Home Grown, Organic, Non-GMO Stories and Poems

Writing blog filled with original stories and poems, often surreal and experimental.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: 86

Both men at the table clapped, then the hunter posed the question: “What do we do about Kei? Surely, we’ve got the most mileage out of her as we’re going to get.”

“Hunt her. If she seeks our services, we’ll oblige, as that’s what we exist for.”

“Where did you last send her?”

“Chiba. Under the name Kei Keiba.”

The hunter tapped his gloved finger against the edge of the table. Chiba wasn’t exactly close to Saitama, but it was still in Japan, which meant that Kei had returned to Japan. So long as that hunter lived, every plot of land would be scoured until Kei was once again found, and killed.

However, to be too giddy was to dip toes into idiocy.

“She’s probably moved since then. And changed her name again. She’ll probably try to avoid using your services, too,” the hunter proposed. “She may not know or care about any such grand schemes or inner workings, but she’s one who carries a great suspicion and paranoia with her. She wouldn’t have lived for as long as she had otherwise.”

The shadows thickened and behind the shadow, the bloodstained railroad employee grit his teeth and grunted. There were talks already among branches about how chaotic Kei seemed once she became active again. For decades, she went unbothered and unnoticed. Now that she’s been tangled up in many schemes, as well as gone about things in her own way as well, she’s left a total mess.

Before the meeting was adjourned, the bloodstained railroad member thought to himself, is it better for us to put Kei down for good or to let her go about things her own way and trust that everyone’s lives will be easier once Kei is forgotten? Then he remembered: the hunters would still hunt regardless of the optics.

Indeed, Kei was somewhere in Japan. Those interested may have seen it a point where now she was easier to find. However, to Kei, she could have turned a patch of dirt into a hiding place. There was no Kei Keiba. After tracking the ID for a ‘Keiba Kei’, there was no activity to be found. It seemed right away, whether suspicion of her purported ally or her lackadaisical nature working in her favor, she was nowhere to be found in Chiba. The organization grew tired of pursuing someone who was by no means any more interesting than the average vampire. Not to mention, even during her long tenure as a vampire, Kei never took more than one or two maidens a year or so, and when left to her own devices her power didn’t even compare to newly-turned vampires.

So, they all moved on. Other vampires still had need of their services.

Moving on was a luxury they could afford. Elsewhere, Hitomi lay on her side, curled up on the sofa in the living quarters. Her acidic tears stained the couch pillows.

“The more you leak yourself on my tartan pillows, the more blood you will need later. Center yourself,” Sayo advised.

Her bones creaked and snapped apart before snapping herself back in place followed while she sat up. Her feeble, dry and without substance, arms wrapped themselves around one of the pillows and she took huge sucking and blowing motions, as if forming the biggest bubble with the biggest wand imaginable. She rocked back and forth, trying to calm further still.

“Manaka. She’s gone,” Hitomi whimpered before turning dejected. Calmer now but no more in peace.

“Yes. She said, and I repeat…” Sayo began, but Hitomi hissed.

She needed no help in remembering their farewell:

Manaka in a bizarre stupor stumbled into Hitomi. They both landed against one of the adjacent walls. Manaka lifted Hitomi’s arms up with uncharacteristic strength.

“I would love to tell you what the breakthrough was,” Manaka grins. “But so far the only epiphany to be found is that I still haven’t found any answers. And that in order to better myself, I must learn to let go of my perceived humanity. Only then may I come out…”

Hitomi leaned her head over and locked eyes with Sayo who tried to juggle a teapot on the stump she called a nose.

“What’s she talking about?” Hitomi demanded from the priest/ess.

Sayo blinked.

“I only told her why the path she’s been going down has led to her downfall. This is a turmoil she’s already had, I’m afraid. Her decisions are her own,” Sayo sure loved to give bullshit answers like that.

“You should listen to her,” Sayo added. “If this woman trusts you enough to share her plans for life, you ought to feel honored. It may be wor th your time.”

Of course, she was always so ‘in the moment’ in the worst of ways, that the only time she dwelt on more than the present was the past. Nothing ever crossed into the realm of future. She locked her eyes back with the big woman who enthralled Kei once already, and thus was an ugly reminder. Her own eyes resembled a warm kotatsu and conjured images of campfires.

“I’m sane when I say this: I don’t know what’s best for anybody. I really care about you as well as Kei. I care about any vampires I thought I could save. But I don’t know what saving looks like. So I’m going to wander the land and search for the answer.”

“Can I go with you?” Hitomi found herself asking but repulsion replaced any form of humility. That question tasted like garlic.

“That’s up to you. I’m going to go, but I can’t tell you what’s best for your life. It may not be fulfilling.”

“Yeah,” Hitomi scoffed. “And I may become obsessed with you only to eventually kill you.”

“That may be. I’m open to come what may. You may follow, but I’m going to go either way.”

That was the last thing Hitomi remembered and the option was still open, but she couldn’t bring herself to move.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Deepthroat Behind Closed Doors

Dusk was a vampire’s friend. Shadow, too, which could often be found most in daylight. The concept of shadows was a friend more so than the circumstances which surrounded a shadow. However, humans, without any hint of bloodlust, could also bathe in shadow if they know what they’re doing.

Which brings to a particular board meeting between two executives of cooperating factions, despite their outward opposing ideologies.

One wasn’t an executive at all, but a puppet in the sense of an anonymous representative made to pose as the executive. After all, for the bloodstained railroad, the mission came before recognition. The opposite end of the table, but by all means, still a collaborator, stood a red-faced man with crazed eyes and blonde hair. He wore a pinstripe suit and a turquoise top hat. The volunteer was far less menacing in appearance, even if he tried to achieve such an effect by remaining in shadow.

The red-faced man could at least tell, through the bulges of his jaundiced irises that the volunteer was someone middle aged and used to playing dangerous games despite the lack of power he possessed.

“So it seems we may not have had a clear goal from the start and have just been relying on pawns to guide us,” the shadowed man chuckled, then coughed. Up there in age. Human.

“I would disagree with that assessment,” the red-faced man wagged a finger and warned, “rather, we have always served each other. This just streamlines the process. You and I, we both need to get on with the times, don’t we?”

“We’re not immortal. Your mask won’t protect you from your fate. You forget that we’re both only here because others before us carried these ideals and saw it fit to pass on to us.”

“I’ve always hated vampires who were at least a century old. The ones who have been one not very long have still have some humanity, even if they must still be put down. But those older ones? There’s a certain arrogance about them. Like, ‘look at us! We’re the ones who made it!’ Like they’re so sure of themselves.”

The balding man (bathed in shadow) curled his lips upward into a closed-mouth grin.

“And who’s to say they’re wrong? And doesn’t it bring you a sense of glory and accomplishment, slaying ones who are over a century old? The older, the more powerful they’re said to be,” the middle-aged nobody who served vampires and one of the many rotating cast of masculine voices who answered the call to aid vampires in need.

(OK. Note. Why have they all been masculine? And sure, masculine women are nice, too, but these voices need more variety. What’s the point in a rotating cast if they’re all meant to sound the same? Get feminine sounding men, feminine sounding women, too. No one has to know)

“Yes, but is that powerful in status or ability?” Red-face pondered and puckered up his lip upon the final syllable, then puffed out some air as if he had an invisible cigar in his mouth. “No matter. At least we finally figured out a healthy ecosystem for us both.”

Of that, the two enemies, who weren’t really enemies at all, but seemed to understand an odd need for each other which went beyond mere competition, nodded. They would have shook hands, but the table was long.

“We have such useful tools as the independent vampire hunters, inept as they tend to be,” the bloodstained railroad employee credited. “As well as Saitama’s public security. It used to be that vampires were worldwide, and indeed, they still are, but thanks to our combined efforts, Saitama is now seen as the vampire capital of the world.”

“So what you’re saying is, this is good for vampire tourism?” The red-faced man scratched the chin of his wooden oni mask.

“That’s an avenue we can discuss at a later date. All I’m saying is we need to keep our options open,” the volunteer said. “Speaking of, Kei was by no means meant to live as long as she has, and I know you’re itching to lay a stake into her. But all that said, hasn’t she been an unexpected boon? We really have her to thank for our progress together.”

Red Oni Mask shook his head.

“Yes, well, we’re way past the point for any need to keep Manaka alive. I’m amazed she didn’t die back when the shotgun hunter got her. But all the same, were it not for her, Kei might not have experienced a taste of humanity. We neutralized her long enough to get the wheels spinning. Now look at us: hunting vampires as fast as we can make them.”

The hunter was, of course, referring to the black market distribution of the drug which could give humans a temporary experience of being a vampire. It’s already to a higher demand for vampire hunters in the area. That drug wouldn’t have been possible were it not for the scientists who made the vaccine that could cure a vampire and make them human again. Reverse engineering that drug led to a vampire ecstasy of sorts. The drug, a new craze, has started expanding outside of Saitama. In time, vampire hunters around the world would be in demand to hunt these vampire junkies and deviants.

So there were many gears which turned, most of which were more convenient coincidence and a half-baked notion where the allies of vampires and the enemies of vampires joined hands to increase the need for their services.

“As more vampires are hunted, more vampires will seek us out. They’ll need our protection and our help. We save some, we let them die. But both of us reap the benefits,” the non-profiteer shrugged. “But that’s life. We love to see vampires flourish, but if they don’t feel threatened, we won’t be needed. And that would be sad.”

Concurred was oni mask, as he added, “I hate vampires, but I love hunting them.”

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Lynchpin

There was nothing but scattered postcards and photographs taken decades ago which depicted a family out on a camping trip. There was a snapshot of the red car which drove the family up a mountain. Then down, there was the creek. There were four people: a mom, a dad, and two siblings. Neither of them looked like anyone in particular. Maybe an amalgamation of everyone who’s ever been seen. In that sense, it could be hard enough to tell the demographics of the siblings, only that there were two of them and each occupied a space.

Sometimes, there was a brother and a sister. Sometimes just a sister and a shadow beside. The sister looked down at the floor near the back seat of the car. There was something important, plastic but electronic. Something to keep her occupied during the road ahead. She reached down except in the next photo, there were two siblings again, but this time they were two brothers.

