Chapter 11

My heart skips a beat when he pulls the trigger.  I literally close my eyes until I hear the first shot ring off.  I hear a scream.  I fall to the ground, but it's because of shock.  It's shock that I hadn't gotten hurt.

"Adrian what the---" someone says before screaming.

The officer who questions Adrian gets a shot to the temple.  Perfect aim before he can even finish his angry rant.   I push myself towards the nearest wall as fast as I can trying to understand just what the hell was going on.  Adrian had lost it!  Adrian was turning against the Eyelids!   He was turning against his own!  Adrian is shooting wildly...but it isn't at me and surprisingly it's not at Ronin.

When the dust clears everyone else in the room is dead beside the three of us.

"You should untie him," Adrian tells me, "You don't have a lot of time."

I don't hesitate.  I'm confused but I don't hesitate to run to Ronin.  Ronin is beaten up and bruised but he's alive.  Somehow we both are and I can't figure out why.

"I need to get him out of here," I tell Adrian.

"Follow me."

We're walking down a hallway.  Adrian has access cards.  He leads me down hallways and I'm just staring at the back of his head in shock at the fact that Adrian of all people was the one helping us right about now.

"Thank you..." I tell Adrian.

It's the only thing I can think to say.  I don't even know where to start.  I see him turn back to me.  He's still very much so disgusted.  I can tell.

"Don't think I did this for you," he responds.

"Then why?" I ask him finally as I have Ronin bloody and bruised leaning up against me in an attempt to walk as fast as he can.

"You need to return to your own world I presume..." he states.

"Yes."

"I need the same thing," he tells me, "I don't know much about Parallel hearts but I know that only one soul can exist in a dimension at once.  That means the other Ontario, my Ontario, is trapped in your dimension.  He's lost.  He's confused.  I want him back."

"Whatever your reason for helping us.  Thank you."

"You can thank me by getting the fuck out of my dimension," he states.

He's still upset.  I can see it.  I get quiet.  I don't want to push my luck with him anymore than I have to.  Ronin is still a little out of it and for all I know Adrian is still on the cusp of changing his mind.  The way he look at me shows me that he hates me.  He hates me for what I did.  I came into his life and I sabotaged it.  I turned it upside down.  He probably was happy before I came.  Sure he said the sex was better with me but the way he looked at me sometimes let me know that he was happier with the Ontario that was before me.  The Ontario before me didn't bring him the problems I gave him.  The Ontario before him wouldn't have looked at Ronin the way that I did.

We silently past a room that I recognize when all of a sudden I stop.

"Wait..." I state.

"Are you serious?" he asks, "We don't have time for this..."

"Please.  Wait..."

He is irritated, "Hurry up, I'll watch Ronin...you have 20 seconds..."

I go into the room.  It's the first room I was in.  The door is open.  The old interrogation camera is still there.  I unhook the camera.  Sure enough there was video of my interview there.  There was video of me discussing my journey through dimensions.  There was a video of the interviewers clearly uncomfortable with the answers I was giving them.

I come out the room.

"OK."

"Did you get what you need?"

I look down at the tape.  This was my story.  There was a reason that the Eyelids didn't want the world to see this.

"I have what your world needs..." I explain to him.

~

We make it outside before the alarm sounds.   We're in a parking deck.  Ronin isn't moving but he breathing.  As long as he's breathing I feel a little bit at ease.  Adrian carries him all the way to the car.  I don't think it is any soft spot or anything that he has for us.  He just knows he's probably stronger so he wants to get us out of his way as quick as possible.

"This is as far as I can take you."

"You're not coming with us?" I ask him.

I'm so confused.  Why take us this way to leave us?

"Of course not," he responds, "Your cause is not my cause.  I'm giving you guys a fighting chance.  Don't ask me to do more.  I won't do more."

"But the Eyelids..."

"I'll tell them you wrestled the gun out of my hand," he tells me, "I'll explain to them that you escaped."

I don't know how much of his story was believable, but I don't think I had the chance to worry about the well being of Adrian at this point. A part of me wonders what he's going through at this moment.  I wonder what is going through his head.

