by Eric Vall
“Valstrom,” I read off as I glanced between the cat-girl and the outstretched wrench. “This… this is just the name of the ironsmith that this particular wrench came from. Are you sure that’s what you want to be named?”
“I don’t know,” the blonde shrugged as she turned the metal object toward her and gazed down at it lovingly. “I just like it. Val, it sounds strong…and powerful, but also mysterious and dark and sneaky and silky and smooth and sexy. Ohhh, I like the name so much.”
“It is a bit short though,” I said as I tapped my chin. Women tend to have longer names, and then I could use ‘Val’ as a nick name.”
“Or a pet name,” A.B. prompted.
“Ohhh!” Val gasped. “You’ll give me a pet name? I want to be your pet so bad! Hooray! What will my really long name be, Charles? I’d like for you to give me a long one. Please?”
“Oh, my god,” A.B. snickered. “This just keeps getting better.”
“Well, okay,” I cleared my throat and smiled gently down at her. “What about Valerie? It’s a pretty name, and then we could call you Val. If you don’t like it, we can always choose a different name that you like bett--”
My voice was cut off as the blonde feline rushed forward and wrapped her arms around my middle. I wobbled on my feet in surprise but regained my footing as I tightly held her to my chest. The cat-girl snuggled deeply into my neck as she purred loudly, and I couldn’t help but chuckle in response.
“No, I don’t want to change it!” the blonde cried as she leaned away from my body and grinned up at me. “I love it! It’s decided, my name is Valerie! It’s even more special because my darling Charles helped pick it out!”
“Nice to meet you, Valerie,” A.B. chuckled as the cat-girl let her arms drop from around me.
“Wonderful to make your acquaintance, Abraham Benjamin!” the blonde giggled as she clasped her hands to her chest and then turned to survey the room. “So, Charles, this is your lab.”
“Laboratory,” I corrected as I plopped down on my sturdy stool and gazed around the room along with her. “But I suppose you could call it a lab since you’d like me to call you Val. This is where I spend most of my days, slaving away for the Duchess.”
“Do you think I’ll ever meet the Duchess?” Valerie inquired as she scampered away and wriggled underneath the very same pile of paneling Clementine hid under.
“Oh, gods no,” I breathed as I ran a hand through my messy black hair and closed my eyes.
“Why not?” the blonde called in a muffled voice from behind the metal sheeting. “Is the Duchess not very nice?”
“That’s an understatement,” I sighed as I gazed over at the machine at the other end of the room. “If you ever met the Duchess, she may try to take you away from me.”
“Why would she do such a thing, Charles?” Valerie questioned as she peeked out above the copper pieces.
“Well, my dear, men in my society are seen as a lower class than women,” I explained in a calm tone. “We’re basically servants to them, we’re like vermin… trash, and if she knew that I had made you and that you were staying with me, well… she’d steal you away and have me hanged.”
“That won’t happen!” the cat-girl cried as she leaped from behind the paneling, curled her body into a ball, and rolled across the floor. “If she came here, I’d just kill her.”
“Excuse me?” I snorted as I turned on my stool and stared at the beautiful feline.
“No one is going to take me away from you, Charles,” Valerie growled as she threw herself forward, cartwheeled, and stopped as she grabbed onto the bars of the cells at the other side of the room.
“And why is that, Valerie?” I asked as I leaned my chin into the palm of my hand.
“Because I’m in love with you!” the cat-girl replied as if it were the most obvious answer in the world. “No one can tear apart two people in love! You created me, and I belong by your side, forever and always. Isn’t it amazing?”
She grinned over her shoulder at me, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Then my cheeks heated up to the tips of my ears, but I didn’t shy away from her blue gaze. I couldn’t help but feel connected to Valerie, she was already a part of me, it was only natural for me to love her wholeheartedly. She hadn’t been in this world for long, and already, I couldn’t imagine my life without her in it.
“What are these?” Valerie questioned as she pointed to the cells and gave me a confused look.
“Cells to keep prisoners in,” I replied with a shrug, and the blonde’s brows furrowed.
“Prisoners?” Valerie inquired as her ears laid flat against her head. “For what?”
“For my experiments,” I explained to her as I crossed my knees and watched her as she peered in through the bars. “Like the prisoner I used to create you.”
“What do you mean?” she asked as her chocolate brown tail began to sway in the air.
“Well,” I began, “I was hired by the Duchess to create powerful warriors with her that are imbued with the magical powers of gems.”
“Is that how you made me?” Her light blue eyes opened wide.
“It was somewhat of an accident,” I said after I took a long breath and gestured to the machine. “We mistakenly used a woman in the Container B, and then a gem in Container A. The end result was to be in Container C. However, a stray cat jumped into Container A, and then I cut my hand on the door of Container C, and now you are here. I would not say you are a mistake at tall, Valarie. No, you are a miracle of science and my genius.”
“A miracle?” she gasped with delight, and her tail arched behind her as if someone were scratching her back.
“Yes,” I chuckled.
“What a strange and interesting world you live in, Charles,” the cat-girl purred as she let go of the bars, leaned back, and bent over backward so that both her hands and feet touched the floor and her lean tummy faced the ceiling. “So, what are we going to do next?”