Those siblings raced across a roaring rapids at a creek. There were little stepping stones and each skip at first were made with grace and elegance. One sibling, however, slipped against the wetness of one stone and fell back.

Next scene, however, the car was driving again. There was only one person in it: a woman. A woman who was both much older and younger than she had any right to be. Both old and young enough to drive, yet fragile enough to be ancient under the right microscope. Rather than slow down and make a turn, she drove her red car off of the countryside cliff.

Another photo was flipped to, this time in an album:

little beeps from monitors and hisses. Bubbling and pumps. Submerged gurgles as if the afterlife was the inside of a decoration in a fishbowl. And by all rights, maybe it was.

She opened her eyes. In a gown, she worn, white with daisy print. There she lay, on a hospital bed, in a small and sterile, milk-white room.

From a panel on the wall, a door opened up and introduced himself as a doctor. There was a little stethoscope on her forehead and thinning, gray hairs. Sometimes, however, the doctor was a woman, and younger or older than the doctor previously shown. It was like an indecisive game show where the hosts change midway, as do the rules.

“Good news,” the doctor said with a jaunty smile, “the accident didn’t fracture any of your ribs. Your organs are intact. Best of all, both you and the baby are fine.”

None of those words made sense. What accident? What baby? Wasn’t she alone in a previous photograph? There was only her after all, and she wasn’t any member of that family.

“What are you talking about?” She managed to wheeze out her question. She then looked around and saw that both her wrists and ankles were shackled, both spread across her hospital bed.

“You kept thrashing about, hun. It was hard to operate on you. But we managed to rescue the baby...and you!” The doctor reached down, as if tying a knot on their shoe. How irresponsible of a doctor. When the doctor stood up, there was something in the doctor’s hand which at first resembled a sock puppet. Then, it looked like a shrunken version of someone she would have longed to forget…

“Congratulations! It’s a Kei!” The doctor announced and the baby started dancing mid-air.

Everyone celebrated except for the woman strapped to the hospital bed. She didn’t try to pry herself free, however, and instead looked annoyed and above all, disappointed.

“Is it too late to abort?” She asked.

In that same flash, a black hole form and whisked the scene away. In its place, she sat up in the dark, where she felt most alive.

Her eyes were wide, bloodshot. She had been awoken from a most peculiar dream. To have called it a nightmare would have given it an unearned significance. It was, how she felt by the end, a disappointment.

What is there to change? She wondered. She was both out of sorts and bouncing up the walls. When she sat up, she realized that she had been not atop warm flesh of a companion by circumstance and instead on the cold, wooden floorboards.

At first, she wanted to wait and scream that she was alone once more. She would cry, maybe for days on end, and let her bloodlust consume her once more as she finds a poor soul in her vicinity with fresh blood to take. However, she she paced about the room and shambled to the door, she also felt a sense of relief. Finally, she could let go of any burden. Bask in her loneliness, and be at peace. Maybe meditate and discover the more important things in life. Truly, turn over another leaf.

But she opened the door, walked down the hall, and soon saw lanterns with lights lit in the main ceremony area.

Manaka and Sayo (someone Hitomi had no interest in seeing and thought that oddity would have been away on hibernation) stood together in the living room and as soon as Hitomi stepped through, they each popped open champagne bottles and cheered.

“Good news! Sayo helped me come to a breakthrough!” Manaka declared.

“Poor thing! You must have had another bad dream, didn’t you? It was about you-know-who, wasn’t it?”

Hitomi stood, stiff as a board, and slack-jawed. Her brows furrowed and her arms crossed. There wasn’t a shred of amusement on her face, and the little pupils trapped in the barrier of her iris sank down to where the acidic poisonous concoction fizzled down onto the wooden floorboards and made hissing sounds.

She made a mental note to restrain Sayo later and make that good-for-nothing priestly maiden clean up the mess later. She turned her attention instead toward Manaka and put on a sharp dagger of a smile.

“That’s great, honey! What conclusion did you come to?”

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Coming and Calming

Pale moonlight brought a soft glow to the canopy that made the shrine nearby look like a castle that few had lived in centuries, despite the truth of the nature being that there were still occupants. In that sense, it really was fitting that a shrine maiden would have been a vampire, even a kindly one. There was a parasitic nature to the beauty which surrounded the two sitting and rocking on swings on a swing set. Back and forth, back and forth.

Images conjured next, two clouds, cradled in nurturing arms. The air, however still, always provided a firm cushion for those who needed it.

The parasitism happened when one was reminded of a place meant for a shelter, yet so secluded and far off that few should find it. Guests came in expecting peace and solutions to their turmoil, but they always forgot that they were at the whim’s of the shrine’s master. It sent shivers down Manaka’s spine, and worse yet was it was midday. What the moon was doing, outside of its habitat, amounted to trickery, as far as she was concerned. She had a sweater but maybe no one would have even noticed.

“It, indeed, is a trick of the light,” answered the vampire, Sayo, to a wandering-eyed Manaka. At the answer, with a suffocating smoky tone one syllable, and a sugary sweetness the next, Manaka jolted and her eyes blinked as they widened.

“Can you read my thoughts?” Manaka tilted her head and asked.

No matter how cute (even in a stern and imposing manner) Sayo was, all Manaka saw in her face was that of an old and worn plastic doll with big, googly eyes.

Those strange, misshapen eyes, blinked as well. Then she answered yet again, and her hair seemed to flow through a nonexistent breeze.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, specifically,” Sayo gave a rather frank, while still sounding cryptic answer, “but I have the unique power of perception where I can perceive what others are thinking. It’s mainly good for one person at a time, as otherwise it may get mixed up in groups. It’s not good to rely on it.”

Manaka thought about it, but her head was as foggy as a spring in an isolated Nara village. Thinking was far closer to a notion than anything else. Being drained, even just a little, must have done a number on her.

“That’s pretty amazing, still,” Manaka mumbled. She rocked back and forth on the swing, listlessly. It made rusty, rickety sounds as the set wheezed in a shallow attempt at standing. It should have been more unpleasant, but there was a sense of companionship with the squeals it made.

“Every shrine and temple deserves a swing, don’t you think?” Sayo contorted, as if flexible enough to become a spiral.

“I know you returned home with Hitomi. I’m afraid that’s not the name she had in life, and I could sense no particular significance in her name. Maybe it’s approximate to her living name, but,” Sayo began. As if that was the most important place to start. Manaka opened her mouth to cut Sayo off, but found no words in her to vomit up.

“It might have been Hiromi, actually. But over time, our memories do distort, or we find a suitable tangent for us to become,” Sayo continued, as if business as usual. Yet Sayo also gave a fond look as if a parent of some sort. “I met her just as I meet most guests to our shrine. She was struggling, in need of shelter. Lost, listless, needed a voice who would listen. So I gave her that. I also sold her the shrine, never asked where the money came from, and went away for hibernation. Maybe for my bluntness, but she doesn’t like knowing that I still stop by to visit.”

Manaka down at the lush, green grass, which defied dry soil which surrounded all else. Even the trees couldn’t cover up the decay. She smiled and thought about her sister.

“I appreciate that she trusted this place to be her shelter once more. I’ve heard some nasty tales up in Saitama. Not just about the recent developments. She’s gone on, for years, in fact, about the one who made her a vampire.”

Manaka glanced over.

“Kei.”

Both said, yet in different tones. They each got mixed in with each other, like a sludgy kiss.

“I’ve never met this Kei, but I can perceive enough. I can perceive how Hiromi, or Hitomi, has perceived Kei. I can tell I’ve seen this pattern with her and others that I do now with her and you.”

Anger ran on a marathon between blood vessels, though Manaka knew not yet why.

“Shh,” Sayo raised a hand up. “She doesn’t kill everyone she attaches to. I too hope she can move on. I just wonder, because I can’t even remember seeing one overcome their yearning before.”

This time, Sayo gave off a wistful look into the distance, but then it was once again replaced by an impossible cheeriness.

“It’s not Kei who she yearns for. I can’t give it a name, but she may find what she yearns for in you. But then, what need would there be to be a vampire?”

“See, this is something I’ve thought about! If we can fulfill a vampire’s needs, it will be easier to convince them to seek a cure to their condition! It’s a win-win!”

Sayo’s head didn’t so much turn as it did creak. It felt as if Manaka’s ears were going to be split in two.

“Yet here I am: I achieved what I yearned of, but found a new yearning in the process: I yearned to be able to serve others in the day time, despite the curse placed upon me. I was able, over time, to withstand the sunlight, but in turn, I never sleep, save for a hibernation period where I sleep in isolation for three months.”

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Themes and Such

She landed in a grimy alleyway which was cold and grief stricken for what it used to be. There was a storm outside, and the sky was black and violet, as if the world was contained in a fresh scab. Her landing wasn’t soft, but wouldn’t have amounted to more than a bruised forehead in the manner in which she fell. Atop her fell a buffet of rain. It wasn’t pleasant, but more so than being burnt. Nearby rang a timpani sound that came from an old payphone. She didn’t have to look up to know what was going on.

Stood proud and cloaked in the night’s rain was a red and worn out phone booth. Kei groaned. She knew what they wanted as well. Her back arched as she ached to pull herself up from the cracked ground. She had to continually motivate herself each second of the way that, “yes, you have not had a good time in a while, but things will sort themselves out.”

With labored steps, she made her way to the dense and fogged up glass of one of the phone booth’s windows. Her movements were slow and deliberate as she reached for the door handle and entered. Inside was the phone which refused to give up on its incessant ringing. With certainty, she was bound for a migraine, or concussion. Whichever the dice happened to land on. But whichever the odds were more in favor of, the phone wasn’t doing her any favors.

When she lifted the phone, a flat-toned no-nonsense voice greeted you:

“Congratulations. Your debt has been repaid. You are now back in good standing.”

“Good standing with what?” Was what she almost asked, but the words were forced back down her throat. Instead, she asked the more prescient question:

“Did you make that portal that brought me back here?”

