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Jeanne swished the mop against the hardwood floors of the apartment, holding it in a few of her hands. Her many clawed feet made dull clacks against the floor as she maneuvered around the kitchen island, trying to avoid placing them in any wet spots on the floor.
Doing mundane tasks in her new body was always a challenge- she had to pay attention to where she was moving her long, worm-like body, as she could easily get it stuck wrapped around something, or knock everything off of the counters around her. Her feet had to dance around themselves, or else she risked tripping and falling over herself. Not to mention she was on a permanent leash of sorts- she wasn't in exact control of her main body. Although it was compelled to move in whatever direction it was being tugged at- walking on arm-like legs in a way that somehow looked stranger than her slithering about- it would still be desynced from her, and it's been a few times she's tried to stretch herself too thin.
Still, she tried to do them when she could. It made her feel normal- as normal as you could get as a hydra-like monster. That despite everything, she was still a person, a person with chores and responsibilities. She didn't have as many now as she did back when she was human, but she held herself to her few obligations regardless.
Of most prominent right now, being her obligation to Harriet.
She had helped Harriet clean her apartment most of that morning- she felt it was the least she could do, really. After the… Incident, that caused her to break through her apartment walls, Jeanne had frequently been over to help with repairs. The two of them had scavenged spare wreckage from around the apartment complex, boarding mismatched wood to the walls between them. It allowed the two to reluctantly bond over their shared misfortune- and with both of their friend groups being thoroughly dismantled after the apocalypse, the two remained neighborly friends.
Harriet had come over to ask if Jeanne had any spare cleanerex, stating she wanted to deep clean her apartment, and Jeanne offered her a hand. Multiple hands, actually. The two had worked in tandem; she had spot mopped the rooms after Harriet had swept in them, and she thought the two were making good headway.
Said woman was sitting on the couch in her living room, taking a sip from a water bottle covered in condensation, mindlessly scrolling on her phone. Taking a break, it seems. Jeanne wanted to join her, so she quickly finished mopping up the kitchen, picking up the mop bucket in several of her arms and taking it to the restroom, dumping out the dirty water in the bathtub and leaving the mop and bucket in there. She made her way to the couch, crawling onto it from over the armrest and laying her underbelly onto the leftmost cushion, mindful of avoiding wrapping her body around Harriet's side. She had tucked her main body in the corner of the room, and remained diligent of where she led the rest of her length.
She gently picked up a cold soda can off a coaster that she had gotten from the fridge earlier; she had to use two of her hands, one scooping at the base of the can and the other holding it so it doesn't tip over, because having a lack of opposable thumbs made grabbing anything a pain. She popped the tab of the can open. It too was an effort to get beverages cleanly into her maw, and she found waterfalling it into her opened face was usually the best way to approach it.
Jeanne sat in a comfortable silence with Harriet, kneading her spare claws on the couch cushion. Placing the can back down- and then remembering to move it back onto the coaster, because that's something Harriet would get onto her about- she attempted to shift her body into a more relaxed position. She heard something hit a cabinet behind her- and then heard something hit the floor behind her. Then she felt her back segment scrap against wood, and something fall onto and slide off her back. “Ah, shit-” She exclaimed, craning her head backwards.
“I'll get it.” Harriet sighed, putting her phone down and waving her hand dismissively, walking over to the cabinet. Jeanne kept all her eyes over in that direction as she watched her pick up a small, round photo frame off the floor. She held it in her grasp, her fingers tapping at the back as she stared at it, seeming entranced.
“Harriet? It's not broken or anything, is it?” Jeanne called out, claws clasped onto the back couch cushions. She squinted at it, trying to see if the glass had cracked on impact- all she could make out was a fuzzy picture of Harriet and Sophie, awkwardly cut to the right to keep a third person out of frame.
“Hm? No, it's… It's fine.” She mumbled back, snapping out of her thoughts and reaching over Jeanne's back to place it on the shelf. She sat back on the couch, hands clasped together with her lips pursed close.
