The Dream Trap Ch. 04

Finally, there was the issue of my big date on Saturday night. Unlike Kirsten, I had run into Aly a few more times on campus. Max had made it a point to move her seat next to ours for Sexuality, though Max hadn't quite managed to convince the other girl to toy around with me as blatantly as she did. We'd eaten lunch a few times together as well, so I was less worried about feeling awkward come the weekend. Oddly, it was so far my only relationship that hadn't also pushed towards the physical. Aly and I hadn't even held hands, though I had learned far more about her than Max or Summer. There was just one thing standing in the way...

"You are not wearing that on your date," Max declared as she watched me get dressed.

"What's wrong with what I am wearing?" I challenged. I had found a credit card under my name, one that had a rather...substantial balance attached to it, and put it to good use ordering things online. Ok, I may have actually just gone a bit nuts over all. I'd decided to keep a few of the polos and khakis, mostly as rainy day clothes or events wear, but the rest had been dropped off at a Salvation Army box during my scant free time. The rest had been replaced by various t-shirts and hoodies, mostly ordered online, and a few pairs of jeans, purchased after I had dumped off my donations. There were now far more black t-shirts with sarcastic slogans such as, "Support your local medical examiner! Die strangely!", as well as the various demonic, undead, and fantastical mascots of multiple heavy metal groups. Rounding out the collection were anime characters, tastefully posed. And I actually mean tastefully posed, not the ones where one or more female character has had her tits blown up to five times their normal size and then squeezed into a bikini three sizes too small.

And ok, there may have been a few airbrushed dragons, as well.

It was actually one of the dragons that Max was objecting to, a large silver with a ruffled crest, staring down at its reflection in a pool of cave water.

"Your shirt is hideous," Max said.

"My shirt is cool," I replied with as much dignity as I could muster.

"Its got a dragon on it."

"And dragons are cool!"

"Suuuuummmmmer!" Max yelled. She was summoning reinforcements, her standard tactic for when dealing with male stubbornness. "He won't change his shirt!"

"Which one is it?" Summer yelled back.

"The one with the dragon!"

"So? Dragons are cool!"

Of course, sometimes the call for reinforcements backfired. I smirked at Max, then reached for a pair of pants. I was careful to tuck my cock to the side before zipping up. That, on the other hand, got Max's approval.

"Do you think you'll have a reason to go commando?" she asked.

"I dunno," I answered honestly. "On the other hand, I don't see a reason not to. I mean, I'm not expecting us to do anything anyway."

Max suddenly looked horrified. "You're not?!"

"Um...no?" I was baffled by her reaction. "I mean, its just a first date. Ok, we might make out, I suppose."

"But- But-" She was at a complete loss for words. Then, once again... "Suuuuummmmmmer!"

"Now what?"

"He doesn't think he's going to get laid!"

"What? Why?"

"He says because its the first date!"

"That didn't stop him with us!"

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "You two are most definitely a special case. I would have had to have been dead to say no. Not to mention, you also knew me a lot longer before we got to that point, so if we wanted to hash it out I could say we had been dating for years before I got you two into bed."

"Well, that doesn't count!" Max sniffed. "We hadn't gone through puberty yet!"

"Potato, tomato," I snarked back. "I've know Aly for less than a week. Whatever happens tonight will be her decision, not mine. Seeing as how you haven't even managed to talk her into sitting on my lap yet, I don't quite seeing her clawing my clothes off and taking me in a fit of maddened lust."

"Well, if she doesn't than we will!" Max promised.

"And I look forward to it very much," I said as I leaned over and kissed her on the top of the head. "But for now, I've got to get going. I've got my phone, so I'll let you guys know how things go, one way or the other."

"You better," Max pouted. "I was looking forward to sexy story time. I guess I can settle for being in sexy story time."

***

The idea was to dinner and a movie, but neither Aly and I wanted to start off on something showy or expensive, so we agreed to meet each other at the mall on the edge of town. Her work schedule meant we had to do a late showing, which meant food would have to be at a twenty-four hour diner once the movie got out. I admit I wasn't too excited by the thought of watching Batman, as the entire thing held a strong sense of deja vu for me. It was a new release, so I knew I hadn't seen it, but there was something at the back of my mind that still insisted otherwise.

Despite the late hour the mall parking lot was packed to capacity. Since I was taking the ground road rather than flying, I had to come in at the far entrance and then weave through the blocks of parked vehicles in hopes of finding an empty spot. It would have been easier to take off from there and circle until the autopilot found a place to put down, but, well, heights.

Poor me, that would have been the safe

option.

I eventually found a spot well out in the middle of nowhere, so far from the mall proper that the grass had been allowed to grow knee high and yellow, while the street lights were in desperate need of repainting and, you know, actual light bulbs. More than a couple had burned out, leaving only shallow pools of flickering luminescence to light the cracked and uneven pavement every fifty feet or so. There was even an ominous piano note for a soundtrack, at least until I hit the "Next Track" option on my music player. Then the ominous piano was replaced by an ominous violin.

I got about fifty feet before I found myself surrounded by a group of thugs, Yawgmoth in the lead. The shadows were too thick for me to get a good look at his accomplices, but Yawgy made a point of standing directly under one of the few working lights. He was holding a metal baseball bat cocked over one shoulder, and he pointed it in my direction as he stepped into the light.

"You and I have some issue we need to discuss," he announced as he began to tapping the body of the bat against the palm of his hand. I could hear the sound of metal slapping against flesh echoing around me as his goons imitated him. All together there must have been enough bats to outfit a major league team.

I held up my hands in surrender. "Hey, man, I didn't mean anything by it. I wasn't trying to steal your girl, honestly."

"What?" Yawgmoth looked confused for a moment, then shook his head. "Shit man, I don't care about Kirsten. That cunt will get whats coming to her in time. No, I'm talking about my father."

It was my turn to be confused. "Your father?"

"Oh, so the big shot hero doesn't even remember, huh?" Yawgy snarled. "You pulled the trigger on a man, don't even remember him. Does the name Daemon Sadisto ring any bells?"

"What." It wasn't a question, but a statement of pure bafflement. Daemon Sadisto didn't exist. I had made him up for my creative writing course! Pure bullshit that I had spat out in thirty seconds because Castle was putting me on the spot! How the hell could Yawgmoth possibly be related to an imaginary crime boss I'd pulled out of my ass?

"What, you don't see the family resemblance?" Yawgoth laughed. "Ah well. Folks always said that I did take after Mother more. But I got curious about you after our little run in the other day. There was something about your face, you know? Like I'd seen it before. Guess what? I had. Oh yeah, we had footage from that warehouse. It was all right there in living color, you pushing that two-bit PI out of the way and then putting two in my dad's chest."

"Aw. Hell."

That seemed to be their cue, and all his flunkies rushed in.

I never did see the bat that cracked my skull open.