There was a miscarried pause. Silence akin to glass shattering. Then, the voice on the other end spoke up:

“Did you learn anything during your mission?”

Oh, sure. There’s giving a vague answer and then there’s just avoiding the question altogether. I can work out subtext, so if you have to be vague, just do so, but replying with a question of your own? Now that’s just rude. But fine, I’ll play along, Kei thought. A little more frustrated than she would have liked to admit. Not that she wasn’t used to the waltz with words that was common in the professional world, just that she wasn’t in the best state of mind. If she had a mind left to be in any sort of state at all.

Patience was a commodity and her pockets were empty.

“Yeah. I learned a lot,” she clicked her tongue as she began slipping against the booth and right back into old habits. “I learned that I can get horny, too. I learned that although I don’t understand why others would willingly subject themselves to such torture that I do find sexual stimulation to be quite pleasurable as well. I learned that I still don’t enjoy my pleasures, but likewise, the things I enjoy, I don’t take pleasure in.”

Now there was no stopping her. She couldn’t see anything from outside of the glass. It was too fogged up and the rain came down heavier now. It was the perfect time for a killer to strike, and better yet, to shut her up.

“I learned that what’s real and what’s not is a false dichotomy and it’s just as easy to say that at all times, the space I occupy is somewhere in between. I learned that if what separates the living from the dead is a heartbeat, then there’s no distinction at all. Because as it turns out, I don’t think I truly stopped being a vampire.”

Talking like this distracted her from the real pain she was in. Before she could rattle off more things she ‘learned’, the one on the other end asked:

“How do you figure?”

“Some may say that ‘love makes us human’ or ‘cooking food makes us human’ but I’ve known a vampire who has loved far deeper than any human I’ve ever met. Before I was drugged and made human, I knew how to cook, and even if it didn’t benefit me, having some basic skills helps one get by in life. Is it only the need for blood that makes one a vampire or that they have certain power based on what they yearn for? Is it that they’re constrained to the night and punished by the sun? Is it the inability to age or the lack of a heartbeat? I’ll tell you what: I learned that although I may not always remember names or faces, I don’t forget the experiences I have.”

The voice sounded satisfied as it crooned in response:

“And what does that make you? Vampire or human?”

“I’m Kei. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“So you are. But our records indicate that there was once a Japanese vampire named ‘Kei’ who was described as taller than you and far more dangerous. You’re an annoyance at best...and at worst. Are you to tell me that you’re the only Kei?”

Where there should have been a shiver down her spine was instead a shower of spite.

“What I like about this name is how common it is. It’s just as common as Ken or Ike. You will find no records of my family. My identity was erased before my first death. It doesn’t matter who that other Kei was.”

“So what do you want?”

The question was loaded, but open ended enough to work in her favor.

“It’s time I return to Japan. Drop me off somewhere vampires haven’t been known to occupy. And make my new name be Keiba Kei.”

“Very well, Ms. Keiba.”

The line went dead and Kei collapsed to the phone booth’s floor. Wherever she landed next, she hoped there would be a bar where she could satisfy what was left unfinished.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Washed

“So, tell me your story.”

The stringy, oily, black haired woman, as if she were a mermaid who grew legs and her hair was made of kelp and seaweed and she had an olive complexion glanced at the stranger who sat next to her at the bar. The stranger, unassuming, though equal in the messiness of her hair, looked sheepish.

“What’s there to tell?” She stared down at the glass.

The stranger, with her scraggly brown hair and sullen look as she stared down at the foggy, not quite clear glass of barley shochu. She wore a black pinstripe suit and thin black slacks, with dainty black suede shoes to top it all off. As fancy as her attire was, it had no place in an old tavern lit by candlelight, and worse, her overall demeanor came across as if she would have been kicked out of any fancy establishment. There were burn marks on her face, some scratches and bruises, uneven hairline.

That dark haired woman studied all of that and came to the conclusion that there had to be a story to tell.

“You show up here with no ID and then act surprised when you don’t get served.”

The stranger turned to the dark haired woman, her mouth hung low and the cells responsible for producing saliva must have been on lunch break, as she looked dryer than any ales on the menu.

“How was I to know? I just got back from Denmark!” The stranger gawked.

The woman stirred her drink, a glass of absinthe. Since the two sat, neither had taken a sip. She chuckled, then smirked.

“See? That’s a story right there. What were you doing there?”

The stranger, in silence, asked, “can I lie?”

Were it out loud, the curious woman might have scowled. Though so far, she’s been as enigmatic and nameless as the tavern itself. As if it came from a different time period altogether. Yet her plain white uniform and black jeans suggested that she likely just got off work.

Fatigue or fatalism, the stranger gave in. After all, the woman who also happened to be a stranger was the one who ordered both of their drinks. She might have been an apothecary or botanist were she the bartender. It seemed like whatever office job she may have had, poisoning was her true calling.

“I grew up there. I hated it,” the stranger laughed, but it was without sound. “Later, I moved to Japan, and lived what I thought was a quiet life, away from any kind of excitement. But some way or another, I always ended up in some kind of situation.”

Again, there was a laugh.

This whole time, in the silence of the dimly lit bar, everyone else seemed to be shades and pigments rather than being on the same plane of existence as the two facing each other. Even the bartender only appeared every once in a while from their periphery, and came across like a featureless shadow.

“Lately, I’ve been moving from place to place, trying to find that quiet again. I’m not the kind who likes having stories to tell, you know?”

The nameless woman, whose hair hung low onto the table, like overcooked and blackened udon.

“Yet you came here with a story anyway,” her voice had a heft, a rasp, but was told in whispers. A tired and chain smoking siren, if ever there was one. She reached over and nudged the brown haired stranger’s slumped shoulder. “How old are you, really?”

It was the brown haired one’s turn to face her conversation partner with a smirk. Not playful, if anything, just as pathetic as her prior gestures. “Do you want the real answer or the more plausible one?”

“Your pick. And do remember to drink what I got for you,” she teased. Really, both of them had been teasing each other, and there were no illusions that the two would ever meet again after that night.

The stranger’s smile widened. Whether it was authentic or genuine, not even the stranger knew.

“It’s my 18th birthday. I’ve cut contact with anyone I’ve made connections with, and yet it feels like it ought to be lonely to celebrate by myself. So I came here and decided to listen to others’ stories. Yet here I am, telling another stranger mine,” continued laughter followed. Again, nary a sound.

“That in itself is a story.”

There was a brief silence. Shapes began to fill what just a moment prior were mere shades. Each of them gulped their drink yet there was still half a glass left after they set their glass back down.

“What am I yearning for?” The stranger now asked herself. “I know others could probably come up with that answer for me. I don’t even believe in a normal life, so what am I trying to chase to begin with?”

The strange woman with her absinthe burst into laughter.

“Now that’s a good one!” She slammed her palm against the bar. The bartender, who the stranger still struggled to perceive, gave the dark-haired woman a side-eye. When she caught her breath, she cleared her throat.

“I’ll be honest with you: I won’t give you my story tonight. I also don’t come here often, and as far as I can tell, neither do you. I’ll go back to work and forget about you. And I don’t need you caring about me, so it’s better not to get a feel for me.”

The stranger, her smile wild, bitter, and genuine.

“This is the best present I could ask for,” she replied, then took another drink.

“I’m also not going to give you my number,” she said in a way that made the stranger think, “but wait, there’s more!” The lady continued, “but, I’ll give you my name if you give me yours.”

“Can I make one up?”

“Up to you.”

“Keihime. And yours?”

“Chikurin-in.”

The bar turned dark soon after, and the two strangers disappeared.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Royal Arena

Fire and frenzy. A friendly fire? Maybe. Kei’s head was dizzy. A fever welled up within her brought on by her increasing need to please her mistress further. What started as playing a role (and it was still as such, she just couldn’t think well while in the heat of the moment) became her reality. She couldn’t even see the one she served anymore, her head buried under the shadow of the dress. However light and fanciful it was outside, it was a calming night where Kei’s head rest: right between Fougasse’s thighs.

Her palm moved up without the rest of her in sync. Her left arm held the mistress’s right leg, while her right palm stroked between Fougasse’s legs and along the white layered cloth which made up her undergarments. Fougasse twitched and though Kei knew Fougasse, with what little blood she had, would remain cold throughout, her aching gasps and arching back, the strokes of Kei’s hair...that was all the proof she needed.

Kei slid aside the slit of Fougasse’s panties and leaned her face in. Her tongue was closer to Fougasse’s labial wall than her breath against those soft, ripe lips. Between those lips, she ran her tongue along and tasted the salty nectar which ran through the mistress.

Oh, Kei. Like a cat, your tongue is coarse and rough, but your touch and motions, so slow and gentle. You remind me of a kitten, lapping up a saucer bowl of milk, Fougasse thought amid the waves of pleasure which overtook her.

Both were swept up, as if their very proximity to each other was a smoke bomb going off and releasing volatile aphrodisiac mist. Neither noticed their surroundings, which made it all the sweeter that they were in a world of their own making.

Just like it was all the more sour when a raging infernal flame shot forth at an alarming velocity. Between the fluttering eyelids, Fougasse snapped out of her drunken lust and crossed her legs, clamped against Kei’s neck. Her tongue was still out, but less fun and more agonizing. She spun into the air, Kei in tow, and created a miniature cyclone with her spins. She soared over the flame and the air currents fanned it away.

Let me...at least...taste her clit, Kei begged not for her life, but something more practical, like continued pleasure.

When Fougasse landed back on the clouds, she opened her legs back up and Kei fell out. Fougasse stood tall, her face flushed and her craving for blood replaced her craving for entertainment. She turned her head, saw her throne in shambles, and clenched her fists.

“I knew you would be fine,” Fougasse growled.

From a distance, a tall gentleman, mangled and charred, shambled onto the cloud floor, high above the land.

“Naturally,” Gibassier wheezed. He held up his scepter and mustered a sly smile. “Not only that, but I heard everything. Looks like all this time, Kei and I were only around to clean up your mess. How am I not surprised?”

