Lucy lead the way out of the master bedroom to find an empty hallway, though there had already been the sense that Megan and Jenny had left the area outside the master bedroom of the Chapman home for the time being, and since every member of the Chapman family, outside of Jeff, had become Slug People, Megan and Jenny were no longer an immediate threat as they wouldn't be able to break through the door. That was to then allow Lucy, Zoe, Grace, and Whitney to go downstairs and get food for themselves and Jeff and then take it back to the master bedroom with the hope and trust that Jeff would be safe and they could try to think of a way to either get Megan and Jenny to leave their home and let as normal a life as possible resume or find some way to defeat this "master" that was the real threat that was likely the one pulling Megan and Jenny's strings.
The hallway was fairly different from what it normally was, as there was an obvious trail of slime running down the hallway's carpeted floor, but that was going to be a given and Lucy knew that she was likely leaving behind some of her own "slime" as her tail slid over the carpet. There was also some staining on the wall and the door to the master bedroom that Lucy noticed, and was sure her sisters noticed as they passed. Though the biggest thing was a flash of guilt that came from their mother, Whitney. It told Lucy that Whitney was likely the one responsible for that stain and also likely responsible for the events that lead to Grace's transformation the previous night.
"It's okay, mom," Lucy said turning one eye stalk around to look back to her mother, privately amazed at how her brain could now process visual images from two different directions at the same time, "you were under Megan and Jenny's control at the time. That wasn't you."
"Yes," Whitney acknowledged as she looked to her oldest daughter and then to Zoe and Grace who were just ahead of her with Lucy, "but I'm still the one that got Grace to transform..."
"That was going to happen, anyway, mom," Grace spoke up, "Megan and Jenny bathed all of us, including Jeff, in the transformative magic that would lead to us becoming Slug People. And they pressed it in a way to make us horny and then in turn accelerate the transformation while also masking that our transformations were starting. We managed to break out of that mind control when you started to change and that is what Megan and Jenny didn't expect... but we were going to change at some point regardless of that. And even Jeff will transform eventually. Megan and Jenny were right about that... And as such, we don't blame you, mom."
Whitney looked to see Zoe and Lucy nodding as well. They continued down the hallway and toward the stairs, the same stairs that they'd rushed up the previous night, and mentally all of them braced for an inevitable confrontation with Megan and Jenny, the Slug Women that had started the Chapman family's present conflict. The ones that had wanted to gloat over Grace's transformation when they were conscious to know of it and then Lucy and Zoe's transformation after freeing Whitney from their control. Lucy expected that fight. The four Chapman family Slug Women, were, however, surprised when they came down to the ground floor and found no one in the living room. The flour and the couch had a lot of slime on it and they could get some sense of what Megan and Jenny had been doing there over the course of the night, but at present no one was there and there was no sound of activity from the kitchen either.
"There's no one here," Zoe stated as they spread out a little and looking surprised, "they left..."
"I wouldn't think so," Lucy grumbled, "they want Jeff... if anything, maybe they're trying a new avenue of attack. For it looks like they've gone up the walls in here too."
Whitney sensed some worry in Lucy for her twin, and she reached for Lucy's shoulder to comfort her oldest daughter that Jeff would be fine. In fact they'd even had that as a potential option that if Megan and Jenny tried to come in through the windows, Jeff could then get out as they wouldn't be blocking the door. They could then look for the back door or some other escape. Lucy took that as a comfort, though she was still a bit worried as none of them had expected the possibility of Megan and Jenny really not being there, for they also knew that Megan and Jenny knew that Jeff couldn't jump out the windows without breaking his legs, if he could even get the windows open and that if they moved through the windows, it'd only allow Jeff to escape out the door. But for the moment, Lucy took a bit of comfort from her mother's confidence and then moved to head toward the kitchen. They'd still need to get food for them and for Jeff before figuring out what to do next.
"He'll be fine," Whitney said to Lucy and slid forward only to come to a stop when there was a lone man before them.
This made them all blink, as this man hadn't been there a second ago and there had been no sound of footsteps coming into the house from the front or back door. In this it was like the man just appeared, and the biggest surprise was that to Whitney, this man seemed rather familiar, like she'd seen him before. His sunken and gaunt face came off as almost skeletal like there was little muscle under the skin, but there was a dark focus in the man's almost black eyes and a confident smile on thin lips that Whitney instinctively did not trust. Her daughters soon clustered around her to keep him in front of them.
"Well, hello, Mrs. Chapman," the man said with a confident smile, "a pleasure to meet you again... and to see such wonderful developments in the family, I see..."
"Again..." Whitney said slowly as she tried to remember when and where she'd seen this man before.
"You're Megan and Jenny's master!" Lucy stated with a growl and narrowed eyes after catching to what the man had said at the end of his statement.
"Why, yes, yes, I am," the man stated calmly, seemingly unbothered by Lucy's outburst and looking to the four Slug Women before him, "I've always been a champion for the Slug People... isolated from human society over past associations and worries... often mistrusted because of all their gifts and the good they can do."
