Mind

He was afraid of the lamia in the tree at first, but they were nothing but polite, only touching him to pull him into the tree “for his own safety in the jungle night.”

Fair enough.

Plus as he sat in that tree he started to realize the lamia was… rather attractive, in the fact at least. He wanted a closer look, but–

As he turned to look at the lamia again he found them staring at him.

“Sorry,” the lamia said, “you’re just–you have very nice eyes.

“The lamia leaned closer. “Do you mind if I just look at your eyes for a little while?”

He smiled. Did the lamia think he was attractive, too? He nodded.

“Yeah, I don’t mind.”

“You certainly won’t mind now,” the lamia said, and his mind faded as swirling colors filled first the lamia’s eyes and then the entire world.

He didn’t mind at all for the rest of the night.

Obsessed

You shiver. Where’d that sudden breeze come from? You leave your office and check the living room and stumble back as your new lamia friend of a few days slithered up to you.

“Hi! I was thinking about you and thought I’d come visit!”

“But,” you say, “wait, I always lock–” You realize your window is open. “Did you break into my house?”

“Weeeell, I didn’t want to disturb you,” she said. “I just wanted to come in and ssssstare at you, maybe?”

“Okay.” You sigh. “Do you think maybe you’re getting a little obsessed?”

She leaned forward with narrowed eyes. “Hmph. Well how about…” She smiled and opened her eyes wide as they swirled with colors that tickle your brain with pulling warmth. “You become obsessed with me too!”

As you fall into her stare she hugs her arms around you and wraps her tail over you. “We can become obsessed with each other and just stare into each other’s eyes until there’s nothing we can think about but each otherrrrrr.”

She kisses your face as her spell soaks in. Obsession takes hold. She’s all you can think about. She’s all you want to think about, all you want to see…

kiss kiss kiss

Glasses

You enter the dark lab, spacious but half-filled with series of huge terrariums. From what you’ve heard, you have expect the scientist there spent half the time in the terrariums.

From what you’ve heard this might not be the best idea.

Still, you need the extra cash, and you looked over the papers you signed pretty thoroughly. It didn’t look like you’d be testing anything dangerous.

“Dr. Simon?” you call out. There’s a clatter further in the dark lab; you can’t see too far.

“Ah, you’ve arrived!”

The tangle-haired scientist peered from around the corner. They stood tall but thin, gaunt even.

“You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting down here with a busted television.”

“What?”

The doctor frowned and adjusted their glasses. “Er. You are the television repairer, right?”

“N-No, I’m the tester you hired,” you say.

Dr. Simon grinned. “Ah, even better! Though we may have to reschedule for the television tests.” He turned back to the table. “Still, great to have the new guinea–err, test subject from New Guinea! You’re from that island, right?”

“Err… no?”

“Ah, no matter, not sure why I thought that.”

“Excuse me.” You approach the scientist. “Did you say test subject?”

“Tester, tester, my apologies!” They motion for you to follow; you stop to look around after each step. “I’m so used to using science terms like that.”

Dr. Simon leads you to a chair and asks you to take a seat. After glancing around–there’s not much sciencey around, just a table with a box and papers, and the ever-present terrarium of course–you sit down.

“Put these on, please.” Dr. Simon hands you a pair of sunglasses.

“Sunglasses?”

“Yes.”

You put them on.

“Do you feel any different?”

“Not really,” you say. “It’s harder to see. I can barely see the terrarium now.”

“Perfect!” Dr. Simon pulls a lever and you shout as the lab lights up like an exploding street lamp. Now you can clearly see the terrarium.

“Thanks for the sunglasses, I guess.” You wonder if you’re really just testing them. You’re not sure what kind of scientist Dr. Simon is, now that you think about it.

An extra spotlight is shone in the terrarium, and you see movement inside.

You try to peer closer but find somewhere along the line you were restrained to the chair. “Hey! What gives?”

“Entirely for your own protection, I promise. Just watch the terrarium, please.”

You look back and flinch at a huge snake watching you from behind the glass.

That must be what the big terrarium is for. You stare each other down for a moment before something in the snake’s eyes change. It’s hard to see between the bright light and sunglasses, but the snake’s eyes are suddenly very pretty. You want to remove the glasses to see better.

“See the snake’s eyes changing?”

