LJ Idol Three Strikes: Prompt 26 — "You're Out"

[flipflop_diva]

Dandi Lyons loved her job, and she did her best to prove herself worthy of it every single day. She worked tirelessly, often taking months-long shifts without a break. She also worked meticulously, filling spiral-bound notebook after spiral-bound notebook (using only those annoying pink gel pens) with incredibly detailed notes that she gathered from years of hard-sought research.

While most of her coworkers did their best to avoid Earth at all costs, Dandi never shied away from a visit there. In fact, if you want to know her best-kept secret, she actually loved Earth more than anywhere else.

Sure, on Earth, there were no high-pitched screams of terror to help her sleep at night, and she couldn’t torture innocent souls when she needed to let off steam, but there was something about being close to her work that just really appealed to her.

She loved following “her humans,” as she liked to refer to them, around for months before she got to take them. Sometimes, she’d even position herself to be within their sphere. A new barista at the coffee shop they always spent too much time in. A janitor at the building where they worked. A window washer for their apartment building. A gardener for the home they owned. All jobs where no one would think twice about her, but she could spend hours observing them.

Dandi loved that — she loved watching them and learning about them and figuring out how their downfall really came about. But more than that, she also loved the anticipation — the feeling of excitement for what she would someday get to do always sent a delicious shiver down her spine. Sometimes, she could taste her humans’ final moments on her tongue, as though the moments themselves were alive, and she always spent hours making sure those final moments were absolutely perfect, complete with a perfect going away line.

To the asshole born with the silver spoon, who was never nice to anyone until he needed them to save his life after he wrecked his hundred thousand dollar car: “You’re out … of chances!”

To the lazy rich slob who always blamed everyone else for things not getting done on time: “You’re out … of time!”

To the former mean girl who grew up to be just plain mean but who always thought fame was right around the corner: “You’re out … of here!”

To the moron who didn’t check his scuba tank before he went under: “You’re out … of breath!” That one was a particular favorite, even before it won Dandi her very first Soul Transporter of the Month award.

She could have had a shift off from the Soul Transport business after that win — it was one of the options for her prize — or she could have asked to be transferred to the Torture and Other Inhumane Treatment Division, but Dandi had only wanted more ouls to transport. And the worse the souls were, the better she loved them.

Humans, she had seen herself, could be so cruel, and she loved knowing she would be there when they would finally get their comeuppance.

And they always got exactly what they deserved.

Or so she thought, for hundreds upon hundreds of human years.

And then she met Leo.

Leo McCain was thirty-seventh on her new list of fifty souls that she was given for winning the Soul Transporter of the Month. She frowned when she read his name, sure there had been some glitch in the system.

She made her way over to her supervisor.

“Mister Torture Master,” she said, “I think there might have been a malfunction in the system.”

She held out her list to him, but he just narrowed his eyes and sent literal daggers out of them. She stepped out of the way, making sure she had no new puncture wounds.

“The Underworld does not make mistakes, Ms. Lyons,” the Torture Master said. “Are you dare suggesting otherwise?”

“Of course not,” Dandi said quickly. “I’m just surprised by one of my names. The records indicate he is only ten years old.”

“Do you not think children are capable of pure evil?” hissed the Torture Master.

“I suppose they are,” Dandi said.

“That’s right! They are!” the Torture Master said. “And if you want to keep transporting souls to their doom, you will not question me again. Or you, my dear, might be the one being doomed.”

“Understood, Mister Torture Master,” Dandi said, but even as she walked away, her gut told her something wasn’t right.

Carefully, she moved Leo McCain to number one on her list. She had a few months before her original number one became due to leave the mortal realm. She had time for some off-the-books research before then.

Dandi Lyons found Leo McCain just where her paperwork said he would be. Bertha’s Gardens said the curly writing on the sign out in front, but it was really just a fancy name for a home for abandoned children. And little ten-year-old Leo had been abandoned when he was just four years old. Left at a rest stop by his alcoholic father and his abusive mother. Found two days later, just sitting on a bench and clutching a raggedy old teddy bear.

He had been brought to Bertha’s Gardens while officials tried to sort out who he belonged to, but no one relatives were ever found nor did anyone step forward to claim him, and so he remained a ward of the state, growing up in this godforsaken place. Truly godforsaken as it was surely staffed by minions of the Underworld itself. The ones whose job it was to tempt mortals into revealing their true evil nature.

But as far as Dandi could tell, Leo hadn’t revealed any such nature at all. He was a gentle and kind boy. He loaned out his raggedy old bear to the new kids who arrived, especially the ones with tears on their faces and nothing in their hands. He also whispered stories to them in the dark and showed them which of the Bertha’s Gardens caregivers gave out candy on the sly.

He did his chores without being asked. He almost never got in trouble. And he was smart. So smart.

But yet the records Dandi was given painted him as one of Earth’s worst offenders. It made no sense to her, and she did not like when things made no sense. The only thing to do was get close to Leo McCain and try and figure this out.

