《Beware of mechanical Wolfs . . . (Screw . . . Shortstories!)》


 Project_S1R3N

    Project_S1R3N


    What was it that Mother Maria had told her once? Fear not the fight, but fear your enemy for their evil ways! Almost as if in resonance with her words Almatia''s frustration rose higher than ever before. Instead of trying to remove her and the other activists, the corpo''s simply ignored them.


    For three days now had they protested in front of the Arcana Future Industries Building, they had done almost everything Signs, chants, one girl, seemingly a young shaman, had even called for a spirit to do a motivating dance. That one went sideways pretty quickly, when the spirit crossed the property''s boundaries and turned back into dust. Not wanting to give up, Alma once more raised her voice into a chant.


    "Stop the pollution! Down with the corpos! Stop the pollution! Down with the corpos!"


    Soon enough the others around her started to join in. Swelling up and down, their voices were more than audible, but still the people around simply ignored them and carried on with their days. Turning around to one of the other protesters Alma''s eyes turned into angry little slits.


    "Yotshe, why do they ignore us like this?" The young man of Asian descent only shrugged his shoulders.


    "Bad crowd I guess? It is unlikely that one of these drones will listen. Most likely they got a memmo about us. Nothing we can do here today."


    "We can''t just give up; we need to make them listen!" Jumping up in trying to reach his megaphone, she barely even reached up to his raised elbow.


    "Okay, that''s enough shrimp, I''m telling you, our effort is wasted" Laughingly he lowered his arm just so that she barely could reach the megaphone.


    Glaring at him she corrected her glasses and once more began shouting, this time her voice many times louder. Yotshe only shook his head and walked off, some of the others following him.


    . . .


    The hours went by, and soon enough it was only Almatia still standing in protest. The night had already descended over Amsterdam and with the rain had come. Most of the corpo''s too had already gone home. Her voice sore from screaming she once more started to yell into her megaphone.


    "Stop, ignoring me you blasted, fuckwarts!!!" Letting her anger and frustration out, she noticed a young man in a pricey suit come closer.


    "So, are you done for the day?"


    Alma¡¯s eyes went wide, intimidated by his good looks, and painfully aware of her drenched shabby exterior she could only stammer an answer.


    "We, wha, I, eh, yes!" With a warm smile, the man took his coat and draped it around the shivering woman.


    "You must be terribly cold, what do you say wish to go somewhere warmer? They have a very decent bar right around the corner?"


    It was hard for her to remember the last time someone had asked her out, she was by definition very plain. Instead of questioning this out of the blue offer, her cheeks turned even redder than before. Finally a very flustered responds made it across her lips.


    "O-Okay."


    For the first time she actually got a good look at his face, his eyes were large but stern, with a green tint to them. His face had strong, fair features complimented by his accurately styled dark brown hair. The so called bar turned out to be a way to classy restaurant with a beautiful porch. Panicking she tugged on the man''s sleeve.


    "Ah, ?hm, this is a little to expensive for me." Once again he displayed this warm smile, and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.


    "It''s fine, dear, this one is on me, drenched as you are I wouldn''t want you to worry. I''m Karto by the way, and you are?"


    "Almatia, but my friends call me Alma." He laughed heartily as he held the door open for her.


    "Well, I do hope we will be friends than, Alma."


    . . .


    While the day had not gone the way she had expected, this was a nice deviation from her normal days. Despite him being a corpo and even from the same Corporation she just had protested in front of, he listened carefully to everything she had to say, he even bought her drinks.


    "So, you''re protesting because you are scared what the pollution might do to the ecosystem?"


    "Yesh, magical corupshun is a serioush problem. We musht shtop it!"


    "Hmm, interesting, yes, but Alma say, you don''t look so good?" Karto came closer his warm smile all the while unchanged.


    She tried getting up, but quickly her legs gave away from underneath, before she could hit the ground, he was by her side, smiling. Unintelligible words was the only thing Alma managed to form.


    "You, drudged mesh!" Less a question, more a statement, Karto didn''t even bother answering it.


    "All is fine, Alma, do go to sleep now, yes?" The last thing she felt this night was a needle penetrating her aorta.


    Flashes of light.


    The smell of bleach.


    Voices talking in hushed tones, than cold steel on her skin.


    The sound of machines.


    Flashes of pain.


    She awoke in a cold sweat; this nightmare had felt far to terrifyingly real for her taste. The room was pitch-black when she opens her eyes, but after a short while her eyes seemed to adjust and she could make out the soft glow of city lights behind the closed blinders. A minute later it dawned on her, that she didn''t recognize the room, where was she! Horrible tales of organ-farms and forced prostitution shot through her head, her paranoia, that by all means were justified, almost catapulted her out of the bed.


