@2001 Skytower

Tales of Carrion Mansion 

Chapter 23 

"Getting there is half the fun." 

Go!" Elvira commanded taking Mindy by the legs and throwing her into the air.

"This isn't over!" Mindy shouted as she gained altitude and distance. It was a stupid thing to say she knew. Elvira was about to fight a giant robot and they both had other things to think about than their school reputations. But given all that had happened to her in the past few hours Mindy was not as centered as she would have liked to be. In the first place she was a fairy once again. Mindy had first been turned into a fairy months before. That had been the result of drinking a magic potion and it had only lasted for a night. This time she was a fairy because the moon was full, and Mindy had no idea how long she was goind to stay a fairy.

Becoming re-aquatinted with her fairy body was like learning to walk again after having a broken leg. Mindy as a human stood at 5 feet 11 inches with wide shoulders, hips and large breasts. Her blonde hair reached past her shoulders framing a face of classic beauty with deep blue eyes. As a fairy her body was almost the same save that she was much smaller. Her fingers and toes were longer, with an extra segment on each. Antennae grew from her forehead. They started just above the center of her eyebrows, curved along them and then reached above her head. Matching her pink skin color they could move, after a fashion and ended in nipples. The antennae were highly perceptive and gave Mindy a wealth of new senses to cope with. It was like a person who had only ever heard radio being forced to cope with stereo television. It took an effort just to walk, flying was something else again. At least when she thought about it. As long as Mindy relaxed and let her built-in fairy instincts take over she was fine. They could cope with the wings and the antennae. Mindy had two sets of wings growing out of her back. The larger pair grew just between her shoulder blades and extended outward nearly twice as long as her arms. A shorter pair that reached to the end of her arms grew from the small of her back. It was the larger pair that kept her aloft. With her body at a sixty-degree angle they moved up, then straight down twisting into a angle and thrusting forward, then up again. The pattern of the wings was an almost perfect 90, 60, 120-degree triangle. The smaller wings gave Mindy the ability shift her body from a flat plane to almost any angle. Combined with the movement of her arms and legs Mindy was very maneuverable. The wings were shaped like a dragonfly's and sparkled whenever light hit them. They were beautiful.

They weren't, however, made for long range flight. Mindy had flown from Carrion Mansion to the secret military base on the back of a flying rat. The rat had no problem with the distance, being basically a helium balloon with wings. Mindy hadn't thought about the distance when Elvira told her to get back to the mansion, ten minutes later she was regretting that.

I won't let you down El, Mindy thought as her wings and breast began to ache. The muscles for Mindy's wings were located in her breast, another feature of her body that she wasn't used to. As a human Mindy's breast tended to bounce when she walked, as a fairy they were the firmest part of her body. Mindy strove for altitude, hoping to glide part of the way there. As much as she knew Elvira needed the help, the fairy knew she couldn't last at full speed. Bellow Mindy the streetlights cast a pale yellow glow on the streets while every so often a dog would bark or a person shout. This late at night the town was quiet.

Something flew past Mindy and only her fairy senses warned her in time to dodge out of the way. She veered to one side and flipped over onto her back. A large bat was turning toward her. Mindy had a moment of panic and fumbled with the sonic lance Jeremy had given her. It bounced out of her hands and was lost in the night. Turning for another pass the bat shrieked at her. Mindy's heart stopped as the sound resonated through her body. The bat was nearly as large as she was and its fangs glinted in the night. It came at her again and Mindy waited until the last second to climb straight up. The bat shot past but curved upward itself following her. The next few minutes were an aerial dogfight worthy of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Mindy was quicker and more agile than the bat, but the creature had staying power. All to quickly Mindy felt pain beginning to spread out from her wings.

Down Mindy, she thought diving. You have legs, he doesn't.

It would have been a good idea if the owl hadn't shown up. It was nearly on top of the fairy before Mindy spotted it and it's claws barely missed closing on her body. One of them did hit her wing and

Mindy spiraled in a helter skelter descent full of agonizing pain. Battling through the pain she tried to use her lower wings to put her into some sort of a long sloping glide. It worked but there was no way to change direction. The house loomed up before her like some stygian beast and its dark windows swallowed her up. She never learned what became of the bat or the owl.

