Author's Notes: HEY EVERYBODY! I am SO SORRY for how long this update took! My life has been a swirling whirlpool since the last update! But thankfully, it hasn't been terrible like the last flurry of life's hurricane; it's just been A LOT of change recently. Between a part-job that eats up most of my hours, me looking for a more meaningful job related to my field of history, STILL working to obtain my Master's Degree, and entering the world of on-line dating with real gusto for the first time…my time has been limited. Once again, I am so deeply sorry about that. I'll try to be better about this in the future.
There is more that I could say here but I'm kind of eager to get this chapter started! So let's start it already! Lol
Here's the seventeenth chapter of "Unbreakable Red Silken Thread": Chance: Born On a Monday: Part 3
October 27th, 2014 (1:30 PM)
The migraine pounded and pounded within Gwen's skull like an Irish river dancer's clogs, each step further away from the cafeteria seemed to be accompanied with the head-clogs, sending another wave of jagged discomfort reverberating around her aching brain.
Under such strain, with the hangover's lingering influence fused with the stress of what had happened in only a few hours' time, the Goth stopped. She needed to find a place to sit down and think badly, and despite the shit-storm that her day had been so far, the universe seemed to give her a freebie for once.
She had wandered to a park-like area of the campus near the food court, complete with picnic tables on a section of healthy and well-manicured grass. It was a place where students could eat outside if they wanted, provided the weather was nice enough, and even more fortunately for her there was no one there; it was empty and bereft of any watchers.
After these facts came together in her mind, the now taller and bustier Goth walked over to the nearest picnic table and sat down on one of its hard but sturdy wooden benches. Gwen then closed her eyes, put her aching head in her hands, and muttered, "My life is so fucked…"
From that terrible starting point, joining the dull pain in her skull was a collection of thoughts and revelations that were equally abysmal.
'How could this have happened? Why this of all things!? Just because we have a little disagreement from time to time that people wouldn't understand…I try to keep it under wraps but some non-existent God felt the need to drag it out into the sunlight! Heather, Heather of all fucking people, knows! And I'd bet my bra that Cody knows too!'
The first realization filled her with dread, while the second filled her with shame due to how she had treated him during Total Drama. But she didn't dwell on either for very long, much more pressing concerns fought for space in the crammed coliseum of her cranium. The winner of that mental gladiatorial brawl was the thought of Dawn knowing about the situation, which logically meant that her roommate Zoey also knew. And given her limited interactions with the redhead that gave off the impression of being a chatterbox, Gwen feared that a good chuck of the campus would also know by now. Her empty stomach churned like it was filled with molten lava at the mere thought of that. Building on top of that, the knowledge that the only person who was doing anything was Heather just pushed her mood even deeper in the mire. It was a bitter, cosmic bad joke, the one person to act on what was nothing more than an argument, and they used it against her because it happened to look bad.
The silent laughter of all of existence at her expense reverberated in her aching skull, rumbled with the harsh, deafening roar of an express train barreling towards her. The headlight of that train of thought, glaring at her with its blinding cyclopean stare, was Heather using it against her, that stupid recording, which she now knew came from Jo. Logically, that meant that Jo knew about it as well, and by extension Brick also knew, since everyone who ever saw them together knew they were a couple. That had honestly come as a shock to her since, like everyone else, she had assumed Jo was a butch lesbian who couldn't stand men. A dry, raspy chuckle escaped from her throat like the rough leathery wings of a bat at that notion. But that bitter bat of laughter had its wings clipped at the realization reminding her that Heather had Jo and Brick in her back pocket, both of the dorm's RA's under her thumb.
Gwen's treacle black lips curved downward in a frown of confusion upon further thinking about that apparent fact. She had crossed paths with both Jo and Brick a few times since arriving, and neither of them seemed like the sort of people that would be easily swayed. Thinking back to herself, however, she realized that more than likely Heather had blackmail material on both of them as well, and probably Jasmine too given how she seemed to do whatever Heather told her to without question.
'Ya know…if she wasn't such a cold-hearted bitch who has a metaphorical guillotine over my boyfriend's throat for one little slip-up to piss me off…I'd actually be kind of impressive with how Heather has managed to get control over so many powerful people in such a short frame of time. She really is the Queen Bitch of the Queen Bees.'
From there, the Goth's thoughts drifted, shuffling like a zombie, towards the next subject, Cody. As the mental image of the scrawny, meek, gap-toothed, and chestnut banged teen formed like a puzzle made of oscillating zephyrs amid the clanking rattling within her brain, Gwen felt a mixture of pit and annoyance fermenting in her churning, cauldron-like gut.
Playing themselves out like a silent film reel, like a colored, inter-title-less Charlie Chaplin feature devoid of comedy that amused her, she remembered all the times Cody threw himself at her and all the times she just shot him down without a second thought. He had been like a lost, horny little puppy desperately trying to hump her stocking-covered leg, to the point she had the impression that his entire world-view revolved around her.
But now he was with Heather. The logical reason, Gwen knew, had to be she found out about his family, how much money they have, and that was all she needed as a reason to start using him for her own gains. Given what she had seen so far with how Heather had gotten herself under her thumb, along with so many other people with so little effort, the Goth wondered just what the Queen Bee had done to get Cody under her influence.
