Terra/Malicia’s Story Continued
They followed the sidewalk around to the main entrance. There was a large black carriage parked near those double glass doors, that carriage complete with four large black horses.
“Oooooh!” cried Terra in excitement. “It’s a carriage! I didn’t know there were carriage rides here!”
“Oh,” said Nines in a distinctly worried tone. “Mr. D. is here. Uhhh…He comes here pretty regularly, but that isn’t the issue… We’d better hurry. I’ve got to see if I can catch him.”
Hurry now? With a carriage here?
“Just give me a second,” said Terra. “I want to look in the carriage. I want to pet the horses!”
“You can’t do that, T,” warned Nines. “Plus, we don’t have time. I’ve got to catch Mr. D.”
“Aaaaaaaw,” frowned Terra. “Spoilsport.”
He led her by the hand past the carriage and to the hospital doors
Terra looked longingly back at the horses and waved goodbye.
“Byyyyye, horsies,” she said unhappily.
They walked inside and made their way down several hallways until they started reaching patients’ rooms. There, in one particular hallway, stood a very tall elderly gentleman in a black suit, a black undershirt, a black ribbon tie, fine black dress shoes, and a black top hat. This gentleman had a cleanshaven, if wrinkly, face, and his short hair was as white as snow, but it was definitely the top hat that caught Terra’s attention.
“Oh, he has a top hat!” grinned Terra. “He reminds me of the Monopoly guy, or maybe Mr. Peanut. Maybe I should get one of those? I could get a magician’s outfit to go with it…Yeah, with pantyhose and a some black spankies. That would be sexy, shmexy. I could get a little wand too, but I don’t know any magic tricks. I don’t think I have any special skills, now that I think about it…Hmmm…Maybe stripping on stage?…Huh, I’ve never thought of stripping. That’s a skill right?”
“That’s Mr. D.,” said Nines in an urgent tone. “Just hang around here for a couple of minutes, T. I need to talk to him.”
“Okay,” shrugged Terra.
Nines walked down the hall as he flagged down the carriage driver. That tall man took off his top hat, but the top of his head was bald, that hair simply a ring of white around his elderly head, the fluorescent lights above making his bald head look somewhat shiny.
Terra rolled her eyes, crossed her arms, and shook her head. Apparently, Nines knew everyone, and apparently, that left little time for her.
Her attention turned toward an open door to a patient’s room. She could a see a woman in there, a woman who looked to be about in her mid-thirties sitting in one of the grey hospital chairs.
What caught Terra’s attention this time was the woman’s outfit, a white dress with floral print all across it, yellow daisies with green stems. This white woman’s short black hair was styled very nicely in a plain bob, and she wore a lovely white cotton cloche hat with a blue band, complete with a real daisy in that blue band. She had a beautiful string of pearls around her slender neck as well, and Terra really, reeeaaally liked the whole of it, the whole of that look.
She walked in without thinking, smiled, and then gave a shy “Hello.”
The woman in the red dress was startled at first, and she clutched her right hand to her chest.
“Oh!” she said in mild fear. “Oh, you startled me, dear.”
“I’m sorry,” said Terra quickly. “I just saw you sitting in here, and I wanted to say that I like your dress and your hat.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” smiled the older woman. “I’ve put on my good pearls today. I’m waiting for my Harold.”
“Oh?” asked Terra. “Is he your husband?”
“Oh, yes,” nodded the woman. “He’s gone off to war. He’s gone to France on the Western Front.”
A war? Well, that sucked. There was always a war somewhere, and there were always people who had to go fight in them, and more importantly, there were always people who got left behind.
“Oh…well…” said Terra awkwardly. “I hope he’s all right, then.”
“He’s coming back home,” nodded the woman. “The war is over. It’s been over for a while, but…he’s coming back now. He’s finally coming home.
“I do hope he likes my new dress. I bought it with the money he’s sent me. I’ve been waiting such a long time for him to show.”
“Do you know when he’s supposed to come and get you?” asked Terra. “I wouldn’t want for you to be in here all alone.”
“Oh, I’ll be fine, dear,” said the older woman as she waved off Terra. “I’m used to waiting…I can see you’re still wearing your Halloween outfit, though. Are you supposed to be a witch?”
Terra looked down at her Goth clothes and simply smiled.
“Something like that,” she nodded.
“Well, it’s very scary, so you did a good job,” nodded the woman. “You even startled me, and I don’t shake very easily. You know, you’re very tall, young lady, but that’s not a bad thing. You must get quite a lot of attention from the gentleman. I bet all the boys like looking up at you, don’t they?”
“I’m six-foot even,” said Terra. “I guess that is really tall…for a girl. I don’t really know a lot of guys, though.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll meet your special someone, just like I met my Harold,” said the woman. “Oh, I sure wish he would come by soon. He really is the bee’s knees, as you younger girls say.”
Terra thought about this, but she didn’t have to think for long.
“Well, my friend Nines is outside the room talking to Mr. D., the carriage driver,” she explained. “Nines knows just about everybody, and I’m sure Mr. D. has been all over the city. Why don’t you talk to them? They might know where Harold is. Mr. D. might even give you a ride in his carriage. That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”
The older woman folded her hands in her lap and shook her head once.
“Oh, I don’t know if I could do that,” she said unhappily. “What if Harold comes by, and I’m not here? What would I do then?”
Well, this was a really easy question to answer.
Terra walked up to the sitting woman, knelt before her, and took the older woman’s hands in her own.
“Then he’ll wait for you,” she smiled. “You’re sweet, and you’re very beautiful, so I know…I know…he only has eyes for you. He’ll wait an eternity to see you again.”
This woman looked down into Terra’s dark eyes, and her own blue eyes teared up as she put forth a sad smile.
“That’s so lovely of you to say, dear,” she said.
Terra stood, but she didn’t let go of the older woman’s hands.
“Come on,” she urged. “Let’s go see my friend and Mr. D. You know Harold’s going to wait forever to see you, so why don’t we go see what’s what first? They might know where he is.”
“Oh…” said the older woman in surprise.
Terra gingerly coaxed her to a standing position, and the older woman was unsteady at first, as if she hadn’t stood for a very long time, but Terra gently led her toward the open door.
“There you go,” said Terra. “One step at a time…Come on…”
She led this older woman by the hand and out the open doorway. In the hall was Nines and Mr. D. conversing with each other, so Terra gently led this lovely stranger towards them.
Terra was going to join her on her way to the pair, but she happened to turn at that moment, and that’s when she saw the little girl behind her. This little one looked to be five or six, and she was wearing a pink shirt, blue jeans, and little white sneakers. She was a little white girl with long black hair and dark eyes, and she had a cute little round face with a button nose.
The little girl looked up at Terra with strange interest.
“Oh, hello there!” said Terra. “Are you lost? Are you here with your mommy and daddy?”
“I’m Kicksy,” said the girl in her little voice. “You must be T.”
A metaphorical light bulb went on over Terra’s head.
“Oh, you’re Kicksy!” she said in excitement. “Nines didn’t tell me you were a little girl.”
“Nines didn’t tell me you were a big girl,” said Kicksy. “You’re way taller than I thought.”
Terra knelt down on the white tiles of the hospital hallway and grinned.
“You’re very precocious,” she grinned. “Huh…I’ve always wanted to say that word. Preeee-cocious.”
“I was on my way here to talk to Mr. D. about Charlie,” frowned Kicksy.
“Charlie?” asked Terra. “Oh, you must mean Charlotte. I’m supposed to tell her a story. What does Mr. D. have to do with that? Is Charlie going on a carriage ride?”
“Maybe…I’m not sure,” said Kicksy. “Something’s changed, but…she’s very sick, T. She’s very sick.”
