Beneath My Exterior - Chapter Nineteen

One thing that sets us Nazarees apart from humans is that we never intentionally hurt, or harass one another. We respect one another, carrying the knowledge that we’re all on the same boat in our lives. We did something wrong and we’re paying for it in our own different ways. We don’t pick up and play with yellows or purposely trip indigos. We don’t tempt reds with blood or cause a green to feel true emotion. Usually, we’re the men, women and children you see huddled up in corners or walking down side streets with our hands in our pockets. We rarely put down roots until our curses become permanent. We don’t follow human gossip the same way everyone else in this world does.
Unfortunately for me though, it’s the Nazaree gossip that everyone’s up to date with. And my punishment for sticking around humans for four years is that I, up until hours ago have completely missed our hottest topic:
Me.
Andrew James Lawson.
The guy who’s apparently put girls in a mental hospital.
The guy who sends them jumping off cliffs and crying themselves to sleep at night.
The tiny guy.
“How the hell do they recognise me?” I hiss across at Cole, who stands still as a statue beside me, his eyes glued to the scene outside Andrew Jr.’s control room. Pretty much everyone in the café went silent as soon as I’d entered, and had proceeded to swarm around poor Andrew Jr. like hungry bees. Oh yeah. Did I mention that while we don’t harass each other, Nazarees love observing. Anything interesting that happens during their dull, dreary lives is guaranteed to spark a sudden surge of curiosity.  And when that curiosity is directed at me, I almost miss the screaming, the running and the fear I’ve grown so used to in the last four years.
Don’t get me wrong; I’ve been surrounded by crowds of people before, at pretty much every school I’ve attended during my travels in Andrew Jr. When I graduated from middle school to become a senior two years ago, there were heaps of them, friends and peers. But the daunting truth now, is that these people know my secret. They know that beneath my exterior is a regular four inch tall yellow who, like them, would do anything to be human again.
And that scares me.
“Andrew, your face is all over our newspapers and magazines.” Cole replies, biting his lip nervously. The statement distracts me for a few seconds. That I’m grateful for.
“Nazarees read the newspaper!?” I exclaim, making sure I don’t project the words through Andrew Jr.’s larger mouth.
Cole shrugs, looking uncomfortable. “It’s a big place, underground.” He mumbles.
I bite my lip, turning my attention back towards the whispering crowd of Nazarees outside my exterior. They stand respectfully about a metre away, and I notice a few yellows peering at me from a few odd shoulders, giddy, crazed expressions plastered on their faces. Funny, how they look so small compared to everyone else…
That gives me an idea.
“Uhhh, Cole?” I ask, chewing on my bottom lip again nervously. The mere thought of what I’m about to do sends shivers up my spine.
The green turns away from the windows of Andrew Jr.’s eyes to meet mine. “Yeah?”
I sigh. “If I let you, could you turn… human sized again right now?” I ask.
Cole pauses for a moment, arms folded across his chest in thought. His bodysuit gleams in the faint light filtering inside the control room. I can’t help but notice the meshy fabric it’s made from, constructed almost from tiny hexagons of stretchy rubber…
“I can.” Cole says softly. His eyes are slightly glassy, as if his mind has just taken a trip to someplace distant. I nod, my brow furrowed with anxiety.
“Alright then, because I’m going to take the robot’s head off.” I say, slowly so that I can process what I’m about to do.  I smile at the expression my yellow sized companion wears at this statement before moving to press a gleaming red button in the centre of the control panel. “Now, two things are about to happen…” I instruct him, hand hovering over the flashing plastic knob. “I’ll press this button and the elevator’ll come down. We take it to the robot’s neck and wait for it to pop open. Pretty simple stuff, I guess.”
Cole opens his mouth to speak but I grin wildly back…
…and press the button.
