Chapter 4

I checked my equipment and found that it wasn’t in too bad of shape. I’d have to swap out the heavy flannel shirt and turtleneck that I used last time, but the overalls could last a few more trips. Carhartts were built to last, and black duct tape was a plus for easy repairs. That and most of my cuts were on the arms, with only a few shallow cuts on the chest. Even against the Boss Orc, I never felt like I was in real danger.

Which made it all the more fun.

The next morning, Monday, I spent working on my new project. And chatting with Paula. She seemed to be in a good mood and even started as many conversations as I did, via IM.

While warming leftover pizza in the oven for dinner, I heard a soft knock on the front door. Katie stood shivering in the cold, wearing an old worn jacket and knitted gloves.

“Hi, come in. Can I take your jacket?”

I surmised that Nattie told her my address.

She nodded, followed by a quiet, “yes, please.” The shortest of the three brunettes stuffed her mittens in the pocket before handing it off to me, to hang in the front hall closet.

The jacket was too light for a long Chicago winter. I held my frown in.

I didn’t comment on my guest showing up unexpectedly in the exact same outfit she wore the previous evening. Green fluffy sweater, painted-on bleached blue jeans and worn sneakers.

“I’m making dinner; leftover pizza and chef salad. Care to join me?”

“Okay.”

Her reticence was expected. What her goal was, I would let her tell me when she was ready. I didn’t think it would be simple. I did remember that she had the highest intelligence of the trio.

We ate in silence. Katie picked at her meal, barely finishing one slice of pizza, not the crust, and a small bowl of salad. The can of Coke was gulped down though.

“Are you okay?” I opened, after we finished eating. Mostly to draw her out.

She nodded.

So, no.

“Want to tell me what brings you over?”

Standing, she quickly removed her sweater, up and over her head, immediately after she clutched it to her stomach, just under her exposed and over washed pink bra.

I froze.

Bravely she faced me, “you can have me, just please make sure that Nat and Jude make it through the portal safe.”

I unfroze.

For her peace of mind and self-esteem, I had to do this right. School girls and college girls were a different breed. It had been ages since I had a college girl throw herself at me sober. Never a seventeen-year old.

A hint of makeup, dark gray eyes, light brown hair, bunched back in a ponytail, thin, almost too thin, smaller breasts. As or maybe smaller Bs. With that push up bra, I wasn’t sure. Katie was pretty, I admitted privately.

But...

I took a step towards her. Frightened, she stepped back a half step.

“You’re very pretty. Don’t you think I will do my best to keep all of you safe?”

“I don’t know.”

An honest reply. She didn’t know if I would bail on them to save myself. And she was worried.

“Come with me.”

She blanched fearfully, but followed. In the living room, I sat her on my sofa while I faced her from my leather chair. Nervously, she kept that sweater pressed against her stomach, as if it were armor shielding from my unwanted advances. Yet that slightly frayed pink bra stood out for me to see. Invitingly...

At first, she wanted to curl into herself to hide, but then straightened up. She was trying to save her friends after all.

“Why are you three in such a hurry to enter the Gate?”

“How did you know?”

“You made it obvious, insisting on this week for a run. Do you want to tell me about it?”

“My stepdad is coming home on Sunday.”

“And you are worried that he will report the Gate?”

“We need the money. He has a prosthetic left leg. Salesmen who limp, don’t do well.”

Ah.

“He will take the reward for finding an undiscovered Gate, won’t he? Even if you ask him not to.”

“Yes.”

“Tell me about Jude and Nattie.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Their home lives. Family school and what-not.”

Feeling that she had little choice, Katie started talking. Nattie used to live with her mom, who now lived in New Jersey with her new boyfriend. The new stepdad had three sons. When I asked why Nat didn’t move out there with her mother, she replied “her mom’s boyfriend’s sons are handsy. Nat was afraid of getting raped.”

“Did she tell her mom?”

“She said she did, but her mom went anyway. I guess that leaving an apartment here was her way of protecting Nat.”

Apparently, Nat lived by the skin of her teeth, eating the bare minimum to get by. All three did. They stuck to each other like glue in school to prevent bullying and predators.

My words, not Katie’s.

Jude was a little better off. Her mother was a nurse on the night shift while the long-divorced father was a cop on the other side of Evanston. She saw him once every few months for a weekend, if Jude’s dad wasn’t working. Which was most of the time.

Jude never spoke of her mother unless it was necessary, and rarely of her father. Neither of the girls spent any time at Jude’s house nor at Nat’s, preferring Katie’s cleaner home. Apparently, Nat wasn’t the best housekeeper.

None of the three had any real prospects of attending college. Their families were all too poor, and other than Katie, neither of the other two had any real desire.

She admitted, with questioning, that she wanted to be a nurse but didn’t see how it was possible. Even with scholarships, Kate couldn’t afford to live on or off campus. Money was the first, last and every issue with her and her friends.

“What would your friends think if they found out that you were here offering your body for their safety?”

“YOU CAN’T TELL THEM!” Panic and desperation mixed together in her protest.

“What makes you think that if I am a big enough asshole to abandon you three in a dungeon, a simple offer of sex from you will prevent me from doing it anyway?”

“I ... I have to hope.”

Obviously, she didn’t consider that I might go back on my word if I slept with her.

“Katie, it’s most likely the opposite. I am more likely to sacrifice myself to save you than sacrifice you to save me. Even without your offered incentive, as nice as it is.”