Nineteen people sat at the table, all Wolves if the invitation was to be believed. The twentieth seat lay waiting for me.
A massive painting ran the length of one wall, depicting a nighttime forest with all sorts of woodland creatures peering out from the dark, their eyes reflecting light into pale red and white discs.
Chiara, the Wolf with the toy crocodile mask pulled the chair out as I approached the table and sat down. She crossed her legs that seemed similar to those of some large flightless bird and turned to observe our host, the living hat.
The man wearing the shifting charcoal mask spoke, “Are you Maria Wulf?”
“Someone’s done their research,” the mouth on the hat replied. “Yes, I am she. The daughter and disgrace to the Wulf name.”
“You’re a Witch?”
“Regrettably.”
The cubes of black material on the man’s mask were always in motion, some pieces receded while others took their place. He rested his hand flat on the table. “I’ll say this right now to clear the air. I didn’t take the drug. I suspect I’m not the only one.”
A few of the other guests nodded in agreement.
“That was a ridiculous demand if you ask me,” the Wolf wearing a living anglerfish said, features hidden with the mouth. “You didn’t even have any leverage to be making such an outrageous demand.”
“And yet you came,” Maria said smugly. “Perhaps I have leverage after all?”
Angler Fish laughed, the light on their head flickering like a spent bulb. “Mere curiousity brought me here. Your boldness at contacting me was appreciated. I thought everyone had become too afraid.”
“You were too interesting to ignore, Brin Aspen. You are actively holding quite a few politicians hostage, yet they are walking around freely, unharmed so long as they continue to follow your demands.”
Brin’s finger traced along a silver fork that rested on the table. “What of it? So long as I get my freedom, they get to keep theirs. I dare say they wield more power than a remnant of Organ such as yourself. You all self-destructed. You may have your wealth still, but Organ’s connections have been soiled by internal dissent and mistrust.”
“Failure is the path to success,” Maria replied evenly. “New leaders have already stepped in, the way paved by their predecessors.”
Staff entered in from a side door, bearing platters with silver-domed lids. The scent wafting from whatever was within made my mouth water.
“Looks like dinner is ready,” Maria said. “I know Wolves can be quite hungry. Please, sate yourselves.”
A waiter placed a platter in front of me and lifted the cover. Roasted veggies and meat glistened like treasure. The aroma of spices and seasoning was heavenly.
The Wolf with a disfigured face grabbed the wrist of the waiter who served him. An ugly approximation of a smile spread across his face. “Could you make it any more obvious? The food is fuckin’ drugged. I’m sure you won’t mind if I make my own meal.”
The waiter’s flesh began to melt as he tried to free himself from the Disfigured Wolf’s iron grip.
“Hey.”
A woman who was a head taller than anyone else here stared him down with a single entirely black eye. Tentacles protruded from the skin around the eye, wrapping around the rest of her face tightly in a spiral pattern. The tips of the tentacles still wriggled freely, pulsating with vibrant ghostly green hues that reminded me of the aurora borealis.
“That’s enough.” Her voice had a dangerous edge to it.
Several of the other masked guests had risen out of their chairs, ready for a fight.
The Disfigured Wolf looked around at them, then released the waiter who sank to his knees, skin bloody and ragged. The Wolf leaned back in his chair. “Buncha pussies. You know I’m right.”
“It does seem likely,” Charcoal Mask said as the others settled back into their seats. “While I can’t fathom why we’re being tempted like the children of fables, it’s clear that without our powers, we would easily be taken to pieces by a Witch.”
“The range of my influence is quite small,” Maria said. “Only about a foot around my body. This mouth I speak with is merely a puppet I programmed with some simple instructions. My true body resides at the far end of the house so you are in no danger from me.”
Charcoal Mask watched the injured waiter scurry out of the room. “That’s hardly a worthwhile assurance. You’re not some woodland fae, you can lie.”
“Then ask your Witch to check for threats. Oh wait,” the mouth on the hat stretched into a sneer. “You parted ways, didn’t you?”
Charcoal Mask set his shoulders. “Did you bring me here just to taunt me? How lofty Organ’s goals once sounded. How unfortunate that they were brought to ruin due to such banal reasons: petty human squabbling.”
“The taunting is just a bonus.” Maria raised her voice to address everyone, “I know why each of you are here. I invited every guest for a reason and you can see that all the seats are filled. Not a single person declined. That’s because each of you are at the end of your rope. You need something and you need it now.”
Despite the hat not having eyes, it felt like Maria’s focus was palpably present as each Wolf reacted to her words.
“Absolution… Recognition…”
The animals in the painting were uncanny. They were all prey animals but each was not acting like their nature. A deer perched in a tree while a hare stood and stretched to a tall height on its back legs.
“A greater challenge…” The Disfigured Wolf reacted to that.
“A way to return to feeling human… Perhaps an insatiable curiousity…” The Angler Fish mask rested their chin on the heel of their hand.
“Addiction…” Chiara’s hands curled into fists in her lap.
“Resolution.” The word felt like a weight on my heart as I stared at the feast in front of us.
“I can give you that which you seek.”
The Disfigured Wolf scoffed and crossed his arms. “And all it takes is for us to throw away our only means of protection? None of us are naive enough to believe this.”
“The rewards are quite real. Each is custom tailored to fit, just like your suits. For example, someone in this room wishes to be reunited with their sister.”
The faceless Wolf stood abruptly from the table, the sunken pits of their eyeless blank slate turning slowly to gaze upon Maria.
Maria let out a tittering laugh. “Ooh. Peaked your interest? I’ve attained the visa. You just need to collect it. And Chiara-”
Chiara stiffened at her name being called.
