WARNING: This story contains graphic depictions of violence and other mature or controversial themes/topics that not all audiences will find suitable. Please continue reading at your own risk.
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♪ Yes, I didn't talk to anyone. ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXnV9IB3PM6
♪ I was made fun of by everyone. ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9e7ighjK4A
♪ It's something I wish could be undone. ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpV6YG3YGJH
♪ She asked me. I wish I'd had respond. ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxYfqwDyuEd
♪ But hear me out: We're all worth being loved! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXGx8Yho0Er
♪ Please hear me out: We're all worth being loved! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡio1hLndQgr
♪ I'm crying out: We're all worth being loved! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4chWW8Z9uk
♪ I have no doubt we're all worth being loved! ♪
♪ Please, I beg you all, let's become friends! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvuejETqKiw
♪ Let's not judge each other by what's been! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBMOaT35qzg
♪ It was years ago! It came and went! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRHV1pcNd1n
♪ That's a past chapter! New one begins! ♪
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Something
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In the last chapter of Something... we were introduced to a young woman known as Marta, a disabled resident of an island called Sanne. And then there was Ikjot: homeless resident of a city called Righteous Korrigan, located in a country called Unxia.
While Marta, her family and friends were victims of an evil known as Marta's own older sister who brutally beat them all years ago, it was also Ikjot who witnessed an unnecessary, brutal assault on an innocent man, tried to forget everything he saw, became heartbroken by backstabbers—like Maricela (who tricked him into going against a good person only for them both to dump him), Walter (who sang Ikjot a song of homelessness, only to steal his only source of food), and Pede (who tortured Ikjot just because).
In Sanne, Penelope, an old friend of Marta and Ram's and daughter to the island's president, had finally reconnected with her loved ones and gave them the funding they'd need to get their walking abilities back. And she also revealed that their tormentor was moving on... to Righteous Korrigan.
Elsewhere, on a planet in outer space known as Ifnuar, Ikjot had a doppelgänger known as Acplait... and Acplait had an imaginary wife known as Trerchry. Poor Acplait, however, died of a common disease of his world that made every function of his body cease. He left Trerchry with a dying wish: Wait for Ikjot, Acplait's doppelgänger, to unleash a power known as "Poison Dart Unraveling" that would grant her access to Ikjot's reality... and thus herself access to her husband once more.
Back in the main reality, Ikjot continues to search for true love, hoping it may come his way. But can that truly take his mind off his past failure... with who was the true love of his dreams? And could there be more trouble just around the corner?
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Something5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Nh5IiJVve
25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfqqiqyNZm7
Ikjot Meets Herbertia
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Ah, yes, the residence of Righteous Korrigan, Unxia... where I still walked the streets alone. Still I coped with a heart completely destroyed, still waiting for a good woman to come along to repair it. Still I waited for true love to come my way but... still, I knew it would be false from the get-go. It was... pointless, really. The best woman for me would have been Xandra... if only I hadn't pushed her away.
Just then, I heard footsteps approaching me from behind. I just kept walking, not trusting to turn around; and not wanting to step faster as it would have provoked whoever I just knew was about to attack me. I was doomed! Wait... the touch, although it froze me fearfully in place, felt gentle... like a woman's soft and plush palm of her hand. Maybe because it didn't feel grizzly and toned, I didn't need to worry about this being a person who'd physically hurt me? Although... I didn't want any emotional pain either.
"Hey," I heard her voice say.
I turned to see her chest, then looked up to see her cream-colored fur, feline face and that... warm smile of hers. Although I saw no wrinkles on her skin, I... could still tell she was a little older than me. Her hair, with its long tufts and ponytail so long and fluffed that I could see its ends behind her, was black like night yet shined under the moon; and her sleeveless dress of that same color didn't shine but, visually, I could decipher its silk texture... and saw the white stitching pattern lined down the middle, starting from the collar of her clothing. No, she wasn't as stunning to me as Xandra was... but she was still alright, I'd give her that.
She gently held my face, leaned down to my level and warmly locked her eyes with mine while she said, "Tell me all of your problems...." Then she kissed my lips.
No matter what my feelings currently were, nothing could keep me from abiding by the terms of romance—especially if the lady was forward enough to get so intimate with me right off the bat!
"Well, go on," she continued, growing in happy excitement. "Tell me!"
"Well, um... okay," I replied. "And... let me just say, before I start, thanks. Thanks for wanting to listen to my problems, no matter what time you have on your hands."
Her smile became so sympathetic as she told me, "I'd make time for you."
I couldn't help but give her a sweet smile in return. Really, that made me feel so welcomed in these dark days of my life. "Well..." I said, "it all started in the fifth grade year of my new school. I had a crush on this girl named Xandra, and—"
"Xandra?" the woman asked me, tilting her head.
"Huh?" I puzzled, looking back up at her and realizing she interrupted. "Y-Yes," I said. "She was pretty nice to me... all the time. Unfortunately, I was really shy back then; too shy to even speak to her... even when she'd try speaking to me. I remember when she asked me if I liked anyone in the school, saying she wouldn't tell anyone my answer. Regardless, I was too embarrassed to say anything and remained quiet the entire time she sat there waiting for me to talk. It wasn't until ten, maybe eleven minutes later that she gave up, told me it was okay and that I didn't have to say anything. Despite my rudeness that day, she continued to be nice to me. But one night, when I was on the phone with Orabel—someone who knew Xandra—she told me that Xandra was mean and would talk about people behind their backs. Though I pretended to believe it, I really didn't; I thought I knew Xandra all too well to believe what Orabel was saying. I didn't even believe my own sister, Vinanti, when she told me the same as I figured she was only conspiring with Nydia—friend of my sister's—to make me like Nydia instead of Xandra. Regardless, I wanted my sister... not myself; I was too scared... to tell Xandra that I liked her. I even wanted my sister to tell Xandra how I would draw pictures of her... as well as other crushes I previously had at that school."
"I see," said the woman, nodding slightly with a curious look. "So Xandra wasn't the first."
I nodded. "No, she was the third female I crushed on at that school. Collectively, the fourth—counting my first crush back in Ultramodern Lionello."
"Oh!" the woman realized. "Ultramodern Lionello? Isn't that a city in the state of Olifat... here in Fletcher?" Then she chuckled with embarrassment, "Sorry, I actually just got to this country!"
I happily said, "You're good!" And before I could even offer her my handshake, she was already offering me her own. "And welcome to Fletcher!" I said while we shook hands.
With a pleasant smile, she told me, "Thanks, sir!" And our handshake ceased. "So multiple crushes then?"
I rubbed the back of my head, looking down and laughing nervously while I said, "Oh, yeah."
"So how did it go with your sister telling the Xandra girl about your true feelings?"
"Well... I had no idea of the dangers that could come with my sister saying these things to Xandra and her girls. My sister once reported to me that Xandra ran into the girl's restroom crying when she heard I had a crush on her. She even told me Xandra once threatened to beat me up if my crush for her continued. Once again, I didn't believe the stories... but hearing so many were beginning to raise my suspicions. My sis even told me of one day at lunch where Xandra threw Nydia's lunchbox across the lunchroom, then told her to go pick it up. It was my sis who came to Nydia's rescue and scared Xandra into backing off. I was sitting right across from Xandra at a different table, seeing her and my sis in the dispute. Xandra later got Nydia in trouble that day as revenge, possibly to spite my sis. But now, I must pause to admit to you one truth."