“Shut up! I didn’t need your help!” Fougasse stamped her foot and shouted.. Clouds dissipated only to reform.

“Oh? Is that why you requested aid twice? But never mind that, what’s this about the treasure being yours as well? Or should I say, I’ll be taking the treasure now!”

Kei crawled on her hands and knees out from Fougasse’s dress. She coughed up a storm, but truth be told, if she were to die between the lady’s pair of legs, she wouldn’t have had any complaints.

“What’s the deal, man?!” Kei turned her head to Gibassier as well. “Haven’t you ever heard of a vampire being eaten out? I was just getting started!”

Gibassier’s arm shook with unsteadiness, a crooked finger pointed at Kei.

“That’s also part of the problem! Do you know how many times I’ve had to sit around while you were out fucking? What if I wanted to fuck Hugo? Why am I the only one not getting action?” Gibassier aired out his grievances, which just made Kei blink once.

“Really, it’s not that big of a deal,” Kei muttered. “It’s just sex.”

That’s what she said, but what Gibassier heard was, ‘oh, so you’re a brat, too?’ Which may not have been far off from what Kei meant, anyway.

“Let’s just pick up where we left off,” Kei stood up and turned her back on Gibassier, pleading to Fougasse. “We can just ignore him.”

However, Fougasse’s scowl told a different story. The air turned black, not like night, but like the shadow under her dress.

“No. I’m no longer in the mood,” she growled. “I need to put this fool in his place.”

She materialized the orb and held it out in the palm of her hand, flashing it in front of Gibassier.

“Try and take it,” she taunted.

Kei looked around. Seeing as those two were about to fight, it really was for the best that she scramble on out of there, climax be damned. There were always women at a bar she could find and pick up later. If anything, she had Gibassier to thank for bringing her back to her senses. She began to tiptoe away when she felt a tug against her wrist. She looked down and saw a cuff, along with a shackle which attached itself back to Fougasse.

“Didn’t I tell you that I would have you forever?” She hissed.

“Oh, no. I was just thinking how bad I need to pee,” Kei lied, though her bladder said that it wasn’t a total lie.

“That’s it! The perfect revenge!” Gibassier shouted to the heavens with a stupid grin on his pompous face. Metallic stakes poked out from every direction and only targeted one place: the shackle. The chains broke in two and Gibassier shot a fireball which struck Kei in the back and knocked her over the clouds.

Kei fell, with a portal opening up which dropped into a random alleyway in southern Copenhagen.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Stained Lilies

Kei was a rascal and a scoundrel. A scamp and a tramp at the best of times. Devious and wily. Clever and smarter than she looked, and so much more. But beyond that, just like any old human with their flaws and vices, shortcomings and shortsightedness, Kei was not immune to poor decision making.

Through all their trials, she would have liked to have believed that she formed a great bond with Fougasse, the small and noble vampire in the frilled gothic dress she wore. Her silver hair rolled up into curls and powdered cheeks which gave her an innocent and fair appearance. Kei, who was never considered upper class, always knew their displays of kindness were a lie, but she couldn’t help herself but be swept up in Fougasse’s charm. Had Kei ever taken the time to think it over, she would have known that she was just as susceptible to being charmed by beautiful people as any other.

She handed Fougasse the cerulean orb. A prized possession for a magic user, as Fougasse was a witch as well as a vampire. She did so with no further hesitation and felt that extra weight wash over.

Fougasse swiped the orb out of Kei’s hands and caressed it.

“Ah, how I missed you,” she rubbed her face against the orb. “It really is a beauty, is it not?”

Kei smirked.

“Not as much of one as you, milady.”

Fougasse shifted her gaze from the orb, back down to Kei. Her long, curled eyelashes fluttered as Fougasse blinked a few times. It was the closest she could feel to a fluttering feeling in her chest, given her lack of heartbeat.

“That’s right,” a smile spread across her lips and her fangs poked out. Eventually she found herself with a toothy grin and a rosy complexion, filled with whoever’s blood still flowed through her. “Your obligations with that charity have been fulfilled. But your obligations with me, now that’s a different story.”

Kei gulped. She turned her head to avert the gaze of the haughty vampire. Below was a great chasm, a mountain range and quarry down in a ravine. Kei also noticed that rather than the disc that they had been floating on, their surface once again changed to that of a layer of clouds. They were high above the sky in Fougasse’s little world now.

A throne materialized which Fougasse strode over and took her place in. She crossed her legs and for a moment, Kei thought she looked taller than just a moment prior. Like sitting there gave her legs an upgrade.

I want to kiss her legs. From her ankles to her thighs. I want to kiss between her legs. I wanna leave little bite marks on her inner thighs. I want to draw blood, even if she doesn’t have much to draw. I don’t even care that she’s the vampire and I’m not. I want to taste her salty sweat against my tongue, thoughts flooded Kei at a rate much faster than she could handle.

Fougasse simply laughed. Her laughter echoed across the land.

“I can hear your thoughts, Kei. They’re not exactly quiet.”

Kei blinked. She wasn’t aware that Fougasse could do that. Or maybe the orb allowed her to. She felt dizzy and also unable to control herself past the simple command of ‘march over and give the mistress some loving.’

The orb disappeared, which only meant that Fougasse put it away for now and had no further need for it.

“Your eyes do not fool you. I was always just a little taller than you saw me. Losing my precious orb stripped me much of my power and made me take on a lesser form.”

Fougasse’s explanations are useless. They just buzzed in through one of Kei’s ears and torpedoed out the other. All Kei could do was march over to serve her mistress. She found herself knelt down by Fougasse’s feet and she rubbed her cheek against Fougasse’s knee, finding a comfortable warmth between Fougasse’s legs. For the mistress’s part, she opened her legs and stroked Kei’s hair.

“Yes. Serve me well. For all the humiliation you caused me. For fooling around with others. For not divulging your plans to me. For keeping yourself hidden from me. Your mistress desires you. All of you.”

Oh, what sweet music those words were. Kei forgot how sweet it was to be desired. But hearing those words, Kei could no longer help herself but let her worst impulses take over. She began to stroke Fougasse’s lower leg over the lady’s silky, white stockings.

One hand rest over Fougasse’s mouth, allowing herself to steady her limp and ragged breaths. Her other hand continued to stroke Kei’s hair, a sign of approval.

Kei planted light kisses against Fougasse’s leg. As if a stationary dance, she turned her head in intervals to service the other leg, making sure each were given soft affirmations.

However, Kei was not born with inherent grace, and every how and then her kisses turned wet, sloppy, even. Even then, Fougasse had no objections. Kei lifted the hem of Fougasse’s skirt, the one which tied her dress together, and found a home for her head in there, which was both warm and inviting. She could have fallen asleep and used Fougasse’s thighs as a headrest then and there, but that wouldn’t have sufficed.

Kei undid the garterbelt which held Fougasse’s stockings up and slid them down. She took little nibbles and sucked against the lady’s inner thighs. Not a drop of blood leaked out, and yet Fougasse’s voice, her heavenly, yet impudent voice, broke through.

“Ah, yes. Good,” Fougasse laughed in between her hurried breaths. “You shall serve and stay with me for all time. That way, you shall never forget about me.”

Kei knew that wasn’t what in her agenda. She had her own life to return to, one much less lucrative or exciting. But try as she might, she couldn’t pull herself away.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Ponder

Fougasse’s palm found its way planted into her face. Floating in air, she couldn’t believe what she was witnessing: her apprentice, a troublesome but oft reliable scamp, licked an orb like it was a lollipop. It wasn’t just any orb, but a cerulean one. There were many varieties of orbs to collect and fondle, but the cerulean one was special because of how smooth and sleek it was. With it, one didn’t need a lamp or flashlight, as it provided enough light to fill up a room all on its own.

“You fool! That is the treasure!” She shouted.

“It is?” The ogre scratched his chin with one of his limbs.

“Are you sure? I’m pretty sure it’s just a salt rock. Here, taste it,” Kei held it out.

“No! You have it now! Don’t let the ogre have it! With it, you can alter the world to your whim!”

Weird. I thought I could already do that, Kei stared down at the orb, perplexed.

“Demand yourself, witch!” Belched the ogre. The whole air glistened with the scent of sewage.

“What did you think the treasure you were guarding was? Hmm?” Fougasse tapped her foot midair. Kei hoped Fougasse was asking the ogre, and not her, as Kei didn’t put any thought to it.

“The chest! That’s why it’s called a treasure chest!” The ogre answered.

Kei could excuse the confusion, though she wouldn’t have thought a box was the treasure itself. She had more pressing questions, however.

“So how does this work? I just think about something and the world shifts?” Kei looked down at the orb. Maybe she needed more sodium in her diet, but the strong urge to lick again overtook her. She slapped herself to save herself from the embarrassment.

“Yes! That’s what the ogre was doing this whole time!”

“Liar! I had that power already!” The ogre argued.

“Kei. Hand over the orb. I know how to use it better than anyone else here.”

Loathe as she was to deny her mistress, Kei wasn’t quite ready to give in to demands just yet. First, she thought of an even playing field, one high above the clouds where all three of them stood on the same platform, one which looked like a large vinyl disc. Next, she shrunk the ogre down to only a little taller than herself. Something the ogre didn’t appreciate, but Kei sure did.

“That feels better,” Kei marveled at the orb. No wonder the bloodstained railroad wanted it so bad.

Both the ogre and Fougasse looked desperate for the orb. The ogre with a pouty face, and Fougasse with a stern expression.

“Give it back to me and I promise to give you anything you desire,” the ogre pleaded. “You want Roux back, I can give her back.”

“Who?” Kei tilted her head.

“The lady in the family you met when you arrived here!”

Kei just stared at the ogre in silence.

“There...was a family. But I don’t see why bring them up now. I mean, that’s ancient history, right?”

Now it was the ogre’s turn to be stunned into silence. He could have sworn Kei was the more heroic type, the kind who would have done anything to save another’s life. But he saw now how once there were no lives to save, Kei no longer cared.

“Look: my mission wasn’t ever to take the treasure, myself. My goal was to help kill you. However, if you want to live, how about serving as my familiar? I can’t begin to say how envious I am of other vampires having familiars. What do you say?”

