Ash Harkin #1

This is a short story featuring a medical examiner, a detective, and a monster neither of them could have been prepared for. This is more on the horror side of things, with a splash of sexy thrown in (because I very rarely write one without a little of the other).

Possible content warning: language, sexual situations, gore, wounds, just horror things.
Enjoy! And the story is available as a PDF download attached to this if you don't want to keep the Patreon app open!
*****

Ash Harkin #1
©R.A. Sears
10/26/2021-11/1/2021

Any other day, the rich scent of damp earth and decaying leaves would have been a welcome comfort. A cozy reminder that summer had been thoroughly interred and winter’s frosty embrace was a few mere weeks away. The bustle of the crime scene around him was blissfully muted to a buzz that his brain couldn’t quite register. Not after what he’d just seen. Like the droning hum of conversations around him, he couldn’t make sense of it.

Ash was glad he’d skipped breakfast that morning. The black coffee he’d managed to keep in his stomach was churning from the brief look he’d given to the body beneath the oak tree. What was left of the body, at least.

He wasn’t totally green, but the sack of flesh that had once been a man was gruesome enough to make him never want to eat Asian dumplings again. The pale, see through shape with darker bits inside reminded him of a steamed dumpling. All the was left of him was some skin, a pile of bones, and some sort of mush that oozed from a few rips in the translucent sack. How the remains had been a walking, talking human being less than twenty-four hours ago was beyond Ash.

He’d done his job. Determined the cause of death. Thankfully for the victim, it hadn’t been being dissolved into a gelatinous goo by some acidic compound the investigators had yet to identify. That had occurred posthumously. The victim’s skull had a n unmistakable through and through bullet wound. He’d been shot in the head from behind. There was no way to tell if there had been a struggle, but Ash found it unlikely.

He exhaled heavily, a cloud rising from his lips as he tipped his head back, eyes closed as he did his best to remove himself from the gnawing panic rolling through his gut. A hand settled on his shoulder, startling him from his half-assed attempt at meditation.

“You alright, Harkin?”

“Yeah, Newton. I’ll be okay. This has got to be the weirdest fucking death I’ve ever been called to, though.”

Newton nodded, turning away from the victim and looking up at him with haunted almond shaped eyes. The detective had been around longer than Ash had, but he could see that she was trying to distract herself from the melted puddle of gore behind them. “You can call me Kaede, you know.”

Ash grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. “You keep saying that but you’re still my senior here, Detective. I don’t want to seem disrespectful.”

She shrugged. “Suit yourself, Doc. We’re checking around to see if there might be a casing anywhere around, but I’m pretty sure the vic was killed off-site, then the remains were dropped here. We’ll get the cleanup crew in here soon. Just need you to sign off on the usual”.

She handed him the binder and he scribbled on the obligatory lines. “I’ll get headed back to prep for autopsy,” Ash said with a reluctance that was palpable.

“Not gonna lie, Ash. I don’t envy you for that.”

A humorless bark of laughter jumped from his lips. “I don’t think anyone in their right mind would, Detective.”

As he drove to the office, alone with his thoughts and the pattering rain on the windshield, Ash reflected on how he’d ended up here for what must have been the hundredth time. His grand plan had never been to become a medical examiner, much less to work in the criminal justice system.

He’d moved to New York right out of high school, leaving small town Washington behind without a second thought. Bright eyed and full of dreams of making it big as a model, Ash’s dreams were curb-stomped by astronomically high rent prices and an oversaturation of the pool of available bodies willing to stick to insane routines to attain the perfect physique. Professional modeling wasn’t the easy street he’d been expecting to build his empire on. He’d moved away from Manhattan as quickly as possible, settling for a more reasonably priced duplex in a rural location.

His neighbors were a sweet couple whose dogs he occasionally watched when they left town. The whole setting was drastically different from the dangerous, hectic bustle of the City. He’d traded one small town for another, and the irony of ending up back where he started wasn’t lost on him. He’d done what he needed to save up a bit to start a career, working several part time jobs and not thinking twice when he grabbed up an occasional overnight shift.

One of his friends at the diner cornered him one evening, after he’d been working there for several months. “What the hell are you doing here, Ash?”

He rubbed the back of his neck and laughed. “Uh, working? Washing dishes, obviously. What do you mean, Joe?” The oppressive, suffocating steam and scent of industrial soap had him ready to head outside for a breather.

The other man, a line cook with little patience and scars that Ash was fairly certain came from a stay in prison, folded thick tanned arms over his chest and just stared at the younger man. “You’re too damned smart to be here, Ash. I’m not gay or nothin’, but you’re too cute to be slaving away in a dish pit for the rest of your life.”

“You gonna try to get me fired so I can do something more meaningful with my life, Joe?” Ash’s voice was flat despite the nervous flutter in his stomach. He knew this job was only a stepping-stone, but he wasn’t sure towards what.

The cook frowned at him, brows drawing down as he looked at the younger man levelly. “Here I am saying you’re smart, and then stupid just jumps outta your face. No, I’m not gonna get your ass fired. Jesus, man.” Joe sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I just don’t want you to be here when I’m still meeting with my parole officer for some shit I didn’t do.”

Ash smirked, plates in his hand clattering as he sprayed the soap from them. “Thought you said you were cleared for the homicide? You’re on parole for what happened afterwards.”