"Hmm, what's that?" she asked.
I paused before saying with shame, "I... liked Xandra despite her bad character. If anything, it... just added to me liking her even more." And yes... that was true, back then. But... after seeing what happened to Zane, I finally realized that... I should have never liked the bad Xandra in addition to the good. And especially now that... Xandra revealed to me that I made her feel small from what I did... I felt even worse about it.
The woman paused too before saying, "Well, what's so wrong with that?"
"Huh...?" I puzzled.
"Girls fall for bad boys all the time, and no one tells them anything. You have rights."
"Thanks, miss," I said with a smile, even though I deep down felt wrong still.
"Don't mention it," she said while smiling too. "So what happened next?"
"Well," I continued, "I one day told my sis that, in honor of the last day of school—which was just around the corner—I would tell Xandra I liked her. I had no idea what had gotten into me when I said that; because when the last day came, I found myself way too nervous to pull it off. What's more, my sis tag-teamed with Nydia (and another one of her friends) to physically pull Xandra over to come talk to me, only for Xandra to resist so much that her backpack opened, and all of her items fell on the ground."
"Wow, she must've gotten really mad from that."
"She was, but apparently didn't show it. From there, I never got around to doing what I wanted that day. It wasn't until a year or so later—when I was attending a new school—that I went to a school dance that many students from my old and new school would attend. So, of course... Xandra was there too. I wanted to redeem myself. I wanted to show her that I wasn't some introvert, but an outgoing and fun person like everyone else. I was really wild at that dance, having the time of my life and expressing myself, and even hopped up and down."
"Hopped up and down?" the woman puzzled, tilting her head... then smiled, realizing, "Oh, because you're a frog!"
I nodded, smiling.
"Hmmm," the woman hummed, gently touching her chin. "I haven't seen one with your spot patterns though. Are you a special breed?"
"Yeah, I'm a Kudremukh cricket frog," I answered, nodding. "I have Indian roots."
"Ah," the woman said, smiling, "I see. Were you born here in Fletcher?"
I nodded, saying, "Yeah. I have some Jalapa toad roots too, on my mother's side."
The woman folded her arms, nodding and smiling. "Wow, you're a mixed frog then and between two rare breeds not commonly known. You're really interesting!"
I smiled, liking how she complimented me for being unique and said, "Thanks so much for the kind words, miss."
And... it hurt me so deeply in knowing that... if only I'd responded to Xandra the same way I was responding to this woman right now... I wouldn't be in such a heartbroken state. If I'd just stood here not saying anything, keeping my head down the whole time... this woman too would have had every right to hate me for the rest... of my... life.
The woman happily responded, "Anytime!" She giggled with saying, "So, hopping on all fours at dances, huh?"
I smiled shyly, lowering my head while saying, "Yeah, I can't believe I did that."
"No, I like it!" said the woman. "Wanna show me?"
"The frog dancing, you mean?" I asked, meekly looking back up to her.
"Mmm-hmm," she hummed, nodding with a smile.
"Well..." I said, shyly looking down while feeling reluctant to do it. I wasn't certain whether she'd laugh at me or actually like it. I didn't even know if she wanted me to do this just so she could make fun of me. Regardless, I continued, "Okay, here it goes." Without hesitation, I got on all fours—pausing for a moment with doubts of whether or not I'd actually go through with this—and hopped up and down, back and forth, like the frog I was. The woman couldn't help but laugh, and I couldn't help but stop in my tracks before I'd make even more of a fool of myself in front of her.
Just then, she said, "Hey, don't beat yourself up just because people made fun of you for that!"
"How did you know that happened?" I asked, stunned that she figured as much.
"Well, considering how you hesitated to do this tells me you had a bad experience from it."
I looked down, standing on two legs and sitting back down before I replied, "I did."
The woman placed her hand on my shoulder, just smiling ever so warmly at me.
Smiling back, I went on to tell her, "I... did these same kind of goofy routines at every dance I attended. And for a while, I thought when people cheered me on, shouting, 'GO IKJOT! GO IKJOT!' they were having fun with me—not making fun of me. At one of those social events, Xandra showed me how to dance correctly. I even tried to dance with her and others, but she'd always escape me. She'd even sometimes try to get someone else to dance with me instead."
The woman kept a sad face before she'd remark, "Ouch...."
"And little did I know what was next to come.... It was 2008 when I got an account on a social media site that lots of my friends had joined back then. Though my parents didn't want me on it, I had to do it to reconnect with as many people as possible from my old school—my 'old school' because I was now being home-schooled instead of going to regular school, unless you were counting this one night class I attended once a week. Anyway, I sent a friend request to Wynfred—one of Xandra's lackeys—figuring she could help me get into a relationship with Xandra. Though I never talked much to these people in person—okay, rarely even said a single word to them—I was quite social with them behind screens; my computer screen, that is. And it was this new, online way of socializing that helped me become good friends with Wynfred. But when I told her about my crush on Xandra, she told me that Xandra didn't like me; she said that Xandra was only acting nice to me to make fun of me. By now, I got it. I understood maybe Xandra wasn't the good person I thought her to be. But I thought I could change her into a better person by being in a relationship with her. I was just that hooked into her, so much that I wasn't going to give up on trying to be with her because I judged her to be... the hottest being in all of existence." But oh no... why didn't I think before saying that out loud? Didn't I realize how... creepy of a thing that was for me to say? To verbally express my love for Xandra in a way where I was... measuring her against all of existence?
"Do you still?" the woman asked me, seemingly not creeped out like I feared she would be.
I shyly laughed, "Well... yeah...." After that reply, I knew the woman would just leave me to myself now. I knew she'd reveal her true ugliness and tell me to go tell someone who cared about my story.
But instead, she said, "Well, the only reason you like this girl so much is because she's all you have. I mean, you're homeless. You have no money. And you don't have a new love around you. I'm sure if you did, you'd be able to forget about her and move on happily."
What I didn't tell the woman, however, was that did happen before—only for me to reveal to my girlfriend that I couldn't get over Xandra and still wanted to hold onto her instead. How stupid I was! I had the perfect partner; the perfect significant other right in front of me! She understood me. She listened to my problems. She was fun and I dumped her! In fact, I was getting close to mentioning this story to the woman. Oh, how I dreaded when the time would come and this woman would think I was a total jerk—and I was—and would leave me in that alley all by myself.
"What else did Wynfred tell you?" the woman asked me.
"Well, she told me that when I'd do those silly dances, people would laugh at me and some would even record it. That news only hurt me even more. Xandra's father had passed a year ago by then; so Wynfred told me that when I'd friend request her, I would need to be patient if she didn't even want to speak to me. The first time I friend-requested Xandra, she declined it. But I tried again—and she accepted it that time. When I messaged her, asking how she was doing, she told me to leave her alone. I was pretty shocked. But I wanted to keep Wynfred's advice in mind. So I simply replied saying I understood and was sorry. She messaged me back with saying, 'Yeah, bye.' It took a few weeks, maybe almost two months, before I'd toughen up to realize that I couldn't give up on Xandra so easily. I messaged her again, asking if I did something wrong and that if I did, I was really sorry. But all she said was, 'Please stop talking to me, you stranger. I've never met you.' Wynfred told me that she was only doing this to be mean. Regardless,5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4QjXqTW6Wu
whether or not that was true, I came to the sad conclusion that it was time to move on. Unfortunately, I came to this conclusion after I'd already dumped my present girlfriend for the sake of me... still pursuing Xandra, before all that went down."