Then Gwen remembered something else, she hadn't been the first girl Cody seemed to fancy. When he first arrived on Total Drama Island, the Goth noticed how his teal eyes transparently showed great interest in Bridgette, Leshawna, and Lindsay. Between Bridgette's tomboyish appeal and easy going nature, Leshawna's curvy and big bootyed black body with attitude, and Lindsay's ridiculously well-endowed epitome of the supposed ideal female form and bubbly personality, the Goth realized that Cody had a wide variety of tastes, that the kinds of girls he could be into were as varied as the weather. Suddenly, the grand mystery of just how Heather could have seduced Cody seemed easier to understand. After finding out that Cody was rich due to his family, and possibly also because of him getting quite a bit from royalties off his Drama Brothers albums and that stupid commercial he and Sierra had done, she used her bodily charms. The Goth knew this couldn't have been too difficult for the Asian Beauty, given how much of an obvious pervert he was. That combined with the understanding that she had been with the Tech Geek for two years caused a new epiphany to form. The poor kid was probably just some hapless pawn of hers by now, blindly doing whatever she wanted in return for promising to flash him or sucking his cock.
With it coming out of nowhere, the germ of a new feeling started to sprout in her belly. It was a tiny feeling, like an orchid, vivid yet delicate, but she couldn't deny that it was there. It was a feeling expressed in a question, a single statement soliloquy to herself.
Could she have prevented both of their lives from turning to shit if she had just given him a chance instead of ignoring him and tossing him aside?
The orchid of an idea was instantly buried in shit, as Gwen became more angry than upset, finding the very idea to be almost as repulsive as Heather's continued existence. Cody's image was still fresh in her mind, but it slowly started to subtly morph into that of another. The shape flowed, a viscous nightmare of intangible flesh acting like liquid. The features of another slowly but surely replaced the Tech Geek's boyish ones, similar yet not the same, like an imperfect doppelgänger started a few decades before the original.
Oh, how Gwen hated that face. How it crystallized the key reason why she hated Cody so.
'Cody can go to Hell! He looks and acts too much like…him…and I'll be damned if I'm going to make the same mistake my mother did!'
Matching the violent fury of that personal vow, a contrastingly weak voice rattled within her mind, telling her that she had already had.
'Bullshit!' Gwen refuted, arguing with herself, 'Duncan hasn't done anything illegal! And he doesn't just do what he does for no reason…its only when I bring it on myself. When I don't-when I'm good, everything is good. Duncan's a great guy, and I'm happy, hell I'm lucky to have him!'
October 27, 2010 (11:59 PM)
Gwen felt a small amount of relief as Duncan parked his truck, mainly because the radio was now turned off. While her joy from being with the Delinquent allowed her to overlook how painful the blaring punk music had been, the silence was sweet.
Without saying a word, the Goth opened her door and stepped out onto the dirt road they had parked on, and after stretching, she surveyed the area. It was a cornfield, but amid the closest towering stalks there were tons of cars and trucks, dozens and dozens of them all along the dirt road, out of which she could see many other teens walking towards a large barn house, the location of the party that she had been looking forward to all week. Through her thick, black combat-boots, Gwen could feel a strong steady beat through the soil, like the frenzied steps of a dancing giant. Despite being eager for the party, she briefly feared the loud music as her eardrums were still ringing from Duncan's radio.
Ignoring that concern, she walked beside her boyfriend through the massive open doors. It was crammed pack with teenagers, possibly over a hundred of them all partying and enjoying themselves. Heavy metal music blared from speakers set up all around the wooden structure, either standing on posts or hanging from the rafters. The bass was powerful enough for Gwen to feel like she was inside a giant beating heart.
To Gwen's delight, despite its volume the music was way more tolerable here than it was in Duncan's truck. She chalked it up, at least partially, to there being plenty of space and distance between herself and the speakers, whereas inside Duncan's truck it was next to her. The other reason she believed was because the overall atmosphere was quite enjoyable and lively.
There were a few strobe light spheres set up along the rafters of the barn well over twenty feet high, brightly gleaming in the otherwise lightless air of the night like a sea of swirling, twirling, and ever-changing multicolored gemstones. Swords of jade green, baby blue, blood red, royal purple, and other striking colors offered the party's only light as they stabbed into the darkness before retreating and turning towards another direction, everything not pierced in their transparent pathways drenched in shadows.
Laughter filled the evening sky above under the barn roof as many high school students and the occasional college kid took part in all of the rave's alcohol laced activities. A few games of beer pong were under way; there were even three or four tables that had alcohol inhalers, large opium bong-like devices that allowed many people to sample alcohol as a ether that could get someone drunk much faster than its liquidized form. The majority of the wide empty center of the space however was an endless sea of undulating flesh, dancing, dirty dancing, and others a mere breath away from outright sex itself. Whatever eloquent skills for dancing these people might have possessed were already being overpowered by movements like seizures fueled by alcohol and an increasingly lack of restraint with their thoughts or actions.
Despite it not being a costume party, there were a few people who'd shown up in Halloween get-ups. It seemed to be mostly girls in sluttier versions of traditional fare she noted. A sexy nurse was performing a 'hands-on' examination of a swelling between a man's legs, a young woman in a full-body leopard costume strutting around like a cat on the prowl, there was even a busty Wonder Woman making out and groping a big-bottomed She-Hulk.
Gwen took a deep breath, having the aroma of aged wood and fresh intoxication fill her nostrils. For the first time since her last little nighttime adventure with Duncan, she felt truly at peace and relaxed. She was once again free from the unspoken tension of her home life. As much as Gwen tried to reject it, small zephyrs of it were lingering within her thoughts.
Her relationship with her mother, and now even her brother was being changed, deformed from what they had once been. All because of their inability to get past the distrust they held towards Duncan. It hurt her much, she loved her family, and knowing they hated her boyfriend always got her so angry. The clash between her love for her family and her feelings for Duncan caused endless tension every moment she spent with them, and it was getting to the point where every interaction, no matter how nice it was, was tinged by an aftertaste like rusted metal, with the rejection of him unspoken but known. Tentacles of the oppressive aftertaste were creeping their way into her mood more and more frequently despite the subtlety of their advances to sour any existing good mood.
