The Last Sunset for a Flat Earth
Chapter 3
Abomination
 
 
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"The six Moon landings from 1969 to 1972 by the United States of America (then only fifty states strong), were indeed faked.
Not in that the landings never happened, but that what really happened up there was not what we saw on television.
What really happened was, humanity discovered the remnants of an underground Grue colony base, and the Lunar missions merely confirmed their physical existence."
 
- "The Imperishable Silurian Civil War, Declassified", John F Howard, Dougan-Hill Publishing, 2477
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Felecia Cruz dragged herself lethargically out of the Montrose High School gymnasium where hundreds of evacuated Los Angelinos were sleeping on cots after the catastrophic explosion in Sector 19 earlier that day. She had had enough of seeing people enter the building and rush into the waiting arms of family members, while her son Dominic, whose apartment was discovered to be near the epicenter of the blast, had been given up for dead.
 
Once in the parking lot, she trudged out onto the grass, sank to her knees, and drove her fists hard into the soft dirt, howling with rage at the moon peeking in and out among the passing clouds above.
 
If only he had been in class that day... if only those boys hadn't hit him and made him have to go home to rest... If only he would have so much as gotten his sneaky ass up out of that bed and gone running off in pursuit of some big breasted skank she was always seeing him talking to!
 
If only...
 
As she fell over on her side, curling tightly into a fetal position, whimpering with her hands over her face...
 
... she perceived a soft, whimpering groan.
 
At first her mind dismissed it as she descended into the depths of sorrow at the loss of her son, but then there was the slight grinding and scratching sound that followed.
 
Instinctively, she looked up and peered into the darkness, across the field of cool, damp lawn.
 
She could only tell four fingers and a thumb gouging deep into the soil, scooping a handful of grass.
 
As her eyes adjusted to the nearly pitch black expanse beyond, she caught sight of a woman, her face half blackened by burns. The bones of her jaw were partially exposed, the skin melted and peeled away by some obviously horrible fire that had partially consumed her.
 
Yet, she still managed to drag the grass and dirt into her mouth; she chewed once, and then gulped the whole mass down, stopping to catch her breath.
 
Felecia's tears stopped.
 
Her heart immediately leapt into her throat as she scrambled to her feet and tried to back away.
 
But then she slipped on the grass with a loud yelp and fell down again.
 
This time, she struggled to get back up, but the darkness suddenly closed in on her from all sides.
 
In the blink of an eye, she found herself naked and enveloped tightly in a hot, slick fleshy confinment and a pungent earthy scent.
 
A scent vaguely familiar to her own when she was in heat.
 
She yelped again, but her voice was instantly silenced as she felt herself floating aimlessly in the darkness, staring at the vague, glowing outline of a woman's body before it dispersed into a million lines of light fleeing into the distance to fade away.
 
Her heart no longer pounded. Her adrenaline no longer surged. And no matter where she looked, she could not see her limbs, or even feel them. All she had was her emotions and thoughts screaming inside her head.
 
"I'm sorry... Felecia..." a woman's voice echoed around her. "It hurts so badly..."
 
"Omigod..." she thought. "Who are you?"
 
"I am Inessa... and you're inside me."
 
"I... what?!"
 
"You were the only being that came close to me since I landed. I... I saw a flash of light..."
 
"Oh no... you were caught by that explosion... hey wait... what do you mean... inside you?!"
 
"I... my body is absorbing you to help me heal... I'm sorry, but I had no other choice."
 
A pleasant tingling sensation suddenly came over her. "Absorbing me?! Oh my God! No, please, let me go!"
 
"I can't... I'm so sorry, Felecia... I can't stop the process now. Please don't be frightened... I promise it won't hurt..."
 
The mild feeling surging through her swelled into a compelling sense of bliss.
 
"Oh no... what are you doing to me?"
 
"Please... relax... this is my body's way of helping you enjoy this experience."
 
"WHAT experience?"
 
Felecia suddenly felt herself descending into a warm ocean of light enveloping her from behind.
 
No... she was slowly sinking into its calm, still surface.
 
"You're being changed into magical energy that my body can use... please, I'm sorry. I need you."
 
"No... no... Inessa? Stop, please! Let me go!"
 
