…

It's been a little while since we last left off. I'm sitting down now in Valerie's tent with a new big hoodie on. We toweled off our clothes together in the tent and Valerie made me stand outside when she changed her clothes. I went ahead and changed into the hoodie she handed to me while still outside. When I came back inI thanked her profusely (maybe even a little too profusely with shaking and pleading) for letting me borrow that hoodie in lieu of having no access to any machine clothes washers anywhere nearby.  I did ask her how she was gonna get all the rest of her clothes washed after this but she brushed me off with a hand wave telling me that there's a river nearby and not to worry about it. I giggled and said ‘okay, yayyy’ because I am quite simply, too fucked to care about it right now.  If it becomes a big deal later,  I agreed to take some of her clothes home with me and wash them at my house, promising to return them at a later date.  And that I won't do ‘anything weird’ with them.  Whatever that means. 

I also got a bit more of an explanation out of the drunk girl on how her 『Stand』 works,  but what she told me honestly didn't make things that much more clear.  It doesn't seem like the effects stay consistent all the time, and that they may also possibly be tied to her emotions when it comes to effectiveness.  But the gist that I got out of it is that whenever she takes any drugs, the effects happening to her also happen to the world around her to varying degrees.  Her example being that the physical world around us is swaying back and forth with the swishing of her perception while on alcohol. But things like taking painkillers would actually prevent further physical damage to anything in a certain area, due to the pain inhibiting effects of the drug.  

Oh, and that she also gets no side effects.  She stressed this one a lot of times as to dissuade me from commenting further about her severe alcohol addiction.  She gets no hangovers, nor relapses, nor withdrawals, and she promises that not even cigarettes would give her any cancer.  All these negative attributes are apparently just eaten by her stand.  Which I have no room to disagree with until I see more about it, anyway.  So I chose to just believe her. 

Now it's been at least another hour, or two? Or three? I can't really tell from inside a dark tent but the effects seem to have gone down somewhat, but definitely not all the way. So now we’re both just sitting in the tent while Valerie shows off her Wicked Bowie Knife Skills on carving yet another wooden gnome. I told her to be careful several times when wielding something so large,  but she told me that she’s had  ‘a lot more experience than you'd think’ wielding large objects.  I didn't really get it but I just nodded and said okay.  She seems to like doing these sorts of things and genuinely has a considerable amount of skill when it comes to carving down soft wooden pieces with such a large blade.  She's working on the nose of a young gnome right now and it's coming out fantastic.  It's really a mind boggle how she hasn't cut herself with that blade yet though. It's kind of enormous for this task. But she's got this kind of technique where she holds the blunt end of the blade towards the end of it, with the gnome in her lap, and uses a much smaller part of the knife to carve more intricate details. And it's so sharp too. It carves effortlessly for her.

I have sincerely no idea how she's doing this after drinking as much as she did. I still feel the shared effects of her stand powers right now. Doesn’t that impair motor function? She must have been doing this for a long time before. Seems like she has a lot of practice.

“Hey, Valerie?” I call out to her. She hums but doesn't turn her head to look at me. She’s focusing, and I probably shouldn’t disturb her. “How long have you been alone out here?”

“Mmmh… I only got here like two or three nights ago. But this seems like a really good spot, and I think I'll be able to stay here a while longer. Oregon is a lot nicer than hot and open states like Arizona or Nevada. I like it here, there’s a lot of whimsey.” She says and sets the gnome down for a second to look at me before continuing with both carving and speaking.  “I'm really a big fan of whimsy.”

“I can tell. With all the gnomes and such.” She keeps carving. “But I meant how long have you been out here.  Like, homeless. Without your family. Like that?”

Valerie grumbles for a moment or two but doesn't look up from her work long enough to answer with eye contact. “I think it's been about a year and a half since I've been going.  My family was actually quite prepared for this outcome. Though I don't think they expected me to be the one to live the longest. Instead of my brother.”

“Oh?” I roll forward in my sitting position to pay better attention. “What happened to your brother? And what was up with that lighter, was it something specia-” Valerie gasps all the sudden, and starts sucking air sharply through her teeth. When I drag my eyes from the wooden gnome she's holding,  I notice it's begun to be painted red. There's a gash across her palm.  And while it doesn't look spectacularly deep, it's quite long and starts bleeding almost immediately. Valerie drops the carving and the knife into her lap and starts to hold her injured hand with intensity. 

“Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck…. Owwww…. Shit….. At least it doesn't hurt that bad, still fucking numbed from the alcohol.” Valerie mumbles,  pressing her injury down to try and stop the bleeding.  But the blood keeps dripping from her palm anyway. It runs down the side of her arm and dribbles a little drop onto her lap. She eyes the splotch on her pant leg and grimaces. “Ugh and I'm out of bandages right now too.  Fuck, what am I gonna do? like, seriously,  I have dirt on my hands and-” She makes eye contact with me and her sentence trails off. “Why the hell are you looking at me like that?”

I quickly shut my mouth and wipe the drool from my chin. I didn’t even notice the way my attention drove towards her blood. But there's something mesmerizing about it and the way I can feel its pull from my extra senses. I tried for a moment to

It's sparkling. Its sparkling blood. The red, pretty red has sparkles in it. Reflecting in the light and spinning-

“Hey, hey! My eyes are up here!” She shakes her arm up and down in front of me. I shake my head with it, tracking along up and down like a cat looking at a laser pointer. I don’t take my gaze off it for even a single second. Valerie slows down and stops for a moment, still holding her hand tightly in an attempt to stem the blood flow. It's beginning to work now but that doesn’t change anything for me. Her blood is-

She shakes her hand up and down again, but much slower. Watching as I track it. She laughs out loud a moment, which actually makes me break my line of sight for a moment before being drawn back in. “Oooh you like my carvings~” She shakes her hand up and down, making me nod. “Oooh you like my hair color~” I nod to her. “You think my bike is the coolest, oooh~” Nodding again, wow have you even seen this stuff? It looks like there are little particles of sparkling snowflakes spinning throughout her blood, refracting a pearlescent kaleidoscope of opulent colors, shimmering shining, feeling so-

“You, JoJo Johannerberg, think I am officially the prettiest girl you have ever-dever seen! And that no other girls will ever be as pretty-itty as me!”

Nodding nodding! Up and down! 

Valerie laughs out loud again before she stops. My head clatters around with the momentum of shaking it so much, and I honestly feel kinda dizzy. “Okay okay, that's enough of that. Seriously, what's wrong with you?”

“Show me your hand, I think I have  a way to fix this.” I say flatly as a canned response. I feel nothing behind the words though, as  my attention is divided unevenly in this fixation.

Valerie frowns, but remembering what she saw me do with the corpse, she slowly reveals her hand injury. And right off the bat, I feel the faint draw towards all the blood at once. My fingers start to tremble as I reach out towards her hand. My head is fuzzy and my eyes are deadly focused. I take her hand in mine, and all the blood anywhere on her body freezes at once. Stopping motionless like someone hit the pause button. Even a droplet that had formed and started its journey from the space between her held palm and the surface of her pants had stopped midair. Becoming a little pearl of shining, opulent red, hovering like a jewelry bead dangling on a string. Then slowly, all the blood starts to curdle. Strangely, it all starts to wriggle and vibrate, starting to coalesce into these different worming shapes. Coagulating up into a single solid slug of blood towards the side of her wrist, beneath her wound. Looking like what you’d see if someone had a nosebleed but just held their nostrils shut for eight hours.

A red jellified slug.

With a bit of extra focus, some strange spiking shapes start to jut out of the red mass, the kinds of spikes like magnetic fluid being exposed to a magnetic field. Then, out pop two red eye stalks with little pearls for eyes and after a moment more, a circular shell sprouts from the back as well. Now, sitting stuck to the side of her hand is a little red snail, made out of her own blood.

My eyes are fucking dilated, I have no idea what i’m supposed to be doing.

“You said you liked whimsy, here's whimsy.”  But I'm just feeling it out and making it up as I go along. And for some reason, I feel so confident.

The red snail starts to slither up the side of her hand, undulating under my will as I implicitly command it to move. And move, it very much does so. Up and around towards the wound, the snail doesn’t even leave a single drop of red as it collects up every little trailing bit, eating it all up and slugging along towards her wound until it's sitting right on top. Hoping to do the same trick i’d been doing for my own injuries, I focus on feeling the blood itself as…. Hold on…. I focus on feeling the blood itself as it flows back…. That doesn’t feel right.

