To Yield or Not

Lying in what amounted to little more than a shallow grave covered by dark colored soil, “No, no,” Cam whispered harshly, “she’s the worst one. This is all just a trick. If she gets her hooks on us, she’ll eat us.”

Worried she might hear, “Shh,” whispered Oliver from his own concealment.

“You don’t understand, I listened when the other girls talking about her, she is a beast,” Cam countered.

Raising himself up from the soil to be able to peer over the orangey colored rim of the planter, Oliver stared hard at the form of Cerys under the blanket. Was her story nothing more than a lie? A ruse to draw him out in to the open? On the other hand, what if it was not and she was on the level? He was smart enough to realize his options were dwindling and fast. What did his gut say? Be wary.

Pulling himself up, “What are you doing?” Cam inquired.

“What if she is telling the truth?” Oliver replied with a slight shrug of his shoulders, dislodging some loose soil dirt perched on his shoulders.

Cam laughed, “Remember, I’m the optimist and you’re the voice of reason? Dude, she gets us and we are as good as in her stomach,” he replied.

Turning his head to look at Cam, “You call that positive?” Oliver grinned.

“We need to get out of here pronto, find another room before the whole house wakes up,” Cam suggested.

Face growing pensive, “Then what?” Oliver questioned. “We can’t survive here going from room to room. I don’t know who to trust or what to believe, but our options are narrowing with each passing minute.”

“She told you if you give yourself in she’s going to give you to Sersei, straight up. You have no idea what it’s like being used that way,” Cam said, shaking his head, “no idea.”

Oliver nodded slowly. Cam was right, how could he possibly understand what it felt like to used and abused as a sexual plaything. Seeing it was one thing, getting up close and personal was quite another.

“I can’t even begin to imagine what my sister would do to you, I swear, I don’t even know her, so goddamn cold. Here’s a funny story I never told you before, about her, well about me but something I did for her that she has no clue I did, maybe not funny haha, more like funny in an ironic kind of way. We were in high school, she was a senior and I was just a sophomore and there was this monster party at Kelly Trager’s house, superhot by the way, Kelly was, is, anyway, big blowout and me and a couple of my chums decide we’re going to crash it. Sneaking in, I don’t know if it was a fluke or providence, but I overhear our school’s biggest tool, Jimmy Connolly, bragging it up with a couple of his shithead friends laughing and joking, saying he’s got some Ro, you know Rohypnol and he’s going to use it on my sister. At the time, I have no clue about her true nature so I’m like no fucking way can I allow this. I barge into the room and confront Jimmy right there, calling him a piece of shit rapist. I throw this big haymaker punch,” Cam shared.

“Holy. Did you lay him out?” Oliver asked.

“Hell no, he handed me a world class beat down, like biblical in its scope, but it was the highlight of the party. I remember lying there with my head in Sersei’s lap, my face all pulped, she was stroking my hair,” he answered, voice quavering as it started to break.

“Dude,” Oliver said.

Cam sniffled, “I honestly thought she cared man, I mean, did she know this was going to happen the whole time?”

“Did she find out why you got lumped?”

Cam chuckled, “Rumor around school was Jimmy pounded me for crashing the party. I never told her, just thought I was doing the right thing by her. She sat there and casually watched while Kandi and Teagan took turns with me, like I was nothing,” he answered.

Oliver shook his head. How long did she know? How about his own mother? All the double entendre little man comments she would casually slip into conversation, how long? “I don’t know what to say,” he murmured.

“We can’t trust them, any of them. What we need to do is get out of this house, maybe see if we can’t somehow make it to one of the other sororities next door, get help,” Cam countered.

Oliver nodded his head slowly, “Odds of getting out of this house are slim. Crossing open ground to a neighboring house and actually finding a way into the house, probably even slimmer. Then what, ask one of those girls to take us to the cops who may or may not be involved in this conspiracy? Even if things worked out perfectly for us, we would still be small. If Cerys is on the level, there might be a chance to get out of this. I would feel a whole lot safer coming at this full sized,” he offered.

“Are you willing to gamble your life on it?” Cam asked. “Mine?”

Being honest, “I don’t know,” replied Oliver.

“You know what they did to me. She will do that to you, over and over. Bear in mind, that would be after Sersei has had a chance to satisfy every little twisted desire in her own sick head,” Cam pleaded, anger seeping into his voice.

Pursing his lips, Oliver could not dispute the other boy’s concerns. “I can only guess at the number of degrading things you’ve been subjected to since they shrunk you, truly, but if there’s a chance we can be made big again, don’t you think we have to try it?” he inquired.

“I want to be myself more than anything, I really do, but how can you believe for a moment she is telling the truth? Come on Oliver, it’s a trick,” countered Cam.

Glancing back at Cerys and pointing at the center of the immense girl’s bedroom floor to the food and water, “Trick or not, I’m going down there to get some of that bar,” Oliver said, raising an eyebrow.

Cam nodded his head slowly, “Maybe some food in your stomach will make you see reason,” he suggested.

“I’ve been pretty lucky thus far,” Oliver replied with a grin, carefully pushing the loose soil to the edge of the depression he had been lying in and grabbing the hair rope. Flipping himself down out of the planter, he moved silently across the sill and jumped out onto the blind cord, sliding down it to the bottom of the loop where he tied the hair rope. Descending to the floor via the rope, he paused to listen and make sure Cerys had not moved. Everything seemed the same. The plan was simple, hurry out to the food, grab a quick sip of water and a chunk of the bar, and get back up to the safety of the plant. Scurrying across the floor, he knelt beside the water-filled bottle top, cupping his hands and drinking deeply. The bar was more problematic, whether from caramelized sugar, or honey, it was nigh impossible to break off any kind of piece. Grunting with exertion, he stooped when he heard the sound of commotion coming from beyond the door followed by a growl of anger. Spurred to action, he spun on his heel with the intent of racing back to the window. Out of his periphery, he caught site of Cerys with her head on the pillow, facing his direction, eyes open and looking down on him, an amused little smile playing at the corner of her lips.