Inchling Ch. 5: Expelled from the Garden

Roy McCall reluctantly, yet strangely somewhat willingly cooperated with Peli, who seemed so cool and collected on her way out of the police headquarters with Roy and Jenna in tow. Roy even tried to pressure Peli into turning back and helping Ellie out, yet for unknown reasons, Peli seemed to shrug it off. Cold as it had seemed, Peli gentle nature toward Roy up to this point kept him from losing his cool— and also the possibility of him being reduced again if he tried to run off was also a factor in his somewhat docile attitude toward her.

Roy had made a promise to Peli that he would not attempt to escape on account of him knowing he was going to be released anyway. Peli had little time to chat or talk with Roy when she brought him back to her place— and for once he got to sat at her kitchen table instead of standing on it. His adventure as an inchling didn't last more than a couple of days and yet she already seemed to have converted him into a friend. Soon after arriving, Peli left with Jenna Brink at hand ready to conclude her investigation, meanwhile she invited Roy to make himself comfortable, which he did until she returned.

Just less than five hours later, Peli opened the door to her home whereupon she found a bored Roy McCall sitting on a couch in her parlor— it was the only place he could get comfortable with since all of Peli's furniture was somewhat larger than normal to accommodate for her bigger size. While Peli had been out, Roy toured Peli's humble and small cottage and discovered that he couldn't even see over the tables, or countertop in her kitchen. He nearly had to hop onto chairs, and out of the bunch, he made himself comfortable upon a small two-person gilded sofa with plush dark varidian cushioning that covered the entirety of the seating surface, back rest, and arms to the outer edge. From his seat, Roy glared curiously at Peli who returned the favor.

"I didn't think you were the type to be getting fancy furniture." Roy quipped.

Peli smiled, her eyebrows arched and her cheeks raised a little. Roy could tell that she was in a jovial mood as always, and that she had come to release him from her gentle clutches of authority. As the Light walked into the parlor and shut the door behind her, Roy felt as though he had but a few seconds to say what he needed to say to her— something that he momentarily forgot when he greeted Peli with a little humor. Suddenly he found her large mass and powerful red eyes coming right toward him, accompanied with another one of her friendly grins.

"W-what's going to happen to Jenna?" Roy asked just before Peli stopped in front of him.

"Nothing unless she's found guilty of all charges brought to her. Of course if she is, she's unlikely to be made a microfatidic based on how many murders we have attributed to her." Peli answered.

Roy thought about Peli's words. She wasn't one to lie, and he knew it well. Jenna Brink was likely going to be found guilty of something but it was difficult for Roy to guess what kind of charges she was facing since Light law was unknown to him.

Then he thought of something that Ellie told him while he was in Peli's yard.

"Are you going to wipe my memory clean of this?" He asked.

Peli's nice grin stooped so that she wore a neutral expression once more, the kind that made her seem as if she was thinking deeply about something.

"Roy." Peli began, taking a seat on the couch next to him and nearly taking up too much space for even him to stay seated. "I want to confess something to you, even against my own interest, because you deserve to know it." Peli gave a short pause for Roy to listen carefully. "That shrunken girl you met, Ellie Valentine..."

"Yes?" Roy said.

"Ellie is me, I am her." Peli admitted. "And if ever you wished to know how I could trust you, that was the reason why."

Roy's face did nothing at the admission, not a single clench of the teeth, no arching eyebrows, nothing. Peli thought he might have disbelieved it, and his response to her certainly showed.

"Riiiiight... Yeah, that makes total sense..." Roy scoffed at the idea. "That's not possible; she was human, had a different voice, different speech pattern, personality, hair color, eye color, skin tone... Her breasts— although I admit were massive— were much smaller. Quit pulling my leg, Peli."

"Like the idea of how I shrunk you to a centimeter tall?" Peli asked.

Peli's point instantly resonated with Roy, and he slowly swallowed and looked away as he realized that Peli wasn't bluffing him.

"Y-you're not kidding..." Roy relented.

Peli brought her hand up to Roy's chin and faced him toward her.

"Roy, you save my life." Peli said.

Roy's face brightened up with a huge smile as he had realized he might in fact have a shot at scoring some action with Peli— dirty as that thought may be. Very quickly this was interrupted when Peli grabbed him by his shoulders, drew him in, and gave him a kiss. Roy had never had a chance to kiss a girl before, his first lasted for several seconds. As her head tilted left, his to the right, and the two of them kept it up for nearly a minute until it was all over and done with, occasionally canting their heads to the opposite directions.

Peli's hands and arms worked their way around the back of his neck as she pulled him in closer, and by now, her huge breasts were pinning him down in his spot.

He couldn't believe how lucky he was to be kissing a Light.

The kissing finally ended, Peli let go of Roy and she sat back toward the other end of the couch opposite of Roy. He nervously tried to avoid direct eye contact with her for he felt as though he needed to pull himself back and show restraint before he could get the chance to lurch forward for another kiss or to grope her.

"T-that was surreal." He said to Peli.

