Tales of Carion Mansion
# 20
Crisis on a Friday Night
Elvira Peterson eased her moped between the old station wagon and the wall of the
garage, hitting the close door switch out of habit. She was tired and her muscles
ached. Putting her helmet onto the handlebars she opened the door and walked through
the kitchen to the living room. Her mother looked up from her book and smiled.
"Hi honey. How did it go."
"No problems." Elvira said smiling as she bounced up the stairs. Once on the top
landing and out of her mother's line of sight she sagged and walked slowly into her
room.
"One day your going to have to tell her." Guenivere said. She was laying on Elvira's
bed, a Superman comic on her lap. Though they were sisters the only physical trait
Elvira and Guenivere shared was deep brown eyes. Her sister would be taller than
Elvira's five feet five inches in another few years. Her hair was blonde to Elvira's
brown, her skin fair to Elvira's slightly darker tone. Guenivere had the round friendly
eyes of a cartoon character, while Elvira's were smaller with arched eyebrows. At
ten years old Guenivere thought her sisters life fun and adventurous. At 18 Elvira
agreed with the adventurous part, but not the fun.
Elvira grunted and let her self fall across the bed, tossing her bag into the floor
in the same motion. Guenivere quickly pulled her legs up to avoid having her sister
fall on them.
"Right tell my mother I shrink to twelve inches if I get tickled too much. Remember
the last time I tried to ask about getting my ears pierced?"
"The cops wouldn't go away until they searched the house." Guenivere giggled. "They
were sure some guy was holding us hostage."
"Yea, a lot of fun." Elvira smiled ruefully as she sat up and pulled her shirt over
her head. Her mother tended to scream during their arguments.
"How come the watch didn't work this time?"
"It might have, if Mary hadn't just popped a Hershey's kiss into my mouth." Elvira
said, looking at her sister sternly. That chocolate as well as sustained tickling
could trigger her shrinking was a secret she had told only Mindy, Calliope and Guenivere. Yet somehow everyone she babysitted, most of whom were her sisters friends, knew
of it.
Guenivere gave her sister the same wide eyed innocent that served her so well in school
and shrugged.
"How'd you know I shrunk?"
"No bra." Guenivere said. "You never put it back on after you get shrunk."
"Oh yea." Elvira said, glancing down. Truthfully she didn't really need a bra. Her
breast were not large, but she usually wore one anyway because her nipples were oversized
and she was self conscious about them. "Back rub please." she said, laying back down on the bed.
"What'd they make you do?" Guenivere asked, sitting on Elvira's back she began to
massage her sisters shoulders.
"Well it seems that Tod lost all his marbles though a hole in the floor. I was elected
to get them. Then Mary decided that I needed a bath." Elvira sighed. "So naturally
it's a half hour in the bathroom sink while they argue who gets to do my hair. Luckily the chocolate grew back before the parents came home."
"Well at least you were clean."
"Oh yea, nothing gets you cleaner than getting dipped in baby shampoo and rubbed between
two sponges."
Elvira shuddered and relaxed as the tension was massaged out of her body.
"You haven't forgotten about this Sunday have you?"
"No." Elvira sighed. In return for Guenivere's silence about her condition Elvira
was forced every so often to shrink herself and model Malibu Stacy cloths for her
sister's award winning webpage. The costume designs were Guenivere originals, and
earned her a little money from the toy company. Elvira wore enough makeup to make sure no
one ever thought she was truly alive, just a well engineered piece of plastic with
some bits of computer graphics thrown in. Privately Elvira thought she looked horrible,
but the hit counter on Guenivere's websight said otherwise.
"Good, I just finished a Sailor Moon costume."
"Swell." Elvira mumbled. Far worse than the original designs were Guenivere's tribute
designs.
"Mindy said she'd give me a lock of her hair for the wig."
"She would." Elvira mumbled. Mindy had never missed a taping. Elvira knew that she
enjoyed having her best friend doll sized. She would think that since Mindy had
been changed into a fairy once herself that her best friend would have more sympathy.
