The Spice of Life

Here's the other stroy that I mentioned that I wrote for the Coin of Chaos Yahoo! Group. This one is from the Odues's Oddities series, created by Mr. Mergers. Neither of the stories from this group follow my usual style of writing, but they were fun to write all the same. This one was written earlier this year. Enjoy!

The Spice of Life

“People say that love is the spice of life. Without love, life is a meaningless blend of bland moments, starved of any lasting flavor. There are those who are fortunate enough to be blessed with an abundance of this exotic supplement, just as there are those who are completely bereft of such a subtle pleasure.

“One of those unfortunates to have never tasted this delicacy, Jinn Skye, has searched for a replacement for it his entire adult life. His search brought him a replacement: physical pleasure. While this pleasure of the flesh can give a man all that he needs in the way of emotional support, it is but a pale replica of true love. During his search, he found that there were many types of pleasure that can be derived from the human body, mostly depending on personal preferences such as gender and body type.

“Over the course of his search, he became attracted to physical strength, whether it be of a male or a female. As he matured and entered his third decade of life, he found that strength itself is attractive, but it is only sexually stimulating when the figure of strength is a woman.

“Shortly after leaving college, he found a woman that fulfilled his desires; a woman of sublime physical beauty. She was beautiful, with large, firm, full breasts that didn’t sag at all, a perfectly toned body that showed every delicious curve, a beautiful heart-shaped face that gave her an exotic look, up to and including her delicately slanted, almond-shaped eyes. Her blue eyes contrasted with her full, red lips and were complimented by her long, lustrous, thick, blond hair. While not physically impressive, Jinn was everything that this woman, Mayim Aquus, needed in a lover. It seemed to be a match made in heaven; a love that could withstand the ages to become legend.

“But, alas, it was not meant to be. Shortly after marriage, Mayim made it clear that she didn’t want children, while Jinn did. While they had incredible sex often, it was for nothing but pleasure. It wasn’t really what Jinn had wanted, but the physical pleasure was more than enough to satisfy his needs. Ergo, he didn’t make his desires known.

“After their first year of marriage, Mayim began to care less and less about her physical appearance. Given that this entire relationship was created based on physical desire and appearance, this spelled disaster. As her weight waxed, Jinn’s interest in her waned. It didn’t take long for marital problems to crop up. However, both were true to their vows and tried to keep the marriage running. Neither were thrilled about doing that.

“From that point on, Jinn’s search had changed. Instead of searching for a replacement for love, he tried to find a way to rekindle the pleasures that had kept their marriage going before. Unknown to himself, he was actually experiencing love. Not a love of physical pleasures, but a deep true love for himself and for Mayim. What he truly wanted wasn’t just to have the two of them experience the carnal pleasures with each other, but to make it so that she, at the very least, was happy again. If he had realized this, his story may have ended differently. As it was, he did not know what true love looked like and was thus ignorant of it.

“It was this new search that led him to me, Samuel Odues, and my humble little establishment. One night in mid-march, he came into my store, quite by accident. Nonetheless, he look around, fascinated by the various objects that I have collected over the years. Each object that he looked at were various in their special traits and appearances, but he instinctively knew that none of them would give him what he wanted.

“As he rooted through the piles, I approached him, and asked him if there was anything that I could help him with. He seemed startled by my appearance, as if he hadn’t heard me coming and that I had just popped into existence behind him. After recovering from his initial shock, he explained what it was that he wanted. Since it was a shop, I had to show him what it was that he felt that he needed. It went against my better judgment to do so, but business was business.

“Going to one of the back shelves, I picked up what it was that he sought. Before I gave it to him, I asked him if he really knew what it was that he wanted. He said that he did and, due to the nature of my business, I gave it to him. Not without warning, of course. I told him that he needed to be careful when using this and that there could be grave consequences if misused. He said that he understood and took the item from me. Before he had a chance to really examine it, I told him that he needed to sign for it.

“I pulled a contract from the stack that I have and gave him a ballpoint pen to sign it with. He seemed startled when he saw the bright red line that the pen left behind on the yellowed parchment. Regardless, he signed his name. After that, I wasn’t responsible for what happened.

