Treasure of Demon Isle 2: Return to the Isle by Longshot (f/f, mud) Kathy awoke in a cold sweat on this particular morning, she was having those dreams again, dreams of a darker version of herself at that tender young age. How long had it been now ... Twenty? Thirty years since Rachel had left for that accursed place? It didn't matter, she knew that the time for final payment was at hand. That beast had taken her firstborn daughter, now who? Her second? One of the twins? Oh God, the twins! She picked up the phone and dialed a number. At Felicia's home a phone rings. She awakens grumpily, "I'm a single mother, trying to sleep, so I can afford to raise my daughters, and some fool is calling me at ... what time is it, anyway?" she muttered to no one in particular. She looked at the clock. 3:12am. 'Lovely,' she thought 'This had better be important!' The phone rang again and was finally answered. "Hello?" was Felicia's sleepy greeting to whoever was calling her. Kathy sounded to almost be in hysterics. "Felicia? Are the twins safe? They're there, right? And you're okay?" A very tired and annoyed sounding reply, "Yes, mother, we're all here trying to sleep ... just like you should be doing." Kathy sighed. "Damn it, Felicia! I was having a dream again ... like when Rachel left for that accursed place." A sigh and a pause. "Mother, we went over this. Rachel did not go to some magical island, and no one is going to take me or the twins anywhere. Okay Mother?" Kathy shivered, she knew the time was coming, why wouldn't her daughter listen and protect the twins and herself? "Just go check ... please? For me?" she pleaded. Another long pause. "Will you go to sleep if I do this?" Felicia was annoyed but willing to do anything to get her crazy mother off the phone. Kathy nodded and spoke again, "Yes ..." The sounds of bed sheets rustling and springs moving could be heard, a door opening ... a few moments of silence ... then the phone picked up. "They're fine mother, both of them. Look, their prom is tonight, and I have to get up for work in 3 hours. Go to sleep, mother. The twins are fine, okay?" Kathy sighed softly, partially in relief. "Yes, of course, dear. Goodnight. I'm sorry to bother you." She hung up the phone then and laid back in bed. "He's coming ... soon! I know she'll never listen, and there's no way I can stop him. I'm so sorry, Felicia, for getting you into this. Your poor mother has been a fool, and now she has to pay!" Felicia awakened to the sound of her alarm buzzing loudly and she groaned softly. She slapped the snooze bar, muttering, "Long day ahead ... few more minutes won't hurt." The alarm went off again and she glared at it. "You just hate me, don't you?" Felicia shut it off and began her usual morning routine of getting ready for work. She sighed. "Working on a Saturday ... geez! I should kill my boss! I bet he's sleeping in. Well, I should be home in time to help the girls get ready." Felicia walked in the door half dead, it had been a long day at the office. She looked at the time, 5:15PM. "Damn! The twins are probably going insane by now." She walked to their bedrooms and knocked on their doors. "Ashley, Alicia! How's it coming, girls?" Both answered, "Great mom," at once. "Okay! If you girls need me I'll be in the living room. Your grandmother didn't call, did she?" "No, mom," Alicia answered. Felicia nodded relieved and went and plopped down on the couch. She was awakened rudely from her sound sleep by the doorbell. "What in the world ... ?" Suddenly both twins yelled ... "I'll get it!" and ran towards the door. The twins are young looking, very beautiful young girls. Both have long, brown hair and sparkling, green eyes. Tonight their lips are a ruby red and each is wearing a black evening gown. The gowns are low cut, showing off more cleavage than mom really approved of, but then, mom never approved of anything fun. The dresses fell down to just above the knees and were of course quite tight, showing off their wondrous curves. It's a pity I can only keep one. Their legs encased in black nylon pantyhose and their feet in black high heels. Perfect, low mobility, they'll be more concerned with getting their dresses dirty than about anything else. Yes, this is the time ... Time for me to make my move. Oh ... I suppose you're wondering who I am and why I'm watching these people and giving you this play by play of their lives? Well, you see, I'm the demon of course and, well, Kathy has to have been my best prey in years. The fool woman! She never knew what hit her until it was too late. She accepted my "gifts", each designed to play their little parts. The water? Poisoned of course, the