Sneak Peek: GI IV! (Patreon)

Two confessions with the mid-month post:

1. This time it's a couple days late 'cause I wasn't thinking about it. Sorry.

2. If it's not obvious I'm still picking things carefully so I don't give away much of the plot premise. Trying to make sure things stretch out closer to release time.

When is release time, you ask? I don't know, but after the trip, my wife coming down with mono on the exact day of our return to Seattle (yay!), and some other time-consuming stuff I'll explain someday, I am now deep into the final climactic thrills and chills of Good Intentions IV!

Am I gonna share those chills now? No. Why would I do that?

But I *will* share with you the kind of conversations you have with your significant other when said S.O. is intimately familiar with matters of the afterlife... you didn't think it was all sex, did you? (Okay, this scene leads to car sex, too. I promise.)

Evergreens and low brush lined the small hill to the right of the two-lane highway, with much more of the same along with the highway running back toward Seattle on the left. Traffic on his side slowed to fits and starts. Alex knew it would be like this as they got closer to Blaine and the border crossing. He didn’t find it as annoying as the bumper stickers on the SUV in front of him. The flashiest of them read, “Warning: In case of Rapture, this vehicle will be unoccupied.”

“I feel like this guy’s gonna be super disappointed when he hits the afterlife,” said Alex.

Lorelei looked up from her tablet in the seat beside his. Her knee-length black dress seemed a touch lighter than his jeans and long sleeves, but they hardly needed to bundle up in the car. Warm clothes were only ever a matter of appearances for demons, anyway. “It’s an ancient sentiment. Far too many see religion only as assurance that they and their tribe are special, while all others are not.”

“Never could wrap my head around the idea that one religion is saved and everyone else goes to Hell. Kinda refutes the whole ‘loving God’ thing.”

“I have my own thoughts on that particular concept of love.” The words carried a bitter edge, but she let it go. “Religions were not always so absolute. I somewhat miss the days of ‘My god is better than your god.’ It’s easier to navigate than ‘Your god doesn’t even exist.’”

“I like to imagine that kind of thinking sets up even bigger shocks for when those folks hit the afterlife,” said Alex.

“While I haven’t been through it myself, I hear it’s all a shock to everyone,” said Lorelei. “The religious sorts are likely stunned at how many atheists they find in Heaven.”

“Probably not as shocked as the atheists.”

She laughed. Lorelei shifted in her seat to face him as he drove, reaching up to trace her fingers through his hair. “You don’t talk much about these matters for someone who has had such exposure.”

“Should I?”

“That’s up to you.”

“Part of it might be all the distractions from earthly pleasures,” he joked. Alex leaned ever so slightly into her touch.

“Shall I stop?”

“Absolutely literally never,” he replied flatly.

“Excellent.”