Chapter 2 - Hear . . .

The Blacksite looked like any other none descript Harbour warehouse, the only difference was the single guard placed on the front gate. Of course, there were far more inside but not that anyone that saw the building would know. Seeing our car approach the guard stepped out of his booth. He looked like a standard rent a cop, beer belly included and I had no doubt that was exactly what he was. If there ever was an attack on the site there were far more terrifying people inside to stop it. ¡°Excuse me Ma¡¯am¡¯s do ye have an employee badge? Otherwise I can¡¯t let ye through.¡± He spoke with a thick American accent, how someone like him had ended up here I couldn¡¯t even fathom. ¡°Claustra aperio!¡± I basically threw the pass phrase at his head and held my AF Employee card in his face. ¡°Oh, sorry! I didn¡¯t know Miss, I¡¯ll let you through immediately!¡± On the inside I our car was immediately stopped again, only this time by heavily armed and armoured guards. Looking over them I was almost certain that the small slim one without a weapon was a combat mage, and either very gutsy or very powerful to not rely on a sidearm. While they didn¡¯t train their weapons on us, their body language clearly told of them being not very amused. I mean one of them was tapping the trigger of his gun. A little twitchy aren¡¯t we? I¡¯m a nineteen years old teen and the other one is a maid, we¡¯re not much of any danger now are we? I was ripped out of my musings by what seemed to be the leader approaching our car. He knocked on the window to indicate for Tanya to lower it. ¡°Who are you and how did you get into the Compound!?¡± ¡®Wow not even a hello? Fuck those guys!¡¯ I only glared at him and got out of the car. ¡°I¡¯m Valerie Sherman, I intend to go inside so don¡¯t even think about stopping me!¡± Without awaiting his answer I threw my card towards him and walked past the group. Looking back it seemed as if the Leader was using his Com to speak with someone. Sadly the only thing I could make out was, ¡®yes¡¯ and ¡®Very well, Sir.¡¯ Before he cut his call short and came back towards me. ¡°Okay then Miss, what is it you want?¡± ¡°I need a Summoning Room with Level 4 clearance, I don¡¯t care how small it is, but I need it right now!¡± He used his communicator again and gave through what I wanted. ¡°Okay, you have clearance; we will escort you straight to it, don¡¯t go off the path and don¡¯t attempt to stop. Follow us!¡± The Summoning room itself was nothing special, a seven by seven metre square room with titanium floor and walls. The only entrance was through a set of two double doors that locked behind the mage and were only operable from the outside after quarantine was in place. The ceiling was filled with sprinklers, for whatever reason, as the magic suppression fields would work way better against anything that could happen in there. A grin spread across my face as I took in the sight, it was almost time and I just had to get rid of the annoying guards. I walked up to the air lock and turned around to my ¡®protection¡¯. ¡°From here on out you can¡¯t follow me. The ritual would be deadly if interrupted by any outside source. So, all except for the mage have to wait outside. She can wait in the air lock, understood?¡± The guards didn¡¯t answer but instead looked to their leader who went back to whoever was on the other line. ¡°Sir, she wants to be isolated.¡± ¡°I understand, but we can¡¯t do that, the regulations say ...¡± ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± ¡°Yes, understood.¡± ¡°I . . . will inform her.¡± With that he faced me again. ¡°Miss you have clearance to do as asked. But I must inform you that we have orders not to interfere under any circumstances. I¡¯m . . . I¡¯m sorry kid. Good luck.¡± I couldn¡¯t see his expression under the helmet, but he seemed to very much disagree with his superiors orders. ¡°Tanya, wait here for me. I really can¡¯t have anyone in there other than myself.¡± ¡°Ah . . . okay. I¡¯ll wait for you outside Miss. You can do it!¡± She smiled and gave me a thumbs up and this despite that she didn¡¯t even know what I was attempting. ¡®Hah~ un-initiated are so carefree.¡¯ With one last look back I stepped forward, from here on out my new life would begin. No one would be able to stand against me! If I had the kind of magic that was promised I would be without equals, so there was no question, I needed it. It had to become mine . . . I breathed in an out again to mentally prepare myself. For the first and hopefully last time I would draw on the same disgusting power that bitch Miranda had used to humiliate me. It would use Bloodmagic, only that I would use it on a whole other level than anything that stupid little girl could ever comprehend at. It would be more than glorious! And yet at the same time there was a tiny little voice at the back of my head that told me what I was trying was lunacy. That tiny voice was almost certain that the ritual would kill me. Thankfully my desire for power quickly overwhelmed whatever resistance it could offer and I went to start my task. The first thing I got out of my bag was a spray can, it wasn¡¯t just any kind of spray colour, but instead a mixture of wishtree sap and fairy-silver powder bunched together as an aerosol. It was one of my own mixtures, as I had found it conducted mana far better than any of all the drawing materials I had tried so far. Fuck chalk, this stuff is like weed compared to a designer drug, and it also was equally more expensive. The next was a bunch of drawing templates, because let¡¯s face it, no mage has a hand steady enough to draw a perfect circle in one go. There were already circle patterns on the chamber ground and walls, but for the realy detailed circles on had to get a little creative. After that followed a small bottle with heavy duty instant pain relievers, all ready crushed and mixed together with a few millilitre of vodka. The last two things were special, one was my own ten centimetre Atham¨¦, the other a so-called ¡®Fairy Heart¡¯. The Atham¨¦ was a short blade made of fairy-silver and the ¡®Fairy Heart¡¯ was actually the core of an ancient Wishtree, both had been gifts to my 11^th and 13^th birthday from my father. Back then he had still cared for me and my talent, a year later my mental illness had started to manifest, and he had completely abandoned me as the failure I was. Were I not so angry with him I would have probably cried a few tears for what I was about to do, but I cared little for my parents and the other people around me. As far as I was concerned they could all rot in the hells! As soon as someone found out that I wasn¡¯t the super smart rich girl they took me for they turned their backs on me. Each of my boyfriends had abandoned me when they had found about my medication, it simply wasn¡¯t okay for someone of the upper class to show their damages so openly. Every one of those cocks had some sort of dirty secret that when it out came would destroy their life. But no for me it was disgraceful to be mentally ill. ¡®Stupid fucks I would show them all!¡¯ Well the only one that would probably care if I were to die was Tanya. Eventhough she wasn¡¯t blood, she was the best big sister I could have ever hoped for, if a little clingy.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. I huffed when I finally got off the ground. Drawing the circle had been hard work; it was the biggest one that I had ever drawn, around two meter diameter on the inside and six on the outside, with several planar circles all around the inner rings. Adding the runes alone had taken me a good twenty minutes. Wiping the sweat from my brows I went to get the rest of my things. The first one I needed was the medicine; I took off the bottle cap and chugged down the painkillers, no matter what, this would hurt. Then I grabbed the ¡®Fairy Heart¡¯ and the Atham¨¦ and walked into the inner most circle, the one usually reserved for the creature that one summoned and pulled my clothes over my breasts, there was no point in getting them dirty. I shot a last glance to the mage in the air lock, she had watched the entire time and apparently only now realised what I was about to do. And because she knew, the Mage started to frantically bang on the bullet-proof glass in the hopes of dissuading me. The panicked woman was just about to press the emergency release button when several of her colleagues stormed into the air lock and pulled her away. They were so occupied with her that they didn¡¯t notice Tanya knocking her guard to the ground and run up to the door, she hammered several times on the button, but nothing happened, she didn¡¯t have the necessary clearance for it. Realizing that she couldn¡¯t do anything she pressed her forehead against the glass and gave it one last kiss, before she too was dragged away. Despite having made up my mind, I still sighed. I could still turn around and accept my mediocrity, with keeping the study regiment I had going on I would surely get a good job in my fathers firm, but with the medication suppressing my magic I would only ever make it as a researcher. I would never become a legendary mage for I was simply not special enough. No! I couldn¡¯t and I wouldn''t accept it! The grip around my blade tightened as I said the incantation. Great one! Old one! I give myself to you, my heart, my soul, my body. Great one! Deep one! I give you all I am, so that you can remake me. Great one! Wise one! Take what I offer, for it is all that makes me! Great one! Ancient one! I fill myself to become like you, for I am one of your children. The people outside of the air lock cringed in pain as the speakers transmitted my words, they could not understand them for they had not been touched. They had not been initiated. I was the first of my generation, the first of the Sixth World, but I would not be the last. And as always the first time was the hardest. I felt my magic surge as I prepared the final step of the ritual. I had not taken my medication today, my magic was free, even with out the ritual it would have destroyed me on release. The circle lit up so brightly that all the people outside or behind their screens could see was the vague humanoid shape of someone floating inside. By now I had lost control of most of my body functions. My vision dimmed and my hearing cut out and all I could focus on was the knife in my hand. The beating of my heart got faster and faster, had I been able to feel pain I would think my chest were about to explode. But instead I set the blade against my skin just above my solar plexus. Tears fell down my face and soon burned up in the ambient mana, my clothing suffered the same fate. But I did not waver, my blade charged with mana I stabbed down. I cut until I was in my body up to the hilt and dropped the knife; it had full filled its purpose and was no longer of any use to me. Blood spilled out of me in a steady stream, I wouldn¡¯t have a lot of time now, if it worked at all. Having opened up the passage, I began to pulse mana inside of the ¡®Fairy Heart¡¯ and the rituals power flooded it. Almost instantly the crystal went black and started oozing miasma. With my free hand I pulled apart the edges of my wound and with the other I shoved the ¡®Dark Heart¡¯, my new core inside of me. At that point my vision gave out completely. Around me was darkness. It was at the same time peaceful and terrifying, oppressive and elating, gentle and harsh, freezing cold and scorching hot. And in this darkness there was a single yellow eye. Child. Young One. Saw. Learned. Hear. Know. Speak. Understand. Feel. Change. Love. Become. Devour. Embrace. The words echoed inside of me but they felt hollow as if part of me or the message was missing. Each time they were said I forgot them just as quickly. It was a dreadful experience, right before me was knowledge and I could even keep it! I so wanted to remember though, scoffing at the indignation of keeping knowledge from me I turned to the big eye in the void. ¡°You brought me here old one so keep your promise! It is time for you to fulfill your part of the deal!¡± A rippling went through the surface of the eye and around it countless of tentacles erupted into every direction before coming to a stop and tuning in on me. The last thought that went through my mind as I saw them was: Oh shit, that¡¯s too big! All around me were tentacles some with teeth and mouth others with smaller eyes in them. Everywhere I turned the wall of grey squirming flesh extended. I saw no escape for there was none. I didn¡¯t know what he intended to do, but I had seen enough porn to know about the possibilities! Almost as if on cue to my thoughts, the cocoon of tentacles began to ripple and with each ripple the walls came closer. Little by little they enclosed around me. When the first touched me I pulled my arms and legs to my chest, hoping to make myself a small as humanly possible, but it was for nought. Sensing my intent, two tentacles shot out and wrapped themselves around my wrists. I struggled but I was no match for them, and as soon as I thought about kicking them two more shot out to wrap around my ankles. I was strung up like a deer for the blood letting and all I could do was to glare at the eyes around me. ¡°So!? What now, huh? Are you fulfilling your deal or what? I died for you; you know I gutted myself just so I could put that damned stone inside of me! Answer me gods damn it! Do something!¡± ¡°Hear.¡± At once the tentacles began to move again. They slid across my body and caressed my flesh. Mouths bit where they had now right to bite and eyes watched things they shouldn¡¯t see. I could feel a weak pulse emanating from them but I couldn¡¯t hear it my mind or my ears were not made for it. The tentacles dug deeper, they lingered around my private around my head around every part of my body. The pulse got stronger but still I could not hear it. ¡°Hear!¡± Now almost desperate the Tentacles pushed. They pushed inside of me, inside every available opening just so that they could reach me. One slid into my vagina so deep that it finally reached my womb. At the same time the second spread my ass open and drilled into my anus. I gasped at the sudden intrusion, despite trying my hardest not to, I felt myself grow hotter. My breathing grew shorter and turned into panting as the constant pulsing vibrated through me. But the tentacles were not done; still I could not hear their voices. The ones around my head started to move. One squirmed its way through my mouth and down my throat. I tried to gasp but my air flow was completely cut off. For a second I panicked, but then realised that there wasn¡¯t any logic in there actually being air in the dark void and I relaxed. The pulse intensified but even now wasn¡¯t able to hear them. Around me smaller tentacle attacked whatever was left open. Some curled into my ears in the hopes of making me listen, other burrowed through my nose and through the bone all the way up to my brain. As the last tentacle set into place the pulsing felt more familiar and the moment the tentacles touched my brain a violent orgasm shocked my system. My body was rocked my spasms and seizures strong enough to break my bones but through the haze of both pleasure and pain I realized something. I could finally Hear . . . Part 3 â€“ Know . . . Chapter 3 ¨C Know . . . Once more I awoke with a headache, only that this time it was much more subdued. Instead of the maddening pain from before, this was more akin to a throbbing, a pulsating in my mind. It was painful, yes, but it was almost soothingly so, like a wound that was healing. I was nothing like the agony I had felt few . . . now that I was thinking about it; I actually had no idea how much time had passed. I opened my eyes and looked around confused. I wasn¡¯t in my room back home but an entirely different place! Going by the bed it had to be a hospital or some sort of medical station, yet there were no windows around, so either this was a prison or somewhere underground. But I didn¡¯t know why I would be in either of those, I as far as I knew I hadn¡¯t done anything that would land me in jail and an underground medical facility sounded too much of isolation due to being contagious for my liking. But then again I having some sort of sickness would explain the holes in my memories. Because for the love of it I couldn¡¯t really recall what I had even done since waking up. I knew I had woken up at home but had lost my memory of whatever incident had happened in the library. After that Tanya and I had driven somewhere in the city, to do something important? There were a few things I could remember though, I had flashes of a ritual in my mind something grandiose and terrifying but it hurt to think about it. Yet when I strained my mind there was another memory floating in the cesspool that was my own brain. No, it wasn¡¯t a memory, more of a fragment of knowledge! My Child. Young One. Saw. Learned. Heard. Know. Speak. Understand. Feel. Change. Love. Become. Devour. Embrace. I frowned in confusion, just what were those words? Why did they feel so important to me? It was like I was convinced that I wanted to follow their instructions? ¡®Wait, that . . . that is a list! And the first two lines are in the past tense?'' Just what did I learn and what did I hear? The harder I thought about it the more those words felt right, but at the same time, they felt incredibly alien and unnatural. The way they wormed themselves into my mind, almost as if trying to take control of me, guiding me into a certain direction. A direction that tiny voice in me told me was very wrong, and yet at the same, it felt like a sirens call that I simply had to obey. ¡®Obey . . . no! I don¡¯t want this! How should I know that this new illusion isn¡¯t leading me right into a trap?¡¯ I gritted my teeth in anger; my demise was my choice and mine alone! I looked around the room there wasn¡¯t anything inside other than the bed, medical monitoring equipment and of course a camera pointed right at the place I was sitting. For a few seconds, I gave the camera the stink eye and then sat up on the side of the bed. Annoyed by the monitoring equipment stuck to me I ripped it off, and out with it came also the IV port. Honestly it hurt a lot less then I would have expected, once the little band-aids were off, the needle just fell out of my flesh. A little confused by this I picked it up and gave it a look over. The structure of the little pokey metal thing was odd, it was slightly deformed and if I wasn¡¯t imagining it, it looked almost as if it had been attacked by acid. I looked back to my wound and weirdly enough there wasn¡¯t a single drop of blood. I poked at where the puncture wound should be but I felt nothing but squishy flesh. ¡®Huh, weird?¡¯ Before I could resume my inspections I heard the door to my room open with the audible swoosh sound of an air seal. I looked over still a little dazed and saw a male nurse, as well as an armor-clad soldier, walk inside. The soldier''s grip on their weapon told me all that I needed to know about what they thought of me. For some reason they had me deemed dangerous enough to provide an armed escort to even the hospital staff if this was even a hospital in the first place. This after taking a look at the soldier''s armor I seriously began to doubt. The gear looked way too much like what the Black Site Guards of my Fathers Company. So I was in there or rather here after all. This memory loss made me more than anxious though and so before the nurse could even come close or speak up I addressed him. ¡°You there, Nurse! Am I correct in assuming that this is the AFI-Black Site? If so, how come my memories are so hazy? Have I been drugged?¡± The Nurse blinked for a moment before turning to the Soldier who just shrugged as if they didn¡¯t care. ¡°Um, I¡¯m sorry for the inconvenience Miss Sherman but we had to sedate you after the incident. As I understand it, there were . . . complications after your attempted Ritual.¡± While the smile on his face might have looked friendly, I had the distinct feeling it was entirely insincere. ¡°It is possible that due to the sedative used your short term memory might be slightly vague. But don¡¯t worry such things can happen, and I¡¯m sure your memories will return shortly. Now if you would please sit on the bed so I can take your pulse?¡± While it was a pain to be stuck here I still complied. After all, I had no desire to find out if that soldier had load rubber bullets or the lethal kind. I shuddered at the thought, whatever happened must have made those guys seriously spooked. No matter now was not the time for that; I wasn¡¯t even certain what day it was, so I had no way of actually reconstructing what was going on. I was positively sure, that these people would tell me soon enough. So instead of going against the wishes of a person guarded by a heavily armed and armored grumpy person, I just sat down at let the nurse go about his work. Or at least that had been the plan only that I jerked my arm back the moment he touched me. :: ... stupid rich bitch just let me work ... :: ¡°What the fuck!¡± I shirked away from his hand. ¡®Had he just seriously said that? No, I didn¡¯t see him moving his mouth. Did imagine it after all?¡¯ I shook my head in confusion; no, I had clearly heard those spiteful words, right? I looked back up into the gently smiling face of the man before me, only now his smile seemed even worse, as false as that of a snake. ¡°Is everything all right Miss?¡± The smile didn¡¯t even twitch and once more his and closed around my wrist. :: ... Fucking Lunatic just sit still ... :: My eyes grew wide and I yelled out. ¡°How dare you, you little shit!¡± This time I was certain I had heard it! His hateful words were obviously directed at me but the Soldier didn¡¯t even seem to care. I had to take action, I would not be ridiculed! I ripped my wrist free from his grasp and in the next second the palm of my hand connected with his face in a resounding slap. Apparently not expecting this course of action the Nurse was unprepared and the appropriately named bitch-slap send him tumbling to the ground. I was just about to stand up and show him just what I thought of his comment when I heard a metallic click to my left side and a cold female voice calling out to me. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Don¡¯t move!¡± I froze and glanced over, the soldier was pointing her rifle at my face. ¡°Good, now slowly place your hands behind your head.¡± Uncertain of the situation and her orders I complied. ¡°Get down on your knees and don¡¯t try to run away.¡± ¡®I am not really in any position to do that, now am I!?¡¯ Yet instead of spitting those words at her I merely sat down on the ground. ¡°Wait here.¡± I heard her fumbling around behind me before she continued to speak. ¡°Sir, it should be safe now for the CEO; also I need some assistance to take care of the nurse, he seems to be unconscious.¡± Honestly, I wasn''t really sure what had just happened, but I was relatively sure that the soldier had not reacted how a normal person would to someone slapping their nurse. It wasn¡¯t like I had actually harmed him after all! ¡®Now that I think about it didn¡¯t she say I knocked him out?¡¯ Both curious and a little nervous I took a quick look at the nurse and would have probably jumped back if I didn¡¯t have a gun pointed at my beautiful noggin. The man in front of me must have somehow hit his head on the way down because he was completely down for the count. I already wanted to turn around and tell the soldier that it wasn¡¯t my fault, but as soon as I moved, something hard and cold-pressed against the back of my neck. I wasn¡¯t entirely sure about it but I could almost swear that the soldier was slowly drawing circles with the muzzle on my skin! ¡®What the fuck is going on here? This absolutely not right! Damn it I¡¯m just going to sit here and wait . . . and ignore the weapon pressed to the base of my skull!¡¯ Much to my horror while the seconds ticked down, the woman behind me continued her maddening play of tormenting me. First, it was just my neck, and then she drew the cold metal across the tip of my ears or the side of my cheek! It was both irritating and terrifying, and by the hells, I couldn¡¯t figure out what her deal was! We waited for almost a minute until the swooshing sound of the airlock announced someone coming. And by the gods had I absolutely no desire to see the person coming inside. In fact, if I hadn''t been held at gunpoint I would have straight-up stormed out of the room. Or at least I would have liked to, in reality, I didn''t have the guts to stand up to the man coming through the door. He was almost two-meter in height, with a lean build, and short cut black hair that framed away too strained face. The eyes behind the info-glasses were harsh and cold, in addition, they seemed to have adopted a perpetual frown. And when he glanced down at my kneeling form there was naturally no kindness to be found on his face, only cold disdain. I was just about to greet him when his hand moved. Faster than I expected it crashed into my face and with it came something else. :: ... damned Failure! You should have never been born ... :: He hadn¡¯t slapped me and he hadn¡¯t talked. No, he had punched my face with his closed fist and his true thoughts had flown out from his mind. Even when he pulled me up by my chin and clenched his finger around my cheeks I couldn¡¯t do anything else but smile. He had finally shown me his true colors; he had opened up to me as he had never before. No longer did I need to guess his thoughts or intentions. No, now I could read them like an open book. This feeling it was . . . invigorating. Even if it was only spite and disdain, it was still his open and true feelings. His raw emotions finally reached me like he had always hoped they would. His look changed from disdain to disgust when he finally realized that I was grinning like a madwoman. Yet, even now that his fingers dug harder and deeper into my flesh my smile only spread and I knew that I had to tell him my thoughts too. ¡°Thank you, you must have gotten a new personal trainer. It was a truly mind-opening punch. And such a strong grip too, I must have really pissed you off this time. Now haven''t I, father!?" "I see, truly a shame. You have lost even more of your sad excuse for a mind. Evelyn, take all the records we have of my daughter''s attempt at a rank nine ritual and place them into the Failed and Abandoned partition. I do not think we will ever need them again. And now to you, daughter." His fingers finally released my face and he wiped his fingers on a wet-wipe his assistance had held for him. If my eyes could kill, the man would already be eating worms. But since my glare wasn¡¯t sufficient my words had to do. ¡°What is it? What more could you want of this failure of a daughter? Have I not already proven that your seed is filth and poison?¡± My grin was instantly stripped from my face when he nodded to the soldier behind me and she drove the butt-end of her rifle straight into my temple. This time there was nothing good. There were no thoughts and emotions. The only thing I felt was the rough texture of industrial carbon-fiber bruising my skin. The only embrace was the one of pain and suffering. ¡°Well done Soldier. What is your name?¡± The soldier saluted and moved her weapon away from my head. ¡°Lieutenant Sadiya Crook, Sir!¡± "Good, you may discipline this girl whenever she misbehaves. I have decided to appoint a new personal guard to my daughter. Her old one has failed her tasks. Do you think you would be up to the task? Your salary will, of course, be properly adjusted." I stared at my father in horror and surprise. What did he mean by saying that my old guard had failed her job? No! He couldn¡¯t, he wouldn¡¯t, right? ¡°Father, where is Tanya? Why did she not come in with you? Tell me this instance, where is my guard? Where is my friend!?¡± Much to my horror instead of answering me properly he only once more nodded to the bitch behind me. Before I could even react or dodge her strike, her weapon¡¯s shoulder stock already graced my face with its presence. ¡®Fuck, this kinda hurts! Stop it already you brute!¡¯ Yet once more instead of saying those words out loud I held my voice. ¡°Sadly, Miss Ralston has not met the specifics of her job for quite some time now, so I decided to relive her of her employment. From here on out you will have a new guardian. Lieutenant Crook, do you accept your new position?¡± ¡°Sir, yes, Sir!¡± ¡°Good. Valerie, this woman will be your new guard. I advise you not to annoy her. Well then, seeing as this farce is over, Lieutenant, escort my daughter to university. She still has classes to attend to today. I will take my leave now. Oh, and Valerie? Do not disappoint me again!¡± He threw me one last pointed glare and left the room together with his assistant. Another soldier who I had completely overlooked until now carried away the still unconscious nurse. I, on the other hand, could only sit there and stare at the scene, nothing made sense anymore! My father knew about the Ritual and probably was even the one that allowed my access to this facility. I slapped a nurse unconscious and in turn, got beaten by a guard. And to make all of this worse, that insufferable shit of a father had fired my only real friend from her job of protecting me! I had to do something or I would never see Tanya again! I was just about to get up when I felt a strong hand grab me by the neck and fingers tighten around my throat. ¡°Aww, you weren¡¯t thinking about leaving me behind, now were you?¡± The woman must have taken of her faceplate because when she leaned down to whisper into my ear I could feel her hot breath on my skin. Had it been Tanya I most likely would have found the closeness comforting, but this woman had something seriously wrong with her mind. She only made me scared and agitated. ¡°I would if I could you damn brute! I will leave now do with that whatever you want!¡± I finally lifted myself back onto my legs, only to find that they had gone numb from their prolonged kneeling position. After a first shaky attempt I was sure that I would manage perfectly fine, yet when I took my first few wobbly steps, the soldier¡¯s arms snaked around my chest to support me. Disturbed by her sudden affectionate action I turned around to look at her. And surprising no one I was met with the most disturbing smile I had seen in a long time. The woman next to me had dark skin, straight black hair, and Arabic features, but above all, she simply oozed sadism. ¡°What are doing? You are uncomfortably squishing me!¡± I tried squirming out of her grip, but her arms could as well have been made from steel in comparison to my feeble body. "Now, now, just so you know I don''t intend to hurt you. Well, at least not if you cooperate. But you must have already noticed how week your legs are if I don''t support you, who knows what might happen." If her smile had been sadistic before now it was downright crazy! "For example, you could fall down, and lie there all helpless with no one but me to help you out. I truly don''t know if I could hold back in such a moment. I might just do this to you." In the same second, she said that last sentence her eyes sparked with lust and the promise of pain. I had no time to even comprehend what that might mean for me. As in less than a second, her one hand that was wrapped around my chest gripped my breast tightly trough the thin fabric of my hospital gown. In one smooth motion, her armored fingers got a hold of my already hard nipple and twisted it sharply. Tears gathered in my eyes as I suffered through the pain, but still, my fury burned hotter. And so for a second time today my hand slammed into the exposed cheek of an offender. Much to my surprise with it I finally Knew . . . :: ... YES! Hit me you little bitch! Suffer and show me that cute pained face of yours! I will make you my pet! ... :: ¡®What. The. Actual. FUCK!?¡¯ Part 4 â€“ Speak . . . (1/2) Part 4 ¨C Speak . . . (1/2) The very moment that insufferable woman''s grip loosened I pushed her away from me. To my surprise, she actually stumbled upon impact! Ha, maybe she wasn''t so sturdy on her feet after all. Or, the ritual had actually worked and given me superhuman strength! Well . . . Superhuman in comparison to my earlier none existent strength. ''Hey, don''t laugh at me! I''m a mage, not a brute!'' As if she had heard my thoughts, which of course was nonsense, she looked at me with a cocked eyebrow. ¡°Not quite the frail little girl your father made you out to be, huh? Say, just where are you packing all that muscle in these soft noodle arms?¡± She forcefully pulled me to her and began groping my upper arm. Much to my horror I couldn''t help but let out a soft meek moan. It was such a strange and odd sensation, it shouldn''t feel like this really! ¡°Uh~! Stop that you damned pervert!¡± I jerked my arm from her grasp and walked off to where my clothes lay. Just before I started changing though, I turned to my chaperone and glared at her. ¡°Do you fucking mind!?¡± "Mind you changing in front of me? No, not in the slightest. I''m even open to helping you." The way she said it with such a deadpan voice made me even angrier! ¡°You are insufferable! Go die in a ditch already!!!¡± I turned away and to the best of my abilities tried to think of her as another girl from the university. Yet before I was even finished with buttoning my blouse, a vibrating sound from my skirt pocket startled me. ¡®A text? Now?¡¯ Trying to be as inconspicuous as I could, I reached down and peeked at the screen of my smart pad. "I wait for you in the front! Try and lose your tail!"-T For just a split-second a smile stole its way onto my face, but that had already enough for the human bloodhound behind me. ¡°Ohh! What do we have there? Something nice?¡± She stepped around to my front quicker than she should have been able to. By now I was almost certain that she was augmented and heavily so too! ¡°Nothing! At least nothing of interest to a brute like you!¡± I was about to slide the Pad back into my pocket, only for her hand to quickly grab my wrist. "Now the last time I checked, it was for me to decide what is of interest to me and whatnot . . . Oh, and looked here a phone!" She flipped my hand up and before I could react she had already snagged the Pad from me. ¡°Oh, is this message from your beloved Tanya? Well, I''ll make sure you meet up with her! But before that . . .¡± Her smile cracked into an evil grin. Loosening her grip she let the expensive and rather fragile devise slip out of her grasp. I went to reach for it but was already too late. With loud clattering, it impacted the ground. A large crack went from one edge of the screen to the other. ¡°Oops.¡± ¡°You Bit-¡± The heel of her armoured boot came crashing down right on the display. The composite-glass screen wasn''t made for that kind of abuse. A loud crunch told me all I needed to know. ¡°Oops.¡± ¡®I will kill that bitch! No . . . I will make her suffer and take everything from her! Her humanity, her sanity, her self-worth! . . . You hear me Sadiya? I''m coming for you, for you and your entire little troupe! You are NOT safe from me . . . Hahaha, Right! Back to the story, okay?¡¯ . . . A few minutes later the bitch in question had already dragged me through the entire compound. At least you could say the woman was efficient. Instead of stopping at the checkpoints, she just glared at the soldiers and rushed through. I was actually a little surprised that she didn''t want to show off her little price. The way she held on to me like a dog with a bone, I sure felt as if I was just that to her. I guessed that she either didn''t really understand her new job or she simply didn''t care. Because on the way out she actually stopped by her living space and made me carry her stuff! Also, I was pretty sure there were several pornographic magazines in there. Something about tying people up. I guess it was nice? I obviously didn''t look too closely at it! This was after all nothing I had any interest in! One moment I was carrying weapon-grade amounts of perverted literature and in the next, we were already outside of the building. Damn, that woman was fast on her feet! Seriously, it almost seemed as if she was more eager to get out of here than I was. The guard at the exit only gave us a curious look, especially Sadiya that was. My guess was that he hadn''t ever seen a fully armed and armoured mercenary storm out of the warehouse before, especially not one with her very own slave Mage! ''Why, the fuck, am I even carrying her stuff?!'' I only refrained from actually asking that stuck up bitch, because I was certain she would try and torment me again. All the while when walking towards where Tanya should be waiting I hadn''t been able to decide what course of action I would be most comfortable with. On one hand, I was scared and angry about this entire development, I wanted her to come swooping in and save me from both my parents and my guard dog! On the other hand, I truly feared for what Sadiya, would do to my dear friend. First of all, I had no way of knowing if Tanya could even hold Sadiya off long enough for me to escape her reach. And even if she could then what? While I was certain now that my Future did not lay with Arcana Future Industries, my father was not one that easily gave up his investments. If things did went south Tanya could be shot and/or fatally wounded, or even worse I myself could be shot!Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Thinking about all the horrible possibilities I didn''t even register that we had already reached the meeting point. Therefore I was more than a little confused when suddenly Tanya¡¯s voice called out to me. ¡°Valerie!? Thank goodness, you''re okay!¡± While her smile remained unchanged her eyes narrowed as she looked over my new guard. ¡°And who the fuck is this?¡± Tanya¡¯s voice was colder than I had ever heard before. She took a step towards me but instantly Sadiya¡¯s hand went to her sidearm. ¡°Civilian!¡± She clicked off the weapons safety. ¡°If you have nothing more to say, I¡¯d advise you to not step closer to Miss Sherman. It would be a shame if I had to see you as a danger to her health . . .¡± The mercenary¡¯s smile could only be described as positively evil. Tanya in turn only scoffed, took a step towards the other woman and spit out in front of her. ¡°Try me, cunt. We¡¯ll see who wins . . .¡± Her left hand reached around to her back. There they stood, right in front of me looking as if they were about to have a shoot-out! ''What the heck is this? Some kind of old-timey Western!?'' Agitated I looked from one of them back to the other and as I did so a tiny voice in the back of my head began whispering to me. ¡®Let it escalate . . . choose the stronger one . . .¡¯ I blinked in confusion, just what had I been thinking right now? ¡®Why would I want them to fight? Shouldn¡¯t I try and stop them? No . . .'' A smile spread on my face. There were people right here willing to fight for me. To fight each other to the death . . . Just why would I want to break this up? I would simply make the winner my champion. After all, if Tanya couldn''t protect me . . . then why should she be worthy of my grace? When after several moments nothing more happened than the two staring at each other my smile cracked. ¡®How boring . . . Wait wasn''t that actually a good thing?¡¯ Something weird was going on with my mind, of that I was sure. These thoughts . . . they had felt at the same time like mine and not like mine. A cold shiver ran down when I realized that I had no idea on how to stop this, whatever it was! Not the voice inside my head or the two women before me would listen to me. I had to do something! But what? I took a step towards them, I need to stop them! Another step my vision blacked out. I fell forwards. The next thing I know, I found myself in a world incredibly alien and disturbingly familiar. All-Encompassing darkness seemed to almost wrap around my lithe frame. And from the darkness, from the deepest most terrifying and most welcoming blackness a voice called to me. ¡°Child. Speak . . . And the world will listen . . .¡± The voice, it was so hard to focus on it but from the little I had heard, I was certain. It was female and it had called me a child. ¡°I am no longer a child! What do you even mean by that?¡± The voice was silent for a moment but then she said it again. ¡°Speak . . . And the world will listen . . .¡± Just why did this being, this entity . . . whatever it was! Why did it have to be so cryptic! ¡°Explain yourself, Gods damn it!¡± ¡°No God . . . Speak . . .¡± I blinked once and all of a sudden I was back in the street like before. Neither Tanya nor Sadiya had moved in all the time I had been gone. Had they not seen me fall? I looked down and to my surprise, I was still on my feet! I took another step towards the two in the hopes of interfering and stopping them from doing anything stupid. Yet the very moment I moved it was as if the both of them were released from stasis. Quicker than I realized weapons were drawn and fingers went on triggers. I gasped in shock and panic. ''Not like this! I will not lose Tanya! Speak . . .¡¯ And as if something I had done from birth, really more out of instinct than any logical thought I Spoke. ¡°Stop!¡± My voice was nothing human anymore. Producing the sound alone felt like swallowing shards of glass. Even hearing my own words brought me pain. Two people stood before me. Both of them locked into their action. Sadiya had levelled her gun at my friend''s chest and Tanya''s weapon was point-blank between the mercenary''s eyes. Yet both of them didn''t move a muscle. Their fingers didn''t twitch and their chests didn''t rise. I looked at the scene for what felt like an eternity, not understanding what had just happened. Only when I saw the trickle of blood flowing out of Tanya''s nose I truly realised what I had done! I had hurt Tanya . . . I had hurt my only friend, the one person that had protected and cared for me for years. I searched for the magic within me, to frantically try and stop whatever I was doing but quickly found that nothing was left! There was literally no amount of magic in my body! ¡®Oh, Go- ugh! What have I done! What is going on with me? How do I stop this!?¡¯ Trough my coming tears a saw how Tanya''s eyes twitched and she looked over to me. If anything, what I saw in them was her pain, pure and simple. What I had done was still hurting her! Once more I tried to grasp at whatever was forming this control over her. I closed my eyes and send my mind racing through every fibre of my body. And this time I noticed something. While there was indeed no mana flowing trough me anymore, there was a faint pulsing from within me. I called to me beckoned me. If sirens existed, this had to be their song, I was certain of it. Slowly but surely I reached out to it. My mind probed it, felt for it. It was powerful, magnificent, it drowned out even the beating of my own heart. And then I embraced it. Hot and cold shivers ran down my body. My skin seemed to almost physically ripple. And as if my heart went into a symphony with the pulsing, the oh so faint beating tuned in on the same rhythm the same frequency, losing itself completely in the pulsing. I opened my eyes again, I was attuned! Finally, I could see what had been hiden from me before. Not I had hexed Tanya and Sadiya. Something else had, or rather Someone. While the energy and compulsion were channelled through my body, it did not originate from it. Like a tether through a hole, a connection was made through my core into another dimension. This spell was her way of teaching me. Like a parent showing her child how to drive a bike. Still, I didn''t want this. I reached out for the tether and gently clenched it. It pushed against me for a second but then relented. And the very moment the connection collapsed, I did too. I felt similar to a mage overusing their powers and burning out, only instead of my mind and body being tired, I was left with the weirdest case of vertigo I had ever experienced. Almost sure of my composure, I took a few steps forward, only to immediately collapsing on my jelly legs. Curiously enough I felt almost instantly a pair of arms around me. I looked up expecting the Tanya smiling down on me only to be met with the curious stare of my new bodyguard. Part 4 â€“ Speak . . . (2/2) Part 4 ¨C Speak . . . (2/2) Confused I looked around, Tanya should have been here, right? All I could see were quickly moving and blurry shapes. My head hurt and my vision blurred every time I tried to get up and move. And to make it worse, whenever I did so, someone or something would hold me down and restrict my movement. I knew only of Sadiya, who I suspected to be the one to torment me, actually being around, but by the sounds nearby I knew that other people were also in the area. I heard voices I didn¡¯t know speak about things I couldn¡¯t understand. Only when the very dominating and harsh voice of Sadiya managed to barely cut through the noise, I understood a bit of what was going on. ¡°Sir, yes it is under control.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Yes, there was a . . . situation. It is cleared now.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Yes, I understand Sir.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°I would not advise it but . . .¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Yes . . . it will be done, no need to worry. Jeez.¡± All of a sudden Sadiya¡¯s voice got louder as if she had turned in my direction. ¡°Alright, ladies and gents, clear out and we will proceed as planned.¡± ¡®Proceed? Proceed with what?¡¯ ¡°And by the way, I would be very grateful if anyone of you finally manages to track down that damn escapee! We already have enough problems; don¡¯t need that bitch on our asses too.