Chapter 33: Opportunity Struck

   “Excuse me, could I get your picture?” A fan approached, gesturing with his phone.

   “No.” Chloe refused, continuing on without breaking stride. “I have the right to refuse any requests for photos, so, please—don’t harass me.” She smiling sweetly, leaving the dumbfounded man behind.

   Her Magical Doll Himari cosplay seemed to be incredibly popular with the crowds, so far. She’d enjoyed preening and posing for the professional photographers—the ones carrying around nice, expensive cameras—and delighted in refusing the creeps who approached her with just their shitty cell phones. It was empowering.

   In the sprawling convention center complex, filled with thousands of attendees, the chances of stumbling across Brian by accident were pretty low, so she was currently prowling along the hallway all of the gaming rooms branched off of. At some point today, Brian was sure to stop by the Mana: the Mastery room to visit his old friend Mark. Failing that, he would be at the Hero Hero Haruki meetup at noon that she’d seen advertised on the AnimeCon forum.

   Chloe was ready to make her triumphant return to her apartment, the one she shared with Brian. After all, she’d already spent a whole week sleeping on the couches of different friends. While at first, that had been a great method of canvassing for sympathy and attention, all too quickly she ran the danger of overstaying her welcome, which would ruin her image.

   Also, if her father discovered that she’d broken up with Brian, there would be disastrous complications. Because he was under the impression that she and Brian had been struggling financially—that her lazy boyfriend just wasn’t able to hold down a job. So, he’d been transferring her enough money to support both of them, enough to cover all of their expenses each month. If he knew they were broken up, he’d insist she move back home, or find a smaller apartment, and then some of that easy income would disappear.

   Or worse, if he started asking questions and found that Brian actually worked full time, and paid virtually all of their bills… Then her father would—irrationally—demand to know what happened to all of the money he’d sent them. As if he’d bought her. As if he owned her. Chloe’s placid smile almost quirked into a sneer at the very thought of it.

   Would Daddy be able to appreciate my shrewd resourcefulness, and recognize the situation as the victory for feminism that it really is? Of course not. Because, no matter how doting, generous, and supportive Daddy may be, his understanding of gender culture’s complexities will ALWAYS be constrained by certain limitations. He’s a man; short-sighted, narrow-minded, and never able to look past himself to see the bigger picture.

    After all, she snorted to herself, there’s a CULTURE WAR going on, all around us. Hidden in every shed tear and nuance of interaction between women and THEIR OPPRESSORS. Time would prove that Chloe was on the right side of history, but until then, she was determined to fight on no matter what the cost, or how much she had to sacrifice.

   And she was absolutely prepared to sacrifice. It wouldn’t be her making a sacrifice, of course—that would be foolish. Wasteful. She had a small but growing collection of willing tools; her father, the ignorant old man stuck in the past, and Brian, who she’d spent so long bending to her will. Soon, she’d break him like one does a thoroughbred horse, have him fully conditioned and ready to be what a real man should be. Luckily, his abusive parents had laid plenty of groundwork for Chloe.

   Yes, Brian was abused… if you can even still consider violence against men as real abuse, that is. What Brian failed to understand was how his abusive experiences with his parents, when put in proper perspective, actually TEMPERED him, made him into a better person. It served to reign in that neurotypical male aggressiveness—no matter how hard I pushed him, he never raised a hand against me. Naturally, when she’d brought that idea up with him, his fragile little male ego wasn’t strong enough to look at it with detachment, and regard the positive concepts objectively.

   Without a convention pass, the areas she could search for him were actually pretty limited, as badge checks were stationed at the entrances of all the events and panel rooms. She’d been making a long, careful circuit through the hallways, making a loop from the main lobby to the gaming hall and back again. She wore a bright, bubbly smile, but her eyes scanned back and forth in a cold way, searching.

   Finally—she saw him.

   Saw that black bodysuit, those ridiculous cartoon skeleton bones he’d stenciled out, and the familiar stylized Darkmask helmet he’d spent a month oh-so-carefully assembling. A predatory smile had just begun to stretch across Chloe’s face when the scattered attendees walking between them parted further, revealing the young woman with pink hair walking close beside Brian.

