Myshuno! Prompt: Waking up in someone else’s bed (728 words)
The prompt for this story was “Waking up in someone else’s bed” submitted by regacylady. This story fits into Oakpple’s transition from Ruth’s (un)Officially Wacky Boolprop Challenge to Already in Progress. (Or approximately after Ruth’s Chapter 11 and before AiP’s Chapter 39.)
WARNING: This story contains strong horror elements, a swear word, and artsy-fartsy writing.
Dramatis Personae
Oakapple Sanders, newly-minted zombie and possessor of zero Nice points, currently undergoing many changes
Oliver Couderc, possessor of one Nice point, Oakapple’s best friend and ambiguous other
Setting
A bedroom
Oakapple opens his eyes, which is hard, because they’re heavy like they’ve got magnets in the lids, and he doesn’t know where he is other than he’s not in his own bed because the room and the bed and everything is all orange, but not a nice orange - a dirty burnt orange, and he’s sure he’d remember all the dancing blue and purple sparkles. No, maybe he wouldn’t, because he was on the bubbles last night and this must be the bed of the girl that’s coming towards him. He didn’t notice her before because she’s the exact same brown and orange and sparkly as the room. She’s wearing a brown tracksuit and nothing but her underwear, both, at the same time, which doesn’t make sense but he really doesn’t have time to figure it out because she doesn’t have a face. She doesn’t have a face and she doesn’t have any hands, but she’s coming at him with a thin rope stretched between the hands she doesn’t have anyway. Oakapple tries to scream but it’s like his mouth is glued shut and he can feel his throat working but nothing comes out and then he tries to bite his tongue and he doesn’t feel it, but that’s not exactly a surprise because he can never feel it when he bites his tongue, he never even felt it when he was alive, why would he think it would do anything?
And then the girl says Why are you screaming? You’re my new best friend for the quarter. Oakapple says Oh, thank you, milady and the girl says Oh no, don’t mention it, and that’s when Oakapple notices that she’s really a man although he’s not sure how he knows that because she sounds like a girl and she still doesn’t have a face. Then she says Get up we need to go check on some stuff now and she holds out her hands that aren’t there with the rope in them and he says How am I supposed to get up, milady? This isn’t my bed. The girl laughs at him and says Silly! and Oakapple knows he has to get up because he doesn’t like the way she said it. Then he’s standing and following the girl over to the leaf piles that are there where the wall was, only there isn’t a wall now, they’re outside and they always have been and it’s cold even though one of the leaf piles is burning nicely. The girl who is now wearing a schoolgirl’s uniform but still doesn’t have any face skips over to the leaf pile and says She should have listened and Oakapple realizes in a cold rush of horror that she had killed her best friend from last quarter, dried her like beef jerky and burned her under the leaves because the girl disobeyed milady’s strict instructions to never never never go out under a gibbous moon because it said dangerous things and the shadow-people would get you.
And Oakapple realizes that he doesn’t want to be milady’s new best friend for this quarter, and then he looks up and sees that the moon behind the trees is bigger than half and getting bigger - a waxing gibbous - and he’s biting his tongue frantically with no feeling and willing himself to wake up, wake up, wake up
OLIVER (shaking Oakapple by the shoulders): Wake up, Oakapple!
OAKAPPLE (blinking and flailing): What…? Where…? Whose bed… is this?
OLIVER (grumpily): Right now, we’re going halves on it. But if you keep yelling and thrashing around like that, your share will be revoked and you can sleep on the couch.
OAKAPPLE: I had… a bad dream.
OLIVER: No shit. You wanna talk about it?
OAKAPPLE: No. Do you… Could you… I don’t want… to go back… to sleep… alone. Could I… (shamefacedly) Could we… cuddle?
OLIVER: What am I, your bunnybear? (lies down again and raises the arm closest to Oakapple) Okay. Come here.
(Oakapple awkwardly shifts over to rest his head on Oliver’s shoulder. Oliver equally awkwardly wraps his arm around Oakapple. After a moment, Oakapple uncertainly drapes his arm across Oliver’s chest. In response, Oliver pats Oakapple’s head. The two men shift about until they find a configuration that allows them to lie comfortably. Oakapple’s breathing slows and deepens into sleep. Eventually, so does Oliver’s.)
