Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 106: Strange Encounter

Two bodies, one on top of the other, barely moved in the complete darkness. The only sounds heard were the huffing and puffing of labored breathing as both attempted to regain themselves. This wasn't planned, but it wasn't rejected either.

Kat finally removed herself from Laz's ap, but left her leg on him, as though still needing to feel he was there. Neither said a word as they sat there. Laz slowly got to his feet. Since they were 'dry,' it was time to leave. Reaching down, he grabbed Kat's hand and helped her up. Then remembering the way, he made for the door with her in tow. He could help but feel how soft her hand was at this moment, a stark difference from her normal hard self.

Things today had exceeded what Laz considered normal, be it one thing or another, but he he thought maybe it was normal. She wasn't a young woman who had no experience. She knew what she liked and she asked for it. Why she had elected to do so with him could only be known by her. Had he known this was her idea of a reward, there is no telling how Laz would have felt about it. Especially considering that he was the only one she had ever thought of to do this kind of reward.

To summarize his gains, he had compacted his energy and compressed it into an even stronger form while at the same time learning that cultivating is like strengthening a muscle, if you work it out, it gets stronger. He knew he would have to keep going like this if he wanted to reach the condensing stage. The way he understood it from the crazy, green haired, psychotic girl was that when all of the energy was finally condensed into it's smallest stage, that would be the beginning of the condensing stage. Why was that? Because first you gathered source essence to build up the energy in your body, awakening, and then once it was filled, you started condensing it. Once it was fully condensed, you would have entered the condensation stage where you only build up condensed energy. Once you reached the peak of that? Well, Laz had no idea. But he didn't think his own personal ghost was going to leave him alone any time soon so he just figured she would explain it when it was time.

Getting back to the present, while Laz was lost in his thoughts, he had managed to make it back to the pool area with Kat and both of them started to dress. Despite it being silent and dark, Laz felt like Kat was actually a bit embarrassed and seemed kind of shy. He wanted to say something, but what was he going to say? Thank you, please come again? Hey, I love having my dick bitten while my balls are squeezed? None of that was going to work. Just when he finished dressing, Kat finally communicated with him.

*That... umm.... wasn't... you know... I'm not usually like that...*

'She's too embarrassed to speak?' Laz thought but kept the question to himself.

*It's ok. I kind of... lost myself there too...* It was the best he could manage.

*I just, ah, wanted to, like, uh... oh damn it...* Kat paced back and forth, looking like a walking bomb about ready to burst.

*I've never had anal sex before.* She looked at him, straight face and serious.

*Uhh... Yeah.* How do you respond to that?

*It was just dark and I was turned on... and I felt wild and it was just...*

*No, no. It's good. You know I didn't think that having my dick bite and my balls grabbed would do it for me either so... we are even.*

*So, you won't look down on me about this?*

*Should I?*

*No.*

*Then I won't.* Why make things weird or harder than life already was? Although Laz had changed, there was still a somewhat passive part in him. He wasn't one to dwell too much on something. After the water training, he realized that he had been locked up in his own head about Kennedy and Malene. Doing so wasn't going to help him in the slightest. So instead, he needed to keep focused and remember what he was doing and why he was here. It showed him to focus on the now. He still had a lot of growing to do and life wasn't going to stop moving forward just because he was feeling abandoned. Especially when it probably wasn't their fault in the first place.

Laz felt like he had woken up. There were too many things happening for him to stop now.

"Ok. Good. I just didn't want you to look at me weird or anything." Kat was speaking again, having gotten rid of her own worry. Since she felt like Laz was a prime example of a disciple, she wanted him to remain that way and not get arrogant around her, thinking their relationship had changed.

Turned out, she had worried herself for nothing.

Smiling, Kat grabbed Laz's hand and made for the door, heading out to the parking lot. As they got outside, they noticed it had begun to snow. Since it was almost time for thanksgiving, it was perfectly normal..

Walking across the cold and snowy lot, they quickly got to Kat's car which she unlocked with the press of a button. Just as they were about to get in though, a strange feeling over came them.

*You feel that?* Laz asked via his spirit.

*Yes. It doesn't feel like a good thing.* Closing her door and indicating for Laz to do the same, she waited until the light from the car faded off before turning around and observing the surroundings. Laz followed suit and did the same.

The feeling that they both were getting was like a painful itch. It was hard to ignore.

