On The Mend

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 4, Post Number 99

-The Sheridan Estate, 10:07 A.M.-

Wearing a plain green t-shirt and black gym shorts, Victoria rolled out of bed and her feet hit the floor in a staggered right-left pattern. Her left leg was killing her and so was a good chunk of her body. She felt like she had fought a honey badger and definitely looked the part. Her left arm was bandaged to the point it looked like she was making a mummy costume and it had several holes in it from bullet wounds, but at least she had not suffered any permanent nerve damage from the wounds sustained by her own bullets that had been redirected by Kalama.

Victoria frowned when she thought about Blondie.

Kalama was mostly responsible for the current shape Victoria was in. The blonde swordswoman had given Victoria the fight of her life and had pushed her further than any opponent the brunette had faced before. That was before Kalama had called in Death Metal Horse, that bloodthirsty horse who wanted to stomp Victoria into an unrecognizable mess on the ground and had done its best to make it happen. Despite the best efforts of Kalama and Death Metal Horse to kill her Victoria had managed to survive the fight, but she had paid quite a price for survival.

Victoria was not going to be able to go on a serious job for awhile... a week at the least, if not longer. With the way she felt she was not up for another fight unless there was no other choice. She was also going to avoid strenuous activity unless there was no other choice. The doctors who had treated her forbade it.

Victoria faced the television and frowned when she saw that street racing anime with the unbelievably lucky male protagonist who always bragged about his luck to his opponents. She was not in the mood for that nonsense. She turned back to her bed, located the remote to her television, and quickly turned it off. Just then the door to her room opened and in the doorway was Abigail.

"Hey Vic!" Abigail greeted Victoria. Abigail was wearing a baby blue midriff-baring t-shirt and blue jean short shorts. She looked to be happy about something, which was not out of the norm for the blonde.

"Hi Abby." Victoria returned the greeting. She walked slowly towards Abigail while wincing every few steps. The brunette had made some progress towards regaining full mobility, but it was clear that she was not going to be dancing or running a marathon any time soon.

"You look to be doing a little better, Vic." Abigail made an observation in an optimistic tone of voice. Victoria laughed a little.

"I may look better, but I certainly don't feel it." Victoria commented on her condition. She was hurting everywhere. Her left leg, her left arm, her shoulders, her back... every part of her body hurt.

"At least you're able to move on your own." Abigail tried to inject some optimism into the conversation.

"Yeah. Even though I walk very slowly I can still walk without needing help." Victoria remarked in a slightly cheerful tone. Abigail kept her cheerful mood as she made eye contact with the brunette.

"Say Vic, do you wanna go to the mall?" Abigail asked Victoria.

"You bet!" Victoria replied enthusiastically. She had spent two days at home and she was desperate to do something that did not involve sitting around here all day. Besides, she wanted to see if she could find a game console and the Malevolent Tenant triple pack with the Malevolent Tenant games that were currently out.

"OK, Vic. But I don't think you should drive your Centaur to the mall in your condition." Abigail said.

"Don't worry. I'm not driving anything today, Abby. We're either gonna walk or have someone else drive us." Victoria replied. As if she could sense when she was needed Laura suddenly spoke to Victoria from the hallway.

"Do you need anything, Miss Sheridan?" Laura asked Victoria before appearing behind Abigail. Both Abigail and Victoria jumped in fright at the silver-haired maid's sudden arrival. Once she recovered from the surprise Victoria spoke to Laura.

"Yes, Laura. Abby and I want to go to the mall but I can't drive us. Can you drive us there?" Victoria asked Laura.

[Post Word Count: 720]
[Total Word Count: 720/11,000]

-Capital Crocus Mall, one hour and forty-one minutes later-

Thanks to the driving of Amy Sheridan she, Victoria, and Abigail were at the mall none the worse for wear. The vehicular traffic was every bit as bad as the foot traffic, but Amy had gotten the trio there safely. Now the trio were standing inside the entrance hall and were walking towards the food court, which was busy as usual.

"Thanks for getting us here, Amy." Victoria thanked her older sister for driving them to the mall. The younger brunette had expected Laura to do it, but Amy jumped in and took them to their destination instead. Victoria was not going to complain... Kalama had hurt her left arm so badly that driving the Centaur was something Victoria would not do unless there was no other choice.

Speaking of her left arm, Victoria had put on a green long-sleeved shirt to cover the bandaged arm but kept the gym shorts because there was no problem with them. Abigail's outfit remained unchanged. Amy was dressed in a blue tank top and blue jean shorts with brown sandals.

"Yeah. Thanks Amy." Abigail chimed in.

"It's no problem, guys. I've been wanting to come here myself but didn't have any reason to. Now that you two are here I've got a reason. Sherry and I were going to go to Boomslang tonight and I want to look for some clothes." Amy explained what had made her offer to drive them to the mall. Again Victoria was not complaining. She was just glad that someone had driven her to the mall, saving her and Abigail the hassle of having to walk.

"Well, I'll let you two do your thing without an older sister following you the whole time. Have fun!" Amy said before walking into the crowded mall, going right, and disappearing. Now that Amy had left to do some shopping of her own Abigail and Victoria were left to their own devices. The two mages turned to face each other.

"Ready to go shopping, Abby?" Victoria asked her friend.

"Yeah, Vic." Abigail replied.

"Is there anything you're here for?" Victoria asked the blonde. Abigail shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm on the fence right now, Vic. I kinda want to go looking for anime merchandise, but I'm not sure if I want to do that. I've kinda been slacking off when it comes to looking for jobs to earn money." Abigail confessed that she had not been doing very much work lately. Victoria was not upset by that at all. She had no room to say anything because she went through bursts of activity followed by periods of downtime that probably stretched on longer than they should.

"If you want anything let me know. Me, I'm gonna look for a store I can buy a game console from and the Malevolent Tenant triple pack." Victoria offered some help to her friend before stating her goal. She was interested in the games because wearing the costume of main character Jane Easter had gotten her interested in the lore of the games. She had already read a bit about Parasol Company and its shady business practices plus its belief that medical ethics were more like guidelines when it came to medical research. Intrigued by the story she had read to date, Victoria now wanted to play the games and get the full story.

The triple pack consisted of all three games to date plus the downloadable content, which included cosmetic outfit options for the main characters, new looks for their signature weapons, and more tangible bonuses like more side missions and even three separate full-length single player campaigns from the point of view of a Parasol Company "cleaner" tasked with trying to keep the company's messes under control, one for each game in the series so far. Victoria was more than willing to buy the games if they included a selection of bonuses as wide as that. The will was there, but the trouble would be actually finding the games and a console to play them on.