It was a little tricky. She couldn’t very well get a job at Bertha’s Gardens, or the other minions would know she was there and would report back to the Torture Master, who would know she was neglecting her other souls. But Leo McCain did go to school and that school just so happened to unexpectedly be in need of a new lunch lady, thanks to the current one’s sudden health issues that just happened to pop up the day before Dandi applied for the job.

So Dandi Lyons became the new school lunch lady, and for weeks she served some of the grossest looking food she had ever seen to all the little humans just for the chance to smile and tell Leo McCain to have a nice day! And Leo always smiled back at her, ever polite, and told her in return, “You have a nice day too, Ms. Lyons!”

Until one day Dandi was picking up the garbage in the cafeteria, wondering for not the first time why she was subjecting herself to this form of human torture, when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

She turned around to find little Leo McCain looking up at her.

“Hello, Leo,” she said with a smile, but Leo shook his head, looking around like he was nervous, and then put his finger to his lips.

Dandi frowned at him as he bent forward to her, gesturing like he wanted her to lower her head.

She did and he moved closer, placing his mouth just next to her ear.

“You’re one of them, too, aren’t you?” he asked.

“A lunch lady?” Dandi said.

“A creature,” Leo corrected. “From down there.”

He pulled back, and she stared at him.

“Child, don’t be silly.”

It was the only thing she could think to say. But Leo leaned in again, his mouth once more next to her ear.

“They’re at my home,” he whispered. “I can see who they are. I can see you too. But you’re different than them.”

Dandi blinked, her mind suddenly in a panic. None of this made sense. None of this was possible. Was it?

“How do you mean?” she asked carefully, not sure what the protocol was for a situation like this.

“I think they are trying to take me down there too,” he said simply.

Dandi shook her head. No, she had to be imagining things. This little boy was certainly not saying what she thought he was saying.

“Oh, child,” she said, more to herself than to him. “I’m just a lunch lady.”

Leo studied her for a long moment.

“Okay,” he finally said. “I understand.”

And then he turned around, leaving Dandi to her cleaning.

But Dandi was shaken, and that night, she settled down with all her notes — not just the ones on Leo but on everyone she had ever transported. And that is when she finally put it together.

She had heard the rumors for years, but she had never put much stock into them. She’d thought it was story made up to keep them in line. A human who would be born to see through disguises, good and evil, and who would have the power to turn lost souls to the light.

A human who could essentially put the Underworld out of business if they became too powerful.

But it couldn’t be, could it? It seemed impossible. He was only a child. But yet minions were at his home and he was already marked for a torturous afterlife when, as far as Dandi could tell, he had yet to do anything to even start to deserve it.

Would the Torture Master and He Who Reigns in the Dark really do that? Take an innocent child to preserve their way of life?

Dandi almost laughed at herself.

Of course they would! Where did she think she worked?

But that left her two options. She could do her job, the job that she loved and was so, so good at and so, so proud of, or she could defy her superiors and help Leo McCain and probably pay the price sooner rather than later.

Really, when she looked at it that way, there was only one choice.

--

Two months later, Leo McCain disappeared from Bertha’s Gardens, the home for abandoned children. At the same time, the Underworld’s best Soul Transporter, Dandi Lyons, also disappeared.

All that could be found of her was one of her spiral-bound notebooks, empty except for one page at the very front. There, written in sparkly pink gel pens, were the words:

“You’re out … of luck! See you soon!”






Fiction.



This was written for the finals of therealljidol Three Strikes Mini Season. If you liked my entry, please consider voting for me! You should also go read the other two amazing entries. You can find them here. Voting should be up Thursday night!

Comments

[banana_galaxy]

Dandi is such an engaging character. I enjoyed this journey, and her arc. I could totally see this as like a prologue to a longer story, seeing what kinds of adventures Dandi and Leo get up to together after this.

[dadi]

Oohhh now you have left me imagining their secret life, constantly running from the hell's minions!
Great story! I love it!

[erulissedances]

Brilliant! I want more of their stories and I want Leo to grow up to be someone totally earthshaking with Dandi's help. What a great tale to end this season of Idol.

- Erulisse (one L)

[marlawentmad]

What a strange ride! You definitely got our attention and interest.

[mollywheezy]

Very well-written and intriguing! You left me wanting to read more about these characters. :)

[ofearthandstars]

I love that Dandi quietly questions the righteousness of including little Leo on the list early on - the fact that she even has such a sense of right and wrong as a worker of the underworld sets her apart from the beginning!

I loved the creativity of this tale - you haven't disappointed in your stories all season!

[roina_arwen]

This was really fun!

[breakfastatholly]

I love this! It gave me some Good Place vibes, in the best way. I would totally read an entire novel about Dandi doing her job and/or her new secret life off the grid with Leo!

[capsquared]

Hi it’s Whitney with a new account. I sorta disappeared from the internet for awhile, but now that I’m back, I wanted to say hi, especially since it seems like we’re doing all the same fic exchanges.