Carnival: Take A Bite

A young boy, barely 8, was rushed to the hospital. He was found unconscious on the beach, faintly glowing green. It was a while before the young boy was awake and aware. Despite some oddities, the doctors and nurse deemed him healthy. The chalked up his state up to blunt force trauma, exposure to some strange algae, and ingesting a large amount of salt water. A social worker was called to come in as the young boy was receiving additional treatment and evaluations. The social worker was warned that the child suffered from violent night terrors.

A social worker named Vicky Egan was greeted by a nurse. Vicky was escorted to the room where the young boy was. Just before entering, the nurse stopped Vicky. Vicky was warned that she should wait. The young boy was having a night terror. Vicky asked how they could tell. The nurse told her to listen. Learning closer to the door, Vicky was expecting to hear snoring. No. She heard clacking. Vicky attempted to open the door but was stopped by the nurse. The nurse instructed her to look through the glass of the door. So she did.

Vicky looked into the room. She saw a faint green glow obscured by the curtain around the hospital bed. Its humanoid shape gave her goosebumps. She could tell the clacking was coming from the figure. “How is…” she covered her mouth seeing the figure’s head snap in her direction. Everything about the figure was glowing except what was obviously the eye sockets and what appeared to be the teeth. Teeth that made it clear that they were the source of the clacking as Vicky could make out that they were opening and closing, rhythmically. Vicky couldn’t bring herself to look away. The nurse had to pull her away.

Hours later, once the clacking had stopped for some time, Vicky went into the room. She saw the young boy standing away from the bed, staring out the window in the direction of the beach. “Brock?” Vicky asked sheepishly. The young boy did not respond or move. “Brock Lee?” she continued as she stepped in closer, inquiring a response. The young boy’s head swiftly turned towards her. “That’s your name right? The nurses and your paperwork say that was all you said and responded to whenever asked anything. I’m Vicky. Vicky Egan. You can call me Miss Egan. I'm going to help you get home. You want to go home right? To see your parents? Maybe your siblings and friends as well? Maybe your parents are worried about you. Maybe they can help us figure out what happened to you? Do you know how to get home?”

Brock tilted his head and looked Vicky up and down. Strangely enough, he seemed to be sniffing at her. She asked him if he was hungry. He nodded. She shared her salad with him. Watching him eat with his hands, she noticed he actively avoided the tomatoes. She made a comment about all little kids being picky eaters. She reminded him that he should strive to have a balanced meal if he plans to grow big and tall. He paid her no mind. Vicky asked him where he lived. Seeing a green crayon on a desk, Brock walked over and sniffed it. Vicky discouraged him from eating it. Brock looked at her and simply drew on the wall. “Is that a village? In the middle of a forest?”

Brock nodded.

She took note of what appeared to be a dock. Brock walked back to the window and stared out into the direction of the beach.

“Do you… Do you live on the other side of the Gulf?”

Brock did not respond or move.

“... If that’s true… How did you get over here?”

A few days had passed before Vicky returned to visit him. When she did return she had an envelope with tickets for the local ship and other paperwork. As she entered she found him the same way as before. Brock was at the window, staring out in the direction of the beach. This time, his head appeared to be down. She made her way over and saw that he was looking down at a man that was looking up at him. She asked Brock if he knew the man. Brock nodded. Vicky exclaimed that that was great news. Vicky told him to stay there while she went to talk to him.

By the time she got downstairs, the man was walking across the beach. Vicky chased him down, all the way to a nearby ferry. The man finally stopped. She continued to call out to him while trying to catch her breath. The man remained unmoved. Standing upright, Vicky introduced herself. Brock walked past her. Vicky fussed with Brock about leaving the hospital. As Brock went past her, the man walked in unison with him onto the ferry. Vicky, getting frustrated, yelled out for Brock to come back. Once on the ferry, Brock smiled and extended his hand out. Inviting her to join them.

Vicky hesitantly grabbed his hand and got on the ferry.

