The Life of Jezebel Firetongue

33

I returned to the cave to find Jake sleeping against a wall outside of the cave, clutching my heart. Nearby, I found my locket, the glue dried on the picture. I snapped it around my neck and then gently brought Jake into the cave. Sticking pillows under our heads and draping a blanket over us, I fell asleep next him.

The next morning, I woke up and found myself cuddled up to Jake. One of his arms was around my shoulders, and the other was behind his head. He was smiling and watching me. "Good morning, dearest."

"Good morning Jake." I stared at him warily. "Do you forgive me for running off like that?"

"You came back. That's all that matters," Jake replied. He kissed my forehead and then stood up to stretch.

"While I was out, I had a...interesting encounter." I told Jake the Plant story and he nodded.

"You were right. There's nothing in the world that would make me want to do that to you. Jake pulled me close and whispered in my ear, "I love you too much for that, Jezzy."

I pulled back and looked in his eyes. "You can't kiss me on the lips anymore. It's terrible for your lungs and could kill you."

"And just when you started loving me!" then he gave me an impish grin and leaned into my neck, kissing it gently and murmuring, "Oh well. There's other things we could do anyway..."

I rolled my eyes and laughed, pushing him. "Alright, you hopeless romantic sap. The Honeymoon is over. Let's start training."

Jake pouted. "Fine."

I laughed again and we left the cave, ready to face the day.

(Flight scene, maybe some bits and pieces of his training)

That week, we spent the days training. Jake worked with his new strength, speed and intelligence, and I taught him several moves he could use on enemies. I taught him to fight with me and against me. He ended up being a quick learner and soon he mastered both fighting skills.

When I wasn't helping Jake train, I worked with fire. I was becoming better and better at my fire creations and I had learned how to make little fire marbles that could do many different things. One was designed to explode on contact, while another one could turn into a fiery prison when it hit a person. I trained hard with my fire control skills too. My fire was going to come in handy real soon, and I needed all the strength I could possibly get from it.

At night, it was a whole different story. Jake would either sleep, (if he had a really tough day,) or stay up to talk to me, (if he had a really easy day,) while I tried to trace Dr. Davis' email from the last place it was used, using my laptop and a 4G internet device.

When Jake was asleep, I would talk to Terence through Gmail. One night, towards the end of the week, we talked using our webcams. (Mine was built into my laptop. Up until then, I had no idea of what it was.)

I was working with Dr. Davis' email again while we were talking, and Terence noticed my quiet grumbles and growls of irritation.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yeah...I just can't figure this out." I clicked another button, typed another code, but nothing happened.

"Figure what out?"

"I'm trying to trace this email address to see where it was last used from and I just...can't...make it...work!" I gritted my teeth and started digging my thumb into the cave floor. When I used all of my strength, it molded like wet clay and I created a hole.

"Easy now, Jez. Why don't you just tell me the email address and I'll trace it."

I sighed and told Terence the email address. Terence looked at his monitor and started typing and clicking away. I quickly got bored and went on the internet to check out how my social networking website was doing. The maintenance team I hired, (a group of tech people from New York City, who were happy to run the tech aspect of the site,) was taking care of the website efficiently. Everything seemed to be in order, although the videos were malfunctioning a little bit. I went into the code and fixed the problem, using the knowledge I'd accumulated from a couple of Java books. Finally, Terence said, "Okay! I've got it!"

I closed the website and Terence's face popped right back up. "Where?"

"The most recent use seems to be from somewhere in Wyoming."

"Tell me the address and I'll look it up."

He recited the address and I searched for it on Google Maps. What came up was an area pretty much filled with forest. When I zoomed in, I saw a dirt trail leading to an old warehouse. The warehouse was big enough to house an army, and sturdy enough to protect from a mutant attack, whether it's inside or out.

"Thanks, Terence!" I touched my locket, thinking about the picture of him inside of it. He'd sent it to me and I got it printed at a photo shop. How did I get so lucky as to have the two greatest guys in the world in my life?

I looked at the picture again and saw cameras on the building. "Hey, there are cameras on it. Do you think you can hack into the signal?"

Terence was looking on the screen. "These cameras work through the internet. I'd need an internet signal."

I nodded. "We'll get it to you tomorrow."

"What are you doing Jez?"

I stared at the keyboard. He wanted to know my story. I had to give it to him, he deserved it. But not now. "I'll tell you tomorrow. I promise. Just...don't judge me, alright?"

"Alright." Terence looked down at his keyboard now. "I've got to go to bed now. Class starts early, and I don't want to be too wiped."

"Yeah. Tomorrow's going to be a long day, so I better get some sleep. Talk to you at ten tomorrow night?"

"Yeah. Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

I shut the laptop lid and placed on the floor.When I went to sleep that night, I thought about Terence, and how he was agifted boy who was picked on by others. Would he understand what I did and whyI did those things? Would he even believe my story? As sleep pulled me under, Icame to the conclusion that if he was really the good guy I believed he was,he'd understand all of it. No matter what.