wagon was meant to fall apart, so she would of course trap herself. I mean, I can't force people into these terms, but greed is such a wonderful tool. Hmm ... Oh ... yes! I suppose I should get back to my story. Well anyway ... The twins and their mother suspected nothing as I opened the portal to the island. Right under their noses. Just open the portal in the doorframe and let the fool girls walk right into my trap. Their escorts, the young gentlemen at the door, extend their arms to the girls, and there they go ... a sudden flash of light, and the twins are mine. My job is done here. And now to finish things elsewhere. The twins awoke on a sandy beach. They looked around in confusion. "Where ..." Alicia looked at Ashley in confusion, and Ashley returned the look. They were lying in a small clearing, alone, the house, their boyfriends, everything gone. And now they were here. Alicia stood and kicked something with her foot. She looked down to see a small book, simply entitled, "My Journal". "What is this?" She looked at it confused before picking it up. "Whatcha got, sis?" Ashley asked. She stood and looked at the small book curiously. "Hey ... I recognize that handwriting ... It looks a lot like mom's!" Alicia blinked, looked at her sister then at the book. "You're right! But ... some woman named Rachel wrote it. Wait ... didn't mom say she had ... an older sister?" Ashley nodded. "You don't suppose that ... craziness Grandma was always going on about ..." "It couldn't be," was her sister's reply but she didn't sound too sure of it. "Well the diary leaves instructions. I suppose the only way we're going to get anywhere is to play along. It says we're supposed to go to the cave on the map. Map what? Oh, there it is! Anyway, we go to this cave. Touch nothing, don't drink offered water, don't touch anything. We must go into this cave and get a chest which we aren't to open under any circumstances. We have to bring this chest back here where we found the diary. This is crazy ..." Ashley shook her head. "Maybe Grandma wasn't crazy like mom said she was. At any rate we're not going to get back home sitting here." "Ash, you can't be serious! This map leads through a fen, and we're certain to get all muddy and ... then into a creepy cave ... and ..." "Ali, stop it! I'm scared too, but we aren't gonna get anywhere standing here. We're gonna have to play along until this craziness rides out. It's all we can do." Alicia nodded slowly realizing her sister was right. "Well, there's no sense in destroying our shoes. We may as well leave them here ... and salvage something? Besides, we can't run around out here in heels." Ashley nodded and slipped off her heels as Alicia did the same. Then Alicia picked up the map and studied it a moment. "It says that we should just head straight into the fen. If we walk straight then in about a mile or so we'll reach the cave." The girls started off, their stocking feet sinking into the soft ground almost immediately, making travel hard. They walked for a while until Alicia stopped panting. While Ashley was her identical twin they were as different as night and day. Ashley has always been the more active tomboy type, while her older sister had been the one concerned with more girlish things such as clothing, looks, boys. So while she was winded after such a short time Ashley barely showed signs of the walk affecting her and hadn't noticed her sister falling behind. "Ashley... wait!" she panted. "I need to rest." "But sis, we've barely made a quarter mile." "Ash, please! I'm not as athletic as you." Ashley nodded and sat on a nearby rock. She had barely noticed the mud clinging to her stocking feet, while her sister had been complaining about ruining a brand new pair of hose the entire trip. And true to form she had starting complaining again. "Eew, gross! My feet sank into the mud!" Ashley sighed and shook her head. 'Why must my sister be such a ditz?' she thought to herself. "So pull them out already!" Alicia nodded to her sister's suggestion and tugged at her feet, but she only managed to sink deeper into the mud rather than pulling her feet free. Ashley's jaw dropped. "Sis ... be really still!" Alicia however wasn't listening to her sister, she was in a sudden state of shock. Instead of her feet coming free she sank to her knees in this mud. She screamed and began to panic, struggling wildly to get out of the mud, pumping her legs up and down, and pushing herself deeper in. Ashley muttered a few curse words and yelled, "Sis, hang on! I'm coming to get ... What the ... ?" Ashley tried to stand from the rock she was on only to find she was stuck fast to it. She looked down and blinked. She noticed some sort of grayish ooze that had formed under her legs and butt and seemed to hold her to the rock. Meanwhile Alicia was pumping her nylon clad legs up and down into the mud and only succeeding at sinking further in. The mud had risen to her thighs and all she could feel under her feet was soft mud. She stopped struggling, panting, out of breath. She choked out, "Ashley, help me!" as she felt her thighs sinking into the soft, gooey mud. Ashley, however, was having her own troubles as she was currently glued to a rather unmovable boulder. She cursed her hose, knowing full well that the glue had seeped through them to her skin. 