    As soon as she was by the window she tried pushing the blinder open, with an audible crunch the mechanism broke and the night skyline of the Amsterdam-Megacomplex spread out in front of her. She was way too high up for her taste, repressing the nausea she stumbled away from the window. Alma made a several steps backwards before the collision with a wall startled her almost enough that she would have hit her head, had she not seen what it was.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    With the blinders broken and gone, it was easy to figure out where she was, the cleanliness and lack of personalized in the room made more than clear that this was a hotel room, a high class one with that too. Most of the interior was furnished way above her pay grade. Oddly enough lying on the side table was a small white envelope. Inside of it was an equally white letter addressed to her.


    "Dear Alma,


    I am sorry for leaving you so quickly, during our wonderful night out I sadly had to notice you becoming drowsy. Not wanting to disturbed your sleep, nor to simply leave you to a random cab driver, I paid a room for you. I truly a sorry for abandoning you, and hope you had fun none the less.


    Sincerely,


    Karto de Roush"


    Scrawled underneath was a contact number. Despite her better judgment she took out her phone and swiped it over the number


    "Would you like to add Karto de Roush to your contacts?"


    "Yes?" Unsure what to write, she simply typed:


    "Hey, thnx for the help, appreciate it, really. Don''t remember much to be honest." Within barely a second the reply came.


    "That is okay, I will tell you what we talked about next time. There is food with in the fridge if you are hungry, you can also call Zimmer service, I''ll pay. :-)"


    Now that the initial confusion had faded, Alma noticed her being not merely hungry but actually famished. Her stomach hurt in hunger pangs and she felt as if she could eat an entire soy factory. A growl from her stomach was enough to make her look frantically for any sort of food, when a surprisingly good smell wafted over from the fridge.


    It was filled too the brim with different foods all of them in identical containers. She opened up a few, some had vegetables raw or cooked in them, others blocks of soy or synthmeat. Though the meats looked delicious there was a mouth watering smell coming from the back of the pile overshadowing all.


    The box in question was filled with a beautifully marbled lean cut of raw meat, it almost beckoned her too bite into it. Okay, what the heck was wrong with her? This thing looked nothing like synthmeat, and yet this smell. Maybe it was okay to at least lick it? The meat itself was wet and cold, when she squeezed it red juice dripped out almost blood like, she shouldn''t, should she? Bringing it up to her mouth resulted in a drip of saliva falling into her naked lap, hell she was drooling! Her tongue barely touched it, only slightly caressed the flesh, but the sensation was overwhelming, almost ecstasy. As soon as the meat had made contact with her tongue she began to wolf it down. The other boxes soon followed, be it raw or cooked everything went down into her stomach, she felt like a pig, but she could not stop!


    Half an hour later the fridge was empty and her stomach almost full, yet her teeth hurt like hell. Looking down at her naked body, with the end of the hunger came the shame. Almost as if to prove all those that had called her a pig, a swine or a fatso, she had devoured the contents of an entire fridge. She was so fucking disgusting. On the way to the bathroom several crumbs of food fell from her lap. Still disgusted by her own act, she jammed a finger down her throat, hoping to stimulate her puke reflex. Nothing, too often had she done this, that now it seemed all most impossible to vomit?


    Several minutes she had squatted over the toilet, the pain in her teeth slowly getting worse, when finally she managed to make her stomach revolt, she yanked out her finger. A slimy yellowish liquid came out together with several white clumps. Nothing but bile and something else? She picked up on of those white clumps and with a piercing shriek she dropped it again, it was a tooth, all of the clumps where teeth! Rushing to the mirror her fear was validated, what once was a white smile was now filled with holes and gaps.


    Not believing her own eyes she grabbed her last remaining incisor and with merely a touch it too fell into her hand. She had cancer! That was the only logical explanation, she must have gotten a very quickly spreading tumour! But wait, didn''t the teeth only fall out after a cheap archaic chemotherapy? Her eyes began to fill with tears, as she sat on the ground pondering why she had lost her teeth. All the while more kept falling too the ground.A short while later she finally managed to find the will to leave, she gathered up what of her teeth was on the ground and in the toilet, overall she had lost about 21 of her them by now, only the molars in the back had remained still, and looked around for her clothes.


