Bellflower Part 39 (Patreon)

In this installment,  Marissa has a hard time adjusting, Rachel finds out her mom's a snitch, & Deidre goes just a little crazy.

Was easier to work on than last time but only had so much alone time to actually work on it. While we don't get more of Rachel & Camille in this one so much, rest easy. There will be more we'll be exploring there in the very near future. Mostly, I'm just trying to lay groundwork for places I was looking to go moving forward. Hope to have art for you guys soon too!

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39

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The celery had a fresh, crisp snap to it. It even might have been something that sounded appealing to some people. But not Marissa. And definitely not any more.

The further removed she was from her little… episode, the more abundantly clear it became to the goth just how much she had allowed herself to slip. And the other part of the time she wasn’t feeling some level of shame over that, she spent just feeling… well… big. 

Nothing fit her any more. At least none of the things that made her feel like her usually. Just her pajamas & sweats. And even then, only because of the room the elastics some of them had to spare. And she felt a lot clumsier, constantly bumping into everything. The softer flab of her belly protruded out even more now, to the front & a bit to the sides. It was almost like the buffer to a bumper car & she wasn’t entirely used to it, still. Even now, it made her self-conscious how much she had to smoosh it into the counter to reach to chop up her “lunch.”

The biggest bummer of all though? To her? Was losing her ability to be, shall we say, frivolous with her diet. After what happened? Letting herself go, even for as brief a window as it was? It felt like she couldn’t afford to be any more.

Carrots? Celery sticks? Sometimes with peanut butter on the occasions she did feel like being an extra bit naughty? They did little to bring her any joy. And worse yet? Given how constantly hungry she was now, they did little to even satisfy her! And she was going through them like crazy.

Was this… it? Was this going to be her life now? Constraint? Temperance? Saying strict with herself? All in the face of overwhelming desire? Using one of her thick arms to lean against the counter, she ran a freshly cut green stick through the creamy peanut butter & snapped it off in her teeth with a gradually sinking expression. It tasted the same as the other dozen or so times she tried to hold herself to them today. The same way it always did, forcing her to ask herself out loud: “What’s the fuckin’ point?”

It was late by the time Rachel found herself staring at her sister’s front door. Out with Camille, the two had lost all track of time. She didn’t have to stare long though. With its typical soft hiss, the door to the condo slid open without her having to raise a finger. Something she still wasn’t entirely used to.

"Holly?" Rachel asked timidly, hesitant to step inside for a brief second. She knew it was at least about an hour too late by Holly’s usual standards. But as she looked inside, the lights seemed to all be still on. The TV flashed shots from some horrid reality show programming that certainly seemed like Holly’s fare. But it was seemingly switched to mute.

"Holly is sound asleep on the couch, Miss Rachel." Penny projected with a lower volume. “Do be mindful.” It came from more in the hall behind her than inside the unit itself. The AI also sounded a bit curt about it. More matter of fact. Which was fine by Rachel. “Samesies.” She thought in regards to the evil machine.

Sure enough, Holly had passed out in something, by her own standards, of a big slovenly heap. Mechanical arms swooped in to deal with the two empty trays of the same double helping of "lean" tv dinner on the coffee table in front of her. But precariously perched atop her soft round gut, a mostly eaten, seemingly recently purchased carton of ice cream. A gallon, not a pint. Rachel carefully took it up from off of her, worried the half inch of residual "soup" would’ve spilled out from any errant toss or turn. Holly kind of let out a snort before retreating deeper into her dream with a mutter. One Rachel presumed had to be about food. She reapplied the lid to the ice cream carton & went to shove it back into the freezer. Despite the fact that it was probably spent.

“You & Miss Camille certainly seemed to enjoy each other’s company.” Rachel’s pace slowed a few feet from the freezer door. While at a lower volume, it was crystal clear the machine’s aim was to catch her off guard & make her get paranoid. But Rachel was in no mood to give it the satisfaction. 

“Look,” she huffed with deep frustration, while trying to respect not going above a certain volume. “It’s too late for all the mind games.” Her eyes rolling side to side, not sure where to look in order to address the thing. “But yeah! As a matter of fact, despite being disgustingly well-off, she’s actually kind of a sweet girl. And she helped me salvage what for all intents & purposes, what was looking to be a garbage, piece of shit day. But garbage, piece of shit day or not, that day is now over. So right now? I’m going to go in, wipe off my makeup, & brush my teeth. Okay? In the meantime, can you please just hoist my sister’s fat ass off the sofa & get her to bed so I can just lay down & get some fucking sleep?” She started toward the bathroom door assertively.

“Oh.” The machine stabbed, indicating something coy was to follow. “So now you actually need me to care for your sister?” Rachel fought the urge to take the bait. She certainly wasn’t guilted by the thing. But she needed to clap back.

“Oh, I’d happily help her to bed if I could.” She wrenched up the spite & sarcasm. “But in case you haven’t noticed, it turns out, thanks to you, she’s way, way too heavy for me to even think about trying to lift. So c’mon! Use those arms! Chop chop, ro-bit!” She snapped, punctuating each “chop” with an accompanying clap, as if she was impatiently trying to get a waiter to hustle. Only she was just a bit too distracted to constrain her claps.

“Rach’...?” A beleaguered Holly muttered. Rachel grit her teeth.

“Yeah, Hol.’” 

“Snuh… snizzisssh.” She muttered from her half-awake daze. Just aware of her enough to remember she had reason to be upset with her for some reason.

“What…?” Rachel squinted, from the door to the bathroom.

