The tablet must have been deceiving Mangle. It must have. And yet, when they looked again, it was still there.
Dear Dr. and Ms. Mangle,
It has come to my attention that the two of you are active within Humans for a Better Tomorrow, and have started up a web series surrounding Bethany’s story. If you are willing, I will pay you $1,000 a week after tax to put your web series on our site. I am aware that it may seem like a small amount, but it is our baseline during any trial period until we find out how successful the series is. Please contact me with your decision post-haste.
Sincerely,
Ernie Botts, Head of Humans for a Better Tomorrow.
Mangle rubbed their eyes and looked again. It glanced over from Octonauts, which was clearly becoming her favorite show. “What’s up?”
“The head of Humans for a Better Tomorrow is willing to pay us $1,000 to continue our web series on their site.”
It looked over. “$1,000? Like, how often.”
“Every week.”
It choked on the popcorn she was eating. “That’s, like, a lot, right?”
“Enough for us to get by, in addition to the money I made from working at the Labs,” Mangle agreed. “You up for it?”
It nodded. “This’d be awesome! Let’s do it!”
“Yeah?”
“Definitely! Say yes! Say yes!”
Mangle replied with one sentence: We’re both in.
It was fiddling with the dress Mangle had put her in for church. “A dress? Really?” she asked.
Mangle shrugged. “Haven’t you heard of the phrase, ‘Sunday best’?”
“Yeah, but I still hate dresses. And skirts. Pants are much more liberating.”
Mangle chuckled. “Next week, okay? This week you’re getting baptized, as per your request so you have to dress up a bit to make a good impression.”
It huffed. “I already asked for forgiveness, you know. Why do I have to be baptized too?”
“It’s a symbol of the covenant,” Mangle said absently. “Between you and God, and also a symbol of community between you and the church. You don’t have to do it, but you wanted to.”
“Yeah, well, that was before I knew I’d have to wear a dress,” It huffed.
Mangle laughed. “If you really want to, wear your suit. God doesn’t care about your appearances, from what I’ve found, as long as you love Him.”
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“How big of a thing is this? Getting baptized, I mean.”
“Big enough to make factions of the church split over it,” Mangle sighed. “Now c’mon, we’re going to be late.”
It looked up at the preacher, and nodded. She was ready. The preacher picked up a palmful of water, and said, “Bethany Mangle, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Everyone stood. It looked around, slightly panicked, but Mangle rested a hand on their back. They were just going to sing Amazing Grace in response to the baptism. It was a tradition in this church, according to Mangle. She smiled at the song and sung quietly with them. She could hear Mangle singing too. And if she were ever to pick a moment that was like heaven to her, she would choose these, when everyone was singing and loving and enjoying each other’s company, for just a few hours each week. It loved every second of It. Mangle guided her off the stage and the service continued, It glowing with happiness and Mangle smiling with pride that It had been brave enough to get up there. The next song came up, and they smiled and started to sing.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNfiPKeBOAo
Mangle and It were at the beach again, in full bathing suits. It was November, and the water was freezing, but It wasn’t planning on going in the water, not really. The suits were simply a precaution. Mangle hit ‘record’ and nodded to It. “Hello, fellow humans! You all have liked my series so far, so I decided to up the ante. I’m here by my house in Bethany Beach, and I’m going to show you what I can do when I fly!”
She jumped up and flapped her wings, hard. She started to hover, and you could see her toned muscles rippling underneath her bathing suit from the repetitive exercises she’d do to keep up her strength. She did a backwards flip, and then she flew high up into the air, and whizzed around in a circle, dove down towards the ground and flapped to bring herself up again, waving to the camera. She pulled back and landed running in the sand. She walked up to Mangle. “I can do that and so much more! You’d be surprised how easy it is once you have the muscles readied for flying. I can fly outside now consistently since I’ve been practicing flying against windy conditions. But I can’t always fly in wind, still. I mean, I really shouldn’t fly in the middle of a hurricane!” she laughed. “But everyone seemed to like catching me flying in real life, and yet there was a surprising lack of videos. So this is my gift to you. Hope you enjoyed!”
Mangle stopped recording. “They're going to go nuts over that,” Mangle chuckled.
It nodded. “But they’ve wanted to see me fly in the open air for a while.” She shivered. “Let’s go put our coats on.”
Mangle handed it the trench coat she had loved when she saw it in the thrift shop. Mangle put on a pair of sweatpants and their own jacket and the two of them started walking back to their house. “It’s quiet during the off-season,” It sighed. “It’s so peaceful.”
“Yeah, I’ve never actually lived in the beach house year-round before. We’d go here for Thanksgiving and Christmas and holidays where we needed a lot of space, but we’d stay in most of the time, so I never appreciated how silent it gets here before.”
It took a deep breath and started singing some of the songs she had picked up from the oldie radio stations from bands like Fall Out Boy and Imagine Dragons. Mangle fake-glared at her. “Really?”
It nodded proudly. Mangle rolled their eyes. “You are ridiculous.”
“Well, yeah,” It said. “I defy the laws of nature. And you love me anyway.”
“Yes, I do. Don’t know why, though,” Mangle teased.
It laughed, suddenly stopping as she caught sight of their house. The door was open. Mangle reached for anything they might use for a weapon, to only find their phone. They clenched their fists together instead, walking slowly into the house, It clinging to their legs. They walked into the kitchen and heard the click of a safety be turned off against their head. “Unless you want your brains blown against the wall, Jess, I advise you stay very still.”
