The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Hours Earlier...

Sandra stalked through the carved stone hallways of the temple, her feet padding silently across the smooth floor. Her tail swished in her wake, swiping side to side in tense arcs. Her golden eyes smoldered with an animalistic fury she could barely contain. She had just finished administering to Carmen and the psychic backlash she’d suffered when her link to the Master’s garden had been so horrifically severed. She’d poured her a draught of the strong, sweet wine from the ancient casks hidden in the temple to help ease the pain, but Carmen had been terribly adamant that she should leave her be.

“I’m fine,” her had sister insisted, speaking with that strange, sultry hiss that had accompanied her dramatic metamorphosis. “You ssshould go. The Massster will need your ssstrength.”

So as reluctant as she had been to leave her sister to suffer her recovery alone, Sandra had slipped away, and with every step she’d taken, the protective urges she’d felt towards her sister had been replaced with a growing, howling fury. She would find the men responsible for this. She would tear them apart.

That had been mere moments ago. Now she approached her Master’s chambers, and Sandra meant to do whatever was needed to convince him to let her mete out her revenge. But no sooner did she round the corner leading to the final hallway than she saw her remaining sibling, the bat-like Angie, saunter through the doorway, a strange, dark vial in her grip.

Sandra stopped short. “Angie, what are you doing here?”

The sultry redhead brushed back a lock of misplaced hair, smoothing it behind her elfin, pointed ears. Her face was flushed, and she was absently sucking on her glistening fingers like a child would at a sweet. She smiled impishly at her older sister, mischief gleaming in her red eyes.

“The Master has tasked me with something important,” she explained. “The humans have retreated to their little hovels. He wishes to send them a little gift.”

She hefted the glass vial for Sandra to see. Inside the green glass, thick, viscous fluid sloshed and swirled. Color rose on Sandra’s cheeks. She didn’t need her puckish sibling to tell her what it was.

Amused with the flash of jealousy she saw on her sister’s face, Angie did so anyway. “It’s amazing how much he can cum,” she said with a dreamy sigh, “I would have done anything for him, but he insisted that I only use my hands...”

She laughed. “I guess he didn’t trust me not to swallow it all, if he let me use my mouth...”

Sandra could contain her anger no more, “But why you?!” she demanded, teeth barred in a snarl. “These humans dared to harm our sister, to threaten our pride. As eldest, it should fall on me to deliver punishment, not you!”

Angie cocked her head, smirking, “I think perhaps you’re getting a little carried away, my lovely lioness. Not that we don’t appreciate your valor, but the Master feels this mission would be better served with subtlety...not savagery.”

With that, the crimson vixen skipped past her, and vanished into the dark halls. Sandra watched her go, feeling confused, angry, and hurt. Did he really think her so unfit for the task? But why? He had to know how badly she wanted the honor, how fiercely she wished to serve. He meant everything to her. Every aspect of her being was his to use, his to command; her loyalty, her lust...

Her love.

She felt horrible uncertainty tearing at her insides again. Had she done something wrong? Had she fallen out of favor somehow? Trying to quell the disquiet thundering in her chest, she turned back towards the great door leading to his chambers, and stepped inside.

She found him easing upon the great raised dais in the center of the room. Her master was larger than any man, and the mattress was sized to match. She always felt swallowed up by it; it made her feel small, helpless, powerless. Just the sight of it made her little clitty start to throb.

As soon as she entered, she felt his burning eyes upon her.

“Ah, my dear Sandra,” he said, his voice a rumbling growl, “Come. I’ve been expecting you.”

The sound of his voice was completely mesmerizing to her. Sandra sighed tremulously. The blush on her cheeks deepened, only this time it was not anger coloring her features, but desire. She sauntered to the bed, acutely aware of the way his eyes followed every sway of her hips. She climbed onto the mattress, and crawled into his waiting arms. She straddled his leg, tangling her fingers in the thick mantle of his chest as she stared up at him adoringly. She purred contentedly as she felt his clawed fingers begin lightly petting along the length of her supine back. Her ears folded meekly against her shining mane of hair. Instantly, the frustration and anxiety she felt after her encounter with Angie began melting away.

