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Alice's trip to the bulletin board at her school was a troublesome one. She needed something to do that summer, and had procrastinated way too long before applying for a job. The school bulletin board was her last hope to get into something before the school year was over. If it ended before she had a job secured then she was out of luck.

The board was posted in front of the entrance where the school mascot was emblazoned on the white tile floor, the first thing students saw when they stepped through the doors out of the bus loop. The halls weren't that busy. There wasn't any classwork to look forward to besides exams, so the school remained relaxed. That was except for Alice who found herself marching right up to the bulletin board's cork facade and scanning for anything of value.

It was mostly just papers advertising school clubs that were now useless given the end of the school year. There were phone numbers for a few services and hotlines, but so far no job opportunities. She adjusted the thick glasses on her face. Her blonde hair was tied into a tight bun on the back of her head. A crisp button up shirt hugged her torso and was tucked into a conservative black skirt. She struck the image of a teacher or counselor rather than a student, and that wasn't by accident. Aspirations of becoming a professor kept her demeanor and work ethic at their most polished.

Then there was Hazel. She came up on Alice's left, clopping on her heels loudly. Alice turned her head to see the girl already within arms' reach of her, a tall image of finely tanned skin, iridescent blonde hair, and manicured lashes. She did not mind Alice but was focused on the board alongside her, scanning the many advertisements with her shockingly blue eyes which soon cut towards Alice and caught her staring.

"What?" she asked, ruining the relative quiet with just that syllable.

"Nothing," said Alice, her contempt no better hidden. She looked back to the board, trying not to frown too conspicuously now that she had to share space with a girl she loathed. Maybe 'loathe' was too strong a word, but there were very few nice feelings shared between them. More than just cutting a sharp contrast between them in appearance, it was Hazel's attitude towards school and life in general that had them as antagonists. Daughter of a wealthy GPS designer, she'd been given everything on a platter like the fancy designer clothes she wore and the expensive sports car she drove to and from school with. Hard work was not in her vocabulary. Once she graduated high school that summer it was off to college where she would do nothing but drink and party.

At least that's how Alice saw it. She tried not letting it bother her, but keeping her attention on the board was difficult. At last she saw something helpful. It was a white sheet of paper stapled to the cork. At the top was its message printed in bold, black print.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Focus Group

Simple Questions

Easy Answers

$50 for anyone who shows up

Free Food and Drinks

Hazel saw it at the same time as a little chirp of interest shot through her nose. She pulled her phone out of her purse and snapped a photo of the paper before slinking off, leaving Alice alone. It was encouraging as well as disheartening . Here was an opportunity to make some easy cash, but one that Hazel would be taking advantage of too. Did Alice really want to risk ending up in a room with her and some strangers, answering questions and sharing opinions?

For $50, it sure sounded tempting. Beneath the main wall of text on the sheet was an address and times to show up. According to it the Focus Group would last upwards of two hours. $25 an hour Alice thought. That's better than any job I could find here. Trapped with Hazel or not, money was money, and she needed it. She pulled her phone out of her pocket, snapped a photo, then left.

* * *

The address led Alice to a location well outside of the city. It was a nondescript office building out in the middle of the woods, surrounded immediately by a lawn choked with unkempt grass. The road leading to it was cracked. There was only a small lot of gravel for her to park her car on. To her dismay, there was a familiar Porsche parked there already.

Alice parked her car and went through the front entrance to find a lobby with a front desk and a woman sitting behind it. She was bent over something, scribbling furiously. Alice could see the top of her head. Her jet black hair fell into a disheveled curtain. In the center was a shallow trench of bare scalp. A circular pair of glasses were perched on a spindly nose in front of beady eyes. She looked up and saw Alice walking in. A toothy grin split her face.

"Hi there!" she said. "Are you here for the focus group at 3:30?"

It was good to hear that she was at the right place. "I am," she said.

"Cool, cool. And what's your name?"

"Alice Weeks."