    The inside of the elevator was awfully gaudy even for this hotel and the only other person inside was an office worker, who all the while nervously glanced over to the scrawny girl, grimacing at him in her oversized pilot jacked with a scarf over her mouth. Though she had looked all over the room she hadn''t been able to find her glasses, but more importantly her underwear, thus she was going command, making her genitals sensitive like crazy. Each time she moved in a futile attempt to dislodge the fabric out of any sort of crevice, the man began to look more panicked. Confused by the entire situation she finally spoke up.


    "Ssscarrred offf me, arre you?" Sadly due to her missing teeth it came out more as a menacing snarl, than a friendly question.


    Reaching the ground level, the corpo quickly rushed out of the lift, leaving Alma to go for through the foyer on her own. On her way to the reception area she took the time to look around. Most of the decoration here was as gaudy as the elevator, it seemed like they truly had no style or was there a reason for all the embroidery? Mulling over the question in her mind, she approached the receptionist, an elven woman maybe only a couple years older than Alma herself, with a quite beautiful androgynous face but heavy dark rings under her eyes.


    "Hallo, revered customer, how can I help you?" The question held as much emotion as her face, none.


    "Ah, I wasss sssleeping in thisss room."


    "Miss, is everything all right? It is hard to understand you."


    "Oh." In an effort to be more audible she pulled the scarf from her mouth.


    "Yess, everythhing isss . . ." It was in this moment that she felt her last front theeth losen from her gums. It fell out of her open mouth, bounced of the scarf and landed right on the receptionist''s desk. Two pairs of eyes stared at the small white clump for what seemed like an eternity, when finally the woman began to speak again, with a now very forced smile and one of her pointy ears twitching.


    ¡°?h, Miss, what exactly is this thing?"


    One of fingers was slowly approaching the tooth, but Alma was quicker, that was her tooth after all and she needed all of them! Her hand slapped onto the counter and now she realised why her hands had begun to hurt a while ago. Her fingernails were almost pitch black and the flesh around them red and inflamed, almost as if her body itself rejected the nails. Much to Alma''s dismay the receptionist in front of her too had seen her hand and was now looking at the young woman with a mixture of disgust and horror.


    "I can . . ." Alma began but was quickly interrupted.


    "No! I can, will and do not care what the actual fuck is wrong with you! Go and take your tooth with you or I will call the security!"


    "Pleasssse, I . . ." She leant forward on the counter trying to make her predicament clearer but the receptionist only jerked her hand away.


    "Nope, big fucking nope!"


    All of a sudden a clear glass panel slammed down between her and the receptionist and the trampling of several boots could be heard. With big unbelieving eyes Alma looked for several seconds as armed security guards were making their way towards her, before finally a small voice in the back of her head told her to run.


    And run she did, as fast as her legs could carry her she bolted for the door, ignoring any cry or order shouted in her direction. She managed to get about halfway to the doors, when a sharp pain in the right arm made her wince. Looking over she saw a taser-bullet sticking out of her underarm. With almost inhuman speed her good arm reached for it and ripped the projectile out, dropping it together with two of her fingernails und the ground. In next moment she had already rushed out of the door and disappeared into the crowd.


    The security guards could only look dumbfounded at the tiny girl that had just, almost casually, shrugged of the entire charge of a Taser designed to take down a grown man. From behind than a good looking and well dressed man came forward. As he picked up the fingernails and put them inside a plastic bag he turned around to address them.


    "Stand down men; we have enough data for now. Let¡¯s go.¡±


    With a small mirthless smile he went back to the corridor he had came from, the security following on behind him.


    All the while the young receptionist had stared at the scene unfolding in front of her with an incredulous expression. As the shock slowly waned she took of her employee badge and slowly walked out of the building.


    ¡°Fuck nope! I quit!¡±

 Mundane Magics

    Mundane Magics


    ¡°Welcome, students, to Magic 1.0.1, please be seated the lecture is about to begin. Today¡¯s topic is once again the five pillars of magic and their most basic relations to the forms of magicalconduct. Because as the last exam suggested, most of you are severely lacking on this subject. Earth, Mind, Soul, Will, and the least of them Body. All of them focus different aspects or origin points of the power. The most powerful and dangerous being?¡±


    A young woman with well styled brown hair and flashy make-up quickly raised her hand, answering before the professor could even raise his gaze to meet hers.


