The Commorisco Club (5)
Chapter Five: Magnus
She tried to remember the words to the song she last heard on the radio before demonic forces pulled her into the Netherworld. The melody came easy enough, but she could not remember the words to it all and merely ended up repeating the chorus over and over.
Much like Danny was returned to the room by his devourer, Mickael was returned a little while later by the Demoness, Lyra. She had him wrapped in a swathe of purple brocade and though the human was clearly unconscious, she was murmuring sweet nothings to him, one hand petting the boy’s head.
“Such a yummy treat,” she said quietly to him, nuzzling him affectionately. “You did so well. Mmmmm. Sleep now, my sweet boy. You deserve it.”
Michael was laid down, still wrapped in the ornate fabric, and Lyra took her leave. Not but a few moments later, Egan walked into the room and curled up in his hands lay the prone form of James, still damp from the demon’s saliva and stomach juices. Egan crouched down to the nearest cushion and deposited his spent meal down into the plush surface before wordlessly leaving. So when the door opened again roughly a half hour later, she was sure Rolland was back with Valarie and did not bother rolling over to confirm. She continued to stare at the wall facing away from the entrance, still trying to remember the lyrics to the song.
“Well, well, well, it does seem that I’m late for my dinner.”
Every neuron in her body fired at once as a seeping dread sent tingles down her spine. Trembling instantly, Erin slowly pulled her arms close to her body and bite her lip to try and keep her teeth from chattering. She could hear the steady taping of his shoes and he took slow easy steps around the other sleeping forms until the sound stopped. She could sense him behind her. Above her. Though her mind was rapid firing warnings and screaming at her to run, hide, do something, she remained still. As still as a frightened rabbit. She would do as Rolland said and just allow it all to happen. He would eat her regardless of her feelings, so she did her best to remove feelings from it.
A sense of a great something shifted above her and there was a sudden pressure at her back, fingers. They pressed down into the cushion beneath her and Erin involuntarily rolled back and into his waiting hands. Despite herself, she cried out in alarm and made to grab at the fingers for stability. One hand cradled her back and the other curled around her legs. She felt the brush of warm air as he huff an amused laugh.
“Hello, my Pet,” he purred. His dull purple eyes lit into glowing violet and they drank in her image. His hands were warm, hot even, and it made her skin prickle. She began to squirm as she was want to do, but stopped herself. She looked away from his glowing eyes that were full of desire and want.
“You look tired,” he mused softly, slowly standing and bringing her closer to his chest.
She kept her gaze turned from him and tried to concentrate on keeping her hands from trembling. “R-Rolland says...that I’m well enough...for feeding...”
He hummed, amused. “Hm. Does he now?”
“And he told me not to struggle,” she said, everything in her tensing. “Or fight you...because you’re late for the meeting and he isn’t happy...”
“Heh, well Rolland is rarely ‘happy’. But that is awfully considerate of you to oblige my tight schedule.”
Her efforts to maintain an air of placidity broke and she began to cry. “Please….please just get it over with. I’m so tired of all this waiting. Everyone else was already eaten and I had to sit there watch all of it. And I...I just want to sleep and for this not to be real for a little while. Please. I won’t struggle. I’ll...try not to. I’ll be good.”
There was a very long pause and she began to dread that she may have angered him. Then his voice fell over her, low and smooth. Gentle. “Very well, Pet.”
She felt the heat of him first and then the dark of his mouth encompassed her. With a slow, deliberate ease, he slipped her onto his tongue and took the first half of her into him. His tongue stretched out under her to form a broad place for her to lay, its thick sides curling up around her shoulders, and she felt a familiar heat seep into her clothes as the pooling saliva began to soak them. She wondered idly if she was really that tasty. She felt his lips close in around her thighs, gently undulating as his jaws moved back and forth rhythmically and he began his real tasting of his somewhat willing meal. From the back of his throat, a gust of warm air blew up and out his nose. A sigh of delight followed by the vibrations of pleased hums. He seemed to enjoying her very much. But the sound of his enjoyment of her, the way he salivated heavily and the eager attentions of his tongue broke her resolve and it dissolved into the pools of saliva around her. Her best efforts were not enough and she shook with emotion and fear. It was dark and hot and wet and she hated everything about what was happening and she wanted out. She wanted out now.
