Earthfall
It was hot.
That was part of why Zaar was there.
His people thrived in heat, the more the better--and in the Earth city of Los Angeles, in the middle of that part of the planet's hottest time of the year, he got all the heat he could handle.
Actually, he was a misnomer. Zaar's people, from a planet many lightyears away from Earth, were sexless in their natural form...mostly shapeless too, they resembled semihumanoid tar. But since Zaar's personality was, by human standards at least, male, the alien could be considered a he.
Zaar's people, who had no name of their own, were a race of what could probably be called observers. Not all ever left their planet, but those who did usually found their way on to passing starcraft, or passing stellar matter like asteroid and comets, and on to alien planets. There they would land, take on the form of a native of that world, and study them as best they could...without interfering.
As it turned out, Zaar was recently designated to Earth.
In order to best blend in, and to be able to observe the humans his presence altering their enviroment thus negatively impacting his study, Zaar allowed himself to be transformed into an entity closely resembling an Earth plant called a venus flytrap. He realized such a bioform would have limited mobility, but since he was supposed to be interacting with the humans he couldn't think of a better way to do so than to take on a form that would be so completely dependant on their care and presence.
Zaar chose Los Angeles for his landing point, both because it was in the middle of a heat cycle and for it's wide variety of human beings. Since his current bioform was that of a plant, he placed himself in front of an appropriate establishment--in this case, Deon's Florist--and waited. He also spawned a flower on the surface of this bioform, which in turn produced a pheromone to attract human interest. His people communicated by scent, not by any form of verbal or physical motion, and while he wasn't sure if the same was true of human bings this seemed the most prudent course of action.
As it happened, he didn't have to wait long.
Zaar sense a presence, someone approaching the table where he was sitting. In preparation, he opened one of the flower-bulbs which acted as his eyes.
Jacilyn Crawford, a sixteen year old sophomore at Oakdale High School, had no plans to stop by that little flower shop she passed every day going to and from school. But this time, as the pretty redhead was heading home, she caught a whiff of something she did not recognize ... a not altogether unpleasant floral odor which spurred her on to investigate further.
'What a creepy-looking little plant.' Jacilyn bent over to sniff one of the flowers on top, not realizing that maneuver allowed Zaar to look right down her top.
The alien recognized that one of the main physiological differences between male and female humans was the presence, or lack there, of mammary glands on the upper torso, used for feeding their young. Breasts, as they were called by these humans, obviously, seemed to come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes--but this particular pair was considerably larger and rounder than others he'd seen.
'You know come to think of it greeny, you might make a good science project,' Jacilyn said, unaware that the plant in question could not only hear but also understand, every word she was saying. 'I think I'll go see how much they want for you.' She slipped into the store.
'Excellent.' Zaar would have laughed, were he capable of such an action. 'Phase one!'
With her new plant--which the florist didn't even remember having in stock, but sold to her for five bucks anyway--in tow, Jacilyn headed home. She shared a three bedroom apartment with her mother and her two sisters, not the most ideal arrangement admittedly, but one the high schooler knew she was going to have to live with for the time being.
Since their father had run out on them years ago, and with a mother who worked all the time, Jacilyn was the one in charge for the most part. She did the majority of the cooking, assigned cleaning detail, and drove everyone around when she could get their one care away from her mother and her older sister. She had little time for herself, but then again, this was the only life she had ever known.
'Once more into the fray,' Jacilyn grumbled, as she nudged the door open with one knee. Her hands were full--what with the plant, her books, and the small bag full of groceries she had picked up from the store for dinner. She dropped her books by the front door, and put everything else on the kitchen counter. 'Cin' You here! Cin?' Of course not. Her youngest sister, Cindy, was supposed to be home before her, and had agreed to get the kitchen and dining room ready for dinner. 'Damn.'
Jacilyn ran her fingers through her hair as she walked into the kitchen. She had begun to feel light-headed on the way home, and now she was hot...in more ways than one.
Zaar could taste a change in the air. His own pheremones were being answered by the human girl, and she was producing some of her own. Her body was reacting in a way he could not truly comprehend, and it both confused and excited the alien. Human sexuality was one of the things he had been sent here to study, and it was literally an alien concepts to him.
'What's happening...?' Jacilyn's cheeks were flushed, her breathing irregular. 'I-I don't understand...I've never felt this way before. I-I can't...can't help it...' In spite of herself, the girl found herself squeezing her left breast through her blouse, and she gasped. 'Oh God I-I can't believe I'm doing this!' Biting her lip, she slipped her hand down under her skirt, and into her panties.
Zaar watched this with growing interest. The pheremone level in the room had just shot up a hundredfold, at least, and the reason for it seemed obvious to the alien. Before him, the girl's small body was begining to shudder, and he looked on as her hand moved furiously beneath her skirt.
Jacilyn arched her back and cried out, thrusting her heaving breasts forward as an orgasm rippled through her body. She reached out, grabbing the edge of the counter to steady herself, and then lowered her head, a faint smile on her lips. 'Oh man, that was incredible.' Though she was still a virgin she was far from naive, and this was certainly not the first time she had masturbated, but it was the first time she had done it in the middle of the day, in her kitchen. 'Only now I need a shower.' She allowed her still wet hand to trail across the surface of the plant she had just bought as she headed for the bathroom.
Zaar went to work at once, analyzing the liquid biomaterial she had left behind. It had already been drawn into his system, and he realized it was far more potent than anything he had ever 'tasted' before. He knew it was somehow connected to the sexual activity he had just witnessed, perhaps a byproduct that came with the massive increase in pheremones he had detected.
'It is...delicious. If she can produce this on a regular basis, I must have more!' These human sexual juices had awakened a hunger in Zaar he did not pretend to understand.
By the time Cindy did get home, Jacilyn had already cleaned up and started dinner.
Only fourteen years old, she was already a pretty young thing. She had begun to develop late that previous year, and so the junior high school cheerleading uniform she wore was already a little too tight in the chest, it accented her full breasts even more than they already were. When she saw Jacilyn's new plant she made a joke about how it looked like something out of Little Shop of Horrors, unaware of just how right she really was. Like the plant in that movie, it was from outer space and intelligent, but in this instance Zaar hungered for something far more potent than blood.
