Love it? Hate it? Questions? Send them all to sigma72@protonmail.com

It Came From the Bottom Shelf (Halloween Havoc no. 32)

by Sigma

I – 20 years ago

“Open the door! Open the door! Open the fucking door!”

A door was opened, there was shrieking and thrashing tentacles, and a lot of cursing. Hard punches landed, a door slammed shut, and a metal boxed jumped and bounced as something tried to get out.

Bombshell collapsed against the door of the oversized refrigerator and slid into a seat on the floor. He naked, muscular body was covered in bruises. She looked to her side, where Thera sat next to her, her robes shredded, leaving her mostly naked and covered in purple blood. There was a large kitchen knife, also covered in dripping purple, between them.

The refrigerator continued rattling and shaking as the two heroines looked at each other.

“We gotta get this thing out of here before the others come back…” Bombshell said.

Thera just nodded and then turned and stared into the distance.

II – Now

Large blackout curtains were pulled aside, letting in the morning sun and illuminating a cold, dusty space where furniture was covered in tarp and the silence of a long abandonment hung in the air. Luisa Torres, the heroine known as Wolf Woman, Carla Rogers, the heroine Shield, Jessica Lockhart, the heroine Amazing Babe, and Selene Grim all looked around.

“Wow,” Jess said. “So this is it? One of the Maidens of Might’s old hangouts?”

“Mhmm,” Luisa said, standing in front of the girls. “Angela said you girls could have it as your own if you clean it up.”

Selene looked under a tarp at an old dining room table. “How’d she even find this place?”

“Fox told her about it,” Luisa said. “It was one of their lesser-used safehouses, so they actually didn’t come here much.” She then collapsed onto a couch and put her muscular legs out, stretching out her impressively fit body. “I’m just here to babysit. You girls get started,” she told them as she took out her phone and began scrolling social media.

The three teens looked at each other and shrugged.

“Are the others coming?”

“Yumi and Summer are off training with Ms. Miyazawa again,” Jessica said. “Anita is stuck at work. Lydia said she didn’t want to hang around some ‘dusty old building’ all day, so it’s just us.”

“Well,” Selene started. “If there are bedrooms, we get first dibs.”

*

A few days passed, and after hauling away some things and fixing others, the main area looked somewhat presentable.

Selene, wearing a tight t-shirt and short shorts that showed off her long, caramel-colored legs, climbed down from a ladder after replacing several light bulbs. “Still no luck on the breaker?”

Carla was on the other side working on the electrical panel. She wore a stained coverall and had a bandanna covering her red hair. “I think I almost have it.”

Jess was sweeping the floor, and she undid the straps of her overalls and let the top hang around her slim waist, leaving her in her tank-top. “Where’d Luisa vanish to?”

*

Luisa stumbled through the dark of a room, with only a flashlight to guide her way. “Ow!” she said, hitting her shin on a table leg. She cursed in Spanish and kept going, her boredom at watching the girls clean finally having gotten to her. She moved the flashlight around the room, seeing a sink, a table with chairs, an oven and stove, and microwave.

“Oh, this is the kitchen…” She then moved her light over a refrigerator and walked to it. She opened the door and gagged and wretched at the powerful stench the wafted out. She backed away, coughing and covering her nose in a powerful fit. Her eyes watered, and in the corner of her field of vision, she thought she saw something slip out of the fridge, but she dismissed it as she wiped her eyes and closed the door.

Just then, the lights flicked on and she looked up.

“Got it!” Carla yelled from the main area.

“Huh…” Luisa said, sniffing and wiping her eyes as she turned off the flashlight. The kitchen was fairly spacious, but unremarkable, and the busty Latina heroine, wearing a low cut t-shirt and tight jeans that hugged her ass and thighs, went to go find another room to explore. She then gasped when something flew through the air, right at her face. It covered her mouth and nose before she could scream.

She slammed into the fridge and fell to the floor, letting out muffled cries as the thing covered her. It was a gelatinous, slimy creature, and it expanded in size, covered every curvy inch of Luisa’s body as she fought against it fruitlessly.

