When You Gaze Long into the Abyss, Sometimes It Giggles.
Unending darkness… Like… Like staring into the heart of a black hole…
A young man stares up at his captor as a weight in his stomach keeps him stuck in place almost as much as the binding he finds himself in. Sweat drips down his peachy cheeks as he stares up into remorseless eyes of lilac sitting in a light blue face. His brownish-maroon hair clings to his face in moist globs as he can feel his damp gray beanie hugs the top of his head tightly. He shifts and struggles, as his now sweat-soaked buttoned white and gray striped shirt and red jacket hold onto him as tightly as he struggles vainly to break free.
His mind wanders back to earlier in the day. His friends had warned him that the girl was dangerous, something he had understood in the past tense sense of the phrase at least. The girl was literally a monster when she and her comrades arrived at the school. A mind control monster that had him and his friends wrapped around her fingers at one point.
To her species, humans were a source of food. Granted, not a source that needed to be killed and fed upon. However, humans were probably seen as little more than a means to an end for the girl, and the experience of feeding off humans was usually far from pleasant in the long run for any persons hapless enough to cross these sirens’ paths.
When the Rainbooms had used their magic abilities to combat the girl and her friends, it was assumed they all had changed. At least, that’s what the Rainbooms had assured. That she and the other sirens weren’t monsters any more. That they had all changed to something a little more normal. Normal like him.
In some ways they were right.
But in the ways that mattered the most, they were wrong. So very, very wrong.
At first glance, the girl looming above him looked so sweet and innocent. Almost like a child in a young woman’s body. One who lived for nothing but the most basic pleasures of life and relished in the simplicity of things that time so often jaded people as they aged from seeing the simple joy in.
However, he had read her wrong. Very wrong. While it was true she was no longer a monster in the conventional sense, he had discovered that there was something he had missed. Something hidden behind the façade of innocence in her eyes. A darkness that went well beyond what she had been. A deep blackness that stayed within her. Biding its time. Waiting. Waiting for that moment when whatever was trapped with it-- with her--had no hope of escape.
In those lilac eyes, the young man could feel his hope begin to drown. Apparently the girl needn't be a siren to lure someone to their doom.
He swallows as the most monstrous girl he has ever known fills the room with an eerie giggle. She does this as she pulls on something in her hands. A sound like something ripping joins her giggling. Both sounds promise nothing but suffering.
“Sonata! Sto-Stop!” Perhaps pleading will save the young man, though the sinking feeling in his heart is telling him that such pleas mean nothing to whatever is in front of him. “I’ll… I’ll… I’ll scream for someone to call the police!”
With a grin that would make a serial killer blush, Sonata leans downward. The young man trembles and turns his head as Sonata comes so close that he feels her breath on his cheek. Breath so hot the man fears his face will start to burn.
With another eerie giggle, Sonata replies, “Go ahead and scream for the police! They can’t untape you!”
“I… what?” The young man utters in confusion.
Footsteps suddenly sound out from right outside the room. However, the young man knows that whatever owns the footsteps may be every bit the monster as the young woman in front of him.
Twin purple pony-tails held in place by dangerous-looking metal star headpieces appear along with a serious-looking young woman with a purple completion and amethyst eyes. Her face is the very picture of apathy as if she couldn’t care less for the young man, or anything for that matter.
“Sonata?” the woman says. “Not sure how to break this to you, but the police would absolutely be able to get someone out of a buncha tape.” The woman looks the young man up and down briefly before she shakes her head. “Especially scotch tape, you nimrod!”
The killing intent that flooded the room suddenly left as Sonata drops the roll of tape in her hands. “Oh no! My perfect plan is ruined!” Her aura of malicious glee suddenly disappears as fear takes hold of the young woman and holds fast. She turns to the woman in the doorway. “I’m sorry, Aria! But I have to run!”
Aria smirks. “Better hurry, or they’ll throw the book at you, and you know how big those books without pictures can get.”
“EEEEEEEEIIIIIEEEEEEE!” Sonata shrieks. “NO! NOT THOSE BOOKS! I’M TOO PRETTY TO BE BORED TO DEATH!” Sonata throws her arms in front of her face, bends her knees and propels herself through a closed window. The window shatters as a blue missile in the shape of woman shoots through it.
