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“Danny's idea to get the attention of his high school crush comes with unimaginable consequences.” |
Bleeding Heart is the the third story of Tales from the Pizzaplex 7: Tiger Rock and chronologically the Tales from the Pizzaplex series' 21st story. It was written by Kelly Parra.
Characters[]
Humans[]
- Shullenberg Family
- Danny Shullenberg
- Bobby Shullenberg
- Johnny Shullenberg
- Mrs. Shullenberg
- Mr. Shullenberg
- Zayland Family
- Daisy Zayland
- Mrs. Zayland
- Mr. Zayland
- Tyler
- Glasgow Family
- Aaron Glasgow
- Mrs. Glasgow
- Mr. Glasgow
- Hank Mason
- Charlie Cooper
- Mrs. Jimenez
- Katie Howard
- Ms. Gladys
- Nancy Dawson
- Unnamed Tattoo Artist
Animatronics[]
- Glamrock Freddy
- Roxanne Wolf
- Glamrock Chica (Action Figure)
- Montgomery Gator (Action Figure)
- Nanobots
- Cutting Bots
- Painter Bots
Locations[]
- Bayer High School
- Freddy Fazbear's Mega Pizzaplex
- Monty's Gator Golf
- Fazer Blast
- Roxy's Raceway
- Fazcade
- Santa's Giftplex
Summary[]
At Christmastime in the Pizzaplex, Danny is amazed by an exhibit where flying nanobots cut wrapping paper and wrap presents. To impress his crush Daisy, Danny steals a few nanobots and keep them in his pocket. When Danny offhandedly mentions wanting a tattoo of a heart, the nanobots cut into his body to carve a tattoo. He shows off the new tattoo to Daisy, and decides to keep getting tattoos to impress her. As he asks for larger and larger tattoos, the nanobots dangerously cut off more of his flesh. Still, Danny is desperate for Daisy's approval, and agrees to join her to a tattoo convention. When he realizes that Daisy was just using him, he runs away furiously and tells the nanobots that he wants a lot of tattoos. He staggers into a bathroom, where the only thing Daisy finds left of him is his heart.
Plot[]
Danny Shullenberg is a 15-year-old artist who has a large crush on a girl named Daisy Zayland. Danny likes to sketch Daisy, including the little star tattoo on her wrist. Daisy is the only girl at Bayer High School with a real tattoo, something Danny notices other girls don’t seem to appreciate. At home, Danny is the middle child to three-and-a-half-year-old Johnny and high school senior Bobby, and with his father out of town until right before Christmas and his mother a full-time dental assistant, Danny keeps to himself.
On his way to school, Danny talks to his best friend Aaron Glasgow. They talk about graphic novels such as Blake, the Hero, which is about a nobody high schooler named Blake Billings who has a secret hero persona named Hero. At school, Danny sneaks drawings he makes of Daisy into her locker. One day he is shocked to hear that Aaron shares a Geometry class with Daisy, and ignores Aaron when he tells him that she’s somewhat snobby. When he looks back at Daisy’s locker, he finds the drawing he made crumbled up.
Since Christmas is a couple weeks away, they go shopping that Sunday and visit the currently Christmas decorated Freddy Fazbear’s Mega Pizzaplex for a late dinner. Their mother lets Bobby and Danny go play in the Fazcade, and Danny asks Bobby for relationship advice since he had a short term girlfriend. Bobby recommends buying Daisy a gift and points out a Santa’s Giftplex area across from the arcade. As Danny makes his way over, he hears an announcement that the Mega Pizzaplex will be closing in fifteen minutes. He comes across a gift wrapping booth where wrapping paper is colored, wrapped, and cut perfectly around presents seemingly by magic. Next to the booth is a machine where kids can stick their arms in and get a tattoo painted on. Desperate for Daisy's attention, Danny hides as the Pizzaplex begins to close. He sneaks in the booth and notices tiny flying bots, the size of a grain of rice, that wrap, color, draw, and cut. Danny steals some of them and hides them in his pocket. He feels a small sting on his leg. At home, the tiny bots are missing.
The next day, Aaron has to take a make-up test during lunch, so Danny goes to the library to draw. There, he sees Daisy reading a tattoo book at a far corner table and decides to ask her what tattoo she wants. When Daisy says she wants a small, simple heart tattoo on the side of her body, Danny says he wants one too. Suddenly, he feels a sharp pain and rushes to the bathroom to find a small heart carved into his skin. Danny hurries to his locker and Daisy approaches him, wondering what was wrong. Danny decides to show Daisy the carving, and Daisy is impressed with his precision and speed.