“I let him look at the item for a bit, absorbing all of the details. It was a small, relatively plain metal canister that was divided into five sections, each with a different substance in it. Jinn apparently recognized them as spices, because he didn’t ask what they were. The canister itself was no taller than his thumb and about as wide as an Elizabethan era penny. The lid of the canister was turnable, allowing for one of the five spices to be poured out of it. On the outside of the canister, centered in front of each section, was a name, each referring to the property of the spice that was contained inside. The names were: robus, amoenus, uberis, celsa, and veneri. Apparently, Jinn had some understanding of Latin, for, as he read the names, he seemed to understand what was so special about these spices.

“The first, robus, means strength. The second, amoenus, referred to beauty. The next, uberis, translates to breasts. The fourth, celsa, described the word height. Finally, the last one, veneri, roughly translates to sex, or more specifically, one’s libido.

“Not even questioning the fact that he didn’t have to pay money for it, unlike most people who visit me, he rushed home and began to cook a wonderful feast. In each of the five dishes that he had prepared for his wife, he put a tiny bit of each spice to not only see that they work, but to verify that he had the translations correct. As usual, I watched the events unfold from afar. He put the spice for beauty in the appetizer, the spice for height in the salad, the spice for strength on her steak, the spice for breasts in her mashed potatoes, and the spice for sex in her dessert. All things considered, he did a good job in spreading them out. To do otherwise invites grave consequences. The way that he did it would definitely make for an interesting evening.

“The dinner went off smoothly, and for the longest time, nothing seemed to be happening. Instead of despairing, though, Jinn retained an optimistic point of view, saying that good things come to those who wait. Midway through dessert, Mayim began to look a little flushed. Jinn wasn’t sure if there was something wrong or if it was supposed to happen. As he was gazing at her face, he figured it out. Slowly, her facial features were reshaping, giving her the beautiful face that she had when they first met. She finished her dessert and said that she wasn’t feeling well, so she was going to lie down. Jinn went with her ‘in case she needed anything’.

“Needless to say, she wasn’t feeling well because her entire body was beginning to go through a rather drastic change. They got to their bedroom before anything really began to happen. Mayim took most of her clothes off to make herself feel more comfortable. Already signs of change were visible. Her overweight body had slimmed down a little as amoenus’s effect combined with robus’s. She laid down on the bed, clad in just her panties and her bra.

“I will be the first to admit that it does appear to be a little perverted to watch all of this, but it was part of my job. As she became more and more immersed in the throes of these changes, her body began to alter more and more drastically. She slowly became more and more attractive as muscle tone became apparent and fat melted away. The moans that escaped her lips as a result of her body reshaping immediately excited Jinn, who was showing more and more…em…interest by the second. Her form slowly lengthened through celsa’s effect, stretching her five-foot height to just shy of the six-foot mark. At that point, uberis kicked in, letting its presence be known with a vengeance. Her bust surged forward, destroying her bra. That alone was impressive, given that the bra had once held up the breasts if a very thick woman, who had, a few seconds ago, almost decreased in width by half. He new breasts were perfectly rounded, and possibly more firm than they were when the two of them had met. They were definitely bigger than they were then, though.

“Her transformation gradually slowed to a stop. Her body now had a shiny coat of sweat, reflecting the dim light of the bedroom. Her large breasts poked up proudly from her toned chest, free from the constraints of her bra. Her panties were still intact, although they were now grossly oversized. All things considered, she was now almost identical to how she was when they met. The only differences were that she was now much bigger as far as height and the accompanying proportions went and that her breasts were now twice the size of their original shape.

“Through all of this though, veneri had yet to makes itself known. It did so just as her body relaxed after the transformation. She was catching her breath from the exertion, when she suddenly began to moan, and squirm around on the bed. Her breath, formerly moving towards a regular pattern, was now an erratic pattern of heavy breathing that spoke of a very deep arousal. As if to prove the depth of her lust, her large nipples engorged themselves, becoming as thick as her thumbs. Her hands moved as if they had a mind of their own, spreading up and down her body, feeling the deep sensitivity of every bump and crevice of her body. During this, she ripped the oversized panties off of her body, exposing her moist womanhood. Eventually, her hands move down, deep into her crotch, and she began to, to put it bluntly, masturbate.

“She never reached an orgasm though. Or at least not through that. Her hungry eyes spotted Jinn and saw him as a better release for this tension. She easily lifted him up, her slim, toned muscles hiding the true strength that she possessed and proceded to rip his clothes off of his body. Out of sheer respect of privacy, I turned away from this scene. Watching one go through the effects of the items that move through my store is one thing, but I draw the line at watching my customers at their most intimate moments. Nevertheless, I couldn’t block out the sounds of their passionate love-making.

