Suzy’s Strange Saga
"Okay, Bobby. I suppose you're right. We both love each other and that's the most important thing...so yes. I'll marry you." You say.
Bobby is overjoyed and hugs and kisses you.
"Oh Suzy, this is fantastic! I'll make the announcement to everyone as soon as we get to the compound! I got the ring there and we'll make it official as soon as we're all settled in. In fact, this Friday should be perfect! I hope that’s good with you.”
“Um…yeah this Friday is fine.” You answer.
“Tiamat truly blesses her most worthy servants! Come on let's get going!" Bobby exclaims.
Bobby immediately starts grabbing his clothing that he left in various places in the basement on the way to your room and getting dressed. Your own clothing is a bit torn now, so you grab some new clothes that were still in your closet.
Heading back upstairs, Bobby picks up your bags and carries them to this van. He opens the door for you and everything. You did miss his attention to the little things like that.
As soon as you leave your neighborhood you notice what Bobby was talking about the town. He wasn't kidding when he said it’s a mess. You see police trying maintain order, fights, car wrecks, fire fighters trying put out fires and ambulances blaring their sirens.
As Bobby focuses on the road, he goes on about how everything that's currently going on in town is just a small sample of what's to come. He talks about how there are several wars are going on in the world and how tensions are at an all time high. (He actually sounds like one of those Ground Zero infomercials on that bit) He mentions how everything is always trending towards chaos and entropy and how the signs that Tiamat is finally coming back to return the world to its natural state. Between your recent acceptance of his proposal and this, you don't think you've ever seen him so happy and excited.
"Well whatever's going on, I'm glad we are leaving town, it's like everyone here has lost their mind." You say.
"Yeah, some of my family don't agree that we should go to the compound. Some say we should be out here personally embracing the increasing chaos in the world like Tiamat would want, but... as I said there aren't a lot of us and I'd still like to make sure we're relatively safe. I believe Tiamat would want her chosen to be smart about things. Build up our numbers over time and THEN we will rise to become a force that none can oppose."
You don't say much, you just nod and smile. You imagine you're going to be directly contributing to those "numbers." You cross your legs at the thought.
Eventually you manage to get out of town and things are slightly better and the traffic is even thinning out. You've never been north of town before...actually you've never been out of town before. You also never realized how rural of an area you lived in.
The quiet calm of the great outdoors is actually a little scarier than the chaos of the town you just left behind, doesn't help that it's getting dark by this point.
Bobby ends up turning off the main road to an unsaved dirt one leading further into wilderness. Just as you're wonder how much further, you see the compound (surrounded by a high fence with razor wire of course) and it's certainly big enough and imposing enough to make any cult leader jealous.
"Shit, it looks like a small prison." You say.
"Yeah my dad and some of his brothers were constantly adding on to this thing for decades. To be honest, it isn't even completely finished. I mean it's more than sufficient for several people to comfortably live in, but there are many rooms that are just the bare minimum of four walls. Towards the back where you can't see from here, there are some portions of it that are exposed to the outside. However, seeing as there will be a bunch of us living here now, I think we'll at least be able to finish the place up, and in time make even more additions."
"Didn't know your dad had brothers."
"Yeah three older, and one younger. A younger sister too, but none of them will be coming here."
"Oh. Wait, all of them are dead?"
"No, the two younger siblings, Uncle Leslie and Aunt Lilith are still alive. In fact Leslie and Lilith live in a house together south of town. But let's just say they aren't exactly believers in the faith and chose a different path instead...I'm sure you've heard of the Ground Zero corporation especially with all their annoying infomercials and ads everywhere nowadays."
"Wait, seriously? You've got family that works for GZ? You never told me that before either." You ask.
"My dad wasn't really on speaking terms with either of them. Long story. Anyway, technically just Aunt Lilith works for GZ. Dunno doing what, but I think it's important. Uncle Leslie just lives with her and spends most of his time indulging in his pointless experiments, though I know he does some black market organ shit on the side." Bobby explains.
"I guess you couldn't get your aunt to pull a few strings and get set up in one of those shelters they're always trying to sell huh?" You say.
"Actually I did contact her during the recent family video conference. She told me that we'd all be much better off in dad's slightly unfinished compound than in one of those shelters. Apparently half of those things are death traps or something. She said even though she wasn't a believer, she still didn't want to subject her nieces and nephews to the fate of being in one of those live-in mass coffins."
"Well that was nice of her to look out for you."
"Yeah, she always was one of the nicest people in our family. Dunno why she's with Uncle Leslie, the guy is a psychotic asshole to practically everyone. Good doctor though. Anyway, let's see who's on duty tonight." Bobby says pulling up to the large gate.
