Shadow Seed 1: The Misbegotten (40 page)

Leda tilted her head toward the doorway her friend had stormed through.  “Yeah, maybe…  I just couldn’t take the way she was mooning over your cousin, all girlie and cute.  It was disgusting.”

“Why, not everyone is as cold and shut off as you,” I blurted out before I knew what I was saying.

Leda’s usual glower returned in an instant.

I could feel Katie’s gaze on my cheek, red hot and searing.

I didn’t care, what Leda had done was cruel.

“You’re an idiot, Estefan,” she began with a level tone, but her eyes were twin shards of glowing coal.  “You’re so caught up in pussy, you can’t even think straight.”

“And you’re so far up your boyfriend’s ass, you’re as fucking blind as bitch in heat,” I countered almost upon the heels of the last syllable she had spoken.  My proverbial dander was on the rise.

Where the fuck was this shit coming from?  I am never able to be this direct and on the fly.

Beside me, Katie rested a hand upon my forearm – softly, but firm.  She was telling me without speaking
, I was walking a very fine line.

“Oh god, I don’t know what any of them
see in you, you god damned man-whore!” yelled Leda before she scooted off the stool.  She walked through the dining room and out the far door toward the front of the house.

I watched her go
, not really sure what to feel.  I know what I had said smacked of the truth.  Maybe my delivery of it had been a little harsh.  Maybe I could have tempered it better or tried a more delicate approach, but thoughts of that nature vanished in the next second when Sandy walked through the door.  Her face was splotched with red, and her eyes bloodshot from crying.  Ramona was a half-step behind her, using both of her hands, clutched at Sandy’s elbows, to urge the girl forward.  Sandy looked hesitant and wary.

Fuck you, Leda!  You deserved it!

An awkward silence befell us all, only the sounds of the cooking food reaching our ears, which sprung me from my stupor and I began to attend to the food, so nothing burnt.

“Effy, I am sorry about Leda,” apologized my girlfriend as I removed the eggs Sandy had been cooking and deftly plopped it on a nearby plate.  “You know she can be unpredictably difficult at times.”

“I’m not the one that needs to be apologized to.  Sandy is the one who deserves it,” I responded, looking at the group of girls in general.  But my sight settled upon the light brown hues comprising Sandy’s hair and eyes, her delicate v-shaped chin and the overarching “tiny” features of her face.

Man, I was totally surrounded by fucking HOT chicks that day!

[He almost ejects from the program, but realizes his mistake, calms down, and the memory stream continues.]

“You, Ok?” I asked her, my voice much more quiet than before.

She merely nodded.  Her eyes were big as a deer’s in the headlights of an oncoming truck.  She had no idea what to do next.

“Hey Katie,” began Ramona, which sort of startled me, because it was the last thing I would have expected her to say, “Let’s go finish our talk.”  Her eyes met mine and a half-smile etched one side of her mouth.

I was about to think,
you darned girls are going to talk about me again, aren’t you?,
when something more subtle registered in her cast of her orbs.  This wasn’t about their conversation they’d been carrying on earlier.  This was something else.

Katie glanced from Ramona to me a few times, her brow bunched in question.  She seemed to slowly understand something – something that completely eluded me.  She handed the spatula back to Sandy, who took it
reluctantly.  “Ok, let’s continue,” was all she said and walked out of the kitchen with Ramona toward the TV room, or so I assumed.

Sandy hardly moved, holding the cooking utensil before her like it was some sort of burning brand.  I peered at her stupidly, because I had no clue what had just happened.  I was forced to turn back to the stove to attend to the food yet again.

“You have
the
coolest girlfriend ever, Estefan,” said Sandy mouse-like and faint.

“How do you figure?” I asked without looking at her, concentrating on not spilling the potatoes all over the top of the range.

“Because…,” was all she said, sounding so much like a third grader.

I stopped what I was doing to gaze at her.

She appeared on the verge of tears again.

I didn’t say anything, thinking it inappropriate to speak at the time.  Why was she so close to losing it, though?  I raised my eyebrows, urging her to continue.