    ¡°Body, Sir, as it is the primary force that fuels Blood-magic, a practice that is outlawed in most states and city-states because of its use of human bodyparts!¡±


    ¡°Yes, Miss Sherman, that is correct, next time though please wait, until I call you up, understood? Blood-magic and Necromancy, which our dear Miss Sherman forgot to mention, are indeed a highly controversial Subject, as . . .¡±


    Miranda only half listened to the lecture of the professor, as her fingers absentmindedly traced the faint outline of dozen of linear scars hidden beneath the sleeve of her Synthleather-Jacket. Each scar a reminder of the cold steel or glass cutting through skin and flesh; and each had healed faster than the one before. Her lips cracking into a smile at the memory of the pain, she rolled her up sleeves and leaned back on the cheap plastic chair, proudly displaying her achievements.


    Most of the lesson went by in a boring stretch, a recollection of ideas and memories already relived; it was only interrupted when a particularly chubby arm repeatedly tabbed her on the shoulder trying to get her attention.


    ¡°Mira, Miranda, listen!¡±


    With a swish of dirty blonde hair and an inquisitive look later Miranda turned around to see who was disturbing her during this very interesting lesson. Tobias was an overweight young man in his early twenties, with a stubby beard and short messy hair, dressed in questionably distasteful clothing worn at least for a few days.


    ¡°Yes, Tobias?¡±


    Looking at her from the higher row of seats a nervous smile spread on his face, he realized that she had actually responded.


    ¡°Um, you know there is this party today. A couple of friends of mine, in the dorms, like around 10?¡±


    ¡°You want to invite me to a party!?¡±


    ¡°Uh, yeah, that. You don¡¯t really hang around much with the others but, I thought.¡± Mira¡¯s eyes stared of into the distance for a short time focusing on nothing, before her attention snapped back to Tobias.


    ¡°Yes. I think I will come by. What is the harm done, right?¡±


    A smile on his face he called out just a little too loud. ¡°That¡¯s great!¡±


    The whole hall went silent as Professor Kleijn looked up from his notes and fixed his gaze on the two of them.


    ¡°Mister Mulder and Miss van der Vald, if you think this poorly of my lessons I suggest you find another place to hang out.¡± While Tobias shrank down on his seat immediately, Miranda perked up almost as if insulted and stood up straight. Smiling she walked out of her row and trough the doors, waving the Professor goodbye.


    . . .


    The night descended over the Amsterdam-Megacomplex the way it so often did, sounds of gunshot, cars and the noise of a million people on the background of the ever-present ocean tides. On this night though Miranda¡¯s thoughts, were not with the city, but only with her goal.


    Once she had left the university grounds, in Amsterdam Centrum, she quickly made her way towards the old Westport waterfront. The recent years had turned several of Amsterdam¡¯s once more prominent districts into hotspots for unchecked crime and gang violence, whilst others had clearly profited from the influx of new industries and corporations free to do whatever they wanted. Westport once the country¡¯s second largest industrial-centre was now segmented into four areas.


    The Nationals, remnants of the now dismantled army turned mercenaries, claimed two industrial sites as their base of operations and since then protected them furiously even from the corpos.


    Knight Errand who had a few years back decided to bring in aircraft carrier an trying to put the City into a strangle hold, soon found them self with a run aground boat thanks to nationals¡¯ sea mines, they also were making clear they are here to stay for better or worse.


    One of the more elusive players is Arcana Future Industries, beginning as a start-up; the company quickly gained power and now provide things ranging from glimmer over magical weapons up to hired mages.


    The last and likely most important District was made up out of six Megabuildings which were simultaneously used as controlled living environments for people of low income, low wage corpos and anyone in dept to one of the corporations in the Region. The rule for these apartments was pretty simple; either you work for one of the big players or you are in training to work for them.


    The latter of them was the case for Mira. Her parents had not been wealthy enough to pay her way into university and without the necessary qualifications to apply for a scholarship her only way had been to sign under A.F.I. as a sponsor. This of course meant that once her education was finished her ass belonged to them until her dept was paid, plus rates of course.


    But to be fair Mira had exploited this new form of slavery to its extend, being constantly late to her classes or missing them entirely and barley passing the exams she kept the company on the brink of happiness while most of the time tending to her own hobbies.


    Most of the Rooms in Miranda¡¯s building were very monotonous, and so was it her room too had the same layout, with the same grey concrete walls. The most that was to be found of any personal touch was a heap of clothing strewn about. Making her way in she quickly turned around and locked the door, first with the lock and then with a deadbolt, before she removed a small magical fetish from her wall.


