All Your Fates (Currently editing/updating)

Chapter 16: Static Buzz

Which was...a mistake.

For the next thing I knew, she had me on my knees, her arm wrapped around my neck in a sleeper hold, and a high stiletto heel at my temple.

"Now..." she breathed heavily, "You...are going to tell me...what the fuck is going on!" I felt the steel tip of the stiletto tap the side of my temple for emphasis.

My mind went black. Literally all I saw before me was a pool of darkness. How was I supposed to know what the hell was going on? I didn't exactly have Buddha on speed dial.

It figured the girl of MY dreams would turn into the psycho bitch from hell. Wasn't this just my luck?

I sunk my head back into her chest and sighed, "Just kill me now and get it over with."

"What??" she asked as if she hadn't heard me.

"You heard me," I continued, "Kill me now. I'm ready to die."

"What?!" she gasped again.

"I'm serious," I said almost deadpan now, "This is just the cherry on a shitty long day and a horrible existence to boot. I'm ready to be at peace now." I nudged my head towards the stiletto tip for emphasis.

"Are you crazy?" she cried, "I'm not going to kill you!" And she relaxed her hold.

"You're not?" I asked weak and dejected...as if...almost disappointed.

I could feel her relax her grip even more and a deep sigh travel down her spine. "No, of course not," she said leaning forward into me.

"Good," I said, and reached up and around to pull her over my shoulder using the weight of her body as a cantilever. The study of physics: it has its practical uses.

I quickly wrapped her body into mine so we were both seated on the floor. Her spine digging into my chest, my arms pinning her shoulders back, my legs wrapped round hers so we were literally two people occupying the same space.

Now it was just a matter of time...how long could she possibly endure before getting bored struggling with me?

"Listen," I tried to talk in my most calming soothing voice, "Let's just sit. No one is going to hurt anyone. We are just going to sit and relax."

"Let me go!" she struggled against me.

"The last time I let you go it didn't end very well for me, so no," I said, "I think we got off on the wrong foot. Let's start again. Hi, my name's David...what's yours?"

Wonderbar laughed in derision, and I felt her cold chuckles rumble against my chest.

"Nice to meet you," I continued undeterred, "Lovely weather we are having, wouldn't you agree?"

At that she tried butting my face with the back of her head but I had already learned my lesson to be on guard. Wonderbar struggled for some time and then finally relaxed. This wasn't fooling me.

"Can you let me go now," she asked placid-like.

"Not on your life," I laughed and then corrected my poor choice of words, "What I meant to say is I value my own life, thank you very kindly. For a girl who is accusing me of all sorts of nasty nefarious machinations, I seem to recall you couldn't get me alone with you fast enough. How do I know that you haven't lured me here to have your little way with me?"

"Ha!" she spat.

"And after all...you are the one who just looked like you fled the scene of a crime?" I reminded her. And then suddenly her shoulders sank down and her body went limp...cold.

"Yeah," she breathed softly and hung her head back.

"What happened," I asked very softly...almost barely.

"I don't know," she said mournfully.

"That makes two of us," I attempted a joke and was glad to feel her choke a teeniest smile. I almost betrayed my better judgement and let go of her but decided against it and held her to me tight. I spoke softly again and said, "You asked me what I did to you...I don't know what I did. I wish I had done something. Something nice and sweet that made you smile. Whatever it was I was supposed to have done, it wouldn't have been something to make you so miserable," I rambled, "Not intentionally, at least."

She didn't say anything. Didn't move. Didn't blink. So I continued. "So...something has happened to you since we met. Maybe I did curse you. I don't know if you know this, but I have rotten luck. Everything that I touch crumbles before me, so maybe...it is my fault. And if that's true...I'd like to help...cause...I wouldn't want to wish my luck on anyone," I ended my monologue with a soft weary laugh.

"David...is it?" she asked. When she said my name it felt like music and I could feel my heart going pitter-pat. Whoa, Nelly! Hold your horses! She just had a stiletto at your temple only moments ago!

"Yes...?" I prompted.

"Emma," she said.

Emma! Her name is Emma!

"Yes, Emma," I said in a deep masculine voice.

"You can let go of me now," she said, squeezing my hand. And I believed her.

I uncoiled myself from her body and leaned back on my two hands holding me upright from the floor. I expected her to spring away and then kick me in the head. But she didn't. Instead she swiveled around and stared at me in the face. No...she...inspected me.

I raised an eyebrow. And stared back at her. Which was a mistake. Oh gawd, she's so beautiful! Those eyes! And those lips! I'm a goner!

Then she leaned forward and...

I widened my eyes.

...sniffed my shoulder.

Okayyy???

Emma (I love saying her name) sat back up and sighed, shaking her head.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" I asked. But she ignored the question and looked far off into the distance.

"David," she said suddenly, her eyes resting square on mine, "Explain to me about...Sea Foam."

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A/N

Wow you peeps! It feels like yesterday that we sat this boat in motion and yet we've already had close to 25,000 views. It's so exciting to hit publish every week and see what you guys are going to think. We read and smile about every comment!

As always - vote and comment. We're very happy to talk to you. After all - we are doing this for you, so we really want to know what you think.

Tom

ETA: (May 16th, 2016)

Hahaha... as I go through editing I keep finding words in Canadian spelling no matter how hard I tried to route them out when I originally wrote the first act! It's forgivable I think if Emma has a strange phrase or misspelling here or there as English is not her first language... but why does David have all these strange 'u's in his words, and double l's.

~C

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All Your Fates © 2012 Carrie Cutforth, Jim Martin and Tom Liljeholm. All Rights Reserved.