'I swear if I get out of this I'm never wearing pantyhose again!' She looked around desperately and found something she thought she could use, a stick. She began scraping frantically at the grayish glue which trapped her on the boulder and kept her from helping her sister. It began to come off slowly and Ashley hoped that it would be in time as she heard her sister's choking cries for help. Alicia looked at her sister, wondering why she was staring at that stupid rock while she was here stuck in some damn mud pit. She was just now beginning to catch her breath as the mud made it's way up her thighs to her waist, greedily pulling the warm body into it's depths. Alicia looked around ... there was nothing to grab and her sister was still playing with that stupid rock. Now she had some stick and was trying to make a outline of her butt or something. 'Why isn't she here, helping me out of this mess? My dress is ruined now, thanks to her!' Alicia sighed. The mud climbed up her stomach and Alicia began to wonder how deep this mud really was. She wiggled her stocking clad toes and felt only more of that soft mud below her. "Sis ... please ... It's not funny anymore! I'm sorry for whatever I did, really! Please! Please, help me!" Ashley glanced over at her sister and then began to work more frantically, she almost had her butt pried loose, although she was fairly sure that she was going to destroy her dress in the process, as well as those accursed pantyhose. She began work on her legs. "Alicia, hon, I'm doing the best I can! You didn't do anything ... just don't move, okay? Stay really still!" Alicia wondered what kind of idiot advice her sister was giving her. 'Don't move? Where am I going to go?' The mud continued to pull her in and now seemed to be grasping for the young woman's breasts. Alicia was finding it hard to breathe as the mud seemed to be giving her a really tight bear hug. She tried to plea for help again but it came out as more of a wheeze than a call. She looked around and tried to keep her hands away from the mud, fearing that it might ruin her nails somehow. She looked at her sister again. Ashley was standing now, well, her butt was in the air, she had torn her dress, and she was playing with that stick still. What was she doing now, tracing her legs? Alicia felt the mud engulf her breasts and begin to slide up her shoulders. She was feeling scared again. 'What if Ashley doesn't rescue me? It's not my fault my boyfriend was cuter! Is she trying to kill me? Is she jealous?' - "Oh God, Ashley! Please ... this mud is really deep ... and I haven't stopped sinking! /Please/ get me out, /please!/" Tears began to roll down her cheeks as she watched her sister still playing with that stick. Ashley worked even harder, she was almost free now. She gave out a triumphant yell as her hose tore and freed her from the rock. She ran to her sister, which seemed much easier without the back of her dress from the waist down. "Alicia, I'm coming! Hang on!!" As she arrived she gasped in horror. Alicia's face was framed in brownish mud, as well as her wrists and hands, which where still floating on the surface. Alicia opened her eyes as she heard her sister's voice but she seemed afraid to speak, afraid that the tiniest movement might push her under the surface, and her eyes pleaded with Ashley for rescue. Ashley scanned the area and quickly spotted what she wanted, a young sapling that she could easily uproot from the soft earth. She grabbed the small tree which couldn't have been more than five feet tall and pulled with all her strength. Amazingly even to her it came out easily. She quickly ran over to her sister and waved one end at her. "Alicia, grab on!" Alicia who, on top of almost drowning, now found a tree in her face and her sister yelling something about grabbing something. She grabbed the tree and held on for dear life as she felt herself slowly being pulled out of the mud. Almost two hours later Alicia was freed from the deadly quicksand trap and Ashley