    With a flash of dim light the glimmer over her room disappeared and instead of the uniform look, revealing the actual appearance of her apartment. The walls turned a dark shade of grey with red letters and symbols all over; a large beautiful mirror in one corner was smeared with a detailed deep red pentagram, while opposite of it a small make-up table occupied he room, on it several fetishes made from bone and feathers. Even the bed looked more like bondage equipment than a comfortable piece of furniture. All in all it fit not well with the image of a bored mage student but more with a deranged witch mistress, which might actually be closer to the truth than most people who knew Miranda would think.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    With a short flick of her wrist the stereo came to life and a soft haunting beat penetrated the air. Mira lips cracked into a devilish smile and she began to dace while stripping out of her clothing, with each piece discarded new scars became visible. A few twirling steps carried her into the small kitchen she called her own, dried herbs, several odd trinkets and a still live chicken gave of the feeling of well, a witch kitchen.


    After sorting through a collection of rather nasty looking knives made from various materials and shaped in forms one more horrifying than the next, she settle on a 13 centimetre armament made from industrial diamond with a straight narrow triangular blade.


    ¡°This should probably do, right? Not to excessive and easy to hide. Also so pretty~!¡±


    Having made her choice of murdertool, she turned to one of the many lumps of cloth, which were strewn about on the floor, bed chair, and basically any free surface that didn¡¯t need to be used.


    ¡°I am so happy that after tonight¡¯s ritual I will never again be plagued with not having a proper closet! You hear that Bjiornj and Sm?rum! Screw you for betraying my trust in your weak bolts and hinges! ?hem. Once again I am going of topic.¡±


    Miranda shot a venomous glance to a pile of collapsed furniture.


    ¡°Anyway, dress, dress, oho dress found!¡± Rummaging trough one of the piles Mira quickly pulled out a piece of fabric that could only be described as adventurous. The vermillion colour dress barely covered the naughty parts on top, while the lose bottom playfully clung to her every curve, with a slit on the left side giving way to a pale well toned leg.


    ¡°If I¡¯m not stunning than I don¡¯t know anymore. Hehehe.¡± After dressing up she quickly did her hair and make-up,, both being way over the top from her usual style, in the end it was hard to say that the Punk-Rock chick, and this beautifull woman were one and the same. With a last check on her apartments mirage Mira grabbed a clutch and headed towards the so called party.


    . . .


    The party was already going on for a while when Miranda arrived on the scene. Despite the fair amount of people around in various stages being drunk, several of them stared at Mira almost as if in confusion. Being severely overdress she stuck ou like a sore thumb, but having planned this the few people that actually looked her in the face didn¡¯t seem to be able to connect this radiating woman with the grumpy girl from their university. Sticking with the act, instead of greeting anyone she just smiled and went into the Apartment as if she owned the place. After a few shallow conversations and asking around she finally found what she was looking for; mid-twenty, overly chubby and neck beard.


    ¡°Well hello to you, Tobias!¡± Before she realized she had voiced her thoughts once more out loud. Tobias already approached her with an insecure smile.


    ¡°Hey, t-there. Heard you were asking around for me?¡±


    ¡°What if I did? You interested?¡±


    Mira pulled her lips into a cute smirk and closed the distance between them.


    Once more pushing herself to action she wrapped one hand around his neck, trying to ignore his stench she whispered into his ear.


    ¡°Why don¡¯t we go somewhere more . . . private?¡±


    ¡°Wah!? I, I don¡¯t know how to . . .¡± He quickly turned to one of his friends. ¡°Dude, what do I do!?¡±


    His friend only snorted and clapped Tobias shoulder when he walked away. The chubby guy only stood there confused not sure what to do. Even after a minute of Mira enticing him he was still as useful and proactive as a wet noodle. Realizing this she instead decided to just drop the facade, she didn¡¯t have all night and parties were still fucking boring.


    ¡°Ugh, screw this. You Tobias through that door now! Move it!¡± Mira¡¯s face came closer to a snarl than a smile in this moment and it actually seemed to work. After only a second and a kick in the ass he actually moved.


    ¡°Now than, lay down on the bed! This is very comfortable, right?¡±


    ¡°Wait what do you want to do? Who even are you!¡± Tobias seemed to more than confused now, but Mira didn¡¯t even regard this with a single thought.


    ¡°Shush now, I cannot have you disturb me, after all it would be tremendous if this were to fail, right?¡± While she said that she slowly but methodically began to remove his clothing. Yet as she did so Tobias¡¯ eyes slowly regained their focus and the drunken haze was replaced by an inquisitive glance.


    ¡°Wait a fucking minute is that you Mira? I mean holy cow! You look so different I almost hadn¡¯t . . .¡± Before he could even finish this train of thoughts Mira only sighed. With surprising fluidity she slid the knife from its holster and went for his skull. The brass-kuckle like butt-end connected with enough force to knock the obese man right out.


