《Marvel's Cloak: Shroud of Darkness》Chapter 12 - A Man Must Protect What Is His
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Jessica Searching for Her Phone (Tandy’s Hotel)
Jessica shook the phone in her hand for the tenth time to make sure it wasn’t malfunctioning and it still gave her the same information, her phone was in Tandy’s Hotel Room.
Earlier after finishing her conversation with Tyrone, Jessica was determined to find her phone since it had particularly cute pictures of her and Tyrone together.
There were also recordings of Tyrone’s voice when they talked about the stars. It would be embarrassing if Tyrone found out but she was just that type of girl – when she fell in love with Tyrone, she fell hard and everything became about him.
It was easy for Jessica to ‘borrow’ an Executive’s phone to track her phone down. She followed the bread crumbs until she stood in front of Tandy’s Hotel Room with uncertainty on her face.
Despite their rough start, Jessica kind of liked Tandy and it would always help to have a rich friend that could foot both her and Tyrone’s bills from time to time.
Jessica was a pragmatist at heart and even if her heart became uncertain where it concerned Tyrone, she wasn’t too against the possibility of Tandy hanging around with her and Tyrone as long as she supported The Outreach Center.
Knock
Knock
Knock
Three knocks and Jessica waited patiently for Tandy to open the door. Jessica already had a plan in mind, she would apologize to Tandy and start their friendship anew, then she would earn Tandy’s favor by using some of the more innocent pictures of Tyrone on her phone.
After some sisterly bonding came some shopping that she would have earned by being such a good friend. Jessica would later sneak some sexy panties into the shopping bags and use them to seduce Tyrone at a later date.
The plan was perfect inside her mind but sadly, it wasn’t Tandy who opened the door.
“Hello?” Kevin asked, opening the door and looking at Jessica as if he was trying to put a name to the face “Jessica right? Aren’t you supposed to be with Tandy?”
Jessica frowned, a bad premonition stirring inside her gut “Why would I be with Tandy?”
Kevin shrugged “Because that’s what she said… I’ll give her a call and ask where she is… she has the tendency to forget time.”
“Not necessary!” Jessica quickly intervened “I believe I left my phone here yesterday, so I’ll just recover it and be on my way.”
Kevin nodded, opening the door wider so Jessica could make her way inside. Jessica entered the room, counting her steps as she followed the ‘Find my phone’ app to a T.
It wasn’t long after entering that Jessica found herself inside the bathroom, ducking between the shower tiles to recover her phone.
“That’s strange…” Kevin frowned, not expecting Tandy to keep something hidden from him.
Jessica also frowned but this didn’t change her plan so it was better for Kevin to remain blissfully unaware of Tandy’s ‘extracurricular' activities.
“I’m sure she just didn’t want it to get wet…” Jessica reassured, flipping open her phone to see if that was really the case.
However, what Jessica found, or rather didn’t find on her phone, made her blow her top. Certain photos of her and Tyrone had been deleted, certain flirtatious texts between her and Tyrone had been deleted… many things that involved her and Tyrone had been deleted.
If that wasn’t enough to kill Tandy over, Jessica found that Tandy, she assumed it was Tandy, had messaged Tyrone earlier pretending to be her.
“What the fuck!” Jessica shouted, startling Kevin who was only glancing at the phone interestingly “You fucking bitch!”
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Kevin was unsure of what exactly happened to Jessica “Uhmm… excuse me?”
“Excuse me? Fucking excuse you!” Jessica growled in anger “Does your dense fuck even know where your wife is right now?”
“She probably just for-”
Jessica fumed “If you say something like ‘forgot to meet you’… I will stuff my phone down your throat so you can process the obvious truth through your stomach since your brain is obviously sub-par!”
Kevin was not a fool but Jessica wasn’t offering him any information aside from swearing “I believe it’s time for you to leave!”
“Leave? Leave!” Jessica asked angrily “Sure… but why don’t you call your wife and find out where she is? She should answer the phone if she doesn’t have a dick stuffed down her throat!!”
Realizing she was venting on the wrong person, Jessica stormed out of the bathroom and towards the door.
Boom!
In her angered state, Jessica didn’t even bother to push the door open, she directly kicked the door off its hinges, slamming it into the cement wall outside the room.