"Alice, I'm Jessica." Jessica stood up and held out a clammy little hand for Alice to shake. She took it and gave one pump. Her skin was softer than Alice's. Alice had to resist the urge to wipe her hand off on her jeans after she let go. Jessica sat back down, still grinning that goofy grin. "You can walk through that door right there and have a seat. Get comfy. You're here early like that other girl."

"OK."

"I'll be right with you to bring some stuff for you to sign."

Alice didn't say anything else. She stepped right through the door beside the desk. Jessica hunched back over and continued writing. That smile of hers had widened into something most conniving. A sniveling snicker droned from between her teeth.

Alice found a waiting room rung by chairs. By the wall was a plastic folding table covered in snacks and a coffee dispenser. There were donuts, bags of chips, and a tall stack of styrofoam cups. Next to all of that was a water dispenser; its jug was half full. Waiting for her was Hazel, atop one of the chairs with her elbow thrown back on the armrest, phone in her hand, painted nails held to the back of it. Her legs were pulled up, precariously suspended over the edge of the seat. She looked up and saw Alice. She didn't look surprised.

Neither did Alice as she walked to the opposite corner and took a seat. The food on the table looked full, both the box of chips and tray of donuts being unmolested. The temptation was strong to pluck one and eat it, but she wouldn't in front of the judgemental Hazel. Not that I give a shit, Alice told herself erroneously.

She pulled out her phone and started browsing the internet. Silence pervaded the two of them, their thumbfalls not even loud enough for the other to hear. Hopefully some more people would show up to cut the awkward silence. Alice prayed to God that the advertisement she and Hazel saw was not the only one and that some other desperate folk were ready to earn some quick cash. A half hour passed and that proved not to be the case. Alice lowered her phone into her lap and scowled at the door she came through. Jessica had yet to show herself. Where was she? What was she doing? Looking at the time revealed it to be 3:34, after the focus group was supposed to be starting. Was she-?

Click!

It shattered the silence like an avalanche of tambourines. Sharp and dry, it lasted just an instant, but echoed for a crucially long moment thereafter. Hazel lowered her phone and gawked at the door. Her pampered eyes were scowling.

"Did... Did that door just lock?"

"I think it did," said Alice. "Is it?"

"I don't know." The concern in her voice was clear.

"Check it."

She clearly didn't want to, but after a moment Hazel brought her feet to the floor and went up to the door. She tried turning the knob. It didn't so much as jiggle. "What the fuck?" She gave it another curt twist and a yank. Nothing. "Yo, what the fuck is this?"

Alice's heart sank into her gut. She looked over at the second door that led into an unknown location. Had she heard the click from there too? She didn't think so. She got up and tried the knob. It yielded similar results. Dread building, she tried rattling it and got no movement. Now that she thought about it, there hadn't been a click from this one. It was locked before they even got there.

"This one's locked too." Her voice was a low drone, not yet in a panic, but on the bud of one.

Hazel was not so collected. She began tearing at the knob, jerking her entire body. "Come ooooooon!" She banged her fist on the door, jostling the bun of blonde hair behind her head. "You did not just fucking lock us in here!" There was no response. She kicked the door. "Open the DOOR!" Again, silence. She kicked it two more times, then turned her back to it to deliver a quintet of harsh donkey kicks. "O- PEN. THE. FUCK. UP!"

Alice jolted with each impact. She knew better than to ask Hazel to stop. Being locked in a room would not elicit calm heads. She pulled out her phone and opened the call app. Her thumb hung over the keypad, right over the 9 button, ready to tap it once and then the 1 key twice. Hesitation kept her frozen. Was it necessary? Would she get in trouble? Was she even in trouble right now? 9-1-1 was for emergencies only. Is that what this was?

"Oh my God!" shrieked Hazel.

Alice's head whipped upwards from her phone. Hazel was in front of the door, hand over her mouth, tear-glistened eyes alight with terror. She was looking at something above and behind Alice. Alice turned to look.

