Bill shook with rage as her glared at Gloria. Everything, EVERYTHING had gone so horribly wrong this morning all because she had the absolute gall to show up and try to use Bill in her pathetic, evil little game of control over Tom. He now had the Stone, he had the power to fix it and deal with Gloria! All he had to do was make a wish...
Meanwhile, no one had noticed that when Bill had slapped Gloria, causing her to fling the Ahn'Ger Stone down the hallway before she could make another wish for the devil knew what, was now damaged with a large crack running down one side of the fragile gem casing. As Bill lost his temper and the sheer power of his anger and rage flowed through the magical artifact, the Stone glowed with a green-gold light that looked sick and diseased, utterly different from the two times Gloria had used the gemstone before. From her vantage point a few feet away from Bill and Gloria's confrontation, Tammy saw it first.
'That...That doesn't look right!' Her mind raced as tendrils of light seeped out from between Bill's clenched fist. Before, when Gloria had made her wishes, the light from the gemstone had merely lit up the dark haired girl's hand, like she'd been holding a flashlight against her palm but this...This looked wrong. But her observation came a moment too late as Bill's anger boiled forth.
"I wish everyone could see you for the devil you really are, Gloria!" Bill roared, shoving a finger at Gloria's face as her dark eyes went wide with fear.
"BILL NO-" Was all Tammy could cry out before her vision was filled diseased looking magical light, the tendrils of magical energy intensifying in size and strength as they spun out of control, washing over Gloria, Bill and Tammy like an explosion of ribbons.
Bill had been filled with the rush of actually using the Stone, so much so that even through the magical blindness and the wave of nausea (which he didn't register as wrong, given this was the first time he'd used the Ahn'Ger Stone) he was filled with the petty thrill of victory. When this was all over Gloria would no longer be queen of Shermer High! She'd be hated by everyone because they'd all see what kind of horrible person she was!
Of course, that feeling of victory vanished immediately as his vision returned and he saw what he had unleashed upon the world.
Standing in front of him was indeed Gloria...But not the Gloria he had envisioned when he'd made his wish. Instead of shunned and miserable looking, instead Gloria was now at least two feet taller and her body a deep shade of red as two red, leathery wings stretched out from her back as a thick, pointed tail slithered and twisted in the air behind her. Gloria's feet had been replaced with a pair of black hooves as her legs were decidedly ungulated. She was naked as well, save for blue and black fire that sat against her red skin like she was wearing a burning bikini, covering her crotch and cradling her now much large bust in flames that radiated heat but didn't seem to burn her. As Gloria stretched her newly elongated limbs, Bill could see the other changes to her body. She wasn't entirely just naked save for the hellish flames she now wore; There were flecks of black here and there as well, spurs of obsidian looking bone that poked through her red skin on the back of her arms, her elbows, her shoulders. A pair of wicked looking spikes sticking outwards from the back of her horse-like legs and twin barbs that topped her new tail.
Long black nails tipped her unnaturally long fingers, and more black spikes poked through her red skin in detailed patterns as they ran up her powerful, yet slender arms. Gloria's face had changed a little as well, becoming more angular, sharper. She wasn't entirely unpleasant to look at, but it filled Bill with a sense of dread as the changed girl began to look over herself with a pair of black eyes.Above her, pushing out from her much longer black hair that seemed to move on it's own were two large, curved horns and a small ball of purple fire hung between them.
Gloria looked just like a demon.
Averting his gaze, Bill suddenly could see the landscape around him had changed dramatically as well. Instead of a pleasant April morning in otherwise normal Shermer Illinois...The landscape was now twisted as well. The entire neighborhood looked as if a bomb...Or several thousand bombs had gone off, all the houses now nothing more than burning shells and charred frameworks. Thick black clouds covered the sky, and eerie red lightning illuminated far larger...things hidden behind them. It looked as though Hell had come to Earth.
"Oh god" Bill croaked, his throat and mouth completely dry from the heat. In alarm he looked down at himself, expecting to find his own body transformed into some demonic hellbeast...But only saw the tattered remnants of his clothing hanging off his emaciated frame. He looked almost skeletal! Like that one weird Christian Bale movie! Bill turned to look towards Tammy, half expecting her to have undergone the same transformation as Gloria...Only to see that she herself was still human, although little more than a skeleton like himself. She was mostly naked save for an over-size shirt that looked more like a torn burlap sake, and most of her blonde hair was gone save for a few dirty, limp strand. The rest of her scalp was scabbed and bruised, almost as if the rest of her hair had been forcibly removed, and deep black circles hung beneath exhausted, terrified eyes.
