My eyes shot open, and my hand instinctively reached for no one. In this room, by myself, with a woman and her butler sleeping in the next room over, there’s nothing for me to reach too. But, in my mind’s eye, while my instincts whispered in my ear, I knew there was someone this hand was meant to reach. They’re just too far away to grab it.

I sit up and cover my face with the palm of my hand. Tears rolled down my cheek as I remembered the dream I had last night. If someone knew what I dreamt last night, I don’t know how I’d be able to look at them. It would just make me feel even more guilty than I already am. 

I stand from my bed and approach my closet. Miranda closed yesterday because of some unexplained reason, but she never said anything about it being closed today. Knowing her, she’d want me to come into work no matter what was going on with me. Even though I want to stay home, I need to suck it up. This is my first job, and I can’t risk losing it the first month since I came to the human world. 

However, I’m tempted to just say fuck it and stay at home, anyway. I may have to find another job, possibly even farther away from here than Miranda’s store already is. And I would have to set up an actual resume and stuff too. Now that I think about it more, the last of my temptation flings out of me.

Standing, I stretched my back one final time and headed out the door. As I walked past Ty’s room, I noticed something taped to the door. It was a piece of paper with neat looking handwriting pasted on the page. I grabbed the sheet, wondering what Harvey wanted to say.

Hello there, Harvey. How you doing? 

Or maybe Karina just has really good handwriting. I swear, I learn more and more about her as the days go by. 

If you’re wondering where I am, I went out to do some reconnaissance. Who knows? I might just walk into him by accident and figure out he’s just been to an old friend’s home. Anyway, see you when I return.  

PS: By the way, I took your gun. Can’t have you shooting Harmony while I’m out.

Well, that’s some note. Short and to the point. I was expecting something a bit more bizarre coming out of her, but apparently she’s taking my words to heart. How much does she care about me, anyway? She’s doing this much for me, despite who I am.

My legs feel wet and my pussy grows increasingly more uncomfortable the more I think about Karina. She’s good looking, yeah, and I wouldn’t mind going down on that, but this isn’t the time for that. Especially when I know I won’t be able to hold myself back.

I sigh and leave the note hanging on the door. Entering the living room, I spot Harvey sleeping on the chair that I normally sit in. It’s not like I was planning on sitting down anyway, but it would have been nice to have some coffee while I sit and stare at the chair Ty sits in all day when he’s not busy writing or jacking in his room.

I could feel my legs getting soaked in my own fluids as my pussy overtook my brain. My vision blurred, and the world began to spin around and around until I could find God. There he is. Waving at me.

“You doing alright?” I blink and my eyes refocus. Somehow, I fell to the floor and Harvey towered over me, waving his hand.

“I thought you were asleep?” I ask.

“I was until you fell.” He walked right past me, not even bothering to help me up. “By the way, have you seen Karina?”

“She left a note on Ty’s door.” I crawled back up and grasped my forehead. The room spun for a brief moment before finally coming into focus. 

I looked behind me and saw Harvey leaving the hallway with the note in his hand. He held it above his head with a puzzled look in his eye.

“Anything wrong?”

He looked at the note for a moment longer, before sighing and crumbling it up. “No. It’s just Karina being Karina.” He looked at me before making his way to Ty’s room and picking up what’s left. “If I had my gun with me right now, I would keep you here, but sadly, it looks like that plan rinsed down the drain. What can I do against you without arms of my own?”

Our eyes locked on each other for some time. I already knew what was going down with our little stare down. He was waiting for me to take this chance and do something to him. It’s plainly obvious that he doesn’t have the highest opinion of me, but does as he’s told, since he doesn’t want to upset Karina. But if I were to harm him in any way unprovoked, then he could change Karina’s mind.

However, you genius little bitch boy, I’m smarter than that. Not only that, but why would I hurt you to begin with? As he says, he’s no match against me. There’s no reason for me to attack someone so much more pathetic than I am. 

I turn and open the front door. I can feel his gaze burning holes into my back, but I keep away from him. There’s no reason for me to fear him, much less hurt him. I leave the house and shut the door behind me. 

I can still feel his gaze, even from the other side of this wooden door. Nothing can stop the rising tides as soon as the day eldens. I’ll keep my ambitions and morality locked up tight until the word comes through of where Ty is. Hopefully, it won’t be as drastic as I expect, but I doubt that everything will end peacefully. It’s just something my gut is telling me. 