Joe snorted, looking away from him and muttering. “Not my fault.”

Ash grabbed a palmful of water and flung it at the cook. “You’re doing a lot better than you were after you got out, but you know the check-ins are to keep you honest.”

“Yeah, yeah. Not my fault that slimy prick hopped on my wife the second I was in the clink. Also not my fault he couldn’t take a hit when I got out.”

Ash couldn’t resist a laugh. “He’s not the only one to blame, you know. If it was that easy for him to move in on your wife, ex-wife, then she probably had one foot out the door anyway, man.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Ash. Just don’t be a fuckup like me and still be here when you’re in your forties and should be enjoying the best years of your life.”

“Sure thing, Joe.”

That conversation had started Ash down the road to over a decade of school and internships that led him to becoming a medical examiner. Joe had been incarcerated because of vague evidence provided by an M.E. They’d been well-intentioned, but Ash knew he could have done better.

Years later, as the certificates piled up and he added more titles to his name, he couldn’t help sending a mental thanks up to the man who’d casually offered him life advice. Joe was long gone, having taken his own life in an alcoholic stupor over the parts of his life that had been wrongfully taken from him. The passing of his friend had been fuel for the fire. He’d always been a good student, but he piled on as many extra courses as he could, still working close to sixty hours weekly on top of school.

Now in his early thirties, fully confident in and qualified for his position, Ash Harkin couldn’t help wondering if he’d made the wrong decision when he was faced with a case like this one. Something just felt off about it. As he washed up and dressed in scrubs and protective gear, he paused to stare himself down in the bathroom mirror.

“It’s just another dead body, bro. You do this all day. Be glad it’s not a kid… this time. You’re letting all your mama’s cryptid talk mess with your brain.”

He drained an entire bottle of water before putting on his mask, pulling his long hair back and braiding it quickly. Cap firmly in place so he didn’t shed all over any potential evidence, Ash walked out into the exam room. The bright overhead lights made him see spots, the incessant hum of the fluorescents giving him the warning throbs of a migraine brewing behind his eyes.

The room was silent otherwise as he waited for someone to arrive with the victim. If it weren’t for the head being mostly intact, bullet wound notwithstanding, they wouldn’t have even been able to tell if the body was male or female. Ash was hoping the teeth were intact so they could identify him through dental records. He’d never seen a human body reduced in such a way, so he couldn’t think of any normal explanations for how the corpse had gotten into that state of putrefaction.

Moving out to podunk nowhere Jefferson County in New York wasn’t supposed to be so full of unusual work. It should have been peaceful. Foul play was uncommon in rural areas. Or at least he’d believed that to be the truth. Ash wasn’t a religious man, nor was he particularly spiritual. But the longer he spent in this particular environment, the more he was beginning to question if there was more to the world around them than what they normally noticed.

There was a knock on the door and Ash punched the remote release button with a gloved hand. The heavy steel door swung inward and a gurney rolled in with a body bag sitting atop it. Pulling down his face shield, Ash closed his eyes and took a deep cleansing breath. Detective Kaede Newton walked into the exam room, pushing the gurney ahead of her.

He tilted his head curiously at her. She shrugged, grabbing a mask to minimize the smell of the remains, and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her blazer. “There’s something about this one, Ash. I don’t know what it is, but it gives me the creeps.”

He nodded, removing the victim from the bag and setting it as respectfully as he could manage on the shiny table. He retrieved his tools, rummaging around for something while he spoke, not bothering to look over at her. “I feel the same way. I’m going to do a full tox screen, but I can tell you right now that no acid we’d regularly see used in a homicide coverup is going to be present.”

Her eyes swept over the pile of meat on the table, her gaze soft so she didn’t have time to hyper fixate on any particular feature of the horror Ash was about to dive into. “Doesn’t seem like it would be an animal, either. I’ve never seen something this large that could dissolve its food.”

Ash held up a small remote. “I’m going to turn on some music so the squishing noises are minimized. It probably won’t be to your taste, but I like to warn people before their ears get blasted.”

Kaede held her hands up, taking a few steps back away from the table. “You do what you’ve got to so we can figure this shit out, Ash. Pretend I’m not even here.”

He clicked the remote and some bouncy pop with female vocals poured from the speakers. The detective couldn’t resist a laugh. Ash shrugged with a smirk. “I told you it probably wasn’t your bag.”

Levity dropping from his like a switch had been flipped, Ash set to work. Dental impressions, swabs, what dissection he could manage without truly knowing what part of the body he was working on, collection of a strangely stiff piece of what looked like hair, and a few scoops of the goo that was inside the skin. The whole process normally took him around forty minutes, but with the greatly reduced body mass, it only took him twenty.

He wrapped everything up and moved the remains to a slab with a label. He cleaned up quickly and efficiently, and Kaede was more than content to just watch him work. She’d always had a bit of a thing for him, but her position and age created a barrier that she respected. Didn’t mean she couldn’t admire the view, though. As he left the room to clean himself up and dispose of the protective garments he’d worn, she stepped closer to the pile of potential evidence he’d withdrawn from the remains.

