Where the Dead Things Bloom [Romantically Apocalyptic Systemfall Litrpg]

34: Tall tales and Revelations [II]


"Not a skill," I corrected. "Not a fist either—it was literally a little plastic box anti-prad zapper with two metal prongs. Just a stunner."

"The electricity it shot was blue like dragon fire!" Adelle insisted. "It coursed through my veins like liquid lightning! It jolted something primal in me, an ancient need that could not be contained! Nearly downed, but being the legendary Captain that I am, I rallied my troops for one final assault!"

"You ordered Tequila Sunrise to mute my senses with 'Sensory Override' and had Donutz here hold me still while the rest of you took turns punching and clawing me," I clarified dryly.

"They FUCKING WHAT?!" Nessy snarled.

"Should we murder these two idiots now or later?" Kristi asked, dark raptor claws digging into the table.

"I vote for right now," Nessy growled. Her blue eyes flashed dangerously. She bared her teeth at Adelle and Candace.

"I second that motion. What kind of monsters beat up a defenseless human?" Kristi asked, her voice filled with cold, murderous fury.

Candace snapped like a branch underfoot, folded down onto the table, eyes lowered, ears down, a trembling hand reaching out to me. "I'm sorry," she let out. "I didn't mean to… I was distracted, lost in what I saw. I didn't…"

Adelle raised her fuzzy, orange hands. "Easy there, doggo and birdy. No need for violence."

"I think that we very much need violence," Kristi growled, emerald feathers sticking up like blades from her elbows and mane. "The disemboweling kind."

I placed a hand on Nessy and Kristi before they jumped out of their seats to proceed with the aforementioned disemboweling. "It's fine. I'm over it. Mostly."

"MOSTLY?!" Nessy spun to me. "Alec, they assaulted you and are now making light of it with jokes!"

"Isn't that how all prads behave?" I asked. "I can't even begin to count the number of times I've been assaulted by…"

"This isn't how all prads behave!" Nessy barked. "I'd never…"

"Kristi chased me across the entire school and slammed me into the ground after I was a bit too slow to move out of her way," I pointed out.

Kristi's feathers stopped fluttering up and she slid back into her seat, looking very guilty, cheeks flashing with violet swirls.

"I've spent my whole life being treated like that by pradavarians," I sighed. "You get used to it."

"You shouldn't have to get used to it!" Nessy snapped.

"You're right, Alec," Kristi let out. "I'm... I'm guilty of it too. I chased Alec down like he was prey, Ness. I didn't even think about it—just acted on instinct."

"Why are you all like this?!" Nessy's furious eyes struck Kristi, then Addie, then Candace.

"Because we are broken," Candace said, eyes glowing silver from within. "Divided, broken and fucked up. Especially you, Ness."

"What? Don't redirect this to me! I'm…"

"You're just as fucked as the rest of us," Candace insisted. "Your soul is full of holes, huge swaths scooped out, carved away. I can see your pain in the Astral, Nessy. Stop hiding it. Embrace it. Own it. Accept it. Understand it."

"Ffffff…" Nessy's eyes filled with sparks of tears as she slid down onto her seat. "Fuck you!"

Candace suddenly slid under the table. "Let's not fight. Let's understand."

"Understand what?" Nessy growled. "That… you hurt him? And are now throwing shade at me to cover up for your fucked up behaviour?!"

Candace slid down onto her knees and put her head onto Nessy's lap under the table, hugging Nessy tightly. "I'm sorry," Candace murmured. "I'm really, truly sorry for what we did to Alec. You're right to be angry. We were terrible, and we can't just joke it away. Feel free to smack me, if you so desire."

Nessy sat rigid, glaring down at the fox, fists opening and closing.

"I know you don't believe me," Candace continued, lifting her head to look up at Nessy with watery gray eyes. "But I'm not trying to deflect. I see the patterns—the binding loops connecting all of us. We're all damaged in different ways, and we're all hurting each other because of it."

"That doesn't excuse what you did!" Nessy growled.

"No, it doesn't," Adelle admitted. "We fucked up. Bad. I was drunk and used to solving everything with my claws."

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"The Dagaz loop between us," Candace said. "It's about cycles—how we keep repeating the same patterns over and over. Prads hurting humans, humans fearing prads… Us hurting each other. We have to understand it. We have to stop it before it gets worse."

"Gets worse how?" Nessy growled.

"Makes more of us," Candace said.

"What?" Nessy demanded. "What are you talking about?"

"I… don't know yet," Candace admitted. "But it's bad. Bad and wrong and not exactly our fault. It's just how things turned out this time around. But we can fix us. Me and you. Us. Me. Him. Please… I want to fix it. I want to fix me. Fix us!"

"Us?" Nessy demanded.

"Us," Candace stated, hugging Nessy even tighter.

"Frig off fox!" Nessy bristled. She pushed at Candace's shoulders, trying to dislodge her. "You can't just assault Alec to then hug your way out of it!"

