I've Been Around
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Episode twelve – Reality check
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The silence that stretched on was deafening.
From where he was lying, he looked up at the huge leader casting his shadow over him, his mere presence enough to send shivers down his neck.
Although their situation was very close to critical, Callahan couldn't help but feel his innate ability to lie overwhelm his shock as his eyes landed on the leader's. To hell with it. He rose up to his feet.
"You're the leader of this business?" Callahan asked loudly. He ignored Risa's quiet protest and took a few steps closer to the muscular man, his lips curling back into a snarl as some of the workers closest to him grasped towards their Pokéballs. "Answer me!"
"Provoking them isn't such a good idea at the moment, sir," whispered Risa from beside him.
Callahan pretended as if he hadn't heard her and kept his eyes focused on the leader, who finally lowered his arms and took three steps forward to close the distance between them. His size was out of the ordinary. Probably close to ten feet tall, he made everyone else in the room look like little children. "What's it to you?" he growled.
"I need to know if it's your ass I came here to kick."
A few seconds of crushing silence followed these words before all hundred workers broke out into laughter. Although feeling more and more intimidated, Callahan still didn't turn his glare away from the leader, who didn't seem to find his words entertaining in the slightest.
"Silence!" he roared, and the laughter instantly died out. "You're foolish, coming here with nothing but a teenage cunt and a walking stick," he growled and gestured towards the crowd. "Hundred men, all loaded with the strongest of Pokémon hanging from their belts!"
"I got nothing better to hear! Spares me the effort of having to put them all in a Pokéball!"
"You sound cocky for a thief who tried to sneak past us like a coward," said the blond, Edward, who'd positioned himself beside the leader.
"And I have all the reason to," Callahan said, his fingers repeatedly tightening and loosening around an empty Pokéball around his belt.
Risa quickly followed up on his bluff. "We took down a few of your gang when we came along. Not only the guards—there was a group of yours looking for a boy." Risa tried to put up a smirk while recalling the information she gathered when she looked through the window earlier. "Yeah, you won't see them anymore tonight. Or the next one. This guy over here has the strongest Pokémon there is! Cower while you can, or he'll release it and kill you all!"
The leader's expression darkened and he bared his teeth in rage, letting Risa count up to five golden teeth. Edward and the leader stole each other a look, the workers taking a few steps back in fear.
"W-which Pokémon?" Edward asked, swallowing while keeping his jaw tout.
Callahan made himself as tall as he could as he grasped the Pokéball, sending them a dangerous smirk.
"…MewThree."
The silence that stretched on told Callahan the only reason complete chaos hadn't broken out yet was because of the overwhelming surprise of everyone in the room, Rika included.
Despite the tension, Callahan couldn't help but feel smug as his eyes angled towards his partner, who looked like she'd just had a minor heart attack. Her eyes were wide open, jaw comically hanging open as if she wasn't sure what to do with it.
Finally, the leader seemed to find amusement in his words. He threw back his head and laughed, his voice echoing through the cave. "Look men, we got a jokester over here!" he called out to the room. The rest of the men immediately started laughing. "You challenge me, Brandon Horne, and you think you can laugh it off as a joke?" He paused to point over everyone in the room. "You challenge them, who have caught over thousand formidable Pokémon since the beginning of our noble cause?"
"I challenge all of you, every single moron in this room!" Callahan roared in return. "Every one of them, who have aided in the theft of Pokémon from every caring trainer who loved them, as well as you who thinks it's alright to laugh at my greatness!" He pointed towards Sudowoodo. "I chose this Pokémon because it goes up in the surrounding. My legendary Pokémon eats everything that consists out of flesh and blood, using your bones as toothpicks to—"
"Enough!"
Everyone swallowed simultaneously. The leader's shout echoed against the cave walls, each echo more demonic and warped than the last. For a second, everything was quiet, and then, Brandon dangerously eyed one of the rock-Pokémon of the workers, drawing an invisible line between the two companions.
"Rock blast."
The floor began rumbling and split open, one thick wall rising from the ground and up towards the cave ceiling. Workers leaped to either side, some of them barely managing to fall off it before the wall crashed into the ceiling. Callahan watched to his right, fear and dread for the first time truly gulfing through his veins as Risa was no longer standing beside him.
