NOVEL NEXT Ch5: more life and death
Walking home I really needed a break from my own head, something to set me back from crazy to more relaxed. That’s when mark suggested that ice cream place again, said it would help me come back to earth. So I decided to take Mark up on his offer to hit the corner scoop, maybe something sweet will ease the mind.
Arriving at the corner scoop, there stood a large building, the kind a big restaurant would use, sitting in the middle of the block. It had somewhat dark tinted windows, it’s walls a nice creamy white with red window canopies and a blue band going around its foundation. I thought it was a square building until seeing its entrance making it more of a polygon shape. The building had a neon sign on its roof that read, “The Scoop”. Why the corner though? It’s not on a corner and it’s not shaped like a right triangle or a regular one. Obviously such a place didn’t exist in my old world either and mark wasn’t the type to give weird names.
Walking in it had benches and stools only changing in size if the table it belonged to was bigger. A sign sat at the front reminding customers that only small and medium sized people allowed inside. Next to that sign showed another one with specials written across the top. one read, “Blemish chocolate berry”, with a picture of cup filled with cholate ice cream swirled in the shape of a cone, it also had weird shapes in it like a popped fruits or berries. The walls had posters of different people enjoying ice cream, one showed a slime with ice cream on its head like a hat. Another showed a spider girl on her back, an ice cream on every leg and hand, her beautiful face one of bliss. Each poster was in some anime like style from the 80’s, it was very pretty and detailed, some even had captions, “Just One Scoop”. The serving counter was on the back in the shape of an L, it had displays of fake ice cream in cones, cups, blood sacs and one looking like an egg.
Manning the counter was a large octopus lady(?) using her many tentacles to serve multiple people. Each pair of tentacles working together like a single employee and from how each order came out, I’d say a skilled employee. One customer had a large cup with different layers of white, brown and green ice cream with gram cracker crumbs on top whipped cream finishing it topped with candy. It looked good enough to count as the Scoop’s own advertisement.
Getting in line I saw humans, lamia and several small Arachne with slightly larger eyes. The little spider girls were the biggest group here, none of them seemed to go past 4’8. their spider half looking like a jumping spider.
“Can you believe how great it is to have Marcia notice our favorite ice cream shop!” one with legwarmers (?) cheered
“What!? You knew about this place before it got Marcia’s graceful eye! Maybe you have good eyes too!” a nearby spider girl with a decorative chain on its spider bulb butt said jumping in place.
“Look at my cup! This glass fruit Sunday is to die for! Marcia has the best eyes!” a cute white fluffy one said as she raised herself up and down with all her legs like a dance.
Several more agreed, waving their legs, hoping or doing a tippy tap dance. Others surrounding the poster of the spider girl, jittering up and down, arms raised up.
“Beautiful ain’t it?” His eyes shifting between the ice cream and the spider girls as if counting the girls as part of the allure. “Ever since that actor did a photo op here, there’s more cuties around.” He whispered excitedly. I could only glare at his shamelessness as he stood there analyzing both the ice cream and the spider girls like some sort of photographer.
“Don’t stare Mark. I’d rather not be kicked out because you kept looking at people like last time.” I warned him, because he did this once before in my old world. The poor girl said she only mentioned monster girls being cute.
“When did that happen? I haven’t been kicked out before.” Mark asked confused, giving me weird look like I was suggesting he was a bad person.
“What? But didn’t you creep out some girl?” I was surprised that he would act like he wasn’t kicked out.
“Nope. Are you alright dude?” he looked more concerned than offended.
I was there when it happened, he disappeared for a short while before the store manager dragged him out. Hearing that the girl felt uncomfortable with him there following her. Wait that was old world mark, this is a different mark! This realization threw me for a loop, that my body felt cold.
“Hey are you ok? You look like a wight appeared!” mark sounded scared.
“Yeah… I um must of confused the memory with a bad dream.” I mumbled back. “anyway the line looks shorter now.” I said trying to change the topic.
“Okay…?” his face still confused.
Once at the front I could see in the corner the large octopus girl admiring her manicured nails, shinning like gold and rubies. She was almost 8ft. with a light cream gray and black body like an old photo. she wore a white long sleeve that was skin tight, displaying her sizeable bust that would make a normal woman’s back scream in pain. Three gold necklaces wrapped around her neck, one showing a coin, the second had glass beads and the last one was a black anchor. Her hair done in thick curls and colored a dark purple almost black. the large octo girl looked at mark and dragged herself out of the corner she was resting in and gave mark a, “so what” look as she got ready to serve mark.
