Mort

Wood had gone to see Georgina. And Ellie had gone to see Oz. So that just left me and Teddy, and we had chores to do. We cleaned up the dishes from lunch, and then went down a few houses to check in on Jesse's old crew. If anything, they seemed more shut-in like than usual.

We had brought a couple boxes of Nutri-Grain bars, a case of water, and a large aluminum tray full of macaroni and cheese.

They weren't talking much. One of them said thanks, and that was about it. I felt bad for them, and I could tell by the pensive look on Teddy's face that he felt bad for them too.

They were all probably shellshocked

I was turning around to walk out the door when Teddy asked, “Where’s Rochelle?”

I stopped and turned back to look at the gathered former army of Jesse. Their expressionless faces suddenly turned afraid.

Teddy took a small step forward, and then looked back at me. “She was the one with the blue and green hair.”

I nodded, remembering the girl. The blue and green hair was her most memorable trait. I mean, half of her head was vibrant green, half vibrant blue. She hadn't even had much root growth yet.

There was no answer from the group.

“Did she leave on her own?” Teddy asked. “Or did you all throw her out?”

One of the younger kids, a boy with brown hair and a fresh scar running across this cheek, started to cry. Not just tears, but sudden red-faced sobbing.

The group of former minions didn't surround him supportively, but seemed to move away from him.

Teddy walked over, and I saw when his arm jerked a little bit. Obviously he wanted to reach out to comfort the kid, but thought better of it.

Teddy let the kid cry for nearly a minute before he asked, “What happened?”

The kid didn't look at Teddy, but between sobs he did start to speak.

“She left… she left on her own. But she said that… she said that…” The kid took a step towards Teddy leaned in and said in a whisper, “She said Jesse was calling to her.”

I saw Teddy’s entire body go rigid. Logically people didn’t do anything after they died. But I knew from experience that was no longer true.

And on a totally selfish level, I hoped neither of my parents came back from the dead. Not for any reason. Those kinds of things never had a good turnout.

Teddy nodded to the kid, gave the group a long look, and said. “If anyone else says… says that he’s calling to them, come and tell me. Okay?”

Reticently the kid nodded, and there was a brief moment where the rest of them nodded too. But everyone looked like they’d taken a sedative, no longer afraid or nervous.

They looked resigned.

I did not like that look.

***

Jesse

I could appreciate Rochelle's terror. She had been there and seen my death. Before I consumed her, she told me how she and the other minions had tried to reap bloody vengeance on the troll—well, the two giant trolls—who had killed me.

But they had failed. They were the only ones who got bloody that day where my minions. Fourteen of the twenty had died that day. And now, there were five more living not far from here, on the street where Dud-o-Mort and his crew were staying.

I was disappointed, though, that I would have so few of my followers to feast on, but I would find more followers, and from them I would have an endless food supply.

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Unlike with Sara, Rochelle didn’t resist at all. She hadn't been a fighter, but more of a worker bee. I was gentle with her, as I loaded her up into the same side of my metallic body as I had dissolved Sara in.

I closed my doors around her, and then started spraying her with acid as quickly as I could, flooding the space, and ending her suffering far quicker than I had with Sara.

Sara had been my oldest friend. Over the years she had made me feel almost human. I couldn’t have let that go without retaliation.

Though Rochelle tasted sweeter than Sara, she was not as satisfying. I guess Sara’s dissolved body had tasted better because I had gotten to enjoy her screams for longer.

I guess I was a sadist in that way. Which was odd, me thinking about the way I thought. The way I was.

I guess that was personal growth for you.

Before, I would have never have bothered trying to figure out why I did the things I do, or how much I enjoyed doing them.

Before Rochelle had come to me, I had moved Zack's corpse into me, and had dissolved him. Turned out a corpse didn’t taste nearly as good as a living person. I would have to remember that. A corpse maybe fine to sustain me, but it doesn't hold a candle too the freshness of killing a living being.

I felt something flicker off in the distance. My tendrils, my tubes, whatever they were… they had been growing out from me, moving out into the distance, out into the forest, and were now almost halfway to town.

I would be able to spy on everyone there soon. But for now, the territory I best could feel was the forest. And to my irritation, I felt Dud-o-Mort and his friend Teddy moving in my direction.

