Unchained [The Change Universe # 2]

PROLOGUE

 

In her dreams, the man has no face.

 

The dark, dirty room shifts and vibrates as if an earthquake is trying to open the ground under them.  Only the man is clear and unmoving.  Black lines and diagrams stand out on his body, centering around his navel and running to his feet, hands and head.  Where his face should be is a blank expanse of skin, slightly bulging as if covering his real face.  The man stands on the bare ground and thick, black smoke curls around his toes to waft lazily in the air.  Even in her dream, the smell makes her gag.  The earth around his feet is blackened.

 

His hands… she can’t look at them.  Her dream self keeps pulling her eyes to his hands but she can’t see them, won’t see them.  Her stomach twists into knots at the thought of it and she falls to her knees, head nearly touching the shifting ground.  But still, her eyes are drawn to his hands.  She’s crying and feels the tears steam from her face, as if a great fire is washing over her.  She doesn’t want to see his hands.  Please, she tries to say, Please don’t make me see them.  But she can’t stop and finally, she looks.

They look like hands and, for a moment, she’s relieved.  They’re just hands, she tells herself.  The fingernails are longer than a person would keep them but they’re just hands.  With black, sharp fingernails.  As soon as she notices the fingernails, she feels them inside her stomach, twisting and pulling.  She tries to beat at the hands but only feels her unmarked stomach.  The pain is incredible as she feels him pull thick, ropy intestines from her.  She prays she will black out but she doesn’t.

 

She’s on her back now, eyes closed and hands clutching her chest.  Oh god, she thinks, he’s taken my heart.  Her hands scrabble over her sweaty chest, trying to find the hole he’s made those hands.  Her heartbeat hammers loudly in her ears.  She blindly reaches out, trying to take it back but it’s gone.

 

Now he’s reaching in again – reaching into the empty shell of her body and filling her with pain and heat.

 

She tries to remember her childhood prayers but nothing comes to mind.  Please, she repeats to herself.  Please, please, please, please…

 

 

CHAPTER 1

 

Elizabeth Mori woke in a cold sweat in an unfamiliar bed.  In the moments following her dream, nothing made sense and everything was terrifying.  She thought someone was holding her down until she realized she had twisted her hands into the sheets while she thrashed.

 

Slowly she remembered she was in a hotel room on a business trip.  Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and shapes that moments ago appeared to be hunched over men turned into her clothes hanging on the back of a chair and other common objects.  She breathed deeply in and out to calm herself – the dream was already fading and all that remained was the face, or, where the face should have been.

 

Elizabeth swung her legs over the bed to stand.  All of the pillows were on the floor next to her and she stared at them while trying to make the burning sensation in the back of her throat go away.  Rather than get better, it felt like the burning was creeping down her throat to her stomach.  Outside, a lone car revved its engine and sped away.

 

She made her way to the bathroom sink and stood over it, waiting to see what her body would do.  She stared at the faucet for the longest time before she finally started dry heaving – once, twice and then a third time.  On the fourth time she spit up what felt like phlegm – it hit the side of the sink with a loud splat and stuck.  It wasn’t green or yellow like she expected.  Rather, it was dark red and thick – almost black in the light.  The sight of it turned her stomach and she broke out in a coughing fit before another reddish-black blob came out.  Thankfully, she felt better.  A little weak but at least it didn’t feel like someone was scratching her throat with a burning piece of coal.  When the water from the faucet couldn’t dislodge (or even move) the phlegm, she used a wad a cheap hotel tissue paper to clean them up.  They felt hard and fleshy under the tissues and she almost threw up in the toilet after flushing them away.

 

She grabbed the least lumpy pillow from the floor and crawled back into bed, tossing and turning.  She hated hotel beds.  Never in her life had she found a hotel bed she could be comfortable in.  Most of the pillows were larger than she was.

 

The red light from the alarm clock told her it was nearly 1 am.  Slept felt like an impossibility but her eyes ached from the lack of it.  She lay in her hard bed, smelling the faint chemical smells used to clean the sheets and stared at the ceiling.  Occasionally a car would drive past and once she thought she heard some woman yelling outside.  The heater clicked on and off again several times, the humming sound annoying her rather than lulling her to sleep.

 

California, she thought.  Everyone talks about how beautiful and warm California is but they forget to tell you that not all parts are equal.  There were times she feared for her safety on the cab ride from the airport to the hotel.  They would pass a nice section of the city and then the next block over were women standing out wearing barely anything and what she could only assume were drug dealers peddling their disgusting product.  Men leered at her at stoplights and told her what they’d do to her and how she would like it, their teeth glittering gold in the too-bright sun.  She had to fight the urge to get up and wash her hands just from the memory of it.  Animals, she told herself.

 

She tried to remember exactly why she was here but it was hazy.  She was supposed to meet a man about something… an investment.  No, that wasn’t right.  She was supposed to meet an investor about managing some funds for her company.  It was ridiculous, she was a sales person and this was grunt work – not something she should be assigned to do.  It was always like that.  She worked her ass off, made the sales and watched the men around her get fatter and richer and have more titles added to their names.  She never received the recognition she deserved.  Except… didn’t she ask for this assignment?  Didn’t she suggest it?  No, that couldn’t be.  Why would she?  It was the middle of December and she should be planning a trip to her parents house to spend time with them over the holidays like she always did.

 

Her head hurt and she could still see the face from her dream. The shadowed, pebbled texture from the ceiling kept forming the same featureless face wherever she looked.  She closed her eyes and tried counting backwards from one hundred.  Around number seventy-three she heard a rustling.  She paused to listen but started over again from the beginning when it didn’t repeat.  At eighty-five the noise was louder and her heart skipped a beat.  It sounded like old dry leaves rubbing against each other.  She waited even longer and then slowly started over yet again.  This time, before she reached ninety she heard a single word as if spoken from someone dying of thirst in the desert.

 

“Unclean.”

 

She jerked upright in bed and pulled the covers up to her neck.  “Who’s there?” She called out, her voice shrill and too loud sounding to her own ears.  The sound seemed to come from the desk near the windows. She waited and watched but there was nobody there and no space for anyone to hide.  Was this someone’s idea of a sick joke?  Hiding a speaker somewhere and harassing her?

 

She stood again and walked to the desk.  The streetlight close to the hotel gave her just enough light to look around and in her desk but she found nothing.

 

The voice came suddenly, loud and strong behind her.  “Tainted!”

 

Elizabeth shrieked and turned, stumbling into the desk chair and knocking it over.  The voice had seemed to be right at her shoulder, clear and distinct.  Her heart was trying to climb out of her chest.  There was no way that voice came from a speaker of any kind, she thought.

 

She reached for the window blinds but stopped short, watching her small hand tremble.

 

It’s just a window, she told herself.  There’s nothing there.  I’m on the third floor and there’s no balcony or ledge.  There can’t be anyone there.  I’ll open the shades, get a nice view of the parking lot and then go back to bed.  This is stupid.

 

It took her three tries to make herself grab the strings to open the blinds.  There was no ghostly apparition hovering in front of the window.  No Spiderman, no crazy window cleaner or other pervert.  Just a half-full parking lot, part of the Interstate and a street lamp.

 

And then, she looked up.

 

The moon was huge and nearly full and it was the brightest thing she’d ever seen.  It made her want to cry.  It was too pure, too beautiful.  She immediately looked away and couldn’t find a reason why.  She felt ashamed.  Dirty.  She knelt and hid her face between her knees, curled into a ball like she did when she was a child.  She was crying now – sobbing into the thin carpet.

 

“Diseased.” Came the whisper.

 

“Noooooo.” she sobbed, between breaths.  “No, no, no.  I… I’m… not.”  She couldn’t catch her breath properly.  Her left hand felt like someone had driven an iron spike through the middle of it.  She clutched it to her chest.

 

“Corrupted.  Tainted.  Diseased!  UNCLEAN!”  The words came, one after another repeated louder and faster until she couldn’t understand them individually anymore.

 

“NOOOOOO!”  She shouted.  “Stop it!  I’m…. I’m sorry!  Oh god!  I’m sorry!”  Her hand felt like it was on fire now and her whole body was shaking.  She felt sick.  She wanted to find a hole and hide as far away as she could but the voice wasn’t stopping.

 

She reached out with her left hand, blindly gripping the leg of the desk.  A spasm caused her to clench her fist and the solid wood creaked under her grip.  She was covered in sweat, could even feel it under her small breasts but she was still too hot.

 

She twisted her head up to look at the window.  “Stop.”  She gasped.  “I didn’t…”  Her whole body suddenly jerked in pain as she caught a glimpse of the moon.  “I’m sorry.” She whispered.  It was impossible to think straight any more and the desk seemed to be falling.

 

This was no deranged person talking to her – no stalker trying to scare her.  She knew.  The beautiful silvery moon was looking down and her and talking to her.  The voice whispered again, nearly devoid of any emotion or feelings but one – hatred.

 

“Outcast.” It told her, as the pain knifed into her belly and she blacked out.

 

 

CHAPTER 2

 

“Shoes.  Cute shoes.  Ugly shoes.  Comfortable shoes.”  She ticked each off with a finger.

 

“Bicycling.”  She said. “That’ll never happen.  Maybe a treadmill if it was big enough.  And how retarded would that look?”

 

The van hit a sudden bump and caused her to shift around a little bit.  The man driving the truck immediately called out to her, “I’m so sorry!  I couldn’t avoid it without hitting the car in the other lane and I would’ve done that but we wouldn’t have been able to get awa…”

 

“It’s fine!”  She yelled back to him.  “I’m fine.  Jesus.  I’m not made of porcelain.  Just… just keep driving.  And if you hit anyone just to keep me from getting knocked around I will come up there and break your teeth!”

 

The voice hesitated a moment before answering.  “It would be only what I deserved if I did.  You have every ri…”

 

Victoria gnashed her teeth, almost biting her tongue in the process.  “Just. Shut. Up. And. Drive.”  She closed her eyes and breathed in.  “Jesus fucking Christ.” She said, under her breath.  She lay in a makeshift bed of sorts in the back of the cargo van.  She was fine when it was just an empty space but Rob, or whatever he is now, started crying when she told him she didn’t need a bed or anything else.  Eventually she agreed just to have him shut up.  She had to admit it was a little more comfortable but she wasn’t about to tell him that or he’d insist on a water bed or something worse.  At least the portable heaters kept her warm.  She couldn’t seem to stay as warm after the transformation and the January weather was wearing her down.

 

She stared at the back of the van doors for a while.  Two more days of driving before they reached Rob’s home near Altadena.  She thought she could handle two more days of this without going insane from boredom.  Whether Rob survived or not was another matter.

 

She continued her little road trip game.  “Driving a car or anything else.  Couldn’t even get in the front without dangling out of it.”  She closed her eyes and leaned back.  “I suppose I could have Rob make me a huge hamster wheel.”

 

The white snake next to her moved and then settled again, its tongue flicking slowly in and out.  She watched it for a moment and then stared at the back of the van again.  “Swimming.  Wait, wait.  Am I the swimming kind of snake?”  She flicked the end of her tail slightly.  “How the hell do I tell?”

 

The snakes on her head shifted around.  One of them started to speak in its gravelly old woman voice, “Sssoo…”

 

“What did I fucking tell you?  When I want to talk to you, I’ll fucking tell you I want to talk to you.  Don’t think I’ve forgiven you for that man in the garage.  Go back to sleep!”  They all moved slightly as they settled down again.

 

Her hands were clenching and unclenching in anger, the claws scratching against the bottom of her hands.  If she wanted to, she could easily draw blood on her palms.  She was grinding her teeth and could feel the sharper incisors working against her other teeth.  She felt like part of what happened should be her fault but she never asked for this, never knew what could happen.  They did it, not her.  She closed her eyes again and let out the breath she was holding, trying to relax her muscles as she did.  She needed to watch her temper and language.  Before this happened she was polite and considerate.  She had no problems being blunt if she had to but now the cussing seemed to roll off of her tongue.  She rolled her shoulders and felt the cool skin of her hair-snakes rub against her naked flesh.  Who could blame her after this, really?

 

But she needed to talk to them, needed answers from them if they had some to give.  She’d rather eat her arm if she had to talk to them with their odd broken way of talking.  It was impossible to understand them for more than a word or two.  Although… she remembered this one time during her dreams she felt a presence that was familiar.  She had the same dream every night with the fire and the shapes but the presence – almost a figure she could make out – was new.  She suspected it was them or their representation.

 

“Rob!” She yelled out.  “I’m going to try and catch some sleep.  Don’t wake me up unless it’s important!”

 

Rob called back to her.  “Yes, mist…”

 

“What is that Rob?  I don’t think I heard you right because I sure as hell know you weren’t about to call me ‘mistress’.”

 

“Yes, m… Vi… Victoria.”  He answered.  “Shall I sing to you to help you fall asleep?”

 

Victoria blinked several times as she digested this.  “Sing?  Sing to me?  Am I twelve?  Are you my mother?  Rob, can you even carry a tune?”

 

“No, m… Victoria.  But if I put my heart int…”

 

“Stop.  Rob, stop right there before I hurt you.  I’m going to close my eyes and go to sleep and you’re going to stay up there, driving!, with your eyes on the road and your mouth closed.  Except for breathing or whatever else you need to use it for.  Jesus.  I don’t really have to tell you what to do with your mouth, do I?”  Part of her was still worried that he’d take her too literally and kill himself one day.

 

She settled her upper body against the pile of arranged piles and tried to relax.  Her lower body felt a little awkward but it was nearly impossible to try and make it better.  If she focused on moving her tail too much, it didn’t work and the tail would flail around like it was having a seizure.  The trick was to not think about it too much and imagine what she was trying to do rather than forcing the tail to do what she wanted.  That was fine for larger movements but more fine movements were still hard for her – like coiling her tail properly.

 

Her snakes fanned out behind her on a pillow, rubbing against and over each other. She’d come to recognize that as their way of saying hello and comforting each other all rolled into one.  She still couldn’t understand how they worked.  They talked the same and all of them knew exactly what they were all going to say but they were still individual… things.  Creatures.  Whatever.

 

Victoria slowed her breathing and closed her eyes.  She let her arms rest to her sides and took slow, deliberate breaths.  Eventually, the rocking of the van and sound of the tires on the road helped her to fall asleep.

 

As ever, she sat in front of a huge fire, surrounded by blackness.  The fire was fueled by an immense amount of coals, still visible even through the flames.  She never felt in danger of being burned by the fire, even if she was close to it.

 

Around her, vague shapes formed in the dark – what looked like indistinct tentacles or faces or claws.  Primordial imagery.  She shivered and focused on the fire.  Here she was human and sat with her legs tucked under her.  She was naked but not bothered by it.  If there was one thing the transformation taught her is that nakedness is not something to cry over.  Suddenly losing your legs to a freakish tail and snakes for hair?  Yes, that was something to cry about.

 

“I know you’re there.”  She called out.  “I’ve felt you before.  Come out and sit by the fire with me.”

 

A figure stepped around the fire before Victoria and she felt her own surprise.  It was a young woman not that much different looking from herself.  Perhaps she was slightly older but not by much.  She had an olive skin complexion and reddish-brown hair.  Her breasts were smaller but her hips looked wider.  She approached Victoria cautiously.

 

“Are you the snakes?”  Victoria asked.

 

“We are.” The woman answered.

 

 

CHAPTER 3

 

The other woman sat in front of Victoria, her movements fluid and graceful.  She folded her legs on front of her and clasped her hands in her lap, watching Victoria with a serene expression.

 

“What do I call you?”  Victoria asked.  She was disappointed.  She didn’t know what she expected but a part of her wanted someone or something she could be angry with.  Someone she could despise at first glance.  This woman reminded her of her mother too much.

 

The woman made a small motion with her chin.  “We have no name.  Call us what you will.  We’re simply pleased that you’re speaking with us.  That man…” She paused and looked down at her hands.  “It was a mistake and his life is no more.  We are old and practiced but you are part of us.  Your emotions, your desires, your dreams – all of it affects us as well.  We were not prepared.”

 

Victoria’s could feel her lips compressed into a thin line.  “That man is dead because of you.  Don’t try to put the blame on me!  Look at what I am now!  I didn’t ask for any of this.  You’re lucky I didn’t try killing myself or have a psychotic break.”

 

“You couldn’t…” The woman stopped.  “We didn’t do this to you.  Whatever else you believe, you must believe that.  You are unique in this world.  The last of us died thousands of years ago and we’ve been dreaming since then.  Only suddenly we were called back and found ourselves in the physical world again.  Much has changed and we do not know why we’ve returned.”

 

“Only one of me?  Unique?  Is that supposed to make me feel any better?”  Victoria’s laugh was short and bitter.  She choked back the sudden ache in her throat.  “I’m alone.”  She hid her face from the other woman, biting her bottom lip.  She refused to let this creature see her cry.  It took several minutes before she could face the woman again.  She looked around the fire and darkness.  “What is this place?  Is this where you lived?  Where you dreamed?”

 

“It is.  Although it was not always like this.  When we first came here it was beautiful and green with many growing things.  Many years later we noticed small shadows where there were none before.  They became more and worse and we feared for ourselves.  Our powers here are small and we used what we had to hide.  It was almost not enough but one day, this… pyre appeared.  All of the shadows burned, leaving nothing but charred dead earth.”

 

Victoria looked around her.  A monstrous worm-like shadow struck out at both of them but dissolved when it neared the fire.  “The shadows are still here.  I don’t think it worked.”

 

“They returned.  Slowly.  As far as we know, this area is the only safe haven.  Or perhaps the shadows follow us and only this part is tainted.”  The woman frowned.  “The fire is neither as large nor as bright as it used to be.”

