Panting and wheezing for breath, my muscles burning and my skin soon dripping with sweat, I curse under my breath at my sudden lack of fitness. As I find myself leaving the campus and navigating my way into the still flooded city streets I try to map out the path in my head.
"Left at... at Andrews... then a right... I think... at Kingston..." I pant heavily, my stride slowly to a power walk and then a limp shuffle as exhaustion grips me. "They'll get her off me and... and..." I wheeze, looking into the bin and at my partially buried manhood as I try to work out just what they could do about that.
My mind races with panicked thoughts, the rushed walk barely even registering with me as I soon spot the colorful awning once again. With my heart leaping into my throat I race up to the door before barreling inside, a confused worker holding up my old pants jumping with shock as she recognizes my new face.
The Vietnamese woman stares at me in shock, her large hazel eyes blinking over and over as she locks eyes with me. Her long black hair is pulled back into a loose ponytail, the hastily styled hair hanging down between her shoulder blades as she seemingly tried to move it out of her face.
She stands easily over a head taller than my shrunken form, her lithe frame shuddering in place as her gaze darts over me. A set of slender black slacks cover her lower body, the bottom having been rolled up to reveal a set of drenched white socks and cheap runners squishing into the moist carpet below. Her white and professional button up top in much the same, the sleeves having been rolled up while the shoulders and chest are dotted with wet patches.
My eyes are drawn to the small black bands adorning her wrists, ankles and neck. It suddenly clicks where I had seen them before, the tiny straps with small pieces of exposed metal having been sitting behind the front desk just the night before.
"Ms Martin!?" shrieks the Vietnamese woman in her mid-twenties, her eyes going wide as her jaw drops at the sight of the young red head staggering in through the door.
The gears seem to churn and grind inside her head, her own lips quivering and her mouth opening and closing as she seems to try to search for the right words. Her eyes look me up and down before darting to the pants, her eyes widening as she glances down to a nearby seat and the set of shoes siting alongside an all too familiar wallet.
Dropping the jeans she lashes out and snatches the wallet in panic, her shaking hands fumbling with the heavily worn leather.
"M...Mr..." she blurts out, her voice squeaking to painful heights. "Hughes?..." she blurts out, her wavering voice unsure as she sounds out the name.
"Yeah... I..." I pant, still struggling to catch my breath from the run. I watch as the taller woman approaches me, a gasp escaping her lips as she spots the foul contents of the plastic bin embraced in my slender arms.
"Doctor Matthews!" she cries, reaching out to me as she snags my arm. With a heave she quickly begins to drag me along after her, the woman shouting out for the doctor over and over as I stumble and stagger along behind her.
"What... I..." I blurt out, clutching as tightly as I can to the white plastic bin as the sickening viscera inside jostles and bounces with each stumble and stagger from my fumbling legs. "Can you..." I begin to ask, my words being replaced with a sharp yelp as I'm yanked down one of the corridors towards the back of the building.
As I'm dragged along I glance into each of the passing rooms, each one soaked with rain water and in various states of damage.
Piles of mannequin pieces sit disassembled and seemingly previously organized by size, the white plastic parts now strewn about the floor as they rest on the soggy carpet. A box of springy plastic clips sit by he door, a small list of names with seemingly random strings of numbers sit atop it and thankfully out of the reach of the water logged flooring.
Another room sits filled with clothing racks draped with dripping and writhing flesh colored masses, the wriggling skin suits being held in place by an assortment of small clips to hold them up and dry them back out. An employee moves between the racks as he seemingly tries to take stock, checking names off a checklist as he holds up each empty drooping face.
With a loud slam, the woman dragging me behind her lurches through the closed door at the end of the hallway before heaving me inside. Glancing around I look over the white tiled room and what appears to be the one and only clean space in this entire building. The room is split between two sections, one filled with computers and seating behind a large glass panel while the rest of the room plays host to a large and imposing looking diagnostic device.
The woman quickly releases her grip on my arm before darting to a small fridge behind the glass partition, ripping the door open as she pulls out a bottle of faintly yellow liquid as she tears off the lid.
"Drink!" she snaps in a panic, her breath ragged after her sprint as she races towards the large machine and a pile of faint blue robes beside it. Following her orders I sip at the odd drink, the liquid being flavorless beyond a sense that it was somehow 'heavy'.
As the young dashes back to me with a set of robes in hand she grabs the bin from my arm with a gag, her whole body retching and heaving as she spots the withering cock beneath the rest of the foul contents. After shoving the robes into my arms she quickly nudges the glass bottle up, forcing me to glug the strange drink down with further haste.
"I said drink!" she snaps, the desperate panic in her voice making me whimper as I practically suck the heavy liquid from the glass. "I can't believe you... You are such a..." she blurts out, failing to find the right words before just pointing to the machine.
"Get in the robes, no metal, other clothes should be fine, and lay down" she grumbles, pushing be deeper into the room before taking the bottle and racing out the door. "Doctor Matthews! Emergency!"
It feels like an eternity as I lay in the machine, the large round ring surrounding me whirring and clicking on occasion as I'm left alone with my thoughts. My eyelids feel heavier and heavier as I lay on the flat bed, my breath soon coming out in calm and subtle snores despite being wide awake thanks to the endorphins flooding my body.
