You Will Never Escape

by Autistic Witch

You will never escape ch5

The bleeping of my alarm gently brought me out of sleep. Even though some smarty pants found out how to not have morning alarms give people heart attacks, mornings still weren’t fun. I felt like a slug pulling myself out of bed. I didn’t have any weird dreams, but I didn’t feel rested. I stumbled into the bathroom to take care of morning crap and nearly fell asleep on the toilet. Seeing myself in the mirror, my golden skin was now almost ivory. Okay, something with spinach in it.

I drudged through my morning routine, cursed my way through my attempts at electronic depositing, and headed to the garage to meet Rarity. She was waiting in my spot and did a double take when I got in. “Sunset, you look like you’ve never seen sunlight.”

“Yes, I saw the mirror this morning.” I laid my head against the headrest and hoped to get some rest on the ride to work.

“You should go to the hospital. I don’t care about the tests, you need something.”

I looked at Rarity, and she looked at me in the way I knew I wasn’t getting out of this. “Fine”

Rarity pulled out of the parking lot and drove straight to the hospital. She practically dragged me inside and brought me to the front desk. “Hello, this is my friend.” Rarity pulled out her phone and showed it to the nurse. “And this is the color she’s supposed to be.”

The nurse’s eyes widened but didn’t look panicked. “Okay, can your friend speak?”

“I can. My name’s Sunset Shimmer. I was here a couple days ago and had some blood drawn.”

“Okay, please have a seat.”

We sat down in those uncomfortable waiting room chairs. With how much these places cost, you’d think they’d put some of that towards making sure the sick and injured are more comfortable. I laid my head on Rarity’s shoulder and closed my eyes. I didn’t keep track of the time, so I couldn't say exactly how long it took for the doctors to get to me, but I wasn’t five minutes away from dying, so I could wait. Rarity tapped me on the shoulder, and I looked up to see a medical person trying to talk to me. I couldn’t understand what she was saying but got up and followed her. She led me into a room, and I sat on the bed and placed my backpack and jacket next to it. She took my vitals and other medical stuff. I was left to wait some more.

“What brings you in today?”, the doctor asked as she finally came in.

“I’m supposed to be rich gold, not a shade yellower than ivory.”

“Alright” The doctor looked at her clipboard and took a seat. “Any other symptoms?”

“I had a nightmare that I was decaying a couple nights ago. I've been generally tired for over a week, I overall feel like crap, my appetite hasn’t lessened, but my stomach has been giving me some problems, and today, I woke up feeling like a bloated slug.”

“Any issues with feeling faint while standing up or blacking out without cause?”

“Nope, oh, and I was in a motorcycle accent three days ago, so both of my ribs are bruised.”

“Ouch, okay, something went wrong with your labs, so we’ll need to take more samples.”

I let out an annoyed grumble, and the doc nodded sympathetically. “The results weren’t ‘incompatible with life’, were they? Because I know some people that had labs that said that, but they were walking around if a bit sickly.”, I asked.

“No, when I mean something went wrong, I mean a car crashed into the building, contaminating or destroying all the samples.”

“Oh, something did go wrong.”

“Yeah, I’ll have someone come in and take samples, but are there any other symptoms or anything at all strange going on. The symptoms you’ve given me so far could be anything from a bad case of the flu to cancer.”

Should I tell her? What if it’s real and telling her will corrupt the data? What if I am hallucinating and not telling her will leave the linchpin out of the clues? What if I have a brain tumor that’s causing me to hallucinate? “Possibly, I might be hallucinating, but I’m not sure. It’s nothing obvious like voices in my head, but things have been kinda weird lately.”

“Describe ‘weird’.”

“I’ve been seeing some things that are strange but not impossible, and I’ve always been alone when I see some, so I can’t, like, ask the person next to me if they saw that too.”

“Okay, I’ll add that. Are you worried about a brain tumor?”

“Uh, maybe. I’m not sure. I don’t have much information about my family’s medical history.”

“Okay, are you experiencing any new onset or change in pattern of headaches, headaches that are becoming more frequent and severe, unexplained nausea or vomiting, vision problems, such as blurred vision, double vision, or loss of peripheral vision, loss of sensation or movement in an arm or a leg, or difficulty with balance?”

“No, none of that.”

“Okay, a tumor seems unlikely, but we’ll still test for it. Has your breathing changed, before the accent?”

“No”

“Any change in thirst like needing more water?”

