The Ishimura drifted aimlessly through the endless abyss of space and stars surrounding it, barely holding together. Its mass consumed by the fleshy virus, it pushed through the small clumps of asteroid and its own remains, deeper into the emptiness. Deep in the engine room, Isaac pushed forward with a furrowed brow, his kinesis intent upon the engine pistons, attempting to get them back up and running. The vents around him hissed and scratches echoed through their damaged depths as the creatures that had over run the ship traveled through them. He squared his shoulders, attempting to ignore the nagging paranoia and pushed on.
Bright, shining eyes studied him from the shadows of one of the vents, peering through the blades of the fan. The rotting flesh that was its face quivered in longing. Something akin to a sob choked its way through the dying windpipes, lost in the hum of the failing engine and failing to capture the enginneer's attention. The necromorph hugged itself, pressing its back against the wall of the vent, aching for its living counterpart.
"Isaac," I sighed, pushing towards the fan, catching the blades with my hands. The breeze from the machine pushed her dirty blonde hair from her face. It slipped slightly her scalp and she clumsily pushed it back into position on her scalp with a sharp claw. All she ever wanted was his body, warm against hers like they once were. But then the virus took her, turned her into an ugly beast. She choked back a sob as she peer back through the vent at the love of her life. "Oh, Isaac," Suddenly, the muscular engineer jumped, pressing himself backwards against the opposing wall, eyeing the vent I was in suspiciously. He approached it slowly, cautiously peering through the small slits. She remained perfectly still, beady eyes peering out the vent as she held back a low whimper. When he was satisfied with his inspection of the vent he went back to trying to repair the engines. I sighed. Eventually I would have to approach him.
Eventually.
She couldn't bare sitting in the cramped metal vent any longer. She had been sitting back, watching, longing, for too long. The aching in her open chest cavity had become more than she could bare. She yearned for her husband – her other part. She had prepared for this moment; done everything in her power to be what he remembered. She raised a claw to her face, gingerly touching the ruby blood smearing her torn lips, imagining them locked with Isaac's in a passionate kiss. Her hand travelled up to her head, pushing her blonde hair away from her face, straightening the mop of yellow upon her head to keep it straight and even. He wouldn't be able to resist her, she was sure.
Determination took over my senses and the hunger for blood and death that had comsumed me lately subsided. All I wanted was to make us whole again. With a surge of strength, I pushed the fan forward, breaking open the vent and forced myself through, my gaze intent on my prize.
Isaac jumped and turned, his face hidden behind his glowing mask, but I knew his expression must have been one of fear an surprise. Without hesitation, he raised his plasma cutter, taking aim at my legs, but I was faster. Love drove me as I launched myself towards him, our bodies crashing together in a symphony of our reunion. He cried out in what I prayed was joy as we landed upon the ground, my body atop his, my hair falling off and landing on top of his mask. I quickly snatched it up on a sharp talon and positioned it back on my head nervously.
"Isaac! I can bare it no longer my love!" He looked up at the lustful necromorph, drips of saliva landing like raindrops over the glowing slits in his mask. She couldn't help it. Her mouth sagged uncontrollably. As disgusting as her slobber was, she was not in control of it. Isaac's muscular body struggle beneath her, attempting to wrestle his plasma cutter into a good position to shoot her down, kill her. She pressed her rotting face against his mask. "Isaac! I've loved you for as long as I could ever remember. You're the only thing I've ever wanted in this life."
The voice was one I knew all too well, but panic had taken over. I grunted in strain and disgust, my fingers aching for the trigger of my plasma cutter. The beast on top of me pressed its rotting face against the plates of my mask, its dripping tounge slipping into the crevices. The blood smeared across its mouth in a grissly grin covered my mask. I gagged, and fought to push it off but it was stronger than I could have ever imagined. I managed to get a hand free and thrusted the heel of my palm into its forhead, knocking the mess of yellow upon its head off and taking it by surprise. Before I had a chance to break free, however, it screamed again in the voice that had haunted me since I arrived on the Ishimura.
"Isaac!" It sobbed. "Make us whole again!"
My body froze and horror stretched across my face. Now, the voice was impossible to ignore and I stared upon the gruesome face in front of mine, even as it pushed away from me and rushed after what I could only assume was hair and placed it back atop its head. "Nicole?" I asked, my voice trembling. The beast whipped its head around to look at me, its jaw slack and wide with a long rotting tongue lolling out, dripping. Its two main talons holding the wig to its head. "Nicole?" She nodded in response, scrambling over to me excitedly.
"Isaac! You recognize me?" My heart, once stale and dead, fluttered to life with joy. Isaac cocked an eyebrow, reaching out a hand to grip the mass of hair on top of Nicole's head in his fingers.
"Are you wearing a wig?" He paused, lifting it up and then reeling back in disgust to see the scalp still attached to the hair. "Did you rip this off someone's head?" He gagged. "DID YOU RIP THIS OFF SOME DEAD PERSON'S HEAD?" Nicole let loose an audible sigh.
"But it's beautiful!"
"You ripped the scalp off a person and put it on your head!" He paused again. "What's wrong with your lips?" By now Nicole began to shirk back from him. She never expected him to be this cruel after their reunion. She just assumed that he would take her back. They would have romantic, passionate sex, have a life together again. But instead he criticized her hair, which she had spent so much time trying to find and then style. Now her lips? "Is that BLOOD?"
"It's lipstick!" He sighed.
"That's fucking blood."