There was a tube that caught her eye: a piece of hair that was stiff like a porcupine’s quill taking up the entire length of the container. She leaned closer, trying to get a better look without touching anything. Footsteps behind her startled her from her concentration, drawing a gasp from her lips. She spun to see Ash, who held his hands up disarmingly.

“Didn’t mean to startle you. Did you want to take a closer look at that hair thing?” Kaede nodded. “Grab some gloves and pick it up, then.”

She did, moving it around and holding it up to the light, peering through the glass at the follicle. “There’s something familiar about this.”

Ash shrugged. “It felt sturdier than I’d expect a piece of hair to be. I don’t think it’s human and there’s no follicular tag so we can run DNA on it.”

“The shape of it makes me think of my sister’s tarantulas.” Kaede said absently, glaring at the item with a frown, almost like she could intimidate it into giving up its secrets.

“Your sister keeps spiders?”

The detective nodded, finally setting the tube down. “Is there any test you can run to see if this came from an arachnid?”

“I can get in touch with someone from the trace evidence team to confirm it, but I can check it out under the microscope. Arachnid hairs look totally different from other animals.” He pulled on a fresh pair of gloves and carefully pressed the end of the object between the layers of a slide.

He adjusted some knobs and stared silently into the machine for a few moments, making minute calibrations here and there. Unable to take the suspense any longer, Kaede impatiently asked, “Well? What do you think?”

“Kaede…” She knew something was wrong the instant he used her first name. “Do you realize how huge the spider would have to be for this to be from an arachnid?”

“If it’s one of their sticky leg hairs, the thing would have to be about the size of a Volkswagon Beetle.” The detective offered.

Ash’s eyes lifted from the microscope, meeting hers. “I’m not really spooked by spiders, but what in the actual fuck? How? How the hell..?”

Recognition dawned in her eyes. “I know it’ll take time to run the toxicology but add spider venom and digestive juices to the list of things to check for.”

Ash put the hair back into the specimen tube, finally removing his gloves to pinch the bridge of his nose. “We went from potential homicide to death by giant fucking spider awfully quick, Detective. I know the woods are thick here, but Jesus. Really?” He half growled in frustration, the intensified pounding of his head not helping the situation. “New York’s cryptids are almost exclusively water monsters. I think word about some giant spider munching on people would have been noticed by now.”

Kaede sighed. “Probably. And I know this is a hell of a stretch, but just think about the state of the body, Ash. If some ungodly huge spider vomited digestive juices all over the body, or even injected it into it, then started chowing down…”

“Then the body would be partly liquefied or at least softened, just like an average housefly from a normal spider.” He groaned, rubbing palms against his eyes. “Unfortunately, we’ve got weeks to wait for the tox screen to come back, and I know it’ll take trace about a week to confirm. I know you want answers, but there’s nothing else we can do about this case right now.”

She peeled off her own gloves and settled her hand soothingly on his shoulder. “You’re right,” she offered quietly, seeing the telltale signs of a monster headache on his face. “Let’s get out of here. Grab some food. I’ll treat.”

“As long as it’s something solid. If I spot anything remotely see-through, I’m gonna hurl.” Ash said with a whine.

Kaede smirked, doing her best not to laugh. “Sure thing, Harkin. You good to drive?”

He nodded and they left, locking up as they exited the building. The damp evening air was refreshing, and Ash inhaled it deeply. “Breakfast for dinner sound good to you?” Kaede asked, resting an elbow on the open door of her red Honda Civic.

“I love it when you talk dirty like that, Detective.” Ash practically purred. “I’ll meet you there.”

He was in his car and pulling away from the drive when Kaede realized she was red from her hair down to her toes. Cursing under her breath, she buckled up and took off, heading to the local greasy spoon diner.

She parked her car next to his, hurrying to the door of the restaurant. Ash was waiting just inside, and she couldn’t help but smile at him. “You didn’t have to wait on me, you know.”

“You offered to feed me, Newton. If I was anything but a gentleman, because you clearly have no idea how hungry I am, that would just be unnecessarily rude of me.”

She rolled her eyes and the hostess led them to a table. “Get you started with some drinks?” She asked, setting the menus before them and readying her pen.

Without even looking at the drink menu, Kaede replied quickly: “The biggest chocolate milkshake you’ve got.”

“Ooh, they have shakes?” Ash flipped to the back page excitedly, Kaede chuckling at his enthusiasm. “Make mine a strawberry, please!”

“Sure thing, hun.” She scribbled on her notepad and clicked her pen a few times. “Be back with those in a few for ya.”

They spent a few minutes in comfortable quiet, paging through the menu while deciding what to eat. As the waitress returned with their drinks, she readied her pen again. “You ready, or do you need a few more minutes?”

Kaede and Ash exchanged a look and a nod. “Ladies first,” he insisted.

They both gave him a soft smile and the waitress wrote it down. She looked to Ash expectantly and his eyes flicked back to the detective. “I don’t want to totally take advantage of your hospitality, but I’m starving. So I swear I’ll try for a middle ground, here.”

He rattled off what sounded like half the menu, fingers absently undoing his braid and shaking out his long hair, letting it settle on his shoulders in soft waves. “Okie dokie. That it?” The waitress was trying not to laugh at the bewildered look on Kaede’s face.

“For now,” Ash replied with a grin. “Thank you!”