   Who the fuck is that? A half-smile still frozen in place, Chloe’s eyes danced venomously and her brow twitched, violent emotions trembling just beneath the skin. Brian, you’re supposed to be alone, and miserable. The entire reason you’re even HERE like this is to serve out your penance. Yet, here you are, walking with another girl. The leather of her cute purse with the Magical Doll logo squeaked in protest as Chloe’s clutching hand squeezed down in a crushing grip.

   Brian... you’re being a very naughty boy. All at once, the myriad distractions of the convention happening all around her seemed to fall away, and the target of her focus sharpened to cruel clarity. You’re supposed to be sitting in time out, and instead, I catch you with your hand in the cookie jar? Oh, Brian.

   She’d always known that, as a man, he’d never be able to fully appreciate the things she did for him. But, to see this? To see him take everything she did for him, and then just flagrantly disregard her hard work? To just piss their bright future away, and for what? Her?

   Chloe understood the pink-haired girl next to Brian completely at a single glance. Dyes her hair to show off how UNIQUE and ARTISTIC she is. Wears—what, half a cosplay?—that her ass is practically hanging out of, because she’s that desperate for attention. Probably has quirky tattoos, boasts being POLYAMOROUS, and undoubtedly has taken miles of dick from anyone and everyone who will fuck her. Chloe hadn’t seen the girl’s face yet, but, then again, she didn’t have to. She knew.

   All that hard work, grooming Brian into the perfect boyfriend he’s meant to be, almost ruined. I can’t stress enough how IRRITATING it is that males are such biological simpletons. A single week goes by without my careful cultivation, and already he’s starting to go fallow. Reverting to his crude, baser instincts, so that he can stumble, drooling, after the first art hipster THOT to clap her flabby asscheeks in his direction.

    Brian, you must have thought that we’re really broken up for good, Chloe smirked, eyes flashing. That this means you can cheat on me, without consequence or repercussions; that you’re in the clear. You’re so cute and naive. I was the one who initiated our break—because I knew it would be good for you—and I decide when our break’s over. You’re MY boyfriend. You belong to me.

   Then, a brilliant opportunity presented itself, and Chloe’s moment to act came. Brian pulled away from the pink-haired girl, pushing into the overcrowded Mana: the Mastery room, while the pink-haired girl waited patiently for him outside.

   Hah. Brainless fucking bimbo isn’t paying attention at all, Chloe smiled with glee. All I have to do is make it seem like I came walking out from the direction of the gaming room, and…

---

   “Uh, hi!” A bright, chipper-sounding voice sounded out, yanking Stephanie from her daydreams. A tall, slender figure in a Magical Doll Himari was standing before her. The stylized white Japanese school-uniform with its blue sailor fuku and micro-skirt was dazzling, and the way the girl was flanked on either side by her own mega twintails, each curled into enormous regal ringlets, was somewhat intimidating. “Are you here with a guy named Brian?”

   “Um, ah—yes!” Stephanie nodded, standing up straighter.

   “Thank goodness,” the Himari seemed to sigh in relief. “He’s helping someone unload stuff for the panel, and he wanted me to ask you to go meet him, at the loading docks behind the convention center.”

   “Uh… loading docks?” Stephanie repeated, momentarily bewildered.

   “Yep! You just go outside the convention center, and then all the way ‘round the building to the back, and there’s the loading docks,” Himari smiled sweetly, giving her a friendly wave as she turned away. “Better hurry though, you don’t want to miss him! B~ye!”

   Brian wants me to meet him... at the loading docks? Suddenly anxious, Stephanie wanted to really confirm that with the Magical Doll Himari who’d relayed the message, but the girl was already walking away at a brisk place, like she had somewhere else to be. I’d... better hurry!

---

   When Brian stepped out of the Mana: the Mastery room, that long tiled brick of the planter just outside was empty. Shucking his helmet off, he looked right and then left, scanning through the crowds to spot Stephanie, but she was gone.

   Probably just had to visit the restroom, Brian thought, chiding himself for feeling so unsettled by her absence. He stepped over to the planter to wait for her, slipping off his gauntlets and retrieving his phone from his belt pouches. There were no new messages, but the Hero Hero Haruki meetup over in the main lobby was going to begin fairly soon.

   Nervously glancing over towards the restrooms, he fidgeted with his phone. For some silly reason, it felt like something was wrong, off somehow. The minutes seemed to stretch on, and the different cosplays making their way through the hall seemed less distracting as time went by. A pair of Tamashi ninjas from Shinobi Souls, loudly arguing with each other while wearing smiling faces. An annoyed-looking wasteland raider from Fist of the Seventh Scar. A Magical Doll Himari, face turned away from him as she passed by. No Stephanie.