“No, but now that I think of it, my other thirst has gone down in the last few days, but that could just be from the anxiety caused by the situation.”

“Do you feel scared?”

Okay, phrasing. “Yeah, mainly about the possibility of hallucinating. None of them were ever officially diagnosed, but everyone on my mom’s side is crazy.”

“Do you feel like you need to see a psychiatrist?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. I already have one. It’s just been years since I’ve last talked to her.”

“Anything else you’d like to talk about?”

“That’s it.”

“Okay, I don’t have a diagnosis, yet, but we’ll take more blood and get that tested. However, I am concerned about your lack of color. I would like to give you an IV.”

“Will my insurance cover it?”

“Depends on your insurance.”

“I’ll pass. I’ll just get some fruit or something. Oh, do I need to tell you I just got off my period this morning?”

“I let the phlebologist know. If that’s pertinent information, he’ll know, and he’ll be in soon.”

The doctor left, and I was once again left alone. More waiting later, the phlebologist came in and took my blood. Once that was done and we were certain I wouldn’t bleed out, I got everything back on and headed back out to the waiting room, where Rarity still sat.

“Ready to go?”, Rarity asked.

“Yes, but something tells me it’s not to work we are going.”

“Correct, you’re taking the day off to rest.”

I scowled at Rarity, but she’s gotten too good at her ‘I’m serious’ face. “Fine, but I don’t find sitting around my apartment all day restful.”

Rarity got up and we began walking to her car. “Sigh, fine, where do you want to go?”

“Sweet Apple Acres, I want to get my bike fixed.”

We got into her car, and Rarity looked at me like she was done with me. “How is that restful?”

“It’s like meditation to me.”

Rarity rolled her eyes but drove us to AJ’s and RD’s. Most of the cars were gone with the exception of RD’s bike. Rarity pulled into the driveway, and I hopped out. RD came out of the house and walked over to us with curiosity plastered on her face.

“Hey girls- wow, Sunset, you look-”, Rainbow said.

“Yeah, yeah, I know what I look like, and Rarity already took me to the hospital.”

“I insisted she take the day off, and she wanted to fix her bike.”, Rarity explained.

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s get to it.”, Rainbow said.

Rarity looked at us like she was questioning why she befriended us, shook her head, and left. Rainbow and I headed into the barn she has her work station in. She and AJ took it upon themselves to maintain and repair anything metal or that could be repaired using metal on the small farm, and that’s what this whole barn was dedicated to, that and a bit of storage. They did expand slightly when they started to prepare for their own families. They bought the two properties on either side of their original home when Applejack and Applebloom came of age and folded them into the farm. They still didn’t have or need a tractor, but they do have several cars and trucks, home appliances, and lots of tools.

My bike sat in the corner with its replacement parts sitting next to it. We got changed into jumpsuits and put the clothes and personal effects we removed outside the barn, then Rainbow rolled my bike to the center of the work space, and we placed it on a work stand. My key was still in the ignition. I ran my hands along the body. In my many years of owning it, it’s become a franken-bike with parts from any year that would fit. Rainbow handed me a drill with a box of driver attachments, and we got to work. Due to our more reckless and thrill seeking habits, we’ve had much experience replacing parts on our bikes together. The open, flat lands and empty roads just outside the mountains and the abandoned race track just a few miles out of town make for perfect places to go really fast. We worked like a well oiled machine and got the damaged parts off in no time. The damaged parts were added to their respective scrap or trash piles, and the new parts were brought over to the spray-bay. I keep a paint sprayer and an old stable reserved in the barn for when the Apples need me to paint a replacement part. Appearance may not be their primary concern, but it’s still nice to have things match in color. The wheel was put next to the bike, but everything else was disassembled and masked off and placed in the stable turned paint room. We got on our safety equipment and got to work.

Painting takes a while since you gotta make sure you get complete coverage and wait for everything to dry. We prepped the pieces, got them dry, then got to priming. Once all the pieces were completely white, RD turned on the big butt fan, I set the timer, and we exited the barn to let them dry and the place air out. We took off our masks and leaned against the outside of the barn. An outside observer might think we should’ve done the painting first then dismantle my bike during the drying periods, but these masks are much more uncomfortable than our everyday masks, and the barn isn’t well air conditioned, a fan can only do so much, and it’s loud in there when the fan’s going.

“AJ and I are going to go kid shopping next week.”, Rainbow said.

“So, that’s why it was called ‘KidsRus’.”

“Eyup, shelves upon shelves of babies. Do you remember that place?”

