The Chaser
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With A Lethe Chaser free porn video
With a Lethe Chaser
The clink of glasses and the murmur of quiet conversation flowed around
him. This was a quiet place. There would be no loud pounding rhythms
here to drive the patrons into near ecstatic dancing. No blaring big
screens plastered with some game peeking out at every angle while the
inhabitants cheered or groaned at their performance. It seemed somehow a
place steeped in time and tranquility rather than a fancy watering hole.
The enormous bar stretched the length of one side of the room flanked by
tasteful mirrors that made it stretch to infinity. It was all glossy
dark polished wood and gleaming brass. The kind you might expect
someplace else, but knew was just right for this time and place.
He sat on the comfortable leather bound stool and leaned over the wood.
His reflection hovered beneath him, a shadow in the wood gazing back at
him while he contemplated the half finished whiskey sour in front of
him. It had been some time since he last had been here and unlike so
many he had been here far more times than they. He noticed with some
bemusement that some of the ones from his last visit were still here.
Still unwilling to leave. Maybe they would still be here when next he
came. Perhaps not.
The bartender was the same as he always was since the first time he had
found his way to this temporary haven. He was a heavy man, not fat but
solid in a way that suggested a mountain unworn by time. He moved in his
quiet efficient manner serving his patrons and from time to time sitting
with them in quiet discussion. Sometimes after speaking with him they
would nod and move out the doors, but mostly they stayed where they were
for now. Desperate creatures caught between what had come before and
what was yet to come and still unwilling to bridge the chasm until it
had narrowed a little more.
The big man's name was Carl, or at least that is what it had always been
when he spoke with him. The others that spoke with him had their own
names and perhaps their own faces. He wouldn't know and it didn't matter
to him if they did. Carl was always there when he walked through the
door and he was sure he would remain so when he passed through those
doors the last time. When he walked in last week Carl didn't really say
anything to him. He just nodded in acknowledgement of his arrival and
brought his drink to him when he sat down. They weren't old friends but
they had the long familiarity of extended acquaintance that passes for
it to those who didn't know better.
"Freshen that for you Marcus?" He looked up at Carl standing across the
bar from him. Carl never made sound when he moved. Marcus knew that, but
somehow it always managed to surprise him. You would expect for some
reason that such a solid burly man would have a thousand little tells
for each movement but Carl was a whisper lost in the wind.
"Thanks Carl, I think so," Marcus said quickly killing what little was
left of the drink, before pushing the empty glass across the bar.
"You've been pretty quiet since you came in," he said as he quietly
built Marcus another whiskey sour with silent professional ease. "I just
have a lot to consider is all, Carl. Nothing personal."
"I know that Marcus," Carl said placing the fresh drink on the coaster
and smoothly pushing it within Marcus's reach. "You always do when you
come in here. Not like most of these others," he said with a glance at
some to the other patrons nursing their own drinks alongside of their
concerns. "But we both know you're not the same as them. Not many of
your crowd come in here anymore. Most of them are off to greener
pastures."
"I know that too Carl," he said taking a slow first sip of his drink.
"But I can't do that yet. It's not time for me."
"So, you are going back again then? At least one more time?" he said
picking up a glass and starting to polish it with a small towel. "At
least once more," Marcus said taking another sip. Carl finished
polishing the glass and held it up to the light to check before he put
it back in the rack. "You said that last time too, you know."
"That I did", Marcus replied putting down the glass and watching the ice
bob as it dissolved into his drink. Carl looked around the room and
seeing no one needed him at the moment leaned down on the wood. "So how
did you die this time?"
Marcus looked up from his melting ice to Carl. "You do know that
excessive bluntness isn't very polite," he said in mock indignation.
"Only to those who don't appreciate the need of a good slap to bring
them to their senses when they need it," Carl replied with a wry smile.
"So what was it?"
