by K X Douglas
“Next, this round’s winner gets to choose the penalty for all of us losers. She may do one of the following: choose for any of the losers to take a drink, kiss any of the losers, choose for the loser to kiss someone else, or make the loser remove an item of clothing”
“Okay,” Victoria said. “Everyone remove an article of clothing.”
“Does this include me?” Lachlan asked. “Do I have to remove something again?”
“Yes, it does,” Eric stated.
Lachlan grumbled and removed a scrunchie from his hair, causing it to fall down to his shoulders.
“Dammit, Lachlan, I was hoping you’d take your pants off!” Victoria said.
Serena removed her beanie, and everyone else removed a sock.
Eric dealt everyone in. Nobody folded before the flop.
Peter looked at his hand and saw the six of clubs and Jack of hearts.
I don’t think this is a very good hand. I should probably fold after the flop.
Eric flipped over three cards; the seven of spades and the two and eight of hearts.
Okay, never mind. I might have a decent hand this time.
Victoria folded and took a drink. Eric flipped the ace of diamonds.
Shit.
Peter, Serena and Heidi folded. Eric flipped the Jack of clubs.
Shit! I could have beaten someone with that hand!
Eric and Lachlan put down their hands; Eric had a seven of hearts and a Jack of spades, giving him two pair. Lachlan had an eight of spades and a five of clubs, giving him a single pair.
“Lachlan, you lose again!” Eric said. “Take something off.”
Lachlan took off his other sock.
“Okay, now everyone take something off.”
Everyone else removed their other sock, while Lachlan removed his shirt.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Victoria said.
The game continued on for several more rounds until everyone was made to strip down to their undergarments. The round after that, Peter won with a ten-through-ace straight.
I don’t know what to do here. I could make anyone kiss anyone, or make anyone drink, or make anyone remove an item of clothing.
“You know what? Everyone drinks.”
By that time, everyone had finished their drinks, so they had to journey to the kitchen in order to find more beer, or in Lachlan’s case anything that wasn’t beer. It wasn’t until that moment that they realized everyone else in the room had been watching them, probably for several rounds. Even the group that had been playing cards at the kitchen table was watching with rapt attention.
Is it really that interesting to watch people take their clothes off while playing poker? Don’t they have more interesting things to do while they drink?
They returned to the table, cracked their beers open, and drank what they estimated to be two fingers’ worth.
Several rounds later, all of them had kissed someone else at least once. The taste of their lips mingled and burned Peter’s mouth, and the scent of various aftershaves, colognes and perfumes all coalesced together in his nostrils. He thought back to the previous night, when Heidi had kissed him after attempting to brand his back. Again, he was almost naked. It was something he was accustomed to, having only worn clothing for a small fraction of his life.
Eric dealt again, and Peter found himself holding a king and an ace. Heidi won the round with two pair, after the rest of the players had stubbornly refused to fold.
“Okay, everyone, take ‘em off!” she said.
“Since you all refused to fold, you have to take off two things!” Eric said. “If you only have your underwear on, Heidi gets to make an extra demand of you, either a drink or a kiss!
Dammit, I’ve never been completely naked in front of other people before. I have to make sure everything looks right down there before I strip.
Soon, everyone was completely naked. The crowd that had formed began to cheer, and many people found their eyes wandering. Many of them seemed to be slightly embarrassed, particularly Lachlan; Victoria didn’t seem to mind being naked at all.
“Peter, I want a kiss,” Heidi said. “Victoria, you kiss Serena. Eric, you kiss Lachlan. Since everyone’s watching, we might as well put on a show.”
Peter obliged, leaning over towards her. She grabbed him by the head and pulled him in. The scent of roses filled his nose. Suddenly, he felt her tongue in his mouth. Not sure exactly what he was supposed to do at this point, he decided to extend his tongue to the back of her throat. The kiss lingered for a few seconds before she broke off and started gasping for air.
I thought she wanted to hide that we were involved? Or is she using the game to hide that fact?
“Jesus fuck, Peter, I had no idea you had such a long tongue! For a second I thought I was going to choke!”
Everyone broke out into gasps and laughter.
“Sorry, was that too much?” he asked.
“No, not at all, you should’ve just given me a bit of a warning,” she said with a smile.
He didn’t have an opportunity to see the other kisses.
“Okay, everyone else has to drink.”
Lachlan and Serena both finished their drinks. It was obvious now that all of them sans Peter were intoxicated.
Suddenly, Serena’s phone rang. She rifled through her purse and pulled it out.
“It’s Isabelle. One sec.”
She answered it, and everyone could hear screaming.
Fuck.
Peter got up, not bothering to dress himself, and ran outside. He looked in the direction of Serena’s dorm and saw something which made his blood run cold; Isabelle was running out of the dorm, and a mi-go was flying after her.
Fuck! Why is one of those here? How did it get here?
He ran after it, not paying any mind to anyone who would have been staring at him.
The question is, should I transform in public?