The waitress wiggled her eyebrows at Kaede, taking off before she dissolved into giggles. Ash popped the straw through the wrapper and gratefully took a few sips of his shake. “Oh, damn. This has actual strawberries in it!”

Kaede couldn’t help being caught up in his good mood. “I’m glad I inspired you to indulge in your inner ten-year-old, Harkin.”

Ash snorted. “Just because I’m physically an adult doesn’t mean I don’t fully embrace my inner child. Milkshakes are secretly more manly than you think, Detective.”

“We all compartmentalize where we need to so we don’t totally lose it, Ash. You don’t need to justify that to me.”

He merely nodded, his eyes sliding shut in ecstasy as he slurped down more of his milkshake. Food arrived, and the waitress had a hard time finding places to set all of the plates. Ash fell to eating, thanking her profusely before he started stuffing his face.

Kaede ate with a bit more reserve, astounded at how much food the younger man was packing away. “Good lord, man. You eat like a teenager.”

“Good thing I never had kids, huh? Wouldn’t be able to afford to feed them once they became teenagers, if they were boys.” He mumbled through a mouthful of pancake and in between bites of bacon.

She shook her head. “You’re still more than young enough, if you wanted kids.”

Ash stacked another empty plate on the growing pile. “With the way the world is? Last thing I need to worry about is seeing my offspring come across my exam table. No thanks. I had a vasectomy and had some sperm frozen, just in case I ever felt regret about it.”

“Really? Wow.”

“What about you, Detective? The pitter patter of little feet ever been in your life?”

Kaede’s eyes studied her food intently, the taste of it suddenly like ashes in her mouth. “…no. But not for lack of trying.” Her voice was soft and thready.

Noticing her change in tone, Ash looked up from his food. “Shit. I’m sorry, Newton. I had no idea. I didn’t mean to—”

She took a deep breath and fanned her face for a second, trying to fight back the embarrassed flush that overcame her. “Don’t worry about it, Ash. You couldn’t have known. It’s not really something I talk about. But it did lead to me getting divorced, so… Yeah.”

“Fuck that guy,” Ash said through a mouthful of scrambled eggs. “Your ex-husband, I mean.”

Kaede couldn’t help but laugh. “I mean… that was kinda the idea. It just didn’t end in me bringing glory and honor to his family name through continuing his bloodline.”

“You know you’ve saved more kids than you ever could have spawned, through your work. If he was too fucking stupid to see that, it’s his loss.”

Tears welled in her eyes, but she couldn’t help smiling. “Thanks, Doc.”

Ash nodded, finishing off his eighth plate of food and pausing to catch his breath. “Gods, this is delicious. A thousand thank-you’s, Detective. I had a major crash coming on, after everything today.”

“No problem. I could tell you had a migraine coming on before we left the morgue. I don’t get them like I used to, but when I do, they knock me out and I’m essentially useless until the next day. Can’t have you down for the count that long, just in case…”

Ash slid a hand across his throat. “Don’t even suggest what you’re about to say. Don’t put that shit out in the Universe. This is an isolated incident, not the start of a serial. And I’m half praying we find something through trace or the toxicology that disproves our absolutely insane hypothesis.”

Kaede loudly slurped the last dregs of her chocolate shake from the decorative glass. “I do, too. But I’ve also been a cop long enough, and seen enough weird shit, to never discount any possibility. I’ve worked with psychics that helped us find missing kids before anything irreversible happened to them, among other things. Never say never, Harkin.”

Turning aside, he covered his mouth with a fist to suppress a burp. “Unfortunately, I agree with you. So let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”

Kaede chuckled. “You got a huge stash of peppermint or eucalyptus to scare off spiders, Harkin?”

“Peppermint, eucalyptus, and marigold in the window boxes. Plus sage to chase off whatever bad energy it might bring with it.” He replied, not missing a beat.

“Damn, Ash. I didn’t know you were up on natural repellents.”

“I deal with death all day, Newton. I’d rather not kill things unless I have no other choice.”

Seeing that their plates were nearly cleared, the waitress returned. “You guys wanna grab dessert, or should I get your check for you?”

Ash’s eyes grew wide and he looked pleadingly to Kaede. She rolled her eyes and chuckled. “I’m fine, but let this glutton get whatever he wants for dessert. Then bring me the check. It’s on me.”

Ash clasped his hands together and bowed his head respectfully to the detective. “This time. Next time, I’ll make it up to you!”

“You’ll owe me for the next five with how much you’ve packed away tonight, Harkin.”

“You’ve got it!” His smile was infectious, and he ordered enough dessert to put a pack of toddlers into pancreatic shock.

When everything was consumed and the check paid, Kaede and Ash stood in the parking lot chatting for a while. As the sun dipped out of sight below the horizon, a heavy but comforting stillness settled on the world around them. Autumn was Ash’s favorite time of year, even as the nights grew progressively colder.

They stood together in a puddle of light beneath the lone light in the parking lot, the darkness around them unable to snuff the levity and brightness they clung to. Finally saying their goodbyes for the evening, they both drove off, hoping the case would end with a logical conclusion. They had the sinking feeling that the results would be exactly what they were both praying wasn’t the truth.

