I stepped out of the cage letting the dull sounds wash over me. I wasn’t sure whether there were more people happy with the performance versus angry it had been so short. And quite frankly I didn’t care right now.
I walked down the few short steps and there, a few steps away, was Lurks. She walked forward sinuously and held out her hand.
“The sword.” She said simply.
I had to give it back? Why?
“Because I said so.” Lurks retorted, causing me to flinch.
I hadn’t spoken out loud. She was still reading my mind, or at the very least the surface-level thoughts, I felt like I’d be able to feel her again if she was trying to sift deeper.
Lurks took another step closer and grabbed the blade from me while leaning down to whisper intimately into my ear.
“You only felt it because I wanted you to, Pet.”
And with that, she turned and walked away without another word. Leaving me there to try and process the revelation she had just dropped on me.
I stood there for a moment trying to figure things out when I was approached by a group of soldiers.
“We’ll take you back, armor and skills off.”
I nodded slowly, complying with their requests, before being surrounded by them and walking along the paths back to the cellblock.
‘Ping’ [Fist Fighter - Level 1³ / Brawler - Level 1³ / Fighter - Level 1] Has been slain. 10 ability points have been granted for defeating an opponent one tier above you.
‘Ping’ [Battlemage - Lightning] Has leveled 4 > 5
‘Ping’ [Bladedancer - Lightning] Has leveled 3 > 4
‘Ping’ [Nature’s Adept] Has leveled 2 > 3
‘Ping’ [Accelerated Thoughts] Has leveled 21 > 22
‘Ping’ [Sword Apprentice] Has leveled 18 > 19
Name: Alexander King
Ability Points: 515
Tier 2 Class - [Battlemage - Lightning] - Level 5
Ability - [Strike of Lightning]
Ability - [Paralyzing Blast]
Ability - [As Fast As Lighting - Passive]
Ability - [Lightning Aura]
Ability - [Chain Lightning]
Ability -
Tier 2 Class - [Bladedancer - Lightning] - Level 4
Ability - [Enchanted Perseverance - Passive]
Ability - [Mana Strike]
Ability - [Enchanted Redirection]
Ability - [Enchanted Accuracy]
Ability - [Mana Flurry]
Ability -
Tier 2 Class - [Nature’s Adept] - Level 3
Ability - [Natures Protection]
Ability - [Healing Blossom]
Ability - [Elements of Nature - Passive]
Ability - [Natural Selection]
Ability - [Nature’s Touch]
Ability - [Barrier]
Ability - [One With Nature]
Enhancements -
Tier 1 [Point Blank] (Level 25)
Tier 1 [Weapon Proficiency] (Level 25)
Tier 1 [Quickness] (Level 25)
Tier 2 - [Close Quarters Casting] (Level 50)
Tier 2 - [Dodge] (Level 50)
Tier 2 - [Feint Proficiency] (Level 50)
General Skills -
Tier 1 [Identify] - Level 9
Tier 1 [Rest] - Level 1
Tier 1 [Mana Sense] - Level 25
Tier 1 [Electric Sense] - Level 25
Tier 1 [Sword Apprentice] - Level 18
Tier 1 [Wood Manipulation] - Level 6
Tier 1 [Accelerated Thoughts] - Level 21
[Fist Technique] - Level 3
[Mining] - Level 3
[Fruit Production] - Level 1
Tier 1 [Fatigue Resistance] - Level 7
Tier 1 [Erotic Arts] - Level 2
[Parallel Minds] - Level 10
Status -
Vig - [1745] (2425.55)
End - [1525] (2119.75)
Str - [1586]
Dex - [1685] (2387) [3580.5] {3580.5}
Agi - [1524] (2820.36) |3259.11| {4230.54/4669.29}
Int - [1755]
Wis - [1864]
Health - 24255/24255
Stamina - 21197/21197
Mana - 18640/18640
|number represents CQC enhancement bonus| {Number represents 1-second spike when dodging/with CQC active} [number for weapon dexterity]
A decent few levels, especially considering how easy the fight was.