 

“So what is this place?  Is this all I get for dreams now?  No crazy dreams of flying or skeletons chasing me in a hand cart while I roll down a hill of dead bodies?”

 

The woman’s left eyebrow arched slightly.  “A hill of dead bodies?  I should think this was preferable to that kind of nonsense.  We don’t know what or where this is.  Perhaps it is the afterlife or…  Yes, I know.  Yes, I’ll tell her.  One of us believes this is the shared subconsciousness of all the living and dead creatures.”

 

“This?  Seriously?  And you think my skeleton dream was fucked up?  So what’re the shadows supposed to represent?  Mankind’s hope for a better future?  Or never ending optimism?  Bullshit.”  Victoria gestured at a shadowy face full of fangs and hatred hovering 10 feet away.  “Give me flying unicorn puppies any day over that.”

 

“The one… the one has reasons for the belief.  We can see into the past and future.  For a small amount of time.  It whispers to us.  The past is clear but the future… If this is our home and we live in the subconscious of all living creatures then perhaps we read their intentions and create a tapestry of a possible future.  Sometimes what we see doesn’t happen but often, it does.  The future is open but if we hear the whispering of what someone intends – is that not the future?  At least for that one person?”

 

Victoria thought this over.  It made some sense on a certain level.  “Knowing what a guy wants to do after he gets out of bed is not the same thing as seeing the future.”

 

“You are correct.  But if you know what everyone in his city plans to do as well, you start to build your pattern.  An… an educated guess, you would call it.  Useless for any long amount of time but superior for shorter times.  And there are ways to see farther.”

 

This got Victoria’s interest.  “How much farther?  Could you see what my life will be like?  How I will die?  What ways are you talking about?”

 

“Blood and death.  Blood magic is always stronger and death the strongest.  It solidifies the pact and brings the favors of more powerful things.”

 

Death, Victoria thought.  I want none of that.  “What powerful things?”

 

The woman thought for a moment.  “We cannot remember our birth.  As time passes, we forget the past but we have lived for a very, very long time.  We have our own magic but we are part of you and you are the vessel that contains our strength.  We are an elemental force.  In the same way, there are things that live outside of the natural order and we have a pact with them.  We can attract the attention of more powerful beings with a strong sacrifice.”

 

Victoria thought back to her cross necklace and her upbringing.  “Like God?  Are you talking about God?”

 

The woman shook her head.  “No, not like you think.  There are… wait.  You must wake up, girl.  And when you do, remember.  Stop the vehicle.  You must remember.  Stop the vehicle.  Wake up now.”

 

“Wait!  But I don’t…!”

 

The fire consumed her in a roar of fury.

 

 

CHAPTER 4

 

Victoria woke to the heaviness of her new body in the back of the van.  She blinked away her sleepiness as her snakes woke with her, hissing and sliding against each other.

 

“Sssssss… girl…. ssstoooop…. girl… ssssssstop…. vehicle…. sssstooooop…” They frantically whispered.

 

“Rob… Rob!  Stop the van!  Stop the…!”  The WHOMP sound lifted the van from the ground and rattled her teeth.  Beside her, the large white snake rose and hissed, baring its fangs.

 

“Mistress!  Are you okay?!  Mistress!”  Rob had unbuckled his seat and was turning around to reach for Victoria.  Because of this, he didn’t see what Victoria could when she looked forward.  A large, brown spherical shape was sitting in the middle of a smoking black crater, thirty feet in front of them.

 

Her snakes stood still on her head, watching.  A car less than fifty feet in front of the thing was turned completely around, it’s front wheel buckled under the car.  The driver, a young man with short brown hair and a three day growth of a beard, got out of his car and leaned against his door for a moment.  She could see him clearly with her new eyesight.  The man turned to the thing in the road and took a shaky step toward it.

 

Victoria heard the start of a “Sssssssssssssss…” coming from her snakes, the sound getting steadily louder.

 

The man took three more steps before stopping.  The thing was moving.  Unrolling itself like a gigantic pill bug.  Only, pill bugs didn’t have arms or legs.  Its face was hideous, a flat wide nose above a mouth with jagged, wrecked teeth.  She could see a yellow flickering glow behind those teeth.  Its eyes were wide and oval shaped, pupils a bright red color.  Its skin was a dark, earthy brown but its back was a light shade of brown and covered in segmented plates.  It was holding a three tined stick in its right hand – almost like a trident except the haft was barely long enough for its hand.  In its left hand it held a short rod of some kind.  It wore a simple loin cloth and the only marking she could see on it was a nine pointed star painted in black on its chest.  It was well over ten feet tall of pure muscle.

 

It turned to face the man.  The man’s eyes were wide and, as she watched, he wet himself.  His mouth was working but he wasn’t trying to talk.

 

“What… what is that thing?”  Victoria asked.  Rob was beside her, trying to get her attention to ask if she was all right.

 

Suddenly there came a loud rumbling noise as if two huge rocks were rubbing and breaking against each other.  The thing was talking.  It looked back at Rob’s van and then turned to face the nameless man again.  With a single shake of his right hand, the haft of his trident lengthened, slamming into the ground with a loud crack.

 

The rumbling breaking noise came again and the man went to his knees in terror.  The creature reached back his right hand and flung the trident horizontally at the man.  It speared him in the chest, driving him straight back against his car.  Victoria could hear the screech of metal as the trident embedded into the car’s engine block.  The man hung limply back against his car.

 

Slowly, the creature walked to the man’s car and put his foot on the man’s face.

 

Rob finally turned to the front and saw the creature for the first time.  “M… m…. mistress…. what is that thing?”

 

With a yank of his right hand, the thing pulled his trident free.  The man’s body fell limply to the ground when the monster took his foot off of him.  It turned to face the van and smiled.  A line of molten drool dripped from the side of its mouth.

 

Victoria was stunned.  “What… what…”

 

“Sssssssssss…  Trassssssk…” Her snakes told her.  “Girl… run… run… girl… go… mussssst… go…”

 

Time slowed for Victoria.

 

Run?  She told herself.  That thing just threw that stick thing through a freakin’ car!  It could throw it again before Rob could even get to the driver’s seat.  And even if Rob got there first, we’d have to turn around and try to drive away and this is a stupid ass cargo van.  It could walk to us before we got anywhere.  Okay, think.  Think.  It’s here for me.  It has to be.  There’s only me and Rob and this poor woman.  Snake.  Whatever.  It has to be here for me.

 

The Trask started walking towards the van, slowly as if in no hurry.

 

“Rob.”  Victoria said.  “Rob!  Listen to me.  I’m going to get out and distract it.  I want you to… No!  Listen!  I want you to turn the van around and head back to the last exit.  Find the nearest town.  I’ll come back for you.  Go!”

 

For once, her body listened to her and her tail uncoiled properly under her.  She pushed her way to the doors and opened them, sliding out onto the road.  Thankfully, there was nobody on the road behind them.

 

“M… Victoria!  No!  Come back!  I can… I can… we can make it!”

 

Victoria slammed the doors shut and turned to face the abomination in front of her.

 

“Sssssstupid… girl… sssssstupid… girl… diiieeee… you’ll… ssstupid… diieeee… Trassssssssk…”  One of the snakes beat at her forehead and she swatted it away.

 

“Either be useful or shut the hell up.”  She told them.  She could hear the van’s engine starting back up and the gears shifting into reverse.  At least he does follow orders, she thought.  In front of her, the Trask slammed the rod in its left hand into the dirt beside the road.  It took another step toward her.

 

“Okay.  Okay, we have this.  Just… just turn it to stone.  Like that guy.  However you did it.  Do it again.”

 

“Ssssssssssss… usssssselessssssss… work…. won’t…. ussssselessssssss… work…” The told her, swarming in fear.

 

“Just fucking do it!” She screamed.

 

“Sssssssssssssss….!”  The snakes roared at her.

 

She felt the familiar pulse as the creature raised its massive forearm in front of its eyes.  She waited nervously for something to happen.  And waited.  Finally, the creature lowered his arm and looked at the stick planted into the ground.  Victoria followed his eyes.  It looked like a bamboo stick – segmented and green mixed with a shade of brown.  Except for the top segment.  The top segment was a dark gray.  The color of stone.  As she watched, the top part cracked and fell, shattering on the asphalt.

 

The Trask roared with laughter and beat his hands against his chest.

 

“Why… why didn’t that work?”  Victoria asked.  She felt like a cold hand was gripping her spine and twisting.

 

“Enchanted… sssspelled… absssorbsssss… sssssssso…. enchanted… tired… work… ssssspelled… won’t… work…  tired… sssssoon… dead… ssssoon…”

 

“Again.  Hit him again.  Just… just hit him again.  Hey!  Wake up and hit him again!”

 

Her snakes rallied and stood at attention.  The Trask raised his left arm over his eyes.  The pulse fired again and, again, nothing happened to the monster in front of her.  The snakes fell limply to her shoulders, spent of their energy.

 

Victoria yelled in frustration and gathered her strength to throw herself at this creature.  Just before she leapt, the cargo van swept past her, its engine roaring.

 

The Trask lowered its left arm again, a smile firmly in place.  The smile faltered when it noticed the cargo van just a few feet away.  It jerked its right arm to try and raise the trident before the cargo van slammed into the right side of its body.

 

Victoria found herself wondering if the situation would ever make its way into a math book – if nearly three tons of metal, plastic and rubber going over sixty miles per hour hit some crazy ass monster, plot the ascent, descent and distance…

 

She watched the front of the van crumple as it fell onto its side and slid on the ground next to the road, shattering the planted pole.  The Trask spun and fell several feet away, blood spraying the air.

 

Now, she told herself.  It has to be now.  She ran for it – her brain translating the motion into something her tail could use.  She was on the creature in seconds.  The last few feet of her tail wrapped around the thick wrist of his right hand and she jerked, thrilling in the sound of bones breaking.  She couldn’t knee him in the balls but she reached down and grabbed his crotch, pulling up with her claws.  The thing howled as something tore and she felt hot liquid on her hand.

 

She did not notice the huge fist of his left hand until it was a few inches from her face.  The next thing she knew she was on her side and she could taste blood in her mouth.  Her tongue flicked out several times touching her nose and her chin and tasting the air.

 

The Task was on its feet, reaching for his trident with his left hand.  Blood and something else was dripping down its leg.  She temporarily saw three of him and worried it could copy itself until she blinked and saw just one of him again.  She coiled herself and launched at him, her arms held to her sides and her claws out.  The monster pivoted on his foot and struck at her torso.  She felt the tip of the trident dig into one of her scales before she was thrown to the side.  Without thinking, her tail lashed at and struck against him.  She heard the thing grunt and fall to its knees.

 

Victoria landed ungracefully in the dirt, sliding several feet before catching herself.  Without thought, her tail whipped around and brought her to an upright position, bunching itself for another leap.  Unfortunately, the Trask expected this and she screamed as the trident sunk into the thick muscles of her stomach.  Her snakes hissed in pain.  She heard the rumbling laughter coming from the monster.

 

Waves of pain ran up her spine and twisted her stomach into knots.  Bright red blood was flowing down the black scales of her tail.  The Trask was walking her way at an easy pace.  Every time she moved even slightly she felt hot lances of pain shoot throughout her body.  Victoria grabbed the shaft closest to the head of the weapon.  The pain was incredible and she almost blacked out.

 

I can do this, she thought.  I can do this.  I have to do this.  If I don’t, I’m dead.  And then he’ll probably eat me.  Do I want to end up as some monster’s shit?  No, I don’t.  I can do this.  I can do this.

 

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, Victoria began hyperventilating.  Her forearms and biceps bulged as she tensed.  In one quick pull, the trident came out, showering her with blood and torn flesh.  She was pretty sure she caught a glimpse of her intestines as well.  She had intended to break the weapon in half but the pain made her forget and she vomited instead.

 

When she pulled her head up, he was there.

 

His fist caught her full in the face this time and she heard something break before a flare of pain branched up her face and behind her eyes.  She staggered, her hand clutching her nose.  She was having trouble with her vision and all she could taste was blood – her blood.  And then he was on her again, his hand shot out flat to jab into the same place the trident punctured.  Victoria screamed as a burst of white stars on black flooded her eyesight.  Again and again the creature stabbed her with his hands until she thought she would pass out from the pain.

 

“Fugging ENOUGH!”  Victoria screamed, blood running down her face.  Argh, she thought.  I can’t even cuss properly!  Fuck this thing!

 

Her tail wrapped around the creature, covering it from neck to legs.  The Trask’s arm was out for another jab but was caught in her grasp.  He was glaring at her so she spit her blood in his face.  Where the blood landed, it began slowly steaming on his face and eating the skin.  His mouth twitched as if to yell but he held it back.

 

Great, she thought.  Just fucking great.  I’m like the queen mother alien from the fucking Aliens movies.  How will I ever convince a guy to let me go down on him now?  The absurdity of the thought made her laugh as she swayed from the pain.  She thought she could hear a small ‘crick’ noise and hoped it was her nose fixing itself.  What would people think of her if her nose was crooked?  She thought.  Oh wait, they would run screaming in terror because she was a fucking snake woman.

 

She squeezed.  She pictured herself wrapping her legs around him and watched the coils of her tail rub against each other as they tightened.  She couldn’t feel them very well but she felt the pressure building and the muscles tightening.

 

Her nose still really hurt and she felt her tongue flick out to touch the tip of it.  She’d learned that trying to stop her tongue from doing its own thing was like trying to stop her heart from beating – impossible.  The only thing good bit of news was it didn’t do it while she was talking.

 

“Hey, so, does this hurt?”  She asked the creature.  “Because my stomach still hurts.  And it feels like my face is on fire.  So I was just hoping you felt some of this.  Although… I can talk now so maybe my nose is on the mend.  Still fucking hurts, though.”  The creature was making a low quiet rumble in the back of its throat but she couldn’t tell if it was in pain or not.  Smoke curled from the corner of its mouth.  As she tightened her grip she heard a small crack and the creature’s grumbling paused for a moment.  She smiled.

 

“Oh, good.  I think I heard something break.”  She could feel it starting to struggle a bit and it felt like it was moving its right arm again.  Damn.  Her own stomach and nose were still bleeding.  How did it rate faster healing than her?  Now it was reaching the left hand around to grip her tail.  It caught one of her scales with its fingers and worked two fingernails under the edge of it before she grabbed the arm with both hands.

 

“No fucking way, monster.  Let me see that.”  The Trask’s arm was too thick for her to get a full grip on but she held on tight and made a sudden jerking movement with her hip.  “Fuck!” She yelled.  Her stomach was bleeding worse now and she felt like she tore the same muscles fresh again.  When she dropped the creature’s arm it hung loose against her so at least she had that.

 

The rumbling noise from the creature was louder now and it was trying to jerk itself in her grip.  She was about to laugh at it until she started flailing around with it.  Oh, yeah, physics.  She thought.  Now where…?  Oh, there we go.  Victoria dragged the creature behind her as she made her way to a large rock away from the road.  The thing’s movements made it difficult to take a straight path but not impossible.  On one hand she was pleased she was getting better at moving but on the other hand she was slithering.  Not walking.  Not crawling.  Slithering.

 

It took a few moments to find a way to grip the rock properly.  Thankfully, her claws could actually chip the rock and she was able to make a strong grip.  Now her tail was thrashing side to side wildly.

 

Victoria hugged the rock tightly and winced at the rough surface against her large nipples.  Maybe she should start wearing a shirt again.  She turned to look back at the creature.  This is going to really hurt, she told herself.  If you pass out, you lose.  It will kill you.  And then Rob, if he’s not dead already.  Or maybe it won’t kill you and it’ll torture you instead.  There’s a lot of you to cut up before it gets to your really important bits.

 

She turned back to the rock and closed her eyes.  The large muscles in her shoulders and arms bulged.  “Here we go.”  She whispered.

 

It took her five tries to figure out the proper movement.  On the sixth try, her tail arched high above her head and slammed down against the earth with a noise like a bag of rocks crashing against the ground.  She almost passed out.  Her grip temporarily loosened on the rock and her head spun from the pain in her stomach and the lesser pain in her tail.

 

“Again.”  She said.  Her tail flipped the other way and slammed again, sending a huge plume of dirt, dust and rocks flying.  The pain was slightly more tolerable but she vomited up on the rock and her arm.  She realized at this point that blood and vomit did not taste well together.

 

“And again.”  She whispered.  Her breathing was coming fast and ragged.  She tightened her tail around the Trask and slammed him again and again, back and forth against the hard ground.  She lost count of how many times she did this but her blood and puke covered the rock and when she opened her eyes she could barely see.  There were long, deep gouges in the rock where her claws slowly lost their purchase.

 

She paused and took stock while her vision returned.  Her face felt much better but just thinking of her stomach made her want to hurl.  On the bright side, the thing wasn’t moving anymore.

 

“Oh, what’s the matter, big guy?  Where’d your hand go?  Oh, there it is, in that cactus.  How’d it get there, you think?”  She was panting but still alive.  She concentrated on trying to bring the thing closer to her body and eventually, her tail worked it out and the massive knot containing the creature stood before her.  She was disappointed to see it still breathing but happy to see that one eye was gone and several teeth were missing.

 

But not dead.  How the hell would she kill it?  She dared not let it go – she didn’t know anything about it’s abilities except it healed fast.