“Because she told me to tell the truth and I am like so amazed she would even say something like - .” she was answering me… when…

…From the front of the house - we both heard a gasp.  A second later, a series of ferocious gaging sounds and then a solid
Thump!
as if something large had hit the floor.

We shared a surprised look, then came more gurgling rasps and a strangled call for help.  It hit me!

Leda was sick!  What had happened to Katie and me was now happening to her!

I quickly turned off the burners of the stove and grabbed Sandy’s hand.  “Come on!  Leda is sick!” I commanded, dragging her in my wake.

She came like an automaton, but all of that changed when we reached Leda and saw her lying on her side, on the floor, puke flowing from her mouth like a river.

Sandy screamed, “Leda!!!”  She shook free from my grasp and went to the aid of her longtime friend.

That was when Katie and Ramona came bounding through the house.

Whatever this
sickness was, it was spreading, and doing so at an alarming rate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~♦~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Summer – 2018)

Demonstration

I stood and watched her from the other side of the bed.  Sandy was sitting next to her.  Both Ramona and Katie had taken up posts at the foot of the bed.  We were all in the Loft
, concern plain upon our faces over the girl lying before us.   Katie was supposed to be using this bed, but had yet to sleep in it.  Leda had beaten her to it.  She lay propped up by a number of pillows.  Her eyes closed, her upper body swathed in towels, under which she wore only her bra.  Her black t-shirt had so much vomit on it; we had to get her out of it.  It positively reeked.

Of course, I hadn’t seen any of the disrobing.  The moment they had ascertained her t-shirt was a definite casualty, the others had ushered me out of the foyer where we’d found lying in her own chunks.  I had gone back into the kitchen to put the food in various plastic containers, stacking it all quite neatly in the microwave, so we could eat it later.  It was
a few minutes after when Ramona had come into the kitchen and asked me to carry Leda up to the Loft.  By the time I’d laid eyes upon the sick girl, she was thoroughly wrapped in the towels from the downstairs bathroom.

She was small in stature
, so picking her up and walking her up the two flights of stairs to the third floor was easy enough.  She had even - rather listlessly -  put her arms around my neck and rested her head upon my chest, moaning with stomach cramps that were all too familiar.  I had placed her upon the heretofore unused bed.  Ramona and Sandy had piled the pillows behind her to prop her up.  Katie had come from the bathroom with a damp wash cloth and handed it to Sandy.

“Here this seemed to help me when I got it a few hours ago,” Katie had said.  I recalled I had used the very same piece of fabric on Katie when I was putting her back together after
she
had spewed all over the bathtub.

Sandy had taken it and began to wipe down the face of her recalcitrant friend.

“W-what the h-h-hell happened…?”  A pause, a swallow, “Oh god, my throat feels like shit,” commented Leda, breaking my train of thought.

“She needs to drink something,” I concluded.

Katie trotted back into the bathroom without a word.

Leda peered up at Sandy, her face bunched with the aches still coursing through her.  There was an undertone of worry, carried mostly in her eyes.  “What’s going on?”

Katie came back from the bathroom with a glass full of water, edging around me, her hand extending the cup toward the supine teenager.  “I think,” began my cousin, once Leda had taken the water from her and took a tentative sip,” you just experienced what Effy and I did a few hours ago.”

“…And what is that?” inquired Sandy from the other side of the bed, her body half turned at the waist, so she could face Katie more squarely.

“It feels like nothing more than an acute bout of nausea at first, but, within seconds, overwhelms you.  Before you can really understand what’s going on you’re barfing your guts out, so violently you almost can’t stand - ,” I supplied, but Leda cut in.

“I couldn’t even do that.  I was on my ass in seconds, it came up so quickly.”

“Babe, you make it sound like there is more to it,” nudged Ramona, knowing me well enough to know I hadn’t finished my explanation of the sickness.

I shrugged, trying to find some clear way to convey the changes I felt within the first hour of being sick.  I let my eyes drift toward Katie who had been there, and had…  “I feel different than I did before I got sick,” I tried, though I was fairly certain, I
had fallen short of outlining it properly.  It was difficult to conceptualize; speaking about it was even harder.

“How?”  Now Sandy’s face bunched in question.

