Arc 1: Genre Club
Shadows spread over Moonwick City, covering the sky, creating an oppressive dome with a hole in the center of it, just large enough that the blood-red moon shone through it.
As the darkness enveloped the city, people began to scream and point at the sky. A meteor was descending through the hole. Almost as if in slow motion, the meteor crashed into the ground. Seconds later, the deafening blast rattled at windows kilometers away, decimating buildings, scattering cars and heavy machinery, and toppling power poles like dominoes. The city was in a state of chaos, suffering a complete loss on all major hubs, not to mention the enormous death toll.
Will Stuart had no idea what was going on. He was calmly enjoying his after-lunch tea in his yard when the sun was snuffed out like a candle.
He crawled toward the house, hands probing the ground, looking for the roughness of his wooden porch. Finally, he crossed over to the front door. He reached the knob and opened it.
Will continued to crawl, running his hands along the walls, and feeling for the shelf behind the door. As he groped, his hands brushed across a familiar knob.
“Here we go.”
Counting the knobs, he pulled the second from the top. Rustling around, he took out a familiar object. The smooth, cold finish, just the perfect size for his hand. He pulled a revolver from the drawer.
It was an antique, but Will still felt safe with it around. Last year, when he’d turned eighteen, his father had given him the gun. It had a longer barrel than average, being a magnum.
Will was worried about his father. He worked as a sheriff, so being on duty during whatever had happened was bound to be stressful. Still, thanks to him, Will had long since become familiar with the weapon from all the compulsory trips to the range.
Trying to look around, he realized he couldn’t see anything. Normally, human eyes would adjust to the dark after a while, but he couldn’t see anything right now. A normal person could at least see a silhouette in the dark, but this was different. He was in absolute darkness.
A booming voice and unearthly screams suddenly rang out from outside, jarring him from his thoughts. It was like the wail of a banshee, threatening to burst his eardrums.
Will slammed the door shut and quickly pulled his shelf over to block it. He had a bad feeling from that otherworldly screech.
“There must be a lighter in here.”
He started shuffling through the drawer again but didn’t feel what he was after. He opened the second knob. The third. He felt a familiar object with the exact shape and took it out without hesitation.
As he clicked the lighter, a few shadows swam into focus, though not enough to see completely. Luckily, there was a lantern hanging on the wall beside the door. Will quickly took it from the iron hook and shoved the lighter inside until the wick was properly lit.
“Carrying this thing is a pain,” he complained to himself. “Why’d dad have to be such an antique freak? We didn’t have anything from this era. No television, phone, flashlight... At least we had running water and electric lighting for the house.”
Will trailed off. He was worried about his father, but right now, there was nothing he could do. Something bad was happening outside of his door.
His eyes widened as he remembered the windows and door to the backyard were open.
Will frantically slammed the two front windows shut, closing the curtains. The screeching outside was climbing to a crescendo as loud, uneven footsteps echoed beyond the door.
“What on earth is happening outside?!?”
He ran towards the back of the house. Using only the lantern for light, he tripped and clawed at the walls, pumping his legs as fast as he could. The door and windows were both wide open.
He hastily closed the door, making sure to fasten the deadbolt. He got over to the right window and closed the curtain. Rushing over to close the left window, Will recoiled suddenly as a wrinkled hand reached inside. It was ghoulishly thin with long, jagged nails.
Will was in shock. He tried to wrench the window shut, but another hand appeared and grabbed onto his arm. The immense strength in the hands’ grip was staggering. He bit down on his lip and tried to pull his arm free.
Yet another hand appeared and latched onto his right arm. Will yelped as he jumped back in shock. He managed to shake off one of the hands at the cost of deep scratches down his right arm.
Will let out a low moan as he forced his right arm to his waist and pulled the revolver.
More and more arms were groping and scratching at the windowsill. They grabbed at the window and ripped it from the frame, letting in even more hands.
Will quickly sat the lantern on the table beside him and levelled his revolver with both hands.
