by Eric Vall
Once we arrived home, we’d sit down, discuss our options, and then I’d have to make a decision. As I sat in the back of the wagon, I had no idea what I was going to do, and needed to hear the pros and cons of each woman’s argument. I already knew that I didn’t want to transform Josephine, but I couldn’t put a finger on the reason why.
Was it because the idea of the blonde heiress not being in this world hurt me in a strange, tender way? It was more than that, though, if Josephine were to disappear completely, the other aristocrats would surely notice and look for her. It’d be just like with Delphine and Ortensia. They wouldn’t stop searching until they found her, even if it meant they discovered her dead in her rooms or off in the forest. If I were to transform her, I had to come up with a pretty elaborate excuse for her disappearance, and leaving her corpse somewhere would only arouse more suspicion. One death, a suicide, and a murder all within the same year seemed too much for the small city of Edenhart where the most that ever happened was petty crime.
When our wagon rolled from the brick pavers onto the packed dirt of our drive, I leaned my head back, and spotted the single lit candle we’d left in the front window. I wasn’t sure what time it was, but from the small, wavering light, I knew that the candle had almost burned out. Had I only spoken to the Duchess for an hour? Or was it longer? I wasn’t sure, it seemed as if time had passed so slowly, but it could’ve been longer, and I hadn’t noticed.
Daisy pulled back the reins, shouted to the horses in a low, deep voice, hopped from the driver’s seat, and then tied them off to the carriage house. The brunette turned to me, but she wasn’t smiling, her expression was serious and solemn as she stepped toward the front of the manor. I knew that this decision pained Daisy, too. She was the face of our whole operation, she was the one who directly interacted with the aristocrats, and had gotten to be the closest with Josephine.
“Alright,” I breathed. “Let’s get you inside and dressed, Val. How about we all change into our regular clothes before we discuss anything? Does that sound good to the two of you?”
“Yes, Charles,” Rian sighed. “I’m anxious to discuss these things, but this dress is very uncomfortable compared to my normal outfit.”
“I could’ve worn my dress all night and day,” Valerie sniffled. “I don’t care that it’s uncomfortable; it’s the price of being pretty.”
I helped all of my women out of the wagon and then grabbed the metal box from the back. I’d have to build a tank for it later but now wasn’t the time. I hurried down into the laboratory and rested the metal box with the nix inside on the floor. A.B. didn’t make a sound from his tank, so I assumed that the brain was resting or sleeping. I stared down at the metal box for a second and listened to the soft whispering that snuck through the cracks of the lid. I wasn’t sure how long we’d have to keep the nix in there before our next experiment, but I’d have to build a tank despite all those things.
“There’s nothing I can do about it right now,” I sighed. “Have to worry about it later.
I glanced around the darkened laboratory one last time and opened my mouth to call out to A.B. but decided against it. I was sure that the brain wouldn’t be much help right now and would tell me all of the same things that my women were about to. I slammed the laboratory door closed behind me, and hurried up the stairs toward the manor.
Once inside, I closed the front door with a light click and leaned toward the bannister.
“Daisy?” I called.
“I’m up here,” the brunette shouted from upstairs. “I’m changing into a different dress. That other one was quite restrictive, and I couldn’t move around very much.”
“We’re done here, too,” the feline-woman whispered, and stepped out of the hall with a cookie in her hand.
“We wanted a snack,” the imp-woman chuckled.
“That’s fine,” I spoke. “Let’s go upstairs and get changed.”
“Okay, Charles,” Valerie nodded, hurried up the stairs, and disappeared from view.
Rian and I climbed the stairs together, slipped into the master bedroom, and found my other two monster-women already in different stages of undress. Daisy bent at the waist, kicked off her heels, sighed out of relief, came to stand in front of the mirror, and slowly unzipped the back of her dress. Valerie stood by the dresser, opened one of the drawers, grabbed her leotard, and hastily slipped into it.
