Chapter 229: Out With One Challenge, In With Another
One more minute left.
Apparently, Tyler had been keeping a very close track of our time the entire time, and just in time too. Ten seconds after that, my feet were once more shuffling across the pavement of my driveway, slamming shut the car door.
Forty seconds, I looked back behind me. Expensive car, designer clothes, fancy phone, twenty-four hours ago was all I could see. Fast forward, thirty seconds left, my eyesight had broadened a little bit more than before, now I could see what shallow-me missed at first glance.
That being the genuine smile that might as well be a permanent fixture, the genuine stare that’s been meeting mine all this time, and the genuine person behind it all.
Talk about not judging a book by its cover... Tyler was so far from what first impressions entailed, he wasn’t even the same damn book anymore.
“This is it, big man. Homestretch,” He called out from the driver side window, tapping a glittering silver watch at his wrist. “This is where I drive off into the sunset while sad music plays. Try to hold back your tears, ‘kay?”
“No promises,” I told him. Twenty seconds left. “Thank you for choosing Playboy Bungalow as your hostel of choice. Hope you enjoyed your stay with us.”
.....
“Enjoyed?” Seal-laughter again. “Alright, we can call it that. It was an experience, alright. Won’t be forgetting my time here, that’s for sure.”
Ten seconds left, ticking down, and I’ve said all I wanted to say.
“Thank you, by the way,” He said, dead in the eye he stared, forming a smile somehow different. “You coming along, meant a lot to me. Mom don’t get a lot of visitors apart from me, so here’s another thank you from her, through me, to you – thank you.”
“You’re welcome, then,” I replied, returning the smile. “From me, through me, to both you and her. Just be careful next time, you won’t always have me to look for flowers.”
“For sure, for sure,” He chuckled, shaking his head. “My fuckin’ hero.”
That was that. A full twenty-four hours passed. Challenge finally up and done, and he was going to be far gone.
“Think I’ll see you again?” I asked.
“What are you even saying, dude?” Tyler said, his eyes brimming with laughter. He tugged at his shirt, pointing at it squarely in the middle with his thumb where his logo was displayed front and center. “You wanna see me, you know just where to find me.”
Smartass decided to steal the final say. Leaving me to eat the dust of his wheels as he zoomed off in search of greater opportunities and more people to bother.
Have fun with him, Stranger Number 2.
Don’t see much point loitering out in my driveway. I headed back inside, dragging my feet through the porch and making it just barely past the doorway before I nearly became an unfortunate victim of a head-on collision.
Face to face, almost bashing into hers, Adalia was a silent unblinking creepy-ass-shit statue that had absolutely no utter regard for personal space whatsoever.
And just like all statues everywhere erected, her perfectly, beautifully sculpted face was as blank as the canvas of a Renaissance artist. Or perhaps... not so entirely.
Maybe I’m projecting a bit, but was that a dash of worry there painted over her misty white eyes? Pretty sure I left a note though explaining my where and when – did she miss it somehow?
Whatever the case, just smile and wave, “I didn’t expect you awake yet. How long were you just standing here?”
Slowly, the stiff soft-spoken statue stirred and spoke, “Since... I woke...”
“When did you wake?”
She didn’t say.
“And you couldn’t sleep again?” I continued when she didn’t. “Got worried I’d crumble into broken bones going off by myself?”
She blinked once. “Concerned...”
“Right,” I stepped past her, wobbling into the living room. “Well I assume you read the note, you know where I went.”
“Yes...” Adalia turned around. “So... Tyler... won’t be staying... here... anymore...?”
“Yep.”
“Oh... I see...”
She didn’t sound too overjoyed by the prospect, then again... she never sounded like anything anyway.
“Disappointed? Yeah, he grows on you, doesn’t he?”
“Back... to normal...?”
I nodded.
“No more... fake... lovers...?”
I stopped, stared, and promptly after, nodded again.