***

I open my eyes and the first thing I see is a Latino looking at me with tears dripping down her cheek. There’s also a redhead, but we don’t talk about the redhead around here. The redhead’s a scary bitch, but right now she’s asleep. Better yet, what in the fuck am I thinking right now? There’s a hot Latino wanting to talk to me.

“Finally woke up?” I ask her. She looks at me with a confused stare, which made me look at her confused as well.

“I was up before you. And aren’t you wondering why I’m here?” Karina asks.

I shrug. “Nah. I was awake when Tiffany dragged you two down here. Enough about me. What about you? How’s your day going?”

It was hard to hide the sarcasm I exuded so wonderfully, but I’ve been down here for weeks, so I deserve to be a bit annoyed. 

“When did you get so rude?” 

“I don’t know.” I say even more sarcastically than the last quip. “Maybe it was when I was kidnapped. Or it may be when I nearly escaped, only to have a gun pointed at my back. It could even be the fact I haven’t seen natural light in nearly a week.”

“It’s only been two days.” 

I was about to say something else sarcastic, but when she said that I had only been in here for a couple of days, I shut my mouth. I’ve been shut in my house for years, and this is what happens when I’m trapped in a basement for a few days? Then again, I still yelled at people over the internet when they pissed me off in game, so I guess that counts as human communication. 

Suddenly, the redhead began moaning. We ceased our little spat to look at Jessica rising from her dreamlike state. She roused herself and her eyes opened with little grace. It looked like she had just woken up from a year long coma and her eyes met light for the first time instead of empty darkness. 

She looked between the two of us with a look that wouldn’t be misplaced on a kindergartener beginning their first day of school.

“What’s going on?” Jessica asks.

“Congratulations, you’re the third person to see the crazy woman currently upstairs.” I mock her. “For your prize, you get the express opportunity to waste away in her basement.”

“Shut up, jackass.” Jessica shoots back. “What I mean is, where are we and why are you tied up?” 

“We’re in Tiffany’s home.” Karina plainly says. 

Jessica looked at her as if she had gone crazy, but when she looked at me, wanting confirmation, I nodded. “Yep. This is the home of the crazy woman.”

“How can that be? We had specialists check her mental state, and she passed with flying colors.” She looked at me. “By the way, you still haven’t answered the second part of that question.”

I laugh, which sets her off. Her veins stuck out from the top of her forehead as she listened to me laugh for nearly an entire minute. 

“What are you? Some sort of edgy anti-hero?”

“No, because I’m no hero.” I say. “Basically, she kidnapped me because she loves the hell out of me.” I direct my head so she knows to look behind me, and when she sees my shrine, her face breaks out into a wave of confusion and terror. “I know. That’s exactly what I felt the first time I saw that shit. That doesn’t explain why you two are down here.”

“Yeah, Jessica. How did Tiffany realize I was coming?” Karina stared daggers at Jessica, who was busy looking at my shrine. “I mean, how was I supposed to know about this?”

At first, I didn’t realize what they were talking about. The more I thought about it, and from the events I’ve seen, the more the puzzle pieces fit into place. 

“Jessica, you fucking dumbass. Did you seriously call Tiffany, letting her know you two were coming?” If my hands were free, I’d rub my forehead in a very disappointing manner.

“Of course I would call up here, letting her know that the person who traumatized her was coming here.”

And even more dumb shit is dropping on my head, one after another. What did I get myself caught up in?

Out of nowhere, the basement door suddenly opened. The sound of someone whistling carried its way down the stairs and penetrated my ears. The tune was almost angelic, like an angel descending upon the mortals, guiding them on their way to heaven. 

Footsteps creaked on the steps as Tiffany walked down the stairs. Everyone shut up, and we all looked up the steps with bated breath and building anticipation for our guiding angel to reach us. Tiffany looked way more afraid than either of us while Jessica’s face looked at the stairs with determination and a steel will to keep fear from showing.

However, I could only feel anger and irritation. For so long, I’ve kept these emotions in check, only releasing them the only way I knew how. Through anonymity and distance, I would unleash any built up rage I carried, and I shouted at random people that couldn’t even speak the same language as I do. After everything that happened, I want to scream and shout, but my rage hasn’t fully built yet. But it showed all over my face.

Coming down the stairs with a skip and a smile, Tiffany held her hands behind her as she frolicked into the dark basement. My eyes directed themselves toward her hands, and my eyes widened by what I had seen. Everyone else seemed to have seen it as well. Jessica's steel face transformed into one of concern, and Karina’s face was masked behind a layer of unrelenting terror.

In her hand, Tiffany carried a pistol.