Oct 31st, 2026
When I got there Levi was already waiting for me, sitting down at a table. I was a little surprised, I was a bit early, I’m always early. So it’s not often that I’m not the first to arrive. The clock strikes 12:46, midday, and I walk over to the chair across from him.
Betty is waiting in the car on me, though she brought along her cell so she’s probably watching the latest YouTube star callout video. Someone is always breaking copyright, at least going off of what Betty lets me know. Still, I’m not going to keep her too long. I’m sure she’ll call me if she gets tired.
Levi is dressed much like he was at the hospital, far too nice for a place like this. It feels a bit off. I remember back about how he sent me that topless picture of himself after we had gotten into our second bunch of text messages saying how we would play around with each other if we could. What he would do with me if we were alone together. I had told him I wasn’t okay with pictures, that I wasn’t okay with him messaging me about sex anymore even if I had messaged him back before. I told him we needed to take a step back from that, especially since I just left Owen and I didn’t want to be with anyone again. I didn’t set an amount of time for that. Now I knew I always wanted to be on my own.
When I told him all of that I was expecting him to be pretty upset. I had kind of led him on, that’s what I thought at least. But no, he didn’t seem to take it too badly. He apologized, our talks paused for a couple of days, and then he never talked about sex or tried to message me about sexting again. We kind of just never brought it up and it felt like to me we shifted back to where I always wanted us to be, friends.
I know I can’t read people’s signals of what they think about me and all, but driving up here Betty did point out this was a date, and now with how Levi was dressed and given our history, I felt it might be. I don’t want to believe that though. I want to go back to dad’s and watch some horror movies with Betty, force her to see all the Leprechaun films. Levi can come to of course if he wants. He’ll end up in the bathroom vomiting his lungs out, but it would still be fun.
“Sorry if I kept you waiting,” I say as I sit down.
“Not at all,” he snaps quickly back.
I grab a menu and start looking over it. I just order two starters so it works like a meal, the Budda Boomers and the chicken wings. That and water to drink. Levi gets an overly filling spaghetti.
“You can pig out if you want, I’ll be paying for this,” he says.
“Thanks, but I’m good,” I say. So if your mom is in the hospital you get a free meal?
That triggers a need in me for another breather and I pause and I take one. I sniffle by accident while I do.
“It’s okay,” Levi says softly.
We both pause for a moment.
“So how’s life in the big city?” Levi asks.
“Nothing I haven’t already told you. What’s it been like around here?”
“Well since Covid all the major businesses that closed up didn’t come back. I think one or two did, but this place basically died a second death.”
“Fuck, world’s burning in a handbasket,” I say back and then the food is placed down before us.
“And your father,” I know it’s not fully alright for me to ask. I don’t know the extent that Levi is taking care of his dad, he’s never talked about it other then saying there had been a stroke.
“He’s doing as good as he can be,” Levi says back, he doesn’t seem to be bothered. We start eating.
It’s a good meal and a good atmosphere. Levi was right, I did need something. I don’t take the best care of myself sometimes. With me being cost and task focused, sometimes I kind of forget about myself. That’s why scriptwriting is good, as is playing a game with a group. It makes treating myself task oriented so I actually do it for a change. There is some music playing in the background, I don’t know the name of the song but I know it will be stuck in my head later. I at least pinpoint it’s from the nineties. I almost don’t feel it, but then I do. I pull my foot back a bit so Levi’s foot isn’t touching mine. Obviously it could have been an accident, simply bumping someone’s foot, there isn’t anything wrong with that.
“So what book are you having your class read?” Levi asks.
I shrug; it doesn’t matter.
“And since you’ve been on your own, have you gotten anyone’s interest?”
I pause at the question. I’m not sure of my romantic orientation yet, but I’m kind of assuming I don’t have a draw to it, just like the rest of my sexuality. I haven’t even come out to Betty yet. I just found out a little over a week ago that I’m asexual. I don’t know if I want to tell him. We had a history with the messaging so he wouldn’t believe me. I would have to explain how it works for me and I may have to answer a bunch of questions. It would be like proving my sexuality. I’ve had experience with proving my gender so I know I’m not up for it. It would be to awkward and I’m feeling nervous. I’m really pausing now.