¡± Still held down by whoever was with me, I struggled against my bonds a bit more, when I saw something move close to me. A bulky, blurry, blue brute was coming my way! ¡®No! Do not crush the squishy mage you damn moving mountain! Shoo! Shoo!¡¯ Alas, my metal pushing seemed to do nothing to deter the colossus from approaching me. Seeing how my fate was in my hands alone, I tried crawling away as soon as my bonds were released. I must have made a good impression because the blue mass just stared down at me for a few moments, before shaking its top boulder. Not even a second later two strong grabby paws clenched tightly around my waist and I was lifted high into the air. Much to my demise, it was in this very moment that my stomach decided that it rather wanted to stay grounded than join the new space program. And of course, to top it all off, it was less like a waterfall but more like a boiling pot of water under too much heat, as the puke began bubbling out of me. So instead of spewing my load over the pavement it just dribbled down my chest, covering both my clothes and the strong hands holding me. Curiously enough my hearing seemed to be normal again, as I actually could hear the man or thing holding me swear. ¡°Oh, for fuck¡¯s sake! Lieutenant, your pet bitch just puked all over me!¡± ¡®Hehe~, yes, I did! Beware the power of puke!¡¯ ¡°Then drop her!¡± ¡®Wait, what!?¡¯ Still surprised by Sadiya¡¯s answer, I didn''t even have the clearness of mind to process what happened next. Instead of putting me down on my feet or maybe laying me on the ground, the asshole holding me dropped me as if I was a particularly nasty old rag. And thanks to my still limp body I fell forward like a dead fish and impacted almost instantly with the cold hard asphalt. While it was indeed very outrageous how they handled an obviously sick person, my mind was soon occupied by other things. I hadn''t quite realized it at first, but the ground actually felt sublime! The shallow puddle I was lying in was wonderfully cool and wet. I had never been one to revel in the rain, but now the little drizzle felt almost like kisses on my skin. Indeed I was oddly content with the situation. Despite being treated like a piece of garbage, they had given me something so wondrous. Almost happily so my guts groaned and a little more puke bubbled up from my guts. Despite the more than copious amounts of puke I had already left on the street and myself, I didn''t feel empty. In fact, it actually felt more as if something was replacing my stomach acid and now pushed out the offending liquid. There was another rumbling from my stomach, which prompted me to try and get out of my already ruined blouse in the vain attempt to save it from damage. I had just fumbled with opening the last of my blouse''s buttons when my guts clenched up. With shaky hands, I barely managed to get myself into a kneeling position before the rest of my stomach contents found its way out of me. Only this time it was less bubbling and more spewing forth from my throat. Coughing and choking on the very last remnants of my steadily declining dignity was definitely not how I had thought this day to go. After a minute or so of continuing this, I heard a gasp from close by and a metallic click right next to my ear. It was only after the sixth spasm that my teary eyes managed to focus on my surroundings The first thing I noticed was the two pairs of armoured boots to the right and left side of my vision. And if I wasn¡¯t entirely stupid, that click had been a gun¡¯s safety. The only problem being that I couldn¡¯t understand why someone would once more hold a gun to my head. It wasn¡¯t as if I was in any kind of position to be dangerous or much of anything else right now! Confused my eyes darted around trying to find the reason for this behaviour when finally my gaze fell onto the ground below me. In between the puddle of vomit and water was something else. It was the same stuff that was also still dripping from the corner of my mouth. The soldiers must have thought I was changing into some kind of monster . . . that I was emerging!The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. And I couldn¡¯t fault them, because before me was something entirely different from what a human normally produced. Dripping onto the pavement was a thick, blackish sludge. With its odd colour and high viscosity, there was no way that I could pass it off as simple spittle. Actually when listening closely one could hear a slight sizzle sound each time a drop hit the pavement. But the worst thing must have been when I reached out to touch it. Not only did the boots immediately retreat from me but I could hear more halfway audible words and shouting. Thankfully there was no need for me to understand them because when the shit I had puked up twitched closer to my hand I recoiled in an instant. Panicked I looked up to the blurry blue shapes before me, hoping that I wouldn¡¯t be gunned down. My father would never accept an emerged daughter, and I, by the fucking hells, wasn¡¯t sure what was happening to me right now! Slowly but surely one of the mercenaries approached me. Coming closer, the dark skin and short black hair, exposed by her lack of a helmet, were a dead giveaway. Different from her colleagues, Sadiya did not point her weapon at me, so a point for her I guess. While her rifle was still slung over her shoulder, one of her hands rested on her side-arm in an easy to understand threat. I already half expected her to kick me even further to the ground but it was not to be. No, instead the woman that had not let out a single moment to torment me in the last few hours sat down in a crouch and looked at me in a mix between boredom and fake friendliness. ¡°So, you done?¡± She cocked an eyebrow at me. ¡°Ye- Yeah. I think so . . .¡± The entire situation was simply too weird and unbelievable. ¡°Good. Stand up and sit in the truck. Another of your ¡°Situations¡± and I¡¯ll sock you unconscious.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t going to shoot me?¡± ¡°Kid, you do know that these are sonic rifles, yes?¡± With this, she simply stood up and left me where I was. All I could do was scramble to my feet and run after her if I didn¡¯t want to be left behind. . . . I barely took notice of anything on the way back to my parent''s mansion. My mind and senses were still so out of it that even looking out of the window provided me with a renewed feeling of vertigo. So instead of doing much of anything, I just sat with my eyes closed and slowly massaged my temples in the hope of fighting my migraine. Whatever the ritual had done to me, it was certainly wreaking havoc on my body. First were the missing memories and blackouts, then the headache and now I had even progressed to puking up weird sludge. ¡®By the Ancient One I hop- Wait! What the heck? Who the fuck is the Ancient One!?¡¯ Besides myself I startled out of my half-sleep only to be immediately greeted by a blinding light. ¡°Get up, we are here.¡± Sadiya turned around and I could just barely see her pocketing a flashlight. ¡®Fucking Bitch.¡¯ I did even spare her a glance as I rushed past her and put my finger to the door scanner. ¡°Beep, beeeep! You have no allowance to enter! Please leave or contact an operator!¡± ¡°What the fuck!?¡± I repeated the gesture only to be provided with the same answer. ¡°Oh? Is the mean door not letting you in?¡± I didn¡¯t have to look to imagine Sadiya¡¯s condescending smile. ¡°Shove off, bitch. I won¡¯t be defied by technology!¡± And so instead of trying to get the damn scanner to work, I simply put in the override code. I had been clever enough to break the scanner on its second day by repeatedly switching between scanning my pet mouse and my own hand. At some point, it had locked up and asked for operator calibration, so my father had sent Tanya to reset the thing. Afterwards, I had simply sensed for her astral residue left on the touchpad. ¡°Reset initiated. Please leave operator footprint.¡± Once more I put my finger on the scanner. "Genetical footprint is not identifiable. For better customer support your information has been sent to the QUARIUS R&D. Thank you for using a QUARIUS Security System. Operator race set as... Sentient. Temporary operating capabilities enabled.¡± ¡°What the...¡± I had half a mind of kicking that shitty thing. ¡°So it is true! Not even machines can stand being in a Sherman¡¯s presence!¡± Not dignifying her with an answer I rushed inside the house Once inside and finally safe from the annoying outside, I went straight for my bathroom. There was no way by the Ancient One that I was going to be covered in puke and muck any second longer! The worst was that thanks to the stuff already drying, my skin was itching like crazy. I wasn''t even halfway there when I had to rip off my clothes. This was far worse than a simple itch; it felt as if part of my skin completely drying out. ¡°Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!¡± ¡®Why does it itch so!?¡¯ I chucked my skirt somewhere into a corner of my bedroom as I hopped around trying to get my tights off. When I finally managed to free myself of my fabric prison, I had to ¨C much to my horror ¨C see that my panties were almost glued to my skin. Working my finger between the seam, I was greeted by the same black goop from earlier. ¡°Nope! Shower now!¡± Basically ripping the doors open and jamming my fingers into the control panel, I sighed in wanton bliss as the stream of hot water hit my back. It felt so wonderful on my skin, like the sweetest and loveliest of kisses. It was almost as if my body craved the water more than it did the air. And the best of all, the itch soon faded away to be replaced by a dull throbbing. Trying to feel for my most badly afflicted areas, I rubbed a hand along my throat where the itch had been the worst. And oh Ancient One it felt sublime. My skin was so soft and sensitive like never before, almost like the skin of a baby. My whole body trembled in pleasure at the merest touch! I was so absorbed in what basically amounted to getting off on choking myself that I would have almost missed what was actually happening. Only when I heard a soft splash I opened my eyes. I jerked back at what I was seeing. Right next to my foot was a large shred of human coloured skin being washed away by the water. Not truly believing it I turned to the wall-mounted mirror and wiped away the haze. And there it was, right where I had tried to throat fuck myself, was a large spot were the skin was dark, soft and glistening. On each side of my throat were four holes, constantly trying to suck in water and push it out again. Still, in shock, I wrapped a hand around it trying to understand what was happening to me and then I felt it. There was a soft pulsing on each side, almost like little the pumping of two little hearts. All in all, it looked more like something belonging on an octopus than human really. Finally realizing that this was actually happening, and not to someone else but to me, I tried to scream. Yet all I could do was Speak . . . ¡°AHHHHH!!!¡± Part 5 â€“ Understand . . . (1/2) Part 5 ¨C Understand . . . As soon as my scream echoed out I clasped my hands tightly across my mouth and clamped my eyes shut in both confusion and fear of what else I might discover. In almost the same moment an even more terrifying thought crossed my mind. There was no way of telling what that bitch Sadiya would do if she found me like this. Most likely immediately call my father for one, and if there was one person that I didn¡¯t want to find out about whatever the fuck was going on then it was him! I mean, what would you do, if you had a father that once starred in one of the most influential boulevard magazines with the headline: ¡°Arkana Future Industries¡¯ CEO calls meta-humans Subhuman¡±? This statement of his had brought the ire of several media outlets on him. But had he apologized or changed his point of view? No, he hadn''t, instead, he had stubbornly stuck to his opinion and even tried to get me to agree with him. I had spent most of that month in my room trying to wait out the shitstorm. After an incident in my early youth, I had quickly realized, that I was better off not talking to him about anything relating to meta-humans. At the time I had been seven or eight and made friends with a girl named Karen, she had been the only elven child in my class. It had only made sense to me, she had funny ears and teeth and I had magic. It hadn''t helped that I thought her really pretty and cool. Sadly our friendship hadn''t lasted more than a week. At first, my father had simply found it amusing when I brought her home, but one day had been enough to shatter everything. It had been an errant comment, nothing more than a childish dream really, but it was enough to rile him up. I had said to her that I would marry her once we were grownups. On that day I had my first kiss, on that day I had lost my first crush. Three days later she hadn''t come to school anymore, I hadn''t even been able to reach her over the net. My father had overheard us and with his money and influence had pressured her family into moving away. So yeah, since then I had taken my distance from any meta-human. And with that knowledge in the back of my mind did I really want him to know what was happening with me? Well, I thought it to be better for him being none the wiser. But still, I had to "take care" of this problem somehow. ¡°OkAy, noW-¡± I grasped at my throat in shock. How and why did my voice sound so incredibly wrong? It was still very much female and close to what it had been before, but it also was undeniably inhuman. Even to my ears, it sounded more like some sort of alien horror than myself speaking. It was almost as if my voice produced its own echo. Considering all the weird shit that had happened today, I was more than certain, that this shitty ritual was to blame for all of it! The problem only being, that I had no recollection of what the ritual was actually supposed to achieve. When I had woken up this morning, I had known that it would help me. I simply knew that it would solve all my problems. What I didn¡¯t know was how this information had come to me. Last evening I had gone out to visit the University Library, but for some gods¡¯ damned reason my memory of that time failed me. Whenever I tried to recall what had transpired after I had set foot on the university grounds, my mind just gave out on me. As soon as my thoughts turned to that place and time, my head started pounding. Almost beating like a heart, it was not a memory or even a physical pain. It felt like the very essence of something greater intruding on my mind. But worse even was the incredible feeling of dread that permeated EVERYTHING. Not only my memories but even parts of myself started to feel wrong. Like the world was rejecting both what had happened yesterday and what was changing in me. Honestly, at this point, I wasn''t even sure if I wanted to try and halt what was happening to me. I had to stop it, I was becoming a monster! I barely knew what was going on and even if I was changing I had no clue as to why, how or even into what I was being¡ for the lack of a better term ¡°turned¡±. This also brought my thoughts back to another matter. Taking together what little courage I could muster I slowly opened my eyes again and looked into the mirror. There they were again, four absolutely disgusting inhuman growths right on the side of my throat. At least this explained why I had felt so sick; most people would be with fricking gills growing in their body. Even now the little finger wide holes were trying to suck in the water flowing down my skin. They looked somewhat horrifying cute, in a creepy alien sort of way. Curious as to how well they actually worked I leaned my head to the side and let the full water jet hit them. Almost instantly I was rewarded with the most curious sensation I had ever felt. It was like a mix between drinking and breathing only that nothing of it went into either my stomach or my lungs. No, instead it felt more as if my body had grown several whole new organs on either side of my trachea! Continuing the exploration of my own body, which sounded just about as insane as I felt right now, I wiped off the fog on the mirror to get a better view. Looking at little bit down I was already rewarded with other obvious signs of my body changing. The entire area around my neck was sickly pale and blackish-blue veins crept from the area to my lower body. When I touched them the skin above started to flake off, not as easy as when I scratched my throat, but it was still very obvious. And yet despite this obvious sign of my body changing into something different, something alien, something monstrous, I couldn''t find it in me to freak out. No, instead I was utterly horrified mostly intrigued. In none of the literature about metahuman races had I ever read about magic acting this way. The transition from my human form into whatever was in store for me was both too fast and too slow. Generally, there were three ways one could become a metahuman separated by meta-type. The first to ever be sighted had been magical-beasts, who basically were the result of a powerful spirit bonding with a human soul. Most of them had come into existence right at the beginning of the planar convergence. Rifts between our world and elemental planes had opened up and released both massive amounts of magic and dozens of spirits looking for a host to survive in. The inflicted usually turned in less than half an hour under mind-breaking pain, due to their body''s and souls literally being ripped apart and put back together. This obviously hadn''t happened to me, because while a part of my subconscious was unsettlingly sure that something horrible had happened today, I still looked human, at least for the moment. The second way humans had turned to metahumans before was through emergence. With that you basically had two ways of it happening. And that was either through birth or puberty. This obviously meant that since the convergence was only a little over twenty-two years ago, that no one with the metahuman gens could be older than thirty-five. Considering that I was twenty-one and had been born as a magically active human, there was literally no way for me to ever emerge. And this as much as I didn''t like it technically only left one option open, a magically active virus. Now, it was a controversial topic if these MAV had been existing viruses changed during the convergence, or if they like magic had come through rifts between planes of existence. But even so, doctors and mages were united in the belief, that they were potentially one of the greatest dangers to meta-humanity in this century. While they didn''t tend to be overly infectious meaning that most could only infect a host if they found a way into their bloodstream, the effects they had were terrifying. Ghouls, Sirens and Wendigos, were just a small sample of terrifying things they could potentially create. But all viral meta-types had one thing in common, serious degradation of their mental- faculties! And if there was one thing I truly didn''t want, then it was more mental health problems! Even now I had to take five different types of medication to keep the infection eating away at my body and feeding of my mana contained. The infection and the medication fighting it were already putting a severe strain on my fragile mind. Two of the drugs I was taking weren''t even to combat the bacteria, but simply to keep the rest of the medication from making Swiss cheese of my damn brain. I seriously didn''t need a virus saying hello to all the baggage I already had to deal with. After all, the entire purpose of the ritual had been to combat the sickness robbing me of my magic. Then again while whatever was going on with my body was advancing like a MAV infection, there were obvious differences. For one was the way it had begun, I hadn''t been bitten by an infected, nor had I come into contact with infected blood. No, I only had cut out my own heart implanted a corrupted magically charged core into my body. I could still feel it where my heart used to be beating in my chest spreading its vile magic through my body. I knew¡ felt it was what was changing me, I had to rip it out protect it. While it may be changing me it was also stealing my soul giving me a chance to live without medication and gave me access to new evil exciting magic. Though even now I couldn''t shake off the feeling that something was interfering with my mind, it was a bit weird how calm I was about all of this. Yes! Then again panicking about this would certainly not help my situation. Shaking my head to get rid of the silly thoughts I was just about to step out of the shower when a weird twinge from my crotch startled me.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Somehow I had fully forgotten about the panties still plastered on to my skin. But now that I was looking at them, wearing them became increasingly uncomfortable. The skin underneath the fabric was itching horribly, worse even I could feel something twitch down there! I needed to get these damn panties of off me! While doing my best not to scratch my skin off in frustration, I gently pulled them down. Or at least that was what I had been trying to do. A little bit after pulling the lace down I was stuck. The fabric seemed literally stuck to my genitals! After several seconds of gentle pulling did nothing, I simply ripped them off with the power born out of frustration. I had to bite my lip to not cry out at the weird tactile sensation. Somehow I wasn''t even sure if I was keeping myself from screaming or moaning. It had felt at the same time extremely painful and pleasurable. Still, worse had to be the fact that I still felt something sliding out of me. Taking a deep breath I risked a glance downwards and instantly went from looking to staring. Together with my panties, I had also ripped away a large piece of dead skin but what I was looking at right now was far more horribly disgusting curious. A long tube of dead blackened flesh was sliding out of what had to be my vagina and with each centimetre more another pleasurably painful shock went through my body. Stuck between having whatever that was dangling from my body or pulling it out, I grit my teeth and pushed on. Suppressing both grunts and whorish moans I kept pulling until it was almost a hand width out. At that moment I felt something big dislodge in my lower body. It was a weird feeling like I was losing something but only because it was in the way of something new. Just when I thought it was almost over, the big lump got stuck inside. I tried squatting down to relax my muscles, but it did nothing, no¡ I had to push it out. And once that thought came I felt something in be becoming different. My lips puckered into a lusty ¡®O¡¯ and I pushed. Muscles I knew I didn''t have before pushed the offending lump through my tight opening. And with a wet squelch, I had finally done it, the mass of flesh fell on the ground beneath me and at the same time I could feel four slick and powerful appendages wrap around my legs and dig sensually into my four clits bringing me to another pleasurable high. A third orgasm rocked my body before I the lusty haze over my brain finally lifted. By the gods! What had I just done!? Before I even had the clarity of mind to look down I could feel the four things slide back into me flicking my clits one last time on the way back in. For several seconds I just sat there stunned as the water began pooling around me. The terrified voice that had been suppressed the entire day was right. I had begun turning into a monster! The ritual hadn''t gifted me powers it had sold them to me and the price had been my humanity. With shaky hands, I touched my body just above my breasts. I could feel it there. Ta-Thump. Ta-Thump. Ta-Thump. This wasn''t my heart, this thing in me wasn''t even the least bit scared, its rhythm was steady, powerful and entirely wrong. A half-buried memory from earlier this morning came back to me like a scene of a bad horror movie. My hand on the hilt of the atham¨¦. The words of the ritual: I give myself to you, my heart, my soul my body! And seconds later the feeling of the blade cutting through my flesh. Now I knew I hadn''t stopped at making a simple cut. With the magic controlling my body and mind I had cut deep, deeper and deeper until I had been able to wrap my hand around my own heart. I had smiled as I had done as the ritual said. I had given her everything, first my heart, then my soul and now my body. It was her that was intruding on my mind and changing my body to her whim¡ no, it wasn''t my body anymore, it was hers. I was nothing more than a meat puppet for the old one; a cute little vessel to do her bidding. A tool¡ exactly what I had hoped to avoid. Hot burning tears rolled down my cheeks as I tired and numb looked to the disgusting mass of flesh on the ground in front of me. The thing I had pushed out of me. Only it wasn''t a thing, I knew painfully clearly what it was that I had just birth. It hadn''t been life but the very opposite. I hadn''t given life but given away the very power to create it. A rough frantic chuckle escaped me as I took the slimy flesh in my hands and cradled it to my chest. I had birthed my own womb. I had literally pushed the only thing out of my body that could create new humans. My chuckles turned into full out insane laughter as a thought shot through my head, at least I wouldn''t have to worry about taking contraceptives ever again. Supporting myself on a hand railing I wobbled my way out of the shower and over the fluffy pink carpet. Once I had reached my toilet I opened the lid and dropped my panties together with a large part of my humanity right into the bowl. When I pressed the button it swirled and bubbled and I watched with a distant, soulless stare as the remnants of my womb vanished down the drain. I wasn''t quite sure how long I stood there in silence staring at a toilet bowl; I was only ripped out of it when the house¡¯s intercom chirped up. I hid the answer button and was immediately rewarded by the bored voice of Sadiya. ¡°Hey, little submissive shit, it says here that you have university I an hour. So get ready or some shit, I''m supposed to drive you. That''s it. Oh, and don''t start fingering yourself up there. No one wants to smell aroused teeny stink. Till later, bitch.¡± Once she finished talking I heard her open several cabinets and start to chow down on something. I leaned my head against the console and as soft as I could I whispered into the speaker. ¡®Dumb whore.¡¯ I had to do a double-take when I heard my own voice. It hadn''t been the terrifying alien sound my mouth had produced earlier but my own one, the same one with which I had once sung in the choir. Once Moe tears burned their way down my cheeks but this time they were happy ones. Maybe I had found a way around the little problem with sounding like an alien monstrosity. I took a deep breath and said my own name. Almost directly I had to cringe due to the sound coming out of my mouth. My voice was still very much not working as it should, but then what had I done differently before? In frustration, I slumped against the bathroom wall and let out a sigh. ¡®Ah, this Sucks.¡¯ Instantly my eyes lit up in astonishment. I had done it again! But just how had I done this? I hadn''t even moved my lips just now! A curious thought pushed itself to the forefront of my mind. Maybe the secret wasn''t in talking but¡ not talking. Emboldened by the newfound power it tried it again. Instead of forming the words with my mouth I simply thought them loudly. ¡®Sadiya should burn in the hells. Hahahaha!¡¯ This time I tried it with a native Dutch rhyme. ¡®Ike, ike, ike en de rest kan stikken! Yes!¡¯ ¡®I can still talk! Well¡ at least somewhat. Maybe if such a simple thing works out I can somehow deal with the whole turning into a monster crap?¡¯ I walked over to the sink and again looked over my reflection. Only then I realised that I was still soaking wet. My hair hung down in messy curls and framed a face that was far too pale for my usual complexion. Honestly, I looked tired and sick, but all in all, if I overlooked the now closed holes on my throat and the discolouration of my skin I still looked like a human. I had human hair, human eyes, a human face, human teeth, hell I even had a human¡ Oh, okay I most certainly didn''t have a human tongue anymore! Now that I was over the initial panic, it was actually kind of fascinating. My tongue was for the lack of a better word a freaking tentacle. It was long, prehensile, split in two and covered with tiny rough spikes. I had no clue as to when that thing had grown in, but there was no way in hell that I could articulate normally with that thing in my mouth. Though, after I played around with the weird thing for a minute I managed to clap with it. That honestly wasn''t the most useful thing, but it did take my mind of the other place that had changed. The place I desperately wanted to avoid thinking about. But like with most things, you had to face them sometime. And what better time was there to do it than now? Once more I sighed and finally sat my ass down on my fluffy bathroom carpet. Spreading my legs and bending down I was a bit surprised at how little resistance I faced from my body. If this continued it soon be able to straight-up kiss my own pussy. Filing that thought away for later I went back to what I had actually done this for, namely looking at the eldritch horror my genitals had become. I was actually a bit surprised; on the first glance, it didn''t even look that inhuman. If you overlooked the black colour the outside shape had mostly stayed the same. The only of thing we''re two nubby rings around my sex and my butthole. Actually, the skin down there looked as smooth as a baby''s, just begging to be touched. Gingerly I pressed a finger against the area. My frown turned into a smile as I realized just how smooth and sensitive I was. Yet my bliss was only short, for soon enough my smile morphed into a grimace of shock. Now I knew what I had felt a few minutes ago. Right before my eyes my vagina split. It opened op like a flower and revealed four substantial clits and following them four long black tendrils. It almost looked as if a squid was crawling out of me, only that I was intimately aware that these... tentacles belonged to me. But even if I could feel them controlling them was an entirely different thing. I couldn¡¯t move them like I could an arm or a leg, instead it almost seemed like they had a mind of their own, evident by the way they moved around and clung to my thighs. I had once read that molluscs had independent nerve clusters in their tentacles. Basically, a non-centralised nervous system instead of a localised one like humans had with their big brains. It had just been an interesting fact till now, but seeing this on my own body was more than freaky. As insane this entire situation was, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder how they felt if I were to touch them. I mean they were basically parts of my body ¨C if totally alien and unruly parts ¨C and so I made up my mind. Almost a bit anxious about what might happen, I reached out and touched something no other human on this world had, something that had no place on my body. And by the gods, it felt glorious... Part 5 - Understand (2/3) Part 5 - Understand (2/3) ¡®Ah, ahh~! Wha- What is this? How, just how do those things feel so damned good!?¡¯ At first, I had been scared as to what might happen once I touched the alien things protruding from my crotch. After all, how was this not almost the same as embracing the monstrosity my body was turning into? Yet, no matter how much I would have liked to deny it, I had seldom felt any greater sensation than today. I really hadn''t been a stranger to fingering myself before; when you are a frustrated teenager who can''t hold a boyfriend, you spend a lot of nights alone under your blanket. Sadly even with me coming of age, not all that much had changed. The men may have grown less childish, but still, they could easily be swayed by using just the right words and coquettish looks. Let''s just say that in combination with my ¡°condition¡±, my infidelity didn''t help in finding friends, neither under the boys nor girls. So, yes, even while I did have a boyfriend at the moment, I also had extensive knowledge of pleasuring myself, be it with tools or without. And still, a single moment of this was better than anything I had experienced before! Not only did the skin around my crotch area feel entirely different than before, but it also was curiously slick to the touch, as if it was extruding moisture. While that had been odd, it had gotten really weird when I touched the actual tentacles. As if sensing my approach - which honestly they probably did considering they were part of me - they almost had seemed to perk up when my fingers drew closer. Most of them withdrew from snaking around my thighs or each other and closed in on my hand. They almost seemed like pets eager to please, well except for one, that little guy still clung tightly to my leg and apparently didn''t care for my affection. That or this one had more self-control than the others, I was unsure as to what that said about me. What one of them lacked, the others made up more than enough in vigour and excitement. As soon as my hand was in reach they darted forward and wrapped themselves around my digits. I was honestly a little shocked by this, but the sensation I got from the caress made more than up for that, and soon enough my fingers had already automatically started pleasuring my little tentacle-bouquet. Curiously it actually seemed that my ministrations had more of an effect on my body than I had initially thought. Because after several seconds of giving myself the weirdest handjob ever, my tenta-dicks went from slick to straight-up wet. It was as if my body was producing its own lube! With every stroke I got wetter and wetter; not only the tentacles themselves but even my gash was now straight up dripping with clear fluid. Gripped by equal parts of sexual desire and morbid curiosity, I bend over fully and wrapped both my hands around the four wriggling tendrils. Faster and faster I rubbed them up and down, while they were coiling around each other ever tighter. I could feel myself quickly reaching my climax, but before I let myself go, a sick idea crossed my mind. With a wicked smile, I brought my lips closer and puckered them into an ¡®O¡¯. The very moment my mouth closed around their tips, I couldn''t hold back any longer and the oddest thing happened: I came, and like a Waterfall at that! My until then soft moans turned in to ecstatic delightful screams, which almost instantly changed to panicked coughing, as I inhaled what seemed like half a Litre of viscous spunk! Coughing and retching I dragged myself to my feet, still not understanding what had just happened. My whole face was covered in the slimy mass and it was so sticky that I had problems even getting it off. I couldn''t see and barely breathe with the spunk coating both my eyes and nose not to mention the amount I had straight-up inhaled. Blind and maybe slightly suffocating I did the only sensible thing, I stumbled straight back into the shower cabin. Feebly I grabbed around for the control panel and through the weird haze just managed to put in the bath setting before slumping to the ground like a fish gasping for air. Somehow I didn¡¯t suffocate but instead woke to the subdued chirping of the intercom. I had to blink a few times, too confused to really understand what was going on. My breathing problem had seemingly managed itself but not because I had cleared my airways, but because I was breathing through a completely different way. I was actually breathing underwater! This was incredibly weird, especially because I felt worryingly content at the moment. I didn¡¯t even seem to have the need for air at all anymore. It was almost as if I could spend down here forever. Bringing my fingers before my eyes I was astonished at how clear my sight was despite the water around me. While I was logically confused and a bit scared about what the changes were doing to me, a part of me was simply fascinated. Maybe this change was not so much of a curse after all; just maybe it could be a chance. Possibly even a way for me to get out from underneath my father¡¯s thumb. Away from all the noise of high society... With a weird gurgled sigh I lifted my body out of the, by now, cold water. Curiously it seemed like an oily sheen remained on my skin, trying to wash it off didn''t really work so I just wrapped a towel around me and stepped out on to that hideous pink carpet. Still, the intercom kept blaring on, why had it set such an annoyingly peppy tone for it? I grit my teeth and smashed my fist into the answer button. ¡°WhAt!¡± I couldn''t even be bothered to change to telepathy. ¡°Yikes, is this thing broken or what?¡± Sadiya¡¯s voice seemed to almost be pained when she answered. ¡°Anyway, I''ve been trying to reach you for minutes! We will leave soon so get your damned ass ready already!¡± She didn''t even bother to wait for my reply and hung up as soon as she was finished. The audacity this woman had! How dare she be so disrespectful, I should teach that stupid human a lesson! I continued standing there for a moment, thinking of how to pay her back, when it suddenly dawned on me, I had thought of Sadiya as human. This was only logical, as she was one, but I had specifically thought about how she was just that, a human. I had instinctively thought of her as lesser, in other words, I had thought of being human as a lesser existence. But lesser than what? After all, I was human too, right? Only, what if that wasn''t true anymore, what if not only my body but my mind as well, was changing into something alien!? Before the spiritual agony of that idea could grab hold of me, I shook my head and left the bathroom. Right now I had more important things on my mind or more specifically getting dressed so that Sadiya had no reason to call my father on my behaviour. After what that piece of human garbage had done this morning, I was probably on probation. I was glad enough that I would have the weekend for myself, as my parents would be busy with their laughable fundraiser. It was such a joke, my father cared not a single bit about the less fortunate, this entire thing was just to clean up his image and feed his massive ego. Because no matter what anyone told him or what the media reported, my father saw himself as a great philanthropist, yeah, one that philanthropically punched his daughter in the face. I chuckled at the idea of ripping down his little castle in the clouds. Maybe someday I would have that power, someday I would be able to make him dance like a puppet on a string, just he wait.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. No matter how frustrated I was I still had to go to university and therefore I had to get ready. A fresh pair of panties, a leather skirt and my favourite peach coloured hoody later I made my way towards the door but had to stop when I looked into the mirror. Underneath both of my eyes, the skin was rough. Not simply the little wrinkles one gets from sleeping badly, no, it was more like you could actually see the way my tears had taken earlier. There were red inflamed streaks going down either cheek as if my own tears had burned my skin. I already went to grab foundation and powder when I realized this had happened before. Once in the Backside hospital with the needle and a second time when I had puked on the road. By the ancient one, my bodily fluids were turning fricking caustic! This shit was straight up like that remake of that ancient alien movie. I could only groan as the thought of all my clothing melting away crossed my mind. I really didn¡¯t want to have to deal with that. Violently pushing the thoughts from my mind I did my best to cover up my ¡°beauty marks¡± but after a bit just gave up. Instead, I grabbed a pair of sunglasses from my collection that covered enough of my skin as to make the blemishes appear at least a bit less pronounced. I tussled my hair a bit to make it look more of a wild look and less of ¡°I didn''t style my hair¡±. Somewhat content with my outwards appearance I stepped towards outside and almost instantly felt slick tentacles slip out of my vagina and right back into it. I forced a smile, ignored the sensation my body so wilfully produced and soldiered on. Towards a new battle and a new enemy but also a very new dawn for me. Okay, it is official now I hate Sadiya. Not only had she apparently plundered half the kitchen, no, in addition she had absolutely no shame. When I had come down into the living area I was, not as one would have expected, seeing a hardened mercenary there to escort me but instead, I was faced with a sight I could hardly believe. The so-called Lieutenant Sadiya Crook - yes, I had remembered her full name - was dressed in what could only broadly be described as clothing and was more than certainly not dressed like a bodyguard. But no, instead her assemble consisted of ridiculously short pants and a tank top tight enough that her more than considerable bust threatened to spill out. Honestly, tank top should probably be taken literally in her case, as her love pillows were almost weapon-grade in comparison to my own assets. But to be fair everyone knows that it does little count what size you are when you have no class and apparently also no idea of style. By the hells, she was wearing a red top with green shorts, she looked like the most busty traffic light ever! I could barely suppress a sneer when I noticed other signs for her obvious disrespect of proper decorum. Even from here, I could see the crumps in her cleavage and I was almost certain that I smelled booze. I hated the smell of alcohol, it was such a pedestrian thing to consume, just why would you want to inhibit your mental faculties!? For a brief moment, I had to wonder if I - the girl turning into an octopus - wasn''t actually still more human than this woman, for she was a wreck. After looking her over I realized that didn''t solely apply to her behaviour but her body too. My whole initial suspicion of her being modded was true but not in the way I had expected. Large parts of her body had been replaced with cyberwear but not because of choice it seemed. Both of her legs were from the upper thigh down military duty replacements, and what her hotpants exposed of the remaining flesh was badly scared by large burns. As if keeping in theme with the rest of her, almost her entire right side featured similar burns and there wasn''t even a stump of her arm left, in its place was a modern state of the art biomelt-prosthetic. The black cords of artificial muscle seemed to constantly ripple and twitch as if the nerves connected to them never had truly healed or as if Sadiya was expecting to be attacked at any moment. It was clear that the woman''s body told a story, but even seeing this I couldn''t bring myself to justify her actions through her past. Somehow she actually made me dislike her even more with her next sentence. ¡°So, see anything you like?¡± To emphasize her point she pressed her cleavage together. I honestly wasn''t sure what she was trying to achieve, but considering what I had seen of her personality and the state of her body she either was excessively lonely from extensive and pronounced PTSD that resulted in her falling out with social norms and adopting an overly aggressive stand on interactions with the same sex . . . Or she had at one point received a severe brain injury. As I wasn''t a certified psychiatrist but a mage - or at least something close to one - I went with the second option. As that option didn''t involve me having to be understanding and supportive of her as a fellow mental health patient, I simply snorted at her comment, grabbed an apple from the kitchen counter and left for the door. It was at that moment that I had to realize the futility of my act of defiance, for Sadiya obviously hadn''t liked my response. I heard the sound of metal scratching stone and not even a second later a strong hand gripped the back of my hoody. With more power than I would have expected she shoved me straight into the wall. ¡°You- You are exactly like the others aren''t you!?¡± I couldn''t see her face but her voice was trembling, was she¡ crying? Well, it did not matter, not truly anyway. ¡°I have no idea what you mean, and I order you to unhand me right this instance!¡± I really didn''t want her to pull down the hoody any further, considering how sparsely I had covered my obvious new additions. ¡°You can''t even say it to my face, can you!? Just tell me you find me ugly and obnoxious!¡± Wait! Where the heck was this coming from? I was so confused at the moment I didn''t even react when she leaned forward and so I was more than surprised when all of a sudden her cheek touched mine. ::...please not her too. Just give me this one chance¡:: I instantly froze up like a popsicle upon hearing her thoughts, they fit so little with what I had seen of this woman. It simply couldn''t be, right? Her abrasive behaviour, violent disposition, and awful clinginess had those actually been her trying to¡ flirt with me!? But why did she destroy my phone and pull a gun on Tanya, had she been jealous? Seriously, just how fucked up was this woman! As I still contemplated on what this might mean, Sadiya went for a full out hug instead as if hoping unwanted physical contact would make me like her. ::...She will love me like this, people like hugs! They show one¡¯s affection¡:: Unbeknownst to her, hearing her thoughts actually gave me a great idea. A nasty little smile stole it''s way onto my face as I thought of a plan. Yes, I could use this to my advantage, make her dance like a doll to my tune. . . . . ¡®Ah yeah, I should have honestly come up with a better plan there. Because now our dear mercenary is like a love-sick little puppy, one that also has rabies¡¡¯ ¡®Oh, by the way, Sadiya if you hear this, know that once I get out I have a very special plan for you¡¡¯ ¡° SisTer¡¡± . . . . Part 5 â€“ Understand . . . (3/3) {NSFW+Overlenght} ¡®Very well. Sadiya I indeed find you annoying, especially when you hug me like this. While your breasts might as well be pillows, they are currently suffocating me. So, if we could please just proceed?