Here Today, Still Here Tomorrow
Added: September 15, 2007

Originally posted on NYRA on October 26, 2006.

Alex Koroknay-Palicz is a lonely guy. So often he'd sit alone, sad, saying "I wish, I wish I had a friend."

Awww. Poor thing.

Of course, then he'd go on to say "who's hot and available and not overweight and female..." You get the idea. Sure sucks the innocence out of it.

What's this?! Alex was sitting in his room feeling rather blue when he saw he received an instant message. Wow! It was from a girl he'd met briefly at an event a few months earlier. Great to hear from her again. So Alex felt better. Over the next few days or so, he talked to her some more. However, he had no idea where she was. He wanted to visit her, and she seemed willing for him to do so. All he could gather was the general direction to go to see her and that she lived in some place called the Castle. Odd.

So one day Alex got into his faithful car THABOAT and headed off to find the Castle. He drove for many hours until the car broke down. There was a raging thunderstorm all around him, so he just stayed in the car all night.

He woke up the next morning and got out of the car to see where he was. A short walk away was a very small town. How about that! One regal looking building had a sign beside it that read "The Castle". What luck! The girl he was looking for must be inside that building. He found her! So he went to the front doors and knocked.

To his surprise, the doors opened up and there he saw Svend la Rose.

"Svend?!" Alex reacted. "What are you doing here?"

"I was about to ask you the same thing," Svend replied snobbishly.

"Well, there's a girl who lives here that I've come to see."

Svend nodded. "I know who you mean. But you can't see her."

"Why not?"

"Because she's with me. I know that's what you thought you would come here for, but I'm afraid you've wasted your time, Alex."

Alex blinked. "Wait, what? May I at least go up and talk to her? This doesn't sound right."

"No," Svend declined. "Your visit is a bit inappropriate. Go away and don't come back. I won't have you causing trouble." With that, he shut the door, locking it.

Alex walked away from the Castle finally, trying to make some sense of the situation. What in the world was that?! Then again, why was he believing anything Svend said? Trouble was clearly afoot.

Just then, as he wandered into the little town, Alex came across Ken Boring, sitting on a bench reading a book.

"Ken!" he greeted. "What's going on?"

"What are you doing here, Alex?" Ken asked.

"I came to see a girl who lives in the Castle, but Svend won't let me in there."

Ken nodded. "Oh, I know her. And I don't trust Svend for a minute! I don't know what you could do about it right now, though."

"I just wish I could talk to her, though," Alex said. "Get this straightened out."

"That would be the thing to do."

"What do you do at the Castle anyway?"

"Oh, they have me entertain them now and then. They think I'm funny."

"Cool. Anyway, any ideas on how I could talk to her?"

"Find a computer and send her an e-mail or an IM? Call her maybe?"

"My cell phone doesn't get any reception out here, and I can't find any other phones or computers anywhere. Is there some other way?"

"Well, the windows for her bedroom are on the top floor on the northwest corner of the Castle. Usually open, too. You can sometimes see her leaning on the window sill, looking out at the view. If you see her, try to get her attention or something."

"Um, okay, thanks." Alex glanced around the town. "What is this place, anyway?"

"Wander around a bit. Figure it out. It's a strange place really. In one section, there's a whimsical essence to the place and people. In another, there's a horrible beast behind lots of traps. In a third, there's this tall cliff. There might be a fourth. I don't remember. Either way, wander around a bit. You'll probably get some help."

"Uh, thanks."

"Anyway, I've got this bag of random junk that might help you out. Interested?"

"What kind of junk and how would it help me?"

"I don't know. Think of something. Anyway, if you want it, it will cost you."

"Cost me what?"

"Your Youth Rights wristband, of course."

"My wristband? That you can get your own of off our website for a dollar and fifty cents?"

"Yes. The rubber or whatever it's made of is valuable."

Alex shrugged and slid off the wristband. "Fine."

Of course, maybe the transaction wasn't so great. Now Alex was carrying around this big bag of random junk that he had no idea what to do with. Oh, well. He decided to explore the area some, hoping to get some more information about the Castle perhaps or some way to contact the girl. Or at the very least a mechanic for his car.

