Burning Road

The Story of the World Above- Part I

"It's a daunting task I've set for myself.  Find the source of my family's misfortune, and a means of breaking the curse.  Yes, I write here in these pages the word curse, for what else could I call this thing that has plagued my people for generations.  It functions with a purpose, building us up so that we can fall all the further.  It has held us in its clutches for far too long, and if I can stop it or at the very least stamp a name upon it, then I will have struck a blow for all of us.  If I fail then at least I can leave enough groundwork for Noah to finish what I've started.

To that end I have done a thing that weighs heavy on my heart.  I have been hard on him, harder than any man should be to any he claims to love as dearly as I love my son.  He is everything, and I've begun this journey of mine to ensure that he and his sister may grow old needing not to endure the hardships that has become The Prince legacy.  So I've been hard on him, to make him as strong as tempered steel and as sharp as a razor's edge.  I fear that he resents me for it, but I do what I must.  I see the anger in his eyes, and it kills me not to take hold of him and tell him I love him.  Alas, I cannot.  I can't risk damaging the work I've put into forging him.  When I am gone it will fall to him to look after our Maurine.

I will never speak these words, but I leave them here so that one day maybe he'll read them and understand that I've done what I've done for him, and all of us.

-Wesley Cleo Prince"

Cali took a deep breath, and put the notebook down.  She was learning a lot about DotPrince, and was starting to understand the man he'd become.  She jotted down a few notes then walked around to stretch her legs.  He'd made space on his long workbench by tossing his gear on the floor.  He'd dropped the books and his notes in the empty space, and told her not to touch anything else.  Then DotPrince stormed up the stairs, suffered a dizzy spell, and nearly broke his neck tumbling back down.

He couldn't complain about her first aid skills while unconscious.  Cali'd worked him out of his clothes, and did what she could.  The internet was an invaluable help even in the face of DotPrince's terrible broadband speed.  She just plugged her phone into the wall and made her own hotspot.  His ribs weren't broken just badly bruised, nothing ice couldn't fix.  When Cali was done she'd tried to carry him up the stairs.  That's when she'd noticed his nakedness.  After which she couldn't touch him without her cheeks burning with embarrassment.  In the end she left him on the couch.

She'd seen DotPrince's loft from a distance but being inside, being invited inside was far more exciting than she expected.  She couldn't deny that he was hot, but the excitement was more spiritual than sexual.  His lifestyle and his personality called to her like a super magnet.  She wanted to live like him, she wanted to move like him, Califia Morrison wanted to be him.  As she quietly walked around his apartment she imagined what it would be like to be the lone wolf... she lived alone too but it wasn't the same.  She was the ugly duckling, it was a different type of outcast.  She stopped in front of the waste bin full of bloody rags and remembered what she'd done.  The duck had saved the wolf from a pack of bigger wolves.  Then she'd gotten the wolf home, and fed him tylenol for the pain.  Cali had her first taste of being the hero, and it tasted great.  She looked at DotPrince sleeping heavily on the couch.  She'd once dreamed of being the lone wolf but had decided that she would rather be part of a pack even if it was only a small one. 

She danced around, taking in the smell and look of his place.  If she was going to redecorate her apartment, she needed to memorize everything.  The dusty and unused kitchenette space, the immaculate bathroom which stank of his cologne, the work bench full of weapons.  She vowed to return with measuring tape at her earliest convenience.  She noticed that his television was as dusty as his kitchen.  DotPrince rarely ate at home, and watched tv even less.  She decided to get him some DVDs.  She thought he would like the first two Blade movies, and she'd throw in the third just to complete the set.  Her landlord would throw a fit if she painted her windows so she would need to find a way to tint them.  Her place seemed more lived in, more present, but that was probably because he had more space.