Wë Two Left

Primath retched, spewing a stream of bile into the wastebin next to his desk.

He couldn’t get the image of his brother shooting himself out of his head. The security camera footage was all over the news, inescapable. Primath couldn’t even go on the Extranet without seeing it.

Wiping his lips with the back of his paw, Primath pushed himself back up. The computer on his desk began to play yet another news broadcast.

“Colonel Uloth was a good soldier,” an aged Regulian by the name of General Hasoth spoke at the podium. “He was a good soldier and a damn fine Regulian, he didn’t-”

The General bit his lip and clutched at his heart.

“Dammit, I’m not going to read the script!” Hasoth suddenly blurted out.

Cameras flashed from the audience.

“We have a real problem in the Empire! We have progressed in so many ways but we’re held back by foolish, damn foolish taboos!”

“Well, I’m not going to hold back anymore! I’m General Hasoth and I have a human slave who analy pleases me.”

The crowd gasped.

“In the name of Colonel Uloth, for all he has suffered, I will say it again: I have a human slave who fucks me in the anus. Sometimes with his cock, sometimes with a relationship enhancer, but always, and I repeat, always; with me being the recipient. He is my property to do with as I please and I will continue doing so to honor Uloth’s memory.”

The speaker on the desk crackled to life and Agnes’ spoke, covered in static, “Your brother is here to see you.”

“Uloth!?” Primath blurted.

“No, your other one, Kuroth or whatever. Uloth’s dead, dear, he killed himself last night, didn’t you see the news?”

“Send him in.”

“Did you see the news?”

“SEND HIM IN!”

Quroth burst through the door, his fur was ragged and his suit was covered in patches of dried vomit. Primath scrunched up his nose at the smell of him, he reeked worse than ever.

“We did it, brother! We did it!”

Quroth held out his arms expecting a hug, which Primath did not reciprocate, remaining seated in his chair.

“He’s dead,” Primath looked at the screen. Another news station was showing the suicide on a loop again. “I can’t believe it, I didn’t think he’d-”

“What the fuck?” Quroth growled. “You said you wanted him to kill himself! Are you forgetting what he did?”

“Yeah, it’s just,” Primath poked at the screen, “it’s just real now.”

“No regrets, okay?” Quroth patted Primath on the shoulder, causing the latter to shiver with disgust. “We gotta make one final move and then we’re good.”

“Fuck,” Primath pointed to the computer, “can’t you let me emotionally process this?”

“No. The vote is coming up and I’m going to need you to make a tough choice,” Quroth inhaled. “I need your vote and anyone who comes offering to support you? Send them my way.”

Primath slowly looked up at his brother and blinked.

“I’m sorry,” Primath squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, “what?”

“I can’t be certain if Valerie is gonna prime you or me up for their next puppet, let alone The Claw. They’re both panicking right now, most likely, and we need to be a united front and-”

“Why you?” Primath growled and stood up. “I run this fucking company! I have experience!”

“Too many things could go wrong. I mean, you did provide the leak for Uloth’s activities. We laundered it but there’s always a chance it can be traced ba-”

Primath grabbed Quroth by the suit and pushed him forward, slamming him against the wall.

“This was your plan all along!” Primath roared. “You’re a joke. You think you can run a company!? Father always said you were the weakest of his seed, you know that?”

“Funny, he said the same about you to me,” Quroth snickered. “Besides, with Ilayo at my side, anything is possible.”

Primath immediately released his brother, recoiling like he had just touched spoiled meat.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“Ilayo. He’s been such a help,” Quroth sighed. “Really, between us three, dad really got me the best slave.”

Primath stepped back slowly, keeping a nervous eye on his brother as he reached down and hit the button on the speaker.

“Agnes,” Primath’s voice was rough, “did you record that?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good.”

Primath released the button and licked his lips.

“You let your secretary bug your office?” Quroth exclaimed. “Fucking amateur shit, you really trust her?”

“Brother…”

“Anyway…none of this is incriminating, so go fuck yourself.”

“You’re sick and you need help,” Primath swallowed. “I’m not going to call the Guard, okay? But you need to come with me to the hospital.”

“What the fuck are you on about?”

“Ilayo is dead,” Primath rasped. “He’s been dead for years now.”

Quroth tapped the side of his head, “You think I’m drug-stroked enough to believe that?”

“I think you’ve taken so many drugs you’ve started hallucinating,” Primath took a slow step forward. “Brother, fuck, all of this makes sense. Everything you’ve done, it’s…”

“SHUT UP!” Quroth snapped, freezing Primath in place. “Nice fucking try, brother, nice fucking try!”

Quroth unsheathed his claws and pointed them towards Primath, “You’re trying to fuck with my head, get in my brain! IT’S NOT WORKING! YOU’RE NOT GOING TO GET MY VOTES!”

