Freeing Cymbal

Chapter 11

Christmas was nigh and right now every one was in mixed emotions. Well...more like utter chaos. Dygon was still recovering, but was doing so happily getting to know her daughter again. Jolie was working harder than Tommy ever had trying to figure out more about Dygon’s mother and her whole plot. Dygon, Cymbal and Bobby all refused to let her in on any thing else. Either out of fear or out of force. She had some help from Skip though, his arm recovered from the surgery he was back typing at a speed of 80 WPM.
Lataura was no longer staying with her, but had agreed to move in with Tommy. Jolie also noticed that Hope was coming around the house more often always to see Skip. So while Skip was busy with her she was on here own...the little prick.
Jolie was working late at night on Dec. 20. It was around three in the morning, her eyes were tired and itchy from lack of sleep and she was staring at a page that had been on the screen for some time. She realized after a few minutes that she had read the same line five times. So she yawned and closed her lap deciding it was time to sleep since she wouldn’t be able to concentrate any more. She grabbed a box of old military files and headed down stairs to the library.
She was about to open the door, but then she pressed her ear to the door. She could hear something inside. Like tight strangle screams. She opened the door and few inches and saw Cymbal inside. He was knelt on the floor, sweating, burned and panting. He had shoved a gag in his mouth and right now he just knelt there. She watched for a second about to go in and ask him what the hell he was doing. But then he took a hold of the collar around his neck and took a few deep breaths. She could hear through the gag as he muttered, “One...two...three.”
And then he pulled at the collar with all the strength he had. The resistance engaged the collar shocking him. He let out several muffled cries through the gag, Jolie opened the door and ran in, she stopped when she heard the metal of the collar crack, it gave him an almighty shock and he screamed through the gag and pounded his fist on the floor succeeding in cracking it. She ran over to him and she pulled the gag out of his mouth.

“Are you insane you could have killed yourself?” she said looking him over.
He swallowed his mouth dry from the gag and said through breaths, “This One ...would rather be shocked ...a lot once ...and get it over with then ...keep the damn thing ...on.”
Jolie looked at the crack in the collar.
“Yes...come on.”
She heaved him to his feet and helped him walk up the stairs to her medical lab. She sat him on the table and put on a pair of rubber gloves. She picked up a couple of boxes of gauze and she stuffed the gauze under the collar pulling the cracked part away from his neck as far as it would go. She took up her medical saw usually for cutting metal pins or casts.
“Hold your head away and pulled your hair over your shoulder.” she told him.
He did as he was told and she started up the saw and started to saw away at the crack he had made in the collar. The metal started to give. They both received a large shock, but the wires were severed and the stock ceased. Jolie turned off the saw and pulled it away. Cymbal not waiting for anything else ripped the collar from his neck completely and swallowed. He sighed in relief at having the collar finally gone.
“It’s gone...thank God...”
He fell back on the table his chest heaving.
“Let’s get you cleaned up.” said Jolie and she proceeded to treat his burns.
“This One can’t believe you heard him. This One thought the gag would silence him.” he said after a while.
She shook her head, “No I didn’t hear you I had to put some files away before I went to bed.”
“Well this One guesses it’s a good thing you did.”
“You’re damn straight, you could have killed your self if you had exposed these wires!” she yelled and then sighed and rubbed her tired eyes.
“...This One is sorry.”
She shook her head, “At least the collar is gone.”
After she finished she helped him up stairs so they could both go to bed.
“Jolie?”
“Hmm?”

He looked at her as they came to her bed room door, “Can Jolie sleep with this One tonight?”
She looked at him for a second and said, “Yes.”
She opened her bedroom door and they both went in. Cymbal climbed into her bed as she went brush her teeth. When she got into bed, she turned onto her side.
“Night.”
She smiled when Cymbal pulled her to him and wrapped his arm around her and draped his leg over hers.
“Good night.”
She hadn’t felt this warm in bed in a long time. His comfortable weight on the other side of the bed, his strong arms wrapped around her gave her such a sense of peace. Like every thing was completely right in the world and she was protected so long as she stayed in his arms. And she fell into the deepest sleep she had, had in years.