The hydra turned to her, hesitating. She could see that something was obviously wrong with the human beside her, but… She didn't want to get too nosey, especially something that was potentially about her past love life. She knew a little bit about it- Sophie wasn't exactly tight lipped about it- but she knew better than to pry her mother about it.
“... Are you ok?” Is what she settled on, concern dripping off of her voice, rubbing at her arms.
“Hm.” Harriet started, not meeting any of her eyes. “It's nothing really. I just- you know, perpetually worry about Sophie. She isn't around here much anymore.”
“Yeah, I've, noticed.” Jeanne had seen Sophie semi-frequently the first few months after the visit, when the girl had hunkered down in her mother's apartment while the world outside tried to figure itself out. She enjoyed talking to her; she was a fun, energetic kid, and wasn't afraid of her at all- despite having seen her in the mid stages of her transformation, where her heads had beckoned her closer to… Well, she had avoided seeing the worst of it, she supposed. The girl would get into hijinks with her, riding on her back and jumping over her body like it was seam in the pavement.
Now, she was gone most weekdays. Schools no longer existed as they once did, but tutors, approved by the Exalted Four, would volunteer to teach kids basic education, and it gave kids from their apartment complex something resembling a normal day to day life. She would sometimes look out her window and see Sophie walk back with a kid with a hole in his face by her side, and a rat-like child scurrying beside them.
But recently, Sophie seemed to be gone on weekends, with no obvious explanation. There were some days she was simply up on floor three, playing video games in Sam's apartment with his kids. But there were other days where she was simply gone. There were nights where Jeanne could hear the door to the apartment next to hers creak open, far later than any child should be up. On occasion she could hear the mother and daughter argue, muffled by the jarred wood between them.
“She's just…” Harriet continued, using a hand to rest her chin on the armrest on her side. “I just don't think she wants to be here anymore.” Her other unoccupied hand was on her leg, rubbing the fabric of her skirt between her fingers. “I mean. She was always a very outgoing kid. But now I don't know how to reel her back in. I don't know if I can. Everything that happened changed her. I don't know if she can go back.”
“... I think I get what you mean.” Jeanne's eyes fell upon her with sympathy. She of all people knew of how the visit had changed people. Jeanne didn't have a great idea of what people were doing outside during the visit- since she stayed homeridden during the bulk of it- but she knew both Sophie and Harriet had gone out and braved the unknown. That Sophie had joined Sam's entourage, prowling the apartment complex and taking out any hostile Cursed. The girl hadn't been there that day when Sam… Helped her, but she knew she must've done similar excursions back then.
How could any child come back from that normal? It wasn't anyone's fault, really- the world had simply turned harsher in the blink of an eye. But seeing that- of course a mother would worry.
“And you're worried she'll get hurt out there, right?”
“Yes. And-” Something resembling frustration burned into Harriet's tone, something that melted into despair. “-And I just didn't think she'd have grown up past me.”
Jeanne put one of her hands on the mother's shoulder. She felt her tense for a moment, before relaxing. “It's not your fault. It's a tough situation, yeah?”
Harriet's eyes were fixated towards the floor, face partially covered by her blue bangs. “It is. And I don't know what to do. I try to keep here nice and safe but… Should I follow her out there? I don't know. I don't feel like I belong in this new world at all.” She paused for a moment. “And selfishly I… Can't stop thinking that I don't know what to do with myself. Before this I was so preoccupied with keeping me and Sophie alive- I didn't think I'd be rid of that so soon.”
Jeanne didn't know what other comforting words she could offer up. She felt herself wallow in their shared pity. Of losing their lives, with nothing left of what they once did or were. A pit with no hope of clawing out of-
No, wait, that wasn't right. Jeanne was still clawing, that's for sure, but she'd definitely gotten something recently that was a huge boost to her morale. And maybe, it could help her too.
“Harriet,” She felt a calm smile form on her face. “You should come to the parking garage with me. I have something I think can help you.”