Two weeks had passed, and they still didn’t have any definitive results. It was starting to drive Ash nuts. Work was mostly slow in the meantime. Nothing of the grotesquely violent variety made its way into the morgue, so he was thankful that Kaede Newton had been wrong about the serial liquefying murderer. No other cases with bodies melted from the inside had been brought to their attention. Ash’s hopes that it would indeed just be some rare, barely documented occurrence soared.

Ash sank into one of the vegan leather chairs in the lounge with a heavy sigh. He leaned his head back, long hair loose and falling behind it as he closed his eyes. The stress was going to make him go grey if things didn’t reach some sort of conclusion soon.

He knew the labs were doing what they could, and dental had returned accurate records of the victim. He was a small-time thug. Had a breaking and entering and assault on his record. But even being a “bad guy”, Ash didn’t envy the way the man had met his demise. They assumed the bullet wound had killed him before he was turned into a pile of gelatin, but getting an accurate timeline was difficult with the state his body was in. What if the poor bastard had been awake the whole time, his nerve endings on fire before they disintegrated and he no longer felt anything?

Ash’s phone buzzing in his pocket made him jump, practically falling out of the chair. He pulled it out to check the message, frowning as he read it. It was from Her. “All clear?”

He considered not responding, staring at the screen until it went dark. He unlocked it again and tapped out a reply with angry clicks of his fingers against the glass. “It’s only been two weeks. Not out of the woods yet.”

Almost immediately, a response flashed across the screen. “But, Ash… I’m hungry.”

He let his phone drop into his lap and rubbed his palms against tired eyes. “Jesus fucking Christ…” he muttered under his breath, glad no one was around to hear it.

“We’ll talk about it when I get home, ok?” he replied, hands trembling more than he liked to admit.

“OK!”

Exhaling heavily, Ash turned his phone to silent, not wanting Her to disturb him for the rest of his shift. He was calm and cordial with anyone he dealt with for the rest of the afternoon, but his heartrate was through the roof and his stomach was twisted in knots. He didn’t even bother to eat lunch, opting instead for another coffee. He had a feeling this was going to be a long night.

The drive from the examiner’s office to his home normally felt like it dragged on. Tonight, the drive seemed to only take a few minutes, and he still wasn’t prepared to face what he knew awaited him on the other side of his door.

He reluctantly got out of the car, the front door opening before he even had the vehicle locked. A pool of light poured out into the heavy autumn darkness, a petite silhouette standing in stark contrast to the illumination that tried to brighten the evening air.

“Welcome home, Ash!” Her lilting voice didn’t have the usual pull on his heart, merely invoking a sense of dread that settled heavily in his stomach.

“Hi, Sayoko.” He gave her a tired smile, pressing a tender kiss to her forehead.

“How was work today?” she asked, taking his jacket and hanging it up for him.

He shrugged. “Mostly quiet. Things have been pretty quiet since… the last one.”

She nodded, dark eyes with thick lashes gazing up at him adoringly. “That’s what I’ve been waiting to talk with you about!” Sayoko was so chipper that it took everything Ash had to not physically respond to her voice. “If it seems like nobody’s on to the truth, why do I have to wait?”

Her physical form was undeniably mature, but her mental state was childlike in the worst ways. He found himself wondering what he’d been drawn to about her, but he wasn’t ashamed to admit he was guilty of being shallow when he was lonely. Sayoko was beautiful, but she’d become entirely more baggage than he was equipped to, or willing to, handle.

“Yoko-chan… I know that you stuck to the rules we hashed out, but I just—”

She took a step back from him, flinching as if he’d struck her. “No,” she said simply. Her voice was firm despite her full lower lip trembling.

Ash clasped his hands together in front of him, knowing that if he touched her, his resolve would crumble. “Yes. I wanted this to work. I really did. You’re beautiful, Sayoko. You’re captivating. You deserve someone who’s more on board with who you are. Someone who won’t need to cloister you in a gilded cage.”

“I don’t want to be with anyone else, Ash. I want to be with you!” Her small voice was desperate, keening in a way that punched Ash right in the gut.

“I know, Sayoko. I wanted things to turn out differently. I can’t keep doing this, in good conscience. I’m sorry.”

Tears ran silently from her eyes, a small sniffle escaping her. She sobbed softly, unable to look at him. She closed her eyes and shook her head, her shoulders shuddering and cries shifting into broken laughter that grew louder and more distorted with each heart-wrenching cackle.

Her tiny hand darted out, wrapping around Ash’s throat and lifting him from the floor with unfathomable strength. She pinned him to the wall, his feet flailing wildly as he tried to settle himself back on the ground. His fingers clawed at her hand, trying to loosen her grip to no avail.

“Oh, Ash Harkin. You foolish fucking human. Did you really think that you could just break it off cleanly and walk away from me, from us?” Her voice was deeper than he’d ever heard it, somehow sensual and terrifying at the same time, despite her casually cutting off his oxygen.

The whites of her eyes were swallowed by a bottomless black as her gaze met his. “Did your conscience really get the better of you, or is this form no longer pleasing to you? You admittedly have a thing for petite Asian women, so what changed?” Her gaze flicked down to his crotch and a smirk curved her lips. “Your body still responds to this form, even if your mind rejects it.”

