NOVEL WEB Chapter Twelve: Blood in the water
Two people appear in my vision. Both looked concerned. As for me, all they see is an image of Maniac's mask bouncing around on the screen. They both start talking at the same time.
“Hey, Maniac, what is happening?” I hear Deatnites say over the line.
“I am so sorry, Maniac. I did not know she would put those kinds of videos online.” Bubbles says.
“Uh, what? I don’t know what you're talking about.”
My voice is not exactly stable as I am still quivering after what has just happened; I try to rub the blood off my hand but only end up with a bigger mess. Both of them pick up on my distress.
“Maniac, what is wrong?” Bubbles asks.
“Maniac, are you safe?” Jason asks, “Where are you?”
“I am in the bath right now. Trying to calm down.”
“I see; if you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”
“I was with my girlfriend today, and we kind of got into a fight. If you can call it that.”
“THAT FUCKING BITCH!!” I hear Bubbles shout, “Just fucking stab her already.”
“I kinda did.” I say
“I feel like I miss some context,” Jason says. “Do you need our help hiding the body?”
“She is alive, but I don’t know what to do,” I say. “I thought it would be easy. Get someone nice, so I could sit out some years before I escaped. Someone who would get attached so I would not get passed around.”
“And now she is too attached,” Jason states.
“Well, that appears to be the case. What should I do?” I almost plead.
“Well, if the first time did not work, try again. You have enough swords, right?” Bubbles almost shouts over the line.
I audibly sob after that.
“Bubbles, be quiet,” Jason says. “Maniac, even in a bad situation, it's okay to care for others.”
“Are you sure?” I spit out. "After all she has done, I should just forgive her.”
“I can’t tell you what to do. Just help you come to your own conclusions. It just sounds like you at least care for her a little bit. Has she ever hurt you when she intended to do so?”
“I don’t, fuck, no, she never intends to hurt me; it just happens.”
“Well, that is a good start. Now you just have to tell her when she hurts you, when it’s not her intention. How long have the two of you been together for, anyways?”
“I think it is around three years now. Why?”
“Wait, three years?” Well, at least Bubbles stayed quiet for a little while. “I thought you said your brother killed himself a year ago?”
“Uhm, well,” I take a deep breath. "Technically, I only received the notice a year ago, so I am unsure of the time frame. We were not allowed to contact each other. “
“Ooh, I see,” Bubbles says.
“I assume that is part of the reason for this distress. When you are in a rough situation, you cling to anything that gives you a sense of comfort; being all alone for so long, it is understandable that you like her, “ Jason says in his calm voice.
“So, what you are saying, is that I am in love with her?” I almost spit out. “I might not be willing to kill her, but that does not mean I want to jump under her again.”
“I am sorry. I feel like I said that poorly. What I meant was, that because she cared for you, you care for her as well, maybe not as a lover, but as a friend or something.”
“Wait, so you want Maniac to forgive her?” Bubbles asks, “How does that make sense? She should get the hell out of there.”
“It's up to Maniac to make those decisions, but if she wants to leave, I think my husband would not mind having you as our guest for a while.” Jason says.
“Thanks, but I am good. I think I will stay at the hotel if I need a place to stay.” I say, “I just want to stay here. I gave up too much and took too many risks, all so that I could bring down this company. I don’t want all of that to go to waste.”
“That is understandable, but don’t go too deeply. We will help you when we can. You are not alone.” Jason says.
“That is right,” Bubbles agrees.” We work well together. I spray the acid, and you kill everything that the acid does not kill. Perfect team!”
“That sounds like you want to throw me at more model 13s.”
“Ooh, not only model 13s, but my current fighting style suffers when the acid is not strong enough, so I was wondering if we could team up in the future, since you could take a hit from my acid anyway.”
“Well, I guess I did not buy the poison filter for nothing. Anyway, I should probably look for her soon. Thank you for the help.”
