Mercedes used the pointed tip of her pumps as a wedge between her heels and shoes so she could lift her feet out of the ankle straps. With two violent kicks, the Luxor employee was finally barefoot and finding her balance on the slick volcanic rock. “Ebony! You too! Eevi, whatever you do, don’t let go!” She said and clasped her friend’s wrist while already mid-sprint.
The intense heat bubbling through the veins of the harsh rock dredged up memories of a younger Angelica and Ebony pretending cracks in the concrete sidewalk were lava. Hopefully discarding the heeled footwear, now melting into a puddle, wouldn’t bite them on the ass.
‘It’s just leather. You’ve worn it a thousand times.’ Mercedes repeated the mental mantra before ducking underneath the partition of stretched and dried beige skin that separated the street from part of the casino building site. ‘Just leather.’
Regularly spaced and drab concrete pillars broke up the empty expanse and construction material of the side building. Flood lights offered illumination. Together with the deluge of rain pattering outside, this place had all the hallmarks of an eerie and abandoned construction site in slasher horror films.
Ebony rested her back against a plastic-wrapped pallet of copper rods, arms wrapped around herself as if freezing. Her skimpy clothes were soaked. “What was that?” Streaks of eyeshadow ran down the side of her friends face, tapering off into splotches of glittering powders and creams.
In her tote, Angelica kept an emergency makeup kit. Not nearly as useful as the First Aid kit or pepper spray. Yet something meaningful and routine to fill the lack of answers. Ebony’s green eyes flashed with appreciation. The stains came out easily with a few light dabs of her pad. Their packaging said reusable, but the Vegas native discarded the white-turned-pink scarlet fibers on the floor once her childhood bestie came across less like she was attending a grunge concert and more herself.
Once Ebony finished cleaning up Angelica’s ruined cosmetic, there would be enough for Eevi too. Only the one hand towel in the pack, so they had to share that.
“Uhmm, my outfit is melting. You should probably run.” That came from their Finnish friend. Sounding remarkably composed.
Whatever either she or the tensing Nevadans expected, it certainly wasn’t Eevi’s implant-enchanced breasts firming up into two perfect and even globes. Months of recovery condensed into seconds. After removing the loose tape, Eevi futility tried to search for the surgical incisions before brushing her fingertips against a third, then a forth nipple. The swelling second pair of silicon breasts couldn’t hide the sudden narrowing of her rib cage. Mercedes recognized it as a rib removal surgery; in one of her wilder moments had actually considered having one to amplify the hourglass of her physique. The ugly and discolored scarring immediately following an invasive operation faded with same speed as her fake breasts had healed.
Angelica and Ebony’s earlier teasing about their friend’s smaller buttocks seemed laughable in the face of the augmented, bouncing, and sexy rear and swaying hips that now forced Eevi to adjust her stance. So far, her Finnish friend remained recognizably human, but seeing everything Mercedes loved and recognized in her appearance warping underneath a doctor’s knife still hurt. Her jawline became a defined and arched curve simultaneously as her nose narrowed into a dainty shape that complimented her blue irises and seductive doe-eyed gaze.
The invisible cosmetic surgeon relentlessly shaped Eevi until she was entirely artificial in her beauty and femininity. A barbie doll sculpted from flesh. Her last distinctive traits were washed away by heavy cosmetics imbued into her body. Even her eternally pale skin shifted to bronzed and tanned hue, glistening with thin layer of sweet-smelling oil and lubricant.
“Eevi... are you?” Mercedes’ feet came unfrozen from the concrete floor. But after several steps and a terrified scream escaping her lips, she stumbled backwards and sought shelter with Ebony. The mass of tentacles emerging from Eevi’s sex coiled around empty air where Angelica had stood a second earlier.
Eevi’s heart raced and thumped in her ears when the vast emptiness in the abyssal pit in her core expanded. As frightened as her friends and coworkers seeing the her flat belly stretch into an exaggerated mockery of pregnancy. Pushing past her two rows of massive breasts. “Empty.” She said, voice distant and cradled her distended stomach. In Christian mythology, her namesake was the mother of humanity but the hellish energies raging inside Eevi called on her to unbirth them into her image.
Nails became claws that scraped and traced the surface of her skin.