Chapter 38 (Arc 1 Epilogue) (Patreon)

Jason pulled his oversized baseball cap further down and hunched as low as he could without making it seem obvious that he was. The sidewalks were congested today, moreso than expected. With practiced eyes, he scanned the crowd for any glimmers of recognition or flashing phone cameras, relaxing when he concluded that everyone was too busy going about their days to pay much attention to him. He really wasn’t in the mood to be recognized as the Portal Guy. Not today of all days.

Stepping into the restaurant, Jason requested two seats on the outside patio, facing away from the crowds. They questioned his insistence on the setup until he pointed out that the restaurant was half-empty and that he would be ordering two dinners regardless. The servers seated him and left him with a menu and his thoughts. Luckily, the patio was empty. He wasn’t sure what he would’ve done if it wasn’t.

Jason retrieved two beers out of his bag, putting one in front of him, and the other in front of the second seat. The brand was Minty Fresh Phantasma. Jason thought it tasted like old feet, but it was Rob’s favorite. This restaurant was also Rob’s favorite, and the patio, his favorite seat in the house.

With no grave and Rob’s house being watched by at least one paparazzi at all times, this was the next-best way Jason had to connect with him.

“Hey man,” Jason said, speaking to the air. “Sorry I haven’t visited in a while. Been kind of crazy. I’m sure it’s crazier wherever you are, but man, count your blessings that you never had to deal with reporters looking for their Big Scoop.”

He admired their persistence, if nothing else. And he supposed he could understand the pragmatism in fishing where the pond was dense. One might assume that the public would have gotten bored of the Portal Incident after over a month of the video – captured on over five different phone cameras and a security camera to boot – being watched and discussed until the dead horse had been beaten into a pulp.

But they hadn’t. The first 100% confirmed supernatural incident since the advent of the Internet wasn’t going to leave the public consciousness so easily.

“You know what’s even worse than the groupies?” Jason said. “The people who don’t believe you. Personally, it’s no skin off my back if they don’t, but man, they really like to let you know they think they’re smarter than everyone else. Get all up in your face, call you a hoax, that sort of thing. I swear to god one of them even mentioned sheeple.”

He absently rubbed the spots on his legs where the chains had grabbed him. The marks had long since faded, but the phantom pain had not. “Makes me want to piledrive them into the pavement,” Jason admitted. “I won’t, because I’m pretty sure that would be giving them what they want, but it’s a nice fantasy.”

Jason drummed his fingers on the table, letting the seconds pass by until he wasn’t able to procrastinate any longer.

“I think...” His chest felt tight. “I think I’m ready to be happy again.”

It felt like a betrayal worthy of Judas, but the words were out in the open now, and he wouldn’t take them back.

“That’s not to say I’m forgetting you,” Jason said. “And I haven’t moved on. I’m not sure this is something you ever truly move on from, you know? It doesn’t control your life as much, but it’s always there in the corner of your mind. I’m okay with that. Means the impact you had on my life never went away.”

He exhaled a ragged breath. “But, it’s just...at this point, your disappearance isn’t the first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning. I can go hours without focusing on it. And I want to stay that way.”

A smile brightened up his expression. “Jeanette’s really stepped up the plate, by the way. People really show you who they are when the chips are down, and the real Jeanette on the inside is loyal, caring, understanding, and patient. I know I’m still in college, and it’s waaaaaay too early in my life to be thinking of marriage, but if she’s the one I end up hitching the rest of my life to years down the road? That would be fine by me.”

Jason listened into the quiet air; not hearing a response, but imagining what it would have been.

A few seconds of thumb-twiddling passed until he felt ready to speak again. “It feels wrong. Not being sad all the time. Like, if I stop being sad, then it means I’m failing you.”

He screwed his eyes shut and wiped them with a napkin. “But you know, you always said you admired how positive my outlook on life was. That I could take shit on the chin and keep on trucking with a smile on my face. I feel like if I lost that part of myself you liked, it would be an even bigger betrayal than the alternative.”

If only you could see the effect you had on people, Jason thought. You told me in confidence one time that if you randomly disappeared one day, 99% of your friends – me excepted – wouldn’t give a damn outside of momentary disappointment. It’s kind of crazy that you predicted the first half of that statement and not the second.

Jason clapped his hands together. “Well, that’s enough of the sad mushy shit. This is supposed to be conversation...sort of…not a eulogy.”

He grinned. “If you got mixed up in something out of a story, then story rules apply, right? No body, no death. Your parents don’t believe it and I sure as hell don’t either. A crazy bastard like you is too stubborn to die. We’re not holding a funeral until we get a written affidavit stamped with your fingerprints saying ‘Woe is me, my time has come, give all my stuff to Jason.’”

Jason popped open his can of beer and tried to ignore how rank it smelled. “The Best Man spot in my wedding is still reserved for you. You’d better come back before I get married, because then we’ll just have to use a Rob-shaped puppet as a stand-in, and that would make for some weird wedding photos.”

He took a sip of the beer that tasted like feet, gagged a little, and held it up towards the sky.

“Takes as long as you need to come back. But make sure you do. We’ll be waiting.”