   He was beginning to seriously worry.

   Maybe she ran into her friend Megan? Or, Kelly needed her for... something? Glancing at his phone was frustrating, but at the same time, messaging her to check on her seemed kind of awkward. Not like she has to answer to me, or anything. I’m just…

   “Hey, could I get a picture with you here real quick?” A passing group of three friends asked, one of them approaching him with a cell-phone raised.

   “Yeah, sure,” Brian answered, carefully setting his phone on the planter and hurriedly pulling his gloves back on.

   “Awesome Skulfie,” one of the guys praised as he accepted his friend’s phone to take a shot of them.

   Donning his helmet again, Brian posed—an action shot, made to seem like he was in the midst of punching the guy, who obligingly twisted his body and contorted his mouth in open surprise, hands flailing out.

   “Bad. Ass.” The friend nodded as he took the shot. “Check it out, bro.” He turned the phone for them to see. It looked pretty spectacular, aside from a bright blonde pigtail from one of the nearby Magical Doll cosplayers, visible in the edge of the shot.

   “Hey, thanks for the picture man, you look great,” the grinning guy clapped Brian on the shoulder.

   “Yeah, no problem,” Brian replied. As the trio of friends headed off on their way down the hall, he looked back and forth for the familiar pink and red of Stephanie in each direction before trudging back over to his spot along the planter. He looked down, confused, and then took off his helmet, searching the floor, and then the decorative mulch in the planter itself.

   His phone was gone.

---

   Hurrying along through the crowds as fast as she could without knocking into anyone, Stephanie made her way through one of the pairs of double-doors on one end of the lobby and out of the convention center. It was a little scary to be doing this all on her own. But, Brian was waiting for her, and so she was walking with purpose, red vinyl boots tapping forward with determination and the skirt of her sundress swaying with every step.

   It was bright outside, and she found herself constantly surprised by how busy the convention was. Everywhere she went there seemed to be something new going on, cosplay photoshoots and meet-ups occurring around every corner. It was all so much fun, more fun than she’d had in years because she felt like she belonged—especially when she was walking with Brian. It’d been so long since she felt like she had a place with somebody that she didn’t think she’d ever be able to give it up.

   When she left the small plaza in front of AnimeCon’s concourse and the groups of people began to thin out, however, a sense of discomfort began to grow. The convention center ended the next concourse over, which advertised a trade show, conference and networking event for business owners and entrepreneurs, which hadn’t begun yet, and then, past it, was… a sports bar and a restaurant at the corner of the intersection. I’m supposed to go… out, and around the building?

   Wait. There it is. Between the convention center and the bar, there was a small paved access point—not quite large enough to be a street, but also not really narrow enough for her to consider an alleyway. She hesitated in the entrance. Am I… allowed in here?

   There were no sidewalk or landscaping to speak of, no signs or fliers hung up, and nothing like the storefront display windows that were prominent along this area of the city. Just a single lane of pavement, cinder-block walls reaching up several stories on one side, brick rising up on the other. Although it looked like a long stretch, she couldn’t see very far in, as one side was marked by evenly spaced dumpsters, piles of pallets, and small loading bays for the various adjacent establishments opposite the convention.

   Brian must be waiting for me, she thought, urging herself forward. She felt uneasy hearing the echo of her nervous footfalls travel down the narrow drive, and then a little ashamed. He said he was proud of me, for how brave I am. If anyone, um, says that I’m not supposed to be here… I’ll just explain, and then turn around. There’s nothing to be afraid of, and I’m not going to get in trou—

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   “Damn girl, wassup?” An abrupt voice called out from a doorway alcove of one the back entrances to those businesses along the row.

   Jumping, Stephanie whirled to discover a guy in a white undershirt and jeans giving her a little wave. He had short, unkempt hair buzzed to a fade along the sides, cheeks stubbled with five o’clock s hadow, and held a cigarette between his fingers.

   “Uh… hi,” Stephanie squeaked out in a quiet voice, returning his small wave and starting to walk faster.

   “Hey, you gotta minute?” The voice called after her. “Hey, girl!”

   She turned and waved again, too frightened to speak, but she didn’t stop walking, briskly making her way further on down the access lane.