    ¡°Now then with me having taken care of the trash part, the true work can begin.¡±


    And begining she did, after having now cut away the remaining pieces of fabric she she sliced into her own forearm and after a second or two blood began to well out. She had noticed a few days ago already, that her blood was beginning to become darker than the blood of other humans; most likely these were the beginning stages of magical corruption. She had always thought that this stage wouldn¡¯t come as quickly, for only her Professor had shown signs of it with his blue glowing eyes and perfect skin and handsome rugged looks, but maybe body magic progressed faster? It would make sense as she was purposely using her own life-force to fuel her magic and bringing it back in basically soaked with magic.


    ¡°Well, I hope I will at least have time to graduate before any of this will be visible on the outside. Okay, I shouldn¡¯t have said that, that¡¯s like a total disaster flag, right? Anyway back to work. Also thank you so much for helping me out with this spell Tobias, I don¡¯t know what else I could have done.¡±


    Whilst she was talking to the downed Tobias or rather herself, she had begun to use her blood to draw a large circular pattern on the guy¡¯s chest, that slowly but surely became more detailed and in a way more sinister looking. After she had drawn for at least five minutes to bring her work to perfection, she once more cut into her flesh this time into the palm of her hand and pressed it onto a smaller marked section in the centre of the magical circle. Focusing on her own mana-well she pushed her power into the runes, and like blood flowing, from the centre outwards the pattern began to glow in an eerie light.


    ¡°Good, you will indeed make a fine vassal, and if all goes well you will never find out. Ha!¡± She gave him another pummelling to the temple just to make sure, because the next part would be pain full.


    ¡°You know, there is a thing you should never forget Tobias, never and I mean never be unconscious in front of someone practicing blood magic, it is the nature of the spells that makes vassals so useful and one can never have enough, right? Hehe, you might feel a little prick~!¡±


    The so called prick turned out to be a diamante blade being pushed into one of Tobias¡¯ veins. After she had made the opening, his blood began to flow out, bubbling and steaming due to the foreign magic within. Mira reached over his limp body grabbing a half full vodka bottle; after looking it over for a second she took a swig and proceeded to pour the rest of it into Tobias¡¯ mouth. Once empty she unceremoniously shook the bottle dry and placed it beneath the cut in his arm. Waiting for excruciating five minutes, the bottle was finally half full with the steaming red liquid.


    ¡°Thank you very much for the donation, I¡¯ll make sure it will be put to good use. Good by now Tobias.¡±


    With a grin on her face she left the apartment and made her way across too her own building. It didn¡¯t take her long make it into her apartment and away from prying eyes. Once inside she put down the still churning bottle of magic vita and began to jump up and down while trying desperately to stop herself from crying out loud.


    ¡°Yes! My first time actually using another human¡¯s blood and creating a vassal, oh man! And he doesn¡¯t even know it, he he. Any way! Now to turn to the true work! After tonight I will never again need to rely on faulty IKEA furniture, Dimensional closet mirror here I come!!!¡±

 Of Elves, Corpos and Debts . . .

    Of Elves, Corpos and Debts . . .


    Faylorn stared at the colourful food items on display with a stony expression, showing neither happiness nor discontent. Well almost, for that statement was not quite right; the tip of Faylorn¡¯s right ear had begun shaking, which now slowly but surely developed into a full-blown manic twitch. The queue moved forward and finally, Faylorn stood at the counter. The young man behind it looked up and immediately blushed when he saw who stood before him.


    "Ahh, hi! What can I get you, Miss?" The twitch intensified.


    "Fife Quarter-pounders, two large fries . . ." Before the order could even be finished, two guys one line over noticed the elf.


    "Dude! Look, an Elf-Chic! Right there!"


    "Wait really? Holy shit! She is so cute!"


    Both of the guys were now actually pointing at Faylorn and taking pictures with phones, which were made without permission of course. Their actions, in turn, made even more people look over than before. And all of a sudden the elf was the new thing to talk about.


    "Wow, you don''t see those often."


    "Yeah, I heard there are no male Elves.¡±


    ¡°Miss?¡±


    ¡°Damn Sub-Human get a move on!¡±


    ¡°Apparently all they want to do is fuck other species!¡±


    ¡°Wait, aren¡¯t the wild ones on Magea bloodthirsty cannibals?¡±


    ¡°Nah, they¡¯re just thirsty for cock.¡±


    ¡°Daddy! Look an Elfy!¡±


    "Miss, your Order?"


    "What really, I''m gonna go over and get laid~!"


