Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 082

He didn't like either possibility.

Once inside the tower, he had heard the fight up above and had been cautious in his approach. Seeing Yuki in a fight with her past self, he had managed to sneak up on Christmas Past. The spirit hadn't noticed, its gleeful features turned toward the fight. When he realized that Yuki was interacting with her own past, he knew he had to act before things went from bad to worse.

Short on ideas, he had summoned his magic. Concentrating it into his hand was easy, but then what? Seeing that the fight was rapidly approaching a bloody end, he thought back to how time had been reversed in his own memories. The spirit had the means to manipulate the past, so it was up to him to manipulate the spirit.

His magic was never intended to be offensive. It was a wild, chaotic amalgamation of nymph magic and the fae. So when he decided to pour it into Christmas Past, he wasn't certain how it would react. The spirit barely had their own identity, and was constantly changing shape.

Luckily, he had plenty of experience with shape shifters, and sudden changes wouldn't surprise him. The spirit had been so engrossed in watching Yuki battle herself that they didn't even notice him crawling across the bed. It wasn't until he grabbed them from behind that they reacted, struggling to escape his grasp.

Down on the floor, Yuki dry heaved, clutching her head in both hands. Her past self was flickering as if stuck in a loop, slowly lifting her eye patch and then replacing it before the gorgon's eye could be revealed..

"What-what-what are you-what are you doing-doing?" Christmas Past shuddered, their whole body flickering in and out of existence. Their head always remained, now surrounded in a ghostly aura of purple light. Mike had wound the spirit's hair through his hand so many times that there was no way they could break free. With his free hand, he wrapped his fingers around the spirit's forehead, causing the magic to spin wildly around him.

"Fix this," he commanded. "You rewind this nonsense right now, or else."

"You cannot-cannot you-you cannot..." Christmas Past growled. "You cannot hurt me!"

"You know what? I've been wondering about that." Mike pulled the spirit with him as shifted off the bed, then walked over to where Yuki cowered on the floor. "You see, you're always called the ghost of Christmas Past. And I can tell you're a spirit of some sort. Were you once alive? Or were you created?"

Christmas Past pulled free of his grip, but he still had their hair tangled in his hand. The spirit hit him in the stomach with an elongated arm, but he twisted to the side and was grazed instead. Yanking hard on the spirit's hair, he pulled them off their feet, causing them to hover.

"Because if you are a lost soul, I've got a fix for that." Mike opened his mouth, the mournful dirge of the banshee filling the air. An intense feeling of sadness flooded him as he sang aloud the same haunting aria that had carried Velvet's soul to her resting place. It was something he had discussed at length with Cecilia, mostly out of a fear that he had somehow screwed up Velvet's passing.

Like all things magic, intent was the most important thing. She had taught him the melody, and assured him that his intention mattered far more than the song itself. Tiny motes of light formed inside of Christmas Past's body, each one becoming a tiny star that shot out of its body and ricocheted off the nearby walls.

"Stop-stop-stop it!" Christmas Past's face flickered as the light emanating from their body curved away and toward a glittering portal that split apart above them.

Mike closed his mouth. "Last chance," he warned. "Fix the timeline right now, or see what the Underworld has in store for you." To emphasize his point, he hummed the melody.

"The timeline is fine!" Christmas Past cried out. "The past is immutable, these are just shadows!"

"Doesn't feel that way," Yuki groaned from the floor. "My head is full of new memories."

"Shadows!" Christmas Past screamed, and Yuki's shadow stretched out behind her, its fingers buried in her skull. It withdrew its dark digits and then stepped away from her and disappeared. "They have no consciousness of us, for they are simulacrum and have no thoughts or desires of their own!"

The Yuki from the past flickered, then turned into a shadow that melted into the floor and vanished. The room around them fragmented, large sections of wall vanishing to reveal a horizon devoid of light. It was as though the simulation had fallen apart, the code finally broken.

"Yuki?" Mike looked at the kitsune.

"I might barf," she said. "But the pain is gone, I'm just exhausted now. I should have known, the spirit is a psychic."

Christmas Past groaned, its features flickering as Mike's magic seeped into its eyes. Where the tiny lights had ripped free, his magical sparks sank in to replace them. The spirit's eyes fluttered, its features morphing rapidly.

"Uh oh," Mike said. The tower cracked, and the spirit's body was now ablaze with magic, most of it his. He knelt to grab Yuki's waist as the floor split beneath them and they all fell together.

The memories around them fragmented, bursting into supernovae of light and color. Occasional words or sounds carried to him across the darkness, and he looked down to see that a bright spot had formed beneath their feet. Convinced that they would crash, he braced himself for impact.

Surprisingly, the landing was gentle. Moments before impact, they drifted the last few feet, allowing Mike to lay Yuki down on the floor again.

