The supposed human in this conversation reached down and pulled the mane of the defenseless monster girl, and somehow echoed her exact sentiments at the moment.
“You have to understand, this is a problem for me…”
Despite having what should have been obscured sight, the scarecrow boy knew that Calypso’s neck had been damaged due to the molten blood sitting right under the collarbone. Combined with her trying to witness the fight between Cassie and these weird men, it made her neck raw, nearly splitting at the seams. As the scarecrow boy tugged her hair, slowly moving Calypso’s head side to side, he continued.
“Not just one Consumed, but three…” the soft and clear voice bounced in the dollar store Halloween mask. “We nearly lost our numbers trying to kill the one, so you must understand my plight here…”
It was only because Calypso was so close to death, her flushed mind swirling with memories of her life, that she remembered “GOD BLESS”—from the book she read, the message that was scribbled on it.
“Was once just an honest worker at a coffee shop I used to visit…” shaking his head lightly, causing the mask to look like it was tumbling, twitching, betraying the sincerity in his tone. “A fine addition to our fair town, and even someone as innocent could end up with such a horrific fate. Forever trapped between extremes, until they destroy you.”
Suddenly, his grip became pensive, as his swaying stopped in place. Calypso could feel his fingers briefly loosen their grip, only to wiggle within the confines of her mane.
“But that was a mind long gone, a stark raving beast… You, on the other hand. From what I’ve gathered and seen, you have your facilities still. A sick mind before the transformation, hm? Funny how that’s starting to become a constant in this environment. Oh! I’m sorry, I’m completely digressing…”
There was a soft sigh that came out as a muffled huff. “It’s not like dealing with intelligent monsters didn’t get me here in the first place… But we need everything that we could get, before that crazed woman sets everything on fire…But I could also just wait for you to die here and be on my way—she clearly wants you… Hmm…”
Calypso couldn’t escape that freakish stare. She knew it was a mask, that it was ultimately fake. But the way the surface was showing wear, as if the irises had white gashes on them. The way how the mask hung from the head, so not only is it propped forward at her—cutting the precious space she needed, but the idea of a human face sagging from the skull made something that was already uncanny more so.
And it was just how far apart those fucking eyes were. It almost made the guy look cross eyed, adding to the disgusting display of it all.
It was as if him trailing into absolute silence was intentional. To leave Calypso on tenterhooks.
But there was a rustling of someone searching their pockets, and before she knew it, Calypso was presented with a clear vial, the contents of that white, metallic liquid swirled about within.
“Charity it is, then~”
The scarecrow boy popped the black, rubber top from the vial—shoving it into Calypso’s maw as she was forced to drink. Due to the contents that were being emptied into her, the liquid actually forced her throat open. Refusal was never an option.
Regardless… Feeling came back to Calypso. Her mind returned to normal. And as she regained her strength, she burst from the cooled magma of blood with a roar—causing the scarecrow boy to jump back with an added “whoa there~!”
Rising onto her bare, clawed feet—quickly she looked at her arm to see it back to normal. Well, back to being a bladed limb, but it’s a limb again. She balled her claws into a fist and began striking at the air, testing if it worked the same as before. Seemingly so, as she ceased and looked at her pink palm surrounded by eggshell white, bendable knives.
The skeletal monster was immediately tackled by one of her own, Calypso quickly righting herself as Gale wrapped her arms around her. Maybe it was the experience, but Calypso didn’t care, she returned the affection, smiling all the while. Despite it being difficult to hug a melting person made of goop, they found a way to make such work.
“Thank you so much—” Calypso cut herself off, jolted a tad, due to hearing Gale say something first that she rudely interrupted. Reviewing the tidbit she had, it was the swamp girl saying “sorry”. Calypso smirked, “Now I’m glad that I cut you off—no. None of that. You did everything you could and it helped still.”
Gale created something between an exhale and a chuckle. Calypso was going to pat her exposed back, until she caught wind of something.
Well, someone.
With an intense, steely and uncaring gaze—Calypso broke off the hug, marching over to that damn gnat of a girl—who already had her hands up, bearing her palms, to calm her down.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
The skeletal monster grabbed her neck, lifting her off the ground. Unflinching. While she figured that there was going to be a fight, some form of pitiable pleading—Calypso didn’t expect for the gnat to be practically trying to claw at her own throat, trying in vain to say something.
Didn’t matter to her, as she slowly but surely squeezed.
“WAIT!”
Calypso snapped her head towards Gale, snarling, “‘Wait’--?”
The guilt immediately hitting, and the girl softened her voice and face instantly. “What do you mean, ‘wait’…?”
“Sooooo, I know that you’re super P.O.’d, which I’m gonna say the second thing I had in my head first and the first one later—” Gale quickly shook her head, trying to clear her racing mind before pressing her hands together. “But she really was like us—Cassie practically had a gun to the back of her head! Even when she was attacking us, it was just annoyance and not—y’know, kill shots! And y’know, when she was, like, with me and stuff, she could’ve easily killed me! I had no arms and legs, so it’d be easy to—also yeah, she told me her deal during then too! She’s a good person, Cal… I promise!”