She didn't, and Mindy often giggled more than Guenivere during the sessions.
Guenivere massaged her for a few more moments.
"You know blonde hair goes well with another costume..."
"I AM NOT GOING TO BE SMURFETTE!" Elvira said her voice making the glass in the windows
vibrate.
"Ok, ok. But you'd be cute..."
The phone rang and Elvira picked it up, ignoring her sisters giggle. Elvira loved
hockey, and if her hockey stick shaped phone made her look silly as she talked, so
be it.
"Hello." Elvira mumbled.
"Greetings Elvira." Jeremy Carion said, his young voice sounding sweet.
"Hi Jeremy." Elvira said, keeping her voice even. Guenivere however noticed that
the muscles in her sisters shoulders had gone rock hard.
"We have a few problems here at the mansion that warrant your attention."
"Yea right. Forget it Jeremy, I'm tired."
"This is serious." Jeremy said, though his tone sounded as if he was discussing the
weather. "Calliope has vanished and Mindy has shown up at our door, transformed
into a fairy and in the company of a bound genie."
"A what genie?"
"A young woman in a harem costume who is tied up and claims to be a genie."
"Let me talk to Mindy."
"She is," Jeremy paused for a moment, "busy." Elvira heard a loud crash in the background.
"I'll be over in a little while." Elvira said.
An hour later Elvira pulled her moped up to the front door of Carion Mansion. The
mansion loomed before her, a near perfect portrayal of gothic menace. It had taken
some fast talking to convince her mother to let her go, but she'd done it. She didn't
want to think about what she owed her sister for backing her up. Parking her moped
on the side of the house she went up to the large doors. The gargoyle shaped knocker
gazed at her impassively as she took the ring hanging from it's mouth and knocked.
The house seemed to shudder, but Elvira was unaffected. She was a regular visitor to
Carion Mansion. But when a trap door opened beneath her, plunging the young babysitter
into darkness, she could not contain a frightened squeal.
Far below the main floor of Carion mansion was a vast vaulted chamber. Once a mere
cellar it had gone through many changes over the years. Currently it served as the
main laboratory for Jeremy and Helga Carion. A set of spiral stairs led into the
lab, but were seldom used. The Carion twins preferred a long slide fed chute or in house
teleportation. Elvira had used the chute before, but always from the inside of the
house. She had never guessed that the lab could be accessed from the porch. Still
she adapted quickly, stopping her scream and bracing herself for the landing. The landing
when it came was far different from the last time she had been there. Instead of
landing harshly on a worn mattress Elvira found herself falling, then stopping and
floating.
The transition from full speed fall to sudden hovering was so quick Elvira squealed
again. She was in the entrance way to the lab, before her stretched table after
table of bubbling chemicals and strange looking mechanical devices. At the far end
was an enormous computer. After a moment Elvira found herself floating gently to the floor.
"Upgraded." she said, forcing her voice to sound normal. The sound of shouting gave
her little time to adjust. Looking up she saw Jeremy and Helga Carion were running
around the tables, each carrying a net. The Carion twins looked as they always looked, infact they hadn't seemed to age in the year and a half Elvira had known them. They
both had the same red hair, his cut short, hers long, slim builds and cherubic faces.
At the moment those faces glowed with child like delight and intensity.
"Over this way!" Jeremy shouted.
"Head her off!" Helga replied.
"Get the hell away from me!" Mindy screamed. Elvira hadn't spotted her friend until
the shout. Mindy hovered over the table, darting this way and that to avoid the
nets.
"STOP!" Elvira shouted in a voice that shook the vaulted ceiling. Jeremy, Helga and
Mindy immediately froze for an instant. Then Mindy flew like a dart straight into
her friends chest.
"Help!" Mindy shouted. "They want samples!"
"If we are going to help her we need data." Jeremy said, putting down his net.
"It's not like she needs all of her toes." Helga mumbled, putting down her own net.
"And it would most likely grow back." Jeremy added.