Right above the door Alice had tried opening was a grated vent. Falling from it was a cloud of yellow smoke. It slinked through the bars to form a single nebulous curtain that drifted to the floor in a slow motion plummet. It dissipated off of the carpet, those creeping fingers diffusing into a fog around Alice's ankles.

Alice meant to leap back, but she had already breathed it in. Her foot made one step behind her before she crumpled to the carpet, unconscious. Hazel screamed before she too felt the world slip away and joined Alice on the floor.

A few minutes later there was the click of the doors unlocking. The one to the lobby opened to reveal a phantom in white, its ghastly visage hidden by the alien gaze of a gas mask. Black hair fell about it like a hood. There came a muffled cackle from behind the respirator.

"Perfect~"

Jessica went to work immediately, stomping past her two unmoving guests and unlocking the farther door with a key from a ring. She left and then came back with a gurney which she piled both girls onto, their limp bodies forming a brief stack like cordwood. Jesica hustled them out of there and slammed the door behind her. She tore off her gas mask and let it fall to the floor. Her black hair floated up and then settled around a maniacal grin. The skin of her face was shiny with sweat. The wheels of the gurney clacked and jostled on the smooth hallway floor as she trucked towards the operating room. There was no time to lose.

The gurney blew through a push door and found itself in a dystopian arena of surgical equipment. In the center were four stainless steel operating tables. Beyond them were two pods filled with blue stasis fluid. Sitting on a counter next to the pods were two large, styrofoam boxes. Their lids were held shut by a thick lace of yellow tape labeled BIOHAZARD. Jessica hoisted the two girls from the gurney and unceremoniously plopped them onto the operating tables with one in between them.

Then Jessica went to the styrofoam boxes. With that dastardly smile still stretching her features she began peeling the tape off the lid. Once it was gone, she opened the box and craned her arms inside to pull out its contents. What came out was one of Jessica's most recent creations, a queer looking creature the shape of a box like it had come out of. It was cubic in proportion, there being only a pair of three-toed feet hanging out below it and hands attached by the wrist to the creature's sides. The hands and feet were both yellow, as were the creature's edges and corners. The faces were a smooth granite color like the face of a mountain. It had no mouth. Its giant eyes set above two yellow horns were closed, there being no life in the thing.

Jessica carried it to the operating table between the two girls, on Hazel's left. Jessica pulled on the top of the creature's head. It swung open on a hinge, revealing an empty cavity like a cranium. Jessica went back to the other styrofoam box, opened it, and retrieved yet another creature. This one was similar in stature to the first, albeit more akin to a tree stump in shape than a cube. It was a volcanic black, textured like the burning surface of a frozen lava flow. Tipping its stubby feet and hands were white claws. Unlike the yellow one, this creature had a mouth, the mandible of which protruded haughtily and sprouted an unsightly row of sharp teeth. It too remained motionless as Jessica laid it on the operating table to Alice's left.

After opening its head lid Jessica stood back. Everything was coming together wonderfully. She had to remind herself that there was a job to do and that the gas wasn't going to last forever. She stomped over towards a metallic stand that carried all of her surgical tools. After drawing a bone saw she went to work carving a line around both of the girls' skulls and opening them. Their caps fell off and wobbled on their tops like turtles on their shells. What they left behind were the wrinkled domes of their brains.

Hazel's was much smaller and lacked definition while Alice's was nice and healthy, replete with a wavy portrait of deep fissures and colorful tissue. Again, Jessica had to stop herself from admiring them and started the delicate procedure of removing the brains. First went Hazel whose diminutive cerebrum proved easy to maneuver. Jessica took it out with her gloved hands and carried it over to the yellow box creature. There she placed it into the open cavity and closed the lid. From there the creature would naturally integrate the brain into its nervous system. Alice came next. Jessica slid the source of her humanity out and brought it to the black creature. It went inside the head. Jessica closed the lid.

The amateur surgeon was beside herself with childish giggles. Now all she had to do was wait for her creations to come to life and she'll truly see the fruits of her labor. First she piled the lifeless human bodies of Hazel and Alice back onto the gurney, wheeled it to the pods, then dumped them into the fluids where their scalpless bodies floated like the specimens they had become. Then Jessica tossed their severed crowns in with them like trash bags into a dump.

