Sleeping in her own bed was an upsettingly surreal and novel experience. The last time Tammy had gotten into a bed that was hers, gone to sleep, and woke up in the same bed was in New York. She hadn’t expected it to be a particularly restful sleep – between the funeral and the box full of what were very clearly those weird magical drugs that her mother had left her, there was a lot on her fucking mind. But somehow, in spite of all that stress, the instant her head had hit the pillow she closed her eyes, and when she opened them her alarm was going off. No time spent waiting for sleep to come, no dreams, like a jumpcut in real life. “Fuck.”

It was barely, barely light out. The sky was that deep violet that signified the sun was a few minutes off from rising, and all in all it was clearly Too Fucking Early to be awake. One benefit to Tammy’s line of work was that she could generally set her own hours, so she wasn’t used to waking up before nine. Also, Kansas was in a different time zone from New York, and all the weirdness and passing out in the middle of sex meant she’d not really gotten the chance to get over that mild jet lag. It felt even earlier than it was, was the point, and so she had to fight to get out of bed and into the shower.

And, once in the shower, she had to fight even more to actually take the shower. It took all her willpower not to fall the fuck back asleep, standing there under the hot water. That happened to her a lot in high school, and she really couldn’t afford to have it happen now. Not today, when she actually had somewhere important to be. Being slightly late to high school was one thing, but being slightly late to her parents’ funeral was another thing entirely.

After the shower, Tammy threw on some clothes – pointedly, not the same clothing she’d worn yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that – before grabbing the outfit she’d packed specifically for the funeral and laying it out on her bed in advance. White blouse, black jacket, black long skirt, black socks, dress shoes. It wasn’t time to change into it just yet, not until immediately before it was time to head out. Minimize the potential for it to get dirty before the big event, which was important because she only had the one suitable outfit.

“What’s for breakfast?”

“What do you feel like cooking?”

“I do not,” Tammy replied tersely. “Do we have any bagels?”

“We don’t.”

“Fair enough. Bagels aren’t really a Kansas thing. What the fuck do you even eat for breakfast in Kansas?”

“Tam you lived there for half as long as you lived here how the fuck are you so much of a New Yorker.”

“Hey, a bagel makes for a really quick and easy breakfast that isn’t going to slowly kill you like every other quick and easy breakfast.”

“If you say so.”

“Bagel, smear of cream cheese, top with a couple of slices of smoked salmon. The only cooking time is toasting the bagel and you’re not even supposed to do that, it’s just that I spent 400 dollars on a fucking toaster oven so of course I’m gonna toast my bagels.”

“God that’s so fucking bougie. Who even has smoked salmon?”

“Lots of people have smoked salmon, you just happen to live inland. I promise you that in New York, smoked salmon for breakfast isn’t even kind of bougie.”

“It’s extremely bougie.”

“If it were bougie I wouldn’t be eating it. The whole point is that it’s cheap and takes five minutes to make.”

“Fair enough. We don’t have bagels in the house, though.”

Tammy rolled her eyes. “Yes, you said that. Do we have anything easy?”

“You can probably throw together a PB&J?”

“Good enough.”

“Do you do coffee? I made enough for both of us to have a few cups.”

“Yeah, I do coffee.”

“Okay, have some coffee.”

“Gotcha.”

A peanut butter and jam sandwich didn’t exactly make for the most filling of breakfasts. But it was better than nothing, and having something in her stomach helped get her energy up. Which was good because, again, next was the funeral. She had no idea what her role in the whole thing was going to be because everything was so fucking last minute.

“You don’t have to do anything, you just have to be there.”

“I can’t just not help out with the setup.”

“Yes you can. I already barely have any idea what I’m doing with this, the last thing we need is more people puttering around aimlessly getting in the way. Just let the church handle things.”

“Okay,” Tammy said, deciding it probably wasn’t in anyone’s best interests to argue this point too hard. As much as she didn’t want to feel useless, she also didn’t want to get in the way. This whole thing was, frankly, a fucking debacle. “Do you want me to give a speech or anything?”

“Not without time to prepare, no. Unless you want to?”

“It’d all be improvised.”

“Okay, then just leave it to Father Fitzgerald. You just need to show up.”

“I can do that much.”

Tammy turned her focus to preparing her simple breakfast. A couple of sandwiches and some coffee was better than literally nothing, and she wanted to keep her energy up. A quick injection of carbs and caffeine couldn’t hurt. Still, just to be sure, she made more than one for both of them.

God, she needed a fucking smoke.

She did not end up fulfilling that need, or at least not yet. She only allowed herself one cigarette a day, and she felt like she’d want to save it for after the funeral. Speaking of which, it was probably time to change. They had decided, thank god, to get the funeral over and done with early. The last thing she wanted to do with her day was sit around waiting to go to a fucking funeral.

The actual event was a blur. From the moment she put on her dress clothes to the moment she tentatively got up and wandered over to the wake, everything sort of blended together. Almost more dreamlike than the various Incidents she’d taken part in. The one thing that really stood out was the organist. Before the funeral started, she’d been playing hymns and singing along – very, very, very badly. That stood out to her, because it pissed her the fuck off. Like, okay, Cluaran Creek wasn’t the biggest town in the world. The odds of finding someone who could play the organ and sing were astronomically small. But in that case, why fucking sing at all? Just play the organ and cut out the off-key croaking. It was god damn disrespectful.

“Fuck,” she muttered to herself as she made a beeline out of the church. The wake could fucking wait. Tammy needed a god damned cigarette.

She rummaged in her purse, eventually finding her pack and pulling one out. “Starting to run low.” Normally, this would be around when she’d buy her next pack. But she still had that deal with Lydia going. No more cigarettes for thirty days after running out. She could already tell that was going to be a problem, but she was determined to put her money where her mouth was.

She made a point of not standing around at the entrance. That was just about the rudest thing a smoker could do short of lighting up inside. Common courtesy was to smoke in places where traffic was light. Don’t hide in an alley like a fucking drug dealer, but try to avoid imposing on non-smokers too much.

Directly outside of the entrance to a church as people were leaving a funeral definitely fell under the umbrella of imposing on non-smokers too much. There were several benches about half a block from the church, and that’s where Tammy sat and lit her cigarette. “Fuck,” she said, slightly louder.

“Language, young lady.”

“Oh good, exactly who I wanted to talk to right now.”

“I have no earthly idea why you wouldn’t want to talk to me, child.” Winnie took a seat on the bench next to her, taking up a good twice as much horizontal space as Tammy. It was kind of hard to tell, as she’d not gotten quite as good a look at it, but she was pretty sure it was bigger than Lydia’s. “I’m a fountain of valuable information and good advice.”

“I just got out of my parents’ funeral, I don’t want valuable information or good advice right now. I just want to be alone for a bit.”

“Nonsense! You’re at a point of peak intrigue – believe me, I can tell – and here I am offering you answers. You’d have to be an idiot to refuse them.”

Tammy severely, severely doubted that Winnie actually had any idea of the deeper mysteries going on. She might, at most, know that there were deeper mysteries at all. But, considering the woman thought she was a witch, Tammy found it surprisingly easy to just write her off as mentally ill. Even factoring in the magic drugs. “Didn’t you specifically tell me to never expect a straight answer from you?”

“Ah, the clever child remembers.” Winnie leaned back, resting her head against the back of the bench and staring up at the sky. “But a crooked answer is still an answer. You would do well to listen to your elders.”

“You gotta give people a reason to trust you.”

“Very well. An answer, then, albeit a crooked one.” Winnie turned her head without straightening her back, looking Tammy directly in the eye. “You’ve made some good steps in the right direction thus far, but you need to be extremely careful. The path you’re walking is a precarious one indeed – one wrong move and you’ll fall. And you really don’t want to see what’s at the bottom, child. I speak from experience.” She tapped her eyepatch. “Your mother fell from the path, too. Frankly, I don’t know which of us has it worse! She’s dead, but I lost everything. More than just my eye. Tragedy after tragedy, all because I misplaced my trust. Listened to something I should not have listened to. Took advice I should not have taken. And from there, well, by the time I realized my mistake it was far too late to stop it.”

“That’s some pretty fucking generic advice, lady.”

“Language.”

“Have you ever heard of a cold reading?” Winnie did not respond, merely continuing to bemusedly stare at her with her head still crooked. “It’s a type of fake fortune telling. Basically, you give the person a bunch of really generic advice that could apply to anyone in a very specific way that baits more specific information out of them. Sometimes it’s combined with a hot reading, where they actively research the subject’s life beforehand.”

“I’m a witch, not a fortune teller. But fine, if you want something more specific; someone you know is lying to you. Repeatedly. About something very, very important. They ain’t big lies, barely lies at all. The kind of lie where they ain’t saying anything technically false, but there’s details that you don’t know that completely change the meaning. That person is not your friend. Do not trust them.”

“Can I get a name?”

Winnie grinned, showing off teeth more like a shark’s than a cat’s. “Well, now, if I told y’all that then it wouldn’t be a crooked answer, now, would it?”

“Fair enough, but at that point it’s not useful advice. Or valuable information.”

“That, child, depends entirely on you.” With that, Winnie slowly stood up. “In the meantime, I’ll leave y’all be, for now. You’ve got a very important meeting coming up, after all.” She waved, before slowly and carefully walking off. The way she walked lent maybe a bit more credence to her claimed age – she looked fairly young, but she moved like an old lady whose bones might break at any second. “Tell her I said hello.”

