Published at 8th of March 2024 7:44 am

Chapter Thirty Nine

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As I scuttled across the island, I felt the magic of the half-completed contract settle into me. I felt feverishly hot, similar to staying in a hot tub for too long. The heat soaked through my skin, into my muscles, finally settling in my bones, soaking the marrow. I felt a twinge at the base of my skull where it connected to my spine, and suddenly the night came alive with color. But they weren’t colors as I knew them.

The ground had a… the closest thing I could call it to a normal color would be dark gray. The ground had an extra dark gray shade to it now. I would be hard-pressed to describe what I saw if asked. The colors were similar to the colors I ran into in everyday life, but one step removed. Or elevated? It was like I was seeing shades I’d never seen before, but they were still recognizable.

I glanced to the side where one of the plant blisters was and saw an explosion of colors. Some of the plants were bluish, some red. It wasn’t until I spotted a discarded moving pallet (now covered in an orange aura) that I understood what I was looking at. A slow smile split my face, grim and eager.

Before I knew it, I was at the base of the ziggurat. Terrance’s voice and Alice’s screams were deafeningly loud, emitting from the ziggurats roof with the same force as a concert speaker. The blood-slick steps were the same, maybe slightly drier than they were when I was here before. Without pause I dashed up the stairs, my tentacles lifting me up better than my legs could. I crested the top of the building, bracing myself for what I might see.

Terrance stood over Alice—or at least, what used to be Terrance stood over her. He had undergone a transformation like Knife Boy had. Instead of his skin becoming knives, however, his suit had come alive. It had grown several feet. The purple cloth had taken on the appearance of moist skin, like a hippo. Little pseudo-arms sprouted from it in various places, without rhyme or reason. Terrance’s shoes were now flat and spread out like someone had combined an elephants foot with a ducks. A couple dozen stubby toes spread from the feet in every direction. His tie had grown several feet and seemed to move on its own. It was also wet, but unlike the rest of the suit, seemed to drip a thick substance like tar, only clear. His arms were long and bulky, like a gorilla's, and had too many fingers with too many knuckles. Terrance’s head didn’t come out of the top of the suit anymore, but jutted out of the left breast like a fucked-up pocket square.

Alice had seen better days. She was bleeding from dozens of nasty cuts along her arms, face, neck, collar, and shoulders. Her hands were mangled. Terrance had broken her fingers. Her eyes were bloodshot when she caught sight of me, and her expression was an odd mix of hope and consternation.

Behind and to the side of Terrance and Alice was Mr. Forgettable. He also looked different than before, but it wasn’t until he pulled a machete from his belt that I could spot what it was. He trailed several after-images now, like a shitty slow-mo effect or when you take bad acid.

“Boss,” he said, pointing his blade at me.

Terrance spotted me and smiled. Ew, he smiled twice. A giant mouth split the “suit” at the waist, mirroring Terrance’s expression. Fucking gross.

“I knew I had you pegged,” Terrance said, shifting his hold on Alice. He grabbed the back of her neck and lifted her off the ground with casual strength, holding her like one would a misbehaving cat. “You tried to act callous back on the ship, but you’re a Boy Scout.”

“So I’m going to give you a deal,” I said, ignoring him. The expression Terrance gave me bordered on psychotic at being ignored. “Give me Alice, and I’ll leave. I won’t kill you.”

I lowered myself to the ground, spreading my tentacles out behind me. I shifted my eyes until they became the pits of black from before, leaking bits of the void down my cheeks. I shifted the tentacles as well, until they were the semi-real form that caused damage with a mere touch. I flexed my hands, displaying my claws.

“If you make me take her from you,” I paused, trying to think of something suitably threatening. God, was I tired. After a moment I shrugged and gestured toward the body of knife boy, who was still there from our fight earlier, laying a pool of blood. “Eh, you’ll figure it out.”

Terrance blinked. “That’s it?” He laughed. “That’s your big threat?”

I shrugged. “I thought it was pretty good. Aside from that one time you bushwhacked me, I’ve won every fight I’ve had with you boys.” I gave a wink at Forgettable. “Isn’t that right?”

For a moment I forgot that I didn’t have eyes, and so assumed Forgettable wouldn’t react to a non-existent blink. I was incorrect. He flinched and raised his machete to a defensive position.

Wondering what he had seen, I turned back to Terrance. “You’re down your merc,” I said, ticking things off on my fingers. “You’re down your wards. You’re down a warlock. Your crew is being murdered or incapacitated. The authorities are being called right now.” I pointed at Forgettable. “I know his trick now, too.”

I spread my hands and held them out to my sides. “Every time we’ve clashed, you’ve come out the loser.” I rolled my shoulders and neck. “I’m going to continue the trend.”

“Confident, are we—?” Terrance began, but I cut him off.

“Just someone who notices trends,” I said. “I don’t know what magic or eldritch bullshit you can bring to bear, but for the better part of a decade I’ve been preparing myself to fight the Doorman.” My voice went flat. “You ain’t no Doorman.”

It was at that moment I knew I miscalculated. Terrance wasn’t a rational person. Terrance was a warlock, someone who literally sold his own soul. He was also a pirate; a leader of murderers, rapists, and thieves. And I had just challenged his authority.

He raised his huge gorilla arm into the air, about to bring it down on Alice’s face and crush her skull. I dug my toe claws into the floor and dashed forward, knowing I’d be too late but trying anyway. I stretched my tentacles forward, trying to interpose them between the monstrous fist and Alice.

“CORPUS FULGARIS!” Alice shouted.

Lightning lit up her body from the inside out and blasted from her every extremity. If the situation hadn’t been so dire I would have laughed, as it lit her up from the inside like a cartoon. Terrance got the worst of it, as he had been closest and in physical contact with her. The lightning arced into and through him, sending him flying through the air to land a dozen feet away with a rumbling crash I could feel in my chest. Forgettable also caught several arcs, which made him disappear and reappear further away, giving me the weird mental hitch that came from my future sight.

I happened to luck out. Instead of lightning arcing through me, it caught my tentacles while I was airborne from my dash, with both my feet off the ground as I attempted to dive. The lightning hit my tentacles and arced through them, over my shoulder down my back to one of my new tentacles, that had its tip close enough to the ground to create a circuit (or a ground? High school science was a long time ago). It still hurt like a motherfucker, but at least it didn’t stop my heart.

I crashed into the ground a few feet from Alice, my tentacles whipping around as the last of the electricity left my system. I struggled to get them under control while also laboring to my feet. I gave Alice a once-over and grimaced at what I saw. She was smoking. Not like, attractive, but literal. Several of the wounds she had been sporting were cauterized and sizzling. Her hair was standing on end in places and burnt in others. I couldn’t tell if she was breathing.

I scooped her into my arms as gently as I could, relief and guilt slamming into me simultaneously at the piteous noise she made when I jostled her hands. “I got you,” I whispered as I lifted her into my arms, surprised at her weight. I know the cliché is that you’re never supposed to talk about a lady's weight, but Alice must be over two hundred, yet she looked like a healthy one-fifty.

I heard a scuff of a shoe and knew Forgettable was moving in. I looked to the side and saw him charging me with his new machete. His clothing, unlike Terrance, was normal and registered to my new senses in hues of red overlaid over their natural black coloration, his skin with a slightly darker red. I decided to try out my new power and shoved at the colors with my will.

Forgettable suddenly burst into flame like a log soaked in lighter fluid. He screamed in pain and surprise before disappearing, reappeared a few feet away. I set him on fire again.

You might have picked up by now, but the power I had gotten from Trix was pyrokinesis. Most of the abilities I’d been gathering over the years were utility or defensive in nature. The utility powers I’d gotten because I rationalized it’d help me gain power faster, while the defensive abilities were to keep me alive (obviously). But last year I decided I might need something to strike out besides my rudimentary combat spells and my trusty Webley (that I’m still pissed I left at home. Never again.).

Like my other Bargain-obtained powers, using them didn’t seem to tax much from me except the mental strain of concentration. As I got Alice into a princess carry (I didn’t want her over my shoulder in case she got damaged by my tentacles. She was also so beat up I didn’t want to just toss her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.) I kept lighting Forgettable on fire as he appeared. I started to make my way toward the stairs when I felt the floor shake under my feet.

A panicked glance revealed Terrance getting to his feet. I don’t know what bullshit he’d throw at me but I didn’t want to have to fight him and Forgettable at the same time while carrying Alice. I booked it.

My tentacles stabbed into the stone of the ziggurat, helping me practically fly down the slick stairs. Once we hit the ground I started running, using my tentacles like makeshift ski poles to shove me along and keep my balance as I ran full tilt with Alice in my arms.

There was a roar that split the night, which I assumed came from the stomach-mouth of Terrance’s suit. This close to the ziggurat, I could feel Terrance winding up for another psychic attack. I slowed to a stop. I didn’t have enough in me to stop another attack like that. Especially not while carrying Alice all the way back to the docks. I glanced around, but couldn’t spot Forgettable.

“Fuck,” I muttered as I walked over to the nearest clump of vegetation. “Fucking, fuck, fuck.”

I sat Alice against a tree as gently as I could. Her breathing was shallow and she was out like a light. I hoped that if we survived, she could heal herself without too much scarring.

I took a deep breath and turned around, my path clear. If I wanted off this island, Terrance had to die.

I sprinted back toward the ziggurat.

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