“You know what you just did goes beyond stalking, right?”
I turn to face the irritating teen girl who just handcuffed me. She has her right hand deep in the pocket of her shorts, wherein the key to the handcuffs lies. As annoying as she may be, I have to give her credit for not being an idiot. She knows damn well that if I were to try and get the key out of her pocket, it’d look bad to any and all strangers passing by. Hell, just being handcuffed to this brat is more than enough to make strangers look at me with disgust. The best I can do right now is talk her out of it.
“Yeah, well, you were being an asshole, so it serves you right!”
She’s just giving me a bratty response. So, I guess this is just a circumstance I’m going to have to put up with for the time being. I have no choice but to continue to the park while being handcuffed to a young girl. I try to up my walking pace a little to see if it’ll make Ariel consider unlocking the handcuffs, but she’s able to keep up with me no problem. She looks at me straight in the eye and talks to me casually, as if there’s nothing weird going on right now.
“So why were you hanging out at that old house? Doesn’t look like you live there.”
I could ignore her, but something tells me she’ll do something even more drastic if I do.
“…I have my own reasons.”
“What kind of reasons?”
“Personal reasons that are none of your business.”
As we talk, a couple walk by and give me a look of disapproval. I don’t live in a small rural town where rumors spread easily or anything like that. However, there’s still a chance that some shithead with a camcorder could come across us, record a video, and then upload it to the internet. Which if that were to happen, I would have to kill myself right then and there. Thankfully, I happen to live in an area surrounded by a forest landscape. For now, I decide to take the two of us into some nearby trees. Ariel seems a bit nervous about this decision.
“…H-How come we’re going into the forest?”
I could lie and pretend that I’m gonna recreate a kill from one of the Berserker Man movies, but let’s be real, that’s way too risky of a bluff to pull off.
“We’re taking a shortcut to the park.”
Instead, I decide to tell a less threatening lie. Going through the nearby forest is going to extend the time it takes for me to get to the park. But I’ll take it if it means avoiding the stares of strangers. Plus, the extra time gives me a chance to think of a way to rid myself of this girl.
“Are you sure this is a good shortcut?”
“Yeah.”
“What if we get lost?”
“We’re not gonna get lost. I used to explore this forest with friends for hours when I was a little kid.”
That’s not a lie. Since I always dreaded going home, I had a habit of exploring the local woods with friends just so I could be out of the house more often. Even though I don’t explore them anymore, the knowledge of which parts of town are connected to what parts of the forest are forever embedded in me. I’m not sure if this was on purpose or not, but this forest feels like a hub world from a platforming game what with all the places in town you can come across just by entering and exiting through the trees.
“…You explored all of this when you were a little kid?”
Ariel looks at me with amazement as she asks. I don’t know why the idea of just “walking around the woods” excites her so much.
“Calm down, it’s not like I climbed Mount Everest. We were just bored kids looking for ways to spend the time is all. Though it has been a while since I last explored…Well, it couldn’t have changed that much, right?”
“D-Don’t say things like that! What if we get lost?”
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have handcuffed yourself to me then.”
She pouts after I say that. Despite that, she’s still refusing to unlock the handcuffs. Well fine. If she wants to risk the possibility of getting lost and dying in the forest with me, so be it. Silence comes over the two of us as I use childhood memories to traverse through the forest.
“…Now if I recall, we tied various pieces of cloth to certain tree branches to indicate which place a part of the forest was right by…Oh, there’s one of them.”
I see a blue cloth tied to a branch on a tree spinning slightly from the wind. Pretty amazing that no one’s bothered to take them down after all this time…Well, maybe some of them got taken down. Who knows. Ariel is intrigued by the cloth and starts questioning me about it.
“…Your friends tied cloths to trees? That branch is so high up, weren’t you worried about falling while climbing up?”