“Nope, the only reason I was ever allowed to leave the house at all was because the state forced my mom to let me attend school.”

“Oh, yeah. Do you know where she is now?”

“Hell, and I’m not joking. She got shanked and ended up dying from a superbug infection about a year ago.”

“Damn, how do you feel about it?”

“Conflicted, I hate her and am glad she’s dead, but I also feel guilty about feeling happiness at someone’s death. Does that make me a bad person?”

Rainbow let out a burp then shook her head. “Nah, your mom was a bad person, your dad is a bad person, but you’re a good person. We all die, and we get to feel however we want to feel about it all.”

I nodded my head, and the timer went off. We put our masks back on and headed back inside. Rd turned off the fan, and we repeated the same process for the first layer of red then turned the fan back on and headed back outside. We leaned back up against the barn and took our masks back off.

“Hey, Rainbow, do you believe in an afterlife?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I don’t really care if there is one or not. I don’t need the threat of eternal damnation to be a good person.”

I nodded. I’ve come to a point in my life where death is one of the better possible outcomes once again. “I just hope there are a lot of hot chicks in Hell.”

“Well, all chicks in Hell are going to be hot.”

We gave each other our own devilish grins and then went back to looking over the farm. The chickens waddled about the yard, and the dogs patrolled the fence. I could almost forget about the ugly side of life.

“I’m going to get something to drink. Want anything?”, RD asked.

“Sure, nothing alcoholic, I’m still on pain meds.”

Rainbow gave a thumbs up and headed to the house. She soon came back with a can in each hand. Rainbow onced described canned beer as tasting like android piss, so that’s how I know she got us a couple of sodas. She came back to our spot and handed me my preferred soda. We sipped our drinks in silence until the timer went off again. We put our drinks down on a nearby barrel and masks back on and headed back inside. RD turned the fan off, so we could hear ourselves think, and we got to work again. I taped out the design I wanted, flames, and started painting by both spray and hand. Once it was to my liking, we turned the fan back on and headed back outside.

We took off our masks and checked our cans for any insects. It only took one of us being stung by a wasp in a can once for us to develop the habit of checking our beverages. We went back to sipping our drinks and looking over the trees and animals.

“Have you talked to Supply yet?”, RD asked.

“No, not yet. I’ve been busy.”

“Once we get the clear coat on, I can take you.”

“Thanks”

We waited for the timer to go off and headed back inside. We repeated the usual process for the clear coat then headed to RD’s bike. We binned our now empty cans, hopped on the bike, and drove to Crate’s Auto and Tool Emporium. It was a small place and rather unassuming. It’s another “go there with a purpose” business. Rainbow parked, and we headed inside. Just as the slogan had promised, there were a lot of higher quality parts and tools all over the place. They did still have some lower quality stuff, but it was clear the better stuff was their focus.

We approached the help desk, where a man about our age sat. “Hey Supply, how ya been?”, RD asked.

“Pretty good. You?”, Supply said.

“I’m good, but my friend here crashed a few days ago and needs a new windshield.”

“Sure, what do you need?”

I told him what brand and year I needed, and he gave me a thumbs up and disappeared into the back. He soon came back out with my windshield, and I gave him my card. He ran it, gave it back, I grabbed my windshield, and we were on our way. I had to cradle the windshield in between us and hold onto Rainbow. It was awkward, but I managed. We rode back without incident and got back to my bike. With all the parts painted and dried, we removed the masking tape and assembled the parts, and it looked good as new. We took it off the work stand, and I started it up. The engine roared to life, and the sound of my own engine was like the biggest, fanciest orchestra to my ears.

“Hey, wanna do something Twilight definitely wouldn’t approve of?”, RD asked.

“I’m tempted, but I’ve already been in the hospital twice this week.”

“I hear ya.”

I turned my bike off, and we brought it out to the driveway. I pulled out my phone to call Rarity, but she beat me to the punch. “Hey, I was about to call you. My bike is fixed, so I won’t be needing a ride.”

“Good, but I just had a weird guy in the office, asking about you.”

“Hang on.” I signaled for Rainbow to come closer and put my phone on speaker. “Okay, take it from the top.”