Their older sister, Tori, arrived home next. While she was taller, and more leggy, than her two sisters, the eighteen year old hated the fact that she did not have Jacilyn's bustline. She usually made up for that fact by wearing the tightest, most revealing clothing possible, to tease the boys and to draw attention away from the fact her breasts were not as firm or as full as her sister's. She did not comment on Jacilyn's plant either, she just ignored it, and seemed more interested in the nails she'd just had done.
Finally, just as dinner was about to be served, their mother arrived. Gwen Crawford was thirty-seven years old, she'd had three kids who she raised almost entirely on her own since her deadbeat husband ran out nine years ago, and she still looked good.
She kept herself in shape, working out at home whenever possible, and as a personal trainer she had plenty of opportunities to exercise outside the home too. Her breasts, like those of her middle daughter, were full and firm, and were usually further accented by the skin-tight, often sweaty spandex leotards she left and came home wearing.
After dinner, Jacilyn--with more than a little help from Gwen--convinced Cindy and Tori to do the dishes, and to clean up the kitchen. She took her plant and her school books to the bedroom she was forced to share with Cindy, where she figured she would have at least a couple of hours of privacy since her sister like to sit in front of the TV for a while after dinner.
The sixteen year old had intended to do her homework, since she still had a science paper to finish, but as she was peeling off her clothes and putting on a nightgown she began to feel all hot and bothered again. She locked the door to lessen the chances of being caught, threw herself on the bed, yanked her panties down to her ankles and started masturbating.
From his new position, a nightstand by the head of her bed, Zaar got an up close and personal view of this activity. He could see her back arch as she orgasmed, time and again, he could sense the sweat beginning to glaze her young body, and most importantly...he could smell her. In these confined quarters, the pheromone levels were increasing exponentially and it was having an unexpected--but not entirely unpleasant--effect on the alien. No longer satisfied with merely observing, he was driven to become directly involved in what this young girl was experiencing, he wanted to feel such overwhelming sensations for himself, plus he desired a further sample of what was between her legs. The bulbs atop his bioform vibrated as she stuck a hand in her mouth to stifle a scream from her latest, and strongest, orgasm.
'More.' Zaar could take it no longer. 'I need more!' While there were boundries to what he was capable of in a given bioform, within those he knew no limits. He could not move on his own nor could he increase his size or mass, but he was certainly capable of altering the specific configuration of his bioform. In this case, he stimulated the growth cycle of several of his stems, transforming them into vine-like tendrils that quickly outgrew his surface area and rippled around the small clay pot.
Still recovering from another shuddering orgasm, Jacilyn rolled on to her back, and lay with a hand to her forehead, gasping. 'Damn.' Her skin was flushed, and slick with perspiration, but she didn't care. Then she heard a noise, and--thinking her sister might be trying to open the door--sat bolt upright, her eyes widening as she moved to cover herself. 'Cin?' She noticed it wasn't coming from the direction of the door, however, but from her bedside instead, and she turned her head. 'What the...!' Her new plant seemed to be moving of it's own volition...that mouth-like part of it slowly opening and closing, while several of large vines erupted from it's base and shot toward her. 'No! Stay away!'
Zaar's first target was the girl's mouth.
He knew that if she screamed, it would probably alert the other members of her family unit, and they were not something he was prepared to deal with as yet. In time perhaps, but right now he just wanted to taste the girl's juices again, and he knew only one way to do that.
Jacilyn gasped as one of the thick, leafy tendrils slid between her lips and halfway down her throat. For an agonizing moment it felt like it was cutting off her air supply, and she began thrash about until it occured to her that she could still breath through her nose. She relaxed somewhat, until two of the other vines wrapped tightly around her arms and pushed her down, pinning the terrified sixteen year old to the bed. She thrashed about and screamed, not that much sound escaped past the oily vine in her mouth, her tear-filled eyes as big as saucers when two more vines began to crudely squeeze and caress her breasts. They teased her nipples to hardness, eliciting another strangled cry while still more vines went around both her thighs, spreading them as far as they would go, and exposing her still sopping vagina to the plant. Realization struck the young red- head all at once, and she thrashed and kicked and screamed even more fiercely than before...virgin or not, it was perfectly obvious what this thing's intentions were.
With the girl's legs spread, Zaar was able to take in even more of her scent.
If only he had eyes they would have be rolling back in his head, if he had a mouth he would probably have been moaning in delight by now. This girl was producing pheremones the likes of which he have never even imagined before on his home planet, and they were driving him wild. He marveled at the texture of her slick skin, the swell of her breasts against his tendrils and the strange sounds she was making, and decided it was something he wanted to experience even further.
Though human physiology was still something of a mystery to him, Zaar har already deduced that the hair between her legs was a covering of sorts for her reproductive organs. And since he was familiar with how a plant reproduced--involving stems and pollens with 'male' and 'female' flowers, he could only assume that the process was similar with humans. He generated a particularly large vine-like tendril, which he held for a moment at the entrance to her vagina, the source of all these wonderful scents.
Tears streamed down Jacilyn's face as she saw the vine sliding between her legs. She shook her head back and forth, moaning, and desperately trying to find some way to avoid what she knew was about to happen to her. Then in a sudden blur of movement the vine rammed deep into her body with one thrust--shredding her hymen, stealing her innocence in a rush of blood and pain, and causing that poor girl to scream at the top of her lungs. She barely had the strength left to moan as the tendril began pumping viciously in and out of her, absorbing every ounce of fluid she produced.
Zaar couldn't believe what he was feeling...the sensations, the scents, the power flooding into his bioform every time the girl's vaginal muscles clamped down upon his tendrils. He soon came to realize, that was the physiological reaction of the ' human's body as she achieved climax. A second and then a third tendril joined the first in her warm, wet opening, and she climaxed again.
His bioform was beginning to change, he could feel it. He was growing stronger, his tendrils demonstrated increased mobility and thickness, and...there was something else. The sexual juices flooding from this girl's body were acting like a drug on the alien's system; the more he tasted the more he wanted, which drove him to thrust his tendrils harder and deeper into her body.
He couldn't stop himself. More to the point, he didn't want to.
Jacilyn hung limply in the plant's grip, her body being constantly rocked by the tendrils pounding into her sore, sodden vagina. She no longer tried to fight back or make a sound, she just lay there and waited for it to be over. Her eyes were hooded, her face beet-red, and she was barely conscious from what little oxygen she had been able to take in through her nose while she was screaming.
