7 Deadly Roommates

Chapter 5: Horace

Chapter 5: Horace

Horace queued to get through the automatic gates at the metro station. He juggled his box of things and his electronic pass in his hands. As he was about to swipe and go through, a large man cut him off and swiped instead, walking in front of him. Horace found it rude but let it go, and harrumphed as he balanced his step through the narrow gates.

He waited for a bit, and his arms got tired. He looked around and the only place to sit on was on the bench, right next to the large man. Now that Horace had the chance to take a look at him, he was the bodybuilder/asshole kind of person. Tight t-shirt over bloated muscles, dyed hair according to the latest fashion, tattoos, skinny jeans. He also rolled a komboloi in his hand, a circle of thread with beads in it, a traditional Greek alternative to a stress ball.

Horace had no beef with the guy, so he sat down next to him. The seats were tight, and it was as if the man felt obligated to claim his space for he stretched and turned and slowly pushed Horace to the side. Horace tsked but said nothing.

After a few minutes, the metro came. He got inside and stood in the middle of the compartment, putting his box on the floor, making sure it was out of the way.

Horace looked outside and his mind wandered. He didn’t realise that the large man had leaned down and grabbed one of his action figures from the box. It depicted a female warrior from a game, Horace only liked female action figures, and she was particularly buxom and wearing a skimpy outfit.

“What’s this? j******f material? Playing with dolls, are you?” the large man said, waving it around.

Horace blushed with shame and he felt his blood boil. He didn’t want to confront another person this day. Actually, he didn’t want to confront another person this year, his quota had been used up. Not to mention that the large man was a head taller and about twenty kilos heavier, and they were all muscles. “Please, give me my action figure.”

“This thing?” the large man smiled but he wasn’t friendly.

“Yes. It’s mine. Please give it back.” He waited with a palm up.

“Want your doll back?” the large man said slowly.

“Yes- What? No, it’s not a doll. It’s an action figure, and it’s a collectible. Please, give it back.”

Horace didn’t want to confront the large man in this confined space. He waited and was ready for anything.

But he wasn’t ready for an elbow in his ribs. “Ow!” he started, stepping back. It came from below. A short woman stood there, frowning at him. She had black hair that poked around her head in angry short curls, an angry face on a head that was slightly larger than it should be for her height, and angry arms that were thicker than Horace’s. She definitely had dwarfism, Horace could tell from the proportions of her head and her limbs compared to her body.

“Aren’t you gonna fight back?” she asked, slapping her fist inside her tiny, but very powerful-looking palm.

Horace had no clue how to answer that. “I have no clue how to answer that,” he said, staring at her, mouth open. “Fight who? You?”

“Not me, you i***t! But I wouldn’t mind going a few rounds with you. You look like a bleeder, it will be fun. No, I’m talking about this pile of meat over here. Punch him in the groin.”

“What? No, why?” Horace said, shaking his head.

“He took something from you, didn’t he?”

“Yes…”

“So punch him and take it back!” she said, slapping her fist in her palm again and making Horace jerk back.

“I will not do that,” Horace said, as calmly as he could. What was it with this day and insane women telling him what to do?”

“Of course you wouldn’t.” She waved him away with her small hand. “If you were ready, we wouldn’t be here, would we? Okay, fine, don’t punch him in the groin, even though it’s nice and exposed like that. Then at least, get back what he took from you.”

The large man wasn’t paying attention. He was checking out the breasts on the action figure and showing it to people around, chuckling and pointing at Horace.

That was rude.

Horace balled his fists but kept calm. He decided to deflate the situation with cunning instead. Digging his hand into the box, he pulled up two more action figures, one that was a cat lady, still busty, and another of a witch. He presented them to the large man. “Here, you seem to like playing with my dolls. Have some more.”

The large man frowned down at him and then threw the action figure at Horace’s chest. It bounced off and fell on the floor. Horace wanted nothing more than to pick up his collectible action figure from the dirty mass-transit floor, but managed to stay still.

The large man grunted and stepped away, suddenly engrossed in his phone.

Horace picked up the action figure and placed it back in the box.

The short lady put her arms on her waist and frowned some more at him. “Hmm. Not what I would have done, but it was a confrontation nonetheless. Don’t let anyone say I cheated ya. Here, grab my token.”

Horace squinted at her and was about to ask what the f**k she was talking about, but then remembered the app. No way! This was nuts. He was nuts? Perhaps. He fished out his phone and opened the Evil Thoughts app, pointing it at the lady dwarf. There was indeed a token hovering in the air before her, spinning slowly just like before. It said wrath in Greek, ΟΡΓΗ.

“Seriously, lady, what the f**k is happening here? Did you follow me around?”

She laughed whole-heartedly and slapped him on the shoulder. It stung, it seriously did. She was very strong. “You’re funny. We’re gonna have a blast.”

“We? How? Do I know you?” He looked her up and down, even if that distance wasn’t that much to cover. She wore a plain red dress and brown moccasins that were more suited for a man. The hair was like a black mop on top, and she was somewhat average in beauty, barely touching the level of pretty if he had time to get used to her. Nope, he’d never met the crazy woman before in his life.

“This is your stop, ain’t it?” she said, and before he could actually look up and check he got kicked out, literally kicked out the coach’s doors by the dwarf lady.

He stumbled and looked back, her short leg still in the air.

The doors closed and she waved him off as she left the station, sliding to the left.

He looked around. Nope, he wasn’t in the right stop, it was one too early. The metro stopped at Kifisia station anyway, it was the end of the line, that was why we never paid attention while returning home.

He grabbed the box better and started walking home, basically going along the tracks. He could wait for the next train but he was too angry to wait. He was gonna pace up and down anyway so he might as well pace towards home. It was hot and he got sweaty.

Why were these things happening to him? Did he have a bull’s-eye in his back or something? He seemed to be on the receiving end of crap such as this for as long as he could remember. The same way some guys had a don’t-f**k-with-me face, Horace seemed to have a sucker-here face.

He put one foot after another and walked towards home. The last two stations weren’t that far away after all, and the setting sun between the trees made it cool and nice to walk about.