“Well, we always had the tall kid go and tie the cloths to branches. It’s not like he had to climb all the way to the top. We got the cloths from another kid…Jason. Yeah, that was his name. His parents were tailors, so they had a bunch of random cloth lying around that he’d make small cuts out of, giving us the cloth pieces to put on the trees.”
“Did your friends use the same color cloth for all of the trees?”
“No, we used different colors in order to signify a location. I don’t remember what all the cloths symbolized, but I know we used a green cloth to signify the park.”
She listens to me while staring at the cloth on the tree branch. I don’t understand why she finds this so fascinating. She keeps asking me more questions.
“How much time would you spend outside during the day?”
“Hours. Unless it was raining, then I’d stay in.”
“Wow, really? Did you ever get a sunburn from being out for so long?”
“…Uh, no. Trees provide shade.”
Not that it wasn’t already obvious, but this girl is strange. I must’ve been giving her a rude look, because now she’s blushing red and stammering.
“D-Don’t act like I’m some dumbass! I-I just figured it was possible, even with trees! I haven’t been alive as long as you! I don’t know everything!”
“Oh, so now you admit to being a kid?”
I hit the right nerve at the right moment as now she’s stamping her feet angrily.
“That’s not what I mean you dipshit! I’m not a kid! I just don’t have the same level of ‘wisdom’ that you do!”
“So, you admit that older people tend to know more than someone your age?”
“Urrghhhhhhhhhh!! Just shut the fuck up!”
She kicks me in the shin during her outburst.
“Agh! You little shit!”
I kneel down to hold my leg. While doing so, I notice that Ariel’s having some difficulty keeping her footing due to the handcuffs. I decide to take advantage of the situation and forcefully thrust my right arm forward, which causes her to trip and fall right on her face.
“A-Ahhhhhhhh! …Ghhhhhh…”
She slowly gets up from the grass with scrapes on her knees and tears welling in her eyes. This might sound strange given what I just did, but I actually strongly dislike corporal punishment. I only think it’s okay to hit a kid if said kid is being violent towards you. Given that I was kicked in the shins, my own moral compass tells me that I was justified in my actions, yet despite thinking that, I can’t help but feel kind of bad when I look at her crying face. I’m kind of pathetic, aren’t I?
“…You know, you could end this by just unlocking the cuffs.”
I stand back up while saying that. It would seem to be that despite falling flat on her face, Ariel has no interest in giving up. My statement towards her does nothing but cause her to suck back her tears and make a disgusting snorting noise from her nose.
“N-No way!”
Ariel reaches into her pocket and pulls the key out. Shen then pulls her shirt up to the point where I can see the entirety of her sports bra and puts the key right into said bra. After putting her shirt back down she holds on to my left arm and looks up.
“…If you want the key that badly, you can get it yourself.”
She rubs her budding breasts against my arm as she says this. I think she’s trying to act “seductive”.
“…Right then. Let’s head to the park.”
I keep moving forward and despite her attempts at keeping me from moving, Ariel succeeds in nothing but falling on her face again. Which makes her give up on resisting and we continue through the woods in silence. More random childhood memories bubble up as I take in the scenery. Along with the weird idea to mark and map out the trees of the woods (I don’t even remember who got that plan started in the first place), we’d also sometimes hang out at each other’s homes. I never had anyone come over to my home though, that was too risky.
As I got older, I became less interested in staying outside, especially after some other kids discovered an old, abandoned movie theater. This large empty space was appealing for the more introverted teens among us. We were also intrigued by the fact that although it was an abandoned building, the electricity and plumbing were still working. Whenever this occurs it’s usually because the PearlCoin organization has deemed the building “useful” in some manner. However, we never saw anyone enter or use the theater, and after a few weeks of noticing that no one was using it, us kids decided to make it our own hangout spot.
Along with all basic utilities still being functional, the theater still seemed to be furnished the same way it was when it got abandoned. Meaning that the movie screening rooms still had huge monitors and seats in them. The more tech savvy kids managed to find a way to screw with the projectors that would allow us to watch whatever we wanted on the monitors. Some kids would also set up video game tournaments as well. When I got into drugs, my friends and I enjoyed tripping out to whatever was playing on the monitors.