She peeled the gloves off her hands and patted them. Now all she had to do was wait for her creations to wake up, then the fun would begin.

* * *

Alice woke up first. Her heavy, black eyelids fluttered open. Her eyes were a fiery orange, currently twisted with confusion as the room around her remained unfocused. She felt heavy, like her body was bound to the floor. When she tried opening her mouth she realized how cumbersome her jaw had become, almost like it had been put in a cast or wired shut. Wiggling her fingers made them tap the top of her head, but they could not move anywhere else. Her wrists were glued to the side of her body. Trying to crane her neck down did nothing but make her whole body sit up, or at least try to. There was no neck to speak of. After a few pushes and heaves she was able to roll forward and stand on her two feet.

There was a mirror on the wall where she saw her reflection, but in no way did she recognize anything. She jolted on her two feet and let out a shocked grunt. The beast in front of her did the exact same thing. Her Hepheastian eyes went round, and so did her reflection's.

"Oh my God!" screamed Alice in a tone not her own. It was gravelly and deep, fitting for such a foul looking beast.

Hazel was on a mat nearby, in the same room. Her purple eyes shot open and she launched to her feet. There was a mirror there for her to see herself in too. She suffered the same revelation Alice had, and meant to scream. There came nothing but a rattling buzz sound. Hazel was without a mouth, leaving only her gaping eyes to express her terror. She rubbed and scraped her fingers at the top of her head. Tears were running down her face and dripping off the bottom edge of her frame.

Alice knew that it was Hazel and vice versa. Alice was able to waddle over to Hazel for comfort. With her hands permanently pointed upwards, she could not hope to give a hug. The most comfort she could supply was leaning over so that their heads touched. Hazel's body was vibrating sharply. There emanated a low, steady buzz. It rattled on the rim of Alice's temple.

"[i]Oh God... Oh God... Oh God... Why...[/i](/?page=i%5DOh_God..._Oh_God..._Oh_God..._Why...%5B%2Fi)"

It was Hazel's voice, clear as day, echoing through Alice's head like a memory recalled verbatim. Hazel had no mouth, but her voice was transmitted through the vibrations. By some ingrained instinct or inherent understanding, Alice interpreted what she was saying perfectly.

"Look at me," Alice said in a quiet voice.

Hazel opened her eyes. They were glassy with her tears.

"We have to stay calm. We have to find a way out of here."

"[How?]" begged Hazel. "[We're freaks!]"

"I know... I know, but we can't let that stop us from trying to escape."

Hazel made a sniffling sound with her vibrations, even though she lacked a nose. "[OK...]"

They separated and looked around the room they were in. It was small, featuring plain white cinderblock walls and a combination stainless-steel sink and toilet. The door was metal with a vertical window. Alice recognized it as a prison cell. Not very encouraging. There was a tiny desk attached to the wall. On it was a short stack of printing paper and a small, rubber, bendy pen, placed there for communication on account of Hazel's absent mouth.

"Here. Try writing," Alice suggested.

Hazel waddled over to the desk but couldn't get a hand on either the paper or the pen. Out of frustration she swiped at the desk with her horn, sending the paper and pen to the floor in a flurry. Not giving up, she went to the pen and tried grabbing it with her toes. Miraculously, they were dextrous enough to hold the pen somewhat easily. Hazel was able to wiggle the pen between her toes like she would with her fingers. For a moment she stopped crying, mesmerized by her skillful stepper.

"Try writing your name down," said Alice.

Hazel brought the pen point down to one of the papers and wrote her name. It took a few moments and the final product was barely legible, but she could in fact write her name, one small mercy amidst a series of tragedies.

Suddenly there was a loud clack as the cell door unlocked and then swung open. Standing there was Jessica, smiling down at her creations with a sinister glee that made both of the girls cower away from her.

