Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten

by Richard M. Heredia

  The rest of us had scampered over to Flavia’s, then Johan’s bedrooms and asked them to meet us up in the Loft as soon as they were finished with the last of their morning rituals. They had come within ten minutes, both of them suspicious. Flavia had been a little put off by the fact I had two additional girls up on the third floor without our parents knowledge.

  Johan had looked at me with newfound admiration, understanding, at once, the significance of having my current girlfriend and my ex-girlfriend sleeping in my private quarters. His leer vanished, though, when Flavia’s stern gaze had fallen upon him, her eyes all bugged out like a camillian lizard. He had managed to raise his eyebrows, in rapid succession, at me as soon as he was able, nonetheless. He made sure our volatile step-sister couldn’t see. I winked, but forged on, we had much more important and pressing issues to attend to then age-old notions of propriety.

  Per the plan, Katie left in search of Martín, but found him so engrossed in one of his video games, she came back, shrugging. He wouldn’t be bothering us any time soon.

  So, I filled them in on what had really been transpiring around them, not leaving out a single detail. (Well, I did leave out the whole incest thing between me and Katie, and the subsequent threesome that had arisen from it, but for the most part, I told everything).

  They had listened – politely at first, then with concern as the true scope of my tale was revealed. As the meaning and implications began to take root, their comprehension grew more thorough with each passing sentence. Lastly, I let Tirza tell her story and that’s when their concern had turned to astonishment, then outright fury. Finally, it was fear that settled over them when they began to realize the totality of our situation, of how unjustly we were going to be branded as a threat to meta-national security. They were shocked with the realization that they’d somehow we’d become pariahs of the human race.

  From there, it was just a matter of explaining our plans and they were both on the same exact page as the rest of us, which was a big relief.

  After breakfast (Martín included), Flavia had taken Tirza to her room and we had seen neither of them since. Johan had decided to call Jolene and see what was up with her, and he disappeared as well. Martín scurried back upstairs without as much as a word. Ramona, Katie and I had meandered to the Living Room bored, waiting for Sandy and Leda to arrive, so we could fill them in as well. That was when my girlfriend had announced she wanted to play with me for a while, if Katie didn’t mind. My cousin hadn’t objected.

  That had been more than an hour ago… Leda and Sandy were running late.

  Now, Katie’s look centered on mine, the aftermath of the doorbell still ringing in our ears. “I’ll get it,” she offered, then bound up from the other couch, making her way through the TV room, and onto the foyer before the front doors of my house. Her shoulders were jutting back and stiff. I could tell she was irritated at being horny, because she could nothing about it for the time being.

  Ramona got up from lying atop me, and began fixing her hair and rubbing at her lips where our vigorous make-out session had made them raw and chapped pink.

  I got up as well, spying my cousin push herself up to the tips of her sexy, bare feet and peep through the spy hole in the left hand door. She looked outside to the front yard and the street beyond. I was absently fingering the tip of my still swollen cock, watching the arches of her feet flex as they bore the weight of her body. As I approached her, I could see her tendons tightened, the balls of her feet become taut and her toes began to grip onto the tile beneath them. Even from a distance, I could see every detail, every nuance, every fold and ripple of that hearty flesh of hers. I grew harder.

  She turned to look at me, about to say something, and saw my posture. She saw I was holding a much engorged dick through the thick fabric of my shorts. “You better put that away, tiger. We got company,” she simpered naughtily, from the back of her throat as if to dare me to continue exactly what I was doing.

  “Who is it?” asked Ramona. She came up to my side, glanced downward, one of her hands joining mine, squeezing my member, testing the firmness of it. A big, hard phallus was something Ramona always had a hard time ignoring, especially mine.

  “It’s Leda and Sandy,” replied Katie nonchalantly, though her eyes never left my crotch and the busy goings-on about it.

  Ramona gave me one more, harder gripping, then, “Later, my love, Katie and I will take good care of you. We promise, right, Katie?”