“Okay.” Tammy felt like it was mostly safe to ignore the crazy old homeless lady. Mostly. There was a little, nagging feeling in the back of her mind that maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t entirely wise to write her claims of the supernatural off entirely. Not yet. Not after what she’d experienced over the past few days. A rational person, when faced with strong evidence of the supernatural, had to at least consider the possibility that maybe it was actually supernatural.

But, at the end of the day, it was only a possibility. She still wasn’t entirely sure that this wasn’t just drugs, after all. Lydia seemed pretty thoroughly convinced it was just drugs, at least. For now, Tammy just wanted to fucking finish her smoke unmolested. Which, of course, meant that literally any second now someone else was probably going to interrupt her.

Naturally, now that she was on edge and unable to actually enjoy her smoke, no one interrupted her. “... I’d better get to the wake.” Tammy got up and awkwardly looked around for a trash can to stick her cigarette butt in. “Ugh. I should tell Diane to install more fucking trash cans. Preferably the kind with ashtrays built in.” She didn’t want to just toss it on the ground because that was rude and bad for the environment. Frankly, as far as she was concerned, there should be at least one trash can per block, even in a small town – the easier you made it for people to put garbage in garbage, the less fucking litter you ended up with.

“The church has some trash cans out front, right? I think? Yeah, it’s gotta.” It did not. “Come the fuck on.”

“Is there a problem?”

“Diane you need to install more trash cans.”

“Oh.”

“I have nowhere to throw out my butt.”

“... your butt?”

“Cigarette butt.”

“Oh! Right, sorry.” Diane was, somewhat frustratingly, not the only person Tammy knew who attended the funeral. It seemed like her parents were more prominent figures in the Cluaran Creek community than she’d realized. The only person who wasn’t present was Sherry – presumably because she was also the only person who seemed to have intuited that Tammy didn’t really want condolences. Lydia, Diane, Flo, and a Penny-BJ combo had all stopped her multiple times to tell her they were also sad her parents were dead, and that was just the people she knew. Which, frankly, she didn’t need to fucking hear. “There’s trash cans inside the church, so long as it’s not lit anymore it’s probably fine.”

“Eugh, fine. That’s probably the best I’m gonna get, isn’t it?”

“Sorry, there’s not much call for trash cans.”

“You’ll get less litter if you install more trash cans,” Tammy retorted as she awkwardly rubbed her cigarette against the wall of the church. “Okay that’s about as out as it’s getting without an ashtray.” She felt really bad about putting a cigarette out on a church, but Diane didn’t say anything at least. “I’m gonna stop by the wake for like five minutes.”

“You should stay for longer!”

Tammy made a face. “I kind of want to get this all over with, sorry.”

“Well, think of it like this. The funeral was for being sad. The wake is for celebrating their lives. Thinking about the happy memories, that kind of thing.”

“Mf.”

“I know you didn’t have the best relationship with them, but you’ve got to have some happy memories, right?”

“I mean, yeah, you’re right about that.” Tammy frowned. “Still, I kind of... want a little more time to process things, you know? Alone?”

Diane smiled. “That’s fine, dear. Just make sure you don’t spend too much time being sad.”

“Yeah, fair.” Tammy tossed the remains of her cigarette into the trash before heading to the basement, where the wake was taking place.

The basement was big and open with a kitchen in the back and cork boards with various community announcements lining the walls – far more cork boards than there were community announcements. There were a bunch of tables in the middle of the room, some for people to sit at, some with plates of various appetizers and desserts. Tammy wasn’t really very hungry, but also there wasn’t much else for her to do with her time. What, was she gonna talk to people? Lydia, being the only doctor in town, had already left so that she could be on call. Penny and BJ were there, but... Well, things were better, but they were still awkward. So that left Kyle and Diane. She’d already talked to her younger brother enough for one day, thank you very much. Diane was another story, but when she tried to think up topics of conversation she drew a complete blank. They were from different generations, she supposed. Not a lot to talk about.

“Are you doing okay?”

“Mmm.” Tammy idly grabbed some sort of chocolate-based dessert bar. “I think I’m just gonna go home. Not really feeling it, you know. Maybe I can get a nap in or something.”

Diane sighed. “Well, if you’re sure. Just make sure to talk to people if you need to. Remember, you’ve got friends in Cluaran Creek.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Tammy shoved the rest of the dessert bar down her gullet and then made her way back to the staircase. She’d had her fill of funerals for one fucking lifetime.

Of course, now that she’d let her guard down, it was no wonder that the instant she was out of the church someone coughed insistently. Tammy briefly tried to pretend she’d not noticed, but that went out the window when the person gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “Miss Tamara Castellano.” No way she was pretending she didn’t notice that.

“Look, whatever it is, you’d better make this quick because I’ve got places to be.”

“No you do not.”

Well okay that was in fact a correct statement. But something about the way she said it activated Tammy’s latent anti-establishment streak. “And how do you know that, huh?”

“I know everything.”

“Yeah sure.”

“Your name is Tamara Castellano, age twenty eight. Your parents recently passed away – both of them – and you are currently stranded in Cluaran Creek waiting for legal paperwork to come in so you can finish resolving their final affairs. In the meantime, you intend to write a novel about the process, but you are currently stuck. You claim this is because you have writer’s block due to the recent tragedy, but it is actually because you subconsciously know full-well that you are far too young to be writing a memoir.”

Tammy frowned. “Okay, maybe you do know everything. What do you want from me, then?”

“Quite a lot, Miss Castellano. We need to discuss your late mother and your inheritance. But the most pressing matter is, I think, one that you will be very interested in hearing.”

“And you’re gonna make me ask what it is.”

The woman, whoever she was, was completely unphased aside from very slightly tightening her grip. “The matter being, of course, a much more compelling subject for your next book.”

“What might that be.”

“You have opened the trunk, no?” the woman replied. “You know exactly what I am talking about.”

That got Tammy’s attention, although she wasn’t going to give this woman the satisfaction of saying that out loud. Instead, she just turned around to actually get a fucking look at the strange woman who had accosted her.

The first thing she noticed was that, to the surprise of exactly zero people, it was yet another unreasonably large woman. The unreasonably largest thus far, by a significant margin. If Tammy came up to Sherry’s shoulders, Sherry would come up to this woman’s shoulders. Tammy, meanwhile, was just about tall enough that she didn’t reach her armpits. She was huge, extremely tall and rail thin – except her boobs, which were probably the biggest that Tammy had ever seen in her entire god damn life. Bigger than Penny’s or Diane’s, not just in terms of raw size but even proportionally. Bigger than her head. Bigger than twice her head. Big enough that Tammy could probably shove her head right in between them if she wanted to, which she ultimately decided against because that would be kind of weird. Besides, given how skintight her dress was, Tammy was pretty sure that she wouldn’t actually be able to get in there. It was solid black except for a separate bit of white fabric around her neck (Tammy didn’t know the exact terminology). That and her emerald eyes were the only parts of her that weren’t black. She had a face, Tammy was sure of that, but even moreso than any other black cat she’d ever met, her fur was so dark that her features aside from her eyes were invisible when she wasn’t talking.

“My name is Beatrice Valentina.”

Ah. That answered several questions that Tammy didn’t know she had. “Winnie says hello.” Beatrice did not react in the slightest. “I’m also supposed to ask about her last name?” Again, no response. Tammy didn’t really blame her for that. Given everything she knew about Winnie, she was pretty sure they didn’t actually know each other. Whatever, she had higher priorities than Winnie’s last name. “So you’re that Valentina then? The one who owns the town?”

No response. Again. Tammy had figured that was the question that Beatrice wanted her to ask to move the conversation on. Apparently she’d been wrong on that front. “Okay. So like... What do you want me to do, then?” Might as well be blunt about it.

“Tonight.”

“Okay. Tonight what. Y’need to give me something to work with, lady.”

Again, Beatrice did not respond, instead reaching under the bit of white fabric and pulling an envelope out of her cleavage – because of course that’s where she kept things. Who needed a purse when you had giant fucking cat tits? She held the envelope out and, tentatively, Tammy took it. “Your invitation. Tonight.”

“Okay.” Hopefully the invitation contained more information than just ‘tonight’ because Beatrice clearly wasn’t gonna be straightforward about it. “Can I go now?” Beatrice stood in stern silence before slowly nodding. “Okay, cool. I’ll see you tonight, apparently.”

“Enjoy your inheritance.”

“Right. Yeah.” Tammy decided not to rise to the bait. She’d had more than enough of this cryptic bullshit for the day, thank you very much. And she was already going to be getting even more cryptic bullshit by the looks of things. “I need a fucking nap.”

Tammy made a beeline for home, and once she got home she made a further beeline for her bedroom, locking the door behind her before unceremoniously removing her funeral outfit and tossing it onto the floor. It was kind of expensive, but fuck it literally the only reason she owned the fucking thing was for this specific occasion. She couldn’t foresee herself needing to attend any more funerals any time soon, not now that both of her parents were dead.

