Past Resurrected

Sweet Fruit Goes Sour

No one knew how Sonny's experiment would turn out, no one expected Tyler to be rushed off to the emergency room, but both boys knew exactly who was behind it. And when they raced home, the culprit was sitting on Kathy's knee. When they were grounded they thought they were toast, until Sarah spotted Misty outside.

"You came back!" She rolled her eyes at Sam. "Don't sound so surprised, I would've eventually." "Why?" Her face went somber at Sonny's voice. "Because of your dummy." "What do you know about him?" She pressed out a laugh at Sarah's question.

"What don't I know? That toy will rip you to shreds if you let him. He'll say he wants to be friends, that he wants to help you, but then he brings out your worst and suddenly you have no one to turn to..." She sucked in a shaky breath, hands gripping either side of her head as her eyes bore holes into the road below her feet. Finally she let go of her head and slowly looked up, her lower lip was barely quivering.

"You've had him before haven't you?" Sam said, he sounded even more serious then Sonny usually did. "You were in our shoes once and you weren't sure what to do." Her laugh was a dry one.

"Honey, I'm still in your shoes. And it's high time I got out."

~

Going with Misty wasn't the best plan to follow through with, but there was something about the way she was acting that put up no room to argue. Her favorite hangout was the town diner, she had enough money to get a large basket of fries for all of them to share. Silence fell over the four of them.

"So how do you know about Slappy?" It's wasn't that much of a question, more like a demand. Misty slumped forward a little, fry slowly stirring the ketchup. "It's kind of a long story." "The way I see it there's more then enough time, start talking." She barely winced, eating her fry with slightly shaking fingers. There was a pause before she sat back with a sigh.

"Awhile back, and I'm won't tell you the exact time because that's my business, I had an alrightish life going for me as foster kid. Another side to me you'll also never find out. Anyway, at some point the owners came up with this wise idea to sign a contract that allowed scientists to take kids as Guinea pigs in exchange for money. They needed it badly, the building was falling apart and there wasn't enough medications for the younger kids, so they signed away their safety. Two months later they picked me.

"I had a rough idea what to expect; being dragged away against my will, dying an unnatural and painful death. What I didn't expect was to survive, but I wasn't the same girl I had been before. My strength wasn't worthy of Superman but I was stronger and faster, I developed this habit to skitter up walls like a beetle and pounce on those that weren't expecting it. Eventually I grew hungry, and suddenly my games of hide-and-seek weren't so playful anymore. The scientists that formally cared for me as though I were their own turned their backs on me and treated me like a zoo animal. I tried to calm down, to go back to my previous ways, but the anger boiling growing inside soon got the best of me. So I attacked and escaped into the night.

"I was found by none other then R.L. Stine who was used to monsters for his own reasons and took me in. I never wanted to eat him, and I never did, there was still enough humanity in me to prevent me from doing so. But then something else that was a big problem kicked in; my endless curiosity and a desire to know all. So one day I...did some investigating. And that's how I met Slappy.

"Like you guys I thought I could trust him, he was the first person I had met that made me feel like there really was a place out there where I belonged. He helped me out of problems I could never have conquered without him, and for awhile life was good. Then he...revealed his true intentions. Worst part was, with me not exactly normal to begin with he wanted me to help.

"I went down a dark path after that, he said what we were doing was for the best, that the people who mistreated me deserved to die. And I believed him. I was stupid enough to believe him and follow through. Then when all was said and done, I thought maybe I could send him back to the book, that was our agreement. And then he comes out with the worst news possible; he's fallen in love with me.

"It was never supposed to happen, I remember pretty clearly how I screamed that; kill the people that made me hurt and then send him back into the book, that was the plan. But he had to come out saying he was in love with me and wanted to stay with me. I was frightened, by the power he had, what he could do with me if I said no, so I shut him up in the book. It wasn't until after I did when I realized how much he meant to me.

"That wasn't the last time we spoke, Stine sometimes brought Slappy out for his own revenge sequences, he thought he locked him back in at the end of them, but that dummy always did find a way out. Then he'd spend his days talking to me in my room and other secret places of our own. There was this almost awkward comfort I had when I was with him. You could say that I had fallen for him as well. Everything could've been fine if it stayed like that. Until he proposed.

"Our visits became significantly less often after that, I never said yes but the ring started appearing so often around the house that I put on anyway, I guess I just pitied him a little. Then there was that little incident in Madison, Delaware and...I never saw him again. I didn't want to. But I knew, I know, he never really stopped loving me."

The silence at the table was almost otherworldly, it was as though everyone was physically unable to speak. Casually, Misty rolled her head back to the front and looked at them.

"I made a mistake that haunts me to this day, the last thing I want is for someone else to go down the same road I did. You guys need me, and I need all of you, to get rid of that dummy."