Science Fiction and Fantasy Box Set 1: The Squishies Series

by Claire Chilton

  She tried to summon her powers. She’d tried several times over the last hour, but nothing had happened. She concentrated her mind on the ropes. Break, break, damn it, break! Nothing happened.

  Bex opened the door, and Carla saw Parklon standing in the doorway talking to her. No, no, no, go away. It’s a trap.

  She saw him eyeing the knife in Bex’s hand. Good. Now run. He wasn’t leaving. He stepped into the hallway, and Bex closed the door behind him.

  Carla struggled with her bindings. She had to warn him.

  “Mmmf mahh mmffn!” She tried to shout ‘get the hell out of here’ to him, but the gag stopped her. She struggled violently against the ropes, and the chair rocked under her.

  Parklon glanced up and saw her. His face darkened in anger, and he shoved Bex out of his way. She cracked her head on the hallway wall and slumped to the ground, inert.

  Parklon rushed over to Carla, completely unaware of Godfrey waiting for him. Carla shook her head, urgently trying to indicate that Godfrey was there.

  “Mmmmmm!” she shouted at him as he reached her side, and began untying her ankles.

  “Don’t worry, you’ll be okay,” he said.

  “MMMmmm!” Carla widened her eyes and nodded her head forward as Godfrey made his move, sneaking up behind Parklon.

  Look behind you, damn it!

  Parklon knelt in front of her tugging at the ropes around her ankles. “Nearly there.”

  “Mmmf!” Carla cried as Godfrey raised a piece of old wood above his head, preparing to smash it down on Parklon’s skull. Tears stung her eyes. Look up, please, please just look up.

  Parklon paused and stared intently at her face.

  Godfrey brought the wood down with all his strength. In a split second, Parklon rolled to the side out of the way, kicking out at Godfrey’s stomach with a heavily-booted foot.

  Godfrey stumbled back and dropped the piece of wood.

  Yes! He must have seen Godfrey’s shadow on the wall behind her. She watched Parklon pounce on Godfrey and punch him hard in the face.

  Turning her eyes to the doorway, she saw that Bex was still out cold. Carla returned to watching Parklon and Godfrey roll around on the floor wrestling with each other.

  Her pulse was racing and her heart thumping. She kicked at the ropes around her feet. When one was untied enough to come undone, she kicked her leg out to free her foot. Okay, what good is that going to do?

  She wiggled her toes to get some blood circulating in her leg and watched, helplessly still bound to the chair.

  Godfrey had gained a position on top of Parklon and was punching him viciously in the face. Parklon punched him in the throat, and Godfrey rolled off him, clutching his throat and gasping.

  Parklon’s nose was bleeding, and he seemed to be having trouble getting up.

  Carla yanked her arms, frustrated with her powerlessness. The ropes on her wrists burned against her skin.

  “Need a hand?” Gobbert asked, materializing from the ether.

  “Mmmm!” Carla enthusiastically nodded at him.

  “Okay, but next time you and blue boy get kinky, remember the safe word.” Gobbert joked as he floated behind her, and she felt his tiny hands tugging on the ropes around her wrists.

  “Mmffm?” She felt his humor was in rather bad taste and attempted to say so.

  “If you say so,” Gobbert said.

  BANG! Carla’s head jerked toward Parklon and Godfrey. Godfrey was standing over Parklon with a smoking gun in his hand. Parklon lay on the floor. Blood bloomed on his white t-shirt.

  Godfrey pointed the gun at Parklon again, laughing.

  A blur of crazy named Bex launched herself at Godfrey, and she attacked him with demonic look in her eyes. She ran toward him, shoulders hunched, as she plowed through him, knocking him to the ground.

  She sprang on top of Godfrey, who had dropped the gun during his fall and had landed on his back. She grabbed his head in her hands and repeatedly smashed it against the floorboards with all her strength.

  “You tried to kill my boyfriend.” She spat at him. “Die!” She bounced his head off the floor. “Die!” Bounce. “Die!” Bounce. “Die…”

  Carla was certain Godfrey was dead or at least severely damaged when Bex finally let go of his head and stood up.