¡¯ It was fortunate that she wasn''t looking at me at this moment because I still hadn''t figured out a proper excuse for why I was suddenly using telepathy. And honestly, I highly doubted that moving my lips in conjunction with ¡°talking¡± was a thing that worked in real life. Even if you were to be exceptionally stupid you would have to catch up on that. I had to come up with something though, and a bit quick actually. Maybe saying I had a cold could work, after all, Sadiya had no idea as to what I could and couldn''t do. Thankfully it seemed that for now, she was more occupied with figuring out if I had insulted or complimented her. ¡°I wasn''t hugging you!¡± As sudden, as it had come her arm retreated from me again, only now did I realize that only her biological arm had touched me. The other one was curiously hidden behind her back, that was¡ odd. Stepping back I upped my game and threw her a coquettish smile, which was immediately met by a frown. ¡°What are you staring at twerp?! Just get to the fucking car already!¡± Ah, sadly it seemed that this woman was as sensitive to her own and other¡¯s body language as a stone. Did I really have to openly court her for my charm to work? Well, add that to the list of things I wish I would have never had to think about. I would have sighed if I hadn¡¯t feared for it to sound like the breathing of a monster. So instead I simply grabbed a muffler from the coat rack and left the house with a shrug. Despite being so brash and volatile Sadiya just stood there and looked at me with a weird mix of contempt and fondness. ¡®Are you not coming Sadiya? After all you were so insistent on me getting to the car?¡¯ ¡°Wah!? Screw you; just do what I tell you!¡± With not another word she stomped past me and towards the car. The actual car drive was, well, underwhelming to say the least. As I was sitting in the back and Sadiya had to focus on driving, the interaction I between us was rather lacking. With the current traffic it would take close to half an hour for us to arrive I decided to take a little nap. Quicker than I had thought my eyes fluttered shut and I fell into a welcoming vast sea of blackness. ¡®This is odd I am asleep yet I feel as if fully conscious. Where am I? Why do I feel so... trapped safe?¡¯ ¡®You are safe, little one. Rest.¡¯ ¡®Who... who are you? You seem so monstrous familiar...¡¯ ¡®You already know the answer to this my child. You are my youngest but you shall be my greatest. For now just rest.¡¯ ¡®Yes. Resting seems like something I would like. Wake up, flee! Welterusten, Mother.¡¯ I¡¯m still not sure why or how it could be but there in the lap of my true mother, I slept for what felt like days. I was so exhausted after all. My birth was taxing on both my body and mind. But like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, I too would emerge as something beautiful, mother was promising that I was. Sadly all that was nice had to end at some point. While I was laying there and rested I heard that gentle voice again. ¡®Arise, my daughter, a storm is coming.¡¯ ¡®A storm?¡¯ ¡°Will you answer your fucking phone already!? It has been going crazy for at least a minute!¡± Still somewhat confused by the whole situation I had to blink a few times to adjust to the sudden brightness assaulting my eyes. Slowly I looked to my handbag, Sadiya was right there was a bunch of annoying noise coming from it. How could that be? Unsure on what to do but clearly feeling someone glaring at me through the rear-view mirror I opened it. To my surprise in there was my phone, not a back up I had could have grabbed from my room, but the very same Sadiya had broken this morning. Only that this phone wasn¡¯t broken it looked just like it had before without a single scratch. Honestly, I couldn¡¯t even remember picking it up after it had been destroyed. So how by the hells was it here? Almost scared of what might happen, I took it out and turned it on. In an instant, the raked stopped and the screen lit up but instead of the background, I remembered I was met with five words before swirling darkness. ¡°Your birthday present, Love Mom. <3¡± ¡®That... makes sense, I guess?¡¯ I was as shocked as I was intrigued but I wasn¡¯t going to question a being so ancient and powerful that it could bend reality to her will. Even if that being was referring to herself as Mom and sending messages ending with heart emoticons. But while I wasn¡¯t questioning her motives, how she had done this was very much beyond me. ¡®Say Sadiya, what happened to my phone after it broke?¡¯ ¡°Huh? The fuck are you on about? You have it in your hand right now!¡± ¡®Curious, she can¡¯t even remember smashing it? Almost like it never happened in the first place. No matter I should look at the reason for all the messages.¡¯ When I looked down again the words where gone from the screen but the darkness remained. It was odd how comforting it was to look at, almost like a piece of home. Before I could lose my self in my pondering I opened up the messenger. I had gotten six new messages all from my current boyfriend Adrian. ¡°Val? Valerie? Come on pick up already!!! It is important! Damn it, it seems like you are busy. No matter I¡¯ll give you a heads up either way. Valerie if you read this seriously, do NOT come to university today! I don¡¯t know the details but there is a shit storm growing right now. Somebody leaked some photos of you covered in puke and allegedly drugged out of your mind entering your house this morning. I know it is false but the students and teaching staff are pretty riled up.¡± ¡®Wait, what!? How had they even gotten a photo of that? Damned paparazzi!¡¯ As quickly as I could I wrote back. ¡°Thank you for the info, dear. How is the situation right now?¡± I didn¡¯t even have to wait a single second for his reply. ¡°Oh Gods, you finally picked up! Right now it seems like the situation is getting worse. Flora Banks is actually raising a petition to kick you out of the student committee.¡± ¡°That is fine. I no longer care. Do you know who started posting the photos?¡± ¡°Not specifically, but it seems that Flora actually had her hand in this, though she doesn¡¯t have the connections to get them.¡± ¡®Hm, of all the people I know on campus there are only a few I know could get these photos and even fewer that would wish to harm me. Can it be... no, Clarissa wouldn¡¯t sink this low. But her brother does work for a boulevard magazine. Still, we are or at least were friends. I shall have to ask around.¡¯ I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn¡¯t even realize when the car stopped, only a rather loud cough from Sadiya made me lookup. ¡°We¡¯re there, get out, and uhm, good luck. Now get your ass out of my car already!¡± ¡®See you soon Sadiya.¡¯ Showing her a smile I opened the door and stepped out. As the car drove off and I looked around I could already see signs of the chaos that was about to come. I pulled my fluffy muffler up a bit and braced myself mentally for the inevitable. Every step of the way to the front entrance I was met with stares, giggles and the sound of hushed conversations. While it was annoying it wasn¡¯t as bad as what followed. When I finally stepped inside the building some random weirdo actually had the audacity to walk right up to me. ¡°Hey! You¡¯re the Puke-Princess! I¡¯d ask for a kiss but I¡¯m scared you¡¯d actually turn me into a frog instead of the proper way. Am I right boys?¡± The rather childish attempt at entertainment was, to my surprise, actually met with a round of laughter and applause from a small group of equally enthusiastic guys. Oh ancient one, I would never understand this humour. Instead of answering them I just stared at them, in my mind, I already imagined their mangled bodies floating in the sea. Thankfully I didn¡¯t have to endure their companionship for long as my rescue came in the sight of a young man in a badly fitting tweed suit. ¡°You there, no noise in the entrance hall. And I assume that you are Valerie Sherman? If you would come with me the dean wishes to speak with you.¡± Again I didn¡¯t answer but only stared at him; I honestly got a kick out of how spooked they seemed despite me wearing glasses. When he got no response he just frowned and motioned for me to follow. Though when he walked off I could hear him mutter into his beard. ¡°The kid is still out of it. Damned junkies.¡± ¡®Oh, now I get it. The pictures, now me turning up covered and wearing sunglasses inside. Yeah, they will kick me out of the committee. Hmmm, I don¡¯t really feel all that upset about it. After all, there is nothing left for me in this institution anyway. I already learned what they could teach me and soon I will be beyond them. Then why did I even come here? Just to keep up appearance or is there something else I could gain... Many Vessels, many potential sisters. Oh, she is intruding on my mind I like the sound of that. No! Get her out! I always wanted siblings!¡¯ The last portion of the way I couldn¡¯t stop myself from humming in delight. It was a beautifully eerie sound, the frequency was far too low for the others to hear but I could still see it affecting them. They started laughing when they saw me but once my song reached them their looks changed from humour to a primal paranoid panic. I was like a wolf stalking sheep, like a shark in the sea, you knew that it was there but it always kept just out of your sight. Indeed it was true, I was something terrifying, something abominable... a monster a predator, the first of my kind since ages past. The students parted before me even if they didn¡¯t know why. Maybe the mage students were able to feel my otherworldly presence but even if so, none of them spoke up. I had half a mind to rip off my disguise and show them what I was becoming show them the horror beauty awaiting the ancient ones chosen. But no, I knew all too well how they would react I would have to wait, wait until my birth was complete. Then I could show the world the beauty of my mother¡¯s gift. For now, I simply followed behind the academic and let him guide me to the dean. The Dean¡¯s office was as unspectacular as it had been the last time I had seen it. No personal touches and no colour. From what I had noticed of her the woman had little creativity and even less inspiration. She was mostly cold, boring, and efficient. Even seeing her now that idea was reinforced by the grey costume she wore and the unfashionable glasses that were sitting on the tip of her nose. Honestly, in my opinion, her face had something of a shrew that was only topped by her nasal voice when she spoke. ¡°Ah, Miss Sherman, finally. I presume you have been informed about the situation?¡± While she spoke I took the time to take her in fully but no matter how I looked at it she was boring and worthless. ¡®She is nothing but pathetic prey not worth elevating. A useless vessel, old, broken, cold. I was honestly repulsed by the thought of making her one of my siblings. No, I had no interest in her, I was done here. ¡®You can stop talking now. I am stepping back from my position on the committee. In fact, I am considering leaving this institution forever. Goodbye.¡¯ ¡°Hey, wait! I need your signature!¡± My only response to this was closing my eyes, they had been hurting for a while now, something was changing. When I didn¡¯t respond and just stood there for almost a full minute the dean approached me concerned. I could tell that she was just about to touch me when the change was over. The very second I opened my eyes again I saw what had changed my vision was... different. Not technically better or worse but different almost as if new colours had joined the spectrum, I liked it. But from the look, the dean was giving me she didn¡¯t like it at all. She seemed almost frightened and I couldn¡¯t help and smile as I slowly removed my sunglasses.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°GoOdbYe~¡± Without another word but a very toothy smile, I left the woman to her panic attack. ¡®Why had I even thought about hiding? This is supremely delightful! To make people shudder with a single word... this is the power I dreamed magic would gift me. But now I actually have it... even if it means that I gave up on any magic besides circle magic. Still, I could not well my mana-well like before, but I did feel my core growing stronger over time. Something was awaking in me and I was curious to find out what. Yet there was something else I wished to check up on before I left the university. The pictures they had spread around the student body had to come from somewhere and I doubted that Flora Banks was her own source. She had always been more of an opportunist working upon other''s glory of failure. Though there was one person on campus that I both knew had connections to paparazzi and might have an axe to grind with me. Clarissa Tolemen was someone I would have called a friend some time ago. Sadly like with so many people in my life my focus on studying and learning the mysteries of magic had quickly pushed her away from me. As I spend more and more time trying to find some solution to my sickness, I had spent less and less time tending to her needs and wants. About half a month ago our friendship had more or less truly ended as we had thrown some quite rude comment at each other¡¯s heads. After that, I had lost myself in my studies and she had turned to more physical activities like swimming contests. But even now I couldn¡¯t quite believe that she would really do this. ¡®If I remember correctly the swim-club should have just finished with their training... I wonder if Clarissa still likes to spend so much time under the showers. I could certainly go for a bath again.¡¯ Having made up my mind I send a quick message to Adrian telling him not to wait for me, turned around, and started walking towards the baths. On my way there I already came across several other people with wet hair. When they noticed me, their chatting slowly trailed off and ended in silence. When I paid them no mind one of them whispered to the other. ¡°Hey Lasse, isn¡¯t that...? Do you think she knows about Clarissa?¡± ¡°Shut it and let¡¯s just go. This chick seriously creeps me out.¡± I let them pass without interjecting; they had already given me what I had wanted to know. ¡®So it was actually her? I can¡¯t believe she would do such a thing. Had we not been friends? I... I should punish?, indeed... this was not something I could just let go!¡¯ As I got closer to the bath doors, my before amused smile turned into something that must have resembled a snarl. She would have to be punished for her transgression. I would have to show her that nobody was allowed to just step on me. I wasn¡¯t quite sure of what I would do but I would come up with something! When I opened the door I could already hear the flowing water and instinctively the tentacles in my vagina started to squirm around. My body was responding to the environment and... something else. One of my tentacles slipped out and I got even more confused. I could have sworn I was... tasting something in the air. Whatever it was it got my body pretty riled up and I was almost lead by my genitals to the source of their desire. Getting closer I started to hear an oddly familiar sound. ¡®Is that panting? That voice... could it be Clarissa? Was this the reason why she always stayed longer than the others? No, she can¡¯t actually... not after what she did today!¡¯ I was almost about to step out and tell her my mind when something odd happened. It was like my body was acting with a mind of its own. Before I could stop myself I had already started walking towards the sounds. Almost like I was in a haze I started stripping out of my clothing. The glasses fell to the ground followed by my muffler and hoody. I cared little for them getting wet after all I did love the moisture of this place. Once I had also gotten rid of my skirt and shoes I stopped for a moment. Letting my tentacles slip free I took a deep breath relishing in the humidity around me. Having stripped down to my truer self I walked on and soon I laid eyes on a curious sight. Right there before me was Clarissa and what my genitals had tried to tell me was indeed true. Without knowing that I was there she was continuously slipping several fingers in and out of her own little flower. The panting was far more audible now that I was so close, but considering that she hadn¡¯t even locked the doors, maybe she got a kick out of the idea of being discovered. Whatever her motive was my body was aching to get close to her. I had never been truly attracted to Clarrisa but now I had to admit that she was rather beautiful, if faulty. ¡®It is almost like I think she could be better? No! Yes! Vessel creature, young, pretty, troubled. Take her! Make her mine!¡¯ All of a sudden I had problems focusing on my thoughts, why was it that I had come here? To punish someone? No, I had come to embrace my friend! She was so troubled I still remembered how she had cried in my shoulder; neither her magic nor her athletics had ever been perfect. She had always tried so hard but never achieved her goals. I had to help her; I had to show her true beauty... ¡®Clarissa.¡¯ I got up from my hiding spot, sadly I hadn¡¯t received my new skin an all of my body yet... it would have made hiding so much easier. But this too would pass, soon I would be better. With a gentle smile I approached my sister to be. ¡°AH! Holy shit! Valerie is that you? Wha- What are you doing here? If it is about the pictures I¡¯m sorry! I never intended for it to blow up this much! You have to believe me! Wait why are you naked... what is going on Valerie?¡± She tried to cover up her body but I had already seen it, so there was no use. While I stepped forward I could feel the skin on my face reacting to the moisture in the air, it was almost rippling. ¡®Shhh, everything is all right my dear. Mother showed me how to set you free. Just let me help you.¡¯ ¡°Valerie... how are you talking and not moving your mouth? Oh gods, what happened to your face! Sta- Stay away! I don¡¯t want to get infected with a MAV!¡± Slowly she began backing away from me; it looked like a mating dance! I truly enjoyed her effort, she was such a good friend. And my smile widened while I could feel the skin on my face rip. ¡®Silly girl. This is no MAV it is simply a sign of my rebirth. Don¡¯t let it distract you. I have such delights to show you!¡¯ ¡°Valerie, if you are still in there please, stay back I don¡¯t wish to hurt you but I will!¡± I didn¡¯t like the sound of that, I couldn''t allow her to hurt me. Instead of further trying the gentle approach I quickened my steps. ¡°NO!¡± All of a sudden I found myself on the other side of the bath. I hadn¡¯t been prepared for that before I could reach her she had sent a bolt of condensed mana at me! Crude it may have been, but she must have put most her well¡¯s capacity into it. ¡®This really smarts; I like her spirit! Oh, what is this, I... lost my face?¡¯ A bit confused I put my hands to my head. Even though I could see several shreds of skin on the ground my fingers still felt a face even if it seemed a bit different than before. ¡®I will have to check out my new look after this. I wonder what changed?¡¯ Not waiting any longer I started searching for my soon to be sister. Rather quickly my tentacles had figured out where she had run to. I wasn¡¯t sure why she thought running to the swimming pool was clever but I cared little, more water was fun! ¡®Clarissa! Dear sister, don¡¯t be scared. I won¡¯t harm you... at least not if you don¡¯t want it. You know I can hear you whimpering behind those pool noodles. I don¡¯t like hide and seek, let¡¯s just have fun in another way~¡¯ I walked around to where I could hear her and plopped my head into her hidey-hole. ¡®BUH!¡¯ ¡®Oh, now she just looks scared, that is no good.¡¯ As quickly as I had found her she jumped back and started wailing on me with one of her fortifications. ¡°Stay the fuck away from me you monster!¡± ¡®Haha~ See this is far more fun! I can be the sexy monster and you can be the naughty princess!¡¯ I had to practically stop myself from laughing out loud, this was pretty funny! But honestly, I didn¡¯t understand why she was panicking so. ¡°Valerie, please! I don¡¯t know what is going on with you but if you are still sane, know that I am really sorry! I- I just wanted to be close to you but you kept pushing me away... I got so lonely. Please don¡¯t kill me for it.¡± At this I had to hold in, why would she think that I wanted to kill her? I just wanted her to experience the same fun as I had! ¡®Fun? What fun? I was being changed against my will and now I had almost forced myself on my once best friend! I would have to... Bad daughter. If you can¡¯t do it I will make you.¡¯ ¡®What was I thinking! Of course, I have to share this great gift with those closest to me!¡¯ Caring little for Clarissa¡¯s pool noodle I lunged forward. The wet spongy weapon hit my head but it could as well have been a slap from a teddy bear. In the next moment, I was already on my beloved sister. Once more I unfurled the tentacles from my twat, after all, she would have to see my new found glory to fully appreciate it! ¡°Are... are those tentacles coming from your vagina?¡± ¡®Yes! Do you wish to feel them inside you?¡¯ I leaned in closer and began kissing Clarissa''s exposed skin. It was curious my lips seemed fuller than before I was really wondering what I looked like now. Sadly her reaction to this wasn¡¯t quite as romantic. ¡°What!? No! Get the fuck off already you damned freak or I will scream!¡± ¡®No, I can¡¯t have that! But I know how to shut her up properly~.¡¯ Before she could realize what I had planned, I quickly seized both her arms and pressed her to the ground. Despite her athletic build, it cost me next to no effort to overpower her, after all, who needed muscles if your mother gifted you telekinesis? Once she noticed what was going on she opened her mouth but I had a plan for that too! Thanks to my mother¡¯s guidance I knew just what to do. With one fluid motion, I leaned forward and sealed her lips with my own. This time she didn¡¯t struggle as much and I could have sworn that she was responding to my advances! The longer our kiss lasted the more I could feel her getting into it, at the same time her eyes became unfocused if from lust or something else I couldn¡¯t tell. What I could tell though was that beneath the scent of fear and adrenaline I faint hint of arousal was hidden. Maybe she did want this as much as I did after all! Spurred on by the thought I started ravaging her mouth with my split tongue. I wrapped it around her own, massaging it and finally wrestling it into submission. At the same time, my hands began caressing her form, trailing down from her sporty breasts to her six-pack and finally grabbing on to her tight ass-cheeks. When I pulled her closer she responded by wrapping her legs around my waist with almost crushing force. This was simply incredible, never before had sex been this intense. All my previous boyfriends had always treated be like a frail bloom that had to be protected but Clarissa was raw, violent, and almost feral. When she started biting my lip I would have all most come from the sensation alone. When I started to encircle her vagina with my lower tentacles her own advances suddenly increased in intensity. The little control I had over the power gifted to me was no longer enough to hold her. Her muscles bulges and strained and with an almost animalistic grunt, she pressed her arms against the ground and turned both of us around. Now on top of me, she simply ripped away from the kiss and I could see the fury in her eyes. All the years of being told she was only mediocre, that she was never going to be anyone special condensed into this very moment. One of her hands wrapped around my bundle of tenta-dicks and in the next second she had already impaled herself on them. I could only watch in both horror and arousal as any kind of agency was ripped away from me. ¡°Ah! Ahhh~! Valerie!¡± While she was humping me like a woman possessed her eyes had gotten back a bit of focus but what I saw there made my skin crawl, there was no love only desire in them and the crazed grin didn¡¯t help in the slightest. Before I could act she had already wrapped both her hands around my throat both choking me and digging her fingers into my siphons. Like a spell being broken, the pain removed what ever hex had made me act for the last few minutes. But it was already too late, even if my mind realized what was going on I couldn¡¯t stop my body from reacting. In a last attempt to save Clarissa I yelled at her mentally. ¡®You need to get off me, NOW!¡¯ ¡°Argh! NO! You are mine now! I no longer care what happens to me, I wished for this moment since we had met. I will have you no matter if you are sick. Hahaha~ I¡¯ll just be sick with you!¡± Even while saying this she didn¡¯t stop. I could feel myself approaching the edge and then I knew that the ancient one had gotten her wish. ¡®I¡¯m sorry Clarissa. We¡¯ll be sisters soon...¡¯ As I came my entire load into her womb I passed out both from shame, disgust, and exhaustion. I don¡¯t know how long I had been asleep for but when I woke up the sky I could see from the large windows on the ceiling was already showing first trails of orange. I looked around and noticed to my surprise that I was lying in the whirlpool that was normally closed. The next thing I saw would have almost certainly broken my heart if I still had one. A few meters away from me sat Clarissa as naked as I had first seen her but by the look on her face she was far less happy. With an empty gaze she stared at the blackened dead flesh in front of her. When she noticed me moving her head slowly almost mechanically turned to face me. ¡®You¡¯re awake.¡¯ She hadn¡¯t even bothered to try moving her mouth it was still tugged into a mirthless frown as the words echoed out from her. ¡®By the gods, what have I done? It wasn¡¯t enough to curse myself now I have even spread it to another person, someone who had been my best friend. What she said is true, I am a monster and I just created another one.¡¯ Not sure what to say I just went with the first thing that came to mind. ¡®I am. How long was I out?¡¯ When I looked at her I could see the same dark veins crawling over her skin as they were doing with me. ¡®About five hours I think. Enough time for our mother to invade my body.¡¯ She nodded over to the pile of dead flesh lying before her on the tiles. My throat closed up as I saw how dejected she was; from the marks on her cheeks, I could tell that she had already cried all her tears. ¡®I¡¯m so sorry. I never wanted this to happen!¡¯ Before I could go on in explaining myself and apologizing for the horror I had brought upon her I was stopped by her walking closer. Without saying another word she stepped inside the pool and wrapped me in a hug. We just sat there for several minutes nobody talking but just her holding me as I wept. My tears didn¡¯t burn my skin anymore something had truly changed and Clarissa would experience the same thing, I was so incredibly sorry. ¡®Don¡¯t be.¡¯ Clarissa was holding my cheeks and looked me straight in the eyes. Unlike with the others that had seen them, there was no fear but simply honest affection. ¡®But... I forced you to become something inhuman, something monstrous!¡¯ ¡®No, it was mother, not you. I felt enough of her presence to know the futility of going against her. You were just the tool of her whimsy. At least she has the decency to let us in peace right now. But no, I don¡¯t hold you responsible; it was alone my fault for not being able to resist her call. Had I not acted upon my desires, maybe...?¡¯ ¡®But... I brought her back into this world! I am at fault for anything that is going to happen from now on.¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help but look down dejected and feeling guilty. ¡®Hahaha! Your fault for trying to defeat a sickness of yours!? Not many other people would have called upon her for lesser reasons.¡¯ ¡®Wait! You knew about my condition?¡¯ ¡®Yeah, I did. Heard you talk about it with one of the professors. I was so jealous and angry back then but what I did with the pictures is still inexcusable. Hadn¡¯t I done that we wouldn¡¯t even have met today and you wouldn¡¯t have to feel guilty for my mistakes.¡¯ ¡®So, what now?¡¯ I was honestly surprised at how mature and matter of fact Clarissa was taking all this, but then again she had several hours to come to terms with it. Though the look she was giving me right now I could really place. It was something between fondness, amusement, and pity. Finally, she sighed and stood up. ¡®First, you should look into the mirror. I have no clue as to what hidden desire inspired your new form but I can certainly tell that there will be a lot more tentacles to come soon.¡¯ ¡®What do you mean?¡¯ ¡®Just... look.¡¯ She went back to the bench she had been sitting on before and handed me a small pocket mirror. I would have almost dropped it the moment I saw what she had meant. I wasn¡¯t disgusted but just shocked by the sight. The first thing that came to mind after giving myself a look over, was that I really had no need for a hairbrush anymore. ¡®I am truly inhuman now!¡¯ Part 6 â€“ Feeding the Fishes Part 6 What Clarissa had said was definitely true in some way. Even I couldn¡¯t deny that tentacles were a key point of my transformation. When I had thought of never again needing to brush my hair, I had hit the nail on the head, so to speak. Because I no longer had any kind of hair. Neither eyelashes nor eyebrows and certainly none on my head. Instead basically all of my face and head were wrapped in smooth glistening skin. It was incredibly soft to the touch and like an octopus, it changed colors. I wasn¡¯t even entirely sure how it did so or how I controlled it but it was undoubtedly as freakishly alien as it was incredibly beautiful. It had thought that the ancient one, our so-called Mother, was turning me into a monster and it was true I looked monstrous but what I hadn¡¯t expected to still be so pretty. In some way, I looked even better than I had before. My lips were lush and beautifully formed and my eyes were larger and very exotic looking with their squares pupil. The only things that I had to truly adjust to, were the fact that my nose was almost none existent and what now crowned my head. There in the place of my once full brown locks were, well, tentacles. They were eight in total and not all that long but they were very obvious. When in a resting position they streaked back against my head and encircled my now rather pointy ears like a cute fleshy pixie cut. But just like with the ones that had replaced my genitals, these too, seemed to have a bit of a mind of their own. Instead of staying still they just moved all over the damned place if I didn¡¯t concentrate on them. And even more curious, unlike my tenta-dicks, these had suckers on them and they basically attached to anything in reach! My head, my face, themselves, anything!!! Reaching with my fingers to touch them resulted in immediate tentacle-ation. As if they were the most curious thing to explore, next to all of them sought out my hand and fingers as soon as they were close enough. At first I had thought that there must have been some kind of connection between them and my brain for they didn¡¯t have any eyes and so shouldn¡¯t have known when I got closer. Only once they actually wrapped around my fingers I realized why they could sense so well. I was tasting the chlorine from the water dripping off my hand; my suckers were actually like those of an octopus in that they could taste what they touched! Clarissa, who had been watching this display with almost morbid curiosity must have noticed my befuddled look too because she just jumped straight into the pool with me. ¡®Everything okay, Val?¡¯ ¡®Obviously not! I have tentacles on my head!¡¯ ¡®You say that but still, you look more like a blushing maiden than someone who is disgusted...¡¯ ¡®Uhm, well, I just found out that I can taste with the suckers on them and that is just too weird!¡¯ ¡®So they are like tongues?¡¯ ¡®Yeah...¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help but look away to ashamed to face her. ¡®So if I do this...¡¯ ¡®Ah~! What are you doing!?¡¯ I couldn¡¯t see what her hands were up to back there but the sensations I felt from my tentacles were more than enough to imagine it. Like a bundle of weird dicks she caressed and stroked them from base to tip. Even though I tried my best I couldn¡¯t hold back for long and once she began kissing and sucking on one I cried out in pleasure. Yet I didn¡¯t do so mentally like I had done these past few hours but in a lapse of judgment I actually cried out loud. ¡°Ahhhh~¡± The very same moment I quickly clasped my hands tightly across my mouth, after all I knew too well what my voice could do to other people. Fearfully I glanced over to Clarissa, terrified of having hurt her. But what I saw astonished me, instead of being consumed by panic and pain she just looked at me with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Huh, so you sound like that too?¡± I, in turn, could only look at her in confusion and astonishment. My words hadn¡¯t hurt her, and hers had sounded alien but also unbelievably melodious to me. Did this mean that we could talk to each other normally like proper sisters? I hadn¡¯t lost my voice forever but simply gained a new one. Who cared about what other people thought as long as she could hear me it was just fine! Swept up by the moment I basically jumped out of the water and landed atop my new sister, pulling her beneath the surface with me. ¡®Val! I can¡¯t breathe!¡¯ Now I understood, our telepathy wasn¡¯t for talking with humans, but for talking underwater! ¡®Yes! Yes you can! Where does it itch the most, quick tell me!¡¯ ¡®Head... The sides of my head!¡¯ Her eyes darted around in panic but I already knew what to look for. I slid my hands up to her face and over her ears, behind them I found it. The skin there was inflamed and bulging as if something was pushing against it from inside. Knowing how I had freed my own siphons I didn¡¯t hesitate and dug my nails into the dying flesh. I did as any older sister would have done, I helped Clarissa to be born a new. Even if Mother had left us no choice and taken our humanity down to the depths of her insanity, we could still find pleasure in our new forms. We only had to embrace them, truly understand them! ¡®Ah, Val, this feels so weird! How... how does it look? Wha- what am I?¡¯ As the skin fell away something truly amazing was exposed. Even if my eyes hadn¡¯t been able to see so far more than before, I would have thought it beautiful. From the sides of Clarissa¡¯s head, almost like a regal crow, extended six identical branches of red gills. Like those of a young salamander, they flared out and pulsated with every breath they took. As my fingers caressed them they twitched up and down almost as if with joy. ¡®They are beautiful Clarissa, you are beautiful! Mother may be mad as a hare but I will let no one ever say that she made you less.¡¯ ¡®Beautiful you say? That might be true... no matter how she made us suffer I can not deny that you too are breath-taking. Hahaha~ I guess we truly are sisters now, aren¡¯t we?¡¯ She cupped my hand with her own and looked me into the eyes almost lovingly so. I couldn¡¯t help but smirk at her continued advances. Sisters in name we might have been now but her more carnal desires were clearly not subdued by this arrangement. But I couldn¡¯t fool myself, my body too was still yearning for her touch. ¡®Yes, but oh what naughty sisters we do make!¡¯ Out of impulse I leaned in closer and sealed her lips with my own. Almost immediately I could feel something long and slick invade my mouth, it seemed that Clarissa too had received an upgrade to her tongue. Unlike mine that was split in two and only marginally longer, her was a powerful singular appendage easily able to wrestle my own into submission. Despite the obvious physical advantages of my sister, I did not give up without a fight! I did have a few more hours of practice and soon began holding on to her tongue with one side and slapping it with the other. Though before either of us could rule supreme, the unmistakable sound of a door being opened made us freeze up. ¡®I thought you would have locked the doors!¡¯ ¡®I did!¡¯ The relaxation area of the swimming bath where we were at the moment was separate from the rest of the pools, so I had hoped that we would be undisturbed. Apparently so had Clarissa, because her scared, panicked eyes told me all I needed to know. If we didn¡¯t come up with a plan right now, we¡¯d be seriously fucked! Much to my demise before either of us could act or even think up something the door to the spa opened. We could hear steps getting closer and a male voice calling out to us. ¡°Hello? Who is in here? What the heck! Are you hiding in the tub?¡± ¡®Val! What the fuck do we do now!?¡¯ ¡®How should I know? You¡¯re the one in the swimming club!¡¯ After several minutes passed and neither of us surfaced the voice called out again. ¡°Okay, I must say that I am impressed. You held your breath for really long now. So I guess you are one of those fancy mages, how about you get out there and start cleaning up the mess you made? What even is this black sludge?¡± Suddenly Clarissa bared her teeth in anger and with a feral growl arose from the water before I could stop her. ¡°Don''t touch that!¡± ¡°Yikes!¡± Trying to prevent the worst I rose up behind Clarissa and wrapped my arms around her body in a comforting gesture. The man on the other hand just stood there for several seconds, not believing his own eyes. ¡°Ooookay. I have seen a lot of shit in the past twenty years. Elves, orcs, giant flying lizards but I can with certainty say that I would have never expected to meet naked fish-girls groping each other in the university baths.¡± Neither of us had a response to that, Clarissa was still seething with rage and I honestly had no idea about what lies I should tell! ¡°So, not talking huh? Guess I should have expected something like that... so uhm, the one in the back how about you hold your friend back from trying to tear off my face while I call the police and let them deal with this. Cause there is no way, that I¡¯m getting close to you two, not after that damned blood mage student almost severed my pinky.¡± He was just about to walk away when Clarissa seized my arm and pulled me closer to whisper something. ¡°We can¡¯t let him call the police.¡± ¡°I know! But what do you propose, murdering him!?¡± Clarissa¡¯s response to that was actually rather scary, instead of answering me, she just sniffed the air and her eyes narrowed. Doing this she looked truly looked like the predator mother had made us out to be. And the longer she stared at the increasingly nervous man, the more did my own desire to hunt rise. When she began licking her lips I knew that I had to do something! My grip around her waist tightened and I hissed in her ear. ¡°Clarissa! You¡¯re not actually considering what I think you are, right!?¡± ¡°Hypocrite! You can feel it too, the desire, the hunger! I can¡¯t even fathom how you resisted it so long! I am starving!¡± This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°By mother! Not even five hours and you already want to become a fucking cannibal!¡± ¡°Ah! Don¡¯t you try and make yourself a saint! You raped me and didn¡¯t even really try and stop yourself! So what if I give into the desire, it is only one. One of eight billion!¡± ¡°Do you even hear yourself speaking? We¡¯ll be hunted down like rabid dogs!¡± ¡°Fine! I¡¯ll listen to you ¡®elder sister¡¯, does that make you happy?¡± ¡°Uhm, don¡¯t know what language they speak where you come from but it¡¯s seriously painfully hurting my head to listen to the two of you. I¡¯m just gonna go... quickly.¡± At this moment I knew that we were fucked. If there was one thing you really shouldn¡¯t do in front of a predator, then it was turning your back on them and running away. Clarissa had been strong before but now she was just monstrously so. In the blink of an eye, she had ripped herself away from my hold and rushed the man. Thankfully her transformation had only just begun but by the way, she acted, I was certain that hers would include fangs and claws. He came about four meters before she had reached and tackled him to the ground. I knew I had to do something but my body urged me to just let it happen, to enjoy a... feast. ¡°NO! STOP!¡± The same power like this morning welled up in me and I focused on the only logical target. Just like Sadiya and Tanya, Clarissa too froze up, but unlike them, I could feel and see her seriously strain against my bindings. What ever I were to do now I would have to do quickly. I had no idea if I could hold her for long, not with how inexperienced I was. I stepped towards the two the man was still frantically trying to escape the arms of steel holding him. Calming myself mentally I put on my friendliest smile and keeled down before him. ¡®Hello, Sir. I must apologize for my younger sister''s actions. She can be a bit hot-headed at times and with you running away her instincts must have over taken her.¡¯ ¡°What- what are you?¡± ¡®Ah, that is a good question. Technically we are just our mothers'' daughters but that explains rather little. Considering our appearance and... nature, I think it would be easier to refer to us as abominations.¡¯ ¡°Abominations, alright. Are you... are you gonna kill me?¡± ¡®Hmmm, while my dear sister...¡¯ I looked over to the still bound Clarissa with stern eyes but only received an eye roll in return. ¡®As I was saying, while my sister might have sadly come to this conclusion I do not think it will be necessary. If you do not act like prey, she should not attack you again. So, sit still and be silent while I release her.¡¯ When he nodded in agreement, I slowly but surely loosened the hold I had over Clarissa. At first, I almost feared that she would try to mutilate him again but all she did was stretch and stand up. Yet not before leaning down and giving the poor guy a nibble on the earlobe. Honestly I had known that she was a bit rough with her paramours before, but now I had to wonder if she would actually kill someone out of pleasure. I was glad when she stepped away from the man and behind me. ¡°Ngh, that is quite the power you have Val. I would be jealous were it not for this intense strength of mine.¡± ¡°Let me try something before we leave though.¡± I walked up to the man now sitting on the ground and cupped his cheek while whispering in his ear. ¡°SLEEP.¡± ¡°Okay, I take it all back. Now I am jealous.¡± When I turned around she was staring at me with a cross look. ¡°Why?¡± I was about to raise an eyebrow but quickly remembered that they too had gone the way of my hair. ¡®At least I didn¡¯t gain tentacle-eyebrows. And no, that was not a suggestion mother!!!¡¯ ¡°You just knocked that guy straight out! Fudge damn it, do you even have to be a better monster than me!?¡± ¡°Please tell me you aren¡¯t going to make that a competition... because no matter what you say, I still have noodle arms.¡± To make my point come across I wobbled my arms around. Thankfully it seemed that this had been enough to consolidate her. Her frown began twitching with increasing intensity. She was good at holding her laugh at bay, but when I began wobbling my arms as well as my head tentacles in her direction it was too much. Sputtering and coughing she erupted into loud echoing laughter. To anyone else, it might have sound horrid but to me, it was like the chiming of bells. Seeing her gills vibrate with her laughs was so cute that I couldn¡¯t hold back and wrapped her in a tight hug and instinctively began tickling her. ¡°Val. Val! St- stop it, hahaha~! We need to- Haha. We need to leave though!¡± ¡°Yeah. Your right. Let¡¯s go.¡± ¡°Val?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°I¡¯m happy that we could become friends again.¡± ¡°Me too, Clarissa. Me too.¡± Thankfully it seemed that most of the students had already left and after covering what we could it was an almost trivial task to exit the building. Clarissa had hidden her gills beneath a beanie even though she was constantly complaining about how I was being ridiculous by fearing discovery. I didn¡¯t really see it as quite so ridiculous, there was no telling how society would react once they found out that our ¡°species¡± could only reproduce by raping and converting another human or meta-human. Even the least extreme action would already be installing tracking devices on or in us and that was not something I wished to experience. On the other hand, I could understand where she was coming from. It was annoying to hide like this, I could feel my very being protest against it. Yet I wasn¡¯t sure I these feelings came from my self or from mother influencing my mind. And before I figured that out I wasn¡¯t sure how I should actually act. I was still deep in thought but when we were about halfway across the university grounds Clarissa suddenly grabbed me by the arm. ¡°Val...