Ako slumped onto her bed. Despite falling asleep on the plane, she was exhausted. The suitcases full of wooden puppets and heavy clothes and the foot of her bed probably didn’t help. The sunlight streamed in through the window, dazzling her eyes. “Hmm. I’ll have to get some real drapes.” She rolled onto her back, the room was bland and bare, just a generic dormitory room. Ako expected nothing else.

She unzipped her suitcases and began unpacking her things, placing her puppets at various locations around the room, giving each a smile as the slumped onto shelves and on the tops or drawers, and folding and organising the clothes. She dug to the bottom of a case, and withdrew a deep purple bed-sheet. “Until I can get something else, this will have to do.” She took it to the window, and began fixing it to the curtain rail. The sun was instantly soaked up, letting only a purple-infused haze permeate the room. Ako sighed in contentment, and went back to the cases, arranging the last of the puppets before bringing out some thick candles. She wedged one into a brass holder and lit it. Dancing shadows cut throught the dull light from the covered window. Ako was feeling at home already.

“Now all I need as a bolt for the door...” She returned to her bed and sat on the end. The thin cardigan and dress she had worn on the journey were muggy from the hours spent on the plane, but she had just organised her other clothes, and didn’t want to go through the drawers and mess them up within five minutes of organising them. She picked at the cardigan, and flopped back onto the bed. She stared up at the ceiling. "Maybe it won't be too bad here after all. I'll just have to enjoy myself." She tilted her head to look at the puppet resting beside the pillow, like a childs cuddly toy. "What do you think Kaede?" Its painted wooden eyes glared off at the wall. "Yeah, I think you're right. Change is good for people." Ako ran a finger over the puppets dress. "Maybe I should make you a uniform to match mine..."

Having visited the dormitory recently, Mezrol now knew what to expect inside in terms of layout and texture. Before he had visited an unoccupied room and lain in wait for its owner to return. This time, however, he was not half-starved and actually felt almost spry. For the first time since arriving on the campus, and indeed in the last few centuries, he wanted to have his way with a girl simply for the fun of it.

His body formed to the outer wall of the building, allowing him to climb it with ease. As he passed by some windows he peered within, but each time he met with silence. Soon he passed a window that looked quite lifeless, but as he was moving by he heard a soft voice coming from within. This warranted some investigation. He easily began to seep around the window frame into the darkened room. He moved slowly and silently. He paused for a moment as he entered, wanting to know just what was occurring inside before he moved in.

Ako picked up the doll, and took it to the end of the bed by her almost emptied suitcases. She lay with her head hanging over the edge, and fumbled around in an outside pocket of the case. She brought out a pair of scissors, and needle and thread, and a small roll of blue material. “We have a few shirts lying around somewhere, so we just need to make you a vest and a skirt!” She placed the puppet on the floor next to her materials and looked down on them from her perch on the bed. She swept up the scissors and began cutting out a rectangle, followed by two square-ish semicircles. She measured them up against the puppet, and giggled in happiness when she found they were exactly the right size.

Returning everything to the floor, she pushed herself up onto her knees, and pulled her cardigan up and over her head. It was growing hot in her room, and with the knee-length dress underneath, she was amply warm. The cloth slipped over her body, briefly catching on her chin, but a few jerks pulled it loose. She ran her hands down over her dress to smooth out the creases, and returned to lying on her stomach over the edge of the bed. She cast aside the cardigan and it fluttered to the ground on the opposite side of the room. She took up the needle and began pulling the sections of material together. Her nimble fingers darted around the cloth as the thread tightened. She brought up the new miniature vest and examined it in the candlelight. “What do you think Kaede? Pretty good, huh?” She turned to face the puppet on the floor as if it had answered. “Oh you flatter me, I’m not THAT good with a needle...” Ako picked up the marionette, and placed it back by her pillow. The vest was wrapped up in the remainder of the cloth and stowed in the suitcase with the scissors and needle.

This was highly intriguing to her unseen observer. Mezrol was no stranger to the art of tailoring, nor to that of the tailoring of dolls' clothes. Where he was from these were both common tasks, but the way that this girl was interacting with her dolls was quite odd. It was almost as if they were speaking to her. At first he thought that the poor girl must be daft, but then he began to think of all of the oddities that he had seen though his life. Perhaps they were some sort of magical beings that only she could hear?

Nevermind that. He had found a girl alone in her room, sitting in a quite vulnerable fashion. Time was wasting, so he began slowly seeping into the room. He matched the color of the wall and clung to it, making himself all but invisible as he spread across the smooth surface. His body also spread onto the ceiling, though the poor girl wouldn't be able to tell by looking. Soon enough she would know of his presence, but no hurry.

The sewing completed for now, Ako delved into the suitcases again. This time, she withdrew a thick hardback book and placed it on her pillow before fetching the candle. The brass holder was tall enough so when she placed it on the floor by her bedside, the light seeped over her covers and was strong enough to read by with straining her eyes. Ako sat cross-legged on the bed with the book resting on her pillow, like a priest with a bible about to give a sermon. However, religion had never interested Ako. The tome was a compendium of short stories, each with sickening and macabre twists. Ako had read it many times before, and knew the stories by heart, but she loved re-visiting the gruesome tales again.

