge on you for not sending back titty pics.” Prior to us picking up Jecka, we didn’t want her to be alarmed at the mere mention of Jecka’s Mom….at least not yet.
“I REALLY want to kill Jeffery right now.” Jecka glared at Emily.
“I think we actually killed him?” Karen added.
“....thanks…? I kind of want to get pissed off at someone still. Wait, what are we doing here?” Jecka asked me.
“Oh shit, right!” I barged through the counselor’s office. “Terri, we need to….” The seven of us were now staring at Terri getting back on her white doctor’s jacket, but her short hair was now long like Rapunzel and exposing a bit of her pale white arms. She was unaware of our presence as she was putting on her glasses and packing up her suitcase. Terri then caught wind of us as she stared at a bunch of girls with a worried look. With their ‘ready’ faces, Ari, Kelly, Karen, and Emily stared at Terri, but Megan just glared at Terri like she shat in her Cheerios.
“Uh….are you girls alright….?” Terri asked while fixing her jacket.
“Will you be my Mommy?” Kelly desperately exhaled.
Terri shook her head trying to figure out what the fuck Kelly just said. “I appreciate you girls wanting to come in, but it’s closing hours and I can’t do seven girls in one session. It has to be couples….or triples if there are polygamous couples.”
“That’s what she said.” I smiled, but Jecka stomped on my foot. “The fuck, Jecka.”
“Stop flirting with her, and tell her what the fuck you want with her.”
“Please, stop flirting with me….” Terri groaned.
“Oh right! This!” I showed Terri the newspaper as she was a bit confused at first. “You know what’s going on here?” I pointed to the brunette that was slightly covered up in the crowd. As Jecka’s Dad and some woman were walking together dragging a body, one person was sneaking out of the crowd and going around to follow Jecka’s Dad and the woman…..a brunette girl who looks EXACTLY like the girl I saw in the mall a while back. “The girl I saw in the mall looked like you Terri.”
“Wait…?” Jecka looked at the newspaper and then back at the counselor.
“Yeah….she kind of does….” Karen pointed out as well.
“The fact you just showed up as our counselor and you appearing in an event that happened over ten years ago related to Jecka’s Dad is BEYOND coincidental.” I glared at Terri.
“Come to think of it….Yeah, the counseling session being free and through our school specifically does seem like a crazy coincidence.” Jecka said.
For a moment, there was an extremely heavy silence as all of us gave Terri death stares, but the creepiest thing was that Terri was smiling the entire time. “You girls are extremely observant. This is why I love helping people the most.” Terri sat on the table and crossed her legs. “I will say this for all of your efforts. Why exactly go to me?”
“Bitch, you are literally at a KKK event. That’s literally extreme suspicion right there.” Jecka pointed out. “How do we know YOU aren’t just a pocket White Supremacist?”
Terri’s face changed into an agitated expression. “Because I’ve been in an interracial relationship with my husband for almost five years now? If anything, I’m fully disgusted by how people have considered him a fucking ‘Oreo’.”
“Yeah….that’s kind of fucked up…..” Kelly said.
“Okay, you got us there. But you can’t just have two people like yourself just in two places at once? Do you have a daughter or something?” I asked.
“I mean I do. She’s so wonderful and….”
“Dude, we don’t need your life story. We got enough crap from my ex before he died and a shrimp dick, gun addict wanting to sell photos to some newspaper editor because of some titty pics he never got.” Emily shouted.
Terri then looked around at everyone in pure confusion. “You realize you were blindly following a presumably coked up MS-13 leader, and a literal gooner that also probably wants to fuck his own mother before his own death, right?”
“Wait a minute…..Holy shit, she’s right….” Ari realized. “Emily’s boyfriend was probably trying to do mind games with us after stalking us, and Jeffery mentioned Jecka’s Mom to get off our backs….”
“What the fuck about my mom?” Jecka snapped.
“Jeffery mentioned your mom, but NEVER told us where she was before we beat the shit out of him.” I mentioned.
“NICOLE! You screwed over another lead! What the fuck!”
