Ronald's diner

chapter 5

I.

Bonnie slowly opened her eyes and blinked a time or two as she finished waking up. Tossing the sheets off of her, she climbed out of bed and drudged toward the bathroom. Arriving at the bathroom, Bonnie looked around and discovered two things, one that she wasn't in Ronald's bathroom. The walls were a dirty white, with the emphasis on the dirty part. In fact, everything else in the room looked rather dirty and generally unkept. After a few seconds Bonnie began to recognize some of the items in the room, there was a sink, a small mirror on the wall behind the sink, a toilet, and a small bathtub which had a missing shower curtain. Bonnie remembered this room, as much as she didn't want to, she remembered it at all. The second thing Bonnie realized was that she was only one foot tall and was standing on the side of the bathtub.

Bonnie's attention was then drawn towards the doorway. There hadn't even been a door on the hinges she recalled of the run-down hotel's bathroom. Walking through the door, her nakedness in full display, a giant sized version of Bonnie was visible to the smaller sized version of herself. In the giant Bonnie's hands were a variety of items which she proceeded to lay out on the cabinet before her, a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, a folded towel, a folded washcloth, a metal rod, and another bottle less than half full of some sort of brownish looking liquid. The tiny version of Bonnie shivered slightly as she recalled how vile tasting the alcohol in the second bottle had been. The smaller version of Bonnie continued to watch as the larger version of herself stepped into the bathtub and turned on the shower. Taking one last long swing of the brown liquid, the larger version of Bonnie then stuffed the rolled up washcloth into her mouth before bending the end of the metal rod into a slight hook The smaller Bonnie knew what was going to happen next and had no desire to watch the event again. She began to yell and scream at the larger Bonnie, pleading, begging her to stop. But the larger Bonnie didn't hear the smaller Bonnie's pleas and continued with what she was doing until bright red blood began to run down her legs and mix with the water as it swirled down the drain.

"No, stop, stop it, STOP!" The smaller Bonnie screamed until the real Bonnie suddenly bolted up right in bed and broke down crying.

"Bonnie, are you alright?" Ronald asked worriedly from the other side of the bedroom door, "Bonnie, answer me. Are you ok?"

Bonnie, through both the dark and tear filled eyes, looked towards the door that was keeping Ronald outside of the room. For a moment, Bonnie was torn as she debated just how much she was willing to let him in.

"Bonnie?" Ronald asked again. During the past few days He had seen Bonnie depressed and in tears a number of times, but this sounded worse than before. "I heard you call out and start crying."

"I'm fine." Bonnie lied, "I just had a bad dream, is all."

"Nightmare more like it." Ronald countered, "You sure you're ok? I'd be willing to listen if you want to talk about it."

"No, thank you." Bonnie said monotonely.

"I can sit with you a while if you want."

Bonnie slowly shook her head even though Ronald could not see it. "Thank you, Ronald, but no. It was just a bad dream. It's over now." With that, Bonnie lay back down in Ronald's bed and pulled the blanket all the way up to her neck as if she was trying to either hide or protect herself from something unseen. "Ronald, please go back to bed, I'll be fine."

"You sure?"

"Damn it, Ronald, I don't want to talk about it." Bonnie snapped as she sat up in the bed but still held the sheets around her. "It was about something I did that I'm not proud of." She explained in a dejected voice.

"Ok, Bonnie. I'm here if you need me. Goodnight and pleasant dreams." Ronald said as he gently went on the door behind him and returned to his couch to try to catch a little more sleep.