Tales of Carrion Mansion. Episode 14.
"When I babysit I babysit alone. I like it that way, the kids like it that way, the parents who pay me like it that way. So everyone stay away and no one gets hurt. And this is to the tenth power when I'm at Carrion Mansion. "
Mindy had never taken her friend Elvira Peterson seriously when she said that. They were best friends after all. And anyway Elvira always exaggerated. Well almost always. It turned out that Elvira was dead serious. Jeremy and Helga Carrion were mad scientist. Jeremy had shrunk Elvira to doll size, while Helga had transformed Mindy into a fairy. Kidnapped by a group of mutated spider men, Mindy had barely avoided being sacrificed to their god. As we join her she has just flown out of the chimney. @1999 by Skytower
Mindy and the Witch's kids
{Part 2}
Fairy Hazards
Mindy shot out of the chimney stack of Carrion Mansion like she'd been shot out of a cannon. Wings flapping wildly against the both the wind and the webbing entangling them, the mutated young woman careened out of control as she tore at the webbing that still clung to her hair and face. It took only a few minutes for her wings to tire. Soon she started back down, lurching from wind current to wind current. Her arms and legs wildly flailing as she sought something to grab. Mindy missed with her arms and legs but hit something with her stomach. Like running into a solid bar she hit a power line. Instinctively she wrapped her arm around it, tucking the wire into her armpit and locking her hands together. For a long while Mindy hung there, not really sure where she was. Eventually the panic faded. Her senses started to filter through to her mind and the mind started to work once more.
It was cold. Windy. The scent of rubber and car exhaust filled her nostrils. She could hear cars going by, and snatches of conversation. Lastly a creaking noise, irregular and mechanical. Slowly Mindy opened her eyes. Then quickly closed them again. After a moment she opened them and looked around once more. She was holding onto a power line above and intersection. Miles below (or so it seemed) cars the size of buildings sped past. The creaking sound was the traffic light swaying slowly in the wind.
"I'm tiny." Mindy whispered, realizing that at a whisper even her voice was small. It had been different in the mansion, or even while she was captive of the spider men. But now she was outside. Mindy beheld the world as a sparrow would, and for the first time found herself wanting. Far away the solid cylindrical shape of the telephone pole, crossed with wooden beams to hold the wires, offered a small sanctuary. Her wings were still too tired to fly (how do I know that? she wondered. Do they feel tired... is it like my arms are tired?) so she started to inch her way to the pole arm over arm. As she crawled Mindy realized that her wings did feel like an arm or a leg. She could feel them, the wind on veins that ran through them, the slightly warmer parts where webbing still clung. They were a part of her.
"Helga deserves an A+ on that potion." she gasped out, getting closer to the pole.
When Mindy reached the pole she climbed onto the wooden crossbeam. Her newly elongated toes gripped the weathered grain easily. After a moment Mindy stood up, feeling the strength in them. A wind sprang up, for a moment bending her over, but she quickly straightened up.
"Definitely an A+." she said. Spotting an bent nail sticking out of the main pole she walked over to it and turned around. Carefully she hooked the webbing onto the nail and slowly pulled it off. The webbing came off of her wings like a pair of wet slacks being pulled of her legs. Mindy used the nail to get the rest of the webbing off of her arms. Her hair was a problem. The webbing was so enmeshed in it pulling out would take the hair with it. She settled for patting it into a sort of beehive hairdo.
Now what, Mindy thought, looking around. She was at the corner of Le Morte avenue and Paradise Drive. To her north along Le Morte lay Carrion Mansion. Just looking at the semi-gothic structure chilled her. South along Le Morte would take her past the cemetery to the secret military base no one was supposed to know about. West along Paradise would take her toward the farm lands that surrounded the town. East would take her into town and home.
"No way." Mindy said aloud. Her step brother had turned 15 only a few months ago, and turned into an obnoxious macho jerk. For some reason he hung out with a bunch of seniors, the worst of her high school. When they got together it was like being in a locker room. Mindy, tall blonde and voluptuous was a magnet for them. So far it was only minor harassment, some of her underwear missing, a peephole drilled into the bathroom wall. But that was only because she could pick the punk up and throw him against the wall. And in fact had done just that earlier that night. He had been trying to sneak a clock radio with a hidden camera into her room. That was the real reason for her visit to Carrion Mansion, despite Elvira's warnings. The atmosphere in her house was just too hot. She knew her mother loved her new husband, and she liked the guy. She had even liked her step brother until he started to act like bar scum. The argument that was going to happen could possibly tear the family apart. Mindy had wanted some back up before that happened. After making sure her step brother was just unconscious, not dead, she had left a quick note saying she was staying with Elvira and left.
