Page 35 of Monsters After Dark

A startled sob rips from my chest as his word registers, but pain steals my ability to respond. My lungs seize as tiny monsters eat at my throat and chest, and somewhere deep in my addled brain I recognize the signs of change. The air becomes too dry, too coarse, and the wind buffets my ears in the most unpleasant way.

“Oursss.”

My back bows as he hisses the word into my ear and runs a tentacle over my wound. Locked in his innumerable grasps and fighting for breath, I have no choice but to writhe in agony as he rolls sideways, leading the way into the ocean.

As my mind screams in terror, we fall into another world, and I fight harder, not wanting to drown. He holds me tighter, sliding more tendrils of control around me.

My dress billows around us, the currents tugging it this way and that, until deft digits slide it off my body, the mixture of human hands and flexible tentacles too much to process. Tiny, round spots pepper my body, shielding me from the cool water as the suction cups on his tendrils search my flesh.

After watching my dress whip away into the blue, I latch my gaze on the surface and struggle to swim upward, knowing my captor won’t let me go but desperate to breathe air. My lungs burn from lack of oxygen and my head throbs as though it may burst, but I hold my breath, dreading the alternative.

Black orbs block my view of the fading sun, the streaks of light dancing in the waves turning to murky gray as we descend further away from escape. With a maniacal glee pulling at his lips, the monster wraps an extra tentacle around my naked chest and squeezes, forcing the air from my lungs. The first bubble leaves me, tickling my cheek as it floats up my face, and with my last chance of survival stolen from me, I scream.

Angry and terrified and desperate, I push my every emotion into the sound and put off inhaling the salty ocean for as long as I can.

Shiny white teeth flash as he loosens his hold on my chest and rubs a limb over a tender spot under my collarbone. He flicks a flap of skin that wasn’t there a few moments ago, and I jolt as cold water seeps into my chest. At the same time, he lowers his lips to mine and claims my mouth, prying my teeth open with tongue and tentacles, and invading one of my most intimate places with ruthless intent. Salty water rushes down my throat, but although it isn’t comfortable, I don’t suffer the agony I expect.

My muscles seize as icy heat pulses from my lungs outward, infecting every organ within my body until not a single cell remains the same. Even as my heart keeps pumping and my diaphragm forces water in and out of my lungs, I feel swamped and wrong, my brain refusing to come to terms with my ability to breathe water.

I can’t have gills. Five seconds ago I was prepared to die a slow death. This must just be a dying woman’s last hallucination.

Yet warm ropes wrap around me, plucking at my nipples and testing the flesh around my upper thighs.

“Hush, hush, my pretty pale one. This is only the beginning, but I’ll take care of you. I know better now, I promise.”

Now that we’re underwater, his voice seems smoother and impossibly deeper, almost as though he aims straight for the weak spot I never knew I had hidden behind my sternum.

I don’t want his help. I don’t want his touch. I want to go back up to my little raft and pretend like this isn’t happening.

He lowers his mouth back to mine and pries me open again, his tentacles too strong for me to deny them, and as he plunders the recesses, he sets up a rhythm as old as time. I push at his shoulders to no avail, hating how my nipples tighten and my womb clamps down as he teases the crease between my thigh and my folds.

More change sweeps through me, awakening parts of my body I’ve never acknowledged, and I cry as my insides beg for relief. My stomach cramps and throbs, sending streaks of desire between my breasts and my core, and my clit swells and grows so sensitive my own folds feel too rough. Jerking and flailing, I try to get away from him, but physics work differently in this new world and I lose against his superior strength.

Human fingers invade my intimate folds, sliding along the outsides of my petals before seeking the extremely sensitive bundle of nerves at the top of my mound. With a scorching thumb mashing my clit against my body, he thrusts two fingers into my opening. Electricity spears into my abdomen, the ruthless manhandling too much to ignore.

I fight off the pressure his stroking builds, but it grows as he sneaks the tip of a tentacle in alongside his fingers, my thrashing only aiding his violation. As he stretches my opening, he rumbles a groan into my mouth and scrambles what little sense I have left.

He pushes in and doesn’t stop until agony flares deep within my abdomen.

Glass shards splinter through my reality as I break into a million pieces. I fly apart, shattering into the current to drift for eternity, the release too intense to call an orgasm.

Only his diabolical purr pulls me back together.

“Perfect, pale omega. You’re ready. Swim.”

His warmth disappears, leaving me stranded in frigid murkiness, and I float in a sea of confusion.

A humongous figure blocks out the faint sun from above, shocking me into panic. I glance upward but see nothing. Nothing for miles and miles. Looking down fills me with dread—pitch blackness hides whatever lurks beneath me.

Up. I must swim up.

The second I angle my body upright and bring my hands over my head to thrust myself upward, something brushes past my hip. I scream, my voice not at all how I expect—different but understandable—and twirl in hopes of seeing what torments me.

Nothing.

I kick and raise my arms again, wishing I were a more prolific swimmer, and set my sights on the surface.

It’s too far away. I know I’ll never make it, but I must try. I have no other option.

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