¡± ¡°Is everything, okay?¡± ¡°No, no it isn¡¯t. I wasn¡¯t lying when I said that I was starving. If I don¡¯t get something to eat soon I will go insane!¡± ¡°Oh no.¡± Hadn¡¯t Clarissa been clinging to me so, I would have face palmed. I was so incredibly stupid! ¡°I¡¯m so sorry Clarissa! They had me on an IV during the initial changes and my mana well is much deeper than yours. I didn¡¯t think. Fudge! Come one we¡¯ll get some food first.¡± I quickly guided her off the campus making sure to keep as far away from other people as possible. How could I have been so short-sighted? It was only logical that she¡¯d be famished. The transformation affecting our bodies was similar to other emergence types that went by quickly. To create the new body the material had to come from somewhere, for magical beasts it came from the spirits mana well but for MAV infected it came mostly from the immense amounts of food they began consuming. A person changing into a ghoul or wendigo often ate entire carcasses in just a few hours, flesh, organs, and often even bones. Their hunger was also what made them so aggressive and dangerous. But as far as I knew they needed a lot less food initially if they were in a mana rich environment. So it was quite possible that it was the same for us. During the start of my change, the curse had mostly fed upon my vast mana reserves but someone like Clarissa whose well was far more shallow would have eaten through that way quicker. ¡°Uhm, I would ask where you want to eat but considering you almost ate a person, I guess anything with meat is okay?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± I knew of a place close by that catered especially to eleven and orc tastes, I had never been there being a human high society girl. But I figured that they most likely would also have just what the two of us needed to not go totally bonkers, at least I hoped so. On the way there I quickly send a message to both Sadiya and Tanya. I wasn¡¯t sure if either of them would read it but I had to try. To Sadiya I send some basic lines about how I was studying longer and would take the tram back home. The message for Tanya I struggled to write. On one hand, she was the one person in my life that I could trust blindly, on the other she had something of a ''knight in shining armor'' personality. I feared that she would get her self endangered by trying to help me, or worse that she could choose to throw away her humanity for me. It was odd, the one person I had always thought of as being like a sister to me, I didn¡¯t wish to make her my sister. I feared what it could do to her and that she would not think about it properly in an attempt to get closer to me. ¡®No, I already have do deal with Clarissa. There is no way that I can just go around damning people with this as if I was giving out candy! No matter what Mother¡¯s goal is, I still write my own destiny.¡¯ In the end, I didn¡¯t tell Tanya what was really going on but I simply wrote a few pretty phrases of how I was well and anxious to see her again. It felt a bit like I was abusing her trust in me but until my change was over and I knew just where I stood this was for the best. ¡°Oh, well let¡¯s just fucking do this. Let¡¯s hope we don¡¯t get torched.¡± ¡°Stop being so pessimistic Val! There are literally frickin dragons living in this world. I doubt they¡¯ll be all that upset about two ¡®fishy looking chicks¡¯.¡± ¡°Let''s hope so.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure where Clarissa was taking all that optimism from; but once I smelled the scent of food wafting up my nostrils, the growling of my stomach said it all. My body needed food and it needed it now! Lead on by my own hunger I practically stormed into the dinner called ¡®Freakish Delights¡¯ and immediately regretted my own brashness. Almost as if we were in a bad movie next to every patron looked our way when my over-enthusiastic entrance made the door crash open. ¡°Smooth, Val. Very smooth...¡± Clarissa¡¯s remark had been so dry it was a wonder she didn¡¯t turn to wine. I only regarded her with a half-whispered and half hissed answer. ¡°Shut it and find a dark corner for us to sit. I can¡¯t stand the looks in this place.¡± ¡°Sure, whatever you say Sis.¡± While Clarissa went around the room searching for a free ¨C and adequate ¨C table, I went to the counter unsure as to how the ordering worked in this place. On my way past the occupied tables, I noticed that most of the clientele indeed where Elves or Orcs and a few other meta-types. And if I did one thing then it was attracting attention. Nobody in here was hiding their otherness and covered up I did look very much like the human I had been before. Even my tentacles seemed to notice my rising discomfort, for my ¡®hair¡¯ completely stopped moving around and instead was pressed tightly to my head. I had already half a mind to take of my disguise and show the people staring at me that I had every right to be here but before I knew it I had already reached the counter. The young woman ¨C this time I had paid attention ¨C behind it was very obviously an elf. Like most elves she was tall, with an athletic build and very handsome looks, her hair was pulled back into a messy bun but on her, it looked just as stylish as it did wild. When I approached her, her face first lit up into a smile, then a frown and lastly a much less sincere smile. Even her body language was slightly hostile upon seeing that I was seemingly a normal human. ¡°Hello there, welcome to Freakish Delights. Take out or eating in? I must warn you though; a lot of our dishes are not designed for human taste or stomachs.¡± ¡®That is fine. My sister and I will be eating here. For the start let¡¯s go with...¡¯ I gave the advertisement a look over. Indeed a lot of the dishes were rather heavy in meat even if most was grown in a production plant and not from living animals. What disturbed me the most was that I seemed to be instinctively drawn to the meals with less than rare meat? Swallowing my raising anxiety I continued my order. ¡®Uhm, the dishes six, four, two, and... eleven.¡¯ ¡°Are you sure? That is quite a lot and none of that is really made for...¡± A growl from my stomach interrupted her quite quickly. ¡®We will be fine. I will pay now, here is my card.¡¯ With a dismissive wave, I flicked over my credit-chit. ¡°O- okay. If you say so.¡± She swiped my chit over the register only to immediately frown. ¡°Valerie Sherman? Sherman as in the AFI Sherman!?¡± ¡®NO! Not in the slightest. Now get to it already!¡¯ Why did this have to happen!? I was just here to get food not more! Why couldn¡¯t people just leave it be? The desire to rip off my ¡®disguise¡¯ got even stronger, even if only to make clear that I was definitely not related to my parents, at least not any longer. With an annoyed huff, I stomped towards the table Clarissa had plopped down on. It was in a nice cozy corner where no one would look at us. The moment I sat down I had to rip off my muffler and hood. All this hiding and being sneaky was getting to me. Seeing that I was not hiding what I was anymore Clarissa only shrugged and let her own oddities show. Unlike me she seemed to actually delight in the look it was giving her. The entire time we were waiting on the food she checked herself out in the reflection of an adjacent aquarium. Well, that or she wanted to eat the fishes... ¡°Okay, so what is eating at you Val? You seem more pissed than I knew you normally.¡± ¡°Ahhh, I don¡¯t even know really. Everything just feels so overwhelming. First the ritual, then the shit with Mother and now you. I don¡¯t know if I am doing the right thing and this entire cloak and dagger shit I have to do because of my racist parents doesn¡¯t help in the slightest.¡± ¡°Val...¡± Instead of trying to persuade me or convince me that I wasn¡¯t driving everything against the wall Clarissa just leaned in and cupped my cheek. For a while she just sat there but just when she was about to lean over the table and embrace me, a polite cough made both of us lookup. Before your table stood another elven woman, only this one was around Clarissa''s and my age. Not only was she carrying part of our food but she was staring at me in shock. ¡°Valerie Sherman? Is it really you? Wha- What happened to you!?¡± ¡®And... you are?¡¯ ¡°Holy! Telepathy!? I mean, it is me, Karen! We were friends in elementary school!¡± Instead of answering her I just plopped down face first on the table. ¡®How by Mother did this day manage to get even weirder!?¡¯ Part 7 â€“ The order of things (1/2)

Eldritch ¨C Part 7 (1/2)

The day had already been odd enough, to say the least, but the most confusing thing happened when my head impacted with the table. Instead of the dull thud, I had expected it was more of a subdued splat sound, in a way like slapping a fish really. Apparently I hadn¡¯t been the only to notice this because when I looked up again, it was to one raised eyebrow from Clarissa and a mouth gaping in shock from the elven waitress. ¡°Did her head just... how?¡± It was a wonder that the girl, who was apparently the Karen from my childhood, still hadn¡¯t dropped the food throughout the whole ordeal. Trying to save at least some of my rapidly vanishing dignity, I brushed my tentacles back with one hand and sat up straight as if nothing had happened. ¡®Karen... right?¡¯ ¡°Yeah, say... are you sure you¡¯re okay? That looked rather painful; I mean your head went...¡± ¡®It doesn¡¯t matter! I am perfectly fine. If I need to reassure you, it hurt a lot less than one would think.¡¯ ¡°If you say so... But you are Valerie Sherman, right? I mean my sister scanned your credit-chit after all.¡± Before I answered I gave her a good look over. After all, this was as awkward for me as it must have been for her. The last time I had seen her was almost eleven years ago and I still remembered what I had said to her on that last day. I had told her that I loved her, promised her that I would marry her when we were grown up. It hadn¡¯t been an issue then; sexuality is not something on the mind of most children but now... Now I knew all too well what I had been hiding from all these years; the reason why I was so close with Tanya and why I had been constantly looking for a new boyfriend. Today Clarissa had shown me the truth, the fact that even if I was attracted to men, it was the companionship of other women that I had actually always been looking for. It only dawned on me at that moment, that Mother must have known it even while I still had been denying it. The way she had changed my body and the task she was expecting from me. All that pointed to her having not only known but purposely searched for someone like me. She must have spent decades over decades trapped, hoping to find the one that could bring her love to the whole world. I didn¡¯t know how many people had called upon her before, but the fact that we weren¡¯t neck-deep in abominations already spoke for her never having found someone worthy, until now apparently. And here I was, once more face to face with the one girl that had potentially started it all; the one girl that had not only led me on this path but she who had made me fall in love with the otherness and strangeness of meta-humans in the first place. Looking at her now I couldn¡¯t deny that I would have desired her even as an adult, if not actually more so because of her matured looks. Unlike me who had always been on the small side with barely 1.60 meters, she had grown tall! Despite still being smaller than her sister, Karen was at least an entire head taller than me. In addition to her height, she had an just as impressive cleavage clearly showing beneath her waitress uniform. Looking at her face I could clearly see the relation between her and her sister, her face looked almost exactly like that of the older one, even if hers was a bit softer. Another difference between the two was that despite their basically identical brown hair, Karen¡¯s was long and braided into an intricate design while her sister had sported more of a short boyish undercut. But the most curious thing I noticed when she put the plates with food down. While her clothes were mostly covering everything, the moment she leaned forward and had to reach over the table I got a rather close look at something I hadn¡¯t expected. If I wasn¡¯t seeing things, then Karen had faint rope burns on her neck, arms and wrists, that was... curious. ¡®So, Karen.¡¯ ¡°Ah, yes sorry! I thought you were thinking about something, so I placed down the plates already! I hope you don¡¯t mind!?¡± ¡®Honestly, I am a bit surprised. You are far less determined and assertive than I remember you being.¡¯ Almost instantly Karen blushed red like an overripe tomato. Apparently I had hit a nerve because not only was she blushing but she was trying to hide her arms behind her back as if she was ashamed of the markings on them. ¡°Uhm, so you noticed... and you just admitted that you actually are Valerie. Oh by the gods, this is embarrassing! Ah, how about you start eating and I get you something to drink? On the house obviously!¡± She didn¡¯t even wait for either of us to respond but instead quickly mumbled an apology and dashed off. I was so baffled by her behaviour that I just sat there for a good moment contemplating what had just happened. Karen had been very different in elementary school. If I could trust my memories she had always been rather daring and brash so to see her blushing like an embarrassed maiden really didn¡¯t fit with how I remembered her. And if I took those rashes into account, she was either being abused or she had fallen really deep into the BDSM well. Still considering the possibilities I only noticed Clarissa staring at me when I felt a rather disturbing tingle. ¡°So, Val. Who is she? Last time I looked you didn¡¯t have any other friends but me...¡± ¡®Yikes, jealous much? That smile really isn¡¯t helping!¡¯ ¡°No need to worry, she¡¯s just a very old childhood friend I had never expected to see again.¡± This time her smile seemed more sincere but thanks to her darkened gums it didn¡¯t look any less sinister. ¡°Good. Let¡¯s eat my beloved sister.¡± ¡°Yeah...¡± Despite the more than awkward atmosphere, the food itself was actually spectacular! Well seasoned and with an underlying taste I couldn¡¯t quite place the different kinds of meats almost melted in my mouth so well prepared was it. While both of us still ate the side dishes, the actual highlight were the meals made from fresh meat and marrow. I had never been a fan of dishes like carpaccio, tartare, or yukhoe before, but either the chef had done an incredible job, or the change had already affected my taste buds. It would have been a rather delightful dinner if Clarissa¡¯s eating habits didn¡¯t leave me questioning her manners. Unlike me who had used the proper utensils for each dish, she at on point had just shrugged and taken the food in her hands. It was certainly a savage sight to see her wolf down so much in such a short time. I entirely lost my composure when she started eyeing an already cleaned of bone. Before I could stop her, she had already picked it up and plopped one side in her mouth. With a loud and very distasteful crunch, she bit down, severing not only the bone in two but losing several teeth in the process. Apparently not even having noticed her new gaps, she extended her tongue and slurped the marrow right out of the two halves. ¡°What the actual fuck!?¡± Only realizing my disturbed look about now, she met my gaze with an almost sheepish grin. ¡°Sorry? I don¡¯t know what overcame me... But it tastes so good! Did you... want some too?¡± ¡°You do realise that your action just made you lose a bunch of teeth?¡± ¡°Wah? But it didn¡¯t even hurt!¡± As unbelieving of her own action as I was, she turned to face her reflection in the aquarium again. With one finger she pulled her cheek aside and with the other, she began prodding the gaps in her mouth. Her initial curiosity was quickly replaced by horror when her prodding made two other teeth fell out.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°The fudge!? There are new teeth growing in the place of my human ones! The heck is going on Val? Your teeth didn¡¯t change!¡± ¡°I¡¯m... not sure? I think Mother is changing each of her daughters differently. So I¡¯m styled after an octopus and I would guess you after some kind of salamander?¡± Thinking about it there was actually another thing that had been bothering me since this morning. After I had puked my guts out and that weird black goo had replaced my stomach acid I hadn¡¯t felt the need to... well, relief myself. And considering how much both me and Clarissa had just stuffed into our bodies it should have been visible, but my stomach didn¡¯t even feel bloated. I had heard the theory that some magical beasts actually bend space when assuming a smaller form but neither of us had shown any sign of being able to change size. So where in the name of mother did all that mass go? As if in answer to my thoughts an indescribable feeling from my crotch made me go wide-eyed. ¡°Say, Clarissa... did you have the desire to relive yourself in the last few hours?¡± Thankfully this seemed to catch her attention away from her dental problems. Instead, she looked at me for a moment then looked at my tummy and hers before her face lost almost every colour. ¡°Val, you don¡¯t... look all that well. Is everything alright?¡± ¡°No! My... My butt just moved! To the toilets, now!¡± ¡°Do I... have to come? we didn¡¯t get our drinks yet...¡± ¡°NOW!¡± I had to seriously hold myself back from not straight up commanding her but what I had just felt was by far more important than her desire for free beverages! ¡®Oh, Mother you damned freak! I can still feel it! Ah, no! It is even worse when walking...¡¯ Despite not having gotten a look at whatever monstrous addition I had just gained, I had a sneaking suspicion. Considering that most of my ¡®design¡¯ was styled after an octopus and now something down there was moving I was rather sure that is could only be one thing. Pulling Clarissa behind me like a lost puppy I made my way as quickly to the toilet as was possible. I didn¡¯t spend time worrying about being seen, as right now I just needed to confirm my fear. Once inside I basically shoved my Sister it to the same stall with me and pulled down my leather skirt. Unsurprisingly I had to once more lay eyes upon the same black muck that had indicated my first big change. Removing my panties to the confused and intrigued looks of Clarissa resulted in thick clumps of the stuff falling down. ¡°So why am I here? I don¡¯t really have a scat fetish you know?¡± ¡°Me neither! I just need a second set of eyes to confirm I¡¯m not going crazy.¡± ¡°Honestly I think it is too late for that but I¡¯ll do my best!¡± ¡°Good. Now tell me what you see!¡± ¡°Your crotch?¡± ¡°By Mother! In detail Clarissa! Describe it to me in detail!¡± ¡°F-Fine! There! Vagina, weird hole, butt!¡± ¡°Weird hole!?¡± Before she could shy away from me I had already grabbed her by the gills with both hands and brought her to my height. ¡°Would you mind telling me that again?¡± Despite putting on my friendliest smile Clarissa seemed genuinely frightened of me. Maybe my face was showing my inner turmoil more than I would have expected or, and this was far more likely, our special bond allowed her to sense my intention. ¡°Sorry, Sis! There is a horizontal slit right between your legs and your vagina wandered upwards to make room for whatever is in there.¡± ¡°Good, that was far better. Not so hard right.¡± I leaned in closer to her ear and gently whispered. ¡°Now, touch it.¡± ¡°I really don¡¯t want to!¡± ¡°I said: TOUCH. IT.¡± I already knew what the slit was, but this was going to be a learning experience for both Clarissa and me. She was an impudent brat and I had to show her just who of us was in charge. Releasing her gills from my grip, I sat down on the toilet lid and spread my legs to give her good access. Her body visibly strained against the order but I simply pushed more of my will on her. This was meaningless if she thought she could escape my clutches, but she wouldn¡¯t, after all, I was the herald and she would obey me! Slowly but surely her trembling hand approached my crotch. Stroking her head like a loving older sister should I beckoned it closer. After all, I had fed her, so now it was her turn to feed me. Just before her fingers touched my slick flesh her eyes darted up in panic. By now she was certain as to what her hand was approaching and she knew what would happen. The last bit of distance was closed up and my lips tugged into a sadistic smile as I could smell her reek of fear. ¡®So human still, despite her apparent embrace of the change, disgusting.¡¯ I felt her soft touch and in a split second my beak shot forward and ripped off two of her fingers. Her mouth formed into a shocked grimace of pain but I would have none of this. ¡°SILENCE! Yes, this is better Sister. How you acted today is inexcusable! You understand that, right? You went against my orders and behaved like a damned savage. This is NOT acceptable! You will do what I say and happily so, understood?¡± Clarissa was still far too scared to properly respond so I just took her frantic nod as a yes. Though Mother was right, it was rather pathetic how she sat there like a terrified chick clutching her hand to her chest. I sighed and leaned down. Before she could protest I took her stumps and licked across the open wounds. She tasted far too good in my opinion, I could only hope that she¡¯d change quickly. Making sure that my saliva had sealed the open wounds I gave her a kiss on the forehead and stood up. ¡°By Mother! Don¡¯t be such a wuss, those where only human fingers, you¡¯ll grow new ones soon enough, especially if you keep up with that appetite. But know if you ever rebel against me again, I will take more than a few fingers.¡± ¡°Ye- Yes Sister! I¡¯m sorry Valerie! I- I am a bad girl and deserve to be punished!¡± ¡°Oh? You are quite the sicko after all! Don¡¯t tell me that your tough girl act is just that, an act? And what. Is. This?¡± When I looked down on her kneeling form, my gaze was immediately drawn to her own crotch region. Above a rather telling bulge in her pants was a dark wet spot. Not being able to constrain myself I kicked off my shoe and placed my toes right above the little hill. Grinding my foot down on it I felt what was obviously a tube though it didn¡¯t end in a pronounced tip. ¡°I asked. What. Is. This? Don¡¯t tell me the little slut got herself a puny little dick! Because this thing is just fucking tiny! Is that it, huh? Did you always want a dick like one of the boys and so Mother gave you a subby little tool?¡± ¡°Ah~! N- No!¡± It was rather delightful to see her squirm beneath me like this. Under me was, after all, a very fitting place for her! ¡°No!?¡± I dug the ball of my foot further into her crotch, this thing was fun to play with! ¡°It¡¯s not a dick! It¡¯s my ovipositor!¡± ¡®Oh, now this is delicious! An ovipositor!¡¯ ¡°Ha! Mother was right, you are a vessel creature! Does the thought of laying a bunch of eggs full of your spawn make you wet, huh? Does it!?¡± Sadly like so many good things in life, this situation too had to end. And this time the end came in the form of a rather embarrassed elven voice. ¡°Valerie? Are you in here?¡± ¡®Ah yes, I am. Would I wait a moment Karen?¡¯ ¡°Oh... Oh! Gods, I am so sorry! I¡¯ll... just wait outside then!¡± Once she had left the bathroom I immediately turned back around to the still squirming form of Clarissa. I had to admit, after what I¡¯d been enduring from Sadiya in the morning, letting out my frustration on her felt simply good. And if I went by her flustered appearance Clarissa too was actually quite into it. It made me wonder if all her possessiveness and nasty behaviour were just to get people riled up enough to punish her. Even now she was rubbing her crotch while looking up at me with an expression somewhere between insane devotion and barely constrained lust. Maybe I had gone a bit far with biting off her fingers but it seemed to have helped in showing my Sister just who of us was on top. ¡°Well then, Clarissa. From now on you will do as I tell you and only when I tell you. There are times and places to let out your more... animalistic desires, but I will decide and tell you when it is appropriate to act upon them. You are my younger Sister and so you will comply. Is that understood?¡± ¡°YESSS~, Sister!¡± I couldn¡¯t help but smile when I felt the power woven into her answer. She truly meant what she had said, she was as devoted to me as she could possibly be. I had no illusions about her. She would rebel again and again but this was the nature of us; to always strive for more but still find pleasure in even the lowest of position. What Mother was creating was not a new race but a safe haven for those broken and rejected by society. And as her herald, I would make sure to spread her love as far as my tentacles could reach. If I knew one thing, then that I would have a lot of fun doing so. ¡°Come Sister. Let us properly greet our kind hostess.¡± ¡°Mhm~, indeed. Let¡¯s!¡± Part 7 â€“ The order of things (2/2) Just as I opened the stall door a sudden wave of vertigo washed over me and with it came the realization of what I had just done. Not only had I grown a beak like a fucking octopus, but I had eaten my friend''s fingers! ¡®No! This is fucking wrong! Even if she was acting inappropriately what I just did is way worse!¡¯ Sickened by my own actions I stormed back into the stall and began retching. Only when after several seconds still nothing left my stomach, I turned around to Clarissa. Almost as if the opening of the door had broken a spell over the two of us, she too looked on the edge of a shock. Like she couldn¡¯t believe what her eyes were seeing she stared at the two stumps of her fingers. Slowly noticing my attention on her, her other hand raised to point at the mutilated one. Her mouth tried to form words but no sound came out. Again and again, her eyes darted from the remains of her left hand to my crotch. I knew what she was looking for; the thing that had hurt her damaged her, eaten her, the thing that was part of me. It made no sense for it to be there. It was a second mouth in my crotch area and it had just, basically with my okay, eaten human flesh. Not only human flesh but the flesh of someone alive, someone that I saw as my friend. I was almost about to embrace Clarissa, tell her that it would never happen again but even a single step forward made her instinctively recoil. After all, who was I fooling? If I had given in to my warped instincts this easily, just what would happen once my metamorphosis was over? What kind of monster would I... No, would we be? Finally, a quiet whisper made me lookup. ¡°Your crotch ate my fingers... You ate my fingers!¡± The look she was giving me was full of revulsion and horror. Nothing of the sexually charged air from before was left. Instead, she was no longer looking at a sister but a monster. When she took another few steps back I couldn¡¯t fault her for it. Who would want to be close to something like me? And yet I couldn¡¯t let it end this way. I had to tell her that I didn¡¯t want to do as I had done! ¡°Clarissa please wait!¡± ¡°Why should I?¡± ¡°Please! I didn¡¯t want to hurt you! I don¡¯t know what came over me!¡± ¡°I know... This thing, this being in our heads... it is warping and twisting us. Our bodies, our minds... How can we even still tell what is us and what Her?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I don¡¯t know, but I never would hurt you willingly! Please don¡¯t just leave me!¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry too, Val. I... I need to go. I need to say goodbye to my family. I¡¯m not sure how much longer I can still say that I am myself... I have your number. I will call you once everything is done.¡± ¡°Clarissa!¡± Without another word, she stormed out of the bathroom and past a very confused looking Karen. I could have run after her, even ordered her to stop but I didn¡¯t. What use would that still have? I had not only broken her trust but seriously harmed her. If she wanted to come back it would be her decision... or Mother¡¯s but certainly not mine. For several minutes I just sat there numbed to the world around me. If I still had the strength to move then I didn¡¯t want to. It felt as if every decision I had made today had been worse than the one before. Was I truly just the puppet for an insane God-like that had set her mind on gaining back what she had lost? And if all of me had become her daughter... would there still be anything left of me? ¡®What point is there even in going on? Should I not just end it all here...¡¯ My thoughts began trailing off and the last thing I felt was someone wrapping a blanket around my trembling form before darkness took me. Once more I found my consciousness floating in this same dark and comforting void like it had before. Despite my mind being in chaos, this place had an incredibly calming effect on me, as if you could just let go and rest. But before the feeling could overtake me, I felt a presence around my being. By now I had a pretty good idea of what Mother¡¯s touch felt like. Normally it was like a force of nature blowing away all resistance but this time it was far more subdued. It was almost timid in the way she prodded and poked at my being. Like she was searching for something but was scared of what she would find. After a while, she apparently was satisfied and retreated to a short distance from me. ¡°Daughter... you are... unhappy. Why?¡± A dark chuckle escaped me as I thought about her question. Her mind worked so differently from our own. ¡°Obviously I am! You know what I just did. How could I not be unhappy!?¡± The feeling coming from her turned to confusion and uncertainty. ¡°I do not understand. You wished to do these things... so I removed your inhibitions. But you are unhappy...¡± ¡°Just because we think of doing something doesn¡¯t mean we actually want to do it! In our world, everything has consequences, often irreversible once! We... we are not like you. Our reality isn¡¯t fluid and neither are our minds!¡± This time I could feel her actively recoil from me. These concepts seemed almost alien to her; the very thought that her actions could have hurt her daughters seemed to truly terrify Mother. For a while, she didn¡¯t speak but I could feel her presence swell and shrink in turmoil. When she was done and turned back to me her intent was full of sadness and regret. ¡°I... understand. I am sorry... Valerie. I must speak to your Sister. Stay as long as you like...¡± The bulk of her presence faded away into the void, of in search of Clarissa¡¯s mind no doubt. A long sigh escaped me and I curled up into a ball. Floating in this vast alien sea of nothingness I sank into a dreamless slumber. The Me of tomorrow could deal with my worries and problems, I was just way too tired right now. The first thing I heard upon waking up was voices. At first, I would have assumed that it was one person speaking with themselves but after a bit, I realized that it had to be Karen and her sister arguing. Their voices were very similar but their speech patterns entirely different. Still not entirely sure as to what was going on I kept my eyes shut and simply listened. ¡°Once more I am telling you, there is no record of whatever is happening to her!¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just something new?¡± ¡°Karen! Listen to me! Who of us is studying meta-biology? Believe me when I said that I searched everywhere I could! The only thing I could find was obscure stuff from ten years ago and that was mostly redacted. By the hells! There were footnotes referring to books or papers that don¡¯t even exist!¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°But just because of that she doesn¡¯t have to be dangerous, right?¡± ¡°No... you are right. It isn¡¯t like a MAV. She seems fully sentient despite how fast her body changes...¡± ¡°You know Katya, even you have to admit that there is a certain beauty to it. Just look at her! Imagine the possibilities...¡± ¡°Karen! No! We talked about this! Even if yes, she is... fascinating. We don¡¯t know enough about what is going on to even consider it!¡± ¡°Ah... you¡¯re right. It¡¯s just... we waited and stalled for so long...¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry Karen. I promised you that we will find a way and I intend to keep that promise, we just need to wait a bit longer.¡± ¡°I... know. Katya, I love you!¡± ¡°I love you too...¡± ¡®Okay. I feel like none of that was meant for my ears. What do I do now?¡¯ Deciding that it wouldn¡¯t really matter if they knew I had listened in or not I slowly began sitting up. Almost immediately I noticed that something was different. My head felt... heavier. ¡®Ugh, what is it now? I really don¡¯t have the energy to panic anymore.¡¯ Once I reached up it became pretty clear as to what had changed. During the night my ¡®hair¡¯ had grown longer. Even the shortest tentacles reached now almost down to my collar bone. I wasn¡¯t quite sure if tentacles had emotions but if I were to take a guess then I¡¯d say they were rather happy with the new length. Like a bunch of over-excited snakes, they wrapped around each other as if intent on having each and every part of my head tentacled. When my eyes adjusted to the way too bright light I noticed that other parts of my body had begun changing too. All across my upper body and arms the skin had begun to dry out and flake off. Even just a slight touch resulted in another few flakes falling away. Had I not already experienced so many traumatizing things in the last twenty-four hours I would have probably panicked. Now I was simply watching it with a detached curiosity. While my mind was still adjusting to this new reality, a far greater part of me hoped for the change to finally be over. It was maddening having to wait and slowly see yourself change. I think I would have preferred the quick change magical beasts went through but then again apparently feeling your body and mind be ripped apart put back together was most likely not a pleasant experience. And yet there actually were people hoping or even trying to get themselves changed into one on a daily basis. Considering how volatile spirits usually were, ideas like that bordered on insanity. Even under a controlled environment thirty to forty percent of bindings resulted in the death and destruction of both spirit and host. Still, it was hard to fault them for trying. There had even been a kind of cult around a young drake during the beginning of the convergence. That woman had achieved dragon status at an unprecedented age, just a few years after her emergence. Nobody knew where she was now as she hadn¡¯t been seen in five years but she was irrefutable proof of the power one could gain from emerging. Then again there had been several countries outright declaring to open fire on any dragon to ever enter their airspace, so I really hoped that I wouldn¡¯t gain as much renown as the ¡°Dragon Queen of Neo York¡±. Another extreme example I wouldn¡¯t want to follow were those of demon worshippers or changelings. While changelings oftentimes had no choice in their conversion, worshippers actively sought out contact with the demonic Miasma. It was the biggest reason for why each demon visiting or living on earth had to wear a tracking bracelet and live in specifically build areas. Because even if they couldn¡¯t do anything about it, every demon infected the mana around them with Miasma spreading their corruption. This was also why next to everyone had adapted to saying hells instead of hell. You just never knew when another world would succumb to the Miasma. Magea, earth¡¯s sister world the one she had collided with, would have almost shared that fate had it not been for the intervention of the God-like. And full circle my thoughts came back to my own situation. I had no doubts that Mother was one of these elusive and powerful beings. But even after seeing her influence, I didn¡¯t know what to make if it. Some people worshipped the God-like, most just kinda ignored that they existed hoping to never be noticed, but others like my father were obsessed with them. These people were constantly trying to figure out where the God-like had come from, how they worked, under what rules they operated but most importantly how to destroy them. I had never figured out where his hate for both Meta-humans and the God-like had come from. He had seemed so proud when I had shown an aptitude for magic early in my life. I could still remember sitting on his lap as he told me about the wonders he had seen in Magea. His stories had fascinated and inspired me just as they must have done so himself in the past. The change to the person he was today, the man that treated his only daughter like garbage, it had been a slow and subtle one. Each year he had gotten more obsessed with his work, starting to neglect other things. Things like me, one would have thought that where one parent failed, the other would make up for it but so it had never been for me. My birth mother always was a cold and clinical woman. Well, I said birth mother but she hadn¡¯t actually cared to carry me. Instead, I had been a tube baby, literally in my case. And to make matters worse, once they had been confronted with the reality of my sickness I had completely fallen out of their favor. No matter how hard I had tried, nothing had managed to impress them. But now things were different. If was no longer dependent on them. Instead, I had found a parent for myself that despite her faults actually seemed to care about me. If he had made it his purpose to remove the God-like from existence... Well, then it was on me to stop him. Mother had already been closer to me in this short time than they had ever been in my entire life! And at least with her, I knew that she actually loved her daughters... ¡°Oh! You are awake!¡± ¡®Huh!?¡¯ ¡®By Mother! Did she sneak up on me!?¡¯ ¡°Sorry that you had to sleep on the couch but the flat isn¡¯t really big enough for another bed. I mean my sister and I already sleep in the same bed. Haha~ OH! No- Not like this! Obviously! That would be gross! Hahaha!¡± ¡®If you repeat that now with a straight face I might actually believe you.¡¯ ¡®Karen.¡¯ ¡°Yes!¡± ¡®I don¡¯t care what you and your sister do or don¡¯t do. That is your business and yours alone. Thank you for taking care of me though. That was very kind.¡¯ I got off the couch and stretched my stiff muscles with a bunch of little pops before walking closer to my dear host. ¡®But if I were you, I¡¯d hide those rope burns better. Now then, I already paid for the food and I don¡¯t really think you want a monster like me crashing at your place for too long. I¡¯ll see myself out, thanks for everything, really.¡¯ ¡°Wait!¡± ¡®Yes?¡¯ ¡°Can you give me your number? I... I want to stay in touch! And maybe you can visit me again?¡± ¡®Sure.¡¯ Despite her obvious interest in me I wasn¡¯t sure hanging around her for too long was wise. My change wasn¡¯t yet over and I needed someplace safe for it to run its course. But if it would make her happy I had no reason to object giving her a way of contacting me. A few minutes later I was already on my way out. Pulling up my hoodie I started walking to the nearest tram station. Looking up with my new eyes, the sky was so bright it was almost a bit terrifying. And yet every step I took felt as if a weight was falling off my heart. While Mother was by no means perfect she was without a doubt the only way forward for me now. With her behind me, I would never again have to try and impress my birth parents. Instead, I could focus on whatever I wanted for myself. Maybe Clarissa and I could go travel once our metamorphosis was over? See the world for a few years before actually settling down somewhere. My delightful daydreams were all of a sudden rudely interrupted by the ringing of my phone. It was Sadiya, obviously, it was. Who else could ruin a perfectly fine morning? Not thinking about it I already tapped the answer button before I realized the futility of this. Sadiya was a normal human, I couldn¡¯t talk to her and telepathy didn¡¯t work through phones! ¡°Valerie! Where, by the fucking Hells, have you been!? This is the third time I tried calling you!!! You can be so fucking happy that I haven¡¯t told your parents yet! You will come home right this moment! I didn¡¯t become your babysitter so I¡¯d have to chase your damned ass across the town!¡± A dark feeling felt up inside of me. Just who did she think she was? We hadn¡¯t even known each other for much more than a single day and already she was acting as if she should have all control over my life! Once I was home I would make sure to silence her so she wouldn¡¯t interfere in the things to come. But for now, I had a better idea, I could give her a taste of what was awaiting her! Slowly I raised the phone to my mouth and spoke. ¡°I¡¯m coming home, my DEAR...¡± ¡°AH! What the fuck! My ears! Fuck!... Beep!¡± There was no need to listen to her screaming I, after all, had a tram to catch! Part 8 â€“ Adrienne (1/...) Part 8 ¨C Adrienne (1/...) The tram cart was, as usual on a Saturday morning, not particularly full. A few weekend workers off to do whatever they did, some annoying youths and a young family of four. All in all nobody paid much mind to a lone girl in a hoodie. Yet even with the glasses and muffler covering most of my rather inhuman face I had quite a hard time having it stay like this. I had to constantly focus on my hair to keep it from slipping out and attaching to whatever came close. I was just about to give up and simply let the tentacles do whatever when my gaze fell upon a screen with a news report. ¡°In other news today. Yesterday evening the Amsterdam police got a rather odd call when a local University Janitor reported being assaulted and ¡°hexed" by mysterious assailants. Citing the leaked police report, the man was just about to close up the university pools, when he stumbled upon a duo of ¡°Fish-girls" groping each other in one of the pools. Apparently he assumed that they couldn¡¯t understand his words and was about to call the police, when one of the girls tackled him to the ground. Thankfully no harm came to him as the other girl intervened. In the following telepathic conversation, they introduced themselves as Abominations. After making him fall asleep they left the building without a trace.¡± The video cut out and instead showed an artist¡¯s rendition of both Clarissa and me. Well, at least something coming close to one. These looked rather like high-quality sex dolls than people in my opinion. ¡®The fuck? My lips aren¡¯t that pouty! And Clarissa just looks totally wrong!¡¯ ¡°If any of our viewers have laid eyes upon one or both of these Sea-Witches. We implore you to call the following number. As soon as we get any new information we will keep you up to date. This was Ignus Clarkson, for AM-News.¡± ¡®Well. Shit.¡¯ Despite being fully clothed I couldn¡¯t help but glance towards the other passengers. None of them really seemed to pay me any mind but considering the newscast it was only a matter of time until someone would put two and two together. Hopefully the ride home would go on smooth and after that I could look into how to proceed with my life. I was just about to lean back on the chair when a painful tugging spread on the underside of my thighs. After not even a minute I had to get up, the sensation was just too much to suffer through. Thankfully standing up and walking around lessened the pressure tremendously. ¡®Just please don¡¯t have me change in the tram!¡¯ Trying my best to ignore the feeling of muscles and skin rippling and reforming I leaned against the wall closest to the doors. As soon as they opened at my stop, I would make a dash for it, better to be save than sorry, right? Waiting around without anything better to do than trying to will my body into submission, I took out my phone. Almost immediately my lips cracked into a dopey smile at the sight of the background. The void was as alien and comforting as the first time I had looked upon it, after a second my smile drooped as I realized what this meant. My phone was a gods'' damned artefact! This basically put it on the same page with things like Excalibur or the fucking Necronomicon! Not sure on how to properly take this in, I just swiped open my messenger app and began looking through it. The first thing I noticed was the staggering amount of messages in the university group. As I started scrolling I found dozens upon dozen of people talking not only about the newly christened ¡®Sea-Witches'' ¨C apparently that name had stuck better than abominations, who could have guessed ¨C but I saw several people referring to a picture in the chat itself. After a few dozen more messages I found the culprit for it all. And seeing it I couldn¡¯t help but bang my head against the sliding doors. At the very least Clarissa had been so clever to actually suppress her own phone number. But still this was literally a selfie of her! Thankfully it wasn¡¯t quite her full face but only half of it but still! She actually had the guts to post a picture of herself after her face had changed. Just like with my own it was basically unrecognizable to anyone but me. Her hair had shed in favour of frilly bright red fins almost resembling a Mohawk, her eyes were large, shiny black, and simply adorable with her ghostly white skin! Even her gills had grown a bit it seemed. The one thing that stood out to me, was how her nose closely resembled my own. ¡®Maybe it is so it closes up underwater?