Crosswinds Ch. 08

"It was incredible. We've gotta do it again in a few hours. But-" Then Diana sat up. Her breath grew terse and stressed, "I—I'm sorry." She wiped the sweat from her pensive brow. "I'm sorry about mom, Maddi."

Maddi's heart stopped. She turned to face her. "You did it. Didn't you?"

Diana's bottom lip quivered. Tears already flooded down her cheeks. "I'm sorry." She repeated over and over, hiding her face behind her hands. "I'm sorry. I'm just so scared. I'm pregnant, and I'm terrified!"

Maddi balled her fists, but her sister's pathetic display softened her heart. The fear in Diana's bloodshot eyes was palatable. Maddi clung to her shoulders and shook her gently. "It's okay, Di. It's going to be okay." She kissed her forehead as she continued sobbing. "It's hard holding everything in. You'll feel so much better when you confess."

"Confess?" Diana stopped crying. By the time she pulled back from Maddi, her tears were reduced to sniffles. "Maddi, I'm not confessing to anything." Her frigid eyes flashed with a callous gaze—one which Maddi was becoming familiar. "You really think I'm interested in having my baby in prison?!? Does that sound fair to you?"

Maddi cast her eyes down at the cum-stained sheets. "No." She mewed. "I guess not."

"Now, what's your problem?" Diana snarled. "You've tensed up. I suppose you're not going to let me fuck you later, huh?"

Just like that, their bond faded. Maddi squinted at her sister and couldn't recognize the nude girl that shifted to the far end of the bed. "I didn't say that. Just give me some time." She tried her best to smile.

Diana relaxed her shoulders and reclined. "That's my Maddi." She closed her eyes.

Maddi's feet fished for the carpet below. She eased herself down on her sore, wobbly legs, and limped to the door. "Just rest, Diana," Maddi whispered over her shoulder as she stole a glance. "It'll all be over soon."

--

Diana waited in Maddi's bed for well over an hour. She watched the sun fade through the blinded window as the cravings of hunger churned in her gut. "Where is that girl?" Diana recovered her dress and crept down the stairs to find Maddi wearing a brown tank top and cropped denim shorts, solemnly curled on the couch.

"You're not going to stop, are you?" Maddi whispered in a most defeated tone upon hearing her sister's descending footsteps. "You want to save futa-kind, but you're really going to destroy us."

"I can't stop." She capped with a smile.

"The truth is you'll never pay for what you did to my mom." Maddi sat up, mashing her arm against her breasts as she sighed. "But the least I can do is make you pay for something."

"Oh, really?" Diana slinked to the couch with balled fists. "So, we're done, then."

Maddi looked down at the phone buzzing in her lap. She checked the new message and sighed. "No, it's you that's done, Di." She said with a tinge of regret. "I invited a friend over."

"You promised I could fuck you again, Madison. But your consent isn't required. Y'know, I've never forced myself on someone before." Diana's voice dropped to a tone unmistakably predatory. "Feeding off my victim's fear. Feeling their energy wither as they fight against me." She paused to lick the drool from her lips. "Oh yes, Madison. I'd love to hear your boney ass begging me to stop."

"I'm afraid you forcing yourself on people has led us to this conclusion." Maddi turned to the door. "You've done this to yourself."

Stunned, Diana didn't give chase until moments later. "I'm not finished with you, little worm!" She snarled. Her claws dug into Maddi's shoulder as the girl opened the front door. Diana stepped back when she saw who was standing on the other side. "J—Jenna?" She stammered. "Hey. What's going on, Maddi?"

"Jenna and I became friends a few months ago," Maddi said. "After I told her she might be pregnant."

"I was." Jenna snapped, sharp hazel eyes burning a hole in Diana. "Not anymore."

"You ungrateful murderer..." Diana cursed. "You were a lesser with no importance before we met. You killed the only thing special about you."

"Special?" Jenna scoffed. "You drugged and raped me, you psychopath."

Diana's mouth hung open for a moment. "And how d come to that conclusion?" She stared at Maddi.

"I recorded us one night," Maddi said. "And you admitted to what you did. That combined with the DNA you left..."

Diana's panicked eyes looked out the window. Flashes of blue and red lights flickered against the wall. She panted. "Maddi." Her voice cracked, and tears welled. "I can't believe you've done this to me."