As he brought the girl to yet another climax, Zaar was finally able to finish analyzing the genetic material he had been absorbing all this time. He realized that with a little adjustment, his own pheremonal and liquid excretions could be utilized to augment the affect he was having on her body. It would allow him to directly control her pain and pleasure centers, stimulating her sexual response from afar--and then it occured to him that if all human females reacted to his efforts the same way, there was no doubt a wide variety of sensations he would be able to experience on this planet.
Zaar withdrew all but one tendril from the girl's vagina, and prepared himself.
Jacilyn sighed in spite of the vine still in her throat, slumping forward in utter exhaustion as the plant--for whatever reason--stopped raping her. It pulled two of the tendrils out of her throbbing vagina, and she could not help but wonder what it was going to do next.
Unbelievably, she felt the tendril in her vagina sever itself from it's base, and yet it began to wiggle inside of her body. Bile rose in her throat, blocked by the vine there, as she could feel tiny portions of it thrashing about like the legs of a spider, their pointy tips piercing the senstive flesh of her core. She arched her back, a ragged groan dieing in her throat as she climaxed again in spite of herself.
Something was happening. It was becoming more and more difficult for her to think straight...almost as if her body was trying to betray her, wanting only to give in to the perverse pleasure the plant-thing had forced upon her. One tiny fraction of consciousness screamed in final defiance, only to be met with an intense pain which radiated from between her legs--it rippled up her spine and into her brain, pushing her to the brink of unconsciousness before finally letting go.
Zaar's alterations were now complete.
He had left a portion of himself inside the helpless girl, one which would allow him to influence her from afar. It was technically a form of mind control, though he did not consider it such; the alien only felt a wave of pleasure as the girl sat up and looked at him with tired eyes.
He allowed her to rest after that. The alien knew she would need to sleep, to replinish her lost energies, in fact he needed the same thing. His own bioform seemed to be going through changes as well, as he needed a change to adjust to them. After retracting all the tendrils into himself he sent the girl a compulsion to forget what just happened to her, then he fell into a deep, trance-like state.
Jacilyn pulled up her panties, straightened out her nightgown and would probably have gone right to sleep if someone had not begun pounding on the bedroom door.
'Jaci' Let me in!'
Jacilyn sighed. It was her younger sister Cindy. Still feeling weak in the knees, and somewhat disoriented, she lurched across the room and fumbled for the doorknob.
'God!' Cindy was frowning by the time she burst into the room. 'Why'd you lock the door anyway' What are you doing in here'' She looked her older sister up and down and shook her head. 'Man Jaci, your hair's a mess. You look like crap. What's going on''
Normally, Jacilyn would have had some sort of a retort for her sister. They usually enjoyed trading insults and jibes, but this time the older sister barely had strength enough to be on her feet any longer. Shaking her head, she climbed back into bed and went almost immediatly to sleep.
By the time Jacilyn finally woke up and crawled out of bed it was eleven AM, and Cindy was long gone. It was Saturday, so there was no school, which meant that the youngest Crawford was probably already over at one of her friend's houses. She wouldn't return until dinner.
Their mother was nowhere to be seen either. Since the weekend was the only time she had off, Gwen tried to do all of her shopping and other chores on Saturday, leaving Sunday free for her and the girls to go out to a movie, or go to the amusement park or whatever.
Her older sister Tori, on the other hand, was home--sprawled out on the couch with the phone stuck in her ear, wearing a tube top and a skirt so tight it looked like one of Cindy's. She glanced up as Jacilyn, still clad in her nightgown, stumbled into the kitchen for something to drink.
'Hold up, sleepyhead! Just a second, Stacey.' Tori dropped the phone into her lap. 'Mom said she's going to fix dinner tonight, but wants you to do the laundry.' Without waiting to see whether Jacilyn was going to protest, since it was a lie--Gwen had told her to do the laundry--she picked up the phone again. 'Now Stace, where were we'' She laughed. 'You're kidding! Really?'
Jacilyn just stood there, with one hand on the refrigerator handle and a blank look on her face. Something was different, something had happened to her last night but she couldn't remember what. Her mind felt like cotton, it was hard to concentrate on more than one thing at a time, and now her sister was telling her what she knew had to be a lie. Their mother never asked her to do laundry, that was one of the chores she always assigned to Cindy or Tori, which meant her sister was trying to get out of work. Typical, Tori did not like to do anything that didn't require her being flat on her back--at least that was the rumor around school. Jacilyn did not know if was true or not, and right now she didn't care. Forgetting about the refrigerator for the time being, she stomped back into her room, and in the open doorway she hesitated.
That strange plant she had bought yesterday was moving on it's own again. Numerous tendrils snaked out and lashed around her upper arms--they dragged her into the room and tossed her on the bed. She struggled a bit, until pain flared up between her legs, and she remembered more clearly what had happened to her last night. Somehow she knew that if she resisted she would feel even more pain, and besides...in a weird sort of way it had been pleasureable. Succumbing to the plant's control, though she didn't fully know it, the sixteen year rolled over on her stomach and spread her legs, waiting.
Zaar was rather surprised, but pleased nonetheless, with how quickly the girl had adapted to his influence. Her body had already begun to produce pheremones in record quantities, as he drank them in just as quickly as he could while preparing her for further study.
Jacilyn gasped as the plant rammed two particularly thick tendrils deep into her pussy, and began to pump them in and out with ever-increasing rhythm. She was still tight, having just lost her virginity to those same tendrils the night before, but she quickly became more lubricated as her body started to react to the painful but enjoyable intrusion. She groaned as she was rocked by it's thrusts, and she felt a orgasm already starting to build within her, she clenched her teeth and moaned.
Tori walked past her room at that moment, completely oblivous to her sister's plight. 'I'm going to take a shower, short-stuff...' she said over her shoulder as she entered the bathroom. 'Catch the phone for me if it rings, would you? I'm expecting a call.' She closed the door behind her.
Jacilyn shoved two fingers into her mouth to stifle her scream as her body was overcome by the strongest and most intense orgasm of her young life. She slumped forward, shuddering and moaning softly--while the tendrils continued to pound deep into her helpless, already sweaty body. She came again and again, so many times she lost count in fact, and still the plant was relentless.
'No...more...' she gasped through clenched teeth. 'Please! I-I can't...take...anymore...'
Zaar could tell the girl was exhausted. Her body was beginning to give out, and he recognized the fact that if he pushed her too far she would eventually die. But he was still hungry, he needed more of what her body had been prodcuing in torrents, and when the sound of running water caught his attention he suddenly came upon a way to acheive that goal.
