Rinzler pressed something along the doorframe to notify CLU of their arrival. Not for the first time since entering the Grid, she wished that she could tell what someone was doing. It would make so many things easier for her, she thought. Apparently, whatever he had done had the desired effect; because she could hear CLU's voice call out, "Enter."
The room that the door opened to reveal would have held three of the room she had been kept in previously. Much like Rinzler's quarters, one wall was made up almost entirely of a floor-to-ceiling window. A balcony extended out from the window for half of the length of the room. She wasn't sure how one would use it; as she couldn't see a door to the balcony. The other side of the room held a large armchair, a desk and desk chair, and a large four-poster bed. The entire room was black and grey—like Rinzler's—but had small touches of bright yellow here and there; and running along the floor and walls. CLU's colors, she thought to herself. With all of the programs she had seen so far—the guards, soldiers, the programs in the arena and from the window; she had seen no one else with yellow circuits.
CLU looked up from where he was apparently examining some sort of small, glowing yellow circle or ring in his hands. A matching ring was partially embedded in one of the bedposts next to where CLU was standing. "You're here. Good," CLU said, smiling. "I was beginning to worry about you, Feral."
Feral? She shot a questioning look at CLU and then Rinzler. Who was CLU talking about? Was Feral a nickname CLU used for Rinzler?
CLU noticed her look. He laughed. "No need to be so confused," he told her. "It is your new designation, program. I preferred 'Kitten'; but Feral seems more…apt, for you."
"I. Am not. A program." She all but spit the words at him.
"That's my girl," CLU said, laughing again. "Feral; just like I said. And you need to accept the fact that now, you ARE a program." He motioned for Rinzler to bring her closer to where CLU stood by the bed. "Since I cannot risk my new pet deciding to run loose on the Grid on her own again, this will have to do," he said, fastening the quarter-sized ring in his hand to the collar around her neck.
She was confused at his actions for a moment, until a glowing cable appeared, connecting the two rings. She grasped it where it hung from the ring on her collar and tugged. The cable was close to twelve feet long and as thick as her little finger. And it wasn't giving at all when she pulled on it. It was a leash. CLU had just put a leash on her…. The collar she wore had never felt like anything more than a necklace that she liked, until this moment. Now, she would have cheerfully ripped it off and thrown it so far away it could never be found—if she had any idea of how to take it off here on the Grid. She hadn't even had the key with her when she went down into the basement.
Rinzler watched from behind the blank blackness of his helmet as Feral raised her face to CLU's. Her eyes and expressions were as hard as the surface of the Grid itself, and far colder than anything that Rinzler had found in the system.
"You're going to keep me tethered to your bed; on a leash?" she asked CLU. "I would strongly suggest that you reconsider this move. It will not end the way you want it to…." A woman's voice floated on the air, singing to someone named 'Johnnie'.
CLU walked over to the armchair and sat down. He was smiling as he looked up at her; the satisfaction in his blue eyes almost tangible. "Tell me," he said, "how this is not going to end the way I want. I have my pretty little pet near me, just the way I want. I do not have to worry about you escaping or getting loose and exploring the Grid on your own, just the way I want. And in time, I believe that this will help you to learn your new place. Just. The way. I want." CLU grinned at her. "Give it some time, Feral. You will learn how things work here. You will learn your new place on the Grid. You may even come to like it."
Rinzler could hear the cold anger in her voice as she replied. "I doubt very much that I will ever like it," she said. "I doubt that 'my new place' is meant to be as your pet. Again, I suggest you reconsider what you are doing. Rinzler glanced over at CLU, who seemed amused instead of concerned, by her words. Did CLU not hear the threat in Feral's voice? She did not have much left to lose. If asked, Rinzler would have classified her as a threat. CLU was right to name her 'Feral', Rinzler thought. She might have been tame, once; but on the Grid, she was an unknown factor. CLU was still watching her with amusement. Obviously he did not consider her to be a threat any longer.
"You will not be able to access any coding here," he told her, his voice smug. "Every item in my quarters can only be accessed by me. Nothing in here will give you or any other program its coding access as long as I function. Now, I still have work to do." CLU picked up a tablet from the small table next to the armchair he sat in. "Rinzler," he said absently, "you may return to your quarters for now. Your normal duties will resume at this time."