  My cousin’s grin was pure yearning. “You know it…” She unlocked all four of the door locks – we weren’t taking any chances now – and pulled open the door with some effort. The doors at the front of our house were massive. But, they were well balanced and opened readily. It was their sheer weight that sometimes made them hard to open. Once you got them moving, though, they were easy to actuate, but it was that initial burst of energy that required a modicum of strength to accomplish the task.

  Ramona released my junk. I turned around to adjust my manhood into a more vertical position, so my hard-on stuck into the waist of my shorts, which would keep it snug against my body and much less conspicuous. From behind me, I heard my cousin greet the two newcomers.

  “Hey, ladies, how’s things with ya’all?” Katie was always cheerful when it came to initial greetings.

  Leda rolled her eyes and jabbed a sideways thumb at Sandy. “Big baby Sandra here got sick, that’s why we’re late. Sorry.”

  “That’s ok,” mollified my cousin. “We’re not a schedule or anything. It’s no biggie.”

  She might’ve said more, but my girlfriend edged her way up to her friends, a sort of urgency about her. “Do you mean sick like the rest of us or just regular sick?” she asked in a rush.

  “Sick like the rest of you,” mumbled Sandy before Leda could reply.

  To my surprise, Ramona reached out suddenly. She grabbed Sandy by the chin, turning her face slightly to the right and without a shred of delicacy, as if she were searching for something harmful – a disease or an infestation.

  Sandy flinched at first. Her eyes bulged outward slightly as she attempted to gaze down at Ramona. The angle of her face made it difficult for her to see over her own cheekbones. “What the hell, Mona!” she spoke awkwardly, out of the corner of her mouth.

  My girlfriend grasped the lower portion of her face, making it hard for her to speak correctly. “Stop moving!” was all Ramona said. She even went so far as to shake the other girl’s, head emphasizing her command.

  It was startling to watch.

  “Hey, Mona, cut it out,” I protested. This was way out of line. She was making Sandy feel very uncomfortable, and in my house. I walked through the throng of females and put my hand upon my girlfriend’s wrist. “Let her go...,” I trailed off, my tone deeper now, nearly as forceful as hers had been moments before.

  And yet, Ramona ignored me entirely, giving absolutely no sign she’d even knew I was there.

  Instead, she murmured, “How is it that I cannot see you anymore…?”

  I felt my brow furl. What the fuck? “Ramona, let her go.” I tightened my grip on her wrist.

  That seemed to break through her train of thought, only, not in the manner I had expected. She shifted her gaze to mine, though her eyes appeared distant. She was looking right at me, but didn’t see me. Or maybe, she was peering into me; yeah, I guess that is a better way to explain it, because a moment later she said: “I can see it in you – desire, lust, hardness, strength, youth, and yet…” Her voice died upon her tongue as Sandy pulled Ramona’s fingers from her face.

  My girlfriend gaze drifted back toward her friend. “…And then there is nothing when I see her… why?”

  I felt my scowl deepen. What in the hell was this girl talking about!?! It was like she was speaking to herself, as if we weren’t real and were some kind of specimens she was examining under a microscope.

  I tried a different tactic. “Babe… babydoll, what are you talking about? You’re sorta freakin’ us out.” I
pulled her to me with the hand still clasped about her wrist and saw a startled expression slowly creep across her face. Something miraculous had just registered in her mind. I encircled her waist with my other arm and pressed her against the middle of me, staring into her bewildered eyes.

  “Estefan…?” she queried, her voice lost.

  I nodded.

  “W-what - ,” she began. She stopped suddenly, her eyes bulging with recognition.

  I thought she had come to realize who I was finally, but boy, was I ever wrong on that morning.

  “It’s stronger,” she mumbled, looking at me now, her eyes dancing back and forth between my own.

  She was too tempting. I bent down slightly and kissed her – a chaste brotherly peck upon the lips, but enough to taste her. She always looked like a little girl when she discovered something new. “What’s stronger, babe?” I asked, though our lips were still close enough that mine brushed against hers.

