Part 2

“By Mother,” Adrienne exclaimed. “We were lucky they didn’t bother to search the storage room.”

“Yes, but that was way too close.” I took a look around the corner before quickly dragging Adrienne after me. “I do NOT like sneaking away from the law!”

“So, what do we do now?”

“We shut up!” I growled back at Adrienne.

We had only just managed to slip out before the police had started searching the store. I didn’t know why the police were looking for us but I did have my suspicions. Sure, we technically hadn’t done anything too illegal when making the janitor go to sleep, but it was still a bit iffy. Thankfully, it seemed that nobody had found the dead mercenary, or at least nobody had – as of yet – linked it to me or my sisters. If they had realised that I was behind that death, they would have most certainly come with more than just two people. Then again calling it a death was giving that man too much credit. It was more assisted suicide than anything else... he had basically presented himself on a silver platter, no? Sadly, I doubted that the police would see it the same way.

For now, I was going to stay on the side of caution. After all, there was no telling if Clarissa had done something stupid. Knowing her she probably had, and I was going to be the one to suffer from it. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes in frustration. We needed a way out of here, and right now I could only count on myself... mainly because I didn’t trust anyone but me, and secondly because Adrienne seemed to have lost a few brain cells. Well, she most certainly has lost all of her brain cells but that did not excuse her current behaviour.

“For the love of Mother, could you please stop humping that bollard!?” I called out, utterly fed up with her.

“But I am so excited! We’re fleeing from the police and stole from a shop! Ugh~ I like being bad!” Her lewd sucking sounds told of a very different kind of excitement.

“Be that as it is,” I began, before pointedly looking away from her. “Why are you fucking yourself with the bollard? It is immensely distracting!”

“Because I’m a bad girl! And now everyone who is going to touch this thing is unknowingly going to touch my juices! Everyone is going to finger my sex-toy!”

I wasn’t even sure how to react to that, so I just sighed. “Could you please stop? We NEED to go!”

“Awww, is little Valerie embarrassed? Your hot, gooey sister is fucking this... long, thick metal rod... does the sight of it fluster you? Ohhhh~, Ahhh~!”

“Adrienne.” I said with about the calmest voice I could muster. “I am going to say this exactly once. Get. Off. The. FUCKING BOLLARD!!!”

My tentacles twisted furiously around me, before reaching out and grabbing the offending object at its base. Adrienne had barely enough time to get off before they ripped the iron rod right out of the ground. With an angry huff I threw the thing as far away as possible, and with a wet splash, it landed in one of Amsterdam’s many channels.

“Gods damn it!” I could no longer hold in my frustration. “What is wrong with you? You never did shit like this before! So why would you start now? In a situation where I REALLY cannot suffer any distractions!? For fucks sake! We have policemen searching for us right now!”

“Val...” Adrienne’s voice was different, it was calm and gentle. Like a soft breeze, it soothed my anger.

“What?”

“It’s okay. Everything is alright.” There was something about her words, they seemed to worm their way into my mind; I almost wanted to believe her.

“Wait, no...” For some reason, I had trouble focusing. “No... this isn’t right, things aren’t okay, or... are they?”

“Of course they are, Valerie. Mother is here for us, everything is going to be perfect. We can do whatever we want. She will make sure that nobody can bother us. Now, you wouldn’t want to upset Mother, right?”

“No... I... I guess I don’t. Uhm...”

Everything was still a bit foggy when Adrienne spoke again. “Come on slowpoke! You said it yourself, we need to leave!”

“Wait...”

“Yeah? Everything okay?”

“I...” I shook my head to clear the last cobwebs from my mind. “Yes, sorry Adrienne. I’m fine. Let’s keep to the channels, yeah?”

“Ohhhh~ We’re going swimming?”

“Yeah! I guess we are!”

There was something immensely satisfying about plunging into the water. The way it splashed everywhere, and how lovely it felt on my skin; it reminded me of the days in my youth, back when my life was still full of fun and freedom. Part of me wanted to go back to that untroubled time, back before my affliction had taken hold of me. Then again, I already knew how it was going to end. Early into my teenage years, I had grown in power but also in frailty, every time I had used my magic it had started to destroy me. The doctors had said that it was strange mana-attracted bacteria feeding off my soul and that the only treatment had been a medication that slowly neutered my magic.

‘Strange... the feeling whenever I didn’t take my medicine... it still feels like back then, even now. But no magic, only Mother’s strange power.’ I tried flexing my mental muscles but there didn’t seem to be any response from my soul whatsoever. The well of magic within it seemed to be dry or at least inaccessible. ‘So weird, if I cannot use my magic, then how come that the strange itch isn’t gone? It’s almost as if something is stopping me from reaching out and scratching it, like a damnable scab right there on my soul! So irritating!’ I filed the thought away for later, for now, I just wanted to go home.

“Adrienne!” I called out mentally. “You’re going the wrong way! My home is in this direction!”

"I know, I know, but check me out! I’m a mermaid!” There was a strange wobbly-laughing tone to Adrienne’s words.

