《Kill Me With Desire》Chapter Six
Advertisement
The third time that I saw Harper Torres was a complete coincidence. I was shopping for groceries at the Safeway near my house when I saw her. She was browsing contently in the snack aisle, adding, what I'm assuming to be her favorite snacks, to her cart. I casually follow her through every aisle until she makes her way to the pharmacy. My mind runs wild with ideas, wondering what prescription she could possibly need. From the outside, she seemed perfect and well put together.
By the time Harper was at the pharmacy counter, I was within earshot, supposedly looking for cold and flu medicine. I just couldn't help but listen. And listen I did. The technician asked her for her full name, her date of birth and the name of the prescription. All valuable information. Harper Torres. August 24th, 1995. Xanax. So she has depression or anxiety, huh? Maybe both. But my mind flashed back to the article. It was her fault. She crashed the car into the tree. And ever since then, her own mother has been paralyzed.
Using the information that I found in the article, I tracked down Ben Torres and Marie Solis. Marie was a teacher for a short time, before the accident, and she continued the work after the accident as well. The school's website flaunted a newsletter that was available to the public. One of the entries had a piece about her, stating that she retired in June of 2018 due to her disability. She's married to Charles Solis and they're both members of The Country Club of Ithaca. There isn't much more on the internet about Marie and Charles.
As for Ben, after his recovery from the accident, he graduated high school, went to college and eventually attended law school. He moved to New York City to become a lawyer and, at some point, met his now-wife, Olivia Torres. He has tons of social media content. Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. LinkedIn. And that's just the beginning. His online imprint is much larger and more significant than Harper's. I scanned every inch of every profile that he owned, looking for information about her.
Advertisement
I wanted, more than anything, to know what made her the person that she is today. But after scouring all of Ben's posts and shares and retweets, I didn't find a damn thing. Harper was a ghost, according to the internet. That is, until she started writing articles for The Bugle. Week after week was a new story, written by the greatest writer I've ever known. I wait day after day to read her perfect words, to see a trending topic through her gorgeous grey eyes. And her writing has never once disappointed me. Her writing is something that I can count on. Something that brings me comfort.
Suddenly, a clashing noise came from beside me. An elderly woman stood to my right, glaring at me through her bifocals. Apparently my cart was too close to the middle of the aisle. I whipped around, hoping to still see Harper at the pharmacy counter. But she was gone. I wondered how long I'd been in a trance of my own thoughts and memories. I'd been engulfed in her story, in how she became who she is.
It didn't take me long to check out and pay for the few things that were in my cart. Thankfully, the Safeway was close to my house. At home, I'd decided to spend the night browsing the internet once more. But this time, with new information about her. Her date of birth.
Advertisement
- In Serial18 Chapters
The Badger Dungeon
[Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge] Dungeons. Everyone's heard of them. Sprawling maze-like places where you can find special objects that can't be found anywhere else in the world, train to become a great warrior or wizard, and slay dozens of monsters. Drops! Loot! Glory! What more could you want? Dungeons are places of danger and adventure, full of thrills and maybe even romance, where people enter as your normal and everyday person but leave as a hero. Even a child knows what a dungeon is! A dungeon is controlled and ruled over by its Dungeon Core, a mana crystal that's gained sentience, and with it a mind just as twisted as the home that it makes for itself. Dungeon Cores all have very simple wants and needs: to expand and to devour, and to that end, they'll do absolutely everything and anything within their power. Everyone knows that. Sometimes, though? Sometimes the Dungeon Core doesn't know that. Sometimes they wake up all alone, confused and with no clue what they should do, and find themselves quickly becoming the home to a family of badgers and other creatures. The Dungeon Core can be left struggling to figure out their role in the world and how exactly they're supposed to achieve it. They're really doing their best, and you shouldn't judge them for it! The badger thing was a complete mistake but there's just no way they can turn back and fix it so they're just trying to make do, okay?! What would you do in their situation?! Cover art was made with pixel assets from Szadi art and 0x72.