"Cool it kids." Elvira said, plucking Mindy off of her chest. "How ya doing?"
"I'm shrunk!" Mindy shouted at her.
"No kidding, now calm down and tell me what happened."
Elvira could see Mindy take a deep breath and slow her wings. It had been a few months
since she had last seen Mindy as a fairy and she had forgotten how stunning a sight
it was. Normally her friend stood nearly six feet tall, now she stood about a foot high. Her figure was still voluptuous, but her fingers and toes were longer and
she had antenna growing out of her forehead. Dragonfly style wings sprouted from
the center and small of her back. Elvira, used to being doll sized while her friend
played the giant, found the change almost fun. Reaching down Elvira pulled Mindy from her
shirt and held her in the palm of her hand.
"That was no babysitting job I went to." Mindy said, visibly forcing herself to calm
down. "Lisa Douglas set a trap."
"She turned you into a fairy?" Elvira asked.
"No, I just changed. Cathay said I'm some sort of moon fairy now."
"Who's Cathay?"
"I think she might be the genie tied up in the dining room." Jeremy said.
"You guys have been busy tonight." Elvira said.
"We did not bind her." Helga said.
"Ok, lets go up to the dining room, I want all the facts at once for a change."
Mindy couldn't stop herself from shuddering until they left the lab and were well
on their way to the dining room. She had no idea what was wrong with her, but from
the time she and Cathay had left the genie's bottle anxiety had grown within her.
It ate at her mind, making it hard to think. She hugged her Elvira's shirt as they climbed
the stairs, trying to dig her small fingers through the fabric and touch her friends
breast. Warmth spread through body at the thought of touching Elvira's skin, and
Mindy shifted her hand until she could reach above the hem and touch the exposed neck.
With that touch all the anxiety seemed to melt away, to be replaced by a warm hungering
sensation between her legs.
The first thing Elvira saw when she entered the dining room was a bound woman wearing
a harem costume.
She was nearly Elvira's height, with a plump figure and light brown hair. Her arms
had been crossed behind her back and a series of ropes held them there. The ropes
ran under and around her breast framing them. A ball gag hung at her throat, ready
to be put in. She was sitting calmly at the table, watching a small tv.
"Mistress Mindy!" Cathay said, standing and rushing over to Elvira. "Are you well?"
"Fine." Mindy said, sounding like she was half asleep.
"Mistress Mindy?" Elvira asked. Reaching down she pulled Mindy off of her chest.
"How come I get crazed supervillains and you get adoring genies?"
For an answer Mindy leapt out of Elvira's hand and dove beneath her friends shirt.
"Hey!" Elvira shouted, reaching into her shirt. There was a few seconds worth of
battle as Mindy held onto Elvira's nipple, but Elvira prevailed. Grabbing her friends
legs she pulled her out.
"The moon is still high." Cathay said, almost sadly.
"What?"
"While the moon is high Mistress Mindy has not the strength to resist her fairy nature."
Cathay said, looking down. "My spell took that strength from her."
"Well great." Elvira snapped. Taking firm hold of Mindy she pressed her down on the
table. "Jeremy, get me a jar of cold water will ya?"
The frigid water did it's job almost instantly. Mindy felt an intense shock as her
nerves screamed of the sudden cold. Her mind cleared at about the same time the
flush came to her face.
"Feeling better?" Elvira asked.
"Yea." Mindy mumbled. Climbing out of the jar she sat down and leaned against it.
Though it was not the first time Mindy had seen the dining hall of Carion Mansion
from a fairies vantage point, the shock of the cold water brought the room into an
almost crystal clarity. It was a classic room with a vaulted ceiling, candle chandeliers,
deep wood paneling with evenly spaced portraits of Carion family ancestors, a roaring
fireplace and a long wood table. The romantic in Mindy adored it. But the romantic
part of her huddled in the back of her mind, shivering with the rest of her.
"Now you know how I felt when you and Guenivere dropped me into the ice tea." Elvira
said, handing her a washcloth.
