Eve opened her eyes slowly. She was lying face down on a pillow on the couch. The laptop was still on the table, but Nianna was nowhere to be found. Eve pulled herself up and sat, coming face to face with Laely.
The ginger was staring at her from across the table, tapping her fingers on its glass surface.
"Nice to see you back among the living," Laely said. Sunlight raged outside, and Eve covered her eyes.
"Wha-What time is it?"
Laely snickered. "Well past noon. I forgot how long young ones sleep."
Eve got up. She had slept in her clothes, so she grabbed her sweater and checked it for that signature sleep stink. Eve smelled nothing. "Did I say anything? I talk in my sleep sometimes."
"No worries, Red. We Others are corpses when we sleep."
Eve's eyes widened. "Really? I read about that, didn't think it's true. That means that in the battle of Gran Chaco, the Étha soldiers really did sneak in by pretending to be corpses. That would also explain how Queen Enri-"
"Stop!" yelled Laely, holding her hand up. "Enough with the history lectures. I will be the one doing the teaching today. Also, go look at yourself in the mirror."
"What do you mean?" Eve turned to walk to the bathroom. Atilan loves my history lessons...
"After we couldn't wake you up in the morning, I was assigned babysitting duty. I have the grand task of teaching you how to fight. And assessing your species."
"What about Nianna, Kori, and your sister?" Eve splashed her face with water and fixed her hair. The water washed away the makeup, and now, much more than yesterday, Eve's face was covered in the black branching lines of the blood vessels beneath. Plainly visible across her face, and as Eve checked her neck and chest, they covered her entire body.
"Nianna and Kori went to scout the Checkmate, and I don't know where Mini is. She left before I woke up."
Nianna was out. Eve hoped she wasn't trying to avoid the talk. Eve found some high-end concealer in the cupboard beneath the mirror and applied it freely to her face. Physical manifestations of me being an Other. But which species has visible blood vessels as their marker?
"Trouble sleeping?" asked Eve before she could stop herself.
Laely turned her back to Eve. "You heard?" Waves flowed from her; Eve could almost sense their meaning.
"I did. But you don't need to feel embarrassed. I'm sure I will be crying in a few days' time too, when the situation finally dawns on me."
"Huh, I guess." Pulses of anger, clear and resolute.
"Why are you upset?"
Laely turned to face Eve again. "You using your power on me? The empathy whatever?"
"I cannot turn it off."
More anger flashed from Laely; she walked up to Eve. "You better learn how to. Others that can't control themselves have increasingly smaller circles of allies."
Eve nodded. "I will do my best."
"Do that, and more." Laely moved away. "Follow me to the-"
Laely stopped talking when Mini walked into the lounge. She was dressed in all black and held a pitcher full of aged yellow tulips. Laely clutched her hands and emitted sadness.
"Hey," she said, throat tight.
Mini nodded at her sister as she undressed from her blazer and black coat.
"How was it?"
Mini smiled and looked at Laely, wicked satisfaction across her face. "Defaced again. This time it was cow shit. Smeared right over mom's gravestone."
"I-I can't-"
"Believe it?" interrupted Mini. "Neither could I when I saw it. I left it for you to clean. Go."
Shame and sadness, mixed and danced, flooded towards Eve from Laely's direction. It was almost worse than the nauseous waves from before.
"I will go. Can you teach Eve?"
Mini smiled at Eve. "Sure. Gotta take care of the young ones."
Laely quickly got her clothes from her room, a coat and fedora. She covered herself and left out the door. Sadness followed her the entire time. Eve looked at Mini as she grabbed another bottle of hard liquor from the cabinet.
"Let's go," Mini nodded towards the exit, pulling her blonde locks into a ponytail.
"Where are we going?" Eve grabbed her things.
"The basement. It's large and practically abandoned."
Every apartment in the Eagle was purchased before the Eagle was built. It was, after all, prime real estate overlooking the central northeast of Lürich. Its value is set to increase indefinitely if properly maintained. The Eagle was an investment, so it had a staggeringly low occupancy rate of below 5%.
Eve and Mini got in the elevator and made their way down.
Eve's stomach gurgled. Hard.
Mini raised her eyebrow. "Didn't you have a drink yesterday?"
"I did."
Mini grunted. "You must be an eater."
"Eater?" asked Eve while laying a hand on her stomach. It still rumbled.
"A vague division among the Others. Some prefer eating human, some prefer drinking human. I'm an eater myself. Everyone else in our group is a drinker."
They passed the 20th floor, and the elevator stopped. The doors opened to reveal a woman in her early 40s, dressed in a silver coat that dropped to the ground and dragged behind her. She wore an inordinate amount of white powder on her face. She took a step inside the elevator.
