For Shits and Giggles (complete first draft)

Chapter 11

The faint drip, drip, drip echoing through the concrete building was unsettling.

Petunia had slammed her head back against the chair so much that she had knocked herself unconscious. In the midst of her screaming, she had urinated on herself, which in turn made her thrash and struggle against her restraints even harder. Now she sat in the chair, her body limp and hunched over, her legs dripping with her own piss.

Giggles had watched the entire thing happen. She was still sitting across from Sniffles who had taken several moments to continue writing in his notebook. He hardly noticed Petunia's suffering, it helped that they couldn't hear a thing through the glass.

"Hello?" Lumpy said, pressing a button on the cell's security pad that allowed him to hear into the cell. "Did you fall asleep, young lady? It's not night night time yet," he said, speaking into the pad. Sniffles shooed him away, told Lumpy to leave her alone. He didn't press the button again, and that's when Giggles noticed the relentless drip, drip, dripping from Petunia's cell. 

In the cell next to Petunia's were Lifty and Shifty, still as statues but smiling wickedly. Every few moments they would glance at each other, then at Sniffles, Lumpy, Giggles. They'd snicker to themselves and exchange looks only they could understand.

Those two had always been trouble makers, even as children. Giggles remembered back in high school, they were notorious for selling contraband on school grounds; gum, sugary drinks that weren't allowed in the vending machines, even school night concert tickets. They were in and out of the principal's office, and eventually in and out of jail. Never for anything serious, they weren't bad guys. They were fun to party with, to score the occasional blow or Mary Jane from, but they weren't the type of men you would let house-sit for the weekend either.

Lumpy finally walked over, setting a warm cup of coffee in front of them both. Sniffles looked up from his writing, pouring ample cream and sugar into his mug.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Lumpy went to sit down, missing the chair completely and falling ass-first onto the ground. He let out a yelp as the hot coffee pot spilled all over him. Sniffles looked annoyed as Lumpy ran off to clean himself around the corner, where presumably the bathroom was. He went to clean himself up.

If only Petunia was granted the same kindness.

"You'll have to excuse the Sheriff, the curse has made him a little bit..." Sniffles paused to think. "Daft."

"But anyway," He continued, sipping his own coffee before deciding it needed more sugar. With his pen, he shoved Giggles' coffee closer to her. With shaky hands, she grabbed the warm mug and brought it to her lips.

"The curse is in your eyes."

Giggles stopped mid-sip, coughing inside of her mouth as she heard his words.

"What... what does that mean," she said softly, her throat burning, heart pounding. It was those words that Flippy said to her that day in the park, the words that Splendid refused to talk about whenever she brought up her eyes.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Sniffles said calmly, flipping through the pages in his notebook. He read a couple of words to himself, paused, flipped a page, continued reading. Without looking up, he pointed toward one of the cells with his pen. There was a man that Giggles hadn't noticed until then, wrapped up in blankets. He was asleep.

"Flippy?" Giggles said, leaning forward for a closer look.

"That's correct. You see, he refused to work with me unless you were here."