fell to her knees in exhaustion. Alicia pulled her muddy body close to her sister and embraced her tightly. "Oh God, Ashley! I was so scared! I thought you were going to let me drown in there! But ... thank you for saving me!" Ashley laughed. "Ya know ... it was tempting for about a half second. But I couldn't save you, somehow I got stuck to that boulder. Sis there's something weird about this place. Things are popping up just as we need them, or we're being forced to need them. Let's not stay here long, let's just get that treasure and get out of here." Alicia nodded slowly. "I know, but ... I wish I could clean up first. I hate running around all muddy and gross ..." Ashley and Alicia began their slow march through the sticky bog again, the soft mud sucking at their feet with every step. Ashley was growing tired of listening to her sister complain about /everything/ here. First it was that she was all muddy and wanted to wash off, then every fifteen minutes she was tired and had to rest, then she would complain because everything was muddy. Ashley was ready to completely give up when they came across a lake. Alicia immediately made a beeline for it, while Ashley consulted the maps. "Ali, I'm sure there's no lake on this map, and I'm assuming aunt Rachel would have had the sense to put one on there." She looked up and noticed that her sister wasn't anywhere near her. "Ali?" She heard sounds of splashing and almost immediately knew where her sister had gone, so she headed for the lake as well. As Ashley arrived she saw her sister washing the mud out of her hair and off her clothes as best she could. She shook her head. "Ali, it's not like we're gonna meet some cute guys out here or something. You don't have to look your best." Alicia turned and frowned at her sister. "Well /you/ can look like some vagabond who's never heard of a shower but /I'd/ like to at least look respectable." Ashley shook her head again and rolled her eyes. "Ali, I've got a bad feeling about this. The lake isn't on the map and that can only mean trouble." Alicia ignored her sister and continued in trying to get all of the mud out of her hair. She hadn't bothered to even undress before diving into the cool clear water, well it had been clear before all that disgusting mud had washed off turning parts of the water a murky brown. She looked up at Ashley and sighed. "What's going to happen? The water going to turn into acid or something?" As if on cue the water did change, but not into acid, rather into a jello like substance with Alicia stuck waist deep in it. Ashley slapped her forehead and shook her head. "Why me?" she muttered. "Of all people that had to be stuck on a cursed island with my air headed sister, why me?" Alicia wasn't much worried about her sister's muttering, she was wore worried about this stuff that five seconds ago had been water. She struggled and pulled but it held her tighter than the quicksand she had been stuck in earlier had. She looked up to her sister, fear showing in her eyes. "I'm sorry, sis! I should have listened! I won't ignore you again ... just please ... get me out! I don't want to die, sis! And I'm really scared ..." Ashley sighed and nodded. "It's okay, sis! Just let me think a moment. I wish we'd listened to Grandma ..." She glanced around the area silently looking to see what she could use this time to recuse her sister. Vines were the first thing she spotted they looked thick and sturdy enough. However, out of reach, about a good two or three feet higher than she could reach in the branches of a nearby tree. Ashley smiled, she knew how to climb trees, and with her dress not as constrictingly tight, since she had torn it on that boulder back there, she could be to those vines in a matter of minutes. Ashley immediately started up the tree, ignoring how the bark was tearing more holes into her pantyhose which now resembled swiss cheese made from black nylon. Meanwhile Alicia was struggling to get free of her sticky prison with little luck. She couldn't move her legs and pushing on the goo had had no effect whatsoever. Then she felt something like a ripple go past her legs, then another. She was confused by this and looked around just in time to see something that resembled a tentacle rise out of the gelatin lake. The gel oozed and moved slowly, something like a giant amoeba. Alicia screamed as the tentacle came towards her and wrapped around her body, pinning her arms to her sides. Ashley, still up in the tree, almost lost her balance as her sister suddenly screamed. She had gotten to the vines and was starting to untangle them enough to be usable when a sudden scream made her lose her