She felt the thing on her thighs, on her stomach and breasts. She let out a muffled, panicked scream as it ate through her clothes and underwear, to get at the supple, naked brown skin underneath, and then she felt the thing swallowing her whole. Soon, Wolf Woman’s screams and struggling stopped as she vanished down the creature’s expanded maw.

Once she was gone, the creature shrunk down to size and scrambled across the floor, up a wall and into a vent.

Carla walked past the kitchen doorway a moment later and looked inside the kitchen. “Huh...I thought I heard something…” she said before walking away, missing the lone flashlight sitting on the floor.

*

“What the hell is this?” Esha asked, looking into the building through a skylight. The thief, clad in her skimpy, black, lingerie-like outfit, looked inside and saw three young women, a blonde, a redhead, and a black girl with curly, brown hair, all relaxing in the room, eating pizza and talking. “Ugh! Squatters?! I swear, I fuck one Sentinel agent for some good intel, think I hit a treasure trove because he nabbed his boss’s email, and then I have to deal with a bunch of punk kids!” she groaned.

She then took a deep breath. “Fine. Fine. I’ll handle this,” she said before looking for a way inside.

*

Sometime later still, the girls decided to take a break to look for Luisa. Jess walked through the halls of the facility, eventually finding a locker room and communal shower. Curiosity got the better of the buxom blonde, and she began going through the lockers. The first few were empty, but she eventually found one with an old costume.

It was a beautiful black and white kimono with with cranes all over it. Jess grabbed it and put it on, reveling in the soft airiness of the material. “This must be one of Ms. Miyazawa’s old costumes,” she said, checking herself out in it. She then noticed a bag at the bottom of the same locker and opened it. Inside was an old paperback book, its title and pages in Japanese, but under the book was something the girl found much more interesting, a pair of nunchaku.

She picked them up and began swinging them around. On one errant swing, the other end came up and nailed her right between the eyes. “AH!” she screamed, dropping them at the shock of the blow and staggering back, holding her aching head. She then cried out as she tripped over the bench and fell on her plump ass. “Ow…”

When she opened her eyes, she found Selene standing over her.

“You okay down there, Bruce Lee?” Selene asked.

“How much of that did you see?”

“Enough,” Selene said, helping her up. “Still no Luisa?”

“Nope,” Jess answered, rubbing her head. “Maybe she went home?”

Selene grabbed the willowy sleeve of the kimono. “Oh wow, this is nice. I wonder if there are any more.” She went through more lockers, finding them empty, but paused when she came across something.

“What is it?” Jess asked, running over. Inside the locker was a green bikini-like costume and matching cape, with a mask that had mandibles on it, and a utility belt. “Oh, this is one of Mantis’ costumes,” Jess said.

Selene went through the belt and found a small, round, metal pellet. “Hmm…” she turned to Jess and threw it at her feet.

It rolled uselessly across the floor and bounced off of Jess’ shoe. She and Selene looked at it and then at each other.

“What is this?” Jess asked. “A marble?”

“I thought it was an exploding pellet or something,” Selene said.

“AHHH!” Jess cried seconds later when the pellet yielded a small explosion.

“Oooh, they’re time delayed!” Selene grinned and took out the remaining pellets. “Awesome,” she said before putting them in her pocket. “Come on, let’s make sure Luisa didn’t just fall asleep somewhere.”

Jess nodded, closed the lockers, and followed Selene. “Wait a minute! Did you just try to blow me up?!”

*

Elsewhere, Carla flipped a light switch on a room that looked like a meeting room. She pulled a sheet off a large, circular table that sat in the center. Against the wall was a large flatscreen with an attached computer terminal. She walked to the computer and found a switch. To her surprised, the computer hummed to life and the screen lit up. The old machine took some time to boot up, but by the time it did, Carla found herself navigating its systems, but found it had been wiped of all its data.

She then lifted her head when she thought she heard a footstep, and she saw someone’s reflection in the monitor, coming up behind her.

