TTW-30 (Patreon)

After sharing a meal, Thomas was quite exhausted. "Guess I should go to bed…not every day you wake up as a thing from hell and go to bed something quite different."

Esmerelda nodded, gathering the plates.

He got up and touched her shoulder. "Maybe you should come to bed too, love."

Esmerelda nodded, feeling quite drained and tired also. "We do need to talk."

Thomas nodded, sitting back down.

"Ze magique…zat I used. Ze infusion rite." Esmerelda floundered trying to find a way through it. "It change me, in here, Oui?" She tapped a long nail to her head.

"I don't really understand it, but yes." Thomas nodded.

"Before today…I was…how you say…" she pondered a moment. "Lydia, was me, Oui? Lydia body, Lydia brain, Esmerelda geas. Ze geas iz what made ze change, made Lydia act as Esmerelda, you see?"

Thomas swallowed, and she could see a tear in his eyes. "Okay? What are you telling me."

"When ze Aegis activated. When ze magic left..Lydia emerged. Her mind, her body, waz reverting back to 'ow she waz."

"I know," Thomas said. "I mean, I was a thing then, but I know you were reverting."

"Oui, that iz my point. Her magic, it fade, her body return. She no have the strength to fight Nyarlathotep. Zo she do ze rite of Infusion, and magic make me mighty and strong!" Esmerelda held her arms out, making a muscle, and letting a little fireball dancing between her fingertips.

Thomas smiled. "And you saved me."

"Exactly." She took Thomas's hands in her own. His hands were so small now, wiry, lithe.

"In order to save you, I 'ad to use ze magic to…change you."

"You can say that again," Thomas held out his hands. "But at least I'm alive and look, ma, no tentacles!"

Esmerelda nodded. "Nyarlathotep receded. In order to drive it out, I had to remove what it fed on."

Thomas frowned a bit. "Me?"

"Not all of you, zilly, but…well. It fed on ze masculine part of you. I had to…" she made a grab over Thomas's head. "Pull it out of you, Oui?"

"Pull Nyar what ever the fuck…yes. I get it."

"No, not Nyarlathotep." Esmerelda paced, trying to use English words which were so clunky. "I had to pull ze man out of you, masculine. I took…well, a lot of man out of you."

"Not all," he said. "I mean I still have my—"

"Oui, oui." She nodded. "You still retain some man inside. I couldn't take it all because it might kill you to take it all. And zo I am Esmerelda now, I made a promise to Lydia…"

"So you're saying I still have masculine in me, still male."

"Oui."

"And—-"

"And, Nyarlathotep is still attached."

Stunned, Thomas reeled. "It's still in me? I could still grow tentacles again?"

"Possible," she said. "Or it could not be enough to sustain it, and Nyarlathotep move on."

"Can you get the rest out?" Thomas said, beginning to tremble. He really didn't want to return to being that…thing.

Esmerelda nodded.

"How would we do that?"

Esmerelda sighed. "Ze way you are now. Very limited masculine. To completely remove Nyarlathotep, all man must be removed."

"All man," Thomas shivered. "You mean you'd make me a woman?"

She nodded. "But—not just a woman." She got up and started pacing. "We all 'ave woman and man in each of us. Masculine and feminine. Even me. I have more feminine zen Masculine, since my body it produce ze right aura, ze right chemical, ze right electricity, Oui?"

"And I have more masculine than feminine?"

She shrug. "About fifty fifty."

"And you want to what, give me female plumbing so I'm more feminine than masculine?"

She nodded. "But more zan zat."

"What do you mean?"

She put her hand on his shoulder. "We must take all masculine out. Fill with all feminine. It be the only way to make sure Nyarlathotep not return."

Stunned, Thomas sat back.

"It iz not something we do tonight. Or even tomorrow. But we must do it soon, before Nyarlathotep get hooks in you again."

Thomas thought about it. He remembered his body swap with Jo. It hadn't been so bad. What had been bad was the tentacles, and that hunger—

As they crawled into bed that night, both exhausted, Thomas felt an unseen barrier between them. She had been his wife, his lover, his confidant for so long…it felt strange that another…aura? was that the term she used? Was now in place. She both was and wasn't Lydia.

He felt tears bite at his eyes. Would they ever be the same? Would they ever experience love, passion, sensuality the same as they had in the past.

Thomas rubbed a hand along his very smooth jaw and wondered. Tears leaked from his eyes as he fell into a troubled sleep filled with dreams of the unseen, tentacles flowing…

And that hunger.

(The end, for now)