Cut and Run Ch. 1, Part 3 of X, Rewrite

Cut and Run Chapter 1 Part 3 of X- Rewrite
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“I don’t think we’re going to be in Kansas anytime soon Toto.” I spoke to myself dryly.
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My eyes automatically snap open when the first note of the Precum Institute’s Reveille begins sounding through the intercom. I grimace as I listen to the Bugler as she continues playing her obnoxious song. As she does, I can hear the sounds of everyone else in the facility, get up out of bed and start getting themselves ready for the day.
I on the other hand, choose to remain where I am, lying in the folding cot that I’d been assigned to sleep in.
As the last few echoing notes of the Bugling finally fades away, My heavy eyelids come together as I start to drift off,…
“ALLEN!” my roomie yells. My eyes spring open again. I look over and there he is! Standing over me with a furious look on his face. “GET UP!” he yells again. I sigh.
“Yes Larry?” I mutter semi-coherently.
“C’mon Allen! Get-Up!” Larry says again as he leans over and starts shaking my shoulder, “You’ve already got too many demerits, you can’t afford any more!” he points out. I growl back at him in response.
Then I remember that he’s right. So I sit up and swing my feet out then place them on the floor. I flinch when I feel the coldness of the concrete floor leach the vestiges of warmth out of the soles of my feet.
 ‘Fuck!’ I think to myself, ‘When in the hell is my Light-Web contact going to reply?’ I complain as I glance at the tiny laptop computer sitting on an endtable next to my bed.
‘I’ve been here nearly a third of a year! Three and a half months; one hundred eleven days. Two thousand six hundred sixty six fucking gods be damned hours!’ I silently moan as the rest of my body slowly wakes up.
I continue my silent bitching and moaning, as I get ready for the day. While I’m lazily putting on my sneakers, Larry is at the door to our mutually shared ‘room’ ne cell-block, almost vibrating in his eagerness to get going.
“C’mon Al! We’re going to be late!” he whines, naturally I stop what I’m doing and stare at him for a second. Just to piss him off.
“Dammit Allen!” he yells. I choose to resume putting on my footwear. I know I’m pushing him to his limit when he starts using my full name.
Once I’m ready, I follow him out the door, down several flights of stairs and eventually out to the courtyard.  Once there we all ‘form ranks’, as we’d been instructed to do, to await our Drill Instructor: Deputy Doji.
Yeah, that unripe peach stuck around for some ungodly reason. Lastely she’s been lending a taloned-hand by performing various chores for the prison,…excuse me,…’facility’.
We all stand an arm’s length away from each other and keep silent. While everyone else stands at attention, I choose to slouch and turn my head to look out through the chainlink fence. Way out there in the crisp morning air, I can see the rolling ‘hills’ of Cimarron county.
‘Hills!’ I chuff, ‘Sparrow Harpies have bigger tits than those,…’hills’.” I complain. Then I stop when Deputy Doji shows up and we immediately start doing calisthenics.
Oh Joy. Even though I’ve gained weight during my time at ‘Club-Fed’, it’s mostly been muscle mass. Thanks be to Deputy-Doji for that.
After we’re done with the usual pushups, situps, and running, we’re all herded back inside to hit the showers. Once there, I get the urge to sing, so I do.
“One of these days, I’m going to murder the Bugler!” I loudly begin as I’m soaping up. The acoustics here are good, even over the sound of multiple showerheads.
“Al! Stop it!” Larry calls out to me from the next stall. I ignore him.
“One of these days, they’re gonna find her Dead!” I continue.
“AL!”
“I’ll amputate her reveille, and stamp upon it heavily,…” I sing it off-key.
“Damn it Al!” Larry complains, but I can hear him laughing.
“Then spend the rest of my life in bed!” I finish then to a chorus of hoots and clapping from my fellow prisoners,…excuse me,….’guests’.
Yeah, guests. Guests of the Precum Institute, awaiting that special time in which some Male-desperate-Mamono deems that she can tolerate one of us dregs for a lifetime.
I’ve been here long enough to see the population here get whittled down from well over a couple hundred, to less than ten. The time interval between those being Taken, keeps getting longer and longer.
After showering, we all shave and then get dressed to head down to the chow hall.
As I wait my turn in line, I suppress a gag when I observe the ‘food’ that is slopped onto the tray of the guy in front of me: Scrambled powdered eggs, meatless bacon, and watery cream of wheat.
“Hey Gladys!” I call out to the Spider-Girl handing out the coffee, “Can I get an espresso today?” I joke. She just rolls all of her eyes at me and silently hands me a cup. When I look down into it, I can see the bottom, its so diluted.
‘Crap.’ I sigh.
I sit alone as I do my best to shovel the food into my mouth. I do it as quickly as possible to avoid having the taste catch up. I look enviously over at my fellow’s judicious use of sugar, salt, and other condiments.
