Part Nineteen
[Note: I wasn’t entirely happy with how this ending turned out, so I’m writing a more conclusive alternate ending (see the alternate chapter 20) which will be a bit longer.]
Time passed, and piece by piece the plan fell into place, in spite of opposition by companies that saved billions avoiding animal testing regulations by using fluffies instead. Sam’s life became a blur of interviews and nightmares, the former feeding the latter, broken up by what seemed like only a few blissful hours of rest at home. But deep down she knew it’d all be worth it.
Rebecca still stayed with her, even after weeks had passed. She could see how Sam’s recovery was going to be slow, only made worse by the memories dredged up by each interview. She was needed, so she stayed.
Eventually, Sam’s story became old news, replaced by the latest celebrity gossip, and she found some peace. The nightmares began to fade, and life began to return to normal. The pain never vanished, but it became tolerable.
The foals were all grown up now, and Aqua was beginning to ask about having foals of her own. Sam sadly didn’t have space for more fluffies, but Aqua seemed to understand and never grew angry over it. Still, Sam wished there was something she could do.
So, the world spun ever on, and the wheels of change slowly ground their way towards the future.
…
Sam was having the nightmare again, and this time it was more vivid than ever before. The smell of the smoke and the screams seemed more real than in the past, and she struggled to wake. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t escape the looping Hell.
A sudden violent shaking pulled her from her nightmare, gasping. The screams echoed in her mind, and she could almost still smell the smoke. Why was this time so bad? She was getting better, wasn’t she?
“Sam! We need to go! There’s a fire!” Rebecca’s voice was frantic as she continued to shake Sam.
Sam was instantly gripped with cold clarity, leaping to her feet as fast as she could and dashing for the saferoom. The room was awash in flames, and the heat and smoke blinded her. Staggering forward, she was suddenly yanked backwards.
Knight slammed into the saferoom gate, the plastic already sagging from the heat giving way, and he tripped and rolled over the gate, his fluff trailing smoke and withering from the heat. As he fell, Sunbeam, who’d been supported by his shoulder, staggered out of the saferoom and collapsed.
Knight rose, melted plastic sticking to his hooves and his fluff, and charged back into the inferno, coughing from the smoke. In an instant, he was swallowed by the haze, his coughing lost in the roar of the flames. For a moment, an updraft cleared the smoke enough for a brief sight of him collapsing.
Sam attempted to run into the saferoom, but Rebecca’s grasp was firm, and struggle as she might, she couldn’t break free. She let loose a wordless shriek, but weeks of poor sleep and little appetite had left her weakened. In desperation, she struck Rebecca, but the hands held firm.
“Sam! It’s too late! You can’t do anything!”
“NO! LET ME GO!”
“Sunbeam needs you! Don’t make her lose everyone!”
Sam froze. This couldn’t be happening. She collapsed to the floor, sobbing, scooping up Sunbeam and holding her tight. She sat the unmoving, heedless of the heat and the smoke, until Rebecca dragged her away into the morning sun.
As Sam stared as the burning remnants of her home, she held a tiny scrap of hope that maybe they’d come rushing out of the smoke. But they never did, and the fire burned away the hope like it had her life. Smoke stung her eyes, but the tears burned more.
…
Mikhael found Sam on the steps to Rebecca’s apartment, a half-empty bottle of cheap vodka in her hands. She looked horrible, covered in soot and burns, trails across her face where tears had thinned the grime. Blankly she stared past him.
“Sunbeam won’t wake up,” she rasped as he walked up, her voice ravaged by smoke inhalation and grief. “I don’t know if she’d injured or just can’t handle this.” She didn’t sound drunk, she just sounded hollow and haunted.
“Let me check her out,” Mikhael desperately tried to maintain some semblance of calm.
“No. You’ve done enough, Mikhael. I hope to God she never wakes up. Better that than having to learn what happened. What happened to her family because I got involved in your stupid fucking plan.” She gestured to the car parked in front of the steps, and Mikhael noticed the words “shitrat lover” sprayed crudely on the windshield.
“Sam, I’m so sorry. I never realized this would happen.”
“Are you? Are you really sorry, or are you worried this will ruin your plan? Your fucking plan that’s more important to you than anyone.”
“Sam, I swear-”
“LEAVE!” Sam shrieked, grief giving way to hatred in an instant. “I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN! YOU GOT THEM ALL KILLED, YOU SELFISH BASTARD!”
Without a word, Mikhael turned and left. After all, there was nothing he could say.
…
The new door to James’ office didn’t offer even a moment of resistance as Mikhael slammed through it. He was incandescent with rage, burning with a newfound hatred towards the man. He should have known, after what James had done that there was nothing the man would stop at to make sure he got what he wanted.