Not that I was going to complain.
Having gotten lost in comparing the changes in numbers of my stats I didn’t even realize we were at the door to the cell block.
They opened the door and shoved me inside causing me to stumble inside the door. I managed not to trip and turned around just in time to see them slam the door shut and lock it behind me.
With nothing to do about that, I turned and made my way down the corridor until I reached the commons area again. Once there I made my way back to my room completely tuning out my surroundings. I wasn’t interested in dealing with others right now.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get my wish, I saw someone step in front of my path, and looking at them I realized it was David.
He had a… look on his face that I couldn’t decipher.
“I see you’re back. I thought Lurks had taken you to fight in the matches, but I didn’t hear anything about you winning or losing so I wasn’t entirely sure what happened.”
At the mention of Lurks' name, I flinched slightly. If David noticed, he didn’t say or do anything to bring attention to it. Which I was definitely thankful for, calling it out would’ve been even more uncomfortable.
His face morphed slightly in expression, as it happened I finally understood what face he was making. How he was looking at me.
“She didn’t just take you to fight, did she?” He asked.
He was looking at me with pity.
And I fucking hated it.
“No, David.” My voice sounded strained even to my own ears. “No, she didn’t.”
I looked around, quite a few people were looking at us and more than enough were close enough to listen in since we weren’t exactly being quiet or subtle.
The ones too far away to hear looked on with curiosity, wondering what had happened, and where I had been.
Some of the ones close enough to hear had amused faces, the others had similar looks to David. The last remainder seemed unimpressed and stopped paying attention.
Funnily enough, I preferred the first group and the last group to the second one. I didn’t want people to pity me, I didn’t want people to know I was hurting and broken.
And if they were going to know I’d rather them not press it any further, I’d rather them just ignore it even if it exists.
No small amount of resentment for David welled up in my chest. Why couldn’t he have just not asked?
“Is there a reason you felt the need to air this out in front of the entire damn block, David?”
His eyes narrowed slightly, “Not really, I jus-”
I flared my mana outwards, lighting sparking off of me violently.
David jumped backwards pulling out his dagger, preparing to fight.
“Choose your next words very carefully, David. I’m feeling very suicidal right now.”
We stood there for a moment, him not responding, searching for a way he could strike without me retaliating.
“I’m going to warn you now, David. If you don’t kill me here and now, when I get high enough level I will kill you. This was a step over the line.” I smiled maliciously, “Although what makes this amusing is that if you kill me Lurks will be pretty pissed I think. So regardless, you’re going to die. But in the interest of our equal partnership, I’ll give you an opportunity to fix this.”
A vein popped up in his neck as he grits his teeth trying to control his anger.
“Oh, and what’s that, elf?”
“Submit.”
I could see the moment the gears stopped turning in his head.
“What?” He asked with a small amount of confusion.
“Submit,” I repeated.
“I own you, you belong to me now. Where we were equal partners before, now I’m in charge.”
“You really do have a death wish, don’t you?” David growled.
“NO, YOU DO!” I roared back at him.
“You felt the need to push my buttons the second I came back from being literally fucking tortured, David. You KNEW what Lurks was planning to do to me when she came. You knew from the fucking start! And then in an effort to get a position of power over me, you decided you wanted to let everyone else in the damn block know I was mentally fucked after what she did to me! You have the death wish because you know that Lurks owns me and that if you so much as touch me and she’ll make your life hell before you die. I would’ve been perfectly fine to ignore you and let you keep doing whatever the hell you wanted so long as you didn’t. Fucking. Bother me. But I guess that was asking for too much, huh? I. Own. You. David.”
David just stood there and listened as I vented every bit of anger I had built up in me at him.
