by Oblimo
Ursula's whisper was urgent and awed. "Dee."
Yves reached for her again. "It's just Dee." The words rung hollow and false, even to him, and he withdrew his hand.
Ursula pulled his hand back and held it between her breasts. Yves felt her heart fluttering. "I want it to be Galatea, too," Ursula said, squeezing his hand as hard as she could.
At first, Yves thought someone had turned on a slow, thudding subwoofer, but Ursula whispered, "Dee's coming." She pushed their clasped hands into Yves abdomen. "You're trembling," she said.
"I'm terrified," Yves confessed. The footfalls drew nearer. "What if I'm wrong? What if it's not Dee or Galatea, but something else? There's something you don't know…"
She shushed him and they turned, standing side by side.
Dee strode stark naked across the threshold, each step scorching the floor. Plumes of steam rose from his bare skin. The curls of his hair were slicked and sleek around his face. His every movement was so strong and sure that Yves knew the thrill of standing in the middle of the tracks before an onrushing train.
The green girl clung to Dee's neck, her head buried in his chest. She trembled and turned away from Yves and Ursula, curling in modesty but presenting the hourglass curves of her back and flaring hips. Her skin shone with gem fire, polished and pure as a flawless emerald. Dee held her close. She murmured and shivered and pressed against him. The intimate desire expressed in her embrace was palpable and dizzying. Yves felt as if he somehow partook in it just by watching.
"It is done," Dee said.
The green girl sighed and kissed his neck.
["…If Galatea thinks you’re a god…"]
"I hate being right," Yves said.
Love is the temple.
Love the higher law.
You ask me to enter,
But then you make me crawl.
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt.
—U2, One
Interlude: Let Me Get Into You
The morning sun blazed high above the chapter house of Epsilon Zeta Sorority as a yellow SUV crept up the horseshoe driveway. The brunette driving the boxy car dragged up the emergency brake and plopped her head into the steering wheel. "We're here."
The blonde coed sprawled on the backseat did not budge. Her hair stuck out everywhere, a mess of tangles at strange angles. "What time is it?"
The brunette's eyes roved over the dashboard. "A little after eight." She scraped a pasty lip with her teeth and made a hissy-kissy noise.
The blonde dunked her head into the footwell. "We were out all night. I can't believe we spent all night with those frat guys…"
"Shut up." The redhead in the passenger seat spun around. "This is all your fault."
"But my cell phone battery died," came a voice from the footwell full of blonde hair. "And all I did was ask if you guys thought that really cute guy had called yet."
"Don’t you dare start talking about him again," said the redhead, eyes narrowed.
"But he was sooo cute." The blonde peeked up at her friends in the front seat. "Remember how his hair kept falling into his eyes? Those little, whatdoyacall'em, ringlets? Ooh, and his eyes. Brown, but they like burned, you know? He looked at me and I felt so small."
The brunette clapped her hands over her ears and sang wordlessly, rocking her head against the steering wheel. Her redheaded friend just stared into space.
"And…" The blonde sat up, fists curled in her lap. "And, oh God, didn't you watch him walk? I thought runway models knew how to walk but this guy moved like he owned the whole world."
"I will not get horny again," chanted the brunette. It became her mantra. "I will not get horny again."
Sweat began trickling down the blonde's neck. "And when he spoke," she said, pressing a palm against her neck, "It was like he owned me."
"He only said one word," whispered the redhead. She glared at the floor. "One fucking word."
Squirming in the back seat, the blonde cleared her throat and tried to imitate Dee's voice. "…'What'?"
"Deeper," sighed the brunette, throwing herself back into the driver's seat.
The blonde cleared her throat and tried again in a lower register. "Wha—"
"Deeper," insisted the redhead. "Like, way deeper."
The blonde closed her eyes and scissored her legs. "'What'?"
The brunette murmured, "Deeper." Her hand inched under the waistband of her black denims. "No!" She bolted up. "Not again!"
"I can't help it," the blonde whined, falling over and hiding her face. "I'm a slut."
"We are not sluts," the redhead said, emphasizing each word by stabbing a finger at the blonde.
"We're skanks," added the brunette.
"That's right," nodded the redhead. "No, wait."