She lowered him just enough to rest some of his weight on his toes and he gasped sharply, coughing as air flooded his burning lungs. “It’s just the pheromones you’re putting off, you goddamned freak. Let me go. You know I won’t say anything to anyone, Sayoko. That’ll admit my guilt in covering for your snacking habits as much as it’ll expose your little slaughter-fest.”

“Ash… Darling… I could never let you go.” She dragged the pads of soft fingertips down his cheek, the ends transforming into claws surrounded by fur. She raked bloody furrows into his flesh, his eyes squeezing shut as he swore under his breath. Air hissed through his teeth as he fought not to panic, trying to keep his wits sharp.

He opened his mouth to speak and Sayoko gripped his chin hard enough for his jaw to creak when she turned his face towards her, but he kept his eyes closed. “You don't get to talk your way out of this one, pretty-boy.” Her nostrils flared as the scent of his blood filled the air. She leaned in close to him, the deafening thunderous crack of her bones reshaping telling him that she was changing her form.

“Look at me, Ash.” Her voice had taken on a different but familiar timbre. When he didn't comply immediately, she tightened her grip, driving a claw into one of the wounds she’d left on his face.

“Damn it!” He whimpered, a tear rolling unbidden from his eye. He did what she wanted, opening his eyes to be met with none other than a facsimile of Kaede Newton standing before him. Her voluptuous form that had only been hinted at through her modest work attire was revealed in scintillating detail, unabashedly displayed in the same low-cut black dress Sayoko had been wearing. Long dark hair fell around her shoulders in waves, like the froth that rode the crests of oceanic midnight waves.

Ash swallowed hard, reminding himself that this wasn't Kaede. “Yoko-chan, changing your shape won't change the way I feel about you. About this whole situation—”

Sayoko cut him off by wedging her knee between his thighs, keeping him on his toes and caging his body against the wall with the much taller likeness of Kaede. She still wasn't his height, but she was much closer than Sayoko's earlier diminutive frame. “You’ve wanted to get your hands on the detective since before I even came into the picture. I could see it on your face when we all went to dinner together. Surely, she’d take you the moment you offered yourself. Why haven’t you?”

Sayoko pressed her body fully to Ash, soft breasts squashed to his chest as she dragged her tongue up his wounded cheek. He winced, wishing he could fall through the wall to put some distance between himself and the monster before him. He reached out with trembling hands, softly stroking her hair like he’d always done, coming to rest on her bare shoulders. They were more muscular than Sayoko’s normal form and he found himself wondering if Kaede was really built just like this, and how Sayoko could have mimicked her form so perfectly.

He dragged his thumb across her lower lip, his eyes following its path.  “Human relations aren’t so simple, Yoko-chan. There are almost political ramifications if you fuck senior staff members and things don’t work out the way you expected them to.”

Soft hands filled with inhuman strength wrapped around his wrists, pinning them to the wall beside his head. His eyebrows furrowed together in confusion when he realized that a third hand hadn’t left his throat. Sayoko’s second set of hands did release his neck, trailing slender fingers down the front of his body before coming to rest comfortably on his belt buckle.

Ash’s pulse skyrocketed, the combination of fear induced adrenaline and arousal making his head feel fuzzy. This wouldn’t end well. He couldn’t see a scenario where he walked out of this alive, but maybe he could at least take Sayoko with him. “Come on, Yoko-chan… You know I’m not the submissive type. Let me down and we can talk through this.” He wetted his lips with the tip of his tongue, proud of himself when his voice didn’t shake.

Perfect teeth flashed ever so slightly as Sayoko drew her lower lip between them. “Tempting though that may be, Ash…” She undid all the fastenings that separated her from him, slipping a warm hand beneath the layers of cloth to caress the velvety skin of his already stiff cock. “You’re mine,” she practically purred. “It’s never that I belonged to you, despite what you may have thought in that silly masculine brain of yours. You were always mine, since the first time I laid eyes on you.”

Air hissed between his teeth as he tried to think of anything else, to will his body to stop reacting to her touch. “Sayoko, s-s-stop.” He murmured.

Laughter spilled from her lips, the color of them shifting to a darker shade. “Aw, honey,” she tutted, wrapping her fingers firmly around his girth and sliding the ring of flesh up and down on him. “Thought you said you weren’t submissive? You might think you’re not, but this thing right here seems to love it.”

A noise akin to a moan and whimper bubbled from his lips and he managed to say once more, “Please… Don’t do this, Yoko-chan.”

She had no intentions of stopping, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold out against her ministrations for long. Then his energy would be drained, and he’d have even less of a chance of surviving. Mustering up every ounce of strength in his body, Ash lifted his legs and planted his feet on Sayoko’s chest, kicking her and forcing her away from him all at once.

She dropped him with all four arms, and he crashed to the floor in an undignified heap. He scrambled to stuff himself back in his pants, his sock covered feet having a hard time finding purchase on the hardwood floor.

The creature that had once been Sayoko released an inhuman shriek that rattled Ash down to his bones. He covered his ears, but there was already blood trailing down his neck from a ruptured eardrum. The snap of bones reshaping filled the air, her shriek becoming a roar that shook the very foundation of the house. From the waist down, Sayoko’s body elongated, becoming a light brown spider’s abdomen with white markings all over it. Eight long arachnid legs burst from her just beneath her still human torso, covered in the very hairs that had been left behind at the crime scene.