"It's your favorite color!" She exclaimed, hoping the statement would remind him of their past together – of their love. Instead, he moved further away from her, acting as though he were ready to get to his feet and run away.
"You have blood," he hissed, bordering on hysterical, "on your face. It's not lipstick. I… I. What the fuck, Nicole?"
"I did it for you!" She cried, tears of blood streaming down her rotting cheeks. "I wanted to be pretty for you again! I thought you'd…" She pressed her face into her large, clawed hands and cried.
Isaac remained quiet for a few moments, studying the hulking, sobbing mess that had once been his wife. The wig was falling forward, barely hanging onto her forehead now, and her hands were smeared with the blood that she'd been wearing as make up. And yet… he felt more attracted to her than ever.
"Hey," he offered awkwardly, setting down the plasma cutter and placing a hand on one of her broad shoulders. "It'll be okay."
"I'm ugly!" She shrieked, shrinking away from his hand. "I tried so hard to be beautiful for you and you think I'M UGLY."
"No," he insisted. "No, no. I… don't think you're ugly at all. I like the hair, really. You're…. so pretty." His insides churned as he ran a hand over the wig on her head, pushing the fact that she had taken this from some other crew member's head and just slapped it on her own. He cringed at the rotting green tinged flesh, then sighed.
"Really!" She looked up at him enthusiastically, her tongue hanging out like an excited dog. She panted and lunged for him but he held her face back with his hands.
"Yes, really, now stop!" The wig slipped to the ground. They both looked at it, and looked back at each other. After several long moments of silence he dipped down and picked up the scalp, turning it over in his hands, then carefully placed it back on top of her head.
"Isaac… Would… do… do you love me?" She asked, her beady eyes focused on him. He couldn't help but inwardly grimace. He could never love anything like her, and she could see that.
"Well, Nicole… I LOVED you, but… I mean… You tore another person's hair off to wear it and then used blood as makeup…"
"You're still upset about that!" She snorted. "Well… I'll fix that!" she said, grabbing the grown man and throwing him on the ground. If he wouldn't love her, she would make love to him. She kept him pinned to the ground and readied one of her long claws for insertion, much like a planet cracker would enter its victim planet.
Isaac cried out in surprise and tried to fight back, but it was no use. She was stronger than him and easily overpowered him. Her thighs cripped tightly on his sides and held him in place as her talons ripped open his suit. Isaac screamed in horror and struggled, more feverently now than ever, but Nicole was determined. She ripped his face, practically breaking his nose in the process, and gazed upon the look of despair that stretched across his features. Her chest clenched in disappointment, but she remained focused. Once she was done, he would love her as he had before and she could not let anything deter her.
She cut through the bottom half of his suit and through his underwear. Isaac squirmed underneath her and she stared into his eyes, holding his face in place. "Tell me I'm pretty!" She screeched. Saliva coated his now exposed face. He pushed at her, trying to get her away. "TELL. ME. I'M. PRETTY!" This time she roared it, slamming a claw into the floor by his ear. "Or the consequences will be... Painful." Isaac only shook his head, yelling out in disgust as once again, the wig fell off her head, this time landing perfectly over his face. He struggled helplessly beneath Nicole as she turned him over on his stomach. "Tell me I'm pretty," she said, placing a talon by his ass. "DO IT!" she screamed. He remained choked by the disgust the wig brought him. Confused and hurt by his lack of passion, by not telling her what she wanted to hear so badly, despite her lack of ears, she rammed the talon into his ass. He screamed in pain. "Oh you baby, it's not even in all the way! And you'd say women complain about men hurting us too much. Just listen to yourself," she grumbled, then paused. "And stop eating my wig, will you?" She ripped the wig out from under his face and put it on her head. "You will love me you rotten son of a bitch. If I'm not pretty to you now, I'll be fucking beautiful when I'm done with you." Isaac could only sob uncontrollably under his captor. A break in his screams allowed him to whisper another snarky comment about her hair before she rammed the claw in deeper.
Isaac cried out in pain, scratching at the ground as he attempted to get away from her, all to no avail. He felt another talon positon itself at his already bloody entrance and let out a stream of desperate cries for her to stop. "Tell me what I want to hear," she snarled, spit and loose pieces of skin hitting the side of his face. "Do it!"
Isaac sobbed, and weakly fought at her large form. Unsatisfied with his response, she roughly inserted the second digit, causing her husband to scream once again. This time, she laughed, unperturbed by his refusal to admit her beauty. "I'm doing this for us, Isaac," she insisted. "I made myself beautiful for you! You're going to learn to appreciate it!"
Suddenly, two fingers were replaced by four. Isaac screeched out a noise unlike anything Nicole had ever heard and his body began to spasm. She attempted to keep him under control by placing one of her scythe-like hands on his back, but it was unsuccessful. His voice reached octaves she thought impossible of him as he fought off her arms. "Get off!" He screamed. "Jesus Christ, you're fucking hideous! YOU'RE FUCKING UGLY." Nicole ripped a talon from his ass, pulling it back, readying it when a blue-ish green screen appeared from Isaac's rig suit. A young woman, hair pulled back tightly from her face appeared, her face contorted in shock as she watched Isaac's violent rape by the necromorph wearing a blonde wig, face smeared with blood, or lipstick, eyes wild with anger. "Isaac! What's going on? Get out of there!" The talon came down, pushing through his skull in one fluid sweep. The blood rushed from the wound and Nicole backed away from the body
"I just wanted to hear you say I'm pretty" she whimpered. "I worked so hard," she cried into her bloodied talons, "to be pretty just for you Isaac… Just for you."