“Brother…” Primath held his paws out and whispered soothingly, “...the board has to be notified. You’re not well.”

“NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!” Quroth screamed, slashing his claws at air. “YOU CAN’T WIN THIS! I HAVE THE VOTES! I HAVE THE MOST VOTES!”

“You don’t need votes right now, you need help and-”

Quroth shrieked, leaping to the side and tackling the office door off of its hinges with a booming thud.

Primath was frozen on his seat and could only spin around just in time to catch sight of his brother charging through the lobby and out the door.

“ILAYO!”

Quroth screamed as he slammed the door shut behind him. The walls shuddered, black dust shaking from the chipped brick walls.

Blue light seeped in from the many holes in the front wall. Quroth clung his body to the wall, claws scratching along the tatters of wallpaper left, and crept to one of the holes. He pressed his eye up against it and saw nothing but more blue light, nothing more. No yard, no night, no moon, just blue light.

Quroth punched the wall and a black brick cracked. He stormed up the staircase, tripping over the many loose floorboards.

“ILAYO!”

There was nothing in the bedroom save for a mattress, heavily soiled with fluids, and scattered pill bottles on the ground mixed with rubble from when the roof caved in. The void of night loomed above as if a black hole had appeared about Regulus Prime.

Quroth’s paws were clammy and his heart was racing, pounding against his ribs. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his datapad, desperately scratching at it to call Ilayo.

The number you have dialed is out of service.

“No, no, no…”

He was here, he was still here. He just had to be called.

I just have to call him again!

“Okay, okay…” Quroth quivered as he slunk over to the curtains, pushing them aside, only to get blinded with light before casting himself back into darkness.

Never could get a moment to myself, could I? Always got a spotlight on me, can’t get any goddamn business to myself always gotta deal with the watchers and the reporters and the business and the business interests and the business but not Ilayo - Ilayo is my business and no one else’s. NO ONE ELSE’S!

“LEAVE ME ALONE!” Quroth roared at the curtains.

The ridges of a bottle cap rolled against Quroth’s pads. He popped the bottle open, opened his mouth, and poured an avalanche of pills onto his tongue.

Ahh, Monopsycholoid, my old friends! Quroth chewed the pills, crunching them like they were kibble. The taste was horrendous but it was cut with a numbing agent and an anti-nausea medication to prevent vomiting. My boring friends, but a good party should start with the boring ones lest you burn out too fast!

Slowly, Quroth lowered himself onto his butt and pressed it on the mattress. The soft material tickled his fur and skin, jiggling his muscles like gelatin. Quroth giggled, pushing himself up along the mattress and leaned against the wall.

The air quivered, shimmering like a mirage despite the cool evening air.

Swiping his paw to the left, Quroth picked up another bottle and brought it to his eye.

“Asssssspirin?” Quroth struggled to jimmy open the child-proof cap and resorted to tearing open the bottle’s side with his thumb-claw. “Fuck is that…”

There were only a few tablets inside and they quickly vanished down Quroth’s throat except for one. When there was no immediate effect, Quroth dropped the final pill on the floorboard, crushed it with his fist until it was nothing but fine powder, and pressed his nose into the ground and snorted it up.

“Ahhhhh!” Quroth licked the last bits of white powder on his nose.

When there was no obvious effect once again, Quroth cursed and threw the bottle across the room.

“FUCK!”

Quroth grabbed a box and a few paper tablets slipped out onto the ground. Quroth licked the ground, the blotters sticking to his rough tongue until they dissolved.

“Here we go…” Quroth leaned back against the wall again.

Within an instant, a dazzling array of colors exploded across Quroth’s vision, so many that he didn’t even have the words to describe it.

A shadow of a Vulpeculan appeared at the end of the mattress, its black form facing away.

“ILAYO!”

Quroth stood up and ran around but the Vulpeculan spun around without so much as a step of its foot so that it was always facing away from Quroth. He could not make out so much as a strand of fur nor whisker, it was all shadow in the form of a Vulpeculan.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Ilayo!” Quroth choked down vomit as he ran. “I’m-”

Green bile spewed out from Quroth’s maw onto the floor but he kept on going.

“I’m sorry! Please just talk to me, come back to me, come-!”

Quroth was on the ground, screaming into the void. His left foot was in intense, stabbing pain.

“FUUUUUUUCK!”

Quroth cried, pounding the ground until he punched a hole in the floorboards.

All was still. Quroth felt nothing except for the cold.

Wiggling his toes, Quroth felt a needle bend against his bone. Slowly, he reached down to his foot with his bloody, splinter-covered paw, and felt something slim sticking out of his foot.