"Where are we?" she asked. "Hurts to open my eyes, the light is too bright."

"Uh..." He looked around, but didn't recognize the place. The room looked like it had been pieced together out of a dozen different locations. It was a large room with windows that overlooked vastly different scenes, regardless of orientation. A blizzard out one window sat next to a rainstorm out the other. At least seven doors could be seen from where they had landed.

"Where are we now?" he demanded, but the spirit only shook in response. He wasn't entirely certain what was happening, but the light streaming off of Christmas Past was so intense now that it hurt to look at it.

Christmas Past's limbs reappeared and they let out a howl, then exploded. Their remains splattered the room with inky black pools that immediately flowed toward one another.

"Christmas Past has gone T-1000 on us," he informed Yuki.

"What?" She looked up and groaned. "Maybe I can..." she raised her arm and summoned a pitiful spurt of frost, then slumped on the floor.

"It's okay." He patted her on the head and rose. "I've got this one." Cracking his knuckles, he summoned the magic into his palms. Whatever Christmas Past was planning, he wasn't going to make it easy.

Hushed whispers filled the room as the black pools formed into silhouettes that shifted along the walls. There were three of them, and one of them stepped out of the wall, its body filling with definition and color.

"Oh, fudge. Rebecca?" He dropped his hands as the shadow of his ex-girlfriend appeared. She wore red and white Christmas lingerie with her brown hair done in braids.

"Does Santa want to slide down my chimney tonight?" she asked with a crooked finger. A few feet over, another shadow stepped free of the wall, transforming into a latino woman with her hair done up in buns. She wore white ski pants and a sweater, and was carrying a bundle of wood.

"It's cold out there," she said, then set the bundle down. This was Abigail, and the memory was from the Christmas ski vacation they took. It had been a fond trip, but Abigail's sex drive had led her to stray only a month later.

Mike shook his head in disbelief as the third shadow formed into Hallee Waters, his college girlfriend. She was in Christmas pajamas that hugged her athletic figure, her hair pulled back into a ponytail. He had gone home with her for Christmas and her parents made Mike sleep on the couch. She had snuck down for some midnight action, but he pretended to stay asleep.

"If we're quiet, they won't wake up," she whispered.

"So what game is this?" Mike asked. "You've sent my exes to come torment me? To make me feel bad about how I treated them?"

"We're not here to make you feel bad," Rebecca told him.

"We're here because we're broken," Abigail added.

"Just shadows," Hallee said. Lightning danced around her smiling eyes, and he recognized it as his own magic.

"I see." He had zapped Christmas Past pretty hard, uncertain what would happen. Pouring sex magic into a spirit capable of simulating the past had its potential problems. All three women leered at him. Hallee had her hand down the front of her pants, her fingers shifting beneath her snowflake jammie bottoms.

"You can't handle us all," Rebecca said, pressing her breasts together. "After all, your inability to satisfy us left you alone."

"And even when you could get it up, it was never for very long." Abigail said with a pout.

"Are you--" He laughed. "Are you still trying to torment me with the sins of my past? Trying to make me miserable over how my relationships with these women ended? Do you think I'm threatened by their sensuality, that I will shrink away from them and run?"

The women were close now, their hands reaching for him. He could sense no danger, and he put his hands on his pants.

"Ladies. It's time to dance." He pulled his pants down, his cock springing to attention. All three of them stopped, awe on their faces. "Yeah, that's right. I'm large and in charge. What do you think, Abigail?"

"Uh, I--" her eyes glazed over, and he laughed. If these were mere shadows, they were constructed from his memories. All three of these women had desired him, but his issues had prevented true intimacy with any of them. With those issues gone, they would have no choice but to act on what he remembered about them.

Hallee planted herself against his side, her hand going immediately to his cock. "They're both heavy sleepers," she told him while pulling his coat off.

"They won't hear us, I'm sure." He ran his hand along the back of her head, tickling her scalp with his magic. If this was the kind of fight Christmas Past wanted, then the spirit had majorly spilt the eggnog. "Rebecca, you look amazing in that lingerie."

"Thanks," she said with a smile. "I picked it out for you."

From the corner of his eye, he saw a pool of ink moving toward him, but pretended to be enthralled with the attention he was receiving. The women weren't a threat, but he could sense the malevolent energy radiating from that last patch of darkness. He moved to place himself between it and Yuki, allowing the women to run their hands over his body. So the women were just a distraction. Compared to the women that he lived with, it was easy to ignore them.

"I've never seen it so big before," Abigail whispered in a rush as she took off her shirt and knelt in front of him. "I don't even know that I can fit it in my mouth."

"We'll help," offered Hallee, who slid into place by Abigail and started stroking Mike. "I bet you've never been with three women before."

