#12 - Bloody Bean-Spill

“What’s in the box?!”

Even though Elias’ voice was distant and squeaky due to his size, it rang through Robin’s mind. What lay inside the bubble wrap was a gory mess, a tiny arm, a half crushed upper body, no sign of any legs. What lay inside that box was a friend. It was Simon.

Robin and Simon had never been close, but they got along, as long as he didn’t feel too confident going on his tangents. He’d been a drinking buddy brought in by Oscar who thought the guy was hilarious. He ended up sticking around, probably due to Jade, for whom he had a crush so obvious everyone in the group caught on to it.

It was clear from the things he’d joke about, and the things he’d argue, that his general attitudes didn’t fit in well with the rest of the group, but he made up for it by being an all-around good-natured person. Everyone knows that one guy who’s kind, reliable, buys the most rounds of drinks, but the second an argument or debate starts turns into the densest most annoying bastard alive, that was Simon.

Now, he was gone, brutalized and packaged into a gift for her. It was horrible, grotesque. It was the very thing Robin would’ve done to Elias if he hadn’t stopped her.

Her long stare into the abyss didn’t help soothe the infectious anxiety that radiated onto her friends. Oscar, Jade and Theo were looking between her and Elias. They had all sensed it in some way, that tension between them, and now it seemed whatever was in that box was somehow shared knowledge between the two of them, despite Elias not even having grabbed a peek inside.

“I’m a ‘let sleeping dogs lie’ type of guy,” Oscar said. “But I think it’s time you tell us what’s going on.”

Robin looked down, at Oscar with an empty soulless expression. The little bug had no idea what he was demanding. To know who she was, to see her, truly see her, and the danger that ever having been her friend now put him in.

Was this it? Did she really have to explain it all? She could just close the box, pretend it’s nothing, and tell them to shut up. Let them be suspicious, let the uncomfortable secret nag at their mind, anything was better than having them fully dread and fear her. Discomfort she could deal with.

“Robin,” Jade said, drawing her attention with a gentle, almost maternal tone. “I don’t know what’s been happening between you two, but we need to know. We’re too close to keep secrets.”

Was there a world in which she could come clean, perhaps spill only part of the beans? Tell her friends she had quirky little fantasies, without telling them how closely they edged with reality?

Robin spoke, “I have-“

“A stalker,” Elias butted in. “It’s that troll from her friend list, I’m assuming the package is hers.”

Theo frowned as he looked at Robin, “Then why didn’t you just tell us? Why would that be a secret, you’d want to vent, or seek support.”

“She didn’t want to worry us, so soon after shrinking,” Elias said. “She wanted to focus on making us feel safe.”

“Safe,” Oscar said. “You mean the stalker makes us unsafe?”

Elias’ eyes went wide, as he realized he’d chosen his words poorly.

Theo shivered, “What is in that box? Just tell us!”

Robin’s mind raced thinking of the first best thing a stalker would send, “It’s a love letter, and some chocolates.”

Jade nodded, “Ok, then show us.”

“What?”

“Just show us the chocolates.”

Robin’s grip on the box tightened, her knuckles whitening. “No.”

Oscar pressed both hands into the back of his head, “It’s not fucking chocolates, is it?”

Robin closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. “It’s-“

“Robin, don’t,” Elias said with a lump in his throat.

Oscar snapped his head towards Elias, before he stormed over to the guy, pushing aside Theo, and shoving both of his arms into the white-haired boy’s chest, throwing him off his feet, onto the table’s surface.

“The fuck is wrong with you?” Oscar shouted.

“The fuck is wrong with you,” Elias shot right back. “Why are you so hell bent on getting us all killed!”

Theo leaned over to try and help him back up, while Jade’s face lost all its color.

“What are you talking about Elias?”

“Just shut up,” Elias said. “All of you just need to shut up.”

Jade raised her head at the giant sitting on the couch in front of her, she squeezed her fists and stepped forward, braving herself to put on her gentle, caring voice once more.

“Robin, I can tell you’re scared, and I know you don’t want to put that on us.”

Robin’s grip began denting the box, as her eyes remained closed.

Jade continued, “but we’re getting pretty scared right now, and maybe it’s better if we could all just talk, starting with what is in that box.”

Robin finally opened her eyes and looked over the three tiny friends who still saw her as the girl they once knew. She knew what she had to do. She knew there was no more hiding what she was, what her world was like. But she wanted to savor the way they looked at her one last time, even if their faces were full of angst, they were still looking at their friend.

Jade’s starry-eyed hopeful bravery; Theo’s trusting eyes awaiting the words that would explain all this away, so he could offer his comforting support; Oscar’s intensity, that could return to a joking demeanor if she had any lie left to sell them; all those faces were about to turn to horror, never to return to normal.

The giant tomboy’s stare went blank; a look only Elias’ would recognize. The mask wasn’t slipping; she was about to take it off.

“No more lies, no more pretense,” Robin said, knowing how much Wr8 would have loved to hear her say those words.