 

She pulled one of her snakes around.  “Hey!  Are you guys still sleeping?”  Nothing.  Great.  Wait, she thought.  What was it they said again?  Something… I was their vessel?  Are they the ones doing the magic shit or am I?  It can’t hurt to try, yeah?  In the old movies it was the eyes that did, right?  Okay…

 

She stared at the creatures face and then tried widening her eyes.  Nothing.  Then she tried the same thing with her hand on its face.  Still nothing.  She clawed his other eye out in spite.

 

“Hey, wait.  Do I even need to do anything like that?”  She grabbed his head and twisted hard, hearing it snap.  “Hah!  Killed you, fu…”  It was still breathing.  “Fucking…  All right.”

 

Victoria took a breath and looked around.  Oddly enough, there was still nobody else on the road.  She stared at the Trask.  “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.  Change to stone… ummm… you must!”  Nothing.  “Goddammit!  If you tell anyone about that one…  Why am I even threatening you?”

 

She tried grabbing the creature and pulling its head off but even straining she couldn’t do it.  She tried all the childish magical incantations she could remember and nothing worked.  She yelled, she screamed, she pleaded.  Nothing.  Then she watched in disbelief as its head reattached itself properly.  Both eyes were whole again so she pulled them back out.

 

“What fucking pact?  You lazy bastards.”  Victoria closed her eyes and breathed deeply.  “Things.  Whatever you things are.  I was told we have a deal.  I don’t know what it is but I need you to keep your end of it.  I need this to work.  This thing wants to kill me and I don’t want it to kill me.  It’s simple.  Help me out here.”

 

She opened her eyes again.  Nothing.  She frowned and almost started yelling except something moved at the corner of her eye.  When she turned to look for it, it was gone.  There again, at the corner of the other, something else small and moving.  She turned again but nothing was there.  She closed her eyes again.  “All right.  Hah hah.  You’ve had your fun.  Now I’m going to open my eyes in a few seconds.  When I do, I expect to see something.  Ready?”

 

She opened her eyes and they were there.

 

Small motes of light, everywhere.  Floating lazily, shooting from one place to another, doing spirals around each other or just hovering in place.  Little things of every color imaginable – brown, green, blue, grey, red… she couldn’t keep track of them.  Quite a few danced around her body but none of them touched the creature she was holding.  Ones that got too close turned black and fizzled away.  The world was full of shining lights.  They danced away as she tried to grab one or two.  She felt little tugs on her body as if tiny little hands were pulling gently on her skin.

 

“I… Okay, I wasn’t expecting that.  Thank you.  No, really, thank you.  Now the hard part.  The next hard part.  What do I do?  I want to turn this thing to stone and my little helpers are useless.  I…”  She remembered the words.  There was always a sacrifice.  She grimaced and placed her hand on the creature.  “Okay.  Listen to me.  Take what you need – just the bare minimum – and turn this fucking thing into stone.  I… give myself to you.”

 

At first there was nothing.  Then, she felt her snakes stir.  They made no sound but they rose up and arrayed themselves, facing the monster.  Here and there gray and brown lights streamed toward her.  A few at first and then more and more in a rush.  They hovered in a huge makeshift ball of brown and gray.  She stared at them.

 

“Do it.”  She said.  She felt the pulse from her snakes and immediately wanted to sleep.  She was suddenly so tired.  Her head swayed but she kept herself up.  The little lights streamed to the Trask.  Haha!  She thought.  I did it!  Score one for human…

 

Just at the last moment the lights diverted and flowed behind the creature.  She cursed and turned to watch them.  The broken stick was on its side close to the road.  The little lights flooded it and Victoria watched one of the last two segments turn to stone.  She wanted to cry in frustration.  Now she noticed a thin light brown line between the creature and the stick.  Little pockets of light traveled back and forth across the line.

 

She broke the thing’s neck again and dropped him.  When he didn’t move, she went to the stick and picked it up.  The line moved with the stick and stayed attached to the monster.  When she tried breaking it, she could only break off the stone apart – the wooden part wouldn’t even bend.  Small sparks of light popped around the edge of the wood.  They were smaller than the creatures floating around her and flashed brilliantly before vanishing again.  She thought for a moment or two, winding and unwinding her tail to work the muscles out from holding the monster for so long.

 

The problem is, she thought, I think I can only do this once more before passing out.  If I do it again, the stick takes the hit and I pass out.  Then the monster kills me.  I can’t break the stick, so…  I wonder…

 

Victoria brought the strange stick back over to the creature and stared at it.  It was drooling again and one of its eyes was healed.  She rubbed her side to feel the punctures and sore muscles.  She looked at the stick, then at the creature again.  At least she was prettier than it was.  As she watched, it drew itself slowly into a ball.

 

“Damned if I do…”  She jammed the stick in the empty eye socket. The creature jerked reflexively but made no other move.  Victoria moved back, rearing up on her tail.  “Okay, little ones.  I’m going to do that again.  I’d appreciate it if you can leave me enough to stay awake.”  She tried willing the gray and black lights to come forward.  Again, she felt her snakes lift from her shoulders to glare at the monster on the ground.

 

“Hey, thing.  I hope you’re awake now.  I hope you feel this.  Well, shit.  Actually I just hope it works.  If it does then, good bye.  I hope there’s a hell for things like you.”  The snakes were dancing on her head, weaving a pattern.  Gray and brown lights were gathering again, faster than last time.

 

“Hey, look at me.  Maybe…” The pulse from the snakes dropped her to the ground.  “Fuuuuuuuuuuu…” she coughed.  Her body felt like it weighed tons.  She could barely lift her head to look at the Trask.

 

The lights were flooding the stick.  She held her breath as she watched.  The monster’s other eye twitched over to look at the lights and she was she sure heard it rumbling again.

 

“Work.  Work, damn you.”  She whispered as her sweat and blood mixed with the dirt under her face.

 

The last piece of the stick turned gray and she almost lost hope until she saw the eye socket darken.  And then the nose.  It’s mouth opened to scream or curse or do something but then froze, a rasping gasp escaping concrete gray lips.

 

Victoria smiled and started laughing.

 

 

CHAPTER 5

 

Elizabeth woke naked on her hotel floor.  Sunlight filtered through the window next to her.  Her head was pounding and her tongue felt thick in her mouth.  She choked and spit a thick wad of blood on the carpet next to her.  She felt so cold.

 

Something was shrieking in her brain. She tried to cover her ears but it only helped a little bit.  Nothing made sense to her.  She rolled to her back and stared at the ceiling, trying to care about the noise.  She could feel the nipples on her small breasts hardening in the cool air.  She wanted to roll into the sun but she was tired, so tired.  Her eyes closed and she slept again.

 

Voices woke her a short time later.  Voices far too loud and some repetitive squeaky noise that sent shivers down her spine.  She sat up and winced at the feeling in her stomach.   She stared stupidly at the thick wiry black hair covering her pussy and her small, pointed breasts.  Something was important about this but she couldn’t understand what.  She blinked and sat, staring.  The voices were laughing.  Loud.  Too loud.  Clanking, rubbing, metal grinding against metal or plastic until she couldn’t take any more.  Her head was killing her.

 

She stood and walked to the noise.  She had to do something to make it stop.  She swayed and bumped into the overturned desk, catching herself on its edge.  The door to her room was slightly open.  She focused on it.  Wait, she thought.  Where am I?  This isn’t home.

 

Realization hit her suddenly.  She was in a hotel room.  Her door was open.  She was naked.  Gasping, she rushed to her door just as it was being pushed open further.

 

“House cleaning!”  A female voice called out.  Elizabeth wanted to scream at the person.  It sounded like the woman was standing at her shoulder with their mouth at her ear, yelling as loudly as she could.  “Excuse me.  House cleaning!”

 

Elizabeth got her hand on the door before it could be pushed open more.  The voice on the other side gasped and the door stopped moving.  “Ai! You scared me.” The voice told her through the crack.  “Do you need your room cleaned?”

 

“NO!”  Elizabeth yelled and grimaced at the sound.  “No, I’m… I’m fine.  I don’t… The room is fine.”  She peeked around the corner to look at the woman.  “I just accidentally left the door open.  Thank you, I’m fine.”

 

The other woman, an older Mexican lady in a crisp white outfit, took a step back and raised a hand to her neck.  “Mother of God!  Please, are you okay?”  Her eyes were wide and white.

 

“I’m fine, thank you.  Just… just go.  I’ll leave a tip the next time.  Tomorrow.  Thank you.”  Elizabeth slammed the door shut and almost cried as the sound drilled into her ears.  She latched the door and leaned against it with her eyes closed until she heard the woman leaving.

 

When she opened her eyes again she saw the trail of blood leading to the door.

 

She didn’t understand at first.  Of course there couldn’t be any blood here.  Of course it’s not blood, she told herself.  She looked at herself again.  She was covered in blood.  Panicking, she ran to the bathroom to look in the mirror.  From head to toe she was nearly completely covered in blood.  Her face was a terrible mask of red.  No wonder the woman was terrified.

 

“Oh god.  She’s going to tell someone.”  Elizabeth said.  Her voice trembled and sounded odd in her ears.  She rushed back out and realized the room was in shambles.  The bed was broken into pieces with the blanket, pillow and sheets shredded.  The chairs and desk were wrecked with deep grooves cut into the top of the desk.  On the floor next to the desk was a puddle of blood in the vague shape of a human – much larger than she was but still human shaped.  She walked to it unsteadily.  A smaller spot of red was nearby and she knelt to look at it.

 

There was a very small white rod shaped thing and… and… She knelt closer, feeling waves of nausea nearly overpower her.  There was a whole fingernail in the small pile of blood.  She quickly checked her own fingers but she had all of her fingernails.  It wasn’t hers.  The other thing… she touched it carefully.  The other thing was a piece of bone.  Her stomach heaved and she vomited again, covering the small pile of blood and part of the larger pile.  She turned away from what came up.

 

She held her stomach and leaned against the wall.  “I have to get out of her.  They’ll come.  They’ll come for me.”

 

She suddenly heard laughter and some woman’s squeal of delight.  A man’s voice.  “Do…know… do to you…”  It was twisted and broken but she heard parts.  She couldn’t tell where it came from.  From somewhere else came the squawk of a radio with a voice she couldn’t hear.

 

“FUCK YOU!”  She screamed.  “My life!  Fuck you!”  The clothes she wore to bed were in tatters on the floor around the desk.  She found her suitcase under a piece of the bed and dug through frantically, putting on whatever she could find.  She zipped up the suitcase and ran for the door, almost opening it before she remembered her face.

 

She dropped the suitcase and ran to the bathroom, scrubbing and washing until the sink water was a light pink rather than dark red.  She had things between her teeth so she brushed with plain water to get rid of them.  She ran out again and only barely remembered to grab her purse before leaving.

 

She heard two more radios and distinctly heard her room number among the chatter.  It took two grabs to open the door.  She ran into the hallway and stopped.  There was a uniformed security guard at the far end of hallway holding a radio to his ear.

 

Elizabeth could hear the radio as if it was next to her own ear.  “… advise caution.  Occupant is described as behaving erratically and may be violent.  Repeat…”  There was an odd whine to the pitch of the voice on the radio.  Elizabeth stopped, staring at the man.  The guard stopped as well, staring at her.

 

“Ms… Ms. Mori?”  He asked.  “We’d like to have a word with…  Wait!”

 

Elizabeth ran, pulling her suitcase behind her.  She turned the corner for the stairs and her suitcase caught on the railing.  She cursed and tugged but was still moving and almost fell down the stairs.  She could hear the security guard running.  She could actually hear his breathing and some other noise as well.  She smelled sour sweat and putrid breath mints and knew it wasn’t her.  She screamed wordlessly and left the suitcase, bounding down the stairs.  Her purse slammed against her side over and over.

 

“Stop!  We just want to talk!  Ms. Mori!  Elizabeth!  Stop!”  The security guard called.

 

She ran on, skipping steps as fast as she dared.  Reaching the bottom, she slammed the security door open and almost fell when the security alarm went off.  She shielded her eyes against the sudden bright light and ran on, stumbling through a bush and out onto the sidewalk.  The air outside smelled like chemicals and death.

 

She ran, the impact of her bare feet on the rough sidewalk sending small jolts of pain up her legs.  People yelled out as she pushed them aside.  One man cursed her.  She picked random streets and alleys until she thought she lost the guard.  He wouldn’t leave the hotel, she told herself.  He wouldn’t.  He’s a hotel security guard, not a cop.

 

Her stomach ached from the running.  She leaned against the wall of the alley, unsure of where she was.  Sounds assaulted her but her mind was reeling from what happened so she didn’t pay attention to them.  A sharp pain on her foot caused her to look down.  Her foot was bleeding into a puddle of black, oily water.  She reached down and picked a large piece of glass out of the bottom of her foot.  She wanted to scream again but tried to calm herself down.

 

“They have a copy of my license at the hotel.  They know who I am.  I need… I need…”  She took a deep shuddering breath.  “I need to get some different clothes and shoes and get cleaned up.  Susan.  Susan lives near here.  She can help me.”  She dug through her purse until she found her cell phone.  Miraculously, she still had half a charge on it.  She quickly dialed her friend’s number and prayed.

 

Five rings later, a voice greeted her.  She hissed at how loud the volume was and held the phone away from her ear.  “Susan?  Susan, hi!  It’s Elizabeth.  Yes, Lizzy.  Right.  Hi!  No, I’m fine.  Yeah.  Yes.  Look, I’m actually in town and… That’s right.  No, just last night.  For work.  Listen, could I stay with you tonight?  We could… we could catch up?  Really?  Oh, thank you.  No, I’ll catch a taxi.  I have your address in my phone.  Thank you.  I’ll… I’ll see you soon.  Good bye!”

 

Elizabeth cried in relief.  She leaned against the wall and held her stomach, sobbing at what had become of her life.  When she was better, she wiped her eyes and looked around the alley.  She spotted a dirty rag around a pipe and pulled it off to tie around her foot.  It didn’t seem to hurt unless she touched it.  A quick look on the map program of her phone told her where the nearest cheap shoe store was.  She peeked around the corner of the alley and slowly made her way there, thankfully just a few blocks away.

 

Slowly she became aware of the voices around her.  She could hear people more easily than before.  Conversations just two blocks away were clear.  Further away she could hear bits and pieces as if whispered.  Something was odd about the voices but she could still hear them.  A police siren roared nearby and her heart almost stopped.  She forced herself to keep walking.

 

The clerk in the shoe store frowned at her when she entered but Elizabeth ignored her.  “I… I lost my shoes and hurt my foot.  I just… I just need to pick up a new pair.  I have money.  I’m not… I’m not a homeless person.  I have money.”  Her face flushed in shame.

 

A memory of her parents came to her while she walked to the women’s section.  “Don’t embarrass us and don’t embarrass yourself.  Don’t stand out.  Don’t attract attention.  Don’t bother making friends.”

 

It had been her first day at her new high school – the third one so far.  Her father had to move a lot for his job.  At the last school, a girl she thought was her friend loaned her a skirt to wear at school.  It was very short but her friend swore it would make her pretty – make the boys be interested in her.  She believed her and wore it, wondering why later she heard other kids laughing.  It wasn’t until a teacher pulled her aside and told her the skirt was showing off her panties that she understood.  Her “friend” had been laughing with everyone else.  She was called into the principal’s office and her parents had to pick her up.  They moved soon after that.

 

Boys had never looked at her twice because she was so skinny and short.  The one time she’d let a boy touch her, he’d bitten her lip trying to kiss her and laughed when he put his hand up her shirt.  She ran from him but he told everyone that he’d fucked her and that she took it up the ass – begged to be fucked in the ass because her pussy was too loose.  No girl talked to her after that and all the boys grinned at her and grabbed their crotches.  She thought about killing herself but her family moved again a few weeks later.

 

Since then she’d kept to herself.  She never really trusted anyone and never really made friends.  She sat in the back, did her homework and never spoke to anyone.  She did well enough in school and graduated from the local college with honors but nobody remembered her.

 

Don’t embarrass yourself.  Don’t attract attention.  Be quiet and good.

 

The clerk stood at the end of the aisle watching her as she looked for shoes.  Elizabeth stole a glance at her and then bent back to the shoes.  She found a pair of running shoes that looked reasonable and she grabbed a pair of white ankle socks to go with them.

 

She doesn’t have to look at me like that, she thought.  I have money.  I told her that.  I told her I have money.  Why does she have to glare at me?  I didn’t do anything to her.  I’m not a crazy… I’m not a crazy person.  I don’t know what happened but it wasn’t me.  I’ll figure this out.  It wasn’t… Why is she staring at me?

 

She walked to the counter and put the shoes and socks in front of the clerk.  The clerk said nothing but scanned both items.  Her eyes are suspicious, Elizabeth thought.  She thinks something is wrong.  Does she know about me?  No, she couldn’t or she’d call the police.  Stop looking at me like that.  Stop… stop doing that.

 

“Thirty-two fify-three.” The cashier told her.  The words rang loudly and wrong in Elizabeth’s ears.  Full of scorn.  Full of hate and pity.  She glared at the cashier and then looked down.  She doesn’t have the right, she told herself.  She can’t judge me.  She dug through her purse to find her wallet and handed the girl her debit card.

 

“Thank you.”  The girl said, disgust loud in her voice.  She rang the purchase and gave the receipt and card back to Elizabeth.  “Have a nice day.”  She said.  The sarcasm dripped from her voice.

 

“I… You know what?  Fuck you.  FUCK YOU!”  Elizabeth reached out and slapped the girl hard across the face.  “I’m fucking sick and tired of you people.  You don’t fucking know me.  You don’t know anything about me!”