The woman paused... and asked me, "You had a girlfriend before Xandra?"
"Yeah..." I said with a sad face. "And I told her I felt that Xandra was the one I was meant to be with. So... I broke up with her. I got what I deserved for being a real jerk."
"What..?" asked the woman in awe before shaking her head. "No you didn't!"
"Ah...?" I puzzled.
"You were just confused. And you probably didn't even know the importance of love, nor were you aware of how much it would hurt your girlfriend when you broke up with her."
I couldn't believe it. The woman stood up for me as though I were her best friend. I said, "Well... I thought she would understand."
The woman held me close and continued, "Hey... you didn't do anything wrong. All you did was make a mistake."
"Really...?" I asked, even though I didn't really agree with her—but it would have been foolish to make her think I thought I knew more about this than her. Then she would have definitely left me in that alley all by myself. At least... that's what I had to believe. For I didn't know whether or not it would be safe to trust her, considering so many women just like her pulled such sly tricks on me before. I was already hurting from regret over how I had... hurt Xandra's feelings all those years ago:
Xandra sighed and said, "Ikjot, you... made me feel small, you know... with what you did back then."
That in mind... the last thing I needed was to be heartbroken for a fourth time in a row tonight.
Responding to what I'd last audibly told her, the woman nodded to me and said, "It's true. You didn't want your girlfriend's heart to be crushed. It just... happened. But if she's a good person, she would have forgiven you and got back with you the moment you told her how things went down with you and Xandra."
Now that response surprised and made me smile. Most women would have told me anything like, You deserved it and I wouldn't have hooked up with you again either. Then again, people like this woman, who would do anything to make me feel I could trust them, would even go so far as to agreeing with me when I was wrong. But was this woman really that type of person? Would it be foolish for me to think otherwise? Absolutely so! I had been tricked so many times that I became used to falling for a chick's trap just to be hurt in the end. Maybe it was my job to be something they could step on and think of how smart they were to do it. I had no choice but to keep my guard up so that my heart wouldn't be so hurt when she'd finally betray me in the end.
The woman continued, "I mean, I would've hooked up with you again if I knew things didn't turn out the way you planned."
I said, "Well... that I recall, she didn't. A friend of hers even came, told me off and beat me up about it."
"Ouch!" remarked the woman, squinting her eye as if she could feel the pain through my words. "You poor thing..." she remorsefully said while rubbing my shoulder.
"I know, right? Well, I mean, this girlfriend I broke up with was someone I knew online." The woman nodded while I continued, "That friend of hers beating me up was really a role play kind of thing; it was her typing the actions she committed on me instead of her hitting me in person."
"Even so, that was still pretty cruel of her. I wouldn't have hit you or even typed about hitting you; I would've talked with you and been patient no matter what."
To that, I could smile again.
"You were hurting way too much to be treated like a villain; people should have helped you, yet they were too cruel to care about anyone else but themselves." She thumbed down. "Down to the underworld with them!"
"Thanks, that means a lot," I shyly chuckled.
"Anytime, dude!" she chuckled back with patting my shoulder. "You're not like most guys; you're actually cool!" She wondered, "So what about that Wynfred? Are you still friends with her?"
"No, not that I recall," I said, shaking my head. "She has a husband now and completely ignores me. Though, I guess I should have seen it coming, considering this wouldn't be the first time she's hurt me. You see, after I discovered Xandra for the person she really was, I was in need of a friend—a female friend—to comfort me in my time of sadness. I was so sad that I was constantly putting myself down, saying how worthless I felt myself to be and how I didn't even deserve life. This is the kind of talk Wynfred told me was 'drama,' that she didn't want to be bothered with it, and told me to go tell it to someone else."
The woman paused with a look of awe and widened eyes... and remarked, "Wow... what a monster! I mean... what a JERK! Here you could have completely killed yourself and she wouldn't have stopped you!" The woman became filled with rage as she continued, "And yet she was... cruel enough to make you trust her; that's just so... wrong."
I nodded, saying, "Yeah.... If she ever told me she was having thoughts of self-harm, I would have immediately reminded her of how valued and loved she was... yet from her own perspective, my... life was worth less."
The woman paused, sympathetically keeping her eyes on me. And seconds later... she looked down, covering her mouth as though she wanted to cry.
I noticed and said, "Hey, I'm... sorry if it's getting too... emotional for you." I looked down, saddened and tired in my eyes. "I've... been through some deep stuff."
"N-No, please... continue," the woman told me, recomposing herself while looking back my way.
I went on to tell her, "Out of... everyone Wynfred knew, I was the only person who didn't laugh or make fun of her when she told me about some drama that led to her mother and father divorcing. Yet when it came to my own drama, I was told to tell someone who cared. I guess Wynfred's actions taught me how ungrateful some people can be."
"And I guess some people are just jerks!" the woman commented, finding it hard to contain how mad she was getting. "I mean, come on!"
"At least you care, ma'am," I said with a look of relief.
"Ikjot, you could yap on to me twenty-four seven of how little you think of yourself. I will never call it drama."
To that, I smiled again. I was glad she cared. "Thanks so much; I really appreciate it."
"You've been through a lot, Ikjot. It's a miracle that you're still alive after all the trouble you've gone through."
"Well, that was only the beginning."
The woman got up in my face with intent curiosity. "Tell me more!"
"Well... okay," I said. "On Xandra's last night of the eighth grade, I went to her graduation. She didn't say anything to me nor even looked my way. Before that, I went to a few school fairs she'd go to, in hopes that she would talk to me. But all I got was a dark, hateful glare of evil from her. I saw Wynfred at one of those fairs who, by that time, had forgiven me for being dramatic and was my friend again... because she needed me to talk to her one night after her mom cut her phone privileges."
The woman rolled her eyes, then folded her arms while saying, "She sure liked using you for her own advantages, huh?"
I nodded, realizing that factor too. "Oh, yeah; definitely. And out of all of that, they all turned out to not be my friends in the end. They... abandoned me. Orabel, another old peer of mine... was my friend at one point but... eventually abandoned me. I tried friend requesting her and she declined. Wynfred moved on to a new platform and... declined me when I tried friend requesting her also. I don't... know what I did wrong; they all just... turned on me out of the blue...."
"But that's so cruel though!"
I nodded... and said, "I was forced to resort to making friends online, people I had never personally met before. But they turned out to be better friends to me than the ones I had met in person—possibly because I was more social on cyberspace. You see, I was worse than just being 'shy' at school; I was downright rude because, unless it was a guy, I wouldn't say anything to a girl, even when she'd try to get at least one word out of me. I was just too introverted for my own good... at least with girls."
The woman's eyes widened as she realized and said, "Oh, I see. So... when it came to your fellow male students, it was easier for you."
It was starting to hit me... as I talked with this woman. Perhaps I... wasn't really scared of socializing back when I was a kid; maybe I was... just scared of socializing with girls specifically. Was... that my real problem?
The woman went on to say, "Now... about that online girlfriend you mentioned... did she ever reach out to you again?"
"We still did our online role play sessions and such..." I told the woman, "and were even still friends after everything. But... she slowly drifted away."
