by Lotus Rose
The man in front of Darren dropped the mask to the ground, then reached his hand over to grasp something. It was some sort of metal canister with a hose coming out the top.
Darren watched as the man lifted a strange clear thing that was connected to the gray hose—he lifted it up then held it over his own mouth and nose!
The man took a deep breath, then held it for a few seconds.
He spurted a burst of breath and laughter as he removed the clear covering. He bent over and laughed. He seemed to be pointing a little at Darren, trying to speak between the giggles.
The man stopped giggling, then said, in an extremely deep, demonic voice, “I just gave her a drugged taco to sedate her for the procedure. Oh, and some nitrous. Yes, she’s okay. Why do we say ‘O’ ‘K’ when they’re just two letters? Ever wonder that? She’s actually better than she’s been for a long time. I’ve made improvements. The nitrous makes my voice deep, by the way. It’s the opposite of helium.” He started giggling again.
Without thinking, Darren looked down to see the ice cream taco resting on Cabby’s chest. He could see now that it had bite marks on one edge.
Then Darren was noticing that Cabby’s panties had been removed, revealing the boring, smooth groin skin beneath. Darren had taken care to be polite to that area of a girl’s crotch before, but he had to admit to himself, privately, that yes, it was pretty boring. However, many fairies believed that in the times of legend, there had been something interesting there.
Darren gave the man a questioning look. The old man laughed in a demonically deep voice as he pointed at Cabby’s crotch then said, “Hah, I caught you looking, but she’s perfectly smooth! Nothing for you to see, you dirty boy!”
Frozen by inability to act, he could only ask, “Why?”
“Why my boy toy, only boy not named Roy, I had to check to see if she was pure…perfect. Because she might be the special one. I had to make sure she was worthy of the procedure. When she awakes, tell her, won’t you, that she may come to me if she wishes to be perfected.”
Darren screamed, “What’d you do to her?!”
The man lifted his arm—a cloud of gas gushed out of the clear plastic mouthpiece—like a thick fog, blocking Darren’s view. Then the man seemed to move in slow motion as he approached Darren, as he slipped the mouthpiece over Darren’s mouth—it was pumping some kind of gas—the old man was pressing the back of Darren’s head to hold the mouthpiece in place.
Darren smelled something sweet in the air, then suddenly everything seemed remarkably funny and he began to giggle. He began to feel disoriented. For a brief moment, he even forgot about the old man standing there.
Darren tried to hold his breath, but he was actually uncontrollably hyperventilating.
I’m so stupid, was his thought as his lungs started to feel numb and tingly.
Then he felt himself getting dizzy, as his eyes began to close. Even though he knew it was just a dream, Darren felt the kisses of Cabby on his cheek as she rewarded him for rescuing her. He felt like he was about to pass out.
His next vision was of the man pointing at him, leering and giggling.
His arms were suddenly free. He became disoriented. His last thoughts were of crawling toward Cabby, to see if she was okay. I’ll protect you, he thought.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Introductory Poem
Crossing the Line
Dust Gets in Your Eyes
The Promenade Begins!
The Promenade
Even in Death
The Village of the Cuddlebears
Flutter-fly Poni Valley
The Territory of the Chill-Aid Man
Bouncing for Love
Praise the Infurnal Goat
Reunited
The Princess
Back to Pastel
Concluding Poem
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE ARTIST