She briefly considered putting on something more casual, but ultimately she decided to just go nude for now. She was alone, she had no intention of leaving the house or even her bedroom until whatever fucking thing she’d been invited to happened, and so she might as well just not bother. Instead, she just lay on her bed, naked, staring at the envelope. “Might as well open it?” she muttered to herself. Probably better to get that done with now, lest she miss... whatever the fuck it was. And god fucking forbid she miss this nebulous appointment. It’s not like she had anything better to do.

Although, now that she thought about it, she kind of didn’t have anything better to do. Beatrice had been right about that, at least. Frustratingly right. She didn’t need to be told that she was too young to write a memoir. The only people her age who wrote memoirs were universally vapid e-celebrities attempting to wrangle their minor and honestly probably botted Twitter fame into an actual real career. “So instead obviously I should write about the weird sex drug ring that apparently exists in my hometown. That’s sure to sell gangbusters.” At least it was sorta true crime, she supposed.

The envelope was nice, but plain. The kind of envelope that you knew had to be really nice because it didn’t feel the need to be ostentatious about it. On the front, her name was written in white ink just above a white decal of a thistle. On the back, it was sealed shut with a plain, off-white wax circle. The paper was jet black, and very high quality – Tammy could tell how nice it was just by holding it. Smooth, but not perfectly smooth. Possibly even hand-made? She wasn’t experienced enough with paper to know for sure. All she knew was that she was absolutely stalling.

“Ugh, fuck it.”

As high quality as the paper was, it wasn’t nearly nice enough that Tammy felt even slightly bad about ripping the thing open. Inside was a small piece of paper, about the size of a business card. “‘Six thirty PM. Black Velvet Lodge. Bring this card. Come alone, promptly.’ Yeah, thought so.” She stared at the card, silently frowning. “I really don’t wanna go in there, thanks,” she muttered. “Don’t really have a choice, though, do I? Lady owns the land the town’s built on, allegedly. Do I really wanna risk blowing her off?” The answer was, of course, no.

“What time is it, anyway?” Reluctantly, she pulled herself up and off the bed, making her way over to her laptop. It was two. She felt two conflicting emotions; how the fuck was it already two, but also how the fuck was it only two? “How the hell am I so tired? Ugh, maybe some lunch will help.” She did not go get lunch. She was still kinda full from the single dessert bar she’d eaten, and anyway she didn’t really want to put clothes on yet. “How the hell am I so tired?” she repeated, with more emphasis this time.

Tammy idly navigated to an online alarm clock and set a timer for five before returning to her bed and collapsing. Clearly, the funeral had taken a lot more out of her than she’d thought, both physically and emotionally. Lunch wasn’t an option, but a nap for a few hours would probably do her some good. Especially considering that she had only had one normal night of sleep since leaving New York. And it looked like she wouldn’t be sleeping normally any time soon, either, so best to get what she could. Slowly, she closed her eyes, and then the alarm went off. Again. Tammy idly considered that her repeated instances of dreamless sleep were a sign that she should just skip out on the invitation and get some more rest in instead, but decided that was probably a bad idea. As much as she didn’t want to go, she got the impression she didn’t have a choice in the matter.

She had set the alarm for five, specifically, with the intent of giving herself a few hours of wiggle room. Much like basically everywhere in Cluaran Creek, it was not a very long walk to the Lodge, but she needed time to to make herself presentable – at least comb her hair and tail. Similarly, she didn’t want to show up to whatever the fuck this was immediately after a four hour nap. So, instead, she would show up a few hours after a three hour nap. Less sleep, but hopefully she’d be thoroughly awake.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty.”

“I’m goin’ out.”

“We’re having Chinese for dinner.”

“You’re having Chinese for dinner. I’ve got places to be, apparently.” That was kind of annoying, actually. Tammy liked Chinese food. She didn’t even know until now that there was a Chinese restaurant in Cluaran Creek. But she only had an hour to get to the Lodge, and she didn’t have the time to wait for food to get here. “I’ll grab a burger or something on the way.”

“Don’t get arrested again.”

“I’m friends with the sheriff so if you don’t shut up about that one time I got put in the drunk tank I’ll get you arrested.”

“Love you too.”

Tammy decided that was her cue to leave. It had been a while since she’d had to interact with her younger brother at all, much less as often as she had been the past few days, and it was getting to be a little bit draining. “Ugh, I already have a headache,” she muttered to herself. That was probably less due to her brother though, and more because she was running on empty. “Maybe I shoulda gone for Chinese after all,” she muttered as she made her way to the Nighthawk. “Eh, burger’s quicker.”

“Well, hey there, Tammy. Good to see you again.”

“Hey, Flo. Just a single cheeseburger this time. Extra pickles, small fries, coke.”

“Comin’ right up, hon. In a hurry?”

“I’ve got places to be that I can’t guarantee are gonna feed me.”

“Oh? Where, if I may ask.”

Tammy briefly considered actually answering honestly. Only briefly, though. She got the feeling that the best case scenario to admitting she had been invited to the Black Velvet Lodge would be some really weird looks. Worst case people might start asking capital-q Questions, and Tammy wasn’t really in the mood to give people capital-a Answers. “I’m meeting up with some friends.”

“Well, that’s good to hear.”

“At least it’s something to do while I’m stuck here waiting for paperwork to come in,” Tammy said with a shrug.

“It’ll be nice to see you around town at least,” Flo said before turning her attention to the kitchen. “Your burger’ll be here in a minute.”

“Can I get that to go?”

“Of course, hon.”

Tammy’s burger didn’t take very long, thankfully. It was smaller than she’d generally have preferred, especially with how little she’d eaten so far today, but it was better than nothing. She awkwardly held the soda and the bag in one hand, with the other darting in to pick at the fries as she made her way to the lodge. “Hopefully they’ve got a garbage can inside, ‘cause there’s no chance I’m finding one on the way.”

Tammy had never actually gotten anywhere near the Black Velvet Lodge before. Part of that was the obvious fact that it was creepy. But the Lodge was also relatively isolated, on top of a hill, the only hill in Cluaran Creek, on the edge of town and far away from everything else. She’d never had the need to go anywhere near it before because there was nothing anywhere near it. Why go to the creepy and allegedly haunted mansion on the edge of town when you could, like, not do that instead? The practical upside being that she’d never actually seen the building up close before. It was three storeys tall – a ground floor, a second floor, and an attic that was signified by windows protruding from the sloped roof. The door, painted a deep black with brass knobs, was situated under an awning that doubled as a balcony for the second floor and was flanked with white pillars. Like a plantation manor without the plantation. It was also, considering the name, surprisingly mostly not black. Doors aside, the facade was mostly bare wood, deep mahogany brown. Like, well, a lodge. Aesthetically situated somewhere between southeast and northwest, old but well taken care of. Not too well taken care of, though, Tammy noticed. There was almost exactly enough decay to maintain the creepy vibe, which made her wonder if it was intentional.

“Ugh, whatever. I’m gonna finish my fucking burger,” Tammy muttered, angrily taking a sip of her coke.

“That won’t be necessary. You may finish your meal inside.”

“Oh, okay.” Tammy hadn’t noticed the door open, mostly because it barely had. Just a crack, tilted outwards. She could see the eyes of whoever was talking to her, and nothing more. “Look, I’m not in the mood for all this dramatic horror aesthetic bullshit so can you just let me in? Like a normal person? Please?”

“Of course, ma’am.”

The door to the lodge slowly moved outwards with a creaking groan. “Ugh, what did I just say about aesthetic?” Complaining did not make the door open quicker, but at least it didn’t open slower either. The second that it was open enough for her to fit through, Tammy did exactly that, barging her way inside the Lodge.

“A-ah! Excuse me.” She’d clearly managed to fluster whoever it was that was opening the door. That was their own damn fault, though. Should have opened it quicker. It was a bit rude of her, of course, but today had been a very long day and Tammy didn’t really care much about being polite. “You’re supposed to wait, ma’am,” the person continued, doing an admirable job of regaining her composure. “There are rules, and-”

“And you should have told me about them beforehand,” Tammy tersely replied. She was, admittedly, probably being a bit unfair. Taking out her frustrations on some random stranger. She felt like she’d earned the right to be a bit unfair, though. They hassled her, she hassled them. “You said I could eat inside, right? I assume you don’t want me to just sit down in your foyer and get ketchup everywhere.”

“Right this way, ma’am.”

The foyer kind of looked like the lobby of a hotel. Not, like, a big hotel or a fancy hotel. It wasn’t nearly as clinical as one of the big chains, nor as spacious as the five star luxury bullshit that Tammy had only really experienced vicariously. The image that came to mind was... well, a plantation house that had been converted into a hotel. She could practically see where the checkin counter would be if this were a hotel lobby. It was oddly cozy. As a child she’d always imagined something grander. It was certainly extremely nice, especially in comparison to the other houses in Cluaran Creek. Even Diane’s didn’t hold a candle to the Lodge. But it wasn’t quite what she pictured when she imagined the home of someone with enough financial resources to own an entire-ass town – even if that town was Cluaran Creek. Maybe that was the point, though? The current Valentina hadn’t exactly been the most ostentatious woman. Aside from the giant tits and the whole being eight feet tall thing. Her sense of fashion wasn’t ostentatious, at least. So maybe Valentina the first had intentionally built her house to be a little more cozy in comparison to other rich people houses. Plus, well, it was more than a hundred years old at this point. Maybe rich people’s tastes had changed since the 1800s.