“Uh-huh,” you say. You can’t move to remove the glasses and suppose that’s why the restraints.

“Look away, please.”

For a moment it’s like moving your head through water but you break sight from the snake. You shake your head a bit. Weird.
Dr. Simon laughs like a maniac. “It worked! It worked, you smug pile of scales!”

You start to worry if Dr. Simon is completely all there.

“Er, how do you feel?”

“Funny. Like I was staring at the sun but gravity increased.”

“Now, if you don’t mind, look again.”

You look at Dr. Simon. “Are you sure?”

“I made a promise in the contract you would be in no danger. We must test this for science.”

You look back at the snake, but its eyes aren’t changing now.

“Use your special power or I won’t feed you later, you snake!” Dr. Simon says.

For a moment it looks like the snake shakes its head and–shrugs? It’s a very expressive snake, somehow. It looks back at you and its eyes begin to sparkle again, and you once again find it fascinating–but your only desire to remove the glasses is curiosity.
Then the lights dim.

You assume Dr. Simon is slowly dimming the lights. This makes it harder to see the terrarium and the snake. But the snake’s eyes are brighter now. You can see what’s happening, their eyes are swirling with yellow, green, and blue colors.

They’re beautiful. You want to stare.

The darker the lights get, the brighter the snake’s eyes. You want to stare, and you feel a thought tickling at you to remove the glasses and see the snake better.

You realize Dr. Simon said something. He sounds further away. He repeats it, telling you to look away.

You don’t want to look away. You give a half-hearted attempt to loll your head away, but your sight stays on the snake. That sends a worry through you–can you look away? You strain your head, your eyes seemingly magnetized to the snake, but with a push you break the gaze.

You pant for a moment. Why was that so hard? You look for Dr. Simon; they’re hardly visible between the dim lights and your sunglasses. You ask what this is.

“I’ll explain it in a bit,” they say. “I would like to do one more test with these glasses, if it’s okay.”

“No!”

You don’t know what this is, but–you’re a bit scared. If you kept looking, what if you couldn’t look away?

“Please, I promise you will be safe,” Dr. Simon says. For the first time he sounds–reserved? As if he now became serious. “I would like to be thorough with the tests.”

“If it’s all the same, I refuse.”

“I’ll pay you an additional 20%.”

“30%.”

Dr. Simon made gagging noises. “I’m not made of money! I’m a scientist, for crying out loud!”

You turn away (making sure to shut your eyes so you don’ see the snake again).

Finally Dr. Simon sighs.

“Very well, an additional 30% of the agreed amount.”

“Can I get that in writing?”

“You’re going to hold up the story.”

“What?”

“Nothing! I’ll write it up real quick right now!”

Once the additional pay is guaranteed you sigh to steel yourself. Would that extra amount matter? Would you be able to use it staring at a snake forever? Well, you agreed to it. It’s time to do it.

You look at the snake again.

Those swirling colors seem to tickle your brain.

The lights dim further. The snake’s eyes are all you can see. The lights dim faster as those pretty colors fill your sight. It’s almost like you’re not wearing sunglasses at all. It’s almost like those wonderful colors are within the sunglasses.

It’s like they’re in your eyes…

It feels so good to stare. Why didn’t you want to look again? It’s so nice to look. You just want to look at the snake’s eyes forever…

You hear a muffled sound as if someone spoke through glass. You find it very easy to ignore. You just stare at the colors. Hear the colors…

Yellow

Green

Blue

Smiiiiile…

You blink. Where did the colors go? The lab’s lights are coming back. You blink the colors out of your head and realize a curtain is between you and the terrarium now.

You shake your head and see Dr. Simon shrugging. He’s saying something about–

“…could have gone better.”

“What?”

“Oh, you’re awake! You might feel a bit groggy, though.”

That was an understatement. Did you fall asleep?

“Still, thank you! The results weren’t what I wanted, but they were very useful!”

“Just… what was that?” you ask. Your brain somehow feels… sticky.

“I’ll tell you after the other test.”

You glare at them and shout, “Other test?”

“The contract did say two items would be tested.”

Oh. Right. It did.

“Besides, I did keep you safe, right?”

You look at the curtain. That’s true. They did let you lift from that haze.

“Okay, what is it?”

Dr. Simon removes the sunglasses and places a pair of plastic glasses on you.

