Where the Dead Things Bloom 14: Unexpected girlfriend

 Her dino-beak filled with sharp teeth approached my face. I stepped back, not feeling like getting my face bit off.

“Girlfriend?!” Nessy growled. 

“Alec, what’s going on?” The raptor-girl demanded, hand on her gun belt.

“I–ummm–yeah, sorry, I have no idea who you are,” I addressed my unexpected ‘girlfriend’. 

Amber eyes framed by yellow sclera flashed from me and struck Nessy, handgun out and pointed at the husky-girl’s head. She pulled it out so fast my eyes could barely focus on the motion. 

“You!” the velociraptor growled. “You must have done something to him! You went out there, into the blighted lands!”

I stared at the raptor-officer pointing a gun at Nessy, my brain struggling to process what was happening. Girlfriend? My heart hammered against my ribs. The afternoon light caught on her scales and feathers, her tail thrashed around sending iridescent reflections across the limestone path, beautiful and terrifying all at once.

"Wait, stop!" I stepped between them, arms outstretched. "Nobody's doing anything to anybody!"

The raptor-woman's eyes narrowed, her pupils constricting to thin, vertical slits. Her gun remained steady, as she tried to aim past me at Nessy. "Move aside, Alec! Something's clearly wrong with you, and I bet this dumb dog has something to do with it. She’s always been jealous of our relationship, raving and ranting about you two being a pack or whatever.”

Behind me, I could hear Nessy's breathing turn ragged, a deep deep growl building in her chest. The sound vibrated through the air, primal and possessive.

“Please lower the gun,” I said. “Sorry, I don't know your name…”

"My name is Officer Krysanthea Liss Strand," the raptor-woman hissed out, her voice dropping to a dangerous register. "I'm the chief ranger here and we've been dating for four years now! If you don't remember that, then something is very, very wrong."

"Four years?" I echoed. 

"She's lying!" Nessy bubbled with righteous indignation, stepping closer until I could feel the heat of her body against my back. 

“Ness, I wasn’t even bloody here!” I waved my hands. “I’m not from this reality, not from this planet!”

“W-what,” amber eyes snapped at me. “The fuck are you on about, Alec?”

“You know, Nessy, it would be helpful to let me know that your world’s Alec dated a raptor!” I snapped at Nessy. 

My words seemed to strike Nessy physically. She recoiled as if slapped, her voice faltering momentarily as if she wasn't sure who was right now.

"You never dated a lizard. You would have told me… I… oh no… I didnt… I swear I didn’t know!” She whined. 

"Please listen to me, Ranger Strand," I said, turning back to the gun-toting raptor ranger trying to defuse the tension. 

“Officer?” Krysanthea sputtered. “You… You normally call me Kristi! What happened to you?!”

"There's been a kind of... A misunderstanding."

"No misunderstanding," Krysanthea responded, eyes flicking down to the bucket containing our Sandwichu Tree. Her nostrils flared, taking in its scent. "What I do understand is that this... cur... has brought an abomination into my forest. And you've been compromised, mentally messed with."

She lowered her aim slightly, her violet scaled face wavering between anger and concern. When she was just a few inches away, she inhaled deeply, her nostrils flaring wide.

"You smell wrong," she muttered, then her eyes widened in horror. "Like… salmon sandwiches and eggs… Fuck. You've eaten it, haven't you? The fruit from that... that tree-thing."

Nessy shifted defensively, holding onto the bucket, ears tilted back.

"You did! God damn it! Don’t you get it?!" the raptor growled, her gun rising again. "This is why system-corrupted flora is strictly prohibited in Ferguson county. It alters minds, changes memories, rewrites reality." Her voice cracked slightly. "What did you do to him, dog? What the shit did you feed him? What is that, some kind of sandwich that erases memories?”

The accusation hung in the air between us, heavy and damning. I could feel Nessy trembling behind me, her breath coming in short, agitated bursts.

"It’s… nothing!" Nessy protested. 

“Nothing?! You’re a shit liar!” Kristi barked. 