I swallow, a cold feeling in my throat. The eyes of the snail pivot to look directly at me.

I can’t do it. I can’t perform. Once again, I am a failure.

Her body doesn’t accept the blood in the same way mine does. Implicitly I feel that the ability just doesn’t work on her. My healing ability bounces straight off of her, the opposite as it does for mine. It doesn’t work on other people. I can tense the blood and even try to force it to flow backwards into the wound, but I can’t make it flash gold and heal the way I can do to myself implicitly.

And just like that, all my concentration is lost.

The snail’s shape fails immediately and turns back into gravity-affected blood, spilling down her entire hand like she’d just punched straight through a man. The way she had her hand held, the blood went waterfalling all over, coating her fingers in red. It all fails at once and an uneasy feeling of sorrow wells around inside of me. “I’m sorry, Fuck! I’m so sorry!” I start to babble incoherently. At the very least, I was able to leave a single film of flash-hardened blood over the entire length of the wound. Essentially just scabbing over it. How fucking useless. All i did was stop the bleeding. “I’m so sorry, I thought I could heal it, I thought I could fix it, I’m supposed to be able to but it was useless-”

Suddenly there’s something thrust into my mouth, and the taste of GOD floods my veins. Ecstasy. It shuts my words up in an instant.

Valerie put her bloody hand into my mouth.

The sparkling liquid gold spills over my tongue. It's shimmering across my tastebuds. Something strange feels alight in my gut, mixing with the warmth of my alcohol and staining my cheeks a bright rose color.


I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t. This taste is toooo much! I’m gonna go crazy!

Then she speaks in a sultry tone. “I saw the way you were looking at it. Healing me wasn’t your only goal. You’re a thirsty little thing.” Her fingers twirl around my mouth, pressing on my tongue and making sure to grind the taste of copper into my senses. It burns me white hot. It burns burns burns. In an instant, there’s a vow made deep inside my chest. I need to taste this blood again some time soon. I will never, ever get enough of this feeling. It's the sweetest and most delicious nectar I’ve ever tasted. I need to taste it again some day.

I clean her fingers off every drop.

She removes her bloodied fingers from my mouth, marveling at the cleanliness I left them in. Her head tilts and her eyes take on a certain look. “Clean the rest up, dog.” She says to me, and I can’t believe it, but I just start licking. Up and down her wrist, the rest of her arm, every place that the blood went down for a good twenty seconds before the reality of what I was doing clicks back into place.

I stamp my mouth shut and turn redder than the reddest tomato.

Valerie does almost the exact same. “Um.” She squeaks. “I-”

I just shake my head nononononono and she shuts her mouth, electing not to speak about it. Her eyes dart around the tent before coming back to look at me. “I- I- It was the alcohol.” She stammers. “Uh, what was that ability you were using….?????”

I shake  my head again and try to break my own ice. “Uh, it was, uh.” I swallow. GET IT TOGETHER. “It was supposed to fix your wound. I can fix my own injuries using blood, I thought… Maybe I could heal you too….”

“Oh… Oh…” Valerie mumbles. It takes her a second to chill down, same with me, but when she’s done it looks like she has more to say. Seems like we’re just gonna ignore everything that happened, then. And I think I’m okay with that. “Tell me more about it…” She says. Changing the subject? Or digging for info.  “What does it look like when it works? I have a feeling I know why it didn’t.”

“Um.. The blood works like glue or something, it just sticks things back together as if it was never broken at all. Whole arms or legs can stick back on after being snapped off. It does this golden lightshow too. It just works! I thought if I could do that same thing for you, it could stick your wound back together… but it just…. Pushed out!  It works effortlessly for me…. I don’t know why for you it didn't??” I ramble ramble, losing the cohesion to my sentences at the end there, rubbing my hands over themselves and press my palms into my legs for comfort. I feel so awkward. Maybe she will think I'm lame for having such a random failure in ability.  Maybe it will open up her eyes and she’ll see that I’m just another lonely loser.

She starts to speak again, taking the pressure off of me to continue. I relax, but only just slightly. “Yeah, uhh..  that makes sense then. Most self-healing abilities don’t work on others, for whatever reason. Or abilities that heal others tend not to work on themselves? Something about spiritual energy just only resonates in one direction. Like for example, have you noticed that the objects in the room seem to sway, but I’m staying stationary?” Valerie asks me, making me do a quick re-examination of the room.