“So, I’m in the office, doing stuff, when this man I’ve never seen before comes in. He seemed odd but in the ‘strangely familiar’, ‘looking in a mirror’ way. I made a note of it but still did my usual spiel. Instead of asking for help or to hire us or whatever, he asked for you and you specifically. Of course, I was worried you had been chaotic stupid again and he’s pissed at you so asked some probing questions. I told him you were busy on another case and asked him what he wanted, saying that I might be able to help him, and he said that you were buddies back during your high school days and that he was hoping to reconnect. He wore a basic medical mask with dark sunglasses and a baseball cap and gave me an obviously fake name and is average in every other way, so no description other than dark blue skin.”

Rainbow and I looked up at each other with ‘something stinks’ faces, and Rainbow mouthed “hitman”. As much as I wanted to tell her off for saying something so ridiculous and getting me paranoid, it was looking less ridiculous. I hope he’s just another PI, but I should prepare for a hitman.

“We should go inside.”, I commented. RD shot her head up and surveyed the surroundings then we bolted into the house.

“What do we do now?”, RD asked as I closed all the blinds and curtains. “Fuck, who knew trying to get child support could be so deadly.”

“Never underestimate the deadliness of greed.”

Rainbow and I took a seat at the table, and I placed the phone between us.

“We need to keep Sunset away from windows and make sure she doesn’t go anywhere alone.”, Rarity explained. Rainbow didn’t say anything, and you could hear her fear in the silence. “We’re not at risk, at least not as much. If they aren’t getting paid to, a hitman won’t kill us.”

“You sure?”, Rainbow asked.

“They’re getting paid for the potential punishment as much as the actual service. They don’t want to risk more charges without the money.”

“Okay”

“Finding my address won’t be hard, if they know where to look. I should grab Mustard a UV lamp.”, I said.

“You’re thinking about getting your lizard new crap now?”, RD asked, almost outraged.

“Mustard gets his UV from his window. If I’m going to need to keep my blinds closed, he’ll need a new source.”

“I’ll call Fluttershy and ask her to pick one up for you.”, Rarity said.

“Thanks. I need to go to the store to replace all the food that got destroyed.”

“Okay, let’s do that now.”, RD insisted.

“Okay, see you, Rare.”

“Bye”, Rarity said before hanging up.

Rainbow grabbed her backpack, and she and I headed to the front door, but before I even made it to the threshold, Rainbow put her hand out and looked around for something.

“Check for glints of light.”, I informed.

Rainbow looked around again then gave the ‘move out’ signal. She was being a dork and moved around like she was trying to be stealthy in a video game. I just walked normally as we headed to the barn to change back into our street clothes. Once we were dressed and I had my backpack, we got on our respective bikes and drove to the nearest grocery store. RD came in with me, and we went around the store.

As we walked down the isles, I kept on noticing the same person at the end of each isle. I knew I was most likely just being paranoid, but my jackass brain was being a jerk. Even though, I kept an eye on the person. They had dark gray skin, so couldn’t be the person Rarity talked to, but they are also wearing a baseball cap with dark glasses and a basic medical mask. I chose not to alert Rainbow. Stealth and discretion is not her strong suit. We continued getting the stuff I needed, minus alcohol. I doubt I’ll be off the pain meds before that thing gets me.

“Sunset, what are you looking at?”

Shit. “Nothing, this whole thing’s just got me paranoid.”

“Well, you don’t need to worry. Even I know that no competent assassin would attack in here, and your dad is rich enough to hire the best.”

“Yeah, I know.”

We finished shopping then headed to the checkout. As we were scanning my items, I noticed the gray person was also checking out. They were at the checkout behind us and hadn’t even glanced our way, as far as I knew. I didn’t look too closely, but it almost looked like the person didn’t scan anything or even have anything at all. The self checkouts were noisy with beeps and other sounds related to such a place, so I couldn't tell whether or not the person behind us was scanning or doing whatever else. I didn’t see a basket, and I couldn’t tell if their arms were moving.

I paid for the stuff, and we packed it into our bags. I lost sight of the person as Rainbow would see me looking at them now. I could feel the person’s eyes on me as we left the store, but I didn’t hear anyone following us. We climbed on our bikes, and Rainbow futzed with her backpack. It had gone askew when we mounted and was now doing everything but what she wanted it to do. I watched the entrance for the person while Rainbow swore at her backpack but wasn’t seeing them come out.

“Try repacking it.”, I suggested.

Rainbow growled but unzipped her bag. “What the hell are you even looking at?”

“We were being followed throughout the store. I’m waiting for them to come out.”, I said in what RD called my “hard-ass voice”.

“Wait, what?”, Rainbow instantly went from annoyed to worried and concerned. “How could they’ve known?”