She loved being with Duncan; he was cool, like-minded, witty, laid back, and damn hot! It angered her how her family was being so stubborn and close-minded; already forming opinions about him that they wouldn't change no matter how many times she had tried to explain to them!
Why did her family feel the need to tear down any good feelings she had? Why were they trying to make her feel like she was doing something wrong? Why did they want her to repeat her failure with Trent by ditching a good thing just because she was only looking at the short-term?
The lack of answers to those questions and their mere existence tried to bore into her.
But she was ignoring all of that tension and doubt, all of those questions, all of that hurt her family inflicted on her claiming to be worried about her. She was here, with her boyfriend, at a rad party a few days before her favorite holiday of the year, and she was going to fucking enjoy it for all it was worth!
With that in mind, she walked to a nearby table and grabbed a red plastic cup of soda, already feeling her mood improving just from the fact she was here, now, with him.
Gwen lifted the cup's rim to the edge of her blue-green lips when all of a sudden a hand stopped her by grabbing her wrist. Alarmed by the suddenness of the action she instinctive flinched and wrenched it away, and though it took most of her strength the Goth was able to pull herself free from it. Turning she glared at its source, Duncan.
"Duncan, what the hell!?" The Goth hissed, covered in a strobe ray of deep red from above that made her ticked off expression look down-right demonic in its fury, clearly not approving of his actions one little bit, "It's just soda! What's your damage!?"
Duncan, despite flashing the briefest expression of anxiety and fear, while bathed in a strobe beam of bright yellow, quickly saved face and flashed a swaggered smirk. With the color illuminating against his face being a light baby blue, he explained, "Nah, that ain't it, Pasty. You shouldn't drink anything not in a bottle or a can."
"Why's that?"
"Anything not in a sealed can or bottle is always spiked. And ya seem like a tea totter. No offense."
"None taken," the Goth said, with that being the truth. "And…thanks for looking out for me."
"No problem, Pasty."
There was a short silence between the two, with one of them getting both pleased yet uncomfortable at the same time with what they felt. Said person decided to end it.
"And here I thought you'd want me all wasted so you could have your way with me?" Gwen teased with a smirk.
Duncan merely smirked back, with the lights on his face spilt between the dark red and royal blue of two clashing strobes, "Oh I don't need ya wasted to get that, Pasty."
October 27th, 2014
The night that followed had proven to be the wonderful escape from her troubles that Gwen had been hoping for. The Goth had such a great time that she sucked Duncan off twice to apologize that night. She and Duncan had such a great time that, even after all these years and her current situation, thinking about it made her flash a genuine smile. Amid the shit-storm that was today, that memory was a brief bubble of pleasure.
However, someone clearing their throat nearby, behind Gwen, popped that bubble. Despite the surprise she felt, the Goth didn't jump or jolt or otherwise react in any way that would have singled her being spooked or caught off guard. Instead, she simply turned around behind her to see whom it was that did it.
There she saw a tiny young woman with long light-blonde hair and piercing grey-blue eyes. For what felt like minutes, neither of them said anything. The look on the smaller woman's face suggested that this was out of feeling very dower; while for Gwen it was mere confusion. It took her a while but eventually the Goth realized who this person was. It was Dawn! She had never spoken to the Moonchild but she had seen and heard her around the dorm occasionally, and in that instant Gwen felt herself getting pissed off all over again. She remembered what Heather told her about how Dawn was the one who brought her to them. In the Goth's mind, the meek looking young lady with blonde hair was just as guilty of causing her situation as Heather or Duncan's drinking buddies.
With that emotional bleeding into her voice, she asked with a tone mingling slight cold and a mild edge, "What do you want, Dawn?"
"Hello Gwen. I wish to apologize for the discomfort I unknowingly brought into her life," the Moonchild began, with her oddly squeaky voice getting on Gwen's already strained nerves. "It was never my intention to cause you, or anyone, any trouble. I was only trying to help. I-"
A loud and nasty bark of a scoff from the Goth cut off Dawn's words like a blade. Fixing the blonde a stare just as sharp, the Goth got up from her seat and walked towards her with hate-filled steps. She stopped right in front of the Aura Reader, towering over the girl even shorter than Heather, casting Dawn's entire body in her shadow. A subtle look with a cause that was obscure flashed on the Moonchild's pale face. It wasn't fear or desperation that marred her; it was deep hurt and rarely felt confliction of purpose. Thanks to her aura reading ability, she almost never doubted what the correct path was. However, with what had happened with Gwen, the petite blonde girl believed she made a terrible mistake. The knowledge of that bristled within her, but her body didn't shake with fear. Even so, there was no denying that the harsh glare from a girl likely at least a foot taller than her in high heels was enough to but even this mellow nature lover on edge. In particular when the red hatred in her aura was almost blinding.
Fueled by that anger, Gwen spoke with all the civility of an enraged bull, "That's exactly what you did! You've ruined my fucking life!" It felt so good to release even just a fraction of the hate churning within her like molten lava. "You've made my life a living hell! You've put me under Heather's thumb! Fucking Heather! And now she's going to ruin my life just for shits and giggles!"
Dawn opened her mouth, attempting to speak as her already large eyes widened in doubt. If not for how pissed off she was, Gwen might have been able to find the image adorable. But she was that pissed, and because of that she didn't give the other girl a chance to talk.
"Why couldn't you just mind your own fucking business like everyone else and leave well enough alone!?" Gwen spat. "Because of you, me and Duncan are walking a thin line with Heather just WAITING to cut it! He could be expelled or arrested! He's already got a fucking record as it is! Did you even think of the repercussions of your actions!?"
