Authors: Scottie Futch
No. Scott was certain that Sarah wanted something desperately, but it was not him. Given the time-dilation, it had probably been a few weeks since his initial return. None of her messages were from before his return save for a scant handful of them that asked about how he was doing.
However, not long after his return those texts came far more frequently and started to become quite desperate to get his attention. Never once was he mentioned as being the possible father of her child. It was not even hinted at.
Scott rubbed his chin. "Rhea would have come through here, what a week or so ago?" Time-dilation was a funny thing. It was hard to recall that several days would now pass on ARS for every day that passed here. "Not even... Probably not even a week here."
More to the point, Rhea had also fiddled with the time-line a little to make certain that a paradox had not occurred. It had not been worth asking about before, but there were periods of time where things had run at different lengths of time in comparison to his training time in the tutorial dungeon. The actual flow of events could be considerably disjointed. There was no way to know for certain, but it also did not seem to be terribly important at the moment.
He checked the date and noted that a month had actually passed since the last time that he was here. "I'll never understand non-linear time." muttered Scott. If the calendar could be believed, he had only lost a few extra days. However, during that time he had been bombarded by texts from Sarah. The voicemails were almost as common. He decided to listen to a few of them.
"Hey, Scott... It's Sarah. Look, I know we didn't end things well..." began Sarah in a tone of voice that made Scott start to turn a little green. It was her
perky for daddy
voice, the one she used when she wanted to get her way. "Delete," said Scott as he deleted the voicemail. He had no desire to hear her traitorous lips speak in that tone of voice. It was the one she had used when they had first met at the strip club nearly four years prior.
Most of her voicemails were in that tone of voice. Unfortunately for her, after the way things had ended her perky voice sounded like cheerful diarrhea. He spent quite some time deleting sweet-talking voicemails without bothering to listen to them for more than a few words into the call.
Herbert came running into the living room. He did not stop to chitter at Scott. Instead, he continued to run around checking everything in sight.
Scott smiled at the hyperactive rodent for a moment then continued checking messages. Sarah's were the most common, but he did receive a few from Captain Johnson. One notable older message caught his attention.
[Message]
Hey, just got back from...
out of town
. Look. I'm having a hard time convincing the higher-ups, but I'm definitely convinced. It'll take a while before I develop my abilities enough to convince them completely, so would you mind if I just choose a few people in my command to test the waters? If there are several of us then it would be easier to convince people.
[--]
Scott would have replied to that, but he read other texts and realized that Rhea had already authorized it. "Good girl." he said lightly as he read the new messages.
The last message from Captain Johnson was one citing the fact that the higher ups had agreed to a test to see if people outside of his immediate command could achieve similar results. The news had gone out to various post commands across the country and people were informed about a special project that guaranteed an officer's commission after selection.
Scott sent the captain a message citing the fact that he was in town for a few hours. He then messaged a simple text to Sarah, "What do you want?"
It might seem brusque, even rude. However, Scott did not concern himself with that fact. Sarah had done something inexcusable to him. It was one thing to break off an engagement. It was another to do so without bothering to tell the fiancé about the end of the relationship. She had left him hanging for weeks on end, and had lied to him when she had finally contacted him. He had been forced to call her mother to get any sort of closure since Sarah would not even provide that for his sake.
Herbert wriggled out from under the couch then ran off to the kitchen to see what else he could find. He chittered happily as he rambled around.
"Pretty happy for a guy seeing the exact same stuff he has seen before," said Scott with a smile. Herbert was a fun fellow.
The sudden outcry from his cellphone caught Scott's attention.
Crazy Bitch
by Buck Cherry played loudly and allowed him to know whom it was who now called. "Sarah... damn." muttered Scott. She had wasted no time.
He answered then put it on speaker to hear more clearly. "Yeah? What do you want Sarah?"
"Scott! Hey..." she began excitedly. Soon, however, her voice deepened slightly and began a perky and sultry tone. "How have you been...?"
Scott closed his eyes tight for a moment. "Sarah, would you cut the crap and speak normally please. Why do you keep texting me?"
"Oh... Uhm," she said. Her voice became slightly higher pitched and she started to fumble for her words. "Maybe—Maybe I should come over so we can talk about it in person?"
"No," said Scott. "I'm busy. I only called because you keep leaving messages. If it's that important, you can just tell me now."
She made a slightly gurgling noise then coughed once. "Scott... I, I know I hurt you..."
"I got over it. If all you want to talk about is how you threw me aside, we don't need to discuss it. I moved on," said Scott in a calmer tone than he actually felt.
"Yeah. I know." she muttered. "Already engaged." she said in an accusatory tone.
Scott's eyebrow rose angrily. "Yes. Yes, I am."
"She's awfully young isn't she?" asked Sarah with a hint of venom in her voice.
"In some ways. Though, she also has a certain maturity about her that I have found lacking in other people who I've been in relationships with."
Sarah made an angry gurgling noise. It was obvious that she had caught his meaning. Scott could literally hear her trying to calm herself as she continued the conversation. "Ah, I see..." She coughed once then tried her perky voice once more. "Scott... I need to talk to you about something."
"Go ahead." He wished that she would. The woman knew how to drag out a conversation. That much had not changed.
"Uh, well... You see." she coughed once more then said words that infuriated Scott. "We have a son..."