Calypso glanced over at the waste of space that struggled for air, before glancing back at her friend. “And what if she’s lying…?”
“And that was my first thing! But I saved it because…” Gale looked down. “Well… It’s me, but. It’s defo a funky aura, it’s not bad. The vibe of a person, y’know? With Cassie, it was overwhelming. Nothing but black and darkness—red rage igniting like an explosion, and you could feel that. This girl? …Well, not to take it the wrong way but… Same-ish vibe I got from you.”
If anything, that made Calypso want to kill this thing more.
But… As the monster girl looked back at her so-called kin, the gnat girl who was turning blue struggled to raise two thumbs up.
With a huff through the nose, Calypso let go, taking everything in herself not to throw the gnat to the ground. Massive inhales, morphing into shuddering ensued after, which made Calypso feel a little better.
“A-as I was—” the gnat coughed out, “T-trying to say—during all that, yeah, I don’t blame you at all—it was the right call trying to crush my windpipe… If anything, it’s letting me off the hook more than this—”
“I would elect to stop talking to me, at his point,” Calypso barely hid the indifference etched into her tone.
The gnat nodded, rubbing her fingers against the still present grip marks on the neck. As a creature that dwells in schadenfreude, Calypso would have openly shuddered if there wasn’t company.
“Now then!” the scarecrow boy clasped his hands together after a very loud, attention-grabbing clap. Flanked to the sides in rifle men and spear wielders.
“Got our primal desires out of the way, hm? Now… We can open a dialogue~”
“Yeah, I can’t—” Gale lifted her hands to act as a shield for her eyes. “I can’t really look at you—I’m sure you’re super nice but—”
The scarecrow boy chuckled, “It is very unsightly, I understand, I understand… But, it’s practical. Keeping my identity secret is paramount to my operations.”
“See—okay, the throat’s healed enough from the near-fatal-throttling—That’s the thing…” the gnat flew past the duo, landing before wincing, forgetting that most of the land is still scorched. “Your… ‘Operation’. Well no, you added an -s to the end of that too. As someone that got roped into something and nearly paid for it… 15 second ago, I want you to tell what those are…”
Now that Calypso was forced to look at her, the gnat’s “attire” was made more clear. She wore onyx, insectoid platelet armor that was in the shape of a mini dress. Her legs were bare, along with the arms and shoulders, showing off her chalk white complexion. But on second inspection, only the back of her legs were bare, the front of each were covered in a massive bug leg that had sharp feelers that descended downward to the ankles, decreasing in size.
The mini dress trailed off in a way at the back, which took the likeness of a separated abdomen that chittered at very off second. Light gray hairs gathered to create gloves that were cut off around the waists, getting puffier to create a ring--also giving her a fuzzy scarf of sorts around the neck. Finishing the assemble, her wings were draped on her back, completely lifeless as they were folded into a cape. The structure in a jiggery, hexagonal pattern which made Calypso wonder how the fuck did she fly then.
But the horrid part was the fact she didn’t have “ears”, they were replaced by these headphone-like domes… Which on closer look, they were compound eyes. A fly’s compound eyes, scaled to size of a human. And Calypso could see her dark, crimson eyes look about, reflected a hundred times over.
The scarecrow boy slowly pointed at the girl, and the rifle men pointed their guns. “You. Speaking of feeling ‘bad signs’, I detect a lot from you. I’d advise to keep your questions to an absolution minimum. I would hate for this union to immediately shatter and break out into violence…”
The gnat huffed, crossing her arms, muttering about “the guy doesn’t even have his eyes” or something.
“…Can we at least know your, like, first name?” Gale spoke up, still looking away. “We can’t really do much with a name and you kinda know ours—well, not that girl, but—”
There was a hearty chuckle that rumbled within the mask. “That’s certainly true…”
He gestured towards the girls, opening his arms in showmanship. “Richard. You can call me Richard.”
“Fitting,” the gnat added literally seconds after, clearly uncaring about the unstable ground they were treading.
Calypso seemed to be the only one here that understood that they were coasting on this man’s ego. She tried to make her body language shift towards the situation as subtle as possible. At least thinking about the alibi for him noticing in the back of the mind.
The skeletal monster stepped forward, “It’s very nice to meet you, Richard… Thank you for sparing us, above all else. We… Are just confused about what just happened. As you mused about in front of me, we are but simple Consumed, we have no idea of what’s going on.”
“But of course, but of course…” Richard tried to ease Calypso using his leathered hands, moving them up and down. “This is why we’re talking right now. If you let me, you all will be informed. I swear by it.”
Richard pulled two vials of that liquid and gave it to the two spear men. They nodded—hinting at possible and ambiguous anatomy? They equipped such into the shift of the spears, spun such in the air, and stabbed the ground.
Proceeding to create a white-silvery dome all around them.
“Now then… Let’s start from the beginning~”