There was a brief pause, with the silence clashing against the loud roars of the mad Goth. Dawn took a few deep breaths, likely to clam her nerves, before replying in her usual tone, "I was only trying to help you, Gwen. I saw what happened in the lobby that day, and how Heather helped you. When I saw what happened in the parking lot, I assumed that Heather was a friend of yours and she would be willing to help you again."
The Goth snorted, with her face contorting into a savage looking grin, like that of a predator. "And that's exactly what happens when you assume anything; you make an ass of yourself. Only you've made an ass out of me as well." Dawn tried to speak, but once again the taller and bustier girl cut her off before any words could leave her mauve lips. "I've heard rumors about you, that you're some kind of psychic," Gwen said, with vicious spite, full of contempt with the very idea.
"Aura reader," Dawn clarified, passively and with no offense detectable in her voice.
"Whatever!" Gwen barked. "No matter what asinine name you give it, you're suppose to be special, to know things that none of us lowly mortals could ever hope to understand!" she went on, adding heavy doses of a mocking tone to deflate the very idea she was saying. "But you're just like everyone else! You take one look at me and think you've got me all figured out! When you see me you see an antisocial, depressed loner who needs your help to be normal, to be just another one of the absent-minded sheep who get by on their tits!" she clamped her hands together in-front of her face with a mock-wide eyed expression, being the stereotypical picture of a grateful maiden begging for assistance. "Well, guess what… Aura Reader…" she paused, after adding sarcastic bite to that clarified term. Her expression became even harder, the kind of harsh stare that felt lethal, while her hands became clenched fists, "I don't want or need your help! I'm not some fucking private little mission for you to fix! I'm not some generic dull-as-shit, feel-good movie bullshit for you to change so you can feel better about yourself, you fucking bleeding-heart bitch!"
"It's not a matter of-"
"Save it! I'm not in the mood for whatever bullshit was about to come out of her mouth. You're very lucky I've got somewhere else to be, but let me make something crystal clear. If you ever try to help me out ever again…you're going to regret it."
Not saying another word, the Goth turned and started to walk away from the Moonchild, however, she only made it a few paces before pausing.
"Oh, and let me give you a free piece of advice. The next time you get that itch, see that change in aura bullshit, or whatever other way you describe the need to help someone…don't." Gwen turned back to face Dawn over her shoulder, with her black eyes hardened enough to resemble coals, enforcing the comment of her parting words, "You suck at it. All you do is make things worse for everyone. If you really care so much about other people, then just say out of their business and focus on the blades of grass we all step on like a good little hopeless hippie chick that will never change shit."
With the pissed off Goth leaving to avoid lashing out, Dawn shouted, with her usually calm voice showing a conflicted edge, "Your aura is in a state of conflict that must be resolved! You need to stop running from the wolves! They don't mean you any harm!"
As Dawn's squeaky voice entered Gwen's ears, time slowed for the Goth as her black eyes, previously hardened slits of hate, now became widened pools of ebony amazement. 'How the fuck did this witch bitch known that!? How did she know about those dreams!?'
In front of Gwen's unblinking eyes, a flash of memory, a forgotten fragment from a dreadful, dominate dream filled her vision. It wasn't much, just a fickle flash, but it was memorable despite itself. It was an image of the nightmare that had been plaguing her lately.
It was the white furred face of a large and imposing wolf, its eyes like two blazing green moons; the humid hell of a mouth flashing breath reeking of death, baring fangs and giving growls like those of a demon, showing the reds and yellows of a bloody tongue and corrupted fangs.
Pausing to turn, to attempt prying an explanation for this out of the meek mystery girl, Gwen noticed that Dawn was simply not there, like she had never been there to begin with.
The sense of horror gripping Gwen from what appeared to be her college's own blonde, creepy psychic ghost hung around her like the hangover she was only now finally free of all the way back to Heather's dorm. She might have laughed at the irony of it all, if it hadn't hit so close to home, she almost would have preferred the predictable pain of the hangover to the amorphous anxiety that had been left in the Moonchild's passive wake.
It was that anxiety that had Gwen glancing around occasionally to see if anyone was near, if any shapes flickered in and out of existence, like candles ignited and extinguished. The only thing holding her back from entering a blind panic by envisioning herself in a horror film was the fact that it was the middle of the day and there were other people around her. Aside from some of the best horror films of the 1970s, none ever took place in board daylight or among crowds. She didn't see any towering wicker men or chainsaw-wielding psychos, so she figured she was safe.
That notion, that this wasn't a horror movie, only brought minimal comfort to Gwen, after all, in some ways, her current situation was even worse than a horror movie. As the fear left by Dawn was fleeting like brittle, thin, morning sleet of a cold but sunny winter day, the familiar dread and despair over her situation with Heather eagerly retook its place.
Even if it was only going to be a few weeks as she deeply hoped, her future was going to be Hell, the likes of which she had not experienced since fleeing from an erupting volcano. Gwen's mind couldn't help but drop horrible image after horrible image of what was in store for her. As if Heather being here wasn't bad enough, and using one of her boyfriend's bad moods to blackmail her, she was going to be stuck with another reminder of how much she has screwed things up with Cody being there, the boy who was stuck with a heartless bitch of a gold digger milking him for everything he was worth, and how the only reason he was in this mess was because of her. Despite only caring minimally about Cody as a person, as a follow victim of Heather's snares he had the Goth's full Heather-hating sympathies.
Reaching the dorms, she found the lobby empty, likewise the elevator was empty as well, along with the hallway leading to Heather and Cody's dorm.
'Typical,' Gwen thought to herself, with a note of bitterness, 'I've wanted to be left alone for my entire life and only now am I actually alone.'