Strangely enough Mindy was able to perceive everything that happened to her as she crashed. It was recorded in her memory by how hard and what part of her body hit the obstacles in the room.

Shoulder, screen, soft. Head, table, hard. Hip, something on table, hard. Left foot, something on table, soft. Stomach, something on table, hard. Sliding across table top, paper, soft, pencil hard,

keys, hard. Head, something on table very, very hard. Blackness.

"No darn it." Mindy swore pulling her self back to full consciousness. "El needs me. Janeway wouldn't black out, I'm not going to black out."

Mindy sat up and tried to steady her head and ignore the pain stabbing at her from her wings. Partially successful she reached out with her senses. The room had no light but the thin flicker of a streetlight a block away, but to Mindy it was as bright as noon. She was in some sort of electronics lab. Not the one at Carrion Mansion, this place was far too primitive. Computer equipment that looked like it harkened back to the 1950's sat and hummed away. Mindy could feel the heat given off by the vacuum tubes. The walls were lined with tin foil. Mindy had landed on a desk. On it was a modern telephone, a small TV, a box of Raisinettes and some papers and pencils.

"Well if I can't get there one way." Mindy said, getting to her feet. She staggered over to the phone and lifted the handset off of its cradle. The dial tone sounded strange, but pushing the buttons wasn't a problem.

"Carrion Mansion, Theodore T. Bear speaking." A voice answered a few moments later.

"Mr. Bear let me speak to Jeremy or Helga."

"Theodore T. Bear, please madam. I'm afraid the children are busy at the moment. Can I take a message?"

"This is Mindy, look you gotta put me through to them, that robot isn't going to attack the mansion, it's going to attack the town. Elvira's gonna grow to giant size to fight it but she'll need help!"

"Robot, attack town…" Theordore said, repeating her slowly. "Elvira needs help… I will see that they get the message. Is there anything else?"

"Yea, I think my wings busted and I don't know where I am."

"You are at 15 Sour Simon lane, home of a Mr. Lawrence CastleWorth."

"How the hell do you know that?"

"Please Miss Mconell, your language. All calls into and out of the mansion are traced and logged."

"Oh." Mindy tried to calm down. The denizens of Carrion Mansion tended to view excitement with disdain, especially Theodore T. Bear, the spirit of an English butler who was stuck in the body of Helga's Teddy Bear. "Well can you send some one to get me?"

"Everyone is busy at the moment, but I will relate your situation to Master Jeremy. I'm sure someone will be sent for you soon."

"Soon? How soon is soon? I'm twelve inches tall and I got a busted wing! What if this place has a cat? I need better than soon!"

"I'm afraid I can only give you and approximate time frame." Mr. Bear said in the infuriatingly calm tones of voice that only the English butler has managed to cultivate. "In the meantime I suggest you stay out of sight of the owners of the house. Good evening."

There was a click and Mindy stared at the phone. Growling she was about to push the 'redial' button when the door opened and the light came on. A man stood there staring at her. Mindy suddenly realized she was naked and despite the fact that she'd been naked for hours the young woman reacted instinctively. She screamed and tried to use her hands to cover herself.

It was a silly thing to do, as Mindy later admitted. She had been naked most of the night. But in all that time no one outside of Carrion Mansion had seen her with the exception of Timothy, and she'd been too busy to think about it. Now it was all she could think of.

For a moment the man and Mindy just gaped at each other. Then he dove across the room and Mindy instinctively tried to take flight. Pain stabbed into her back as her wing protest and she managed to get only a foot or so off of the desk. It was enough to make the man miss her. He slammed into the desk and fell over as Mindy managed to land hard on the floor. Mindy started to run but a hand enveloped her legs and held them tightly.

"Let go of me!" Mindy screeched pounding and biting at the man's hand. It was useless of course. She was a bird squirming in the mouth of a cat. But pure panic drove to new heights of desperation. Her wings fluttered crazily but the fairy had no where near enough strength even to lift his arm off of the floor. His fingers were greasy and she managed to nudge herself a bit out of his grip before he tightened it.

"Judy!" the man shouted. "Get up here and bring the extra cage!"

"In a minute." A feminine voice called back.

"Now!" the man shouted.