She couldn’t help but think to herself, “I hope that your parents are more talkative than you are.”

As the ferry left the port Vicky made sure to turn on her phone’s gps. She was determined to get answers but her uncomfortability steadily grew. Brock was silent, staring out into the distance at the front of the boat. The ferryman was silent, staring straight ahead. Vicky was getting unnerved. Vicky voiced her concerns of the ferryman driving straight into a dense fog. He didn’t respond. She asked Brock if he knew where they were going. He didn’t respond. She walked up to Brock, just before touching his shoulder to get his attention, she heard a voice come from over the speaker system.

“Vicky, we are almost at the island. Please find a seat, the dock there isn’t the best.”

Startled, she jumped and shivered, “Okay. Sure. Uh Captain? How do you know this young boy?” She could almost feel him staring down at her. The odd glow from his chambers made his outline fuzzy but noticeable. Which only served to make her even more uncomfortable.

“We come from the same village. I brought him over to get food for his family but I lost him after we docked.”

Not buying his story, Vicky checked for her paper spray and taser.

The ship wavered hard, throwing Vicky off her feet. The contents of her bag fell out. She scrambled to get everything. Seeing her taser near the edge, she crawled to get it. The boat slammed into something. Vicky was flung towards the front of the ferry. She looked around and the taser was gone. The ferryman walked up past her and, in unison, walked onto the dock with Brock. Vicky mumbled to herself about how the ferryman could have docked the boat safer. She eventually pulled herself together. She made sure her pepper spray was at the ready, that her hair looked somewhat presentable, and that she hadn’t broken her heels. After a deep calming breath, she stepped off the ferry and followed behind the two.

It didn’t take long to get out the fog but she soon came to prefer the fog over walking through the now visible forest. It was a short walk before they entered a clearing. She took notice of the vast garden around the small village of huts. She was impressed and confused. Though the garden was very vast and thriving, she found it odd that it was only made of broccoli.

She questioned the ferryman about his relationship with Brock more. He remained silent. She asked about his relationship to Brock’s parents. Silence. She stopped and demanded to be taken to Brock’s parents. The ferryman and young boy stopped. The ferryman nodded and the two made an almost military-like sharp turn towards the large hut in the middle of the village. Vicky began to wonder if Brock was royalty. Which made her slightly annoyed at the idea that not only are his parents neglectful but also privileged. They entered the long hut to see that there were people inside. Sitting at the long table. Staring straight ahead. Women on one side. Men on the other. All sitting patiently; quietly and still. The only other things in the room were bowls of raw broccoli in front of them and a massive piece of broccoli at the head of the table in a chair. Still trying to make a good impression, despite everything in her telling her to run away, Vicky cleared her throat.

“Good evening, I am Vicky Egan. and I am looking for the parents of Brock Lee.”

Everyone in the hut swiftly snapped their heads in her direction. She held up her hands in surprise and apologized if she offended their customs.

“I don’t have parents.” She heard a voice say. Vicky looked at the ferryman but his mouth was closed. She looked over to see one of the women blink, “I do not have parents in the sense that you are familiar at least.” confused, Vicky rubbed her eyes and cleaned her ears out with her finger. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting such a deep voice from a woman.”

“No?” an older man chimed in using the same exact voice, “How’s this then?”

“... are you all like… ventriloquists or something?”

The young boy spoke with the same voice, “What is that?”

At this point, Vicky could not hide her uncomfortability. Her voice was filled with fear, “Brock?”