Jessica’s strong footsteps shook the entire floor of the hotel but she didn’t care. Jessica jumped into a cab after exiting the hotel and went home to The Outreach Center, planning to wait on Tyrone and confirm exactly what happened in the Parking Lot.
For a split second, Jessica was of the mind to wait outside the hotel for Tandy to come home and give her the beating of a lifetime, but even in her angered state, Jessica carefully considered what Tyrone would want.
“He would want me to talk to him before doing anything crazy…” Jessica whispered, confirming that she made the right choice by deciding to go home.
∞∞∞
Kevin About Thirty Minutes Later
After Jessica left, Kevin sat alone for the next thirty minutes thinking profoundly about Jessica’s actions and facial expressions and what they could mean for him and Tandy.
He wasn’t a fool so, of course, he thought about the most obvious answer – Tandy was cheating on him. However, as much as he thought about the obvious, he also searched for alternatives that wouldn’t have him question the integrity of the woman he loved.
Over the past year, Kevin wouldn’t be arrogant in saying that he understood Tandy even more than she understood herself.
He knew what made her tick, what made her angry, what made her sad, what made her concerned… he basically knew everything that was anything about Tandy Bowen…
And if he was certain about one thing, it was the fact that Tandy was not a cheater… well, she was not a cheater as long as she was on her depression medication, and every day he would ensure that she took the medication.
Tandy was as loyal a woman as they came, she only had the tendency to become hyperactive without her medication and that led to her reputation of the past.
“Yes… she is not a cheater so this doesn’t make any sense…” Kevin stated and then agreed with his own conclusion “Is there a factor I am not accounting for… Tandy could cheat if the world was ending or maybe her dead ghetto boyfriend came back to life but those things are absurd…”
Kevin thought and thought but couldn’t fathom a world where Tandy did anything to compromise their relationship. Soon, his thoughts led him to an inevitable conclusion…
“I have to find out for sure…” Kevin whispered, watching his hands with uncertainty but ultimately shaking his head “I promised never to do that to her again… I only did it the first time because she was in pain and she wanted to lessen the pain…”
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In the midst of his contemplation, Tandy entered the room and frowned when she found the door embedded in the opposite wall.
“Did you have a party while I was gone?” She asked, walking up to Kevin and giving him an intense kiss that washed away almost all of his doubts.
“Courtesy of your friend Jessica…” Kevin replied, studying Tandy’s facial features “You know Jessica? The friend that you told me you were going to meet?”
Tandy sighed, walked into the kitchen, and took an apple from the freezer “I wouldn’t call her my friend anymore… she didn’t show up and I was planning to apologize… The previous day she lent me her phone and I slipped, so it fell in the water and the memory card was damaged. She had pictures with her boyfriend on the phone so I knew she would be mad. Hence, I hid the phone until it could get fixed but she accused me of stealing it… did she find it?”
Kevin sighed and comforted Tandy “Yeah, she found it…I’m sorry if I knew I wouldn’t have allowed her inside and you could still work things out…”
Tandy shook her head in sadness “I know I should have told you but… it was a matter between girls. Some of the photos she had on the phone were very inappropriate… too inappropriate to have on a tool that could be hacked… her boyfriend made her do things and I just didn’t want to see her making stupid mistakes like I did in the past…”
Kevin nodded his head in understanding and felt even more relieved when Tandy entered the bathroom, went into the cabinet, and took her daily depression pills with a cup of water.
“So is there anything else?” Tandy asked, looking clueless.
Kevin shook his head “Nothing else… I just hope you and Jessica can pull through this tough time in your friendship…”
∞∞∞
Tyrone Johnson (After Parking Lot Incident)
Tyrone laid in his bed at the Outreach Center, staring up at the ceiling in a daze. He desperately tried to think of a time last year... or any time in his life where he would make the exact same choices he was forced to make now.
He tried to find some version of himself that would sleep with an engaged woman… would sleep with a MILF for money… would teach kids about how to be better while being a hypocrite.
Tyrone realized, for as far back as he could remember, he had always been a person on the up-and-up. Even when faced with difficult decisions, he would always do the bare minimum to help.
That time at the party when he couldn’t protect Tandy, he instigated a fight that had disastrous consequences just to follow his moral code.