As his blood flowed down his arm and onto the floor, a head wiggled out from the middle of the cluster of skeletal arms. She had wide eyes, glowing red where the whites should have been. Her hair was filthy and matted. She twisted her mouth into an ominous smile, turning her head to the side and revealing a set of razor-sharp teeth.
“Get back, Oddity!” Will trembled as he yelled at the monsters slowly making their way through the broken window.
He tried to steady himself as much as possible and pulled the trigger. But he missed the headshot, instead hitting one of the numerous arms still trying to break through. With the terror loosening his grip, the revolver flew out of his hands and fell to the ground.
The oddity before him screamed in anger. He grabbed the lantern and scrambled to pick up the gun.
Will retreated to the living room, going to the stairs, and pulling himself along to the second floor where his room was located at the end of the stair. He took a deep breath as he reached the knob and suddenly a screeching sound scattered his focus.
Turning his head following the narrow corridor, he saw a pair of red eyes inside his father’s room. Will liked to open the windows, so the wind could enter and cool down his house. He suddenly regretted his habit.
Will entered his room and locked the door. He leaned against it and controlled his breath. Then, his eyes widened as he recalled his habit of letting the windows open.
Something blocked his vision as he tried to look at the window. A slim body with a swollen chest resembling that of women was standing before him. The lantern’s light revealed her tentacle-like arms where more tentacles branching out from the main one. A pair of bat wings spread out on her back. She had red eyes. Her hair was made of snakes and tentacles.
One of the tentacles grabbed his right arm. He cringed out of the pain as he tried hard to not let go of his revolver. Another tentacle swoop the lantern out of his reach.
“Is this the end for me? H-help!”
He closed his eyes and let the tears flowed out. More tentacles wrapped his entire body and pulled him to her clutch. Then, he felt his body lifted from the floor.
It was a brief silence before the tentacles rubbing his entire body. Mucus melted his clothes and the rubbing became more intense. Will couldn’t contain his moan anymore as the tentacle reached his sensitive spots.
Will felt humiliated for a long time, but at least his freedom came as the tentacles let out his body from her clutch. The oddity grabbed him by the limbs and waist, letting his naked body spread on the sky.
For some reason, he could see the land clear although the surroundings were dark. His right hand was still grabbing the revolver tightly. From observation, he realized in shock that his body had transformed. His chest swelled up like that of a melon. His brown, long hair fluttered by the wind.
The most shocking thing was Will had lost the gun between his legs. He was lost at words, but he concluded he had transformed into her.
She decided to not think about it too much as the oddity had sparred her life and healed the deep scratch on her right arm. Will thought all oddities didn’t have intelligence, but she itched to find out if she could negotiate with her.
“Can you hear me? Do you need anything from me?” Will shut her mouth as she realized even her voice had become soft and pleasant.
“I will wait after I land. Where is this oddity taking me?”
The oddity went to the center of the town an enormous tree-like oddity stood tall. The branches were made out of snakes. Its roots were made of tentacles and they swayed out of the ground, throwing corpses into many sharp mouths on its stem. A Giant red-eye in the middle of the stem looked up to the sky.
Many flying oddities landed over and presented the tree-like oddity the living women they carried including Will. She was forced to kneel. Her hair was pulled, forcing her to stare into the giant red eye.
Her blood was pumping as if it could escape at any moment from her body. She let out a painful scream as her body started to transform.
Her arms were going inside her armpits, suddenly vanishing. Her neck grew longer. Her legs combined into a tentacle-like tail. She twisted her body and slithered like a snake toward the tree-like oddity before her.
“W—wait, I don’t want to….”
That was her last words when suddenly her ability to think became nihil. Her mind was filled with the desire to kill. Will Stuart had transformed into an eldritch oddity.
hmmm, they turn women into oddities, but kill men, yet clearly have the power to turn men into women.... would be profitable to turn all men into women then turn them into oddities for way more growth of their numbers..... stonks
Well, they are oddity cuz they are odd
. And, we don't know. Maybe the big boss oddity doesn't care about numbers at all and treated this slaughter as a fun game.