Esha snuck up behind the girl and lunged, cursing when Carla moved at the last second and grabbed her arm. She twisted Esha’s arm behind her and shoved her into the terminal.

“Shit!” Esha cursed. She kicked back, but Carla stomped down on her leg and kept the thief pinned.

“What the…” Carla paused. “Esha?!”

“How do you know who I am?!”

Just then, Selene and Jessica came running in. “What’s going on?” Jess asked.

Carla spun the thief around and presented her to the others and Esha paused, looking at the two girls in front of her and then the one behind her.

“Oh, fuck me!” The thief groaned. “You’re the baby supers!”

Selene folded her arms. “Well, she’s seen your faces. We have to kill her now.”

Everyone looked at her in shock.

“You’re not serious?!” Carla said.

“I mean…” Selene shrugged. “I can give her to some demons. She won’t be our problem…”

“Hey, wait, hold on!” Esha protested.

“We’re not killing her, Selene!” Carla said.

“Maybe…” Jess said. “We could strand her somewhere? Like on another world?”

“I know just the place!” Selene said.

“No!” Carla said. “We’re not doing any of that. End of discussion.” She then twisted Esha’s arm. “What did you to with Luisa?”

“Who?” Esha asked. “Ow!” she whined with another twist of her arm. “I have no idea who you’re talking about! Who’s Luisa? Is that Wolf Woman’s name?”

“Shit…” Carla said, doing pale.

“Carla,” Selene said. “Look at me.” When Carla did, Selene made a cutting motion across her throat. “Quick and easy, babe. Only the three of us have to know.”

“Selene, stop it,” Carla said. She forced Esha into a chair. She then tore the sheet from the conference table and used the scraps to tie Esha to the chair. She bound the thief’s legs and arms together.

“Okay,” Jess said. “Now what?”

“We really need to find Luisa…” Carla said. “But one of us has to stay with her.”

“No need,” Selene said. She let out a sharp whistle and there was a burst of infernal flame. When it subsided, her devil dogs, Shadow and Omen appeared. Selene scratched them behind the ears and knelt down. “Listen to mama, babies. Make sure she stays here. If she gets free and runs, she’s dinner.”

Esha wiggled in her chair, trying to get away as the dogs sniffed at her and then growled.

“Selene!” Carla chastised.

“Chill! It’s fine!” Selene told her. The dogs settled into the place, laying on the ground right at Esha’s bound feet and not taking their eyes off of her.

Selene then stood up. “Good boooys. All right, girls, we’re all good here. Let’s go.”

“We should separate to cover more ground,” Carla said.

And then the three teens left. Esha, bound to the chair, held her breath and didn’t dare take her eyes off her furry wardens.

*

It wasn’t long until Jess found what seemed to be a spa area, a spacious room with massage tables and reclining pool chairs all situated around a large, empty communal hot tub. Her eyes lit up as she walked around the tub, and she eventually found the controls to turn it on. To her surprise, something somewhere began humming and water began to fill it. As the water poured in, she could see the steam and feel the heat rising off the water. In the time it took Jess to completely strip down, the tub was already filled.

She put one long, shapely leg over the edge and dipped her toe in, wincing at how warm it was. She then eased her whole, curvy, supple body in, and the warmth of the water relaxed every muscle as she sank in up to her neck. She settled her shapely ass into a seat and sighed. “I’m definitely hanging out here when I’m not busy…” she said to herself, leaning back and letting her hair get soaked. She closed her eyes and sighed when she felt someone looming over her.

“Wha...Luisa?!” Jess said, jumping in surprise as her heart raced in her chest. She jumped to her feet, water dripping off her full tits as Luisa stood outside the tub, watching her silently. “You okay? I uh...was just testing this out…”

Luisa stepped over the side of the tub and got in with her.

“Don’t you want to take your shoes off first…?” Jess asked.