"Heya!!" yelled Mini. She pulled the bottle of vodka out of her coat. "Wanna go drinking with us?"
The woman scoffed and backed away. She took a long look at Eve and Mini's clothes. "Heya!? Do you have any idea who you're talking to, harlot?"
Mini was pressing the close door button frantically. The woman continued: "I am the second daughter of Dr. Gregoor." The door began to close. "And I will not be insulted by some common, sub-million net-worth, delinquent street-"
Blissfully, the doors closed.
Mini laughed. Eve tried to hold it in but burst out laughing herself when she heard the woman continue to curse behind the closed door, even as the elevator continued on its way down.
"That hit the spot," said Mini. "I love fucking with the rich. It's so easy!"
"I have to admit. It did look fun."
The doors opened to the basement. It was an underground parking lot, shaped like a rectangle 100 feet across. Only two cruisers were parked, both luxurious and well beyond the total amount of money Eve could ever hope to make in her lifetime. Granted, that was before she had an infinitely long lifetime.
Wonder how much wealth I will be able to accumulate. After a century or two, I'd need to be an idiot not to be a millionaire at least.
Eve followed Mini to the center of the lot. The blonde girl turned with a mischievous smile.
"We fight," Mini declared.
"To the death!?"
Mini's eyes narrowed. "No, Red. Fuck. We are just training. I want to see what you can do before giving you specific instructions."
"Oh. Okay then," Eve said and tensed.
"What are you doing?" Mini pointed at Eve's hands and legs. They were in a boxing stance.
"I'm... getting ready to fight?" ventured Eve.
"Not like that, you aren't..."
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Mini thought for a moment before asking: "Let's see how good you are at cryptozoology; What am I?"
"A Teriyad."
"Correct," nodded Mini. "And what is our primary weapon?"
Eve relaxed her stance. "Like all Others, you are strong. As a Teriyad: you can secrete pheromones that can affect a person's motor functions, and you can stretch your body. Your sense of smell is exceptional, and you can heal much faster than the rest of the Others."
"My kind lacks direct attack capabilities. With that in mind..." asked Mini, "Do you think I would come at you from the front?"
"I suppose not. You would try to disable me from a distance."
Mini smiled, and Eve suddenly felt dizzy. She fell to her knees. "W-What... but there's no dust..."
Mini walked over to Eve, who could barely keep herself from falling to the ground completely. "I'm not my sister."
Mini kneeled next to Eve and whispered in her ear: "My dust is invisible. And you spent an elevator ride enclosed with me. I am in your lungs."
Eve felt her muscles weaken further; her eyes watered as she tried to keep them from closing. Eve labored to say: "I thought you said... no killing?"
Mini tapped her on the head. "We are hard to kill; you need to shred our hearts and stomp our brains. Anything less heals with time. Your lungs should be better within the hour, and the pain will last for a few minutes more. This is just a light paralysis."
Eve stood on all fours and felt like a dying animal. Her lungs ached with each breath; it was too much effort to even crawl. She tried multiple times to rise to her feet, and after the fourth try, Eve fell on her back and stared at the stone ceiling - even the ceiling in the Eagle's parking lot was extravagant - carved into a diamond pattern.
Mini stood above Eve. "Told you. Paralysis."
Mini slipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out a small cardboard bag. It held something wet. She said: "You have lost this fight. And so, no food for you. Next time, be better and anticipate my moves."
Mini pulled out a piece of glistening red meat from the bag.
Eve's stomach grumbled; her eyes tracked the meat as it moved from the woman's hand into her mouth. Mini's teeth enclosed around the flesh.
How dare she? I am hungry. Does she not hear my stomach? This witch is making me watch. Eve's arms and legs twitched and began to thrash on the floor.
"What the fuck?" asked Mini and started to chew hurriedly. She raised her arm towards Eve, and the invisible dust pressed across Eve's spasming form, fighting to get inside. Eve could hear it now, though invisible, the dust moved the air as it went, creating audible fluctuations in pressure.
Eve closed her eyes.
She heard the bones in Mini's jaw, moving and scraping against each other as they tore into the flesh. Teeth shredded the muscles and tendons, the sound of it was divine. It called to Eve, it begged to be a part of her - to complete her.
Eve grabbed a thick support pillar holding the ceiling and pulled herself upwards. She could still hear Mini's dust shredding her skin and entering her blood. It tried to push itself in through her mouth, but Eve learned; she held her breath.
"Whoa, Eve. Calm down." Mini brought both her arms upwards. Her legs lengthened, joints preparing for an escape.
