Organism X Ch. 07

"I'm sorry for him," Ellie said. "He can be kind of strange."

Bethany stood back up and scooped off some of the slime on her leg.

"So that's the famous boyfriend I've been hearing about," Bethany said.

"You don't like him," Ellie said.

"It doesn't matter what I think, El."

Ellie shook her head and scrunched her nose. It always amazed Bethany just how terminally cute Ellie could manage to look without trying.

"It does," she said. "It matters to me."

"Fine, do you want my honest opinion?"

Ellie nodded. Her eyes were crystal blue and very large. Bethany was well over a head taller than Ellie, giving her the peculiar sensation that she was talking to a child. That wide-eyed look, it was one that screamed vulnerability.

This is the first time she's ever had someone, Bethany reminded herself. Don't take that away from her.

"He seems fine," Bethany lied. "I'm sure he just got caught off guard. I would have been too."

Ellie's expression lightened considerably. Without warning, she pulled Bethany into a close hug.

"I'm glad you like him!"

"Well I didn't say I liked him," Bethany muttered.

"I'm just glad I have your approval now!"

"Great," Bethany said.

Ellie looked to the dormitory and back at Bethany.

"Before I go," she said. "Have you heard from Dan? I keep trying to get him to visit."

With you and Mr. Smug together, that is a very bad idea.

Bethany bit her tongue.

"He seems like he's having a blast at UVA," she said. "We'll all have to hang out during Thanksgiving break."

"Oh that'll be fun!" Ellie said. "I bet he'll be bringing back a girlfriend knowing him."

That's a losing bet, Bethany thought.

"Well, are you okay to be all alone?" Ellie asked. "I have to head in, but I can wait with you."

"I'm fine. I'm going to head home and maybe catch some shuteye."

"Got it! Well, see you later Beth!"

As Ellie ran off towards Warren hall, Bethany stopped her.

"El?"

"Yes?"

"Just be careful with him."

Ellie nodded and ran into the dorm.

6.

Penny unpacked her clothes and folded them onto her bed while Eliza sat on Lindsay's bed and scowled at every possible thing in the room, saying nothing. The silence was suffocating.

Finally, Penny began to hum to herself faintly. She made it through about half of the first verse of Hey Jude when Eliza cut her off.

"Will you stop that?" she snapped. "I'm trying to think."

"About what?"

Eliza shushed her and went back to glaring at the ceiling.

"Whatever," Penny muttered.

If Penny was being honest with herself, even this awkward back-and-forth was a relief. After a somber week filled with a wake, a funeral, and a family breakdown, there was something strangely comforting about the presence of the angry little redhead. She was like an adorable puppy that tried to bite you if you got too close. Or you talked. Or did anything at all.

The one thing that bothered Penny was just how good looking Eliza managed to be while pissed off. She rocked a scowl with her scarlett pixie cut and her elfen features. Tantrums suddenly looked dignified.

Penny turned to face the mirror on the back of the door and scrunched her face up like she was mad for a moment. She just looked like she had to take a really big shit. Even worse, she was heavy enough to gain a double chin when she frowned. Life was full of minor practical jokes like that.

"What are you doing?" Eliza said.

"Nothing!"

"Am I bothering you?"

"Not at all! Honestly, it's nice to have company. It was a lonely week and-"

Eliza cut her off.

"Fine. Good."

Back to scowling.

Penny grabbed the stack of panties she had built on her bed, taking a moment to balefully reflect on how big and unattractive they all looked. Each pair was a bland, single pastel color and they were all granny-panty types. Never in a million years was Penny going to be allowed to wear a thong or even lingerie.

Eliza probably had a butt as tight and firm as a volleyball. Suddenly, Penny got an image of a pair of fat volleyballs sticking out from Eliza's behind, the girl glaring with that deadly serious expression all the while. Penny covered her mouth to stifle the laughter.

She stepped over to her underwear drawer and without looking opened it. That's when it came out.

All of a sudden, a flash of dark green surged out of the drawer at Penny. Something slimy and warm slapped across Penny's shoulder and immediately began to snake its way downward, towards the opening in Penny's shirt.

The girl panicked, screamed, and began to stumble across the room.

"What the fuck is the matter with you?" Eliza yelled.

Penny spun around and clawed at her shoulder, trying in vain to rip the thing off of her. It was already halfway through the opening in her shirt. She could feel hot, viscous slime beginning to coat her breasts through her bra.