Bobby rolls down his window and speaks into an intercom.
"Hey, it's Bobby. Anyone there?"
"Bobby? Where the hell have you been? Thought you were going back into town and coming straight back to help with arranging all this furniture." A voice replies a few moments later.
"Yeah well I had something really important to do and town is crazy right now. Did anyone else show up since yesterday?"
"Nah, but a few people called saying they were going to get in by tomorrow at least."
"Okay, what's everyone else doing right now?"
"Um, well mostly everyone's asleep or otherwise retired to their rooms. Except me who drew the short straw to keep a look out for you."
"What?! Asleep already? It's not that late!" Bobby exclaims.
"Well everyone was a bit tired from all the moving around. Also your sister Helen felt the young ones should get a good night's sleep earlier since there's more shit to do tomorrow."
"Hmm, well I had a big announcement to make, but I suppose if everyone is mostly in dreamland right now, it can wait until tomorrow. Might as well anyway seeing as you said more people are supposed to show up. Okay let us in William."
"Us, huh? I guess that means you have a certain lady with you? Oh Tiamat, can't wait to see Diana's reaction to that one." William remarks.
"Diana's gonna just have to fucking deal with it, I'm the fucking head of this family and I love this woman!"
"Sheesh, calm down Bobby. I got no problem with that. I will just ask one thing, is she one of us?"
Bobby looks over at you which puts you a bit on the spot.
"I love you Bobby, and I go where you go now." You say which is enough of a positive answer for Bobby who has a big grin due to your answer.
"Yes, of course she is." Bobby remarks.
"Well then she's alright with me. Come on in around the right side, you'll be less likely to wake up the others and nobody is using that side of the building right now, so you'll have that big bedroom over there all to yourself."
And with that the large gate slides open and Bobby drives you both in. He passes a few parked cars on his way over to the right wing of the compound and parks a few feet in front of a large door. You and he both get out.
You attempt to get your bags, but again he insists on carrying them for you. He hands you the keys to the door to open it though, which you do and you both enter.
After turning on a light switch, Bobby takes the lead.
"Come on, down this corridor and through a couple of rooms."
"This place isn't quite as spartan as I imagined. You've got some rather nice carpeting and even the wall coloring is fairly cheerful." You say walking and looking around.
"I told you, this is our home, and we have to live here comfortably. We're not trying to create a psychologically oppressive effect to break down the willpower of potential followers, so what's the point of having a depressing drab gray everywhere?"
"Makes sense. The artwork you got up is pretty...interesting as well." You say glancing at the various strange pictures hanging up ranging from multi headed dragons to gory scenes of sacrifices.
"Oh, yeah. My grandmother painted most of these." Bobby replies.
"Really? Well, she certainly made some vivid scenes. That one with young raven haired naked lady holding the bloody dagger surrounded by the corpses is pretty detailed. Probably the best one of the bunch." You say being supportive.
"It should be the best one considering that's a self portrait of her. Took her a few months to finish it apparently because she wanted to get the color of decay just right for the bodies. Yep, she sure was talented."
Bobby stares a bit at his long dead grandmother's naked image for a moment until you wave your hand in front of him.
"Sorry, it's a bit hypnotic at times. Like the eyes follow you." Bobby says.
"Hrmmm. Sure it's not two other things?" You ask.
"Ha ha, well gotta admit, Grandma was pretty hot back in the day."
"That...would be disturbing even if I wasn't your soon to be wife." You remark. (Though you’re not really THAT disturbed given what you know of Bobby’s family)
"Oh I'm joking, you know you're the only one for me." Bobby says and kisses you on the cheek before saying you'll be heading up some nearby stairs.
A flight of stairs, another corridor, a few rooms later and you're finally at your destination. A fully furnished master bedroom with all the comforts.
"Well gotta admit, this is a very nice room. A little heavy on the red coloring, but I'll definitely be comfortable here especially since I'm starting to get tired."
"Hey go ahead and relax. You're home now. I'd join you, but I think I better go see my cousin William to get a proper update on what's been going on, so I'll be back later."
"Okay then." you say stretching out on the bed.
Bobby kisses you goodbye and you're alone at last.
You think about grabbing your laptop, but the bag it's in is too far and you're far too comfortable so you just spend your time scanning the room with your eyes thinking about your situation.
When you look over to your left you notice another self portrait of Grandma Morningstar. Fortunately, she's got all her clothes on in this one and is in a more traditional pose. Same stern and confident look though.
"Well I guess I'll be joining the family officially soon. Hope you approve from...well wherever you guys go when you shuffle off this mortal coil." You say towards the direction of the painting, though you don't look at it too long. Bobby's right, there is something a little hypnotic about the pictures of her.
