"She can't hear anything we're saying to you," Alexia-thing thought at Sunny, "but you can hear perfectly everything we're saying to her. We want you to know that everything that has happened up to this point is your fault. Resist or attempt interference and you'll only make it worse."
Sunny struggled to find his voice, but his vocal chords suddenly had no life.
No, he thought, Olivia, don't do it!
Olvia reached down for the fruit.
"How long will it take for the transformation to occur?"
"Under two minutes. You may first say goodbye to Sunny if you wish, as it could happen much sooner than that."
Olivia looked over her shoulder.
"Sunny, I..." The words clearly cost her an effort.
Olivia, no! He was so helpless. He couldn't help himself, he couldn't help Gary or Alexia, he only manipulated people, probably would've manipulated them the way he'd manipulated impressionable high schoolers who were half his age into getting hooked on narcotics and sold the others into sex trafficking even after Cory. But, this was the one thing he could do right, and he didn't even have the strength.
No, Olivia! You were right! I am a shitty person. I legitimately feel no guilt for what happened to Cory, the mention of Cory's name hurt him, somehow, and I'm responsible but please, let it be me! After all, I'm already infected! You still have much to offer the world! Please! NO! PLEASE LET ME DIE!
"Sunny, I forgive you."
Olivia bit down into the fruit, the worms wriggling beneath her skin and quickly bursting out of her. Within seconds, the transformation had destroyed her body, forming into a massive, transparent gland-like thing, akin to a glass ball full of liquified human skin. She screamed, but the sound was quickly muffled, as if Olivia were shouting into a pillow. Sunny did not expect to see vines lined with human faces like the suckers on an octopus arm, let alone with clones of his mother's sneering face, erupting from Olivia's mouth. The worms were gone now, slithering back into the air ducts as Olivia transformed. How did Sunny respond? How he responded to the consequences he would surely face if he and Cory's underaged affair had been exposed. He responded the same way he did after he'd gotten kids hooked on heroin and they came to his house for help after finding themselves knee deep in debt to the CJNG (the same position I was once in, when I needed to pay them off for the little boy in the terribly-done makeup makeup and girl's clothing they'd pimped out to me—only, to my knowledge, none of them ever repaid their debts by selling their older sisters to sex trafficking), only to find he wasn't there. He responded by dodging the law, by skipping town, by running away as he had from all of his life responsibilities. The only difference this time was that he actually felt some genuine regret, instead of the kind you made up to excuse yourself of whatever terrible thing you've done. Another first was that, when he ran away this time, he actually had some sense of where he was going. Back to where Gary's first and last expedition for food had taken Sunny.
YOU ARE READING
Sundew
Horror*Placeholder teSunny Swanson has had a rough go in life. A drifter and a heroin addict, he waits one night for a bus to skip town. However, after surviving an accidental overdose while waiting for his ride, he wakes up in a hospital bed. Sunny plots...