Since I’ve been collecting demerits like flies on shit, I’d been forbidden from using any of those treats.
‘Bad boys! Bad boys! What ya gonna do? What ya gonna do when they come for you!’ I mutter under my breath, as I look around the confines of the open pit of the Chow-hall. There’s a second level above us, with guard rails to keep folks from walking over the edge and falling down.
Eventually, I catch sight of the Director (A Hakutaku I know now) up there, talking with the Warden (a Blue Oni- Sarashina her name was.) and looking us over.
‘Damn the Director has got some big tits!’ I smile.
When the Director notices me looking at her, she turns away and clops off. The Warden glares down at me, grimaces for a second and then stalks off.
Even though I volunteer for cleanup after the meal, I’m not chosen. That’s because whoever who gets to be a dishwasher, has first dibs on whatever left overs the kitchen staff generates. The demerits I’ve earned, prevent that.
So what is my life like here in this Mamono version of a Club Fed paradise?
The typical day is like this: Reveille, calisthenics, showers, and then breakfast.  After that, I get to pretty much meander around and check on the number of locked doors.
Then, I eat lunch.
Afterwards, I can meander around some more and look at some other locked doors. If I’m lucky, there is some make-work.
Then, I eat dinner.
To top the evening off, I mosey around to check and see if the number of locked doors has changed. Hint- they don’t.
Then its lights out.
Yeah, quite the stimulating environment. Wouldn’t you agree?
You’re probably wondering, why such a Spartan lifestyle?
Motivation.
For example, once every couple of weeks the students of a Mamono cooking class comes out to do volunteer work here. Each one of them is given the assignment of serving one of us the meal of our choice.
Invariably that meal ends up being a tasty ass one. It doesn’t hurt that we’re waited on hand and foot, so to speak, by one helluva attractive female.
So yeah, we’re given a taste of what life as a Mamono husband can be like.  I’ve seen more dudes lose their resolve to be free, because of this. It’s easy to forget that resolve, when you’re staring at a stack of hot buttered pancakes with real maple syrup and thinking: ‘I could have that every day!’
And all they have to do to get out of here- is say: “Yes” to a desperate Mamono.
Why are they desperate?
Because most of us dudes here, are dregs.
Mamono, like human women, have ‘standards’ for picking a lover or a mate, for the most part.
For human women, their standards usually involve such niceties as: finding a guy who knows how to comb his hair, dress nice, has some familiarity with soap and water, and not being a psychopath.
At least for the most party, but that’s another story.
Now for Mamono, their standards are a bit lower. They usually involve a dude having a heartbeat. But even that is no guarantee. I heard through the grapevine, that some gay dude upstate committed suicide to avoid being ‘Taken’ or worse yet, ‘Alped’. Which would’ve been fine, if not for that Lich who found him.
‘Things are tough all over, Pal!’ I snark as my thoughts turn to my roomie- Larry. He’s been in this joint longer than I have.
What’s his high hurdle? He’s a pedophile. But not one of those pedos who’d get all chummy with a Baphomet or an Alice. Naaa, he prefers a different gender.
I think you can guess the difficulty. There isn’t a Mamono alive, who is gonna tolerate some dude who doesn’t get turned on by her ass.
What’s my high-hurdle? I had something done to my bod. Something so nasty, so evil, so disgusting in the eyes of Mamono everywhere, that it renders me unfit for pissing on if I were on fire.
Yeah, I voluntarily submitted to a Vasectomy.
Apparently, that little operation upsets the physical ‘Feng-Shui” of a guy so much, that it causes his Spirit Energy to leave a bad taste in the mouth of any Mamono who samples it.
Thus, that reaction I got when I purchased my sleeping bag back in that town of Norther California.
Now the current Warden here, (Sarashina) had hoped to retire with another gold star on her record before moving on. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of making me her ‘special project’.
She put her professional reputation on the line and tried to play matchmaker. She made the foolish attempt to pair me off with one of her single friends, and/or associates.
Naturally, I didn’t make it easy on any of them.
 I began creatively flexing my ‘mojo’ in a new way.  In short, I created a spell that I call: ‘Detect Phobia’.
I learn what it is a particular Mamono can’t stand and then I adopt those mannerisms into my act. I’ve managed to thoroughly disgust at least a dozen of her now ex-friends.
What do I get?
I’m informed that I’ve been invited to have a talk with the Warden. Once she gets done screaming and wailing at me, she demands to know ‘Why I’d never mentioned such a personality problem to her before, and if I had anything else I’d care to mention’, before she tries to pawn me off onto someone else.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve done my best to spare her any of those headaches. How?  I’ve tried to ‘voluntarily’ leave several times.  The problem is, I’ve tried to do so alone.
Yeah, I’ve tried to escape.
Those attempts comprise the remainder of the demerits I’ve racked up.
