Feeding Dragons

by Catherine Rose

  “My DNA has been compromised. I’m still myself but I also becoming something alien……. something other.” Then I saw it again. His left eye seemed to throb while his gaze was fluttering with colorful liquid eye shine that was reflecting the overhead glare. Pretty? Well yes it was….normal? Nope not one bit and while that might be normal in a radioactive opossum; in his case not so much. Tiny sparks of amber and gold flashed within the spooky green glow that rolled out of his face. A burning flaring inner light that is not to be found among humans but rather it was alien and I wondered if it was even mammalian.

  I said nothing. I didn’t want to know what ‘other alien thing’ he was shifting into. I wanted to go home. He raised his eyebrows and looked a question at me but my mouth was so dry it was sticking to the roof of my mouth. My heart bashing like a frightened bird against the cage as it sees the cat draw closer. Even if I could have found the words I was unable to speak them.

  “I’m sure,” he continued in a slightly hopeful voice as his crazy eyes spun with kaleidoscope colors, “You’ve heard how some people have deliberately obtained a pregnancy to use the placental stem cells to treat a genetic disease even to reverse it?

  I nodded my head within the safety hood but still I couldn’t make the words come.

  For a moment he lowered his head and shut his eyes as though in prayer. This was fine by me but there was no mistaking the fact that with his eyes shut the room seemed a tiny bit dimmer. Then he sighed all the way down to his feet and raised his face to mine. Once again looking as normal as the next guy but I wasn’t fooled. I wasn’t crazy and I damn well knew what I’d seen. Something was seriously fucked up with this guy. He had Twilight Zone level damage and there is no fixing that.

  “That is what the big brains out there behind the glass have decided is my only hope.”

  I licked my lips and asked the inevitable question, “Why me?”

  “You have a similar genotype,” He said with heartfelt shame. “Japanese, Irish and Icelandic are a very rare mix. You have it. I have it.”

  ‘Yeah’ I thought but didn’t say, ‘You also have something that not even bleach will wash off.’ After that thought came the next logical one. If his eyes could shift and the very bones of his forehead seem to morph what else might be going on with the rest of him? My eyes flicked down wondering what inevitable horrors had shown themselves after the accident. For all I knew weird shit was happening down there too but he had put the robe back on. He was probably hiding other monster damage.

  Studying his eyes I asked if he truly believed there was any hope for either of us to survive this day intact. Infuriatingly he shrugged his shoulders. Not exactly a vote of confidence.

  Then his whole body shuddered. His head jerked a few times to one side as if to shake some irritant loose from his ear. I had scooted back until I had nowhere else to go. Now my back was literally against the wall. I watched as his eyes took on a distant lost look so I willed myself smaller. I didn’t want to draw his attention to me. He licked his lips and a low grunt rumbled up from his throat. He looked hungry and desperate. This was a man who seemed at risk of flying apart like bits of shattered glass and I didn’t want to get cut up while he came undone.

  His hands clenched and flexed while he stared into a private torment only he could see. It seemed he was trying to hold himself together with sheer willpower. A keening cry pierced the air only to be choked off. He lowered his head; chin nearly resting on his chest. Hands clasped together as if in prayer he swayed to a chant I could not hear. Yet what I heard next was not anything I’d ever heard in church.

  He whispered through his twisted lips a chattering echoing sound that I had never heard before. His gaze locked on me and an eager yet nervous wine issued from the back of his throat.

  I was beyond freaking out at this point. I was unable to flee. My entire body felt heavier than concrete and the realization that I was locked inside with whatever this guy was becoming had me panting inside my biohazard suit.

  My visor was misting faster as my respirator struggled to compensate for my frantic breathing. I was rapidly losing the ability to see clearly.

  THE VOICE came over the loudspeaker and in flat heavily accented English I was told to remove my respirator. I shook my head in refusal. Whatever was wrong with this guy, I certainly didn’t want to catch it.

  Then it hit me. I wasn’t getting out of here alive. I wanted to weep and wail for the life I was not going to have but let’s face it I was going nowhere fast. I had to decide if I wanted to die with my eyes shut or I at least wanted to try and go down with some dignity. Dignity almost lost out.