He reached what looked like one of the sections Ken was talking about. Upon heading up the path, he heard a baby crying nearby. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw a very tired looking Keith Mandell and Tahra Workman sitting outside a house, each taking turns trying in vain to get their bawling newborn daughter to go to sleep.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked them.

"We're exhausted!" Keith whined.

"Marinel just won't stop crying!" Tahra added.

"Could you help us out, Alex?" Keith asked.

"What makes you think I know anything about that?!" Alex reacted.

"Good point," Keith sighed. "Anyway, Alex, as long as you're here, I've been thinking that you should speak at schools about youth rights issues."

Alex rolled his eyes. "I know, Keith. I'm working on it. Meanwhile, I've been doing lots of tabling."

"How's that going?"

"Basically, people come up to the table and I say 'We're the National Youth Rights Association, we fight discrimination against youth..'" And Alex proceeded to go into the whole standard tabling pitch. When he finished, he noticed things seemed a bit quieter.

"She's asleep!" Tahra whispered, noticing that Marinel had finally stopped crying and had drifted off.

"Thanks, Alex!" Keith said. "Here's a cool pearl I found earlier." And he handed Alex an enormous pearl.

"Uh, thanks," Alex said, wandering away.

"Wait, be careful!" Tahra added. "Five guys are guarding this area. Chip, Conor, Max, Josh, and Rory. They each use one of the five senses to determine the presence of an unwanted intruder."

"Svend has kind of been spreading it around that you're here to cause trouble," Keith added. "So watch out."

Alex continued on through the fence. Just then, there were Chip, Conor, Max, Josh, and Rory marching right up to him.

Chip stepped forward first, and the other four chanted, "Chip, now smell your smell. Do that which you do so well." And Chip leaned toward Alex trying to smell him!

So Alex grabbed a handful of dirt from the ground and threw it in his face. Chip yelled and ran away, sneezing.

Then Conor stepped forward, and the other three chanted "Conor, tell us what you hear. Is it something we should fear?" And Conor went to listen closely to where Alex was.

Alex at first remained totally still and silent, but then he had a better idea. He scrambled through his bag of junk and extracted an airhorn! He blew it right at Conor. Conor screamed and covered his ears and ran off, probably deaf now.

Now Max stepped forward, sticking out his tongue trying to taste Alex apparently. Alex just appeared to pay no attention to him. Instead, he took out a grant application he'd been meaning to send in and stuffed it into an envelope. Then he ran the envelope adhesive across Max's protruding tongue and sealed it! Max just walked away after that.

Josh came forward, inching towards Alex with his hands stuck out, trying to touch him. Alex stepped back, remaining just out of reach. Finally, he slipped away, leaving Josh to wander right into a thorn bush covered in poison ivy. Shrieking, Josh ran away.

Last was Rory, simply opened his eyes to look at Alex. He opened his eyes to be met with rapidly flashing light! Alex had found a portable strobe light in his bag. Blinded, Rory stumbled away. Alex laughed maliciously, having totally owned these guys. He wandered on into the section.

He passed a dark swamp, where he saw Schmidt brothers Kev and David hurling swamp ooze at each other. He shrugged and continued on to a brightly colored pair of doors. He went on through them to see a big checkered field. Standing on either side of the steps leading up to the field were Zach Hobesh and Chris Howell. Zach was painted red. Chris was painted white.

"Checkmate!" Zach snapped when Alex tried to step forward.

"Only chess pieces are allowed on the chessboard section!" added Chris.

Alex rolled his eyes. "What kind of crazy rule is that?"

"It is what the queens have ordered," Zach replied.

"The queens?"

"Yeah, Pam and Joia," Chris answered. "They argue a lot, though."

Sure enough, Alex looked past Zach and Chris and spotted a white colored Pam and a red colored Joia walking beside each other, clearly in a bitter spat.

"Damn it, Pam, it's my lump of coal!" Joia snapped.

