Diaper U, Chapter 6

Contains: Messing, Hyper stink, Teasing

Daniel spun in the room, so fast that his skirt twirled and his sagging diaper pulled him off balance. He tumbled to the floor, landing with a splorch, and cast his eyes hurriedly about. “Who’s there?”

“More like, ‘Boo-who’s there’,” the voice replied, giggling again. “I didn’t know they were letting crybabies into the school! Or little girly boys.”

He got up. He wasn’t sure how this person had detected him–clearly, she was invisible just like him, maybe she’d noticed the door opening. “Why are you here?” he asked, turning to look at the door. He’d definitely shut it, so whoever was in the room with him, they couldn’t leave without his noticing.

“Where else should I be? By the way, I’m not over there, I’m over here.”

He turned, glancing at a different corner of the room. “I don’t–wait, how could you tell where I’m looking?” He checked his arms, he was definitely still invisible.

“Uh, because I can see you, duh,” the voice replied. “I’m just glad I can’t smell anything anymore–what, is potty training an elective class now?”

“How?” he demanded.

More giggling. “How do you use the potty? Well, you have to take your diaper off first, and then–”

“How can you see me?”

He felt a chill breeze pass over him, like someone’d just walked over his grave, and the voice whispered right in your ear. “Illusions can’t trick ghosts, dummy.”

His eyes widened. “You’re–”

“An incorporeal, post-life entity,” the voice said, her voice slipping briefly into a teacherly affectation. “Left behind as the result of a highly traumatic death with extreme magical energies.”

“Oh, uh…” he swallowed. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay, I don’t remember dying,” she said. “My mom always said I’d sleep through my own funeral–I never realized how close she was, I slept through my death!”

Daniel hesitated. “Can you–am I looking at you? I feel weird not knowing where you are.”

“I’m in front of the broken beakers,” she said. “A little too the–no, more to the left–you’re there.”

“Looking you in the eye?”

“Looking right at my boobs, really, but I won’t hold it against you,” she said, giggling again. “We know babies get fixated when they’re hungry.”

“I can’t see–”

“I know, dummy.” The ghost giggled again. “I’m Ismella. So why’d you poop yourself?”

“I’m in detention,” Daniel said, rolling his eyes. “I managed to get into this school by working around the rules, so they’re getting back at me with this. And before you ask, no, I can’t take this off, and even if I could I’d probably just get another spanking for my trouble.”

Not giggling this time, but outright laughter. “You got a spanking?”

“Yeah, yeah, it was hilarious.” Daniel walked over to the broken alchemical equipment, scanning it for clues. “Look–were you here a couple hours ago?”

“How come?” she asked. He felt that chill again, and she added, “Oh wow, the enchantments on your diaper are wild–whoever made this really doesn’t want you tampering with it.”

“Because I want to find out what happened here a couple hours ago,” Daniel continued. “Were you here?”

“I don’t remember,” Ismella said. “I’m a ghost. Time doesn’t pass like it does for normal folks.”

“You don’t remember things?” he asked.

“I don’t remember when things happened. Once you walk out of here, I won’t know if this conversation happened yesterday or a year ago–though the boy in a poopy diaper will probably be memorable enough that I don’t forget it altogether. There’s a reason we ghosts tend to live in the past–I remember stuff from my life the normal way, everything after that’s a jumble.”

Daniel thought about that. “If I describe the situation, could you tell me if you’ve seen something like it before?”

“I guess that’d work.” She sighed. “Sure, it’ll kill some time I guess.”

Pausing, Daniel asked, “Can you, like… move around?”

“Within a few hundred feet or so,” Ismella said. “This used to be a dorm area, I’m kind of…stuck here, next to where I died. After the disaster and remodel, I think they made it into this place. The remodel might be more recent, but I don’t have any memories of it being a dorm after I died, so I think they would have had to have rebuilt it pretty quickly into this.”

“So you’re stuck here, and the only company you get is faculty,” Daniel surmised. “That’s got to be frustrating.”

“Oh, no, I’ve got a friend. Do you know Jordan?” She asked.

“I’m new here, it’s literally my first day,” Daniel said. “I don’t know her.”

“She comes around to spend time with me,” Ismella explained. “Sometimes I’ll help her study, or we’ll just play games, or talk. She’s sweet–I… I mean, I think. I don’t know if she still goes here.”

“When’s the last time–” Daniel started, before realizing the issue with his question. “You can’t remember the last time she visited, can you?”

“No,” Ismella admitted. “I can piece together the order, sort of, like–I know she broke up with her girlfriend at some point, so any time she mentions Penny it has to be before that happened, and she started wearing her team scarf after she got into the Mothwicks, so those memories happened later, but…”

Daniel heard a sniffle. He rubbed at the back of his neck uncomfortably. For all he knew, Jordan hadn’t been around here in years. “When did you die?”