The man seemed to wave one hand before him and his eyes seemed to take an almost hypnotic stance, but with the admission that he was Megan and Jenny's master, Lucy was filled with her own determination to resist and she paid no attention to it. Between her and Whitney, Grace shivered a little as the man looked a bit like the figure she'd seen out in the backyard when she first got up. A part of her was scared at this, as Slug People, while they had some abilities that would be described as magical, it wasn't particularly strong. And the reason why Slug People were often mistrusted for "past associations" as the man put it, was that witches and warlocks had created the Slug People to serve as a means to amplify their own powers. It could only mean that this man was a warlock and had powers that were beyond her and her family, even as Slug People. Lucy soon sensed this unease, as did Whitney and Zoe, and Grace soon felt three tails slide over the back of her own tail and softly rub the dorsal side, which made her feel better and a bit more confident.
"And I was thinking you all could help," the man continued, "I mean, miss Lucy... you did write a rather interesting article for your College newspaper arguing for a more forward understanding of Slug People."
"That was in a response to a different student that was arguing we ought to just kill Slug People for their sexual nature and more open culture," Lucy answered back, "essentially punishing Slug People for being different from Humanity. Making the world conform to one idea... Just like every tyrant has before. Wanting people to be clones of their own ideas."
"And that doesn't mean that we wanted to become Slug Women!" Zoe challenged feeling some of Lucy's confidence while also being unnerved by the rather unnatural gaze this man seemed to have. She sensed that Whitney was trying to remember something, but the bigger thing was that this man's attention seemed to be rather predatory and while "being her" and "doing her own thing" hadn't been the sort of thing that Zoe had dedicated herself to, that didn't mean she disagreed with Lucy on that issue. Megan and Jenny's trick had likely come with its own potential costs that came from it.
"And yet you are," the man replied, "the perfect opportunity to move things forward, don't you think? Change the world for the better?"
"And who says what's better? You?" Lucy challenged, feeling an odd buzz try to press against her mind, but with Zoe, Grace, and Whitney there it also seemed to be pressed away.
"Why would serving a witch make the world better?" Grace added, with a slight tone of voice that sounded like she was intending to insult the man.
"Warlock, male "witches" are called warlocks," the man answered.
"We know," came the answer from Lucy, Grace, and Zoe, "and we don't want to serve you! We won't serve you!"
The man blinked and stepped back for a moment, as he'd had plans for this and figured he could enslave the four Chapman Slug Women just as he'd brought Megan and Jenny under his will. After all, four wasn't a large number and the main Slug Person colony was well to the north of where they were now. At the same time it was expected that as former humans, the Chapmans wouldn't be able to fully tap into the Hive Mind that linked all slug people together. That they would fight for human individuality, but to his surprise, he saw four looks of defiance to him and that they were linking themselves together in a way he didn't expected. Whitney looked puzzled over something, but still defiant of him. As the man backed up, Whitney then blinked.
"Now I remember," Whitney spoke, "you're Edward Cupple… the man that realty store where John died in that fire..."
That got Lucy, Zoe, and Grace to look over their shoulders to Whitney at the mention of their father. They watched as Whitney continued and slid forward on her tail and her voice growing more angry as she advanced.
"You came to John's funeral, gave some half-assed gift and commented about wanting interest in the neighborhood!" Whitney spoke, "telling a grieving widow that you wanted to do business! Now, I have no idea why John went to your realtor's office... and right now, I don't frankly care, but bringing in your business is not something you do at a man's funeral! My husband was a good man and you treated his memory like garbage! And for the life of me... I never understood why you came to it."
"Maybe there was an argument," Lucy commented, "Dad knew you wanted to do business in the neighborhood and didn't want it and told you so. Then you argued to the point where faulty wiring burst into flames. You got away while Dad died and you then showed up to try and gloat in your business success..."
"Or you cast some spell that killed dad and the faulty wiring was a cover," Grace said slowly.
At this point the man, Edward Cupple, raised one hand and there was a slight charge of electricity that shot from his fingertips and hit Whitney and Lucy first. It wasn't enough to kill them, but it was enough to stun them and give him time to step back. Zoe and Grace moved quickly to catch their mother and older sister before they could completely fall down.
"Well... I didn't expect this," Edward said with a sigh, "that the four of you would connect so completely and thorough, particularly when two of you only just recently completed the transformation and thus resist the hypnotism spell in my voice... Though perhaps I under estimated the will that young Lucy has."
Lucy angry glared back at him as she and Whitney got back up and balanced themselves on their tails again. She did have a strong will, but she also knew that her sisters and mother could be just as strong when they put their minds to it. The man's admission of "hypnotism spell" explained the odd fuzzy feeling that assaulted her mind when Edward talked, but Lucy also knew that as she resisted, her sisters and mother resisted and that the four of them were able to repel that attack on them. She wanted very much to pummel him for his transgressions, but the lightning attack was painful and that was enough to keep Lucy from lunging. Edward might not be able to enslave them while they were together and he might not be physically strong enough to fight them off, but he might have other spells that they couldn't resist.
"But my plans are progressing," Edward vowed as he walked out toward the back door, "and there is little you can do to stop me. The law won't trust you because you're slug people. The church won't support you because you're slug people. And soon all you will have is me..."
Shortly after that they heard the back door open and close and the area went silent again.