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tamingthemuseTitle: Ooze
Prompt #453 – Ooze
Warnings: None
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1406
Summary: The weird yellow thing on the wall was just the beginning.
The oozing had begun at some point during winter, but Stefanie didn't notice it before the beginning of spring, when she spent more than a minute in the basement at a time. She was halfway through seasonal clothing storage when she noted the yellowish liquid on the northern wall of the room.
"What the-", she whispered, putting down the box of woolly sweaters she was carrying, and she took a few step to get a closer look at the substance. It didn't look like water – it seemed a tad more slimy than that – and it had clearly died the concrete in a sickly color.
What's this?, she thought, not daring to touch it. Has a leprechaun puked on my wall or something?
That last thought made her smile, but didn't make her less annoyed at the unknown liquid. She had taken all the precautions needed to avoid a leak in the basement, and never had any issue until now. She hadn't change anything in her maintenance routines, so the problem had to come from the outside. She made a note to herself to call Mr. Kay, the owner, the next morning, and have him look for the origin of the yellow leak. She just hoped it wouldn't be something too dangerous. She didn't want to get poisoned by some chemicals, or have to throw away all the things she had stored down there.
"I have no idea what is it", Mr. Kay said, the following day, when he came to inspect the mysterious oozing. "What have you put against that wall?"
Even if it hadn't been said in an accusatory voice, Stefanie felt annoyed at the idea he might think it was her fault, because she knew it wasn't.
"Nothing. That wall was completely bare. The problem doesn't come from the inside."
Mr. Kay eyed her with the look of someone who had spent his life hearing tenants swearing they had nothing to do with the damages in their location, but didn't comment. "I'll review the blueprint to be sure, but I don't think there's any pipe inside that wall. Maybe something happened in Mrs Basu's basement, and went through the wall."
"Maybe", Stefanie replied, unconvinced. "Or maybe it's a reaction to some chemicals in the concrete - maybe it's poisonous."
Mr. Kay shrugged. "And it would have waited all this time to start reacting? You said yourself you didn't do anything out of the ordinary."
He stayed silent for a minute, hoping she would see the truth in his words, but Stefanie didn't seem to judge the situation as improbable as he did.
"Right, I'll have te deposit analyze if we don't find any leak here, or at Mrs Basu's", he finally concede, not enthousiastic at the thought of the money it would cost.
"Thank you", Stefanie said, chosing to ignore his lack of interest in a possible health hazard in her house. Who cared about his feelings, as long as she was sure she was safe?
It came from nowhere.
There was no pipe in the wall that could explain the strange yellow slime staining the concrete. Being asked about it, Mrs Basu guaranteed it didn't come from her house – she had never seen anything like that, and certainly not on her wall. The analysis hadn't been conclusive, a fancy way to say noone knew what that liquid was. It wasn't a danger to Stefanie's health, at least – that's what the scientist responsible for the analyses had told her, anyway. She wondered how they could be so sure, if they didn't know what it was, but she refrained from pissing the scientist off, just in case she needed him again.
After all the needed samples were taken, she finally had the possibility of cleaning the wall. Even if she didn't know what it was, that liquid grossed her out. That kind of yellow couldn't signal a nice and clean substance, she was sure of that. And so, at the beginning of a saturday afternoon, Stefanie took her cleaning tools out of the closet, and settled in the basement to clean the mysterious stain.
A couple of hours later, most of it was gone, but there was still a yellowish coat on the concrete where the slime had been. None of her products had worked to remove it. Stefania cursed under her breath, hoping it was covered by her rental contract and that the paint job would fall on Mr Kay's responsibility instead of hers. She headed upstair to call her mother, who might have a homemade solution she could try.
That's when she came back down in the basement that the situation got a lot weirder.
She felt around for the switch at the bottom of the stairs, eyes fixed on the bowl of lemon and baking soda she was carrying, and light the room up. Her brain registered movements in the corner of her eyes but, when she turned her head, there was nothing to be seen. She shook her head; she never had any rodent down there, but she would have to put a couple of traps, just to be sure. Maybe it was pest that had cause the yellow stain – though she was pretty sure pest-related degradations had been tested among the analyses.
Stefanie looked again at the stain, sighing with despondency. The lemon and baking soda recipe was the last one she was trying before she called it a day, and started looking for a shade of paint close enough to the concrete's original color. She took a scrub brush among her cleaning tools, soaked it with the solution and started brushing vigorously. The yellow stain didn't seem to disappear, though. Actually, after she had scrubbed the entire area, Stefanie noticed that the concrete had gained a faint shimmer where she had put the cleaner.