Instead you close your eyes as the comfort of the bed and silence causes you to soon fall asleep.
Bobby is overjoyed and hugs and kisses you.
"Oh Suzy, this is fantastic! I'll make the announcement to everyone as soon as we get to the compound! I got the ring there and we'll make it official as soon as we're all settled in. In fact, this Friday should be perfect! I hope that’s good with you.”
“Um…yeah this Friday is fine.” You answer.
“Tiamat truly blesses her most worthy servants! Come on let's get going!" Bobby exclaims.
Bobby immediately starts grabbing his clothing that he left in various places in the basement on the way to your room and getting dressed. Your own clothing is a bit torn now, so you grab some new clothes that were still in your closet.
Heading back upstairs, Bobby picks up your bags and carries them to this van. He opens the door for you and everything. You did miss his attention to the little things like that.
As soon as you leave your neighborhood you notice what Bobby was talking about the town. He wasn't kidding when he said it’s a mess. You see police trying maintain order, fights, car wrecks, fire fighters trying put out fires and ambulances blaring their sirens.
As Bobby focuses on the road, he goes on about how everything that's currently going on in town is just a small sample of what's to come. He talks about how there are several wars are going on in the world and how tensions are at an all time high. (He actually sounds like one of those Ground Zero infomercials on that bit) He mentions how everything is always trending towards chaos and entropy and how the signs that Tiamat is finally coming back to return the world to its natural state. Between your recent acceptance of his proposal and this, you don't think you've ever seen him so happy and excited.
"Well whatever's going on, I'm glad we are leaving town, it's like everyone here has lost their mind." You say.
"Yeah, some of my family don't agree that we should go to the compound. Some say we should be out here personally embracing the increasing chaos in the world like Tiamat would want, but... as I said there aren't a lot of us and I'd still like to make sure we're relatively safe. I believe Tiamat would want her chosen to be smart about things. Build up our numbers over time and THEN we will rise to become a force that none can oppose."
You don't say much, you just nod and smile. You imagine you're going to be directly contributing to those "numbers." You cross your legs at the thought.
Eventually you manage to get out of town and things are slightly better and the traffic is even thinning out. You've never been north of town before...actually you've never been out of town before. You also never realized how rural of an area you lived in.
The quiet calm of the great outdoors is actually a little scarier than the chaos of the town you just left behind, doesn't help that it's getting dark by this point.
Bobby ends up turning off the main road to an unsaved dirt one leading further into wilderness. Just as you're wonder how much further, you see the compound (surrounded by a high fence with razor wire of course) and it's certainly big enough and imposing enough to make any cult leader jealous.
"Shit, it looks like a small prison." You say.
"Yeah my dad and some of his brothers were constantly adding on to this thing for decades. To be honest, it isn't even completely finished. I mean it's more than sufficient for several people to comfortably live in, but there are many rooms that are just the bare minimum of four walls. Towards the back where you can't see from here, there are some portions of it that are exposed to the outside. However, seeing as there will be a bunch of us living here now, I think we'll at least be able to finish the place up, and in time make even more additions."
"Didn't know your dad had brothers."
"Yeah three older, and one younger. A younger sister too, but none of them will be coming here."
"Oh. Wait, all of them are dead?"
"No, the two younger siblings, Uncle Leslie and Aunt Lilith are still alive. In fact Leslie and Lilith live in a house together south of town. But let's just say they aren't exactly believers in the faith and chose a different path instead...I'm sure you've heard of the Ground Zero corporation especially with all their annoying infomercials and ads everywhere nowadays."
"Wait, seriously? You've got family that works for GZ? You never told me that before either." You ask.
"My dad wasn't really on speaking terms with either of them. Long story. Anyway, technically just Aunt Lilith works for GZ. Dunno doing what, but I think it's important. Uncle Leslie just lives with her and spends most of his time indulging in his pointless experiments, though I know he does some black market organ shit on the side." Bobby explains.
"I guess you couldn't get your aunt to pull a few strings and get set up in one of those shelters they're always trying to sell huh?" You say.
"Actually I did contact her during the recent family video conference. She told me that we'd all be much better off in dad's slightly unfinished compound than in one of those shelters. Apparently half of those things are death traps or something. She said even though she wasn't a believer, she still didn't want to subject her nieces and nephews to the fate of being in one of those live-in mass coffins."
"Well that was nice of her to look out for you."
"Yeah, she always was one of the nicest people in our family. Dunno why she's with Uncle Leslie, the guy is a psychotic asshole to practically everyone. Good doctor though. Anyway, let's see who's on duty tonight." Bobby says pulling up to the large gate.
Bobby rolls down his window and speaks into an intercom.
"Hey, it's Bobby. Anyone there?"