Although, on the other hand, she kind of got the impression that Valentina’s tastes weren’t typical of the average 1800s rich person, unless that 1800s rich person was a vampire. Everything that wasn’t bare mahogany was black or red or, if you were really lucky, black and red. She would not have assumed that mall goths existed in 1897 but, unless the current Valentina had done some serious redecorating in the intervening century, apparently she was wrong on that front.

The maid led her past the staircase, down a hallway and to the right, into a large dining room. Tammy decided not to ogle her, which was made easier by the big fluffy skunk tail that blocked most of her upper body from behind and made harder by the fact that she was dressed less like a maid and more like she was wearing maid-themed underwear. Black and white fabric that blended into her black and white fur like she was wearing nothing at all. And, again, she basically was wearing nothing at all. Less a skirt and more like an inch of fabric, lifted up by her tail so that she could see the barest hint of white panties that had been almost completely consumed by fat skunk ass. That was all she could see from the rear, but she’d gotten a glimpse of her from the front and the bitch had tits to match. Nowhere near as stacked as her boss or Diane or Penny, and her ass wasn’t anywhere near as enormous as Lydia’s. But that was like saying that the Indian Ocean was dry in comparison to the Pacific. And she was spilling out all over the fucking place, which was making Tammy’s newfound bisexuality flare up something fierce. “I shall fetch you a plate and a napkin, ma’am.”

“Yeah, sure. Don’t wanna stain the nice hardwood.” Tammy didn’t actually give a shit about the hardwood, of course. But she also didn’t want to be too confrontational, or at least not yet. If she was going to cause a scene, it was best to pick the correct timing.

“We would have fed you.”

“I don’t really trust you not to spike my food, thanks.”

The maid tilted her head. “Why would we do that, ma’am? You will be taking the drugs of your own volition as part of your initiation.”

Yeah, that wasn’t too surprising. “I haven’t agreed to anything, yanno.”

“You came here, did you not?”

“I was under the impression that coming here wasn’t something I could opt out of.”

“And yet you consider the initiation to be something you can?”

Tammy frowned deeply. She was pretty sure she’d just lost that particular exchange. “Just get me a fucking plate.”

“Of course, ma’am,” the skunk maid said, bowing deeply – which showed off an upsetting amount of copious skunk cleavage – before leaving. “I hate this fucking place already.”

It didn’t take the maid very long to return. Suspiciously quickly, in fact. Napkin, plate, coaster for her drink. “Your meal will be with you shortly, ma’am.”

The prospect of making a scene was suddenly a lot more tempting. “I brought my own. Remember?”

“Oh.” The maid tilted her head quizzically. “I apologize, ma’am. I was not aware.”

“You-” Okay, either the maid was intentionally acting like an idiot or there was something up. Or, fuck it, maybe both. Tammy was starting to get an idea where this was going and frankly she wasn’t in the mood. Even if the maid was hot. “I’m perfectly happy with my burger so just go tell the chef to cancel whatever they’re making.”

“It would be a shame for it to go to waste, ma-”

“You eat it then,” Tammy snapped.

“Of course, ma’am,” the maid said. Like she was talking to a small child that had just said something blatantly obviously wrong, which was just mildly insufferable. “Your meal will be with you shortly.”

“Okay fine, I guess this is just another thing I don’t get to say no to then.”

“You can still eat your burger.”

“Yeah, I figured.” That pretty much confirmed Tammy’s suspicions as to the nature of the meal. But she decided that she wasn’t going to rise to the bait. If the maid wanted sex she was just gonna have to stop beating around the fucking bush and come out and say it. She put her drink on the coaster, her burger and the remainder of fries on the plate, and began to angrily eat, glaring at the maid all the while. She stood at the back of the dining room, giving her a friendly smile without moving which somehow managed to piss Tammy the fuck off.

Tammy wasn’t in the mood for conversation or just dragging her heels, and she’d already eaten most of the fries so the meal went by quickly, followed by quickly chugging her soda. She slammed the paper cup on the coaster, which was admittedly more pathetic than she would have preferred given it was a paper cup, and glared at the maid. “Okay, I’ve eaten. Let’s just get whatever this shit is over with.”

“Of course, ma’am.” The maid walked over and bowed before picking up the various sundry bits of garbage along with the plate and the coaster. “I shall go dispose of this. Your meal will be with you shortly.”

Tammy’s only response was a deep glower as the maid left and then came right back in seconds later, conspicuously empty handed. “Your meal is here, ma’am.”

“Yeah, I thought so.” Tammy resolutely clung to the foul mood that she had been cultivating over the course of the evening, though admittedly she faltered just a bit when the maid began slowly and seductively removing her clothing. “Next time just say you want to fuck.”

“This isn’t fucking, ma’am. We’re just providing you our services, like every other guest.”

“Sex is sex, lady.” Tammy frowned, trying very hard not to look at the maid’s perky breasts. “Also what if I hadn’t brought my own food?”

“Then we would have provided you with food in addition to your meal, ma’am.”

Tammy’s scowl deepened. “To be clear, we’re talking separately, right?”

“Would you not want to eat off of us, ma’am?” the maid asked with cloyingly affected innocence. “The Japanese call it nyotaimori and it has a very rich history.”

“That’s unhygienic.”

“I assure you, ma’am, that even though we’re skunks we take pride in being clean enough to eat off of at all times.”

“Your species isn’t the issue, lady.”

“Besides,” the maid continued as though Tammy hadn’t said anything. “This way your meal comes with a beverage!” She reached up and pressed her bare tits together, as though Tammy hadn’t already figured out what she meant. Sure enough, tempting beads of moisture formed in the obvious places as Tammy stared. “Fresh from the tap~”

“Yeah sure.” Tammy struggled to wrench her eyes from the big milky tits and failed miserably. God, like, okay yes Tammy’s standards for what counted as big had been skewed to hell and back since her return. But these skunktits still had to be, like, G-cups. Maybe even H-cups, or beyond, she didn’t know, she’d never been great at estimating other girls’ cup size.

“Go on, ma’am, have a taste. There’s plenty to go around!”

“Ugh.” Tammy decided to just give in. She’d already written off her heterosexuality as a lost cause, so might as well just enjoy it. “Let me get my clothing off first. I still have to walk home.”

“The Mistress intends for you to spend the night, ma’am.” The maid continued to press her tits together, rubbing them up and down like she was titfucking an invisible penis. “We will, of course, provide laundry services. Or, if you would prefer to destroy your clothing, we will also provide replacements~”

“I like this jacket, thanks,” Tammy replied tersely before beginning to strip. Unlike the maid, she didn’t bother to make a show of it or anything. First her jacket and shoes, then her shirt, all casually tossed aside.

“Take your time, ma’am. We pride ourselves on providing excellent service.”

Tammy frowned. Something was off. “You keep saying we.” Normally, she would have assumed she meant the household in general, but she’d also said skunks, plural. That stood out. “Are you like a princess or something?”

“Oh, no. We’re not royalty. Just loyal servants of the Valentina household.”

“Okay then why-”

“Because we’re triplets.”

“Obviously.”

“Ah. Obviously.” The two other skunk maids – because apparently she was triplets – darted in from behind Tammy, each one grabbing one of her arms and holding them firmly between their tits. “At least let me take off my pants?”

The third skunk maid, the one that wasn’t hugging her arms, gave a wry smile before walking right up to Tammy, pressing her ample and leaky chest against the squirrel’s bra. “We’ll clean your clothes for you, ma’am.”

“As we already made clear earlier.”

“We are maids, even if we look like strippers. It’s our job.”

“I just fucking cleaned these, please let me take off my pants.”

“Let us take them off for you, ma’am.”

“Please?”

“This way’s more fun!”

“... fine.” Tammy was, admittedly, not thinking straight. Mostly, the only thing she could think about was how good it felt to have the skunk’s tits mash into her own, and about how much better it might feel if she got her bra off. “Oh, also, fair warning that I’ve never done this before so if it sucks it’s your own fault.”

“Ma’am, please,” the front skunk replied, leaning in even closer and wrapping her arms around Tammy’s shoulders before, as if reading the squirrel’s mind, slooooooowly unhooking her bra. “We’re professionals.”

“This will feel good for everyone involved, no matter what,” the skunk on the right added, kneeling down and tugging on Tammy’s pants.

“What maid worth her salt isn’t good at fucking?” the left maid added, joining her sister in tugging.

“Okay cool.” Tammy had decided to just go with this, but triplets was a bit much. She was still a newbie, dangit, maybe let her take it easy before throwing her into the Foursome With Milky Skunk Triplets deep end? A bit? No? Her pants and panties were already on the floor, casually discarded. The point of no return had been passed and she was definitely getting fucked. At least this time she wasn’t being outright raped, right? “... Hey, question before we start.”

“Yes, ma’am?” all three triplets said in unison, which was just a little bit unsettling, but also kind of cute?

“If I were to just, like, say no right now-”

“Are you saying no, ma’am?”

“Hypothetically if I were to say no?”

“Then we would stop right here, of course.”

“Our job is to make you comfortable before your initiation.”

“So anything that would make you uncomfortable is out of the question.”

“So, to ask again.” The front skunk, whom Tammy had just sort of subconsciously decided was the leader, briefly pulled away, removing Tammy’s bra in the process. “Are you asking us to stop, ma’am?”