Mindy gave her a mean look, but took the cloth and wrapped it around her body.
"Now want to tell me what happened?"
"I went to that babysitting job for Mrs. Ephemeral." Mindy said. "But the her daughter
Elizabeth turned out to be Lisa Douglas in disguise. She tricked me into getting
my cloths covered in fudge sauce, then swiped them when I was in the shower."
"You couldn't see through Lisa's disguise?" Elvira asked.
"It was not a disguise." Cathay said, speaking up. "Lisa commanded me to make her
a child."
Mindy shuddered, remembering how easy it had been for the supposed twelve year old
to trick her.
Poor kid, Elvira thought. It was like any rookie she had ever taught to play the
game of hockey, you could warn them all you wanted, nine times out of ten they'd
still blow the first shift. Babysitting in their town was dangerous.
"The name if nothing else should have tipped you off." Jeremy said. "The word: "Ephemeral"
means short lived.
Mindy sunk lower into her washcloth.
"Shut up Jeremy." Elvira snapped. Then she turned to Mindy once more. "Ok, so your
getting out of the shower naked, what then?"
"I started to look for her." Mindy said. "I still thought it was Elizabeth. I was
mad."
"And somewhat foolish." Jeremy said.
"Babysitting isn't as easy as it looks in all the horror movies." Elvira said. "So
did Lisa pop out with a camera and get a shot of you?"
"No." Mindy said. She paused, remembering. Suddenly a thought occurred to her.
"No, she didn't. But I'm not sure why, I mean I was naked, she couldn't have known
I was going to turn into a fairy. Why didn't she have a camera ready?"
"She did Mistress Mindy." Cathay said. "She had spent the previous week installing
all manor of cameras and microphones throughout the house. They were connected to
a recording system in the cellar. I believe she was about to leave with the tapes
when she saw you change."
"Oh." Mindy looked stunned.
"So when Lisa saw Mindy change she lost all interest in getting out of their with
the tape." Elvira said.
"Yes."
"Interesting." Helga said. "Then the tape is still there?"
"The tape!" Mindy shouted, standing up with a look of panic on her face. "El we've
got to get that tape! I was showering..." she stopped, a look of panic coming on
her face. "With soap... and... and... soap...!"
"Calm down Mindy." Elvira said. "Cathay does anyone else know about the house?"
"No. My mistress could not tell anyone without revealing my existence, and she will
not do that."
"Ok, we have some time then." Elvira said.
"Right." Mindy said, taking a deep gulp of air. "But El if anyone ever sees that
tape..."
"I'll go get the tape." Elvira said. "You wait here." Elvira looked at Jeremy and
Helga. "Any chance you can reverse this spell thing with getting samples?"
The twins looked at each other for a moment, then at Mindy.
"Hmmm." Jeremy said.
"No, huh?"
"We must have something to work with." Jeremy said.
"An arm or a leg at least." Helga added. "Cathay told us that Mindy's condition is
a result of my fairy potion mixing with the were-mouse potion Calliope was subjected
too. If she is right Mindy is now a moon fairy and might change back when the sun
rises. But mixed spells are very difficult to fathom."
"What about you?" Elvira turned to Cathay. "Any idea how to reverse it?"
"No, for my mistress commanded only to make her powerless, not to restore her power."
"But you know how it all works." Mindy said.
"Forgive me Mistress Mindy but I do not. I was commanded to learn why you had changed,
and to find a way to remove any trace of your fairy magic, but beyond that I was
given no commands."
"Ok." Elvira said, standing up. "Let's deal with everything in order. I'll got get
the tape. Jeremy you and Helga see what you can do about curing Mindy WITHOUT taking
samples."
"Won't be as fun." Helga mumbled.
"El what if I don't grow?" Mindy asked, her voice nearly a wail.
"We'll order another human suit from Toy's R Us." Elvira said, starting to go.
"Wait." Jeremy called. "That reminds me that Calliope is still missing."
"Oh yea." Elvira locked both hands over her head for a moment and then stretched.
