Thursday, March 20, 2014

~~FLOM: Chapter Seventeen--For the Love of Pancakes~~

I found myself in the base. Nothing had changed. In fact, I could see everyone. All of my troops were out there, lined up proudly. Slenderman was among them, but he barely moved when I came into view. In fact, none of them moved in the least. Swallowing, I walked towards them, and they looked up at me as one. "Hello, Mitchie!"

I died inside, and I looked weakly at Slenderman, walking towards him. He didn't move, and I just ran at him, hugging him insanely tightly.

That broke the spell.

Voices called out to me and running feet came to surround me excitedly, but nothing could ever get me away from the arms wrapping tightly around me as often as they could—and that was often. Nothing could distract my ears from the several heartbeats of my monstrous love. Nothing could ever raise my eyes from the hole in his suit that had been broken by Herobrine.

Slenderman just held me close. Finally, I managed to look up at him and he kissed me deeply. "You are so beautiful, Mitchie….One of these days I'm going to get you out of all of those hoodies and loose jeans, and get you into the kind of dress a girl like you more than deserves."

"The kind of clothes a girl like me deserves?" I asked, blushing vividly. "If you say a bikini with tassels, I swear I will kill you."

He laughed loudly, and even though he was faceless right now I just knew he was smirking at me. "You can be so funny, kid. I love that about you. It really is the best quality in anyone that I can ever remember meeting."

I shook my head. "You really don't get me, do you?"

He blinked. "Why do you say that, little one? Of course I understand you—you interest me and entertain me more than anyone else I have ever known. And I have definitely known a lot of people in my time—even if none of them lasted anywhere near as long as you and I. however, I am definitely glad you've lasted so long in my company. You are so sweet and kind, beautiful one."

I shook my head at him. "Shush, would you?"

He grinned, and picked me up and tossed me into the air. More used to this than last time, he caught me easily without me struggling in the least. I was now back in bridal style. He really did seem to like carrying me like this….Was this a sign of anything, or was I just going crazy?

"It's a sign of something, oh beautiful one…." Slendy whispered to me. He turned around, holding me gently in his arms, and ran with me into the base.

We got to the planning room unbelievably fast, thanks to how his body seemed to just stretch and stretch, every step he took covering dozens of meters instantly. After a few steps like this, I realized something very important: I got pretty motion-sick…..

Knowing I wasn't feeling well, he made sure that the last steps he took were smoother. Luckily for us both, the journey was as fast as I said earlier, and he put me down carefully on the table. "So, we need to think of tactics little one. How are we going to take on Herobrine? He's a lot more powerful than I am, and I don't really think that we'll get any help….That is, help from anyone not in our forces already."

I grinned at him, and I asked, "So who do we have here, anyways? I forgot the list."

He pulled out a really large sheet of paper, and started to name: "Haruhi from Ouran High School Host Club; Grell Sutcliffe, Sebastian Michaelis, Ciel Phantomhive, Alois Trancy, and Claude Faustus from Black Butler; Legolas from Lord of the Rings; Drizzt Do'Urden from the Forgotten Realms; Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Spriggs and Willy from Spriggs, a Halo 3 Machinima; various soldiers from Halo; Hiccup and Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon; Sylvaris from Heroscape; Odd Thomas from the book series of the same name; a mad scientist; all of the Potter Puppet Pals, even though I don't know how useful they'll be; and, well, me. As long as a good amount of dragons and other assorted beings."

I grinned. "Not a half bad army, eh?"

"Herobrine won't know what him. Hell, I won't even know what we're hitting him WITH…."

I rolled my eyes. I really didn't know either. However, I think I did know something: We were going to be hard as hell to beat.

"Where do you want the battle to take place, and when?" I asked. "I don't know this area well any more."

He tapped his finger against where his lips were—that is, if he had any at the time. He shrugged, pulling down a map. The base was centered with its back to a mountain, its depths entering deeply into the darkness. Herobrine's keep, in all its truly incomprehensibly massive glory, was really not that far. Through a pair path between a pair of mountains that Slenderman had marked down as impossible to scale. Once you travelled the seventeen hundred block long path, you reached a large lake. On the far side of that lake lay Herobrine's home.

I pointed to the entrance to the path. "That is where we fight."

Slenderman took the page from me, and looked at where I had pointed. "We'll need to get archers up there."

I nodded to him. "We have all those Halo soldiers….What kind of weapons do they have?"

Slenderman laughed and seemed to lighten up a lot. "Needlers."

I grinned very widely. Needlers were the best guns ever….The needles they shot blew up on impact, and they were also really pretty weapons. "Put them all up here. Get Sylvaris and Legolas up there. And….Really? We have Odd Thomas here? I just love him!"

He shrugged. "He won't be good in a fight, because of how much he hates guns, but god knows it's still cool to have him here. We can get him to cook for us—he really does make mean pancakes."

Pancakes.

That one word reminded me of something very, very important: I had not eaten in a large amount of time. My stomach rumbled echoingly, and Slenderman just laughed. He stood up and took my hand. "Come on, my love. Let's go get us some food to eat."