Even if the result made him a hundred times guiltier, at the very least, he had followed his heart. In a world so boundlessly grey, the only thing someone could do was follow their heart.
‘Am I following my heart by sleeping with Tandy? Am I following my heart by ignoring Jessica’s feelings for me? Aren’t I a disrespect to everything my parents and Billy stood for?’
In the midst of his profound thoughts, Tyrone suddenly felt confined as his body was straddled and his arms were pressed onto the bed with enough force to bruise his wrists.
“OW!” Tyrone groaned.
“Don’t pretend to be in pain… I can give you pain if that’s what you want…” Jessica mocked, shifting her body to better pin Tyrone down “I just have one question: What happened at the Parking Lot?”
Tyrone tilted his head back to look Jessica directly in the eyes “I fucked her!... I fucked Tandy again… And I wanted to fuck her as much as she wanted to fuck me… it was like having my lust reflected back at me…”
Jessica frowned, not expecting such a straightforward answer from Tyrone. Actually, Jessica was looking forward to ‘torturing’ Tyrone a bit before he admitted to anything but it seemed that he was already torturing himself for it.
“You’re in pain because you slept with an engaged woman?” Jessica asked surprised “You are weird… most guys would celebrate such a feat…”
Tyrone shook his head “I feel pain because I never wanted to be the type of guy that tears relationships apart… my ma never raised me that way… my ma used to say that falling in love is nothing in a life…
She said she used to fall in love with my dad every single day all over again… when he made breakfast for the fam and rubbed her feet before bed or made sure he got off work early just to walk with her to the store…
My pa made an effort to keep his marriage steady and my mom fell in love with him every single day but not everything was perfect, my mom did cheat once… she came home crying, admitting everything when it happened and my dad was postal… throwing shit and fucking up the house…
Of course, they worked through that shit like adults… well, my dad fucked up the guy mom cheated with… but I remember being utterly disgusted. What kind of man would sleep with a married woman?”
Jessica sighed, understanding what concerned Tyrone “Now you’re disgusted with yourself because you’re basically the man your mom cheated with?”
“Yeah, I am just like him… I didn’t care about Tandy’s happiness or the dude she had waiting at home… I just wanted her body, I could barely look her in the face after it was done… it’s like I just needed her for a moment and everything else didn’t matter…”
Jessica frowned “I’ve seen the way Tandy moves around you… I saw the way she danced with you at the club… it’s like… It’s like she is addicted… like you’re ecstasy for her but it’s the same for you too. The only difference would be that you take a pill at a time but Tandy is a fucking immortal junkie… she doesn’t even try to fight it…”
“I feel like it’s more than that though…” Tyrone paused, searching for the correct words “She makes me very hungry… I can be fulfilled by hanging around with the kids and everyone but Tandy is like an all-you-can-eat buffet… it’s the difference between tofu and wagyu beef.”
Jessica stifled a laugh “We only at Wagyu beef yesterday and you’re already using it as an example? How much did it cost like $300 a pound?”
“$400 a pound but should have been less, we got tricked.” Tyrone replied causing Jessica to laugh even louder at his miser-like attitude.
Tyrone tried to remove Jessica’s straddling but she firmly held him in place with her newfound strength.
“You’re sly… and very strong. Been lifting weights recently?” Tyrone inquired confused.
Jessica smiled mysteriously “Something like that …”
There was a heavy silence in the room as Tyrone opened his mouth once more with the utmost seriousness “I am going to end it the next time she asks me to meet… I want you to be there as emotional support…”
“I got you Ty… I always had you…” Jessica promised, easily hopping off Tyrone’s body and standing to her feet “I’ve had your back since the day you walked on the forest half-naked looking like the walking dead… I don’t have that picture anymore though.”
Tyrone frowned “I thought we were having a moment until you went and made it weird...”
Jessica just smiled, pulling Tyrone to his feet and giving him a different kind of hug… a hug that was far from the seductive advances she would usually make.
This hug was more of an acknowledgment of the bond they shared and Tyrone returned the hug with similar intensity to which Jessica gave it.
∞∞∞
Kevin, The Following Day
For a while, everything seemed to be returning to normal since coming to Bacáu. Kevin watched Tandy doing the laundry.
