She took the parchment into her hands in prayer. Raised them into the night sky, as she couldn’t help but tremble in the presence of the quarter Moon.

Calypso watched an agonized girl began to summon various creatures of the damned. Completely different from the skeletal monster girl’s death from being mauled by Subsumed… This girl wanted this. Purposefully wanted to be surrounded.

It was strange. The shadow puppet animatronics were limited in showing the exact shape of the Subsumed horde, settling on creating this uneven ring around the agonized girl. With tendrils, teeth, flippers, spikes, slime—all reached out for her. Quickened at her presence, as if they instantly knew how low she was in this moment.

Even if she wanted this to happen to her… Calypso noted that the agonized girl still kept calm. Focused. Her shadow puppet gained weary eyes to them, as they looked about the selection that pined for her.

The skeletal monster girl slapped herself on the cheek, for completely whiffing the evidence that was presented to her.

Of course she wanted this. She was amidst choosing her end, in more ways than one.

She needed to become a monster, to fight back against the other monsters.

But control was still something this girl lacked. Once the herd became antsy, she ran. As fast as she could in that moment, and once again, Calypso was very impressed by the display.

Calypso flashed back to that night, how the Subsumed… Seemingly teleported within the darkness. One moment Alice tried to push her away, the arm gone the next. Established quickly that there was simply no way out then. It was only death.

Here? The agonized girl ran for her life and then some. She made the monsters run into trees, causing them to be uprooted by the sheer strength of the impact. She hid from them at points, despite this land being theirs—and hid in much more tight spots, practiced doing so.

This was the benefit of being a bullied kid. This is why those childish bastards had to use bikes. They knew they couldn’t catch her otherwise, too fast and too smart.

But the scene went on long enough. The stage shifted into a cave of sorts, sudden searing flickers followed closely with slams of sound to showcase storm.

The agonized girl leaned against the lip of the entrance, visible scorn at the papers she stole. Clear disappointment, and clear exhaustion, radiated from the animatronic silhouette. Her hand tensed, on the verge of crumbling the wet parchment until…

“A-aah… D-don’t throw away any good chance to survive, dear huuuuuman…”

The agonized girl turned around towards the crippled, fried vocal tone. Her fear spiked the moment she saw this thing.

For one, it was in half. The front half of itself tried in vain to drag itself across the stone ground, but its feelers for arms gave out the moment it became visible in the dark. Covered in fuzz that was caked in trash, gunk, and leavings that stuck at points, giving the impression of balding or patchiness. Its pincers were most of its face, crested the long and spindly nozzle that was its actual mouth—its eyes bigger than dinner plates were at the sides of its head but… The left was much. Much higher than the right, that drooped downward way too far as well. Not to mention, since this was a fly, the eyes themselves were bulbous—they were flat against the shape of its head. And say nothing about the wings, that were clipped into shreds long ago.

“Uh,” the agonized girl stared down at the pathetic thing. “Maybe you should take the same thing I just got sold on. Quick while you’re ahead and just live and let die—”

She tried to turn away, but felt the feeler grasp her ankle. Her eyes widened, showcased by the clicking and whirling of the animatronic, looking back down to see how quickly this pathetic thing can move. Even it’s feeler was deceptively long.

“Maybe-maybe so,” the thing spoke, its pincers swaying independently. “B-but I can-cannot lay down and see my end coming. Not when I can run straight—run straight toward it. Even something as I deserve that, as a living being…”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“…Huh,” the agonized girl cocked her head, in agreement. “Guess that makes sense—but anything does when you’re uh. Lacking in the not having a body department. Can I ask why there, chief…?”

The Fly Subsumed tilted its head. In confusion? Misplaced haughtiness… Pity?

“I-it’s interesting how you huuumans… How you ask ‘why’,” the Fly Subsumed’s thin voice suddenly regained strength. “It is simply our role to play. A role to play, to keep this farce alive… Therefore ourselves given p-p-purpose.”

“Then you’ve served your purpose,” the agonized girl intelligently shot back, pointing at it. “Your role’s finished. You had the one line… Exit stage left, wherever and whatever that ends up being—”

“Oh ho ho…” the Fly buzzed happily. “But a role can be revitalized, my dear… Given new breath. Given new life…”

The agonized girl caught on, as she glanced down the papers. She bit her lip before responding in full.

