That made her smile. The idea that she was planning this disaster. A self-inflicted wound. Sticking her fingers in the jar, Superior Mother smeared the blood on her breasts. Then dipping her fingers into the container again she dripped Red into her palms, rubbed it in her hands and began to smear upward all over her chest up to her chin.
At this point she stopped to look in the mirror. Superior Mother was halfway between human and Original. Eyes that were on the cusp of stretching back. Blood smeared cheeks and a small drip or two of blood coming off of her chin. She was a nightmare.
Superior Mother’s body swayed at her bathroom sink. Slowly sitting on her floor, she smiled at the blood droplets on her feet, and tile. Rolling to her belly she lapped them up like an animal. Cleaning the blood off the tile like a house pet.
Lying on the floor Superior Mother’s thoughts floated over to what the Originals were now doing to Teresa. They had started giving Teresa Red to placate her. To dose her into submission. She had seen the containers, but chose not to mention them. Chose not to ask the Originals where they got it and who they got it from. Or why they got it, when they had told her how dangerous it was, and what Red, ingested and abused, could do. Their kind could revert. Go back to their original form and murderous nature. No good could come of it. Now they had it and were using it on Teresa.
Sitting up and then blinking Superior Mother felt the blood that was smeared on her face dry a bit. She reached up to her glass container. Opened her mouth and poured the rest in. She wasn’t sure how much it was, but it felt like just enough.
One gulp, then another, and then Superior Mother lay on her bathroom floor dripping the rest of the Red over her face and body. Each droplet that fell was a kiss. Superior Mother knew that this was a revolt against herself. She felt jolly thinking of it.
She hoped this Red was enough to aid her on her journey to the unknown. To the place of no return. She was going to deconstruct what years of breeding with humans had built, and she’d enjoy it. To do that, she had to stop thinking of Teresa. Stop thinking of how the Originals hurt her again and again.
Running her hands over her breasts, stomach, and ribs Superior Mother could not help but picture the scars she had seen on Teresa’s scant frame. Lines overlapping lines, that crisscrossed with more lines, over and over again. The scars were evidence of abuse repeated without shame all over Teresa’s naked body.
Superior Mother sat up. Suddenly she felt stronger. Her vision was sharp. She could see the lines on the smallest speck of dust. With the strength came a vibe, the smallest of hints that a bubble had just popped…
The morph was almost complete now, but not like before. This wasn’t a wave but a tidal wave. A fierce wave as tall as the mountain in which The Grey was hidden. It was going to take her, swallow her alive, and make her its bitch.
Looking at the ring on her finger, Superior Mother thought of removing it, but then what? She’d be giving up the throne if she did away with it, and she wasn’t there yet. She’d never get rid of it on her own. They would have to pull it off once she was dead.
Teresa popped up again in Superior Mother’s thoughts. She had this ring. The ring that gave her the right to lead. The ring that she had killed for. Yet, she never used it to save Teresa. Teresa who still was in that bubble. Floating inside Uni, waiting to be cut again. They’d never stop. The Originals would never let her go.
Superior Mother teeth were razors now. She was drooling a bit and saw that her drool was red and completely mixed with the human blood. Hate prickled Superior Mother’s skin. She knew that the Originals would not stop at Teresa. Who was next? Who of their kind would they cut up?
Why not the naughty girls? The discarded offspring of the mothers, the daughters of The Grey who had been born a bit different. Maybe they had brown hair instead of blond. Or a lot different — there were a couple who were got caught between human and Original. Those were ghastly to see.
Why did the Originals keep them locked away? She knew the answer. The Originals created tiny beasts prepared to kill because the Originals had told them to. They were different, like Teresa.
Superior Mother realized she was crouching on her bathroom floor, no longer lying on the floor or sitting up. She was crouched, turning her head from side to side. Searching for more Red while seething with hate for not only herself, but for The Originals.
Running her tongue over her teeth, Superior Mother knew she must kill them. Not one, but all. At a slow crawl, Superior Mother walked out of her bathroom, leaped, and hung from her ceiling. She was completely changed now, and it felt true. In her Original form, Superior Mother felt honest. Each gnarl was truth. The insatiable want to murder was truth. This form was the truth of The Grey.