    It was then that Faylorn lost it, turned around to the assembled crowd, flashed his pointy teeth and screamed. "I am MALE you cocksucking, whorebirthed, degenerate pieces of human filth!!! So fuck off, you muc dhuine!!!"


    A heavy silence settled in the room as Faylorn realized what he had done. Not only had he revealed his sex, which in itself often resulted in hostility, no he had openly used a racial slur in a so-called good neighbourhood. Thankfully before anyone of the small group that had formed could react, a towering figure made her way through the people. With a little over 1,90m, his younger sister Caelynn was big even for elven standards. Being build like an Amazon and having a haughty face to boot, the humans quickly made way, especially after seeing the terrifying cybered-up wolf next to her.


    "Big Bro? I thought you wanted to get food, not an entourage. Guess I was mistaken." Caelynn put a finger to her lips almost as if she was seriously thinking about this.


    "Hmph! Now that you are here, you can go pay. I''m out of here. Garea come!"


    Throwing one last toxic glance at the group of onlookers, Faylorn walked out of the shop called ''Amazing Burgers'' and settled down on a bench outside; the wolf followed him with a happily wagging tail.


    "Stupid humans, stupid Emergence," Faylorn stood up and kicked a dented can across the busy street, it flew maybe two meters. "And a stupid fucking elven body! Argh!"


    In a fit of frustration, he turned around and with full strength smashed the bench away. At least that was what he had intended to, in reality, instead of the bench moving he moved. His foot gave out underneath him and he fell flat onto the pavement, his head hitting the ground.


    "Ouch! I. Hate. This."


    He sat up and already saw Garea dance around nervously sniffing for any injuries. She had always been a very clingy pet, but a very loyal one at that. Sixteen years now she had been his best friend, a better friend even than his twin sister, who was more of an annoyance than a proper friend. Every day she reminded him of what he didn''t have. She was big, strong, agile, handsome, in short everything Faylorn had wanted to be since elementary school. But of course none of that he would ever be, because like more or less all male Elves he had a very distinctive look. He was small, fragile, cute, and additionally, he looked more girly than any of the female ones!


    "This is so unfair, Garea! Why did I have to emerge? And even if it was unavoidable, why did it have to be elven gens and not something different? Heck, I would have even been okay with becoming an Ork!"


    Garea simply smiled like only a dog or in this case a wolf could. Instead of her answering though, which honestly would have been weird, a big looming shadow fell over the two.


    "Well I for my part wouldn''t have liked to become an Ork, those teeth man, those teeth, fucking terrifying I tell you. Especially when you are on the receiving end of them! I really don''t understand why you¡¯re so miffed about being an Elf again; at least we got a load of the anti-age canon! So why don¡¯t you tell me what this is really about, because if I recall correctly I found you last week prancing around our flat in lingerie without much care? Didn¡¯t you even tell your workplace you were a woman so you could wear the female employee outfit?¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Fay looked up to his sister and only grimaced.


    ¡°Yeah, about that. Say you don¡¯t by any chance know of another place I could hit up for making money?¡±


    Hearing that Lyn had almost dropped the bag of food she was carrying. Apparently, her brother was once more without a way to pay his part of the rent. She groaned loud enough to alert the near passerby¡¯s, several of them now deliberately made an effort to not come too close to the imposing woman.


    ¡°Seriously sometimes Bro . . . I mean fuck, how can you be so incompetent? You don¡¯t even have to do actual work; isn¡¯t everything you do robbing those guys blind!? So, what happened this time?¡±


    After them walking to a more inconspicuous local, Faylorn retold the entire thing. Thanks to a rather costly tip from another Net-Diver, he first had wormed his way into the company. So far everything had seemed okay and nothing was really suspicious, after all, it should have only been the local branch of a Hotel-Chain. Though very quickly, after he had infiltrated some of their networks, the entire thing had begun to look more and more like a really bad deal.


    There had been nondescript transactions with no apparent benefactor, that at first had looked like the perfect way of siphoning of money but he had become more cautious when he had seen that those transactions all had been from a single offshore-account somewhere in the Philippines. Digging deeper he had only found a rather questionable connection from this account to a subsidiary company of Arcana Future Industries, but after going through some of the security files, Faylorn had come across several files marked ¡°Authorized Clearance Needed¡±. Those files had just screamed top-secret shady deal


    After spending even more money on a specific decryption-software needed to get into the files unseen, he had come across several unmarked and supposedly non-existent subareas beneath the hotel. Not wasting a minute Faylorn had done his duty as an upstanding citizen and had immediately sat down and watched through all of the provided camera footage of those areas. Several hours of gut-wrenching experiments and very ominous feeling of himself being watched despite this being impossible had him almost say screw it. Only the possibility of selling acquired dirt as pay-data really held him back.


