The next week, nobody expected to see Mira again.

She had disappeared for five days, and everyone knew that it must be another of those cases. People who disappeared into the Farside. If they were safe, they would usually come back before the third day. Past the fourth, and things evidently took a dark turn.

Sitting next to Mira’s empty desk, Irma sighed at the spot where Mira ought to be. Her hand played with the small azure stone, the same one she had gifted her all those days ago.

And now she was gone.

Irma let out a long sigh…

“Sorry if I’m late! I overslept!” Mira appeared right then and there on the classroom’s threshold, wearing her uniform, a flushed look on her face.

The classroom exploded and the teacher had a hard time stopping everyone to assault her with hugs and questions.

“Haha, sorry to make you all worry like that,” Mira said, rubbing her neck. “I just got lost for a while.”

Alex, the resident Farside-obsessed girl in the class, tried to pester her with more questions, but the teacher quickly stopped her, so that Mira could have peace and go back to a normal routine.

Mira sat at her usual spot and grinned at her friend.

“Hey! I’m back! Your little charm really helped me, you know?” She said, showing Irma her matching piece.

“Uh… sure! It’s great, isn’t it?” Irma nodded with a wavering smile.

Then classes resumed as normal. Save for Alex, nobody really pestered Mira with questions. It was as if her little misadventure had already been forgotten.

 

+++

 

Come lunchtime, Mira and Irma sat at their usual spot behind the school’s parking lot. Irma opened her lunchbox and glanced at her.

“So… how was it? I’m glad you returned safe. Did you… did you find the pier?”

“The pier?” Mira blinked, as if trying to remember a long-lost memory. Then her expression relaxed. She leaned back against the metal fence and tilted her head to look at Irma with a wide smile. “Ah, yes. We found it.”

“And… why…”

“Why is she still here?”

Irma blanched. Mira’s eyes had changed. Her pupils, from round, had turned into wriggling eight-pointed stars, soft and cruel. Her smile was as cold and as sharp as a sickle as she picked up her charm and held it up for Irma to see.

“Thanks to me, of course. Certainly not to certain fake friends of hers.”

“M-Mira, I…”

“You don’t get it yet?” Thin transparent tendrils shot out of Mira’s ears, wriggling back and forth. Mira’s pupils throbbed, stuck in their alien shape. “Mira is not here right now.”

Irma sat frozen in fear.

“It was thanks to me she managed to come back. As for you…” the thing that had taken over Mira’s body picked up the azure stone and held it in front of Irma’s eyes. “It was this thing that made me understand what was going on. Geryon hired you, isn’t that right? He sometimes releases some of his preys just to lore more in. These trinkets lure them to him.”

“I-I don’t know what you are talking about, I…”

The thing rolled its eyes. It seemed it had picked that up from Mira’s body.

“Save me your excuses. It’s not going to change a thing. Also… doesn’t this mean you failed to provide a prey to Geryon?” Mira grinned. Her so-called friend stood up, walking back as she ripped her necklace off her neck, tossing it away.

“No, no, no, this can’t be happening, please no, I did as you asked me, I had no idea, it’s not my fault, nooohhhh!” She cried out. Nobody came to help her.

In the soft light of late morning, Irma’s shadow expanded, turning into a pool of what looked like spilled ink. From it, thick barbed tentacles shot up and wrapped around her legs.

“Nooo! Please! I can give you more of my friends! You… Nooo!”

The tentacles covered her entirely, even as she struggled. Bit by bit, they pulled her into the blackness and disappeared, and with them their shadow.

The only thing that remained of Irma was her necklace.

The thing inside Mira sighed, walking to the small stone. It picked that up and set it in her palm together with the other one. Then she closed her fist and with a sharp crunch broke both stones.

“Good riddance,” it said with Mira’s voice. “That is one less problem for Mira.”

It walked back to the spot where it used to sit with Irma just minutes ago and sat down. A few seconds later, her pupils turned back into normal, round shape.

“Uhhh… what? Uh, where is Irma? Irma?” Mira called out to her, but she was nowhere to be found. “Maybe she went to the bathroom…

Why worry about Irma? I think you are not going to see her for a long time, said the jellyfish’s voice as more tendrils sprouted from her ears.

“Mr… Mr Jellyfish! Have you seen my friend? What do you mean I am not going to see her? If she has slipped again into the Farside we need to look for her…!”

Calm down, please.

Mara’s heart slowed and her breath turned regular. Why had she been so worried? About… something.

Her friend…

“But…”

The tentacled mass inside her brain starts to slush around, pressing and kneading here and there, massaging her grey matter and making her breath hitch.

“Ah… ahhh… I… that feels… oohhh…”

You should forget about Irma. She went back to the Farside of her own volition. You won’t think about her anymore, and she never gave you anything, especially not a necklace.

“Ahh… I… uhhh… nothing, I won’t… ahhh… thinnnk…” she gurgled as bubble of pure orgasmic pleasure exploded between her ears. Mira’s nipples tented against her blouse and, without even realising what was going on, she put her hand inside her panties to swab at her wet pussy, licking her fingers all over. She tasted so good.

Then, still blinking, Mira picked up her bottle and rinsed her mouth from the taste.

“Uh? What is going on? Why is there a second lunchbox here?”

Oh, I think someone left it here. You better not touch it.

“That’s pretty weird…!” Mira finished her lunchbox, trying not to think about the bad habits of people. Wasting food was such a shame, really.

So how was your first day at school after out little adventure?

“It would have been better if you did not squirm and press inside my brain all morning! I couldn’t get up at all!”

Sorry, sorry! But you liked that, didn’t you? So perhaps I can do it again tomorrow?

“Uh? No, I just told you…”

But it’s just to get as much strength as I need in order to protect you for the rest of the day. That does make sense, don’t you think?

Mira’s eyes twitched. Pleasure shot from her brain down her spine. She arched her back and gasped while her brain flashed white.

“Ahhh… I guess… if you can’t help it… I guess it’s fine… but could you please be a little gentler next… time?”

I will do my best to be as gentle as I can, it replied, wrapping its tendril around her finger.

“Thank you…” Mira blushed. Sometimes this jellyfish could be a little too eager to fuck around with her brain… or her pussy, but as long as it behaved itself… maybe they could be friends.

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