by Mark Russo
My robotic stuffed animal stepped down from the chair. “Hi, Maria.” “As you can see, I have a special friend here. He is Mr. Sweet. Ain’t he cute?”
“Wow, I never had this toy. Can I hug him?”
“Knock yourself out with hugs.”
She lifted him and brought his tiny body between her arms.
“It’s nice to be in your arms, Maria,” the bear said softly.
“Come on, little one. You can do better than your default sentences.”
Maria chuckled while the bear made a noise I could not categorize. She put Mr. Sweet on the ground.
He looked at me. “Emma, are you okay? You’re trembling.”
“I had a slightly unpleasant meeting a few minutes ago, but now I’m fine. We have something else we wanted to ask you.”
“You want to ask me stuff?”
I walked to my bed and sat. “I think we have something worth investigating thoroughly.”
Maria sat to my left while the bear remained standing.
“I hope I can help with this, Emma.”
Maria gave me another uncertain look.
“What is a proxy? Have you ever heard anyone using this word here, Mr. Sweet?”
He tilted his head left. “What do you mean, Emma?”
“We keep hearing this word everywhere. Someone used it while talking to Sneider, some other guy while talking in the kitchen. What is this all about?”
“I don’t know, Emma. It sounds like any random word. Why do you think something’s wrong with it?”
“Because of something I found in an arena forum. A guy was ranting about weird things happening here.”
He tilted his head even more. “Weird things? Like what?”
“That’s the point. I have no idea. I just … well, I don’t know. Guess I’m just clutching at straws.”
“Listen to me, Emma. I’ll pay attention to other people’s conversations in the next few days. If anything about this comes up, I’ll let you know. Okay?”
I nodded, while smiling. I reached for him and hugged him, maybe a little too tight.
Just before going to sleep, the weight of all the things that had happened hit me. I couldn’t tell why exactly, but I started crying, and I just couldn’t stop. I wheezed, and my breath became shorter and shorter. I pressed my eyelids unevenly while all those unorganized thoughts flew here and there, out of control. I just cried, louder and louder. I kneeled, and my legs wouldn’t lift me.
My teddy bear reached for me, appearing by my side. He stroked me while saying nothing. I admit I appreciated his touch.
“You’ll see, everything will turn out fine, Emma. We can handle this.”
I nodded, but I couldn't stop sobbing.
4
Mr. Sweet
“Let me help, Emma. I can do something for you,” I said, for yet another time. My patience couldn’t run any thinner.
She came closer and sat in one of the two armchairs in the room's corner. “How? How can you help me?” Again, her eyes were crying.
“I can do a lot for you, trust me. All you have to do is say you really want this.”
She frowned. “What do you mean by that? I have to want what?”
God, she was resistant.
“I mean. Give me some credit. Do you trust me?”
She facepalmed and mumbled, “I cannot believe I’m talking trust with a toy. Yes, I trust you, Mr. Sweet.”
I smiled in my soft face. “If you trust me, then let me ask you one thing.” I stepped towards her. “What would you like to have the most, in this moment of your life?”
Her frown deepened. “Let me think about this for a second. I’m not in my best shape right now.”
I turned my back. Maybe, only maybe, it was time for the first gift to the human. If I could have felt any emotions, I would say I was excited.
“Do you mean I should pick something I really want?” she asked, as if I didn’t make myself clear enough.
“Exactly. If you could pick anything, what would you like to have?”
She looked away as she thought. Why do humans get to be so indecisive?
I waited and eventually sat on the floor while she roamed alone in her mind.
“Well, I have a group of dedicated bullies and I'm probably in a place that is not what it looks like …”
It was not a problem if she doubted EIBM. I would deal with this later.
“Given all that,” she continued, “sometimes I wish I was invisible, sweetheart.”
Two more tears travelled the distance between her eyes and her neck.
“Okay, you’d like to be invisible. What would you do if that happened?”
She exhaled sharply. “I don’t know Mr. Sweet. Do we really have to do this? How’s this even close to helping me?”
“It is, Emma. Sometimes all it takes is to desire something, and that thing will just happen. I’ll ask you again, and for the last time. So do you want to be invisible?”
She stood and almost yelled, “Yes. I want to be fucking invisible.”
“Fantastic, Emma.”
“So, you would say now I’m invisible? I still see my body. See? Arms, legs, my belly. All there.”
“Why don’t you look at yourself in the mirror, Emma?”
She glared at me and walked to the mirror on the left-hand side of the front door. She looked at herself, shouting in the meantime. Soon after, she cried and screamed in the typical series of human emotions. After reverting to noisy whining, her face was tear stained. “What have you done to me?”
“Are we done with this show, Emma?”
Her face showed a good deal of surprise; she didn’t expect me to talk to her that way.
“Who the fuck are you?” she shrieked.
“I’m a fucking teddy bear, don’t you see?”
She hesitated, then stepped backward.
“There’s no way back now. You’ll never be the same.” I could be as blunt as I wanted at that point.
“I don’t want this, you monster. I want to see myself in the fucking mirror!”