"It's… medicine! It heals! It helped his wounds!" Nessy backtracked.

Krysanthea's eyes flickered to the dried blood on my clothes, the hastily bandaged cuts on my arms. Her expression darkened further.

“A likely excuse,” she growled.

Her gaze snapped to Nessy, pure hatred radiating from her amber eyes. "I should execute you on the spot for this," she hissed, her finger tensing on the trigger. "Ferguson has laws against System-corruption for a reason. We've managed to stay mostly normal here by enforcing those laws."

“You’re wrong and you don’t know anything!” Nessy bared her teeth, hackles rising. "I saved him! I found him and brought him home!"

“So you confess?!” The officer growled. “You went out, got him and fed him the fruit of that contaminated tree? Idiot dog! Alec moved on since our dance at the formal four years ago! He found someone who wasn't constantly clinging to him, suffocating him with neediness! But you clearly never accepted it, did you?!”

Each word seemed to strike Nessy like a physical blow, her body flinching slightly. Her tail froze, ears drooping.

“I freaking knew it! You always plotted to be with him, wanted to undermine our love, steal what was mine!” Kristi snarled.

"Stop," I said, my voice hardening. "Just... stop. Both of you."

The tension between them was suffocating, filling the space with a dangerous energy that threatened to explode into violence at any moment..

"Officer, please listen to me," I said, taking a deep breath. "I'm not... I'm not who you think I am."

"What are you talking about?" Kristi barked. “You’re Alec!”

"I'm an Alec, yes, but I’m not your Alec," I said, realising how insane I sounded. "I'm not from this world."

“That’s ridiculous!” Her clawed hand tightened around her gun. "She’s infected you with System-corruption shit! This is why we have the quarantine laws! This is why we burn the cursed flora!”

She moved with startling speed, lunging not for Nessy but for the bucket containing our tree.

Nessy reacted instinctively, snatching it away and ducking behind me. "No!" she yelped. "It's ours! We grew it together!"

Krysanthea pivotede. "That thing is an abomination! A manifestation of the System's corruption! It doesn't belong here!"

"Neither do I," I said, trying to distract the raptor from her goal.

“What?!” She sputtered, momentarily halting her assault on Nessy.

"I died," I continued, my voice flat. "In my world, in my Ferguson, I died. Drowned in a bathtub by cartel thugs looking for my brother. The System... reconstituted me. Brought me back. And Nessy found me. So if you’re gonna burn that tree, you might as well burn me."

“Stop saying nonsense, you knob!” Krysanthea stared at me, her reptilian features rigid with irritation. "You're Alec Foster. My Alec. My boyfriend! You grew up here. You and I danced at the formal, then we started dating. Then you went to university and came back three years ago when your grandfather died and left you that stupid old RV! We’ve been seeing each other every weekend and holiday planning to move in together!”

The mention of my grandfather tightened something in my chest. 

"Your Alec is gone," I said "I don't know where he is. But I'm not him. We never dated.”

“Yes you are!” Krysanthea snarled, nostrils flaring. “This rabid, clingy dog could never let you go! She poisoned you, erased your memories!”

“Wait, didn’t you say that you thought I was dead? Who told you that I was dead?” I tried to derail her away from her anti-Nessy narrative.

Krysanthea's amber eyes narrowed, her snout-beak twitching. "Officer Terras," she said through her serrated teeth. "A friend of mine… stationed near your university. I asked her to keep an eye on you. Two weeks ago, you disappeared. No calls, no texts." Her voice cracked with genuine emotion of sorrow. "He found that your lock was busted up, the door kicked in, signs of struggle, tried to sniff whoever did it… but the fuckers dumped pepper all over the trail. I've been out of my mind with worry since!"

I felt cold amusement. This version of me had been cared for, worried about, sought after. Someone had paid to have me protected and yet it didn’t help save me from my brother’s debts.

"I hired a private investigator," she continued. "Spent a quarter of my savings searching for you! He deduced that you were most likely taken by the cartel since your brother borrowed a fuckton of money from them… and possibly dead… or imprisoned.”

