《Doctored Chance: The Unpleasant Preceding of "Pajama Boy" and What Drove Him to Murder》8 | He's Alive
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If you have never been rescued before, then you will never be able to fully comprehend what it feels like until you place yourself in a dangerous situation and have everything fall out of your hands. The best analogy that I can think of to help my unrescued readers—who either are very capable of saving themselves, or are very incapable of finding themselves in dangerous situations—is a wave. Imagine being trapped beneath a wave.
Imagine surfing merrily atop one, enjoying a thrill, an adventure, the wind at your back, the adrenaline in your blood. Then suddenly, you find yourself hurled underwater through no apparent fault of your own. In the violent tumbling, you cannot determine which way is up, so for a while you pick one direction and swim. Bubbles burst sporadically from your throat as you desperately tear the water with your hands; but inadvertently, the whole time, you were swimming down.
Caught in the swells, you are raised up with the next peak and crashed down further, hard against coral. Your lungs have all but deflated, shriveled, useless sacks suspended in your constricting chest, and you have all but given up. The feeling of rescue is that of resurfacing. Whether you are pulled to the surface by a helping hand or brought there by fate, that gasp of air that you take will always be the most incredible breath of air that you will ever know. The filling of your lungs will be the best high you will ever experience, and your sense of which way is up will give you direction in more than just the literal sense.
As Tobias fell into Viola Mae Reed's arms, the breath he took tasted of strawberry-flavored red licorice, and suddenly the smell and taste of Berry Belts was best the smell and taste he had ever experienced. Soaking in the purple of her eyes and the rush of her voice and the care in her touch left him dizzy and red-faced and weak in the knee. Despite his inability to form words or control his fatigued muscles or even blink, Tobias look at his rescuers and found direction—after spending so long in the wrong company, he would finally spend time with the right, and he would never go back.
"The eruption was on T.V, bud," Teddy said gravely. His voice bounced around Tobias's skull and found its way out. Tobias didn't respond to anything that they said. He could barely hear them. Everything was so quiet, and yet deafening. "The whole nation thinks you're dead. We thought you were dead. Snowpea made the official statement. You didn't call out when she was searching for you?"
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Viola Mae held her bony fingers against his undamaged cheek, searching for his wandering eyes. He held his bandaged hand close to his chest and hung with his arm around her neck.
"Hey, hero," she cooed quietly, tilting her head. "Are you in there?"
He looked stupidly between her and Teddy and opened his mouth. His face twitched, but not a sound came out.
Viola Mae grimaced and looked worriedly to her fiancé. "Let's get him in the plane before he passes out on us. He needs a hospital ASAP."
Hospital. The other words bobbled in and out of his head uncomprehended, but hospital remained. Hospital bounced and bounced and bounced. Hospital.
"Hospital," Tobias repeated, eyes widening. "Hospital?"
"Watch it, Tobias!" Teddy dove to catch him before he could topple backwards. Tobias cried out and elbowed the man squarely in the chest at the touch to his tender right side. The pilot caved inwards but regained his posture quickly to stop the both of them from tumbling over. He touched Tobias's shoulder and whispered anxious apologies profusely under his breath. Tobias panted, eyes still wide and blank.
Teddy gingerly pulled Tobias's good arm around his shoulder and looked in befuddlement to Viola Mae. "This man needs food, water, and some painkiller stat. And we thought we had a rough few days."
"I love you, Teddy," Viola Mae said, eyes locked on Tobias instead, "but now is not the time for your jokes. Look at him!"
Tobias grabbed a fistful of Teddy's shirt, craning his neck to try and catch his eyes. "No hospitals," he pleaded hoarsely. He shook his head at Viola Mae. "No hospitals."
"Tobias!" Viola Mae cried, gesturing wildly to all of him. "You need a hospital!"
He shook his head more desperately. "Please!"
"Okay, buddy," Teddy said, gently patting Tobias's shoulder. "Put your shield away. We're going to get you in the cabin and sort you out with a nice resort-style treatment." He pushed Tobias's spectacles up the man's nose and carried on in a soothing but humor-laced tone. "You'll lie back, close your eyes, sip a chilled—room temperature—drink, and V and I will take good care of you."
Tobias touched his glasses, brows knit. Teddy, receiving no response, wiggled the frames on Tobias's nose until the survivor smacked his hand away with annoyance.
