Take me off? Who sent this ridiculous message?

As I stared at the text written on the screen, another message was sent.

“Didn’t you hear me? Take me off your hand!”

My hand? I looked at my hand and saw that the ring was glowing more brightly. It was then that I made the connection. Somehow the one sending the message was the ring. I sighed and shook my head, thinking this must be some stupid prank made by someone, spying on me and timing the messages or something, and ignored the text. I set my phone to silent and finished eating. When I finished, I heard a voice in my head.

“You really are an idiot, aren’t you?” spoke the voice in a quiet tone.

This voice sounded feminine, raspy and was a tad high pitched but there was some distortion in it which made it hard to understand what was being said.

“Take me off right now! Take me off! Take me off!” the voice shouted nonstop, getting increasingly louder and more clear.

The ring began shaking violently and glowing more intensely. I couldn’t take it anymore and took the ring off immediately. The moment I did, the shaking and glowing calmed down and the voice went silent. My head ached from all the shouting, like it was about to explode, but it subsided rather quickly after the voice stopped.

“Are you the voice?” I asked the ring, looking at it resting on top of the table.

A few minutes passed and I gave up. I was probably still half asleep or didn’t sleep as much as I though because this felt way too strange. I picked up my phone and looked at the time. It was 7:05 AM and I had to be at work by 7:25 AM, but it took at least an hour to get there. I began panicking and hurriedly got dressed in my bedroom. I then looked again at the time.

7:10 AM.

My panicking only got worse and as I rushed to the door, I didn’t notice the obvious anomaly in the living room.

“Going out without me? That’s not a good idea.” the voice said arrogantly.

I stopped and turned back, remembering what happened earlier. I went to the living room and was dumbfounded by what was in front of me.

A naked woman, with long, silver, wavy hair that went past her waist and which tips all curled upward, long pointy ears, narrow silver eyes that felt they could pierce your soul just by looking at them. As I observed her, she noticed me and realized that I was staring.

“Are you surprised? Or perhaps, excited even?” she said in a provoking manner, getting up and turning to me while lightly jumping to make my eyes pay attention to a certain part of her body.

I blushed deeply and covered my eyes.

“Who are you?!” I asked quickly, trying to clean my thoughts from what I had seen. “Are you the voice?”

“You’re no fun. No man would resist my looks.” the woman replied as I heard her footsteps getting closer. “And yes, I’m that ‘voice’. I also have a name.”

I felt her hand on my shoulder and visibly flinched. I had no idea what she was and what she was attempting to do. I slowly uncovered my eyes, keeping them closed however. A part of me wanted to know what would happen if I did nothing but I really couldn’t let myself go. I had a job to go to and no strange woman could stop me.

When I finished removing my hands, I felt a sharp pain on my stomach and tears formed on my eyes. I looked down and saw that the woman had quickly jabbed my belly yet I didn’t feel a hit.

“Gah... You...” I could barely speak due to the pain and fell on the floor shortly after.

“Consider yourself lucky. Any other man would have died after seeing me like that.” the woman said coldly, kneeling down and looking at me with intense anger like she wanted to kill me right there and then.

I lifted my head to look at her, wanting to curse so badly, but what I saw made my mind go blank for a brief moment. The woman was being encircled by strong winds which began transforming into clothes that fit her perfectly.

She was now wearing a large, black coat with a tall collar that almost reached her lips, and a single long coat-tail that fluttered ever so slightly. Underneath she wore a simple white shirt that was slightly see-through and her undergarments could be seen. For the waist down, she was wearing mini shorts that seemed to be rather tight, squeezing her thighs, and had tall, black boots that gave her a few extra centimeters of height.

She helped me up, placing one hand on where she had punched me. The pain I felt was gradually getting weaker, like it was been blown away by a pleasant breeze. I looked at the woman and pondered a bit before opening my mouth.

“I’m Zeph. A minor wind goddess. And you are now my most loyal follower!” Zeph declared, a glow barely visible on the outer edge of her irises.

“Did you know what I was going to say? And since when am I your follower?” I asked, taking a step back and rubbing my belly.

“Not really but it was obvious, judging by your stupid face.” she replied, smirking as she stared into my eyes.

She purposefully ignored me second question as she crossed her arms and puffed up her chest. I glared at her arrogant stance and scowled.

“Ah!” I shouted, remembering the time and returning to my panicking.