   It’s scary, Stephanie thought wistfully as she marched on down the alleyway in search of the loading docks. All of this is scary. Adventure. Going out here by myself. Thinking about sex. Falling in love. It’s all so frightening, but at the same time… I think I want it so bad that it doesn’t matter. Even if I’m in over my head. Except, that also makes it matter even MORE, at the same time.

   There was a pink flame inside her mind that burned hotter and brighter the more she thought about Brian, a scorching blaze that cast light on the darkest recesses of her mind. A certain repressed memory had been slowly revealed once again, and Stephanie was having trouble turning her thoughts away from it now.

   I never thought I’d feel this way, she smiled to herself. I never even imagined. I think this is it; I think he’s the one. Anything can work out, because it’s him. He’s… he’s the stone beneath the water.

   Years and years ago, a younger, bolder Stephanie had bravely parted the sun-soaked grass of the meadow they called the Sea of Cats, which, without her glasses, was a blur of long, dried grass blown indistinct by a steady, noiseless wind. Alongside the rear of that empty field was a wide creek of muddy brown water, shaded by the canopies of trees that grew up along its steep opposite bank.

   The creek was in many places deeper than she was tall, but she’d always donned her bathing suit to join Ben and Jess playing in the shallows every summer. Only, now everything had fallen apart, and Ben and Jess wouldn’t be going swimming with her anymore. Determined to have more fun than ever just to spite them—to splash as much as she pleased, and not have anyone competing with her for the good jumping spot—this was the young blonde-haired Stephanie’s first time venturing to the creek completely alone.

   Leaving the meadow a vague glow of sunshine behind her, Stephanie’s bare feet schlupped through the mud of the creek bank and into the cool water. Beneath the tall old trees now, it seemed darker than she’d remembered. Scarier. She stubbornly splashed the surface of the water back and forth with her hands as she entered to make some noise and movement, anything to distract herself from the eerie silence of this little curve of creek.

   Submersing herself completely with a quick dip of her entire body, Stephanie then swam in earnest to the opposite side, where the bend of the creek took on more depth. This deep side of the creek had a steep, messy embankment of clay muck and exposed roots from the nearest giant sycamore. Grabbing the familiar roots jutting out, Stephanie clambered up them, planted her feet against the thick one, and kicked off, jumping down into the water.

   It wasn’t a game, really—just something fun they’d done as children. Climbing up out of the water, and then launching themselves back in for the biggest splash they could make. Or rather, it should have been fun, but now she was on her own. Whenever the splash subsided, that creepy stillness to everything returned, reminding her that she was alone.

   Their loss! She persisted on, spending half an hour trying to convince herself of just how much she was enjoying herself. She’d practically tired herself out in her bobbing movements swimming through the water back towards the jumping spot... when she mistimed a gulp for air, and began to drown.

   Stephanie would always remember choking on the water, her eyes squeezed shut and legs kicking blindly beneath her through the murky water in growing terror. She remembered sinking down, remembered feeling her strength ebb away as she flailed, fighting to put her face back above the surface, struggling for a breath with burning lungs—and remembered being sure that she would die.

   Then, by pure accident, she found it. Her foot encountered an edge of submerged rock that jutted up, unseen, from the bottom of the creekbed. With the last of her waning energy, she finally managed to balance herself standing upon it and rest herself, her lips now just barely above the water. That frantic hysteria gripping her had seemed to slowly disappear into the leisurely flow of the creek around her, replaced with an unforgettably surreal sense of calm after all of that wild thrashing.

   She survived only by luck, by the grace of that hidden stone within the brown water of the creek bottom. The children all knew about it— it was that same exact outcropping everyone avoided swimming near, for fear of accidentally kicking their delicate feet into it and smashing their toes bloody.

   As apt an analogy as any for my personal situation, Stephanie decided with a subdued smile. Shying away from interaction, when it’s what I needed to really save me. To make me… ME, again. Drowning in fear and anxiety for years, afraid to do anything on my own, afraid to reach out… well, it’s not EXACTLY like that experience of panic back then... but in so many ways, it’s worse, isn’t it?

   For several long minutes, the wall of the enormous convention center seemed to simply stretch on and on and on. Feeling her shoulders fill with tension, and afraid to turn back around to see if that guy had followed her, she finally made her way out, to—

   Another city street. Stephanie blinked in confusion. Where are the loading docks on the convention center’s side? Did I go the wrong way? She turned and looked back, feeling a little lost and out of place. Her hotel hadn’t been in this direction, so she’d never been anywhere over this way before. She was also a little hesitant to go back through and past that creepy guy, again.