“Well, I’ll go find out for you,” said Terra. “If she’s very sick, it doesn’t sound like she’s up for a ride…Tell you what. You just wait right here…You know what? You’d better follow me. Without your mommy and daddy around, it’s dangerous for you to just be wandering around by yourself, so you stick by me, and we’ll find them in a sec, okay?”
This little girl gave her a very strange look, but Terra ignored that. She had to go talk to Mr. D. about Charlie…uhhh…Charlotte.
Terra stood and made her way to where Nines and Mr. D. were conversing, but now there was a third person in the hallway, the woman in the sweet dress who had been waiting for her husband Harold.
“Oh, now we have a crowd,” said Terra.
They walked up to the small gathering, and the tall man in the black suit and top hat did a slight bow as Terra came within speaking distance of him. He spoke first, and his voice was slow, soft, and measured, as if he were somehow carrying the weight of the world upon his lanky shoulders.
“Ms. Dubois,” he said slowly. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
He knew her last name, but that wasn’t a surprise. Nines must have told him.
“You must be Mr. D.,” smiled Terra.
“That I am,” said Mr. D. “You have done me a great service young lady. You brought Mrs. Mullens to me.”
“He’s going to take me to see my Harold,” said the woman in the white dress and cloche hat. “I’ve been waiting such a long time to see him.”
Well, this was a happy surprise.
“Oh, that’s wonderful!” grinned Terra. “I’m so happy for you!…Oh, but I wanted to talk to Mr. D. about Charlotte.”
“I see,” said Mr. D. “I’m afraid young Ms. Barlett must remain here. I have no vacancy in my carriage at this time.”
His words were slightly spaced out, as if he were carefully thinking about what to say next in the middle of his own sentences.
“Oh, well, Kicksy says she’s very sick anyway,” noted Terra. “I’m sure she’ll understand. I haven’t even met her yet, but now I’m feeling sorry for her.”
“I must exchange a ride for a ride,” said Mr. D. “Mrs. Mullens has been waiting a very long time to ride in my carriage. Due to my schedule, I am afraid Ms. Barlett will not be able to ride in my carriage for some time.”
“Oh, shucky darns,” frowned Terra. “Well…”
“There are many carriages in the world, Ms. Dubois,” nodded Mr. D. “If you feel so inclined, she may ride in one more suited to her tastes.”
“Oh, that’s a great idea!” grinned Terra. “She needs a princess carriage. One with white horses, like in Cinderella. That’s what little girls need. Black’s more my thing anyway. Hmmm…I wonder if I could ride in your carriage some time?”
Mr. D. simply smiled and waved one hand at her, his right hand, palm up.
“I’m afraid due to current circumstances,” explained Mr. D., “that I cannot offer you a ride for a very, very long time. I have no vacancy for you, Ms. Dubois, but when it is time for you to ride in my carriage, I shall most certainly enjoy your company.”
“Well, that’s disappointing, but I understand,” nodded Terra. “I’ll just ride in a carriage with Charlotte then. I’ll even pay for it. Yeah, that sounds nice. Maybe when she gets to feeling better, we’ll go on a ride together.”
“That’s very nice, T,” said Nines.
“I told you she has such a sweet little heart,” said Mrs. Mullens. “She is so sweet.”
“That she is,” replied Mr. D.
“Well, I’m going to escort Mr. D. and Mrs. Mullens to Mr. D.’s carriage,” said Nines. “Why don’t you go with Kicksy to see Charlotte, T? You can tell Charlotte a story.”
“Oooookaaaay,” smiled Terra. “Let’s go, Kicksy. We’ll go see Charlotte…Charlotte Barlett. That’s like a comic-strip character name…I like it. My name sounds too normal for me. I should change my last name to Berra, like Yogi Berra. Then I could be Terra Berra…Oh, well, we’d better take our leave.”
“Adieu, Ms. Dubois,” said Mr. D. as he gave her another slight bow.
“Goodbye, dear,” said Mrs. Mullens.
“Goodbye, everyone!” said Terra cheerfully. “Have a nice ride!”
There was nothing more to say after that departure. She left with Kicksy as the little girl led her down the hall to Charlotte’s room.
“She’s this way,” said Kicksy.
“Okay,” said Terra happily.
She hadn’t been sure about coming to the hospital with Nines, but now that she was here, she was having a good time. She was actually looking forward to telling a story, and that was different.
Kicksy led her to a closed door. There was an electronic lock on the outside, but the little girl simply pulled down the metal handle and pushed open the door with ease.
So much for security. The hospital needed to fix that.
“She’s in here,” said Kicksy.
Terra smiled and walked into the small hospital room, but her smile immediately faded to nothing upon seeing Charlotte.
This little girl, Charlotte, was a little white girl of about five or six with long black hair, just like Kicksy, but she was in a light-green hospital gown instead. She was in a hospital bed with the light-blue covers up to her shoulders, but that wasn’t what caused Terra to hesitate. The little girl was asleep or…or something, and more importantly, she was hooked up to a breathing machine with a medical-plastic breathing mask over her little face.
“Oh…” said Terra uncertainly. “I…I didn’t know she was this sick…”
“It’s okay,” said Kicksy. “You can tell her a story. Just pull up that chair and sit next to her. I’ll close the door.”
“I…Okay,” said Terra.
She was hesitant at first, but…Kicksy was right. There was no reason why she couldn’t tell this sick little girl a story. Besides, Kicksy probably wanted to hear one too.
Terra pulled up a plastic grey hospital chair and sat down in it next to Charlotte’s bed.
“I’m so sorry, Charlie,” said Terra quietly. “I didn’t know you were this sick. Well…I’ll tell you a story anyway.”
She moved the light-blue cover sheet aside and took the sick little girl’s right hand into both of hers.
Kicksy simply stood nearby and nodded once at her.
“Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived in a village,” said Terra. “That little girl had a dear grandma who lived way ways away in the forest, and she loved her grandma veeery much, and her grandma loved her very much, so her grandma made her a beauuuuutiful red cloak made out of warm wool. Now, I find wool really itchy, but this little girl was used to it, so she didn’t itch, but that’s beside the point…Where was I? Oooooh, yeah. Because of that cloak, everyone in the village called the little girl ‘Little Red Riding Hood’…
As Terra continued to tell the story, she felt something tear open in her heart, because she had been worrying so much about herself, she had temporarily lost sight of what really mattered. Now she kind of felt like shit for being such a…a little shit.
Nines always did that to her. He always had a way of hitting her right where it hurt the most.
*****
Terra sat in the rear-passenger’s seat of Ebony’s silver Benz.
Nines had stranded her at the hospital, so she’d been forced to call Stephanie, mainly because she hadn’t wanted to wake Ebony. Unfortunately, she had forgotten Stephanie was passed out, but it turned out that Stephanie had come around and was feeling muuuuuch better, so she’d answered her phone, but then Stephanie had turned around and called Ebony anyway, because Stephanie didn’t currently have a car, at least, not on campus.
Now Terra was in the back seat of Ebony’s Benz, Stephanie was in the front passenger’s seat, and Ebony was driving her own car, of course. They were all headed for the BTS chapter house to find Saffron and give her the news about the wolfsbane.
“So you’re telling me that we can’t drink anymore?” asked Ebony.
“Oh, you can drink,” said Stephanie. “You can drink enough booze to float a battleship, but it won’t do you any good. You won’t get drunk. You won’t even get a buzz. Oh, and that’s not the best part. We can’t even get high from weed anymore. Absolutely nothing works. Nothing normal, anyway.”
That…friggin’…sucks,” said Ebony in an unhappy tone.