I’ve been doing so ever since Director LeBlanc’s bad reaction to my Aurora testimony.
Naturally, I keep asking why I’m not allowed to go. The answer’s always the same: “for my protection”.
Between my sparkling personality, my carefully cultivated Mojo, and the grief I’ve caused the Warden and the Director; I’ve managed to turn out to be a right royal pain in the ass for them both.
Hey, what can I say? I just gotta be the best at what I’m good at.
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Try as I might, I can never seem to get the Director to cop to me why that Aurora caused her to freak out so bad.
I suspect that it has something to do with my mojo. Of which also started up right after that nighttime display. Probably not a coincidence. So, I’ve been doing my best to dig up what I could about it.
That first day, a Wyrm guard cheerfully escorted me up to my now cell-room. Since she didn’t look all that strong to me, I tried to take her on. Boy was I in for a shock! She thought it was all in fun. Probably still does, she was that thick.
Once there, I found a large stack of books waiting for me. Monster Girl Encyclopedias, volumes one through thirteen.  Even though they were all full of propaganda, I managed to skim out a lot of valuable info. But then anyone with half a brain could’ve. You just read between the lines, find out what they’re NOT talking about.
After the books, I soon gained access to the internet. After that, I made some contacts on the ‘Light-Web’. Which is the equivalent of the ‘Dark-Web’ in my home world, go figure.
It turns out that my initial theory was half-right. There was an invasion of Earth, but it wasn’t so much an invasion than it was an absorption.
How to explain that?
Have you ever done dishes? If you’re like me, you’ve messed around with that chore. As a kid, I enjoyed watching the soap bubbles on top of the water disappear. Almost as if they were continents being slowly destroyed by the forces of nature.
Don’t ask.
Every now and again, I noticed that the walls between one of the larger bubbles and an adjacent one, would thin ‘just so’ and *bloop!* the two bubbles would merge.
The theory promoted by the ‘Light-Web’ rebels, suggests that some entity called the ‘Great Meow’ (or something like that), had been involved in a war with another powerful entity. A war that had lasted for on and off for thousands of years.
It wasn’t precisely a stalemate, but more of a balance in which neither side could achieve a total victory.
Then something happened. Somehow, Meow the Great and Terrible managed to upset that balance.
Whatever that something was, allowed her to cause the walls between our respective worlds to thin. Enough to merge together like the two bubbles I mentioned earlier.
Why would she do this?
Apparently, in a flip from that old movie, “Mars Needs Women.”, The World of the Mamono needed Men to not only reproduce with, but also to feed upon. As apparently there weren’t enough there to go around. So, they came after ours.
Here’s the kicker.
How do the Mamono feed upon men?
Through sex.
No, I’m not kidding here! They quite literally fuck you to feed. Or suck you off, or…
You get the idea.
 A human dude who has been forced into being a Mamono’s husband, gets to have sex with his wife a lot.
Like every day, multiple times a day! With a smoking hot babe. Or two, or three, or what have you.
Yeah, even now there’s so many Mamono, every guy has the potential for multiple wives.
Also, and the details are sketchy, but apparently the dude gets modified somehow to be able to physically accommodate his woman/women’s sex hunger.
Yeah, it blew my mind too when I found that out.  It’d be so nice to have that ability: Never to give up, never to surrender!
I know it sounds like a teenaged dude’s wet dream come true. But it gets even better than that! But that’s another angle that can wait.
Back to my point.
Why would the Director simply not allow me to cut and run? Surely, I’d end up being Taken by one of those Mamono in short order, right?
Because I’d done something no male had ever done before- I not only broke the record for remaining single, I’ve been setting a new one with every passing day here. And not because I was another Larry.
Obviously, the Mamono in charge in this world do not care for that unknown talent of mine. There’s always the off chance I might turn out to be a trendsetter.
My one sole hope- was to find something out about it, and I felt I could do it best by finding more about my mojo.
Thus my ‘Light-Web’ internet research.
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“Shit!” I growled aloud, when I finally managed to log on to the Precum Institute’s bulletin board. I growled when I saw how many messages were waiting for me on my inbox. My checking up on my ‘Lite-Web’ contact would have to wait.
“Fuck!” I griped aloud as I opened the first message I had waiting for me. It was the usual claptrap, another desperate Mamono going on about how I’d be so appreciated and properly taken care of, when all I had to do was accept her and invite her over to the Institute.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, me love you long time too.” I mutter as I type in my reply: “I’m sorry, but you’re not quite what I’m looking for.” I finish. Then I copy that sentence so I could quickly paste it into every single one of the remaining messages. My eyes bulge when I see how many there are.
’Oh, for Fuck’s Sake!’ I bitch internally.
I suck in my breath and set my shoulders. Then I carry on. With barely a glance at the messenger’s profile pic, I send off my reply and go on to the next, and then the next, and so on.