"All right then, Vic. We'll have to look for a mall directory because I'm not sure if there's a video game shop anywhere in here." Abigail said to her friend. Victoria looked forward and saw a mall directory less than ten feet away from them. She pointed it out for Abigail's benefit.

"Wow. I totally missed that." Abigail said in embarrassment while Victoria did her best to keep a straight face. She wanted to laugh, but that might not be a good idea right now. It would be wise to keep quiet, so that was exactly what Victoria was going to do.

[Post Word Count: 782]
[Total Word Count: 1,506/11,000]

-The third floor, twenty-seven minutes later-

With the help of Abigail providing a shoulder to lean on Victoria had finally made it up the stairs. The brunette felt like she had just run a marathon despite only climbing a couple of flights of stairs. Her left leg had balked at what she was making it do and had nearly given out on her a couple of times during the ascent. It was only with Abigail's help that she had made it to the third floor.

Abigail helped Victoria move to the left side of the third floor because a new wave of shoppers was heading up the stairs and they were not stopping for anything. The pair let the shoppers pass by them until there was an opening to finally move deeper into the third floor. When that time came Abigail and Victoria began to move again with Abigail once again providing physical support.

They were headed to an electronics store named Gaming Gear. As it turned out it was located next door to Anime Merchandise, the store which Abigail had expressed an interest in visiting earlier. Whether that was coincidence or not remained to be determined, but that was convenient for Victoria because should her friend decide to pay Anime Merchandise a visit they would be right next to each other.

-Outside Gaming Gear, six minutes later-

The crowds of shoppers on the third floor had been unusually light, meaning that the greatest obstacle to Victoria's goal was the condition of her left leg. That problem was surmounted thanks to Abigail, who helped Victoria get to the entrance before she reclaimed her shoulder.

"Hey Vic, will you be OK going into that store by yourself?" Abigail asked Victoria if she would be all right on her own.

"I'll be fine, Abby. Don't worry about me. Go into Anime Merchandise if you want to." Victoria assured her friend that she would be OK to do a little shopping on her own. Abigail took a step towards the store she wanted to go to, then paused and looked at Victoria. The blonde then faced forward and went into the store, leaving Victoria to go into Gaming Gear and look for what she came to the mall to buy.

Bracing herself and taking a quiet breath, Victoria limped into Gaming Gear to look for the Malevolent Tenant triple pack and a console to play it on.

-Inside Gaming Gear-

Victoria limped into a shop with a layout that was very similar to that of Anime Merchandise. The positioning of the shelves was largely the same but the merchandise was very different. On each wall was a tall glass display case featuring video games and game consoles plus assorted peripherals like controllers of different kinds. Above each case was a neon sign that labeled the contents of the case... the first case on the left was labeled "Retro Games" and inside was a bulky box-shaped console with a dingy yellow body that used to be white. On the front was print so badly worn away that she could not read the name of the system.

Victoria continued onward through the center of the shop and noticed that in addition to video games and video game consoles the shop also sold video game apparel. In the back of the store were a few racks of t-shirts that were helpfully labeled by the game they were from with a paper sign placed above each rack. Victoria looked at them and did not see one for Malevolent Tenant apparel, which was a shame. She would have bought at least one t-shirt.

Victoria continued limping until she reached the very back of the store, where a wooden counter was manned by a young woman about Victoria's age who was leaning on the counter. The young woman was wearing a lavender t-shirt and blue jeans and had short blonde hair with lavender streaks in it that went down just past her ears.

"Hi there. I'm looking for the Malevolent Tenant triple pack and a console to play it on. Do you have either of those?" Victoria asked the young woman. Green eyes met Victoria's own as the young woman stood upright and gave a small smile.

"We might have what you need. The triple pack's been selling like hotcakes, though, so don't expect me to produce a miracle. I'll look in the back for you... if you don't mind waiting." She told Victoria.

"Go for it. I'm in no hurry. I'll be right here." Victoria assured the employee.

[Post Word Count: 760]
[Total Word Count: 2,266/11,000]

-Outside Gaming Gear, forty-one minutes later-

It had taken the employee almost forty minutes to find the Malevolent Tenant triple pack and the latest game console to play it on, but she had managed to do so. Luck was with Victoria since the triple pack she had gotten was the very last one in stock. She had purchased the console and the game pack and was now standing outside the shop with her items in a large gray plastic bag with the store's name printed in gold letters. Victoria looked to her left and saw Abigail emerging from Animated Merchandise with nothing.

"Hey Vic, you've got good timing! I just got out of Animated Merchandise!" Abigail greeted her friend.

"I saw that, Abby. I just now got what I was looking for. The employee must have turned the stock room upside down, but she found the Malevolent Tenant triple pack and the latest-gen console." Victoria stated that her goal had been achieved. Abigail walked over to Victoria and stopped short of her.

"You seem to be doing better. You look like you can walk on your own now." Abigail remarked on Victoria's physical condition. The brunette shrugged her shoulders before pain shot through her left shoulder and made her regret the gesture.

"I might be able to walk without help for short distances, but I won't be able to walk all the way through the mall. You might have to help me out every now and then." Victoria told her friend that she had made modest progress but was not out of the woods yet.

"I'll help you out if I need to." Abigail assured Victoria. Together the two started walking away from the stores and towards the staircase they had taken to get here. The crowds of shoppers were not quite as thick as they had been earlier, so the pair could get to their destination if they moved quickly. However, moving quickly was going to be rough for Victoria.

-On the first floor, twenty-three minutes later-

Victoria was sitting on a bench just inside the entrance hall. She had made it down both flights of stairs under her own power, but now her left leg was not wanting to move at all. Maybe she should have accepted Abigail's offer of help before going down the stairs to the first floor, but it was too late for that now. Victoria would just have to accept the pain that resulted from refusing the offer.

Abigail was sitting close by and looking towards the first floor for any sign of Victoria's older sister Amy. Meanwhile Victoria was trying to get through the pain. She hoped that she had not hurt her left leg by going down the stairs unaided.

"Oh hey, there's Amy now!" Abigail reported and pointed towards the food court. Victoria looked in the direction indicated and saw her sister walking towards them with both hands full of shopping bags. She had obviously done a lot of shopping in the time she had been here.

"Hi guys! I managed to catch a few sales and I ended up buying WAY more than I intended to, but it'll be OK. I'm going out with Sherry to Boomslang tonight and I need a few good outfits to choose from!" Amy greeted the pair with the statement that she had spent more than she had planned to spend. Victoria was not bothered by that. What her sister did with her money was her business, not Victoria's.