"We're skanks." The brunette looked down at her white tee shirt. "My nipples are hard."
The blonde pushed her rump up into the air. "My panties are wet. Again."
The two girls turned to their redheaded friend. She bowed her head. "I had to throw my panties away."
"Well." The brunette jingled the car keys. "We're not going back to the frat, are we?"
The redhead said, "No."
The blonde pulled her self up. She gave both her friends a coy, unsure look. "We're not going to, uh—"
"No!" The redhead held up both hands and gave her friends their marching orders. "We are going to do the walk of shame. Together. Then we're going back to our rooms..." The blonde perked up "…Separately." The blonde's face fell. "And we're going to whack off. Then we'll take a quick nap, finally get out of these sticky clothes and go to class. It'll be like last night never happened…We didn't tell those guys about tonight's party, did we?"
"Hell, no," the brunette said.
"Good. Walk of shame time." The redhead peered at the big brick house with Ε-Ζ emblazoned on its whitewashed porch. "No one's up yet, looks like. Good. Weird, but good." She popped open the passenger door. "Let's go."
The three girls skulked through the front door into the foyer. The blonde ran over to the whiteboard next to the phone on the far wall. She scanned the magic marker scribble on the board. "No messages." She punched buttons on the phone's integrated answering machine until it beeped. "Aw, he didn't call."
"Shh!" The redhead waved a frantic hand up and down.
"Oh, stuff it," hissed the blonde. "No one's around." She minced through the main hall, into the central stairwell and out of site. "I'm going to go scratch this itch. Later, guys."
"Me too," said the brunette. She tiptoed into the main hall before turning back. "You coming?" she asked the redhead.
"In a minute." She cracked open a side door. "I'm going to the kitchen."
"What? Why?" The brunette giggled. "You're not serious."
The redhead sniffed. "Not everybody owns a vibrator. I've got to make do."
"Whatever," the brunette shrugged and dashed upstairs. "I'm going to need extra batteries."
The redhead slunk down the narrow corridor passed the basement stairwell. Now that her friends were gone, she could let her guard down. Without panties, the crotch of her jeans had harnessed her sex. The rigid seam rubbed her raw from her clit down over her slit and around into the crack in her ass. She chewed her bottom lip and whimpered as she walked. At the far end of the corridor the door to the kitchen sat crooked on a swinging hinge. Florescent light flickered through the gap above the door into the dark hallway. The redhead held her breath and stood still. Her lungs began to ache but she heard a scuffle of feet and furniture from the kitchen and air whooshed out of her. Someone was in the kitchen. In a way, the prospect of getting caught came as a relief. She shook out her hair, rubbed away ruined mascara, squared her shoulders, and stormed through the kitchen doorway.
A husky boy in a jelly-stained grocer's smock sat on the floor, hands hogtied behind his back to the granite top kitchen cart. His eyes bugged at redhead. "Oh, Christ, not yet." He kicked
at the floor and the cart rolled away from her. The work pants and boxers wrapped around his ankles and the friction of his bare ass against the hardwood floor reduced his retreat to a comical butt-scoot. "I won't be able to get a boner again for another hour. I swear to God, lady."
She stared for long moment before calmly turning to her left and pulling a carving knife from a wooden block on the counter. Only then did the redhead allow her self to scream. "Who the fuck are you?"
The husky boy crossed his eyes watching the tip of the long knife quiver at him. Lavender lip prints smeared his face and gobs of purplish jelly matted his hair. "You're not one of them?"
"Who the fucking Hell are you," demanded the redhead, "and..." She pointed the knife downward. "And why the Hell is your dick covered in custard? Are you some sort of autoerotic-bondage-food freak? Oh, wait." She relaxed and dropped the knife on the counter. "Hazing is illegal, you know. So are panty raids." She glanced around. "Where are your pledge brothers?"
The kitchen cart bumped up against the stainless steel refrigerator. "You're not one of them." The boy shook his head. "Jesus, lady, you got to get out of here."
The redhead slouched against the counter on the opposite wall and recited in bored singsong, "Epsilon Zeta Sorority does not encourage and will not condone hazing. We have a zero tolerance policy. As chapter secretary, I am obliged to ask you for the names of any Ep-Zed sisters who have collaborated with your frat's hazing activities in any way."