I couldn’t wait any longer, and from the expressions on my women’s faces, I knew that they wanted to speak about it now instead of later.
“Let’s discuss Josephine here,” I muttered, slipped out of my suit jacket, and began unbuttoning my shirt. “I have an idea of what we should do.”
Valerie turned, half-undressed, and held her jumpsuit to her chest. Her blue eyes were wide and wavering in their sockets, but her lips were pressed firmly together in a thin line of worry.
“I think we should try to save her at all costs,” the feline-woman urged. “I may not have interacted with Josephine much, but I feel as if I know her better than anyone else. I read her diary, I saw her innermost thoughts, and I read all of those books she kept hidden away. I know what she thinks, wants, and hopes for in the future. I read all of it. I think we should… tell her about us, the monster-women, the experiment, the Duchess’ plot, and how we were created.”
“And what happens when that goes south?” Daisy asked. “I don’t mean to hurt you, Valerie, but what a person writes in their journal may be totally different than how they will react in a situation.”
“I want to believe that Josephine will support us,” the feline-woman begged. “I know deep in my heart that she wouldn’t betray us.”
“What do you think, Rian?” I grunted.
The red-skinned imp-woman paused for a moment, opened her plump lips, closed them, and then sighed softly under her breath. The black-haired beauty shook her head, widened her stance, and then rested her closed fists on her hips.
“I don’t know Josephine well enough to speak on this subject,” Rian uttered. “But after meeting her, I do believe that she is our ally. She is kind to us, and she speaks openly about her admiration of you, Charles. Personally, I think we should try Valerie’s approach. We seek Ms. Josephine out, sit her down, and explain our situation to her. We can’t snatch her off the street, lay everything out for her, and then expect her to understand where we’re coming from. I believe if we did something like that, it would either frighten her into hysterics or push her away from our family. I think our best course of action is to do it calmly and rationally. We all have met and know Josephine. She is not one who would turn her back on us so easily, but if we did it rashly, then she would have no other choice.”
“What about you, Charles?” Daisy urged. “What do you think we should do? Of course, all of us have our opinions, but we will follow what you think is best.”
“I have to agree with Rian and Valerie,” I uttered. “All of us know Josephine to different varying degrees, but I’ve spoken to her about this subject before. Not this exact situation, but I know how she feels about the treatment of brutes in our society. She doesn’t agree with it. She wholly believes that women and men should be equals in our society, but this is different, and we all know that. You may love me, but all of you were also born from my machine. I doubt that Josephine would be able to understand that.”
“Yeah… I don’t think we took that into account,” the brunette sighed.
“Yes, our world is strange,” I nodded. “Women developed powers, and mythical creatures started popping up all around the country without any explanation, but the creation of half-beast, half-human girls? I don’t think anyone except for me would be able to understand.”
“Then what do you think we should do?” Rian asked. “We can’t leave things as they are now… Josephine must be so confused right now, and we have no idea what we will do.”
“Eventually, I think we should seek her out,” I uttered. “Sometime in the future. After all of this has died down
, maybe even in a few days.”
“What if she comes to us?” Valerie asked. “What will we do then?”
“Our best course of action is to lie right now,” I breathed. “Tell her it was part of the costume. Some sort of adhesive that I used to adhere the mechanics to Valerie’s body.”
“But what if she doesn’t accept that?” Daisy asked. “What if she doesn’t believe that?”
“We keep telling her that it’s part of the costume,” I stated. “We will tell her, but I think right now… isn’t the best time for her to learn about everything I’ve been doing. I’ll even create a mechanical tail and ears, so if she shows up and asks questions, I can bring them out and show her. Right now… isn’t the best time to tell her. We can never know how she’s going to react.”
“I agree with Charles,” the feline-woman nodded. “Especially if lying to Josephine prevents us from having to transform her. I think that’s what we should do.”