"Risa!" Callahan smashed against the wall, face pale as paper. "Are you alright?! Hey! Answer me! Risa!"
"Yeah! You?!" came faintly from the wall.
Callahan scowled and gripped his Pokéball. "T-try to get away from there! We'll regroup outside!"
"Easier said than done! The blond one is blocking the tunnel!"
A curse almost slipped from his mouth before he composed himself. I chose for this. I chose to come here. We knew that this could happen, and we took the risk. With that line of reasoning, it was ridiculous to act afraid like some petty victims.
Callahan's eyes grew cold and serious as he summoned his Pokémon, eyes piercing those of the daunting muscular leader.
"Change of plans," he said coldly. "We're bringing down this organisation. Try to find some strong Pokémon lying on the ground. When you're done with your opponent, grasp as many Pokéballs as you can and meet up from where we came!"
A few seconds passed before he heard an approving hum.
"You say that as if you think you stand a chance against us," Brandon said as he crossed his muscular arms.
"I do." Callahan widened his stance and leaned forward, sending a smouldering glare at Brandon as his Sudowoodo already summoned some rocks. "I won't lose, even if it kills me," he said and tantalizingly beckoned his finger. "If you think you're ready for me, come and get some!"
Callahan stood tall, but the look on Brandon's face was more than enough to tell him he was as wrong as he could be. With an icy glare, he looked at all the workers and Pokémon, who each in turn immediately started heading into the nearest tunnel, leaving the room completely empty except the two of them. The sound of moving rocks met Callahan's ears, as a gate shut close behind them.
"You think a walking branch will be enough to take me down? Tell you what, I won't even need to put a single step. In fact, I refuse!" Brandon's eyes suddenly grew dark, and Callahan realized he had been wrong to agitate the leader. "I intended to go easy on you like I did with the brat, but I'm going to make this a lot more fun. I won't put a single step, but I will be able to watch you run around like mice, before you're shattered into pieces."
Brandon threw his Pokéball to the ground. Not a second later, a blinding light exploded from it and flooded the room. The light slowly took form.
Callahan kept his eyes open to watch the white glow growing in size, a greyish color seeping out. The floor underneath his feet trembled like a leaf, but he was too preoccupied staring at the monstrosity growing before him to even notice.
The quake faded at the very same second as the Pokémon finally stopped materialising and stood up straight. It was close to nine meters tall, was composed of a chain of giant grey boulders, and had dead black eyes akin to a shark that looked right through Callahan's soul. The Onix ominously gazed down at the speckle of a man, and when it parted its mouth, its deep roar was like a blast of cannon fire against his ears.
"You think you can defeat me?!" the muscular man bellowed. "Well, come and get some!"
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In the dimly lit cave, Risa faced her opponent, Edward, with a lifeless gaze.
It surprised Risa how quickly her heart had gone back to its usual rhythm. Once the surprise of getting caught had vanished, her expression had turned lifeless. Her eyes slowly drifted towards the fifty armed workers behind the blond, before they averted towards her own hands; empty.
She chuckled emptily.
We're done.
There's no way he can defeat him. Not in a million years. Risa looked at the teenager opposite her. Neither can I, not without a weapon. Even then, I have zero combat-experience, and I'm still tired from walking all day.
We've lost.
She sighed, roaming her eyes through the cave.
The cave was barely lit by only one swaying light bulb, the walls dripping with moisture from all the steam coming from the machinery. Shadows creeped in every corner. From out the wall to her left, she could hear the sounds of battle, the wall trembling every time she heard the sound of smashing rocks. Risa embedded it all into her tired eyes, before they fell back on her opponent. He had long, blond hair that framed his handsome face, and his eyes were filled with an unsettling hunger as he assessed her frame.
The boy took a slow, deliberate step closer. His eyes lingered on her chest, tracing every curve beneath her wind-proof jacket with a lustful intensity. She felt as if his eyes were undressing her, but she merely eyed him almost boredly.
A twisted, lecherous smirk curled at the corners of Edward's lips once he was finished. "You may go," he told the workers behind him, his voice dripping with something foreboding. "It wouldn't do to group up against a woman. No less one who's unarmed by the looks of it. Take all the Pokéballs you can find with you." The men did as they were told and reluctantly left the cave through a nearby tunnel, closing it behind them.