Superior Mother’s eyes wrapped around her skull, almost reaching the back of her head. Her skin, shiny and appeared more shark than human. Her fingers had become thinner, longer, and bonier, with razor-sharp nails. “No,” thought Superior Mother, these are not nails. These are talons.
Falling back down to the floor, Superior Mother senses her feelings fading. The love that she hid deep within her for Lisa seemed to slide off. The confusion about her leadership was easily slapped off. The empathy for Teresa took a back seat. There was only one thing left — rage.
A rage of layers. A rage that held hate. A rage that demanded killing. Rage that pleaded for more Red. Red and death ran in a circle around Superior Mother’s head. She was no longer leader, or Woman of the Grey. There was nothing left of the hybrid human. She was now only alien.
An alien with killing on the mind. Standing, Superior Mother stretched, readying herself she pushed her arms forward, wiggling the long fingers and talons that she knew were there for ripping things apart.
Things like humans, other aliens, animals. Smelling the air, Superior Mother looked at her hands. Her ring was still on. It should have fallen off when she morphed, but no, the damn thing was tenacious. It would stay with her. To her end. They were going to stick together. Maybe when this was done, if she won, she’d bury it in The Grey’s gardens under the flowers.
Superior Mother caught herself standing at her bedroom door. She was slipping away. The human thoughts were fading. A thought would start, then fade; it would gather at her feet and timidly slip away. Superior Mother was willingly being taken over by the rage.
“Open the door. I hear noises… help me.” It was a voice Superior Mother could hear loudly, but it was far away at the same time. It didn’t seem important. What was important was killing, especially an Original. She needed to kill something soon, now, right now. The voice equaled something to gnaw on with her sharp teeth though and this did grasp her attention.
Superior Mother bashed the door in half, and in front of her was her assistant. Superior Mother recognized her. Knew her, but a split-second later that knowing was gone. The Superior Mother that once had thoughts, words, and emotion shrank, and she reverted back into the mindset of her true form. She wouldn’t return again.
Superior Mother, like the Originals, was the stuff of science fiction nightmare. She resembled all the evil aliens from all the movies. Nothing of the hybrid was left. Red had erased it and replaced it with their true savage nature.
The assistant screamed at the sight of her. She had only seen the Originals twice. They scared her. They looked like something from a book or a movie. Something so strange that the assistant couldn’t sleep for days the first time she saw one. Now, here was one, and it was Superior Mother.
The assistant held her second scream back. Putting up her hands she pleaded “It’s me…it’s me….” Superior Mother paused, ramming her face up to the assistant’s, then slowly sliding her hand up the back of the assistant’s legs, allowing the long talon nails to glide across her pant legs, cutting them while scraping the tip of her nail on the assistant’s skin and then up her back, and just when she’d thought she’d pass out from lack of breath, the creature that was Superior Mother locked its hand on her neck and raised her off her
feet.
She brought the assistant up in the air, holding her up, studying her. The assistant choked out a sob. Superior Mother stuck her tongue out of her mouth and slowly licked her own neck that was still stained with Red. She retracted her tongue and then slurped it back in.
The noises on the other side of the door were not good. They were noises of thrashing. Noises of disarray. Not the kind of noises Superior Mother’s assistant wanted to hear, knowing she’d open that door. She shouldn’t, nothing sounded good, but she was going to. She was compelled to and didn’t know how to stop herself.
When she reached for the doorknob the door was splintered into pieces, and before her stood an Original. Terror seized her and she let out a shrill scream. She remembered saying words. What words?
What did she say to the creature while trying to look past it? She expected to see Superior Mother lying dead on the floor; a final verdict from the Originals, but Superior Mother wasn’t there and the assistant, overtaken with horror, noticed the ring.
The ring was on the Original’s hand. Same hand, same finger as Superior Mother. This was Superior Mother, but wasn’t. It was her. It’s not her. The assistant felt the hand cup the back of her neck.
She failed Superior Mother. She failed The Grey.
