“Huwwy, hewd! Bwing nummies tu nestie fow babbehs! Babbehs hab tummeh-owwies!”
The herd rolled their eyes, collectively, but picked up the pace, following the smarty-friend. He was overzealous when it came to making sure the babbehs were fed, sometimes going out alone to find food while the others slept. As a result, the babbehs were almost too fat to move, but the other fluffies in the herd didn’t see that as a bad thing. Better too many nummies than not enough.
“Speciaw-fwiend!” the smarty-friend’s special-friend called out as they re-entered the abandoned house. She waddled up, barely able to move with the tummeh-babbehs so big, and hugged him. “Nu nee’ mowe nummies, siwwy! Gu sweepies!”
“Smawty-fwiend jus’ wan babbehs tu hab nummies. Nu wan wet babbehs gu hungwy wike owd hewd. Scawed dat babbehs gu fowebah-sweepies.”
“It am otay. Soon-mummah nyo dat speciaw-fwiend wowwy, an’ wub speciaw-fwiend fow dat, bu’ it am awmost dawk-time. Soon-mummah su sad wen wake up an’ speciaw-fwiend nu in nestie.”
“Smawty-fwiend nee’ sweepies, tuu!” one of the tuffies shouted.
“Bu’ smawty-fwiend nee’ stay 'wake. Dawk-time nu am safe fow babbehs.”
“Tuffie stay 'wake! Smawty-fwiend gu sweepies! Nebah sweepies 'nuff!”
…
A few years prior
…
Alice kicked her legs, seeking distraction. There was nothing to do here. How was doing nothing supposed to help? She needed to keep it out of her mind, not sit here with nothing to do but dwell on the past.
“Alice? Alice, you need to talk to me.”
She stared, but didn’t speak. What was the point? Was some arrogant shrink with a cushy life going to be able to understand? Of course not. So she had no reason to talk to her.
“Alice, if you don’t cooperate I won’t be able to help you. I know you talk to your roommate, so why won’t you talk with me?”
What gave the school the right to make her talk to an idiot like this? Well, if they wanted to waste her time and their money she’d let them. Didn’t mean she’d be happy about it. And if she had to be unhappy, she could at least make sure the shrink felt the same.
“Okay. I get it. If you don’t want to talk to me that’s fine. I’m just worried about you.”
Riiiiight. Just like she was “worried” about Calliope. If she actually cared Calliope wouldn’t be able to do whatever the fuck she wanted. Alice’s fingers twitched, images flashing across her mind, but she ignored them. Hurting the bitch wouldn’t help anything. She did worry, though, about what Calliope might do if left unchecked as she was. There was crazy, and then there was crazy.
“Well, if you don’t have anything to say, I guess this meeting is over. I wish you’d at least give me a chance, though. I can help you if you let me.”
Alice didn’t bother antagonizing the shrink as she left, making her way back to her room. Anyone that could deal with Calliope would be able to take anything Alice did in stride. As she walked she gently ran her fingers through her hair, wincing slightly each time they encountered the large bald spot.
“Seeing Dr. Anzu again?” her roommate asked, but Alice wasn’t in the mood for talking, so she ignored the question.
Her roommate was also a patient of Dr. Anzu, the boarding school’s go-to psychiatrist. Unlike Alice, she was quite cooperative, but Alice knew, due to her habit of eavesdropping, that Dr. Anzu was just as frustrated on that case as with Alice. Samantha had issues, sure, but apparently her trauma was so buried that she didn’t even remember most of the details. That would probably cause issues in the long run.
“Are you okay? You seem out of it.”
Well, that was something Alice would have to respond to. Samantha didn’t have any ill will towards her, but sometimes actions taken out of sympathetic concern can have the same effect. “I’m fine. It’s just been a long day. Don’t worry about it.”
Samantha didn’t seem particularly convinced, but Alice’s tone was enough to make her drop it. “If you say so. I know this isn’t usually your thing, but a friend of mine got a fluffy recently. Maybe you’d be interested in seeing it tomorrow?”
Alice was willing to make a concession, just to soothe her roommate’s doubts. “That sounds fun. We should do that.”
…
A clock ticked, almost on-beat but slightly off, its erratic noise nerve-wracking rather than soothing. That was the least of Alice’s concern, though. Back here again. Every. Fucking. Night.
“How many times do I have to say this?” she screamed into the darkness outside the door of the room, one drawn from memories of her grandparent’s house so long ago. She never tried leaving the room in the dream. She’d tried that once, and she hadn’t liked the results. “Leave me the fuck alone!”
The whispering started. It was too quiet to hear, although sometimes she could swear she make out words. They weren’t words she wanted to hear. It always seemed to come from all around her, but there was never anything there to make the sound. She screamed at the unseen voice anyway.
At first, she’d been scared of this dream. Now, though, she was resigned to it, annoyed but not particularly invested. Always the same dream, never changing. Pointlessly vivid, when nothing happened.
Dr. Anzu would probably love to hear about it. Too bad Alice had no intention of mentioning it.
…
She awoke with a groan, eyes groggy. She looked at the clock. Ugh. Too early to wake up on a weekend, she muttered internally. Still, once she woke up she could never fall back asleep, so she got up anyway.