“Sheesh!” I half-shouted when I finally finished with that chore a couple of hours later.
Why do this? Because that’s the price for my getting internet access in this joint.
I was required to put up a profile on the dating site of my choice, and then reply to every,…last,…,single,…one….of the endless messages I’m sent.
I remember when I first got started. No sooner than I had hit ‘Save Changes’ on my first profile, than I had my inbox over flowing with interested Mamono.
The kicker? It seemed like anytime I chose to skip over one. That would be the fake message generated to check up on my honesty.
Before I could get bogged down again, I quickly switch over and log in to the ‘Light-Web’. I quickly check out my secret profile handle.
My pulse quickened considerably when I see that I had finally received a reply from my contact- ‘MamoNO-714’.
It read:
To: WillWallace-801;
Subject: Apropos your inquiry;
I have what you want. I am sending it encrypted within this message. The decryption key for it is contained in the third message I sent you from a month ago. All the best!’
Looking over my shoulder nervously, I quickly download the file onto my Dick-drive and then sign off. I did so as I didn’t want to hang around too much on the ‘Light-Web. It has a way of attracting undue attention.
 I look at my Dick-drive for only a moment and then I pocket it.
‘Dick-drives!’ I smirk as I patted the bulge in my pants pocket.
What’s a dick-drive? They are nothing more than a thumb-drive attached to a small dildo. Why do that? Because they’ll fit into any empty port. (Har!)
I then leaned back into my computer chair and stretched out as nonchalantly as I could manage. I took a quick peak around my cell/room and noted that my roomie, Larry, was at his computer checking out his online dating inbox. I hadn’t noticed him coming in.
After looking over the rest of my Spartan accommodations, my eyes roved back to Larry. He seemed excited.
“Hey Larry!” I called out, “What’s up?”
“Come on over Al!” he gushed, “You gotta check this out!” he said with a broad grin. I sighed and closed my eyes.
‘Oh please not another Baphomet!’ I silently whined. There was just something nauseating about those immature Goat-Girls.
“I’d rather not,…” I began, but he interrupted me.
“Jeez-Louise Al, you REALLY gotta see this!!!” he enthused, shaking in his chair. I got up as silently as I could manage and tried to tiptoe quietly over to the door. I didn’t make it. He saw my movement and caught my eye. I froze.
“Come on Al, I’m not kidding here!” he called out, waving me over.
“What?!” I half-growled back peevishly.
“Check out this chick man! She’s clothed!” he shot back excitedly.
“Wait, what?” I asked, suddenly intrigued. I stepped over behind him and looked over his shoulder. The sight of this one boyish profile pic shocked me to my core.
She was indeed clothed. She looked so prim and proper in her conservative togs. I would’ve deemed her ready to attend a Chief-God church meeting.
“Damn!” I said, impressed. Larry just nodded with excitement.
What’s the big whoop you ask? That’s because Mamono give a whole new meaning to Profile Pics.
Just about every single one chooses to display herself doing the equivalent of a gynecological self-examination.
I’ve seen them poking and prodding themselves with items that would’ve made Al Goldstein sweat bullets.
I can only imagine how much overtime the Monster Girl City hospital ER docs have to rack up each year, removing some of those ‘stuck’ objects.
So, when a Mamono posts a clothed Profile Pic, it’s so out of the ordinary, it easily catches our attention.
“Nice blouse,” I complimented happily, ‘she really knows how to accessorize.” I admitted with a nod.
“Those sleeves actually cover her wrists!” Larry said, almost panting. “What do you think Al? Is she for real?” Larry said, looking up at me hopefully. I sighed, and shook my head indulgently.
“Maybe,…” I began as neutrally as I could manage. “What does she say about herself in her bio?” Larry’s face fell.
“Uhhh, I don’t know.” He replied quietly, as he moved his mouse over and clicked on her bio column.
I studied his face as he began to read it silently. His semi-hopeful expression froze for a second and then his whole body began to wilt with disappointment.
“Dang it!” he sighed. “I should’ve known!” he whined.
“Just-Talking-Over-Coffee?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He nodded disconsolately and looked away.
“Hand-Holding?” Larry just grunted.
“Cuddling?”
“Fudgsicles!” he shot out, as he slapped his hand onto his chair’s armrest. “I hate teases!” he grumped as he folded his arms over his chest.
Yeah teases can be such a pill to deal with. Somewhere out there some Mamono jokester was laughing up her long sleeve.
“Block!” Larry hissed as he slammed a finger down onto his keyboard hard enough to make it jump.
“That’s it!” he said, throwing his hands up into the air. “I’m done for the day.” He huffed. Then he screwed his eyes up over to me.
“Where were you headed?” he asked, his eyes narrowing.
“I was thinking of stretching my legs.” I replied as innocently as I could manage. His eyes narrowed even further.