He brought Mindy closer to his face. For the first time Mindy recognized him, and her panic increased. The Troll had captured her! Mr. Lawrence Castleworth was a science teacher at Karloff High School. Elvira had given him the nickname and it fit. He was short, fat, with an out thrust jaw and sloping forehead. His hair was greasy blonde and he wore cloths that bordered on decrepit. The Troll's greatest joy in life was making a science class an exercise in curing insomnia. He was cruel, petty and openly called the students maggots. How he stayed employed was a mystery to almost everyone.

"This better be good." Said a girl appearing in the doorway cage in hand. "They got the Angel tied to a stake and…" her voice trailed off as she saw what he had.

"Give me that." He snapped taking the cage from her. Mindy fought like a butterfly caught in a net but the Troll shoved her into the cage and closed the door. She threw herself at the bars then pulled back in pain as she metal burned her hands.

"Good, you left the shocker on." Mr. Castleworth said. "That'll teach you bug." He said, pointing his finger at Mindy. "You do what your told you won't fell pain."

"What is it?" Judy asked peering at Mindy as he picked up the cage and put it on the desk. She was taller and thinner, much thinner than he was. Her hair had streaks of violet in it and she wore a ratty old T-shirt and pair of jeans full of wholes. Her nose, tongue, ears, lip and belly button were all pierced and sported various studs and jewels.

"I don't know."

"You don't know a fairy when you see one?" Mindy demanded.

"There is no such thing as fairies." The Troll pronounced.

"Than what am I?" Mindy said throwing her arms out, her anger drowning her embarrassment.

"Most likely some experiment from that military base." Mr. Castleworth said. He picked up a pencil and stuck the pointed end in through the bars. For a few moments Mindy dodged it but he finally knocked her down and pinned her underneath it. The point lay between her breast and the rest of the pencil lay long her body holding it down. "I'll know more once I get a few samples." With Mindy helpless beneath the pencil he opened the cage door and eased his hand inside.

Samples again, Mindy thought trying to control her panic. Everyone wants samples! Seldom in her life had the young woman been so infuriated. A pencil had brought her down! A Dixon Ticonderoga #2 Soft! The Trolls' hand brushed against her wing and she cried out from the pain.

"Wings are sensitive." He said as if noting the sky was blue. He avoided them and used his index finger to prod Mindy's breast.

"Stop that you perv!" Mindy shouted.

"Breast are sensitive too." Mr. Castleworth said. He pulled his hand out and closed the door, then pulled the pencil out. Mindy sat up her face red with rage and embarrassment.

"She's rage whatever she is." Judy said bending down to look through the cage. "Look at those boobies."

"She's perfect." Mr. Castleworth said. "Once I get her on the table and get some blood I'll figure out what she is."

Blood!

Mindy's eyes went wide.

"Where's my bag." The Troll cursed, looking around the room.

"You left it in school remember?" Judy said. She hadn't taken her eyes off of Mindy and the fairy didn't like the gleam in them.

"Damn!" he swore. "I'll use the kitchen then. You keep an eye on her while I set things up."

"Ok." Judy said sitting down. He left and she folded her arms and rested her head on them.

Mindy moved her wing feeling out the injury. It was like moving arm over a flame, every time she got past a certain point pain flooded her body.

"What's he gonna do with me?" She asked Judy.

"Same thing he did to them I guess." Judy said gesturing to the wall.

Mindy looked at the wall and her stomach dropped out of the way to make room for her heart. The wall was filled with picture frames each containing butterflies. She could see the pins sticking out of their backs and it took no imagination for her to know what that would feel like.

"Help me!" Mindy pleaded.

"Sure." Judy said. "Maybe."

Reaching over she picked up the phone and dialed.

"Dulcy? Judy. We're game." She paused listening to the reply. "Yea, I know what I said, but I got something new. You still got that stuff for the B-doll? You know, the BB-doll stuff you made last month? Good, I'll be over in a while. Get ready to get shocked."

Judy hung up the phone and leaned down so that her head was at the same level as Mindy.

"You want out? You do what I say, when I say it. Me Mistress, you slave. Got it?"

"Got it." Mindy replied suddenly wondering if she'd exchanged the firing squad for a hanging. The brass stud in Judy's tongue clicked softly as she talked and one of her front teeth was chipped. Her breath smelled of stale beer and wine.