Tammy sighed as a tension she hadn’t even noticed was there suddenly washed away. “No. Just wanted to know if you would.”

“Of course, ma’am.” And, just like that, she moved right back into tightly hugging Tammy, confirming that it did in fact feel a hell of a lot better than with the bra in the way. One hand draped around her shoulder, the other cupped her ass, both of them pulled her in tight which prompted an increased flow of liquid down her chest, soaking into her fur. She tilted her head ever so slightly to the left, opening her mouth just a little – enough for Tammy to get the picture. She tilted her head in the opposite direction, opened her mouth, and let the skunk take the lead.

She tasted very good. Did some weird things with her tongue that Tammy halfheartedly tried to imitate but ultimately gave up for fear of ruining everything. A much better experience than her morning kiss with Lydia had been – a testament to the power of good oral hygiene. The other two maids stood up and closed in, wrapping their arms around each other and leaving Tammy almost completely surrounded by skunk.

Eventually, exactly long enough that Tammy had started to run out of breath, the skunk pulled away, leaving their tongues connected by a thin strand of drool. “Are you ready for the main course?”

Tammy opened her mouth, and closed it again when an answer failed to materialize. She tried again, and again, but she was just too discombobulated. “I, um.”

“I’ll take that as a yes?”

Tammy frowned. “I told you I’ve never done this before.”

“Ah, but if you keep not doing something due to lack of experience then how will you gain that experience?”

“Don’t worry, though, ma’am.”

“We’re maids.”

“It’s our job to service you.”

“Not the other way around!”

Tammy’s frown deepened as she tried to parse which maid was talking when and realized that she couldn’t. Maybe this was a bad idea after all. “Okay.” And that was probably an even worse idea but fuck it she was horny. At this point, her libido was fully in the driver’s seat and her body was along for the ride.

“We promise to take it easy on you.”

“Mostly.”

“Not too easy, or it isn’t any fun~”

“Okay,” Tammy repeated, still disoriented. That was really the only thing she could even manage. “I’ll let you take the lead then?”

“Yes, ma’am.” That time, all three skunks spoke in unison so at least she didn’t need to worry about who was talking. A small consolation considering that when they pulled away she nearly fucking fell over onto her face. The skunks just barely managed to catch her, which she was fairly sure was intentional. They fluidly led her over to the table, lying her down face-up and spreading her legs so that they could easily get at their obvious goal. Tammy quivered in anticipation, and naturally the skunks dragged that anticipation out.

One of them, she wasn’t sure which, placed her face centimetres from The Obvious Place, hot moist breath washing over it in a way that very nearly set her the fuck off. Tammy wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about that. Another climbed up onto the table, sliding Tammy’s head onto her lap which Tammy very much did know how she felt about. Big fat skunk tits, inches from her face. Actually, make that right directly in her face – that was what the third triplet did. “Mnf.”

“Do you not want my tits in your face, ma’am?”

“Mnf!”

“I thought so.” She pressed more firmly against Tammy, burying her head completely in cleavage. The lap skunk lay down on the table to give top skunk more room, and then slid down the table to leave Tammy completely sandwiched. “You do seem to love tits, ma’am, so we figured you would enjoy this~” Tammy did, in fact, really enjoy this. They smelled very, very, very good. Sweet and creamy, like really high quality milk – exactly what you’d want cleavage to smell like. No sweat, no musk, just the good shit.

And they were so soft and warm and leaky. She could feel the milk soaking into their fur and into her fur. And speaking of wet, boy howdy were they. She could feel it, on both sides, as they rubbed and grinded against her body – she was pretty sure they had started making out at some point, which was really fucking hot. And the third skunk hadn’t even started eating her out yet, still just hovering centimetres from her cunny, still breathing on it which was slowly but surely driving her insane. Turns out Tammy didn’t have the patience for edging. Who fuckin’ knew? “Mnffffffff~” she moaned, wriggling and writhing and just barely not climaxing.

“Oh, it sounds like Mistress doesn’t like being teased!”

“Mnnn, you don’t need to tell me. She’s so wet~”

“Well, then you’d better get to work!”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Mnnnnnnnfffff!!!!” The third skunk immediately leaped in, maximum intensity right away. It would be a bit disingenuous to say there was no buildup, considering all the edging. But she’d gone from edging to muffdiving with zero transitional period. It wasn’t the first time that Tammy had gotten eaten out, but much like all her sexual experiences from her experimentation back in college this time was a lot more intense and also just a lot better. Maybe it had to do with the magic drugs, maybe the girls she had chosen to sleep with back then were bad at cunnilingus. Maybe a bit of both? She was pretty sure it was the drugs, though. Or the skunk triplets just happened to have like ten inch tongues.

Actually, make that longer than ten inches. A lot longer than ten inches. She couldn’t make a specific estimate, partly because she couldn’t see it and partly because she couldn’t just magically guess the size of things that were put into her. But mostly because it just kept coming. In and in and in, more and more, getting thicker as it went, hot and throbbing and wriggling inside of her in a way that definitely wasn’t normal. Magic, or drugs, or whatever – Tammy still hadn’t decided what exactly she believed this stuff was just yet. Both explanations were stretches, in different ways.

And anyway it didn’t really matter what it was. She had higher fucking priorities right now, with Infinite Length Skunk Tongue sliding into her. Speaking of which, the top skunk pulled away, just enough for her to get a brief taste of relatively fresh air. “Would ma’am object to us escalating things? Just a bit?”

“Mnn. Depends what you mean. Things are already kinda escalated.”

“I think you can guess, ma’am.”

“... Yeah. Yeah, I – mnnnnn – think I can guess.” Tammy tried her level best to stay properly verbal, but it was kind of difficult considering that the muff-diving skunk was still shoving more tongue into her. “Wh-who’s gonna- mnnnn calm down for five fucking seconds we’re trying to have a conversation!”

“We’ll start things out and then move on to you. Would you object to anal?”

“Mmmmmmmmnnnnnnn I’ll try it this once.”

Tammy immediately felt a pang of regret. Were her head a bit more clear, she probably wouldn’t have given anal the okay. Not that she disliked it – she’d never actually tried it, not even during her college experimentation. So she didn’t even really have an opinion on it. But anal was, by all accounts, kind of a lot, especially considering the typical proportions that resulted from this magic shit. And yeah okay on the one hand she’d put a lot of cock inside of Diane without ill effect, but on the other hand Penny had kinda fucked her unconscious so it could really go either way, and she didn’t exactly know these three well enough to trust them. Fuck, she hadn’t even asked their names yet. “What- ahnnnn fuck off I’m trying to taaaaaaalk!”

Tammy’s attempt at asking their names was, unsurprisingly, immediately interrupted by the skunk who was eating her out sloooooooowly standing up and removing her colossal tongue, making a point to drag it along Tammy’s lips and clit, which felt really good which was very annoying because god dammit she was trying to have a fucking conversation. “We can talk later, Mistress,” she said as she stood up, perfectly articulate as though she hadn’t just had what felt like multiple feet worth of tongue. She was also, Tammy noticed with some degree of annoyance, responding to her question before she could even ask it. Like she was reading her mind. Which, fuck, for all she knew they were reading her mind. Wouldn’t be the weirdest thing to happen to her this week. “Right now, it’s time to escalate.”

“Yeah, I can see that.” Tammy peeked around the skunktits and got a solid glimpse of something Big and Black and Shiny. She couldn’t actually see the whole thing because the skunks and herself were in the way, but she got the feeling she was gonna get up close and personal with it any-

“Ahhh!” Yeah, there it was. Tammy wasn’t sure if she liked the feeling of anal. It wasn’t bad, but it was weird. Putting something inside a hole that generally things weren’t meant to go into. It didn’t hurt – which was actually kind of surprising, considering the sheer size of the thing. But it felt weird. A good kind of weird, but she ultimately didn’t regret not trying it sooner.

“Goodness, Mistress sure is tight down here~”

“Oooh! I want to try!”

“Mnf,” Tammy interjected with a grunt before working up the ability to say anything more coherent. “One at a time. I am not doing triple penetration today.”

“Oh, that’s fine,” one of the skunks (Tammy still couldn’t tell which) said. “We certainly don’t want to break you. That wouldn’t be very hospitable of us, now, would it?”

“Don’t worry, there’s other ways to have a threesome than just shoving all our cocks into one hole!”

“Mistress does have three of them, after all.”

“Mnf,” Tammy grunted again as the standing skunk slooooooowly slid out of her. Tammy knew what was gonna happen next. The skunks she was sandwiched between had already prepared themselves, to speak euphemistically. She couldn’t feel the wetness of their arousal anymore but she could absolutely feel something else and frankly she kind of wanted none of it. But, on the other hand, she had already agreed to this. And, honestly, she was a bit curious how taking an actual dick would feel. The maids had proven themselves sort of trustworthy by not utterly destroying her ass, after all. And, while she’d given a lot, she hadn’t yet taken a dick. She couldn’t help but feel a little intrigued, especially since the skunks had shown they weren’t all that likely to pull a Penny and fuck her unconscious, and they had at least said they’d stop if she asked them to. And so, paradoxically, she didn’t ask them to.