"Cancer", Marcus said with a grimace. Carl shook his head. "Nasty way to
go," he said. "Too much smoking, too many fumes at work. Could have been
either one. Doesn't matter now." Marcus shrugged and reached for the
pack of smokes on the bar. He lit one and puffed on it for a couple of
minutes before turning back to Carl. "Any family this time?" Marcus
reached into his jacket pocket and put his Smartphone on the bar. Carl
leaned over to get a better view. "That's my granddaughter Mira" he said
pointing to one of the more recent photos. "She just turned two when I
passed." Carl looked at the chubby little girl holding a long suffering
kitten like a rag doll in the photo. "She'll be a heartbreaker a little
cutie like that will," he said. "Any others or is she the only one?"
"Megan has two boys too, Bobby and Josh. There's about two years between
each. Sam has two girls, Maxine and Carla. They're about the same ages
as the boys." Marcus touched the picture they took last Christmas so
Carl could see them all together. "Looks like this was just before you
went Marcus," Carl said softly looking at Marcus's gaunt face in the
photo. "It was, I didn't tell any of them until just before the end. It
wouldn't have changed anything and I wanted them to have as much peace
as they could before they couldn't."
"Not an easy way to go" said Carl with a slow shake of his head. "No it
wasn't, Marcus said, the only good thing was that it didn't drag out."
"I would think that with all they have now it wouldn't have been so
quick," he said reaching to polish another glass. "I suppose it wouldn't
have been as quick if I'd have taken that route," Marcus said finishing
his drink and nodding to Carl for another. "Why didn't you then? Carl
asked sliding the round across to Marcus. "It wouldn't have made any
difference," Marcus said quietly.
"When I found out, I did what you would expect. After getting over the
gut punch of what the doctor told me, I kept it quiet. I didn't want
them to know until I had everything in order and could tell them
something real. When I had what I needed to take that next step, it
didn't take long to figure out that even if I did beat it, it wouldn't
be for very long. And when we got through to that point everything I'd
spent most of my life building would be gone and my family would be
buried under so much debt they'd never find their way free of it. I'd
still be gone and they wouldn't even have anything to care for them with
me gone. I couldn't do that to them."
Marcus took a deep draft of his whiskey sour and placed the empty glass
back on the coaster. "Hardest thing I ever did, deciding to die so they
would still have something when I was gone. I kept it hidden for a while
but even then they figured out before long. That's when hell really
broke loose. I hope they understand now I did it for them." Carl leaned
over and gripped his shoulder in sympathy. "They will in time. Not now,
but they'll know how much you loved them once they're past it."
"Closing my eyes that last time was so easy to do and so hard to not
want it. I thought that that was the worst thing I would ever know."
Marcus fumbled for his lighter for a fresh cigarette and then leaned in
to accept the light Carl offered him silently. Marcus took a deep drag
and blew out the smoke before speaking again. "Then I opened my eyes
here just outside the door and I remembered everything else that came
before that I'd forgotten and it didn't seem so bad because I knew what
was worse."
Carl nodded to Marcus. "It's like that for you old timers. Perspective
is a cruel bitch sometimes."
"That she is," said Marcus agreed reaching for the fresh drink Carl had
made appear at his elbow. Marcus glance over his shoulder at one of the
men sitting in a far booth by himself. "Peter still hasn't left I see."
Carl looked where Marcus had glanced to and nodded his head sadly at the
hollow eyed man in torn, muddy, old fashioned khaki who sat nursing his
beer in the far corner. "No, I don't think the poor bastard will ever go
back either. Can't really blame him for it, I don't think there are many
who would if they walked his path."
"Where did he get it again Carl, I'm still a bit muddled sorting it all
out right now." Carl's eyes took on a gentle quality that most who saw
him wouldn't have thought possible of the big man. 1916, first day of
the Somme. And every day before that stuck in that hell since the first
time he went over the top in '14." Marcus shook his head. "Christ that
was a mess. I caught my packet at Ypres in '15 and I almost didn't go
back myself that time."
"I remember, said Carl quietly, that was one of the few times I thought
you wouldn't go back again. You were here for a while then." Marcus
shuddered at the old ghosts that brushed past him at the bar. "Poor
bastard's still shell shocked," Carl said sadly. "Worse than you were
since he was a new soul on his first life." Carl lowered his eyes to the
polished wood of the bar. "He climbed that ladder into hell and the next
time he opened his eyes was just outside the door with only the memories
of that one life and the little bit before he left. He poured himself
into that beer and never left. Perspective's a cruel bitch like I said,
but maybe if he hadn't been on his first time he could made it past like
you did. I don't think he has it in him to go again. Shame really since
that's probably the only thing that would get him through it."