Edward turned his attention back to Risa. Shrugging, he swayed his arms theatrically to the sides, his long hair swirling around his face. "Men," he mused, his voice laden with a perverse desire, "they always wish to work things out through brawn. I think that words are far more... elegant."
Risa met his gaze with boredom. "I'm not here for your words, Edward," she replied. "I'm here to settle a score. Sending out your men will only make my task easier."
Edward's smile faltered for a moment, and then he chuckled softly, attempting to regain his composure. "Ah, feisty, I see. That's quite appealing, you know. Perhaps we could continue this conversation in a more... private setting?" He gestured toward a narrow passage that led deeper into the cave, his eyes gleaming with an unsettling desire.
She merely replied with silence.
She widened her footing, bending slightly through her knees in what she thought was a combat-stance.
Edward could only chuckle. "Damn, you sure are a hottie. Tell you what, I don't like hitting women. So how 'bout you just surrender and we'll take this somewhere else. Final offer."
When she didn't react, he merely shrugged, like what was to come was nothing but another of his pleasures.
The guy opened his jacket to reveal a holster hanging on his right shoulder. He clicked the button off and unholstered a knife made of a type of metal that Risa couldn't put her finger on. Even for someone who never had much of an interest in such things, she subconsciously raised her eyebrows a few inches.
Edward smirked, gniffling as he trailed a finger over the wavy-patterns in the darkish blade. "This knife is made out of damascus steel." Edward twisted the blade to reflect the light of the lamp onto the dark cave ceiling, making hundreds of ripples swirl around as if they found themselves in the darkest depths of the sea. "It is a lost artform. It used to be made from Wootz ingots, far away in the Valora Region. Legends tell that knives like these were forged in order for men to slay dragon-types. Today, it's made by pattern welding two types of steel together. I really wish to get my hands onto an original, but this one is still one of the best blades there is."
The knife-loving freak licked the blade, and Risa watching with unease as his saliva trickled down the swirly pattern.
"These knives are sharp enough to even cut through stone-Pokémon. I've tried it myself. Their blades are tough, resistant to shattering, and capable of being honed to a sharp, resilient edge. I love them." He almost let out a moan. "I seek the same elements in my women. They shouldn't break easily, but those who do are merely made of rubbish material. A good blade, like a woman, is able to take some abuse."
I think he's thrown his idea of charming me right out of the window, Risa thought dryly. Still, the edge of the blade seemed sharp enough to slice her pupils in two by merely looking at it. With a single slash, she already could see herself be sliced in half, with all her intestines slipping out at once with a spurt of blood that would pool up around her boots.
It was almost sickening how numb she felt at the thought of it all.
So he is even experienced with a weapon. I don't got anything. The moment I will try to leap at him, he will only have to hold it out and I will impale myself on it. Perhaps I could wrestle it out of his grasp, but I can hardly see my own hands in this darkness.
Guess it was interesting for how long it lasted. It all crumbled down soon enough.
She sighed.
It's over.
His dream is nothing but a pipedream. This was our golden opportunity, and it all appeared to be too good to be true, just like everything in this world.
It was always supposed to be this way.
It might be sickening, but the same indifference that had been filling her since that one hellish day she awoke in a hospital seeped up again. The girl sighed, her eyes becoming tired again as she averted them to the ground. Ah, I see. So it's like this. Even now when facing an actual opponent, my body doesn't feel a sliver of tension.
The girl braced her legs, raising her fists.
Whether I win or not… it doesn't matter.
"Oh, you think you wanna be like those stone-faced bad chicks, huh? Let's see how long it'll take to carve that pride outta you."
Risa didn't even hear him, eyes only loosely focused on his knife.
Rumors have it that you won't go to heaven when you kill yourself. I think there are plenty of movies like that. That's the only thing that prevented me from reaching them, but this doesn't count as a suicide, right?
The girl tiredly met the eyes of her opponent.
The faster I see them again, the better.
I'll put up a fight, and then he'll kill me.
Risa merely shifted her weight onto her right leg and sighed. "You gonna come at me or what?"
The guy flinched at the boredom in her tone. No, not boredom. Lifelessness.
Edward scowled, then roared.
The clacking of footsteps running towards her echoed through the cave.
He slashed.
