It was just a regular day for Manny. He was playing with his toys in their room while Harry and Robin were watching one of their favorite tv shows downstairs. Manny had never liked hearing the horrible things in those stories, they reminded him of their previous lessons, so he usually would take this time to play one of his special games. The games he used to play with that girl he had met in the woods. He had lots of fun with her but he couldn't remember her name. It didn't matter though, she was gone and there was nothing he could do about it. So he played with his toys and he felt happy. Of course, Robin didn't like him playing on his own, he was always worried that a teacher might appear and terrorise Manny, but Harry convinced him to let the boy play his games alone. After all, that was all he could do nowadays, use his imagination. Manny enjoyed it as much as he could. Today he was playing with these old action figures Harry gave him. He had asked where they had come from but Harry went quiet and didn't answer him. Manny didn't ask again. He liked the action figures, he could make them do cool things which fit each story he created perfectly. Right now he was making one of them drive a car around, crashing it into pillows which he set up as walls. Other than the hushed voices coming from the tv downstairs, it was quiet. Manny didn't like the lack of noise but ignored the unsettling atmosphere that was lingering in the room. Everything was fine, his game was going exactly as planned and nothing bad had happened yet. For once he actually felt relaxed, maybe things were going to go well-
"Are you playing a game?"
Manny looked up to see a small sketch book perching on one of the shelves, grinning at him. He dropped his toy, making it clatter in the plastic car. Why was she here? What was she going to do to him?
"Y-yes," he stuttered nervously.
"Hmm, looks boring, let's play something that's more creative," she said, hopping down from the shelf and landing on one of the pillows.
Manny slowly nodded, he was frozen to the spot, scared of the notepad who was prodding the car with her pencil. He would've called for Harry and Robin but he didn't want to put them in any danger, he wanted to keep them safe.
"Here, take my hand," she held a small hand out to him. He hesitantly took it and closed his eyes in fear.
He felt a light breeze blow into his face, it was almost as if they were moving.
"You can open your eyes now!" Sketch was poking her pencil right into his throat, he could feel it's point digging into his skin. As much as he didn't want to, he opened his eyes. He couldn't believe what he saw.
They weren't into the bedroom anymore, instead they were in a dimly lit room. Manny looked around in confusion, how did they even get here? In the middle of them room was a chair, a large pile of sticks, a colour wheel, a whiteboard with they drawing of a cloud on it and a box wrapped in a red bow. Far away a steel or a loudspeaker was playing music. Manny listened carefully to the song.
"Sun is shining in the sky,
there ain't a cloud in sight."
It was his favorite song from that film about the magical roundabout. He used to watch that when his dad locked himself in his room and watched his silly videos. At least it blocked out the strange noises coming from the next room. Manny loved that film so much, he didn't get to watch it anymore.
"It's your favorite song, isn't it? I picked it specially for you!"
The notebook still had that unnerving grin on her face. Manny swallowed back his fears and nodded.
"Anyways, take a seat, we're going to have so much fun!" she said, pulling him to the chair. He reluctantly sat down, listening to the words being sung.
"Mr Blue Sky, please tell us why
you had to hide away for so long, so long!"
Sketch first dragged the colour wheel over to him, the colour green had been scribbled out harshly with red marker. Manny felt sad that his favorite colour still wasn't acceptable in her eyes. Every single time she taught them, she made sure to mention how uncreative the colour was to him, trying to make him feel horrible for even liking it. It always upset him.
"You remember the colours, right? Of course you do, I remind you every time!" Her voice sounded more dangerous, it made Manny shiver.
Their last lesson with Sketch had been about the colours of the rainbow minus green. It hadn't ended well but their lessons never ended well.
"Go on, name them!" her voice returned to its usual over joyous tone.
Manny remembered all of them, she had driven their names deep into his skull.
"R-red, orange, yellow, gr-" he stopped himself when her smile twitched a little,"b-blue, indigo, violet?"
"Aww, you did remember them. Looks like I won't be ripping out your eyes after all!"
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He had just managed to dodge the bullet now but he had no idea what was in store for him next. The little notepad collected some of the sticks from the pile, they were bigger than the ones she used in her first lesson. Each stick had been turned into large spears, their sharp points painted red with blood. Manny could feel himself begin to panic but tried to calm himself down by concentrating on the music in the background. The music made him happy.
"Hey you with the pretty face,
welcome to the human race!"
"I know something creative we can do with these!" Sketch's voice drowned out the words," try not to scream."
Suddenly, she grabbed one of the spears and without hesitating, dug it into his leg. Blood started to gather on his yellow skin. He couldn't tell how deep it had gone. He looked away and went to bite his hand so he could distract himself from the pain but he couldn't move his hand. He didn't even notice the ropes tied around his wrists and ankles. He wasn't getting out of here anytime soon. He pulled on his restraints but they were too tight.
