Turn It Into Magic

"Alright everyone, I'm sure you all know why you're here! This is the day, the hour, the very minute when we draw Ginger's lover from the Dope Hat!" Abi called. The whole room erupted into cheers and clapping.

"Are you ready?" Elizabeth asked; the crowd whooped and hollered.

"Come up here, Ginger!" Abi called, waving for Ginger to come up to the front of the room, next to Elizabeth, Abi, and the Dope Hat. Ginger walked slowly up the aisle, his face bright red. He was wearing his favorite skin-tight cheetah print hoodie and a pair of black skinny jeans.

"Alright, Ginger! Are you ready to have your lover drawn from The Dope Hat?" Elizabeth asked, motioning to the top hat with a sloppily-drawn sign claiming that it was, in fact, "THE DOPE HAT!!"

"No," Ginger groaned, letting his head fall.

"Yes! Now, we would have made Skold do it for us, but he might rig it so that he picks his own name, so we're gonna have Marilyn do it for us!" Abi exclaimed. Marilyn walked up to the front of the room along with the small group that had formed.

"Manson, c'mon! Don't do this to me!" Ginger pleaded, giving Marilyn his best puppy-dog eyes.

"I'm sorry Ginger, but you need someone to keep you busy. You need someone other than Twiggy," Marilyn said, smiling briefly at Twiggy, who was sitting eagerly in the front row.

Marilyn reached into the hat, fished around, and pulled out a slip of paper. He opened it, glanced at it, and looked as if he had witnessed the end of the world. He handed the paper to Abi and walked back to his seat next to Twiggy. Abi opened the paper and looked at it with Elizabeth.

"Your...partner..." Elizabeth started, searching for the perfect words. "Ginger, you're going to go into the room with, uh...Abi, will you finish this up for me?"

"Pogo."

The room went silent. Ginger looked utterly horrified and Pogo, for once, was speechless.

Finally, Pogo spoke. "FUCK NO! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK NO! I AM NOT GOING INTO A ROOM WITH THE GINGER!"

Abi turned to Elizabeth with a confused look on her face. "Did he just refer to Ginger as the Ginger" she asked quietly.

"I'm not sure," Elizabeth murmured back, then turned to Pogo. "You have to do it, Pogo."

"No. I'm not going to."

"You didn't seem to have any objections to it when we discussed this with Ginger."

"Fine. I'll fucking go in there, but I'm not going to fucking like it."

"Nobody asked you to like it. All we ask is that you finish this. Marilyn, Twiggy, would you like to escort these boys to their room?"

Pogo stormed up to the front of the room and grabbed Ginger's trembling wrist. Pogo muttered something to himself as he dragged Ginger after Marilyn and Twiggy.

"You're all free to leave," Abi exclaimed with a smile as she and Elizabeth ushered everyone out of the room. They wanted to watch the room Pogo and Ginger like hawks for any type of connection between the two of them.

When they noticed that Marilyn and Twiggy went back into their own room, Elizabeth grabbed the camera and Abi turned on the one-way chalkboard. Three of the four walls to their office were one-way chalkboards, perfect for viewing whatever action went on in the rooms around them.

In the small room, Pogo had taken a seat in an armchair in the corner. The chair was shaped like a set of red lips, as the room had been redecorated with any and all furniture that could possibly put someone in an erotic mood. Ginger was lying face down on a large heart-shaped bed, his face buried in the excessive amounts of pillows.

"This could be a long day," Elizabeth commented, pointing to the glaring Pogo.

"I'll get the coffee," Abi nodded, standing up quickly and scurrying to the little coffee pot. Elizabeth watched intently as Pogo opened his mouth to speak. He stopped, closed his mouth, then opened it again just as Abi plopped back into her seat and thrust a mug into Elizabeth's hands.

"I hope you know I hate this," Pogo growled.

"You've made that pretty obvious, Pogo," Ginger stated quietly.

"Oh shut the hell up, you fucking Ginger!" Pogo shouted, throwing a pillow across the room at Ginger.

"You're the one who said it first!" Ginger yelled, throwing the pillow back and sitting up like a pouting child on the bed. Pogo growled and threw the pillow back and soon there was an all-out pillow war going on.

"Are they seriously fighting like little children?" Abi asked Elizabeth quietly.

"It appears to be so," Elizabeth confirmed. "Ooh, I hear Maniggy!"

Elizabeth jumped up from her chair and ran to the one-way chalkboard on the opposite side of the room. She turned it on and powered up a camera. Then she ran back to her seat next to Abi, who was looking at her like she's insane.

"It's not like you weren't thinking the same thing," Elizabeth stated defensively. Abi shook her head and turned back to the chalkboard, not saying a word because she really was thinking the same thing.

Things had settled down once again. Ginger appeared to be sleeping and Pogo was pacing around the room, muttering something to himself.

__________

Six hours and three pots of coffee later, Elizabeth and Abi were starting to drift to sleep. Ginger was laying on the floor, toying with a fluffy scarf. Pogo had slumped against the wall and appeared to be sleeping, though nothing was certain with Pogo. He could be planning Ginger's demise for all anyone knew.

"We should take shifts," Abi murmured sleepily, rubbing her eyes. Elizabeth nodded.

"I'll take the first shift. You get some sleep and I'll wake you up in two hours?" Elizabeth asked.

"Sounds great. I'm just going to sleep here," Abi mumbled, then slumped forward, already fast asleep. Elizabeth stood up and walked back to the coffee pot to make some coffee.

"Oh that's horrible," she murmured to herself, referring to the fact that they had run out of coffee. Elizabeth searched the cupboards, looking for another can of the stuff, which she knew they had somewhere. She found it, and with a squeal of triumph, she began to brew the coffee.