Mini swallowed.
Eve heard the meat travel down her throat and through the esophagus. Forever out of reach.
"No!" screamed Eve and lunged at Mini.
The other woman extended her legs quickly and bounced away just as Eve's hand passed in front of her face. Mini hit a wall, her eyes were frantic.
"Eve, I am sorry! I have more in the apartment!"
"Lies!" An arm, wet with white blood, thin and jointed at 5 places, exploded from Eve's shoulder and reached 20 feet towards Mini. It grabbed her by the throat, pushing her into the wall.
Eve held the woman there as she slowly approached, basking in her fear. She could see the flowery pattern within Mini's eyes, the same patterns shared by all of her kind. Mini's waves were exquisite, unique. Eve had never felt fear like this before. How can it be so savory?
Another arm formed from Eve's other shoulder and punched into Mini's stomach.
"Give it back!" Eve pressed further into Mini, both into her throat and stomach. It took a lot of force to pierce an Other's skin without their metal of vulnerability. But Eve was ready to supply all the force necessary.
Mini's stomach was the first to give, flesh parted around Eve's fingers.
Mini started to scream.
Finally! Eve searched through Mini's stomach, seeking the meat, tearing organs as she went. The wall was the next to give; it cracked and dented under the pressure. Mini's entire body was imprinted into the wall.
The piece of meat was nowhere to be found. Eve removed her arm from Mini's insides, pulling intestines as she did.
"Where is it!?" Eve screamed in Mini's face and grabbed her by the face. Eve was still pushing into the wall when she heard a gentle, and spreading, snapping from Mini. The spine in Mini's neck was splitting in two under Eve's pressure. Ha! A taste of your own medicine; paralysis.
Snap.
Mini's arms stopped moving and clawing at Eve. They lay at the woman's side, relaxed. Mini's eyes were bloodshot, her cheeks wet with tears. Her heart was beating ferociously; Eve could hear it as clear as she could feel her own stomach rumble.
Eve was hungry.
Eve let go, and Mini fell to the floor. She was still conscious, staring daggers at Eve.
"Holy shit."
Eve was startled and spun to face the source of the voice.
Nianna stood there, next to the floating Kori. She had found a new top hat and had her hand over her mouth. Waves of surprise and disgust sang out of her. Kori was advancing towards Eve, a floating shard of metal formed behind her. Eve could hear it sizzling into existence.
Eve glanced at Kori and raised her two flesh arms towards her. If she wanted to, Eve could close the distance to Kori within a moment.
Kori backed away a bit. To Nianna, she whispered: "Can you calm her?"
"Yes." Determination replaced disgust, and Nianna stepped towards Eve.
"She ate the food! I needed it more," Eve explained, teeth snarling and pointing at the paralyzed woman behind her.
"Evie... Calm down. I will give you some food. It's me, it's Nianna."
Trust and acceptance wrapped around Eve; she felt Nianna's true intent and care for her. It was pure, empty of any lies or schemes. Nianna wanted her to calm down, but Eve didn't understand why she even needed to. Mini took what should have been mine!
Nianna lunged at Eve, and Eve's arms rose again to strike, but all Nianna did was give Eve a hug.
The arms vanished and Eve's eyes opened. She looked around, at the blood on her clothes, at Mini's motionless body on the floor, and Kori tending to her. She looked up at Nianna; the taller woman held her tight.
"What did I do... Why did I do that?" asked Eve, staring at Mini's guts scattered across the basement floor.
"Hunger. Young hunger. It's not your fault," explained Nianna.
Kori added: "Mini will be fine; she's healing already."
"I don't know what came over me. I saw the meat and I just... nothing else mattered. Just the hunger."
Mini's lips twitched as she inhaled a breath, her face became gaunt, like she was starved. "It's not her fault. I hurt her, then taunted her."
Kori slapped her own face. "Mini..."
"I know." Mini could stand again. Her stomach wound was closing up quickly, and Mini's guts and blood dried and rotted on the floor. From red they turned into a dull brown, then into grey, and finally - into nothingness.
Others leave no signs of injuries behind. Impossible to get a blood sample. And the Teriyad do heal exceptionally fast, Eve thought, and had to force herself out of analysis mode.
"Sorry, Mini."
Mini grunted, keeping most of her weight on the floating woman next to her. "All good. We will work on it. But for the love of all that is Other... you're one scary cunt..."
The girls laughed, and Nianna let go of Eve. The laughter stopped when an elevator door opened at the far end of the lot. A woman, the woman that tried to join Mini and Eve in the elevator, was talking on her phone.
