Calypso was on edge. Despite Melissa being hit directly in the shoulder and thigh, immediately bleeding black ooze as she trembled and started to cry… This was still a monster girl that absolutely rinsed her, Gale, and Natalie without even trying—no, not even being aware of what she was doing. It didn’t help that the Bat monsters began to jump into the fray, as they deemed her their new master.
But what weighed down on her more, more so than the exhaustion and mental battering she’s received, was the emotional sympathy. Melissa was like Calypso when she started out—at least from what she can see from the woman. Wrapped up in the pain and trauma, so fed up that she embraced them. But unlike her—she didn’t have some lucky break in salvation. Or at the very least, the illusion of such.
What made Calypso more worthy than this woman? Calypso knew that life, by its broad definition and function, has to be unfair. But for all the so-called power she has yet to untap… Why can’t she bend this woman’s fate, too?
There simply was no time.
Gale rushed in to defend Calypso and Sal from at least two or three Bat Subsumed that lunged for them. Using her massive, dirt-infused fists to pummel the interlopers—some were punched in the face so far, the human skin that held so tight started to flay away.
And as they went down, multiple soon followed suit. Flapping their wings in a frenzy.
Calypso was going to spring into action, before seeing the rain of yellow cells pelting the shadow demons with no remorse. The skeletal monster girl turned her head to see Natalie flying in the air, dipping a few feet due to clipping her wings, due to the attack.
“She ain’t movin’ still, Cal…”
Sal still had her shotgun aimed at a trembling Melissa. Almost like she was shivering from the cold, despite the air baking from the on-raging flames.
It clicked for Calypso. Thankfully not a moment too soon.
“NATALIE, TAKE SAL—GALE, GET AWAY, NOW!”
With a sudden, but very familiar screeching cackle—Melissa fired streams of molten, red-hot blood at the girls as she reared back.
Gale evaded just in time, Natalie hoisted Sal by grappling her midsection—fluttering away until they both tumbled backward up the street.
Calypso bounded into the air, leaning towards her side as she reached out for the mutilated, living building and dug her claws into the brick wall, stopping after 3 very pregnant seconds.
The skeletal monster girl looked downward onto the battlefield before it was going to be choked by the added smoke from Melissa’s attack, the molten blood already melting the area slowly but surely.
And things kept getting worse.
The Bat Subsumed that Gale pummeled regained their stature and instantly dogpiled onto the downed swamp monster girl.
Meanwhile, Sal was firing at the crowd that was beginning to form around her and Natalie. Cursing, mumbling, yelling at Natalie to cover her as she reloaded… Very clearly running low and slowly choosing who was the more pressing problem, while scooting away as best she could.
Natalie had the same but very different problem. On the way down, she landed on her wing—the friction of the pavement shredding her left wing into virtually nothing. Meaning she had to wait for her wings to completely regenerate, firing her undamaged wing, picking and choosing ala Sal. While her shots were greatly more effective… There was something about these Subsumed now.
They were spirited. They found some new purpose they were willing to completely die for. “Die, but do it”—a saying Calypso read about one time. But it was different here. The Subsumed by their nature are overdramatic beings, this proclamation, this loyalty—it’s fueling them to be even more dangerous.
“Y-YOU FUCKERS FORGOT… TH-THAT I LEARNED MY SPECIAL MOVES IN THAT DUMB BOOK…”
Melissa flapped her wings, to clear the smoke...
To show the absolute nightmare that Melissa willingly became.
The veins that made up her limbs untangled, writhing in the air before plugging themselves over the wounds she was dealt. The veins of her fingers detached, wrapped around her claws, gasping open as steam escaped from the twitching holes. And from behind her, three Subsumed kneeled behind her… Being mummified completely, falling to the ground.
Showing that she was completely filled up with blood. Her sights on Calypso’s friends and family.
Her only friends and family.
“GALE! NATALIE!”
Calypso’s voice trembled, it broke. It became more like her true voice… But has never been more resolute.
“THINK OF WHAT MOSES TOLD YOU—DEFY FATE! FIND YOUR DECLARATION! DIG DEEP AND IT’LL CLICK! PLEASE—DON’T JUST SAVE SAL, SAVE YOURSELVES! YOU TWO DESERVE THE WORLD!”
Calypso threw herself in between her loved ones and Melissa, cracking the pavement upon landing. She planted her claw on the broken street, with her scythe raised behind her.
“I don’t know how… But we’re going to outlast you all. We’ll never surrender,” it was Calypso’s declaration towards the indifferent aether, versus Melissa.
“And I don’t wanna do any of this…” Melissa then shrugged, aiming her sights on Calypso. “But if this me finally taking initiative for once in my life, then I guess I’m gonna melt some monster kids—”
There was a pained expression that followed, and a geyser of blood sprayed toward the skeletal monster girl.
Calypso smirked, in turn.
She used her wild blade to slash apart the fractured ground in a frenzy. Searching for the biggest slab available, pulling herself back, and kicking this massive rock upwards.
