Brittany woke slowly, her eyes struggling open. She felt a draft of cold air hit her and pulled the blanket closer to her body to keep warm. Wait, blanket? When did she get that?
Now alert, she couldn't quite believe it. The dim lighting within the cave didn't hurt her eyes when they snapped open to scan her surroundings. Just like in the movie, funky looking contraptions lined the walls as well as lied around the area, hissing steam or rotating their ridiculously large cogs to resume whatever purpose they served. They emitted a low drone to fill the silence of the room, and she found it calming.
The blanket around her smelled slightly of mildew, but it wasn't enough to cringe. Once she unwrapped it from herself, she noticed how her fingers were covered in gauze, which was poorly wrapped, might she add. The brunette wiggled around to sit up straight and felt that her clothes were damp now instead of soaked like before. However, that didn't make her feel any less uncomfortable in them. When she thought about it, though, the girl didn't find much room to complain. It would've been awkward if she learned that her savior had changed her while she was vulnerable. Wait, savior? She never thought about it! That meant...!
Brittany's lips grew into a grin quite quickly, and she bit her lip in excitement. The Grinch had let her in! But...how? Why? She knew that his heart was far too small, and that meant he didn't care about anyone but himself and possibly Max. What made him take her, a stranger, into his own home and even go as far as to fix her up, give her a blanket, and give her his chair to sleep on? He could very well have let her die out there, or brought her in but dumped her into a corner somewhere.
Now curious, Brittany searched around for the certain green Who on her mind. Every part of the cave looked devoid of life, and the young adult wondered if he and Max had left entirely for some matter or another. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard a door open far off into the distance not long after. Some yelling and barking ensued before the door slammed closed heavily. The sounds died down as they came closer, but then the scraping of claws against the floor was heard. Brittany quickly pondered if she should pretend to be asleep or to stay up and meet them again. She chose the latter after thinking for a moment; it would be embarrassing to have the Grinch find out she was pretending. It was better to greet them head on, she thought.
So when Max scampered over to the sofa chair and rested his paws on one of the arms to prop himself up, a human hand lifted to let him smell her scent thoroughly for the first time. At first, Max was ecstatic that she was awake, but when her hand raised, his ears shifted back slightly in alarm. Brittany noticed this and gave the dog a warm smile. The animal cocked his head to one side, one ear flopping over. How cute!
He leaned in slowly to sniff her hand hesitantly, and when he deemed her no threat, his tail began to wag violently. High pitched yips and whines came from his mouth, and he sprinted around the chair in excitement before pausing to lick her shoes or hand every couple seconds. Brittany giggled softly and gently ran a hand over his head to calm him down.
"Hello, Max. It's nice to meet you."
She continued her movements when, suddenly, a shadow loomed over her and the chair from behind. A flash of fear ran through her for a moment as the girl slowly tilted her head back to look at the figure.
Once again, that same piercing yellow gaze met her curious brown one. The Grinch's furry form towered over her sitting one, a slight frown etched onto his green face. It was amazing how quickly he could win a staring contest; his stare was intimidating and forced Brittany to break eye contact for a second.
"Hello, Mr. Grinch," Brittany greeted him to break the uncomfortable silence. The Who didn't respond for a moment, instead searching her eyes for something, it seemed. At last, he stepped back but rounded the chair like a predator stalking their prey.
"Hello, dear Brittany. Have a good nap?" Brittany nodded in response, trying her best not to feel anxious. Would he kick her out? Humiliate her?
The Grinch seemed to notice her fears and grinned mischievously.
"Oh please, calm down. I'm not going to throw you back out into that wretched cold. Well..." The mischievous Who stepped closer, hands neatly folded behind his back. "...not yet." He leaned in close.
"I just want to ask you some...questions," he finished by tapping her nose with a fingertip to emphasize the last word gleefully. With that, he stepped back and called to Max.
"NOW, MAX!" Before Brittany's fight or flight response could kick in, every light within the cave flickered off. All was dark for a moment except for the few beams of moonlight that filtered through the cracks on the ceiling, and then the blinding white light shining straight at her.
The Grinch glared at his guest's squinting face, her hand covering her eyes to block the intense ray. A second more, and he moved the point of focus somewhere else. Brittany sighed in relief, but still squinted just in case he decided to flash it straight into her line of sight again. Instead of doing so, he rested the odd-looking flashlight below his chin to create a spooky atmosphere, the harsh shadows and highlights greatly intensifying his Cheshire cat-like grin.