But I can't worry about Adrian.  I have to remember...this Adrian was not my Adrian.  My Adrian was dead a long time ago.   This man was a stranger to me.  The only thing that we had in common was that we both loved someone who looked like someone else.

So I let it go.  I let go of Adrian at that moment.

I have to stay focused on Ronin.  I have to stay focused on getting us out of here for Ronin's sake.  I couldn't be distracted by anyone else.   I let go of any connection I have to this Adrian and the Adrian I once knew.

"What do I do next?" I ask.

"Find the rebels somehow."

That was easier said than done.  I didn't know who the rebels were.  I didn't know how to contact them.  All I really knew about them was that one of them looked like Ezra.  And honestly,  I didn't think that was really enough.  Not anymore.

"I'll do it.  I'll find them," I tell him and give him a focused stare, "I'll make sure you get your Ontario back."

He rolls his eyes.  I don't think he has that much confidence in me.

"To do that you'll have to survive.  There's cash in the glove compartment," he tells me, "I spray painted the camera.  Make sure you avoid as many cameras as possible.  There's a gun in the glove compartment too...just in case."

I nod.  He's helped me.  He's helped me enough.

"Thank you, Adrian."

"I guess...I'll see you in another lifetime," he responds.

I nod.  Maybe he'll see me but I never planned on seeing Adrian again.  I drive away as quick as I can and I don't look back.  Not at Adrian.  The only place I look is on my passenger side.  My priority was sitting right on the passenger side of the car.  He was passed out and I was going to make sure he survived all of this...somehow.

~

"There..." Ronin whispers...

"Is that where it is?" I ask, "Is that where the Parallel Heart is?"

Ronin nods.  I can his mouth probably hurts to talk.  He can barely keep his eyes open.  He somehow manages to point in the area of the nearby park.  I post him up against the tree at that moment as I dig through the branches.  I find the suitcase all of a sudden.  It's the suitcase with the Parallel Heart.  When I come out from behind the branches I see a young couple standing next to Ronin.

"Leave him alone," I state.

"Is he OK?" the guy asks.

"I know this is something you don't hear very often," I state looking at him, "But mind your MOTHERFUCKING business!"

I scare the couple off.  I watch them run off like fucking cockroaches.  I see Ronin break out into a smile at that moment.

"Don't make me laugh...my mouth hurts," he says.

"I've been waiting to tell someone that in your dimension for the longest time," I assure Ronin.

He tries to laugh again but it ends being a bit of a pant before he throws his arm over me and we start heading back to the car.

"Well, I think you gave me one more reason to fall in love with you all over again," Ronin tells me, "One last reason I should say."

One last reason.

My stomach turns when he says it.  I think he hears it because he gets quiet.   Either one way or another, Ronin and I were not going to be together in the end of this and I think that was becoming more and more clear as the moment's pass.  Maybe that's why I squeeze him a little tighter as we walk back to the car.  Maybe that's why I hold him a little harder.

I don't ever want to let him go.

Not ever.

And this was breaking my little heart.

"Wait in the car..." I tell him.

We stop driving.  We needed a place to stay for the night.  We needed a place to see if we can get in touch with the Blind somehow.  I didn't know how but somehow we needed to find a way to make all of this work somehow.

"I can come...I can..."

He stops talking.  He's getting really tired.  He definitely needed rest.  The man just endured torture, unlike anything I'd seen in my life.  Hell, I didn't think this kind of torture was really legal a lot of parts of my dimension.   Knowing Ronin was going through all of this for me was really making me want to work harder to be there for him.

I let him get some rest as I walk up to the hotel.

"One room please," I state.

"ID?"

I'm at a local motel.  It's one of the motels where you enter outside.  I felt like a regular hotel would be a little too extra.  Ronin was in the car getting some rest.  He was battered and he needed tending too.  I didn't have time find something fancy.

"No ID," I tell him.

The desk clerk looks at me weird.  Right behind him, there is a camera.  I turn to the side trying to hide my face and hoping to God no one was on the other end interested in what the hell was going on in a dirty motel in the middle of the night.

"No ID...no room."

