Heartthrob

EJ didn't fall asleep quite yet; instead, she opted to lay there and enjoy the silence, the sound of breathing, the warmth of bodies. Gentle dampness borne of mixed sweat and spit and otherwise held the women's skin to one another like a tacky, cheap glue. EJ certainly didn't mind; she had no intention of pulling away from her lovers any time soon...

The afterglow of lovemaking had wound down to a gentle, euphoric thrum: the background resonance that rippled through the body, twisting muscles and tensing sinew, orgasmic aftershocks both tensing and relaxing in a single wave. EJ felt her body was more like a tuning fork right now - the way her muscles shuddered, her skin pulled taut and gently shivering. She leaned further into the communal mound, being sure not to plant her hand somewhere uncomfortable as she clambered over her bedmates. Purity was happy to assist the blonde, pulling EJ's face in closer, letting the blonde's head rest on one side of her chest. Her body, instead, laid partway atop Est and Puri - Est shifted to grab at her waist.

That comforting silence, backed by the smoky aroma of myrrh and frankincense, and the less-subtle scent of sex... It held its own sort of safety and security. Someone had pulled the sheets and covers overtop of them - probably Est, given her central position in the cuddle pile. EJ smirked to herself as she considered that, in the middle of all the grinding, the petting, the stroking, the kissing, Est had still had the sense of self to cover them all up. Fucking weirdo. That thought only made EJ want to lean down and kiss her, though - it was cute, too, just as much as it was ridiculous.

Est groaned with mild, performative discontent at the smooch. An arm came up and across, playfully swatting at EJ; when it found purchase on the back of the ghoul's head, Est used it to pull her in for a real kiss. Purity cooed, watching the two lock lips - nothing too aggressive or energetic, but still given an appropriate amount of passion. In the darkness, as lips touched and broke and touched again, they relished the warmth each other gave off.

And then, eventually, sleep. There's only so much kissing and snuggling one could perform, while laying nude in bed... Only so much they could do before falling asleep, anyways. One by one, the trio fell off into that great sea of slumber. Empyrean and vast, yet unmapped and unforgiving, the world of dreams was one of the few things that had yet to be explored in the modern world. Esper James nestled her head against Purity's chest as she allowed herself to drift away, hazarding a gentle yawn that was rewarded with a kiss on the forehead. She vocalized happily in response, nearly a whimper but far too pleased. Purity blew her another kiss, and then, they each fell to sleep.

-

When she awoke, she was alone. The convent was no longer a convent: it was Tsang HQ, the blackened marble and gilt filigree, the crimson drapes and the dark wood furnishings... The air no longer smelled of the usual cleaning agents, but of blood, and something else. Something more... artificial, and yet, the most natural scent EJ could imagine. The scent of blood, though... It was strong, impossibly strong. Not that it was immediately surrounding her; rather, that the scent of it buried claws within EJ's nostrils and dragged her down the hall. She went along willingly.

As she walked, both aromas grew in intensity - the source of one drawing near just as she drew herself nearer to the latter. That put a spike of dread in the ghoulette's heart, actually, and she stopped to consider it for a moment. Her head snapped around, turning to look over her own shoulder, paranoia setting in. There was nothing... Though that heavy, warm aroma still drew closer by the second. She turned to lean against the wall, mouth dripping with drool from the bloodscent, brain way too worried about whatever the other thing was.

She gazed around, trying to place it; trying to somehow explain it away or justify it. She came up blank. The halls were the same as they had always been: black marble with golden trim and mahogany embellishments... Red silken curtains and carpet adorned the windows and floor, with smaller crimson accents and wooden garnish found here and there. The lights weren't even the tacky sort of fluorescent bars you found in most office buildings: they were sconces, flickering with imagery of flames, meant to evoke actual candles or torches. Whoever had done the interior design? Seriously liked vampires. Maybe a bit too much.

Whatever, fuck it - worse came worse, EJ would just jump. Her mind flashed back to memories of three years ago - when Tsang had decided to update the policies regarding employee retention, and emergency procedures. In the event of a nuclear weapon, or an attack on the building? You were supposed to stay inside. They'd just dig you out of the rubble. But, in the event of a fire, or extraction by a hostile party like the knights? Or even just, y'know, to relieve stress? You were encouraged to jump.

