The Crimson Milk Ch. 24

Everett put down the bloody device. He cleaned his hands with a dirty rag as he took a seat in an old aluminum folding chair. The dim light above him flickered. The creature tied to the chair in the center of the room wheezed and coughed. It resembled a young girl at times, a middle aged man at others. The more someone concentrated on the changeling, the less distinct it became, like trying to identify something on the other side of a thin waterfall.

Everett gazed at the broken form in front of him. He wondered once again what he should see when he looked at it. His mind flipped from intrigue to revulsion in a regular rhythm. How long had it been trapped here with him? How much longer could it hold out?

Rust flecks rained down from above them as Poe walked along the catwalk of the abandoned factory, making his way to the floor level. They were hidden away in a long vacated factory, somehow protected from Mandi's roaming hunting parties. The old stairwell rattled as Poe descended.

"Any progress?" Poe asked in a hoarse whisper.

Everett's eyes didn't move off of the creature, "Not yet. We're close."

Poe shuddered slightly as he looked at the changeling. It had once resembled his dead wife, but now he could only see a gray, writhing mass of flesh. He looked away, "The others are back with food if you're hungry. Don't remember the last time I saw you eat something."

Everett ignored him. He stood and picked up the strange implement again. Moving over to the creature, he grabbed hold of its head. "The name," he said. The creature did not respond. It shimmered and a beautiful young woman looked back at him with a broad smile. "Say his name."

"I'll suck your cock. I love sucking cock. Please!"

Everett sighed. The device in his hand whirred to life, emitting a loud buzzing noise as metal grated against metal. Everett slammed it into the creature's neck and unearthly screams filled the room as blood splattered against the walls.

-

"What are you doing here?"

A young, nineteen year old, Everett smiled broadly as he climbed through the window. He grabbed hold of Teresa's hand and squeezed as he pulled her in for a kiss. "I had to see you."

Teresa giggled and hesitantly allowed him past her into the bedroom. She silently closed the window behind him, and the two stood breathlessly in silence. From somewhere down the hall, they could hear the wheezing snores of Teresa's father. Teresa wore only a nightgown and blushed profusely as she pulled on a shawl. "You shouldn't have come Everett Daniels. If my father finds out you're here, he'll have you arrested."

"Then we'll have to be quiet," he said holding a finger up to his grinning lips. "I'm leaving tomorrow, and I had to see you. I think your father would understand. Come, sit." He dropped down on her bed and patted the spot beside him. She firmly stood in place. "Come on Teresa, you know how I feel."

Her visage softened, "And you know how I feel about you. But you can't come here like this. I told you I would wait for you."

Everett shook his head, "I don't want to wait. Especially since I can't promise that I'll come back."

She padded over to him quickly, "Don't say that. The war will be over before it starts. You've seen the papers. By Christmas of next year, it'll all be old news."

Everett's face darkened, "Yeah, sure. A year is a long time though."

Teresa let out a quick huff of exasperation then walked over to the door and quietly turned the small lock. Everett's heart started to beat rapidly as she turned around to face him. They had kissed, and his hands had roamed over her sweater a few times, but now he was alone in her bedroom with the door locked. They had been high school sweethearts, but then the draft notice came on Teresa's eighteenth birthday. She'd sat with him all that night, only sat. Still he's been lectured by his mother and hers the next morning. The fathers weighed in and the matter ended in a bitter silence since both of the guilty party assured the everyone that nothing happened.

Everett remembered the look Teresa's father gave him. Pure anger until he noticed the piece of paper in the young man's hand. Teresa was a late addition to her family, and her father had spent time in Europe in 1918. The old man never spoke of it.

Teresa removed the shawl, tossing it on the pillows at the other end of the bed. She pulled her braided hair over her left shoulder as she reached behind her neck to undo a small clasp on her nightgown. She bent over to grab the hem of the teal fabric, and Everett's heart jumped as she lifted it up rapidly over her body and head. He had never seen actual breasts before. They weren't as round as he expected based on some of the statues he'd seen in art books. But they certainly elicited a response as his cock throbbed in his pants.