"I'll pay extra..." I state pulling a few extra bills and smacking them on the table.

He's about to take the money when he all of a sudden stops.  He just keeps staring at me at that moment.     It's so weird.  It's making me so nervous.  I'm sweating at places I didn't even know existed.

"Do I know you?" he asks me.

"No..."

He gives me a hard look, "You look real familiar.  Were you on TV or something?  Yeah recently...I definitely saw you on the news or something?  What was it for?  Damn.  I can't put my finger on it.  What did I see you on TV for?"

My heart is racing.

"Will this make you forget?" I ask.

I place all the money I have on the table.  Every single last dollar.  Luckily Adrian had left me with a lot.  At this point, I have no choice.  At this point, it's all or nothing.  This man could give me away right now if I didn't give him a reason not to.

He keeps looking at me suspiciously before nodding at that moment, reaching underneath the desk and pulling out a set of keys.

"Room 101."

~
The room is not the most amazing thing ever, but it's clean.  I go in first and break the camera in the room.   I was done with being watched.  I was done with being spied on.  By the time I get Ronin up the stairs, I can tell he just wants to sleep in the bed and pass out.

I can't let him though.  I needed Ronin to come back to himself somehow.  Maybe he knew of a way to get back to the Blind.

So I run a bath for him.  It's the best way I can think of to both clean him up as well as maybe put a burst of life back into him.

I get him naked and sit him in the bath.

I begin cleaning him...every part of him.  I can feel him slowly breathing as I do it.

"I can get used to it," he states.

I look at his amazing body underneath the water.  His dick is getting hard under the water.  Somehow this man manages to be turned on even when he jerks every time I run past an open sore on his body.  I have to admit even with a swollen eye, he was still the sexiest man I knew.  That definitely let me know that I had found my soulmate.

"I'm glad your back," I tell him, "We need to contact the Blind.  Do you know a way?"

"Straight to business huh?"

"We don't have much time together?"

"We've gotten this far.  Against all odds.  You need to have faith.  The Universe wants us together."

"You so sure about that?"

"I'm positive," he responds.

I'm surprised when I see that he has a smile on his face.  He has a real smile.  How in the world could he find the way to smile at a time like this when we had all of this stuff going on.  How could he find a way to be so happy.   How the hell could he find a way to get hard under the water.

"I'm glad you're in a good mood."

"Anytime I'm around you I'm in a good mood," he tells me, "And I'm going to appreciate every hard moment.  Every.  Hard.  Moment."

Just at that moment grabs my hand lets me feel his dick hard underneath the water.  I feel the girth of it between him.  I start to stroke him at that moment underneath the water as I bathe him.  He breathes heavier and heavier.  He's thrusting upwards before I notice, grunting at that moment.

I hear him whisper, "Damn I need this..."

He's had a long day.  He's had a hard day.  I just want to make him feel better.  Maybe that's why I put my head under the water at that moment.  I begin to suck his dick under the water, letting the bubbles fill my mouth as his dick bobs in between my lips.  I only come up to breathe and he's so desperate that his dick follows me.

I suck his dick all the way down to the shaft, swallowing every inch of it.  I want it all in my mouth at that moment.

He keeps thrusting.  Harder and harder.  He keeps grunting louder and louder.

"It's so big," I'm gagging, "Damn I want to taste you.  I want you to give me that nut all down my throat."

"Damn it's like that?" he asks.

"It's like that.  I want to taste your babies."

"Damn you're turning me on.  I'm about to cum!"

"Give it to me!  Yeah.  MHMM!  MHMM! It tastes SO good!"  I feel the semen burst into my mouth and explode everywhere.  I take it all in letting it hit the back of my throat and gargle in my mouth sliding back down to the tip of his dick before I slurp it all up again.   Before I know it I've swallowed every bit of him and I'm hungrily licking at the tip of his dick for more.

"Damn baby...that was amazing.  I'm getting all ticklish now.."

I keep licking the tip, "This is what you get for teasing me."

"Keep doing that and you'll get me hard again.  I'll fuck you right in this water..."

"Stop frontin'.  You're too sore to do any fucking tonight..."