"No, it's my coal," Pam shot back. "You stole it."

"Shut up, you know it's mine."

"Wrong, bitch. That coal belongs to me!"

Then they started slapping each other. Alex smiled and watched for a bit before he shook his head and said, "Could you two help me out?"

"No, you'll have to help us out first," Pam replied, as she and Joia stopped smacking each other and turned to face him.

"Whose coal do you think it is?" Joia asked. "And might I remind you that red is the best color ever?"

"Ah, no!" Pam snapped. "White kicks the ass out of red!" At that, they fell into another slapping fight.

Alex enjoyed watching this one too for a bit before asking, "So why the hell are you two so worried about coal? Find something better."

Pam and Joia stopped fighting and exchanged glances.

"Well, he isn't much help," Joia noted.

"Totally useless!" Pam agreed, and they both wandered away.

Alex walked away, rather annoyed at how pointless his visit to this section was. But his spirits were lifted soon enough. Returning to the small town, he looked up at the Castle, and sure enough, there was his girl in one of the windows Ken had pointed out. To get her attention, he jumped up and down waving his arms. She finally noticed him, and reached back for what turned out to be a pair of binoculars. Upon the closer inspection confirming that this was Alex, she gasped and waved back at him excitedly. But then she disappeared back into her room.

A minute later, though, she returned to the window, and tossed something out of it. Alex caught the item she threw, which turned out to be a piece of paper wrapped around a rock. The paper read "Svend is a lying piece of crap. Ignore him."

"I already knew that!" Alex commented aloud.

The paper continued to say "Sorry I can't come down there to see you." Then it didn't say anything else. Alex looked back up at her window, where she was still looking out. He tried waving to her again, but she didn't toss anything more to him.

"This is getting weirder and weirder," he muttered, wandering away.

He found Ken sitting on the bench again.

"Having any luck?" he asked.

"Not really," Alex grumbled. "I got no help from Pam and Joia. All Keith gave me was this big pearl." He held it out to show Ken.

"Wow!" Ken reacted. "Cool pearl. Tell you what, I'll take the pearl and you can have your wristband back." He snatched the pearl from his hand and gave back his Youth Rights wristband. Then he scurried away.

Now Alex decided to check out another section of this weird place. He came to a very tall cliff with some writing etched into it. Then he grumbled, realizing this part of the quest was copy protected. He pulled out his game manual to decipher the odd letters and puzzles. After completing one, some stones would appear in the cliff, and up and up he would climb. All the while muttering angrily about early 1990s adventure games and their dumb copy protection measures.

Eventually, an exhausted Alex reached the top of the cliff to find, well, nothing much. Just a very ancient looking pair of doors he thought better of worrying with. So he just wandered down a path beside it. Then he came to another small town, a bit fancier than the other one. There he came across Jess Campbell and Aaron Opela.

"Intruder!" Jess shrieked.

"Kill him!" Aaron demanded.

"What!" Alex erupted. "I just nearly killed myself climbing this damn cliff and this is all I find?! Grrr. Look. I'm just looking for some information about the Castle and the girl that lives there."

"Well, maybe you can do us a favor," Jess reasoned. "You see, those big doors you saw back there lead to our sacred catacombs. Katrina went in there a few days ago because she likes to explore it, since she's just weird like that. Anyway, could you like go in there and make sure she's alright?"

"Hell, no!" Alex refused. "If she goes in there now and then, she's probably okay. Why wouldn't she be?"

"That's the problem," Aaron added. "We wouldn't worry except Victor Herminio has recently taken up residence deep within the catacombs. He's kind of a pervert and might be bothering Katrina."

Alex shrugged. "So if she's bothered, can't she just leave? Why am I needed in this?"

"Okay, so you aren't needed in that particularly," Jess admitted. "But we're throwing you in there anyway. Disturbing the peace and all. Or, you know, we just feel like putting you in the catacombs. We don't need a reason. You're going!"

So sure enough, Jess and Aaron dragged Alex to the scary looking ancient doors, pulled them open, shoved Alex in, and sealed the door from the outside.