  Bex crawled over to Parklon and knelt beside him. “Oh baby, it’s okay. I’ll make sure you’re okay,” she cried as she held his face in her hands. “I’ll call an ambulance. I’ll take care of my man.”

  Carla nodded frantically. Yes, call an ambulance. Help him!

  “Not yours.” Parklon croaked at her, fighting to remain conscious.

  “God, if that boy had brains, he’d be dangerous,” Gobbert said, still trying to untie Carla’s wrists.

  Bex didn’t say a word. She stood up and silently glared down at him.

  “You will be,” she said quietly after a few minutes. Her voice was emotionless.

  She turned and stared at Carla with empty eyes. “After she’s dead.”

  “No!” Parklon cried. He tried to get up, but failed, collapsing back onto the ground and panting.

  “It’s the only way.” Bex calmly walked over to Carla. “Time to die.”

  “Hurry up.” Carla told Gobbert.

  “Oh, I plan to,” Bex said, raising the knife with a wicked smile.

  It occurred to Carla while she watched the knife that of all the people who were broken here, Bex should be the one who could see Gobbert. But no, Carla did instead. Carla got all the crap that Bex created.

  Anger began boiling in Carla’s veins. From the day she’d met Bex, every bad thing that had happened had come from Bex’s backstabbing and lies. And now, Bex was going to kill her!

  After all the crap in her life, Carla realized she was going to die at the hands of someone else’s psycho ex-girlfriend while tied to a chair in a broken-down old shack, and it really pissed her off.

  She felt the hot rage bubbling up inside her, like a volcano about to erupt. She’d been tied up, kidnapped, punched, slashed, hit on the head more times than she could count, and lied about.

  “Screw your plans!” she cried. She didn’t know if Gobbert had finished untying her ropes or if her rage snapped them off her.

  She stood up, her hands free of the chair and only one ankle still tied to it. Dark power welled up inside her body like hot lava churning through her veins. The house began to shake and sharp winds swirled around inside it.

  Something inside Carla shattered. Her personality seemed to fade away and something dark took its place. “You play at being a monster in this world.” Carla’s voice was hollow and ancient, and her words seemed to come from somewhere deep within her. “Foolish creature, I’ll show you a true monster!”

  Her hair whipped around her face, and her body filled with unseen power. She stood rigid and saw red when her eyes flashed at Bex.

  Bex faltered. Storm clouds gathered inside the house above Carla. Thunder roared through the room, and the air was alive with electricity. Bex made a mad dash at Carla, holding the knife aloft.

  Carla pointed both her arms toward Bex. Bolts of lightning shot from her hands straight into Bex’s chest. Her whole body was a conduit for the full force of an electrical storm, and her anger released it all into Bex.

  Bex flew upwards when the electric bolts hit her, and she was flung toward the ceiling. Her teeth could be heard chattering over the sounds of thunder in the air.

  Carla held her pinned to the ceiling with a flow of electrical power bursting from her fingertips. The room lit up with flashes and streaks of lightning. Bex’s eyes were rolling, and her body shaking all over while she was electrocuted on the ceiling.

  Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the power and anger started to fade, and Carla released her.

  Bex dropped from the ceiling and landed face first on the floor, unconscious.

  Carla felt as if she’d just had her insides fried. She fell to her knees. After a moment of shock, she untied the fi
nal rope that was binding her to the chair. What the hell was with that freaky voice?

  She shook herself out of it and stood up. She staggered over to Parklon. He appeared somewhat freaked out, too.

  “Your eyes glowed red,” he said, staring at her with wide eyes and a pale face.

  “Er, what?” She hadn’t expected that.

  “When you went er, Super Carla, your eyes glowed red,” he said clearly. “What the hell was that?”

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Maybe I am broken?”

  “Hah!” Gobbert said. “Told ya!”

  “Has it happened before?” he asked.

  “No. I don’t know what it was. It felt like last time, you know, under Foamy Mansion. But it was bigger.” She couldn’t describe the feeling. “Darker.”

  “Maybe we should get you checked out?” Parklon suggested carefully.

  “You first, we need to get you to a hospital,” she said, frowning at the pool of blood surrounding him.

  “My car’s outside. There’s a phone in it,” he said. “Help me up.”

