Terminal Origins: Paving the Path to Paradise

Then came the fateful Saturday afternoon that things suddenly took a turn for the worst. It was three days after Skinner and Shane returned from their first concert tour, which had proven exceedingly successful. Shane woke up from a recurring dream, looking distraught enough to disturb his bed buddies, Bandit, Rita, Yulia, Ashara, Skeeter, and Catlin. The latter asked him, "What's wrong, honey?" He hesitated to reveal, "I had that awful dream again." "Oh no," Catlin agonized aloud....
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Then came the fateful Saturday afternoon that things suddenly took a turn for the worst. It was three days after Skinner and Shane returned from their first concert tour, which had proven exceedingly successful. Shane woke up from a recurring dream, looking distraught enough to disturb his bed buddies, Bandit, Rita, Yulia, Ashara, Skeeter, and Catlin. The latter asked him, "What's wrong, honey?" He hesitated to reveal, "I had that awful dream again." "Oh no," Catlin agonized aloud. "What dream?" Ashara inquired. Waiting for Bandit and Rita to pass his cigarettes and lighter to him, he replied, "It has troubled me several times before. The first time was when I was a kid. In it, I find myself sitting on the opposite side of a campfire from an old lady who looks and acts like the kind of shaman that you'd imagine was part of the lives of our ancient ancestors-those who roamed the steppes, hunting mammoths, horses, antelopes, and bison. Well, in the dream, she performs some ritual whereby she sings a weird song, while tossing powder into the fire, causing it to freak out and sparkle. Then she rolls her rune bones and tells me, 'Both of you are headed for the flames of Hell. One of you, however, will eventually find the path to Paradise.'" "Oh my gosh!" Yulia exclaimed. "That's a truly bizarre dream." Ashara then asked, "I assume that the shaman is referring to you and Skinner, right?" "Yes," Shane replied. "The trouble is that big trouble always follows that dream." "How nice," Bandit remarked. "Maybe this time," Catlin hoped aloud, "the spell will be broken." "I can only hope so," Shane said and lit a cigarette...Half an hour or so later, he and his bed buddies remained groggy from oversleeping, as they started to walk past the door of Jo-Jo's suite. The sound of her screeching at someone snatched their attention. They then detected the voice of Skinner yelling at her. Of course, Shane immediately invited himself into Jo-Jo's quarters and the battle. He then found Jo-Jo on her bed, doing her damnedest to keep Skinner at bay by kicking him, while he tried to fight his way onto her bed. She was wearing a nightgown. Her panties were missing. He, in turn, was naked. Shane didn't wait for an explanation before he grabbed Skinner's arm and spun him about. Noting that he reeked of whiskey, he then punched him so hard he feared he had broken his right hand and Skinner's jaw. Zargus feared he was watching his big dreams for Skinner and Shane crumble to dust. He struggled to wrestle his rage and quench the conflagration of troubles that Skinner's asininity had ignited....