James barely reacted as he shouted into his phone. “You said you were keeping her safe! Is this your idea of fucking safe?”
Mikhael moved towards him, preparing to snap the weasel’s neck like the vermin he was. James didn’t have time to react as he was brought down to the floor, Mikhael’s hands around his neck. The phone clattered to the ground, its screen cracking.
“You had them killed! YOU RAT BASTARD!”
“Wasn’t…me…” James choked, barely able to force the words out.
“I’m not fucking buying that!”
“Trying…to…scare…us…off…”
“Who?” Mikhael released his grasp ever so slightly.
“Only person who knew the plan besides us…”
Mikhael suddenly realized. Their old sponsor, the one whose son risked losing a fortune if they succeeded. But doubt still remained.
“I’m still going to kill you, James, just as soon as I manage to kill that bitch.”
James smirked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a piece of folded paper. He flicked it at Mikhael, who was so wired that he caught it easily. Opening it he read for a moment, then he looked at James with a new expression, almost of pity. Then his mask of hatred returned and he ripped the paper into shreds. “Go to Hell.”
As Mikhael turned and left the office he heard James laugh bitterly. “I’m already here.”
As the scraps of paper settled on the floor, a single word was still miraculously legible and untorn. “Terminal.”
…
Sam felt a hand settle on her shoulder, startling her from her dark musing. Rebecca stood there, a concerned look on her face. She’d gotten herself cleaned up; after all, someone had to hang on. Still, her eyes were puffy from crying.
“Sunbeam’s awake. She needs you.”
Sam lurched to her feet and staggered into the house. She made her way jerkily to the bedroom, where Sunbeam lay on a pillow, looking around bewildered and frightened. When she saw Sam she relaxed slightly.
“MUMMAH! SUNBEAM HAB WOWSTEST SWEEPIE-TIME-PICTUHS!” she cried.
“Sunbeam, baby, that wasn’t a nightmare.”
Sunbeam froze, then burst into a fit of sobbing. “Am famiwy gone forebah-sweepies?”
Sam couldn’t answer, she just sat there, holding Sunbeam and sobbing. “Pwease, mummah! PWEASE SAE FAMIWY NU GU FOREBAH-SWEEPIES!”
“I…I CAN’T!”
“SCREEEEEE! NUUUUU! NU HU HU! SUNBEAM WAN DI-” She cut herself off. “Nu. Sunbeam nu can gu forebah-sweepies. Need wive fow tummeh-babbehs.”
Sam started, shocked by what she’d heard. Sunbeam hadn’t mentioned wanting babbehs, so she’d never considered that the mare would try to have some. She’d known that she was close with Victor, but she hadn’t realized they’d been that close.
“You have tummeh-babbehs?”
“Sunbeam am sowwy! Wan babbehs su bad, bu’ nyo mummah nu wan Sunbeam ow Aqua tu hab babbehs. Pwease, nu taek babbehs 'way!”
“Sunbeam, I promise I won’t take your babbehs away. I’m so sorry about what happened.”
“Sam,” the word startled her, as none of her fluffies called her by name. “Pwease find nyu mummah fow Sunbeam’s babbehs.”
“New mummah? But they don’t need one, they have you.”
“Wen babbehs hewe, pwease kiww Sunbeam. Nu wan wive nu mowe.”
…
Sam lived in a stupor, sitting in a chair blankly staring at the TV in her new shitty apartment. She had no idea how much time had passed, and she barely noticed whatever was playing on the TV. Even the news that the plan had succeeded, that fluffies were now considered animals instead of bio-toys, with all the rights that entailed, didn’t matter to her.
Every now and then, her hand would drift to the revolver that sat on the little table beside her chair. Each time she pulled it away, it wasn’t time yet. When the foals were here, when Sunbeam was gone, then it would be time. But not yet.
She hadn’t felt such misery since her parents and brother had died, but she held on, barely, for Sunbeam’s sake. In her isolation, the nightmares and the memories blended into a single mess of pain and misery. There was no future, there was no past, only loss and emptiness.
“Mummah! Babbehs am comin’!”
She stood up, unsteadily. Finally. One more thing, then she could rest. Just one more thing.
…
Sunbeam held her foals, gently moving them so they could all have milk. Somehow, seeing them made life a little more tolerable. Somehow, she didn’t want to give them up anymore. Somehow, she wanted…
“Mummah. Sunbeam nu wan die nu mowe. Wan wive fow babbehs. Wan mummah tu wive fow babbehs, tuu!”
Sam stood without a word, and walked to her chair. Reaching down, she picked up the revolver and looked at it for a moment. Sunbeam flinched as she heard a loud “BANG!”