“They continued through the night, Mayim’s sexual energy seeming endless. Jinn, despite being out of practice for some time, seemed to be keeping up just fine. Eventually, they both fell asleep. In the morning, though, they went right back at it. I have to admit that it was ridiculous. Finally, they stopped. Or rather Jinn stopped. He had nothing left to give, so he just quit. Mayim was still incredibly aroused, as I knew she would be until her hormones stabilized themselves, so she stuck with pleasuring herself to release her sexual tension.

“It was at this point that I permitted myself to watch again. Since Jinn was the one who had signed the contract, it was he whom I had to watch. So I watched, in horror, as he decided to give her the rest of the spices. That in itself wasn’t so bad. What was so terrible about it was how he was going to give her the spices. I had assumed that he had at least read what was on the can before he had left. It didn’t take effort to understand what had happened. He had read and translated the words on the side that named the spices, and then immediately forgot about anything else that was on there. It had filled my soul with a warm feeling of reassurance to see someone who had seemed to have finally gotten passed the jinxed nature of my store and achieve true happiness after running this business for so long. Watching what happened next filled that space with the coldest, deepest sorrow.

“Mayim’s cries of pleasure from the background slowly quieted down, signifying that her hormones, while now in different proportions to her earlier form, were at a balance that left her sensual form stable, as far as sexual desire went, but left her in a state where she could probably orgasm if she squirmed in the right way. Even without my sight, you could see that in the way that she walked; as Jinn saw it in the way that she walked. She sat down at the table, an old robe barely covering her large, curvaceous form. Her large cleavage was bunched up in the top of the robe, appearing as if they were liable to burst free at any moment. The rest of the robe covered the rest of her body fairly well, but it stopped just above the top third of her thigh, revealing most of her gloriously toned leg.

“She didn’t say anything, but her stomach spoke for her. Having a wild night of almost non-stop sex was bound to make anyone, even an inhumanly durable woman, hungry. A slight blush appeared on her tanned cheeks… THE ONES ON HER FACE, NOT THE OTHER ONES! Good Lord! Give me some credit here! I only observe my client and those who are being affected AT THAT MOMENT by my client’s item. Besides, she was clothed, if a little haphazardly, so stop looking at me like that!

“Ahem. As I was saying… A slight blush appeared on the tanned cheeks OF HER FACE, revealing her embarrassment. Jinn took it all in stride and gave her the food that he had prepared. Being close to four in the afternoon, it was a type of grilled chicken, obviously heavily spiced. To her, it looked like it had a large amount of rosemary and other similar spices on it. Obviously, they had a more mysterious nature to them. A more magical nature. Nonetheless, she ate it. Apparently, it actually tasted very good. She practically inhaled it. Although, I have to say, looking back on it, I think that it was very likely that she ate that way due to the beginning effects of the combined spices.

“She finished the relatively small meal quickly, and just sat there, letting her food digest. Jinn waited patiently, letting his gaze wander as he waited for the first effects to become visible. As he did so, his eyes fell on the can, which was sitting on a nearby counter. He picked it up and rolled it over in his hands. As he did so, he spotted the one line of words that could have avoided this whole mess: ‘Gravis! Non facis admiscero condimenti!’

“Either he was in too much of a haze from the anticipated transformation or he just didn’t understand Latin that well. Either way, he didn’t translate the sentence. Again, things might have been different if he had. But he didn’t, so the events continued to unfold in a pattern that I have seen too many time before: he got what he wanted and more.

“Suddenly, his attention shifted, and I gathered that the moment of destiny had arrived. I turned my view to Mayim and, as I must, watched. Her tanned skin had become flushed again, just like the first time. To this day, I don’t really know if she was aware of what had happened to her the first time, the second time, or if her becoming flushed meant anything at all. Regardless, the same events of the previous night began to unfold. Or, more specifically, it started out the same. She said that she wasn’t feeling well so she left to go to their room. Jinn followed her. This time, she didn’t strip down to her underwear. In fact, she did the opposite. She began to put clothes on.

“Confused, Jinn asked her where she was going. With a glazed look in her eyes, she said that she wasn’t feeling well, more hot than anything else, like she couldn’t breathe properly, so she was going to get a breath of fresh air. She had finished tying on her tennis shoes when her condition appeared to worsen. She stumbled towards the door, with every intention of stepping outside, but she never made it. She hit the ground in between the bathroom and the door to the room. The bed, luckily, was on the opposite side of the room, so she was lying in the middle of a large open space in the room. Things would have been much worse if it wasn’t for that.

