Chapter 9
You are Jake English and you have been dragged along by this guy wearing black for who knows how long. To you it feels like hours but realistically it's probably only been 45 minutes. You are out of breath and stumbling over the rocky ground.
At the top of a hill the man lets go of your arm and allows you slump down into a sitting position on a nearby rock.
"Catch your breath dude," He tells you almost rudely. You glare up at him a moment, his breathing is deep but not labored. Who in the world can run that long without breaking a sweat? You wonder incredulously.
"If you let me go you'll get whatever you want as a reward chap." You offer still out of breath.
He merely scoffs at you and you bristle at the insult.
"Why should I believe you?" he asks as if you're a habitual liar.
"Because if you don't let me go now Condesce will follow our trail until she finds you and it won't be pretty if she finds I'm your prisoner instead of you being my rescuer."
"You think your dearest love will save you?" His facial expression remains blank but you can almost feel the sneer in his words.
"I never said she was my dearest love," you state indignantly, "and yes, she will save me. I'm right certain of that."
"You're saying you don't love your fiancée?" he asks a mild curiosity in his tone.
"She knows I don't love her." You don't know why you're explaining yourself to this ingrate.
"Incapable of love, you mean." He accuses you.
Your anger builds to a raw burn as you stand and address him inches from his face.
"I loved someone more profoundly than a brute like you could ever dream!" you spew venomously.
You see his arm twitch as the last word leaves your mouth and you involuntarily flinch expecting a blow. It never comes and the man doesn't move. He simply stares at you from behind his shades.
"Being a liar a hobby of yours?"
You glare back at him but don't dignify his question with an answer. He grabs your arm once more and you again resume running along in his wake.
-Be Condesce
You touch a droplet of some liquid left on a stone that had been used as a stool next to a makeshift tabletop. You smell the liquid and you're genuinely surprised that you recognize the scent.
"Sopor slime," you state loudly, "interesting." You look down again at the troll lying on the ground next to the repast. He looks dead but you can see the telltale movement of his torso as he breathes. You would assume whoever was here managed to force some of the drug-like substance into his system. You would try to wake him but until the slimes effects wore off he'd be less than useless. You didn't have that much time.
"I see the path they took," you announce after consulting your powers, "Jake is alive, or was, an hour ago. If he is not in good health when I find him I'm going to be very irate."
-Be Jake
You are stopping again at the top of the steepest hill you have yet climbed. You are pushed down onto another rock as you try to get enough air into your lungs.
"Take a break." Is all he says, and he still looks fresh as snow and ready to go.
"I know who you are," you state crisply, "Only the Dread Pirate Strider is so cruel."
"Got me," he admits with a slight tilt of his head in your direction, "How can I be of service?" he mocks.
"You can take that cheap ass sticker of yours and go stab yourself!" You growl at the bastard.
"I'm flattered," you detect the sarcasm in his voice but only barely. "What'd I do to deserve this malice?"
"You killed my love." Your voice has gone quiet and your glare could melt those stupid shades right of his face if you tried hard enough.
"That's possible. I kill a lot of people. Who'd I kill? Another rich cougar like this one?" He sits down on the ground near you and appears to relax against a rock. God you despise him.
"No, a city boy. Poor. Without a dime to his name but perfect all the same. His eyes were like ambers at sunset. Your ship attacked his out at sea! Everyone knows the Dread Pirate Strider never takes prisoners!"
"I can't afford to make exceptions." He states derisively. "Once it gets out that a pirate had gone soft then people begin to disobey you, then it's nothing but a shitload of work."
"You mock my pain!"
"Life is nothing but pain buddy. If someone tells you something else then they're out to rip you off."
You look away in disgust unable to stomach looking at him a moment longer. Your face is flushed with anger and you can feel the tears building in your eyes, though you fight them off. You refuse to show this monster that he's getting to you.
"He rises from the ground leisurely and ambles toward you.
"I might remember this city boy you're talkin about." You refuse to look at him. "About five years ago right? Am I bothering you?"
You've mastered your emotions and found some of that numbness you had wrapped yourself in for so long. You're somewhat proud when your voice comes out just as blank as his face.
"Nothing you say can trouble me."
"He died well. You'd have been proud of him. Didn't try to bribe or beg his way out. He only said "Please. Please, I need to live." "It was the please that stuck with me. I asked him what was so damn important." "True Love." "He said. He then described a faithful man of action and adventures whose passion for movies surpassed any good taste."