Mangle felt It leave their leg. Hopefully she was getting help. “Come on, Milbridge, bringing a gun to this fight hardly seems fair.”
Milbridge laughed. “That thing of yours ruined my reputation.”
“You had one?” Mangle asked sarcastically.
They could hear someone saying something on a phone from the loft. “Come to think, I haven’t said hi to Bethany in a while. Where is she?”
“LEAVE ME OUT OF YOUR PLANS, YOU SADIST!” It screamed.
Milbridge chuckled and fired the gun into the wall closest to the stairs. “Come on down, sweetheart, say hello!”
It hovered right next to the loft. “Excuse you, but I do not allow slimeballs to call me sweetheart.”
He shot at her. She flew upward as she finished her sentence, the bullet just missing her. “Dad, the police’ll be here in 8 minutes, according to the lady on the receiver!”
Mangle nodded. “Thank you, It.”
Milbridge licked his lips, a deranged look in his eyes. “They fired me after you escaped, you know. My whole life was ruined, and now I can’t even get a job thanks to your little web series!”
It dropped to the ground. “Well, you’re somewhat to blame if you treated me like that. Why don’t you put the gun down? We can have tea.”
Milbridge leveled the gun at It, putting Mangle in a headlock. “Shut up! I know what you’re trying to do! You’re trying to...trying to get me to let my guard down, so you can kill me!”
“I don’t want to kill you, Dr. Milbridge. I think that you need to take a few deep breaths, and calm down, but I don’t want to kill you…”
Milbridge tightened his grip on his gun and It got ready to fly. “You’re lying,” he hissed. “You’re lying…”
It looked to Mangle. He’s insane! she mouthed. Mangle grimaced back. I know.
“...Dr. Milbridge, you have to believe me, I don’t want to hurt you. I just want you to sit down and take a few deep breaths while I make you some tea or something else you might like. Please let go of my dad.”
Milbridge laughed. “Fine.” He let go of Mangle and shot It straight through her right wing. She screamed. Police burst through the front door. Mangle ran to It. She was breathing in and out too fast to get enough oxygen in her system. Mangle cupped her cheek. “Hey, It, look at me sweetheart, look at me.”
It looked up panicked. “D-Dad, h-h-h-he sh-shot me,” she stuttered.
Mangle rubbed tears off It’s face with the pads of their thumbs. “Yeah, and believe me, he’s not going to get away with it. An ambulance is coming to make sure you’re all right, okay, sweetheart? Are you feeling tired at all?”
The bullet had missed her bones, but the wound was still bleeding a lot, and Mangle was concerned about blood loss. “A-a little…” she said. “D-Dad...is...is he...can he hear me?”
Mangle looked around. Milbridge had been taken outside. “He’s not here, sweetheart, you can say what you want.”
“Dad...am I going to die?” she asked.
“What?! No, It, don’t be ridiculous, of course you’re not going to die. The ambulance is coming, and the medics are going to make sure you’re fine, and as soon as they give you the OK we’re going to clean up and it’ll be like Milbridge never came here.”
Mangle could feel It’s pulse. Her heart was beating rapidly. She had at least class 2 hemorrhaging. “D-dad...daddy...I’m scared,” It cried.
Mangle’s heart wrenched itself in their chest. “I am too, but it’ll be all right, you’ll see. No need to worry.”
It looked up at Mangle. “R-really?”
Mangle nodded. Medics came rushing in. “I think she has at least class 2 hemorrhaging, her blood type’s A-, and I’m her father, meaning I’m coming with her no matter where she’s going.”
The medics nodded, put her on a stretcher, and rushed out to the ambulance. “We’re going to have to consult a veterinarian, do you know of one?” one of them asked.
“No, most of her body is human, this has never happened before,” Mangle replied shakily.
“Sirdam, take a deep breath,” another medic said. “Your daughter will be all right. The shot wasn’t close to fatal, she’s just lost a lot of blood.”
It was crying on the stretcher. Mangle held her hand. “You heard that, It, right? You’ll be fine.”
It sniffed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I should’ve stayed out of range, I’m sorry…”
“Hey, none of that, now,” Mangle said. “You were fine. You kept me from being shot, and while you're hurt, you’re strong enough to walk it off. We’re both alive, and that’s about as well as I could’ve hoped for with a crazy man in the house with a gun.”
It sniffed. “I-it hurts, d-daddy…”
Mangle looked to the medics. “Do you have any painkillers?”
One of them silently came over and started a morphine drip. It whimpered at the needle, but as the drugs kicked in started to get sleepy. “Is that normal? Please tell me that’s normal,” Mangle said.
“Perfectly normal,” the medic assured. “She’s been through a shock, her adrenaline’s coming down, coupled with the blood loss-and as soon as we get a room for her we’ll start fixing rather than just trying to clot it-it’s a small wonder she’s just tired.”
Mangle sagged. “I’m drained, myself,” they admitted. “Is there somewhere I can sit down in here?”
The medics nodded at the edge of the stretcher. They chuckled and sat down, rubbing circles on It's stomach.
The rest of the ride to the hospital was a blur. Mangle had to talk about insurance and blood types and costs and whether or not It could be with any old person without danger. After they rolled it in and set her up with more morphine and a blood transfusion, Mangle sat by her bedside and watched her breathing even out in sleep. Comforted in the knowledge that It was safe, Mangle nodded off in the hope that everything would somehow turn out all right.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
