Schadenfreude 02

I couldn't not do Suri, so here she is, recuperating underwater.

Schadenfreude 01

Playing with photoshop. I made Jime vamp BURN at dawn.

Chapter 28.

28.

 “So! Cockatrice?” Jack asked in an animated way, rubbing his hands together. He was feeling kind of happy that he finally had this time alone with Jime.

“Who are you calling a- oh, uhm, hold on.” Jime pulled out her cellphone, “there’s no signal here…” she mumbled, ignoring Jack she started to walk around to higher ground checking the screen and holding the device up randomly. He followed.

Jime started to talk to herself, “It’s funny, I can’t remember how it was that I went about doing things like this without cellphones before, or is it that I don’t want to remember? It doesn’t matter anyway, not important, well, maybe that’s why I don’t remember, because it’s not important, but I do remember… ugh, what was that number again? I’ll have to ask Suri to hook this thing up with my laptop, where did I last put my laptop? I think it was in… yeah, Venezuela, it’s there. But I’ll ask Suri to magic any number I don’t already know about, that my contacts might have, into this cellphone, I have to have this info at hand, why didn’t I think of this in the first place?” She hit her head rather hard, startling Jack, who watched her silently.

She continued to move around while time passed and the sun began creeping up on them.

“Jime.” Jack tried talking to her again but she didn’t answer. “Come on, are you actually ignoring me like this?”

She walked on.

“This is seriously childish of you.”

Nothing. He called her again and again, getting annoyed then angry, but she didn’t answer him. “JIME!” He yelled at her.

She shook her head as if bothered by a mosquito and looked at him, her eyes focused on his face, “what?” she whispered in a carefree manner. That’s when Jack realized she hadn’t been ignoring him on purpose or out of spite or whatever other mad reason she always could come up with to fight with him, no, she had genuinely forgot about him.

At that same moment, a few rays of the rising sun sneaked through the top of the surrounding trees, hitting Jime in the back.

It didn’t last more than a second but Jack saw it, her sweet smile as she turned around to look at the sunlight coming with the dawn. It was the first time she didn’t scream like her soul was being ripped out of her body as she started to burn, that he knew of. She whimpered instead. Her eyes caught fire next with the quickness of vampire flesh burning as she lost consciousness and her body started to fall.

Jack caught her and shielded her from the light, using his snow power to tap down the flames engulfing her. He had called his car with his mind back at the river when he waited for Jime and it arrived at this moment, crashing through the vegetation and landing next to them in a sweep. The car opened the trunk and Jack threw Jime’s charred body inside, to safety. He once again called the snow to cover her as she laid in the closed trunk, to soothe her, but he knew it wouldn’t. It never did before.

*****

This was the fiftieth time since that fae-looking warrior came that the king did this to her. It usually happened once every two years, and she had some time to recover and even plot a new plan to be free of the sire bond since the last one hadn’t worked (she owed Sage a bag of alchemic gold –so difficult to find- since her ungrateful little brother still charged her for that potion he did), but now it had been done these many times in the space of a few months, the king brought her up and put her down repeatedly, as if he was flexing his power muscles on her (did he know about her plans? How did he figure it out?), and here she was again, being force to loose her control and drown in the Bloodlust to entertain the king’s whims. And it would end as it always did, after all the massacring and gorging on the blood of innocents and guilty alike, with her loosing her sense of self, forgetting even her basic survival instincts, and walking around looking for and drinking more blood until the sun came up and she burned. The warrior, Jack he called himself, would usually look on with his cold eyes, as if analysing her suffering, never helping. They never helped, why would they anyway? She was the king’s current plaything, and nobody wanted to be in her shoes, which is what would happen if she wasn’t there. Someone else would take her place. Her team knew of her plans and didn’t rat her out, but that was as far as they could go.

