I couldn''t shake it. Remembering the first time Sondra and I met. She was thrown into the basement, naked, and I was already there. Her legs were spread when she landed and me? I gave a witty line and went down on her. I loved her even in that moment, and even more when I got her off. So, here I was, sitting in an off-limits area of the forest, staring into the night sky. One day, they'd give her back. It was their promise. But they needed me to stay on as Head Girl. It would probably delay my graduation. I had to earn the right to take Sondra with me to a little place in Michigan. And to do that, I'd do anything.

Considering how rarely he saw girls out in the woods these days, Mezrol was astounded to sense one. Moreover, he had never seen a girl in the woods at night. Here he would take no chances. His form seemed to melt into the ground as he began spreading himself beneath the grass into a vorpral sheet. Slowly he flowed to the small clearing that the girl sat in and surrounded her, still entirely unseen. Not even a blade of grass was disturbed by his passing.

His deep voice appeared in her mind.

"To what do I owe this honor, my dear?"

I didn't seem phased, I didn't do anything, not move a muscle, "You owe it to a deep depression and an err in judgment caused by the loneliness, the madness, of the wedded mind deprived her wife." I spoke quietly, but since the voice was in my head, I suspected it didn't need me to speak at all. I did not behave like an animal in a trap, no, I behaved like sadness incarnate.

"Your wife is missing?" Asked the voice, clearly somewhat surprised. "I am most sorry to hear that."

Mezrol wasn't sure what to do. How could he bring himself to molest a woman in this state of despair? He had done his hare of rape in the past, but never did he want to compound the suffering of an individual in pain. The only thing he could do now was to wait and see.

"I've made a contract with the school for her well-being. She gets protection, and a ride home with me upon the completion of my time here and in exchange I feed the animals. I bait traps, I send the new girls down the wrong paths... I'm basically an accomplice to nightmares." I wasn't really hurting, I was more... numb. More detached from my feelings. I was trying my hardest not to feel, not to be confronted by my sadness, I wanted to put it out of mind like I had before.

"'Feed the animals?' You are sent out here to satisfy the desires of the creatures?" Mezrol was staggered by this. "I guess part of me should be thankful that someone doesn't want me going hungry, but I think that is just monstrous."

"No, it isn't that. Well, sometimes it's that. But my duties involve luring people to this place, and then there are the detentions. Beastly things, detentions. I have to facilitate nightmares," I paused and looked down, at the creature though I wasn't entirely aware of this fact, "They make us like you, those of us who adapt best to this environment. They get kicks doing things like holding my Sondra hostage and making me take this Head Girl position. I stopped blaming you lot when they told me... I know who the true monsters are."

After a short time, a thick tentacle rose slowly from the ground right in front of her. It reached skyward before bending slowly down and gently caressing her cheek.

"A girl as lovely as you sound not be forced to bear such a terrible burden."

Mezrol no longer meant to attack. He wanted to comfort this poor girl.

"Thank you." I paused, and found myself subconsciously nuzzling the tentacle. I knew how it would end, but at least for the moment, things were amiable. "Many here wouldn't have a second thought about my situation, or the weight I carry. I think we're lab rats here, to be honest. I have to wonder to what extent this is all just one big experiment."

"As far as I am aware, my presence is not widely known on this island. I intruded via an odd craft which came from my world to here." The girl's reaction greatly comforted Mezrol. This was the first time since his curse that he was not looked on as a strange beast. She was reacting towards him as if he had cupped her face in his hand.

"I may be a creature like those who preceded me in this place, but I am not without my, I believe the word is, humanity."

"If those who established this institution are any indication of the capabilities of my species, 'humanity' may not be the best choice of term." I laughed a little and closed my eyes, "They told me much about the nature of this place. They told me that nothing about this institution is at all by accident." I closed my eyes and rested my hands on my lap. This was actually rather nice, as far as things could be so here. I was having a conversation with one of them, rather pleasantly.

"Then perhaps them arriving on my planet was also intentional."

The tentacle that had caressed her face now rested on her shoulder, rubbing it gently. Mezrol found it amazing how much willpower this girl must have to do the things she had said without losing herself. He found himself developing some genuine respect for her.

"Not everyone of my species is so terrible, but our capacity for evil is frightening. We do awful things to one another. This place is a rape farm. Innocent people are brought here for no reason other than to be subjected to repeated and constant rape." I smiled and laughed a little, it was all so delightfully absurd. I rubbed the back of my head and looked up, "I have no problem believing in a creature here with fundamental decency, since I've found that my own people are some of the most vile monsters of them all."

"Every people has its own monsters."

A forest of tentacles rose out of the ground all around her. They glistened in the moonlight slightly as Mezrol's voice returned to her mind.

"You do not have to be able to do this to be a monster."

With that they sank back into the grass, the one on her shoulder remaining in its place.

"And the ability to do so doesn't make you one." I added with a smile. It was lucky that it was this that found me, and it was lucky that I was as strong as I was. I sighed an undispleased sigh and took in the oddity of the moment. "Love... love enables a life form to do things she wouldn't normally do. Love of Sondra enabled me to do awful, horrible things." I shook my head and rubbed my hands together, "I'll never forgive myself."