"Does that hurt?"
He nodded, still keeping his eyes off of the new wound.
"Brilliant!" She giggled, reaching for another stick.
This time, she pressed the point into his forearm and dragged it down, etching a long thin line into his skin. Blood started to spill out. Manny could feel the scream preparing itself in his throat but he held it back, if he screamed then he'd be punished. He could tell that Sketch was enjoying this a lot.
"I think that's enough," she said, pulling the large stick out his leg and throwing both aside.
She picked up the whiteboard and handed it to him.
"You can ignore that," she rubbed the cloud off so it was clean. She then shoved a pen in his hand," draw something for me. If I like it then your next surprise won't hurt too much."
Manny uncapped the pen with a shaky hand and started to draw one of his favorite things, a clown. He was quite happy with it and he hoped that it wouldn't hurt too bad.
"Show me!" Sketch snatched the whiteboard from him. Her face fell.
Manny watched nervously as the smile slowly crept back onto her face. The notebook suddenly snapped the drawing in half. He winced as the sound of the cracking wood echoed through the room.
"It's okay, our final game will be so much fun and it's the most creative yet!"
The music was a little louder now.
"Hey there Mr Blue,
we're so pleased to be with you!"
Sketch was now holding the box in front of his face.
"Go on! Open it!"
He untied the ribbon wrapped around it and lifted the lid off. Inside was a cake but Manny knew that there was a catch.
"If you eat this cake, then you can go home... but there's a little surprise inside," Sketch poked her pencil inside and cut out a slice. There wasn't a nice sponge cake underneath the icing but meat. Lots of meat.
Manny felt like he was going to throw up. Those parts looked so familiar, like organs. He remembered learning about the body with Stanley the lamb chop and Stacy the spinach can.
"Here, have some, it's delicious!"
"No! No, I don't want any!" He shook his head, trying to keep the cake away from his mouth.
"Then I'll make you eat some!"
Sketch forced the food into his mouth. It felt disgusting and slimy, he hated the feeling.
"Swallow it! Now!"
So he did and this went on for ages. Just as he felt like he was gonna throw it all back up another piece was rammed down his throat. It felt horrible in his body, it didn't belong there. He didn't want it there but he couldn't stop it. He was trapped here until he ate it. So he listened to the music, tried to find his happy place while this torture happened.
"Mr Blue you did it right,
but soon comes Mr Night!"
It was a safe song, it took him back to the days where he would sit on the living room floor, playing with his toys while that film was on the telly. He loved that film, it was such a fun film. What happened in it?
"Creepin' over,
now his hand is on your shoulder."
There was that girl and her dog, what was her name again? Florence, that was it! And she lived near this magical... roundabout? Yeah, she did and they had lots of fun until the bad guy came along and froze all the children inside the roundabout. Then the animals had to go defeat him so they could all be free. It all went wrong at first but then it went well and they managed to defeat the bad man, freeing the children and they all lived happily. That was the end. Manny hated that it ended.
"Mr Blue Sky, please tell us why
you had to hide away for so long, so long!"
He also loved this song, it reminded him of ice cream and sunny days, the beach and the ocean, the fields and the flowers, beautiful flowers. The ones he used to pick with his mummy before she left them
"Look around see what you do,
everybody smiles at you."
"Wow, you finished it all! Good boy!" Sketch threw the box away.
Manny looked down at himself. He was covered in blood and he was an absolute mess. His leg now felt numb and he couldn't move his arm at all even though sketch had already untied him.
"While it would be fun for me to keep you here, you need to go home. You need some sleep. I'll see you soon Manny, I'm so excited for our next lesson," she clicked her fingers.
Manny was now back in their room, in absolute agony. He was lying in the floor by his toys and his blood was already pooling on the carpet. He could feel the meat moving around in the stomach, he knew the only way it was going to go was up. He tried to get up but he was too weak, he wouldn't be able to walk anyways. So instead he dragged himself to the bathroom, tired, sick, injured. When he got there the bile was already reaching his throat, it burned. Manny quickly held onto the toilet, lifted himself and threw up all of the organ cake. It hurt so much and when he was finished he just lay there on the floor, singing to himself.
"M-Mr Blue Sky, please t-tell us why
you had to h-hide away for so long, so l-long."
"Manny?"
He looked up to see Robin standing in the doorway. He smiled when he saw his friend, he was safe.
"Harry! It's Manny, he's hurt!" he called down to the other one.
Harry was upstairs in a matter of seconds, concerned for his little friend. Yes, Manny was definitely safe. Harry walked over to Manny and picked him up. The boy felt light headed, he knew he was going to faint but he knew he would be alright.
"It's okay kid, we're gonna clean you up, then your going to bed," Harry said.
He couldn't wait, literally, he was going to faint but before he did, he had to sing one final line of his favourite song. The one that made the most sense.
"Where did we go wrong?"
