A sole leather chair had been moved into Chloe's padded room--it was adorned with several straps made of the same material. Chloe was lead by Nurse Kutter to it. Two of the hospital's burly guards fastened her to it. "I still can't believe I'm getting this treatment," Chloe muttered beneath her breath. "Even if I don't wanna be her, I am still the Queen of the Mainland."
"And we don't want a demon ruling our country," Nurse Kutter said with a smirk. "But once we remove that eye you can get right back to it."
Rosemary snickered. "I love how they're okay with a twelve year old ruling their country otherwise. Shame they don't want an adult demon eye like me giving her some proper supervision!"
"Shut up with the stupid puns, Rosemary,"Chloe growled, "You're the reason I'm in this mess."
The nurse pretended to be shocked. "Oh my," she said with her hands to her face. "She's worse than I thought. She's even talking to herself. She's delirous."
"And I'm sure you're underpaid!" Chloe snarked.
Nurse Kutter wrinkled her nose. She and the two guards departed, though she still managed a "don't worry, my queen, it will all be over soon."
"I wish they'd stop using those metaphors," Chloe muttered.
The sound of tire treads and steam blasting echoed through the hallway. Chloe knew her time was at hand. The pluckity pluck machine entered the room with its gruesomely grabby gloved hands. The needle toothed doctor entered too with his own set of gloves to match.
"Queen Annabell," he smiled. "I want you to know that this will be fast. Think of it as a pinch and a pull and we'll have that accursed eye out of your socket. A pinch and a pull."
As the machine looned closer, Chloe winced hard. The doctor with his faux sweet voice like a poisoned lolly pop continued to suckle her ear. "Don't worry. Once it's out we'll give it to you in a little bag and you can play marbles with it."
"W-w-what am I five?" Chloe asked while shaking. She could not play cool with that wicked machine over her.
"You are a valuable asset to this kingdom," the doctor said. "Now close your mouth and open that eye socket wide!"
A sinister shadow of a hand fell over Chloe's face and she screamed loudly as the hand reached towards her. She squinted her eyes tight and waited for the pop of death.
But instead of a pop, she heard a loud clank followed by a scream. "It's escaped! The demollusk has escaped!"
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Doctor Needles switched off the machine and grimaced. The sound of banging along the wall indicated that there was something undesirable behind it. The doctor hesitantly creeped towards the door as a loud hissing erupted. He opened it and was seized by a giant pair of dark blue claws.
"Mommy!!!" he screamed as he was pulled off.
Chloe opened her eyes and her demon one swiveled frantically. "What's going on?" Rosemary hissed
"I dunno," Chloe responded. "I'm a little tied up at the moment."
"Well well well," Rosemary said. "I can help you with that."
A surge traveled through Chloe's arms and legs as her arms grew veiny and muscular. They tore right through the straps, shattering them into fragments. "Witch…" Chloe growled. "Why didn't you break me out earlier, you witch?!"
"I like escapes that are a bit more on the edge of your seat!" Rosemary giggled. "Plus it's fun to torment my little pet."
Chloe sat up, her face bright red. "If it wouldn't kill me, I'd rip you out myself!"
"But it's much better like this," Rosemary sighed. "You and I can bond together. After all, we share mutual life force now."
Chloe said nothing more. She was grateful she could escape, but she dreaded the creature on the other side of the door. But, scape was necessary if she wanted to live, she decided. But before she left, she kicked the pluckity pluck machine hard, sending it straight into the wall. Much to her chargrin, it didn't break but a drop of vengeance was better than nothing.
Chloe peeked her head out and couldn't believe her eyes. An enormous invertevrate resembling a mutant snail with yellowy eye stalks and deep blue crustacean claws hissed at the end of the hallway.
"That's a mollusk?!" Chloe exclaimed. "My private tutor said they were tiny snails or octopods. This thing is gigantic and super ugly."
"Is that a problem?" Rosemary asked.
"Naw this thing is epic," Chloe grinned. "I'm gonna call him, Escargreat!"
She walked up to it as the invertebrate observed her with its eye stalks. She reached out to pet him, but its goopy mouth roared. It lumbered towards her. "It's wrong to treat your queen like this!" Chloe screamed as she picked up her feet.
She rushed down the hallway and took a left at the spiral staircase. Escargreat continued to follow her until its shell got jammed in the doorway. Chloe stuck out her tongue and made a goofy expression with her eyes. She quickly hurried as Escargreat attempted to jam its meaty claws in the stairway.
"Where did this thing come from?" Chloe asked, but as she got to the bottom of the stairs and wandered in the first doorway, her questions were answered.
Chloe was in dim room with a high ceiling and several aquarium-sized fish tanks. Each housed a different abominations. There were wide-faced fish with several clusters of eyes and mouths sticking out at odd angles, mutant sharks with hulking lobster claws. Snails with spiky, purple spiral shells and two heads sticking out of both ends. And even a giant squid with a human's head and upper body. "What is this place?!" Chloe murmured in disbelief.
"Welcome to the Demollusk research room, Chloe…" a familiar voice said, low and deep.
The bald squidman turned around and Chloe nearly puked from fear and nausea. Though his eyes were completely white, she recognized his beak like nose and hairless scalp. His face now purple pressed itself against his tank and she now knew who he was...It was the Moonshadow.
The man who had saved her and presumably died looked at her with his pupil-less eyes. "What happened to you?" Chloe asked.
"I...am now a Demollusk…" the man said sadly. "And so is everything else in here."