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“All of us?”
“Yup.”
My monster from the closet thinks for a second before his features light up. Then he waggles his eyebrows playfully. "Oh, I know exactly where we can go. I'll have to portal you there one by one though." He turns and looks at my sullen, pouting mates. "And if our dicks happen to swap during portal time, I call dibs on using yours!"
The other monsters are still gaping at him as he laughs maniacally, yanks me from Tesq's arms, pulls me toward a shadow, and makes the world around us disappear.
14
ALIANA
We materialize inside a dark tunnel,and for a second, I want to curse Creep for taking me somewhere that feels as claustrophobic as all the other places I've been for the past day. If I never see another underground burrow, it will still be too soon.
I was picturing a stream to wash in, something relaxing and peaceful like we used when I lived in the forest with the human resistance. A tiny ribbon of silver water flowing over the rocks and surrounded by trees. I wanted serenity.
Of course, that's not what I'm getting. This is the monster version of a bath, after all.
Creep disappears again without a word, portalling back to fetch the other Terrors.
As I glance around, I realize that the shadows are shifting all around me. Flickering and wavering. Like water. Strange. I walk toward the edge of the tunnel and lift my hand. A window, a giant arched slab of curved glass, stretches overhead. Water wavers on the other side of the pane, around and above me.
What is this place?
I don't have time to examine further before Tesq appears in midair next to me and drops with a thump that makes the floor shake.
"Boo! We didn't swap dicks this time.” Creep pouts. "Well, fingers crossed for the next one. BRB."
He disappears.
Tesq turns toward me. I'm not sure how I know, since I can't see much of anything right now, but I do.
"Wish we had some light," I mutter.
Suddenly, Tesq's palm glows with a little pool of lava in the middle. "Light?"
It's not much, but he's able to extend his hand and reveal what's on the other side of the windowed archway we're under.
In addition to water, just past the glass wall, there's the strangest sort of brush I've ever seen. It's like an underwater hillside full of…plants…or rocks? I'm not certain what they are, never having seen anything like them before.
Leaning close, nose nearly pressed to the glass, I examine them. Bright-yellow tubes, stones that resemble brains, brown branches like bare bushes, spiny balls that may be giant sweet gum tree seeds swollen to the size of my fist. There’s an entire world of rainbow colors in that water, and I spot a few bright fish darting back and forth too.
Of course, scattered amongst the beautiful alien-strange world, there are stark-white bones, human skeletons covered in mussel shells, and skeletons that look like they belong to teeth—massive, strangely shaped creatures with rib cages that look large enough for me to walk through.
"What is this place?" I ask, awed but also a little scared.
I've never seen anything like this before.
"Aquarium," Tesq replies.
I don't have time to ask what that word means before Dev's delivered in werewolf form with a snarl and Creep is muttering about how the portal is cheating him.
"Fucking gave me a werewolf ear instead of the dick I asked for. This is bullshit, Universe. Bullshit!" Creep strokes a fur-covered black triangle on the side of his head, which I can only see after Tesq lifts his lava-coated hand to light the blue monster’s handsome face. "Actually, that's pretty soft," Creep murmurs, his expression softening as he pets the ear a second time. "Relaxing."
"Stop that," Dev orders, looking a little comical with a smooth pointed blue ear that's a stark mismatch to the rest of him.
But instead of acknowledging Dev, Creep simply says, "Back in a minute!" and poof!
With Dev here, the glass tunnel suddenly feels cramped, which is funny, because he and Tesq are both equally giant in their own ways. Tesq's personality just doesn't extend outward, probably because he's not trying to project macho-asshole vibes every second of the day.