“She lay on the thickly carpeted floor of their bedroom, clutching at her stomach, and began to moan loudly. Jinn rushed over, to see if he could help, but stopped halfway. It wasn’t that anything had made him stop so much as it was that he couldn’t move from shock. On the floor, where his wife lay, something was happening. He could do nothing but look at her as her clothes visibly became tighter.

“The most notable thing that could be seen from her back was that she was increasing in both size and muscularity. Jinn stared, transfixed, but the awesome view of the tendons and fibers of her muscles swelling, altering her shape, moving her back out of proportion. Then, as if she was a puppet on strings, she stood up, her swelling form causing her clothing to groan in protest. The baggy pants that she had donned before the change struck her were now being pulled skin-tight about her legs. Her rear was similarly swelling, forcing her pants to grow tighter. Despite the baggy sleeves of her long-sleeved shirt, they too were being pulled taut. Her entire anatomy was undergoing an incredible transformation that looked as if it hurt in ways unimaginable. That was not what made this so incredible to watch, though. It was the fact that she was beginning to enjoy it.

“In time with each surge of growth, her body would stiffen in the pure bliss of the sheer, unadulterated power that was surging within her veins. Her eyes, whenever they were not screwed shut and could be seen, were dilated with carnal hunger, just like before. Her breathing was ragged, both from the desire that she was feeling as well as from the transformation itself. Her moans, in proportion to her growth, became louder, huskier, more forceful, until they were screams of pure sensual power. In unison with her cries, her hands, lengthening and thickening the entire time, probed the expanding tissue of her body, finding the various points about her swelling frame that would inspire the most pleasure.

“She grew and grew, mostly taller at first. Eventually, her clothes were pulled tight enough to see the various heads of the individual muscles though the thick material. Her elongated frame now stretched past the seven foot mark, and it looked like her body had no intention of slowing down any time soon. Each piece of clothing that she was wearing slowly began to cover less and less of her mutating flesh. At this point, some of her calves were visible, as were most of her forearms. Her midriff was slowly becoming visible as well. At the same time, her chest, mostly because of her enlarging pectorals, was stretching her shirt front forward, making her cleavage much more impressive to behold. Her socks no longer covered her ankles and were forced down into her shoes, which were becoming increasingly tighter.

“Her muscles stretched and strained, trying to keep up with the growth of her skeleton. Slowly, ever so slowly, they began to force the seams of her clothes apart. The noise of tearing fabric soon began to join with her cries of ecstasy. It started with her feet, which were much too big for her shoes by now. Slowly, each monstrous foot burst free, starting with her enormous toes. One by one, they burst through the thick plastic and leather of her shoes, followed soon after by her heels. Her feet grew wider and wider until they burst free completely. Her ankles also thickened, which began the change in her claves.

“The once modest, toned muscles of her calves began to bulge obscenely into the inverted heart shape that any bodybuilder would die for. As they grew, the seams of her pants legs began to split, moving up her leg. As the tear moved up, so did the explosive growth of her muscular tissue. Her quadriceps and hamstrings bulged to three times their normal size, turning into muscular pillars of power. At this point, her pants were now Daisy Duke cut-offs. Her rear expanded as well, destroying what was left of her pants. She wasn’t wearing any underwear. Now free of all blockage, her expanding hands moved deep into her widening crotch. From the looks of things, her vaginal muscles were also increasing in size and strength, because her hands were not moving enough to cause the kind of pleasure that she was feeling. Don’t ask me how I know that. That’s something that I would rather not talk about.

“Anyway, the transformation continued with her upper body. Her already strengthening midsection veritably exploded with power from the change. Her abdominal muscles bunched and split, and the bunched and split again, over and over, until she finally had the most ripped set of abs that the world had ever seen. Again, don’t ask how I know.

“Still, that didn’t do too much to the alteration of her frame or the destruction of her clothes, so it went unnoticed for a little while. Her chest and back, though, were different stories entirely. Her back inflated first, or at least more noticeably at first. Probably because the muscles in the back actually had to reshape her figure, moving it from an hourglass shape to a V-figure. Her chest, though, really just pushed forward greatly and widened only minimally. Either way, the sight was awesome to behold.

