Chapitre 36: Chapter 35: Seer Larmina
The first thing I noticed was that other than the four blue-skinned women and the animals that howled and roared in the night there was absolutely no one else here. A series of red farmers' lanterns hung on the metal scaffolding of the tent, the dull flames casting a dim glow around the room with patches of darkness in between them. In the center ring where the performers would stand there was a table there, Larmina carrying me there as she smiled down at me.
"You have nothing to fear, Ethan. We shan't harm a guest, especially one who's fate is so deeply intertwined with ours." Her words were cryptic, her faux British accent so thickly laid on that it worked well to cover the hill in her voice, but I knew a hick when I saw one and Larmina was definitely a hick.
Her steps led us to the head of the table as she sat me down in the seat of honor, an old brown leather gentleman's chair. The soft cushion was interrupted in several areas by jagged cracks of torn leather, the sun-hardened hide jabbing my ass. Looking up my eyes met the kind baby blue eyes of the older woman, her delicate fingers reaching behind my back to grab at my restraints.
With a casual pull, the sound of the baler twine around my wrists snapping filled the air, my eyes widening as I watched her pull a fistful of the broken rope free. She did the same for the binding around my ankles, the sight of the rope fraying in real time as she slowly pulled at it was really something. I knew you could snap baler twine pretty easily with fast attempts at pulling it apart, but she wasn't moving fast and her muscles weren't even flexing.
She seemed to revel in my shock as she stood back up before turning to walk to her own seat. My eyes trailed down her toned back, the coiled muscles underneath giving way to her thick juicy ass. The transparent fabric of her chemise gave me a perfect view as her doughy ass cheeks jiggled with each step, her hips swaying in a hypnotic rhythm. She wasn't wearing panties, the realization only hitting me now after she had sat in the seat across from me on the rectangular table.
"So—Larmina, what do you want to talk about?" As I spoke the three other girls joined in at the table. Lynae and Linna sat on the left side of me, Livianna propping her feet up on the worn wood table sitting to my right as she picked at her teeth with a toothpick.
"Your future, or at least one of the possible threads of an unrealized time to come is what I want to discuss." I did have to admit that Larmina did have a knack for showmanship, my body leaning forward to hear more of her words.
"Are you a fortune teller—?"
"Heh, as if I would consort with the devil himself for knowledge. No, I am no fraud nor am I in league with the forces of Hell, put simply I am a woman born with a gift, though limited. I can only see things that would drastically effect my family." Her tone was stern, my body stiffening as four sets of eyes looked at me with varying degrees of hostility and admonishment. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I waved my hand in front of me to dispel their anger.
"I meant no offense, but you have to understand that this all sounds a bit far-fetched. How am I supposed to believe that you can see into the future?" A part of me wondered how I was acting so calm with women who are stronger than most men and have blue skin not resembling anything in nature standing before me. Even stranger, one of them somehow knew my name even though we'd never met.
"In ten seconds you will receive a worried text from your sister, Clara." My blood ran cold at the mention of Clar's name. Lynae pulled my flip phone from within the deep expanse of her cleavage before sliding it across the table toward me. They had confiscated it along with my gun, but I'm pretty sure the revolver was kept under the ruffles of Livianna's dress instead of between her tits.
*Ding*
Sure enough, my phone buzzed as my heart lurched up into my throat. My eyes peered down to see the contact across the small display screen, a shiver running down my spine as it read the name Clara. With shaky hands my fingers pried open the flip phone, my eyes scanning the text displayed with growing horror.
'Hey, E, where are you!'
I glanced back up from the phone, my fingers hovering over the keyboard ready to type out a cry for help. Why had she given me my phone when I could so easily get help, a prickling sensation in the back of my mind telling me that something was up.