"Why, hello there! You're both up early. That's good. That means we can get things started." She came after them, the bell of her lab coat bouncing off her wiry legs, both arms reaching out. They tried to run, but their woefully short feet could bring them nowhere besides the empty walls surrounding them. Jessica grabbed them both by the arm and hoisted them into the air. They thrashed and whimpered fruitlessly. "Oh, don't be so dramatic," said Jessica. "I think the two of you are going to have a blast. I know I will~"

Jessica turned around and left the cell with Hazel and Alice dangling from her clammy hands like sacks of money. It was through a push door Jessica went, bringing the three of them into the laboratory where the experiments would be held. Dangling helplessly, Alice and Hazel gawked at a medieval arsenal of bizarre looking tools that were collected atop the counters surrounding them. On the floor in the center of the room were what looked like miniature pillories, wooden planks with holes in them for fitting heads and wrists. The difference here was that these only had two holes.

Jessica brought them over and knelt in front of the two restraints. She laid the girls on their backs then pointed a finger in their faces. "Don't move. You won't be going anywhere far, not on those feet." They remained still, privy to their hampered mobility. Jessica pulled off the top half of one of the pillories. She dragged Hazel up to it and fit her ankles into the holes, closed the top half back over it, then locked them together with a latch. They realized that these were not normal pillories but stockers for their feet, not much better.

Alice was locked into hers next, leaving the girls even more powerless than they had been. Jessica stood up, her perpetual grin at its most gaudy. "There we go. Let's get started shall we?"

Hazel and Alice shivered in their stockers. They watched with the coldest dread as Jessica went to the counter where she kept those malignant instruments. She picked up a small wooden box. She brought it back over to them and sat cross legged in front of their stockers. The box was held in her lap like a small kitten, one hand cradling the lid.

"Here's the fun part. Are you girls ready?"

"Please let us go..." croaked Alice.

"When we're done, sweety. When we're done." She opened the box and pulled out its contents. There was confusion for a moment as Jessica held up a dainty red feather by its stem. It was so light and fluffy that the soft breeze of the lab's AC made its furs drift. "Here we are. Let's see how sensitive those steppers of yours are."

The feather came down to Alice's bare sole. She scrunched it out of instinct, bracing for a slight tickle. She was relieved not to be on the receiving end of something truly evil like a blade or a lit match. That relief was immediately shattered once she felt the feather caress the bridge of her foot. It was like being struck by a lightning bolt. It was only the very tip of the feather, yet its caress on her wrinkled foot was the most intense thing she had ever experienced.

"Haha! Haha! Ahhhh! Ahahah!" Her laughter was forced, a product of her extreme discomfort. Her feet jostled and shook in their restraints. They twisted and rolled but could not escape the feather's draconian tickle.

Jessica danced and traced the feather along every crease in Alice's foot. She brought it down to the heel then swooped it up to the ball. She weaved through the toes, raking them across each piggy like a coin across the bars of a grate. The feather would swoop down with a flourish and then come back up, reintroducing itself to Alice's sole wrinkles.

Her tormentor cackled. "Ahh, yes. I built these feet to be extra sensitive. It looks like I did a good job~"

Indeed she had. Each swipe and flutter of the feather was agony. Alice's retorts turned into whimpers, then sobs. Tears rolled down the curves of her body. "Stop... Oh God... FUCK! Please! Please let me go..."

"Shhhhhhhhh," hushed Jessica. "I will as soon as we're done here, and I've got more in store for the both of you." She moved on to the other foot, finding it just as sensitive as its twin. Alice suffered through more of the feather's cruel caresses, weeping and grabbing at her head to quell the misery.

Jessica stopped abruptly. "Alright. I'm happy with those results." Her head swiveled over to Hazel, striking chills of terror into the girl. "Your turn now."

Hazel's body shook as she watched Jessica scoot over towards her with the feather. Bracing for contact brought little respite from the sharp tickle that stabbed up her foot and threw her into a fit of hysterics. Her boxy frame rattled and twisted on the floor. Her feet swung around wildly. Her screams were more of that loud buzzing, sounding like a video game controller that had been put on the floor.

