Part 5 – Understand . . .

As soon as my scream echoed out I clasped my hands tightly across my mouth and clamped my eyes shut in both confusion and fear of what else I might discover. In almost the same moment an even more terrifying thought crossed my mind. There was no way of telling what that bitch Sadiya would do if she found me like this. Most likely immediately call my father for one, and if there was one person that I didn’t want to find out about whatever the fuck was going on then it was him! I mean, what would you do, if you had a father that once starred in one of the most influential boulevard magazines with the headline: “Arkana Future Industries’ CEO calls meta-humans Subhuman”? This statement of his had brought the ire of several media outlets on him. But had he apologized or changed his point of view? No, he hadn't, instead, he had stubbornly stuck to his opinion and even tried to get me to agree with him. I had spent most of that month in my room trying to wait out the shitstorm.

After an incident in my early youth, I had quickly realized, that I was better off not talking to him about anything relating to meta-humans. At the time I had been seven or eight and made friends with a girl named Karen, she had been the only elven child in my class. It had only made sense to me, she had funny ears and teeth and I had magic. It hadn't helped that I thought her really pretty and cool. Sadly our friendship hadn't lasted more than a week.

At first, my father had simply found it amusing when I brought her home, but one day had been enough to shatter everything. It had been an errant comment, nothing more than a childish dream really, but it was enough to rile him up. I had said to her that I would marry her once we were grownups. On that day I had my first kiss, on that day I had lost my first crush. Three days later she hadn't come to school anymore, I hadn't even been able to reach her over the net.

My father had overheard us and with his money and influence had pressured her family into moving away. So yeah, since then I had taken my distance from any meta-human. And with that knowledge in the back of my mind did I really want him to know what was happening with me? Well, I thought it to be better for him being none the wiser. But still, I had to "take care" of this problem somehow.

“OkAy, noW-” I grasped at my throat in shock.

How and why did my voice sound so incredibly wrong? It was still very much female and close to what it had been before, but it also was undeniably inhuman. Even to my ears, it sounded more like some sort of alien horror than myself speaking. It was almost as if my voice produced its own echo. Considering all the weird shit that had happened today, I was more than certain, that this shitty ritual was to blame for all of it!

The problem only being, that I had no recollection of what the ritual was actually supposed to achieve. When I had woken up this morning, I had known that it would help me. I simply knew that it would solve all my problems. What I didn’t know was how this information had come to me. Last evening I had gone out to visit the University Library, but for some gods’ damned reason my memory of that time failed me.

Whenever I tried to recall what had transpired after I had set foot on the university grounds, my mind just gave out on me. As soon as my thoughts turned to that place and time, my head started pounding. Almost beating like a heart, it was not a memory or even a physical pain. It felt like the very essence of something greater intruding on my mind. But worse even was the incredible feeling of dread that permeated EVERYTHING. Not only my memories but even parts of myself started to feel wrong. Like the world was rejecting both what had happened yesterday and what was changing in me.

Honestly, at this point, I wasn't even sure if I wanted to try and halt what was happening to me. I had to stop it, I was becoming a monster! I barely knew what was going on and even if I was changing I had no clue as to why, how or even into what I was being… for the lack of a better term “turned”. This also brought my thoughts back to another matter. Taking together what little courage I could muster I slowly opened my eyes again and looked into the mirror.

There they were again, four absolutely disgusting inhuman growths right on the side of my throat. At least this explained why I had felt so sick; most people would be with fricking gills growing in their body. Even now the little finger wide holes were trying to suck in the water flowing down my skin. They looked somewhat horrifying cute, in a creepy alien sort of way. Curious as to how well they actually worked I leaned my head to the side and let the full water jet hit them. Almost instantly I was rewarded with the most curious sensation I had ever felt. It was like a mix between drinking and breathing only that nothing of it went into either my stomach or my lungs. No, instead it felt more as if my body had grown several whole new organs on either side of my trachea!

