[Vol. 4 pt. 14]

The situation didn’t exactly turn out how I hoped it would, but it turned out how I had a feeling it would.

Once Thera assisted with kicking Oliver out from the dungeon, I noticed that he either went offline or removed me from his friends list seeing as how he appeared offline when I checked.

“Will you be safe?” I asked Marcia. “In real life, I mean. You don’t think he would do anything to your body while you’re in-game, do you?”

Marcia shook her head while trying not to cry. “I—he wouldn’t. I know… I know he wouldn’t. Even if he has been… aggressive… about pushing his fetish onto me… I promise that he is the sweetest, nicest man the rest of the time. He would never harm anybody. He just… what did I do wrong?” And that was when the tears could no longer be held back as she looked up at me, holding onto my arm. “He was never like this before! What—what made him like this? There was never any mention of anything like this before we got married! If… if I knew that he was going to be this obsessed over a stupid fetish…”

I was about to open my mouth, but Thera decided to speak before I could. “Relationships are so much trouble. This reminds me why I only dated one girl before and then decided to spend all my time with games instead.”

Marcia looked up at Thera, confused as to why she would even bring that up right now.

“You will never, know matter what you believe, fully know everything about a person. No matter how long you know somebody for—no matter how deeply you love somebody, you will never truly understand nor know somebody. Even with my darling here, despite him being the only man I could ever see myself getting romantically involved with, I would never delude myself into believing that I know exactly who he is.”

Hearing her say the bit about getting romantically involved with me made me—well, extremely happy, but I resisted flirting with her so that we could try and comfort Marcia still. That was why, instead, I joined in with, “She’s right. And I’ll never truly know Thera. It’s impossible to fully know somebody. The most you can ever know is what they show to you. This is an… extreme example, but it’s like whenever you see interviews on TV about the neighbors giving their opinions on somebody in the neighborhood who turned out to be s serial killer or something. They almost never expect it. The killer’s parents don’t expect it, their loved ones don’t expect it—nobody expects it. Obviously, this isn’t as extreme as that, but I think it gets the point across.”

“Then,” Marcia spoke up, “what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that he’s probably had this fetish for far longer than you’ve known about. Maybe he was ashamed about it before which was why he never wanted to bring it up, but then he finally got so desperate to experience it that he couldn’t resist trying to get you into it.”

Thera sighed and shook her head. “How kind of you to still believe in the best of him in this situation, darling.”

I had a feeling that I knew what she was getting it, and I agreed with it being a possibility… but I didn’t want to make Marcia feel even worse.

Thera, on the other hand, didn’t care if she made Marcia feel worse. She just wanted to help in her own way, and that was with tough love. “This is how I see it. When a man is that obsessed and angered over something like this, there are two options. One, he is so deeply obsessed with his fetish that he needs genuine therapy to overcome it, and I doubt he would have been able to hide it for the majority of their relationship. Two, he cheated on you. He cheated on you, and now he wants you to do the same to him so that he can have a clear conscience. A wrong cancels out a wrong. You are not supposed to cheat on him just as he was not supposed to cheat on you. Even if he pressures you into cheating on him, he can still use that as proof that you are just as immoral as he is. Have either of you ever dated anybody else before?”

Marcia looked offended and in disbelief for a few seconds after hearing Thera’s words, but then she relaxed and looked like she was thinking about something before answering, “N-no. We’ve… been dating since school, and it is the first relationship for both of us.”

“Well, as far as I am concerned, that more or less confirms it. You married your sweetheart from school, played the role of the perfect wife willing to dedicate yourself to him, and he loved it. But, he realized there is so much more in the world to experience, especially when it comes to women. Maybe it was with a coworker, a friend, or a random woman in a brothel, but he cheated on you. Now he feels guilt over it and wants you to ‘cheat’ on him, even if he consents to it, to feel better about his own betrayal and to justify further cheating on you. If anything, he probably wants to get you so into ‘cucking’ him that you frequently do it, which justifies him sleeping with all manner of women, while also staying in a relationship with you to continue having you take care of him.”

You have no chill, Thera, I thought. Everything that she said was a perfectly plausible theory, and that sort of story came up all the time in the kink world.

“That is why he was so eager to push you off onto my darling, and why he was so enraged when he found out that nothing had happened between you and that nothing would be happening. He finally convinced you to do something that would pave the way for him to get his fill of sexual debauchery with anybody and everybody but you, giving him the sexual freedom that he would have if he were single while still benefiting from marriage. And my darling, little shining knight in armor that he loves to be, ruined the dastardly villain’s plan.”

I looked up at Thera with a Really? expression and smiled. Even if it was the wrong situation for her banter, it was still endearing and made me laugh on the inside. I was also going to have to get revenge for the shining knight in armor thing that she mentioned later, probably by dressing up as a literal knight in shining armor and that deliberately acting like one around her while being as cheesy as possible about it.

“Does any of that sound possible to you?” Thera asked. “And I am asking your gut, not your heart. Your heart is biased, your gut, less so. I am sure that your heart wishes for nothing more than to shove aside any potential flaws of your partner to overlook what he may have done to you. But tell me what your gut believes.”

“Hannah,” Marcia said, answering immediately. “My… my sister.”

The look that me and Thera shared with each other… was something that I was never going to forget for the rest of my life as we simultaneously realized just how absolutely dramatic and messed up the situation just got.