Harriet raised an eyebrow at her, and she continued. “It'll be good, I promise! I wouldn't drag myself down there for no good reason.” She chirped, grabbing one of her hands. “Come on!”
In hindsight, maybe taking Harriet to see her new motorcycle attachment wasn't her brightest idea.
Granted, showing off a cool motorcycle attachment would easily top the list of things she would do to impress a girl, but Harriet was more of a… Conservative woman. She had never approved of her lifestyle- she remembered, before the visit, times when she would shoot her suspicious glances down the hallway, ushering Sophie into her apartment quickly. Jeanne could recall thinking she was a little stuck up. Now, though, all of it seemed awfully petty. Harriet seemed to have gotten past her grievances with her, and she hoped she could get past her grievances with this too.
Jeanne was laid down on the cold concrete of the parking garage, her legs loafed under her, her main body resting by an abandoned car. She was attaching the rig of a sidecar frame to a black motorcycle with flame decos on its sides, using several hands to attach the clasps. Her other hands held Harriet's phone, using the flashlight feature to illuminate her work. She could feel a dull pang of hunger in her belly, a body that demanded more food than she was used to, but she was too focused to act on that now. Harriet herself was sitting nearby on a car hood, her legs crossed and a water bottle in her hands as she watched the hydra work.
“So, you think that thing will let you ride this again?” Harriet inquired, a blank look on her face.
“Yeah!” Jeanne exclaimed, not looking up from her work. “Well, what I was thinking was I'd stow away most of my body in the passenger seat, so it won't drag or get tangled. It would let me ride out on this baby again.” She patted the side of her bike with one of her paws.
It took some time scouting online, but she eventually found a second-hand sidecar that somebody was willing to give up. They even delivered it to her apartment complex. It was a miracle her motorcycle was still down here, really- many of the cars had mutated during the visit, and many had been damaged in ensuing conflicts. And some vehicles just sat down here, abandoned, their owners long gone.
“I mean, I wouldn't be able to just ride out today. I'd need to test it a few times to make sure it supports my weight. But, If all goes well, I can finally drive out of here.” She paused for a moment, looking over at Harriet. “And if I can, you should come with me.”
“... What?” Escaped Harriet's lips, an inscrutable look on her face.
“Mhm! You said you didn't know what to do. We can find something out there.” Excitement picked up in Jeanne's voice, as she moved herself to another side of the bike to work at a different angle. “There's a lot of volunteer groups that work under the Exalted Four we can join. Or! We can trail Sophie and find where she's been sneaking off to. Or! We can just,” She stopped to take a breath, her coils slightly shifting as she got into a new sitting position. “Sightsee. I read online that when the Exalted Four do their razing thing? It leaves behind a bunch of plants and flowers and stuff. I think there would be some nice flower fields out there to just. See. I think it'd be a lot better than us just being cooped up in this city all the time.”
Jeanne waited, watching for Harriet's reaction. The human tapped her fingers against the plastic of her nearly empty water bottle, hesitating for a moment.
“... And that would be safe?” Is what she eventually said.
“Um, sure, definitely! You'd just hold onto my back and I'd drive us out. I've done it before. It's no problem.” She made a dismissive gesture with a hand, underconfidence spelled out on her face. It was easy to imagine her doing it back when she was human- Harriet could simply grip her shoulders, hang on her back as she rode. Now, though, she wasn't so sure if she would be so easy to hold onto- if she wouldn't take up too much space- she didn't even really have shoulders anymore.
It would be fine. Probably.
When Harriet didn't give a response back, her gaze distant, she continued. “Besides, there aren't as many cars out there anymore. Mostly just Cursed that are cars. It's not viable to use one, really. It doesn't look like the Exalted Four are going to set up any oil rigs anytime soon, so petroleum is in pretty limited supply. Luckily my tank is filled, but I've been looking into alternate fuel sources-”
A few of Jeanne's eyes darted to the side of her. She didn't typically like sending her eyes in different directions- because it was frankly, disorienting- but movement to the left of her demanded her attention. There was something limping out from the shadows of the parking garage towards them. She could barely make it out- it looked humanoid, but there were glints of something shiny across its torso. Metal? It held its arms out, and its hands were stabbed with something reflective and sharp. A Cursed, one neither of them recognized.