 

The girl touched her face and looked at her hand.  Her eyes were wide and scared.  “I don’t… I’m sorry… I…”

 

“Fucking sorry!  You’re *sorry*!”  She slapped the girl again, putting her weight behind it.  Blood trickled from the girl’s mouth and she started crying.  “Every single fucking one of you ruined my fucking life and you dare to look at me like I’m some fucking degenerate?!”  She spit in the woman’s eyes and turned away.  She held the plastic store bag in one hand and was gripping her purse with the other.  She slammed the door with her shoulder and walked out.

 

A block away she stopped.  She just slapped that woman.  She just… Oh my god, she thought.  What have I done?  She sat at a bench nearby and stared at the road.  This isn’t me, she told herself.  What is… what’s wrong with me?

 

Minutes passed before she collected herself.  When she pulled the rag off of her foot, it was soaked in blood.  The bleeding from her foot had slowed to a trickle but the wound was still open and tender.  She took the socks and shoes out of the box and gingerly put the socks on.  The shoes were harder to put on and didn’t fit quite right.  Their tightness hurt her feet and made her cut foot throb in pain.  She threw the box, bag and rag away in the bin next to her.

 

She looked at herself.  I look more normal, at least.  Thank god I have a long sleeve shirt and pants to cover me.  I need a shower and something to eat and I’ll feel almost human again.  A man walked by and laughed.  She glanced up, baring her teeth in a snarl.  Was he fucking laughing at me?!  The man was walking with a woman but Elizabeth could swear he leered at her as he passed.

 

It was past noon and she hadn’t eaten yet.  Perhaps that’s why she’s acting like this, she thought.  Low blood sugar or something.  There was a hot dog vendor down the street so she walked over and ordered a hot dog with a cup of coffee.  She listened to people talking as she waited.  Everyone sounded false.  She heard hidden threats, condescension and boredom in everyone she listened to.  Men’s voices sounded guttural and angry, woman’s voices waspish.

 

Finally her food was ready.  Her stomach growled – she hadn’t realized just how hungry she was.  She stood aside to eat but sniffing at the food turned her stomach.  It smelled wrong.  Old.  Dead.  Like something left out for dogs.  She glanced at the man and then back to her food.  Maybe she was just feeling sick and stressed from everything else.  She took a bite of the hot dog and nearly retched.  It tasted like a hot dog but with a hint of some diseased flesh and blood.  She spit out the food and threw everything at the vendor.  He screamed when the coffee hit his face.

 

“You trying to kill me?!  Poison me with this shit?!  You think just because of who I am you can feed me this dog shit?!”  The man was on his side, clutching his face and still screaming.  People were starting to gather around and look.  She could smell them – the stench of them.  She’d had enough.  Turning, she hailed the first cab she could find and gave him the address of her friend.

 

She just needed a hot shower and a change of clothes.  Then she’d feel more human.

 

 

CHAPTER 6

 

Elijah rolled over in bed, his thickly muscled arm smacking hard against Cole’s naked back.  Cole growled in response, turning his head to look at Elijah.  “I swear to god, if you’re awake…” A loud snore was his response.  Cole snorted.  “Figures.”

 

Sleep wouldn’t come to him again, not with an hour before the alarm went off to wake them up.  He sighed and sat up.  Elijah’s arm rolled off and lay across Cole’s side of the bed.  Elijah snorted before resuming his snore.  Cole grinned at him and tousled his hair.  “I don’t know how you freakin’ do it.  A bomb could go off and you’d probably wonder where everyone was.”

 

Cole stood, his massive 6’8″ frame filling their small bedroom.  He worked his shoulder and neck muscles in circles in the vain hopes the knots would come undone.  He tried talking to Elijah about hogging the bed but it never worked.  Elijah apologized and tried to do better but as soon as he was asleep it took everything Cole had to stay on the bed.  It wouldn’t be so bad if it was cuddling but the bastard was all elbows and knees when he was asleep.

 

He padded quietly to their shower and let it build up to a thick steam.  He braced himself against the wall and let the scalding water run over his body.  It was nearly punishing but so relaxing.  He stood a long time turning this way and that until he could feel himself loosen up.  He worked the shampoo through his dark brown hair as the water ran over the muscles of his back.  He scrubbed soap through his thick chest hair and worked down to his crotch, cleaning his dick.  It rose to impressive attention but he ignored it and worked down his legs, finishing with his toes.  A few more minutes with the hot water and he was entirely clean.  It took effort to turn off the water.

 

Finishing in the bathroom, he made his way to the kitchen and started breakfast.  Scrambled eggs with ham.  The timer on the coffee machine clicked on and started brewing.  He wrinkled his nose in disgust.  One day he planned on “accidentally” breaking that machine.

 

He smiled when he heard the sheets rustling in the bedroom.  Elijah walked in and rubbed Cole’s back.  “Mornin'”

 

Cole turned to look at him.  6’3″ with blond hair and blue eyes and built like an Olympic athlete.  Women swooned over him and he’s all mine, he thought.  He glanced down.  “I think you need to take a piss, Elijah.”

 

Elijah’s smile was lazy on his tired face.  “Oh, that’s not because of that.”  His hand moved down to Cole’s stomach.  “We still have time before work, you know.”

 

Cole shrugged him off and laughed.  “Get off me and go take a shower.  You need to eat something and get ready.  You know how slow you are in the morning.”

 

Elijah laced his fingers and stretched all the way up on his toes, showing off his physique.  “Who cares?  There’s time.  Come back to bed.  The food will still be here.”  He grabbed Cole’s hand and pulled it to his own dick.

 

“And I say if you want that to still work tonight you need to get your ass into the shower get ready for work.  You think this apartment’s cheap?”  Cole pulled him into an embrace with his other hand and kissed him, first on the lips and then with a quick bit of tongue.  Too much and he would find his way back to the bed.  Elijah rumbled deep in his throat before turning around.

 

Cole drank his orange juice while Elijah downed two cups of coffee and talked animatedly about his new clients.  Elijah was a fitness instructor at a large gym downtown and loved all of the people he worked with.  He was proud of every single one of their accomplishments.

 

“Krista lost 2 pounds so far this week.  She whined about not having ice cream but I told her I’d give her a kiss if she lost weight.  You should’ve seen the look on her face.”  He laughed loud and long.

 

Cole shook his head.  “And you did, didn’t you?  Cheating on me already?”

 

“Hah.  Whatever works.  I told Linda I’d treat her to lunch tomorrow if she lost weight and she’s trying hard enough.  Some people just need a push.”  He smiled.  “Or something other than a push.”

 

“Speaking of lunch, are we still on for lunch today?”  Cole asked.

 

“Of course.  1:30 should work fine.  I just have three clients this morning.  Sandy, Krista and John.  They should all be pretty easy.”

 

“Good.” Cole glanced at his cell phone.  “Hell, I have to head out before I miss the bus.”  He stood and Elijah stood with him.  “Be good at work today, try not to miss your bus again and I’ll see you for lunch.”  He kissed Elijah, longer this time, their tongues exploring each other.  Cole pulled back and nipped Elijah on the neck.  “See you later, love.”  Elijah just grinned back happily.

 

The morning went fairly quickly.  Cole was working on the design for a new building downtown.  He lost himself in the process – checking code for the proper parts and making sure everything fit where the client wanted it.  Thankfully there was no rush so he got to enjoy the project.  Having his drafting table near a large east-facing window helped as well.  Although more often than not he wanted to stretch out in front of it and take a nap.  He loved the California sun.

 

When lunch time rolled around he pushed back from his desk and rubbed his eyes.  He rolled his shoulders and wondered for the millionth time how, with everything else, he could get muscle cramps.

 

“Hey, looking good, Cole.  Still on track?”

 

Cole looked around.  “Hey, boss.  Yeah, maybe even a little early.  I’ve got a few calls into the city to double-check some things but everything seems fine so far.”

 

“Great.  You headed off?  Enjoy your lunch, okay?”  His boss was an older gentleman.  He seemed to revel in the “favorite grandfather” look – balding, gray fringe of hair, slightly rounded around the middle, rectangle glasses and a tweed jacket.  The jacket even had elbow pads.  And that calm smile.  The good news is, it was genuine.  He was honestly a good guy.  And sharp for his age.

 

“Will do.  See you later.”

 

Elijah was late as usual but Cole enjoyed the time alone.  He loved to people watch and had a soft spot for little kids.  A little girl smiled shyly at him from her stroller and he smiled back.  He made the napkin ring dance between his fingers and delighted in the way her eyes lit up.

 

He almost dropped the ring when Elijah came up behind him.  Elijah just clapped his shoulder and sat down.  “You’ll make a great father some day.”

 

Cole glanced back at the stroller.  “Yeah.  Some day.  Let’s eat, huh?  Did Krista get her kiss?”

 

Lunch was slow and wonderful – both men sat out in the sun while others scooted their tables into the shade.  Elijah had two tuna fish sandwiches while Cole contented himself with a large hamburger.  Both asked for salads instead of fries.

 

They were enjoying their coffee (Elijah) and tea (Cole) when they both stopped in mid-conversation.  Cole slowly turned his head and took in a big sniff.  Elijah took a deep breath and gagged on it.

 

“What – ?”  Elijah started but Cole was already on his feet, a $20 bill on the table to pay for the food.  “Hey wait…”

 

Cole was walking east.  There was a smell in the air.  Something rotten but familiar.  His powerful legs carried him quickly down one street and then the other as he tried to find the source of the smell.  Elijah followed behind and thankfully kept his questions to himself.  Just as he was about to turn a corner the smell slammed into him and he held back.

 

“… fucking degenerate?!”  His ears twitched.  Two blocks away he could see an irate young Asian woman at the counter of a shoe store.  He heard the cashier crying quietly.  The Asian woman stormed out and Cole waited a minute before following discretely.  She was the smell.  She looked human but she smelled… wrong.  She should be dead, he thought.  But there was another smell beneath that.  Small but there.

 

Elijah whispered to Cole.  “Hey, she…”

 

Cole stopped him.  “Yeah, I know.  She smells like us.”

 

 

CHAPTER 7

 

The taxi ride took forever and she swore the taxi driver was checking her out the entire time.  She paid him but left no tip.

 

“I think you undressing me with your eyes was tip enough, pig.”  She told him as she got out.  The man look bewildered but how else could he look, she thought?  She caught him in the act.

 

Her friend’s house was small but well kept and in a nice part of town.  Her husband was often traveling for work and she stayed home to take care of things.  No kids so all of their money went into retirement and toys.  The black Mercedes sitting in the driveway was recently washed and flawless.

 

She heard Susan coming from a back room after she rang the doorbell.  This hearing… she couldn’t tell if she was imagining things or if she really could hear better.  Susan was a little older than Elizabeth at 35 years old but she looked younger.  She was all smiles and hugs but they seemed false to Elizabeth.

 

Don’t bother making friends.

 

“Girl, don’t they have a shower in that hotel?  You smell like you just got off the plane.”  Susan stepped back and wrinkled her nose.

 

Elizabeth looked down at her feet.  The one foot was still throbbing painfully.  “Yeah, that’s… that’s one of the reasons why I’m visiting.  Their hot water heater was broken. I was… I was hoping I could use your shower and maybe borrow a change of clothes?  Mine, uh, mine are lost somewhere in Minnesota.”

 

“Tsk.  Those airlines.  I never trust them.  Come on in and use my shower.  Take all the time you need.  I’ll look around my clothes for something older.  When I was skinnier.  I swear you never gain weight and here I am eating salads and bloating up.  I’ll show you where the bathroom is.”

 

Elizabeth sat in the bath tub hugging her knees while the hot water soaked into her.  She felt so cold.  Eventually she scrubbed her body to get the dried blood off of her.  It came off easier than she expected.  When she got to her stomach she noticed clotted blood in her thick pubic hair.  She thought about cleaning it off but grabbed Susan’s razor instead.  Carefully she shaved the hair off, piling it on the floor beside the tub as she did.  She pulled her pussy lips to the side and took her time getting every little hair.  When she was done she set the razor aside and looked at herself.

 

Her pussy filled her with shame.  Single at 33 years old and still a virgin.  She poked her breasts and leaned back to let the water drill into her nipples.  They stiffened under the attention and she shook from the feeling.  Her hand crept down to her wetness and placed a finger on her opening.  She traced the finger up and down her lips, enjoying the feeling.  Occasionally she’d dip the finger inside and jerk a little.  Up and down, she moved her hand.  She leaned back against the tub and put a finger all the way inside, letting the heel of her hand rest against her clit.  She twisted her legs with the feeling of it.  In and out, letting the pressure build slowly inside her.  In and out.

 

Unclean.

 

Her hand stopped.  Did she imagine that?  What was that?  She waited but heard nothing else.  She started rubbing herself again but the feeling was gone and she wasn’t into it.  Unclean?  What did that mean?  Why did that make her scared?

 

Her foot had scabbed over and looked like it was doing better.  She washed it gently and then turned the water off.  Digging around in the cabinets she found a bunch of different bandages with antibacterial goop – the largest bandage covered the wound perfectly.  She heard Susan coming again and a minute later her voice sounded through the door.  “I found an old skirt and top that will fit you.  I’ll leave them by the door.  And some panties, too. I hope you don’t mind black.  I don’t have an extra bra, though.  And I think my shoes still fit you?”

 

Yeah, sure you don’t have a bra.  Elizabeth thought.  You mean you don’t have any that will fit me because my tits are too small.  Bitch.

 

She cracked open the door and picked up the clothes.  They were too cute for her but she didn’t care.  At least they were something.  The skirt was shorter than she liked and she ground her teeth at that but let it go.  The shoes were flats that were a little loose but at least they didn’t hurt her feet.  Once out of the bathroom she asked if she could lay down for a while – she was exhausted from the stress of the day and wanted to catch some sleep.  Susan agreed easily and told her she’d be out in the garden but that her house was Elizabeth’s house while she was there.

 

Elizabeth was asleep in minutes.  Her dreams were the same.  The faceless man.  The pain.  Everything the same.  She woke up with a shout.  Outside the sun was setting and the clock near the bed told her it was just after 4:30 pm.  She felt like she hadn’t slept at all.  She could hear Susan outside.  It sounded like she was working with the garden shears.  The metal on metal sound hurt her ears and made her teeth ache.  But now Susan was done and coming back inside.  Elizabeth waited until Susan cleaned herself up before stepping out of the room.

 

They passed pleasantries while Susan made a supper of baked tuna and asparagus.  The smelled turned Elizabeth’s stomach even though she hadn’t eaten properly since the day before.  The tuna smelled like it’d been sitting out in the sun.

 

They’d known each other for about 10 years – they’d met out of college after working at the same temp agency.  Susan took it upon herself to befriend the quiet girl and dragged her along everywhere she went.  They talked about all of the trips they’d had together and Susan gossiped about her husband and their friends.  Elizabeth made the appropriate noises when she could.

 

When dinner was served, Elizabeth took her time trying the first bite.  She was starving but the smell of rotten fish was overpowering.  She saw Susan tuck into her own food and eventually tried a bite.  She gagged but held it in.  When Susan wasn’t looking she spit out the piece into her napkin.

 

That fucking whore!  She thought.  I knew she was being too nice!  She gave me the rotten piece on purpose and kept the better one!

 

“Oh, honey.  You’re barely eating anything.  Are you feeling okay?  Is it too salty?”  Susan was trying to look concerned but Elizabeth could tell she was making fun of her.

 

“Gosh.  I think the stress of the trip and losing my luggage is getting to me.  I guess I’m not hungry.  With my figure I don’t have to eat that much.”  She smiled at Susan, showing her teeth.

 

“I… I guess that’s true.”  Susan said.  She looked down at her food and put her fork down, only half-way done with her tuna.

 

What’s the matter, you fat bitch?  Worried about your weight?  I hope you choke on a fucking bone and die.

 

Susan brightened up again.  “Speaking of food, remember our trip to the Philippines two months ago?  Now that was some interesting cuisine.  Especially that bar at the end.  Who was it that ordered the appetizers?  We didn’t even know what we were ordering but we still…”

 

Susan’s voice faded out as Elizabeth focused inward.  Something about that tickled the back of her brain.  That bar, she thought.  Something about that bar.  She felt herself break out in goose bumps.  What was it?

 

Her revelry was suddenly broken by the phone ringing.  Susan excused herself and answered it.  “Hello?  Oh, Janice. I’ve got… what’s that?  You need it now?  But I’m… Oh, you have guests over?  I guess it can’t be helped then.  I’ll be over in a few minutes.  Okay, you too.  Bye.”

 

Susan turned back to Elizabeth.  “I’m so sorry, hun.  I have to step out for a few moments.  I borrowed Janice’s video camera and she needs it back.  I’ll just be fifteen minutes or so.  I’ll be right back.”

 

Elizabeth barely noticed her leaving.  What the hell was it?  The bar… something… not the bar but something… She stood from the table and paced the kitchen.  There were four of them there and Susan took her along because she thought she would have fun if she were out with her friends.  They were drunk and loud.  Elizabeth was complaining about her work and dealing with the men there while the other women were complaining about the men in their lives.  But… what?  Nothing happened.  They went back to their hotel rooms and then left the next day.  So what was bothering her?

 

She stopped at the kitchen sink and leaned against it, thinking furiously.

 

“Diseased.”  Came a voice at her shoulder.  She spun wildly, yelling out.  Nobody was there.

 

“Unclean.”  She turned again.  “Who’s there?!”  She yelled.  A rasping noise floated in the air and she trembled.  Slowly, she raised her eyes to the window above the sink.

 

Oh, god.  She thought.  The moon.  It’s burning my eyes.  I can’t… I can’t…

 

“Outcast.” The voice whispered to her.