A big leap... A big fall. Tremendous, even - she'd seen a few execs who were having real hard days splatter against the asphalt like overripe fruit. Hard to explain the stains to her dry cleaner, when she had brought her shirt in... But the blackened blood that covered her? It ended up being her inspiration for the blackened tips. Made her feel super goth and edgy, in a cool, risqué way, like she was repping all her dead brothers and sisters. That's what she told herself, at least - she'd loved to have lived that sort of life, but she was too timid at the end of the day.

The idea was, of course, that if you leapt, you'd just get scraped from the pavement like an old wad of gum. If you were alive? Morgue, cold-womb, back to work. If you were second-living? Back to work immediately - wait it out in the in-house company clinic until you've got enough bodily function to work. Then, once you do? Better get to your office. The window you had to kick out to jump would get taken out of your pay to replace, of course... And the labour required to clean you up, to put you back together, and to cover your work while you recovered.

EJ had never jumped herself, but the idea of the debt associated with it scared her way more than the thought of falling. Still, though... She figured that maybe some people needed that release? Or were just curious? Whatever... She didn't like to think of it. The reasons for pantomiming suicide couldn't be a great topic of serious thought, anyways. She had already been thinking of actual suicide so often recently... The stress of it all, and knowing that they'd make her life hell if they caught her? It made a girl yearn for the oven.

But that was then. This was now. Her stomach grumbled and roiled, sounding like a beast possessed - the scent of blood in the air reminded EJ that she was actually pretty fucking hungry now, and not just for flesh. She pushed free from the wall she had been leaning against, continuing her path through the halls of the complex. She had long since passed the areas she was used to... Frankly, she rarely came up this high. It was for executives, and ones she definitely didn't work for... Though it was only about a floor above Judas's, so maybe they were of the same importance.

Maybe.

Speaking of the executives, where were they all? Where was anyone, or anything? She turned down a hallway lined with glass panes, windows to the city, and had an idea. Maybe it was the Day of the Dead? In a move often regarded as 'ill-advised', 'insensitive', or just 'tactless', Tsang put on a city-wide festival every year for the Day of the Dead. Tsang Solutions had no cultural ties to the holiday; the owner of the place, the legendary Zichen Tsang, was from the remnants of China. No one said it aloud, but everyone silently knew and agreed - it was a marketing move, a publicity stunt.

In the city of the dead, the Day of the Dead made altogether too much sense, though the actual purpose of the festival was heavily glossed-over in favor of hyperfixation on sugar skulls and mystery-meat tacos. It was anything but the right time of year for it... But the orange glow was unusual enough that maybe Tsang had figured out something else. Christmas, but Kris Kringle was a vampire, and that's how he was so fast and smart? A sleigh pulled by dutiful little ghouls? Toys hand-made by zombies in sweatshops reminiscent of Tsang's own factories?

The idea made EJ snort, a grin drawing itself across her face. Then it made her sad... It was a little too believable, all things considered. She could see it now: Tsang parading a beautiful, muscular vampire through the streets in red (and black) velvets... Standing proudly on an ebony-coloured sleigh trimmed with gold, tossing out gift cards in great big present boxes to a hungry crowd...

Eugh. Esper James fought the urge to spit in disgust, but then decided she was justified - a thick, wet loogie splattered against the carpeting. She ground it in with the toe of her heels. She realized she hadn't seen any mirrors recently, actually... Normally a regular decoration in the higher levels of Tsang, if only for the novelty of it in relation to vampires, she hadn't even seen a broken one. A quick self-inspection revealed she was in her normal workday attire: white button-up, black bra and boyshorts, dress pants, and high heels. It was comforting to be in something so familiar, so normal... Even now, a week or so out from her work at Tsang, she missed dressing up.

Suddenly, she felt a compulsion to go look out the window - stronger than before, as if she was being ordered. Simple curiosity couldn't encourage her to this degree, though she also didn't try to fight it... Typical of her, not even trying to resist orders. This time the order was from her brain, of course, but what did it matter? She took another step forward, now in line with the window itself, able to see out - and immediately, she nearly doubled over in shock and terror.

The city was ablaze.