I checked the time on my phone.

7:20 AM

I was super late! I quickly fixed my clothes, which had become a mess thanks to Zeph creating her clothes, and ran once again towards the door. But as I kept running, I felt like the door just wasn’t getting any closer. I turned to Zeph and saw her grinning from cheek to cheek. She was using her powers to stop me from reaching the door.

“Do you think you’ll make it time like that?” she asked teasingly as the winds got stronger.

”Better late than not even arriving!” I retorted, forcing my body to its limit.

“I guess...” Zeph said, purposefully pausing to check on my expression. “...You don’t want my help to arrive on time.”

She was really enjoying my suffering and to me it felt like she was more of a devil that some goddess. I stopped running, my legs hurting from overexertion, and looked at her. I pondered, opening and closing my mouth a few times before reaching a conclusion.

“If you can help, I would appreciate it. It’s better than just having you ruin my day.” I replied, not very trustful of this playfully evil creature.

The moment I finished talking, the winds stopped and Zeph came closer to me. She was now only a step away from me. Up close I noticed how short she was, I had to look down to see her face and that just made her seem even shorter. She also had a strangely fresh scent, the kind of scent you find in a field of flowers where the air was pure.

“I bet you wish I was closer, don’t you?” she whispered, making her breasts go against me. “You really are lucky I can’t kill you yet.”

Still confused by her threats and not going through with them, I kept my head facing the side so I wouldn’t fall to any more provocations and I could focus more on what was unfolding before me. Winds began forming around us yet nothing in the living room moved, like we weren’t actually there. These really were magical winds and something that a machine couldn’t reproduce.

“Close your eyes if you don’t want to throw up later.” Zeph uttered softly while looking down.

“Huh?” I barely had any time to process what she had said and was barely able to close my eyes. The last thing I saw at that moment was the winds completely covering us and our surroundings changing.

When I opened my eyes, I felt extremely dizzy, like the world was spinning as if it were a speeding car’s wheel. I dropped to my knees and vomited my breakfast.

“I warned you, idiot.” Zeph complained, quickly getting away from me.

I really hated this woman, she not only made me arrive late, she also made me throw up my precious food.

I cleaned my mouth and a gentle breeze passed by me, making me feel instantly better and the mess disappear. I peeked at Zeph and saw her frowning as she disappeared.

“You’ve still got a few minutes. Hurry up, idiot.” her voice and body were quickly gone.

“Wait, where the hell did you go now?!” I exclaimed, looking around in disbelief.

She was right, though. I had no time to waste and needed to make the most out of this opportunity. As I was about to take my first step, I realized where I was. An alleyway which barely had any sunlight illuminating it. There was graffiti on the walls and trash bins scattered about. Luckily, nobody seemed to be nearby.

I quickly regained my wits and exited the alleyway, in front of me was the building I worked at. I looked one last time at my phone to confirm the time.

7:21 AM

We covered an hour of walking in just a minute. This amazing feat made me momentarily forget my annoyance and truly appreciate Zeph’s help.

I walked to the building and saw Kimberly arriving at the same time. I never knew she arrived so early, her shifts normally started in the afternoon or earliest at the end of the morning.

“Good morning, Sam!” Kimberly said excitedly, waving as she approached.

“Oh, good morning, Kimberly.” I replied timidly. “I didn’t know you came so early.”

“That’s because I don’t.” she giggled. “I came to talk to you, actually.”

This statement made me freeze up. I was completely caught off guard and my thoughts entered into overdrive with all the possible reasons she wanted to talk in person so early.

“Y-yeah?” I stuttered, blushing and looking away from her. “Let me just go inside before I get yelled at again.”

“Oh sure! Completely forgot, sorry.” she spoke, her lips curving upward slightly.

We both entered the building and everyone began staring at us. It wasn’t exactly a secret that I had a crush on Kimberly, no matter how much I tried. Let’s just say that I never tried all that much to keep such a stupid secret. I sneaked a peek at Kimberly. She was unfazed by all the gazes and kept walking confidently. This only made me feel worse and regret all the thoughts I had just a minute ago.

We entered the elevator, everyone else staying outside like they were trying to cause a certain situation. The moment the door closed, the camera inside sparked and Kimberly turned to me, her face unreadable, smiling at me but her eyes showing animosity toward me.

“I didn’t know you had a ring, Sam.”