Jime fought the king’s power, as she always did, for as long as she could, but she fell anyway. There was only one thing left to look forward to, hope that Jack would surround her body afterwards with his snow so she could loose herself in that and experience the very short-timed oblivion the cold brought on her.

♥♥

The King did not like it. He could feel the peasant fighting him inside her mind and she was getting better every time. It took him longer and longer to put her down. This little toy was getting dangerous, and if she ever became immune to him, like Siti had told him a few hours ago, well… what was the fun in that?No, he would have to find someone new.

“How do you do it?” Jack asked him. The King also did not like the stranger, but his powers for destruction were what he wanted from him, liking him didn’t matter ultimately.

“What do you mean?”

“She does what you tell her to do, she never even answers me when I speak to her.”

“Simple, she’s mine.”

“Your slave.”

“No, my daughter.”

Jack looked at him with a blank expression, which the King suspected was an act, how could he not know even this much about vampires? The King decided to explain anyway, it wouldn’t do to look bad in front of the other vampires that weren’t his.

“I made her one of us, I gave her the gift, thus she is loyal to me.” The King addressed his followers in his usual grandiose manner and all of them believed him. All except his actual children.

♥♥♥

Jack could feel the power coming from the bastard, linking him to his “trusted few”, or more like, tethering them to him, including the woman called Jimena. He was sure this was a power the Rat had over his children (he’d started to think of him with this name since “king” was too high a title for the bastard), the vampires he had made. But the sly Rat didn’t want to acknowledge it in front of the other vampires, and Jack could figure out the reason why. It was simple really, if you knew anything about having power over others like he did, merely from watching the other Gods do their worst on each other and the humans.

In just this short amount time Jack had figured out a lot of things:

One, that vampires were a solitary race, individual, masters of their own existence. This clan, the Sinn-Jammers, were actually an anomaly in the vampire world.

Two, that the Rat’s children were more like puppets than children, meaning this was a power only the Rat had, since he hadn’t seen anything like it with any of the other vampires.

Three, that in order to become the King of Vampires, the Rat had to convince every other vampire that his children followed him out of loyalty, respect, even love, not because they were forced to. This way ensuring the suckers that, under his rule, they were better off than alone.

Jack knew that kings (and Gods) only had power over others because those same others gave it to them. Not the other way round.

Well, this was the only way of life these pathetic humans knew anyway, it didn’t take much to convince them they needed to have a king. It was all very interesting, he was intrigued and had a lot to report back to the COC fuckers, but there was something picking at him, an annoying unpleasantness inside he had never felt before. And he always felt it when the beautiful woman was abused. This was a first. He didn’t know what to do about it. He wanted to talk to her, but she was put out of his reach every time the Rat sent her on one of the “frolics”, as the Rat called it.

Jack suspected the Rat did it on purpose, so that he couldn’t get close to Jimena, a spiteful way to circumvent the deal the Rat had made with him, but Jack was determined, and sooner or later he would.

After her charred body was brought in by the human slaves the vampires kept (they were to follow Jimena, stay out of her way then grab her when she burned before she died for good), Jack could see Jimena’s body slowly regenerating on the catacomb floor. It was a marvelous thing to watch. But he had found he didn’t like it when she screamed in agony.

So, when she was left alone, and no one saw him, he had come to use his power of controlling snow to cover her like he had done that first time they met, wanting to alleviate her pain.

She still screamed, it didn’t help in anything, he clearly saw, but he still did it.

*****

Jack drove around, no destination in mind. The more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t believe it, but believe he must, because he saw it. A part of him hadn’t really bought that whole “obsessed with the sun” thing that was supposedly driving Jime on this mad quest. But now he did.

She had smiled.

When he remembered all those times she had burned under the morning sun, all the abuse, the humiliation, the powerlessness, and Jime would shut down and forget rather than face the overwhelming pain, he felt it like it was yesterday. He could never do anything for her. Hell, there had even been times when he had contributed to her ordeals. But he didn’t know, at the time, what she would come to mean to him.

