Chapter 141
Above the living room, a lone woman lay in the bed, bandages wrapped around her hands and legs, the bandages soaked by the healing balm applied to her wounds. Her chest rose and fell with every breath, her mouth slightly open as she rested, eyes closed and cheeks with a touch more color than before.
Without warning, her eyes suddenly flipped open, like a switch was flipped. They were not the eyes of someone who had just woken up, clear and unclouded by the pain from her wounds. Sitting upright on the bed, she turned her head mechanically, taking in her surroundings, then she turned her body, her legs leaving the bed as her feet touched the cool wooden floor.
Standing up, she slowly walked to the door, each step made carefully to make as little sounds as possible. It took much longer than it would otherwise have taken to reach the door of the room, but she was confident no one heard her. Placing a hand on the metal doorknob, she tugged it slightly and pulled, the mechanisms inside the lock turning as she checked to see if she could open it. The knob fully turned with a click, and the door slipped ajar, the hallway visible through the small slit.
Pushing the door further open, she stepped into the hallway, her feet finding comfortable carpets spanning the length of the hallway, a muted shade of red and brown close to that of red oak and walnut. She took no notice of it, but merely glanced at the stairs leading down to where the others were, before she went to check the other doors.
The carpet muted her footsteps as she walked past the doors, heading to the one near the end of the hallway, passing the bathroom on her way there. The door itself was the same as the others, a dark mahogany door that contrasted with the white plaster walls, with square panels on the front. Yet, she knew that inside the room, the two other mages on her team rested inside, recuperating from their wounds.
She stopped a meter away from the door, her eyes wandering over the door frames, walls, ceiling, floor and the door itself, looking for signs that could indicate a ward or Bounded Field over the door. When she found none, she decided to play it safe and release a familiar first.
Opening her mouth, soft squelching noises could be heard coming from her throat, the skin on her neck bulging outwards as something forced its way up from her stomach, through her throat, and expelling out of her mouth, falling onto the floor in a small puddle of saliva, bile and stomach juices. Curled up in a fetal circle, it slowly stretched, the shiny, rubbery skin leading to a thin, slimy forked tail that whipped around frenetically, and disproportionately large teeth ending in sharp points, and finally a disgustingly large mouth that just didn't belong on something that small. It wasn't the same model of worms as the penile ones, but it would work just as well, if not better, as his eyes and ears.
The ridges helped the worm inch forward as it crawled on its belly, getting ever closer to the door, a trail of slime left behind it. When it was half a step away from the door, it suddenly stopped, gnashing its teeth at the air, a thin squealing sound coming out of its mouth. The forked tail whipped forward ahead of its main body, and it came into contact with something.
A piteous shriek came out of its mouths as the tail blackened and charred, the tip ripping free as it pulled it back with haste, sending the Y-shaped end flying off far away from it. It began it's slow retreat away from the invisible barrier, crawling back towards where it came from.
Once she saw what happened to it's tail, she came over and scooped it up in the palm of her hands, raising her hand to put it to her mouth and swallowing it whole. Her gag reflex failed to trigger, her throat distending once more to allow it to go back into the storage space in her body. Her intestines jiggled a bit in her body as the familiar joined it's fellows resting inside the fleshy tunnels.
Opening the door to the bathroom, she ripped several sheets of toilet paper and quickly cleaned up the slime staining the carpet, flushing the toilet paper and cleaning her hands of the slime as much as she could with the bandages covering them. She came out just as Flat came up the stairs, his mouth stretching into a grin when he saw her.
"Ayaka! You're already good enough to be walking around? That's great!"
This was mainly due to the pain being ignored by the familiar implanted within to control her, so the wounds or injuries didn't really matter. At most, they'd affect her ability to move if she had severed muscles or crushed bones, but there would be no pain.
"Ah, I woke up and needed to go to the toilet, so-"
Mid-sentence while walking, she faked a stumble and allowed herself to be caught by Flat, increasing her rate of breathing to make it look like she was in pain.
"Ayaka! Your injuries weren't light, so you should take it easy for now. Let's get you back on the bed, c'mon."
Flat looped Ayaka's hand over his shoulder and supported her back to her room, tending to the bandages that had come loose and replacing them with fresh ones along with applying more balm, before leaving her to rest in the room.
Once she was sure Flat was gone for the time being, she opened her mouth, and more insects similar to the first crawled out. Some were thinner, and unfurled thin, translucent wings to fly into the air, while others remained crawling, being carried by the flying ones to the far corners of the room and left there to squirm into small cracks and holes, with Ayaka's intestines almost emptied of their occupants save for a scant few left for future opportunities. The insects spread out, going through the small gaps in the walls, the ceilings cracks, eating their way through wood and plaster to find hiding spots, going to dusty and untrodden parts of the house to conceal themselves. In a matter of less than an hour, the house was infested with his eyes and ears.