"Oh," the woman said in realizing. She turned a bit sad in the face, folding her arms and looking down. "I guess... that was to... be expected."
"Hmm," I hummed, nodding and looking down also.
"I would have... still forgiven you though."
"Ah?" I puzzled, looking back her way.
The woman shrugged and said plainly, "Well, yeah. You made a mistake. We all do. But what's important is that you obviously learned from it. That first online girlfriend only gave you one chance when she should have given you several if not more." She then rested her cheek in her hand, smiling and looking down. "As for me, dude... I would have given you an infinite amount of chances. I guess I'm just... weird, compared to other chicks out here."
I smiled and said, "Perhaps. But... that's a good thing."
She giggled and looked back to me, smiling ever so sweetly. "Thanks so much! And so... I'm assuming you tried finding another girlfriend after her?"
I nodded sternly and said, "Yeah. I had to try moving on. Continuing my cyberspace quest for love, my next girlfriend had troubles of her own in her personal life when it came to socially fitting in at her school, so we hooked up—even though her uncle didn't like me. But just when I hooked up with her, it was only an hour later when I hooked up with a girl I met from the UK—because I had completely forgotten about the other girl, not on purpose; it just happened for some reason that way."
"Honest mistake, dude!" the woman smiled and spoke with a tone of voice that proved she knew I wasn't malicious. "Happens to the best of us." She chuckled, "Even happened to me once!"
"Wow; really?" I said with a relieved smile and chuckled too.
"Yeah; so like, there was this guy I was with. He told me, 'Hey, babe, how's 'bout you n' I'—you know some guys with all of their fancy talk."
"Oh, absolutely," I said with a nod and chuckled.
She continued to quote the guy, " '...Get some apple juice together n' go for a stroll... then make some aaaaaaa-maaaaaaaaAAAAAAaaaaaa-zing love, you and me?!' "
"Wow!" I said with a smirk and folded my arms.
She continued to explain, "So, yeah; he and I slept together from there." Then she looked down, frowning in embarrassment. "But then next thing you know, I wake up one morning; and because he's not there beside me in bed, I'm like, '...Oh, I forgot I was single!' " Then she rubbed the back of her head, chuckling nervously. "So I... jumped out of bed, ditched his apartment and went out on the streets to find some other guy!"
"That is so crazy!" I chuckled. "My goodness!"
"And I had COMPLETELY forgotten that other guy I hooked up; it was crazy!" she laughed with telling me the story.
"Man!" I remarked, chuckling. "Our situations really were alike on this, huh?!"
She laughed and high-fived me while saying, "Right, dude?!" She then gave me a straight face. "Well... before I knew it, I finally remembered the guy I was previously with—but I was already in a relationship with that new guy! It really happens to the best of us, and it's not our fault. We just have to find someone out there who understands us, that's all." She blew it off with a cool, chill smile and kicked back. "And if they don't, forget 'em!" She offered me a high-five. "Amen, brother?!"
"Amen!" I happily replied, high-fiving with her.
"So when you realized you were in a relationship with two girls now," she referred back to my story with a smile and laughed, "what happened?!"
"Well," I chuckled, "I knew it would have been wrong to dump the first one I hooked up with, so I had to break up with the one from the UK."
"Where was the other girl from? The one you first hooked up with, I mean."
"Oh, she was from Loren." Loren was another state in Fletcher.
"Ooooooooh," she enthusiastically realized. It was as if she were a daughter listening to their father's most thrilling bedtime story ever—and I liked the fact that she cared that much. "Continue!" she requested again.
"And my relationship didn't last too long with the Loren girl either because first, her uncle and I got into an argument."
"The Loren girl?" the woman asked me, tilting her head curiously.
I realized I hadn't mentioned where the other girl was from; only the one from the UK. "Oh," I told the woman, "my bad; ya the other girl I was with was from Loren; that's another state here in Fletcher."
The woman smiled and said, "Ah, I see. And you're saying you and her uncle had a dispute?"
"Yeah, it was an argument we had online over something; I honestly forget what it was even about. But he told her about it, making it sound like I was the one who started it—even though he was always harassing me—which caused her to break up with me."
"Mmm!" the woman groaned, looking mad. "I don't care if he's her family or not; she shouldn't have sided with him if he was being a jerk to you!"
"Right?! But the thing is, she didn't know he was the one in the wrong; not until she later found things out for herself and got back together with me."
"Alright!" the woman said with furrowed brows and a smile, folding her arms. "Now that's what we like to hear!"
"Yeah, but... well, things got complicated when I began to notice she was slowly withering away from me; she wasn't talking to me too much anymore. It was then that I hooked up with some other girl.... Then I forget why I hooked up with a third after that... and I finally noticed I had to stop this madness. I had to break up with the Loren girl, but I still didn't. I also soon discovered she had been admiring pictures of another guy behind my back. As for one of the other girls I hooked up with in the meantime, who was from Erlene, well... she eventually grew distant as well."
"Erlene?" the woman asked me. "Oh, another state in Fletcher?"
"Yeah," I said with a nod. "My romantic partner from that state used to message me all the time when she saw I was online but... now, I have to be the one who messages her, otherwise she doesn't even notice I exist. I don't even think we're still in a relationship. But I think it was my fault for being offline all the time when she wanted to talk to me.... And by the time I went to college in the middle of all this mess, I was a whole new person. I actually spoke to people when they spoke to me; yes, women included. But the only thing was I would rarely do the same. In other words, I wanted to be the one they approached; not the other way around. And I felt the only way a female could prove her love interest in me was to approach me; not me approach her. You see, here in Righteous Korrigan, females approached me all the time. My sis even told me of two girls here (back in her fifth grade class) who had a crush on me; but I believe they were only making fun of me." (Those two girls were Wynfred and Orabel, back then.) "And in Gwen—the state where I was in college—everyone, if not almost everyone, were introverts. They held that same 'someone needs to approach me' attitude."
"How did college turn out for you in the end?" the woman said while touching her finger and thumb to her chin, curious.
I briefly paused.... "I dropped out."
The woman was slightly stunned. "Oh...."
I could tell at this point, even if she wasn't annoyed by my story, that she saw me as a loser and would definitely leave me in that alley all by myself.
"Well, with all the stress you went through beforehand, who could blame you?" she continued, much to my surprise.
"You mean... I didn't do anything wrong?"
The woman could only keep a sad face, still with her hand on my shoulder. "Ikjot... it wasn't your fault. You couldn't take it anymore. College in itself is a hard thing to keep up with but... to go through it with so much drama hogging your life... it's just too much for anyone to handle."
"I guess so..." I said, looking down but felt relieved that she... understood.
The woman hugged me and said, "You did the right thing. You took a break from it all."
I smiled and hugged her back, feeling it was okay to do so since she was doing it to me.
"Please..." she continued, "tell me more if you must."
"Well... aside from all the stuff I've already told you, my life had become a living nightmare because every time I thought I was about to get a girlfriend, or even become good friends with a female, she'd stab me in the back; the females I met online, of course."
"What about the ones you knew in college?"
"They were cool... but I didn't think they'd be interested in me. And I thought that many of them were either already taken by some other guy out there, or single and not looking for me."
"I'd say all the heartache you got from that Xandra lady did that to you. Had it not been for her, you wouldn't have been so pessimistic."