“Another?? You killed the MS-13 leader!”
“And you helped me! I did all of that because I wanted to take all of this shit out on someone.”
“And me going through all of these hoops and hurdles? On top of that, how was I supposed to know Jeffery just KNEW your mother? And for the last time, he didn’t say ANYTHING except him exposing himself for being a creep.”
“What the fuck, Nicole!” Jecka tried to sob for a moment, but then wiped away her tears. “I’m just tired….tired of living life like a lie…..”
“Well, all of us want the truth as much as you do…..That’s why we're doing this. We care about you.”
“How do I know I can even trust you? After everything you’ve done in the past.” Jecka sniffled.
“Okay, girls. I’m going to have to do something that might help you girls out. And there’s enough chairs for everyone.” Terri then walked past the girls and locked the door. “We are going to try something special.”
“Well, girls, I guess this is gonna be Karen’s dream come true, but with a female therapist apparently.” I said.
Jecka immediately sighed. “Alright, fine, whatever. Come here, Karen and Nicole.” Karen immediately took off her glasses.
“NOT THAT!” Terri exclaimed out loud. “Holy shit, can you girls like…No.”
“Homophobe.” Emily rolled her eyes.
“I’M NOT-” Terri shouted out, giving a large ringing in our ears, but she took a deep breath before speaking again. “Girls, I’m not going to be doing anything like that….Now, I want you girls to sit beside one another in a circle.” All of the girls were a bit confused as we sat together in a circle in some office chairs. “Now, I want you girls to hold hands with other….let go off your mind ... .and relax.”
“What is this? Some Kumbaya type shit?” Kelly groaned beside Ari.
“Yes.” All of us just looked at her like she was a fucking camp counselor. “Look, you girls are stressed. Exhausted. What you girls need to do…is close your eyes. Clear your mind. And breath….”
“This is the dumbest shit ever. Fine.” Emily then closed her eyes and everyone else followed.
I took one deep breathe……
Two………..
And not even a third breathe.
I felt the wind hissing around me. The wind echoed around my ears as I decided to open my eyes to a battlefield full of bodies laid down and scattered across acres and acres of gray land. My body felt different as I stared down the endless battlefield of lifeless bodies. I was standing tall on this field with a new outfit…..I had golden wings, a green robe with extremely flowy and elegant designs, and green greaves mixed with silver under this robe-like dress. I thought I felt scared, but rather determined….Just like in the bar and just like at that gang meet up….
My body decided to walk forward on its own. I kept walking on my own for another minute as dust picked off of my greaves with each step I made. I kept walking until I saw six more figures in the distance….One person had a blackened claw while their other hand had pure fire in their hand, a breast plate that looked like hot coal, and what i’m guessing some kind of metallic black tutu with a red skirt underneath hiding steam under their legs. This person had an iron, black helmet hiding their face.
Another one had long flowing blonde hair detangling their curls to the wind along with their white cape filled with gold swirls. Golden breastplate, golden graves and gauntlets and even a golden helmet hid their identity. The only thing that stood out was the light blue patterns that seemed to be cloth around their stomach and arms.
One had a leather breast plate and shoulder pads, but had a mask covering them and only showing their short black hair. They had some kind of a skirt with a black V design and a white patch on the inside while light blue was outside of the V. She had some sort of black pants and some insane greaves with silver, black, and gold mixed together. They were carrying around this beautiful purple staff with all kinds of metallic curves and a lion head in the very middle of the staff.
Among them, one had a black whip that was filled with grass, but it was covered in the color black. She also had blonde hair, but she had a very angry mask for this one. Her armor looked like a possessed flower with all kinds of yellow dandelions and part of her armor covered in a mix of light green and dark green thorns. There were even vines wrapped around her chest and came around her green samurai sandals.
One of them had an ominous death aura with how much black their outfit had. Black elegant hat with the black rose, black winter boots with a ton of white swirls around them along with a white fluffy puff close to the knees of her boots, small black skirt along with a black leather armor piece with silver leaves around these brown suspenders, black nail polish, and even black long sleeves. The only thing that wasn’t white was this staff….So many holes, so many jagged pointed curves going up, and omitting a white fog from their staff. I couldn’t get their face because of their elegant hat crossing against their eyes.