“So, you haven’t bumped into anyone,” Levi smiles and chuckles a bit. I don’t like the laugh. It doesn’t sound like he’s been sounding until now. It sounds different, it’s off. Almost like he’s trying to act like he was a character in a sitcom.
His foot runs up along my leg and I pull back in my seat as fast as I can. That wasn’t an accident.
“Levi?” I just say, and then I pull back my seat a bit feeling rude. I don’t want to hurt him.
“Sorry Iris. I was just testing the waters. We flirted a bit of time ago, so I was just double checking,” Levi said.
“That’s not my name. Don’t call me that.”
He pauses. I fill in the blanks; I honestly don’t want to hurt him.
“It’s been years since I’ve been in this town, I don’t have to be in the closet for anyone here. You’re not protecting me here,” I say. Of course I can’t know that was the reason he called me by my dead name. If he was that over protective to not want to ‘expose’ me then that was bad in it’s own right, and I didn’t need or want that kind of protection.
“Right, right. Sorry for wrecking our date there. That’s egg on my face.”
“This isn’t a date. You were taking me out to make me feel better. That’s what you told me. Our messages, you sending me that picture of you being topless, me sending you that video, that was months ago. I don’t feel like that anymore.”
“But you did feel like that at one point.”
“I thought I did, but that doesn’t matter. I don’t feel like that now.”
“So none of it mattered. You were just enjoying yourself over on the other side of the world, cause over here, this didn’t matter.”
“What does that mean?” it was hard to say how to respond. The comment felt like it came out of nowhere and once again Levi sounds different. Now he sounds a bit like the mean boyfriend that the main girl breaks up from in a romantic comedy. He doesn’t sound real. He sounds scripted almost.
“Nothing, it doesn’t mean anything,” Levi stated back, coming across now as a bit more robotic.
I start eating my food quickly. This conversation is getting odd. I feel like I’m with Owen again, only this feels worse. It’s somehow even more unstable, even more unpredictable. He’s changing on a dime with how he presents and sounds. Every time he talks he’s like someone else, changing himself how other people would change their clothing.
“I saw a picture of him you know,” he says.
“Who?”
“Owen. Guy wasn’t some gamer geek like you said. He was built like a tank. If you liked the big muscle guys that can save the princess you should have just said so.”
“What the fuck!?” I get up from the table. He just called me a princess, what the fucking Hell. I’m reminded of the tattoo Owen had of the dragon eating the princess in the sexual nature. Was that how Levi was suggesting he saw me?
“Sit back down Iris, you’re making a scene,” Levi says, his eyes looking up at me, looking cold. He sounds even more robotic now, like he’s a store clerk taking notes.
“That’s not my name Levi! You fucking asshole! That’s not my fucking name!” I scream out at the top of my lungs. The fact that he’s talking to me in such a matter of fact way just seems to anger me more, like my emotions aren’t worth the effort.
A hand grabs my arm. “Sir, you are going to have to calm down,” a waitress states to me. She’s holding my arm tightly, too tightly, but I can’t be mad at her, she has no idea what’s going on. I don’t either.
“It’s okay, she gets a bit out of sorts sometimes. She’s emotional, mom’s in the hospital,” Levi is standing on the other side of me now. He’s holding my other arm, not tightly, calmly, moving his fingers along it. It’s so unnatural, like an alien deciding the proper way to hold someone.
His voice has shifted to an over protective brother in a movie from the 1980s and further back.
I walk back and away from him. I need to get out of this building fast. He’s dangerous, I don’t know how dangerous, but Levi only means me harm now.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to misgender you,” the waitress says, clearly very confused by everything. She looks dumbfounded and a bit scared; I don’t know of who.
“You didn’t,” I say and I head straight for the door, food hardly touched.
--
I open the passenger door on the car and I pull myself in, my head is low. I can feel a tear touch my lips, a few of them do, but I don’t know if Betty can see if I’m crying yet.
“What happened?” Betty asks, concern is in her words.
