“What, I grow a set of horns and you immediately think I want to be attached at the hip to some asshole? I’m just thinking. Mainly how to feed you to our cousin Blob here. He’s not really conscious. Also there should be others, but I’ve not had time to look,” hissing, clicking speech rushed out. He seemed agitated. Eating raw meat does that to people.

I gulped and felt disgusted all over. What could have happened there, to all of them? “Did he do that?”

Diabolical spider rubbed what could have been his face and sighed heavily. “No,” he said and displayed an inherited silence. I could tell there were million thoughts swirling inside the distorted body from the twitches and overall nervous energy. I could probably guess most of them. Former human uttered eventually, “Look, it wasn’t all bad… It was great for an oblivious while. But I can’t do this.”

The unspoken reservations hung heavy in the acrid air. I felt like there was a lot I should know, but our reluctant ally was buying us this much time with its puny, humongous life.

“So. Poison. What’s the plan then, o remorseful assassin?” malformation spoke up again, dismissing the previous all too abrupt recollection as if thinking the same.

There’s barely been a plan and it came to conclusion the moment I reached Snail’s mouth. This now was merely a wild improvisation with stakes that involved death of continent-altering critters and several lifetimes of enslavement. I cleared my throat, “No plan. Once I injure myself, the blood will off-gas into something toxic.”

“That’s flimsiest scheme I’ve ever heard of. Worse than the time we…”

“Hid at the store to wait for the nightfall, yeah yeah. I know. But that’s how military got him before.”

“And you think same will work twice? The thing’s made out of pure brainpower! I’m not even breathing! And definitely not the lumps on the wall!” his calm façade revealed cracks and hysteria shone through. I couldn’t blame the guy - I had exact same misgivings.

Regardless, assurances flowed from my lips simply because there was no other path to take, “It’s not the same gas. And it seeps in through the skin too.”

Many-jointed monstrosity sagged with visible relief. We both harboured doubts, but also highest of hopes. “Let’s try it,” he uttered.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, completely disgusted with myself as I scraped my forearms onto the sharp rocks to bleed. I was glad it hurt, for if it hadn’t I might have just bashed my head in. This felt all kinds of wrong. He did not deserve this.

“Please. You’re doing us a favour,” pale malformation gripped my wrist with bare-boned fingers and firmly pulled me after him, closer to the heap of chewed up mince. “Let’s speed this up. Smear here. I need to find the others.”

Others. Were they not even given a body? Did they exist as a splotch on the wall? Righteous anger pumped my blood out quicker.

I nodded and watched my monstrous self absently rub palm which just touched my poison. He slunk away, making minor noise to navigate. Upon deciding on a particular spot, plunged several of his other hands into gelatinous formation. Bizarre cave meat gave off light here and there and obscure illumination made the shapes even worse than they truly were. The only thing I really recognised was the snarky speech.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

I could not fathom what could have driven me to take either of those forms. Was it voluntary? Was it really? I would never do that to myself. Therefore, was it really me?

I scoffed at the gall of mine, remembering my own modifications to which I wholeheartedly agreed to for the sake of a drop of success. Neither of us was that cheap orphan from the streets anymore. Nobody was waiting for us to return. Nothing beyond this mattered.

And yet my stomach felt ready to spill its non-contents at moment’s notice. I felt sickened at what I was doing, as right as this was. It was getting harder to breathe. Would I be affected by my own poison, or was it just good ol’ blood loss? Or mayhaps the panic.

“Hey,” we both called out at the same time.

“Yea?” I barked back, more interested in what he had to say. My pussyfooting had no place here anyway.

“Don’t die. You can’t die.”

“Uh… What?” This came out of the left field.

“It can’t eat you anymore, right? I… don’t want this be the end.”

Fuck.

I flexed my bloody fingers as if grasping for a way to stop all this, but it was far too late. Even I could smell nasty chemical tinge in the air. It was already coating every surface, seeping into expelled flesh and changing it same way boiling water does an egg.

This felt different to the mansion I set on fire. Perhaps that was more pressing, more oppressing. There was no choice there. This situation was loaded with reflection. Vague options.

The lump I was cutting open contorted, making me jump away.

“That’s just me. I’m moving up the healthy parts,” scratchy whisper echoed throughout the crack in the rock.

“Did you find what you were after?” I asked wondering about all the others.

“I… don’t fucking know. Must have skipped several classes in this neurosurgeon thing. Everything’s disjointed. And somehow different. But whatever’s here is starting to decay… Good job.”

The big question was whether everything was here. “Snail will raze all that remained attached,” I assured and the slimy companion succumbed to the ground.

“Tha’s good,” he whispered, racked with twitches and shivering. I was reluctant to come closer because it would only make things worse. However, it was the end anyway. I sat down nearby and scooped up the disintegrating upper body into an embrace.

“Your friend looks nothing like a snail,” a clattering whisper entered my ear. Perhaps we did have few minutes to catch up.

“He did when I first saw it.”

“People with eyes are so weird,” he muttered back. “Is that when you got eaten?”

“Yea… But not like that. It asked me. It was helping.”

Cold, shivering body curled in around me even more. “And you agreed? I won’t even ask what kind of shit storm you got your ass into that time.”

Probably for the best. I didn’t really want to tell him of more pain and misery in this damp grave. Why do we always end up trapped underground? I held the cold torso tighter, albeit I wasn’t all that much better off. I was changed, but just enough to be a walking death in an unassuming form. Still very much human. Should I have asked for six arms, too? Maybe I would have been able to dig us out of here.

Dying hellspawn refused to go in peace, “Tsk tsk tsk, you grew so naïve in this little while. Helping, my ass. They smell so similar. Easily some sibling spat where we got thrown under the wheels again.”

“Worse. That’s his child he abandoned.”

“Ah. What a dick,” alien features contorted. “Can’t believe I almost started to like that guy,” he added.

I almost did too. He came looking for me. All to just to turn around like I didn’t exist anymore and go on to do more fulfilling things with his life. Like casual filicide. Massive red flag. Why did I even expect anything from this alien life-form to begin with?

“He did it for you. All of that, and more, was for you,” shivering form mouthed but I understood the unspoken horror of his words. Obsession was a terrible thing to be trapped under. “You mustn’t let him do this to you again. No matter what. Promise me.” Weak claws tried to grip me and shake some sense into me as if he’d already forgotten I was inedible.

I just buried my face into oozing crook of his neck, “There’s no chance of that,” I whispered back, words full of unspoken intent as well. Horned monster done things far too terrible to be just forgiven. Things I couldn’t even share with this wretched version of me. He didn’t need to know full extent of the devastation.

I did not clock exact time of his passing. Communication has ceased, but he whimpered for a while longer. And even now the stone cold body was twitching and convulsing, albeit I was sure nobody was present anymore. The arm that first touched me sloughed off and lay separate in a separate puddle.

That was how he found me. I didn’t notice when or how exactly the ancient creature of the depths came in either. Sneaky thing wasn’t even making any sound, just stood there like a complete creep and waited as only an ageless abomination could. I don’t even know how I’ve noticed that gargoyle staying so absolutely still.

At some point I snapped out of comparing this clinging liquid to the one which clung to me in the lab and saw shiny silhouette, as if it’s been doused in filmy fluid too.

I really wanted to snap at him and lash out. There were so many things to do that over. I wasn’t even tired yet, having just gotten this body. Could shout and claw for hours. I was, however, done. I’ve reached my destination. There was nothing else. Nobody else.