However, eventually the PearlCoin organization made their appearance when it was revealed that they were preparing to have the building refurbished as an education center for new members. Needless to say, they weren’t happy to discover that a bunch of teenagers were using the place to fool around in, and we were forced to abandon our cool hangout spot. We tried to find another place to hang out at, but nothing was ever as good as the abandoned movie theater.
“…Hey, isn’t that the green cloth you were talking about?”
I’m taken out of my nostalgic spacing out as Ariel points at a tree ahead of us. Sure enough, there’s a tree with a green cloth tied to one of the branches.
“Uh, yeah, right…”
I still haven’t managed to get myself out of the cuffs yet. Worst of all, Ariel has the key hidden somewhere I can’t reach unless I want to become an unforgivable human being. I take a deep breath and exit the forest into the park via the trees. Thankfully there doesn’t seem to be anyone here…for now. I have the two of us head over to one of the benches at the park. Maybe if I just sit around doing nothing, she’ll get bored enough that she’ll want to get away from me. The park here doesn’t really have much outside of a few benches, restrooms that are rarely if ever cleaned, and varying amounts of homeless people hanging out. Today seems to be one of those special days where there’s no homeless people at the park though. Ariel doesn’t seem to mind being here and is picking up random dandelions.
“You know those are technically considered weeds, right?”
I call out to her, and she responds.
“…That can’t be, they’re too pretty to be weeds.”
After responding, she starts blowing on the seeds. Do people really bother with making a wish before blowing on those things? I think that’s just an excuse people made up because they’re worried that just saying “I like how the seeds in the wind look” would make them look dumb to others. Ariel stares into the wind and watches the dandelion seeds blow in the wind. She almost looks serene enough to make me forget that she’s an annoying brat who has me handcuffed to her…almost.
It’s getting to the point where I’m honestly considering going to the dark side and getting the key from her bra. The fact that I’m even considering such a thing makes me question my sanity. But I really don’t know what to do. I guess I could have her take me to her parents to explain the situation? But I don’t know where she lives and if I asked her, she’d most likely lie to keep me handcuffed. Furthermore, her parents might refuse to consider my point of view at all and see me as some molester trying to hurt their daughter. But they would at least get me out of the cuffs eventually, if nothing else. But how long would that take? She seems determined to keep me by her side for as long as possible and I just want to get away.
I aimlessly look around the park while thinking about what to do. Let’s see, I know paper clips can be used to unlock handcuffs but there sure as hell aren’t any of those around here. Uhh…I know with rope, you can rub it against a surface long enough until it breaks, but that obviously doesn’t work for metal. Is inappropriately touching a young girl really the only way for me to get out of this situation? No, I gotta figure something out…Hmm, looking at the restrooms is giving me an idea. A rather juvenile idea that could fail if Ariel is stubborn enough, a perverted degenerate, or both. But it’s still preferable to groping. I get up from the bench and start walking. The movement forces Ariel up and she awkwardly walks behind me.
“H-Hey, where are we going?”
She looks confused. I decide to not answer her question and keep heading to the restrooms. I’ve heard that cleaning the park restrooms is considered a type of special punishment for low ranking PearlCoin members. I don’t know what misbehavior specifically calls for this punishment but given that the restrooms at best still look and smell pretty gross, I’m going to assume that this is a punishment said PearlCoin members try to avoid as best they can. Once I step into the entrance of the men’s restroom, I feel resistance coming from Ariel.
“U-Umm! W-What are we doing here?”
I look over to see her blushing red and looking uncomfortable. It’s good to see that she still seems to have something resembling purity in her heart. It’s exactly what I need for my plan to work.
“Isn’t it obvious? I need to use the bathroom.”