Rinzler gave a slight bow of his head to CLU to acknowledge the order and turned to leave. As he did so, he glanced at Feral; who had sat down on the floor near the foot of CLU's bed. The look on her face was calculating as she watched CLU. She looks as though she is waiting, Rinzler thought to himself. But what was she watching and waiting for? The thought continued to bother him, even as he tried to rest later in his quarters.
She had been sitting at the foot of the bed for what felt like hours, a song playing over and over as she watched CLU and thought about everything that he had said to her. She was still furious, and was having a hard time appearing calm. The answer seemed to be in the song that continued to sing, "…I can do it with my own two hands…"
She made the decision about what to do. Now, she felt it was just a waiting game. The time to act would come. She would be ready when it did.
Finally, CLU stood up and set aside the tablet that he had been working on. He stretched slightly and looked over at where she was sitting. CLU reached for his disc and changed his suit settings until he suit derezzed in some places and morphed in others. Now he was wearing only what looked like a loose-fitting pair of pajama pants. "I am going to have my sleep cycle," he told her. "You can spend the night where you are on the floor; or you can share the bed like a well-trained pet." Appearing to ignore her afterwards, CLU lay down on the bed and stretched out. He dimmed the room's lights with a verbal command and appeared to close his eyes. A few moments later, CLU gave an inward smile to himself. He watched through barely open eyes as Feral climbed warily onto the end of the bed.
Just the way he wanted it, indeed. A little time on the leash, and already his new pet was starting to come to his heel. At this rate, it would not be long before she would do whatever he told her to do. Then, he would finish perfecting the Grid. Still smiling to himself, he entered his sleep cycle.
"CLU…." The voice was soft, barely disturbing his sleep cycle.
"CLU."
"CLU, you need to be awake now," said the voice, soft and patient. "CLU…"
CLU opened his eyes to find a figure crouched over his chest. Feral knelt with a knee on the bed next to him. Her disc was spinning at his throat.
"Don't move, CLU," Feral said softly. "I have this very close to you; and I want you to function just a little longer." She was right that her disc was close to him. He was surprised that it had not burned him already from the heat radiating off of the edge of the spinning disc.
"Feral," CLU said, just as softly. "What do you think you are doing, program?"
"I'm going to leave, CLU," she told him calmly, the barest hint of a smile on her lips. "I'm going to leave and disappear. The only reason that I haven't derezzed you yet is so that you can reset Rinzler's coding back to his original base code. I will not have him tracking me later."
"And you think that I recoded him?" CLU asked, raising one eyebrow at her. For someone with a disc being held to his throat, the system administrator was remarkably calm. "What if this is his only base coding? And if Rinzler does have his coding rewritten, why would removing any over-writes keep him from tracking you down?" he asked her. He's a security program, meant to stop and remove dangers and threats to the system…and derezzing the system's administrator would qualify as creating a danger to the system."
"I know you reprogrammed him. You must have," she insisted. "He's too stiff in how he interacts with me. None of the other programs did that; and if he was that stiff dealing with everything; he wouldn't be your best. He wouldn't be the trained attack dog that you sent against combatants in the final round of your 'games' if he wasn't your best fighter; would he?"
So, that means that you must have reprogrammed him." Feral looked as though she wanted—needed—to believe what she was saying. She continued speaking, saying "I think that a program given its old coding back might be grateful enough to forget I was here. It's a chance that I'll take." The last was practically hissed at CLU, anger starting to bleed into her voice. "So call him in here…now."
CLU looked at her for a moment. "If I say no?" he asked.
"I'm not playing with you CLU," she snapped. "I'll kill you—derezz you—and risk him tracking me later if you don't get him in here now and re-program him." The edge of her disc was so close now that if CLU took a deep breath, she would cut his throat.
"Very well," CLU said quietly. "I will have him come here."
Rinzler strode down the hall on his way to CLU's quarters. He had been in his sleep cycle when the order to go to the administrator's quarters 'immediately' had been received. He hoped that the command had nothing to do with the User. From the look in Feral's eyes earlier, he was afraid it did.
He reached CLU's door and alerted the occupant that he had arrived. CLU's voice came to him from inside. "Enter," he was told.
The door opened and Rinzler walked inside. It took less than a picocycle to see and understand what was happening. Feral was crouched over CLU's chest on the bed, the edge of her disc at his throat. "Oh my User," he thought, anguished, "Please, help her now…." With that thought still in his mind, he took his disc and sent it spinning at her chest.
