Chapter 247: Chapter 247

Sam waited for me to drive out in front of her. As I pretty much knew the way back on my own I didn’t mind. But right as I wanted to set off a strange feeling washed over me, making me look at the intersection ahead in front of us.

I saw a couple of people cross through the green light but to my dismay a truck hadn’t noticed the red light he was approaching and with squeaking tires crashed into the group the was just crossing. It was a horrible sight but weirdly, the only thing I could do was smile as I saw the blood against the truck’s bumper as it came to a halt.

“Amicia?” Sam rang the bell of her bicycle.

“Uh?” I looked back at Sam.

“Is something wrong?”

“Did you not…” I turned back around and looked at the intersection ahead only to find it as it was a minute earlier, peaceful baking in the autumn sun. “Uhh…”

Sam pedaled and came to a stop next to me. “What’s wrong, did you see something?”

“I saw something… that’s for sure…” I looked down at my steering handle and pinched the bridge of my nose. “That looked way too real…” This time, recalling the scene I had seen did make my spine shiver, luckily. “I think something is going on with me and it might have to do with something I heard just before passing out on that sandy world…”

I kept staring at the intersection as my thought process unwound. “So when I was dying on the sand after the big fight, I vaguely remember hearing the voice of that demon-devil-woman-thing speak to me. I don’t really recall what she was saying, or if that was just the blood loss speaking… But today I’ve felt a couple of weird… things…”

“I just saw people die in the intersection over there.” I nodded towards it. “And I was smiling at it.” Again, a shiver ran over my spine. “And I’ve had some other strange thoughts earlier as well… Not this extreme though.”

“Like a full on hallucination?”

“This time it was. Or at least I hope it was.”

“That’s disturbing.” I take a second to look at Sam but she’s just staring at the intersection as well. “What are we going to do about it? Wait it out to see what happens? Contact someone?”

“I don’t know.” I admitted. “Maybe document it or something? It’s not like I feel a total loss of control, it’s just my feelings being… pretty messed up… but…”  Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭·𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮·𝙣𝙚𝙩

“You are already used to that because of the anger issue thing?”

“Hmmm.” Sam released her handle bars and scratched her cheek. “Let’s just cycle to my parent’s place and eat some food, but I think it would be best if we at least put this in a text towards Veanya and the others. And we definitely need to keep an eye on it. For all we know it could also just be some trauma too.”

I nodded in response. “That sounds like a good plan.”

“Okay.” Sam nodded back. “Then let’s go?”

“Sure thing.” I waited for Sam to get back into position and then set off on our way back to the center of the city.

I was paying attention to the low amount of traffic around me but at the same time I couldn’t shake thinking about my state of mind. I was constantly trying to give myself mental tests like blinking, making small delicate movements with my hands, feet or facial muscles, all to test if I still had full control of my body. Everything appeared to be in order though I can only imagine what I must have looked like to random onlookers in the streets as a girl drove by with twitching facial features.

Sam had noticed I had gone a bit silent too, but rather than trying to talk to me, she just rode next to me and occasionally glanced at me with a comforting smile.

In the end we did reach Sam’s neighborhood without any troubles and parked our bikes at one of the drop-off points near her parent’s apartment.

“Doing fine?” Sam asked the moment we had gotten rid of her bikes and as she grabbed my hand in hers.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Sorry if that looked weird.”

She shrugged. “I have a friend who is scared to death of getting a stroke so she tends to do that too.”

“Oh yeah, the FAST thing, right?”

Sam nodded. “Face, arms, speech, time. She does it to calm herself down when she gets a heavy headache.”

“No, she’s a friend from my high school. She lives in a different city now. I should text her again to ask how she is doing, but I have been a bit busy lately.” She smiled softly.

“You should! I’m sure she would be glad to hear from you. Were you two close in high school?”

“Pretty close, yeah.” Sam confirmed. “But you have nothing to worry about, not as close as us two are.”

“I’m not worried at all. Otherwise I’d have already been jealous about you and Max?”

“Max and I?” Sam started chuckling. “Are you saying you would find us a good couple?”

“Hmmm.” I put my index finger to the corner of my mouth as I looked at my girlfriend, imagining Max next to her. “I don’t see why not. You are both quite handsome. Don’t sportsy girls often end up together anyway?”

“That’s a bit cliché, isn’t it?”

Sam wobbled her head from side to side. “Well… I’m not saying it doesn’t happen… But there’s plenty of straight girls in my team too, and the gay ones are often together with petite girls as well. So I’d actually posit that sportsy girls dating other sportsy girls is actually only true in a minority of the cases.”

“I suppose, but that doesn’t change the fact that I think you two would fit pretty well together. I’d ship it.”

Sam snorted. “I would beg to differ, Max is really not my type, that said, I’m not going to argue about it right now.”

“True, we can discuss the Smax ship later.”

“Did you just give our ship a name already?”

Sam rolled her eyes and sighed, pulling me along by my hand. “Come on, let’s get going before I leave you here to captain your own ship back to port.”

“Aye aye.” I stuck out my tongue with a cheeky smile. I thought about bringing her own captain joke up again, but I decided against that, as Sam might actually leave me here if I did that. And I momentarily didn’t have a cardboard box nearby to write ‘lost cat’ on.

It was only a short 5-minute walk to the apartment of Sam’s parents where Sam opened the door for me. I don’t know what kind of magical engineering this door possessed as it was apparently keeping in check a heavenly odor that I couldn’t even smell a hint of in the hallway. It was so good I instantly started drooling.

“Mom, dad, we are home!” Sam called in the direction of the living room as she waited for me to enter so I closed the door.

“Sam!” Carlos stook his head from around the corner. “And Amicia!” He held his arms up high and came rushing towards us with a warm smile, taking us both in a big embrace. “Mis encantadoras hijas! las niñas de mis ojos.”

Before Carlos broke his hug, Lucy came running as well to join in on the group hug. “We missed you so much.”

“Mom, it’s only been a couple of days.” Sam managed to say while being smothered by the affection of her parents. As for me, I was a lost cause. As I was the smallest of the bunch I pretty much couldn’t see anything.

“Way too long darling. Way too long.” She repeated. But it was her who let go of her hug first so I could see her brilliant smile as well. “I hope you two are very hungry because we made a lot of food for you.”

“Did you make both the Fabada and the gambas, mama?” Sam asked.

“Of course.” She smiled.

“It would be a shame not to have plenty of delicious food to pick between.” Carlos added. “And it is truly delicious, I have already been allowed to taste test. “simplemente delicioso.” He then finally let us go from his warm and cozy hug as well. “And the churros are going to be great too.”

“I can already smell the deliciousness. It smells so good that it’s almost torture to stand here rather.” I joked, even though a part of me wasn’t kidding about the torture part. Being denied food while you can smell the greatness of it is truly devilish. And no, that was definitely not some other being speaking. That’s me, the one and only real Amicia.

“Then let’s not wait much longer. You can taste test a bit already while you help me put the finishing touches to it.” Sam’s mom took me under her arm and gently guided me to the kitchen. “If you like it I might even teach you the family’s secret recipe.”

I almost melted in her arms. She really is the mother I always dreamt of having.