Judy went over to a cabinet and opened it, pulling out a large Mason jar. She unscrewed the top of it and set it on the table. Then she opened the cage and reached in. Mindy stood still, offering no resistance as the woman took hold of her legs. Judy pulled her out of the cage carefully. Then she dropped Mindy into the jar and then started to screw the lid on.

"Hey! Air holes!" Mindy hissed.

"Just hold you breathe, you got the lungs for it." Judy sneered.

She screwed the top on and then carried Mindy out of the room and into the hallway. Opening a door she walked into a bedroom. The room was definitely Judy's. The wallpaper was peeling and dirty laundry was everywhere. Judy set the jar onto the floor and rolled it under the bed. The roll caught Mindy off guard and she bounced around inside the jar. This time when the fairy hit her head she did black out.

The same jostling that knocked Mindy out woke her up. She was still in the jar, but the jar was moving and she was bouncing around as it moved. Her wing hit the side and the pain lanced through her sleeping mind bringing it to cold reality. It was dark, but her fairy senses made up for that. The jar was in a bag of some sort, being carried upward. Jagged tears in the metal of the lid told her that Judy had added air holes. She could hear Judy's labored breathing and erratic heartbeat. A door opened and Mindy heard another voice. This one was scratchy, as if the person had a cold.

"Hey." Was all it said. The word was said in a monotone, without any inflection or emotion. It was as if that word encompassed the entirety of all words ever spoken.

"I got something your not gonna believe." Judy said. Mindy braced herself as the pack was thrown onto something hard. The bag was opened and she was lifted out into a room filled with colored drawings. It took a moment for Mindy to recognize them as tattoos. There was an old leather couch patched with duct tape to one side. To another were a desk and two chairs. In the center of the room was a dentist chair with various instruments attached to it.

"Whoa!" the woman with the scratchy voice said upon seeing the fairy. Mindy looked up at a black woman who had more studs and piercings than Judy did. Her hair was cut short to her skull and was streaked with blue red and green. She wore a black top that matched her skin and a pair of old blue jeans. "Where'd you get this?"

"It flew into our house." Judy said. "Can you believe that Larry wanted to dissect it?"

Her, Mindy thought. I’m a her not an it. Though she said nothing aloud.

"Larry wants to dissect everyone." Dulcy said tapping the glass. "So what's her name?"

"I don’t know." Judy said. "I was too busy getting her out of the house to ask and she didn't wake up till now."

"What's your name little B?" Dulcy asked as if she was talking to a little puppy.

"My name would be unpronounceable in your tongue." Mindy said with as much dignity as she could. "You may call me Arionhorod."

"Ari then." Dulcy said. "Ok Ari, where'd you come from?"

Mindy had been thinking furiously since she had woken up. It wouldn't do any good for Judy or anyone else to know who she truly was. She doubted she could trust in their sense of charity to let her go or get her to Carrion Mansion. The best thing to do would be to give them a story they could believe and wait for her chance to escape.

"I was being held captive in the military base on the outside of town, but I escaped." Mindy said.

"Cool." Judy said. "Larry was right about that at least.

"Yea, so that makes you government property on the run." Dulcy said.

"No that makes her mine." Judy declared. She unscrewed the jar and reached in. Mindy stood still again as Judy grabbed her legs and lifted her out. "Remember Ari, me Mistress, you slave."

"I remember." Mindy said.

"What about Larry?" Dulcy asked.

"I wrecked the room and told him she flew out. He's probably still chasing her."

"Let me see her?" Dulcy asked taking Mindy from Judy's hand. Mindy submitted silently, the room had no windows and only one door and that was closed. For the moment she was trapped. The black woman's fingers were cooler than Judy's and dryer. Her skin felt like coarse paper.

Dulcy brought Mindy close enough to her face for Mindy to see the pours of her skin. She turned Mindy this way and that way, examining every part of the fairies body. Mindy took it silently, but seethed all the same.

"They grew you good." Dulcy said at last. "Look at those tits." She shook Mindy up and down. "Don't bounce for nothing though."

Will I ever be at a height where my chest isn't what people look at first, Mindy wondered?

"Her body do all the things ours does?" Dulcy asked poking Mindy's but.

Passive, Mindy thought, be passive.

"Hell I don't know." Judy looked at the jar. "Nothing in here and she's been in there since last night."

"Last night?" Mindy blurted out.