The final one wore some kind of orange cape with a little bit of some kind of orange string around their waist. They wore a mix of brown boots, brown long sleeves and some kind of orange skirt with leather battle armor. Then they had some kind of orange and white hat with blue crystals in the middle of their hat. Their face had looked exactly like Megan's as they came out of this dusty fog. …..
All of us met up and didn’t even say a word, except we stared at seven golden staves poked into the ashen ground. All of them had some kind of small planets swirling at the tip of the staff, like you could actually touch a solar system. All of us grabbed a staff. It didn’t matter which one felt the best; we just all picked one. Then we saw a slim figure in the distance walking towards us……Someone who was wearing a black robe covering every aspect of their body. Then……we heard metallic footsteps……drawing ever so close…..meters if that close…..
(Music: Fate of the Unknown)
The hooded figure kept walking ever so slowly with their footsteps getting louder and louder with each clank that echoed throughout the battlefield. But their figure literally looked humanoid, if not a female body like ours. It kept getting closer and closer reading one of their frail hands up as they were about to do something. My body rushed forward on it’s own, but then the figure raised up their hands and it seemed like an entire rocky mountain lunged from beneath me hitting my stomach and causing me to lie down on the rising crater. As I looked up at the hooded figure, they started to raise another crater beneath them as I stared up while trying to get back on my own two feet from the impact.
My six comrades and I started to run up to this crater to try and fight this hooded monstrosity, but this person on the crater held out another hand causing an entire tornado to rise up and try to attack us. Three of us tried to swarm it, but the hooded figure just kept moving around dodging all of our attacks. One of the people in our group tried to attack with their flaming arms, but every punch and lunge somehow just clashed against their arms like it was a sword fight. One of our allies tried to even throw out a giant icicle the size of a truck against the monster, but just….somehow sliced it. The armored one with thorns and myself saw this tornado-like wave going for us and tried to outrun it. The hooded figure hopped on this tornado like a freaking surfboard and cast some kind of dark magic towards us. It hit me causing me to topple off of my feet before another kind of tornado was going to hit me. The one who looked like Megan blocked off the attack by creating hundreds of slabs like a tidal wave, but barely hit the hooded figure. She helped me back up to my feet as the seven of us tried to rush whoever and whatever this person was. I clapped my hands causing a gigantic wave of thunder to spread through the battlefield creating a gigantic crater trying to hit the figure, but they just didn’t even seem to take any damage from it either.
The hooded figure moved to try and attack the blue and gold armored person and pushed them off of the crater we were standing on. They slammed down some kind of hammer similar to what Jecka had into the rock wall to avoid falling to their doom and they eventually got caught. As they stopped a section of the wall started to tip over as they tried to move up, but couldn’t be able to climb up as now that section for them was about to fall on them.
The rest of us tried to rush and help them, but we were blown away hundreds of feet in the air by this tornado cast beneath us. As the six of us were falling to our doom helpless to help our blue and gold friend, all of us felt a swarm of what felt like razors hitting against before we all crashed to the ground before us with our own craters. Some of them could barely move as the one who looked like Megan moved over to the person with the lion staff to try and help them up. The person grabbed their lion staff and tried to cast a beautiful, white spell helping protect the blue and gold armoured person with a giant octagon kind of shield. They were being pushed in their shield by swarms and swarms of swords in the tornado before unleashing a gigantic explosion.
The Megan look-a-like and myself stared at the damage done destroying almost a full section of a nearby mountain, but we also noticed it was just us as opposed to the six of us. The one with the flame arms, the one with the lion staff, the one with the death aura, and the one with thorns tried to rush the hooded figure trying to save their armoured friend, who eventually joined in the fray of trying to attack them, but the hooded figure unveiled a gigantic metallic arm full of needles, metallic coils and a robotic bear claw as a counter attack.