If this was supposed to frighten Brittany, she actually found it difficult to feel so. Before, the circumstances were just right for her to wonder what her fate would behold. Now though, the Grinch had accidentally taken all fears and what-if's away by acting as some kind of 1920's interrogator from a comedy show. His tactic fell quickly from serious to humorous, and the girl failed to stifle a chuckle.
"Ah, trying to cover up your fear with humor, hmm?~" The Grinch assumed smoothly with a dangerous glint in his eye. "Nice try, kid, but that won't work now that you're in the Grinch's LAIR!" His arms were thrown up into the air for some extra enthusiasm, and Brittany wondered, what this a kidnapping of sorts or a show?
The flashlight quickly resumed its position under the Who's face as he circled around the chair once more.
"Now, answer me this, Brittany, and tell the truth this time: Why did you scamper your way up here from Whoville?" Brittany felt the need to stick to her original answer, as lying with a more sensible one would land her fate here forever.
"I've already told you this before. I came here because I knew you'd be the perfect person to help me get home to my world.
The other let out a drawled out groan, already frustrated with her. "Not this again! At first, I thought you might've hit your head climbing your way up here, but now I see that I was right!"
With her mind racing, suddenly Brittany's head hatched an idea. "N-No, I can prove it to you!" A few examples came to mind, but she decided to start with herself first.
"Look at me! Does my body look like a Who's? My nose? Absolutely not!" A rush of triumph flashed through her when she noticed the Grinch's smug demeanor begin to falter. At last, the tables were turning.
"You're just a late bloomer!" He tried to justify.
"But am I really, Grinch? No one had ever heard of a Who maturing this late; have you?"
To be quite honest, Brittany herself actually did know of a Who that never did quite grow into her nose properly: Martha May Who. However, while she knew this, the Grinch did not. How could he have known when the last time he ventured down there was years ago? And even if he did visit the town before she arrived here, that never meant he specifically looked for Martha. But, just to be safe, Brittany kept going before her interrogator could somehow know himself; that is if he ever did.
"And my clothes! Do they look like any casual wear that town could sell? You bring me my suitcase, and I'll show you other articles of clothing that are also different from your culture."
The Grinch didn't need to flash the light on her to see her attire; he got a good look at it when she was half dead at his feet not too long ago. The smug smile of her own told him that she knew she was winning, and little did she know, she was. The clever girl was listing everything that he noticed before, and he felt those feelings arise again. She was strange, that was for sure. His thoughts were cut short when she opened her mouth to convince him further, he assumed.
"And another thing: when was the last time you got a book containing all of the Who's names within Whoville?"
The Grinch furrowed his bushy eyebrows together in utter confusion. Where was she going with this?
"Two weeks ago," he started hesitantly. "I always like to keep an updated version of the book listing the people I hate." Brittany was nervous that she was the one interrogating now, but kept going to try and make him see the point she was trying to make.
"I'm twenty-one years old. If that book is as accurate as it's supposed to be, I should be listed in it. In fact, I should have been listed in it in the last couple versions as well."
Speechless, the Grinch stared at this possible thing sitting in his own chair with a taunting smile across her lips. His mind reeled, trying to come up with any explanation for this, but none came. This was because he knew. The last time he read all of the names within Whoville in the previous and most recent addition, hers was nowhere to be seen.
She was toying with him in his own home. This girl was smart, he had to give her that, but at this moment it was not appreciated. It was almost like she knew all about Whoville despite her possibly not being a part of it in the first place.
The male growled in anger and flashed the light straight into her eyes again, making her wince.
"Be quiet already! Are you the one asking the questions here?! Huh?! No!"
"Hey, you asked! I'm only trying to answer!"
"The last time I checked, debating isn't answering!"
"Because it's more complicated than that! I know that this entire story is crazy; I'm still trying to figure it out myself!"
"So you were making it up!"
"I wasn't! What I mean is that I'm wondering how a damn portal came out of nowhere and sucked me into another world entirely!" The Grinch snorted.
"A portal? What even is that?"
"It's a - look, I'm not going to go into the science of it all because that's not necessary right now." She paused and sighed. "I just...I just need a place to stay, Mr. Grinch." The brunette gently laid a hand upon the flashlight and pushed it down, so it wasn't shining on her face. Giving him pleading eyes, she continued.