"...artin just took some... I swear I have no clue how he could have gotten..." bleats the voice of the woman from the lobby, a series of hammering footfalls soon erupting into the room.
"Let's just see the damage before..." huffs a gruff female voice, a cough soon following as the mature tones quickly shift. "Mr Hughes, correct? I'm Dr Matthews, we're just going to run some tests to see how what we're working with here."
The machine suddenly begins to whir to life, the subtle and infrequent clicks soon growing to thuds and clangs from all around me. I ball up my hands into delicate fists, gripping the gown as I feel the wet shirt begin to soak through to new clothing as well.
"Shit..." I hear the older woman huff, the machine's noises soon dying down. "Mr Hughes, could you please come take a seat.
My eyes remain hooded with heavily and sleepy eyelids, the occasional nasal whine and wheezing snore coming from me as Claire appears to be fast asleep. My eyes remain glued to a large black and white image on one of the computer monitors, my face growing pale and my stomach churning as I struggle to even understand what I was looking at.
"This..." mutters the woman standing beside the screen, the dark haired and rather heavily tanned athletic woman in her fifties begins to explain as she points at the edge of the figure on screen. "This is Ms Martin, or what was left of her after she obviously..." Dr Matthews sighs, rubbing the bridge of her nose and her pale green eyes as she tries to think of what to say.
I glance at the edge of the image, a skin glowing layer that seems to paint the outline of the petite figure on the monitor.
"And these..." Dr Matthews starts, pausing as she deeply inhales. "These... are nerves, capillaries, veins and really anything she could get into you" she continues, pointing at the highlighted branches stretching into the core of the body on screen. They appear like glowing roots, the contrast fluid making just how deeply they pierced beneath my skin all too obvious.
The branching bundles of roots wrap and entwine around my own organelles and internal structures, leeching and cutting off routes to my own skin or binding to internal organs like the lungs and heart like an organic noose.
"I'm not sure how to say this... but..." the doctor continues, pursing her lips before reaching over and mouthing 'sorry' before placing her own wristband to my neck. A sudden painful jolt shoots through me, the sharp shock causing me to grit my teeth and a squeal of anguished surprise gurgles up from my throat.
"Ms Martin!" snaps Doctor Matthew, the tired appearance in my face suddenly alleviating along with the subtle snoring. "You... You are aware of what you've done, correct?"
"..ot a..." she tries to say, my clenched jaw preventing her from speaking properly. The doctor gives me a nod as I begin to ease up, my heart hammering in my chest as I feel my mouth move on its own. "I'm not some stupid suit anymore" she blurts out petulantly, my arms twitching as she tries to fold them defiantly.
"You've bonded to Mr Hughes here, quite permanently as well" the doctor huffs, pointing to a strand of the root-like organelles as they hover around my intestines. "You're even rebuilding missing parts inside of him, you've completely..."
"Sounds good, right?" Claire huffs, pouting slightly. "Can I go ho..."
"That's his appendix Ms Martin, you're regrowing his appendix" Doctor Matthews snaps, hitting the desk in frustration. "And no, you can't go home. Mr... Ms Hughes I suppose at this point will be deciding where she wants to live and just how much she will be blending your lives together. We take time to pair you up for a reason Ms Martin, you were only here for two days and you already..."
"What's... that?" I ask, pointing at a small dot in the abdomen on screen.
"Uterus" the doctor sighs back in a matter of fact and dry tone. "Welcome to womanhood Ms Hughes, you'll be getting to enjoy all the wonders it can bring once everything as fully grown in.
"I just got off the phone with..." cries a familiar voice, the Vietnamese woman staggering into the room with a small grey plastic storage box in her hands. She looks at me and to the screen, a full body cringe shuddering through her body as she realizes what she walked in on.
"Out with it Ms Duong" the doctor grumbles, obviously done with the terrible work day she had walked into.
"Lathem College acknowledges the... unorthodox changes to Ms Martin and have confirmed they'll honor her enrollment and accommodation, at least until the end of the year" Ms Duong explains, placing the small box by the door before looking at me. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't find any contact information for your work or..."
"He can provide it later" the doctors states, staring rather harshly at the younger woman. "Call the relocation team, tell them they have an emergency move and make sure they understand that its a... delicate pro-bono situation."
"Yes Ma'am" Ms Duong whimpers, quickly ducking back out of the room as Doctor Matthews returns her attention to me.
"We apologize for Ms Martin's... I don't even know how to describe it..." the doctor sighs, her stern air breaking down. "We will provide as much support as we can, but to start we will need to formalize this process. Firstly, we will organize some new ID for this new Ms Claire Hughes" she explains, catching my wince as she calls me Claire.
"But I..." I begin to mutter back, only to have the doctor raise a hand to silence me.
"It's standard practice, first name to match the outer shell and the surname for the one making all the decisions" she states, her eyes narrowing to a glare as she stares daggers at the redhead wrapped around me. "Secondly, we will help to move all your combined things to wherever it is you choose to live... to the best of our abilities. So... where are we moving you to? The drivers can give you a ride back if that would help"
Slumping my shoulders I mutter "I guess I'll go back to...
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