  Fingers shaking with tremors the simplest movement became an epic struggle. I found it impossible to remove any of my safety gear on my own. I watched his feet approach. I did nothing while he gripped my forearms. I moaned a bit when he pulled me upright but I was so frightened I wasn’t even sure I would notice if I wet myself. Despite wanting to know if he kept shifting I shut my eyes so tight I saw flashes of white behind my lids. In a voice ringing with pathos and anguish I begged. I pleaded. I cried and raged but he was so strong.

  “Please I won’t hurt you.”

  At this point there was nothing I could do but tell myself he had no reason to lie to me. He was trapped here too. I was afraid to believe that there might still exist a sliver of hope that I would live through the day. My emotions and thoughts smashed back and forth like a pin ball. I was having a hard time thinking of anything other than escape and the faint hope that he was being truthful with me. I could see nothing. I felt his hands on my shoulders and keeping my eyes shut all I heard was my nearly hysterical breath pressing against my airtight suit with a sour scent. My eyeballs began to throb and I let my eyelids relax but still I wouldn’t open them. I didn’t want to see if he had changed to something out of a nightmare. I felt myself quickly divested of all the gear that had been designed to keep me safe from the invisible vectors that could mean my sudden death. I was exposed.

  I SIMPLY couldn’t sustain this level of fear much longer. Suddenly without warning I felt a hand trace across my neck. The fingers were warm and slightly damp. It was a human touch and not at the same time. There was rough slickness that I couldn’t make sense of and just like that my curiosity got me. My eyes flew open. I saw him. I mean I really saw him. I was becoming other he had said. I never felt myself fall. Boom. One second awake and terrified; the next I was out cold.

  I came to and blinked my eyes open to find I was looking at the ceiling and that I was unable to move my limbs. My head wasn’t restrained so I craned my neck to find I was nude and strapped at ankles and wrists to the table. I heard his voice from behind my position but couldn’t tell exactly how close he was, “Are you cold?”

  I croaked out a yes from parched lips. I felt him approach but he remained behind me and out of view. An agonized sigh brushed my ears and he whispered, “I only used the restraints so that you wouldn’t hurt yourself if you started flailing about when you came to. Do you understand?”

  I nodded.

  “It will go easier for you if relax. There is no going back for either of us so I would suggest you accept what you cannot change.”

  “No please, you don’t have to do this.”

  I waited for a reply but none came. I wondered again if I would survive this day with my life or if I would live but only to remain a raging mental head case who would scream of terrors nobody would believe. And that was assuming at some point they let me out of here. Straining my head off the table to see around me I felt his fingers grasp the back of my head and stop my frantic movement. “Please remain still.”

  Then something soft was shoved under my head. I twisted my neck as far as I could to the right away from the loathsome monsters behind the glass and blinked in confusion. Clean fabric with delicate embroidery was clearly visible. A pillow? Really? How thoughtful. Bastards! I could see them watching with clinical detachment as I felt him stroke my hair away from the back of my ne
ck.

  “I’m going to try to explain to you as best I am able what has happened. It may help you come to peace with what is necessary.” God! He sounded as miserable as I felt. “I know you must have a working knowledge of mechanical engineering and at the very least you should be aware of solid mechanics.” Patting my hair in an absentminded fashion he continued, “As I am sure you know synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts….well they have noted that when I shift I do so in a way to minimizes the loss of potential energy and I radiate heat from all over. This is why they keep me here. There is a fear that at some point I will continue morphing until there is nothing left. I shall deform into some unknown creature and we just don’t know the full impact.”

  “What about option B?”

  “You are the only option so far.”

  I huffed out a wordless sound of disgust and he sighed in what I believed was empathy."I can only tell you the truth as I know it,” he continued. Not that I think knowing what little facts there are will do for much good you, nor will it change anything for either of us. There’s nothing for it but to carry on.”

