Page 48 of Killer of the Bells
Yes, I knew I was oversimplifying things, but please allow me the artistic license, okay? I was in a tub getting wrinkly and plumbing the depths of my soul. It tends to make a guy dramatic.
And how dare he expect me to act remotely sane or rational after seeing such a bloodbath? Why didn’t he chase after me? Why did he just let me leave after telling him to go fuck himself?
Twice! He let me leave twice!
That sweater was mine forever, and Vale could go fuck a cactus if he thought otherwise.
And so I was left wrinkly and remorseful in my tub, thinking that maybe I should have heard Vale out.
I’d just been so scared. Not of the death and dismemberment; whoever had attacked me and Vix had it coming to them. I’d done literally nothing wrong, and Vix? How on earth could someone like that ever do anything bad enough to get on a strike team’s radar?
Sure, I’d been scared in the moment, but I’d experienced far worse in my life. No, I’d been scared because Vale was about to do something more horrible than anything I could have possibly imagined.
He was about to force me to feel something real.
Something I’d have no control over. Something that could open the possibility for a loss so huge I’d never recover.
I’d panicked. I’d freaked out, picked a fight, and run away.
I didn’t want to die currently. I wanted… I didn’t know what I wanted, but I didn’t want to have done that to Vale.
The look on his face as I’d said, “Then I’m out.” It was horrible. It was empty, and not like the emptiness of a cookie jar levels of empty, but more like staring into the void. Like, once you drop something in there, it could never be retrieved again.
I’d hurt him. I knew it like I’d known about his secret.
God fucking dammit. I didn’t know what Vale was or what he’d gone through, but I knew he didn’t deserve to be hurt.
You see, I had a twin void inside myself, and I knew what it took to get one.
And folks, it wasn’t endless amounts of stickers and ice cream at the local fun-o-rama.
Sigh.
I sank under the water and stayed there, being morose as fuck until the image of Vale being forced to go to a kid’s fun zonecame to me. I sat up and choked out the ocean’s worth of water I’d snorted up my nose from the sudden laughter.
I wanted to see that. I wanted to see it more than anything. I wanted to see Vale, so haughty and prim, so snarky and sarcastic, being subjected to the brightly colored chaos and cheer of such a place.
He would hate it so much.
I continued to hack out water because my body wanted to live, even if I wasn’t sure how much I did. Once I was reasonably sure my lungs were empty, I got my softest towel and bundled up in it before hunting down my fuzzy slippers. Then I ate bread and butter on the couch because I’d forgotten to go to the grocery store—again.
Tomorrow I’d find Vale. Tomorrow I would fix things. I didn’t know how because I didn’t know what I wanted, but fix things I would.
Maybe I’d find someone brave enough to yell at Gareth about giving me my phone back too.
The bells started to ring out the hour, and I smiled. Finally, something was going my way. If the bells were ringing, it meant the hunt was still on, even though I’d missed out on last night’s fun. Well, I wasn’t letting it happen again.
I stood up and stretched out my back, allowing my towel to fall to the ground, showing off all my naked glory to any peeping neighbors. It was too bad that my weird magic resistance affected Vale’s healing. At least I got something out of it, though. Otherwise, I’d be nursing a broken rib or two for sure, and that would have made my next activity suck donkey balls.
I made for the dusty tote under my bed, where my second stash of bell-hunting equipment was—because are you really a hunter if you only have one stash? Once I’d fished it out, I threw on some dark clothes and raced to my car. I didn’t know how many traps I had that were still operational since I’d missed thefun last night, but it didn’t matter. I was going in late as it was. It was dark, and the fight would be in full swing. I was going to have to improvise.
I took a chance and parked closer than I usually did, trusting that the darkness would disguise any recognizable details about it until after the fight was won.
I crept as quickly as I dared, hoping I could catch the first phase of the hunt.
The bell hunt had two phases: outside the tower and inside. Each had its own levels, with the fight growing more difficult as you got closer to the tower.
I excelled at the first phase. When I was having a good night, I usually managed to snag half the hunters and sneak inside during the chaos, skipping all the levels outside, which mostly involved reaching certain marker points in the yard based on the terrain.