Her hair rolled into a bun, his white T-shirt hanged loosely around her figure, blocking out everything but the important parts that were faintly visible when her body shifted towards the sunlight peeking through the window.
That moment… that moment where Kevin just observed everything… it was the moment he realized that he just loved Tandy too much, her quirks and all.
He liked the way she brushed her hair to the left but circled her finger around to get that curl she liked. He liked the way she smiled when realizing that she was washing the same shirt for the third time in a row.
Most of all, Kevin liked brushing his fingers through Tandy’s hair as she craned her neck back onto his shoulder, kissing him on the neck with just enough to tease but not arouse.
Kevin observed everything about Tandy and she, in turn, did things that kept him interested in watching her “You’re happy today?”
“I am happy every day I am with you…” Tandy replied, distracting herself for just a moment that led to her washing the same shirt for the 4thtime in a row.
Kevin sighed and admitted “I felt like we’ve been drifting apart recently… I know being with the son of billionaires is exhausting because everything you want is at your fingertips but… we can make our life as exciting as the day we first met… we can go anywhere and do anything…”
Tandy paused and stared at Kevin, unknown thoughts circulating inside her mind.
Eventually, she smiled in realization and agreed “You’re right… we can do anything. There is no need to limit ourselves when we can just buy a better option…”
Later in The Evening----------
Kevin walked into the bedroom after taking a shower and found Tandy wearing her favorite black negligee.
Kevin’s footsteps sped up, directly jumping onto the bed and pinning Tandy’s hands against the bedhead, earning giggles that just uplifted the room with hope “I guess it’s going to be an exciting night…”
Tandy removed her hands from Kevin’s capture and pulled his face forward for an intense session of kissing that sent him into a daze for minutes after she pulled away.
The intense tingling sensation garnered by the kiss was something Kevin was sure that he’d only ever experience with Tandy.
Tandy brushed her fingers through Kevin’s hair, her eyes dodgy when looking at him but filled with enormous amounts of love no less “I realized that I haven’t been giving you the best of care recently.”
Kevin smiled charmingly, running his hands down Tandy’s thighs as he hurried to unbutton his shirt, excited for the aggressive session of sex that should follow.
However, during his unbuttoning, Kevin felt Tandy’s hand pressing against his head, pushing him further and further down while spreading her legs to indicate exactly what she expected of him.
Kevin was a bit surprised at the action but it was not the first time that Tandy demanded such a treatment and, of course, he was more than happy to comply.
---------
“uhmmmm… ahhhhhmmm… fuck yes… I love you, Kevin!”
“Ahhh fuck… good… more to the left… Ahhhhmmm…”
Tandy moaned as she reached her peak, removing Kevin from the crevice between her legs and pushing him away awkwardly like a whore who had completed his mission.
There was an instance where Kevin notice panic flashing through her eyes… it was as if she was guilty, only now realizing what she had done… he had seen such a face many times before during the early stages of their relationship.
“Tandy?” Kevin asked with confusion “You’re shaking… did you take your pills?”
Tandy grabbed the sheets, carefully covering her body from head to toe “I am really tired… maybe I should sleep it off a bit…”
Kevin propped himself up and laid next to Tandy on the bed, pulling her into his arms as they both drifted into a comfortable sleep.
However, Kevin couldn’t help thinking about the first time he and Tandy had sex… it was similar to the situation just now – she did the deed, woke up regretting the action, and sent herself into a spiral of destructive behavior.
The Following Day (Near Midday) ---------
Kevin watched as Tandy ran around the room in a hurry, trying one dress and then discarding it before trying another.
Kevin shook his head “What are you doing?”
Tandy answered as she wore her 5th new dress “Jessica reached out to me, said she wants to meet and go singing together, so that’s what we’re going to do…”
Kevin watched for a couple of minutes until Tandy was prepared. Just before she exited the door, Tandy turned around, ran back into the room, and gave Kevin a kiss – a kiss that was so unexpected that Kevin accidentally accessed his hidden mutant ability.
Ever since he was a young boy, Kevin had the uncanny ability to suppress or enhance memories, but he always carefully controlled this ability to stop himself from prying into people’s minds unconsciously.