She didn't even know what hit her, because nothing ever did.
Her instincts had forced her feet to leap back, and her green orbs widened when little drops of blood flew through the air. In reaction, she skid to a halt, looking down to her stomach to see a thin red line starting to spread through her tattered shirt.
It was nothing but a flesh wound. Far too thin to be fatal.
W-what…
Did I just… dodge?
Her eyes trembled, confusion stretching her skin tightly across her face as she looked at Edward for answers. But they wouldn't come. Instead, the guy screamed and went for another attack.
Fast as lightning she slid her body to the left and collided against the edge of the cave. She yanked her head to the side, seeing how his punch barely missed her and hit the rocks instead.
What the hell is-?!
"Aaaaaaah! You bitch!"
He flapped his hand, his knuckles bruised enough for her to see tiny slivers of skin dangling off them. Blood dripped down from the pink skin.
Risa hopped out of range.
Everything seemed to go in slow-motion.
Why am I dodging? Why?! I don't want to live, r-right? I deserve to die. I need to die. Why am I-
Her train of thought was broken as a fist slammed into her face, knocking her against the stone wall behind her. Her head connected with a crack, and she saw dark spots in her vision. A hand clasped around her neck before she could fall, pushing her against the wall and forcing her to look at her attacker.
"Ahahaha! Not so cool now, huh?!"
He pulled her forward before slamming her back into the wall hard enough to make her vision darken momentarily.
Edward dug his fingers deeper into the skin around her windpipe, and she panicked as she felt one piece of cartilage in her throat shift over another.
Immediately, her lungs desperately tried to draw in air, but it was blocked.
Panic pumped through her.
Heartbeat increased.
She hadn't expected it to feel like this.
Her throat, she hadn't realized it before, but it felt vulnerable, so delicate, essential —housing so many essential parts for her survival. Hot blood rushed through those arteries that his fingers squeezed shut, usually carrying oxygen to her brain. Her windpipe, feeling thin and constricted, couldn't draw air into her lungs. And her spine, through which the innumerable pulses of electricity were sent to control the body. It was all being mutilated.
Is this… what I want?
With a sudden motion he spun, slamming Risa down into the floor. An exclaim wrung itself out of her lungs, but the little air she still had in her was choked off as he pried another hand around her neck and squeezed.
"Fuck, your flailing is hot."
Her heart pounded erratically against his palm, and the boy's lips split in two like a jack o' lantern as at the frantic beat.
Is this it…?
She choked.
Is this… what I desired for so long?
Her eyes became bloodshot. Her vision blurry. Through her swirling vision, she could sense his twisted excitement. His wide grin.
Mom, dad… Rick… I want to… see you again.
He twisted her skin, and she gagged.
This is what I want… I deserve it… so… why am I… so damn scared?!
Tears filled her eyelids and ran sideways down her eyes.
The world around her blurred further, and she sensed the warm wet trails of blood where he must have broken the skin with his nails.
The boy crawled onto her lap. Straddling her.
"There you go, bitch. There you fucking go. Don't struggle. Don't you fucking struggle. There, there…"
From the corner of her eyes, she saw herself clawing at the floor in desperation, leaving scratch marks on the rocks. Her body was flailing out of itself.
She tried to accept the darkness that slowly appeared around her vision.
I want this.
I want this.
I want this. I want this. I want this. I want this. I want this.
Edward leaned in, savoring the choked gasps that managed to force their way out of her throat. Her cheeks turned red, splotches of color spreading against the almost paper white complexion of her skin.
At this point, her body switched to auto-pilot. A hand flew to Edward's wrist and he flinched as several long grooves were dug out of his skin. It was but a token resistance, and only served to push the guy's growing high further.
No. Stop resisting.
I want this.
Please, let me black out.
Please, let this moment… be the death of me.
Risa's lips were beginning to grow purple, and saliva leaked from the corners of her mouth, a strange gurgling sound escaping her throat.
She was almost certain she would feel it snap. Risa's whole body tensed and flailed, and she made a sound somewhere between a squeal and a whimper.
The fear and adrenaline in her veins were quickly accompanied by blackness as she gagged for the last time for air. Then, everything around her went black.
There was only one last thought that permeated her mind.
I DON'T WANT THIS.