“I can…how do you say…?” I was lost for the correct words.

“There is something he can do
now, something he couldn’t do before he was sick,” interjected Katie, before I could finish my thought.  “Or maybe he could, but not with the incredible strength he can do so now.”  She smiled unevenly, knowing she hadn’t made much sense to the others.

Everyone in the Loft went silent, unmoving, except for their heads, which all swiveled toward me.

I ginned crookedly, though I didn’t feel an inkling of humor within.  I felt like an ameba under a microscope with so many sets of female eyes staring in my direction.

The silence stretched.

Leda took another deep drink of water and cleared her throat, which seemed to spring the question each of them had boiling near the varied surfaces of their brains.  Out of some feminine pecking order that I couldn’t discern, it was left to Ramona to ask.

“What can you do, Estefan?”

I winced, abashed.  “I’m not entirely sure; because the experience for me is dramatically different for those around me.  I can’t say with any real degree of certainty what it is I do exactly.  I only know the result.”

Both Sandy and Ramona moved to speak, but Katie beat them both to the punch.  “It will be very difficult for Estefan to explain it properly, because it’s not just an obscure sort of ability.  It is… well, it’s sort of personal – very personal, in fact.”

Ramona tilted her head.  Her natural instincts already giving her an idea of where the conversation was headed, but it was Leda – of all people – who asked: “What do you mean - personal.”

Katie internalized her
embarrassment and glanced my way, then let her gaze linger, her lips twisting with reluctance.  “It’s sexual…,” she murmured just loud enough for all of us to hear.

Though my vision was locked on Katie, but I could feel Ramona’s eyes burning into the side of my face.  Sandy and
Leda shared an awkward look.  Both of them seemed unsure of how to interpret what my cousin had just stated, especially the context, which – being female – they began to extrapolate instantaneously.  She was, after all, my cousin and they both knew what the implications were behind her words.

“What… or how do you know it is sexual?” asked Ramona of Katie, crossing her arms under her breasts, though she didn’t seem angry or even annoyed, merely intensely curious.

Yeah, I know she was walking along a knife’s edge, but she was, otherwise, holding it together.

Katie shuffled her feet, so she was facing my girlfriend, a thoughtful sort of cast to her face.  “Believe me, it is…,” she trailed off, and then seemed to realize there were others in the room as well.  “I mean, it felt that way.  It was very strong, very powerful and we’re related, and even then
, the pull was pretty incredible.”

I closed my eyes, knowing she was trying to divert attention from the obvious
, but she had failed miserably.  She actually might’ve made things worse.  I could sense Leda and Sandy were beginning to catch onto the idea of just how close Katie and I really were.  They kept glancing from the two of us and then to Ramona in rapid succession, their understanding deepening with each look. 
Fucken females!

“’Pull’ – what does that mean?” wondered Ramona, walking the few steps it took to stand before my cousin.

My cousin surprised me by peering up at her with eyes that glimmered with genuine enthusiasm as if she couldn’t wait to divulge the entirety of it.  “It is just that, Mona.  It is like something is pulling you toward him and you have to fight with every ounce of strength to keep from throwing yourself into his arms.  It is intoxicating, the smell of it, unlike anything I have ever experienced.”  She quieted down, not out of self-consciousness or because she didn’t want the others to hear.  No, it was because of the conviction with which she said her next words: “I almost lost control.”

Ramona’s eyes widened as she searched over my
cousin’s face, then she gazed over Katie’s head toward at me.  I was unnerved when I saw more anxiety there than shock.

“Are you saying you almost lost control with your own
cousin
?” blurted Leda, sitting up in the middle of the bed.  She seemed well into the recovery process.

Son of a bitch!
I seethed internally.  This wasn’t going as we had planned the day before.  We hadn’t really put our demented plan into full swing yet and already we looked transparent.  This was never going to work.  If people could figure out what was going – or going to transpire – between us, then our families would surely find out.  Where would that leave us?  We would be outcasts, pariahs, excommunicated from our loved ones, like heretics before the Inquisition. 
My mother, what would she do…?

