TTW - 20 (Patreon)

Smoke billowed around Esmerelda, black smoke, that smelled like the pits of hell. It was sulfurous, smelling like yesterdays sewage, and her eyes glowed red as she changed right before his eyes.

Black coils erupted from below. Her canines on top and bottom lengthened into fangs, and her jaw opened wide, wider…too wide.

The Lamia rose up from the bed, coils spreading out, encircling Thomas. He shuffled back, yelling, calling for Agatha, the TreeMother, anyone.

From the door, Agatha came, her eyes black pits, steam rolling from her ears as twin obsidian horns rose from her head. Her skin turned crimson, the same color as Esmereldathing's.

The Agatha thing grabbed his shoulder, the EsmerLamia thing wrapped coils around him.

Something crashed down through the house. The roof collapsed as an enormous trunk, foot, thing came down down down through the roof, through their bedroom, down into the basement.

Thomas shouted again, looking up and seeing the TreeMother, with twin pits of glowing black emerald and a maw of angular black green teeth, that CRUNCHED down on the floor behind Thomas. He even saw Joe, the woodnymph, changing into a black furred wolverine-nymph with claws that raked his back.

The Agatha thing, the EsmerLamia, the TreeMonster, the WolverNymph all converged on him at the same time, grabbing him, tearing him, biting him, slashing him. Blood poured from a dozen wounds as the Agatha thing set him on fire and—

He screamed, sitting up in the darkness.

Esmerelda snored softly beside him. He hadn't even woken her up.

Bad Dream, child? Came the voice of the TreeMother in his mind.

Yes. That was the worst nightmare he'd ever had in his life. It had been so real.

He panted, trying to get the images out of his mind. Rubbing his hands over his scalp, he went downstairs.

"No more coffee for me before bed," he said softly.

"You too?" Agatha said. She was sitting by the fire, a book in her hand, a cup of tea beside her.

"Nightmare," Thomas said. He poured himself a class of milk, and grabbed a couple of cookies.

"I dreamed Joe became a furry nightmare creature with black and green—"

"Fur?" Thomas said. "A wolverine thing?"

Agatha nodded. "Esmerelda became a Serpent creature, and the TreeMother…"

"Came crashing through the house?"

Agatha closed her eyes, shuddering. "But you…you were the worst of all."

"I was?" Thomas said. "In my dream, I was the one being attacked! You were a red-skinned demon creature that set me on fire!"

"In my dream, you became an obsidian cephalopod with a gaping mouth and multiple tentacles. Mindless, a crawling chaotic, horrific…" she stopped, choked up at the vision she had seen.

"I wonder if Lydia is having the same dream?"

"We might want to awaken her."

Thomas nodded, climbing up the stairs. Esmerelda slept so peacefully, snoring softly. He hated to interrupt…

"Baby?" Thomas gently shook her arm. "Honey?"

Esmerelda screamed, sitting bolt upright, terror in her eyes as she looked at him.

"Babe, it's okay. It was just a nightmare."

She put her hand to her heart. "Oh, it was so real!" she said, her voice scratchy and raw from screaming.

"Why don't you come downstairs with us and drink some milk. It'll help clear your mind."

She nodded, and allowed Thomas to help her out of bed.

"God, it was so awful!" she said, as we walked down the stairs where Agatha stood waiting. "You started to make love to me, but then you had black tentacles and this mouth!" She looked up at him in horror. "And Agatha—"

"A Red Demon," Agatha said.

I fixed Esmerelda some warm milk.

Esmerelda nodded. "And TreeMother! And even Joe was—"

"A NymphBadger?" I handed the cup of milk to my wife, who took it gratefully, and sipped it slowly.

"We all had the same nightmare?" Esmerelda said. "This can't be good."

"It is not good," Agatha sighed. "Nor was it a nightmare, I'm afraid."

"What do you mean?" Thomas said.

"I fear it might be a sign of things to come if our efforts with Nyarlathotep fail."

"Baby?" I said, looking at Esmerelda. She had just sat down on the sofa, and set her feet on the hassock.

"Hmm?" she said, sipping her milk.

I nodded to her feet.

Gasping, she set down her cup.

From the knees down, Esmerelda's feet had returned to normal. Well, normal not for Esmerelda, but for Lydia.

She sat up and took the slipper off she'd been wearing. Her feet were unlined, young, the foot of a much younger person. They were Lydia's feet.

"I'll be darned!" she squealed. "Maybe I don't have to be old after all!"

Agatha's face was a thundercloud.

"What?" I said. "This is good news!"

"It is terrible news," Agatha said. "Right now, you two are our weakest links. And our adversary is using that against us!"

"But this means, we could go home!" I said.

"This means, Nyarlathotep will win!" Agatha said in response. "And none of us will have homes to go home to!"

Esmerelda…no…she was even more Lydia now, held her head in her hands. "But, what if I can still do magic? I'd just be the youngest member of the coven, is all. Maybe the curse has passed me by!"

Agatha nodded. "Very well, let's test that theory. Use you magic."

"I'll start by replacing the geas." She held up her fingers, ready to snap.

"Perfect."

She winced. "Aww, I don't want to! I'm happy like this! I hate all that hairspray, and lipstick, and.."

"Do it!" Agatha said. "Before it is too late."

She snapped her fingers.

Instantly her hair, makeup, dress, eyelashes, all of it were back.

"You zee?" she said. "I 'ave not lozt anyzing!"

"Oh, Godddess be praised." Agatha sat back down. "May I have some of that milk?"

Thomas nodded, going back into the kitchen. Esmerelda's feet were back to the gnarled aged things they had become.

Thomas filled the pot and put it on the stove to heat for a few moments. He was upset, because for a minute, a MINUTE, it looked like his wife was really going to be back. That he would have the woman he married, that they'd be able to live happily ever after.

It wasn't fair.

He pounded the counter.

Dawn was just breaking on the horizon. He finished warming Agatha's milk and took it over to her.

"Zo wat doez zis mean?" Esmerelda said.

Thomas could smell her hair spray, thick perfume, and she wore the stiletto heels.

"It means, darling, until we can figure this out, you're going to need to keep your geas in place, even at night."

Esmerelda nodded, her face an unhappy, unreadable mask.

"You shouldn't be relapsing. The coven will need to discuss this."

"Agreed," Esmerelda said.

Agatha drank the rest of her milk in one gulp. "Well, I am going to go home and try to get some rest. I will see you at the salon later, my dear?"

"Oui," Esmerelda said, looking down into her cup.

Agatha gave a wave, and left.

Thomas gritted his teeth. He didn't want to go back to sleep, not if it meant that nightmare might come back. He started some coffee going in the keurig again.

He smelled Esmerelda before he felt her. Her arms wrapped around him from behind.

"I am…zo zorry, my 'usband."

"It's okay, babe." He put his arm around her and they looked out the window together at the rising sun. "We'll get through this together."