Unfortunately she had no idea that she'd end up the night being turned into a fairy. Going home was out of the question. She didn't even want to think about what her little brother could do to her now. Helga had shrunk her, and made her toes and hands a little different, and of course there was the wings. But other than that Mindy was still beautiful, with long blonde hair, large breast and hips, and a classically featured face. One boy, trying to be romantic, had called her a norse goddess come to life. But that was then when she was at her normal 5 feet 11 inches. She was now tiny, vulnerable and naked.
"Might was well paint a target on my chest." Mindy said, hugging herself.
That left only the farms, or the military base. Carrion Mansion was not an option in Mindy's opinion. A dog the size of a horse trotted by bellow her, sniffed at the telephone pole and passed on. Mindy realized the farms weren't a good place to go either. And the military base was pure suicide.
"El where are you." Mindy whined, leaning back against the pole. Quickly she pulled away from it, the wood was rough on her wings. "She'll head home." Mindy said, thinking of her friend. "As soon as she gets out of what ever fix she's in she'll head home. Her sister knows about the shrinking, she'll put me up for the night." She looked down at herself. "And maybe have a spare Malibu Stacy outfit. This is worse than when El talked me into streaking."
Steeling herself Mindy leapt off the pole and into the air. For a few heart wrenching moments she didn't know how to fly, then something in her took over. Her legs spread out, the feet going straight and the toes spreading out as well. Her arms hung at her sides loosely. The arms and legs combined to keep her steady and Mindy found she could control her direction by moving them. Her body was tilted down at a 60 degree angle from the base of her wings. The wings didn't move straight up and down from her back, rather they moved in a rowing type of motion. Up, down at an angle and then back, keeping her aloft and providing forward motion at the same time.
While a part of Mindy's mind kept her going in the right direction, following the streets she had known all her life, another part of her was reveling in the flight. It was a cool night, and she could feel the wind flowing over ever part of her body. It caressed her, like a summer shower, or a gust of wind from a fan. The longer she flew the more natural it became to fly. Natural, but tiring. After a few blocks her body started to ache. It was almost like she'd been swimming too long. Desperate to avoid landing on the street Mindy slowly spiraled onto the branch of a tree. She lay on her stomach on the branch, taking in gulps of air.
"Well, I guess they are only a few hours old." Mindy said. Her voice sounded good to her, an assurance that she was till Mindy. "How did El handle this? How does she keep handling it... bad enough in a house, but..."
Mindy trailed off, looking at everything. Again it was thrust upon her how small she was. Sighing Mindy rested her head against the branch. Instantly she was lost in a wondrous world. Mindy felt the world ripple around her, then fade. She felt herself as a seed, burst open. She felt the sun for the first time as she broke through the ground. Glorious warmth and light. She felt herself go from soft to hard, felt leaves blossom and fall off, felt the small animals as they played, ate and loved on her. It was a dream, but one of those dreams you know is not really a dream.
"Yipe!" Mindy shouted, bolting up. Slowly she raised her hands to her face. She knew what would be there. With her fingers Mindy traced the antenna from her temples as they curved around her face, then extended from above the center of each eye. Delicate, yet strong at the same time.
She willed them to move.
They moved.
Mindy ran her hands along them, feeling both her fingers touching the antenna and the antenna touching her fingers. The skin was the same as hers, soft and silky. The tips were like the nipples of her breast. Indeed she felt an erotic thrill go through her body. The antenna were just long enough to see if she craned her eyes.
"A plus with extra credit." Mindy whispered.
A sound caught her attention. The sound of wings in flight, heard not with her ears, but through the vibrations in the air. Vibrations her antenna picked up because she was concentrating on them. Mindy looked up and in the ashen glare of a streetlight saw them. At first her mind refused to believe it, even after all she'd been through. But there they were. Three of the spider men, each mounted on a flying rat.
There are times when conscious thought is simply not an option. When even fear gives way to pure instinct. Mindy's instinct was to get as far away from the spider men as fast as possible. She launched herself into the air and took off in the direction she was facing. With a yell the spider men gave chase. Mindy flew desperately, wildly. Changing direction nearly every moment, following the random impulses of fate and chance. It didn't take her long to realize that it wasn't working. Her pursuers had fanned out into a wide triangle. Slowly they were forcing her into the center.
There boxing me in, Mindy thought. At the same time the young girl became aware of how she could tell where the spider men were without looking behind her. Some how her antenna were giving her all the information she needed. It wasn't quite vision, nor was it really hearing. The sensation was like when she was swimming under water with her eyes closed and someone swam close to her.
Still for all the novelty of her new senses the information they were supplying was terrifying. Two of the spider men had cast a web net between them. If she was caught in that net there would be no escape. And they were gaining on her. Despite the terror fueling her flight Mindy was beginning to tire. Her wings were aching once more. Pushing herself Mindy managed to get a little more speed, but only for a few moments. The ache in her wings changed to actual pain. She was slowing. Behind her the spider men howled with joy.