She was yelling into it: "Yeah! And then she offered me some alcohol!"
Mini breathed: "Oh shit."
Nianna grabbed Eve's face and held it firmly. "Just keep looking at me. Just focus on me."
The woman's robe scratched the ground as she walked. To Eve's ears, it sounded like sandpaper pulled across wood. Her stomach grumbled when she heard the woman's heartbeat. It was perfect, rhythmic, full of life and energy...
"Hey!" warned Nianna. Eve had closed her eyes without meaning to.
"I called her a harlot of course!" explained the woman to her phone. "And I explained how she should act around someone with my status. She apologized profusely!"
The woman walked up to her cruiser and unlocked the door. She stepped inside.
"You're okay," exhaled Nianna.
The woman started up her cruiser. The engine of the 5-seater roared into life, its frame lifting half a meter off the ground. The woman inside hung up and put the phone inside a bag on the passenger seat. Inside was a stack of papers, and as she pulled her hand out, she pressed a little too hard onto a paper. It came edge-on between her fingernail and the flesh beneath.
Eve stopped in her tracks; Nianna was leading her into a separate elevator away from her prey. Eve heard the skin of the woman's finger tear, the blood sprayed across the paper and the inside of the bag. Droplets fell heavily, as if they were thrust from a rain cloud in the middle of a scorching summer.
The woman exclaimed "Dammit!" and put the finger into her mouth, sucking at the wound.
Eve closed her eyes.
Crimson arms sprang from Eve's back, piercing her clothes and coat. They grabbed at the floor and ceiling.
Nianna whispered: "Dammit."
Kori let go of supporting Mini and flew towards the bleeding woman.
"Good luck," said Mini as she lost her support and fell to the floor, too exhausted to move.
With monstrous force, Eve's new arms released her from Nianna's grip and launched her towards the woman's cruiser.
Eve's thoughts were simple, clear. Without doubt or apprehension. She was hungry, and there was food.
A flash of timid white light, and Eve collided with a block of metal - summoned by Kori.
She fell to the ground and recovered quickly. She focused on the floating woman, who was calm. "Stand down, Eve."
The woman in the cruiser was screaming. She stared at the 6-armed creature and a flying woman. She hit the pedal hard, too hard - she swerved into a supporting pillar. The sound of metal bending and buckling around the pillar expanded through the air and into Eve's ears.
"Ah!" Eve screamed and grabbed at her ears.
In the time she lost her focus, Kori attacked. She sliced clean through two of Eve's white arms. They fell to the floor and withered immediately. Two new ones flowered in their place. Eve recovered and glowered at Kori, who was floating above her, holding a silvery-white sword.
"You have to be joking..." Kori said as she watched the two arms reform.
Eve thought furiously, and with a vicious grin, she produced a small coin from her coat pocket.
She held it up for Kori to see.
"What is that?" the floating woman asked.
"Cobalt."
Eve could hear Kori's eyes widen, the muscles of her face contorting in surprise. Eve threw the coin at the woman. All her focus on the small object, Kori evaded, letting Eve pass unchallenged towards the crashed cruiser. The woman was still alive inside, bruised and bleeding, but alive.
Good. Fresh will taste better.
Eve grabbed at the wreckage, and like opening a book, Eve revealed the woman's hurt body within the cruiser. The tearing of the metal didn't bother her this time; Eve's eyes were open, she wanted to see the color of blood.
The woman screamed, staring at Eve.
She was about to pounce when something pierced her chest. Eve stared at the long metallic spike protruding from her, and her white blood that sprayed out from the wound. She heard Kori's breathing from behind, and the strain of holding the spike in her hand.
A fifth and sixth muscle-ridden arm formed from Eve's back. One grabbed Kori's shoulder, and the other her arm. The two arms pulled in opposite directions and tore Kori's arm clean from the shoulder. Eve threw the removed arm away.
Pathetic.
Kori screamed and clutched where her arm used to be.
This is a centuries-old Other? Weak.
Eve snarled in disappointment and focused back on her meal. The woman was clutching a small weapon, a revolver, and pointing it at Eve.
Eve removed the spike from her chest and threw it to the floor next to the rotting arm.
Shots rang out as bullets hit Eve's face and body. She heard them strike her bones, tear her arteries - and none of it mattered. Here, enveloped in the finest cotton and silk, Eve's meal waited.
"Eve," called Nianna.
Eve turned.
Nianna forced a chunk of meat into her mouth.
Eve tasted it, and it was completeness. Sensation returned to Eve. The bullet wounds, the hole in her chest. It all became real. Eve felt exhausted, the extra arms melted back into her, and Eve fell into unconsciousness.