Early the next morning, Tyrone was woken up by two soft kicks to the chest courtesy of a roughly sleeping Spryta.

Tyrone had known rough sleepers before since Jessica was one such person but Spryta’s awkward sleeping habits took things to an entirely different level.

It was as if she was riding a bicycle or running for her life.

At first, Tyrone had the thought to grab Spryta’s little feet and toss her outside the tent, but it would be a bit unbecoming given this wasn’t his tent to begin with.

Of course, the point could be argued if Spryta’s tent was even really a ‘tent’…

The tent was made from dirty cloth coverings wrapped around a couple of poles dug roughly into the ground…

The poles tilted as if a small gust of wind would push them over.

The cloth that covered the poles had many holes that allowed sunlight to shine through unhindered.

It was as if the tent had perfectly small holes so each individual raindrop could pass through…

Still, Tyrone didn’t pay much attention to his living status since he was still reeling from the events of the previous night.

The drugs made everything a blur of colors and fantasy-like beings but Tyrone still managed to retain the really important details.

His mind had grown better since his blood turned toxic…

‘Wisdom with death…’ Tyrone thought jokingly as he recalled the previous night.

The fight with Spryta’s Drug Dealers…

The incident that cost both men their lives…

Dumping the bodies in the river…

Injected with Spryta’s weird concoction of drugs and then…

He and Spryta just talked about anything and everything that bothered them since their birth into this unfair world…

And admittedly, they had a lot in common…

Still, there was one piece of information that stuck out to Tyrone the most…

‘Spryta is a Mutant, huh?’ he thought, wondering about his own mutant ability that was slowly killing him from within.

It seemed that his mutant ability had only one special ability – giving him nightmares.

Tyrone shook his head and sighed “Another nightmare, huh…”

The frustration of the constant nightmares was constantly testing Tyrone’s mental stability, and after each nightmare, he could feel himself drifting into a state of deeper depression.

Thankfully, the nightmares weren’t nearly as mentally jarring as usual since Spryta’s presence seemed to balance out his darkness somewhat.

It was an open secret between Spryta and Tyrone that they were both far from normal…

The golden lights around Spryta gave Tyrone an unfathomable feeling like she was destined for greatness that he could never reach.

Spryta also indulged in Tyrone’s darkness… his darkness betrayed pain that she could not help but find fulfilling.

Tyrone frowned ‘Just like Tandy…’ he thought angrily, though he made sure not to dwell on that anger because it was unfair to direct all that negativity at Spryta.

Honestly, Tyrone didn’t use the comparison due to missing Tandy, he just used the comparison because he felt a certain addiction to Spryta like he did with Tandy in the past.

However, if Tandy was the highly addictive cocaine, Spryta was more along the lines of weed dipped in PCP solution – she calmed his mind but also made him see some crazy shit.

Spryta had an intensity that played on the mind like a transparent trick you just couldn’t discern until it was too late.

Yet, addiction was an addiction regardless – it would draw you in until you didn’t notice when the addiction became everything notable about your life.

“You’re as addictive as the poison that runs through my veins …” Tyrone mumbled tiredly, brushing Spryta’s hair behind her ear very carefully.

After their previous sharing of the night, Tyrone felt closer to Spryta and Spryta felt more tolerant of Tyrone.

“They say you pick the poison you die with early in your life…” Spryta replied, lazily raising her body from the ground while rubbing her squinting eyes.

Spryta groaned a bit with back pain since the sponge that made up the floor of her tent was as thin as paper.

She felt Tyrone’s earlier touch but she chose not to mention anything about it…

She felt a certain closeness to Tyrone, not because of their shared traumas, but because they had nobody left to care about in the world…

Everyone requires companionship and Spryta found that companion in Tyrone and vice versa.

Tyrone rolled his eyes “And you’re my poison?” he mocked, thinking about the fact that his own blood had become a poison of sorts.

Spryta brushed the dried drool from her cheek shamelessly and directed a mischievous smile at Tyrone “I think I will be the worse trick of your life…”

Tyrone shrugged and remembered something his mom would always say “Everyone is looking for that one person they can’t fool…”

Spryta pulled an injection from her hidden stash to take her morning dose of drugs “I never met anyone I can’t fool…” she replied nonchalantly, aiming the rusty needle at her usual vein.

‘A fast way to suicide…’

Tyrone grabbed the injection from Spryta’s hand, squeezed a bit of the solution on his wrist, and dipped the tip of his tongue in the solution “Methamphetamine… this is bad stuff…”

“Hey!” Spryta yelled, attempting to steal the injection back, but Tyrone quickly shattered the injection on the ground.

“What the fuck!” Spryta yelled on the verge of going crazy.

She even had the brief thought to stab Tyrone but his fierce gaze tossed all thoughts of retaliation from her drug-crazed mind.

