HROT: Spawn of War

Chapter 10: A Tale of Two Kyles

Kyle awoke from his long, peaceful sleep. He smiled as he stretched and sniffed the cool morning air. He was living in paradise.

He rose and stumbled into the kitchen. Alicia was cooking breakfast, wearing nothing but his shirt. Kyle wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her neck as he inhaled the scent of fried leeks and onions. "I love you," Kyle whispered in her ear.

Alicia smiled and clasped his hand. She turned around and embraced him as they kissed. "I love you too," she said happily as she pressed her ear against his chest and listened to his heartbeat. She seemed so joyful, and it warmed Kyle's heart. He never wanted to leave this place.

"Could you go out back and fetch some mushrooms for me?" Alicia asked.

Kyle lovingly pecked her cheek and headed out the back door. He wandered a short ways from the cabin until he came upon a patch of red fungi. He stooped to pick the mushrooms, but he suddenly heard shouting from inside the cabin. One of the voices was Alicia. The other sounded masculine.

Kyle hurriedly ran back home and swung open the door. Alicia was standing behind the counter, trying to conceal that she wasn't wearing pants, while a man with short black hair and a neck beard stood in the middle of the cabin, yelling, "I won't take another late payment from you! Give me all you've got now or you're getting kicked out immediately!"

"You don't understand!" Alicia insisted intensely. There was a fierceness in her eyes. "I have nowhere else to go! This is my home! I'm not going anywhere!"

"This is my property!" the man shouted. "If you won't pay your due, then this isn't your home anymore!"

"Who the hell are you?" Kyle asked angrily as he stepped inside.

The man looked Kyle up and down. "Who the hell are you? Did she shag you?"

"Babe, stay out of it, I've got this," Alicia assured Kyle.

Kyle wasn't buying it. "Get the fuck out of our home. Now."

"I'm not leaving without my payment," the man stoutly replied. "My name is Kyle Schmidt, her landlord and the owner of these woods. We had an arrangement, and if she can't keep up her end, she's out. And so are you."

Kyle was enraged. He stomped up to Schmidt. "Get away from her," he warned, his eyes wide and intense.

"Fuck off," Schmidt snarled. He started to make his way around the counter toward Alicia, who backed away.

"I said get away!" Kyle roared.

"Babe don't hurt him!" Alicia insisted. "I'll lose this place if you make him upset!"

Schmidt had no concern for how indecently dressed Alicia was. He kept coming at her, determined to shake her down for every penny she had. "Give me my fucking money!!"

Kyle lunged at Schmidt, picking him up by his waist and smashing him into the wall.  Before Schmidt could retaliate, Kyle drove his knee into his balls, causing Schmidt to collapse.

As Kyle was about to land a punch to his head, Alicia pulled him away.  "Stop it!" she cried.  "Now I'm going to lose my house!"

"I'll make sure you won't," Kyle replied ominously as he tried to get back to Schmidt, who was coming to his senses.

Alicia still held him back.  "We should go," she insisted.  "Let's just get out of here and find another place to stay."

"No!  Like you said, this is your home.  I won't let this prick take it from you."

As Kyle struggled to free himself from Alicia's grip, Schmidt dealt a blow to his head, knocking him away.  Before Kyle could recover, his rival charged at him and knocked into him, driving them through the cabin wall and out into the garden.