Withdrawing his tendrils, he sent an impulse to her implant.
Jacilyn felt a slight tingling sensation between her legs as she sat up, relieved that the worst seemed to be over for now. She didn't really understand why, but she got the sudden urge to pick up the plant and carry it into the bathroom, where her sister was showering. That seemed to be what this plant wanted her to do, and it wasn't hard to figure out why either.
Slowly, almost hesitantly, she got up and grabbed the pot. The plant sent out several tendrils that caressed her cheeks and lips, another found it's way down the front of her nightgown and started to fondle one of her breasts, but she never made a sound as she gently pushed the bathroom door open and glanced inside. Tori's shapely silhouette could be seen behind the semi-transparent shower curtain, and she was singing, oblivious to the fact her sister and the plant were getting closer and closer.
Zaar decided they were close enough, and subconsciously alerted Jacilyn to that fact. The girl stopped, and lay the clay pot on the floor, right at the edge of the tub. He produced several vine-like tendrils, which he let wave wildly around him as he contemplated how to proceed.
Jacilyn stepped back, and looked on in glassy-eyed anticipation, as the plant's tendrils slipped beneath the bottom edge of the shower curtain. A part of her knew she could have called out, warned Tori somehow, yet she remained silent, watching and waiting.
Tori got the distinct feeling she was being watched.
Opening her eyes she turned her head, and through the milky surface of the shower curtain she saw a dark shape standing in the doorway. Since there was only one other person in the apartment right now, it was not hard for her to figure out who it was.
'Jaci! What in the hell are you staring at you little perv?' Her younger sister did not respond, but Tori did hear a noise coming from underneath her. Thinking maybe the drain-pipe was backing up or something she glanced down, and to her horror the eighteen year old saw several vine-like tendrils shooting up toward her from under the shower curtain. 'No! Jaci, help!' One of the tendrils plunged right into her pussy without so much as a warning, while others lashed around her wrists and ankles, holding her in a spread-eagle position while the first tendril continued pumping deeper into her body. 'Oh God no! Unh! Jaci, it's fucking me! It's fucking me! Unnh! Stop it! No! Jaci, help me! Please!' She squealed with each thrust, her back arching as a sudden orgasm welled up within her, making the older girl feel faint.
Zaar was amazed at the differences between the two humans, even though he had already determined they were from the same familiy unit. This girl's reproductive system had obviously been more readily used, the inner surface had been stretched more, and that allowed his tendril to go deeper and harder but with far less resistance than the first.
He added two more tendrils to the mix, delighting in the girl's shrill cries.
Tori screamed once again as now three phallic vines raped her sore, distended pussy. This plant-thing was relentless...it had already driven the eighteen year old to more shattering orgasms than all her human lovers put together, and showed no signs of letting up.
In spite of herself, Tori could feel her will giving way. She loved sex, she'd had so much of it back in high school it was a miracle she hadn't gotten pregnant. And even though she consciously knew these vines were raping her, violating her in ways she couldn't possibly imagine, she did not care. She just wanted to feel the pleasure they provided, to erupt again and again in an immeasurable cacophony of light and heat. She threw her head back and screamed for all she was worth.
Zaar could feel this girl climax once more and then give herself over to him...even before he was prepared to begin to testing her will to see if he could do so at all. Surprised, but satisfied, he retracted all but one of his tendrils, severing the last one inside her body as he had done with Jacilyn.
Tori collapsed, curling in a corner of the shower in a near-fetal position. She could feel the strange object left by the plant-thing moving inside her, doing something to her body, but she didn't care any longer. It didn't matter. All that mattered was the pleasure.
Zaar prompted Jacilyn to come forward. 'I am more than I was. Through our bonding I have tasted power, and I still crave more. You, the first of my conquests, shall be the instrument by which I ultimately acheive that goal.' To his surprise, Jacilyn nodded. 'You can...hear my thoughts?' Again, she nodded. 'It seems that there is more to our union than I ever expected. Excellent!'
Zaar started to laugh within his own mind, and after a moment, Jacilyn joined in.
With knowledge, came power.
As he became more familiar with the genetic makeup of the women he was dealing with, Zaar was able to better understand what had happened between him and the one called Jacilyn. During their initial encounter his body had adapted to the protein strings present in her bodily fluid, and that--combined with the piece of himself that was still inside her body--had created a sort of telepathic rapport between the two of them. The situation proved to be unique, however, only he and Jacilyn were able to communicate this way...Tori could be controlled by way of her implant, but she apparently could not hear his 'voice'. She was back in her room now, sleeping off her exhaustion, and having her body further adjusted.
'There are many other females on this planet...' Zaar later said to Jacilyn, as his tendrils pounded into the girl from behind while she was bent over her bed. 'I will need you to help me get to them. But first, we shall deal with the ones close at hand.'
'Yes...' Jacilyn grunted, moments away from an orgasm. 'Whatever...you say...'
Cindy and Gwen arrived home at the same time.
Mother just happened to run into daughter while at the mall, and brought her home with her so she would not be late for dinner. She then left the three of them on the couch, watching television, while she went into the kitchen and got started.
'Hey, guys.' Cindy plopped down between her two older sisters, both of whom were staring at the screen with blank expressions on their faces. That wasn't what she noticed, however. 'Ugh, Jaci.' Her sister's new plant was sitting right out in the middle of the coffee table, and she shook her head. 'What's that ugly thing doing in here' I thought you were going to keep it in your room''
'It's not so bad,' Jacilyn said dryly. 'Once you get used to it. Right, Tori''
After a moment, the older sister nodded. 'Whatever you say.'
'Okay. What is going on?' Cindy looked from one to the other. 'You guys are being way too civil here. Is there something happening I should know about?'
Jacilyn glanced toward the half-open kitchen door, noted that their mother was nowhere in sight, and then she nodded. 'Actually, there is.' She stroked the top of the plant, smiling when it's flower petals blossomed open at the touch. 'But first Cin, tell me what you think of this fragance.'
Cindy leaned forward, and sniffed. 'It smells pleasant enough I guess. I just...' Without warning, a tendril shot out of the base of the plant, and went halfway down her throat. She began to thrash around, gasping for air, but she couldn't get away because other tendrils wrapped around her arms and legs and lifted her bodily off the couch. Tears streamed down her face as she looked pleadingly to Jacilyn and Tori for help, but both of her older sister's just sat there, and watched.
