Dearest Penguin People,
I almost didn’t include this chapter. I had a developmental editor a few years back advise me to delete the character of George. He said I had too much going on and to narrow my focus. I respect this editor, but since I’ve pretty much given up on being traditionally published, I decided to keep George. He has a special place in my heart.
If you are new to Max and Sebastian, you can start here…
And as always, a special thank you to P.Q. Rubin for the cute penguin guy up top.
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15
Part II - Chapter 16
George Larue was not an ogre. True, his teeth made hyenas blush and small animals had a way of getting lost in his beard, but hell, no one’s perfect. And to the best of his knowledge, he had never eaten a small child.
For the most part he kept to himself, but sometimes life had a way of turning around and punching him in the gut. Like today, when the shadows told him to run through a hardware store with a weed whacker. That had been unfortunate. And for some reason the other customers refused to help him cut the monsters from his brain. Plain inconsiderate, that’s what it was.
Luckily it ended in the emergency room and not in a jail cell. In jail he didn’t get to watch cartoons and eat snicker doodles in a private room. The nurses knew that a happy George was a calm George. As a bonus, the previous occupant had been unceremoniously dumped in the hallway in a gratifying display of wailing and cursing. In fact, he was glaring at George right now through the glass wall, mouthing silent obscenities. George thumbed his nose at him and shoved another cookie in his mouth as the other patient seethed.
A whiff of Sulphur curdled his nose and he spat out the cookie, nearly hitting a small dog seated on the floor. She looked like Toto, if Toto had been dragged through three miles of radioactive sewer.
The remaining cookies crumbled in his fist. “They don’t allow dogs in here.”
“I’m sure they’ll make an exception for me.”
A talking dog didn’t surprise George. After all, he had spent a pleasant afternoon chatting with a duck near Lake Julep. At the end, the duck suggested that George bathe, and he had obliged. George jumped into the lake and ate him. Never let it be said that he didn’t heed good advice. But this dog was not to be trusted. Her voice was honey, laced with arsenic.
George snapped his bed to an upright position. “What do you want?”
The dog hopped onto the bed and placed her front paws on his chest. Her breath burned, leaving blisters across his cheek. “There’s a girl,” she said.
“You’re wasting my time.”
“You know I’m not. Ask your children to come out.”
“No.”
She blew on his cheek again and the damage was done. The whispers began, faint stirrings in his head. Yes, by all means, they said, they were bored and lonely. And little girls were delightfully sweet.
George hurled the cookie plate against the wall. Where was that annoying nurse? He pressed the call button.
Buttercup nuzzled his chin, singeing his beard.
“Go away.”
“Don’t deny them, Georgie.”
“They’re not children. They’re monsters, like you.”
The whispers grew. They loved him, and yet he kept them trapped inside this cage of blood and bone. If he didn’t let them out then they would bite and bite and bite until nothing was left.
George clamped his hands over his ears, not caring if his skull broke. His hands began to throb.
Silly Georgie, there are other ways out.
The blood drained from his face. He dropped his hands and pounded his fists into his palms, trying to squash the shadow creatures rippling beneath his skin. But it only got worse. They crawled into his throat, latching onto his tonsils, all the while pushing up and out. Feelers poked between his teeth, filling his nose, tickling the hairs in his ears. But he would not open his mouth, not now, not ever. So, they burst through his eyes instead. Spiders of every shape and color streamed down his cheeks enveloping him in a rippling membrane of pulsating limbs. He fell from his bed, bringing the spiders with him.
Buttercup sat unmoved in the ocean of arachnids.
The George creature shuddered. He pulled a spider from his ear and tossed it to join the others. He lowered his head to meet the small demon’s gaze; the hollows of his eyes filled with wispy threads of glistening spider silk. “You have two seconds to impress me.”
Buttercup breathed in the dark glimmer that rolled off George in waves. She felt the heady sensation of the floor beneath her feet, and every detail revealed, down to the last bristle on the spiders’ legs. As a ghost she never felt anything, but right now this bitch was alive. A spider, fat, and succulent, scurried up her leg. She bit into it and let the juices flow from her mouth in green driblets. Laughing, she gave her head a good shake and let the slime fly across George’s face.
The George creature rose to his feet and threw his bed against the tempered glass wall.
A nurse ran into the room. He was flailing an IV pole at empty air and screaming obscenities. “George, what are you doing?”
He froze. Spiders swarmed across her blue scrubs. They nestled in her hair, tiny legs waving. But she couldn’t see his babies. He had to save her. He snapped the IV pole in half.
The nurse dropped her clipboard and ran screaming from the room.
From the shadows, Leonard reached out and pulled the fire alarm.
As a side note…none of this was written with AI and I kindly ask that no one use it for training purposes. Thank you :)
I'm so glad you decided to keep George...good on you! 😎
This left me Creeped out and weirdly charmed.
Glad you kept George...although the image you conjured of spiders running out from his eyes...ugh! :)