Elias’s fingers dug beneath his glasses, clawing at his own face, “No, no, no!”

“Time for you to see my world,” her voice having turned completely monotone and soulless. “To see what I am.”

Robin raised the box above the table, before flipping it to pour out the contents. The bubble wrap slowly sank out of the box, until enough of it had loosened for the mangled half-corpse of Simon to slick out, spin through the air and crash onto the table with a sickening splat.

Cue the screams.

Jade shrieked like a banshee. Elias’ muttering turned into an agonized wail. Theo fell onto his butt and began to hyperventilate, Oscar stumbled backwards in complete silence, before his body lurched forward and he began to puke.

“So, my friend Wr8 had her fun with Simon.” Robin said, explaining the sight before them with callous simplicity. “I guess the whole idea was to send me a message about who I am, and how I can’t protect you guys from it. So here we go, my world, my sickness.”

She let the cardboard fall out of her hand, sending it crashing down to the floor beside the table, before she leaned back on the couch, and after weeks of not doing so; propped her grimy, socked feet up on the table.

It was as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders, the tense muscles through her body finally loosening, as she imagined feeling cortisol dropping. She listened to the horrified screams of her friends, as a smile crept across her face. They would be processing the horror of it for a while, best to bask in their misery, and wait for them to finally be able to talk.

Most of them were rooted to their individual spots on the table, frozen in fear.

Theo began to whisper to himself, “Not again, not her, not like her.”

Jade, brave as ever, was the first to address the grinning giant beside them, “This is what your stalker did. You didn’t do this.”

“I didn’t,” Robin said. “But I could’ve, would’ve, should’ve. If anyone is going to kill one of my friends, it should be me.”

Jade’s jaw quivered, “Robin, you’re freaking me out.”

“I know,” the bisexual god said, with that confident smug grin.

The tiny alt girl couldn’t believe it. That smile, that fucking smile. This was what it had meant all along; what had been hiding behind it, not flirtatious intent, not playfulness, but darkness, something Jade’s mind was still puzzling together.

“You wanna kill us!” Oscar screamed.

Robin turned to him with a toothed grin, “Yeah, it’s just a silly little thought that’s been on my mind lately.”

“I wanna go home,” Theo whimpered.

“I am your home now.”

“Why? Why would you wanna kill us?” Jade shouted, her hands clutched to her chest.

“Because it’s messed up for me to do so,” Robin said with a shrug. “You’re my best friends, hurting you, the people who trust me, is the worst thing I could do, the most horror I could inflict. The thought of it, just makes my mouth water.”

Jade began to break down, her eyes welling up, “Please, don’t hurt us.”

“I promised I’d keep you safe, didn’t I?”

“Y-Yes, yes!”

“Haven’t broken that promise. Yet.”

She smiled down at Elias, “Can’t scold your nightmare anymore without consequences now, that’s gotta suck.”

Robin pulled her feet back and leaned forward, her head looming over her pathetic, cowering little friends, as she brought her face close and closer, until they could smell the energy drink on her breath.

“You’re mine now.” Robin said, with an oppressively quiet voice. “Some words of advice from a friend; don’t piss me off; and get a hold of how hard you shit your pants in front of me. The last thing you want to do is get me high on the fear.”

She pushed herself up out of the couch, and for the first time, they didn’t just see an Olympian god, but Hades himself, in the form of a rugged grungy redhead. Her advice, to show no fear, was impossible to follow. Their friend had just become something more terrifying than anything they could imagine.

The giantess leaned over the table, her chest looming overhead as she pulled a few tissues from the box on the table, and lowered them onto the remains of Simon. She pinched the corpse into it, before folding the tissue and bringing it down again, to smear out the stain he’d left, until it was no longer visible to her, but left behind the lingering scent of death.

Robin turned around and walked away, dumping what had once been her friend into her trashcan like common household rubbish, before walking towards the bathroom and closing the door behind her.

She walked up to the sink and started scrubbing her hands, over and over, avoiding eye contact with the mirror, until she could no longer resist the lingering urge to look at her own reflection. Her dark brown eyes stared back at her. Robin felt a shiver run up her spine, frightened of her own image.

“What did you do?” she asked herself, with that same monotone voice that had terrified her friends. “Gonna keep that promise, right? Maybe they’re safer knowing they’re not safe. Just don’t cross the line.”

A guilty little smile crept across her lips, “Or try not to, at least.”

Robin walked out of the bathroom, with a stride that showed she truly felt at home again, in her element, unburdened by performance. As she sat back down on the couch, she grabbed her phone. There was one more friend who Wr8 could go after; Elena, one more friend who belonged in Robin’s collection, for better or worse, and she knew just the friend who’d fetch the tiny girl for her.

As Robin DMed Harm, she looked down at her silent, cowering friends. Her monotone voice released a heartless command from her smirking lips.

“You guys should cheer up. This is gonna be fun. I’ll be your grim keeper~”