Personal Apocalypse

by John Sheridan

  My cell phone began to ring.

  I glanced at the name upon the screen. It was Clarissa.

  ‘Hello.’

  ‘Good morning, Logan. How did your night go?’ Clarissa seemed cheerful today.

  ‘You don’t want to know. How did yours go?’

  ‘It went alright.’

  ‘Did you stay over?’

  ‘No. I wasn’t even tempted. Tyler seems to be trying, but I don’t believe that he has changed. It is weird in a way. I didn’t really feel any emotions for him when I was sitting with him. I think I might have already moved on. I don’t know.’

  ‘It sounds like you have.’

  I don’t know why, but I actually felt good that her date hadn’t gone well. I didn’t like the idea of Clarissa going out with Tyler. Should I ask her to go out with me? What would she say? Clarissa is the only woman that has ever stuck by me.

  ‘Do you want to come out?’ she asked.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Please. I want to see you.’

  ‘You want to see me?’

  ‘I always want to see you.’

  I thought about it for a moment. The time was right. I would ask her out.

  ‘I will meet you in the usual place in about thirty minutes.’

  ‘That sounds good to me. See you then!’

  Chapter Twenty-Nine: Friendly Warning

  ***

  I walked down the old dirt lane towards the sty. A warm glow tickled the inside of my chest. Clarissa was chatting to one of the other dog walkers. She gifted me her sweet smile. Clarissa really did look beautiful. She was wearing a long summer dress with a floral design stitched into the fabric. It showed off plenty of cleavage. Her long black hair was tied back into a ponytail behind her head. She looked incredibly yummy.

  ‘Good morning,’ I greeted them both.

  They replied with greetings of their own.

  ‘Did you hear about that dog?’ asked the older woman.

  ‘What dog is that?’ I asked.

  ‘The devil dog,’ explained Clarissa.

  ‘Oh. I know that one. What about it?’

  ‘Apparently it mauled a dog outside of its house.’

  ‘Jesus...’ Just the thought of that made my stomach twist. That dog was big and muscular. It could do real damage if it wanted to. ‘Is the dog alright?’

  ‘It has some cuts, but I thought I would warn you.’

  ‘Yes. Thank you. It is too big for those kids to handle.’

  ‘It should be muzzled,’ added Clarissa. ‘It scares me every time I see it.’

  ‘I think I will have to find an alternate route to the forest from now on,’ I replied.

  Chapter Thirty: Confession

  ***

  ‘Tell me what happened,’ Clarissa whispered into my ear. I let out a long deep sigh and stood back against the rough bark of the ancient oak tree. The feel of her lips upon my neck was causing butterflies to flutter within the depths of my stomach. I squeezed her plump round breast within the palm of my right hand. I don’t know what it was, but I could play with her tits all day. I glanced down towards the ground. My trousers were down around my ankles and my cock was standing proud. Clarissa was in an incredibly naughty mood, but then again she generally was. Her delicate fingers were curled around my thick shaft, as stroked her hands along the full length of my sensitive organ. The way she held me was so relaxing. It was like getting a massage off of some kind of professional.

  ‘There is nothing to say,’ I replied in a soft moan. We had only been at it a few minutes and already I was close. This is the power she had over me. I was just so sexually attracted to Clarissa. ‘She was married, which makes her a complete lying bitch. How did your night go?’

  ‘It was the same as before.’

  ‘You sound disappointed.’

  ‘Well, I do love him. I did love him. I don’t know. I just wish things didn’t change. I used to be very happy with him. I would do anything for him, but now I feel nothing for him. I have one more date and I think that is it. I hope the spark returns, but I think it has gone.’

  ‘I’m sorry. I know how much you like him.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She nibbled on my earlobe.

  I should ask her out.

  I know she loves her ex-boyfriend, but we are alone in the forest and she is jerking me off. We are boyfriend and girlfriend in every single way. We are best friends. We are naughty. We hang out. We know everything there is to know about each other.

  ‘Clarissa?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Would you like to go out with me?’

  She pulled back and looked me dead in the eyes. A look of mild confusion appeared like a shadow upon her sweet face. Her hand continued to stroke my dick. For a long moment she just started at me. It was as if she couldn’t tell if I was joking or not.

  ‘Do you mean like a date?’

  ‘Yes.’ I momentarily broke eye contact. I don’t know why, but I was suddenly feeling very small. ‘You and I have never actually gone on a proper date before, you know? I would like to go on a proper date with you and see if you and I could actually work.’

  ‘Are you being serious?’

  ‘Yes. Does it seem weird?’

  ‘No,’ she replied. ‘I just never thought you liked me that way.’

  ‘I do, but we have always had boyfriends or girlfriends. The time never seemed right. I think now is a perfect time. We are both moving on from our ex’s. We are practically boyfriend and girlfriend already.’ I gestured with a nod towards my cock. Clarissa giggled. She gripped it a little tighter and started to jerk me off even faster.

  ‘I would love to go on a date with you, Logan.’

  I don’t know who was smiling wider, her or me.

  ‘When do you want to go out?’

  ‘I am free next weekend. We can do it properly. Go out to dinner?’