“I think we should repeat the experiment,” I stated and then turned to look at A.B. as the brain nodded along.
“No other cat-girls, right?” Valerie pouted as she raised her body up into a perfect handstand.
“No, I haven’t forgotten,” I snickered as I rested my folded hands in my lap. “We could probably trap another animal or one of the many magical beasts out in the forests and use that in the experiment, so no need to worry about any other cat-girls.”
“Then what’s stopping us?” Valerie cried excitedly as she launched herself forward into another cartwheel and landed perfectly on her toes with her hands on her hips. “Let’s go catch one right now and get this show on the road! Wait! Charles! Does this mean that the next monster-girl will be my sister?”
“Sure,” I laughed as the feline threw her hands out at her side and twirled around the lab impatiently. “She’ll be your sister.”
“I’m gonna have a sister!” the cat-girl exclaimed with her head thrown back. “Charles, let’s go now! Let’s make me a little sister right this instant!”
The blonde rushed forward, grabbed me by the hand, and attempted to haul me from my seat, but I pulled away easily with a chuckle.
“Not at the moment.” I shook my head doubtfully, and immediately, Valerie’s expression fell.
“Please! Please, please, please!” the feline cried as she pressed her palms together almost in prayer. “I want a sister today!”
“Valerie,” I sighed, and the blonde immediately stopped squirming as I slowly stood from my chair. “We can’t today.”
“Why not?” the blonde questioned as she crossed her arms and glowered at me.
“Well, for one, we need to trap a creature first and get it to the lab,” I explained to her, and the cat’s tail and ears drooped in disappointment. “Second, I have no more prisoners, but not only that, we need a female patient to test on. I can’t ask the Duchess for female prisoners, that’d be considered a criminal offense. I could be murdered for even using the female patient in the experiment
that created you.”
“Okay, fine,” Valerie huffed as she crossed her arms and began to pace the room. “If we can’t ask for more female prisoners to experiment on, then our next course of action is perfectly clear.”
“And that would be?” I inquired with a tilt of my head.
“We snatch a woman off the streets.” The cat-girl shrugged easily with a crooked smile, and my eyes nearly exploded from their sockets in shock.
“What?” A.B. screamed from his container as he jolted forward and spewed neon green liquid onto the rock floor. “Put that sentence back in your mouth right now, take it back!”
“Excuse me?” I asked breathlessly as all the color drained away from my face.
“Easy-peasy,” Valerie snickered as she paced even faster and threw her hands into the air. “If the Duchess won’t give us women, then we’ll just take them! So easy!”
“There are so many reasons why we are not doing any of that,” I stammered out with wide, horrified eyes. “Starting with: I could be killed if we’re found out, Valerie.”
“There’s a simple solution for that, too!” the blonde cried as she stopped and formed her tiny hands into fists at her sides.
“Oh, this is gonna be good.” A.B. snorted from his jar, but Valerie ignored him and continued on.
“Shut up, A.B,” I snapped over my shoulder and then turned back to the cat-girl standing in front of me. “What’s the solution then?”
“We don’t get caught!” she giggled as she began to do cartwheels in the lab.
I lost all control of my body and flopped back onto the stool. My head fell into my hands as I groaned loudly. There was no way we could do this, no fucking way we could snatch women off the street and use them in the experiments. It was totally insane, utterly mad… but how else would I continue on in my search of discovery? How else would I advance my science? How else would I create more of these… monster girls? There was no way in hell or earth that the Duchess would give me female prisoners. If I even asked that very question, I’d be thrown in the stocks or worse.
Was this really the only solution? To kidnap women off the street and then destroy them to create new life? I felt as if after so long, so many hours of working and failing at what I was meant to do, I’d finally lost my mind. It was inconceivable, and yet… it was my only choice to keep the experiment going. If I did it at least one more time, and it succeeded, would it really be that wrong? I was creating new life, a new, beautiful life where there was none before. I’d taken the disgusting, thieving female prisoner and transformed her into the most beautiful creature I’d ever laid my eyes on.
Could I do it again?
And would that be so wrong?
The Duchess wanted super soldiers after all, and I’d simply created something different while experimenting, it wasn’t my fault she’d sent me a female prisoner. I’d only done what was instructed, and if she wanted me to make progress on her project, there was no other option for me. All the other attempts had failed miserably, and the single time it worked was because the patient was a woman. I had to recreate them, even if it meant that my life was on the line…
It was the only answer. It was my only choice. I needed to do it for science. I needed to do it for my own personal growth. And I needed to create more of these animal-women. I didn’t know quite why I felt so strongly about the last point, but watching Valerie dance, cartwheel, and pounce around my laboratory was making me feel something that I’d never felt for another woman.
Love? Was this it? Whatever it was, I wanted to feel it more, and with as many of these beautiful creatures as possible.
I raised my head as I let my hands drop into my lap. Then I turned my eyes toward Valerie. For once she wasn’t moving. Instead, she stood at the other side of the room with her hands pressed to her chest. Her expression pleaded with me, and I had no choice but to give in.
“It is important that we proceed scientifically,” I began. “And we have to find a way to do it humanely.”