“Harriet-”
“I see it.” Came a hushed tone from Harriet, having gotten off of the car and crouched down by Jeanne, her water bottle rolling under the hood of the car, water spilling out. “Do you have anything to defend yourself?”
“No.” She whispered back. Harriet stood back up, her hands tucked in her overcoat pockets.
“Can we help you?” She called in the direction of the stranger, her voice even. The monster didn't respond, continuing to shuffle closer and closer to them. Its skin on its arms was flayed, and a thin layer of droll dripped from its battered lips. Jeanne stood up beside Harriet, rubbing at her arms.
“Can we help you.” She repeated, a tension tugging at her voice. Jeanne swallowed. They both knew the being in front of them was beyond helping. When it got too close, Harriet whipped a handgun out of her pocket, breaking the silence with a bullet, which lodged into the creature's hip.
The Cursed staggered, and then launched itself at the women in a frenzy. The two leapt to the opposite sides of each other, leaving the monster to stumble in the open space between them. Harriet fired a few more shots towards the attacker, while Jeanne shifted herself backwards, her back rigging upwards from the motion, her trench coat dragging against the concrete. The monster made a screeching noise, one sounding like a tire treading a turn too sharp. It limped towards the human, swinging its arms in her direction.
Jeanne froze when she heard the click of an empty gun barrel, watching a look of terror mold itself onto Harriet's face. She hoped that she would duck behind a car and try to reload- but to her horror, she stayed out in the open, lifting her arm up in the air, planting her feet on the spot. Jeanne couldn't breathe. Was she going to try and hit it with her gun when it got close? Why?? If that thing even touched her, it could-
she could-
She could become something like herself.
… Harriet had asked her, if she had brought something to defend herself. She answered no. This was partially true.
She couldn't get the hang of using weapons. Her new anatomy made it clumsy to try and hold anything, and her stickley arms didn't have the strength to swing effectively. In a pinch she didn't think it'd be much help. And really, she didn't like being violent at all.
But she could be. Her body was designed to be violent. An excessive amount of fangs, a mass of claws, precise eyes that could easily track prey. And- something that scared her the most- an instinct. A hunger. Something carnal. Something blessed to her, by the god who she looked upon.
Something that, in her frantic state, boiled to the surface. A low growl ripped from her throat, slinking towards the monster from behind. Her face was aimed down, and her top jaw spread wide, saliva lines pulling from the sides. When she reached her prey, she clamped her jaw onto the monster's neck, and crushed its windpipe in an instant.
It made a horrid gurgling noise, blood gushing from its neck. It flailed its arms around, scraping metal at her underbelly, but she could barely feel it at all. Her many, many claws punctured its skin as she tackled it to the ground, her eyes wide, focused. With her jaw still grasped around its neck, she lifted her face upward, forcing her maw to follow. It tore the flesh and tendons out of its neck, blood painting her ocean colored skin. She aimed the jaw towards the ceiling, and dropped the loose flesh down her throat, leaving the taste of ichor in her mouth.
It tasted… Awful. But familiar. Fuck, she was so hungry.
The zipper-like mouth that ran across her body parted open, thousands of razor-sharp teeth visible. She maneuvered her face to the monster's head, instinct driving her to assimilate it first. Her lowermost eyes met its. They were human eyes, glazed over, having died the moment she struck.
They were human eyes.
It was human once.
She was human once.
The horror dawned on her all at once. Her maw closed up, and she recoiled away from the corpse, shaking. Her claws were coaxed in blood, some chipped and pained from trying to dig into metal. She felt nauseous. But she knew, her body could no longer throw up. Her eyes darted every direction, desperate to look at anything other than the dead body below her, and they fell upon Harriet-
Harriet, who was pointing her gun straight at her.