The young man is… saved? Maybe?
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” A new feminine voice yells from outside the room.
“Uh… excuse me?” the young man utters.
“Sonata jumped through her window again,” Aria replied with a sort of bored pedestrian tone of someone waiting in line at a grocery store.
“AGAIN?!” the voice replies.
Ignoring the young man, Aria walks over to the smashed window and sticks her head out. She sighs, “Yep. Can’t believe she jumped out like that. She usually sticks the landing... Oh, and she’s hiding in her cardboard fort outside.”
Another sigh. “Did she pull out the picture of the broccoli with the big red ‘X’ on it?” the voice asks.
“Naw,” Aria replies as she turns and begins to walk out of the room, “it’s the one with that blind dude from Star Trek that has the red slash over him.”
“Er…Excuse me!” the young man says with more force. Maybe… Just maybe he’ll find his freedom.
“You’re excused,” Aria replies in a slightly irritated tone as she walks out.
Still trapped… Is this the young man’s fate? Is he now destined to spend eternity in this hellish place?
A scowling face of orange with magenta eyes all framed by a massive pile of curly orange hair appears as the bound young man stares at the doorway. With an exasperated sigh, the woman steps into the room, her open white robe almost sweeping the floor. If it weren’t for the fact the young man was currently fearing for his life, he might have even appreciated that the semi-transparent purple lingerie that clung to her shapely figure left his imagination starving as to what she looked like without clothes at all.
The young man swallows. Under other circumstances, the woman’s attire would be enticing. Under the current circumstances however, the woman seems more like a black widow sitting in a beautiful web. Hoping someone hapless victim will wander too close where it would be devoured.
The woman quickly surveys the scene in front of her with an expression that suggests she was absolutely done with what was going on before she even stepped inside.
Despite her vexed expression, the young man pleads for his release once more. As dangerous as this woman might be, she might very well be his last chance of survival. “Er… Could you help me get out of this tape? It really chafes!”
The woman merely let out a groan and turned back to walk out the door. “It’s way too early for this nonsense!”
The young man turns towards a digital clock set inside a pink heart being held by a cute white cat with a pink bow on one of its ears. “It’s like 3 PM!” he cries.
“I KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS!” the woman shouts back as thumping footsteps carry her away.
The young man sighs. His fate is sealed. He knows there will be no escape for him presently. If only… if only he had seen past the disarming innocent act… If only he had stared at those lilac eyes long enough to recognize the gaze of a hungry predator.
He shakes his head, resigning himself to his fate. “Worst game of freeze tag ever…”
The End
Trapped.
Trapped with three monsters suffering the worst tortures imaginable.
“NO! I don’t want broccoli! It’s icky!”
I watch as the woman who captured me and hauled me to her den of agonies talks to empty air before she stands up to fill the vacant space. She looks down at a now empty chair with a motherly expression. “But Sonata, sweetie! Vitamins are an excellent source of vitamins K and C!”
My captors have decided I will join them for dinner for some reason. Why they didn’t simply let me go is beyond me. Also, what should be an ordinary enough event has become yet another flagrant display of a fundamental disconnect with human nature. Sonata Dusk, the woman who initially captured me, has engaged in some exchange a parent might have with their child. Except she’s playing both parent and child.
Sonata collapses back into her chair and looks up at the empty space above her. “Ew, no! You’re not supposed to eat letters!”
The other two women at the large wooden dining room table are similarly watching this exchange. The woman known as Adagio Dazzle speaks up. “What I don’t get is Sonata is the one who made dinner…” Adagio is the ringleader and brains of this group, not that the latter role seems to require much effort on her part. “So why did she cook broccoli if she was just going to fight with herself over it?”
“But honey,” Sonata is addressing the empty chair in her motherly tone, “if you don’t eat your vitamin ‘C’, you might get scurvy!”
“Because she’s an insane idiot, d’uh!” The seemingly eternal grump Aria Blaze answers. “I don’t see how this is hard to understand, Dagi!”
“I like pirates!” Sonata counters to herself.
Adagio rolls her eyes. “There has to be more to it that that!” Adagio motions out to Sonata with both hands. “I mean… tell me that whole display isn’t some sort of psychological call out for something!”