“No! I serve no one!” He shouted again and Kei fell back onto her bum, grasping the orb in her hands as she fell.

“I’m not being unreasonable, here! I just want a cool familiar!” Kei yelled back. In that same instant, a blade longer than any katana Kei had ever seen (mostly in museums) struck through the ogre’s heart from behind. Black blood seeped out. Kei gasped, though was also a little thankful. She imagined a familiar wasn’t unlike a pet and on second thought, she wasn’t ready for the responsibility that came with feeding and taking care of one.

This is the second time I’ve been face to face with someone being impaled in front of me, Kei noted before catching her breath.

“I’d say you did your job well. You helped me kill the ogre and retrieve the treasure,” spoke Fougasse, still stern in her expression with an even, firm voice. “That ogre was one of my creations, and for that, I apologize. He was rather...defective. I’m sure Gustav told you that the ogre was furry, but by the time you got here, the ogre already decided to go bald.”

“That’s interesting. So I take it this whole pocket dimension is actually yours?”

To that, Fougasse grinned.

“Yes! And it was a nice retreat until that ogre decided to have a will of his own. He was just supposed to be a construct to guard my safe haven, you know? I go on vacation for ONE MONTH and next thing I know, this whole place turned upside down.”

“I can sympathize. I once forgot to clean my apartment for a month and then I got confused when I noticed how dirty it had gotten.”

Fougasse blinked. How is that in any way comparable? She thought, rather frustrated.

“Now. Be a good girl and hand my orb over.”

Kei loosened her grip. Whatever happened next wasn’t of any concern to her. Everything else was taken care of and she could finally return to her own world with a boring life to look forward to until her time of dying. Still, it felt too easy. Not that Kei minded easy, but the convenience was rather suspicious.

Kei stared down at the orb.

“Is it really that easy?” She wondered aloud.

“Yes. Once you hand it to me, your obligations with the bloodstained railroad will be fulfilled.”

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Romancing a Pearl

The ogre knew a bluff when he heard one. Ever since claiming dominion on the realm, he had learned much about the behavior of others and what they would do to get what they wanted. All that small vampire was good for was making bluffs. Especially those she couldn’t keep. Though now she had bypassed many of his obstacles laid out for her and that tall gentleman of a vampire, she was still ill-prepared to face something as large and mighty as himself. Multiple times already, her and that tall nuisance ran off with their tails between their legs before he could have finished the job with killing them for dare encroaching on his territory. Now that would end. One of his eyes which formed out of a free space on his thick skin of his face noticed the tall one on the ground, buried under the weight of the boulder.

He laughed heartily and swung his arm forward. That same arm held Fougasse and she braced for collision.

Think! Think! She urged herself. Her thoughts ended up drifting back to Kei. That poor excuse for both a human and a vampire. Not half of either, but some kind of counterfeit of both. It wasn’t just the punishment of a ruthless hag which Kei needed, but divine punishment from a fearsome witch. It may have been the spirit’s blood from earlier, but Fougasse felt a strange warmth welling up within her as she thought of all the punishments and torture she had in store for the one who went by ‘Kei’. After all, that pathetic creature had already swore herself as Fougasse’s apprentice.

Fougasse licked her lips.

I’ll have to punish her extra for making me cast such an unsightly spell, she decided before chanting in ragged whispers a spell that coated herself in a smooth and oily substance.

In the same instance that the giant slammed his fist against the cliff face, Fougasse slipped out and chanted another spell which let her float on a circular platform in air. She caught her breath and felt for a heart that would not beat, as if on some primal instinct.

“Tenacious as ever,” the ogre growled. He bore his tusks which he didn’t have just a moment ago and pulled them out from his mouth. Blood dripped down from his mouth and he held the two tusks like boulder-sized stakes. He leaped down from the cliff face and stood at the ground of the quarry, taller than the pit that once held a mountain in place. A massive, towering wall of a creature.

And the extra limbs? Well, none added to his legs at the bottom, further ensuring that he was indeed bipedal. When other limbs grew, they grew on places like his upper back, torso, or head.

“This ends now!” He bellowed.

Fougasse stared at eye level with the ogre. She gave no smile. Her face would have been suited not just for poker, but also old maid and cribbage.

Indeed, if the ogre was a mind reader, he would have already heard her think something along the lines of, “good going. You left your so-called treasure unguarded.

Unfortunately, it was a touch of not showing her hand as well as not revealing her concern over the fact that mountainside had caved in on the side where the treasure lay. If it really meant so much to him, why would he risk breaking it?

That’s because he’s an idiot, Fougasse reminded herself, but stifled her laughter.

Oh. Right. She was also worried because Kei went into the mine passage below for whatever reason (she didn’t even give one) and if that passage had caved in, along with the treasure, Kei was as good as dead.

On the ground Gibassier still lay. That was fine. If he was as good as dead (it was hard to tell with vampires, unfortunately), that just meant Fougasse could claim all the glory for herself.

The ogre noticed Fougasse’s hesitation. Maybe he didn’t pick up on the meaning, but he did pick up on the fact that the third party member was absent. Either that rat turned tail and ran, or was hiding somewhere.

“Hey, where’s your plus one?” The ogre asked.

“Beats me. You probably crushed her while she was trying to run away. You really scare her, you know?”

His large mouth curled into a grin.

“Good,” he bellowed and birds from over the horizon flew away in terror.

He really thought he had won and maybe he was right. Fougasse didn’t have any spell readily available to take on the ogre on her own, and it was a shame her attempt at a distraction didn’t pan out.

“Hey, uh, Mistress…?” A weak and feeble voice called out. Not weak and feeble because it sounded in pain, but because weak and feeble was the natural state for such a voice in Fougasse’s eyes.

“There you are! Apprentice Kei!” Fougasse noticed the speck behind the giant ogre’s back and standing in front of the ruins which once made the cliff wall cave where the ogre’s so-called treasure lay.

“Yeah, I think there’s been a mistake. I looked all over for a treasure, and I was going to continue searching when I heard the commotion outside,” Kei explained and that was when Fougasse noticed the cuts and soot all over her apprentice. She must have sacrificed a great deal. “In the end, I couldn’t find anything of value.”

Oh, those poor, insignificant words. They would have been enough to leave Fougasse’s heart to shatter had it not shattered over a couple of centuries ago.

“You mean...it’s not there?” Fougasse asked. The ogre, too, took note of Kei behind him and growled.

“What is the meaning of this?” The ogre demanded.

“I don’t know, you tell me,” Kei shrugged. “All I found was this cerulean stone. I mean, it’s smooth and pretty, but I can’t imagine it’s treasure worthy,” Kei licked the stone. “Oh, sea salt?”

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Dream Weaver

Rather inarticulate, the ogre roared again, tore off a chunk of the mountainside and made it into a boulder in which to throw at the three vampires. Fougasse and Kei dodged it with ease. Gibassier, who had just woken up after being struck by a bolt of lightning was not so lucky and was crushed under the weight of the boulder. Once again, Kei’s jaw dropped and she would have let out a scream had she the energy to do so.

“Don’t worry. He’s survived worse,” Fougasse assured. Really, she didn’t care if Gibassier died then and there and Kei got that impression already. She didn’t know who Fougasse was trying to fool.

The ogre, towering as he was, was also without a defined form. Even up close (or as close as he could be without attacking directly) his form kept shifting; sometimes bipedal and loomed over the mountainside, while other times grew and retracted limbs all across its hulking frame. Sometimes, no teeth at all, while other times tusked fangs.

Kei looked around. She wasn’t totally stunned. Yes, she was out of her element. And yes, she didn’t know what treasure was supposed to be claimed and only knew that the giant ogre guarded it. But at the end of the day, it was still a job. She spotted just under the ogre’s head which hung low to stare down her and Fougasse a shadowy hole.

That must be it, Kei thought.

“Could you keep our baby busy?” Kei called over to Fougasse as she began running into one of the nearby mines.

“What are you doing?! Are you running from battle?” Fougasse stamped her foot. She was getting rather tired of her apprentice making the orders. She really should have known her place. Not to mention, Fougasse thought, she’s the weakest one here.

“You’re good at spellcrafting, right?” Kei checked, still calling out as she ran. It was a rhetorical question. Well I’m good at mine...never mind.”

Kei shook her head. She didn’t need to explain everything. That ogre already displayed an understanding of speech as well as a power and intelligence unbecoming of such an oaf. It was one thing to explain her process when not in earshot of the ogre, but now, at the final battle, she couldn’t even trust her own thought process to be sound.

But sound never mattered. She could block it all out. In such a dream world, it was important to remember that none of the rules changed from what others considered a ‘real’ world.

She ran through her mind while running through the mine. Desperation turning toward delusion. All of the pieces that should have been there, even if she had never visited the places she needed to see shifted into something which suited her better: just a little cave with cave paintings and an old, dead lantern on a shelf. On a lower shelf, a pickaxe. On the floor nearby, a crate. Sturdy, even in its decay and able to support a petite but rugged vampire.

The position didn’t need to be exact, but it helped to find a place where she could chip away at the ceiling. By just imagining the ceiling as a little bit lower than it was, thus it was able to be. She got to work, chipping and mining away like it was her calling. In character, she imagined herself much shorter, stockier, a brimmed cap, and a long, white beard. That was the only thing she couldn’t change.

Unlike the ogre, she couldn’t change the whole world around her. Unlike Fougasse or Gibassier, she couldn’t cast spells. The best she could do with the world she was placed in was imagine a world more manageable. It would have to be enough.

Soon, a hole was dug which became a crawlspace. Though she couldn’t transform into a caterpillar (she was aware of vampires powerful enough to shapeshift, yet she knew of one, nor was she one), she could still fulfill the role. That cramped space she dug up would be her cocoon. Or her tomb. When she emerged, she would still be fried and mangled, but reborn, with a treasure.