 

She sunk to her knees, covering her face.  Tears rolled down her cheeks.  Her stomach cramped as if her period was coming on.  That can’t be, she thought.  I haven’t had my period since that trip.  The cramping made her curl into a ball.

 

“Tainted one.”

 

She crawled slowly to the other room.  I can’t bear it, she told herself.  I can’t look at it.  I don’t want it to look at me.  I can’t…

 

When she was in the study she felt her stomach loosen slowly.  She tried to catch her breath over and over.  She wanted to cry again.  Something was wrong.  The bar.  The trip.  Something.  She could hear whispering around her.  A hundred voices whispering to her.

 

She pulled herself up on the large desk dominating the room.  The charred wood in the fireplace behind the desk took her breath away.  The dream.  The bar.  The man with no face.  She remembered.

 

 

CHAPTER 8

 

On their last trip, on the way back to the hotel from the bar, she stopped beside a small run-down building.  An old man sat outside on a stool, smoking a cigarette with stained hands.  He watched her stop while he took a drag from his cigarette.  Something about him bothered Elizabeth but she couldn’t figure it out and she was too drunk to think hard enough.  Her friends took no notice and kept walking.

 

The old man blew out a cloud of blue smoke toward Elizabeth.  “Help you?”  He asked her.

 

“No.  No, I doubt it.”  She told him.

 

He tilted his head slightly and blew another puff of smoke.  Slowly, he stood and walked toward the door of his building.  He turned to her and motioned.  “Come.”  He said.  He was even shorter than she was.

 

Elizabeth swayed for a second and placed her hand on the wall next to her.  The old man left the door open for her and she could see a flickering flame inside.  She turned to look for her friends but they were already gone.  She turned unsteadily back to the old building and took a step.  Shrugging, she walked inside and closed the door.

 

The old man sat at a plain wooden table.  There were shelves around him with jars of different shapes and sizes.  The flickering light made it look like some of the jars had living, moving things in them.  In front of the old man was a small saucer full of a thick copper liquid.  He was slowly stirring the liquid with the index finger of his right hand.  There were no other places to sit and the floor was made of packed dirt.  The old man stared at her and she hugged her chest, shivering.  The open fire in the corner of the room was not warming her up.  The smoke was thick and only a small hole in the roof helped to lessen it.

 

She found she was more sober than she’d like but couldn’t understand why she was in here.

 

“Because I told you come.”  The man said.  She blinked stupidly at him.  Did she talk out loud?

 

The man stood and walked around the table to stand in front of her.  She took a step back and stopped.  She was 5’4″ but he was at least three inches shorter than her.  A single drop of that thick liquid dripped from his finger to the ground, congealing in the dirt.

 

He slapped her with his left hand.  It was so sudden and unexpected that she opened her mouth in shock.  Automatically her hands went to her face but he grabbed her left hand and pulled her down hard.  He was small but so strong.  She fell to her knees in front of him.

 

“You mine.”  He told her as he drove the sharp point of his right index fingernail through her left hand, pining her to the ground.  Elizabeth screamed and beat at this small man but couldn’t move him.  Her left hand and arm were on fire.  She convulsed with the pain.

 

With his left hand the man reached behind and grabbed her short, black hair pulling her head up.

 

“Pretty little stupid bitch.”  He told her.  “You make yourself mine.”  She couldn’t breathe.  She tried and tried again but she couldn’t breathe.  Now her chest was on fire.  She looked down with her eyes and saw the veins of her left hand turning black and tracing up her arm.  She couldn’t even feel the left side of her body any more.

 

A thin “Eeeeeeeeee…” sound escaped her lips before the man slammed her face into the ground.  He pushed her onto her back with his left hand while keeping her pinned with his right.  She tasted dirt, blood and death in her mouth.

 

“Now I make new.”  He told her in his strange accent.  She couldn’t move her body.  She couldn’t feel anything except the pain in her face.  Her vision blurred.  One look and the man had no face.  Another look and he was covered in tattoos.  A third and he was the old man again.  The man took his left hand and she saw how sharp the nails were – like no normal fingernails.  He placed his index finger near her neck and drew it down.  Her clothes separated easily down the middle.

 

She was in pain and ashamed of her nakedness but he wasn’t interested in her that way.  He took his left hand again to just below her neck.  This time, he pushed into her skin.  Blood welled around the fingernail, thick and red.  She wanted to scream but her mouth wouldn’t work.  She could move her eyes and she watched as he dragged that finger down her chest to her cunt.  The flesh separated like paper, blood pouring out of the cut.

 

The last thing she remembered before passing out was his hand going into her chest and a sudden bright flare of pain.

 

 

CHAPTER 9

 

No.  No, no, no, no. She told herself, over and over.  This can’t…

 

Her left hand was twitching.  She stared at it.  At the small hole in the middle of her hand.  The hole that wasn’t there before.  She grabbed the edge of the desk and cried out.  The veins in her left hand were turning black.  Her body shook and a wave of heat passed over her.  Hot, so hot.  After feeling too cold all day she suddenly felt like she was standing at the edge of a furnace.  She wanted to rip her clothes off but she dared not let go of the desk.

 

Sweat beaded on her forehead.  Two drops ran down and found their way into her eye.  She blinked and cursed as it stung.  The hair on her arms were standing at attention.  She watched the sweat well up from hands and arms, making little rivers as they rolled down and dripped on the desk and carpet.

 

Her chest was on fire and she heard a roaring in her ears.  The white blouse turned damp and heavy on her small frame, her sweat soaking it until drops leaked from the fabric any time she moved.  Her chest heaved and she heard the whine of fabric stretching.  She couldn’t breathe.  Couldn’t breathe.  She reached for the top button of the blouse and fumbled, pulling down.  It was so tight against her.  The button pinged and shot across the desk.  She still couldn’t breathe.  The next button came off more readily and the three after it.  She threw the blouse off of her and heard it splat against the wall, sweat flinging against furniture and books.

 

Her breasts were straining the bra and digging into her chest.  The tops of her breasts were half out of the bra and at least three times their normal size.  She was barely an A cup before but now she was a C cup and growing.  Her nipples poked out above the bra and were the size of a dime.  Her aureole were darkening to nearly black and growing larger as her breasts grew.  Trying to reach behind herself to unhook the bra was pointless – she didn’t have the motor control she needed to do it.

 

With a shuddering moan she grabbed the front of the bra and pulled.  And pulled again.  And pulled a third time, finally breaking the fabric in half.  Her breasts flopped out of the broken bra and she let out a deep breath.  Now she was D cup and the nipples were the size of a nickel.  Sweat from beneath her breasts trailed down her hardening stomach.

 

A line of thick, clear drool ran from the corner of her mouth to the desk.  She coughed a barking sound and felt her jaw break.  Now blood and drool was running from the corner of her mouth to her chest.  She tried screaming but her tongue didn’t work right.  She lost vision in her left eye and then her right eye as a line of fire traced its way from her mouth up to the top of her nose.  When her eyesight returned she could see her nose pushing out from her face as it flattened.  Her jaw lengthened, cracking and splintering as it did.  She felt the curious sensation of her teeth scratching against the bottom of her tongue.  As her mouth pushed out, it enveloped her lengthening tongue, pulling it into her new mouth.  The last two inches hung at the corner of her mouth and she panted like a dog with the effort and pain.

 

As her jaw moved, her ears shifted.  Everything was drowned out in a sudden high-pitched whining noise before the world went silent.  All she could hear was her heartbeat and ragged breathing, as if at the bottom of a deep, empty lake.  She felt an itch start deep inside her ears and growled when it turned into the feeling of an ice pick being shoved deep into her brain.  She slammed her ear on the desk and rubbed, over and over, from one ear to the other.  She tried working her new jaw to alleviate the pain but nothing helped.  The bones in her ear canal broke and moved closer to the top of her head.  Cartilage reformed the ear into a rounder, hooded shape.  She ground her teeth against the feeling but her hearing suddenly returned after heard a loud popping sound.

 

Her breasts were now double-d cups and still growing.  She could feel them against her as she leaned over the desk.  Her new large nipples were erect and hard and she found herself rubbing them against rough areas on the desk, gasping at the feelings in her pussy and legs.  The pleasure mixed with pain and she found herself growing wet.

 

Elizabeth dragged her left hand down the desk to rub herself but stopped when she saw it.  Fine black hairs dotted the top of her hand and thick black claws had replaced her index and pinky finger, cutting lines down the wood of the desk.  The two fingers were thicker, larger.  As she watched, the fingernails from the other fingers slid off.  The hand jumped and spasmed uncontrollably, black veins standing out.  With a pop, her thumb shortened but thickened, looking odd against her small hand.  From the tip of the thumb, a jet black point pushed through the empty flesh where her fingernail used to be.  It pushed out further and further until finally, a new thick claw was in place.  Her other fingers followed shortly after, massive sausage fingers on her tiny hands.

 

An acrid scent filled her new nose and she watched thin streams of smoke curl around her fingers where the claws touched the wood of the desk.  She tried to snatch her hand away but her claws flexed and cut deeper into the desk.  Small crackling noises preceded her hand growing larger, fitting the fingers.  Black hairs were growing slowly from the tips of her fingers up to her shoulder.  She felt like an army of ants or spiders were digging into her flesh.  She jerked her arm over and over and came away with a chunk of the desk, still attached to her claws.  The hair was growing thicker, hiding her flesh behind a pure black carpet of fur.  She slammed her hand down and heard the desk crack, the small piece of wood in her hand splitting apart.

 

“FUCK!” She screamed.  “Fuck fuck fuck fuck!”  Beneath the thick hair her arm was growing.  Hairs rippled as her forearm muscles thickened.  She leaned back into the desk as fire burned along her left side.  Her bicep bulged and she jerked her arm without thinking, turning the heavy oak desk ninety degrees with ease.  In seconds, the fur of the arm was matted with sweat.

 

Her face slammed into the desk as her back spasmed.  Again and again she was jerked back and forth until her cheek was numb.  The fire from her arm had moved into her back.  Skin split and healed, briefly showing her spine as the muscles along her back grew at an explosive rate.  She almost blacked out from the agony of it.  She roared, loud and long and almost bit her tongue off when a new spasm wracked her body.  Ridges of muscle lined her back, slick with sweat.  The borrowed skirt was straining against her hips.  A smattering of color turned into small black and orange hairs growing along the new skin.  She wanted to turn over and rub her back over and over against the edge of the desk but couldn’t control herself.

 

With a loud crack, her pelvis struck the desk hard.  She closed her eyes and set her forehead against the desk, wishing the pain to be over.  Glad to have at least this small control of her body, she rubbed her muzzle against the desk over and over, savoring the feeling.  Another crack and she stopped moving, focusing and thinking of something, anything other than the small of her back.  She felt like someone was slamming her back with a hammer and then pulling the skin with tongs.

 

A bulge formed in the back of the skirt.  Slowly, the bulge moved down, caught in her wet panties.  She felt it move against her ass, alien flesh against flesh.  It was burning hot and slick against her.  As it moved, it found the leg hole in her panties and slid out, slowly growing.  Her panties tightened, digging into her sopping wet pussy.  She shuddered and moaned as the thin material was pulled in-between her pussy lips.  The tail was growing fatter and she felt the edge of the panties cutting into the new flesh.

 

“Ohhhrrrr goooooorrrrr…”  She moaned through clenched teeth.  She ached to rub herself, to plunge her thick new fingers in and out of her cunt.

 

The rounded tip of the tail emerged from the hem of the skirt, twitching slightly side to side.  Muscles expanded on the new appendage and the panties finally tore, causing her leg to jump as it rasped against her.  The short growth of tail sprang up, lifting the back of her skirt as it whipped around.  She could feel it.  She could feel the tugging on her back and spine as it moved.  The way it felt against her ass excited her – slick, wet flesh against her.  She thought of all the dicks she’d never had.  Had images of them pounding into her from behind.  Her short tail flexed down and against her, rubbing between her ass cheeks, just shy of her pussy.  She whimpered.

 

The tail continued growing and rubbed her as it did.  She almost forgot the pain of it is as the thick skin bulged into her pussy.  Her body jerked.  She could feel the small hairs growing on it – feel how different it felt against her hot, wet pussy as they grew.  Orange and black bands of fur grew along the tail.  As the it lengthened, new skin showed between the fur only to be quickly covered by the growing hair.  She felt it sliding against her and wanted it deep inside.  Instead, it coiled along her trembling leg, wrapping itself against her.  The fur grew thick and long on it.

 

She almost reached a hand to her clit before her knees slammed into the desk.  She felt one of her shoes break apart – heard the small snaps as the threads popped at the sides.  Her left foot was out of the shoe and growing, lengthening from heel to toes, the arches of her feet cracking.  As the foot grew, the big toe pulled away and up the side of her foot.  She was pushed forward on the desk as she went up to her toes.

 

The front of the right shoe tore apart as black needle-like talons separated the thin fabric.  The claws of her foot dug into the carpet and through the floor.  Her foot expanded, popping seems along the side of the shoe.  As the big toe of her right foot was pulled up, the top of the shoe ripped into pieces around her foot.

 

Elizabeth noticed her right hand growing and popping as the fingers grew and claws popped out of the fingertips.  She tried to focus but her ass distracted her.  She felt something shift and suddenly her thick tail plunged deeper into her now larger pussy.  Her ass was growing – clenching and unclenching as it grew.  She jerked on the desk.  The skirt popped, free at last, and fell to the floor to join her wet panties.  Where she had no ass before she now had a large, rounded full ass.  The base of her tail nestled against the top of her ass checks.  Trails of thick pussy juice slid down her legs and caught in the fur of her tail, still wrapped around her left leg.

 

The moan coming from her throat was husky.  Her long tongue licked her muzzle.  Pain was fading and being replaced with pleasure.

 

And hunger.  Before she’d been starving and now, with all of the changes she felt like there was a cavernous hole where he stomach used to be.  Her tits, now sized F, flattened against the desk.  She felt her face itch and crossed her eyes to watch white, orange and black hairs sprout on her muzzle.  Thick white hairs pushed through the skin around her nose and mouth, growing longer and longer until they were at least five inches from her face.  The orange and black hair continued to grow down her neck, between her breasts and down to the cunt – alternating black and orange.  Through the burning smell of the wood she smelled her own scent – a musky odor that smelled of sex, sweat and grave dirt.

 

Fur fanned out along her back and covered her skin, meeting the hair growing up from her tail.  Dark black fur grew along her wet pussy and out into a tuft, longer than the fur of her stomach.  Her legs vibrated and twitched, hair growing down to her feet.  She was massive – over seven feet tall and wider than any football linebacker.  Except for her legs – her legs were still the small legs she had before except for the bands of fur covering them.

 

The pain was almost completely gone from her body until she felt her legs vibrating.  She heard multiple cracking and popping noises and suddenly had to hold onto the desk as her legs went numb.  Bones in her legs broke, lengthened, broke again and reformed.  Muscles tore over and over, breaking the skin of her leg as it did her back.  New fur quickly grew in place as her thighs grew in thickness and her calf muscles bulged.  Her tail unwrapped itself from her leg and moved behind her, lifting slightly in the air.  Sweat and pussy juice dripped off of it to the floor.  She could feel it to the tip of its length.

 

Elizabeth stood – seven feet, ten inches of muscle and death.  Her left hand, arm and shoulder were a pure black fur.  The tuft of fur around her cunt was a slightly light black but the rest of her body was banded in orange and black.  She moved her arms in circles, flexing and unflexing her hand.  Her thumbs were shorter than they should be and there was thick black padding on the bottoms of her hands.  Her tail moved behind her as she shifted her balance on her feet, standing on her long toes.  Her black tipped ears swiveled independently, tracking sounds she wasn’t paying attention to as she stared at her new body.

 

She made a circuit of her mouth with tongue and found only jagged sharp teeth.  Her gums were black and the tip of her flat nose was an outline of pink.  Her pale gold eyes shone out of a massively wide face covered in orange and black patterns.  A slightly thicker ruff of fur covered her neck and the tops of her shoulders.

 

Her breasts and nipples were covered in a thick fur.  She explored them briefly with her hands, tweaking her nipples.  Her right hand dipped down and inside her pussy.  It took a moment to find her lips with her new body and hands but she was wet and larger, her fat finger slipped inside easily.  She growled in pleasure and then pain as she cut herself inside.  She pulled her finger out to stare at the slick wet liquid and dark red blood.  Her ears flattened against her head as she sniffed and then licked her hand clean.  The taste of the blood was intoxicating and reminded her how hungry she was.  Her stomach was suddenly wracked with pain and she made the barking cough sound again, growling as she spit a large wad of black and red blood on the carpet.  Her tailed lashed behind her.

 

She doubled over in pain, thudding to the floor.  Her hands rubbed her huge, rock hard stomach over and over as she clenched her teeth in agony.  She had to eat.  Soon.  Food smells came from the kitchen and she forced herself to stand.  Food.  Susan would have food.  She could eat.

 

A few steps carried her to the kitchen.  Her tuna was still on its plate.  She leaned over, not bothering with hands and took the large piece directly in her mouth.  She chewed a few times before spitting it out.  If anything, it tasted even more vile now than it did before.  She roared with anger.

 

The hum of a well tuned engine turned her head and she smiled, showing her teeth.  Susan.  The brakes squeaked slightly as the car stopped.  A car door opened and then slammed shut.  Elizabeth padded over to the door and stood, hands at her sides.  She closed her eyes and breathed in through her nose.  Through the stench of chemical and rotting food she smelled blood.  Flesh.  Drool formed at the side of her mouth.  Food.  She was so hungry.  The back of her jaw itched from the smell of the woman walking to her death.

