To Perceive an Image

Twenty-Five: Images of An Unexpected Companion

The Image World, September 20, 2040, 7:45 PM

"Can you hold me tightly, Aza?" she says, tightening her hold around my neck for the second time this evening.

"Always," I affirm.

She nods as I give the last few instructions and warnings. "Alright, listen to what I'm about to say and pay attention. We're, well, I am going to jump for the both of us, and we'll end up in a place that looks exactly like this park, okay?" I explain, and she nods in understanding.

"Good, and when we're there, never let go of my hand until we're inside, and always stand between Flynn and me. You'll meet his family. His mom is the kindest woman, and his little sister is your age, so I know you'll get along. Uh, let's see, what else?" I adjusted the scarf around her neck as I took time to think. "Oh, if you notice anything strange, tell me immediately. We'll get the hell out of there the second you don't want to stay for much longer. We can go to my house and maybe watch a movie or something. Is this okay with you?"

General Azail running her army of one sounds like a fun job.

"Yes, Aza, thank you for this," the adorable toothy smile on her face makes this stress worth it. I nod in response before counting down to one before I jump through the beaming light.

As expected, and as I had warned, we ended up in the exact place we started. That sounds like a complicated motif for life.

I place Ruby down and walk towards the familiar man chilling on the slide. The comical sight of him sprawling in a slide much shorter than him has me pull out my phone to take a picture. He notices my secretive plan and purposefully gives the camera the flattest face he could muster. Still a cute picture, though.

"It's illegal to take photos of strangers, ma'am," he deepens his voice and speaks in a mock threatening tone.

"Oh, my bad, let me delete it." I pretend to delete the picture before Ruby snatches my phone from my hand.

She motions for me to lean in with her hand, and I do what she asked. Bringing her mouth closer to my ears, she prevents Flynn from hearing or seeing her words by covering the sides. "Keep the picture, I saw him take a picture of you when we went to the ice cream shop. So keep it on your phone for revenge, hehe," she whispers muffled words into my ears, but I still heard and understood everything.

I'm going to projectile vomit.

Questions about how I look in the picture on his phone don't surface in my mind like I thought they would since I'm too busy freaking out.

My insides have an organ dislocating party while my outsides, meaning my face drops my mouth to the ground and widens my eyes the size of a soup bowl.

To make the awkward atmosphere created by yours truly dissipate, I give Flynn a tight smile and hope he buys it.

"In that case, then I'll keep the picture," I reassure a worried Ruby, to which she replies by clapping.

I grab hold of her hand when Flynn comes to stand next to us.

"Flynn, can you do me a favor and stand on the other side of Ruby?"

He looks confused for a moment before asking, "why? You don't want to stand next to me?"

Trick question, to which I'll answer by saying yesn't.

The words yes and not combining to make the word yesn't is the single best thing the English language could've done for my foreign ass.

"Wouldn't want to boost your ego by saying yes, but I'm supposed to heal people's mental health, so I won't say no. I'm asking you to do this so we can form a shield around Ruby. As overprotective as that sounds, I'm not taking any chances."