Change
Alone again.
Once more, as had become routine, her contractor was not at home. She was told it was so she could make money and money was good because then she could get more meat. It made sense to Kael, more meat was good so this situation was good.
However, that didn’t make it any less frustrating and this night was particularly infuriating.
All lights in the apartment were off, all doors shut as Kiwi had left them. Some light peaked out of the refrigerator door which hung ajar. All manner of liquid was leaking, pooled on the tile floor along with scraps of meat, torn plastic and broken glass. Trails of saliva were pleasant all across the floor, spattered on the walls and anywhere else you might think to look. The kitchen was a veritable wreck, a shadow of its former self.
During the first incident, Kael had gotten a stern talking to about that sofa before Kiwi whipped out a roll of duct tape and sealed the holes she made. She wasn’t to touch the furniture because that cost money too and if she had to buy more furniture then there would be no money left for meat.
Bad.
Very bad.
This lesson had held true and the living room was nearly pristine, save for the carpet where it was starting to get hard and matted from the trail of drool.
For the last few hours, her hunger had spiked into painful spasms but this was different than normal. Typically, if she was starving, she would feel drained and empty as if her very form was eating itself and wasting away. It had happened, then, when she first met her new contractor but never since. Now it felt as though she needed to keep eating more and more just to feel as full as she normally would but instead of feeling weak, she felt powerful; enlightened, almost.
The round imp rolled through the carpet, looking for anything else that might be qualified as food and not furniture. She was still so hungry but there was no more meat. Though their contract forbade Kael from harming her dear ‘angel’ there had been no mention of restriction to harming other humans and desperation was beginning to point Kael in that direction.
They did taste the best, after all, especially while still alive.
Only one obstacle stood in her way: how to get out of here and at a human? She had no hands with which to turn knobs, her tongue far too slippery, and Kael had also been told not to shriek or be loud as her neighbors had complained and if Kiwi got in trouble she might get kicked out and that would mean no home for either of them. Well, Kael didn’t exactly agree with that one. She rather enjoyed roaming freely in between her contracts, if only for a short time and despite the terrible situation it had truly been.
Still: freedom. She craved it. Oh, what she could do with no rules or restrictions to hold her down. If only she didn’t need a contract, things would be so much more simple.
A sudden pang interrupted her thoughts and Kael snarled at her own small body. Was this similar to a ‘cramp’ that Kiwi would sometimes complain of? It stopped for a moment, then started again. It wasn’t like hunger pains, but something coursing through her entire being. Mid-roll, Kael fell lamely to her side when another shot of pain ripped through her, this time worse. Moving was becoming a chore, her vision blurring as she became dizzy.
This wasn’t right. Had she eaten something bad? She only touched the meat, she swore!
The pitiful creature panted, long black tongue lolling out the side of her mouth as she mewled and whined, willing the pain to cease. It wouldn’t. Each one was worse than the last and she soon found herself snapping her jaws at the air, rolling over onto her back and staring at the nauseatingly green ceiling. This was wrong and she didn’t understand.
A mighty howl tore through the air, becoming garbled and monstrous. It felt like her body was ripped itself to pieces as, suddenly, something sprouted through the pain. Her eyes blinked then immediately shut, mouth open wide in a mute wail. Something was passing through her, coming out of her and it was entirely alien.
But it was her.
Claws dug into the rug, small tan hands pulling her body along the floor and away from her old self, her shell. It was not unlike a butterfly shedding its cocoon but she was coated in a black, almost oily substance as she pulled through. Her torso came next, then legs, clawed feet and finally a tail. Weakly, she rolled over to look at her old, Imp body but it was no more and all that was left of it was the residue coating her body like a liquid membrane.
Time passed. She wasn’t sure how long; minutes or hours were as nothing.
Finally she pulled herself up, regaining coherence, and began to examine herself. Her new body was smaller than Kiwi’s, but not unlike hers--decidedly female, as they both knew. Her hands cupped and groped, felt and examined all of her nooks, crannies and crevices before she felt it necessary to stand. With a swift thump she turned around, startled, until she realized her thick, long tail had knocked into a table behind her. She would need to get used to her new size, so different from that of a simple imp.
Kael explored the apartment, then, as a physical equal or better to her contractor. Her hands turned knobs (more times than necessary for the novelty of it), opened and closed doors several times without entering rooms, traveled all through every area of the apartment before landing in the bathroom. It was dark but she could see clearly. Her eyes widened at the sight before her, staring back from a thin pane of glass. A hand reached out and met her reflection’s, then the other.
She was absolutely mystified.
How had she come out so perfect?
Curious, then, she opened her small, innocent looking mouth and found all of her jagged teeth right where they should be. She smiled, the sides of her mouth tugging up her cheeks until that terrible toothy grin took up nearly half of her face. Kael growled with pleasure, releasing the same tendril-like black tongue she kept tucked away in her Imp body and licked the face of her doppelganger, leaving a messy streak along with the black oil from her hands.
Outside, there was a jingle of keys as they were tucked into the doorknob. Kael’s hands instinctively gripped the sides of the sink, listening carefully. The door opened and her ears were met with Kiwi’s usual flurry of curses of displeasure about her work. Without warning, Kael ducked down to all fours and slithered out of the bathroom like a mighty shadow, her naked form unhidden once she was past the door.
Another banshee scream cut through the quiet air, but this time it was not from Kael’s throat.