Marcus shuddered again at his own memories of shrapnel clattering like
jagged rain from the endless bombardments and the fat corpse rats that
haunted that stretch of manmade hell he and Peter had shared so long ago
and pushed it back for now hoping that particular set of ghosts would
stay quiet a little longer. "I was a woman when I went back after that
time," Marcus said quietly. "I was too traumatized to be a man again
after Ypres. If you told me then I had to go back as a man I'd still be
wearing feldgrau now. I just wouldn't have been able to do that time I
think." Carl sighed and started wiping down the bar. "You weren't the
only one to do that you know. A lot of others made the same choice as
you. Where'd you go that time anyway? " Marcus took a slow pull from his
drink to settle those ghosts a bit more before answering.
"Canada that time, a small village south of Montreal." Marcus relaxed
remembering what it was like. "That was a good one for you as I recall,"
Carl said. "It was, Marcus agreed. But you know the funny thing I
remembered when I woke up after, when I came back in here as Yvette?"
"What was that?" Carl asked. "I could use something funny now." Marcus
gave Carl a lopsided grin. "Not funny that way," he said. "The funny
thing was that my whole life when I was Yvette I'd never allow anything
that used gas into the house. Not a clothes dryer, not a furnace and god
forbid a stove. I was a howling banshee anytime Jean-Claude or one of
the boys suggested it. They knew to not even bring it up to me and I
could never explain just why to them. It wasn't until I opened my eyes
again here that I remembered that it was that lingering memory of that
sickly green chlorine blowing back on us and the choking on it. I didn't
understand it was a hangover till then." Marcus picked up his drink and
raised it to Carl. "Salude" he said quietly and took a deep drink.
Marcus put down the empty glass and waited as Carl fixed him another.
"That's a good thing about this place you know?" he said. "What's that?"
Carl asked. "That you can just enjoy this here. he said. If I was doing
this much drinking last week you would have been pouring me into a taxi
by now. Here the downside just isn't a factor."
"There is that to recommend it," Carl said with his own wry smile.
Marcus grew quiet again. "Being Yvette let me be Marcus you know. I
couldn't have been him without being her I think." Marcus started
scanning through the photo album on his Smartphone until he found the
photo he was looking for. He held it out for Carl to look at. "Is that
you and Jean-Claude?" he asked.
"Yes, Marcus said looking at the face he once wore standing beside her
husband. He was a good man. I don't know how many times he passed
through the doors before but he was what I needed when I was Yvette."
Carl nodded. "I could find out if you want me to?" Marcus shook his
head. "No, when I do finally stay I'll find out then." He took another
cigarette out of the pack and lit it. After a minute he looked back at
Carl. "About a month before I got married last time Ruby took me to a
fortune teller."
"How'd that turn out" Carl asked bemused. "About as well as you might
think with me. I only did it to humor her. I didn't believe any of it as
Marcus, but something she said to me stuck with me for a long time."
Carl leaned over a little closer. "What was that?" Marcus tipped his ash
into the tray beside the drink. "She said I was an old soul and that I
had spent more time as a woman than as a man." Carl muffled a small
laugh. "And how did you take that little tidbit?" Marcus laughed. "Not
well I can tell you. It wasn't till I woke up outside the door and
remembered that I realized that the old bat was actually right." Carl
laughed again. "That is pretty good," he said "Amazing how some slip
through with a little bit of a connection like that. Doesn't happen
often but it's there."
"I didn't believe any of it before I remembered," Marcus said. "I always
said what was the point to it to have all of those experiences and not
be able to access them. It just seemed kind of pointless to me. Like
keeping money in a drawer and never using it for anything. I didn't see
the point to it." Carl nodded. "You remember why that is don't you."
"Oh god yes. If I had set foot down there without a drink of Lethe water
it would have driven me mad knowing all of that at the same time. I
couldn't have sorted it out if I hadn't gone in as a blank slate. It
takes longer to sort it out when I come back as it is."