“I don’t know. They wore the same attire as the person Rarity described, but they had dark gray skin.”

“Where had you seen ‘em?”

“They stayed at the ends of the isles, and they checked out at the checkout behind us, at least they acted to check out. I never saw them grab anything, and I couldn’t see them moving like they were scanning.”

“Huh, I don’t remember seeing anyone like that. Why didn’t you alert me earlier?”

I looked back at her with a ‘you know why’ look.

“Okay, fair, but I never noticed anyone behind us at checkout. Granted, I don’t have as keen of an eye as you, but I think I would’ve noticed someone there.”, RD said as she zipped up her backpack.

“I definitely did.”

“Good, that means we know about them, but let’s get you home.” RD got her backpack back on, and we rode off. I still didn’t see the person as we left. We drove straight to my apartment, and we unpacked our bags onto my counter. RD copied my actions at the farm and closed my blinds while I put the food away. “You good?”

“Yeah” I handed Rainbow back her spare helmet and placed my mask on the kitchen counter. “You want something to eat?”

“Nah, thanks, but I got a lunch date with AJ.”

“Best get going then. Don’t want to keep a pretty lady waiting.”

Rainbow giggled and scurried out the door with her spare helmet and empty backpack in hand. Those two really are going to be good parents. I went into my room and moved Mustard out of the window then removed my gun and knife and put them in their lockbox. I grabbed my new helmet and my painting supplies and brought them out to the table. I gave my helmet a similar paint job as my bike, with flames emerging from the visor. The public opinion on masks, helmets, and items of that sort hasn’t really changed, just stopped being a topic of interest. There are still people that view masks and helmets as the devil and wear theirs incorrectly or not at all and spout that week’s nonsense, most people just view them as just another think you need to remember to grab, like keys, phones, and wallets, and there are those of us that view them as an artistic expression of ourselves, like makeup or tattoos or any other article of clothing. You can tell a lot about a person by their masks.

I set my helmet aside to let the final layer of varnish dry as I brought my brushes into the bathroom to be cleaned. For the first time since this morning, I saw my reflection, and my complexion has improved but was still very pale. I should eat something. I quickly washed and put everything back then went into the kitchen. I whipped something easy up and retook my seat. My helmet stared back at me from across the table. The events of the shopping trip played back in my mind. The person that followed us was very strange. It was almost like they were trying to act strange. How can acting strange possibly be beneficial during the recon phase? Are they trying to alert their targe- they’re trying to wear me down! Brilliant! They either make their target think they’re going crazy or just keep them on alert until they let their guard down, then they strike. It’s brilliant, almost too brilliant. It made too much sense, like my brain was trying to rationalize it. Things rarely come out so cut and dry. Am I actually going mad? Rainbow never noticed the person following us. That could be because the person is good at their job or my experience let me notice them. Now, I wish I had alerted Rainbow. If I was hallucinating, I would’ve known then and there.

I grabbed my finished plate and utensils and brought them to the sink. I could be hallucinating both the shadow figure and the gray stalker, but the person that visited the office is undoubtedly real. I am being hunted. It’s just a matter of what’s killing me first.

I felt my exhaustion from this morning return with a vengeance. I put my now clean tableware in the drying rack and lumbered into bed, barely having enough energy to get into my PJs. Mustard looked at me expectantly. “I’ll feed you tomorrow. Don’t act like you’re starving. You’re not.” I snuggled into my blankets, and let sleep take hold.

---

I woke up in a dark room, the only light coming from Mustard’s heating lamp. It was past midnight, and why I had woken up was clear. I lumbered out of bed and into the bathroom. After I finished my business, I checked my complexion. It had neither improved nor gotten worse. I quickly washed up and headed out to the living room. I was once again hungry so began walking to the kitchen, but a sound coming from my front door stopped me in my tracks. The deadbolt jiggled, and the sounds of someone trying to pick it eliminated from the other side. I grabbed the largest knife I own from the kitchen, put on my mask, and crept to the door.

Looking through the peephole, I could only see the top of the perp’s head. I’m not human. He’s not human. We’re monsters, two monsters trying to kill each other. Be the monster. Be unafraid. Now having confirmed this was a break-in, I quickly unlocked and yanked the door open and brandished my knife in the classic horror movie pose. The would-be intruder stumbled back onto their rump and looked up at me with his masked face. The man perfectly matched the description of the guy Rarity met.