Nessy shifted behind me, a soft whine escaping her throat. I could feel her tension, the way her body vibrated with contained emotions.

Krysanthea's nostrils suddenly flared, her pupils narrowing to reptilian slits. She inhaled deeply, her gaze moving between Nessy and me. 

"Her dog-smell is all over you," she let out a predatory rumble that sent a chill racing down my spine. "What has she been doing to you? Did she force herself on you?!"

“What?! I’d never! I’m a goodly Nazarite!” Nessy barked defensively.

“Yeah right! Where’s your sword cross?” Krysanthea snarled. “You obviously took it off so you could get your paws all over MY man!”

“A magnet-lynx ripped it off my neck!” Nessy explained.

“Liar!” the raptor-girl growled. “Give me that damned bucket so I can burn that abomination!”

“No!”

“I swear to God, Nessy, I will shoot you if you don’t hand it over!”

The invisible weight between us crystallized into something electric. Time seemed to stretch, each second extending into eternity as I stood between these two women—one I barely knew but who claimed intimate knowledge of "me," and another who had crossed worlds to find me. Both convinced of their rightness, both willing to fight for their version of reality.

I saw Krysanthea's decision form in her eyes a heartbeat before she moved. The slight coiling of her scaled muscles, the shift in her weight, the hardening of her amber gaze—all telegraphed her intent.

"I'm sorry, Alec," she said, her voice laced with genuine regret. "This is for your own good."

“Don’t!” Nessy barked.

Kristi lunged, not at me but at Nessy, her movements fluid and practiced. The husky yelped in surprise, clutching the bucket with our precious tree closer to her chest as she tried to dodge. But Krysanthea was faster, her ranger training evident in the precision of her attack.

Her scaled hand struck Nessy's wrist, sending the bucket tumbling. I dove for it instinctively, catching it before it could shatter against the limestone path. Behind me, I heard the sounds of struggle—growls, hisses, the scrape of claws against stone.

When I turned, Krysanthea had Nessy pinned face-down on the ground, one knee pressed into the small of her back. The husky's arms were being wrenched behind her, metal glinting as handcuffs snapped closed around her furry wrists.

"You have the right to remain silent," Krysanthea recited, her voice clinically detached despite the rage still evident in her eyes. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in court. You are under arrest for violation of Ferguson County Ordinance 394: Transportation and Cultivation of Systemfall-Corrupted Flora, and for the kidnapping and mental manipulation of Alec Foster."

"I didn't kidnap anyone!" Nessy cried, struggling against her restraints. Her blue eyes found mine, wide with panic and betrayal. "Alec, tell her! Tell her I saved you!"

I stood up, the bucket heavy in my hands. "She didn’t do anything. Let her go—"

I never finished the sentence. Something struck the back of my leg—Krysanthea's tail, I realized belatedly—sweeping my feet from under me. The world tilted, then rushed up to meet me as I fell, the bucket flying from my grasp. Krysanthea caught it in the air with her left hand.

Before I could recover, Krysanthea was above me, her movements a blur as she pushed me down and secured my wrists with a second pair of handcuffs. The metal bit into my skin, cold and unyielding.

"I know this seems cruel," she said. "But you're not in your right mind, Alec. Systemfall corruption has affected your memories, your sense of self." Her clawed hand brushed my cheek with surprising tenderness. "I'll fix this. I'll bring you back."

I stared up at her, this strange reptilian woman who looked at me with such conviction, such certainty that she knew who I was. In her world, in her reality, perhaps she did. Perhaps her Alec had loved her as fiercely as she clearly loved him.

But I wasn't him. And as she lifted me to my feet, her grip firm but careful, I felt a profound sense of displacement—a stranger in a familiar land, wearing a life that wasn't mine like an unfitting coat filled with razor blades.

Nessy lay on the ground nearby, her fury having given way to quiet resignation. Our eyes met across the limestone path, and I saw in her gaze a mirror of my own confusion and loss. We had survived conceptoids and nippers, a magnetic lynx and a Celestorm, only to be undone by the most mundane of obstacles—other people's expectations.