I didn't feel strong enough yet to battle them. Though I wanted to. I wanted to tear them limb from them, smash that little fucker, Mort, and ground his terracotta body into dust, and sprinkle it on a pizza. And then force his friends to eat it. Teddy, I pretty much just wanted to pop him into my refrigerator unit body and liquefy him. Something about that guy really just made me hungry.

But since I wasn’t nearly as strong as I wanted to be, I decided to play possum. This took a little doing. I needed to have a bit of Gore and blood beneath where I sat.

On the fly I excreted some of what was left of Rochelle. There was some hair, and there was a bit of skull left, and also some ribs. It would have to do.

I sat there, pretending to be completely mundane refrigerator sitting in a forest, as I felt Mort and Teddy approach.

***

Mort

It felt silly, and also prudent, to walk out to where Jesse had been killed by the shot-put refrigerator. It wasn't all that far. It was actually not far away from where we had buried mom.

But I wasn't ready to go visit mom's grave. Not yet.

Truth be told, I wasn't ready to see the blood and carnage that was left over after Jesse had died. There were, after all, fourteen more corpses somewhere out in that wood.

Teddy led the way, and I followed. Pretty much I was jogging to keep up with his long legs, but I was fine with that. We needed to get out there and get back before dark.

For a moment or two, I didn't think we would be able to find the right spot. I mean, this new world was good at rearranging things. I'm sure something had come out and slurped up the remains, and maybe the big-head duo hadn’t been done playing with their little toy refrigerator yet.

The memory of one of them ripping that girl Sara’s arm off, and then giving Zach a brutal smack-down with said arm, played in a loop in my mind.

I had to shake my head, and try to push that thought out. Though, technically, I had a suspicion there wasn't much at all in my head. Just empty space. And maybe my essence?

Was whatever made me me trapped inside this terracotta form, or was my essence the terracotta body itself?

Morbid, much.

“There it is,” Teddy said, pointing at the rather large stainless steel mass of a refrigerator.

We had to walk around the back of the thing, to get to the front. And there, on the ground, were some bones and gore, and a skull. Even some long hair.

It was odd though, that there wasn’t much bug growth in what was left of Jesse.

What was left of me definitely had had quite a bit of bug life living in it. And it most definitely looked rotted.

I looked the refrigerator up and down, and didn't see anything weird. I even pulled up my stats box, and the only thing that came up was what came up when it fell from the sky on top of Jesse in the first place. The medal monstrosity’s details: weight, dimensions, fingerprint resistant stainless steel body, and that ridiculous price of 10,000 bucks.

Yikes.

But as I stood there, I could swear there was something moving somewhere out in the forest. Something around me was moving.

For some reason I suddenly had the urge to open the refrigerator doors and look inside.

I stepped forward, grabbed hold of one of the doors, and pulled. Nothing happened. No give, nothing. I grabbed a hold of that door with both hands and pulled. Still nothing. I tried the other side. I tried both doors at once.

Now, I have quite a bit of strength in my little gnome body. And that sucker didn’t even groan under the strain.

“It must be locked,” Teddy said, the soul of reason.

But there was something inside me, something unreasonable that was telling me that I needed to get inside that thing. I needed to see what was inside it.

This all just wasn't adding up.

“No wonder it was 10,000 dollars. It’s built like a freaking tank.”

“If you want to,” Teddy said, “we could try to find a crowbar or something. I’m sure Wood has one in his inventory.”

I looked at my friend, with his kind eyes, and his patient manner. I swear, the guy would probably follow me anywhere.

“Then we can come back tomorrow, and pry to sucker open. You know, if that's what you want to do.”

I didn't know what I wanted to do. Something was telling me shit was really, really wrong. But everything here looked fine. It was still a little weird that what was left of Jesse wasn't grosser looking, but things looked about right.

I shook my head. “Nah, Jesse's minions are just damaged. That Rochelle girl probably just wandered off somewhere. Needing to be by herself, I guess.”

“Yeah, probably… but not a wise move.”

We stood there in companionable silence, staring at the stainless steel, blood splattered refrigerator.

“Maybe Jesse's minions will feel better in time,” I said with a sigh, and Teddy and I started to walk away, down the hillside, and back toward town.