When Ladders Traumatize Part 5

A wash of fear, dread, panic, hesitation, and confusion filled him. He had forgotten about Zoe the minute he had escaped that barn. How did they manage to extract Zoe from his mind?

The last vacant seat as taken by Zoe as the girl from the barn winked at him. As he looked about the bus to see if anyone else had seen this, the girl seemed to vanish.

His heart had had enough, making his way to the front, Bret made himself comfortable sitting in the steps of the bus as the driver made his way out towards the highway. As they got on the merge ramp, Bret saw that boyish woman creature walking with a thumb up trying to hitch a ride. The driver, talking to no one in particular, “shame I can’t help that pretty lady get a ride into town” shrugged his shoulders and drove on.

Close.

Call.

Bret got comfortable and slipped into a state of fretful sleep.

Once at the school, Bret woke up to feeling a hand on his shoulder. Freezing his reaction, he tried hard not to jump up with a scream. Thankfully, he managed to stay cool. He got up, stepped out, as he didn’t want to be run over by all the kids stumbling out of the bus behind him.

His mind was too tired to sort out how that bus knew to drop him and Zoe off at school, this ordeal was coming to a close. And finally at that.

As he made his way towards the exit of the school ground, as he had no desire to go inside and debrief with anyone, his gut started to turn again. He could feel the presence of something tugging at his gut. As he looked around, he thought he saw the silhouette of that boyish woman creature thing riding away on a bike with a chuckle. As soon as the image faded into the night, his tummy relaxed and returned to normal as the voice of his mom called him to the car.

It was late. It had been a very long day. Turning to go towards his mom, he collided with someone very forcefully. Trusting his reflexes, he reached and grabbed at the person he had knocked over, hoping to save them from falling.

It was Zoe.

And he had caught her in his arms. Their eyes locked. Choirs started singing. His heart exploded from the massive surge of testosterone and adrenaline. They had hit their heads pretty hard. For a second, Zoe’s face seemed to interchange with that of the girl from the barn. He nearly dropped her, but she caught his sleeves and pulled herself upright.

“That’s some way to say hi”

Gulp

“Cat got your tongue?”

nod

“Oh…Kay…”

He pulled her closer. She resisted. He pulled again. She pulled away. He pulled harder. She reluctantly stopped pushing him away.

“Please tell me you had a great day?” he managed to mumble.

Zoe paused. There was a bit of urgency in his voice. All she could do was nod. She didn’t want him to know that she was feeling very miserable. The day had not gone well for her at all. She could have used his company. Worse, the only man who had ever defeated her academically was pulling her towards him and she was stupidly resisting.

“Bret!! Let’s Go Now! It’s very late!!!”

Letting Zoe go, he saw her disappointment. He felt her heart beating strongly and wantingly. This was one seriously crazy f’d-up day. There was no way he was going to sleep the remainder of the night.

As he got in the car, his mom handed him a letter. This was weird. Mail never came on a Sunday. The stamp had a ladder, a white wooden ladder on it. His neck bristled and his hair stood on ends. As his mom pulled away from the curb, she nearly ran over a cyclist.

It was that boyish woman thing smiling at them. Waved. Then, pedaled away.

“Who was that?” his mother asked as she slowly got going again. “Your friends need to be careful, riding around at night dressed in all black… silly boy”

The End?

Below are links to all the chapters… auto populated now that the full story has unfolded

1. Introducing When Ladders Traumatize - Introductions - Part 1 Zoe is a fierce competitive scholar. Bret is happy go lucky smart guy Somehow, their paths cross. Romance seem ready to bloom, but something goes horribly wrong. Will Karma play a role? Will their competitive ways destroy romance before it even gets a chance?
2. When Ladders Traumatize Intro Part 2 - Introductions - Part 2 The school board and the principal have some tough choices to make for the coming year. Betty seems to be the only one not stressed about what will be the fate of the principal's choices
3. When Ladders Traumatize Part 1 - Part 1 - The Story Bret discovers that his top performance does not get him the top earned reward. Zoe gets the gig he was after. Sure, he likes her and thinks she's pretty and all... but... For now, he must get used to the fact he's going on a trip to a mud pit on a farm as a thank you for his hard work. What was up with Bucking Betty though?
4. When Ladders Traumatize Part 2 - Part 2- The Story Bret, looking for a cool place to escape the drudgery of the mud pit field trip.. finds a cool building with a sweet looking white ladder. As friendly as the staff is, something is really bothering Bret. His tummy rumbles, his thoughts grow weary. Something is off. But what... The weird feeling is proving very distracting. There are so many beautiful women around... he nearly forgets he's attracted to Zoe If only he could figure out what that weird feeling was...
5. When Ladders Traumatize Part 3 - Part 3 - The Story The gals are teasing him. Bret is sure of this. Why would such beautiful women find him hot while he's in pain? But man were they beautiful. And boy was he in pain. Yet, that white ladder was messing with his head... drawing him... punishing him. Bret felt he was going crazy in a sci-fi vortext. Eventually Bret finds himself inside that mysterious loft. There was a boy in there. The poor fella was scared to death. Also was helpful in getting him away from these overly sexed gals that were all over him on the ladder...
6. When Ladders Traumatize Part 4 - Part 4 - The Story Something is really wrong. Badly wrong. That boy is not who he appears to be at all. Who is this boy? Why are all the girls only after that mysterious teen in the loft? Bret now needs to figure how to get out of that crawl space. Things are just getting too weird. The pain though. The gals giggling. The boy talking. That S.O.S message . Was it for him? Bret needed answers but he needed to escape more than anything. Especially with this massive amount of pain wrecking his body, survival depended on his ability to escape. But how?
7. When Ladders Traumatize Part 5 - Part 5 - The Story Just when Bret thinks his nightmare is over, it is not. The boy-ish thing is following him everywhere. Popping up in the worse places. Bret feels like he's fighting for his life while the girl is flirting mercilessly with him. Is he losing his mind? And will he ever get out of this mess? Will he ever get a chance to hold Zoe close again? The reach of that boy-ish thing is hellbent on keeping him in agony, no matter how much Bret fights. Worse, it's night time and everything seems a threat.
8. Epilogue of Ladders - Epilogue - When Ladders Traumatize Bret, now older, discovers that Zoe has feelings... But, what do these feelings mean? Where does this White Ladder really fit into this story? Will these questions get answered? More importantly, will Bret have his way with Zoe the way he's always fantasized? Is this the end??