Your lips quirk a little at that. It sounded like something he would have said.
"I assume he was talking about you." The man stopped walking. He was standing a few feet away from you facing the opposite direction.
"You should thank me for putting him out of his misery before he saw your true colors."
Your anger flared again at this jab and you couldn't hold back your response.
"Yeah? What am I then?" you stand and face him down for the second time that day.
"He talked about how faithful you were." Strider nearly spat at you, "Tell me, when you found out he was dead, did you affiance yourself to your cougar within an hour, or did you wait a whole week in his memory?" You notice a slight crease in Striders brow and for all the expression he has shown you so far it was like he'd been shouting at you when his voice was the same volume it had always been. But you didn't care about that. White hot rage boiled within you at this heinous accusation.
"Fuck you! Damn you straight to hell consarn it! I died that day!" You scream in his face.
You both suddenly hear the pounding of hooves and Strider turns away from you to look at the approaching party.
"Why don't you just die too?" you grit out. You then lunge at him and slam your shoulder into the middle of his back. You watch as he falls foreword and begins to careen down the steep side of the hill unable to slow his momentum.
"As you wish!" You hear him yell as his body tumbled wildly downward.
Everything around you completely stops. Your jaw drops, your eyes widen and your vision narrows until there's nothing in your sight but that figure falling away from you. Your heart begins to pound as hope and joy flutter wildly within your chest. Tears form at the corners of your eyes as an overflow of emotion washes over you.
"Oh god! Dirk! What have I done?"
Without thinking you launch yourself down the hillside after him. You spin and tumble violently down the steep slope but all you can think of is getting to Dirk's side. You try to tuck in your elbows but the force of gravity makes you bounce and it feels like every last part of you is being pounded by baseball bats as you seem to find every small rock and thorny weed on the way down.
Your body finally skids to a stop as the ground levels out a little at the bottom of the hill. You've landed face up and the world around you is tilting out of control.
-Be Condesce
"They disappeared." You call as you lose sight of the two figures ahead of you. "He probably saw us and panicked. Unless I'm wrong, and let's face it when am I ever wrong?" You Look at Vriska and she grins at you manically, "They're headed right into the forest of LOHAC."
-Be Jake again
Your whole body aches as you struggle to turn your head looking for Dirk. You find he has landed only a few feet from you and on the trip down the hill of hell he has lost his baseball cap and his pointy shades are nowhere to be seen. You realize it's a small miracle that your glasses managed to stay on your face the whole way down, only knocked askew slightly when you landed.
He is struggling to sit up and his bright orange eyes lock onto your emerald ones. You push your glasses back into place as he quickly moves to your side. You blink up into his eyes as he wraps an arm under your head and places his other hand on the ground between your arm and your side so that he's leaning directly over you.
"Can you move?" He asks as he slips his other hand around your side so he can pull you closer.
"Move?" you ask breathlessly, "By golly you're alive. If you asked me to I could fly."
You reach out and grab him around the waist as he wraps his arms around your shoulders. You fear you'll squeeze him to death you're holding him so tightly. Dirk is holding you no less tightly and you simply don't care. He's here, in your arms, and you never want to let him go.
He finally pulls away from you far enough so that he's looking into your eyes again. His arm is still between your head and the ground and he brings his other arm up so that he can caress the side of your face and you lean into his touch savoring it.
"I told you I'd always come for you. Why didn't you wait for me?" he whispers his intense gaze boring into you. Without those goofy shades you can see the love shining in his eyes as he gazes at you.
"Y-you were dead mate." You sputter somewhat coherently as his thumb brushes back and forth along your cheek.
"Death can't stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while." He smiles and it's a genuine smile that reaches all the way into his expressive eyes.
"I won't doubt it again." You say as you lose yourself in the warmth of his body pressed against your side.
"You won't need to." He whispers and then he's leaning down and pressing his lips against yours, pulling you close as you both savor each other.
-Be John
"Augh, no, no, please." You say exasperated.
"What?" your dad says as he pauses the movie.
"They're kissing again. Do we have to watch this part?"
"Heh, someday you may not mind it." Your dad smiles at you.
"Let's just skip to the Forest of LOHAC that sounded awesome."
"Alright," your dad says still smiling, "I'll humor you."
You watch the scenes of the movie blur quickly by as your dad hits fast forward and then hits play again when the time is right.