WOW, I was not expecting to leave this sitting for almost two weeks. A lot of **** has been going on lately; I've been working a lot, trying to keep up with my social life, playing a ton of Pokemon, and (unsuccessfully) trying to fight off a depressive period. I know that it's really no excuse, but I just haven't felt like working on this very much until tonight.
BTW, if it's not obvious by this point, this is going to be less than the normal 20 chapters for an average Memoirs book. I don't really have the ideas to fill that much space, plus the chapters for this are a little longer than most Memoirs chapters. Of course, I'm estimating here, and in terms of word count, they could be roughly the same, but SHUT UP DON'T RUIN MY EXCUSES!
Whatever. New chapter.
Chapter 8: Plans and Monologues
A couple of days passed, leading to the night where the deed was supposed to be done. gh and Cloak came up with a rather solid plan, refining it to the point where there were practically no variables. The two were convinced that absolutely nothing short of a nuclear explosion in the vicinity could cause the plan to fail. Then again, this being the modern world, the chances of such an event happening were there, but that's not important.
The two RAFians set out for their destination not long before midnight. Having programmed the coordinates into his phone's GPS, gh served as the navigator for the journey. This was probably for the best, as it saved Cloak quite a few “are we there yet?” jokes. It didn't take the two very long to reach where they were going – a secluded location out in the woods. “Figures,” gh grumbled, shivering despite the heavy coat he had on, “this had to happen in the middle of winter.”
Cloak didn't waste his breath responding. It was fairly obvious that gh was complaining for the sake of complaining. Despite the rather airtight plan, there was still room for uncertainty, and when humans get nervous, they tend to say every thought that passes into their heads. At least, that seemed to be the case with gh. Then again, he tended to do that regardless of what he was feeling.
After what seemed like an eternity (or two minutes, depending on your perspective) of silence, a shadowed figure emerged from the trees. “So, you decided to show up,” a familiar voice said.
“That was a dramatic entrance,” Cloak mused.
“Yeah, he tends to do that.” gh clearly wasn't in the mood to drag the scenario out any longer than necessary. It's easy to forgive him for wanting this whole fiasco to be done with, though. And to add to his irritation, the cold weather couldn't have been good for his guitar. “Can we just do this thing?”
Harrison chuckled – a harsh, unpleasant sound. “What, you don't want to make this last? Personally, I'm quite enjoying this.”
gh groaned loudly. “Cloak, if you'd like to do the honors, I'd really appreciate it.”
The Realm Walker nodded in agreement. Without warning, Harrison found that the two RAFians seemed much taller than a few seconds before. This apparent change was most likely brought on by him sinking about a foot into the semi-frozen ground. For all of his forethought and planning, he didn't seem to have been prepared for this. This didn't make him happy.
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?” Harrison screamed. In his rage, he pulled out a pistol that he kept concealed in his jacket. Though he would deny it afterward, gh found great enjoyment in seeing the firearm crumple in his hand like a wad of paper. Clearly, this man wasn't expecting Cloak to be a Master of the Elements.
“Well,” gh said, shoving his hands into his pockets. “That was anticlimactic.”
“Not every encounter is going to end with a massive, epic battle, gh,” Cloak mused. “Sometimes, we get lucky in dealing with a complete incompetent. In fact, I'm amazed that it took us as long as it did to come up with this plan.”
While the RAFians were engaging in their conversation, Harrison was loudly raging in front of them. They did their best to ignore him, but it wasn't particularly easy.
“Do you idiots have any idea what you're doing!?”
“Yeah, I think I have a pretty firm grasp on the situation,” gh said, adopting some of his smug arrogance. “I call the cops, stay here until you get arrested, go back to the forum, feed my crocodile, set up my guitar, and go to sleep. I think I'm somewhere in the ballpark with that.”
“Your guitar, huh? The one on your back, I'm assuming?”
Suddenly, gh's face turned to stone. Every trace of his prior arrogance had evaporated with those words.
Clearly, Harrison wasn't done with his tirade. “Oh, come on. You really didn't expect me to say anything? I told you before, I know everything I need to about you.”
“Shut up . . .” gh said, his disbelief apparent in his voice.
“Sorry, am I touching a bit of a nerve? Well, how about I remind you how you got that thing?”
gh stepped closer to the immobile Harrison. “I'm not playing around. Shut up.”
Harrison, however, seemed to be loving the theatrics. “I'm sure you remember it all. Every. Last. Detail. Maybe I can refresh your memory? About your 'friend' that you-”
“SHUT THE **** UP!” gh was mere feet away at this point. It took all the self-control that he possessed to restrain himself from attacking Harrison. Self-control that was waning very quickly.
Finally intervening, Cloak placed his hand on gh's shoulder. “gh. Enough. Just call the police already.”
gh brushed Cloak aside, working himself further into an enraged fit. “No. I need him to hear this.” He turned back toward Harrison, and he was clearly growing more unhinged with every word. “You think you know me, you sick bastard? You think you know what happened? Let me tell you something. If you're stupid enough to bring that up, you obviously don't know ****!”
“gh. Calm down.”
“Shut up, Cloak!” gh was completely lost to his own fury at this point. “I'm not letting this evil son of a **** get away with this.” Obviously, whatever Harrison was alluding to had caused something to snap. Whatever it was, Cloak had no idea. It didn't really matter at this point, though. What mattered was getting gh to cool down. It quickly became clear that this wasn't going to happen, though, as gh unshouldered his guitar. His voice became quiet. Dangerously quiet. “I'm not letting you get out of here. Not before I play you just one song.”