In the kitchen, Gwen glanced over her shoulder as she heard what sounded almost like a muffled cry from the next room. 'Girls!' She didn't stop chopping onions though, and most of her concentration remained on the stew she was making. 'Everything okay in there?'
'Just fine Mom,' she heard Jacilyn's voice reply. 'Just fine.'
Jacilyn herself sat back on the couch, her hands resting behind her head as she watched Zaar's tendrils lift Cindy's skirt and shred her underwear. Other tendrils raised her blouse just enough to bare her firm breasts, which they began to squeeze and knead like ripe melons. She continued to thrash about, trying to scream, to call her mother for help, but it was no use--the tendril down her throat allowed no air whatsoever to escape, and she obviously could not scream through her nose.
'Shall I taste of the young one'' Zaar asked, in Jacilyn's mind. 'She smells delectable.' Jacilyn nodded. 'It should be most enjoyable...' He positioned a tendril between Cindy's kicking legs, and then hesitated; if she proved to be as tight and dry as Jacilyn had first been he would have to be more careful. 'I can't have one of my playthings passing out on me too soon!' Cindy's eyes widened in terror as she realized what was about to happen. She was only fourteen years old, and was certainly still a virgin, but like Jacilyn she was far from naive. The youngest Crawford began madly shaking her head, trying anything she could to keep that most sacred part of her as far away from the tendril as possible, all the while trying to understand why her sisters weren't helping.
Finally, Zaar could wait no longer. He thrust the tendril up into Cindy's exposed pussy, tearing her hymen and eliciting a shrill, muffled scream from the young girl. She gasped and moaned as her body was violently rocked by each powerful thrust of the tendril, which went deeper and deeper into her, awakening sensations in the girl she never even knew existed.
Meanwhile, in the next room, Gwen continued cooking, oblivious to the fact her youngest daughter was in the clutches of an alien plant that was raping her mercilessly. It pounded one, two, three tendrils into Cindy, who came screaming again and again, so many times it was impossible to tell where one orgasm left off and the next one began. The fourteen year old cheerleader succumbed to the plant-thing's influence, finally, and Zaar deposited an implant in her pussy as he withdrew the rest of his tendrils. She slumped to the floor, not quite unconscious, and lay there softly sobbing.
'Take her up to bed,' Jacilyn whispered. 'I'll tell Mom she's not feeling well.'
Tori started to protest, but she was struck by a sudden, intense pain between her legs. She recognized it as the plant's influence, and she nodded. She wasn't about to go through that again if she could help it, instead she gathered Cindy's slight form into her arms and headed upstairs.
Smiling, Jacilyn blew a kiss to Zaar and then wandered into the kitchen.
As it turned out, Zaar needed to rest again following his 'encounter' with Cindy, so for the moment Gwen was safe from the alien. The three of them ate dinner in silence, then Gwen went upstairs to check on Cindy before she took a shower and headed to bed to watch some TV.
With no further directions from Zaar for the moment, Tori went to bed too.
That left Jacilyn downstairs by herself. She sat on the couch and masturbated quietly, waiting for the plant to awaken and tell her what it wanted to do next. She suspected it would go after her mother, however, since Gwen was the only one in the family Zaar had not 'been with' yet.
Her suspicions were, of course, soon proven correct. When he awakened, the first thing Zaar wanted to do was taste Gwen as it had her three daughters, and Jacilyn carried the potted plant upstairs so it could do just that. They soon found that unlike Tori, Gwen had both closed and locked the bathroom door, preventing the two of them from getting inside for the time being. Zaar suggested they return to Jacilyn's room, where the alien proceeded to fuck her and a half-conscious Cindy for some time while trying to come up with a way to get to their mother too.
Finally, in the middle of the night, it was Jacilyn who came up with a suggestion.
Gwen was awakened to a flood of light in her face, and she sat up to see someone standing in her bedroom door. It took her a moment to make out the face, since she was in profile from the hall light being on behind her. The elder Crawford wiped her eyes.
'Jacilyn' What is it''
'I had a bad dream,' her middle daughter replied. 'Can I sleep in here with you?'
Gwen frowned. 'Aren't you a little old for this?'
'It really scared me,' Jacilyn said. 'Please' Just for a little while?'
'Oh...' Gwen sighed. 'All right, but only until you calm down.' She held open the covers. 'Come on. I'm really tired, and I need to get some sleep.' As Jacilyn stepped in out of the light, she noticed that her hands were full. 'Jaci, what are you doing with that plant?'
Jacilyn shrugged her shoulders. 'I don't know. I just felt a little safer having him...I mean it, around.' She put the pot on the nightstand, and climbed into the bed beside her mother. 'Thanks mom. I really appreciate your making this so easy.'
Gwen arched an eyebrow. 'What are you talking about' Making what so easy?' She watched her daughter laying her head down on the pillow with a strange smile on her face, and then something shot out of the pot on the nightstand. By sheer instinct Gwen rolled herself out of the bed, causing the tendril to miss her open lips by only the slimmest of margins. 'What the hell? Jaci!'
'Sorry, Mom.' Jacilyn smiled. 'Relax, it'll only hurt for a minute.'
Numerous tendrils shot out of the pot now, trying to grab Gwen's arms and legs and hold her immobile as it had done her daughters. But spurred on by sheer terror and disbelief at what was happening--and how her own child seemed to be involved--the elder Crawford managed to avoid each of tendrils with something of a flourish. It was close quarters though, and she knew it would only be a matter of time before it caught her if she didn't find some way to get past it and out the door.
'Jaci please! I don't know what's going on here, but you have to stop it!' Gwen gasped as one of the vine- like tendrils tried to wrap around her wrist, but she pulled it away at the last moment. 'Honey, please! Can't you make it stop? Jaci?'
Jacilyn sat up, and after a moment shrugged her shoulders. 'Why? I helped him get Tori and Cin, so why should I try and stop him now?'
Gwen's face fell. 'Cindy? Tori? Oh God, no!' Distracted, she was unable to stop the tendrils from lashing around her ankles now. They pulled her off her feet and held her in the air upside down, while others darted in and shredded her lace slip and underwear. 'Jaci, please!'
Jacilyn shook her head. 'Sorry, Mom. It's your turn.'
