Who else wants to have someone lie on their chest?


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…
It was already dark in the evening, and Flora had finally finished closing her last bag. In preparation for her “short” stay away from her Mom, she ended up with three, REALLY large bags. While this may have been excessive if one where to ask someone, according to Flora, everything was in fact necessary. That is to say, she really made sure to keep only the essentials, including hygiene products, change of clothes, school materials, her toys, few pieces of silverware, medicine….something else, she kinda forgot what, but it was important too. Honestly, she did had to cut down by quite a bit, which was why it took her so long to prepare everything.
She checked the time, and it said eight thirty already. The person was going to come over anytime now and take her away to a new home that her mother had rented since earlier that month. Apparently, Mom said it was due to new business opportunity she found, thought Flora couldn’t be sure. Sadly, she was already late trying to convince her to not do it, since she got the news literally in the middle of the day, and her Mom STILL hadn’t answered the phone.
Thus, she had to take drastic measures. Sometimes, you’ll have to do stuff suddenly for the good of others, no? And so, she took in a new decision, based partly on the stories she heard from her best friend spirit. Whom, by the way, was sitting by Flora, looking pretty uneased by the younger one’s actions.
“I take it you are ready, Flora?” Rose asked.
“Oh yeah, I think, I am.” The deer looked out the window. “Are they here?”
“The other’s have been waiting for half-hour,” Rose answered.
That long? Flora grimaced, realizing maybe she took too long with the bathroom.
She grabbed all three bags and started pulling them. Her mother has yet to answer any of her phone calls, so she might as well go ahead with her decision, no more turning back. After third attempt to lift them off the ground failed, she considered for a second that maybe she overdid it. But then she decided to carry one on her person and two others by arm. With a heave and a sigh, the bag was now pulling on her back. She reached out for the two others, making Rose look worried and wonder how she should help.
“Alright, Flora, you can do this!” Flora pepped herself, before using all her strength to pull them with her. It was only half a foot, but at the very least, they were definitely movable.
“Are you sure with this?” Rose asked.
“I am stronger than I look, Rose.”
“I did not mean the bags…”
“Well…I am stronger than I look!”
Flora to reach the hall after a minute and the stairs after two. By the time she was at the stairs, which was pretty high, thin, and spiralled as you went down, Flora took a breather. She then continue on with her way to freedom, much to Rose’s growing concern.
As she went down the step, making sure to carefully slide the two bags in without hitting against the step, all the while trying to keep balance with the heavy bag on her body, Rose couldn’t help but slightly grimace herself.
When Flora finally took another breather, she interjected herself in and said,
“Whilst I do not disagree necessarily, Flora, with your decision, I do have one question: will keeping it from your mother won’t push her into something far more extreme?” Rose looked straight into young deer’s eyes, trying to communicate the potential future drawback.
“Look, if I won’t go away now, who knows how I’ll get back to others! Also, she wouldn’t really listen to me,” Flora retorted rather sullenly. Plus, she thought, if she really did care, she’d come after her herself later instead of sending someone else. “By the way,” she asked, “can you see if someone is outside?”
Rose complied and moved swiftly next to the windows.
“It is still clear,” Rose stated.
“Good,” Flora nodded and continued going down. She was reaching halfway point, and could hear louder and louder how her favorite porcelain lamp (It was her nightlight!) kept banging against each step. “This better not break anything…”
Then with the next step, she heard a crackling sound of something breaking.
“…Okay! Guess we’ll figure it out once we’re there!!!”
Rose shook her head. She couldn’t help but feel bad for Flora.
…
“She should be out now….any minute…”
Chester checked his watch again, lent to him by Tom of course. The tomcat himself didn’t go along with them though, saying that he was too busy looking after his mother. So, he mainly accompanied by Barbie and by “Pierre”. Barbie, because she was the one who will take Flora later, and “Pierre”, because apparently that kid was so sleep-deprived that he still hasn’t woken up. Fotia, of course, didn’t mind as he got to do something fun instead of staying in someone’s head for the whole day.
“I must admit, it is perplexing to see Fotia as the smaller one here,” said Azure, who also accompanied the kids.
“I agree, and it is QUITE amusing,” Zamarad followed it up by giving laugh. Of the two spirits, she clearly had more fun there.
Fotia, without a beat, retorted, “Amuse yourselves all you wish, but I did find a way to bring myself back! Now all that’s left is to access my power and I shall lay waste to those pitiful miscreants that you call Lord Vaco’s army!”
This made Zamarad chuckle again, “I do wish to see you handle those pitiful miscreants as you are now.”