  ‘That sounds good.’

  ‘We are actually going to have a date.’ She leaned forward and kissed me upon the lips. It was a really sweet kiss and carried her true emotions for me. Clarissa liked me as much as I liked her. Her hand began to stroke my cock faster and harder. A deep groan leapt from my lips as my mouth hung open. The pressure between my legs was building towards danger levels. A tingling sensation filtered down through my body. ‘Are you going to cum for me?’ She asked with a naughty smile. I nodded my head in return. ‘Where do you want to cum?’

  ‘Do you have any protection?’

  ‘How naughty, you want to cum inside me?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You want to cum in my tight wet pussy?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I would love that, but I didn’t bring any. Did you?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘I will let you do that next time.’ She giggled. ‘Where do you want to cum?’

  I squeezed her breast. ‘I want to cum over your tits.’

  ‘Good choice.’ Without letting go of my dick she got to her knees. I watched in awe, as she knocked away the straps from her shoulder and pulled down the front of her dress. Her large round tits stood naked before my eyes. They looked perfect. Men had wet dreams about tits like these. I was just happy that they were all mine.

  ‘Fuck!’ I moaned echoed off into the forest.

  Clarissa was sucking on the tip of my cock.

  ‘I’m going to cum,’ I told her. My fingers worked their way through her hair.

  ‘Do it.’ She pointed the tip of my cock towards her mountainous breasts. A bright white light ignited within my mind, as every single muscle tensed within my body. I could feel a rush of pressure drop from the depths of my stomach and head straight down between my thighs. Deep primal groans filled the air. My cock erupted spectacularly. I painted her tits and neck, as she continued to jerk me off. It felt like I was having some kind of out of body experience. I felt like I was floating up towards the heavens. Ripples of pleasure danced throughout my body. I could feel my toes curling. It felt like the top of my skull might blow
off. How did this woman make me feel so good?

  Chapter Thirty-One: Second Chance

  ***

  ‘Do you want to delete your account?’ I rolled the words on my tongue for a moment. ‘Yes.’ I clicked my mouse and closed my dating account. I have always believed I was good at reading people. I thought I could spot a liar from a mile away, but Samantha and Isabella had proven me wrong. I was just an idiot around gorgeous women. It would not happen again. My account on the dating website was closed. I would never go on there again. I want things with Clarissa to work out. I don’t want any distractions from her. This coming weekend we will go out together and finally have our first official date.

  My cell phone began to ring.

  It was Isabella, again!

  I couldn’t keep ignoring her. I would finally talk to her and end this matter once and for all.

  ‘Hello.’ I didn’t try to hide my tone.

  ‘Hey, baby,’ replied Isabella, but I could sense hesitation in her voice. ‘I have been trying to call you all morning.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘Oh, are you mad with me?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I know, I should have told you that I was married.’

  ‘Yes, you should have.’

  ‘I never meant to lie to you.’

  ‘So, it just slipped your mind?’

  ‘No. It’s not like that. I-I...’ she stuttered. I could hear her sniffing on the other end of the phone. Was she crying? Did she think I was a fool? ‘My husband isn’t a very nice man. He gets angry and he shouts at me. I have been thinking about leaving him for months now. I went on the dating site to try to just meet someone nice. I never meant to cheat or fall in love. I just wanted to talk to someone. I didn’t think I would like you as much as I did. I never planned for things to go this far, but once it started I didn’t want it to end. You made me feel so happy.’

  Was this true?

  A tinge of guilt filled my heart.

  ‘I didn’t know your husband was like that.’

  ‘You weren’t to know. I am sorry, Logan. I don’t want it to end this way.’ I could hear a male voice shouting something in the background. ‘He has just got back from the shops. Can I call you later?’

  ‘Okay.’ It wasn’t like I could say no. How much of an asshole would that make me look?

  ‘Thank you, Logan.’

  The phone line went dead. I placed my cell phone down on my desk and sighed. Had I misjudged Isabella that badly? I thought she was using me, but in truth she was being honest. Did that make her feelings for me real? She was still married, though. Did this make me the good guy or the bad guy? I wasn’t sure how I felt about her. She is lovely, gorgeous, naughty and sexy, but she is married. I have never cheated on someone. Could I still have a relationship with her? Did I want one? I was going to start dating Clarissa, what was the right thing to do?

  The icon of a new e-mail appeared on the top left of my screen.

  I opened my inbox and looked inside. It was from the psychic painter Brendan.

  ‘I read your e-mail and I believe what you say. I have painted us meeting each other. I don’t think this is coincidence or a random meeting. This is fate. Here is my address.’ He attached his address in the middle of the e-mail. I couldn’t believe it. He lived in the same small town as me. Was that even possible? What were the chances of meeting someone online and learning that they lived ten minutes walk from my house? Our dreams were right. The world really had to be ending. This was too much for my brain to handle. ‘I would like to meet you in person and discuss what we have seen. I have cancelled my plans and will be at home all day. I await your arrival.’

  That was the end of the e-mail.

  Brendan wanted to meet me.

  Finally, after all these years, I would get my answers.