Tobias frowned at him, wringing out his sore hand. The bandages were coming loose. He held it close to his chest again. The fingers of his good hand dragged over his watch and his shield flickered out. He blinked up at Teddy and saw a flicker of clarity in his visions.
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"Don't pick me up!" he cried.
Teddy swept the man into his arms regardless and started carefully towards the plane. Tobias held very still, heart pounding.
Viola Mae jogged ahead and disappeared into the plane. By the time Teddy joined her, she had prepared a stretcher for Tobias to be laid on. The man groaned woozily as he was lowered onto the stiff fabric. His head rolled to look at her.
"Am I still pretty?" he asked, grinning dumbly.
Viola Mae laughed, but she was crying. She rubbed her knuckles over the tears, nodding repeatedly. "Still pretty," she sniffled. "Pretty cute."
He smiled absently and raised his good hand to her cheek. She leaned into it. She held it there, and he stroked her jaw affectionately with his thumb.
"I'm okay," he promised. "I'm okay, now."
Teddy appeared on his other side with a bottle of water.
Tobias slipped his hand away from Viola Mae to meekly push the bottle down, shaking his head. His eyelids hung heavy, half-closed. "I'm going to pass out soon," he murmured. He looked wearily between them. "Promise me; no hospitals. Please."
The couple simultaneously screwed up their faces, cheeks raising and foreheads sinking, and looked at one other. Viola Mae sighed sharply and pushed a curtain of long black hair behind her ear. It would fall out again soon, Tobias thought. It always did.
She gently removed his spectacles and ran her fingers through his dirty curls, nodding. "I promise. We'll take you to ours." But before he could relax completely, she stuck a finger between his eyes and glared sternly. "For now. You'd better have an explanation for this nonsense when you're feeling closer to yourself again."
"It'll be a sleepover!" Teddy cried, grinning down. He gestured to Tobias's charred rags. "You can have some of my clothes, too. I'm sure they'll fit... better than this mess does, anyways."
Tobias's eyes closed. "Don't tell anyone. Don't tell..."
At last, the exhaustion swept him to blackness. He drifted into a dreamless slumber, blissfully unaware of the "resort-style treatment" Viola Mae was doing her best at practicing. Though Tobias may have been able to predict that unconsciousness was in his future, he was not powerful enough—or awake enough—to predict that upon his awakening, he would have two half-fingers, one ear, and a whole clump of hair less. I have developed an aversion to resorts and spas and have not visited one since I came to this part in my research.
Tobias managed to sleep through the rumbling of the plane as it hummed to life and took the sky. Teddy sung something cheerful and off-key from the pilot's cabin—I wish I could understand Teddy, but he does not write journals and in my interviews, he spoke plainly and to the point. I cannot fathom how his mood turned so quickly before and after rescuing Tobias, but do lament that Tobias would never learn that on the way to get him, the only sound from Teddy had been loud sobbing.
Viola Mae is even more of a mystery to me. Too introverted to interview, all correspondence came through letters and e-mails, and what I learned of her melted my heart. Those letters are stained with tears, and two keys on my keyboard have since become too waterlogged to work. As rolled up her sleeves, set her jaw, and began to peel the sticky and stiff bandages away from Tobias's brown and white and red flesh, all she could think about was how grateful she was that he was alive. A foul and bitter aroma filled the cramped space, so powerful that Viola Mae staggered back. With each layer of cloth bandage that she unwound, the pungent reek amplified, but nonetheless, Tobias MacClain was alive.
"Viola Mae, honey," Teddy called. "Are you sure you're okay to do all that alone? I can land on the water and help you out, just say the word."
"No! Keep flying, Teddy," Viola Mae answered, covering her mouth and nose with her sleeve. She pulled the last bandage from Tobias's face, revealing the last of his gruesome scars. She bit her lip and carefully turned Tobias's head to look at his shriveled ear. "The sooner we're home, the sooner we can get him a bath and bandage him properly. I'll just put some gel on and get some water down his throat for now."
"All right." After a pause, he sighed wistfully. "Thank the powers he's alive."
Viola Mae nodded, feeling the tears returning. "Thank the powers."