"Oooh" Came a sexual moan that drew Bill's attention back to the demon version of Gloria in front of him. She was sliding her clawed hands up and down her new body, slicing her flesh from the sharpness of her nails, oily black blood leaking out of her body before bursts of infernal flame sealed the wounds. A forked tongue slithered out from behind her fangs and across her plump black lips.
"Guh-Gloria?" Bill rasped, "Is that...Is that you?" Bill regretted drawing attention to himself. Gloria's new eyes snapped away from her body and onto him, the black sclera broken only by the burning red irises that seemed to bore right into his very soul and made his skin feel as though he was being pricked by a thousand needles. It was a predatory gaze, one that matched the unsettling fanged smile that took form on Gloria's black lips.
It HURT to look at her! Bill's body shook involuntarily and he tried to turn away, only to be stopped by a single long claw that cut into his dry skin as Gloria forced the doomed teenager to look back at her.
"Oh Billy Billy Billy..." Gloria purred in a voice that sounded like her old voice but tinted with a demonic reverb, "Oh, how do I thank you for this? I feel so much more like...me!" Gloria cackled, her wings flapping with delight as Bill fought the urge to void piss himself.
'Wait, the Stone! I can fix all this if I-" Bill thought suddenly, but found himself a moment too late.
"But before you do anything...rash, let's just take that pretty little problem away, shall we?" Gloria purred before her voice took on a much more commanding tone, "Now. Give me the Stone, Bill".
Bill felt the urge to do what Gloria said take over every fiber of his being, unable to even fight himself as his withered arm simply rose upwards and presented the Stone to Gloria, the infernal light glittering off it's dull surface. That was when he saw it, the massive crack that ran down the side of the Stone.
'A crack? That...That must be why the wish fucked up!' Bill thought as he tried in vain to make a wish. But then the Stone was gone, plucked from his fingers by two long black nails as Gloria brought it up to her face.
"Thank you, Bill! Such a pretty thing, isn't it? I can feel the energy in it..." Gloria closed her eyes and Bill felt a pressure lift from his body, regaining control of his limbs. "Oh, if only we'd known what this really was...I can see it all so clearly now! The power of the cosmos was in the palms of our hands! To think I wasted it on such petty, childish wishes...But then again, we WERE only children. C'est le vie, I suppose"
And then, right as Bill was about to leap for the Stone, Gloria simply squeezed her fingers together and the magical artifact, the ONLY thing that could have saved them, erupted in a small explosion of green and gold light.
"NO!" Bill and Tammy screamed in unison, and Gloria simply cackled in delight as the energy flowed into her, the flames on her body changing from black and blue to gold and green.
"Oh, don't be sad you two! We couldn't let anything else get a hold of that. It would ruin all of our fun" The demoness said with a sigh of pleasure. She stretched out an unnaturally long arm towards Tammy and with a simple flick of her finger, Tammy's frail form lifted from the blasted rock and flew towards Gloria and Bill, the equally doomed teenager slowing to a stop next to him.
"But if we're gonna keep hanging out, you both have to work on your fashion senses. Here, let me help you!" Gloria said with a fanged smile as she slid her claws across what remained of Bill and Tammy's clothing. The sharpness of her talons caused the ruined fabric to simply part and slide to the barren ground, leaving the two humans naked, and very much afraid.
"There! Now you both look great!" Gloria grinned evilly as she flapped her wings, lifting her off the dead ground as she moved behind Bill and Tammy, landing once more and placing two clawed hands on both of their shoulders. Gloria's barbed tail then flicked out from behind her, arcing up like a scorpion about to strike before ripping downwards, a rift of green fire splitting open the air and leading to...
Bill gulped as he saw what was awaiting them. As bad as Earth looked, what lay beyond the rift looked worse. So much worse.
Bill felt her pushing him forward towards the gaping maw hanging before him and Tammy. There was no way to fight it.
"I can't wait to show you this, you guys! You're...Well, I'M going to love it!"
THE END.