There wasn’t much to do here, even when everyone was awake, so Alice had developed a hobby of listening in to other people’s conversations. Moral concerns played second fiddle to getting the distraction she needed whenever possible.
Today she felt especially reckless, so she decided to eavesdrop somewhere she rarely did. The meeting room on the third floor was strictly off-limits for students, which only made it more appealing for her. The last time she’d visited it’s just been a budget meeting, but maybe it’d be more interesting this time.
She walked silently down empty halls.
…
Present
…
The smarty-friend awoke with a start, as the yellow tuffy shook him. “Hoomin am in housie,” the tuffy murmured, and the smarty-friend’s ice ran cold. Humans were extremely dangerous, even more so than the other predators that hunted fluffies relentlessly. A barkie-munstah would rip you apart, but a human would laugh while they did worse.
“Hide hewd an’ babbehs. Smawty-fwiend wiww tawk to hoomin. Stay hidin’, nu mattew wut.”
“Otay.”
The smarty-friend moved towards the front of the abandoned house, towards the door that always hung ajar, one hinge broken. He made as much noise as he could while moving. Humans were even more dangerous when startled. So he walked loudly and hummed to himself, tunelessly.
Then he saw the human. A nice lady, as he still instinctively thought. Deep down he knew that she was more likely a threat than a boon, so he shook slightly as he moved towards her. She spotted him immediately, but didn’t move towards him, which made him relax ever-so-slightly.
“Hewwo, nice wady,” he said, adopting the standard friendly attitude that he used when talking to humans. If she were a dog or cat, he’d have been threatening, but that never worked on humans. It only made the dangerous ones more dangerous and the friendly ones hostile.
“eam…” the human muttered.
“Wut?”
…
Past
…
“Still nothing?”
“She refuses to talk to me,” that was Dr. Anzu’s voice. “I don’t think there’s anything I can do. I know you don’t want to hear this, but maybe you should consider-”
“No!” the director of the boarding school cut off, anger in her voice. “I’ve never betrayed my students’ trust and I’m not starting now!”
“But it’s not safe to-”
“I said no! If she doesn’t want treatment I’m not going to force her. If you have concerns then go through the proper channels, but I’m not going participate!”
Alice was intrigued, and more than a little worried. She’d avoided talking to Dr. Anzu to piss her off, but maybe she’d taken it a little too far. Next time she’d throw the shrink a bone or two.
“Rachel, you really need to listen to me!”
“My decision is final. Please leave. The school won’t be needing your services any longer.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing! She’s-”
“I know exactly what I’m doing! I’m protecting a student from unreasonable persecution. Maybe you should see someone yourself, deal with that paranoia. Goodbye!”
Alice ducked around a corner as the door opened, then slammed shut. Well, that was interesting. She felt vindicated in her treatment of the shrink, now. She did feel guilty about giving the director so much grief, though. She’d have to be nicer to the old lady from now on.
Thinking she was dangerous, though? That was ridiculous. Maybe if Dr. Anzu spent less time listening to what Calliope had to say and more time actually doing her job she’d know…but that wasn’t important anymore. She was leaving, and now Alice wouldn’t have to put up with her any longer. Maybe the next shrink the school hired wouldn’t be so annoying.
She wandered around to the animal pen outside, behind the main school building. For whatever reason someone had decided that raising animals would be good for the students, and it did teach them important lessons. Lessons like how to weasel their way out of cleaning duty, for one.
She didn’t especially like or dislike the fluffies they kept there, even if she knew why fluffies. Rabbits or ducks or chickens would have been a better options than noisy, fragile, short-lived fluffies. It’d never made sense to her until she’d found a budget sheet when she was snooping, and saw how much cheaper fluffies were to keep.
They were fun to play with, sometimes, though. And she did mean play, not “play” in the sense that some people meant. Alice had never intentionally hurt a fluffy, and didn’t intend to start now. They were…sweet, in their own dim-witted way.
Something felt a little off as she made her way to the pen, though. She felt watched, although she knew the students and most of the staff were either absent or asleep. She couldn’t shake the feeling, though.
“Mummah!” one of the foals she’d taken to personally raising called out when she entered the pen.
“Hey, Snowball. How are you feeling today?”
“Snowbaww am happy! Mummah wub nyu nummes! Gib bestest miwkies!”
Alice smiled at that. It’d taken quite some convincing to get the fluffies’ bargain-bin kibble replaced with half-decent chow. Since then they were looking a lot healthier, and seemed more energetic, too. Normally she didn’t put in much effort, but in this case it’d been worth it.
“I’m glad you like it,” she said.
“Snowbaww wub mummah mowe, tho!”
Alice’s harsh facade melted a little at that, but she didn’t get a chance to respond, as there was a harsh metallic clicking sound and a voice she knew too well. “Aw, isn’t that sweet?”
She spun, and for a moment was unable to process what she saw. Why the fuck was Calliope awake so early? Where the hell had she gotten a gun? Why did…why did she have a gas can?
“Hey Alice. We should play. It’s been a while.”
Fuck.
Part Two
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Well, this should be interesting…!
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