We relaxed with Ilse for a while making sure she got all the rest she needed. All the while we were listening to the audiobook she had suggested. The main narrator did in fact have a very soothing voice, as for the story itself, it was rather adventurous and it did include quite a bit of history as well so I was probably going to have to buy it afterwards to continue listening to the rest of it.

  In any case, a couple of hours later Aileen came to the room with Karin and Paul in tow. They all looked rather happy at least until Paul and Karin saw their family member in bed.

  “Sweetie, is something wrong?” Paul came rushing over.

  “I’m all fine now. Please don’t worry, just got a bit woozy thanks to the trip and the house tour. Really nothing to worry about.”

  “We are just taking it slow.” I smiled at Em’s dad.

  Karin, instead of running over to her mom’s bed and overwhelming her mother even more with attention, just looked at her sister instead.

  Em gave her a reassuring smile in return.

  This cleared up Karin’s face already as she came walking over to me so she could sit in the fauteuil next to me.

  Just before she reached the sofa, I could hear Ilse audibly sniff. “Hmm… What’s that I smell on your jacket?” As soon as Ilse asked that, Karin froze into place, grimacing at the same time. I didn’t need to move to be able to tell why as I could smell a rather specific familiar scent on Karin too, a scent that didn’t bring back the best memories.

  “Uh… I don’t know what you are talking about.” Paul averted his gaze away from his wife. And that’s also the moment I learned that Paul was a terrible liar.

  Aileen as well had grown rather silent and looked at me while she slowly backed away again to the door.

  “Aileen?” I asked, freezing her into place as well.

  “Yes, Aurora?” Her eyes begged me to let her leave but the teeny tiny bit of evil inside of me really wanted to see how this situation turned out.

  “Would that be gunpowder that I smell on Karin?”

  “Gunp-” Ilse’s eyes went wide as she looked at me, then Karin and then her husband. “You didn’t.” She then crossed her arms and sternly looked at Aileen. “Miss McAllister…”

  “It was 100%, totally safe, I promise.” Aileen immediately buckled under the pressure put on herself. “Nothing could have gone wrong. I just allowed them to shoot a couple of rounds, that’s it.”

  “Wait, did you really shoot guns?” Em asked, mainly directed at her sister.

  “Only a few…” Karin, very very silently, replied.

  “I mean… When are they going to get the chance to again in a totally safe environment like this one.” Aileen shrugged, trying to minimize as much as possible.

  “How many did you let them shoot?” I asked in return.

  “Hmmm….” Aileen was clearly hesitant to say as she didn’t want both Karin and Paul to get into more trouble.

  Ilse sighed, uncrossed her arms, and put her hands on her lap. “Come out with it. I won’t get angry.”

  Aileen hummed again and scratched the back of her head. “Fifteen or so…”

  Ilse’s eyes went wide before she took a deep breath and sighed once more. “Fifteen?”

  “So… you literally spent this entire time shooting guns then?” I asked, already feeling slightly jealous. Even I didn’t get to shoot yet as we had mainly practiced hand to hand combat before.

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  “We did have ear protection.” Paul commented.

  Ilse huffed. “Thank the Goddess you did or you would have been deaf before I could nag you about not telling me about this first.”

  “I might have gotten a bit carried away by how enthusiastic they were when we were doing the tour. It’s one of my passions…” Aileen replied, slightly dejected. That made me feel bad as well.

  “Hey, I can understand that, Aileen. But maybe you should have thought about asking. Maybe we could have joined you.” I suggested. “Well… or maybe we could have suggested a time when Ilse was rested.”

  “Almost sounds like you want to shoot the guns yourself, Auro.” Em spoke up.

  “Well I think I will have plenty of opportunities in the future to do so as this is my second home….” I put my hands on my hip and nodded at my girlfriend. “Though I have to admit I am a bit peeved that Karin got to shoot a gun before I could. Besides, it could have made a nice group activity.”

  “How did it feel, shooting a gun?” Ria had walked up to her best friend and had taken her hand in hers.

  Karin blushed slightly and averted her gaze from Ria. “It was…. not unpleasant…” She admitted.

  “Just not unpleasant?” Ria giggled. “Looks like you liked it.”

  “I did like the feedback.” She replied, almost in a whisper.

  Ria looked slightly confused at Aileen.

  “She means the kick, of the gun.” Aileen mimicked holding an assault rifle and the knockback you feel.

  “Oh.” Ria nodded back. “I see, I see.” She nodded happily towards her friend.

  “Yeah, you are definitely going to need to take us along next time.” I smiled at my vampiric friend.

  “I hadn’t agreed on going yet though.” Em commented.

  “Like you weren’t going to want to go too.” I smirked at her.

  Em crossed her arms and huffed. “What if I don’t want to now?”

  “Emma.” Em’s mom giggled. “Now that your dad and sister have tried, you might as well. Otherwise you are going to have to be cross for a long time. And eternity is a very very long time, the last time I checked.”

  “Hmmm… that’s true…”

  The group continued to talk about it for a little bit longer before Alessia showed up at the room as well. She came to inform us that Helen had arrived and that the food would be served in about an hour. She checked up on Ilse’s health but she was glad to hear that she was doing a lot better already.

  Aileen looked at me for permission to go see Helen which I obviously provided. As for Emma and Ria, as we only had an hour left before dinner, they both asked if we could retreat to our own room so they could freshen up a little. Of course I didn’t deny that either. While I was personally already prepared, I also hadn’t been in a car for several hours.

  So we retreated to our own room for a bit so my girlfriends could employ the privacy of our own bathroom. As for me, I just laid down on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and waiting for Em and Ria to finish up.

  While I stared at the already familiar ceiling I got lost in thoughts, thinking about what my life would have been like if Viktor didn’t run into me on that fateful night that changed my life forever. I definitely wouldn’t be living as comfortably as I am now… If I would even still be alive.

  I shook my head to try to physically shake away that thought. But it was of no use as my train of thought kept getting back to it. So I employed one of the only strategies I knew to set my mind on a different path. Pure fantasy.

  Imagining myself and my girlfriends in a high-fantasy setting, adventuring to earn money and having a good time together. While my darker thoughts were still somewhat present in the back of my mind, it did help to lighten my mental load. And as I thought about that I chuckled as that was pretty much the essence of escapism and why people read books, play games, watch movies.

  “What are you chuckling about, Rora?” Ria brought me back to reality and poofed down next to me on the bed, staring straight in my eyes.

  “Nothing much.” I smiled back.

  She squinted. “You are lying. Nothing isn’t that amusing.”

  “Hmmm.” I smiled yet again. “Was just trying to set my mind adrift to something harmless. Found that rather funny…. Even though it might not sound so funny now that I said it out loud…”

  Ria stared at me for a couple of moments before she slowly reached her hand out towards me and touched my nose.

  “What are you doing?” I looked at her slightly confused.

  “Booping you. What else does it look like?”

  “Uhh…”

  Ria smiled but replied in a serious tone. “Want to talk about the thing you are trying not to think about?”

  I shook my head slowly. “Not really.”

  She pressed my nose a bit harder and then softly tapped it a couple of times. “Then what about the harmless thing you imagined?”

  “I would be a lot more open to that.” I agreed. “But then again, nothing much happened in that either. Apart from seeing you in a very fabulous dress in a fairytale castle.”

  “Oooooooh. Did the dress have frills?”

  “Of course.” I smiled and shuffled over to give sweet Ria a kiss. “In a little golden crown too.”

  “Hehe.” Ria beamed. She was definitely enjoying that little image. I might not have particularly imagined that earlier, but I was definitely imagining it now.