His smoldering green eyes burned into hers. “I sense disquiet in you, Sandra. Tell me what troubles you.”

At that moment, close to him, his hands upon her, Sandra felt as far from troubled as she had in days. She would have been happy just allowing him to stroke her this way, but her Master had asked her a question, and she was compelled to answer. “It’s nothing, Master...merely frustration; the humans must be made to pay for their arrogance, and I had thought—”

“That I would send you to cull their number?” he chuckled, “Like a lion into a herd of sheep, you would have slaughtered them all. Is that what you would have me do, Sandra? Unleash you into the unwitting herd of men?”

She nodded slowly, blushing at the sound of pride in his voice. “They should be routed. Torn apart. Their bodies should fatten the earth and their blood water your forest.” A tremor of excitement raced through her. “Let me do it. Call back Angie, and let me take her place.”

She felt his chest rumble beneath her fingers, her words arousing his own animalistic bloodlust. She felt his divine manhood stir against her leg, and his hand moved to seize one of her large, eager breasts. She moaned.

“My brave Sandra,” he crooned, “I have no doubt that you would succeed. Indeed, I believe you would do only too well.” When he saw her eyes raise in confusion, he continued, “It is not enough that we slay our enemies, my pet. Humans are foolish, and care little for the spilled blood of their fellows. If I allowed you to devour this pathetic band of resistance, their death would simply spur the rise of another.”

“And I will kill them too!” she whined, grinding her suddenly overheated sex against the unyielding musculature of his thigh. “I’ll cut them down, however many times they rise up!”

She gasped as his arms wrapped around her, crushing her in his embrace. Her nipples bored into his chest, hard and insistent. She could feel her wetness trickling down her thighs. He made her this way, she thought in awe; just being close to him drove her out of her mind with lust. She could feel him against her, hot and throbbing, and wanted nothing more than to envelop him in her slick folds, but she knew better than to act without permission. So she waited, writhing hungrily in his arms, her desire for him growing more and more unbearable by the moment.

“Valorous. Ruthless. Beautiful. You truly are my golden lion,” he said, his praise nearly driving her to tears. “But a just ruler knows when to use force, and when to be lenient. Some lessons, dear Sandra, are best learned not through pain...but through fear.”

He grabbed hold of her thrusting hips then, and moved her atop the glistening head of his cock. She gasped raggedly as she felt it spread apart the lips of her cunt and braced her hands against his broad chest. Any protest she might have made died the instant she felt him enter her. Her anger, her fear, her frustration, all of it faded away, replaced by irresistible, submissive need. He pulled her down his waiting shaft, plunging nearly halfway in. Sandra let out a low, incoherent groan, her golden eyes rolling up. After being without him for so long, just having him enter her was making her neglected pussy quiver in small, rapid-fire tremors.

“Angie will deliver their punishment, as I’ve commanded,” he intoned, watching with smug satisfaction as his cock overwhelmed the beautiful lioness. “But never fear, my dear. I have a very special task for you...very special prey...”

She couldn’t answer him anymore. He was holding her by her slim waist, moving her up and down his pulsing cock. She arched her back, moaning gratefully, kneading her own aching breasts in wanton need. “OOohh...oh master....oh yesss...”

“The woman the humans rescued from the vines, she is the real threat.” His eyes flashed hungrily. “You will find her for me, Sandra. You will subdue her, and lay her at my feet.”

“Yes...yes, my lord....oooohhh yess...!” Sandra gasped, feeling him swell inside her. Her hips rocked into his thrusts as he buried the full length of his taming cock in her dripping pussy. So thick. So deep. She groaned in penetrated bliss as his cock filled her with raw, enslaving pleasure.