“Y-Yeah but…This is the is the men’s bathroom…”
She’s looking down at the floor and fidgeting nervously.
“Yeah and? I’m a man.”
She raises her head a little and I can see that her blushing has only deepened. I figure it’s best to not show her any mercy.
“What? Did you seriously not consider the possibility of this happening when you decided to cuff us together? How stupid can you be?”
She gives me an irritated look for a few seconds before reaching into her bra and pulling the key out.
“…F-Fine…”
She finally unlocks the handcuffs and I’m free. My plan worked. I’d be in real trouble if she decided to call me on my bluff.
“You…You go do your business and I’ll wait outside for you.”
She’s awfully naïve, isn’t she? She’s really acting as if I’d just willingly allow myself to get cuffed to her again.
“Yeah, I don’t need to go. That was just a plan for you to uncuff me and it worked. See ya.”
I inform her while walking out of the restroom. She looks shocked as if I betrayed her. I have no idea why. Did she think that we were bonding or something throughout this idiotic endeavor? I can hear her shouting increasingly nonsensical insults at me in a voice that’s choking on tears as I leave the park.
“Douchebag! Shithead! Fuckass! Smegma brain!”
She seems to see herself as the victim here, and I have no idea why. I’ve had more than enough shenanigans for the day, so I head straight home back to my apartment.
It’s almost 3 by the time I’m back home. I proceed to rummage through my DVDs to find something to watch and pick some random pornos to watch. You know, it’s strange. I don’t really watch pornos for the sake of sexual arousal. I watch them for potential entertainment value and don’t see them as really all that different from other regular movies. Well okay, I mean, obviously the content is quite different from the average film, but the point still stands.
The first porno I watched was pretty forgettable. It was some 1980s flick about a slutty woman being a slut and nothing more to it beyond that. I would’ve fallen asleep if it weren’t for the actress loudly faking her orgasms. The next porno I put it wasn’t boring at the very least, but I still had some issues with it. It was basically a sexualized take on the incestuous hillbilly stereotype with a family of rednecks who like to fuck each other.
There’s quite a bit of debate out there when it comes to whether sexual fetishes are a nature or a nurture thing. From what I’ve read about it, the truth seems to be a mixture of both. Because while there certainly are cases where it’s clear that some people are just born with strange paraphilias, you can also find instances where someone’s paraphilia originated from incidents that left a mark on them psychologically. A notable example of this is that it’s not uncommon for people who were traumatized from growing up in abusive, unloving households to develop a fetish for incest.
While that certainly is the case for some people…I can’t say it’s the case for me. If anything, growing up with the family I had impacted me the opposite way. I find incest porn to not just be a turn off, but completely revolting. Which makes me rather dumb for having decided to watch this incest porno. I ultimately ended up turning it off half an hour in when I could no longer stomach the redneck girl screaming “daddy” while getting plowed in the ass. I ended up settling on a Japanese scat film where petite Japanese girls spent 70 minutes shitting out more shit than the average human being has ever shat their entire life.
After watching a few more nondescript porn films, I decided to go into my room to browse the internet a bit. There’s a thread on PSDS discussing the made-up mental illnesses that therapists in LOVE diagnose citizens with as a way to discourage independent thought. These include things such as “Dissociative Depression”, “Hyperactive Narcissism”, and “Delusional Anxiety”. Getting diagnosed with these illnesses guarantee a massive loss of LOVE POINTS and more often than not, getting sent to a “mental health center” only a day after the diagnosis is received.
I spent the rest of my evening browsing through the thread, soaking up information that frankly isn’t all that relevant to my life. Still, is it wrong to want to learn about things even if I’ll most likely never have any use for the information? I had a pretty weird day today, and not in a good way. I suppose I should be thankful that I managed to get out of that situation with Ariel without anyone I know learning about it. I can only hope that tomorrow will be more peaceful.
Author’s Note: I don’t have anything comment about with this chapter. It’s just more events that move the story along happening.