A feeling of clarity spread through Risa's body, and when she parted her eyelids again and took in the world, it was like she was seeing it through someone else's eyes.
Edward kept observing her, no awareness about the change that spread throughout her.
That was until she looked up with a grin on the verge of sanity.
Don't think low of me.
Without wasting a second, Risa drove her thumbs deep into the boy's eyes and he screamed. He screamed and screamed until his voice cracked. Risa's grin turned maniacal, only driven by the blissful longing to maim. Not hurt him—to take his senses away and make her filthy thumbs the last thing he would ever see.
She angled her thumbs so her nails carved through his pupils, and he released her with a cry.
Risa crashed into the ground, her thumbs leaving his eyes with a wet 'slurp' while she coughed out her lungs, but nothing came out. She couldn't breathe. Something blocked it.
Fuck it.
She stowed her fingers deep inside her throat and spewed out the bloody substance that had clogged it. The cartilage in her neck stung as it snapped back in place with a deafening crack.
She breathed in, squinted her eyes. By now her pupils were constricting and dilating on an unnatural fast cycle. No spectator could've told the difference between the hero or the villain; she looked no different than a rabid dog. Yet the girl let a dangerous fire dance in her eyes that had never been there before.
Edward's eyes were bloodred when he opened them again. His right eye caught sight of Risa, but his left had been reduced to nothing but mush. "My eye! My eye!"
Risa swayed where she stood, the pain flaring from her body clouding her mind. I'll kill you. I'll kill you, I'll kill you, I'll- "Kill you..!" The words left her lips as a chuckle, strained and barely audible, but the look of fear on Edward's face was enough to let her know he'd heard it.
"Damn you!" Edward roared and shot off, granting Risa only two seconds to react before his knuckles would've punched out a tooth.
Without even a shred of hesitation, Risa burst forth, and, to Edward's monumental shock, she increased her smirk as she intended to take the hit head on.
His knuckles dug into her skin, and the sheer pain that shot through her jaw was enough to make any grown woman scream, but when the girl parted her lips to release her own reaction, it was to release a wave of hysterical laughter. Her jaw practically cracked underneath the force, but if Risa felt any pain, she didn't show it. All her attention went into keeping her momentum.
Her punch collided with his temple, sending him bouncing backwards three times like a flat stone on water.
Laughter. Risa dove onto him, strangling him. "W-who's the bitch now, huh?!" she said, blood splattering onto his face with every word she spoke. "This is fun! Fun!"
I feel alive! Alive!
A kick collided with her stomach and shoved her away. Her abdomen gurgled unnaturally. I don't care. I don't care. I don't care!
She dug her nails into the floor and skidded to a halt against the door she'd come from. Before she could blink her vision sharpened onto the knife that Edward had dropped. He scrambled towards it, screaming so loudly that his throat turned raw.
Risa dashed as well, shoving him aside. Her fingertips touched the hilt. A flare of pain seared through her scalp as Edward curled his hand around her hair and yerked them backwards hard enough to tear skin.
"If you want my hair then take it!"
She whirled around, tying her hair around her face and screaming in agony as her tendrils were yanked out.
A mass of blood streamed down her face.
She dashed and leaped to the knife, turning towards Edward and pointing it ahead of her the moment that Edward dove onto her.
Out of pure instinct, he grasped the knife with his bare hands and shoved it aside. Pure rage controlled him as punch after punch collided with her face. Risa couldn't even comprehend what was happening. It went all too fast. She only managed to clutch herself back onto reality when a flare of pain shot through her right arm.
The pus from the guy's ruined eye dripped onto Risa's lip. "I'm killing you!" he screeched. "I'll mangle you! I'll fucking make you pay for this!"
She shivered, not at his words, but at the inhuman angle her arm was being tilted, her all but softly pounding vein only going wilder as his grasp cut off her bloodstream. "Let go of me!" she pressed out, flailing around. "L-let go of... me..!"
My… arm! Risa realized as the bone in her forearm started pleading for the boy to stop. He's breaking… my arm!
"I'm breaking it! I'm fucking breaking it!"
Her pupils constricted. "W-wai-"
Crack.
The sound seemed to freeze time for one whole second, and then a searing pain exploded in Risa's forearm, intense enough to make her vision turn black. She felt the splitting of bone, like the cracking of a toothpick. When her vision returned, she saw the world in almost crystal clarity, but her eyes were locked, wide and disbelieving, on where a piece of her forearm was jutting out against her skin.