¡¯ To be fair she looked very cute but that wasn¡¯t the fucking point! What does she think she is doing!? And why write: ¡®Nice phone this girl had, mine now!¡¯? Like this people would believe she had killed someone for a phone, especially with a grin like this! With the fury of a pissed elder Sister I started writing.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°Clarissa! What the fuck? What do you think you are doing! Stop making people think we are monsters! And why did you even send a selfie in the first place? Are you trying to get the police on our ass? There already was a news report about yesterday! We can be lucky that most meta-humans are a tightly knit bunch and nobody from the dinner reported us!¡± For several seconds I furiously stared at the screen when finally an answer came, sadly it wasn¡¯t the one I had hoped for. Instead it was actually rather dismissive. ¡°Sorry ¡®bout that. Mother said it was fine, we talked after you explained things to her bout yesterday. I shouldn¡¯t have run away, sorry. Ah, can¡¯t talk much right now. I¡¯m packing my stuff at the moment. Old parents want to make me a gift later. I promised to stay until then. See you soon Sis~ <3¡± ¡®Oh, that annoying little... tadpole! When I meet her I will so beat her pale ass as red as her gills! And why did Mother encourage her to post that selfie!? I know she wants the best for us but I don¡¯t think she quite understands the concept of exposure or law enforcement. Wait what did she mean with... a gift? I hope it is really just a goodbye present.¡¯ I was so immersed in my own thoughts that I didn¡¯t even notice when the odd feeling in my legs subsided. Only when a while later, close to my stop, I felt a very obviously weird and impossible sensation I looked up from my phone. At the same time I heard a young voice call out excitedly. ¡°Look Mommy! This woman has funny tails!¡± By now I had put the sensation into the partition: ¡®Tiny kids'' hands touching stuff they shouldn¡¯t¡¯. The only problem was I could see the child from the corner of my eyes and she wasn¡¯t touching the back of my legs. Even worse was the sudden wave of hunger overcoming me at the same time, something just had changed but what? Before I could even properly react a loud scream already pierced the air. ¡°LANA! Don¡¯t touch my child you... thing!¡± Like a mother hen on crack the woman barrelled towards me. One moment I was still standing and minding my own business the next a surprisingly strong backhand knocked me to the ground. ::...disgusting freak!...:: I had barely enough time to wonder what the fuck was going on before I already impacted with the ground. Her reaction had come so fast and unexpected that I hadn¡¯t even thought about using my powers to defend myself. Worse even, the smack had not only broken my sunglasses but from the fact that I was tasting, dust, metal, and plastic I knew that my hood had fallen down. When I came back to my senses I could see the mother raising her hand as if to hit me again. This time though I wasn¡¯t just going to let it happen! I was already preparing to take her out when her hand was suddenly stopped by a much larger grey-skinned hand. ¡°Lady, if you hit this girl again I will have to see this as assault. Then I will have to file a report as well as have you signed over to the authorities.¡± The man that had spoken easily dwarfed the woman by an entire head and me by almost two. Adding to his rather imposing image were the tusk-like canine teeth and the fact that he was dressed in a rather tight-fitting security guard outfit. ¡°H- How dare you! This... creature was molesting my child!¡± ¡°No. I saw very clearly that your child grabbed on to her... appendages. Despite that, it is against the law to speak of meta-sentients as monsters. If you don¡¯t want me to note that down too, I ask that you leave to a different wagon.¡± ¡°Fine! It is only obvious that you inhuman types would stick together! You will be hearing from my lawyer!¡± ¡°Yes. I am sure of that. Good day now.¡± It must have been quite the sight to see me sitting there on the ground. Despite trying my best it had taken not even an hour for my disguise to fail. At least I now could see what the girl had been touching. Right beneath my butt I had grown two identical tentacles long enough to easily reach the ground when standing. Currently they were wrapped tightly around my legs and had taken on the colour of the tram floor, apparently, in my shock I had instinctively changed colours. Together with my mental powers maybe I could hide from the view of other people completely! ¡°Well, then little... Mermaid?¡± Upon hearing his voice again I looked up a bit confused. Why was he still around? When I didn¡¯t answer, he only sighed and bend down to help me. Unsure as to what to do I simply accepted his hand and let myself be pulled up. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about this little incident, the humans can be a bit... rough to anyone that is different. Don¡¯t take it too much to heart, there are quite a bit of fine people aside from those. Considering the commotion I think I¡¯ll stick around though and make sure you¡¯re safe.¡± All I could do was stare at him in utter confusion. This had never happened to me before! Why was he being so nice and considerate despite not knowing me? Had he not seen the newscast? And yet still, instead of calling the police or station he just sat down, smiled at me, and started staring other passengers into compliance. I hadn¡¯t even spoken a single word but he didn¡¯t seem to mind. To him I was a good person just because I was different? Was this why apparently no one from the dinner had called me out and why Karen had helped? Having grown up in mostly human high society this was as alien to me as my body was to a human. The rest of the ride went over basically without any other problems. Though to the menacing Orc security guard next to me, a lot of the passengers switched over to another cart. Be it because they had problems with meta-humans or because they were genuinely scared I could not tell. Still while to some he may appear like a threat, to me his silent companionship made me feel safe and welcome like never before. Just maybe being a human had never truly been my destiny. Part 8 â€“ Adrienne (2/â€¦) (2/...) Not even five minutes after the incident, involving both tentacles and females in the least sexy way possible, the tram stopped close to my area. I was already about to just walk out and away when I held in for a moment. Instead of doing what I would have normally done, I turned to the man whose name I still didn¡¯t know and waved. ¡®Thank you for your... help, Sir.¡¯ ¡°So you can speak! Hahaha! Wait a moment, this is your stop? Wouldn¡¯t have thought you to live here... Ah, what am I saying I am sure you have your reasons! Just a little advice, before you go. Don¡¯t cover up and hide, it makes people more suspicious of you than you would want. Just, don¡¯t be ashamed for being different, alright?¡± The doors of the tram were already beeping when he stopped. But just before they could close I gave the man, whom I would most likely never see again, one of my few actually genuine smiles. Seeing this he started to laugh again but I think that he wasn¡¯t laughing about me but instead he seemed truly happy to have made me smile. When the tram took off I just stood there for a moment, contemplating what had just happened. ¡®Is this what being a Meta-human is like? It is... refreshing!¡¯ After a few seconds, I turned around and started walking home. Many of the people, mostly humans, may have been looking at me curiously or confused but this time I didn¡¯t hide, instead, I let my oddities show without restrain. I was beginning to understand why Mother had encouraged Clarissa to post that selfie of herself. As we were right now trying to hide, despite being almost impossible in this day and age, would actually make us more of a target than less of one. We weren¡¯t monsters, simply different, but if we hid the people would come to believe that we were dangerous. Maybe there was a deeper truth to what both my sister had done and what the man had said. If we acted like our being here was normal and nothing to worry about maybe most other people would think so too? A funny thought crossed my mind, in a way it was like walking around in fetish wear. Don¡¯t act as if you are ashamed but own it and everyone¡¯s reactions will be much more positive. ¡®That... actually makes me wonder. How would latex feel on my new body? At least I wouldn¡¯t have to use any lube considering how slimy and wet my skin already is! Haha! I can already see the headlines: Valerie Sherman, Ex-daughter of AFI-CEO, Sea-Witch, and Tentacle Fetish model!¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help it and halfway from my home, I had to actively keep myself from breaking into loud giggles. The idea was just too fantastic, if I wanted to truly piss on my father¡¯s legacy then that was the way to go. Oh, he would be so very furious! The rest of the way my mind was occupied with imagining myself in various outfits either ones I had seen in fashion magazines or the ones having been on my wish-list for quite a while. Sadly despite owning a single set of latex bra and panties, I had never been able to buy any of them. The fear of my parents discovering them at some point or him using his contacts to spy on my transaction had always been a rather effective deterrent. But now that I had finally decided to break free from my parents'' bonds a world of possibility was opening. This actually made me consider something else. Even if I hadn¡¯t already chosen to leave after this weekend, I most likely wouldn¡¯t even have a choice in the matter. Not only had I already changed far too much for him to ever accept but I had paid a substantial amount of money simply for food. He would rip my head off for such a wasteful expense either way. The last time I had spend so much money on something he deemed worthless, I had almost been send to a boarding- or, even worse, military school. So with my current... body modifications, he would probably find a way to send me straight to prison. Or at least he could try! If I ended up facing him before I had finally left I would be interesting to see if he would still dare to assault me. ¡®Hehehe... maybe I should let him? Or better yet! Lure him out and devour his very being. AH! No. No, stop. I will not be eating people or at least not yet! But I will have to eat something very soon, my stomach is killing me.¡¯ Before I could wave away the thoughts, a deeply chilling shudder went through my whole body the very moment that I realised the truth of what I had just wanted to do. No matter how disturbing the idea had been, I could very clearly tell that it hadn¡¯t come from Mother. No, this had come from my own desires but not in the way I would have thought. It had been a part of me that was unmistakably me but also not. ¡®Has this just been my core influencing me?¡¯ I had heard about some animals with a condensed mana core technically being monsters as they were far more aggressive and acted differently from their non-magical counterparts. But unlike them, I hadn¡¯t just implanted a core into my body... I had replaced the very thing keeping me alive. What did this mean? Was magic potentially in its very basic form volatile and consuming? That didn¡¯t make a lot of sense as we used it constantly to produce or change energy. If it was as ravenous it would destroy and not make things but from all I had seen it was a building force of the universe. Yet a singular quote from a long-dead but still famous painter came to my mind: Every act of creation is first an act of destruction. What did this mean for our world in the end? I was so immersed in my own thoughts that I had long stopped looking as to where my feet were carrying me. Only when all of a sudden I collided with another person I realized where I had gone. ¡°Ey! Look where you are going!¡± When I looked up it was into the face of a heavily built man wearing what seemed to be a black and silver uniform. It took me a moment to actually realise it but apparently this man was part of Knight Errand. They were something of a private security force and normally operated from the run-aground aircraft-carrier in the Amsterdam harbour or at least what was left of it. Having seen them around once and again, I just shrugged and mumbled an apology. Yet when I attempted to push past the guy a rather forceful grip on my head tentacles made me stop. ¡°Where the fuck do you think you¡¯re going... girly? Guess you are a girl, always hard to tell with you freaks.¡± Before I could decide differently my tentacles already had started wrapping around the hand holding them in an almost affectionate manner. Yet I knew that they were not, they were trying to figure out if he was food. The man must have thought it cute because his frown immediately cracked into a broad grin. ¡°I see you already know your place don¡¯t you? I mean I don¡¯t hate you freaks but you should know who of us is on top. You bunch, at least the cute ones, are a useful cumdump but not much more right?¡± Instead of answering, I turned around to face him. Yes, I had decided he was prey but around here it was to busy, too many potential eyes watching us. We needed to go somewhere else, somewhere hidden. And so I smiled. Having his attention I pursed my lips and put an arm beneath my breasts showing off my assets in a better light. ¡°Holy... Just look at those cocksucker''s lips! I bet you just really want a load full of my spunk down your throat, don¡¯t you, little tentacle slut!¡± Playing my part I nodded happily. This was exactly what I wanted and maybe a bit more in addition to that. But still, the street was bad. Taking a page out of Mother¡¯s book I pushed gently on his mind whispering the idea of privacy into his thoughts. And like a charm it worked.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°You know let¡¯s go to my place. It is right around the corner!¡± I could see the telling bulge in his pants and my smile widened. His mind had been so easy to influence, maybe I should always hunt horny fools? Seeing him already walk away with a funny sway I quickly followed behind like a loyal puppy. As we came closer to his apartment I let my hair resemble blond locks and used my power to make me less noticeable. It would make me hungrier but that was fine, there was a lot of food in front of me. ¡°Here we are! Come in quickly, don¡¯t want anyone seeing you!¡± I was just about to undress when he already seized my head and made me kneel before him. With a delightful sigh, he opened the fly of his pants. What flopped out was quite a tool! I had not seen a bigger one in person yet, he would provide a nice breakfast! Seeing my eagerness he didn¡¯t even care to wait or asked but basically impaled me on his massive dick. Like the good slut I pretended to be I immediately started sucking and pleasuring him with my tongue. From somewhere above me I heard the click of a cell phone camera but at the moment I was too focused on my task to care. This was actually quite the fun hunting strategy! Not only didn¡¯t I have to do a lot but I actually got a fair bit of pleasure from sucking his cock. As I had never done this kind of thing before it must have been similar to Clarissa getting off on being humiliated. My Sisters and I truly were a bunch of perverted sluts, weren¡¯t we? Feeling my meal approach his climax I increased my pace. Finally, with an animalistic pained grunt, the brute released right down my throat shoving "it" way deep down. Thankfully I had managed to inhibit his pain receptors and so he hadn¡¯t felt my acidic saliva corroding his tool. Just before he was about to pull out I looked up with an evil smile and released my mental hold on his feeble mind. It took several seconds for him to become aware of the pain and realize what was going on. His eyes grew wide first in shock, then in panic but before he could scream I closed my jaws shut and swallowed. Just like with his load, so did his member make its way into the pit of corrosive goo that was my stomach. The moment I leaned back the blood began spurting out in a bright right fountain. Feeling a bit of pity for the poor guy I quickly reached up to his throat. As I closed my hand around the squishy flesh I could see in delight how my own skin parted to reveal the claws I had grown. Like knives through butter, they cut into muscles, sinews, and any other tissue. Not even a split second after he had lost his manhood he was already on the ground showering everything around him in a beautiful sparkling rain. I savoured the look on his face for as long as it lasted before I stripped out of my soaked clothes and started to feast. Both of my mouths would be properly fed today! It took a while for the stupor of my feeding frenzy to lift but when it did I would have almost puked up all my more feral-self had just shoved down my throats. I would have liked to call what was in front of me a corpse but by all accounts, "desiccated carcass" was more fitting. I didn¡¯t look too closely but seeing how round my tummy was, I must have chewed down most of the organs and muscle tissue from my... prey. It wasn¡¯t helping that, even while my mind was repulsed by the sight before me, my body wasn¡¯t fazed in the slightest. As the disparity between my actions and my thoughts soon grew too much to bear, I retreated from the massacre towards my bag and clothing. All of it was stained in a deep crimson and worse looking down I noticed how even my body was drained from head to toe. The one thing I couldn¡¯t help but find funny despite the situation was how my changed body parts tried resembling the red splotches on skin-tone theme I had currently going on. Whatever part of my subconscious was controlling the colour at least it had a sense of humour. Knowing that I couldn¡¯t really run around on the street naked and covered from head to toe in blood I searched the small apartment for two things: Clothes and a shower. Finding what I had been looking for rather quickly I also checked my phone for any messages. Still, Tanya had not reacted to my message; I was actually starting to worry now. Not only was she my closest friend but I had hoped to rely on her once my change was over. The only other message was from Adrian; unlike my other boyfriends, he actually cared a lot about my feelings and seemed to have an innate sense of when I was in trouble. It was a shame that I would have to let him go, he had made a fine mate and an even better study partner. Quickly sending him some nondescript stuff about how I was fine but feeling a bit under the weather I shut off my phone and stepped into the welcomingly warm shower. The terrified shaking I had tried to ignore till now finally died down when the stream began washing away any trace of the abominable deed I had committed. A low sigh escaped me as I thought about what I had done. If it ever came to live that it had been me doing this prison would be the least of my worries. Relaxing for another few minutes in my favourite element I finally decided that it was time. I stepped out of the bath and put on some of the clothes from the guy I had just killed. Willing my tentacles back I to the semblance of a ponytail and rolling up my sleeves I began cleaning up my mess. The first thing to do was getting rid of any trace of me being here. Thankfully I didn¡¯t have to worry about stray hair or fingerprints as I had neither of those. What was worrying me the most was the magical residue that might linger around for a few days still. Any good mage should be able to trace it back to me once they matched my signature. It wouldn¡¯t have been a problem with the magic I used before but this new one was very deeply affected by Mother. I was rather sure that enough of it in a singular place over a longer period should even be able to be sensed by non-awakened people. Therefore I would have to find a way for the body not to be discovered until the residue had decayed. So burning down the house was not really an option... or was it? Maybe it would cover how the man had died but even then I would have to hope for them not getting a mage on the scene. No, the risk of both the idea not working as intended and being discovered was too high. I had to think of something else. As I was walking up and down the small flat the lingering smell of blood gave me an idea. What if I didn¡¯t have to destroy the corpse but simply keep it hidden for a while? Once the thought had come up I had already started searching for anything I would need. First and foremost I closed the window blinds and started taking as many out as many garbage bags as I could find. At least I didn¡¯t really have a hard time separating the body into parts considering how much I had already mutilated it. After several minutes of using whatever methods available to me, I was looking at far more manageable pieces. The next step was wrapping them up like presents. While a disgraceful and somewhat disgusting work, it was better than prison in my opinion. All wrapped up the scene didn¡¯t look quite as gory anymore. If one ignored the smell and ludicrous amount of blood everywhere it was almost homely! Next up I carried the little packages to the bath where I dumped them into the very same shower I had just used to clean myself. The rest would mostly be busywork. Gathering together any alcohol and cleaning supplies I plugged the shower and began pouring them in. Making sure that all the parts where covered I took the rest of my mixture and began scrubbing the floor clean of the biggest puddles and splatters of gore. An hour later I was both sweaty and mentally drained when the ringing of a phone made me stop in my tracks. That hadn¡¯t been my phone! Frantically I searched around and finally found the object in question on the kitchen table. A message from his work? Ha! The idiot didn¡¯t even lock his phone! Oh well, guess it looks like he got smashed and decided to take a few days off. After sending the message I had thought up, I turned the device around and removed both sim and memory card. Once I had made them useless and smashed the smartphone on the ground I was satisfied. ¡®What else could I do? Oh, I know!¡¯ I was already a murderer by now so I didn¡¯t really feel bad about the next part. I grabbed one of the man''s suitcases and put my stuff in it before also grabbing anything valuable from his apartment and put them in there too. Maybe this would make it look like a robbery gone bad or maybe not; either way I was not going to pass on the chance at a bit more spending money! Feeling both physically and emotionally done for after the full hour of covering my murder scene, I decided that this was as good to covering my mistake as I would come. Another sigh escaped me aside tool the suitcase and pulled on my connection to Mother to once again shield me from the notice if others. Honestly, I just wanted to go home and forget any of this had actually happened. ¡®Hopefully, Clarissa didn¡¯t skip breakfast. I don¡¯t even want to think about that mess.¡¯ ¡°Oh well, thanks for everything dude who''s name I never even got. I would say sorry but honestly... you were kind of a dick and deserved it.¡± Without another word I left the flat and started walking home, that corpse was someone else¡¯s problem now! Part 8 â€“ Adrienne (3/â€¦) (3/...) Walking along the streets I couldn¡¯t help but marvel at the power Mother had gifted upon me. While my body had instinctively known how to use these new abilities my mind had a bit of a hard time catching up. Magic before had always been about control and study. Like with any skill you first had to learn it and then keep training for it to eventually stick. But since the start of my transformation, I had gained an entirely different understanding of what magic could be. The very fact that I had a physical core of condensed mana in my body allowed for applications I would have before thought of as ridiculous. The easiest to understand was by far the telekinetic ability I had discovered during my little scuffle with Clarissa. In a way it felt just as controlling the exterior mana in the surrounding area did; only that instead of having to use the air to interact with the world I could will mana to affect physical objects and even living things directly. The two things I actually had trouble with truly grasping were the more subtle powers. In a way, it was a singular ability applied in different ways. If I had to name it I would go with Suggestions. The word in the elder speech itself held power but I had the seemingly innate talent to harness it. The first time I had tried it with Mother¡¯s help. Thanks to her guidance it had been strong enough to easily hold both Tanya and Sadiya in place. But with my newer experience, I had learned that it was far harder to control than I had assumed. When I had used it on Clarissa only our bond had allowed me to force her into compliance. Would I have tried it on another person, they would have most likely been able to break free... The stronger the mind of the person and the more invasive my intrusion was, the less effect my power had. While Mother had the power to easily overwhelm any other mind because of the simple fact of her unbelievable existence, I couldn¡¯t. Using the elder speech seemed to give my desire form and greatly enhance the result but it also wasn¡¯t the most subtle. On the other hand the more physical contact I had, the easier it became to hide my intrusion. My last... snack had been so focused on his desires that his mind had barely strained against me. It had been a great learning experience. But honestly, the most useful application was what I was doing right now. By focusing my thoughts on the simple idea of forgetting and broadcasting it, I had managed to make myself appear as totally uninteresting. While it was by far not enough to make people ignore me, it was enough to make them not care about my presence. It was truly fascinating to see people look at me and immediately see their eyes go on. It was as if I was just one of the many homeless around the city. You saw them but the moment you looked away they where already gone from your mind. But still, it was merely a weak Suggestion. Every once in awhile I noticed someone on looking at me and frowning. It was as if they could instinctively tell that something about me was wrong. Maybe it would become easier when my transformation was over or if I relied on other things like acting to enhance the illusion. In any way, while definitely a useful skill I would refrain from relying on it too much. Someone actively searching for me would probably have no problem breaking the veil. Relatively sure of my dark deed not having been discovered I made my way home as fast as I could. Only that this time I actually looked where I was going; there was no need for running I to another slightly racist snack. Instead, I avoided the brightly lit and filled streets and took to the alleyways. While this way did take a bit longer I didn¡¯t risk running into many people. What actually surprised me though was the many signs of homelessness despite this being so close to the richer area my house was in. Now that I looked at it I had to wonder how I could have ever not seen these glaring issues!? Of from the main roads, the filth and squalor were all-encompassing. So many people lived here in conditions unworthy of any person, be they human or otherwise. Under bridges and anywhere the rain couldn¡¯t reach were little shantytowns. But what disturbed me even more than their questionable housing hygiene was the fact that most of these people didn¡¯t even notice my passing. Unlike the wealthy people who had noticed but simply not cared for me, many of the homeless I came across just stared into the nothingness. ¡°So broken... so wasted away. I wish you could bring my gift to them all, alas...¡±, Mother¡¯s voice echoed in my mind. I could feel her plight and sorrow as the great one looked through my eyes. Yet, I couldn¡¯t help but wonder, why I could not bring them into her arms as I had done with Clarissa? ¡°Broken not only in mind but spirit too. Unless they believe, open themselves to the wonders of chaos, release their flow... No use.¡± ¡®Does this mean what I think it does? Flow and Chaos... did she mean mana? But then only mages could become her daughters! But why?¡¯ No matter my pressing it seemed that she didn¡¯t care or maybe even know how to answer my question. I waited for a while but soon it was clear that she had already retreated back to her domain if in anger or shame I could not tell. Seeing as this conversation apparently was over as suddenly as it had begun I didn¡¯t care to push for an answer. Instead, I simply shook my head and kept my eyes to the road and of the people. It only took me a few more minutes until the dirt and garbage made way to the clean and shallow lies that were my home district. Here was no squalor or despair to be seen, well, at least not on the surface. If my family was an example for the rest of high society, then one just had to scratch deep enough to expose the filth that stagnated behind the pretty facade. Pretty people living in pretty houses they may be but in truth they only hid their monstrous nature behind a well-crafted farce. A grim smile crossed my lips as I thought about how these people would see me as a monster despite having reached their own status through stepping on everyone in the way. Slowly but surely, I felt disgust well up inside me. The sight of these people alone seemed to anger me, already I could feel the tentacles on my head flail and twist in agitation. My breath came rougher and rougher, I quickened my steps until I was almost running towards my home. When I finally reached it, I was halfway between unexplainable rage and understandable panic. ¡®What is going on? This anger... where is it coming from!? It feels so... alien.¡¯ I just managed to rip open the door and slam it close, before a dark and utterly inhuman growl escaped me. In shock, I grasped at my throat where I could still feel my larynx vibrate as the sounds faded out. I hadn¡¯t even known that I could produce such a sound and honestly, it terrified me. How many things in my body and even my mind had changed without me ever noticing? I had been petty before at times even vindictive but never so sweep away by animalistic rage. Despite Mother having technically good intentions I couldn¡¯t help but wonder if I still counted as human, after my change was finished, or merely as sentient. If so, it would instantly put me on the same level with demons, spirits, and Magical Beasts... who in some countries didn¡¯t even have much more rights than dangerous animals.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. But if my eating another person was ever discovered I doubted that they would care much for my intelligence and just brand me in the same way they had those infected with a MAV: Shoot on sight. The only countries actually giving those poor souls human rights was the European Union and that was only because they had turned into tightly knit police states even before the convergence. In a Corporate controlled city-state like Amsterdam, I could be lucky if they even yelled at me to stop before the shooting began. Slowly breathing in and out again, I manage to calm myself just in time to hear footsteps coming closer. ¡®Oh, shit! I totally forgot about Sadiya! What do I do? Maybe...?¡¯ Finally calm enough to properly think I grabbed a hold of the telepathic link I still hadn¡¯t cut. If I could twist it and focus my intention on Sadiya alone... There certainly was an idea there. Trying my best to force the alien power into a semblance of control I pushed my desire into a form. Hiding... no, Beguiling! The word swept over me like a wave and suddenly I knew how it could work. To myself, I looked just like before just that I had changed colours to more closely resemble my old human form. But if my knowledge of the word was correct it should probably fool Sadiya into thinking I was just the way I had been yesterday... hopefully. ¡°Valerie? Is that you!?¡± I almost squeaked in surprise at hearing Sadiya call out to me. ¡®By Mother, that would have been undignified. Get a damned hold of yourself, me!!!¡¯ ¡®Yes, it is. I apologise for the inconvenience I caused last night.¡¯, I answered in a surprisingly steady voice. ¡°Apologi-...¡±, she started but quickly paused. The very moment she had come into the hallway Sadiya had stopped in her tracks and looked at me in confusion. For a while, we just stood there neither of us talking. I almost feared that my trick wasn¡¯t working but after a few seconds she simply frowned and turned around. ¡°You, uhm, look good today?¡± Her voice was more questioning than certain but apparently she hadn¡¯t seen through me just yet! ¡°There is food from yesterday evening in the kitchen... just, go eat something or whatever.¡± With that, she sulked away back to where she had come from. ¡®This was rather... odd? Well, if she doesn¡¯t want to make a scene I¡¯m all for it. Wait she said food! Food!¡¯ Disregarding any and all matters of proper social conduct I basically threw off my shoes and stormed into the kitchen. I could feel my nostrils flare wide open as they took in the delicious scent of tomato sauce, cheese, and spices. Despite having recently... ¡°eaten¡± I could feel my stomach grumbling in anticipation of the coming fuel. It wasn¡¯t whole slabs of meat but the pizzas with several different topics certainly made me feel more human. Not even getting a plate is just started eating out of the box. Halfway through the first pie, I could feel my beak acting up as if complaining about not getting anything, I couldn¡¯t help but glare at my body balefully. ¡®Don¡¯t even think about it! Your not getting a single piece!¡¯ ¡°I already ate.¡± Sadiya¡¯s voice startled me almost out of my skin! I completely had forgotten about her being here! Right now she was sitting on an armchair that had certainly not been in the kitchen yesterday. But what unnerved me most about this was that despite basically lounging she seemed to have something predatory about her. The way she played with one of the steak knives also didn¡¯t bode well. I could feel part of me being challenged by this, almost as if it didn¡¯t understand how a prey could dare to try and scare me. I bit down on my lip to stop the rising growl from leaving my throat and went back to eating. The better fed I was the less likely was I to do something stupid. Turning back around so I didn¡¯t have to look at her, I went on to the next pizza. A small almost inaudible grunt was all the warning I got before everything went downhill. The next second barely registered in my mind. I turned around to the sound but Sadiya was already on her feet the steak knife sticking inexplicably in her thigh. My frown had barely enough time to form but for an experienced soldier like her, that was more than enough. In one fluid motion, her hand went to her hip grabbing a bright yellow pistol-like object and aimed it at me. The next moment everything was pain. Through the red haze, I could just make out a silhouette stalking closer. Just before the spasms in my body ebbed away Sadiya had already grabbed me by my head tentacles and shoved my face against the fridge while her other hand painfully twisted my arm. ¡°So, how about we try this again. Who are you, how did you get in here and why by the fucking hells are you wearing Valerie¡¯s clothes?¡± ¡®Okay, yeah... she sounds pissed probably not the time to mouth off.¡¯ ¡®Honestly, if you like it rough why didn¡¯t you just say so?¡¯ ¡®Gods damn it, Valerie!¡¯ At least I seemed to have taken the wind out of her because for a good minute she just stared at me unbelieving. Yet, just when I tried a seductive smile I realized that I had pushed too far. The grip around my tentacles tightened and with an uncomfortably loud ¡°Boing¡±-sound she smashed my head against the shiny chrome surface. At least three times or four... it was a bit hard to count when somebody did that to you. ¡°Just... what the fuck even are you? You sound like her, you dress like her... hells until a few minutes ago I could have sworn you even looked like her! Are you some kind of creepy doppler squid!?¡± ¡®Rude!¡¯ ¡®Firstly, I am pretty sure I¡¯m an octopus and not a squid! I mean squid have inner shells and did you notice what my head can do? Yeah, very squishy! Secondly, I am Valerie you bird-brained brute! Thirdly... did you ram a knife into your thigh just to escape my mental hold on you!? Who does that!?¡¯ ¡°Yeah? To me, you look more like some kinda demon that stupid girl summoned and got eaten by. Also, fuck yes I did!¡± ¡®I would never eat anot- Well, I wouldn¡¯t eat myself... obviously. Also, how do you think I got in, in the first place? There is a bio-lock on the door you know...¡¯ ¡°Fair point. But so what? You could have just eaten her mind demon!¡± ¡®What? No! That is not how demons work! Look...¡± Yet before I could even go into explaining the intricacies and safety measures that went into summoning demons I was interrupted by a happy little jingle coming from my phone. ¡®Uhm, Sadiya? Could you get that for me?¡¯ ¡°Why would I?¡± ¡®Common courtesy? Because I can¡¯t move? The jingle is really annoying and set to repeat? I¡¯m currently being molested by a human? Need another reason?¡¯ ¡°Fine. But you try anything and you¡¯re ending in the cookpot demon!¡± My only response to that was rolling my eyes; just how much stupid could a single brain hold? Thankfully she actually did as I had asked and fished my phone out of my skirt pocket. Also was it just my imagination or did she linger just a bit too long? No matter what, this was exactly the situation I had waited for. I was just about to try and slink out of her grip while she was distracted when she took a single look at my phone¡¯s screen and began screaming in pain. ¡®Huh!?¡¯ Utterly shocked by this development the wooden knife block I had wanted to hit her with slid out of my tentacle and clattered to the ground. ¡®What the... how... why? I already had a plan!¡¯ Gingerly I stepped around the strewn about knives and gave the sobbing silhouette of Sadiya a light kick. All that I got out of her was a pathetic soft whimper... I looked closer to where her hands clutched her eyes and winced at the sight. If I wasn¡¯t deeply mistaken that was blood coming from between her fingers. Just what the hells had happened? Unsure as to what I should do now I simply picked up my phone. Surprisingly there was not a single scratch on it and what greeted me was the already familiar sight of swirling nothingness. Had that been the cause? If so then I had just found out that my phone was actually more dangerous than myself! I couldn¡¯t help but shake my head in disbelief when I looked up who had messaged me. Once more I was more surprised than anything, the message was from Adrian. ¡°I¡¯m coming over! Whatever is going one I will not just abandon you! And don¡¯t even think about running away! ¡®-¡® Hmph!¡± ¡®Is that... a pouting smiley!?¡¯ Part 8 â€“ Adrienne (4/4) Part (4/4) So Adrian was coming for a visit that was... good... bad? Considering that I had a woman bleeding from her eyes laying on the kitchen floor I was going to go with bad. What to do... what to do? Well firstly, Sadiya had to go and quickly at that too! She was still leaking all over the floor and considering that she didn¡¯t make an attempt to get back up, I simply grabbed her legs and started dragging her towards the cellar. Or at least that had been my intention, sadly instead of dragging her away, I couldn¡¯t even get her body to move. ¡®How heavy is that woman!? Are all unconscious people so hard to move? The last guy was far easier to get rid of!¡¯ I had not expected her to be so heavy, but I was not one to give up so easily! Gritting my teeth I pulled with all the strength I could muster... only to fall down screaming when my socks slipped in the blood. ¡®Ugh... this just pathetic. And why is everything so squishy?¡¯ Trying as I might my head was somehow stuck in between two very squishy blobs, every attempt at getting away was met with sinking deeper between the valleys of flesh! Slightly panicky I raised both arms to my head feeling for what was going on. Yet all I got my hands on was boobs and tentacles. Those traitors, they were squashing my head in a canyon of boobage! ¡®Really now? Is this what my subconscious wants? Being a tentacle monster that molests the boobs of what is basically my sworn enemy!? Fine! If you want it so much you can have it!¡¯ With the righteous vigour of the wronged I wrapped my arms around Sadiya generous cleavage and hugged them against my face. It was the oddest thing to feel my head basically being molded around her breasts... part of me was concerned what was happening to my brain in there. The rest of me was busy with calming myself down enough that those dumb tentacles let go! Finally after what felt like ages ¨C though probably were mere minutes ¨C the most embarrassing of moments in my life came to an end. Seeing as I had accepted my fate the tentacles slowly loosened, only for me to immediately yank my head back! Another few moments of catching my breath had me as much back under control as was possible. For even whilst I had managed to get my head tentacles to calm done a bit the ones growing from behind still were trying to molest the now unconsciousness form of Sadiya. Only after swatting at them a few times did they finally relent and curled around me almost sullen. While I didn¡¯t quite appreciate how perverted my subconscious seemed to be, it did give me an idea of what to do with my chaperone. I couldn¡¯t help but grin as the mental picture shot through my mind. Maybe I was indeed somewhat of a deviant because the idea of stringing her up like a present appealed to me far too much. I was just getting back up when an all too familiar pain shot through my legs. ¡®By Mother, fuck this hurts! Just what is it this time!? Another pair of tentacles? No, not just that. The pain, it is worse!¡¯ A savage, guttural scream escaped me as another painful spasm wrecked my lower body. The beak between my thighs didn¡¯t have lungs or a larynx attached but even it couldn¡¯t help but grind and contorted in pain. With a series of short, pained gasps I began pulling myself up on the kitchen counter. It was made more difficult than it should have by the fact that my legs rippled and twisted with every movement. Finally after a few rather cruel minutes of struggling I had made it. Panting and breathing heavily in exhaustion I finally looked upon what was happening. While most of my body seemed relatively unaffected, the sight of my lower body seemed to be taken right out of a horror movie. I could swear that saw and heard my bones breaking underneath the skin but worse even that that was another sight. My flesh was... moving, rippling like a bunch of snakes just beneath my skin. And they began to swell. Both of my legs grew in circumference and length, though to even call them legs any longer was a gross understatement. In fact the there was no sign of them even having bones any longer, instead, I was looking upon twisting strands of flesh right beneath seemingly paper-thin skin. The sight was so offsetting and eldritch it almost made me forget about the constant pain. Well, only almost because I all came back like a train wreck when my flesh began straining again the confines of my skin. The sheer pressure was enough to almost make me blackout. The pain I had experienced before, but this was different. Instead of simply being extraordinarily painful, the almost mind-blowing pleasure that was building had me go cross-eyed. Whatever was happening, it was big, painful, and both the worst and the best thing I had ever experienced. But as everything this too came to an end; an end so violent and orgasmic that my mind simply shut off. Like massive balloons under too much pressure, the skin of what used to be my legs rip and exploded to all sides. The last thing I saw before gentle darkness took me, was a mass of large twisting tentacles flay wildly around each other. ¡°Ring~!¡± ¡°Ring~!¡± ¡°Ring~!¡± ¡°Ring~!¡± ¡°Ring~!¡± ¡®Wha- What is going on? Where am I? And what is this infernal noise!?¡¯ Slowly as if awakening from a dream my senses came back to me. I knew that annoying sound, the ringing that overshadowed basically everything else was without a doubt my phone. But who would call me when I had been sleeping? This was more than rude... Groggily I turned to my side expecting to find my phone on the bedside table, only to halt in confusion when I heard a wet squish instead of the shuffling of blankets. I blinked a few times to clear my vision and was just about to rub the sleep out of my eyes when I realized that I was smearing slime all over my face. ¡°What the... The fuck is this slime?