Chapter 4: Confusion and Dismay (appropriately titled, no?)

The girls walked into Marie's house passing the den filled with empty alcohol containers and equally barren pizza boxes. They stopped just short of the kitchen which currently housed a couple of stolen pigs and a mountain of dirty dishes. They chose instead to climb the stairs on the right side of the hallway making a right at the top of the stairs and continued past a bathroom that looked like it belonged to a truck stop and a hall closet that creaked ominously as they passed it. They arrived at Marie's room door and the azure haired girl unlocked the two padlocks and swung the door wide for her sister.

Marie's room (unlike the rest of the house) was spotless and well-lit. She had a bean bag chair set in the right corner and a hammock in the corner farthest from the door. There lay a shelf filled with all sorts of books from the academic to the psychological horror to comic books in mylar bags, with the odd romance novel here and there. Tacked up above the hammock was a poster of "The Alchemists of Rock". Beside the wicker doored closet sat a flat desk with several half-finished drawings lying under a sparse layer of art supplies and finished works tacked up above it with nails. She plopped down the bundle of clothes in the closet with a resounding 'whump'.

May looked around the room. "You know if you took care of the rest of the house as well as you take care of this room it wouldn't look so terrible."

Marie sighed "Yeah but then I'd have to cancel my thrice weekly party."

"Where did the pigs come from?"

"At some point I just leave them to their fun and don't ask any questions. I only really attend one party a week and I don't drink anything but soda that I labeled to look like beer with that new graphic label printer."

As May was preparing to retort a gasp was heard from the bundle of clothes in the closet. As the girls watched the bundle leapt up and most of the clothes fell away to reveal a scrawny lad in a lab coat. "EUREKA!" he screeched whipping out a pen and beginning to scribble on a bare piece of the nearby wall. "It's all so simple now the solution lies within the nuclear theories of doctor Scliver. Simply put 6 multiplied by the principle amount of the solution to the equation the answer is not as I had previously estimated sixty-four but rather fifty-nine. This would explain the advanced growth in size rather than brain function. Thus applying from a different location and utilizing a different synthesis. Perhaps Isotope-275 rather than Isotope-562. Thus brain advancement is initiated without the growth of the mind breaking through the exoskeleton of the skull."

As the lad finished his scribblings Marie screamed "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE!?"

The sock hatted boy turned slowly with a fearful look in his eye. "I'm terribly sorry I'm working on my newest project. And I fear that I have a tendency to neglect the world around me when I work on such things. It's a..." he trailed off looking around frantically "Where might I be exactly?"

Marie's face practically glowed a deep crimson color. "You're in my FUCKING ROOM!"

The boy fixed her with a wide eyed gaze glancing about the room from time to time "I'm s...so incredibly sorry, i... if I might speculate on my current surroundings. It seems quite apparent that despite your rough and tough it attitude that you have an extremely high intelligence quotient. If I were to warrant a guess...and I mean this in only the best of ways...I b...believe that you obscure your true intelligence. B...but I can't imagine why such a l...lovely young genius like yourself would pretend to be naught but d...dim and v...v...v..." at this point he paused and swallowed hard before whispering the last word "violent."

Marie's eyes narrowed to dagger-like proportions and she fixed the boy with a scowl before growling at him "I'm the blue haired demon of peach creek. I have a drove of party happy gangsters at my beck and call. And I can tell you the make and model of just about any car I come across along with how to fix it's many many problems. You tell me, do I seem like the type of girl who would let someone hit on her and live?"

"You needn't be so f...forceful if fright was truly what you wanted to inspire in me." He murmured glancing anywhere but at her.

Marie snarled and simultaneously grabbed the collar of his shirt and curled her fingers in his hair forcing his eyes to lock with hers. "Are you accusing me of something?"

"I apologize it was merely speculation not a statement of fact." His eyes darted around desperately catching a glimpse of the can label maker behind her. "A curious d...device. Constructed from mechanical pieces found within the c...confines of the j...junkyard I suspect."

Marie became even more agitated "How did you... do you want me to bash your skill in you little prick?!"

She freed him of her grasp and watched as he sprawled on the floor. She watched him shivering and it gave her pause.

As if on cue with this temporary cessation the room door burst open and a gangly boy with a stupid smile on his face burst through the opening in which the door once stood with a yellow lump on his back. "We are three once more." he yelled in delight.

"Come on sock head we're bustin' ya out."

The sock hat wearing youngster was whipped out of the room by his hand. "Delightful seeing you again m...Marie." He quietly muttered whilst bouncing down the stairs pulled along by the gangly boy.

May cocked her eye at Marie "That was weird. What do you think it was all about?"

Marie cocked a crooked smirk "I'm not sure but I don't think it'll be the last encounter we have with them. I wonder how he knew my name." Quietly the thought slipped into her mind 'That frightened expression, it was delicious. I wonder if I can get that shrinking violet under my thumb.' And it was at this point that the words accidentally slipped her lips. "A challenge worth seeing through to the end I think."

May cocked an eyebrow, "Did you say something Marie?"

But Marie didn't respond and instead buried her nose in a nearby book not really bothering to inspect the words contained within.

Okay this time I know it'll get better, renewed drive insures it. And more chapters will be added soon. As a show of good faith on this point I think it's best that I leave you with at least one new chapter so please click the next chapter button for your long overdue treat.