Well, now that he had found a way to continue to live (he’d be damned if he followed the same path the other gods did and died) he definitely had to make Jime get rid of these recent suicidal tendencies, he wanted time to make peace, to make love, he will not be deprived of the only other being that he cared about other than himself.

So it was imperative that he helped her now, in any way he could. Ah, yes, he knew where to go, to her place in Venezuela.

*****

 “He will leave her alone soon.” She said.

Even though Jack was startled that someone sneaked up on him watching Jimena, he wasn’t surprised when her turned around and saw the witch.

She was a mystery, a very powerful immortal witch, working with the vampires doing who knows what. If you asked him, she was much more of a danger than the vampires themselves, and he didn’t understand why the COCs wouldn’t heed his warning and investigate the witches and mages, but the COCs never listened to him. Fuck the lot of them.

“He is fond of her, they call her La Reina now, because of it.”

“It does not matter, he will let her be, because that is to his advantage.”

“Why do you believe so?” Jack asked Siti.

She took her time answering, slowly sneering while looking at the burnt body on the floor.

“The wind whispered it to me.” She turned around and left as silently as she came in.

******

Jime woke up to a familiar sensation.

It was so familiar she felt like she had travelled in time, but time had passed, and she wasn’t the same as before, so she didn’t freak out like she had back then. No, just push those memories back down, into their slots, close them, don’t remember.

Her body was like new and she was just a little hungry is all. The melted snow meant nothing.

“Open up jack.” She whispered to the car, which did what she asked.

She came out to a parking space that she knew. It was her place in Mérida. Ok, this was fine, she needed to change, clean up, and feed anyway. She jumped up to the 6^th floor, to her apartment’s balcony which was always open, and walked in to find Jack lounging on her couch, eating a popsicle.

She held up her index finger, motioning him to shut up, and went in search of clean clothes and a shower. She opted for a cherry blossom clean-all shower gel and a purple goth-lolita outfit.

Whe she came back out to the living room Jack choked on his popsicle.

“What the-?”

“This is a strategic outfit I need and that’s all I’m gonna say.”

“Ok.”

“Now for food-”

“There’s no need to go out, I’ve got it here for you.” Jack proudly opened a cooler that had been next to him on the floor which contained 5 bags of fresh blood.

“Where did you get that?” Jime tapped her heel.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t steal them form a hospital, I got it from some drug dealers I found next to the school behind the park. Luckily they didn’t consume their own merchandise so it’s clean.”

“Oh ok, good.” Jime began to drink happily while Jack drilled holes into her face with his eyes. “What?” she asked annoyed, her mouth blood red.

“I will snitch on you to your dear niece if you don’t explain what happened earlier.”

“Ugh, there’s no need to explain.”

“Yes there fucking is! Now you want to kill yourself?” he grabbed her arm.

“Dude! Let go, don’t make me spill my blood!” she wrestled herself away. “I wasn’t gonna kill myself, you drama queen! You were there, weren’t you?”

“To protect you!? You take it for granted now that I’ll protect you?” Jack answered trying to sound offended but he was secretly pleased, this meant that in a way she depended on him.

Jime answered with a high voice that gradually lowered to a whisper “Well!… yes, I mean… I… I just wanted to see the sunlight.”

Her eyes were diverted to a painting hanging on the wall, it was a special painting that Armando Reverón (a renowned Venezuelan painter) had done specially for her in his late years (when people thought he was crazy, but he wasn’t, he just became aware of the Lore), it was called “Dreams at the beach” and showed, in his personal impressionist style, how the almost oppressive tropical sun bounced off the waves in a storm of movement and light.

“I’d forgotten that was here.” She said with a soft smile.

Jack sighed and resolved himself to his fate. “Eyes on the prize, baby. We need to continue the tasks.”

“God! Jack! How many times do I have to tell you! Don’t call me baby!” She kicked him.

“And why the hell not!” He caressed his shin.