“Fuck if I know. Levi was acting really odd. He did see it as some kind of date, but he was overly flirty. It was scary,” I explain lightly.
“You want me to go in there and have a word with him?” Betty asks.
“No, we need to drive out of here,” I say. I run my hand across my nose and lift my face up, resting the back of my head on the chair. I’m sniffling.
She does as suggested, but the moment she turns on the car the radio kicks in with some overly hopeful love song. “BUT I WOULD WALK 500 MILES!” is shouted at us like it wants to break our nerves. She turns it off and just lets the silence take over the car. She also drives slow, slower then she should. She’s giving me time to speak if I want to, but I don’t want to go over everything. I can’t explain most of it. Levi had suddenly changed into a different person. Maybe I never knew who he was to begin with. Betty is going to be really confused for the whole night though unless I tell her something more, so when we pull into the driveway I bite the bullet.
“He wouldn’t stop dead-naming me. He wouldn’t stop calling me Iris,” I say very softly, there is still some wetness from my eyes.
She turns off the car and looks over to me. “That guy is fucking nuts. Guy just can’t admit he’s been crushing on a dude,” Betty shakes her head.
She opens the car door hard and with the force she uses it strays back and almost closes. She gets it to pause with her hand pulls herself out in a fluid motion. She then goes around the vehicle and opens mine, but she does that much more gently.
“I’m going to go dress up as a slutty version of She-Ra and you’re going to scourer the Internet and look for the most cheesy Halloween crap that you can and then try to somehow get your dad’s old TV connected to the net. It wont be easy, you have my sympathies,” she orders as I still sit in the car.
“The Leprechaun movies.”
“Okay, not that cheesy.”
“Okay, just the first two. I’ll pick something softer to start with. Death Becomes Her?”
“I have no idea what that is but okay,” Betty smiles and then helps me out of the car.
The sky looks light and breezy. It’s chilly but nice. The weather on the net had suggested it would rain, but it seems unlikely.
--
Tinman3: What gives Iris!? Why did you say what we had wasn’t real? Why did you say your feelings about me changed? Why did you get all defensive when I tried to flirt with you and called you by your name?
Iris: Nothing has changed! My feelings for you are very real. I wasn’t trying to be defensive and I like it when you flirt with me.
Tinman3: Well why did you act like you did then? Tell me why you acted like that!
Iris: I didn’t mean to act that way. I was just confused.
Tinman 3: Well what confused you so much? I know you like manly men, you were with that macho Owen guy. Am I not manly enough?
Iris: You’re very manly. I really like you! You could beat him up, be a real man that way.
Tinman3: Wish I could, he lives like four hours from here.
Iris: Drive the four hours and save me! He’s a really bad guy and I need you to save me from him! Only you can save me because you are a real and powerful man.
Tinman3: I wish I could save you, but you don’t seem to want me to. You’re not even acting like you anymore. I bet if I was at your door with roses and candy you would tell me to stop treating you like a girl and tell me to get lost.
Iris: But I am a girl! I want to be spoiled with candy and roses and I want you at my door. Only you can save me from Owen.
Tinman3: You would love me if I saved you like a real man?
Iris: I will always love you, always, and I know you are man enough to do anything, including saving little old me.
Tinman3: What if you don’t want me to save you? I may have to use violence, there is this woman with you, what should I do about her?
Iris: If she’s in the way of our love then you need to do what you need to do. You have to save me after all!
Tinman3: So if your friend got in the way of our love you would be good with me putting her in her place.
Iris: Yes. A real strong man can do what needs to be done when it’s needed. If she stands in the way of our love then she’s not a good friend.
Tinman3: Okay, but what about you? What happens if you say you’re Henry and you don’t want me around?
Iris: My name is Iris. I don’t know who this Henry is but he sounds like a bad guy. Is he putting me in danger? If he’s not letting me be with you then you need to be the hero I know you are and save me from him.
Tinman3: Yes Iris, I will save you from him. I’ll be a real man and save you.
Iris: Oh thank goodness! I’m so happy to have a big strong man like you to protect me.
Tinman3: I can bring a hammer like we talked about before. I’ll use it on your friend if she gets in the way.