Continuing the exploration of my own body, which sounded just about as insane as I felt right now, I wiped off the fog on the mirror to get a better view. Looking at little bit down I was already rewarded with other obvious signs of my body changing. The entire area around my neck was sickly pale and blackish-blue veins crept from the area to my lower body. When I touched them the skin above started to flake off, not as easy as when I scratched my throat, but it was still very obvious. And yet despite this obvious sign of my body changing into something different, something alien, something monstrous, I couldn't find it in me to freak out.

No, instead I was utterly horrified mostly intrigued. In none of the literature about metahuman races had I ever read about magic acting this way. The transition from my human form into whatever was in store for me was both too fast and too slow. Generally, there were three ways one could become a metahuman separated by meta-type. The first to ever be sighted had been magical-beasts, who basically were the result of a powerful spirit bonding with a human soul. Most of them had come into existence right at the beginning of the planar convergence. Rifts between our world and elemental planes had opened up and released both massive amounts of magic and dozens of spirits looking for a host to survive in. The inflicted usually turned in less than half an hour under mind-breaking pain, due to their body's and souls literally being ripped apart and put back together. This obviously hadn't happened to me, because while a part of my subconscious was unsettlingly sure that something horrible had happened today, I still looked human, at least for the moment.

The second way humans had turned to metahumans before was through emergence. With that you basically had two ways of it happening. And that was either through birth or puberty. This obviously meant that since the convergence was only a little over twenty-two years ago, that no one with the metahuman gens could be older than thirty-five. Considering that I was twenty-one and had been born as a magically active human, there was literally no way for me to ever emerge.

And this as much as I didn't like it technically only left one option open, a magically active virus. Now, it was a controversial topic if these MAV had been existing viruses changed during the convergence, or if they like magic had come through rifts between planes of existence. But even so, doctors and mages were united in the belief, that they were potentially one of the greatest dangers to meta-humanity in this century. While they didn't tend to be overly infectious meaning that most could only infect a host if they found a way into their bloodstream, the effects they had were terrifying. Ghouls, Sirens and Wendigos, were just a small sample of terrifying things they could potentially create. But all viral meta-types had one thing in common, serious degradation of their mental- faculties!

And if there was one thing I truly didn't want, then it was more mental health problems! Even now I had to take five different types of medication to keep the infection eating away at my body and feeding of my mana contained. The infection and the medication fighting it were already putting a severe strain on my fragile mind. Two of the drugs I was taking weren't even to combat the bacteria, but simply to keep the rest of the medication from making Swiss cheese of my damn brain. I seriously didn't need a virus saying hello to all the baggage I already had to deal with. After all, the entire purpose of the ritual had been to combat the sickness robbing me of my magic. Then again while whatever was going on with my body was advancing like a MAV infection, there were obvious differences.

For one was the way it had begun, I hadn't been bitten by an infected, nor had I come into contact with infected blood. No, I only had cut out my own heart implanted a corrupted magically charged core into my body. I could still feel it where my heart used to be beating in my chest spreading its vile magic through my body. I knew… felt it was what was changing me, I had to rip it out protect it. While it may be changing me it was also stealing my soul giving me a chance to live without medication and gave me access to new evil exciting magic. Though even now I couldn't shake off the feeling that something was interfering with my mind, it was a bit weird how calm I was about all of this. Yes! Then again panicking about this would certainly not help my situation. Shaking my head to get rid of the silly thoughts I was just about to step out of the shower when a weird twinge from my crotch startled me.

Somehow I had fully forgotten about the panties still plastered on to my skin. But now that I was looking at them, wearing them became increasingly uncomfortable. The skin underneath the fabric was itching horribly, worse even I could feel something twitch down there! I needed to get these damn panties of off me! While doing my best not to scratch my skin off in frustration, I gently pulled them down. Or at least that was what I had been trying to do. A little bit after pulling the lace down I was stuck. The fabric seemed literally stuck to my genitals! After several seconds of gentle pulling did nothing, I simply ripped them off with the power born out of frustration.