…
In the middle of nowhere, deep in the woods, Mikhael finally found what he was looking for. The moving van had struggled on the dirt roads, and he hoped none of the delicate glassware had cracked from the bumpy ride. Now, after so long, he’d succeeded.
The little cottage was occupied, as could be seen from the lights in the windows and heard from the sound of the gasoline generator. Mikhael walked to the door and knocked sharply. For a moment, he caught his reflection in the glass of the door, and he noticed that he’d gone gray in these past few years.
The door was opened by a short woman wearing an aged biohazard suit. “What is it?” she asked.
“Dr. Mendez?”
“Just Ms. Mendez.”
“I’ve been looking for you for a long time. They say you’re a genius, that you created fluffies. I think we want the same thing. I have equipment in the van, all you should need.”
“Took you long enough.”
Mikhael shook off his surprise and walked to the van, beginning to unpack the lab equipment. Finally, he could start. Finally, he could get his revenge. Those bastards would pay.
…
August Tanner’s eyes burned for a moment when the bag was taken off his head. He was tied to a chair in an empty warehouse, surrounded by rough-looking men. He knew what happened next.
A tall man with a crooked nose walked into his field of view, a malevolent grin on his face. “You took a long time to find, Mr. Tanner.”
“What do you want?”
“Do you remember a job about two years ago? A little vandalism and arson?”
“The one with the shitrat-lover and her pests?”
“Well, you do remember! That makes this a lot easier. I’ve been very upset about that, you see.”
“You? Don’t you run a fluffy torture center? Why would you care if a few fluffies burn?”
“I don’t. But those fluffies belonged to someone who I owe a few favors. And you hurt her deeply. I’m not one to forget a debt, you see.”
“A real angel, I’m sure.”
The smile dropped in an instant, and with a sudden surge of frenzied strength Tanner was picked up and hurled backwards. His head cracked sharply against the concrete floor, sending a wave of pain through his skull. He grinned in spite of the pain, knowing he was getting to the man.
“Stupid bravado at a time like this? You think I wouldn’t notice that you’re trying to make me angry enough to kill you? You think I don’t know that you know how this goes?”
“It worked.”
Tanner was lifted and spun around, facing a large cylindrical tank. He recognized it as a drowning tank, but he’d never seen one so large. Dread gnawed in his guts.
“What are you gonna do? Torture a bunch of fluffies in front of me?” he smirked, hiding the queasiness.
“Taunting me here? Now? It just sounds like you want to die. And you know what I do to creatures that say they want to die…”
“I’m a human, not some stupid shitrat. That won’t break me.”
“It’s not supposed to. It’s supposed to make you suffer. First, though, I don’t think it’s quite…personal enough.”
The tall man unzipped his pants and emptied his bladder into the tank, the smirk returning to his face. Sudden revulsion filled Tanner, and he gagged audibly. His captor laughed.
“Now that’s what I want to see. I wonder how much of the fluid we can replace with piss before you drown. Let’s find out, together!”
…
In Sam’s apartment, in a cheap wooden drawer in a cheap wooden dresser, a long crack ran through the wood where it had broken from the force of being slammed shut. Inside, the revolver rested forgotten.
…
“An dat’s howe mummah hewp maek da wowd bettah fow aww fwuffies!” Sunbeam finished her tale, her foals looking up at her in wonder. Here, on the hill with the little white-and-yellow flowers with her foals and her mummah, while they visited the little graves, she felt an odd mix of emotion. The emptiness and grief she felt when she saw the graves threatened to consume her, but as she watched her foals playing among the flowers, she felt something else, too. Deep inside her welled up love and happiness, and while it could never make the emptiness go away, she held onto it, the joy of motherhood warming her soul, filling the space left by her family.
[Author’s Note: This concludes my first long-form story here. Happy endings are where you can make them.
I do have some interest in continuing Mikhael’s story, after he slipped back into his old habits due to what happened to Sam’s fluffies and his own feelings of guilt, working with the bio-engineer from Goodwill Betrayed. Other than that and a few side stories, I think I’m mostly done with this storyline.]
24 Likes
Very cool. Bravo.
4 Likes
That was a wild and interesting ride, for a moment you had me worried.
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Its really sad Sam move on 
and only sunbeam was left form her family… 
Still an awesome story. Looks like James got the worst karma , slowly eatin on him.
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Mummah, how do 'ou know dah pawts of dah stowy ‘ou wewen’t pwesent fo’?
2 Likes
Nawwative fweedom!
3 Likes
The foal would remember this but would not complain further as the choice festered in their mind… >:(
They would later become a smarty and tell terrible stories in comparison but would think their works were masterpieces beyond compare and poop on any potential critics.
1 Like