"Oh, this is just great," Alex sighed, wandering through the dark, torch-lit rooms. "Now I'm trapped in some scary catacombs." The whole place was cold and made of huge bricks. Human bones scattered the floors!

Alex walked from room to room for what seemed like hours, but actually turned out to be about ten minutes when he finally looked at his watch. A few times, he nearly fell right into a bottomless pit! Well, he was sure it was bottomless. Not like he wanted to take his chances. Although, he couldn't keep himself from falling each time. He fell right through a hole in one room!

He fell about ten feet or so, onto more cold hard floor. This lower floor of the catacombs was even darker, but he continued wandering around, now more difficult to avoid the holes in the floors but he managed it. Every so often, he could swear he heard strange sounds in the distance of the maze of creepy dark rooms. What a dreadful thought of running into Victor! Then again, he wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for anyway. A way out, perhaps?

"What the hell?" Alex reacted when he came into one room. There was a tapestry hanging on the wall! Of all the many dark scary austere rooms, there happened to be a tapestry in this one. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

He found the hidden latch in no time. The wall opened up, and he went into a very bright yet still scary room of the catacombs. He could tell from the sounds that Victor and Katrina were in there. And what a sight he saw!

"Back! Back you pervert!" Katrina yelled at Victor. She held out a dagger towards Victor, trying to ward him off.

"Does either of you know of a way out of here?" Alex asked.

Startled, Victor looked over at Alex. Katrina took this opportunity to smash him over the head with a nearby stick, knocking him out cold.

"Thanks for distracting him," she told Alex. "Much more of that and I would have gotten really pissed off."

"How do I get out of here?" Alex demanded.

"The other exit is around here somewhere."

"If Victor was bothering you so much, why didn't you just leave? Or did I just sort of rescue you?"

Katrina rolled her eyes. "You? Rescue me? Yeah, right, Alex. Don't flatter yourself."

"No, I saved you! I saved you! Admit it. You were in danger, and you needed my help."

At that she turned to go back out of the room the way he had come in. "Good luck finding your own way out of here, dumbass."

"No, no!" Alex pleaded. "Don't just leave me in here. Let's get out of here. Where's the other exit?"

Katrina glared at him and went on back across the room. "Fine. It's over here." She rolled a stone panel aside, and they were outside again.

"Glad to be out of there!" Alex remarked.

"I'm sure. Now what are you doing around here in the first place?"

"I've come for the girl who's in the Castle. But Svend won't let me see her, and nobody has been any help."

Katrina laughed. "Oh, Lord. You and your lust."

They both walked the path back to the town atop the cliff.

"Hey!" Alex complained. "This is important to me. Do you think you can help me out at all?"

"Not sure," she replied. "Although maybe you should talk to the Jahnbot. He watches over the land. Like an oracle or something. Lives in a cave."

"Um, okay. This had better not be just a big waste of time. I've got to get to that girl."

"Oh, yes. Can't forget about your need for female companionship. Rather sad really. You depend so much on it and hate life when you're without it, yet you're miserable when with it because it's never how you like. Ugh. Why do you think I'm celibate?"

They walked on for a few more seconds before Alex finally said, "Because you're a bitch?"

A few minutes later, Alex regained consciousness at the bottom of the hill beside the path.

Eventually, they reached a mystical looking cave, and beside this bright crater sat Jahnbot, the robot oracle.

"Welcome!" Jahnbot greeted in a monotonous robot voice. "Good to see you, Alex. I have been watching you."

"Okay," Alex spoke. "Think you can help me out?"

"Perhaps." Jahnbot paused in deep thought and continued. "So you're trying to get the girl who lives in the Castle? I see. You're having trouble getting to her."

"Yeah."

"Well, seems you've got other stuff to do before you can get to her. Depends how you go about it. You'll be wanting to visit the other two sections of this place you haven't been to yet. Dangerous people there, though. Be careful. Once past that, you'll be needing to fight."

"Who must I fight?"

"Who do you think?!" Katrina erupted. "Svend, of course!"

