by M. O. McLeod
20.
The Spawns of BlueK
O’bellaDonna was the first to wake. She felt like she had been hit with a ton of bricks. Her arms, her legs, and most of all her head throbbed. She sat up in a daze and looked around.
She lay in a line with her flat mates—all except Nina, who was by the table. What was the meaning of this? All she remembered was confronting Kurma and nothing else after. Her clothes were torn half off her body, and everything seemed to be stretched out as if she had grown several inches.
April sensed O’bellaDonna moving next to her. She was so scared that she played dead, making her body as still as she could. She remembered everything: Rimselda telling her that horrible story, and Kurma attacking her, and she even remembered how she’d felt when she’d begun to change. She’d tried everything to stop it from happening. What would her brother think? He would abandon her just like their family had abandoned them.
Jackie groaned and ached. She tried to roll over and get up from the floor, but her arms and hands would not work. “What the hell?” she mumbled. Her legs felt like jelly. Why was she on the floor? What had happened?
She tried again to press her arms against the ground and almost lost her mind at what she saw: her arms were not working because they were no longer arms but wings! She screamed so loudly she scared even herself. She looked down at her body and saw it was completely deformed and hideous. She had wings the color of pears, big and heavy and real. Her body was covered with smooth, short, deep-purple hair. She had never seen anything like it.
Chelsea was the last to awake. She heard screaming, and she opened her eyes. Her vision was funny, though; everything seemed to be in black and white. Had she gone color-blind? She instantly became nervous. She blinked once, twice, three times, and still her vision was gray. She grabbed at her eyes and rolled over, clambered onto her knees, dragged herself to the nearest chair, and pulled her body up. Her heart was racing; she could hear its beat in her ears. She took in the whole room from where she was sitting and saw Kurma was still there; Rimselda, who had betrayed them all, stood right next to her. But Chelsea’s vision must have been even worse than she thought, because the two girls were in some animal form. What were those wings and hair and metal daggers?
Kurma looked at Rimselda, who had calmed down after all of the events of the night. Rimselda had messed up her plan to select the individuals she wanted; however, she had helped Kurma tenfold by revealing that Kurma was the only one who could change another person into a Raptor. Kurma couldn’t be too angry at her since things still had panned out her way. She now had five Raptors, one of whom was already as advanced as she was. She also had access to a living arrangement where she could come and go as she pleased. And she had successfully avoided touching Nina. That girl would never become a Raptor if Kurma had anything to do with it. She hoped Nina would somehow run into Santino and be done away with. That was kind of mean, but Nina deserved it.
Kurma had placed all her newborns in a row so they would see what she was and what they were about to be. She purposefully changed into her Raptor state so the girls would not doubt her as Rimselda had. Rimselda stood next to her, glowing with her red hair. She was to be Kurma’s second in command. If the girls didn’t believe Kurma then they would have to believe Rimselda.
Kurma wasn’t worried about any one leaving or going against her. She had a feeling that even though at the moment she seemed like the bad guy, the girls would come around and treat her with the respect she deserved. Rimselda had done alright by her; Kurma believed the other girls would fall in line as she had…or else.
Kurma clapped her hands loudly. The sound echoed off the walls and vibrated her ear drums. She looked at her massive hands and was pleased with herself. She really had become content with being a Raptor.
“Ladies, if I can have your attention,” said Kurma. She waited for the others to situate themselves. Chelsea was already seated. Jackie was trying to cover her Raptor body with her wings. April eyes were rimmed with red, and she simply lay on the floor. O’bellaDonna shuffled to the bed, holding her back like an old granny.
“What have you done?” she screamed.
Kurma held her hand up to stop the talking. “If you give me a chance to explain, I’m sure an understanding will be reached.”
“Hear her out,” Rimselda said. She looked at Kurma and gave her tiny smile.
“Thank you, Rimy. I want to get straight to business. You have all been turned into Raptors, as I am. Everyone except Nina.” Kurma waved over to her. She still lay still.
O’bellaDonna looked at Jackie, who was clearly birdlike, with wings and hair and even freakier eyes that seemed to glow bright. “I’m like you?” she asked Kurma, bewildered.
“Yes. We’re all Raptors. Nothing has to change if you don’t want it to. We can still stay here and go about our normal lives.”
“How so? I’m a freaking bird, you bitch! Don’t play with me right now!” screamed Jackie. “I want to turn back to normal!”
“You can,” Kurma said. “We have the ability to turn back into our normal sizes, with our regular faces and hair. Our bodies can morph back and forth. I can teach you how if you let me.”
Chelsea didn’t trust Kurma, but she looked like Rimselda, who looked like Jackie. If what she was saying was true, then they needed her. “So what can a Raptor do? What makes you two—well, the three of you so special?” She looked at Jackie and mouthed “sorry” to her.
Kurma spread her powder-blue spotted wings full for the room to see. “Clearly we can fly,” she said. “But that’s not all. We have magnified vision, better hearing, and better smelling abilities. We can command our bodies to morph only single parts if necessary. For example you can be in your human shape and still see out of your Raptor eyes. There are numerous advantages to being a Raptor.”
O’bellaDonna said, “That’s all good and fine, but you didn’t have our permission to turn us!”