“Such an obedient pet,” he chuckled, “Always so eager to please. I’ve missed the sweet sound of your voice, my dear. Scream for me now...and come.”

And Sandra, her mind going blank with white-hot ecstasy, helplessly obeyed.

Angie leaned back against the thick trunk of the great oak tree, and stared down at the small cluster of houses nestled against the forest edge. Chimney smoke climbed towards the early dawn sky in long, winding trails. The sun hadn’t quite risen yet, and only the blistering pink edge on the horizon hinted at its approach. The full, setting moon teetered perilously close to the ground, brilliant and pale.

She was twenty feet in the air, perched upon a thick branch. From her vantage point, she could make out not only the town, but the dark, ramshackle fence the villagers had erected on the outskirts of the tree line. She saw the men patrolling about along the perimeter, some with heavy tanks strapped to their backs. They moved about anxiously, peering fearfully into the deep shadow of the woods for any hint of danger. Their instincts were correct, of course...not that it would help them at all.

She unstopped the brilliant green flask, and sighed dreamily as the scent of its contents filled her nose. She felt a torrid, familiar heat blossom inside her, and licked her lips hungrily.

Don’t be naughty, she chided herself, do as you’re told. The master will be horribly cross with you if you indulge...

So, with some difficulty, Angie extended the flask over the side of her perch, and tilted it down. The thick, cloudy fluid poured to the ground, and Angie watched it go with a sense of almost painful loss. Such a waste, but her Master’s orders were very clear. As the noxious substance struck the soil it immediately began to bubble and froth, until the last dregs of the flask were emptied into the roiling puddle.

Angie heard it hissing, and watched in wide-eyed awe as it sank into the rich loam. For a moment, there was nothing but pregnant silence...but then she heard what could only be described as a great, earthy exhalation as the ground all around her began to puff and smoke.

Thin swirls of mist flowed into great rolling waves, as all at once a vile, unnatural miasma issued up from the soil in a wide, low cloud. Angie stared in silent awe as it shifted and flowed, almost like a blind animal. Then, as if heeding the call of some distant will, the mist began clawing along the ground, moving with slow but sinister purpose towards the unsuspecting village.

In the light of the setting moon, the ground looked alive with pale green luminescence. An old rhyme suddenly sprang up in her mind, oddly fitting. Angie smiled.

“It is the very error of the moon,” she whispered, watching the fog rolling up to the makeshift fencing. She heard the suddenly frantic cries of the men along the patrol...then shouts of alarm...followed by sounds almost too terrible to contemplate. Down below, she could hear the screams gaining volume as the villagers awoke to a nightmare.

“She comes nearer earth than she is wont...and makes men mad...”

She laughed, spread her wings, and vanished into the trees.

“We have to get out there,” Jungle Babe said to Anna, trying to control the tremor in her voice. “The villagers, they’re in danger. We have to save them...”

“It’s a little too late for that.”

The women turned to see Samuelson leaning against the frame of the doorway. His features were ashen.

Jungle Babe frowned. “What do you mean? The villagers—”

“You don’t understand,” he rasped through a throat as dry as parchment. “Those monsters ARE the villagers.”

Jungle Babe and Anna stared at Samuelson in uncomprehending, mute horror. It was actually Anna who found her voice first. “That...those things were...human?”

Jungle Babe looked at the ruined puddle of gore that used to be the head of one of the creatures, looked at the spatters of blood on her trembling hand...and felt all the blood drain out of her face. Oh god...what had she...

“How is this possible? Jungle Babe demanded, turning on Samuelson.

The old man looked at the corpses of the once-men, his face drawn. “I don’t understand the powers arranged against us any more than you do. I only know the stories, and on this they are explicitly clear: Cernunnos can reshape living beings to suit his twisted goals. These men were as much victims of his power as the trees of the forest.”

“Grandpa, you have to leave!” Anna pleaded, rushing to the old man. “Please, you have to go, or you’ll end up like—you’ll become just like them...!”