“I don’t like the idea of lying to Ms. Josephine,” Daisy sighed. “But… if it’s how we keep her and us safe… then it’s the right thing to do.”
“I agree,” Rian said. “What Ms. Josephine doesn’t know won’t hurt her. We’ll tell her eventually, but right now we’re protecting her by keeping secrets from her.”
“If she pushes it,” I reiterated. “Then we lie about the costumes… If she pries for more information even after all of that, then we have no other choice than to tell her.”
“And then what?” Daisy asked.
“If she accepts us, great,” I smiled, but then my expression hardened as I spoke again. “If she doesn’t… we all know what happens next. We do as we have before, knock her unconscious, take her down into the laboratory, place her within the machine, and transform her into a monster-girl.”
“But that’s our last resort,” Valerie stated. “I want to do everything we can to prevent that. As much as I want another sister, Josephine is such a kind and sweet person as she is, and I don’t want to take all of that away from her.”
“Then it’s decided,” Daisy nodded. “We lie to Josephine until it’s time for us to tell her the truth. If she pushes it… we have no other choice than to tell her and see what her reaction is.”
“So, except for the things that just happened,” I chuckled. “Did everyone enjoy the party for the most part?”
“It was so much fun!” Valerie giggled. “All of the food tasted so good, and the alcohol that Josephine served was very strong. Stronger than anything you had in your wine cellar, Charles! Then, all of that stuff happened with Kelara, which was pretty funny if you ask me.”
“We danced a little bit, too,” Daisy smiled. “All of the aristocrats performed this strange dance. They moved in a long line, changed partners, did complicated hand signals, changed partners again, and then waltzed down the floor. I thought it would be difficult to learn, but Ms. Josephine appeared out of the crowd and explained that what they were doing was called ‘contradancing,’ It’s an ancient style of dance that’s been passed down through the generations.”
“She taught us how to do it,” Rian nodded. “Showed us the movement of our feet, hands, and that every few movements, you turn, switch partners, and then sashay down the floor with that new person.”
“I was worried that I’d forget the movements and embarrass myself in front of all of the other women,” the ash-blonde admitted. “But Josephine told me that ‘making mistakes is part of the fun, you don’t have to know the dance exactly as long as you’re having a good time doing it,’ I danced with Josephine first, and then when we switched partners, Rian was my partner!”
“I danced with Rian first,” the gorgeous brunette chuckled, buttoned the back of her dress, and smoothed out her skirt. “And then danced with Josephine. We did it three or four times until Valerie’s feet got tired. She kept adding dance moves to the movements, and the other aristocrats kept staring.”
“They’re just a bunch of old crones,” the feline-woman cackled. “They don’t know how to dance! They looked so dang stiff, moving around the floor. I wish you could’ve seen it, Charles.”
“I would’ve liked to dance with Charles,” the black-haired beauty sighed. “A few of the women that brought their consorts danced with them, it was… nice to see. If you forgot for a moment that those men were contractually obligated to be there. It was almost romantic.”
“It would’ve been romantic if it was Charles and us!” the ash-blonde cried. “We would’ve shown them what dancing is really about. Rubbing up against each other and having a good time with your male partner.”
“I have to agree with my sisters,” Daisy breathed. “It would’ve been very nice to dance with you, Charles. We know you were taking care of other very important things, but maybe… sometime, you could dance with us?”
“I believe I have a newer wax phonograph player in the basement,” I grinned. “I never used it much, but it might be down there somewhere. If I don’t, I could always build one for us. Some of the stores in the city still sell them even though they’re not as popular with most of the aristocrats, since they can just hire musicians to come to their homes. We could make a night of it, cook a nice dinner, enjoy dessert, and then dance the night away in the drawing-room.”
“Not that lively type of dancing,” Valerie shook her head. “I like it, jumping around, twirling, and lifting, but the slow dancing.”
“Slow dancing?” Rian asked. “What is that? Did they do that at the party?”