¡± I fully opened my eyes to gaze at my hand but froze when I saw their shape. Since when did I have webbing between my fingers, and why was my hand covered in black goo? It took me a few moments for the confusion to clear, as my memories took on a semblance of order. Ignoring the webbing and goo I pushed myself into my elbows and stared down at something I could only call ¡®A slight problem¡¯. Instead of legs, I had eight at least a meter long tentacles in their place, that just like my fingers were connected through fleshy webbing. They actually would have resembled a long flowing skirt if they hadn¡¯t been constantly moving around. A long flowing skirt with death in the middle, I realized when I caught one of the arms trying to go for a piece of pizza. A quick slap later it like all the others was finally behaving as they should namely, by my thoughts and not theirs! With my lower extremities reminded as to who was the boss, I began searching for my still ringing phone. And was immediately confronted with another uncomfortable truth: My new tentacles couldn¡¯t actually carry me! I had found the phone quickly enough, lying on the counter opposite of me. Yet when I had tried to get over there instead of standing up tall and proud I had simply flopped to the ground like a dead fish! After the initial of ¡°Oh gods, I can¡¯t walk anymore¡±, I actually realised the problem. While my tentacles should technically be able to lift me up, they didn¡¯t actually have a way to keep me there. Without bones or cartilage they could host me up for a few moments but they exhausted way too quickly to let me stand. Despite this being an obvious problem, I did have other matters to attend to and so just let it go with a sigh and instead grabbed the phone. Immediately upon pressing the answer button Adrian¡¯s smooth voice echoed out of the device. ¡°Thank the gods! Valerie, you have finally picked up! Where are you? I rang the bell at least five times already! And why did I see some woman covered in blood stagger down your driveway a few minutes ago? Just tell me what the heck is going on already!!!¡±The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. A look to where I had left Sadiya quickly answered my suspicion, instead of still laying there all I found was a small trail of blood drops leading towards the entrance. That she was gone was probably less than good, but technically I hadn¡¯t done anything bad so maybe it wouldn¡¯t come back to bite me in my squishy ass? Another heavier sigh escaped me and I activated the text to speech function, for I already knew for a fact, that I couldn¡¯t properly talk to him. ¡°All is well. At least now. That woman was one of my parent''s employees and she assaulted me but I fought her off. I am sorry for not talking to you directly, but some things happened that I wish to tell you from face to face. I can¡¯t quite open the door so use the override code I¡¯ll send you.¡± ¡°I- I see. Just, stay where you are right now, I¡¯m coming in.¡± Not even a minute after I had sent him the passcode I could hear his footsteps coming closer. Even if I was normally a rather proud and forward person I couldn¡¯t help but be a bit shy and possibly even embarrassed. It was not every day that you had to present your lover with a completely new body... especially not one you hadn¡¯t even told him about. Before he could come in I quickly wiped the pizza cartons of the counter and spread out across it in a play full pose. I took care to put most of my tentacles behind me, so as to not immediately scare him away and propped myself into my elbows. Doing my absolute best to keep the obviously non-existent blush from my face I did my best mermaid impression. And just as he came around the corner, I gave him a big smile. ¡®Tada! Not... what you expect, right?¡¯ ¡®Ah, well, shit. He is just staring at me as if he can¡¯t believe his eyes. And he isn¡¯t speaking. I guess I should have found a better way of doing this... maybe he just hasn¡¯t quite understood that it is me?¡¯ ¡®Uhm... so, it¡¯s me? Surprised?¡¯ ¡°Val...erie? That is really you? I absolutely hadn¡¯t expected this! I mean by now he gods... this... this is...¡± ¡®Please don¡¯t say gross or creepy! Please don¡¯t!¡¯ ¡°This is the most amazing thing ever!!!¡± ¡®Huh?¡¯ ¡°I mean you obviously never spoke about it outright but your fascination with meta-humans was always so obvious! All the books you were reading and the papers... I was always wondering what it was, that was so fascinating to you. But holy shit! If you had told me you were going to change your species, I would have totally helped and supported you! I mean you look amazing! Exactly like one of the girls from my favourite comics! Sa- say, can I... touch you? I mean it simply looks too cool to believe! Wait... the university group chat! That was about you... and somebody else! Did you actually find a way to change people in to amazingly cute monster girls? And that without the dangers of MAV or a spirit bond? Oh by all the gods in existence, Valerie! You are a frickin genius! I mean who doesn¡¯t like cute monster girls!? Just imagine a world full of only cute girls! Never again would we have to deal with ugly dudes or people like your father! I mean, sorry Val but... yikes. Your father is soooooo creepy! The way he talked about meta-humans I always feared he was just straight up going to vivisect one! Or how he rants about magic! Like it is simply a tool to be used, no sense of wonder what so ever! Ugh! So infuriating that man! But fucking hells did you show it to him this time! I mean wow! He is so going to be pissed when he finds out! And it also gives you a reason to go live alone! I mean he technically has to still support you as long as you are studying! This is just awesome! How long have you been planning this? Oh, and why didn¡¯t you tell me you, damned meanie! I would have never gossiped about it! At least not this time! And never about something that would hurt you! I mean I love you, Val! You are basically the most amazing mage and person of this decade! And now you managed to become even more amazing! And...¡± Before another word could leave his lips, I drew upon the powers gifted to me. Not because I was angry or wanted to hurt him... I simply feared to never again be able to say a single word in this conversation if he kept going like this! And sadly I had much to tell him, at least this last time. ¡°Stop!¡± In an instant, Adrian¡¯s expression went from terrifyingly excited to most perplexed, which, I had to admit, look still far too good on his androgynous face. Now that I was looking at him again in light of both my transformation and my own new experiences, I couldn¡¯t help but notice just how effeminate he was. A slender frame and delicate bone structure went already long ways, but the fact that he preferred rather flattering clothes and his long side cut hair made him look more a girl than a man. Perhaps it had been this that had instinctively made me say yes when he had asked me out... and most likely this had also been the reason why we had gotten so many looks when we were out together in public. You could have magic, demons, and hydrogen-powered cars but apparently humanity would never not find same-sex relationships ¨C even if it was only in appearance ¨C scandalous or intriguing, figures. Yet, even in with this new revelation of circumstances he still was a no-good gossip! Well, a no-good gossip that currently was utterly confused because there was not a single sound escaping his mouth. ¡®Now then... as you are finally so courteous to let me speak, I would like for you to listen before giving your next comment. Is that deal okay, my dear?¡¯ A frantic nod was all that I got in return, for he could obviously still not speak. A delightful little smile crossed my lips as I saw it, this dominant act was quite a lot of fun! But anyway, I was getting off track. With a polite and completely fake cough, I continued. ¡®So, where was I? Ah, right... most important question first. Yes, I am obviously Valerie even if my physical experience has changed quite a bit.¡¯ A sharp clap with my lower tentacles made clear what I was speaking about. ¡®And as you noted quite right, I am also no longer Human. In actually it might even be a stretch to call me or Clarissa meta-humans. Which also brings us to the second question. What we are is indeed different from MAV patients or Magical Beasts. Instead, we are ¡°God-touched¡± if you will. The attention Mother has given our bodies changed them in flesh, spirit, and mind. We are different for we are something else entirely. And I know what you are going to ask. And the answer is, yes. I can indeed change ¨C if you wish to call it like that ¨C some people into my Sisters. Though the process is uncomfortable and possibly dangerous to the mind, in addition to, as I understand it, the changed always becoming female. If my assumption is correct Mother doesn¡¯t wish for us to be like other beings. Instead, we are constant and eternal. And in this my dear Adrian lies the problem.¡¯ I couldn¡¯t help but avert my eyes for the pain of looking straight at my former lover was too great, even if I had already made my decision. ¡®Of all my lovers you were the only one that was ever kind to me. You showed me that others were not monsters or tools to be used. And even if I failed in living by these teachings I at least wish to extend the same kindness to you that you did to me. Being together with me would hurt you, physically, mentally, and emotionally. So instead I offer you a clean break. I will not break your heart for you will not remember ever having been in love. Sorry, Adrian, I did love you but this must be the end.¡¯ Ready to let Mother guide me in this deed I extended my hands towards his head. Caustic tears rolled down my cheeks and dripped onto the surface with a splash and a sizzle. I hadn¡¯t wanted to do this, but it was the kindest thing I could do. Softly my fingertips touched his temples... only to be ripped away with a force! Frozen shackles were holding them down, dragging them around a lithe and shivering frame instead. Like a torrent of emotions Adrian¡¯s own magic flared up and with a deviant look, my Suggestion broke. Tears streamed down his face as his lips formed a single word. ¡°No.¡± ¡®No?¡¯ Fury cracked his expression, fury, and pain. ¡°NO! I refuse! I love you Valerie and it doesn¡¯t matter if you are some Eldritch being sworn to some abstruse entity. I don¡¯t understand half of what you think is a problem but if I know one thing then that I want to stay by your side! I told once that I would do everything in my might possible to make you happy. And I refuse to abandon that is thought. If what you say is true, that your Sisters as you call them are utterly inhuman beings and that all touched by mother become female... then I have only one thing to say. Fuck Adrian, never liked that guy anyway! I mean he is as manly as a plush unicorn and has a loose mouth that would put a seagull to shame! No, I already decided this months ago when I first met you. Screw Adrian, if it is the only way than from now on there is only Adrienne. Fucking Valerie, you dumbass... I love you and I will not stop now.¡± With more vigour than I had expected he pressed his lips upon mine and didn¡¯t even flinch when my saliva burned his flesh. And I? I couldn¡¯t help but be happy... I hadn¡¯t wanted to lose him. But if he chooses this fate himself, then who was I to deny him? ¡®Thank you, Adrian... no.¡¯ ¡°Adrienne~¡± Part 9 â€“ Old Friend = New Friend â€“ (1/2) ¡°So¡ how does this work exactly? Do we need a magical circle? Blood sacrifice? Oh! Now I know¡¡± Adrienne''s green eyes grew wide with a mirthful shine. ¡°Goat Sacrifice!!!¡± The newly christened girl, who I had since rather recently still known as my boyfriend Adrian, was currently sitting on my bed with crossed legs and was clutching onto one of my many fluffy pillows. Despite knowing what was between ¡°her¡± legs I couldn¡¯t help but find the image incredibly cute and appealing. Sadly, the excessive amounts of nerd talk that had come out of her mouth since the discovery of my changed form had been slightly unnerving. Normally I was used to hearing all about the most recent gossip, so this utter weeb behaviour was both a very new and unsettling experience; who would have thought that someone could be so obsessed with ¡°monster girls"? And if the way her eyes constantly roamed across my tentacles was any indication she was more than a little excited. ¡®No. We will not have to sacrifice anything today. That part I already did on my own at¡ quite a cost. The only thing we need to do is to fill you with a seed cocktail my body produces. Though you don¡¯t have a womb¡ so I guess having you suck me off would be easiest.¡¯ ¡°Su-Suck you off!?¡± Adrienne¡¯s face suddenly blushed a bright red. ¡°Do-Does that mean you have a¡ a penis!?¡± This time it was on me to blush. ¡®Well¡ uhm, technically no¡it is more like¡ a bunch of tentacles!¡¯ I was almost proud of how confident I had said such a lewd thing. ¡°So, not a penis, but a bunch tentacles beneath a bunch of even bigger tentacles which also all are conveniently placed around your crotch area?¡± Adrienne stopped for a second to look me dead in the eyes. ¡°And here I thought that I was the deviant one in our relationship¡¡± My mouth opened and closed a few time, unbelieving of what had happened. How dare she back talk to me like this! I was the most amazing person in existence, right after Mother of course! No one was going to get away with making fun of me! To vent my frustration ¨C and possibly a slight bit of my indignation ¨C I pointed my finger accusing at my lover. ¡®Just who do you think you are!? Who of us spend almost half an hour raving how monster girls are justice? I am merely someone willingly offering my body for power and might! What form it takes was obviously not up to me!¡¯ ¡°So the whole part about how my desires would form my new body and stuff, were¡ untrue?¡± Her tone was perfectly innocent but her eyes shone with barely contained mirth. ¡®You think yourself awfully clever, don¡¯t you?¡¯ I slowly began putting pressure onto the back of lower tentacles, like springs they coiled beneath me. ¡°I like to think I have my moments, yes.¡± ¡®Was one of those moments agreeing to share a bed with a man eating abomination?¡¯ My lips pulled into a predatory smile all teeth and sharp edges. Before I turned her I was going to teach this wench a lesson in respect! ¡°Man¡ eating? Wait¡ why are you looking at me like that!?¡± Before Adrienne could even spit out another word I barrelled towards her. Yet just as I went to grab her like I had intended, a sudden spasm went through my body. My muscles seized up and I only managed to let out a ¨C quite literally ¨C shocked gasp as I flopped onto the bed. Her left hand still crackling with energy my former Boyfriend crawled out beneath me and quite quickly put a good bit of distance between us. ¡°What the fuck!?¡± All fascination had left her face and was instead replaced by confusion. ¡°Why did you do that! You could have actually hurt me! Holy crap, just what is wrong with you? I agreed to become your girlfriend, not you personal punching bag!¡± Already I could feel that my body had shook off the nasty little stun bolt, but I had time and so remained sprawled across the bed. If I made her believe to be able to take me on, this would be a lot more fun. After all, part of me was itching for a little hunt. As if I was still in pain I slowly, carefully propped myself onto my elbows. ¡®A promise was given, my dear. You sold yourself to Mother and I aim to collect, so please don¡¯t struggle... at least not too much.¡¯ A sharp crack emanated from beneath me as my beak shot out in anticipation. This time my lover¡¯s eyes held only actual, genuine fear. ¡°You... you must be joking! You are not actually going bonkers... right?¡± ¡®Bonkers?¡¯ An evil smile crossed my face as I seemingly shook off the last effects of her spell. ¡®I only care about you... so. Very. Deeply... But maybe scream a bit more than my breakfast yes? Or you could even do me a favour and run away a little... such fun we could have.¡¯ A sigh escaped me as I drunk in the scent of fear coming off of her. It was almost like a very nice wine and I could have sworn it left me just as drunk. My lust for sex and violence were battling with each other as I trailed my eyes down Adrienne¡¯s shivering form. Her soft but slight curves, cute face, and the way she was torn between her fear and love... all of it just made me want her even more. Once more I dug my tentacles into the floor, this time I wouldn¡¯t let her get away with a simple stun bolt. If Adrienne wanted to escape me she had to be ready to hurt me. ¡°By the gods... you are serious!¡± ¡°Yes~!¡± . . . ¡°P-Please! No more! I yield... any thing! Just stop chasing me around!¡± ¡°Hahahaha~! That¡¯s right, squirm little one!¡± ¡°My ears...¡± For the fifth time already I had caught up to ¨C and ¨C caught Adrienne during our delightful little game of catch. I for one was having the greatest time of my life, especially when I got to look over her slender body that was by now far less clothed than before. Though sadly it seemed my lover was more terrified than happy, in fact, every time I tightened my tentacles around her another scared whimper escaped her throat.¡®Maybe I shouldn''t have started to bite her? I mean by now it looks as if she was assaulted by an octopus... hehe, I guess she actually was though.¡¯Accepting that I had had my fun, I slowly released her and gently put her half naked body on to my bed. ¡®Sorry, Adrienne. I got a little over excited...¡¯ ¡°Please don¡¯t eat me!¡± The words came out in between several quiet sobs. ¡°I¡¯m sorry... please don¡¯t...¡± A solid slap to her bum immediately shut her up again, and I had to grin at the slight wobble it produced. Grinning in delight once more I leaned in closer right next to ear. A short nibble later had her shivering again, only this time I could smell the distinctive scent of arousal beneath the intoxicating odour of fear. It was truly a lovely scent. I would try and make this most enjoyable for both of us. Though that didn¡¯t mean I was going to treat her like a raw egg, this time after all I was on top! ¡®Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t eat you... probably. Let me just get rid of those pants first.¡¯ ¡°Eek! No! St-Stop!¡± ¡®Oh, come one. Stop struggling already, nothing to be worried a-... Are those MY panties!? And even my favourite ones! You slut! I¡¯ve been searching for them for weeks!¡¯ ¡°I am sorry!!! Please don¡¯t kill me!¡± Despite my indignation couldn¡¯t help but admire how well they fit her frame. Seeing the shame on her face just added to my desire to do... something. Slowly I leaned down on her my hair tentacles dangling around and sporadically caressing her tear stained face. Considering how her body was going to get remade very soon any way, I simply had to be a little mean. Unlike with my breakfast I didn¡¯t cut of her pain sensors when I began trailing kisses down her flat chest. With each kiss, a little sizzle was accompanied by a quiet whimper. Soon enough a trail of red heart shaped marks was adorning her smooth olive skin.¡®By Mother! She is truly too pretty for being a boy... good thing that I am about to take care of nature¡¯s mistakes. What a delightful little Sister you will make, my dear. You don¡¯t know it yet, but I promise that we will be especially close. And after all a little punishment for you clothing theft is in order. Don¡¯t worry, I promise you will love your new form.¡¯ Having both reached my destination and seeing big round tears form in the corners of my lover¡¯s eyes, I decided to end my torment... in one final action! Despite the obvious pain that my kisses must have induced, I could more than clearly see the outline of an erect dick bulging out the faux leather of the stolen panties. Grabbing the seam with my teeth I pulled it down slowly and was quickly rewarded with a cum slick sissy dick springing to attention. I was just about to go down on it when a gentle push by Mother made me reconsider. That perv was watching this, unbelievable! Yet I couldn¡¯t fault her for her ingenuity, I hadn¡¯t even known my body to be capable of what she was suggesting.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Opening my mouth wide enough that I could actually hear my jaws dislocate, my tentacle tongue dropped out extending far longer than I remembered. Together with it dangling, I felt something utterly alien in my throat. It was almost like reverse choking when two unfamiliar glands spat a black gooey slime all over Adrienne¡¯s exposed nether regions. Even from my point of view it was like seeing a horror movie from first person. The glands pushed out the seed cocktail and my split tongue instinctively knew how to twist and shape to get a consistent coating on all of her exposed skin. After a few seconds of this I felt myself run dry and sheepishly closed my mouth with a quite audible clack. ¡°What did you do? This feels weird...¡± ¡®Uhm.¡¯ I honestly couldn¡¯t tell if she was scared or aroused at the moment and so I simply went with the first thing that came to mind. ¡®Nothing! Shut up!¡¯ ¡°Oh... okay.¡± ¡®And we aren¡¯t even done yet! So, open your mouth and keep it that way! If you bite, I¡¯ll bite back and I have a beak!¡¯ ¡°Yes, Mistress!¡± ¡®Mis... tress? Shut up already!¡¯ Despite trying my best there was no way that I could keep up the alien seductress act after this entire situation. And so I was almost embarrassed when instead of taking it slow and sensual I just plopped my crotch down on Adrienne¡¯s face with all the elegance of a Dragon in a porcelain store. Thankfully what I lacked in the abilities of being sexually secure ¨C you try that in a new body, with a new mind-set and outlook ¨C Adrienne fully made up for with almost questionably good oral skills. Not even half a minute in I was already crying out in ecstasy as her pierced tongue swirled expertly around my four tentacle dicks. ¡®AH! Di-Di you get another piercing?¡¯ ¡°Mhmmm!¡± ¡®I-I love it! Ah, shit! Don¡¯t stop!¡¯ ¡°Mhm!¡± ¡®Fu-Fudge! Yes! Ohhhhh~ Keep it up!¡¯ Swept away by the moment I began humping up and down on Adrienne¡¯s face. Faster and faster the spasms came and just when I could feel the big one approaching my tentacles surged forward and basically buried themselves down my poor lovers throat. I barely noticed the panicked gagging noises as a beautiful orgasm rocked my body. Like floodgates opened, a torrent of alien cum erupted from my tenta-dicks and flowed down into her body. For several seconds I was in heaven, sadly soon enough the bliss was replaced by the arrival of the, by now, already familiar darkness. Just managing to pull out of Adrienne¡¯s throat, I quickly collapsed onto the bed in a heap of splattered cum and wobbly limbs. As I was floating into ¨C apparently mandatory ¨C unconsciousness, I noticed something odd. Instead of the simple blackout from last time, this time it felt decidedly different. In fact I was certain that I knew this feeling, I had once again entered the void from which Mother ruled. For a few seconds, that could have easily be an eternity, I was alone. My mind drifting through the emptiness I simply let myself relax, so much in fact that Mother¡¯s voice almost startled me. ¡°Daughter.¡± ¡°Mother.¡± ¡°Once more you make me proud. Two siblings , in such short time. I approve greatly.¡± ¡°Uhm, thank you?¡± ¡°Hush. Do not thank me yet. I see great pain and peril in your future. A gift to you, a reward and a promise. My Daughter, my princess, my priestess. A crown fit for royalty, a vestment fit for clergy.¡± Her touch was light almost unnoticeable, put reverberated through out my entire being. A hot searing pain spread from my forehead and to even the last tip of my tentacles. Only now did I notice that even here my body mirrored the physical world. I couldn¡¯t remember when this had happened but the fogginess in my mind made it hard to focus. ¡°I share my gift with you. Use it wisely. Learn to control it and perhaps this world shall be yours. Now... rest, you have much to do in the coming times.¡± ¡°Yes... Mother.¡± Nuzzling into her many limbed form I soon fell into the dreamless slumber I had come to like from this place. For a few moments I could ignore all problems and simply let myself go. There was nothing bad or evil here... there was nothing here at all. . . . When I awoke again it was to the sound of birds outside my window and muffled moans coming from somewhere in the room. My mind still groggy from being pulled back into my physical body, instead of getting up I merely turned around and tried drowning out the noise. Yet the moaning didn¡¯t stop, despite me throwing a pillow towards its direction. In fact, all I heard was a soft splash.¡®Wait... a splash?¡¯ Slowly I opened my eyes, only to immediately close them again when my field of view warped awkwardly. Even after blinking several times the problem didn¡¯t seem to fix it self. In fact it actually got worse. With a weird tearing noise I could feel other things opening on my head and all of a sudden I was staring at the ceiling while still looking forward.¡®What the fuck? Okay, new plan. I need a mirror right now!¡¯ Trying not to panic ¨C again ¨C I heaved myself out of the bed. Oddly enough I had to notice that my bed had changed quite a bit during my slumber. Were before had been satin sheets and fluffy pillows was now an oddly appealing wasteland of slime and half dissolved fabric. Getting up was a rather squishy affair, partially due to the slime and parts because of my own slick skin. Thankfully the goo seemed to notice my intend and softly slid me off the bed without me crashing to the ground.¡®Okay, that was both incredibly helpful and really fucking creepy! I¡¯m not sure I want to even think about all the implications this has. Nope, mirror first, existential crisis later.¡¯ Quickly crawling ¨C or rather wobbling ¨C across my bedroom floor I soon had to notice another problem. Not only did I have immense trouble focusing, but I also realized just how hard it is to open a door when you are literally with your butt on the ground. It was especially hard when your bath room door had a fancy golden door knob and your hands, were not only clawed and webbed but also really frickin slick! I mean it was really nice that my body produced its own moisturizer but it was a pain in my tentacled butt when I wanted to open this damned door! I might have despaired, had I not known about a far more elegant solution than simply trying to turn the knob like an idiot. With a simple flick of the wrist, the whole mechanism creaked and groaned and suddenly broke! Once more I had to blink a few times to make sure I was seeing right. When last I had tried this in the university baths, it had merely turned a lock, not obliterated it! Gingerly I grabbed the knob and pulled. The door opened without the slightest resistance and I instinctively caught the lock with a tentacle when it fell to the ground before my eyes. My confusion didn¡¯t hold up for long though, because soon enough my eyes trailed over to the source of moans that had awoken me. What ever I had expected, it certainly was not the sight of my former Boyfriend fingering herself in my bathtub and while appearing to wear a ball gag and bondage gear. One of the more obvious things that stood out to me was that I personally had never actually owned bondage gear so it meant that Adrienne had either brought it with her ¨C which I wouldn¡¯t have expected ¨C or she somehow had gotten it while I had been asleep. Only when I crawled closer I realized that neither of the two ideas could be right; For upon a closer look I saw that her body had already changed. In fact, it seemed that either Adrienne herself or Mother had taken rather well to my mental suggestion. To be fair, my idea had actually been more of a sexual fantasy, than a well formed thought. And so it was really surprising to see the first beginnings of Adrienne¡¯s new form so clearly before me. Unlike Clarissa and me who had first gotten a way to breathe underwater, the first thing that had changed for Adrienne was her skin. It already looked nothing more like that of a human. Instead her lithe and lissom frame was wrapped in a glistening half transparent membrane that closely resembled a skin tight latex suit. The only difference being that I wasn¡¯t all that solid; when looking closely I could see her ¡°skin¡± move around, almost like the slime on my bed. Beneath this delectable wrapping I saw something both odd and fascinating. Not only could I observe her skeleton as she moved and quivered before me, but I also noticed how slowly but surely all of her inner organs had started to dissolve. It was utterly alien to see a person be ravaged by sexual pleasure while her insides ate themselves, and yet I desired to touch her. To feel her new form beneath my fingers, caress her until she was nothing more than a formless quivering pile of goo. A serene smile parted my lips as I began tracing a line from the bottom of her lips down to the small valley formed by a pair of delicate budding breasts. Despite her looks, Adrienne¡¯s skin wasn¡¯t actually wet, it was more like an oily jelly. I could have easily broken through the membrane covering her but I didn¡¯t. Instead I simply applied enough pressure for my fingers to leave slim channels in her ¡°flesh¡± that soon enough vanished. The simple touch had her moan even stronger into the gag, but I was far from done. Cupping both of her svelte breasts in either of my webbed hands, I started massaging the almost grape-like nipples. Continuing with my gentle advances, I slowly lifted my self into the bathtub with her. I could feel her body give slightly under my weight and I dragged myself higher so that I could face her. Only now could I see that there was no seam between the ball gag and her membrane. As I began softly kissing her gag mouth I noticed the blindfold over her eyes seemingly made from crystallized slime. She was so wonderfully helpless, like a present wrapped just for me. After another soft kiss, I removed Adrienne¡¯s hands from her crotch and pressed them to her sides. Apparently understanding my hint they quickly fused into her skin, making her reliant on my help. Teasing her for another few moments I finally gave in after one particularly begging and lusty moan. Slowly and gently I curled on of my tentacles around and began to prod at the entrance of her virgin vagina. The slick, slime walls gave only the barest hint of resistance and soon I slipped inside completely. Far deeper than I would have been able to in a human my tentacles twisted and curled. My careful prodding turned into an elaborate massage, where I always just slightly attached my suckers to the inner walls of her artificial womb before popping them off again. It didn¡¯t take long for the freshly baked girl to cry out both mentally and physically when the first orgasm hit her. She was so sensitive that after that she even once came just from making out through the gag. The next hour or so we spend curled around each other in the bathtub; caressing each others in new and familiar ways, re-establishing our old relationship and celebrating our new one. Neither of us spoke for our bodies already told us enough. Yet obviously this moment had to end at some point, this time it did with the slightly menacing growling of my stomach. Had my own body not reminded me I would have probably forgot that Adrienne too had needs. She simply was such a comfortable pillow I could have spent hours resting like this. But being the nice and benevolent elder sister that I was, the next second my finger already flicked Adrienne¡¯s gag. ¡°Get up sleepy head. Breakfasttime.¡± ¡°HRMPH!¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah just get up dumb-dumb.¡± Part 9 â€“ Old Friend = New Friend â€“ (2/2) Part 2 I had seen a bunch of crazy, unbelievable things in the last few days. From otherworldly beings with a mother-complex to magical smartphones and the very bloody insides of a person. But even with that, I would argue that what I was seeing right now could topmost if not all of them. Before my ¨C admittedly many ¨C eyes, the ball gag in Adrienne¡¯s mouth began to quiver and retract. Instead of just falling out like I would have assumed, it shifted and twisted before turning into more than a quarter meter long tongue, studded from tip to throat all the way with large black piercings. I had been so focused on the odd sight, that only after she had retracted her tongue I noticed Adrienne¡¯s eyes being equally free of their bondage. Unlike her skin, they had retained their striking emerald color. But just like her tongue the area around her eyes was framed in more piercings than my girlfriend ever had before. Not only her eyebrows but her nose too were covered in black studs that upon a closer look, were just as much part of her skin as those in her mouth seemed to be part of her tongue. ¡°Everything okay, Val?¡± Adrienne leaned in closer to me, her face scrunched up in worry. ¡°Sure, this was just not what I expected. I mean your face just... melted.¡± ¡°Wait what!?¡± Obviously shocked she went to grab her face as if fearing for it to fall off. ¡°I thought you knew?¡± My eyes widened in surprise. ¡°WHAT? No! Mother just told me to will the bondage away!¡± Still panicked, she felt across her face apparently not even noticing how her fingers were sinking into her skin. ¡°I didn¡¯t know my face would melt! Is it okay now?¡± ¡°Sure... just maybe get your fingers out of your skin?¡± Before I could even react her hands shot forward and grabbed me by the shoulders. Her mouth opened as if to scream at me but immediately closed up when her gaze fell upon her own arms. Under her unbelieving eyes, the slime making up her flesh fused her fingers together, making a clearly visible jumble of the exposed hand bones. Thankfully I had just enough time to cover my ears as a terrified, ear-drum-shattering scream left Adrienne¡¯s throat. Utterly creeped-out by the sight of her own body melting, she got up and tried to leave the bathtub. Yet after only two steps, her gooey foot caught on the edge. Not used to her new anatomy she tried to lift it but instead, with a wet pop her bones separated and she sailed towards the ground in a slimy heap. Upon impact, her insides scattered throughout her body in a complete mess, and all she could do was let out a scared whimper as her form instinctively pulled itself together into a spherical blob. ¡°Eeeeeeeee... Vaaaaaaaaawwwurghiiiiiiieeee... Houghwwwep!¡± Even if I could see her violet core pulse in clear frustration and agitation, a small giggle escaped me when she tried to form a face and instead an upset smiley appeared on the blackish, green blob of slime. ¡°I feel like I should now ask if you are okay...¡± ¡°Shurgh uuuuurgp!¡± ¡°Can you even hear me right now? I mean you don¡¯t really have ears so...¡± ¡°VAAAAWWWWUUUUUWWEEEEEEE!¡± ¡°Hahahaha~, fine. I¡¯ll try and help you, just relax.¡± The only problem with this was that I actually had no idea about how to help my friend. Instead of coming up with anything useful I just hugged her slimy body from behind. While this didn¡¯t help the situation much, it did let me rest my head on an incredibly soft and comfortable surface. Honestly, I had never thought that my girlfriend had such talent in being a pillow. With an almost dopey smile on my face, I sank into her. I would have most certainly gone right back to sleep if a sudden slap hadn¡¯t startled me. It took me a second to realize that Adrienne had actually hit me with one of her thigh bones! ¡°What the heck?¡± Before I could get out another word my sentient pillow began hitting me again! ¡°Ouch! Stop! Bad pillow! No hitting me!¡± ¡°VAAAWWWUUUWWEEEE!¡± ¡°Ow! Fine, stop already! I¡¯ll try something.¡± Squeezing the unruly ooze girl with all my might ¨C and tentacles ¨C I finally managed to calm her down enough that I could try reaching out to the other realm. Much to my surprise, I managed to do so much faster and easier than I had even during my initial summoning of Mother. Instead of punching a hole through the fabric of reality, it seemed that I now had a most definitely permanent connection to her residence. Unlike before, where our bond had been like a string on a needle threaded through reality, it was now more akin to a strong tether or perhaps a leash. The way it twisted the fabric of existence around itself was... fascinating; it didn¡¯t seem to act like the Magic I knew. Instead of being woven into everything on a basic level, it actively crushed anything in its path. Mother¡¯s power didn¡¯t care for soft underlying influence, it simply forced its will onto reality. A shudder went through me when I realized this was only a sliver of the might Mother possessed. What she could possibly do if she were to breach into our universe... the thought was both terrifying and exhilarating. And yet despite being able to see the tendrils themselves I didn¡¯t grow any wiser from looking at them. While two of them clearly connected Adrienne and me ¨C with a third faint one, of in the distance ¨C the way they transmitted any information was utterly alien to me. Unsure just what to do about my Sister¡¯s situation I gingerly reached out to the ethereal threads coming from her.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I could see them clearly now, coming from what I assumed to be her core but after a short distance, they seemed to disappear... no matter how much I tried, I wasn¡¯t able to see where they went off to. In fact, all I got from looking at them was my body feeling queasy. ¡®Weird... usually my head hurts when I try and comprehend Magic above my capabilities... I feel like I am missing something important. No matter for now... I¡¯ll try and focus on-'' ¡°Argh! FUDGE!¡± ¡°Vawu?¡± ¡°It ... it¡¯s fine just some backlash. Shards... that was too much information in too little time. Ugh, great. I¡¯m bleeding out of my nose and I feel like puking.¡± Doing my best to ignore the oncoming full-body cramps, I sifted through the utter onslaught of information that had just washed over me. It was parts nonsensical information and parts detailed medical knowledge. Knowledge on ... how to build a skeleton? Suddenly it fell like scales from my eyes. This wasn¡¯t anything useful to me but to Adrienne it certainly was! The way she had created bondage gear from the simple act of wishing for it... if she could do this with an entire skeleton or even other physical objects... her potential was only limited by her own body mass. And thankfully I even knew of a way to help her with getting the form right. A snicker escaped me as I mentally called out to my lover. ¡°Stay still for a second, yes? I figured out just what we need to get you into the right mindset! You¡¯re going to love it!¡± Before she could even respond or get the idea to try and keep me in place, I rushed off as quickly as my underbody allowed for. Honestly, I wasn¡¯t really all that fast but at least I was still faster than a pile of goo. Much to my surprise when I came back into my bedroom, the blackish slime had started to spread over most of my furniture. I could literally see it eating into the varnish and wood. My previously pink shag carpet was now something I could only describe as a slimy tentacle patch. Though I did have to admit that moving across it was quite fun... in a very lewd and perverted kind of way. Slithering over to my wardrobe I was met with an entirely different surprise. The slime-rimmed mirror showed me for the first time my new form, in all its glory. My breath stocked when I realized that barely anything was left from the human mage I still had been yesterday. The reflection I now gazed upon was decidedly inhuman; what it showed me was not just a mere Octopus girl but a seductive eldritch abomination, equal parts terrifying and beautiful. The eight tentacles growing from my head seemed to have matured into powerful appendages that easily dwarfed the ones below my waist by at least a meter and a half. They were twisting and pulsing around my form, a singular yellow eye at the base of each tentacle took in the world around it with almost amused indifference. I finally realized part of the problem I had been having with walking around. I had overlooked the important fact that Mother had based me on the image of a cephalopod. ¡®By Mother! How could I have been so stupid!?¡¯ All of my eyes simultaneously rolled around in annoyance at my own stupidity. These tentacles were a lot tougher than my lower ones and they also seemed to have a cartilage skeleton just like my arms and torso; most surprising was that they ended in hardened, hooked bone-spikes. Bringing the tip of one of them in front of me I noticed the much tougher leathery interior compared to my squishy ¡°leg¡±-tentacles. To humans, it would have seemed nonsensical but to me it somehow made sense. One by one I pressed my tentacles into the ground, and like a terrible effigy of all that was wrong and corrupted my body rose from the ground. ¡°Holy shit! This is amazing! Oh Mother, you beautiful genius!¡± I delighted in the feelings of the powerful muscles shift beneath my pliant skin. Almost steel-like strands ran down my tentacles and neck. Moving my body almost felt like swimming in the air and the view in the mirror was simply breathtaking. This... this beautiful deadly creature, this incarnation of sin and pain... it was all me! The clawed tips of my webbed hands, the tentacles flowing from my waste like a sinuous skirt, the pouty lips hiding rows upon rows of jagged sharpened teeth, and of course the monstrous appendages growing from my head... my body rippled with every movement. Power like I never had before, both in body and mind and I couldn¡¯t help but love every second of this nightmarish experience. The tiny voice from before, the part of me that had fought against this change, it was easily crushed by the sheer fucking delight of it! A feral, unnatural snarl echoed from my chest as I couldn¡¯t help but bask in the glory of my own form. Between the twisting and posing it came up almost as an afterthought that I actually had a thing to do still. ¡®Hehehe... almost forgot about the little slimy blob. Gotta still get my girl some help, I guess.¡¯ Trying to open my dresser I had to ¨C much to my annoyance ¨C realize that the stupid black goo had grown over the opening. With my new ¡°legs¡± bracing against the door I seized the rim and pushed. A wet squelch and ripping sound accompanied the separation of the door and the thick, wet mucous. ¡°Well... at least the stuff hasn¡¯t gotten to my clothes yet... not that I can actually still wear most of this.¡± Getting out a lacy bra and a spiky leather jacket was about all I could do to cover myself up. And hot damn, I looked like some badass, man-eating monster woman alright. Which I, now that I considered, actually was. I really hoped that little mistake from earlier wouldn¡¯t come back to bite me in my tentacle ass. With a shrug, I started rummaging through my piles of clothing to find just the thing I had been looking for. When I finally found it I was more than excited. Thankfully my parents had never found out about this little number of sin. From the neck down it was a full-body cat-suit, complete with socks and gloves. I had bought it when I was a little younger in the hope of growing into the 3D-modeled breast cups... sadly now that I actually had larger breasts, I could no longer wear it. But it was the perfect thing for Adrienne to get her form back into shape. . . . ¡°Hey! How much longer do you need in there?¡± I currently leaned against my bathroom door as Adrienne was trying to get herself back in order. ¡°Shu- Shut up! You have no idea how hard is to form an entirely new skeleton! OR new vocal cords!¡± Her indignant response was too cute and I couldn¡¯t stop myself from teasing her. ¡°Mhmm, I bet. Say is it just me or do you still sound a little slurpy? It¡¯s almost as if a pudding is trying to talk.¡± ¡°Oh fuck you!¡± The door separating us opened and as she took a single look upon my form any retort Adrienne had, got stuck in her throat. ¡°Cat got your tongue, little one?¡± With a lecherous grin, I lifted myself a little higher. What a wonderful thing it was to finally be able to lord over other people. ¡°Uh... yeah. Woah.¡± Her lips opened and closed obviously unbelieving of my current look. ¡°You... you sure we need to go out for food?¡± ¡°Why?¡± I could see her remodeled self gulp as my claws caressed her chin. ¡°Just asking... let¡¯s go!¡± I was certain that the blush on her face was created just so that I could see it. ¡°Indeed my sweet grape. Let¡¯s~¡± Taking Adrienne¡¯s hand in my own I guided her through the debased wonderland we had created and down the stairs. It was time we hit the town. Part 10 â€“ Family troubles (1/2) Eldritch Part 10 ¨C Family Troubles When Adrienne and I finally got out of the house, it was already close to mid-day. I didn¡¯t mind though, at least she was happy about her appearance. Unlike me who had, at first, severely struggled to accept the changes to my body, she didn¡¯t seem to mind as much. In a way, she hadn¡¯t lost anything but only gained new and exciting abilities. Not only would she never again age or lose her beauty but she also was able to mimic almost anything she saw. I was happy for her but the voice in the back of my mind, the little cautionary whispers, they couldn¡¯t help but be concerned about our situation. At first, I had thought that my final transitioning would have gotten rid of it but the voice proved to be tenacious. Whenever I was uncertain or my mind wandered eventually I met the voice again. Did the other girls feel the same way or was it only me? As soon as the thoughts had come I pushed them back into the dark hole they had emerged from. Shaking my head I turned to my companion. ¡®Adrienne! Stop gawking at your own reflection, will you?¡¯ ¡°It¡¯s fine! You said nobody would notice us anyway!¡± ¡®Yeah... I¡¯m not so sure about that. Maybe stop yelling?¡¯ While the Suggestion might have kept the people from truly understanding what they were looking at, I wasn¡¯t entirely sure how well it worked. Passer-bys kept looking in my direction with distraught or confused expressions, so they certainly could see me. Yet despite my admittedly strange appearance after a short glance at me or Adrienne, they went back to their business. I had learned about illusion magic in university and I had been rather good at using them. But where before it had been my own creativity and power weaving the spell, now with Mother behind my every move it was no longer up to me. I was merely borrowing her might... almost instantly the nagging voice came back. ¡®Why am I even following her? Why did I allow her to not only enslave my body but also my mind? Why should I... What was I thinking? I am a bad daughter for even asking those questions!