He placed his hands on her shoulders, trying to steady her. “Anna, it’s alright...really...I don’t think I’m at risk, not yet anyway. Look at their boots, at their clothes; these were the men who were trying to eradicate the corrupted vegetation. They were tainted somehow...and when the mist enveloped the village—”

“They transformed completely,” Jungle Babe finished for him. She swallowed hard. “But I was exposed to those plants too. Why haven’t I transformed?”

He looked at her wanly, “Isn’t it obvious? You’re female. The Beast has other intentions for you.”

From the street outside, a low, distant groan floated into the town hall, abruptly silencing the conversation. Samuelson pushed Anna towards Jungle Babe, “There’s no time. Any minute now more of those things might wander in here, you need to go.” He looked at Jungle Babe, his features pleading, “Please, get Anna out of here.”

Dana nodded, her jaw set, “I give you my word.”

“NO!” Anna shouted, eyes shining wetly, “I’m not leaving you here! Come with us!”

Samuelson smiled at his granddaughter, pushing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. “I’m an old man, Anna. I’ll only slow you down. Don’t worry about me, this building has many places that I can hide, and for quite some time. They aren’t interested in me. You, though, you’re in imminent danger. These creatures are extensions of the Beast, and will search you out. You must flee. Now!”

Then, remembering something, he ran back to the main table. When he returned, he shoved the heavy bound folio into Anna’s arms. “Take this. It may contain something you can use. Now please, go!”

He kissed her goodbye, disentangling himself from her arms. She sobbed only once before she seemed to draw upon some hidden resolve. She straightened, stilling her shuddering shoulders, and angrily swiped away the streaks of tears on her face. “Stay here,” she said to Samuelson, “Stay safe. I’ll come find you when this is over. I love you, Grandpa.”

She grabbed the folio, and slung the crossbow over her shoulder, and with that, she and Jungle Babe escaped into the mist-shrouded streets.

The pale light of early dawn beat ineffectually against the clouds of shifting mist enveloping Anna’s small village. As she and Dana glanced warily up and down the brick-paved streets, they were dismayed to find that visibility was woefully bad. Even the building across the street from the town hall seemed hazy and indistinct; anything beyond twenty feet away was simply swallowed up by the fog.

Everything was eerily still.

“It’s too quiet...” Anna murmured beside Jungle Babe, tightly clutching the heavy book to her chest. “Why is it so quiet?”

Dana shook her head, “Just stay close. How many people live in your village, Anna?”

She thought for a moment, “No more than sixty.”

“How many men went into the woods?

Another pause. “Twenty or so. Anyone who was able-bodied took a turn either at the fence or in the forest.”

Jungle Babe frowned. She had to assume they were horribly outnumbered. They were barely armed, and while she was more than capable in close combat and Anna had her crossbow, the low visibility made it far more likely that they could be surrounded and overwhelmed with little warning. The creatures themselves seemed ponderous and slow, but they were hideously strong, and with those prehensile tongues...

She shuddered, shoving the memory aside. They had to get clear of the town.

“I need to get you to a car. You need to get away from here,” she said sternly to Anna. When the young woman opened her mouth to protest, Dana cut her off, “I don’t want to hear it. I promised your grandfather I would get you to safety, and that’s what I’m going to do. If you complain again, I’ll carry you out of here, understand?”

Frustration welled in her hazel eyes, but she bit her tongue, and nodded reluctantly. “There’s a truck behind the grocer. It’s not far from here.” She gestured down the street. “That way.”

Wordlessly they began cutting through the fog, keeping as close to the buildings as they could. Dana’s ears burned for how hard she was listening for any hint of approach, but the village was deathly silent. They footfalls on the road seemed to hammer in the gauzy air, and she had this almost irrational sense that they were announcing their location far and wide. They had made it four or five houses down when she noticed Anna had started to fall behind.

She turned to the young woman, who was leaning against a building facade wearily, “Anna? Anna what’s wrong?”

