Bros Being Bros (RB Vs. The Shadow God, Chapter 6) · 3:58pm Jul 1st, 2022
Previously, on The Shadow God:
A lot of crying!
And now:
Health update: surgery went well. I can't feel or move my arm. Now I'm really typing with one hand.
The chapter begins with Craig's mother, Susan, finding him curled up on the floor next to his closet, covered by a blanket. Nice of the pillar to give that to him; wouldn't want him to get too cold.
Someone's there to see Craig. It's Kristy, his girlfriend.
“Well, I’ll leave you two alone then,” said Susan, grabbing her basket. She filled it with Craig’s strewn clothes and disappeared into the hallway.
Craig: old enough to go to college, but not old enough to do his own laundry.
Y'know, that leads me into an issue I've been having: I keep forgetting that Craig and his friends are twenty years old. The way they talk and act, you'd think they were around fourteen. It's a weird disconnect I keep being drawn back to.
Anyway, Craig is waffling on whether to tell Kristy about what happened last night.
Craig squeezed her hand in his. “I know,” he said. “It’s just that I don’t think you’ll believe me this time.”
Kristy’s face wrinkled in disgust as she snatched her hand back. “What are you talking about?” Her voice took a more incredulous tone.
“Nothing,” said Craig. “I’ve been through something, and I think you’ll have a hard time believing me.”
“Whatever it is, you can tell me, Craig.”
“You’ll think I’ve gone mad.”
“Oh,” said Kristy. “Is that all? Well, you can relax because I thought that the first day I met you.”
Great thing to tell the character with a documented mental illness. Honestly, though, Craig must have been a lot weirder in the past, because I'd hardly call him as we know him now "mad". He seems pretty normal to me.
Craig begins by telling her about the whispers he's been hearing from his walls at night.
“You sure you’re not just imagining them?” Kristy asked.
“Kristy!” said Craig. “I know the difference.”
“Obviously, you don’t,” she said. “You just can’t sit me down and then tell me that you’re hearing voices in your room late at night. You just can’t do that to me!”
Craig couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He trusted Kristy enough to be truthful with her and now she’s treating him like a lunatic straight out of an institution.
Note: Kristy is a psychology major. You'd think she'd have at least some bedside manner in a situation like this.
Craig tells her about the blue light and the Dark World. Kristy starts crying. Craig then realizes that if it all actually happened, Mark and Todd would remember it too, so he rushes out of the house to find them.
Craig rounded the yellow fire hydrant at the corner and made a beeline straight up the hill to Mark’s front door. Exhausted, Craig banged on the door, while hoping Mark hadn’t already gone out for the day.
Margie, Mark’s eighteen-year-old sister, pulled the door open. She’d had a crush on Craig ever since he mentioned the fact that she was finally growing tits. But, naturally Craig passed her off as some kind of pest. He had never really noticed her until now. Until she stood before him in a gray halter top, with no bra, nipples poking out, and black jeans that were just snug enough to flatter her blossoming body.
Craig paused for a second, temporarily forgetting why he was there.
Priorities, Craig.
He faced Margie, drew up his shoulders, and then stepped inside. Margie arched her back so that Craig’s right shoulder brushed against her breasts as he bustled past her and up the steps to Mark’s bedroom.
Priorities, Margie.
Craig runs up to Mark's room, and finds him in his bed. He shakes Mark awake.
He sat on the edge of Mark’s bed and stared intently into his face.
“Dude, what are you doing?” Mark asked, casting a worried, get-out-of-my-bed-I’m-not-a-f****t look.
Having to censor slurs? In my Shadow God review? It's more likely than you'd think!
Mark is convinced last night was all a dream. Craig proves to him that it wasn't. They decide to go to Todd's next. Todd also insists that it was a dream.
Todd shook his head. “It’s not possible. You didn’t see the werewolf.” He looked from Craig to Mark. “You didn’t see Spiers.”
Craig’s eyebrows creased. “What are you talking about? A werewolf? Is that what you said? You saw a werewolf?”
Todd nodded his head violently.
“Where?” Mark asked. “In the Dark World?”
Todd shook his head.
Craig stood up, unable to make heads or tails of what Todd was saying. “I think he’s still kind of delusional from last night.”
You heard whispering from your walls, saw a blue light coming from your closet, entered said closet, stumbled through a world of darkness for several hours, saw a demon, and jumped into a giant pillar to get home. But obviously, a werewolf is just too unbelievable.
The three of them decide to go to the tennis courts so they can talk in private. Because when I want a private conversation, the first place I'd want to go is a public park.
Craig shows them the letter from his dad. He says he wants them to all go to the prison together. But, first, they compare notes. Todd explains about the werewolf and how he thinks his mother is having an affair with Father Spiers.
Todd nodded. “Yeah, but I think he’s more than just an old fart. There’s something not right about him. I don’t know what it is. I just know that he’s hiding some kind of secret.”
“He’s not screwing little boys, is he?” Mark said, laughing.
Child molestation joke. Hilarious.
Craig tells them about the demon he saw. He also tells them about Kristy.
Mark’s and Todd’s eye sockets widened.
Sounds painful.
Craig shook his head again. “No, I kinda walked out on her because she wanted me to take medication for my problem.”
Mark burst out laughing.
God, I hate Mark. Guy's just the worst.
Speaking of Mark, despite Craig and Todd sharing their experiences, no one asks Mark about what he saw. Which is convenient for him, I guess. They don't notice the tattoo on his hand, either.
Done catching up, the three decide to do something to cheer themselves up, so they go to their local pool hall before calling it a night and heading home. Each of them sees the blue light again that night, but none of them enter it.
And that's the chapter. See you tomorrow, folks.
Soo... is Kristy still just waitig at Craig's house? Or did she hopefully just get bored and go home?
oh sure, she's "eighteen" but she's also just now "blossoming" <.< pull the other one
I sometimes feel sorry for the people who write these books. When they get to a scene like this and their characters have no one to turn to, no one who'll support them or believe them, I have to assume it's a reflection of the author's real life, and thus the only reality they can conceive of.