"Have you guys done everything that you want to do here?" Amy asked Victoria and Abigail. Both young women had done what they wanted to do, so they were ready to go back to the Sheridan Estate.

"I've seen everything I want to see for today. I'm ready." Abigail replied.

"Me too." Victoria chimed in. Amy smiled at them.

"OK then. If you two are ready we'll get going. Follow me." Amy told Abigail and Victoria. Abigail helped Victoria to her feet and then offered a shoulder for the brunette to lean on, a shoulder that she readily accepted. Together the pair followed Amy out of the mall and began the walk to the parking lot where Amy had parked her car. Hopefully Amy remembered where she had parked the car because Victoria did not remember.

[Post Word Count: 720]
[Total Word Count: 2,986/11,000]

-The Sheridan Estate, Victoria's Room, three hours and twenty-two minutes later-

The traffic on the return trip from the mall was awful, to say the least. Shortly after leaving the mall the trio had gotten caught in a traffic jam that had taken a little over an hour to clear and had gotten caught in slow traffic for the rest of the time after that. Now they were finally home and could go about their respective pursuits.

Victoria had set up her gaming console in her room and had grabbed a chair from the dining room to sit in. It was not the most comfortable setup, but it would do until she could get a better chair. In the meantime she had started the first Malevolent Tenant game and trying to decide which character to play as. Her choices were Jane Easter, the female protagonist she had been cosplaying as for the past couple of years, and Carl Farmer, the male protagonist and Jane's longtime partner.

Each character had a special ability exclusive to them and that special ability was described beneath the portrait of each character. Jane had increased carrying capacity from the start and Carl had the ability to gain double the ammunition from each ammo pickup. Victoria was not sure who to choose. In the end she went with Jane for the increased carrying capacity and the game started with a gunshot noise and a bloody bullet hole in the portrait's head.

Seconds later a cutscene started where the character she had chosen and their partner were standing in the foyer of a mansion they had found in a mountainous region thirty kilometers away from the nearest city. Jane and Carl had been sent there ahead of their team to scout the area and find some missing hikers who had vanished without a trace. Victoria watched as the pair discussed their situation.

"How long 'til the rest of the team gets here?" Jane asked Carl. Carl shrugged his shoulders.

"Beats me, Jane. You know that Reggie flies on his own schedule. He never gets in a hurry for anything." Carl replied. Jane snorted derisively.

"Reggie had better hurry up. If he doesn't get a move on Harry's gonna send him flying with a boot to the ass." Jane said to her partner. Victoria inferred that Reggie was the team's helicopter pilot and could not bothered with things such as "schedules" and "getting a move on." She continued to listen to the pair talk.

"Reggie's skating on thin ice. The captain's gonna have his head on a silver platter if he doesn't shape up. I heard talk around the water cooler that this is Reggie's last chance. If he screws this up he's off the force." Carl remarked on their colleague's sluggishness. Jane was about to respond when they heard the loud BOOM of a shotgun and both ducked simultaneously.

"WHAT was that noise?" Jane asked Carl.

"A GUNSHOT!" Carl shouted. Victoria laughed a bit at the cheesy overblown reaction.

"Who's shooting?" Jane asked. Victoria laughed again. The dialogue was so cheesy it was kind of funny.

"I don't know, but they're packing some serious heat!" Carl answered before the shotgun fired again.

The pair turned towards a door on the left side of the foyer and it opened to show a black-haired man wearing a green long-sleeved shirt and torn blue jeans with muddy hiking boots holding a shotgun.

"WHO are you?" Jane asked the man.

"Me? I'm Dan. I went hiking in these mountains but after all those folks disappeared I added a shotgun to my gear before I set out. It's a good thing too... this mansion's full of dead people who won't stay dead!" Dan introduced himself and explained why he was armed.

"Dead people?" Carl asked Dan. The camera showed a walking corpse wearing a stereotypical black butler outfit shuffling towards Dan from behind. Carl raised his handgun.

"BEHIND YOU!" Carl shouted. Dan dropped to one knee and Carl fired once, scoring a perfect headshot on the zombie butler. Once the threat was over Dan stood up.

"Thanks!" Dan thanked his rescuer. Victoria was starting to wonder when she would be able to stop watching the cutscene and actually play the game. Things looked up when Dan said he was going to stay in the foyer. He said he had fought his way to this point and was going to stay here until help arrived... if it ever did.

The cutscene ended and a prompt appeared onscreen asking Victoria if she wanted to save the game. She saved her game and the game began in earnest. She followed the onscreen prompts and began the tutorial on how to control Jane. Victoria moved the left control stick on her controller forward and Jane began to move forward at a walking pace. She was grateful for the tutorial because she did not bother to read the manual that came with the triple pack.

[Post Word Count: 828]
[Total Word Count: 3,814/11,000]

-The Sheridan Estate, Victoria's Room, one hour later-

Victoria had played Malevolent Tenant for the past hour and was liking it so far. She was still chuckling through the corny B-movie dialogue between the characters and wondering how a big-budget game had such crummy voice acting. She wondered whether that was an intentional choice to pay homage to the source material that inspired the series or if the first game did not have the budget of the next two games since it was the beginning of the Malevolent Tenant series. She might never know for certain.

She had taken a break from it for awhile because she wanted to get something to eat. Abigail, Lawrence, Amy, and Laura had already eaten while the brunette was busy figuring out how to play the game and now that she had stopped playing she really wanted something to eat. Victoria slowly rose from her chair, set the controller on top of the console, and began to limp out of her room to go to the kitchen and see if she could grab some leftovers.

-The kitchen, six minutes later-

Victoria had taken her time going down the stairs that led from the second floor to the living room because she did not want to suffer a fall that either killed her or hurt her even more and set back her recovery. She managed to make it to the bottom of the stairs without incident and limped into the kitchen, where she made a beeline for the refrigerator. She stopped in front of it and opened the right door, then reached inside with her right hand and pulled out a can of Cherry Charge soda.

"Hello Victoria." Laura's voice greeted her. The brunette jumped and nearly threw her can of soda into the air. Her heart was pounding as she turned to the left to face the maid.

"You weren't here moments ago, Laura. When did you get here?" Victoria asked the maid.

"Just a few seconds ago." Laura answered truthfully. Victoria was surprised by how stealthy the silver-haired maid was. It was like she was a ninja or something. One moment she was not in the kitchen and the next she was standing a short distance away from Victoria.

"If I may ask, what are you looking for?" Laura asked the brunette. Victoria raised the can of soda in her right hand.

"I found a drink, but I was looking for food. Do we have any leftovers from earlier?" Victoria inquired about leftovers. Laura shook her head.