Anna appeared flushed, winded. She held a hand against her head, blinking heavily. “I’m...I’m not sure. My heart’s been hammering ever since those things showed up at the town hall, and I...I just can’t seem to catch my breath.” She swallowed hard. Her hand slipped down her face, and brushed absently at the soft sweater she was wearing. “I...I feel kind of...funny...” Dana felt the color drain from her face. She grabbed Anna’s arm, and gave the dazed girl a hard shake. “Listen to me,” she said, “This mist does something to you, it messes with your head, with your body. It makes you feel things, want things, but none of it is real. You have to push through it. Can you do that?”

Jungle Babe could see the struggle in the girl’s eyes, but she nodded, lips tight.

Easier said than done, Jungle Babe thought dejectedly to herself. She knew exactly what Anna was going through because she was feeling it herself. The surge of adrenaline from her encounter with the creatures was wearing off, and the ebb of that momentary rush left her feeling heavy, tired. She could feel an unwanted heat riding high on her cheeks, and the sinister pleasure that had been forced upon her had not fully dissipated. It smoldered inside her restlessly, and left her body feeling impossibly sensitized. Having suffered the effects of the mist before, Jungle Babe was somewhat able to force those feelings aside, but Anna...

She took the girl’s hand, “Come on. It can’t be much farther.”

They reached the end of the row of houses, and Anna gestured for them to cut right. As they rounded the corner of the last house, they heard the sudden clatter of shattering glass, so loud in the unnatural calm that is might as well have been the peal of thunder. Jungle Babe and Anna dove against the wall of the house, flattening against it in a crouch. Dana looked at her young companion, who had turned almost sheet white. A moment later, they heard more cracking, accompanied by a low, whimpering moan.

Jungle Babe glanced up at the window to the house, and motioned to Anna. The sound was coming from inside. Moving with almost painful slowness, they rose up until they could peer through the lower panes of glass. They were not prepared for the sight that awaited them.

The window looked in on the kitchen, and the room was in shambles. The ground was littered with fallen canisters and shattered wedges of china. A drawer full of silverware had been yanked out of its cabinet and flung against the far wall, scattering cutlery in mad arcs across the wooden floor. And in the center of it all were two figures, one human, one decidedly not.

The woman was wearing a simple yellow dress, marred with stains of the most disquieting sort. She was laying across the kitchen table, while one of the mist-creatures loomed by her head. Unlike the three from the town hall, this one wore not a scrap of clothing, revealing its entire body to be the same wiry, milk-white physique they had seen in the others. In one clawed hand it clutched a handful of the woman’s hair, holding her still while its thick, veined cock rocked into her gaping mouth.

“Oh god, that’s Lorna Davis,” Anna hissed, her eyes widening in alarm, “We have to help her!” She grabbed the crossbow on her shoulder and made to rise, but Dana grabbed her wrist, and forcibly pulled her back down. Anna gaped at her incredulously, “What are you doing? Let me go!”

“It’s too late for her,” Jungle Babe said, clenching her jaw. “Look.”

Seeing the look on Dana’s face, Anna turned back to the sight in the kitchen, and uttered a shocked gasp. Her eyes fell back to the woman’s head moving up and down the creature’s swollen cock, and she realized with dawning horror that it wasn’t the creature that was moving, but Lorna herself. Her lips were fastened tightly around the thickly-veined shaft, sucking hungrily, while her hand encircled him at his base to steady him for her ministrations. Every stroke revealed how much of that glistening cock she was taking into her mouth, with half the length still to go. She seemed undaunted, eagerly trying to draw as much of him into her as she could. They could hear the soft, urgent moans she made around his wet, throbbing thickness. Her legs shifted uselessly on the table, rubbing her thighs together in response to the secret, aching need subsuming her will.

“What’s happened to her?” Anna murmured in disbelief, “Why...why is she...?”