The one with thorns tried to throw a whiplash fury but the hooded figure sliced the whip and punched them in the sternum. The one with flames got backhanded before even trying to attack, and the lion staff tried to smack them with a giant toxic ball on their staff while the blue and gold armoured person swung down with their hammer. Yet the hooded figure swung around their arms in a deadly spin crunching at their ribs. The one with a deathly aura tried to shoot at the creature with their own staff like a shotgun, but they were met with a devastating blizzard attack from the hooded creature. They were pushed back with a completely frozen arm and their hat finally came off revealing it was Emily….Emily stared at her completely frozen arm.
The hooded figure gave Emily a devilish grin while reading her gigantic metallic arm. Suddenly, the one with flame arms tried to commit a gigantic swipe against the monster, but failed because the hooded figure randomly disappeared and appeared again fully grabbing their entire head with their metallic arm with a metallic claw….
All of us were stunned as the hooded figure kept grabbing their head, cracking the helmet they once had. As the helmet started to crack and crumble revealing their face, the hooded figure took off their hood revealing it was a woman. They had long flowing red-hair that sometimes looked like curls with the wind blowing through their hair. They had a few freckles on their face along with hair covering one of their eyes. Within their devilish smile, they had piercing red eyes with pure evil in their intent. The four of them tried to save their fiery friend, but all of them were blown away by another tornado full of slices and cuts as they crashed down right beside me and Megan…..
As they all tried to get up, it was finally revealed who they were……Karen, the one with the lion staff…..Kelly, the one with thorns……Jecka, the one with the blue and gold…..Emily, the one personified with Death…..All of us were immobilized in fear with our fiery friend still being grasped by this evil entity’s metallic grip. As her helmet cracked even more…..Ari…..Ari looked at us with a small tear in her eye….She wasn’t sad that she was about to die….
She was sad that she couldn’t do more…..
One more pernicious grip and Ari was now engulfed in pure darkness before her entire body was frozen to the brim. The monster’s grip now turned back into a human arm in a loud, destructive pattern before letting Ari go and dropping her to her doom. As Ari fell down, she hit random parts of the crater putting chips and chunks in her frozen body. Before she hit the ground, I caught her lifeless body to save what’s left of her……I held her as I stared into her eyes….They were trying extremely hard to move in her frozen state to try and tell me ‘Everything will be okay, Nicole’.
The monster on the crater then held out a small orb of purple and dark blue energy and released it into the sky. The sky started to crack and push away the clouds revealing a gigantic eclipse rushing down on the planet. They started to float up away from the crater into the enveloping light of the eclipse now shining down on the battlefield, revealing an entire sea of fallen warriors. Her entire grin transformed into an entire smile…..like she just won…..
I stared at them with full anger in my eyes….electricity coursing through my veins……I wanted to fix everything……I wanted to save everyone…..
But……..
“FUCK!!!!” I screamed out loud, scaring everyone in the room and breaking off the circle. All I could feel was my blood boiling with pure electricity. I thought my body was going to explode, but instead I just feel more….relaxed.
“What the fuck, Nicole??” Emily screamed out in her chair. I looked around at my friends in the counselor’s office.
“Something just shocked me….” Karen touched her hand from…..wait…..I’m back?
“Are you okay, Nicole?” Jecka grew extremely concerned. “You had your eyes closed for a very, VERY long time.”
“Yeah….Yeah…I’m fine.” I looked at my own two hands.
“Uh….are you sure…?” Ari spoke out, and I just said fuck it and just gave her a hug. “Uh…….this is nice….I guess?”
“What the fuck, Nicole? Where’s my hug from your girlfriend?” Jecka looked pissed off.
“I’m sorry….I just…..I just want to reconsider everything….” I told everyone. “I mean everything.”
Terri just cackled in her corner. “Excellent, Nicole. You seem to come to terms with yourself at last.”
“What the hell is she talking about?” Ari became extremely confused.
“No….it’s okay…..I’m fine…..Can everyone leave? I want to talk to Terri alone….”
“Uh….Sure.” Kelly just stared at everyone with a small bit of concern.