Jessica took her sweet, sweet time juicing Hazel for her misery. "Yeeeeaaah... Not so popular now, are we?" The feather's tip danced up and down the bridge of her foot. "That's right. Feel it. Feel every single tickle." Jessica made sure she did, fiddling the feather into a circle and twiddling her toes with it. Her other foot was next, extending her ticklish torment and adding to the flow of tears that fell from Hazel's contorted eyes.

The feather was withdrawn at last, but the experimenting was not over. Jessica replaced the feather in its box and went back to the counter to pick up another. After sitting down and opening the box she pulled out a handful of clothespins. She went to Alice and clipped them onto the tip of her toes. Each time they closed there was another tickling jolt, these ones even more intense than what the feather had delivered. Jessica took her time making sure each pin was attached properly and wouldn't come off no matter how much the girls moved their feet. Once all ten of her digits were pinched Jessica went over and gave Hazel the same treatment.

"There..." whispered Jessica, lost in a fit of ecstasy. "Perfect."

Taking the pins off was just as bad. Immediately afterward Jessica retrieved a can of red paint with a brush sticking out of it. She whipped the brush out and used it to color the girls' soles. This was a unique sensation, one that was not as intense as the pins or feather but left their feet bristling in the lab's AC once their feet were wet and cherry red. Worst was the gentle scrape of those fine brush hairs gliding up their skin, driving them wild.

Jessica cackled. "Perfect. I suppose I can call myself an artist now, though you two will remain my proudest creations."

Like the clothespins, taking the paint off was no respite. Jessica used a frigid wet rag to clean them. Hazel and Alice's eyes were puffy from all of their crying. Their cheeks were beginning to dry only because they had run out of tears. To them it was clear that this would be the rest of their lives. They would die in those stockers, toys for Jessica to play with.

Their anguish came to an end when Jessica unlocked the coffers and pulled them both out by their hands. She carried them back to the cell with the two of them hanging from her hands, barely conscious. Jessica opened the cell door and chucked them onto their cots.

"I hope you two had fun. I know I did. If not, you better get used to it, 'cause now you're going to be my guinea pigs~" Then she shut the door. Her evil grin peered at them through the window for a few more seconds before she finally disappeared. She came back a few minutes later carrying two bowls of pudding. She put them on the ground. "Here you go. Eat up. You're gonna need your energy for tomorrow."

She closed the door on them, leaving them alone and in silence. Alice stood up on her cot while Hazel remained on her side, facing the wall, weeping quietly to herself. Alice waddled over to the bowls and awkwardly kicked them over to Hazel. She sat down on her cot and scooped up some pudding with her tongue. It was vanilla flavored. She looked up at Hazel who was lying with her back to Alice.

"You should try and eat." Alice said.

Hazel rolled over to face her, the grief clear on her eyes.Alice was reminded that she had no mouth.

"Oh, sorry. Um... Well she wouldn't have brought it here if she thought you couldn't eat it. You should try something."

Hazel looked at the pudding for a moment before she sat up. With no other option she dipped her toes into the sweet sludge, mushing it around and submerging her foot. Her eyes lit up suddenly. The taste of vanilla blossomed across her feet like it would on her tongue, kind of like a butterfly. Moving her feet around built on the taste just like stuffing her mouth would have. Her hunger pangs softened and she realized that she was somehow absorbing the pudding's nutrients through her feet. She pulled out one of her dessert-coated feet and grabbed a pen with her foot to write down what was happening.

Alice read it. "Oh! Well that's good at least."

They resumed their meal in silence. However nice it may have been to eat, it was still upsetting for Hazel knowing that she would have to do so with her feet for the rest of her life. Just watching her fat yellow toes squish around the pudding made her start crying again. She fell back onto her cot. She was done eating. Alice's empathy dug a dagger into her chest. She was in the same boat as Hazel, suffering the same injustice. There had to be something that she could do to lighten Hazel up, or at least damper their collective suffering.