Teresa smiled at him while crossing her arms over her breasts. "Go on then, your turn."

Frantically, Everett pulled off his shirt and undershirt revealing a tanned and muscular chest. While he was at it, he kicked off his shoes and unbuckled his belt. Teresa moved over to him and reached out to touch his chest. She felt his heartbeat and wondered if hers matched its pace. Everett's gaze remained transfixed on the two breasts mere inches from his face. Instinctively, he leaned forward and nuzzled between them, lightly kissing over them until he reached a nipple. He allowed his tongue to gently lick at the tiny nub, eliciting a low sigh from Teresa.

She pulled away from him. "Can I see it?"

Everett had never been very self conscious until that moment. "Uh, yeah, but let's go at the same time." He stood and let his slacks fall off, leaving him standing a few inches away from Teresa in his briefs, his cock painfully straining against the fabric. Teresa eyed the bulge with a wild interest. She nodded and both of them hooked their fingers in the bands of their underwear and pulled down.

In the dim light of her bedroom, Teresa looked at the first man's penis that she had ever seen. It stood out straight from Everett's body, angrily straining against the air. Beneath it hung his testicles, not unlike what she had seen on other animals. For his part, Everett did not see anything of particular interest about Teresa's bare pubis, yet the bush of pubic hair did appeal to him for reasons beyond his reckoning, something innate. Teresa's small hand closed around his shaft as she absent-mindedly toyed with her first cock. Curiously, a small dollop of liquid oozed from the tip. Her thumb ran over it, spreading the slick goo over the head of his penis. Her own arousal increased, and she moved over to the bed.

Everett watched as this beautiful young woman laid back on her bed and spread her legs for him. From the new angle, he saw her pussy for the first time, beautiful and inviting. Eagerly, he moved between her legs, feeling the warmth of them press into his sides, pulling him forward. He nudged forward several times, but did not succeed in entering her. Awkwardly, he hovered over her as they kissed, and he split his attention between guiding his cock and keeping her occupied. Finally, he slipped inside of her and understood true pleasure.

The pure warmth surrounded his cock as her pussy gripped its first invader. He didn't encounter any resistance as he expected. School mates liked to tell bawdy stories, and Teresa's family owned horses. He drew his own conclusions from there.

Everett managed to steal a look at her. She bit her lip and kept her face turned away from him. Her chest heaved up and down with heavy breathing though, which he took as a good sign. Her breasts quivered as he began to slide in and out of her. Slowly, a sensation he did understand built up at the base of his cock. He didn't their first time to end too soon, but couldn't stop thrusting into her. Horror stories of pregnancy flooded his mind as his cock erupted inside of her, spilling his seed deep inside the virgin pussy.

Out of breath, he rolled off of her onto the bed. They exchanged small, quiet kisses as Everett pulled a blanket over them. They whispered loving words in each other's ears. They made promises and smiled and kissed more. They decided to try again later, but soon they fell asleep in each other's arms.

The next morning, after a very long and tearful hug. Everett left, not through the window, but through the front door. Teresa's father watched him in disbelief as the young man strutted out of the house. Later that day, he boarded a bus which took him to a train and then to another bus which went to a camp. Ten weeks after that, he went through another series of buses and trains until he boarded a ship and sailed across the Atlantic.

-

The refugees huddled in the old factory. Scavenging from abandoned homes, the survivors created a somewhat comfortable space. Everett and Poe had rounded them up, often drawing them right from the clutches of some lurid beast. Nevertheless, their number dwindled day by day. Trips out for supplies usually meant someone did not come back. Arnold had been one of those, Monica thought as she sat on her meager pallet.

She camped in a corner of the room, somewhat isolated from the others. Other people were a threat, and she never knew when one of them would snap. The only trusted her step-son, Garrett. The night Mandi took over the town, Monica's family waited together in the dark for their doom. Garrett pulled his father away from the door when that thing, whatever it had been, started calling out. Later, the young man confided that the abomination sounded eerily like his deceased mother. And it had said awful things.

They escaped and the spell broke. Everett found them and brought them into the relative safety of the group of survivors. Things changed, though. Arnold became a hard man after the encounter with the thing. His son tried to imitate him, putting on his own steeled determination. Until the night that Arnold did not come back. Garrett broke, weeping into Monica's shoulder as Poe broke the news. Monica struggled with the relationship with her step-son. Garrett hated that his father would marry someone so close to his son's age. Arnold had been happy, though, so they tried to make peace.

Monica looked at the young man curled up under a blanket near her. They only had each other left. Everyone slept when they could, usually from pure exhaustion. Time seemed to fold over on itself constantly, entire days skipping from night to night. With only their constant paranoia and the unnerving wails of the thing on the lower levels to keep them company, most of them welcomed sleep. Everett assured them of their safety. She believed him. They all believed him, but none of them could pinpoint exactly why. He exuded a confidence about everything and maintained a grim determination. Too often, Monica saw him wash blood from his hands.

She glanced over at Garrett and noticed sweat on his brow. Another nightmare, she thought. They all had them, and they seemed to be getting worse. Not worse, she thought, closer. A clattering noise drew her attention. Looking up through the rafters and abandoned water piping, she saw the fluttering of wings. Some wildlife continued on despite the bizarre changes to the world. No one trusted it, though. An old barn owl left in a rush, off to hunt for another night. The pipes creaked as they settled, and dust sprinkled down from the ceiling.

-

Down on the factory floor, Everett once again dropped the odd tool. The creature whined and blubbered. Poe rubbed his eyes, trying to massage out the constant ache that had been present sense he first laid eyes on the creature.

The changeling's head lilted to the side as tears streamed down its featureless face. The blur of motion and change had stopped. Now it appeared to any eyes as the gray featureless thing that it was. "She...promised..." it whined in a low whisper.

Everett's eyes flashed open. "What? What did she promise you?"

The creature looked at him with malice, "I am supposed to be with the others. No more pain, only pleasure. Forever and forever. She promised us...me."

Everett stood in front of the piteous creature. "I will let you go. No more pain. You should know by now that I keep my promises. Just tell me that name. The one name in your head that you don't want to say. All of this will stop, you can return to your mistress, to the others like you."

It snarled at him, "Use it to hurt her. Use it to break her. I won't. I won't say. We won't say!"

Everett shrugged and picked up the device again, it whirred to life.

"No, wait! STOP!" came a voice out of the creature. It was a young man's voice, somehow familiar to Poe.

Everett eyed the beast cautiously, "Who are you?"

The creature's skin began to ripple and crawl. It spoke again, "Christopher. That was my name before. Christopher. Oh, god I can feel them. All of them inside of my head. They are so angry at me."

Everett dropped the device and held the shoulder of the thing calling itself Christopher. "All those faces, all those memories, they're not you. But you can still hear them, can't you? Christopher, I can take all that away, I can make them be quiet again. I just need you to tell me a name. The name that none of them are speaking."

The creature's skin smoothed out and Poe saw a young man with very tired eyes. He looked frail and small, sitting naked tied to the chair. The longer the changeling held the form, the more welts and cuts and bruises started to appear. Christopher closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, "Sebastian. Sebastian Teller."

Everett let out a long relieved sigh. He placed his hand against Christopher's temple and muttered something under his breath. He stood up, grabbed the tool from the floor, and brushed past Poe on his way to the side door. "Are you coming?" he asked.

Poe was confused, "Wait, what just happened?" He instinctively started to follow.

"I released the mental blocks I put on it," Everett said. "Let it connect back to the hive mind."

Poe felt a twinge of panic flood him, "How? What does that even mean? So they can know where it is now? Why would you do that? Could you stop for a fucking second!"

Everett turned and looked at Poe. "What do you not understand? I know the name now. We're going to go get him. This is how we win."

"But they're coming here. They'll come for it. What about all those people upstairs? What are they to you?"

Everett's face remained stoic, "Bait." He picked up a bag and a tossed his torture device inside. "She needs to be distracted so that we can get out. We could never save those people without sacrificing them first. Now you can stay here and get consumed like them, or you can come with me and help put the bitch down."

Everett vanished out of the side door. Poe followed.

-

When Everett returned from the war, he first saw his small town as any other person would see it, an empty and unimportant forest. Looking at the space gave him the sudden urge to go as far away as possible. He wondered how many of these forests existed in the world, and wondered why he instinctively preferred the type of forest where German shells exploded trees. Determined, he walked into the dark shade of the trees.

As he passed deeper and deeper into the forest, he began to recognize the houses and streets where he had grown up. They were changed. Everything had become ornate and gaudy. Simple, wooden houses replaced by stone structures with iron windows, like something out of a story book about dragons. The kind Teresa read as a young girl. Everett did not let his gaze wander too much. He sensed the things lurking just out of sight, and worried that they would resemble the beings from his dreams. Instead, he focused his gaze on the town courthouse, or what had once been the town courthouse.

The white building had been painted black, but even the new paint stripped off as if boiled away by an infernal heat. Red light seeped through the cracks in the wood. White Roman pillars had turned to black, runes of some arcane language etched in red paint all around each. Everett suspected they were no longer hollow wood, but solid obsidian. The diabolical building loomed over him as he passed through the pillars and approached the heavy iron doors. He pushed inside.

Before, a series of offices would have greeted him on the first floor, leading up to courtrooms on the second, but all that had changed. Instead, he stepped directly into a great hall filled with beds and cushions, like the harem from Arabian Nights. Two dozen of her creations were scattered about the room. The scene in front of him was one he had seen time and again while sleeping in foxholes. At first, it brought him a strange comfort, but soon it turned to torment as he began seeing past the facades.

Carnal creations writhed in various states of debauchery. A woman with blue skin bounced up and down on a thick cock as the man beneath her groaned and squeezed her tits. Several feet away, a woman with a pig nose laid on her side as a small, impish girl alternated suckling from the pigwoman's multiple teats while using a forked tail to tease and fuck the creature's slit. A minotaur roared with pleasure as he sprayed cum on the tits of a woman permanently fixed to appear like a pinup girl. But the true monster waited at the far end of the room, sitting on a pedestal.

Teresa's blood red eyes looked out over the rutting. Scaled, green skin covered her body as she thrust her large rump up in the air for the brutish man behind her. Fat, scaled tits splashed bright pink milk underneath her. Even with her serpentine skin, Everett could not deny her beauty. He understood why so many would fall to her sway.

Her eyes took on new vibrancy as she spotted Everett. She pulled away from the man fucking her, going to her knees beside the ten inch cock still covered in her juices. Casually, she started jerking the man off while tugging on his balls until his cum spurted out in front of him. Satisfied with her work, she waved him off as more and more of the room noticed the presence of a pure human.

Teresa spoke, "You came back." Her voice feigned happiness, but Everett could sense the anger and fear behind her words. "I have amazing news, Everett. We can be together, forever!"

Everett looked at the creature in front of him and felt no pity. "I dreamed of this. I did not believe it could be true."

"Of course it's true, darling," Teresa said, standing up. She was taller than he remembered, and her scales shimmered and slightly changed color as she walked toward him. "We've been given an amazing gift. This is a power I can share with you. Pleasure beyond your wildest imagination."

"Is that what you did to yourself? To all these people?" he said bitterly.

"I freed them. They sat around all day and night worrying about the war and rations and bombs. I took away those worries and let them become what they always dreamed. I took away age and gave them youth. I took away disease and gave them everlasting life. We can share it, and all the other things." She beckoned over two women. She had one turn around. "Look at this ass, Everett. You can fuck her any time you want, and you can make her ass get bigger. You can stuff your cock between her ass cheeks and fuck until you bathe her in your cum. It will make her toes curl. And this girl, look at her breasts. This milk will make your cock grow longer and longer, each inch becoming more and more sensitive. Your balls will get round and heavy with cum, and I can be the one to suck you dry, Everett. All of this, and anything you could imagine!"

Everett swallowed. The bulge in his pants brought him shame, but he did not waver. "What were their names?"

"Slut and whore for all that it matters," Teresa spat. "You would give all of this up to be some limp dicked husband to a girl who you couldn't satisfy before abandoning her."