  He stroked fingers that radiated heat down across my forehead brushing my eyebrows. “I need for you to try and enjoy this as much as you can.”

  I barked out a stunned laugh and in fury shot back, “Oh really? Well fuck you!”

  He loomed over me and pressed his face close to mine. I watched in sheer pants pissing terror as the humanity leached from his face. His eyes shifting, melting, the deep brown in the iris in flux as if inside he was nothing more than a puddle of molten colors trying to coalesce into something firm.

  “Do you see?”

  I squished my eyes tight and shook my head back and forth. I refused to open my eyes to whatever the hell was going on with him.

  A drop of something wet and warm hit my cheek with a soft splat. My eyes flew open and he was staring down into my face with an expression I could not read. Yet there it was….another tear welled up and with agonizing slowness grew then bubbled along his lashes before breaking free to hit my forehead.

  “Believe me,” he whispered in a low tone that had me straining my ears to hear him. He flicked his eyes to the left then back to me. Seeing the blank look on my face he jerked his eyes again and raised his eyebrows willing me to get a clue. I slowly closed my eyes then opened them giving him a flat stare and the briefest of a nod.

  “Understand if you don’t play along they will kill you. I won’t but they will.”His words made my heart skip and stutter in my chest like a moth trying to break free of a child’s hands.

  “I know you have no reason to trust me but you must. Your life depends on it.” His mouth formed the words and only holding my breath allowed me to hear him for he had lowered his voice yet again as if in desperation to keep his words from the dangerous minds behind the glass that watched our every movement. I wanted so badly to believe he would keep me safe but as he raised a dark cloth over my head I gasped. He held it outstretched between clenched fists so I could see it and giving me a smile that did nothing to allay my fears he said, “I can offer you this. It might be better especially in the beginning…”

  I felt my eyes water and the tears trickled down the sides of face running into my ears then dropping off to where I could I only assume they vanished into the pillow. I willed him to do the right thing with every ounce of emotion I could put into my gaze and was not ashamed to hear my voice shake as I said, “Whatever happens please make the end come quickly…” I stopped as I caught something wholly inhuman in his gaze. While he had been stroking and petting my hair I could just catch subtle sparks of amber and gold flashing within his liquid chocolate stare but there was something else there now. Something I could not yet define but my guts twisted and icy fingers clenched my heart as finally I let myself wonder what he meant by the words ‘becoming other.’

  “Are you sure you don’t want to shield your view?” He paused and rolled his shoulders throwing his weird eyes elsewhere. I watched as he stiffened and glared with a look that can only be described as a mixture of hate and despair towards the lab coats that remained still as plaster dolls behind the glass. In a voice marked by dread I said, “No.” It wasn’t that I didn’t really want to be blindfolded but a tiny part of me wondered if I was unable to make eye contact with him if at some point I would become unreal to him. If the loss of visual connection would allow things to progress to the point that I was no longer a person but just a tool that would then be all the easier to dispose of. I didn’t want to look but I couldn’t afford not to. He nodded once and dropped the fabric out my sight. He reached towards me with fingers that still looked human but trembled slightly. My breath hitched in my chest as I waited for contact. With infinite slowness he reached towards my face as I tried to keep from panting in fear. A gentle touch of wild heat traced its way along my eyebrows then slowly ran down to my cheekbone lingering for a moment before descending to my mouth. His thumb wandered across my lips while his fingers cupped my chin. Holding me still he stared into my eyes until I grew uneasy with the intensity of his gaze. His mouth creased into a satisfied grin, “You really do have pretty eyes,” he smiled. “I’ve never before seen such an usual shade of gray; they have flashes of silver in them.” I blinked in surprise. Well ok but really I’d never given it any thought before my eyes looked just like my dad’s.

  He leaned down and blew a hot breath across my breasts and they hardened in reply. The nipples puckering and reaching up towards him, I couldn’t help myself. My back arched in reply to bring them closer to his mouth. Wanting, needing to feel his lips wrap around them. He lowered his mouth covering her nipple sucking hard. He pulled and tugged at it with his lips and tongue until I felt waves of heat rip through me causing my hips to rock on their own.