"I'm sorry, Miss Sheridan. There's no romaine salad left. The others ate it all." The maid replied in the negative. Victoria sighed.

"It's no big deal, Laura. I'll find something else to eat." Victoria assured the maid that the lack of leftovers was no big deal. Victoria supposed that that was what she got for not eating with everyone else when the meal was made. That was OK, though.

"Is there anything I can make for you?" Laura asked Victoria.

-Victoria's Room, fifty-one minutes later-

Thanks to Laura's efforts Victoria had gotten to eat a basic salad. It had been good enough for her needs, so she had went back to her room to either play more Malevolent Tenant or do something else like browse for anime or actually read the manual for the Malevolent Tenant triple pack. She did not have anything in mind, so she would decide when she got there.

Victoria entered her room to find everything as she had left it. She limped over to her chair, sat down in it, and looked for the triple pack game case in order to look for the manual. She picked up the case and opened it, then looked for the manual. She did not see one right away, so she examined the inside of the case again. After doing so three times the brunette concluded that there was no manual with the game.

Oh well.

Victoria would just have to hope that there were more in-game tutorials for game mechanics like combat and using inventory items. She had not encountered any combat aside from the intro cinematic because she was slowly exploring the mansion instead of rushing through it, but she was sure that there would be plenty of combat later to make up for the slow beginning. Victoria would just have to be patient and play the game, but she would play it later.

"Hey Victoria!" Amy greeted her. Victoria looked up to see Amy standing in the doorway. Amy was dressed in a light blue sleeveless shirt and black skirt and had a black purse slung on her right shoulder.

"Sherry's on her way here. We're going to go to Boomslang tonight!" Amy reported what she and her friend were going to do tonight. Victoria remembered Amy telling her that earlier in the day but did not think anything of it.

"I know that you're not in the best of shape, but would you like to go with us?" Amy invited her sister to go to Boomslang with her and Sherry. Victoria would have to give that question some thought.

[Post Word Count: 858]
[Total Word Count: 4,672/11,000]

-The Sheridan Estate, Victoria's Room, three hours later-

Victoria had declined to go to Boomslang with Amy and her friend Sherry on the grounds that she just did not feel up to it because it was all she could do to get through the mall trip. Victoria had expected to be called out on it, but instead Amy had accepted that reason as a good one to not go to Boomslang. The older Sheridan had offered a rain check which Victoria readily accepted. The younger brunette would have to wait until another time to go to Boomslang.

In the meantime she had changed from a long-sleeved green t-shirt to a green tank top and had removed the bandages on her arm and threw them away. Her left arm was exposed and the bullet wounds were plain for anyone to see. She needed to re-bandage it before she tried to sleep tonight. She was looking for the bandages when her room door opened.

"Hey Vic, I wanted to see if you-" Abigail started before she suddenly stopped speaking. Victoria knew the cause for her friend's sudden silence. It was her left arm.

"Your left arm! What happened to it?" Abigail asked Victoria.

"I got in a fight with a Dark Mage who could deflect my gunfire with her sword. She deflected my gunfire back at me many times. My left arm got the worst of it." Victoria gave Abigail a very short description of what had happened during the fight with Kalama. The blonde swordswoman had been a very tough opponent who was even tougher due to the fact that she was able to deflect gunfire back to its source with a fair degree of accuracy. Since Victoria's Merces Letifer Magic depended heavily on firearms the Dark Mage had been able to turn most of Victoria's firepower back on her. As a result the Sabertooth mage was lucky to have made it out of the battle alive.

"Will it be OK?" Abigail asked about the brunette's left arm.

"It'll be fine, Abby. It won't be amputated and I won't need a cybernetic replacement. I just need to not lift anything really heavy with it for awhile." Victoria replied to the inquiry. She was not thrilled about that news since she depended on having both arms to wield her more powerful weapons and use her more powerful spells, but it could not be helped. She had survived and and had made it out with all of her limbs still attached. The brunette could have easily lost a limb to Kalama's sword or her post-battle injuries.

"I'm glad you're still alive and have all of your body parts, Vic. It looks like the outcome coulda been a lot worse." Abgail commented on Victoria's physical condition.

"Yeah. Me too." Victoria laconically replied. No one know how lucky she had been more than Victoria herself. It was one thing to fight someone who was close to her in terms of magic power, but it was an additional challenge to fight someone close to her level who had the ability to deflect bullets with their sword.

"I'll let you wrap up your arm in peace, Vic." Abigail said before turning around and walking off before Victoria could say anything. The brunette was not going to make the blonde leave, but it was too late to say or do anything about that now. Victoria turned to face her bed and resumed looking for the bandages she needed to cover her left arm. As much as she would have liked to go to Boomslang with Amy and Sherry it was for the best that she stayed here... if someone accidentally bumped into her arm the pain would have been so intense that she probably would have screamed like she was being murdered.

-The next day, 10:30 A.M.-

Victoria woke up the next day and slowly and carefully got out of bed, trying her best not to put any pressure on her left arm. She raised herself into a sitting position and then put her feet on the floor. Despite her best efforts to avoid putting pressure on it her left arm was still hurting because at the last moment she pushed herself up off the edge of the bed with her left arm and pain shot through it.

Victoria took another deep breath and began walking towards the door at a slow pace because her left leg decided it did not want to be left out of the action and began to hurt as well. She was covering her left arm with bandages but was unable to disguise her limp, which made her look like she was doing a bad imitation of a zombie's gait. She hoped that she did not have to go anywhere or do anything important today.

[Post Word Count: 802]
[Total Word Count: 5,474/11,000]

-Downstairs, 10:41 A.M.-

Victoria had struggled to get down the stairs without tumbling down them because her left leg could not quite handle the pressure needed to slowly walk down a set of stairs. She had winced and groaned the entire time, but now she was at the bottom of the stairs and faced the living room, where Amy was standing with Abigail. Her older sister and her friend turned to greet her.

"Hey Vic!" Abigail greeted Victoria.

"Hey Victoria! It sounds like you had a rough night!" Amy greeted her younger sister.

"The night wasn't so bad. Getting up was the hardest part." Victoria explained to her sister the cause of her distress. Amy made eye contact with Victoria.

"Abigail told me a bit about your left arm. About what happened to it to make it hurt." The older Sheridan said in a serious tone[/color]. Victoria wordlessly raised her left arm and showed the bandages covering the limb to Amy. The older Sheridan raised both hands towards her in a "stop" gesture.

"It's OK, Victoria. I don't need to see what it looks like underneath the bandages. Keep them on... please." Amy implored Victoria not to show her what the arm looked like without bandages. The younger Sheridan was happy to oblige. She lowered her left arm and did not speak any further about the limb. Amy decided to let the matter drop too in favor of discussing something else.