Every part of it. Only the streets were spared, and even then, only some parts of them. Whole housing complexes had gone up like stacks of printer paper thrown to a bonfire; skyscrapers leaned and screamed with shattering glass and superheated metal, twinkling like God's most horrible sparklers. On the streets, people ran like ants from a hive in a rainstorm: frantic, helpless, and unaware of the futility of it all. Whole sections of asphalt shifted and flowed like lava, or seemed to at first blush: a second look revealed that it was just a trick of the light. Shrieking, sprinting bodies engulfed in flame had that effect en-masse.

It was horrible. Horrible felt like an understatement, even - atrocious? Cataclysmic? Apocalyptic? Abhorrent? Even these felt too weak to describe how EJ felt about seeing Vitus burn. She had, of course, said she'd like to see this to Est and Purity... But that had been an exaggeration, a figure of speech! She didn't literally want to see the city in flames! Flames brought true death, as well... No one would ever come back from this. The charred corpses that lined the streets would never wake from their carbonized sleep.

She hadn't wanted this... She would never wish this on anyone. Even Judas... Cruel, hateful Judas. She was probably down there, too, roasting alive - stoic as ever, more pissed off that she was dying than scared or distraught. If she was truly dead, she couldn't order anyone around anymore... She couldn't humiliate, or degrade, or dominate. She'd just be another pile of cinders in the city's burn pile. The same was true of everyone else she knew - a fact she faced with tears in her eyes and on her shirt, streaming down as quickly as they formed.

Purity... There was no way she could escape this. She didn't deserve this. No one did, of course, but still... Purity had been so nice. So comforting, so calm, so... lovely. In the moment of her death, EJ truly, fully forgave her - for trying to coerce her into sex, for treating her selfishly, for manipulating her in the ways that she did. Even sending her fucking cum back to Tsang for whatever fucked-up testing they had in mind? That was forgiven. How could it not be? None of it would matter anymore...

She forgave Esthrielle for her own sins: for killing other second-living, for abusing her when they had first met, for being a bit of a snarky bitch sometimes. That last point was pretty minor; the former was pretty major, though, so they evened out. Maybe Est was alive, deep beneath the city somewhere, in one of the convents... She thought back to the convent that Luca had taken them to. She couldn't really remember what had happened there... Or what it was like, except the dorms... But she knew it was nice. She knew that Est would be safe there.

Maybe Purity was with her. God, EJ could only hope they were both there, safe and sound.

She thought of the others she had met: Alex, Cinna, Roth, that Russian guy Purity knew. Kristoff, she thought. Each of them had to be dead, too... Tsang was empty, so Alex was gone; Cinna was probably burning to death outside that shitty bathhouse. Roth would have died in the Jezze, EJ hoped... Died at the place he loved. Kristoff? Who the fuck knew where he was... Maybe he had been cooking up more human meat in his shitty little restaurant. Anger wrapped and encased her sorrow like foil around a potato, and like a potato, it was all getting baked in the heat.

She thought then of Kell. The industrial park of the city was positively engulfed in flame, of course - swallowed almost wholly in the immolation. Factories both living and dead joined together to feed the pyre. EJ's eyes drifted over to where they had been staying... The empty husk of a factory she had briefly called home. It was a pile of rubble, charred black, completely unsalvageable. Scarlets and oranges flickered across the ghoul's vision, the smog of the Vitus sky replaced with hundreds of thousands of souls condemned to be smoke. She hoped Kell had at least died easy.

And then... her vision flashed. The fires flickered out for just a moment - everything was still burnt to a crisp, the people who still clung to life screamed and writhed on the streets below, but the flames were gone. They came back a millisecond later, everything proceeding as it had been already... But that sorrow in EJ's heart, the growing sense of despair? She frowned, scowled even, brows pitching down to make her displeasure known.

No, no, no, no. She had seen enough shitty sci-fi movies to know a hologram when she saw one. The city wasn't actually on fire, was it? These probably weren't even real windows. She straightened her back and cleared her throat; her right leg wound back, her body perched on the left. The sole of her foot kissed upon the glass pane's corner with all the force her little body could muster - ghoulish strength empowered the blow, but it still wasn't as impressive as it could've been. However, from the way the pane disconnected at the corner, she figured it was enough.