Scott took a deep breath. She had really said it. After everything that had happened between them, she was pulling this.
"Scott..." she said, honey in her voice. "Are you there?"
"Did your mother raise you to be this way?" asked Scott as gently as he could. "She didn't seem to be that type of woman."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Sarah angrily.
"We both know that I'm not the father. What were you really calling me about all those times?"
"You... Scott, how dare you! You haven't been around for the entire pregnancy and now you're just dismissing your child!"
Scott blinked. "Damn. Woman, do you hear yourself?" Blaming him for not being around was about the most asinine thing he had ever heard her say to date.
"Fuck you!" she snapped.
"Stay classy, Sarah," said Scott with a snort before he hung up on her. There was no use talking to her. The more they spoke, the better he felt for not being with her any longer.
She sent him a text message that said that she could not believe that he was being such an asshole. He did not respond. Sarah texted again a few minutes later, this time it was with a series of question marks. Scott snorted once more then spoke aloud as he typed his response. "You tossed me aside like a used condom the moment your old boyfriend showed up. You didn't contact me for a long time, and when you did it was basically to get me to stop calling you. You then pop up months later and try to ruin my relationship with my fiancé by telling a stupid lie. Yeah. I'm going to be an asshole right now."
Sarah did not respond for a while. When she did, it was to say. "I'm sorry."
Scott forced himself not to respond back by agreeing that she was definitely
sorry
. Instead, he took the slightly higher road. "I know." he said, as he sent back his response.
He sent another message a few minutes later. This one asked what she really wanted to talk to him about.
Another few minutes passed and then the phone rang. Scott answered. "Yeah?"
Sarah's voice cracked a little as she said "I missed you."
Scott sighed loudly. "Did you?"
"Yeah." she said softly.
It took everything Scott had inside of himself not to immediately respond by saying, "Good." Instead, he took a deep breath and said, "Why?"
"We... Well, we were together for years and... I just missed you."
"So, you left me dozens of voice messages and texts because you suddenly missed me?" asked Scott, his voice laced with his sincere disbelief.
"No, that was the reason at first." she said.
"And now?" he asked.
"Jake... He, well..."
"Did he hit you?" asked Scott calmly.
"No, nothing like that... Not really. He just... He keeps pestering me to talk to you about a program that you're running for the army," said Sarah.
Scott blinked. He felt it begin to bubble up from deep inside, a low vibrating sensation that rumbled up from the depths. For a moment, Scott thought that he might be about to laugh. Somewhere between his gut and his mouth the sensation took a darker turn and headed south. A loud wet fart erupted from his perplexed anus. "You... have got to be shitting me." His words continued to hang in the air for a moment, much like his recent flatulence.
***
The soft
skrtch
of a straw broom sweeping stone tiles echoed through the air. A novitiate of the
Blizrum War College
went merrily about his task. One might think that a man of thirty should not be so happy as to actively smile and hum while he swept a stone walkway. That individual would be wrong. For you see, the man in question was
living the dream
.
Captain Adam Johnson, decorated war hero and veteran of six separate tours as an officer of the US Army, happily swept the dirt and dust from the temple grounds. In the fantasy world of ARS he was not a captain, nor was he a decorated war veteran. He was nothing more than a novice priest-in-training who hoped to see as much of the world as possible while he could.
"Cleanliness is next to godliness. Eh, Johnson?" called out another of the novitiates.
Adam looked over to the younger man then smiled. "I've always thought so."
The younger man laughed then went back to wiping down the stone benches near the front entrance. Cleaning the temples and shrines was one of the primary tasks of a novitiate. It was how they paid for their room and board during their training.
The older novice finished sweeping after another few minutes then went about his second task for the day. He needed to clean the altar room in the main temple before he would be released to do as he wished.
Soon, he would have to return to Earth. He could only train on the weekends. Thankfully, the priests were accommodating to his needs. He was a part-time student. Many working professionals in the world of ARS wanted to become priests, but they had to make a living or had families to support. Until they took the
Oath of Faith
, part-time studies were acceptable.
Blizrum, god of war and champion of justice; Adam looked up at the massive tower shield that stood as a representation of the lord of the battlefield. Priests of Blizrum were not blood thirsty killers. In fact, they acted to stop such people. His chosen priests and paladins were shields. They were walls of flesh and metal. They were people who stood between the darkness of hateful violence, and those whom they desired to protect. In the eyes of many, Blizrum was the god of heroes.
Adam set about cleaning the altar room, and started with the wooden pews. The room doubled as a place of worship for congregations as well as a space to offer prayers and offerings to Blizrum.
While he cleaned the area, he slowly made his way toward the massive shield. It was neither beautifully crafted, nor did it seem to be extraordinary in any way save for its size. The shield of Blizrum was a plain item without adornment, little more than a shiny piece of metal backed with wood and cloth.
A placard on the altar bore simple, but powerful, words. They were words that Adam could not resist repeating. "I am the shield which guards the realms of life. In the face of wickedness, I shall not falter. Let evil break itself uselessly upon me. Fear not, my child. Stand behind me, and know peace."
It was the full quote once spoken by a champion of Blizrum. Adam often heard the last part in common speech when a priest or paladin was asked to use their powers. They would always reach out and clasp the shoulder of the one who beseeched them and then say, "Fear not, my child. Stand behind me, and know peace."