I scoffed when he didn’t reply and shoved my way by him, “Stay the fuck out of my lane, David. Screw with me again like that and I will kill you now instead of later. So if you’d like to live going forward, you better make yourself useful. And let people know I’m the one in charge now, not you.”
He didn’t do anything, like I knew he wouldn’t as I walked by him and went back to my room.
I went into the room and managed to keep enough of my temper to not slam the door behind me. I did ‘lock’ it though, by morphing the wood to create a barricade so that it couldn’t easily be forced open.
I laid down on the bed and curled up into a ball, for the first time in who knows how long I felt marginally safe.
Sure the door wouldn’t actually keep a determined person out, but it’d give me time to prepare at the very least.
And that’s all my mind really cared about at this point. I wasn’t sure what time it was anymore, but given that our cellblock was here it was safe to assume that it was daytime.
I started using [Wood Manipulation] to form a shell. Similar to the one I had slept in on the road out here. This one was quite a bit larger though, and this time I had a blanket to use.
‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] Has leveled 6 > 7
It didn’t take long to finish up, I crawled inside with the blanket wrapped around me. I fell asleep quickly.
***
I slept fitfully, flashes of memories kept surfacing in my dreams and I’d wake up in a cold sweat, feeling shaky and nauseous.
Eventually, being unable to sleep I got out of my little shell and left the room. I was feeling constrained. Living underground wasn’t helping with that. I wanted to be outside. But there was no way to accomplish that by myself.
Maybe if I begged Lurks she’d let me outside for a bit. I huffed with slight amusement, I was looking forward to actually working our shift simply because it would let me outside. Sure it would be rocks and dust, but it was better than nothing.
I went into the commons room and sat down at one of the few tables they had there.
A few other people were piddling about, and a group of men were playing cards at one of the tables, but I ignored them and they were content to ignore me.
I buried my head in my arms, listening to the sounds of steps and voices echo through the cavern. Somehow it was more peaceful than my room.
I would’ve been content to fall asleep here, but I was startled by someone sitting in the seat across from me.
I looked up slowly, expecting to see David. He was the only one who’d really talked to me besides Jolene, and I didn’t expect her to leave the kitchen area ever.
I was surprised instead to see the young girl who had been in my group when we had been divided between Lurks and Larks' groups. She had dirty blonde hair, with vibrant green eyes. She was probably 5’6”, not tall but not short either. At least for a woman. She was pretty cute, the type I would’ve been infatuated with not even three months ago. Now I just wasn’t interested, partially because of Penny, the other half… Was best left in the back of my mind.
She seemed suspicious. She also seemed extremely nervous which only exacerbated my suspicion. We had never talked before, so why was she here now?
[Level 23²]
Surely she didn’t feel confident to try and attack me simply because of the rumors no doubt circulating after I’d returned. So something else then.
She fidgeted slightly in indecision causing me to sigh.
“Why are you here?” I asked her tiredly.
She jumped slightly before settling back down in her seat, “I ummm…” She paused before taking a deep breath and managed to actually look me in the eyes when she spoke.
“I wanted to say thank you.”
I raised an eyebrow while looking at her, “What for? It’s not like I’ve particularly helped you in any way.”
She shook her head, “That’s not true. When we came in here David planned to make an example out of one of us. From what I’ve heard from some of the other women, David liked to let Fist choose, and he had a tendency to pick women. For a number of reasons.” She added with disgust at the end.
“So you did help me,” She added with a slight smile, “Even if that wasn’t your intent, you still helped me and the other people from being hurt or killed.
My gaze softened slightly at the end as she spoke.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Kayla.” She replied instantly.
“How old are you, Kayla?”
“I just turned 19.” She answered with a bit of pride.
I was about to ask her another question when something slammed down on the table, causing Kayla to shriek in surprise and me to jump and prepare to fight someone.
Only for me to immediately stop as I recognized Jolene.