“Being related has nothing to do with it…,” was all Katie said.  Then she grabbed Ramona by both elbows and gave each a quick squeeze
, before she brushed past her to sit upon the bed.  My girlfriend reached for her and caught her by the wrist, making Katie turn back to look at her.  They stared at one another for no more than a second, but I could have sworn a thousand unsaid words passed between them.  Words that men cannot read, but we get the notion they’re real and they’re important.

Katie returned attention toward the small, dark haired girl.  “It doesn’t even matter if you don’t like him or if he has wronged you in the past and have come to hate him.  If you lack the will to refuse him, he can make all of that go away… in a heartbeat.”

Leda was looking at my cousin as if she had lost her mind in the last few minutes.  She worked her mouth, but no words coming forth.

Then, the quietest of us spoke.  Her words proved quite startling indeed.

“Show us.”

We all turned to Sandy, who was standing now, hands clasped behind her, slowly twisting at the waist.

“No!” said Katie at once.

Ramona uttered, “I don’t think that is a good idea,” upon the heels my cousin.

I was too astounded to say anything, wondering why Sandy would want to push the limits all of a sudden.  Was it because Leda had put her in an awkward situation earlier?  Was she merely trying to get back, level the playing field?  Or… or was she wondering if she had the will to refuse? 
What the hell was she after?

“Why not?” she began
, “How else are we going to understand what Katie is talking about without thinking of her as some crazy sex fiend who wants to bone her cousin?”

I blushed furiously, because I couldn’t help but go back ten hours or so.  The mental image flashed before, having a mind of its own…  I was balls deep in my cousin… the walls of her vagina electric with orgasmic pleasure… her telling me, over and over, to fuck her
hard.  What Sandy had proposed was either the soundest judgment I have ever heard or it was the most underhanded form of coercion that had ever existed.  I was beginning to realize how smart Sandy truly was, how she had utterly confused us all.  She might be bubbly and enthusiastic, but there was a whole other person just waiting to get out of her.  I couldn’t make head or tails of her true intent, because I had underestimated her.  She had a huge advantage over the rest of us.

Katie laughed throatily, having co
me to the same conclusions as had I, while Ramona squinted at her suspiciously.  Leda chuckled knowingly, exuding a sort of ‘I knew it all along’ tone that befouled cheer and smacked of sarcasm.

“What do you think, Eff?” asked Sandy
, as if only my opinion mattered, was permanent, and the issue would be resolved one way or the other.

I shook my head.  “I sort of agree with Katie and Ramona that it wouldn’t be the best idea.  I’ve seen what it does.  It’s pretty powerful, whatever it is.”

“What about you, Leda, since you seem to think I have to ‘hot’s’ for Estefan anyway, do you think is it wise to tempt fate?”

Why is she pushing so hard?

Leda stared at her for a few moments, bringing her arms up one hand cupping her chin.  “I think you’re just trying to prove a point that doesn’t need to be made right now,” was the girls answer.

“Why, because you’re not in control of it?” shot back Sandy at once, more than a little
agitation in her voice.

Leda merely rolled her eyes, but the knowing s
neer never left her face.

“Whatever, then,” began Sandy, walking around the bed so that now all of us were on the right hand side of bed, except Leda who remained sitting at its middle.  “Do it, Estefan.  I want to see this…
change
you and Katie are talking about.”

“Sandy - ,” I started, but she cut me off.

“Whatever happens will be on me, ok?  No blame on you, got it?”  Her eyes were piercing and direct, which was a mold of her I had yet to see.  She was always so cheerful and happy, seeing her keen, like a raptor, made me feel like I was walking on uneven ground.  My mind was wobbly, my thoughts jumbled.

I glanced at Katie, sitting on the bed before me, searching for some sort of direction.  She tilted her head to the side with the universal, “I don’t know” expression on her face.

My eyes found Ramona, but she wasn’t even looking at me.  Here gaze was locked on Sandy, unyielding and cold.  I knew she had learned something new about her long-time friend.  It was something she hadn’t known was there.  She didn’t seemed pleased by it ether.

“Give it her, Effy.  I can’t wait to see what happens,” challenged Leda
, of a sudden, surprising me by using my childhood moniker – a thing she hadn’t done before.