"Last night at Boomslang was pretty fun. There were a lot of people there and there was this electronic music artist named DJ Dynamo who was playing music in the VIP Section. She's pretty good at what she does... it was my first time hearing her music, but she really knows how to work the crowd. She's also got a good ear for catchy beats and knows how to make a track just long enough to be good without making it too long and having it overstay its welcome. That last bit might sound kinda dumb and I'm sorry if it does." Amy told Victoria how her visit to Boomslang went and talked about a musician named DJ Dynamo. Victoria had never heard of them, but maybe Abigail had. The Sabertooth mage looked towards Abigail for her take on the subject, but the blonde only shrugged her shoulders.

"I've never heard of DJ Dynamo. But I have heard of DJ Ampere." Abigail told Victoria. Amy seemed to recognize that name because her face lit up.

"DJ Ampere is DJ Dynamo's younger sister. She's not quite as good as Dynamo yet, but I overheard some important-looking types in suits talking that it'll only be a year or two before Ampere gets a contract with Power Plant Records." Amy told the pair a bit more about the DJ Abigail had brought up. Victoria was still drawing a blank because she had heard of neither musician before today. The only music she really knew was the work of Steel Matron and even then it was only an album of their greatest hits.

"So you think Ampere's being scouted by Power Plant Records already?" Abigail asked Amy. The brunette shrugged her shoulders.

"Maybe. I didn't look at the people while they were talking... I only heard what they said. They might have just been speculating." Amy replied and added that the information she had overheard was not solid. Abigail shrugged her shoulders.

"I hope she gets the contract because she really deserves one. She's been trying to get out of her sister's shadow for some time now but she hasn't really gotten a chance to shine." Abigail expressed the hope that DJ Ampere would get a contract so that she could start building her own career instead of always being "DJ Dynamo's sister." Victoria had no idea how to meaningfully contribute to this conversation, so she kept quiet and let her friend and her sister talk. Meanwhile she thought about what she wanted to do today.

Victoria wanted to do something other than sit around all day, but she was still not in good enough shape to do something really exciting like take a job that involved combat. Maybe she would pick up where she left off in Malevolent Tenant yesterday if she could not find anything else to do.

-Three hours later, Victoria's Room-

Victoria decided to pick up where she left off in the first Malevolent Tenant game and now she was watching a cutscene. She had progressed through the dining room where Dan had been attacked by the zombie and was now in control of Jane, who was reading a riddle that had been scrawled on a dinner napkin in black ink. The writing was done in a hurry because the letters were crudely written and there were a few tears in the napkin, but the words were still legible.

88 keys unlock the door.

"88 keys? What does that mean?" Jane asked her partner Carl in a manner that was so obviously exaggerated it was painful. Carl shrugged his shoulders.

"Dunno. I guess we'd better have some really deep pockets if we're gonna carry all those keys around." Carl replied dryly. Victoria groaned aloud at that one. The voice acting was so cheesy that it was painful to hear.

"As much as I like riddles, we don't have all day to solve it. We'd better keep moving, Carl." Jane said to her partner.

"Yeah. We'd better be on the lookout for those keys too." He said. Victoria regained control of Jane and moved towards a door on the right side of the dining room. She hoped that there would be some action soon.

[Post Word Count: 944]
[Total Word Count: 6,418/11,000]

Victoria moved Jane to the door and pressed the button to open it. When she did the camera switched to first person and Jane reached for the door, then twisted the knob and opened it. A violin screeched as a female zombie dressed in bloody maid attire shambled through the door. A crosshair appeared on the screen.

"SHOOT IT!" Carl shouted. Victoria moved the control stick and put the crosshair in between the zombie's eyes, then pressed the button to fire Jane's handgun. A single shot was fired and the female zombie went down with a shot right between the eyes. It moaned pitifully and fell onto its back, where it began twitching for a few seconds before finally laying still.

"Man, that was close!" Carl commented. The camera panned to Jane, who was looking down at the zombie with her pistol aimed at its head in case it started moving again.

"You said it!" Jane replied. Once she was sure that the zombie really was dead she looked up towards the door, which was hanging wide open. Carl reached down and grabbed the dead zombie by the ankles, dragging the corpse out of the way so that the pair could enter the room. Once the dead zombie had been moved off to the left the pair walked into the room it had been "guarding."

The room was dim and lit only by a single bulb hanging from the ceiling. The room was a kitchen and it really needed some cleaning. The floor tiles were stained with unidentifiable stains that might have been food once and in the back center of the room was a sink full of dirty dishes and some of them were so dirty that they had flies crawling on them. Jane put her left hand over her mouth and gagged.

"What IS that smell?" Jane asked Carl, who looked like he was on the verge of throwing up.

"It smells like rotten meat." Carl opined. The camera panned towards a counter on the right side of the kitchen, which had a raw slab of beef sitting on a wooden block. A meat cleaver was right next to it and there was a bit of blood on the cleaver, but that was nothing compared to the beef. The camera moved in to give a lovely closeup of the beef, showing that it was literally crawling with flies. The sight made Victoria wince.

"I'm gonna be sick!" Jane declared. She turned around and ran out of the kitchen while Carl followed. The camera remained fixed on the empty kitchen and Victoria heard Jane vomiting. A few seconds later Carl was dragging the dead zombie by the ankles back into the kitchen and when the deed was done shut the door.

"I'm NOT going back in there!" Jane declared.

"I kinda wanted a snack, but I'm not hungry any more." Carl stated dryly. Victoria was not hungry either. She could wait until tomorrow for her next meal just as long as it was not meat.

"Let's keep moving." Jane suggested weakly.

"Good idea." Carl seconded his partner's suggestion. Victoria regained control of Jane and moved her further into the dining room until she reached another door at the end of the room. Victoria pressed the button and Jane opened the door, then passed through it with Carl following close behind.

The two characters passed into a hallway which branched left and right. The wallpaper was old and faded and the baseboards were covered with dust. On the walls hung paintings of a sailing ship in calm weather, a lighthouse at night, and an old man wearing a blue jacket, dark pants, and black boots smoking an old-fashioned pipe while standing on the deck of a ship. Victoria had no idea what direction to go in, so she was going to go left and see what she found.

Near the end of the hallway Victoria paused the game because she heard a knock on her door. She stood up and limped over to the door to find Abigail standing at the door.

"Hey Vic, are you busy?" Abigail asked the brunette. Victoria shook her head.

"Not really, Abby. What's going on?" Victoria asked her friend.