 

Susan stopped outside the door for a moment before opening it.  She had no time to scream before Elizabeth’s massive hand grabbed her by the neck and forced her to the ground, crushing the vertebra in her neck.

 

 

CHAPTER 10

 

Cole and Elijah were a mile away before they smelled the woman again.  Cole heard the her give an address to the taxi driver and they’d followed by bus and foot since then, stopping at the entrance of the gated community to talk over what they would do.  Several wrong buses and Elijah’s stomach made them later than he would like but they were here now.

 

Neither of them could hear anyone nearby so they found a bench across from the small community to sit and discuss their options.

 

“We need to talk to her.  What if this is her first time?”  Elijah asked.

 

“It’s… I don’t think so.  And there’s something wrong with her.  She actually scares me a little.”

 

“It has to be her first time.  Did you see how small she was?  You remember what I was like before you found me?  If she’d changed before she wouldn’t be so small.”

 

Cole had to admit that made sense.  But still… something was different about her.  Everything about her went against the little he knew about their kind.  If she had changed before she wouldn’t have been so small.  She was too old for it to be hereditary and her first change.  Nothing made sense about this strange woman.

 

Cole turned his large, muscular hands over and over while he thought things through.  The moon was full but even without it, he could see so clearly.  He remembered his first time changing and how confused and angry he’d been the whole day.  Even twenty years later he could remember the sense of power that came with it – the feeling of immortality and strength.  And loneliness.  His father had left years before when Cole told his parents he was gay.  His mother took a while to understand but stayed with him.  Careful inquiries led him to believe his mother wasn’t like him and after the change he could smell how human she was anyway.  He had called his father years later and after being hung up on many times he’d finally had time to get the words out – “I’m not human.”

 

His father hadn’t hung up that time.  Not immediately.  Minutes passed before he answered.  “I didn’t know if… I…” and then he hung up.  It was a long time before he answered Cole’s phone calls after that but at least Cole knew he wasn’t the only one.

 

Now, in the past year, he’d actually had a breakthrough of sorts with his father.  Perhaps a couple decades of thinking things through or maybe some life experiences had softened him.  His father actually called him once or twice a month.  They were short phone calls but he was decent and actually sounded like he cared.  Cole enjoyed the calls more than he wished to admit – it took a long time to forgive his father.

 

He thought about calling his father now and asking about this woman but put the thought aside.  He needed to do this on his own.

 

The woman’s scent grew suddenly stronger and different.  “She’s changing.”  Cole said.

 

A moment later Elijah caught the smell as well.  “We need to help her.  She’s alone out there.”  He stood but Cole put his hand on Elijah’s arm as a black car passed by and stopped at the gates of the community.  The gates opened slowly and the car drove through.

 

“Maybe… maybe that other smell isn’t bad.  Maybe she’s hurt in some way.  Cole, we have to help her.”

 

Cole ground his teeth.  “We don’t know anything about her.  What if she’s dangerous?  What if…”

 

“What if she hurts someone and people find out about it?” Elijah asked, his voice rough.  “You want to let her die?  Or… or worse?  Come on, man.”

 

Elijah’s right, he thought.  I’ve always been too cautious.  Maybe it’s not as bad as I think.

 

Cole stood and gripped Elijah’s shoulder.  “Okay.  Okay, but let me do the talking.”

 

The wall around the gate was protected by simple dull spikes along the top.  Both of them pulled themselves easily over to the other side, landing quietly on the grass.  A few dogs barked in the distance and they could hear adults calling for the kids to come to supper and a group of older kids playing basketball.  It took a moment to get their bearings and figure out the direction of the smell but then both men set off walking at a normal pace.  Better to blend in if they walked casually.  Elijah was still in his workout gear from the gym but Cole was dressed for business casual.

 

They passed a couple of kids tossing a baseball back and forth and two parents with their toddler trailing behind.  Cole watched them pass.  Elijah put his hand on Cole’s neck and rubbed gently.  Cole bumped back against him and they walked on.

 

They passed the second house before they smelled the sharp scent of human blood.  A lot of human blood.  Elijah looked at Cole before sprinting off.

 

“Elijah, wait!”  Cole yelled.  “God dammit!”  Cole shrugged off his work shoes and socks and ran after Elijah.  He was bigger and faster but too far behind.  He could feel his feet change shape to dig into the ground.  His hands flexed and hair stood at attention around his body.  A quiet growl started deep in his throat to escape past teeth sharper than they were a moment ago.  His ears flexed and turned, listening for trouble.  He wanted to fall to all fours but he kept upright and prayed he made it there before anything bad happened.  A tugging on his spine warned him his clothes maybe not survive the trip.

 

He could see Elijah ahead of him – a blur of speed.  The smell of blood was much stronger and he could hear bones breaking.  The house with the black car, he thought.  The one that passed us earlier.  I smell death and it’s not human.

 

Elijah was almost inside when Cole’s pants burst at the legs, his calf muscles bulging and flowing with orange and black.  He would normally revel in the change but his heart was going crazy.  Elijah was almost there.  Danger!  He reached his hands to the concrete of the road, feeling his claws dig into the rough surface and the padding on his hands rubbing against the ground.  He pulled himself along and the burst of speed from his change doubled his speed.  He watched Elijah slam into the open door.  He was just twenty feet away.  Almost there.  Almost there…  Fur was flowing from his chest to his neck and face and down his back.  His pants completely split and the buttons on the front of his shirt popped off.  The tattered clothes streamed behind him as he ran.  He was growling loud and clear now, thankful nobody was nearby to see him.

 

The growl turned into a roar as he watched Elijah fly back through the door, blood spraying the night air.  He was changing too, but too late.  The frame of the door splintered and the door itself broke at the top hinge.  Cole had time to notice large claw marks down Cole’s chest seconds before he was through the entryway.

 

The house was a bloody mess.  The entryway was carpeted in blood and the broken remains of a human woman lay in front of him.  The tigress was crouched a few feet away.  Her massive body was black and orange and bloody red.  Thicky ropy flesh hung from her teeth as she growled at Cole.  He leaped for her, arms wide.  He felt his tail finish its growth and whip around behind him when he turned himself in the middle of a jump.

 

His shoulder slammed into her face and he was vaguely satisfied to hear a loud crunching sound.  He had never fought another of his kind but other instincts took over.  Her arms closed around his body as they rolled into the house, breaking everything in their path.  His mouth fought for her neck but her arms closed around his body and squeezed.  She was so strong.  Maybe as strong as he was.  His breath left him in a rush.  Her hold was awkward since his arms were under hers and free.  He put his knee in her gut hard and twisted, pulling himself out.  He tried a stabbing motion for her throat but she grabbed him and threw him to the side.  A glass cabinet shattered beneath him and he felt a million little cuts before his body kicked into to reject the foreign pieces and heal him.

 

Her nose was still bleeding.  Something about this bothered him but he couldn’t place it and didn’t have the time to spare.  She stood, ready to tackle him but he was faster and more experienced with his body.  He twisted and dived, claws out for her stomach.  Unfortunately, the wall collapsed under his feet and he missed, falling short of her.  She reached for him but he was already rolling, trying to find purchase.  He made it up just as she tackled him.

 

She was as tall as he was.  Cole only had Elijah and himself as reference but from them he knew that when changed, they were taller than they were as humans but still proportionate.  This woman should be at least a foot shorter or more than him.

 

Time slowed.  He watched her black furred left hand come around to slash his face.  He started to bring his arm up.  His lips were pulled back in a roar.  The flat of her hand brushed his whiskers.  His arm was almost up.  Her bloody left hand smashed into his cheek just as he got his own arm up.  He pushed her away before he could claw him but he could taste blood in his mouth and his jaw burned.  Her right hand was coming around.  He ducked, putting his left hand behind her right ass cheek and his right hand against her side, just under her large furry breasts.  He pulled and pushed and she went down, arms flailing.

 

His mouth was at her stomach, biting through flesh before he felt her elbow strike the top of his head.  He bit again, tearing her stomach but the elbow came down harder and his vision swam.  She hit him again and pulled at one of his arms, loosening his grip.  Two of his teeth were loose and he thought one might be cracked.  He also couldn’t think straight and the vision in his left eye was blurry.  He tried to bite again but she was gone.

 

He blinked several times until his vision was back.  His gums itched as his teeth realigned and healed.  There was a large hole where a window used to be.  The tigress was gone.

 

Cole turned to the door.  He heard concerned voices nearby getting closer.  A siren sounded in the distance.  He stumbled over the dead body to find Elijah on the steps in front of the house.  His chest was bleeding through his shirt.  Still bleeding, Cole thought.  He should be healed by now.

 

He became aware of the taste in his mouth and almost vomited.  Rank.  Disgusting.  It was the female’s blood.  The tigress.  He spit several times and then scooped up Elijah, putting him over his shoulder.  He felt as light as a feather but there was a heat coming from his stomach and blood dripped from his wound.

 

Cole turned and ran into the night.

 

 

CHAPTER 11

 

Elizabeth slammed through the wall, breaking through wooden studs, glass and drywall in her haste to escape.  Her nose was still bleeding and she had to check her stomach to make sure it was still there.  She loped through the nearby trees with one arm around her middle.  So much pain.  The fight was confusing to her.  Everything was confusing.  Too many sounds.  Too many smells.

 

She was so hungry.  She licked her lips and growled at the sweet taste of blood on her tongue.

 

The stand of trees was small and soon she was at the wall surrounding the community.  She pulled herself over gingerly, careful of her stomach.  She stumbled at the top and fell.  Her tail swung wildly and she landed on her side, almost blacking out from the pain in her stomach.  She rolled to her back and stared.

 

The moon stared back.

 

“Diseased.”  It told her.  “Cesspool.”

 

She hid her face in the grass and groaned, the sound coming out as a low growl. Her face felt better and one of the holes in her stomach had closed but she couldn’t move.  She dared not look at the moon.  Slowly, she turned onto her stomach, her huge breasts temporarily confusing her.  She crawled, willing the moon to go away.

 

“Unclean.”  It whispered.

 

She passed out twice while making her way back to the city.  When she woke the second time she was near a park.  A homeless man sat near a tree, drinking from a bottle in a bag.  Her tail lashed quietly behind her as she hunkered to her hands and feet.  She watched and listened but heard nobody else.  A quick swipe nearly severed his head and then she feasted, intoxicated with the warm flesh and blood.

 

Three more homeless people died that night, with only bones and pieces of flesh and clothes to mark where they lived.

 

When the sun rose, Elizabeth woke naked in a pool of dirty water under an overpass.  Her whole body ached from her toes to her head.  When she sat up, her head swam and she threw up.  She closed her eyes against the sight of what come out of her stomach.  The ground was saturated in blood.

 

She huddled on the gravel, drawing her thin legs up to her chin.  It was so cold.  The nipples of her small breasts stood thin and hard on her chest.  Memories of the night were unclear but pieces of it came back to her.  She closed her eyes and sobbed.

 

“Susan.  Oh my god, Susan.”  She whispered between gasps.  “Everything… Everything I had is gone… I… Oh god…”  She tried throwing up again but nothing came out.

 

Elizabeth crawled through filth to make her way back to the street.  It was early morning and only a few cars drove by.  She hid herself in the wet grass.  There was a Target store across the street from her.

 

“No money.” She laughed.  “Not anything.”  She wanted to cry again.

 

In the corner of the empty parking lot she saw a large metal donation container.  She bit her lip and slowly made her way to it, hiding her nakedness.  The opening at the top of the container was too small for her to fit through.  She carefully walked around the thing until she spied a large door on the side – locked with a rounded metal lock.  She almost broke down crying again.  Her teeth were chattering and her body was covered in goose bumps.

 

She searched the grass around the parking lot until she found a large rock.  It took over ten strikes before her tiny arms could break the lock.  Her fingers and the palms of her hands were bloody by the time she was finished.  The inside of the container smelled horrible but she found some clothes and a few pairs of shoes.  Nothing fit her right.  The clothes and shoes were too big but she made the clothes work, tying the pants with strips of cloth and by wearing two shirts.  None of the shoes would stay on her feet.  She refused to wear any of the panties.

 

She sat on a curb, unthinking, just staring at her knees.  Her stomach rumbled but she ignored it.  She could hear people far away.  Talking, laughing.  The laughter sounded too high, too fake.  The voices sounded full of sarcasm and spite.  Colors seemed off.  The grass next to her looked like it was mixed with blue or maybe light brown.  The sun was too pale.  She could see a bird high in the sky and see it clearly but it looked washed out.  Its cry was pinched and too loud.

 

She gripped her fingers, unsure of what to do.  She needed to eat but everything smelled badly.  Pollution, the stench of people and filth and trash – everything filled her nose and turned her stomach.  Thinking of food made her think of Susan again.  Her stomach turned but she also felt herself salivate a little.  It horrified her.  Throughout everything her mind kept turning to the man she was supposed to meet.  The investor.  She had no idea why she cared or why it mattered any more but her mind kept turning to this man she’d never met.

 

The first day, she tried to steal food from a farmer’s market but got caught.  By the second night, she prayed to change again so she could give herself to the beast and feed but nothing happened.  She hadn’t changed since the night with Susan.

 

It took three days before she could keep down the scraps she found in dumpsters.

 

 

CHAPTER 12

 

Elijah’s chest wound took a week to heal.  Cole took the week off and stayed with him constantly, trying to feed him.  He dribbled water down Elijah’s throat when he could and put glucose tablets under his tongue to dissolve.  Sometimes he would get him to take a few swallows of broth.

 

The bleeding didn’t stop until the second day and Elijah lost twenty pounds.  Elijah didn’t wake until the morning of the seventh day.  Cole wasn’t religious but he came close to praying.  He’d never seen a wound take this long for them to heal.  Almost everything they dealt with took seconds for their bodies to fix.  They never got the cold or flu anymore.  Nothing should hurt him like this.

 

When Elijah’s chest healed, it left a scar.  Four ragged claw marks diagonally across the chest, between his nipples.  Nothing ever left a scar on them.  Ever.

 

Cole wanted to be up.  He wanted to be tracking this bitch to pay her back in kind.  Seeing her in person made it that much more clear.  She wasn’t like them at all.  She looked like them but she wasn’t.  During sex Elijah and Cole scratched each other and sometimes it got rough but healing from that was almost instant.  This was completely different.  Whatever she was, it wasn’t natural.

 

When Elijah woke up, Cole bought over ten pounds of steak and hamburger meat.  Elijah ate most of it.  They stayed awake through most of the night talking about what happened and about other random things.  Cole’s father called one of the nights Elijah was asleep so Cole told him about it.  His father had actually made some hints about visiting some time.  That bit of news got Elijah to smile for the first smile since he woke up.

 

When they were both finally tired, they cuddled in bed.  Elijah complained that Cole was trying to kill him by crushing him to death but Cole was too emotional to joke back.  He never thought they could die.  Until this day, he never considered it.

 

Two years ago, Cole found Elijah working at a construction site.  Cole was taking a lunch break and a sudden smell in the air brought him two blocks over to Elijah.  He was just a scrawny twenty-two year old kid wearing a dirty wife-beater and eating a bologna sandwich on his own break.  It was nearly impossible to resist the urge to jump him right then and there but Cole held back and waited.  He waited until the kid was done with work and waiting at the bus stop before he approached.  They barely made it to the next alley before fucking each other’s brains out.  The change took the kid hard but Cole helped him through it.

 

Afterwards, Cole had been terrified that the kid was straight but hormones from the change forced him into it.  Elijah set him straight the next morning – he’d known he was gay since middle school.  He’d moved to the area a month ago and hadn’t really started looking for a relationship yet – finding a job was more important.  Nothing had worked out so he was working construction until he could find something better.  Going from a scrawny kid to Superman gave him the idea for being a fitness trainer.

 

It was hard not to fall in love with a handsome, overly optimistic young guy and Cole didn’t resist.  Finding someone like him had been the most amazing thing in his life.  He didn’t even mind the fourteen year age gap.

 

The thought of all of that disappearing tore Cole apart.  When he wasn’t burning with rage he was crying quietly at the side of their bed while Elijah was sick.  The ground around his chair was littered with broken things.  He couldn’t seem to keep his hands still but anything he held would get crushed or broken.

 

On the eighth day, Elijah had already gained back nine pounds but the scar remained.  Cole thanked whatever it was that made them the way they were – whatever healed them so quickly was finally working on Elijah again.  And if Eljiah’s laugh didn’t come quite so easily now, it would in time.

 

Elijah wanted to go back to work but Cole refused so they spent the day out walking in the fresh air.  They walked for hours, sometimes quietly, sometimes holding hands but always close.  Cole spent a lot of the time smelling for the tigress.  He would never forget her.  It would be Sunday the next day and he would spend the whole day looking for her now that Elijah was better.

 

He would never stop.

 

 

CHAPTER 13

 

Victoria approached the van apprehensively.  She could taste Rob’s scent in the air but it was mixed with too many smells and her hearing, while better than before, wasn’t good enough to make out any sounds he might be making.  Her snakes were sluggish and non-responsive still.  When she stopped paying attention, the small motes of light faded away.

 

Sunlight warmed her naked flesh.  Her stomach wound was better and the muscles had already stopped throbbing.  She looked back to the creature but now he just looked like a strangely shaped rock.  No doubt years from now people will pass by and think they see the shape of a face or arm in the large rock by the road.