Just because she called me pessimistic, I put my head down in sadness, knowing she was sick of hearing my story and would walk off.
"But you would've been happier if someone had stepped up to the plate—namely a girl—and helped you out of your festering pool of sadness," she concluded.
Once again, she proved me wrong. "Really...?" I asked, looking back up to her.
"I'm guessing that guys made you feel better, but it didn't suffice because you wanted a woman to act that way too."
"I'm guessing you remember when I said I needed a gal pal."
"Mmm-hmm!" hummed the woman, nodding with a smile. "Tell me, is there more?"
"Yes."
"Let's hear it!"
"Well, there was one instance of a girl backstabbing me that I remember to be the worst of all. She wasn't even a girl... she was a woman in her thirties when I was only seventeen; but I didn't realize that until after she'd already lured me into roleplaying sex scenes with her."
The woman's eyes widened. "Wooooow, Ikjot, that's... That creep really... And you were underage!"
"Mmm-hmm..." I hummed, nodding and looking down... still feeling sick to my gut about the whole thing.
The woman looked mad again. "Man... what a jerk she was! Even if it was online, just imagine how horrible it would have been had she done that to you in person and not through words she could type on a chat! Your life would have been totally ruined thanks to that... dumb predator! An adult taking advantage of a child; how... how truly sick!"
"I know...."
The woman patted my shoulder sympathetically and said, "Hey... look at me."
And I looked up to her, struggling to face her now that she knew I was victim to such a sickening thing.
"It wasn't your fault," she said, shaking her head and hugging me. "Tricksters are just too clever for us not to succumb to. If they didn't know how to deceive, they wouldn't be tricksters. But it takes a close friend to make you understand you are worth something; not nothing, which is what they wanted you to feel like: Nothing."
"Well... I guess I kind of got what I deserved. I mean, I ruined Xandra by never replying back when we were in school. And then there was that girl from the UK who I hurt—"
"Hey!" the woman firmly said, releasing her hug to look down at me again.
"Ah?" I puzzled, looking up at her.
"Don't ever think that way about yourself; you were an innocent seventeen year old who didn't 'deserve' some old online creep taking advantage of you like that! If only I had been there and gotten that creep's address, I would have gone to her house, beaten her nonstop and if the police didn't arrive in time to stop me, they'd just have to call the morgue for whatever remained of her body!"
I couldn't believe it; this... woman might have really cared for me after all. I told her, "Thank... you."
The woman nodded sternly and said, "No need to thank me, Ikjot. It's only right that I look out for you after all you've been through; especially things so horrible as that. And did you... ever fully cut ties with the girlfriend from Erlene?"
I shook my head and said with a guilty look, "No... which is why it was wrong of me to keep gawking at other potential girlfriends at college."
"Well, maybe you were only cheating on her, repeatedly, because she was hardly around for you." The woman folded her arms, looking down. Following her handful of seconds in silence... she went on to say, "Of course, now it all makes sense! You stopped logging on for that girlfriend from Erlene... because your girlfriend from Loren had stopped logging on for you beforehand; seems your ex kind of rubbed off on you."
I nodded, looking down. "I... truly thank you for taking all this time to hear me out."
The woman smiled and patted my hair. "Hey, it's no problem, Ikjot. Is there any more you want to tell me? I'm ready to hear whatever you've got to say."
"Well... I guess I've pretty much told you everything there is to know."
She stopped patting my hair. "From what I understand, when you were talking about Xandra, I'm guessing the reason you got your sis to talk to her on your behalf was because you were really shy back then."
"Well... I was. Not in front of guys; just girls."
The woman giggled. "That is so cute!"
"Ah...?"
"Well, there's nothing wrong with it. Lots of guys when they're that young are shy around girls; and it was the same for you and them back when you all were middle schoolers."
"Well, not the ones at my school; the guys back at my schools were all very social compared to me. If there were shy ones, I never knew them... well, except for one guy I knew in college."
The woman grew a sad smile. "I'm guessing they didn't want to forgive you for being so shy, huh?"
"Oh my gosh, no. They still hold me accountable for that and think I'm creepy because of the whole... drawing pictures of people thing."
The woman looked to the sky with a blush and said, "I would have been flattered."
"Really...?" I realized, genuinely curious.
Smiling sweetly, the woman looked back down to me and said, "It shows you really care about someone, y'know? Taking the time out of your daily schedule just to make a sketch of someone you like; did you draw multiple ones of each crush you had?"
I blushed while looking away and said, "Well... yes."
"WOO-HOO!" shouted the woman, holding her hand up for another high-five. "Right on!"
I high-fived her again, feeling relieved she once again understood me.
"Anything else you wanna tell me?" she asked.
"Well... I became a real jerk back in middle school. You see, these boys who kept picking on me pushed me to it. But... in the end... everyone saw me as the bad guy."
The woman folded her arms. "Well it was their fault for pushing you too far. Some people just ask for bad things to happen, y'know?"
I smiled. "Thanks for agreeing with me this whole time."
"Ey, no worries!" And she bumped her fist against mine. "You're cool! Anything else you wanna tell me?"
"Well... there was this period of years where many of my female friends of the online web just started spamming me after months to almost years of not talking to me."
"Email spamming?"
"Yup," I said with a nod.
"My goodness," she said while folding her arms. "Well... this has been fun... but you're creepy." She stood up and said, "Bye!" before walking away.
...I... I couldn't believe it. I was right! I WAS REALLY RIGHT! SHE WAS JUST MAKING FUN OF ME! NO! NOOOOO! I THOUGHT SHE WAS THE ONE! I THOUGHT SHE WAS THE ONE! NOOOOO! Just then, I felt as though something was taking me over at the scenes before I shouted, "HEY, YOU! WOMAN!"
But she kept walking, now pretending I didn't even exist.
I was tired of this same routine... EVERY DARN TIME I THOUGHT I FINALLY FOUND AN HONEST GOOD POTENTIAL LOVER, I ACTUALLY CAME ACROSS A DEMON! I was so hurt... that I shedded a tear. You see, the fact that she seemed so honest about caring for me only made me feeling her betrayal hurt even worse; once again, a scenario that'd been the case one too many times for me. But this event, as well as the events of last night, taught me one thing: I had to harden my heart. If I truly wished to stop getting hurt, I had to stop falling in love.
"Hi, there!" greeted a feminine voice from behind me—here we'd go again. I turned to a young, redhead fox woman and said, "Um... hello."
Her hair was all the way down her back. She wore a white T-shirt with gray shorts and black sneakers. She jumped in my arms and said, "Guess what?" She tickled my chin with one finger... and a romantic look in her dark eyes. "I want to be yours!"
I couldn't believe it.... No way, no how. There was no way that someone was just in love with me and didn't even know me. Of all the tricks, this one had to be the most ridiculous!
"Name's Herbertia!" she continued. "Yours?"
"Ikjot," I said, plainly.
"Guess what, Ikjot?!" she said before going crazy, "THIS REALLY BRILLIANT SCIENTIST JUST INVENTED A TIME MACHINE AND I WAS THINKING WE COULD STEAL IT AND TRAVEL THROUGH TIME AND STUFF!"
I paused... and responded, "Steal it?"
"YEAH! UH-HUH! And we could travel through time with it and stuff!"
