Burning

Chapter TWENTY-TWO

Gabby rubbed the goosebumps off her arm. She wasn't cold anymore. In fact, she felt a sheen of sweat forming on her own cheeks as her hand swept across the paper trying to keep up with the slowly shifting fingers glowing in front of her. It was just still a little creepy to watch Mariah transform. A human arm to something else much less... solid. The in between states where her flesh almost seemed to melt away, sloughing partially off only for the edge to brighten like the smolder of a flame catching on paper. It refurl into the arm again, expanding outward into a new muscle.

Only twenty minutes and Gabby's hand was cramping from non-stop use. Mariah wasn't faring much better. Her teeth were bared with concentration as she waited for Gabby's signal- the frantic flapping of a turning page- to indicate she could move into the next phase. How many were there? She'd only drawn five images and one of them had been with Mariah's regular arm merely outstretched. Gabby glanced down at the tendons she was sketching in a shadow of the gleaming skin and decided it would be close enough. Fur. Now there was thick fur to contend with.

Shit this was hard.

Mariah gave an audible grunt of relief when Gabby confirmed she was done with the last sketch. She was thankful that the other woman's arm was staying still. It looked freakish, her having an arm the size of a gorilla's covered in red fur and those massive hands with the strange delicacy of a human's fingers tipped with terrible black nails. When Gabby put the pencil down Mariah's arm seemed to explode, bright light curling into it until once again her limb was freckled and petite.

"Whelping bitch..." Mariah wiped her forehead. "I don't think I've worked that hard in years. Why did I agree to this? Give me a leg."

Gabby reached back to push her the plate of chicken legs she'd insisted on bringing and was pretty sure her teeth weren't completely human when Mariah tore into the first one. "You're the one that insisted it would be easy. And made me come here in the first place..."

"Why the fuck would anyone listen to me?" A bone cracked as she chewed thoughtfully looking down at her arm which almost appeared to be steaming. "So did you get it?"

She pushed the woman the sketch book, prepared for a half-eaten piece of chicken to be flung at her in disgust. "It was my first time. I'll probably need a couple of times seeing it... I only have done cadavers of muscles before obviously and they don't move-"

"Wow Gabby you're good!"

She stopped her groveling. Mariah flipped the page and cocked her head. Well in that case... "I don't understand why it was so hard of you to stay still. When that monster woman tried to jump me you had no problem."

"That was different." Mariah seemed too enthralled by the drawings to be irritated.

She flexed her sore fingers and watched the perspiration beading off Mariah's arm. She'd made it look easy when Louise charged at her.

One second Gabby was turning to run, preparing for the pain of teeth or claws in her back and instead felt scalding air against her eyelids and the brush of fur. It almost looked like Mariah's furred cheeks had freckles with the flecks of dark brown. Just under them were inch long fangs. Gabby felt the hot blood splash back when Mariah opened Louise's shoulder to the bone. Some was in her mouth. It had gotten in while she was screaming. Gabby could hear that crashing wave of a terrible howl that carried a weight she couldn't explain-

"Stop staring at me, perv."

Gabby hadn't even realized Mariah was halfway through stripping down. "I'm not staring at you I'm just staring. I'm used to seeing naked people. Doesn't bother me any." She tried to shake off the feeling that her face was still stained with blood.