Chapter 2

The Time for Meat



Lime cracks his eye open, like a peaceful newborn baby doe. He is tranquil, calm and collected. But in a panic, he shoots up from his bed.

He checks the clock, it's currently 06:56. Seeing the time, he mellows. How unusual, he never wakes up before his alarm.

Out the window he sees a blue morning, still wearing the clothes from yesterday. He is supposed to be working at a cornerstore at 09:00, but he feels no rush now.

There's a pile of clothes in his room where he rummages for his uniform, its clean enough, and goes to the bathroom. As a slime, he isnt a big fan of showers, so instead he goes to the sink and picks out the things that might have gotten stuck to him, as well as a sponge to wash as neccasary.... a sponge... he squeeses it a few times, just to feel it. He's not keen on keeping himself so prestine, but today feels special after yesterdays meeting.

The sisters have already left, Ananas goes early to the cemetary for work, and Apple tends to dissapear before going to school. Lime is always trying to be quick out of the house, but now he lingers.



Despite having stayed with them for around three years, he still feels like a stranger.

He leaves the house at 08:23 and decides to take the scenic route to work. As he walks he looks at the people driving, walking, into the windows of homes, people eating, doing chores. There is no such thing as a normal person in this town, Ananas is probably the only human Lime knows about. Some have horns, rainbow tails, angel wings, this is all people.




Lime arrives exactly at 09:09. His coworker, Cream, is at the registry reading one of his manga books.


"Nice manga book."

"..."

Lime stares at Cream.
"Hey."

"huh? oh, hey."

"Nice manga book."

"thx" and he flips to another page.

Cream is a vegan vampire demon, but his personality is very dry, like crackers. He is the closest thing Lime has to a friend.
Before he could comment more on his manga book, a big thud is herd.

"oh yeah. something broke in last night. could you take care of it?"

Lime wrinkes his face
"Come on. I dealt with it last time, isnt it your turn now?"

"oh umm… it’s a bit dark, and hard to see things, and you know, not get ambushed"

Lime sees no logic in what is saying. He read online that vampire demons could make their eyes bleed, shoot fire from their hands as well as captivate any man or woman they desired with their impressive gun shooting skills.
Plus he’s pretty sure they can see in the dark with their glowing eyes.

"Can’t you just activate your night vision?"

"I don’t have that."

He doesn’t even have night vision...
Cream truly is the most disappointing vampire demon Lime has ever met. He grits his teeth and rolls his eyeball.
"UGH whatever, hand me the broom."

Lime heads first to the candy section, for its often where one of the town nuisances go to cause trouble. They chew on all the candy and spit it out like some animal, but they are very much mechanical. When he arrives at the candy section he is surprised that they aren't there.

Well if it wasn't them who broke in last night then...... no... it cant be... town nuisance... number two?!? No way... People say shes just a myth but Lime has had to deal with her on numerous occasions. She a rotten dog that loves to get to the meat, its disgusting. He tightens his grip on the broom and cautiously approaches where the meat is.

The lighbulb has burnt out, leaving the crackers and juice asile dimm. Limes height would be very conventient for switching it out, but just imagining touching that bulb makes him a bit dizzy.

Rustling of plastic is heard.

Lime freezes.
He stands by for a while, till he remembers hes stronger than a vampire demon and jumps the corner swinging the broom.

WHAM!

Lime breaks the broom, missing the intruder by a long shot.



"Howdy!"

"!!!Spuh-Spuh-Spuh-Spongebob!!!"
He is relieved it wasnt the dog, but its him! He tries to act cool and unbothered.
"What uh, heh, are you doing here..."

"I'm just getting me a fine slice of meat for The Krusty Krab!''

Lime twirls his hair
"wowthatssocool, so you broke in to get it?"

"Of course! I'm a very impatient and busy man :)"
The cow behind the butchery hands Spongebob a big bag of mystery meat.

"No yeah I get it."
Lime kind of just stands there, squeeking his shoes
"Your sweater looks manly."
He wanted to say handsome, but that sounds gay.

"Why, thank you! It's cashmere."
a peep from his flip phone makes him take a quick look
"Listen, Lime, I have to get this to the restourant, what are you doing after work?"

"Like, Aha~ Probably something important, why?"

"Meet me behind the store once you're done, okay? I don't think our conversation is over."

"GULP! okay."

"Seeya then ;)!"

That wink sent an electrick shock to Limes shoulders as he watches Spongebob leave the store.

"You better not do anything strange behind the store." says the cow in a stern voice.

Hearing that made him jump, and skip to the front counter to a dumbfounded Cream.

"you just missed Spongebob Squarepants, he stole a huge bag of meat."

"Right?" he sighs in a dreamy way

"did you even try to stop him?"

"Well, duh, no, he's a very busy man. Maybe if you weren't such a dweeb and went to check out the comotion he would've invited you to hang out but, HAH; you didn't so you don't even get to see him after work."

"uh."
...

Lime goes on with the day avoiding Cream, eagerly waiting for his shift to end.
It’s all he could think about. He got to see Him again, and now has an established meeting to talk to Him a second time. All this eagerness made the time go twice as slow…

He paces around, looks at the clock, 12:04. He goes to the register and pretends to be busy, looks at the clock, 12:15. Okay… He goes back into the store and looks at the produce, paces around, goes to the registry, paces around again, looks at the clock, 12:38.
This continues on and on until it finally strikes 17:00.

He clocks out in record speed, dashing to the back end door. Hesitant, he’s unsure if he’s ready for this… Opening the door, there he stood, waiting for Lime…