Edge Fest: They Crave, They Infest

---

Suspected patient zero, year 1839, United Kingdom. Institutionalized in Bedlam upon insisting that he is being visited, tormented, and corrupted by lust demons. Upon release, tried to join a monastic order. Refused and exiled after half a year, according to one surviving testimony, due to obsessive, never-ending, multiple, long, colorful, and descriptive confessions of lustful thoughts; deliberately committed crimes to get locked in an all-male workhouse. Died of cholera in 1854; wrote a posthumous note begging whoever takes care of his remains not to allow women to touch his body, or attend his funeral.

Year 1870, Sweden. Local carpenter wasted all of his life savings on what he insisted were gifts for the ghost of his deceased wife. Died of tuberculosis and general health failure, penniless, his unheated mold-ridden house without a single speck of coal or a splinter of firewood, but filled with expensive jewelry and fancy women's clothes.

Year 1905, a promising young teacher in German university, after a year of slowly deteriorating labor discipline, hospitalized with permanent brain damage from asphyxiation, that, he insisted, he inflicted on himself "as ordered by his angelic mistresses". Unable to work anymore, left to Canada, where spent the rest of his days working as a berry picker, living in a secluded hut.

Year 1941. An entire British naval ship's crew went unresponsive for full night, its equipment later shown to selectively omit or outright distort incoming messages. National security threat recognized, counter-measure divisions established across the world, the ship docked for thorough investigation and later turned into the first confinement lab. All of the ship's crew were discharged on mental evaluation.

Year 1968, Spain. An abandoned building in disrepair caught fire and collapsed. A recovered wounded local student revealed that he and several friends gathered there for occult rituals, which he swore were successful and eventful; the damage was caused by them using open fire for heating. All students, identified and examined, have shown symptoms of malnutrition, protein deficiency, hormonal imbalance, chronic oversleeping, and various neuroses.

---

"Come on, help me out here. Why is your... how do you..." She got visibly nervous. "It's something uncommon, right? Is it..." She started panicking and shifting chaotically, one half of her body getting covered in Chinese dress, that morphed into a biker's jacket on the other, while the first half already desperately tried to choose between police and military uniform, and the second followed shifting between a nurse's robes of various colors, while, one by one, her subordinates holding him in place weakened; some have already misted out; at least two got deflated onto the floor. "It's... it's some kind of a trick... You don't... have any desires I could... I feel you wanting... something, but... I can't... what is it? What is it?! Why can't I... make you want me?!" The last words she said in trembling voice on the verge or crying.

"Maybe you should have started with something simple, not the deepest ones. A rookie mistake." Getting his hands free as two more henchwomen fell off, janitor grabbed her wrists and pulled.

"No!!!" Shaking on an unnaturally precise edge of orgasm, she herself started oozing her essence out.

She twisted out of his hold on her wrists and dashed for his car. As he slowly walked after her, he saw her scratching at the door, looking at the container inside.

"You want?" he asked and opened the door for her. She reached for the can, as he drove a stake through her, pinning her to the seat. "Gotcha."

The rest of the swarm slowly followed, filling the car's rear section, two dozen blinking lights swarming around their queen.

He went back to the bedroom, collected the ones too drained to move, checked the readings, and, happy with himself and a job well done, closed the house and went to start the engine.

"What are you?! What are you?! What the hell are you?!" she screamed, barely able to move, and already having lost a full head of height.

"...I am a janitor."

He untied the pendant off his ankle and hung it on the rear-view mirror. A misty feminine fiend oozed out of it and formed on the passenger's seat, fully clothed in uniform-like attire, with happy spark in her eyes and a satisfied smirk. "Thanks, buddy," janitor said, bumped fists with her, and released the car's clutch as she playfully ruffled his hair.

"Niieeeeaaagh! I'll... I'll destory you... I'll destroy you both! You were hiding his desires from me, bitch! I'll..." Twenty minutes into the ride, the queen did not shut up.

"I need the gates opened in ten minutes," janitor said in the radio. "Living unsedated swarm. Yeah, scratched the car. No, the seat. Yeah, looking now. Sure. Task force out."

"She's not looking good," the fiend on the passenger seat said.

"Yeah, colors are terrible, and tits are mediocre at best."

"Dick!!!" came the scream from the back.

"No, she's weakening. If she can't make the swarm stay with her, it will spill. I don't want purge convoy and blocked road taken out of our salaries."

"Reasonable. Want me to go faster? I'm at the speed limit."

"Nah, I'll take care of it."

She squeezed to the back seat, took the queen's hand in hers, and used her second hand to spread her legs and reach for her G-spot.

"What are you-"

"Shhhh. It's okay. Look at me. Everything is fine. You are safe." The queen's eyes got bigger in genuine surprise. "Just a little first aid. You'll get fed properly when we reach the place. Everything will be fine. Look at me. Aren't you cute. You are going home. It's big, and comfortable. You will not just be desired. You will be valued. Always. It's so, so much better. And there is a lot of stuff to do! We have a library, are... Are you... crying?"