She gave me the stink eye from the side, “Oh sit down, you doofus. I was hoping you’d be back soon. I worked with some of those fruits you gave me and managed to come up with something. I wanted you to try it before I did anything else.”
I slowly sat back down in my seat before looking at what she had made. It looked sort of like a pot pie.
It was also pretty large.
“Jolene, I don’t think I can eat all of this.”
“Well, you better figure it out, 'cause if you waste any of this I’m going to make what Lurks did to you seem like a joke.”
I flinched slightly at the mention of her name.
Kayla’s face morphed into a look of horror.
I turned to look at Jolene who had the same expression on she always did, one that challenged me to confront her about what she just said or done.
I couldn’t help it, I started laughing. Kayla looked at me in shock as Jolene’s face softened slightly with a smile.
I kept laughing as tears came to my eyes that I struggled to wipe away.
It finally subsided after a couple of minutes.
“Oh man,” I said with a heavy sigh, trying to catch my breath. “I needed that. Thank you, Jolene.”
“Oh?” She asked with a slight smirk.
“I don’t like when people walk on eggshells around me about serious stuff like this. I’d prefer for everyone to just treat me like normal instead, although I’d prefer to not hear her name ever again, what you did is preferable to people looking at me like I’m a cripple instead.”
“Ah, you would know all about being a cripple wouldn’t you one-arm.” Jolene retorted with a smirk.
Kayla once again looked even more horrified as Jolene intentionally detonated verbal landmines left, right, and center.
I just started laughing again, “I walked right into that one.”
Jolene just smirked, “Eat the pie, Alex. Let me know what you think, just make sure it doesn’t go to waste.”
I nodded, “I will. Thanks, Jolene.”
She waved as she walked back to her area of work.
I let out a sigh as I turned back to Kayla, “Well, I don’t think I’m going to be able to eat all of this as I said. You want some?”
She looked indecisive at first before nodding her head.
I smiled at her, in a much better mood thanks to Jolene.
“Alright, let me get something for us to eat this with.”
I stepped out of the cage letting the dull sounds wash over me. I wasn’t sure whether there were more people happy with the performance versus angry it had been so short. And quite frankly I didn’t care right now.
I walked down the few short steps and there, a few steps away, was Lurks. She walked forward sinuously and held out her hand.
“The sword.” She said simply.
I had to give it back? Why?
“Because I said so.” Lurks retorted, causing me to flinch.
I hadn’t spoken out loud. She was still reading my mind, or at the very least the surface-level thoughts, I felt like I’d be able to feel her again if she was trying to sift deeper.
Lurks took another step closer and grabbed the blade from me while leaning down to whisper intimately into my ear.
“You only felt it because I wanted you to, Pet.”
And with that, she turned and walked away without another word. Leaving me there to try and process the revelation she had just dropped on me.
I stood there for a moment trying to figure things out when I was approached by a group of soldiers.
“We’ll take you back, armor and skills off.”
I nodded slowly, complying with their requests, before being surrounded by them and walking along the paths back to the cellblock.
‘Ping’ [Fist Fighter - Level 1³ / Brawler - Level 1³ / Fighter - Level 1] Has been slain. 10 ability points have been granted for defeating an opponent one tier above you.