“What?” A.B. gasped in shock.
“We have to pick people for a reason,” I continued. “Not just willy-nilly, do we understand?”
“Charles…” A.B. whispered. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am.” I rose from the stool and looked at the brain over my shoulder. “If I want to continue on with the experiments and see results, we have to use women. There’s no other answer, we have to do this.”
“Yay!” Valerie cried as she danced in a circle with her arms raised. “I’m getting a sister!”
“But,” the brain murmured anxiously, and my eyes fluttered closed as I listened to his concerned voice. “What happens if you’re found out? You’ll be jailed or worse, executed in front of the whole town.”
“Is there anything else I can do?” I questioned back in a dark tone. “If I give up on the Duchess’ endeavor, I’ll be killed. If I continue on with the failed experiments, I’ll still die, and if I’m found out for using women, it’ll all be the same. A.B., you don’t understand, this is the most progress I’ve seen in months, please let me hold on to this hope and excitement for a little while longer.”
“As you wish, Charles,” the brain muttered inside my head, and I turned my back to him as I strode toward Valerie. “But please, be cautious.”
“I know, I know, A.B.,” I snickered as I held open my arms to the blonde cat, and she fell into them with a soft giggle. “If I’m not around, then there’s no one here to change your liquid and clean your jar or pick you up off the floor and rehydrate you when you tip over.”
“That wasn’t what I was going to say, but that’s very true.” A.B. guffawed, and I turned my eyes back toward him as he continued to speak. “There is something else to consider.”
“Oh?” I asked.
“You said you are going to continue this work for the Duchess?” he asked.
“Yes…” I trailed off, since I knew where he was going with this question.
“Sooooo, when the Duchess comes a callin’, and she wants her magic male warriors, are you going to turn over Val?”
“No,” I sighed.
“Sooooo, then…. You are just going to string the Duchess along?” he asked.
“Yes,” I admitted.
“Then what?” he asked.
“Then…” I began, but as I looked at Valerie, and I stared into her blue eyes, I knew my answer.
“Charles?” the brain prompted.
“Then I’ll figure out how to take care of the Duchess,” I said.
Chapter Five
After the first few hours of Valerie’s creation, I realized that the manservants given to me from the Duchess would be a problem. I couldn’t have them seeing a cat-woman wandering around the manor and telling everyone, so I immediately dismissed the servants. I could tell they were unhappy, but they’d left the manor with little protest.
With the servants gone, Valerie had free rein over the house when she wasn’t in the laboratory while I worked. After a few days of her exploring every part of the manor, she begged me to let her outside. I eventually acquiesced and allowed her to exit my home under the cover of darkness as long as she didn’t stray off the property surrounding the manor.
I couldn’t allow Valerie to go anywhere else, because if someone saw her or trapped her, I’d lose my goddamn mind. The cat-girl was the single most important thing in my life, she was my first successful experiment with my machine, and I wanted nothing more than to protect her.
I spent the next couple of days repairing the machine, and after the fourth day, I’d finally ripped out most of the destroyed mechanisms inside. I only had a few more to replace, and then I could move on to the next course of action:
The second experiment.
I sighed loudly as I tore out the fried electrical components, stared down at their blackened surfaces, and then dropped them into a metal bucket at my feet. Then I grabbed the replacement pieces from the workbench beside me, turned and fitted them onto the long, si
lver spokes inside the machine.
“What are those things, Charles?” Valerie whispered in a soft voice from over my shoulder.
“Ahhh!” I shouted with surprise and almost dropped one of the spikes. “You startled me!”
“Awww, I’m sorry,” Val said as she nuzzled her head into my shoulder.
“You are very good at sneaking around,” I sighed. “I can’t even hear you walk across the room.”
“I like being sneaky,” she giggled against me. “So, what are those fancy shiny things, Charles? They look like fun toys.”
“These?” I asked as I pointed toward the components and their rows of bulbs.
“Yes,” the blonde took her head off my shoulder and nodded as she kept her oceanic eyes on the mechanisms within. “What do they do?”
“Well, these specifically allow electricity to flow through my machine,” I told her as I clinked pleasantly on the glass tuber. “They bring all of the electrical components to life and make them work the way they’re supposed to.”
“You built this whole thing yourself?” Valerie grinned, folded her hands behind her back, raised one leg into the air so that her toe pointed at the top of the machine, and inclined her head. “By scratch?”
“I did,” I stated proudly as I scooted the bucket of ruined parts away and dusted off my hands. “Took me a long time, but I’m pretty happy with it. I think it’s the largest machine I’ve ever made.”
“And you built it for the Duchess?” the feline inquired as her ears twitched and the toes on her raised foot wiggled.
“Yes,” I sighed as I lowered my eyes, grabbed the replacement paneling, and fitted it into place over the mechanics inside. “She paid me to do it, but it wasn’t an offer that I could refuse, you know?”
“What do you mean by that?” Valerie asked as she bounced around the small side table so she could watch me bolt in the new, shiny sheet.
“If I refused her and her money,” I breathed as my eyes rested on the worn leather of my shoes. “I could be jailed or worse, killed.”