She saw it coming and flung herself backwards, causing her to pull her disc away from CLU. Before Rinzler could reach her, CLU had already reacted. CLU had thrown himself forward; knocking her all the way onto her back. He held her down on the bed, her disc hand trapped; his body keeping her from being able to use her legs. "Rinzler," CLU told him, "take control of this program's disc. And then hold her for me…." Now it was CLU's voice that was as hard and flat as the Grid.
Doing as he was ordered, Rinzler came to where she was still struggling to get loose from CLU's grip. Rinzler pried her fingers from her disc and set it on the desk. Returning to the bed, he grabbed her forearms and held her so that CLU could release his grip and get off of the bed. When CLU was standing, Rinzler pulled Feral off of the bed to stand in front of him at the foot of the bed, facing CLU. His growl was back, and rumbled low throughout the room. CLU stepped to where he stood.
CLU stood in front of Feral as she was held. She had struggled in Rinzler's grip for a moment; just long enough to realize that she would not be able to break free of his grip. "Aptly named, indeed," CLU said. His hand shot out and grabbed her hair where it was pinned up. He pulled her head back sharply, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "So stubborn. I have only known one other program as stubborn as you. In time, you will serve me as well as he does."
"Whatever, Emperor," she said, mockingly. "I'm not going to be a mini-Vader for some bad 'Star Wars' wanna-be."
Ignoring the unknown reference—no doubt some sort of User stupidity—CLU looked at her and said, "You still have not learned yet, have you?"
He backhanded her across the face suddenly with his free hand. Her head snapped to the side, unable to dodge the blow. CLU then punched her in the solar plexus; leaving her gasping for air. CLU then walked back to the foot of the bed. Feral hung in Rinzler's hands, gasping; and watched as CLU apparently accessed the code involving the ring that tethered her to the foot of the bed. He turned and walked towards a corner near the window. She watched as he bent down slightly. She could not see what he was doing; however, when CLU straightened up and moved away from the wall, the ring was now embedded there. "Take her over to the corner and let her go," CLU ordered Rinzler. "The tether will shorten automatically when you do."
Rinzler half-carried, half-dragged Feral to the corner. She fell into a heap when he released his hold on her arms. She looked up at him as he stood there. "I hate you," she snarled, flicking a finger across her face at the same time. "You're always ruining things for me."
He looked down at her for a long moment. Stepping back out of her reach; Rinzler turned toward CLU to wait for further orders. CLU moved in front of Feral and squatted down on his heels. Looking her in the eyes, he spoke.
"You are certainly living up to your name," he told her. "Some time with reduced energy supplies will take the fight out of you. And waiting here for me will help you to learn that you want to be allowed to do as I say." Rising he walked over to her desk where her disc rested. "I will keep this out of your reach for a while," he said. "Until you have learned that you to do not want to try to kill me. And if that does not work, maybe telling you that I have changed the code on that tether will. If I cease to function…it locks down. It can only be removed if my code functions." CLU smirked at her then. "Sleep well," he said. "I will."
CLU walked back to towards the bed. "You may return to your quarters," he told Rinzler. After Rinzler had left, CLU ordered the lights off and lay down on the bed.
Feral sat in the darkness; lost in her thoughts.
Rinzler walked down the hall towards his quarters, his footsteps echoing down the empty corridor. He felt frustrated and angry with himself. He could only hope that she understood WHY he had attacked her without orders. The knowledge that instead of fighting FOR a User, he had instead been fighting AGAINST a User galled him. To have to go against his original base code was wrenching. To know that is was against his original base code and be unable to do anything about it was worse. No matter how painful; however, at least he could still remember his original base code.
It was almost no comfort.
Rinzler had hated foiling Feral's plan. It had only taken a moment to understand what she had been trying to achieve. She would have been able to derezz CLU before Rinzler had entered the room if she had wanted to do so. No, the only reason for her to wait for Rinzler to be in the room before injuring or derezzing CLU would be if she had wanted CLU to do something to Rinzler.
Something like removing CLU's programming and the partition the kept Rinzler from being able to follow his originally coded programming.
He walked into his quarters and waited for the door to close. He stood there for a moment, unmoving in the dark. Suddenly, his fist shot out and hit the wall with a loud 'thud' as his distorted growl ripped through the room. Rinzler leaned against the wall, resting his helmet against it.