“No. No, please. Let me out!” she cried, reaching up with her hands to slap the hard palate above her. “I can’t, I can’t do this again! Please, let me go. Please!”
He hummed around her, not stopping the undulations of his jaw or tongue. His fingers were at her calves, holding them firmly, but no hurting her. They began to rub them lightly as those he meant to soothe her, but all it managed to do was remind her of her first visit to his belly. He let her squirm and cry and plead as though waiting for her to lose the spark of defiance. When she did finally stop and melt into a blubbering pool of tears, he ushered her in further with a pull of his tongue. Several things happened in quick succession. She felt the top of her head hit the back of his throat and sensed the gullet below open to receive her. She made a jerky movement as though to start up her struggled again, but the muscles gripped and she sank into him as he took a hard swallow. She fell deeper into him than she had the first time he had done this and the extreme way in which he was getting her down set her into panic mode. Her hands were free this time and she made use of them by pushing against the flesh of his esophagus, but they slipped and there was nothing for her to gain any purchase. Her back half rested in his mouth and though she sensed his wanting to continuing on with his tasting of her, his decision to get her down quickly took precedent. He swallowed again, softer this time since he had a firm grip on her and she was not going anywhere but down. One more gentle gulp and she fell, slipping through the Demon, passed his lungs and heart. In short order, she slide smoothly into his belly. A sudden welcomed weight in his middle.
She bristled against the cloying pressure of the supple flesh, moving as though to get away from the feeling, but there was no where to go. Her worst fears were made real. She was in a demon’s belly again. Swallowed up like nothing. Everything that mattered about her, every effort she ever made in her life, her triumphs and failures, and every significant moment of her short years...no longer meant anything. She was not a person anymore. She was food. And no matter what she did from now on it would not matter. Because time and time again, he would come and he would swallow her. He would keep her in the center of himself and take what wasn’t his and discard her until she was useful again.
Through the stomach walls and layers of flesh beyond, Erin thought she could hear him saying something to her, but her mind was far too broken to care. There was a pressure against her and she was vaguely aware of his hand rubbing at her form. All sensation became muted and she closed her eyes and for a moment when she was her most vulnerable...she wished he would just digest her. For real. Kill her. Have it all end.
Because she could never live like this…
The first pulse brought her back to awareness. Her strength was leached from her as his stomach set to work and pulled what it wanted from her. Another pulse and she felt her own stomach flip flop with unease. The sensation of being drained was alarming and unpleasant and with a third and final pulse, she met with the dark abyss of sleep and in she fell.
……………………………………………..
Voices were the firs thing to breach the fog. Far off mumbling and conversation. A laugh. She felt something over her shoulders, soft and welcoming and in her mind’s eye she was wrapped in her favorite comforter in her room at home, and listening to the rain tap against the window. There was a securing pressure against her back and below her and then she thought perhaps she had fallen asleep on the couch. But no, that wasn’t right. She wasn’t at home anymore…
Her eyes opened and half of her vision was blocked by plush white fabric, intricate designs were embroidered through it and all of her was wrapped in it. She felt warm and was surprised that she didn’t have a headache. She didn’t feel all that terrible either. Just...very tired. Tired in the same way after she would go on a run to try and cure her insomnia. She blinked, trying to focus in on the images beyond the field of fabric and with slow recognition, she saw Archeon. He was standing behind a chair, drinking from a goblet. He was laughing. The person in the chair...she saw the white suit and his name popped into her head. Rolland. He had been the one who had eaten Valarie. She was crying when she went down. He hadn’t cared. He looked awfully content now, sipping out of a goblet of his own. Another voice spoke then, feminine and cheerful. Archeon said something back, but their words drifted unintelligible above her head.