"I was thinking of going home for a day or two. I need to see how my home's doing because I haven't heard anything about my roof lately. That means I'm in for either really bad or really good news." Abigail replied.

"If I was in better shape I'd take you there on my Centaur. But I'm not up to that sort of activity yet." Victoria lamented her inability to transport her friend to her home. If she tried to do a complex activity like driving the Centaur she would likely get into an accident since her left arm and left leg were not very useful and she would need the use of both limbs for safe driving. Hopefully Abigail could find another way of getting home other than walking there.

[Post Word Count: 836]
[Total Word Count: 7,254/11,000]

-Two hours later, Victoria's Room-

Abigail had opted to walk home after all, leaving Victoria feeling more than a little upset at her inability to give her friend a ride to her destination. The brunette should not have been upset. Abigail was a strong mage who had her Sky Blade, so if it came to a fight the blonde would be able to hold her own. Even though her friend was more than able to take care of herself Victoria still wished that she could have gone with Abigail.

Victoria was not going anywhere today. She was still not in good enough physical shape to take a long trip anywhere, let alone a long trip on foot. It was all she could do to get through the mall with Abigail helping her, so she knew a long walk to anywhere was not in the cards for her. Not yet, anyway.

Victoria needed something else to do because she just could not focus on playing Malevolent Tenant if her life depended on it. She moved Jane to the save point in the mansion foyer and saved the game, then paused and stood up. She limped over to the console and turned it off, then faced her room door. She was going to try and sleep for awhile.

With that she limped over to her bed, sat down on it, and then reclined, making sure not to roll over on her left side. Victoria stayed on her right side and faced her room wall until she went to sleep.

-The next day, 3:00 A.M.-

Victoria woke up feeling like she had been hit by a freight train. She located her iLac on the night stand next to her bed and picked it up to get a look at the time. It was 3:00 A.M. Victoria had slept through a good chunk of yesterday, but she really did not care about that. It was not like she had anything urgent to do.

She set the iLac down and stared at the wall again. Maybe she should get up and go downstairs to get something to drink, if not something to eat. Victoria slowly and painfully forced herself to get up from her bed, then grabbed her iLac with her left hand. With iLac in hand she limped towards her room door and opened it, then closed it behind her and headed for the staircase.

-Downstairs, 3:07 A.M.-

Despite the pain she was feeling Victoria had to be quiet because her uncle was probably asleep on the couch downstairs. She made the slow and painful trip in relative silence and when she reached the bottom saw that he was indeed asleep on the couch. She slowly and carefully made her way to the kitchen and slowly opened the door, then slipped inside.

-The kitchen-

Victoria shut the kitchen door behind her and limped over to the refrigerator to get a Cherry Charge soda or some other beverage. She opened the right door and looked inside to find a six-pack of Cherry Charge, five bottles of water, and three bottles of vodka sitting inside. Victoria reached for the six-pack of soda but then decided to go for something stronger. She then moved her hand to reach for the vodka and grabbed an unopened bottle of Albino Gander, then pulled her hand out of the refrigerator and shut the door.

Victoria limped over to the kitchen counter and opened the bottle with her right hand, then began to raise it to her lips to take a swig when she suddenly thought better of it and lowered the bottle. She set it on the counter, limped over to the cupboard to the right of the sink, and opened it, then grabbed a glass out of it before closing it again. With drinking glass in hand Victoria limped over to the bottle of Albino Gander and poured a glass of vodka for herself.

Victoria took a drink and was satisfied by it. She had not had alcohol in awhile and she did not really miss it. She had made great progress towards cutting back on her consumption of alcohol... she tended to save it for special occasions instead of drinking just because she could. While today was not a special occasion like a festival, her birthday, or the birthday of a family member, it was a good time to celebrate being alive after the beating she had taken at Kalama's hands. Victoria took another drink and took a quiet breath.

"Hey Vic!" Amy greeted Victoria. The younger Sheridan looked towards the door to see her older sister standing there. Amy was wearing a blue tank top and a short black skirt.

"Hey Amy." Victoria greeted her older sister. Knowing that her sister shared her fondness for vodka, Victoria put her glass down and grabbed the open bottle, holding it aloft for Amy to see.

"Want a drink?" Victoria asked Amy.

[Post Word Count: 822]
[Total Word Count: 8,076/11,000]

"No thanks, Vic. I've gotta drive tomorrow." Amy politely turned down the offer of a drink. Victoria poured another half-glass for herself, then screwed the cap back onto the bottle. She limped back over to the refrigerator and put the bottle back inside the right door, then closed it and faced Amy.

"OK." Victoria said calmly. Even if she were not drinking Victoria was in no shape to drive, so it was safe for her to drink some alcohol. She took a sip from her glass and looked at Amy, who was looking at her.

"You look like you're doing better, Vic." Amy commented on her sister's condition. Victoria gave a small smile.

"Kinda. I still have to keep my left arm bandaged, I still move with a limp, and every time I wake up I feel like I got hit by a freight train, so I've got a long way to go before my recovery's complete." Victoria informed her sister how she was really feeling. The source of her pain was Kalama, the Dark Mage who had earned Victoria's grudging respect for being able to back up her tough talk with actual fighting ability. Kalama had powerful magic to back up her swordplay and her horse companion had landed a few very painful kicks, including a powerful one that hit both of Victoria's shoulders simultaneously. After all she had endured at Kalama's hands and Death Metal Horse's hooves it was a wonder Victoria was even able to move on her own, but the brunette was a lot tougher than she looked.

"That's true. Still, you look like you're starting to do better." Amy repeated her point. Victoria took another sip of vodka.

"I'm doing better, but it'll still take awhile for me to get back on my feet, so to speak. It'll be a week or so before I'm able to go out and take some serious work again, the kind of work that pays big. After sitting out for that long I'll need a big payday." Victoria told her older sister the estimate of how much longer she would need before she was able to work again.

"You don't need to run out and take serious risks right away, Vic. Once you can work again you need to take it slow and so some easy stuff before you charge off on a big adventure. You might want to take your friend Abigail with you for awhile just in case your left leg tries to give out on you." Amy suggested. Victoria thought the part about partnering with Abigail to be a good idea, one well worth pursuing.

"Once I'm back on my feet I'll ask Abby if she's willing to work with me for a few jobs." Victoria agreed to working with her longtime friend to have some backup in case she got into trouble thanks to her left leg deciding to try and give out on her at a bad time. Abigail was usually up for working with the brunette on any sort of job and that was something Victoria could benefit from, at least until she got strong enough to work on her own again. Victoria finished the rest of her glass and limped over to the kitchen sink, then set the empty glass on the left side of the sink.