The voice suddenly sounded more relieved. "Ahhh... much better. My legs are still incomplete, but otherwise I'm much better now."
 
Felecia tried to look around, but she couldn't move her head to change her perspective; there didn't seem to be any neck muscles to move.
 
The unseen woman's attitude instantly changed from confused to purposeful, pleading to confident. "Okay, now that there's not so much pain fogging my brain... Felecia... I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself properly. I am what you would call an alien. A sorceress. A fairy. You're within my womb being absorbed into me."
 
Felecia panicked.
 
"It's okay. Our bodies are made to be able to take away your old body, convert it to resources we need, and then return you in a new version of your body. We take completely from you, but we give it right back, and then some."
 
"Wait a minute... how is that possible?"
 
"It is a symbiotic process taken to an extreme. My womb absorbs your body and life force into me, healing me, nourishing me, and replenishing my magic. Then you come back in a new body, like the old one, but minus all the wear and tear. If you were hungry to start, you won't be now. This benefits us both."
 
"You're kidding me. Are you some kind of crackpot psychic?"
 
A sense of amusement seemed to pass through her, as if a cheerful ghost had come calling.
 
"Allow my body to finish working on you, young lady. When this is done you will return without Manuel's tattoo. Or the gash in your belly from that auto accident. I will endeavor to preserve your mate's US Marines tattoo. Do you want your stretch marks to remain?"
 
Felecia was stunned.
 
"I know you would like a larger bosom. I will make those changes to you as well. Naturally, you will find the acne marks are gone. The burn rash on your back from that hot grease incident will be gone, too."
 
Suddenly, she felt a sense of relief that came upon her right out of nowhere, for no good reason.
 
"Ah, good. I'm fully healed."
 
Felecia instantly exploded with anxiety. "Oh dear God... please let me go!"
 
"Ah, I cannot. You're inside me now and partially absorbed into me. I can't stop the process, my body will take of you until you're completely gone, except for your soul."
 
"Mother of God... who are you?"
 
Another wave of amusement washed over her to mix with the swelling pleasure slowly consuming her mind. "I am a fairy, as I said. And now that my legs are whole and I'm fully healed I'll help you look for your son. But I'll have need of your body again to do so."
 
A long pause followed as her mind suddenly flung itself out of sorts trying to comprehend her offer.
 
Finally, she hurled her thoughts out there as hard and as loud as she could: "My son... he died in that explosion."
 
"Or perhaps he actually did disobey you and went out looking to meet a woman? We won't know until we look."
 
The sea of light rose until she could feel it warming her cheeks. "So... um... when do I... return?"
 
As the soft white brilliance enveloped her entire field of vision, the voice replied, "Now."
 
No sooner did she hear that, than she managed to get her eyelids to physically blink. In an instant, she was looking up at the stars winking through the rapidly moving clouds above.
 
The grass pressed wetly against her backside as she raised her hands to look at them. She knew she was naked, but the joy of seeing her fingers moving as her mind commanded them, pushed aside minor concerns about her immodest state of being for a moment.
 
Then, she reached for her stomach to find the long scar that ran through her belly button, from her ribcage down to her waist. She had been broadsided on her seventeenth birthday by a street racing punk and sent careening into a canal. She barely escaped before the car was dragged underwater, but was caught and nearly ground up in metallic debris trying to get to the surface. A teeker - a man with telekinetic abilities - just happened to be wandering by, and stopped to save her from being cut in half, before leaving hastily. She'd never found out who that man was.
 
Now, that horrible scar seemed to be gone. Of course, she would never know for sure until the light of day.
 
"Allow me to restore your modesty..." a familiar voice spoke, coming from the left of her.
 
Suddenly, she felt the warmth of her panties and blue jeans covering her lower body, and her thick flannel shirt and bra covering her top. Her white cap lay on her bosom.
 
"How..." Felecia lifted her hands to look at her sleeves. "You're a mage..."
 
"I am a fair master of the magic arts, yes," Inessa's face moved directly over her, partially obscured by the darkness of night. She smiled. "Now as for finding your son... I could not easily find your father if he is alive, but knowing your soul's aura... I can track down a descendant... given enough magic energy."
 