A light green mist became visible and poured from her and the people into the massive broccoli at the head of the table. The broccoli twitched. It made crunching noises as pieces of it broke away to form the appearance of arms. The crunching continued and even got louder as zig zag lines formed across it. The people began to twitch in unnatural yet synchronized ways. Their hands as well as the hands of the broccoli slammed on the table. They all hunched over, groaning. Their heads all yanked back, letting out painful gurgling from their blood filled mouths. The zig zags on the massive broccoli violently ripped open to imitate a mouth. The eyes of the people rolled back as the lines above the broccoli’s mouth tore open. The people flopped limp. The broccoli slowly adjusted itself. Light green fleshy eyes rolled down into place. The broccoli blinked, and rotated its eyes. Vicky stepped back. The broccoli leered at her. The people adjusted to sit as they were before. The same voice she heard from the ferryman, the woman, the old man, and the young boy now came out the broccoli’s mouth. “You call out to me. You come to me. You walk into my home on my island. You wake me from my sleep. And now that you see me, you want to leave?” the broccoli jumped up on the table and smiled, “That’s pretty rude of you Miss Egan.”

Vicky stumbled over her words as she fought to find the courage to leave. “Who are you?”

“Miss Egan. You know exactly who I am. You visited me at the hospital.” three stems broke off from the bottom of his body and twitched until they held him up like a tripod.

“So you’re….”

He interrupted her, “And you followed me to the dock, then boarded my boat, you came to my village, you admired me in the fields, you even came into my home, and you even came to dinner to enjoy me. He chuckled.

“You’re… Broc… Brocc.”

“Brock Lee.” he hugged himself and swayed side to side. Blushing, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and his two black tongues flapped out his mouth. “And dinner is ready to be served.”

“But I…”

Brock looked down at her, “No need to be shy. I know a vegetarian when I smell one. I smelled the broccoli on your breath when you first visited me.” Brock’s tongues went back into his mouth as he leaned towards her, “Come on. Take a bite. You might like it. I know I will.” he walked on the table to her, breaking off a piece of his head and offering it to her. The people at the table began to faintly glow. As they ate the broccoli in the bowls before them, their glow intensified. Brock smiled, “So what do you say? Join me.”

Vicky reached out cautiously. Brock’s smile got bigger. Vicky took the piece of broccoli. She weighed her options. Brock began to blush, “Go on. Take a bite.” Vicky lifted the broccoli towards her mouth. She thought of the many years it took her to get her degree. She thought about her nice apartment. About her dreams of getting married and adopting kids. Remembering that all her dates end in disaster due to her workaholic nature. Her lack of friends and family. Vicky looked at Brock as she stood upright, no longer shaking. Brock raised his brow in confusion. Vicky went into her bag and attacked Brock with her pepper spray. Brock screamed out in pain. Vicky laughed in victory, mocking him for thinking so little of her. As his screams turned into hysterical laughter, Vicky realized that the people had finished their food and were watching with tears in their eyes from the pepper spray. Brock continued to laugh as he grabbed her arm and thrashed her about from wall to wall, as if she weighed nothing.

“You are flesh. I am fresh. You are nothing without me. All you have to do to make it end is take a bite. One bite and all your pain will go away. One bite and all your troubles will be no more. Just one bite and you’ll finally be happy.”

Brock let her go and Vicky slumped down the wall. He scoffed as he watched her barely get back on her feet. Once on her feet however, she wasn’t shaking. She wasn’t scared. She was angry. She glared at Brock, he was taken aback. Seeing his hesitation, Vicky grabbed one of the lanterns on the wall and smashed it against Brock’s face. Brock stumbled back screaming and cursing. The people began to scream and show the signs of burns on their faces and bodies. Brock fell off the table. Some of the people worked to put Brock out. Others worked to keep the fire from spreading. Vicky ran out, full sprint, towards the dock. Brock leered in her direction as the hut began to collapse. “Find her. Now.” he demanded as steam came from his eyes.

Vicky made it to the dock but the boat wasn’t there. She could barely make out the shape of a ship in the distance with a faint green glow aboard it. Almost as if it were watching her from the fog. She cursed her luck and looked through her bag for her phone. When she finally found it, it had a poor signal. She wandered around, desperately asking for a signal in a hushed tone. Staying along the shore, she thought she would eventually get a signal. She was startled when it suddenly rang and dropped it. It slid a short distance away. Taking a deep calming breath she approached the still ringing phone. Just as she went to bend over to pick it up, she saw the faint green glowing silhouettes watching her from the trees. She let out a scream and charged at her. She sprayed the pepper spray at them but they just kept coming as if they couldn’t feel the pain. Vicky did her best to fight them off. But was soon overwhelmed and carried her back to the village. There, Brock was waiting for her with the rest of the villagers.