"Are you going to try to go back to sleep for a little while?" Amy asked Victoria. The younger Sheridan shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm gonna try, but I'm not holding my breath." Victoria replied.

"Good luck." Amy wished Victoria. The latter then turned away from her sister and began to limp towards the kitchen door. Amy walked ahead of her and quietly opened the door for her. Victoria limped out of the kitchen and Amy quietly shut the door behind them.

-Victoria's Room, 3:28 P.M.-

Despite what she had thought earlier she had been able to sleep again. She had managed to sleep for over twelve hours... whether sleeping for that long was good or bad was up for debate, but she had been able to sleep. Victoria sat up on the edge of her bed and groaned as she tried to find the strength to stand up after lying down for so long.

When she felt steady enough to get up she gently pushed off the bed and landed on her feet. Victoria slowly turned towards the door and began to limp towards it. She was going to go see if she could find any leftovers from lunch to eat because she was kind of hungry and a snack was not going to cut it.

When she finally got to her door she opened it, limped through, and closed it behind her. She then began to make her way towards the stairs that led to the living room. This descent promised to be every bit as rough as it had been earlier.

[Post Word Count: 818]
[Total Word Count: 8,894/11,000]

-The living room, 3:35 P.M.-

The descent had indeed been painful because moving slowly meant that the pressure was kept on her left leg for a fair length of time, but Victoria had managed to make it without falling down the stairs. Now she was standing in the living room, which was empty. Her uncle was not sitting on the couch and the television was off, which was something she had not seen in a long time. She wondered where everyone was... did they all leave to go somewhere without telling her?

"Hello Victoria." Laura's voice greeted the brunette. Victoria was startled by the maid and nearly jumped out of her skin. When she recovered from the surprise she turned left to face the silver-haired maid, who was looking directly at her.

"Hi Laura. Do you know where everyone went?" Victoria asked her.

"Mr. Sheridan and your sister both went to the city in order to get pizza." Laura informed her. That was news to the brunette. She assumed that they had already eaten and were doing their things, but now she knew differently.

"I hope they're getting some for me too." Victoria remarked. Pizza was not a food that held any special attraction for her, but she would not turn it down, especially not as hungry as she was at the moment. Since she knew that her family was getting food she would not eat anything right now and wait for them to return, but that might be easier said than done. She might need to raid the kitchen for a snack after all.

"It might be awhile before they return. Would you like a snack?" Laura asked Victoria. The brunette nodded.

"Sure." Victoria answered laconically. Laura turned towards the kitchen door.

"Follow me, please." She requested. Victoria followed the silver-haired maid into the kitchen at a limp and entered a few seconds behind Laura.

-Inside the kitchen-

"What kind of snack would you like, Victoria?" Laura asked the brunette.

"A peanut butter sandwich, please." Victoria requested. A sandwich should be more than enough to suffice until her uncle and sister returned with the pizza. Laura smiled.

"Certainly." She replied. She walked over to the cupboard on the left side of the kitchen, gathered up the necessary supplies plus a paper plate to put the finished product on, and then walked over to the counter to make the sandwich. Victoria watched Laura make the peanut butter sandwich in a matter of seconds.

"Would you like it whole or cut in half?" Laura asked a question concerning how Victoria wanted the sandwich.

"I'd like it cut in half, please." Victoria replied. She could eat it either way, but when given the option she much preferred to eat a sandwich in halves. Moments later the deed had been done and Laura presented the two sandwich halves to Victoria on a paper plate. Victoria took it and limped over to the refrigerator to get a can of Cherry Charge. When she got her drink she she limped over to the waiting sandwich and began to eat it.

The peanut butter sandwich was surprisingly good for how simple it was. Maybe it was just because she was hungry, but she was not going to complain. Laura had gotten the amount of peanut butter just right... there was not so much that the taste was overbearing but there was not so little that all Victoria could taste was bread. The brunette had no idea how Laura learned to strike the perfect balance, but the maid had done it.

Victoria finished the snack in about four minutes. As a street kid she had learned to eat fast so that other street kids did not have a chance to steal her food. They could not steal what was already eaten, after all. With her hunger satisfied for the moment she was going to go back upstairs and either play Malevolent Tenant, try to find something decent on television, or do something else. If push came to shove she would read her late father's book of drink recipes in her room.

-Victoria's Room, 4:12 P.M.-

After eating the peanut butter sandwich Victoria was now back in her room checking her iLac for a message from Abigail. The brunette had not heard from her in a day and was hoping that everything was all right on her end. Victoria carefully checked the Missed Calls, voicemails, and text messages and did not find anything from Abigail. Victoria set her iLac down on the nightstand and turned to the bookshelf on the right side of the room. It was time to take a look at Phillip Sheridan's drink recipe book and see what she could find.

Victoria limped over to the bookcase and searched it until she found what she was looking for. With the book clutched in her right hand she limped over to her chair and slowly eased herself down into it, then opened the book and began to read. She knew that her father Phillip was fond of strong alcohol like vodka and tequila and was also fond of mixed drinks. Maybe he had a few favorite recipes that she could learn to make for her friends, her sister, or herself.

[Post Word Count: 874]
[Total Word Count: 9,768/11,000]

-The Dining Room, 6:17 P.M.-

It had taken awhile because the duo had had to navigate the city's dense vehicular traffic, but Amy and Lawrence had arrived with three boxes of pizza and now all three Sheridans were seated at the table and eating pizza. Amy and Victoria were eating pepperoni and cheese while Lawrence was eating a meat lover's pizza with three different meats on top. Laura had politely declined the offer to join them for a meal and was busy elsewhere in the house.

To the side of each Sheridan's paper plate was their drink of choice. Amy chose a Strawberry Slam and Victoria went with her usual Cherry Charge. Lawrence, on the other hand, had opted for a glass of iced tea from a pitcher that he had made himself.

"Hey Vic, I just noticed that someone's missing. Where's your friend Abigail?" Amy asked the younger Sheridan. Lawrence looked up from the slice of pizza in his hand to look at Victoria.

"She went back to her house in Oak Town to check on it. Her house needed serious repairs to its roof and she wanted to see if everything was going OK." Victoria answered.

"Oh. Well, is she OK?" Amy asked another question. Victoria shrugged her shoulders... or tried, to, anyway. She lifted them up just enough to indicate that she did not know how Abigail was before dropping them down again.

"I have no idea, Amy. I haven't gotten a call or text from her, so I guess that no news is good news." Victoria replied. It was then that Laura entered the dining room with a familiar blonde in tow.