“Are these… 3D movie glasses?”

“Slightly modified, the red is replaced with green.”

A blue lens and a green lens.

Wait a minute…

“Do as before and stare intently!”

Dr. Simon removes the curtain. The snake perks up in surprise and takes a bow as if on stage.

“All right, don’t ham it up, just do it,” Dr. Simon says.

The snake once again looks at you.

This time…

You still feel the tingling, but it’s not as strong. In fact, every time a ring matching the color of your lens emerges your eye gets twitchy, and you start blinking incessantly.

“You’re blinking,” Dr. Simon says.

“I can’t help it.” You shut your eyes and shake your head.

The snake frowns. Dr. Simon grins.

“A result! I have to say I wasn’t expecting that to go so well. Future testing will be helpful, but this shows blocking every third color disrupts the flow!”

“Great, glad to hear you got a good result,” you say. You’d like to get up now.

Soon Dr. Simon brings down the curtain again and unlocks the seat restraints. You stretch.

“So what was that?”

“Tell me, have you ever been hypnotized?”

“Hypnotized?”

“This is a rare type of snake discovered with the ability of a vision-based hypnotic ability.”

You stare at them.

“I was hypnotized?” you ask. You suddenly feel more awake than when you’d come in. Was it shock? Anger? Something else?

“Indeed.”

“But what if that snake put some post-hypnotic suggestions in me or something?”

Dr. Simon waves a hand. “Couldn’t. No sound. Glass prevented it.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’ve been studying it,” Dr. Simon said. “This was just the first test of ways to block it. Just don’t look too intently at traffic lights for a few days.”

Dr. Simon pays you the money as per the contracts and thanks you for your assistance in testing.

As you leave you stop. “Dr. Simon?”

They look up. “Yes, anything else you need?”

“You said you’ll need to do future testing, right?”

“Oh, yes, there’s still much to be done.”

You spin around. They step back at the sudden movement.

“Can I keep being the test subject?” you plea.

Contract

“Here we are! A little unusual, I admit, but who am I to deny a human their pleasure?”

The demon handed over the contract for you to sign. You glanced over it, sweat trickling down your forehead. You were rightfully nervous.

That demon was so hot, after all.

Everything important looked to be in order as you asked it. With just your signature your wildest dream would come true.

You would also finally get your dream job, as per the actual primary terms of the contract.

You’d also be rich and famous, which was just a standard freebie.

You picked up a quill.

“No, no.” The demon grinned. “The rules are you have to sign in blood.”

“Oh, this is my blood,” you said, pulling out an inkpot.

The demon’s grin fell. “What?”

“I stored some blood in here. I’ve been waiting for one of you fuckers for years.”

At this point the demon glanced around, a little uncomfortable. But you signed the contract! Everyone in hell saw it! You can’t back down now!

Neither could they but they rallied and set you in your armchair.

“Now, you might feel a little lightheaded at this next part.”

The demon lightly touched their thick claws over your face and stared into your eyes. “When it’s over, though, you will wake up with your greatest desire.”

You smirked at the idea your greatest desire would come when you awake.

This seemed to throw the demon off for a moment.

The demon rallied by releasing a warm glow from their staring eyes. You stared closer at a flickering glow like a fire in their eyes, and your smirk fell into a fascinated gape.

“Just stare into my eyes and I’ll make all your dreams come true.”

You nodded with an assenting murmur.

It was a little quicker and more assenting than the demon expected. They didn’t let it throw them off and tapped their claws over your head, twirling them through your hair on occasion.

“Just listen to my voice, hang on every word and do exactly as I say.”

The warm glow increased to a hot glow, as if it softly baked your mind. It felt so relaxing to give in, let the demon’s words twist around your thoughts.

“You will have your dream job, and once you do you will follow the contract, you will use your job to further our goals.”

“You will use your job to promote our causes, you will help our people consolidate power, and you will STOP ENJOYING THIS SO MUCH.”

With a soft smile and a giggle you muttered, “Wasn’t… in the… contract…”

It’s your last conscious thought before the demon binds your mind.

Later the demon watches you in your new life. You don’t remember the demon, or your life before them, but you do regularly have some very, let’s say, enticing dreams featuring someone very hot.

That hot demon broods over the contract sometimes.

Sure, it all worked out. Sure, you’re doing their evil bidding now.

But when you’d specifically requested the clause saying you’d be hypnotized to follow the contract, the demon didn’t expect it was for your pleasure.

Blood and Slime are Thicker than Water

Nathan yanked his boot out of the swamp muck and balanced on a strip of dry land. He looked at the sagging trees and dark marsh of the wetland.

He wasn’t really sure why he came back here. He just felt… he had some unfinished business.

Wandering the swamp wasn’t the best way to figure out what that business was, but at least he felt like he was getting somewhere as he went.

He stopped at the edge of a pond. He needed a way to cross it.

For some reason.

He couldn’t see how wide the pond was; it was too dark.

Swimming was out of the question. With his armor he’d sink.

Nathan looked at his broadsword. Perhaps he could cut down a tree and float across the pond with it. He approached a tree but stopped as the pond swished. It splashed as he turned, but nothing was visible.

Nathan knelt down near the pond and looked inside. It was too murky to see inside it properly. Something dangerous might live in it. He kept a hand on his sword’s hilt.

“H-Hello, there,” a weak voice burbled. Nathan stood and stepped back as a gooey head emerged from the pond.

The violet head’s hair was half-obscured by dripping hair trailing into the pond as if it were water. As high as the figure rose the hair never seemed to stop; they appeared to be a human who had spent too much time in the swamp and became one with the muck.

Nathan tensed. “Slime girl.”

The slime girl nodded. “Uh-huh.” She barely looked up to his face, her smile fragile. Nathan got the feeling if she could, she would blush.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you,” she said. “I haven’t had a visitor in a long time. My name is Ageul.”

She was pretty, Nathan admitted. It was hard not to imagine she’d be cool on his armor-sweating skin, but he had somewhere to be.

“How wide is this pond?” he asked.

“Oh dear,” Ageul said, looking down, “far too wide to travel around it.”

She looked at him and held her arms close. “I-I could help you get across, though.”

Nathan shook his head. “I can’t swim with this armor on.”

Ageul pressed her hands to her face and smirked; her slimy skin looked so supple.

“You could remooove the armor.”

Nathan stared at her.

She was a slime girl. Not human. Dangerous. But still, she seemed nice. But he couldn’t just leave his armor behind. Or maybe she could carry his armor, or…

Or…

His sight darkened in a kaleidoscope of color for a second and something told him: Not her.

Nathan shook his head. “No. I can get across myself. Thank you for the offer.” He headed to a tree.

Ageul pouted as Nathan chopped down the tree. By the time he was done she had gone. He felt a little bad–she might’ve just been lonely–but he had places to go, probably.

The tree floated pretty well despite being a damp swamp tree. It wasn’t as wide as Nathan would have liked, but he could balance on it and it supported his weight well enough.

The murky pond was pretty viscous anyway.

Nathan saw the other shore soon. The pond wasn’t that long.

What Nathan didn’t see was the long tail of slime whip above and smack down over him and the tree. The tree snapped to pieces and Nathan sank into the dark water. He really couldn’t swim in his armor; by the time he pulled it all off he’d be drowning.
Someone grabbed his arm.

“I’ve got you!” a waterlogged, slimy voice said. Ageul pulled him towards the surface. The violet water swirled around them like a whirlpool, closing in on them–and pushing them to the surface.

Above the water Nathan gasped and coughed up water–until Ageul kissed him.

For a terrible moment Nathan thought Ageul pulled him to the surface just to drown him herself. She released the kiss and he realized the water was pulled from his lungs. He could breathe again.

“You have to be careful,” Ageul said. “Trees around here aren’t the most sturdy.”

Nathan sighed. “Yeah. What now?”

The violet water curled around them, and Nathan stared as a tail of scaly slime rose from the pond.

“You’re a slime lamia,” Nathan said, his voice hollow. He’d heard of how dangerous these could be.

Slime girls could cover you in slime, but slime lamias could squeeze you with it.

And yet, she’d saved his life.

Ageul smiled. “I’m more than strong enough to carry you to shore.”

Nathan didn’t have much choice. Something in his head said no, but ever since that kiss…

Ageul wrapped her tail over Nathan and he immediately felt a warmth compared to the murky pond. She smiled and squeezed his face in her hands before pulling him to shore, and he really didn’t mind. It was fine that his face was all slimy now. It was nice. Refreshing…

It was soothing on his worn skin, his tired muscles for the slime to trickle through the open spots of his leather armor and slide over his body. It felt cleansing, absorbing his sweat, soft and sticking, squeezing him, dropping him into a pond of slime, soft sinking slime…

Ageul reached the other side of the pond and released Nathan from her tail. “See, I’m not so… bad?” He seemed rather attached to her tail, hugging it in his grasp.

“You’re safe now,” she said. “You’re on dry–well, dryish–” She looked at his lazy smile and glazed eyes. “Oh.”

Ageul slapped her face and laughed. “Oh, that’s right!” It really had been too long since she had someone solid in her grasp. She’d forgotten what a soporific, compelling effect so much of her slime had on those of flesh.

“Aw, I’m sorry.” Ageul rubbed a hand on his cheek. “I didn’t mean to cloud your thoughts into a slimy daze.” Nathan moaned as her slimy hand touched him; she grinned and held him with her other hand. “But no harm in taking a little advantage of this moment, don’t you think?”

Nathan only moaned in response.

Ageul stripped him of his weapons and other metal and wrapped her slimy tail back around him. She kissed him, leaving a slime residue over his lips. She pulled him close in a hug, tempting him to kiss her cheek. Her slimy cheek, neck, chest, arms..
Everywhere Nathan kissed slime, each time intensifying his desire to kiss her slime. It had been so long since she had someone so solid in her grasp she wanted to hug and squeeze him forever.

But she wanted to feel needed, too. In a fluid motion she pulled away from Nathan.

Ageul left Nathan without her slime, pulling pulling away too fast for him to grasp her again. He stared at her, his smile fading into a gape of longing, and he crawled towards her.

“You want me, don’t you? Come on.” She slithered away a little, flicking her tail to call him over.

Nathan muttered. “I… I uh… wha–” He blinked. For a moment his eyes looked weird, and he suddenly regained focus. He sat up. “What?”

“What?”

“What happened?” Nathan asked. He looked at himself. “Where’s my sword? What did you do?”

Ageul stared. That was not supposed to happen.

“Uhh, uhh, oh!” Ageul slid closer; Nathan shuffled back but she smiled. “I’m sorry, you passed out while I was taking you back. I removed your outer armor and weapons to check if you were okay. I didn’t see any injuries, though.”

Nathan rubbed his face. “I do have a headache.”

“You might have lost a bit of oxygen.”

Nathan looked at her. He nodded. “Well, thank you again for saving me and helping me out.” He moved to gather his possessions but Ageul moved before him.

Nathan looked up as Ageul came close.

“There’s no need to go so soon,” she said. She placed a hand on his cheek. “You should rest first, make sure your strength is back.”

“I really need to…” Nathan really needed to… something. Where was he going? His head was muddled.

A rest, yes. A rest to gather his thoughts was what he needed. As Ageul slid her tail behind his neck he found every time he tried to gather his thoughts he would drop them. He needed more rest. More rest, clearly… with this beautiful slime lamia around him…

Nathan’s body went lax as Ageul coiled her slimy tail around him again. A nice, slimy nap, just what he needed. Thoughts of how nice and pretty Ageul was stuck to his mind like her slime to his body. She kissed him and desire welled back to indulge in her, engulf himself in her.

As she pulled away from the kiss Nathan leaned forward, desirous to kiss her more and lose himself in slimy–

NOT HER! rang a voice in his head. You must return!

The slimy cloud lifted from him again. He saw Ageul around him, gazing at him.

“What are you doing?” he screamed.

The shout shocked Ageul into a flinch, causing her coils to topple over with Nathan in them. He struggled to escape her grasp. She’d tricked him! She probably just wanted him to drown in her instead of the pond! He saw his dagger inches away.

“Oh, why do you have to keep waking up?” Ageul asked. “Isn’t my slime soothing enough?”

Nathan could already feel the slime starting to muddle his head again. But her tail had loosened when the coils fell. It was sticky, it pulled at his skin, but the snagging pain kept him alert.

“All I want is for you to have a nice nap in me,” Ageul said.

Success! Nathan pulled his arm free and grabbed the dagger.

“I promise, a swamp pond is nice once you get used to–” She screamed as Nathan jabbed the dagger into her. He thrust and sliced and the slime tail split.

Ageul’s coils collapsed and Nathan broke free as she cried.

No time to gather his stuff, she would be on him in moments. It was more important to reach his destination. He ran.

“Wait!” Ageul cried. “I’m sorry! I didn’t…” She hugged her slime tail and pulled herself together.

Nathan panted and stopped next to a tree. He still had most of his armor, but all he had to fight was a dagger.

It didn’t matter. He was close to his destination. He could feel it.

He could feel…

Slime.

Aw, fig.

A slimy tail gripped around Nathan’s mouth and pulled him back.

Ageul hugged Nathan from behind. “Shh, shh, come on, why don’t we just go back to the pond and get your stuff, hmm?”
Nathan’s muffled screams melted into moans as the slime spread over his skin–but strange thoughts snapped him out of it and he struggled harder.

The slime lulled him back into docility…

He snapped out! The dagger–where’s the–she took the dagger!

“I promise not to hurt you,” Ageul said. She caressed him. “You can trust the slime.”

Trust the slime… No, trust something–else–light? Some light. Return to the light.

Nathan flailed and, as Ageul pulled him past a tree, he snapped off a branch and jabbed it at her. It was enough for her to let go and he fled once more.

Ageul sighed. He really was stubborn.

She smiled and squeezed her hands against her cheek. It just made her want him all the more.

Nathan ran, no weapon, almost out of breath, but something kept him going. Some force within him, urging him on. His own persistence, yes, his own willpower, and certainly not the will of someone else.

He stopped and gasped.

The edge of the swamp.

A dark, twisted mansion.

Something about this mansion sparked memories in Nathan, but they felt so winding and twisted he couldn’t make heads or tails or tail or tail or tail or tail or tail or–

He blinked. What was that about?

A hiss brought his attention to a tree. A green snake hung from the branches.

The thick snake looked long enough to tangle throughout the entire tree. Its emerald pattern flashed memories that Nathan couldn’t make tails or tails of.

The snake grinned.

“It’sss about time you returned.”

“What?”

The snake leapt off the tree to Nathan and in a whirlwind…

Nathan found himself enveloped by the shining emerald tail of a lamia, her dark hair curled in intricate waves, her pale skin accentuating her jade lips. Her black dress hung off her, hung from her arms and tail and body.

Her emerald eyes sparked emerald memories in him.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Your mistress, remember?” the lamia said. “Countess Endrelenda, who took you in when you were in such trouble.” Her rolling voice soaked in concern, even as her grin showed a pair of fangs. “You were so injured, you needed someone to heal you…”

“I–I don’t remember that at all,” Nathan said. He felt transfixed by her eyes.

“Ah, you had a little memory loss,” she said. “I couldn’t let you keep them all.”

“What?”

“You can have them back now,” she said, leaning closer. Her eyes glowed. “Just look into my eyes…”

Nathan stared into the swirling eyes he’d been seeing ever since he returned to the swamp. The sparkling green of her scales, the bright yellow shining his eyes open wider, and the deep red–the deep red of blood–his blood–his blood that belonged to his countess and mistress.

“HEY, BATTY!”

Endrelenda blinked, breaking her focus from Nathan. She looked up to see some goo in the form of a cocky young woman, her hands on her tail-beginning hips.

“So, we meet again, I see!”

Endrelenda raised an eyebrow. “Do I know you?”

Ageul smirked. “Sort of. Remember when you had that bad damp rot? That was caused by me.”

Endrelenda glared with fire in her eyes, Nathan in her coils forgotten for the moment. “That was caused by you? Do you know how many ancient parchments were ruined from your actions?”

“I don’t care,” Ageul said. “Give me my new boyfriend back.”

Endrelenda pushed groggy Nathan behind her. “You insolent little pond scum. I ought to put you in a bucket and clean my floors with you.”

Ageul leapt at Endrelenda; the two lamias squeezed and coiled to entrap the other.

Endrelenda grabbed her tail around Ageul’s neck and stared into her eyes. “Slime you may be, I know you are not immune to my hypnotic spell.”

“Hah, you may be a vampire,” Ageul said, “but my slime can still soak into you!”

Endrelenda stared more intently. It was harder to focus, to keep the rings flowing, but she could tell Ageul was slowing down her wrapping too.

“I live off blood, not water,” she said.

“I’m slime, not water.”

“We’ll see which… is thicker.”

“I’m–thiccer…”

Endrelenda’s rings flowed faster. Ageul’s slimy tail squeezed tighter. They could each outdo the other. Neither would back down. They leaned closer, fighting, straining.

Endrelenda and Ageul kissed.

The two lamias embraced in a long kiss. Ageul’s slime felt so soothing over Endrelenda’s dusty scales. Ageul felt so nice letting Endrelenda’s hypnotic light reflect in her mind and through her body.

Their tails twisted tighter, twisting, twisting, twisting, twisting…

The two lamias sighed in their embrace.

“I’ll expand the ponds nearby,” Endrelenda said, twirling her fingers through Ageul. “I’ll give you plenty of space.”

“I’ll keep the water clean,” Ageul said, letting Endrelenda’s tail twist and squeeze her. “We can swim together anytime.”

“HEY, WHAT ABOUT ME?” Nathan shouted.

He’d eventually blinked out of the spell and saw the two lamias fighting, then smooching.

It only just occurred to him that would be really nice.

“Don’t leave me out of this!”

Ageul and Endrelenda looked at each other.

In a moment Ageul wrapped Nathan in her slime, fogging his mind as Endrelenda stared into his eyes and pulled him under her control.

“Don’t worry, dear. We won’t forget you. You can be our servant…”

Stuck

I pressed the elevator call button. Ordinarily I took the stairs down, but today I held too many books to make it down without dropping one or slipping and dropping myself.

The door opened and I saw a tall, slim girl inside. Frail, even.

Though she stood straight and tall she looked pale, and though she held far fewer books than me my first thought was if she took the elevator for the same reason.

We mumbled hello to each other as I entered. I might’ve imagined her greeting. She might’ve imagined mine.

We didn’t look at each other. We stared ahead, watching the elevator number. 6… 5… 4… 3… Blank…

Wait, where’d–the screen shut off. The lights shut off and the elevator hum died.

“What?” I muttered.

We dumbly looked around the elevator booth for a moment. It had stopped.

We both muttered until finally one of us–I’m not sure who, maybe both–said something about the power or something and it would probably be back on in a moment.

We glanced at each other.

Was this elevator always so small?

A moment passed. Far more than a moment passed.

I couldn’t hold my books any longer and set them in the corner. I groaned and sat on one side of the elevator; this might take longer than we thought.

“Maybe we should call for maintenance?” She spoke as if unsure if she was suggesting the stupidest idea ever.

“Probably a good idea,” I said. “Do you know how to do it?”

“Um, no.”

I shook my head. “Me neither.”

We both looked at the elevator buttons. Probably all you had to do was press a button.

And then talk to people.

We both stared at the elevator buttons.

We both seemed to twitch towards the buttons; whenever one moved the other would retreat.

It occured to me if you ever found an abandoned building with a stuck elevator, and there was a skeleton inside, that person was too shy and unsure to call for help.

What if you hit the button and immediately the elevator worked again? You’d make a pointless call, you’d like silly! No, no!

But finally she made a bigger twitch and approached the button. She called maintenance; they were working on the issue but it was an older building.

Basically, the elevator was stuck there until they got it fixed, but it shouldn’t take more than ten minutes.

She sighed and sat on the opposite side of the elevator. Just gotta wait it out.

Fifteen minutes later I called them. I figured it’d be my turn to call.

New estimated time: another twenty minutes.

Fantastic.

I spaced out for ten minutes, trying to look anywhere but her. Whenever my glance settled on her for more than ten seconds I jolted away. Even though that would be straight ahead and the most natural direction to look.

But after ten minutes I looked at her a bit longer… because she was getting fidgety. Her breathing quickened, and she glanced at the buttons a lot more. After fifteen minutes I realized she was glancing between the buttons and me.

That stilled my heart a little. Why…?

It was right around twenty minutes that she got up and practically jumped to the call button. Maintenance still hadn’t fixed it, though; now they expected another half an hour.

She backed to her side of the wall, panting. She slid to the floor muttering, “No,” repeatedly.

She covered her face, tangling her long hair.

“Um.” I made one sound and she glanced at me before pulling her head down. “Is something wrong?”

The lamest thing to say considering something was very clearly wrong with her. She didn’t respond, though.

“Just–can you–” Fig, I didn’t know what to say. Try to calm down? No duh, genius. I had to settle for conversation. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

She looked at me, eyes wide, and shook her head.

I grew very still when I saw for a second that her fangs were longer than before.

I inhaled. “Can I tell you what’s wrong?”

She stared at me, still fidgeting.

“Are you a vampire?”

She stammered, “Th-Please don’t l-let that leave this elevator!”

I nodded. “It won’t. Are, uh, vampires bad at restricted places for a long–wait, you sleep in coffins, don’t you?”

“We do not!” she shouted–louder than I expected. I leaned back, palms up.

“Okay, sorry, sorry, just an urban myth I imagine.”

She pulled down on her face and in a shaky whisper said, “I haven’t had blood in 24 hours. I was going to get some after I left.”

“And…” I looked up. “That’s a problem, I gather.” I looked down. At me. The closest source of blood right now.

I looked back at her. “Can you tell me what will happen if we’re stuck in here for the next, say, hour?”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m sorry. I can’t control it. If I go for too long I can’t control myself.”

“What happens when you can’t control yourself?”

She looked down. “I take blood. By any force necessary.”

I sighed. “Well–” I looked around the elevator. “Hm.”

“So!” I said. “Vampires. You can turn into a bat, right?”

“Yes.”

“Increased strength?”

“Yes.”

“Hypnotic eyes?”

“Yes, yes, I’d be practically unstoppable.”

I smirked. “Got a pretty high opinion of yourself, there.”

This at least elicited some weak laughter from her.

“Well.” I stood up and approached her. She scrambled back away towards the corner. “Calm down, hold still. You see,” I sat down next to her, “it sounds to me like what you need is some blood before you lose control.”

I grinned. She blushed. I blushed even more.

“I don’t–you don’t have to–”

“It’s okay, it’s okay.” I shrugged. “Better now than then. Maybe I can bill you for the blood. Just–” I leaned closer and felt my heart beat. I imagined she could sense my heightened pulse, too.

I felt my brain want to panic and dissociate. Not because she was a vampire barely gripping her own control, oh, no.

I was actively getting close to someone.

But she was afraid. I knew I had to take this initiative for my own good.

And at least maybe get to experience a fantasy.

“Just, before you take my blood,” I said, “if you don’t mind, let me look at you.”

She stared, her twitchy face giving way to a blank expression. “What?”

I crossed my arms. “I mean look, if you hypnotize me, at least I’ll be enjoying myself, right?”

She shook her head. “I can’t!”

“But you said vampires do have hypnotic eyes, right?”

Now that I was looking closer at her red eyes I could say they certainly looked like they could be.

“I mean, I can’t just take your will away!”

“What if I willingly will away my will, will you then?”

“Huh?”

“Sorry, I mean, you’re not taking my will away, I’m giving it to you.”

She looked away.

“Please?” I asked.

She looked at me before shutting her eyes and inhaling, calming her twitches.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“Certain.”

When she opened her eyes the elevator fell away.

No longer was I trapped in an elevator with this pretty girl. Now I was trapped in the eyes of this beautiful lady.

It was a trap I settled into, warmth filling my head. It felt like needles tickled my brain, friendly needles massaging my mind, friendly needles massaging my neck.

Warmth trickled over my mind, surrounded my body. I surrendered myself to the moment, all other moments paling in comparison, fading, not mattering.

This lovely being who made me feel such warmth… my own warmth belonged to her.

I woke up on the floor, my head cradled in someone’s lap.

After moaning I muttered, “Why’m I awake?”

“It’s over,” the vampire said. “I’m better now.”

I gave a weak smirk. “Sure you don’t need more..?”

She giggled. “I’m sure. Take it easy sitting up. You’re going to be dizzy.”

I sat up, leaning against the wall. The elevator spun a little.

“You know, I’ve fainted when they’ve drawn blood at the doctor before. You should carry around a package of crackers or something for this scenario.”

She looked away. “Hopefully this won’t happen again.”

I smiled. “Hopefully if it does it’ll be with someone as understanding as me.”

She smiled. We sat in silence as my body worked to return to normal.

Eventually I said, “Well, no telling how long we’re going to be stuck in here.” I looked at her. “Can I stare into your eyes again?”