Live, Die, Repeat

Chapter 8

I've lived quite a few lives in France. Some when it was still Gaul, some when it was at war, and some when it was rather peaceful. But peaceful doesn't always mean safe. I started my life one time in France as a young seamstress, and it seemed like it could be a decent life. But not even 3 days after my start there a wealthy nobleman offered me a ride in his carriage when the rain was pouring buckets. Thinking that the man was being a gentleman, I accepted. The next two days were a living hell, as I was beaten and raped almost continuously by this scum of a human.

After two days of abuse, he slit my throat and I was back in the blackness.

But I would remember the name of Gerard LaFontaine. I'd never hunted anyone from a previous life, and I haven't since, but I was about to.

Moments later, I was awakening in my next life as another young lady, this time in a village just outside of Rome working as a baker. That was rather fortuitous, as I was able to take a lot of bread and a large bread knife with me on a trip up north. It took time, I would have to find work whenever I ran out of money, and I couldn't travel much in the winter. It was a long trip, almost a year and a half on foot, but it was worth it. I made it to France and staked out the chateau of Mister LaFontaine. It was almost too easy really, I just had to walk near his house, up and down the streets whenever it rained, and waited for him to ride on by.

I caught several colds doing this, but the piece of shit fell for it. I never even let him get me back to his chateau, I got him right in the carriage. A bread knife isn't the best weapon in the world to attack someone, but it did the job by opening a cut on his neck. He was still alive as I looked into his eyes and told him I was the revenge of the other women he had done this to. Then I cut off that dick of his before the guards were able to respond to his screaming and pull me off him. I was in no mood for jail, so I just waved my knife at them and they were kind enough to kill me, and I was off to a new life.

One less predator in the world.

I dropped the girls off at the gate to the mansion on the hill, as they were a little worried about me being seen by their father. I had no problem with that, though at some point I was hoping to plead Zach's case for Anna, this most certainly wasn't the time. I stayed down at the gate till I saw them going into the house, when they waved one last time, then I took off.

Once back at my place I cleaned up a bit. I had left the extra clothes in the bags on the couch, and so I put them away in the guest room so that the girls could use them when they came back. That was an odd thought. I normally didn't make many friends in my lives. I would have comrades in arms when I was in the military, or customers if I were in some sort of a job, but it was rare to have someone I would do things with as a social activity. I'd been here in this life for less than a week and I already had 3 friends, 2 of which would be happy to move in with me. What the hell was happening in this life? I hadn't even started classes and things were already confusing.

I wanted to text Ash and make sure they didn't get into too much trouble, but I thought I'd wait a bit in case they were in the middle of an inquisition after being out all night. Inquisitions were no fun, I should know, I'd gone through the Spanish one. In the meantime, I dialed up Zach.

"Hello?" he answered after a few rings.

"Hey Zach, It's Will. Have a minute?"

"Oh, hey. Sure thing. What's up?"

"So, I might have told Anna that I could invite you over to my place, and then she and Ash could come over so you could have a little more time together," I explained. 

There was silence on the other end of the line.

"Zach?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, sorry. I was just trying to comprehend what you said. You're seriously going to do that?"

"Absolutely. She seemed pretty nuts about you, and it is a quick walk to my place for her and Ash."

"Do I even want to know how you showed up with them today?" he asked with a laugh.

"Probably not, it was a strange New Year's Eve. But I'll explain it when we all get together. What kind of schedule do you have?"

"I work Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings, as well as Saturday morning. So, anything else is fine."

"All right, let me text Ash and Anna and I'll see what we can work out." I assured him.

"Man, I'm going to owe you big time if this works out!" he said happily.

"Yeah, you will. I'll text you with the info."

After hanging up, I decided enough time had passed and texted Ash.

     Will– Hey Ash, its Will, you guys get into trouble, or are things ok?

     Ash – All good here. Guys were hungover and watching bowl games, we could have spent all day out 😉

     Will – Well I wouldn't have minded. In fact, maybe you and Anna could come down on Friday or Saturday night? I might have a surprise for Anna.

     Ash – We'll be there! 😊

Well, that was easy. I hoped it worked out for Anna and Zach, they looked cute together down at Benji's and it would be great to help them be happy. Usually, my methods were less matchmaker and more eliminate a threat, this was a nice change.

"So, what do you think About Will?" Ash asked her sister.

"You know I love him!" Anna answered dreamily.

"Anna, concentrate, I mean Will, not Zach," Ashe said slowly. She loved her sister, but she could be such a ditz sometimes.

"Oh! Sorry! You should just be prepared for me to get that confused a lot; it isn't fair to have two hot guys near us at the same time," she apologized.

"Fine. But what do you think about him?" Ash repeated.

"I think if I didn't love Zach, I'd be into him big time. He seems like a great guy," Anna said simply.

"You don't think he is too good to be true?" Ash pressed. "I mean, there has to be something going on, right?"

"Why do you think that?"

Ash held up her hand and started ticking off points. "He's 18 and has his own place, in the middle of nowhere. No pictures of family anywhere in his place. All the alcohol in his place was sealed up, never used. He was way too nice not taking advantage of you, no offence. He cooked for us! That phone was a big red flag. There were no condoms in his nightstand or bedroom, I checked! The clothes buying was something I can't even describe. Do I need to go on?" she was getting exasperated.

"You checked for condoms? Is there more?" Anna said with a grin, she always thought it was funny when Ash got up on one of her soapboxes.

"Yes! He texts like dad, not a single emoji!"

"Ash, you text like dad!" Anna laughed.

"There is nothing wrong with using complete sentences! And I use emojis!" Ash countered.

"Okay, fine. I still don't think he is a bad guy though."

"That's the problem. I don't either. I think he's too perfect, and there is something he's hiding, but I trust him, or I wouldn't go back with you to meet Zach."

"I can't believe he's doing that for us!" said Anna excitedly, happier than she had been in quite some time.

"Well, be patient for tomorrow and you'll see your boyfriend again."

"I will, I will. Too bad you don't like boys, or we could both be with a guy," Anna said contentedly.

"Well, if he was that perfect, he could grow some boobs for me!" Ash chuckled.

"That would be pretty perfect!" Anna agreed as they dissolved into laughter.