"C'mon. You two, twerp." Her guest was nearly an afterthought. Susan's suggestion of koolaid was already in her brain. She didn't have it everyday back in her old life, but here she imagined there would be two different pitchers of koolaid in the same fridge. She hoped one of them was blue.

She climbed on the counter and brought down three glasses, then opened the fridge to find the tasty drink. Once it was poured, she handed one glass to Susan. She held on to the remaining drinks and turned to Junior.

"You want some koolaid, riiiight?"

Delilah opened the refrigerator:

Bright light poured out into the kitchen. Delilah could see that the three shelves in the refrigerator were all empty. The bars were white and pristine.

In the center of the refrigerator was a single pitcher of red Kool-aid. At least it looked like Kool-aid. It was perfectly shaped just like the Kool-aide character in the commercials.

Delilah was delighted to see the red pitcher in the fridge. It was perfect: shaped just like on tv and cold in her hands. Red was the best color.

But it was strange that the fridge was empty. Didn't Mom-Thing have to cook?

She pushed it to the back of her mind. She was focused on taunting Junior with the beverage, holding it out to him and pulling back when he reached out.

"Can I have some....?" Junior reached his hands out with all the hope and want of a baby mouse that might have found some cheese. It was predictable in a sense. Little kids always saw something they wanted and then reached for it.

Junior was so pathetic, it was disgusting. He was like a baby bird: all weak and gross and needy. Only, he wouldn't grow up into anyone with a spine. He'd just cry and eat worms all his life. People like that deserved everything they got.

"Well, since you really want it."

She tipped the koolaid over his head.

"But you should have asked for a glass of it, instead of just some."

His own fault, really.

OOC: Delilah Fault - Cruel. Delilah gains 1 Willpower.


"Huuuuu^uhhuuhhh!" Junior gasped as the Kool-aid poured all over him. His shoulders tensed up, the cold liquid streamed down his face which was twisted in surprise and horror.

"Ah!" He yelled a high pitch mouse squeak.

Then, he started to cry.

"Oh no!" Susan yelled. "The baby is crying. We gotta clean this up and get him outta here or Mom will find out!"

Delilah giggled and looked for Susan's reaction, but Suze was already griping about the noise and the mess. Delilah's laughter died. Stupid Junior. He couldn't even take a joke right.

"Gawd. It's just koolaid. I didn't hurt you or anything."

With a sigh and a grumble, she went to the sink for a dishcloth or paper towel. When she turned, she noticed that Junior hadn't followed. She threw her arms into the air and let them fall back to her sides with a slap.

"C'mon, Sad Sack. Don't just stand there. Not like I'm going to clean you up."

Junior didn't respond with words. He just sadly shuffled towards Delilah with silent acknowledgement and submission. His head hung low, perhaps to hide his face. It wasn't hard to see that he was crying by the way his shoulders bobbed up and down silently.

By contrast, Susan was all smiles. She strode passed Junior with a puffed up chest and a wide grin. "Baby's cryin'!" She announced.

"Whaaa! I've got Koolaid, Whaaaaa!" she mocked.

"Whaaaa! Change my diaper! Whaaaa!" She mocked again, this time grabbing the dish towel off of the hanger near the stove, she placed it on the floor and started to soak up the Koolaid, moving it around with her foot.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 02:07, Tue 16 Jan 2018.

And she didn't even have to clean the floor herself. Win/win.

Delilah sat on the countertop and flipped her hair to one side. She sipped her koolaid and smacked her lips. The only thing ruining her fun was Junior's bawling.

"Alright, that's enough of that. If you can't clean up here, might as well go home." She waved lazily back to the foyer. Junior could be his daddy's problem now.

It didn't take long. Junior began to shuffle out of the kitchen, his shoulders sunk in total defeat. Susan didn't even look at the kid as he passed her. She was too busy cleaning up the mess that was on the floor, using paper towels now.

Junior turned the corner in a sad, shuffle. His arms squeezed around his midsection, shirt colored a wet purple from the Koolaid, overall body giving a cold shiver every few seconds.

He turned the corner and then....

WHAM!

There was a strange sound a few seconds after Junior left the kitchen. The sound of something heavy colliding with another thing.

"What the heck?!"

Delilah hopped down from the countertop, leaving her glass close to the edge. It sounded like the little creep was slamming every door on the way out. She marched after him, jaw set, to put a stop to it.