  Chapter Thirty-Two: The Psychic Painter

  ***

  I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but I didn’t expect to end up at a pretty little cottage on the outskirts of town. The person seemed to take great care of his front garden, as there were all sorts of pretty flowers that represented all the colours of the rainbow. This was what my family called the posh part of town. It was a row of lovely little cottages that had the forest on their doorstep. Never in a million years would I be able to buy one of these houses.

  I raised my hand to knock, but the door opened inwards.

  A man in his late forties, with a receding hairline and a scruffy beard, stood before me. His eyes widened with a sense of shock and his lips broke into a smile, which bordered on the edge of insanity. It was the type of smile a crazy person in an insane asylum would give you.

  ‘It is really you.’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘You look just like you did in my dreams.’

  I shuffled, uncomfortably.

  This was a bit awkward.

  What did you say to something like that?

  ‘Please, come inside.’ Brendan stepped aside and welcomed me in. I was stood in a small hallway. Family photos covered the walls. I could hardly recognise the young Brendan. He looked so different when shaved and cleaned up. In the photos he was standing next to a pretty blonde woman and two young boys. They must be his family. ‘Come this way.’ He led me down the hallway and took a right at the first doorway. I momentarily froze, as I stepped into the room. My eyes scanned high and low, left and right, but my brain was still trying to digest it all. Every single inch of the wall was covered in A-4 paper, but they were drawings and paintings of Lucy, me, Samantha, Isabella, Clarissa, Brendan, his family, the town, destruction, flames, blood, gore, death and carnage.

  My eyes fell upon the painting on a stand in the middle of the room.

  I moved towards it.

  ‘That one is still wet,’ said Brendan. ‘I have literally just finished it.’

  ‘I dreamt this last night,’ I muttered a reply. It was the image of a man sitting in a chair with a smoking gun in his hand. The face had been completely destroyed from where the person had shot himself. ‘How did you know I dreamt this?’

  ‘I dreamt it, too. I dreamt all of these. I never understood why I dreamt them all, but the images are so clear and vivid. It helps me to remember them when I paint them.’ I walked around the edges of the room and glanced from one picture to the other. I was starting to notice a sort of order, or timeline. There was a picture of a man smiling. It was Brendan. He is sitting in a cafe with a woman. In the next painting the woman is then wearing a wedding dress. Next she has a baby bump. Brendan is holding a baby. The baby is a little boy. The little boy, Brendan and the mother are on holiday. The mother has a second baby bump. A second child is added to the family. The timeline depicts the children growing up, going to school, making friends, birthday parties, Christmas, and playing all sorts of different sports. The final picture is of the mother and the two boys in a bloody car crash.

  ‘I dreamt that the night Pam was driving back from her parent’s house. I woke up and called her. I wanted to warn her to stay where she was. I would drive up and pick them up, but she was already on the road.’

  ‘I’m sorry.’

  ‘Yeah...’

  ‘When did you start dreaming of me?’ I had to know.

  ‘I don’t really know when it began. I just started seeing this man. I never really understood why I would dream of you because most of your dreams are boring.’ That sums me up pretty well. ‘Let me explain. I would dream of my life with my wife and family. I would dream major life events before they happened, but once they died my dreams turned towards you. I just started dreaming about your life events. I dreamt of you writing, selling books, meeting women, your family moving away, losing your baby...’ I clenched my jaw at the very mention of it. How did he know all of these things? It wasn’t possible for anyone to know this much about me. ‘I dreamt of us meeting and the things I would give you. It was like my life was put on hold until the day I could give you this information.’

  ‘Your life was on hold
? What information?’

  ‘Yes. I have plans, but I have not moved forward with them because I have to give you some vital information. I don’t know why you are important. It isn’t like I see into the future. I see stuff that is going to happen in the near future. To be honest, half of it doesn’t even make sense to me, but I have faith that it has some meaning for you.’

  ‘It is the same for me,’ I confessed. ‘I sometimes don’t understand the meaning of a dream until the events have already gone by.’

  ‘That is generally the case with psychics like us.’

  ‘What information do you have for me?’

  ‘I cannot tell you, yet.’

  No. I needed answers. I had waited too long to learn what all this meant.

  ‘Please, I need to know what this means. My dreams have been counting down the days until the apocalypse since I was a teenager. The world is going to end in three days. I don’t understand why I am seeing these things. Lately, my dreams have become darker and scarier. Am I getting these dreams for a reason? Is there something I am supposed to be doing? I don’t know what any of this means.’

  ‘Have faith in your dreams,’ said Brendan. ‘You are shown what you need to see.’

  ‘But why do I get them?’

  ‘I don’t know. This could be the work of God. It might be the work of the Devil. It might be some strange energy thing that makes people in this town dream strange things. I cannot tell you the source. I can only tell you what I know. I am like a beacon of light in the night. I am just here to guide you further along your path. This is my destiny. There is something I have to give you, but I don’t know what it is.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I have dreamt of giving you something that is important of you, but I think it is a prediction that I haven’t predicted yet.’

  ‘So, in the near future you will dream something that will help me?’

  ‘Yes. That is my role. I don’t know why, but I believe this is important.’