Finally, Laz felt something like a ding in the back of his head and turning towards the road, he noticed a person slowing walking towards them. It was hard to tell at first since the snowfall had gotten heavy and the person was only visible within a certain range. As soon as the person's silhouette became clear, Laz's senses were flooded with a feeling of danger and warning. It was telling him to leave and to do so quickly.

But Laz didn't. In fact, he didn't even panic. And the reason for that was because if there was going to be a fight, he wasn't fighting alone.

Laz glanced over at Kat just as she was glancing at him. They both nodded to each other to show support and then turned back to face the person with the dangerous vibe.

As he got closer, Laz realized that this person didn't look right. His clothes were mismatched, unclean and it looked like he had just thrown on layer after layer. It quickly occurred to Laz that he might have been homeless, but as the man got even closer, Laz realized that he had a well shaven face, clean cut hair and was even wearing a smart watch. Noticing these things, Laz didn't know what to think.

The man was walking towards them in a slow stumble, making his way to the car. He didn't say anything either and his eyes were a bit unfocused. Laz and Kat both walked to the trunk of the car and stood there, showing him that they were there and were watching.

As the man got close, Laz realized that despite the clean cut hair and shaven face, he was covered in mud and grim, like he had just crawled out of a sewer. He also smelled pretty bad. Just as Laz was going to open his mouth to say something Kat beat him to it.

"You ok?" She asked with a strong tone while her eyes were half filled with pity and half filled with vigilance.

The man, hearing her speak, finally stopped his one man march and raised his head to look at Kat, and without a warning, said the following...

"Beware the little insects that hunt in the night, for puppets you'll be if it's you they bite."

*DA FUK?* Kat's reaction was obvious.

Laz wasn't as weirded out by this as she was since he had seen some shit so far, but honestly, this was a first.

*Who the hell talks in rhymes? What the hell is wrong with him?* Kat actually seemed rather annoyed.

The man, having said his bit, stopped looking at them and started walking away. He didn't make another sound as he disappeared into the cold, snowy night.

Seeing that he wasn't coming back, Kat and Laz hopped in the car and stared at each other for a minute before bursting out laughing. Although it wasn't funny, it still kind of was.

"What do you think?" Kat asked as she started the car to let it warm up.

"I'm not sure. If I had to say anything though, it would be that we should take what he said seriously."

"Really?" Kat looked amazed by Laz's reaction.

"Yeah. I mean, he didn't seem drunk. He might be nuts, but not a lot of crazy people wear smart watches." Laz was able to calm analyze the situation. Not because it was particularly smart, but because it was one of those things Bill had taught him. 'Always pay attention to those around you and your surroundings. You never know who or what might try to kill you.'

'Yeah, words to live by,' Laz thought.

"So, you think the bugs and puppets thing is real too?" Kat asked as she started driving. She didn't want to stick around the parking lot anymore in case the guy came back for a second verse.

"You ever see World War Z?" Laz asked, thinking about it.

"Nah, never liked zombies. They are way too squishy for my tastes."

"That, right there, pure irony, and yet it makes sense."

"Your going to get your ass beat, you know that right?" Kat had a rather serious look on her face, although it seemed pretty forced.

"Alright, alright. There was a line in the movie based on the theory of the tenth man."

"What's that?"

"It goes like this: When nine people agree on something, it's the tenth man's responsibility to disagree, no matter how improbable the idea."

"So, what your saying is...?"

"If you ask 9 people if they think that there could be bugs controlling puppets, all 9 would say no. Therefore, I think we should be the tenth man and take it like the guy might be telling the truth."

"So, then what do we do?"

"No clue."

"Sigh. Why did I bother. Well, whatever, lets get going home for now, back to the dojo. I'll ask my dad about it when he gets home tomorrow...err later today." It was already almost 1 am so it was already Sunday.

"Ok. Lets do that." Laz didn't say anything else but turned and looked out the window while Kat put on some music. He was thinking about the weird guy. He had a bad feeling about what he said, but no matter how he thought about it, an answer wasn't coming to him. Instead, he started thinking about a movie he saw once. A movie where parasites tried to take over the world, starting from one little town.

'Puppets and bugs... It couldn't be something like that right?"

...

In a field a ways away from the school, a man was laying face down in the freezing snow as a small creature, a tiny little worm with two little pincers, started crawling out of his neck. As it got loose and emerged into the air, the little creature froze up and stopped moving, dead. It's body rolled off the now dead man and tumbled into the snow where it was immediately buried, lost among the millions of snow flakes peppered all over the ground.