It’s just that she also couldn’t help but feel a bit grumpy about it. That was just her nature, she supposed. Well, fuck her nature, Tammy firmly resolved to enjoy getting used as a cum dumpster by big titty big dick skunk triplets. It couldn’t be that difficult, could it? Anal had felt good, sort of, or at least not bad. And, while she had been drunk at the time, doing the penetrating had felt good. To say nothing of the fact that she’d just gotten eaten out by a skunk tongue that easily surpassed the skunk cocks in size and that had felt really good. So, obviously, it followed that taking cock would also feel good. Right? Worst came to worst she could take solace in knowing that she would probably end up using the skunk maid triplets as cum dumpsters in kind, eventually.

Still, she couldn’t help but feel a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. Her mind kept wandering back to Penny, and she really wished it wouldn’t.

“I will be pounding Mistress’s pussy.”

“I, of course, will be fucking Mistress’s asshole,” added the skunk underneath her.

“And I’ll handle Mistress’s face.” Right okay yeah that was the thing that was making her so apprehensive. It wasn’t the prospect of any specific sex act so much as it was the prospect of three separate sex acts at the same time. It wasn’t as immediately terrifying as the thought of taking all of them in one hole at the same time, at least. She was still kind of surprised she’d managed to take one without sustaining permanent damage, especially now that the skunk on top of her slowly lifted herself into a kneeling position and gave Tammy her first real good look at one of their penises.

It was, frankly, enormous. Not the biggest cock she’d seen in her lifetime. Fuck, her penis had been bigger the other night. But this one had the advantage of being right in Tammy’s fucking face. It had to be the size of her entire torso, and the skunk was rocking her hips back and forth, grinding it against Tammy’s tits and tummy. The skin around the head sort of undulated where it was pressed against Tammy’s body, and it oozed thick, translucent goop all over her face. “You aren’t quite endowed enough for a titfuck, but that’s fine, it just means we can focus on the main event!”

Tammy blushed furiously. “You didn’t need to say that.”

“My apologies, Mistress.”

“They’re not even that small, they’re like B cups.”

“Very large, ma’am.”

“It’s not my fault this fucking town’s water supply got contaminated by giant titty juice after I moved out.”

“Of course, ma’am.”

“Just shut up and fuck my face already!”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Tammy opened her mouth, and the skunk slid her shaft in. Not all the way, thankfully. In retrospect it was probably impossible for her to get it all the way in from that angle, not without bending things a lot, in ways they generally aren’t supposed to bend. They woulda had to do some logistical fuckery to get her properly spitroasted, and anyway she was pretty sure there wasn’t enough room in her body for three dicks of that magnitude. Not that possibility had factored in much to anything she’d experienced since coming back home, now that she thought of it. Again, a few nights ago she’d had a dick that was bigger than this one and had effortlessly spitroasted Diane with Sherry’s help. Even the bending logistics could probably be rectified with a little magic-slash-drugs.

She decided that she was going to terminate that particular line of thought right then and there, though, because she really didn’t want to logic herself into more extreme sex than she had already agreed to. And, frankly, the head was already a lot. The thing took up just about the entirety of her mouth, stretching her to her limits and then beyond them. It was overwhelming, suffusing her senses with Cock. The sight of it, the sensation of it filling her mouth, the sound of the skunk’s heartbeat, the scent of its heady musk, and of course the taste. Salty and slightly bittersweet. She really wasn’t sure how she felt about the flavour. But the actual sensation of a giant dick in her mouth? Weirdly good. She’d not been expecting that, to be honest. Tammy had no experience with titfucks or blowjobs, obviously, but she’d always gotten the impression that they were sex acts specifically for men and that the woman didn’t really get much out of it? But she was definitely getting something out of this, at least. Probably had to do with the magic, since she really couldn’t see how she might be getting pleasured by having a big dick in her mouth otherwise. She could sort of see how a titfuck might feel good for a girl, at least? But, well, speaking of things she didn’t really want to think too hard about, the possibility of giving a titfuck with B cups was pretty high on the list right now.

Meanwhile she could absolutely see how getting her pussy stuffed could feel good, though obviously once that happened it was kind of hard for her to focus on the situation. Butt, too, but she’d already gone over her opinion on that particular hole and it was decidedly Mixed. She had absolutely no idea how the bottom skunk had even managed to get her dick in Tammy’s asshole beyond “magic, I guess,” but she wasn’t going to complain. It added to the pure sensory overload, like everything that could be stimulated was being stimulated, all at once. Which, obviously, wasn’t the case, but it sure felt like it.

“We’re going to cum, now, Mistress.” Thank god it didn’t last long. The top skunk, since she couldn’t really properly fuck Tammy’s face, was currently furiously masturbating on top of her. Weirdly steady, considering she was apparently about to climax. All of them felt weirdly steady, which Tammy decided not to think about too hard. “Please brace yourself. It will be quite a lot.”

“Mnf.”

“Don’t worry, Mistress, we won’t spill a drop~”

And, just like that, all three of them erupted in unison. Somehow. Maybe it was a triplet thing. Maybe it was a magic thing. It was probably a magic thing. Tammy was increasingly sure that these three might not in fact even be human. But, once again, she decided not to think about that subject. Thankfully, the skunks had supplied her with yet another nice solid distraction in the form of the copious orgasms. True to their word, they did not in fact spill a drop. Even the one sitting on top of her somehow managed to create a perfect vacuum seal despite barely fitting her shaft in Tammy’s mouth, which was probably magic. Or the result of the shared hallucination. One or the other, she still hadn’t decided which one she bought into. She could feel her belly swelling with their output, big and round and full, and honestly she would have kinda preferred it if they had spilled a drop or two or maybe more than a drop or two. It just kept coming and coming and coming, inflating her like she was a cheap party balloon. Hopefully not too cheap, though, because she really didn’t relish the prospect of, you know, what happens to cheap party balloons when you fill them up beyond what they could take.

Thankfully, she did not in fact end up suffering that particular unpleasant fate this time around. Although on the other hand she wasn’t entirely sure that she was left in a preferable state? If this was a shared hallucination then it obviously couldn’t actually kill her, and if this was actual sex magic then she was pretty sure that it wouldn’t kill her either. Probably. Her mind couldn’t help but wander back to Penny again. She’d not died then, so she was... fairly confident she wasn’t in any real danger? Obviously, she didn’t want to test her luck, but her current working theory was that if she burst she’d just reform or something? Which would, at least, have left her mobile. As it was, her belly was ridiculously full. Like a cartoonish parody of pregnancy, distended and sloshy. She could probably fit all three of the skunk triplets inside of it with room to spare. Absurd, much like the results of every other sexual encounter she’d had so far.

“Oogh,” she groaned as the skunks slowly made their way out of her. Somehow her body kept all that cum inside of her, which was probably good for the maids because it meant they didn’t have to clean up after themselves too much.

“Your meal has been served, ma’am.”

“That’s not funny.”

“It wasn’t a joke, ma’am.”

Tammy grunted and made an earnest attempt to pull herself upright that, naturally, failed miserably. “A little help here, maybe?”

“Of course, ma’am,” all three skunks said in unison. They were stronger than they looked, as evidenced by how easily the one pinned beneath her had gotten out from beneath her. They took positions, one on either side and one behind her, and carefully hefted her into a sitting position with surprising ease.

Her belly was, she noted with some amount of trepidation, big enough to not just touch the ground but to press into it, which felt really good but also kind of uncomfortable. “... I don’t think I’m going anywhere any time soon.”

“You have places to be, ma’am.”

“Yes well tell that to gravity and the door frames.” Her mind wandered back to her earlier encounter with Sherry and Diane. Her mind had been doing a lot of fucking wandering today. None of the skunks were, individually, anywhere near as big as Sherry had been, but there were three of them which made up for it. She was about a match for how big they’d made Diane, before she’d left. Definitely big enough to fit all three maids in there with room for dessert, though she decided not to think about fitting people inside her because that kind of degeneracy was definitely on the table.

“Don’t worry, ma’am,” one of the skunks said. “Now that you’ve had your meal, part of our job is to help you clean up and prepare for the Meeting.”

“The meeting?”

“The Meeting.”

“That doesn’t really answer my question but okay.”

“Don’t worry too much about it, ma’am.”

“That’s what we’re here for.”

“What does that even mean-” Tammy started, before once again the skunks did that thing they did where they interrupted whatever train of thought she had going by doing something sexy. In this case, the three of them swarmed together to press their bodies against her belly, which of course felt really good.

“Next, we help Mistress get dressed for the occasion!”

“There is, of course, a dress code.”

“Right. Mnf. Think I can guess what that means.” Tammy remembered this feeling. It had been a few days since she’d been properly under the drug’s influence, but it was kind of hard to forget. Just like when Diane had turned her milk-belly into size, except obviously this time there was a lot more belly to work with. Which, actually, raised a question. “When did you-”

“Incense.”

“If you burn enough, it lingers in the air.”

“Great,” Tammy muttered. That was not a particularly fun revelation. Until now, she’d been operating on the rules Lydia had explained to her – if you’d ever done the drugs then you could always see the lucid dream magic shit, but couldn’t actually participate unless you got a fresh dose. That made it really easy not to get involved if you didn’t want to. Just don’t fucking do the drugs. Yeah, okay, someone could sneak some into her food but all she had to do to avoid that was to bring her own damn food if there was even the slightest question as to the source’s intents. Lydia and Sherry had both had ample opportunity to drug her and hadn’t so they were probably trustworthy; Diane hadn’t snuck her the drugs in food or anything but she had absolutely lied about what they were to get her to take some; Penny and BJ, obviously, were complete write-offs; and there was a reason Tammy had bought a burger rather than taken whatever food the Lodge provided.

