《Old Riding Author Lunatic Asylum》ORDT XVIII: It's Not You, It's Everything
Advertisement
I’d negotiated with demons. Braved gatherings of old people. Battled / ran away from goblins. But this was too much. Too much. “No!” I groaned again. Looking into those beautiful, loving, cold, murderous eyes was fucking awful. I was too done in for something so doing-in.
“Sorry,” said Tim, sitting down. I blinked. He wasn’t even in a dress.
“What a twat,” I spat.
“Yes,” he agreed. “What a twat. Here’s your pint.” He slammed two glasses down on the sticky wood of the table and shoved one across to my side. Foam slopped and crackled over the rim.
I looked down into the dreamy, golden elixir. I’d have slavered if I had a drop of water left in my body. The head was mesmerising, the foam creamy and soft. It was mine, all mine, a cold, delicious reward for the toughest day’s work in my life, other than that time Mum made me do the dishes after the Sunday roast. I couldn’t wait to dive in, so I didn’t.
“Cheers,” I said, and I raised my glass. Tim, ever the dear in his woolly cardigan, did the same. It was perhaps time to say something profound, but I wasn’t the type. I took a good long glug. And frowned.
The beer was warm, watery and, overall, a bit shit.
“Pah! What is that?” I gasped.
Tim smiled. He hadn’t even took a sip. “Bitchwood Brewhouse Special. Over by the paint plant on the industrial estate.” He set down his glass and leaned forward. “They share a delivery gate. It’s rumoured that sometimes... the ingredients get mixed up.”
I said nothing, just sat there sulking like a little kid. Tim threw his arms wide, a hint of amusement playing on his sweet old mug. “What?! This is Raughnen we’re talking about here. What were you expecting, some award-winning real ale micro-brew made from double-filtered spring water in the heart of the Dales?” He laughed again at my expression. “My my, you’re even more stupid than I thought.”
Advertisement
I’d been studying the little black specks in my drink, trying to work out if they were just swilling or swimming, but I looked up sharply at that. “You what, bud?”
Tears were actually running down his cheeks in mirth. I looked around nervously. Sit with a crying man somewhere like this and you’d end the night crying yourself. “Oh, you’re a good one... Reginald.”
“How could you?” I hissed. No-one but Mum and Auntie Sharon got away with that without a slap. Even Dad had settled on Fatty and that was much better. If I ever found out who’d chosen that monstrosity of a name I’d kill them. “I mean, you must’ve got me mixed up with someone else. Is that why you had me muscled into that jail?”
“Oh, I didn’t need you necessarily,” Tim replied. He was clearly enjoying himself more than the lad behind him was enjoying the special burger sauce.”I just summoned someone from that rear end of humanity up the road. Because I needed a type, you see. Someone who wouldn’t ask blatantly obvious questions like ‘Why am I here?’ or ‘What happens when the demon who’s been nursing unimaginable fury for so many years gets out?’. And, most important at all, you see, absolutely no-one with a modicum of common sense would ever go within a hundred yards of that altar, let alone burst in and start bashing. I mean, you didn’t even seek guidance from the Oracle of Annihilation first! A local would have overcomplicated, pored through prophecies, cooked up counter-curses, fed the hellbeasts. And do you know what?” Saliva was dribbling down his chin now. “They’d have all failed.”
He reached out with one claw-like hand, settled it gently upon mine. “You’re a very special idiot.”
Advertisement
I blinked. There was something in my eye. No, really.
It felt like the whole room was closing in on me. I felt weird, like I was angry but only more gentle. I’d have said I was sad if I was a girl. I looked down and realised that a crying Reginald holding hands with another man might not be the best person to be around here. As I slowly withdrew, I heard he was still going on under the noise of the jukebox.
“You’ve haven’t had the best of visits to our charming town, I must say. The most important day in your insignificant little life, and you’ve made it boring. As. Heaven. If this was a story I’d have stopped by chapter two.” His eyes were gleaming gold, but whether that was magic or a trace dose of titanium oxide I couldn’t be sure. “Why not stay a little longer? You’ve got my mark now. I could find a few odd jobs for a handyman or axe-murderer in training right now. And it wouldn’t all be work. We could hang out with our legend Raxius in the Gardens of Sorrow! Go for tea in the Real Last Goblin Hunting Station in Yorkshire! And there’s stuff for idiots too. Have you heard about the giant wheel of-”
“Wensleydale, yeah.” I shuffled back.
