Calypso couldn’t help but focus her gaze into a burning scowl. Didn’t help, the molten blood beginning to reek, the thick steam rising rapidly into her stinging eyes.
“What’s with the long faces and the sagging frowns shut~? C’mon—we’ve been trying to passionately kill each other for weeks, I—Cassie, at least wanted to catch up: it’s been a bit!”
And despite the… Weird declaration, it was Melissa. The long, moppy curly blonde hair—the soft and mousey face—clothes that Calypso assumed that she would wear every day: a jean jacket, yellow tee, a navy long skirt that reached her ankles, comfortable trainers that were slightly worn at places… But the expression was smug. Uncaring. Indifferent. A smile that was stretched in a fashion where it curled to the cheeks, and lips parted to show the teeth. A smile only worn when the person knows that they’re the only happy, content person in the room: because they feed off the tangible misery of the others surrounding them.
A smile full of fangs. With void black eyes, blood-red pupils glowing in the dim light, to match.
Calypso simply glanced toward Natalie and Gale. They were separated by the spray of the molten blood, now cooling into a small, stone-scalp wall. Calypso then looked behind herself, to see that most of the basement weathered the molten blood, if not barely. The wall behind them has a notable indent, given how the molten blood—how it sunk into the wall, given the impression that it melted halfway through.
“See, I’m glad that you’re tense and looking around—hopefully once you’re all done shitting yourselves, you get that if I wanted you dead right now, it would’ve happened already. So can we get this stupid Mexican Standoff idea outta our heads?”
“You’re the one that should get outta people’s heads!” Gale decided to speak out first. “You get outta Melissa’s first and then we’ll start chatting! In fact, maybe get outta her entire body, you massive creep!”
Melissa’s throat was forced to manufacture Cassie’s impish cackle. Her hand touched her curls, the top of her head, as her face contorted to close her eyes while the grin only grew wider. None of this movement was her own.
“Aaaah yeah, it’s kinda crazy up in here—” Cassie spoke through Melissa. “—Well, it was crazy before—But no, I—Cassie, can see how it’s all confusing at this point. There’s three fucking people, if you can imagine…”
The interloper cocked Melissa’s head to the side. Making the still nightmarish gash on her neck pronounced, and what Calypso imagined, so irritated for the poor, captured girl. The interloper brought up her three fingers that she forced Melissa into bursting her boiling blood out of, using the opposite index of the other hand to count on them.
“The three Me’s… There’s OG Meeeeee, then there’s Me Vampy… And now, Me-lissa~!”
Calypso couldn’t help it, she immediately snarled at this bitch. A snarl that was animalistic, which echoed against the fortified walls and made Gale jump in her skin.
“Yeah no, I—Cassie, deserved that one…” Cassie continued to use Melissa’s throat. “Not one of My best jokes—Capitalized ‘M’ by the by, don’t make the rules—”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I was gonna say that you’re literally talking, but I guess fucking with the supernatural order and all caused those Fate guys to make you speak like an egotist as a punishment,” Natalie reasoned. “Just, y’know, so no one can ever take you seriously ever again—even if you win—”
“Ohohoho~!” Melissa clapped for Cassie. “Fly girl finally grew a spine by hiding behind a new back, Ms. Skeleton learned to channel her inner-Columbine—well, I guess Inner-Virigina Tech now, and the plant got enough sunlight to get a brain. I’m legit proud—”
“I swear… If Melissa’s dead…” Gale sounded truly enraged, taking a series of simmering inhales after. Struggling not to cry, but there was actual venom in her tone.
“I—Cassie, like how you’re all in an uproar about how I’m wearing a flesh suit when Ms. Grimes over there has my jacket!” Melissa had to force herself to make such a pathetic whine. “That was pre-Subsumed, man! Only shred I—Cassie, have left of the old life! Only had that for months! Sometimes literally, bet you’re having second things wearing it now—unless you’re that freaky… Well, let’s be real, I—Cassie, was pretty hot—”
“I thought you wanted a chat—not have us be the test subjects for your stand-up routine—” Natalie kneeled before rising to her feet. “—Striking out, by the way—”
Melissa’s face formed into a pout, her eyelids lowered. Good.
No one didn’t need to be as paranoid as Calypso—to read into every action of a person—to get that Cassie thrived on being the center of attention, to have the cool lines. To dominate. Calypso figured that was why this “chat” hasn’t been going on yet: the bitch isn’t having her way.
“ANYWAYS~” Melissa perfectly captured the childishness of her parasite. She used the poor girl’s hands to rake them down the body, moving sensually, mockingly. Making blood trails against Melissa’s outfit. “I’m going back to my roots, basically~ Sure, I’m a great super monster now, but Subsumed are made to wear weaklings as hides~ Granted, normal ones make skinsuits… Here, well. Ol’ Melissa just gave up, after a few days of Me in her head—so I—Cassie, took the reins~”
Melissa’s finger was made to dig into her ear, idly. “She’s still here, just buried deeeeeep inside~ Handling the breathing, the blinking, feeling pain for Me so I—Cassie, don’t have to—literally the bare minimum! It’s pretty fucking sick—maybe you guys could like, ‘Reverse Consumed Subsume’ and take over someone else’s body; it’s like putting a finger where you’re not supposed to—you gotta do it at least once—”
“I would rather want you trying to boil us, at this point,” Calypso made her suffering known. “I don’t know if you’ve picked up on this, or simply don’t care, but we’re not enjoying this. We don’t want any of this to happen, nor go through what we have to… So why? Other than leveling the playing field, to make everyone pay for letting a world like this continue… Is it just scorched Earth? Are you that much of a sadist?”
Surprisingly, there was a very notable pause. No smugness, no goofy expressions, no crass humor. Cassie legitimately was capable of thought.
“Eh,” Melissa’s shoulders were forced to shrug. “Can’t say I’ll ever be happy again in the first place, because I—Cassie, have to travel so far back in My head to even… Like. Was I—Cassie, even happy at some point? That wasn’t at the expense of someone, to fuck someone over, or ignoring the fact that there’s people I’ll never meet that’s getting blown up or beaten bloody—and here kid Cassie’s stoked at getting ice cream? Can that even be happiness…? The fuck does it even matter if I’m happy or not? Whatever.”
Melissa’s expression steeled. It made Calypso gulp silently.
“Fact is. We’re all freaks here, even before the turns we’ve all made. We all know that this place sucks, we know that we have to continue to act like it doesn’t despite the overwhelming evidence. We’re all heading to Hell, even without Me doing what I’m doing. I’m just speeding it along.”
Melissa pointed, and regained Cassie’s smug grin.
“Speaking of speeding things along. Let’s cut to the chase. Where. Is. My corpse~?”
With that, the monster girl trio took off in a sprint.