P.I.E. Operation: PARASITIC

XLVIII: Electric Shock

"I need to go, Maddie Friend!" Billy Acachalla begged for mercy.

Maddie only refused to let him go.

"Um, excuse me, sir--uh, miss." Johnny Toast tried to get her attention. As he was his tiny self at the moment, she couldn't quite hear his small voice.

Sally noticed, considering he sat close to her right ear. "Maddie...?" She went to detach her brother from her friend. The other girl hissed at Sally.

"I don't know what she sees in him." Light began, instantly receiving a sour reaction from Maddie as well. He raised his eyebrows. "Uh, what I meant was... I'd like to get going before this thing wakes up and kills me."

"What can we do to change your mind?" Toast shouted so he could be heard.

Maddie smiled. "Well, there is one thing."

"What is it? Please, just let me go afterwards!" Billy struggled to say as he couldn't breathe very well.

"Sign my shirt, Billy!" Maddie demanded in a higher pitch. She brought a white T shirt out of nowhere customized with, to the Acachalla's horror, an unknown picture of himself.

"No!" The Acachalla protested.

"No?" Light asked. "That's pretty innocent compared to what I was expecting."

"If I do it, I expect to be forced to do a lot worse in the future!"

"I apologize for making you do something you'd rather not, but I feel that's not the main concern right now." Johnny looked up at the struggling boy and shrugged shyly. "You'd probably never be able to leave if you don't offer... your signature, I guess."

"But--" Billy began, until he was interrupted by his sister.

She put on a threatening demonic voice. "If you don't do it, I'll force a marker in your hand and make you write your name."

Before he realized it, Maddie Friend had already done the same, but hadn't written anything. "I want it to be a genuine signature!" She was grinning so widely it became creepy(expected).

Billy's hand was shaking over the shirt. His picture showed his face, oblivious to the camera Maddie used.

The only person paying any sort of attention to him was Maddie.

The others were either staring at Jimmy to prevent surprise attacks or simply into space.

To make this less uncomfortable for himself, Billy stuck the marker on a white space on the shirt and shut his eyes. He quickly wrote his name in the cursive he barely knew, so it seemed more like a scribble when he opened his eyes again. At least it won't really look like I wrote it.

"See? That wasn't so hard." Light Zeron proved his point. He turned to Maddie, who looked like she was going to explode with joy. "Would you give him back, now? We're running on the limited time before a serial killer wakes up. I'm also bleeding, which isn't a good thing either."

"I guess..." Maddie was disappointed, but she lightened up right away. She stole the pen from Billy's hands as long as a kiss on the face, then ran outside the door of her job. She held her shirt up like a medal. From afar, she yelled "See you at your house, Billy Friend!"

Billy was screaming inside and out. He felt like he wanted to go rot in a corner.

Johnny and Sally exchanged glances.

"Calm down!" Light shouted at him, then saw the other two for help. "You'd think a boy his age wouldn't believe in cooties!"

Sally went right over and slapped Billy across his face, immediately causing him to stop. "Think about it this way. It'll be easier for her to find you if you're screaming very loudly."

Billy stared at her blankly.

"Let's go!" Sally grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him alongside Light. "Lead the way, Johnny!"

"Uh--Oh, alright. I don't think it should be too far from here."

- - - - - - - - - - -

20 minutes and lots of running through red lights later, they reached an ordinary two story home. Light and Sally's legs were aching terribly.

"This is it..." Johnny said.

The other three were puzzled(although Billy was still pretty traumatized from that previous event) at how shabby it seemed.

"It's... nice?" Light said, cocking his head.

Sally spoke the truth. "No offense, but compared how well dressed you are and the wealth of your family, your place seems old and messy." She paused for a second. "Do you have waffles?"

Toast raised an eyebrow. "I think so..."

"Nevermind!" Sally said, her opinion changing to something a little more positive.

"The key's under the 'Welcome' rug." Johnny said, moving on.

Sally lifted the door rug, revealing the house key. She stuck it in the lock.

"Wouldn't it be safer to keep it with you so nobody breaks in?" Zeron questioned.

"Now, if I had it in my pocket, it would've ended up too small to fit in the keyhole." Toast replied as if he had planned everything out from the beginning.

Light looked at him, his expression unreadable.

As they walked in the average house, Toast gave directions. "This might sound ridiculous, but I would appreciate if you could move that huge painting of the pi symbol, Sally. Behind it will be a series of little cupboards, and I will tell you which to open."

She did as he said.

Each drawer was labelled with a code language and a number. "My best hope to become as tall as I once was would be number 43, the Stretcher."

"What'd you use that for?" Light asked.

Johnny answered in his usual monotone that he used on the job. "If we encounter the tiny spirit of someone without much confidence, we wouldn't be able to physically handle it. So... we stretch it out to the size we can handle it with."

"How many times did you really need to use it?" Sally joined in.

"...Once. I never really had the chance to do anything with it, so I guess now's the time. Could you... bring me to the floor? All you need to do is pull the trigger on the device and aim it towards me."

"But won't it hurt you? You're not exactly a ghost." Light said.

"We'll have to see." Toast said as he was set on the wooden floor.

Sally and Light glanced at each other worriedly.

Billy was currently a living vegetable, so he had nothing to say.

The Acachalla pulled the little trigger and bolt of electricity shot out, engulfing the entirety of Johnny Toast.