    That was until yesterday were he had done his shift only for a very sick looking girl to come up to his reception counter. At first, he had just thought her to be a hooker that had come down with some sort of fast-acting STD. Only when he saw her face he had to realize that had seen this girl before. Just a few hours ago one of the supposed guests ¨C in reality, a scientist of AFI ¨C had brought her in, already drugged and unconscious. Faylorn had a hard enough time trying to keep his cool seeing this obvious kidnapping, but it somehow got even worse when the girl started to lose her teeth on if front desk!


    Logically after that, he hadn''t stayed long. The girl and the securities subsequent assault on her had thankfully given him enough reason to quit his job and not appear suspicious. Unfortunately, Faylorn did have a bunch of debt which he would never classify as gambling but in a way it actually was. Leading up to this conversation.


    "Just why did you think digging deeper into those files would do you any good?!" Lyn rubbed the bridge of her nose in the hopes of fighting the coming headache.


    ¡°Simple! I thought it to be shit like private sex-rooms of some corporate CEO! How the fuck should I have known it was human rights-violating experiments!?" Fay walked from up and down the length of the room digging his hands into his hair in frustration.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know!? Just don¡¯t always poke the hornets¡¯ nest? Or maybe keep your sticky fingers of AFI, those guys are bad news!!!¡± Lyn glared daggers at her twin.


    "Well, unlike you I have stuff that I need to pay with money!" Despite being glared at by is Amazon-like sister Fay reaction was merely a pout. After all, he was confident in his ability to stay undetected.


    ¡°Fuck! Damn you, Fay! Is that weird guy still there?¡±


    ¡°No, he left a while ago when he realized you were sticking by my side all the way.¡±


    ¡°So, you don¡¯t think it¡¯s one of AFI¡¯s? Who would want to tail you then?¡± Lyn finally managed to calm down and took a seat in one of their apartments bean bags, despite their place being small, they had a bunch of those things.


    ¡°Well, it definitely wasn¡¯t a corpo goon; those usually shot first and then ask questions. Now someone wanting money seems a lot more plausible . . .¡± The male twin shifted nervously on his feet, an uncertain grimace on his face, which did little to mar his beauty.


    ¡°Ugh! Who do you own money now? Wait . . . don¡¯t tell me. I have a way out of this mess. Only have to speak with my boss, and I might be able to get rid of both your dept and the possible hit out on your ass.¡± She looked up at her brother again, this time with a clear warning of an ass-beating in her eyes.


    "Fay, don''t do any stupid while I''m gone! Better yet don''t even leave the apartment! I''ll know if you did!" With this, she jumped up, put on a thick leather jacket and left the building.


    It took Faylorn an incredible 10 minutes before he decided to head out on his own. He was never one to follow rules, and he surely had never listened to his sister, even if she time and again gave him an ass-whopping! Still, the fun he had on those nights out would always outweigh is sister tearing him a new hole.


    As fast as possible Fay dressed up, a dark blue revealing dress, and quick smoky-eyes make-up. A couple of minutes he slipped on a pair of steel-heeled stilettos and stumbled down the stairs to the apartment Garea fast on his heels. Just before he had made it out though, he almost crashed into one of the other tenants.


    ¡°HI! Fay! You look stunning as always!¡±


    "Thanks, Ben, you look as well very . .  . nice!¡± Fay looked at the young man with a pained and obvious fake smile.


    ¡°So where are you going? A night out, by the look of your incredible outfit?" There was a glimmer of hope in Bens eyes, that quickly died when Garea snarled at him.


    ¡°Ah! See, it is so late already, I really must go!¡± Fay jumped down the last few steps and quickly disappeared into the night.


    Several hours later the Elven beauty stumbled barely clothed trough an alleyway, his head was screaming at him in pain and his left side kinda felt numb. Wincing from the stinging headache he looked down at the ground and lifted his hands. Blood cover both them and a lot of his underarms. It was suddenly much obviously to him that Elves had claws instead of simple nails. And still, his hands hadn''t stopped shaking; he didn''t know if it was from excitement or from fear, either way, it was adrenaline for sure. Producing a sound half-way between a laugh and a sigh he sat down on his naked ass right there on the asphalt. Garea softly winced and pushed his injured side with her equally blood-covered snout.


    ¡°Shhh~ . . . I¡¯m fine Garea. At least that is until Lyn finds out that those dwarfs no longer are just after the debt . . . fuck . . . I want to take a nap.¡±