“Because, you idiot! I’m NOT a baby, nor a little girl, and I’m certainly not the victimized object of a pedophile’s attention!”

“What? What pedophile?”

“You! In case you hadn’t figured it out, it makes you sound like a pedo!”

Jack was momentarily speechless while Jime finished her meal and started to clean up the mess and rummage around.

“Where did I put it?” She looked around the books, pillows and inside furniture drawers until she found her laptop. “Aha!”

Jack came back into the moment, “That’s another thing! You are forgetting way too much!”

“No, I’m not.” Jime protested but it lacked fire, because she knew he was right.

“It’s all that damned Siti’s fault.” He pouted.

Jime got serious, she was about to go off on Jack for putting down Siti again but she couldn’t anymore, now could she? Still, there was a fact she could never deny, “Yes, she taught me how to manage my memory, she also warned me from the get-go that I’d loose some along the way. It was a risk I had to take.” She turned to Jack after powering up her laptop. “Don’t you see? If it wasn’t for her teachings I would have been dead for a long time now, or at least mad as a hatter, it’s inevitable with us vampires, you know this Jack, I don’t need to remind you!”

“Yes, I know.” He replied, subdued, “I wouldn’t have let you die, you know that too. I don’t need to remind you, right?”

“Right.” She rolled her eyes, not entirely believing him. She knew how selfish he was, she would never kid herself on that front, ever again.

Jime looked at her contacts stored and copied them into her cellphone by hand since she didn’t have a connecting cable to hook them up. She had a fun time putting on her technology-challenged act for her niece, but they both knew she wasn’t. Jime kept with the times. A survival instinct she had developed naturally to replace the driving need to look for safe haven when the sun came up that all vampires had but that had been hammered out of her system by the king so long ago.

“I don’t have it? How can this be? Damn it.” She finished the number input and closed her phone, also shutting down her laptop.

“What don’t you have?” Jack mumbled.

“You might have it, An’s number, or a way to contact her?”

“Why would I have that bitch’s number? She left the Sinn-Jammers ages ago.”

Jime rolled her eyes again, “You sure are no help when I really need it.”

“That is a lie and a low blow.”

“I know you like my low blows, so don’t even.”

Jack cracked a smile.

Jime dialed a contact anyway, it rang and rang until it cut off and Jime tried again, this time someone did pick up, “What?” the female voice sounded flustered.

“Saku-senpai? It’s Jime.”

“Oh! Hi again! You calling me soon after we last saw each other, this is so new, I don’t know if I like it!” she joked.

“Is this how you always answer your phone? I’m surprised you have any clientèle at all.” Jime joked back.

“No, well, it’s just that right now I kind of have my hands full, my stupid son came back and this stupid phone keeps giving me grief.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, I won’t keep you long then, do you happen to have a way to contact An, by any chance?”

“An? God! I miss her! I haven’t heard from her since forever it seems, but yes, my black book was magicked to self-renovating with all the current information of my contacts, I’ll look it up, hold on-” searching sounds could be heard over the phone.

“I’ll ask Suri to do that to my phone.”

“It’s so handy, a really cool spell… yeah, here, I have it here, hey! An has a cellphone too! Who knew? It says here… she goes by the name “Trice” now, I wonder why, well, I’ll text you the number Jime, now I really have to go, the carnivorous plants are giving Rai the evil eye, and he’s so useless he won’t be able to defend himself without murdering my entire stock.”

“Ok, Thank you so much senpai. Good luck.” Jime finished the call.

“She’s too busy to be Sloth, I don’t know how she keeps up with it.”

“What do you know about Deadly Sins anyway?”

Jack didn’t answer.

Her phone beeped a minute later with the number, which she called right away.

“Zup.” Answered a low tone voice.

“An?”

“Who diz?”

“It’s Jime, you freak, why are you speaking with lolspeak or something?”