"I know I could've gone to Whoville, but I knew they would've written me off as some child spouting nonsense. Not only that, but I don't think there's a better inventor here than you. You can help me create some kind of device! You'd understand!" She paused. "Or...at least, I thought you'd understand." She'd never admit to him the main reason why she came up here. It would be far too embarrassing to say out loud, oh that was for sure. To tell him that she actually just wanted to be a bit selfish and claim him as herbeing his first friend as well as give him the social interaction he was starved from sounded too mushy for him to understand. She wanted to be the one to help him through his troubles. To be the Band-Aid on the wound that never seemed to heal; the wound that led him to isolate himself for years. The trauma he went through as a child made the poor green Who believe that he was not wanted by anyone. Therefore, merely asking to be his friend or even begging at his feet wouldn't work. She'd have to work to dig deep into what little of a heart he had left and fill that empty void.
"But...that doesn't matter right now either, does it? Because plans change sometimes, and in those situations, you need to prepare, right?" She spoke with a nervous laugh before the Grinch could respond, and instead, he simply jutted out his chin and lip in confusion at her words.
"What if I told you that we could be, ah, I dunno, partners in crime? Or...something like that?" Her anxiousness shined through again as she spoke her proposition, slightly panicked that she didn't think how this would go down. The Grinch lifted an eyebrow and shifted closer.
"Partners in crime, hmm?" He stood up and paced slightly in the darkness, a finger stroking his chin in thought. "A new person to help me spread evil across Whoville? To hate the Who's and Whoville alike? To pull me from the dark abyss that is my crippling loneliness and boredom?" He chewed his nails as he murmured to himself. "A new person to-" He stopped himself when another possibility came to mind, but it seemed too good to be true even to say it out loud. However, he decided to get an answer anyway.
"Tell me, Brittany, how do you feel about Christmas?" The Who inquired, uncharacteristically quiet. He studied her face closely after shining the light on her again, never breaking eye contact.
Brittany was surprised that he bought her proposal. She felt exceptionally lucky that she already had a bargain for him regarding that same question. Maybe this would be what he needed to hear to let her stay. A friend; company that felt that same as him. It would require lying, but if it was what she had to say to get her way, so be it.
The girl scoffed, cocking an eyebrow. "Christmas? That disgusting holiday?" She crossed her arms. "Not the biggest fan; why?" She acted clueless to see his reaction. Fortunately, she got one when the Grinch's previous smile grew onto his lips again.
"No reason." He circled the chair. "And the Who's? Whoville? How do you feel about them?"
Brittany tilted her head in thought, deciding to test the boundaries now. If she agreed to hate everything that the Grinch hated, he might see that something was up. "They seem like kind people based on what I saw when I landed here. The town is nice itself too; well kept." Seeming satisfied with her balanced out answers, she looked to the Grinch for a response. At first, he stopped and thought, but then shrugged.
"Eh, good enough for me. MAX!" The lights flickered back on again, and the green Who marched back in front of the chair and planted his hands on his hips.
"It's good that you hate Christmas like I do, missy! Otherwise, you'd be out in the snow again, cold and waiting for death!" The girl gulped at this, a chill running down her spine. Good thing she had lied somewhat.
"So I can stay?!" Brittany asked excitedly after, and the Grinch rolled his yellow eyes with a hint of a smirk.
"I...suppose you can stay for a few nights and loathe Christmas with me. Besides, I could use some social interaction with someone other than that mangy mutt over there." A long green finger pointed to the said canine. Max's ears shifted back in offense, a growl and a whine coming from him.
"Oh hush up Max! At least she doesn't slobber everywhere!" He then whipped around to face his new roommate. "You don't do that, right?" Brittany giggled.
"I'm not sure that any self-respecting person would." The Grinch grinned.
"EXACTLY! See, Max?!"
An argument then broke out between the two. It was interesting to see them understand each other without confusion. Probably from living together for so long.
Brittany hummed and sat back in the chair to listen with amusement. Gently fiddling with the gauze on her fingertips, she wondered. If the Grinch was so bad, as everyone said, why did he save her?
She had a clue or two but kept it to herself as a smile played on her lips. As long as she was stuck here, at least she'd have company.
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