"Yea, that's why the air holes, I thought you'd bought it till I realized you were breathing."

She'd been a fairy by day as well as by night, Mindy realized with something like horror. But Cathay had called her a moon fairy, when the sun came up she should have reverted to human form. What had gone wrong?

"So what you got in mind for her." Dulcy asked. She placed Mindy on the dentist chair and took a firm hold of the fairies ankles. Mindy blushed scarlet, as her legs were forced open. "Good bush." She added.

"She works out tonight I got a cage with her name on it." Judy said. "She gets it wrong I give her back to Larry."

"You wanna try that same look we did last month with the doll?" Dulcy turned Mindy over and kept the fairies legs pulled apart.

"Yep, should work better with her."

"Oh yea." Dulcy said turning Mindy over again.

The fairy was working hard to hold her tongue, but it wasn't easy. Mindy had never thought to meet anyone who would make her nostalgic for either Lisa Douglas or Aunt Petunia. But there was a fear behind her anger. Neither Judy nor Dulcy saw her as a person, they saw her as an; it.

"Let's start with her hair." Judy said, picking up a pair of scissors.

"What?" Mindy squirmed out of Dulcy's grasp and tried to fly, but only got a few feet off of the chair before her the pain in her wing forced her back down.

"Gotcha." Dulcy said grabbing her again.

"Let go of me!"

"Hey slave, remember the deal." Judy said coming toward her.

"You're not cutting my hair!" Mindy shouted grabbing her head. It was an absurd statement. They could do anything they wanted with her. "Why do you want my hair?"

"You didn't tell her anything did you?" Dulcy asked.

"Hell, she's been asleep all day." Judy said putting the scissors down. Reaching over she took Mindy from Dulcy. "Ari, you know what Dark Vamp is?"

"No." Mindy said, though she knew what it was.

"Well it's part performance art part role playing game. About once a month we get together and act out what we write. It has be based in the Dark Vamp universe, that's a series of books, and whoever has the best piece wins."

"What do you win?" Mindy asked.

"The winner gets put on the web sight our club runs. Past few months I've been loosing to The British Babe. She's got tits like yours only life size." Judy looked like she was ready to spit and Mindy shuddered at the jealousy in the woman's voice. "She can't write to save her soul but she just wears the tightest thing she can find and uses that damn accent. Sometimes she throws in French too. Last month I almost had her, but almost doesn't cut it. I'm gonna be first this time." She brought Mindy close to her face. "Or I'm gonna cut of your wings

and hang'em on the wall. Clear."

"Perfectly." Mindy said swallowing.

"Good."

An hour later Mindy wasn't sure what was worse, being captive of a deranged science teacher or having to read the script Judy had written. Worse she had to speak them in front on an audience. By now she wasn't too concerned about her nudity. It still bothered her but it paled next to her other problems.

How can anyone write anything this bad, Mindy wondered. She shifted uncomfortable her ankles chaffing at the manacles. Mindy had been surprised when Dulcy produced them. Made of brass they were precisely the size needed to hobble her ankles together in case she tried to run. A thin chain ran from them to a bent nail that Judy had pounded into the desk.

"How we doing?" Judy asked.

"Almost there." Dulcy replied.

Judy was lying on the dentist chair. Her arms had been pulled above her and tied down. Her top was off and Dulcy was painting a wall onto her chest and stomach. Judy topless was much as Mindy suspected. Rail thin with small almost boyish breast. The wall Dulcy had painted onto her was a typical dungeon wall. Large gray stones with black mortar between them. The wall started at her belly button and rose up to her neck. At the bottom was piled bones and skulls. From her nipples hung another pair of manacles. Mindy wasn't sure if her arms would reach across Judy's chest, but there was no way to avoid finding out.

Worst of all neither woman had heard anything about a giant robot attacking the town, so Elvira might have succeeded, but at what cost? And her family had to have guessed she was missing by now, they'd be frantic.

"Patience and endurance Mindy." She whispered turning back to the script in front of her. Neither Dulcy nor Judy was too bright, otherwise they would have spotted the wholes in her story right away.

Sooner or later Mindy would have a chance to escape.

"Done." Dulcy said untying her friend.

"Perfect." Judy said, looking at herself in the mirror. She picked up the scissors and turned to Mindy. "Now lets see to that hair."

To be continued…

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