* * *

The next morning Jolie woke with a start. Cymbal wasn’t in bed with her any more and she was facing her clock which is what had given her the start. It was noon...she had slept for ten hours! She had never slept for more than six hours a night since Michael died. She sat up and ran her fingers through her hair. She looked up as the door creaked open and Cymbal walked in with a breakfast tray.
“Good morning beautiful.” he said in a very Michael way.
Michael would always call her beautiful.
“Breakfast?”
She was starving so she nodded and he set the tray on her lap. He then laid back on the end of her bed.
“Man I am sore.” he sighed rubbed his face.
“No surprise there.” chuckled Jolie sinking her teeth in to a fresh baked blue berry muffin, “Why’d you bring breakfast in here?”
He chuckled, “Because Hope snuck in last night and she and Skip are on the couch...er...naked.”
She choked, “On my couch! That’s so...ugh...that little prick!”

Cymbal chuckled at her reaction, “Like you and Michael never did it on the couch.”
“That’s different. This was our house, our couch, that freeloader is staying here free of rent and he’s gonna have sex in my living room? Uh, uh I don’t think so.” she said drinking her coffee.
Cymbal chuckled and then she realized, “How did you know that Michael and I had sex on the couch?”
“A lot of memories swimming around in my head last night with you in my arms. Too bad I didn’t live them.” he said grinning at her.
She rolled her eyes and he snickered and wrinkled his nose in a sexy way that made her laugh, “You are starting to act like a man that’s for sure. And you haven’t used yourself in the third person once.”
“Thank God maybe I’ll stay this way. It’s hard to get people to take you seriously with all the ‘this One’ bull shit.” he said slipping his hands under his head.
Jolie finished her breakfast and wiped her hands. She got out of bed and went to her bathroom and wet a wash cloth in cold water.
“Come on.” she said with a small giggle.
He followed her into the living room She walked over to Skip half shrouded in her grandmothers afghan and she held the wash cloth over his head and rung it out. He yelped and sputtered as he woke up with a start.
“Jesus Christ! That’s cold!” he yelled sitting up.
He turned his head to Jolie who was giving him a deadly stare. He chuckled sheepishly and propped Hope awake. She sat up with the afghan to her bare chest and blinked a few times her hair disheveled.
“Morning.” she yawned.
“Hope...I know Skip is an idiot, but couldn’t you have had the courtesy to move it to a bed room, huh?” said Jolie shaking her head.
Hope chuckled and rubbed the back f her head, “Sorry I was a little drunk last night.”
“Get dressed.” said Jolie half disgusted and they walked into the kitchen.
Pan was muttering to herself as she cooked lunch.
“Little dirks waltzing in the middle of the damn night, waking me from my recharge. I should go out there swat him over the head with a spatula.”
“Feel free.” said Jolie.
“Ah ha!” said Pan rolling for the living room, but Cymbal picked her up with a chuckle.

“Not so fast Pan kill him after Hope leaves.” he said setting her back on the counter.
“Humph, you’re no fun.” she said and continued to cook lunch.
“So what’s on the regimen today, chief?” asked Cymbal sitting at the bar.
“Well first I’m gonna take a shower and then I’m gonna go shopping for Christmas.”
“Oo, can I come?” he asked.
She looked at him bemused, “You hate shopping.”
“I know I meant can I come with you for the other thing.”
She opened her mouth in mock indignity, “You better behave you little weasel.”
“Sorry that animal wasn’t spliced into me.”
The door closed and Skip walked into the kitchen.
“Hi ya!” and Pan started to assail him with the spatula.
Jolie and Cymbal ignored it as Pan pummeled him with the kitchen wear yelling at him for waking her.
“I do need to go Christmas shopping though.” he said.
“Since when do you have money for shopping?” she asked suspiciously.
“Since, ‘that’s for me to know and you to find out’.” he said swiveling around in his bar chair.
She nodded, “Ok, I take a shower alone and then we go shopping together.”
He slumped on the bar, “Shot down like a duck in season.”
She chuckled and left the kitchen.
“Wait get your stupid robot off of me!” called Skip after her
“Stupid robot!” shrieked Pan and she grabbed a skewer at which point he yelled and ran.
“Touché Pan.” said Cymbal raising his coffee to her and she gave her skewer a flick like a sword and went back to cooking lunch.
After Jolie was ready she and Cymbal went into town to go Christmas shopping.
“What do you want for Christmas?” asked Jolie.
He shrugged, “I dunno...my two front teeth?”
She chuckled and shook her head, “I don’t really want any thing I mean...” he looked around the mall, “I’m not exactly your material kind of guy.”
“There’s gotta be something.”