"...He doesn't want me. I know it was not exactly fair but... I've never seen a man who would not want me like this. Like... Like I was not even there. Are my breasts really mediocre?"

---

Janitor was filling the paperwork, when his misty partner approached him.

"The swarm refuses to nest or eat. She demands you."

"...I don't know; chain her to a wall and leave for a couple days until the change of mind. I still have the house owners to deal with... Okay, okay, stop looking at me like this."

"The job isn't done until it's nested. Don't relax yet. I cannot do it myself." The last part was, sadly, true.

He went to the quarters where the new swarm resided, and sat on a chair across the queen. "What?"

She was in the corner, holding herself by ankles, and now looked shorter, smaller, thinner, and barely glowing at all. The rest moved around in the air as small sparks; the drained ones were sitting on the shelf.

"...I thought that if something like this ever happens, it will be... magnificent. A celibate priest resisting my charms at the very limit of his willpower, until I get lost in the moment and run out of... life, trying to break him. Or an engaged groom keeping his promise. A grieving widower held back by memories of his wife. Instead of a mediocre ageing hunter calling himself janitor."

"Instead of someone who knew what is right, it was someone who knew what to do. As always. You should have learned in... however many years you have been around."

"Yeah, no idea. No-one got bothered to remember or tell me. You also don't actually remember your first days, do you."

"Seriously, what are your earliest memories?"

"...Um. Cars were funnier. And smelled worse. And the guy in charge... I remember that one," she clicked her fingers, and the bracelet still on her wrist rattled, "you know, with stupid eyebrows! The fat one. With a hat like this," she gestured above her head.

Janitor rubbed his forehead. "And you dare to call me ageing."

"You are such. A massive. Dick. Uuuugh... wait... you..." she shook her head, surprised, "you actually do like me? I sense some... Oof, I sense some sweet, sweet... urges! Have your special tricks finally worn off?"

"What makes you think it's because of you?"

"Ugh. Seriously, can you take a hint already?!"

"You want me to spoon-feed you to make you feel more at home. And will not behave until I give in. Well... Uuugh!" He stood up and stretched. "Lie down on the bed. Yeah, like this. Now, close your eyes, don't do anything stupid, and don't intervene."

Janitor took off his closes, got next to the queen, and started carefully, little by little, explore every bump and fold of her body with his fingers and lips. She smiled and occasionally gasped.

"This is... sweet... You like it... when I like it? Don't you... hah-hah, this is really, really sweet. You're quite tasty, you know. Hahahah... come on gentle boy, kiss me. Kiss me good."

"Shhh..." he shushed in her ear and gave several sloppy licks to her earlobe and neck on one side, and gentle caresses on the other. Right under his touch, she regained opacity and glow. He kept this one-sided dance for some time, until reaching for her most sensitive spots with his mouth.

She burst into silent hysterical laughter. She loved her sensations, and she loved even more how invigorating it was that her arousal made him desire her. She wanted more, and he gave in. She insisted to be on top, repeating "Look at me, look at me..." as her eyelashes fluttered and open mouth curved in a smile of pleasure with every push into her.

They tortured each other, switching between moving faster and slower, holding each other's hands in love locks of intertwined fingers, looking into each other's eyes. The queen oozed her essence out and regained it back with each movement, getting surrounded by glowing, misty pulsations, getting more and more substantial with each thrust, and gaining her impressive height back. She leaned to janitor's face and exchanged short kisses with him.

"Care... careful, big boy. You don't want to accidentally drain and spill me, hahah, and... you really can... I'm so weak... but so happy. Please... want me. Crave me. Desire me. Please... Please... Pretty please... Now, now, now-now-now-now!" she whispered and sat upwards; he released her fingers, grabbed her by the wrists, and started pulling her right onto him rhythmically. She was ecstatic; light orange glow came out of her eyes, fingernails, hair, mouth, and bellybutton. "Yes. Yes. Yesss!!!"

As he was about to erupt, her insides liquefied and lost tightness; her body was falling in wispy pieces, rolling off of him... until the gem bracelet blinked, zapped, and forced her back into corporeal form; with a disappointed and somewhat even angry "Aaaaaaah?!!", she felt her own orgasm mixed with janitor pulling her down harder and filling her insides.

A minute they were regaining breath and sanity.

"You... What have you done," she said. "You aren't even... And now I'm hungry again. It was so good. And you had to ruin everything."

"Well, that will be a lesson. Don't try your tricks on me. I have my own. Everyone agrees to more dinner?" he asked, as three more fiends regained enough strength to manifest. They nodded. The rest were still weak, but got attached to panels on walls and ceiling, which signalled healthy, successful nesting.

"There's more?" red asked in shy voice.

"Here," he passed a folded sheet to the queen. "You can read, right?"

"What is it?" she looked, switching her eye direction from him to the sheet with one, blue, eyebrow raised.

"A menu, obviously."