She looked at her watch, it was 2:00 PM. Pulling herself up a little, she went over her plan again, to prepare herself for her next encounter with her still hated rival. That Heather wasn't one to waste time with something unless she could get something out of it. In Gwen's case, it was just rubbing everything in her face or lording how everything in her life is perfect over her. When she tried to fight and argue with Heather that morning, it just made the Queen Bee bite down harder, so Gwen was going to do the opposite. If she could bury everything down and keep herself under control, not let Heather get to her, not show any reaction to her, then Heather should lose interest in her and ignore her.
'Show no fear, show no anger, show no emotion at all…don't care. Don't act.'
With that repeating itself in her mind, reached the door to her temporary prison, and after steeling her resolve, she opened the door and entered.
What the Goth found as she did so was quite…surprising.
It was Heather, standing in the middle of the living room, putting her shirt on with her purple bra clad breasts proudly on display. The moment she heard the door open, the Queen Bee shouted, "Damn it Cody! You know to knock fir-!?" she stopped when she saw that it was Gwen instead of her boyfriend, but once she did so Heather simply amended, "Didn't anyone ever teach you to knock!?"
"Oh-OH! Oh damn, He-Heather! I-I-I'm so s-sorry! I didn't-I wouldn't, uh…It was a-!" Gwen stuttered and fumbled, finding her usual Gothic indifference nonexistent. Apologies were not something she gave often even under less shocking circumstances, and even then it would usually be instantly followed up by sucking Duncan's dick or grinding on his lap. Plus the added stress of the threat embodied by her old hated rival made it so much worse.
"Just shut the damn door!" Heather shouted, easily severing Gwen's pathetic attempts at speech. The Goth, still looking in a bit of a worried daze, obeyed the blunt demand. With the door closed behind her, Gwen continued to attempt to apologize profusely. This continued for a few moments until Heather raised a single hand, silencing her instantly.
"In the future, remember to knock before opening that door," Heather said evenly, before adding, "or any door in this dorm."
Before Gwen could ask the reason why, she remembered the rumors floating around campus and had the mental image of Heather and some random girl going at it. She did her best to repress her shudder of sheer revulsion at the image.
However, amid the rippling effect of her horror through her body, the Goth observed a shocking detail, one that clashed so severely with assumptions that she took as much a part of the world as gravity.
Heather wasn't yelling anymore.
She seemed to drop the subject entirely instead of continuing to grill her with the gleeful relish she had displayed on Total Drama. Instead, the Queen Bee motioned Gwen to follow her deeper the dorm while saying, "Follow me. I'll show you your room."
'Don't you mean prison cell?' Gwen mentally asked herself. But she limited her protest to that as she followed behind the shorter girl without putting up a fuss.
The two young women reached the room that Gwen had suspected would be her dwelling place in this metaphorical lion's den with this raven-haired, grey-eyed she-bitch. The room that she had woken up in, with the only difference being that the bed she had woken up on was replaced with a couch. Since there wasn't the dulling haze of a hangover this time around to cloud her thinking, she noticed a few details she wasn't sure if she had missed the first time. The reclining chair, the small coffee table in the center of the room, and of course the rather nice sized flat screen TV mounted on the wall.
All things considered, not a bad place to live in, if Gwen were being totally honest with herself.
And then a small, slender hand that Gwen's hand could overwhelm in her grasp pointing to a section of the room shattered any illusion of this being a good situation, or Gwen's choice. Without even trying, Heather managed to ruin it.
"That's your stuff over there," The Queen Bee said as she gestured to a suitcase and duffle bag next to the couch. "Your clothes are in them. Your shirts and pants are in the suitcase, and your underwear are in the duffle bag," there was a few second's of pause. "As you can likely guess, this is going to be your room for the time you are staying here, the rest of this semester and the next. And as such, I expect you to keep it in at least some semblance of clean and tidy."
"You said there were only three rules I had to accept," Gwen pointed out passively.
"This is still our dorm, and I like things being kept clean and tidy," Heather countered, "Duncan and you might be content to pile your crap on the floor, but that won't fly here. And this isn't an addition to the three rules you agreed to, these are house rules that all guests are expected to follow when they stay over." At seeing Gwen's expression, she asked, "Why do you think we got a sleeper sofa in the first place? You're far from the first person to use it."
Gwen paused, and then felt a rippling shudder throughout her curvy form again when she pictured the mental image from before again, Heather and some random girl going at it.
A grin stretching in delight spread itself over Heather's thin, lipstick-less lips. Even though Dawn was supposed to be the one who could see into one's soul, the look in Heather's grey eyes made Gwen convinced that it was she who was the true mind reader. There was a vaguely mystical feature to Heather's elegant and seemingly ageless beauty, like a statue of ancient Greece was given life with eyes like those of the Oracle of Delphi. It was a look that Gwen deeply hated, with it causing a gelatin of anger to start congealing. The effect was shattered when Heather released a brief, condescending snort. "Grow up," she chided, "Cody and I work very hard to keep our little home away from home manageable. It's small enough as it is without piles of crap all over the place, you know. Oh, and as a fair warning, Cody's friends come over from time to time. If you don't want to find any of your bras or panties missing, I'd recommend keeping those put away."
That crossed a line with Gwen. Not enough to truly snap or unload the extent of her current hatred, but enough to a spur at least a partial comment in protest to her reality. "If this is my room for as long as I'm going to be trapped here, I'm not letting anyone in it."