“Go to Pet Smart and buy me a box of Beggin’ Strips.”
She snorted, “As if, well find something you want.”
Although passing by the pet shop he did stop to look in the window to look at the animals.
“It’s kind of sad.” he said, “Listen to them.”
She shook her head, “I can’t understand them.”
“This One can...the pups are wondering where their mothers are...the kittens are cold on the cages...” said getting more depressed as he listened.
He shook his head and moved on. Jolie looked into the pet shop one last time saddened. She caught up with him.
“Well that was depressing.” he sighed.
She nodded and they went on with their shopping. His mood seemed to lighten the more time passed. They ended up going home near nine that night which reminded Cymbal why he hated shopping with Jolie so much. Because he had maybe ten or twelve bags in his arms as they walked back to the car and they tried to find a way to make it all fit. Once they had it all in they went home and had to unload it all. It looked like he wouldn’t be sleeping with her against tonight as she barred him from her room as she wrapped presents.
He went into the living room and sighed sitting on the couch. The door banged open and Cymbal looked into the hall as he saw Bobby doubled over her back to him as she tried to pull in a huge tree through the door. Skip was trying to push in the other side. Cymbal got up, grasped the middle of the tree and pulled it through knocking them both down.
“Thanks.” they both muttered from the ground.
He picked it up and carried it to the living room and set it in the stand. Bobby got to the bottom and he held it straight as she screwed the base in.
“Where’d you find this one?” he asked giving the tree a small sniff.
It smelt like the forest so he could only guess they cut this tree down themselves.
“About a mile away into the forest.” sighed skip pulling a beanie hat off his head along with his gloves and his coat, “It started snowing on the way back.”

He walked over to the fire and poked at it adding another log. Once the tree was in place Bobby watered it and put the red tree skirt under it. Jolie walked in a few minutes later with a box of decorations.
“Go get Ally and see if she wants to help decorate the tree.” Jolie told Bobby.
“Alright.” she said cheerfully and ran to her mother’s room.
Dygon came in using a cane with Bobby at her side.
“My first Christmas I don’t spend alone and it’s recovering from a heart attack.” she said walking in and sitting on the couch.
“Aw don’t be such a Grinch momma.” said Bobby jumping up on her lap.
Dygon chuckled and wrapped her arms around her daughter, “Heart attack or not this will undoubtedly be the best Christmas I have had in many years.”
Jolie hit the Christmas music and she, Skip, Cymbal and Bobby decorated the tree while Dygon helped Pan string popcorn.
“I’ll be anemic by the time i finished this string.” said Dygon grumpily after pricking herself again.
Pan laughed, “Metal fingers. Use your other hand stupid.”
“Pan!” said Jolie.
But Dygon chuckled, “Silly me I forgot.”
She did switch hands so that her metal one was working with the needle. Jolie shook her head and kept on decorating.
“How did you get that metal hand?” asked Pan.
Jolie froze and closed her eyes, “You’re so damn tactless.”
“It’s alright.” said Dygon, “It’s a Christmas story any how.”
“Oo Christmas story involving a severed hand.” said Skip in a twisted way.
Dygon laughed and shook her head, but Pan persisted, “So?”
“Ok well I was spending Christmas in Indonesia stationed out there in the war. I was either looking for a place to drink myself into a stupor or a fight. I was lucky to receive a two for one in a local bar. After I had a few drinks there were a few drunk men in the corner who where hitting on a waitress. When she tried to go back to work one of them grabbed her by the strap of her knickers and pulled her onto the table and put a knife to her throat. Every one else ignored it, but it was all too clear these men were about to force themselves on her. So I finished my drink and walked rather casually to the table.

“Oh they made a terrible mistake and asked if I would like to join her on the table. So I smiled at the man, stroked his cheek and then I shoved my boot into his crotch and kicked him in the chest sending him to the floor.” she said with grim satisfaction.
Skip hissed and bit his lip, “God he must have been crying.”
“Couldn’t cry he was too busy throwing up.” chuckled Dygon, “So after this the other four guys all stood. I pulled the girl behind me ready to fight these guys, but all of them drew scimitars. Being off duty I had my combat knife and a six shooter. Needless to say I was in it deep. But then again I always like a challenge. All three of them rush me at the same time. I draw my knife ready to cut them to pieces or die trying. The first blade I duck and I jam my heel into his jaw undoubtedly breaking it. He fell next to his friend bleeding.
“One by one I take them out until it’s just me and the big leader of the gang. The man must have been six and a half feet tall and half as wide. He swings his sword and just nicks me in the shoulder. I thrust my knife at him and he knocks my hand upward and spins around with his scimitar and hacks it off right at the wrist. It was agony such as I had never felt and it just pissed me off!” she said passionately getting very animated, “I yell at this man, “I’ll see you in hell!” and I jam my six shooter into his throat and choke of four rounds before he fell to the ground with a wet thud.
“The woman is so grateful to me, after she wraps up what’s left of my arm she takes me to her home to get treated. I mistook the woman for a waitress when in fact her father was a very wealthy sultan. He is the one who bought me this hand and paid for it to be attached as well as let me go with a very handsome pay indeed. And all of this happened between the eve of Christmas and New Years.”
She sat back with a small grin and tied off the string of popcorn.
“That is so awesome!” said Skip in awe.
“You must have thousands of stories.” chuckled Jolie continuing.
She shook her head, “Not thousands, but maybe a couple of hundred.”
Jolie finished stringing up the lights. She took the popcorn strings and started to add them to the tree. At last she placed the angel on the top and then she plugged in the tree and it lit up with many white lights.
“It’s so pretty.” sighed Bobby flopping beside her mother on the couch.
“Yes and it only took bloodying all of my fingers.”

Jolie brought out some Christmas cookies and some eggnog. They stayed out in the living room for a while watching the tree and the fire before one, but one they started to go to bed. Jolie and Cymbal were left. Jolie took Cymbal’s arm and took him to his room. Where they both got in his bed and they fell asleep in each others arms once again.

* * *

It was Christmas eve. Jolie had sent out every one else to finish their Christmas shopping. Jolie was up in the attic putting her finishing touches on Cymbal’s present. She giggled to her self as she went down the steps. She threw away a few scraps of ribbon in the bathroom waste basket and walked to her living room humming Joy to the World to her self. Her hums suddenly froze in her throat as she couldn’t breathe. Petrified by fear the only thing Jolie could do was stand in the arch way of her hall starring into her living room.
“Hey Jolie. Merry Christmas.”
Dean was sitting on her couch in front of the fire.
“No...” breathed Jolie, “No you’re dead!”
He chuckled evilly, “I was, but now I am alive and well.”
With out another thought she turned tail and ran to Cymbal’s room. Dean jammed half of his body into the door before she could slam it shut. He shoved her back and closed the door behind him locking it.
“I’m going to make you pay for what you did to me Jolie, I am going to make you pay dearly.” he said taking a gun from his pocket.
She screamed and he pushed her on the bed and pinned her there with his body and pointed the gun to her head silencing her.
“No screaming now. Wouldn’t want any one to hear you...oh that’s right. You live in the middle of no where, no one can hear you. So scream baby, scream.” he muttered stroking her face with the nose of the gun.
She remained defiantly silent; her nightmare was coming to life before her eyes. Dean was back in her life and this wasn’t a dream. Jolie could see it now in his eyes half blue and half red. Dygon got a hold of his corpse.
“What’s the matter? Don’t feel like talking? Oh well, I’ll make you scream sooner or later.”

Holding the gun to her head he drew a knife and he used it to slit the front of her shirt. Not taking care for the places it grazed he cut her from her navel to between her breasts as he cut the middle of her bra as well. He traced the blade along the old scar on her neck opening it up again. Neither time she made a noise despite the searing pain.
He kissed her roughly crushing his mouth against hers thrusting his tongue so far into her mouth she almost gagged. If she was going to die then she wasn’t dying with out a fight. When his tongue went back she bit down on it hard. He hit her in the side of the head with his gun and she him go. He jumped up cursing and spitting blood on the ground. She rolled back to her feet off the bed and dashed to the window. She heard the gun shot and a terrible pain in her shoulder. She yelled through the pain and rammed at the window pane, but it wouldn’t give. He grabbed her by the hair and slammed her against the wall. She yelled in pain and he put the weight of his elbow on her wounded shoulder.
He put his gun to her head again and dragged her back over to the bed and shoved her down. He pulled her pants right off and unbuttoned his own and freed his erection. Her pain and her blood was turning him on. He used the knife to cut her panties and he ripped them off. He parted her legs and plunged himself roughly into her. She let out a strangled cry as he put the knife to her throat.
“Go ahead, scream. Just scream.”
She just heard it, the car.
“Cymbal!!!” she shrieked loudly, “Cymbal!!!”
He looked at her bemused, but then he looked at the door and stood up. Foot steps running at the door. Dean yelled and jumped back as the door flew off the hinges and Cymbal stood in the door way. The scent of Jolie’s blood filled the room. He took on look at her and then at Dean. His eyes went feral yellow and he roared like a lion and he went for Dean. Dean shot at him, but all of the bullets he shot grazed off of his body. He was soon shooting an empty. Backed into a corner he raised the knife. Cymbal grabbed his hand and slammed him up against the wall growling at him.
Dean was pinned shaking with fear.
“Who...are you?” was all Cymbal growled.
Jolie swallowed pulling the covers on his bed to cover herself, “I...its Dean.”

Cymbal nodded and roared again. Jolie shut her eyes tight as she heard a strangled cry and a sickening splatter. When she opened them again Dean was on the floor his throat ripped out and a hole in his chest. Cymbal wiped his mouth on his arm and wiped his bloody hand on Dean’s shirt. He waited a few moments before he turned back to Jolie. His eyes back to the old color. Jolie shaking, wounded and crying he walked over to her half expecting her to cringe after seeing that, but she threw herself on him sobbing.
He held her for a moment before gathering her up in the sheet and taking her to the living room.
“Oh my God!” yelled Alva limping into the room, “What happened?”
Jolie swallowed sniffling, “...Dean...”
Skip shook his head, “He’s dead.”
“No after Radica got a hold of him.” she said angrily her lip trembling.
Dygon limped down to Jolie’s lab and she came back and started to treat her wounds.
“You’re sure you don’t want to go to the hospital?” she asked her.
Jolie shook her head, “No I don’t.”
“...What do we do with Dean?” asked Skip after a while.
Dygon sniffed, “Burn him. Take him out far away and burn him. No one will miss him since every one still thinks he’s dead.”
“Y...you want me to do that?” said Skip incredulously.
“Yes.” she said, “It’s not that hard, siphon some gas from the car put him on some fire wood. Pour the gas on him, add a few branches and light him up.” she said nonchalantly.
“That’s sick Dygon.” he said.
“No sick is what he did to Jolie, what you are about to do to his body is justice now go.” she said giving him a hard stare.
He whined and walked back to Cymbal’s room.
“He won’t even be able to move him.” sighed Dygon and she looked at Bobby.
Bobby shook her head and went down there to help him. Cymbal came back from the shower after washing the blood from his body.
“You’re not staying home alone again.” he said sitting in a chair.
“Like this will happen again.” said Jolie dully.

“Not Dean, but she could just as easily send some one else to finish it.” he said looking at the fire.
Dygon nodded, “He’s right Jolie. You’re starting to twist around her plan enough that she might want you dead.”
Jolie shook her head, “She might send some one else, but if she had death in mind she wouldn’t have sent Dean. Dean wouldn’t have just killed me he would have tortured me. He could have just shot me in the hall if she wanted me dead.”
“Eh.” sneered Dygon distastefully, “She always likes to play with her food before she finishes it.”
“Does she want me to take over VINA corp. or something?”
Dygon hesitated for a moment and nodded, “But why?”
She hesitated and sighed, “She saw the same things in you that I did when I first met you.”
“What’s that?” asked Jolie looking at her.
“Strong determination, stubbornness, an active and powerful mind and a certain amount of daring. Daring almost to the point of cruelty and destruction.”
“Jolie is not cruel or destructive.” said Cymbal with a frown.
Dygon shook her head, “That’s what you think. When she looked at me with the same interest I never thought I’d even be capable of harming a person. But she is a cruel and twisted woman who knows just how to make you snap past a point you’d never been before. But my entire life that woman trained me like a soldier. Training me to be like her though I vowed I never would be. It was wishful thinking and i found that out the night I killed my mentor to go in his place...”
Dygon looked up at Jolie.
“You were in the hospital room poised to take a knife to my heart. She wanted you to kill me just as I had killed my mentor.”
That struck Jolie like a slap in the face, “What?”
She nodded, “She made me despise my mentor like you did me and I didn’t realize the truth before it was too late and I had blood on my hands. You proved t have a stronger will and that enticed her. You didn’t kill me instead you were smart enough to figure the whole thing out and you saved me. That miffed her and pleased her in such a way. This woman will stop at nothing to break you Jolie and if she does then you will be just like me. A puppet on strings to move at any twitch of her fingers.”

Dygon tied off the bandages on her arm.
“You ask why she wants you to run VINA corp.? Because you are so in with the people who work there, you hold so much power that you had no idea...you ever had. She knows if she tries hard enough she could get you to act rashly and with the power in your hands you can rule. And with you in hers she can rule. You have yet to realize Jolie what exactly it is that you are capable of and all she wants is to get a taste of what that power is.” said Dygon gravely and she stood.
She went to Jolie’s room and came back with her robe and draped it over her shoulders.
“But you are different from me Jolie.” she said softly.
Jolie looked up at her shaking from all of this.
“You won’t be like me because you are so much better than me. You are so much stronger than I am.”
Jolie shook her head, “No I’m not.”
She nodded, “Yes you are. Like I said you have all that power and imagination and so many opportunities you could have used it to be vindictive and cruel against your enemies, but you always showed them the most mercy.”
The clock struck midnight and Dygon looked into the fire with a small smile.
“Merry Christmas.”

* * *

Jolie made sure the next morning was no so subdued. Like she had taught herself to do long ago she shoved every thing back and locked it away. As sore and aching as she was this morning she stoked the fire turned on the Christmas music and bid Pan good morning as she cooked breakfast.
“How are you feeling?” asked Pan.
Jolie sighed, “I could definitely be better.”
“Breakfast?”
Jolie shook her head, “Na, just the coffee.”
Cymbal walked in and he kissed her on the head and wrapped his arms around her, “Merry Christmas, beautiful.”

“Merry Christmas, handsome.” she returned with a small smile.
Bobby went prancing through the house singing Jingle Bells. Jolie laughed as Dygon came in her hair askew in her robe.
“Laugh it up, I didn’t get a drug induced sleep.”
“Bobby, get Skip’s lazy ass out of bed.” said Jolie.
“...On a one horse open slay, hey!” yelled Bobby and sprinted down the hall.
They heard Skip’s distant yell and they laughed. They moved it to the living room as Skip shuffled in and looked at Jolie pissed off. Jolie chuckled as she sat down. Bobby dove into the presents and started to dole them out to every one. They started to shred them apart. Jolie opened a beautiful sapphire necklace from Cymbal. She smiled and put it on and the kissed him. Bobby yelled with delight as she unwrapped a stack of hula hoops from Skip.
“Watch this.” he said.
She stood up and stuck two hoops around her neck, five on her hips and one around her ankle and she started to hula them all at once. Dygon sucked in a breath through her teeth when she took out Jolie’s present. It was a knife Jolie had made her self and knew it would suit Dygon’s tastes. A sharp blade on one end and a spike on the other end that would shoot out when engage and from the spike shot out many barbs also when engaged.
“I’m gonna have fun with this.” she said sticking it back in the case.
The presents were soon all opened.
“Where’s Jolie’s present to Cymbal?” asked Bobby looking around again.
“Its not there?” said Jolie bemused, “Huh, where did I put it, let’s see...”
Cymbal chuckled, “Come on where is it.”
Jolie smiled.
“In the attic.”

He got up and went to the end of the hall. They followed him as he opened the door and went up the steps. He opened the door and Jolie went in after him. He face lit up and he laughed. The entire room was full to the brim with all the animals from the pet store running around all over the place. Max was lying down disgruntled as seven puppies crawled on him chewing on his ears and tail. Minnie was chasing around some of the puppies and Phelix was rolled over on his back as the kittens pounce on him and swiped at his flicking tail.
Cymbal gave Jolie a kiss and shook his head.
“I guess there is one thing Cymbal wanted for Christmas.”
He took a step into the room and all the puppies lifted their heads and sniffed. They all yipped and ran at him and bowled him over. The others made it up as all the puppies jumped on him and started licking him.
“Oh my goodness.” chuckled Dygon looking around.
Bobby squealed and swept five kittens into her arms. A big parrot flew from it’s perch to the top of Skips head. It leaned over and pecked him on the forehead.
“Ow.”
“Walnut.” squawked the bird and they laughed.
Cymbal sat up and picked up one of the puppies.
“They’re all very happy.” he said.
Bobby chuckled, “So are the kitties.”
“Minnie looks pleased, but Max looks a little less than that.” said Skip trying to get the bird off his head.
Dygon walked over to the little pin and picked up a floppy eared rabbit.
“Hey Skip this one looks like you.” she said, “Same ears.
“Hardy, har.”
They took the animals down stares and they started playing in the ribbon and the wrapping paper.
“What are you going to name them?” Jolie asked Cymbal.
Cymbal sat up and pointed out the puppies one by one.
“Snare, Bass, Harp, Drum, Piccolo and Piano.” he said as they started laughing and then he pointed out the kittens, “Tom-tom, Violin, Cello, Fiddle, Chime, Bell and Tambourine.”
Dygon wiped tears of mirth from her eyes, “And the rabbits?”
“Alto, Soprano, Tenor...and Skip.”
“Oh don’t name it after me!” he yelled indignantly.
“I told you he looked like you.” said Alva shaking his head.
“And as for the birds, Lyre, Mandolin, Flute, and Maestro.” he said satisfied.
Jolie shook her head, “That’s perfect.”

That night after a sumptuous Christmas dinner. Jolie and Cymbal sat in front of thr fire. Several puppies and kittens sleeping in various places on and around them. Jolie looked to the side as Cymbal stared into the fire stroking a purring kitten in his lap. She wondered how this man could have ever done what he did to Dean. It didn’t revolt her in any way because she had seen it all before. In her dream, every time her dream would normally end Dean would kill her, but when Cymbal came in her life he was always there at the end to save her. He would always kill Dean just like he had done in real life.
But there was the Cymbal before her who got ploughed over by six puppies. She smiled at herself as she stared at her. He glanced to the side seeing her watching him.
“What?” he asked softly.
She shook her head and wrapped her arms around his and rested her cheek against his shoulder, “Nothing.”
Then there was the other Cymbal. Feral, brave and fierce...her Dream Hero.

To be continued...

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RosettaMoon: Duh, da, da duh! Super Cymbal...the dream hero. Yeah, yeah cliche. I don't give a damn, but if you do, tell me all about it in the review section. ^-^