Life Among the Dead (Book 4): The End by Daniel Cotton

White.”
    “Then, she started renaming us,” the large one adds grumpily.
    “Oh my god! Guys, look what I did to Bashful’s hair!” Amber appears at the top of the stairs, holding a short young man for all to see. She has braided his long hair into dozens of thin strands and bound the ends with brightly colored rubber bands. He doesn’t look as if he appreciates the make over until she places her hands on his shoulders to turn him around so the men below can see the back, his view becomes of her chest for many seconds. When she turns him back around his face is set in a wide smile.
    “Looks great, Amber!” the three trailing the newcomer applaud her handiwork.
    “Can you do mine next?” one begs.
    “So, what shall I call you?” ponders the girl. She appraises Archie thoughtfully.
    “My name is…” he attempts but is cut off when she comes to her own moniker.
    “Bashful,” she announces.
    “I thought I was bashful,” the newly braided dwarf says sounding downtrodden, his face still flushed from his close-up peek of her chest.
    “Actually, my name is…”
    “Ok, I got it! My new thoughtful helper will be known henceforth and forever more as Dopey.”
    “The fuck I will!” Archie rejects the notion. He hasn’t come all this way, been through all he’s been through to play a dwarf.
    The dwarves and Amber are shocked at first. Amber laughs, “Uh-oh. Somebody’s Grumpy.”
    “He can take Grumpy!” the large one says on the stairs. “But I don’t want to be Dopey.”
    “Look, I came a long way, been through a lot tonight to get here,” Archie tells his princess. Everyone on the planet says the same thing about nice guys, he is compelled to assert himself for once in his life. “I’m Prince Charming.”
    Amber looks at him for a few seconds, taken aback that someone has actually challenged her. “Ok.”
    The dwarves can’t believe their ears, all thinking the same thought, why didn’t I think of that?
    Not knowing if his name is still Bashful or if he is the new Dopey, the braided dwarf is cast aside so the princess and her Prince can stand closer to one another, look into one another’s eyes, getting lost until Amber finally speaks, “You look familiar. Where do I know you?”
    “I follow you on Gander,” he responds in a whisper as he goes in for a kiss.
    “You!” she seethes upon recognition, her beautiful brown eyes stare angrily into his. “You’re the one that embarrassed me!”
    “No…I just…” he tries to explain that all he did was say that she didn’t have to post such revealing images of herself.
    “I haven’t been able to show my face on Gander because of you!” She refuses to hear him out though it was more than just her face she was showing.
    “All I said was…”
    “This is the guy!” Amber tells her other admirers. “The one that humiliated me on my own page!”
    The helpers close in around him, ready to cast him out, especially since he has just arrived and taken the role they all came for. With him gone perhaps one of them can be the new Prince Charming. The four of them stare at the man, awaiting the word from Amber to show him the door.
    “Kick his ass!” she commands.
    They hesitate. Though they outnumber the guy, though the world as they know it has a new set of rules, they aren’t sure if they can take him. “Uh, Amber?” one questions.
    “Whoever makes him cry gets a blow…“
    She doesn’t even have to finish her proclamation, the dwarves set upon the infidel at once, the intruder of their perfect fantasy world. Archie has only been in a few fights in his lifetime, won some of them, he doesn’t have a very violent nature, but at that moment he will do anything to leave. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.
    Hands grab at him, thin and frail hands designed for rolling multiple sided dice, as well as Grumpy’s meaty mitts, Archie evades them. He shoves one of the dwarves hard against the others so he can make for the stairs, all the while