"Speak of the devil." Lawrence remarked dryly. Victoria looked towards the open doors and saw Abigail standing next to Laura. Abigail was wearing a white t-shirt and blue jean skirt with boots and looked to be in a good mood. The roof repairs must have gone well.

"Hey Vic!" Abigail greeted Victoria. Victoria put her slice of pizza down and waved at the blonde with her right hand.

"Hey Abigail! You're just in time! Want some pizza?" Amy greeted Victoria's longtime friend and offered her some pizza. Abigail walked over to an empty place at the table and grabbed a nearby paper plate no one was using.

"Sure!" Abigail eagerly accepted the invitation. She sat down at the table and grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza from the box, then put it on her plate.

"What would you like to drink, Miss Windstrider?" Laura asked the blonde.

"I'd like a Cherry Charge if you have one, please." Abigail requested. Laura departed the dining room to get the drink while Abigail started on her first slice of pizza and the Sheridans continued to eat the slices they had started before the blonde's arrival. Despite having to wait longer than intended for it the pizza was still fairly warm and pretty good even though it was not as hot as it could have been. Victoria was thankful that Amy and Lawrence had thought to order enough for everyone, even unexpected guests.

-Victoria's Room, 8:15 P.M.-

The meal had been a leisurely one because neither the Sheridans nor Abigail had anything important to do. Now Victoria and Abigail were standing in the brunette's room and talking about the roof repair, which had gone well. Nothing bad had happened and Abigail now had a home that did not have a leaky roof.

"Thanks for the loan, Vic." The blonde thanked her friend for loaning her the money needed to hire a professional crew to repair her roof.

"No problem." Victoria replied. The loan did not have to be a loan... Victoria would have given her friend the money with no strings attached. However, Abigail insisted on it being a loan because she felt like she had been freeloading off of Victoria by having a place to stay while the repairs took place.

"Now I've gotta get started on paying you back for the loan." Abigail stated. The brunette had made so much over the years that money was not a big concern for her and she did not mind helping Abigail out when the latter had a pressing need for financial assistance. Victoria did not view the loan as a way to make Abigail indebted to her, but they had already discussed the matter and the latter was going to repay Victoria in the future, so there was no need to talk about that again.

"At least I don't have to worry about the roof leaking on me again. At least for another ten to twenty years. I'm gonna need a total replacement at some point, but I've bought myself some time." Abigail changed the subject from repaying the loan to the projected durability of her repaired roof. Victoria was pleased to hear that the repair had been a success. She was hoping that her friend would not be blindsided by a last-minute problem and for once that hope had been realized.

[Post Word Count: 834]
[Total Word Count: 10,602/11,000]

"You don't have to be in any hurry to pay me back, Abby." Victoria assured her friend that she was not going to hound her for payment. Victoria was at the point she had plenty of money and she could easily earn back what she had loaned with a high-paying job or two. If for some reason Abigail could not repay her losing the money would only be a minor inconvenience to the brunette.

"I'll do my best to pay you back as soon as possible." Abigail asserted in a serious voice. It seemed that Victoria's assurance had fallen on deaf ears, but it was no big deal. Abigail was not going to be talked out of her mission, so Victoria was not going to stand in her way.

"All right then." Victoria said, not even bothering to try and change her friend's mind. She hoped that the conversation would move on from the subject of the loan and to something less serious. Abigail pulled her iLac out of her right pocket and looked at it, then jammed it back in her pocket and made eye contact with Victoria.

"I was planning to head home, but it's getting kinda late. Do you mind if I spend the night here?" Abigail asked Victoria for lodging. The brunette put her hands on her hips and looked at the blonde with a facial expression that went "Really? You're asking me that?"

She hoped Abigail realized how dumb that question sounded... while Victoria appreciated her friend being polite and not taking lodging for granted, the blonde should have known by now that she would always have a place at the Sheridan Estate.

"I take it that's a yes?" Abigail inquired with uncertainty.

"Yes." Victoria answered laconically. Abigail's expression brightened.

"Thanks! After tonight I'll try not to camp out here so much because you and your family probably want your place back, but you did me a big favor by letting me stay here while my roof got fixed!" Abigail promised to spend more time at her own home after tonight. Victoria was tempted to ignore the remark, but after a few moments she had to say something. She did not want Abigail to think that she had worn out her welcome.

"While I can understand you wanting to get your money's worth out of your newly repaired roof, you're always welcome here, Abby." Victoria told Abigail that the latter was always welcome at the Sheridan Estate. Whether it was a place to stay for awhile when something else at her home needed fixing, a place to stay when it got too late to travel back home, or a place at the kitchen table, Abigail would always have a place here. Victoria would offer her longtime friend nothing less.

"Thanks, Vic. I mean that. It's nice to have someone I can turn to when I really need help." Abigail said with gratitude for the standing offer.

"Well, it's getting late, so I'll leave you alone for now. Thanks again for hosting me!" Abigail said before she turned and left Victoria's room to go to the guest room. Victoria looked out the empty doorway for a few seconds before Amy appeared in the doorway.

"Hey Vic, how's it going?" Amy asked her younger sister.

"It's going all right. I'm not hurting as badly as I was a day or two ago." Victoria answered and added an update on her physical condition. The Sabertooth mage was still not ready to go on a big adventure, but she was able to walk under her own power without experiencing quite as much pain as she had been experiencing. Maybe a few days from now she could start walking normally again instead of limping everywhere she went.

"Well, that's good. Just don't rush your recovery, Vic. You'll be out and about again soon enough." Amy told the younger Sheridan... not that Victoria needed that advice. The Sabertooth mage was going to go a bit slow for the next few days and spend some time at home. She was either going to play Malevolent Tenant or look for more drink recipe books to read. She was fairly certain that her late father had some more stashed away somewhere... the trick was finding them.

"Hey Vic, I'm not going anywhere tomorrow, so I'd like a Long Island Iced Tea. Could you make one for me?" Amy asked Victoria.

"I can make it happen. Meet me at the mini-bar in the basement." Victoria replied confidently. She had learned how to make the drink years ago and all she needed was the tools to do it. Fortunately for Victoria her late father had put everything a bartender could need in the mini-bar in the basement.

"Great! I'll see you there!" Amy said before turning left and heading for the stairs. Victoria took a quiet breath and prepared herself for the pain that would result from going down the stairs to the first floor, then slowly walked out of her room. When she got to the basement she would make Amy the Long Island Iced Tea she wanted and possibly a Screwdriver for herself. She wondered if her uncle wanted a drink too. And if Abigail wanted a drink Victoria would be happy to make her one... there would be drinks for everyone.

[Post Word Count: 888]
[Total Word Count: 11,490/11,000]