“They used to hang out all the time… and I didn’t care, because she’s my sister,” Marcia went on. “Why would I care about him hanging out with my sister? Nothing would happen… I thought. But… they started to hang out more and more, and they would drink sometimes, and he would tell me that he was staying over at her house for the night because they both got too drunk to drive. One time, she came over for a party, and I went to bed early. I… I woke up and saw them kissing on the couch, but he promised it was because he got drunk and mistook her for me. I think… I was desperate to accept that as the truth even if it didn’t make any sense. Her hair was dyed a completely different color than mine at the time…”

“So, the most important details come out,” Thera said. “That more or less confirms it all.”

I didn’t want to admit it either because of what it meant Marcia’s life was about to become, but I couldn’t deny it. “Yeah… I was hoping he was just obsessed with his fetish and that he needed therapy, but… what you said confirms it. Obviously, we don’t know the full story, so you shouldn’t just take our word for it, but… I think you should maybe find some other friends or family to stay with for a while to give you time to figure things out on your own.”

“I don’t have anybody else,” Marcia said. “I have no friends. My parents have always loved my sister more and would take her side over anybody else’s. They would probably still choose her over me even if she tried to kill me. I don’t have a job because I take care of the house, so… I have nobody. I don’t have anything. All I have is a pet turtle.” She began to both laugh and cry at that point, but mostly cry. “And even he loves my husband more than me…”

“You know, there are government resources that can help you out. There’s a whole program for helping people out in situations like yours. It might mean having to stay in a shelter for a while, but they’ll take care of you.”

“They won’t take care of me forever.”

“Obviously. You’re going to have to get your own job to support you, and they can help you find a place to live as long as you prove that you’re actually putting the effort into improving your situation.”

“Or,” Thera interjected, “you could stay with me.”

It took both me and Marcia a few seconds to process what Thera just said, but we both looked up at her with equally surprised faces once we understood. “Thera?” I asked. “Are you—”

“Sure? Yes. Serious? Also yes. I have to admit, my apartment has grown rather messy lately, and I would be glad to let somebody stay in the spare room so long as they keep the place clean for me. And so long as they do not touch my food. I would give her a weekly allowance to go buy her own food with. Should one of my cups of yogurt ever go missing, however, then I will not hesitate to kick you out onto the street.”

Marcia looked like she wasn’t sure whether or not she should be thankful or confused. “But—you… you don’t even know me. And what if it turns out that he’s not doing anything wrong? What if—what if this really is just all one big misunderstanding?”

“I will retract the offer if you ask something as idiotic as that again. Even if, and that is an incredibly large ‘if,’ it turns out that he has not been sleeping with your sister behind your back, then he is still obsessively pushing his fetish onto you and getting aggressive when it is not fulfilled. He is putting his desire for his fetish above your comfort. As for not knowing you, I know how to handle myself. I will not hesitate to kick a leech out of my place, nor will I hesitate to defend myself if I ever feel in danger around you. My apartment is also too small for any interesting or valuable belongings to collect, so there is nothing for you to steal nor ruin. You may even bring your pet turtle. Also, the offer will only be good for three months. That is more than enough time for you to figure out how you wish to proceed so long as you treat it like a full-time job. If it takes longer than that to get your own job and place, then I will assume your standards are either too high or you are wasting my generosity, and you will be left outside.”

“I’ve never been offered to move in with you,” I said with a pout. I couldn’t help but to play with her at least a little bit after hearing all of that.

“That is because I know I would never get anything done.” She poked her finger underneath my chin, tilting my head back, and looked directly into my eyes. “Darling.”

Thera was… seriously too powerful.

“Well?” Thera asked, looking at Marcia again. “If you are unsure, you could add me on Fiscord and I will show you pictures of where I live just so that you have an example of what you would be dealing with.”

“I… don’t even know what a ‘Fiscord’ is,” Marcia answered.

“Then we can exchange phone numbers if it must really come to that.”

I whined again. “I don’t even have your phone number.”

Once more, Thera looked into my eyes and said, “The last thing I need is an even more convenient way of talking to you. Nothing would get done.”

My heart took critical damage from hearing that. Even if it was an exaggeration that she wouldn’t be able to get anything done from knowing my phone number, it still made me all flustered to hear.

“I… okay,” Marcia replied. “I—I’ll give you my phone number. But I’m… not going to make a decision yet. Is it alright if I take a few days to figure things out? I still… want to talk to him, and… I want to confront him. And my sister. If I do and you’re right, or something else happens… I’ll accept your offer. I might have to sell a few things to afford the plane ticket, but—”

“You need not worry about that,” Thera interrupted. “So long as you pay me back once you are able to, I would be willing to cover your travel expenses.”

Marcia shook her head. “N-no. If I decide to come and stay with you… it will mean I’ve reached a point where nothing from my current life matters. All of the jewelry bought for me won’t have a meaning and will only be negative reminders, so… I’ll just sell it all.”

“Your choice. I am not opposed to saving money if possible.”

“You’re already offering so much for me, somebody who you don’t even know, so… I wouldn’t want to impose on you anymore than I already would be.”

Really, me and Thera should have been scolding the girl about how dangerous it was to go and live with somebody she knew for less than an hour, especially a stranger she met off of the internet, but me and Thera were, as far as I was concerned, good people. She couldn’t have picked a better stranger than Thera to go and randomly live with to get herself up onto her own two feet.

But I was still jealous. Just a little.

And Marcia could always be educated about stranger danger after she was in a better environment.