Luisa said nothing. She just approached the busty blonde teen and put her an arm around her slim waist. The other draped over her naked shoulder, and their tits pressed together as Luisa kissed Jess. Jess was taken by surprise, but quickly accepted. She reached around, grabbing the toned perfection of Luisa’s ass, and reveled in her warmth. She squeezed, and Luisa gave no reaction. Jess moaned in Luisa’s mouth, enjoying the sweet taste as they stood there in waist-high water, the steam rising around them. Bliss and ecstasy flooded Jess’ mind, and it took her a moment to realize something wasn’t right. She tried pulling her hands off of Luisa’s ass, but they were stuck. She tried backing away, but she looked down and saw her naked tits, dotted with specs of water, were being absorbed into Luisa’s naked body.

“Wh...what’s happening?!” Jessica panicked. She tried pulling away and Luisa looked at her with a sinister grin. “No! Stop!” Jessica screamed, trying to pull away, but Luisa’s body had the consistency of thick glue and Jess’ panic rose when she realized she was being pulled into Luisa’s body.

“No! NOOOO!” she screamed all the way until she was pulled in completely.

Luisa looked at her hands, flexed them, and then climbed out of the tub, bone dry as she left the room.

*

“Woooow!” Carla said, finding herself in an extensive library. Books liked floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on every wall, and big, comfortable looking plush chairs were situated around the room. She began browsing the shelves, realizing the titles covered every genre of both fiction and non-fiction. She found one book, its title reading “Halloween Havoc: Terrifying Tales” and plucked it from its space. She then plopped down in a chair and cracked it open.

*

“Oh, nice, kitchen,” Selene said, walking into the kitchen. She looked around, finding the cupboards full of canned food that expired back when she was an infant. There were some appliances and the drawers still had utensils in them. She then turned her attention to the refrigerator when she realized its motor was humming. She approached it and looked down, noticing a flashlight on the floor. She picked it up. “That’s weird…” she said before putting it on top of the fridge. She then grabbed the door handle and opened it and her eyes went wide.

“Oh, shit…”

She tried to slam the door suck, but grasping tentacles lashed out and grabbed her arms. She tried pulling away, but more tentacles lunged out and grabbed her by her legs, and the thing inside the fridge lifted her up.

“No! Shit!!” Selene screamed, kicking at it in a futile attempt to get free. “Why’d it have to have fucking tentacles?!” She resisted, fighting back to the last moment, when the creature inside pulled her in with it and slammed the door shut with a mighty thud.

III

Esha grunted. The fabric from the cloth was rough against her bare skin, and tried as she did, she couldn’t get free. Still, she wiggled in her bonds and felt them loosening. Shadow and Omen both eyed her, laying on the floor in front of her.

“What the hell does that girl feed you two? Why are you so damn big?” the thief asked. “What do you two say you let me out of here and I find you a couple of pounds of some nice steaks, huh?”

The dogs just lay there and stared at the captive thief.

“No? God, I really hope she was joking about you two eating me…”

As she wiggled in her bonds, she thought to the compact taser she kept on her, tucked discreetly in the long glove on her left arm. Now was not the time to be testing whether it would even work on a pair of demon dogs, but she couldn’t think of anything else. She’d have to be quick on her feet once she was free. One mistake, and that was it. She’d be dog food.

A few more minutes of gyrating in her bonds and Esha had a little more freedom in her arms. She kept her legs still, but continued eyeing Selene’s pets. Shadow then stood up and walked toward her curiously.

“No, no, back,” Esha said to the black-furred beast. She moved her legs up to warn him off and Shadow growled and snapped at her, making her squeal and stop. She froze and the two of them stared each other down. Omen stayed where he was, watching them both. His ears then perked up and he turned when someone walked in.

Jess stood in the doorway and slowly trudged toward Esha and the dogs. Omen stood up, on alert, and Shadow turned around.

“Oh, thank god it’s you and not that psychotic black girl,” Esha said. “Listen, just call these things off. I’ll behave, but they’re freaking me out.

Jess stood there, arms at her side, and stared at the three of them.

“You all right?” Esha asked. Her bonds were coming loose now.

