And there Calypso was. Surrounded by surviving Bat monsters, gawking at her and ready to pounce. Behind her, a barely alive woman that put her trust in her, probably freaking out due to sensing that whatever plan the monster girl had, it blew up in her face. And then there was Gale before her, on the verge of crimson tears, because she knew what was brewing within the damaged, dumbass girl that she was facing.

Now, with all that in mind… Would anyone think less of Calypso, when she just started laughing?

Jubilance began to rock her body. Spill from her throat, which shuddered with such, almost involuntary in fashion due to how easily it took over Calypso’s being.

Ironically, the transformed arm of hers—the wild, swing blade—was completely still for once as Calypso just laughed and laughed and laughed. Eerily so.

The laughter was so potent, it caused the skeletal monster girl to hunch forward, her only good arm hugging her exposed midriff.

But the sound she was producing, it was… Oddly nostalgic.

Calypso remembers her first night, her first transformation—how could she ever not? It wasn’t just the unearthly pain she remembers, nor what she did that night. Details. It was always the details that clung so tightly around the human subconscious.

And for her, it was the reaction to seeing herself for the first time. How she laughed so harshly, it was like she were completely out of breath after a certain point.

She reeled back, placing a claw against her face as the laughter got louder, thinner. In that one action, despite her eyes flushing with crimson tears, she saw the entire room.

The remaining Bat Subsumed bewildered, too scared to advance. Looking around, looking at each other, because they must be missing something.

Gale, trying her damnest to calm her friend down, uncaring that she pulled her hood down—exposing herself as well. Not like she and the others cared.

And the pile of humans, the broken, still slowly twitching and groaning amongst themselves. But they were clearly fading away. Not much time left to help them, and hook them back up to their machines.

And all Calypso could do, was laugh until she physically couldn’t anymore.

Eventually, she wasn’t quite sure how long that was—her head was spinning too much to focus—Calypso simmered to a stop. Panting audibly, as everyone around her that was cognizant, were on absolute tenterhooks.

Calypso coughed in a fit, before lowering her head, to say this.

“Gaaaale~?”

“Y…Yeah…?” Gale was so terrified to answer.

“Go help the girl,” Calypso’s voice was so distant. “She has a nail, er, between her hands, pinned down…? So be as gentle as possible. Which I’m confident in, you’re you~”

“C-Cal, just—just calm down, I-I can explain, i-it’s my fault again, I swear—”

Calypso simply smiled at the trembling swamp monster. But her dead eyes barely moved an inch.

“Gale. You have to learn how to not blame yourself for people who don’t deserve it. We’ll talk all about it later. Okay~?”

The poor girl forced her eyes shut, tears rolling down and then mixing with the gooey texture of her skin. But she put on the hood and surged away from the scene.

Leaving the monster with the present, confused and stunned onlookers all around her.

“Now then,” Calypso casually wiped the remnants of her own tears from her peach-toned face.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Be it either the cloak or the monster girl letting herself “go”, Calypso began her nearly one-sided slaughter.

One moment, she was behind a Bat Subsumed, driving her scythe arm directly behind its head. In another quick flash, tearing one’s wing from the little bone that arm possessed. Rushing forward, grabbing another’s head and punting her spiked knee right into the snout, caving it in entirely. Craving opening the back and yanking on the muscles that caused one’s wings rendered useless, kicking so hard with her sharp toes; causing immediate disembowelment.

There were plenty that fought back, of course, using their advantage of numbers to swarm—somehow—anything. Calypso simply let them, so they could be easily impaled against her spikey bone armor, before being sliced at angles without a second thought. Remorse.

Calypso lost count—she couldn’t exactly… Focus anymore. There was this certain flow to follow, that manifested the moment she unshackled herself from any pretense of restraint or second-guessing.

But she did find, whenever she glanced downwards, the bodies that littered the floors so heavily, it was hard to tell from alive or dead at this point.