“No, really, I’d like to go for a short hike.” I continued, “You know me and my love for hiking.” He just tilted his head to look at me through his eyebrows.
“C’mon Al, I may have been born at night. But not last night!” he frowned and gestured in the direction of my Work-In-Box. It was stuffed full then. “You’ve got a lot to catch up on.”
“Ok, Ok! I know!” I shot back. “I’ll get to it later, I promise.”
“ALLEN!” he said as he got to his feet and grabbed a handful of woven cloth strips held them up and thrust them into my face.
“OFUDA ALLEN! OFUDA!” he emphasized, shaking the hand-stitched strips in my face, “They’re not going to fix themselves!”
I looked guiltily at the Ofuda he stuck in my face and took them. I silently stroked one for a second. Looking down, I knew the importance of insuring the quality of the construction.
So what was all that about?
Work-projects. Occasionally we were required to work for our room and board. It being just another tactic they employed, to motivate ourselves into a ‘Taken’ status.
This repair project in particular, had come about because recently an Ushi-Oni, (Zipangu cow demon) had had an ‘accident’ with her lover.
Now, its common knowledge that every Mamono has a libido a mile wide and yard deep. Ushi-Oni are considered legends to other Mamono when it comes to theirs. They rivaled Unicorns in their ferocity.
To keep themselves and their prospective lovers reasonably intact, they all have to wear something called an ‘Ofuda’. It being a kind of Shintoese ‘blessing-scarf’ that when worn, throttles back her libido into a dull roar.
It’s why you usually see them in public wearing one. Because if you saw one of them without it, it’s too late to run.
This problem was that somewhere down the manufacturing chain, a batch of them developed a teensy glitch. Instead of throttling down, it actually caused the libido of that Ushi to increase to somewhere around 11 on the Horniness scale. The end result- someone had his weenie fucked off. Literally. It’s the kind of fate every guy will sweat bullets about.
Since Larry and I were still on the auction-block, so to speak, neither of us wanted to end up in a similar circumstance. Why? Ushi have a for forgetting about such niceties as consent.
“Ok! Ok!” I replied, holding my hands up in surrender. “I admit I’ve got a side project I’ve been working on,” I said, looking over my shoulder quickly.
“I just need an hour to take care of it. After which I promise I’ll come back and work on these until they’re all taken care of.” I finished, and gave him a sincere smile. Larry just looked back at me with a resentful frown.
‘He’s not buying it.’ I realized, I heaved a sigh. “Look,” I began, “If you’ll cover for me for just ONE-HOUR, I’ll spring for some of those rice candy-treats you enjoy from the canteen.” I promised. Finally, he seemed mollified.
“One-hour?” he said, relaxing his arms.
“One-hour.” I replied quietly. He looked away for a second and breathed out.
‘Gotcha!’ I thought, trying not to grin.
“All right, but you’d better not be late!”
“Thanks Larry, you’re a pal!” I said as I darted out before he could change his mind.
“What is it?” he shouted.
“Clocks’ a ticking!” I yelled back as I started jogging.
I had to jog as my destination was in one of the lower level storage rooms. Down there I had squirreled away a laptop computer with all of the encryption keys on it. Plausible deniability.
On the way there, I paused at the top of a dark stairwell, and used my latest effort at spell work: ‘Detect Mamono’. The main reason for that was, despite my regular use of my Mojo, it didn’t afford me much in the way of juice. It was too easy to ‘shoot my entire wad’, on an earlier creation I’d made.
Also, I had to take extra special care lately, because I had learned that the guards here had started taking bets about when I’d be Taken. No need to give them some incentive to win. I didn’t want to end up as an example for the ‘Avoiding Involuntary Matrimony for Males’ column.
Thus, I eventually created my super-efficient ‘Detect Mamono’ spell. This way I could ‘sense’ any nearby Mamono to get a leg up on avoiding them.
It wasn’t easy, creating that second spell. I had to do it in secret, and the first few times hadn’t worked out the way I had intended.
How? Gloriana. She was the facility’s Dark Mage. She came nosing around every time I used my Mojo too much or too often. The last thing I needed was for her to bump into me again and have her start connecting the dots.
Luckily for me, with some judicious use of my first spell- ‘Detect Phobias’, I discovered that she had a major fear of spiders; arachnophobia. Our facility’s lower levels held a major jumping spider colony.
Now other spiders I didn’t care for, but I always had a soft-spot in my heart for jumpers. I don’t know why.
‘Clear!’ I thought, as I began descending down into the depths.
A few minutes of careful walking later, I managed to get into the storage room. After a while of careful checking, I pulled out the laptop, turned it on, and attached my Dick-drive. Once I had the message decrypted, I was astounded about what I read within.
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Subject- Mojo. Mana, Magic, etc.
WillWallace-801. This is what I found concerning your subject of interest.