She spotted Alice's feet lathered in pudding. An idea came to her. She slid the bowls aside with her feet and waddled over to Hazel who saw her coming over. Alice stood in front of her feet, eyeing their delectable-looking soles. Then, suddenly, she licked one of them.

Hazel jolted hard. Alice's tongue was rough like sandpaper, its surface covered in taste buds like barbs. When she vibrated her voice rumbled through Alice's tongue and mouth."[Hey! What'd you do that for?]"

Alice's tongue slurped back into her mouth. "Just thought I'd cheer you up. Your feet were looking tasty so I thought I'd get some more."

"[Cheer me up? By licking my foot?]"

"Yeah," Alice said. "Is it working?"

Hazel was quiet for a moment. "[A little... Do it again.]"

Alice's monstrous jaw formed a smile. "Alright." She licked Hazel's foot again, softly this time. More of that tasty pudding came with it, filling Alice's mouth.

Hazel giggled. "[Ahaha... That's pretty good. Way better than a feather.]"

Alice giggled too. "I bet." She continued lapping away at Hazel's steppers. Behind the layer of sweet sludge were coarse soles that added a certain texture Alice enjoyed even more than the taste. Her licks were long and slow, dragging up across every part of Hazel's foot and cleaning it of the pudding. She ran the tip along the creases, then rubbed around the toes and through the spaces between them.

Hazel was beside herself. It was like the trauma she had experienced in the laboratory was melting away with each lick. She laughed herself silly, bouncing on the cot. Each giggle rang through Alice's ears, encouraging more licks. It was cathartic for the both of them.

The last bit of pudding came off. Alice licked her lips and smiled. "How was that? Better?"

It took Hazel a few moments to calm down. She was crying again, this time out of the purest joy. "[Haaaaaaa... Yeah, that was incredible. I never thought that could feel so good.]" She looked at Alice through the space between her feet. "[Thank you.]"

"My pleasure."

"[Do you want me to do something to you?]"

"Of course, but what?"

"[I'll think of something. Sit back for me.]"

Alice backed up and sat on the edge of her cot. Hazel stood up and came over, introducing herself to the onyx bottoms of Alice's feet. She had no mouth to lick with, but there were still those nubby horns sprouting from the middle of her face. She touched them to Alice's sole, making her jump.

"Ooooh! Wow! That's intense," chirped Alice.

"[Need me to stop?]"

"No. I like it. Keep going, just do it a little softer."

"[OK.]" Hazel reapplied the tip of her horn, tracing it along the wrinkles in Alice's foot. She did so gently as if performing a brush stroke on a canvas. It more than did the trick, filling the cell with Alice's uproarious laughter. Hazel laughed with her, swirling the horn around and writing her name with it on Alice's heel. She slid it through the gaps in her toes then moved on to the other foot. Now Alice could experience the joy of having her feet played with rather than tortured. For a while it was like Jessica and her experiments didn't exist. There was only her new best friend dragging that lovely horn of hers around her foot.

Alice was laughing so hard and for so long that she had to ask Hazel to stop. "OK! OK! Hahah... That's enough... Wow."

"[I'm glad you enjoyed that. Want to do anything else?]"

"Yeah. Get up here on the bed with me." Hazel hopped up onto the cot. The two girls sat in front of each other, their feet sole-to-sole. "How does a game of footsies sound?"

Hazel smiled with her eyes. "[That sounds fun.]"

They mushed their soles together, toes lacing and then latching. Hazel's were still wet from Alice's tongue. They swished their feet side to side, bumping heels and knocking balls. Alice pushed on Hazel and Hazel would push back. The rapid wiggling of their toes was like a drum solo. They both giggled freely, both from the mutual tickling and the sight of their doughy steppers knocking off one another's.

"[You know,]" said Hazel, still playing with her feet. "[I'm glad I have you here with me at least.]"

"Really?" Alice asked.

"[Yeah. If I was alone I'd probably lose my mind. I kinda already have. But when we play with our feet like this... I don't know. It's like things aren't as bad.]"