"Do you need any more proof or can we get to the actual issue at hand?" Her tone was chiding, like I was an unruly child she was about to spank. Linna snickered as she realized the way her mother treated me was similar to how she treated her daughters, my eyes drifting over to the lithe girl to glare at her. That only seemed to cause her to giggle more, the sound reminding me of a tinkling bell.
"…Is it really that important?"
"It is, the future of the women around you depends on this moment." I jolted, goosebumps running across my skin at the weight of her words. Her tone spoke of only the worst possibility imaginable like she could see it right in front of her. Those sky-blue eyes were growing more and more unfocused, the flickering lights casting a series of shadows across her face like dancing demons
"And why would you be getting involved?" I wanted her to say this was all some joke so badly, for her to take out a wipe and reveal that there wasn't a family of beautiful blue-skinned women out in the hills of Kentucky and that it was all just makeup. The camera crew would come out at any moment, the host a hot step behind them ready to cry 'You just got punked!'.
"Darlin', do I look so cruel as to leave you to your miserable fate?" Her ice-blue lips curled into an amused smirk, one of her thin fingers twirling a strand of long black hair.
"Your daughters held me at gunpoint and then proceeded to hogtie me so I can't really be sure." My words caused the three sisters to flinch, Linna giving a nervous chuckle as her mother glared at them.
"I guess honeyed words won't be getting anywhere with you so let me tell you straight. If you heed my warning the Ophelia family stands to gain something valuable in the process." She leaned in like she was speaking of something illegal, her cheeks turning an even darker shade of blue like she was blushing. Lynae was in a similar state as she fiddled with her thumbs, Linna had buried her face in her hands, and Livianna tried playing it off by looking at her fingernails. Something was up and I'm sure Abby wouldn't approve.
"Vague as ever, so what even is this terrible future because you're making it sound like I'm Ebenezer Scrooge with how bad it sounds?" I muttered, my eyes hardening as I tried to see if I could catch any change in her body language.
"Very well, I shall tell you in the form of a story." At that I fought the urge to groan, I was really hoping for a twenty-word or less summary, not a whole damn TV special. It got even worse when I realized that the three sisters weren't standing up to leave but to act out this thing like it was a theater skit.
***
(Larmina's Story Number 1):
We start not in the small town of Munford Kentucky, but in the Federal Correctional Institution, Ashland. Ethan sat in the mess hall picking at his 'meatloaf', the thing looking less like meat and more like grey mushy sludge.
He was older now, his face covered in coarse stubble and the signs of wrinkles were growing stronger near his eyes and mouth. His coal-brown eyes were much duller now, the blank stare he gave his food as he picked at it was just as lifeless as the rest of his thin frame. The man's once-ripped physique had become nothing more than skin and bones as he'd lost all desire for food.
"What's up with him?" A newer inmate asked, his voice just loud enough for Ethan to hear. Showing no reaction, he scooped up a bite of his meatloaf before tucking it in his mouth with a grimace.
"Don't mind him, poor bastard's mute." A gruff inmate spoke as he scratched at his greying stubble, his eyes flicking away from Ethan's hunched form like he was nothing but trash.
"W-what happened?" The younger inmate asked not out of concern but because he was looking out for himself. He didn't want to end up being like that guy on a day like Christmas after all.
"He came like this. Rumor has it his sister left him to go live back with her mother after her friend committed suicide. Apparently she liked him and he didn't like her back in the same way." The younger inmate winced at the older man's words. His gaze turned sympathetic as he looked at Ethan, the man still staring at his food without a thought in his head.
***
"…Pffthahahaha, this has got to be some joke right? You can't me expect me to believe this bullshit!" I yelled, my eyes turning back from the three girls who had given it their all performing to the director. Larmina looked right back at my narrowed gaze with a raised chin, her face a stoic mask as she regarded my tantrum as nothing but a dog barking in the wind.
"Then, how about another?" Before I could interrupt she was already narrating, her voice dragging me back into the scene she crafted. The girls resumed their acting, the easy way they changed roles was truly a sight to behold.