Suddenly, so many things made sense to him. The spirit had tormented him with his mother, and then his exes, not knowing about the events of the last year. But why not? Was it because of the geas? He thought back to the events of last Christmas. There had been plenty of intimacy between him and the others.

It was a puzzle that bore thinking on, but he would have time for it later. Abigail and Hallee were busy licking and sucking his cock while Rebecca pressed herself against him, blocking his view of the pool.

"Yeah, that's right," he told them, allowing his magic to trickle out in small bursts. "This is the best day ever, I can't wait to be balls deep in each of you."

"Ooh, me first!" Rebecca exclaimed, then bent over and pulled her panties to the side. She waved her ass back and forth, then slapped it. "C'mon, I want you to fill my stocking with good cheer!"

"Oh, gross," Yuki muttered from the floor.

Mike moved toward Rebecca, his senses on high alert. Abigail and Hallee moved to his sides and wrapped their arms around his waist, effectively pinning him in place. Though they were shadows, they seemed to share very human qualities with their real world counterparts.

He sensed the movement behind him and unleashed his magic on the women. Sizzling sparks lashed out into all three of them, and they all cried out in sweet agony as powerful orgasms ripped through their bodies. As all three of them fell away, Mike spun in place and planted his fist straight into the face of Christmas Past.

With the roaring sound of rushing water, the world around them crumbled as Christmas Past crashed into the ground with a thud. Dazzling lights flickered across their body as Mike knelt down and grabbed a handful of hair to pull them to their feet. They were in a metallic hallway with tiny vents along the bottom.

"Had enough?" he asked, then frowned. One of the spirit's eyes had turned black, while the other was white. Those same dark pools flowed beneath their skin, sloshing back and forth.

"I'm-sorry-I'm-sorry-I'm-sorry-sorry-sorry," they muttered, then let out a cry like a child. Mike let go of the spirit, and it hovered in place, the darkness receding from it.

"You have to run," they whispered, their features now angelic. "Before the darkness returns."

"What darkness?" he asked, pulling up his pants. "Who sent you?"

"It's been set free, Mike Radley." The spirit shook their head, their features cracking. "And all it wants is revenge. I was sent to keep you from interfering, by any means necessary."

"Hey, calm down." He put his hand on the spirit's forehead. Genuine fear was reflected in its eyes as it looked up at him, which gave way to relief when he didn't hurt it.

"You can touch me?" They closed their eyes and pressed into his hand. "Have you become a spirit, too?"

"My spiritual genealogy has gone through some edits," he confessed. Was it his connection to Cecilia that allowed him to do this?

"Mike?" Yuki was on her hands and knees, her features twisted in pain. "It's changing."

He stepped back from Christmas Past and saw that a shadow had formed beneath it. Tendrils of black clung to the spirit's legs and crawled up, gobbling up the light from its body.

"Oh, you'd better watch out. And don't you dare cry." Christmas Past jerked their head up, revealing that the darkness had returned to their eyes. They lifted into the air and hovered before them, then smiled. Their mouth may as well have been full of daggers. "When the Krampus finds you, you're all going to die!"

Mike unleashed the banshee's scream, channeling his anger into it. The spirit flinched, then shattered like glass into little clouds of smoke. Each one drifted a separate direction, most of them traveling out the nearby vents, until they were alone again.

"Yuki, are you okay?" He ran to her side and helped her up.

"Couldn't even keep your pants on while fighting a Christmas spirit. It really is the holiday season." She grinned weakly at her joke. "I'm so thirsty."

"Me, too. We've got to find a way out of here, I'm fucking starving." Once Yuki was on her feet, she leaned against him. "Sorry it took me so long."

"It's okay." She patted his bicep. "I should have known better. That thing literally got in my head."

"Yeah. Really obnoxious." Figuring any direction was as good as the other, he started walking. "I have a random question for you," he said.

"Can't be any more random than what just happened," she replied.

"Right. Well, here goes." He cleared his throat, it was so damn dry in the vents. When this was all over, he would talk to someone about putting in a humidifier. "What in the fuck is a Krampus?"

That's right, folks, it's official! The Krampus is this book's villain!

What does he want, what are his powers, how will Mike fight him? I must also say that while I enjoyed writing this chapter, putting a profanity filter on Lily was absolutely hilarious for me. I can't tell you how many bad words still made it through, and have my beta readers to thank for pointing them out.

You also may note some oddities in Christmas Past's speech patterns. Some of their lines were pulled straight from Charles Dickens, and I tried to keep their physical traits intact from the source material. Naturally, I did change a few elements, but that's how it usually goes.

For those of you who are curious, I fully intend to read the Hogfather after this book is written.

I hope this chapter finds you well, because times are certainly stressful. If this story of mine has brought you any sort of joy, then tell your friends about it! Word of mouth is an author's beef jerky, and I fucking love beef jerky.

You're amazing, stay safe!

~Annabelle Hawthorne