Partway up, a silverfish as large as a fresh cooked omurice emerged from stone and many lice-like silverfish babies emerged from little pockets in its scales. They cut away at Kei’s cheeks with their razor sharp legs. As for the large one itself, Kei didn’t have time to worry about such trifle things like injuries. She just grabbed that scaled creature by its abdomen and squeezed. Even as she felt scrapes against her one soft palms, she didn’t loosen her grip.

But rather than squeeze it to death, she did the more logical thing and gave a silent prayer of gratitude to the creature while using its still living (if it had a life to begin with) form to tear away at the stone ceiling above.

The pebbles which fell didn’t deter her. She could ignore that. Not that she could ignore pain, but that she could ignore any existence entirely. As if she was merely half-awake.

Outside, the ogre pounded on the cliffside wall.

“You will not take my treasure!” He declared and reached out to grab Fougasse. She gasped and took a step back. She deployed a shield spell, but its limb – or sea of limbs, shattered the shield and grasped Fougasse tight.

She struggled to free herself from the grasp and her bones compressed. She wouldn’t let them crack. That would have been unladylike. As would admitting defeat against something so large and ugly.

“Your treasure? Is that because you claimed it as yours or has it belonged to you to begin with?” She sneered and dragged out each word.

“Fool! Anything in this world is mine! If I let you live, you will become mine as well! As will that tall nuisance, and that new outsider!”

Fougasse shook her head and said:

“Yet I won’t let you live,” she smirked.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Reverb Can't Hurt

On the other side of the cavernous, mucky and dark path, lie the mountainous quarry. Deposits of rocks in a pile, broken tracks which may have once led somewhere, or never led anywhere. Mine shafts which were repurposed into hovels and mud huts within. Some of it made sense, others looked like pure collision. The others had seen this structure before, even if it had shifted a few times since their last visit (the ogre was nothing if not indecisive), so they weren’t impressed. For Kei, it was her first time, but as harsh as the smoky air was, she was unfazed. The scent of sulfur lingered in the cloudy sky. Overhead, on the face of one of the cliffs, was a tall windmill tower which was on fire.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s always on fire,” Gibassier pointed out, as if that was ever a worry. Maybe it was the source of the toxic air. Or maybe the air was always meant to be like that.

No sign of any ogre yet, but atop one of the cliffs were a pair of giraffes. They just as quickly vanished when Kei squinted.

“Where’s the ogre, anyway?” Kei asked, still looking around and taking in the carcinogenic environment. Everything was so drab and gray that the ogre could have easily used the element of stealth.

“Probably hasn’t noticed us yet,” Fougasse stepped forward. There may have been a landmine nearby and she just happened to sense it in time, because she had one foot raised up, but then set it behind her other. A half-step backwards, if you will. She gave Kei a side-eyed glare and groaned, “it’s hard to concentrate when I think about how loud you are when you’re asleep.”

Kei gulped.

Did she overhear the conversation between Klaus and I? Damn, she thought.

“Your heartbeat is too noisy! I’m so glad I don’t have one of those when I sleep! Could you imagine?” She crossed her arms and leaned forward. Kei thought for a moment that Fougasse looked like a little baby Canadian goose.

Gibassier laughed.

“Right? You’re noisy enough when you’re awake,” he added, hand on his chin.

Fougasse cast a spell which sent a bolt of lightning over Gibassier’s head. He turned stiff while a flash of light engulfed him, then he keeled over. Kei’s jaw was on the rocky and dry dirt floor.

“He’ll be fine,” she waved her hand away. “Now,” she paced over to Kei and stood on her tiptoes. She pressed herself against Kei and laid her palm over Kei’s chest, right where her heart sat. Despite Fougasse’s cold hand, Kei’s hand warmed the same.

“Even faint, you can hear it. Feel it.”

Kei looked down on the silky hair of the prissy princess.

“But if I don’t acknowledge it, it’s as good as not being there at all.”

Fougasse looked up. Her eyes were big. And blue (and sometimes green, brown, or red). And glassy. Despite knowing there were no need for vampires to have tear ducts, it looked like she was about to cry.

“But having one is how you know you’re alive.”

Those words sounded familiar, but for the life or unlife of her, Kei could not figure out how, where, or why.

Fougasse pressed herself closer and lowered her other hand down to Kei’s waist. Fougasse’s hot bloody breath grew heavier.

“If a heart beats without a body, does that mean the heart itself is alive?” Kei wondered aloud. Or maybe to distract herself from the déjà vu.

“And a beating heart is a bleeding heart,” Fougasse drew out each word as if every letter were a song only she knew.

“That’s funny. Someone I once knew said that.”

Fougasse pulled away, but maintained eye contact.

“Oh. Who?”

Kei chuckled and scratched the back of her head.

“That’s the thing: whenever I’m no longer involved with someone, I tend to just forget about them.”

Fougasse continued to back away, but only a pace or two.

“So you lack object permanence when it comes to others?” She inquired.

“That makes it sound like I see people as objects. Besides, once I became human again, I started remembering those I once forgot.”

Kei felt bile rise in her stomach. The most likely cause was anxiety and not due to the hot blood she had partaken in not long ago. Just the idea of uttering the word ‘human’ or referring to herself as such seemed like enough to draw out the ogre. Sure, that’s what they all wanted, anyway, but not too soon.

“Yet you wish to return to forgetting?” Fougasse pursed her lips.

“It’s just easier. Once it’s gone, there’s no use letting it affect me.”

Fougasse paused. Why such a thing worried her so, she didn’t know, but it wasn’t just worry: it was irritation. It was as if an impromptu debate was set up and winning said debate was a matter of life or death.

“You think you’re moving on by forgetting, but you’re just forgetting.”

Kei scowled. She may not have even been conscious that she did, but she did.

“I didn’t come here to have a therapy session. Shouldn’t you be treating me like a worthless mutt?” Kei retorted.

“I just know that if one of my maidservants did something naughty and I needed to punish her, it’s best to remember who to punish.”

“Yes, but you see, I could do that. You could hide from me right now and I would still remember you because we’re working together. Once we stop working together, there’s no reason to remember you. That’s also why I’m not worth being charmed by.”

Yet in turn, you see others as not worth remembering after they’re gone? Fougasse didn’t dare ask aloud.

A large shadow enveloped the already murky environment. Soon after came a roar which send shockwaves through the air and ended the debate prematurely in a stalemate. Both Kei and Fougasse quivered as the owner of the roar loomed over.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Quiet Tempest

“What’s your status?”

“OK. So...the other two vampires are asleep right now. I may be a bit of an insomniac or I really value my privacy, but I just have another concern…”

There was a sigh on the other end. Rather, a groan. Not a moan. Next, shuffling could be heard in the background.

“You’re a special case. That doesn’t mean I want you blowing up my phone with the little orb I gave you just because you start hesitating.”

Kei sat up against the cavern wall. It made for a nice headboard and while she was dealing with some serious burns, she had her androgynous good looks restored thanks to some pseudo-restoration magic which Gibassier happened to have on hand. He waved it across while chanting something neither she nor Fougasse could hear. The next thing she saw, her burn marks had disappeared and her hair was like it was before it was singed off. That wasn’t to say she was no longer in pain (it wasn’t a healing spell, after all). In fact, her pain was excruciating, but at least she looked unblemished and like she still had a full head of short, scruffy hair.

Fougasse was resting atop Kei’s bare chest. Gibassier, who had a light undershirt, decided to lend Kei his cloak to use as a blanket while he hung upside down from the cavernous ceiling. It would have been unnerving had she not been impressed. Fougasse, meanwhile, would on occasion, open her eyes wide before shutting them again. There was no reason to go into what Fougasse did with Kei after they staked their claim of rest. There was no reason because there was no good blood to extract from Kei. Neither worthwhile as a human nor as a vampire, yet even without being affected by the notion of a charm spell, Fougasse couldn’t yet let Kei go or accuse her of being useless.

“I’m a special case, huh? Then how come you’re treating me as expendable and giving me the cold shoulder?” Kei rasped back into the little spinning orb which transmitted vocal vibrations.

“You’re a special case because you’re not yet a vampire. We usually only assist vampires. And two, you killed a vampire, something which goes against our rules in the first place. We’re a charity service, so it’s not like we’re going to send death squads after you, but we can still deny you service. The fact that I gave you an assignment to put you back in good standing should be seen as kindness enough.”

The ravens outside of the cave entrance crowded around and served as a wall. It kept any light from leaking in and kept any monsters out. Kei should have been thankful for that, but the present could wait until the future was secure.

“What about them? Are they not ‘special cases’? They seem pretty powerful. And evil. What time period are they even from? Not mine, I take it. Are they being punished as well?”

Another groan. Kei could sympathize. She knew how troublesome it was to deal with vampires, and not to mention the fact that whoever she was speaking with (whether it be Klaus or Gustav), this was just their volunteer gig. Their main job was at a carpet store and he probably had to deal with irritating customers all the time. But it was because Kei could sympathize that she needed confirmation.

“This isn’t about morality and this isn’t your punishment. Does a boss punish a worker with work?”

There was a pause on both ends. Mostly because Kei wanted to answer with, “yes” and she sensed that the carpet salesman would have answered his own question in the affirmative.

“Sorry. Bad analogy. I forgot who I was dealing with,” he resumed. Kei also forgot that she had a history that must have been well documented. That was rather dreadful. She considered making her next quest to purge any records of her from anyone’s prying eyes, but that was too far in the future to worry about. “You have the same strength you did when you were a full vampire. This shouldn’t be a challenge for you.”

That’s the thing: I was never very powerful, Kei thought. She also thought about how the other vampires she was made to assist were much more powerful and yet they struggled just as well. Still, she decided to play along.

“You’re right. It’s an interesting drug and so easy to take regularly. All I have to do is let the two red tablets dissolve under my tongue and I can feel its effects. That’s what I’ve been concerned about,” she lied, but at least she wasn’t a tsuchinoko. “If someone was never bitten, but continually took these drugs, wouldn’t they be no different from a vampire?”

There was another pause. Fougasse stirred in her sleep and reached her palms up to Kei’s neck as if to try to choke Kei in her sleep. Her head remained resting atop Kei’s left breast. Unlike the morning prior, Kei was at ease. While Kei had a heartbeat, those vampires at rest had no such thing, and no sign of breathing when they weren’t animated.