“No, shit,” replied Stephanie. “But Carna, our precious little nerd and my precious little over-sexed roommate, managed to pull through for us. This monkshood is the real deal. It actually works. It kicked my ass after a few puffs, and it absolutely knocked Carna on her ass. She just fell right over like a fricken’ tree. She busted her glasses when she hit the floor.”
“She did?” asked Terra. “Ooooh. I should have caught her.”
“Eh, she’s got another pair,” said Stephanie. “She’s always prepared for that kind of bullshit.”
“I always thought that kind of stuff was bullshit,” said Ebony. “Who knew wolfsbane actually worked. That’s so retarded when you think about it, so cliché.”
“I’m just glad it works,” said Stephanie. “I feel a lot more relaxed. I don’t think it’s quite worn off yet, but that suits me just fine.”
“Are you going to pay her back?” asked Terra. “Pay, Macy, I mean.”
“I…dimly remember saying I would do that,” said Stephanie. “I think I said I’d pay for the bag and give her some extra on top of that…and I also remember you being really freakin’ annoying, Terra.”
Ebony picked up a bottle of water from the cup holder next to her and took a swig.
“What?” asked Terra in confusion. “What did I do?…Is this about the hand job? You said you’d give me one, and then you reneged.”
Ebony spit a little bit of water from her mouth onto her black sweater and nearly choked on what water she was trying to swallow.
“Ooooh-kay,” said Stephanie unhappily. “First of all, the hand job was for me, not you. Second of all, I was being sarcastic and insulting, ding dong. I would rather get a clitorectomy with a rusty spoon than have you touch me anywhere.”
“Geez,” choked out Ebony. “Don’t scare me like that. I thought you’d gone queer on me.”
“Not in this lifetime,” said Stephanie.
That was so insulting and bigoted.
“There’s nothing wrong with one girl showing another girl a little love,” said Terra. “You two talk about guys boning each other in the butt all the time. It’s hypocritical.”
“Okay…” said Stephanie again. “Though that is a logical observation, it’s also only natural for girls to like gay guys. It comes with the chromosomes.”
Ebony took another drink and nodded her head in agreement.
“Mmm, hmmm,” said Terra’s roommate.
She swallowed more water and nodded her head again.
“My point is, you’re not giving me a hand job, Terra,” said Stephanie. “Also, I’m sure as hell not giving you one…Do we understand each other now? Respect my boundaries.”
“But you already let me kiss you,” argued Terra.
Ebony choked on more water as Stephanie slowly turned in her seat to stare two burning holes right through Terra.
“I did what?” she asked, and her tone was not friendly. “What did you say?”
“I asked if I could kiss you, and you said ‘yes,’ so I did,” said Terra.
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no,” said Stephanie as she shook her head. “I don’t remember giving you permission to do anything to me.”
“Was she high, Malicia?” asked Ebony.
“Yeah,” replied Terra.
“You can’t be doing that, Malicia,” chastised Ebony. “That’s not right.”
Now that hurt. That hurt because it was coming from Ebony.
“But she said I could!” argued Terra.
Stephanie was still staring at her, but she had suddenly turned pale.
“You…You didn’t do anything else to me…did you?” asked the girl in a shaky voice.
“Weeeeeelll, I asked you about the hand job,” nodded Terra, “but you said, ‘There’s not enough drugs in the world,’ so no, I didn’t do anything else to you.”
Stephanie stared at her in confusion at first, and then she chuckled. That chuckle turned into genuine laughter, and then Ebony joined in with her in that laughter, and that was…kind of humiliating.
Terra felt a heat rise to her cheeks. She really felt like they were making fun of her.
“Stop laughing at me!” she protested.
“We’re not laughing at you,” chuckled Ebony. “Well, not exactly.”
“Yeah, I’m laughing because it’s clear that even stoned off my ass I’m not giving you any,” grinned Stephanie. “Apparently, I’ll agree to a kiss, but that’s all you’re gettin’, kitten.”
“Oh,” said Terra in open disappointment.
“Oh, for crying out loud, Terra,” said Stephanie. “You’ve got to let go of this crush on me. It’s really weird.”
“You have a crush on Wenna, Malicia?” asked Ebony. “When did this happen?”
“I’ve always had a crush on Stephanie,” said Terra. “She’s beautiful.”
“I appreciate the compliment,” replied Stephanie. “I really do. Still feels weird when you say it, though…And speaking of weird, that reminds me…Why in the hell were you at the hospital?”
This was annoying having to explain it, but Terra decided to anyway.
“Oh, I went there with Nines, but he ended up ditching me,” she frowned.
“Who in the hell is Nines?” asked Stephanie. “You keep bringing up this guy.”
“Malicia?” asked Ebony in a slow and measured tone. “Terra…I’m going to ask you a question, and I want the truth.”
Terra knew that tone. Ebony was about to get serious with her.
“Yes?” she asked nervously.
“Are you talking to Nines again?” asked Ebony. “Tell me the truth now.”
Now this was upsetting. There was no reason to put any hate on Nines.
“Talking to him?” huffed Terra. “I’ve been hanging out with him all morning!”
“Oh, shit,” breathed out Ebony.
“What?” asked Stephanie. “Who in the hell is this Nines guy?”
“Terra was diagnosed with ADHD when she was little,” said Ebony. “She got into a lot of trouble back then. I know, because that’s when we met, back when we were five.”
Now this was really annoying.
“Ebony, you don’t have to tell my life story,” frowned Terra.
“I’m going to, because this is important,” chastised Ebony.
“Okay,” said Stephanie in confusion. “So…what does this have to do with this Nines guy?”
“Her parents didn’t want her taking any medication at five years old,” said Ebony. “So, her therapist suggested she create a friend who could keep her out of trouble. Problem is, Terra kept talking to her ‘friend’ until she was twelve.”
“I…see,” said Stephanie. “Okay, so I can believe that, but…what I’m having trouble with is…is how it stopped, not the length of time it went on…Soooo…what changed? Why did she stop? Because I know Terra, and ‘down to earth’ is not one of her traits. Unless she’s been lying about it this whole time, but I highly doubt that. She lies about as well as Carna does about masturbating.”
“Her parents finally put her on some anti-psychotics,” said Ebony. “She’s been taking that medication since she was twelve. She takes it every day.”
“Okay, and?” asked Stephanie. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we can’t get drunk or high anymore,” said Ebony. “That’s what I’m saying.”
Stephanie paused for a moment, but it was clear she had worked out something important in her own head.
“Oh, shit,” she said in repeat of Ebony’s original concern. “I knew it! I knew something was off!”
This revelation made Terra’s breath catch in her throat.
“Oh…That’s why I’ve been feeling weird,” she frowned. “That may be true, but…but Nines is real! I’ve been hanging out with him all day long!”
“Look, we’re here,” said Ebony.
She pulled into the community building parking lot across the street from the BTS chapter house. She put the car in park, shut off the engine, and turned to address Terra. She had a deadly serious look on her face, and Terra could do nothing but cringe at the sight of it.
“He’s not real, Terra,” said the girl. “He’s never been real. He’s all in your head.”
This wasn’t true at all, and Terra didn’t want to argue with her best friend, but she was simply going to have to double down on this one.
“No, he is!” she insisted. “He is real!…Tell her, Stephanie! The reason I went to visit you earlier is because Nines said that your friend, Pinochle, told him that you were hurting! That’s why I came to see you!”
“Pinochle?” asked Ebony. “Listen to yourself, Terra. Don’t you think that sounds crazy?”
Stephanie turned around and gave Terra a strange look.
“How do you know about Pinochle?” asked the girl. “Pinochle was my…It doesn’t matter. I must have told you about him when I was high.”