Sunny
There was a grip in the air of the room they were in. Sunny could feel it tighten around her, like a giant snake wanting to crush her and consume her. The air in this room was that. It was slithering towards her and Kia.
All was black, completely devoid of light. It was a deafening black. A black that swallows. A black were nothing is in front, behind, or to the side. Was this what the womb was like? Sunny wondered. Was being in the womb like being in the black?
It could be the reason she had rebelled against the womb, against being locked into it, and had torn herself from it. There she was shelled in a dark, dank space with nothing but her thoughts. Maybe that is why she had treated her mother the way she did. Maybe, thought Sunny, she rebelled not against her mother but against being locked up. If only she knew she’d spend her life going from one jail cell to another. This felt like a jail cell. It felt like a place to forget something and somebody.
Sunny could hear Kia pulling at the door. It wasn’t opening. Kia’s fear and tears tinged the air around her. Sunny herself felt a prickle go through her skin. She was frightened, yes, but only for Kia. She vowed to not hurt her. Sunny wanted to keep her only friend safe. This black felt unsafe. It felt vast and unwavering.
“Maybe we should try going forward. Maybe,” Kia’s voice quivered a bit, “we’ll find another door, or a light switch…” Sunny held her hands out in front of her, searching for Kia in the direction of her voice and finally finding her friend’s arm. She ran her fingers down Kia’s arm, then finding her hand, held it tightly. “Yes, we’ll go forward together.” Sunny responded knowing Kia nodded a yes. She could hear the soft swallow from her throat.
Stepping forward both girls hit nothing, felt nothing. “Again,” said Kia, sounding a bit stronger. They both stepped forward again, and again found nothing.
Sixteen steps later, Sunny’s hand that was locked in Kia’s was dripping with sweat. The air only got heavier. “We aren’t going anywhere, Kia. We need to step back and wait at the door.”
Kia started to move but Sunny yanked her “No, don’t turn, you’ll get disoriented. We literally need to step backwards sixteen steps. Then we should be at the door.”
Kia’s breathing was fast and Sunny could hear Kia suck in the air and blow it right out. Her breathing was too fast. Sunny knew this, but right now she couldn’t do anything about it.
“Now.” Said Sunny and both girls took a step back.
The step went well. Sunny let out a small sigh of relief and then there was a rustle, then a shove, a hard push. Sunny fell. Hearing Kia scream, she felt their hands separate quickly. She dove in the direction of Kia’s scream, wanting only to save her, but fell to the hard floor with a thud.
Something was jabbing at Sunny’s leg. Then came a bite from something small, right on Sunny’s cheek. She slapped it away, feeling the pain of it prickle her skin and sharpen her teeth. Sunny was changing and for once, she didn’t fight it. She would will it on. It could be the only way to save Kia and maybe herself.
Another shove came with a jab to the ribs. A surge of anger plunged down on Sunny, as if a beacon of light had hit her chest. Her vision cleared; it was no longer black around her but a light grey. There was movement. Shadows came from small hiding places, almost dancing around Sunny. She could see them now. The fight was on.
Something was about to strike her. Sunny could anticipate that, feel the intention of the hit and repair herself. She ran her tongue over her teeth. They were sharp, ready to bite. Her hands were stretched, her nails were now claws.
Sunny stood hands out, ready. She’d kill her way out of here. For several seconds Sunny gleamed. She craved this fight. But then Sunny saw her. A little girl walking towards her. She was limping, and through her grey vision the girl looked tattered. She was grotesque.
The girl had a face like herself. They shared the same head, round, grey, hairless, with eyes that stretched almost all the way back, but her body was wrong. Her body was like a human. She was limping faster now, getting to Sunny as quickly as she could. The urge to kill the girl raced through Sunny. With the change came the want. The want of bloodshed. The want of murder on her hands.
This, thought Sunny… this was a naughty girl. Hands in front of her, Sunny told herself not to shred the girl, not to bother. She was abnormal, damaged. The mothers had left her here. Grimy, dirty, nasty — Sunny felt everything foul in her chest then, realizing that this was the dumping ground for the mothers. This inky blackness was the garbage pile, made of reject daughters of The Grey.