...I worried about this one. But aside from her insane mentality, I also knew that she, just like all the other females who I thought loved me, would be a backstabber. Regardless, I decided to play along with her little game. Though I knew she'd betray me, it just wasn't in me to betray her first. Wait.... PLAY ALONG?! WHAT WAS I, CRAZY?! THIS GAL WANTED TO ROB SOMEONE! AND I DIDN'T WANT JAIL TIME! "Uuuuuum," I said, trying to figure the best way to let her down. "The offer is great, Herbertia. But... stealing?"
"Please help out!" she begged me.
At this point, I knew reasoning wouldn't change her mind. So I had to go to plan B: Tell her a lie. "Well, I'm afraid I won't be able to make it. You see, I have a doctor's appointment in the morning."
"Which is why we can steal it now then," she happily told me.
"But, my doctor's appointment is something I'll be late for if I go with you now, because it starts now."
"Oh, okay! We can steal it in the afternoon then!"
"Well, I'm afraid it's going to be a rather long one. I might not be available until the day after tomorrow." With that, I was looking forward to her thinking that it would take too long to wait on me to help her steal the machine.
But instead, she said, "It's cool! Let's just steal it when your appointment's over!"
But I had to keep on lying to get out of this. After all, it was obvious that the only reason she was bent on getting me to help her commit this crime was so I could get arrested along with her—or she'd go scot-free while I'd rot in prison. "But I may be unavailable for months," I said.
With that, she changed her happy expression into a displeased one and took out a knife. I trembled in fear as she said, "Look... unless you want me to chop your head off, you WILL help me steal that time machine OR I'LL KILL YOU!" She transitioned back to a pleasant mood and said, "'Kay?"
I couldn't believe it.... She was forcing me to get in trouble for something that wasn't my idea!
"Do I make myself clear...?" she threatened while holding the knife to my neck.
"Yes..." I said, too afraid to nod in fear of that blade cutting my throat. "Yes, you do...."
"Good." Then she hopped out of my arms and carried me in hers. "NOW LET'S GO GET THAT TIME MACHINE!" And with that, she ran us off.
"Yes, ma'am," I said, still in shock. And I was... quite surprised at her strength to hold onto my body. Maybe I was just that much a lightweight from my trash diet....
Meanwhile, a few miles away from that area and behind a building, that previous woman who tricked me... took her last step before standing beside Xandra and those two big muscular guards.
The woman bowed to Xandra and said, "I take it that number I did on the one called 'Ikjot'... was to your likin'?" And she smirked. "Heh."
Smiling with folded arms and leaning against a building wall, Xandra looked to that woman and said, "Not just to my liking, but it even made me laugh." Xandra then approached the woman, shook hands with her and said, "Now that you're onboard... let's get to that favor we discussed, Tiane?"
...
Later that night, Herbertia and I came across what appeared to be an old shack. Old as it was, it seemed to be inhabited... because we saw lights flashing from inside.
"You see?" Herbertia said with a look of awe. "There it is...."
I'd only say, "Um..." because I was afraid to say anything else. (Her knife was very persuasive.)
She continued, "Let's get going!" and ran us toward the shack.
I was so afraid... and I knew we'd get in trouble for this—and by us, I meant me.
From inside the shack, we soon heard masculine humming. As we came to the window, we saw a... thin and tabby cat on a man's shoulder. Why was that cat so small and on all fours as though it were a... pet? I'd never... seen a cat that small before. How was it possible? Did this guy do some kind of experiment to make the cat that way?
And speaking of said guy, he was a cheetah, seemingly middle-aged and wearing a lab coat bright as day... yet puffy slicked-back hair dark as night. He hammered in one more screw to what appeared to be a giant, square and silver machine with nuts and bolts far as my eyes could see. But how did Herbertia know it was a time machine just from seeing this... odd structure? That machine could have been anything. Heck! It probably wasn't even a machine; it could have just been a giant block of metal this dude made!
"Would you look at it...?" Herbertia told me while still awing in amazement at the machine. "It's going to be all ours!"
"Um... it is pretty nice," I said.
Herbertia paused with wide eyes, as though she malfunctioned... and said, "Nice...? Nice?!" She looked back at me, all snappy. "Here we are before what may be the greatest invention of our time and all you can say is, 'IT'S NICE?!'"
"Um... sorry," I said, even more nervous then. "What I meant was, it's awesome!"
She immediately smiled while saying, "Oh, cool!"
"WHAT?!" exclaimed the man inside (thanks to all of our chatter). He turned to his window. "WHO'S OUT THERE?!"
But before he'd take the time to notice us, his front door was broken down by who appeared to be a pretty ticked young woman. She was a polar bear with blonde wavy hair, glasses and a lab coat the same brightness as the man's own. She thumbed to herself while saying, "Seems my brainwaves led me right to you, Dr. Blitz." Then she pointed to him. "That metal heap of yours keeps interfering with my own machine's signals! You're under arrest!"
"WHAT?!" exclaimed Dr. Blitz. "But, but—" But before he could say any more, the young woman picked him up over her shoulder; and the tabby cat jumped off from Dr. Blitz's shoulder with all the sudden movement and commotion. "Lace!" Dr. Blitz exclaimed, revealing his cat's name.
Lace scurried to bite the woman's ankle area, chomping down on her white sock before he'd even feel her pale flesh.
The woman just looked down at the cat and was unamused. "Really...?" she asked Lace. "That's the best you can do?!"
But Lace faithfully kept his grip.
"I'm taking you to the authorities," the woman told Dr. Blitz.
Dr. Blitz said, "But—"
"Your stupid hoax of an invention is causing mine to be seen as second best. But I'm the best! Besides, don't you know that my time machine is the only one that actually works?!"
"But mine works too!" Dr. Blitz pled to her. "If only you'd try it out—"
"Baloney!" said the woman before snobbishly turning up her nose. "I won't even give it a chance." Then she walked off with him (and the cat was hanging onto her sock by his teeth). "Let's get you to the authorities... so we can finally have some peace in this city! I'll leave your faulty machine here to be recycled by the demolition crew tomorrow morning."
"NOOOOOOO!" wearisomely panicked Dr. Blitz while they left the residence.
"Woooooow," I said, shocked. "What was that about?"
"Never mind that!" said Herbertia, motioning me to stay focused. "The shack's vacated. Now's our chance to take what we came here for."
What was she talking about? This was all her idea; not mine. Don't include me in your little scheme, you—
"Let's move out!" she said, using her teeth to unlock the window before carrying me inside.
Again... I really didn't want to do this. But let's just say that I was really scared of knives. "I guess he left his window unlocked," I said.
"Right, because I totally got in here with it being locked," sarcastically replied Herbertia. She then walked us to the machine and continued, "Now let's get back to the past!"
"But do we even know how to operate this machine?" I asked her.
Herbertia rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah. Duh?! No. But we can... Uh..."
I waited for her to generate an idea.... "Hmm..." I puzzled.
Finally, she said, "I guess we could just... stay here and guard it or something."
"Oh, okay," I replied. But what I really wanted to say was... what the heck?! I mean really! You put us through all this trouble just to not have any plans thought out for taking this thing, let alone using it?! I really wish I had the backbone to say what was on my mind, but I always agreed with people on everything to avoid making enemies. I was just that fearful of losing a potential friend.
"Unless you wanted to use it for something," Herbertia offered me.
My eyes widened when I realized she just gave me the option to use what she originally wanted to... use herself. Would she... really be that kind? I asked her, "Really...? You'd let me use it?"
