Tales of Paradise

Chapter 8: A Relaxing End

I then sat on a nearby armchair that sat by a corner in the room. As I rested there, I silently watched Pene as she slept soundly. I then looked at my phone. It read six O'clock exactly. Well, today was it. The day I hadn't exactly anticipated; our last day of relaxation before heading home had finally arrived. The rays of sunlight were gleaming through the clear white curtains. My body felt sore. Possibly due to everything that had just happened. Instead of lying there in the comfort of our bed, I decided to get up and sit here. Not only did I not want my puddles of sweat and fear to flood Pene, I also just wanted to think alone about.. well... everything. Everything that has happened up until now. My childhood. All the friends I've made. Me and Pene's night together. The last day of school at Phoenix. Him. The encounter with that guy at the beach. That.. whole... demented nightmare. That... that freakshow. All of it. It felt as if this chain of unfortunate events all started.. with him. It was all.. him.

Life felt so... fine. I think it was even looking up for me, for once. Well.. it was, that is, until he came into the picture again. Even though these events have scarred me, for better or worse, these were... still the reasons how I met everyone in the first place. I sadly realize that. But... now that all of.. all of this has happened, I just needed to ask. Why? Why did this all happen? Why did this all happen to me? Did I deserve all of this? Of all the people in the world that could've been granted this rollercoaster that's called a "life", why me? Of all the people that could've been given this spiral of highs and lows, why was... I given it? Why was I given such hell? Why was I given the worlds greatest gifts? I'm not special, not in the slightest. But, then came.. all of.. this. Although extremely grateful as I am for all the good things that came to me, I just still can't believe any of this happened. That's when I took my locked attention off of my thighs. I heard sounds coming from the bed.

It was coming from Pene. She had begun to moan and grunt. She was about to wake up. Alright, Anthony, the day is about to begin. The longest day you're ever gonna have. I hope you're ready for it... I tell myself. After breathing in and out one last time, I pushed myself off the chair and walked over to the shifting body of Penelope. I stood right next to her as I bent my legs to match the bed level. "Morning, sleeping beauty" I whispered again as her eyes fluttered from opened to closed. She stretched as she got up and brushed her eyes. "Morning, Tony," She says, weakly. "Are you feeling better?". "I think so. I'm able to walk and talk normally now, so that's getting somewhere, right?" I asked with a smile. "I guess so" She faintly giggled. "Are you ready for our last day here at Love~Love?" I ask her. "Yup. Sure am" She says as she gets up. She then stumbles over to the bathroom to, I guess, wake herself up more by using water to splash her face or something.

So, while she was in there refreshing herself, I sat back on the chair and opened my phone to see what has happened last night while I was asleep. Turns out, a bunch of things: More messages of fans and people worried, comments and tweets on my posts. Plus, some assholes decided to go and meme the hell out of the videos that people took. Of course! What else did I expect from the internet? Nowadays, the whole world could be ending, with demons emerging out of the ground and meteorites could be crashing into earth, and yet, they'd be more focused on making a fucking meme out of it. Anyway, I watched a few since it was still "fresh", and they obviously used it to replace a lot of fighting scenes in cartoons and anime. I mean, although it was "offensive" I guess one would say, I still couldn't help myself but laugh a bit. They were pretty well made, I'll give 'em that. "Whatcha' laughing at?" Pene asks me, hearing my chuckles. "Just watching some dank memes" I respond back.

Afterward, Pene stepped out of the bathroom looking a bit more awake. "Ahh, much better!" She says with a smile. Her hair was now tied back into her classic pigtails. I smiled too. But, that's when I remembered something I wanted to know yesterday before we slept. "Hey... Pene?" I ask slowly. "Yeah?" She says as she walks to the dresser next to the window. "I.. I wanted to ask you something.. about yesterday" I start. I heard her pause. "Yeah?" She says again. But, this time, she sounded a bit.. sad. "Who was that guy? And what was he doing here? How did he know you?" I asked. She stood there, quiet for a moment. That's when she breathed in and out. "I didn't want this to happen. I.. I didn't know.. that this was gonna happen," She began. "That guy you saw, his name is Javier. Javier José Sanchez. And.. he was my.. first. Sadly. And, because we broke up... I guess him being told that he was officially out of the picture, and then seeing you come in and saying what you did, really drove him to a breaking point, that night. Which resulted in.. everything that followed," She paused as she felt the cheek that used to have his print on it.