So close! Feral had been so close to freedom. It was her friendship with him that had cost her what would probably be her best—if not only—chance. The knowledge both warmed him and ate at him like the jaws of a gridbug. CLU would never again let down his guard around her like he had this millicycle.
Rinzler replayed the memory file of what Feral had said and done when CLU had him move her to the new tether location. When she had thrown the words at him that she hated him for ruining things for her, he had not been surprised. Truthfully, he had been more surprised that she had not said something like that when CLU had used him to punish her for trying to escape earlier. He would have believed her if it had not been for that flick of a finger across her face. Feral had told him earlier that it was the sign for 'false'.
Rinzler turned with a low sigh so that his back was leaning against the wall. Slowly, he slid down the wall until he was sitting on his heels; his arms wrapped loosely around his legs. He rested his forearms on his knees and stared out into the dark, empty room. There was no way of knowing when—or if—he would see her again. If he did see her again; how changed would she be by this? Would she still live up to the name she now carried: the name 'Feral'?
He was startled by the voice in the darkness; all the more so because it was his.
"She is my friend. My ONLY friend…."
Rinzler's finger moved forward form his helmet in the sign that she had taught him. The sign that meant…true.
Mylacycles came and went. Rinzler still had not seen or heard from Feral. He occasionally heard members of CLU's BlackGuard discussing the 'glitchy program' that CLU was keeping as a pet or mascot of some sort. Apparently, some of the BlackGuards thought that she was going to fade away or derezz. Her code did not seem to be stable, they said. Curiosity and concern gnawed at Rinzler whenever he heard such rumors. He wished that there was some way he could help her, but there was no way to reach her was available.
Until the millicycle when he was ordered to report to CLU in the Leader's quarters.
Rinzler entered CLU's quarters when the door opened for him. The system administrator was looking out the window when Rinzler arrived. At Rinzler's entrance, CLU turned to face him.
"Ah, Rinzler. Maybe you can get through to her. I cannot understand what is wrong with this program. She will not give me information on why she is doing this. It's almost as if she is losing parts of her code…she is becoming non-functional." Not understanding yet what CLU was talking about, Rinzler's gaze followed CLU's finger as it pointed. What he saw shocked him.
Feral sat huddled in a small heap on the floor near the window. Her hair had come loose at some time, and now straggled down her back in tangled ropes. Her circuits were dim on her suit; and she stared disinterestedly out the window. She did not resemble the Feral that he had seen last. This program did not look anything like the User that had fought him with everything that she had in her. What had happened to her?
Moving closer, Rinzler stopped in front of her and crouched down until his helmeted head was almost level with hers. Reaching out, he gently took her chin in his hand and turned her face away from the window so that he could look in her eyes. The vacant, unrecognizing look that she turned to him made his processers freeze up for a nano. Did she not know him? Had he lost his only friend on the Grid?
Desperation at the thought of being unable to trust anyone yet again drove him. Without realizing what he was going to do until his hand was moving; he slapped her face. She had always fought when attacked before. 'Please, let her at least try to fight," he begged inwardly.
The 'crack' of his hand against the skin of her face resounded loudly throughout the room. Feral looked at him blankly for a moment. Then, as if surfacing from somewhere deep in the Sea of Simulation, he saw the Feral that he remembered rising up in her eyes to glare at him. "You…" she said, softly. "…back again to ruin things for me…."
Without any more warning, she lunged at him. Rinzler moved back out of her reach with ease, standing as he did so. From behind him he could hear CLU's voice. "Well now. That was interesting," CLU said mildly. "Even I cannot get that much of a reaction from her. She really does not like you; does she?" Looking down at her, CLU seemed thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe now you will tell me why you are malfunctioning, program," he said.
Feral glared back at CLU with an intensity that had not been seen in microcycles. "Why not?" she practically spat the words at him. "If this is all I can have or do; why not let go? You wanted to play a game, CLU. If there is not chance for me to win, there is no reason for me to play along. So I left your game. And when he leaves…" she said, motioning to Rinzler as he stood in front of her, "…I can just leave it again. I told you that you wouldn't get what you wanted."