Daisy gives Danny her number, much to Aaron’s surprise. At home, Danny rushes to his room and examines the pockets of the pants he wore last night, finding two tiny, perfect holes cut into them. He questions if there were two types of bots in the gift wrapping booth: one for drawing and coloring and another for cutting. Danny uses a magnifying glass and sees two tiny marks cut into his right thigh just big enough for the bots to slip inside his body. He realizes he grabbed the wrong bots and feels sick. Danny leaves his dad a voicemail but he never calls back. He tells Aaron that he misses his dad, and Aaron tries cheering him up. At school, Daisy approaches with a new tattoo book to look over at lunch. Danny tells Daisy that he would rather draw his own design, and Daisy wants him to draw one by tomorrow.
At home, Danny sketches a big grizzly bear in a graphic-novel style. He’s very impressed and off-handedly says he wants a tattoo like it on his shoulder. Danny immediately realizes his mistake but it’s too late and the bots carve the design onto his right shoulder. Danny quickly throws his bloody clothes into the wash. The next day, Daisy and Aaron fight over tattoos. When it’s revealed to Aaron that Danny has been looking at them, he storms off. Daisy notices Danny recoiling when his shoulder is touched and has him meet her at the track field. She’s impressed by how perfect and precise the new design is, but Danny keeps how he gets them a secret. Daisy admits that her parents let her have the star tattoo to apologize for being away from home a lot, and she can only get another tattoo when they come back sometime after Christmas. Danny begins to wonder if he’s Daisy’s only friend, and vows to make her happy at the cost of his own comfort.
Danny’s next design is of a hummingbird since Daisy loves them. He prepares himself by keeping old towels and trash bags under his bed for easier clean up. Although it’s painful, being with Daisy makes him feel noticed and wanted, something he hasn’t felt for a while now. When he shows Daisy the design the next day, she asks if he can give her one. Danny refuses, and Daisy says she has someone else to meet. Danny lies and says he just needs time, so Daisy stays. When he asks who she was meeting, Daisy says someone unimportant. After school, Aaron tells Danny that Daisy is just using him so she isn’t alone, and that she will eventually find someone cooler. Danny denies this as the two split off. He then gets a text from Daisy asking him to draw a tattoo of a black cat. He agrees, willing to do anything for Daisy.
When Danny sketches the cat in his sketchbook, he shades it with all black. His mother enters his room and asks why he’s suddenly doing his own laundry, and he says he spilled paint on them. During dinner, his father calls and Bobby reveals that Danny has a crush. Danny, wanting to have told his dad about Daisy himself, storms to his room and has the bots carve the cat into his stomach. Danny is disgusted to find the bots have cut a large chunk of his flesh out in the shape of the drawing. He quickly cleans up the mess and throws everything away before collapsing on his bed due to blood loss. He walks to school alone the next day and throws the bags away in the school’s dumpster. Daisy approaches Danny at his locker and reveals that a Body Art Expo will be in town tomorrow. She points out how pale Danny is, which she thinks shows his dedication. Daisy then asks if he drew the cat, and he nods but doesn’t tell her it’s already on him.
The next day, Danny’s dad surprises them with an early flight home. Danny lies and says he’ll be spending time with Aaron instead. At the expo, Daisy finds a tattoo artist she really likes. While she does view Danny as a good friend, she has him get her a soda so she can talk to the artist. When Danny returns Daisy is still talking with the artist and he begins to believe Aaron was right. When she tells the artist that she wants all of her tattoos to be personal, Danny snaps and he asks for all of the artist’s designs. The bots immediately begin carving into Danny. Daisy runs away while Danny chases after and she locks herself in an office. Danny weakly begs her to let him in, saying he didn't mean for it to happen and just wanted her to like him. Danny admits to having been the one giving her the drawings, and Daisy realizes he loved her the whole time. Danny goes quiet and Daisy opens the door to find a trail of blood leading to a dark corridor. As she makes her way down the corridor, she finds Danny’s discarded clothes, flesh in different shapes, and his cell phone with missed calls from mom and dad. Daisy finds a dark room and turns on the light. She screams at the sight of a silent and still human heart.
Trivia[]
- The title "Bleeding Heart" has many meanings in the story.
- Most obvious is the heart Daisy finds after Danny's body is cut up.
- A heart is the first skin carving Danny gets.
- A bleeding heart is a type of flower. Daisy is also the name of a flower.
- "Bleeding heart" is a term to describe someone who is too sympathetic for other's problems. Danny believes Daisy is lonely and gets skin carvings to befriend her.
- In Danny's room is a poster of the famous Drawing Hands lithograph by M. C. Escher.
- It's uncertain if Daisy had mistakenly believed Danny's cuts to be tattoos or if she believed he was undergoing some form of scarification.
- The flesh Daisy encounters while traversing the dark corridor mostly consists of hearts. It can be inferred that Danny had told the bots to cut these shapes out as he walked, thus making his death a suicide.
- This story replaced the story, Monster, before Tiger Rock was released.
- "Monster" was also replaced by GGY in The Bobbiedots Conclusion.