  She smiled cutely; the automatic batting of her grey-blue orbs was something she did whenever she wanted me to pay attention to her. “This thing… this thing inside me that allows me to see into people, it is stronger,” she replied.

  My face wrinkled as I considered what she said. What thing? “Since when,” I asked.

  “Since now,” She uttered under her breath. She broke away from me, looking over at Leda, who hadn’t moved since Katie had opened the door. “I can see you now, Leda,” she went on speaking in some sort of code I couldn’t decipher. “Before it was like trying to look through a thick fog… there were impressions, inklings of thought or intent, but nothing like this. I see you clearly now, plainly, as if an extraordinary sun has burnt away all the mist.” She was smiling like a child, seeing Main Street at Disneyland for the first time.

  Leda tilted her head a little to one side, seemingly nonplussed in the powder blue halter top, short denim skirt, white stockings and two-inch heels she was wearing.

  My first inclination was to ask if she were planning on going to a club later on, but I didn’t. The thought she looked fucking hot in that outfit, crossing my mind next and I could think of little else. Her pale skin, dark hair and eyes were an attractive contrast when set against the varying shades of blue she had clothed her body. She might be a petite, five foot teenager, but she was filled out nicely and the garments she wore clung to her, accentuating every curve, every mound…

  “What do you see?” asked Leda, staring back at Ramona, her face betraying nothing other than curiosity. Her rich voice scattered my thoughts.

  My girlfriend squinted for a second, peering deeper into the girl opposite her. “Youth, but just about everyone else here has that within them…, but there is more… something electric.” Ramona paused then, her eyes searching the ground as she formulated the correct response. Then, “It’s inside your head, it lights up your hair, though it doesn’t touch it physically.”

  For some unfathomable reason, Leda smirked, nodded conspiratorially and walked into the house, and began to pass between my girlfriend and me. We were nearly side by side, she glanced at me. Her stare was frank and appraising through her eyelashes. It was an expression I had yet to see her direct at me. I was, once again, puzzled by all the strange behavior occurring all around me. What have you girls been smoking?

  “And you see nothing in me?” asked Sandy in her typically perky, upbeat sort of manner, apparently having forgot Ramona’s mistreatment of her minutes prior.

  She wore a white, V-neck t-shirt that showed off her breasts, forcing my eyes toward her cleavage before I pulled them away. She had on some tight fitting shorts that looked better suited for working out than hanging around, but they looked comfortable. I assumed that was what she was going for, especially since it was still pretty damn hot outside. She had on a pair of simple Capri tennis shoes – all white – and lacey bobby socks devoid of color as well.

  Though her ensemble was the complete polar opposite of Leda’s, she was no less beautiful in hers. To me, she was like the sexy, girl-next-door that looked stunning, even though she was just chilling around the house. I could see how every guy I knew in the neighborhood would surely want to pull down those tight, spandex shorts and go to town on her. Naw, there wasn’t a guy back then – ah, fuck man, there wasn’t a guy now – that wouldn’t have wanted some of Sandy.

  Ramona shook her head. “Nope, your completely blank, girl. I don’t even see intent anymore.”

  “What about me?” asked my cousin, still holding open the door as she motioned Sandy to come inside. She closed the portal behind her when the larger girl came through the threshold. It was after all, hot outside.

  “With you it is all fire and flames, Katie,” was my girlfriend’s immediate reply. “Which seems kinda fitting don’t you think?”

  Katie giggled, engaging all four of the door locks. We were definitely not taking any fucking chances now. “Yeah, it does,” bubbled forth my cousin.

  “What does all of this mean?!” I asked, quite possibly a bit too loud, because I was so confused by now. I was having difficulty realizing what was up and what was down.

  “I think it means I can see what is changing inside of us, what form of… mutation is occurring from within,” answered Ramona. She was confident now. She believed in every word she was uttering. There was newfound conviction infused in every word she spoke.

  “You mean from the comet?” I questioned, a glimmer of understanding beginning to shine onto the foggy of my brain.