"Where was the last place she was?"
"The high school." Jeremy said. "She was going to leave her suit and collect a few
things from the subway."
"Great." Elvira said. The "subway" was a network of tunnels built by an alien race
that the were-mouse had gotten friendly with. They had long since left, leaving
the tunnels. "Ok, I'll pick up the tape and then head toward school. If I can't
find her I'll nibble some chocolate and shrink." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"Any other crisis I've missed?" When there was no response she bent down to the
table. "Stay cool Mindy, it's Friday night, we got time to sort this all out."
"I hope so." Mindy said.
Everyone was silent for a few minutes after Elvira left. Mindy stood up, wrapping
her face cloth around her body. Hesitantly she walked over to the twins.
"Sorry I shouted at you two."
"Quite all right." Jeremy said. Reaching over he picked the fairy up in his hand,
clasping her ankles firmly. "Getting samples may not be the way to attack the problem
anyway."
"True." Helga said, reaching over she pulled the washcloth away from Mindy's body.
Mindy started to resist, then realized how futile it was. She lay as still as possible
as Helga's finger softly poked her chest. "Aside from your emotional instability
and increased sexual desire are their any other symptoms?"
"No." Mindy said, looking down at her feet. Desperately she tried to pull herself
together. "And look I don't want to talk about sex with 12 year olds."
"We are not twelve." Helga said.
"We're 87." Jeremy said. "Our family ages very slowly."
"You need a babysitter at 87?" Mindy asked.
"Mother's rule." Jeremy said. "It is known that two small children live here after
all."
"We must keep up appearances."
"They are so important to this family." A new voice agreed.
Mindy looked up to see a woman lowering herself to the table. She stood taller than
Mindy, with delicate, aristocratic features framed by bright red hair. She held
one of her four arms above her head, and from it a thin strand of webbing flowed.
Bright green eyes sparkled at the room.
"Good evening Aunt Petunia." Jeremy said.
"Good evening Aunt Petunia." Helga repeated.
"Hi." Mindy said in a very small voice.
Aunt Petunia landed on the table and walked over to them, pausing to look at Cathay.
"That's Cathay." Jeremy said.
"Mistress." Cathay said, bowing slightly with a frightened look in her eyes.
Aunt Petunia nodded regally and moved on. She wore a long dress of glistening silk,
one that did nothing to hide a figure that rivaled Mindy's. Infact with her four
arms and four breast Aunt Petunia was more sensual than Mindy ever hoped to be.
"My scouts were not wrong then." she said, gazing at Mindy as if the fairy were already
bound in a web. "And I heard the term: "moon fairy" used did I not?"
"Calliope bit her when she was still a fairy." Helga said. "Her curse and my potion
seem to have mixed."
"Delightful." Aunt Petunia said. "But you hardly seem happy my dear. Understandable
with that spell robbing you of your powers."
"You know the spell?" Mindy asked. Aunt Petunia nodded. "Do you know how to counter
it?"
"I do." The spider queen held out her hand. "Would you like to come with me? I can
preform the counter in my chamber."
"Aunt Petunia." Jeremy said, pulling Mindy back from the table. "Elvira has made
some rather graphic threats concerning her friends health..."
"She will not be harmed nephew." Aunt Petunia said, holding up her hand with the palm
facing them. "Family honor, she will feel no pain."
"Very well." Jeremy said, placing Mindy on the table.
"Very well?" Mindy asked, scrambling away from Aunt Petunia, her wings quivering in
fright. "What about me?"
"Don't you wish to be cured?" Petunia asked, silently gliding toward her. Mindy reached
the edge of the table and looked down. Flight briefly entered her mind. She glanced
back at the spider queen and was suddenly captivated by Aunt Petunia's glowing eyes.
"You will be fine."
"I will be fine." Mindy repeated. All the tension and worry left her as she stood
and walked over to Aunt Petunia. The spider queen picked her up and took hold of
her web line. Arm over arm she began to carry them back into the ceiling.
To be continued...