Extending to her full height, Sayoko’s full form barely fit into his living room. He scooted backwards, trying to escape into the kitchen. The massive spider woman rushed forwards, her movement faster than anything Ash had ever witnessed. Her human hands gripped a fistful of his shirt, lifting him off the ground so his feet dangled uselessly above the floor. He kicked at her vainly, trying to land another hit to loosen her grip on him.

The face that peered into his with eight unblinking eyes shot ice into his veins. A line like a scar appeared down the center of her nose and mouth, extending down to her chin. Ash stared in growing horror as the line grew thicker, suddenly parting and revealing an entirely arachnid maw, complete with chelicerae that extended past those pretty human lips. A viscous substance dripped from the fangs at the end of them, and Ash knew he had to avoid getting struck by them at all costs. He’d end up a human dumpling, otherwise.

Sayoko brought her face closer to his, chelicerae moving with excitement. “Your fear smells positively delicious, darling.” Her voice was garbled, guttural, but he could still understand her.

There was a loud knock at the door. Though muffled, he could clearly hear Kaede Newton’s voice call out: “Jefferson County Sherriff’s Department! We have a warrant for Sayoko Saito! Open up!”

“Kaede, run!” Ash screamed. He tried to say more but had to throw his head to the side as one of Sayoko’s envenomed fangs punched a hole in the wall where his face had been a mere second ago.

There was a series of dull thuds against his front door before it finally slammed inward, being ripped from the hinges and hitting the floor in a cloud of drywall dust. “Holy sweet fuck,” Kaede murmured at the sight of the monster that held Ash in its grip. She subconsciously made the sign of the cross before signaling to the other two people behind her.

Handgun held steadily in one hand as she sidled forward, Detective Kaede Newton didn’t take her eyes off the spider woman. “Sayoko Saito, put him down, or we’ll be forced to open fire.”

Sayoko stared at Kaede with the detective’s own likeness, warped with the arachnid features that still didn’t detract from her alluring beauty. “Your puny human weapons won’t hurt me, cop bitch. Do your worst. Ash and I have a dinner date, you see…”

Again she drove forward, the tip of her fang grazing Ash’s shoulder. It felt like liquid fire poured into the wound, a scream tearing from his lungs that cut Kaede right down to her soul. Kaede opened fire, aiming for the exposed abdomen. She and her companion ducked to the side as bullets ricocheted off the chitinous exterior of the spider-woman’s body.

“Fuck!” She murmured, stuffing the gun back into her hip holster. Her eyes met a pair very similar to her own through the face shield on their helmets. She nodded quickly and the other woman disappeared around the partial wall that separated the kitchen from the living room.

Ash’s whole arm felt slack, numb. The rest of his body was in agony, but he hoped the sedative wouldn’t spread too fast. She hadn’t managed to inject an artery, so his circulation wouldn’t drag the venom through his whole body too quickly. He hoped.

“Damn it, Newton! I told you to run!”

“Can’t leave a good man to become a dumpling, Ash!”

He chuckled humorlessly. “If I was a good man, I wouldn’t be fucking spider-bitch bait, Newton.”

Kaede stepped forward, her eyes staying focused on Sayoko’s face as she unsheathed a sword, tossing the scabbard to the side. The spider woman rotated her large body as best she could, keeping her eyes fixed on Kaede. “She always look this much like me, or is that some new jorogumo trick?”

Sayoko slammed Ash’s body into the wall several times in rapid succession, bouncing his head off the sheetrock before letting him drop unconscious to the ground. Kaede yelled for him, but he was motionless, and she had to brace herself as the spider-woman leapt forward. She lifted her left arm to block a strike from one of Sayoko’s lower limbs, her Kevlar riot gear cracking under the pressure. She ducked low, slashing at the same limb and being rewarded with a gush of fluid and a satisfying shriek from the jorogumo.

“You come from the same land I do. You should join me, little sister. Why defend this man who’s as good as meat when you could live for centuries and have power men only dream of?” Her distorted voice sounded like a layer of oldschool phonograph recordings echoing from the depths of an infinite well.

Kaede snorted. “I’ve already got more power than most men, and they hate me for it. Be damned if I need to turn into Charlotte and send them all supper salutations.”

“Pity,” Sayoko said with a sigh, her many eyes closing for a moment in what Kaede could only describe as remorse. “I truly would have enjoyed the company. The centuries get tiresome when one is alone.”

Kaede dropped her stance lower to the ground, the hilt of the sword clutched firmly in both gloved hands. “Then maybe it’s time for you to take a rest, onee-san. Be lonely no longer. NOW, Himari!”

The close quarters meant that Sayoko didn’t have time to turn her massive body before Himari squeezed the trigger on the sprayer, covering the spider half of Sayoko’s body with a substance that smelled like mint, but burned her body like hellfire. She shrieked, skittering and trying to run away from herself, beginning to scale the wall.

Kaede swung the sword, managing to slice off the end of another leg, making it harder for the jorogumo to gain the purchase she needed to escape. “Grab Ash!” she yelled to the other woman.

Himari needed no second bidding, grabbing the unconscious man beneath the armpits and dragging him away from the fight. Kaede screamed as Sayoko vomited a deluge of fluid at her. It could only be digestive acid, as her face shield began to disintegrate before her very eyes. She ripped the helmet off, shaking off the glove she’d also blocked with, not wanting to let the caustic substance get through the armor to her skin.