The GM (Great Maou) is the most powerful Succubus in existence. Now, even rivaling some Gods in her might.
But! Even with all of her strength, even she couldn’t have pulled off what she did, (merge worlds) alone. Scuttlebutt is, she did this with the aid of an unnamed MALE mage!
Yeah I know! Freaky!
But it gets worse. Apparently, ONLY a Male-Mage has the Mad-skills necessary to pull off a World-merge. Rumor has it that he or another sufficiently powerful Male Mage can also UNDO IT!
Since no one in the Underground Resistance knows who that Male Mage was; Any other Male who has the ability, will have the undivided attention of the Authorities and by extension- us.
Be careful WW, if what you suspect about your ‘Mojo’ is true, you could be in danger. I’ve since learned that one dude with a similar condition as yours, ‘disappeared’ after a Lilim came to pay him a visit.
P.S., Intel has it that only the GM (wherever she is) her daughters, and a certain select few Baphomet are aware of this knowledge.
Watch your back WW.
Signed MamoNO-714
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‘Well crap!’ I thought as I leaned back after reading this. ‘This explains a lot.’ I continued as I deleted the message and shut down the laptop. After I squirreled it away again, I paused and considered my options.
‘Damnation. The Director has patience, yes. But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize it’s not infinite. Sooner or later, that patience will wear thin and she’ll resort to something drastic.’ I concluded. Then a thought occurred to me.
‘A Lilim?’ I realized, ‘Didn’t one of them pay the facility a visit?’ I rolled my eyes back and forth along my eyebrows as I tried to remember. I stopped when a headache sprang up out of nowhere.
‘Shit!’ I griped rubbing at my forehead, and then decided I’d better get back to Larry, I had a promise to keep, and I hated breaking my word. Always have.
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I got back just in time and started working on the Ofuda. During the work, Larry and I kept shooting the shit back and forth, so as to pass the tedium. A thought occurred to me at one point during a pause.
“Hey Larry?” I asked, he mumbled something back. “Didn’t we get a visit from a Lilim a while back?”
“Yeah, we did.” He replied absentmindedly, focusing on his Ofuda. “What about it?”
“Do you remember her name?” I asked, repairing a stitch. After a second or two of not hearing an answer, I turned and looked over at him. He was staring at me oddly.
“What?” I asked.
“Don’t you remember?” he asked me, incredulous.
“No I don’t remember, that’s why I’m asking.” I shot back. Larry then set his Ofuda he’d been working on, down and turned his chair to face me full on.
“How can you not remember? She visited everyone here!”
“Everyone but me.” I replied.
“Dude, you’re freaking me out here.”
“What?!” I shot back testily.
“She visited everybody, including you, especially you. Don’t tell me you don’t remember it?” He said. I stopped what I was doing and felt my Ofuda slip from my hands. I turned my chair to face him back.
“No shit?” I said, licking my lips.
“No. Spit.” He nodded. I bit my lip.
“I really don’t remember it.”
“I guess that makes sense, you did end up in the infirmary afterwards.” That blew my mind.
“I know I don’t remember that.”  I replied, thinking back as best I could, but that damned headache came back as I tried.
“It was couple weeks after you first arrived. She was Lady Mara; Lilim-in-charge of Southern California.”
‘Two weeks?’ I thought, ‘That was about the time Angelique started being a pest.’ I recalled. For some reason I started thinking instead of that obnoxious Cat Girl who had been making a pest of herself.
“Mara? Where’s her seat of power located?” I asked, he thought about it for a second.
“L.A., I think.” He replied, which left me stunned.
‘L.A.’ I pondered, ‘From where I saw that Aurora originate. Surely not a coincidence.’ I concluded. Then something else occurred to me.
“Where did she visit everyone?”
“In the Director’s office.”
“Do you think the Director took notes?” I asked.
“Does a Grizzly make a number 2 in the woods?” he chuffed, “I’d bet a week’s rations, that the Director records every one of her bowel movements for details.” He joked. I laughed.
“Yeah, probably.” I replied as I turned back to my Ofuda repair. ‘New plan, find the record of my interview.’ I decided. ‘Tonight!’ I vowed.
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It was surprisingly easy after lights out, to sneak my way out of my shared room with Larry. We got the Ofuda done after a few more hours and left us both exhausted. It was mostly mental work, but it was still challenging.
I had to avoid Deputy Doji along the way. Yeah, she stuck around for reasons unknown. For once, she wasn’t jilling off to another one of her Hulk Movies, go figure.
Mostly the guards here only try to make sure we don’t escape the place. They’re rather lax when it comes to keeping an eye on other things.
The only other dude who had been caught sneaking into an office, was given a slap on the wrist; and according to rumor- a spanking. That, was something I didn’t need to know.
Getting in was no sweat. Finding my record wasn’t that difficult, seeing that mine was the thickest one there.