Krysanthea collected our Sandwichu Tree, holding the bucket at arm's length as if it might bite her. 

"This will need to be properly disposed of," she said, her professional tone returning. "According to protocol."

"Please don't," I said, hating the hint of desperation in my voice. "It's harmless."

Her amber eyes softened slightly. "Oh, Alec. That's what all Systemfall corruption victims say." She sighed, a sound like wind through dry leaves. "Let's get you both back to the station. Once that thing is destroyed and the contamination purged from your system, everything will make sense again."

The irony wasn't lost on me. In a world where dogs talked and dinosaur-people enforced the law, I was the one considered corrupted by unreality.

Krysanthea helped me to my feet, then walked over to Nessy, whose eyes never left the bucket containing our tree. The husky's ears were tilted back, her tail hanging limp between her legs. For once, she had no words, no quips, no declarations of pack loyalty—just a profound sadness that seemed to emanate from her in waves.

My mind raced, searching for a way out of this mess. The handcuffs bit into my wrists, a physical reminder of my helplessness. I knew with grim certainty that Ferguson—this Ferguson—was nothing like the haven Nessy had promised.

Krysanthea’s belief in her rightness was absolute and soon she would destroy the tree Nessy and I worked so hard to make and there was only one thing I could do.

I would have to die…

“Fight her,” I mouthed in the direction of Nessy. “Distract her!”

Nessy's eyes widened fractionally, understanding flashing within them like lightning behind clouds. The resignation vanished, replaced by a spark of feral defiance. She bucked violently beneath Krysanthea's hold, twisting and kicking with surprising force. A low, vicious growl tore from her throat as she snapped her head back, teeth narrowly missing the raptor-woman's arm.

"Stay still, damn it!" Krysanthea grunted, momentarily caught off guard by the sudden resistance. She tightened her grip, focusing her attention on subduing the flailing husky.

That was my chance.

Ignoring the searing pain in my wrists and the throbbing ache in my stomach, I surged to my feet and sprinted. Not back toward the station, not toward any illusion of escape, but straight toward the sheer drop-off at the quarry's edge, just meters away.

The limestone path blurred beneath my squelching green sneakers. The wind whipped past my face, carrying the scent of pine and impending rain. Behind me, I heard Krysanthea's sharp intake of breath as she finally registered my movement, followed by a furious curse.

"Alec, NO!"

I heard the scrape of her claws on stone as she released Nessy and launched herself after me. Her speed was terrifying, inhuman—a blur of green scales and feathers closing the distance with terrifying speed. But I had a head start, fueled by desperation and the grim certainty of my plan.

The edge rushed toward me—a dizzying precipice overlooking the vast, mirror-like surface of the quarry lake far below. Jagged rocks jutted out near the base, dark and unforgiving.

Krysanthea screamed my name again, closer now. I could feel the air stir as she lunged, her shadow stretching out before me. Her sharp, clawed fingers reached for my shoulder, mere inches away.

But she was too late.

With a final, convulsive burst of speed, I threw myself forward, launching my body out over the void. Her claws closed over empty air, the momentum carrying her staggering to the very brink.

There is beauty in falling. 

For a fraction of a second, time stretched like taffy, suspending me between the sky and the water. The world spun, a kaleidoscope of blue sky, green trees, and gray rock. I saw Krysanthea silhouetted against the sky, one arm outstretched in a futile gesture.

Then gravity reasserted its claim with brutal finality.

The air rushed past me, tearing at my clothes, whistling in my ears. The rocks below grew larger, sharper, their textures becoming terrifyingly distinct.

The impact wasn't a single event, but a horrific symphony of sensations. A blinding flash of white pain, the sickening crunch of bone, the sensation of my body crumpling like paper. My head snapped back at an unnatural angle. A final, electric jolt surged through my spine, extinguishing thought, sensation, everything.

Darkness.

Then, silence.