She laughed quietly at the look she saw on CLU's face. "Nothing has gone the way you expected; has it CLU?" she giggled, hugging herself. A maniacal glee danced in her eyes. "You want to make me into a program? Enjoy dealing with my little 'glitches'!" She peered in Rinzler's direction from behind the ropy strands of hair that hung around her face. "You can tell your trained attack dog that he can leave now. Nothing has changed about how I feel about HIM."
CLU gave a slight frown at her words. "Do you mean to say if I keep you in here, you are going to try to fade?" he asked.
Her gaze shifted back to CLU and Feral sounded almost proud of herself when she spoke again. "Try? I was doing a good job of it, earlier. It would not have taken much longer…."
Feral watched as CLU began pacing, his hands clasped behind his back. Occasionally his gaze would flick thoughtfully from her to Rinzler and back again. A few moments later, he stopped pacing and turned to face her as she sat on the floor, still grinning slightly. CLU clapped his hands together and spoke. "Well, I can't have that happening, now can I?" he said. "Hating Rinzler seems to keep you from fading well enough, so you will be spending some time with him each microcycle."
"What!" she shrieked, stumbling slightly as she tried to climb to her feet. "You're going to make me—" she began; only to have CLU interrupt her.
"You will spend time with him as he does security patrols. Maybe seeing what happens to others who do not follow my orders will help you to be more reasonable. You will also accompany me whenever I give you the order. Since I will not have you trying to kill me in my sleep cycle; you will still be tethered during that time."
"Do you honestly think that making me spend time with someone who keeps trying to kill me is going to make me function longer?" she yelled at CLU. "He just hit me for no reason a few minutes ago! Are you crazy?"
CLU grinned at her. She had managed to stand up and had taken a shaky step or two in his direction as she ranted angrily. Her circuits were glowing brighter than they had been in microcycles.
"See, it is that hate of yours that I am counting on," he said in a jovial tone of voice. "As long as I have you spending time with Rinzler, I will not have to worry about you fading."
Tell me—honestly—how easy would it be for you to let yourself cease functioning right now?" CLU asked her, smiling.
"You pustule!" Feral screamed at him. She looked around as if searching for something to throw at CLU's head. She had not been this angry since entering the Grid. She couldn't remember being this angry when she had CLU's throat under her disc.
Rinzler watched—shocked—as Feral flung herself at the end of her tether in CLU's direction. Using the momentum that she built up when the collar yanked her back, she managed to leg-sweep CLU's feet out from under him. She was trying to pull CLU closer with her feet when Rinzler interfered. Pulling CLU out of her reach, he stood between her and the system administrator with his discs spinning in his hands.
CLU started to rise to his feet. He was laughing as he did so.
Laughing.
Rinzler did not understand. Feral had obviously been trying to harm CLU in some way. Why was he not angry? He watched from the corner of his eye as CLU climbed to his feet, still chuckling. "I think that you just proved my point," he said to a furious Feral. Turning his attention to Rinzler, he gave the security program an order. "Get her some energy. Her circuits are starting to flicker. And make sure she cleans herself up. I have more pressing matters to deal with now."
"Have fun spending time with Rinzler," CLU told her. "He will start taking you with him on patrols starting with the next millicycle." He walked over to his desk. Feral's disc sat, neglected, on the corner of the desk. Picking the disc up; he walked back to where she crouched, still fuming angrily. "You can have this back now," CLU told her, flipping the disc to land on the floor at her side. "I don't think I will have to worry about it, now."
Feral didn't even look at the disc that now lay next to her. Instead, her eyes locked onto CLU's. "I hate you," she said her voice practically seething with anger.
CLU merely smiled at her. "Not enough. Not enough to do as you are told," he said. "Not yet. But you will." With that said, the administrator program left the room. CLU could still hear her angry screams as Feral continued insulting him even after the door closed. Shaking his head at the closed door, he chuckled, smiling; and walked away. Grid business was waiting for him, after all.
Rinzler watched for a moment as Feral continued to scream insults and pound her fists on the floor after CLU left. He did not understand all of what she called CLU. No doubt they were some sort of User-style insult, he thought. She continued ranting about several things that CLU should do to himself. Most of them seemed to be unlikely—if not impossible, to Rinzler's processing—to achieve. After a few moments, she stopped, seemingly exhausted.
He walked over to CLU's desk and picked up two of the canisters of energy that were sitting there. Rinzler carried them back to where she knelt on the floor and passed the first one over to her. She snatched it from his hand and gulped it down almost greedily. Taking a few deep breaths afterwards, she held out a hand and gestured for him to give her the second. When he gave the second one to her, she drank it a little slower.