“He is here. Play your part and he’ll wash your worries away. I could go on but I promise you, this is what I do. I’ve done my research, I know each of your darkest desires. I’m ready to fulfill them if you just break bread with me.”
“And what if we refuse?” the Disfigured Wolf asked. “‘Cause we won’t be doin’ all that. You don’t understand shit. We’re Wolves. We take what we need. And if…” he trailed off.
I looked up from my meal and stopped chewing. Him and everyone else in the room was staring at me. I wiped my mouth and avoided any eye contact. It was perhaps the most delicious food I’d ever tasted. There was something nostalgic about it that made me think of sitting in my mom’s kitchen, watching her cook, letting me test taste the soup.
I didn’t have a reason to convince anyone else, but I wasn’t doing this on an empty stomach. And if the food really was drugged, I would welcome it. I’d seen what lay at the end of the other choice. Me, delirious and wishing for an end to the madness. I’d trade my Shaping for a clear mind and a body that listened to what I wanted.
Chiara began to dig in next to me, pulling at a chunk of meat with her teeth.
The tall one with the spiral tentacle mask bent low and I heard her chewing.
“Fuckin’ idiots,” the Disfigured Wolf said in disbelief.
Chiara swallowed and leaned in close. “I would like to hear the reason that you came today,” she whispered. “Maybe I have a hope that it will strengthen my own pathetic resolve.”
I chewed slowly as I thought about how to respond.
“Well, as some of you are enjoying the meal, let me tell you a bit about myself,” Maria said. “I was born with muscular dystrophy. I am unable to walk or run or dance.”
“Why should we give a shit?” Angler Fish cut in harshly.
Maria ignored him and carried on, “My parents kept it a secret, kept me hidden away from the eyes of the public. After all, what would people think if the perfect billionaire that headed the charge into self-driving technology had such a flaw? How would that reflect on him? But what the public doesn’t know is that I had my part to play in his success. When he met his wealthy peers, in lavish smoke rooms and on private islands, I was there. When it was time to entice shareholders, I would be wheeled in and presented. ‘Look! Maria can go wherever she wants. With our cars, she has beaten her illness. She can be human again,” the bitterness dripped from Maria’s tongue.
“With funding secured, I would be pushed into the corner of the room. I’d proven my use. A hood ornament on a flashy car. Then I could be left alone with the empty chairs and side tables, a piece of furniture that blends into the background. Even then, sometimes his wealthy friends would find that I was a particularly attractive piece of furniture. It didn’t matter what I did. Whether I kicked up a fuss or if I was as placid as a doll. The shame in my parents’ eyes remained.”
“Then, as if God himself heard me, news of Shaping began to trickle down into the ears of the elite. The greatest hope, dangled in front of my face.”
Her voice grew colder than ice, “Imagine my utter dismay when I discover that I am already a Witch. I can Shape others, but I am trapped in this body, unable to be cured. God took it upon himself to personally shove my nose in shit.”
The room was silent.
“You want your reward?” she asked sullenly. “All I ask is that you remember what it’s like to be vulnerable. Eat this meal while it’s still hot. Return to your roots. Feel like me for just one moment. Is that too much to ask?”
No one gave her an answer.
“When the drug enters your system, how does it feel? Do you feel more human? Or less like yourself? It’s a matter of philosophy to wonder if Shaping has moved us closer or further from our essence, our soul.”
“Fuck all this shit and fuck your shitty body,” the Disfigured Wolf sat back, tilting his chair onto two legs. He spat a glob of phlegm onto his plate. “You promised me a challenge, not a headache.”
Maria was silent for a moment. “Do you think I will still provide, even though you refuse my hospitality and my terms?”
“I don’t obey nobody, bitch. Quit wasting my time.”
“Very well then. I’ll speak your language and I’ll use it to force you to speak mine.”
I realized with a start that the staff had all vanished from the banquet hall. They had been milling about, refilling drinks and clearing plates until a moment ago.
“You aren’t in control. You haven’t been since you stepped foot on my property.”
Chiara seized my wrist.
I turned to her and saw what she was staring at.
A head emerged from the painting of the night animals, gliding seamlessly from it. The reddened, splotchy skin was stretched tight across the surface of the head, like the sagging skin of an aged person was pulled from behind with terrible strength. Its features were distorted by this stretching into a toothless grinning grimace. There were no eyes within the stretched slits of the eyeholes. Strands of wet black hair draped across the face. A leg emerged from the painting beneath the face, long and thin with many jointed toes that pulled on the carpet like spider legs. The being stepped through like the painting was a portal from a different, silent world. The ceiling was probably twelve feet high and yet the creature stooped, forcing it to look directly down as it stood over the Disfigured Wolf who hadn’t noticed what was happening.
Then he tilted further back in his chair and his eyes widened just as the creature dropped a crooked hand down on him. The fingers looked more like twisted up threads of silk than fingers with many crevices and folds. The hand passed straight through him without a sound.
The Disfigured Wolf stiffened, chair losing balance and crashing to the floor.
We all looked on in total shock.
He was motionless. His skin was pale and slowly lines began to form, running parallel down his face. A section of his body slid backwards, leaving the rest behind following the line. His insides were revealed: inner organs, skeleton, muscles, networks of veins and arteries all twitching at different rhythms. Nothing spilled out of that perfect slice. The cross-sectioned man slowly died that way, his half heart beating slower until it seized and stopped.
The Aberrant loomed over us all and I saw wet eyes clutched within the folds of its hands. Stolen from its victim, whose eye sockets lay empty.
“Too much of a challenge for you?” Maria laughed. “Time to use those legs. Don’t worry, you’ll all experience what it feels like to lose your powers that you’ve relied on for all this time. Show some real effort. Prove to me that you deserve your reward.”