Much to her delight, Adrienne’s body seemed to be a lot stranger than I had given it credit for. Instead of oozing out underwater, her transformative properties only seemed to be enhanced by the water’s pressure. The sad lump of goo that I had shoved into a bodysuit was no more; rather than that, I was looking at a crystalline jade sculpture, one that was moving... living, reminding me of fairytales and children-stories. Whereas before her appearance had been almost comical, there was a certain sculpted beauty to her now. Adrienne hadn’t just copied the look of a Najade – those terrible water Faey – or tried to recreate one of the rumoured Sirens. No, her current look was by all accounts utterly fantastical.

I had known her to be artistically gifted but this took it to a new level. Her legs had gone, a long, finned tail replacing them. A hypnotic pattern of swirling scales snaked from the tail up her body; every one of her scales was shimmering in the light falling through the water. Her arms' delicate and gracile span shimmering, with glass-like fins from her wrist all the way to her shoulders. Where once had been a cute but simplistic face was now a countenance of perfect cruel beauty. Looking at her awoke something in me that I hadn’t realized was there. I wanted her, needed her, desired her, and lusted for her like never before.

“You... You are beautiful...” I had a hard time holding myself back. “I- Adrienne, you look- I- It’s- Perfection!”

“I know.”

I couldn’t keep my feelings for myself any longer. Like a woman possessed I rushed forward, weaving through the waves with a singular purpose in my mind. I need her, right now! She was so beautiful and I just couldn’t... I barely processed sliding up to her. All I wanted was to embrace her, wrap myself around this perfect effigy of desire and love. And so my body did just that; the tentacles affixed to me didn’t need an invitation, and as soon as Adrienne was in reach they reached out to her, caressing and petting her body like the beautiful treasure that she was.

“Adrienne...” I took her head in my hands, holding her just before me, gazing into those perfect, crystalline eyes.

“Yes, my love?”

“Let’s return home and fuck like rabbits.”

“Yes, let’s~.”

I kissed her deeply, our tongues entwining, and our bodies coiling around each other. It was a heated, passionate embrace; one that I haven’t felt in a long while, and our strange, perverted bodies only made it all the better. We were going to enjoy ourselves when we got back...

. . . . . . .

“Oh my, Valerie... that was, Amazing!”

“Shit, it was, wasn’t it?”

“I mean the thing you did with your snatch... fuck; I’m made from slime and I didn’t think of that!”

“Hehehe~,” I moved so that she could snuggle up to me. “What can I say, I am just generally amazing in anything that I do.”

“I guess that is one way of seeing it. Then again...” Adrienne turned around to face me. “It was you that had the most orgasms of the two of us.”

“That,” I scowled. “That has nothing to do with any of this!”

“Really?” By now she had started to lose most of her former density and what should have been an impish smile turned into a spooky ghost face.

“Yes, really. And, Adrienne...”

“Yeah?”

“Go take a look in the mirror.” I had to hold back my laughter.

“What do you- Oh, MOtHer!” Much to my joy, Adrienne did not take well to her face melting again. “Come on! Why!? I just managed to fix myself up and get all beautiful! Why am I all... melty again!?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t leave the water? I mean I also feel like I could take a bath again.” A long yawn escaped me. “What time is it anyway? No way we messed around that long, right?”

“I would answer you but I can’t really use my phone anymore... not that I would even know where it is in all this mess.”

“Oh, yeah, sorry about that.” I had to admit I was impressed when I took a look around. I honestly did not expect the goop to grow this quickly... or even grow in the first place... do you think this is safe?” I poked one particularly large goo bubble with my tentacle. “What even is this shit in the first place?”

“If I were to make an educated guess, then I would say you puke out terraforming weirdo goo... because you’re a weirdo.”

“Cute Adrienne, very cute.” I slid off the gooified remnants of my bed and made my way over to the door. “We’ll need to leave soon. Go search for your phone and stuff while I get a drink. I want to be gone before my parents come home.”

“Kay... guess there won’t be a time for a bath anymore... a pity, I looked so good!”

On the way out I grabbed my jacket and put it back on. Thankfully my phone hadn’t fallen out during our little... goo fun. ‘But seriously, the Goo is really weird. It seems to react to my presence and it grows. I am pretty sure it is alive in some strange way. I just didn’t expect it to eat almost all of my wardrobe... this is really vexing me! Ugh!’ Annoyed and slightly pissed I went down, now resolved to drown my sorrow over all the lost clothes in at least one or two margaritas.

“Where is did all the Tequila go?” To my little surprise, the alcohol cabinet was in utter disarray. “That idiot Sadiya, she really is a drunk, isn’t she? Wait... what was that?”

I turned around just in time to see something move outside the window; not a split second later the world erupted into fire and smoke. Reeling from the explosion I stumbled around the burning room. What was going on? What had happened? My confusion was soon lifted by a voice that was oh, so familiar, a voice that I had grown to hate.

“Valerie... do you have any idea how disappointed I am in you? Truly calling you my daughter is no longer apt.” My father spoke his words with barely any emotion. “Men... fire.”