Their joy was cut short as Mindy suddenly dove. A bus was just pulling away from a stop light, picking up speed. With everything she had left Mindy dove for it. Behind her the spider men dropped the net and reached for bows. In seconds small missiles were whizzing around her. Mindy dodged them and made it to the bus, grabbing hold of the handle of the trap door on the top. Just as it pulled away she felt a stab of agony from her leg. One of the arrows had made it. The pain shattered her mind and she blacked out.
Mindy woke to the sound of arrows hitting the metal around her. She was still on the bus, her hands locked into a death grip on the handled of the trap door. Five or six arrows were in the metal around her. Mindy's stomach flipped as she saw the arrow sticking out of her leg. Almost fearfully she touched it, only to jerk her hand away at the pain. It was like having a splinter resting on a raw nerve. Steadying herself Mindy reached for the arrow again. Her fingers trembled uncontrollably as she they neared the wooden shaft. Tears flowed from her eyes. Swallowing the bile that rose in her throat she grabbed the arrow and jerked it out.
She didn't scream. Mindy was proud of herself for that. Nor did she black out again, though to stay conscious was a struggle. Mindy looked at the arrow, marveling at the fact that it had been inside of her only a few moments before. It was wood, smoothly made with small runes burned into the shaft. A silver liquid stained it. Mindy looked down at her leg, knowing what she'd see. The wound in her leg was bleeding silver blood. Not red, silver. And it was already healing. Mindy could see the skin start to seal itself. The pain fading.
"A plus with high honors." Mindy said, choking the words out. She looked up at the spider men, for the first time getting a good look at them. The spider men rode the rats without harness or bridle. They merely grasped the sides of their mounts with the tips of their feet. Either they had abandoned trying to shoot her or they were out of arrows. Judging by the amount of arrows stuck into the metal around her Mindy guessed they were out of arrows. The rats, they were rats Mindy could tell that despite the wings, were fat. Too fat to fly really. Their arms and legs ended in fans, as did their tails. With the fans they rowed through the air, effortlessly. They each had sickly yellow eyes that glowed with corruption.
"Impossible." Mindy said. Having flown herself Mindy knew it wasn't as easy as the old cartoons thought it was. You had to keep yourself in the air, you couldn't glide through it indefinitely. Even she, magically transformed as she was, had to obey the laws of aerodynamics. She studied the rats for a while, loosing herself in the puzzle while at the same time hopping the bus was an express. If it stopped they'd be on her.
"We have seen that the flight of dragons must have depended on their ability to make their bodies weightless, or almost weightless in air. To do this they needed to fill large cavities-cavities which in fact composed the major part of their body-structure-with a lighter than air gas."
The voice was Mindy's and it came from a memory of reading Dickinson's book on Draconic Studies. Mindy remember the argument she'd had with Mr. Larson the science teacher about them. He'd ridiculed her arguments in front of the whole class and had been well on the way to reducing her to tears when Elvira...
Mindy shuddered and put the memory from her mind. Concentrate on the moment, she told herself. The spider men are out of arrows and your fighting zeppelins. The bus slowed to a stop and Mindy took off again, only a small part of a plan in her mind.
She flew up, not straight up, but up at an ever increasing angle. Behind and below her the spider men sounded a horn and urged their mounts onward. The rats expanded, growing fatter as they rose. Mindy didn't know how high she could go (for that matter she wasn't sure she wanted to find out), but she guessed the rats could go higher. She didn't know if they could go faster, but after a few minutes she realized they could. Almost double their original size the rats climbed higher with each beat of their wings. She could hear them snarl with hatred and blood lust. The spider men had cast another net and they too yelled with savage need.
"If I can't go up..." Mindy said. Turning she dived with all her might. The web net lay before her, a deadly bed of deceptively soft silk. At the last instant Mindy closed her wings to her body and dived through. The webbing caught at her skin and wings and held, but her momentum pulled it, pulling the rats together. Being essentially balloons Mindy guessed they wouldn't hold formation if she pulled hard enough. She was right and the rats were pulled into each other. Wings tangled and the spider men strove in vain to control their mounts, as the rats turned on each other in primitive fury. They lost their grips on the net and Mindy dove once more. But the webbing was fouling her wings and the transformed young girl could manage no more than a barely controlled glide. A glide that was moving her closer and closer to the ground with each second.
Can Mindy halt her fall? If so can she escape the spider men? And if she can do both will Elvira's little sister have a spare Malibu Stacy outfit? Meanwhile what are Jeremy and Helga up to? Stay tuned.
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