Again, she was so loud. I couldn’t understand how someone might find being invisible stressful; it’s a very common thing where I come from.
“If you stop whining like a little bitch, I can help with that.”
“No! I want you to stop doing this to me. Now!”
I was very close at slitting her throat, but I restrained myself.
“I’ve already told you, there’s no way back. Can you please cork it? I’ve had enough of your teenage tantrum.”
“I’m leaving this place. Adios!” She stuffed clothes into a piece of luggage, leaving most of her stuff in the room.
“Don’t you think it would surprise people to see a piece of luggage floating mid-air?”
She flipped me her middle finger.
“Okay, I’ll wait for you here.”
I sat in my chair and watched her leave. She didn’t utter a word while going out.
A moment later, the doorknob swiveled on itself, and the human was back in the room.
“What … what happened? I just got out the front door.” wasn’t crying anymore, but her voice was still brittle.
“I told you. You cannot leave this place.”
“I’ll call the cops then.” After this additional piece of nonsense, she fidgeted with her haptic ring.
“Well. What will you tell them exactly? My teddy bear just made me invisible?”
She stopped moving; I guess she ended the call.
“If you calm down a little, I can explain. I can teach you how to control it.”
She sat on the floor, her hands in her hair. “I think you need to go, monster. I don’t want you around ever again,” she said in a low tone.
“Oh God. So, you are that stupid. Okay ...” I had to talk some sense into her. “You might find it difficult to handle this alone. I should stay, for your own good.”
“I said, get the fuck out. Now.”
I didn’t want to argu
e with her; she just wouldn’t listen.
On my way out, I turned to her and said, “To become visible again, just close your eyes for three seconds. If you want to be invisible again, clench your left fist and put it to your chest.”
I left the room right after finishing this sentence.
Not even one tiny step outside Emma’s door, my thoughts wandered to James. Those human kids had something in common, and it was not anything good. They had strenuously resisted the conversion process. They had lots of questions about how and why. They freaked out when they finally used their first skill.
I knew how to handle all that. I would upon the mistakes of the past. If that was my deepest conviction, it was not possible for me to imagine my business partners to be on the same page. If Charles knew what had just happened, I guess it would worry him. There would have been no consequences anyhow. We were fucking alone in that remote forest, and no one from where we came from would ever notice I had fucked up again.
It was time to hide somewhere until I found a solution to this pickle I was in. Letting Emma act on her own was not an option; that would be counterproductive and harmful to our plans. I could camp at Level -2 for some time. Chunk would think I’m there to monitor his activity, and I was more than fine with that. It would look like something I did intentionally. Okay, I had some wiggle room.
I walked a few steps, and I called the elevator, my new best friend.
“Wow! Cool, I had a bear just like you when I was a kid,”
Someone behind me said.
Who was that fucker now? Good, another person trying to waste more of my time.
“I belong to another person. I’m sorry I can’t come with you.” I hoped that would work, but it didn’t.
“Oh, come on. I can be your new daddy. When I was a kid, up north in my country, I once cracked open a teddy bear that looked exactly like you.”
I’ve met a psychopath. I couldn’t let him follow me into the elevator, I didn’t want to share the Level -2 existence with anyone.
“Uh, okay. What did you find inside that toy?”
The blonde guy looked at me with a quizzical expression. “Come on, little one. I’ll gather my friends, and we’ll play some real-life Operation. You will not like this.” He laughed, grabbed me and lifted me; that’s when I lost it.
He held my arms a full meter above the ground and stared into my resin eyes. “We will have lots of fun, my little friend.”
Those were the words that triggered me once and for all, that made me act like the beast I was. “Yes, Matis. We will have lots of fun.”
His face colored pinker.
“Do you think your friends know you can’t sleep at night without the lights on? I believe they would love to know this.”
He hurled my teddy bear body to the ground, unaware that would not hurt me.
“Do you think you can break me, fucker? I will break you. Are people around here aware that they accepted you to EIBM only because your parents made a very generous donation to the school?”
“How do you know all this?”
“Come a little closer, Matis. I’ll share more of my knowledge.”
He kneeled and looked me in the eye as the elevator doors opened. I know, I should not have done that, but I got caught up in the moment. I enjoy torturing humans too much. They are all very squeamish. As the doors slid laterally, I showed Matis what my body would look like where I come from. I doubted he ever saw a snake that big.
His face immediately turned as pale as it could. I think he tried to scream, but no sound escaped his mouth. He touched the left part of his chest with one hand and grabbed the arm on the same side of his body. He stared at the ground as his breath shortened. That fucker was having a heart attack. He keeled over, hitting the floor with his face; he didn’t protect himself from the impact.
I touched him a few times, but he did not react. That psychopath died by my hand. This was another huge issue to deal with, as if it was not already enough. Everything was going wrong.
“Inside the elevator? Is it correct?” the proxy asked.
“Yes, make it fast. We want no one noticing any of this.”
