Family Binds
This is where the most recently posted chapter for Family Binds will go. If you need to get caught up on what has already happened to Bob, check out: The Story So Far for chapters one through 7 and Some More of the Story for the later chapters.
Chapter 15
"You didn't even get the quote right, you ballmunch." Boots kindly informed me as we pulled out of my parking lot and started following the general heading my compass was giving.
I put on my best lisp, "Inconceivable! I never misquote The Princess Bride, that's like my favorite movie,"
She took her eyes off the road long enough to give me a sideways glance, "Dude, seriously? The Princess Bride is your favorite movie?"
"Well, yeah, its hilarious, and its awesome, and you're stupid so I won't let you make fun of my favorite movie selection."
"Touche. You know Bob, if I had your persuasive arguing abilities I would be a much better lawyer. I mean, with such sound arguments as 'you're stupid' and 'cause its awesome' you would probably win every case if you had my job."
"Yeah, but I don't look nearly as good in heels as you do."
She laughed, "Yep. And that is why I have the law degree, and you dropped out of college."
"Damn bureaucratic sexism, always trying to keep a good looking man down."
I put my compass on the center console so that Boots could follow it with out me telling her directions all the time and promptly fell asleep. I think I was still recovering from hitting my head so many times the day before, because the little bit of magic I had done this morning had really wiped me out.
I woke up when the car stopped, blinking my eyes against the low setting sun.
"Bob, you're not going to like this."
Oh cockswallowers. "What is it?"
"Your little magic compass? Well it led us to Chili's, the one at Brier Creek."
"Why wouldn't I like that? Chili's has the best chips and salsa..." Then it dawned on me. "Oh shit Janus." Chili's was where my dickish/ wierdly-nice-lately brother had asked me to meet him for dinner at 7:30. "What time is it?"
"It's 7:00, and before you even think about it, no I will not let you sneak away, you're doing this meeting whether you like it or not."
"Fine." I said. I know, who saw that coming? I mean I usually just disagree with everything off hand. I don't know what got into me really. Looking back I'm tempted to blame my various head wounds or my mounting exhaustion, but I think it was something far more scary... I think I was beginning to act responsibly.
Allow me to explain; no there is too much, allow me to sum up; (I told you that was my favorite movie) I am not a bad guy, it's just that up until this point in my life I had never really acted for anything other than self interest, or for the interest of my friends, or for the interest of hot chicks (see chapter 1). And sure it might look like I was acting in self interest here, but I wasn't, trust me. I could have asked Boots to bring me anywhere away from there and she would have done it just so that I could survive. I mean it would have taken a lot of convincing but it would have happened, and I knew it. So here, for the first time possibly in my whole life I acted selflessly. I chose to enter the Chili's not because I needed to stop whoever was trying to kill me, but because I had no idea what the end game was in this situation. I was beginning to think that it might only involve me in a cursory role though, and that would have scary repercussions. Like sacrificial murder repercussions.
Human sacrifices carry a LOT of power, I'm talking atom bomb power. That's why it was no coincidence that the Aztecs were the most powerful and advanced peoples on Earth for a long time; nobody did human sacrifices like the Aztecs. That's also why Cortez was sent to wipe them out, he was working for the White council of wizards at the time and purposefully introduced a variety of plagues to kill them out, because Human sacrifice is also very very wrong. I should point out that if sacrificing a normal human is an atomic bomb then sacrificing a wizard is a hydrogen bomb, due to the extra power that runs through our veins. And sacrificing a vampire who had lived for probably a hundred years would be on a similar scale as doing in a wizard of my talent. I had been thinking this over while I was napping in the car and had come to the conclusion that whatever had kidnapped Elaine and was trying to kill and/or kidnap me was planning something big. Something that was, potentially, big enough to kill a shit ton of people.
They wouldn't be able to do it directly of course, that would require a direct link to every individual they wanted to kill, but they could, for instance, get a tobacco leaf from one of the thousands of tobacco farms in North Carolina and infuse it with some disease. Then, everyone who smokes cigarettes that came from North Carolina, which is damn near everyone, would contract this disease. Millions would die, economies would be ruined, chaos would ensue.
I came up with that cheerful little scenario in like two seconds in a Chili's parking lot, so I could only imagine what someone who was really trying to fuck people over could think of when given the time, and that scared me. It scared me enough that for the first time I was scared into action. I was going to protect the lives of millions of people, dammit, even if it meant meeting with my brother, who was potentially the one behind all of this.
"I'm going to do this." I said, hoping it would sound bad ass, as I stepped out of the car and strode up to the Chili's entrance. Boots sat there stunned for a few seconds then collected herself enough to stick her head out the window and mock me.
"'I'm going to do this?' Is that really the best you can do? I mean, give me something cool like, 'Game time,' or at least a 'Leroy Jenkins' but 'I'm going to do this?' It sounds like you read that out of a self help book. An Idiot's Guide to Heroism or something..."