Alex blinked. "Oh, yeah. Anyway, Jahnbot, go on."

Jahnbot chuckled. "Well, that pretty well covers it. Oh, but before you go, take some of this cool water." He handed Alex a vial. "Just hang onto it."

Alex finally left the cave, frustrated. "What help was that?!"

"Hey, I didn't promise you a walkthrough!" Katrina snapped. "Anyway, you'll be wanting to get back down to the ground. Take the elevator."

"I climbed that big ass cliff and there's been an elevator all along?!"

"Heh, yeah. You got hosed."

"What's been the point of all this? Nobody has helped me at all."

"Hey, now, you don't know that. Keep going and you'll see how helpful we might all have actually been."

"I doubt it."

"Look, it'll surely work out. You and that chick will be screwing each other like light bulbs soon enough. Relax."

"Hey!" Alex snapped. "Don't say that about us. I'm a nice guy. She's a nice girl."

"Uh huh."

"I mean, I'm not against, you know, sexual activity. I've been down that road before. I just don't believe in it being just a casual thing. I believe in it being out of love and having meaning and with a special person. That is the way I do it."

Katrina glared at him. "You're not fooling anybody."

Soon they came to the elevator.

"Seriously, though," Alex ranted on. "What is the point of all this crap? I feel like I'm just going in circles."

"Yeah, well," Katrina responded. "Welcome to questing. Have a dagger." She shoved the dagger she'd used to ward off Victor into his pocket. "Now down you go!" With that, she shoved him in the elevator, pushed the button, and it took Alex down to the bottom of the cliff.

Alex returned to the main small town, looking up at the girl's windows again but did not see her. Ken didn't seem to be around now either. So he just wandered the small town a bit, trying to decide what to do next.

Outside one house, he saw Ana Hevesi working on a garden. He tried to talk to her but she seemed to be ignoring him. "Fine," he sighed, walking away.

He finally decided to try another of the sections, having now discovered there were four sections rather than three, as he was originally told. Didn't surprise him that the fourth was forgotten. From the distance, it looked very misty. He decided to skip it for now and try the other one.

This section was surrounded by some heavy woods. Alex got to a narrow path going through the trees, wondering what horrible beast apparently lived hidden in all this. Soon, he came to this big boiling pond that blocked the path. Weird. This pond was actually boiling. A geyser maybe? Whatever. He couldn't just wade through it because it was, well, boiling. So he thought for a bit what to do now.

Yes, he felt a little silly this took so long. He finally decided how to pass this boiling pond. He walked forward, and, get this, walked around it! He passed one barrier! Now on he went.

Alex soon came to this wall with a hole in it. Atop the wall sat Stefan Muller and Scott Davidson. Stefan was holding a spear. Scott held a bow and arrow. They had their weapons aimed at the opening.

"What are you guys doing?" Alex asked.

"Oh, nothing," said Stefan.

"Go ahead and walk through the opening," Scott invited. "Don't mind us. We're just, uh, decoration."

"Yup, decoration," Stefan echoed.

"Is that so?" Alex remarked. "Well, in that case, I'll just walk on through and not worry about it."

"Yes, yes," Scott said.

"Do that," Stefan added.

"Okay then," Alex said, stepping forward (as Scott's and Stefan's respective weapons moved to stay on him).

Alex stepped into the opening and then..

"Nah," he said. "Changed my mind." And he stepped backwards right as the spear and arrow were released, both totally missing him. "Hahaha."

"Damn it!" Stefan complained. "I can't reach my spear."

"That was my only arrow!" Scott whined.

"Losers," Alex chuckled, walking on through the opening and into a humble garden.

"You laugh now," said Stefan. "You've got one more trap to get through."

"Yeah," Scott added. "You'll never get by that big hedge."

Sure enough, there was a huge bush blocking the path now. Alex examined it, thinking.

"You're screwed now," Stefan taunted.

With a shrug, Alex jumped onto the hedge, and with a lot of leafy struggling, managed to, get this, climb over it! He was through.

And inside everything was this little clearing with a fountain, a hedge maze, and a big ass white palace. But the beast realized an intruder had come in. The beast arrived.