Actually now that I think about it, it's true. This whole time that the alcohol’s effects have been splayed onto the world, Valerie is the only thing seemingly unaffected by the artificial warmpth and fuzziness. She’s clear, stationary, and as warm as an embarrassed girl can aptly be. That is to say, only just above normal temperature. Unlike everything else, myself included. 

“The effects don’t work on me. They never have been. Only everything else. I still feel the typical effects of any intoxicant, but the projected stuff doesn’t seem to have any sort of effect on me. I never learned why, but it seems like this is just how this sort of thing works.” She takes a deep breath in and sighs. “It's a real bummer.”

For some reason, that word choice of hers earns a single bark of a laugh from me.  And a comment. “Yeah! No kidding!” This gets her to giggle for a moment along with me.

“So do you have a name for this ability? Or is it just ‘self-heal’” Valerie asks me. “Cuz it toootally reminds me of something artsy!”

“Oh, yeah? No, I don't have a name for it yet. I didn’t really have any time to process what was going on until… like… uh, now, I guess. What's your idea?” My reply is short and a little stunted, but she seems not to mind much.

“It reminds me. With the gold, and the sticking things back together… Of this kind of technique to glue pottery back together with gold pieces! It was called… ummmmm… Ker- Kins… Kershoogee? Yeah! Something like that! My mom used to show me all these artsy things and that was one of them. If you’d drop a nice plate, you could still put the pieces back together and make a whole brand new art with the gold! It was really nice. I think it was called kershoogie. Maybe you should call your ability that! Just so we have a name for it!”

“Um… Sure… Kershoogie…. Right um… Is this the same thing as 『Kintsugi?』” I asked her. My eyes lighting up the moment I spoke the name. It felt right. It just felt right coming from my mouth. I don’t really know why.

“Yeah! Kitsugie!” Valerie happily exclaims. “Do you like that name?”

I’d actually heard of something like this before. About sticking porcelain back together with gold. I guess I should have realized that Valerie is an artsy type with all the carvings she’s been doing.

“Yeah, I like that name. Though, I think 『Rosegold』 is a lot better at doing this stuff than I am, I seem to be able to control blood a little bit, more than just using it for healing. I can move it around, make it a little bit harder than usual, or make it soft again, and I can make it float in the air a little bit, although not very fast. It's quite strange, and honestly I haven’t gotten to test it out very much, considering the way I need to get blood in the first place. So other than healing and some shaping abilities, I don’t really know what I can do with it other than that.”

“Oh, yeah! That makes sense, yeah.” She looks at me. “Who’s Rosegulp again? Sorry… Is that your stand?”

“Uh, yeah. Rosegold is my 『Stand』…” I eye her hand wound again, noting that the hardened scale has stayed in place. “Were those sparkles…? Was that yours?”

She nods. “Centrifuge. Yes, it was my stand.”  My eyes linger on her in wonder for a moment before I think of something to ask.

“Say, you’ve told me a lot about this soul-spirit energy stuff and how people are all like walking batteries, but then what the hell are Stands then in the first place? How exactly do they fit into all this?”

“Well, stands themselves are often theorized to simply just be the natural shape your soul energy takes up when fully manifested. Essentially, it's just a reflection of your most internal self given physical form. The energy that defines you, it's the natural shape of your soul.” She says determinately. “That's why they feel the way they do inside us all. It's purely an extension of yourself, fully realized. It's you. Your body, your mind,  your soul. Everyone has something unique to them. But they exist just under the surface of everyone, just out of reach, out of view. Well,  until you come in contact with the Stand Virus, that is. It's been theorized that the virus eats away at the natural barrier between the human body and the human soul, allowing projection into this world.  That's why some people are just born with it I guess? They naturally had a very weak barrier between their True Self.”

“Then your soul tasted beautiful, Valerie.” I said without thinking, quickly regretting it shortly thereafter.

She blushes and looks away. “Thanks… you too…. I mean, not you too. I didn't taste you, but that you’re beautiful too. I mean you’re not beautiful! If you don’t want to be! I mean, that's not to say you’re ugly or something. You’re definitely not!  it's just that I, okay, I don’t know what I’m saying anymore, sorry….” She buries her head in her hands.