She was now in front of Sunny. In the shadowy grey world Sunny could see little detail, and she was thankful for that. The little girl before her was a bad dream. She raised her hand, and for a second Sunny thought she might be able to control the want to kill her for just a minute longer. Maybe she could push back the homicidal instinct long enough to allow this thing to speak.
With one quick strike, the girl clawed at Sunny’s chest, splitting her open with a fast, intense pain. Sunny heard herself not scream, but roar, a sound she didn’t know she could make. The sound was electric, a pulse, and she sprang forward, her claws shredding the girl quickly, efficiently.
The slashing movement of her claws felt fantastic. It felt grand, and for the first time Sunny felt satisfied with her actions. She loved it. She loved killing whatever this daughter of The Grey was. Sunny had finally scratched an itch she had thought would never ever go away.
With vision that wrapped almost entirely around her head, Sunny could see they were not in a room, but a cave, and things were coming out of dark hidden corners. Things that looked like little girls, but weren’t.
It was then that Sunny lost herself. She shrunk into the Original part of her, the beastly alien that wanted to do nothing but annihilate all. Sunny felt the need to be the last living thing standing. To claim this space by death count.
Kia was hurt. The pain of being hit several times covered her. The agony of being bitten and gnawed on pulsed all over her. She’d pass out, only to wake again in the blackness. It was all confusing. Was she awake? Was she asleep, trapped in a nightmare?
Sadly, it was both. Kia was awake and trapped in a nightmare. Rolling over to her belly, Kia pulled herself along the floor. She didn’t know where she was going. She couldn’t see where she was going. She just wanted to find a corner to lay in and die.
Crying from pain, Kia tried to ignore the noises that surrounded her. First there was a loud sound, like something from a radio. As if someone ran fingers across cement then electrified it. She wondered what machine was torturing who and hoped no one was hurting Sunny.
There were other noises mostly shuffling, falling, striking, loud thuds and a loud elect
ric pitch. This was all her fault. She should have left with Sunny. They might have made it out. They could have found the right hallway, door, maybe just maybe they could have made it to the outside world.
This mess wasn’t because she needed to save the naughty girls that badly. It was because Kia just had to know. She just had to find out what they were and now Sunny was probably dead and she would soon follow. All because she was a busy body.
Kia’s hands hit something, something in front of her as she crawled on the floor, clawing her way forward. When her hand moved forward touching something, she quickly pulled it away. It was something sharp, very sharp.
Pushing two fingers together Kia felt the cut on her fingertip. Whatever she touched had sliced her. She couldn’t crawl over whatever this was. Slowly, squeamishly, Kia reached out in front of her again, wanting to know where this thing started and maybe ended. Maybe she could stand up, step over it, walk around it.
Fingertips slowly feeling her way, Kia felt hair. Hair that felt like hers but was stringy, dirty, knotted. Getting braver, Kia pulled the hair just a bit. There was no movement. If someone pulled her hair, she’d move. She then took a handful of hair and gave it a yank, then waited.
Whoever or whatever this was, it wasn’t moving. Kia moved her hand over eyebrows, eyelashes, a nose and lips. Where was the sharp thing that cut her? She pushed herself into allowing her fingers to explore more. She needed to know. Was this a daughter of The Grey dead on the floor? Inhaling deeply, Kia tried to breathe the heavy air and not sob too loudly.
Was this Sunny? It could be Sunny. It’s so dark, she can’t see. Is this Sunny? Kia’s hand was still on the girl’s face, feeling hopelessly for a clue, wondering if it was Sunny or not. Kia got no answers. She couldn’t see anything. She was lost in this black unknown and injured to the point of passing out.
Right then Kia was nothing more than a little girl, a daughter of The Grey wanting nothing but to die. The body she had explored suddenly moved and bit down on Kia’s hand. Kia screamed, a scream that came not from her stomach, or heart, but from her bones. The teeth were the sharp thing and Kia could feel them crushing the bones on her hand. It would bite her finger off.
Women of the Grey- The Complete Trilogy Page 56
