Imagined Away

[BlooCheese]

MacDonald! Hahaha! Priceless.

[CG]

Chapter 3: Help

Goo finally began to feel the cold night air once Mac had left. The noises still continued to fill the night air from within the bathhouse, accompanied by the sounds of feet against the floorboards. She waited a few moments before gritting her teeth, and crawled on her hands and knees to where the doorway was. It was a small door, a good thing she was on her knees or she wouldn't fit. Opening it inwards she stuck her head out. The stairs were far more dangerous looking then she had suspected. Here and there cement blocks hung out from the wall, and linking them together was aged wooden stairs. She whined.

"Now that's an accident just waiting to happen." she thought, but what else could so do? Wait here to be found? Oh no. She crawled out into the even harsher cold air, which whipped her three braids around upon her head, and shut the door behind her. Very slowly she forced herself onto her feet, the wind being so strong it could probably blow her over the side and that would put an abrupt end to this story wouldn't it? For it was quite a drop to the rocky floor below.

Keeping one hand to the wall Goo began slowly making her way down the steps, one at a time. She knew if she kept this up she'd be doing this for days, but she'd rather be careful then reckless. But it seemed even being careful wasn't enough, since as soon as she settled on her fifteenth step did it suddenly break beneath her. Goo screamed, and continued to scream as her yellow cowboy boots carried her down the flights of stairs so fast she could have flew if she flapped her arms hard enough. But instead, a wall broke her fall and she slammed into it. After a few moments of pained silence (and checking to see if her nose was broken) Goo walked around the corner she had run into, and saw a door. It was deep read with the words 'Boiler Room' scrawled across it in black paint. This was a long time ago, for the paint and door was weathered and old.

Pushing the door open Goo stuck her head through the opened crack, to see a whole lot of pipes taking up majority of the hallway that greeted her. It was hot and humid inside, caused by the steam that was escaping the tight confines of the pipes every now and then. Beyond the pipes was a door way which revealed a large room. The only visible thing so far was drawers upon drawers stacked against the wall she could see, and a large shadow being displayed. The only sound was a cranking sound and mixed in with that was a roar of a fire.

Goo continued on past the pipes, careful so she wouldn't be burnt by the steam. Finally she came to the large room and sneaked a peek inside it. Indeed, drawers covered one entire wall of the whole room; the inside was a drop out though. A step down from the wooden floorboards you found a dirt ground that was empty. The wall opposite the drawers was a massive boiler, taking up the entire wall. Its size was monstrous, and it looked like an angry face that spewed fire whenever it's 'mouth' would open. This is where the coals would go. But the thing that caught her attention the most wasn’t' the boiler, or the room, or the small bed that took up a corner of the room.

It was the boiler 'man'. Mac had mentioned his name, what was it again... Wilt. He was crouched on a big wooden crate, designed to be a permanent seat for the, uh. Man. Along side it were three large jars, one of which was being used as a foot rest for the biggest foot Goo had ever seen. The leg connected to the foot was so skinny, and so long it went forward for quite sometime before finding its knee, and doubled back into the tiny body which Wilt held. His head was bigger then his torso and his eyes balanced atop stalks like a snail's. One was open and staring down at his work; the other eyestalk had been mangled long ago and left to reside in a bent shape, the eye small and dead. His face was a wonder to explain as well, it was like folds and frills at the same time on either side of his face. Another thing that caught her eye was one of his arms was amputated. The other one (and seemingly only one) was busy grinding something into powder. And to top it all off, besides being naked (don't worry he didn't seem to have anything that needed covering up), one armed, one eyed, scarred and long limbed; his skin was blood red.

Goo took a few cautious steps back to gain her courage all over again. This wasn't what she was expecting; Mac said it was a boiler man! That thing wasn't a man, farthest thing from it! She took a few deep breaths, before finally walking through the door into the room.

Still Wilt continued working, and just as Goo was about to say something another arm suddenly appeared. Now, suddenly having three arms, Wilt's third one dipped down to the jars one of his feet was perched on. Said foot lifted itself and with it took the lid. Seemed his toes were opposable just like his hands. The third arm then buried itself in the contents of the jar before lifting back and dropping the coloured pieces of straw into the grinder he was using as his foot replaced the lid. The third arm vanished back into his lap.

[CG]

She stared even wider now. But then she remembered her mother's rule; staring is rude! And the last thing she wanted to be was rude to this man. Shaking herself out of her shock induced coma she coughed sharply to clear her throat, and grab his attention. It seemed to work since the one working eye swivelled around on its stalk until it was fixed on her.

"Uhm... a-are you Wilt?" she finally asked.

"That's me!" he answered, his voice surprisingly perky and welcoming for a boiler man. "Can I help you?"

"Uh... um, I..."

They were cut off as four things suddenly fell from the ceiling at once. They were pieces of wooden blocks painted, and hanging from purple ribbon. Wilt's eye zipped back to stare at the four tokens for a few short seconds before picking up a duster and pushing the powder he was working on down a long tube in front of him. "Oh shoot sorry, four soap tokens... guys?" the third arm returned but this time holding a small mallet. It struck down on the giant wheel that was connected to his seat. "Break's over, we gotta get to work again!"