However, just for a second, he accidentally peeked into Tandy’s mind what he found was strange enough to warrant concern…
“A boy surrounded by shadows, making love to Tandy… she wants him so bad, but the light around her body keeps her from truly touching him… he is… he is the guy from the Outreach Center…”
Kevin stood in shock for a minute… then five minutes… and then an entire hour, just processing what he had seen.
Slowly, he retrieved his phone from his pocket and dialed a number.
“I think Tandy may be ch-” mid-way through his sentence, Kevin paused and decided to see the matter with his own eyes “You know what… I am probably overreacting… I’ll solve my own problems...”
“Are you sure?” The voice on the phone asked.
Kevin nodded “Yes … I am certain… A man must protect what is his…”
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Chronicles of Xod (returning from hiatus)
After a long recovery over a chronic motion sickness issue, I feel I'm ready to return to writing this book. It might be slow at first, but I'm hoping to pick up where I left off. I apologize again for the long hiatus. The pages following are a true account. An account of how I, Josh--a teenage nerd from modern suburbia--ended up in a strange world filled with fantastic magic, bizarre creatures, and terrifying dungeons. Despite the troped-up fantasy feel of the world, this is hardly an ordinary tale. For one, don’t expect a happy ending. With the trials I’ve been through, the horrors I’ve seen and the atrocities I’ve committed, believe me when I tell you, this is not a happy tale filled with friendly rainbow bears or teenage flying unicorns. It’s more likely you’ll finish this book mentally scarred as I will not spare the details of my unfortunate adventures. With the help of my trusted companion Gui, I gain an insight that no one else in the world has. This knowledge allows me to exploit and, for lack of a better term, metagame the system which gave me a clear advantage over its residents. “With great power...,” someone might begin to quote to me. In my defense, I think maybe even you, reader, might have acted similarly with how this reality changed my view of good and evil. This story will be updated regularly on Wednesdays around 6 PM. There will only be about 1000 words per update. The focus is to finish the story before doing any major changes or editing. Please read as if this is a work in progress, not a finished product. Feel free to let me know if you see any error, whether glaring or minor. If you help me out, I'll be sure to add you to a thank you list at the front of the book when it is published. Chronicles of Xod is a first-person fantasy novel that follows the adventures of a young man from Earth. Through unknown circumstances, he finds himself in a fantasy world where life is not all wonders and happy endings. The story takes common fantasy concepts from my favorite video games, books and movies and gives them an adult edge. It also introduces some taboo concepts often glossed over by stories written for broad audiences. The style is meant to be immersive and heavily detailed. The short novel will be written in a way that attempts to bring a sense of realism to an unrealistic genre. Where there are realistic consequences and dangers in a world populated with violent monsters, cruel demons, bloodthirsty undead, and immoral bandits. In this fantasy world, the inhabitants are essentially gender blind as far as sexuality is concerned. There is also more variation amongst male and female physiology. This isn't meant to be any kind of promotion or demotion of social behavior in reality. Just a concept I thought would be an interesting idea to have in a fantasy setting. I highly discourage anyone from reading this material if you are personally concerned with being offended or traumatized. Both violent and sexual content will be graphically detailed. All characters involved in sexual scenes are mature and of the age of consent(18+).
8 234The Wizard's Tower
The world of Cyclalgia is in grave danger, after years of peace a Demon King was born in the western wastelands of the world and has unified the Demon Race. The Demon King having amassed his forces declared war against the Humanity and took over several Human Kingdoms. But as the Human Kingdom of Lor was facing this disaster a Hero suddenly emerged wielding a great holy sword. The hero fought back the Demon King’s army, and over time gathered powerful companions that would follow him into battle. But it wasn’t enough, no it was far from enough. The Human Kingdom of Lor was still in the midst of war after three whole years and they could hold on no longer. With no other choice, the Hero ventured out towards the neutral country of Ostea home to the fabled Wizard's Tower to seek the aid of the powerful Wizard within. It's just that things don't go exactly as you'd expect...
8 193Guild Wars
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8 136A Real Life
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8 207Gaia : Legend of Merlin
Follow the life of Merlin as she grows and becomes the famed Grand Magus of the Magic Council.
8 126Written in the Tablets of my Heart
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