She was so tired…
A hands drew in from above her and gripped the edge of the fabric and pulled it over her and the sight of the gathered demons vanished. There came a light pressure against her back and a gentle voice whispered to her, “Sleep now, Pet. All is well. Shhh. Just sleep.”
She closed her eyes and wordlessly obeyed.
…………………………………………………………………….
She awoke to the ticking of a clock and it did not take her long to understand she was not in the velvet room. The thing under her was not covered in velvet and was actually quite lumpy and what was more, she was wrapped in delicately embroidered cotton. But of everything else, she was most confused as to why she did not feel as terrible as the first time she had woken up after spending the night in a demon’s stomach.
She slowly pushed herself up and her arms only wobbled a little. She labored to pushed the bulk of the fabric away from her head and took the first survey of her surroundings. It was much larger than the velvet room and as she took in the sight of it all she almost laughed at the absurdity of what she was seeing. The room looked like the Victorian era ate too many Halloween decorations and threw up. The walls were covered in dark wallpaper and there was an ornate fireplace to one side, the grate looking like the gruesome fangs of a terrible creature, and within the fire glowed...green? The fire was green. A large window encompassed the farthest wall, but the dark curtains were drawn closed, though slips of light could be seen through the gaps. The fire was the main source of light and while bright enough to see, the room was cast in an ominous haze of black and green.
She carefully untangled her feet from the fabric and slowly stood up, her back cracking. She was studying the corners of the room when a velvety voice from behind her spoke up. “Good morning, Pet.”
She whirled around, but her feet were caught in the many folds of her blanket and she slipped. She landed hard on her back with her head smacking painfully against the floor. She saw stars and curled into herself, wrapping her arms around the offending goose egg that was sure to be there tomorrow. Something grazed her arm and she opened her eye to see a large hand reaching out from the dark. She cried out and began to scramble away, fervently kicking at the fabric to try and free herself as well as the hand. And the long and wicked looking clawed nails.
“You’re not winning yourself any pity points here, human,” the demon said, almost laughing, cupping his hand and moving it to block her path and gather her up all in once fluid motion. She tensed and waited for those fingers to pull in and grab her up. Maybe dangle her over his face and taunt her with his teeth in the same way Archeon had to Danny. But he held her there, still and unmoving. She felt the fabric at her feet pull away and then his other hand moving to meet the other and he held her loosely between his cupped hands. Erin sat there, quivering with her heart in her throat and then the demon spoke again. “Now, I am going to remove my hands and you are going to stay where you are. If you start flailing around again, I will grab you and we will try again. Understand?”
She waited for a few moments, biting her lips anxiously, and then nodded.
“Good,” he purred, sounding pleased. And true to his word, he slowly eased back his hands and Erin was left exposed. She slowly turned her head, almost too afraid to look at him, but when she saw the glowing purple eyes, she was no long there in that room. She was tied up and laying on a plate, waiting for a monster to come for her and slip her passed his teeth and tongue and for all sound to disappear behind a deafening GULP.
And then there was light and she was blinded, the suddenness of it startling her from her abject terror. She rubbed the dancing spots from her eyes and heard the demon chuckle.
“If you are so afraid of the dark, Pet,” he said teasingly. “You only need ask for a light.”
Her vision cleared and looking up, the room no longer appeared as though every corner hide a secret danger. The wallpaper was a strange periwinkle like color and the mantle that had, in the dark, formerly looked like the gaping jaws of a large animal, was quite normal if not overly ornate and carved from a deep rich mahogany wood that was polished to a brilliant sheen. A gold clock sat in the center of it and was the source of the insistent ticking. The fire was still green, though.
And for the first time, she truly saw her demon as he was, instead of glimpses from the shadows.
He wasn’t the tallest of the demons, maybe just a tad bit shy of Archeon’s height, but he was lean and broad shouldered. Or at least, his clothing gave him that silhouette. His face was almost boyish with his shaggy black hair, but there was something in his face that aged him without it imprinting on looks. A sharp intelligence behind his eyes that was more intimidating than the curling horns on his head or his height or claws. Or appetite.