Quroth pressed the plunger on the syringe without looking and as soon as the last drips of its fluids were in him, he slipped it out with a gentle gasp of pain.

Smiling, a trickle of drool running down his lips, Quroth got back onto the mattress.

At some point Quroth had managed to stab himself in the arm with the syringe but he felt no pain now. He pulled it out once more and through the growing haze of his eyes, Quroth read the label on the needle.

“D…M…T…”

It sounded familiar but strange at the same time. An Earth drug, he figured, those can vary.

Tossing the needle aside, Quroth turned his head up to stare at the void through the roof.

Sssssshhhhhhhh.

Static buzzed.

“Shut up!”

Sssssssh.

“ILAYO! CAN YOU HEAR ME!”

Quroth’s own voice was full of static. He continued to scream and scream, desperate to reach Ilayo, wherever he might be.”

“ANSWER ME!”

The void lit up with an azure glow.

“Transmission received. Opening communications.”

The voice repeated itself in Quroth’s brain. The accent…was unfamiliar.

“Making contact.”

A white column shot down from the ceiling, landing on the ground. Quroth shrieked and backed up, banging against the wall. Sparks flew around the edge of the column, cutting away at the mass of light until it began to take the shape of a silhouette.

“Wë apologize for the discomfort,” the voice echoed once more. Every syllable was wrong, confidently wrong, no matter the word. Not even the worst alien speaking Regulian could speak like this, it was otherworldly.

Fur and a tail suddenly appeared. The creature was slim; naked. Obsidian beads dotted its glacial white fur. The light bended around its eyes, the white fur entering the void it orbited and stretched into the center until it devoured it like a black hole.

It had no scent, none at all.

“What…”

“Wë.”

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU!?”

Those black eyes stared, the light ceasing to bend for a slight second before it was sucked back into the void. .

A blink? Only now did Quroth notice the creature had no eyelids, just a patch of fur covering up flat skin around its eyes.

“We…” the word was tense, as if it was forcing it to pronounce it properly, “...are Wë.”

“Wë are pleased to make contact with the world of Í,” its neck creaked like a branch in a storm as it tilted its head to the side. It was much like an expression of confusion one of the canid aliens might have made but there was no confusion in the creature’s face, nor much of anything else. “Wë are curious about Í.”

“Oh fuck…oh fuck…”

Quroth huffed as he swept his paw across the floor to his right, fearful of taking his eyes off the apparition.

The smooth surface of filter pills, a good handful of them, was like silk on his pawpads. Quroth lifted them up, prepared to swallow the whole bundle but just before he could toss them in his mouth a thin, white spike shot out from the creature’s arm and tapped the topmost pill on the pile.

Within a blink of an eye, the pills collapsed into a pile of ash.

“Wë cannot allow you to end communications,” a tiny draft of wind blew the ash from Quroth’s paw. “Not when Wë have so much to learn.”

“You’re not real! You’re not real!” Quroth covered up his ears and shut his eyes. “You’re just a hallucination, you’re not real, you can’t hurt m-”

Unrelenting pain suddenly scoured the surface of Quroth’s brain. Geometric shapes exploded across his eyes, piercing the darkness of his eyelids. There were no words for the chaotic angles and ever-changing nature of the shapes, they were as hard to describe as a cube to a two dimensional being.

Like a lightswitch, the pain suddenly stopped and Quroth was left with his eyelids frozen open, staring at the creature who had invaded his mind.

“Attempt to commit dimensional transport: failure,” Wë said, his body suddenly distorting into a blob before reassuming his anthropomorphic form once more. “Wë cannot calculate the level of discomfort this dimension’s beings undergo if attempted.”

With the filter pills gone, there was no choice but to surrender to the hallucination’s will.

“What are you?”

“Wë.”

“No!” Quroth’s lips quivered as the creature hovered an inch closer. “Where are you…from?”

“Wë think you would not understand,” a low whirring noise whined in the throat of the creature. “But in the context of the world of Í, Wë are about five dimensions more advanced than yours.”

“Great, just great…superior aliens from another dimension.”

“Superior?” the creature rubbed its chin, the elbow of its arm disjointing itself and wiggling like a wet noodle. “Yes, Wë can perceive more dimensional aspects. Superior. But Wë are curious as to what limits Í has, to better understand Wë.”

Quroth swallowed. Perhaps he might be able to ride out this trip as long as he kept the creature calm and the subject light.

“Well, uh…” Quroth licked his lips, “...we all need to drink water, a clear liquid, to live.”

“Wë have already established that many visits ago. Wë currently have a different subject to investigate.”

“Which is?”

“Reproduction.”

“Reproduction?”

“Yes,” Wë briefly vanished from sight before returning an inch taller, “your species reproduces slowly and without the collective of Wë guiding the species of Í. How do you do it?”