"You wouldn't have learned anything either if you did that as well."
Marcus took another drag from his cigarette. "That too."
Carl motioned as if to ask Marcus if he wanted another. Marcus tapped
his glass to say yes. "So just how many times has it been now?" Marcus
snorted into his drink. "Don't do that to me Carl. he said after he got
control of himself again. You know it would take me a couple of days to
figure it out."
"That's why I ask you," Carl said smiling. "You're a real joker, you
know that?"
"Just with you Marcus," he said still smiling. "Seriously though, what
was your first one?" Marcus looked back at him for a moment before
answering. "Which one?"
"You know which one," Carl said.
"That was a long time ago" Marcus said. "How long?" Marcus thought a
long time before answering. "22,000 years" he said in a subdued voice.
"My first life was a woman you know." Carl nodded. "I remember."
"It was too short" Marcus said "I died having my sixth child that time."
Carl nodded. "You went right back as soon as you got here that time.
Didn't hardly wait before you made up your mind to go back." Marcus eyed
his drink before answering. "Of course not, I was a woman most of the
time back then. It was sacred being a woman back then. It was magical to
us how women just had children come from them that way. Even though it
killed me I couldn't wait to get back. I didn't start spending more time
as a man until after we lost that magic, when we figured out what really
caused that to happen and they started making us into property." Carl
looked somber now. "Even then I recall you still went back as a woman
more often." Marcus nodded. "I did, even with the changes, even with
losing so much when it changed going back as a woman was good for me."
"You ever been rich?" Carl asked changing the subject. Marcus nodded.
"Lots of times. Dozens I think. It's not as great as people think it
is." Carl shrugged. "Some people would argue that point with you."
Marcus shrugged back. "Not many from my side of the bench though I would
think." Carl raised his own glass to Marcus. "Point. Not many of your
lot would at that. So which was the best one for you." Marcus thought
for a moment. "Syria, about three years after Claudius replaced that
bastard Caligula. I was a wine merchant that time. Of all of the times
I've had that kind of wealth I think that was the best one. I think it
was more because I loved my family so much though. The rest of the times
just don't measure up."
"So you wouldn't be rich this time either."
"No," Marcus answered immediately. "That's not the kind of wealth I'd
look for."
"I suppose it wouldn't be." Carl looked thoughtful for a moment.
"Caligula was a real piece of work you know. He didn't leave for a long
time when he came through here. Carl said thinking back almost
absentmindedly. "Not as nasty as me," Marcus said almost in a whisper.
"That's right, Carl said almost as softly, You were a thuggee that time.
I remember now. You walked in afterward, spun around and went right back
over and over again."
"You don't need Lethe water to be an animal," Marcus said quietly "After
that life I needed to remember I didn't deserve any better." Carl patted
Marcus on the shoulder. "You would know better than most." Marcus
nodded. "They forgot that part when they talk about answering for what
you've done. He said even quieter. But to stand stripped of every
justification you've ever given yourself, every excuse for every vile
thing you set your hands to with yourself standing in judgment. I just
couldn't be a person for a long time after that one. I didn't deserve
it."
"You did though, Carl answered him, eventually." Carl suddenly started
laughing. Marcus looked up at him. Carl held up his hand after a moment.
"Kind of gives a different meaning to dad saying you've punished
yourself after you really screw up doesn't it," he said snorting a
couple of times before regaining his composure. Marcus smiled at that.
"I don't know how many times I've told my kids that," he said with a
slow chuckle feeling a bit of relief that the somber mood was broken
even for such a bad joke as that. Carl wiped his eye. "That's what I'm
here for Marcus, bad jokes are just a bonus though." Marcus threw one of
the peanuts from the snack bowl at Carl. "Don't quit your day job." Carl
caught it in his mouth and smacked his lips appreciatively. "You ready
then?" Marcus finished his drink and slid the glass away from him. "I
think I am," he said.
Carl reached under the bar and came up with a dark grey bottle formed
like an amphora and his smart pad. "Any preferences? With your seniority
you can skip a lot of the random aspects. Just one of those perks you
have saved up." Marcus nodded. "Yeah I'll do that, I've already spent
more time than most on the primitive side." Carl nodded. "Advanced
culture it is then." He keyed in a few settings. "How do you want to
go?"