"Well, hey! If I don't know what to do with it, then there's no point in keeping it away from you or anything," she replied.
I knew exactly what I could use it for: Going back to 2005 to fix my past with Xandra! I could FINALLY make up for all of my mistakes, become her boyfriend and maybe, just maybe, influence her into becoming a good person. She'd no longer hurt others. She'd no longer backstab those who trust her. She wouldn't be made feeling small by anyone... because I'd actually talk to her when she'd try talking to me! Eeeeeee! And with that, she'd be the very first honest girlfriend I ever had! She'd have... no reason to turn evil the way she had.
"Well, okay!" I told Herbertia. "I was actually planning to go back to the past and fix a problem I had... but neither of us know how to work this thing."
Herbertia then pointed behind me and said, "Hey! What's that?!"
I was a bit skeptical to turn my head, fearing she'd do something to me from behind.... But I turned my head anyway and saw a glowing, multicolored pebble on Blitz's table. There was a sign next to it that read, Eat this if you want to be an extrovert!
"Woooooow!" I exclaimed.
"You seem a little shy," said Herbertia. "Maybe you should eat it."
But I was skeptic about putting strange foods in my body—especially radioactive pebbles!
"Do it or I'll slice you open," said Herbertia, holding her knife to me again.
"Okay!" I said before walking to the table and chugging the pebble into my mouth. Strangely, unlike an ordinary pebble, it was soft and mushy, making it easy for me to chew and swallow. And upon swallowing it, my body immediately bloated like a balloon! I WAS SO SHOCKED THAT I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! WAS I GOING TO EXPLODE INTO A MILLION PIECES?!
"WHOA!" panicked Herbertia. "IKJOT!"
Then my body quickly reverted back to its normal size. "What the..." I said before colors filled my eyes. Then my eyes reverted back to normal. And finally, I felt a difference inside of me. It felt... good.
"That was..." Herbertia said in awe, "so crazy!"
"Yes, I know..." I said, now with a new personality. "And man, I feel so FREE now!"
"Free?" puzzled Herbertia.
"YUP!" I said with a really big smile. "It's like I don't feel pressure anymore! I'm not afraid to express myself! This is great! I'd already mastered being an extrovert for the most part in the present day; but this... OHOHOHOHO!"
"Nice!" happily said Herbertia.
"Yeah, I know! Now we need to figure out a way to work that machine."
"I don't think we could," said Herbertia.
"Hmmmmmm," I puzzled, looking around the shack. "There has to be a manual somewhere...."
"Of course!" she exclaimed. "A manual! Why didn't I think of that?"
"It wasn't your fault. Had I been an extrovert before, I would have thought of telling you."
"Hey, just so you know, you're a pretty cool guy—extrovert or not."
I blushed—even though I knew she was lying to me. "Thanks."
"No prob!" she replied.
As I continued searching the lab, I told her, "You know, I once thought I had MPD."
"Multiple Personality Disorder?" she asked.
"Yup!" I looked through some of the doctor's cabinets, continuing, "But I discovered that I may have actually been bipolar... possibly. I was never clinically tested for it."
"Oh, I see." She thought, Gee... I hope he lets me get in some words edgewise, now that he's an extrovert and all.
Meanwhile, I thought to myself, YES! THIS IS TRULY GLORIOUS! WHEN I GO BACK TO THE PAST, I'LL BE EXTROVERTED ENOUGH TO MAKE XANDRA NOT JUST LOVE ME, BUT MADLY LOVE ME! OH, I'M SO EXCITED! I then closed the cabinet doors and told Herbertia, "Well, it looks like that manual's hidden pretty good wherever it is."
"Hey," said Herbertia, "you've been working pretty hard on finding that manual. Maybe I should look around while you sit down and rest. I don't want you going through too much trouble, after all."
Pfft. Yeah, right.... Like she cared about me. Regardless, I said, "Sure thing!" and sat on the concrete floor, watching her do all of the work.
"Don't you worry, Ikjot!" Herbertia said as she started searching the shack. "I'll find that manual so we can travel through time like crazy!" Little did I know that in her mind, she was thinking this: I can't let him down! I must prove to him that I have some usefulness!
Herbertia searched and searched, yet still found nothing. But man, was I impressed by her determination. I mean, we sat in that place all night until morning and she was still going! What a strong woman.... Guess she was an insomniac of some sort. And though I too would have some nights of insomnia, this was one night that I didn't. Since hours ago, I had already fallen asleep. Little did I know that while she continued to stay awake in hopes of finding that manual, she would wrap a blanket around me so that I wouldn't catch a cold in my sleep.
Hours upon hours continued to pass... until around nine a.m. when—
"Oh my gosh!" exclaimed Herbertia, causing me to wake up.
"Huh..?" I puzzled. "WOW!" I exclaimed. "Is that...?"
Herbertia nodded with a smile. "It's the manual to the time machine!"
I jumped up and said, "Awesome! Let's see how to use it!"
She turned the pages and quoted the manual: " 'To operate the time machine, simply find the remote that is located on the back of it.' "
I went behind the machine and saw the remote. "Hey!" I said. "There it is!" I took off the tape that kept it in place.
Meanwhile, little did we know that outside of that shack were two female polar bears passing by, both who seemed like agents because of their black clothing and sunglasses. And on their faces were quite stern expressions.
Spotting us through the shack's front window, the first agent said, "Hey, look!" She had red hair with bangs; a darker red than Herbertia's. And she seemed to be around my same five-foot-six height.
"Let's go inside," said the second agent before they'd walk towards the shack. She looked like the first agent, only her hair was a dark brown color.
"Okay," said Herbertia while I held the remote. "Now press the red button on the remote," she dictated to me from the manual.
When I did that, the machine exploded into pieces.... WHAT THE HECK?!
Herbertia gasped. "OH MY GOSH!" she exclaimed. "WHAT HAPPENED?!"
"I don't know!" I said before the shack's front door was kicked down by the two agents.
"Good evening, you two," said the first agent.
The second agent said, "We've come here to give you a test—"
"SECRET AGENTS!" panicked Herbertia. She grabbed me by the arm and ran while saying, "You'll never take us!"
"After them!" the first agent commanded the second before they'd run after us.
"HERBERTIA, ARE YOU NUTS?!" I panicked. "YOU'VE GOT US EVADING THE AUTHORITIES HERE!"
Herbertia stopped before a safe on the floor, started turning its lock and said, "Not for long! We're outta here!"
"What's a safe gonna do?!" I asked her.
The first agent took out a sheet of paper and told Herbertia, "We just need him to punch this!"
"You'll never get us once we jump inside this safe!" said Herbertia, cracking the safe's combination and causing its door to open. It was then that a tornado sprouted from inside the safe, sucking Herbertia and I into its hole.
"WHAT THE—?!" exclaimed the agents before the first one grabbed hold of my foot.
Herbertia, however, held on to me just as tightly, ensuring I'd come with her to wherever that tornado would take us.5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg6IKQoD3LJ
But man, that agent had such a forceful grip on my foot; it was as if a brick wall was struggling to hold on to me while not breaking all of my bones in the process!
"You two, stop... RESISTING!" commanded the first agent, struggling to overpower Herbertia's grip on me.
"No... WAY!" said Herbertia, ultimately overpowering the agent as we were flung into the depths of the tornado.
