70. Carousel

Cortez looked at the meat on his grill. Tuned in on the sound of its sizzling, the ominous sounds that were coming from the crater briefly forgotten.

Tika, meanwhile, walked into the bathroom and felt his hand move to his chest in shock when he saw the vines coming out of their toilet. It was becoming impossible to ignore the impending apocalypse around them; StrangerVille was getting worse by the day.

When Cortez called him over for lunch, he sat down with a sigh. His face was fixed in a glare.

“It’s getting worse,” he told Cortez.

Cortez turned his head to Tika but did not otherwise respond.

When he spoke, it was about an entirely different subject. “You know it’s just us two and some possessed people around town these days, do you?”

Tika furrowed his brow. “So?”

“So that means you don’t have to hide anymore.”

“Neither do you,” Tika retorted testily.

“I’m not hiding for the sake of hiding.”

With a scoff, Tika shook off his disguise.

When Cortez finally had their lunch ready—he had been so lost in thought that he had accidentally overcooked the meat—they ate it in silence.

That was, until Tika broke it. His mood had improved significantly. “You know, we can hate on Earth all we want but they’re doing at least one thing very right… and that’s their food. And, man, are you doing it justice, too. This is great.”

***

Cortez was still trying to find a way to get to the possessed folks; and he was beginning to have more luck slapping them out of it—literally.

When a recently possessed person paid their gratitude by all but coming onto Cortez right before Tika, the latter couldn’t believe it. Cortez had to suppress a smile as he watched the offense on Tika’s face.

He had to admit: he liked it.

When Tika took out his SimRay, Cortez’ smile didn’t falter in the least. In fact, it only grew that much bigger.

Even with decades of being a police chief, Cortez would tell you he had never worked harder than he did in these past few months since he had arrived in StrangerVille. His detective work had never been better than it was now (if he were entirely honest, though, he had been a lousy detective back in the day).

He felt like he was getting closer and closer.

When he ran into a military girl he recognized at the bar, he wasted no time greeting her.

“Say, is my memory serving me right or am I wrong to have seen you around town with a blue-skinned, yellow-eyed man?”

Harley looked at him, suspicious. “I may have interacted with him once or twice.”

“So you hung out with him?”

She turned away. Didn’t answer.

“Do you have any idea where he might be?”

“I don’t care where he is… as long as it ain’t here.”

Cortez’ eyes sharpened. “So he isn’t here in StrangerVille?”

“Not if he has even the tiniest bit of sense he isn’t.”

“Huh,” Cortez mused aloud. “Interesting.”

The fact that the StrangerVille shop had, after years, suddenly gained a new vendor did not go unnoticed to Cortez. When he asked where the previous owner had gone, the man simply shrugged.

“People disappear all the time over here. It’s nothing new.”

***

That night, Tika showed Cortez the vines. Looked at him expectantly as he did.

When he realized that Cortez wasn’t going to speak, he did. “I think we might be overestimating the amount of time we’ve got here.”

But Cortez didn’t look too concerned. “We’ll make it.”

Tika didn’t agree. As they walked out of the bathroom, he turned away. His head went to his head to rub his forehead, trying subconsciously to ease the headache that had been building up lately.

“Two weeks.” He was speaking more to himself than to Cortez. “That’s all the time I get to fix everything before… Just two weeks.”

He was so lost in thought that when he suddenly felt Cortez’ arms close around him from behind him, he was initially surprised.

It didn’t take long for him to appreciate the gesture, though.

Cortez’ cocky smile was too contagious—Tika couldn’t help but smile back.

“We’ll make it,” Cortez echoed. “Trust me.”

“Thank you.”

***

“Tika and Cortez against the world,” Tika spoke confidently, as they watched the sunrise together; if there were one good thing to say about this whole mess, it was that the lighting around town had beautified considerably whenever the sun managed to shine through the thick clouds of the crater. As he was becoming more and more cognizant of just how powerful an ally he had here by his side, he felt better than he had in weeks.

“Against this world, yeah,” Cortez responded.

“First this world…” Tika turned to him, then. “Hey, why don’t you ever use your own real face? You chide me for not using mine, but I can say just the same for you…”

“Because unlike yours, my real face is nothing to crow over.”

“Oh come on…” Tika protested, but Cortez cut him off.

“It’s just the truth, Madden.” He shrugged. “And I don’t care for it. I’m not sad or scared to admit that my real face ain’t anything to write home about. It’s actually one of the few benefits I get here on Earth is getting to choose my own, and I’m choosing to profit off that choice luxuriously.”

“Just this once, though. Show it just this once.”

Cortez did.

“See,” Tika spoke, pinching his cheek with playful affection. “Nothing wrong with it. Looks like a proper high lord.”

“I’ve been told I look like King Henry VIII.”

“Right. A proper king.”

During the kiss they shared, Cortez slipped back into his disguise.

“Long as I’m here on Earth, I’ll just use this face instead.”