"Jason?" Alex reacted.

"Growl!" said Jason Kende. "What are you doing here, Alex? How did you get past the three traps?"

"Your traps are retarded."

"Yeah, I know. Growl! However, you did yourself no favors coming through here. I'm hidden for a reason, you know. After all, I'm a beast."

"What do you mean?"

Jason sighed. "Like you don't know. Nobody likes how I voted for Bush. Growl! Nobody likes how I'm in favor of the Iraq War. I get labeled a neocon. Finally, I've been confined here, where I'm safe from all of you, and you're safe from me. Growl!"

Alex laughed.

"Oh, you think this is funny, Alex?"

"Hell, yeah!"

"Well, joke is on you. For you see, there is a curse with passing through those traps. Growl! You are now in danger yourself. Fortunately for you, there's a way to lift this curse. You see, I'm rather lonely here all by myself. Go find me a girl! Find me a girl, and your curse will be lifted. Growl!"

"What?! Hell, no. The whole reason I'm here in the first place is to find a girl for myself. I'm not wasting time finding one for you now. Go to hell."

"If you do not, you will be cursed. Growl!"

"And what is this curse? Will I become a beast like you or something?"

"No, I'll just kick your ass."

"Okay, okay."

So Alex went on back out, back to the main little town, and found Ana working by that garden.

"Jason's lonely," he said to her.

"Oh, okay," she said, abandoning the garden and following Alex back to Jason.

Jason blinked with surprise. "That was quick. Growl!"

Alex smirked. "Why do you keep saying growl?"

"It's because I'm a beast apparently. Have to say that now and then."

"Well, stop. It's dumb."

"Heh. Yeah."

Then Jason and Ana, wandered away.

"Wait!" Alex called after them. "I need some help myself, you know."

But they ignored him.

Rather pissed off now, Alex left that section and decided to try his luck in the misty place. It sure was misty! Hard to see through it. He couldn't even see where he was going.

"Intruder!" cried a lot of very young sounding voices nearby.

Then some small cloaked kids ganged up around him and led him to a clearing. Looked like Stonehenge. There was this big bonfire there, and behind it stood the leader of this group. It appeared to be a group of Druids! The little Druids looked to be about four years old, although the leader looked grown.

"Alex! You've invaded our ceremony!" the leader said in a southern accent. Chris Batchelor, of course! Happily surrounded by his pre-K students.

"Burn him!" the little ones chanted.

So they all shoved Alex into this big wicker cage and swung it up over the bonfire!

"Oh, just great!" Alex grumbled. "Now I'm being set on fire!"

Panicking, he struggled in vain to bust out of the cage, as it was getting dangerously hot. No use. He was trapped.

Suddenly, the vial he got from Jahnbot fell out of his pocket. BOOM! As soon as the vial fell into the fire below, it exploded. Amazed at this, the Druids let Alex down.

"How did that happen?" Chris asked him.

"My guess is the 'cool water' was actually gasoline," Alex suggested. "Living in a chamber with that smell will make anyone see into the future."

"You didn't notice a gasoline smell when you were in there?"

"Well, I am from Michigan."

"Heh. Oh, yeah. What are you doing out here anyway?"

"I've been trying to get to the girl who lives in the Castle."

"But the Castle is way the hell over there. Why did you come to us?"

"I need help. Svend won't let me into the Castle. I don't know what to do. I've been all around this weird place trying to find someone or something that could actually help me, but instead I've been tricked into just helping everyone else with their own issues. They haven't been a damn bit of good."

Chris nodded, thinking. "Alex, at this point, you have two options."

"Okay."

"One option requires you to find this black horse eating from a nightshade bush. Ride her to the underworld. Once you get there, bitch slap the lord of the dead."

"What good would that do?"

"It'd be fun."

"Well, what's my other option?"

"Your other option? Do I even need to tell you? You had no reason to be running around looking for people to help you out."

"So what do I do?"

"Bust into that fucking Castle and kick Svend's ass!"