"I'll be a woman again," Marcus said immediately. Carl smiled. "I
thought you might. Do you have any requests or should I let it be
random?" Marcus looked down again. "I don't know," he said. "That's
really been what's holding me back aside from the rest of it." Carl
thought for a moment. "You know you could always composite from all the
women you knew this time. That would be somewhat random but familiar
too." Marcus thought it over. "Show me." Carl keyed in some data and
looked as his pad displayed that part of Marcus's life. "Spent a lot of
time in Asia this time I see." Marcus grinned a sheepish grin. "I guess
I did at that, that's where I met Ruby." Carl keyed a few more commands
into the pad and handed it over to Marcus. He looked it over and
whistled at what he saw. "I think I'll like being her," he said after a
minute. "But I want a couple of changes I think." Carl shrugged. "You
know the rules so go ahead. What did you have in mind?" Marcus smiled to
himself. "I think I'd like to be a little more horny and my pussy should
be deep and just a little loose this time. Every time I had that before
it's just been mind blowing for me." Carl laughed. "You always pick
that," he said rolling his eyes. Marcus reached for his heart in mock
shock. "So I like what I like, I'm the one who's wearing the dress so it
might as well be nice." Carl leaned across the bar and rested his hand
on Marcus's shoulder in his friendly fashion. "I'm going to miss you
till you come back Marcus, I really am." Marcus looked down at the pad
again. I know you will, but I'll be back soon enough." Carl rested his
hand on the polished wood again. "You know the One would be happy if you
joined them. You don't have to go really." Marcus looked down at the pad
again. "But I want to Carl, I really do." He looked down at the pad.
"I've got at least two kids coming this time and it's been a while since
I was a mother. I think I should go wait for them."
"I'll see you next time then Marcus. Carl said. Marcus shook his head.
"Mei" Carl pushed the pad over to him. "I'll see you next time then,
Mei. Are you ready?"
He nodded and placed his thumb on the scanner in the middle of the pad
and waited. While they both watched for the changes to begin Carl
uncorked the amphora and began pouring the shifting slightly smoky
liquid into a shot glass. The color, always in some dark hue constantly
shifted so that one could never quite nail down what it really was
before it became something else swirled within the glass. Carl looked up
at the young woman standing across from the bar. He smiled in
appreciation at Mei. She was Eurasian with red highlights in her silky
black hair and deep green eyes with traces of hazel. She was not very
petite as some would expect her to be, but at 64 centimeters she would
be more than some could handle. She had nice C cup breasts from her
European heritage and an ass that would probably get someone in trouble.
In all she was probably going to cause quite a stir when she reached the
26 years old she looked like right now in actuality. Carl pushed the
shot glass to her on the other side of the bar. "Lethe, the water of
forgetfulness." She reached for the shot glass and raised it to clink
against Carl's shot of bourbon. "To your journey," he said and they
drank. He watched her eyes start to get glassy as she felt the effects.
She gave him a last smile before she walked out the doors and left them
behind.
Carl emptied the ash tray and wiped that part of the bar down until the
polished wood lay untouched again. He looked over at Peter and poured
him another bitter. As he drew closer to the table he shifted until he
was there and sat down. Peter looked up when Samantha sat down with him
and pushed the bitter across the small table. He took it with murmured
thanks but it didn't reach his eyes. "If you want it she's got at least
one daughter coming this time. I think she'd be a good match for you."
Peter didn't say anything. "I know you were listening, you always are."
Peter nodded. "So that's one of the older one's" he finally said.
Samantha nodded. "And she was at Ypres?" She nodded again.
He took a slow pull from the fresh bitters Samantha had brought him.
"I'll think about it," he said finally. She got up and cleared off his
empty mug. "You should, if anyone could be there for you it would be
her. But it's your call. When you're ready your shot of Lethe will be
waiting. Whenever you want it." He looked in the direction of the door
that Mei had left by. "I'll think about it."
Mikhaela
- 01.01.2023
- 8
- 0