“I could even tell you who made the ruins on the green,” he said.
That stopped me. I needed to know. But not as much as I needed a boxset in bed.
“I’m gonna have to pass. It’s not you. It’s just...” I waved a trembling hand. “Just the place. Doesn’t sit right with me, you know? I’ll be seeing you.” I stood.
“Never mind. They only have Lesser Howlghouls anyway,” Tim muttered, as if he’d been expecting my answer. I had a curious, spine-tingling sense that he knew absolutely everything about me full stop.
“See you, Tim.”
His eyes flashed red. The lights flickered even more than damp Victorian circuits should allow. “What did you call me?” He stood too. “I am the Dreaded Dread!”
There was a lull in the chatter about us but no-one looked round. They made sure of it. I looked the demon up and down. Then looked at my glass. One last foe to defeat. Lad’s code. “Cheers.”
“Cheers,” said the Dreaded Dread. He didn’t touch his. I downed mine in one.
Then, because being a crying hand-holding Reginald was already enough, I hurried outside to do the throwing up.
Advertisement
- In Serial8 Chapters
How to Befriend the So Called Classmate
1st fact : A chick can draw.2nd fact : My life is absurd.Conclusion : My life is way more absurd than a drawing by a chick. (The first book of 'Stage Play' Series.)
8 169 - In Serial27 Chapters
Game of World's Heroes
A story about a reincarnated man who longing for family warmth, but something always come to threaten his family in this harsh world. A journey of Vysilius Hylaxis’ life, a broken kid who just want to be happy with his loved ones. One day, something changed his view about this world forever. Blue dodecahedron pillars emerging around the world, a scene from novels he read in his previous world. A foreshadow of the end. Can his knowledge of the world save his family?
8 130 - In Serial10 Chapters
Star Academy - Year One
Far in the future, when humanity has spread itself across half the known universe, a single academy attracts the greatest minds. That school is Star Academy. Run by a mysterious headmistress, filled with oddities, training humanity's best and brightest for an unknown purpose. Part military training, part science curriculum Star Academy trains leaders for humanities many disparate factions. Our story follows three 7-year-olds torn from their families and their former lives. Thrust into the heart of an epic space opera they have no inkling yet of. Auberje, Riley, and Helos are bound by age and united by training, yet apart by faction. Should they come together and fulfill their purpose, hope might still be had. For now, they must train and learn. Students at Star Academy are always pushed to their limits during the mysterious Greathing competitions.
8 107 - In Serial82 Chapters
Lazy Ash
Ash just wants to stay home,play video games, and maybe watch some porn.Its to bad fate has something else in store.Well... maybe just bad luck.Ash is going to be forced to do things he thought hed never have to do. Like Dear God Work!Followed by an annoyingly good natured battle angel and a kitsune who most definitely is not a demon.Ash's lazy days are being slowly but surely destroyed.
8 199 - In Serial8 Chapters
The Faen Wrath
Ben is a normal man working at a grocery store, when he meets an abnormal woman who accidentally pulls him into her world. The world of the Fae.
8 136 - In Serial31 Chapters
"See?" » Zarry ✔
Things in Zayn's life haven't ever gone exactly as he planned and as a result, he's forced to move back home and face the facts: It just wasn't meant to be. Between looking for love and trying to kick his smoking habit, the last thing he expects is for a certain curly haired and optimistic blind man to walk into his life and turn it completely upside down. And though he has already chalked his life up to be nothing but a complete failure, he learns that not everything about himself is as overbearingly disappointing as he thinks it is. He has always had so much to give. But sometimes it just takes a blind man to help him see.***Where Zayn teaches Harry the meaning of colors.Warnings:▶ Some Language▶ Eventual Sexual Scenes8k+ Comments
8 115