“Snizzish tattle.” Holly grumpily huffed from her heap on the couch. “Fuh’un tattle...tale.” It was hard to piece together but it was clicking for Rachel. Somehow, she must’ve known about her trying to tell mom. Fuck, did mom send her the picture? That would totally be just like her! “M’not… fffuh…faaah...” She waited to hear if Holly was going somewhere but she seemed to drift back off.

“I don’t have time for this. Not now.” Rachel pinched her temples & brought her thumb & index to meet over her eyes. “Penny, she’s your occupant. Or owner. Or whatever. Do what you’re supposed to be programmed to do & take care of her, wouldja? Assist her! Fuck, at the very least, make sure she just doesn’t fall back asleep in that position. She’ll be stiff all day tomorrow.” It was hard for her to conceal her concern in the last, slightly softer spoken sentence she tagged on at the end.

“Yes, Miss Rachel.” The bot said, the words loud, clear, & soaked in disdain. “Come along, Miss Holly. Let us get you better situated for the evening.” As mechanical arms mobilized towards Holly, Rachel shut the door to the bathroom behind her, dreading the actual talk they were probably going to have about this the instant Holly was of the right mind. Probably just a few, short hours from now in the morning. She leaned back against the shut door, exhaling.

“For fuck’s sake,” she recoiled under her breath, her shoulders drooping even lower than they already had. She needed to get to bed. Despite only coming home now, she did have work tomorrow after all.

But in her moment of hesitation, through the ensuite door, she heard Holly’s voice muffled softly through the door.

“Penny?” she still sounded dazed. “Am I… too… too… fuh…” it seemed as though she couldn’t reach the word. And being half-awake like she was, it’d probably upset her if it did. But Penny, of course, had an answer at the ready.

“You seem perfectly healthy to me, Miss Holly.” As Rachel felt a heavy plodding step not too far outside the door. Shit bit her tongue, but couldn’t help rolling her eyes. 

“Fucking bitch-robot.” She muttered, again under her breath, but not entirely sure if it was completely unheard while instinctively reaching for a faucet nozzle, but forgetting the sink was sensor based. With the reality & gravity of the situation there once again biting her on her unfortunately larger ass, for just the briefest of seconds, she thought back to the welcome respite her time with Cami offered. Snooty, shy-valor-stealing rich girl with bad taste in smelly cheeses or not, Rachel smiled wryly.

After tossing & turning for quite some time, Deidre just admitted to herself that she couldn’t sleep. And although she had gotten better the past few weeks about being able to recognize it, the nagging hunger pangs in her stomach were keeping her awake. And that made her mind race.

“Is something the matter, Miss Deidre?” Penny asked as she suddenly sat up & flung the covers off of herself.

“Uh… I don’t need you right now, Penny.” On the spot in this situation, she felt a little caught off guard. “I’m fine. Honestly.”

After her little outing with Fran earlier, Deidre came home a complete wreck, sloppily leaving her sweaty clothes in a pile on top of her hamper before showering & collapsing in front of the tv for the rest of the evening. But she hadn’t given the thing Fran had given her a second thought.

“Are you positive, Miss Deidre?” A seemingly skeptical Penny checked in.

“P-positive.” She stuttered, finding the slip of paper in the still, unsettlingly damp fabric of her top from earlier. It was a good thing Penny hadn’t tried to attend to them for her first, she sighed with some relief. Straightening out over her hamper, she very cautiously unfolded it only as much as she had to. She didn’t quite know if Penny could even get a bead on it in the dark room, but she kept it close & secretive.

Looking at the diagram. It took her a few seconds to get her bearing. And remembering the addendum that it was probably flipped horizontally to her own unit’s layout. But she waved her finger along to look at her bedroom. Specifically, the area right near her bed. X’s, squares, & circles were scrawled all around it, & in the corner of the page was a little glossary. “Cameras. Speakers. Sensors. Arms.” Deidre grit her teeth. On the one hand, she felt like she was going absolutely nuts. Was she really considering this? Right now? On the other? She felt so… so… violated. And betrayed. And… hungry. She noticed that two of the speaker symbols, looked as though they would be situated right at the corners of her bed’s headboard. She had her new phone, so she knew it wasn’t the app any more. But were these the speakers that kicked out that… sound?

Very gingerly, she gave the wall a light wrap of her knuckle around that location.

“Miss Deidre…?” Penny almost seemed to lurch. Deidre put up a finger off to the side, as if to shush the thing, before knocking just a few centimeters to the left. And then a few centimeters to the left of that. But this time, there was the subtlest difference to the noise. “Are you worried about something in the wall, Miss Deidre?” Not that it was all that hard to surmise, but the machine was catching up. “I think you will find a lot of what lies beyond the drywall is part of my hardware to maintain my necessary daily funct-”

Deidre’s wrapping knuckle suddenly became the clubbing underside of her fist as she gave it a hard, stiff pound, cutting the robot off. Something seemed to rattle slightly, piquing her intrigue.

“Miss Deid-” before Penny could even finish her reprimand, Deidre did it again. Harder still. Enough to wake the dead, but not injure her own hand. “What has come over y-” Again. This time, the drywall dented, cratering just a bit under the force. She was getting somewhere.

Then, without warning, something hit Deidre. Not tangibly. But enough to shake her focus. It was accompanied by an audible, unruly rumble. She was suddenly hit with an urge to eat so strong, she almost felt hollow. It took every bit of her wherewithal to remember what it was she was doing & not just run to the kitchen. She had to physically shake it off & will herself to keep going. She raised her fist back up, unsure if she could even muster enough force behind it given the hunger this time. She wasn’t going to be able to hold out long. She was fading fast. She tried to put all her attention on getting through the drywall, but everything else was demanding she eat. She swung her fist, this time with a lot less regard for it.