“Look. What I need—if—if I’m gonna sacrifice myself over this… I’m gonna need to become something they don’t expect. Something that no matter what, is impossible… To see, to catch—anything. And importantly, impossible to fight against.”

The agonized girl rose her hands in mock defense. “Not trying to kick you while you’re… Dying but. There’s a reason why. You’re… Just a fly. A bug. Everything. Everything stomps a bug. We don’t even put too much thought into doing it.”

“If you were to catch them.”

That instant response gave the girl pause.

“Tell yourself… You cannot lie to yourself, about the many swings and strikes you have missed, to claim the life of my brethren. And even if you do, exhausting and tiring yourself… There’s always more, lurking about. And there is a strength, a boone in that weakness… Overlooked, underestimated as the strong walk past you. Leaving you to crawl about, learning their very secrets. And look at I…”

The massive bug gestured to itself. “I am dying. I’ve been struck irreversibly. And yet here I am before you, alive still. Clinging to life. Even maimed, still surviving…”

“…Congrats.”

The agonized girl moved further into the cave, meeting the Fly Subsumed halfway. “You just swayed a daughter of a used car salesman.”

Calypso watched as time passed, the puppets sped along to forward the dead air, getting to the pivot part.

Which was the agonized girl, one of the pages held in one hand, and a knife in the other. As she towered over the still-stationed Fly.

“H-heard, well read, that this process is a lot…” the girl gulped. “Intense, in terms of Subsumption…”

“Indeeeeed…” the Fly Subsumed nodded. “The standard fare kills immediately. The invasive rebirth, more sinister yet slow, easy to subvert over and over… This? This is a deal. I become your shadow. You use my talents. But the transformation is not only gradual, but cannot be walked back. Either way, you will lose your soul, huuuumaaaan…”

The agonized girl looked down, and swayed her head in thought. “And this means? Do I become a vegetable if I abort this? Slowly go insane? Or straight-up death?”

“‘Straight up death’, I’m afraid… I will say, to be honorable in this agreement, that by being not whole, this will give you enough time for the effects of my curse to not transform you immediately. But once my traits become yours… It is irreversible. If you call it off, your soul will crumble under its own weight. Death becomes you.”

The presentation… It tore itself into pieces, became a whirlwind of parts, mechanisms, and special effects… Just to create a “close-up” of the girl’s face.

She crumpled up into a fit of despair. The cheeks tensed, the eyes squinted to account for the tears that never really came. All of that loosened in the advent of thought, clarity washed the stronghold of misery. Then eerily, a face that fell flat. Simply too much effort to keep doing these various, negative expressions again and again.

The way she cocked her head to her side, caused the goggles lens' to reflect the cave's walls within them. Obscured the windows to her soul in question.

“Cool. I don’t have to face the consequences of my actions either way.”

Calypso was disgusted. Immediately, instantly disgusted. All of the previous hate she had for this gnat resurfaced in a surge, in one fell swoop.

Then it was her turn to face the same inevitability. But Calypso allowed herself to feel complete sorrow. The disgust was still there… But it was from the inside. Knowing that mere months ago, she felt exactly how this poor girl did and more.

And yet… Did she really change? Truly? She’s transformed, over and over, as long as she had this curse… But does she even possess the strength or capability?

She didn’t have time to think that over. Calypso watched as the agonized girl slit her open palm with the knife, let the pouring blood splatter her shadow. The Fly Subsumed happily clapped with its feelers, diving into the shadow with zeal as this girl became to shake violently. As if this thing was climbing into her body anyways.

The presentation stopped, which caused Calypso to jump in her seat.

But the more she thought about it, it clicked for her.

The skeletal girl raced out of her seat, and sprinted towards the stage. In a matter of moments, she somehow made it onto it without transition.

There, she saw her body, still curled up… But human. In color, real. Like Calypso, she was just a young adult, merged with parts of her monster. The wings from her Consumed form still being present on her back, for one.

“If only you told me you hated humans just as I do... Then we would’ve gotten along famously,” Calypso joked. But clearly pained.