concentration. She looked down to see her sister engulfed by the strange gel. Ashley muttered a few curse words and grabbed what she had of the vine. She jumped from the tree to the ground and landed on her feet with a soft /thud/. She started as fast as she could to her sister who had been swallowed up at this point by the gel and it was settling down to perhaps digest it's meal. No longer concerned about her own safety she ran across the wobbly substance to where her sister was and with strength that only adrenaline could produce punched through the gel and grabbed her sister's wrist. In a feat of strength that would have amazed anyone who witnessed it, she began to pull her sister free. The amoeba however was not in the mood to give up it's prize and began too ooze up around Ashley's feet, engulfing them. Ashley screamed in frustration and let go of her unconscious sister and pulled with all her might at her own feet, barely pulling them free. She realized quickly that she wouldn't be able to save her sister /and/ escape the gel this way. The gel began to pull it's previous prize back into itself, apparently able to only concentrate on one task at a time. Ashley quickly formulated a plan that would be her sister's only chance of survival. She quickly tied one end of the vine around her sister's disappearing wrist. She grabbed the other end and ran for the tree. With speed only desperation can bring she climbed the tree in record time and wrapped the vine around the limb, making sure it wasn't too tight. Then she tied the same end around her own waist and jumped down from the tree and pulled on the vine like a horse tied to a wagon stuck in the mud. Slowly, ever so slowly, her sister emerged from the amoeba-creature. When Alicia's unconscious body was finally free of the creature it disappeared, replaced by the normal muddy ground, as if it had never existed. Ashley didn't have time to think about it or be shocked. She quickly but gently eased her sister to the ground and ran to her side. Remembering the CPR lessons she had had just a year ago she tried desperately to get her sister breathing again. She breathed in, pumped her sister's stomach, several times ... each time whispering, "please Ali live, please ..." Just as she was about to give up her sister sputtered and wheezed and coughed up something that looked like the gel she had just been in, before finally taking a breath. Ashley crumpled to the ground, exhausted. Night had set in before the twins even had the energy to move again. Ashley was the first to awake to almost pitch blackness. She groped around in the dark a moment and found the warm body of her sister. "Ali, wake up!" she said as she gently shook her sister. Alicia awoke slowly muttering about not wanting to go to school. As she opened her tired eyes she almost screamed. "Ash, I'm blind!" she yelled, startled. Ashley sighed softly and hugged her sister tightly. "You aren't blind, stupid, it's dark out," she said in a relieved tone. Alicia almost sounded confused as she spoke, and very frightened. "You ... you saved me? The last thing I remember was that ... that thing grabbing my head and I couldn't breathe. And then blackness." Ashley pulled her sister to her tightly, comfortingly. "Shh ... Ali, we're safe now. That thing is gone." Ashley wished she was as sure of their safeness as she was trying to make her sister feel. Alicia curled up in her sister's arms and tears began to fall from her eyes. "Ash, I just wanna go home! I don't want to die Ash, please don't let me die!" Ashley squeezed her sister reassuringly. "We'll get home sis, somehow." She tried to make her words sound convincing, even if she wasn't sure of how truthful they really were. She rocked back and forth comforting her older sister. "And I'm not gonna let you die. We're going home together, or not at all, sis." Alicia cried herself to sleep while Ashley held her tightly. Soon they were both asleep, resting before the tortures of the next day. Meanwhile, back in Kathy's home, problems of a different nature had started. Felicia had called five times now, because the twins had disappeared, and each time Kathy tried to explain, Felicia would scream about it not being the time for her nonsense and hang up. Kathy sighed softly and pushed her greying hair out of her face. She was sitting on her bed where she had been for the last hour. Tears had stopped coming at least thirty minutes ago, maybe more. She looked over at the phone wondering if Felicia was going to call a sixth time. Then something did happen. A pool of black ooze slid under her bedroom door, formed into a ball, rolled to the end of her bed and then formed