  “Look how hard your nipples are-just beautiful.” He reached over and tweaked the other one sighing softly at my reaction. I could feel the oily wetness seeping out as he continued to play with me. I felt my pussy lips swell with fire as he reached down with one hand to tease me, rubbing and stroking the inside of my thighs then flitting just across the dark curling hairs. The touch was so gentle and light as to almost be imagined. I closed my eyes and could hear the breath whistle past my lips as he drove me onward. My hips began to arch up trying to force his hand to put some pressure on my aching pussy but he just withdrew until I dropped back down. It was rapidly approaching the point of pain as my cunt was twitching and humming with need all the while he played with me like a cat. Never putting on enough pressure to take me over the edge-just driving me to the heights then withdrawing once I was seconds from flying; I couldn’t stand it one more second. I thrust my hips up and grabbed his hand holding it in place as I ground against him.

  “Do you want more?”

  I nodded and rocked my hips into his palm. I heard a satisfied chuckle and then he retreated completely. I should have felt ashamed. I should have felt shock at how I was acting but I gave a mental shrug and told myself I might die before the day was over and at this point feeling good came before everything else. I glanced at the window and noticed the four men were still in position, clipboards in hand as they watched with dark expressionless faces. At that moment I twisted my head away. I couldn’t bear to look. Being separated by glass walls made them seem less real, less threatening and strangely the fact that they were watching caused a riot of emotions to shift as I considered what I was feeling and realized that it was a combination of shame, terror and a bizarre nudge of desire. They were ghosts watching this nightmare unfold with otherworldly detachment. I turned back boldly watched them expecting they would look away in shame. I waited but realized they felt nothing. He could rip me to shreds when he was done and they would do nothing but dispose of whatever was left of my body.

  Squeezing my eyes shut I begged whatever larger consciousness might be watching over me. Please God let this be nothing more than a bad sushi induced dream. Then something hot, wet
and firm traced a line along the inside of my left thigh and flicked the hood of my clit.

  THE SENSATIONS I felt between my legs were growing harder to ignore. I felt him bury his face between my legs hands gripping my ass and lifting me to his eager mouth. My god his tongue was relentless, pushing, swirling and lapping at my wetness sending me into a near faint as I pushed myself towards him. I could feel the heat building, my stomach clenched as my thighs began to shake and tremble from the internal pressure swaying to the final moment. I heard him let out a groan and I felt his fingers seeking out my entrance. I was panting and incoherent with it all and when he shoved two fingers inside me I lost it. My body reacted in a primal response as my orgasm exploded; causing an exquisite release of the tensions I had been holding inside for too long. I cried out, arching my back as I rode the waves of seemingly endless pleasure.

  As my moans began to subside, he gently kissed the inside of both of my thighs before standing to press his full erection against me. I felt him lightly thump it against my pussy and realized that it seemed much larger than it should have. His swollen cock pulsed against my clit then with a growl he sank the head inside me. I gasped as my body stretched to accommodate him. I had thought for a second he would give me a moment to accommodate him but sure as I was wrong about everything else why would I have been right about that? His eyes met mine. He gave a vicious little grin and with a wink he drove himself inside. A bellow erupted from my throat as my head snapped back from the shock of it. I could feel every vein in his cock. Every ridge sent me spiraling in a frenzy of lust. Yet I was unable to move. I was gasping and shaking but all I could do was stretch my arms out over my head and wait for the rest. With exquisite slow thrusts he rocked back and forth into me but still it was more than I could bear and I felt myself drying up from the fear of being ripped in two. Finally he grew still and I waited but nothing happened. Lifting my head I saw him standing between my raised legs with his hands on my hips. I glanced down and could hardly believe that any man was gifted with something so large between his legs. It defied the odds in length and thickness and there was simply no way for me to accommodate his girth. I was stretched to the limit and growing drier by second. He watched me without speaking and must have realized I could take no more. “I want you to close your eyes and think of nothing but what you feel. I am doing my best not to hurt you but if you freeze up it will be inevitable.”