Iris: I hope she doesn’t. She’ll likely be far too scared of you to get in your way.
Tinman3: What if she calls the police though? They could get in the way of our love too.
Iris: You’ll need to stop her then. Stop anyone that could prevent you from saving me. Stop Owen, stop Henry, even face off against the police! You’re strong enough to do anything.
Aug 7th, 2026
Henry F: Levi, why did you send me a picture of yourself topless?
Levss: Because we were sexting last night?
Henry F: I didn’t ask for a picture and I didn’t send you a picture. I know I sexted with you, and I liked doing that, but I wouldn’t want this to be more then that.
Levss: Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to pressure you.
Henry F: No, I sent you that porn video that one time. This just evens us out. But I don’t want to send pictures to each other.
Levss: Okay, I won’t do that.
Deleted before sending-
Henry F: I’m not into in person sex. I know that sounds odd, but I just like sexting and nothing more then that.
Henry F: I was on the rebound with having broken up with Owen. That’s why I sent you sexting messages. I don’t want that kind of relationship with you. I want to be just friends. You have been like a rock for me this last little while.
Levss: It’s quite alright. We misread each other and everyone should get one miss step after a break up.
Henry F: Ya, thanks for being so understanding Levi.
Levss: Anytime.
--
Tinman3: Did you like that topless picture I sent you of myself?
Iris: Oh yes, you were stunning! I wanted to put my hands all over you, I still do.
Tinman3: Well, I sure wouldn’t mind. 😉
Aug 25th, 2026
Henry F: Hey. Did you get around to reading that rough script that I sent you? I know it would have been full of typos and it was mostly just a plot outline and all, but I’ve been working on it a bit more. Just want to know if so far it’s any good or not.
Levss: Oh, it was good. Really intense ending with the werewolves attacking the girl.
Henry F: That was just in the outline. I still haven’t gotten to that part and I think I’ll scrap that. Way to dark of an ending given how light hearted the rest of the thing is.
Levss: Right. But the story is dark with the cannibalism and all.
Henry F: I guess. I wasn’t going for that to hard. You are a none horror fan, I got to keep that in mind. Not trying to tease you.
Levss: No offense taken. I’m a big softy. I know that much.
Henry F: Okay, well, I wont pressure you to read the good version when I’m all done. I’m getting into the grove though. I think I might actually finish this thing!
Levss: Best of luck!
Henry F: Thanks!
Oct 31st, 2026
“Pause, pause, pause. You didn’t lead that jack-ass on at all. Flirting over a phone is flirting over a phone, kissing is kissing, having sex is having sex. Nothing, and I mean nothing by default leads to something else. Levi, he wasn’t your friend. A friend don’t try to pressure you cause you been sorting yourself out, and they don’t take advantage of you when your mom is in the fucking hospital, and they don’t fucking get your name wrong every chance they get,” Betty says to me with a passion to her voice. The long blond wig she had slapped on has become messy and her little partial crown kind of thing looks like it could fall off at any moment.
Of course I can’t see her to well now, I’m tearing up again.
“Fuck that asshole and I hope he gets mugged by the kids that egged us last night,” she states with a strength I don’t have. She then swiftly gets up and moves over to me. Her hands go around me and she embraces me tightly.
I put my hand gently to her arm and we just stay there for a moment. I had just come out to her as asexual and aegosexual and she didn’t question me for a moment, not like I knew Levi would have. When I came out to her as trans it was much the same. She said she knew that already and I just smiled. She always just believes me, she’s always just been there for me.
After what happened with Levi, I decided to tell Betty that I had flirted with Levi in our messages. It had gone a little further then that, but I wasn’t going to go into all the details. I just gave her the summarized bullet-point version and came out of the closet to her. I had to get it all off my chest. Her response was to say Levi was an asshole and to give me a big old hug that I thankfully got lost in for a moment.
We were now on the second Leprechaun movie of our little Halloween marathon. I had indeed gotten the TV working through its Firestick which my dad had never been able to manage. He was asleep currently upstairs; he of course had no interest in movies or dealing with trick-or-treaters. We hadn’t gotten too many of them; the count I had for it was six. Four of them had been some version of zombies, there was a classic Freddy Krueger and a Hit Girl. That was it and that was all. We were going to have a lot of extra candy to stuff ourselves with tomorrow.