“Resting in the corner again?” he asked again raising an eyebrow
“Just cleaning up, ‘Boy’.” She spoke down to him like talking to a bug. “what do you want this time.” She demanded.
“I think I’ll haaave…” he stretched out that word in thought, much to the annoyance of the octo girl. “Your heavenly demon mocha chip.” He said before smiling a sinister smile demons would approve of. “oh! And make it a triple deluxe, please.” He finished as the octo girl glowered at him as her whole body darkened in color, her body getting bigger and her tentacles twisting like strangling imaginary marks.
“Alright, just a moment child.” Her voice could freeze oceans. Not only did she involve her only hands, six of her eight tentacles went to action on his order. Collecting several different ice creams and blending half of them while she pulled out a huge coffee bean, it making a heavy thunk as it was placed on the counter. Using three tentacles she slowly crushed the huge bean into powder before gathering a small portion together and putting the powder on a weird marking. She mumbled some words before a flash of light came from the marking, the powder smelled like chocolate now. She then mixed this into the blend making a layer.
Quickly finishing up she gave her completed craft to mark, now standing at the register she smiled as they finished her transaction.
“Thanks Sam your work is always great!” he said as he gave her an extra bill for tip. She looked at it and smiled wider before coming over to me.
“Hey Oliver, it’s been awhile, I hope you’ll told your mother my suggestion.” She smiled happily at me. “Yeah, I told her and she’s working on it.” I didn’t want to piss her off, she was really happy now.
“Well tell her not to let it happen on its own.” She said calmly before leaning forward. “If your convergence leaves you with a size change you’ll have to be prepared to change your house. I hope this gets you some extra help” She whispered.
The time at the corner scoop left me in more of a blur than it did calming me down. It was too much to chew on that when I got home I changed clothes and left again for a run. I hadn’t had a good run in ages and not running made me feel… whatever! I’ll just run my heart out, I got nothing but my playlist to keep my company the embrace of my body moving. The stretch and pull of my legs, the fresh air on my face, I could feel my heart beating. I felt all the hot air and confusion that built up over the last few days to fade behind me like sand blown away by the wind. My shoulders no longer carried the weight of anything, it was just me and the beat of my fast paced video game music, some of it rock, metal or had a good rhythm. Not gonna lie my playlist made my run feel like an epic hero’s dash to save the world, I imagined jumping off springs and doing crazy parkour. Defeating hordes of enemies like it was nothing, blasting them with great beams and powerful explosives, here I was going to be something great.
I was so lost in my release that I let my instincts guide me, leading me to a sizeable park. There were some families walking around, kids playing on the red and orange playground and adults working out on the park’s exercise machines. Something about the sight put me at ease as I sat down on a bench to catch my breath. The sound of laughter slowed my focus as I spotted a family playing together on the smaller playground. The little kid had a red bushy tail like a fox and rushed around the playground climbing a ladder their mother chasing behind. The father was cheering their speedy kid who almost got away before the bridge they crossed wobbled throwing them off balance. The mom caught the kid, they both giggled before they went down the slide, the whole family hugged, the father smiled the biggest.
That was when my vision went a little blurry, I sat there a little longer, feeling the wind slowly cool down. Breathing in, I wiped my eyes before leaving. Escaping to the bliss of my run and my imagination.
After getting home I took a quick shower, cleaning up and drying off. I got changed and met my mother for dinner.
“Hey there’s my little boy!” my mother bum rushed me. Pulling me into a hug, trying to squeeze the life out of me. “I missed you!” she happily said.
“Mom… you’re killing me!” I breathed out.
“Has my love reached you yet?” she asked squeezing our cheeks together.
“yes!” I squeaked
She pulled back a little in thought. “but has your love hit me yet?” she questioned before doubling her efforts to hug me to death.
“I love you very much mom!” I shouted and used what little space to move my arm. I patted her on the back.
“really! Well I love you more!” she gave one final squeeze before kissing my forehead. Finally releasing my deflated form. “so tomorrow’s your birthday and since you haven’t converged yet, I called your school to keep an extra eye on you in case you do while you’re there.” She gave a serious face but she puffed out her cheeks, looking more like a hamster.