But she never finished her question; at that moment, they saw the creature’s abdomen clench, and Lorna groaned in grateful bliss. Her throat began swallowing furiously, but she couldn’t keep up. Thick, white cum spilled out around the monster’s pumping cock, leaking down her chin and neck, running in streams down his shaft to cover her hand. Finally, when it seemed as though she might actually drown in his seed, the creature pulled her off him with a choking gasp. Lorna was panting, her cheeks flushed, and her tongue chased him as he retracted his still-spurting head from her lips.

Before their hopelessly rapt gaze, the monster reached down and grabbed hold of her dress. There was a terrible ripping noise, and with inhuman strength it ripped her clothes to pieces. Razor-sharp nails made short work of her bra, revealing pert breasts capped by damningly hard, swollen nipples. With almost casual strength the creature shifted her like a doll, pulling her curvy ass to the edge of the table. Her slim cotton panties were absolutely drenched, so wet they were almost translucent. She was writhing on the wood surface, moaning, but made no effort to escape when the creature hooked the waistband of her panties in its claws, and snipped them apart.

Her head lolled towards the window, staring with glazed, half-lidded eyes. The mist had her completely in its seductive spell, and any part of her conscious, rational mind that might have resisted was totally drowned out by the surging tide of her own unbridled desire. Even in her haze though, she seemed to notice Dana and Anna’s faces at the window, because for a moment her eyes seemed to focus. She stared at them imploringly, and made as if to call out, but at that moment the creature pressed the still-spurting head of its cock against her drooling pussy, and drove inside. Lorna gasped, and uttered a deep, wounded moan, and the light of awareness left her eyes. They rolled up in her head as she arched her back, whimpering in helpless pleasure as the creature’s cock slid in and in and in. Her hips rose to meet him, and in a single drawn-out thrust, her buried himself in her to the hilt.

The sounds she made as he began to fuck her were not the cries of a woman wracked by pain or consumed by terror, and somehow that made it even worse. Jungle Babe noticed with a start that her own nipples were aching and swollen, peaking through her animal-print bikini top, and her pussy was positively throbbing. She shuddered, forced herself to look away, and fought to control her suddenly too-rapid breathing.

Ever muscle in her body was crying out for her to get up, to charge through that window and snap that creature’s spine...but what then? Could she save Lorna too? How could she protect her and Anna when she had failed so miserably even to protect herself? How many more women were there in that same position; stripped, laid bare, lulled into being some monster’s sexual plaything by the insidious influence of the cloying mists.

There was only one way to save her, and everyone like her; the Beast at the heart of all of this had to be brought down.

“Anna,” she said, her throat painfully dry, “Anna, we have to go.”

“His ring...”

Jungle Babe turned back with a start, “What?”

Anna stared through the window through half-lidded eyes. “Their hands...the rings...they’re the same...”

Jungle Babe looked again, and saw that she was right. On each of their left hands, a simple loop of silver glittered in the light of the ruined kitchen. Dana blanched.

“It’s her husband,” Anna whispered, her voice fluttering, “He came for her. He did this to her...made her gasp...made her...moan...”

The girl’s voice sounded dreamy, far away; it matched the distant look in her pretty eyes as they stared, helplessly fixated, on the nightmarish coupling just beyond the glass. Jungle Babe’s gaze darted to the girl’s hands, and saw them pressed between her slender thighs where she knelt, gently swaying, in front of the window. Muttering a curse under her breath, the blonde heroine reached down, grabbed hold of her wrists, and pulled her away.

“Anna, snap out of it!” she begged, shaking the girl’s shoulders. “Don’t give in. Stay with me. Anna!”

The pretty brunette blinked heavily, sagging into Jungle Babe’s arms. “I—I don’t...I don’t know what’s happening. Dana...I’m feeling so hot...” Just as Jungle Babe made to say something else, the sound of a footfall shuffling through gravel—perilously close—cut through the air. She spun, and saw a dark shape shambling towards them. It was barely fifteen feet away.