Before I could react, he scrambled to his feet and began running down the hallway. I ran after him, ignoring the protests from my sides and slowly gaining on him. He reached the stairs, and I chased him down them. As we ran down the stairs, we passed through the shadow thing that was now further up and closer to my floor. I didn’t care about it. This man is my target. He reached the ground floor and tried to open the door, but those few precious seconds are what allowed me to grab him and pin him to the wall.

He looked to be about to strike back, but I put the tip of my knife to his throat to discourage such behavior. I used the knife to flick those glasses off his face, putting me eye to eye with his crimson eyes.

“Time to answer some questions.”, I growled.

“I’m not telling you anything.”, he said in an emotionless and cold voice. His eyes were also cold and showed no emotion. It was like staring into the eyes of a doll but with that spark of life.

“Cute, do you value your own life? Are you physically incapable of feeling fear, or am I just a target? Would talking to me cause you to chicken out, make me seem human, or is this just an annoyance?”

The man didn’t answer any of my questions and tried to kick me, but I shut that down with a sturdy headbutt to the forehead. It wasn’t enough to knock him out, but it did disorientate him.

“Okay, I’ll just give you my answers, and then you can give me yours. No, I don’t see you as human, and this is an annoyance. I could kill you now, and I wouldn’t really care. We have different jobs, but they need the same skill set. My empathy is locked away in a little box, and it’s not like I have any for you in the first place.”

The man remained silent. His eyes showed no change. I might as well have been talking to the wall.

“Sigh, I’ll just start making wild guesses then. My dear old dad hired you to kill me so he could reclaim his one-million-eighty-thousand dollars. I doubt any of the other people I’ve pissed off this week have the money to hire you. Well, how ‘bout this?” I used my knife to cut the straps of his mask, letting the mask fall to one side and making sure to cut into his skin and get his blood on the knife. I then moved out of the way and pointed to the camera. He looked up, and his face got a hint of ‘oh, fuck’ in it. “You go tell my father that, even if I die tomorrow, he won’t ever get his money back. I’ve known he’s a fucking piece of shit since I was ten, and I know how dangerous my job is. My will plainly states that any blood relatives not mentioned in it were not omitted by mistake. He knew I existed and had nothing to do with me growing up, so he gets nothing of mine.” I let him go but kept the knife trained on him. The man opened the garage door and hurried out.

Only once the door closed and the man was out of my sight did I lower my knife, and the first time since this whole assassination thing started, I let myself feel. My heart kicked up to what had to be two beats a second, and I felt light headed. I practically collapsed onto the stairs and put my head into my hands. I was shaking like a leaf, and my sides ached. I know he paid for me to be aborted, but I’m not just a cluster of cells anymore. “My own dad wants me dead. I’m worth less than his money to him.”, I said in a shaking daze. I brought the hand that held my knife down to where I could see said knife. Neither of my parents love me. They both want me dead. They both tried to kill me. My eyes traced along the razor sharp edge of the blade. I’m dying. Why prolong it? No. I grabbed my knife wielding wrist with my other hand as if some alien force had possessed it. “I have a family, one that loves me. I’ve never not been dying. They’re why.”

I stood back up and headed back up to my apartment. I came up to the shadowy thing and took a light swing at it with the knife. Of course, that did nothing. I muttered various curses at it as I continued up the stairs. As I approached my door, I noticed a box next to it. It was a UV lamp. Fluttershy. I picked the box up and re-entered my apartment. After locking my door, I placed the box and my mask on the counter and grabbed a paper towel and a plastic bag. I wiped the blood off the knife, stuffed the bloody paper towel in the plastic black, zipped it up, and stuffed it in the freezer. I placed the knife next to the sink to be taken care of in the morning then just stood in the kitchen, debating on if I was more tired or hungry. I remembered the protein bars and just scarfed a couple of those down then went back into bed. Mustard still looked at me expectantly from his rock, like I was going to feed him.

“You love me, right, Mustard?”

Mustard caught sight of a bug that made the mistake of entering his terrarium and snapped it up.

“Yeah, you love me, even if it’s only because I feed you. If only you were dragon sized. I could feed my enemies to you.”

The two brain cells that exist within his head seemingly banged together at that moment, as I saw the slightest glint of intelligence between those reptilian eyes.

“You like that idea? I wish my life was as easy as yours.” I grabbed my spare pillow and snuggled up to it. Let’s hope these dreams aren’t too weird.

Author's Note:

The remaining chapters will be released after Halloween. I've got some birthdaying to do that day.