Epic fail!

I wave brush my hand throughout the air. I don't want her to feel weird or anything!  “It's whateverrr, it's the alcohol! You can say whatever you want I don't mind I swearr! You can call me whateverrrr I don't even caaare.”

She picks her head up from her hands, looking confused at me. She's wondering if I really just missed everything she just said, and if my social perception skills are actually that bad. “Oh,  haha, yeah sure okay! Sure we can do whatever we want.” 

“Yeah!!!!” I holler back at her and she smiles.  She took it as a yes. I really am that stupid. “Yeah we can do whatever we want!” yell and flop backwards onto my back, laying down completely on her stuff. “Look I'm doing this now, too!”

Valerie laughs at me.  “hahaha! Real.” She flops over right next to me. We're both looking at the ceiling. “We can do whatever we want.” She says before falling off into silence after a little while.  Nothing more is said as we just lay and try to feel stable.

The quiet is nice after so long. I could almost fall asleep.  Is that weird to think after such little time? I know it's so quick but I honestly just can't find it in me to care.  

…

Some time goes by before Valerie opens her mouth to ask me something next to break the awkward silence.  But I turn my head to look at her next to me and cut her off before she's able to speak.  “Hey, can I ask you something?”

“um, yes.”

“What was up with that lighter? The one from earlier. It seemed like a big deal to you.”

Valerie scoffs suddenly, taking me by surprise. I hear her rustle around frustratedly next to me before crossing her arms and grunting. “It is NOT a big deal to me.  Nope. Not one bit. No sirree.”

Clearly not. “What, was it like a family member’s lighter or something?”

Valerie gasps. “How did you know!”

I laugh out loud to her. “Ha! Well, its not like you’re the best at hiding it, to be honest!”

“Grrrr what! I so am! I'm the bestest ever at lying! I don’t know how you got that impression!”

I laugh out loud again, and she laughs with me for a little bit. But sensing that the question was never answered, she does actually give more about it after we’ve calmed down.

“To be honest, I just want to get rid of it at this point anyway. It's not anything special. Just a cheapo lighter my mom bought before I saw her last. It's not like an heirloom or something. Its just a fucking reminder, if anything. Just holding onto it feels like it's burning a hole in my pocket. I don’t feel like keeping it around, it's not important to me, I don’t want it to be important to me. I can’t be brought down. And plus, I needed to use it anyway.”

“Don't people normally want to keep these kinds of things anyway, though? Even if they're not important, it's something about the sentimental value?” I ask her this, but I've never personally been all that sentimental about anything.  I've had items that I like, even that I like a lot, but I don't think that counts in the same way this is supposed to be. I wouldn't remember anyone by their associated item either. 

“I can't be weighed down.” She says resolutely.  “I just can't.  I have too much on the line by now, and it can't all be for nothing.” She finishes. 

“Okay,  I hear you.” I shrug and close my eyes. My head feels a little silly from all the swaying. But I get what she's saying from a logical standpoint at least. I’ve never had an easy time understanding certain emotional things, and stuff like this is one of those things. We did need to use the lighter in the end, anyway. ButI do imagine that this makes her a very strong type of girl. To hold so much inside her but push along anyway. It's admirable.

And then I thought of a joke. “Well, after you're done with this lighter, you'll be one lighter lighter.”  :D

She pauses for a moment with a ‘hmm?’ Sound before it clicks.  

“OHH TRUEEE.”

…

Some time passes in silence. We’ve both since trailed off and gone into a long period of quiet. Everything feels so cozy and warm, and I feel kinda safe for once. So I end up falling asleep……

…

…

…

…

…

Gasp

“SHIT,  Valerie! What time is it!”

“Mnuhh?” She wakes up slowly,  lifting her head.  “It's a Monday…”

“What? No, what time is it! I have to be back by a certain time!”  I rocket upright, scrambling for the tent door. My head suddenly feels completely clear.  Clearly it's been enough time to sort out the alcohol in her body. I can tell just by how I feel alone. It must have been a few hours then at least.  “Time! Time time time! What time is it!!!”

“Ohoohh oh, shit uhh.” She gets up slowly, pushing herself upright into a sitting position. Valerie reaches over and rummages through her backpack for a moment but eventually comes up dry. “I dunno.” She says with a shrug. It doesn’t look like she understands the gravity of the situation I'm in.

