“WE WERE IN THE PRESENCE OF CONSUMED HUMANS?!” One of the pitiful shadow monsters exclaimed, turned to the others. “I THOUG—”

Calypso didn’t allow the Subsumed to finish said thought. She had bolted forward, maw open wide, clamped down and ripped its throat from its body.

The being only had the briefest moments to writhe and stiffen once it hit the ground, but quickly became just a body, nothing more with a final splat on the wood.

The two closest to the remains of their fallen brother didn’t have time to avenge, let alone gawk at the scenario they found themselves trapped in. Calypso plunged both of her claws directly into the head-shape of the one on the left and yanked it downward, slammed her spiked-laced knee. Which bored a sizable chuck of the head deep within itself.

There wasn’t much fight left in the monster, once again.

Calypso could barely hear the conversation that happened around her. The sickening squelch of her claws that ripped away the caved-in head was far too loud, along with the heavy splatter that followed soon after.

Her movements her lackadaisical, slack, as she turned toward the sounds of shouting that grew louder. The girl’s face was heavy as it sank off the skull. Her eyes remained downward for a second, before she trained them toward the source.

So, when that gaze turned razor-sharp with anger, the difference was stark.

The last two Subsumed. One of them had the gall to puff itself up, extended its entire frame with spindly arms arched just as wide forward, to protect the trembling puddle behind it.

She felt her jaw clench tight. Her muscles bulge as her spine constricted her into a feral hunch. She felt the nagging stress her body was telling her she was under, now felt how taxing a forced transformation was.

She didn’t give a fuck.

The posturing Subsumed roared its hideous screech as it marched on, but it meant precious little. Calypso angled her claws near its midsection, one claw high at the chest and one low toward the waist.

Easily cutting the simpering dreg in half. Its two chucks—its so-called body, twirled in the air due to how much sheer force the girl put behind the attack. It was an overkill of the highest order.

Except not really. Calypso darted her widened eye over her spiked shoulder, to confirm that she didn’t go as far as she wanted to.

It still clung to life, if not barely. It’s arms trembled to get a grip, as if once it did, it make some jot of difference. Meaningless willpower to the last.

Good.

Calypso adjusted her crazed gaze, and lunched forward. The simpering puddle that was the last Subsumed quivered once the girl got a hold of it, sunk her claws in to physically drag it across the floor.

Plopped the pitiful thing right in front of its severed buddy.

The duo immediately caught wind of what she was going to do. They exchanged what looked to be defeated, tearful exchanges.

Calypso couldn’t help but laugh.

But it did serve a dual purpose.

Her maw was stretched wide. As the blob reached out for its brother, Calypso swung her entire body downward to consume the entire top half of the pitiful Subsumed in an entire gulp.

But messy enough to leave the arm behind. Landing flat, limp, as it made the saddest flop upon contact.

Calypso stared as she chewed, at the weakling that just lost everything. She had half a mind to literally spit the remains at the last Subsumed, but decided against.

She just smirked wickedly at it. Smirked as the sides of such a tight shape leaked the black vicious regardless.

Despite the lack of a face, the Subsumed shook. The last of its energies leaving it, finally letting that head fall on the destroyed floor. Its shape became formless once more, fading into the shadow that Calypso projected.

Calypso found herself panting, which confused her briefly. In her exploding mind, it took her a moment to realize it wasn’t because of exertion, but the emotional hell she’s found herself in.

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The fear that flared within her chest spread across the body in an instant, like a virus.

Subsumed can be fucked up. Cassie might be scary. But this was the most harrowing experience she’s been in. Third from dying, second to finding the body that was once her father.

But she had to face this.

Calypso turned around, towards her broken cousin. She saw Natalie, fully transformed, keeping her distance with a grim expression on her face. Of course, Gale… Sweet, innocent Gale was on her hands and knees, inched as much as she could towards Sal, despite being made of goo now.

Trying to do what she did best.

“It’s fine, i-it’s like—” Gale wore her smile, Calypso could see the profile of her face sport it. “We’re—we’re still us, and like, Calypso is still your Cally—I swear, I swear it—I, like, know and—sorry sorry sorry, brain is all melty—”

This was the most distressed Calypso seen her. Gale was physically dribbling, melting before Sal who was pressed against the door now. Gale tried to rise up, but her legs merged with one another into a tremendous glob, forcing her onto the ground with a thud.

But she still tried to smile. Still tried to talk.

Calypso clinched her claws into a fist.

She had to step in. Fuck her being unable to connect, to be human. She needed to do fucking something.