“O-Oh,” the feline-woman giggled. “It wasn’t at the party. I read about it… in one of Josephine’s books.”
“I thought I told you to put those back where they belonged?” I asked. “Did you take one even though I asked you not to?”
“No!” The ash-blonde shook her head. “I just… read all of the ones in Josephine’s trunk while we were there. You told me to put it back… and I did, I swear, but I read all of the other ones she had stashed away. They’re so good, and they make me feel all warm and happy inside. There was a scene in one of those books where the main male character and the main female character finally were alone away from their overbearing families. They snuck away to a small vineyard, and slow danced under the stars. Then, of course, they made love in the lush, green grass, and it was just so roooomantic. I’d love to have a moment like that someday, but it’s alright. I love all the moments I have with you, Charles.”
“I do, too, my love,” I breathed. “I treasure every second I’m blessed with you.”
“You sure do know how to pour on the charm,” Rian purred. “You’re getting me all hot and bothered and ready for breeding when you talk like that, Charles.”
“Like what?” I chuckled. “I’m simply speaking the truth. I love each of you so much, and I’d do anything for you. I’d tear down the stars with my bare hands if you asked for them.”
“We’re so lucky to have you,” Daisy whispered. “How did we get so lucky? I’m so blessed to be with a man like you. The other aristocrats don’t know what they’re missing out on. Sometimes, I feel sorry for them. They don’t know what it feels like to be loved by a man. To be truly loved, body and soul, and I think that’s why they’re so awful to everyone.”
“Then what about that Kelara woman?” Rian asked. “She seemed perfectly happy servicing the female aristocrats. In fact, she made it very clear that she didn’t like men, not even their parts in general. I wonder if it’s all an act or if she truly feels that way about her attraction to women.”
“I don’t really care to know,” the brunette sniffed. “Such a disgusting notion to think about.”
“I wouldn’t be as weirded out if the men in this society were allowed to do whatever they want,” Valerie offered. “I don’t care if she likes women, but to take on the job of a ‘brute’ to spite the ‘brutes’ in question… it just seems disgusting. Not only that, but she has to know the main reason that the aristocrats keep consorts is to have children, right? A woman and another woman can’t
have children. Everyone knows that.”
“I think it’s more about the sexual pleasure, Val,” I stated. “It’s not about producing children or anything like that. She said that a woman knows her body better than anyone else, so another woman would be better suited to service it. It doesn’t really make sense to me, either, but if that’s the occupation she wants to have, then… more power to her?”
“It just makes me wonder,” Daisy muttered. “Why is she doing it, though? She’s a woman. She has abilities that men don’t possess, why has she stooped so low to such a position? Is it something she thoroughly enjoys, or is it a power grab? Is she clinging to these powerful aristocrats to better her station? But even then, as I said before, she’s a woman. She would have all of that without becoming a consort…”
“I don’t know,” I uttered. “But I’m sure after tonight, this won’t be the last that we see of Kelara.”
“We all saw how she clung onto Josephine,” Rian stated. “And how desperately she wanted to meet the Duchess, even though we all know that Edony would have dismissed her the moment they were introduced.”
“Oh,” I grunted under my breath as the memory from earlier resurfaced in my brain. “There’s… something else I forgot to tell you about.”
“More?” Valerie cried. “What else did the Duchess tell you? More of her awful plans? Something even worse?”
“No,” I breathed. “It had nothing to do with her plans. It was something entirely different, completely unexpected.”
“So?” the red-skinned imp-woman urged. “What was it?”
“Edony… confessed,” I uttered. “She told me that she’s been secretly in love with me this entire time.”
Silence filled the room, my eyes rested against the floor, and I slowly raised them. All three of my monster-women were frozen in place, their hands wavered in their air as they stared at me, their eyes were wide open, and Valerie’s mouth hung open in utter shock.
“Excuse me?” Daisy squeaked.