Betty was indeed dressed like She-Ra, sword, odd crown thing and all. She had even removed her piercings on her nose and ears for the look which for her is very out of the ordinary. It was a very fitting costume for her; she looked as strong as I always knew she was.
There’s a knock then at the door, a rather strong one. It breaks the silence of the moment, the film is currently paused.
“You stay here; I’m getting it. I’ll tell the little bugger Halloween ended for everyone else an hour ago,” Betty says. It is after ten now, very late for some stray kid.
She gets up and tells me to start the film again without her and then heads out of the room to get the door. I sit there and don’t start the movie. She’s going to watch this thing no matter how much she protests, I’ll see to that. It’s my little victory for the day.
I’m in the living room in the basement. The front door is attached to the kitchen, so Betty has to walk up to the other room, out of my earshot. She says something, but it’s muffled, then I hear a bang and something hits the ground.
I get up slowly from my seat and just stand there, I don’t know why, the sound of rain now is coming down hard from the outside, it’s clear the front door has been left open. Hell of a storm. Then there are other thuds and a crunching noise. I walk over to the stairs and I start to walk up them. I’m taking it slow though, I’m not fully sure why.
When I reach the top of the stairs I can see Levi now, he’s crotched down in front of the open door. A flash of lightning hits and I can see that he’s holding something and it’s lodged into something and he’s falling over, trying to pull it out. There is some slight red specks on his face, his hair is wet from the rain. He’s dressed all in black and this causes him to stand out like an unholy shadow against the bright light that displays behind him. Lightning flashes in the doorway. I know who’s on the ground that Levi was falling away from.
“Betty!?” I scream out. Levi was pulling out something from her. Her body is resting on the ground and I can see a gleam of metal. It’s a hammer, Levi has a hammer. He hit Betty with a hammer.
He stands up after stumbling for a moment, at last closing the door behind him just before some more lightning flashes. Thunder fallows before I have the strength to say anything more. The house seems to shake a bit from them; the storm is right on us.
“Levi?” I at last get out as I approach Levi lightly. I have my hands up; I need to get close enough to Betty to check that she’s okay.
“Iris. I’m just here to save you like I said I would. I know I came on a bit too strong this morning, but I’m making things right now,” Levi says.
I’m walking very softly towards him, my hands are up, I’m trying to be as non-threatening as I can be. I know anything I say could set him off, but he could be set off anyways. I correct him.
“My name’s Henry, Levi. You’re in my house with a hammer and I think you’ve hurt my friend. You need to back away from her and let me check her,” I say.
“No, you need to come with me. My car’s outside,” Levi steps forward, he has his weapon slightly up. He sounds drained now, but still oddly formulaic.
“I’ll take you back to my place. I would take you out for a nice walk, but it’s raining buckets outside. You sent me them messages Iris, we screwed around dozens of times over the phone,” he says, now getting closer to me.
“We only sexted twice Levi. My names Henry, what your saying doesn’t make sense.”
“I can show you the messages!” he puts the hammer down on the kitchen counter for a moment and moves to his pocket. He’s trying to get his cell.
It clicks; this is my chance. I dart for the hammer and grab the handle. I swing the claw out in a wide arc and I think I connect with his arm, but I’m not sure. The weapon swings back and I swing it forward again, once more with the claw side, this time digging into his shoulder for sure. He grunts and flinches and then he swings over a fist.
He hits me in my side, really hits me, knocks the wind out of me next to completely. Then a slap to the side of my head sends me down to the ground. I turn around after falling hard and look up at him, I’m crawling away as I do so, but I’m moving my body slightly so I’m moving closer to Betty all the same. Hopefully he doesn’t realize.
The hammer is sticking out of his shoulder like it was super-glued to it. He grabs it and tries to yank it out of himself but it wont budge, I got it in there good. He has a grim look on his face, the pain clearly having an effect on him.