“I promise. I’ll be out in the hallway in a second.” Everyone decided to leave the room with a bit of an entangled state. Jecka even stared back at me before closing the door behind her.
“Are you feeling okay, Nicole?” Terri then sat back on the desk.
“I…..I get it….I get why you are here…..” I stared at my own hands. “What I saw….It’s what you’re trying to tell me….My friends…..Jecka’s life….the world……No…..the universe….is in danger from what I saw…..That’s why you were here…In the mall…..It’s the same looming doom I’ve had that nearly killed me….”
“I will admit….I wasn’t expecting them to be there….I don’t know why you would be a prime target is beyond me…..but ever since then….I feel like I had to warn you….” Teresa’s face grew a bit worrisome.
“So….what about Megan and Karen?”
“Well, that part is slightly out of my control. As long as those two were helping you, then I didn’t need to intervene.”
“That doesn’t explain why Karen was freaking smart this entire time.”
Teresa then gave me a small smile. “Maybe you should ask those two yourself then.”
“Wait a minute…..Where on earth are we supposed to go? Our major lead is completely down in the dumps….”
“Pun entirely intended.” Teresa kept smiling.
“We’re out of options. If we are gonna take that shit head down, we need a lead.”
“I can help you with that.”
“You can????”
“Absolutely. I’ll tell you right now.”
“Okay…..so what is it then?”
Terri took a deep breath and exhaled. “For Your Entertainment first, the rest nowhere.”
“Are you fucking serious?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not even a riddle. Seriously, why are you here in this….world….timeline? I’m trying to figure this out.”
“For starters, some mumbo jumbo shit has happened, especially to you and the girls….and I figured you need a hand with Jecka with everything she’s going through.”
“So….you just know she’s being abused, yet you aren’t stepping in…”
“Trust me, I’m stepping in alright. Once I heard about the issues in another timeline, I immediately checked over this hellhole and figured I could step in. Besides, Jecka wished for your life to get better.”
“Well, that makes a lot of…..Wait, what?”
“Alright, Nicole….You probably want to leave because I’m officially closing down shop and your friends are worried about you.”
“Seriously, you have all of these powers and you aren’t going to just help us?”
“If I intervene too much, I’m worried I’m going to cause some sort of cataclysm in your world. Also, I don’t think Jecka wants me to turn her dad into a Nightmart on Elm Street bloodbath scene…..At least not yet.”
“Even though he deserves it?”
“Even though he deserves it.” Teresa smiled right before I closed the door behind me.
I walked a little bit back to the group in the school hallway as Jecka was the first person to run up to me. “Hey, you were in there a while, are you okay?”
“Dude, stop worrying about me so much.” I tried to reassure her.
“Yeah, you were in there for almost 20 minutes.” Karen said.
“So….like what now guys? I’m ready to just fucking crash after today….” Emily groaned.
“I got work tomorrow anyways.” Jecka added. “So, who am I taking home?”
“Wait, I can drive my car.” Megan mentioned.
“Alright, great.” Jecka started to walk away.
“Hey, Megan, Karen, can I talk to you two in private please?” I asked the two.
“You really enjoy talking to people now, Nicole. It's strange.” Jecka pointed out and glared at me.
“I promise, it’s chill. I just like….being around you guys.”
“Uh….okay….I’ll just ride with Kelly then. Can you take Ari, too?”
“You guys owe me a shit ton of gas money.” Kelly got a bit pissed off.
“How much?” I asked.
“60 bucks so….” I immediately pulled out sixty bucks in fives and she gave me the look of the century. “Holy shit….”
“Alright, I’ll see you girls later.” I immediately pulled on Karen and Megan’s hands around a nearby corner out of sight from Ari, Kelly, Jecka and Emily.
“Okay, so like…what’s up then?” Megan had a confused look.
Then I just set my hands on Megan and Karen coursing electricity through all of us as I decided to use that energy I’ve held built inside of me to take us to another location.
Location: Random Field??
Time: 5:45 p.m.