into her all too familiar double. Kathy stared at it, partially in sorrow partially in anger. "Give them back! Take me, but give them back! Please ... they have a long life ahead of them, and you said you'd only take two. Wasn't my daughter enough?" she cried out at the thing. It laughed, a dark hideous laugh. "Oh, now you aren't the spring chicken you used to be, Kathy, and I delivered everything you wanted. I held up to my end. Now it's your turn, and however noble your offer is, I'll be declining. The younger flesh tastes so much better, their fear is so much sweeter, their tortured screams so much more musical." Kathy turned away in disgust. "Get out! Get out now! And don't ever return!" The demon laughed once more, with it's blood curdling laugh. "I will be gone soon enough, Kathy. There's just something I must do first. Since the contract is forfilled and services rendered, it's time to end the deal. Oh, as for the second twin, well, Kathy, your family has been so good to me thus far, why should it end with you?" Kathy looked back up at her blackish double with a look of horror. "No ... you leave them out of this you ..." The demon waved it's hand and Kathy continued talking but no sound came from her. "That's enough of your lip, woman. First we end the contract". Kathy uttered a silent scream as the flesh on her leg burned as the mark slowly faded away. Then she fell to the bed, lifeless. "Should have read the fine print. Kathy, dear, you see, I didn't exactly save your life, just ... prolonged it. Oh ... yeah ... I didn't give you a chance to decline did I? Oops ..." The demon laughed as it stood over Kathy's unmoving body. Morning broke on Demon Isle to find the twins still asleep. Ashley was the first to awaken and she gasped as she looked around. The entrance to the caves was less than twenty feet from her, sitting there as if it had always been there. She quickly woke her sister and collected her maps. She pulled out the map for the cave itself and began to study it. Alicia however looked around. "Ash, there has to be some food around here somewhere. I'm really hungry. Umm isn't that the cave we've been looking for?" Ashley nodded absent-mindedly, not really paying attention to her sister. "Yes Ali, it is. I'm hungry too, but hopefully in a few hours we'll be home and we can eat then." Alicia nodded and looked into the cave. "It's so dark Ash, how are we gonna see anything?" Ashley stopped studying her maps and looked at her sister almost in shock. 'Oh my God,' she thought. 'She said something... intelligent... and even more frightening, she's right!' Ashley sputtered, "I'm um ... not real sure." It seemed this isle had something with cues, because once again as if on cue Alicia spotted an old rusty oil lantern, with a wick and oil in it, and even a box of matches to light it with. "Oh, look sis! A lantern ... Cool! We'll be able to see now!" Ashley nodded again slowly. "Umm, okay ... sounds good." Her thoughts drifted to how suspicious that was, just lying in a swamp, as if it belonged. Ashley took the lantern and lit it, and the twins began their walk into the cave. The cave was beautiful and deceptively large, rock formations hung from the ceilings and bright earthy colors swirled through the walls. The clay floor of the cave was soft and sticky, sucking the girls stocking feet deep into it and not wanting to let go, even worse than the swamp had done. It was a light grey color and clung to their legs as if letting them go would be like giving up a great treasure, but the girls struggled on anyway, sometimes sinking to their calves even their knees in the soft clay. After what seemed like an eternity they came upon the final room and there just as it had many years before stood a small chest, open, and almost overflowing with gold coins. The clay floor was knee deep here and the girls were almost exhausted when they finally crossed the room. Ashley sighed softly "Here it is. All we have to do now is get out of here with it." Alicia nodded. "I think both of us could carry it. It doesn't look too heavy." Ashley nodded in agreement and sloshed over to one end of the chest. She gingerly reached out and closed the lid, as if she expected it to bite her. Alicia tried to move to her end of the chest but the clay refused to give up her pantyhose covered legs. "Ash, help me, I'm stuck!" she cried. Ashley sighed and tried to move to her sister's side but found that she was stuck too. Alicia screamed suddenly drawing Ashley's attention and she gasped, Alicia was sinking into the clay! Alicia pulled at her legs and struggled to no avail, the clay held her much tighter than the quicksand and was