"Get it off!" Penny shrieked. "Get it off! Get it off, Get it off!

Eliza shot off the bed and grabbed Penny by the arms, trying to get a good look at the thing crawling down the girl's shirt. It was a giant worm or snake or something. Whatever it was, it looked disgusting.

For a split second, Eliza watched the creature glisten in the dorm room fluorescents before sipping under Penny's light blue shirt completely.

"What are you waiting for?" Penny screamed.

"Just shut up and let me think."

"Don't tell me to shut up!"

Penny was now in hysterics, shaking and flapping her arms.

Eliza grabbed the bottom of Penny's shirt and yanked it up over the girl's head. Meanwhile, Penny screamed her head off, but the shirt muffled it a little. Across the girl's pudgy midsection was a long trail of thick green slime.

For Penny, this moment was turning into a full blown panic attack. Something terribly alive was slithering ever lower down her body, leaving a trail of thick, sweet mucus that made her head spin. On top of that, she could not move her goddamn arms.

Eliza could see the worm clearly now. It was about five or six inches long and about an inch thick, accept at what Eliza could only describe as the head, which thickened into a bulbous mound. The creature was black mottled with spots of dark green, but the underlying texture was hard to make out with the amount of slime covering its surface.

Eliza watched the creature slide down Penny's plump belly and start to pry at the waistband of the girl's skirt. At that moment, Eliza snapped out of her funk and moved.

Reaching with both hands, she seized the creature in her fingers and yanked it away from Penny just as it began to poke its head down the girl's skirt.

Penny tumbled backwards, the shirt still over her head, before slumping against her bed.

Meanwhile, Eliza stared blankly at the worm in her hands. The creature writhed violently for a few seconds before it seemed to stop. Eliza felt a strange, growing vibration and suddenly a jet of green slime shot up from the head, splattering on the ceiling.

"Shit!" She screamed, throwing the worm across the room towards the door.

It took no time for the creature to regain its bearings. It spun around and began to slither inwards, now gunning for Eliza.

"Penny, fucking help me!"

Penny had just yanked her shirt back down and was idly sloshing off green mucus here and there. She looked down at the slithering creature, finally getting a good look at her attacker. Then she screamed yet again.

"Are you always this useless?"

Eliza stepped backwards as the worm slowly cornered her. At that moment, the door flew open and Cece Ramírez stormed in, her normally sleepy eyes blazing.

"What the fuck is wrong with you two?" She cried.

Eliza desperately pointed at the approaching monstrosity. Cece's expression shifted immediately to something Eliza could not discern. Then the girl ran out of the room.

The creature slithered closer.

Cece Ramírez returned a moment later holding a big glass bowl. For some godforsaken reason, she looked elated.

Just as the worm inched its way to Eliza's feet, Cece descended on it with the overturned bowl, trapping it behind the glass. While the creature slammed hard against the glass, Cece held the bowl in place.

"I think I'll call you Sweet Wormengarde," the girl said affectionately to the captured animal.

Eliza and Penny just stared at Cece in horror and disbelief.

***

Penny snapped a picture of the worm as it swam through the water of the mid-sized aquarium/terrarium hybrid and sent it to Lindsay with the caption "what the fuck?"

"So what is it?" She asked Cece.

The room was filled with a cacophony of buzzing motors and trickling water from several different aquariums and terrariums, both large and small. They even covered one of the bed frames, the mattress having been removed and replaced with a sheet of plywood.

Cece shrugged her shoulders.

"Wormy is whatever she wants to be."

The girl tracked the worm in the water with her finger affectionately. It followed her finger relentlessly whenever she got near.

"So you have no clue," Eliza said.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"What do we do? My roommate's gone psycho. Why would she put this thing in my panties drawer?"

Eliza peered at the thing as it swam frantically through the water.

"I mean, it kind of fits, in a sick way. It has a rather familiar shape," she said.

Penny looked at the thing and at first didn't understand. She traced her eyes along its wiggling, tube like mass, up to the bulge of greenish-black flesh that seemed to be its head. The creature looked like an eel, but that didn't have anything to do with panties. Penny tried to imagine it crawling through narrow burrows under the sea floor. Squeezing through narrow passage ways. Pushing its head into tight openings.

It clicked.

"Ew! Stop being gross!"

"I'm not the one who stuck this monster with your panties."