"Oh no", she whined, thinking she had made it worse, but after a couple of seconds, the shimmer faded, and was gone in a minute. All she had left was her wall, the yellow stain still on it. She made a face. That was it, she was giving up.
She was gathering her supplies when she heard another voice, coming from ther left :
"What have you done?!"
Stefanie startled, and let the brushes she held fall on the floor. A strangled scream escaped her lips, and she turned swiftly toward the origin of the sound. A small creature was standing on a pile of boxes, looking at her with anger. It looked mostly human, but with a short pink fur all over its body. It wasn't much larger than Stefanie's hand, but the simple fact that it wasn't like anything she knew was enough to scare her. Her eyes began darting in every corner of the room for a weapon of sort, and settled on a broom, a couple of steps away from her.
"Yes, go, take the broom, if it makes you feel better", the creature said sarcastically. "For all I care..."
Its words made Stefanie doubt of the usefullness of the broom, but she took the few steps separating her from the cleaning tool, and grabbed it firmly.
"What are you?", she asked eventually, her voice slightly shaking.
"If you don't already know, then it's none of business, Human", the creature replied. "Why have you closed the portal? Some may have to use it. Skrillot, I'll have to use it soon. What kind of Guardian are you?"
"Guardian? Guardian of what? I'm only the tenant here. You'll have to see with Mr. Kay for maintenance."
"Maintenance? What are you talking about?"
"What are you talking about?"
That discussion wasn't going anywhere. Stefanie didn't even know why she was arguing with some little fairy in her basement? Was the oozing toxic? Did it make her see things that weren't there?
"You're not the Guardian", the creature finally said flatly. "You don't know anything, do you?"
"I wouldn't say that", Stefanie said defensively.
"About the portal, I mean."
"What portal?"
The creature sighed. It sat on the box, and took its head in his hands. "It had to be on my watch", it whined.
"Tell me what's going on!", Stefanie nearly yelled at the tiny furry humanoid.
It raised its head and said: "It's simple, really. I'm from another dimension, and you've just closed the portal back home. I suppose you don't know you to reopen it, do you?"
Prompt #453 – Ooze
Warnings: None
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1406
Summary: The weird yellow thing on the wall was just the beginning.
The oozing had begun at some point during winter, but Stefanie didn't notice it before the beginning of spring, when she spent more than a minute in the basement at a time. She was halfway through seasonal clothing storage when she noted the yellowish liquid on the northern wall of the room.
"What the-", she whispered, putting down the box of woolly sweaters she was carrying, and she took a few step to get a closer look at the substance. It didn't look like water – it seemed a tad more slimy than that – and it had clearly died the concrete in a sickly color.
What's this?, she thought, not daring to touch it. Has a leprechaun puked on my wall or something?
That last thought made her smile, but didn't make her less annoyed at the unknown liquid. She had taken all the precautions needed to avoid a leak in the basement, and never had any issue until now. She hadn't change anything in her maintenance routines, so the problem had to come from the outside. She made a note to herself to call Mr. Kay, the owner, the next morning, and have him look for the origin of the yellow leak. She just hoped it wouldn't be something too dangerous. She didn't want to get poisoned by some chemicals, or have to throw away all the things she had stored down there.
"I have no idea what is it", Mr. Kay said, the following day, when he came to inspect the mysterious oozing. "What have you put against that wall?"
Even if it hadn't been said in an accusatory voice, Stefanie felt annoyed at the idea he might think it was her fault, because she knew it wasn't.
"Nothing. That wall was completely bare. The problem doesn't come from the inside."
Mr. Kay eyed her with the look of someone who had spent his life hearing tenants swearing they had nothing to do with the damages in their location, but didn't comment. "I'll review the blueprint to be sure, but I don't think there's any pipe inside that wall. Maybe something happened in Mrs Basu's basement, and went through the wall."
"Maybe", Stefanie replied, unconvinced. "Or maybe it's a reaction to some chemicals in the concrete - maybe it's poisonous."
Mr. Kay shrugged. "And it would have waited all this time to start reacting? You said yourself you didn't do anything out of the ordinary."
He stayed silent for a minute, hoping she would see the truth in his words, but Stefanie didn't seem to judge the situation as improbable as he did.
