Carpool Convo

The first few minutes of the car ride are mostly quiet as I try to figure out where to even begin a dialogue. Meanwhile, Luck just stares out the window and watches things go by like a puppy being taken out of the house for the first time.

"Alright," I eventually say, snapping Luck's attention to me, "if you're going to insist on tagging along with me all the time, there are some things I want clarification on."

"Sure. Go for it. I'm an open book," Luck grins before considering what she just said. "Although, I do like keeping stuff a surprise, so I don't want to give too much away."

So in other words, she's not an open book...

"Let's start with these powers of yours. What exactly can you do?" I pose.

"Starting off with the heavy hitters, I see," Luck comments. "That's kind of a hard question to answer. I can do all sorts of stuff. However, my specialty is changing people."

"See, now, what does that mean? You've mentioned that before, but I'm still not sure what it entails. Obviously it includes what you did to my dad-"

"Not your dad anymore," Luck corrects me.

"Right. But can you give me more specifics?" I question in the hopes of better understanding just what I'm dealing with and how scared I should be.

"I can alter pretty much anything about a person. As you've already seen, I can adjust all sorts of things about a person's body, including their proportions and even their gender to make them a little more appealing to the eye. But for me, the most fun thing is messing with people's minds. It can be their perceptions or how they react to certain things or even just how they generally think," Luck explains.

"I can't help but notice that you didn't get all that specific," I point out.

"Ah, ah, ah. I told you. I have to keep some stuff secret. It's more exciting that way," Luck denies me.

I let out a sigh as I realize just how difficult this is going to be. Luck holds all the power in this dynamic, which basically forces me to play along with her rules. That's not exactly the most exciting prospect given that it feels like I've been **** to do that kind of thing my whole life. All I can hope is that Luck's rules end up better for me than other people I've been **** to listen to over the years. Though that does remind me...

"Why me?" I say.

"What do you mean?" Luck counters.

"Why are you helping me? You could have gone anywhere and helped out anyone. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who would have gone along with you. So why me?" I elaborate.

"I won't lie to you, Kyle; I'm mostly doing this just for the thrill of it. When you can do as much stuff as I can, you have to find ways to keep things interesting. This is just the most recent way I've found to do that. Plus it also improves the life of the other person involved, so it's a win-win," Luck tells me.

"But that doesn't explain why you chose me. As frustrated as I am with the state of my life, I'm sure there are people out there in worse positions than I am."

"You're thinking way too hard about this. I'm just trying to have some fun, not fix the world or anything. Stop questioning it and just enjoy the ride," Luck says. I can't really relate to her loosey-goosey approach to life, but I guess that's just one of the many differences between us. "Also, I want to point out that you were the one who said you didn't want any of my super cool 'toys' as you called them, so really it's your fault that I'm hanging around you for the time being."

How the hell am I being blamed for her weird obsession with my life?

"Does that mean if I agree to take one of those things, you'll go away?" I ask.

"Nope! You lost that opportunity. Now you're stuck with me!"

In fairness, she probably knows that I would never use anything she gave me at this point. Still, that doesn't mean she has to sound so proud of herself...

"So..." I begin in an attempt to change the subject, "Are there other... beings out there similar to you?"

"Of course there are! You didn't think I was the only one, did you?" Luck responds in turn.

"And are all of the others as unhinged as you are?" I ask as I roll my eyes.

"I would say most of us are pretty interesting character. Who knows? Maybe you'll meet some one of these days." The thought of meeting more people like Luck makes me a little sick to my stomach. "But it's way too early for something like that right now. Give it a couple dozen chapters or so and we'll see where we are."

"Why do you keep saying stuff like that? It makes me feel like you know something I don't."

"I told you not to think about it too much. There are people out there who will know what I mean."

"See? That's exactly what I'm talking about! What people? It's responses like those that make me even more concerned than I already am," I try to explain to her.

Once again, Luck refuses to give any more details, which feels like it might be a common trend. Just as I'm going to try to come up with something else to ask, I realize that we've arrived at the office.

Huh... That went by surprisingly quickly. Way faster than it normally does. I guess having someone to talk to makes the journey over not seem like such an ordeal. That doesn't mean I'm necessarily thrilled about having Luck here with me, but I suppose it might not all be bad. Let's just hope I don't regret thinking that by the end of the day.