She kept going, but I stopped listening as I got to the door of the Chili's. I took a deep breath, opened the door and was presented with the one thing that I, for some reason, just did not expect to see.
Everything was... Normal.
I put on my best lisp, "Inconceivable! I never misquote The Princess Bride, that's like my favorite movie,"
She took her eyes off the road long enough to give me a sideways glance, "Dude, seriously? The Princess Bride is your favorite movie?"
"Well, yeah, its hilarious, and its awesome, and you're stupid so I won't let you make fun of my favorite movie selection."
"Touche. You know Bob, if I had your persuasive arguing abilities I would be a much better lawyer. I mean, with such sound arguments as 'you're stupid' and 'cause its awesome' you would probably win every case if you had my job."
"Yeah, but I don't look nearly as good in heels as you do."
She laughed, "Yep. And that is why I have the law degree, and you dropped out of college."
"Damn bureaucratic sexism, always trying to keep a good looking man down."
I put my compass on the center console so that Boots could follow it with out me telling her directions all the time and promptly fell asleep. I think I was still recovering from hitting my head so many times the day before, because the little bit of magic I had done this morning had really wiped me out.
I woke up when the car stopped, blinking my eyes against the low setting sun.
"Bob, you're not going to like this."
Oh cockswallowers. "What is it?"
"Your little magic compass? Well it led us to Chili's, the one at Brier Creek."
"Why wouldn't I like that? Chili's has the best chips and salsa..." Then it dawned on me. "Oh shit Janus." Chili's was where my dickish/ wierdly-nice-lately brother had asked me to meet him for dinner at 7:30. "What time is it?"
"It's 7:00, and before you even think about it, no I will not let you sneak away, you're doing this meeting whether you like it or not."
"Fine." I said. I know, who saw that coming? I mean I usually just disagree with everything off hand. I don't know what got into me really. Looking back I'm tempted to blame my various head wounds or my mounting exhaustion, but I think it was something far more scary... I think I was beginning to act responsibly.
Allow me to explain; no there is too much, allow me to sum up; (I told you that was my favorite movie) I am not a bad guy, it's just that up until this point in my life I had never really acted for anything other than self interest, or for the interest of my friends, or for the interest of hot chicks (see chapter 1). And sure it might look like I was acting in self interest here, but I wasn't, trust me. I could have asked Boots to bring me anywhere away from there and she would have done it just so that I could survive. I mean it would have taken a lot of convincing but it would have happened, and I knew it. So here, for the first time possibly in my whole life I acted selflessly. I chose to enter the Chili's not because I needed to stop whoever was trying to kill me, but because I had no idea what the end game was in this situation. I was beginning to think that it might only involve me in a cursory role though, and that would have scary repercussions. Like sacrificial murder repercussions.
Human sacrifices carry a LOT of power, I'm talking atom bomb power. That's why it was no coincidence that the Aztecs were the most powerful and advanced peoples on Earth for a long time; nobody did human sacrifices like the Aztecs. That's also why Cortez was sent to wipe them out, he was working for the White council of wizards at the time and purposefully introduced a variety of plagues to kill them out, because Human sacrifice is also very very wrong. I should point out that if sacrificing a normal human is an atomic bomb then sacrificing a wizard is a hydrogen bomb, due to the extra power that runs through our veins. And sacrificing a vampire who had lived for probably a hundred years would be on a similar scale as doing in a wizard of my talent. I had been thinking this over while I was napping in the car and had come to the conclusion that whatever had kidnapped Elaine and was trying to kill and/or kidnap me was planning something big. Something that was, potentially, big enough to kill a shit ton of people.
They wouldn't be able to do it directly of course, that would require a direct link to every individual they wanted to kill, but they could, for instance, get a tobacco leaf from one of the thousands of tobacco farms in North Carolina and infuse it with some disease. Then, everyone who smokes cigarettes that came from North Carolina, which is damn near everyone, would contract this disease. Millions would die, economies would be ruined, chaos would ensue.
I came up with that cheerful little scenario in like two seconds in a Chili's parking lot, so I could only imagine what someone who was really trying to fuck people over could think of when given the time, and that scared me. It scared me enough that for the first time I was scared into action. I was going to protect the lives of millions of people, dammit, even if it meant meeting with my brother, who was potentially the one behind all of this.
"I'm going to do this." I said, hoping it would sound bad ass, as I stepped out of the car and strode up to the Chili's entrance. Boots sat there stunned for a few seconds then collected herself enough to stick her head out the window and mock me.
"'I'm going to do this?' Is that really the best you can do? I mean, give me something cool like, 'Game time,' or at least a 'Leroy Jenkins' but 'I'm going to do this?' It sounds like you read that out of a self help book. An Idiot's Guide to Heroism or something..."
She kept going, but I stopped listening as I got to the door of the Chili's. I took a deep breath, opened the door and was presented with the one thing that I, for some reason, just did not expect to see.
Everything was... Normal.