They both froze. A deafening silence fell between the two of them. She could see the human's hands trembling, the silver of the gun reflecting light illuminated by the phone that was left on the floor.
It was Harriet who moved first, lowering the gun to the floor. She sucked in a breath. “Jeanne?”
The hydra's voice came out shaky and disoriented, hugging her arms around herself. “I-I didn't mean to- I didn't want to I-”
“Jeanne. Jeanne, breathe.” Harriet instructed, making a cautious stride towards the beast, filing her gun back into her pocket. Jeanne let out choked sobs, her vision blurring. She could barely think, and the only thing she could think was oh my god, what did she do, what was she trying to do, what-
“Jeanne.” She felt Harriet grab one of her paws. “You're going to be ok. We need to get you cleaned up, alright?”
Jeanne could only respond with a weak nod.
The two of them had settled in a restroom on the ground floor. They had scavenged a first aid kit from the bathroom, and Harriet had found a rag from the laundromat that was clean enough. Jeanne was standing over the sink, her head leaning down with her jaw flopped over into the sink bowl. She rinsed it with warm water- practically waterboarding it as she forced herself to gag on the water and spit it out. Her main body was stowed away in a nearby stall. Harriet was beside her, tending to the scratches on her underbelly, dabbing them clean with the rag before bandaging them.
She looked at herself in the foggy, unclean mirror. She saw a monster, with too many teeth and too many claws and too many eyes, eyes that were stained red after crying.
“... Your hands.” Is all Jeanne managed to make out from Harriet's voice. She held a lower set of arms in her direction, ones that were still dully throbbing in pain, a crack visible in one of her nails. She stilled, as the mother bandaged her knuckles.
“...I'm sorry I pointed my gun at you.” She stated bluntly, not looking up from her work.
“It's ok.” Was all Jeanne managed to murmur back.
“It isn't.” She continued. “Even if it wasn't loaded, I shouldn't have done that. If-” She paused, sighing. “I don't think I'll make many friends in this world, if I assume every Cursed around me is going to turn hostile the moment I get scared.”
“I think- I think I did, though-”
“You didn't.” Harriet snapped, harsh enough to make Jeanne flinch. Her next words came out gentler. “You're balling your eyes out over the concept of hurting someone. You don't seem very changed to me.”
“I tried to eat it!” The hydra exclaimed. She held out a set of legs to her, ones that were improperly washed, with a bit of dried blood still clinging on them. Harriet took the rag again, cleaning them off.
“And you stopped yourself, didn't you?” She nodded.
“I- Yes, but- What if I don't next time? What if I can't control myself next time, what if I-”
“Jeanne.” The Cursed felt herself pause, putting her bandaged feet down and turning the sink off, turning her direction. Harriet averted her eyes to the mirror for a moment, tapping her fingers against the marble of the sink. “When Sophie was younger, maybe four or five? She was obsessed with having banana and nutella sandwiches. And I mean, obsessed. Wanted to eat them for every meal.” She kneeled down to the tile floor, her blue overcoat flattening underneath her. “Give me your backmost left foot, it's got a scratch on it.”
Jeanne hoisted herself on top of the sink, moving herself upward until she could place the offending claws in Harriet's lap. “I tried to give her a variety of healthy foods, of course, but sometimes you can't argue when you're simply trying to get your child to eat.” She performed the same song and dance with her foot, cleaning it, checking it for infection, bandaging it. Then she let it go, standing back up and patting her coat off. “And then, one night, she just wouldn't eat it anymore. Claimed she hated it now. Wouldn't eat it if I put it on a plate. I don't think she even would for another year.”
Jeanne placed herself back onto the cloudy tile floor, cocking her head to the side. “And you are telling me this because…?”
“Because your body changed, like hers did. Your appetite, tastes, appearances- they changed, and they will probably continue to.” Harriet turned to the sink, removing her gloves and washing her hands. “I know what you wanted to show me down there, Jeanne. You wanted me to adapt. And I know you want to as well. So, let me ask- do you know why you wanted to eat that monster?”
Jeanne hesitated. “... I think I was just hungry? I skipped breakfast.” She admitted, bashfully, like it was a dirty secret of sorts. In reality, she just woke up far too late than any person reasonably should, and when Harriet came over, she didn't want to admit she hadn't even eaten yet.
Harriet checked, but there weren't any paper towels in the paper towel dispenser, so she just shook her hands dry. “Well that's pretty simple, isn't it? Just don't skip your meals. Shouldn't be doing that regardless, really. You make my head spin with how you take care of yourself sometimes, Jeanne.”
Jeanne breathed. It seemed so simple, so easy when Harriet laid it out. It reminded her when her necks were stuck in between their walls, when she panicked and pulled and begged Harriet to forgive her for making such a mess- and she simply calmed her, telling her to retrace their steps, and they easily slid out from where they got in. There was a levelheadedness to her that balanced Jeanne out.
“... Thank you, Harriet. For… Everything. I really mean it.” She eventually managed to say, a smile lifting the corners of her face. She held her arms out, inviting her in for a hug, which she accepted. The human threw her arms around her, patting the back of her creased coat, and she in turn wrapped her with many, many limbs.
“Mhm.” She pulled back, breaking from the hug, slipping her gloves back on, ones that had gotten stained from mending her. “I mean it too. You saved me today, Jeanne. I don't take that lightly.”
The hydra thought for a moment. Something wasn't adding up; Harriet had gone out there during the visit, she should be better at defending herself than that, so why...? She bit at the inside of her cheek. “... Why didn't you ever try to hide and reload? You didn't even reload when I… You know.”
Harriet tensed for a moment, clasping her hands together before speaking again. “... I didn't want to leave you behind with it. If it had targeted you- or even your main body- I didn't know if you'd be alright.” She unclasped her hands, a small smile peeking out from her face. “But I guess now I know you'd be just fine, hm?”
“I suppose so.” Jeanne hummed. She hadn't really considered her own safety in that encounter. And she realized, that wasn't very fair, to leave all the fretting to her friend.
It was her obligation to take care of herself too, after all.
Harriet began packing the supplies back into the first aid kit. “You should really consider bringing a snack bag too, especially when we go out. I'm sure we can scrounge up some choco bars or something to fill it with.”
Jeanne nodded. “I think I have something in my closet that-” She stopped herself as soon as she processed all of what she said. She didn't mean-
“Wait- You still want to go with me? Even after that?” She sputtered, her toothy jaw gaped open just a little bit.
“Of course. Quite frankly, I've run out of spoons for this place.” She stared to the side for just a moment. “If I'm unsafe here and unsafe out there, then I think I'd rather thrive out there, somewhere that isn't a rundown apartment complex.”
Jeanne felt like her eyes might water up again. For a good reason. She wouldn't let herself, and instead tried to play it off. “Then- Ok! I'll drive us somewhere real nice! It'll be a date!”
And then she gasped, waving her hands frantically about, feeling like she must've stepped on a metaphorical landmine. “I mean, not like a date date- like, you know, a-”
Harriet blinked, and then let out a long chuckle. “It can be a date, if you'd like. I'm sure you know by now that I'm single, yes?” She ended her sentence with a wink.
Jeanne stared wide eyed for a moment, before a long, toothy grin formed on her face. “I kinda figured. Then- yeah, I'd really like it to be one.”
Harriet stashed the first aid kit back where they found it, and Jeanne tugged at her back segments, preparing her main body to move. She looked back into the mirror. She saw a woman, somebody in a stylish bowler hat and an oversized trench coat and a giddy smile who had just snagged a date with a cute lady. And that, was about as normal as you could get as a hydra-like monster.