“But dearie, privateering was outlawed by the Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law in 1856!”
I swallow. I feel I have something to contribute to the conversation, but wonder if such an act would only win me the ire of any one of the women at the table. Still, it beats sitting here doing nothing. “Uh… Can I say something?”
“SCREW THE FRENCH!” Sonata shouts.
Aria looks at me and shrugs. “It’s a free country.”
The irony of my situation is not lost on me. For whatever reasons the women decided to drag me downstairs for dinner but still remain imprisoned in my cursed scotch tape restraints. “Well, it seems obvious to me that Sonata is crying out for some sort of mother figure to take care of her here.”
“But snugglems, The French invented many things we use daily! Like hair driers, mayonnaise, and the Etch-a-Sketch!”
Aria snorts. “Yeah, or maybe just a decent leader.”
Although seemingly initially surprised by the remark, much to my surprise, Adagio doesn’t react to it with hostility. Instead, she motions to Aria with both her hands. “Now there’s the conniving Aria I’ve missed for the last several months!” She grinned deviously at Aria. “I was wondering where she went.”
Sonata seems to ponder the statement her ‘mother’ just made. “Well, those are all things that make excellent bath toys…”
Aria just shoots a glare at Adagio. “Maybe she-er-I don’t see the point of managing a bunch of regular humans with no magical powers! Guess things would be different if someone hadn’t screwed up that whole plot with the Rainbooms!”
“See honey! The French aren’t so bad! And they’d all really like it if you ate your broccoli.”
Adagio nods. “I’m glad we’re finally getting this out in the open. I, too, am utterly disappointed with your ability to deliver during that whole debacle.”
Aria begins to growl in a warning tone. “Aaaaadaaaaagiiiiiiooo…”
“WHAT?! That’s stupid! There’s no way a country with a population of over 66 million cares if I eat my vegetables or not!”
Adagio only keeps smiling. “Do you really think things would have gone any better if you were in charge? Are you really going to sit there and pretend you have the wherewithal to come up and execute complex plans like the battle of the bands?”
Sonata gets up and places her hands on her hips. “Oh? Maybe I should call the prime minister of France and ask him!”
“Does it matter?!” Aria cried. “We’re stuck without powers now! It’s not like anything you’ve done has helped in that regard!”
“You’re bluffing! You don’t know the prime minister of France!”
Adagio smirked. “Right, because you playing video games and watching action movies is soooo productive.”
I watch as Aria grips the table with enough force that her knuckles start to turn white.
Adagio just chuckles. “What’s wrong? Aria mad about all this?”
Sonata stands up and pulls out what is clearly a toy smartphone, as evident of the pictures of cute animals on it. She starts dialing. “Yeah, I’m going to call him right now and tell him Sonata is being a naughty girl!”
Aria begins to grit her teeth hard. She has the look of an animal ready to pounce, but she’s hesitating for some reason. Maybe I can start a kerfuffle of some sort… Something to distract these two before I make my way to my door. It could be my only shot of escape.
I turn to look at Aria. “You know… it seems to me you’re a lot stronger than Adagio. I don’t get why you just don’t take what you want.”
“FINE! TELL THE PRIME MINISTER OF FRANCE I WON’T EAT MY BROCCOLI! THE FRENCH CAN GO TO WAR WITH US FOR ALL I CARE!”
Oddly enough, Adagio grins in response to my statement. “Yes… take it from me,” she says in a dark, welcoming tone as if she’s actually trying to goad Aria into some sort of violent confrontation.
Aria grits her teeth. “Thrashing Adagio should be easy… but like… She has this weird power.”
“Now dearie, what has mommy said about creating international incidents?”
“Uh… Weird power?” I ask. The girls had many weird powers before. I wasn’t aware any had something that was unique to them.
Aria nods. “Somehow instead of beating her down in a quick professional manner, I end up wrestling with her like a drunken toddler… and then somehow that tends to end with my head in-between her thighs…”
“I DON’T CARE WHAT YOU SAY! CAUSING INTERNATIONAL INCIDENTS IS THE ONLY TIME I FEEL ALIVE!”