“Rush of Euphoria… Dry Mouth… Warm Flushing of the skin… pain relief and anxiety… unnaturally heavy legs and arms… high body temperature… parched mouth…nausea… vomiting… irregular heart rate… slow breathing…”

“What the fuck does all that have to do with my little babies?” Spryta yelled, kneeling dejectedly and caressing the ground where the liquefied Crystal Meth had spilled.

She viewed drugs as an irreplaceable part of her life, and as much as she wanted to stop, Spryta knew that’s what every drug dealer told themselves at some point during the addiction.

Tyrone frowned and stared at Spryta a bit longer before confirming his guess with a complicated expression.

“All that I listed are the symptoms of Crystal Meth… You had none of those symptoms last night…” Tyrone stated and paused, gauging Spryta’s reaction before concluding “These drugs don’t affect you anymore… not since last night… not since you met me so you can stop now …”

Of course, Tyrone’s observations were not baseless as he could feel a change in his mental state since interacting with Spryta and he was sure she was undergoing changes of her own.

“That was the first trick…” Spryta replied lazily, confirming that she knew about the changes but wanted to take the drugs anyway.

Tyrone quirked a brow but Spryta simply tossed a small rag in his direction “We need to take a bath… unless you plan on leaving me alone?”

Tyrone frowned and grabbed the rag from the air “I can’t leave even if I wanted to… besides, the moment I leave, you’ll pin those bodies at the bottom of the river on me at the police station…”

‘He isn’t wrong…’ she thought mischievously.

Spryta spun around, grabbing a slightly cleaner rag from the ground, intending to lead Tyrone to her private bath a couple of miles away.

She had the uncanny ability to find areas untouched by mankind, making numerous private rivers with beautiful scenery available to her at all times.

Even though she knew Tyrone had the impression that she was a simple addict that spent most of her time sleeping in a tent, the truth couldn’t be further away.

In truth, Spryta rarely slept in cities, she preferred the trees of large forests…

It was early in the morning, so they should have plenty of time to take a bath and start the daily hustle to put food on the table.

‘Ugh, I have to teach him the hustle…’ Spryta thought lazily, and in some ways, she was right since Tyrone learned to hustle in the 2020s, but not the 1940s.

Honestly, Spryta would have ditched Tyrone in the middle of the night, but given his height, Spryta could finally reach shelves and windows that were inaccessible to her before.

To Spryta that was the limit of Tyrone’s usefulness – to reach shit she couldn’t.

Tyrone brushed past Spryta and grabbed a fishing pole he noticed on the shelf “You fish?” he asked doubtfully.

“I try but I still can’t catch anything… but you can try…”

“Then I’ll take this…” Tyrone stated.

“Why?” Spryta asked confused, she was pretty sure if she couldn’t do it, Tyrone wouldn’t be able to do it either.

Tyrone smiled as he recalled something Billy would always say “All the fishes in the sea love me…”

------------------------

Two Hours Later

20th December 1941 --- New York City Outskirts

Spryta led Tyrone through several back alleys, paved roads, dirt roads, and hidden paths…

Tyrone was sure that Spryta would hop buildings in a single bound if she could manage it.

Spryta always seemed the adventurous type who found beauty in every mundane thing she saw.

Tyrone found himself appreciating the beauty of everything as well, but unlike Spryta, he was in a different time period so everything was indeed new to him… or old to him, depending on your temporal perspective…

After a couple more minutes of walking, Spryta and Tyrone finally left the buildings of New York behind and entered a forest of trees…

There was the brief thought to run away in Tyrone’s mind, but he thought about Betty and knew it would soon be time for him to face the music.

Actually, he had only been stalling because he wasn’t sure if the ambulance that killed Anthony exploded because of his mutant ability or some other cause.

After all, his ability was dark, created nightmares, made him smell fear, and possibly moved him around different places but it had never once exploded.

‘Tomorrow…’ Tyrone thought, intending to report himself to the police to face whatever music would play.

The moment they entered the forest, Spryta started to glow brighter in Tyrone’s eyes.

Spryta spun through the large trees like a fish in water, confusing Tyrone who could not keep track of her actions.

It was as if Spryta was being welcomed home by the winds that rattled through the forest leaves.

Honestly, the journey to the forest should have taken a lot less time but Spryta led Tyrone in circles for about thirty minutes just to toy with him a bit.

Tyrone had a certain ‘lost boy' look in his eyes that annoyed Spryta so she planned to let him get lost in the forest for real.

It wasn’t until she received a small spank to her buttocks, did Spryta start walking the straight and narrow – the proper trail.

Five minutes later and her buttocks were still hurting from the mere size and roughness of Tyrone’s palm, so she barely whispered a word for the rest of the journey.

Still, her grumbles of displeasure echoed throughout the forest as they trudged forward tirelessly.