“Come on, valerie! Don't you have a cellphone or something!?”

She grunts. “Uh, no?” She looks at me like ‘what, are you stupid or something?’

Shit, wait I have one! I pad down my clothes but find them empty. What!?! Oh, yeah, I got changed. Quickly moving over to my discarded hoodie, I dig my hands through the pockets and my blood runs cold.

The ‘cellphone’ I retrieve is shattered to bits. Mulched. Absolutely destroyed and clearly done so by taking the full brunt of a stand-punch.

My shoulders sag. “I'm so doomed…. I should just die right now….” 

“Huh? No, you’re fine. It's just a cellphone, it's not that big a deal.”

I turn a glare at her. “You. Have. No. Idea!” I sag into myself further. “My mom’s gonna kill me when she finds out….” I whine. “Aughhh… Please just take me home…. I can’t be late… I can’t….”

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Valerie starts to put her things together. “I can take you home now, no problem.”

“Good. Please go quickly… I’ll be waiting outside. We have to go soon, please!” My anxiety is skyrocketing with each second I spend here and not at home. Like spending just one more minute here is gonna matter between life and death.

I scramble to tie my shoes and flop out the door of the tent. It’s pitch black outside, and the stars are bright in the night sky. It must be at least twelve o’ clock. Way, way past my assigned bedtime.  Panicking and on high alert, I circle around to the back of the tent where the rock wall is. The cliff edge is slick, wet, and slippery, but I pay that very little mind as I go crawling up the side towards the top. Scrambling up the side like one of those zombies in World War Z.

It would be useful if I had a stand right now to help me climb, but someones still feeling particularly unresponsive to my gestures. No matter, as I burst over the top, hand over hand and crawl like a crazed freak towards the hidden motorbike. WE HAVE TO GO.

Valarie comes up over the edge slowly holding a flashlight.  She appears to have done so quite well on her own and doesn't look like she had as hard a time as I did.  But there's no time to think about that as I stand here cold, anxious, and tapping my foot.

“Hey! You really ran off there!” She calls, coming up to the hidden bike and getting everything ready.  “It's too late to tell what time it is exactly but I'd say it's at least midnight now.”

“Oh no!!!” That's way too late to come home!!!!

“Yeah, oh no!” She says. “You never helped me find a new lead. And now it's too late to try.”

“That's not my fault!” I whine.  “You're the one with the drinking problem! Plus, aren't you gonna be here a while anyway? We can just meet up again and try next time.  I don't have anywhere to be tomorrow so we can keep trying! But we have to go!”

“Okay, okay.  Damn.” She rolls her eyes. “We'll try again tomorrow.  And I'd hardly call it a problem…” She mumbles off,  setting up the motorbike and popping her helmet on. “Little baby has a bedtime…”

“Yes! I have a bedtime! Now let's go!” I stamp my foot again.  I don't like being made fun of like this but I don't want to waste time arguing why she's actually being the baby instead.  Which she totally is!!!

“All ready, waiting for you.” She hops onto the large motorbike and kicks the engine on.  It roars into life and the loud sound makes me feel anxious. “Ready to go, come on!”

“Right!” I hop on top of a nearby rock and use the extra height to slide onto the bike easily.  Settling down into place and quickly grappling onto Valerie's back for safety. Holding on for dear life as the motorcycle starts to move. It crunches over the gravel ground and back onto the woodsy trails in no time. If there's anything I can appreciate about Valerie's lack of concern for safety, it's that we'll be getting home quickly at the very least. 

It doesn't take long for us to get back out of the woods and onto main roads.  We're rocketing along at high speeds and I put all my trust in the blonde's abilities as I close my eyes to block out some of the stimulation. Hopefully if I don't focus on the world around me,  time will actually pass faster,  instead of just seeming like it. 

…

…

…

Enough time later and the gravel changes to pavement. Pavement to city roads, and city roads to suburbia.

“It’s the next left!” I call out to her as she banks it that direction. “5131, on the left up there!”

The bike goes roaring down the road, but as we come up on the final destination, I shake her a bit and yell to go past by a few houses. “Wait! Drop me off further down the road!”

She asks me why but ultimately blows past the house buy quite a few, coming to a stop a few houses further. The bike rumbles beneath me as I try to slide off the side as soon as we stop. 