Just then, the demon dogs began growling at her. She opened her mouth and let out a terrifying screech that made Esha’a blood run cold. Shadow and Omen barked and charged at her, fangs bared and ready to tear into her.

Esha froze in her seat and watched as thick tendrils erupted from Jess’ body and caught the demon dogs by surprise. They yelped as they became coiled by them and Jess dragged them toward her. Esha watched in disbelief as Jess absorbed both Shadow and Omen and then fixed her gaze on her and began walking toward her.

“Oh shit!” Esha said. “Shit, shit, shit!” At that moment, her work paid off and the bonds around her wrists came free. She quickly untied her legs and sprung to her feet, keeping her distance as Jess trudged toward her. Esha backed up behind the chair and watched Jess for any sudden movements. Esha then grabbed hold of the chair and flung it at Jess and began running without seeing how the chair landed.

She barely made it a few feet before a tendril lashed out and grabbed her ankle, making her trip. Esha twisted her body around and saw Jess holding out an arm, which had shifted into the tendril.

“Let go!” The thief demanded, kicking her captor with her free leg. Jess raised her other arm and that mutated into a tendril and latched onto Esha’s head, covering her mouth as Jess began dragging her in to absorb her too. Esha fought her, pushing back and trying to break free as she screamed into the soft, fleshy gag covering her mouth. She panicked when she felt more tendrils feeling up her body, probing her exposed skin, touching her breasts, stomach, and thighs and resting in place. She felt the creature slowly start to absorb her, and she doubled her efforts to try and break free, but every passing moment her legs began heavier, like she was trying to drudge through quicksand.

Then she felt her left arm being absorbed, and she clawed at the ground under her, trying to get away. The strange, fleshy goo of the creature began to seep into her, sliding beneath the thief’s skimpy costume. It got into her sex, drawing out pleasure as it snaked its way in and expanded. It got into her mouth, filling her throat. It got into her ears and nose, blocking out the outside world, and she felt herself moan and cry out as it began pumping in and out of her body.

At the same time, the monster worked Esha’s throat, pushing itself down as far as it could, making the captured thief gag and choke. With every thrust, every expansion of the two tendrils penetrating her body, Esha felt awash in rapidly building pleasure. Even as she felt herself being slowly absorbed, slowly swallowed by the strange creature, none of that mattered. Her mind was a pleasure-filled haze. The blissful sensation she felt with her every nerve overwhelmed her, and nothing mattered to her except for the moment. She felt the creature squeezing her breasts as it slid in and out of her, and something sucked on her erect nipples, making her realize only then that her costume was dissolving under the creature’s touch. Her arms were still relatively free, with her left untouched and her right only partially covered.

She lay there on the floor, her busty body at the mercy of this creature as it pleasured her and slowly swallowed her at the same time. Even as the pleasure flooded Esha’s mind, she knew it would be over if she didn’t escape. She thought about the busty blonde teen and how whatever this creature was must have grabbed and swallowed her the same way it did the dogs. At the back of her mind, she knew she had to do something. She let out another suppressed cry as the tendril in her pussy pushed deep, and she continued choking on the one down her throat. Mustering what diminishing willpower she still had she managed to fish her taser out of her glove and pressed it against a fleshy mass somewhere on her body. She pressed the button, there was loud, continuous pop, and the creature shrieked as it contracted.

Esha suddenly found herself gasping for air as the monster withdrew, pulling out of her mouth and her pussy, and letting go of her breasts. The light blinded her and she pressed the button, waving the taser around as she quickly scrambled to her feet. The air burned her lungs, but adrenaline forced her to run, and she fled the room, her bare feet slapping against the tile floor.

She rounded the corner, slid, and kept running, gripping her taser tight. Her tits jiggled as she moved, and her muscles ached, but she saw Jess, now in some strange hybrid form where tendrils sprouted from her back, using those long, sinuous arms, to propel herself forward in pursuit. Esha screamed and pushed herself harder. Just then, she felt one of those arms coil around her slim waist, and another grabbed her wrist and wrenched the taser free. It fell uselessly to the floor and Esha reached for it, screaming as she felt herself being absorbed into the creature.

