Anxiety
Collab with Dusty The Inncoent Chapter 2
Disclaimer: Claudia is Dusty The Inncoent's original character. Neither of us own any characters from Little Shop of Horrors.
The coffee shop was busy but it did not take Ronette too long to notice Claudia sitting in a back booth hugging her teddy bear. Luckily it was just about time for her break. She slid in to the seat across the table from Claudia
"Hey sweetie pie. Shouldn't you be at the store?"
Claudia nodded
"Why aren't you there?"
Ronette noticed that Claudia looked visibly shaken and that she had bruises on her arm
"I'm too scared to be there by myself."
"What happened to you? You have bruises all over your arm. No one tried rob the store did they?"
Claudia shook her head.
"Then what happened?"
A torrent of tears immediately rushed down her face.
"I went to feed the Audrey II and it tried to eat me. That's where the scratches are from."
Ronette look confused.
"Honey, Audrey II is a plant. Plants don't eat humans."
"This one does apparently. It said something about not eating since 5 days ago."
The wheels were turning in Ronette's head.
"Mr. Mushnik disappeared on Saturday."
Claudia nodded "I know. Seymour said he was the last person to see him alive. Ronette you don't thinkā¦"
Ronette finished her sentence silently and got up from her seat slid into the booth next to Claudia.
"Do you think you should talk to Seymour about it?"
" I want to. Oh Ronette, I'm so scared."
Ronette pulled her into arms and rubbed her back comfortingly. "Don't you worry. We'll get this all figured out."
"Can you come back to the store with me and talk to Seymour?"
"Definitely."
Ronette was not even sure how to comprehend this or begin to think about what she'd say to Seymour.
Seymour came back to the store after running his errands to find Claudia's back pack open in front of Audrey II's pot but no sign of Claudia. He feared the worst. He had a brief anxiety attack but a few seconds later Claudia and Ronette walked into the door.
"Claudia , how could you leave the store unattended like that? Someone could have easily robbed us."
Claudia looked at the floor slightly ashamed.
"Seymour, don't worry she was at the coffee shop. She just had a frightening experience and wanted to talk to someone about."
"Did someone try to rob the store while you were here alone?"
"No." Claudia barely whispered.
"What happened then.. and what are those scratches on your arm?"
Claudia burst into tears.
Seymour was completely confused
"Seymour, Claudia told me that Audrey II tried to eat her up." Ronette said
Seymour's heart sank. He didn't think not feeding Audrey II for 5 days would result in this happening⦠not at all. His anger turned to concern immediately.
"Are you alright?"
Claudia shook her head.. tears pouring down her face.
Ronette looked at Seymour. "How long have you known Audrey II eats human blood?"
It was Seymour's turn to bow his head in shame.
"Since it attacked Mr. Mushnik five days ago. I tried to save him.. I really did but the plant won the battle"
Do you realize you're putting a lot of people's safety at risk by not telling anyone?"
"No."
"Oh Seymour, I was so scared. I didn't know what to do. " Claudia said
Seymour scooped his cousin in his arms and rocked her.
"Don't worry baby. I'll never leave you alone in the store with this monster again."
Ronette and Seymour looked at each other
"What should we do about this?" Seymour asked
"First of all I think we should close off the store from viewing the Audrey II at least for a week." Ronette said.
Seymour nodded
Claudia piped in "Then what do we do.. kill it?"
"Possibly." Ronette said
'It would relieve a lot of my anxiety." Seymour thought to himself.