“Why here?” Valerie asks, putting the bike into idle.  “Isn't that your house up there?”

“Yes.” I hop off onto the asphalt, rubbing my hands together for warmth after the long ride. “And, I don't know.  I'm just nervous at this point. I don't want to be seen coming up.”

“Huh? Why would that matter?”

“I don't know I don't know. My mom is somehow just always watching and I just don't want to run more risk.  I have to go now though, so I'll see you tomorrow Valerie.” I turn to leave but she stops me with a hand on my shoulder.

“Wait.” She says and I turn to look at her. 

Her visor is put up, and I can see the mystic look on her face as she says these next words to me. It's a mix of sincerity and awe. “Thank you for saving me from that fire earlier. You were right, I was being a bit clumsy and I probably shouldn’t have drank so much without telling you what would happen. So thanks for saving me when I messed up. I really appreciate it…” Then her eyes well up with little sparkles as she starts to get a tad bit emotional. “I think if I might've died back there,  no one would have ever found me. Thanks for not letting that happen. I think it's safe to say we're friends.”

Something about this feels off to me. I can't quite accept her thanks.  Doing so would feel wrong, somehow. “It wasn't me who saved you, Valerie. All I did was just yell at you when things didn't go my way…. I can't accept your praise for this, I'm sorry.”

“Woah hold on, what do you mean it wasn't you?”

“It was my stand.  She did the save. I didnt even… I was the one that made you fall. I can’t accept your thanks for that.”

“Hold on. Slow down. What? What do you mean it wasn’t you? Yes, yeah, it was your stand, but you do realize that your stand IS just you, right? They’re supposed to be a reflection of their user. It's just your soul’s signature made visible, made real! It's purely an extension of the self. Your ideals, your inner thoughts, your inner feelings. Thats all your stand is. It’s basically like an extra body part. You can’t say ‘it wasn’t me who kicked the soccer ball, it was my leg’ because that just doesn’t make any sense. They don’t have a mind of their own, really. Not usually, at least.”

“Not usually? Does that mean it happens sometimes?”

“That's a story for another time, jojo! Just take my thanks and go! Don’t you have to get home quickly or something?”

“Oh, right, yeah! You’re welcome, Valerie! I will see you tomorrow in the same spot, okay? See you later!”

“Uh, bye.” Valerie awkwardly says and revs her engine. She gives me a peace sign and goes to make the bike leave. Quickly from zero to moving, Valerie takes off on her bike and vacates the area. I get a strange feeling in my chest that I really don't want to see her leave. Some kind of itching feeling in the back of my mind that says I'll never be able to see her again now that she's gone. That this was my one and only chance at a human connection and I've somehow wasted it. But I tell that feeling that it's silly and that I'll be seeing her tomorrow. I have no reason to worry so much!

But then, I noticed that strangely enough, even without paying attention or trying by my own will, I had somehow ended up ten paces down the road with my arm stretched out getting ready to yell for her to come back. Reaching towards empty air on pure instinct alone.  I freeze in place instantly and watch in silence as Valerie rounds a corner at the end of the street and vanishes out of sight.

H-how did I get here?

I grab my arm with my other hand and force it down. 

I need to relax. I really, really need to relax.

Relax and try to process everything that happened today…. 

…

Yeah, nope, not doing that.  Too much stuff happened all in the span of just a few hours and I'm honestly ready to just go home. So, then, let's go. 

I turn pace and race down the dark street towards my house.  The grass of my lawn is wet and splotches beneath my shoes as I sprint up to the door.  Fumbling for my house keys,  I try to slide the key into the door while making as little sound as humanly possible.  All the lights around the outside of the house appear to be off, and from what I can see through the foggy glass in the door, all the interior lights are off too. Good, good, maybe mom is asleep for once. Well, that means that I just have to be quiet then. 

The lock latches and the door is pulled open right in front of me.

Someone reaches out through the dark and grabs me by the collar of my shirt, yanking me into the house so abruptly that I lose my footing and faceplant onto the hard wood floor of the entryway.

I feel my brain knock around in my skull and it makes the world go spinning. Lights flash blindingly into my eyes as the room goes bright. 

And that's before the screaming starts. 

(End Of Chapter Nine)

←To Be Continued.