The sound and sensation of wind came through the gap where the window had been - it reeked of smoke, and that smoke stunk of burning flesh and plastic and paint. It was a horrid, acrid, pungent scent... But that was fine. Probably just made in a lab, right? That's what Esper James told herself as she kicked the next corner of the pane free, going then to push on the top with both hands. The translucent sheet that had once been sand was transformed into oversized confetti, a singular slip of material dropped for the city's going-away party.

Wind whipped and howled into the hallway now, roaring and moaning, sending decor clattering to the ground. Potted plants crashed to the tiled floor beside the carpet; sconces kept blazing, their digital lights immune to the gale-force winds. Esper James took a singular deep breath, stepping up to the edge of the windowsill. Her tie smacked her in the face once, twice, thrice as she tried to look solemnly over the burning cityscape - she ripped it free and let it get caught in the wind. Fucking piece of shit was ruining her moment.

Weight was set upon left - duty was set upon right. A step forward into the nothingness was all it took, and she was tumbling, head over feet over head again, eyes shut to keep the stinging smoke and air from making her even more uncomfortable. It wouldn't matter soon, anyways, if this fire was real. She began to consider that as she fell... A weight being composed in the center of her chest, feeling like an anchor was tied to her sternum. What if this was all real? What if she was about to die, permanently?

Her mind first went to coping. She was a little girl who loved to cope, frankly. Her coping mechanism of choice was telling herself that maybe, just maybe, it was better this way. She had accomplished pretty much everything she had wanted in life: she had her own apartment, a high-paying job (relatively), a beautiful girlfriend (a pair of them), and she wouldn't die a Tsang employee. That was everything that mattered on her bucket list, pretty much - she'd never have had the time to write a book, anyways, much less star in a porno or meet the president.

Perhaps it was better to think that she had done the realistic parts of her bucket list. Still, though, pretty good - and she could die proud, at least in theory. She briefly wondered if Purity could have set up the porno thing... But no, no. She was about to crash into the pavement, and go to sleep, and never wake up again. There were better things to think about than dreams that would never come true.

She took a deep breath and waited... And waited... And waited. The impact never came, nor did her trajectory seem to change. What the fuck. She opened her eyes then, finally risking it - and was shocked to find herself falling through air, still down the side of the building. However, the further she fell, the further the ground seemed to stretch away from her... At this rate she'd never hit the ground, just be condemned to this purgatory forever. That was fucked up. This whole thing was fucked up, in fact.

She scowled again, crossing her arms, the added weight to her torso making her spin even faster. This was not how shit worked. She didn't care what reality you lived in, or what kind of movies you had seen, or books you had read, or games you had played. This shit wasn't real. She opened her mouth and screamed in frustration, now just wishing she was dead if only to be free from the monotony of perpetual falling. "Hey, fucker! I don't really know who I'm addressing, or why, but fuck you! God?! Is that you, are you doing this to me? Fuck you! This is stupid!"

And just like that, she began to fall again. She tumbled down towards the asphalt at lightspeed, it felt; the lengthened tower shortened to meet her as she fell, and in only a few seconds, she was maybe fifteen feet from touchdown. Enough time for one last, quick "Fuck." before she hit the ground. It didn't hurt, at least - just felt like she was being slammed into a mattress.

-

Esper James awoke with a start, pissed the hell off and more than a bit confused. Where was she? Looking around in the darkness showed the dorm she had fallen asleep in... The women she had buried herself in... The bed she had occupied. She was still in the convent. Vitus was anything but burning; she hadn't been at Tsang HQ in the first place. She'd been here the whole time... It had just been a bad dream... One that started off sad, but frankly? Now she was just cranky.

She nestled herself down into her lovers' bodies, a poker player with her pair of Queens. It did help, actually... Helped her rage abate, and her heart calm down. She was just about to close her eyes once again, to try for a dream that didn't make her wake up angry, when the lights flicked on.

Angelien stood at the door, eyes half-lidded in a look of placid disdain. The nun's habit looked pretty natural on her, in the same way that a candle seemed a natural accoutrement for a pumpkin: unnatural in a literal sense, but natural by association. She spoke immediately, not giving anyone time to wake up. "Up now, all of you. Come on. We've prepared a... 'Dinner' for you. Something special for the carnivore, and normal food for the humans. Get dressed and meet me in the hallway - don't take too long. Mother abbess gets upset when the food is cold before it's even served."

Fuck. She woke up angry, and now she had to deal with this bullshit.