Zaar pounded a thick tendril into Gwen's exposed pussy...and she screamed as an orgasm was soon forced upon her. The alien absorbed her juices as fast as she could produce them, driving Jacilyn's mother over the edge numerous times, reveling in her screams of passion and pain before finally depositing an implant deep in her womb and withdrawing the rest of his tendrils.
The alien spoke to Jacilyn, as her mother curled up in a ball and passed out. 'Something stirs within me! I can feel it within the core of my being, but I must have more!'
'There is no more,' Jacilyn replied. 'We four are all that was here.'
'Are that not others in this structure?' Zaar asked. 'Other females you can bring me?'
Jacilyn shook her head. 'We don't really know our neighbors that well. I don't think I can get any of them to trust me enough to get you close to them.' She paused, as an idea began to form in her head. 'But there is another way. We go back to school on Monday, maybe I can take you in as show and tell or something. We don't actually have show and tell in high school, but I think I can fake it.'
Zaar considered the possibility. 'This...school, are there many females there?'
Jacilyn nodded. 'Oh yes. Most of our teacher's are women, and I'd guess at least half of our student body is too. You should have plenty to choose from.'
'Excellent. Then I look forward to going back to school with you.'
For the most part Zaar left the human women alone on Sunday, choosing to take Jacilyn and Tori when he got the urge to do so. Cindy, and especially Gwen, continued to resist him for a while, but using the implant he had placed within each of their bodies the alien made sure that, by late Sunday afternoon, neither mother or her youngest daughter had any fight left in them.
As Monday morning rolled around, things returned to something resembling normal around the Crawford household. Zaar gave the four women enough of their own consciousness' back that they were able to think and act in their daily routines as they normally might, but the implants were there to remind them that, even from a distance, Zaar was still the one in charge.
Gwen left for work first, followed by Tori and Cindy--the former reluctantly agreeing to drop the latter off at her junior high, before heading on to the university. Jacilyn, meanwhile, headed straight to Oakdale High with Zaar nestled carefully in her arms. Her destination--room 103.
Ms. Lisa Lee-Baxter was one of eight science teachers at the high school, and she was certainly one of the most popular, for a variety of reasons. The thirty-two year old Asian beauty had long black hair and shining brown eyes, and what the majority of the students considered to be a fantastic body. While her clothes were always within the dress code, ie not particularly revealing, they were often unusually tight, and some people wondered if she didn't take her jacket off in the middle of class not just as a matter of comfort, but to show off her equally impressive wealth of bosom.
Ms. Baxter, as she preferred to be called, looked up from the papers she was grading as she heard the door of her classroom opening. Given the layout of her room, a row of filing cabinets stood between her desk and the door, meaning she had to stand up to see who was coming in or going out. In this instance she stood and saw Jacilyn Crawford, a sixteen year old sophomore in her first period biology class, and the young woman appeared to be holding something behind her back.
'Miss Crawford?' The teacher took off her glasses. 'It's early. Classes don't start for another thirty seven minutes yet, and you're certainly not do here now at any rate.'
'I found something the other day,' Jacilyn replied, subtly locking the door behind her. 'And I thought you might want to take a look at it first, before I show it to anyone else.'
Ms. Baxter came around her desk. 'All right.' She crossed her arms. 'Let's see it.'
Nodding, Jacilyn brought Zaar around from behind her back and held the alien plant out for her teacher to have a closer look. 'It's strange, isn't it? And it smells funny too?'
'What do you mean?' Ms. Baxter leaned in and took a sniff. 'I don't smell...' Her eyes widened as one of Zaar's tendrils shot out of the pot and went right down her throat. She lurched back, trying to pull it out, but others enveloped her arms and legs, and lifted the teacher off her feet. She screamed hysterically around the tendril in her mouth as others began nuzzling her clothes, removing her skirt and blouse with a modicum of care, while tearing off her underwear without a care in the world.
Jacilyn sneered as she realized the teacher did indeed have large breasts, fuller even than her own, as well as a pair of what could only be described as dancers legs. They thrashed and kicked as best they could in the vice-like grip of the tendrils, but Zaar was obviously determined as he moved other tendrils up to knead her heaving breasts. Ms. Baxter moaned in a mixture of fear and defiance.
'This one is no virgin,' Zaar noted, having learned the term from Jacilyn's mind, and since Cindy seemed to have developed quite a thirst for innocence.
'Some of the other's will be,' Jacilyn replied. 'I promise.'
Ms. Baxter tossed her head back, screaming against the tendril in her throat as another pounded deep into her exposed pussy, rocking her luscious body with every vicious thrust. She hissed and groaned, biting in an effort to uproot the tendril in her throat so she could cry for help, but nothing worked. Soon Zaar's--by now perfected--methods brought her to an explosive climax, quickly followed by numerous others, and the world spun out of control around her. The teacher soon passed out.
Zaar deposited an implant within her body and then withdrew his other tendrils. 'Now, tell me of the plan you have for the rest of your...what is the word? Class?'
Jacilyn smiled.
A short time later, Jacilyn stood at the head of the class, watching with tired eyes as the alien plant from a distant planet made short work of her classmates.
It had been an easy enough trick. After dressing a half-conscious Ms. Baxter, Jacilyn unlocked the door to the room and waited. One by one the other students, all but two of them female in this particular class, filed into the room. Ms. Baxter sat at her desk, apparently asleep, and so the students sat down and waited for her to wake up and tell them what she wanted them to do.
Instead, Jacilyn got up in front of the class--with Zaar--and informed them that she was going to take care of the science lesson for the day. Since they knew she was one of the few people in class Ms. Baxter might actually delegate such responsibility to the other students had no reason to argue. But before they began, she told them that she needed some help getting something from the back room, and asked Mark Tyler and Sam Richards, their only male students, to give her a hand.
Once the four of them were alone, Jacilyn pretended to come on to the two football players, both of whom were certainly willing to accept her offer. As soon as their guards were down, Zaar--who Jacilyn kept in her hands the whole time--lashed out with his tendrils and strangled the boys. Ignoring their bodies for the time being, Jacilyn and Zaar returned to the classroom.