much sticker. Ashley watched in horror as the clay climbed up her sister's thighs, then encased her waist. She struggled and tugged at her own legs but nothing was happening. Alicia got an idea and reached for the stone stand for the chest, but her hands passed right through it, as if it wasn't there. She blinked and tried again, again her hands passed through the stand as if it were made from air. Ashley stood watching her sister sink, and didn't even notice the chest beginning to open. Alicia screamed as a blackish ooze began to slide down the stand in front of her, and Ashley refocused her attentions. The ooze slid down the base and stopped inches in front of Alicia, as the clay began working to claim her rib cage. The ooze formed a perfect sphere and then began to form a body, which looked exactly like the twins. The ooze smiled down at Alicia and then turned and walked over to Ashley. "You know you could probably save her, you know how you used superhuman strength to pull that tree from the earth, and pull her from that lake? See that was a gift, a gift from me." As it spoke it's voice sounded almost exactly like Ashley's, except an octave lower. "And well, I'd be inclined to let you keep that gift, and well, give you a lot more. I mean you've always hated your sister, you envied her fashion taste, her charm with the gentlemen. Yeah sure you had her looks but you just couldn't carry yourself like she could, well, see when she's out of the way I can give you all of her talents, and you'd have your own brains to boot ... Great huh? Whatdya say?" Ashley looked at the thing, shocked. "You ... want me to sacrifice my sister ... to gain wealth and power?" The ooze demon nodded. "That about sums it up." Ashley laughed loudly. "You are completely out of your mind! I may wish I had some of her talents but /never/ would I want to see harm come to her. Or didn't any of your little tests prove that? I love my sister and you can't change that!" The demon snarled. "Very well then. Perhaps she'll be more cooperative." It slapped Ashley and she swore her jaw was on fire when she landed. The beast had hit her so hard she had been torn from the clay and knocked into an adjacent room in the cave, with a more solid floor. Although it was dark in here and something sticky seemed to be in the air. The demon turned and walked to Alicia, who was chest deep in the clay now, her breasts half submerged. The demon kneeled down and began to talk to her. "You'll betray your sister won't you? I mean it's just her measly life versus riches, men, power, beauty, everything a girl could hope for. I mean one of you has to die anyway and well why should you drown in that slimy disgusting muck, hmm?" The demon had a surprisingly sweet voice. Alicia tried to move again, even wiggle her toes which were submerged deep into the sticky clay, but it was futile and she could feel it creeping up her breasts. She didn't want to die this way, but her sister's life ... Alicia shook her head. "No! I can't ... I just can't!" The demon roared with laughter. "Before it's all said and done one of you will be begging me for the chance to betray the other, or else ... whichever one of you dies first ... well the other is the lucky one." Ashley stood up and immediately got a face full of something sticky. She swatted at it and tried to get it off her face but with each movement she only seemed to collect more on her arms. Deciding that this course of action was getting her nowhere she began to walk forward. Only now that stuff was grabbing her legs. At first she could tear through but, after a few moments she found that she couldn't move forward her legs were stuck. Ashley screamed in frustration and she felt something scurry across her arm. She reached to swat for it but her other arm was stuck. It was then she began to realize what was happening. She tried one arm then the other, both were stuck as well as her legs, even her body. She wiggled her feet and something else dawned on her, she was no longer touching the ground. The sticky substance was holding her in the air. She felt something scurry up her leg, across the nylon, then onto bare leg, where her hose were torn, then nothing. Ashley wanted to scream but somehow she held it back. She began to struggle wildly, trying desperately to move but this seemed to only trap her further. She could feel the strands encasing her arms and legs, some on the nylon of her hose and some making her flesh twitch as the sticky stands clung to it. She felt that scurrying again, in several places. Ashley screamed and tried to turn or twist, and then she felt several pinpricks and she stopped. A small tear formed in