The Phoenix Burglar

Chapter 11: Loss of Control

 I smile as Ella hands me a beautiful plated breakfast and a big glass of orange juice. As I look up at her I see a different blonde woman.

"Here you go, Mirri."

"Thank you, Be- I mean, mom!" Ella looks down at me with surprise.

"You called me mom." My eyes widen.

"Ah right I did, didn't I?" I chuckle nervously before looking down at my breakfast.

"You shouldn't. She's my mom, not yours," Pipes up a voice behind Ella. I look up to see a blonde boy my age in wrinkled pajamas. He has brown eyes that glare at me.

"Eric, behave. This is your new sister, Mirri." A look of realization passes over the little boy's face.

"You're my new sister?!" He says before rushing over and hugging my side. I let out a noise of surprise as he hits me hard and squeezes me close.

"Uh, Hi..." I say, unsure of what to do.

"Sorry he's used to my fosters," Ella explains. He steps back.

"My name's Eric! I look forward to being the best of friends, Mirri." I smile at him. He seemed mean at first, but maybe I misjudged him. "Hey! Let's go to the yard! I wanna play. Have you ever had a treehouse? Oh! What am I saying of course you haven't. Let me show you!" He spouts out as he grabs my arm and starts pulling me out of my chair. That assumption was a bit rude. Maybe this kid is more of a brat than I realized. I don't really know what to do and look to Ella for help. She smiles, amused.

"Eric, you can play later. It's time for breakfast. It's rude to drag someone away from a meal." Well at least Ella seems to be aware that he was bratty. Eric's smile drops and he glares at the ground.

"Fine." He pulls out a chair from the dining room table and sits down next to me. Ella turns her back to get a plate ready for him and Eric sticks his tongue out at her before looking to me for approval. I look down and begin to eat. On my plate the syrup had spelled a message over my scrambled eggs.

'Wake up.'

I scowl and drag my fork through it , erasing the message. I curse that old man in my head before I take a bite. They taste like heaven.

"This tastes really good, Ella."

"Thank you, Mirri. Now eat up, I suspect you have a busy day ahead of you with Eric." I grin and nod in agreement.

--Rick's POV--

"Did you do it, Rick?" Morty asks impatiently. I stand at my desk typing into the machine I'm using to infiltrate Mirri' dream state.

"God, Morty! Yes, I did it. She's not listening. She doesn't want to wake up." I grind out annoyed.

"What? Why?" Morty spews out confused.

"Fuck if I know. She looks like she's just enjoying a dream about...the fuck is this, breakfast?? She just had breakfast!" I laugh as she glares at the message I left in her eggs.

"Why can't- Why can't you just make something to go into her dream?" Morty asks.

"I do have something for that, I just didn't want to waste it on her."

"Rick!"

"Ok, ok! Hand me that box on the third shelf," I order. Morty rushes over and grabs it. I take out the dream interceptors that I made to make fun of a movie Morty loves. I sigh in disappointment. I was gonna save this and make it into a bit. Oh well. I turn to Morty and hand him one.

"Shove this in your ear when I say."

"Ok," Morty says as he takes it from me.

I stick the third one into Mirri's ear, shaking the frost off my arm as I pull it back out of the bubble.

"Ok, now." I put the inceptor in my ear, watching Morty do the same with a frown.

"And aaaaaawaaay, we go!" I drag out dramatically as we both drop to the floor.

When I open my eyes again I find myself in a picture perfect backyard with a sandbox, tree house and swing set. Behind everything borders a thick forest. It looks like a kid's dream land. That is until I look at what's happening in the sand box. A little girl--no Mirri-- is having sand kicked in her face by a little blonde boy. I hear Morty get up beside me and I follow his action. The little boy is laughing as we stare, going unnoticed.

"Stop, Eric! IT'S GETTING IN MY EYES!"

"Don't be such a baby, Mirri." the little boy says, kick an extra big riff of sand at her. A protectiveness surges up in me. I scowl and step forward to go teach that brat a lesson but Morty stops me.

"Rick, wait. Don't hurt that kid, he's just being stupid." I look down at him and glare and he lets go, albeit hesitantly.

"I'm not gonna hurt the little dip shit." I lie. I hear Mirri scream and I pull out my gun. I look up to see the little boy on top of Mirri, pinning her to the sand.

"Now eat it!" He shouts and goes to shove the sand in her mouth. I start to run over but Mirri roughly catches his wrist and the kid screams. When he pulls away there is a hand shape burned deep into his flesh. I look at Mirri and her appearance has changed. Her hair starts turning its usual red at the ends, and her eyes glow crimson like the fires of hell. I stop in my tracks, holding out my arm to stop Morty as well. He collides into me and yells.

"What the hell?!"

"Morty, look at her! Something is wrong. If we die here we'll die in real life, Morty. We can't risk that."

"What?! Why would you design it like that?!" Morty cries out.

"It was a bit! A bit! It was gonna be a bit, Morty. I didn't think it would go like this!" The kid belts out another blood curdling scream, ripping our attention back to Mirri. The kid's mother has come out, having heard the screams and is watching in horror as Mirri holds her son by the throat, burning him alive. The woman runs over and pushes Mirri out of the way. Mirri's head hits the ground hard. The mother cradles the burnt husk in her arms, sobbing.

"Eric! Eric, not my baby!" The woman keeps chanting denials under her breath as she rocks back and forth.

"Jesus Christ..." I say quietly. Morty grabs his hair and starts breathing fast.

"This is such a fucked up dream!" Morty cries.

Mirri gets up from the sand, a dazed look on her face. Her eyes are back to their normal innocent brown but her hair remains stained red at the ends. She looks at the woman and the burnt corpse in her arms and starts screaming.

"Ella! Ella what happened?!" She tries to touch the woman's shoulder and she flinches back.

"Don't touch me!" The woman roars out. "You fucking disgusting monster! Murderer! Get out of here!" The woman named Ella shouts, pushing Mirri away. Tears are running down the little girl's face.

"I...what have I done..." Mirri whimpers. She looks down at her hands before dashing out the back yard, into the forest beyond.

"Shit," I mutter, worry filling my chest against my will. I grab Morty's wrist and drag him along as I sprint after her.