As I held it in my hands, I got an overwhelming sense of familiarity. I dismissed it after a second.
I found a hidey spot and used a small LED torch to read.
Date- April 20, 20XX. Subject, Lady Mara’s Interview with Allen Belushi.
Transcript Begins
M: “Good morning Mr. Belushi, I’m so happy to meet you at last.’ *M gestures to AB, inviting him to sit. He falls into the seat*.
AB: “Yeah whatever. What do you want?” *AB sets a foot onto desk and crosses his feet*.
M: “I came here to see how you were doing. I trust that you’re being well taken care of?”
AB: “Yeah I guess they are. I don’t suppose you know when they’re going to let me go?”
M: “I’m afraid not Mr. Belushi. I don’t get to make that decision.”
AB: “Well Fuck!”
M: “Now now, Mr. Belushi, language!” *smiles*
AB: “Yeah whatever! Can I go now? I understand that the kitchen is supposed to be serving sticky-buns today. I don’t want to miss out.”
M: “If you wish, you may go. I just wanted to ask you something before you do.”
AB: “Sure! Fire Away.” *Mara stands and leans over to him*.
AB: “Hey, is it necessary to get so close?”
M: “Yes, it is. I simply wish to whisper a word or two into your ear.”
AB: “What? Are you going to put a whammy on me or something?” *shrinks away*.
M: “No I assure you that it is the last thing on my mind. I just wish to double-check some intuition I have concerning you. It’ll only take a second.”
AB: “Fine! Whatever, just get it done and over with!”  *M leans over and whispers something into his ear*.
M: ““XXXXXXXX.”
AB: “AAAAAHHH!” *screams and passes out*.
Transcript ends.
‘What the fuck?’ I thought, as my jaw dropped. ‘I don’t remember any of that!’ I goggled, ‘What the hell did she say that caused me to scream and pass out?’ I focused the LED bulb and took a closer look. I saw that the X’s completely covered whatever it was that she said. Looking closer I saw that they had inked it over as opposed to simply redacting it.
I pondered that for a second, my heart beating fearfully.
‘Whatever this is, its important enough to retract.’ I thought. I reached out a hand and thought about using my Mojo enough to ‘lift’ the ink from the concealed word. I wasn’t used to such detail work, and I had used a lot of it today too.
‘Oh what the hell!’ I decided. It took only a few seconds, but I managed it. Once I was done, I looked down at the page but I couldn’t see anything. For some reason my eyes wouldn’t focus.
‘Come on!’ I groused as I broke out into a cold sweat. I started panting for some reason.
‘Chill out dude! This is important!’ I told myself. Try as I might, my eyes simply refused to focus on that damned word. Off in the distance, I thought I heard the sounds of approaching footsteps.
‘Shit!’ Then something occurred to me. I held up one hand and covered an eye. I looked down and noticed that I could finally see that parts of that word!
“Se,..” I began aloud, my heart started skipping beats,…”Cun,…” I continued. Suddenly I had a splitting headache. I stopped, breathed a few times to try and make it go away, it didn’t work.
So I steeled myself and tried again.
“Secundus?” I finally managed it all in one go.
I screamed then, loudly and for a long time as I collapsed to the floor. I did because a rush of memories came back to me again.
I remembered. I remembered things I shouldn’t have. Thousands and thousands of memories flooding through my mind. I started pounding my fists at my head. I heard someone run into the room and turn on the lights.
It was the Director. She looked sadly down at me and shook her head.
“Here we go again.” She sighed.
“What in the hell is this shit!” I yelled raggedly up at her. I tried to get up, but my arms wouldn’t obey me. I looked down and noticed that they were shaking uncontrollably.
“What’s happening?!” I demanded, as I began to convulse.
“Mr. Belushi!” the Director shouted forcefully at me, it got my attention. She then stared at me until she held my eyes in a Svengali like stare. Try as I might I couldn’t break it off.
“I need you to not think about what you’ve just read. Can you do that?” She asked me carefully. “No! Don’t think about it! Tell me about your wife instead. Her name was Gi-Gi, right?” she asked.
“Chiara!” I shot back indignantly. When I did, my convulsions began to subside.
“Chiara, yes!” she continued, “Tell me about her!” she ordered me again. I blinked, confused. But I obeyed.
“She was the love of my life.” I began, recalling her, and that’s when I realized that my convulsing had stopped. ‘Shit!’ I realized then. I continued.
“We met each other at a Hot Springs.” I continued, The Director nodded, indicating I should keep going.
“Which ones?” she asked.
“Near Sisters Oregon,…” and so it went. She prompted me every time my narration failed, and slowly I began to overcome whatever it was that afflicted me so. Finally.
“How do you feel?” she asked. I tried not to think about it too much.
