WHO:
yourothermother,
more_surreal,
zeronatorWHAT: A little less eyeball-nomming, a lot more action.
WHEN: Evening, Wednesday 28 June
WHERE: The Other Mother's apartment building
WARNINGS: Intended eyeball nomming. Violence.
(
i am holding and have been forever )
Instead, the feeling that something is terribly, terribly wrong that's been niggling in the back of his mind has only grown, as has his guilt for essentially ditching Harvey, and with him Billy, for someone who provided shinier toys. But those feelings don't stop him from running to the table when she calls- his new and improved parent never ever serves oatmeal.
"I'm here!" He yells. "What are we having tonight?"
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The Other Mother smiles and points to the table. As usual, it's just this side of a feast: juicy hamburgers grilled perfectly, with a table full of condiments, a casserole dish full of homemade macaroni & cheese, a fruit salad that went heavy on the whipped cream, homemade french fries, and cake for dessert.
She's gone all-out, of course. Their last meal is almost always the most splendid. It makes the process easier if they're happy. Her smile grows at the thought. After Calvin has eaten, her own hunger will finally go away.
And, at the head of the table--Calvin's place--there's a slim box, gift wrapped in shiny paper of Calvin's favourite color.
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...suddenly he remembered that he'd left Norton behind when he left Harvey's. And that robot dinosaur Harvey had gotten him after Billy had gotten his own animals. And that he didn't have Hobbes.
But then Calvin put those thoughts out of his head because whatever was in that box was sure to be great!
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She was just as happy as any child might be when dinner was finally over.
"Well, go on," she urged. "Open it!"
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And stared at what was inside.
With a very bad feeling beginning to grow in his stomach.
"Uhhhhh... Mom? What's with the buttons?"
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She tapped a finger on her right eye a few tiems. The long nail made a clicking sound every time it touched.
"Don't you want to?"
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"You want me to put... the buttons... into my... my..."
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After a pause, she added in a soothing tone, "It won't hurt a bit."
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"Right! Right, over the eyes, I get it, heh-heh." He squirmed in his seat. "But I can stay with you even without them, right? I mean, they're just buttons, right? You're my Mom no matter what, right?"
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If there was one, single constant in the universe, it was that whenever a grown-up promised you anything, it was time to be afraid. Even if the grown-up made dinosaurs.
On the verge of complete panic, Calvin fell back on his most basic and greatest defense: his imagination. The familiar rhythm of fantasy and self-narration allowed him to gain control of himself, if only in his own mind. Intrepid interstellar explorer Spaceman Spiff once again faces unimaginable peril! Lured into a devious trap by a supposedly-benevolent alien hungry for his ocular organs, how will our hero escape? What stunningly brilliant stratagem, what immensely cunning gambit, what incredibly original scheme will deliver Spiff from certain doom?
"Hey 'Mom!' What's that behind you?" And with that, Calvin was sprinting away from the table, heading nowhere in particular- but heading there fast, which was the important thing. Spiff escapes!
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He was leaving when she turned around. There was a moment of blind fury. And then every illusion in the house began to change, to become threatening. She chased after him, still human-like enough to pass.
"Calvin! Calvin, come back here!"
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Calvin ducked down a corridor that was rapidly becoming something too nightmarish to be a corridor, chillingly aware that he was running out of places to run.
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Heero knocked sharply, three times on the door; there was a time when he would have just shot the lock and went in, Bel Jones was still, ostensibly, a civilian. He would give it five seconds before he did things his own way.
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She wasn't anywhere near apartment 104 to answer within five seconds. When Heero made his own entrance, he would find a bare apartment with the occasional rust-brown stain on the floor and a ladder that led directly to the second floor. Should he double back, he would find that the main stairway leading to the second floor was blocked. That ladder was the only access that didn't involve a window.
And the second floor was quickly becoming a hellish maze.
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But the sound of Heero knocking just barely reached his ears, giving him some small hope. So he did what came naturally at the moment and screamed as loud as he could, hoping that someone would hear him. Because right now, he needed an adult.
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