He decided against it. It didn’t take him long to catch up to the creature, and he was able to do so before it could harm Isabelle.
She didn’t seem to notice that he was there. The mi-go, however, did.
It turned to face him and emitted a cacophonous buzzing noise. It gave Peter a bit of a headache, but otherwise did nothing. The creature looked confused.
“This is the first time a human has been able to resist. What is your secret?”
Peter said nothing as the mi-go flew up to him, clicking its pincers expectantly. He extended a hand and transformed it into a long, bladed whip, swinging for the creature’s head.
“Ah, so you are not human. What are you? Why do you live amongst them? I would love to take you back to Yuggoth to experiment on you.”
The creature didn’t seem to fear him at all. Rather, it seemed absolutely confident in its ability to survive whatever he could throw at it.
“Just let me cut you open. I only need to take your brain with me. I promise it won’t hurt.”
Peter swung at it again, managing to strike one of its fluttering wings. However, it didn’t seem to do much.
I should just transform before anyone sees me.
He broke down into his true form and oozed towards the mi-go. If the creature was surprised, there was no way to tell.
“I’m afraid I don’t exactly have a brain that you can extract. Now, you’ll have to leave peacefully, or else I’m going to have to destroy you.”
He could’ve sworn he heard the beast chortle. Nonetheless, he advanced, extending toothed tendrils at the beast, attempting to tear it apart. Though the creature was by no means nimble with its eight limbs and pair of wings, it managed to dodge.
Through his many eyes, he could better watch the creature as it bobbed and weaved through the air with its bat-like wings. At the same time, he looked around for Isabelle, hoping that she was somehow safe in the midst of all that was going on.
He didn’t find her, but he was able to see that a crowd was forming. People gawked despite themselves, noses and ears bleeding,
their minds struggling to comprehend what was in front of them.
Shit! I have to finish this before anyone gets hurt! Now is probably as good a time as any to try out that magic that I learned from the book.
He opened all of his mouths and began chanting what seemed to onlookers like complete gibberish. Suddenly, the mi-go burst into flames and began screaming. It was obvious that, unlike his attacks earlier, the creature was actually in pain. Its wings were the first to crumble to ash, leaving it unable to fly.
The fire spread across its body, charring its flesh to nothingness. All that was left was a tiny pile of fine ash. He looked around at the crowd that continued to watch in a sort of stupor.
Peter slithered away from them, looking for a place to hide. Nobody tried to follow him. As he managed to hide behind one of the residence buildings, he could hear the sound of chattering coming from them.
Fire. I’ve tamed fire. That wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but it was a good choice.
Once he was sure that nobody was watching him, he began to burrow into the ground. After covering himself with upturned dirt, he waited for about an hour. Deciding that that was enough time to stay hidden, he climbed out of the little hole that he had dug and transformed back into his human form.
The first thing he did was run back to the dorm where the party was being held to retrieve his clothes. Luckily, the door was still open. He saw that most everyone had left, except for the people who presumably lived there and a few of the guests who had passed out on some of the furniture. He quickly gathered his clothes, dressed himself, and left.
Immediately, he ran over to Serena and Isabelle’s dorm. He knocked on the door, and Serena answered.
“Peter! What happened to you? Where did you run off to? You missed some really weird shit, man. You won’t believe what happened after you left.”
“Try me.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“That call was from Isabelle,” Serena said. “She wasn’t really coherent, so I assumed that someone was assaulting her or something. As far as I knew, she was here the entire time.”
“Where is she right now?” Peter asked.
“Sleeping.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Anyways, this…thing…chased Isabelle out of the dorm. I’ve never seen anything like it. It looked like some kind of human-sized bug!”
“I saw it.”
“You did? I wasn’t really sure what got into you. You kinda ran out of the dorm buck naked.”
“Yeah, I had a hunch that Isabelle was in trouble. I…uhh, this is going to sound really weird, but I kinda knew what was happening a couple hours ago. With the giant bug and everything.”
“You did? This is starting to sound like one of the weird stories that my dad used to tell me and my brother when we were kids.”
“I’ve heard stories about him.”
“Of course you have! He fucking killed someone. Thought they were going to steal his garden gnomes or some bullshit like that!”
“Serena, this whole thing, it’s my fault. The bug showing up and attacking Isabelle.”
“What the hell are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“It all started with a book I found in the library. It’s probably similar to the ones that your dad used to collect. Come swing by my place tomorrow, when Isabelle’s feeling better. Bring her along. I’ll explain everything.”
“Sure thing.”
Peter returned to his dorm and spent the early morning hours prowling the internet for any discussion of the incident. Several videos purporting to have captured footage of alien life at Summerfield Academy had been uploaded, but when Peter watched them the mi-go was nowhere to be found; it was as if the creature could not be captured on video.
There were a great deal of different conspiracy theories circulating about what exactly had happened that night. Some were discussing the possibility that a UFO was sighted. Others talked about Bigfoot.