Goo was about to ask who he was talking to, but then she saw. There were 'mouse holes' in the floor, and suddenly the workers appeared. They were tiny black balls of soot with legs and arms, carrying pieces of coal that were bigger then themselves. Goo watched in stunned silence as they carried the heavy lumps of coal over to the gaping mouth. They stepped onto what looked like a petrified springboard and waited until the mouth opened, and threw the coal into the fire. Once they do, they turn and all but fly back through the mouse holes to get more coal.

"Well you see...” Goo began again, walking over a few of the workers. "I'm here for a job."

Wilt continued making powder, sometimes his third (and a fourth!) arm extending to the drawers behind him to retrieve more straw. "Really? Oh then I'm sorry, but I don't really need any other help." Wilt explained as he pushed some powder down one funnel before retrieving another. "I've got a little magic in me so I make it so the soot does the heavy stuff while I have to do all the powders."

"Please, I have to get one!" Goo added, "My parents, they ate a buncha food so they got turned into pigs 'n I don't want them eaten for dinner by frogs or anything creepy like that and Mac told me I should come up here 'n-" Goo was cut off as one of Wilt's extended arms moved towards her.

"Sorry could you move please? Thank you!" as she did he pulled some salts from one drawer and returned to work.

Seeing that this wasn't working, Goo sighed and sat down in the corner of the room so not to disrupt any of the soot workers. She watched them carry coal out, and fly back in. After a few moments of this one of them came out, carrying a piece of coal at least three times its size. It wheezed and heaved for a few seconds before collapsing beneath the weight, and struggled and squeaked under the coal. Goo gasped, and quickly went to pick up the coal. But it was much heavier then she thought it would be, and when she finally did pick it up the tiny soot ball had vanished into the ground. It popped back into existence, before flying back into the mouse holes. Goo blinked. "Hey! Dun leave me out here with your work, get back here!" she said, needing someone to scold after the day she'd had. It didn't come out. "Fine I'll just leave it here mister lazy soot 'n then it'll be in your way and you'll be all 'oh no this big thing's in my way but I can't put one down or else more'll stack up' then you'll get in trouble, you'll see!"

"Oh I'm sorry but that's not okay." Wilt's voice spoke up, and Goo looked over her shoulder at him. His one eye had swivelled so it was staring directly at her. While he wasn’t angry, he still sounded demanding but polite at the same time. "You have to finish what you started, those are the rules. Is that okay?"

Goo felt herself nodding. Despite the weight and the heat, she felt she had a duty to do. So, carrying a piece of coal which felt far heavier then something of this size should be, Goo began to slowly walk towards the roaring boiler. She watched as the soot balls ran around and in-between her feet to deposit their own coal first, but some were lollygagging to watch the human trying to do their job. She finally made it, close enough so as when the angry mouth opened she felt the heat intensify and blast against her face. She took a deep breath, waited until it shut, lifted the coal and as soon as it opened again she threw the coal in. The boiler almost seemed to rumble with satisfaction as it received the coal. She ran back to stand behind Wilt's box, and wheezed from exhaustion. "Something like this shouldn't take so much energy!" her brain said.

[CG]

It was then she realised she was being watched. Looking down she saw a million (or what it felt like) pairs of eyes staring up at her from beneath coal. Then one of them released its grip on the coal, and it collapsed on it. Once it did it began to painfully squeak, but for some reason you could tell it was play acting. Suddenly all the other soot balls began doing the same thing, all walking towards Goo and crowding around her feet and dropping their loads on top of their heads. Wilt finally physically moved, his whole body sifting to look down at the soot balls and Goo in shock.

"Hey hey now! Guys! Get back to work! Do you want to be turned back into soot again? I'm sorry but this is not okay! Look at what you did to them, now what are we gonna do?" Wilt flipped and flopped from concerned worrisome tones to slight annoyance and back again, banking the wheel again trying to restore order. He kind of did, for the soot balls got out from under the coal only to squeak angrily at Goo for not doing their work, and getting them in trouble with Wilt.

Off to the side, across from where Goo came in, a door was slid open from the other side. It was a small crawl space door, and the person coming through had to climb. And given she was carrying things didn't make it any easier, but she managed. The person was a human, a young woman, and no more then twenty five. Her hair was fiery red to match Wilt's skin, and her outfit was pink in colour. Shorts with tie offs, and a top with a white rope tied around her arms. She looked up as she set her haul on the floor. In one hand had been a tray with a small plate of food (probably Wilt's dinner), and in the other was a basket full of something unknown yet. "Hey guys, what's going on? You all fighting again?" she asked as she stood up, picking her goods up once again to walk over to the commotion. "Where's your bowl Wilt? I keep telling you to leave it out for me." she gently chided the boiler man whilst all the soot balls immediately forgot their quarrel to go and squeak around in front of the woman's feet excitedly.