  My girlfriend nodded.

  “But then that means that your… mutation gives you the ability to detect mutations in others, right? I mean it seems like the next logical step to consider, don’t you think?” I was thinking hard now, scratching at the skin on my head.

  Ramona’s eyes sparkled. “Yup, that makes sense.”

  I took a deliberate step away from her. “And with me you see desire, strength and what else?”

  She breathed in a full breath and gave me the impression delving deeply into me was something she had to prepare for by making sure she was steady. “Effy, I see the lust in you, but that was something we all already experienced yesterday. Now, I see more. I think, even now, you are still changing. But when I gaze into you, I see hardness, a density that wasn’t there before as well as a newfound strength, but it doesn’t come from your muscles. This strength is somehow combined with this hardness - together they are transforming you into something very different than what you’d been before you got sick. I cannot explain it any other way…” She stopped, giving me a wan smile, her face cast with frustration.

  I chuckled into a fist. “Wow, that sounds pretty freakin’ scary.”

  “No, babe, it isn’t,” countered my girlfriend almost on the heels of my final words. “It is amazing to watch.” Her smile grew on her face, making her eyes shine. I loved that expression of hers, to this day when I think about it, it makes my grin. There have been so many very, very good memories attached to that expression through the years, most of which I will cherish to the end of my days…

  We all heard footsteps, then, behind us. We turned, as one, to look at Flavia and Tirza trailing behind Johan, whose visage was set to “maximum” grave. His brow was bunched in the middle, his eyes a little wild.

  I gave him the universal “what’s up” nod of my head, stepping through the girls, coming toward him. We met in the middle of the main hallway, equidistant from the front door at the front of the house and the staircase at his back.

  “Jolene is sick,” he said abruptly, his tone clipped as though he was trying to cut off his emotions as well.

  I huffed, more out of resignation than surprise. My vision bounced about his shorter, stockier frame, absently noting the dark blue gym shorts and matching tank top he was wearing, his feet, just like rest of us who’d been in the house all morning, were bare.

  “You wanna have her come over, once she feels better?” I asked, deliberately asking the obvious, so he wouldn’t have to experience the embarrassment of asking
himself.

  He nodded thankfully.

  I nodded back. “Okay, do it.” My gaze shifted to my sister who had a pained look on her face. I knew she was worried that Johan and Jolene were going to have sex. I could tell. She had probably witnessed some 3rd-base action in her room already, so I could see how she could make the leap forward to “home base”.

  “Flavy?” I called to her. She peered back at me, trying to mollify what was so easy to read. I pretended not to notice. “Make it look like a sleepover thing, okay? You do the calling and the asking.”

  She nodded, unwittingly fingering on of the seams of the lavender summer dress she was wearing. It was loose fitting and hid her figure from view, which wasn’t much at that time. Flavia was what we called in the hood – a late bloomer, which was a bad thing as most of the girls her age got their boobs and their round asses, and, of course, got most of the attention of the boys around them. Yet, it was also a good thing. Almost all of the late bloomers I have ever known, eventually blossomed into some of the most gorgeous women on earth, so Flavia only had to bide her time and one day she would grow into a knockout.

  …Which, by the way… she did.

  She would become a tall, lithe figure with flowing auburn hair and dark complexion that could stop any man in his tracks. Even when she was snatching the life right out of him, before he knew what the fuck was going on, he would still stand there for a few moments, stupefied in death. Then, alas, crumple to the ground. At least his last vision would’ve been a good one, right?

  “Okay, Eff,” was all she said and turned around and made her way back to her room, Johan trailing like a lost puppy.

  Tirza stayed behind though, and smiled awkwardly at the five of us. She was dressed in grey, loose fitting shorts and tank very much like what Johan had been wearing only cut to the female form. Her shorts couldn’t truly hide her bubble-butt and strong thighs, which, to me, had always been her most redeeming feature, especially when taking her doggy-style! Ah god, it’s making me tingle just thinking about it!!!