“Iris, I can show you the messages. You would understand if you just let me explain. I’m going to take you back to my place. I’ve been taking care of my father, I can take care of you too,” he says as he looks down at me. Now he sounds like he’s a caring mother.
“That’s not my name Levi. It hasn’t been since High School. You’re having some kind of mental break,” I say as I look up at him, crawling slowly along the floor.
I reach Betty, my head turns to her. Her head is almost completely gone. It’s literally caved in from just above her eyes to her lower mouth. Just red, remains of her brain, and shards of bone are there where her face used to be. I put my hand over my face, blocking out the sight.
“OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD! OH GOD!” I’m crawling away from her now, darting along the floor, my back running against it.
“OH FUCKING GOD! LEVI! WHAT DID YOU DO!? WHAT DID YOU FUCKING DO!?” I’m screaming as I move backwards and then I don’t feel the floor anymore under my head.
I turn slightly and I can see that I’ve reached the staircase. I grab the bar beside the steps and start to pull myself up. I can see Levi is now again trying to pull the hammer out of himself.
“Iris, we’re going to my place. I’m going to make you all better again,” he says, yanking the weapon out of himself. He’s still keeping the caring mother voice; he’s finally settled on a personality.
Blood sprays out of him in a little geyser that hits the wall beside him. It would be shown in a comical way in your typical splatter film. It’s a bit too much red to be real: what happened to Betty couldn’t be real.
I turn, getting ready to run down the stairs. I’m not sure where I’m even going to, it’s not a proper way out of the house. Maybe I can reach Betty’s cell. I have one too of course, but it’s in dining room, on the main table, charging. As I take a step on the stairs I hear Levi move up behind me and then I feel the sudden sting of the blunt end of his hammer coming down on my right shoulder. It knocks me forward and I go tumbling down the steps and by the time I reach the bottom everything has gone black.
--
I walk out of Conrad’s home. He’s dead now, I did what Iris told me to do. I brought my hammer to his head while he was down just to make sure, repeatedly. Iris would want me to be sure.
The rain has stopped now, but there is a thick dampness in the air. I’m not sure of the time but it’s likely going to be a whole new day in just a little bit. There is a stillness outside as I walk towards my car resting on the curb just before the house. My feet slosh through the wet and fallen leaves. I pull out my cell and check with Iris. I got to keep her posted on how things are going.
--
Tinman3: I got you in my car, but you had a bad fall. I’m taking you home, going to patch you up, take care of you for awhile.
Iris: You should call 911 or bring me to a hospital if I’m badly injured.
Tinman3: You already told me that we couldn’t have witnesses. I had to deal with your dad and your friend. I’m sorry about that Iris, but they wouldn’t understand, they were stopping us from seeing each other, making you crazy.
Iris: No, I understand. You had to save me from them, my dad and my ‘friend’. But they weren’t my friend, not at all if they were keeping me from you. They were trying to drive me mad, but you stepped in, in the nick of time and you saved me from them.
Tinman3: I’ll have you at my place soon, don’t you worry. I know how to take care of someone; I’ve been taking care of my dad for years now. You’ll be okay.
Iris: I know you’ll take care of me and I’ll be better soon. You’ve done so well with your father after all. I know I’ll be okay, cause you’re there for me.
--
I start my car and look in the rear-view mirror; they’re still sleeping in the back, the Iris outside of my phone. The fall down the stairs was really bad, but it was even worse in her case because I had smacked her once more on the bottom floor before I started dragging her up to my car.
I didn’t want to risk her waking up. Her calling herself Henry again, saying he was a man and I wasn’t, saying I couldn’t save her. She could have hurt me if she woke up, she was unstable. Iris would have wanted me to make sure she wouldn’t get back up. Iris is always right. So I had smacked her with my hammer one more time. I played it safe, very safe.
The nose was busted now; blood had bloomed on the top and gone down the sides. It was running to the lips and reaching the chin. She also had a small black spot forming on one of her cheeks. Iris, I’m sorry I hurt you so bad, I’ll fix you up, nice and good. I’ll make you better.
I start driving the car slowly down the street. It’s a five-minute trip back to my place.