¡¯ With an amused smile, I turned towards Adrienne. She had ignored my calls before, hadn¡¯t she? Maybe it was time for some punishment after all... Sneaking around the silly little humans was easy enough thanks to Mother¡¯s Suggestion. It worked like charm as soon I started moving. I swam between the people as if they were waves and quickly enough I had made my way over to my cute little sister. She was so enamored with her own appearance that she didn¡¯t even notice me. Quickly before she could react I wrapped my hands around her head. The surprised gasp she let out made the webbing between my fingers vibrate, it was an odd feeling. ¡°Adrienne,¡± I whispered into her ear. ¡°My dear beloved Sister... you wouldn¡¯t ignore my orders. Now would you?¡± ¡°Valerie!¡± She tried turning around but I held her in place. ¡°Uhm... could you maybe just let go of my head?¡± ¡°Shush dear Sister.¡± With almost gleeful joy I increased the pressure on her head. ¡°Simply answer my question. Did you, or did you not just ignore my order?¡± It was clear that she didn¡¯t quite understand what I was getting at. Seeing her desperately trying to figure how she could have slighted me was adorable, especially the way she twitched every time I clenched my fingers. After a minute of false guesses, she was whimpering already in pain, just the way it should be. After all, she was so much more pathetic than me! She was less and I had to let her feel it. With a sudden crack, my arms moved and crushed Adrienne¡¯s facsimile of her head. Membrane, bone, and slime ripped apart as my claws went through it like hot knives through butter. The weird state of mind I had been in faded almost immediately. When I realized just what I had done it was already too late; I could only watch in horror as the goo that once was my lover''s head dripped down between my fingers. ¡®By the gods what have I done? I... I smashed Adrienne¡¯s head like a fucking grape! Oh, gods. Oh, gods. Oh, gods! Wait! Maybe I can still fix her? I just have to pile all the goo back on her body!¡¯ ¡®My head! You crushed my head! Oh, Mother, I am so sorry!¡¯ My mind did a double-take when all of a sudden I heard Adrienne¡¯s voice. ¡®Adrienne?¡¯ I called out confused while slowly looking up from the goo in my hands. ¡®Ah! Yes! I am here! Sorry for bothering you! It¡¯s not going to happen again!¡¯ The sight before me only confused me even more. The entirely headless body of Adrienne was currently trying to bow down in front of me while having no idea whatsoever where I actually was. Not only was that odd enough, but apparently having her head removed seemed to barely bother her; other than the fact that she couldn¡¯t see. Seeing her like this, I wanted to apologize for what I had done, but for some reason I couldn¡¯t, I just couldn¡¯t do it! The more I wanted to tell that I was sorry, the more I wanted to make sure she was okay... the more my body resisted. What was going on with me? I felt almost violently ill at the thought of caring about the well-being of others.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I didn¡¯t understand why I felt this way but it certainly made me change my course of action. Instead of apologized like I initially had wanted to, I just scoffed and turned away from her. ¡°Just... fix your face and we¡¯ll be on our way. I¡¯m starving and I have a weird feeling about today...¡± . . . . . . ¡°Val! Can we buy this? Oh! Oh! THIS!¡± I could only skeptically look at the number of sweets and chocolate that she was piling in the shopping cart. Unlike Clarissa or me it seemed that Adrienne had still retained her sweet tooth. To be fair stuffing yourself with snacks was entirely acceptable when you didn¡¯t have to build muscle mass. And even after her transformation, I couldn¡¯t say that Adrienne was particularly strong. Her talents laid in a different direction; which I had to find out when she dropped something behind a shelf and promptly slithered into the gap on the bottom only to re-emerge a moment later with a bunch of chewed up praline floating inside of her gelatinous form. As she was busy with finding new creative ways to avoid the cameras just so that she could stuff herself without paying for it, I started looking around the store. For some time now I had the weird feeling of being watched. Now back when I had been human I would have easily demised the concern, but since then my senses had not only improved but changed. I could easily pick up on things I would have considered impossible before and right now they told me that something was... iffy. The only problem was that I still hadn¡¯t figured out just what it was that kept me on edge. Thankfully getting a good view of the room was rather easy. With but a single thought my tentacles pushed me up high enough so that I could survey the area. It was near impossible for anything to escape my many-eyed view. This, by the way, took some getting used to. ¡°Stay here for a moment Adrienne. I have to check up on something.¡± Not even bothering to wait for her reply I rushed off. Just now I could have sworn to see someone quickly rush into the supermarket''s storage area. Instead of following the walk lines I just stepped over the shelves. As I was getting closer to the area my tentacles picked up all kinds of information; some of which I would have rather not known. A lot of people came this way on a regular basis, which wasn¡¯t a surprise because even to this day humans and not machines stocked the shelves and baskets. Sure we had automated trucks and cars but a supermarket was simply too disorderly for the quick action and thinking that was required to efficiently restock and resupply all the lines. And so I had to filter through all the stink humans left in their wake. In the actual storage area, the smell was even worse, sweat and motor oil mixed to create a truly unpleasant odor. I was more than thankful for the fact that the end of my head tentacles couldn¡¯t taste or smell. I most likely would have puked. Much to my immediate joy, I didn¡¯t have to wait for my stalker to come out by themself. For almost as soon as I had set foot in the room a voice called out to me from the shadows; a voice that I immediately recognized. ¡°Valerie... it is you, no? I¡¯ve been following you for a few days now... and you are wearing her clothes. So it better be...¡± ¡®Taya... I would have expected for you to call me. Why didn¡¯t you?¡¯ ¡°That voice... it is yours but more like a shallow copy of yourself. I now see that I was right not to call you.¡± There was a sudden movement to my right but when I look there was nothing. ¡°Something happened to you, Val... something terrible.¡± ¡®Terrible?¡¯ A mental chuckle accompanied my words. ¡®There is nothing terrible about me my dear!¡¯ ¡°Yeah... that isn¡¯t going to work. I saw your... your real appearance. You can somehow hide it but the pictures I took were unmistakable. What happened to you?¡± ¡®Why don¡¯t you come out, Tanya? We haven¡¯t seen each other in days! Are you okay? Did the AFI mercs hurt you? It¡¯s okay, you can trust me.¡¯ ¡°Stop!¡± Another erratic movement, this time to my left. ¡°You¡¯re trying to get into my head... just like you did with your friends before you corrupted them. What is wrong with you!? This is NOTHING like you Valerie!¡± Her outcry confused me; of course, I was like myself, or not? ¡®Tanya. You need to believe me, I have no intention of hurting you. I only gave Clarissa and Adrienne what they wanted, what they needed.¡¯ Suddenly a great idea came to my mind, I could turn Tanya too! No, I couldn¡¯t, she wasn¡¯t a mage... I needed a catalyst. ¡®Tanya! I just had the best idea, if I had a catalyst I could give you Mother¡¯s gift too!¡¯ A concept for it was early forming in my mind but was immediately interrupted by Tanya yelling at me. ¡°Mother¡¯s gift? Do you mean you want to turn me into what you are? No, I like the way that I am, and I liked the way you used to be too. I will not join you in this, especially not if forced.¡± A metallic click was almost drowned out by her ranting. ¡°No. I will not let you do this. I¡¯m going to admit, I love you like a Sister, no... Probably even more than that BUT that doesn¡¯t mean I will just accept every bad decision that you make!¡± I could hear Tanya spit on the ground somewhere in front of me. ¡°And that ritual you did, that was one hell of a bad decision! Well, for what it is worth I will keep an eye on you.¡± The sudden influx of vibrations coming from the store made me wrinkle my brow. ¡°I am sorry Val, but I informed the police of you being here... I can¡¯t stop you but maybe they can. Goodbye Valerie... for now.¡± Something whizzed towards me and my sight was cut off by white acrid smoke. Breathing in was enough to make me cough and tear up. ¡®What the fuck? Did Tanya seriously just throw a tear gas grenade my way? Shit, I need to get out of this stuff, my skin is burning! Mother be damned, where is Adrienne when I need her?¡¯ Trying my best not to breathe, I stumbled out of the biting cloud. Almost immediately I could hear the excited chatter of Adrienne. ¡°By Mother! Valerie! There you are!¡± ¡°Ye-¡± A coughing fit interrupted me. ¡°Yes. I am. What is going on? Why are you screaming... again?¡± ¡°Uhm, there was Police but... what is going on here? What¡¯s with this weird cloud?¡± ¡°Yeah turns out Tanya is a bit pissed. Anyway, we need to leave. I¡¯m not sure I want to tangle with the police right now, or ever.¡± ¡°But our food?¡± ¡°Did you not listen?¡± I snarled in her direction. ¡°We need to leave. The police are here for us! Now get a move on!¡± ¡°Oh... okay.¡± I didn¡¯t bother looking for Tanya, if she didn¡¯t want anything to do with me anymore that suited me just fine. After all, I only needed Mother and my Sisters in my life and nobody else mattered. Part 10 â€“ Family troubles (2/2)

Part 2

¡°By Mother,¡± Adrienne exclaimed. ¡°We were lucky they didn¡¯t bother to search the storage room.¡± ¡°Yes, but that was way too close.¡± I took a look around the corner before quickly dragging Adrienne after me. ¡°I do NOT like sneaking away from the law!¡± ¡°So, what do we do now?¡± ¡°We shut up!¡± I growled back at Adrienne. We had only just managed to slip out before the police had started searching the store. I didn¡¯t know why the police were looking for us but I did have my suspicions. Sure, we technically hadn¡¯t done anything too illegal when making the janitor go to sleep, but it was still a bit iffy. Thankfully, it seemed that nobody had found the dead mercenary, or at least nobody had ¨C as of yet ¨C linked it to me or my sisters. If they had realised that I was behind that death, they would have most certainly come with more than just two people. Then again calling it a death was giving that man too much credit. It was more assisted suicide than anything else... he had basically presented himself on a silver platter, no? Sadly, I doubted that the police would see it the same way. For now, I was going to stay on the side of caution. After all, there was no telling if Clarissa had done something stupid. Knowing her she probably had, and I was going to be the one to suffer from it. I couldn¡¯t help but roll my eyes in frustration. We needed a way out of here, and right now I could only count on myself... mainly because I didn¡¯t trust anyone but me, and secondly because Adrienne seemed to have lost a few brain cells. Well, she most certainly has lost all of her brain cells but that did not excuse her current behaviour. ¡°For the love of Mother, could you please stop humping that bollard!?¡± I called out, utterly fed up with her. ¡°But I am so excited! We¡¯re fleeing from the police and stole from a shop! Ugh~ I like being bad!¡± Her lewd sucking sounds told of a very different kind of excitement. ¡°Be that as it is,¡± I began, before pointedly looking away from her. ¡°Why are you fucking yourself with the bollard? It is immensely distracting!¡± ¡°Because I¡¯m a bad girl! And now everyone who is going to touch this thing is unknowingly going to touch my juices! Everyone is going to finger my sex-toy!¡± I wasn¡¯t even sure how to react to that, so I just sighed. ¡°Could you please stop? We NEED to go!¡± ¡°Awww, is little Valerie embarrassed? Your hot, gooey sister is fucking this... long, thick metal rod... does the sight of it fluster you? Ohhhh~, Ahhh~!¡± ¡°Adrienne.¡± I said with about the calmest voice I could muster. ¡°I am going to say this exactly once. Get. Off. The. FUCKING BOLLARD!!!¡± My tentacles twisted furiously around me, before reaching out and grabbing the offending object at its base. Adrienne had barely enough time to get off before they ripped the iron rod right out of the ground. With an angry huff I threw the thing as far away as possible, and with a wet splash, it landed in one of Amsterdam¡¯s many channels. ¡°Gods damn it!¡± I could no longer hold in my frustration. ¡°What is wrong with you? You never did shit like this before! So why would you start now? In a situation where I REALLY cannot suffer any distractions!? For fucks sake! We have policemen searching for us right now!¡± ¡°Val...¡± Adrienne¡¯s voice was different, it was calm and gentle. Like a soft breeze, it soothed my anger. ¡°What?¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay. Everything is alright.¡± There was something about her words, they seemed to worm their way into my mind; I almost wanted to believe her. ¡°Wait, no...¡± For some reason, I had trouble focusing. ¡°No... this isn¡¯t right, things aren¡¯t okay, or... are they?¡± ¡°Of course they are, Valerie. Mother is here for us, everything is going to be perfect. We can do whatever we want. She will make sure that nobody can bother us. Now, you wouldn¡¯t want to upset Mother, right?¡± ¡°No... I... I guess I don¡¯t. Uhm...¡± Everything was still a bit foggy when Adrienne spoke again. ¡°Come on slowpoke! You said it yourself, we need to leave!¡± ¡°Wait...¡± ¡°Yeah? Everything okay?¡± ¡°I...¡± I shook my head to clear the last cobwebs from my mind. ¡°Yes, sorry Adrienne. I¡¯m fine. Let¡¯s keep to the channels, yeah?¡± ¡°Ohhhh~ We¡¯re going swimming?¡± ¡°Yeah! I guess we are!¡± There was something immensely satisfying about plunging into the water. The way it splashed everywhere, and how lovely it felt on my skin; it reminded me of the days in my youth, back when my life was still full of fun and freedom. Part of me wanted to go back to that untroubled time, back before my affliction had taken hold of me. Then again, I already knew how it was going to end. Early into my teenage years, I had grown in power but also in frailty, every time I had used my magic it had started to destroy me. The doctors had said that it was strange mana-attracted bacteria feeding off my soul and that the only treatment had been a medication that slowly neutered my magic.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡®Strange... the feeling whenever I didn¡¯t take my medicine... it still feels like back then, even now. But no magic, only Mother¡¯s strange power.¡¯ I tried flexing my mental muscles but there didn¡¯t seem to be any response from my soul whatsoever. The well of magic within it seemed to be dry or at least inaccessible. ¡®So weird, if I cannot use my magic, then how come that the strange itch isn¡¯t gone? It¡¯s almost as if something is stopping me from reaching out and scratching it, like a damnable scab right there on my soul! So irritating!¡¯ I filed the thought away for later, for now, I just wanted to go home. ¡°Adrienne!¡± I called out mentally. ¡°You¡¯re going the wrong way! My home is in this direction!¡± "I know, I know, but check me out! I¡¯m a mermaid!¡± There was a strange wobbly-laughing tone to Adrienne¡¯s words. Much to her delight, Adrienne¡¯s body seemed to be a lot stranger than I had given it credit for. Instead of oozing out underwater, her transformative properties only seemed to be enhanced by the water¡¯s pressure. The sad lump of goo that I had shoved into a bodysuit was no more; rather than that, I was looking at a crystalline jade sculpture, one that was moving... living, reminding me of fairytales and children-stories. Whereas before her appearance had been almost comical, there was a certain sculpted beauty to her now. Adrienne hadn¡¯t just copied the look of a Najade ¨C those terrible water Faey ¨C or tried to recreate one of the rumoured Sirens. No, her current look was by all accounts utterly fantastical. I had known her to be artistically gifted but this took it to a new level. Her legs had gone, a long, finned tail replacing them. A hypnotic pattern of swirling scales snaked from the tail up her body; every one of her scales was shimmering in the light falling through the water. Her arms'' delicate and gracile span shimmering, with glass-like fins from her wrist all the way to her shoulders. Where once had been a cute but simplistic face was now a countenance of perfect cruel beauty. Looking at her awoke something in me that I hadn¡¯t realized was there. I wanted her, needed her, desired her, and lusted for her like never before. ¡°You... You are beautiful...¡± I had a hard time holding myself back. ¡°I- Adrienne, you look- I- It¡¯s- Perfection!¡± ¡°I know.¡± I couldn¡¯t keep my feelings for myself any longer. Like a woman possessed I rushed forward, weaving through the waves with a singular purpose in my mind. I need her, right now! She was so beautiful and I just couldn¡¯t... I barely processed sliding up to her. All I wanted was to embrace her, wrap myself around this perfect effigy of desire and love. And so my body did just that; the tentacles affixed to me didn¡¯t need an invitation, and as soon as Adrienne was in reach they reached out to her, caressing and petting her body like the beautiful treasure that she was. ¡°Adrienne...¡± I took her head in my hands, holding her just before me, gazing into those perfect, crystalline eyes. ¡°Yes, my love?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s return home and fuck like rabbits.¡± ¡°Yes, let¡¯s~.¡± I kissed her deeply, our tongues entwining, and our bodies coiling around each other. It was a heated, passionate embrace; one that I haven¡¯t felt in a long while, and our strange, perverted bodies only made it all the better. We were going to enjoy ourselves when we got back... . . . . . . . ¡°Oh my, Valerie... that was, Amazing!¡± ¡°Shit, it was, wasn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°I mean the thing you did with your snatch... fuck; I¡¯m made from slime and I didn¡¯t think of that!¡± ¡°Hehehe~,¡± I moved so that she could snuggle up to me. ¡°What can I say, I am just generally amazing in anything that I do.¡± ¡°I guess that is one way of seeing it. Then again...¡± Adrienne turned around to face me. ¡°It was you that had the most orgasms of the two of us.¡± ¡°That,¡± I scowled. ¡°That has nothing to do with any of this!¡± ¡°Really?¡± By now she had started to lose most of her former density and what should have been an impish smile turned into a spooky ghost face. ¡°Yes, really. And, Adrienne...¡± ¡°Yeah?¡± ¡°Go take a look in the mirror.¡± I had to hold back my laughter. ¡°What do you- Oh, MOtHer!¡± Much to my joy, Adrienne did not take well to her face melting again. ¡°Come on! Why!? I just managed to fix myself up and get all beautiful! Why am I all... melty again!?¡± ¡°Maybe you shouldn¡¯t leave the water? I mean I also feel like I could take a bath again.¡± A long yawn escaped me. ¡°What time is it anyway? No way we messed around that long, right?¡± ¡°I would answer you but I can¡¯t really use my phone anymore... not that I would even know where it is in all this mess.¡± ¡°Oh, yeah, sorry about that.¡± I had to admit I was impressed when I took a look around. I honestly did not expect the goop to grow this quickly... or even grow in the first place... do you think this is safe?¡± I poked one particularly large goo bubble with my tentacle. ¡°What even is this shit in the first place?¡± ¡°If I were to make an educated guess, then I would say you puke out terraforming weirdo goo... because you¡¯re a weirdo.¡± ¡°Cute Adrienne, very cute.¡± I slid off the gooified remnants of my bed and made my way over to the door. ¡°We¡¯ll need to leave soon. Go search for your phone and stuff while I get a drink. I want to be gone before my parents come home.¡± ¡°Kay... guess there won¡¯t be a time for a bath anymore... a pity, I looked so good!¡± On the way out I grabbed my jacket and put it back on. Thankfully my phone hadn¡¯t fallen out during our little... goo fun. ¡®But seriously, the Goo is really weird. It seems to react to my presence and it grows. I am pretty sure it is alive in some strange way. I just didn¡¯t expect it to eat almost all of my wardrobe... this is really vexing me! Ugh!¡¯ Annoyed and slightly pissed I went down, now resolved to drown my sorrow over all the lost clothes in at least one or two margaritas. ¡°Where is did all the Tequila go?¡± To my little surprise, the alcohol cabinet was in utter disarray. ¡°That idiot Sadiya, she really is a drunk, isn¡¯t she? Wait... what was that?¡± I turned around just in time to see something move outside the window; not a split second later the world erupted into fire and smoke. Reeling from the explosion I stumbled around the burning room. What was going on? What had happened? My confusion was soon lifted by a voice that was oh, so familiar, a voice that I had grown to hate. ¡°Valerie... do you have any idea how disappointed I am in you? Truly calling you my daughter is no longer apt.¡± My father spoke his words with barely any emotion. ¡°Men... fire.¡± Act 2 - Part 1 Act 2 Old Memories Back when I had been a child everything had been so easy. I was after all Valerie Sherman, the one and only living heir to the Sherman fortune and the Arcana Future Industries Company. I was, like my father had used to say, special, not just because of my heritage but because of my very being. According to him I had the soul of a decade. I was the shining star on the sky of my generation. What I decided to do would make or break millions of people. Sure, it was a tall order for a five year old child and my father had always been prone to... let¡¯s say flights of fancy. At times his fervour and determination could get the best of him. But to the surprise of many ¨C well, maybe not himself ¨C the world deigned to prove him right. I was to be his special child of wonder and even back then he had already been anticipating it... at least that is what I had thought. ¡°Valerie! Come one you little rascal!¡± My caretaker called out to me. ¡°Your parents are here! They just came back from their trip; don¡¯t you want to greet them?¡± Miss Braun was an old and ugly woman. And while she had never been as clever as me she made it up for with almost boundless tenacity. Which I simply didn¡¯t understand, she was so... pudgy! And still that woman chased me almost anywhere whenever she thought I was behaving badly. I didn¡¯t like her, or the little ugly dog she kept carrying around. Both of them smelled about the same anyway! Ignoring her stupid crying I crawled deeper into the bushes around the estate. I loved the summerhouse; there was so much to see and so many things to discover, that no stay was the same. Back when I had been smaller I had found the large garden a bit scary, after all there were so many old trees and hedges that it was really easy to get lost but that all had changed one day. For I had discovered a secret about this place! ¡°You need to be reeeaaaaly quiet, Sally.¡± I whispered to my favourite dolly. ¡°After all we don¡¯t want that stupid old hag to find us!¡± Slowly and carefully I crawled forward into the under-brush. A few sticks got stuck in my hair and my clothes were already all scuffed up but that didn¡¯t bother me. My Dad would just buy me new clothes anyway. Not that I really needed them, I was fine with wearing the ripped ones, I never quite liked all the stuffy dresses. Once I had tried burning them with my mind... but instead I had set Miss Braun¡¯s hair on fire. My ass had really hurt after that beating! She didn¡¯t even believe me that it was an accident... or that I had done it with my mind. ¡°Pah!¡± I scoffed. ¡°She is just jealous that I have cool magical friends and she doesn¡¯t ... not that I am ever going to tell her about them.¡± A lot of time went by as I tried to find my way through the brushes, hedges and brambles. Meeting up with my special friend wasn¡¯t easily done! She was the very best at hiding herself, so that none would see her. But I had before and I was going to find her again! After all I was the most powerful and best...estes mage in the world! Papa kept saying so, so it must be true! Finally after what felt like forever I found the entrance to my friends home again. A large tree deep in back, far behind the hedge maze. When I had first seen it from up close I had been very confused. It looked so different from when I had seen it while still in the garden. There it seemed like just any other tree but going through the bushes somehow changed it completely! Now it was a super big tree with lots and lots of insects and birds. Flowers were everywhere and everything was happy, beautiful and peaceful. And taking care of them all was my newest and bestest friend. Her name was Arasenijel ¨C I was incredibly proud that I could say it without mistakes now ¨C and she was the prettiest woman I had ever seen! She was taller than my mother, just as tall as my father even! And her skin wasn¡¯t at all like mine, instead it was green with many, many colourful petals growing out of it on different spots. Even her hair was super different, it wasn¡¯t hair at all, it was actually plants too! A whole lot of vines and flowers that trailed all the way too the ground. She could even move them if she wanted to! Just looking at her filled me with happiness but the best things about her was, that she was so much kinder than my actual mother... ¡°Arasenijel!¡± I called out, happily running towards her. But before I could reach her my foot snagged on a dastardly root! I cried out, already expecting to hurt myself, when suddenly my fall was stopped by two soft vines wrapping around my chest and tummy. ¡°Valerie, silly child!¡± Arasenijel gently reprimanded me. ¡°Do you have any idea how heartbroken I would be if something happened to you?¡± The vines around me slithered off and instead my friend took me in her arms. I gasped in surprise when she casually picked me up, I hadn¡¯t known that she was so strong! I couldn¡¯t help but giggle as she lifted me high on top of her shoulders. ¡°Now, Valerie... what shall we play today? We could pet my birds, weave flowers into your hair, perhaps eat some snacks? I think I still have some peaches around...¡± ¡°Yes!¡± I called out excitedly from her shoulders. ¡°Yes to all of it!¡± The day went by quickly, between games, tasty treats and naps in the arms of my friend. Only as the sun got lower and lower in the sky I realised just how long I had away. If I didn¡¯t go home now my parents would be angry! ¡°Seni, I think I need to leave now!¡± ¡°Really?¡± She wrapped her arms around me tightly. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t you like to stay a bit longer? I am so lonely most of the time and... hmmmm, if you stay I could teach you plant magic! You could do the same thing as me!¡± ¡°I would love to, really! But my parents-.¡± ¡°No!¡± All of a sudden vines shot out of the ground and wrapped around my arms and legs. Arasenijel kept talking but now her voice sounded all wrong, dark and scary! ¡°You told me yourself; you love me! How mean your mother is, how your caretaker beats you! I would never do such a thing to you! Let me take care of you!¡± ¡°Seni,¡± I cried out. ¡°You¡¯re scaring me! Please let me go!¡± ¡°Sweet Valerie, just stay with me! Let me be your new mother! You could even become just like me! Isn¡¯t that what you wanted last time we played?¡± ¡°You¡¯re hurting me!¡± I screamed at her. I just wanted to leave, but the vines were so strong that I could barely move. I struggled and trashed, the vines dug deeper into my skin, her arms were like branches around me. Then suddenly, all my fear and anxiety broke out of me in a single massive blast. The wind roared like a beast and I was thrown to the ground, Arasenijel was no longer holding me. The birds weren¡¯t singing anymore and the insects weren¡¯t buzzing... instead when I opened my eyes I had to stifle a scream. Seni was on the ground not far from me, dragging herself closer but I could only stare in horror at what was around me. The grass was darker now, like in a bog or swamp and the trees cast looming shadows. Yet most terrifying were the branches making up my friends toys, her decorations even the clothes and ornaments she was wearing... they were all bones. Everywhere I looked I saw bones or the remnants of animals and humans alike. Arasenijel was beautiful as ever but she was also just as terrible as she had been soothing before. Tears welled up in my eyes and I started running. Behind me I could hear the desperate pleading and begging of my friend, but I couldn¡¯t bring myself to stop. Screaming, sobbing and crying I ran and ran. I didn¡¯t stop until managed to find my way back home. Once there my father took me in his arms, calmed me down asked me what had happened. I told him everything, of my friend and where she lived, of her sudden change and of the magical explosion I seemed to have caused. Throughout it all he was stroking my back and listening calmly, then once I was finished he carried me into bed. I awoke in the middle of that night again. Loud near constant roaring and a strange orange glow outside made it impossible to sleep. It was so bright I almost thought it to be the sunrise... when I peaked through the curtains I saw the forest burning. Just at the edge of the woods several strange men in silver suits were pursuing a smouldering female figure. She was trying to run away, scared and desperate. Loud booming noises echoed through the night and the figure fell to the ground. The men circled around her, flames spouted from strange pipes on their backs... I could hear her screams despite the closed windows. I would not find sleep that night any more... Arasenijel... she had been my very first friend and the very first to try and steal me away... . . . . . ¡°No!¡± I screamed out defiantly, to my surprise not in mother¡¯s voice but my own. ¡°Valerie! You¡¯re awake! Finally!¡± A large slimy mass drooped over me, which only after a few moments I realised to be Adrienne hugging me. ¡°Ye- Yes.¡± Mother¡¯s cadence came back quicker than I had hoped, as if I had only ever imagined to hear my own voice. ¡°I¡¯m awake. And apparently still alive. What... what happened? I can only remember my father, and then... fire?¡± ¡°Yes... you got the gist of it. I was still resting when he broke down the front door. I apologise that I couldn¡¯t protect you High Priestess. It is a fault I will try to remedy.¡±Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°Wait...¡± I interrupted her. ¡°What did you just call me?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t understand.¡± I could feel her confusion through the connection we shared. ¡°I only referred to by you proper title. If this upset you I will immediately stop, your highness.¡± ¡°I- Don¡¯t use that either!¡± I frowned, now truly upset. ¡°No High Priestess, no your highness, or any other weird titles and sobriquets! I¡¯m your friend, your partner, not some fucking religious figure! Mother be dam-.¡± My throat closed up in an instant and I could literally feel Mother¡¯s disapproval. I cringed as a dissonant screech echoed through my mind. It got louder and louder until my head felt as if it would burst, yet it didn¡¯t. Over several minutes I had to clench my teeth so as to not scream from the pain. Finally when it ebbed down I saw the blurry imagine of Adrienne staring at me like an emotionless puppet. ¡°As I was about to say, your highness,¡± She spoke but there was nothing human about it, no expression, no movement, not even her mouth was open. ¡°The owner of the house, the male specimen you so heretically call ¡°Father¡± broke down the door and with several other agressiv humans assaulted you. Your physical form suffered heavy burns before this one could escort you from the building. Would that be all or do you have any other questions, High Priestess?¡± I could only weakly shake my head, too terrified was I of Mother¡¯s display. I truly wished she¡¯d stop using my friend like her personal puppet. Thankfully as soon as the spook had come, so it was gone again. Yet while Adrienne¡¯s personality resurfaced and she quickly starting doting on me, I still had to wonder how much of that was truly her and not just Mother in an Adrienne-Suit. Despite my doubts about this whole situation I couldn¡¯t think of a way to test it just yet, considering Mother was constantly watching me. Instead I turned my attention towards our current situation. ¡°So, Adrienne.¡± I addressed my fellow abomination. ¡°We are as it seems residing in the sewers now? Any... hmm... I don¡¯t know... better ideas on how to spend our time other than soaking in muck?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± She answered with her voice echoing all over the place. ¡°Mother wishes for us to search for Clarissa, apparently she is in trouble or something else boring. Buuuut it does mean we get to go on an adventure!¡± ¡°An... adventure?¡± I truly hoped that every one of my eyes radiated my severe displeasure. ¡°Why on earth would I go on an Adventure!? I spend my free time reading and studying! I don¡¯t waste it going on ¡°Adventures¡±, do you think me a child!?¡± Someone must have recently shat into Adrienne¡¯s brain... or what ever part of her strange biology did the thinking. But instead of realizing her own idiocy, she just smiled at me dumbly. ¡°Of course not, High Priestess! I would never force you to come with me, but if I go alone who knows what could happen! And if perhaps I meet the same fate as Clarissa, Mother would be incredibly upset... and then you would have to go anyways!¡± I wasn¡¯t even sure anymore which one of the two had planned this, no matter if it was Adrienne or Mother, it seemed like I wasn¡¯t actually given a choice on the matter. ¡°Fuck. Fine, I¡¯ll come along but don¡¯t expect me to do anything.¡± Begrudgingly I followed her down the sewers; I just hoped that my burns wouldn¡¯t get infected¡ not that I was sure that I could still catch an infection in the first place. But apparently I would soon find out considering the cleanliness of this place¡ . . . . . . Tanya I couldn¡¯t help but wince as the cool disinfectant hit the cuts and bruises on my arm. Apparently my years as a personal bodyguard had made me go soft. Much to my chagrin I wasn¡¯t the only one that noticed this. ¡°First time patching you up after what is it now¡ four years?¡± Ace grinned mischievously a loose hair freed from his messy bun falling in his face. ¡°And now look at this! It burns a little and you shy away! Back during the Conflicts I would have never seen such a thing.¡± He shook his head in disbelieve, loosening more strands of hair. ¡°Now,¡± His face grew serious. ¡°Wanna tell me who did this do you? Cause you didn¡¯t do this yourself, at least not all of it...¡± His gaze fell onto the scars on my wrist, lingering on the singular fresh razor cut, barely scabbed over. He didn¡¯t comment on it, he knew all to well what it meant, instead he just got up and hugged me. ¡°What happened to you, Tanya?¡± His question didn¡¯t seem rightly addressed at me, more like something asked into the void but it was clear how worried he was. ¡°I¡¡± I stopped short, not sure how to even start. ¡°Ace¡ before I begin I need you to know that what I am going to tell you sounds absolutely nuts.¡± He nodded as a sign for me to keep going, he gave my uninjured hand a quick reassuring squeeze. ¡°Fuck¡ so, I got kicked from my bodyguard job and my former ward turned into a¡ fuck, I don¡¯t even know, some kind of sexy tentacle abomination?¡± Seeing his questioning look, I sighed. ¡°I guess it is best if I tell you everything from the very first day¡¡± Slowly careful to leave out the steamy bits I started retelling everything that had happened to me and Valerie over the last few days. ¡°So,¡± Ace said. ¡°Let me get this straight. Your ten years younger Ward, which you should totally not have a crush on. Does some sort of fucked up ritual, under your care even, that changes her into a tentacle monster, her father who is the head of Future Arcana Industries tells you to literally ¡°Fuck off and never show your face again¡±, AFI assigns her a new bodyguard who, unlike yourself, is a scary Corpo Soldier whose implants still work¡ and you think the best course of action is to shadow your barely legal crush, pull a gun on formerly mentioned Corpo, keep stalking your now tentacled crush, watch her get flame roasted, try to fight a whole group of Corpos and get yourself beaten up and subsequently thrown in a gutter?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± I shrugged. ¡°That just about sums it up.¡± ¡°And I am correct in assuming that is how you got all these cuts, bruises and a raging infection?¡± ¡°An Infection?¡± I exclaimed in surprise. ¡°Yes! Or can you tell me of another reason for this!?¡± Ace pointed to the angry looking dark red welts around the cuts on my arms. The edges were wet and weeping clear fluid. I looked over at Ace confused. ¡°I didn¡¯t even notice this! I mean shit, I feel completely fine, no fever or any pain really!¡± ¡°No fever you say?¡± Ace asked sceptical. ¡°Because my thermometer clearly shows me otherwise. By the Hells, Tanya, your body-temperature is at 39¡ã degrees. You shouldn¡¯t even be walking about, in fact, fuck this! I am ordering you to rest and recover! You¡¯re staying with Aliana and me today!¡± ¡°Ace¡ you know I can¡¯t do this! I need to find Valerie, I can¡¯t just let her run around town the way she is now! She might need me! Or she might get it into trouble! Anything could happen!¡± ¡°Valerie,¡± He said calmly. ¡°You are a trusted friend and a great person. But if you attempt to leave this clinic without me, I will shoot you with a tranquillizer and drag you home. The only thing that will happen if you keep chasing after your super inappropriate crush, is you dying in a gutter. And can not, and will not let that happen! Do we have an understanding?¡± ¡°Yes, Doctor.¡± I sighed and leaned back in my chair. ¡°Good! Now I am going to finish dressing your wounds and after that I will cancel my appointments. Gods be damned, Tanya¡ every time the same with you.¡± Half an hour later we were already outside; Ace had insisted that I be confined to a wheelchair and so I was now rolling along next to him. He had tried to push me but I would have none of that, it was already embarrassing enough that I looked like a cripple. I didn¡¯t need people thinking me weak and pitying me! For Hell¡¯s sake, I really did feel fine! Even if I seemed to have a fever, I didn¡¯t notice it at all. In fact I felt stronger than ever; I was certain that I could easily take on that Sadiya and her goons. Sure last time had been¡ a bit of a loss for me, but next time I crossed paths I would crush them! A sudden scream next to me startled me out of my thoughts. ¡°Tanya!¡± Ace yelled, very much upset. ¡°Snap out of it!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I didn¡¯t get what he meant. ¡°Please, clam yourself! No one is going to hurt you just... sit down again!¡± I looked around; we were in a tram. How had we gotten here? And why was everyone looking at me? Why were they... terrified!? My gaze moved further, a young woman was clutching onto her daughter¡ several dark red spots dotted the girl¡¯s face. She was constantly looking from my face to my hand. My hand that was still embedded in the window next to me. Large cracks spread from the my fist to the edges of the glass pane. Blood splatters covered much of the glass, my body and the surroundings. Apparently now both of my hands were injured. Slowly I pulled back my arm; skin and blood stuck to the jagged edges and yet I didn¡¯t feel any pain. I couldn¡¯t even bring myself to care, instead I only looked passively at my mangled hand. It was fascinating to see the muscles and tendons move now that the skin wasn¡¯t in the way. Blood dripped steadily down to the floor and stained my clothes in red but it was a lot less than I would have expected from such a drastic wound. I wondered if I should lick the wound clean? I felt a strange urge to do just so. ¡®Would it taste good? Of course I have tasted my own blood before, but maybe it would taste better now?¡¯ A small chuckle escaped me. ¡®Such a silly thought. Why would it taste better now?¡¯ My mind wandered back to the previous question. ¡®Just how did this happen? I can¡¯t even remember getting on the tram and definitely not punching the window.¡¯ So lost in thoughts I barely noticed someone pushing me down into the wheelchair. I was still staring at my hand, thinking, trying to figure this out. Even as someone wrapped the wound in a bandage I lacked the awareness to know who it was, it must have been Ace, right? I kinda understood that we were going back to his clinic. Apparently I needed to get a scan for fractures or something. A sharp little prick on my neck was all that I noticed before the world began to dissolve into colours and lights. I awoke¡ was that even the right word? I hadn¡¯t been sleeping per say just kinda drifting in and out of consciousness. So perhaps it was more like, that I got back my bearing once I was already at the clinic again. The only difference being that this time I was cuffed to a bed. Both my hands were now covered in bandaged and my right, the one I had used to assault a train car, had been put in a cast, apparently I actually had broken it. Still, despite it being broken it felt surprisingly fine; before I must have been in shock so I hadn¡¯t registered the pain, and right now I was probably on strong painkillers. It was the only way for me to make sense of my seemingly well being. Not sure what else to do now, I listened to the muffled voices coming from the next room over. ¡°How could you not know, Ace!?¡± A woman¡¯s voice that was very familiar. ¡°She didn¡¯t show any sign of relapsing! How was I supposed to know she would get an episode!?¡± ¡°Oh, no you do not get to weasel out of this, I saw the fresh scabs on her arm and you know very well how unstable she can be, especially if she has a crush on someone!¡± ¡°Alina, please...¡± ¡°No, Ace. You messed up and we will talk about this later. But for now I want to see my sister safe and sound. You were right with one thing, we are taking her home! No get out of my way, or, may the gods be my witness, your cock won¡¯t see the light of day until Christmas!¡± ¡°I- I¡¯m sorry Aliana. I should have called you earlier.¡± The door to the resting area practically burt open and on came a tall and severe looking woman in her early thirties, her long dark hair was pulled up into a tight bun leaving her looking almost like a sort of military instructor. Which wouldn¡¯t even be all that far from the truth as my older sister was in fact a Professor at the University of Amsterdam. Perhaps not for anything related to warfare, her field of study was actually Meta-Antropology, which as far as she had told me involved almost as much screaming. I never quite understood why that was. But despite her job for ever being a mystery to me I was more than happy to see her. That was, right up until the moment when I could smell her... Act 2: Part 2 [Tanya] Where before there was hope and relief at seeing my sister, now there was only rage. This scent, never before had I smelled anything that made me so very angry¡. and at the same time so very hungry. I trashed and jerk on the hospital bed; I needed to get closer and destroy that horrible, disgusting, lovely, fucking, perfect scent! I couldn¡¯t think, I couldn¡¯t breathe, I couldn¡¯t even stop myself from flailing around, desperate to get to that scent and drink it up, wallow in it, destroy it and cover it in my sister''s blood! Yes! That was exactly what I needed to do, it was the only way to get rid of my desires. I simply knew it was. I couldn¡¯t explain how I knew this and my rational mind screamed at me to not listen to this desire but still, it was quite literally the only thing I could act upon. I wished to destroy Aliana, rip her limb from limb, and splatter her blood all over this beloved, hated scent. This was all that I needed to be fulfilled in this world. And I would do anything to do what my instincts screamed at me should be done. I didn¡¯t care for my sister''s life, I didn¡¯t care for her pain or her suffering or any atrocity I would inflict upon her as long as I could drown this scent in her blood. I ignored her panicked shouting, I ignored the shackles digging into my flesh, I ignored my bones creaking and scraping against another, ignored Ace as he rushed into the room, I ignored another needle piercing my skin. I would savage her and savour her flesh. And then suddenly all of it was gone, the scent, the rage, the hunger, and even the inhuman desire to dig my teeth into my sister and fashion jewelry out of her guts. I blinked, once, twice before letting out a shallow panicked breath of relief and fear. What the hell had just happened? A single waft of this smell and my instincts, no... I had gone feral. The worst part of it all was that I remembered it perfectly clearly. This fucking¡ stuff hadn¡¯t just hijacked my body, instead, it had made me love and hate and yearn for it. A shaky panicked whisper escaped my lips. ¡°Fuck me¡ I¡¯m a monster.