Flashing the same amused smirk that Gwen wanted so badly to smack off of her face, Heather pointed to the massive TV before remarking, "If you honestly believe that you are going to be able to keep Cody off of that thing, then you're more even delusional than I would have thought possible." A few light chuckles escaped the Queen Bee's lips at the idea. When they passed, the serious demeanor returned to her face as she explained while pointing to the door across the hall, "As you can likely piece together, that bedroom is mine and Cody's. If the door is closed, you had better have a world-ending emergency on your hands to bother us," she said with a no-nonsense tone and a harsh soul-killing glare, and she kept glaring for a few seconds to get her point across. Once that had passed, she added while pointing to the door between the two bedrooms, "And that is the bathroom, and yes, before you even ask, we have our own bathroom; one of the perks of getting one of the most expensive rooms in this place. And yes, you are allowed to use it as much as you want, so long as one or both of us aren't already using it, obviously."
Gwen pondered this for a few moments, before releasing a subtle, indignant snort. 'Yeah right! I know how much of a pervert Cody is, and there's no way in Hell I'm gonna use a bathroom that's probably full of cameras to view every time Heather takes a shit!' Then, as another thought piggybacked on that one, her black lips morphed into a bitter frown. 'In fact, I'll bet he's got cameras all over the place! Uggh…I'll have to change in the floor's public bathroom. So much for having a private-ish bathroom.'
The snapping of a pair of fingers broke Gwen's mental tirade. The Goth's black eyes looked around, and then down, realizing that the sound was coming from the Queen Bee. But going against what she would have guessed, Heather didn't seem to be snapping at her. "Damn it," she softly said to herself before turning towards Gwen, "Wait here a second. I forgot something."
With that, the young Asian woman walked into the shared bedroom of the dorm, leaving a curious, curvy Caucasian to watch her and contemplate. Now that Heather wasn't in the same room, Gwen allowed the nervousness that was eating away at her nerves to be more transparent. She couldn't for the life of her explain why, but she felt very uneasy. She felt like someone was watching her. Her eyes scanned the space around her and found nothing. She was tempted to chalk it up to the understandable strain on her nerves due this stressful and unwanted situation. Partially to keep her mind from going crazy with worry, from the hallway she still stood in the Goth with the colossal C-cup cleavage focused on the slight crack in the door that Heather had entered. She was surprised to see a single bed; she had been expecting to see two. Before she could dwell that fact for too long, though, she became worried yet again, this time about Heather's previous comment about her being far from the first to use what would be her bed. The very real possibility that it was Cody's bed, the place where the cold-hearted lesbian bitch brought dumb, big-breasted sluts for her supposed man to ravage while she slowly, gleefully, emptied his heavy bank account.
Gwen was half-tempted to ask Heather what the deal was with the bed situation, and a war within her brain played itself out in seconds seemingly stretched out into hours. On the one hand, she was tempted to ask because that would tip off the slutty schemer that she cared about Cody enough to be concerned about him in a way. From there, she could express sorrow about taking his bed. And that could lead to Heather getting worried about her old rival undermining her current plan, thus getting her kicked out of here as soon as possible. Plus, as an added bonus, any chance to knock that devil in short-shorts off her high horse, even if only a little for a bit was quite appealing after that unbearable smugness she was presenting. But on the other hand, there was no assurance that it would spur Heather to fear. In fact, it might simply add more incentive to make her life a living Hell. Also, if she kept quiet Cody would get his single sleeper quarters of shame back sooner. And even more to the point, not rocking the boat and not giving Heather anything to work with would probably result in her obtaining her freedom even faster.
She opted for the lesser of two evils, and reminded herself of her goal of keeping her head down and her mouth shut.
Right as Gwen made the non-verbal vow to continue her strained silence, Heather returned. As she approached the taller girl, the Goth hardened her expression once again, showing the same indifferent, strength-conveying stare as before. At the same time, a very faint jangling sound filled the air. The answer to the source of that sound came when Heather dropped a key into Gwen's hand. With her black eyes still on the small jagged piece of silver colored metal, she heard Heather explain, "It's a spare for the dorm, to get in if we are asleep when you get back."
Something about that statement confused Gwen, so much so that she asked without thinking, "Why would that happen?" The questioning stare of Heather was the Queen Bee's only response, looking at her former-rival like it was the most obvious thing ever. Hating that look, the Goth partially broke her previously reinforced vow by asking with considerable snark, "I thought if I wasn't back by midnight, you'd call the cops?"
Heather rolled her grey eyes with a near perfected look of nonverbally mocking stupidity before replying, "While you are in my pocket, Gwen, that doesn't mean I'm going to be keeping that close a eye on you, because quite frankly, I don't think you have the guts or spine to try undermining me. And if you did try to break one of the rules, I would know. But even so, I doubt it will come to that. I'm not going to be waiting up till midnight for you. Despite whatever fantasy you might fancy, I'm not your mother," she ended with a grin.
Gwen's jaw figuratively dropped, gob smacked by the brazen and cocky nature of her rival's insults. It took everything she had to bite her tongue at that remark. There were so many nasty, biting insults that she wanted to unleash upon the person she hated most, but one look at Heather's narrowed eyes atomized those thoughts faster than an H-bomb.
The glaring Queen Bee asked, "Is there anything that you would like to say, Gwen?"
Not believing this was happening, Gwen shook her head and said, "No, no I don't."
Leaning against the door frame, Heather frowned, and asked, almost sarcastically, "What happened to the Gwen I fought for three seasons of Total Drama? The one that had a backbone? Was a worthwhile advisory? The one whose wit was as sharp as her tongue?"
Feeling a twitch of annoyance, the Goth bawled her hand into a tight fist. Heather noticed this; only to let it go, in part because of what Gwen remarked next, "She grew up."