“Perhaps then, but I should make a bet with you that I can lay them flat even in this body before you can take care of one.”
“Good luck with that! Especially since you were too late anyways!” Zamarad laughed again. It was clear these two had a competitive history with one another, Chester realized.
“Is it weird to you to have another body, Mister Fotia?” Barbie suddenly asked.
“Why not at all, small-Zamarad!” Fotia answered. It was actually how he had been calling them for a while now. Chester was “small Azure” and Tom was “round-Kage”. “It was almost as if I never died!”
“Guys, we’re kinda in the middle of something…” Chester finally interrupted them.
“Do forgive us,” Zamarad said, still wearing a huge smile, “one cannot always have the opportunity to see the biggest of blockheaded be given a chance to change their perspective.”
“I suggest you to also try to be in such form. Rest assured, it is fun,” Fotia answered back.
Chester, ignoring the whole conversation, peeked onto Flora’s residence again. The building was empty of cars, and from the looks of it, most of the lights were off. And yet, no matter how long, she just wasn’t coming out at all. It was getting more and more irritating by the second…
Then he heard something crash. It wasn’t loud, and it definitely happened close to them. This made Chester finally get out of the hiding spot and start moving to the entrance.
“Chester, what’s wrong?” Barbie asked.
Azure moved closer to Chester, both approaching the house in sync. You think it’s bad? Azure thought, to which Chester nodded. They couldn’t be too careful anymore.
Once reaching the door, the first he did was check behind himself and each side of the building. He then gave Azure a signal, who started moving towards the window. Lastly, the hedgehog gave two knocks on the door.
“Give me a sec!!!”
Chester immediately recognized Flora, before relaxing a bit.
“Um, Flora, it’s us! Remember the plan!?”
Chester turned the handle of the door and it easily opened. Inside he was met with an image of her lying on the ground, buried by her bags, struggling to get herself off the ground.
“I may have made taken too many things…” She said, once she saw Chester.
Chester, without saying a word to her, called in his friends. Soon, they were all trying to help her get up.
“Allow me, child-Rose, to carry this so-called ‘heavy’ baggage,” Fotia gave an exaggerated laugh, and went to grab the heaviest bag with one hand. He one pull, then after a heave, then another, then a third one, he managed to get it inch off the ground, and no more, before putting it down. Letting go of the bag, he exclaimed, “Has this boy ever lifted in his life!!?”
“Nah, I’m pretty sure he never did,” Chester noted.
“Just try not to break it, Pierre!” Flora said, dusting herself off from being under the bags, “I have a lot of important stuff in there, like both of my computers, lava-lamp, few of my winter clothes and-“
“What did you take with you!? Your whole wardrobe?” Chester pointed out.
“FYI, I made sure to cut it to a bare minimum! And anyways, what’s with Pierre’s weird speech pattern, is he preparing some speech or?” She looked at each one of them.
Chester nominated himself to explain.
“Long story short, Pierre released his spirit. Now he is possessed.”
“Oh.............huh?”
Both of them then turned when they heard a loud groan, with Fotia somehow managing to hold up one of the bags above his waist. “Woah!” He made a noise as his feet started losing their balance.
“Put it down, put it down!” Flora jumped to help him.
“Just take out your stuff already,” Chester said, as the bag got thrown onto the floor, and once again, from which they heard something crack inside. Flora looked more and more irritated. “C’mon Flora. Do you really think we are really gonna pull ALL of this with us!?”
“I hope you haven’t forgotten that bus still works, Chester,” Flora said matter-of-factly.
“Well I wonder if you have forgotten that it doesn’t work this late,” he retorted, deflating her.
“Wait what!? But it always works-”
“They announced today as early weekend, so it won’t come for another two hours!”
Flora’s mouth hanged open, before she went on to bite her lip.
“Well…..Urgh! Okay, maybe I was too stressed and haven’t thought too much on this.”
“Alright, so lets leave on bag.”
“No!” Flora yelled at Chester, who was taken aback. Sighing, she explained, “Look, I was stuffing everything quickly and I don’t even remember which one I put where!”
“Or maybe we can transform?” Barbie suggested. The kids look at each other.
They then looked at the spirits.
“I hold no objections!” Zamarad stated.
“None with me either,” Azure followed.
Rose nodded in agreement.
“Psshha!” Fotia exclaimed. “How about you all sit down and leave it all to me! I’ll carry these out in no time!”
“Pierre, I don’t think you should-“ Flora tried to stop him, but Fotia lifted the bag once again, and this time, immediately tipped over backwards.
By the end of it all, they went along with Barbie’s plan.
…