¡± ¡°You could say that, yes.¡± My head whipped around. Ace was standing right next to me and I hadn¡¯t even noticed. Most concerning, he was wearing full-body disease protection gear. ¡°But¡± He continued. ¡°Probably not in the way that you think right now. If anything at all, you are a medical monstrosity.¡± He sighed and right in front of my eyes pocketed a gun he had been holding in his lap. ¡°Your fever is up to forty-one point six degrees, you¡¯re hooked up to an IV with several medical cocktails but the infection ravaging your body doesn¡¯t seem to stop. In fact, it actually looks like your body''s immune reaction further increases its spread. And looking at your white blood cells I am hard-pressed to actually find current viral hot spots. To make matters worse, while I do know that the whole thing started around the cuts on your arm, administering anti-viral medication does literally less than nothing, as your own fucking body is fighting the medication.¡± I could see his face tremble for a second before instead, he chose to get up, kick his chair across the room and scream at the top of his lungs. ¡°Fuck! Why!? Why are you always like this!? We tried getting you help but you still end up jumping from one suicidal situation into the next! Why would you ever think fucking around with Corpos is a good idea!? You are twenty-eight but you still act like a fucking child!¡± ¡°I¡¡± I wanted to scoot under the blanket, embarrassed and hurt but was stopped by my bindings, leaving me to look right at him. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I didn¡¯t think. I didn¡¯t know this would happen! But¡ I feel fine, really!¡± Ace didn¡¯t even look at me this time, instead, he just chuckled, it was a desperate heartbreaking noise. ¡°Of course, you feel fine. And somehow you still don¡¯t get it. Gods be damned, Tanya. This pathogen inside you, there is nothing natural about it. Someone invented it, build it, and perfected it. It was designed specifically for a purpose, one that I am not even slightly grasping. You feel fine because it is how the virus was intended to work. Hadn¡¯t you come to me because of all the cuts and bruises I wouldn¡¯t have even found out¡ you wouldn¡¯t even have found out. It would have just done its thing, slowly insidiously bit by bit, fucking with your body and rebuilding it into whatever the fuck it was supposed to. I¡¡± He stopped himself and looked at me. ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have screamed at you. It isn¡¯t your fault. You didn¡¯t choose to get infected, nor did you choose what is about to happen to you.¡± This¡ sounded bad. ¡°What-¡± I almost choked on the words. ¡°What, exactly is going to happen to me?¡± ¡°Honestly?¡± Ace set down next to my bed but still didn¡¯t touch me. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I never encountered this strain, while it seems like a virus it is so much more than that. I was actually hoping your own perspective might be able to help me figure this all out.¡± I wasn¡¯t sure how to react to this, I just didn¡¯t understand why he didn¡¯t have an answer. He was a doctor was he not? Didn¡¯t doctors know everything there is to know about medicine stuff? I had always just kind of assumed Ace would be able to fix anything, just the way he had done so often in the past. I didn¡¯t like this, I didn¡¯t want this thing in me, I most certainly didn¡¯t want it to do whatever it pleased! I made me feel so incredibly powerless and frustrated¡ part of me just wanted to give up already. After all, despite acting tough and strong in front of Valerie I had never been strong. Dark memories from before threatened to rise back up and I quickly shut down that train of thought. I hated people seeing this side of me¡ but I would hate losing Valerie even more. I took a deep breath and focused. ¡°Okay, Ace. I will tell you anything I can. We have to defeat this thing!¡± ¡°Good. That¡¯s the spirit I want to see.¡± He smiled at me. ¡°Now, the first thing I want to talk about is your strange bouts of aggression. It happened twice now, and while we both know that you aren¡¯t new to¡ anger issues, these episodes were clearly different. Do you know anything that could have triggered them?¡± I hadn¡¯t expected him to address this so quickly. Hate and desire both pulsed through me just thinking about the episodes, especially the last one. But it didn¡¯t help to keep quiet about it especially in front of the only one who could save me from¡ whatever was happening to me. So instead I clenched my fists and just forced the truth out of me. ¡°The first time was¡¡± I stopped and realized something. ¡°I don¡¯t actually know. I was lost in thoughts and then suddenly I was just angry¡ so angry, I simply wanted to smash something. Honestly, I wasn¡¯t really all there when I punched the window. Does that make sense?¡± ¡°Mhm, keep going.¡± He barely looked up from his tablet. ¡°But the second time¡¡± I stopped as my butt cheeks started to itch for some reason. ¡°Fuck, sorry my butt is itchy. Anyway, so yeah¡ the second time was different. Aliana came in and there was this smell, not on herself mind you just her clothes as if she brushed up against something. But this smell... it was simultaneously the best and the worst smell in my life. All I wanted was to¡¡± I paused for a second, I didn¡¯t actually want him to know what it made me feel. ¡°¡ it made me really, really angry. That... that¡¯s it.¡± I could see him looking at me intently, almost as if he knew that I was holding something back. But instead of calling me out on it as I would have expected but he didn¡¯t, instead, he just sighed again and put down his tablet. ¡°This¡ scent as you say. How would you describe it?¡± ¡°Kind of like coconut but also very much not? Frankly, I never before smelled it anywhere else! Uhm, you wouldn¡¯t want to scratch my head for me, would you? It started itching like crazy all of a sudden.¡± He smoothly ignored my request and instead made some more notes on his device. ¡°Makes sense. Now, please open your mouth wide and don¡¯t move, I need to test something.¡± Before I could even give my okay, he had already seized my chin and began looking through one of those tiny weird flashlights. The way he poked it into my nose and mouth was very uncomfortable and soon enough I felt a sneeze coming. Ace must have seen it too because he quickly took five steps back. He was just in time as I couldn¡¯t hold it back any longer and my whole head rocketed forward. I could feel something dislodge itself from my sinuses and shoot right out of my nose, but instead of getting clear completely, it drooped down my face like a huge stretchy booger. I looked up at my sister¡¯s partner with pleading eyes. ¡°Could you get that for me, please? You know, hands still bound?¡± I shook my cuffed hands a bit to make my point but he only looked at me with a mixture of curiosity, concern, and disgust. But before I could ask again he took out a swap and plastic tube, with a singular motion he scooped up most of the slime and dropped the swap into the test tube. To my surprise the booger was deep red in colour, when had my nose bled, had it been during the fight? ¡°Stay¡ right here. I¡¯ll check this out and get back to you as quick as possible.¡± ¡°Uhm¡ okay!? Not like I can actually go anywhere?¡± All I could do was watch sheepishly as he ran off like a storm and left me alone, the rest of the booger still hanging from my nose. Another thing that bothered me was my now severely itching butt and head. Fucking hells, this itching was driving me crazy! I couldn''t even scratch the spots with my hands and feet still cuffed to the bed! It didn¡¯t take me long to be frustrated enough that I started rubbing myself raw on any surface I could reach. I no longer even cared that the snot was now plastered over my face as more and more of my skin began to itch. Where before it had been a nuisance at most, by now it was full-on torture! It felt as if my every pore was burning and from what I could see my skin was starting to take on an inflamed red hue, which quickly got worse around any area of my skin with lots of hair. Then as if on commando my whole skin twitched. It felt like a powerful electric shock had gone through me but instead of it being painful, I actually felt a lot better! Sadly this relief only held for the fraction of a second. I leaned my head forward to look for the door and instead could only watch in horror as messy black strands of hair fell down my face. The next thing I knew, my whole ponytail just kinda slid from my head and fell onto the mattress next to me. I wasn¡¯t quite sure why that specifically was the point at which I freaked out but it was. I couldn¡¯t contain my terror, my panic nor my frustration anymore. It all just broke out at once in a terrified distorted scream. Something next to me fell to the floor as I thrashed around in full-on panic, but I didn¡¯t have the mental capacity to associate the sudden wetness with a broken glass of water, instead, I only panicked more and more. ¡°Tanya!¡± Barely a moment into my panic attack Ace slammed open the door. For a time he just looked at me, apparently stunned by what he was seeing. ¡°What happened? I was away for a few minutes at most, I...¡±Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°It¡¯s gone, Ace! All of my hair is gone! Why!? I thought we could still fix this! Why is this happening?¡± I screamed in frustration as I clutched the remains of my hair to my chest. The red scrunchie holding it together seemed to taunt me with its bright happy colour. ¡°By the Gods... Tanya, I am so sorry.¡± Ace rushed over to my side, apparently no longer bothering with his own safety. ¡°I would have never expected it to happen this fast but with what I just saw I am certain of my earlier assumption. Tanya, believe me when I say that I am incredibly sorry for failing you like this but-.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I interrupted him. ¡°What the fuck do you mean with ¡°failing¡±? You¡¯re not giving up on me are you?¡± ¡°Tanya!¡± Ace yelled, all the soft care from before shed in an instant. ¡°Actually listen to me and stop acting like a fucking child! I never said I was giving up on you! If you would just listen for once you would have known that I care far too much about you to ever give up on you and bow just for once shut your mouth and really and intently listen to what I say because, by the Hells, your fucking life depends on it!¡± ¡°Yes, Sir.¡± Was all that I could meekly whisper before he continued. ¡°Tanya, I have indeed failed you, as a doctor certainly for not seeing this for what it was but most of all as a friend. You are as much a little sister to me as you are to Aliana and because of that, I should have protected you. We should have protected you... in fact we should have never given you the contact to AFI. We should have known the dangers of working for them especially after having worked for them for a while now.¡± My eyes grew wide as I took in this new information but I didn¡¯t dare to speak up and so Ace just carried on. ¡°Keeping you in civilian life would have quite possibly been the only way to prevent what is going to happen. Tanya, let¡¯s face it you were never one to obey... After you fled the battle that ended your friend''s rebellion we should have taken you away from all of this forever... now I fear that will be impossible. We should have never tried hiding you in plain sight, though we will have to try the same again.¡± ¡°What do you...¡± I stopped myself, realising the stupidity of my own question.¡± ¡°The virus in your system. I checked it against all databases that I know, again and again with no result. That was until I checked it against databases that I shouldn¡¯t know of. There is literally no easy way to say this, so I will be straightforward.... Tanya, you have been exposed to an artificially altered version of a MAV known as the Envy-Strain. If left unchecked it will quickly mutate both your body and your mind into a bloodthirsty monstrosity... one that, considering the alterations, will be far harder to put down than your average Infected. While it still has enough of the base code left that your body will roughly take on the form of a Kasha, the changes are all over the place.¡± No longer could I just sit and take all this, he simply couldn¡¯t be right! ¡°So what,¡± I yelled. ¡°That¡¯s it? You''re just gonna let me transform into a monster? Well, fuck-di-fucking-da! This is insane you know this, this whole talk about it being changed? Everyone knows that you can¡¯t change a MAV, every Infected gets what the Lady of Woe gives them! So what you¡¯re basically telling me that I¡¯m going to lose my sanity and start fricking slaughtering anyone too pretty and steal corpses!? Cause last time I checked that is exactly what a Kasha does! Nobody would even bother making a weapon out of that! Gods, I just want to....¡± I wasn¡¯t actually sure what I wanted. The last few days had only been spent thinking about how to save Valerie. I didn¡¯t know how to save myself, I had never known that. And by now I was starting to feel exhaustion and defeatism creep up on me. I already had failed Valerie, hadn¡¯t I? ¡°No.¡± I shook my head, the cold breeze reminding me too clearly of the reality of my situation. ¡°Give me a gun and let me end this all in peace...¡± ¡°I can¡¯t do that, Tanya. But I will give you some time alone.¡± With this, Ace left the room, the door falling shut with a soft click. If anybody had asked me to describe that moment I wouldn¡¯t have been able to. For a long time I just sat there, barely a thought going through my mind. I was no longer even looking at anything, too lost was I in my own self-pity. And so I didn¡¯t even notice at first that somebody was in the room with me. Only when she put her hand on my shoulder did I startle back into reality to find my sister sitting next to me on the bed. Almost instantly I lurched away from her, fearing for the insane desires from before to return but they never came. Instead, when I realised that I wasn¡¯t going to kill my sister over a simple smell, all restrained that I had broke away in an instant. For several minutes I cried and screamed, tears and snot flowing down my face in equal measure. And then at some point, as I was burrowing my face in Aliana''s lap, it stopped. I no longer had any tears to cry or any screams to let out. Both my eyes and throat were so sore that wasn¡¯t sure I would ever again need to cry. And yet, to my surprise, I felt... better; what did it actually matter that I was going to turn into a cat-like monstrosity? I had never actually achieved anything in life and I had already failed at saving Valerie, be it from herself or from her father. Perhaps being but an animal was exactly what I deserved? Slowly I turned my head to look at Aliana, I hadn¡¯t noticed it before but she too was wearing protective gear, though she didn¡¯t carry a gun like Ace. ¡°I look ugly, right?¡± I asked in a tired voice. ¡°Hmm, yes.¡± My sister quipped. ¡°Exactly as ugly as the last time I saw you. As ugly as any person would look after crying their eyes out.¡± ¡°Oh¡¡± That made sense. ¡°Okay. So, what happens now?¡± ¡°Well,¡± Alice looked almost as tired as I felt. ¡°First of all, there are several legal problems I need to run you by.¡± ¡°Legal problems? Why that?¡± ¡°Simple said, you are no longer considered human; both in an ethical and in a legal sense. If you leave this clinic anyone could shoot you and they would be entirely within their rights. In other words, you leave and you will die.¡± ¡°That sounds... troubling?¡± I asked, unsure about the situation. ¡°Yes, indeed it doesn¡¯t.¡± Alina retorted entirely ignoring my question. ¡°Sadly it gets worse, you also can not stay here in the clinic. If Ace as a licensed doctor keeps a MAV-Infected hidden from the authorities he will face serious consequences including losing his license and going to prison. So he and I came to the only obvious conclusion...¡± ¡°Which is?¡± ¡°Well, I am most certainly not going to give up my sister to the authorities, am I? So, you¡¯re going to instead stay with us in our apartment. There we will be able to take care of you and do our best to find any kind of treatment or perhaps even a cure for your... condition. Know that this isn¡¯t a choice, Tanya. You will stay with me if you want to or not.¡± ¡°I... I understand, Aliana. You¡¯re probably right anyway¡ but if what I am¡ becoming is so dangerous, how are you going to protect yourselves? I don¡¯t want to hurt you or worse¡¡± Flashes from before crossed my mind, the idea of actually doing anything like that to my sister, really to anyone, made me sick. My quickly derailing thoughts took a sudden stop when I saw Aliana¡¯s lips pull into a wry smile. ¡°For that, my dear sister, I found a somewhat unorthodox solution.¡± She pat the brown paper bag next to her, before pulling out two pieces of fabric with several straps attached to them. ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking but stay with me on this!¡± ¡°Ali¡¡± I dared a gimps at the bottom of the bag before shooting her a panicked look. ¡°This¡ isn¡¯t what I think it is, right?¡± ¡°Tanya, please, there is no reason to freak out. This is to both our and your own safety.¡± ¡°Safety?¡± I balked at her calm words, unbelieving of what she was suggesting. ¡°This is quite literally kidnapping and what not else kinds of wrongs!¡± ¡°What would you have me do instead!?¡± She trust the ¡°garments¡± at me and I was shocked to see tears in her eyes. ¡°Would you rather that I shackle and collar you so that I could chain you to a wall? Cause that is exactly what other people did to their infected relatives! For fucks sake, Tanya! I saw the twisted beings that were forgotten in those cellars with my own eyes! I swore my own fucking soul to a God-Like just so that I would be spared that fate! This is quite literally the only humane solution I could come up with and I have studied shit like this for years! So please let me ensure that I still have a sister left after this?¡± ¡°I¡¡± My throat closed up. I hadn¡¯t known that Aliana was sworn to a God-Like. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. You¡ I¡ I also want to still have a sister after whatever is coming¡¡± ¡°Thank you, Tanya.¡± Her smile seemed so sad and desperate that I couldn''t even look her in the eyes as she unlocked the cuffs around my legs. ¡°Okay, I will talk you through what I am doing so you feel less insecure. First up I will undress your lower body. Throughout the metamorphosis Ace and I will keep you fed but as walking you to the toilet every time is a high risk for all of us, we will clean and relive you in bed.¡± Slowly and gently she pulled off my pants and panties. Little clumps of hair swirled around the air; even my legs and pubes had shed their fuzzy coating leaving me with perfectly smooth reddish skin. ¡°Good, now I need you to be still and let me do the next part.¡± She held up one of the white strappy things and turned it around a few times for me to see. ¡°As you can see this is a leg binder, this will keep you immobile as your legs strengthen and twist reducing the risk of injury you would pose at that stage. You will still be able to twist and bend your knees as well as wiggle your feet. So in no way will it make you completely helpless. I have to put it on first because it would otherwise interfere with the rest of your gear. It is also crotchless, but be assured that this is has nothing to do with sexual activity, I made it this way solely to make cleaning you easier.¡± It was a very strange feeling as she slid the individual parts up my legs. My skin was overly sensitive and with the tightness of the two stockings, it felt almost as if two very soft snakes were eating my legs. There also was an entire harness that came with it. Apparently, it was made of some kind of space-age material that was both elastic and super strong. I could barely focus on any of that as all that I noticed was how oddly comfortable the buckles and straps closing around me felt. It was almost as if someone was tightly hugging my entire lower body. When she was finished I wiggled my toes and shimmied around for a bit to get a feeling for it all. ¡°How does it feel?¡± Aliana asked me. ¡°Anything too tight or perhaps to lose?¡± ¡°Ah, no. It just¡ it feels strange. Like a second skin but also like a safe comforting hug. Is the rest going to be also like this?¡± ¡°It¡¯s good that you overcame your fear of the restrains. Well, they will be mostly like it. Thanks to your recent hair loss I won''t have to shave you but to answer your question, there are more medical sides to the jacket and the¡ last part.¡± ¡°Oh¡ okay.¡± I did notice that she was uncomfortable but I knew that she wouldn¡¯t hurt me, right? No, she wouldn¡¯t. Aliana and I were blood, I could trust her. ¡°Okay, I am ready to put on the jacket.¡± The next few minutes were very similar to the last few. Aliana explained the purpose and design of the equipment before slowly easing me into it. The biggest difference where the sensors for the EKG semi-permanently attached to my skin, they fed directly to the tech inside the straight jacket and let Ace see immediately if something was wrong. She had also placed a sensor cap onto my head that apparently would read my brainwaves or something. The actually weird part came only when Aliana strapped my arms around me in a hugging-like fashion. With the general tightness of the jacket, I could barely move my limbs before they were already forced back into position. It was certainly unnerving but with my sister''s calming words and explanations I was a lot less scared and soon enough managed to relax somewhat. ¡°You are being a very good girl right now, Tanya.¡± I gave her a confused look at that comment, her dommy-side must have been stimulated by this whole ordeal a lot more than I had initially thought. But I let it slide, as long as she wasn¡¯t going to start treating me differently I didn¡¯t see a problem with any of this. ¡°Okay, so what comes now?¡± I quickly changed the subject. ¡°As far as I can see I am all snugly wrapped up, like a Christmas present really.¡± This time there was no mistaking the look on my sister¡¯s face. The cheeks were red and she clearly avoided looking me in the eyes. ¡°Ali, what is the last piece?!¡± ¡°Please Tanya, believe me when I say that this wasn¡¯t initially part of the plan. But with the things Ace told me about how you reacted to the smell on my jacket, it is literally the only solution we have right now. So, uhm, please keep an open mind?¡± The thing she got pulled out of the bag was very clearly not medical of nature, in fact, it looked to me a lot like a black rubber gas mask with¡ was that a gag attached to the inside of it!? ¡°Oh for the hell of it, you definitely got that from a fetish shop. But putting that aside¡ you think it will actually stop me from smelling?¡± ¡°I¡ yes actually. I made sure to put in chemical filters and checked if it sealed completely. So, yes. But believe me, this is the only fetish item that will ever come near you!¡± ¡°Alright, fine. I trust you, Ali. Strap it on.¡± ¡°Thank you, Tanya. Believe me, I will see you through this.¡± Soon enough the tight rubber stretched around my head and face, dark lenses and black latex entirely obscuring my face behind it. Then all of a sudden and without warning my teeth clicked into some before unseen rail, leaving me unable to properly close my jaw. Before I could even protest it, the gag in my mouth inflated to double its original size, cutting off my ability to talk entirely. My eyes must have clearly conveyed my horror but apparently, Aliana didn¡¯t notice it through the mask¡¯s reflective glasses. Or which it now dawned on me, she was actually enjoining my muffled grunts of terror. It all became clear to me when she leaned in to give me a very inappropriately tight hug. Her hands caressed the now smooth surface of my head and despite the thick latex covering my ears, I could hear her whisper in glee. ¡°Good Girl. I won¡¯t lose you again, not ever again. Never ever.¡± I would have liked to yell at her or even punch her, but all I could do was mumble and think to myself: ¡®Fuck. What the hell did I get myself into here!?¡¯ Act 2â€“ Part 3 (1/2) [Valerie] ¡° ¡° ¡°¡®Sweet, beautiful, clean surface here I come.¡¯ ¡° ¡° ¡°Well fuck you too, kid! You¡¯re more of a monster than me! I look no-.¡± ¡°Okay, scratch that. I do look like a monster! Wait a fucking minute¡ you can all see me? Tentacles and everything?¡± ¡°The fuck!?¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t mind giving me a few tissues to clean myself, would you? I think both my friend and my Goddess just walked out on me¡¡± ¡° ¡°I uhm¡ thanks?¡± ¡° ¡° ¡° ¡°Wait! What are you doing? You don¡¯t even know me!¡± ¡° ¡°What!? You are a criminal!?¡± ¡° ¡°I would never! I-¡¡± ¡°If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡° ¡°It¡¯s not like it was on choice!¡± ¡°My¡ an asshole attacked me and my¡ a friend dragged me away to what she thought of as safety.¡± ¡° ¡°I¡¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± ¡° ¡°Valerie Sher-¡ no, just Valerie.¡± ¡° ¡°Okay. You might still be a creepy murderer but I really do want that shower. And I have absolutely no desire to go back to the sewers, sooner I would ram a knife in my¡ well I don¡¯t have legs but I would ram it somewhere!¡± ¡° . . . . . ¡° ¡°Ah, yes. Don¡¯t worry about it. Say, you have a really strange car you know?¡± ¡° ¡°Sure¡¡± ¡®If I recall correctly all this started about when Tanya confronted me. Afterward, I grew angry at Adrienne, and somehow this must have reduced whatever this bitch of a god-like is doing to me. Sure growing angry and upset like this isn¡¯t really something new for me but now it is happening far more often! I think before I met Mother the only times I felt this volatile was when I didn¡¯t take my medication in a while. Wait¡ this¡ my medication!¡¯ ¡° ¡°Yes?¡± ¡°Uhm¡ sorry, you weren¡¯t reacting. So I kinda thought you were asleep.¡± ¡°With open eyes?¡± ¡°Maybe? I¡¯ll be honest I have no idea how octopussies work!¡± ¡°It¡¯s octopuses or octopi, definitely not octopussies. But yeah, I was thinking about some stuff.¡± ¡°Interesting stuff? Cause you looked a bit¡ upset?¡± ¡°Magic stuff, if that sates your interest.¡± ¡°Oh cool! A friend of mine is a mage! Maybe you know her?¡± Fay seemed awfully excited about the news. ¡°Look, Fay. I only came along because you offered me a shower. I¡¯m not all that big on¡ friends. Never works out anyway, so just¡ let¡¯s keep this an exchange of favors only, you need something from me and I¡¯ll come help if I can. Not sure what has the same value as taking a shower, but I¡¯ll figure it out.¡± ¡°I¡¡± The elf looked a bit upset as far as I could tell but didn¡¯t object. ¡°Okay, sure. I just thought you would like her. I¡¯ll just tell her to not bother you when she comes home.¡± ¡°Believe me, I¡¯ll do my best to be out of your hair as soon as possible. And in turn, you can be out of my hair¡ or well¡ tentacles.¡± Apparently, this had been enough to shut up my small acquaintance. The elf¡¯s head had only come up to my chest before, now they looked downright like a dejected fairy. With the sad expression and delicate face, they seemed more like a depressed doll than a real person; part of me wondered what they would look like all dressed up in a cute outfit¡ I quickly turned away, the idea was a bit too entertaining and I was not about to trust my tentacled body to actually control itself. Instead of stripping the small elf and holding it like the tiny delectable creature it was, I barely managed to ask where the bathroom was before I was already rushing towards it. At least finally I was going to get all this shit off of me and take a nice relaxing bath, even if it was in some stranger''s home. But oh well, a fugitive couldn¡¯t be picky, especially not if she had tentacles and quite literally was covered in sewage. After all that had happened in the last few days, it wasn¡¯t like there was anything else that could still surprise me, right? Act 2 - Part 3 (2/2) Part 2/2 ¡°Oh, wonderful, glorious, beloved water!¡± With a content sigh, I slipped beneath the surface and closed my eyes. So much had happened in the last few days that I really just needed some time alone to wrap my head around it all. First things first, Mother. She was starting to become a seriously annoying problem. The way she took control of my mind like it was nothing left me quite frankly terrified. If it had just been my mind that she messed with I might not have even noticed, but the way the other two had acted had been a dead giveaway. There were too many discrepancies in the things that they had done and the feelings I got when thinking about them. Clarissa for one was the oddest; there was no reason for me to care about her. We hadn¡¯t been friends in years, in fact, she had been actively trying to get on my nerves so why would I just go and not only be intimate with her but actually act as if we had a deep emotional connection? Adrienne was the other part, sure I had been in a relationship with him, well her now, but it had been a purely physical thing, at least from my side. I had never actually loved her, I had barely even cared about her personally aside from how good she was in bed. But now the fact that she had abandoned me felt like a wound in my guts. I was yearning for both of them even though I still very much knew that I didn¡¯t care for them. The only problem was that because of me they were now transformed into dangerous monsters. Monsters, which were apparently mind-controlled by an even more dangerous entity; one that was also fighting for complete control over my own mind. ¡°Ugh¡¡± I groaned into the water and watched the bubbles rise to the surface. ¡°This sucks balls.¡± None of this had been included in my plan. All I had wanted was to get stronger, I just wanted an easy why do get all of my magic under control but instead, I now had lost all my magic and was stuck in a body I had never asked for. A body that had so many tentacles I couldn¡¯t even count them on my fingers! That was in fact another thing I had pushed off till now. It wasn¡¯t like I hadn¡¯t looked at my body recently, I definitely had. I just never had thought about it without the influence of that nasty God-Like on my mind. It still took me a minute of contemplating before I actually looked down. Well, when they didn¡¯t move my lower extremities almost resembled a harmless flowing skirt. Eight tentacles connected by a fleshy membrane, it definitely seemed to be more octopus than squid. But what actually interested me right now was not the tentacles themselves ¨C I could deal with those ¨C but what was hiding beneath. Now that the haze over my mind was gone I could very clearly recall the two times that the thing hiding in my crotch had come into action. Both times it should have been incredibly traumatizing experiences but going over those memories I failed to find any repulsion in me. Two times now I had ¨C for the lack of a better term ¨C devoured human flesh. And while the situations had both been rather traumatizing in their own right, the actual act of eating human flesh hadn¡¯t been all that horrible. The fact that the beak didn¡¯t really feel like part of myself had helped in disassociating with what was happening at the time. The real problem ¨C I had come to conclude ¨C was that the act of eating raw unprepared flesh and organs was far more disturbing to me than where the flesh had come from. ¡®So I guess that means I am a cannibal now¡ though is it really still cannibalism when I am clearly not human? Hmmm¡ now while this is troubling it certainly isn¡¯t as troubling as the whole reason why I even have to think about any of that¡¡¯ As much as my own desires might have played into the last few days, it was undoubtedly Mother who had enabled, encouraged or straight up even enforced all of those situations. When I had gone to the university that night I had been looking for a way to gain more power, and I had found¡ something only that my mind was drawing blanks as to what it had actually been. I still knew that I had written down something in my Grimoire, the only problem was that I had literally no idea what had happened to it. It was bound in salamander leather so it might not have been destroyed when my father''s goons burned down the house. Even if the chances were slim, it was still the best shot I had at actually understanding what was happening and perhaps how I could stop it. ¡®Now I just have to actually get it back somehow¡ something to think about later. First of all, I should find my ¡®Sisters¡¯, and after that I¡¡¯ All of a sudden my thoughts were interrupted by a tired but surprisingly familiar sounding voice. ¡°Who or better what the Hells are you? And why are you in my bathtub?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry I was just¡¡± My eyes widened as I took in the woman before me. Tall and thin she looked almost like one of the elusive Faey, only that her perceived fragile build seemed to stem more from sickness than birth; her clothes hanging loosely from a frame that must have been well rounded not so long ago. Sickly pale skin stretched across her bones, bruises and scars covered much of what was exposed. What little hair there was on her head was thin and brittle, the white fuzz was almost invisible even in the light. Everything about this woman told of exhaustion and starvation, but what actually shocked me was her face. Gaunt and emotionless she looked more like a specter than a living person. One of her eyes was entirely bloodshot and the other white and hazed, and yet despite that her features were still recognizable to me. My expression hardened when I realized just who fate had put before me once again. ¡°YOU!¡± My hands balled into fists, nails digging into my palm from the sheer anger. ¡°It is all your fault! Tell me one good reason why I shouldn¡¯t rip you to shreds right now, Miranda!?¡± ¡°My ears¡.¡± She seemed to barely be pained by my voice, a little twitch of her eyelid was all the reaction she showed. ¡°You know my name, so I guess you met me before? Sorry¡ Lady, no idea who you are.¡± ¡°No idea¡¡± My frown fell only to be replaced by fury. How dare she be so dismissive of my plight? It was all her fault, if she hadn¡¯t defeated me in that mock battle I would have never even considered seeking more power! It was all her fault. I felt that! Those weren¡¯t my thoughts! I needed to set things right, I was a prodigy I should have never failed in the first place. Though perhaps it was time to MaKE hER mINe!!! NO! My body acted before my mind had even processed the thought. One of my tentacles swung forward, the chitinous tip darting towards Miranda. She didn¡¯t have time to react, too suddenly had the situation changed. Both our eyes widened in shock when with a wet squelch the spear-like protrusion buried itself in my former classmate''s belly. For a second we stared at one another before Miranda casually pulled the spike out of her flesh. ¡°Cool trick, now¡ let¡¯s dance!¡± The tentacle ripped itself free from Mira¡¯s hand, just in time before several red claws cut through the air where it had just been. I barely had time to jump back when her other hand came right for my jugular. I had no idea what was going on, the entire exchange was too quick for me to follow, but it seemed as if my body saw this quite differently. It no longer mattered if I wanted to attack her or not my appendages simply did. All I could do was watch helplessly as tentacle after tentacle lashed out, retreated, and lashed out again. Miranda was an incredible fighter, especially for a mage but even I could see her wearing down. She was frail and weak and feeling her wounds far more than my body did mine. If this went on I would kill her, not even Mother could want that. I had to stop this!You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Stop!¡± I screamed at both her and Mother. ¡°This is insane! I don¡¯t want this fight!¡± Neither of them would listen Miranda barely bothered to acknowledge it and Mother simply kept using my body like a puppet. Even though I was the one most troubled by this, I had absolutely no agency in it. Equally furious and desperate I tried to wrestle control from the jealous God-like but she didn¡¯t budge, it was like running against a metaphysical brick wall. ¡°Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!!!¡± It didn¡¯t matter what I said the two crazed idiots wouldn¡¯t listen and I was the one to suffer from it. Back and forth Mirand a and my body danced across the I hated this, I hated being useless, I hated being powerless and I especially hated being controlled! With a desperate, hate-filled scream I abandoned my attempts at controlling this distorted body of mine, I would not bow to anyone, be they human or godlike. There was one part of me that would always be for myself only, and never again would I let anyone try and take it from me. I dug, not into my body but my very soul, deep to where the core of my potential rested. Still, it was locked away. Like a shackled beast my power had been brought to heel first by my father and now by a fucking abomination. This would end now! Using my soul like a metaphorical hammer I crashed into the prison. Again and again and again. I could no longer tell what was going on in the physical world, so focused was I on my task. Then after what felt like ages, my soul and mental strength were utterly exhausted, a tiny crack; nothing more. It was barely noticeable on the vast prison, but it was still enough. I reached out for it and it felt like a tidal wave was crashing onshore. Lighting and storm and the promise of death. It was too much for me to handle the last thing I noticed was a resounding boom, then finally blessed silence¡ ¡°¡ at the! Mira!?¡± Voices; they were faint but I could swear they were actually there. ¡°I¡¯m¡ alive. Not so sure about your tentacle girlfriend.¡± ¡°I¡¯m- we¡¯re- No! What happened here!? I went to get breakfast and come back to our bathroom blown to bits!¡± I knew that voice, didn¡¯t I? Something about an elf? ¡°Your¡ friend attacked me, screaming something about my fault.¡± That voice was also familiar, yes, right¡ Miranda. We¡ fought? Did I have a concussion? Was that why my thoughts were blurry? ¡°And you blew her up? There is pieces of her all around the room! Oh gods¡ what if you killed her?!¡± Slowly the haze from my mind receded ¨C I could feel my limbs, my hands, and the burning pain engulfing everything. My skin felt as if on fire! How could this be so painful? This was worse than when I had actually been burned! Sharp and acute, my body seemed to be laying on shards of glass. Yet despite the pain lacing through me being pure agony it also brought back my focus. One eye cracked open I looked around the room. What before had been a small but decently furnished bathroom was now shredded to pieces. The tub was broken in two and only chunks remained of the toilet; Water and debris had mixed to create unfathomable chaos, all in all, it looked like a bomb could have gone of in here and nobody would notice any difference. Had I done this? I reached out towards my magic, to see the state of it, but as soon as I tried the pain intensified by multitudes. The fact that my body felt and looked so alien that I no longer considered it my own was perhaps the only reason I wasn¡¯t screaming at the top of my lungs. Instead only a long pained wheeze escaped my lips as I slowly tried to lift myself up. Almost immediately I saw a blurry shape rush towards me. ¡°Valerie! You¡¯re alive! Thank the gods!¡± ¡°Yes¡¡± My voice was little more than a thin whisper but it was undeniably my own; Mother must have been hurt more than I had hoped for. ¡°Small victories, huh.¡± ¡°Sorry did you say something? I¡¯ll help you up immediately!¡± ¡°Fay,¡± Miranda¡¯s voice resounded from behind the elf. ¡°Get away from her.¡± The grip on me slacked for a moment only to become even tighter in the next second. ¡°Why should I? She is injured and needs my help!¡± ¡°Fay!¡± My former classmate raised her voice. ¡°Listen to yourself, this isn¡¯t you. You never bring home people. So either you had a sudden change of heart or the tentacled creep is messing with your mind.¡± Several of my eyes opened in shock and suddenly I was dropped to the floor like a wet sack. Both Miranda and Fay were staring at me and all I could do was stare back. There was no way that I could do something like that, right? How would I even go about that? I was still contemplating the how and why of what Miranda had said when she stepped forward and placed a foot right on top of my head. ¡°By the look on your face you either thought we wouldn¡¯t find out or ¨C and this I find far less likely, didn¡¯t even know you were doing it in the first place. So which is it, a spike through your skull or shackles and talking?¡± With how many eyes I had, I didn¡¯t actually have to move to look at her but I still turned my neck out of a semblance of respect. ¡°Considering how I feel ¨C and probably look, I doubt stabbing me through the skull would actually end my suffering.¡± ¡°Really?¡± The grin Miranda gave me was downright evil. ¡°We could still find out, you know?¡± ¡°Nope. Gonna take that talk now if you¡¯re still offering.¡± ¡°Almost a shame¡ Fay, drag her to the kitchen will you?¡± ¡°Uhm, sure¡¡± He looked a bit troubled but still did what Miranda had ordered. ¡°I¡¯ll protect you, Valerie, ah wait, that¡¯s just you messing with my head! I had never admitted to using any mind powers but of course, people were instantly assuming so, because I couldn¡¯t just be liked by someone else like a normal person. A ragged sigh escaped my busted lips. Nothing about me was normal anymore; not my body, not my mind, not even my magic was normal. My body was distorted and strange, bound to an element I barely cared for and half the time it was literally doing whatever it wanted without my input. My mind was clearer than ever before off of my medication but still, it was as much slave to Mother as my body. And my magic and soul were still as unreachable as ever. At least I had somehow managed to not die from trying to force the issue. And now I was going to be interrogated, what an amazing day. Not even a full minute later I was cuffed and bound to a chair. At least my body was aching so much that even this plastic chair felt like the softest pillow. Looking down at the state of my¡ fleshy vessel was certainly a sight. The magical conflagration ¨C for I was quite sure that was what had caused the explosion ¨C had burned all the way from my chest to the very tips of my limbs. Most of the skin was scorched and several of the lower tentacles had curled up like fried calamari. As freakish as this body was, it was also incredibly useless. Squishy and soft it was not at all something I would call powerful, and now it turned out Mother had erased my mana channels. If my soul was truly concentrated in the gem in my chest then the reason for my failure to do magic was right there. The bitch had actually trapped me inside a fucking bauble! ¡°Ha!¡± A loud demented giggle escaped my lips. ¡°How come this all feels so¡ familiar?¡± ¡°So¡± Miranda placed a chair in front of me and sat down. ¡°What¡¯s so funny?¡± I looked her over, her gums and fingers were darker than before as if blood was pooling in them. Ripping my gaze away from her failing body I met her gaze. ¡°Nothing in particular, it¡¯s just¡ I could have sworn to have lived through a situation just like this before.¡± ¡°You¡¯re an awoken?¡± She leaned in closer to study me. ¡°Hadn¡¯t even thought you to have a soul. You look more like some sort of strange Faey than a meta-human.¡± ¡°Nope, I am¡ well, was human just¡ last Friday?¡± ¡°Strange¡¡± Apparently, she hadn¡¯t slept through all of the university classes because she looked actually concerned. ¡°But never mind that, let¡¯s get to what I actually want to know. Who are you?¡± ¡°Why Miranda, I am actually a bit upset that you don¡¯t remember me, for all of these wonderful tentacles are your fault. After all, was it not you who wiped the floor with me? And here I thought you would remember me, but perhaps a name is better. Good to meet you again Mira, I am Valerie Sherman.¡± ¡°You have to be fucking kidding me!? You are The Valerie, corporate princess of the Mage classes and all-time mythic Bitch!?¡± ¡°Well, I guess you could say it like that.¡± Barely a moment passed before Miranda broke out into the dirtiest and most self-gratifying laughter I had ever heard. ¡°Haaa¡. Oh boy, that was a good one! I mean damn, I fucked up my life and body but you? What you did is a whole new level of incompetent bullshit. Haha¡ the great Valerie Sherman is reduced to a creepy tentacle babe with volleyball tits. Honestly though what¡¯s up with the boob job? You look more like a fetish doll than a powerful mage, especially with those two flopping about like this. Seriously now, I could keep making fun of this till I keel over¡ which with my constitution is probably in about a minute or so¡¡± The glare I shot her should have been enough to churn milk but instead, she only wiped the tears from her eyes and barely composed herself enough to only giggle every so often. ¡°Hehe¡. Anygay, wanna tell me how the heck you managed to fuck up this badly?¡± ¡°For what it is worth you might actually be able to help me out¡¡± Trying to find a comfortable position I leaned back and regaled her with my epic tale.

Codename: Eldritch

Chapter 1 - See . . .

Chapter 2 - Hear . . .

Eldritch ¨C Part 7 (1/2)

Part 2