 

When she turned the corner in front of the van she saw Rob.  He was hanging sideways in his seat, his hands hanging down towards the passenger seat.  The airbag had deployed but somehow he had a gash on his forehead.  There was also a line of blood on the right side of his face.  She stopped to stare, holding the corner of the bumper.  There.  His chest was raising and falling.  She breathed out and was annoyed when her tongue flicked out several times.  When she took her hand from the bumper, a chunk came with her.  She hadn’t realized she’d been gripping so hard.  Her talons made neat little holes in the useless plastic.

 

The door handle came off in her hands when she tried to open his door.  She tsked at herself and reached in to unlock and open the door.  When it wouldn’t stay open she ripped it off the hinges and tossed it aside.  Rob stirred fitfully.  She reached her thick right arm around his waist and easily held him in place while unbuckling him with her left hand

 

Bonus points for being a freak, she thought.

 

She pulled Rob out of the van carefully and laid him in the shade.  Her white snake was on the bottom of the van, still curled up.  There were two large gashes on her but she came readily when called.  Victoria laid her out next to Rob and then lowered herself down to lie with him.  She pulled him close to her large, heavy breasts.

 

“Stupid, Rob. I told you to go.  The one time you don’t listen to me…”  He stirred again and she placed her hand on his chest.  She closed her eyes briefly and opened them again to watch the multicolored lights dance in the air.  “I don’t know which one of you can do it but please, heal this man if you can.”

 

Pink, blue and clear lights swirled in the air.  Slowly, they settled on Rob’s chest and face as if caressing him.  Some of them latched onto her hand and she swore she could feel them pulling on her.  “Please.” She said again.

 

One by one they sunk into Rob.  He gave a little twitch each time.  And, each time, she felt a little more tired.  Until, with the last one, she fell asleep.

 

She woke to the sound of Rob’s voice.  “No, I already called the state troopers.  They said it would take a while to get someone out here.  So now I’m just calling to tell you about the accident.  Yes, sir.  Like I told them, there was a man in the road with his car.  As I was slowing down, a pickup coming the other way swerved into to and I swerved to get out of the way.  The wheels buckled and the van slid.  I hit the other truck on the side and that flipped me.  I don’t remember anything after that.  Yes, I need a replacement.  No.  Yes.  Of course not.  Yes.  South bound just outside of Yreka.  Thank you.  Yes, you too.”

 

Rob pocketed his phone and turned to Victoria.  “Mis… Victoria.  Thank god.  I was so worried about you!  I already called the police and the van rental company but I’ll need to hide you too until it’s clear.”

 

Victoria sat up slowly.  She still felt worn out but nothing hurt – she was just tired.  “Thanks, Rob.  I was wondering how we’d get out of this one.  And… thank you for not listening to me back there.  It saved me.”

 

Rob blushed and looked down.  “No, I should’ve listened to you.  I just… I would die if something happened to you.”  When he looked back up there were tears in his eyes.  Victoria wished they were real tears – real tears for worrying about her own safety and not because of what the snakes did to him.  Her heart hurt at the thought.

 

She patted Rob on the shoulder and brought her forehead against his.  He sighed happily but when he tried to kiss her, she pulled back.  “No, Rob.  Not… No.  Not until you’re back to normal.”  She didn’t add that when he was, he would find her disgusting.  She pointed away from the road.  “I’ll be a ways that way, probably behind a rock or something.  If you can, sweep up our trail so the cops don’t wonder more than they have to, okay?”

 

Victoria found a large rock a good distance away from the wreckage.  She took the trident and her white snake with her.  She watched the police come out a fire truck, two ambulances and two tow trucks.  A crew of people measured skid patterns and checked the bumper of the van as well as the car near the dead man.  A representative from the rental company came out to talk to Rob and the police.  Eventually, they loaded the dead man into an ambulance and took him away.  The man’s car went next and eventually Rob’s van was towed as well.

 

The rental representative gave Rob a ride.  Victoria’s stomach tightened to watch him go but she had to trust him to take care of things.  The sun set before she spotted another van coming back.  She came to meet him half-way after he parked and they slowly made her way to the van.  He’d found the time to buy two king sized mattress and fit it in the back of the van with creative cutting and rearranging.  And a ton of pillows.  He also somehow mounted a heater to the ceiling of the van.

 

Rob watched her anxiously from the side.  “It’s a memory foam mattress!”

 

She swallowed her sigh.  “Th… thank you, Rob.  That’s just what I needed.  This will really make the trip great.  I… I really appreciate it.”  She lowered herself to hug him.  He was positively beaming when she broke the embrace.  Victoria cringed before pulling herself into the back.  The van creaked noisily under her weight.

 

Two or three more days, she told herself.

 

 

CHAPTER 14

 

It was easy to lose time on the streets, she found.  Nearly a month had gone by since the night at the hotel.  Nearly a month of living in filth.  She changed her clothes when she could find new ones and learned which places had the best left-over food.  It helped when she thought of the food as leftovers rather than trash – she could pretend she was just eating her own leftovers and not someone else’s food.

 

Nothing tasted right.  She’d hoped it was temporary but every single time she ate something, she wanted to gag.  Everything smelled rotten – from the food she was eating to people passing by.  She liked to think she smelled the people dying.  Sometimes she would sit in her pile of clothes and watch people all day, inventing ways they would die.  Small children would drown in a pool.  Little babies would die from being shaken hard by their hateful parents.  Adults… there were so many ways for them to die and she imagined them all.  Plane wrecks, car wrecks, electrocution from downed wires, falling off of high buildings because of broken railings, breaking their necks falling down stairs… But her favorite was thinking of them mauled and eaten.

 

Sometimes she thought she imagined the night at Susan’s house.  Perhaps she was sick and the whole thing was a strange nightmare or something similar and she had just had a mental breakdown.  However, the police were looking for her.  She caught the news from radios and televisions when she could get close enough.  Her friend had died horribly and police had no idea what happened.  They knew there had been a terrible struggle based on the state of the house and reports from neighbors but all they found was part of Susan’s body and Elizabeth’s purse.  Usually at that point they would bring up hotel security footage showing Elizabeth running from the hotel.

 

She was the “Person of Interest” in the case and Susan’s husband was offering a $50,000 reward if someone brought her in.  She always smiled when she heard that.  Nobody would know her now.  Even though she’d been thin before, she had lost so much weight.  One of her teeth had fallen out two days ago, rotten and black.  It barely even hurt.  Her previously thick, lustrous black hair was dull and straw-like.  She looked like a completely different person.  Harmless.  People pitied her when they bothered to look at her.  Those people… she imagined pulling off their legs with her strong, muscular arms and eating the bloody, soft pink flesh raw.

 

At night she hid herself under bridges or anything else that could cover her.  She didn’t look at the sky anymore; the moon was there.  She frowned for a moment.  That cold bitch, she thought.  It did this to me.  It made me like this.

 

As always her mind turned to the man she was supposed to meet.  When she closed her eyes she could see his business card clearly.  She repeated his name and address like a litany.  Robert Poole 2330 Paradise LaneAltadena, California.  Robert.  Poole.  2330 Paradise Lane.  Altadena.  California.  Robertpooletwothreethreeohparadiselanealtadenacalifornia.  Over and over while rocking back and forth.  She was close.  Tomorrow she’d be there.  Tomorrow or the next day.  She had to talk to him about investments for her company.  They would be so pleased.

 

She hacked and spit.  Her lungs hurt and two more of her teeth felt loose.  Her tongue liked to rub them back and forth.  Back and forth.  Wobble, wobble.  Back and forth.  Wobble, wobble.  She laughed quietly to herself.

 

The other one.  She remembered him.  Oh yes, she did.  The huge orange and black blur that hurt her that night.  She would find him, too.  Talk to him.  Oh yes, she’d talk to him.  Her hand rubbed her stomach when she remembered.  She’d talk to him real good.

 

Sometimes she thought someone was following her but she had to be mistaken.  Nobody knew her.  Yet… yet, she thought she saw the same face here and there throughout the day.  She would see the face and then it would slip away from her.  An hour or two later, it would happen again.  She moved to a different street when she saw that face.  She didn’t want to see it.

 

She found an empty overpass to sleep in when the sun was fat and red on the horizon.  She preferred to be alone.  Sometimes she watched other homeless people around a fire and envied them but she wasn’t like them.  She wasn’t trash like them.  She was a huntress.  She killed.  She ate.  She didn’t need them.  Didn’t need them.  Not at all.

 

Tomorrow.  Tomorrow she would find the man.  Tomorrow.  She huddled under her rags and wondered if she would sleep that night.  It was becoming harder and harder to sleep.  The moon was watching her.  Waiting for a sign of weakness.  How could she sleep?  Tears streamed down her face.  How could she sleep?

 

She was daydreaming when she felt it.  Her breath caught.  She dared not hope in case she was disappointed.  No, there it was again.  Her hand.  Her left hand hurt.  It was shaking.  On fire.  Slowly, she unfolded herself and pulled her sleeve back.  The veins of her left hand stood out, black in the deep red shades of twilight.

 

Her smile was wide and with too many teeth for her mouth.

 

 

CHAPTER 15

 

She had to admit it was worth the wait.  Rob’s sprawling ranch was nearly 6000 square feet for the house alone, all on a single level.  The house was on an acre of land, set back against the foot of the mountains.  Rob gave her the grand tour, telling her it’d been in their family for three generations.  He still owned some of the orange groves that first paid for the land.  He told her he could quit his work and live very well off of his own savings and inheritance for the rest of his life.

 

He talked about expanding the house for her and adding whatever she wanted but she had nothing to add.  There were four huge bedrooms, three massive bathrooms, a living room, a den, a family room, a library and a large sun room.  The floors were smooth, cool tile and hardwood.  The ceilings were nearly twenty feet up and skylights dotted the house.  She recognized the style of the house as Spanish Colonial from her real estate work.  It was quite beautiful.

 

Rob closed the curtains as he walked through the house, telling her he was worried about her safety even though they were on a private road.  Sunlight still filtered in but made her shape vague enough to pass for human.

 

When Rob tried to insist she take the master bedroom, she refused and picked the guest room.  Rob had a delivery company at the house within hours to deliver eight king sized mattresses – memory foam again.  Victoria had to admit she’d come to love the stupid things.  They layered four on top of each other in the corner of the bedroom so she could spread herself out.  She let her tail settle and just laid her upper body down to sink into the mattress.  Pure heaven.

 

Rob gave her his credit card information and told her to order whatever she wanted for the room.  He practically begged her to make the room hers.  Although he had an office with a large, multiple monitor computer setup, it was for his work and she refused to use it.  Instead, he built her a nearly identical setup in the library.  He was more than happy to show her how to use everything.  She wasn’t a complete ludite but most of her computer ability ran to Microsoft Office.

 

She balked at the websites he showed her for ordering things – a dresser for over $1000 was crazy in her book.  It took some questioning before he showed her the Craigslist website for their area.  She was amazed at the prices.  Some people were even giving away beautiful antique furniture for free.  Rob went out several times over the next few days to pick up things for her – a dresser, standing mirror, some simple paintings and plants to liven up the room.  He was disappointed she didn’t buy brand new expensive furniture but he didn’t say no.

 

She even bought a few shirts and bras online.  It took some guesswork to find sizes that fit her large but eventually she had a closet full of comfortable clothing.  She felt nervous wearing clothes again but when Rob told her she looked beautiful in a dark green silk shirt, she blushed.  It felt good.  Almost normal.  She even bought a funny t-shirt to wear.  It had the severed bloody head of medusa wearing sunglasses and the caption read, “Rock On!”  She giggled when she saw it.  The bras were more difficult.  According to most companies, she was an E cup now.  Finding good, comfortable bras in that size wasn’t easy.

 

She was talking to her snakes again.  They were impressed by what she’d done on the road.  It was the first time they could remember their host learning magic of any kind without their guidance and their only criticism was that she gave too much away in the bargain.  Her memories were theirs as well so they could see what she’d done.  Apparently, the little creatures were just as eager to do their jobs as she was for them to do it.  But if not watched, they were slow and greedy.

 

“So then, how does it work?”  She asked one night.  She was dreaming again – sitting by the fire with the strange woman.

 

“These creatures exist, everywhere, always.  We give them a piece of our self for their work.”

 

“Can I shoot fireballs?  Or fly?  Please tell me I can fly with them.”

 

The woman shook her head.  “No.  There are different kinds of magic but we are elemental.  Transformative.  Earth is our base.  Minerals.  We heal because man is from the earth.  We turn things to stone for the same reason.  We can also move the earth to a small degree.  You don’t even have to speak the words.  Imagine the result and it will happen.  In time you will learn minimum the creatures require.”

 

“And the hypnotism?  Reading the future?”

 

“Gifts unique to us.  We’ve always had them.  We live here.  If this realm is the subconsciousness of man then perhaps we alter it in some way.  We’ve never considered it deeply.  It’s always been.”

 

Victoria tilted her head.  “Perhaps we should take time to figure it out.  What else are you missing because you didn’t wonder about what you could do?”

 

The woman shrugged.

 

The days passed.  Victoria practiced using her new body.  From simple movements to moving sections of her tail by themselves.  By the fourth day, with a small bit of concentration she could make her tail move in a small wave from the tip to below her hip.  She only destroyed one wall during the whole process.  When she was just learning to coil her tail, she misinterpreted a movement and her tail whipped out with a loud crack, breaking through the wall.  Rob cheerfully told her he was thinking of moving the wall back a little anyway.

 

Nearly two weeks later she was settling into a routine and thinking of hobbies.  She’d never tried anything in school – preferring to focus on basic studies and spending time with friends and family.  Rob brought several different things for her to try – paints and canvas, modeling clay and even wood blocks and carving knives.

 

Painting was fun but holding the brush in her hands was awkward and she didn’t have the eye for that kind of work anyway.  The clay proved much easier to work with.  Here she could use her claws for fine detail work and her strong hands seemed tireless in shaping and reshaping.   She spent most of the day with the clay.  Rob would stop by every so often to watch while he worked around the house.

 

She loved the way her muscles worked as she took a lump of the clay to work with.  She rolled, kneaded and squashed the clay as she shaped it.  Large muscles in her shoulders and back tensed and relaxed over and over as she lost herself in what she was doing.  Occasionally, she would feel one of her snakes peek around to look before settling back into place.  She came to enjoy their presence in a small way.  They weren’t so bad when they weren’t bothering her.

 

Eventually, a tree took shape in her clay.  She sat back, her fingers covered in dark gray with bits of clay stuck to her nose.  Her tongue flicked out, as if to watch.  She leaned in carefully to scratch a knothole near the bottom of the tree.  Looking at it again, a thought struck her.  She listened to the quiet house and heard Rob typing at his keyboards in the other room.  She grinned and leaned in again to scratch “V & R” next to the knothole.

 

She was washing her hands carefuly with a rag when he snakes stirred.  “Ssssssss… watching… ussssssss… waiting… sssssssssomeone… watching… hurt… angry… watching…”

 

She paused.  “Here?  At the house?  Where?  Who’s watching us?”

 

Rather than answer, the snakes turned to the window.  She followed and pulled back an edge of the curtains.  Her cat eyes narrowed, searching the landscape.  Nothing.  Her tongue stuck out and tasted the air, over and over.  Still nothing.  Wait, there.  Something moved.  Victoria stopped and watched, barely breathing.  Near a bush was a flat, black shape.  Her tongue flicked again and the faint smell of blood was in the air.  The shape moved and was suddenly gone.

 

Victoria watched a moment longer and then turned to find Rob.

 

 

CHAPTER 16

 

Elizabeth studied the house closely.  The sage brush next to her swayed in the wind, scratching at her cheap clothes.  She barely felt the mid-day sun.  She rarely felt anything other than coldness these days.  One of the curtains twitched aside, nearly startling her.  An outline of a face appeared.  She saw slit eyes and a forked tongue but she didn’t trust her eyes very much lately.  Everything was twisted.

 

There was a pain at the back of her throat that she couldn’t stop from turning into a hacking cough.  Her mouth filled with thick, congealed blood.  She held the wad in her mouth rather than spit it out.  Finally, she couldn’t hold it in anymore.  She was starting to gag on the taste of rancid blood and meat.  She slowly backed away and rolled down the small hill.  At the bottom, she spit the thing out of her mouth.  It was pure black.  She shuddered.  One little white thing was moving in the blackness of the lump.  She told herself it couldn’t be a maggot, that it was probably from the ground and not her.

 

She made her way to the mountains nearby.  She felt better than she had in a long time.  Stronger.  She remembered everything from the night before.  The beast had come back for her.  Finally.  She was magnificent. She lived.  She was strong, fast, unstoppable.  She killed and killed and didn’t even bother eating everything.  She started with homeless people but soon found herself picking off single men and women as she made her way to the man’s house.  She was drawn here.  She didn’t even notice she was in Altadena until her fifth kill.

 

She sighed happily.  She could still remember the feeling of warm blood on her muzzle.  The taste.  The glorious taste.  Her stomach rumbled from the memory.  She’d eaten nothing else since waking.  She had all of her teeth again and her hair was even better.  She was strong again.  Weak and small but stronger than before.  The thing she spit out was… was probably just flesh from the diseased humans she feasted on.  Even her stomach knew to reject the bad parts.

 

But now here she was.  She found the man.  Her company would be so pleased.  So happy.  She’d… they’d… What would they do?  She couldn’t remember any of them.  What did she do?  What was her company?  No.  No, she told herself.  They would be pleased.  She did well.  She found him.  By herself.  But she couldn’t meet him like this.  Not weak like this.  She had to be his equal.  She had to show him her strength.  She would never be his equal like this.