Now before you ask, the lift that seemingly ‘pops’ out of nowhere doesn’t actually do just that. Over the years I’ve wired up a system that stores the actual cubicle inside the space where Andrew Jr.’s brain should have been (which is essentially just a hollowed out metal frame of a human sized skull containing both my emergency food supplies and the elevator itself). The cubicle is fed down on four wire cables that are attached to the very top of my exterior and at my command will feed down via a series of trapdoors I’ve built all the way down Andrew Jr.’s six foot something body.
As we enter the lift, Cole giggles at the assortment of doorknob sized lego piece buttons mashed into the walls, each with a number scrawled on their plastic surfaces. I roll my eyes, hitting the button marked ‘twelve’ with a fist. The elevator creaks into action around us and I turn to Cole, who stifles another giggle. “I’m four inches tall, genius! What else am I supposed to use?!” I ask wryly.
Cole snorts in response, moments before there’s a ‘ping’ and the lift doors open…
…to reveal an intense, bright light and then…
Humans.
Well, Nazarees to be exact. Giant proportioned, skyscraper tall girls boys, men and woman, all peering in what looks to be complete shock as we stand, now completely exposed atop Andrew Jr.’s severed neck, which I’d made sure to remove during the elevator ride.
And let’s just say that Cole is petrified.
“WHAT. THE. F-“
The green yelps and I kick at his ankle to silence the words.
“Fuck.” Cole finishes tightly, whispering now at a volume that only the few yellows that make up our little crowd actually hear.
I raise my hand to scratch the back of my neck as the awkward reality of what I’ve just done sets in.
I’m stunned.
Never have I completed a full on exterior beheading session without a single scream. It’s usually the blinding blue white light that gets them. Some girls have held in their fears until the neck slid off completely.
Most start running when they get a glimpse of my miniaturised face.
“Erm… Cole?” I hiss in his ear, trying to ignore the giant gaping mouths around us.
“Y-y-yeah?”
I sigh in exasperation.
“Maybe now would be a good time for you to grow again…”
Cole’s eyes widen. “Oh yeah!”
The crowd and me both stare in stunned silence as Cole squeezes his eyes shut and mouths a few words under his breath. His fists clench, knuckles whitening, veins bulging from his arms, face and neck. It’s a few strenuous minutes later that he finally begins to grow again. Cole grunts in pain as his shuddering form, suit and all, begin to rise high above my diminutive self. Unfazed, I take a step back as he hops lightly off the platform which is my exterior’s neck, only to land on solid ground, now full sized and smoothing down his expression to a blank, emotionless mask.
“You want me to take Ava now?” Cole asks, his voice deeper now, like the rumbling of a volcano before it erupts. I shiver, failing to grasp that seconds ago, the same guy was standing beside me at the size of a mouse. I give him a quick nod in response, attempting to smooth down my own emotions.
As Cole lifts the red’s unconscious body off Andrew Jr.’s shoulder, I turn to address the waiting crowd of curious, staring Nazarees.
Andrew… what the hell did you get yourself into?
“Um…”
I clear my throat.
“Hi everyone. My friend here and I were just passing through and…”
“And we would like to use the T-Chamber here.” Cole finishes in a voice too robotic not to be spine tingling.
“Sorry if that was… erm… weird.” I continue, when the crowd makes no move to part. “But-“
“The T-Chamber’s just down the hall, Andrew.” A red butts in, his voice easily smothering out my own.
“Any idiot could have told him that, Blaine!” A yellow exclaims angrily in response.
“Well, I beat you all to it!” The red says with a fang exposing grin.
Cole’s giant face appears beside mine. “Maybe we should get out of here, Andrew.” He whispers in the same, monotonous voice. I nod, keeping my balance as I pull out a phone sized remote from my jeans pocket. At a touch of a button, Andrew Jr.’s legs spring into action and begin to walk slowly down towards the so called hallway, which leads to a giant blue door, its surface faded from years of use. Another flick of a joystick sends his human sized arm to the doorknob, and another yanks it open.
What awaits inside is far from expected.
“Welcome to the T-Chamber, I guess.” Cole mumbles from behind me.