For Shits and Giggles (complete first draft)

Chapter 21

She wasn't sure how long it had been.

Her hands were tied behind her back, her body contorted into a fetal position. Giggles was stuffed into a wooden chest barely half her size. She had to breath slowly to give her ribs enough room to retract and expand. Cuddles had dislocated both of her shoulders so that she would fit when he shut the padlock on the chest.

She could scream and cry and shout and still no one would find her, stuffed inside this small wooden chest, underneath a wooden bed, within the wood cabin by the lake. Not that she would want to; she'd be wasting valuable oxygen, and it was already hard to breath. Still, she was thankful for the foam lining on the bottom of the chest. She could lay her head almost comfortably and pretend she was back in her own bed— until a sharp pain in her right shoulder broke through her body and suddenly she was back in a fetal position locked away.

It wasn't like this everyday. Cuddles only locked her away when he had to leave the cabin. Sometimes it was to buy groceries or toilet paper, other times so no one back in town would get suspicious of him. In the beginning, he'd simply locked the doors and windows from the outside when he left on his errands. But after Giggles' second attempt to escape, he had to take more drastic measures to keep her locked away.

This time, however, it was different. He'd been gone for much longer than usual. After the second full day, she tried to kill herself. Just to test a theory. Would she by some magic wake up back in her bed? Without an inch to move, to even wiggle her toes, she could only think of one way to do it— bite her own tongue all the way through. She'd seen it in a movie once; a kid had fallen and accidentally bitten off his own tongue. The pain was excruciating, worse than her two dislocated shoulders. Giggles tried to shut her mouth, tried to let the blood pool so she could drown in it and speed up the process. But she couldn't, the pain was agonizing and she opened her mouth to scream. The blood exploded forward through her lips, painting the inside of the chest red. Eventually, it was the pain– or maybe the bloodloss– that finally knocked her unconscious. When she woke up again, she was still damned in the chest, with a sore tongue neatly reattached inside her mouth.

Giggles trembled at the thought of attempting this again, it was the worst pain she had ever experienced. At least her shoulders were back in place. Her death had restored her entire body. It wasn't worth it, Giggles thought, her shoulders took up much more space inside the chest now.

After the fourth day, Giggles stopped counting. She died at least one more time during the next several days– of dehydration, she assumed. This was a good thing, she had finally stopped urinating on herself. The smell of her own piss, along with the sloppy, wet foam underneath her, were their own kind of torture. The days were hot, humid, and the smell of old piss singed her nose. She swallowed her throw up; puke and rancid piss was not a combination her psyche could handle. But it was a losing battle.

Each time she woke up, she wasn't sure if she'd fainted, died, or had simply drifted off into a dreamless sleep. All the same, she always regretted waking up. The possibility of forever dawned on her. If Cuddles never came back, if she was never found, would she keep living and dying inside this small box for eternity? How long was eternity? The doubt creeped in, made her anxious. She suffered her first panic attack; she thrashed and she screamed and her heart pounded in her ears. She hyperventilated, negligently sucked in too much air with each breath. The more she tried to control her breathing, the worse it got, and this time she was sure she would die.

But Cuddles finally did return. Giggles was unconscious when he did. He threw open the top of the chest, immediately the stench hit his nose; piss, puke, blood, excrement. Cuddles fell back from the chest, turning to the side and emptying his stomach right onto the bedroom floor. He wiped his mouth of his throw up, but another round came and he continued to puke until there was nothing left. Finally, he mustered the strength to approach the chest again.

With a grunt, Cuddles pushed and toppled the chest onto it's side. Giggles tumbled out, along with the rest of the human conction festering inside. He untied her hands quickly and lifted her, taking her into the bathroom and then the shower. There, he got inside with her still in his arms and let the water pour over them both.

Giggles woke up as the fresh, cool water hit her face. She couldn't open her eyes, but she lapped weakly, desparetly at the droplets rolling down her lips.

"I'm so sorry," Cuddles was sobbing, undressing her underneath the shower. First he removed her shirt, then her bra, and dropped the soiled clothes outside of the bathtub. He held her naked chest against his own. "Please forgive me," he begged through tears, "I didn't mean to leave you for so long... I didn't mean to."

He lathered her hair, her legs and entire body, held her in his arms until finally she could speak.

"H..Hungry," Giggles whispered, her voice raspy and dry. "I'm so... hungry."

After their shower, Cuddles slipped her into a simple dress. He lay her down on the same bed she had spent days locked underneath. He rested her head softly on a pillow, and excused himself to go make her soup— her stomach couldn't handle anything else.

As she ate, one spoonful at a time, Cuddles cleaned up the putrid mess still on the floor.

"I tried to come back," he gripped the handle of the mop. "But Splendid... he was suspicious of me. That idiot. Followed me everywhere I went. This is all his fault."

Giggles continued to lift the spoon to her mouth, licking her chapped lips before sipping on the warm broth. She tried a chunk of chicken, but even chewing became exhausting.

"Giggles please," Cuddles sat on the bed next to her, grabbing her wrists so that she would finally look at him. The spoon fell into the bowl, splashing them both. "Please, you have to believe me, I would have come back sooner... it was all his fault, please," he began to cry again. Cuddles released her wrists and leaned forward, sobbing into her lap.

His words barely registered to her. All she could focus on was the spoon resting inside the bowl. She grabbed it again and slowly, cautiously, lifted more soup to her lips. She ate like this– small sips at a time, Cuddles sobbing in her lap– until finally, the bowl was empty.

"I want to go home..." she said, looking down at the empty bowl.

Cuddles sat up, wiping snot and tears with the back of his forearm. "This is home, my love... this is where we live now," he spoke gently.

"I miss Petunia... and Flaky," she was careful not to mention Splendid, even though he was who she needed the most. She knew Petunia and Flaky likely wanted nothing to do with her.

"I know, darling, I know," he took her hands. "It must have been so lonely here, all by yourself. But I'm here now," he pulled her closer, hugged her. "I won't ever leave you again. I promise."

Finally, she began to sob.