“anything I should watch out for? Any tell-tale signs or something I could do?” I asked using a firm voice, I wanted to be on top of this.
“well from what I read you’ll probably feel a tingle or a stretching feeling. Other than that, put yourself in a wide open space, in case you grow big.” She said while holding her chin.
“Anything else? Maybe a some way to delay it? Maybe a medicine?” I asked hopefully.
She just stared at me. Frowned and sat me down.
“Oly, I know this change frightens you but trying to delay something like this is… wrong.” Her voice sounded worried and a little sad. “Just like growing and puberty you’ll always be changing. You’ll never be the Oliver from yesterday. Just the one moving into the future.” Her voice soothing.
My face was shifting through confusion, annoyance and anger. I didn’t want to show my weakness. I had to be her pillar. I turned my face away, I wasn’t ready to face her in my weakness.
“Oliver you can’t ignore your future. It’s something I just want you to be prepared for. I don’t want it creeping up on you and blinding your actions.” The argued
“I know… I just thought I’d have more time to figure it out, come to terms. What if I come out as something wrong, how can I live like that!” I said angrily keeping my eyes away from her.
“then I’ll be there to help you figure things out sweetie. I’m not going to toss you out just because you’ll converge. You will be my little boy regardless what pair of eyes you wear, I’ll always love you no matter what happens.” She said firmly like I was going to give everything up. I could tell she believed in me and wanted to push me forward but could I ever believe it?
“I know that’s how you feel but- how can you believe it. What if-“ I began.
“life is filled with ifs and maybes, nothing to do but get back up if something doesn’t work. You’ll need to decide what to do with yourself and choose how to live when it’s all over. And I’m sure as the demon console and the scale leadership that I’ll pull you up if you sit in self-pity.“ she cut me off, not letting such a thought hang in the air.
Lowering my head, I wasn’t sure what to do. “I’ll… think on what you said.” I said unsure of my next action and frankly I didn’t know anything about what I could become. “I guess I’ll have to figure out what to do when I’m dealt my cards, maybe it won’t be so bad?” I whispered.
“keep your chin up ok oly? Even if it’s something crazy, Samantha’s help with the C.R.C. will make the transition more comfortable.” She gave a more gentle hug this time, rubbing my shoulder.
“ok. Um… I love you. Mom” I mumbled.
She smiled and held on to me a little longer. An action that made me feel calmer and reminded me that she was there for me. We stayed like that for a while, listening to the hum of the house vents as the heater turned on.
Later that I night I sat in bed, replaying the day’s events in my head. Maybe I could eventually accept it, maybe grow to love myself after it. Laying down, I got comfortable. But how would I know if I’ll be fine at the start, well one thing is certain and that was after the change, Sam's help will make life easier somehow. Closing my eyes, the thought that I’ll have to hold a strong back for the things to come.
The air felt dry and rather hot, the sound of popping and sizzling reached my ears woke me. Around me my room was sinking into the glowing orange flooring, my bed now made of stone was my sole safety from becoming a liquefied mass of goop. Looking around I saw other blackened houses being slowly devoured by the bubbling floor. The ashen homes drooped, some snapped apart dropping pieces into the glowing mass. While others collapsed into surviving fences, dragging them into the melting floor. In the far edges I saw a giant stone wall, it seemed to encircle the whole neighborhood. Looking up I saw an open hole maybe as big as a football stadium, the sky above it hidden behind a cloud of black smog or…. Death?
Looking back down I realized my bed was also starting to sink as the magma sizzled with glee. The hot bubble rising up to greet me before popping, releasing a blast of heat that burned my skin black. The pain ripped shocks throughout my mind as my skin started to crinkle up, slowly pulling apart. Exposing my muscle underneath while my skin began to sizzle like a cooking turkey leg. My hand burned into a the shape of a claw was quickly becoming a black coal like lump. nothing could stop the magma as my bed finally melted away, dragging me along with it. My skin turning into goo as it slowly sloughed off my body as fire sprouted on anything not black. My vision suddenly moved forward and turned to look at my position. I could see my own face, one of determination, I was mouthing something. Pro…. e..ct? before smiling evilly, the light of the magma giving my eyes a sinister orange. He mouthed destroy. Before laughing as his skin pulled away from his face like melting plastic, his muscles stretched in a smile before his figure turned black.