“Yeah…No!” argued Terra. “You did tell me about him when you were high, but I already knew about him because I met him!”
“He’s not real, Terra,” frowned Stephanie. “He was my imaginary friend when I was little.”
“No!” said Terra. “No, I met him outside of your apartment, right before I went in and got beaned in the head by that mug you threw!”
“You threw a mug at her?” asked Ebony.
“I threw a mug, but not at her,” frowned Stephanie. “Terra walked in right after I threw it. It was an accident. I didn’t mean to hit her with it. It was supposed to smash against the door.”
“Oh,” said Ebony.
“Look, Terra, we’re just going to have to work on getting rid of this curse,” said Stephanie matter-of-factly. “You’re on the crazy train right now, and until this curse is lifted, you can’t get back on your meds. Now, I know I haven’t exactly been helping—”
No…No, none of this was right. Her friends were real. She knew they were!
“No!” insisted Terra. “No, I did meet Pinochle before you said anything about him!”
“Oh, yeah?” asked Stephanie, clear doubt etched upon her pretty face. “Then what’s he look like?”
“He’s our age,” nodded Terra.
“And?” asked Stephanie. “Is that it?”
“No!” said Terra. “He’s black, for one thing. He has really short black hair, he wears a grey suit, and he has a big fat red tie with gold playing card symbols on it.”
Stephanie immediately paled and looked out of sorts, but that expression vanished as she shook her head no in response to Terra’s description.
“No, that’s…There’s no way you could know that, unless…” she verbally stumbled. “No, I must have described him to you when I was stoned.”
Ebony shot Stephanie a look of disbelief.
“You mean that’s accurate?” she asked.
“Yes!” argued Terra. “They are real! Why won’t you believe me! I’m telling the truth…Oh, look! Here comes Nines now! See!”
Nines came trotting up to the car, so Terra quickly unbuckled and opened the rear-passenger side door for him. She scooted over as he slid into the car, but he left the door open, and the chill November air came pouring in.
She took his left hand into her right and squeezed his hand in a tight grip. He gave her a warm smile and nodded once.
“It’s okay, T,” said Nines. “I’m here now.”
Terra looked upon her stunned friends and gave them an imperious smile.
“See!” she said triumphantly. “I told you he was real.”
“Terra…” said Ebony slowly. “Terra, honey…There’s nobody there.”
“What?” asked Terra in surprise.
“There’s nobody there,” said Stephanie in a strange tone.
Honestly, she sounded weirded out.
“You’ve just got your hand in the air like you’re holding an imaginary hand,” said Stephanie. “Plus, the door is wide open…so…if we’re going to sit a little longer in the car and discuss this…strangeness…can you close the door?…Because I’m freezing my tits off.”
“I’ll get it,” said Nines.
He reached over and quickly shut the door with his free right hand.
Of course, both girls in the front looked supremely startled and confused.
“What the fu—!” began Stephanie.
She stopped mid swear. Her eyes closed as her face contorted into a perfect window of pain, and she opened her mouth as if to scream, but all that came out from those open lips was a soft, pathetic whine.
Black fur spread across her face and neck a second later, her teeth sharpened into fangs, and her nose turned brown and bumpy on the end of it.
Ebony was in no better shape. The girl shook as if she were having an epileptic seizure, she made an “Uhhn, uhhn, uhhn!” sound as her back struck the driver’s seat of the car again and again, and then she too made a partial transformation into a wolf-girl, a heavy coating of black fur covering her as well, but without the height and muscle.
“Noooo!” whined Stephanie.
The girl turned around in her seat, unbuckled her seat belt, and bent over at the waist to hide her head beneath her furry hands.
“No! No, this is all my fault!” she squealed.
Terra could tell that the normally caustic Supreme Witch of the Gothic Society of North Corgan University was crying, and that was most certainly not becoming.
“No, please!” whined Stephanie. “No, please forgive me!”
Ebony unbuckled her seat belt and slid down in her seat as if to hide.
“It’s the Deep State!” she hissed. “That’s who’s doing this to us! They’re after us! They want to take us to their lab! We’ve got to hide!”
“What the…!” cried Terra in pure frightened confusion. “What’s going on! Why did you change! I didn’t change!”
“Oh, God, please forgive me!” sobbed Stephanie. “Please!…I didn’t know!…I didn’t know! I didn’t…know…”
Nines squeezed Terra’s hand, so she looked over at him in alarm.
“What’s going on!” she said in a panic.
And she was panicked. Her best friend and her current crush were now transformed; anyone could walk up and see them. Not only that, but now they were acting all crazy, crazier, she had to add, than they had thought she had been acting.
“This is bad, T,” said Nines with a shake of his head.
“Are you doing this?” asked Terra. “Are you doing this, Nines!”
She felt strange. While the others had transformed and were freaking out, she was still human and…and something else. She felt different all of the sudden. She felt like she had…clarity.
“I’m not doing this, T,” said Nines. “I’m not doing this, but this has to stop, and you’re the only person who can stop it.”
“What’s going on!” demanded Terra. “Do you know! Tell me!”
“Saffron has accidently fallen asleep,” explained Nines. “She’s in the spare bedroom on the second floor of the chapter house. She was reading a book, but she fell asleep, and without any Gregorian chanting going on, Garm is now using her to get to everyone else.”
This was insane. This was sheer madness.
“How do you know that, Nines!” said Terra. “How do you know all of this, and…and why couldn’t they see you!”
“That doesn’t matter right now, T!” urged Nines. “You’ve got to come with me to the chapter house and wake up Saffron! The other girls have all been affected, and if someone see them, all of you will be screwed! You’ve got to come now!”
“Garm is doing this?” asked Terra. “Why! Doesn’t he want carnage? How is he going to get that if we get discovered?”
“This is a threat, T,” said Nine as he shook his head no. “He’s using this demonstration as blackmail.”
“But what’s wrong with them?” asked Terra. “Why are they acting like this!”
“He’s attacking their emotional vulnerabilities,” said Nines. “He’s using Ebony’s paranoia and Stephanie’s guilt against them. He’s doing it to everyone. He’s attacking their weaknesses.”
“But that’s not happening to me,” said Terra. “In fact, I actually feel like me again…No, I feel better than me…Plus, I haven’t changed. Why? What’s going on? Why haven’t I been affected?”
“Because you have me, T,” said Nines. “Now come on! We’ve got to go wake up Saffron. Garm is using a lesser demon to enact its power through Saffron’s sleeping body! You’ve got to go stop it, T! There’s no more time!”
He quickly opened the rear passenger door and pulled Terra out of the car. She reluctantly exited the Benz with him and jogged across the street as he pulled her along toward the chapter house.
“You want me to stop a demon!” argued Terra. “I can’t do that, Nines! I don’t even know how to do that! I’m not like the other girls! I don’t have any powers!”
Nines stopped in his tracks just as they had crossed the street, and Terra was forced to stop with him, as they were still tightly holding hands. He stared at her with both a sad and a serious expression upon his face.
“Terra, you have one of the rarest powers of them all,” he said matter-of-factly. “You can see both the body and the spirit, and you can touch the ethereal. That’s why you are the only person right now who can stop this demon.”
“No…” said Terra with a shake of her head. “No, if that’s true, then that means…that means they couldn’t see you because…But…But where did you go? Why did you leave me all those years ago?”
“Terra, I’ve always been with you,” said Nines in a sad tone. “I’ve been with you since the moment you were conceived. When you started taking your medication, you couldn’t see me anymore, but I have always been there with you, and I always will be.”
She felt tears reach her eyes. Now that she understood, it just made things worse, much worse.