Fucking stuffed-animal body. It was useless in that situation. I had been very lucky to bump into that proxy and ordered him to help me. They still handle that rift in the woods at night, and they did not inform me about it. I would have dealt with this later.
I had to bring Matis’ body to Chunk. God, that kid was a psycho.
The no-longer human dragged the student’s body inside the elevator, and I followed him. While going down, I glanced at the dead Lithuanian again. These creatures appeared to be very easy to scare; I did not think they might die from excessive fear. I must admit, that pleased me. This would have made our operations easier, despite my multiple mistakes.
The proxy’s face remained still the entire time; they do not talk if not asked to.
When we arrived at the blood forger lair, the looming darkness of those corridors once again hit me. It felt like home a little. Not that I missed it though. I approached Chunk’s room, the proxy dragging Matis’ body along. I had to concoct something that would not arouse suspicion in that giant pile of poorly assembled meat. The last thing I needed was another enemy.
“Hey, Chunk, I brought you another toy.” I had to be nice to him. Outranking him might have been enough.
“I cleaned up. I finished with the research center. No more humans there.”
“I have one student here.” I pointed at the body on the floor.
Chunk staggered towards me and looked down. “I start students next week. Not now.” He waved his index finger, like an actual human would.
“Yes. I’m well aware of that, but he died from natural causes.”
Chunk regarded the body before stating his mind, provided he has one. “I should ask Charlie. He needs to see it.”
“I don’t think we should bother him. We can handle this ourselves. We are just speeding up things a little.”
He stared into the distance and muttered, “Okay,” which sounded more like a chewing sound.
I wasn't sure I had him convinced, but I didn’t care much. Soon, a Matis look-a-like proxy would walk EIBM’s corridors.
“Can we do this now? The blood forging, I mean.”
“Is it urgent?”
“Yes, Chunk. We need to have this done by tomorrow. Would it be possible?”
“Why?” he asked in his disgusting face.
“I’d like to see how the students react to him.”
“Okay.”
They had provided him with very limited expressiveness. And that would have proved an advantage.
“How did the kid die? The natural causes, I mean.”
“Heart attack. No clue what might have scared him to death.”
He mumbled some sounds I didn’t care to decipher. Continuing this conversation was futile. I would check on him later. It went as planned; he showed no hints of suspicion. I just waved my paw and left. That proxy, the one that helped me drag down the human body, stayed there. I didn’t bother to understand why. I didn’t care.
As soon as I took the elevator to the ground level, I realized something was not right. The lift cabin wiggled right and left before stopping. Once its doors opened, what laid before me was a place very familiar and for sure not part of EIBM or the humans' world. I was back home, and it had not been what I planned for that moment. Someone had summoned me, and that could not be any good.
My new teddy bear body exited the elevator and stepped on the familiar soft terrain that felt like crumbling under my paws. Everything around me glowed in its typical dark green light. Moving farther down this cave, I couldn’t tell more where I was. My attempts to reconnect to the Great Communion did not work, nor those to leave that stupid stuffed-animal body.
“And you will keep failing, my dear.”
That voice. Where was he? How did he find me?
“Ah, that was painful, Mr. Sweet.”
&nbs
p; “I will not allow you inside my mind, you retard fucker.”
“Do you think you have the power to do that? You look very nice in this body. Will you hug me?”
“Fuck you, Aaragul. For real. Show yourself, coward.”
I heard footsteps as he revealed himself from behind a rock wall.
“Why are you even wearing that human suit?” I wish I had all my powers back.
“You should have already got that, my little teddy bear.” He leaned against the crude rock wall.
“Well, if I did not, enlighten me, you dumbass.” I really had to think about something. The bright side was that he would have already ended me, if he had wanted.
“I got bored with waiting for your well-structured, flawless plan to roll out. I’ll move to the human’s plane right now. And you are helping me, got it?”
“Aaragul, I’m just a Trickster. I can’t let you in, impossible. You detached yourself from the Great Communion, didn’t you?”
I can’t believe he was doing this again.
The mind creature approached me; I can’t tell if he did it or let me imagine it. He kneeled before me, in the blink of an eye.
“I tapped into one of the Fountains. I have enough power to travel by myself. All I need,”—he reached for my body by putting his hand on my belly— “is someone to show me the way.”
It was him. I should have known. How could I not think it had been him?
“Why would I do it? The Great Communion would bring us both back, and it would reabsorb us. We would both be shredded to pieces and used as backup parts at first need.”
He teleported behind me. I knew some of this was not real; I couldn’t tell yet where he was.
“Whatever. I don’t think I have another option,” I stated, hoping he did not have access to my mind anymore. I was almost sure I had banned him from fucking with my brains.
“I’m glad you’ll help. I’d kill you, if you wouldn’t.”
I knew he would—not that I feared that scenario much. It would take me a lot of effort to come back to life, but it wouldn’t have been the first time. My people wouldn’t die that easily.
“I would rather avoid that. I’ll get started right away with creating a channel for you to travel to Plane R.”
“That is how a teddy bear should behave.” He patted my head. Fucker.
