Last Words chapter 36 (Patreon)

Ron’s house was easy enough to find, despite me never having actually been there. My friend gave good directions. Alice was mostly quiet on the bus ride over, but as we disembarked and made our way down the street towards Ron’s house, she finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Ok, I have SO many questions. I wasn’t going to ask, but you said we were good, so…what the hell?”

“You’re gonna need to be more specific,” I said wryly. 

“All of… this,” she said, gesturing at herself. “Not just the guns, although, cool, but like, the rock body stuff? How do those two things relate to each other? And what was that vial?”

I grinned at her enthusiasm. But as amused as I was…that was it. I was kind of surprised. I’d been crushing on Alice hard for months, but seeing her now, as much as I still liked her and as cute as she was, I just didn’t feel that same fluttering in my gut. Spending time with her was nice and she was good company, but I wasn’t the same person I’d been when I was mooning over the TA in class.

That made me a little sad. I hadn’t expected to have changed quite so much. It hadn’t been that long, but I suppose the things I’d already been through were bound to alter how I saw the people around me. Going to other worlds, enduring hardships, exploring real magic. I wondered how much I would change going forward if I was already this different after only a few weeks.

My thoughts (and Alice’s barrage of questions) were interrupted when the door to the house opened after a quick knock. On the other side, a smiling latina woman was holding a mixing bowl. “Hello?” she said pleasantly. “Can I help you?”

“Hi, there,” I said with a smile of my own. “I’m Gus, I’m a friend of Ron’s.. You must be Alicia.”

“I must,” she agreed wryly. “And I’ve heard all about you. The mysterious benefactor my husband met on the bus. Ron mentioned you were coming, but he didn’t say anything about your lady friend. What’s your name, dear?”

Alice blinked. “Oh, um, Alice Macklin, ma’am.” She gave Alicia a shy smile. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m very sorry to intrude. I can leave if you want.”

“Nonesense,” Alicia snorted. “I won’t be turning away young girls because my husband’s boss has poor manners.” She raised a brow at me. “He’ll just have to make up for his lapse. You can help me finish cooking the stuffed peppers. Unless you feel that’s beneath your dignity?”

I held up both hands. “Not at all! I’m happy to help out. I don’t really know how to make stuffed peppers, so I might need directions, but I’m here to help.”

She nodded, obviously pleased. “Good, then both of you can come in. Ron and Cal are in the back yard, working on Hunter’s treehouse. Ron’s been building it for years now, but he can be so lazy. He’ll do a few boards and then call it a day. He only puts in real time when one of his friends is over. You two head back, and I’ll call YOU when I need your help with dinner.” She pointed the wooden spoon in the bowl at me, and I noticed it was covered with a sort of meaty sauce and rice combination I assumed would go into the peppers.

Lazy wasn’t how I would describe Ron, but I wasn’t about to argue, I just nodded and hurried past, heading for the backyard.

Sure enough, Cal and Ron were in the back, standing in front of a huge tree holding tools. The tree itself had a series of wooden beams and boards nailed to it. When I saw it, I blinked, staring in surprise because…well, it was hideous.

“That’s an interesting design,” I hedged as I stepped up next to Ron. “You come up with it yourself?”

He puffed up his chest. “Of course. When it’s done, it’s going to be the coolest tree house in the state. I’ve been adding all sorts of secret hatches and doors for the kids to use, which I think makes it so much more interesting to interact with.”

“I can see that,” I said slowly. “And you even added a…balance beam?”

He snorted derisively. “That’s clearly going to be  a swingset.” He turned to Cal. “Seems like the boss doesn’t have any appreciation for sleek aesthetics.”

“Don’t bring me into this,” Cal said seriously. “I don’t want to be associated with this abomination. And how is that supposed to be a swingset? It's at a forty five degree angle? Have you ever seen a swing hang at forty five degrees?”

“You two are just unimaginative,” Ron said proudly. “You need to look at it with the innocence and wonder of a child. Like I did.”

I nodded. “I can tell. I imagine you had a lot of childlike wonder when you tore the design out of an abstract coloring book. Seriously, this can’t possibly be safe for kids to play on.” I pointed out worriedly.

Cal shook his head. “Ron is experienced at building field camps and temporary shelters. He knows how to construct lasting fortifications out of almost anything. Unfortunately ‘almost anything’ apparently doesn’t include wood and nails. It’s fine for your field camps to look like you made them out of scrap because you DID, but the point of using proper construction materials is for the things you build to LOOK like they were built from proper construction materials.”

“Well I think it looks very nice,” Alice said diplomatically. “It’s full of childlike whimsy.”

“Thank you!” Ron crowed. “Somebody understands my aesthetic. I appreciate your help…wait, who are you?”

