NOVEL NEXT Ch. 2 An Old Friend (Charles)
A loud knock shook Charles from his pizza induced nap. He rolled his wide body off of his couch and stumbled his way towards the front door to his small apartment. It was late, well after midnight. Charles didn’t have anyone coming over. Scratch that, Charles never had anyone come over. A small dose of adrenaline shot through his veins as he realized this fact. The exhaustion of having to get up lessened slightly and Charles approached the front door as quietly as he could. The knocking continued.
“Who’s there?” He called out cautiously.
“Charles?” A pretty female voice responded. “Charles Ritkins? You were Devin Klein’s friend in high school.”
It took Charles a few seconds to put a face to the name.
“Yeah. Who are you?” He called back to the woman.
“I’m Alison Klein. Devin’s wife.” She claimed.
Charles cast his mind back to high school as he tried to remember Alison. Lifting himself up, Charles peered through the peephole and his jaw hit the floor. The woman on his doorstep was a ten out of ten. Alison wore nice jeans, a long sleeve shirt that accentuated her figure, and a thin pair of glasses. She was tall, slender, long raven black hair, and an hourglass figure that would make any man weak in his knees. Charles remembered her now. How could he forget the subject of many of his adolescent fantasies?
“Can you open the door Charles?” Alison asked. “It’s important.”
Charles glanced down at his own appearance and felt a wave of self consciousness wash over him. He was wearing sweats that were two days old, he hadn’t brushed his teeth after the deep dish pizza he had for dinner, and his smelly feet were in plain view.
“Give me just a second.” Charles’s voice was an octave higher than it had been a moment ago. “I need to change.”
“Please Charles!” Alison sounded on the verge of tears.
Her voice stirred up many lost emotions in Charles. Though he was still hesitant he wasn’t about to leave her standing on his doorstep.
Why did I ever stop hanging out with them? Charles wondered as he unlocked his door.
No sooner had the chain been slid out of position then the door was being kicked into his face. Charles stumbled backwards but was stopped as a pair of hands shot through the open doorway and snagged the front of his stained sweatshirt. Charles felt his two hundred and fifty pound body leave the ground and slam into the wall painfully. He looked up to see furious lavender eyes boring into his own.
Oh that’s right. Charles felt the revelation hit him a moment later. She was insane.
“Good to see you Alison.” Charles wheezed out. “What can I do for you?’
The intensity of the woman’s gaze could set his house ablaze.
“I need you to tell me everything you know about isekai.”
Charles slapped his own ears to make sure they were working right.
“I’m sorry Alison, I thought you said isekai.” Charles chuckled.
Alison pushed him a bit harder against the wall.
“I don’t have time for your stupid games Charles. Tell me what you know about being summoned to another world!”
“Okay okay!” Charles winced. “What’s this all about?”
Alison dropped Charles heavily on the floor and took a step back. Charles raised a hand to rub his shoulder where the angry wife of his old friend had grabbed him.
“It’s nice to see you haven’t lost your strength.” Charles said dryly and glanced up to Alison.
The woman’s shoulders were shaking. At first, Charles thought she was so angry she couldn’t speak, but that idea vanished when he noticed the tears streaming down her face.
“H-he was taken…” Alison sniffled quietly as she rummaged through the purse over her shoulder and took out a tablet.
Charles chose to ignore the ‘Property of the Sheriff's Office’ sticker on the back of the tablet and instead opened the video that was queued up on the screen. Grainy traffic camera footage played that showed a large city bus rumbling up to a bus stop just past the intersection the camera was posted at. Charles watched in fascination horror as the bus stopped next to a man on a cellphone before tipping over seemingly without cause or reason. The bus flattened the man completely.
“That wasn’t Devin right?” Charles quickly scrolled the video back to the point right before the bus tipped over and zoomed in on the man’s face.
“Alison I’m…” Charles shook slightly as he turned to his friend’s wife.
“He’s not dead!” Alison shouted and thrust her finger aggressively at the tablet’s screen. “Look!”
Charles replayed the video and paid closer attention to Devin right before the bus flattened him. Much to Charles’s surprise there was a flash of light that was easily missed on the grainy traffic camera’s footage. One frame Devin is falling onto his back with the bus almost ready to squish him against the pavement. The very next frame there is a small flash and Devin vanishes in an instant.
“What was that?” Charles replayed the moment multiple times and sure enough Devin vanished just before the bus smashed him into the sidewalk.
“It’s just like those books that you two used to read all the time in school!” Alison’s tear stricken face appeared right in front of Charles causing him to leap back and drop the tablet. “He was summoned, taken by some god or summoner somewhere. I need to find him.”
“Alison.” Charles lifted his hands in front of him defensively. “Even if you’re right and Devin was summoned to another world there’s no way to follow him there. That’s never how it works in these types of situations.”
Charles’ scratched at his chin. “He’s lucky, honestly. I’d gladly take his place if I could. Ha. I bet he’s already been given some sort of powers, recruited to an adventuring party, taken on a quest, met some fine young women…”
Charles felt his apartment shake and pieces of drywall fell onto his shoulder. It took him a few seconds to turn his head and find that Alison had punched her fist clean through the wall right next to his head.
“I mean some cool dudes who just want to be bros.” Charles felt a new coat of sweat run down his back as he realized his mistake. “I bet Devin went to a world where women don’t even exist. Ha ha!”
Charles couldn’t tell if Alison heard him or not. Her breathing remained quick and shallow and her eyes blazed with the wrath of insane possession.
“I need to get there Charles. Now.” Her voice was low and dangerous.
Charles swallowed hard. “W-well as I said-”
Alison gripped the collar of Charles’ shirt. “I wasn’t asking.”