Her screams echoed off the walls, breaking the silence.
She cried out in pain, a ragged scream as she fell to her knees and eyed her forearm, as limp as a sock. The pain was unbearable, but what was worse was that when she tried to move her fingers, they didn't respond.
Blood gushed to places where it shouldn't, and a purple bulge started to spread on her skin.
"There you go, bitch!"
The boy watched her writhe on the ground, and laughed in both bliss and agony. His eyes fell onto her necklace that had dangled out of her collar during the fight.
"Ohhh, is that your family?"
It was only when the boy stamped onto her chest and ripped the locket off her necklace that she forced herself to ignore the pain. She instinctively patted around her collar, before glaring up at him with burning bloodthirst. "Give it back!" she growled.
"That must be your father, your mother, aww, and you even get along so well with your little brother. Makes me wonder what such a beautiful girl is doing out here alone with that grandpa over there! Don't worry, we'll kill him. I'll just go and kill him right in front of you!"
"Give it. Back. Now! Now damn it!"
"Oh? Is it precious to you? Well then…"
The soft chime of steel echoed throughout the open cavern, and Risa watched with wide eyes as the locket clattered to the ground, and the shadow of a boot appeared above it.
At the next moment, he brought it down, and a whirlwind passed beneath him. Risa had shot forward as if shot out of a cannon, having thrown away all her self-worth as she pushed her body to its limit. She grasped the object and rolled roughly over the ground, every organ and rib in her body screaming in protest. She bit back a scream as her broken forearm protested at the motion.
When she opened her palm, and saw her family looking back at her, she closed the locket.
Naturally, just like always, it wouldn't stay closed. It clicked open again, and Risa had to chuckle at the irony.
She saw Edward approaching in the reflection of the glass. She couldn't tell her parents what went through her—couldn't begin to describe why she was feeling like this, why she behaved like this wild beast. There was only one thing she knew, one thing that made her feel both self-disgust and bliss and confusion and every emotion at once. And all these emotions came through in her voice as she spoke out her next words.
"I… want to live."
With those words, the girl rose to her feet, adrenaline finally fading. Her mind became clearer. Her actions from a moment ago started to sink in. The girl slowly came back to her old self, but by that time, she already wasn't that same girl anymore.
One final stance.
Edward roared.
Risa roared back.
Edward charged with his knife.
Risa waited until she felt the tip of the knife dig into her belly button. She swiftly twirled around, making the knife run a nasty line over the width of her stomach. She drew all the strength she had built over years of track running into the momentum of her spin to deliver a devastating punch to Edward's temple.
When the boy realized what happened, his feet only carried him five more steps before he collapsed to the ground.
Risa smiled weakly, her body swaying where she stood before she fell onto her knees and beside him on the ground.
Her vision slowly turned darker. The last thing she saw were the Pokémon in the jails slowly escaping as one of them had broken the lock and the door to the exit, and the back of the branded Combusken, giving her one glare, before it ran away.
As darkness swallowed her consciousness, echoes of Callahan's distant screams echoed off the cave walls.
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A/N: To be continued…
This would be the perfect time to leave you guys and girls with a simple 'to be continued,' but I do want to talk a little about this chapter. So, first of all, good on you Risa! Our girl finally has realized that she wants to live! The first big step in her character arc!
As for the fight, I personally always loathe how 'choreographed' every fight scene is these days. Even in novels, it all feels far too clean. In real life, you don't have the time to chat back and forth with your opponent during a fight or think about your next move. You got to act, and all you think about is how you can maim the other as badly as possible. It's not epic (well, it is in fiction) but raw and disturbing.
This was my attempt at creating a 'realistic' fight scene. Risa is a real beast when she doesn't care about her own health, so it was a blast to write.
Anyways, next up is our boy Callahan! If you can't wait to see what happens, check out my pat-re-on (www dot pat-reon dot com / Sidiko) where you are able to read three to six chapters up ahead, plus get every new chapter 12 hours earlier! For those who've supported me, it truly means a lot, and I can't thank you all enough!
That's it for now, see you all next Monday! …I wonder how Callahan is holding up…