Follow Me

Previously on The Burn Arc…

I did make healthy relationships when I was over there.

Part 1: Bromance Meet my friend, Andrea. We weren’t a thing, to some people’s confusion.

Part 2: The First Time I Was Roofied I met Sara, who I thought was unassuming. I ended up roofied, gaslit, and robbed.

Part 3: Fire from the Sun Everything crashes and burns. EVERYTHING. It got bad.

Part 4: A Reluctant Coffee Mena needed help. I was about done.

The Burn Arc. It’s not a sequel or prequel; it’s sidequal of The Friend Web.

Parts 1 and 2: The Real King and Queen of Homecoming Meet my friend web and how it got weird so fast.

Part 3: I Was Given a Key to Their Bedroom Per usual, I was trusted and didn’t take advantage.

Part 4: The Porn Capital of the World The web begins to crash.

Other side stories related in the Webiverse:

A Gay Gym, a Blush, and a Wink I was supposed to know the gym was gay? Meet Carlos and Veronica.

I Loved You in the Darkness is a side quest as well, though it’s so happy that I don’t think of them together.

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I don’t make friends with guys very easily. I used to wonder why. Writing this, now I see.

In my time over there, I did have some healthy relationships with women.

I was first picked up from the airport and shared a cab with a lady who had been a nanny in the location for years. Call her Cary. She was pretty quiet.

I somehow shared that my dad warned me that if I got in a mess to go to the Swiss Embassy. You know, neutrality.

The only advise he gave me.

Out of the mouth of Boomers.

I asked where it was, and Cary didn’t get it. I told her the story and she looked horrified. I said I was sorry to scare her, but this was my one piece of advice. She pointed it out when we drove by.

Cary later found me around town. People trust me. I don’t know why. “I lost some of herself when my mother died.” She hesitated. “So don’t take it wrong if I don’t respond like others might.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I just held her eye contact and didn’t ruin the silence.

We went to a park once at my suggestion. About a month later, I had a text from her.

She wanted to show me something neat. She sent a text that said meet here, bring good shoes, a jacket, and follow me.

I did.

We ended up walking for I don’t know how far. We ended at the outskirts of the city at the top of the hills. “It’s almost here.”

“What is, again?” I asked. I wasn’t nervous with her. I was curious. I really had no idea what to expect.

We walked into a stone on a mountain. I looked around at stained glass windows, lights, and relics. We were at a monastery.

“Come, sit. Hurry.”

I crossed myself and did.

The monks came out. They sang and chanted in Latin.

It was one of the most beautiful things I ever saw.

After a while they left, and some nuns came out to sing.

I trembled a little. Cary saw it and held my hand.

I didn’t do much with hers, though I wanted to. I wanted to hold her hand, whisper “hi” in her ear, and then kiss her.

But I felt dirty and inferior. Unworthy.

Fuck this feeling of being tainted I got from grooming, abuse, and rape, and fuck this world that taught me it’s not real or my fault.

I do hope I was as good a host when I invited people to my world.

That’s it for The Burn Arc. We only have the Epilogue left.