‘Ping’ [Battlemage - Lightning] Has leveled 4 > 5
‘Ping’ [Bladedancer - Lightning] Has leveled 3 > 4
‘Ping’ [Nature’s Adept] Has leveled 2 > 3
‘Ping’ [Accelerated Thoughts] Has leveled 21 > 22
‘Ping’ [Sword Apprentice] Has leveled 18 > 19
Name: Alexander King
Ability Points: 515
Tier 2 Class - [Battlemage - Lightning] - Level 5
Ability - [Strike of Lightning]
Ability - [Paralyzing Blast]
Ability - [As Fast As Lighting - Passive]
Ability - [Lightning Aura]
Ability - [Chain Lightning]
Ability -
Tier 2 Class - [Bladedancer - Lightning] - Level 4
Ability - [Enchanted Perseverance - Passive]
Ability - [Mana Strike]
Ability - [Enchanted Redirection]
Ability - [Enchanted Accuracy]
Ability - [Mana Flurry]
Ability -
Tier 2 Class - [Nature’s Adept] - Level 3
Ability - [Natures Protection]
Ability - [Healing Blossom]
Ability - [Elements of Nature - Passive]
Ability - [Natural Selection]
Ability - [Nature’s Touch]
Ability - [Barrier]
Ability - [One With Nature]
Enhancements -
Tier 1 [Point Blank] (Level 25)
Tier 1 [Weapon Proficiency] (Level 25)
Tier 1 [Quickness] (Level 25)
Tier 2 - [Close Quarters Casting] (Level 50)
Tier 2 - [Dodge] (Level 50)
Tier 2 - [Feint Proficiency] (Level 50)
General Skills -
Tier 1 [Identify] - Level 9
Tier 1 [Rest] - Level 1
Tier 1 [Mana Sense] - Level 25
Tier 1 [Electric Sense] - Level 25
Tier 1 [Sword Apprentice] - Level 18
Tier 1 [Wood Manipulation] - Level 6
Tier 1 [Accelerated Thoughts] - Level 21
[Fist Technique] - Level 3
[Mining] - Level 3
[Fruit Production] - Level 1
Tier 1 [Fatigue Resistance] - Level 7
Tier 1 [Erotic Arts] - Level 2
[Parallel Minds] - Level 10
Status -
Vig - [1745] (2425.55)
End - [1525] (2119.75)
Str - [1586]
Dex - [1685] (2387) [3580.5] {3580.5}
Agi - [1524] (2820.36) |3259.11| {4230.54/4669.29}
Int - [1755]
Wis - [1864]
Health - 24255/24255
Stamina - 21197/21197
Mana - 18640/18640
|number represents CQC enhancement bonus| {Number represents 1-second spike when dodging/with CQC active} [number for weapon dexterity]
A decent few levels, especially considering how easy the fight was.
Not that I was going to complain.
Having gotten lost in comparing the changes in numbers of my stats I didn’t even realize we were at the door to the cell block.
They opened the door and shoved me inside causing me to stumble inside the door. I managed not to trip and turned around just in time to see them slam the door shut and lock it behind me.
With nothing to do about that, I turned and made my way down the corridor until I reached the commons area again. Once there I made my way back to my room completely tuning out my surroundings. I wasn’t interested in dealing with others right now.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get my wish, I saw someone step in front of my path, and looking at them I realized it was David.
He had a… look on his face that I couldn’t decipher.
“I see you’re back. I thought Lurks had taken you to fight in the matches, but I didn’t hear anything about you winning or losing so I wasn’t entirely sure what happened.”
At the mention of Lurks' name, I flinched slightly. If David noticed, he didn’t say or do anything to bring attention to it. Which I was definitely thankful for, calling it out would’ve been even more uncomfortable.
His face morphed slightly in expression, as it happened I finally understood what face he was making. How he was looking at me.
“She didn’t just take you to fight, did she?” He asked.
He was looking at me with pity.
And I fucking hated it.
“No, David.” My voice sounded strained even to my own ears. “No, she didn’t.”
I looked around, quite a few people were looking at us and more than enough were close enough to listen in since we weren’t exactly being quiet or subtle.
The ones too far away to hear looked on with curiosity, wondering what had happened, and where I had been.
Some of the ones close enough to hear had amused faces, the others had similar looks to David. The last remainder seemed unimpressed and stopped paying attention.
Funnily enough, I preferred the first group and the last group to the second one. I didn’t want people to pity me, I didn’t want people to know I was hurting and broken.
And if they were going to know I’d rather them not press it any further, I’d rather them just ignore it even if it exists.
No small amount of resentment for David welled up in my chest. Why couldn’t he have just not asked?