“Hypocrite,” Tika smiled.

“Believe me, if I had your face, I wouldn’t.”

---

Finally, it was time. Glory couldn’t even remember when she first started to flirt with the idea of joining the military… she must’ve been twelve at the oldest. She hadn’t told anyone – not until she was accepted. It would’ve been too embarrassing had she failed. But she hadn’t. Her recruiter had even told her they “needed her more than she could possibly fathom.” And now, finally, after years, it was time.

And Glory was ready.

She was as ready as she had been the moment the idea first arose in her at 12 years old.

---

Emil and Maddie looked out over the vast Sulanian sea in front of them. Right now, life was good.

In fact, life may have never been better.

But they both knew that as much as they wanted to, it couldn’t stay this way forever. Sooner or later, they were gonna have to go back.

“But why not?” Maddie found herself questioning. “I mean… what do we really have to get back to? I quit my job, you’re a freelancer… it’s not like we have any obligations waiting for us out there.”

“Look, Maddie, I’d love to stay here too… but you know we can’t. Remember that house hunting we were gonna do when we get back? We’ll need to keep at least some money to actually afford a house better than the one we’ve currently got,” he smiled.

Maddie sighed. “I know. It’s just…” she looked over her back anxiously. “I already feel an incessant need to watch my back even out here. But back there… I don’t know how we’re going to protect ourselves, Emil. I don’t.”

“We’ll manage. I promise. I mean…” he paused. “That last time, when he… gained those powers. He could’ve easily used those on us, but he didn’t. He just flashed away. Maybe he doesn’t care anymore. Maybe he’s found some kind of grander purpose now with these grander powers.”

“Or maybe he’s just become that much more of a threat.”

“I’ve been talking to Calder, and no one’s seen or heard from him.”

“No one had seen or heard from him before he crashed or wedding either,” Maddie pointed out.

“Well, yeah, but…” It was Emil’s turn to sigh. “We can’t hide out here forever, Maddie. You know we can’t.”

Maddie looked away. Blew some air from her nose in a silent, humorless chuckle. “If only we could.”

Still, they made sure to thoroughly enjoy these final days of their honeymoon; just as they had the first… and the ones after that when they extended their hotel room for another week… and the ones after…

On the second to last night of their honeymoon, Maddie and Emil sat on their bed together.

“You know, baby,” Maddie leaned in close. “I’m feeling lucky tonight. I think it might finally happen.”

Emil’s eyes grew with excitement. “I hope so.”

She closed her hands over his. “It will. If not tonight, we’ll try again…” she kissed him. “…and again…” another kiss. “…and again.”

Emil smiled against her lips. “Sounds like a perfect plan to me.”

***

But then, on what was supposed to be their last day in Sulani, Emil received a call.

“…It’s just not safe for you out here, Emil. I’m sorry.”

“But we can’t just stay in Sulani indefinitely, Calder. Our money is running out. We couldn’t afford another hotel. We have to go home.”

“Look, Reyna told me she has a sister out there in Sulani. She’s sure that if you ask her, she’ll let you guys crash with her.”

“And then what? We’re supposed to hide out here until it’s blown over? Because the last time I checked, James was immortal—which means that it would never be safe for us to go back. I’m not going to run for the rest of my life, Calder. I won’t.”

“Who said anything about ‘never’ or ‘the rest of your life’? It’s just for now. It’s just to be safe. Reyna’s sister would love to have you guys. It’s just a few more weeks, Emil. I promise we’ll have everything under control by then.”

Emil’s eyes squinted. “What do you mean, ‘have everything under control’?”

On the other end of the line, Calder gulped. Oops. “Just don’t worry about it, Emil. You’ll be able to go home soon. Just not now. But soon.”

Emil finally gave in. “Fine. Just a few more weeks, then.”

As he hung up the phone, Maddie suddenly felt a wave of nausea coming on—she only just managed to hide it from him.

“So,” he started, turning to her. He feigned a smile. “You got the gist of that?”

“I got the gist.”

“No more hotel rooms, though. Apparently, we found an address, and it’s not too far away from here.”

With the storm that had started to rage outside, their walk over to this new address wasn’t all too pleasant.

It was safe to say that neither Maddie or Emil was in the best of moods when they finally found the house they were hopefully going to spend the next few weeks in.

It looked small. Too small. Whoever this sister of Reyna’s was, Emil thought, she had better be nice.

---

Lauren stood outside, scoping the environs around her as she enjoyed the feeling of sunshine on her skin. It had been weeks since she had last been kissed by the sun. But she had no regrets; she loved Mateo.

There were only a handful of times where she wondered if maybe they had been too quick to abandon their friendship for a romance—and if they even fitted together romantically at all.

---

A/N: Did Cortez autonomously decide to ask Tika to become his boyfriend after watching the latter use his SimRay to freeze a previously infected Sim out of jealousy? Oh, yeah.

Also, King Henry VIII vs. Cortez: