The Caretaker 05 (Patreon)

Norah and I followed the large mutant across the parking lot to what appeared to abandoned offices. It was so silent in the parking garage that the only sound was that of our footsteps. Each time we passed a security camera I looked at it, checking to see if there was that little red light flashing. It never was. They were all broken or disabled. Clearly someone didn’t want what happened up here to be seen and much less recorded.

The mutant opened a door. Inside was a small, dimly lit room with nothing but a bed and light on a table. I slid in past the giant mutant as she held open the door, trying to keep my distance as much as possible. I had no idea what to expect or what was going on, but none of this felt safe. I kept watch on her from the corner of my eye as I put Norah together on the bed, removing her body from the stuffed animal and separating her head from the fake body as quickly as I could.

"Only the client enters the 'happy room’," the mutant said with a malicious and threatening smile on her face. "You must leave now."

“He's my caretaker,” Norah said in her bossy tone. “He'll be the one that gives me the mutagen. Look at me, I can't do it alone.”

The giant mutant woman looked at her through narrowed eyes and then sighed. “Whatever you want. It's your funeral anyway. I hope your friend has brought a jar to collect what is left of you.” With that, she left and slammed the door behind her.

On the table beside the bed was the mutagen that I was to give Norah. I’d never seen it in person, and I was kind of intrigued by the phosphorescent green liquid. “I’m glad she didn’t just steal our money and run,” I said as I picked up the flask.

“Nah. The mutant mafia might be unscrupulous in a lot of ways, but they do take their business seriously. It brings them money, and they want it to continue doing so. They don’t consider themselves to be common criminals or thieves,” Norah said as she leaned back and gazed up at the ceiling.

I sat beside her on the bed intent on situating her to give her the mutagen, but before I could do anything I noticed her breathing was rushed and uneven. It almost seemed like she was having a panic attack. “Are you ok?” I asked her softly.

"Y-yes, I am..." she said in a shaky voice. "It's just that..."

"What? Tell me please,” I said.

“It's just… God, what am I doing?!” she said on the verge of tears. “I'm scared, very scared. This could possibly kill me."

"Norah, it’s ok. You don’t have to do this,” I told her as I lifted her up and hugged her tightly. “And I’ll be with you regardless. I’m your caretaker, remember?”

I could feel a tear drop onto my cheek as she cried. I rubbed her back a little, holding her tighter. As I did, I could feel her breathing deeply, her chest slowly expanding against mine and then deflating again. We stayed this way for a few minutes while she calmed herself.

"Thanks, Victor. I needed to hear that," she said as she arched her small body and kissed me on the lips. “But this is something I need to do. I know the risks I'm taking, but…I have to. But just so you know, a while ago I made a small recording on my tablet. I wanted to expose everything. Should the worst happen, use that as proof that this was all my idea and what I wanted.”

I eyed her suspiciously. “Okay, but let’s hope I don’t need to.” I was worried. I knew this was a bad idea, and I didn’t really want Norah to go through with it. There wasn’t much I could do though. It was her body and her choice.

“Well, if it doesn’t then you can just go on being my caretaker and all will be fine, right?” her bossy side was showing again, but she looked at me with such tenderness that it made my heart melt.

"Of course," I said as I uncapped the flask. I leaned Norah back in my arms, tilted her head up a bit, and dropped the liquid it into her mouth.

Norah scrunched up her nose. "Yuck. You’d think by now I’d be used to the taste, but nope. Still disgusting.” She closed her eyes and stretched out on the bed while I watched her. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open and she arched her back wildly, her mouth falling open in a mix of agony and ecstasy.

"S-shit, this f-feels stronger than before… AAAAHHH," she yelled as her body twitched and convulsed.

As I watched I saw Norah’s skin start to shift and stretch. The sound of slurping and cracking filled the room as appendages began to form on her sides. My eyes widened as I watched in fascinated horror.

“I-it's… IT'S WORKING!” Norah yelled as her body spasmed.

On her left side two conventional human arms were forming, but her right side was different. Her flesh kept stretching, but it looked more like a tentacle than an arm. The rest of her body was twitching as well, small bulges forming along the bottom of her hips. She’d barely had any semblance of thighs before, but now she did. And they were growing. Not just the two stubs she’d had before, but a third as well. They grew in all different directions though, like some sort of strange tripod.

“Oh God, my head! I’M GROWING ANOTHER HEAD! " she said. I couldn’t tear my eyes away as her head shifted to one side, a bulge growing beside it as a second head ripped through her skin and pushed up out of her shoulders with great cracks and pops. It gasped and twitched as it grew, nearly screaming as it emerged.

After the transformation stopped Norah tested out moving her new limbs. On the left side of her body were two arms, one protruding from her shoulder with the other situated directly beneath it. Curiously her second arm only had four fingers. Or maybe it was just hard to count them since her two hands were clasped together, holding one another.

Her right side was quite different though. It didn’t have arms, not even one. Instead, a 10ft long tentacle had grown and now lay on the bed beside her.

Similarly, her three legs now lay exhausted and stretched out on the bed. My eyes couldn’t help looking over them just out of curiosity. They were arranged in a tripod formation, with one pointing towards the back and the other two pointing to each side. The foot that pointed backwards was shaped a little differently than the others. The side facing two had their toes arranged just as you’d expect them to be, but the one that faced backwards had the big toe in the middle with two toes on either side of it.

Norah’s breathing was still heavy, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Though it was slowing down as the moments went on. From what I could tell her new head wasn’t detachable the way her other head was. Its hair was also much shorter and messier than her original head’s, a clear indication of its recent birth.

“Victor…I made it! I survived!” Norah said simultaneously from both of her heads. "At last, I can fend for myself," she said as she slowly moved her new hands. They were shaky at first, but as she got used to them and her brain made the necessary connections her movements got steadier.

"Yeah, you did!" I was internally jumping with joy, glad she was ok. Though that excitement died down quickly when I realized something. "Though it appears you no longer need a caretaker…”

Norah laid one of her fingers across my lips, silencing me. "Please don't ever leave me," she said as all her eyes looked into mine.

I smiled. “I’ll stay around as long as you want me to.” Her original head was still detachable, and she asked me to put it back on the doll body which I happily did. We didn’t really have extra clothes to cover the second body, so I took my jacket off and covered it with that before gathering up all our bags. Norah pushed the wheelchair with the fake body in it. At a glance it looked like nothing more than a mutant girl pushing her disabled twin in a wheelchair.

We quickly left the place, smiles on all our faces. That was a difficult test, but we passed it and all of us knew that from now on everything would be different, but we’d always have each other.