Peli giggled knowing that she made Roy nervous, and at the same time joyous with her subtleties and excesses— at least as she figured it out to be. Yet underneath that confident smile of hers, she might as well have shrugged her shoulders just as nervously for she had not the slightest clue how to thank him for what he had done.

"Why?" Roy asked her, swallowing afterwords as if he was hesitant to ask.

"For what you did, what you did for me." Peli answered.

Roy felt as though Peli was avoiding the question at hand. He knew Peli was going to have to wipe his memory of the events clean so that he would not remember her or her name— however that would work. Vexing as it had been, Roy had to brush aside Peli's tempting advance and bring the subject back up, for he believed that not having his memory of her wiped would be fair value for rescuing Ellie.

"Peli I don't want to forget you." Roy pleaded Peli calmly. "I-if it's me telling other people that you are worried about, I won't tell a soul."

"Roy I have to." Peli said. "It's not just the rules of engagement for us, but I must maintain my professional integrity and honor my word."

Unable to know how Peli was going to pull off his memory loss, he assumed it was another one of her powers that was going to do him in. He relented easily, his shoulders slumping and his sorrow apparent on his white face that was so washed over from his escapades earlier. He also thought that she was going to do it without any further consideration and at first gave in— but before he could submit to her demand, Peli said something peculiar to him.

"If I do not revert your memory of these past few days to naught but a few details, my commission states that I am to either incarcerate you in alternative placement or kill you." Peli said coldly, getting up from the couch, as did Roy.

"K-kill me?" Roy repeated. "I-if the consequences are so dire, won't you please tell me why I had to go through so much bloody hell in your grass?? All of that? The spider, the hornet? The snake??" An upset Roy replied, approaching Peli whom now stood beside the door looking out of a window from her parlor.

Peli looked down in shame without even looking at Roy.

"You deserve to know." Peli admitted so easily.

"Yes, your god damned bloody right that I deserve to know!! I'm downright terrified of snakes, and you shrinking me nearly got me eaten by one of those things!!" Roy yelled at Peli, unafraid of her imposing figure and unswayed by her beauty.

Peli's head was still low and in shame; that Roy mentioned the snake was most appropriate in her view. Peli knew that Roy felt deceived, and having studied Human history and their culture so much, Peli had known that in the most abundant of humanity's religion lied the evident truth that the snake was a deceptive creature. Indeed, Peli was the snake that Roy encountered. Peli was the snake, and she deceived Roy into believing that it was merely a snake he encountered— that Ellie was a mere Human girl left to her own fate in a world of larger things.

Quietly Peli whispered inaudibly, Roy had to step closer.

"What?" He asked her.

"Genesis..." Peli said. "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals..."

Taken aback by Peli's knowledge of biblical stories, Roy stuttered: "T-that's correct... It's from the Bible."

"The serpent was the snake that deceived Eve. In the end, she along with Adam was expelled from the garden." Peli added. "How appropriate that you be expelled from my lawn, my garden, at the mercy of a red-eyed snake."

Peli's statement sent perhaps the coldest of chills down Roy's spine, his throat became cotton dry as he struggled to swallow, and he started to sweat and it felt like needles poking his forehead.

"N-no, that cannot be." He muttered after taking a step back away from Peli.

To Roy the story started adding up when Peli mentioned the snake and its red eyes. He remembered feeling sorry that Ellie ran away and seemingly vanished only for a giant snake to appear from out of nowhere.

Peli was the snake.

"I'm sorry, Roy..." Peli calmly said looking at the shy man. "But it was the only way I could save you quickly."

"It was all my fault..." Peli lamented further.

Peli's apology was enough for Roy. He may have felt angry and upset at Peli for what happened but after everything was put into perspective, he began to understand just how much Peli cared about him to save his life. He had been so small and insignificant that no one would wince at his disappearance otherwise, and he was just another prisoner in Peli's career— yet she saved him. But most significantly to Roy, she was honest about it. After he thought about it all, he was left wondering why Peli never used Ellie to aggressively pursue questioning him, and why Ellie even silenced him when he finally decided to open up.

"Peli. When we were in your yard, I gave in and started telling Ellie all of the information you of all people wanted to hear. But she shut me down... You silenced me and told me you didn't want to hear any more of it." Roy said.

Peli's lips momentarily pursed a little as she thought of the best answer to give him. There was really only one answer, but how to present it was key.

"It would have been dishonorable, dishonest, and unprofessional of me to use someone else to get answers." Peli answered. "Mr. McCall, feel free return home as you wish, I thank you for being patient with me."

Peli's hand reached down, ready to shake Roy's hand like a true lady to a gentleman. Roy's hand reached up and shook a hand twice as big as his. The handshake went gently, Peli perhaps had the gentlest but most sincere handshake he had ever felt. When it had ended, he opened the door to leave. Peli stopped him to say one more thing.

"Roy." She said, getting him to turn his head to look back up at her. "I may be big, but today I stand smaller than even you in my shame for my mistakes. I hope you will one day forgive me."