Acting as the perfect wall as the intense heat surrounded Calypso, seeing the ways manifest as she crouched down, hiding from the assault. Looking at her claw and her blade, trying to think about her next moves.
But due to the position, Calypso saw faint light that shined her way—gaining her attention.
There was a frenzy of vines, spearing themselves out of the group of Bat Subsumed… The very Subsumed that swarmed Gale.
As the vines wormed violently in the bodies of their victims, it allowed Gale to push out of the mess slowly but surely. A struggle, where it was clear that some of the Subsumed bit into her judging by the odd shapes along her body. But she managed to escape. Standing up with a solemn look on her face, her arms turned into living vines.
Immediately after, a gush of wind pushed back another bunch of Subsumed. The winds were so concentrated, so strong, that they carried semi-invisible razors that slashed the Bats, giving them the deepest gashes.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Natalie rose up, with Sal in tow. Sporting two fans that were once her wings, studying them with a curt whistle.
“goooooooOOOOOOD—” Melissa shrieked out in frustration. Agony. “JUST STOP! STOP AND JUST LET ME GO!”
Calypso felt the pavement behind herself turn into practically magma, causing her to scramble, hoisting up a couple more pieces to act as a brace, as she was on her knees now with her claw digging into the new slab.
Even with this sudden fortune, Calypso saw how haggard everyone was. Sal was low on ammo and is a walking target for a vengeful foe. Gale was gnawed on, and Natalie now has no wings to evade and move people. Calypso could fight to the death, willing to give herself up… But there’s no way the others would let her.
This can’t be won in a contest of strength alone.
Her claw was suddenly singed, causing her to yelp out, waving the hand in a vain effort to cool it…
But it was the moment she needed. A moment to simply look at her hand.
Due to the heat, the pavement slabs exploded with sudden force, causing Calypso to flop backward, and skid back to her group. Of course, they all rushed to her, shouted her arm, immediately helped her up.
This position allowing them to all see Melissa pulsating, bulking oddly and without rhythm.
“FINE THEN—” Melissa yelled, the veins on her snapping out of place. “WE ALL WON’T LEAVE HERE ALIVE! I’M DOING IT! I’M BLOWING MYSELF UP!”
She then screamed out in agony, hugging herself. Her veins positioning themselves upward from her limbs and body. Starting to swell with pressure, engorging themselves.
Calypso saw red droplets rain from Melissa’s face. She instantly got that these were crimson tears, versus blood.
“All I wanted to fucking do was get through life…” Melissa lamented. “Did everything that I needed… And still…”
The skeletal monster girl clenched her jaw.
She knew what she had to do.
Calypso cut her palm, letting black blood spurting from the gash she made.
She ran forward, using all of her strength to propel herself in record time. This meant that she was going to be exhausted once she reached her destination.
But all she needed was to hold a hand.
Calypso clasped her bleeding claw into Melissa’s trembling one. Causing the Vampire Subsumed to look down in abject terror… But also surprise.
The skeletal monster girl let the various veins dart themselves deep into her being, letting herself rock with force. She didn’t care.
Maybe it’ll make what she’s going to do much more effective.
“CALYPSO!” Sal’s voice rumbled with despair. “CALYPSO!”
Calypso tried to catch her breath. But feeling the mummification process robbed her of her vitality. It took her a few moments for her to raise her head towards a confused, bewildered Melissa. Stared right into her glistening, yet dark eyes.
“I won’t stop… I promise that I won’t stop trying to help you, Melissa. Even if you can’t help yourself; I pledge that no matter what—I. Will. Help you—and we will not fight until I do!”
The red skies above, which writhed with runes, began to slow themselves above Calypso and Melissa. And soon after, the runes descended around the duo, circling faster and faster around them.
Melissa screamed out, holding her head. She ripped away from Calypso, found herself falling back--but was constricted in the ring around them. She screamed and screamed, before falling on her hands and knees... Her veins retracting into her body.
Calypso couldn’t help but smirk. Not bad, for her first Blood Pact.
“Crazy girl--!”
Calypso found herself scooped up by Sal. Uncaring of how uncomfortable the act was, despite the spikes nearly digging painfully into her.
“I know I’m not the one that can talk, but…” Calypso tried to reason. But then realized this was Sal, and didn’t care about her logic.
Despite that, Natalie found herself as a referee, spitting the cousins away from each other. “Well fucking played, Calypso…”
“I didn’t think that would work, honestly…” Calypso admitted.
“Of course, ya’ didn’t—” Sal pouted, rubbing at the tears in her clothes, due to the bone spikes.
“Soooo…” Gale walked into frame, letting her vines skid on the pavement. “What does it… Well, what did you mean?”
Calypso looked towards Melissa, who was just sobbing as she scraped her claws against the pavement.
“I was nice for once, I guess…” Calypso quipped. She immediately felt a twinge of stupidity, before just accepting this new vulnerability. “As long as we strive to help her… There’s no need to fight anymore.”
“Granted, we have to like—figure out the total combination of meanings we can squeeze from those words so we don’t get caught flatfooted again—but still!” Natalie clapped, putting her new, stylish fans under her arms. “Great work!”