But then she’d fuckin’ forgot about the incense. Much harder to avoid, especially if it lingered. She’d completely failed to notice anything untoward and yet here she was, growin’ a big ol’ penis. Was anywhere safe anymore? Outside, obviously, the incense would disperse almost immediately unless she was right next to it as it was burning. But now that she thought of it, if the effects of the drug lingered long enough to go unnoticed then was the outside safe? Fuck, if it dispersed enough then the whole fucking town might end up getting drugged accidentally. Which, actually, was kind of reassuring. This whole thing seemed to be at least nominally a secret, so presumably they wouldn’t do things that would obviously expose them to the world at large – like, for instance, drug up the whole fucking town. Similarly, public spaces were probably safe. Not her house, though! She was pretty sure that if Penny showed up at their door while she was away Kyle wouldn’t think twice about letting her in. From there she’d just hafta burn some incense in Tammy’s room and bam. Ticking time-bomb of magic sex drugs. Same applied to just about anywhere, especially when she considered that she didn’t actually know who was and wasn’t in on the whole sex drug thing for sure. Fuck, what if everyone was in on it? That would mean that literally nowhere was safe and the only way out of potentially getting randomly roofied by magic drugs was to get the fuck out of Cluaran Creek as soon as possible.

Ugh. Now she was getting paranoid. No way the whole town was in on it, or else she’d be in on it. Right? She’d have at least noticed that something was up back when she was a kid unless they were at least bare-minimum careful about not exposing children. Which, again, meant that outside and public spaces like the Nighthawk were safe again. Well, really, they’d always been safe. She had just assumed they weren’t. Honestly, her house was also probably fine – there was no way that Penny could get away with burning incense in her fucking room without Kyle noticing. She still needed to be cautious, of course, but not that cautious.

God, speaking of being cautious, she’d let herself get so distracted by the prospect of future magical roofies that she’d almost missed the results of this particular instance of magical roofies. Thankfully, in spite of the extra mass, Tammy hadn’t ended up all that extremely proportioned? If anything, it was almost underwhelming after how big she’d gotten the last time – and thank fucking god for that. She wanted underwhelming. Underwhelming was good. All the skunkcock she’d had to deal with was enough overwhelming for one fucking day, thank you. “There we go, ma’am. You’re ready for the Meeting.”

“Thanks,” she said, not particularly thankful. Tammy was still not particularly sold on the prospect of the meeting, let alone being ready for it. Unfortunately for her, she’d already crossed that particular Rubicon. Might as well at least try and get something out of it. Material for her work. There was probably a market for it, somewhere, although she doubted there was any overlap with her current audience.

Thankfully, they had elected to not make her figure too extreme. Again; underwhelming. She hadn’t gotten any taller or curvier, and her figure was generally the same. The only difference was the obvious penis, and even that wasn’t that big. Didn’t even reach her knees, that was nothing in comparison to the other dicks she’d encountered so far.

“We felt that Mistress might want to start slow.”

“Thanks,” Tammy repeated. “Look, I kind of just want to get this whole stupid meeting thing over with, okay?”

“Right this way, ma’am.”

The Lodge’s layout was surprisingly concise. As a kid, Tammy had built up an image of the place in her head as this big, complex labyrinth of dank, dusty rooms – one that it utterly failed to live up to. It was a perfectly normal, if large, building, and was laid out in a logical way. The triplets led her out into the hallway and then to a set of stairs that led into the basement. Of course the meeting was happening in the basement. It was either the basement or one of the bedrooms. The fact that it was the former meant that “meeting” was probably not slang for fucking Beatrice’s tits, at least, but it also meant she was probably going to get inducted into a cult. Or be a blood sacrifice for said cult, one or the other (though they were also probably not mutually exclusive.)

Where the upper floors did not live up to Tammy’s childhood mental image of the lodge, the basement came much closer. No cozy carpeting or warm colours or varnished wood, it was a big room with bare concrete (apparently they had concrete foundations in the 1800s). The only light came from nine candles placed on the floor in a big circle. Not nearly enough to adequately light the space, and the warm light from the fire clashed with the bare floor and lack of furnishings to create a mildly uncomfortable and unwelcoming vibe. There was a single door, off to the side and out of the light so Tammy could just barely make it out. Same with the single lightbulb, also completely bare, that was dangling in the middle of the room, off.

It was also fucking frigid, somehow. Heat rises, Tammy supposed, and the Lodge was more than a hundred years old so it probably didn’t have proper central heating. Also she was still naked which likely didn’t help. The fact that she was the only person not wearing clothes kind of annoyed her, though – assuming that nondescript robes and masks counted as being clothed. “Okay, hold on, if everyone else gets to wear cult robes I want to wear cult robes.”

“No.” That was Beatrice, the only person present not wearing a mask or cult robes.

“I’m fucking cold the least you could do is give me a blanket or something.”

“Take this seriously.”

“I’ll take it seriously when you give me some god damn clothes it’s fucking freezing down here.”

“You can have a robe and mask after your initiation,” Beatrice said tersely.

“You can keep the mask. The masks are kind of dumb.”

One of the robed figures let out a loud snorting laugh, quickly covering her mouth. “Th-the masks aren’t dumb!” interjected another. “We’ve got to protect our identities somehow.”

“Penny no offence but if you want to hide your identity you’re gonna wanna get like a foot shorter and three cup-sizes smaller.” That made the first robed figure, obviously Sherry, laugh even harder.

“I-it’s not that obvious! That was just a lucky guess!”

“Penny, Sherry, Lydia, Diane. It’s obvious.”

“She’s kind of right, though.”

“B-but what if someone sneaks in a camera or something!”

“Then the robes and masks just make it come across as more scandalous than if we just wore casual street clothing,” Lydia replied, taking off her mask and lowering her hood. “We look like a cult.”

“We kind of are a cult, dear.”

“We’re a secret society at worst. Barely any different from the Freemasons.”

“The Freemasons generally have a lot less sex than we do.”

“I want you to picture the stereotypical Freemason having sex and then say that again.”

Diane visibly cringed. “Okay yes, fair.”

“There’s a reason most sex cults are mixed gender.”

“Actually, yeah, speaking of which,” Tammy interjected. “Why are you only girls, is this like a feminist thing or-”

“There are plenty of boys-only secret occult societies,” Bea said succinctly. “I don’t see any issue with making ours girls-only.

“We do fuck a lot more than the average secret society, though.”

“Again, when I think Freemason I think like Fred Flintstone.”

“Well, we’re also sort of a coven of witches,” Penny said. “Those usually have a lot of sex, I think? That’s what the internet says at least.” Lydia frowned, but visibly elected not to complain.

“Well,” Bea said, pinching her nose. “There goes any chance of doing this properly.

“There was never any chance ‘a doing this properly, I tried to warn you.”

“Hmph.” Bea walked into the middle of the room and turned on the light. She had to reach down to grab the string, which really drove home just how big she was. The basement was not a small space, and yet Beatrice’s ears were very close to brushing the ceiling. How the fuck did she even fit indoors, Jesus Christ. Hell, if anything, being inside made her look bigger. Or maybe she just was bigger – after all, she was almost certainly the source of the magic drugs. “Very well. The ceremonial aspects aren’t important.”

“Oh.” Penny visibly drooped. “... can we do them anyway, though? Just pretend?”

“No.”

“But-”

“I’m not participating in another orgy,” Tammy said firmly.

“N-no one even said there was an orgy!”

“If there isn’t an orgy then why did you make me grow a penis?”

“F-for the aesthetic?”

“Anyway,” Tammy said, firmly crossing her arms. “I burned out my daily Weird Sex Shit tolerance on the triplets. Please give me some fucking clothing.”

“Very well.” Bea swooped past Tammy, towards the stairs. Considering the lack of mobility afforded by her tight outfit, she moved surprisingly smoothly and quickly. Some real Morticia Addams shit. “Ah. One thing.”

“What.”

“Though we are skipping the ceremonial aspects, you are still taking your mother’s place in the group.”

“If you say so.” Tammy decided to not think about the implication that her mom had slept with everyone in this room before she did.

“Meetings are once a week, though you may come and go from the Lodge as you see fit.”

“Right.”

“There are several private rooms. I ask that you make use of them in lieu of the public spaces. If you need anything, ask the triplets.”

“Right, yeah. Do- do they have names?”

“No.”

“wow okay cool.”

“They absolutely have names, by the way,” Lydia interjected. “None of us know their names because they’re very committed to the bit, but they definitely have them. I just call them Alice, Beth, and Carol. Doesn’t matter which is which.”

“You may also obviously avail yourself of the Triplets’ services at any time, as long as there is a free room.”

“Okay cool.” Tammy, of course, had no intention of doing that, of course. She had no intention of doing a lot of things that she’d already done. And speaking of things she didn’t intend to do. “What about you?”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself.” With that Beatrice left the basement.