For reasons the pissed off Goth couldn't fathom, her jailer shook her head, and then said, "Cody and I have morning classes that start at eight, so we're up by seven. Are you a heavy sleeper, Gwen?" The Goth looked at the Queen Bee with confusion, prompting Heather to add, "We take a morning shower, usually together, and so if you are a light sleeper, I'd recommend that you close your door before turning in for the night."
Gwen nodded her head indifferently at the new information, despite its great usefulness, after all she was a rather light sleeper. After doing so, she calmly, almost with a bored tone, asked, "Is there anything else?"
"Yes," Heather replied, before pointing to her, "Can I have that back now since you have your own clothes?"
Gwen's attempts at being passive and devoid of expressed emotion vanished as surprise flashed on her pale bruised face. It wasn't until she looked down at where Heather was pointing that she felt her nerves steady themselves. She saw the jersey that just barely fit her that she was still wearing. Given everything that had happened with first Duncan and then Dawn, she had honestly forgotten that she was even wearing it.
"You'll have it back in minute, I need to change first," Gwen said before entering the room that would be hers, for only a few weeks at the most she hoped, and pulled a shirt from her suitcase. It was a dark green top that showed slightly more cleavage than the top she had being wearing when she was reunited with Heather. With it in her white hand's ghostly grip, she started to lift the jersey she wore off of her and got to her ribs before stopping dead in her tracks. The Goth reminded herself that there were probably cameras everywhere; that Cody had probably rigged up dozens of the things all over the place. Despite her seemingly endless bad mood, Gwen internally laughed, due to her realization that Heather herself might not even know about them.
Though the Goth knew that there would probably be the most cameras in the bathroom, her desire for another shower overpowered her disgust at Cody using images of her to jerk himself off. After grabbing an entire new outfit for herself, Gwen stopped when she realized that Heather was standing there in the doorway with that same smug smirk as before.
"Uh…W-Why are you standing there?" Gwen asked, trying to keep her voice level.
"I'm waiting for my shirt back," Heather remarked.
Gwen looked at the waiting, smirking Queen Bee with the most confusion she yet felt amid a day rife with peaks of confusion, she couldn't understand what the deal was. Then, all of a sudden, it dawned on her. Heather was waiting for her to take the jersey off in front of her!
With her jaw now literally dropping, Gwen reacted without any forethought when she shouted, "Fuck you! You're just as bad as Cody!"
The second the last hate-filled syllable passed through her lips as black as midnight, Gwen covered her mouth, in a vain attempt to take back what she had just said. At the same time, she closed her eyes and shut them as tightly as she could. Despite her best efforts, Heather had managed to get a rise out of her…and now Duncan might go off to jail! The seconds ticked by with a dying snail's pace as the taller Goth feared a savage scolding before the Queen stormed out to hand that damned tape to the police. Her face was scrunched up and her thicker body recoiled, as if fearing the explosion of a bomb.
She remained that way for over ten painfully long seconds before she could summon the courage to open her eyes. When she did so, the Goth wished they had remained closed. That was because of the look on Heather's face, one of cocky and pleased smugness expressed as a fully blown smirk, it was way more horrifying than any expression of anger. The shorter Queen Bee allowed that look to remain present for over fifteen seconds, with her hoary eyes, just barely hidden by the natural slight slant of her brow, and the slightly greater invasion by the skin of her smirking face, showing gleeful and demonic relish.
Right at the moment where Gwen felt like she would burst out of her trembling skin, Heather shrugged with such ease and such casualness in contrast to the Goth's terror. "That's what I figured, but it was worth a shot. Even though I know I can do better than you Gwen, a freebie is still a freebie. Ta-ta."
The Asian Goddess turned around and left, with that content smirk never leaving her face. As her footsteps got further and further away, Gwen remained as she had been, frozen like a statue with her mouth hanging opened and her brain struggling to understand. By the time it did, one single thought dominated her now manic mind.
'This is going to be WAY harder than I thought it would be! I'm living with two Codys, and one of them is a complete bitch!'
October 27th, 2014 (2:50 PM)
Despite having only taken one a few hours ago, Gwen felt the need for another shower; she desperately needed the hot, calming effect of the water against her moon-like skin. Shrouded among the thick vapors of the hot water spray, the Goth could feel at peace, she needed to feel clean again after her latest brush in with her hated archenemy. Even if only for these few wet moments, she could forget the absolute shit-show of her life.
That blissful sense of ignorance lingered until she left the shower and got changed into her new outfit. Once fully dressed, she stepped out into the room that would be her prison cell, and checked the clock on the wall near the huge TV. Her first class was already halfway over. "No point in trying to get there now," she said, partly to end the silence, "but I should still get to my other classes. Don't want too much homework to pile up if I can do anything about it." She then realized that she was still holding the jersey from earlier today. She quickly tossed it onto the single bed in the main bedroom with all of her might, determined to remove herself from its slightly itchy embrace. No matter how hard she'd scrubbed herself she could STILL smell sour apple body wash on her person, as far as she could tell the jersey had been marinated in it!
She returned to her prison cell to get her book bag, when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. Getting a better look at the entrainment center she had only looked at in passing previously, there were a rather impressive number of DVDs and video games along the many shelves. Since she wasn't a video game person, she focused more intently on the DVDs, and she found herself reluctantly impressed. There was a very wide range of movies with the titles on their spines showing themselves to her like the tall tail plumage of a peacock. There did seem to be a system of movies ranked by genre per shelf, with a few devoted to romance at the top, followed by a few for action films, and various others for comedy, horror, mysteries, foreign films, science-fiction/fantasy, and Westerns. She saw silent comedies from the nineteen twenties along side massive big-budget blockbusters that came out only last year, movies of universally regarded wit and potency right next to movies that were enjoyable only because of how bad they were, many of her personal favorites commingled with almost as many that she hadn't seen before but always wanted to. The huge range of films and TV show seasons tickled the fancy of the cynical cinefile. She might not have a high opinion of pretty much anyone, but a great knowledge or love for movies of any type was one of the few ways she might deem someone worthy of her time.