“As I said, her back inflated, individual muscles straining and appearing against the stretched material of her shirt. Her moans and cries increased in pitch as her shoulders spread, forcing her back into a V-shape. Not long after the expansion of her back began, a tear began to form in the middle of her shirt. As the tear grew, more and more of her muscular back was revealed. Her chest was engorging itself at about the same time. Her pectorals were continually being thrust forward as they grew, shifting the way that her breasts sat on top of her chest, marring their perfect roundness.

“As if taking the pectoral’s assault on her chest as a challenge, her breasts began to grow at a rate as of yet unprecedented. For every centimeter that her pecs grew, her breasts grew an inch. The end result created another tear that split her shirt in half down the front, releasing her massive breasts which now rested on equally massive mounts of muscle. It was at this point that the change to her stomach had truly become apparent.

“With the almost complete demolition of her shirt, the transformation, or at least the muscle growth aspect of it, seemed to pick up the pace. Her already swollen portions continued to swell further, and her height increased as well. Looking at her shirt now, no one would have guessed that it had fit the woman in the room well a few minutes ago. It was now hanging from her shoulders and her arms, and from the rate of the swelling, anyone near her knew that what remained of her shirt wouldn’t last long. Her arms seemed to want to change first, and they did so quickly.

“Her forearms were the first indication that the growth passed on its predictable path and went for what would destroy her clothing the most. Again, looking back on it, I suspect that her psyche had some kind of subconscious influence over what changed when. The muscles in her forearms strained and bulged as blood was pumped into them. Her still growing hands spasmed as the tendons that they were connected to went through a sudden change in both size and strength. That one convulsion seemed to increase her pleasure a thousand-fold, as well as causing her to dig into her sensitive folds. Her cries of mixed pain and pleasure were deafening, even though I was listening to it indirectly.

“The sudden increase in size also destroyed the cuffs and the lower portion of the sleeves. Disregarding the rest of the body, as if that was even remotely possible at this point, she would have looked like something out of a Popeye cartoon. The growth traveled up her arm, targeting her triceps first. They immediately exploded into a horseshoe-like formation that reflected the pure power that they housed. Then the growth got to the biceps. In all of the years that I have been in this business, I have seen some unrealistic and amazing things. After all, in this line of work, you tend to see many a transformation. Nothing could have prepared me for the sheer explosive growth that she went through on that one section of her body.

“At first, it looked like someone had shoved a lemon under the skin of her arm. The size of that, coupled with her new triceps, was enough to keep what remained of the shirt sleeves taut. After that initial bump, it look more like someone had put a water balloon under her skin. It just kept inflating, getting bigger and more defined with each passing second. It swiftly moved from lemon-sized to other sizes, never once receding the slightest bit. The size comparison swiftly moved from lemons to oranges to grapefruit to melon to watermelon and still it grew. Needless to say, her sleeves had long since been reduced to shreds of barely recognizable fabric. Finally, with a roar of pleasure, she ripped her hands from her crotch and flexed both of her biceps. They both shot up and nearly doubled in size.

“By this point, she was almost ten feet tall. Her head was just shy of brushing the ceiling. Despite the gargantuan muscles, they almost looked realistic in proportion to her body. All except for her shoulders, of course. They weren’t developed much at this point. That didn’t last long, though. Her shoulders, like her back, exploded in size, not really slowing down to tastefully tear the remaining fabric of her shirt to pieces. Instead, the sudden increase of size caused the remains of her shirt to literally explode off of her body with a thunderous crack.

“Now completely naked, her body was free to grow and her hands were free to feel as much of her bare flesh as desired. Her body continued to grow, taller and taller, and her muscles kept up with the rest of her growth. Slowly, her head began to press against the ceiling of their room. More and more pressure built up until, with an earth-rending explosion, she burst through the ceiling and straight into the roof. It didn’t take as long for her to break through the roof as well. By now, she was over twenty feet in height, and didn’t show any signs of stopping. As I said before, her muscles and breasts kept proportion, and, if anything, they probably got even bigger in comparison.

“While Mayim is tearing through the roof of the house, Jinn is stuck below with the falling debris. Through some miracle, nothing falls on him as he stares at in behemoth wife in a mixture of awe and bliss. He came at least twice in his pants from the display, and was still hard, ready for more. He got what he wanted.

“Her growth finally slowed down and eventually stopped with her measuring in at almost, but not quite, fifty feet, but the transformation didn’t truly end. The spice, veneri was always the last to act. Even though her transformation had included an increase of her sex-drive, that was mostly from her first change. Now, her hunger was increasing at an alarming rate, and she needed relief from her growing sexual tension. Masturbation wouldn’t cut it at this point and there was no one on the entire planet that was remotely near her size. Still, she needed something. And she found what she was looking for. Just as Jinn found what he wanted.