“Noooo,” she whined. “No, that means when this curse is lifted, and I have to take the medication again, I won’t get to see you anymore! I won’t get to talk to you anymore!”
“I know, T,” said Nines. “This new curse Garm is spreading has weaponized your friends’ own insecurities against them, but you’re special. Instead of incapacitating you, it brought you down to earth, and for the first time in a long time, both of your feet are on the ground…I guarantee Garm had not been expecting that.”
“That explains a lot, but that doesn’t explain what will happen to you, Nines!” she whimpered. “Will you just be gone forever?”
“Oh, no,” said Nines with a sad smile. “I told you, and I’m telling the truth, and you know I’m telling the truth…I’ll always be with you, T, even if you can’t see or hear me anymore.”
Terra sobbed into her hands, but then she looked up and hastily wiped away her tears.
“This is like Flowers for Algernon,” she said angrily. “It’s not fair! Now that I’m smart, I already know I’m going to go back to being stupid again once I fix this! If I fix this…”
“You’re not stupid, T,” said Nines. “You were never stupid.”
Terra sniffed and wiped at her face with both hands. She shook her head no at his comment, because it was a lie, a beautiful lie, but a lie nonetheless.
“Let’s get this done, then,” she said unhappily. “I don’t know where all of the other girls are, but I do know Hope is on a date with Tommy—whoever that is—and I’m pretty sure he’s going to freak out when she goes wolf-girl and starts freaking out herself.”
“Yeah, I’d say that’s bad,” nodded Nines. “That’s pretty bad, so we should hurry.”
She grimaced at first, and then that grimace turned into a dedicated scowl. Now that she could reason this out, it only intensified her growing fury. None of this was fair…None of it was fair at all.
“Come on, Nines,” she said angrily. “Hold my beer, because I’m about to go kick a demon’s ass. Pardon my French, but that motherfucker is about to have a really bad hair day.”
Nines let forth a short guffaw, grinned, and then pulled her toward the chapter house door. He opened the chapter house door, and they entered together.
The inside of the Beta Theta Sigma chapter house was not its usual cheery self. There was pure chaos going on in here, and Terra didn’t even know what to focus on first, so she focused on the girls. There were three of the other girls in here, and none of them looked happy in the slightest.
First, there was Haley. The super-hot blonde was standing in the middle of the “living room” of the house staring at her own furry arms and hands. She was wearing a reeeaaaally cute burgundy blouse with gold trim along with a nice pair of black slacks, a black belt, and pair of black dress shoes. Honestly, as babe-ish as Stephanie could be, Haley was definitely becoming a contender.
Anyway, the poor young woman was just standing there in what looked like clear visible distress, just visible shock and confusion over the fact that she was now covered in blonde fur. She had the golden eyes, a cute little black nose tip, and fangs, but she was still super hot.
“I-I don’t know what happened!” she babbled. “I-I don’t know what I did wrong! I am a good leader! I know I am! I-I made sure we took every precaution! Why did this happen!”
This was sad. Terra firmly believed Haley was a good leader. The super-hot blonde was being way too hard on herself.
Off to the right, sitting on her boots, her knees bent, was the little figure of Benji. She’d obviously decided to head to the chapter house after going back to her apartment earlier in the day.
The diminutive girl looked as if her pet goldfish had just died. She was nothing but sad and depressed in both expression and manner. She was covered with brown fur, and she had the golden eyes, the blackened nose, and fangs like Haley. Honestly, she was cute, but she still looked too young to date. Truthfully, Terra didn’t really believe the girl was actually twenty-one. It was her size and the distinct lack of boobs that had etched that belief into Terra’s brain
Benji was still wearing the tan leather western fringe jacket, the flannel shirt, the blue jeans, and of course, the boots. She looked like a twelve or thirteen-year-old playing dress up as a Country and Western pop singer.
“I’m not a dog,” mumbled Benji. “I’m not. I’m not a little girl, either…I’m not a dog or a little girl…Now they think I’m both…Everyone keeps calling me a puppy…That’s what they all think I am now…I’m just a little puppy…That’s all I am…”
Terra wanted to pick her up and give her a big hug, buuuuuut Benji would probably be pissed about that too. There was no winning over some people.
Finally, there was Gracie. Terra wouldn’t have spotted her at all if she hadn’t seen the poor black girl cowering behind a couch.
Gracie was wearing a low-cut white blouse that showed of the tops of her perfect breasts, though those breasts were now covered in black fur. Those were some sweet milk-chocolate treats waiting to be unwrapped when Gracie was in her human form, but Terra had to shove those thoughts down and away. She was already upset, and thinking about the other girls did help a little to quell her rage, but there was a better time and place for that.
Nevertheless, Gracie was wearing a pair of blue-jean bellbottoms with stitched-in pink flowers with yellow centers, and she looked really good in those clothes, so Terra mentally check marked her as well. Of course, Gracie was also covered in black fur and had the same eyes, nose, and teeth problem as the other girls, but Terra could recognize a hottie when she saw one, even underneath all the wolf.
Maybe the universe was finally on her side and Gracie was bi…Well, here’s hoping.
Gracie stared up at her with baleful golden eyes.
“Don’t let them find me!” she cried. “Don’t let them see me like this! Not like this! I don’t want to be a frog! I’m a princess! I’m a princess! Don’t tell my mom and dad! Don’t tell my brother! I’m not a frog, I swear! I’m not a frog!”
This was disturbing. It was clear to Terra that all three of these girls were currently lost in their own fears and insecurities, and it just wasn’t right what was being done to them.
Of course, they were just the first problem of the chapter house chaos. The second problem was a lot more disturbing and definitely bigger, and that was the small horde of things running around, some of them even flying around.
There were some large hornets or bees buzzing and floating around Haley, each with wicked little sharp black crowns on their heads, each about the size of a small cat, each with long and wicked looking curved black stingers. Around Benji were fat and squat little brown pug-faced dogs with goat hooves and little black wings, and around Gracie were what looked like little humanoid toads with mashed-in faces, faces even puggier than Benji’s pugs.
Running around the chapter house were all kinds of other little things, all of them around the size of small cats. They looked like amalgamations of various animals: goats, and bulls, and donkeys, just to name a few. Many of them even had little bat wings.
They were kind of revolting, and not in the good way, not in the “Mom, can I keep him?” way. They weren’t even ugly-cute.
“What are these things?” grimaced Terra in disgust. “Where did they come from?”
“Ignore them, T,” said Nines with vocal urgency. “We’ve got to go upstairs and get to Saffron.”
“Yeah,” said Terra uncertainly. “Yeah, I hear that.”
He led Terra to the stairs, and they started their ascent. She walked past various nasty little boojums, though they scooted out of the way as she and Nines reached the second floor. He led her down a hallway after that, all the way south to the last door on the left, a dark wooden door that was firmly shut.
“She’s in there,” said Nines. “A demon keeps her asleep, but you can wake her, T. You’re the only one left. If Garm is allowed to terrorize the others, they may not recover. Some of them may give in to his demands, and you cannot let that happen.”
“You don’t have to worry about that,” scowled Terra. “I am officially pissed off now.”
“Then go in and settle this,” said Nines. “However, I can’t go in with you. I have rules I have to follow, and I can’t directly intervene. All I can do is protect you from Garm’s madness, but that’s all you need. You have the power to do this, T, but you have to do this alone…I’ll be right out here, even if you can’t see me.”
She turned and gave him a single nod. It was a sad nod, because the truth was, she did not want to let him go. She did not want to let him go, and she did not want to return to her old self, but she knew this had to be done, and it had to be done now.
“It’s okay,” said Nines. “You can do it.”
“Yeah,” said Terra. “I’ll do it, Nines.”