“That was a nasty thing you did Vicky. I thought we could be friends.”

“Friends don’t turn other friends into zombies.”

“Then let’s make a deal. You get to keep your mind if you agree to help bring more people to my island.”

“Why should I? I’m not afraid of you.”

Brock’s eyes twitched. “Oh but you will be.”

“Ha! You’re barely 4 feet tall. A tiny runt who gets off on people eating him. You couldn’t be scarier if you tried. You’re hideous. You’re weak without your groupies. You are nothing.””

The green glow of the villagers began to fall off them as a dense light green mist rolled in. The mist swirled around the clearly agitated Brock. It formed a large broccoli shaped cloud around him. The clouds seemed to develop blue sparkles in them. The cloud opened up as if it had big green eyes with blue sparkles throughout it. Vicky saw the cloud getting larger and larger as more mist was being collected. Not wanting to see what would come next, she ran. She ran fast. Figuring that it would be a better bet to just swim to shore at this point, Vicky ran out of her shoes. Using things from her purse to keep her hair out of her face as she ran. She fell, getting her foot caught in a hole. Heavy, repetitive thumps could be heard coming from the village. She looked back as she heard her name being moaned. What she saw only got worse as time passed.

In the distance, it looked like an overgrown tree being dragged. As it got closer, however, Vicky Egan could see it was much more gross. The lower half was that of a broccoli base with 20 large stalks moving spider legs, the body being a broken stalk resembling that of an open mouth, fire spewing from where the eyes would have been, and the thing that still keeps her up. Bursting from the makeshift mouth were three black tongues made out of worms in the form armless humanoids calling for Vicky. Once close enough to see Brock in his full grotesque manner, Vicky threw up.

“Who’s small now” one tongue growled.

“Who’s ugly now?” another tongue said seductively.

“Who’s weak now?!” all three yelled as their body towered over her.

Vicky desperately crawled away from him. Brock mocked her as he easily cut her off. Brock pinned her down. She scratched and kicked at him. Brock laughed at her desperation. Swallowing her pride, Vicky bit him. Brock’s tongues twisted around each other in ecstasy. Vicky broke loose and darted off to the shore. Realizing he had been tricked, Brock’s mouth closed, “You should have joined me.”

Digging his legs into the ground and regrowing arms made from the worms, Brock took a deep breath. He grabbed the ground and threw up a mound of worms. Out of the worms, crawled out swarms of skinless humans with green eyes and green skin. The swarms crawled after Vicky crying for Vicky to come back and save them. Vicky did her best to ignore their pleas. But the smell of rotten broccoli and boiled flesh was just too much for her. Before hitting the water, she threw up again. The humans grabbed her ankle. She slipped out of the grip by wiggling out of her sock. Another grabbed her bag, she left it behind as she dove into the gulf. She swam a fair distance away before looking back. She soon wished she didn’t.

The humans had clumped together to act as a giant arm. The arm launched Brock at Vicky. The massive broccoli with 20 legs, three black tongues in humanoid form, and eye sockets engulfed in flames slammed on top of her.

Some time later, a ferry was passing a boiling spot of the gulf. The sailors approached cautiously to discover the floating body of Vicky. Hoping she was still alive, they brought her on. Vicky was brought back to land and sent to the hospital. Hours after she was admitted, a nurse came in to check her vitals. Vicky opened her eyes and looked at the nurse. She told the nurse that she was starving. The nurse informed her that they would look into getting her a salad from the cafeteria. Vicky smiled. After licking her teeth, she smiled even bigger.