"Hey!" Cece snapped. "Sweet Wormengarde is not a monster."

Eliza and Penny both gave the girl baffled looks, but back off when they saw the sheer level of anger and sincerity in the girl's face.

"Thanks for taking it, Cece," Penny said sheepishly.

"Yeah," Eliza added. "Thanks for, um, helping me."

"That's better," Cece said with a smirk.

She grabbed a label maker on her desk, one of two surfaces not covered in animal habitats, and printed out a label reading "Sweet Wormengarde - Unknown". Then she carefully slid the label across the very top right corner of the aquarium.

"How do you know it won't drown?" Penny asked.

The creature seemed to swim just fine, but it must have spent a while in the air waiting for Penny to find it. At the very least, it seemed to survive just fine in land.

"I got this habitat for a bullfrog. It's got a mix of aquatic and land environments, as you can see," Cece pointed to a dismal gray island with a pot of fake grass that took up nearly a quarter of the tank. "It's sloped so wormy can get back on land if she needs to. I stuck her on land first while you were cleaning up, but she seems to like swimming better."

"Are you sure it's safe to have this thing?" Eliza asked. "I mean, it straight up attacked Penny. In fact, I'm pretty sure it was going for your crotch!"

Eliza grinned maniacally and jabbed Penny in the ribs. Being around the little pixie bitch was getting old quick.

"Very funny," Penny said.

Cece grabbed a glass jar full of cubes of dried brown matter labeled "brine shrimp" and pulled out a handful. Through the grating on top of the aquarium, she dropped these cubes one by one. They plopped into the water and started to break apart.

At first, the creature within the aquarium did not react. It swam up and down, bouncing against the disintegrating brine shrimp. Then, perking up its bulbous head, it approached one of the more solid cubes.

The girls watched in awe and mild disgust as the head of the creature expanded, revealing a hole that they could only assume was the mouth. This hole was big enough to fit a marble when fully opened. In an instant, the worm inhaled the cube of soggy brine shrimp into its mouth and swam back down into the depths. A moment later, it popped back up and grabbed another cube.

It repeated this process until nothing was left. It never slowed down its feeding and seemed perfectly read for more. It wiggled its body and seemed to look at Cece expectantly.

"To answer your question," Cece said finally. "I have a tarantula and a scorpion as well. Safety isn't big on my list of concerns."

"Suit yourself. That thing gives me the creeps," Eliza said.

"Well it's a good thing you won't be caring for her then," Cece said.

At that moment, Penny's phone chimed with a text message. It was from Lindsay.

"I take it you didn't like your homecoming gift?" It read.

Penny furrowed her brow. Was Lindsay really trying to joke through this? The level of immaturity was astounding.

"What? What is it?" Eliza asked.

"It's our favorite person."

Penny showed Eliza the text.

"Tell her you want to meet up and talk."

"Fine," Penny said.

She texted this to Lindsay and a minute later got a response.

"I'm at Carter Hall. Room 124. Meet me there?"

"She wants to meet at Carter Hall. This sounds weird."

"Tell her you're coming," Eliza said. "Don't mention me. I want to catch her off guard."

"Fine," Penny said.

She had a sinking feeling in her gut. Something was wrong, that much was obvious. There was so little they actually knew.

"Alright," Eliza said. "Carter is a ten minute walk. Let's go. Cece, thanks for the help and good luck with your worm."

"Au Revoir," Cece said as she dumped another heaping of brine shrimp into the tank. The creature within guzzled down the particulate.

Before they left, Penny dashed back into her room and came out holding a wooden softball bat.

"What the hell are you bringing that thing for?" Eliza asked.

"Between the worms and the deaths and Lindsay being all weird, I don't feel safe."

"Come on, that's stupid. Put that thing away."

"No! You weren't the one with the monster worm crawling all over you!"

"Fine," Eliza said, sighing. "Come on. Let's head out."

7.

Now that she could move her arms and legs, Melissa was bound. That cruel irony seemed to define her night.

Her wrists and hands were bound with duct tape and each ankle was bound to one bed post by rope. She could wiggle a little, but otherwise was rendered immobile. There was a strip of duct tape covering her mouth.

In her mind, memories flashed at irregular intervals. Visions of Erin, of her crying for help. Memory of the feeling. Melissa, feeling her pussy throb like never before, unable to get up and help. Unable to even register the situation. Just watching vacantly as her friend was defiled.