She took in a single gulp and tried not to cry, but it was difficult.
“I love you,” she choked out.
“I love you too, T,” said Nines with a soft smile.
She let go of his hand and turned away from him. This was, in fact, something she had to do alone, because if it was one thing she trusted in life, it was Nines, and it was simply too painful to look at him right now.
She opened the door and stepped into the small room. The door shut behind her, and Nines was now temporarily—she hoped only temporarily—out of sight.
This small bedroom was little more than a closet she would have had at home. It consisted of white plaster walls, a dark ceiling with fake paneled wood across it, a latticed window whose rectangle was currently curtained to keep out the light, a bookshelf with some books on it, and a small singles bed with a brown bedspread, a cream-colored sheet beneath that bedspread, and a cream-colored pillow resting at the head of the small bed.
Saffron was lying on that bed, lying on her back upon the brown bedspread, not under it, her head on the cream pillow, her hands folded over breasts, a cheap and trashy romance novel between her fingers. She was wearing a purple tee and blue jeans, and she was in her short white crew socks; her white sneakers were on the wood floor next to the bed.
She was quite beautiful, but Terra already knew this. That long curly brown hair and that gorgeous, sublime face…She was sound asleep, of course, but Terra’s brain registered and recorded what Saffron liked to read, because maybe she could break the ice with that topic later…
There was always a chance they could find love together, no matter how slim.
There was just one hitch in that lovely image, and that was the woman standing over her, if “woman” was what you could even call this thing.
This nude “woman” turned to look upon Terra. This “woman” had bald lady parts between her legs, and she had the wide bottom of a woman, but that was where the similarities between her and a human ended. This female “thing” had red skin, all of it red, a royal-crimson red, and as she turned, she had no breasts, just a flat chest with large, jet-black nipples where those beautiful supple orbs should have been.
This thing had ebon-pitch hair done up in a single twisted ponytail hanging down her back, those locks curled round like a rope, the end of that dark-haired rope tied into a noose. She had a long, long, very long segmented tail attached to her tailbone; it simply exited from her back there. The tail was fairly narrow, a little thicker round than a standard bullwhip, and on the end of it was a wicked stinger, a bulb with a cruel black hook, like a scorpion’s, only much larger, the venom bulb about the size of a golf ball, the stinger a good four-inches long.
But it was the face that really stood out. The face was horrendous, no eyes, just empty orbital sockets of darkness, and the red skin was withered and pulled back along the cheeks and chin and forehead, like the skin of a mummy, and this contrasted with the soft and smooth crimson skin of the rest of her.
This female thing turned and looked at Terra, but it ignored her for the moment, turning its attention back upon the sleeping Saffron.
“You leave that baby girl alone!” warned Terra.
The demoness turned her head and stared at Terra as if trying to fathom what Terra had just said, as if trying to understand why a mere mortal could even see it.
“Yeah, I’m talking to you, you fugly bitch!” spat Terra.
This vile thing scowled as comprehension set in, it bent over into wrestler’s stance as it hissed once, and then it/she lashed out with her tail with terrific speed.
Terra shrieked and backed away toward the door. She held her right hand to the gash that had suddenly appeared upon her right cheek, and she could feel the burning pain of venom and the hot blood underneath her palm.
This thing’s withered lips pulled back into a terribly sharp grin. She had human teeth, but all of those pearly whites were sharpened into fine points. It lashed out again with that deadly tail, and Terra cried out in a loud “AH!” as the tail’s stinger buried itself in Terra’s black stretchy pants, right through those pants, right into and through her bladder.
The creature pulled out the stinger and then whipped the tail back behind herself until the stinger hovered above her stark vermillion head.
Terra fell to her knees as she clutched the new wound, feeling the blood spill between her fingers. Her eyes were wide as her mouth dropped open in an ‘O,’ and she realized right then that this personification of evil had been aiming for her nethers, the happiest, most fun place she had on her body.
This female thing let forth a sharp and cruel laugh, and that laugh, coupled with the realization of what it had tried to do, broke something inside Terra’s soul.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” said Terra in a low voice.
Both of her eyes stung as a vicious pain burned over them, but she ignored that little detail, because the world had just turned completely red, and this thing was fair game. She didn’t have to hold back the rage inside of herself anymore.
“You really shouldn’t have done that,” growled Terra.
She growled out that threat in a deep and terrible rumbling, and the demoness’s wicked grin suddenly turned downwards into a confused scowl.
The creature whipped its tail around, but this time Terra caught the tail with her left hand, or rather, the stinger penetrated through the palm of her left hand, but Terra did not scream or shout or cry. No, she curled her fingers around that tail and clutched it for all she was worth in spite of the pain, and why?
Because she was in pain everywhere else.
The absolute agony of her body changing drove her to a point of insanity that exponentially drove her rage higher and higher.
Her stretchy “Bottoms Up” pants stretched to beyond their limits, the synthetic-latex blend snapping in the waistline as that waistline deformed under intense and undeniable pulling. Her black sneakers were utterly destroyed as huge five-toed paws burst through them, and her legs bent backwards, breaking at the knees.
Her black sweater popped off its buttons as her “Special Girl” black tee tore apart; her chest expanded, and even worse, her breasts deflated into her new broad and muscular chest. Brown fur spread across her skin as the bones in her face broke to push out the muzzle of a great wolf, and all of her long and lovely dyed-black hair pulled back into her skull as the tips of her ears sharpened into points.
She stood to a new and full 6’ 6” height and used her right clawed hand to tear off the rest of her upper clothing, throwing it aside in a fit of pure and insane rage. She was half-human and half-wolf now, standing on two legs, and more importantly, much more importantly, she was aaaaaaaaall bi-itch.
The demoness had no time to react as she was pulled forward by her own tail into Terra’s enormous grasp. The female thing in Terra’s grip let out a surprised and choked gasp as Terra spun her around to where her bare back was to Terra’s massive form. Terra gripped the scorpion’s tail at the tailbone with her right hand, and then she tore off that awful natural weapon with one horrible twist.
The female thing in her grasp let out a loud and agonizing screech, a high-pitched scream that cracked the glass of the window of the small bedroom.
Terra tossed the writhing tail to the floor, pulling it from her left furry palm in one quick motion, and then she used her new free hand to grasp the vile demoness’s left wrist as she gripped the right wrist with her newly-massive right hand.
Terra lifted the screaming Fallen into the air so that her red bare feet dangled above the floor, and then Terra pulled, pulling like one would pull taffy, tearing the right crimson arm out of its right crimson socket as if it were nothing. She lowered her slavering maw to bite deeply into the right side of this vile thing’s scarlet-red neck, and then she ravaged with a shake of her head to the left and right, left and right, left and right, the huge fangs in the maw cutting like an industrial saw that had suddenly gone haywire.
The demoness tasted like ash, sulfur, and burning embers, but that taste was only because the foul thing had turned to said embers upon its planar destruction, burning away to ash and smoking sulfur as well, and then it was gone, driven back to Hell where it belonged, the ethereal ash and embers disappearing along with it.
Terra spread her furry arms wide, raised her lupine head toward the ceiling where her big black nose almost touched the fake wood panels, and then she howled, a lugubrious song of metal and fury, causing the walls to shake with that victory howl.
And then it was over.
She screamed as she quickly changed back to her normal human self, because without the full moon, she could not hold this form for long, and she instinctively knew this. She dropped to her hands and knees as the pain of breaking bones and the rearranging of internal organs made her want to die, but she could not die from this, and she knew this, and that…really…freakin’…sucked.
She panted over the wood floor as the pain finally ended. She was mostly naked now, as the only clothing that had survived the change were her stretchy pants, and they were now falling down to where her big bare butt was showing.