They both bid me goodnight before going back to whatever they were doing. I close the call. It still takes me a few minutes to calm down properly. Then I leave the room. I really wish I had brought clean clothing with me inside. Luckily, my bag was placed close to the hotel room entrance. I quickly fish out my nightwear and put it on. Then I start looking for Cierra.
I find her passed out on the couch. A few bottles of wine are scattered around her; it looks like her wound is no longer bleeding, which is good. I contemplate waking her up to talk; but I am so tired that I feel like I don’t even have the energy to speak with her right now. I try lifting her up to get her in the bed. Fuck, she is heavy. Cybernetics are incredible, but they don’t make you lighter.
Lyssa would recommend some strength enhancers if you want to complete this task today.
‘Buying that to only use for this seems like a waste of points.’
Don’t worry. The springtail has internal storage and can save the excess.
‘Well, that works. Fine, then give me a dose.’
New Purchase: Class I Strength Enhancer 60cc
Points reduced to... 250
I pick her up with ease now. It still feels weird, especially now that it is without the painkillers. I can feel my body groan with the effort. I lay her down in bed. She suddenly wakes up as I attempt to put the blankets over her.
“Evelin, you came back!” she says while throwing her arms around me, dragging me on top of her.
“Yeah, I am back. Admittedly, I have nowhere to go. Could you release me?”
“Don’t want to, what if you run away?”
“And this is why you should not be drinking.”
“But you were breaking up with me; I don’t want us to be apart.”
“Hmm, I think our breaking up is not possible since we were never really together. I am just a fancy joytoy.”
At that, she pauses for a bit and pushes me up to look at my face. “How much do you cost?”
I kind of just burst out laughing at that. This situation is so stupid.
“I don’t think I want to do work like that anymore.”
“That makes sense. Need to save yourself for the perfect partner.”
“Ooh, and what is my perfect partner?”
“Well, you have a lot of sadness, so you need someone kind and understanding. You enjoy physical contact, so they would have to like hugs and cuddles. Someone who supports you at work, and if they can fix your current situation even better. They need to be feminine as well. Hmm, what else? Ooh, right, they have to be a top."
“Fuck I guess that does sound nice,” I say. ” You know anyone like that?”
“No, but if you would allow it, I would like to become that person to you.”
“That sounds like a lot of effort. Why not find anyone else? There should be scores of people waiting to throw themselves at you. Put them through some surgeries, and they would even look like me. Why bother with me?”
“Because you are important to me, and it is not that I don’t understand that I can get someone else with a similar face. Don’t worry; my dad has always made it abundantly clear that that is an option. I know what I did to you was bad, but could you let me try and make it up to you?”
“Cierra, I care for you a lot, but I don’t know how much. You have been there for me in my darkest moments. I probably would not even be alive today if it was not for you. But to have a real romantic relationship, I need time to think about that."
“What do you mean? I don’t understand. If I am that important to you, why do you not want to go out with me?”
“It's just hard for me right now. I would have to come to terms with a lot of things. The death of my parents, my brother's suicide, the howl thing.”
“Suicide?” Cierra asks, sounding very confused.
“Yeah, my brother died. Wait, what do you know?” I say when I realize something is not right.
“I am sorry,” Cierra says while she starts crying again. “I did not know that would happen.”
I feel my entire body turn cold as an icy rage grabs my heart
“What happened,” I say, through clenching teeth.
“I... I... I wanted to make you happy,” she says between sobs. "So, since you were lonely, I tried getting your brother to come back to the city and work for me so you could see him again.”
“Okay, so at what point does this turn sour?”
“Well, you remember Chris and Fabio?”
“How could I forget the asshole cousins that tried to rape me.”
“So they don’t like us, so when they found out that you had a brother, they kind of killed him to take revenge; I am sorry. I did not know how to tell you.”
I don’t do anything. I am not sure what I can do. I just collapse on top of Cierra and start crying. I don’t know how long we stay like that, but at some point, I fall asleep.