“Is there a reason you felt the need to air this out in front of the entire damn block, David?”
His eyes narrowed slightly, “Not really, I jus-”
I flared my mana outwards, lighting sparking off of me violently.
David jumped backwards pulling out his dagger, preparing to fight.
“Choose your next words very carefully, David. I’m feeling very suicidal right now.”
We stood there for a moment, him not responding, searching for a way he could strike without me retaliating.
“I’m going to warn you now, David. If you don’t kill me here and now, when I get high enough level I will kill you. This was a step over the line.” I smiled maliciously, “Although what makes this amusing is that if you kill me Lurks will be pretty pissed I think. So regardless, you’re going to die. But in the interest of our equal partnership, I’ll give you an opportunity to fix this.”
A vein popped up in his neck as he grits his teeth trying to control his anger.
“Oh, and what’s that, elf?”
“Submit.”
I could see the moment the gears stopped turning in his head.
“What?” He asked with a small amount of confusion.
“Submit,” I repeated.
“I own you, you belong to me now. Where we were equal partners before, now I’m in charge.”
“You really do have a death wish, don’t you?” David growled.
“NO, YOU DO!” I roared back at him.
“You felt the need to push my buttons the second I came back from being literally fucking tortured, David. You KNEW what Lurks was planning to do to me when she came. You knew from the fucking start! And then in an effort to get a position of power over me, you decided you wanted to let everyone else in the damn block know I was mentally fucked after what she did to me! You have the death wish because you know that Lurks owns me and that if you so much as touch me and she’ll make your life hell before you die. I would’ve been perfectly fine to ignore you and let you keep doing whatever the hell you wanted so long as you didn’t. Fucking. Bother me. But I guess that was asking for too much, huh? I. Own. You. David.”
David just stood there and listened as I vented every bit of anger I had built up in me at him.
I scoffed when he didn’t reply and shoved my way by him, “Stay the fuck out of my lane, David. Screw with me again like that and I will kill you now instead of later. So if you’d like to live going forward, you better make yourself useful. And let people know I’m the one in charge now, not you.”
He didn’t do anything, like I knew he wouldn’t as I walked by him and went back to my room.
I went into the room and managed to keep enough of my temper to not slam the door behind me. I did ‘lock’ it though, by morphing the wood to create a barricade so that it couldn’t easily be forced open.
I laid down on the bed and curled up into a ball, for the first time in who knows how long I felt marginally safe.
Sure the door wouldn’t actually keep a determined person out, but it’d give me time to prepare at the very least.
And that’s all my mind really cared about at this point. I wasn’t sure what time it was anymore, but given that our cellblock was here it was safe to assume that it was daytime.
I started using [Wood Manipulation] to form a shell. Similar to the one I had slept in on the road out here. This one was quite a bit larger though, and this time I had a blanket to use.
‘Ping’ [Wood Manipulation] Has leveled 6 > 7
It didn’t take long to finish up, I crawled inside with the blanket wrapped around me. I fell asleep quickly.
***
I slept fitfully, flashes of memories kept surfacing in my dreams and I’d wake up in a cold sweat, feeling shaky and nauseous.
Eventually, being unable to sleep I got out of my little shell and left the room. I was feeling constrained. Living underground wasn’t helping with that. I wanted to be outside. But there was no way to accomplish that by myself.
Maybe if I begged Lurks she’d let me outside for a bit. I huffed with slight amusement, I was looking forward to actually working our shift simply because it would let me outside. Sure it would be rocks and dust, but it was better than nothing.
I went into the commons room and sat down at one of the few tables they had there.
A few other people were piddling about, and a group of men were playing cards at one of the tables, but I ignored them and they were content to ignore me.
I buried my head in my arms, listening to the sounds of steps and voices echo through the cavern. Somehow it was more peaceful than my room.
I would’ve been content to fall asleep here, but I was startled by someone sitting in the seat across from me.