"Wanna bet?'

I'm laughing like a schoolboy in a way only Ronin can make me laugh as he gets this burst of strength from nowhere and pulls me into the water with him.  I'm fully dressed but it doesn't seem to matter to him.  Within a matter of seconds,   I'm drenched in water with him from head to toe.  I'm straddling him in the bathtub and I don't care that my clothes are wet.  I'm laughing wildly and the only thing that shuts me up is when he slowly leans me forward and gives me a kiss.  It's a soft kiss.  It's the softest kiss in the world.

In a kiss, he tells me he loves me.

With just a kiss he tells me that I'm the only thing that matters to him.

He was my soulmate.  This was meant to be.

"I can do this forever..." he tells me, "I want forever with you."

"There's nothing I would want more..." I tell him.

He keeps kissing me.  He's kissing me hard.  We become so lost in each other that the thump on the door nearly pulls me straight out of my skin.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

"What the hell?" he asks.

"Stay here..." I state jumping out of the tub.

"No..."

"Stay here," I tell him.

I was in better condition at that point.  I grab the gun at that moment.  It's on the bed.  The suitcase with the Parallel Heart is close by as well.

THUMP! THUMP!

My heart is just as loud as the door.  Someone wants to get in here.  Someone wants to get in here really bad.  I peel back the curtain.  Trucks.  Fucking trucks were out there!  My heart was racing.

"What's going on?"  Ronin asks.

He's managed to make his way out of the bathtub alone.  He's naked but he quickly wraps the towel around his waist.  He has this nervous look on his face.  He had every right to be nervous.  He had every reason to be afraid.

"They found us..."

"Already?"  he asks.

I nod.  I can't even speak.  I just sit on the bed.  I felt like it was over.  It was all over.

"I won't let them take you," Ronin states, "Give me that gun..."

"Ronin..."

"GIVE IT TO ME!"

He doesn't wait until I give it to him before taking it.  He goes to the door at that moment.    He opens it.  I can see this look in his eyes as he's ready to give it all.  He's ready to shoot his way out of here is necessary.  Ronin wasn't going to let them take me again.

But for some reason, he just drops his gun.  And that's when I notice the person who was knocking at the door.

"Are you two OK?" the voice states.

It's Ezra.

"You found us?" I ask.

I've never been so happy in my life.

"The Desk clerk here at the hotel was a sympathizer for the rebellion," Ezra states, "Get dressed both of you.  We need to get you out of here now.  If we know where you are then the Eyelids might as well."

I don't have time to be happy.  Ronin is though.  He runs over to me and gives me the biggest hug he's given me before.  He wants to celebrate.  I can't at this moment.  At this moment I'm just thinking about what all of this means.

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"A private plane to Taured.  Our scientists have been working out how to re-activate the Parallel Device that was triggered somehow.   They've figured it out."

I just stare.

Ronin looks confused, "Baby.  This is good news.  Right?  This is good news."

I shake my head.

It wasn't good news.

"What about our forever?" I ask.

Ronin gets upset at that moment, "I know.  I want forever with you too.  You don't know how much I want it.  There is nothing more than I want then a lifetime with you.  It's cruel, you know?  To know someone like you and somehow feel like I can't be with you.  It's cruel to know that I have to be torn away from you..."

I pause.

"Maybe I can stay.  With you...a while longer.  It's safe in Taured...isn't it?"  I ask, "No cameras.  No Eyelids in Taured..."

He pauses.   I watch how he looks at Ezra.  Ezra looks back at him.  The two of them look sad almost.  They look like the doctors who have to deliver bad news to a patient.

"You don't have much time..."

"What?"

"He's talking about your nose bleed?"  Ezra states.

I put my hand to my nose.  I hadn't realized it had become this bad.   My nose was literally gushing at that moment.

It's getting worse.  Real worse.

"Ronin...I don't feel good."

My entire body seems to be giving out.  It's as though my body was failing.  It was already starting.  My soul was rejecting this dimension.

I fall forward straight into Ronin's arms and before I pass out there is one reality left in my head.

I was dying.

 

 

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