"Come on Lars. I need a camera man. Peedee has to work and I need someone tall to get my angles."
"No."
"Please...anyway you owe me."
"For what?"
"Almost getting us eaten by that monster."
"Hey! You tried feeding me to it." Lars fumed with indignation.
"I was acting for the greater good." The young man explained calmly. He changed tactics. "That's beside the point. The point is I need your help."
This tense back and forth had been going on for some time. Luckily The Big Donut was empty. Lars and Ronaldo were free to continue bickering while Sadie did extra cleaning.
She was polishing a table leg smiling to herself. It was nice to see them at least talking to eachother. She decided to interject.
"Go with him Lars. It seems important."
Lars shot her a withering glance. Ronaldo beamed at him with expectation.
"No. "
"Lars, I'll give you the day off to help him. We're not busy anyways."
'Fine." Lars sighed dramatically. Ronaldo bounced with excitement.
"You won't regret this Lars. I'll give you full credit on my blog."
"Don't put my name anywhere near your website."he warned.
Sadie chuckled as they continued to argue out of the store. She was happy to have the peace and quiet when they left.
"Okay. Where is it?" Lars asked with boredom. They'd been trekking up the hill for a while.
"We're close now. I think just behind this rock." Ronaldo rushed ahead. Lars fumbled with the camcorder turning it on as Ronaldo crept behind a large boulder.
He focused the camera on an upside down bucket with a rock on top.
"That's it?" he said with exasperation. A loud thump rattled the plastic container. Something was inside. Lars shrunk back.
"Wait...what's in there? Ronaldo?" He asked trying to keep composure.
"Zoom in here." Ronaldo directed moving to grasp the lid of the bucket. Pink fingers began to push out of the opening.
"Jesus Ronnie!" Lars yelped. "What is that thing?"
"It's a hand. I found it up here earlier." He opened the lid all the way and the pink hand came scurrying out.
Lars dashed backwards. "Ugh."
"Lars come back. Get the shot." Ronaldo hissed in a whisper. Lars focused on the hand that was crawling up Ronaldo's forearm.
"Things just keep getting weirder." intoned Ronaldo switching into his presenter voice. "I found this hand wandering the cliffs of Beach City. But why?" He paused for dramatic effect, the hand was gripping his shoulder. "What does it want? I will now try to communicate with it." The hand moves into Ronaldo's curls. "Ouch." he says disentangling its fingers. He holds the hand at arms length. It grasps wildly at the air.
"Ew." Lars says zooming in on the hand. "That thing is nasty."
"Okay...okay" Ronaldo gets back into character. "Thumbs up for yes, thumbs down for no." The hand continues to stuggle.
"Are you here to destroy earth?" The hand grips Ronaldo's finger and bends it until he lets go.
"Obviously this race of sentient hands are powerful." he declares nursing his finger.
"Ronaldo, come get this thing." Lars says nervously as it grips his shoe. He tries to shake it loose but it continues to climb up his pant leg.
Ronaldo comes over but to take the camera from Lars' hands.
"You're doing great Lars." he coaxes and the young man tries to separate the fingers from his leg. It holds tighter."Awh. I think he likes you."
The camera continues to regard the new weird discovery.
"Uh. Ronnie." Lars begins as the hand circles his throat. "Ronnie." he says again more panicked. "Ronnie. Help!" the hand clenches into Lars' hair. He waves his arms frantically trying to pull it off.
Ronaldo comes rushing over, dropping the camera. It records the grass as the audio plays in the background.
Lars looks scared. Ronaldo grabs the hand yanking it. "Ow. My hair." hisses Lars. It reacts holding tighter.
"Oh no you don't" Ronaldo yells. "Get off of my friend!" He takes the hand and pulls back the thumb. It's grasp loosens enough for him to snatch it off. By instinct he flings it out into the grass. It quickly scurries away. Lars holds his head touching his hair making sue its still there. Ronaldo goes to pick up his camera.
"Well" he begins turning the camera to himself. "It seems we've lost our subject. The killer hand is out there somewhere now. Waiting..."
"Really?" Lars is heard angrily in the back ground. "I could have died."
"Keep Beach City weird!" Ronaldo shouts quickly turning off the camera as Lars starts to push him.
Lars narrows his eyes as Ronaldo pack up his gear.
'That thing was stupid." Lars complains.
""I didn't want it to hurt you. Sorry I dragged you up here."
"Well at least tried to save me this time." he says in a lighter tone.
"You bet. Lars you're my friend."
"Woah, don't get ahead of yourself there buddy. I'd call us acquaintances."
"It's a start" Ronaldo says chipper again.
They walk back down the hill.
"I won't put this up on the blog since you're on the tape and stuff."
"Naw. It's fine" Lars says. "People should know about the killer hand."