   I’ll just… message Brian. Taking a deep breath, she withdrew her phone and flicked over to her address book, selecting Brian’s name. With several long pauses, timidly biting her lip, she managed to tap her message in.

Stephanie_Brandt: I got a little lost, trying to find the loading docks. Where do I go to get there?

   Standing there for a few moments, feeling silly and a little stupid, she glanced back the way she came again. Well… no matter what, I know that THIS isn’t the right way. If he gives me directions, it’ll be starting from where I was, or the lobby, or the plaza in front.

   She walked quickly back into the access road, vowing not to slow down or stop. Surely that man had been an employee of one of those shops, just stepping out for a short break. She probably wasn’t going to walk past him again, anyways. Stephanie was just nearing the area where that particular alcove would come into view when her phone sounded off. Stopping dead in her tracks, she scrambled to quickly unlock her phone again to see what Brian had said in reply.

Don’t ever fucking talk to me Blocking you now

   What? She reread his words again in disbelief, eyes jittering over the tiny letters as if she hadn’t assembled them into the correct syllables, the correct words in her head. The brave little pink flame that’d been dancing inside of her all weekend snuffed out, and the inside of her mind went black with anxiety and self-doubt. She read it again. He couldn’t have—

Don’t ever fucking talk to me Blocking you now

   What? Did I…? Was there…? Stephanie felt her eyes begin to sting, and her throat seemed to start closing up. An entire perfect world of hope and wonder was breaking, crumbling and crashing down all around her, and she stood frozen, helpless to stop it. Unable to understand. There has to be—this has to be a mistake. This can’t… Why would…?

   Her mind raced in a blur, attempting to play back those last moments she’d spent with Brian for any hint, any clue, but her thoughts careened and collided incomprehensibly and then mired in raw terror, getting her nowhere. She choked out a small sob I can’t go back, now. I can’t. I can’t I can’t I can’t—

   Just when she was about to lose everything to a panic attack, right when that black maw was about to swallow her up—the tiny speck of a distant star became visible in the now dark depths of her mind, twinkling red.

   Kelly! Stephanie remembered, steadying her feet. She’d been so close to giving up on everything that she’d almost fallen to her knees. Kelly will know what’s going on. What to do. She’ll know how to fix this. Kelly. Kelly.

   Lurching forward again, Stephanie had never felt so terrified and on edge before. It hurt, it was a crushing force was clamping down on her breath, and her thoughts were skittering in errant, useless circles as her entire mind was thrown into disarray. It felt like parts of her were breaking. Kelly. Kelly can—

   “See, Kenny? I fucken told you,” That man from before interrupted her thoughts.

   There were two of them now, that first one with the short hair and buzzed sides, and then an enormous lunk of a man wearing an enormous jersey and a hat. He was overweight even for a big guy, and had heavy, hooded eyes that made his glance towards her seem indifferent.

   “Hey girl, c’mon in and sit with us for a bit,” the first one invited. “Here for that anime convention in town? I love anime.”

   “I-I have to go,” Stephanie managed, feeling frazzled but continuing forward.

   “Yeah, but you don’t have to go right this minute,” he argued, taking a step towards the direction she was walking to cut her off. “I ain’t stoppin’ you from goin’ anywhere, just come chill with us for a second, first.”

   “N-no, I…” She jerked to a halt, alarm bells going off throughout her head. No. No, no. No no no.

   “Just for a l’il bit,” the man promised, taking a step forward. “You tryin’ to smoke? Come smoke with us, girl. Kenny, show her inside.”

   “No, th-thank you, no, I-I was jus—”

   “You look good, girl,” the guy said. He wasn’t leering, or seeming to even appraise her. Despite the cheer in his voice, his eyes seemed… angry. Apathetic. Annoyed, and the dissonance made the dread clawing up inside her surge out. “Come inside, come chill with us for a l’il while.”

   This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening. This can’t be happening.

   Stephanie stumbled backwards from the man in panic, and someone grabbed her arms.

   “We’ll treat you right. Relax, girl,” the bigger man said from behind her. “Don’t say nothin’, and you won’t get hurt.”

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