“Yeah, I figured.” Tammy honestly wasn’t sure how to feel about that response. She wasn’t lying when she said she was all out of fucks to give, literally speaking. As big as they were, she could absolutely live with not getting to see them in all their naked glory right this very minute. The problem was the way she’d phrased the rejection – they were going to fuck at some point, it was an inevitability. Scheduled even. And frankly, as big as they fucking were, Tammy was increasingly running out of patience for the complete lack of input she had in any of these sexual scenarios. It was her god damn body, as far as she was concerned it was entirely fucking reasonable that she wanted to have a say in how it was used. As it was, she didn’t even have one hundred percent control over what set of fucking genitals she had. And, frankly, it was time to start putting her god damn foot down.

“Mnf. You.” Tammy pointed at Lydia.

“Me?”

“Yeah, you. After I get my fucking pants back we’re going back to your place.”

“We are?”

“Yes. We are.” Tammy crossed her arms, which maybe didn’t come across quite as firmly as she intended it to considering she was shivering because it was still quite cold. “I owe you a fingerbang, remember?”

“Oh, right. You did say that.”

“And then after that we’re going to do a bunch of stuff that I want to do.”

Lydia nodded. “Right, right, gotcha.”

“H-hey! I thought you said-”

“She did said, Penny,” Sherry interrupted. “She changed her mind.”

“B-but then-”

“Oh my fucking god I swear you’ve got the emotional intelligence of a two year old who hasn’t learned what sharing is yet.” Sherry tossed aside her mask for the express purpose of pinching the bridge of her snout. “Do you want me to explain this to you like you’re a child? Because everyone else in this room has grasped what’s going on except you.”

“I know what’s going on!” Penny snapped back. “I- I just... Ugh!” She stormed over to Diane and grabbed her by the arm. “You! I’m going to fucking ruin you!”

With that, Penny led the feebly protesting mayor up the stairs and, presumably, to one of the bedrooms. “Yeesh.”

“Is she going to be okay?”

“Eh, she throws temper tantrums like this all the time. Kid can’t handle getting told ‘no’.”

“I meant Diane.”

“Oh.”

“She said, and I quote, ‘I’m going to fucking ruin you.’”

“Don’t worry, she won’t die or anything. She’s into that kinda hardcore shit.”

“Speak for yourself,” Lydia interjected.

“Oi. Unlike some rabbits, I actually know how to properly be a dom.” Sherry turned her attention fully to Tammy. “For the record, Lydia is probably the best choice outta all of us.”

“You think so?”

“Well, yeah. Penny’s obviously outta the question, and she an’ BJ are basically a package deal. And Diane’s likes it rough and our girl here has approximately zero experience with giving it rough. She’s as much the deep end as Penny is, just in the other direction.”

“Right, right, all that makes sense. But weren’t you just talking about how you’re a good dom?”

“Yeah, but right now Tammy doesn’t need a good dom. And I don’t bottom, remember? You, meanwhile, know what you want enough to provide some direction but are enough of a bottom to let her take the lead. Got it?”

Lydia nodded. “And what are you going to do, then?”

“I dunno,” Sherry replied with a shrug. “I’m not as fucking insatiable as some rabbits we know, and I got to let out some steam a few days back. So I might just go home, or I might grab the triplets and make ‘em worship my dick. Either-or.”

“Maybe you could stand to blow off a little more steam, then?”

“Oi. Don’t get sassy with me, butt-slut. Just for that, I’m gonna go home and sleep.”

“You have fun with that.”

“I will!” Sherry turned her attentions back to Tammy once again. “Lemme know when you’re ready to step things up a notch. I don’t bottom, but s’long as I’m in charge I’m good with whatever you’re good for.”

“If you say so.”

“The thing about being the dom is that you can’t just jump headfirst into the hardcore stuff. You’ve gotta take the time to feel out what the sub is into.”

“I thought the whole point was that the dom is in control.”

“Yeah but the sub’s still gotta enjoy herself, yanno? The dom’s job is to make sure both people involved are having a good time. If you just do what you want without any concern for if the other person is into it then you’re a bad dom.”

“Right, okay. I guess that makes sense.” Tammy shrugged. “I haven’t really put all that much thought into BDSM dynamics.”

“This is really just DS. We’re not doing pain play or bondage, just powerplay.”

“I dunno, I’d say the stuff we do is at least more degenerate than handcuffs and spankings.”

“I didn’t say we were less degenerate than BDSM. Just making the distinction, yanno? Anyway, I just wanna make it clear that I’m not going to do anything to you unless you want me to. Even if I take the lead.”

“Right. Thanks for that.” Of course, on the other hand, it was entirely possible that Sherry was just saying that because she’d seen Tammy’s reaction to Penny overstepping her bounds. People were, in fact, capable of lying, and Tammy hadn’t yet learned a spell that let her force people to be honest. It was, of course, also possible that Sherry was telling the truth. She had, at least, seemed genuinely angry at Penny for the whole rape thing – but that might have just been because she’d gotten dragged into being an accomplice to the coverup. So who fucking knew. Tammy kind of had a hard time trusting any of these people at this point.

“Anyway, I’m gonna head home now. You two have fun with your fingerbang.”

“Yes, officer,” Lydia replied with a mock salute.

“What did I just say about getting sassy with me? Ugh.”

“Have fun with the triplets!”

“Bite me.”

“I thought you didn’t bottom?”

“I- ugh, I’m going to be here forever if I reply to every snarky comment you make, aren’t I? Whatever.” She waved dismissively and left up the stairs, which was an impressive feat – Sherry wasn’t as absolutely massive as Beatrice, but she was still basketball player tall, and fairly beefy to boot. Jacked, but with decent curves.

“How does she even fit through doors?”

“You’ve seen her fit through doors, it’s not actually that tough. Beatrice has it worse.”

“I’m still not entirely sure how she managed to get up the stairs given her outfit.”

“You saw her do it five minutes ago.”

“I think my brain rejected the possibility that she managed it without falling on her face.”

“Anyway, are we going to keep standing around in the basement?”

“I’m not going anywhere until I get some god damn pants.”

“Yeah, uh.” Lydia made a face. “I don’t think she’s coming back.”

“Ugh.”

“Sorry. She’s just kind of like that. I’m pretty sure she’s mad that you wouldn’t at least pretend to take the whole ceremony thing seriously for five minutes.”

“Ugh. All I ask is to be able to sleep in my own bed, wake up in my own bed, and then take a hot shower.”

“Well, one out of three isn’t terrible, right?”

Tammy narrowed her eyes. “Did they even have hot showers when this place was built?”

“Yep. But also apparently Beatrice had them update the plumbing some time in the ‘70s, and she’s done that a few times since. Same with the electricity. She’s even gotten in on that fibre-optic internet Diane had installed a few years back.”

“... I refuse to believe this lady was around in the ‘70s.”

“Apparently she was around in the ‘40s.”

“Bullshit.”

“She claims as much, anyway. I don’t know if it’s true, but if it is then she’s aged extremely gracefully for someone pushing 90.”

“No kidding. What is she, eight feet tall?”

“Eight foot six.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.”

“By the way, part of the initiation is that she gives you a blowjob.”

Yeah, okay, there it was. She wasn’t entirely sure if she’d dodged a bullet there or not. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I’m all sexed out.”

“What about the finger-bang?”

“That’s, like, mutual masturbation at most.”

“Anyway, you say you’re all sexed out, but, uhhhhh.”

Tammy cringed slightly as Lydia gestured to her boner. “Yeah, I know. I... Don’t think it actually goes down.”

“Well, there’s one way to find out,” Lydia responded, settling down on her knees in front of Tammy.

“H-hey-”

“Relax. It’s just a blowjob.”

“Yeah, but I did say I want to be in charge, remember?”

Lydia paused, and made a Face. Tammy wasn’t entirely sure what kind of Face it was, beyond that it was a complicated one. “Fine,” she said eventually. “That’s fair. I’m not going to force myself on you.”

“Besides, I... kinda don’t think that getting a blowjob in a concrete basement is something I want to say that I’ve done. We do this at all, we’re doing it somewhere warm.”

“Yeah I can definitely see that you’re cold.”

“Fuck you, don’t stare at my nipples you degenerate.”

Lydia pulled herself back upright. “C’mon, there’s definitely a free room upstairs. It’s not that different from finger-banging me at my place, right? And you wouldn’t be sleeping in your own bed either way, so you might as well take the nicer one.”

“Are the beds here really all that much nicer than yours?”

“The one at my apartment cost me like eighty bucks for the frame and a hundred dollars for the mattress. Apparently the beds here cost like six or seven thousand.”

“W- bullshit.”

“That’s what the triplets told me! And trust me, they feel like they cost seven thousand dollars. They’re the nicest fucking beds you will ever sleep on, but not so nice that you can’t bring yourself to sleep on other, less-nice beds.”

“That’s a very specific level of niceness.”

“Trust me, the whole setup is ultra-luxury. Much nicer than the basement.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“You won’t have to,” Lydia replied, leading the way upstairs. “Besides, you do owe me a finger-bang, and I still haven’t forgiven you for blue balling me.”

“Hey, blame my parents’ lawyer for that one.”

“I choose to blame you instead.”

“Well, I’m literally on my way to make it up to you. And then you can give me a blowjob.”

“Sounds like a good start. What do you think you’re in the mood for after we’re done with the foreplay?”

“... that’s just the foreplay?”

“Well yeah, duh.”

Tammy grimaced, on reflex. It was, she realized, going to be a very long night.