“Eh? Jime? JIME?! U bitch! Iz kill you if Iz didn’t want to kiss U right nao! Where U at?”

“I know, it’s been too long! Actually I wanna go visit, that alright?”

“Yeah! ees a’ight! Come!”

“Seriously, stop with the talk, I can see right now it will get old soon.”

“I gotz mah reasons.”

Jime laughed, “whatever, tell me where to go.”

“Go to a town called Wherwell, in England. There’s a pub there that connects with a pub in the Undergound, I’m at that pub. Just go through the out-of-service stall in the restroom. They lovez me here, it’s dah bomb!”

“The bomb, that’s so 1990s. You need to revise your slang.” Jime laughed again.

“I’ll wait at the Underground pub, that’s where I do mah buzness. Hurry babe!” An threw a kiss.

“Ok, see you soon!” Jime kissed back and finished the call.

Jack was furious, “Why?!” he yelled. “Why is it her? Why must we go see her? And why can she call you babe and I can’t? WHY?!”

“Shut it Jack, you are free to go if you want, anytime. We have to go see her because I know for a fact that she either knows where to find it or actually has a cockatrice, I want to see her, and she can call me anything she wants.”

The only pub in town turned out to be called “Ye Olde Litter Owls”, yolo for short, which connected to another pub in the Undergound as Trice had said that coincidently had the same name, there was an Orc bouncer at the Lore entrance (just past the dirty toilet) that informed Jime and Jack that you could not stay inside if you didn’t talk like a lolcat for at least 5 minutes straight, owner’s orders.

“Someone has an incredibly immature sense of humor.” Jack said, leaning on the wall outside the pub since he refused to talk like a lolcat, whatever that was.

“U haz no sense of humor!” Jime replied from an open window. She, of course, did stay inside.

The tall woman called Trice waited sitting at the bar, guzzling her beer, her well-formed muscles flexed as she drank, attracting the attention of the female costumers and the jealousy of the males. The moment Jime talked Trice turned around and squealed. Jime squealed. They ran into each others’ arms and hugged tightly, kissing both their cheeks with passion.

 “Mah love!”

“Mah cheeseburger!”

“Ugh. I feel sick.” Jack protested from outside the window.

“Him here? Dogz no come inside yo! Stay put!” Trice called to Jack.

“I didn’t plan to!” He yelled back.

“Him jealous az always, I seez.”

“Oh yeah, don mind he.”

“Ok, 5 minutes have passed, you can speak normally now.”

“Are you sure?” asked Jime.

“Yes, I’m the owner of both pubs, so it’s fine.”

“Figures!” yelled Jack.

The women rolled their eyes and walked away from the open window, leaving Jack outside to imagine the worst as they always did. It was their little game to make him jealous, they both had found by accident long ago that playing with him this way was extremely enjoyable for both of them, Trice and Jack never got along and she liked putting him down.

Jack saw them disappear into a separate booth and not wanting to leave Jime alone with that woman he braced himself and went inside to speak like an idiot.

The Orc bouncer appeared at his side with his arms crossed and glared at Jack until he spoke.

“O hai, I can haz guiness?” Jack asked.

The Orc smiled, showing his black teeth and slapped him on the back, pushing him a few steps forward, “Sure thing, guv’nor!” he motioned to the bartender, “One pint for the pussy!”

Jack glared at him but didn’t say anything, he couldn’t afford to be thrown out. He waited for his beer and when the bartender gave it to him Jack got a clear look at him, “Do Iz know U from sumewhere?”

The sexy bartender smiled a winning smile and said “Maybe.”

“KTHKSBYE.” Jack shrugged, grabbed his beer and went to join the women.

The women sat next to each other and Trice put an arm over Jime’s shoulders. Just like old times. “That is one sexy outfit you got there.” Trice scanned Jime with her eyes.

“Thank you, I wore it just for you, I know how you like it. So you’re into the pub business now?” asked Jime.