I chuckled, explaining who she was. “Alice was in some trouble and needed to lie low. We offered to leave but your wife said as long as I help with dinner she’s fine with Alice staying to eat with us.”

 He shrugged. “As long as Alicia is ok with it I don’t care that much. Is she also coming…” He jerked his head away, trying to be discrete.

“It’s conceivable,” I admitted. “I’ll need to talk with her a bit more about everything. I can make a contract for her to keep quiet, especially until you know when.” I gave him a meaningful look, not that I needed to remind him the world was ending. He nodded, trusting me to make the call, and I was gratified. It felt good to have people rely on me for the final say.

I had to admit, being important was fun. That sounded obvious, even in my head, but given everything that had happened with my brother, it just felt more…consequential. Like I was finally earning my place in the world.

Alice, meanwhile, had attracted Hunter’s attention, and the kid had shyly come over to ask if she wanted to play soccer. She had, of course, accepted enthusiastically, and I was left standing with Ron and Cal, laughing as she got absolutely destroyed at sports by a ten year old, who was admittedly really good.

Sadly I wasn’t able to watch the whole thing because Alicia called me in to help with dinner.

When I got to the kitchen she had me wash my hands and then start cutting open and cleaning out the red and yellow bell peppers. “So, you’re the one who gave my husband his magic fruit?” Alicia asked after a few minutes of food prep. “And offered to do the same for myself and my son?”

I nodded as I worked. “Yes ma’am. Ron is a friend, and I was out of my depth. He seemed like he’d know what to do.”

“It’s a wise man that admits he needs help,” she said with a smile. “Especially when he has more power than others. It would be all too easy to assume you knew everything because you’re special.”

“Not a mistake I’m likely to make,” I said with a slightly bitter chuckle. “I’m WELL AWARE that I'm not perfect.”

She glared at me sternly. “There’s wisdom in knowing your limits, and stupidity in seeing limits that aren’t there. Knowing to ask for help is good, but you need to have confidence in yourself. I’m not trusting my family’s life to a coward.”

I grit my teeth. “That’s not what I said. I’ve accomplished plenty in the last few weeks. I drove off a group of magic users trying to kill my friend with an M4 like an hour ago. I’m NOT a coward!”

Her expression switched from disdain to a sunny smile like a lightswitch flipping. “Perfect. Then I’ll be counting on you. Sorry for poking at you a bit there, but I need to see what kind of man is going to help keep my boy alive. Ron said you were a tough kid, and I’m happy to say I agree.” Her smile dropped. “Now tell me about these killer magic users.”

I paled, but cleared my throat and told her…well, everything. She was Ron’s wife, and was going to be involved in the future, and Ron hadn’t mentioned anything about keeping her in the dark. Plus it helped to talk things out. It had been kind of a huge day, what with mentally preparing myself to commit murders I didn’t commit but might have to carry out in the future, saving Alice, and just generally seeing the dangers inherent in my new life up close for the first time (at least in this world).

Alicia listened calmly, taking the peppers from me when I finished and quickly stuffing them with the filling before coating them in cheese and sliding them into the oven. Once that was done, she gestured for me to follow her. She popped open the fridge and handed me a glass, then poured me a liberal measure of lemonade. When it was full, she pushed the door shut, then grabbed a few more glasses and filled them before bringing them out to the others.

I took a slow sip, and I was delighted to taste that it was incredibly sweet. I’d never been a big lemon guy, so I preferred my lemonade with lots of sugar. Lemonade isn’t exactly lemon, so as long as it was sweet I tended to enjoy it fine.

Following her out, I saw her passing a cup to Alice and Hunter, and then shoving one into Ron’s hand as he gesticulated wildly to Cal, trying to explain some kind of secondary support structure he intended to add to the treehouse to make up for a huge structural flaw he could he fixed by just not building the thing at a weird angle.

Walking over to Alice, I smiled as she took a long sip of lemonade, sighing in contentment. “It IS good, isn’t it?” I asked, taking another sip of my own. “Can we talk?”

She nodded, and I waved her over to a spot behind the house, then pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. I sketched out a basic contract that forbade her from revealing anything we were about to say for six months, then handed it to her. She read over it, raising a brow in confusion, but eventually shrugged and signed it. 

My skill activated, binding her to the contract, and I let out a sigh of relief. “So. The potion and most of my unique powers came from another world. We have a forward operating base on a wordworld. There’s a lot of things there that are helping us become stronger, and I wanted to invite you to come along and check it out. Do you have any interest?” She hesitated for a moment, but nodded, about to respond verbally, but I held up a hand.

“Before you say yes, there’s some things you need to know. Important things.” Sadly the conversation got much less cheerful after that. It wasn’t every day you heard the world was ending.