The floorboards beneath her feet sizzled, the couch behind her practically melting from the strength of the acid that had narrowly missed her. An insectoid scream rattled the windows as Sayoko leaped from the wall, pouncing directly onto Kaede. The detective dropped to her back at the last second, sword pointed directly above her own heart. The jorogumo impaled herself on the katana’s blade, all angry chittering noises coming to an abrupt halt.

The weight of the monster was immense, but Kaede roared, adrenaline giving her the strength to drag the blade hilt-deep down the length of the abdomen to her spinnerettes. The spider’s blood and insides poured over Kaede like a fountain of gore, soaking her clear through to her skin.

Body twitching, Sayoko coughed, blood spattering the wall in front of her. “How? …after all… this time?” She fell over sideways and Kaede scrambled to get away from the quickly deteriorating body.

To be certain the monster was ended, she decapitated the corpse, also piercing its heart with the blade. She gripped the hair in her hand, hurrying outside to check on Ash and her sister.

Ash was just waking up, cradled in Himari’s lap. “How is he?” Kaede asked, kneeling before them both.

“Got an antivenom in him, although it seems like he barely got enough of a dose to do any damage. Might have a concussion. Worth having him go to the E.R., you know.”

Kaede nodded. “Thank you, Himari. Without you weakening her, we might have both ended up dead.”

“Newton?” Ash murmured, eyelids fluttering as he fought to wake up fully.

Himari snapped an ampule of smelling salts and waved it under his nose. His head whipped to the side as the scent irritated his nostrils and brought him fully awake.

“I’m here, Ash. You’re going to be alright.”

“Did you get her?” Kaede nodded. “Good. Who’s this?”

“My sister Himari, the one I told you keeps tarantulas.” Himari gave him a half-hearted salute.

“You’re not really here on official business.”

Kaede snorted. “You think the brass would let me just roll up here to take out a giant spider woman monster?”

“What did you call her, aside from her name?”

“Jorogumo. They’re actually a monster from Japanese folk tales. I told you… never discount any potential leads. Even if they seem impossible and ridiculous.”

Himari sighed. “And now we have to go dismantle and dispose of a giant spider-bitch.”

Kaede groaned, swiping hair back from her face. “You’re right. You think you’re up to help, Ash?”

Himari helped him to his feet and he lowered his chin to his chest, taking in deep breaths. Finally, he lifted his head and nodded. “I’ll go get the fire pit roaring out back. You’re already covered in guts, so you can finish the chopping.”

Kaede stared up into his eyes, her own watery as she fought back tears. She hugged him tightly, burying her face in his chest for the briefest of seconds. “Idiot,” she said, releasing him and getting to work.

“Good thing we’re out in the middle of nowhere. Might have had to worry about collateral damage, otherwise.” Himari said with a sigh, carrying several spider legs, as long as she was tall, that still twitched in her arms.

When they got to the human portion of Sayoko’s body, Kaede carried it into the back yard, grabbing the yard sprayer Himari had filled with the special mixture that had slowed her down.

“What’s in that?” Ash asked, tossing another log on top of the legs that shriveled into nothing under the intense heat of the fire. “It looked like it practically burned her.

“Vinegar, peppermint, and salt. All I know is that it kills spiders.” Kaede said, soaking the humanoid skin with the mixture. Before their eyes, what was left of the body broke down rapidly, becoming gel like and translucent.

Ash’s stomach churned and he waited until the pile of goo stopped shifting. He squeezed out an entire bottle of lighter fluid onto it and said simply, “Step back,” before tossing a match on the mess. It ignited instantly, the acrid smell of smoke and lighter fluid almost masking the fact that the body burning was starting to smell delicious.

Once it was mostly gone, consumed by the purifying flames, they dumped a bucket of sand onto the flames, smothering it quickly. Ash buried the mush that resulted, easily moving the wet earth to mix it into the ground. The fire in the pit still burned, although it was dwindling. There was nothing left to show that Sayoko had ever existed, much less that she’d been here.

The trio stood together silently, the two women flanking Ash without even meaning to. Once the fire was nothing but embers, Ash doused it with more damp sand.

“Thank you,” he said firmly, turning to Kaede. “If you hadn’t shown up, I’d be gone.”

The detective shrugged. “All in a day’s work. We’re supposed to be the good guys, right?”

Ash nodded. “Supposed to be.”

“I’m not going to say anything about the vigilante act you were pulling by letting your girlfriend snack on criminals, Ash.”

“They were still people. No matter how bad they were…”

Kaede settled her hand on his uninjured shoulder. “And it’s in the past. So, can we go back to boring ass Northern New York work, now? No more crazy monsters trying to turn us all into lunch?”

Ash gave her a humorless smirk. “Only if you’re gonna help me clean up the mess in the house. Otherwise, I might have to summon up my other demon girlfriend and wreak some real havoc.”

She stared at him slack-jawed, before she slapped the back of his head. “Idiot.”

The three of them headed inside to finish cleaning up the mess as best they could. Although they shared laughter and did their best to put the events of the evening behind them, Ash Harkin knew that nothing would ever be the same.