her eye as her situation finally dawned on her, but a plan, yes a plan to perhaps beat the demon. Alicia felt the clay sucking her down slowly. It had claimed her shoulders and was squeezing her tightly. She could barely breathe and it was climbing up her neck, squeezing, making it even harder to breathe. Then, from the next room she heard her sister yell, "Fine ... I'll accept! I'll accept the deal!" Alicia's eyes filled with terror and the demon smiled at her. "You should have taken her life when you had the chance, but on the bright side, you won't be needing anyone to dig you a grave ... you're sinking into it." A strangled cry was Alicia's only response followed by her desperately trying to catch her breath. The demon walked to the side cave where Ashley hung almost mummified by the spider webs which held her almost a foot of the ground. The demon smiled at her and thing waved it's hand. The webs disintegrated and Ashley fell to the floor with a thud. She picked herself up slowly trying to make it look like the fall had taken more out of her than it had. The demon laughed, gloating. "I knew one of you would see it my way, but I expected it of her ... not you." Ashley smiled and spoke in a weak voice, "Well, survival instinct stuff, you know ... survival of the fittest and all that." The demon nodded. "Very well, your life shall be spared, I'll return you to your home and it will be as if you never left. In return you will sacrifice to me two of your future clan. They will be taken at my discretion. Do you agree to these terms? It's no different than what you just did. What will two more hurt?" Ashley nodded ... and thought a moment. "Anything I want, anything at all?" The demon nodded. "Well except for the lives of those that I claim, they are off limits." Ashley sighed and nodded. 'On to plan B," she thought. 'I hope you'll forgive me sis but it was the only way.' Alicia tilted her head back as she strained to hear what her sister was trading her for. 'Probably some foolishness ... my sister never had a taste for anything and now she's leaving me to die in this damned ooze ... I knew I should have sacrificed her!' The clay slowly crawled up her chin as the demon and her sister walked in. Maybe it was the lack of lighting but Ashley looked really bad. Ashley looked down at her sister with tears in her eyes. "I'm really sorry sis," she whispered. "It was the only way." Alicia started to respond but as she opened her mouth the clay began to pour into it. Her hands, which were still above the surface, began to frantically paw at the clay trying to get a grip onto anything which might save her. She found nothing as her head and hands disappeared into the clay. Ashley shook her head and wiped away the tears. 'Ya gotta be strong Ash,' she thought. 'It won't be long now ...' The demon waved it's hands. "I shall now return you home." Ashley felt her body break apart and reform it was the most painful thing that she thought she had ever felt and it seemed to last forever, and yet it only took an instant. Ashley didn't have time to look at how she had changed, her head was spinning from the poison. While the spiders didn't normally carry enough to kill a man, several of them had bitten her. She smiled to herself as she fell to her knees. "I beat you ..." she whispered. "You die if you can't get a supply of souls ... and I just cut you off!" With that she slumped to the floor, dead. The demon felt a sudden jolt and screamed in agony. "What the ... but the human can't kill itself! It's not allowed! The only way she could die is if ... /No!/ That's not possible! They couldn't have ..." Another jolt as blue lightning arced across it's body. The demon screamed in agony. As three spirits watched it's final moments, Kathy smiled at her granddaughters, especially Ashley. "You've done well my children. I wish it hadn't of been at the cost of your lives." "But what happened to Aunt Rachel?" Alicia inquired. Kathy shook her head. "Rachel was consumed by the beast I guess ... or else she's still out there somewhere. She was a resourceful girl. And his contract said that he could take her. It never said what he had to do with her after that so my contract was fulfilled. But yours, Ashley, hiding that poison was a stroke of pure genius, as well as some excellent acting." Ashley nodded. "What about mom?" Kathy smiled. "She'll miss you both a great deal I'm sure, and me too, I suppose, but she will be taken care of. I made sure that upon my death everything I owned went to her, so in my own way I cheated the demon, too. Now come on you two, there's some wonderful people up here in the spirit world I'd like you to meet."