After telling the other girls that Mark and Sam were going to be busy for a few minutes, Jacilyn turned off the lights, implying they were going to see a movie. In the confusion that followed, she put Zaar as close to the two tables where her classmates were sitting as she could, and then went to lock the door. As she turned the lights back on suddenly the other girls were all momentarily blinded, during which time Zaar struck. He lashed out with far more tendrils than ever before, entwining arms and legs and necks and even breasts, and the girl's thrashed and squealed and screamed as they were lifted out of their seats. The alien swiftly peeled off their clothes--at Jacilyn's suggestion he left them intact, so they would be able to redress the girls when he was done with them--but willfully shredded their underwear because it was less noticeable. Eight pairs of firm, heaving breasts were cruelly squeezed, while nipples of various sizes, shapes and colors were teased to hardness as their helpless owners fought desperately against while even the youngest and most naive among them must have known was about to happen. The alien plugged their mouths to prevent any further screams from drawing unwanted attention, and then proceeded to thrust his tendrils into eight sparsely haired young pussies, only one of which was not a virgin. They kicked and screamed as they were mercilessly raped, but nothing the young girl's could do was enough to stop Zaar from forcing one explosive orgasm after another from their helpless, nubile bodies. Again and again he drove them to an unexpected plateau of pleasure, and one by one they succumbed to his otherworldly influence. By the time he finally deposited implants in their bodies and withdrew the rest of his tendrils, Zaar felt stronger than ever before, and still there seemed to be something missing. He contemplated this while Jacilyn went around and dressed her fallen classmates, then he wrapped a tendril around her throat and drew her close.
'Something is missing! I don't know what it is, but I still need more!'
Jacilyn shook her head. 'There's always the rest of the school, but that's too many people. There's no way to be sure some of them won't get loose, or call for help.'
'I need...I need...' Something stirred deep within the alien. Not quite a memory, less than a thought, more than a feeling. It was simply an understanding. A desire. A need. 'Fire!'
Startled by the alien's outburst, Jacilyn frowned. 'Fire?'
'Yes, of course! What I have taken from you and these other humans has given me power, but in this form I've no way to use it! My true body is more malleable, it will better allow me to utilize what I absorbed. For that, however, I will need fire! As much and as hot as you can find!'
Jacilyn was silent for a moment, and then she gasped. 'The furnace! In the basement! I remember hearing somewhere that it burns at hundreds or thousands of degrees.'
'Take me there,' Zaar demanded. 'At once!'
Jacilyn didn't understand , but she wasn't about to disobey Zaar now. She knew how brutal the alien could be if he was angered, she had felt it more than once at home, so she carried the plant down to the basement and stopped at the heavy steel door. It was open...but this door was never left open, and none of the students were supposed to be able to get as far into the basement as she had. Something wasn't right, the whole thing was a little too easy, but she didn't want Zaar to know she was having any doubts so she pressed on, silently approaching the massive iron monster that was the furnace. Even from this distance she felt the intense heat it was giving off, it made her cheeks flush, and she reflexively slowed.
'What are you doing? Hurry! I'm so close now, I...'
Someone appeared in front of them then, stepping out from behind the furnace; a woman. She appeared to be in her mid-forties, with swarthy brown skin, long black hair, and bright green eyes. She wore a flattering blue business suit, and had her hands clasped over her ample chest.
Jacilyn's face fell. 'Oh no, Mrs. Hernandez, the vice-principal. We're busted!'
'You're in trouble, Miss Crawford. More than you realize.' Mrs. Hernandez turned her dark eyes directly to the plant in Jacilyn's arms. 'As for you, Zaar...'
Both Jacilyn and the alien recoiled. 'How do you know me'' he asked. 'Who are you''
'Oh, you don't recognize me?' Mrs. Hernandez held up her hands and looked at them for a moment. 'No, I don't suppose you would. This body is so clumsy.'
'You...you're one of him?' Jacilyn asked. 'Mrs. Hernandez? You're an alien?'
The older woman shook her head. 'Your Mrs. Hernandez met with an unfortunate accident recently, and I have taken her place. My true name, is Torr.'
Zaar recoiled again, his tendrils flailing about wildly. 'Torr? Here? Now? Why?'
'You fool.' Torr walked slowly toward them. 'You've broken the rules, Zaar. There's a reason we are not permitted to interfere with the sentient races we observe.'
'How did you know where I was?' Zaar asked. 'Or what I was doing?'
Torr shook 'her' head. 'We keep an eye on all of our operatives. There's always a chance that one of them could give in to the same urge that you did. And this could result.' She frowned. 'Frankly, if we had known the human race possessed the genetic catalyst to drive you toward the impulse for metamorphosis, we would never have sent one of our kind here in the first place.'
'What are you talking about? What metamorphosis? What is going on, Torr?'
'If you don't know, there might still be time.' Torr held out both hands. 'Give him to me, Miss Crawford, and you will be free to go. His influence over you and the other humans will be ended as soon as possible, I promise. Now give him to me, please.'
'No, Jacilyn!' Zaar boomed in her mind. 'Do not listen to her! Throw me in the furnace now! It is the one place in this universe I most need to be, I know it!'
Jacilyn hesitated, she was clearly confused. 'I don't...I'm not sure...I...'
'Do it, now! Hurry!'
Torr's human eyes widened as Jacilyn approached the furnace. 'No, stop!' She started toward the girl, but Jacilyn got there first. She opened the furnace door, scalding her hand in the process, and tossed Zaar inside without a second thought. 'Now ' you've done it!'
'Done what?' Jacilyn asked. 'I've destroyed Zaar. You should be happy.'
'You haven't destroyed anyone, little fool. His bioform is vulnerable to the heat, it will be burnt away, but his true form is considerably more hardy.' Torr frowned. 'What's more, with everything he had absorbed in these last few days, he'll be even more dangerous than ever before.'
Jacilyn shook her head. 'What do you mean?'
The alien stepped back, along with Jacilyn, as something completely different started to emerge from the fiery depths of the school's furnace.
First came a hand, one vaguely humanoid in general appearance, but it was twice the normal size and had oily black skin the general consistency of wet leather. It gripped the side of the furnace and made way for a second, identical hand, followed by a featureless, bald black head. Standing at least eight feet tall, the thing looked like something out of a horror movie, with numerous tentacles as big around as human arms flailing from it's sides, shoulders, and broad back.
'Now I understand!' The voice, though the creature clearly didn't have a mouth, was decidedly inhuman, and it literally shook the walls with every word. 'You tried to hide this from me! From all of us! The power is incredible, and you would deprive all our people of it!' It's tentacles lashed out and wrapped around Torr, lifting the form of Mrs. Hernandez off her feet. 'Why? Tell me why!'