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I was reborn as a Cursed Swordman ?! [HIATUS]
PS: I Changed the cover to a majestic photo of a werebear...Hello everyone! This is my first story here, my only hope is that as you read it you enjoy it as much as i enjoy writing it! Of course i am always open to suggestion and critic, of course if you want to profer your love to me im always open for that too!!! Anyways i stop my rambling and here the description -> Rick was a serious nutcase, yup really, born in a normal loving family, living in never in poverty and in wealth. A good family yup if it was not for the sociopath blade loving prick of Rick... The bastard on his eighteen birthday killed all his family ,friend and cops who tried to arrest him, before running in the street killing anyone that crossed is path! What a crazy bastard huh? Well of course he reap what he sow and became a beehive, a well deserved end really... Strangely he was pretty happy to have finally died and find peace from his cursed existence, well not if that was for a goddamn blade goddess who taked a liking to him...Yup that was out of nowhere and unexpected and you can say that that goddess was seriously a nutcase too, but she found nothing better to give him a second life in a fantasy life! Well reborn and in good health now rid from his cursed mental disease the young Rick was full now of guilt, thinking that in this life he will do is best to help others, until he leaned that the crazy goddess blessed (cursed) him into being her champion, the """"cursed swordman""""...But it's not like everything is bad for the young boy now named Shun, he even fallen in love with a young girl, well until he found out that she was a yandere cursed sword that is after his soul....Shun: Well Fu*k im screwed...
8 115Triplicity
Anne and Tom are scared, alone, and abandoned by even their memories. Their survival is driven by the unusual bond they share and the determination to find out who they are, in a world littered by the ruins of a once-thriving society. But the more they uncover their past, the deeper they find themselves in a deadly power struggle between forces both seen and unseen. Trust is easily misplaced and friends are scarce. Lost, hunted, bleeding, and broken they take the stage in setting the course of history.
8 367Vritra [A Dragon Evolution LitRPG]
A death of holding no memory of the previous life into the new. An error in the system led to the birth that changed from the desired chosen reincarnation. Mixed of a spider and a dragon, born from the womb of a mother who'd immediately abandon their children. What life awaits the Spider Dragon as they level up into different stages and live in a new world of Sorcery and Sword, and now Monsters?! Trying out a LitRPG, this time more focused on building up the character and their power. Considering my initial failed attempt on a former series on a different site. Will be my main focus in releasing chapters more than once per week. The other fictions will release once or less a week considering they are shorter based stories as this one is intended for more content than a short and brief few novels. Thank you readers for checking out Vritra. Please give feedback on ways that I can grow my form of writing to fit in your engagement and understanding. Trying to get better and soon will have more time to type down words compared to these past weeks. Inspired by: Kumo Desu Ga Nani Ka?, Salvos, Danmachi, Sword Art Online, Mushoku Tensei, and a few select others CoverArt by Asviloka https://www.royalroad.com/profile/108594 *CoverArt is a depiction of how Vritra envisions himself one day*
8 138Through the Divide - Chains of the Freed, Book 1
Raymundo Gonzalez Liu was orphaned at a young age when his parents were murdered in the crossfire of a shooting between two rival gang members. He was adopted by his now father Liu Dewei Han, a secretive Asian man who claimed him after the incident. On his 16th birthday, his father and his teacher turned uncle take him Sky Diving over the skies of the Sleeping Giant Mountain range as both a birthday gift and a 'rite of passage into manhood' that his father claims has always been present in his own family. Follow Raymundo as he is introduced to something that should have either been long lost or not even exist in the first place- MAGIC and is offered a choice, become a part of guardians of humanity, or give up his new powers to live in normalcy? Ray's encounter causes him to be sought after by the forces of the divide, both benevolent and benign to take advantage of it. Will he be swallowed up by the divide or will he forge his own path?
8 129Lust | JiKook
"If this is what hell feels like, then I'm not afraid to die."
8 163KiyoKei fanfic (discontinued)
hm yes more kiyokei fan fiction. why read this one in particular? juicy proper grammar in the story, unlike in this description. also i am a rookie writer in 8th grade, so if i make dumb mistakes, blame the skyrim i've been playing.Classroom of the Elite is written by Syougo Kinugasa. All characters in this fan fiction are written and owned by him. This is merely a fan fiction a writing of my own based on his plot and characters.
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