Felecia scooted back slightly, uncomfortable with a woman looming over her, close enough to kiss. It was bad enough what this stranger said had already just happened. "Look, um, Inessa, can we get started looking for Dominic... if he's still alive?"
 
The woman stranger sighed and moved away, then stood up next to Felecia, who then got to her feet as well.
 
Far away from the gym, in the near absence of light, Inessa looked no different from any other human, except for the strange looking ears and the odd things she could barely make out at the edge of her forehead. She could have just as easily been a mutant as she might be a self-proclaimed alien. She could make out a simple robe covering the woman's body.
 
Inessa sighed as she fidgeted. "If your son went out looking for a... umm... a date... he could be anywhere in the city. Though if you know about that explosion, he would, too... so..." She scratched her head and looked around a bit. "He would have stayed in this city-zone, I hope."
 
Felecia put her hands on her hips. "Can you do it... or not?"
 
"I can," Inessa rolled her eyes at her. "But I need a lot of energy to scan an area this big. More than I can hope to provide on my own."
 
"So?"
 
Inessa sighed again. "So..." She paused, fidgeting some more. Then, she threw her hands down. "Ohhh... your son is in the forest north of here. With my friend Sarella. Damn it."
 
Felecia jerked her head back. "Are you serious?!" she yelped, her eyes wide with hope. "You're not shitting me..."
 
"For your information," Inessa scolded, pointing at her, "I don't shit. My species doesn't shit. Our bodies don't work that way, no matter how... similar... we're built."
 
Felecia's shoulders sagged with disgust. "Oh, come on..."
 
"But no, I am not bullshitting you."
 
Felecia snorted, then gestured frantically. "If you found my son, I want to meet him now."
 
Inessa smiled, patting her belly. She would get Felecia to go back inside her willingly after all. "I have to fly us there and I don't do well carrying people. Except in here."
 
Felecia glared at her. "Are... are you crazy...?"
 
Inessa put her hands on her hips. "I'm taking you to see your son, Ms. Cruz."
 
"Misses," she insisted. "I'm a widow."
 
"Ms. or Mrs.," Inessa challenged, "I'm taking you directly to Dominic. He went out on his patio to meet a woman who was a very very very VERY deadly creature at the time. It was her, in the act of absorbing him, that caused the explosion... and it was that act that made her not so deadly."
 
Felecia's jaw fell open.
 
"If you want to know the rest..." Inessa patted her belly again. "I'll tell you along the way."
 
Felecia made the sign of the cross, glancing up at the stars; then she glared at Inessa. "Fine. Bring me to my son."
 
 
 
"A Silurhean colony ship?"
 
Mark Caston stared at the billboard sized main screen of the Cerulean Dawn's crowded Los Angeles base command center, mortified at the sight of the broken remnants of the turtle-like alien ship resting at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean two thousand miles south of Hawaii. Oxygen bubbled from the gaping tears in the ship's hull as it lay deathly still in its pitch black tomb, beneath the bright, prying eyes of the black, spiny metallic fish prowling around it. A massive hole existed where its head should have been, illuminated by countless tiny lights moving around in the gap.
 
And Mark was not the only one staring; quite a few others who worked silently and unobtrusively in the command center, now stopped to gawk at the poorly illuminated alien vessel.
 
Lucien Knowles nodded. "Yes, and those little angler-like things scurring around it? Those are Majestic-12's deep sea recon units. It was their defense satellites that shot this vessel down."
 
Lucien Knowles was Mark Caston's mentor, and his second best friend next to his wife Stacy. Years ago, Mark and Stacy had been subjected to a terrifying interrogation by the US Military where they were forced to watch their friends get devoured in stunningly realistic virtual reality as punishment for not giving away rebel secrets. The horror of the experience scarred him for years, even before discovering that several of his fellow rebels had been shot dead once their role in his and Stacy's torment had been fulfilled; but he did not yield to his tormentors. The secrets of the Underground Railroad remained secret even as he watched Stacy herself being devoured. In the end, it was Lucien and Zelma who physically rescued him from this simulated horror, and reunited him with Stacy.
 
"So Majestic-12 has been in on this since the start."
 