I looked up slowly, expecting to see David. He was the only one who’d really talked to me besides Jolene, and I didn’t expect her to leave the kitchen area ever.
I was surprised instead to see the young girl who had been in my group when we had been divided between Lurks and Larks' groups. She had dirty blonde hair, with vibrant green eyes. She was probably 5’6”, not tall but not short either. At least for a woman. She was pretty cute, the type I would’ve been infatuated with not even three months ago. Now I just wasn’t interested, partially because of Penny, the other half… Was best left in the back of my mind.
She seemed suspicious. She also seemed extremely nervous which only exacerbated my suspicion. We had never talked before, so why was she here now?
[Level 23²]
Surely she didn’t feel confident to try and attack me simply because of the rumors no doubt circulating after I’d returned. So something else then.
She fidgeted slightly in indecision causing me to sigh.
“Why are you here?” I asked her tiredly.
She jumped slightly before settling back down in her seat, “I ummm…” She paused before taking a deep breath and managed to actually look me in the eyes when she spoke.
“I wanted to say thank you.”
I raised an eyebrow while looking at her, “What for? It’s not like I’ve particularly helped you in any way.”
She shook her head, “That’s not true. When we came in here David planned to make an example out of one of us. From what I’ve heard from some of the other women, David liked to let Fist choose, and he had a tendency to pick women. For a number of reasons.” She added with disgust at the end.
“So you did help me,” She added with a slight smile, “Even if that wasn’t your intent, you still helped me and the other people from being hurt or killed.
My gaze softened slightly at the end as she spoke.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Kayla.” She replied instantly.
“How old are you, Kayla?”
“I just turned 19.” She answered with a bit of pride.
I was about to ask her another question when something slammed down on the table, causing Kayla to shriek in surprise and me to jump and prepare to fight someone.
Only for me to immediately stop as I recognized Jolene.
She gave me the stink eye from the side, “Oh sit down, you doofus. I was hoping you’d be back soon. I worked with some of those fruits you gave me and managed to come up with something. I wanted you to try it before I did anything else.”
I slowly sat back down in my seat before looking at what she had made. It looked sort of like a pot pie.
It was also pretty large.
“Jolene, I don’t think I can eat all of this.”
“Well, you better figure it out, 'cause if you waste any of this I’m going to make what Lurks did to you seem like a joke.”
I flinched slightly at the mention of her name.
Kayla’s face morphed into a look of horror.
I turned to look at Jolene who had the same expression on she always did, one that challenged me to confront her about what she just said or done.
I couldn’t help it, I started laughing. Kayla looked at me in shock as Jolene’s face softened slightly with a smile.
I kept laughing as tears came to my eyes that I struggled to wipe away.
It finally subsided after a couple of minutes.
“Oh man,” I said with a heavy sigh, trying to catch my breath. “I needed that. Thank you, Jolene.”
“Oh?” She asked with a slight smirk.
“I don’t like when people walk on eggshells around me about serious stuff like this. I’d prefer for everyone to just treat me like normal instead, although I’d prefer to not hear her name ever again, what you did is preferable to people looking at me like I’m a cripple instead.”
“Ah, you would know all about being a cripple wouldn’t you one-arm.” Jolene retorted with a smirk.
Kayla once again looked even more horrified as Jolene intentionally detonated verbal landmines left, right, and center.
I just started laughing again, “I walked right into that one.”
Jolene just smirked, “Eat the pie, Alex. Let me know what you think, just make sure it doesn’t go to waste.”
I nodded, “I will. Thanks, Jolene.”
She waved as she walked back to her area of work.
I let out a sigh as I turned back to Kayla, “Well, I don’t think I’m going to be able to eat all of this as I said. You want some?”
She looked indecisive at first before nodding her head.
I smiled at her, in a much better mood thanks to Jolene.
“Alright, let me get something for us to eat this with.”