 

She was finding a comfortable spot to wait when she heard a voice behind her.  “Woman.”  The voice creaked.  Elizabeth froze.  After an eternity, she turned her head.  He was there.  The man with no face.  Her eyes immediately went down.  No.  Oh god, no.  No.  He wasn’t real, was he?

 

“You find.  You kill.  You kill this man.  You kill pet.”  She could see his legs crossed in front of him but she dared not look at his face.

 

“I… I found him.  For my… for my company.  I found him.  Are… are you pleased?”  She asked.  Her voice was shaking and she hated herself for it.

 

The man laughed at her.  “Stupid, stupid woman.  So stupid.  Did I make stupid?  No.  Already stupid.  I make strong.  Fast.  Not stupid.”  Elizabeth started crying.

 

“I think, can’t kill them.  Not yourself.  No. Can’t kill them now.  Weak.  Stupid.  Even good maker like me can’t make castle with shit.”  He slapped her casually and stood.  “Stay.  Stay here.  Tonight, you kill.  Or die.  Don’t care.  I make others.  Better.”  His legs were blurry through her tears as he walked away.

 

 

CHAPTER 17

 

Her snakes were frantic.  “Hole… sssssssee… can’t… hole… can’t… ssssssssssee…  dissssssrupted…”

 

She paced in her room, following her own tail with her arms crossed beneath her breasts.  She’d told Rob what she could.  He had a rifle for scaring off coyotes or anything else but she made him promise to stay in the house.  Her tail made a rough “shhh shhhh shhh shhh” sound on the floor as she paced.

 

“Nothing would happen during the daytime.  Nobody does that.  It has to be at night.  Besides, I’m not going out at daytime.  If they’re going to attack during the day then I’ll just do what I can here.  When the sun starts to set, I’ll go out and see what I can.”  Her snakes wove a pattern in the air while she talked.  “Can’t you guys see anything?”

 

“Sssssomething… block… ssssssstrong… block… ussssssss… ssssssssomething… blocking… ussssssss…”

 

“Great, okay.  You mentioned before there was ways to make a strong pact.  Is there anything we can do there?”

 

“Blood… Blood… Innocccccent… Death… Blood… Sssssssacrificcccceeeee…”

 

Victoria frowned.  “No, I won’t.  That’s out.  I’d rather die than kill someone innocent.  And I guess that’s just what I’ll do.  Come nightfall, I’ll go out.  Whatever it is, I’ll face it.”

 

She found Rob loading his rifle.  He blushed at her when she coughed.  “You know, Rob,   for a man that’s been mind wiped and hypnotized, you don’t follow directions very well.”

 

“I… I just… I can’t…”  He stuttered.

 

“No.  Here’s what you’re going to do.  You’re going to go into town the next few days.  I have the cell phone you bought me.  I will call you when it’s safe to come back.  If you don’t hear from me tomorrow one way or the other then don’t come back.”

 

“But…!”

 

She stared at him, this poor man that’s been abused and still loved her.  Little lights flickered around the room – floating, dancing lights.  She crooned to him, her voice sweet and husky at the same time while her snakes danced around her.  “Robert Frank Poole, son of Scott Alaric Poole, hear me.”  Clear lights caressed Rob’s face.  “You will obey me in this.  Go away from here.  Wait to hear from me but never return if I die.  Go now, Robert Frank Poole.”

 

The lights faded and, without a word, Rob left.  She whispered to him as he did.  “I’m sorry.”

 

She spent the rest of the day meditating.  Sometimes she would watch the motes dance around her and sometimes she would close her eyes and rest.  At 5 pm the sun was nearly gone.  She watched it from the window, her eyes narrowed against its pale brightness.  She stripped out of her shirt and bra – no sense wasting them.  They won’t help with whatever happens.

 

She stopped at the north entrance to the house, facing the mountain in the distance.  “Let’s see what we can see…” She told herself.  She set out slowly, listening to things around her.  Birds and small animals but nothing else.  Her tongue flicked out and she tasted that blood scent in the air.  North.  The mountain.  Of course.

 

She was thirty feet from the house before she heard the growling.  She whipped around, tail at the ready and her claws out.  Her snakes writhed on her head.  The little lights cast eerie shadows in the twilight around the two shapes behind her.  She didn’t know what to expect but certainly not this.

 

They were… tigers but they were standing upright.  Human.  Tigers.  Male.  What do they call werewolf tigers?  Is there a thing for that?  They were growling at her, long thick tails lashing back and forth behind them.  One was taller than the other and more muscular but they were both huge.  The smaller one had four dark slashes of fur across his chest.  They were not the smell from earlier.  My, she thought.  Their teeth are amazing.  Her eyes dipped to their crotches but saw nothing other than a thick furry bulge.  Damn.

 

She held up her hands.  “Hi.  Hi there.  I… uhh… Yeah, I don’t know what to say.  This is my house, though.  I’m not a bad guy.”  They growled louder.  “No, seriously.  Oh, shit.  Yeah, I look bad but not all snakes are bad.  Just… just misunderstood.  Circle of life, you know?”

 

Her snakes were hissing loud in her ears.  “Kill… kill… kill… kill…”

 

“Shut the hell up!” She whispered fiercely.  “Oh.  No, no, no.  Not you guys.  Look, there’s something out here.  Something bad.  If its you guys, then I’ll see what I can do against two huge tiger men.  If not…  I smelled something earlier.  Blood.  Something bad.  I’m looking for that and its not you guys.  Are you part of it?”

 

The larger tiger looked at the smaller one.  They stopped growling.  She couldn’t help but admire them.  The larger one was huge.  Reared up, she was taller than him but only barely.  Even through the fur she could make out each muscle in their body.  Her eyes kept being drawn to their crotches.  What did that look like, she wondered.  She felt herself getting wet.  Dammit.  The smaller one glanced at her and almost grinned, large sharp teeth behind thick black lips.  The tall one tapped the smaller one on the chest, right on the dark slashes of fur.  He made the universal neck slicing motion with his claw.

 

“Right.  Right?  I…”  And then her sense went wild.  She heard a woman’s scream coming from the base of the mountain.  Horrible bone cracking noises followed.  The two tigers leaped past her towards the noise.  It was incredible to see them move and she wondered if she was that fast.  She followed behind them but let them lead.

 

Halfway to the rocky hills at the foot at the mountain, one of the hills moved.  She stopped but the other two kept running, streaking for the smell of blood.  She watched in awe as the hill broke apart, pieces of it forming rough arms and legs.  It stood in the rough approximation of a human but without a head of any kind.  The sound of it moving sent shivers down her spine.  It took three shambling steps forward, smaller pieces of rock raining down around it.

 

“God damn.”  She whispered.  “What is that thing?  Thirty feet tall?  Forty?  More?”  She watched it take two more steps.  “Fuck!  Those guys!”  The two tigers were near the monstrosity when it brought its massive fist down on the taller one.  The tiger twisted at the last possible moment but the rock first crashed down on his lower body.  She heard a sickening crunch and a roar of pain.  The tiger’s lower body looked like bags of meat as he dragged himself away with his hands.

 

The rock giant’s other arm was in motion.  “Shit, shit, shit, shit!  Stop!”  Victoria yelled.  Small lights blazed around the landscape.  She called to them, praying they were fast enough.  Brown and green lights dove for the giant’s arm, completely surrounding it and then suddenly pulling away.  As they did, the arm disintegrated, raining rocks of various sizes around the hurt tiger.  The giant stood and tilted before correcting itself.

 

Victoria felt out of breath but she ran.  Slithered.  And she was fast.  The giant’s leg was raised, coming down for the tiger but she was already there, scooping him into her arms.  He roared at her but she kept moving.  The thump of the foot behind her lifted her entire body in the air.  So, she could fly, she thought.  She pulled back her torso, aiming her tail for the impact.  When she did land, she felt the stress on her bones all the way to her neck.  She almost dropped the tiger in her arms but laid him down gently instead.  One of his legs seemed fine already.

 

She turned to face the creature.  “Rock, huh?  Bad idea, guy.”  She closed her eyes and clapped her hands together, rubbing them briskly.  She watched him, concentrating on its torso.  Breathing deeply in and out she willed herself to feel the ground beneath her, to feel the rocks and dirt.  “Now.  Come apart.”  She whispered.  This time a tornado of brown and green lights surrounded the creature.  Her body ached.  “Gentle, little guys.  You don’t need that much.  He’s made of you.  Go easy.”

 

With a sound like two massive boulders grinding against each other, the giant’s chest evaporated.  A huge dust cloud floated away from it, covering everything.

 

“Haaaaah… haaaah…. haaaahahahaa!”  Victoria yelled.  As the legs and arm crashed down around them, the taller tiger was up and moving.  With the giant gone she could hear a roaring yell.  The smaller tiger was facing off against another tiger.  Female, she noticed.  And big.  The female’s left arm was entirely black and as she slashed, trails of gray smoke followed her claws.  She followed the large male tiger.  That female was the bloody smell. Her scent was rancid.

 

“What’s wrong with her?” She asked.

 

“Already… sssssss… dead… disssseased… already… dead… curssssssed…  Wait… wait… wait…”  Her snakes told her.

 

She heard rumbling from a smaller hill behind her.

 

Victoria stopped.  Her snakes were moving – all of them searching.  One stopped and hissed loudly.  The other turned in the same direction.  “There… there… there…  Far… too… too… far…”  She turned to look.  Sitting on a small boulder, one hundred feet away from her was a small figure.  A bald man, she thought.  Too far to stone, then?  He was wearing rough, simple clothing with a belt of small pouches.  As she watched, he turned to look at her.  He grinned and his mouth was full of black, rotting teeth.

 

Victoria grinned back.  The world was awash in a sea of lights and the creature was sitting on a rock.  She waved to the little thing cheerfully, smiling her best smile.  Its grin faded away to a look of confusion.  The air around him began to shimmer.

 

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the smaller hill starting to stand, another giant made of rock.

 

Victoria stopped waving and made a fist with the same hand.  The rock beneath the small figure liquefied instantly, dropping him into it.  Her fist opened and it was a rock again.  Differently shaped but still a rock.  The rock giant behind her made a sound that vibrated the bones in her body before collapsing.

 

“Yessssss… yessssssssss… good… yesssssss…” Her snakes sang, rubbing against her face.

 

She turned to the tigers again.  The smaller male was down and struggling to move.  His chest was open, steaming in the cold air.  The female had blood running down her left arm and a cut in her right side.  The tall male’s left arm was at his side, dangling.  She ran to him.  When she thought she was close enough she called the lights down and felt the pulse from her snakes.  The female stumbled, coughing grey dust before dodging a swipe from the male.

 

The male turned to her and roared, anger plain on its wide white, orange and black face.  “Fine.  Fine.  Go ahead.  Die, moron.”  She turned to help the fallen tiger but the other two blocked her path.  As she watched, the male’s left arm twitched back to life and came up to slice the female’s face.  The female pulled back, snapping her jaws at him.

 

“If you could just… get… get out of the way!”  She told them, trying to find a way around to the tiger on the ground.

 

The female lunged at the male, mouth open with teeth flashing.  The male stopped and raised his arms wide.  “Noooo!” Victoria yelled.  She watched the female sink her teeth into the fur of the male’s stomach.  He roared and fell with her, grabbing her claws away from rending his flesh.  She buried her muzzle in him instead.  Muscles stood out on the male’s neck, back and arms.  His biceps bulged and vibrated.  He was roaring so loud.  He locked his legs around the female and tightened them.  A crack sounded the end of the female’s left arm.  Another crack and her right arm fell, almost separated from her shoulder.  The female pulled her bloody muzzle back to scream – an almost human scream.  Something slick and white hung from her mouth.  Victoria was afraid to know what it was.

 

The male wrapped his arms around the female’s neck as she roared, snapping her jaws shut with the pressure.  Victoria watched the female’s feet scrabble against the ground, sending clouds of dirt and rocks everywhere.  Muffled sounds came from her muzzle.  The tall mall grunted, twisting in a sudden motion and the female’s body went limp.  His jaws were almost immediately at her throat, biting and tearing.  Victoria turned away.  When the terrible chewing noise passed, she looked back to find the female’s head laying several feet from the bottom.  There was no blood coming from the neck.

 

The tall male, his face painted nearly black with blood was staggering to the other tiger.  Wet, wriggly tubes hung from his stomach as he curled his right arm around himself.  He knelt by the other tiger.  Victoria moved to help with what she could.

 

It was worse than she thought.  There was a literal hole in his chest and half of the tiger’s heart was gone.  The other half was ringed with blackened tissue.  She watched the heart try to beat as the blackness ate away at the living tissue.  Blood dribbled from his mouth and his chest slowly rose and fell.  The larger tiger laid his head against the other one.  The smaller tiger slowly reached a trembling hand up to lay against the larger tiger’s muzzle.  The larger one nuzzled the hand and sobbed.

 

Victoria called the lights down to him, willing them to repair the damage.  She watched them stream into the chest and get swallowed by the blackness.  She tried and tried until she could barely hold herself up.  Finally, his heart stopped beating and his hand fell away.  The larger tiger leaned back and roared, loud and long.

 

Victoria bent over and gently laid a hand on the smaller tiger’s face.  She said a small prayer for his soul, willing him to whatever paradise awaited him.

 

Her snakes turned over and over.  “Ssssssss… blood… sssssss…. sssssacrificccccce…. blood… yesssssss…”

 

Victoria fainted.

 

 

CHAPTER 18

 

She wasn’t next to the fire as she expected to be – she was standing in a town.  An ancient town, filled with villagers in rough, unfamiliar clothing.  Families were going about their business while small children played.  Nobody noticed her or paid attention to her.

 

As she watched, a line of people marched down the center of the street.  Perhaps twenty adults, men and women, walked in a line.  Their eyes were grim and determined.  In the middle of the line was a young girl with dark black hair.  Her head was bowed and her eyes were closed.  Her feet dragged on the rough ground as she was dragged unconscious, her thin white shift cleaning to her.

 

“Hey!  What the fuck do you people think you’re…!”  Nobody heard her.  Nobody turned to look at her.  She took a step and found herself in the trees, still behind the odd procession of people.  She looked around to find the town behind her.

 

“What?”  She took another step and she was out of the trees, standing before a large mountain.  The group of people were there too and they split apart, ten people going left around the mountain and ten people going right.  One adult male held the child.  He carried a crude pack with sticks and ropes tied behind him.  As she watched, he walked up the mountain.  She followed the man and after a single step, found herself at the top of the mountain.

 

The man plunged a wooden stick in the dirt.  The girl was on her side, still out.  She was surrounded by five wooden stakes.  Slowly, the man took his rope.  He tied one end to a stick and wrapped the other end around the girl’s neck.  He was not gentle.  Another rope tied a stake to the girl’s arm.  By the time he was done, her neck, arms and legs were tied to stakes.  He sat on the ground next to her.

 

Victoria looked around.  She could see more mountains to the north and a huge amount of water to the west.  Around the base of the peak they were on were the twenty other adults.  Her eyes strained to see them but they each stood by a large fire and that helped to pick them out.  She thought she could see some villagers coming out of the trees to see what was happening.

 

The man started to speak.  She had no idea what language he was speaking but it was vaguely familiar.  When he stopped talking, the girl opened her eyes.  Victoria’s breath hissed out.  The girl’s eyes were pure black.  No pupil.  No white.  Pure, dark black.  The girl was angry but didn’t struggle.

 

The man nodded and raised his hands.  Clouds gathered above them.  Lightning flashed.  The man began chanting in a different language.  Victoria could feel the ground rumbling beneath her.  Other faint voices joined in the chanting.  Sudden fierce rain and wind lashed against her.  Lightning struck again and again until she felt she would go blind from the light.

 

The chanting reached a crescendo and then suddenly stopped.  The world held its breath.  Nothing moved.  The man lowered his hands slowly into his lap.

 

The ground beneath her erupted and she was consumed in a hell of roaring red flames.

 

When she could see again, she was in a different place.  Modern.  The streets were narrow and filled with cars.  People laughed and spoke to each other.  She thought the language was Italian.  Mothers gossiped and old men smoke pipes while watching everyone else.

 

Her eyes were drawn to the end of the street.  A young girl wearing a dirty gray shift walked barefoot towards her.  Her pure black eyes looked neither left nor right.  People looked away at her approach, not even aware they were doing it.  The girl walked slowly, determined.

 

She stopped in front of Victoria and looked up, as if seeing her.  Victoria thought she could drown in those eyes.  She felt trapped by them.

 

The girl knelt and pulled her shift over her head, exposing her lean naked body.  She went to her hands and knees.  Thin red lines ripped down the skin of each shoulder blade.  Beneath the skin was not the white of bone or pink of flesh.  It was black.  Leather black skin stretched out of the cuts, growing larger and larger.

 

Wings, Victoria thought.  Black wings tipped with a single black talon.

 

The girl’s head pulled back and she shrieked, unnaturally loud.  Her teeth were daggers.  Thick, black spit dripped from them and fell to the earth.

 

The ground trembled beneath her.

 

 

EPILOGUE

 

“… no… no… no… no… no… no… coming… no… coming… sssshe’ssssssss… coming…” Her snakes were writhing around her face.

 

The large male tiger was watching her carefully.  She couldn’t read the expression on his strange face.  She had time to notice that his stomach looked much better.

 

“Who…”  She felt so thirsty.  “What…”

 

“Future… passsssst… passssst… future…”  Her snakes were wild.  She tried to push them off of her face but they wouldn’t stop moving.

 

“Who?  Who goddammit?  What the fuck was that?!”

 

Her snakes froze and she heard a single voice coming from her own mouth.

 

“Shiva.  Death.”