Tiny - Tomatt

Not Right

Tom continued driving while getting used to ignoring Matt. He forced himself also to ignore his own feelings - he and Matt were only friends and Tom had no intention to change that in any way.

Matt's seemingly annoyed and evasive response to Tom's attempt to make lighthearted conversation had kind of disconcerted him. Matt never used to be rude to me like this. Then after a bit of consideration, Tom thought, Well, I'm almost always rude to him as well.

Tom pulled out his phone from his pocket. I hope I'm going to the right address. He checked the GPS he'd been listening to for the whole drive. It had been strangely silent for the last few minutes.

Hmm... No service out here.

"To-o-om," Matt whined.

"What?" Tom asked, perking up a bit at the interaction. Maybe Matt isn't annoyed with me, after all.

"I'm bored."

Tom would have rolled his eyes if he had had any, but he was secretly relieved that Matt was acting normal again. "There's not much I can do about that," Tom said. He knew if Matt was normal sized he'd have his phone and mirrors to entertain himself. I would think he'd be having oodles of fun. It's not every day you get to explore the world a fraction of your normal size.

"Hmm, wanna play I-Spy?" Matt asked in a conversational tone. His voice went up into a high and happy pitch.

Tom was reluctant as he had to focus on driving, but he agreed. "Sure." At that, he became much more observant of his surroundings.

The road they were driving down was becoming more and more... Dark. The trees grew thicker, darker, and denser. They soon even grew over the their view of the sky above them. The road started to get more cracked and broken down and devolved eventually into something barely even drivable.

Was something wrong? Tom didn't think this was normal. He became much more alert and aware of their surroundings. Whoever this is... lives in a real weird area. Tom mentally shrugged. But they obviously have Matt's shrink ray, so we don't quite have another option.

"I Spy with my little eye..." Matt started. "Something that is brown!"

"A tree, right?" Tom asked with a half smile. "The ground?"

"Nope! I saw a deer," Matt said with a grin.

"Oh." Tom turned his head slightly and looked at Matt sideways. "My turn?"

"Yeah."

"I Spy with my little eye..." Tom searched around for something interesting. His eyes widened. "S... something... blue..."

Matt quickly stood up on Tom's shoulder. He reached up and grabbed Tom's ear to hold himself up as the car bumped around on the cracked road. Tom startled a little from the unexpected touch. Just friends.

"Is it that broken-down bus?!" Matt shouted excitedly. It wasn't very loud, however, considering his diminutive size.

"Y... yeah..." Tom replied nervously. That is not normal. The blue bus lay on its side, covered in all sorts of dirt like ash, grime, graffiti and overgrown moss. The hood was crunched... The inside of the bus was probably a home for countless woodland creatures. Do not ignore that. It could just be a normal wreck... Something's very wrong here but we need that shrink ray.

"Eyes open, Matt. Something's not right here."

"Eh - wha...?" Matt squeaked.

Matt noticed that Tom had been becoming more and more anxious over the past few minutes. He knew Tom. He knew his body language. And from that, he knew Tom was getting less and less calm by the second. Something about the place they drove in must be putting him off...

Tom's anxiety transferred to Matt. The more he thought about it, the more he agreed with it. Matt began to notice every single thing that seemed wrong in the slightest way - the increasing absence of any signs of life was most disturbing.

Matt's eyes widened. "Tom... look there..." He tugged gently on Tom's ear and pointed at the road far in front of them.

There was a huge, dark stain on the road. It lead in a trail off the road and somewhere deeper into the wood. Matt hoped he was wrong about what it was.

Tom slammed on the brakes of the car. His sockets were pure white with surprise - Something that tended to happen when Tom was startled, scared or even angry.

Matt could feel Tom's rate of breathing pick up below him, each breath quicker than the last and shuddering. Matt could just barely hear the muffled bumping of Tom's heart, blood surging through the strong neck next to him.

"...Matt... is that..."

"...G-go check it out..."

Tom unbuckled his seatbelt and shakily got out of the car, shutting it behind him. Matt clutched Tom's hood and held his breath as Tom walked slowly to the stain on the ground. Tom could feel Matt shaking on his shoulder.

Tom knelt down on one knee in front of the stain, careful not to make any direct contact with it. He leaned down to get a close look at it, cupping his hand around Matt so he wouldn't fall.

As Tom realized it was what he had hoped it wouldn't be, he felt his eyes again turn bright white.

"It's... It is blood..." whispered Matt, eyes widened, peeking over the top of Tom's cupped hand. He didn't know if his tiny size amplified the smell but there was such a strong, metallic scent of iron, the liquid couldn't possibly have been anything else.

Tom stood up quickly, almost causing Matt to fly off backwards. "We have to get out of here," he whispered to Matt. "A - it could've been a m-"

"TOM!" Matt screamed, slapping his hand onto Tom's neck. "BEHIND-"

Something soft was pressed against Tom's mouth. Before he could think, Tom took a deep breath to yell. And before he could yell, he felt himself losing consciousness. Tom fell backward as the world around him faded blacker than his eyes, and the last thing he could remember was feeling the tiny hands of Matt on his neck.

Apologies for the shorter and lower quality chapter today my readers. I was struggling with writer's block and to make the boring subject of a car ride interesting. I hope you enjoyed it though and I will try to make the next chapter better. If you'd like to make my day please share with your fellow Eddheads. Thank you.