The orb of light left his hand and floated up to hover above them, buoyant in a nonexistent tide, and it was then that she understood where she was sitting. She was on a desk in the corner of the room. To one end of the desk was an ink pot and a quill sitting in it’s stand. The Demon sat before her in his chair and she could make out the tall wooden back that rose beyond his shoulders. He reached out towards her again, she gasped, shutting her eyes tightly and mewling in fear. She waited for something to happen, but instead, there was the rustling of fabric and the squeal of a chair being pushed back. When she worked up the courage to look, the demon was standing, haven retrieved a folded coat from atop the desk. That was the lumyp thing she had been sleeping on, she realized dimly. He glanced at her from the corner of his eye, the edge of his mouth switching in a small smirk.
“Such a skittish little thing,” he said indulgently and shook his head. He spent a moment flinging out the coat before refolding draping it over the back of his chair. Once he had finished his small task, he pushed in the chair and walked further into the room towards one of the walls where there was a floor to ceiling build in bookcase. The shelves upon which every available slot was filled with a book or tomes or scroll of unknowing origin. He scanned the books on the shelf for several moments, running a clawed finger nail along their spines in search of something. Erin looked back at the chair. He had pushed it in, but she bet that it wasn’t to far down for her to climb onto the seat and then on the floor and then...to somewhere. She had expected to wake up in the velvet room, not his personal office. Something felt off and she wanted no part in any of it. If she could make it back to the velvet room before he noticed…
“Uh-uh-uh, human,” the demon said, one finger pointed at her accusingly and the other still scanning the books. He was not even looking at her. She bristled at being caught, even though she had only just got onto her hands and feet and barely had she even moved. “Stay right there.’
He turned his head just enough to pin her with one glowing eye. “If I have to go chasing you about, I may have to consider a second helping.”
She quickly sat down and put her hands on her lap, shaking her head fervently in response.
“Good girl.” She gulped nervously, waiting for him to find whatever it was he was searching for. After several minutes, he cursed and scowled. “Damn you, Rolland. You never return anything you borrow.”
With a frustrated sigh he ran a hand through his hair and turned back to the desk. As he approached, she opened her mouth and in a small, nervous voice asked, “Please, sir...I...why am I here? Why aren’t I back with the others in the velvet room?”
“The velvet room?” he asked, a single brow raised in confusion as he sat back into his chair. And then he laughed as understanding struck him. “Oh. Ha! The velvet room? You mean the larder.”
She frowned and furrowed her brow, a sinking feeling in her belly. “...the larder? T-that’s...that’s what you call it?”
“Well,” he admitted, setting his head in his hands and regarding her with a toothy smile, eye glowing in wicked delight. “That is where the food is kept.”
She shrank away, the hunger in his eyes sending her nerves sparking with unease. “Is...is that why it looks like a stomach?”
“More or less, yes,” he admitted with a chuckle. “Archeon’s little joke. He’s very proud of it.”
Erin did not find it funny in the least and the morbid idea that their place of respite from their demonic bellies was inside a room designed to look like the inside of a stomach. She found herself feeling angry at how easily they tossed about jokes involving their very real terror. How little they mattered.
“It’s sick.”
“Oh? How so? Granted, I didn’t think it was the most creative thing to have thought of, but his execution must be commended. Why? Does it upset you? Hit a little too close to the mark?”
She sniffed miserably and crossed her arms over her middle. “Yes.”
“Regardless of the shape, it is still what is it,” he said. “It won’t change the reality of why you all are here.”
She snorted humorlessly. “You guys are really good at making sure we’re well aware of why we’re here. Rolland made a speech and everything. Right before he ate my friend as she cried and begged him to stop.”
She stared at the desk’s surface for a long time, the horrible memory of poor Valarie sobbing and her please for mercy as she disappeared between Rolland’s lips. She nearly jumped out of her skin when something brushed her back and before she could see what what happening, his fingers were wrapped around her middle. With Valarie’s cries still echoing in her head, she started thrashing. “Please,” she begged as her feet left the desk and her eyes were shut tight. “Please don’t...”