  She put her arm under his and struggled to help him stand. He had his gun in his right hand, and his other arm around her shoulders.

  Once they were standing, she hugged him close. “I was so scared. I thought I’d lost you,” she said.

  He smiled, hugging her against him. “I’m not that easy to get rid of.” He kissed her.

  She kissed him back, closing her eyes and trying to forget the events of the day.

  Her eyes fluttered open as a dark shadow penetrated her eyelids.

  She frowned at Parklon. His face was pale with shock as he raised the gun and shot it behind her three times.

  She spun around to see Bex standing with the knife in her hand raised high over Carla’s back.

  A line of blood rolled down Bex’s face from the bullet hole in her forehead. Blood bloomed in her chest from the other two bullet wounds at point-blank range. She fell backwards, already dead with a maniacal grin on her face. Her body hit the floor with a loud crash.

  “That’s the last time I go on a date with you two,” Gobbert said.

  Carla hunched over the steering wheel of Parklon’s sleek, silver car, watching through the windshield as Godfrey was taken from the hospital entrance by dark-suited agents and guided into a black van.

  Godfrey had handcuffs on his wrists and a bandage around his head. It was amazing that he’d survived without serious injury. He’d been under observation for a week in the hospital with intelligence agency guards at his door for the duration. The guards had told her that he was going to be imprisoned without trial as soon as he was well enough to leave the hospital.

  I guess that’s today.

  She scowled at him as he tried to make a run for it. He didn’t get very far with handcuffs around his wrists and ankles. She felt a moment of satisfaction as she watched him get shoved into the back of the van by one of the guards.

  Shaking her head at her horrific timing, she tried to concentrate on the reason she was here. She was here to pick up Parklon and take him to the borders of Maklaw and Kalamar to meet Isabella. He’d been in the hospital all week as well.

  “True evil is always petty and often incompetent,” Gobbert muttered, also watching Godfrey being taken away.

  She glanced at Gobbert curiously. “Sometimes I wonder what you’re really here for.”

  Gobbert winked at her. “Saving your neck, by the looks of it,” he said.

  She smiled at him. He was a weird little friend.

  She glanced back at the road ahead. The black car drove away, taking Godfrey to some secret location to serve out his time. Good. I won’t have to worry about him ever again.

  She got out of Parklon’s car and walked toward the hospital entrance. Everything felt a bit weird since the shooting. Parklon had barely touched her since he’d shot Bex. She shivered as memories of the forensics team zipping Bex up in a body bag filled her thoughts.

  The police had found several bloody weapons in the house, and they were still investigating whose blood was on them and what Bex had done with her time over the years in that house. She really had been a psycho.

  Carla thought that that would make Parklon feel better about what he’d done, but killing someone was a complex thing. He seemed to blame himself, on some level, for not knowing she was insane. He hadn’t touched Carla since it happened.

  She wasn’t too eager to touch him anyway. Her body continued to give people random electric shocks, and she had no control over whatever it was that was causing it.

  But today the sun was shining, both she and Parklon were alive and no one was trying to kill them at the moment.

  She smiled as Parklon stepped through the hospital doors and waved at her. He looked so much better than he had a week ago. The pale, drawn look had left his face, and he wasn’t holding his chest in agony anymore.

  He’d been incredibly lucky that Godfrey’s bullet had only sliced through skin and muscle on the side of his chest and under his arm. It totally missed shattering any bones or hitting any major organs.

  She hurried over to him. She was happy enough. They were leaving Zoola today and heading out to try to find out what had happened to Bob.

  “Hey!” She ran over to him, and he smiled at her.

  “Hey. Is everything ready?” he asked.

  “I packed up both our bags, and put in some water and food. Oh, and I put a first-aid kit together, including insect repellent,” she said.

  “That’s good.” He frowned as they neared his car, and she opened the door for him.

  “What?” she asked.

  “Isabella called this morning,” he said. “She got a funny phone call yesterday.”

  “What kind of call?”

  “A silent one, but that’s not the funny part. It came from Bob’s cell phone number,” he said.

  “Do you think he’s…?” She didn’t finish the sentence. If Bob were still alive, surely he’d speak on the phone.