"Bobby? Where the hell have you been? Thought you were going back into town and coming straight back to help with arranging all this furniture." A voice replies a few moments later.
"Yeah well I had something really important to do and town is crazy right now. Did anyone else show up since yesterday?"
"Nah, but a few people called saying they were going to get in by tomorrow at least."
"Okay, what's everyone else doing right now?"
"Um, well mostly everyone's asleep or otherwise retired to their rooms. Except me who drew the short straw to keep a look out for you."
"What?! Asleep already? It's not that late!" Bobby exclaims.
"Well everyone was a bit tired from all the moving around. Also your sister Helen felt the young ones should get a good night's sleep earlier since there's more shit to do tomorrow."
"Hmm, well I had a big announcement to make, but I suppose if everyone is mostly in dreamland right now, it can wait until tomorrow. Might as well anyway seeing as you said more people are supposed to show up. Okay let us in William."
"Us, huh? I guess that means you have a certain lady with you? Oh Tiamat, can't wait to see Diana's reaction to that one." William remarks.
"Diana's gonna just have to fucking deal with it, I'm the fucking head of this family and I love this woman!"
"Sheesh, calm down Bobby. I got no problem with that. I will just ask one thing, is she one of us?"
Bobby looks over at you which puts you a bit on the spot.
"I love you Bobby, and I go where you go now." You say which is enough of a positive answer for Bobby who has a big grin due to your answer.
"Yes, of course she is." Bobby remarks.
"Well then she's alright with me. Come on in around the right side, you'll be less likely to wake up the others and nobody is using that side of the building right now, so you'll have that big bedroom over there all to yourself."
And with that the large gate slides open and Bobby drives you both in. He passes a few parked cars on his way over to the right wing of the compound and parks a few feet in front of a large door. You and he both get out.
You attempt to get your bags, but again he insists on carrying them for you. He hands you the keys to the door to open it though, which you do and you both enter.
After turning on a light switch, Bobby takes the lead.
"Come on, down this corridor and through a couple of rooms."
"This place isn't quite as spartan as I imagined. You've got some rather nice carpeting and even the wall coloring is fairly cheerful." You say walking and looking around.
"I told you, this is our home, and we have to live here comfortably. We're not trying to create a psychologically oppressive effect to break down the willpower of potential followers, so what's the point of having a depressing drab gray everywhere?"
"Makes sense. The artwork you got up is pretty...interesting as well." You say glancing at the various strange pictures hanging up ranging from multi headed dragons to gory scenes of sacrifices.
"Oh, yeah. My grandmother painted most of these." Bobby replies.
"Really? Well, she certainly made some vivid scenes. That one with young raven haired naked lady holding the bloody dagger surrounded by the corpses is pretty detailed. Probably the best one of the bunch." You say being supportive.
"It should be the best one considering that's a self portrait of her. Took her a few months to finish it apparently because she wanted to get the color of decay just right for the bodies. Yep, she sure was talented."
Bobby stares a bit at his long dead grandmother's naked image for a moment until you wave your hand in front of him.
"Sorry, it's a bit hypnotic at times. Like the eyes follow you." Bobby says.
"Hrmmm. Sure it's not two other things?" You ask.
"Ha ha, well gotta admit, Grandma was pretty hot back in the day."
"That...would be disturbing even if I wasn't your soon to be wife." You remark. (Though you’re not really THAT disturbed given what you know of Bobby’s family)
"Oh I'm joking, you know you're the only one for me." Bobby says and kisses you on the cheek before saying you'll be heading up some nearby stairs.
A flight of stairs, another corridor, a few rooms later and you're finally at your destination. A fully furnished master bedroom with all the comforts.
"Well gotta admit, this is a very nice room. A little heavy on the red coloring, but I'll definitely be comfortable here especially since I'm starting to get tired."
"Hey go ahead and relax. You're home now. I'd join you, but I think I better go see my cousin William to get a proper update on what's been going on, so I'll be back later."
"Okay then." you say stretching out on the bed.
Bobby kisses you goodbye and you're alone at last.
You think about grabbing your laptop, but the bag it's in is too far and you're far too comfortable so you just spend your time scanning the room with your eyes thinking about your situation.
When you look over to your left you notice another self portrait of Grandma Morningstar. Fortunately, she's got all her clothes on in this one and is in a more traditional pose. Same stern and confident look though.
"Well I guess I'll be joining the family officially soon. Hope you approve from...well wherever you guys go when you shuffle off this mortal coil." You say towards the direction of the painting, though you don't look at it too long. Bobby's right, there is something a little hypnotic about the pictures of her.
Instead you close your eyes as the comfort of the bed and silence causes you to soon fall asleep.