This was embarrassing. Normally, she was an exhibitionist in her own space, but this was the BTS chapter house, and though that wasn’t exactly public, it was still public enough to cause her a twinge of anxiety. She had thought about doing stripping before, stripping just for fun, but now she was having second thoughts about that idea.
It didn’t matter though. What mattered was that Saffron sat up in bed and immediately groaned. The girl held her forehead in her right hand and winced.
“Are you all right?” asked Terra.
“Malicia?” groaned Saffron. “No, I’m not all right. I have a throbbing migraine. Just give me a second for it to go away. I had a nightmare I was a big wolf again, only this time I was locked in a metal cage, and I was on display at a circus.
“These demonic clowns kept throwing chunks of meat at me, and I didn’t want to eat the meat, but then I got hungry, so I did. The clowns all started laughing and pointing at me, and that’s when I realized where they were getting the meat from. They were cutting off parts from a pile of dead children and throwing them in the cage.”
“That’s sounds awful…and scary,” said Terra. “I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” asked Saffron. “It was terrible, but at least that bastard didn’t sexually assault me again. I guess he got tired of doing that…What are you doing in here, any…way…?”
She turned to stare at Terra, and then her eyebrows lifted in silent alarm.
“Malicia?” she asked.
“Yes, Saffy?” asked Terra.
“Why are you naked?” asked Saffron. “Wh-Why are you naked and watching me sleep?”
“Oh, that’s because I turned into a big wolfie thing to fight the scorpion lady,” nodded Terra. “I killed her, and that’s when you woke up, because I think she was keeping you asleep.”
“Uh…huh…” said Saffron with slowly widening eyes. “I do like what you’ve done with your hair…In fact, I didn’t know you had brown hair, but I do like how it’s straight now and without the pony tails…but I think you and I need to have a talk about what is and what isn’t appropriate behavior with your friends.”
Terra twirled a strand of her now straight brown hair between her right-hand fingers.
“Oh, shucky darns,” she sighed. “It must have changed back. Now I have to dye it again.”
“That’s…fine…I’m sure,” said Saffron cautiously. “But did you hear me? Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”
Terra nodded and smiled.
“I wasn’t doing anything bad,” she explained. “I told you…I turned into a big wolfie thing to fight the scorpion lady. She was keeping you asleep, and that was doing bad things to everyone else. I-I’m telling the truth. I turned into a great big wolf on two legs and fought the scorpion…the…the demon lady.”
“The…demon lady?” asked Saffron. “Malicia…are you telling me the truth? Because I don’t think you are.”
“No…No, I am!” insisted Terra. “Why does no one believe me? Nines said I had to come up here and fight the demon lady because she was making you do bad things in your sleep! I’m telling the truth.”
“I don’t know who Nines is, but I don’t think you’re being honest with me,” said Saffron slowly. “Look, I can command you to tell the truth, but I really don’t want to do that. I want to respect your autonomy, so I think it’s best if you just tell me the whole truth right now. I promise I won’t get mad.”
“That is the whole truth!” protested Terra. “You…You can command me. I don’t mind. You can command me, and then you’ll know I’m telling the truth.”
“I really don’t want to,” said Saffron with a sad smile. “I’m afraid if I do, I’m going to learn something I really don’t want to learn.”
“I’m telling the truth!” insisted Terra. “Please! I really am!”
“Okay,” shrugged Saffron. “We’re going to have to have a discussion about personal boundaries after this, but okay. At least you’re not a man…Malicia, are you telling the truth? You know that’s a command, so you have to answer me truthfully about whether you’re lying or not.”
Terra felt compelled to tell the truth. It was an alien feeling, something overriding her own free will, and in spite of being kind of excited to be ordered around by Saffron, it turned out that she really didn’t like this feeling at all.
Nevertheless, she responded truthfully, mainly because she had no choice. It wasn’t like she was going to lie anyway, but if Saffy wasn’t going to believe her any other way, then this had to be done.
“Yes,” she said firmly. “Nines brought me up her because everyone was turning into wolf-girls and freaking out, but I was unaffected because Nines was protecting me, but he said he couldn’t fight the demon who was keeping you asleep, so I had to come in here and do it.
“I turned into a big wolfie thing on two legs and killed the demon lady. She turned to ash after I bit her head off, and then you woke up. I changed back to me, though, before you woke up. Also, I ruined my favorite pair of stretchy pants. I really liked these. Now they’re falling down, and I’m pretty much naked, and my boobs are hanging out. It kind of sucks, because though I’d like to show you my boobs, I’d rather you want to see them than for me to just show them to you without you asking…That seem rude.”
Saffron took in a deep gasp as her eyeballs looked like they were going to pop out of head. She didn’t say anything at first, but then she released her breath and shook her head no.
“Oh, my God!” said the girl in sheer horrified amazement. “W-We have to get everyone together!…You’re saying everyone changed but you!”
Terra simply nodded in response.
“Oh, shit!” frowned Saffron. “I-I’ve got to call everyone…I-I’m sorry I accused you of something bad, Malicia…You have to understand, I…I just…No…No, we need to get everyone together, and we need to get you some clothes.”
“Yeah,” nodded Terra. “I’d really like some clothes now. I don’t mind walking around naked in my own space, buuuuuut…you know.”
*****
Terra smiled. She was happy again, mainly because everyone was treating her like a hero instead of treating her like she was stupid. She really was trying to think things through before she opened her mouth, and it was difficult sometimes, but at least she had everyone’s respect for now.
She was wearing a hot pink sweater and a pair of blue jeans along with a simple pair of white crew socks coupled with white sneakers. These were back up clothes that Haley had ordered for everyone after the Halloween fiasco. The president of Beta Theta Sigma had everyone’s sizes, so having these at the chapter house was really handy. You never knew when you were going to go all “rowrr, rowrr.”
At least it wasn’t like last Sunday morning when they had all been naked and nasty and stuck in the woods. They’d had to sneak back into town at that time, and that survival course had led straight past a mental institute. Some poor old woman staring out of the hospital window had probably had her dosage increased by now. Terra had waved at her. Come to think of it, that probably hadn’t helped.
Anyway, Terra now looked like she belonged with the BTS girls. She hadn’t had time to go back to the apartment and dye her hair or style it or put on new Goth clothes. No, Saffy and the others had endlessly grilled her about what had happened to her, so the day had just gone by without her even noticing.
They were especially fascinated with Nines, though Nines had ditched her all over again. Oh, well, he’d turn up again. She knew he was still around.
Now the sun was going down, but the drama at the chapter house, that heat, was just rising.
“I was on a date with Tommy!” said Hope from off in the distance.
Oh, right. Hope had just showed up a minute ago. It was getting dark outside, and now she was yelling at Saffy. She was pretty upset over the whole thing, the whole “wolf-girl” thing.
“He doesn’t know, does he?” asked Haley.
“No, but because I was crying in his apartment bathroom, now he thinks I’m emotionally fragile,” said Hope. “That kind of happens when you grow a lot of fur and then think the entire universe is trying to prevent you from writing.”
“I’m sorry, Hope, but this really isn’t my fault,” said Saffron. “Garm just attacked out of the blue. I had nothing to do with this!”
“I don’t care,” said Hope. “You need to give him to Haley, Saffron. She wants to be queen, and maybe she can do it; I don’t know, but I do know one thing…You can’t control him anymore, and I know exactly what he’s like. If you slip even a little, he’ll transform us all, and we’ll all go on a slaughtering rampage! I really don’t want to eat my mom and dad during Thanksgiving break…or my cousins…or my aunts and uncles…or my two grandmas and my only grandpa left…”
“I was never in control of him, Hope,” said Saffron in audible exasperation. “I’m his bride now, and all he does is abuse me and try to control me. I’d rather not be married to a demon—metaphorically speaking—especially because I had no choice in the matter.”