"Yes, and they have thrown more resources at this than we can muster. Yet. But that's alright. We will either find the enemy by blind luck... or we will follow their signal."
 
"If only we had some telepaths."
 
"Telepaths we have..." Lucien replied, "what we don't have is enough telepaths."
 
 
 
Narissa sat on a rock next to each other, her head buried in her hands as she wallowed in her shame.
 
Sarella leaned over her and continued to lecture, "I know you swear your allegiance to Rhea, but hey, you're no longer her child. You belong to Gaia whether you want to or not. You can only derive sustainance from people like Dominic by giving the same to him in return." Sarella shrugged. "As humans like to say..."
 
Dominic, sitting next to Narissa, chuckled; as much as this whole affair made his hair stand on ends, it absolutely amused him to see Narissa so consternated. "It is what it is?"
 
"That, too," Sarella chuckled, "but more importantly, Narissa, you can only take from him what you give him back in return."
 
Narissa abruptly stood up and paced in front of Sarella. "I suffered for almost eighty years without even a drop of meat..." She whirled around and screamed, throwing her hands down and repeating, "Eighty years! And now you're saying I can never have any? Ever?"
 
Sarella shook her head. "Not a chance." She smiled at Narissa. "You'd might as well get used to your new life. When we're done here, I could take you back to the nearest Siluvaran colony and -"
 
"Siluvara? What's that? I want to go back to Siluria," Narissa hissed. "I may not remember who clonked me over the head but I do remember my homeland. I remember my people and even if I cannot feast upon the cattle on this world..." She cast a hateful scowl at Dominic, "I will make it so my PEOPLE can!"
 
"Your people are my people now." Sarella corrected her. "Rhea will never call you hers again."
 
 
Bernard Sabick leaned against a tree nearby, hiding behind an invisibility spell that, with his current power levels, would be difficult for anyone short of a Valkyrie Magus-class sorceress to undo even if they knew he was lurking there.
 
When he was younger, he would play hide-and-go-tag with his mage girlfriend Sarah, hiding in this spot and that to try and evade her. She was always a better mage than he was, having a deeper-reaching natural talent than he, and the novelty of his proficiency in both the mental and magic arts did not intimidate her as much as it did others. If he didn't use telepathy to distract her or mask his presence, she would easily find him. Being in a crouched position also left him vulnerable to getting tagged outright because she could break into a sprint faster than he could.
 
So he always stayed on his feet, ready to jump into action; if someone with psychic or magic ability was going to find him, they were going to find him crouched behind a rock just as easily. There was no such thing as hiding behind cover. In fact, there was no such thing as stealth, period - there was only the question of whether or not one's magic or psi could counteract someone else's.
 
So there he stood, with his sunglasses on in the dead of midnight, studying the minds of these fairies and the human standing a scant few yards ahead of him.
 
Especially Sarella.
 
 
Narissa fumed; Dominic raised a curious eyebrow, trying not to laugh. "You did this to me," she pointed at Sarella accusingly.
 
Sarella chuckled. "No, babe, you did this to yourself. Your body became receptive to Gaia's voice and you heeded her call of sweet perversion, intending to heed Rhea's voice later. Gaia claimed you two as hers - you as her daughter and him as a sacrifice."
 
Dominic jerked his head back. "A sacrifice?!"
 
"A sacrifice already fed to Gaia and absorbed into her." Sarella quickly added, turning toward him. "Your new body is one of many gifts you've received in turn."
 
Dominic looked down at his bare chest. "My... new body..."
 
"The old one is gone," Sarella reinforced to him. "It now resides as magic energy within Narissa. Do please forget about it; she will eventually use that energy up and then that body will be truly gone in every way." She watched his jaw fall open. "What matters is your soul is still here, and that your lifespan has grown, even if just slightly."
 
Dominic stared at her with stunned, slackjawed amazement.
 
Narissa turned and walked away. "No... no..." she muttered, looking at her hands for a moment. Then she reared her head, and screamed, her piercingly loud voice echoing into the cold night air, "I can't believe this!"
 
"And neither the hell can I," another woman's loud, angry voice called.
 
Dominic turned. He would recognize that voice anywhere. "Mom...?"
 