'To preserve our way of life,' she replied, in a perfectly calm, emotionless voice. 'Don't you see, Zaar? If our people learned of this...transformation of yours, it would change everything. We're observers, we don't interfere with other races, other cultures...'
Zaar shook his head. 'No! You're just afraid!' He tightened his tentacles, forcibly spreading her arms and legs. 'This is the next stage in our evolution! What we are supposed to do. What we are meant to be! You're not intersted in preserving anything, except the pathetic rules that have kept our society in check for far too long! You're weak, and afraid, and now...you should be!'
'What are you going to do, Zaar? Kill me?' Torr sneered. 'You know as well as I do that in ten centuries, not one of our kind has ever killed another. Even with this metamorphosis of yours warping your mind, I do not think you are capable of murdering one of your own people?'
'Maybe not.' Zaar pulled her closer. 'But there's something you're forgetting, Torr! Bioforms are perfect replicas in every way. This body of your operates exactly as it did for the woman who's face you have taken, and that makes you vulnerable...to me!' Without warning, he thrust one of his tentacles under her skirt, and as far into her helpless pussy as it would go.
Torr threw her head back and screamed, her body rocked by each vicious impact. Zaar pumped harder and faster with each passing moment, treating the borrowed body of Mrs. Hernandez far more harshly than he'd done any of the other women. She kicked and thrashed and screamed and moaned, but he never slowed, and his efforts were not lost on the psuedo-human. Her body started to react, in ways far beyond her experience or understanding, and she was soon on the cusp of an awesome climax.
Zaar, it seemed, had other plans. At the last moment, as her vaginal muscles started to contract around his tentacle, he simply let her go...removing the tentacle and allowing her to slump to the floor, shuddering and gasping. Her body must have felt as if it was on fire--it was about ready to explode, having been driven right to the brink, only to be yanked back at the last possible instant.
'How does it feel, Torr?!' He laughed. 'Now maybe you understand, being so close to all these delectable feminine forms, yet helpless to do anything about it. Well, guess what...' He picked Torr up again, this time carrying her towards the furnace. 'I'm not helpless anymore! And you don't have to be either!' He took her limp form in his arms. 'This can all be yours too, Torr! You'll feel the exhilaration, the power, of taking the power that these lowly humans have to offer!'
Listening to Zaar, and seeing this new, monstrous form of his, something stirred deep within Jacilyn. Not the implant he had placed there, either, but something else...something much more powerful. Her humanity. Zaar had not destroyed the part of Jacilyn that still lived and loved, he'd merely buried it so deeply that they both thought it lost. Now, however, it had resurfaced--with a vengeance.
'No.' Jacilyn flashed back to everything that had happened the past few days. Tori, her mother, poor little Cindy, and all because of her. 'No.' She had brought the sex-crazed alien to school, and unleashed it on her teacher and her friends. 'No!' Tears streamed down her face as all the pent-up shame and sorrow hit home, and her heart felt like it was going to burst in her chest. 'NO!'
Something within Jacilyn just snapped at that moment. Throwing caution, and perhaps common sense, to the wind she charged Zaar, who did not even react. Howling like a mad beast, she threw herself full-force at the massive alien, hoping to knock him over or--best case scenario--actually force him back into the heat of the furnace. She didn't know if it could actually kill him or not, or if anything could for that matter, but that was certainly no reason not to try. For her efforts, however, all Jacilyn accomplished was to feel something explode in her right shoulder where it struck Zaar. She lurched back, hissing in pain, and clutched that now useless arm against her chest.
Zaar, who had not even flinched, glanced down at her. 'Fool!' He caused the implant within her to mirror the pain she was feeling from her shoulder a hundredfold and she doubled over, screaming. 'I have no more use for you, little mortal!' He turned his back on her and hoisted Mrs. Hernandez--Torr--over his head, she kicked and screamed but could not get away. 'As for you...' Laughing, he threw Torr right into the furnace, which flared up at the introduction of so much flammable material. 'Don't worry,' he said as she screamed within the flames. 'It won't kill you!'
Mrs. Hernandez seemed to disintegrate right before his eyes. All that remained, was that thick black ooze which constituted their natural state. It churned and bubble within the furnace, seemingly unaffected by the intense heat it produced, and then Torr flowed out of the flames and pooled on the floor, neither moving or speaking. Zaar looked down, and laughed.
'There, now don't you feel better, being out of that useless skin?' He glanced over his shoulder, where he saw Jacilyn face-down on the ground, unconscious. A few moments later, when he turned back, Torr was on the move again...this time headed towards the furnace. 'What are you up to, Torr?' He watched as the other alien flowed closer to the furnaces control panel, where several black tendrils extended outward and started pressing and pulling various knobs and switches. Confused, Zaar took a step closer. 'I don't know what you think you're doing Torr, but stop it at once!' The other alien didn't listen, the tendrils continued their work, and soon the entire room was filled with flashing lights, and a siren. 'What?!' In classrooms throughout the school a fire alarm started to blare, students and teachers alike got up out of their seats and headed outside; including Ms. Baxter and her recently dressed class. 'No!' Too late Zaar came to understand what Torr was doing, as he saw the way the furnace was starting to swell like a balloon from internal pressures. 'You fool, you'll be destroyed along with me!' Zaar had survived the flames, but even his limited knowledge of human technology told him that the furnace would explode with considerably more force and heat that it previously burned at. 'Both of you!' He lashed out with tentacles, ensnaring Torr and Jacilyn as the seams on the sides of the heaving iron furnace finally gave way.
Outside, as the students and teachers gathering on the front lawn were starting to wonder whether it was a false alarm or not, all looked on in wide-eyed wonder as the rear section of the school exploded. Debris hit the ground for blocks around, but fortunately no one outside was hurt--and no sign would ever be found that anyone had been in the basement when the furnace detonated.
Jacilyn would eventually be reported as missing. Her mother, her two sisters and the people at school had no memories of what had happened to them, and eventual medical check-ups would reveal no traces of alien implants. Jacilyn's disappearance would be mourned by all who knew her, questions about why a brand new furnace had self-destructed in the first place would remain long after it was replaced and the school repaired and reopened, and a brand-new vice principal was eventually hired.
Life in Oakdale returned to normal for the time being. For months afterward though, tiny black beads that many people assumed to be hardened ash were found littering yards and fields all around the school. While most of them were discarded without a second thought a few people kept them as souvenirs, never noticing how the spheres rippled sometimes, almost as if they had a life of their own...
THE END