"I'm sorry." Maddi cried. It only took once glance at Diana's angelic, pitiful pout to crush Maddi's resolve. By that time, two suited detectives had barged through the open door and surrounded Diana. As they murmured her Miranda rights, dragging her sister from where they came, Maddi's tears blinded her.

"Maddi..." Diana's voice carried from outside the front door.

"MADDI!" She screamed again.

"I should go finish up my statement to the police." Janna broke the silence. She scratched her neck with discomfort searching for the right words. "Look, I really appreciate you telling me what happened. I'm sure that was pretty hard—especially after what I said about you guys."

But the distraught futa said nothing. Maddi stared through the girl with a glass eyes and staggered back to the sofa as the numbness set-in. She clutched her temples and trembled. She hated everything: Jenna's worldview, what Diana did to her, and the fact that she felt forced to betray her sister.

-

"Thank you, Evan," Maddi said flatly as she balanced the phone in her palm. "Thank you for everything." She ended the call and breathed a sigh of relief as she walked out of her front door. The board of directors at Masters Energy approved a temporary transfer of company control to Maddi after Diana's conviction. Although the young woman retained the feeling of the world on her shoulders. In a year, Madison Masters went being from a spoiled college student sowing her wild oats to the figurehead of futa-kind. It was enough to make her swoon—and she still got excited whenever she encountered an adult from which she could siphon guidance.

"Dr. Drake!" Maddi called out. She waved as her mother's old friend as she slid from the nearby car. Maddi skipped to the curb with girlish delight. "I didn't think you'd get my message in time."

"I actually moved my flight back to meet with you." She said. "We didn't get to talk much at the funeral. How're you holding up, honey?"

"I'm okay, but this business and charity stuff is all a bit overwhelming. That's kinda what I wanted to ask you about. Moringa University has a better business school and-" She bit her lip and swallowed. "I think it'd be a good way to honor Mom by going to Moringa."

"Wow," Dory exclaimed. Her eyes dampened. "That'd be amazing, Maddi."

"I'm so worried about Christy." She confessed. "All alone in that assisted-living community."

"You need to give her a bit more credit." Dory defended. "She's capable of living alone. Rochelle always said so. Try not to let your maternal instinct run wild."

Maddi shivered as she took a step back. She shrugged. "It's driving me crazy inside. Along with-"

"Along with the desire to knock up every girl, you see?" Dory folded her arms but afforded Maddi a warm smile. "That's what it's really like to be futanari—wanting to do and be everything at once. Think about having a baby in a few years. Trust me that'll get it all outta your system."

Maddi scoffed. "I'm barely 100 pounds. I doubt I can even get pregnant."

Dory laughed. "Well, you should try it anyway. Have a baby yourself, and you'll be too busy to impregnate anyone else."

"Yeah." Maddi's thoughts drifted to Diana, who would be testing Dr. Drake's hypothesis soon enough.

"So try." Dory sharply pointed her index at Maddi's chest. "But NOT at Moringa." She laid a gentle palm on Maddi's bony cheek. "I know I'm across the pond, but I'm seriously only a phone call away. There's too much riding on you not to have support. Not that I'm trying to replace your mother, but if you ever need a friend-"

"You'll be the first I call, Dr. Drake." She nodded.

-

Arms full of cardboard boxes about to rip, Maddi nudged the door open with her shoulder. She sighed. Her new dorm room was empty, and she could use some quiet reflection time. With her cargo neatly stacked near the undressed bed, Maddi stretched herself along the mattress. The other bed's blankets were on a wrinkled, messy pile near its foot. She hoped her roommate was more put-together than her housekeeping suggested.

Then she came through the door, a bag draped over her shoulder. The stocky girl with crimson shaggy hair and sandy freckles straightened her thin pink lips. "Hey." She quipped. "I thought they told me you were coming today."

"Hey. Um, yeah. I'm Maddi." She sat up, heartbeat quickening. "Maddi Masters."

The girl nodded, pausing a moment as if to digest her name fully before deciding to give her own. "Mallory." She said. Mallory fell on her bed with enough vigor to bounce the blankets and pillows. She began flipping through her textbook without another sound.

Maddi allowed the silence to drone on until the awkwardness built so tightly in her chest she thought she'd explore. She blew a deep breath as she shattered the ice. "You're a futa?"

Mallory stopped her page-turning.

"Yeah." She said. "You?"

"Yeah." Maddi sighed. "But I have a girlfriend. She's living in town so I won't be here much. Y'know—in case you need privacy or something."