"Sorry Frankie." Wilt sighed a bit but smiled all the same, as one of his arms extended towards her with an empty plate. They traded one for the other, and soon Wilt had his meal. Only then did the young woman named Frankie finally glance away and then did she spot Goo. Her eyes went wild.

"The human!" she cried, pointing an accusing finger. "So this is where you are?! You are in so much trouble; the whole house is looking for you!"

"Uh, um. Uh..." Goo didn't know what to say. Again. This place seemed to have a way of rendering her speechless. How could a grown up be calling her a 'human' when she was one?

"She's my creator." Wilt spoke up gently from between eating his meal which looked to be consisted of rice and some large shrimps.

Both Goo and Frankie stared at him blankly for a few moments.

"Your creator?" Frankie asked, weary of Wilt's answer. She had heard this story before; whenever a human was fortunate enough to bump into Wilt in his boiler room and they were caught he'd cover up, saying they were his creator. But Frankie knew the truth. Heck, he'd even tried to save her with the same excuse years ago.

"Yep!" Wilt replied brightly, knowing all too well Frankie wasn't buying it. "She said she's looking to work here," as he spoke, two of his spare arms began mixing the rice while another hand grabbed a piece of bread. "But I told her, I'm sorry but I have enough help. And sorry Frankie but I think you should feed the guys, they're growing impatient."

"Oh right." Frankie finally began throwing what was in the basket to the soot balls below. It was candy stars. You know, the tiny stars that you put on cakes, or fairy bread. The little soot balls rejoiced at the food being thrown from above they seemed to sing and dance in excitement at the food before grabbing what they could and scurrying away to eat. "So what're we gonna do with her?" Frankie asked.

"Well I think you should take her to go see Duchess. She's a tough little thing; I think she'll be fine." Wilt looked to Goo, smiling at her before realising he had rice on his teeth and quickly closing his mouth but still smiled at her.

"No way I'm not gonna stick my neck out for her!" Frankie said. Once again Wilt's one eyestalk turned around to look at Frankie for a moment, before one of his hands vanished beneath his seat.

"Oh really?" he asked, a sly smile on his face.

"Yeah really!" Frankie shot back.

"Not even for..." his hand reappeared and stretched itself to Frankie, in his hand was a cookie.”Foster's Famous Triple Chocolate Cookie?" Wilt asked, grinning like a loon.

[CG]

Frankie stood there for a few seconds, staring at the cookie. Goo watched too. How could this work? Bribing an adult with cookies? Sure, maybe if Frankie was like, ten years or more younger this would work but a COOKIE? She was about to voice how much of a silly idea it was, but Frankie's hand shot out and grabbed the cookie out of Wilt's hand and pocketed it. Frankie glared at Goo for a moment, for some reason she just didn't really like this idea. The kid looked like trouble. But, at least she'd be taken to Duchess by her own choice then being dragged there like the frogs would do to her. "Fine!" Frankie snapped before dumping the whole basket of stars on the soot balls. "C'mon little girl," she said in a sing song voice, "Let's go."

Goo looked up at Wilt, who... somehow, winked at her. She smiled a bit before managing to climb over the little mountain of coal that was now surrounding her feet and stepped over to where Frankie was.

"...what, you can't even say yes ma'am or something?" Frankie asked, staring at the dark skinned girl.

"Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am." Goo shot back quickly, not wanting to step on any more toes. Or lift anymore coal.

"You don't need your shoes either, take them off and leave them." Frankie instructed, and for the first time Goo looked at her feet. Frankie had no socks, shoes, or sandals. She looked back to Wilt, who had shoes on. Maybe since it gets so hot here he doesn't want to blister his feet. But then why doesn't he wear anything else? That made no sense. But she didn't ask, so she pulled her yellow cowboy boots off and left them behind. The little soot balls gathered around the cowboy boots, having never seen such fine foot attire before. They would have made awed noises if they could, so instead they just squeaked.

Goo followed after Frankie, who had slid the crawl space door open and had already crawled through. Frankie then stuck her head back through, "Thank the boiler man kid, he's really putting his neck on the line for you here." she said, pointing to Wilt with one finger while the rest were busying themselves with holding the basket.

Quickly Goo turned around, so quickly she knocked her head something awful on the drawers above the crawl space. She cried in alarm as she did, and rubbed her head. But either way she smiled at Wilt, "Thanks very much mister boiler man." she blurted out.

Wilt had to smile. He'd done this so many times, helping out human children whenever they found their way into his boiler room, scared, afraid and lost. They all needed help, and if he could offer them some dignity with going to see the business woman behind the whole bathhouse by choice rather then being captured by the guards, and being dragged up to her rooms never to be seen or heard from again. If it kept the nice little girl from being turned into a pig, or coal, then he had done a good job by the end of the day. He smiled even wider at her and gave her three thumbs up. "Good luck!"

[To be continued]

["C" the Dragon]

I like it so far! Wilt is still his cherry self!

[KazooBloo]

Sad.