Dammit, she let herself get distracted, let it get far too close! They had to run, they had to run NOW.

“Anna, RUN!” she shouted, grabbing her charge by the arm and pulling her hard into a sprint. The dazed young woman stumbled, gasping in shock, but obeyed. Dana felt something hot and wet graze past her neck, and caught sight of the thing’s monstrous tongue as it barely missed snaring her throat. All around them now, she could hear slow, plodding movement. Dark shapes lurched in the mist; everywhere she looked, she saw the mist-masked form of a new horror angling towards them. It was worse than she feared. They were very nearly surrounded.

The street they needed to traverse to reach the general store and its waiting truck stretched out before them, but just ahead, right at the edge of their visibility, a mass of the creatures swayed in wait. Jungle Babe skid to a halt, cursing. There was no way to get through. She couldn’t fight so many of them, not with Anna barely holding on. Her hopes of getting the poor girl to safety were crumbling before her eyes.

You took too long, she shouted angrily at herself, too slow, too late!

Out of the corner of her eye, Dana saw something in the distance, rising just over the cloying haze. The dull green of the tree line peeked over top of the rolling mist. The forest...they were right at its edge.

Low, moaning sounds floated threateningly from every direction. The creatures were closing in. In a moment they would be within range of their lashing tongues, and with so many, there was no way they’d avoid them all. Jungle Babe’s heart was hammering. She struggled to find another alternative, but only one horrible answer presented itself.

She had no choice.

“Stay close, and don’t look back, whatever happens,” she muttered to Anna. She grabbed the young woman’s hand, clenched it tight, and broke into a dead run for the trees.

Behind them, the sound of the crushing throng rose to an angry pitch. Wet, snapping sounds chased them as they drove through the mist, weaving one direction after the next to avoid the slow, malignant shuffling of some new assailant. But the creatures were relentless, and as they reached the sharpened pikes that made up the perimeter fence, one of the things managed to lash its tongue around Jungle Babe’s wrist.

She cursed, her eyes snapping to the source of the fleshy leash coiled around her arm, and saw the thing standing beside the fence. Its clawed arms grasped for them, eagerly reaching, but Jungle Babe wasn’t about to let the same ploy beat her twice. Rather than trying to pull herself free from the thing’s inhuman grip, she charged at its source. She let out a furious shout as her sprint broke into a jump, and her kick smashed into the creature’s chest with a sullen crack. The force of the blow sent the monster flying back—right into the waiting wall of stakes. It issued a gurgling hiss as it was run through from behind, thrashing like a stuck pig. The tongue shuddered around her arm as the strength left it, and it slid wetly away to convulse on the ground like a headless serpent.

Without a single pause, Dana grabbed a shocked Anna by the waist and pulled her through an opening in the fence. She risked a quick glance behind them, and saw the village streets littered with the silent, swaying forms of things that had once been men.

They ran; charging past trees and shrubs, feeling the underbrush cracking beneath their feet. She didn’t let them stop until they were well into the woods, far from the cursed town and its mist-cloaked streets. She was breathing hard, blood pumping at her temples. She looked up at the towering trees, and felt a sick feeling churn in her stomach.

Out of the frying pan and right into the fire, she thought sullenly. She looked beside her at Anna. The young woman was panting fiercely from their escape, but the shock and fear seemed to have cast off the creeping influence of the fog...at least for the time being. she looked back at Dana with wide, wet eyes.

“No way out of it,” Jungle Babe conceded ruefully, “Whether I like it or not, you got your wish.”

Anna swallowed hard, and forced her shaking voice to speak. “Better together than alone at least, right?”

The statuesque blonde looked at the dark woods stretched out before them. The world that usually filled her with joy and excitement, the world that she most readily identified as home, suddenly seemed exactly the opposite of all that. The air hung with a palpable sense of menace, of unseen danger. What else was waiting for them out there?

After a long moment, she shook her head, “I hope you’re right. Come on. We have a long way to go.”