“Weird.” I admitted. “Like I’m not really here.” I said as I lifted a hand to my face and tried to scratch a sudden itch on my nose, and failed. Puzzled, I looked at my hand, and I was utterly horrified at what I saw.
My hand was dissolving! Tiny bits of my fingertips had begun to float up from the main, wafting up into the air and then disappearing like fog in the morning.
“What the hell is this shit!” I cried. That was when the Director latched onto my head with of her hands and yelled into my face.
“We don’t have much time!” she began. “Stay calm! I can get you through this, but you’ll have to trust me!”. She released her grip, clopped hurriedly over to her desk and pulled out a bottle filled with a purple liquid from a locked drawer.
She then came back and thrust it into my face.
“Drink!” she ordered. I shied back.
“What is that? A love potion?!” I spat.
“No. It’s an Amnesiac.”
“How is that supposed to help?” I demanded as I glanced at my other hand, it was going away too. ‘Oh shit! I’ve down past my first knuckle!’ I whimpered.
“Allen!” the Director shouted again, “It will make you forget what you read in your file record. That is all it will take for you to return to normal!”
“How can you know that?”
“Because we’ve been through this before.” She explained quietly.
“You’re lying!” I cried.
“Allen, I know why you wish to go to Mirror Lake. You want to go there and spread your family’s ashes.”
“Yeah and?” I demanded haughtily.
“I am also aware of what you plan to do afterwards.”
“What?” I sneered.
She told me. I gaped in astonishment.
“How can you,…know that?” I croaked.
“Because you told me. You told me that the first time we had this discussion.” She glanced down at my hands and her face screwed.
“Allen please! Drink!” she cried, tears in her eyes, as she shoved the bottle in my face again. I didn’t know what to think then.
“Maybe,” I began as I slouched away from her, “Maybe it’s better this way.” I panted.
“ALLEN!” she cried.
“I’m just so tired. Tired of not having my woman anymore.” I sigh as I close my eyes.
“Allen Belushi, you need to LISTEN TO ME!!!” she screeched at me, I opened my eyes and stare back at her. “You! NEED! TO LIVE!” she hollered at me intently, her eyes boring into mine.
“WHY?!” I shouted back.
“Because someone needs you!”
“WHO?” I sob.
“She Who Waits!”
“What?”
“She is someone who can’t live without you.”
“I can’t live without my woman!’ I shoot back.
“Not like that! She needs you to find her. Accept her! So that she can live. She’s important in so many ways!”
“You’re not making any sense.”
“I can’t say much more than that. You’ll have to find her on your own, without any influence from me, the Warden, or the Lilim who visited you.”
“Why is she so important?” I begged, confused, shaking my head.
“She is the key to preventing a race from dying out.”
“Why didn’t all of you tell me this before?”
“To protect you.”
“From what?!”
“Not what, Who.”
“Then what’s their name?”
“I can’t say.”
“Fuck!” I said, disgusted.
“She’s a demon, if I spoke her name aloud it would get her attention. That would be too dangerous for you and your destiny.”
“Then why do you insist on keeping me here?”
“Because you’re not ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“To leave.”
“I don’t understand.”
“You have to leave here on your own. If we just simply let you, those who are in charge of us would take notice and ask questions. Eventually that Demon I mentioned, and other beings would become aware of you.”
“Damn.” I sighed, I noticed that my elbows were about to go away by then. “Sounds like a lot of work.”
“It is.”
“I’m supposed to do it all without any knowledge of this conversation?” She nodded.
“Then how,…?” I began.
“We will be working in the shadows, gently nudging and manipulating you.”
“Manipulating?” I sighed depressively.
“Even the Gods aren’t free from being manipulated.”
“Why are you telling me all of this?”
“I'm trying to free your mind, Allen. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it." She opined, I laughed once. She smiled. I rolled my eyes over to her.
“Thanks Morpheus.” I shot back. She grinned as she glanced worriedly down at my ever quickening dissolvement.
“Who is She Who Waits? Exactly?” I asked.
“You met her once before.” She replied quietly.
“I have?” I asked, and then stopped as a realization came over me. My eyes opened in wonderment.  I made eye contact with the Director. She smiled slightly and nodded once.
“holy shit!” I gasped. “What must I do?”
“Just drink.” The Director said as she placed the mouth of the purple filled bottle to my lips.
“No red or blue pills?” I snarked.
“Easier to swallow.” She said quietly.
“Sorry for being such an ass.” I whispered. She blinked me her forgiveness.
Then I drank.
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‘Fuck!’ I think to myself, ‘When in the hell is my Light-Web contact going to reply?’ I complain as I glance at the tiny laptop computer sitting on an endtable next to my bed.
‘I’ve been here nearly a third of a year! Three and a half months; one hundred twelve days. Two thousand six hundred ninety fucking gods be damned hours!’ I silently moan as the rest of my body slowly wakes up...
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