Felecia emerged from the thicket of trees to his right, still wearing the same plaid shirt and blue jeans she wore going back to work earlier that day.
 
Dominic stood up to lean forward, as if peering at her. "Mom!"
 
"Dominic, damn you!" She yelled, breaking into a run to throw herself at her son, leaning up to give him a kiss on the forehead and a tight hug.
 
Inessa came around from behind her, walking up calmly to giving Sarella a kiss. "I thought you'd died," she said, kissing Sarella again.
 
Sarella tilted her head down and mashed her lips firmly into Inessa's, gripping her arms. "Did anyone else make it?"
 
Inessa shook her head. "I saw them vaporized right before my eyes... that is, right before my eyes were practically boiled inside my head... and I was hit by a shockwave..."
 
"What have these ..." Felecia glanced back at Inessa and Sarella, "women.. done to you?"
 
Dominic shrugged. "I went out onto the patio and met that one in the tunic dress... and... well mom," he shook his head, looking away, "I can't even believe what happened next myself."
 
Felecia sighed. "Me neither. But that Inessa woman did it to me, too." She looked at her son's bare chest. "Damn it, Dominic... you could have at least gotten dressed."
 
"Sorry..." he looked down shamefully. "I didn't have time."
 
She laughed. "It's okay, tiger," she glanced around, looking to see if there was anything for him to wear, "I'm just glad you made it out before the big kaboom."
 
Dominic fidgeted slightly. "Well, mom, if what Narissa and Sarella say is true, Narissa and I were the cause of it."
 
Felecia nodded. "I heard the whole story."
 
Narissa put her hands on her hips and interjected bluntly, "It's all true. I absorbed him into me by accident and received far too much magic energy for me to handle as a result."
 
Absorb. The word itself made Narissa shudder with a deeply rooted disgrace. It made her feel filthy inside. It was the embodiment of the curse put upon her body and soul, a punishment woven into her flesh, into her very being, from which, if Sarella was right, she could never gain reprieve.
 
But, as she watched Dominic and Felecia glaring at her and cringing, she clearly saw that it filled them with dread as well. What she'd done to Dominic was, to him, an abomination in the eyes of God. Looking at his mother, she understood right away that she felt even worse about it. She couldn't help but be entertained imagining them fearing their own impending damnation just for undergoing this.
 
Felecia looked at Dominic, then Narissa. "I still can't believe it... you blew up the city?"
 
Narissa shrugged and sat down on a rock. "How was I supposed to know?" she pretended to protest. Snorting, she patted her belly. "That was the most explosive meal I ever had. Damn."
 
Dominic and Felecia gasped, taken aback by her remark.
 
"Narissa!" Sarella howled in anger. "That's enough!"
 
 
Bernard cringed at Narissa's words; but it was the thoughts screaming inside Sarella's mind at that moment that nauseated him.
 
How could she have gotten by his defenses so easily?
 
 
Narissa kept pushing. "Sorry. Didn't mean to... um... alien-ate anyone."
 
That was all it took to make Felecia snap; in a flash, she leapt into a hard charge; three steps later, her fist curved up into Narissa's chin with a loud crack, rocking her backwards and sending her flipping over the rock to tumble several feet beyond.
 
"You think this shit's funny, huh?" Felecia shouted, pouncing on and straddling the stunned fairy while raining blows upon her head. "Well alien-ate this, Tinkerbell!"
 
"Yeah! Alright!" Dominic cheered, running around to get a better look as his mother pummeled the alien woman, then taking a few shots with his foot at her sides.
 
"How you like that? Huh?" Felecia continued, driving a knee into Narissa's gut, causing her to wail with pain.
 
Sarella folded her arms as she watched the human woman go to town on Narissa. To Inessa, she chuckled, "I wonder if she'll ever realize she can shrink that woman down?"
 
Then, as Dominic kicked Narissa again, he disappeared from sight.
 
Inessa coughed hard, nearly choking from the shock; Sarella's eyes widened.
 
 
Bernard lowered his sunglasses and cocked his head forward; certainly, he had seen the entire process through Sarella and Inessa's memories, but to see it happening here... before his own eyes?
 
*What the hell's going on here?* he found himself thinking.