I had to bite my lip to not cry out at the weird tactile sensation. Somehow I wasn't even sure if I was keeping myself from screaming or moaning. It had felt at the same time extremely painful and pleasurable. Still, worse had to be the fact that I still felt something sliding out of me. Taking a deep breath I risked a glance downwards and instantly went from looking to staring. Together with my panties, I had also ripped away a large piece of dead skin but what I was looking at right now was far more horribly disgusting curious. A long tube of dead blackened flesh was sliding out of what had to be my vagina and with each centimetre more another pleasurably painful shock went through my body. Stuck between having whatever that was dangling from my body or pulling it out, I grit my teeth and pushed on. Suppressing both grunts and whorish moans I kept pulling until it was almost a hand width out.

At that moment I felt something big dislodge in my lower body. It was a weird feeling like I was losing something but only because it was in the way of something new. Just when I thought it was almost over, the big lump got stuck inside. I tried squatting down to relax my muscles, but it did nothing, no… I had to push it out. And once that thought came I felt something in be becoming different. My lips puckered into a lusty ‘O’ and I pushed. Muscles I knew I didn't have before pushed the offending lump through my tight opening. And with a wet squelch, I had finally done it, the mass of flesh fell on the ground beneath me and at the same time I could feel four slick and powerful appendages wrap around my legs and dig sensually into my four clits bringing me to another pleasurable high. A third orgasm rocked my body before I the lusty haze over my brain finally lifted.

By the gods! What had I just done!? Before I even had the clarity of mind to look down I could feel the four things slide back into me flicking my clits one last time on the way back in. For several seconds I just sat there stunned as the water began pooling around me. The terrified voice that had been suppressed the entire day was right. I had begun turning into a monster! The ritual hadn't gifted me powers it had sold them to me and the price had been my humanity. With shaky hands, I touched my body just above my breasts. I could feel it there. Ta-Thump. Ta-Thump. Ta-Thump. This wasn't my heart, this thing in me wasn't even the least bit scared, its rhythm was steady, powerful and entirely wrong. A half-buried memory from earlier this morning came back to me like a scene of a bad horror movie.

My hand on the hilt of the athamé. The words of the ritual: I give myself to you, my heart, my soul my body! And seconds later the feeling of the blade cutting through my flesh. Now I knew I hadn't stopped at making a simple cut. With the magic controlling my body and mind I had cut deep, deeper and deeper until I had been able to wrap my hand around my own heart. I had smiled as I had done as the ritual said. I had given her everything, first my heart, then my soul and now my body. It was her that was intruding on my mind and changing my body to her whim… no, it wasn't my body anymore, it was hers. I was nothing more than a meat puppet for the old one; a cute little vessel to do her bidding. A tool… exactly what I had hoped to avoid.

Hot burning tears rolled down my cheeks as I tired and numb looked to the disgusting mass of flesh on the ground in front of me. The thing I had pushed out of me. Only it wasn't a thing, I knew painfully clearly what it was that I had just birth. It hadn't been life but the very opposite. I hadn't given life but given away the very power to create it. A rough frantic chuckle escaped me as I took the slimy flesh in my hands and cradled it to my chest. I had birthed my own womb. I had literally pushed the only thing out of my body that could create new humans. My chuckles turned into full out insane laughter as a thought shot through my head, at least I wouldn't have to worry about taking contraceptives ever again.

Supporting myself on a hand railing I wobbled my way out of the shower and over the fluffy pink carpet. Once I had reached my toilet I opened the lid and dropped my panties together with a large part of my humanity right into the bowl. When I pressed the button it swirled and bubbled and I watched with a distant, soulless stare as the remnants of my womb vanished down the drain. I wasn't quite sure how long I stood there in silence staring at a toilet bowl; I was only ripped out of it when the house’s intercom chirped up. I hid the answer button and was immediately rewarded by the bored voice of Sadiya.

“Hey, little submissive shit, it says here that you have university I an hour. So get ready or some shit, I'm supposed to drive you. That's it.

Oh, and don't start fingering yourself up there. No one wants to smell aroused teeny stink.

Till later, bitch.”