She took Kaede and placed her in her lap, as if the doll should like to scour the pages too. “Any preferences? Or shall we let fate decide?” Ako glanced down at the unmoving doll. “Good answer! Fate it is!” Ako flipped the book open to the contents page, and closed her eyes. She outstretched a finger, then jabbed it randomly at the page, marking a story. She peeked through her eyelids. “Ooh, a good one! Page fifty-five...” She began thumbing through the pages, mumbling their numbers as she went. “Forty-two...forty-nine...fifty-three... Ah, here we are!” She spread the book open over the pillow, and delved into the world of horror-filled fiction.

The tome being examined by the girl could well have been anything. Though he could now understand the spoken language of the humans by simply reading their intended meaning from their minds, their written language was a complete mystery to him. It wasn't until she spoke once more to her doll that he began to assume that it was some sort of compendium of tales. What sort, however, remained a mystery.

Slowly he began to prepare his strike. Tentacles of varying thickness began to descend silently from the ceiling like smooth vines. Each one had a goal, or rather a target, on which it focused. Mezrol knew that in her current position he would not be able to restrain her all at once, but then again a single point of restraint, if well placed and solid, was plenty to start. This point would be the girl's waist, and she would have no time to react.

As the girl began reading her mysterious tale, he struck.

Akos eyes darted across the page, sparkling with the onset of the story. But no sooner as she dispensed with the first line of words, something thick and clammy wrapped itself around her hips. “Huh?” Ako was more surprised than fearful. Was this her fellow students playing some odd prank? She decided to rise above their jests, and prodded the encircling appendage. It quivered and vibrated, but did not relinquish its hold on her waist. “Very funny!” She called out to the girls she suspected to be hidden about the room or outside the window.

Ako shifted her weight, and flung herself sideways, to look over and under the bed for a hidden prankster, but the strange restraint held her fast in her position on top of the covers. “O.K., this has gone beyond a joke now!” Ako dug the heel of her palms into the top of the tentacle, trying to force it down over her hips, but it did not relinquish to her feeble attempt. She was getting frustrated. “Well. Now what?” She crossed her arms and pouted like a sulking child.

Mezrol did all he could to keep from laughing at this highly unexpected reaction. Apparently she thought that someone was playing a trick on her. If so, then she was quite wrong. Mezrol began to release his aphrodisiac into the air. Not much was needed in the small space of the room, as he had found out before. Meanwhile he lifted the girl's body enough to reach a pair of tentacles under her to bind her ankles. Though she was not only restrained but also seemingly unmotivated to attempt escape, he thought it a prudent precaution all the same.

"Good afternoon, my dear." began a voice coming from seemingly all around her. It was being put into her mind, but he could still hear it clearly. Its tone was deep, soothing, and masculine. "I am most sorry to interrupt your reading."

Ako felt her body being lifted. All thoughts of student shenanigans evaporated from her mind. There’s no way they’d be strong enough to lift me like that without wires or something. Whatever it was that was restraining her was far beyond the average student body. The original shaft that encompassed her waist was now joined by two more, twirling and slithering around her ankles. “Now hang on just... just a sec...second....” Something was different in the room. Her ankles were forgotten momentarily as she closed her eyes and wetted her lips. The air was heavier. She could taste it. She breathed in, to hone on the source of this new fragrance, but it was everywhere, like a fine mist pervading the room.

Ako felt hot. Her breaths became more ragged as she hung, suspended in the tentacles embrace. They didn’t feel so clammy now, they felt smooth. One of the appendages around her ankles shifted slightly, and she felt tremors run up her leg, making her tingle all over. Suddenly, a voice echoed around her, as source-less as the floral scent in the air.

“Good afternoon, my dear.”
“”My dear”!? We’re hardly intimate enough for you to take that tone with me! You’ve just come in here, picked me up like a rag doll, and now you call me dear? And as for my reading, you damn well better be sorry! That’s one of the finest books in my collection, but you think you can just swoop down and accost me during my reading of it! The nerve!”

"You have quite a lot of spirit! Even when accosted by the unknown you retain a firm attitude. I have to admire that. As for your book, you need not worry. I have no intention to damage your property."

He could feel her body grow warm as the aphrodisiac began to take hold of her body. Two more tentacles appeared and took hold of her wrists. She was turned in the air to face upward, revealing to her the appendages hanging from the ceiling above her. The approached her body and began stroking her body over her clothes.

“It’s not my book that I’m worried about... And if you admire me so much, why don’t you put me down?” Akos voice faltered as the tingling sensations spread throughout her body, heightening her senses and calming her inhibitions. Her wrists were also seized, but this time she didn’t resist. The extremities made her tremble as they grasped her. Ako was becoming increasing aroused by her precarious situation than her normal self would allow. Her eyes widened as she was flipped over to stare at the dangling tentacles that were suspending from her ceiling.

“Would you mind telling me what all of those are for?” Fear crept back into Akos voice. The swaying green limbs looked nauseating. Whatever this thing was, despite its smooth-talking, she doubted that its intentions were peaceable or honourable.

The hanging tentacles lowered themselves to the girl's lovely frame, slowly end gently exploring her young body over her troublesome clothes. These humans, Mezrol thought, had a very complicated understanding of tailoring, one which they had every intention to flaunt. This annoyance was relieved by her lack of struggling. For him that meant significantly less work.

"I have no doubt that you will be able to determine their use soon enough, my dear."