Candace looked up at her with pleading eyes. "I'm not trying to hug my way out of anything. I'm trying to show you that I understand how wrong we were. That I feel your anger. That I want to be better!"

"You… you're being awfully weird about it," Nessy stated. "One minute you're joking about hurting Alec, and now you're talking about fixing 'us'? There is no 'us'!"

"But there is! There's an 'us' that transcends this moment, this timeline, this... You and me! Don't you feel it? You must. Just open your heart! Open your soul and understand!"

"Oh for fuck's sake," Adelle groaned. "She's spiraling into loopy Binder-speak again."

"Slayer damned T-dust addict," Kristi growled, grabbing Candace by her scruff and pulling her off Nessy's lap. "Get off the dog and stop chattering nonsensically."

"It's not nonsensical!" Candace flailed weakly like a kitten held by its mother. "You don't get it… we… we're… you… me…"

"I get that you're nuts," Kristi growled, shaking Candace.

"I'm not nuts!" Candace mewled. "It's the universe that's nuts! I didn't do any of this! I'm a victim of circumstance! If you could just see what I see, sense what I sense…"

"What do you sense?" Kristi snarled.

"That… that I should… shouldn't exist," the fox let out.

"I can make that happen," the raptor glared. "Right now."

"And neither should you, Kris," Candace stated. "And neither should Addie."

"WHAT?!" Kristi growled.

"Everyone, chill. Right now. This is my order as your Alpha," I said firmly. "Kristi, put down Candace. Nessy, I appreciate you standing up for me, but Candace and Adelle are trying... in their own messed-up way to make amends."

"By making jokes about beating you up?" The raptor spun her head to me, releasing the fox who fluttered to my side, wrapping me in her embrace like a white blanket and trembling.

"The story was their way of acknowledging what happened in a more lighthearted fashion," I stated. "More violence isn't a solution. We're a pack and we have an impossible Quest to beat… together. Yelling at each other is unproductive. Sit down, Kristi."

The raptor sighed and sat back down.

"We have to break the cycle, not each other," Candace stated, rubbing her cheek into my neck like she wanted to melt into me. "We have to survive. We MUST. We won't get another chance. This is it."

"Another chance at what?" Kristi demanded.

"The tree we grew with our own hands Will bring you back to where you stand She holds her gun with tears in her eyes Thinking I'm the one who made you die.

If I could reach you, feed you, make you whole Our sandwich tree could save your soul…"

Candace sang softly. Nessy's head snapped to the fox. The raptor froze. For a moment, time seemed to stop, the anger drained out of the husky's expression.

"Where's that from?" Nessy asked.

"A dream," Candace said. "A crystal tree in the Superstore. A phone buried in its roots playing the same songs in an infinite loop."

"More loopiness," Adelle said.

"It's not loopiness!" Candace insisted. "It's… the reason why we're all here! The reason why I'm me!"

Nessy pursed her lips with a contemplative expression. "What do those words mean?" She asked.

"It means Candy's Astral visions are as reliable as my sobriety on a Friday night. Which is to say, not at all," Adelle sighed.

Nessy wiped at her eyes. She took a deep breath, eyes sliding over the arctic fox clinging to me for dear life and then to the orange cheetah. "Fine. Whatever. But I still want to know the rest. What happened after you... beat him up?"

"After?" Candace lifted her head off my shoulder slightly. "Ah. Claiming part two."

"It wasn't a mundane beating! We engaged in an honorable pradavarian packmate testing ritual!" Adelle stated with a huff. "The same ritual I put myself, Donutz, Bark, Fluff and Tequila through! It's how we determined if someone was truly worthy of joining our ranks and which position they would take up!"

"By beating them unconscious?" Kristi asked skeptically.

"Unconscious?!" Adelle leaned onto the table. "No, we basically smack each other until one of us cries for mercy and lowers their eyes. That's it. It's how we established the hierarchy. I came up with it!"

"I thought that it was pretty stupid," Candace sighed. "But I didn't object to it. Addie pulled me from the abyss, saved me from myself two years ago."

"Slayer, you guys are so bloody mean," Nessy wrapped her tail around my leg protectively, sliding even closer to me and looking as if she wanted to open a portal back into yesterday to protect me from the bikers personally.

"It was the most impressive thing I've seen," Addie declared, "Not even exaggerating now! Alec didn't look away, didn't pass out, didn't cry! Let me tell you, this crazy human—" she pointed at me with reverence, "—passed my test with flying colors! Most boys would be crying and begging for mercy within seconds, looking down in submission! But not Alec! Oh no! He took every hit and claw slice with stoic dignity! Like a true warrior! It was then that I knew that even though my Lieutenant held him in her foxy embrace, I had lost our match, that he was a true Alpha, higher than me!"

"Uh-huh. I was a tad too concussed and mentally disoriented to do much else," I said. "Mostly I took it because my nerves were fried by my brother's Pyromancy."

"And you?" Nessy glared at the fox. "You just held him? Five against one? Doesn't sound very fair at all!"

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