  “Don’t get your hopes up. It might just have been stolen or found somewhere.” Parklon shrugged.

  “Yep, you’re right.” Her mind was racing. It was too late, really. She was already getting her hopes up. What if he was alive? That would be a happy ending.

  “I wonder if Bob will be able to see Gobbert?” she said. “If he’s alive, of course,” she added quickly.

  “Who’s this Bob person, and why would I speak to him? I only saved you two because you’re cute when you’re needy,” Gobbert said.

  “You saved us?” Parklon raised an eyebrow at him as he got into the back seat of the car.

  “If I hadn’t untied Carla, you’d both be toast, and you know it.” Gobbert proudly puffed out his chest. “Sometimes it’s hard to be a hero. Being this brave isn’t easy, you know,” he added while Carla sat in the driver’s seat and pulled on her seatbelt.

  ACHOO! Carla sneezed. Her body shot lightning streaks out to all four windows in the side of the car and blew them out with a loud crash.

  Gobbert yelped like a girl before he disappeared.

  “Oh, very brave,” she said dryly. She turned to Parklon and winced. “Sorry!” she said.

  Parklon hadn’t moved. He sat rigidly in the back seat.

  “Parklon?” she asked.

  He held up his hand to silence her, stepped out of the car and walked around it, looking at the damage. Stopping at the front of the car, he let out a shaky breath. His face was set in pure horror. “My baby, my beautiful baby.” He stroked the bonnet.

  “I’m sorry!” She poked her head out of the broken window. “I’ll fix it. I promise.”

  Parklon held up his hand to silence her again as he stiffly got back into the back seat of the car.

  “I’m really sorry.” She apologized again.

  “Don’t speak to me for at least fifty miles. In fact, don’t speak to me until we get that fixed!” Parklon eventually said.

  She nodded in agreement, unsure if he meant the car or h
er.

  “It’ll be okay.” He inhaled a deep breath and slowly let it out.

  He is cute when he’s angry. She grinned, and then she remembered that he didn’t kiss her anymore. She felt a tiny ache of sadness. Something in their relationship had broken when he’d shot Bex.

  She stared at the road ahead. There were so many things that she needed to fix.

  Ajax is the Derobmi god of choices because he offers both a bleach and bleach-free alternative.

  Betterware is the capital city of Derobmi, which is known for its cleanliness and shiny architecture. It is also home to the second largest scientific institute in Dumfollab (the largest being in Celeron).

  Blooming is an archaic mating ritual, which is predominantly practiced in Rhecknaw.

  Bold is the Derobmi god of determination because he does not compromise on cleaning.

  Budda Wiser Frog is a cheerful green-hued deity, worshipped by the Zoolaf race. He is often considered to be the God of inebriation by many cultures, due to his red nose and cheerful disposition.

  Celeron is a colony over the Derobmi borders, high in the north of Dumfollab. The Celerons are a silvery race of people, who are impossible to communicate with because they spend their days hitting a flat board with their fingers. Not much is known about them because they rarely speak. If asked a question they will simply tap their fingers against the board in front of them. They seem friendly, but over the centuries have developed huge heads, long strong arms and fingers, and spindly little legs. No one is sure how they have survived and it is assumed their tapping is some kind of musical communication.

  Cimigosim is the capital city of Rhecknaw.

  Dawn of Time is a time before recorded history.

  Derehtob is a mysterious disease that infects the host with despondent and lazy behavior, which can lead to death of the infected.

  Derobmi is a thriving colony on Dumfollab, whose national color is predominantly lime-green. The Derobmi basic belief system is based on ancient artifacts that were discovered at the 'Dawn of Time'. Traditions from the ancient ancestors of the colony dictate the modern Derobmi way of life. The first settlers left their mark on the colony and created a green utopia, which developed from a history it no longer remembers. The basic beliefs are centered on hygiene and cleanliness, which now have evolved to contain a multitude of complexities and standards. There are ancient artifacts, which prove that the Gods Ajax, Jif, Bold, Persil and Mr. Muscle had been worshipped and had been great powers on this ancient planet once. The whole society of Derobmi is based on these artifacts, and has evolved into the unique colony it is today.