But when Delilah turned the corner, she saw something much, much different than she had imagined. Junior was sprawled out, face down on the hardwood floor, arms bent downward. His legs were crossed in an awkward arch. A pool of red was spreading out beneath him.

"Oh no!" Susan said. "He froze to death!"

Delilah stormed out of the kitchen and to Junior's prone body. At first, she thought the dumb baby fell down and was too stupid to stand back up. Then she noticed the fluid spreading out from underneath.

She paled and back off a pace, kneading a length of hair in her hands. She squeezed her eyes shut and quickly counted her shallow breaths. Three. Two. One.

"MOOOOOOM!"

There were footfalls that seemed frantic on the second floor of the house. The movement of feet on the stairwell.



"Oh, my heavens." Mom said once she got down to the bottom step of one of the spiral staircases to see Ralph splayed out on the floor.

"Why, what on earth happened?" She turned her head to face Delilah, the grin on her face as wide, stretching at the skin along the side of her teeth and gums. The face was strangely without emotion, or perhaps too much. This seemed to disappear inside that expression.

A skulls grin.

Delilah shrank away from the terrible face leaning towards her. Now she was the baby. She could only point dumbly at Junior's back.

"I...don't... know..." She sniffled hard to keep from sobbing. Why did everyone have to stare right now? It wouldn't be nearly as hard if everyone weren't looking.

Delilah's Mom put one finger in the liquid on the floor. Then she brought it up to her mouth. It dribbled down her lips and neck.

"It's......KoolAid.??" She asked, questioning.

"Ummm....KoolAid." Susan looked at Delilah, trying to formulate away out of the potential situation, as if she knew that Junior being covered in KoolAid would be something that might get them both in trouble.

Delilah screwed her fist into her eyes and blinked hard. She wasn't about to cry. It was just the light in here was funny. She could have sworn that Junior was bleeding. Her mouth was dry and she suddenly felt very tired.

"Um...yeah. We had some koolaid," she said lamely. Dumping it over Junior's head was a great prank, but genius like that took time to craft. So did a good coverstory. She looked back to Susan, then down to the floor. If this had been Real Mom, then her goose was cooked for embarrassing her in front of guests. Delilah wasn't sure at all what would happen now.

"Uh, hey, Junior? Are you okay?"

Junior slowly turned over after Susan poked him slightly. His left arm passed over his face and his head turned to the side...

His eyes were wide open, eyebrows drawn upward. There was a leering smile on his face that stretched so far back that Delilah could see not only his teeth, but his gums as well. His left foot began to kick outward in a twitch. A spasm passed through the right side of his face, rippling through that unnatural smile.

"Ha."

"Ha."

"Ha."

"Ha."

Junior's face seemed to say the words in short, stabbing syllables.

A sick sensation clawed its way through Delilah's guts as she watched Junior's convulsions. Every possible punishment for embarrassing her mother flew out of her head. Junior was changing. Delilah stepped back a pace.

"Sue! Get back! Something's wrong with him? What's wrong with him?" She looked up to her mother and Junior's dad and wished they could set him right. They were grownups. They were supposed to know stuff about sick kids. What befell Junior didn't look like any ordinary sickness, but still! Grownups were supposed to take charge and do something.

"What?" Susan said, seeming less alarmed than Delilah. As if Delilah didn't understand what was happening, or maybe Susan didn't understand what Delilah was getting at.

"He's laughing." She said, pointing at Junior's body. She said it in a manner that seemed to indicate 'we're off the hook' or 'we're not gonna get in trouble.'

"See. Junior knew it was a joke all along." Susan lied, looking up at the Mom-Thing and Junior's Dad.

"I'm really sorry about the whole thing." The Mom-Thing said as Junior and his Dad walked to the door a few minutes after all of the commotion.

Junior still had that out-stretched smile on his face. He was holding his Dad's hand. His face was a contorted mask just like Delilah's Mom. His gums were pink, his cheeks peeled back like he had some dental clamp pulling back on his face.

All this, and no one seemed to notice but Delilah.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:44, Sat 20 Jan 2018.

All she wanted was to have a laugh on Junior. He got up grinning. But the joke wasn't funny. Delilah at his awful face while Susan covered for the prank. She was still rooted to the spot when the guests were seen to the door.

What did it mean? Was The Smiling catching? If so how, how had Susan not catch it already? And how could they keep it away?

Susan and the Mom-Thing said goodbye to Junior and his Dad, not seeming to notice the obvious change on the boys face.

This all occurred as those questions were swirling around in Delilah's head.

OOC: End thread