WARNING: This story contains strong horror elements, a swear word, and artsy-fartsy writing.
Dramatis Personae
Oakapple Sanders, newly-minted zombie and possessor of zero Nice points, currently undergoing many changes
Oliver Couderc, possessor of one Nice point, Oakapple’s best friend and ambiguous other
Setting
A bedroom
Oakapple opens his eyes, which is hard, because they’re heavy like they’ve got magnets in the lids, and he doesn’t know where he is other than he’s not in his own bed because the room and the bed and everything is all orange, but not a nice orange - a dirty burnt orange, and he’s sure he’d remember all the dancing blue and purple sparkles. No, maybe he wouldn’t, because he was on the bubbles last night and this must be the bed of the girl that’s coming towards him. He didn’t notice her before because she’s the exact same brown and orange and sparkly as the room. She’s wearing a brown tracksuit and nothing but her underwear, both, at the same time, which doesn’t make sense but he really doesn’t have time to figure it out because she doesn’t have a face. She doesn’t have a face and she doesn’t have any hands, but she’s coming at him with a thin rope stretched between the hands she doesn’t have anyway. Oakapple tries to scream but it’s like his mouth is glued shut and he can feel his throat working but nothing comes out and then he tries to bite his tongue and he doesn’t feel it, but that’s not exactly a surprise because he can never feel it when he bites his tongue, he never even felt it when he was alive, why would he think it would do anything?
And then the girl says Why are you screaming? You’re my new best friend for the quarter. Oakapple says Oh, thank you, milady and the girl says Oh no, don’t mention it, and that’s when Oakapple notices that she’s really a man although he’s not sure how he knows that because she sounds like a girl and she still doesn’t have a face. Then she says Get up we need to go check on some stuff now and she holds out her hands that aren’t there with the rope in them and he says How am I supposed to get up, milady? This isn’t my bed. The girl laughs at him and says Silly! and Oakapple knows he has to get up because he doesn’t like the way she said it. Then he’s standing and following the girl over to the leaf piles that are there where the wall was, only there isn’t a wall now, they’re outside and they always have been and it’s cold even though one of the leaf piles is burning nicely. The girl who is now wearing a schoolgirl’s uniform but still doesn’t have any face skips over to the leaf pile and says She should have listened and Oakapple realizes in a cold rush of horror that she had killed her best friend from last quarter, dried her like beef jerky and burned her under the leaves because the girl disobeyed milady’s strict instructions to never never never go out under a gibbous moon because it said dangerous things and the shadow-people would get you.
And Oakapple realizes that he doesn’t want to be milady’s new best friend for this quarter, and then he looks up and sees that the moon behind the trees is bigger than half and getting bigger - a waxing gibbous - and he’s biting his tongue frantically with no feeling and willing himself to wake up, wake up, wake up
OLIVER (shaking Oakapple by the shoulders): Wake up, Oakapple!
OAKAPPLE (blinking and flailing): What…? Where…? Whose bed… is this?
OLIVER (grumpily): Right now, we’re going halves on it. But if you keep yelling and thrashing around like that, your share will be revoked and you can sleep on the couch.
OAKAPPLE: I had… a bad dream.
OLIVER: No shit. You wanna talk about it?
OAKAPPLE: No. Do you… Could you… I don’t want… to go back… to sleep… alone. Could I… (shamefacedly) Could we… cuddle?
OLIVER: What am I, your bunnybear? (lies down again and raises the arm closest to Oakapple) Okay. Come here.
(Oakapple awkwardly shifts over to rest his head on Oliver’s shoulder. Oliver equally awkwardly wraps his arm around Oakapple. After a moment, Oakapple uncertainly drapes his arm across Oliver’s chest. In response, Oliver pats Oakapple’s head. The two men shift about until they find a configuration that allows them to lie comfortably. Oakapple’s breathing slows and deepens into sleep. Eventually, so does Oliver’s.)