“S-sally…” Calypso didn’t remotely make an effort to soften her voice “back to normal”. It was normal. “It’s me… I promise you, it’s still… I should’ve been honest with you—and we can be right now. You just have to calm down—let’s get away from here. I promise you, please…”

The crackling bone rung out in the still air, as Calypso extended her other claw towards Sal. Made sure to present the still human palm, despite being rose pink.

But Sal begun to laugh. And laugh. And laugh.

She clutched at her hat and pulled it down, following the flow of broken tears that coasted down her cheeks. Her dirty blonde hair becoming wild due to shaking her head, letting herself fall down the door with no concerns of how badly she landed on her rear.

She continued to stare at Calypso. Wide and vacant with disbelief, disgust…

Contempt.

No monster so far had stabbed Calypso this deep.

“no,” Calypso squeaked, stepped forward while she swung her outstretched arm. “NO! I’M NOT GIVING ON YOU—YOU WOULDN’T FOR ME AN-AND—”

The sudden vein-like cracks that formed on the side of Sal’s face put an end to that.

They lurched from her right eye socket, as if it was a shadowy hand. It begun to spread further, as Sal’s laughter gotten more crazed and breathless.

Calypso was going to watch her only link to humanity turn into a monster like her.

She was too distraught to hear the furious flutter that Natalie’s wings produced—the fly girl dug her claws into Calypso’s shoulder as she forced her towards the twisted window.

With the combined mass of three Consumed women, the trio burst through the walls of the taken-over home—Natalie’s wings flickering for more energy that it sorely lacked in the moment.

Despite the sputtering, despite losing so much energy to keep afloat, Natalie managed to successfully glide her cohorts into the nearby entrance to the forest. Tumbled out of the air, rolling down the hill until their armor pieces stopped them (or in the case of Gale, until she stuck to the ground enough).

As Calypso struggled upward from the filth, she knew she wasn’t hurt. Nothing healing couldn’t fit.

She looked to the far away visage of the Moses homestead. Sees the twisted ruins that it had become. But she couldn’t see through the much more gruesome image of what she saw her cousin became.

Calypso clasped her claw on her right, shimmering eye, and leaned into it. She felt her entire face flush with heat as she started to suck in the air sharply. So she sucked her lips, bit down on them to get it all to stop.

There was no way.

She had periods where the two sides of herself merged as one. She felt it when she failed to properly grasp her new self when she was taken by the curse at first. But this was the first time where it was more than a period. This was the Consumed self’s state of being.

The heightened, unleashed emotions that Calypso felt crazed joy of experiencing. All of it given way to the same, predictable yet inevitable crush.

Calypso cried crimson tears into her hand. She trembled, she swayed. Rocked by how she was becoming undone. Eventually letting her pouty lips go from her fangs, as they crumpled up into a pathetic perse of a frown.

It took her time, but her eye settled on her other claw. Absolution written all over her drenched face.

Natalie immediately grabbed at her wrist.

“Hey. I know you said you’d have no idea—or rather, no faith in your spiel to save me… But you said it anyways. I owe you for that—and despite all of the terrible, shifty shit I get up to, I fucking give back to the ones that I care about. Fuck everyone else. We’re gonna fix this Cal. We’re going to figure out what dark, fucked up forces that allowed any of this to happen—and we’re gonna kill them. Make them pay somehow. But we’re gonna need you here still.”

Calypso just looked toward Natalie. Despite having her eyes at the side of her head, all of them reflected in the compound lens.

All determined. A far cry from her usual face.

Calypso in turn removed the claw from her own eye, staring down at the palm coated with crimson liquid. Watched it sizzle and evaporate into nothing.

This existence, summed up in a gesture. How quickly things can be rendered so meaningless.

By people on top that didn’t care about how fragile, precious it was to the ones left behind.

Calypso’s brow furrowed.

“I’m going to murder Cassie Morgan. And I’m going to murder every single person connected to this supernatural underworld until I reach Fate itself. And I hope that it’s possible, but I’m going to pay back every single setback—lashing—scar—and lingering pain they’ve dealt to me.”

Calypso trembled still, but she was helped up by Natalie. She shot a pained smile to the fly girl, and in turn she offered a thumbs up.

Calypso jumped a bit as she felt Gale’s hand pat her shoulder—but more than welcomed the wordless hug that followed. Hugging back with no reservations.

After the gestures of comradery, the trio faced the dimming red skies above.

“I wonder how much worse this really is…” Gale pondered.

A bolt rained down to answer her question. The target was a group of trees, as they twisted and withered with age—granted life as the bony branches reached out toward the girls.