“No one had my permission to turn me, but here I am, and here we are.” Kurma felt the need to defend herself, but then thought better of it. They wouldn’t all follow her if she didn’t seem sorry for what she’d done. She wasn’t sorry, but she could at least pretend to be. There was, after all, a time to be stubborn and severe and a time to be sympathetic. She chose the latter.
“Look, I’m sorry I attacked you, Donna. Chelsea, I hope you can forgive me as well for scaring you.” Kurma directed her apologies to the girls who were talking the most. April seemed to be in shock, so she’d get to her later. But Jackie was already hers—Kurma could feel it.
“Jackie, how does it feel to be a Raptor?”
Jackie wasn’t quick to respond. She looked down at her body and nervously laughed. She was bigger than she remembered. She didn’t know if being a Raptor caused her to grow or not, but she had never been this tall. Her pelt color was beautiful, with swirls of deep forest greens and lime-yellows in its pattern. She stroked the hair on her stomach and felt how soft it was. She giggled at her hands, too, which were thin and freakishly long. She brought them to her face and noticed the claws that used to be her nails.
“I look so sick,” she squealed. She bet she looked cool, like a woman in a comic book. “In a good way, though.”
Rimselda and Kurma looked at each other and nodded. Rimselda then looked at April and worried for her friend. “April, how are you, hon?”
April cringed. She didn’t want to talk back. She just wanted her brother to find her and rescue her from this nightmare. She saw her gun across the room where she had set it down before she’d gone into the kitchen with Rimselda. If only she could reach it, then she might be able to get out of there alive. She would run and tell her brother, who would handle Kurma and the rest of these traitors who were so quick to accept Kurma’s little gift.
“Don’t talk to me,” she spat at Rimselda. She dragged her body to the nearest corner and
pulled her knees up to her face, and hid away as best she could.
“April, don’t be that way,” O’bellaDonna said. “Everything will be alright, I promise.”
“How can you promise me anything?” April shot back.
O’bellaDonna was silent. The room was too, and the tension thickened.
Nina came to and rubbed the back of her head. That witch Kurma had kicked her into the coffee table. Nina would deal with that; she felt around on the floor, searching for the nearest weapon. She noticed a strange, clawed foot by her face and followed it up a thin, creepy-looking leg, which turned into a body with wings and arms. The body belonged to her old friend Jackie, but with a scaled face.
Nina jerked backward and yelled, “What have they done to you?”
“Nina!” screamed April. Her friend had finally woken up, and she needed some backup. “Help me, Nina. They’ve turned me into them.” She ran over to Nina, who looked as if she had seen a ghost.
“Do I look that bad, guys?” asked Jackie.
“You look splendid, babes,” Kurma said. She wasn’t lying, either.
“Stay away from me,” Nina screamed, putting up her hands as April ran her way. “Whatever she gave you guys, I don’t want it.” She saw what Kurma had done to Jackie; she could only imagine the other girls.
“Nina, I’m your friend. I met you before all of these girls. I brought you in,” April pleaded. “I’m not like them. Trust me. I’m scared, Nina.” She began to cry.
Nina had no tears for any of these girls. If they wanted Kurma so badly, they could have her. “I said stay back, you brute!” She picked up April’s gun from the floor and aimed for the girls. “Anybody comes near me; I put a bullet through their head. Let’s see if you like that!”
Kurma took this opportunity to sway April to her side—the good side. “You see, April? She isn’t one of us.”
“Neither am I,” April yelled through snot and tears.
“But you are, hon, you are. So is O’bellaDonna, Jackie, Chelsea, Rimselda, and I am,” said Kurma in a soft voice. She opened her arms to April. “We’re a set now, and we have to stick together. There will be a lot of people who see us as Nina does and who will want to hurt us. I don’t want anyone to hurt you. If they hurt you then they hurt me.”
April was lost, but Kurma’s arms did look inviting. She just wanted to close her eyes and sleep. She walked over to Kurma and let her hug her worries away. Chelsea came over and rubbed April’s back, and she instantly felt better.
“Do you think I care? I don’t!” Nina held her ground.
O’bellaDonna hopped off the bed and went to sit next to Rimselda. She would watch out for Kurma, but she still had Rimselda, Jackie, and April to look after.
“You know, I was thinking,” Kurma said. “We should get new wardrobes for our new endeavor together. No more of this shabby stuff.”
Rimselda had been wearing the same clothes for almost three months now. “You’re absolutely right, Kurma. We need new clothes, new hair, new everything. We deserve it.” She showed her dazzling smile. Rimselda was ready for some action.
“Where do you think we’ll get the money for all this new stuff?” asked O’bellaDonna. She seemed to be the only rational person at the moment.
“Let’s not worry about that right now. We all have our little talents, don’t we? So I’m sure we can manage something.”
O’bellaDonna didn’t want to smile, but she knew what Kurma was talking about and didn’t mind the thought of hoodwinking her way to a new wardrobe at all.
“Plus,” Kurma said, “We need to give Nina some time to think.”
“I don’t need time to pull this trigger.” Nina cocked the gun. She was dead serious.
Kurma morphed back into her human body and found her clothes. The girls looked amazed and dumbstruck.
“Let’s give her space, girls.” Kurma laughed. The clique followed her toward the door. Rimselda was second, as she should have been.
“Don’t come back, or else you die!” Nina shouted at the girls’ backs.
Kurma sneered at the thought of Nina with the gun. She dressed quickly before she headed out. She would come back alright, just for that gun, and it would be best if Nina wasn't there when she did.