Just then, the creature paused when there was an explosion right ahead of it and Esha. A body flew out of a room as a door flew off the hinges, and Selene tumbled back across the floor. She was completely naked, her young, healthy, brown curves on full display as she stood up. Her own juices slicked the meat of her thighs and her labia glistened from recent discharged. She gripped a sword in hand and swung it, cutting down two tentacles that lashed out at her from the kitchen. She turned and saw the creature that had taken Jess’s form with Esha in its clutches.

“Hey!” Selene said, pointing her sword. “What’d you do with my babies?!”

“Fucking help me!” Esha screamed, trying to break free.

The Jess creature shrieked, and so did the Thing from the Fridge. It then crawled out of the room, a hulking, shifting, many-eyed mass of eyes and writhing tentacles. Selene looked back and forth between them.

“Ooooh, I know what we’re dealing with!”

She then lunged forward and cut Esha free. Esha fell to her hands and knees and the two creatures attacked, but bounced off a barrier Selene quickly raised.

Esha’s tits heaved as she struggled to catch her breath. “There are two of them?!”

“Not quite,” Selene said, helping her up. “It’s one creature that can split itself off into copies. The copies feed and the original then absorbs them, and any consumed biomass, into itself.”

“How do we kill it?” Esha asked.

“Gotta destroy both at the same time. Otherwise one will just consume the other’s remaining mass,” Selene explained. “Here, hold these” she pressed her closed hand against Esha’s palm and gave her something. Esha looked down at the six small, silver pellets.

“What the hell are these?”

“Count to ten,” Selene told her.

“What?” Esha asked. She looked up when the barrier around them dropped and turned to face the Jess monster. She then yelled when Selene put her bare foot to her ass and pushed her toward Jess. “Hey wait!” the thief screamed. Jess reached out, sprouting tentacles and grabbing Esha. “No, no, no!!” she yelled as she was absorbed into Jess. She turned to Selene and, while the hand not holding the pellets was still free, extended her middle finger at the young sorceress. “See you in hell, cunt!” Esha claimed before she got absorbed.

Selene spun on her heel and faced the original monster while gripping her sword tight. Her eyes flashed, symbols flashed on the blade, and a burst of energy engulfed the weapon. “4...5...6…” She counted, ignoring tentacles that slithered up her body, coiling around her muscular thighs and her slim waist. “7...8…”

The creature cupped her breasts as it moved toward her.

“...9…” She said, raising her sword. As she did, the monster’s form shifted and a massive, gaping maw appeared on it’s body.

“10!” The sword came down, and just as it landed, a burst of energy exploded from the blade on contact. At the same town, there was a massive explosion behind Selene, as the Jess creature shrieked just before the boom came.

*

“Ow…” Selene groaned, sitting up. Her naked body was covered in gelatinous carnage yielded by the explosion. She looked around and saw the others, Jess, Esha, Luisa, Shadow and Omen slowly getting up with confused looks on their faces, covered in the pieces of the monster. The dogs sniffed the air and then limped over to Selene, who hugged them both as they showered her with kisses.

“What happened?” Jess asked, holding her head.

“Your fucking friend is a psycho, is what happened,” Esha grunted.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Selene said. “I mean, I wasn’t actually sure it would, but we’re not here to talk to about that right now.”

Luisa stood up. “I’m so confused right now…” She sighed and turned, finally seeing Esha. “...What the fuck is she doing here?”

Esha looked up at the tall, busty Latina and grinned. “Just hanging out, Wolf Woman. Or should I say Luisa?”

Wolf Woman’s face dropped.

“Now…” Esha said. “What can you do to keep me from spilling this little bit of info to say...Dragon Queen, or Panthris?”

Luisa narrowed her eyes, tensed up, and then lunged, tackling Esha to the ground. The two women were a thrashing tangle of limbs and naked flesh, and Esha cried out as Luisa, leveling threats and curses in Spanish, wrestled the buxom blonde to the ground. Within moments, Luisa had the thief in a iron-grip headlock, and Esha gagged, her face turning blue as she looked at Selene and Jess with wide, terrified eyes.