"I don't know what the Hell you're on about lady. I'm not from a frat. I'm Eddie. I work in a supermarket." The kitchen cart bumped against the refrigerator again. "So stop talking Moon language and get the fuck out."
"I can't," the redhead sighed. "I have to call the provost's office with those names. And I, uh, want something from the fridge…Look, can you stop bumping against it like that?"
The cart and refrigerator door clunked against each other again. "What? I'm not—" The cart whacked into Eddie's head. The color drained from his face. "Oh, God, no." The purple gel on his paling cheeks stood out like kiss-shaped bruises. He twisted his neck to gawk at the refrigerator. "It can't be. The other two weren't ready this fast. It's too soon."
The refrigerator door slammed against the kitchen cart. Eddie's ass squeaked over the floor as the cart dragged him to the side. He butt-scooted away from the refrigerator with surprising speed. "This one won't be like the others. This one's hers."
The redhead frowned at the fridge. "Is a pledge in there or something?"
Eddie kicked her in the shins. "We've got to get out of here!"
The redhead stood transfixed as the steel door swung open. A dark nebula billowed out to fill the widening space, black ink bleeding into the air as if seeping into water. The living patch of night shone, glossy and faceted, in the harsh florescent lamplight. It unfolded in clusters of wedges and confusing shapes, an origami blossom of impossible complexity and size. The obsidian thing bloomed bigger than the industrial refrigerator behind it and the planes of its outer petals filled out in familiar shapes.
"Wings," Eddie groaned. "Wings. I told you. This one's hers."
The epicenter of the geometric eruption swelled into a fat, shiny balloon. It burst and two legs shot out, skinny but shapely. They touched down on the floor on toeless feet, rounded and tiny like a child's ballet slippers. The collapsing balloon gathered into narrow but curving hips and a tight little behind. The black mass of the ass stretched into a flat tummy, budding breasts, slender shoulders, graceful arms, curiously long neck, and a head as shiny, bald, and faceless as an egg dipped into black latex paint.
The winged obsidian girl stood with arms akimbo and feet tapping. She was brume. She was sepulchral. She was midnight.
She was a size 2.
The redhead flailed her arm backward, feeling for the door. "Oh, fuck me."
"No," Eddie sighed. The obsidian girl scampered over to his prone form. "It's going to be me." The obsidian girl tilted her head. The overhead lamp reflected in her eyeless, featureless face as two round pools of white light and she regarded him with an alien curiosity. Eddie looked into her illusory gaze and shuddered. "Again."
The redhead inched backward. The obsidian girl bent forward. Eddie squeezed his eyes shut and cringed. The obsidian girl held still for a long moment. Her arm drew a dismissive zigzag in the air and her smooth, conical fingers snap-snap-snapped in his flinching face as she stood up and turned away.
The redhead's shaky, searching fingers brushed across the door and she whipped around, threw all her weight into it—and cracked her head against it, rebounding when the door refused to budge.
She faltered around the kitchen, one hand cradling her smarting forehead. The obsidian girl leapt up the refrigerator and perched on top with wings furled, watching her with the patience of a stone gargoyle.
The kitchen door swung inward. The blonde and the brunette coeds lurched in wearing nothing but their tight white tee-shirts and panties soaked sheer at the crotch. Red and black gel ringed their mouths, as if they had been feasting on chocolate covered jelly donuts. Between the brunette's legs came a muffled, buzzing noise.
"Aw, shit," Eddie said as the two girls ambled toward the redhead, "she knows you're here now. Sorry, lady, I tried to tell you."
The two girls seized the redhead, one on each arm. "Wait," the redhead said, glancing back and forth between them, trying to catch their unfocused, glassy eyes. "Wait! What the Hell…Oh my God…"
Black Cherry boiled into the room, wings snapped taught behind her. "Guess again." She licked her smirking lips and a fat drop of sanguine honey dripped from the corner of her mouth and sizzled on the floor.
The redhead swooned but her two friends propped her up. Black Cherry stormed close. She traced the curve of the redhead's cheek with one wing-claw and tickled her nipples erect with the other until the girl was awake and squirming in her friends' unyielding arms. "Stop, stop."