"Right, I'll have te deposit analyze if we don't find any leak here, or at Mrs Basu's", he finally concede, not enthousiastic at the thought of the money it would cost.
"Thank you", Stefanie said, chosing to ignore his lack of interest in a possible health hazard in her house. Who cared about his feelings, as long as she was sure she was safe?
It came from nowhere.
There was no pipe in the wall that could explain the strange yellow slime staining the concrete. Being asked about it, Mrs Basu guaranteed it didn't come from her house – she had never seen anything like that, and certainly not on her wall. The analysis hadn't been conclusive, a fancy way to say noone knew what that liquid was. It wasn't a danger to Stefanie's health, at least – that's what the scientist responsible for the analyses had told her, anyway. She wondered how they could be so sure, if they didn't know what it was, but she refrained from pissing the scientist off, just in case she needed him again.
After all the needed samples were taken, she finally had the possibility of cleaning the wall. Even if she didn't know what it was, that liquid grossed her out. That kind of yellow couldn't signal a nice and clean substance, she was sure of that. And so, at the beginning of a saturday afternoon, Stefanie took her cleaning tools out of the closet, and settled in the basement to clean the mysterious stain.
A couple of hours later, most of it was gone, but there was still a yellowish coat on the concrete where the slime had been. None of her products had worked to remove it. Stefania cursed under her breath, hoping it was covered by her rental contract and that the paint job would fall on Mr Kay's responsibility instead of hers. She headed upstair to call her mother, who might have a homemade solution she could try.
That's when she came back down in the basement that the situation got a lot weirder.
She felt around for the switch at the bottom of the stairs, eyes fixed on the bowl of lemon and baking soda she was carrying, and light the room up. Her brain registered movements in the corner of her eyes but, when she turned her head, there was nothing to be seen. She shook her head; she never had any rodent down there, but she would have to put a couple of traps, just to be sure. Maybe it was pest that had cause the yellow stain – though she was pretty sure pest-related degradations had been tested among the analyses.
Stefanie looked again at the stain, sighing with despondency. The lemon and baking soda recipe was the last one she was trying before she called it a day, and started looking for a shade of paint close enough to the concrete's original color. She took a scrub brush among her cleaning tools, soaked it with the solution and started brushing vigorously. The yellow stain didn't seem to disappear, though. Actually, after she had scrubbed the entire area, Stefanie noticed that the concrete had gained a faint shimmer where she had put the cleaner.
"Oh no", she whined, thinking she had made it worse, but after a couple of seconds, the shimmer faded, and was gone in a minute. All she had left was her wall, the yellow stain still on it. She made a face. That was it, she was giving up.
She was gathering her supplies when she heard another voice, coming from ther left :
"What have you done?!"
Stefanie startled, and let the brushes she held fall on the floor. A strangled scream escaped her lips, and she turned swiftly toward the origin of the sound. A small creature was standing on a pile of boxes, looking at her with anger. It looked mostly human, but with a short pink fur all over its body. It wasn't much larger than Stefanie's hand, but the simple fact that it wasn't like anything she knew was enough to scare her. Her eyes began darting in every corner of the room for a weapon of sort, and settled on a broom, a couple of steps away from her.
"Yes, go, take the broom, if it makes you feel better", the creature said sarcastically. "For all I care..."
Its words made Stefanie doubt of the usefullness of the broom, but she took the few steps separating her from the cleaning tool, and grabbed it firmly.
"What are you?", she asked eventually, her voice slightly shaking.
"If you don't already know, then it's none of business, Human", the creature replied. "Why have you closed the portal? Some may have to use it. Skrillot, I'll have to use it soon. What kind of Guardian are you?"
"Guardian? Guardian of what? I'm only the tenant here. You'll have to see with Mr. Kay for maintenance."
"Maintenance? What are you talking about?"
"What are you talking about?"
That discussion wasn't going anywhere. Stefanie didn't even know why she was arguing with some little fairy in her basement? Was the oozing toxic? Did it make her see things that weren't there?
"You're not the Guardian", the creature finally said flatly. "You don't know anything, do you?"
"I wouldn't say that", Stefanie said defensively.
"About the portal, I mean."
"What portal?"
The creature sighed. It sat on the box, and took its head in his hands. "It had to be on my watch", it whined.
"Tell me what's going on!", Stefanie nearly yelled at the tiny furry humanoid.
It raised its head and said: "It's simple, really. I'm from another dimension, and you've just closed the portal back home. I suppose you don't know you to reopen it, do you?"
