“Of course. Where is she?” Well how could I say no?
“The dining hall of course!”
Of course.
I had been in this situation before, high school, some girl asked if I could go on a “study date” with her. I told her to meet me in the library, the excuse was that we had the same book report project for biology.
She stood me up, however not one, two, three but four individual people came to tell me she was waiting for me at the parking lot/school bus stop. So I was also standing her up. But I am paranoid, so do I trust them?
The messengers were one of my friends, one of her friends, another one of my friends, and finally my math teacher… Somehow I judged each of them for their choice to approach me with mild concern. As if I didn’t know that this girl didn’t actually want to “study.” They also informed me with increasingly urgent language that I was disappointing her.
None of them told me that directly, it was my translation of their words, they just told me her location. I am unsure if they told her I was in the library, I rather find it hard to imagine that the girl didn’t know where I was. She never cared enough to find me. She never cared enough to do any of the work, get my phone number, or even confirm what she desired to me.
So stubbornly, I finished the book report in one sitting alone, to the disappointment of four, allegedly five, potentially more, people. The girl and I didn’t talk for a month. We both got a C minus on the project, In a just world I would have taken her name off the paper, but I was too dumb to do that, the biology teacher liked her more than me anyway.
I probably could have done better, but something about that entire situation was stressful.
I can find no reason I am morally in the wrong here, aside from my inability to focus and get a better grade. So I struggled to identify the source of the discomfort in this scenario. Perhaps I should have told her no, I didn’t really like her to begin with, I was trying to be nice.
Perhaps that was foolish.
Now I relived the juvenile scenario after… fifteen, seventeen years? and the only thing making me try to fix the same scenario instead of hide in this twisted dark fantasy library was my shallow attraction to a demon.
________________________________________________________________________________
Maybe it’s rude and I don’t know about you, but I find an arranged marriage pathetic. I’m happy my wife is cute and likes me, but it feels rather hollow doesn’t it? She absolutely wouldn’t like me if I wasn’t a king.
I rather doubt we would be married if not for circumstance.
I determined not to enter the dining hall empty handed. Empty handed was a good way to annoy any animal.
The girl liked pound cake and applesauce, or at least she did yesterday before she was hijacked.
The body probably had the same cravings, I wonder what all had changed.
The cooks said they could make applesauce in a few minutes, half a pound cake was left over.
De-Phoebe was still gone forever.
I grabbed the plate with the cake and entered the throne room.
There she was, halfway down the long dinner table, head in her hands, mountain of soft hair tumbling around her soft back trapped within a dress, the sleeves of which were tight around her arms.
My heart skipped when I saw her.
Oh that sucks, I like her…
I suppose with the new body her wardrobe would have changed.
The chessboard sat as an afterthought, queen took our bishop at E two.
Took the old panther long enough.
“What is wrong?” I asked and set the plate of cake before her.
Why didn’t I think about what I should say and do first? I mentally kicked myself.
No response.
“Well if you don’t eat any of this cake I’m going to eat it all.”
I sat beside her.
“PIG!” She yelled.
Oh it was going to go like this huh?
I didn’t know how often it happened but from what I remember this happened once a week for any married couple. Probably more for most folks.
Is that bad? I’m pretty sure the ones I witnessed were harmonious.
Perhaps this was about the bishop I had just sacrificed… two days ago? One day ago? He had even volunteered for it… four days ago? Was he even aware? Was she even aware?
I had written it off then. Perhaps she hadn’t and was mad because someone she knew died?
Was this the same smooth operator who was sacrificing cheerleader squads for fun and profit?
I sliced myself a bit of cake and waited to see if she had anything to say.
“You don’t care about anything!” She mumbled like she was casting some kind of spell.
I didn’t know I had this kind of power over the queen.
“What’s wrong?” I asked again. I considered ways I could make her angrier for fun and profit.
“YOU DONT CARE!!” She yelled picking up a red tear streaked face. She was stealing a beautiful body and ruining it with rage. Such a shame.
“Probably not.” I said through a mouth of pound cake.
She sobbed louder and put her head back down.
Well I don’t really know how body swapping works but I felt healthier once I got this one, perhaps she didn’t.
Or maybe it was some other issue, it was probably a big change for her.
She was so happy only six hours ago. Did she even know why she was acting this way?
“You might feel better if you eat.”
Her new body probably needed more calories than she was used to.
“YOU NEVER CARE.”
I still didn’t know what i was supposed to worry abou
“ABOUT ANYTHING BUT FOOD AND WAR!”
…t besides the obvious. For such a communicative demon she sure had no respect for my l time or attention.
“Is this about the quartermaster?” I asked thinking about the dead guy or captured guy… the guy who’s chess piece had been taken off the board anyway.
Better dead than captured,
“WHO!?” She picked up her head again and her voice cracked.
Aurora 4x rules… this hellish world could learn about and cyanide pills perhaps.
“WHO?” She repeated.
That was rude. The guy might be dead.
“You tell me.” I said.
“YOU… “ she shrieked.
It was almost like she wanted me to scream back at her.
But there is no reason to ever raise your voice with a woman. I may be inexperienced by many metrics but there was no way one would cause me to yell short of pointing a gun at someone.
Which I guess the queen might be… but I was as of yet uninformed as to her deadly abilities so yelling wasn’t really helpful.
She redoubled as I refused to fill her pause.
“YOU COWARDLY OLD LAZY LION YOU NEVER CARE ABOUT ME!”
“Why not?” I asked.
“YOU TELL ME!” She mocked me.
“Because you are a control freak who kills people for fun.”
“AND YOU DON’T?”
Well I suppose I didn’t know my kill count.
“I’m not a control freak am I?” I asked.
Her voice quieted,
“Just because I want attention and kill your stupid little harem…”
I had been under the impression that the queen had hired those girls but what do I know…
“Doesn’t make me a control freak.”
Well she did steal one of their bodies, one that she identified as the one I liked. If that wasn’t a controlling play I didn’t know what was.
“Yea it does.” I replied.
She changed the subject
“I give you your favorite body!! And what do you do?” Her face was still red but she had lowered her voice.
“How old are we?” I asked. My pathological need to quantify and qualify everything had harmed past relationships. I knew my queen didn’t care but I asked anyway
“WHY DONT YOU CARE!?!?”
Why didn’t she?
She sobbed again.
This was great for my ego because it proved I had some kind of power over this fey demon. Whatever it was I really didn’t want to care.
“Am I forgetting something? You know I am forgetful as of late.” I offered
“Maybe.” She confirmed her tears suddenly drying.
Very gracious of her.
“Sorry I ran off this morning I couldn’t sleep.”
“Why not?” She was suddenly pleading.
“Odd day yesterday.”