After I made Megan and Karen come with me to this one spot where Mr. White made me take pictures, both of the girls started to overwhelm themselves with all kinds of stress. The wind was hissing as the sun was about to finally set on our vivid, but eventful journey.
“Nicole…..where are we???” Karen looked around the field.
“You know the last person to be freaking out should be you right now, Mary Shelley.”
“Nicole….why are we here among all places?” Megan was a bit in shock.
“You eat a bunch of motorbikes and Ford F150s, but when I cause an remunerative amount of jolts in our body causing us to land in a private location at the speed of light, it’s a problem?”
“YES!” Karen shouted. “That’s physically impossible.”
“You know? That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about you this entire time.” I smiled at Karen.
“What does Karen have to do with this?” Megan asked.
“Because….she’s the one who just somehow knew a camera that was used by any newspaper?”
Megan fell a bit silent as Karen kept glancing her eyes at the two of us. “Wait…..I just learned a lot from my photography class.”
“But ‘Jecka wants to turn Jeffery into a popsicle’?” My answer made Karen’s face turn pale with grief. “The fact Megan knows everything and you just somehow had the answer for EVERYTHING almost, made me think…..what exactly are you hiding? What sort of advantage do you have to hold when hiding all of this knowledge?”
“I’m….I’m not hiding anything….” Karen darted her eyes around.
“Then what exactly were you doing with Megan that night when you two ‘watched movies’, hmm? You’re just like Megan….You absolutely know something……Megan has been visions from Teresa, but you……you’ve been getting messages……” I slowly took off Karen’s glasses. “No….they send you dreams…..”
Karen got completely in my face with pitch black eyes. “You don’t know what I see at all. I’ve seen it…..The end of all things……Everything turns to Nothing……Days turn into Hours….Hours turn into minutes with the time we’ve wasted in our lives…..Everything will cease if everyone isn’t paid back what they were owed. The end of all time will be closer…..You need us, Nicole……Every test we’ve been through……it’s just a warm up for the Hell that we will experience if we don’t undergo as we’ve been led.”
(Music: Lace)
Megan and Karen gave me life and death stares as I couldn’t help, but to just laugh like a heinous villain. Their faces changed as it seemed like I was taking everything they said like a circus show. Maybe even a bit like Teresa’s. “You girls are beyond intriguing…..You’ve given off your old personalities in an attempt to save Humanity…..that’s incredibly exemplary.”
“Uh….Nicole…?” Megan asked me.
“Your plan is so barbaric following some entity for some fat bastard. I absolutely commend you two. I’ve seen it all and I’m ready to change. I’m ready to change for Jecka. For my friends. And more importantly…..Humanity.”
“Nicole…you seem different.”
“I’ve been transmogrified. I can tell you, too, are simply terri-fied. After everything that happened, I’d act a bit suspicious regarding my plans as well.”
“What plans…? You seem rather calm to me witnessing literal Armaggeddon.” Karen seemed a bit more relaxed.
“We mean us witnessing Armaggeddon.” Megan and Karen looked stunned at me. “Yes…..I saw it, too…..If you two want to stop it, you’ll need my assistance….” I smirked at the girls.
“Uh….how exactly?” Megan asked.
“You girls are put through a test from her, yes? All we need to do is bring him down….”
“We're out of options though….Where do we go next?”
“For Your Entertainment first….The rest nowhere…..That’s what Teresa said.”
“Wait….I have an idea!” Karen shouted out.
“Wonderful…..See, that’s why I keep you around.” I smiled.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That means we have created our own land of opportunity…..the chance to set the world in motion and save humanity as a whole….And that’s what your Teresa has told you I’m assuming?”
Both of the girls nodded in response to me. “Good, we’re nearing the end girls, but once things are set in motion…..We need to convince Jecka, Emily, Ari and Kelly to our cause…..and this will be no easy feat…..But if we can take down this groveling person…..Then that will definitively raise their interests, no doubt…..Girls…..it’s time to close in on our target….”
“Right!” Both of the girls shouted out.
“I do have a question…..” Karen asked.
“What’s your question?” I smiled.
“Please take me back home.” Karen kept staring at the long endless wheat fields.