“It would have been…I don’t know how long,” Ismella said. “But I was twenty two, the year was was in nineteen seventy one.”

It’s been almost thirty years, Daniel thought. Jeez. That has to be lonely.

“So…”

“I know, this is boring to you,” she said. “Go ahead, tell me about the thing.”

“So there were two people, I think one of them was a teacher but I didn’t get a look at her,” Daniel explained. “The other one didn’t have a teacher’s uniform on, just plain professional clothes. She’s faculty or something, but I don’t know what she does, though she did have blond hair. They were arguing, and this alchemy stuff got shattered at some point.”

Ismella pursed her lips. “I don’t…I’m not sure. That’s not ringing any bells, but teachers are in and out here a lot. Like, a lot a lot. And stuff gets broken all the time.”

Daniel rubbed at his chin, trying to think. “The one who was maybe a teacher was yelling about explanations. Does that help?”

“Not really…sorry. Let me think about it some, though, it might come to me.” she offered.

Nodding, Daniel looked around and said, “That’s…oh. Oh no.”

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He could see his hands. “The invisibility potion I made already wore off, and I’m not supposed to be in this part of the building. If I get caught–”

“Oh,” she said, sounding a little disappointed. “You have to go?”

“I do, but I’ll be back,” he promised. “As soon as I can.”

“I hope you’re being honest,” she said. “Give me a second.”

He glanced around. “O…okay?”

A couple moments passed. Uncertain of what else to do, he waddled to the door, and then heard a sharp hiss. “Stop!”

“What?” he whispered back.

“There’s a janitor walking by. Wait about a minute and he’ll be clear, and then there’s nobody else in this hall,” Ismella warned. “Sorry I can’t look any further than that.”

“It’s okay,” he assured her. “Thanks, Ismella. I really appreciate it.”

He felt another chill, coming up his body from his hand. “You’re nice. Come back soon, okay? I’ll do my best to try and remember what you’re talking about. And, um…maybe change your diaper before you do.”

“I thought you couldn’t smell it?” he asked.

Her reply took a second. “I…lied. I didn’t want you to go away, you seem nice. The hallway’s clear now. Try to find Jordan for me, okay?”

He opened the door, scurrying as quickly as he could with the bulging mush hanging from his waist. The weight slowed him down a little, and the balance made it hard to properly run, but he moved as quickly as he could, staying against the wall properly this time.

After a second, he realized he’d begun humming the Mission Impossible theme, and stopped, moving silently.

The hall was as clear as Ismella had promised, until he came to the intersection where it rejoined with the main corridor. Glancing both ways, he saw other students, walking to and from the dorms.

Dammit, he thought. There was just no way to get from here to there without being seen, he’d just have to hope that they wouldn’t know he wasn’t supposed to be there, and that word wouldn’t get back to Rachel.

Stepping out into the hall, he did his best to walk with confidence towards the prefect’s dormitories. Just look like you belong, and nobody will question it, he told himself. Yeah, sure. At least nobody was actively wrinkling their noses at him–though the stench of his diaper grew stronger and stronger as he approached the more populated dorm hallways.

He hadn’t learned much, but he’d at least made a potential lead. Returning to speak to Ismella would have to be at the top of his priority list, if he could find an opportunity to get there without it being obvious that he was skipping out of his grounding.

Belly gurgling, another concern struck him; the potion wasn’t sitting well in his stomach. He felt woozy, and the growing aura of stink clouded his thoughts further.

He tried to stop for a minute, to breathe, but breathing seemed as though he were huffing his diaper straight, as though a hose were connected from the seat of his mushy mess right to his nose. A gaggle of giggling girls passed him, revving up the messy miasma even further, and he lost his balance, falling to the floor.

He felt a little sick–not nauseous, but the gurgling in his belly from the chemicals he’d drank were definitely taking their toll. He tried to sit up, but only accomplished rolling onto his back. A few students crowded around to see what was happening, and that attention drew a greater crowd–more and more students, so that the spell stifling his smelly diaper had to fight harder and harder to contain the foul odor.

The stink infected his brain, and he tried to murmur for air, but by now he’d created a scene, and that scene drew an audience. He couldn’t think at all, his thoughts had been replaced by stink, he couldn’t speak, he could only mumble and hope for the air to be cleared. The smell was worse than it could possibly have been in real life, bad in a way that only magical amplification bypassing his nervous system could accomplish.

Daniel didn’t exactly pass out right away, but the haze that followed was comparable, a sort of half-dream where his waking thoughts were replaced with olfactory overload and intestinal distress.

When he did, eventually, pass out, his last thoughts were of the sensation of his bowels giving up home, cramping and releasing to expel whatever inedible gloop he’d drank.

Then, as his diaper burbled and swelled, and the girls crowded around him giggled, did he finally lose consciousness.