The girls were talking amongst themselves.

"I don't see why we don't grab one of the eggs that's ready to hatch and just leave it between her legs. It's not like she can fight it," the blonde one, Lindsay, said.

"Because," Megan said. "It's not fun that way."

"Well then what is fun? Turning other girls in fun."

Megan sighed and walked over to Melissa, running her hand along the girl's belly.

"What's fun is letting our newest sister turn her former friend when she's finally ready."

Melissa's blood ran cold. She could barely wrap her head around the last few hours and what she did understand terrified her. What was happening to Erin? What was that thing they put inside of her?

"Great," Lindsay said. "That could take hours. You don't even know where the little bitch went."

"I'm sure she's around here," Megan said.

"How are you sure?"

Megan shrugged.

"A hunch."

"Well what are we supposed to do?"

Lily was clutching her belly and looking on the verge of tears. Lindsay just looked pissed.

"One of you is going to have to watch her."

Melissa shifted herself slightly, trying to get a good idea of how much mobility she could manage. Her legs were secured tightly and spread in a way that made her feel vaguely ill having seen Erin's fate only minutes earlier. Her wrists were bound tightly as well, but they were not attached to the bed. That was something, at least.

"Nose ghost!" Lindsay said.

Lilly refused to look up. The girl seemed dejected. Every few minutes, she would eye Melissa with a mix of desire and sadness.

"I feel so empty," she muttered. "Why did you take it from me?"

"What is she on about?" Megan asked.

"I think she's upset that you took her baby from her," Lindsay said.

"Oh. Sorry, I guess."

Lily looked up at Megan, her eyes glistening with tears.

"Will there be another one? I want a chance to give it to someone. It was feeling so good."

"Sure," Megan said. "Just go find someone to fuck."

"So is that how it works?" Lindsay asked. "Because I'm empty right now and I haven't fucked a guy since last night."

Megan shrugged. Her patience with the other two was clearly waning.

"I don't know. Seems like it. I fucked two guys to death yesterday and pushed out that monstrosity a couple hours later. I haven't had anything since."

"So if I fuck, then I'll give birth to another one?"

"Yeah, sure. Just don't kill someone. Why don't you run along, Lily?"

Lindsay stared daggers at Megan. Melissa watched as the girl tensed, looking ready to punch Megan. Then she relented.

"I can't fuck. I can't turn anyone. You owe me if you let her go have fun."

"Oh my God, you really are going to drag your feet on this. Yes, fine. What do you want out of this?"

Melissa watched the girls carefully. The last thing she needed was them getting suspicious of her. Her heart pounded harder than it ever had. She was trapped, tied up, and apparently living in a crazy science fiction story.

After seeing Erin violated by that creature, nothing felt real anymore. It only seemed stranger to have the girls bickering like this. This never happened in the movies.

"I want you to bring me a really hot girl to turn," Lindsay said. "I'm talking ten out of ten babe. One of your cheerleader friends, maybe."

"Oh yeah, I forgot about those," Megan said. She looked pensive for a moment and then refocused. "Fine. I'll find you a really hot girl or whatever. Just watch this one right now."

"Deal."

At least I have a little time, Melissa thought. She looked down and saw the bump of her phone in her pocket. Her fingers were almost completely immobile, but the tips stuck out from the duct tape. If she could just get it out of her pocket, there was hope. Especially with the girls bickering.

"Alright, we're agreed then," Megan said. "I'm going to find our newest convert. You're going to watch pepperspray bitch over here. Lily, put on some clothes and find someone's bone to jump."

Melissa kept a close eye on each of the girls and dipped her hand into her pocket, pulling the phone out and letting it fall slightly to the mattress. Then she pushed it under her right buttock for later.

Megan and Lily left shortly after, leaving Lindsay alone with her. The room seemed to grow more tense as it came down to the two of them. Somehow, Melissa felt more vulnerable.

Lindsay walked over to the bed and started to run her hands along Melissa's body. Closing her eyes, Melissa tried to imagine herself far away from her own body. The girl's fingers pried more and more as the seconds stacked up.

"You both put up a good fight. A lot better than the girls last night," Lindsay said. "You really nailed Megan with that mace."

The girl cupped Melissa's breast and began to massage it through her shirt. Suddenly, she felt a growing warmth matched with tingly pleasure that vibrated through her skin like small lightning bolts. Melissa started to get wet between the legs.