"I'm going in after them!" said the second agent, quickly stepping toward the safe.
"Wait!" the first agent motioned her to halt. "We don't know what that thing is. It's best to stay here on the surface."
As for Herbertia and I, traveling through what seemed like flashing lights of space and time, we were beginning to feel slight changes in our bodies. We were so shocked, we didn't even notice that our screaming voices were sounding younger and younger by the seconds. My hair was growing back—minus the beard, mustache and lower lip hair; and my body was becoming shorter.
As for Herbertia, her only change in appearance was a reduction in how tall she was... but she was still slightly taller than me.
Moments later, we were flown into the middle of daytime traffic and could hear the sound of many horns honking.
"Hey, get off the road!" said an angry pelican driver, barely missing us with his vehicle.
"What the—?!" exclaimed Herbertia before pulling me out of the way from another vehicle that also honked at us.
"Hey, where are we?!" I exclaimed while Herbertia pulled me onto a sidewalk with her.
"I have..." she breathed heavily from saving my life, "no idea!"
"Hey, thanks for getting me out of that traffic, Herbertia," I told her while she sat me down on the sidewalk. "I owe you one!"
She shook my hand with a nervous smile and said, "No problem!"
I looked up at the street signs, noticing how much they resembled Righteous Korrigan's. I also took note of the surrounding buildings, people and traffic... also resembling Righteous Korrigan's. "Hey..." I said, formulating an idea. "Herbertia...."
"Yeah...?" said Herbertia, now eating some cheese dogs and nachos.
"Uh?" I puzzled, overhearing her chewing.
"Hmm?" she puzzled at my puzzling.
I looked to her and realized she had retrieved something so quickly, I didn't even notice when she left to get it; how was that possible? Regardless, I kept my cool. "Where'd you get those?" I asked her.
She pointed to a food stand and said with her mouth full, "Over there!"
"Oh," I said, seeing a golden bear lady with a brown ponytail and yellow cap selling hotdogs and nachos at the stand. Now having a bolder personality, courtesy of that pebble I ate, I told that food stand lady, "Um... excuse me, miss!"
"Yes?" the food stand lady asked me.
"Is this Righteous Korrigan?" I continued, assuming my assumption was correct.
She laughed and said, "Uh, yeah?! Can't you tell?!"
"There's no need to be rude!" said Herbertia, still eating. "My friend just didn't know!"
I smiled when she called me her friend. I didn't think she felt that way about the two of us. And, of course, I knew better than to think she was telling the truth. As far as I was concerned, she was just another backstabber waiting for the right moment to break my heart.
Just then, I noticed something.... "Wait.... My—My voice, it's—"
"Younger?" suggested Herbertia.
"So is yours!" I told her.
"Hey, you're right!" she exclaimed, just realizing the same thing.
The food stand lady laughed and said, "Wow! You two losers don't know you're kids?! Lame...."
"WE'RE KIDS?!" I exclaimed.
"We both are!" exclaimed Herbertia, still eating her food.
Just then, a group of girls, dressed like they just came from the local mall, showed up and were prepared to order some food.
"Get lost," the food stand lady told us. "I've got customers waiting."
"We don't like your stupid food anyway, loser!" Herbertia told her.
"Then why are you eating it?" teased the lady.
"Come on, Herbertia," I said. "Let's get going."
"Yeah, why don't you get going before you get hurt?" threatened one of the girls at the stand, a light-brown bear, to Herbertia.
Herbertia paused before narrowing her eyes in anger. "Get hurt...?" she puzzled in a low tone of voice. "GET HURT?!" she yelled. Herbertia dropped her food to the ground and charged towards the girls like a raging bull.
I immediately held Herbertia by the back of her shirt, trying to stop her from getting us in trouble... and keep her safe, of course. "Herbertia!" I pled. "Don't do this!"
"Herbertia?" questioned the girl with a laugh. "What a stupid name!" She teased, "Does your mom like plants a lot?"
"Yeah! And I'm about to chug you down like a Venus flytrap!" replied Herbertia while I held on to her.
Just then, I saw a billboard behind me that, while advertising an event that would take place downtown, mentioned the current year in this city: 2005. "Two thousand-five...?" I puzzled with great hopes, quickly realizing something. I thought to myself, Yes! This is it! I'm finally going to get a second chance to set things right with Xandra after all!
"You sure have quite a temper," teased the girl that Herbertia was in a quarrel with. "Why don't you go find your mommy so she can calm you down?"
Herbertia rolled her hand into a fist and said, "How's about we help you find YOUR mommy?!"
"Herbertia..." I said with a whisper while tapping her shoulder. I pointed to the billboard and continued, "Herbertia, look!"
"What?!" she exclaimed to me. "Can't you see I'm in the middle of a fight here?!"
Having my new sense of boldness, I replied, "Yes, Herbertia, I can; but you might want to look at the billboard."
"Some girlfriend..." teased the girl, talking about Herbertia to her friends. "She can't even control her boyfriend."
"Oh, put a cork in it!" I told the girl.
"Oh, yeah?" questioned the girl as she and her clique gathered around me. "What you gonna do if I don't...?" she went on while pounding her fists together.
"Don't touch him!" said Herbertia before punching the girl in the face and knocking her to the ground.
The girl's clique was shocked to see that punch made her lose so many teeth; they were scattered all over the ground.
"Anyone else want some?!" Herbertia threatened her cronies with a clenched fist, making them scream in fear and run off.
"Herbertia, that was a bit extreme, don't you think?!" I asked her.
"I like extreme," Herbertia said with a smile.
But little did we know that we were being watched. Behind a nearby building stood those same agents from the future, spying on us. Since it was 2005 though, they were still kids... just like Herbertia and I—and they were shorter; around the same four-foot-nine height that I was back then.
"Amazing..." said the first agent to the second. "It would seem that girl is too strong for us to steal. Though I'm quite certain the boy having not intervened in that fight proves he's weaker."
"We should give him the paper test," said the second agent.
"Agreed," replied the first agent. "We'll follow him until that girl isn't around.... Then, he's ours."
"Right."
***
In the next chapter of Something... join Ikjot, Herbertia... and another newfound comrade as well?! Wait... even more comrades?! Ikjot's suddenly not seeming so alone anymore. It's down to the wire... next Something!
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Something5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwMqT94WCEI
35Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpFsDm1wkSy
Ikjot Meets Herbertia's Friends
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♪ Yes, I didn't talk to anyone. ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0vSTTn7u4x
♪ I was made fun of by everyone. ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkfltc0ZDGi
♪ It's something I wish could be undone. ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ07kAkPrLFt
♪ She asked me. I wish I'd had respond. ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiCzxgaPcUz
♪ But hear me out: We're all worth being loved! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMmp7f9EOp8
♪ Please hear me out: We're all worth being loved! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4q5Nzfqt8v
♪ I'm crying out: We're all worth being loved! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyyeCJe22WB
♪ I have no doubt we're all worth being loved! ♪
♪ Please, I beg you all, let's become friends! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡl4VfnFhUGt
♪ Let's not judge each other by what's been! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyJOuziMPnK
♪ It was years ago! It came and went! ♪5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJXXZi39aHs
♪ That's a past chapter! New one begins! ♪
***
© 2012 Trerchry.5Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡadgzjqPlMK
All Rights Reserved.