"Is there another one?" she asked when she finished the second canister. Her circuits were glowing much brighter now.
Rinzler nodded in reply to her question. At his nod, she straightened and looked up at him.
"Is CLU still around?" she asked sharply.
Rinzler shook his head no.
"Then why won't you talk?" she asked him.
"I was not certain that you would want to talk to me," he told her. "I was not able to help you before."
Feral leaned back slightly at his words. Looking to the side, she sighed before turning her attention back to Rinzler. "No, you didn't," she said, agreeing with him. "Could you have done anything to help me? Or would the same things have happened; except that CLU would have known that we are friends, if you had tried to?"
Rinzler thought for a moment. He lifted his head and spoke. "No. And I do not know what CLU would have done if he knew that we are friends." He was silent for a moment before speaking again. "Would you…really have let yourself fade away?" he asked her.
"I don't know," she said. "I'm not entirely sure that I can fade. But, trapped here, I had to get out in some way. If I couldn't get my body free, at least my mind was.…"
"You would have left me without a friend—again—if it had worked," he said quietly.
Feral looked down at her hands where they lay in her lap. After a few moments she raised her head and looked at Rinzler. "I didn't think that you and I would ever see or hear from each other again when I did it," she said, just as quietly. I didn't even hear about you from CLU or any of the guards; and I was afraid of what might happen to you if I even tried to ask." She looked at his helmeted face, hoping that she was looking him in the eyes. "Rinzler, I didn't want you to have to be friendless; however, I am not much of anything, not even a friend, if I am not true to myself. I didn't want you to end up suffering from CLU finding out about us being friends. But I had to do what was right for me. And that meant making certain that I didn't stay and play games that can only hurt me." Her gaze was determined as she said this.
Rinzler looked at her. Feral's eyes held no pity, no sorrow, when she told him that she had made the choice to try to fade; even thought she knew it might have left him friendless again.
"CLU doesn't seem to get it. I belong to myself. I belong only to myself; no matter what CLU or anyone else says. I will never give myself to someone who doesn't want to give themselves to me. Anyone who wants me to do what they want to make them happy because I care about them; and isn't interested in doing the same for me…doesn't deserve me. You haven't asked me to change. Please, don't do so now. I will not be friends with someone who can't accept me as I am."
Rinzler bowed his head for a moment. He appeared to be thinking over what Feral had just said. He raised his head and looked at her. Kneeling down so that he was closer to her, his forearm resting lightly on his knee, he spoke. "Agreed," he said. "You have already accepted that I cannot change. I accept that you will not." He held out a hand to her as she sat there. Feral looked at his hand for a moment, then reached out with her own and took it. Rising from where he had knelt, Rinzler helped her to pull herself up until she was standing.
"What do you need to care for yourself?" he asked. "I will send a guard for it…"
She gave a small sigh. "A comb or brush for my hair, something to pin it up with later, and another shot or two of energy."
Rinzler was entering the item into a small touchpad tablet as she listed them. "Do you really need that much energy at this time?" he asked her. "It would not be a good idea to intake too much and become erratic," he warned. "Why do you need something to pin up your hair? What happened to what you were using?" he said, sounding slightly confused.
Feral gave him a small grin. "Umm, yeah. That. It was taken away after I tried to stab CLU with it one day." She shrugged. "As you can see, it didn't hurt him much."
"You stabbed CLU with a hair accessory?" Rinzler asked, incredulous and intrigued all at the same time.
Feral shrugged again. "It got stuck in his suit. Barely scratched him. He still made me wait two days to get even a little energy. CLU had no idea how much he helped me try to fade with that little move."
As far as that extra energy goes; I'll risk it. I plan to never get low on energy again. If I can't fade, I will not end up being beaten because I ran low on energy. Besides," she said brightly, "how much more erratic can I possibly get, do you think?"
Rinzler had to admit to himself, she did have a point.
A/N-Okay, gentle readers. The song list for this chapter is: 'Angry Johnnie' by Poe
Thinks get a lot worse in the next chapter. Consider this your advance warning... And as always, comments and reviews are always welcome. Just go down to that little box at the bottom of the chapter and type something in. Done that? Now, push the little button...