“You want slow reproducers? Go visit a human, they only have one child per pregnancy! I’ll give you the coordinates of their planet.”

“Wë reproduce at an autonomous rate of…” Wë turned into mist and then reappeared beside the window, “...the numbers cannot be calculated in this dimension without total collapse. Wë are faster. Why is Í so slow? How?”

“Great, am I gonna have to explain the facts of life to a hallucination?”

“Wë are not a hallucination. Wë are contacting you from many dimensions over.”

“Whatever, look,” Quroth bit his lip. “Okay, when a male loves a female, or maybe many females, a whole lot-”

“Male? Female?”

“Genders.”

“Wë do not understand this classification. This is wasteful _Í_ndividuality.”

“Look, just, there’s two types of us and one male has to stick his penis in a female’s hole when she’s in the right kind of mood and then ejaculate seed into her. This will create a litter or a single child if you’re human, which will be born several months later.”

The creature was silent, completely still.

“Are you male or female?”

“Male.”

“If Wë is to understand, you would penetrate a female to get her pregnant but she could not penetrate you to get you pregnant?”

“Yeah.”

“Wë don’t understand this limitation.”

“Well, it’s just how-”

“Wë think it’s not real.”

“Look, it’s a fact of-”

Something flickered around the outline of Wë. At first Quroth thought it was just another hallucination but after a few blinks his vision was confirmed. Tiny threads of hair were extending from the creature’s white body, so thin they were almost microscopic.

“Which hole would a female receive penetration on?”

“I don’t have the hole, it doesn’t matter.”

“You have millions of holes lining your body. Which?”

“Millions? What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Wë will show.”

A tickle on his foot paw was the only warning Quroth got before the threads seized him. Every inch of his body was paralyzed by nearly invisible hairs snaking along his skin until he was covered.

“Wë will see if dimensional reproduction is possible.”

“WAIT!”

At first the pain, the incomprehensible pain, was limited to just his pads. Microscopic slivers slicing their way into his pores all at once. That was more than enough to make Quroth try to scream with newfound agony but his mouth was tied shut now and could only helplessly screech in the back of his throat.

Next came his nose. Two threads penetrating his nostrils right before the same hot pin pricks danced across his nose leather. Quroth could feel the threads, after entering his body, exploring around, curiously probing muscles and nerves with delight.

Vomit rumbled up Quroth’s throat the moment he felt the threads crawl into the corner of his eyes and itch all along his socket. The threads pricked at the ocular nerve and sent flashes of white and pain across Quroth’s vision.

“Fragility,” Wë stated. “Í is full of such fragility. Dimensional integrity will not last.”

Quroth’s fur was pushed aside all along his body right before another round of pain came forward, this time across every inch of his skin. The threads had penetrated every orifice, no matter how microscopic they were.

And all Quroth could do was lie there and take it.

“Wë understand that this is enjoyable for the people of Í?

A tickle scratched at the back of Quroth’s skull, on the inside of it.

They were at his brain.

Quroth tried to beg, to scream, but all he could do was choke on his own vomit and now he could not even breathe.

A pin shot into the front of Quroth’s brain.

“NNNNNNGGG,” Quroth was forced to grunt by his brain misfiring. His body began to thrash and spasm.

“What a failure,” Wë stared at the thread-covered Regulian. “The world of Í is a failure.”

Another jolt fired through Quroth’s brain, shooting down his spine and forcing the Regulian to vacate his bladder. He didn’t even feel it, thanks to the new dimension of pain he was suffering through.

“Reproduction cycle…” the creature clicked his throat, “...trying next…”

Something warm and oddly soothing began to cover Quroth’s body inside and out. The pain, for one moment, was gone and replaced with a degree of comfort.

That would only last until Quroth saw a tiny red bubble boiling on his skin, followed by hundreds of others popping up.

It was as if someone had thrown scalding water on Quroth. His fur fell away, making way for red cherries covering up his skin. Every moment was agony, especially as the threads aggravated and perhaps even caused these boils.

PLEASE STOP!

Quroth cried out in his head, desperate to somehow communicate via the probes in his brain.

But if they heard him, they did not care. Roots were snaking their way into his brain, playing with the impulses of his mind like toys. Quroth came at this point, not out of arousal but from the right sequence of electricity running through his body like a piece of programming code.

“Failure…next cycle…”

It’s never going to end.

Every new cycle, another brand new pain. There was no point to it and if there was, Wë could not or would not explain.

Just as the light vanished into the creature’s voided eyes, so too would Quroth become trapped. A satellite caught in the orbit of a black hole, past the event horizon, unable to escape the inevitable descent into darkness.

“Next cycle.”

There was nothing Quroth could do. He was no longer Í but Wë.