In the late morning, Peter heard a knock on his door. He opened it, and saw Serena and Isabelle waiting outside.
“Hey. You alright?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Isabelle said. “Um, this is going to sound like a really weird question, but did you see what happened last night?”
“Yeah. I already sort of told Serena about it. Come inside. I think I have some explaining to do.”
They both entered Peter’s dorm and closed the door behind them.
“Is it about the book?” Isabelle asked.
“Well, that’s part of it.”
“Okay, what’s all this about a book all of a sudden?” Serena asked.
“Because ever since we read that book in the library I’ve been having the same dream. I’m lying on the ground, looking up at the sky, and it’s this weird green colour. When I get up, I hear the tide in the distance and start walking towards it. There’s an ocean, but i-”
“-it’s slime, isn’t it?” Peter said. “And when you look in the distance, you see this city with these weird creatures flying above it, just like the one that appeared and attacked me, and then they-”
-they start flying towards me, yeah! You’ve been having the same dream!”
“I have.”
“Do you have any idea what’s going on?” she asked.
“Sort of,” he said. “Do you have some time?”
“Yeah, we’ve got time.”
“Isabelle, what the fuck?” Serena muttered.
They walked into the main part of the dorm room. Peter and Serena sat on the bed, and Isabelle sat on the only chair. Peter reached under the mattress and pulled out the book. He retrieved the key and unlocked it before setting it next to him, open to where they had left off.
“Okay, so since you know that we’ve been having the same dream,” Peter said, “and you’ve seen that creature, you probably won’t be surprised when I tell you that there have been some supernatural events happening lately.”
“Is the book cursed or something?” Serena asked.
“In a way. The book contains knowledge of the truths of the universe as discovered by the author, including knowledge of magic. Magic is real, and it’s terrifying. Human minds aren’t really built to handle this information; that’s why your nose started to bleed when we read it. I had to invent an excuse to leave because I was scared of what would happen to you if you read any more of it.”
He flipped further into the book and stopped when he came across the illustration of the mi-go before propping the book up on the bed so that Isabelle could see it.
“See? This is the thing that attacked you.”
“Yes, exactly!” Isabelle said. “What’s weird is I don’t think we ever made it that far into the book.”
“Right, we didn’t. I ended up reading further into the book, and I started having lucid dreams after that, about the same place. I’m working on something for Professor Carter, and it requires reading through the entirety of this book; I’m not exactly looking forward to it.”
“Wait, are you working on an honours project or something?” Isabelle asked.
“No, no, this has nothing to do with the English class that we’re taking. This is completely unrelated.”
“So how close are you to finishing?” Serena asked.
“I think I’m at least three quarters of the way through it. I could probably finish the book in another sitting, but I’ve sort of been putting it off. Last night I thought about it, but then I decided to go to the party instead.”
“We had fun until the thing happened; then, there was sort of a panic. We, uh, we ended up playing a drunk version of strip poker. I think we all lost.”
“That doesn’t really sound like my idea of a good time,” Isabelle said.
“It was pretty fucking fun,” Serena said as she looked over at Peter. “Although it was weird to have so many people staring at us. How many were there, a couple dozen?”
“Oh my god,” Isabelle said.
“Yeah, I’ve never had so many
people see me completely naked before,” Peter said. “Strangely, it seemed like no big deal.”
“So, Peter,” Serena said, “what’s going on between you and Heidi? The two of you seemed pretty into that kiss last night. You even used tongue!”
Peter froze.
Shit! She didn’t want anyone to know that we were involved!
“Serena, come on!” Isabelle said. “It’s obvious that he doesn’t want to talk about it!”
“No, it’s fine,” Peter said. “We, uh, we aren’t really a couple, I don’t think. We kind of had a date the other day, but I’m not sure if she wants to get serious or not.”
“Well, she certainly seemed into you last night,” Serena said.
“She was drunk, though,” Peter said. “The question is how she feels about me when she’s sober.”
Serena nudged Peter with her elbow.
“She’s probably into you, dude. You should ask her out.”
“I don’t know. Can we change topics back to the other event that happened last night?”
Serena sighed.
“Sure.”
“Isabelle, do you remember what happened to the creature last night?”
“Uhh…let me think. I remember running around campus looking for a place to hide from that thing. It…uhh…it was following me around outside for a bit, but it stopped for some reason. I’m not sure what that was, or what happened after that, because I was hiding then.”
“I remember!” Serena said. “There was this other…creature…that fought it off, I think? I’m not sure what it was. I couldn’t get a good look at it because it was so dark out.”
It seems like they’re having a hard time remembering anything to do with the mi-go.
“At one point, that bug thing just…burst into flames,” Serena continued. “It caught on fire and just, like, turned to ash. That’s all I can remember.”
“I’m just glad that it seems nobody got hurt,” Peter said.
…and that they still don’t suspect anything about me. I was worried about being found out last night.
“Well, Serena, I think we should head back and clean up. There’s still quite a mess from that thing.”