His hands came together and he rose from the desk. “Child, you’re going to give yourself an apoplexy at this rate.”
“Please don’t! Please, put me down!”
She felt him move, walking away from the desk and her mind began to conjure all sorts of horrific things he was going to do to her. “Please...” She felt the tears dribble down her chin and she couldn’t hear what he was saying anymore. She couldn’t hear anything beyond the panicked fluttering of her own heart. Something brushed up against the back of her knees and she jerked her feet away only to have the demon set her down. She opened her eyes more out of worry than curiosity and as his hands pulled away, she was left sitting on the mantel. She could feel the warmth of the fire below her feet.
She looked around bewildered and then looked to the demon, questioning.
“Unless you’ve somehow forgotten,” he said with a light laugh, leaning in just a bit to whisper in a teasing tone, “I’ve already had you for my dinner, Pet. And though a second helping sounds delightful, I’m far more interested sampling your thoughts than your taste right now.”
“My thoughts?” she asked warily. “About...about what?”
“Anything really. A conversation with a living human? It’s never been done and if it ever has, it was a short one of not much interest. It’s quite challenging to hold a conversation if your partner is abjectly terrified of you. So boring.”
“So...that’s why you brought me here?” she asked, not quite understanding his meaning. “To just...talk?”
He nodded. “That’s right.”
“...about what?”
“Well, before we get into specific subjects, let me introduce myself properly,” He said as he reached out to pluck her left hand from her side and deftly held he between two fingers. Unsure of his intentions or what he was doing, Erin stiffened and waited. But to her surprise, he gave her a small bow, his horned head dipping down with the movement. “My name is Magnus,” he said and then straightened. “At your service.”
She stared at him for a moment, unsure how to feel about him bowing to her. But in the spirit of equal exchange, she gave a small awkward bow back and said, “My name is Erin.”
His smile seemed genuine enough. “Tell me, Erin; When you woke up, how did you feel? When compared to the first time, I mean. Post feeding.”
“Not as bad. Just really sleepy and...and hungry. The first time was awful.”
“Yes,” Magnis admitted sheepishly. “In hindsight, we should have taken...certain things into consideration. We were a little too enthusiastic. This time, however, I wanted to know where the lines are. How much of you to drain. To find the line where I get what I need from you, but you do not spend the next two days too poorly to even move. So I took much less this time.”
“Oh. So, was...was it enough?” she asked. It would be nice to know that she could wake up and not feel as though she had been binge drinking. “To..like, make you...full?”
“No, not hardly,” he said with a heavy sigh of disappointment and the quickly put his hands up when he saw her face, “But before your little brain starts sending out those panic signals, know that I anticipated this. I made sure to eat before coming to you. Hence why I was so late. Ghouls are plentiful, but they can be tricky to catch and not nearly so appetizing as you humans.”
The morbid part of her mind reared up and she asked, “We really taste that good to you guys?”
Magnus placed his elbow on the mantel and regarded her with a lazy smile, purple eyes flashing for a moment. “Enough to wait 78 years and spend 400,000 gilders each just for the chance to sample one of you.”
“How much is that?”
“A very substantial amount,” Magnus replied and licked his lips. “And you were worth every bit.”
She frowned as she eyed him, leaning away and he laughed at her. “You’re far too easy to tease,” he said and patted his stomach. “Don’t fret so much, I am perfectly content. You’re safe from my belly for now, Erin.”
Though he meant it as a tease, Erin felt the weight of the words and could help but shrinking down a bit. Another reminder that she and every other human there were just food.
“You have such sad eyes,” Magnus said abruptly, his voice low. A single clawed digit held her chin when she would have turned away from him. Her dark hazel eyes were studied by his large dull purple ones. “I’ve never seen eyes like yours.”
“...my eyes?”
“Two different colors...”
“Actually its very common in humans,” she said. “And it’s hard to be happy knowing you’re always gonna be someone’s dinner regardless of your feelings.”
“Why does that upset you so? Even knowing you will be perfectly fine later.”