"I'm not here to fuck." Mallory snapped. "I'm here to learn. I'm not just another sex-crazed futa that can't keep her dick in her pants. Got it?"

Maddi returned Mallory's glare. "Nice to meet you, too." She turned to rummage through the top of the boxes until she retrieved a stack of pictures. One-by-one, she placed the simple black wooden frames on her new desk. The first was Savannah's latest sonogram. She smiled—knowing there'd soon be a little futa depending on her. Next, a picture of both her moms. Maddi fought off crying—she and her roommate were already off to an awkward start. Then finally, the bikini-clad beach picture of her and Diana. She stared at the picture for a while with morose longing. She mourned the death of their sisterhood but was so grateful it was born in the first place. The future was as bright as it was uncertain.

"I'll always love you, Diana." She stroked the glass frame as she whispered before placing the picture back in the box. That was at least one constant.

--

"Beatrix..."

Diana whispered in a gravelly voice, half-sleep as she lay in the hospital bed.

"Beatrix Anne, you beautiful hungry little thing."

It was painful to move. She tried shifting the tiny weight on suckling on her chest without disturbing the newborn. Her fingers stroked the blonde wisps on the baby's crown as more tears formed in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, honey. I think you have Maddi's eyes." Diana paused to kiss her. "It's a shame because you'll never get to met her. She's the reason we're in this mess-" Diana looked up at the doorknock through squinted eyes as the prison guard poked her head in.

"We need to get you back, Miss Masters." She said with the sternness of a corrections officer.

"Just five more minutes, please." She begged with a quaking voice and watery eyes.

"Five minutes." Diana's pitiful plea softened her guard's tone. She closed the door with care. Diana returned her watchful eyes to her newborn daughter. Beatrix was swaddled in a rough, prison-issued beige cloth as she fed. Her heart dropped as she watched her suckle. This was hardly the start she wanted for her princess.

--

"Visitor for Masters." The announced blared over the distorted loudspeaker. Diana held her breath as she stood from the chair in the correctional facility's rec room. As she passed through the screening station, she caught a glimpse of herself in the window. The image of her drab orange jumpsuit and messy ponytail stole the wind from her sails. Even though her bank account still teemed inheritance, she still carried several months on her sentence. Each passing day was a bitter reminder of how utterly defeated she was.

She didn't recognize the person coming to visit her-not by appearance anyway. The freckled, ginger-haired girl scratched her thinning scalp as the other hand nervously tapped on the sterile, white table.

"Are you Mary?" Diana asked cordially, smiling. "Thanks for answering my email. You're even more beautiful than your Facebook suggests."

Mary managed an uncomfortable chuckle. "You're sweet... just like her."

"Oh, dear." Diana slid into the seat from Mary and surveyed her visitor's gangly frame. "Please don't compare me to that woman that used to be my half-sister. I actually have more in common with you. We're both selfless givers. And we were both betrayed by Madison Masters. Did she try to get you pregnant as well?"

"Oooh, yeah." Mary's face reddened, turning away. "Over and over again. But I'm pretty underweight because of my sickness. I thought I was gonna get pregnant, but..."

"It's not your fault, honey." Diana rubbed on Mary's forearm. "Maddi only cares about herself. She's poison to everyone around her. She broke your heart. And me... well... I wish I could show you what her carelessness has done to my body. Maybe when I get out of here, I'll feel vulnerable enough to share it with you. But for now, let's just say she tried to get me pregnant too, but I'm a little more fertile than you."

"That's-disgusting." Mary gagged. She recoiled from Diana and stiffened her gaze. "Why'd you email me?"

"Because I've figured out a way the two of us can be whole again." She lowered her voice and ended with a smirk. "But it involves us cooperating and making Maddi realize how awful she's been to us."

"What do we do?" Her eyes perked.

"Just keep tabs of her for now. Find out where she's living and what's she's doing. I'll be able to help you once I get out of here. Trust me, Mary. We'll make her pay."

Mary shook her head. "I just can't believe she framed you and put you in jail."

Diana contorted her face in disgust. "You don't know the half of it. Come visit me every week, and I'll let you know exactly what kind of person, Maddi Masters is."

Mary scoffed. "I guess you never know who to trust."

Diana nodded. "Isn't that the truth."

END of CROSSWINDS

Story will continue with DAPHNE'S LESSON next week.