“More research needs to be done in that field, but hypothetically…” Klaus (that’s the name Kei decided upon once again, even if he might have been a Gustav) trailed off, obviously not wanting to finish that statement. Luckily for him, Kei had a different statement.

“Hypothetically, I may have forgotten when my birthday was. Sometime in December, was it? With that in mind, we’re going to awaken in the afternoon to head to the quarry where the ogre resides. We’re recovering after a long night in the woods and you know how vampires are with sunlight, anyway. This place is unpredictable. For all I know, whatever windows of sunlight there are might just be artificial. It’s a shame you’re not here to see the world as I do,” Kei smiled before ending the call.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: All Other Birds Will Acquiesce To the Crow

If one knew a spell, one only had to think of such a spell, and then it would be cast. Easy for those who have mastered the hard parts. Of course, saying the name of a spell was fine, but it wouldn’t actually make you cast the spell you wanted to cast. In Fougasse’s case, she forgot she even had such a useless spell such as ‘waterspout’. Most of the time, it really was useless. Other spells, like, ‘downpour’ and ‘flood’ were much more useful, but Fougasse hadn’t yet mastered those spells as she hadn’t yet reached that proficiency level. It was a sore spot for her, best not to be brought up in her presence.

What made waterspout useless, in most cases, was how it was little more than a trickle. Less than a rain, more of a mist. Maybe a sprinkle. Fun for party favors, but as an offensive spell, it did her little good. Still, she was desperate and Kei clearly thought it was a good idea, so spout the water did…

Little wet drops fell from who knew where and cleared out the smoke, but did little against the flames of the phoenix. Gibassier looked up, struggling to keep the barrier intact, but still had enough strength to snicker. It really was amusing seeing the little lady make such a pathetic counterattack. Never mind the fact that he was in the same peril the other two were.

He noticed the energy shield start to crack and shatter. He gasped. He was about to be knocked down and Fougasse would be the next domino, along with Kei, being the most wrecked piece.

“Fine! I’ll chip in!” He spat.

In the same instance that he added his own waterspout spell to the mix (yes, he had access to more powerful water magic, but was too committed to the bit of matching Fougasse’s energy to do anything more powerful than that) and what started as a mist turned more into a shower, or the cool rain of November.

That had more of an effect and this time the titanic phoenix’s flames diminished. Soon, it was more like a giant, flying fried chicken. Oh, but that wasn’t yet their victory. Even weighed down by the (really, not heavy at all) rain, the phoenix was relentless in its drilling down of the barrier and before Gibassier’s eyes, the barrier shattered into little blue glassy particles which cut into his suit. He fell over, but Fougasse was wise enough to leap forward before falling as well.

Gibassier was pecked out and he screamed like a banshee who could have been Kei’s long-lost grandmother. At first, Fougasse laughed at his misery, but then decided to show her rival some mercy.

“It would be disadvantageous for you to die,” she said before raising her arm up and waving her fingers around. Kei looked up, watched a black spiral form in the air, then scatter into a mass-murder of ravens, out for blood just like their master was when hungry.

They all landed down upon the phoenix and tore away at its skin. It covered like ants on a sugar cube and picked off pieces to take home, wherever that may be.

Gibassier scrambled up. Him now cut up, but bloodless, so looked more like Jarlsberg cheese. The phoenix, which could have been reborn, had its bits not resting in the stomachs of various corvids. Fougasse looked at its picked apart remains and smiled wider than the fire which continued to spread outward.

“Since when did you have ravens as your familiars? I thought your familiars were toads,” Gibassier croaked and used his scepter as a cane to balance himself up.

“Toads are my witch familiars. Ravens are my vampire familiars. Since I’m both a witch and a vampire, I get two!” Fougasse boasted. To that, Gibassier rolled his eyes.

Wait. Vampires can have familiars? Why didn’t I get that ability? Or maybe I always have. Maybe the girls I charm are my familiars? But I don’t know if I want that kind of responsibility. Controlling people would be so much work, Kei thought, but let the scene between the other two vampires play out with no interruption.

“I must say, too, it looks like you took the least damage out of all three of us this fight!” Gibassier rolled out another complaint.

“Why, of course! A proper lady need not be tarnished,” Fougasse smirked, hand on her chest.

“I guess that makes me an improper lady,” Kei chimed in, even though she had vowed just prior not to interject. Oh well, she couldn’t always keep promises to herself.

There was a silence amongst everyone. Not even Kei laughed at her own remark. That’s how she knew what she said wasn’t all that funny. It would have been too awkward now to acknowledge that it was a joke at all, so Kei changed the subject.

“Onward?” She asked.

Another pause. That time wasn’t a joke, but it did damper her spirits to be subjected to another round of silence.

However, another moment later, Fougasse spoke up.

“Sorry, I spaced out. What were you saying?” She sounded sincere, but now Kei was the one stunned into silence.

“I was lost in thought,” Gibassier admitted, “but I do think we have a little bit of night left. However, by the time we reach the mountain quarry where the ogre resides, dawn will have broken. Then we’ll be at our weakest.”

Fougasse nodded.

“But if we linger here, we’ll be swept up in this forest fire. Not to mention, there could be other creatures ready to strike.”

“That’s right,” Kei nodded along. “There was a blue shark earlier. I guess it fled in the commotion. There could be other, more dangerous creatures we haven’t yet encountered. They’ll just slow us down further.”

“There should be a tunnel which leads to the quarry. Let’s go there and rest after I redecorate,” Fougasse decided, “my ravens will guard the entrance.”

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Dead Heat

Through the fire and flames, she ran. The path of most resistance indeed. She’d suffer burns and extra hot, too, given her vampire status and all. It wasn’t her smartest decision, and yes, there were other directions she could have ran, but she’d burn to a crisp than give in to the lies of fat snakes. Even though she should have been safe from such annoyances, she still heard their falsehoods from behind her.

“That fire won’t hurt you,” fibbed one.

“We’re friendly! We just want to have a conversation with you!” Called out another in desperation.

Kei’s met a few actually kind tsuchinoko back in Japan. Whether these ones were the real deal or constructs (a working theory of hers, based on the ogre’s M.O.), but either way, they acted like the real deal. See, actual friendly tsuchinoko don’t say that they’re friendly. Instead they’ll say something like:

“I hate you and hope you get mauled by a bear,” or “I bet you have no friends! I’d never want to be friends with someone so ugly like you!”

Of course, they always meant the opposite and it just took a little bit of math to figure out what they really meant. Most of the time, the math was simple. See, tsuchinoko were liars, as they told only lies, but they weren’t good liars, and it was usually pretty clear through their actions what they truly meant. Thus, Kei could tell that these tsuchinoko were anything but friendly.

I’m going to die and all I can think of is how annoying these fat snakes are, Kei thought as the flames seared her skin and singed her hair. Likewise, she thought, or I’ll live and my ugliness from these burns will drive away anyone who might otherwise be charmed by me. Then maybe finally I can get some peace. Yeah. It’s all about the silver linings.

Fougasse also had to look at the bright side of life: yes, the phoenix, who was much faster than Kei, regrouped with the other creatures, and even combined with the other phoenixes to make one, much larger phoenix, but at least now there was only the one phoenix to deal with. That made things much more manageable, as long as she could hold out long enough.

However, that gargantuan phoenix flapped its infernal and all-encompassing (it was as if the once dark sky was stained with a permanent blood orange glow) wings. Trees not only caught fire, but blew off from the roots itself and crashed its way to the ground. Through sheer determination, both Fougasse and Gibassier stood, even with their knees buckled, and braced for anything.

After the phoenix stopped flapping, it let out a piercing shriek as if to signal immense disappointment at the fact that those two vampires remained alive and unharmed.

“How are you holding up?” Gibassier turned his head to ask the much smaller Fougasse. By happenstance, their backs were to each other and that was maybe the most physical with each other they would ever let each other be.

“That is not the question. The question is: ‘how will I be doing in an hour from now?’ And the answer is, ‘we’ll soon find out’” Fougasse answered with a smirk.

The phoenix made itself into some kind of flaming missile and launched itself against Gibassier and Fougasse at once. Its beak, sharp and erect, as long and thin as the wittiest of rapiers. It had essentially become a drill on fire. The two combined their magical power into an extra large barrier spell which shielded them from the phoenix’s strike. Even still, the heat was on.

Soon, the whole forest, once dark shades of green and a pitch turquoise night, now a beautiful canvas of a smoky sky with fields of various shades of red in a mesmerizing gradient. Too bad it was too painful for anyone to enjoy it.

Kei arrived back in the circle, coughing and covered in soot. Her clothing, some grafted onto her skin, other parts torn, while her hair was half gone, and the other half had gone missing. Be it sheer blind and delusional luck, she was pretty sure that the tsuchinoko had all been burnt in their pursuit of her. She wobbled, stumbled into where Fougasse was.

“He-e-y mistress,” Kei greeted. She looked more drunk than immolated, and maybe that’s what fire did to someone like Kei. Fougasse, never one to measure the power level of another, just assumed it was possible that Kei was both very weak in terms of offensive power, but was durable enough to be the mightiest vampire in history. That, or maybe the suffocating fumes got Fougasse drunk as well and her ability to reason had turned into a pig and flapped its wings far, far away.

“My, you look dreadful,” Fougasse teased. Even struggling against a great beast, she couldn’t help but beat upon the less fortunate.

“Are you kidding? I’d say I’m hotter than ever,” Kei joked back, though her words were slurred and it took Fougasse’s more refined ears to parse what was said.

Yep. Kei was about ready to collapse. It was nice enough to know that her lady and the tall entourage wasn’t tarnished. Except...wait a second? Fougasse may have acted like a mistress, but Kei didn’t want to die having to defer to someone spoiled rotten. Just as her face was ready to kiss dirt, she jolted up and shouted.

“Teach me a spell!” Kei demanded.

“What good would that do now?” Fougasse shouted back as she put her palms into keeping the shield spell stable. “Anything I could teach you I could do, myself!”

