"What the fuck." I mutter.
The blue-eyed man smirks at me, he's walking closer.
I backed away unconsciously, my back hitting the bed before I knew it. He was soon on top of me, his nose sniffing me from my neck down to my inner thighs. What sort of weirdo does this? I was too shocked to react or say anything. Instead I just froze, every muscle so tight I could feel a hamstring sprain threatening to snap.
I suddenly feel wetness at my back and jerk my eyes open. The swampy mangrove with the thick trees is back in sight. That atrocious honey is dripping on me.
Beep beep. The sound rings in my head.
[Stress-induced teleportation complete]
I jump up. The white negligee is glued to my body thanks to the honey. I feel so exposed. Wait , was I wearing panties? I frantically touch my pubic area. I can feel a thin strap covering me. A g-string? A catapult.
"Hey there, sexy." A thick, guttural voice pulls me from my train of thought.
I look to my side. A huge, muscled man with a shiny scaly body and a ginormous fish head is staring at me with wide, unblinking eyes. His gaze is so creepy it feels like pinpricks crawling all over my skin. I rub my hands together and look down, trying to think of a way to handle this. My feet are bare, practically stepping on the green swampy pond in front of me. My teeth are chattering. My hands are shaking from fear.
The fish-like man takes a step toward me and my heart leaps out of my chest. In a second, my foot reacts before my brain can.
I run for it , forgetting about the thick trees all around and almost immediately I knock my head hard on a willow tree. Pain lances through me. I trip and fall straight into the green swampy water.
The fish-like man immediately rushes toward me.
"Oh no, please Lord, save me from this beast of hell. Forgive me my sins." Tears are misting in my eyes from the pain and fear.
He reaches out his scaly, muscled hands and I am one second away from throwing up. He pulls, lifts me up in one smooth move, and soon I am nestled into his surprisingly comfortable body.
My heart is beating so loud I can hear it. He looks down at me, his large fishy eyes blinking affectionately? Suddenly he is running, and I am in a daze because I do not know where the hell he is taking me. I try to stay calm even though I want to scream bloody murder.
All I can see is the umbrella-like canopy of the trees and the white sky. The clouds look like large cotton balls familiar, almost like home except there are no fish-like humans at home.
"Oh God, please let this just be a bad dream. I just want to go home." I muse in the arms of this giant monster who seemed to crawl straight out of the underworld.
Suddenly he stops and thrusts me forward. I land on a springy bed inside what seems like a thatched shed in the middle of the woods.
"Are you okay?" he asks.
Oh no. The beast speaks.
"No, I am not!" I yell before I even realize what I am saying. I jump from the lying position he placed me in. A gust of wind blows so fiercely that my negligee billows open, exposing my thighs even more. I frantically press my hand against it, trying to cover up. The fish man stares at me intensely, then laughter racks his whole body.
"You are acting weird, wifey. You told me to bring you here yesterday to get a view of nature. And now you are staring at me like I am a serial killer? You were always a little nuts."
"Did you just call me nuts?" I shoot back, refusing to accept whatever this was. I was not a confrontational person, but the confusion in me was looking for a distraction. Something to cope with in this madness.
I use the moment of his surprise to stand up from the bed and make a run for it. But as I land on my feet, I am assaulted by the most intense hamstring sprain of my life. I groan in pain and look back. A satisfied smirk is plastered on the fish monster's face . I know it because his thin fish lips are curved upwards.
"We have been looking for you since this morning," he says. "Aquasteine told me he came to your room and you froze in what seemed like fear, then you suddenly went poof. What was that all about? Are you trying to run away from us?"
My mouth falls open as he speaks. This was the second time today that someone had referenced my husbands. What the fuck was going on? I have only been in one relationship in my life, with my overbearing boyfriend, and now suddenly I have husbands? Husbands I did not marry. Oh Lord, please let this all just be a bad dream.
He leans down toward me, his fish face so strangely mesmerizing I cannot stop staring. How the hell could a fish be so beautiful? He lowers his lips toward mine and that is when I realize he is trying to kiss me.
I turn my face away from his abruptly. Shock is written all over his features.
He raises his hand toward me in a sudden movement and I flinch so hard I nearly fall — convinced he is about to hit me. But his hand only lands softly on my face. He places his fingers beneath my eyes and wipes my tears. I had not even realized I had been crying.
"Found you".
Something says it from out of nowhere. No person could make a sound that monstrous. The lizard man the one who had been all over me a moment ago mutters something under his breath.
I spin toward the beastly voice, curiosity getting the better of me.
What I saw made fear pool in my belly. I was certain that if someone pressed me even slightly, I would have pissed myself.
A hairy snail man was blinking his weird eyes at me, almost as if in subtle seduction. I wanted to vomit. Before I could even process the horror, he was right in front of me, his wet tentacles reaching out .
The lizard man grabbed me before I could count to one. I was hurled onto its back and we were gone, running through a thick forest away from a snail monster.
Oh, fuck me.