“Sure thing babe, I figured, since alcohol is one of the few things we vampires can drink besides blood, why not? I’m so glad I can still drink the stuff, but you know that.” Trice winked at Jime.

“Why have a human pub in England though?”

“Haha! I was waiting for you to ask! You will not believe-”

“Tak Ur dirty paws off mah woman.” Jack fell down on the seat in front of them and spilled his guiness on the table.

Trice laughed out loud, “This is new, he never would have bothered with the ignominy of lolspeak before!”

“Iz a changed man.”

“Leopards don’t change their spots.”

“Iz no leopard.”

“Then why are you speaking like a lolcat?”

“Ur rule! U dog!”

“My rule? But it’s been more than five minutes since you went in!” Trice managed her best innocent look.

“U spelled me? I hate Uz!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, how could I ever spelled you? I’m not a witch, I’m just a simple vampire who owns a simple pub, It’s not like I asked a witch to magick the place when it was being built with the specific request that if you ever set foot inside you’d have to speak in a funny manner for your whole stay, now did I?”

Jime laughed, “Of course not! That is preposterous to even think, Jack! Get a hold of yourself.”

Jack glared at both of them while mimicking shutting his lips down and throwing away the key.

“That’s better.” Said Trice, “Now, as I was saying, baby doll-” Trice was interrupted again by Jack pounding his fist on the table but she continued as if he wasn’t there, “do you remember back when we were in the Sinn-Jammers, I once told you about my dream?”

“Of course, you wanted to have the coolest pet ever, but normal animals died too quickly, so you started to aim for Lore beasts.” Jime stole a glance at Jack, who finally understood the reason why they were visiting Trice.

“Exactly! See, you remember everything about me, don’t you?” Trice leaned into Jime sexily. Jime smirked and half-closed her eyes, “Of course I do, baby. As a matter of fact, I was counting on that.”

“Why’s that?” Trice played with Jime’s hair.

“As it turns out, I’m in desperate need to find a cockatrice.”

“Get outta town! I have one!”

“You do?” Jime put her hands together cutely under her chin and blinked coquettishly at Trice.

“I do! It’s the reason for my new name!”

“Awesome!”

They high-fived each other while Jack stewed and drank his beer trying to cool down his feelings.

“So, how did you come into one?” Jime asked

“Well, you know about how they get birthed, right?” Jime nodded while Trice continued to explain, “I tried doing it for ages, putting snake eggs to incubate with a rooster and backwards and finally one of the chicken eggs that was incubated by a toad bared fruit! I was ecstatic, let me tell you, and have been caring for the critter ever since.

Well, as it happens, it’s not cheap to care and feed a cockatrice, thus my pubs. Funny story, my baby got lost once, and I found him terrorizing Hampshire, the Wherwell town to be specific, they had cornered him in the dungeons below the Priory but I got there in time and saved my baby, you see, I offered the humans to kill “the beast” and did this whole charade with a mirror and whatnot, I won’t bore you with the details, the result was… the town was happy to be peaceful again and they gave me land as reward, which I used to open the pub. Now the earnings maintain my cockatrice expenses.”

“How serendipitous.”

“Right? Now, tell me, why do you want a cockatrice?”

“Oh, I don’t want to have one, I just need a cup of its saliva.”

“Gross, I might love my baby, but let me tell you, that is disgusting.”

“Well, I need it for a potion.”

“Ok. I know how fond you are of your secret potions… wait, the king is missing now, right? You don’t need to plan any more weird plans to be rid of the sire bond, why are you still doing this?”

“It’s not that, actually the sire bond has been gradually disappearing all this time, you know, some of the other children have told me they are completely free now.”

“Does that mean the king is dead?”

“Nah, I still feel mine.”

“Too bad, but if not that, then what?”

“It’s just a potion, please don’t ask me any more.” Jime tried her best coy look.

“How can I say no to that beautiful face?” Trice caressed Jime’s cheek.