She only stopped until there was only the one left standing.

The poor thing was crawling away. Calypso wasn’t even sure if she hit it at some point, but the monster girl simply followed. No rush, no brisk pace she had to engage in. It made the Bat Subsumed more freaked out, screeching for help.

It was until Calypso noticed, after staring it down without blinking, that the texture of this beast… It had claw marks that were still fresh, all across its frame.

This was the newly made one, that they had all witnessed being initiated before them.

Perfect. Calypso knew that there was no long-standing loyalty she had to put up with.

The skeletal monster girl plunged her claw into the goner’s back, unfazed by its pained shrieks.

“Gale?” Calypso barely moved, barely changing the tone of her voice. “Do you need help, or--?”

“Nonono, I got her—I got her, don’t worry—don’t worry…”

Calypso slowly looked at her side, as she saw Gale struggle to wade through the bodies with Melissa’s arm slung around her neck.

The most interesting was Melissa’s… Lack of a reaction. Calypso figured, either the girl would cry at the carnage or cry at the fact that there was more death and misery. Maybe she wasn’t even sure of what she was truly looking at. She’s understanding that her captors are maimed or worse, but at this volume and the nature of this entire situation to begin with… She was still human, after all. There was no grid for this.

Calypso yanked the new Bat Subsumed upward towards her, it immediately whimpered and shouted out in fear and pain. “Sssh. Sssh. Don’t worry. We’re letting you live. You’re going to tell Cassie exactly what happened. Just tell us how to get out of here. And we’ll leave immediately.”

“LIAR! YOU—YOU’RE LYING! L-LYING LIAR--!”

Calypso tilted her head. “How does killing you at this point serve any purpose…?”

The poor thing could only whimper in response.

Calypso proceeded to lower herself, in a way where she was speaking to the Bat Subsumed directly in its ear.

“There’s no point in killing you, and there’s no point in you not letting us go. So let’s get past that. Oh—I suppose you could stall and wait for Cassie to run over, which is pretty smart—but then that becomes a point. And we both know that you want to do anything to avoid that terrible fate of being bested, then eaten alive. You did all this because you fear that, correct? Why create a self-fulfilling prophecy…?”

“Fine! FINE!” the Bat Subsumed relented. “F-fine… T-the trick is that there are signs, to get out. It is endless, the halls… But once you notice an imperfection, it is a way out…”

“Thank you.”

Calypso just threw it onto the littered ground. Walking forward, towards the pile of humans that lay there.

On the top, the Baker boy.

Calypso didn’t need to be a doctor, to know that he was dead. Probably for a while now.

The trance-like daze Calypso found herself in, gave way to an all-encompassing crush immediately.

The least she could do in this moment, was to reach forward. Carry the body out, for a proper burial.

But the oh-so-familiar rumbling proceeded to shudder within the walls.

Calypso’s frenzied gaze instantly fell on the Bat Subsumed, who was crouching down, driving its claws into the few exposed flooring. With a removed chuck of concrete, those claws were deep within exposed nerves.

“GALE!” Calypso roared. “FOLLOW ME, KEEP THE GIRL IN TOW, WE’RE GETTING OUT OF HERE!”

Her cloak closed itself around Calypso’s body, as she surged forward—up the stairs and out of the basement.

There was no stopping, no hiding this time around. The point of view of Calypso was this surging, focused shade all around her as she ran down the endless halls. Looking backward as Gale was right behind her, the shape of her friend was disturbed, easing Calypso.

The halls were shuddering to life once more, but the monster girls were outrunning such. Calypso, darted her cold gaze in such quick succession, looking for anything that felt off.

Ironically, it was once the building roared, that Calypso realized that the wall they were about to turn past, didn’t reverberate like the others.

With that, Calypso burst through it, leaving a big enough hole for Gale to slither through.

Now on two timetables. Cassie’s plan accelerating into place, and getting to the bookstore before that traitorous gnat does.