Adagio is now giving Aria an oddly inviting, sultry look. “Come on, Aria… Take a swing at me…” She bats her eyelashes. ”You know you want to…”
“Ugh… I’m not in the mood, Adagio…”
Sonata gasps as she stares at the empty chair. “SWEETY-PEA! I can’t believe you just said that! What would the United Nations say?!”
Adagio sighs and slumps back in her chair. “Guess I overestimated you, I really thought you were up for the challenge…”
“Screw the United Nations! Their ability to solve international crises has shown to be sub-par as of late!”
Aria suddenly stands straight up as she levels a rage filled glare at Adagio. “CHALLENGE?!” she cries. “Grrrrrrrr! Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing here, Adagio!” She starts looking back and forth between Adagio and the dining room door, as if she’s deciding if she wants to deck Adagio or just leave the situation entirely.
I have to get these girls fighting if I want to escape. I’ll never have a better chance to leave this house than this! “Wait, you said that was like a power Adagio has. Have you tried attacking her since you all lost your powers?”
“Now Sonata, dear! You know you shouldn’t say bad things about intergovernmental organizations! You might hurt someone’s feelings!”
Aria glares at me. “Don’t be stupid! Of course I have! It still ended throwing myself at Adagio like a kid on Quaaludes!”
Adagio raises an eyebrow. “What the heck is with you and children on mind-altering substances?”
“It’s a good analogy, okay?!”
“YOU WANT HURT FEELINGS?! HOW ABOUT THIS?! YOU’RE NOT MY REAL MOTHER!”
I think for a moment. This might be a longshot, but it’s the only hope I have left at this point. “Well, maybe that just happened because you were mentally projecting those earlier times instead of concentrating on the current situation and really thinking about what you were doing?” This is pretty cerebral, but maybe there’s just enough weight to my statement that it’ll get Aria to try her luck against Adagio again.
Sonata gasps once again. “Sonata!” she says in a shocked tone.
Aria scrunches her brow as she stares at me. “Well… I don’t think… I mean… maybe… but…”
“You know what I think?” I begin. Maybe I can borrow a page from Adagio’s book. “I think you’re just scared of leadership.”
Adagio says nothing but her massive grin speaks volumes about what is going on behind her head.
“What?!” Aria cries. “What a pile of horse apples! I’m not scared of anything!”
“Well prove it!” Please let this goad her into starting a fight! Please, oh please…
Sonata is now sobbing to herself as she speaks up into the open air her ‘mother’ occupies when Sonata isn’t sitting down. “It’s true and yo-choke-you know it! You’re just a psychological projecting to fill the void of having no parental figures in my-sob-in my—” Sonata suddenly stops and looks at me. “Oh, are we riling up Aria?!”
“Uh… Yes!” I reply. “We’re doing exactly that!” Maybe I can turn Aria on both girls at the same time.
“I love that game!” Sonata exclaims. “The trick is to simultaneously call her bravery into question while reminding her of things she doesn’t like!”
Aria narrows her eyes. “You wouldn’t.”
Adagio’s grin has hit critical levels and she stands up.
“Don’t you two dare!” Aria warns.
The girls clench their fists and place them on their waists, in unison they both start imitating—
“Cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep, cheep…!”
Um… Chickens? I guess…?
“IF YOU TWO DON’T STOP DOING ‘THE ROOM’ AT ME, I SWEAR I’LL DECAPITATE YOU BOTH!”
The girls close in on Aria, intensifying their taunts. “… CHEEP, CHEEP, CHEEP, CHEEP, CHEEP, CHE—“
“GrrrrrRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” With a feral roar, Aria wraps her arms around both girls’ necks and dives, bring all three girls onto the table with a heavy ‘THUD!’ in front of me. Soon the table is a flurry of tangled limbs and dinnerware flying in all directions.
Now’s my chance! Though my hands are bound together, my legs are free. I get up out of my chair and make my way for the front door as the girls become a messy mass of thrashing limbs. The sounds of the table fight continue as I make my way to the front door.
“Ugh!” Sonata cries. “I got horrible broccoli all over my shirt! OUCH!”
Adagio replied. “Oof! Well just take it off then!”