“Don’t...just...stand...there!” Esha gagged. “Help...me!”

Jess stepped forward but Selene grabbed her arm and shook her head.

Esha’s eyes eventually rolled to the back of her head and she went limp, completely passed out. Luisa took a deep breath and stood up, looking at Selene and Jess.

“We’ll deal with her later,” Luisa said. “...Weren’t there three of you?”

*

And so she crept through the darkened, alien halls of the living structure, unsure of her direction or what she’d find next. She knew the creatures dwelled in the shadows, which surrounded her on all sides. Her heart raced in her chest, every muscle was tense, danger could come at any minute.

And just then, he blood ran cold as, out of the shadow, she felt a tongue, long, wet, and warm, creep up the naked skin of her back.

Carla was on the edge of her seat reading the passage. She then felt a tongue, long, wet, and warm, creep up the side of face.

“AAAIIIEEEE!!!” she shrieked, jumping out of the chair and dropping the book. The busty young redhead was several shades more pale and her heart raced in her ample chest as she looked to her side. Luisa, Jess, and Selene all stood there, staring at her, and Omen sat next to her, cocking his head to the side curiously while licking his lips.

“Oh…” Carla said, breathing heavily. “Hey guys. You found Luisa?” She then noticed everyone was naked. “...Did I miss something?”

IV

“Jesus, what a mess…” Fox said, walking among the remains of the monster. Sentinel agents combed the halls, picking up the pieces and putting them away in metal containers.

The petite blonde looked at the heroines, and then at Esha, who was sitting against the wall with her hands cuffed behind her and a furious look on her face. “Where’d this thing even come from?” Fox asked.

Moments later, Luisa showed Fox the refrigerator tucked away in the abandoned kitchen.

Fox looked at it and some sort of realization struck her. “Oh, shit…”

“What?” Carla asked.

Fox suddenly laughed nervously. “Okay, don’t be mad at me. So, like, 20 years ago, some of the girls hit me up and told me they had a monster contained in the fridge and asked me to come pick it up so we could dispose of it. Apparently, the cold weakens it, if I remember right?”

“So why the hell has it been sitting here this whole time?!” Luisa asked.

“We must’ve had to deal with something urgent!” Fox defended herself. “I don’t remember, it was 20 freaking years ago! I completely forgot about it and apparently so did they! Calm down, Lulu.”

“Don’t call me that.”

Fox pinched the bridge of her nose. “All right. I’ll eat this one. I fucked up. Sorry, girls.” She walked into the hall. “Hey, Mason!” she yelled to one of her agents, a man who was standing over a handcuffed Esha, questioning her.

“Yeah boss?”

“I’ve got a class-4 containment situation in here. Call it in.”

“You got it, boss. What about her?” he pointed to Esha.

“She’s seen our faces,” Jess said. “And she knows Luisa’s name.”

“Hmm…” Fox said. “Give her amnesiac drugs. Enough to forget the past 24 hours. Find out who’s willing to give us more for her between the local cops and the Feds.”

“Done,” Mason said, signaling two agents who heard Fox to take Esha away.

“Hey, wait!” Esha protested as she was dragged. “This is bullshit! I want my lawyer!”

Selene shrugged. “Well, another wacky adventure in the books, eh?”

“You girls are really making a habit of finding trouble, huh?” Fox said. “Well, we’re here...I remember enough about this place. I might as well give you a tour.” She stepped over Shadow, who lay in the middle of the floor, making everyone else walk around him. Luisa, Carla, Jess, Selene, and Omen all followed her while Shadow stayed where he was, eyeing a piece of the monster that was laying on the floor.

With the women gone and the Sentinel agents busy with their jobs, the piece of the monster moved on its own and sprouted an eye and two small tentacles. It looked at Shadow and let out a shrill, impotent shriek. Shadow bit down, swallowing and chewing the tiny menace, and then lay down to take a nap.

The End