Sal sighed, loudly and longingly, wiping the side of her sweating face. “There’s so much shit I havta’ catch up on… But I’m glad that y’all managed to figure SOMETHIN’ out before it got messy…”
Gale made a high-pitched, self-satisfactory shout of glee. “And you said you’re nothing but doom and gloom! You literally saved someone with a promise from the heart! I could hug and kiss you if I could…! B-because uh, my arms are all noodles—how do ya’ turn these things off, Cal--?”
Calypso chuckled, pointing her thumb at the Vampire Consumed. “Let’s get to work, first…”
Their cheers were interrupted by a clear and present chill, that ripped through the baked air.
“No.”
Calypso refused, turned on her heels to face Melissa… Who was eerily still.
Only for her entire back to tense so badly, it began contorting her frame into something akin to a larval sack. Her dark eyes went blank—no glowing irises at all. Her mouth closed into an “o” shape, her expression a frozen face of terror.
“No,” Calypso simply refused, wanting to step forward. But was too scared to do so.
Melissa’s back erupted in a fountain of blood… That began to stop mid-action, mid-air, defying gravity as it pulled together and congealed into a humanoid shape.
The last thing they all wanted to see.
“No! No no no no no no nooooooooooooooo!”
Calypso futilely slammed at the ground, cracking it with sudden, feral strength. She knew she should’ve saved it—aimed it at the monster that stood before them. She heard the whimpering of Gale, she heard Natalie suck her teeth in frustration.
“WHY CAN’T YOU ALL JUST STOP THIS?!” Calypso pleaded. To fate, to the universe.
But she knew that the “new” audience won’t have any of it.
“Man,” Cassie Morgan looked over at her new form. A being made of blood, her surface area being constant bleeding that never falls from an edge. Her features, even the final details, were all sculpted from liquid. Lacking eyes, which were represented with deep, empty sockets that trapped darkness within. And her fangs were made up of hardened scabs.
She “wiped” at her brow. “Talk about things you never thought would work, fuck me—we thought that our little project was a dud…”
It wasn’t so much stunned silence, but… Crushed. Crushed by the events that played out, there’s truly nothing to say.
“…Well, I thought you were gonna go—‘ah! How?! Why?!’ But whatever, fine—” Cassie reached down, and pulled Melissa’s head, as it wore a just as browbeaten expression. “Since our efforts in finding a Consumed drug-pack-mule kept having hiccups, we found ol’ Melissa Harker here. At least, we were gonna do it the old fashioned way: have our Bat coven level up to our caliber and let ‘em enjoy the ride…”
Cassie then let Melissa’s head drop, placing a hand on her bloody chest, “But we had so many debts to keep track of… Our body was basically bonked, all but in name. So we said ‘fuck it’—kept feeding her our… ‘Essence’.”
Cassie giggled to herself, “Sorry, censorship ends up being waaaay funnier than the actual word—but no, we kept giving her our meat until something happened. Because hey, we’re still a Subsumed at the end of the day—doesn’t that still count for a Consumed transformation base? Gotta admit, was a tad worried when our original body finally gave out under the strain—but now there’s no point! Yippie! We don’t have to pay for our consequences~!”
Calypso found the strength to step forward, prompting an amused sound from the Vampire… Whatever she is, now.
“It doesn’t matter. You can’t fight us, we can’t fight you. You’re Melissa in a sense now, aren’t you? As long as we actively try to help this woman, we’re at an impasse. Your stupid reign ends tonight, you sadistic fuck.”
Cassie simply flashed her disgusting, black fangs. How the rough “skin” glistened.
“What’s another binding contract to somehow wriggle out of~? Let’s test your little promise, in that case.”
The bloody Vampire began to laugh. She let her limbs pour all over Melissa, the streams tightening over her limbs like wraps. Forcing her upright, and then forcing her to lumber forward toward the group.
“What are we gonna do, Cal…?” Sal walked to Calypso’s side, trying to steady her gun.
There simply wasn’t an answer.
Calypso roared and charged toward the monster.
And the monster likewise lumbered on.
But all were stopped by a church-like gong. Repeating, taking its time, over and over.
Before they knew it, both parties were bathed in a holy light. A light that parted the destructive skies. A light that physically froze all combatants in place.
And judging by the look on Cassie’s face… This was the highest of the high. The ceiling. The dictators.
The Fates That Be.
So when Calypso saw this little kid… Dressed in white and pencil-thin stripes across their suit that seemed three sizes too big, and wearing a paperboy’s cap on top of white, curly hair that hit the shoulders… It just continued to prove her point that all of this was completely absurd.
The new challenger yawned. Their face returned to this tired indifference, as it was revealed that they were ringing this tin, silver bell that caused everything to stop. Slowly putting it away, they glanced at both parties with their golden eyes.
“You,” the child banally pointed at Cassie and Melissa. They barely turned to point at Calypso and her loved ones, “And you. This is a draw. You lot are holding up the proceedings and I rather want this to be over with. Now come.”
And once that holy light faded, so did they.