“Then I’ll take him, Saffy,” said Haley firmly. “He can be married to me. I’ll have him by the balls in a day.”
“You don’t know what he’s like,” warned Hope. “It’s not that easy.”
Well, this conversation was kind of boring, but Terra did have one thing she wanted to do, because she hadn’t gotten a chance to do it earlier.
She stood up from a chair in the chapter house living area and made her way up to Haley. The tall blonde turned her attention upon Terra with a look of mild interest, and to be fair, Haley was tall, an inch taller than Terra, and that…made her even hotter.
Dear God, she was a meower. Her beauty was actually kind of intimidating.
“H-Haley?” asked Terra nervously.
“Yes, Terra?” asked Haley in return.
“I just wanted to thank you for the clothes,” she said.
“Oh, that’s okay, Terra,” said Haley. “It’s the least I could do, especially now when we needed you most. We kind of wrote you off…I kind of wrote you off, and I’m really sorry about that.”
“Thank you,” smiled Terra.
“You look like one of us now,” grinned Haley. “I really like the look, simple as the color scheme is.”
“I love the hot pink,” said Terra. “It matches my aura.”
“Oh, right,” said Hope. “That is your aura color.”
“Really?” asked Saffron.
“Yeah,” said Hope. “Yours is light blue.”
“That figures,” said Saffron as she rolled her hazel eyes. “Even my soul can’t escape this first name.”
Hope giggled as Haley smiled. The blonde had such a warm smile, and she was sooooo friendly, and…You knoooow…She was single…
“I just wanted to say, Haley…” began Terra.
“Yes, Terra?” asked Haley.
“I just wanted to say…” said Terra, “you really are beautiful. That gold trim goes wonderfully with the burgundy shirt, and the black slacks accent your naturally blonde hair…You’re sooooo gorgeous.”
Haley stopped still for a moment as she leaned her head to her own left and raised her right eyebrow.
“Thank…you…Terra…” she said slowly, as if choosing her words carefully.
“What the…!” came a hostile voice from behind. “What in the hell!”
Uh…oooooh. Terra had temporarily forgotten Stephanie was here.
The irate Supreme Witch of the Goths spun Terra around and looked up into her dark eyes, and that girl was not happy.
“You’re hitting on her now!” accused Stephanie. “What in the hell are you doing! You’ve just dropped me like I’m nothing! I’m nothing now! Is that it! She’s not content to steal my boyfriend, and now she has to steal you! What is wrong with you!”
The other three girls immediately looked at Stephanie.
“Seriously?” asked Haley. “You’re suddenly jealous again because she has a crush on me now?”
Stephanie froze as her cheeks turned red. She smacked herself in the forehead and swiped her hand down her face before she could even reply.
“What am I saying!” she spat. “What’s wrong with her? What in the hell is wrong with me!”
“I’d say…a lot,” smiled Haley.
“Shut up,” frowned Stephanie.
“Oh, yeah!” said Haley angrily.
“Yeah!” replied Stephanie in equal anger.
“You know what!” retorted Haley.
“What!” replied Stephanie.
“When I’m queen, the first thing I’m going to do is make you sniff my butt,” said the blonde.
“Yeah, and I bet it smells like ass,” spat Stephanie.
“Think about what you just said,” replied Haley.
Both Saffron and Hope broke out into loud laughter. Terra had to release a giggle, even though she really didn’t want to laugh at Stephanie’s expense.
Stephanie simply stood still again as her brain worked out the issue with her own rebuttal.
“Oh, right…” she said in mild confusion.
Of course, this little exchange reminded Terra of something, something very important, something that needed to be addressed before she forgot about it again.
“Speaking of ass…” she grinned. “I own yours for those bad words you said. You promised.”
“Oh, that again?” asked Stephanie. “That’s a GSNCU thing, not a BTS thing. We don’t need to discuss that here, Malicia.”
“Malicia?” asked Terra. “You’re calling me Malicia again?”
“You’ve earned your name back,” frowned Stephanie. “That’s if you don’t try to cheat on me again. I’m still your crush, right?”
Terra smiled.
“Right,” she said with a nod.
“Also, don’t bring up our business in front of these BTS hoes,” frowned Stephanie. “We’ll do that elsewhere.”
“Oh, no,” came Ebony’s voice.
The girl walked up to them, and in her hands was a black leather cat o’ nine tails.
“No, no,” warned Ebony. “You’re not getting out of this one. You want to delay it so Malicia will forget about it. We’ll do this right here and right now.”
“What!” hissed Stephanie. “Where did you get that!”
“I have a spare in the trunk of my car,” grinned Ebony. “Let’s go, boss. Go over to the couch and bend over.”
Stephanie fumed for a second, her face a bright red, but then to Terra’s surprise, the Supreme Witch gave in.
“Fine!” she complied. “But you’re only getting four, Malicia! Understand!…And I’m only agreeing to this because you saved the day.”
“Yeppers,” grinned Terra.
“And you’d better not haul off on me,” warned Stephanie. “I mean it. If my ass gets stripes, you lose your name privilege all over again.”
“Okay,” nodded Terra.
With that warning in mind, Terra already knew she was going to lose her name privilege again, but she waved one hand toward the couch anyway.
Stephanie made her way to the couch and leaned over it.
“Let’s make this quick,” she said unhappily.
“Oh, I’ve got to see this,” chuckled Haley.
“Shut up,” said Stephanie.
Ebony handed Terra the cat o’ nine tails, and Terra took a firm grip of the leather handle in her right hand.
“Are you ready?” asked Terra.
“Just do it,” frowned Stephanie.
“Do it, do it, do it!” chanted Haley.
The other girls currently in the chapter house surrounded them and started chanting as well. Aside from Haley, Ebony, Saffron, and Hope, there was also Gracie, Jenny, Macy, and Benji, and all that chanting had to be embarrassing.
“DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!” chanted everyone.
Stephanie scowled and nodded at them in return.
“Yeah, yeah, you harpies!” she exclaimed. “You’ll all get in trouble at some point, and I’ll be there to laugh at you!”
“Here we go!” called out Terra. “Everybody, quiet now!”
Everyone quieted down and held their collective breaths.
“One for the money…” began Terra.
She gave Stephanie a light whip with the cat across Stephanie’s bottom. The girl was wearing jeans, so it couldn’t have hurt that bad.
“That wasn’t too bad,” said Stephanie.
“Lame!” called out Hope.
Oh, really? WELL THEN…
“Two for the show…” said Terra.
The next whip was a little harder.
“That one stung a little,” said Stephanie. “Tone it down.”
Oh, Terra had a distinct tone, but that dial was slowly turning up.
“Give it to her!” said Haley.
“Shut up,” replied Stephanie.
“Three to get ready…” said Terra.
She gave a quick and nasty whip across Stephanie’s bottom.
“OW!” hissed Stephanie. “Dammit, Malicia, ease up! That hurt!”
“Sooooorrrrry,” said Terra in a pretend pout.
She really wasn’t, though, and to prove it, she had saved the best for last.
“And four…to…GO!” she cried.
She hauled off and gave a real military/naval ass smacking, and it was loud, loud enough to make all of the girls in the chapter house inhale and then wince in a “Sfffffft!” sound.
“Terr–RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” shouted Stephanie.
15 WOLVES: Terra, Not Firma Part II Copyright © 2026 bloodytwine.com Matthew L. Marlott
Note: The image for this story was generated via artificial intelligence courtesy of OpenAI.