8 262 - In Serial13 Chapters
Dungeon of the Dead [hiatus]
The dungeons in this realm usually do not develop truely sentient personalities until much later on in their life. As such they are unable to generate the power the Dungeon God needs to function. Plus when they do develop their personalities, they are usually sociopathic killing machines because...well...their dungeons. Because of this the Dungeon God isn't doing so hot, and in a latch ditch attempt to preserve his Godhood he creates one final dungeon that will have a personality immediately. Unfortunately this particular dungeons seems to be just a little.....incredibly stupid. Due to the dungeon not paying attention during its earliest moments it ends up being a dungeon of the undead. This dungeon is the Dungeons Gods last chance and if it fails he will be stripped of his power by the other deitys and his creations will be exterminated. As the sentient races throughout the land despise undead and seek to destroy them where possible, this could well mean the extinction of the dungeon race...
8 156 - In Serial28 Chapters
The fallen (?) hero and Aži Dahāka's soul fragment
I have to apologize.A certain real life problem that I thought I got rid of has caught up to me once again.I tried to continue writing, but my mind was not in the right track to do so and thus, as some people had said, the quality of the latest 2 chapters had turned from the usual "bad" to "worst". So, I reluctantly have to say that I will be away until I can sort things out.I can't say when, but I do intend to return to writing. I might lurk around to read other people's works though. I will be turning my attention to stories with "tragedy" and "despair". The five of us were summoned to this world from our clubroom two years ago to be made as heroes.Shouldn't forceful summoning like that be counted as kidnapping?Well, we chose to go with the heroes route.After harsh training and battles, not to mention all the killings, we finally defeated the demon lord.However, all those achievements literally became nothing, it wasn't just forgotten, it was erased to be totally nothing as even the written records were somehow being disposed of. I was too naive. Who would have thought that the side we have been fighting alongside with, the side we were fighting for, was the one to bring our demise?After I had to see everyone else turn into nothingness, somehow... I alone survived. Note: I will attempt to fix the grammar problem with the help of lieutenant colonel fletterman. This may delay the release of future chapter. Chapter 1 is fixed. Chapter 2 is fixed.
8 136 - In Serial19 Chapters
Realm of Exaltia
Dying from the hands of the Faerie Queen, Herebia was expected to remain as a 'Halazar', a soul whose destiny was to eternally wander 'Sabbath' as fury and rage will be the only thing they will ever know. What surprised her though was that, the True God of Light sent a Celestial Dragon to personally fetch her. She was directly sent to 'Divas', which was the God's abode. She finds out that in order to pay for her sins, she must sleep for an entire millenia (1000 years) and must do a task that the True God of Light would give to her after she wakes up. Herebia slept for a thousand years as the world she once walked experienced drastic changes. The Faerie Kingdom was no more, the Drazian Kingdom was no more, and the Four Bloodlines was apparently greatly weakened... As her awakening came near, the Realm of Exaltia which has experienced a long time of peace due to the Four Great Syllabus Kingdoms, would be shaken up and experience many wars and bloodshed.... Why? For the empress shall awaken again... ----- Will be posting 1 chapter a week at Sat. Expect it to be 2000-3000 words. [ It seems that my account has some issues and can't reply and comment. Have to fix this first before I could reply towards other's comments. Will be using author's notes for this purpose as a remedy though.]
8 158 - In Serial33 Chapters
Gliese
Dreading their inevitable demise, mankind launches a desperate project to colonize an earth like planet in the Gliese planetary system, 20 light years away. This project signified a turning point for humanity, their light in the dark. However, mysterious and unfathomable entities get involved, manipulating things from the shadows. Humanity's star of hope is no longer as it seems. “What is it you desire Lwanda ? , fame? fortune? Or maybe …” Having woken up in a strange and unforgiving planet, Lwanda has but one goal, Survive long enough to have a tomorrow.
8 191 - In Serial16 Chapters
Beast Master, The Makings of a Monster Master.
A young man tries to find family in a video game-like world. After, earth is invaded by monsters, all while trying to overcome his social anxiety. This is a fanfiction within takes place in Completionist Chronicles by Dakota Krout. This Story takes place begins around Books 3-4. I'm not affiliated with Mountaindale Press in any way, nor I will gain no monetary profit from this work. Any and all rights and credits are reserved for and deserved by its original creators. Please go support or check out the wonderful people there.
8 99