I nodded, and together we ran from the room towards the cafeteria. When we arrived, we smelled bacon on the fryer and heard cheery singing. It was the Potter Puppet Pals, doing their best to boost morale. I shot a thankful smile at them, knowing that even though they were probably not at all useful they still could sing.

And, sometimes, having some cheery music on was all you really needed to hear and have. It really did help out a lot.

Slenderman and I sat down at one of the tables. I didn't see many others—other than the Potter Puppet Pals, the massive mutant turtles from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were the only occupants. Unsurprisingly, they had pizza in front of them, something they were taking great delight in devouring and fighting over.

"I think we're gonna win, my love." I said quietly, looking over at him with hope. Slenderman extended his arms to me and pulled me close to him, kissing me softly.

He rubbed my back gently, and said very softly, "I have the most amazing feeling that you are right. But first…We need to get everything ready. Shall we go, when we're done eating?"

I nodded, and stomach rumbled again, reminding me of my need for food and the pancakes I had promised it. "Go get me some pancakes, would you?" I ask him, blushing quietly. He smiles and scampers off, determined to get me my meal.

I didn't wait very long for it to return to me, Odd Thomas evidently just as fast at caring for us as he was at caring for all of his devoted customers back in Pico Mundo. The plate was stacked high with pancakes, eggs, and bacon, and every last inch of it was drowned in syrup.

I had never seen anything more delicious in my entire life. I grabbed a pancake the second it was within my reach, and just shoved it into my face. Pure fluffiness entered my mouth—it was so light….I moved onto the bacon. Oh god it was perfectly crisped right to the point where it was going to become ash, and delectably perfect. I slammed it very deeply into my mouth, scarfing. In seconds, I managed to polish off three more pieces of bacon, a very liquidy egg, and another pancake.

It was about when I was midway through when I realized I was probably looking like a pig right in front of the guy I loved.

I stopped, looked up, and found that Slenderman had once again grown a face and was grinning from ear to ear. He was back to his handsome self, and I have to say that I kinda missed the white face of his. I was truly used to it by now, but then again….He kissed me very deeply, lapping up the syrup that soaked his lips. I blushed heavily. But then again, having his soft lips to kiss wasn't really that bad of a thing….

When he broke the kiss so I could breathe, he looked over at me with a smirk splayed across his face. "You really get into those kisses sometimes, kid. I like that a lot."

I blushed, looking down. Okay, that was edging into kind of personal territory. I really did like his kisses, but the fact was I kind of felt humiliated to love them so much. I had been kissed a lot in the past while, but the fact was I really didn't know how to react to any of the kisses that had been bestowed upon me. I of course kissed back, but right now….I don't know how many of the feelings I returned. I could feel the love in the kisses, but….I could also feel inside that I really didn't know how to love. I just felt kindness and a lot of happiness, but love? Other than for Minecraft, I didn't even know if I did ever—or would ever—feel love.

Slenderman looked into my eyes sadly, and I whimpered quietly, knowing that he had probably just read my thoughts. "Well, it's fine little one. I know this is new to you, so take as long as you'd like until you learn how to feel love like other people do."

With that, Slenderman stood up and left the room. I was left with my mouth dripping of syrup, a half-eaten plate of pancakes and eggs and bacon, and a large hole in my heart.

Slenderman was gone. I had hurt him. I had hurt the man I loved by thinking.

Biting my lip, I realized I had lost my appetite, and staggered to my feet. I left the plate there, and I was just about to leaf when a young man's voice questioned, "You didn't like my pancakes?"

I whirled. Sure enough, I spotted a rather plain looking young man with dark eyes and dark hair. He held out his left hand, and his right one held a spatula. I took his hand, and shook it, saying with wonder: "Odd Thomas?"

Odd nodded, and he pulled me into a quick, and a little awkward, hug. "Nice to finally meet you, Mitchie. I've heard about you."

I blushed, and smiled up at him. "I just love you. I really love you. You are one of the best people I ever know. You are amazing. You might be just a fry cook, but I love you and oh my god is Elvis with you?"

He was laughing quite a bit before I finished speaking. "I don't deserve your praise. I really don't deserve it."

"But you do….You see dead people, and by god, you do something about it."

He shook his head, before he just hugged me tightly and backed away a little. "You know me pretty well, don't you?"

I nodded. "I read all of your books! You are the best character ever!"

Odd Thomas stiffened. "Character? What do you mean by character?"

I stared. "You're….Just an interesting person I've heard of."

"And how exactly did you hear of me, Mitchie? And….What is this place? Where's Stormy?"

My heart decided it was going to die. He wasn't close to when Stormy died yet….Stormy was still alive….

She wouldn't be for long, and I knew he would never see it coming. "I….I can't explain, Odd. Can you go back to the kitchen? Everything will work out soon, I promise."

He opened and closed his mouth, but he didn't ask any more. Instead, he willingly went back to the kitchen and continued his cooking.

Feeling like I was going to cry, I left the room weakly and went to find someone else. I had a lot of planning to do, and not much time to do it in….

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