***
(Larmina's Story Number 2):
Abby had never been the same since the arrest, her feet dragging across the cold floor of her apartment as she shuffled around the piles of trash and dirty clothes. Her hair had grown long, the greasy black strands acting like a curtain down her back. Her face was paler than a sheet, her oily skin gleaming under the light of the afternoon sun. She looked like a mess, the stained t-shirt and pajama pants she wore drooped around her emaciated frame.
Walking past the kitchen counters covered in dirty dishes the girl reached for the fridge, the light had busted in the thing long ago but she could still see the sticky stains of meals past coating the white interior. Reaching inside her hand grabbed the only item in the fridge, booze. The can of Natural Ice was already cracked open before it even left the fridge as she began chugging the thing like a woman dying of thirst. After emptying the can Abby grimaced, her fingers denting the metal as she crumpled it before tossing it into the pile of cans filling the kitchen sink.
She repeated these steps every hour on the hour to keep her buzz going, the numbing feeling being the only thing she strived for nowadays. She could still remember the day it all went to shit, the day her and Ethan decided to marry. She had been happy and so had he, but…but Elsie Smith not so much.
She had come home that night after talking with her mom, the woman still disapproved of who she was marrying but as her mother, she refused to let Abby go at it alone planning the wedding. The noise coming from the bedroom had clued her into something going on, the whorish moans reverberating down the hall filling her ears.
Elsie was straddling Ethan, the girl bouncing up and down on his erection like her life depended on it. A manic grin had etched itself across her face, tears streaming down her cheeks as she held onto his chest. What followed was a fight between the two women, Elsie being kicked outside naked and alone. At the time Abby had thought she was in the right, her and Ethan had wanted to remain exclusive in their marriage after all. Only when she received the news from an inconsolable Clara did she realize what she had done.
Elsie had killed herself, the girl breaking her neck across the dry creek bed of Nixon Creek after jumping off the bridge. Ethan was never the same after that, and before she knew it he had turned himself in to the police after confessing to a series of crimes. He betrayed everyone he ever worked with to create as many enemies as possible, the man wanted to die in prison. A wry grin appeared on her lips at the thought of how similar her and Ethan are. Instead of wanting to get shivved in a dirty jail cell, Abby wanted to kill herself and her liver in a dirty apartment. She cackled at that, her laughter sounding more and more like sobbing as it continued.
***
"…H-how?"
"How what?"
"How do you know her name!?"
"I wasn't lying Ethan, I've seen it all. Persimmon died of a drug overdose, Olivia ended up in a loveless marriage with an abusive husband, Veronica worked herself to an early grave, Rachel's music career died, Becky ended up becoming a shut-in, and Camilla—"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up, I get it!"
"Do you truly, these events are entirely avoidable and yet had we not met you'd follow the same path and make this potential future real."
"That's not true—"
"Are you not already ignoring Elsie?"
"—ghk!"
"You are, and the more you push her away the more crazy that girl will become for you. Clara's just the same, she's probably dying inside thinking you've gone to Abby's house."
*Ding*
At the sound of my phone going off everyone froze, the usually unflappable confidence Larmina had faltering as she gazed wide-eyed at the phone. Reaching out I grabbed the phone and read the text, a smile playing on my lips.
"You're right, she's crazy, heck, every one of the girls you mentioned is crazy in one way or another. So what do you think those crazy girls are going to do when they find out I've been kidnapped by you four?" My eyes scanned over the text from Abby before I typed a quick reply as the three sisters scrambled to restrain me.
'Ethan, Clara says you haven't come home, where are you?'
'Been kidnapped, have Becky pull up my loc!'
Hitting send I fought desperately to hold onto the phone to make sure she received the message. Livianna's blue fingers were crushing my hand as they slowly pried my fingers free, but before she could win the familiar ding of a text filled the air. She'd gotten it!
'Got it.' For some reason, the period made it scarier.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone