K’Lynn didn’t consider herself evil, only quasi-evil.  The Diet Coke of evil, because real evil had to do with things like devils and demons.  She did like a good game of Dungeons and Dragons, though, always playing a half elf, half human maiden.  Her character’s name was Storm, which she hoped added an element of danger.  A ruby dagger was her weapon of choice.  She’d found a real one, or a close enough replica on eBay, which she took with her to each adventure.  There was something about grasping the cold hard handle, feeling the potential sharp edge of the blade that helped her fall more into character.

K’Lynn was pissed off though.  She’d wasted the previous night with Bradford and had been too tired the next day to make it to her next adventure.  Her best friend Harold, who played her lover and protector, was the prince of thieves.  His game name was Beau, because he thought it made him sound dangerous and regal at the same time.  K’Lynn knew Harold had a thing for her, something that extended into real life, beyond their relationship as Storm and Beau.  In real life, however, Harold worked at the refinery.  He was content to remain in Pampa, allowing all his travels to take place at home around the table, nothing more than a series of campaigns. 

In someways, K’Lynn knew Harold would always be there for her if she decided to stay.  Her dream was to escape, find a way out of Pampa, to allow some educated, rich, Christian man to save her, take her away to the big city.  In some ways she practiced this scenario with Harold.  They pretended to escape convention.  Storm continued to rally against the rules of elves and the rules of humans, reveling in their contradictions.  Storm was a contradiction.  Her relationship with Beau created another problem, one they could only overcome together.  His being a thief, and her royal blood, meant their people were at constant war.  Only by leaving their villages, escaping with the others to conquer to monsters and new lands, could they ever be together forever, and in turn come to truly no themselves.

K’Lynn continued to save her waitressing tips so she could take a few classes in the Classics at the Pampa junior college.   She used the mythology books to help develop more intricate plots, adding to her knowledge about how to create and defeat monsters, the Hydra, the Medusa, Cerebrus.   Once Storm even ventured down into the Underworld to save Beau, making her plea to Persephone, who convinced Hades to give her Beau back.  While her knowledge helped K’Lynn’s campaigns, she took the classes in hopes of eventually impressing someone like Bradford with her practical knowledge.  In the worlds she fought every weekend, these stories had helped elevate her to one of the group’s most prized campaigners.  K’Lynn assumed the same thing could happen in real life, only instead of saving Beau, she’d be impressing Bradford.

Really, she didn’t understand why Bradford had left so suddenly.  K’Lynn had played every move just right.  She’s saved her maidenhood, increasing the value of her chastity, while still giving Bradford a taste of possibility for the future.  It was just like a quest, only it was life.  She couldn’t believe that the one time she had driven into Lubbock, to go to a random bar with her girlfriends, this one time she’d cross paths again with Bradford.  They’d started their journey at church camp and had come back to each other after a decade of life lived in between.  And yet he’d disappeared, she’d missed her game, and now was missing her earring, too.  She wasn’t sure what she would tell Harold next week.  He’d bought the ruby hoops as a special gift to match her dagger.  In fact, she’d remembered thinking that their power might have been what allowed her to find Bradford that night.  Storm was braver then K’Lynn, so sometimes it was easier for her to pretend to take on some of Storm’s qualities.  Elves were fine boned, dainty, fierce and fast. K’Lynn felt herself to be big boned, clunky, too nice, and a little slow.  Storm gave K’Lynn an edge, one that helped her feel more certain in herself.

Over the next week K’Lynn decided she’d take on Storm’s bravery, as well as her temper.  She never would have stood for treatment like that, especially from a mere mortal.  Bradford was worthless to Storm, nothing worth giving another thought.  Storm helped make K’Lynn evil, well, maybe more quasi-evil.  Quasi-evil was all she needed.