My cheerfulness and new-found confidence lasted at least a few days, during which I enjoyed a delightful vacation with Domenica. We hadn’t had much time to be lovers yet and we caught up. Good think school didn’t get interrupted too badly, Nathan already cringes when we kiss.

I lazed around at her house as I know how. When I wasn’t sleeping or laying in the sun on the porch, we went hiking in the mountains around. Domenica is quite fond of it and she knows really beautiful spots. I’ve been around for a while, but I never bothered to go sight seeing. Of course, we also had quite a lot of nice, tender sex. Having such a close encounter with death made our hesitations seem pretty silly in retrospect, so we just went for it. What I love the most is cuddling like a cat in her arms. It all goes back to sleeping a lot, I guess.

Then reality came knocking and as it turns out, being a hero and finding love or not, the world is still the same old dump. I’m unemployed again, even though I did receive a paycheck for the few days I was there. The factory has been closed for a while. I’m glad it did or I would have had to resign. I’m not going back among the half-dead workers of that place. To be honest, I’m not convinced that they will be more interesting now that they’re not brainwashed anymore.

Back on the job, Domenica is much less available than I’d like her to be. Even though she gave herself a few days off, what happened in the mountain is a golden opportunity for her. She’s practically guaranteed to get clearance from that shady Agency now, so she’ll be able to study the temple and finely comb the jungle of El Pollo all she wants. For my part, I’m not going back there anytime soon.

But all of this is still about the same selfish, lazy old me. The real blow was the victims.

Some of them I knew. Rodrigo and Leon haven’t been found yet. I suspect they probably were part of the pile of dead flesh Ñox Cayù left behind itself. There were others. The couple who had the drugstore downtown. Three people from the same street. All those people had the same thing in common: no remains. No way to know if all of them were really dead or if they had just turned crazy from the god’s influence and skipped town. It sucks, when you can’t mourn because you still hope.

A few days back, we had a little get together, intended for the people who know or at least suspect what happened. The goal was to simply drop a few flowers off at the mountain and walk back. A way to deal with the death toll, to say thank you and good bye to the missing ones. I was with Tig on that one, after what she lived through. Domenica was invited too. She didn’t really know anyone, but she has a heart. My parents didn’t wanna come. They play it off like they don’t want to hang out with “my weird crowd” but I think they were just scared shitless by what they went through. It was supposed to be small-scale, invite people who’d care, let’s do this. I didn’t realize the turnout we were gonna get.

A good third of the town was there. People from all ages. They had left work, school, homes to be there and drop a flower, a letter, a cutout of colored paper. How we underestimate how much people know and understand!

We payed out respects in silence. The weirdness of it all made it impossible to strike conversations about the disappearances. Everyone knew, but we were all there pretending, shifting on our feet, looking like a group of loners all waiting for the same bus. Still, it warmed my heart. Domenica had brought a chocolate cake and lemonade. I was among the select few who got to taste it before it got gulped down by a hundred grateful mouths. There are no strangers when good food is involved.

I accompanied Tig back home after that. We had a honest conversation with Domenica about my relationship with her, I made it pretty clear that nothing was gonna happen. I just want to be there for her. Among the people I know, she’s the one who’s had it the hardest.

She had been living with Leon for quite a while, so his absence is really noticeable to her. Her other roommates also number among the missing. I can’t imagine the weight she carries every day. No matter how much she was influenced, she delivered them to Ñox Cayù, one way or another. I’ve been going to her place for the past few weeks and as much as would like to say that I’m a positive influence on her moods, a more honest answer would be “Time will tell”.

I forced her to accept my paycheck from HappyBroilers. In addition to the hundred bucks I already owed her for the bike, she’s been fired from every place she was at given that she spent around two weeks in her delirium, plotting the return of a mad god. She got so little money that I suggested she could move in with my parents for a while, but she needs her space. Being around a couple of paranoid naysayers wouldn’t do her much good, anyway.

Nathan, by the way, is not traumatized in the slightest. He’s back in school and we thankfully didn’t loose any of his friends to the poultry frenzy. Were it not for the distorted stone head that is now held on display in Domenica’s office, I think it has all been a dream. But he has shown how much he could achieve when he froze a god in place and I’d really love to know more about those powers of his. I’ll take it slow. He’s no curiosity, he’s a kid. He probably has enough on his mind as it is with his developing abilities.

His school is right next to the odd police station I tried to get help from before. It is empty to this day. It’s chilling to think about what must have happened to all those cops, but at the same time I’m not exactly fond of law enforcement. We’ll do just as well without them beating people up in self-defense.

I haven’t heard from Dave. He just went away that night, onto the next shady town, I guess. I don’t know if I could be so free like that. I bet I’d get lonely. I hope we get a letter from him sometimes, just to know that he’s alive and well. I knew him for a short time but I’d like to think that he’s a friend, now. We’ve been through enough together, really. Well, if supernatural stuff keeps happening, we’ll cross paths again, I’m sure.

I have been using this afternoon to learn how to make margaritas. I still don’t have the exact taste I’m looking for, but I’m getting there. I now that soon I’ll have to find a job and maybe get out of her hair. in the meantime, I’m living the life, why not? I still try to do stuff in order not to feel too bad when she becomes available in the evening after a long day of hard work. That means I should check the mail.

As usual there are a few coupons from the nearby supermarkets and a sober envelope, probably containing a bill or a reminder. I hand all of those over to Domenica, hunched over at her desk, looking at a dozen pictures of the same rock. Fascinating.

Suddenly, she freezes over. She has seen the bland envelope and the stamp on it. She turns it over, looking deeply troubled. She notices me looking at her, perplexed.

“It’s a letter from old acquaintances,” she says. “What we did on the mountain must have reached further than I thought.” She opens the letter and reads it. From what I can see, it’s a simple single-sided printed out document with a few paragraphs on it. Her “old friends” don’t look that close. She puts the paper down and sighs. Oh, great. We just got out of reality-breaking trouble. What’s going on now?

“Listen,” she says. “do you want to meet some people who do what we did… For a job ?”

“Like… fighting monsters?” I say, taken aback. Sure, I need money, but I’m not about to put myself in harm’s way again without a good reason.

“Well,” says Domenica, “not so much fighting as it would be scouting, I guess. They can send someone for an evaluation, if that’s the kind of job you’re into.” She looks at me, testing the waters. She doesn’t know what to think about this offer, I guess. Neither do I.

All I know is this: my life is not gonna get boring anytime soon.