Alice smiled at her. "Yeah, I think you're right."

The two girls spent the next two days going through more of Jessica's experiments. Now, however, they were much more prepared mentally. Jessica's feathers had no power over them anymore, nor any other instrument she applied. There were more tears, but never out of sorrow, much to Jessica's dismay. Amplifying the experiments had little effect on the girls. At each other's side, there was nothing Jessica could do to hurt them anymore.

On the third day of their imprisonment there came a rampant stomping down the hallway towards their cell. A face peered through the window. It wasn't Jessica's, but a man's.

"Hey!" he shouted, his voice sounding muffled from behind the door. "There's something in here! Get the keys off of her!" After a few moments of frantic searching and unlocking the door swung open to reveal the man to be in a police uniform. He stared down in confusion at the two monstrosities. Suddenly they came scampering over to him. He backed away in a panic and bumped into the wall behind him. The creatures hugged his ankles. They did not bite him, but wept tears of joy. The black one thanked him profusely. It dawned on him. "Hazel? Alice?"

They looked up at him and nodded.

"Oh my God... Hey!!!" He yelled down the hallway. "I found-!" He gulped. "I found the brains..."

* * *

Hazel's mother's position at her GPS company yielded the greatest benefits when they were able to find her at Jessica's lab. Unbeknownst to Hazel, she had been implanted with a small chip when she was younger, affording her mother knowledge of wherever she was at all times. A day after Hazel never came back home and failed to respond to any texts, her mother reported her missing and looked up her location. Alice's parents made a report at the same time.

The police discovered the horrors of Jessica's laboratory. Hazel and Alice's human bodies were still floating in their tubes along with their severed skull caps. Jessica was put under arrest. She insisted that the girls were in fact alive, and all the police had to do was search the building. Sure enough, Alice and Hazel were found in their cell, alive, but forever changed.

Jessica was denied bond on kidnapping, torture, and aggravated malicious wounding charges. Prosecutors promised to drop the lattermost charge if she would put the girls' brains back in their original bodies or at least divulge how to do so. Jessica refused, citing how it would be an even worse crime to have her beautiful creations destroyed. For that she was sentenced to 60 years in prison. The bodies would remain in their pods, preserved but without life.

Alice and Hazel returned to their homes and tried their best to resume a normal life. Their families poured in every bit of their support, never leaving the girls' sides. They were forced to skirt the national attention brought on by the bizarre story's coverage. The world wanted to know more about the two girls' transformation into these two monsters. They withstood it bravely, divulging their tale together. The experience was traumatic, but they made it clear that they would work through it together and remain friends for as long as they lived.

It was towards the end of the school year and they had every excuse not to attend, yet they did so happily. Their classmates were astounded by their new bodies. Alice's volcanic appearance and Hazel's gold facade wowed them into taking pictures and asking if they could be touched. With their sensitive feet and bodies, the girls were more than happy to oblige them.

They remained fast friends, there being nobody else to share the experience of being in such strange bodies with. Regardless, they found much more in common besides that. The both of them felt foolish for having antagonized each other so harshly prior to their kidnapping. They visited each other regularly. Time was spent in their bedrooms playing footsies and giggling like they had that first day in the cell. A part of them both felt like becoming these monsters was the best thing that had ever happened to them. Neither ever had a friend so close.

Meanwhile, the hunt was on to restore their old bodies. Jessica proved to be a genius in the field of surgery as there wasn't a single neuroscientist who was able to decipher how she was able to perform the transplant. Wealthy patrons from around the world donated money to research scientists to find a way to reverse their condition. Through it all Jessica remained silent, refusing to let her creations be undone.

But not all was lost. In the days leading up to when the laboratory was scheduled to be demolished a secret compartment was discovered in the walls. In it was a box of secret documents describing how Jessica performed her surgeries and crafted the two monsters. Those scientists had the breakthrough they needed finally. Alice and Hazel would not be monsters forever, permitting them a proper chance to confess their love for each other some day as humans.

THE END