As soon as it was done, she sat back down with a steaming mug of coffee and watched the men in the room next to hers. She sipped her coffee.

"Pogo?" Ginger asked timidly. Pogo's head snapped up and he glared at Ginger.

"What?" Pogo spat. Ginger winced, but continued.

"I was wondering if...you know..." Ginger hinted. Pogo's eyes grew wide and his mouth seemed to drop to the floor.

"No!" was the only word Pogo could form.

"That's not what I meant! I wanted to know if you'd call for food or something! I'm starving," Ginger rephrased. Pogo lost his surprised look and settled for a blank stare.

"Get your own goddamned food, you Ginger," he said, then let his head fall forward again. Ginger sighed and covered his head with the scarf.

"Pogo?" Ginger asked again.

"I hope that scarf asphyxiates you and you die," Pogo said. Ginger shut his mouth and rolled farther away from Pogo. "Stop fucking rolling around!"

"How the hell could you tell I was doing anything! Your eyes are closed!" Ginger exclaimed, untangling the scarf from his limbs.

"I have Pogo Power, dick," Pogo stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Ginger groaned and covered his face with the scarf once more.

__________

"Abi! Abi!" Elizabeth yelled, roughly shoving Abi. Abi jumped and spluttered awake.

"What is it? Are they making lo-" Abi stopped and glared at Elizabeth's frantic face. "You didn't."

"I'm sorry, I made decaff coffee and I didn't know!" Elizabeth cried.

"Why didn't-" Abi's words were halted almost as soon as she spoke when something in the room caught her eye. Elizabeth turned and looked at what Abi had seen. "Oh my fucking God."

Ginger was entwined in the rose red blankets of the bed, his body shaking as if he were crying. The blanket was weaved around his arms, legs, and torso and he was stark naked. Pogo was sitting across the room in the lip-shaped armchair, looking satisfied. All Elizabeth and Abi could do was stare.

"Did they...?"

"I don't know..."

Elizabeth and Abi sat, shocked, and examined the scene before them. Ginger's clothes had been violently torn from his body and were lying in a helpless heap on the floor, though they didn't looks as helpless as Ginger himself. There were tears running down his cheeks, smearing his makeup. His hair was a tragic mess and random areas of his body were a raw red color.

"Pogo broke Ginger," Elizabeth whispered. "He broke him."

"Dear God," Abi stated in disbelief.

"H-How much time is left?" Elizabeth asked Abi. Abi leaned over to the little timer that had fallen off the desk next to their chairs when Elizabeth woke Abi.

"Only an hour," Abi said. "All we can do now is pray to Manson that Pogo can keep his hands - and other body parts - to himself."

__________

The hour ticked by agonizingly slow. Elizabeth and Abi finished the last of the decaff coffee, dressed, and finished watching Pogo and Ginger. At one point, Ginger had dragged himself from the bed and dressed in the tattered remains of his clothes. The only things left truly intact were his scarf and leopard print hoodie.

Finally, the bell on the timer rang and Elizabeth and Abi slowly stood to go retrieve Ginger and Pogo.

"I think we should get Marilyn and Twiggy, too. For good measure," Abi said. Elizabeth nodded and they left the room to go get them. The door to their room was open, so Abi assumed they were decent and knocked on the door.

"Coming!" Twiggy called. He ran out of whatever side room he was hiding in and pulled both Abi and Elizabeth in for a hug. "Lemme get Marilyn. MARILYN!" Twiggy yelled into the room. Marilyn slowly walked out of the bathroom, rubbing his face.

"Hey guys. What happened? I heard someone screaming a while ago," Marilyn asked.

"Well, I think Ginger and Pogo could probably explain better. We were just on our way to get them before the next Dope Hat drawing. If one is needed, of course," Abi explained.

Silently, all four of them left the room and walked two doors down to the room Pogo and Ginger had been locked in. Elizabeth pulled out the key and started to unlock the door.

"Ginger? Pogo? We need to talk," Elizabeth called into the room. Pogo bounced up off the chair and sauntered over to join the little cluster of musicians and writers. Ginger, on the other hand, crawled stiffly off the bed and walked painfully over to them as if he had been violently raped. Which made sense, because it was really starting to look like he had been.

"Come. To our office," Abi said, motioning widely out the door. Pogo led the way and jumped onto one of the couches that had been placed there. Ginger sat in an armchair alone, Marilyn sat on the floor and Twiggy plopped down on his lap. Abi and Elizabeth dragged some more chairs over.

"Ginger, can you please tell us what happened?" Elizabeth asked softly, patting Ginger's hand.

"Nothing happened, isn't that right, Ginger?" Pogo said, crossing his arms over his head.

"Let him talk, Pogo," Marilyn sighed. Ginger looked pained.

"Well, we were just sitting there, and all of a sudden, he jumped up and started kissing me and taking off my clothes and then..." Ginger shuddered. Abi bit her lip, not knowing what emotion was going to come out if she opened her mouth. Now that Pogo had said something, almost everyone noticed how swollen his lips were and they could see more and more red spots that seemed to form hands.

"I'm sorry, Ginger. I'm sorry," Abi murmured, now capable of properly controlling her emotions.

"Do you think you're ready for another drawing from the Dope Hat?" Elizabeth asked.

"No," Ginger almost sobbed, shaking his head violently.

"Alright, you can have the next day off, and then tomorrow we'll draw again," Abi said. "You guys can go."

Pogo and Ginger stood up to leave, but Marilyn glared at Pogo until he sat down. "Let Ginger have his rest, Pogo."

"Fine," Pogo said, his self-satisfied smirk never leaving his face.