That was true. And after giving it a second thought, if Kei learned magic, she would become more powerful than she already was, and that meant more attention would be put on her. In other words, it was too troublesome. So, she recited her own spell:

“The itsy-bitsy spider climbed up the…”

“Waterspout!” Fougasse finished.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Round Pegging a Square Hole

That scrawny, but once so sharp dressed, vampire bent over and the bratty aristocratic witchy vampire conjured up a giant wooden paddle. It looked more like a stirring stick one might use for pasta, just enlarged many times over. The first swing made was a swing and a miss, as they often were. A ‘test swing’, if you will. But nonetheless, it made the creatures surrounding them charge and make their move. In a panic, Fougasse swung with a heightened fury which would leave Kei’s ass numb for days. Or maybe just an hour.

Sore Kei soar through the trees, her faces hitting branches and leaves along the way. The creatures, of which were zombies, skeletons, and a phoenix (just one, the rest weren’t interested) turned their attention toward the shooting star that wasn’t a star at all, wasn’t even a rock, but something resembling a body belonging to a living (allegedly) human (or vampire) who wasn’t having such a great time but was just glad to take one for the team.

She eventually landed on a soft patch of dirt and some aching bones. Nothing broken, but plenty of bruises, cuts, scrapes, and splinters.

A few trees behind her, she heard the groaning call of zombies and the rattling bones of the skeletons. Likewise, a searing flame brought on by the phoenix spread to the branches and leaves of each tree and lit a path for the creatures to give chase.

Kei would have congratulated the various creatures on teamwork and having some kind of intelligence, but she figured they weren’t much for conversation, and Kei needed the exercise anyway. She began her jog away from peril, but limped at first, feeling the effects of such a harsh landing in motion. At least I didn’t land on my head and I landed on my forearm, which is safer, Kei thanked whatever lucky star she may have briefly been before she built up momentum.

At the same time, Fougasse read from her spellbook (which she could conjure at will) and read out a chain lightning spell. It first jumped between three slimes, then bounced onto some kappa, followed by skeletons, then zombies. Unfortunately, it stopped at the zombies as it wasn’t able to reach high enough, nor would it have affected, the phoenix. That phoenix may as well have had a shield in the form of flames as most non-solid elements would have had no effect. Lightning stops, fireball only gives the phoenix more flame. No air current was strong enough, and even if one was, it would only spread the flame elsewhere, and give enough time for the phoenix to build up more flame. The only two solutions were to have impale/crush with something physical, like a boulder or a spear, or to douse with heavy floods.

Fougasse was aware enough of that difficulty and she tore through page after page to find the right spell. Maybe even the right combination of spells, should the need call. Gibassier was busy shooting fireballs at the other creatures, including a black dog who frequently pounced around or turned into shadow to avoid such blasts. That too was a thorn in the trio’s side. Most of the creatures were pure fodder, but every so often there were the big ones who wouldn’t go down so easily.

Gibassier broke a sweat as a few black dogs charged forth at once, large enough to bite his whole self in a single chomp with their slobber-filled jawline.

He waved his scepter and thorny branches shot up to hold them in place before any could get him, though he still felt the hot breath ooze from the spirit dogs’ nostrils. At first, he drew a sigh of relief and wiped sweat from his brow, but that relief was drowned out when one managed to chew its way through the vines.

“Bloody fuck!” He gasped, and usually such two words would’ve been a good thing. But here, it was more like a cry to his gods.

He shot a volley of fireballs from his scepter in the gargantuan dogs’ direction and they exploded into either little strips of shadow or chunks of flesh and viscera. Whichever was less appealing on the eye.

I wonder how a black dog’s blood might taste, Gibassier thought as he once again drew a sigh of relief.

The phoenix who had been chasing Kei, having sensed the dwindling number of monsters remaining turned its attention back toward the clearing circle where Fougasse and Gibassier were. Kei looked back, something which one usually wasn’t supposed to do during a chase, and saw the phoenix turn away.

“Hey! Keep your eyes on me!” Kei jumped up, waved her arms about, and shouted. “I taste good roasted! Come on, immolate me!” Kei’s shouts sounded like genuine pleas, even if they weren’t. She tried to chase after the phoenix who was no longer interested in Kei, but a wall of flame engulfed between the trees which led back to the phoenix’s direction.

“Dammit!” Kei stomped. “Guess I’ll have to find my way back the long way.”

On her sort of limp-jog back, however, she stumbled upon a few other misshapen but unmistakable legendary creature: the tsuchinoko. Fat snakes occupied the trees and slithered down with their beady eyes, of which there were many. Once, maybe, banded snakes and rattles at their ends, now stalks of eyes crowded around. They leaped into the air at Kei, chomping at their own tails and turning into wheels as soon as they landed. The wheels grew spike-like horns all long their girth as they tore through both soft and dry, hardened dirt alike.

“Hey,” a tsuchinoko poked its head out of the ground and spoke, in plain (Cockney) English rather than the Japanese which Kei was used to. Maybe this tsuchinoko in particular had traveled abroad and learned a few languages or...Kei knew better than to waste time dwelling on the minutiae. “We just want to talk,” the tsuchinoko lied.

[bluepenguinstories]

Necrotic Love Bite: Plucked

Trees set fire and put themselves out in the same instant in a continuous loop, mesmerizing all who gazed upon the flames. Sometimes the flames were red, sometimes blue. Most often, orange. The source of the flame was none other than a raging phoenix, flapping and floating about. This phoenix had many eyes. But it wasn’t the only creature to have greeted the intruders…

Groups of feral and hairy bipeds emerged; they had duck bills and the top of their heads lacked fur. On its back was a turtle shell. In other words, a kappa. But this kappa had horizontal, rotating eyes which spun around in a circle as if simply a machine meant to imitate a kappa.

Werewolves which looked more like centaurs followed, with eyes stripped along their bodies. Some kind of zombies made of bog water emerged with eyes popping in and out of view. There were skeletons in the back looking to throw down (those had no eyes, but the skeletons resembled many animals at once and its bone structure constantly shifted).

Many others, most of which didn’t belong in the forest (including the legendary blå haj, aka the Swedish Blue Shark) joined their ranks. All surrounding the three vampires.

“Of course,” Fougasse smirked while her voice fried in fright, “we’re not out of the woods, yet. We don’t get a break.”

Maybe it was uncharacteristic of Fougasse to not have such a high and mighty attitude to even being surrounded by monsters of various origin. Doubly uncharacteristic, then, that Kei dusted off what remained of her nice clothes (not that it exposed anywhere important), then looked around.

“We can handle this,” Kei said, listless and with eyes half-open. Fougasse even caught a hint of a yawn. Either that foolish apprentice had no sense of self-preservation or she just didn’t care.

“What do you mean ‘we’? By your own admission, you’re the weakest one here,” Fougasse lectured but even her usual demeanor was replaced with trepidation.

“Yeah, I know,” Kei shrugged.

“Then you’ll be the first to die!” Fougasse stood on her tiptoes and yelled. Kei was unfazed. Neither bang nor whimper.

“Yeah, but you two won’t be. And I’m only the helper, aren’t I?” Kei looked down as if Fougasse was twice as small as she already knew she was. “You two have magic. I could die, or buy you two some time. Or do both. I don’t really know how much change I have on me to buy time with, but at least a few seconds, yeah?”

Fougasse growled and scowled and huffed and puffed and her face turned red as if she was as full of life as the last time she had a life to live. She wanted to say, “that’s all you think you’re worth? Two seconds?” But she knew she didn’t have much time left to bicker: while the creatures all stood in place in their circle around the trio, it was clear by their stances that they were ready to attack at a moment’s notice. Most likely, if she had to guess, the second any of the three fulfilled a certain condition, the creatures would charge toward them: 1) Fougasse, Kei, or Gibassier made a move in any direction. 2) Any of the three vampires (though it barely counted with Kei, apparently) initiated a fight first. Or 3) Any of the three, or all three, made too much noise.

She had her arms crossed and her face in a knot.

“The way I see it, I’m already buying you guys time just by staying calm,” Kei remarked.

“Really? How do you figure?” Fougasse kept her voice low. She knew by now that keeping calm was vital.

“Talking is a free action. Until we’ve called our action, we can talk as much as we like.”

“I fail to comprehend,” Fougasse shook her head and made a, “hmph” sound.

“We can plan, but we can’t make any moves,” Gibassier explained. He had his staff ready and as moronic as he found the whole ordeal, he couldn’t deny that Kei had been an immense help. In some way or other.

“So, got a plan?” Gibassier asked, a smirk across his face. Fougasse had one as well, but she would rather it go unacknowledged.

“I’m glad you asked. I figure you and Fougasse can cast spells on each end while I make a break for it and we can regroup once you two are done slaughtering those monsters,” Kei sounded rather proud of herself.

“That’s terrible,” Fougasse interjected.

“Yeah, you’re right. Do you have a shield spell by any chance? Like a large barrier? Energy field?” Kei suggested.

“I…” Fougasse began to say something like, “of course not. I conjure things and I shoot elemental magic only” until she remembered that she did indeed have an energy shield spell indeed.

“I do,” Fougasse nodded. She looked quite proud indeed.

“Good,” Kei gave a thumbs up. She knew she wasn’t the sharpest tool in the hiker’s backpack, but she had experience with utilizing people. And as undead as they may be, vampires were still a kind of people. Just as easy to take advantage of as any other. In that sense, there was nothing wrong with not knowing any magic spells at all. Really, Kei’s life was bliss even in the worst of times.

Maybe it was tempting fate, but Kei felt so good about the whole ordeal that whatever the ordeal could be called, she didn’t so much as have a “death wish” as much as she wished to be the shooting star that others could wish upon. It was unfortunate that after a good morning’s rest, she’ll forget all about wanting that, as she’ll no longer have need to want that.

Kei knelt down, just like she had the night before. All the creatures huffed and readied their stances. Shuffling began to occur.

“Milady, may I request a spank to high heaven?” Kei asked. Fougasse blushed, and soon Kei would become useful.