Wrestling Guilts

Back in Springfield

With the amulet he had spotted now in his shopping cart, John went to check out. As soon as he pressed purchase, he wondered how exactly he was supposed to pay for his goods, especially since the Abyss Auction hadn’t asked him for any info related to that. Although, from the way the Abyss in general seemed to work, he honestly wouldn’t be that surprised if they had found that on their own. Would he be worried and maybe even paranoid? Most definitely, but shocked beyond disbelief? Nah.

$24,485 have been subtracted from your balance.

Huh, directly from my sheet, eh? He opened his character sheet and saw that indeed the Money section had decreased by exactly that much.

*Hmm, I wonder how that actually works. Does the money appear right in front of them in physical form, or does it get added to their bank account or something?’ John mused as he read the next thing that popped up on the laptop’s screen. It read that he could expect his order to arrive in less than fifteen minutes, guaranteed. The Abyss Auction didn’t even offer him to make it free or anything if they were late like a pizza delivery, which he supposed could mean that they likely were pretty confident in their ability to make that deadline. In any case, in terms of how exactly they would make that, it probably had something to do with magic shenanigans.

He pushed the laptop aside and glanced back at Blair, her cheeks were puffed up and her lips were pursed together as she pouted about… something, he had no clue what though.

“Umm, Blair? Is something the matter?” he asked her. In response, she jabbed her finger into his cheek and twisted it there. Now, as cute as this honestly was when combined with her pout (which was a solid 8.5/10 on the cuteness scale on its own), it didn’t really answer his question very well.

“Dumb username,” was all she said as she released his cheek from its torment and got up from the bed. As she walked away and went through the door, John couldn’t help but scratch the back of his head at that. After all, in the very short time that he had gotten to know her so far, she hadn’t seemed like the type to let something so minute and small annoy her. Maybe he had gotten unlucky and had managed to accidentally trigger a pet peeve of hers?

As he was about to get up himself to catch up to her, a memory entered his mind. He remembered that, maybe five years ago or so, his father had told him that someday, when he had a lady in his life that he loved, if she was angry with him, he should just drop it there and let some time pass first. Yeah… his dad had said that with a grin on his face, and when his mom heard him from the kitchen, she had replied and yelled out “got that right!” and they had both laughed…

A mixture of sadness and guilt entered his heart. Ever since the accident three years ago, they would never be able to have a simple moment like that as family ever again. And now, after what had happened this morning, he had potentially jeopardized his own relationship with his mother, and not only that, but when it was less than a month until the anniversary of his father’s **** nonetheless!

She thinks that it's her fault for the way she acted this morning. God, what the fuck is wrong with me?! It's my fault, and yet when I think about going back home, I'm too fucking cowardly and don't want to have to face her again, he scolded himself as he must have been the worst son in the world.

But… a new idea crept into his mind. Blair had said earlier that Gaia didn't mind if you introduced a family member or close friend to the Abyss, right? So if he could get his mother in, then he could let her realize that the only terrible family member in their house was him. In all honesty, even though in the back of his mind he knew it could be a bad idea to introduce his own mother to a dangerous new world that even he had yet to fully understand, he couldn't help but begin to see the appeal of the idea itself.

Or was this just another excuse? Did he really want to make his mother feel better and rid her of her guilt, or was it just his own conscious that he wanted to clear? How was he supposed to go about it anyway?

Would he just walk in through the front door, look at his mom and say, "Hey Mom! You know how earlier today we committed one of the ultimate taboos and now you feel terrible about it?! Well guess what, magic's real and I actually just used this extract from magical rose monsters that actually makes every woman around me horny, you included! So sorry about that, just know that it actually wasn't your fault at all, isn't that just great? Hope you can forgive me for accidentally manipulating you like that!"

John pressed his hands against his face. It was at this point that he really wished that everything would be good again. That life could go back to before Ashcroft, before Frank 

and Vanessa made his life a daily hell. Back to where he could actually go home with the only thing on his mind being what game he might play that day and what his mom or dad might make for dinner that night.

Why he suddenly let all these depressing and self loathing thoughts in, he didn't know. But what he did know was that they sucked and that they had officially drained all of the good he had felt and experienced today.

As he still sat there, in the corner of his vision, he saw a drone fly towards the window.