“With one gigantic, still moist hand, she reached down into the wreckage of the house and picked up the now tiny Jinn Skye. She lifted him up to her eye level and smiled, knowing that she was about to have the relief that she craved. It was in that one instant that Jinn understood. In that one moment of clarity, Jinn knew what she was going to do both with and to him, as well as what it was that caused this in the first place; that one message on the can: ‘Gravis! Non facis admiscero condimenti!’ If he had bothered to translate it, he would have known what it said. ‘Danger! Do not mix the spices!’

“But he didn’t, so his fate was sealed. With one last lustful look, the mindless giant that was Mayim Aquus Skye jammed her husband, Jinn Skye, into the sweaty, moist orifice that was her vagina, making him, to my knowledge, the worlds first and only human dildo. He got the physical power that he craved and she got the physical pleasure that she wanted. When she finally reached her orgasm, her vaginal muscle spasmed and closed on Jinn’s head, crushing it beyond recognition. To this day, she still doesn’t know what she did, let alone anything else. She is just a mindless, madly horny beast.”

With that, Samuel Odues stood up straight and stared into the soft brown eyes of the woman in front of him. She had been standing in his store for some time now, listening to some of his stories. This one in particular was unusual since the shopkeeper was usually dispassionate about his other clients. This one must have struck a cord in him, but it really didn’t matter to her. The story, while probably true to begin with, was obviously a work of fiction. How could anyone possibly grow like that? It was physically impossible. No human could possibly become that strong, let alone that big. Still… it made for a good story. The old man who ran the store smiled at her. “So? What did you think? Do you believe me?”

She sighed, not wanting to ruin this old man’s fantasies. Regardless, it’s better to hurt and help than to soothe and hinder. “Honestly? I think that you could become an amazing story writer. The details were amazing! I almost felt like I was there. Although, I have to admit, you might want to stick to a more realistic storyline, or at least one that is within the realm of human possibilities.” She felt terrible for hurting this poor and probably lonely old man, but he did ask her. Hastily, she changed the subject. “Well… Anyway… I wanted to get this jacket.”

She held up a beautiful fur coat that gleamed sliver in the dim lighting of the store. Samuel smiled as he saw the coat. “Ah! That one there is a particularly fine piece. Genuine wolf-skin. Oh! And there is no need to pay. Just sign here for it.” And then, just like in the story, the old man pulled an old piece of parchment and a ballpoint pen. The ink in the pen was red, just like in the story. She began to wonder if there might be something to the story after all… Ridiculous! She thought. No person on this entire planet could possibly go through that ordeal! Comforted by that logic, she signed her name with the weird red-inked pen on the old parchment and turned to leave the store.

Before she took a step though, Samuel Odues spoke again. “It’s a full moon out tonight. Not very cold either. It probably will be tomorrow, though. Why don’t you put the coat on tomorrow night instead?” Utterly confused, the woman shook her head and left. As she exited the store, she thought to herself, What a weird old man! I think that he actually believes in those old superstitions, not to mention his own stories. Hmm… It is a nice night out tonight, and the moon is beautiful… I’m sure that it would reflect nicely off of my new coat… I think that I’ll try it on…

Back in his shop, Samuel Odues shook his head. As usual, he was watching his clients. His latest one made the one mistake that he knew that she would. Seconds later, a woman’s scream of pure terror reverberated through the shop from both outside of it and from inside of it; from where the woman was and where he was watching her from, creating a stereo/surround-sound effect. That scream of terror slow shifted to one of rage, and the shifted again, getting deeper and deeper until it was now a guttural roar. Suddenly the sound stopped. Just stopped, creating a ringing silence. Just as suddenly, a new soun filled the night with its deafening volume. An earsplitting howl began and lasted about a minute. Samuel Odues shook his head again. Then to no one in particular, he said aloud, “They never listen. Why don’t they ever listen?” Shaking his head, the old man silently moved into the shadows of the back of the store to keep an eye on his other clients.

Outside, in the street, the remains of the clothes of the woman rested, torn, as if something had either ripped out of them, ripped them off, or some combination of the two. All of her articles of clothing were there, save one: the wolf-skin jacket. Right above where her tattered clothes lay on the ground, an old wooden sign swayed in the warm night’s breeze. In faded letters, two words appeared: Odues’s Oddities.