Once she finished talking I heard her open several cabinets and start to chow down on something. I leaned my head against the console and as soft as I could I whispered into the speaker.

‘Dumb whore.’

I had to do a double-take when I heard my own voice. It hadn't been the terrifying alien sound my mouth had produced earlier but my own one, the same one with which I had once sung in the choir. Once Moe tears burned their way down my cheeks but this time they were happy ones. Maybe I had found a way around the little problem with sounding like an alien monstrosity. I took a deep breath and said my own name. Almost directly I had to cringe due to the sound coming out of my mouth. My voice was still very much not working as it should, but then what had I done differently before?

In frustration, I slumped against the bathroom wall and let out a sigh. ‘Ah, this Sucks.’ Instantly my eyes lit up in astonishment. I had done it again! But just how had I done this? I hadn't even moved my lips just now! A curious thought pushed itself to the forefront of my mind. Maybe the secret wasn't in talking but… not talking. Emboldened by the newfound power it tried it again. Instead of forming the words with my mouth I simply thought them loudly.

‘Sadiya should burn in the hells. Hahahaha!’

This time I tried it with a native Dutch rhyme. ‘Ike, ike, ike en de rest kan stikken! Yes!’

‘I can still talk! Well… at least somewhat. Maybe if such a simple thing works out I can somehow deal with the whole turning into a monster crap?’

I walked over to the sink and again looked over my reflection. Only then I realised that I was still soaking wet. My hair hung down in messy curls and framed a face that was far too pale for my usual complexion. Honestly, I looked tired and sick, but all in all, if I overlooked the now closed holes on my throat and the discolouration of my skin I still looked like a human. I had human hair, human eyes, a human face, human teeth, hell I even had a human… Oh, okay I most certainly didn't have a human tongue anymore! Now that I was over the initial panic, it was actually kind of fascinating. My tongue was for the lack of a better word a freaking tentacle. It was long, prehensile, split in two and covered with tiny rough spikes. I had no clue as to when that thing had grown in, but there was no way in hell that I could articulate normally with that thing in my mouth. Though, after I played around with the weird thing for a minute I managed to clap with it.

That honestly wasn't the most useful thing, but it did take my mind of the other place that had changed. The place I desperately wanted to avoid thinking about. But like with most things, you had to face them sometime. And what better time was there to do it than now? Once more I sighed and finally sat my ass down on my fluffy bathroom carpet. Spreading my legs and bending down I was a bit surprised at how little resistance I faced from my body. If this continued it soon be able to straight-up kiss my own pussy. Filing that thought away for later I went back to what I had actually done this for, namely looking at the eldritch horror my genitals had become.

I was actually a bit surprised; on the first glance, it didn't even look that inhuman. If you overlooked the black colour the outside shape had mostly stayed the same. The only of thing we're two nubby rings around my sex and my butthole. Actually, the skin down there looked as smooth as a baby's, just begging to be touched. Gingerly I pressed a finger against the area. My frown turned into a smile as I realized just how smooth and sensitive I was. Yet my bliss was only short, for soon enough my smile morphed into a grimace of shock. Now I knew what I had felt a few minutes ago. Right before my eyes my vagina split. It opened op like a flower and revealed four substantial clits and following them four long black tendrils. It almost looked as if a squid was crawling out of me, only that I was intimately aware that these... tentacles belonged to me.

But even if I could feel them controlling them was an entirely different thing. I couldn’t move them like I could an arm or a leg, instead it almost seemed like they had a mind of their own, evident by the way they moved around and clung to my thighs. I had once read that molluscs had independent nerve clusters in their tentacles. Basically, a non-centralised nervous system instead of a localised one like humans had with their big brains. It had just been an interesting fact till now, but seeing this on my own body was more than freaky.

As insane this entire situation was, I couldn’t help but wonder how they felt if I were to touch them. I mean they were basically parts of my body – if totally alien and unruly parts – and so I made up my mind. Almost a bit anxious about what might happen, I reached out and touched something no other human on this world had, something that had no place on my body. And by the gods, it felt glorious...