Gen Four- Chapter Twenty Five

NSFW Material

I almost forgot why I had come after a time. Pieter and I rested until our beating hearts calmed and the worry of discovery temporarily slipped behind the peace of nature. The sun glittered warm, yet the wind danced cool. Pieter provided an excellent cushion while the birds called for one another in a lullaby for me. This was the scenery of my youth. How I'd missed it, and how oppressive the harshness of the city now felt. The cringe in my body at returning was why I didn't protest when Pieter eventually guided us up.

     "Feel any more strongly about a decision?" he wondered.

     "I'm pretty split both ways..."

     "Well, if we're almost an hour out, why don't we get a little closer? That should help with your decision."

     "Sounds good," I agreed.

Pieter dusted himself off, I picked grass from off his back, and he turned to where our path continued.

     "A lazy hotdog, huh?" he laughed.

     "Yeah," I grinned. "The sides dip like they're trying to hold something in, but they flatten halfway giving up."

     "I see it."

Gen Four- Chapter Twenty Four

The worry and regret seeped in after, for the first time since I arrived years ago, I left Aspen Harbor's limits. I went past the bridge, followed the sidewalk as far as it would go, waited until no cars were around to dodge behind trees, and eventually found myself walking in the wooded hills lining the highway. The worry mostly came from being caught though. I didn't see any property signs banning people, but I'm sure at some point I stepped onto land not meant for travel like I was doing. Away the cars zoomed in the distance. While naturally wanting to remain unseen, I'd need the guide of civilization for a bit. The highway did stretch the majority of the way to my destination. Why make the journey harder than it needed to be? Well, I probably could have taken a taxi partway, which meant me walking was making it harder, but I'd rather not leave any sort of trail. Besides, some taxi drivers were wary enough of driving a lone teenager around in the city. I'd stick out like a sore thumb asking to be driven to any drop-off point I could imagine.

In the end, there was no need for one. I finally split off on my own path towards my destination.

Gen Four- Chapter Twenty Three

I left the Blueberry residence with a relieved sigh in my heart. There were few kids I babysat who tipped towards that end of the scale of being temper-prone brats. Mostly I didn't go back to houses with children raised like that, but Aspen Harbor's parents, at least the ones on the website I used, knew how to teach their offspring manners. However, the six-year-old and four-year-old who lived here were in moods today. They weren't interested in anything I suggested and weren't even happy getting the choice to do what they wanted. I'd rarely been so glad to have the parents walk through the front door.

And I should have expected what I saw when I walked out the front door myself.

     "Cinny," I noted upon seeing her stand there with a big grin. "Here to walk me home?"
     "Uh-huh! It's such a beautiful day that I thought you and I should enjoy some sights as we head back."
     "As we head back," I repeated. "Except you would have been at the warehouse otherwise had you not already made the long trek here."
     "No, I was in the area," Cinnamon lied with her smile growing.
     "Right. Well, thanks. It is a nice day for a walk."

She knew I knew she lied, but what was the point in calling it out? This had been what Cinnamon and Ruby had been doing for weeks─ distracting me from focusing on a certain missing someone.

Quick Update 4/6/20

I wanted to make sure I got this up before it got too late after coming to a decision for this week. Obviously, everyone's aware of what's going on in the world, so I won't talk in depth on it. I'll just state I'm going to be asking for one more week for the next chapter. My state and place of business was quick to shut everything down as soon as 3 cases crept over our border, so we're days away from it being a month for me since I've been self-quarantining.  I'm in a pretty good place: being paid my normal paycheck, living with a few family members, being a pretty insular person to begin with and not minding the quiet, and really not having to worry about too much. It really is just the slog of the cabin fever settling in over the past month. There's been plenty of time to write, but a block has popped up where nothing's coming out. Part of that is the pressure of having a chapter out by a certain time. I can put it out a day or two late, sure, yet that exacerbates the issue by forcing me to sit in my room even longer struggling harder. Then it leads to me being behind on getting in-game, taking more pictures, planning, and having to hunker down in my room more to try to get back on schedule. Just giving myself the extra week gets rid of a lot of that. My apologies for any disappointment.

In hopes of giving you all a little something, I'm going to link what I've watched over the years on YouTube to keep myself entertained in case you might find them interesting too.