“Fuck…” Spryta was finally unable to withhold her tongue and cursed, rubbing her butt cheeks angrily “I liked the left cheek… why did you hit the left cheek mostly?”

Tyrone blushed a little and replied honestly “I was hoping to push you in the back but… I guess you’re small so I went a bit too low…”

‘Translation: You’re so flat I couldn’t tell it was your buttocks…’

Spryta punched Tyrone in the chest with her small fist as if she could tell what he was thinking “I would sue your ass for sexual harassment if you weren’t such a broke person… I am pretty sure I own half your ass for providing shelter last night…”

Tyrone rolled his eyes, opting not to respond since Spryta would just retaliate by disappearing between the forest trees some more.

‘Be thankful there are no hunters around or you’d be mistaken for a rabbit…’

It wasn’t long after that Tyrone heard the faint sound of rushing water accompanied by a feeling of freshness that was previously absent from the air.

It was like taking a breath of fresh air in a cold room after remaining in the hot sun for hours.

“This feels so…”

“Magical?” Spryta stated, stealing the word right out of Tyrone’s mouth with a smug smile.

Of course, Spryta didn’t forget to dance a bit to the imaginary music inside her mind.

She felt even livelier after returning to her natural element of the forests.

“Yeah…” Tyrone replied.

Spryta pushed aside some shrubs and the duo were greeted by a tall waterfall that emptied into a slightly larger lake, probably about fifty meters’ circumference.

Brown, green and yellow leaves loitered the lake, creating a picturesque scene that highlighted all the natural beauty of Mother Earth.

“This place?” Tyrone inquired, not sure about what he was asking.

For some strange reason he had the impression that this place seemed unnatural but not in a bad way…

It was like the place was unnatural for being more natural than what is naturally natural…

As if the area was a section of the Garden of Eden that had been sealed since the dawn of time…

Like God, himself, selected this area specifically to be preserved from all outside interferences…

Spryta shrugged, removing her clothing without minding Tyrone’s prying eyes as she entered into the lake “I have a knack for finding places like this…” she replied dismissively like such beauty was nothing to her.

“Like this?” Tyrone questioned, wondering how many other places like this she was familiar with.

“Places unsoiled by humans…” Spryta clarified happily as if she was something other than human.

“Yeah…” Tyrone replied half-heartedly, losing his gaze in the crevices of Spryta’s childish curves.

Sometimes he would look at Spryta and she would resemble a young adult and other times he would look at her and get the feeling of a child.

It was confusing Tyrone because her outside appearance did not change along with the atmosphere she gave off.

Spryta stared at Tyrone just as intensely as he stared at her, and they both knew exactly what the other wanted, but they also knew that they would never give it to the latter.

Despite the sorry state Spryta was in when they met, Tyrone felt a bit disturbed by the fact that Spryta’s body was perfect in almost every way conceivable.

There were no scars or blemishes on her smooth white skin, but for some reason, Tyrone could feel the scars on her body without ever touching her.

“Are you hiding your scars?” Tyrone asked, referring to her possible mutation that granted Illusion Manipulation.

Spryta frowned, spun her body around so Tyrone could stare at her a little longer “Last night I had scars, cigarette burns, and other wounds…

Yet, I cut myself with a knife once and it never left a mark… I was never burned by cigarettes but I had cigarette scars…

Every time some guys admired my body, a new scar would appear on my body… I think it’s a kind of defense mechanism to protect me from being abused…

But… last night, we talked and we spoke about a lot of things… the moment I became Jessica and we kissed, my body sorta got rid of the scars to welcome you…

Or at least, that’s my best guess at the moment… It’s like how you feel more mentally stable around me… it’s the same for me around you, only my scars literally disappear while your scars are in your mind…”

Tyrone shrugged, tying the bait to the fishing pole he had been carrying all along…

“That’s deep…” Tyrone murmured, tossing the line into the lake in hopes of catching a meal or two “So like Selena Gomez – Good for you?”

Spryta frowned, not getting the musical reference “Just do your job and catch some fish so we can eat later!” she complained, rinsing her dirty body in the lake water without a care.

Still, Spryta ran water along the curves of her body while staring deeply into Tyrone’s eyes with potent intensity, and he returned the gaze with equal intensity.

However, there was no sexual tension caused by the meeting of their gazes…

Their gaze gave off the feeling of darkness wanting to devour the light (Tyrone) and a playful unstoppable force toying around with the darkness (Spryta).

Tyrone moved a bit further away from Spryta since he didn’t like the feeling she would give him when their gazes met.

Spryta watched as Tyrone moved further away with a sly smile on her face.

She briefly considered telling Tyrone there were no fishes in this particular lake due to uncertain reasons but it was best for him to waste time.

Toying with Tyrone brought Spryta unimaginable pleasure and she couldn’t help but caress the small bruise his hand made on her left butt cheek.