Black Cherry sliced away the redhead's flimsy top with the tip of a finger. "I never stop." She turned to the brunette as she ran both claws down the redhead's exposed ribs. "So this is the other girl who met Master?"
The brunette's voice was hushed and distant. "…Yes."
The redhead barked with painful laughter. "Stop, stop!" She wrestled with her captors but they stood, unmoving and unblinking. "Help me, someone help me!"
The obsidian girl unfurled her wings and tapped a foot on the metal refrigerator.
Black Cherry glanced upward and startled. "So soon? Wonderful! I'm glad I used so much extra nanomek, then." She leveled a quivering claw at the hogtied boy. "Eddie's all yours for the moment." She dipped a wing claw below the redhead's belt and the girl shrieked. "But this one is mine. I need to taste her memories of Master. Now then…" She went to work on the fly of the redhead's jeans.
The kitchen door swung open and the sisters of Epsilon Zeta trickled into the room. The redhead cried out, "Oh thank God—Help me! Call the cops! Do something? Why aren't you…Oh, no." Half-dozen coeds, their expressions blank and lips stained blood red, took places around the room. When another sorority sister bumped her way through the door, the redhead glimpsed the narrow corridor filled to capacity with glassy-eyed girls. "No, no, no."
"I tried to tell you, lady," Eddie said. "Look, I'm real sorry."
The redhead slumped and trembled in her captors' arms. She whispered at the floor, "Help me. Help me."
"There, there, no need to cry." Black Cherry plucked the redhead's chin up with a wing and unzipped the girl's jeans with her hands. "After all, you're not scared. I could smell it if you were. But I smell something else, instead. Now, open wide." Black Cherry yanked the redhead's jeans down and giggled. "Oh, I see that you have already. So all you need to do…" Black Cherry leaned close, her fingers pressed deep into the redhead's sex, her lips drizzling searing honey over the girl's ear. "…is let me in."
Stone aged love and strange sounds too,
Come on, baby, let me get into you.
Bad nights causing teenaged blues,
Get down ladies—you've got nothing to lose!
Hello, Daddy! Hello, Mom!
I'm your ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch cherry bomb!
—The Runaways with Joan Jett, Cherry Bomb
Act 4
Chapter One: A Hole for the World
"Yves, Ursula," Dee said to the odd couple goggling at him in the hallway. "You guys okay?" He scrutinized Ursula's face. Her eyes were hidden behind the fog filming her wide, oval glasses. "Ursula?"
Yves followed Dee's gaze. "Ursula, how're you doing?" Her hand squeezed his until his knuckles ground together. "Everything okay?"
"Yeah," Ursula gulped. "Still gay." She nodded. "I'm impressed but still gay." She surrendered Yves' hand. "Just having a strong flashback, sorry."
"Ursula?" The green girl peeped over her shoulder. "Oh, it's the pharmaceutria from two doors down. Hey."
Ursula started at the term but raised a palm. "Uh. Hey."
The green girl shifted her weight in Dee's arms to leer up at Yves. A sheaf of agate dreadlocks fell over her eyes. "Why hullo there," she drawled. "You're Vigo? A guy like you, staying home playing computer games all night?" She shook her head. "What a crime."
Yves laughed, massaging his hand. "I'm Yves. Upstairs neighbor. Favorite video game: Ms. Pac-Man."
She tipped her head. "Nice to finally meet you two."
Ursula turned away, muttering, "Pharmaceutria."
Dee held the green girl away from his chest to look her in the eye. "I would've introduced you to my friends if you'd ever let me out of the apartment."
"Friends?" The green girl's brow wrinkled. "You have friends?"
"Very funny." Dee rolled his shoulders. The green girl gasped, giggled, and decanted from his arms onto the floor. The cheap carpet wilted and browned under her feet.
Yves marveled at how she moved, sumptuous, feline and somehow familiar. Dee. The green girl sinuated herself under Dee's right arm and nested in the hollow of his shoulder. She moves like Dee does. She purred, her gel flesh smooching against his, a leopard lazing against her favored tree. Or does Dee move like her? He's always moved like that, at least a little or whenever he gets worked up about something, hasn't he?