“You stay here Jack. My baby only likes women.” Trice commanded him as she pushed Jime through a door and closed it in Jack’s face.

Jack put his ear to the door to listen to what was going on inside, but his mind kept thinking about the conversation from before. Jime had had plans to escape from the Rat? What plans? How come he never knew anything about this?

A soft voice could be heard, “So, how do we do this?” It was Jime.

“I’ll let it out, just let me unzip this first.”

“Oh, wow, that’s big, a long and thick body.”

“He likes that, keep it up.”

“That is the biggest cock head I’ve ever seen, it’s beautiful, powerful, it kind of frightens me.”

“Yes, as it should, there’s no mercy here for anyone.”

“How do I make it give me its fluids?”

“First, don’t look it in the eye, it might weep, and the sight will turn you to stone.”

“I won’t be afraid of it, now what?”

“Stroke it.”

“Like this?”

“Yeah, that’s it baby, you got it, keep that rhythm going. Up and down. Up and down. Now the head, caress it.”

“Ooo! It’s soft but yet, I can feel the steel-like muscles underneath.”

“That’s how they get.”

“It’s changing color, turning red and purple, how pretty.”

“Look at the neck, there’s fluid accumulating there.”

“It’s coming!”

“Lemme grab that coffee cup, It’s clean, don’t worry.”

“Oh my God! There’s so much of it! You’re gonna have to clean this all up quickly.”

“I got people for that. It’s fine.”

“Oh no! I got some in my face!”

“Keep your eyes closed I’ll wipe it off for you.”

“That feels so nice.”

“You got some splashes on your blouse, hold on.”

“Will it wash off?”

“You’ll have to go to the dry-cleaners, sorry babe.”

“That’s fine, it was worth it, thank you.”

“Anytime sweet girl, It’s always my pleasure.”

Jack was ready to kill when the door opened and Trice came out with a to-go coffee cup with its seal in place followed by Jime who was fixing her top and combing her hair with her fingers.

“We goez nao!” He grabbed the cup and Jime’s arm, speed walking right for the exit.

Jime giggled and waved at Trice, “Bye! And thank you for everything!”

Trice laughed out loud, “Don’t be a stranger and come back soon!”

The car waited for them outside of Wherwell, and as they walked to it a flash of lighting lit up the sky and the cup vanished.

Zeus’ voice resonated all around the couple, “CHEEKY MONKEYS, I ENJOYED THAT.”

“At least someone did.” Jack grumbled.

“You really have no sense of humor. It’s one of the many things I can’t stand about you.” Jime nonchalantly said as she opened the passenger door and got inside the car.

“I don’t care what you say, I know you love me.” Jack went in too.

She rolled her eyes and waited for Jack to drive, but he just sat there, holding the steering wheel with one hand and looking troubled.

“Ugh. What now?” Jime asked annoyed.

“In the pub… Trice talked about the king.”

“Yeeeees?”

“What plans did you have?”

“Plans?... oh, those plans. It doesn’t matter now, does it? Nothing came out of that.”

“You never told me anything.”

“For all your careful observation of me –and by that I mean stalking- you never figured? I would think it was rather obvious that I would do anything in my power to escape.”

“But-”

“Plus, see, this is the level of selfishness in which you live, it’s taken you all this time to find this out. Your blindness caused me tons of grief, you know, I can’t even begin to remember all the plans that failed because of you.”

“You can’t blame me for not knowing.”

“I can blame you for not thinking about anyone other than yourself.”

“Fine, ok, yes, I admit it, I was like that back then, but not anymore.”

“You haven’t showed anything to the contrary, so forgive me if I don’t believe you.”

“I swear.”

“Swear all you want. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Deal. I’ll show it to you. And you won’t deny it anymore when you do see it.”

He started the car and told it to go to the dragon place in Louisiana avoiding the sun.

They had a long trip ahead of them, which was spent with Jime fiddling with the radio and Jack mulling over the new information.