"Cody might be a naïve and perverted little idiot who can be tricked by anything with a pussy and a pulse…but he does have great taste in movies," she said out loud to herself. Since there was no Big Brother in the form of the tiny Asian warden, she chuckled a bit.
As the chuckle ended, she noticed that there was a shelf at the bottom that seemed to have things other than video games or movies. The reason she noticed this was because the last two DVDs on that lowest shelf were turned around so their spines were facing inward, thus denying anyone the chance to read the titles printed along their lengths.
Thinking nothing of it, she took the two out of place DVD cases out and turned them around so they matched everything else on the shelves. When she did so, however, the front covers were revealed.
The first one had a cover depicting a scantily clad (to the point that her being nude would have been more modest) Asian cat girl smirking amid a slightly bright twinkling effect. It captivated the art-loving Goth, mainly because it appeared to be an example of lenticular printing. Testing that theory, she tilted the DVD cover in her grasp, and saw she was right. The cat girl winking and pushing up her bust at a certain angle proved her correct. Glancing up, she noticed the title, in large bright orange letters, saying, 'Pussy Time!'
At that instant, she understood just what it was she was holding. She dropped the DVD in disgust. Then, to her horror, she remembered that she was still holding the other DVD in her hand. She turned it over, hoping to God that it wouldn't be worse than the previous one. The moment her eyes saw what was printed on the cover, she once again saw the futility of hope. Her face turned bright red and her jaw seemed to hit the ground.
Looking down at a large muscular man who was looking back up, surrounding him in various poses were a number of unconscious nude women that look about as roughed up as she did after a roll with Duncan, all sporting grins and smiles of pleasure and contentment. Again glancing up she noticed the blurb and title, and as she did so she felt a wave of cold fire pass over her.
'Saving the world one beautiful backside at a time…is the rectifier of rectums! The pounder of pretty posteriors! The fucker of fancy fannys! The Anal Annihilator!'
"What, the actual, fuck!?" Gwen shouted in disgust and shock, until then it clicked for her, and she felt like throwing up. She felt so dirty being in the presence of Cody's nerd porno!
She released the second DVD from her offended grasp, causing it fall to its naughty feline-themed sister on the floor. With her coal-black eyes bordered by darker eyeliner motivated to look at anything else at this moment, Gwen looked back towards the entertainment center. As she did so, she once again noted the clear and obvious difference between the titles displayed on the two shelves, and realized that each shelf must belong to a different person, with Heather having the top and Cody having the bottom.
A quip about this reflecting their likely sexual situation was formed in her mind but left unsaid. Partially because it was drowned out by the realization of her finding Cody's hidden porn stash. Recalling how he stalked her during Total Drama, the Goth shuttered anew imagining the perverted contents cheaply recreated on those disks. For whatever reason that was lost on her, she looked over more of the titles on the bottom shelf but to her surprise she couldn't find any other titles reeking of being audio-visual stimulants. Instead, she found very generic and common titles for both video games (including a few that even she recognized like 'Frontline Warfare Duty Call of Metal Honor' to 'Army of Three') and some pure action films that screamed non-sexual male wish fulfillment.
She stood there, glancing back at the two DVDs on the ground with a revolted scowl. Slowly that scowl shifted into a small smirk. Before leaving for her classes and her collar-time with Duncan, a plan of petty pleasure formed in her mind over her hangover. It wouldn't be much, but it would cause the tiniest bit of trouble for her twin jailers.
Taking the last two DVDs from the top shelf, she put them on the bottom shelf where the two porno DVDs were, turned around just like they were, while placing the two from Cody's stash on the top shelf in their place, turned around so the titles weren't visible.
As she did so, Gwen thought of so many more satisfying ways she'd like to strike back. She would like to thrash that little bitchy Queen Bee, now that she was no longer burdened by a hangover. She would like to destroy that massive TV and tear up their fancy reclining chair with that odd looking sword displayed proudly on the wall. She would like to find every valuable thing they own, and sell them for her weight in booze.
But every time one of those ideas grew too titillating to ignore, Gwen repressed them; as long as Heather had that footage of Duncan, she would have to keep any payback small. And while small, she knew that this would work. After all, Heather had proven herself to be a neat freak, and as a result she'll discover this and Cody would get his just deserves for being a little pervert.
'It's not much, but I'll take any way to screw with that bitch! What she's done to me is inconceivable. Unacceptable! Retributionable!...That last one might not be a word, so sue me!'
And that is the latest chapter of Unbreakable Red Silken Thread! As always, we hope you all enjoyed it! :)
So, we are FINALLY done with Monday! And yes, the next five or six chapters are going to follow the Solomon Grundy poem motif. But don't worry, all of the other "day" chapters are just one chapter long, and outside of the last one they are short. Hopefully this will result in me being able to get these chapters out to you sooner. Hopefully.
For those of you who might be wondering, yes, 'Pussy Time!' and The Anal Annihilator!' are two of the three pornos that Cody choose to keep from chapter six! It is a small example but its still proof that all of this build-up does have a point. And the not yet revealed piece of porno will actually have some plot importance! Lol ;)
And don't worry, Gwen's dream, despite seeming to be coming out of nowhere, will also have importance as the story goes along. Just like everything else in this story.
As always, please review whatever you feel like about this chapter. I'm particularly curious about how you think we are handling Gwen so far, but please comment on whatever you like, hopefully meaning that and more! Lol
Until next time, read, review, favor, follow, and spread the word!