“Because it means I’m not a person anymore. Just... just your food.”
He tilted his head and crossed his arms, a small pitying smile on his lips. “And just who’s to say that you can’t you be both?”
She blinked at him, and furrowed her brows in confusion. Was he mocking her? “What?” she asked him. “Both?”
“Yes. Why can you not be both a person and food? I wasn’t aware they were mutually exclusive.”
She gaped incredulously at him, the notion that he may just be an idiot entered her mind. “Because food...food doesn’t have feelings or rights or protections!”
He seemed to consider this for a moment and said, “Well, on the matter of rights, that is true. You’re regulated to whatever we allow, but the other two in my experience thus far seem to still hold true.”
She glowered at him.“… are you’re just trying to confuse me?”
He regarded her with a patient and indulgent smile. “No, little one, I am trying to expand your mind and allow you the chance to think beyond what nature has programmed into your prey minded intuitions. Because no matter how many times I may tell you that I will not harm you, your prey-drive kicks in and you panic when you are in my mouth. Thinking that you are going to die despite all the empirical evidence that says otherwise.” He smirked “And the way you’ve been flailing about today and weeping like an injured Impling, I can attest to the truth that you do in fact have feelings. Too many for your own well being, if I am honest. And as for protection. Well, how many other foods can you name that survive their own ingestion?”
She opened her mouth to reply, but he spoke over her to add, “...and your friends do not count.”
She didn’t have an answer, but he seemed to expect one or at least for her to respond. So meekly, she admitted, “None.”
“None!” He said in triumph. “Do you understand my point yet?”
She shrunk down a bit into herself, nervous to admit she was having trouble following him. Magnus sighed in resignation and walked closer to her spot on the mantel, cupping both hands around her. His face was very close to her now and she was very aware at how easily he could take his ‘second helping’. “Erin, you are still you. Even we here do not have so great a power as to strip that from you. Humans are rare and priceless and so much attention and energy and notice is spent solely upon your taste and value as a delicacy. The rarest to be had. A status symbol for those lucky few able to afford such a meal.”
His words made her feel ill and she turned her back to him and ducked into the shadow of his hands as though to hide herself inside. He continued to talk to her. “And we here are luckier still that we are able to enjoy that exquisite flavor over and over without further investment of time or funds. So, beyond all that, I want to know what else there is. Beyond humans as mere morsels to salivate over. You have an intelligence and consciousness about which I am deeply curious.” He used the meaty side of his finger to tap her on the head. “What is going on in that little head there?”
And then he stuck out his tongue and licked her.
She squealed, freezing up completely and shuddered as the hot and slimy muscle climbed her back and shoulders in a quick swipe. She arched away from him and whined in equal parts alarm and disgust and when she turned to him, red faced and quivering, she was met with a very smug and impish grin. He was far too pleased with himself and chuckled at her flustered response. “The extra tastings are just a bonus.”
She stared at him, her insides twisting with so many different emotions and they battled it out on her face as she tried to decide if she was scared or disgusted or offended or…
He laughed as he stepped away from the mantel, one eye closing in a cheeky wink. “See? Did I not say you have too many feelings for your own well being?”
Her face felt hot and in that moment, she decided she really wanted to be mad. “DON’T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!”
His lips pulled back into that smug grin, violet eyes glowing. “I try not to make promises that I have no intention of keeping.”
“YOU ARE SO GROSS!”
He hummed, licking his lips and in his velvety voice said, “And you are so very tasty.”
“Augh!” She cried, worming around in her own shirt, the damp saliva clinging to her back and her shoulders. She could feel a drop of it rolling down and it made her quiver in disgust. “Gross, gross, gross. Oh god, I feel so gross...”
The demon seemed to take pity on her and pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket, rolling his eyes.
“Here, you whiny little thing,” he said and began to wipe his drool from her back and shoulders. “If you react so fiercely to a small tasting like that, it’s probably very lucky you’re unconscious when I bring you back up after feeding. There is much more...wet.”
“You’re gross!” she barked at him.