Alex grinned excitedly. "Yeah!" he shouted, shaking his fists.

"Here, take my scythe."

Alex took the scythe from Chris, turned around, brandishing it, and ran straight to the Castle, laughing maliciously. He got there and found a ground floor window open. He climbed on through it with no hesitation, finding himself in the kitchen. Kitchen was boring and useless, so he went out into the big, fancy foyer. There was a pair of double doors, and he peered through the gap between them. Right away, he saw that Svend was in there, and he kicked opened the doors and ran at him.

"Oh, my God!" Svend shrieked, seeing a scythe-wielding Alex rushing at him. He ran out a doorway in the back of the big room, with Alex still at his heels.

Svend ran up a spiral staircase, and Alex sprinted after him. At last, they reached the top.

A short way down another hallway, Svend stumbled and fell flat onto the floor. He turned himself over to see Alex looming over him, holding the scythe dangerously.

"Where is she?!" Alex growled.

"Now, now, Alex, calm yourself," Svend stammered.

"Answer me!"

Svend whimpered some more, but then stood up, facing Alex. "Perhaps you should answer me something first! Regional captains? I don't like the title. Find a more professional title."

Alex rolled his eyes. "Oh, my God."

"I've done loads of work for the organization. I deserve some recognition."

"You deserve a scythe in your eye for holding a very nice girl here against her will!"

"Against her will? Hardly. She just stays in her room and never comes out. She doesn't want to see anyone."

"I don't believe you."

"It's the truth. Now will you stop this? I hereby request that you cease and desist."

At that moment, behind Svend, Alex spotted the girl standing there in the hallway, watching all this. Due to recent events, he was hoping her move would be something other than smashing Svend on the head with a big stick.

"Did you hear me?" Svend snapped pretentiously. "I requested you cease and desist."

All of a sudden, the girl lunged forward, and Svend let out a terrible scream.

"Shut up! Shut up!" the girl thundered at him. "No one wants to hear what you think. No one cares what you do. Shut up."

Svend dropped to his knees in pain, with a bloody wound in his right shoulder. The girl was standing over him holding a bloody dagger.

"I found this downstairs in the kitchen," she said. "Someone must have dropped it." She examined the handle. "Why does it have 'Dallas Sucks' scratched into it?"

Overjoyed, Alex ran to her, and they embraced. Managing to keep from killing each other with the scythe or dagger, of course.

"Are you okay?" Alex asked. "What did he do to you?"

"Oh, I'm fine," she replied. "I've gotten so sick of his constant pompous attitude. Just wanted him to shut up for once."

"How come you couldn't leave your room?"

"I could, just wouldn't. Trying to avoid Svend and all."

"Ah. Makes sense now."

Svend was still lying on the floor. "Isn't anyone going to help me?" he whined, his shoulder still bleeding.

Alex and the girl looked at him, then exchanged glances, and walked away from him, whistling innocently.


One week later...


"So what ever happened with Alex and that girl?" asked Pam, when she was sitting under a big tree just outside the little town with Joia, Jess, Katrina, Ken, and Chris.

"Don't know," answered Ken. "No one has seen either of them in a while."

But a short while later, Alex came walking up to them. "Hey, guys," he greeted.

"Alex!" Chris said. "Where's your girl?"

"Huh? Oh, we broke up like five days ago. Turns out we actually don't get along all that well."

"What!" Katrina erupted. "All that to just be with her for a couple of days?"

"I guess so."

"Well, where have you been for the past five days then?" asked Jess.

"Fixing my car so I can get the hell out of this weird place." He sighed. "Back to my depressing loneliness."

"Poor Alex," Joia remarked.

"Yeah," he muttered. "Poor Alex."

"Lonely, my ass!" Katrina snapped. "You've got us."

"Ugh."

"You've got us, and you've got whatever nice seeming girl crosses your path next. So cheer up."

Alex nodded, seeming a little happier now. "I guess. Because who knows what weird ass quest that one will lead me on..."

"Yup," said Chris. "We'll be there."

"Damn. I was afraid of that!"


The End.




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