Free Again 2022

 ...continued from yesterday

2

Admittedly, it shook the core of everything I thought I was up until I met Merla in her dog and human incarnation.

In both instances, she, or whatever it was that possessed her, was in complete control. Not just in control, but cock sure that it could do what it wanted at a whim and no one could stop it. It stirred the calm waters in my bowl, and the mix came up with a fear I've had for a long time. The fear of not being in control. It, Merla, or the demon or whatever, took that fear by the balls and ran with it, and by doing that, it or myself ran me out of town. So, here I am at the Main Street hotel in Vegas, questioning everything about who I've been up until now, and I have no answers. I grab my wallet and the room key and head downstairs to the buffet, hoping that this time the breaded buns and bacon won't taste like it's been sitting there for two weeks. I hand the cashier my coupons, and my server walks me to my table for one. The place is packed, but I've never felt more alone, helpless, and lost than I do now. 

"Anything to drink?" The server asks. "Water? Coffee? Orange juice? Soda?"

"A glass of water and a soda," I reply.

"I'll be right back," as she walks away, I get a glimpse of her name tag. Merla. I watch her walking across the crowded floor, maneuvering her way through the crowd of people with plates in their hands, empty or otherwise. Finally, she turns and looks at me, and I can see that her name tag now says Terese. This is how bad it's gotten; I'm fucking hallucinating. After the buffet, I decided to get some air, so I walked to the strip. I found a pizza place where the pizza was better than the buffet. I ate a whole one and downed it with a few pints of beer. Asking the bartender for directions to the facilities, I, like Terese, the server at the buffet, maneuvered my way through the drunk crowd until I found myself standing in front of the urinal, where I contributed my micturition upon the crushed ice piled up on the drain. Putting everything back where it was, I zipped my pants up and turned to leave. Blocking my way was a late twenty-ish man who was dressed very nicely. He stood there with a large bowie knife in his hand, which was obviously a sign that he was overcompensating for something he lacked in another area of his life or personality. 

"If you say one word, I'm going to cut you," he said. "Just give me your wallet, and won't have any problems,"

So, to oblige his desperation, I removed my wallet carefully from my pant pocket, opened it, and removed all its contents which I shoved back into my pant pocket, and then handed the thief what he'd asked for. My wallet, and only my wallet. Needless to say, he was furious! In such a small space, there's only one of two ways he would stab me. Either straightforward or overhand. There wasn't room for any other kind of offensive strike with the kind of knife he had. For myself, there was only one defensive move which, in my experience, always worked in a situation like this because it's what people least expect. A kick to the nuts. I took a step back and fired up my right leg to deliver the ball-crushing blow with my instep, but I never got the chance. Someone walked up behind the robber and pulled his hair back and down. It was Merla. In an instant, she bore her sharpened teeth for me to see, and she bit the robber's head off. The music in the pizzeria was deafening, which is why no one heard me screaming bloody murder. Merla was too interested in her impromptu meal to do anything to me, so I jumped over her and her victim and escaped back to my room at the hotel. All the while, I could hear the tone of her-I told-you-so-laughter as I ran through the crowded pizzeria. I left in the middle of the night, driving all the way out to Primm, where I checked myself into Whiskey Pete's Hotel and Casino. I must have sat in that room for a week, surviving on delivering of food and drinks to my door. Fuck, if I had to worry about how I would handle what happened to me in Hawaii Kai when I got back home. It, Merla, the demon or whatever, came to me. 

...to be continued