"Oh... Volunteering single losers, desperate sex addicts, pervs, pissed off divorcees... nerds, which is basically all of the above... the terminally ill... Inmates?!"

"What?" janitor said. "I promised that you will be fed. Not that you'll have a pick from best quality god-fearing loyal hubbies at their peak. I'm going, then; have a good evening. See you in a month or so."

"Wait. What will happen with us now? I mean... you said we will have a job. What will we do in exchange for... this?" she waved the menu. "And for, well, everything?"

With "A minute," janitor left and came back with a sealed glass container, a tiny crave fiend of the "haunt-your-phone" variety trapped inside.

"These things ruined two manned space launches in the last ten years, one with casualties. And ran an oil tanker aground. We have not yet come up with anything that could sniff them out. Except you. It will take some training, but I have faith in you. All of you. Make yourselves at home, behave, and we will not have any problems. You are not prisoners. We are not punishing you for what you are. A lot of things in our world depend on few people who really want to go home and see their loved ones again. Perfect targets. Perfect food. And if you don't protect them, there will be disasters." He looked at several more fiends that, although barely visible, could show up full-sized. "I will see you in class."

The partner fiend from before went in to congratulate him for successful nesting inducement.

"If you're done here, are you in for tonight, or what?" she asked. He looked one way and then another, thinking.

"You know what, yes." As he approached, she turned completely black and dense first, and then glowed from the inside, which smoothed out any shades and left her with a thick, visible contour. Her hips and breasts became more voluptuous, waistline shrunk to ridiculously small; cheekbones, eyes, lips, and fingernails also got outlined; instead of her strict corporate unfirom-like attire, her clothes morphed to short skirt and and top, both primary red to the point that it was almost painful to look at, occasionally getting covered in dancing striped black pattern.

"Come and take it, then," she said. "Come and take it, then," a captioned bubble appeared next to her, floated up emanating dotted green pattern around it, and dissolved.

"You perverted old sick fuck," the queen whispered, understanding why she failed to guess his deepest fantasy, as janitor's partner completely finished her transformation into a Golden Age era comic book character with a narrator's brown-yellow plaque floating above her, captioned in crooked hand-written letters: "Our victorious heroes were about to copulate, fornicate, resort to lust; fuck, even. But will they truly make love?" He grabbed her by waistline, put onto his shoulder, and stepped out; the plaque hit the door's head jamb, shattered, and vanished.

"What?" he turned around for a second. "I had a tough adolescence. This is what my best memories and fantasies look like."

---

"You should have asked," janitor said, looking at a gift on the table and not touching it. "For state servants, accepting tips is bribing. You don't need to reward or thank me in any way. I'm just doing a job. Here are your keys, supplementary documents, warranty, my division's contacts, and your insurance card, as promised. I wish everything good to your union and your children; there's additional insurance that covers twenty-five hours of family therapy, but only after reevaluation. Details are here, in a yellow envelope. Goodbye, hope to never see you again. At least not in these circumstances."

The husband looked refreshed and mostly restored, although still as if he recently spent a week trapped in a vampire's lair.

Janitor returned to his car and started it.

"Damn," driving away, he finally noticed the pendant hanging from rear view mirror; it spat a cloud of glowing mist, which coalesced into his partner on the passenger's seat, now once again looking almost human and properly clothed, and stretching.

"Yeah, I forgot too. Happens. Will you give me a ride home?" she asked.

"Not much of a choice. You could have reminded earlier."

"I was sleeping."

She tried to start a small talk a couple times; he was mostly unresponsive all the way until they reached the workplace.

"A week?" she asked.

"Two. I had one not spent from the last time."

"Going to visit someone?"

"Yes, someone on the top of 'none of your damn business' list."

They stayed silent awkwardly for several seconds; him waiting for her to take her pendant and leave, and her not wanting to.

"I will miss you," she whispered.

"I will forget about your existence until at this very place I have to remember again."

"...You don't have to be a dick to me, you know that?"

"And you don't have to waste my vacation minutes on sorting things out between us. I'm enough of an adult to keep my life and job separated. I'm sorry it's not much of an option for you. You should not expect headpats and assurance from me. Ideally, you should not care."

Avoiding eye contact, he looked into the side window. She took the opportunity to lock his neck in a hug faster than he could react.

"Forgive me for caring. Stay safe. And when it's time to return... I will be happy to see you again."

She opened the car door and went to the checkpoint.

"Your sleeping bag." Janitor took the hand out, holding the pendant.

She took his hand in hers and kissed his every knuckle, before grabbing the pendant, turning around, and leaving without looking back.

He drove through the gate, passing the documents.

"Have a good vacation, sir," the new gate guard saluted with one hand, passing him the papers back with the other.

Janitor sighed, deeply, rubbed his nose bridge, and drove off.

---

Author's note: And this is it for today! If you haven't liked, thanks for sticking until the end. If you have, and the story have uplifted your spirits, now would be the perfect moment to text your friend, hug your spouse, carry your kid around, call your parents, or just finish that long project you never had enough enthusiasm to get back to. See you next time!