“I see...”
Statue-Adalia unrooted herself from the spot, and slowly shambled back to her soft, cushion-padded coffin, where she laid again once more. “Good... night...”
“Not gonna help me walk up the stairs?”
“Good... night...” She repeated.
Okay, message heard, loud and clear. I’ll walk up just fine on my own. Thanks, Tyler, now you got me some dangerous thoughts sprouting in my head. Thoughts that Amelia would surely not appreciate me thinking about her sister.
Whatever, can’t afford to think about those things now. Not when there are other things to be thinking about.
In my room, on my bed, I dove headfirst into the thoughts pestering me ever since I got back from the cemetery. Death of a loved one was something far out my comfort zone.
Dealing with frenzied Matriarchs was no biggie, summoning mythical beings was just a step one, step two process to follow – but this, this was human, this was normal, this was something that happens all the time in the everyday. Yet, all the same, this was also the most foreign thing I’ve ever faced.
Loss.
Ria knew it well. Irene, no doubt too. Ash had her little sister, Lenora... Tyler, his mother.
I don’t know loss.
In the end, I remained at loss throughout the afternoon and most of the evening too. When night was close, and Ash returned... when we hopped off the bus and walked the trail of the park once more under the light of twilight, I still didn’t know what to say to her.
“Master, something’s troubling you, isn’t there?”
Ash had concern plastered all over her face, and me just shrugging it off, brought her gaze delving for a closer look.
“Do you wish to share?”
I politely smiled, declined... no use asking about Ria, no rights inquiring about Lenora. But I suppose I do have something I wanted to ask about.
“I saw Sera and you this afternoon when I left with Tyler,” I said, the chilly evening air filling my lungs. “From what I could see, you two seem to be getting along well.”
We continued walking and talking.
“Indeed, lately, she’s been rather... inquisitive, to say the least,” She answered. “Her questions of this world mirror my own when I first arrived here. I find myself now in your position, doing my utmost to answer all of her burning inquiries.”
“So, she hasn’t been... y’know, pestering you about the whole master-servant thing?”
“Once,” Ash said, her inflection stiffening. “But I made it plainly clear that I express absolutely no desire to leave my position as your Servant and Knight. I also informed her that if she were to bring up the notion anymore henceforth, that I will no longer return here to pay her any visits.”
Welp, that’s one way to get your point across.
“I take it she didn’t take that all with a smile and a nod.”
“She was vehement,” Ash said bluntly. “But since then, she has yet to bring rise to the topic again.”
“Not until she wakes up, at least.”
Ash nodded, a small smile in a downcast gaze, “Yes.”
We stopped walking, reaching the point of no return, a thick cluttered wall of bushes, leaves, and trees.
“Not until she wakes up.”
Second time in a row, I walked the rest of the way alone, waving Ash a short goodbye. I told her to go too, that she didn’t have to stay all night and wore herself out standing guard.
But really, who the hell am I kidding? Even I didn’t expect her to actually listen. ‘Course she’ll be there, she’ll always be there. Tyler said it best, after all – she’ll never let go.
Sera didn’t come out of the shadows to escort me to this time, guess she must have thought one time was plenty enough already. Then again, I’m like, an hour ahead of schedule this time, only way we’d catch the bus on time.
Saw a tree that looked familiar and headed forward, past that was another tree that looked even more familiar, and just over yonder that, was a glow of dim orange light peeking through a row of bushes – needless to say, a striking sense of familiarity got me striding forth.
Same bed of grass, same narrow open field... and the same sleeping expression on her face. Everything was just as it was when I first left here.
Ria’s flames smoldered faint, the way the moonlight filtered through the branches, it was all the same. But no Sera anywhere to be seen.
Thought so, still too early. The Fey loved to frolic through nature’s embrace, it’s like encoded in their genes or something. Whatever, I can wait, she can frolic – we’ll get started soon enough.
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