Salvation is in sight! Soon I’ll be free… Free of the shackles of… Oh no! The scotch tape! It’s completely wrapped around my arms, hands, and fingers! How am I supposed to open the door?! Oh please, heaven! Send me an angel!
“Oh! Good idea!” Sonata exclaims. “Owie!”
“You know…” Adagio purrs out. “I feel a bit overdressed myself…”
“STOP UNDRESSING WHILE WE’RE FIGHTING!” Aria cries.
Suddenly the door opens and a woman with fiery red-and-yellow hair and stunning turquoise eyes is standing right in front of me. I doubt I’ll get any closer to an angel than this! She’s wearing an awesome leather jacket over a light-blue dress with a yellow frill, jeans, and a pair of radical black-boots that match her jacket.
Salvation, thy name is Sunset Shimmer!
“HEY!” Sunset begins in an irate tone. “Someone reported a student being KIDNAPPED from high school and I figured-Oh, it’s you…” Sunset finished in a softer tone. She looks me up and down noticing the massive amount of scotch tape around my arms and body. “Well, I better get you out of all that…”
I breathe a massive sigh of relief as Sunset Shimmer turns me around and starts tearing at the scotch tape with her bare hands. “Thank GOD you got here when you did! I had no idea what those three—”
I’m cut off as a moan from Adagio cuts the air. “OoOoOoOoOoOoOoh~! Aria! YES! Bite me there! Bite me hard!”
I simply let that sentence die as I start to wonder if I made a mistake in trying to escape.
Sunset narrows her eyes at me. “NO!” she says sternly.
“Errr… ‘No’ what?”
“I did not come all the way here to save you from certain peril just so you can go right back in there with those three psychopaths!”
Adagio continues her cries of ecstasy. “Yes, Aria! Yes, yes, YES!Establish your dominance!”
I glance back. “You know… I don’t think I was in that much peril.”
Sunset’s right eye twitches. The look on her face suggests she’s contemplating doing something that would make me match the color of her hair. “Yes, you were! You were in terrible peril!”
“Look, let me go back there and face the peril!”
Sonata’s giggle rings out. “Hehehe… This would be even more fun with some toys!”
“No!” Sunset says angrily. “It’s too perilous!”
Aria replies to Sonata. Her voice is husky her words interrupted by the odd gasp of air. “Fine! Huff…But get the toys from ADAGIO’S room! Puff… I don’t want to be violated by a ‘Your Miniature Equine’ doll again!”
I motion to myself. “Look, as a youth I really feel I should go out and have as many experiences as possible before the tedium of adult life sets in and I no longer have the freedoms I once had.”
Sunset grits her teeth. “NO! You’re not just going to walk back into crazy central!” She motions for me to follow her. “Come on!”
“Aaaaahh… Speaking of toys...” Adagio gets out in between moans. “… Where did that boy get off, or rather, not get off to?”
I cup my hands together as I lower myself onto both knees. “Oh please! Just let me have a little peril?!”
Sunset sighs heavily, closes her eyes, and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Fine!”
I get up and throw my arms around Sunset Shimmer, wrapping her in a tight embrace. “OH, THANK YOU! OH THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!”
“Please let go of me!” Sunset says in a calm but firm tone. “You’re poking me in the thigh!”
“Whoops!” I quickly let go of Sunset. “Sorry.”
Sunset just shakes her head. “Just forget I was ever here alright? I don’t want to have to show up in court because your body turns up somewhere…” Sunset Shimmer pauses and thinks about her statement. “On second thought, just have fun!” she says with a wave before turning and walking away.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” I say as I turn and walk back into the house, closing the door behind me.
As I near the dining room, a trio of projectiles are suddenly slung at me. All three projectiles are oddly colorful, lacey, and soft to the touch.
“Oh, lover boy…” Adagio coos as she beckons me towards the rather full table.
Three pairs of hungry eyes are now fixated on me. Looking over me as a predator looks over its prey.
Trapped. Trapped with three young women who want to do who knows to me!
Trapped… in heaven!
The End… for realzies this time.
Author's Note
For whatever reason, I decided this warranted another chapter.
Not that I expect this warning to impede anyone, but things are about to get a bit more risqué.
... Enjoy?
