Vivid (BoyxBoy) {Pipe Dream: Book I}

Chapter Forty: Dinner Date

Chapter Forty: Dinner Date

I glare at the steel doors in front of me, knowing that the moment they open I will be entering the inferno of Hell's kitchen. I have never felt this much anxiety facing a Hexer armada, you'd have to wonder why I'm finding this much more unnerving. Lady forced herself onto the lift, staying nervously quiet as it ascended. I was guiltily happy that she wanted to come as well. At first I thought it would be completely unfair to force her to share this unpleasant experience and she looked like we would have to drain the pool before she'd ever climb out. But she heard the conversation and my mental torment and marched out of the pool and stared me down until I agreed to take her. 'Water fun but not important. Dreamer important. Dreamer will let Lady come or Lady will latch onto Dreamer and Dreamer will have to drag Lady on Dreamer's fake fur,' was her threat. She was ready to bite onto my clothing and make me drag her along, or worse, she'd pick me up and drag me along.

I exhale deeply through my nose, hoping that the lift somehow breaks down in the next two seconds....one second?

Instead the blasted thing dings and the doors open onto the dark hallway I hadn't seen since I first came here with Mist. And that went spectacularly well...

"Kae, you need to step off, mate," Oz pushes.

"No I damn well don't." I can live in here. There's enough room for me to curl up in the corner and mope for the rest of my pathetic and short life, curled up in a ball weeping and feeling sorry for myself. That sounds much better...

X physically pushes me out of the lift with a firm but gentle pressure in the middle of my shoulder blades, "Delaying what may happen will only intensify the experience."

Thank you Yoda X. My feet hit carpet and I wanted to put the brakes on, but X left his hand there to keeping me walking.

"Come on kid, we're with you. It's not like we asked you to sing and dance for 'em," Oz encourages.

That at least will draw some attention away from the 'What the fuck is that freak doing here instead of being destroyed or locked up somewhere where we never have to see of think about it ever again' issue that I'm quite sure has been put in the suggestion box very regularly. Or maybe it might cast a stronger vote towards getting me destroyed like some unwanted mutt.

...I just hit myself with my own words.

"Alrighty, since we didn't do any pre-ordering forms, you are just gonna have to go with what's on offer." He indicates to the serving area near the kitchen n the far right of the room. A small line had already formed in front of us and as I went between Oz at the front and X behind me, the few people in the room went into complete silence. Soon followed by the usual muttered whispers. Those that soon walked into the room to join the line at first would look startled when they notice the giant tiger then frowned when their eyes land on me. They then made a line that gave us a wide berth. I try my best to ignore it and focused on the food we were slowly getting closer to. It was a buffet unit filled to the brim with food. It went from light meals to the mains to salads and the last table was deserts. It composed of a huge pot of soup, bread, roasts, spring rolls, burgers...chips...custard...ice-cream...I think I'm drooling.

"Just grab a plate and get what you want. Simple as that." Oz moves over to a piles of dishes and grabs one for the top and immediately heads for anything meat and pizza related. I go for the fish and chips...it's been almost ten years since I've had properly battered deep sea fish. I also added some salad and fruit. I was surprised that they had star fruit...not something I've seen since I was about five.

I look back over to see X had grabbed mainly vegetables.

'Looks weird but smells good,' Lady contributes, sniffing at the random selection. 'Hunger feeling even though not hungry.'